The suburban citizen., 1901-11-16


did not come. Tracer letters, that had
gone after 1t. were followed by tele-
grams. Finally 1t was located in a
wreck out in n cornheld in Illinois
ON the last day of the year A great
many OF the officials were away, and
the service was generally demoral'
lied during the holidays, so that the
appropriation Of $4,000, for which
the Englshman was working at NJ
had for the moment been forgotten.
The shops were completed, the ma
chinery was in, but there was no boil
er to make steam to work the ma
chinery.
That night, when the good people Of
the town Were watching the old year
out and the new year in, the young
Englishman, with a force Of men,
was wrecking the pump house down
by the station. The little upright
boiler was torn out and placed in the
machine shops. 1t was big enough to
drive a small engine that turned the
long line-shaft. At dawn they ran
long pipe through the roof, screwed
locomotive whistle on top Of 1t, and at
6 o'clock on New Years morning the
new whistle on the new shops at
NJ, Iowa, blew in the new year.
This would be a good place to end
this story, but the temptation is great
to tell more regarding the success Of
this energetic, persevering man.
When the shops were opened the
young Englishman was made the
foreman. All this happened consid-
erably less than twenty-five years
ago. In a little while they made him
the master mechanic In the year
1887 he went to the Wisconsin Cen
trail. In 1890 he was made the super
intendent Of machinery on the Santa
Fe routc-one Of the longest roads
on earth. 1t begins at Chicago; (;
strong, like a mans wrist; with fin
gers on Sacramento, San Francisco,
San Diego and El Paso, and a thumb
touching the Gulf at Galveston. The
mileage of the system at that time
was equal to one-half that of Great
Britain, and upon the companys pay
rolls were 10000 more men than
were then in the army Of the United
States. Fifteen hundred men and
boys walk into the main shops at To
peka every morning. They work
four hours, eat luncheon, listen to a
lecture or short sermon in the meeting
place above the shops, work another
four hours, and walk out better off
by $4,000 than they would have been
if they had not worked. These shops
make little city OF themselves There
is a perfect water system, a fire bri'
gade with stations where the firemen
sleep, a police force and dog catcher.
Here they build anything of wood,
iron. brass or steel that the company
needs, from ninety-ton locomotive
to single-barrel mouse trap all un-
der the eye Of the Englishman who
came to America with a good wife
and two babies, a good head and two
hands. This mans name is John
Player. He is the inventor of the
Player truck, the Player hand car,
the Player frog, and many other use
full appliances.
This simple story of an unpreten-
tious man came to me in broken Sec
tions as the special train sped along
the smooth track, while the general
manager talked with the resident di-
rector and the general superintendent
talked with his assistant, who, not
long before, was the conductor Of a
work train, upon which the general
superintendent was employed as
brakeman. 1 was two days stealing
this story between the bushes OF the
mechanical superintendent. hope
he will not mind my telling you that
1 saw two tears start from his eyes
as he said, signing: "Td give a lot to
know tonight who paid for my sup
per in that little Iowa town when l
felt so lonely and discouraged, and
when a dollar looked like a six-foot
wheel"
He related also that a man wearing
high-cut trousers and milk ON his
boots entered his Office when he had
gotten to his first position as master
mechanic, and held out a hand, saying
with a smile:
"Vell, you don't know me yet, amt
it? Pm Martin, the fireman. quit
ranchin', already and want jobs"
| Martin cot n iob at once.-Success