Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1873 — How a Bad Practice is Fostered. [ARTICLE]

How a Bad Practice is Fostered.

the custom off' and on cars when in motion. It is righteous condemnation, but is not consistent when coming from railroad companies. If they truly deßire a reform, they must begin at home, for as long as employes will jump on a train when in motion, and persist in doing it as gracefully as they do, an imitative public will be the sufferers. People don’t jump on a irain before it stops, because they are in a hurry, biff because they have seen a brakeman orconductor do it, and have a terrible dread of being surpassed. Now, at the station, the other day, Conductor Phillips, of the Eastern train, after giving the word to start, watted until the last car reached him, and then, raising one hand to the rail, and one foot gently from the earth, he swung majestically around, and was at once firmly on the car. Mr. Phillips weighs two hundred pounds, but there was such grace and poetry in his motion that he seemed to blend with the car. First, there was yellow paint, and then gold leaf and maroon, and Phillips. There was an elderly person who saw Phillips do this, and his eyes glistened with anticipation. He was going on the Western train, and when it came along he waited until a fine rate of speed was gained, and then, raising his hand and leg just as he had seen Phillips do, and looking carelessly away, just as Phillips did, he reached out for the rail, and the next instant was trying to push his head through the platform planks, and fighting the air with his heels, and madly pawing around with, his hands, and swearing and praying at au awful rate. They stood him up on his feet, and rubbed his head with some snow, but it was a long time before they could convince him that the locomotive had not exploded. —Danbury News.