The age-herald., 1897-09-19
NOI 4 TERRIBLE STRAIN" Railway Engineers Don't Worry
 About Passengers. THEY NEVER HAVE THE TIME In Trying to Haul Their Trains in According to Schedule They Are Kept Too Busy
 to Fret About Dangers.

From the New York Press.
 "old Jim Clark was seated in front of the Eagle hotel, Salamanca, N. Y. Ills chair was tilted back and his cigar was tiitad up. This was the precise pose that Jim Clark had lgaken every csher even ing in front of the hotel for fifteen years. On the other evenings he posed in s.mi- lar hotel in Meadville, Pa.-the other end of his 'run"-and some sixty odd miles away.
 If any one ever earned the right to his affectionate and venerable tile, "Old Jim" Clark had He was old in years and old in fhe service. For thirty years he had been in the employ of the Erie road, aTd he had served in every ca paclty in and around an engine from a rubber" or groom in the roundhouse to the driver of the Chicago limited.
 1t Is as driver of the Chicago 1inited, between Salamanca and Meadville, that 'old Jm' is known now both officially and among. his frisndls. He has pulled the fast lrain over the single-track di- vision until he knows the scars in every milestone and the rise in every grade.
 It is when seated in front of the hotel with his chair tiIed back ard if.s cigar tilted up. tEan "Oid Jim is given either to phiicscph.sing or to "reminiscences. On this particular evening he induiged in a Ettle Of both.
 Tt doee beat the devil" he remaked, 's1ow the public clings to that old-oash- toned, worn-ou: motion that every rail- road driver lives about six years, ard then, if he ain't killed on the road, dies of nervous prostrat tion or brain fever caused by the terrible strain he Is under and the awful thought tha. the next minute he may be waf.ed into the be- yend along with four or five hundred passengers at his back. That notion is as old as the first locomotive ever built, and is just about as much played out.
 You never read o story about rail- road engineer in your life that fle wasn't just everlaS Stingly shaking in his overalls at the thought of his terrible resp3nsi- bll.ty' ard of the thousand souls or the precious fretgfI.' that Is entrusted to him.
 ''Now, I'll admit tha. It's all pretty and sounds nice and brave, but the only trouble with 1t is there is nothing in it.
 .T have no doubt the engineer would think abou. the responsibility and worry some about the women and children be- hind him If he only had time and didn't fTave to hustle so all fired hard every minute to pull a1.s train in on time.
 But you see he hasn't got the time. From the minute he jumps into his cab and pulls open the throttle he is kept guessing to ke5p his old machine going fast enough under him to make the dis tance within the schedule time. Nowa- fbo raj al minutes for the passengers and crew to get off and short jackrabbits and the driver of fast train over a division has his mind all the time without going behind the tender and worrying about what is going to happen to the passen- gers if there is a smashup.
 Then there is the mechanical part of the game to k5ep your thoughts off the passenger. How much coal is your fire man burning?' Could we pull up that hill if burning less coal?' or save time by crowding on the steam going down hifi?' Every engineer wants to get the maximum amount of speed out of his engine and burn a minimum amount of coal. He can't think abou. that and the passengers too and so he lets the passengers slide and take care of themselves.
 You will hear them talk about the drawn set faca of the engineer as he climbs into his cabr Does my face look drawn or set? I guess not. And have been pulling railroad cars for the last thirty years. Do you know the thing that worries me when I crawl up into that old jumping jack of mine? It's how I am going to start the last coach.
 "I can get the baggage car startsd all right and the smoker and after consider