People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-01-23
AMONG THE RAILROAD MEN.
A Contrast Between Eastern Rail-
road Men and Western.

A well known Kansas man who is
now visiting at York, Pa, writes the
State Journal an interesting letter
about railroad men in the east and In
the west. He says:
SIT was the privilege Of your cor
respondent to meet many railroad
men and we talked considerably on
the question Of wages. In Kansas
engineers are paid one.third more
than in Pennsylvania. 1t is so Of fire.
men and brakemen and indeed Of all
other departments Of the service.
Conductors have short runs and very
insignificant 'lay-overs.' RailrOading
may be harder in the west than in the
east, but it seemed to me far more
attractive. The conclusion is newt
able that railroad people in Kansas
are we'll taken care of in all respects.
. They have social standing and an
influence which they cannot have in
the east. A brakeman on the Santa
Fe or Rock Island in Kansas has q
better job and exerts wider infiu-
ence than conductor on the Penn
sylvania road.
ut is amusing to hear Penn
sylvanianS tald about railroads. They
think there is only one railroad in the
world; chat is, of course, the Penn.
sylvania railroad. We, in Kansas,
are probably as cOnCeited as they are,
for when we talk Of railroads We think
mainly of two, the Santa Fe and
the Rock Island. l tried to over
whelm some of these people with the
Santa Fe, but their conclusion was
that it wasn't in it with eastern
roads.
THE statistics show that there is
Ear less risk on western roads than on
eastern. Of course we know this Is
true of prairie country, as compared
with mountain country. In Kan
sas there are few curves, and trains
may be seen for miles; hence in Kan
sas comparatively few employees are
killed in the service. | found an old
engineer in Pennsylvania, who had a
fair intelligence, and admitted the
fact, that railroading from Dodge
City to La Junta on the Santa FL
was the fairest, safest and best rail-
road job In the United States. l be
lieve he was right, for, If you car
find a more rugged set of men, with
brighter cOuntenanees, broader mind'
sweeter wives and better looking OF
any other road than the Santa Fe
your correspondent would like to SEA
them.
Railroad men in the west have
more privileges than in the east. II
the west it is quite common to find
brakeman who owns the road, anC
more common still to find pea-nutters
who make time cards. The newsboy
in the east is surely a curtailed inAu-
ence; he sells papers, books and chew
ing gum, but he can't take up hall
a car by his commodities, and boss
train by his swagger.
"When l was a boy l was over
whelmed by the diamonds worn by
the conductors. looked for them on
this trip, but alas they didn't show
mp. A conductor down east is much
more humble than he used to be In
the pristine days Of railroadlng, wher
his entrance into car was accom-
panied by look, which said to the
trembling passengers: Pay me HON
age, you common trash l saw ont
diamond in the shirt Of a conductor
on the P. R. R., but it wasn't con
sideratiou alongside Of the one worI
BY that intensely nervous but efficient
Santa Fe man who runs from Kansas
City to Dodge City.
"There is a conclusion from thi
etter which your correspondent wOul'
like to see adopted by every one il
Kansas: If a man has a good railroa
Job in Kansas, he had better hold i
by fidelity and honesty, for your col
respondent has journeyed throug
wenty-one states of the union, an
he has not found railroad men so we
situated, and with such bright pro-
poets, as in the SunfOwer state
The Country Editor.
TIE typical country editor is quit
a character says an exchange. He