The San Francisco call., 1909-06-27
Gossip Of RaiIwaymen

(I SEE that my old friend. j. c.
stubbs, is in town" remarked the
old railroadman as he lifted his
glass at the bar of the Transportation
club and nodded to E. NJ. Pomroy as
thanks for the drink
Il have known ]. c., as we call him.
for many years. In fact, ever since he
was young man. Not that ]. C. will
ever get old. He has too big a heart
ever to be in the down and out crowd,
and when some of us are going about
with shrunken voice and shrunken
The flower in his buttonhole will be at
fresh as ever, and he viii be sporting
a light gray suit and cerulean tie
with as debonair a manner as when
he was freight traffic manager at~Third
and Townsend streets.
-. C. was always a good dresser
One time he always ran to frock coats,
and the way he used to knock out
clothes made every man about the place
envious. 1t was j. C.'s swagger dress
ing that set the pace in the old rail-
road building and a fellow that wanted
to get along with ]. C. had to be spick
and span. j. C. has way with him
which is deuced uncomfortable some
times, but Lord bless you, what man
has not?
Il want to tell you story about ].
c., which some of you rising young
men ought to think over. There are a
whole lot of you that don't cultivate
sentiment. No man can succeed who
has not sentiment. Sentiment Is the
secret spring of our success and ]. C.
has whole lot of sentiment slowed
away in that heart OF his. and don't
you believe it that he is a cold and
calculating machine wringing out the
last dollar from the farmer and the
miner and the manufacturer and the
dear public generally Not much.
Listen to this, and it is as pretty
story OF railroadman as | know
about When j. C. Stubbs went to Chi
cago he took along with him fellow
who is now working in the Flood build
Ing. The lad had never been away
from home. San Francisco was the
only city he knew. He had been from
his birth among his own people and
those who knew him, and then he was
chucked neck and crop Into that big
city where he knew none out of the
Office. Stubs was the only man he felt
cared rap for him ia all that vast,
cold blooded. selfish city, and a clerk
can't go hobnobbing with the biggest
railroadman in the country.
We'll, that chap began to pine away.
He was i'll, i'll from Inconsistencies. If
any of you boys don't know what that
is, God keep you from knowing You
can't fight against it. 1t takes hold of
you. 1t numbs your brain. 1t tears at
your heart strings, and If you see
other I'm dinged if the tears don't
come into your eyes. and then you feel
as IL there was something calling in you
which can't be answered.
"A man hasn't felt until he has felt
what I am saying.
Stubs noticed the poor fellows
plight. He called him into his office
and said to him:
Do you want to go nome%
The lad burst into tears. Another
railroadman came into the office inop-
portunely and found Stubbs wiping his
eyes, which were very red.
See that this boy starts for home
tonight says Stubbs, looking very
fierce
"If J. c. hadn't lot of sentiment in
him. would that ever nave happened? :?
1t isn't many men who would bother
their heads about a boys feelings. How
many bosses are there I'm this city who
know or care rap as to what their
clerks feel, and they come in contact
with them every day, too.
Some of you chaps who think your
selves i'll treated because you are not
made traffic directors in hurry should
work in some of the mercantile houses
and see whether there are many bosses
like those in the railroad. Would you
get passes to all parts of the world
simply for the asking, and be able to
cart along relative as we'll? Will a dry
goods firm give you a suit worth the
fare TO New York and back for your
holiday and also to a dependent reIa-
tive? Think over that, some of you
young chaps who are so free with
your abuse of a railroad corporation
and say 1t is, we'll, not exactly heaven.
in railroad Office
THE only place where it is heavenly
is In j. N. Brewers Office. That is the
only place where a rairroadman feels
he Is getting even with the world. for
when everybody Is kicking at you and
the world seems to have gone
topsy turvy there is some gratifi-
cation in being able to make
somebody else feel that there is.
trouble for others. Now when man
has a bad feeling in his mouth there is
some comfort in being able to turn
some one down. and that is what a man
can do in Johnny Brewers Office 1t
makes the whole community love you,
even so fap down as Los Angeles
why. there isn't a railroadman in