San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-02-21
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY y. 1897.
THE OIL-CAN MAN.

The old proverb hath it that there is
nothing like leather, but the moderns
say that there is nothing like oil.
Without entering into the merits of
the leather and oil question this morn
ing, we will consider the oil-can man
in his avocation. You are all famil-
lar with the specimen that you meet
with at the stations, as the iron horse
stops to snort out his defiance to IA
tigue as he swallows miles and de-
YOURS distance and only tarries at the
command of his driver, that the chill
dren of travel may climb to places of
safety in his train. In his greasy
jeans and smeared face the Oil-can-
man is not thing of beauty that we
should desire him. But let him drop
his can as the iron steed speeds on in
his flight, or let his oil give out and
that machinery that runs so easily and
without jar along the slippery, slid
ing grooves of oiled gearings and bear
ings will run out its distress signals in
a howl of alright, if the whole ma
ehinery does not come to grief with a
rending jar as though a ship had
struck at sea.
The oil-can-man is not beauty, but
he is more, he is a necessity. 1t is
upon his wise and instructed knowl-
edge of how and when and where to
oil his machinery that the engineer is
able to make time over the rails, pre-
serve the bearings from wear and tear,
prevent that ghost of delay, the hot
box, and finally slide into the end of
his run true to his schedule as the
planets in their rounds, as they mark
time upon the great thOroughfare Of
the infinite. Somehow we always as
sociate the oil-can-man with the inev-
liable blue jeans with the grease spots
all over them, and his hands smeared
with the blended glOries of SCOT and
oil, that is those of US who never rode
in the cab with him for interminable
miles, and found how dear to his heart
Is the life of his engine, and how his
ear listened for the first faint cry OF
a dry bearing as a mother listens fol
the first cry Of her waking babe.
There is as much wisdom required
in knowing when to oil as when to fire
when to put more oil on as when tc
add more coal to the furnace. Just
enough is the only right quantity Thi:
requires education. No man come:
to it naturally. Some men never coulc
come to it il they were instructed for &
generation and spoiled a dozen engine:
in the result. This is what locomotiv,
nremen are trained in as they gravi
tate and graduate out Of the ability
10 handle a coal scoop into the intelli
gent use Of the oil-can. Some Of then
never do learn how. They spend theil
time on the cab Of some third rate yarC
engine and are never entrusted will
the lives OF thousand people, and thu
run for life in all weathers, under al
conditions, where a moments hesita
ton may prove fatal, and the right US,
of the oil-can is an inspiration.
The heroes of the world are the mel
with the oil-can. Not on the tented
field, where the passions of men hutr!
them forward into deeds of daring tina
in their sober senses they would shrinl
from in horror; not on the tented field
where the scent of blood and the smell
of powder and the screams of def
ance work men into a frenzy Of excite
~ment in whiqn all sense Of danger /
Nst ara the mad ambition to be in a
THE death is supreme, not there do W
find the heroes of this modern gen
eretion. We find them down in tn
erIgfne rooms of great ships wher
there is no knowledge OF the way tn
storms are breaking overhead, wher
the one duty is to keep the engines t
their work and every movement re
sponsive to the electric gong Of the eI
ecutive officer on deck, where the ma
with the oil-can holds the fort.
Above all they are found in the cab
of our express engines, looking out owe
the rail along which the lightnings Q
God are directors OF traffic, and ther
Is but a swift thought between ther
and death. To these men there Is nc
a word to stimulate action, not an ey
to note their silent heroism, not whis
Per to alTay their ignorance OF whs
Of death may lie around the curve
ahead, only a second between the sigh
or signal OF danger and the inevitabl
catastrophe, and in that second tn
man with the oil-can must act. Tai
about your nerve in walking up to
lannon's mouth, or charging agains
the hollow squares Of an enemy, a
the bugles blow their inspiring mus
and the deathless desire for fame spur
on the soldier to his high endeavO
There is more nerve required in rur
ming an express engine at night, owe
a line with fifty miles an hour seized
ule than in charging a battery Of gun
1t is the oil-can-man who is the her
Of all the fast runs that have ever bee
made There was a real hero on thu
cab that rode all the way from Chicag
to Denver the other day, to see thu
the special got there in time to giN
that agonized father the last earth
kiss Of an idolized son. With eyel
son Of the oil-can who took his play
relay after relay station, that offici
took his place until all the more tha
a thousand and two hundred mil,
were reeled off at the rate Of mile a
most q minute for the entire distanc
The nil-ca mon on that rim vr-ara n