Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1885 — TRICKS ON THE TRACKS! [ARTICLE]

TRICKS ON THE TRACKS!

Dangers from Which Engineers Save the Public and Themselves. [From the Railway Review.] One who is accustomed to railway traveling can scarcely realize how much he is dependent for safety upon the engineer. Added to the responsibility of their station, engineers are also in constant danger of accidents caused by the tricks of jealous rivals. This rivalry, it is said, sometimes prompts to the doing of utterly mean tricks. A Nickel Plate engineer, after his very first trip, was laid off because he had ‘-cut out" all the bearings of hi 3 engine. He was reinstated, however, after he proved that some rival had filled his oiling can with tinny. Another new engineer was suspended lor burning out the flues of his boiler. Through grief at the loss of his position he died, and then a conscience-stricken rival confessed that he had put oil in the tank so that it foamed and showed water at the top gauge, when in reality there was scarcely a quart in the boiler! These intense jealousies, together with the terrible anxiety incident to their work, have a terribly straining effect on the nerves, and statistics tell us that, though Locomotive Engineers may look strong and vigorous, they are not all a hearty class. Ex-Chief Engineer A. S. Hampton, Indianapolis, Ind. (Div. 143), was one of those apparently hearty men, but he says: "The anxiety, strain, and jolting came near finishing me.” His sufferings localized in catarrh of the bladder, but he used Warner’s safe cure faithfully for twenty weeks and now exclaims, “I am a well man.” T. S. Ingraham, of Cleveland, Ohio, Assistant Chief Engineer, and other prominent members are also emphatic in its praise. The Locomotive Engineers’ Brotherhood has 17,000 members and 240 divisions. Its headquarters is in Cleveland, Ohio, where Chief Engineer Arthur for twenty years has exercised almost dictatorial sway. It was organized in August, 1863, by the. employes of the Michigan Central. It has given nearly two million dollars to the widowß and orphans of deceased members.