The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-03
REvOKING HIS ORDER.
By Henry Moore.


 The division superintendent on the western end of the K. and L. road had not risen from the ranks If he had, he would have been more popular with the force under him. He had obtained his place through Influence" and nineteen times out of twenty such men are cordially hated for the best Of reasons. He had many trainmen in hot wat r within a month, but in all appeals he was sustained. division superintendent, on his own ground, IS an autocrat. What he says goes. lie is monarch of the rails in his territory. He is responsible only to headquarters.
 The K. and L. had no use for women teleeraphers It had long been the rule of the road to turn all such ap- plicants down in the curtest manner In some way that seemed mysterious to the other operators on the division a vouns lady had taken charge of the osfice at Stapleton The place was only a hamlet, and there was not much freight or passenger traffic. but there was the great bridge over the Blg Blue river just to the west of 1t, and there was the deep cut extending Tor hali mile in which several landsiides had occurred, so, in a way, the post was an important one.
 The agent and operator in question 
 been crowded in, so to speak, by one of the big stockholders who had helped the president out of hole. She had learned telegraphy at school, ana this was her first place. A hundred miles down the line lived her widowed mother, and the girl was working TOT the support of both. When the opera tors came to understand all this they "w. slow" on her. Had she been a
 her sink swim She made mistakes and they covered them up. She became con- fused and tangled up. they helped her to straighten things out. She got discouraged, and they flashed her words of sympathy and hope They would have done nothing of the sort for a beginner of the male sex. He wouldn't have held his job beyond the first month
 If was a bit strange that Charles Morton. the new ID. s. had been in power for six months before he ascer- tatned that there was a woman on the line. Even his private operator had sbeItared her Then an accident to his train at her station brought the two face to face. The man was brusque and pompous in his authority and he was provoked and impatient at ms delay. He saw that the girl was V, and that she understood her business, but even before he had addressed her. he ade up his mind to have her out of that at the end of the month.
 She was told plainly that his division had no use for her. He was not run ming a kindergarten. At the end or twenty days, she would be replaced. E. had no complaint or excuse to or fer. In fact, he was not a man to make excuses. What astonished and piqued him a bit was the way the young lady received his orders She was not in the least frustrated and lost none of her dignity. While treat ing him with the respect due hls posi- tion, he somehow felt that there was a feeling of contempt for him in her demeanor He took his departure bit ashamed of himself. and yet furious that the whole division had conspired against him.
 Within an hour it was known the length of the division that Miss Will a--E had got the sack ecause she was a mere woman. She had the sympathy of a'' the operators, and more than one counseled her to appeal to headquar- ters She thanked them for their kind words and said that she would be all ready to step out of the office whe the new man arrived. The ID. s should have saved his dignity. but the feeling ttat he had been outwitted Kept him boiliSE hot. and within the next ten days Ia" discharged five op- orators and struck terror to the hearts of all the rest.
 For inefficiency' Nse the report he made at headqus rterc. and that went in each case. The pSNsident of a railroad never sees reports Nf such trifling affairs, and would nSt read them If they were placed under his eyes It therefore followed that t1e president of the K. & L. knew nothiSE of what had happened and was going to happen at Stapleton II might have altered the case If he had been appealed to, but the girl. knowing that had been crowded out through no fault of her own. would make no sig
 Fifteen of the twenty days allowed her to finish her month had passed. constant rains, The track gang was watching the big bridge and the deep cut but the floods rolled under the one and the banks of the other showed no signs of giving way. The Suspicion office was cut out of the circuit after the passage of the o'clock train In the evening. Then the girl operator went to her boarding house for the night and resumed duty at next morn ing. The office at Marion, the next one east, was run on the same sched- uIe At o'clock in the evening of the fifteenth day the track gang came in and re rted all safe. At the pas