Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1903-11-27
Iu-THE CARPENTER-s SHOP.

lll-THE CARPENTERS SHOP.
Tom Packard has his rights" He
has machine %" is one of the me-
chanics ; is master mechanic -; but
still his rights 20 stretch out before him
uuattained lie has his rights" but
not all his rights" Master me
chanic is all very well. but he. Tom
Packard, most certainly has the right %
TO be master car-builder." No one
can deny it. That trestle- board bench
along that row Of windows in room ad-
Joining the carpentcr-shop haunts his
dreams. But not for long.
The machine work is now automatic as
IL always becomes to the master" And
So the books he reads at night on de-
signing the practice and observation of
the noon hour and the evenings all pass
IN review. while, as a mechanic" Tom
mechanically guides the work of his ma
chine.
At twenty-four Tom Packard is a
" master car-builder"
AT about this time the machine-shops
are moved To the yards in which he works
The foundry the heel-shop, the boiler
shop. the roundhouse-all contain some of
Tom Packards " rights" And little by
little he wrests from each, systematically.
al odd hours during overtime in night
study, in noon observation. in all-day re-
Election from one department at time.
rom Packard s " rights to the Workin gs
of that shop and machinery.
Tom Packard is thirty-five years old: n
master ar-painter, a master mechanic
master builder master machinist
lV.-THE FOREMAN'S OFFICE.
Tom Packard is now boss " or fore
man OF car repairs He has the repair-
shops of the paint-shops under him, en-
ploying some four hundred men,
known as a mechanic of great skill in
the handling of heavy machinery, when
an engine runs off the track into a min
race few miles away, and the dexterity
OF the regular wreckers crew and outfit
is in vain eNerted to raise and save her.
Packard is sent for, In an hour the en-
CINE Is on the tracks And there and then
began a new fight for his rights" Tom
Packard determines to master and i'm
prove the " wreckng service" and soon
mas an OUTFIT and crane-car of his own
deNising, which saves the company many
an item in the expense account
When on his excursions to scenes of
accident which this service Cunremunera-
ted makes necessary, Packard sees more
or MS rights lying unused along the
line of the Y and u Railroad. He GER
tainly has right to know how "A railroad
is graded how tunnels are built, how
bridges are constructed. No one would
deny that these are his rights"
ANA so we see master car-builder's
- sanctum sanctorum constructed ont
OF an old condemned freight-car I'm the
yard where, from seven to ten. in the
strlctest retirement and seclusion known
only to the night Waterman of the ward.
every night the foreman of ear repairs
studies higher mechanics, bridge building.
hydraulics, and all else that will conduce
TO the attainment of his rights by n
man who is determined to know the CON
of railroads as a business from
the rolling stock to ballast and foundation
of grade.
N.-THE RAILROAD OFFICIALS PRI
VATE CAR.
But while Tom Packard is making such
an earnest fight to attain his rights" as
he conceives the same, there are certain
- rights belonging to him of which ne
mas never dreamed, but which are serious
ly being considered by the X and u Rail-
road Company
The Company has long had in mind the
creation of an office having in its charge
the entire construction and repair work
Of the system and its branches But a
man possessing the necessary capabilitv
Tor handling so vast and varied respon-
sibility was not easy to find. However
Tor two years the management has been
watching one of their own laborers fight
ing stubbornly for his rights" And
now they decide, in full meeting of the