The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-02-18

feeding coal into the reinoFseless maw Of the living steel thing under him. Then hs again presents himself before the examiner, who in the mean time has been informed by the veteran fire man of the greenhorn's work on the road. If the report is unfavorable the applicant is told as gently as possible that he is not cut out for railroader. If the report is favorable he spends day answering the two or three hun dred questions based on the rules of the road and the rules for firemen that are pumped at him. Here is a repre- sentative question:
 You say there is a Gour~ar msema- phore on the bridge at Fifteenth street? What do the different arms control?" 1 The answer is:
 1 The top arm controls the yards to i the west; the second from the top 1 tracks G, H and K, the third track F,
 and the lowest one the sidings to the east" These questions bring out the charac-
 ter, location and significance of every signal along the division, where there are sidings, switches, crossovers, what
 not. Every question that can possibly
 be asked about the run is asked, and 10
 every question a quick sure answer IS
 expected. Failure on some questions, l however, does mt mean that the man
 will be rejected. He is given further chandes to ascertain the proper answer,
 but if he does not do this within req
 sonable period, then all his. previous
 work has gone for. naught. It IS every bit as essential for the man to know every inch of his run as it is for him to i be perfect invision and in color sense. This is the applicants final ordeal;
 having successfully passed it he is put
 to work as fireman, and his name is placed on the company's payroll. 2 He
 shovels coal for, say, two years: once in that time he and a half-dozen other enl- ployes were unexpectedly ordered by 1 the superintendent to appear before the examiner, who formed them into 8 class
 and put them through the. rules of the
 road, in order that the superintendent
 might know beyond peradventure that
 the men were nor negiecting to keep 1 posted at all times en the rules
 Now he thinks it is high time for him to take another step toward the goal of his ambition to sit on the right-hand Eside of the cab and have some poor dew lii stoking for him. Consequently, he makes application for 3 position as en- ginenlan, is once more turned over to the examiner. and is given anew the tests for vision, color sense and hearing, and answers for the third time the fla
 miliar rules. In addition, he is closely questioned concerning the multifarious rules for enginemen. and is required to I pass. a rigid mechanical examination in I order to prove that he can be implicitly Entrusted with the care of so delicate, so
 costly and so whimsical a piece of ma chinefy as a locomotive. Also, and de spite the fact that his character was re- I ported good or excellent when he was examined for fireman the inquisitor does not take it for granted that the mans character is still all that 1t ! should be for purposes of railroaditg, < but once more information as to his
 habits is carefully collected, If he had \ developed a tendency to drink in the Emeantime, hood by all chances to sit on I the right-hand side of the cab. But if in all his private acts he has been as
 exemplary as his ability to pass the va rious other ordeals has been well nigh perfect he realizes his ambition, and
 one day, after he has pulled freights for a seemingly unconscionable long time I and made runs on accommodations, he lis told off to take out the 5:45 o'clock
 express. and his happiness is complete until the evil day when he Is ordered to
 appear before the examiner again.
 He may be called up for supplementa- ry examina ton for a variety of reasons.
 He has just recovered from a spell of sickness; mbefore he can run an engine lagain he must have his eyes tested, for.
 sickness often impairs the vision. Nearly every road has an iron-clad rule that once every three years every em- Eploye that has to do with, the running of trains must take the examinations. A certain We1l-known railroad in the east has aAseore or more of enginemen past sixty-five years, whose eyes are in
 no wise dimmed by age, whose eyes are
 marked perfect on the records every time their owners have come up for ex- amination. Kansas City Star.