The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-08

bad, bad. Why, they'd make Job
commit murder. Some of them are all
right They've got hard proposition
and a mOtorman mustn't be unreaSOn-
/ able. 1 can be as patient and gentle
as a woolly lamb with a man who has
a heavy loadand is really trying to get
out of the way; but a lot of the drivers
would rather bother a motorman than
eat their meals They get on the track
on purpose, and they won't get off when
they could, and they swear at you and
guy you until you'd like to heave bricks
at them You can't get back at them,
because the passengers would object if
you got down to the kind of talk that
would do the subject Justice. It's
enough to make a man explode Get
a truck in front of you with two or
three foul-mouthed fellows on the back
of it making faces and singing abuse,
and it's small wonder a mOtorman
loses his temper
The new men worry the truck iriv-
ers "a good deal, though" the latter
Went on with a grudging effort towards
fairness. When a truck gets in front
of the car a green motOrman don't give
the driver a chance. He just keeps
changing the bell and talking and fuss
ing, and that makes the driver ugly.
An experienced motorman, unless he
has a bad disposition, slows up and
takes things easy, and gives the truck
man a square deal.
THE thing that knocks a motorman's
nerves out, though, is the way people
wander out on the track right ahead
of the car and pay no more attention
to the bell than if they were stone deaf
The women run out to the middle of
the street and then get scared. They
don't know which way to go, start
back, change their minds and scramble
forward again, and the only thing for
a motorman to do is to stop the car
and let the woman make up her mind
Still the bother he
women, because they take bigger
chances. It's the conductor that has
the trouble with the women.
"Of course. the children in some
parts OF town aggraVate us more than
any one else does. It's a wonder to me
there aren't dozens of children run
over every day, and with the parents
looking cheerfully on from the door
steps. There ought to be a law against
children playing on the car tracks. The
number of close squeaks I've had with
careless children ought to have made
me gray headed. and not one of them
was my fault, either. You can't tell
what a kid will do. He's just as likely
as not to run right out in front of your
car
'They jump on a moving car some
times and hang on until the conductor
chases them. Then, ten to one. they
tumble off right in front of car go
ing the other way, whose mOtorman
hasn't seen the youngsters until they
land on his track. And there are the
people who get off car and walk
around behind it to cross the street
without ever looking to see whether
there's car coming from the opposite
direction. We are. always OF the out
look for that game, but there are some
close shaveS-"
Things are worse in summer than
in winter, aren't they?" the reporter
"Oh. I don't know. In some neigh
borhoods there are more kids in the
streets. and then people seem sort of
dazed and stupid in hot weather. The
neat goes to the motOrman's head, too,
and gets on his nerves. After I've been
working straight ahead on nervous
strain all through a boiling hot day
sometimes my head gets mighty queer.
Still. / believe winters worse You
can't see through the snow and storm
and the rails are So slippery that you
can't stop your car short. 1 guess
there's more danger of accident in
winter"
How do the motormen like the cleo
trio cars as compared with the cable?'
"Oh. they like the change. l think
On the cable car IL took real physical
force to stop and start the car, but
starting an electric car doesn't take
any strength, There We're two handle
bars to work on a cable car. though,
and there's only one en- the electric, so
you have to do the work with one arm.
A good many OF the boys get laid off
with strained arms There's a fellow
over there with a pretty bad arm. He
can't move it at all from the shoulder
down; stuck to his work too long and
thought the arm would get we'll with
out his giving up. We get good many
electric shocks, especially on rainy
days, when our shoes and hands get
wet; but they never are very serious,
though they aren't comfortable"