The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22
GENESIS or THE BELL ROPE.
Result of Combat That settled Conduc-
 tors Supremacy Over Engineer.

| tors Supremacy Over Engineer.
 Although there does not seem to be
 anything in common between pugilism
 and railroad rules, yet the adoption of
 the familiar bell rope that stretches
 through every car of the modern train was the result of fistie encounter. At the same time, and by the issue of
 the same combat, says the Philadel- 1 phia Public Ledger, the supremacy of
 the conductor in railroad travel was
 ordained. It was Philadelphia which
 gave both to the world.
 One of the oldest railroads in the
 country is the Philadelphia, Whining
 ton and Baltimore, now known as the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing
 ton, which was opened in 1887 The first schedule contained one passenger train, which went to Baltimore one day and came back the next, which was considered remarkable feat in rapid travel. When 9 train a day each way was placed in service the people of the two cities served conclud- ed that the acme of convenience in transportation had been reached.
 Next to the president of the railroad the most important functionaries were the engineer and conductor. It was question whether or not the head of the line was considered a subsidiary official in popular estimation to the men Who ran the train; but Robert Fogg, who pulled the throttle, and John Wolf, who collected fares, won the difference of the public because of their high and responsible duties.
 Fogg, an Englishman, had all the tenacity of opinion of his race: Wolf an American, had the ingenuity of the Yankee, and seeing the need of some method by which he could communi- cate with the engineer. devised the scheme of runHing a cord through the cars to the locomotive. As the en- zine was a wood burner, Wolf fasten- ed one end of the cord to log, which was placed on the engineers seat and was pulled to the floor when the con ductor desired to signal for stop.
 Fogg resented what he considered an interference with his rights on the platform of the locomotive, and on the first run out with the new device paid no heed to the displacement of the log from the seat when the conductor de- sired to take on passenger from a. farm near Gray's Ferry, but sped on over the bridge and did not deign to bring his engine to stop until Blue Bell station, on the south side of the schuylkill, had been reached. Then he demanded to know of Wolf why he had been jerking that log all about the locomotive.
 Wolf hotly declared that he had sig nailed to stop, but Fogg retorted that he would stop when and where he and that, too, without any reference to orders from the conduc- tor, whom he did not regard as his su- perior in the management of the train. The altercation grew very heated, and Wolf invited the engineer, from the cab to settle the matter and the challenge was quickly accepted.
 Passengers and group of men who had gathered at the station to see the train come in formed ring about the combatants, but the fight did not last long, as Wolf proved by far the su- perior artist with his fists, and, with a few blows made 1t almost impossible for the engineer to see sufficiently to his run; but Fogg admitted that he had been fairly beaten and the supremacy of the conductor on a railroad train was settled.
 As the log signal was crude and in- effective, Wolf devised the use of bell on the locomotive and this method was soon adopted by all of the American railroads. Then code of signals was adopted and these remain practically to this day. The only change in the bell cord is that by use of the air from the brake system whistle has super seded the bell in the locomotive cab.