The suburban citizen., 1901-04-13
WOMEN ON RAILROADS
IN THE SOUTHWEST MANY HAVE BE.
CONE INVALUABLE EMPLOYEES.

. part from all rules and traditions and
make innovations that, to say the
least, are rather startling" said an
old Kansas City railroad man in n
conversation with a reporter.
'Its only few years since the
Southern Pacific saw the sudden col
/ lapse Of what seemed n very prom!s-
ing experiment, yet now it has an
other and in this case, too, the re-
suits so FAR are very satisfactory.
"Ten or dozen years ago old
Charlie Crocker,' as he was familiarly
called by almost every employe Of the
Southern Pacific, as a reward for a
particularly daring and mertorious
act, prevailed on the directorate of
the Southern Pacific to educate a
young girl. she had lived almost all
her life in the mountains of New
Mexico, with almost no associates ex-
cept her father, an engineer, and his
fireman. She was a railroad girl
from top to toe, and her knowledge
of railroad craft enabled hep TO avert
what would have been most fright
full wreck. Her reward was an cdu-
cation such as few girls in her station
in life ever obtain. Everything one
of the finest educational institutions
in the West could do was done for her,
and Mt the conclusion Of the college
term size was, ut her own request,
given postgraduate course in me-
chanical engineering. Her schooling
finished, she was given a position in
the office Of the superintendent Of mo-
tive power at n nice salary, which
was looked upon by the men in the
office rs n kind of pension. 1t was
supposed that she would, in office par
lance, hold the chair and that her
time would be occupied by purely
technical duties, but the young wom-
an soon proved she was worth more
than her salary. One day, within q
year of her graduation, she submitted
plans and specifications for a new type
Of engine. There were q number of
new ideas in the plans and some de
cided improvements, and It was just
the thing the company had been look
ing for. Some of the best mountain
passenger engines the Southern Pa
ciflc ever had were built from that
get of plans.
1T was Il rude shock to the mascu-
line element in that Office that the
girl should carry off the honors they
thought were safely their own, and
then they fell to wondering what this
phenomenal girl would do next. She |
did what they all do if the right man
comes along. One day a big official of
an Eastern railroad came through the !
office No one ever knew how it hap |
pened, but the bright light of the mo.
tive power staff swapped mechanics |
for matrlmony. An experiment with !
the new woman was closed, and the |
first lady mechanic was transformed |
into what size is to-day-a very happy |
wife.
"Not until little over two years ago
did the staid old management take
another plunge into officially unknown
waters. Then what Spanish treach-
cry raised the cry, Remember The
Maine and all the patriotic instincts
Of the sons of Uncle Sam were at
boiling point, 0. L. Pease, the train
master at ella Bend, N. NJ, jumped
out and put his name on the muster
roll of the First Territory Cavalry.
Before he left he wired his resigna-
tiOn and turned the office over to his
wife, who, for years before her mar
riagc had been a telegraph operator
on the line. All her married life she
had been doing more OF less Of the
clerical work Of the Office. ella Bend
is a little place in the middle Of a
long division, lonesome as only a coal
and water station in the Great Ameri-
can Desert can be, and it was almost
impossible TO keep a clerk there for
any length Of time. In the interval
between the departure Of one clerk
and the arrival Of his successor, Mrs.
Pease learned all the details Of the
office work, and, on the departure Of
her husband, it was a very handy
knowledge.
Just at that time the road was
rushed to It's utmost capacity by the
enormous government business it was
and every employe was
overtime. Mrs. Pease wired
that the Office was with
out a head, but no attention was paid
10 the communications, and meantime
she handled the Office like a veteran.
One day the superintendent of the di-
vision dropped into ella Bend The
acting trainmaster' was having an
with big engineer who had
earelessly run through an open switch
He sat- a grinning watcher, while the
lainty little woman made the engine
nan squlrm with her scathing COM
nent on his neglect, and when she
old the big fellow lie could take
thirty days vacation to improve his
eyesight the superintendent was evil
IDENTIFY satisfied that the A. Y. NJ. was
onto her job Before he left he told
Ter that the general manager was so
well satisfied with her conduct of af-
airs that he had authorized her per-
nanent appointment to the office.
ut was over year after her APP