Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1893 — ONLY A SWITCHMAN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ONLY A SWITCHMAN.

HE FACES MORE DANGER THAN A SOLDIER. Making: Up Long: Trains and Guarding the Public—A Courageous Lot of lies Who Give Their Lives to Preserve Others—A Labor-Saving Device. Thousands KUled Yearly. Eight hundred thousand men find employment on the various railroad lines which traverse the United States, and of these fully one-fourth are stationed in the yards as switchmen. Of all the men who have anything to do with railroading there are none of whom the public know so little as switchmen. Did you ever notice the one-armed, one-legged man waving his red flag at the crossing? He is known as a flagman, but he was a switchman once, and there arc many hundreds of others just like him. Did you ever see a one-armed man struggling with the patent lock of a switch, his empty sleeve fluttering in the wind? He is only tending switches now', but he once belonged to a switch crew, rode on an engine, and helped to make up the long trains which carried passengers and freight out of Chicago, says the Inter Ocean. It is a dangerous calling—this occupation of switchman, with meager chance of

promotion and little recognition by the public, but it is a necessary and important one. They are as much a part of the. road as the conductor, who takes charge of the train when It is made up, or the engineer who pulls it, for without them trains would stop, roads would become blocked, and traffic finally cease altogether. More than one thousand men are employed in this capacity in the yards about Chicago. « Multifarious Duties. No one can fully understand the multifarious duties which fall to the lot of switchmen without paying a visit to some one of the many yards. About the first man you meet will bo

a great brawny, ruddy-faced son of Ireland, who, in rich brogue, will order you out of the way of a moving locomotive (for you are almost certain to stand on the wrong track), and then sarcastically inform you that this is a “Toosda” or a “Winsda,” and that the “Enginer” has a bit o’ mind to use that particular piece of track. You realize the possibility of this and move. A second later your informant hops on to the pilot of the “Ingine,” and with inimitable style waves you a salute and inquires “How long hev yees bin toe town?” or tells you with a broad grin that “Oi always knows a jay, sur, case his fate stick out forninst hes back.” Before you can make a retort the engine has borne your tormentor out of reach of your voice, and you turn just in time to see another man making frantic motions and yelling at the top of his voice, “Gaet uff dose track, da anyan kum, es yo wan a yob go by da mon, es is bethar es dese.” You “gaet” Justin time, and realize what a close call you have had as the iron steed with a clang and sputterof escaping steam rolls over the spot on which you stood just a moment before. You resolve to be more careful now, and walk between the tracks, but there is such a laby- . rinth of iron railing that only the experienced can recognize the betweens, and you walk on trying to look in four directions at once. A minute later a .small house with an open space around it attracts your attention. The strain is too much for your nerves, and like the small boy making a frantic dash for the door to escape from the darkness, you' rush for this house.

The Automatic Switch. It is a peculiarly fashioned, twoatory afTair, the top very much resembling a continuous bow window, to which ascent is made by outside steps. A stout, florid, well-built man is descending, and in a trice you have asked if you can go up. Turning his good-natured face to you, and taking a pipe from his mouth, he says, “Vhat ist dot?” The request is repeated, and a light shines in bis eyes as he answers: “Kumen-see-de*, haus-in. Oh! yah, yah.’* and then struts off among t te moving cars, just as a man appears at the door above and Invites you in. It occurs to you then that “Hans” has extended the invitaof his country, only you did not know it Once in the little house a good ▼lew of the yards can be had from all •ides, and you commence to realize the danger which these switchmen brave in the performance of their duty, la and oat, over and under

the moving trains, waving their arras and shouting to the engineers, apparently wltb as little thought of their perilous position as a man on an ox cart, a happy lot, who seem too bnsy to let the cares of life worry them for a moment. The switchman’s work Is not all manual labor, though it Is rough and dirty. He must be cool and quick of action at i critical moments; he must have a perfect conception of force and distance, and be conversant with the time-cards of all the roads, for those in chaise of the transfer trains often visit two or three yards during the day and must give right of way to regular trains. Some of the stations built within the past two or three years are provided with automatic switch-boards, fashioned not unlike the old-time Gillian telephone board, and operated on the same principle. This is placed in the second story of the switch-house, where a view can be had of all approaches. A Labor-saving: Device. Sitting before a long table containing a row of numbered levers one man controls the switches that let all trains in and out of the yards at the station. This is regarded as a laborsaving device by the railroad companies, and, though it costs more to operate, it dispenses with the services of six or seven switch tenders, placing the responsibility in the hands of two men and reducing the possibility of accident. At the older stations the old-time manner of managing the yards is still in vogue, and absolute dependence is placed upon the switchmen, who must throw the switches, make the couplings, and ba

responsible for the safety of all cars arriving or leaving the yards. One of the most important duties is that of examining the condition of cars while making up trains, and reporting any defect. A weak or imperfect coupling is sure to make trouble, and a single accident may mean serious loss to many patrons of the road or a disturbance in the commercial world. From 7 o’clock at night to 6 o’clock in the morning is the busiest time in the yard. Then they are making up the trains for the next day. All night long the engines puff and sputter and throw myriads of sparks from their stacks, dropping a car here and one there, like the mail clerk distributing letters, until the engines stand alone exhausting steam as if tired out with work.

A l’erlloufi I-ifo. At night, too, the switchmen must be more careful. They must be ever on the watch lest a misstep throw ttae way of a moving car, rebutting ih the loss of'a* ltmb or, what is still more serious, life. Of the 28,000 employes killed and Injured on the railroads the past year, fully onethird met with the accident while coupling or uncoupling cars. Statistics show that one man in every thirty who follows railroading meets with an accident, and the chances are about equal when one does occur that the unfortunate Is a switchman. In,a law recently passed by the Legislature compelling railroads to equip their rolling stock with automatic brakes and couplers, the switchmen have some hope of lightening their labors and removing the possibility of accident. This will also tend to reduce the rates of insurance, a SSOO policy being the most any company will take, and for which they charge the extortionate premium of $37. An engineer, flremer, foreman, and two helpers constitute a switch crew, unless there is a grade, in which case two extra helpers are carried. When hired by the month they receive a salary of from $45 to $55, ten hours constituting a day, though they not

Infrequently work extra time when trains are late or the yards blocked. No regular hour is set for ditner and they Are compelled to eat at odd momenta wherever they happen to be. These Irregular hours and extra pay for overtime are the cause of the switchmen advocating a scale fixing the pay by the hour at the rate of twenty-five cents for day men and twenty-seven cents for night workers. Those who remain any length of time at this employment do ’so because they can hope for promotion when occasion offers, or because they can find nothing better. This leads to a constant change of employes, which explains why the foreign element predominates, and why there is often more or less friction in their dans.

TAKING WATER.

AUTOMATIC SWITCH-BOARD.

SWITCH-HOUSE.