Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-07-01


main. shouted Switeh-Tender Grit
fin through the telephone. 1t was a verb
tication of the order he had received,
and the little shanty by the side of the
track seemed almost Anyone who
spends ~ nours OF the "a in a railroad
switching yard must accustom his
voice to 2eyer-en6ing contest with
a bedlam j whistles, bells and rush
ing steam
tanning the receiver on its hook
and opening the little door, Grim bent
his six-foot frame through the open
ing. His lantern swung from the
stump of his right arm, which had
just enough of an elbow TO make a
hook for it. Successive bars of yell
low light at every slant and angle
glinted in the darkness as the renect,
ion came from one track or another ia
the tangle. He picked his way across
them and stopped to throw the switch.
Scarcely tbd he Strengthened up.
when out of the night rushed NO 6"
1t clattered past the shanty, Numbered
over the high iron bridge and then,
like a spent sky-rocket. II could be
Iseenlslowly bending its stream of light
around the curve before the last
straight stretch into the white glare
of the train shed.
You see," said Griffin, as he showed
the door shut and gave the stove the
only housekeeping attention which the
shanty demanded of him, there's two
o them mains. Ones the right main
and the others the wrong main.
They're the two tracks across the
bridge. The right main going toward
the depot is the wrong one coming
out But sometimes If the right one
is blocked we have to send the trains
in or out by the wrong main"
! Suppose" said |, mother train
was coming out on its right main At
the same time you might be sending
B. and o. No in its wrong main.
Wouldn't something happen?"
Sure They'd clean It up with am
balances. and you'd hear the kids yell
lin extry That's just the thing
we've got to look out for"
his lIdlikiNSH H3S a AVti1Is ~
showed one thing certainly, that Grit
fin was keenly aware of his respon.
sibility. In fact. / felt sense Of as
surance in discovering Griffins motto
nailed to the wall beside a Sunday
supplement picture. There was an
element of dead certainty about its
strong language 1t read, Live every
day so that you can look any damn
n an in the face and tell him, go to
bell," a vigorous way. to be sure, OF
saying, BE sure you are right" bat
one, nevertheless, that gave You
comfortable sense of double riveted
security, with error not even among
the possibilities.
Job important Well. you can size
it up for yourself The magazines
have had big lot of hot air about
the engineer. All their railroad yarns
tell about the trainload of passengers
whose safety rests with the man In
the cab What in heavens name
would he do, I'd like to know Il we
felers didn't keep the switches right?
Guess the lives of the train los IS de
pend on the man In the shanty, too.
was not in mood to dispute the
statement, as Griffin caught sight Of
light in the distance, which rapidly
swelIed to a full moon. Great West-
ern, No g." he was hollering through
the phone. 'All right, Tom, the
wrong main for her" and 1t seemed
as II he had scarcely gone outside OF
the shanty when the full moon,
backed up by so tons of pounding iron,
and clouds of choking steam, rushed
by, trailing half dozen sleepers that
looked like one elongated car
AS / accustomed myself TO the sur.
roundings, however, began 10 think
of the things to find out for which
had stumbled down the wet and rick
ETY. steps from the yiaduct and made
my uncertain way across and along
the tracks. | had heard that large
proportion of switch-tenderB were
crippled | wanted to find out how
they came To be so, how they got
their jobs, what their wages were, ana
what, If any, efforts were under way
to better their conditions. Already
had become impressed with the fact
that switchtender must be "all
there" all OF the time, even II bis
ALI did happen to include less than
the normal total of limbs and digits.
Sure, we're the human scrap heap
In this business There's about 40
many = US MANNED as able-bodied.
Look down that row Of white lights TO
the right Of the nearest track Zach
one of em has shanty and a switch
tender. There's me and Bill vii.
liams-he's my day partner~in this
shant. Both OF us lacking right
arm. Dave, in the next shanty, he's
got no left band Next feller's all
sound But the two after him
neither Of them can count more'n
about six all told on his fingers o.
Of 20 in this yard there are seven
manned. and among the 700 or there
about In the city. expect there's be
tween third and half handicapped.
Dunno how you would find out for
sure
How did We get chopped up? Wei
mostly all ABOUT the same way. You
. see, we're all Of US trained and ex.