The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-21
OF RAILROAD MEN
 IS FIRST OF NEW YEAR
Annual Changes and Transfers arc Anticipated with Trepidation- Gossip of Men Who Manage
 and Handle Trains.

Tn the average railroad employer January lst is day of dread. They
 know that the axe begins to get busy on that day and that numerous heads may fall.
 case. Things railroad will go in in the even tenor of their way during the coming year very much as they have in the past. The only material change that is looked for in the near future Is the appointment of a successor to- Commercial Agent Tyler. who was sent to St. Louis to succeed W. J. Taylor in that city. This will not mean the looping off of any heads by the Vest ern Railway officials, but on the con trary, will result in a series of pro- motions and transfers.
 When the announcement of the trans fer of Mir. Tyler was made exclusively by The Advertiser, the additional statement was made that while his suc- cessor had not been appointed it seem
 ed to be the general opinion among the
 local railroad fraternity that Freight Agent Hunter would be appointed. Speaking of the matter yesterday Gen.
 eral Freight Agent Smith in whose de-
 partment the appointment will be
 made, said:
 The appointment will not take ef-
 feet until the first of the year, and
 there will certainly be nothing done
 until some time next week. MT. Wick
 ersham has been so busy that we have not even had an opportunity of dis
 cussing the matter. One thing is sure,
 however, we will not go out of the company"
 To the Louisville and Nashville em- ployes the first of the year means un- easiness, but the Louisville and Nash vile people in Montgomery are quiet and serene in the comfortable thought that there is hardly any, chance of be- ing disturbed.
 In Birmingham and all along the line of the South and North Division guess es and rumors are flying about with the celerity of a Dakota snowstorm This Is the result of the appointment as General Manager of the Louisville
 and Nashville of Superintendent Stark of that division which takes effect on l the first of the year.
 Including the Birmingham Mineral there are eight officials between Mont gomery and Decatur, and when Mir. Stark goes to the general offices in Louisville, there will be a general shift all along the line of the South and North.
 l The rumor has been pretty live dur ing the past few days that Superintend- ent Brooks of the Bowling Green Di-
 vision of the Louisville and Nashville
 would be brought South to take Mir
 Starke's place as Superintendent of the South and North. Whether that will
 be the case or whether Assistant Su- | tperintendent Wheeler of the South and
 North will get the appointment re- mains to be seen.
 | There is a Superintendent of Ter
 minals of the South and North in Bir-
 mingham, a Trainmaster of the South
 and North In Birmingham and another of that same division in Decatur; a Trainmaster of the Birmingham Min eral whose ofice Is in Birmingham. and an Assistant Trainmaster of that bran ch with an of1ce in Bessemer. This does not include the Chief Train Dispatcher 1 of the South and North at Birmingham another at Decatur and another on the Birmingham Mineral. With the changes
 in the officials on the South and North