The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-03
TRACTION EMPLOYEES
ARE MUCH WORN OUT
Street Car Men Had a Vigorous Battle
With tho Snow.
WORKED FOR HOURS WITHOUT REST
Some OF the Men Put In Forty Hours
Time While Others Stuck to
Stranded street Cars Under Most
Distressing Circumstances - Ex-
perience of the Men on Taylor Line
Was Anything but Pieasant.-AII
Lines Open Today.

In the expressive words of q Traction
company man when asked Yesterday
"where are the superntendents?
Pounding their ears" he said
brusquely; pounding their ears"
And in pounding their ears" the SUI
perintendents and all the other em-
ployes who spent thirty-six continuous
hours in battling with the snow on the
tracks did something which violated no
rule of the company Whether it did
or not they could not help it.
The case was one of COMPULSORY
sleep, The men worked without sleep
and many without food from O'Clock
| Friday morning when the snow hrst
became bothersome until several hours
| after daylight yesterday. Sticking TO
stranded cars the fires gone out, and
relying for food upon begging; and this
for forty hours. night and day, was
what some of them did.
The experience of ten men in cars
along the unsettled parts of the Tay-
! lor line will go down into Traction
company history. 1t was quite a dem
cstration of devotion to the interests
OF employers.
SOUGHT THEIR BEDS.
Giles Schank, division superinten-
| dent, sought his bed yesterday after
noon after he had lost his voice in the
work. John Hunden, another superin-
| tendent, was also so worn out he was
| compelled to go home. The other
| men, particularly the heroes who were
| located on the sweeperS and Dlows,
were dismissed at noon yesterday, each
man hieing himself bedward with
| dropping eyelid and dragging step.
When a Tribune reporter called at
the dispatchers' office yesterday not
one was left of the track clearing
force.
Chief Dispatcher Dubois and A. b.
Snyder, express messenger, who had
been pressed into service as dispatch
er, were in the office.
Besides these the room was half filled
with weary-eyed men in blue uniforms,
motormen and conductors all of whom
had put in from "a to 40 hours contin-
uous service with only chance snatches
Of sleep on the tables in the reading
room upstairs and had only bits Of
things to eat from the dog" wagons
on the corners But woe to the man
who dropped from the ranks!
The kicker was at once spotted
and like the man who ran away, will
live to kick another day." hut not in
Traction company boots.
One Of these fellows. a tall, raw
boned countryman, rushed out of the
office and was making his legs move
at a great rate in the direction of a
car bound for his home.
Here. here! where are you going?"
shouted an official.
III me-" said the man sadly but
stoppiT~ short just the same.
You'd better come back here-we
have another trip for you"
The man grumbled something about
"no supper-no sleep" and sulkily took
his seat in a corner. No doubt if one
would stay in the office for few hours
he'd see and hear as many strange
things as happened around the fag end
of the late siX-days' race.
FIVE TAYLOR CARS.
The experience of the ten men,
''Barney" McGill, William May, JOS
eph Barber, f. Holly, Phillip Foy,
Waderor Mcconnell, Lewis Lauh
John III. Lynch, and George Inglebury,
with the five cars stranded along the
J'ay lor line is a remarkable one. Early
Friday me rning the cars We're blocked
by the snow at points within one mile
of track. The car furthest down the line
was at Union ,treet, Taylor; the near
est to the city was the car blocked on
the hill at Taylor woods, about a mile
from the Scranton line. Between these
were the other three cars and all had
pa. .sengers aboard when the wheels
refused to move.
The passengers were compelled ia
vacate and the crews of each car set
tied themselves down to wait. Friday
and Friday night were passed in the
cars. In some the supply of coal ran
out and the men were forced to either
work hard or freeze. Sleep was out
of the question.
BY II o'clock noon on Saturday the
crews on the last four cars by con-
slant application of the shovels and
the brooms to the rails had placed
their cars in line behind the first