The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1915-01-08
BILL DAIDy's CHAPTER
BY ROBERT r. HOFFMAN.

titled to an opinion Oh everything un-
der the sun, and, within wide limits,
is entitled to the unrestricted express
sion OF that opinion.
| Bill Daddy is one of those who be-
lieye there is good In the large exer-
else OF that privilege, although OF late
years he has added caution to candor.
In the old daysshe came in off his en-
gine, loaded with the usual accumula-
tion of griefs over the shortcomings
of the roundhouse, which ale apt to
loom large in the long watches OF the
night run.
He gradually grew the habit of clos
ing his regular harangue to the round
house foreman with a sort of perora-
tion which summed up the real or i'm
aginary derelictions of everybody con-
nected with the road. from call-boy to
president.
In an effort to break the flow Of
Bill's rough eloquence the roundhouse
foreman unwittingly set Bills feet
upon the path that led upward-down-
ward, Bill laughingly insists some
times.
"Bill. why in thunder don't you
write a book?" said the long-suffering
foreman, when Bill had become more
than usually aggressive in his none
too gentle impeachments. You are
sure wasting your talent on an en-
gine."
Bill glared for a moment before he
was able to let down the pressure of
road management which he had men
tally assumed, and then, as the recol-
lection OF a purchase he had recently
made for his growing son flashed
across his mind. he gave way to slow
grin and said:
Blamed if don't believe that's a
good idea, Ballard. Maybe I'll just go
you a chapter. when my boy gets fit
with his machine"
So, Daddy. in his evenings at home,
took to rehearsing his daily griefs to
the boy, who laboriously hammered
them out of the typewriter into gro
tesques Of composition and the print.
er's art
Daddy dictated" and revised"
killed copy" and edited" although
he did not know it in those terms,
and after many days what he had
grown to call THE Chapter" was fin
ished, decked out with border lines
that fairly exhausted the resources of
the boy and the eighty-odd characters
of the machine.
Bill gloated over it for week Of
nights. and then liked it so well that
he decided to have 1t all done over
again, in order that he might not only
supply Ballard, but also send carbon
copies of it surreptitiously to the su-
perintendent of motive power, the di-
vision superintendent. and-holy of
NOTES.-THE general manager.
The superintendent Of motive pow
er duly received his copy, threw it in
the waste basket, and remarked casu-
ally, "Bill!"
He liked Bill, but not Bills too free
excoriations.
The division superintendent read his
copy and, laughing. pigeonholed it for
future use in letting down the pres
sure Of the superintendent Of motive
power when next they should lock
horns over engine failures.
The general manager took up his
copy from it's personal cover and read
it from start to finish. as follows:
Chapter One.
If this don't fit your case, you get a
clearance card right here. The board
Is out for others.
When you build an engine and want
the most results and don't care what
kind, fix yourself with lot of dis
couraged craftsmen, and, for chief, get
a good wrangler that talks into his
whiskers and don't decide much.
Tell them fellows, at the start, that
you put them into that cheese-box Of
fee to stay, and they can't break out
onto the road to see an engine do busi-
ness, noways.
Don't pay any Of them too much.
They are working on paper, and you
can easily fix the engine after we get
IL.
Hire a lot of master mechanics that
know all about sawmills. There amt
none around here, but you can see
them running In the woods IL you take
a ride with me. They will be ready to
lay up your new engine when 1t comes
out.
Fix up boiler steel specifications
that you know are o. X, and then let
the purchasing agent bluff you into
taking something better but cheaper;
he can prove it. That will sure give a
lift, once in while, to some OF us fell
lows that's a little slow about circulat-
ing In the scenery, and 1t will make
things brisk in the boiler shop. Them
fellows need work. They are too strong
to rest nights.
Use hammered engine frames. II I
was track man I'd like to be able to
put my hand on busted weld and
say. "Them's IT," after the engine
jumped the track and got pulled out of
borrow-pit. The dispatcher won't
care. II she don't block the track IL
makes work for the blacksmiths.
Fix your spring-rigging so. when II
breaks. the equalizer will hit, point
down. in the track. Gives the engine