The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-11

ter. A chap must study nowadays to
be a good railroadman. The good old
days have long passed when it was
thought that to be a good railroadman
fellow had to be a booze fighter.
There was a time in the old DAYS
when all the foreign offices were
located in Montgomery street; that the
man who could swallow enough booze
to drown a camel was accounted the
greatest railroadman in the street
All is changed now. And there are
more men in the railroad business who
are teetotalers than in any other walk
of life. You take the youngsters. If
they start out on the pace that kills,
they get killed pretty soon, and then
you will find them hunting a different
sort of job
1T does not do for a youngster to
be fired out of a railroad office. 1t
tells against him, for the reason that
the railroads are looking for bright
young men to train them UP in the
business, and it is not mere whim that
lets man out of a place.
Il have heard of a stenographer be-
ing kept in his place by the big boss
when his own boss fired him because he
some justice in the railroad business.
and that a man can't do fellow out of
his position simply because he has
taken a dislike to him.
Now, 1 want to know what other
corporations look after their men as do
these railroad companies Take the
clubhouses that are being built all
along the Hartman lines. The small
charge that is made for their patronage
does not pay for their keep. Hartman.
of course, reaps an indirect benefit from
them. 1t keeps the men out of the
saloons, and, boys, if some of you had
been at Yuma before there was a club
house you would know what it is to be
near Hades when on earth.
Il remember the time when NV good
old Dad Hart was running freight out
of Los Angeles to Yuma. We would
pull into Yuma early in the morning,
and we would hang around the hotel
trying to get a bit of sleep. But. Lord.
the flies were so bad and the heat was
so terrible that we could not close
our eyes. We would thrash around
and then one of us would say. Great
Jerusalem, What's the use of living? ??
What in the deuce am I here for? Let's
so and get drink and we would get
a drink and some of us would get a
great many more drinks than ought to
have been coming to us.
I must sleep, says Dad but how ?
One can't sleep in such weather. Let's
take another
well. all right Dad would say, but
lets go to the Jail and get locked up?'
Whats that? Go to the peniten-
tiary
why sure. I have a friend there.
and he will put US in an underground
cell where there are no flies and it will
be as cool as Los We always spoke of
Los Angeles as Los. A man must save
breath in that hot country.
Then Dad would hike up to the
gates and parlez vous with the gate
man. who would say:
Look here, Dad it's all right about
you. But what about your friend?
This here Jail isn't for men like him.
We only put our most trusted friends
in the underground cells. Why,~if we
let every one in there would not be
room for the guests who have to stay
Now. cut that out. Mike, Dad
would say This is my bosom friend A
nice thing it would be for him to go away
and say they are so cussed mean in
Arizonay that they would not let a
man sleep in the pen when he was
dying of the heat
"'Oh. let him come in then the chap
would grumble. but this coming to the
jail is getting to be mighty common
with you railroad guys
Then we would go to the under
ground cells and Dad would pick out a