The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1902-02-01

this ne may be advanced to assist the
hostIer at the roundhouse. Here again
he adds to his experience and after
some months he may be made engineer
on "A switchman or fireman on a freight
run. And from there he goes in a
bound to his goal when his turn comes,
first on a freight fengine then a branch
passenger and finally on a main line
passenger. At last he has come to the
exalted height and generally he can
look back on ten or twelve years of
the hardest kind of work in the battle
for his prize.
Said a railroad man the other day:
A whole lot of sentiment is wasted on
the men who ride their engines at the
head of a train, plunging through a
storm of rain or snow, risking life at
! every culvert or bridge. There is no
great quantity of nerve or bravery i'm
any of them. Most of them begin their
work when comparatively young. From
riding switch engines they work in the
course of years out onto the main line.
By this time they have become used
to fast running and it is as much a
matter of course to them as is the
commonest work to anybody else. Sud
den death to them is no more feared
than to the man who walks the thickly
populated streets every day in the
week" But the man who said so was
not an engineer. Asked if an engineer
ever suffered with nervousness, a man
who has been one for the Burlington
many years said, with a shrug, that
they are not supposed to have nerves
There are times though when they
feel considerable anxiety and strange
to say il is not over danger but over
time. With a heavy train behind him
and orders to make siding, for in
stance, where he must pass another
train of the same kind he is oftentimes
fretful lest he fail to be there on time
and cause the other train delay These
occasions are only when the weather
or other conditions are such that fast
running is greatly hindered.
Why is it that railroad men and par
ticularly engineers, are so generally
cranky? is a question many times
asked. The answer is that engineers
are no more gruff than any other class
of people. 1t is simply an Illusion.
Though railroad men are not so often
known by name they are the most
prominent of public men and that is
why their characteristics are generally
more noticed. But why shouldn't an
engineer be cranky? He has spent a
good many years in the purchase of his
position and it is one of sufficient re-
sponsibility and worriment to work
bad on most anybody's nerves The
probability is that none of the COM
plainants but would growl as gutteral
as the sullenest engineer, IL placed in
his position and bothered by as many
thimble-brain people
The pains and pleasures of an en-
gineer's life are fairly well balanced.
The most unpleasant feature of the
work is that he is never certain of his
hours. In fact he is not certain of his
leisure at all. for he may come I'm from
one run only to be dispatched on an
other. And there is no telling at what
hour of the night he will be called out
for a lonely ride with an engine across
the country. When such calls come in
wet or wintry weather, then it is that
the engineer feels disposed to invoke
relief in good round oaths. Neverthe-
less it is always warm in the cab and
when he gets started he feels a good
deal better. He loves his great steel
steed and when he feels it obey his
touch he rarely fails To faaI Soma