The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-14
TRAVELLING CHILDREN.
Woes of a Conductors Life.

far Northwest to the Eastern States, reporter made it point to inquire of each conductor about the practice of shipping children from place to place by means of passenger trains The con- ductors all said that the practice was increasing.
 An old conductor on a south-bound train out of Chicago said that he had 'fathered" more children on his train this year than ever before,
 Twice as many?" I asked.
 "Harly that but a great many more than last year" he replied.
 What were the ages of the children this year?"
 From eight to twelve years. noticed that they were all bright children, and almost able to look out for themselves, but the increasing number scared me, and I began to think of what would be- come of us conductors if people aff1ic- ted with economy developed a great habit of sending their children to their grandmothers in the country to their aunts or sisters or cousins for fresh air or some other reason"
 What would you do under such cir cumstances?"
 ''Oh, don't know. Go crazy. Conduc- tors have very little time to father a brood of children en route, especially if business is good and the coaches are full''
 I then suggested to this old conduc- tor, who was really a careful kind hearted man, that the railroad com panies could easily provide for the in creased juvenile traffic by furnishing nursery cars.
 That is what the roads vii have to do." the conductor replied, "and they will have to furnish matrons, too, and relieve us from being mammas and papas, too"
 T suppose the nursery car would be full of rattles and rums and toy pianos, horns, rocking horses and other toys, and a tank of milk and a medicine chest full of paregoric, cough balsam and soothing syrup?'
 Certainly, and if papa is forced to remain away from home for a long tim and wishes to see his children, they can be sent to him at reduced rates under the most favorable conditions. Nursery cars might be good thing, l anyhow. The number of young children which are carried daily is enormous, | taking the whole country into consid- | eration. and the conveniences are not worth mentioning. Coaches are all built and passenger service adjusted to | adults, not to children
 The conductor said that last summer | he carried two young children who had come from Texas, and were going up to | the Northwest. Two other children, about eight years of age had got on at | Memphis and rode under the fatherly | care of conductors to Chicago. These | children were tagged, the card bearing l the name and address of the relative to whom they were consigned, and the names and addresses of the two bright members of the consignment. | Numerous instances of shipping chill dren were mentioned but none of them was as remarkable as the instance of a | baby girl who was one of the reporters S fellow-p passengers during a daylight trip through Wisconsin. She was put on at a station in the extreme western part of the state, and the people who came with her gave a tag to the con ductor It read as follows: Mamie =, aged three. Going to Chicago. To be delivered to M R. or | D. R."
 On the reverse side of the slip was the name and address in Chicago of the l childs mother.
 | Baby R was warmly clothed, and sat very still in the car seat where the | conductor placed her. Her bright eyes twinkled, but she did not say anything She kept so quiet that very few of her 1 fellow passengers knew that she was | traveling alone. After a little the con- ductor induced woman to sit beside | the little girl and after that one woman or another sat beside her during the entire journey of nearly three hundred miles.
 The baby was apparently happy until the shades of evening fell and the lamps were lit in the rushing train Then she wanted her mother, and she cried for her Justify The woman in the seat with her offered her very colo comfort, and she cried until she got tired. The conductor, was a fleshy sociable young man, and he made sev- eral efforts while the baby was crying l to soothe. her. He was unsuccessful After the last attempts he came over te me and said:
 If my wife was here she would have | that baby laughing in minute. My wife is a wonder that way. We have five little ones, four girls and a boy.
 The baby cried Mamma" very plain lively, very Justify. The old maid in the seat with her told her to keep still, anC the conductor went back, leaned over the old maid, looked wistfully, help lessly at the squalling baby, and said
 There! There! Oo's riding on thu choo-choo cars, and pretty soon vol will get there and see your mother.
 ''She ought to know better than tt send such a small child as that so fa1 that it would have to ride at night, observed the conductor. We conduc tors have nothing to do besides wipins babies noses and hushing ,em wheI they are, squalling bloody murder"
 On and on the rattling train in thu
 night towards the great Wester1
 metropolis. The poor little traveller weary, lonesome and, hungry, stopped crying at length from exhaustion, ant at last fell asleep, with her he
 against the side of the cold old maid. | AS the train rolled over the switch,