Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1880 — An Engineer’s Ignorance. [ARTICLE]

An Engineer’s Ignorance.

“Every effort is made,” said a railroad officer in a recent conversation, “to procure trustworthy, faithful employes, but all kinds of deceptions are gotten up to throw us off’. I have one case in mind. There is a rule on the road for which I labor which compels not only the conductor but the engineer to sign the receipts of all train orders. When my superintendent took charge he insisted upon having that rule adhered to, and in that way he ascertained that there was one engineer in the employ of the company who could neither read nor write, and he had been running an engine for fifteen years. Had an accident occurred to his train, in which accident persons were injured, and in consequence of such injuries an investigation had been ordered, and the fact of the engineer’s ignorance been established, we could not have saved ourselves in a suit for heavy damages, and, beside that, would have been fined heavily for allowing such a state of things. His cunning came into play. He was a married man and his wife was once a school teacher, and through her efforts he was able to commit to memory the rules as printed on the time-cards, and he had them so thoroughly fixed in liis mind that he could point them out on the card, but he was just as liable to do so with the cord bottom side up as in any shape. He was a good engineer, but we had to let him go. He went home very much chagrined, but lie went to work to learn to both read and write. He spent one whole winter at it, but he was too far along in years to lie successful and finally was obliged to give it up, and to-day he is firing on the road. ”