Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-08-13

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Ds1lNlRAAWWU at little way sta
N5xN1VL,, lNL, ton on railroad"
MHM@JE@ said the individual
NWA who works the
MIIWks ISrt3A Washington wlre,as
1DQH S1%,M9 he removed shade
gs:N&.SUI from his forehead
w 81 and joined the rest
of the fellows at
lunch, according to the New York Trib-
une. Il remember that our chief am
bition in those days was to get as
much sleep as we could nights without
being found out, so that we could get
along without wasting so much of the
day In bed. Pound we used to call
sleep in those days, because we stopped
pounding brass to pound our ears on
an express-package pillow with walt
ing-room bench for a bunk. Funny
thing Is trade slang. In those days
there were very few semaphore signals
and we had to get out on the track
with red and white lanterns and swing
up trains, and our chiefest bane was
holding order, for there must be no
sleep with that on our hands.
"For instance, if westbound trains
had the right of way the dispatcher
might send me an order to hold No, ~
for orders and then run trains east
bound against it all the way up the line
Quite responsibility to put on II"
year-old boy Well, If we happened to
be terribly sleepy it was hard fight.
have been so sleepy that / darent
sit in my chair for fear | would fall
asleep, and have stood up and walked
around many time for an hour or 30
along in the small hours Of the morn
ing until the order was revoked or the
train got in. One way we had was to
put high stool out in the center OF
the floor and sit on that. If we went
to sleep we would tumble off. nearly
broke my neck once that way. have
often had my call on the wire wake me
I'D. There's something peculiar about
that. l have been sound asleep in
room adjoining the telegraph office, had
a train go by and an alarm clock go
off without waking me up, with two or
three instruments clicking away ike
mad all Of the time and then start up
suddenly wide awake when some one
called my Office on the wire. 1t always
seemed to wake me up in the same way.
I would dream that my station was be-
ing called and that some one was hold
ing me down to prevent my answering
1t. would struggle and strain to es-
cape, and then suddenly wake up to
find the instruments calling, just as
dreamed they were. Once when | was
very sound asleep actually got up in
nv sleep and walked across waiting
room into the Office and had my hands
on the key to answer call before
woke up.
"This wasn't infallible, however, I'M
fortunately, and we used to try all sorts
of schemes to awaken ourselves, usu'
ally beginning with an alarm clock
The trouble with an alarm clock Ii
that man gets accustomed to 1t ant
fails to rouse. We learned that the way
to use one was to give the alarm oniI
one turn the first two or three time'
we tried it, then two turns for awhile
and so on until it was fully wound VI
each time, and when it began to los'
; its effect, as 1t would like the continued
use of opiates, we discontinued 1t TO
: awhile and tried something else.
7 have often set my clock twenty minute
= ahead, lay down and slept PEACEFUL
for that brief period.
| "The greatest trouble we had was Il
= reporting the passing of trains. Som
9 Of the night expresses would rush b
g so quick that we wouldn't get thor
4 oughly awake, and then, by and by
e after the train had been reported fror
= two or three stations above, we woul
= perhaps wake up and find the dispatch
s err calling. Then he would ask, perhapj
d for No. Al, and we would answer: Nc
t yet There would be bad few mir
: utes in store for us, for very sever
n things can be said over wire, an
r they sound a thousand times wors
r than face-to-face abuse,
r "For awhile had dog who woul
y begin to growl when train was a mi
" away and would wake me up, but aftt
n awhile he got afflicted in the regulf
IS way and would growl only for tram
Is At last devised novel scheme. l ra
+. a light string across the track abol
+ five feet from the ground, tied one en-
n to the fence and ran the other throug
IS the keyhole. To this end l attached
8 coal-hod filled with pokers, tin can
etc., so that when the train passed Il
string would break and down wou
come the hod with a terrible clatt
and would be reused. Well, l hi
~ 1t all nicely fixed for the Chicago e.
IN press the first night, when about OF
o'clock a tramp trudged along up Il
in track and the string caught him ju
81 under the nose. Say, he was the ma
ne dest man l ever heard. II hadn't h;
If, my dog with me 1 don't believe
n would ever have Gained down.
THAT scheme was pretty satisfacto
for quite while, but got so that
sleep through that, too, sometimes.
M would get caught occasionally al
~. wouldn't work, and 1t was a mean ri
,r, ging to arrange, anyway, so I decid
TINT tho safaef nlan wac IN tie the al