The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-18
EpISTlEs 70 ST. PAUL.

EFaSse6S ~ SIs FAVls
S--~o~~~~~-~
One class OF railroad labor that never goes
on strikes consists Of the train dispatchers
1t Is nice. clean. Job, and the hours are
short. the chief working from 8 q. m. to 4
p. M, and his assistants splitting the other
sixteen hours between them
Yet the profession can hardly be said to be
overcrowded. 1t Is a somewhat trying
position. While on duty, the dispatcher has
neither time nor opportunity to read novels,
newspapers, or take jdrink, and. indeed,
his libations during bis hours off duty must
be very limited, for his head must never
be befogged. however much the track may
be. His road may be bad, but his train
sheet never.
Inc train dispatcher comes up from the
operating staff. He has "a thousand lives in
his hands at every minute, and occasionally
ne breaks Into the newspapers in the account
OF wreck somewhere, where a score of lives
have been hurled into eternity.
AS matter of fact the personal incon-
venience OF the dispatcher is not much less
II ne only smashes up two engines and a
half dozen box cars between stations,
or, indeed. If the trains are stopped facing
each other without even striking. He loses
his job either way.
NOT all operators become dIspatchers. One
commercial telegrapher of the city, who
STANDS near the top of his profession, started
IN as boy In the railroad service He was
at rural station, with a long sidetrack. one
END OF which was near the top of a HILL q
bad place to stop to pull in"
One day No. 81. freight, got orders to meet
NO. Z, passenger. at this station. That is,
the operator got his orders. The train crew
hao not gotten them yet, but the boy opera
tor put out the order board" that is, turned
the steer target over the station window
with It's broad side facing approaching trains,
ana prepared to await his train. -
The freight made run for the hill and
came tearing by the station, box, fat, ca
poose and all. 1t lacked three minutes of
the passenger trains time. The boy opera
tor jumped through the window. The order
ooard was out, but the boy operator was
crazy.
The station agent, looking up from a pile
OF way-bills as the kid jumped through the
window, followed him out to see what was
the matter.
The boy pointed up the track after the
train and then in at the orders lying on the
desk in triplicate.
"Oh, that's all right. -" replied the agent,
looking up at the board, they're just going
to pull in at the end Of the switch"
Cold sweat oozed from a brow below which
anxious eyes watched the seemingly vanish
ing train. A puff Of smoke, dull rumble,
and the caboose grew larger again. AS the
engine came into Clear the white cloud
above the passenger was visible down the
track. 5of r.
That night young operator wrote to the
superintendent asking foria pass to st. Paul.
and within the week albright young man
iad or oft1
commercial branch. :
lie was not cut out for a 2 train dispatcher.
And you don't know GGol Ike Westover, of
Dead Lake, this state?'s said George Parker
the other night. Well that argues you as
being among the .rrnknowable ones Col.
Westover was added as a large section of
the salt of the EARTH sHe has killed more
things that fly and swim than any man in
the state, and before he went into the feather
ed and filmed game preserves he used to
fly after bigger game.
i remember on one occasion that he told
me about his experience in the Civil war.
The colonel was in Arkansas and men,
Der of a regiment there. He told me how
he stood with the colonel of the regiment
of which he was a member.
One day. said Col. Westover to me, the
regiment was drawn up on parade and I was
in my usual place. There didn't many of
them know me in the regiment and was
keeping rather quiet because T was expecting
commission every day. was in the front
rank as we stood in battalion formation ana
the colonel of the regiment rode down the
line. He stopped aso he got about opposite
where l was and drew his sword.
Private WestoverFP' he shouted, "step to
the front five PAGES" d"
& stepped out, and the colonel waved his
sword and said: IL
. 'N' Gentlemen Of the Ninth, If this regl-
ment was composed Of thousand men like
Private Westover. whom I want you all to
look at by CAD I would attack and take the
ramparts of Satan. Private Westover, fall
into line."'''