The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-04-13

being whisEsrs on the rails. n
NAV not be generally understood
that whiskers grow on steel rails;
INT curious as it seems, they do. More
aver. on steel rails they are dangerous;
md at times exceedingly dangerous.
Do not infer that all steel rails grow
rbiskers; nor is it, as one might sup.
nose, only the old rails that sport them.
Tho Youngest rail on the curve NAV
hast as stout a beard as the oldest rail
an the tangent. and one Just as gray.
They flourish, too, in spite Of orders;
for while whiskers arc permitted on
engineers and tolerated on conductors.
they are never encouraged on rails. Ma.
iurc. however, provides the whiskers,
,oqardless Of discipline, and, what is
moro, shsves them herself.
Their culture depends on conditions
Some months grow better whiskcrs than
others. September is famous for whis-
kcrs, while July grows none AT all.
Whiskers Will grow on steel rails IN
,be air OF single night; but not every
night air will produce whiskcrs. IL
takes high. frosty air, ono that STAYS
nut late, to make wbisgcrs. Take, for
Example the night air OF the BIacl,
Hills: it is known everywhere among
Steel rails as beard tonic The dav's
moisture. falling as the sun drops be-
yond the hills. is drawn into fcatberv,
ioweled crystals of frost on the chilly
steel, as glass of ice water beads in
summer shade; and these dewy stalag-
mites rise in a dainty profusion, until
when day peeps into the canyons She
rack looks Ike a pair of long white
steamers winding up and down the
levels But beware that track. It is A
rery dangerous track, and its possibil-
iiies lie where Samson IS lay-in the
vhiskcrS.
So il lies in early morning. as pretty
death trap as any flower that ever
lured a fly; only this pitfall waits for
engines and trains and mcp-and some
times. too, gets them.
i; waits there on the mountain grades
IN an ambush really deadly for an un-
wary train. until the sun, which is par.
ticularly lazy in the fall, pecping over
into ibc cuts. smiles. at length, on the
bearded steel as If il were foo funny,
and the whiskcrs vanish into thin air.
a smooth-fa rail presents no espe-
cial dangers: and if trainmcn in the
Hills had their way, they would never
turn n wheel until the sun had done bar
herring. But dispatchcrs not having to
do with them take no account Of whis-
Kers. They make only the schedules, and
the wbisbers make the trouble. To
lessen their dangers. engineers always
start. up bill or down. with a tankful
Of sand, and they sand the whislcrs
II is rough barberiug. but it helps the
driver tires grit Il bit into the face Of
the rail, and in that way hang on In
this emergency a tankful OF sand il bet
ter than all the air Westinghouse ever
stored,
Aloysius McGrath was little sweep.
er; but he was an aspiring one, for even
sweeper may aspire, and in point Of
iact most Of them do aspire. hloysius
worked in the roundbousc at the head
Of the Wind River pass on the West
bad mountains. II is an amazingly
Tough country; and ms for grades, il
takes your breath merely to look down
the levels, Three per cent, four per
cent. five per cent--it IL really fright
iul, But Aloysius was used TO heavy
falls; he had begun working for the
company as a sweeper nnder Johnnie
horIgau, and no engineer would have
thought of running grade TO com.
pare with Johnnie = headers.