The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-07-12

In the Pay Car Guarded ny QUITS
Railroadlnu No Fun Now.
C. f. Carter In the American mag |
azinc;
Railroadrug isn't any fun any more,
sordid commercial folk in Wall street,
with never an idea in their noggins
hut to invest money and make 1t pay
dividends, have improved all the ro'
nance out of life on the rails.
They have reduced grades and
straightcncd kinks and eliminated low
Joints and high ccntcrs and wooden
culverts and crazy bridges until ride
over the division Is about as thrilling
as walking TO church.
Air brakes have so thoroughly
crowded out the good old Armstrong
kind that brakeman has no use for
skill or judgment or muscle or even
vocabulary in stopping n train The
engineer does all that Is necessary
with a slight twist Of the wrist
As for making n coupling, brake
man no longer mines In the cinders on
the back of the tank until he digs up
n rusty old link and couple of pins
and. taking these in one hand and his
life In the other, spirits down the
center OF an UNPUBLISHED track and
over unprotected frogs and guard rails
six inches ahead of n string OF cars
rolling back at the rate of fifteen
miles an hour. No; in these days Of
10. ,l.l, al tn NJ n
dards he Just stands around smoking
cigarettes with an air of ennui and
lets the cars couple themselves.
No more does he fracture the handle
of the fireman's coal hammer and his
own peace OF mind In vain endeavors
to pound stub switch open after n
grilllng summer sun has expanded the
rails until they are stuck as tight as
II they were welded. A fellow In a
dog house on pole away off yonder,
by manipulating few dainty levers,
throws the switches for him.
They have replaced the little old
eight-wheel engines, with their ear
splitting, staccato bark, with COM
pound steel mountains, with cylinders
like hogsheads and nozzles so big that
the exhaust Is gentle as lovers whis'
pered nothings, for no better reason
than a desire to keep coal consump'
ton down. No more can the engineer
and fireman have nice social quarrel
in the cab whenever others hair pulls
a little, for now they are so widely
separated they only see each other on
Sundays, --..,.-.-,,. 49,
- Trains, instead of being made VI
of dozen or so of pill boxes, now
consist of string of warehouses or
wheels so long that when the front
end is arriving at its destination the
hind end is just pulling out at the
other end of the division.
No more do engineer and conductor
watches in hand. make nice calcula
tons on the time they can steal tC
make a meeting point that has a sid
ing long enough to avert the necessit!
of saving past. Roads are double
tracked and four.trscked and block
signaed till all man has to do is t.
trundle along from block to block un
til his run is ended and repeat the
process until he is retired on a pen
sion.
All, no! Railroading isn't what I
used to be. But If those Wall stree
money grubbers had only left us tn,
pay car all else could have been for
given.
Do you remember how, in the goo
old days, the decrepit jokes abou
what was to be done when the pa
car came were taken out of the mot
balls along about the tenth of tn
month and busted OFF and put throug
their PAGES?
How, toward the fifteenth, a feelin
of sprightliness gradually stole owe
every one from the wipers in tn
round house to the lucky dogs VIII
had passenger runs?
How this eXuberance swelled in vo
ume as the forte pedal was put on
anticipation, until toward the eigl
teenth everybody went about with
broad grin and nerves all a-tingle liR
you feel when the orchestra is playir
the creep music to accompany the VI
lain's midnight assault with intent
kill?
How, still later, everybody driftt
down to the depot about four times
day to ask the station agent If he hi
heard anything about the pay ca
until he grew as grabbed as a settir
hen?
How, about the twenty-second, Il
waiter girls at the Depot Hotel won
give you saucy wink and bring "
a great, juicy, melting, extra speci
wedge of pie you didn't order, for do
sert, along with the ice cream a.
nuts and raisins and fruit and pr
ding and shortcake you did orde
Those girls knew how to work a
low for tips about pay day, didn't the
At last, one day as you were letti
'em down the hill into the junctiC
the operator pulled his train order S
nal on you. Your heart leaped II
your throat because you knew