The San Francisco call., 1909-02-27
Gossip of RaiIwaymen
IA H.. sighed the old railroadman,
- 'it is enough to make a man
4 \ weep when he compares the

weep when he compares the
present with the golden past.
In the days when the railroads paid
commissions we could afford to live
as men; now we simply exist, and, what
| is worse still, our work has increased
and so have our expenses, while our
salaries would disgust a waiter in
French retaurant.
And yet in those days we were not
satisfied. I remember a man who was
stationed in some town in Texas who
was a close friend to the president of
the road. He thought that he ought
to have bigger salary, though he was
making a barrel of money out of COM
missions. He wrote to the president
and laid it on thick. He got this kind
of a letter.
Dear Fred-I hope you have not
kept a copy of your letter. 1 tore yours
up and threw it in the waste paper
basket You have an excellent climate
down there and an easy job. L am
thinking of exchanging places with
you and having you come here and take
the presidency. I am tired of honor.
want salary
Work is progressing favorably on the
Copper river railroad in Alaska, accord
| ing to a private letter received here
recently. This road is being constructed
by the Guggenheims, from CordoVa on
the ocean to the great copper deposits in
the interior. 1t is one of the most diff
cult engineering feats on the continent.
The line strikes across the Copper river
| flats, as they are called, to the river
| itself, and then follows the stream to
the head of the Copper's enormous
delta. The river is then crossed to the
east side and is followed for two or
three miles; then recrossed again to the
west. These crossings are made neces-
sary by the Childs and Miles glaciers.
which come to the river and discharge
enormous quantities of ice during the
summer. The only route up the Copper
is by crossing between the glaciers and
starting from Cordova. Each bridge
will be 1900 feet long. The upper one
will in all probability be made up of
several spans, as there are two bars
that can be used for sites for piers
AS immense icebergs will pass under
these bridges, especially the Upper one
for the ice rapidly crushes and dis
integrates after leaving the glaciers
the problem of construction is a. little
out of the ordinary.
! The objective point at present is the
| Bonanza mine, 200 miles from Cordova.
| Then there is the coal line, which Joins
| the main line between the glaciers and
runs thence nearly parallel to the river
and the coast, about 81 miles to the
Bering river coal fields. where there is
an apparently inexhaustible supply Of
excellent coal.
There are two general agencies va
cant in the city at present, for no one
| has been sent here to fill the places
made by the death of l.. Hardness of
the Erie. though it is understood that
Clyde w. Colby is anxious to return
to the city, nor has a successor to
/ G. S. Orcutt, who resigned from the
general agency of the Wabash last
week, been appointed. 1t is under
stood, though. that the new general
agent of the Wabash will be an eastern
man.
Otto Raphael, one of the largest ap-
ple growers in the Watsonville district
was in. the city yesterday and says that
/ 1000 cars of apples WIFI be sent to
/ the east and London this season. There
will be in all about 1000 cars. for
5000 cars will take care of the Rocky
mountain section and Oklahoma.
Interstate Commerce Commissioner
Charles A. Prouty will be in this city
March II and will hold an. investiga-
! ton involving excessive minimum car
load weight on furniture from points
in southern, official and western classi-
fcation territory to San Francisco and
Los Angeles.
Michael ]. Heney. VINO is building the
Copper River railroad for the Guggen-
helms, passed through the city yester-
l.day en- route to Seattle and Cordova
The latter point is the Pacific terminus
of the road
Edward Chambers fof the Santa Fe
will leave Chicago tomorrow night for
home.
S. c. Nash, who has been acting as
general agent of the Gould system in
Los Angeles, has been appointed gem
eral agent for the southern part of
the state. There are few men better
liked or better known than Nash.