Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-03

one of youse fellers will have to git off
this carr
1t was another employe of this crude
sort who not long ago addressed Vice
President Fairbanks in Washington
with the words: Say, youse guys
ought to know by this time that this
ere car don't stop on this side of tie
street."
The records of such a corporation as
the Pacific Electric company prove that
there has been a steady Improvement
in the kind of men applying for exam
nation. The basis Furthermore,
is large enough to generalize from.
Remarkable diversity as to former oc-
cupations exists among the men whom
one notes as polite conductors or motor
men in well cut uniforms. Many, of
course, report simply that they have
all their lives been farming or helping
their parents on the farm, but among
the hundreds of new ones taken OIL
each year are to be found the names of
men who must have been through STIR
ring adventures before they undertook
the useful task of collecting nickels
From the United States army and navy
there is noticeable regular drift to the
service. Several score of former sol
diers or sailors pass their examinations
every year and enter the industrial
ranks.
Those, too, who have been good SER
wants of Uncle Sam are likely to con-
tinue to be good soldiers. They find III
their new occupation opportunities for
advancement which are impossible in
army and navy for there exists in it no
impossible barrier between commis-
stoned and non-commissioned officers.
The most efficient men may go right
from the bottom to the top, as indeed
every division superintendent of the
read has.
If men from the government service
turn up often at the company's famous
training school hardly less frequently
do people from callngs which would
not seem exactly to prepare for street
railroading present papers of applica-
ton and recommendation. School
teachers and superintendents, weary
of the deadening grind of the school
room, have lately been appearing IN
considerable numbers. They know
that in the chosen vocation the same
devotion that was shown in teaching
will eventually reward them much bet
ter. College students, too, enter the SER
vice. some for a few months in the
>
that the company most approves-for
permanent work.
1t would be hard to say just how
many eX-clergymen are taking up
nickels instead of presenting contribu-
ton boxes on the lines running in and
out of the California metropolis. There
is, at any rate, a considerable number
of them. Some are men who became
discouraged in the disheartening task
of maintaining a congregation in town
of diminishing population and lessen
ing regard for religious traditions, and
they turn to the conductors calling as
one which gives outdoor life, exercise
of intelligence and abundant oppor-
tunity to practice the Christian virtues
Occasionally minister takes the exam
nations because he has some throat
trouble which prevents his going on
with his preaching.
There perhaps are not so very many
historians, noVelists, or even romancers
in the service-most of these last are
too we'll paid nowadays writing eX-
posures of graft in public and private
life-but it is known that at least one
poet whose verses have attracted att
tention wears the company's uniform.
He is regarded, furthermore, as one of
the best conductors, and he is too wise
a man to give up a sure thing for the
precarious calling of the free lance
writer. Another man was formerly a
playwright, but, as he is unable to keep
up In productiVeness with Clyde Fitch
and George Bernard Shaw, he very will
ingly takes his weekly stipend from the
transportation company.
These cases are probably more or less
typical of nearly every American city.
The ranks of the street railway br-
gades are being filled by intelligent men
from almost every human calling. And
their intelligence is called into play
eYery hour In thelr eXacting work.