The Pensacola journal., 1913-02-23

Der of men and teams was Immediately
increase as fast as possible.
One camp in charge of Foreman
Miller is about two miles this side of
the farthest point to which they have
now completed the grading. It shell
ters about twenty teams and thirty
men.
The second camp is about a half
mile this side Of the present end of
the grade and shelters about the same
number. Excellent corrals have been
provided at each Of them and into
these the mules go at noontime and
at night.
They are wise mules and seem to
run by clockwork. No watch is need
ed to tell them when It's time to go to
work, time to stop for lunch or time
to return to the camps at night. At
five o'clock in the morning the mules
are up and bawling in the corral A
few minutes before six they have lined
up at the gates and if the gates are
not opened in good time there is some
wild stamping and braying.
They go to work early and are not
willing to wait until twelve o'clock for
they midday feed. No matter where
III6y are when NAIL past eleven COInSS
they know 1T, whether the foreman has
paid any attention to his watch or not
The other day they were all working
| hard one minute and the next were
standing stock-stin in their tracks.
The drags filed with dirt were in
every degree Of scraping, carting,
dumping, returning, empty, for more.
Where they were at certain instant
they stopped. and nothing but some Of
the dynamite sticks they have out
| there could nave budged one until the
| traces were loosed. The halt was sig
nailed by two or three of the older
| mules: they just stopped and brayed
So did all the rest
HIN, it's half-past eleven" said
Engineer Young, taking his watch out
| of his pocket and looking at 1t. It
was twenty mine minutes Of twelve.
Each day, varying more than two or
| three minutes, those mules drop work
religiously as a lot of union carpenters
and refuse to do more until they've
| had their feed and a drink from the
streams which run through the COR
| rails. They have an hour off.
Again at $50 o'clock in the after
noon they stop work for the day, need
| ing no timepiece to tell them it's quit
! ting time.
The third camp is at the Perdido
river and is sheltering eighteen men
in the locating party under Surveyor
/ Wright.
GOOD BUILDING.
One thing which must impress the
visitor is the thoroughness with which
l'everything is done. No chances are
taken and every bit of the right of way
| is clinched legally before a bit of grad
! ing is done In this connection it may
| be said that they have actually met
| opposition from one or two farmers
whose lands they would traverse, and
one is still holding out against them
so that condemnation proceedings will
| probably be necessitated.
| Most of the way, however, has been
easy in that respect and much Of the
right of way has been given them by
those who see the value in having
ready transporta ton.
The width of the top. or cap" of
the grade is eighteen feet and brings
forth the query almost invariably as to
! whether single or double track is to be
laid. 1t will be single track, but
ninety-pound rails - rails weighing
ninety pounds to the yard-will be
used. These are rails of the weight
used by many of the biggest systems
and will support very heavy train.
They are going to bring the con-
struction expense up to a figure per
mile considerably above that Of many
roads. but Mr.. Dickinson figures that
with ninety pound rails on a one-half
of one per cent grade, we'll ballasted
that he will be able to run a long train
from PnnEaPn1a n Mnpa0hic with
large engine at high speed.
He says he believes that the saving
on fuel and maintenance will pay the
cost Of the road within a very few
years.
That's the reason Mr.. Dickinson
chose to wait until someone could
agree with his theory; the engineer
says the only thing essential to assur-
ing the roads success is strict ad-
herence to Mr.. Dickinson's theory.