The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-18

For my part, believe the reason for the recent epidemic of wrecks,' said commercial traveler in the smoking compartment of Pullman car, 'is due to the fact that the nerves of the engi- neers are brought to such a high ten sion after a number of bad accidents that they lose control of themselves"
 That's just where you are wrong, quietly said a gray-haired man with tanned, weather beaten face, who sat near the window smoking a cigar. T think you will all credit me with know ing what I am talking about, as l have been a railroad engineer for the last thirty years; have run all kinds of en- zines, from mine dummy to a hun dred-ton passenger engine with a sey- en-foot wheel, and have railroaded on all the principal lines in the United States.
 The great majority of people seem to have the idea that the engineer of a fast train is always in fear of run-ins and collisions, and that he is under such a nervous strain that he some times has to be lifted from the cab when he reaches the end of his run. That isn't so. An enineer has too many duties, such as watching his signals keeping water in his engine and seeing that he is on his schedule time, to have much time to worry himself about acci- dents that are likely to happen. As long as he pays the proper attention to his own train he knows that is all he can do, and that if anything goes wrong it is beyond his control. So he doesn't take up any of his time worrying. Ac- cidents will happen, TO matter how much care is taken to prevent them, and sometimes there can't be found any reason for them, but you may be sure that they are never caused through the engineer losing his nerve.
 If an engineer were under half the strain most people suppose him to be he wouldn't last a dozen trips, but you will find that men live to grow old at en- I gineering, just the same as at any other work-that is, if they are suited to the I business and have no bad luck. As a rule they are men of good, strong nerves l and with little imagination. Of course, 1T don't mean that all engineers are alike. There are good and ordinary and fast and slow engineers. And it is a cu- rious fact that it is not always the slow, cautious man who gets along with the fewest accidents.
 One of the fastest engineers I ever knew was one of the safest, and yet he would come safely through after taking chances that would have made another mans hair stand on end. One thing he \ did I'll remember all my life. I was firing for, him at the time and I thought that this was the last of us. We came into the station hauling an accommodate tion train, with the engine running on one side-that is, the gear on one side had broken down and he had disconnec- ted it, taken off the side rode and tied up the piston. All the power thus had to come from the good side. This doesn't interfere with an engines speed ' -at least going down hill-but of course she is much more likely to give way in that condition than when she is in good order.
 The station was at the top of q steep grade and we were coming down. Our train had just five minutes to get to the next station, at the bottom of the hill, four and a half miles below, and side track for an express coming from the opposite direction.
 Well, the engineer wanted to make the run, but the conductor got off the train and said that he didn't want to commit suicide. If the engineer was bound to kill himself he would have to 1A n1r |, .ota 1,t1f 1,f finally was persuaded to get aboard, and away we went. Never before or since have had such a ride. From the way that we fell down that grade l thought we would never reach the bot tom except in a pile But we reached the side track safely, after all and pulled into it just in time to miss the express, for 1t came through moment later as fast as it could travel, as it's engineer made dash for the grade, and it didn't miss the rear end of our hind coach six inches as it was drawn into that siding.
 '.Yet that engineer is still running, and he has had fewer accidents than many a slower and more careful man.
 There is always a certain amount of excitement in the life of an engineer. but it gets to be just the same as any other work man is doing year in and year out. I sometimes see pictures in magazines showing the engineer in a confab with his fireman. His train all the time supposed to be travelling at a gait of a mile a minute. You will never see anything like that in real life. An engineer always must have his hand on the throttle and his eyes glued straight ahead. The fraction of a second some times will make all the difference in the world, for you are likely to find sig nal set against you at the most unex- pected places and it is strictly neces- sary that you see it just as soon as you can.
 While going along with an express as fast as the engine could turn a vince the other day I came suddenly upon a brakeman waving a red flag. I threw on the air brake and then reversed the engine, for I could tell by the way the brakeman was waving that we were close to his train. We'll, we came to a stop not an engines length from the en- zine of a way train that had crossed or my track to get some cars out of a sid ing, and hadn't time to get out of my way. The brakeman had had haEc work to get up the track far enough te