Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1904 — CONDUCTORS IN CUTAWAYS [ARTICLE]

CONDUCTORS IN CUTAWAYS

Pennsylvania Railroad Puts Its Men in Latest Style Uniforms. v sEight conductors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. are envied by all the others, and the reason is good and sufficient These eight are arrayed in all the glory of a new uniform which the company intends to provide for its conductors, and which, in addition *to its beauty, does -not require that its wearer shall be an all-round athlete and rubber-jointed man in order to get into his pocket. For years tbe Pennsylvania conductors have sweltered in summer under big double-breasted frock coats, which had to be Kept buttoned to preserve their shape, and at all seasons the men have been inconvenienced by the necessity of unbuttoning their coats hundreds of times a day to get their watches, mileage, identification checks and other things. The new uniform, however, is hailed as a deliverance from all these troubles. It consists of a cutaway coat, tbe top button of which is kept buttoned, a single-breasted, no-collar wai6tcoat, high cut, and a white cap with a black visor that drops in a peak and shades the eyes. The vest worn in colder weather will be of the same blue material as the rest oi the suit. The eight conductors have now worn their new suits for several days and are delighted with them. “It is a big improvement,” said one of them today. “Those old coats were like blankets in summer, and in winter they were unhandy. Why, one day last winter I started out on my run which is a long one, with my coat buttoned up, as we always wear them when we can. The first man I struck had a mileage book, and I had to unbutton my coat and get my Identification check for him to sign. Before I got through that car I had done that trick 10 times, without counting the times I had to open my coat for other things. “It was just about as had in the other cars, and when I reached tHe parlor car my division superintendent was in there. ‘Button up your coat,” he said; “you’ll catch cold’. ‘Not much,’ said I; ‘l’m no lightning change artist and if I’d buttoned up my coat I’d never got through the train.’ ” Another of the eight said that on an hour’s run he was obliged to look at his watch on an average of 25 times, and formerly that had meant unbuttoning his coat. Slipping his hand into the lower left-hand pocket of his waistcoat, from which the cutaway coat fell away, he threw out his watch "and identification checks. “See how it saves time,” he said; “and who was that fellow who said that when you save time you lengthen your life?” —Philadelphia Bulletin.