Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-21
Substitute Seventeen
Continued from page 10

when I could But he's well enough now to
look after himself until get back
Sick" with some surprise Why. l
hadn't heard And you re to take his place on
this trip Amt you pretty young? wouldn't
have thought the company'd agreed to it,
they're so particular: though" hastily, you re
perfectly competent, Carl. know that. You've
the ropes as well as he. And you've got cool,
clear head. That's what counts in r1pen1ng
fruit by thermometers. And still-well, you
know yourself how the company is about young
help. I've got boy of your age that hope
to get into messengers job some day; but
I've never expected to till he was twent y-tve
or more. You're lucky, that's all I've got to
say If you make this trip all right, you'll be
on the books for steady runs before the years
out"
Carl'sface had grown hot and uncomfortable:
You don't understand" he explained. 4
But a man down the track was looking
toward them and motioning. Messenger 9
hurried away. We'll. / hope you'll have good
luck as of course you will, - he called back over
his shoulder We'll be too busy to much
of each other on the trip take the twenty
end cars on account of switching oft at Cor1nth;
yours'll be forward y
Until that moment Carls head had been
- in a whrl; events had followed each other
so rapidly SO apparently beyond his personal
option in the matter that he had allowed him
self to be borne the current. Now he de-
cided to let it go on. He had hurried down to
explain about his father and to see if he would
be allowed to fill the place. But from what he
knew himself and from what had just said,
he realized how slight was his chance. Perhaps
even his father would be suspended tor time
The company did not make much allowance
for sickness convaleScence. Its work was
too important
But, as o had conceded, he understood the
| work and could probably do it well as his
father, and Just now they were in special need
| of employment. His younger brother was in
the hospital. waiting an operation and money
| must be had to meet the expenses. So he hur-
ried down track 2 to the end of his-or rather
his Authorization of the train and began
careful examination of the cars Then he set
about seeing that they were properly heated
The mercury was down to thrty-four de-
grees, which was unusually cold tor New
Orleans, and twelve degrees lower than the
| messengers had started out at any previous
time that winter. Other messengers were
giving their little more heat than COM
mon for it would be twelve or fifteen hours
before the now cool bananas could begin to
generate warmth of their own, and the freezing
or even chilling of tralnload would mean the
loss of fortune. Carl gave his cars several
degrees more than was customary, and then
had the stoves removed and the doors closed.
Even with an outside low thermometer the
carefully built would then retain heat
until the fruit began to generate some OF Its
own. An hour later the train pulled out.
cold wave had been predicted but APP
parent1y some weather condition had stayed
or swerved it in another direction. Before
they were beyond the city limits the mercury
began to rise, and when they rumbled through
Meridian it marked sixty degrees, and con-
tinued to go up. Carl began to look anxious.
All his ventilators were now wide open; but
the air in the cars was moist and sitting. In
stead of being chilled. the danger was now that
the bananas would overhead. which would be
Just as disastrous.
A MESSENGERS duty is to see that his
= fruit gets into the market in just the right
condition. He must retard or advance the
ripening by cold or heat, according to the con-
dition of the fruit, the length of the trip and
other circumstances. He must know from
mere glance at a bunch of bananas how many
degrees of heat will be required to ripen it in
prescribed number of hours: and if he is
good messenger he must be able to have his
fruit in just the right condition when he
reaches his destination, whether it is four days
or fourteen. With refrigerator cars and ventl-
lators it is comparatively easy during the sum
mer to shift the thermometers to the require
ments of the fruit and even in winter when 1t
continues cold there are the initial stoves and
the generated warmth to depend upon; but
when an unexpected hot wave confronts a
messenger in midwinter he has little but the
source of his own ingenuity to count on