Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1889 — A Pretty Railroad Conductor. [ARTICLE]

A Pretty Railroad Conductor.

“A few days ago I was going out from Denver, Col., on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad,” said a veteran conductor to an Appeal reporter yesterday, “when I was thrown in company with a lady that opened my eyes, conductor as I was. She was a petite brunette who had the vim and manner of what I would call a manly woman. Not impulsive and given to erratic spells, but purely a woman given by nature to manhood’s ways. This lady was a conductor on a branch train tapping our line, and she was the first female I ever knew acting in that capacity But you must not think that she was at all slow in meeting all demands, for while she had her range and could go just so far, to that extent she did her work superbly. She collected fares and punched tickets like a man, but when it came to putting some fellow off because of his failure to comply with the requirements of the railroad company it was her custom to call on a man to do the work. The brakeman on the train was usually present to obey her commands, but I have known cases where passengers were called on to put other passengers off the train.” —Memphis Appeal.