Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-18
SUPERSTITIONS OF THE RAIL
Some of the Beliefs Firmly Adhered
To by Trainmen.
TRAVELLERS AFFECTED SAME WAY
POrtentiOus Meanings Read in Signs
of TrininE NRture-CUriOus
Charms Carried by Cour-
ageOus Men.

The most superstitious class in the United
States. outside of the fetich-worshiping
negros, is the otherwise hard-headed, keen
witted railroad man. He is a ~fatalist by
circumstances of a life OF constant danger.
Death is a commonplace; accident and
injury all in the days work and line Of
duty. Contempt OF death. akin to that of
tho frantic Mussulman, but without the
allurement of the black-eyed hour paradise.
is bred OF familiarity, the never ending
risk OF life and limb. as told in the grim
statistics Of railroad fatalities. Many
bloody campaigns OF great wars show
fewer casualties than the annual death
ard accident report OF the Interstate Com
merce commission. This makes life cheap
and its risk and sacrifice for so much per
diem and incident. The railroad man lives
In an atmosphere Of the fatal chance a
nerve-tensing uncertainty. Death may be
speeding toward him and around the
curve ahead; the next pounding Of the
massive drivers may strike a broken rail:
the tower signal man makes his awful
errors in an almost unvaryIng average;
the landslide and the tempered switch are
entirely beyond provision. And it is this
dominancy of chance. of the uEprevised,
the unexpected, the unforeseen, utterly
battling human ingenuity that makes the
average railroad man as superstitIously
fatalistic as a whirling dervish or a war
rior Of the Mad Mullah.
This environment of the fatal chance.
emphasizing human futility and powerless-
Eess. creates a rich soil for omen. charm,
and fetch. and few railroad men can be
found who are not inoculated with the
virus Of protecting superstition. Press them
closely and seven out of ten will confess
II in a h~alf-shamed faced. half defiant way.
Not long ago, in a disastrous wreck in
North Carolina, a train, including engine,
mail, baggage and two passenger cars,
plunged into a river from a high bridge
weakened by floods. In the mail car were
three clerks, two OF them new to the rail-
road service and comparatively ignorant
OF its traditions. The other one had seen
many years OF hard work with the mail
bags. The two new clerks were instantly
killed and horribly mangled when the
mail car collapsed like an egg shell under
the impact Of the heavy passenger coach
that crashed down upon top Of IT,. The vet
eran clerk. at work between and within
a few feet Of the other two men. escaped
almost without a scratch. How it happened
he could not tell, save that after the Keeling
movement Of the downward plunge, amid
the roar from the bursting, crumpling
beams and splintering wood, he found him
self breasting the flood struggling to reach
the shore, which he did in safety.
In his pocket he carried a frayed and
faded scrap Of ar old mail sack, which
he had s~alvaged years before from a
wreck in the same state. Three times
had he been in wrecks since then. and
] each Tina he asqapa7 n1p,ngr without d.
scratch. once in hurriedly changing his coat
before leaving his home in Washington for
his train. he forgot the mystic piece OF
mail sack. He discovered his forgetfulness
a few miles out Of his run, and quit at the
next station upon the plea OF acute illness.
An hour later the train was In the ditch.
No use to talk iearnedly 10 him about the
logical fallacy OF post hoe, ergo propter
hoe He has something better than that
experience. He knows. so he thinks.
One may find. II he be sufficiently curl
ous, in the reports OF postoffice inspectors
on railroad wrecks, now and then. the men
ton Of the torn and mutilated mail sacks.
investigation would discover the treasured
pieces OF them hidden in the pockets OF
the mail clerks. Even the skeptics and
cynics say the souvenirs can do no harm
and perhaps-who knows?-they may be
something in II. after all.
And IN practically every department OF
the great transportation business Of the
country there has developed a mass OF
traditional lore with its omens and charms.
There is many a conductor who never
starts on his trip without a flower in his
buttonhole. Retired railroad men tell OF a
veteran conductor on the old Fttchburg
road in Massachusetts, who for foTty-Odd
years never made a trip without a red
rose about him. Generally he carried it
with the stem in his mouth, but when he
could not set a fresh red rose every day
= faded flower would be pressed In . note