The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-01

This came about through there being
vtiSkcrS on the rails. 1t may not be gen.
orally understood that whiskers grow on
steel rails; curious as il seems. they do.
Moreover. on steel rails they are dangerous,
and AT times exceedingly dangerous.
DO not infer that all steel rails grow
whiskers: nor is it, as one might suppose,
only the old rails that support them. The
Youngest rail on the curve may boast as
stout a beard as the oldest rail on the tam
gent. and one just as gray. They flourish.
too, in spite Of orders; for. while whiskers
are permitted on engineers and tolerated on
conductors. they are never encouraged on
rails. Nature, however, provides the whis-
kers, regardless of discipline. and, what is
more, shaves them herself.
Their culture depends on conditions.
Some months grow better whiskers than
1Rlhers. September is famous for whiskers,
}{Nhile July grows very few. Whiskers will
grow on steel rails in the air of a single
/ night, but not every night air will produce
whiskers. 1t takes a high. frosty air-one
that stays out late-to make whiskers.
Take. for example. the night air of the
Black Hills. II is known everywhere among
steels rails as Il beard tonic. The days
moisture, falling as the sun drops beyond
the hills. is drawn into feathery, jeweled
crystals of frost on the chilly steel as a
glass of ice water beads in summer shade.
anu AAtS bth1 StdlAbAiiltS IL III Il
dainty profusion. until, when the day peeps
into the canyons the track looks like a pair
of long white Streamers winding up and
down the levels. But beware that track.
1t is a very dangerous track, and its posi-
hilities lie where Samson's lay-ip the
whiskers.
So it lies in early morning as pretty a
death trap as any flower that ever lured a
fly; only this pitfall waits for engines and
trains and men-and sometimes gets them.
1t waits there on the mountain grades. in
an ambush really deadly for an unweary
grain, until the sun, which is particularly
nazy In the fall. peeping over into the cuts,
smiles. at length. on the bearded steel as if
st were too funny. and the whiskers vanish
into thin air.
A smooth-faced rail presents no especial
dangers; and If trainmen IN the hills had
their way they would never turn a wheel
until the sun had done barbering. But dis.
patchers not having to do with them, take
no account of whiskers. They make only
the schedules. and the whiskers make the
trouble. To lessen their dangers. engineers
always start. up hill or down, with a tank
full of sand. and they sand the whiskers.
it is rough barbering. but it helps the driver
tires grit a bit into the face of the rail,
and In that way helps on. In this emer-
Gency a tarfkful of sand is better than all
the air Westinghouse ever stored.
Aloysius McGrath was 4 little sweeper:
but he was an aspiring one, for even "A
sweeper may aspire. and in point of fact
most of them do aspire. Aloysius worked
in the roundhouse at the head of the Wind
River pass on the West End Mountains. II
a an amazingly rough country: and as for
fades. 1t takes your breath merely to look
down the levels. Three per cent. 4 per cent,
s per cent-it is really frightful. But Alloy
slus was used to heavy falls: he had begun
ryorkinS for the company as q sweeper
.Ifndpr JOhDnfp HOripnD md mn appipaar
would have thought OF running a grade to
compare with Johnnie's headers.
Horigan was the first boss Aloysius ever
bad. Now Aloysius. if caught Just right,
s a very pretty name, but Johnnie Horigan
could make nothing whatever OF II. so he
ralled Aloysius Cooney, as he said. for
Fhort-Cooney McGrath-and. by the way.
" you Will call that McGraw. We shall he
Started right. As for Horigdn. he NAV he
called anything: at least 1t is certain that
on the West End he has been called every-
thing.
Johnnie was ordinarily boss sveener ua
had suffered numerous motious-sev
times to wiper and once to hostler: hui his
tendency to celebrate these occasions ,,su-
7aily cost him his job, and he reverted to
Sweeping. If he had not been such an in
offensive. sawed off little old nubbip lie
wouldn't have been tolerated on the nav
roll: but he had been with the companv so
long and discharged so often that forarner
grew tired Of trying to get rid of him. and
in spite OF his very regular habits. he was
hanging on somewhere all the time.
When Johnnie was gone. using the word
in at least two senses, Aloysius Coonay
McGrath became ipso facto boss sweene,.
1t happened first one Sunday morning. lust
after pay day, when Johnnie applied to the
foreman for permission to go TO church
Permission was grant9. and Johnnie
started Il" church, but 1t is doubtful
Whafh6r he ever found if A. all
the end of three weeks he turned up again
at the roundhouse. considerably the worse
for his attempt TO locate the house Of
PRAYER, which he had tried to find only after
he had been kicked out of every other place
in town.
Aloysius had improved the intervals bv
sweeping the roundhouse as 1t never had
3pecn swept before. and when Johnnie Hoyi-
gan returned. morally disfigured. Aloysius