The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-12
RailrOading for His Fifty-Third
Year at Age of 20.
This IsRecOrd of Superintendent
Barnes of Santa Fe.
FIRST IN THE WORLD.
j. L. Barnes Ran as Conductor
Of First Pullman Car.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

The average division superintendent
of railroad prides himself in the
knowledge Of the. working system of
his division, the personal knowledge of
his men and the activity with which
he attends to the operation of the dis
trict over which he holds sway.
But there are many kinds of super
tntendents. There are the men of the
old school, whose ambition is to ride
over his tracks sitting in the rear end
of his business car smoking black
cigars and watching the horizon with
the air of millionaire. Then there
are the men OF today who would rather
shake the oily hand of an employee
and call him by his first name than
receive a complimentary send-off from
the C. NJ
the Santa Fe who is in a class by him
self. He belongs to a school OF rail-
road division superintendent that is
composed of but one teacher-and that
teacher is his own pupil.
This man is Jonathan L. Barnes,
superintendent Of the Southern Kan
gas division of the Santa Fe.
superintendent Barnes is listed in
the Santa Fe official book as having
his headquarters at Chanute-but you
wouldn't know that this superintendent
had any headquarters. If you wished
to find him you would first have to To-
cate his car or his last report by tele-
graph-then send out a corps OF rail-
road detectives Then possibly you
would ind him backed up in a pit be-
meath a greasy engine in a small dtvi-
sion rOundhouSe, watching the men as
they tinker with the machinery and
keeping close tab on every movement
and repair work on the LOGON olive.
The other day the general officials Of
the Santa Fe with headquarters at To-
peka were out over the South ern kan
sas division on the so-called Harmony
tour" The train had stopped in front
of the station at Ottawa
The officials were walking up and
down the platform when one of them
Bpied a gray haired, gray whiskered
man dressed In spotless clothes min
gled with three or four laborers, all
pushing on the big handle of the turn
table.
fellows turn that engine?" inquired one
of the officials.
Another look was taken. Just then
the man In question hoped on the pi-
lot Of the engine and it wheezed to-
ward the depot. AS it drew nearer the
station the officials stood aghast.
1t was superintendent Barnes.
As lightly and sprightly as a spring
zephyr Cor something like thaD the
old superintendent leaped from the
front end of the engine and walked
quickly to the crowd of surprised Of
ficers.
The accompanying photograph lacks
two things-the youthful twinkle in
small Cuban cigar-these two acceS-
SORES go with the features Of Superin-
tendent Barnes to make him look like
b. real life.
Mr.. Barnes is rs years old, and from
ais actions, his performed duties, his
talk and his physical capabilities, you
would take him for about S5. He is
one of that type of American manhood
that never grows old. It is hard to
believe that superintendent Barnes has
seen three-quarters Of a century of
Hfe-and a half century of 1t has been
in strenuous labors for railroad COM
panies.
1t is an insult to call Superintendent
Barnes old. If a person called him old
Il would be because they saw him at a
distance-saw only his flowing gray
whislkers and his gray heir-but when
they came in range Of those cheerful
laughing eyes (this is an effeminate
description, but true to the dot) and
that youthful voice, the gray hair and
the gray beard will be Judged prema-
Gure.
Physically Mr.. Barnes is a model
he is a type that should be an exam
pie to young men of today who throw
away their lives with their pleasures
and their designations at an early age
He IS tall, strong, full Of energy and
vim.
He spent an evening with the char
mony" officials on their trip over his
division and he ate more heartily than
all the rest combined with less pre-
caution-and he kept cigar burning
continually. ~
And when a man can eat what he
pieases and smoke what he pleases al
the age Of Is there is nothing the mat
Ger with his physical organization.
There is one little feature in the lift
of J. L. Barnes that very few of hi!
best friends and associates know.
If they know it, it is because the!
discovered it from someone other thar
superintendent Barnes.
Here It is:
J. L. Barnes was the first Pullman
car conductor in the world. Pullman
conductors have been born, raised ant