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THE   UNIVERSITY 

OF  ILLINOIS 

LIBRARY 


XL 


'Vv.S,  \A 


brary  Material"  The  •**—  F-  "» 

The  person  charging  this  material  is  responsible  for 


ew  call  Telephone  Center, 
_UMVER8ITV    OF    ILLINO.S    LIBRARY    AT    URBANA^HAMPA.GN 


L161— O-1096 


••••iB^ 


B.  W. 

RAYMOND 
Model 


How  an  Elgin  Stood 
By  a  Globe  Trotter 

«'T*HIRTEEN  years  ago  I  bought  an  Elgin 
*-  Watch.  It  has  been  in  continual  use — 
never  has  stopped — and  has  kept  perfect  time. 
It  has  stood  25  below  zero,  has  run  equally  well 
in  a  temperature  of  114  degrees  in  Australia,  and 
been  unaffected  by  months  of  sea  voyages.  It 
has  been  dropped  on  the  pavements  of  London, 
and  been  trodden  on  by  a  caribao  in  the  interior 
of  the  Philippine  Islands — yet  was  never  hurt." 
(EXTRACT  FROM  AN  AMERICAN  TRAVELLER'S  LETTER.) 

Such  triumphs  add  force  to  our  assertions  that 

ELGIN 

Railroad   \Vatcnes 

and  all  Elgin  Watches,  both  for  men  and  women, 
are  supreme  as  timekeepers,  loyal  life-companions 
and  mechanical  masterpieces.  Their  use  is 
world-wide. 

Write  for  booklet. 


ELGIN  NATIONAL  WATCH  CO. 

ILLINOIS 


B.  W.  RAYMOND 
MODEL 


19—21—23  jewels.  Witll 
or  without  winding  indica 
tor.  The  B.  W.  Raymond 
is  a  wonderful  watch,  every 
way  yon  look  it  over.  Its 
driving  gear  is  so  strong  and 
so  accurate  th at  it  will  stand 
a  40-hour  trick  without  bat- 
ting an  eyelid,  and  report 
in  on  the  tick  of  the  second. 
You  never  have(to  cut  down 
its  head  nor  "hit  'er  up." 
It's  the  finest  piece  of 
mechanism  that  ever  pulled 
into  the  yard. 


_._. 


F.  L.  Thompson — Frontispiece. 

The  story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  During  the  Civil   Con- 
flict,   1861-5 9 

Public   Opinion    15 

Magnolia,    Miss ,28 

Passenger    Traffic   Department 37 

Engineering    Department 45 

Law    Department    43 

Always    Safety    First 50 

How    Employes    Should    Proceed    to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 
Stock    .  eo 

Mechanical    Department    62 

Transportation    Department GG 

Hospital   Department    . .- 71 

Claim    Department 74 

Industrial,   Immigration  and   Development   Department 81 

Roll    of    Honor _   83 

Loss   and   Damage    Bureau 86 

Meritorious    Service     .   88 

Contributions  from   Employes: 

A  Story  of  a  Visit  to  the  Healing  Wells  at  Metcalfe,  Miss.  92 
Second  Annual  "Get  Acquainted"  Meeting  of  the  St.  Louis 

Division 99 

Train-Load     100 

Appointments    and     Promotions 102 

Division     News     103 


(7>u6lished  monthly  6y  the  7/^ois  Cenhal  <jf?.  <]i.  G>., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4^000  ^Employes 

^Advertising  •  rates  •  on    application^? 

lVOl^ichigan^lo.       ^hone  ^IDsBash ' 22O) 
Chicago   '  £ocal59 

$  1.50  pr.  year  ^ 


FRED  L.  THOMPSON. 

MR.   F.    L.   THOMPSON    was   born   at    Grandview,    Egar    County,    Illinois.      After 
graduating    from    the    public    schools,    he    attended    the    preparatory    school    of 
DePauw  University  and  later  graduated  from  the  University  of  Illinois  at  Champaign 
in    1896,    receiving    the    degree    B.  S.    in    Civil    Engineering. 

He  entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  in  June,  1896,  as  chairman  .  on  the 
work  of  depressing  the  tracks  and  the  grading  of  what  is  now  Grant  Park  between 
12th  Street  and  Randolph  Street,  Chicago.  Later  was  rodman  on  the  work  con- 
sisting of  removing  the  old  tunnel  south  of  Vicksburg  and  constructing  freight  house 
at  that  point.  Later  was  placed  on  grade  reduction  work  Fulton  to  Memphis  just 
after  the  acquisition  of  that  line.  He  had  charge  of  grade  reduction  and  second  track 
Cairo  to  Fulton  and  second  track  Centralia  to  Carbondale.  He  was  then  in  the 
Chief  Engineer's  office  in  Chicago  for  one  year  and  from  1903  to  1907  was  Road 
Master  on  the  Illinois  and  Kentucky  Divisions.  In  1907  he  was  prompted  to  Assistant 
Engineer  of  Bridges  and  in  1910  to  the  position  of  Engineer  of  Bridges  and  Build- 
ings. In  1913  was  made  Engineer  of  Construction  and  in  1914  was  promoted  to  his 
present  position,  viz.:  Assistant  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  and 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  R.  R. 


Vol.4 


JULY  1915 


No.  1 


Tfio  Story  of tfio 
Illinois  Contral  Linos 

during  the 

Civil  ebrrffid  i86i-5 


Continued   from  June   Issue. 


It  appears  that  he  also  assumed  the 
truth  of  the  popular  misconception  that 
the  South  began  open  hostilities,  and  that 
the  flag  was  first  fired  on  at  Fort  Sumter 
April  12,  1861.  Yet  General  McClel- 
lan's  own  story  shows  that  the  Govern- 
ment ship  sent  to  the  relief  of  Fort  Sum- 
ter was  fired  on  in  Charleston  Harbor  by 
the  batteries  of  South  Carolina,  and  turn- 
ed back  on  Tuesday,  January  9,  1861 ; 
South  Carolina  having  seceded  and  de- 
clared her  own  independence  of  the 
United  States,  Thursday,  December  20, 
1860.  So  the  first  cannon  of  the  Civil 
War  boomed  more  than  three  months 
before  April  12.  The  difference  seems 
to  be  that  the  attack  January  9  was  only 
on  a  Government  ship,  and  under 
Buchanan's  Administration.  An  attack 
on  a  Government  Fort,  under  Lincoln's 
Administration  was  a  much  more  serious 
matter.  But  the  North's  active  part  in 
the  war  did  not  begin  till  Colonel  Ander- 
son undertook  his  impossible  defense  of 
Fort  Sumter. 

Besides,  six  other  states  had  quickly 

382 


followed  South  Carolina  "out  of  the 
Union,"  as  they  vainly  spent  men  and 
money  to  demonstrate,  and  on  Friday, 
February  8,  1861,  the  Southern  Confed- 
eracy was  formally  proclaimed  by  its 
newly-elected  President,  Jefferson  Davis. 
The  seceding  states  had  seized  all  un- 
protected Government  property  within 
their  lines ;  arsenals,  forts,  arms,  military 
stores,  and  munitions  of  war.  The  works 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  were  gar- 
risoned. General  Bragg  with  an  armed 
force  had  taken  possession  of  Pensacola's 
navy  yard,  and  on  Tuesday,  February  18, 
1861,  General  Twigg  surrendered  his 
forces  stationed  in  Texas.  Fort  Pickens, 
Key  West  and  Tortugas  in  Florida,  were 
about  all  that  remained  in  the  Govern- 
ment possession  within  the  seceded 
states  outside  of  South  Carolina.  Yet, 
we  are  told  that  "our  Civil  War  began 
April  12,  1861,  when  Fort  Sumter  was 
fired  upon."  Some  humorist  said,  "I  do 
not  read  history  because  I  dislike  fiction." 
For  some  time  following  the  date  of 
his  commission  as  Major-General  in  the 


10 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


United  States  Army,  the  Department  of 
Ohio  also  was  a  scene  of  busy  prepara- 
tion for  the  long  fierce  struggle  which 
General  McClellan  anticipated.  He  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  South,  her  peo- 
ple, her  generals,  her  soldiers  with  whom 
he  had  served ;  and  with  the  significant 
fact,  from  his  point  of  view,  that  the 
South,  unprepared  as  she  was,  still  was 
much  better  prepared  for  quick  action 
than  the  North,  which  seemed  paralyzed, 
making  practically  no  preparation  for 
war  till  after  Sumter  was  fired  on,  and 
Lincoln  had  called  for  90  day  troops. 
Another  fact  is  worth  considering; 
almost  every  white  man  and  boy  in  the 
South  could  intelligently  use  firearms, 
and  usually  owned  them.  Some  of  the 
bloodiest  close-range  encounters  were 
with  old-fashioned  shotguns,  rifles,  and 
"navy  revolvers,"  before  cartridges  and 
breechloaders  came  into  use. 

While  preparing  for  operations  in 
Tennessee,  sudden  necessity  arose  in. 
West  Virginia,  included  in  the  depart- 
ment of  Ohio.  Word  came  the  afternoon 
of  Sunday,  May  26,  1861,  that  the  seces- 
sionists there  were  about  to  destroy  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  Railroad.  McClel- 
lan immediately  ordered  Kelly's  and 
other  regiments  at  Wheeling  and  Park- 
ersburg  to  move  out  along  the  two 
branches  of  that  railroad  and  see  to  its 
protection.  The  same  day  he  issued  a 
proclamation,  "To  the  Union  men  of 
West  Virginia :"  to  the  effect  that  he  was 
informed  of  the  threatened  reign  of  ter- 
ror, and  he  had  ordered  troops  to  cross 
the  Ohio  River  for  their  protection  ;  add- 
ing: "Now  that  we  are  in  your  midst,  I 
call  upon  you  to  fly  to  arms  and  support 
the  general  Government." 

Simultaneously  he  published  an  ad- 
dress in  Cincinnati,  to  his  soldiers :  "You 
are  ordered  to  cross  the  frontier  and  en- 
ter upon  the  soil  of  Virginia.  Your  mis- 
sion is  to  restore  peace  and  confidence, 
to  protect  the  majesty  of  the  law,"  etc. 

"You  are  to  act  in  concert  with  the 
Virginia  troops  and  support  their  ad- 
vance. I  place  under  the  safeguard  of 
your  honor  the  persons  and  property  of 
the  Virginians.  I  know  that  you  will  re- 
spect their  feelings  and  all  their  rights," 


etc.  Then  he  said  further  that  when  they 
had  enabled  the  people  there  to  organize 
for  their  own  protection,  his  troops  were 
to  return  home. 

Copies  of  all  this  were  sent  to  the 
President  with  explanation  of  his  im- 
m.diate  action  without  waiting  for  in- 
structions from  Washington.  To  this  he 
received  no  reply. 

July  13,  1861,  he  telegraphed  his  wife: 
"Success  complete.  Enemy  routed.  Lost 
everything  he  had — guns,  tents,  wagons, 
etc.  Pegram  was  in  command.  We  lost 
but  ten  killed  and  thirty-five  wounded," 
etc. 

Then  he  received  the  following  tele- 
gram sent  before  the  administration  at 
Washington  knew  all  he  had  accom- 
plished : 

"The  General-in-Chief,  and  what  is 
more,  the  Cabinet,  including  the  Presi- 
dent, are  charmed  with  your  activity, 
valor  and  consequent  success.  We  do  not 
doubt  that  in  due  time  you  will  sweep  the 
rebels  from  West  Virginia;  but  do  not 
mean  to  precipitate  you,  as  you  are  fast 
enough." 

(Signed)     "Winfield  Scott." 

On  July  14,  the  Confederate  General 
Garnett  was  caught,  his  army  routed, 
himself  left  dead  on  the  battlefield;  and 
General  McClellan's  unadvised,  entirely 
self-initiated  brilliant  campaign  in  West 
Virginia  soon  came  to  a  most  successful 
finish. 

July  21,  at  Beverly  in  West  Virginia, 
he  received  in  a  telegram  from  General 
Scott,  his  first  news  of  McDowell's  ad- 
vance, and  of  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run. 
He  had  not  been  informed  of  any  east- 
ern military  operations.  July  22,  he  was 
summoned  by  telegram  to  Washington, 
and  he  turned  over  to  General  Rosecrans 
the  Ohio  command. 

He  started  at  daylight  July  23 ;  rode 
60  miles  horseback  to  the  nearest  railway 
station,  took  train  for  Wheeling,  where 
his  wife  met  him  and  they  reached  Wash- 
ington July  26,  1861,  late  Friday  after- 
noon. 

He  was  greatly  lionized  for  his  success 
in  the  West.  July  25,  an  order  had  is- 
sued constituting  the  department  of  the 
Potomac,  assigning  McClellan  to  its  com- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


11 


mand.  "It  included  the  department  of 
northeast  Virginia,  under  McDowell, 
which  comprised  all  the  troops  in  front  of 
Washington  on  the  Pennsylvania  bank  of 
the  river;  and  the  department  of  Wash- 
ington, under  Mansfield,  which  com- 
prised all  the  troops  in  Washington  and 
its  vicinity  on  the  Maryland  side." 

McClellan  assumed  command  there 
July  27,  1861.  Let  him  tell  what  he  saw : 
"I  found  no  preparations  whatever  for 
defense,  not  even  to  the  extent  of  putting 
the  troops  in  military  positions ;  not  a 
single  avenue  of  approach  guarded. 
There  was  really  nothing  to  prevent  a 
small  cavalry  force  from  riding  into  the 
city.  The  defeated  army  of  McDowell 
could  not  be  properly  be  called  an  army 
— it  was  only  a  collection  of  undiscip- 
lined, ill-officered,  and  uninstructed  men, 
who  were,  as  a  rule,  much  demoralized 
by  defeat  and  ready  to  run  at  the  first 
shot.  The  troops  were  as  insufficient  in 
number  as  in  quality.  The  period  of  serv- 
ice of  many  of  the  regiments  had  ex- 
pired, or  would  do  so  in  a  few  days ;  and 
lastly,  I  was  not  supreme  and  unhamp- 
ered, but  often  thwarted  by  the  lieuten- 
ant-general." 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the 
situation  at  Washington,  July  26,  1861, 
in  a  letter  to  Ex-President  Buchanan,  by 
Edward  M.  Stanton,  who  later  became 
"Lincoln's  great  war  secretary" : 

''Dear  Sir:  The  dreadful  disaster  of 
Sunday  can  scarcely  be  mentioned.  It 
is  not  unlikely  that  some  change  in  the 
War  and  Navy  Departments  may  take 
place,  but  none  beyond  those  two  depart- 
ments until  Jeff  Davis  turns  out  the 
whole  concern.  The  capture  of  Wash- 
ington now  seems  inevitable ;  during  the 
whole  of  Monday  and  Tuesday  it  might 
have  been  taken  without  resistance.  Gen- 
eral McClellan  reached  here  last  evening. 
But  if  he  has  the  ability  of  Caesar,  Alex- 
ander or  Napoleon,  what  can  he  accom- 
plish ?  Will  not  Scott's  jealousy,  cabinet 
intrigues  and  Republican  interference 
thwart  him  at  every  step?  Yours  truly, 
Edward  M.  Stanton." 

The  writer  of  that  historic  letter 
missed  his  guess  about  the  dire  fate  of 
the  city  of  Washington ;  but  General  Mc- 


Clellan later  shows  that  when  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  became  war  secretary  he  was  largely 
instrumental  in  fulfilling  his  own  predic- 
tions as  to  the  probable  cause  of  General 
McClellan's  future  embarrassments  at 
the  hands  of  the  Cabinet  and  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  Army;  not  to 
mention  Congressional,  journalistic  and 
other  thwarting  influences.  They  feared 
a  Democratic  President  as  Mr.  Lincoln's 
successor  if  McClellan's  first  campaign 
against  Richmond  succeeded,  ending  the 
war  without  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
which  many  in  the  North  considered  of 
vital  importance  to  the  future  prosperity 
of  the  nation. 

So  General  McClellan  was  caught  be- 
tween the  upper  abolition  and  the  nether 
Republican  millstone;  and  the  result  is 
only  too  obvious.  General  McClellan  did 
not  fully  appreciate  the  real  situation 
himself  till  it  was  too  late  to  do  anything 
but  resign,  and  he  thought  his  duty  to  his 
country  demanded  that  he  stay  and  fight 
it  out,  whatever  the  result  to  himself. 
This  he  did,  bravely,  but  sadly,  till  the 
end  was  in  sight,  and  the  time  had  ar- 
rived ripe  for  the  taking  of  Richmond  by 
another  general  who  fitted  the  Washing- 
ton plan  for  future  development  of  the 
nation  in  a  way  General  McClellan  did 
not,  but  by  that  time  the  Washington 
plan  had  largely  changed  to  the  original 
McClellan  plan. 

November,  1861,  he  was  made  Gen- 
eral-in-Chief of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States,  and  all  his  powers  of  organization 
were  needed. 

His  Peninsular  Campaign  against 
Richmond  having  failed,  he  was  in 
August,  1862,  practically  relieved  of  his 
command,  which  was  assumed  by  Gen- 
eral Halleck.  But  after  Pope's  disastrous 
defeat  in  the  second  Bull  Run  campaign, 
President  Lincoln  again  placed  McClel- 
lan in  charge  of  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac, under  an  order :  "Major-General 
McClellan  will  have  command  of  the 
fortifications  of  Washington  and  of  all 
the  troops  for  the  defense  of  the  capital." 

September  16  and  17  he  fought  the 
battle  of  South  Mountain  and  Antietam, 
driving  Lee  from  Maryland.  But  as 
Washington  was  no  longer  in  danger, 


12 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


and  as  McClellan  did  not  follow  up  his 
success  as  authorities  in  Washington 
thought  he  should,  he  was  again  relieved 
of  his  command. 

November,  1864,  he  resigned  from  the 
army. 

It  is  said  that  McClellan  drilled  and 
accumulated  the  largest  fighting  machine 
the  world  has  seen  since  the  Crusades, 
but  it  was  so  huge  that  he  feared  to  use 
it.  Lee  wrote  to  Jackson  that  unless  they 
could  drive  McClellan  out  of  his  in- 
trenchments,  he  would  push  up  those  in- 
trenchments  till  his  guns  commanded  the 
Capitol.  It  was  a  case  of  "needs  must," 
which  he  and  Jackson  achieved.  Mc- 
Clellan per  force  "changed  his  base," 
and  "the  great  beleaguering"  had  to  be 
done  all  over  again. 

Then  after  Pope's  short  play  at  the 
front,  his  "Headquarters  in  the  Saddle," 
McClellan  checked  Lee  at  Antietam,  and 
defeated  the  prime  object  of  the  great 
general's  campaign  in  Maryland.  But 
Gladstone  was  only  partially  right  when 
he  declared  at  New  Castle,  October  7, 
1862: 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  Jefferson 
Davis  and  other  leaders  of  the  South 
have  made  an  army;  they  are  making, 
it  appeared,  a  navy;  and  they  have 
made  what  is  more  than  either,  they 
have  made  a  nation. 

"We  may  anticipate  with  certainty  the 
success  of  the  Southern  States  so  far  as 
their  separation  from  the  North  is  con- 
cerned." 

But  Lincoln's  Proclamation  of  Eman- 
cipation, and  his  implied  threat  of  war 
against  England  made  another  combina- 
tion in  the  great  game  which  then 
dragged  along  till  after  McClellan  had 
been  sacrificed  and  Grant  had  won. 

Perhaps  no  other  great  general  had 
such  vicissitudes  of  military  experience 
in  a  whole  lifetime  as  McClellan  had  in 
about  three  and  a  half  years'  service.  He 
was  at  war  with  his  environment.  As  no 
failure  could  keep  him  down,  so  no  suc- 
cess could  keep  him  up  under  the  pecu- 
liar conditions  which  simply  dominated 
all  incidental  considerations.  A  definite 
end  was  to  be  gained,  and  "The  Jugger- 
naut" would  crush  down  any  obstacle — 


human  or  otherwise.  His  brilliant  West 
Virginia  campaign  proves  that  he  could 
lead — could  take  the  initiative,  better 
than  he  could  submit  to  the  vacillating 
directions  of  others  "who  did  not  know." 

General  McClellan  is  said  to  have  been 
a  better  organizer  than  fighter.  He  laid 
his  own  plans,  all  so  logically  organized 
and  inter-dependent,  that  usually  to 
thwart  them  in  part  was  to  cause  their 
failure  as  a  whole.  This  characteristic 
of  his  operations  placed  him  at  the  mercy 
of  his  opponents  in  Washington. 

Perhaps  he  was  too  careful  about  be- 
ing first  sure  he  was  right;  too  cautious 
to  make  a  decisive  move  till  he  knew,  like 
Xenophon,  that  he  was  "in  the  state  of 
being  the  best  prepared  possible."  If 
Xenophon's  "Ante-paras-kuas-totatos' 
was  not  McClellan's  slogan  in  Greek,  it 
certainly  seems  to  be  in  fact. 

Some  of  his  best  friends  say  that  this 
was  his  greatest  handicap.  But  one's 
best  friends  are  too  often  one's  most 
mistaken  judges. 

In  one  thing,  anyhow,  Lincoln  and  Mc- 
Clellan were  closely  united  as  was  shown 
whenever  Lincoln  expressed  himself 
freely  on  that  point:  Both  wished  to 
carry  on  the  war  to  a  successful  issue 
with  just  as  little  pain  and  other  cost 
as,  possible.  Being  a  war-lord,  McClel- 
lan knew  that  with  a  well-prepared  army 
of  overwhelming  numbers  carefully 
handled  and  massed  on  Richmond,  suc- 
cess would  be  surer  and  with  less  ultv 
mate  cost  in  men  and  money  than  to 
have  small  armies  scattered  around  to  be 
crushed  seriatim  by  such  masters  of 
strategy  as  the  Confederate  chiefs  were ; 
and  as  he  personally  knew  they  were. 

For  a  long  time  it  was  considered 
"TREASON"  in  Washington  to  admit 
the  strength  or  ability  of  the  Confeder- 
ates. Not  so  in  the  army.  The  fighters 
knew  the  facts. 

Besides,  both  Lincoln  and  McClellan 
were  by  instinct  and  education  disposed 
to  be  always  fair  and  honorable,  accord- 
ing to  their  knowledge,  whether  dealing 
with  friend  or  foe.  Such  an  attitude  was 
not  always  appreciated  in  Washington 
amid  the  mean  rivalries,  deep  hatreds 
and  venegeful  prejudices  then  so  preva- 
lent in  both  civil  and  military  circles. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


The  fact  that  he  was  nominated  as  a 
Democrat  for  President  in  August,  1864, 
shows  that  some  fears  of  his  political 
foes  were  not  without  foundation.  But 
his  star  was  descending,  and  he  was 
overwhelmingly  defeated;  which  could 
hardly  have  been  possible  had  he  been 
allowed  to  take  Richmond  in  his  own  way 
in  the  campaign  of  1862.  But  he,  him- 
self, was  a  firm  believer  in  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  the  overruling  Provi- 
dence, as  he  often  wrote  his  wife,  and 
also  publicly  expressed;  and  it  must 
have  been  made  clear  to  him  in  the  end 
that  his  own  ambitions  did  not  comport 
with  the  plans  of  such  Providence  for 
the  betterment  of  this  nation. 

In  1865-8,  he  traveled  in  Europe.' 

From  1870  to  1872  he  was  Chief  En- 
gineer of  Docks  in  New  York.  From 
1877  to  1881  he  was  the  Governor  of 
New  Jersey. 

He  was  quite  literary  both  in  taste 
and  habit. 

His  well  known  literary  works  ap- 
peared as  follows :  1852,  "Manual  of 
Bayonet  Exercises."  1854,  "Govern- 
ment Reports  on  Pacific  Railroad  Sur- 
veys." 1864  "Report  on  Organization 
and  Campaigns  of  the  Potomac."  1887, 
"McClellan's  Own  Story."  However 
true  this  story  may  be  as  mere  history, 
it  reeks  with  disappointment  and  dispair 
over  the  believed  fact  that  defeat  was 
thrust  upon  him  by  his  own  Govern- 
ment. 

His  soldiers  loved  him  because  he 
cared  for  them  and  always  took  care  of 
them  when  the  ultimate  power  of  action 
lay  with  him. 

That  he,  too,  had  "the  defect  of  his 
qualities"  cannot  be  denied ;  and  that  de- 
fect was  a  potent  weapon  in  the  hands 
of  his  enemies,  "whose  name  was 
legion."  Enemies  that,  like  the  cannon 
on  all  sides  of  the  "noble  six  hundred" 
—"volleyed  and  thundered"  to  his  hurt 
and  his  final  undoing. 

His  tribute  to  his  horse,  Dan  Webster : 
"Devil  Dan,"  as  his  aids  called  him — is 
unusual :  "The  best  horse  I  ever  saw ; 
never  ill  for  an  hour ;  never  fatigued ; 
never  disturbed  under  fire ;  could  trot 
all  day  long  at  a  very  rapid  gait  which 


kept  other  horses  at  a  gallop.  Dan  and 
I  never  quarreled,  and  the  dear  old  fel- 
low survived  the  war  for  many  years, 
till  1879.  No  matter  how  long  parted — 
once  for  four  years — he  always  knew 
me,  and  showed  his  pleasure.  On  the 
day  of  his  painless  death  from  old  age 
he  tried  to  rise  in  his  stall,  but  could 
only  lean  his  head  against  me  and  lick 
my  hand.  No  soldier  ever  had  a  more 
faithful  or  better  horse  than  I  had  in 
Dan  Webster." 

Dan  was  a  strongly  built  horse  with 
"three  white  feet,"  which  seems  to  prove 
the  exception  to  the  old  English  rule  for 
choosing  a  horse. 

"One  white  foot,  take  care ;  two  white 
feet,  beware;  three  white  feet  buy  else- 
where." 

But  General  McClellan,  himself,  was 
an  exception  to  most  rules ;  why  should 
not  his  horse  be,  also. 

He  was  a  pious  praying  soldier  who 
would  not  willingly  fight  a  battle  on 
Sunday,  unless  it  was  "a  work  of  neces- 
sity." 

He  had  the  fear  of  God  in  his  heart, 
"the  beginning  of  wisdom." 

But  from  youth  he  showed  little  fear 
of  man,  or  anything  else  as  a  cause  of 
personal  danger.  When  not  21,  in  the 
Mexican  War,  "where  a  little  army  went 
a  great  way,"  he  rode  down  a  Mexican 
engineering  officer,  captured  him,  and 
turned  him  over  to  his  orderly.  That 
was  when  a  lieutenant  of  sappers  and 
miners. 

Soon  afterwards  he  clubbed  a  panther 
that  had  wounded  Captain  Randolph  B. 
Marcy,  who  later  became  his  father-in- 
law,  and  chief  of  staff  in  Virginia.  After 
the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks  he  climbed  a 
tree  to  reconnoitre,  in  range  of  the 
squirrel  rifles  of  the  enemy.  He  and 
some  officers  held  a  council  of  war  right 
then  and  there  up  in  that  tree  from 
which  they  could  see  the  position  they 
were  considering. 

At  Yorktown  he  crept  up  almost  un- 
der the  enemy's  works,  got  sight  of  their 
armament,  etc.,  and  heard  the  men  talk- 
ing, disproving  the  report  of  his  engi- 
neer on  an  important  point. 

He  was  under  fire  at  Antietam  sev- 


14 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


eral  times;  each  for  a  considerable  per- 
iod, and  with  great  exposure,  both  from 
artillery  and  infantry  at  many  criti- 
cal periods  of  the  day.  George  Tick- 
nor  Curtis  also  says  in  The  Atlantic 
Monthly,  in  his  article,  "McClellan's 
Last  Service  to  the  Republic,"  1880: 
"Once  he  rode  along  the  lines  to  draw 
the  fire  of  a  concealed  battery — to  find 
it."  It  opened  on  him  and  his  staff  as 
soon  as  within  range.  It  is  said  he  was 
not  acting  under  orders  at  South  Moun- 
tain or  Antietam,  and  had  he  lost,  per- 
haps the  ambiguous  order  of  September 
2nd  might  not,  or  might  have  saved  him 
from  a  courtmartial  trial  for  reckless- 
ness. 

Most  public  men  live  two  lives;  that 
known  to  the  public  may  be  very  differ- 
ent from  that  known  only  to  intimates. 
McClellan  was  popular  with  both.  "His 
was  no  unfeatured  soul."  Frequently 
when  he  seems  to  be  letting  an  oppor- 
tunity slip,  according  to  the  observer's 
opinion,  he,  himself,  in  the  whole  combi- 
nation of  circumstances  had  good  rea- 
sons for  further  delay.  His  conclusions 
were  at  least  logical,  based  on  the  facts 
before  him  as  he  understood  them.  On 
convictions  so  obtained  a  conscientious 
soldier  must  have  the  courage  of  his 
convictions.  He  can  not  do  otherwise 
and  retain  his  self-respect. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note  that  almost 
any  one  who  will  go  over  the  battle- 
ground of  Seven  Pines  in  wet  weather, 
and  test  the  Chickahominy  swamps,  will 
appreciate  General  McClellan's  wish  to 
try  some  other  route  to  Richmond. 
About  two  years  ago  the  old  colored 
sexton  said  he  was  still  finding  skeletons 
of  soldiers  in  that  grewsome  wilderness. 
Secretary  of  War  Stanton  later  said  of 
that  swamp :  "The  like  of  which  we  did 
not  imagine  existed  this  side  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Darien  until  we  saw  it." 

But  that  was  too  late  to  help  the 
regiments  that  died  there,  or  to  give 
comfort  to  the  broken-hearted  Gen- 
eral who  had  to  send  them  to  their 
death. 

One  significant  fact  in  McClellan's 
history  may  be  found  in  something 


told  in  his  Own  Story :  "During  the 
Autumn  of  1861,  after  arriving  in 
Washington,  I  discontinued  the  prac- 
tice of  returning  fugitive  slaves  to 
their  owners." 

General  and  Governor  McClellan 
died  at  his  home  in  Orange,  New  Jer- 
sey, on  Thursday,  October  29,  1885, 
after  he  had  declined  the  office  of  Min- 
ister to  Russia,  offered  him  by  Presi- 
dent Cleveland. 

His  death  affected  the  popular  heart 
as  nothing  else  had  done  since  the 
assassination  of  Lincoln. 

A  letter  to  his  wife,  written  from 
New  Bridge,  on  the  Chickahominy 
river,  Va.,  7:30  a.  m.,  June  10,  1862, 
during  that  terrific  struggle,  gives  a 
good  insight  into  the  basic  character 
of  the  man  called  upon  to  endure  things 
which  the  power  of  the  General  could 
not  prevent  or  alleviate: 

"It  is  raining  hard,  and  has  been  for 
several  hours.  I  feel  almost  discour- 
aged— that  is,  I  would  do  so  did  I  not 
feel  that  it  must  all  be  for  the  best, 
and  that  God  has  some  great  purpose 
in  view  through  all  this.  It  is  certain 
there  has  not  been  for  years  and  years 
such  a  season ;  it  does  not  come  by 
chance.  I  am  quite  checked  by  it. 
First,  the  Chickahominy  is  so  swollen 
and  the  valley  so  covered  with  water 
that  I  cannot  establish  safe  communi- 
cation over  it;  then  again,  the  ground 
is  so  muddy  that  we  cannot  use  our 
artillery;  the  guns  sink  up  to  their 
axle-trees.  I  regret  all  this  extremely, 
but  take  comfort  in  the  thought  that 
God  will  not  leave  so  great  a  struggle 
as  this  to  mere  chance.  IF  HE  EVER 
INTERFERES  WITH  THE  DESTI- 
NIES OF  MEN  AND  NATIONS, 
THIS  WOULD  SEEM  A  FIT  OC- 
CASION FOR  IT." 

But  sometimes, 

"The  spirit  of  the  Lord  and  a  dispo- 
sition to  storm  works"  is  not  sufficient 
— even  when  aided  by  the  highest  skill 
of  the  Soldier  and  the  Engineer,  backed 
by  the  courage  of  the  Patriot  and  the 
Hero. 


PUBLIC  OPINION 


Wfiat  the 


World  thinks 


PRESIDENT  MARKHAM  DENIES 

Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
Office  of  the  President 

Chicago,  June  1,  1915. 
Hon.  Geo.  R.  Edwards,  McCool,  Miss. 

Dear  Sir — I  have  had  an  opportunity 
to  read  a  small  pamphlet,  presumably 
issued  by  you  as  a  campaign  docu- 
ment, addressed  to  your  constituents 
in  the  interest  of  your  candidacy  for 
re-election  as  railroad  commissioner 
for  the  first  supreme  court  district  of 
Mississippi. 

On  page  7  of  the  document  I  find 
the  following  language : 

"Are  you  at  all  surprised  to  learn 
that  the  railroads  want  you  to  vote 
against  me  for  railroad  commissioner? 
Don't  you  suppose  that  the  railroads 
would  be  willing  to  spend  $10,000  to 
beat  George  Edwards  for  railroad  com- 
missioner?" 

Again  on  page  12,  occurs  this  lan- 
guage : 

"There  are  several  men  running 
against  me.  I  do  not  doubt  that  the 
railroads  will  do  everything  within 
their  power  to  encompass  my  defeat. 
I  am  in  their  way.  I  am  costing  them 
too  much  money.  They  cannot  do  as 
they  wish  so  long  as  I  am  on  the  job. 
They  cannot  control  me,  therefore, 
George  Edwards  must  be  defeated." 

The  language  you  employ  is  very 
general  and,  of  course,  I  fully  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  you  make  no  spe- 
cific charge  that  the  railroads  of  Mis- 
sissippi have  spent  money  or  used  any 
other  means  to  bring  about  your  de- 
feat. Nor  do  you  refer  in  this  connec- 


tion to  the  Illinois  Central  or  the 
Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  by  name. 
Yet,  in  another  connection,  you  do  re- 
fer to  these  lines  of  railroad,  and  I 
have  felt  that,  in  the  absence  of  any 
denial,  some  people  in  Mississippi 
might  infer  that  the  railroad  com- 
panies which  I  represent  are  dabbling 
in  politics  in  the  state  of  Mississippi. 
I,  therefore,  hasten  to  assure  you  and 
through  you  the  people  of  the  state, 
that  neither  the  Illinois  Central  nor 
the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  has  at- 
tempted to  influence  a  single  vote  in 
Mississippi,  nor  to  elect  or  defeat  any 
candidate  for  any  office  in  that  or  any 
other  state  in  which  these  railroads 
operate.  This  is  the  settled  policy  of 
these  roads,  and  neither  you  nor  any 
other  citizen  need  fear  that  this  policy 
will  be  departed  from  in  the  slightest 
particular  in  this  or  any  other  cam- 
paign. Our  sole  business  is  that  of 
transportation,  and  to  this  we  direct  all 
of  our  efforts.  We  have  neither  the 
right  nor  the  inclination  to  meddle  in 
politics.  A  strict  adherence  to  this 
rule,  manifestly,  makes  it  improper  for 
me  to  refer  to  anything  else  in  your 
statement  and  I  refrain  from  doing  so. 
Of  course,  I  can  only  speak  for  the 
roads  with  which  I  am  connected. 

Doubtless  your  pamphlet  has  been 
given  wide  circulation  and,  therefore, 
I  feel  justified  in  making  this  an  open 
letter  and  giving  copies  of  it  to  the 
press.  Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)  C.  H.  Markham, 
President. 
— Vicksburg  Herald,  June  5,  1915. 


15 


16 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


EDITORIAL. 

George  Edwards  bases  his  claims 
to  election  as  railroad  commissioner 
on  the  fact  that  he  "is  an  enemy  of 
the  railroads."  It  is  a  splendid  chance 
for  the  voters  to  tell  Mr.  Edwards  to 
go  way  back  and  sit  down.  The  rail- 
road commission  is  a  court.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  commission  are  supposed 
to  pass  upon  questions  without  prej- 
udice, and  with  fairness  and  justice 
to  all  concerned.  Yet  here  is  a  man 
appealing  to  the  people  to  elect  him 
a  commissioner  on  the  grounds  of  his 
enmity  to  the  railroads,  questions  con- 
cerning which  are  to  be  adjudicated 
at  every  meeting  of  the  board.  A 
sweet-scented  judge  Edwards  would 
make!  We  do  not  want  his  kind  on 
the  railroad  commission,  or  any  other 
commission.  We  want  broad-minded, 
business-like,  well-poised  men,  who 
will  deal  justly  with  the  people  and 
the  railroads.  Men  who  will  advance 
the  material  interests  of  the  state  and 
not  cripple  them. — Deer  Creek  Pilot, 
June  11,  1915. 


THE  TIRADE  OF  EDWARDS. 

Railroad  Commissioner  George  R. 
Edwards  is  so  far  behind  the  times 
that  he  imagines  that  he  can  win  popu- 
larity, and,  incidentally,  get  himself  re- 
elected,  by  attacking  the  railroads. 

That  old  stuff  used  to  go  great  with 
the  voters,  but  it  is  no  longer  effective. 
The  time  was  when  almost  any  sort 
of  human  misfit  could  grab  himself  an 
office  merely  by  cussing  the  railroads 
more  vigorously  than  some  other  fel- 
low, but  it's  a  political  trick  that  don't 
work  any  longer. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have 
been  given  an  awakening.  They  now 
see  clearly  the  connection  between  the 
present  state  of  depressed  business  and 
the  present  status  of  railway  credit — 
assassinated  by  place-hunting  politi- 
cians and  cantankerous  demagogues'. 

Because  of  the  many  unjust  attacks 
made  upon  them  from  irresponsible 
quarters  the  railroads  have  been  unable 
to  earn  dividends  for  their  stockholders 
or  to  make  any  improvements  or  ex- 
tensions for  the  betterment  of  service. 


As  a  result,  all  other  lines  of  business 
have  suffered  keenly.  You  cannot  cut 
the  arteries  of  commerce  without  caus- 
ing the  life  blood  to  flow  from  all  veins 
of  business. 

Mr.  Edwards  may  not  realize  the 
fact,  but  the  people  of  Mississippi  do 
not  want  a  destructive  administration 
by  our  railroad  commission.  They  have 
suffered  enough  from  that  foolish 
policy,  and  it  is  now  their  desire  to  see 
a  commission  in  power  that  will  adopt 
a  constructive  policy  to  encourage  the 
construction  of  new  railroads  in  our 
state,  and  bring  about  a  general  im- 
provement of  conditions.  And  Mr. 
Edwards  has  conclusively  proven  that 
he  is  not  the  man  for  that  sort  of  work. 
— Jackson,  (Miss.)  Daily  News,  June 
18,  1915. 


ATTORNEY  GENERAL  SAYS 
ROADS  ARE  ANTAGONISTIC 

Attorney  General  Collins  in  a  state- 
ment given  out  yesterday  afternoon 
criticised  the  management  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  and  Yazoo  &  Mississippi 
Valley  railroads,  saying  "it  seems  to  be 
the  policy  of  these  roads  to  antagonize 
the  Railroad  Commission,  the  Legisla- 
ture and  the  people  of  the  State." 

In  the  statement  he  declares  that  he 
had  an  agreement  with  the  railroads 
enjoining  the  enforcement  of  the  elec- 
tric headlight  law  to  the  effect  that  the 
policy  of  the  roads  in  this  State  would 
be  governed  by  a  similar  case  before 
the  Georgia  courts,  that  in  Georgia  the 
law  has  been  upheld  and  that  the  roads 
are  now  attempting  to  shield  them- 
selves behind  an  act  of  Congress. 
The  Statement 

The  statement  of  Attorney  General 
Collins  in  full  is  as  follows : 

"I  am  surprised  at  the  action  of  the 
I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  railroads  in 
again  contesting  the  validity  of  the 
Mississippi  electric  headlight  law.  I 
don't  know  a  single  locomotive  engi- 
neer in  the  State  unfavorable  to  the 
electric  headlight.  Numbers  of  them 
have  advised  me  that  the  electric  head- 
light has  saved  the  lives  of  many  men. 
women  and  children  and  much  of  the 
railroad's  property.  Aside  from  this, 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


17 


in  1912  immediately  after  the  law  was 
enacted,  the  I.  C.,  Y.  &  M.  V.  and  the 
L.  &  N.  railroads  enjoined  the  officers 
of  the  State  from  enforcing  the  law. 

"I  entered  into  an  agreement  with 
Mr.  Mayes,  of  this  city,  attorney  for 
the  I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  Railroad 
Companies,  and  also  with  Hon.  George 
L.  Smith,  of  Mobile,  Alabama,  repre- 
senting the  L.  &  N.  Railroad  Com- 
pany, that  the  Mississsippi  case  would 
be  disposed  of  according  to  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Georgia  electric  headlight 
case  which  was  then  pending  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
About  a  year  ago  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  upheld  the  Geor- 
gia law  and  at  the  next  term  of  the 
United  States  Court  held  in  Jackson, 
an  order  was  entered  upholding  the 
Mississippi  law  and  giving  the  rail- 
roads ninety  days  in  which  to  comply 
with  it.  The  ninety  days  has  long  since 
expired  and  the  railroads  should  have 
equipped  all  their  engines  with  head- 
lights. I  am  informed  that  the  L.  &  N. 
has  complied  with  the  court's  order. 

"I  am  also  informed  that  the  I.  C. 
and  Y.  &  M.  V.  have  not  complied  with 
the  court's  order  and  are  simply  using 
a  recent  act  passed  by  Congress  as  an 
excuse  for  again  refusing  to  comply 
with  the  Legislature's  effort  to  force 
them  to  adopt  a  light  that  will  enable 
the  engineer  to  see  where  he  is  going. 

"I  don't  suppose  I  ought  to  be  sur- 
prised though  at  the  action  of  the  I.  C. 
and  Y.  &  M.  V.  railroads,  for  it  seems 
to  be  the  policy  of  these  lines  to  an- 
tagonize the  Railroad  Commission,  the 
Legislature  and  the  people  of  the  State 
on  substantially  every  proposition  in- 
itiated by  them.  This  is  abundantly 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  State 
has  more  litigation  with  these  lines, 
which  are  under  one  management,  than 
with  all  the  other  railroad  lines  of  the 
State  combined." — Jackson  Clarion- 
Ledger. 


A    FRANK    STATEMENT    FROM 
JUDGE  MAYES 

Editor  Daily  News :    I  have  just  re- 
turned   from    a    somewhat    prolonged 


absence  from  Jackson,  and  the  Clarion- 
Ledger  of  last  Friday,  June  18,  has 
been  handed  to  me,  in  which  there  is 
an  article  headed  "Attorney  General 
Says  Roads  Antagonistic,"  and  the 
substance  of  which  is  a  complaint  of 
the  action  of  the  Illinois  Central  and 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad 
Companies  in  connection  with  the 
headlight  matter. 

The  reporter  says  that  the  attorney 
general  declared  that  he  had  an  agree- 
ment with  the  railroads  to  the  effect 
that  the  policy  of  the  roads  in  this 
state  would  be  governed  by  a  similar 
case  before  the  Georgia  court,  etc. 

What  the  attorney  general  said,  ex- 
actly as  given  by  the  reporter,  was 
this: 

"I  entered  into  an  agreement  with 
Messrs.  Mayes  &  Mayes  of  this  city, 
attorneys  for  the  I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V. 
Railroad  Companies,  and  also  with 
Hon.  George  L.  Smith  of  Mobile,  Ala., 
representing  the  L.  &  N.  Railroad 
Company,  that  the  Mississippi  case 
would  be  disposed  of  according  to  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  in  the  Georgia  electric 
headlight  case,  which  was  then  pend- 
ing in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States." 

And  the  attorney  general  himself,  as 
quoted  by  the  reporter,  goes  on  and 
states  that  the  pending  case  was  so 
disposed  of.  Continuing  the  quotation, 
he  says: 

"About  a  year  ago  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  upheld  the 
Georgia  law,  and  at  the  next  term  of 
the  United  States  Court  held  in  Jack- 
son an  order  was  entered  upholding 
the  Mississippi  law,  and  giving  the 
railroads  ninety  days  in  which  to  com- 
ply with  it." 

Thus  the  attorney  general's  own 
statement  shows  that  the  case  was  dis- 
posed of  in  the  Federal  Court  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  agreement.  The  re- 
porter's statement  that  the  attorney 
general  said  that  the  agreement  was 
that  the  policy  of  the  roads  would  be 
controlled  by  that  case,  is  entirely  un- 
warranted by  his  interview,  as  he  him- 
self quotes  it. 


18 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


The  complaint  which  the  attorney 
general  makes  is,  exactly,  that  after 
the  decree  was  so  entered  the  railroad 
companies  did  not  proceed  to  carry  out 
the  decree,  and  are  now  engaged  in 
resisting  the  enforcement  of  it.  But 
as  he  himself  shows,  in  the  interview 
quoted,  there  was  no  agreement  what- 
ever about  what  would  be  done  after 
the  decree  was  rendered. 

The  decrees  were  rendered  on  the 
12th  day  of  November,  1914.  At  that 
time  it  was  anticipated  that  in  the 
practical  execution  of  those  decrees 
various  difficulties  would  arise,  and  it 
might  be  necessary  for  the  court,  in 
supervising  the  enforcement  of  the  de- 
crees, to  make  other  and  further  orders 
in  the  case;  and  for  that  reason  the 
final  sentence  in  each  decree,  both  in 
the  Illinois  Central  and  in  the  Yazoo 
&  Mississippi  Valley  case,  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

"And  this  case  is  retained  in  this 
court  for  such  further  orders  and  de- 
crees as  shall  seem  to  be  needed." 

Thus  the  court  expressly  retained 
jurisdiction  of  the  matter  for  further 
action. 

At  the  time  when  those  decrees  were 
entered,  it  was  not  anticipated  by 
either  party  (at  least,  I  know  it  was 
not  anticipated  by  the  railroad "  com- 
panies, and  I  believe  it  was  not  an- 
ticipated by  the  attorney  general)  that 
there  would  be  any  change  in  the  law 
itself,  under  which  those  decrees  were 
rendered,  and  for  the  enforcement  of 
which  those  decrees,  on  their  face, 
were  passed. 

The  point  in  the  litigation  had  been 
that  the  railroads  contended  that  then 
the  Mississippi  statute  of  1912,  requir- 
ing the  railroad  companies  to  equip 
their  locomotives,  used  in  the  state  of 
Mississippi,  with  electric  headlights  of 
a  certain  defined  power,  was  a  law 
which  the  Legislature  of  Mississippi 
had  no  power  to  enact,  for  the  reason 
that  the  equinment  of  locomotives  was 
provided  for  by  an  act  of  Congress ; 
that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
having  taken  control  of  the  subject,  the 
Legislature  of  the  state  had  no  power 
over  it,  and  no  right  to  pass  such  a 


statute.  The  carrying  out  of  that  stat- 
ute, by  equipping  all  the  locomotives 
with  electric  headlights  would  cost  the 
railroad  companies  a  very  large  sum  of 
money — more  than  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  as  claimed — and  accom- 
plish no  beneficial  results.  The  rail- 
road companies  believed,  and  they 
were  prepared  to  show  evidence  to  the 
effect,  that  the  electric  headlight  is  not 
the  best  headlight;  that  it  had  many 
elements  of  danger,  which  it  was  very 
desirable  to  avoid.  The  United  States 
statute  which  was  supposed  to  control 
the  matter  was  the  act  of  Congress 
of  February  17,  1911,  known  as  the 
"Boiler  Inspection  Act."  The  litiga- 
tion which  was  originated  by  the  Sea- 
board Air- Line  in  Georgia,  and  which 
was  then  pending  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  was  based 
on  the  proposition  that  the  boiler  in- 
spection act  of  1911  included  the  in- 
spection of  headlights.  But  the  deci- 
sion made  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  in  that  case,  and  to 
which  Mr.  Collins  alludes,  held  that  the 
act  of  Congress,  as  it  then  existed,  was 
not  broad  enoueh  to  include  headlights, 
and,  therefore,  that  the  power  still  re- 
mained with  the  state  legislature  to 
legislate  on  the  subject  of  headlights. 

When  that  decision  was  rendered, 
therefore,  in  accordance  with  the 
agreement  made  and  in  full  perform- 
ance of  it,  the  Illinois  Central  and  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad 
Companies  submitted  to  have  entered, 
in  the  two  cases,  in  the  Federal  Court 
here,  the  decree  to  which  General  Col- 
lins refers,  being  the  decrees  of  the 
12th  of  November,  1912. 

The  railroad  companies  entered  im- 
mediately upon  the  fulfillment  of  the 
decrees  of  the  court.  Mississippi, 
however,  is  not  the  only  state  that  en- 
acted laws  of  this  kind ;  and  the  re- 
quirements had  become  so  general 
throughout  the  14  states  through 
which  the  Illinois  Central  operates 
that  it  was  necessary  for  it  to  place 
an  order  for  twelve  hundred  electric 
headlights,  and  this  they  did,  as  I  am 
informed.  The  company  did  every- 
thing it  could  to  facilitate  the  de- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


livery  of  those  headlights,  and  the  in- 
stallation of  the  same  on  locomotives, 
as  they  were  received.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  distribute  them  on  different 
portions  of  the  road.  Up  to  this  time 
the  manufacturers  have  been  able  to 
deliver  to  the  company  only  about 
three  hundred  of  these  headlights, 
which  have  been  installed.  I  am  in- 
formed by  the  president  that  the  pol- 
icy of  the  company  is  to  continue  this 
work  until  all  main  lines  are  equipped 
with  electric  headlights ;  and  it  is  not 
true  that  the  company  has  refused  to 
enter  on  this  work,  or  has  suspended 
the  progress  of  it,  in  the  manner  in 
which  the  article,  quoted  from  above, 
indicates. 

In  this  attitude  of  the  case,  and 
while  the  work  was  progressing,  under 
the  decree,  as  rapidly  as  the  company 
could  obtain  headlights  to  be  delivered 
from  the  manufacturers,  Mr.  Moncure 
Dabney,  who  claims  to  have  been  the 
originator  of  the  headlight  bill,  in  the 
state  Legislature,  appeared  in  Jack- 
son ;  and  a  newspaper  report  of  him 
was  published  in  the  Jackson  Daily 
News  of  Saturday,  May  29th,  see  page 
3,  column  2,  bottom,  in  which  it  was 
reported  that  action  would  be  taken  at 
an  early  date,  by  authorities  in  differ- 
ent counties,  to  secure  indictments 
against  the  two  railroad  companies,  on 
account  of  alleged  failure  to  comply 
with  the  headlight  law  of  1912. 

It  was  this  action  by  Mr.  Dabney, 
thus  reported  in  the  newspapers,  and 
this  statement  that  these  indictments 
were  going  to  be  obtained  by  the  au- 
thorities in  different  counties,  which 
caused  the  filing  of  the  supplemental 
bill,  of  which  Mr.  Collins  now  makes 
complaint.  A  copy  of  that  article  was 
sent  to  the  railway  authorities,  in  Chi- 
cago, on  May  31st,  and  in  response 
thereto,  I  received  instructions  to  pre- 
pare and  file  the  supplemental  bills 
that  were  filed,  "with  a  view  of  an- 
ticipating any  action  that  may  be 
taken  by  the  state  authorities." 

The  bills  of  injunction  were  accord- 
ingly prepared,  and  were  filed  on  June 
15th.  That  is  to  say,  the  tenth  day 
after  I  received  those  instructions, 


which  were  immediately  provoked,  as 
is  shown  above,  by  the  threat  to  have 
the  two  railroad  companies  indicted  in 
various  quarters  in  the  state,  for  not 
doing  a  thing  which  they  were  doing 
as  fast  as  they  could  get  it  done. 

Now,  in  the  meantime,  the  congress 
of  the  United  States,  manifestly  in  or- 
der to  meet  the  decision  of  the  supreme 
court  to  the  effect  that  the  "boiler  in- 
spection act"  of  1911  was  not  suffi- 
ciently broad  to  cover  the  inspection 
of  headlights,  passed  another  statute, 
with  broader  terms,  and  made  so  broad 
as  to  cover  all  the  appliances  of  a  lo- 
comotive ;  and  this  statute  was  ap- 
proved by  the  president,  March  6, 
1915. 

Of  course,  it  put  quite  a  different  as- 
pect on  the  whole  situation ;  and  as 
the  law  now  stands,  the  state  statute 
is  entirely  displaced.  The  state  au- 
thorities have  no  power  over  the  mat- 
ter at  all,  and  the  whole  question  has 
been  taken  over  by  the  federal  au- 
thorities. The  decision  of  the  Seaboard 
Air  Line,  case  was  met,  and  in  effect 
set  aside,  and  the  decrees  of  Nov.  12th, 
1914,  mentioned  above,  were  made  of 
no  account.  But  this  was  the  action  of 
congress,  not  the  railroad  companies. 
It  was  not  even  certain  that  when  the 
companies  should  go  ahead,  and  install 
those  electric  headlights,  according  to 
the  specifications  contained  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi act  of  1912,  such  headlights 
would  meet  the  approval  of  the  federal 
inspectors,  and  they  might  all  be  reject- 
ed. It  is  not  even  certain  that  the 
federal  inspectors  will  want  electric 
headlights  at  all.  They  may  prefer  the 
acetylene  gas  lights,  which  many  ex- 
perts prefer ;  and  which,  if  this  case  had 
gone  to  trial  on  the  facts,  it  was  the 
expectation  of  the  railroad  companies 
to  prove  were  the  better  lights,  being 
sufficiently  strong  and  clear;  and  not 
being  subject  to  some  of  the  most  se- 
rious objections  to  the  electric  head- 
lights. 

But  it  will  be  observed  that,  not- 
withstanding the  passage  of  that  act 
of  congress,  the  railroad  companies 
did  not  suspend  the  installation  of  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


electric  headlights,  and  did  not  do  any- 
thing to  retard  the  progress  of  that 
work,  until  these  people  turned  up  here 
in  Jackson  with  threats  of  criminal 
prosecutions  at  various  points  in  the 
state. 

Judge  Niles,  as  shown  above,  had 
retained  these  cases  in  his  court  for 
the  making  of  further  orders ;  and  the 
railroad  companies  appealed,  by  the 
supplemental  bills,  to  his  court  in  these 
same  causes,  for  protection ;  and  also 
prayed  that  the  decrees  previously 
made  be  set  aside,  since  the  state  law 
which  they  were  intended  to  enforce 
had  been  nullified  by  an  act  of  con- 
gress. It  was  imperatively  necessary, 
in  so  important  a  matter,  to  have  it 
settled  whether  the  companies  were 
under  the  authority  of  the  state  offi- 
cials, or  that  of  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment. 

The  railroad  companies  now  know 
well  that  what  they  do  further,  by  way 
of  installing  electric  headlights,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  desire  expressed  by 
the  Mississippi  legislature  is  by  them 
done  voluntarily,  and  not  under  the 
coersion  of  that  decree,  which  has  been 
displaced  by  the  act  of  congress. 

In  this  situation,  I  am  authorized  by 
the  president  of  the  company  to  state 


that,  notwithstanding  the  act  of  con- 
gress, and  notwithstanding  all  that  is 
stated  above,  the  company  expects  to 
persevere  in  this  work  of  installation 
of  electric  headlights,  until  all  the 
main  lines  are  equipped ;  at  the  same 
time,  however,  the  railroad  authorities 
do  not  believe  that  any  necessity  what- 
ever exists  for  the  equipping  with  ex- 
pensive electric  headlights  of  the  loco- 
motives running  on  unimportant 
branch  lines;  and  as  to  that  they  ex- 
pect to  be  guided,  as  to  the  future,  by 
the  obligation  imposed  on  them,  and 
to  rely  on  the  protection  afforded  to 
them,  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
which  have  taken  charge  of  the  mat- 
ter. 

In  conclusion,  it  seems  to  be  a  sin- 
gular attitude  that  any  person  in  this 
country,  whether  he  is  a  natural  in 
dividual,  or  a  corporation,  is  censured 
because  he  or  it  appeals  to  the  courts 
of  the  land  for  protection  in  what  he 
or  it  conceives  to  be  his  or  its  proper 
legal  rights ;  and  for  a  judicial  deter- 
mination of  his  or  its  attitude  of  re- 
sponsibility to  answer  to  the  state  or 
the  United  States. 

EDWARD   MAYES. 

—Jackson  Daily  News,  Wednesday, 
June  23,  1915. 


Ackerman  Given  Ten- Year  Sentence 

Waives  Time  Following  Conviction  for  Perjury 


Waiving  the  right  to  time  to  file  a 
motion  for  a  new  trial  and  also  time 
for  sentence,  J.  W.  Ackerman,  who 
was  convicted  of  perjury  by  a  jury 
last  week,  was  arraigned  today  before 
Judge  Boies  and  given  an  indeter- 
minate sentence  not  to  exceed  ten 
years  in  the  reformatory  at  Anamosa. 

Judge  Boies  granted  defendant 
thirty  days  in  which  to  prepare  a  mo- 
tion for  new  trial  and  set  July  1  as 
sentence  day.  On  request  of  the  de- 
fendant these  orders  were  set  aside. 

Ackerman,    who    has    been    in    the 


county  jail  for  the  past  seven  months, 
decided  to  waive  time  and  take  his 
sentence  now,  so  that  he  might  be 
credited  with  time.  Sheriff  Hender- 
son will  take  the  prisoner  to  Ana- 
mosa within  a  day  or  two. 

This  is  one  of  the  few  convictions 
for  perjury  in  Iowa,  and  for  this  rea- 
son the  case  has  attracted  widespread 
attention.  The  perjury  for  which  the 
defendant  was  found  guilty  was  in 
connection  with  testimony  he  gave  at 
the  last  September  term  of  court  in 
the  damage  suit  for  personal  injuries 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


21 


to  Charles  Scribner,  a  lad  now  seven 
years  old. — Waterloo  (la.)  Evening 
Courier,  June  1,  1915. 


MY  GUIDE 

By  T.  J.  Van  Alstyne,  Cornell,  M.  E., 
'03,  Alpha  Psi  of  Chi  Psi. 

'  I AO  respect  my  country,  my  profes- 
sion  and  myself.  To  be  honest 
and  fair  with  my  fellow-men,  as  I  ex- 
pect them  to  be  honest  and  square 
with  me.  To  be  a  loyal  citizen  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  To  speak 
of  it  with  praise  and  act  always  as  a 
trustworthy  custodian  of  its  good 
name.  To  be  a  man  whose  name 
carries  weight  with  it  wherever  it  goes. 

To  base  my  expectations  of  reward 
on  a  solid  foundation  of  service  ren- 
dered ;  to  be  willing  to  pay  the  price 
of  success  in  honest  effort.  To  look 
upon  my  work  as  an  opportunity  to 
be  seized  with  joy  and  made  the  most 
of  and  not  as  a  painful  drudgery  to  be 
reluctantly  endured. 

To  remember  that  success  lies  with- 
in myself,  in  my  own  brain,  my  own 
ambition,  my  own  courage  and  deter- 
mination. To  expect  difficulties  and 
force  my  way  through  them ;  to  turn 
hard  experiences  into  capital  for  fu- 
ture struggles. 

To  believe  in  my  proposition,  heart 
and  soul ;  .to  carry  an  air  of  optimism 
in  the  presence  of  those  I  meet;  to 
dispel  ill  temper  with  cheerfulness,  kill 
doubts  wtih  a  strong  conviction,  and 
reduce  active  friction  with  an  agree- 
able personality. 

To  make  a  study  of  my  business,  to 
know  my  profession  in  every  detail,  to 
mix  brains  with  my  efforts,  and  use 
cvstem  and  method  in  my  work.  To 
find  time  to  do  every  needful  thing  by 
never  letting  time  find  me  doing  noth- 
ing. To  hoard  days  as  a  miser  hoards 
dollars ;  to  make  every  hour  bring  me 
dividends,  increased  knowledge  or 
healthful  recreation. 

To  keep  my  future  unmortgaged  with 
debts ;  to  save  as  well  as  earn.  To  cut 
out  expensive  amusements  until  I  can 
afford  them.  To  steer  clear  of  dissipa- 


tion and  guard  my  health  of  body  and 
peace  of  mind  as  a  most  precious  stock 
in  trade. 

Finally,  to  take  a  good  grip  on  the 
joys  of  life,  to  play  the  game  like  a 
man ;  to  fight  against  nothing  so  hard 
as  my  own  weaknesses,  and  endeavor 
to  grow  in  strength  a  gentleman,  a 
Christian. 

"So  may  I  be  courteous  to  men,  faith- 
ful to  friends, 
True  to  my  God,  a  fragrance  in  the 

path  I  trod." 

— C.   &   O.   Ry.    Co.   Employes'   Maga- 
zine, May,  1915. 


TROUBLE  AHEAD 

'"THE  baggage  problem  in  America 
has  been  simpler  and  more  satis- 
factory, from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
traveling  public,  than  in  any  other 
country.  For  this  reason  habitual 
travelers  will  view  with  annoyance  the 
plan  of  compulsory  baggage  valuation, 
baggage  insurance,  baggage  red  tape, 
announced  by  the  railroads  under  the 
Cummins  act.  Persons  who  are  not 
habitual  travelers,  but  who  are  occa- 
sionally passengers  upon  railroads,  will 
view  the  change  with  positive  alarm 
All  complications  attending  travel  are 
alarming  to  persons  who  are  not  prac- 
ticed travelers.  All  simplifications  are 
rejoiced  in  by  everyone  who  goes  any- 
where. America  has  led  other  coun- 
tries in  making  it  easy,  from  all  points 
of  view  save  the  financial,  to  get  about. 
It  costs  more  to  go  by  train  in  the 
United  States  than  it  does  in  many 
countries,  but  having  paid  the  cost  the 
traveler  is — or  has  been — free  to  for- 
get about  his  baggage  and  enjoy  his 
book  or  an  idler's  view  of  a  lively  out- 
of-the-window  panorama. 

It  is  not  quite  clear  just  what  benefit 
will  accrue  to  anyone  under  the  new 
arrangement.  The  railroads,  apparent- 
ly, have  found  the  established  plan  of 
baggage  carrying  satisfactory.  That 
part  of  the  public  which  is  American 
born  and  not  foreign-traveled  has  per- 
haps not  been  fully  awake  to  its  ad- 


22 


vantages.  Americans  who  have  trav- 
eled in  Europe  or  the  Orient  have  re- 
turned home  with  a  keener  apprecia- 
tion of  the  benefits  of  American  citi- 
zenship because  of  the  freedom  from 
unnecessary  detail  that  makes  Amer- 
ican travel  restful  in  comparison  with 
travel  in  countries  in  which  it  is  neces- 
sary to  enter  into  extended  diplomatic 
conversations  upon  the  question  of  get- 
ting- a  trunk  shipped,  and  where  it  is 
necessary  to  sign  papers — the  signer's 
death  warrant  for  all  he  knows — before 
getting  into  the  train. 

All  customs  or  laws  which  have  the 
effect  of  creating  difficulties,  however 
slight,  which  necessitate  the  consump- 
tion of  time,  inquiry,  bother,  confu- 
sion, anxiety  at  the  railroad  station, 
are  damnable  to  the  flustered,  perspir- 
ing, harried  ticket  buyer.  They  are 
doubly  so  to  the  unfortunate  employe 
of  the  road  whose  daily  grind  is  to  an- 
swer questions  which  appear  of  tre- 
mendous importance  to  the  unaccus- 
tomed traveler,  but  seem  senseless  and 
superfluous  to  anyone  to  whom  they 
are  a  part  of  the  day's  routine. 

The  provision  of  the  Cummins  act 
necessitating  the  baggage  bother 
seems  an  example  of  pestiferous  leg- 
islation owing  its  existence  to  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  discoverer  of  mares' 
nests.  It  seems  likely  to  make  bedlam 
in  the  railroad  station,  and  make  travel 
a  trial,  without  accomplishing  any  pur- 
pose of  such  importance  as  to  warrant 
the  annoyance. — Louisville  Courier- 
Journal,  June  7,  1915. 


THE    STATE    AND    THE    RAIL- 
ROADS 

/^AN  it  be  that  political  sentiment 
in  the  state  is  implacable  toward 
railroads,  while  in  their  material  af- 
fairs railroads  are  invariably  looked  to 
by  the  people  for  helpfulness?  For 
instance,  a  candidate  has  for  his  chief 
argument  that  he  is  a  fighter  of  rail- 
roads, and  that  railroads  would  spend 
big  money  to  secure  his  defeat.  Such 
a  claim  to  official  preferment  is  pre- 
suming much,  on  railroad  prejudice. 


For  instance  again,  the  people  wish  to 
build  up  a  new  industry.  The  first 
thing  they  do  is  told  in  the  following 
telegram  from  West,  Holmes  county, 
on  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  be- 
tween Durant  and  Canton,  of  May  28, 
which  says :  "Six  months  ago  the 
West  creamery  made  its  first  shipment 
of  butter,  which  was  five  pounds.  To- 
day they  shipped  one  car  load  of  fine 
creamery  butter  to  Chicago,  which  was 
sold  in  advance  for  a  good  price.  The 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  has 
done  much  for  the  success  of  this  en- 
terprise." 

Of  course  in  upbuilding  such  enter- 
prises, the  railroad  helps  itself.  Never- 
theless, such  self  help  does  not  right- 
fully or  by  rule  of  reason,  extinguish 
appreciation  of  liberal  extension  of 
community  aid.  This  has  been  sup- 
plied in  the  promotion  of  the  truck 
growing  and  stock  raising  industries, 
the  establishment  of  experimental 
farms,  turning  the  tide  of  farm  home 
seekers  to  this  state,  in  high  water 
help,  and  in  other  way's  too  numerous 
to  mention.  Thus  the  I.  C.  road  has 
added  many  millions  to  Mississippi 
values.  In  every  community  and  on 
all  occasions  where  the  railroads  can 
promote  material  public  interests  they 
are  freely  called  upon,  and  invariably 
respond. 

Such  a  relationship  with  the  people 
and  their  business  interests  should 
rightly  and  reasonably  liberalize  state 
railroad  policy.  It  is  well  within  the 
truth  to  say  that  the  Mississippi  facts 
are  otherwise.  With  the  inherent 
power  of  state  corooration  control  and 
regulation  no  one  would  part.  And 
yet  so  frequent  have  been  the  misuses 
of  the  power,  so  greatly  has  it  been 
abused  by  corporation  baiting  dema- 
gogues, that  it  can  not  be  looked  upon, 
in  its  workings,  as  an  unmixed  good. 
Many  instances  of  the  truth  of  this 
assertion  could  be  cited.  About  the 
brightest  feather  in  the  cap  of  the  pro- 
fessional reformer  is  a  law  or  a  scheme 
for  forcing  railroads  to  do  something. 
Legislation  thus  inspired  usually 
proves  a  handicap  to  the  roads  without 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


23 


benefiting  the  public.  The  latest  local 
outcrop  of  this  reform  spirit  noted,  is 
clamor  for  the  "full  crew  law,"  the 
utility  of  which  has  been  thoroughly 
disproved  in  states  where  it  has  been 
applied. 

But  in  no  other  manner  has  the 
abuse  of  state  authority  in  its  exercise 
towards  railroads  been  more  flagrant 
than  in  the  anti-merger  prosecutions. 
Mississippi  has  employed,  at  an  enor- 
mous contingent  fee,  Governor  Brew- 
er's fellow  townsman  and  right  bower, 
the  Hon.  Jack  Cutrer,  in  association 
with  the  Attorney  General,  to  bring 
a  confiscatory  anti-merger  suit  against 
the  I.  C.  road.  At  the  same  time  a 
like  anti-merger  suit  is  being  carried 
on  by  Attorney  General  Collins  and 
another  political  magnate,  Mr.  Mc- 
Beath  of  Meridian,  against  the  South- 
ern railway. 

If  these  two  roads  were  the  state's, 
most  relentless  enemies,  instead  of  her 
greatest  instrumentalities  of  public 
usefulness  and  help,  no  harsher  means 
could  have  been  devised  for  their  in- 
jury and  ruin.  Can  it  be  true  that  in 
the  practice  code  of  the  demagogue, 
this  is  the  surest  way  to  official  prefer- 
ment and  re-election?  And  yet  we  in- 
fer from  a  recent  alleged  statement  of 
Attorney  General  Collins — that  "the 
purpose  of  his  anti-merger  policy  is 
not  so  much  to  collect  money  from  the 
railroads  as  it  is  to  secure  the  dissolu- 
tion of  these  companies,  which  are 
now  owned  and  controlled  by  the  same 
people" — that  it  has  dawned  upon  him 
that  his  demands  upon  these  railroads 
for  near  a  hundred  millions  in  fines 
and  penalties,  is  not  approved  by  the 
people  of  the  state. 

The  good  faith  of  the  quoted  qual- 
ifying statement  is  contradicted  by  the 
visible  facts.  If  the  Attorney  General 
only  seeks  the  "dissolution"  of  these 
companies,  why  has  he  not  so  pro- 
posed to  them — to  accept  their  dissolu- 
tion without  penalties?  This  was  the 
course  of  the  Federal  Government, 
when  it  obtained  the  unmerging  de- 
cree of  the  Pacific  railroads ;  a  decision 
which  furnished  the  precedent  for  the 


state's  anti-merger  suits.  At  the 
time,  The  Herald  urged  the  Governor 
to  apply  for  a  like  procedure  by  the 
Attorney  General  of  the  United  States ; 
in  the  case  of  the  I.  C.  and  the  Y.  & 
M.  V.  R.  R.  Thus  conducted,  suit 
would  have  cost  the  state  nothing,  and 
a  comparatively  speedy  conclusion 
reached.  Instead  these,  enormous 
damage  suits,  at  great  cost  to  the  state, 
have  been  carried  on.  There  can  be 
but  one  opinion  of  the  state's  suits, 
which  is  that  "the  purpose  of  the  suit" 
is  to  harrass  or  intimidate  the  railroads 
involved  into  a  compromise  which 
would  carry  a  big  fee  for  Attorney 
General  Collins,  his  brother-in-law  and 
political  creator,  Lawyer  McBeath,  of 
Meridian,  and  Governor  Brewer's 
"steady,"  Jack  Cutrer,  of  Clarksdale. 
In  the  best  interest  of  the  state,  and 
for  its  good  name,  the  hope  is  ex- 
pressed that  the  greedy  scheme  may 
fail. — Vicksburg  Herald,  June  5,  1915 


CAPTURE  20  MEN  AND  BOYS  ON 
WAY  TO  MT.  PULASKI. 


I.    C.    Officials    Strike    Terror    When 

They   Hold   Up   Train   Loaded 

with  Thirsty  "Hoboes." 

Nine  officials  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  last  night  struck  terror  into 
the  hearts  of  about  twenty  men  and 
boys,  most  of  whom  were  from  Clin- 
ton, who  were  on  their  way  to  Mt. 
Pulaski.  Headed  by  Superintendent 
G.  E.  Patterson,  the  officials  stopped 
train  No.  55  two  miles  east  of  Mt.  Pu- 
laski and  grabbed  all  but  four  of  the 
trespassers  as  they  came  tumbling  off 
the  cars.  And  these  four  they  caught 
later. 

Each  One  Known. 

The  officials  got  the  name  and  ad- 
dress of  each  of  the  trespassers.  Then 
they  turned  them  loose.  All  but  three 
were  local  residents.  These  three  were 
professional  hoboes.  One  badly  scared 
boy  stammered  out  to  H.  L.  Moffett, 
one  of  the  officials : 

"Mr.  Moffett,  you  know  my  father." 

"No,"  said  Mr.  Moffett,  "but  I  know 
you." 


24 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


To  Break  Up  Trespassing. 

Superintendent  Patterson  and  the 
other  local  officials  have  for  some  time 
been  trying  to  hit  on  a  plan  to  break 
up  the  heavy  traffic  on  freight  trains 
between  Clinton  and  Mr.  Pulaski. 
They  are  continually  worried  by  the 
risk  of  loss  of  life  run  by  the  trespass- 
ers and  last  night's  action  inaugurates 
a  scheme  to  stop  some  of  the  trespass- 
ing and  incidentally  to  bring  less 
liquor  from  Mt.  Pulaski  saloons. 
Officials  Who  Made  Raid. 

Superintendent  Patterson  was  ac- 
companied by  H.  L.  Moffett  and  P.  K. 
Hanley,  trainmaster;  M.  Backus,  road- 
master;  S.  C.  Draper,  superintendent 
of  bridges  and  buildings ;  Master  Me- 
chanic O'Brien,  A.  G.  Turlay,  traveling 
engineer,  and  C.  E.  Lindsey,  of  De- 
catur,  and  C.  W.  Dill,  special  agents. 
The  "Hold  Up." 

They  went  to  Mt.  Pulaski  yesterday 
afternoon  by  a  roundabout  way  and 
then  came  out  from  Mt.  Pulaski  up  the 
I.  C.  tracks  about  two  miles.  There 
they  lined  up  on  both  sides  of  the  road 
and  when  No.  55,  leaving  Clinton 
about  5:15,  came  along,  they  flagged 
it.  At  once  heads  popped  out  from  be- 
tween the  cars  and  when  several  of 
the  "hoboes"  recognized  Charles  Dill 
the  exodus  began.  But  the  officers 
grabbed  for  them  and  only  four  got 
away  and  these  hot-footed  it  up  a  road. 
Catch  Them  Later. 

The  four  who  escaped  were  caught 
later  when  Officers  Dill  and  Moffett 
got  a  car  at  Mt.  Pulaski  and  went  back 
over  the  road  on  which  the  four  were 
coming  into  town.  They  got  their 
names  and  addresses  and  turned  them 
loose. 

May  Prosecute  Them. 

When  pressed  as  to  whether  he 
would  prosecute  the  trespassers  or  not, 
Superintendent  Patterson  said  today : 

"We  have  not  decided  just  what  ac- 
tion to  take  but  we  may  begin  prose- 
cutions. But  we  are  going  to  stop  the 
trespassing  on  our  lines.  We  are 
afraid  somebody  will  be  killed  and  we 
are  determined  to  stop  it." 


Mr.  Patterson  refused  to  give  out 
the  names  of  the  men  and  boys  caught 
in  the  raid.  He  is  saving  them  for 
future  reference. — Clinton  Daily  Pub- 
lic, June  2,  1915. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  RAILROAD 
LITERATURE. 

People  must  change  their  minds 
about  what  we  used  to  call  railroad 
literature,  because  it  is  no  longer  what 
it  once  was.  In  the  old  days  railroad 
literature  was  looked  upon  with  indif- 
ference by  the  public  at  large,  because 
it  consisted  largely  of  time  tables  that 
no  one  but  a  railroad  man  could  under- 
stand, and  flaming  posters  which  no 
one  believed.  Of  late  years  the  rail- 
roads have  been  giving  increased  and 
growing  attention  to  what  may  be 
called  railroad  literature.  A  good  many 
of  these  corporations  maintain  a 
monthly  magazine  and  these  are  not 
infrequently  of  a  high  character  from 
a  literary  standpoint.  The  Illinois 
Central  Magazine  for  May  is  a  pub- 
lication that  will  be  interesting  to  the 
general  reader.  Capt.  James  Dinkins, 
long  a  resident  of  Memphis,  and  re- 
membered here  by  many  of  the  older 
citizens,  concludes!  his  story  of  the 
Illinois  Central  lines  during  the  civil 
conflict.  He  tells  how  he  became  an 
Illinois  Central  man,  and  the  names 
and  incidents  which  he  has  collated 
and  presented  will  be  of  absorbing  in- 
terest to  the  older  generation  at  least. 
Another  good  thing  about  these  rail- 
road magazines  is  their  liberality  and 
public  spirit.  They  take  up  particular 
cities  and  sections  and  advertise  them 
widely.  Of  course  this  means  that 
they  are  endeavoring  to  benefit  them- 
selves and  the  business  of  the  road 
represented ;  but  the  cities  and  com- 
munities and  sections  profit  by  the 
publicity,  no  matter  what  its  motive. 
Another  valuable  feature  of  the  rail- 
road magazine  is  that  it  affords  a  ve- 
hicle and  a  voice  to  the  employes,  who 
are  encouraged  to  express  themselves. 
In  this  way  the  higher-ups  often  re- 
ceive many  valuable  tips  and  sugges- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


25 


tions  that  would  never  occur  to  them. 
This  is  of  mutual  benefit,  because  it 
brings  employer  and  employe,  superior 
and  subordinate,  closer  together  and 
puts  them  upon  a  more  friendly  plane. 
— Friars  Point  Coahomian,  May  29, 
1915. 


PAYING  THE  FIDDLER. 

A  dry  grin  is  going  the  rounds  of 
the  legal  fraternity,  in  Vicksburg,  the 
reason  and  cause  for  which  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

During  the  term  of  the  Warren 
county  circuit  court,  which  closed  last 
week,  there  was  tried  the  case  of 
Wiley  Wilson  vs.  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R. 
Wilson  is  a  white  boy  who  claimed  to 
have  received  personal  injuries  while 
employed  as  apprentice  in  the  railroad 
shops  at  Vicksburg.  This  is  the  case 
which  was  referred  to  in  the  contro- 
versy between  the  Vicksburg  Times- 
Democrat  and  President  Markham  of 
the  I.  C.  system.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  the  race  question  was  in- 
jected into  the  discussion,  it  being  as 
serted  that  the  railroad  company 
worked  white  apprentices  under  negro 
boiler-makers  and  that  Wilson  was 
hurt  while  so  working.  During  the 
trial  an  attempt  was  made  to  substan- 
tiate this  charge  but  failed,  and  the 
court  ruled  that  the  plaintiff  had  not 
made  out  his  case  and  instructed  the 
jury  to  bring  in  a  verdict  for  the  de- 
fendant railroad. 

As  the  plaintiff  had  been  required  to 
furnish  bond  for  the  costs,  his  attor- 
neys went  on  the  bond,  and  as  a  result 
they  will  enjoy  the  privilege  of  paying 
the  fiddler  in  the  form  of  costs. — Deer 
Creek  Pilot,  June  18,  1915. 


PROTECTING  THE  UPPER 
BERTH. 

The  United  States  Supreme  Court 
has  at  last  called  a  halt  on  the  as- 
saults on  the  upper  berth.  For  years 
the  upper  berth  has  been  the  object  of 
opprobious  comments  and  the  target 
of  legislative  vengeance.  In  vain  did 
the  sleeping  car  companies  maintain 
that  the  upper  berth  was  a  very  good 


berth  and  could  be  slept  in  very  com- 
fortably. The  antagonism  .continued. 
It  found  gratification  in  the  humilia- 
tion imposed  on  the  upper  berth  by  the 
reduction  of  its  price  below  that 
charged  for  its  lower  associate.  But 
it  was  not  content  to  rest  there. 

Divers  Wisconsin  legislators  had 
noted  with  pain  and  indignation  that 
upper  berths  were  frequently  made  up 
before  the  said  berth  had  been  en- 
gaged. Now,  from  their  point  of  view 
it  was  no  doubt  bad  enough  for  an 
upper  berth  to  be  made  up  at  all.  But 
to  have  it  made  up  before  anybody  had 
even  called  for  it,  thus  cutting  off  the 
ceiling  view  of  the  tenant  of  the  lower 
berth,  apparently  struck  them  as  noth- 
ing less  than  an  imposition  which 
called  for  the  stern  correction  of  the 
law.  Whence  the  statute  passed  in 
the  legislature  of  that  state  forbidding 
this  practice. 

But  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  stepped  in  on  Monday  and  said 
that  enough  was  enough.  It  did  not 
expressly  place  its  nullification  of  the 
law  on  the  ground  that  "cruel  and  un- 
usual punishment"  is  forbidden  by  the 
Constitution  and  should  not  be  meted 
out  even  to  an  upper  berth.  But  there 
was  probably  something  of  this  feeling 
in  the  court.  It  may  now  be  taken  as 
settled  by  the  highest  tribunal  in  the 
land  that  even  an  upper  berth  has  some 
rights.  —  Chicago  Herald,  Thursday, 
June  24,  1915. 


THE  DAMAGE  SUIT  INDUSTRY. 

Following  a  series  of  sensational  ex- 
posures of  the  fakers,  ambulance  chas- 
ers and  professional  witnesses  in  the 
courts  of  St.  Paul,  the  Minnesota  law- 
makers are  now  planning  the  enact- 
ment of  statutes  that  will  put  a  crimp 
in  the  damage  suit  industry  which  has 
been  flourishing  in  that  commonwealth 
for  several  years. 

The  St.  Paul  exposures  were  com- 
plete and  effective.  Several  firms  of 
lawyers  who  had  waxed  fat  on  the 
business  of  concocting  false  damage 
and  personal  injury  claims  are  now 
seeking  new  fields  and  pastures  green, 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


and  it  is  not  wholly  improbable  that 
some  of  them  may  drift  into  Missis- 
sippi, where  the  pickings  of  this  sort 
have  always  been  exceptionally  good. 

The  newspapers  of  St.  Paul,  without 
a  dissenting  voice,  have  been  vigor- 
ously denouncing  the  professional 
grafters  who  have  saddled  an  enor- 
mous expense  on  the  taxpayers  by 
bringing  hundreds  of  personal  injury 
suits  into  the  state  from  other  com- 
monwealths, and  which  ought  to  have 
been  given  trial  in  the  states  where 
injuries  were  alleged  to  have  been  re- 
ceived. 

The  St.  Paul  Dispatch,  in  discussing 
the  question  in  a  recent  issue,  said : 

"On  account  of  the  outside  personal 
injury  litigation  brought  in  here 
through  the  activities  of  soliciting  law- 
yers and  their  agents,  this  county  was 
recently  burdened  with  the  expense  of 
establishing  an  additional  judgeship, 
and  even  with  this  added  facility  the 
courts  are  still  lamentably  behind. 

"It  is  gratifying  to  learn  that  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  are  looking  into 
the  situation.  We  think  that  they 
shall  not  have  to  look  very  far  to  see 
the  injustice  of  the  system  which  has 
wrought  so  much  inconvenience  to  our 
own  litigants. 

"In  its  last  analysis,  this  thing  nar- 
rows itself  down  to  where  there  are 
about  a  half  dozen  soliciting  lawyers 
and  their  agents  on  one  side  of  the  ques- 
tion and  all  of  the  people  on  the  other. 
Are  we  going  to  besmirch  the  entire 
state  simply  that  a  few  fellows  with 
soiled  hands  may  prosper  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  rewards  vouchsafed 
to  honest  and  legitimate  efforts? 

"It  is  injurious  to  good  citizenship  to 
allow  this  thing  to  go  on.  It  is  under- 
mining character.  In  their*  anxiety  for 
cases  and  coin  of  the  realm  lawyers 
and  solicitors  are  tempted  to  take 
chances.  Have  we  not  witnessed  a 
number  of  disgraceful  episodes  in  our 
courts  in  connection  with  these  for- 
eign cases? 

"There  are  hundreds  of  personal  in- 
jury damage  suits  from  other  states 
annually  brought  in  Ramsey  county. 


Does  any  sane  person  having  even  a 
remote  knowledge  of  how  this  traffic 
is  carried  on  believe  these  cases  come 
here  naturally  and  legitimately?  If 
there  are  no  such  persons  then  cer- 
tainly we  are  entitled  to  relief  and, 
furthermore,  we  believe  this  is  one 
question  upon  which  the  people  are 
not  divided  but  that  the  sentiment  is 
all  one  way,  barring,  of  course,  the 
handful  of  beneficiaries  of  the  per- 
nicious system  as  it  now  exists." 

We  have  had  much  experience  of  the 
same  sort  right  here  in  Mississippi. 
Of  late  years  it  has  become  a  very 
common  thing  for  litigants  from  other 
states  to  come  to  Mississippi  to  seek 
satisfaction  of  personal  injury  claims, 
selecting  for  the  filing  of  their  suits 
those  counties  where  strong  prejudice 
exists  against  the  railroads,  and  where 
they  often  receive  heavy  verdicts 
against  the  corporations,  no  matter 
how  flimsy  and  unwarranted  may  be 
their  claims. 

Many  of  the  troubles  with  which 
Mississippi's  judiciary  system  is  now 
afflicted  can  be  attributed  to  the  dam- 
age suit  lawyers,  the  faker,  the  pro- 
fessional witness  and  the  jury  fixer. 

Eight  years  ago  we  had  only  ten 
circuit  judges  in  Mississippi,  and  they 
were  able  to  attend  to  all  the  litiga- 
tion. Congested  court  dockets  were 
rarely  complained  of. 

Today  Mississippi  has  seventeen  cir- 
cuit judges,  and  in  more  than  one-third 
of  the  counties  of  the  state  the  dock- 
ets are  so  badly  congested  that  the 
judge  is  not  able  to  dispose  of  more 
than  one-half  the  business  during  the 
current  court  term.  Much  of  this 
business  consists  of  unjust  or  frivolous 
damage  suits  against  common  carriers, 
and  as  a  result  litigants  who  have 
claims  involving  real  merit  are  com- 
pelled to  wait  two  or  three  years  be- 
fore they  can  get  justice. 

On  our  supreme  court  docket  today 
there  are  more  than  eight  hundred 
cases  pending.  If  the  three  judges 
would  work  continuously  on  the  pend- 
ing business,  giving  no  attention  what- 
ever to  new  appeals  filed,  it  would  take 


27 


more  than  three  years  to  clear  the 
docket.  It  is  the  most  distressing  con- 
dition that  has  ever  confronted  judi- 
ciary system  in  this  state. 

Examine  those  eight  hundred  appeal 
cases  now  pending  before  the  supreme 
court  and  you  will  find  that  more  than 
one-third  of  the  number  are  damage 
suits  against  corporations.  Scores  of 
these  suits  are  utterly  without  merit, 
but  they  have  gained  places  on  the 
docket,  and  cases  of  merit  cannot  be 
considered  until  they  are  out  of  the 
way. 

Any  man  with  a  just  claim  who 
wants  to  have  his  cause  reviewed  be- 
fore the  state's  highest  tribunal  may  as 
well  make  up  his  mind  that  it  will  be 
at  least  three  years  before  he  can  get 
a  decision.  The  damage  suit  industry 
has  the  right-of-way. 

And,  of  course,  the  taxpayers  are 
"paying  the  piper"  for  all  his  miser- 
able mess,  while  nobody  derives  bene- 
fit therefrom  except  the  damage  suit 
lawyer.  The  litigant,  even  if  he  is  suc- 
cessful, is  compelled  to  pay  the  lawyer 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  judgment,  and 
often  has  to  wrestle  the  shyster  mighty 
hard  to  get  the  other  half. 

We  have  had  much  experience  right 
here  in  Jackson  with  suits  of  this  char- 
acter. At  our  last  civil  court  term  an 
entire  week  was  consumed  with  the 
suit  of  a  man  from  somewhere  out  in 
Nebraska,  who  claimed  that  he  was  in- 
jured in  Memphis.  There  was  not  the 
least  excuse  on  earth  for  bringing  that 


suit  to  Jackson,  cluttering  up  our  court 
docket,  displacing  other  litigants  on 
the  calendar  who  were  entitled  to  have 
their  cases  tried,  and  imposing  a  heavy 
burden  of  expense  on  our  taxpayers. 
Other  counties  of  the  state  have  suffer- 
ed more  severely  than  Hinds  in  this  re- 
gard, notably  Pike,  Copiah,  Yazoo, 
Lincoln  and  Sunflower,  which  seem  to 
be  veritable  Meccas  for  the  ambulance 
artist,  the  fake  claimant  and  the  pro- 
fessional witness. 

Mississippi  can  well  afford  to  follow 
the  example  that  Minnesota  is  about 
to  set  in  dealing  with  the  damage  suit 
industry.  There  should  be  a  rigid  lim- 
itation placed  on  actions  of  this  char- 
acter, a  denial  of  jurisdiction  unless 
the  claimant  was  actually  injured  in 
the  country  where  he  seeks  to  file  suit, 
and  a  requirement  that  the  damage 
suit  lawyer,  who  has  on  his  inside  coat 
pocket  a  contract  to  receive  fifty  per 
cent  of  the  judgment,  must  give  bond 
to  cover  all  court  costs,  and  not  hide 
his  client  behind  a  pauper's  oath. 

Wholly  aside  from  the  fact  that  the 
railroads  are  being  outrageously  rob- 
bed by  the  damage  suit  sharks,  our  own 
sense  of  fairness  and  common  decency 
ought  to  prompt  us  to  put  a  quietus  on 
this  disreputable  business  that  has 
usurped  so  large  a  place  on  the  court 
dockets  that  no  person,  regardless  of 
how  much  merit  his  cause  may  offer, 
can  get  a  prompt  hearing  in  our  tri- 
bunals of  justice. — Editorial,  Jackson 
(Miss.)  News,  May  27,  19  15. 


aqnolia./iliss. 

O^  Oleanest  town  in  the  state 

CVcxr.  H/ .  Norwood, 


Cr 


azetfe 


A  CONTEST  in  public  sanitation  this 
•**•  spring  among"  the  cities  and  towns 
of  Mississippi,  which  was  initiated  by 
the  State  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  and  inspection  and  awards  made 
by  the  State  Board  of  Health,  attract- 
ed not  only  the  attention  of  the  people 
of  this  commonwealth,  but  of  the 
whole  country  as  well.  And  when, 
after  three  official  inspections  had  been 
made,  the  State  Board  of  Health  de- 
clared that  Magnolia  was  the  Cleanest 
Town  in  Mississippi,  she  was  accorded 
national  recognition  as  a  place  worth 
while. 

It  is  doubtless  due  to  this  high  dis- 
tinction that  she  is  given  so  prominent 
a  place  in  this  issue  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Magazine,  and  that  its  readers  may 
learn  from  illustrations  and  sketch 
something  of  the  history  and  progress 
of  this  community. 

Magnolia's  history  as  a  railroad  town 
dates  back  to  the  year  1856,  when  the 
old  New  Orleans,  Jackson  &  Great 
Northern  Railroad  was  completed  the 
first  hundred  miles  from  its  southern 
terminus,  and  reached  the  then  small 
and  inconsequential  village  called  Mag- 
nolia. 

But  as  far  back  as  1820,  some  pio- 
neer families  of  the  older  states  had 
settled  here.  In  that  year,  John  Felder 


emigrated  from  South  Carolina,  halted 
his  team  on  the  banks  of  Tangipahoa 
River,  and  built  a  log  cabin  on  the 
identical  spot  where  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral depot  at  Magnolia  now  stands. 
Four  years  later  was  born  in  that 
cabin  the  first  white  child  ever  born  in 
Magnolia.  This  was  Robert  H.  Fel- 
der, who  still  lives  in  this  county,  hale 
and  hearty  despite  his  great  age  of  91 
years. 

From  this  period  to  the  coming  of 
the  railroad,  36  years  later,  but  little  is 
known  of  Magnolia.  Indeed,  the  date 
when  the  settlement  first  attained  the 
dignity  of  a  name  cannot  be  stated  with 
certainty.  It  is  legendary  that  a  New 
Orleans  lady,  on  her  first  visit  here, 
was  so  impressed  with  the  number  and 
beauty  of  the  magnolia  trees,  which  arc 
still  characteristic  of  the  place,  that  she 
called  it  "Magnolia." 

The  New  Orleans,  Jackson  &  Great 
Northern  R.  R.  was  completed  to  Mag- 
nolia in  the  fall  of  1856,  and  soon  the 
little  town  felt  the  stimulus  of  com- 
mercial activity  which  a  railroad  al- 
ways provides. 

Anselm  H.  Prewitt  was  then  the 
owner  of  the  land,  and  under  his  direc- 
tion the  squares  and  streets  were  laid 
off  as  neatly  and  exactly  as  a  checker- 
board. 


28 


30 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


The  location  is  ideal  for  a  town.  On 
its  eastern  border  is  the  Tangipahoa 
River,  a  small  stream  of  water  fed  by 
springs  and  clear  as  crystal.  Its  west- 
ern boundary  is  a  beautiful  little  brook 
called  Minnehaha.  Between  these  two 
streams  runs  a  ridge,  and  on  the  slopes 
of  the  elevation  the  town  is  built. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in 
1861  checked  the  groAvth  of  the  town, 
which  had  been  rapid  since  the  coming 
of  the  railroad,  as  it  did  that  of  every 
other  Southern  community.  The  ensu- 
ing four  years  of  Magnolia's  history 
differs  in  no  essential  detail  from  that 
of  every  other  city,  town  and  village 
in  the  South.  With  all  her  able-bodied 
men  enlisted  in  the  war,  the  old  men 
and  women  and  children  left  at  home, 
centered  their  thoughts  upon  the  stern 
problem  of  daily  sustenance. 

Fortunately,  the  tide  of  warfare 
flowed  away  frorrr  Magnolia,  and  the 
town  never  suffered  the  ruin  and  deso- 
lation which  fell  upon  many  other 
communities  of  this  state.  But,  with 
the  establishment  here  in  1863  of  a 
large  hospital  for  the  care  of  wounded 
soldiers,  she  saw  the  ripened  harvest 
of  battlefields.  In  the  Magnolia  cem- 
etery now  there  lie  buried  two  hundred 
and  twenty-nine  soldiers  whose  iden- 
tity is  unknown,  and  a  beautiful  cus- 
tom of  the  community  is  observed  an- 
nually when  on  Decoration  Day  the 
school  children  strew  these  nameless 
graves  with  flowers. 

By  vote  of  the  people  of  Pike  county 
in  1871,  Magnolia  became  the  county 
seat.  Since  December,  1816,  the  seat 
of  justice  had  been  located  at  Holmes- 
ville.  The  corner  stone  of  the  new 
courthouse  at  Magnolia  was  laid  on 
May  27,  1876.  This  building,  togeth- 
er with  all  the  public  records  and 
county  archives,  was  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1881.  The  court  house  was  immedi- 
ately rebuilt,  but  the  loss  of  the  rec- 
ords was  irreparable. 

A  steady  growth  has  characterized 
Magnolia  from  the  location  of  the 
court  house  here  to  the  present  time, 
but  the  decade  1900-1910  witnessed  her 
most  rapid  and  substantial  progress. 


During  this  period  substantial  brick 
buildings  replaced  the  flimsy  wooden 
structures  in  which  the  majority  of 
commercial  concerns  transacted  busi- 
ness. Many  handsome  residences  were 
built  and  people  began  to  pay  atten- 
tion to  the  improvement  of  their  homes 
and  private  premises.  Several  indus- 
trial enterprises  were  launched,  the 
most  important  of  these  being  the  Mag- 
nolia Cotton  Mills,  in  which  nearly  half 
a  million  dollars  is  invested.  A  hun- 
dred thousand  dollar  oil  mill  and  a 
sixty  thousand  dollar  compress  were 
constructed  during  this  period,  as  well 
as  an  ice  factory  and  an  electric  light 
plant. 

The  community  began,  also,  to  re- 
alize the  importance  of  municipal  im- 
provement. Up  to  this  time  typhoid 
fever  was  prevalent  here.  The  water 
supply  was  obtained  from  wells  and 
the  subterranean  springs  were  so  near 
the  sufrace  that  pollution  was  unavoid- 
able. Responding  to  suggestion  by  the 
town  authorities,  the  people  voted 
unanimously  for  the  issuance  of  $25,000 
bonds  for  the  construction  of  a  water- 
works system.  The  work  was  begun 
at  once.  Four  hundred  feet  deep  an 
inexhaustible  supply  of  water  was  ob- 
tained which  the  state  chemist  pro- 
nounced absolutely  pure.  Since  then 
there  has  not  been  a  single  case  of 
typhoid  fever  within  the  corporate  lim- 
its traceable  to  local  infection. 

A  few  years  after  the  installation  of 
water  works,  the  board  01  aldermen 
constructed  a  sewerage  system.  Then 
followed  the  erection  of  a  splendid 
modern  school  building,  and  after  that 
the  laying  of  concrete  sidewalks  and 
street  crossings  throughout  the  mu- 
nicipality. 

With  electric  lights,  waterworks, 
sewerage,  sidewalks  and  public  build- 
ings, Magnolia  can  boast  of  more  mu- 
nicipal improvements  than  any  town 
of  its  size  in  the  state,  if  not  in  the 
Union. 

All  of  these  progressive  steps  were 
taken  without  friction.  The  unanimous 
vote  on  waterworks  bonds  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  unanimous  vote  on  school 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


31 


bonds,  and  not  the  slightest  objection 
has  been  made  to  any  public  improve- 
ment. 

The  recent  campaign  conducted  here 
in  the  Cleanest  Town  Contest  devel- 
oped and  emphasized  the  spirit  of  com- 
munity co-operation  which  exists  in 
Magnolia  to  an  uncommon  extent. 

As  soon  as  the  regulations  of  the 
contest  were  promulgated  by  the  Mis- 
sissippi Federation  of  Women's  Clubs, 
Magnolia  determined,  as  one  man,  to 
win  the  prize. 

There  are  two  women's  clubs  here— 
The  Embroidery  and  the  Musicians' 
Club.  Since  their  organization  several 
years  ago  they  have  been  active  in  the 
work  of  civic  improvement.  So  also 
has  the  men's  social  organization — 
Stonewall  Club. 

The  club  women  got  together  and 
planned  the  work  of  making  Magnolia 
the  Cleanest  Town  in  Mississippi. 
They  called  a  mass  meeting  of  citizens. 
The  mass  meeting  appointed  a  Gen- 
eral, or  Central  Committee,  and  that 
committee  named  sub-committees  to 
direct  the  various  branches  of  the  work. 
There  were  committees  on  business 
houses,  streets  and  alleys,  public  build- 
ings, railroad  right-of-way,  waterworks 
and  sewerage,  vacant  lots,  private 
premises,  and  a  committee  composed 
exclusively  of  negroes  was  named  to 
look  after  their  part  of  town. 

Mass  meetings  were  held  every  week 
when  reports  of  committees  were  heard 
and  the  progress  of  the  work  discussed. 
The  co-operation  of  county  and  town 
officials  was  enlisted  and  secured,  and 
public  buildings,  including  the  county 
jail,  received  special  attention. 

Magnolia  had  always  been  remark- 
ably clean  and  her  people  were  notable 
for  the  pride  they  took  in  their  indi- 
vidual premises.  But  never  before  had 
there  been  a  community  movement  for 
a  cleaner  town. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
every  man,  woman  and  child  became 
enthusiastically  a  working  part  of  this 
movement.  There  was  no  opposition, 
no  pulling  back  anywhere  discernible. 
During  the  last  days  of  the  campaign 


an  inspection  by  members  of  the  Cen- 
tral Committee  disclosed  the  fact  that 
every  private  premise  had  been  put  in 
order.  The  rich  man,  with  his  spacious 
lawns,  always  well-kept,  down  to  the 
poverty-stricken  negro  in  the  rented 
cabin  heard  alike  the  call  for  cleanli- 
ness, and  each  performed  the  full  meas- 
ure of  his  part. 

The  town  authorities  backed  the 
movement  with  legal  command,  and 
enacted  an  ordinance  requiring  the 
screening  of  all  outside  toilets  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  State  Board  of 
Health  regulations.  But  it  was  never 
invoked  against  anybody,  and  when 
the  official  inspectors  made  their  close 
and  searching  survey  of  sanitary  con- 
ditions in  Magnolia,  they  found  every 
one  of  these  common  menaces  to  health 
barred  to  the  typhoid  fly  and  their  dan- 
gers eliminated. 

During  the  last  days  of  the  cam- 
paign, "everybody  worked" — even 
"father."  Half-hoiidays  were  given 
the  school  children,  and  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  club  women,  they  swept 
the  town's  highways  clean  of  waste- 
paper  and  trash  of  all  kinds. 

Magnolia  submitted  to  three  official 
inspections. 

The  first  was  made  by  the  County 
Health  Officer,  Dr.  W.  D.  Beacham, 
and  the  County  Superintendent  of  Ed- 
ucation, S.  W.  Simmons.  Their  report 
to  the  State  Board  of  Health  showed 
a  practically  perfect  score,  only  a  frac- 
tion of  one  point  being  deducted  by  the 
inspectors. 

A  week  later,  Dr.  Walley,  Chief  San- 
itary Inspector  of  the  State,  made  the 
second  inspection.  His  investigation 
of  conditions  here  was  very  thorough, 
and  his  report  to  the  State  Board  put 
Magnolia  at  the  top  of  the  list  of  con- 
testing cities. 

But  the  State  Board  evidently  de- 
sired to  be  indubitably  certain  that 
Magnolia  was  the  Cleanest  Town  in 
Mississippi,  and  that  her  cleanliness 
was  of  a  permanent  character.  All 
other  towns  and  cities  contesting  for 
the  prize  were  inspected  and  a  full 
month  elapsed  before  Dr.  W.  S.  Leath- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


33 


ers,  Director  of  Health  in  Mississippi, 
came  here  to  make  the  last  inspection. 

A  few  days  later,  the  State  Board 
made  the  awards,  and  Magnolia  was 
declared  to  be  not  only  the  cleanest  of 
towns  in  her  class,  but  THE  CLEAN- 
EST TOWN  IN  MISSISSIPPI. 

The  growth  of  the  town  has  been 
checked  to  some  extent  during  the  past 
four  years  by  the  havoc  wrought  by 
the  Mexican  boll-weevil  in  the  cotton 
fields. 

Five  years  ago  cotton  was  the  chief 
money  crop  of  farmers  in  this  section, 
and  the  trade  of  every  town  depended 
largely  upon  the  size  of  the  crop  and 
the  price  received  for  it. 

If  the  crop  was  good  and  the  price 
at  least  ten  cents  a  pound — everybody 
was  prosperous,  in  the  sense  that  there 
was  plenty  of  money  in  circulation. 
During  the  year  the  merchants  fur- 
nished the  farmers  their  supplies.  Ba- 
con, corn,  oats,  meal,  flour  and  all  kinds 
of  foodstuffs  for  man  and  beast  were 
imported  from  the  great  food-producing 
states  of  the  Middle  West,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  horses  and  mules  for  farm  work 
animals. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  the  farmer 
picked  and  ginned  his  cotton,  hauled 
it  to  town  and  turned  it  over  to  the 
merchant.  The  latter  credited  the 
farmers'  account  with  the  proceeds  of 
the  cotton  at  current  market  prices. 
Sometimes  there  was  a  balance  in  fa- 
vor of  the  farmer;  but  more  frequently 
he  closed  the  year  owing  his  merchant. 

Then  came  the  Mexican  boll-weevil 
and  revolutionized  the  business  of 
farming  in  this  section. 

Pike  county's  cotton  crop,  which  in 
normal  years  had  averaged  25,000  bales, 
dropped  as  low  as  3,000  bales.  Last 
year,  with  weather  conditions  favorable 
to  the  destruction  of  the  weevil,  the 
crop  amounted  to  approximately  8,000 
bales. 

This  condition  has  forced  the  farm- 
er here  to  turn  his  attention  to  diver- 
sified farming.  No  longer  are  his  best 
lands  planted  to  cotton.  He  is  grow- 
ing corn,  oats,  peas,  hays,  and  the  com- 


paratively few  cotton  acres  on  his  place 
are  regarded  as  a  side-line. 

Heretofore  the  Texas  fever  tick  so 
infested  this  country  that  the  growing 
of  cattle  was  unprofitable.  Now,  Pike 
county,  under  the  direction  of  the  State 
Live  Stock  Sanitary  Board  and  the 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  of  the  U. 
S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  is  de- 
stroying the  ticks,  and  it  is  believed 
that  by  the  first  of  next  November  the 
tick  quarantine  against  the  county  will 
be  lifted. 

Farmers  are  learning  that  the  soil 
and  climate  of  this  section  are  the  finest 
in  the  world  for  the  production  of  cat- 
tle. The  cut-over  pine  lands  afford 
rich  pasturage  from  March  to  Decem- 
ber, and  during  the  mild  winter  the 
swamps  of  small  streams  and  rivers 
furnish  an  abundance  of  green  stuff. 

There  are  unmistakable  indications 
that  prosperity  is  returning  to  the 
farmer,  and  that  it  will  be  a  prosperity 
resting  upon  foundations  so  broad  and 
deep  that  it  will  be  permanent. 

Already  the  importation  of  foodstuffs 
here  has  shown  a  marked  decrease,  and 
farmers  in  this  territory  are  learning 
that  the  best  place  for  a  farmer's  corn- 
crib  and  smoke  house  is  on  his  farm 
and  not  in  the  store  of  the  merchant  in 
town. 

The  remarkable  co-operation  of  the 
people  of  this  community,  and  the  free- 
dom from  factional  strife  which  the 
town  enjoys,  have  been  largely  respon- 
sible for  its  substantial  growth. 

Not  only  so,  but  the  moral  tone  of 
the  community  is  high.  Law  and  or- 
der prevail  here.  There  is  no  rowydism 
on  the  streetsj  no  drunkenness  in  pub- 
lic; no  dens  of  infamy;  no  places  of  ill- 
repute. 

There  is  not  an  habitual  drunkard 
in  Magnolia;  nor  a  professional  gam- 
bler, nor  a  common  loafer. 

Even  the  negro  population — large,  as 
it  usually  is  in  Southern  towns — is 
peaceable  and  law  abiding,  and,  seem- 
ingly, imbued  with  the  spirit  of  civic 
righteousness. 

All    the   leading   denominations   are 


(0 

CO 


o 

8 


K 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  35 

represented    here-  -Baptist,    Methodist,  nolia  in  furnishing  superior  train  ser- 

Presbyterian,    Episcopalian   and    Cath-  vice,  and  there  are    six    trains    going 

olic — and  all  have  creditable  houses  of  south  and  five  going  north,  which  make 

worship.  regular  stops. 

The  distance  to  New  Orleans  is  just  Taking    everything    into    considera- 

98  miles,  and  the  fast  trains  of  the  II-  tion,   there   is   no   better   place   in   the 

linois    Central    make    the    run    in    two  world     to     live     than     Magnolia — the 

hours  and  forty  minutes.  The  railroad  BEST,    as   well    as    the    CLEANEST 

has  been  exceptionally  good  to  Mag-  TOWN  IN  MISSISSIPPI. 


Cleanest  Town  in  Mississippi  Campaign 

That  the  award  of  first  place,  Class  C,  in  the  "Cleanest  Town  in  Missis- 
sippi Contest"  to  Magnolia,  is  not  only  gratifying  to  the  people  of  that  grow- 
ing and  thrifty  little  city,  but  to  the  management  of  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R. 
Co.  as  well,  is  evidenced  by  the  following  correspondence : 

June  12,  1915. 

Mr.  C.  H.  Markham,  Pres.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co., 
1201  Michigan  Ave., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir: 

We,  the  Central  Committee  for  Magnolia,  Mississippi,  in  the  recent 
"Clean  Up"  contest  between  the  cities,  towns  and  villages  in  this  state,  desire 
to  express  the  grateful  appreciation  of  this  entire  community  to  the  manage- 
ment of  the  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  and  especially  R.  S.  Brent,  agent,  and  his  helpers, 
Section  Foremen  J.  N.  Holmes  and  Albert  Brent,  for  their  splendid  efforts  in 
the  work  which  contributed  so  much  in  enabling  Magnolia  to  win  the  prize 
for  being  the  cleanest  town  of  its  class,  plus  the  distinction  of  being  pro- 
nounced by  the  Mississippi  State  Board  of  Health  the  cleanest  town  in  the 
state  of  Mississippi. 

Very  respectfully, 

MRS.  J.  E.  NORWOOD, 
MRS.  R.  E.  JONES, 
J.  S.  MOORE, 
F.  C.  KORNRUMPF, 
C.  E.  BRUMFIELD, 
E.  W.  REID, 

Central  Committee. 
Mrs.  J.  E.  Norwood,  June  15,  1915. 

Magnolia,  Miss. 
Dear  Madam : 

I  beg  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  letter  dated  June  12th,  signed  by  yourself 
and  others  constituting  a  Central  Committee  for  Magnolia  in  the  recent 
"Clean  Up"  contest,  and  am  very  appreciative  of  the  spirit  which  prompted 
you  in  writing  me  on  the  subject.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  our  people 
were  of  assistance  in  the  work  which  enabled  Magnolia  to  gain  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  the  cleanest  town  in  the  state  (which  is  indeed  an  honor),  and 
the  matter  will  be  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  employes  interested. 
Again  thanking  you,  I  remain, 

Yours  very  truly, 

C.  H.  MARKHAM. 


it-would,  be  an.  unruly  cow  that 
would  not  be  docile  under 

such  conditions 


Traffic 
Departm^l 

wth  1 


A  Little  Dinner  Party 


T  HAVE  my  belief,  even  now,  that  the 
•*  Rambler  was  deliberately  going  to 
cut  me.  and  only  thought  better  of  it 
when  he  saw  that  the  Trunk  Lady  was 
inclined  to  vouchsafe  to  me  the  com- 
mon courtesy  of  a  passing  acquaint- 
ance. It  all  occurred  on  Michigan 
avenue,  Chicago,  near  one  of  the  great 
hotels  that  face  that  famous  boulevard; 
and,  of  course,  when  I  mention  the 
"Trunk  Lady"  I  refer  to  she  whom 
we  met  at  the  Gulf  Coast  resort  and 
whom  the  Rambler  slightly  assisted,  in 
line  with  his  duty,  to  recover  a  lost 
trunk.  She  to  whom  I  was  introduced 
as  well  as  the  Rambler,  but  for  whom 
1  had  ever  since  thought  the  Rambler 
displayed  more  interest  than  the  sim- 
ple facts  warranted.  But  after  all,  I 
doubt  if  I  really  blame  the  Rambler 
for  that  evident  temptation  to  cut  me 
when  I  recall  that  I  caught  him  stand- 
ing before  a  shop  window  with  two 
ladies,  one  of  them  the  Trunk  Lady, 
to  whom  he  was  pointing  out  something 
about  the  gorgeous  display  of  ladies' 
gowns  that  were  temptingly  arrayed 
behind  the  plate  glass.  I  myself  had 
just  turned  on  to  the  avenue  from  off 
Congress  street,  and  came  unexpected- 
ly upon  the  trio,  much  evidently  to 
the  Rambler's  embarrassment.  In 


turning  his  head  toward  one  of  the 
ladies  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  as 
to  what  interested  him  in  that  window, 
he  for  an  instant  looked  me  full  in  the 
face,  and  that  he  recognized  me  I  am 
sure  by  his  expression.  But  he  turned 
quickly  away,  and  would  have,  I  am 
sure,  been  only  too  glad  to  let  me  pass 
along  without  acknowledgment  but 
for  the  Trunk  Lady  herself.  She  too 
had  seen  me,  and  much  to  my  surprise 
not  only  remembered  me  but  gave  me 
a  little  nod  and  smile  of  recognition. 
Of  course,  it  was  then  all  off  with  the 
Rambler's  riding  a  high  horse  so  swift- 
ly by  me.  So  he  came  down,  and  af- 
ter a  cordial  greeting,  at  which  he  pro- 
fessed pleasure  at  my  having  so  op- 
portunely happened  along,  introduced 
me  to  the  other  lady  and  proposed  that 
we  four  make  up  a  little  dinner  party. 
As  the  ladies  rather  indicated  that  such 
would  be  agreeable  to  them,  I  acceded 
with  an  inward  chuckle  at  the  Ram- 
bler's'smoothness  in  thus  dividing  his 
responsibilities  as  a  host.  ''Case  of 
three  being  a  crowd,"  I  thought  to  my- 
self. It  will  be  nearer  "two  is  com- 
pany" for  him  if  in  dividing  my  atten- 
tions I  unconsciously  talk  more  to  the 
Trunk  Lady's  friend  than  to  her.  In 
truth,  that  thought  rather  pleased  me, 


37 


Business  Section, Magnolia., Miss. 


i 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


39 


for  the  friend  seemed  very  charming, 
whereas  I  was  rather  afraid  of  the  teas- 
ing procilivities  of  the  Trunk  Lady  as 
I  had  noticed  them  during  her  evening's 
chat  with  the  Rambler  at  the  Southern 
resort. 

As  may  be  imagined,  the  Rambler 
led  off  to  one  of  the  famous  cafes  on 
the  avenue,  and  we  four  were  soon 
seated  around  a  table  in  a  cozy  corner. 
For  the  want  of  something  better  to 
say  at  the  moment,  as  the  waiter  wa.-> 
taking  our  joint  order  from  the  Ram- 
bler, I  asked  the  Trunk  Lady's  friend 
if  she  resided  in  Chicago.  Before  she 
could  reply  the  former  laughingly 
broke  in  with,  "Of  course  not!  Didn't 
you  catch  her  name — Miss  Ouri?  That 
would  indicate  she  is  from  the  'show 
me'  state,  would  it  not?"  "I'm  not 
from  Missouri.  I  am  from  Texas !" 
was  the  quick  but  good-natured  re- 
joinder. "I  will  admit,  though,"  she 
went  on,  "that  I  am  being  shown  as 
far  as  Chicago  is  concerned.  It's  a 
funny  thing,"  she  added  musingly, 
"that,  aside  from  the  pleasure  of  be- 
ing with  my  friend,  I  should  be  visit- 
ing Chicago  purely  as  a  summer  resort. 
I  have  been  to  Colorado  and  to  Cali- 
fornia, in  the  winter  season  to  Florida, 
and  at  different  times  to  most  of  the 
principal  northern  resorts  and  to  the 
great  national  parks.  I  have  even  in- 
cluded lake  and  coastwise  sea  trips  in 
my  itineraries.  None  of  them,  how- 
ever, appealed  to  me  this  spring  when 
I  began  to  think  of  my  summer  holiday. 
So  I  cast  about  in  my  mind  for  some- 
thing new.  I  wrote  to  a  railroad  Gen- 
eral Passenger  Agent  in  the  southwest, 
who  is  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  for 
literature  pertaining  to  northern  re- 
sorts, telling  him  I  wanted  to  'go  some- 
where' and  to  send  me  anything  he  had 
or  could  collect  for  me  that  would 
help  to  a  decision.  I  shall  never  for- 
get his  somewhat  whimsical  reply," 
she  added  with  a  laugh.  "It  was  to 
the  effect  that  he  would  be  glad  to  ac- 
commodate me  and  was  in  position  to 
do  so  if  I  would  prepare  several  shelves 
in  our  library  book-case  to  receive  sam- 
ples of  literature  that  he  could  forward 


if  I  still  wanted  him  to.  He  said  he 
was  well  stocked  with  hotel,  steam- 
ship and  railroad  folders  from  almost 
every  line  in  the  country  north  of  Kan- 
sas City,  Memphis  and  Pittsburgh,  to 
say  nothing  of  beautiful  booklets  ex- 
patiating on  the  beauties  and  advan- 
tages of  resorts  thickly  strewn  from 
California  to  Maine.  I  remember  a 
paragraph  of  that  letter  that  particu- 
larly amused  me.  'In  fact,'  he  wrote, 
'so  delighted  are  we  to  receive  this 
matter  for  distribution  that  we  have 
placed  our  own  advertising  folders  and 
booklets  under  the  counter  in  order 
that  we  may  accommodate  *our  large 
army  of  friends  in  the  north  who  seem 
to  need  help.'  But  being,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it.  a  personal  friend  of  mine, 
he  thought  perhaps  I  might  get  some- 
what confused  if  he  sent  me  a  sample 
of  everything  he  could,  and  suggested 
that  I  outline  somewhat  broadly  my 
preferences  as  to  the  nature  of  the  re- 
sort desired  in  order  that  he  might 
make  a  selection.  Of  course  his  letter 
in  the  main  was  jocose,  but  I  saw  the 
point  and  was  thinking  the  matter  over 
when  two  things  happened  that  influ- 
enced my  decision.  I  received  a  let- 
ter from  this  Trunk  Lady  here,  say- 
ing that  she  presumed  that  I  would  be 
on  my  travels  shortly  and  that  she 
hoped  I  would  so  adjust  my  destina- 
tion as  to  make  her  a  visit  here  in 
Chicago,  at  least  en  route.  At  about 
the  same  time  there  appeared  in  the 
Texas  daily  newspapers  an  advertise- 
ment of  the  Illinois  Central  setting 
forth  the  claims  of  your  good  city 
of  Chicago  as  a  summer  resort.  I 
smiled  a  little  on  reading  it  at  what  I 
considered  was  probably  a  case  of  look- 
ing through  rose-colored  spectacles  on 
the  part  of  the  writer  of  that  adver- 
tisement. However,  I  answered  my 
friend  here  that  I  would  make  her  a 
visit.  In  the  meantime,  after  telling 
her  of  the  claims  made  for  her  city,  I 
said  that  the  length  of  my  visit  would 
depend  upon  how  I  found  it  as  a  truly 
summer  resort,  the  real  facts  concern- 
ing which  I  meant  to  investigate  for 
myself  if  she  would  be  my  guide  and 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


chaperon.  If  Chicago  were  found  want- 
ing I  would  make  plans  to  push  further 
on,  taking  her  with  me." 

"Yes,"  said  her  friend,  "you  know 
that  letter  of  her's  set  me  to  thinking. 
Chicago  has  been  my  home  all  my  life, 
although  from  time  to  time  I  have 
traveled  a  great  deal.  Of  course,  I 
know  more  or  less  about  the  city,  and 
you  may  be  sure  I  am  loyal  to  it.  That 
1  take  pride  in  its  real  material  great- 
ness and  achievement,  but,"  she  added, 
"do  you  know,  it  had  never  struck  me 
particularly  from  the  resort  point  of 
view.  I  knew  and  enjoyed  its  parks, 
its  lake  breezes  and  vistas,  its  shops, 
and  other  features  that  have  come 
within  the  routine  of  my  personal  life; 
but  just  how  it  could  be  considered, 
with  my  knowledge  of  a  great  many 
so-called  resorts,  in  the  light  of  an 
out-and-out  summer  resort  was  a  mat- 
ter that  dawned  upon  me  for  the  first 
time.  I  was  really  curious  to  know — 
to  put  together  this  and  that  and  see 
if  the  combination  made  that  which 
would  justify  the  claim.  I  asked  the 
Rambler  about  it  one  day — "  "You 
did?"  I  impolitely  broke  in.  "then  you 
certainly  got  the  information,  and  got 
it  right.  You're  a  believer  now-,  I 
warrant;  for  give  him  a  chance  and  he 
will  make  anyone  believe  that  a  beg- 
gar's rags  is  the  same  thing  as  an  er- 
mine-lined purple  robe  of  royalty." 

"You're  very  impolite,"  said  the 
Rambler,  "to  interrupt  the  lady,  to  say 
nothing  of .  your  base  insinuation  of 
myself.  You  know  I  am  never  given 
to  drawing  the  long  bow!  Of  course, 
I  called  her  attention  to  the  fact  that 
from  a  climatic  point  of  view  it  was 
doubtful  if  Chicago  could  be  beat  dur- 
ing the  summer  months,  having  as  it 
has  so  many  delightfully  comfortable 
days  with  sunny  skies  and  with  its  cool 
breezes  from  off  the  lake."  "Yes," 
the  lady  chimed  in,  "and  he  also  said 
there  was  nothing  pent  up  or  enclosed 
about  the  city;  claiming  that  its  won- 
derful parks  and  connecting  boulevard 
system,  its  general  up-building  on  the 
open  order  principle,  and  its  vast  out- 
lying prairie  country  flanking  its  land 


boundaries,  was  an  aid  to  the  climatic 
influence  of  the  lake,  as  breezes  were 
thus  given  free  circulation  from  all 
quarters." 

"Certainly,"  said  Miss  Ouri,  "I  was 
told  all  that  when  I  got  here,  but  for 
a  few  days  I  still  had  in  mind  the 
thought  that  as  the  second  largest  city 
of  the  country  and  the  fifth  largest  in 
the  world,  Chicago  must  posses  cer- 
tain predominating  metropolitan  fea- 
tures, such  as  huge  walls  of  monoton- 
ous buildings,  that,  while  they  might 
be  interesting  in  passing,  did  not  seem 
to  be  in  harmony  with  the  generally 
accepted  idea  of  a  place  for  an  out- 
ing where  the  chief  thing  to  be  desired 
is  the  out-of-doors  life." 

"It  is  to  be  hoped,"  I  observed,  '"that 
you  have  learned  by  this  time  (I  under- 
stand you  have  been  here  now  about 
three  weeks)  that  there  is  practically 
no  limit  to  wliat  a  Chicagoan  and  those 
within  its  gates  can  do  in  the  matter  of 
out-of-doors  diversion  if  they  go  about 
it  in  the  right  way."  "That  is  just  the 
delightful  thing  about  it  all,"  said  the 
Trunk  Lady  with  animation.  "I  mean 
the  going  about  of  it  in  the  right  way. 
After  my  talk  with  the  Rambler  I  made 
up  my  mind  that  I  would  try  to  see  my 
home  city  from  a  tourist  point  of  view 
and  learn  all  that  there  is  in  it  to  at- 
tract and  hold  strangers.  Hence,  with 
Miss  Ouri  here,  I  have  been  extending 
my  general  knowledge  along  detail 
lines,  both  for  my  friend's  sake  and  my 
own,  and  really,"  she  added  enthusias- 
tically, "I  am  surprised  myself.  Thus 
far  wre  have  been  having  a  beautiful 
time.  The  Rambler  has  taken  us  to 
his  Country  Club  several  times,  where 
we  had  some  golf  and  incidentally 
learned  of  the  many  additional  golf 
grounds  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  city.  We  have  been  motoring  and 
found  the  several  tours  that  we  have 
already  made,  delightful  from  a  scenic 
point  of  view.  We  have  not  yet  ex- 
hausted the  resources  in  that  line  by 
any  means,  for  I  am  told  that  within 
the  city  alone  one  can  travel  over  180 
miles  of  boulevard  and  park  drives." 

"Yes,"  I  added,  "and  you  can  make 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


41 


a  run  of  about  thirty  miles  following 
the  lake  shore  through  beautiful  sub- 
urbs to  Fort  Sheridan  and  the  Govern- 
ment Naval  Training  Station;  west- 
ward you  can  motor  to  the  Fox  Lake 
and  Geneva  Lake  regions,  and  to  Del- 
avan,  Elgin  and  Aurora ;  or  southward 
for  about  180  miles  or  more  a  motor 
trip  can  be  taken  to  Starved  Rock,  Deer 
Park,  and  a  section  of  the  Illinois  River 
country  replete  with  a  historic  past." 

"Oh !  we'll  find  them  all,"  ("and  then 
some,"  interpolated  the  Rambler),  "also 
the  lake  trips,  long  and  short,"  contin- 
ued Miss  Ouri.  "We  have  already 
taken  two  of  the  last,  and  the  Rambler 
has  promised  to  show  us  Milwaukee 
if  we  will  take  the  whaleback  steamship 
trip  next  Saturday.  But  what  I  have 
most  enjoyed  so  far,"  she  enthusias- 
tically exclaimed,  "is  what  I  see  and 
enjoy  in  your  parks  and  at  the  bathing 
beaches.  There  is  where  the  universal 
out-of-doors  life  is  enjoyed  by  appar- 
ently all  classes  of  people.  And  every- 
thing is  on  so  large  a  scale,  and  so  free 
and  untrammelled  with  petty  and  an- 
noying restrictions.  I  have  seen  many 
cities  and  their  parks,  the  most  of  the 
latter  extremely  beautiful,  but  evident- 
ly cherished  more  as  show  places  than 
for  the  unrestricted  use  of  the  people. 
On  the  face  of  things  you  seem  to  have 
no  restrictions  here,  and  I  have  yet  to 
observe  any  apparent  abuses.  Their 
golf  courses,  their  innumerable  tennis 
courts  and  baseball  diamonds  are  free. 
Their  ample  boating  facilities  are  at  a 
minimum  toll,  and,  for  which  'glory 
be,'  their  'keep  off  the  grass'  signs  are 
conspicuous  for  their  absence.  And  do 
you  know !"  she  continued,  "they  are 
full,  these  parks  are,  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful nooks  and  corners.  I  know  this 
because  Avith  my  kodak  I  have  gotten 
out  of  the  beaten  paths  and  discovered 
them.  Really,  if  gone  about  in  the 
right  way,  there  is  more  diversion  and 
more  opportunity  in  your  parks  and  on 
your  bathing  beaches  alone,  for  the  con- 
tinuous out-of-doors  life  than  I  have 
discovered  in  any  one  resort  that  I  have 
ever  visited  before." 

The  Rambler  had  evidently  become 


tired  of  having  no  chance  to  say  a 
word  for  at  least  the  past  three  min- 
utes, so  he  took  this  opportunity  to  re- 
ply to  Miss  Ouri  by  saying:  "I  quite 
agree  with  all  that  you  say,  Miss •  Ouri, 
and  will  add  that  the  facilities  that  you 
speak  of  have  the  additional  advantage 
of  not  being  located  in  any  one  spot. 
Our  parks  and  connecting  boulevard 
system  alone  aggregates  4,612  acres. 
The  parks  are  divided  into  three  prin- 
cipal groups  in  as  many  sections  of  the 
city,  and  I  think  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  they  and  the  boulevards  are 
most  beautiful  examples  of  the  best  art 
in  landscape  gardening.  Furthermore, 
it  surely  is  extremely  doubtful  if  in  any 
city  of  the  world  more  is  done  for  the 
pleasure  of  the  people,  or  that  in  any 
other  city  the  people  of  alt  classes  get 
more  rational  and  continuous  enjoy- 
ment out  of  their  parks  than  is  the  case 
with  us  here.  Then  you  know  that  in 
addition  to  the  large  parks  we  have  in- 
numerable small  community  parks, 
famous  the  world  over,  and  small  mu- 
nicipal parks,  playgrounds  and  bath- 
ing beaches.  As  to  the  last,  the  bath- 
ing beaches,  they  are  as  yet  with  us 
possibly  in  a  relative  infancy,  although 
even  today  these  beaches  are  flanking 
the  heart  of  .the  great  residential  dis- 
tricts of  the  city  from  79th  street  on  the 
south,  to  Clarendon  street  on  the  north. 
Alternating  with  these  and  for  fifteen 
miles  north,  is  also  a  number  of  free 
and  private  beaches.  Fees  for  bathing 
suits  and  lockers  are  nominal,  and  if 
you  go  to  the  beaches  from  your  board- 
ing house  or  hotel  in  your  own  bathing 
suit  the  lake  is  free.  In  this  connec- 
tion I  suppose  you  have  noticed  that 
with  its  location  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Michigan,  Chicago  is  practically  a  sea- 
shore city  in  every  respect,  except  that 
the  waters  that  lave  its  shores  are  fresh 
instead  of  salt.  From  its  beaches  and 
water  front  one  looks  out  on  the  same 
broad  expense  and  water-line  horizon 
as  does  one  at  the  Atlantic  Coast  re- 
sorts. With  this  naturally  goes  our 
facilities  for  lake  trips,  varying  from 
little  local  excursions  to  the  parks  and 
beaches  to  an  extended  tour  of  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


43 


chain  of  Great  Lakes.  Among  these 
sliorter  trips  are  those  of  a  day  or  more 
to  neighboring  cities  such  as  Milwau- 
kee, Michigan  City,  St.  Joseph,  Benton 
Harbor,  South  Haven,  Holland,  Sauga- 
tuck,  Grand  Haven  and  Muskegon;  the 
steamship  service  for  which  is  of  the 
best,  with  efficient  up-to-date  boats  rig- 
idly guarded  by  the  federal  authorities 
against  carrying  a  single  passenger  over 
capacity."  "That  reminds  me,"  said 
the  Trunk  Lady,  with  a  little  nod  of  ac- 
quiescence to  all  that  the  Rambler  had 
said,  "when  we  took  one  of  our  lake 
trips  last  week  I  was  surprised  as  to 
what  I  saw  in  the  inner,  or  yacht  har- 
bor. I  had  no  idea  that  the  yacht  and 
motor  boat  interests  of  Chicago  were  as 
extensive  as  was  indicated  by  the  yacht 
club  houses  and  the  fleet  of  pleasure 
boats  of  all  sizes  and  descriptions  that 
was  in  that  harbor." 

"It  is  to  be  supposed,"  I  remarked 
to  Miss  Ouri,  changing  the  subject, 
"that  you  ladies  have  been  doing  our 
department  stores  to  a  finish  and  that 
by  this  time  you  are  inclined  to  agree 
with  me  that  they  probably  have  no 
equal  in  the  world?"  "Oh,  no!"  she 
laughed,  "we  practically  have  not  be- 
gun on  those  yet,  we  have  been  saving 
them  for  rainy  days  when  we  cannot 
stay  out  in  the  open.  But  he,"  nodding 
in  the  direction  of  the  Rambler,  "is  go- 
ing to  take  us  to  the  larger  of  them  af- 
ter dinner  and  obtain  a  guide  for  us  to 
be  shown  over  the  entire  establish- 
ment." 

"Huh,"  I  remarked  with  pretended 
disgust,  "don't  you  believe  that  all  de- 
pends upon  him  whether  you  get  a 
guide  or  not.  They  can  be  had  by  any- 
one for  the  asking."  A  little  laugh  fol- 
lowed this  sally  and  then  the  Trunk 
Lady,  with  goodnatured  sarcasm,  re- 
marked that  she  supposed  I  wanted  to 
know  when  they  were  going  to  visit  the 
Art  Institute,  the  library,  the  Historical 
Society  rooms,  the  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence, the  University  of  Chicago,  the 
Field  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Hull 
House,  the  Ghetto  District  and  the 
Union  Stock  Yards.  "Well,"  she  con- 
tinued, "I  told  Miss  Ouri  only  yester- 


clav  that  she  would  probably  have  to 
visit  me  again  this  winter  for  those  at- 
tractions and  for  the  theaters,  operas 
and  high  class  movies.  I  foresee  that 
we  are  going  to  be  too  busy  out-of- 
doors  to  encompass  that  kind  of  enter- 
tainment during  these  bright  sun-shiny 
clays." 

"I  wonder,"  I  said,  "if  under  this  last 
head  the  Rambler  has  thought  to  in- 
vite you  to  a  baseball  game?  You 
know  we  have  three  major  league  base- 
ball teams  belonging  to  the  city,  and  if 
he  has  not  forestalled  me  I  will  invite 
you  all  to  see  either  the  'Cubs,'  'Sox' 
or  'Whales'  on  the  next  available  date." 
The  ladies  thanked  me  and  said  they 
would  accept  that  invitation,  details  to 
be  arranged  later.  Being  greatly  elated 
at  thus  getting,  so  to  speak,  at  least  a 
foot  hold  on  the  ground  floor  with  the 
Rambler,  I  then  suggested  that  I  would 
also  be  glad  to  introduce  them  to  some 
of  our  numerous  summer  and  amuse- 
ment gardens.  At  this  they  smiled  and 
mentioned  two  that  they  had  already 
visited,  and  added  that  they  were 
booked  for  a  third  that  evening.  The 
Rambler  said  nothing,  but  I  saw  by  the 
little  smile  lurking  in  the  corner  of  his 
mouth  that  he  knew  more  or  less  as  to 
with  whom  they  had  taken  in  those  at- 
tractions. 

But  Chicago  as  a  summer  resort  was 
not  the  only  subject  of  conversation 
as  we  progressed  from  soup  to  ice 
cream  through  the  courses  of  that  little 
dinner.  The  ladies  were  Highly  im- 
bued with  grace  and  vivacity,  the  Ram- 
bler was  at  his  best,  and  I  behaved  as 
well  as  I  could  with  my  mind  full  of 
wonder  at  the  resources  of  the  Ram- 
bler in  the  matter  of  being  agreeable 
with  the  ladies,  for,  as  a  bachelor,  I 
had  rather  put  him  down  as  one  who 
rather  avpided  their  society  except 
from  a  purely  professional  point  of 
view.  But  he  demonstrated  at  that 
dinner  that  at  least  he  certainly  was 
not  a  woman  hater,  and  from  little  ev- 
idences from  time  to  time,  some  of 
which  I  have  already  mentioned,  it 
dawned  on  me  that  with  his  many  other 


44 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


versatile  traits  he  was  also  a  most  en- 
joyable companion  and  entertainer  with 
the  fair  sex.  But  like  all  good  things, 
the  time  arrived  for  the  breaking  up  of 
our  party,  at  which  I  remarked,  as  an 
implied  compliment  to  the  Rambler's 
evident  energy  during  the  past  three 


weeks  in  seeing  that  his  friends  had  a 
good  time,  that  I  supposed  of  course  he 
had  shown  the  ladies  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  Building 
down  the  avenue.  "We  had  just  come 
from  there  when  you  met  us,"  was  the 
Rambler's  quick  reply. 


The  Things  That  Count 


/~)N  October  13,  1914,  at  four  o'clock 
^'^  in  the  afternoon,  I  was  on  a  Lake 
Shore  train  half  way  between  Erie  and 
Cleveland.  I  was  looking  idly  out  of 
the  window  and  speculating  on  who 
was  winning  the  fourth  game  in  the 
world  series  between  the  Boston 
Braves  and  the  Philadelphia  Athletics. 

I  was  wishing  I  knew  the  score. 

Suddenly  the  door  opened  and  the 
conductor  appeared.  He  was  a  stout 
and  good-humored  conductor.  He 
looked  down  the  car  a  moment  and 
then  sang  out :  "The  score  is  three  to 
nothing  in  favor  of  Boston,  last  half 
of  the  sixth."  He  had  got  the  word 
from  a  telegrapher  in  a  station  we  had 
just  left. 

The  men  passengers  (and  some  of 
the  women)  glanced  up,  smiled,  got 
interested,  and  fell  to  talking  baseball. 
But  the  point  was  this — the  conduc- 
tor had  given  out  some  real  news.  It 
interested  and  pleased  the  passengers. 
It  opened  up  a  topic  that  helped  pass 
away  the  time ;  and  mark  this — nobody 
told  him  to  do  it.  His  duty  was  sim- 
ply to  collect  tickets  and  look  after  his 
train — that  was  all.  By  doing  that  and 
no  more  he  was  sure  of  his  job  and  his 
pay.  He  didn't  have  to  rush  into  a 
telegraph  station,  ascertain  the  ball 
score,  and  then  spread  the  news  to  a 
lot  of  strangers  without  charge. 

But  he  did.  . 

It  was  a  little  thing,  but  it  meant 
much  to  the  passengers. 

No  one,  I  think,  thanked  him;  but 


the  act  was  appreciated.  He  got  no 
promotion  from  it,  but  he  contributed 
to  the  pleasure  of  the  journey. 

I  do  not  know  that  conductor's 
name. 

I  might  not  recognize  him,  if  we  met 
again. 

No  memorials  will  be  raised  to  him ; 
but  he  was  thoughtful,  and  went  out 
of  his  way  to  do  a  little  more  than  he 
was  paid  to  do. 

It  is  from  among  the  ranks  of  those 
men  and  women  who  do  a  little  bit 
more  than  they  are  paid  to  do  that  the 
leaders  of  the  world  are  recruited.  It 
is  the  men  and  women  who  do  a  little 
bit  more  than  they  are  paid  to  do  who 
make  life  easier  for  all  of  us. 

It  is  the  men  and  women  who  are 
thoughtful  and  do  a  little  bit  more  than 
they  are  paid  to  do  who  help  prolong 
our  lives  and  make  us  glad. 

It  is  true  that  they  do  not  always 
get  their  proper  monetary  reward ;  but 
please  take  note  of  the  fact  that  they 
are  very  much  more  apt  to  get  it  than 
those  folks  who  are  constantly  figur- 
ing on  doing  a  little  bit  less  than  they 
are  paid  to  do.  And  MOREOVER, 
NEVERTHELESS,  and  NOTWITH- 
STANDING— the  person  who  does  a 
little  bit  more  than  he  is  paid  to  do  is 
somehow  happier  than  his  brother  who 
thinks  only  about  himself. 

(Copyright,  1915,  W.  L.  Co.,  Boston, 
Mass.,  and  used  by  permission  of  Mr. 
Henry  C.  Walker.) 


ENG-INBERIN5- 


DEPflRT/MENT 


Improvements  at  Mattoon,  111, 

By  Assistant  Engineer,  E.  L.  Crugar 


r|PHROUGH  mutual  agreements  with 
both  the  city  of  Mattoon  and  the 
Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Chicago  &  St. 
Louis  Ry.  Co.,  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  is  about  to  bring 
to  a  successful  conclusion  a  piece  of 
work  in  that  city,  which,  by  reason  of 
the  direct  benefits  derived  by  both 
railroads  and  the  city,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  improvements  it  has 
undertaken  in  recent  years.  The  work 
included  the  separation  of  a  dangerous 
grade  crossing  with  the  Big  Four  Rail- 
way, a  crossing  where  four  Illinois 
Central  tracks  crossed  two  tracks  of  the 
other  road;  the  elimination  of  a  grade 
crossing  of  the  Illinois  Central  main 
line  and  its  Indiana  Division  by  the 
substitution  of  four  wye  connections; 
grade  reduction  by  means  of  depress- 
ing its  tracks  through  the  city  and  by 
reason  of  such  depression  the  greatest 
good  of  the  whole  work  was  accom- 
plished in  the  removal  of  ten  dangerous 
street  crossings  at  grade  and  in  their 
places  overhead  bridges  provided  for 
at  convenient  points,  selected  by  the 
city.  The  plan  also  provided  for  the 
erection  of  a  handsome  commodious 
passenger  station  to  be  used  jointly  by 
the  Big  Four  and  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroads.  A  further  addition  to  the 
scope  of  work  embraced  in  this  under- 
taking was  the  relocation  and  enlarge- 
ment of  freight  house  and  freight  fa- 
cilities. 

Actual  work  was  started  in  the  early 
part  of  1914  with  the  construction  of 
new  freight  house  and  tracks.  The  old 
freight  house  which  had  stood  for  many 


years  was  located  in  an  inaccessible 
place  north  of  the  Big  Four  crossing, 
and  because  of  the  growth  and  increas- 
ing business  of  the  city,  had  long  ago 
become  inadequate  for  the  volume  of 
business  handled  at  that  point.  A  mod- 
ern fireproof  freight  house,  amply  large 
now  and  with  provision  for  future  in- 
crease in  size  and  capacity,  was  erect- 
ed on  the  southwest  corner  of  18th 
Street  and  LaFayette  Avenue.  This 
location  is  near  the  business  district  of 
the  city  and  is  of  easy  access  to  the 
business  interests  thereof.  The  new 
freight  facilities  are  provided  with  am- 
ple house  tracks  and  team  track  room 
and  driveways  thereto.  In  fact,  there 
is  no  place  on  the  road  that  is  equipped 
with  freight  facilities  superior  to  those 
now  at  Mattoon. 

The  work  of  lowering"  the  tracks  in 
order  to  pass  under  the  streets  and  the 
Big  Four  Railway  required  the  re- 
moval of  450,000  cubic  yards  of  ma- 
terial consisting  mainly  of  blue  and 
yellow  clay.  The  contract  for  this  ex- 
cavation was  awarded  to  Mr.  J.  D. 
Lynch,  of  Monmouth,  111.  Two  steam 
shovels  were  started,  one  at  the  north 
end  and  one  at  the  south  end  about 
April  1st,  and  these  shovels  worked 
continuously  until  the  last  one  finished 
on  November  30th,  averaging  about 
1,500  cubic  yards  of  material  per  day 
for  each  shovel.  The  east  half  of  the 
cut  was  removed  to  grade  first,  after 
which  trains  were  put  on  the  new 
tracks  in  the  bottom  of  the  cut  and  the 
west  side  of  the  cut  removed.  During 
the  progress  of  the  shovel  work  tem- 


45 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


47 


porary  bridges  were  maintained  at 
Shelby.  Richmond,  Broadway  and 
Charleston  Avenues,  and  every  effort 
made  to  cause  as  little  inconvenience 
to  street  traffic  and  the  citizens  of  Mat- 
toon  as  possible. 

When  traffic  was  thrown  onto  the 
tracks  in  the  cut,  temporary  station  fa- 
cilities, including  stairways,  platforms, 
baggage  elevation  and  baggage  and 
express  rooms  were  provided  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  the  Big  Four  crossing.  It  is 
an  interesting  fact  to  note  that  during 
the  progress  of  the  work  two  main 
tracks  were  kept  in  service  and  there 
was  no  delay  to  traffic.  There  was 
necessarily  some  unavoidable  incon- 
venience to  the  citizens  of  Alattoon  be- 
cause of  interruption  to  traffic  on 
streets,  but  they  showed  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  efforts  being  made  to 
reduce  the  annoyance  to  a  minimum, 
which  was  of  great  assistance  to  the 
company  in  carrying  out  the  work. 

As  soon  as  the  excavation  had 
reached  the  point  where  the  bridge 
work  could  start,  a  contract  was  made 
with  the  Bates  &  Rogers  Construc- 
tion Company,  of  Chicago,  for  the  erec- 
tion of  the  bridges  as  required  by  the 
city  at  De  Witt.  Champaign,  Richmond, 
Broadway  and  Charleston  Avenues. 


These  bridges  are  in  accordance  with 
the  most  modern  design  and  will  be 
constructed  throughout  of  reinforced 
concrete.  They  are  all  made  amply 
wide  with  driveways  and  walks  in  con- 
formity with  the  street  approaching 
each  particular  bridge.  Particular  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  one  to  be  construct- 
ed at  Broadway  Avenue.  This  bridge 
will  be  constructed  the  same  width  as 
the  street  on  each  side,  that  is,  100  feet. 
There  will  be  a  50-foot  driveway  with 
25-foot  walks  on  each  side. 

The  contractors  started  work  on 
these  bridges  last  fall  and  constructed 
a  portion  of  DeWitt  and  Charleston 
Avenues,  but  owing  to  freezing  weath- 
er, were  forced  to  suspend  the  work 
until  spring.  The  work  was  resumed 
as  soon  as  the  weather  permitted,  and 
is  progressing  to  an  early  completion. 

A  24-inch  sewer  has  been  installed 
on  the  east  side  of  the  cut,  extending 
from  Broadway  Avenue  north  to  the 
north  end  of  the  cut  with  a  smaller 
connection  extending  south  to  La- 
Fayette  Avenue.  To  this  line  of  sewer 
has  been  connected  all  the  city  sewers 
on  the  east  side  of  the  cut  and  catch 
basins  constructed  at  short  intervals  in 
the  cut  so  that  ample  provision  is  made 
for  carrying  off  the  drainage. 


Showing  C.  C,  C.  &  St.  L.  Crossing  and  Union  Depot  Before  Work  Was  Started, 


the 


/ 

Biographical  Sketch  No.  1  5 


CHAS.   O.   BAILEY. 
Local  Attorney  at  Sioux  Falls,   S.   D.,   Since   1887 


HPHE  lines  of  the  Illinois  Central 
A  Railroad  Company  were  extended 
into  Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota  (then 
Dakota  Territory)  in  the  fall  of  1887. 
The  legal  formalities  attendant  upon 
acquiring  the  right  of  way  and  con- 
struction of  the  railroad  were  attended 
to  locally  by  Charles  Q.  Bailey,  of 


Sioux  Falls,  who  has  ever  since  repre- 
sented the  Illinois  Central  as  its  local 
legal  representative  in  South  Dakota, 
Mr.  Bailey  was  born  in  Freeport,  Illi- 
nois, July  2nd,  1860,  and  is  the  oldest 
son  of  the  late  Judge  Joseph  M.  Bailey, 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  who, 
prior  to  his  accession  to  the  Bench, 


48 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE. 


49 


was,  from  1865  to  1877,  the  attorney  for 
the  Illinois  Central  at  Freeport.  Mr. 
Bailey  was  educated  in  the  Public 
Schools  at  Freeport,  and  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Rochester,  New  York,  from 
which  latter  institution  he  graduated 
in  1880.  He  studied  law  in  Chicago, 
in  the  Law  Department  of  the  Chi- 
cago &  Northwestern  Railway  Com- 
pany, and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1882.  He  has  practiced  in  Sioux  Falls 
since  the  spring  of  1887,  and  is  the 
senior  member  of  the  firm  of  Bailey  & 
Voorhees,  which  is  one  of  the  oldest 
and  largest  legal  firms  in  South  Da- 
kota. Mr.  Bailey  was  elected  District 
Attorney  of  his  County  in  1888,  but  re- 


signed before  the  completion  of  his 
term,  and  has  never  since  sought  any 
political  office.  His  law  library  is  con- 
sidered the  largest  in  South  Dakota, 
and  one  of  the  largest  private  law  li- 
braries in  the  country.  Mr.  Bailey  is 
a  Thirty-third  Degree  Mason  and  Past 
Grand  Commander  Knights  Templar 
of  South  Dakota.  As  local  attorney 
for  the  Illinois  Central,  he  takes  con- 
siderable pride  in  the  fact  that  in  the 
entire  twenty-eight  years  of  his  serv- 
ice, the  road  has  been  obliged  to  pay 
but  one  judgment,  and  that  in  a  Justice 
of  the  Peace  case  involving  less  than 
fifty  dollars. 


Recent  Commerce  Decisions 


Panama  Canal  Act. — Since  the  ser- 
vice by  water  here  in  question  is  being 
operated  in  the  interest  of  the  public 
and  is  of  advantage  to  the  convenience 
and  commerce  of  the  people,  and  since 
a  continuation  will  neither  exclude,  pre- 
vent nor  reduce  competition  on  the 
route  by  water,  the  ownership  by  the 
Chicago  &  Erie  Railroad  Company  of 
certain  tug  boats,  barges  and  other 
equipment  used  on  the  Chicago  River 
was  held  not  to  be  in  violation  of  law. 
—Application  of  C.  £  E.  R.  Co.,  34 
I.  C.  C.  218. 

Extra  Charge  for  Reconsignment.— 

"Following  the  principle  applied  in 
Central  Commercial  Co.  v.  L.  &  N.  R. 
R.  Co.,  27  I.  C.  C.  114;  33  I.  C.  C.  164, 
and  Doran  &  Co.  v.  N.  C.  &  St.  L.  Ry. 
Co.,  33  I.  C.  C  523 ;  held,  that  the  Louis- 
ville &  Nashville  Railroad  Company 
should  permit  the  reconsignment  and 
diversion  of  carload  shipments  of  lum- 
ber in  transit  from  Reids,  Ala.,  to  Cairo, 
111.,  at  Nashville  and  other  points  on  its 
line,  to  Quincy,  111.,  on  the  basis  of  the 
joint  rate  from  Reids  to  Quincy  plus  a 
maximum  charge  of  $5.00  per  car  for 
the  extra  services  incident  to  the  di- 
version."— Powell-Myers  Lumber  Co.  vs. 
L.  &  N.  R.  R.  Co.,  Unreported  Opinion 
2076. 


Lowrey  Tariff. — Action  of  Wabash 
R.  R.  Co.  in  proposing  to  discontinue 
its  absorption  of  switching  charges  in 
the  Chicago  switching  district  on  hay 
has  been  sustained,  the  Commission  fol- 
lowing its  opinion  in  Board  of  Trade 
of  Chicago  vs.  A.  T.  &  S.  F.  R.  Co.,  29 
I.  C.  C.  438,  where  it  was  held  that  the 
failure  of  five  carriers  to  ansorb  switch- 
ing charges  on  grain  delivered  to  Chi- 
cago industries  off  their  lines,  while  ab- 
sorbing such  charges  on  other  com- 
modities, did  not  constitute  unlawful 
discrimination. — Rates  on  Hay  to  Chi- 
cago, 34  I.  C.  C.  150. 

Defeating  Interstate  Rate  by  Rebil- 

ling. — In  Kanotex  Refining  Co.  vs.  A. 
T.  £  S.  F.  R.  Co.,  34  I.  C.  C.  271,  it  was 
held  :  "The  lawfully  established  inter- 
state rate  applies  on  shipments  first 
billed  to  an  intermediate  point  within 
the  state  of  origin  and  then  rebilled 
to  the  intended  destination  in  an  ad- 
joining state,  this  plan  having  been  de- 
vised for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting 
the  traffic  through  to  interstate  destina- 
tion at  the  rates  applicable  to  and  from 
the  intermediate  point,  the  sum  of  which 
was  materially  less  than  the  through 
rate  for  the  through  service." 

Reparation. — The  Commission  is 
confined  in  the  making  of  awards  of 


50 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


reparation  to  the  injury  or  damage  sus- 
tained by  those  who  are  the  real  and 
substantial  parties  at  interest.  Repara- 
tion was  here  denied  to  the  Board  of 
Trade  for  account  of  its  members  who 
were  not  damaged. — Board  of  Trade  of 
Kansas  City  vs.  C.  M.  &  St.  P.  R.  Co., 
34  1.  C.  C.  208. 

When  Acceptance  of  Improper  Re 
consignment  Order  is  Analogous  to 
Misquoting  a  Rate. — "Complainant  or- 
dered a  shipment  reconsigned,  provided 
the  lowest  rate  between  original  point 
of  origin  and  final  point  of  destination 
wrould  apply.  Reconsignment  was  ef- 
fected and  lawful  charges,  higher  than 
those  which  would  have  accrued  at  the 
lowest  rate  from  point  of  origin  to  final 
destination,  were  collected.  Held, 
That  the  case  does  not  differ  materially 
from  one  involving  merely  a  misquoted 
rate.  Complaint  dismissed." — Reeves 
Coal  Co.  vs.  C.  M.  &  St.  P.  R.  Co.,  34 
I.  C.  C.  122. 

Protecting  Potatoes  Against  Frost. 
— Rates  ranging  from  4  to  7  cents  per 
100  pounds  for  protecting  potatoes 
against  freezing  in  transit  were  held  to 
be  reasonable  and  not  unjustly  discrim- 
inatory. The  rules  here  approved  pro- 
vide, in  other  respects,  as  follows :  In 
order  to  protect  shipments  of  potatoes 
from  damage  on  account  of  frost,  ship- 
pers should  either  provide  such  protec- 
tion or  request  the  carriers  to  do  so.  If 
the  shipper  elects  to  provide  such  pro- 
tection, "temporary  lining  or  false 
flooring,  or  both,  also  stoves,  fittings, 
and  fuel  for  same,  sufficient  to  properly 
protect  the  shipment,"  is  required  to 
be  "furnished  and  installed  by  shipper 
and  at  his  expense."  Free  return  of  the 
linings,  false  floors,  stoves,  and  other 
material,  via  the  route  over  which  the 
shipment  originally  moved,  is  provided 
for  when  such  articles  are  delivered  to 
depot  at  destination  and  billed  to  the 
point  of  origin  Provision  is  made  for 
free  carriage  of  an  attendant  each  way, 
with  one  of  more  carloads,  via  almost 
all  routes.  .  .  .  The  rules  further 
provide  that  when  heater  cars  under 
heat  were  reconsigned  after  arrival  at 


original  destination  a  reconsignment 
charge  would  be  made  of  $4  per  car, 
plus  $1  per  car  per  day  for  heater  ser- 
ice  during  the  entire  time  the  car  was 
held  for  reconsignment. — Albert  Miller 
&  Co.  vs.  N.  P.  R.  Co.,  34  I.  C.  C.  154. 

Concerning  the  Furnishing  of  Neces- 
sary Equipment.  --In  Pennsylvania 
Paraffine  Works  vs.  P.  R.  Co.,  34  I.  C. 
C.  179,  the  majority  opinion  of  the  Com- 
mission (Commissioners  Clark,  Clem- 
ents and  Harlan  dissenting),  is  that  it 
has  power  to  require  carriers  to  furn- 
ish all  necessary  equipment,  both  ordi- 
nary and  special,  upon  reasonable  re- 
quest ;  that  what  is  a  reasonably  ade- 
quate car  supply  is  an  administrative 
question  of  which  the  Commission 
alone  can  take  original  jurisdiction ; 
that  a  shipper's  request  for  cars  espe- 
cially suited  for  the  transportation  of 
his  products  (in  this  instance  petro- 
leum oil)  would  not  be  reasonable  if 
the  cars  must  be  prepared  for  shipment 
in  a  manner  peculiarly  within  the  tech- 
nical knowledge  of  men  connected  with 
that  industry,  or  if  the  movement  of 
the  commodity  is  a  dangerous  opera- 
tion which  can  be  safely  performed  only 
by  men  engaged  in  its  production;  that 
the  shipment  of  petroleum  products  in 
tank  cars  does  not  call  for  such  tech- 
nical knowledge  as  would  render  un- 
reasonable the  complainants'  request 
for  the  furnishing  of  these  cars ;  that 
from  the  standpoint  of  economy  to  the 
shipper,  consumer  and  railroad,  "tank 
cars  are  the  only  proper  cars  to  use  in 
the  shipment  of  petroleum ;  that  one 
of  the  tests  to  be  relied  upon  in  de- 
termining the  reasonableness  of  a  ship- 
per's request  for  cars  is  found  in  the 
volume  of  his  shipments  in  the  past, 
due  allowance  being  made  for  the 
growth  of  his  business;  that  all  cars 
used  by  carriers,  whether  owned  by 
them  or  leased  from  private  car  lines 
or  from  shippers,  must  be  distributed 
without  discrimination ;  that  whatever 
transportation  service  or  facilities  the 
law  requires  a  carrier  to  supply,  it  has 
a  right  to  furnish ;  and  that  in  this  in- 
stance the  railroad  is  required  to  furn- 
ish a  sufficient  number  of  tank  cars. 


WAYS  SAFEIY  FIRS 


Safety  Meeting 


Held   at   Memphis,    Tennessee,    Friday,    June    4,     1915 
PRESENT 

J.  M.  WALSH,  Terminal  Superintendent, 
S.  J.  Hays,  Terminal  Train  Master. 

W.  H.  WATKINS,  Master  Mechanic. 

B.  J.  FEENY,  Terminal  Traveling  Engineer. 
GEO.  WEST,  General  Yardmaster. 

R.  R.  NETHERCOTT,  Assistant  General  Yardmaster. 
W.  F.  LAUER,  General  Foreman. 

J.  A.  RYAN,  Yardmaster 

J.  R.  BURNS,  Chief  Clerk  to  Terminal  Superintendent. 
F.  J.  THEOBALD,  Chief  Clerk  to  Master  Mechanic. 
L.  S.  WHITTEN,  Chief  Yard  Clerk. 

H.  S.  MILLS,  Assitant  Chief  Yard  Clerk. 

P.  H.  WILZINSKI,  Clerk. 
Meeting  called  to  order  by  chairman,  and  the  following  subjects  discussed  : 

TRESPASSING 

Chairman  called  attention  to  amounts  paid  out  for  personal  injuries,  com- 
parative figures  showing  an  unusual  large  expenditure  in  that  direction — spe- 
cial mention  being  made  of  the  trespass  evil,  wherein  trespassers  were  injured 
jumping  on  and  off  trains,  and  that  the  idea  carried  by  many  that  the  com- 
pany was  not  responsible  on  account  of  injured  parties  being  trespasser  was 
a  very  expensive  one  to  entertain  for  the  reason  that  in  nearly  all  of  those 
cases  trespassers  secured  judgment  in  large  amounts  from  the  company. 

Action.  It  was  decided  that  everything  possible  would  be  done  to  instill 
into  the  minds  of  the  public  the  care  necessary  around  railroad  tracks,  and 
that  railroad  right  of  way  being  private  property  of  the  railroad,  should  not 
be  used  by  them  as  a  roadway. 

SHOPS 

Master  Mechanic  stated  that  injuries  for  period  June  to  May  had  de- 
creased from  67%  to  37% — that  all  machinery  was  now  protected  and  that 
a  shop  Safety  Committee  makes  regular  visits  about  the  premises  with  view 
of  remedying  any  condition  they  find  which  might  cause  an  accident.  Also 
when  an  employe  was  injured  this  committee  immediately  makes  a  thorough 
investigation  regarding  the  cause  of  same — that  is,  whether  it  was  defective 
machinery,  tools  or  carelessness  on  part  of  the  men. 

STATION  PLATFORMS 

It  was  stated  baggage,  mail,  express  and  news  company  trucks  were 
being  left  on  loading  platforms  so  close  to  the  track  as  to  endanger  train 
employes,  as  well  as  the  public. 

Action.    Station  master  and  baggage  master  advised  as  to  the  trucks  being 

52 


54  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

left  so  close  to  tracks  as  to  create  risk  to  employes  or  passengers  about  the 
platforms,  and  they  were  instructed  to  make  report  as  to  what  action  they  took 
to  prevent  possibility  of  injury  from  this  source. 

EMPLOYES'  TRAIN 

Question  of  employes  jumping  on  and  off  of  moving  trains  brought  up, 
special  mention  being  made  regarding  the  employes'  train ;  also  employes 
riding  on  platforms  of  coaches  on  employes'  train. 

Action.  The  dangerous  practice  of  jumping  on  and  off  of  employes'  train 
or  cuts  of  cars,  moving,  must  be  stopped  and  each  employe  is  going  to  be 
asked  to  set  an  example  for  the  other  employes  by  not  jumping  on  or  off  of 
moving  trains  or  cars,  and  where  employes  are  found  that  continue  this  prac- 
tice after  they  have  been  informed  that  same  must  be  stopped  it  is-  the  inten- 
tion to  relieve  them  from  service  because  they  not  only  incur  risks  themselves 
but  set  a  bad  example  for  other  employes.  Coaches  on  employes'  train  carry 
notice  to  this  effect  and  bulletin  has  been  issued  covering. 

It  was  also  decided  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  go  through  the  train 
each  morning  on  the  6 :30  run,  making  the  round  trip  at  which  time  prac- 
tically all  of  the  employes  could  be  reached,  and  announce  that  this  practice 
must  be  discontinued.  Following  committee  selected : 

J.  M.  Walsh, 

S.  J.  Hays, 

W.  H.  Watkins, 

B.  J.  Feeny, 

R.  R.  Nethercott, 

L.  S.  Whitten. 

BACK-UP  MOVEMENTS— GRAND  CENTRAL  STATION 

It  was  stated  that  back-up  passenger  movements  were  being  made  into 
the  station  with  flagmen  in  charge  of  tail  hose  and  passengers  allowed  on 
platforms.  It  was  thought  that  back-up  movements  should  be  handled  by  the 
conductor  personally,  and  no  passengers  allowed  on  platforms  while  move- 
ment was  being  made. 

Action.  Station  Master  notified  that  back-up  movements  into  Grand 
Central  Station,  by  this  company  and  tenant  lines,  should  be  in  charge  of 
conductor. 

CINDER  PIT  PROTECTION 

Question  of  cinder  pit  covers  was  brought  up,  it  being  stated  that  all  pits 
had  not  as  yet  been  covered. 

Action.  Superintendent  Terminals  stated  this  work  was  being  looked 
after  and  that  it  was  the  intention  to  cover  at  least  one  pit  per  month,  and 
effort  would  be  made  to  cover  two  pits,  until  all  were  covered.  Roadmaster 
was  instructed  to  cover  the  third  pit  at  Nonconnah — two  being  covered ;  and 
three  pits  at  Memphis  to  be  covered. 

FOOT  BOARDS— SWITCH  ENGINES 

Question  of  having  foot  board  on  switch  engines  in  two  parts,  instead  of 
one  long  piece -as  now,  discussed  at  length,  it  being  stated  that  as  it  is  now 
if  board  was  struck  on  one  end  and  man  standing  on  other  it  would  no  doubt 
throw  him  off,  in  addition  to  damaging  the  entire  board ;  whereas,  if  it  was 
in  two  pieces  it  would  only  damage  the  side  on  which  it  struck.  It  was  thought 
that  the  very  smallest  space  possible  to  permit  coupling  of  switch  engine  to 
road  engine  carrying  pilot  should  be  made.  This  to  lessen  danger  of  men 
Stepping  in  between  the  boards. 

Action.    Committee  appointed  to  investigate  and  report  at  next  meeting. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  55 

ROUNDHOUSE  ROOF 

The  Memphis  roundhouse  was  built  at  a  time  when  only  the  small  engines 
were  in  use,  and  as  a  result  now  when  a  large  engine  comes  into  the  house 
they  extend  so  close  to  the  roof  that  men  cannot  work  on  top  of  engines  with- 
out feeling  the  effects  of  gases  which  gather  underneath  account  no  ventila- 
tion, and  it  is  feared  men  might  be  overcome  with  these  gases  and  fall  from 
engines.  Roof  now  being  repaired,  but  question  of  manner  of  ventilation  not 
settled. 

Action.  Superintendent  will  take  up  matter  of  completing  repairs  to  the 
roof,  and  arrangements  will  be  made  for  proper  ventilation. 

LIGHTS— STATION  PLATFORMS 

It  was  reported  that  lights  on  the  platforms  at  Grand  Central  Station 
were  not  always  burning  on  arrival  of  train  No.  1. 

Action.  Station  Master  notified  to  have  lights  burning  when  train  No.  1 
arrives,  and  see  that  they  are  kept  burning  until  after  train  departs. 

ENGINES 

Attention  was  called  to  space  between  tank  and  engine  on  some  of  the 
switch  engines  being  too  close,  especially  on  a  curve,  but  at  the  same  time  it 
was  standard. 

Action.  Master  Mechanic  and  Traveling  Engineer  instructed  to  look 
into  that  feature  and  make  recommendation,  if  necessary,  to  increase  size  of 
end  sill  to  enlarge  opening  between  cistern  and  engine  cab. 

HANDLING  EXPLOSIVES,    INFLAMMABLES   AND    OTHER 
DANGEROUS    ARTICLES 

Car  of  oil  was  noted  standing  opposite  one  of  our  large  engines  under 
steam. 

Action.  Brown  Hoist  removed  car  to  safe  place.  Trainmaster  instructed 
to  handle  with  Yardmasters  and  Foremen  with  regard  to  prompt  placing  of 
oil  at  store  room,  where  it  can  be  unloaded,  and  not  allow  oil  tanks  to  stand 
near  locomotives. 

POWER    HOUSE    COAL    BIN— NONCONNAH 

Attention  called  to  space  between  coal  bin  and  car  was  not  sufficient  to 
clear  a  man. 

Action.  Roadmaster  instructed  to  investigate  track  centers  and  if  neces- 
sary equalize  space  between  tracks  and  coal  bin  to  provide  best  possible 
arrangement.  Also  that  sign  be  painted  on  each  end  of  coal  bin  to  the  effect 
that  persons  must  not  go  between  car  and  coal  bin  on  account  of  the  clearance. 

SCRAP 

It  was  stated  considerable  scrap  was  noted  between  the  tracks  in  various 
yards,  which  caused  car  inspectors  to  consume  considerable  more  time  in 
inspecting  cars. 

Action.  Roadmaster  and  Supervisor  instructed  to  make  all  headway 
possible  in  cleaning  up  between  the  tracks. 

Master  Mechanic  will  again  re-issue  instructions  about  car  inspectors 
removing  car  scrap  from  between  tracks  where  light  repairs  have  been  made. 

SWITCHES 

It  was  reported  switch  stand  was  on  wrong  side  of  track  at  Nonconnah, 
where  employes  were  getting  on  and  off  employes'  train,  which  might  cause 
them  to  fall  over  it. 

Action.  Information  given  Roadmaster,  who  put  switch  stand  on  other 
side  of  track. 

Switch  stand  in  center  of  bridge  at  Iowa  Ave.  Subway,  "middle  lead," 


56  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

was  considered  dangerous,  and  it  was  thought  switch  light  should  be  placed 
on  top  of  girder  and  pipe  connection  made  so  switch  could  be  operated  from 
end  of  girder^  thereby  preventing  necessity  of  men  going  to  center  of  bridge 
to  throw  switch. 

Action.  Superintendent  will  take  up  with  Roadmaster  and  have  plan 
prepared  and,  if  possible,  locate  switch  stand  lever  beyond  the  girder. 

TRACK  CENTERS 

Track  centers  in  A  Yard,  Nonconnah,  out  of  line. 

Action.  Roadmaster  and  Supervisor  asked  to  complete  this  work  as 
early  as  possible  according  to  the  plans  for  defining  centers. 

Track  between  scales  and  outbound  lead  A  Yard,  Nonconnah,  not  suf- 
ficient to  clear  a  man  standing  between  same  to  check  trains  passing. 
\        Action.     Roadmaster  will  be  instructed  to  investigate  track  centers  at 
that  point  and  see  what  adjustment  can  be  made. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

It  was  stated  employees  at  Nonconnah,  when  going  to  catch  employees' 
train  or  transfer  cuts,  crossed  under,  between  and  over  cars  on  different  tracks 
to  reach  these  trains,  without  any  regard  as  to  liability  of  cars  being  moved, 
and  that  the  practice  was  a  very  dangerous  one. 

Action.  All  members  present  will  caution  employes  about  necessity  of 
being  careful  and  stopping  practice  of  that  kind. 

No  further  business,  meeting  adjourned. 

Safety  Meeting,  Minnesota  Division 

Held  at  Dubuque,  la.,  May  3,  1915 

PRESENT 

W.  ATWILL,  Superintendent. 
H.  G.  DUCKWITZ,  Trainmaster. 
H.  G.  BROWN,  Trainmaster. 

C.  C.  KUNZ,  Commercial  Agent. 
N.  BELL,  Master  Mechanic. 
T.  QUIGLEY,  Roadmaster. 

P.  E.  TALTY,  Chief  Dispatcher. 
W.  L.  ICKES,  Traveling  Engineer. 
W.  B.  SIEVERS,  Agent,  Dubuque. 

B.  L.  BOWDEN,  Agent,  Waterloo. 
S.  KERR,  Agent,  Cedar  Rapids. 

R.  E.  DOWNING,  Division  Store  Keeper. 
J.  T.  TAIT,  Claim  Agent. 

M.  B.  BURKE,  Special  Agent. 

B.  A.  PATRICK,  Division  Claim  Clerk. 
J.  DUNKER,  Signal  Supervisor. 
C.  W.  LENTZ,  Supervisor  B.  &  B. 
J.  W.  SIMS,  Road  Supervisor. 
J.  CAREY,  Road  Supervisor. 

L.  N.  GUNSTEAD,  Road  Supervisor. 

I  N  OPENING  the  discussion  on  this  subject  records  were  produced  which 
showed  that  a  remarkable  reduction  had  been  made  in  injuries  to  persons 
in  the  Transportation  Department,  while  an  increase  was  shown  in  both  the 
Mechanical  and  Maintenance  of  Way  Departments.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
all  present  that  this  could  only  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  Transpor- 
tation Department  had  been  giving  the  'matter  more  attention  than  the  other 
two  Departments.  However,  we  started  a  special  campaign  in  these  two 


58  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

departments  March  1st,  and  nothing  is  being  left  undone  to  instill  safe  prac- 
tices into  the  minds  of  all  employes,  and  thereby  eliminate  avoidable  injuries. 

In  the  past  there  has  been  a  great  deal  said  to  Section,  and  Shopmen 
about  "Safety  First,"  but  few  instructions  or  suggestions  were  given  them  as 
to  the  safe  methods  that  they  should  pursue.  The  majority  of  these  men  are 
foreigners,  or  illiterate  Americans,  and  they  cannot  be  expected  to  take  the 
initiative  and  think  out  safe  ways  of  handling  work  assigned  to  them.  It  is 
incumbent  upon  their  superiors  to  do  this  and  then  carefully  instruct  the 
men.  This,  all  of  our  Foreman  have  been  instructed  to  do.  The  Roadmaster, 
Master  Mechanic,  Supervisors  and  Shop  Foremen  will  follow  up,  hold  meet- 
ings with  Foremen  as  frequently  as  possible  and  at  these  meetings  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  work  will  be  discussed,  the  safest  method  of  handling  will 
be  determined,  and  all  men  instructed  accordingly. 

It  is  also  thought  that  photographs  showing  the  proper  way  to  handle 
the  various  duties  assigned  to  these  men  should  be  issued  and  posted  in 
conspicuous  places  around  Shops,  Camp  Cars,  Tool  Houses,  etc. 

It  is  also  suggested  that  instructive  placards  be  printed  in  the  language 
of  foreign  laborers  and  posted  in  a  like  manner.  The  foreigners  pay  little 
attention  to  instructions  printed  in  English,  but  take  a  great  deal  of  interest 
in  those  printed  in  their  own  language.  This  is  emphasized  by  the  interest 
they  took  in  the  placards  issued  several  months  ago,  in  different  languages, 
concerning  the  methods  used  by  certain  Labor  Agents.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  every  foreign  laborer  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  information 
given.  If  we  can  get  out  similar  "Safety"  placards,  there  is  no  question 
but  what  a  great  deal  of  good  will  result. 

We  have  also  arranged  to  designate  two  men  with  each  Section  Gang, 
Extra  Gang  and  Shop  Gang,  as  the  gang's  "Safety  Committee."  One  of 
them  will  be  a  foreigner  who  appears  to  have  the  most  influence  with  men 
of  his  nationality.  It  will  be  the  duty  of  these  two  men  to  assist  the  Fore- 
man in  seeing  that  safe  practices  are  followed. 

It  is  our  earnest  desire  to  bring  the  Mechanical  and  Maintenance  of  Way 
Departments  up  to  a  point  where  they  will  at  least  equal  the  Transporta- 
tion Department  in  this  important  movement.  While  doing  so,  the  Trans- 
portation Department  will  not  be  neglected. 

It  was  brought  out  in  the  discussion  of  this  subject  that  we  are  having 
a  great  many  injuries  to  Road  and  Mechanical  Department  men  caused  by  de- 
fective tools.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  Road  Department  in  the  work  of  cut- 
ting rail.  The  chisels  and  mauls  are  not  properly  tempered,  the  heads  batter, 
pieces  of  steel  fly,  strike  employes  and  cause  injuries,  which  sometimes  are  of  a 
serious  nature.  It  is  thought  that  these  accidents  can  be  eliminated  if  a  bet- 
ter grade  of  tools  were  furnished,  and  that  the  decrease  in  expense  brought 
about  in  this  manner  would  more  than  offset  the  additional  expense  incurred 
through  the  purchase  of  very  best  grade  of  tools  obtainable.  We  recom- 
mend that  this  be  given  serious  consideration,  especially  in  so  far  as  mauls, 
chisels,  and  similar  tools  which  are  subject  to  hard  usage,  are  concerned. 

Another  matter  of  importance  referred  to  was  claims  presented  by  em- 
ployes on  account  of  rupture.  It  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  that  the  com- 
pany is  not  responsible  for  many  such  injuries,  but  that  weaknesses  of  this 
nature  prevail  at  the  time  men  enter  the  service.  It  is  our  recommendation 
that  Company  Surgeons  make  a  very  careful  examination  of  all  applicants 
for  ruptures.  If  we  let  such  men  enter  the  service,  and  they  later  claim  to 
have  received  an  injury  of  this  kind,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  disprove  their 
statement,  and  the  fact  they  passed  a  successful  physical  examination  at  the 
time  they  entered  the  service  certainly  gives  them  some  winning  evidence  in 
case  of  court  procedure. 


60 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


t\V  Employes  max/  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stoclc  in  the  Illinois 

Central  R.R.,we  quote  below  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  May  95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(ohe  pnce  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  be  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffocA.  is  based  upon  me  mar- 

,1         ,/        /       /        J         -y                ;•         •          •                •     'i    •      /">                / 

ket  price  on  the  dau  the  application  is  received  in  L-ompfrot- 

1         (            SY*                              s/                         1            //•               /V-              )         /                   *       */                        /"        ^f          '/ 

lers-  office...  C^In  employe  is  offered  the  privileoe  otsubscnD- 
ma  -for  one  share  at  a  time,  pay  aole  by  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  the.  completion  of 

which  the  Company  mil  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 
we  snare  registered  in  his  name  on  tne  booRS,  of  me  Com- 
pany, c^te  can  men,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 
another  share  on  the  installment  plan  .  °&ie  certificate 

of  stock  is  transferable,  on  the  Company's  books,  and 
entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  be  de  - 

dared  by  the  &oard  ofDirectors,  and  to  a  vote  tn, 
/   •      /  j                      ^ 

their  election. 

Csfnv  officer  or  emplove  making  payments  on  this 
,         J-,,  JJ           •  f    /  /      J             .     .7  r    7       /•) 

plan  will  be  entitled  to  recerve  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  the  rate  of  -four  per  cent  per  annum,  dunna  the  time  ne 
is  payma  for  his  share  of  stock,  provided  he  does  not  al- 
low twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 
any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  nenod  interest 
will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 

returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

O^?i/  officer  or  employe  moRinq  payments  on  the  fore- 
Jl"      j  y      rs            _)?  F-  7   .     j-        ;•  J 
ooina  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desinna  to  discontinue 

them,  can  have  jhis  money  returned  to  Aim  with  accrued 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  61 


interest,  DV  mahinq  application  to  me  Aeaa  of  me  de- 

J-       /  •  /  ///  •          /        >  y 

partment  in  which  he  is  employed. 

Cxf/z  employe,  wAo  has  maae  application  for  a  snare 
ofstocK.  on  tne  installment  plan ,  is  expected  to  make, 
the  firstoayment  from  the  first  wages  which  may  be  due 

mm.  J'orms  are  provided /or  me  purpose,  on  which,  the 

L      '/ '  f  J'  '       J.     'P     IC?^ 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  the  cJ^ocai-  (treasurer  in 

Chicago, or  the oUocal^oreasurer  in  <ifyew  (Orleans,  or 
the  Paymaster  or  the  C^issistant   Paymaster  to  retain 
from  his  wages  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  the  employe  for  trie  purchase  or  a  snare  of  stock. 

c7n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  the  Company 
from  any  cause,  Ae  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  trie 
Share  far  which  fie  has  subscribed  ana  receive  a  certifi- 
cate tnerefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  •which, 
has  accrued. 

C7one foregoma  does  not  preclude  the  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock, for  cash..  Cx//z  employe  who  has  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 

me  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 

,/     '  /          /'    /•*      f/     '  Y      '  /"  ^     /  /"    '     f 
given  month  make  application  for  a  share  orstodzfor  cash 

at  the  price  guoted  to  employes  for  that  month,  ana  he  can 
m  the  same  month,  if  Ae  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 
other share  on  the  installmQnt plan. 

(employes  Who  Want  to  purchase  more  man  one  snare 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
cago, who  will  obtain  for  them  the  price  at  which  the  stock 
can  he  purchased. 

Cxmy  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stock  (except  in 
special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash)  should 

1         '       /   '  '\*  '  IP  •/  '       /"  y/ 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  ojfftcer,  or  to  one  of  the 
<*UocalcfDreasurers  py filing  in  the  following  coupon : 

Mr.O.  T.  Nau.  Date 

Local  Treasurer. 

C/uca^o  111. 

Will  ^ou  please  send  me   an   application    blank^ 
forme  purcnase  o^I.C.  Stock  on  trie  installment  plan. 

Signed... 

Employe' 

At  fetdtic 


yed  as. 
ition... 


Mechanical  Progress 

By  O.  Kinsey,  Tool  Room  Foreman 


A  SURVEY  of  the  Burnside  Shops 
*r  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
cannot  fail  to  impress  the  observer  of 
the  immensity  of  modern  railroad  busi- 
ness. Many  mountainous  problems  are 
encountered  which  require  original 
methods  in  handling. 

The  past  ten  years  have  been  epoch 
making  in  locomotive  development, 
which  has  revolutionized  shop  practice 
and  taxed  to  the  utmost  the  present 
equipment. 

In  the  Burnside  Shops  a  complete 
re-arrangement  of  machinery  has  been 
found  necessary  in  order  to  expediently 
handle  the  heavier  power  and  its  ap- 
purtenances. 

Most  of  the  heavy  duty  machinery 
has  been  equipped  with  motor  drive 
in  order  that  frictional  losses  may  be 
reduced  to  the  minimum  in  the  trans- 
mission of  power,  and  secondly  to  per- 
mit unobstructed  crane  service. 

This  re-adjustment  of  the  shop  to 
conditions  has  obviously  entailed  an 
enormous  amount  of  work.  However, 
when  finally  completed  the  saving  of 
labor  effected  will  greatly  off-set  the 
expense. 

The  Burnside  Shops  are  a  striking 
example  of  modern  railroad  shop 
cleanliness.  Unlike  many  large  shops 
of  this  class,  much  attention  is  given  to 
the  matter  of  pleasant  working  condi- 
tions, sanitation  and  safety  precau- 
tions. 

The  management  believes  that  win- 
dows are  made  for  light  and  that  good 
light  is  essential  for  good  work,  other- 


wise there  would  be  no  excuse  for 
having  same.  The  shop  windows  are 
kept  clean  and  the  walls  and  ceilings 
are  white-washed  regularly,  making 
working  conditions  pleasant,  and  invit- 
ing to  the  better  class  of  workmen. 

Much  attention  has  also  been  given 
the  Safety  First  movement  throughout 
the  plant.  This  important  work  is 
taken  care  of  by  a  committee  to  whom 
all  unsafe  conditions  are  reported. 
This  committee  under  the  leadership 
of  a  chairman  makes  a  monthly  in- 
spection of  the  entire  plant  and  has 
authority  to  handle  all  matters  per- 
taining to  Safety. 

On  the  first  of  each  month  a  meet- 
.  ing  known  as  a  Shop  Crafts  meeting 
is  held  in  the  office  of  the  Shop  Super- 
intendent. The  membership  is  made 
up  from  the  several  crafts  and  ap- 
pointments made  by  the  workmen 
themselves. 

The  object  of  this  organization  is 
to  harmonize  the  management  and  em- 
ployes, and  bring  to  light  any  dissat- 
isfaction or  grievance  if  any  exist. 

It  also  tends  to  create  more  loyal 
service  making  each  man  feel  that  he 
is  more  than  a  cog  in  the  big  wheel, 
thereby  encouraging  his  best  efforts 
and  causing  him  to  look  out  for  the 
many  little  details  which  cause  waste 
of  material,  etc. 

Many  valuable  suggestions  originate 
in  the  Shop  Crafts  meetings,  and  the 
genuine  interest  and  co-operative  spirit 
shown  is  most  gratifying. 


Tonnage  Rating  and  Rating  of  Locomotive 

By  W.  O.  Moody,  Mechanical  Engineer 


IN  presenting  this  subject,  we  are  con- 
fronted with  two  facts  which  influence 
the  character  of  the  article,  the  abundance 
and  variety  of  literature  bearing  upon  it 
coupled  with  its  presentation  by  speakers 
who  have  specialized  upon  it  or  its  details. 
In  consequence,  the  following  is  more  in 
the  nature  of  a  narrative  touching  upon  the 
historical,  practical  and  somewhat  of  the 
technical  as  influencing  the  practical: 

It  is  well  understood  by  all  motive  power 
officials  that  increase  in  tonnage  per  loco- 
motive mile  cannot  be  accomplished  with- 
out recourse  to  some  form  of  equating  this 
tonnage  to  each  class  of  locomotive  in  ac- 
cordance with  varying  car  weights  and  to 
have  the  tonnage  handled  over  the  line  at 
a  practical  minimum  speed. 

The  calculations  for  determining  the  trac- 
tive effort  of  a  locomotive  as  well  as  the 
resistance  of  grades  is  within  the  limits  of 
fundamental  mechanical  formula  but  the 
variable  resistances  which  are  without  these 
rules  are  the  ones  most  difficult  to  arrive 
at.  The  rules  governing  the  resistance  per 
ton  of  freight  on  curves  varies  with  dif- 
ferent authorities  while  in  that  covered  by 
speed,  we  find  greater  conflict  among  the 
authorities.  For  example:  At  a  speed  of 
ten  miles  per  hour,  one  authority  calculated 
the  resistance  in  pounds  per  ton  at  0.584 
while  another  gave  this  as  high  as  five 
pounds. 

Reliable  authorities  maintain  that  the  re- 
sistance of  freight  cars  within  the  limit  of 
five  to  thirty  miles  per  hour  does  not  in- 
crease as  speed  is  increased.  An  extensive 
series  of  tests  conducted  by  the  University 
of  Illinois  to  determine  this  important  ques- 
tion developed  the  fact  that  under  the  con- 
ditions of  their  tests,  the  resistance  does 
increase  as  the  speed  increases.  Some  years 
ago,  the  average  gross  weight  of  freight 
cars  averaged  40  tons  and  the  table  below 
was  taken  from  the  University  of  Illinois 
bulletin  giving  the  resistance  of  a  car  of 
this  gross  weight  in  pounds  per  ton  at  the 
speeds  shown: 

Speed  in  Resistance  in 

Miles  per  Hour.  Ibs.  per  ton. 

10  4.7 

15  5.1 

20  5.5 

25  6.0 

30  6.6 

35  7.2 

40  7.9 

Investigating  the  practice  of  various  rail- 
roads, we  find  that  there  is  a  practical  agree- 


ment as  to  the  speeds  of  freight  trains.  One 
road  has  adopted,  on  low  grade  lines,  a 
schedule  speed  of  12  to  15  miles  per  hour 
while  on  high  grade  lines,  they  reduce  to 
from  10  to  12  miles  per  hour  with  an  ac- 
tual running  time  of  20  miles  per  hour.  On 
the  ruling  grade,  they  maintain  a  speed  of 
8  miles  per  hour  unless  the  grade  is  long- 
er than  2  miles  and  then  the  tonnage 
is  adjusted  to  permit  the  engine  to  main- 
tain a  speed  varying  from  10  to  12  miles. 

The  adjustment  of  tonnage  to  satisfy 
lower  temperatures  varies  but  there  is  a 
practical  agreement  on  the  percentage  basis. 

A  fixed  rule  in  this  regard,  except  in  north- 
ern latitudes,  presents  some  difficulties  in 
application  as  there  may  be  a  radical  dif- 
ference between  temperature  of  the  two 
terminals  at  the  time  of  the  run  or  a  local 
storm  midway  of  the  division  calling  for  re- 
duced tonnage. 

It  was  early  discovered  that  the  tonnage 
of  a  locomotive  was  affected  by  the  train 
length,  the  disturbing  factor  being  light  or 
partially  loaded  cars  and  this  resulted  in 
the  adoption  of  the  five  ton  rule,  a  crude 
method  of  equating  which  read  as  follows: 

''When  one-half  or  more  of  a  full  train 
consists  of  empty  cars,  five  tons  must  be 
added  to  stencil  light  weight  of  each  empty 
car  for  wheel  friction.  When  less  than 
one-half  of  the  train  is  empty,  no  allowance 
will  be  made  for  wheel  friction." 

We  will  take  an  example  to  illustrate  its 
operation,  selecting  for  the  purpose  an  en- 
gine with  a  rating  of  1,950  tons.  The  pro- 
posed train  will  be  made  up  in  the  following 
order: 

30  empties  at  12  tons 360  tons 

31  loads  at  50  tons 1550  tons 


61  cars  TOTAL  weight 1,910  tons,  actual 

Rating  for  engine 1,950  tons 

This  leaves  our  engine,  40  tons  short  of  its 
assigned  tonnage,  and  as  but  fifteen  tons  is 
allowed  above  or  below  this,  we  must  re- 
arrange the  train  by  cutting  out  two  loads, 
the  result  of  which  will  cause  the  number 
of  empties  to  exceed  one-half  our  train,  and 
allow  an  addition  of  five  tons  to  each  of 
these  cars.  Our  train  will  now  appear  thus: 

30  empties,  12  plus  5 — 17  tons 510  tons 

29  loads  at  50  tons 1,450  tons 

59  cars,  TOTAL  weight 1,960  tons 

Actual  tons  hauled 1,810  tons 


Loss  in  tons  150  tons 

By  the  clever  manipulation  of  this  rule,  we 
actually  handle  150  tons  less  than  schedule, 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


but  were  credited  with    an    overload    of    10 
tons,  an  efficiency  of  about  101  per  cent. 

This  rule,  however,  cannot  be  indicted 
for  partiality,  as  like  a  double  edged  sword, 
it  is  capable  of  cutting  both  ways,  as  deter- 
mined by  conditions.  An  engine  with  a 
rating  of  2,000  tons  leaves  the  yard  with 
1,960  tons  and  picks  up  two  50-ton  loaded 
cars  in  order  to  fill  out  its  rating,  but  as 
this  results  in  the  number  of  loads  exceed- 
ing the  number  of  empties,  the  readjust- 
ment of  tonnage  becomes  necessary.  The 
additional  100  tons  would  result  in  a  train 
weighing  2,060  tons,  but  the  application  of 
the  5-ton  rule  in  this  case  reverses  con- 
ditions and  the  engine  is  credited  with  only 
1,910  tons;  or,  in  other  words,  by  an  in- 
crease of  100  tons,  our  train  weighs  50  tons 
less  than  when  we  responded  to  the  switch- 
man's go  ahead  signal. 
Original  train — 

30  empties  at  12  plus  5 — 17  tons....    510  tons 
29  loads  at  50  tons 1,450  tons 


59  car  train,  weight,  by  rule 1,960  tons 

59  car    train,   weight,   actual 1,810  tons 

Final  train — 

30  empties    at    12    tons 360  tons 

31  loads  at   50  tons 1,550  tons 


61  car  train,  weight,  actual 1,910  tons 

Loss  in  tonnage,  1960-1910,  by  rule  50  tons 
Increase  in  tonnage,  actual 100  tons 

The  fundamental  idea  of  equated  or  ad- 
justed tonnage  for  locomotives  is  to  have 
each  train,  regardless  of  length,  offer  the 
same  resistance,  which  is  well  within  the 
tractive  power  of  the  locomotive,  as  pre- 
viously determined  by  calculation  supple- 
mented by  experiment. 

There  would  be  no  occasion  for  adjusted 
tonnage  if  all  cars  were  of  one  weight  and 
capacity,  and  always  received  their  full 
load,  but  such  is  not  the  case. 

The  loss  in  tonnage  by  reducing  on  long 
trains  is  more  than  compensated  for  by 
the  additional  tonnage  handled  when 
freight  is  being  moved  in  large  cars  load- 
ed to  their  full  capacity.  For  example,  an 
engine  on  a  grade  of  26  feet  per  mile 
would  be  rated  at  about  2,400  tons  with 
a  train  of  64  cars,  but  if  this  train  was  re- 
duced to  39  cars,  it  would  negotiate  this  hill 
with  2,800  tons,  an  increase  of  400  tons  per 
train. 

The  preceding  paragraphs  refer  only  to 
that  rating  which  concerns  the  transporta- 
tion department  and  the  finances  of  the 
company,  as  affected  by  tons  of  freight 
hauled  per  year,  the  most  important  factor 
under  consideration  by  the  operating  de- 
partment of  railroads.  There  are  other 


ratings  compiled  for  the  purpose  of  deter- 
mining the  relative  performance  of  en- 
gines by  class  and  service,  which  are  known 
as  engine  miles  and  ton  miles,  the  latter 
being  the  product  of  the  miles  run  by  tons 
hauled,  exclusive  of  the  engine.  The  ton 
mile  does  not  give  an  accurate  account  of 
work  performed  by  the  engine,  unless  the 
loading  is  assigned  to  the  engine  on  the  ad- 
justed basis,  giving  equal  resistances  to 
each  train,  and  not  fully  under  these  con- 
ditions, unless  the  speed  is  taken  into  con- 
sideration recording  the  ton  mile  hours  or 
ton  miles  per  hour.  The  actual  work 
which  the  locomotive  performs  can  be  re- 
corded only  when  the  three  fundamentals 
which  determine  the  amount  of  coal  and 
water  consumed,  are  taken  into  considera- 
tion, viz.:  miles  run,  tons  hauled  and  av- 
erage speed  in  miles  per  hour  made  dur- 
ing the  run. 

The  stationary  engineers  lead  the  rail- 
roads in  this  particular,  as  they  record 
the  horsepower  developed  while  we  record 
the  load  handled,  disregarding  the  amount 
of  resistance  imposed  upon  the  locomotive 
by  speed.  The  equivalent  of  the  station- 
ary engineers'  horsepower  for  the  locomo- 
tive is  the  draw  bar  horsepower  devel- 
oped at  rear  of  tender,  and  is  equal  to  the 
tractive  power  multiplied  by  the  speed  in 
feet  per  minute,  divided  by  33,000 — the 
number  of  foot  pounds  in  one  horsepower 
— but  as  the  tractive  power  per  train  can- 
not be  obtained,  a  fair  approximation  is 
represented  by  ton  mile  hours. 

The  efficiency  of  the  locomotive  as  a 
revenue  producer  places  it  under  the  ju- 
risdiction of  the  highest  authority — earn- 
ings— and  this  is  materially  reduced  by  high 
speed  of  freight  trains  unless  the  nature 
of  the  comm6dity  demands  it. 

Consider  the  standard,  or  the  100  per 
cent,  freight  engine  of  the  road  and  calcu- 
late the  reduction  in  tractive  effort  with 
increase  in  resistances  for  units  of  10  miles 
per  hour  ranging  from  10  to  40  and  secure 
figure  for  thought. 

At  10  miles  per  hour  with  0.5  per  cent 
grade  resistance,  the  tractive  effort  of  a 
selected  engine  will  be  50,856  pounds, 
while  at  30,  it  is  but  26,693,  or  51.7  per 
cent. 

The  total  resistance  of  the  engine  in- 
cluding wind  pressure  is  2,819  pounds  at 
10  miles  per  hour,  while  at  thirty,  it  has 
reached  3,014  pounds. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  horsepower 
which  at  10  miles  per  hour  was  64  per 
cent  of  the  total,  has  risen  to  100  per  cent 
at  30  miles  and  is  one  of  the  factors  which 
keeps  nearly  a  parallel  course  with  the 
coal  consumption. 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


The  Regime  of  Today 


By  T.  L.  Dubbs 


P  ROB  ABLY  no  word  is  so  often 
*•  misapplied  or  more  generally  mis- 
understood than  the  word  efficiency. 

The  technical  definition  of  the  word 
efficiency  is  "The  ratio  of  useful  work 
to  energy  expended."  More  plainly 
speaking  it  means  doing  what  is  to  be 
done  in  the  quickest  and  best  manner 
with  an  expenditure  of  a  minimum 
amount  of  energy. 

Efficiency  is  not  a  new  proposition. 
It  has  existed  under  various  titles  for 
ages,  but  has  not  been  given  any  great 
amount  of  attention  or  prominence  un- 
til recent  years. 

Some  of  us  endeavor  to  make  use  of 
it  from  a  theoretical ;  others  from  a 
practical  standpoint.  The  best  results 
are  obtained  by  the  use  of  a  proper 
proportion  of  both,  associated  to- 
gether, for  the  reason  that  theory  is 
imagination ;  practice  a  knowledge  of 
actual  performance. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  remain  sta- 
tionary, for  the  reason  that  the  world 
is  moving  forward;  therefore  we  must 
advance  or  we  must  retrograde. 

It  has  long  been  a  well  known  fact 
that  a  large  percentage  of  the  poten- 
tial heating  power  of  coal  passes  from 
a  locomotive  into  the  atmosphere  with- 
out its  energy  being  utilized,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  no  one  has  yet  been  able 
to  produce  a  combustion  chamber  and 
the  accessories  necessary  to  conserve 
all  of  the  heat  units  contained  in  the 
coal  which  are  released  during  the 
period  of  combustion.  The  same  can 
truthfully  be  said  of  the  human  ma- 
chine, for  few,  if  any  of  us,  realize  our 
inherent  power  and  therefore  we  pass 


through  life  producing  only  a  small 
percentage  of  our  possible  attainment. 
Figuring  upon  this  basis,  the  loss  sus- 
tained by  humanity  and  the  world  in 
general  is  beyond  our  power  to  com- 
pute. 

One  of  the  prime  causes  for  failure 
to  obtain  results  commensurate  with 
our  possible  potentiality  is  the  fact 
that  we  accept  conditions  as  we  find 
them;  in  other  words,  continue  in  a 
rut  formed  by  those  who  have  pre- 
ceded us  without  devoting  sufficient 
time  to  a  careful  and  thoughtful 
analysis  of  the  problems  which  we  are 
required  to  handle  each  day. 

Every  man  possesses  genius  to  a 
greater  or  a  lesser  extent;  to  develop 
it  requires  exercise.  This  power  can 
be  developed  by  thinking  out  original 
ideas  applicable  to  one's  present  line 
of  business,  proving  them  practically 
sound;  then  putting  them  into  effect. 
Our  endowments  are  our  own  to 
cultivate.  If  we  fail  to  do  so  and  to 
take  advantage  of  our  opportunities, 
the  loss  is  our  own  and  we  should  not 
blame  luck,  the  world,  or  anyone  in  it 
for  our  failure  to  succeed. 

We  should  make  it  a  plan  to  think 
seriously  about  our  work  or  duties, 
devoting  sufficient  time  and  study  to 
the  proposition  not  only  to  understand 
it  thoroughly,  but  to  improve  upon 
present  methods.  By  so  doing  we  will 
learn  that  much  of  the  work  we  have 
heretofore  performed  with  difficulty 
can  be  dispatched  with  ease  by  apply- 
ing the  new  methods  we  have  thought 
out.  Work  heretofore  considered  a 
task  will  then  be  regarded  as  a 
pleasure. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


67 


The  greatest  pleasure  we  can  ex- 
perience comes  to  us  from  the  knowl- 
edge of  having  performed  our  duty  to 
the  best  of  our  ability. 

This  world  usually  pays  a  man  what 
is  due  him ;  occasionally  there  are  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule,  due  to  a  possible 
unfortunate  combination  of  circum- 
stances; but  generally  speaking,  such 
conditions  exist  only  temporarily  and 
if  our  efforts  are  prompted  entirely  by 
honorable  and  trustworthy  motives, 
we  will  eventually  receive  that  which 
is  justly  due  us. 

The  problems  which  we  are  called 
upon  to  solve  embrace  all  lines  of  en- 
deavor and  every  man  in  the  service 
of  the  Railroad,  from  the  one  who 
tamps  the  tie  to  the  president,  is  con- 
cerned. 

The  departmental  idea  must  be 
eliminated  when  a  subject  is  being 
considered,  for  due  thought  must  be 
given  to  how  it  will  affect  the  whole 
or  any  part  of  the  Railroad  and  it 
must  not  be  viewed  from  the  narrow 
standpoint  of  one  particular  organiza- 
tion, plant  or  division. 

Co-operation  should  be  the  watch- 
word. Little  or  nothing  of  conse- 
quence can  be  accomplished  by  one 
person  without  the  assistance  and 
moral  support  of  his  business  and  so- 
cial associates. 

Our  Management  realizes  this  and 
they  are  constantly  working  toward 
the  end  that  the  Railroad,  its  employes 
and  the  public,  may  become  more 


closely  identified,  each  aiding  and  co- 
operating with  the  other  and  thus  at- 
taining that  high  degree  of  efficiency 
which  is  so  much  to  be  desired. 

Every  officer  and  employe  should 
feel  a  just  pride  in  being  associated 
with  an  organization  which  is  work- 
ing together  to  improve  the  general 
condition  of  the  system  upon  which 
they  are  employed. 

No  obstacle  or  combination  of  ob- 
stacles can  continue  to  exist  when  as- 
saulted by  men  who  are  impelled  by 
such  a  motive. 

There  are  officers  and  employes 
whose  duties  bring  them  into  constant 
touch  with  the  public,  and  the  Rail- 
road is  measured  by  their  deportment, 
both  in  a  business  and  a  social  way, 
and  a  favorable  or  unfavorable  impres- 
sion is  created  accordingly. 

An  opportunity  should  never  be 
overlooked  which  will  advance  the  in- 
terests of  the  Company  employing, 
either  by  increasing  its  business  or 
creating  an  attitude  of  friendliness 
among  its  patrons  and  the  people  re- 
siding adjacent  to  the  property. 

The  Management  can  and  do  exert 
their  efforts  continually  along  these 
lines,  but  the  employes  by  exercising 
their  prerogatives  can  do  more  to  bring- 
about  a  desirable  condition  than  can  the 
officers. 

All  great  men  whom  the  world  has 
known  have  performed  service.  The 
more  arduous  the  service  the  greater 
the  man  and  his  reward. 


What  We  Need 

By  B.  A.  Porter,  Supt. 


T  ONG  years  ago,  to  be  exact,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  1884,  Su- 
perintendent Frye  disembarked  from 
Train  No.  6  at  Okolona,  Miss.,  a  divi- 
sion terminal  on  the  Mobile  &  Ohio. 
This  was  our  new  Superintendent's 
maiden  trip ;  he  was  three  days  behind 
the  notice  of  his  appointment,  and 
his  movements  were  therefore  watched 


with  more  than  usual  interest.  Up  to 
this  time  we  had  jogged  along  in  a 
nice  easy  gait  during  the  eight  months' 
experience  of  the  writer  as  a  railroad 
man.  It  required  about  one  minute 
for  the  aforesaid  Frye  to  introduce 
himself  to  Agent  Allen,  Chief  Clerk 
Cox,  Yardmaster  Brown,  and  the  other 
fifteen  or  twenty  lesser  lights  who 


38 


helped  to  run  up  an  unnecessarily 
heavy  pay  roll  at  this  important  sta- 
tion. 

Superintendent  Frye  spent  three 
hours  on  this  trip,  and  if  ever  a  sta- 
tion and  yard  and  roundhouse  organi- 
zation got  a  trimming  Okolona  did  on 
this  fatal  day.  I  got  a  promotion. 
When  Frye  landed  we  had  a  nice 
"kid"  organization.  Billie  Griffin, 
messenger  boy,  Scrap  Morris,  caller, 
Skinney  Porter,  car  checker.  When 
Frye  left  Skinney  Porter  was  Assist- 
ant Chief  Clerk,  and  had  assigned  to 
him  the  duty  of  delivering  messages, 
calling  crews  and  checking  cars,  and 
to  his  salary  of  $30.00  there  was  added 
$15.00,  which  had  formerly  been  paid 
to  Operator  Scales  by  the  Government 
because  the  negro  porter  took  the 
maximum  and  minimum  temperature 
and  rainfall ;  for  this  increase  the  new 
Assistant  Chief  Clerk  was  to  be  on 
hand  at  2 :47  a.  m.  to  ticket  an  early 
morning  train  and  check  baggage. 

Mr.  Frye  also  pointed  out  the  fact 
that  10  per  cent  of  the  links  and  pins 
scattered  around  the  yard  would  last 
us  about  one  month,  that  the  ink  on 
hand  would  run  the  Auditor's  office 
for  one  year,  that  the  stationery 
would  supply  Mobile.  Meridian  and 
Cairo  for  one-half  year,  that  we  had 
three  warehouse,  and  two  cotton 
trucks  more  than  were  needed,  that 
the  water  tank  had  been  running  over 
for  two  hours,  the  pump  still  running, 
and  the  pumper  asleep ;  pointed  out 
many  other  unnecessary  expenses,  and 
wound  up  his  short  stay  by  stopping 
two  truckers  and  weighing  their  load 
of  inbound  freight  with  the  result  that 
220  pounds  moving  on  a  72c  rate  was 
added  to  the  revenues. 

After  Frye  left  the  "kid"  organiza- 
tion held  a  call  session.  Billie  Griffin 
and  Scrap  Morris  voted  "strike" ;  Skin- 
ney Porter  stuck  on  his  new  position  as 
Assistant  Chief  Clerk,  voted  not  to  tie 
the  road  up,  and  as  a  result  lost  one 
tooth  and  had  one  eye  blackened  for 
being  a  traitor. 

Twenty-five  years  healed  this  breach 
and  the  last  time  the  aforesaid  Porter 


visited  his  early  haunts  Attorney  Grif- 
fin in  a  $5,000.00  touring  car  took  him 
for  a  ride  and  pointed  out  his  3,000 
acre  prairie  plantation,  and  also  the 
handsome  residence  of  Dr.  Morris, 
who  was  away  for  the  summer  in 
Canada. 

The  Assistant  Chief  Clerk,  no  longer 
''Skinney,"  as  his  belt  measure  is  now 
46,  plods  away  and  thinks  bf  Frye 
every  day. 

Superintendent  Frye  was  correct  so 
far  as  the  necessity  for  economy  was 
concerned,  but  in  the  application  of 
the  plan  there  was  no  permanent  up- 
build, as  we  have  on  our  line  under 
the  present  management.  Under  his 
system  there  was  no  investigation  to 
determine  the  needs;  things  were  seen 
to  be  wrong  and  instanter  'one  or 
more  employes  lost  out.  No  one  dared 
to  think  and  suggest ;  everyone  lived 
in  dread  as  to  what  would  befall  him 
next.  The  constant  desire  which  is 
now  shown  on  the  part  of  90  per  cent 
of  our  employes  to  want  to  help  make 
everything  just  a  little  better,  the  pride 
we  feel  for  working  for  what,  we  at 
least,  believe  to  be  the  best  railroad  in 
the  world,  was  lacking.  No  appeal  to 
pride,  no  co-operation,  no  partnership 
arrangement,  no  infusion  of  that  great- 
est of  all  lubricants,  where  men  are  a 
part  of  the  great  machine,  GINGER. 

What  has  been  accomplsihed  in  the 
past  few  years  on  our  line  is  only  an 
index  of  what  we  can  do.  If  every 
employe  could  only  know  how  loyal, 
efficient  work  is  appreciated  the  battle 
is  won.  Parsimony  is  not  the  thing 
desired.  One  spike  or  bolt  on  each 
section  saved,  one  less  scoop  of  coal 
for  each  fireman,  one  less  pencil  each 
week  for  each  station,  one  less  rubber 
band,  one  less  pint  of  oil,  a  little  care 
and  one  less  drawhead,  a  little  hurry- 
up  and  one  hour  overtime  saved ;  this 
list  might  be  drawn  out  a  sufficient 
length  to  fill  our  Magazine.  Every 
employe  competent  to  hold  his  job 
three  months  knows  when  his  work  is 
100  per  cent,  and  this  is  the  mark  to 
be  attained. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  69 

While  we  are  neutral  in  the  conflict      their  potatoes  so  they  can  be  skinned 
now  raging  in  the  Old  World,  we  do      to   save  the  waste  of  paring, 
doff   our   hat   to   a   nation    that   boils          Let's  all  of  us  follow. this  example. 


Office  of  Supervisor  of  Signals 

Staff  Meeting  Held  at  Carbondale,  May  16,  1915 

PRESENT 

P.  G.  PENDORF,  Supervisor  of  Signals. 
R.  C.  BINGHAM,  Signal  Inspector. 
J.  SHADWICK,  Signal  Foreman. 
E.  E.  GODDARD,  Repairman. 
C.  L.  KRUGER,  Maintainer. 
W.  REICK,  Signalman. 
J.  O.  BRADY,  Maintainer. 
J.  WELLS,  Maintainer. 
F.  TOLIN,  Maintainer. 
J.  E.  COLEMAN,  Maintainer. 

J.  RADER,  Maintainer. 
A.  RADER,  Maintainer. 

C.  E.  FERRELL,  Maintainer. 

GEO.  McKEOTHEN,  Maintainer. 
J,  E.  BETHEL,  Maintainer. 
O.  CAMPBELL,  Maintainer. 
T.  A.  DOUGHRE,  Maintainer 
F.  KENNEDY,  Maintainer. 
H.  R.  WASMER,  Maintainer. 
S.  SPECK,  Maintainer. 

C.  ANDERSON,  Repairman. 
J.  GOODWIN,  Repairman. 

'~P  HIS  meeting  was  called  to  order  at  2  p.  m.  and  closed  at  5  p.  m.,  in 
•*•  Supervisor  of  Signals'  Office.  Topics  discussed :  Handling  of  signal 
lamps,  B.  S.  C.  O.  and  track  battery,  the  keeping  of  tool  houses  in  clean 
and  orderly  condition,  the  handling  of  B.  S.  C.  O.  relieved  battery  re- 
newals, inspection  of  batteries  and  signals,  the  renewing  of  trunking  loca- 
tions by  Signal  Maintainers  when  new  steel  has  been  layed,  thereby  relieving 
the  expense  of  extra  labor,  also  the  discussion  of  the  number  of  extra  bat- 
tery jars  each  Maintainer  should  keep  in  stock,  the  adjustment  of  switch 
boxes  and  lastly,  "SAFETY  FIRST." 


70  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

—AND  — 

The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  12 


It  is  the  desire  of  this  company  that  its  employes 
be  courteous. 

eave  the  grouch  out  of  your  work  and 
et  affability  take  its  place. 

[  n  your  contact  with  the  public  you  will  find  that 

Nothing  irons  out  anger  so  quickly  as  courtesy, 
and  that 

f\  nly  those  who  are  polite  and  obliging,  as  a  rule, 
succeed. 

I  t  is  essential,  therefore,  that  this  be  not  forgotten— 
oft  answers  turn  away  wrath. 


COURTESY 


Jti  liminates 
N  aturally 
T  he 
K.  efractory 
rV  nimosities. 

et  all  Illinois  Central  employes  keep  this  in  mind. 


Hew  to 


It  is  not  tne  Science  (/curing  Disease  so  much  as  me  prevention  of  it 
mat  produces  trie  greatest  gpod  io  Humanity.  One  of  trie  most  important 
duties  of  a  Health  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teaching  people  now  to  live  A  A  A  A  A 


Vacation  Health  Hints 


w 


ITH  the  advent  of  warm  weather 
and  the  consequent  closing  of  the 
public  schools  comes  the  thought  of 
leaving  the  home  for  a  sojourn  in  some 
other  region,  possibly  the  visiting  of 
some  distant  friend  or  a  sojourn  to  the 
seashore  or  leaving  the  city  for  the  cool 
country.  The  tried  office  clerk,  the 
weary  train  master,  stenographer,  and 
the  worried  official  wishes  to  leave  their 
cares  for  a  time  to  spend  a  part  of  the 
hot  summer  months  in  some  shady 
rural  retreat.  Too  frequently  the  real- 
ization of  this  happy  anticipation  is  a 
hasty  return  to  the  city  and  a  long  stay 
in  the  hospital,  to  be  followed,  per- 
haps, by  the  death  of  some  loved  one. 
Much  of  this  may  be  avoided  if  reas- 
onable care  is  exercised  in  the  choice  of 
the  place  to  spend  the  summer  months. 

Ordinarily  the  questions  which  are 
asked  when  one  is  seeking  for  such  a 
place  include  the  character  of  the  food 
and  beds,  the  extent  and  nature  of  the 
social  life,  the  temperature  of  the  air, 
the  shade  and  the  opportunities  for 
bathing.  All  of  these  are  important, 
but  they  are  of  secondary  considera- 
tion as  compared  with  the  question  of 
the  healthfulness  of  the  locality  in 
which  it  is  intended  to  spend  the  warm 
months.  Therefore,  in  choosing  a  sum- 
mer residence  the  first  thing  to  have  in 
mind  is  the  sanitary  environment  in 
which  this  time  is  to  be  spent. 

Every  autumn  there  is  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  typhoid  fever  cases  in 
the  cities  and  when  this  is  investigated 
it  is  frequently  found  that  they  are 


simply  cases  which  have  been  imported 
from  the  country,  or  occurring  in  peo- 
ple who  have  spent  their  vacation  in  the 
country.  Persons  have  left  the  city 
in  search  of  health,  and,  as  they  are  ac- 
customed to  think  that  health  may  be 
obtained  and  maintained  best  in  the 
country,  they  accept  it  without  ques- 
tion as  the  place  to  get  health. 

Bowel  disturbances  and  typhoid  fe- 
ver are  diseases  which  summer  tourists 
frequently  contract;  therefore,  it  is  al- 
ways well  to  bear  the  avoidance  of 
these  diseases  in  mind  in  choosing  a 
summer  residence. 

Intestinal  disturbances  are  often  pro- 
duced by  a  change  in  the  water  sup- 
ply. A  water  heavy  in  salts  may  irri- 
tate the  intestinal  tract  if  drunk  in 
large  quantities,  but  it  would  be  wise 
to  look  into  the  source  of  all  water  sup- 
ply at  any  or  all  summer  resorts.  Ty- 
phoid fever  is  a  disease  of  man.  The 
germ  which  causes  it,  the  bacilli  typho- 
sus,  leaves  the  body  of  the  person  sick 
with  the  disease  in  the  discharges  and 
when  these  are  taken  by  a  well  person, 
a  secondary  case  of  the  disease  is 
caused.  The  germs  of  typhoid  fever 
are  carried  from  the  sick  to  the  well,  in 
the  water,  milk,  and  food  and  by  flies 
and  on  the  fingers.  If  one  does  not  take 
into  his  system  the  bacillus  of  typhoid 
fever  he  does  not  get  typhoid. 

At  the  present  time  typhoid  is  es- 
sentially a  disease  of  the  country,  be- 
cause in  the  country  the  opportunities 
for  the  transference  of  the  germs  of  the 
disease  from  the  sick  to  the  well  are 


71 


72 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


greater  than  in  the  city.  Therefore,  in 
the  choice  of  a  place  to  spend  the  sum- 
mer one  should  inquire  into  the  occur- 
rence of  typhoid  fever  in  the  commun- 
ity in  which  it  is  intended  to  stay,  and 
one  should  determine  the  opportunities 
which  exist  there  for  the  carrying  of 
the  germs  of  typhoid  fever  from  the 
sick  to  the  well  visitor. 

Inasmuch  as  diseases  are  contracted 
from  the  drinking  of  contaminated  wat- 
er, it  is  very  important  that  all  drinking 
water  be  carefully  selected.  Since  the 
germ  is  carried  in  the  discharges  of  per- 
gons  sick  with  typhoid  fever,  a  careful 
inspection  should  be  made  of  the  toilet 
facilities.  A  place  which  has  a  surface 
privy  to  which  the  domestic  animals 
and  fowls  have  free  access  should  not 
be  chosen.  Places  which  have  a  pit 
privy  or  a  cess-pool  situated  only  a 
short  distance  from  a  well  should  be 
avoided.  Places  which  take  their  drink- 
ing water  from  streams  which  receive 
the  drainage  from  outhouses  or  other 
buildings  should  likewise  be  regarded 
with  suspicion.  Other  things  being 
equal,  place^  having  a  water  supply 
from  artesian  or  deep  wells  should  be 
given  the  preference. 

Unscreened  toilets,  because  of  the 
flies,  and  because  of  the  chance  which 
these  insects  have  to  pick  up  germs  of 
typhoid  fever  therein  to  carry  them  to 
the  food  supply,  are  particularly  dan- 
gerous. It  is  equally  important,  both 
for  the  comfort  and  health  of  the 
guest,  that  the  house  should  be  well 
screened. 

In  the  choosing  of  a  place  for  a  sum- 
mer residence,  consideration  should  al- 
ways be  given  to  the  milk  supply  and  if 
it  is  found,  as  is  too  frequently  the 
case,  to  be  from  dirty,  fly-infested  sta- 
bles, in  which  dirty  cows  are  milked 


by  dirty  hands,  it  is  best  to  give  the 
place  a  wide  berth. 

Another  danger  to  be  avoided  is  the 
mosquito.  This  pestiferous  insect  in- 
fects people  with  malaria  by  biting 
them  and  injecting  the  germ  as  it  bites. 
Therefore,  when  a  place  of  summer 
residence  is  chosen,  it  should  not  be 
an  unscreened  house,  nor  should  it  be 
in  a  swampy  region,  nor  in  a  locality 
in  which  there  are  small  pools  of  water 
well  adapted  to  the  breeding  of  mos- 
quitoes. 

But  a  word  of  warning  should  be 
given  our  readers  as  they  travel  to  this 
summer  home.  Avoid  people  who  are 
sickly — who  cough  habitually — at  least 
do  not  allow  such  to  cough  or  sneeze 
in  your  face  or  near  you.  It  has  been 
proven  beyond  dispute  that  this  fine 
spray  thus  thrown  off  has  the  germs 
that  may  gain  entrance  into  your  per- 
son through  your  nose  or  mouth. 

Do  not  eat  fruit  sold  at  uncovered 
fruit  stands,  without  first  washing  or 
peeling  it.  Do  not  eat  from  dishes 
used  by  other  people  unless  washed 
in  boiling  water.  When  going  to  a 
cooler  climate  be  sure  to  carry  heavy 
clothes,  as  the  nights  are  unusually 
cold  and  such  garments  are  needed. 

Now,  a  climate  which  embodies  all 
the  above  is  an  ideal  summer  resort. 
The  City  of  Chicago  offers  all  the  above 
—with  a  competent  health  board,  good 
drinking  water,  fine  shade  and  a  fine 
body  of  water  for  bathing  and  on  which 
most  delightful  boat  rides  can  be  had 
at  all  times  of  the  day  or  evening,  pub- 
lic parks  to  delight  you  and  the  Mu- 
seum, where  all  kinds  of  animals  can 
be  seen,  and  the  public  libraries — are 
a  delight  to  all. 

We  cannot  too  strongly  urge  you  to 
spend  your  vacation  in  the  great  city 
of  Chicago. 


Letter  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Chicago,  May  19th,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall, 

Chief  Surgeon,  Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir: 

Just  a  few  lines  to  express  my  appreciation  for  treatment  afforded  me 
while  a  patient  at  Mercy  Hospital. 

I  cannot  find  words  to  express  my  gratitude  for  the  excellent  treatment 
and  attention  given  me  by  yourself  and  staff;  also,  I  must  not  overlook  men- 
tioning the  excellent  and  efficient  Nurses  and  Attendants  at  the  Hospital. 

In  conclusion,  I  might  add  that  the  benefit  which  I  have  received  from 
the  I.  C.  Hospital  Department  can  only  be  repaid  by  praise  and  good  wishes, 
and  the  amount  I  contribute  toward  its  support  each  month  is  one  of  the 
greatest  investments  I  ever  made. 

Again  thanking  you  and  your  staff,  I  am, 

Yours  very  truly, 

L.  E.  HOWARD, 
Schedule  Inspector. 


1.  H.  C.  Boehmler,  Engineer. 

2.  S.  M.  Hull,  Engineer. 


3.  J.  Poland,  Engine  Inspector.      4.  J.  E.  Nihlean,  Gen'l  Yard  Master. 

5.  J.  A.  James,  Eng.  Messenger. 
WATERLOO,     IOWA 


73 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

CIAIMS  DEPARTMENT 

Tragmonts  of  a  Sfo/y 
Seldom    &vor  Told 


i      r 


REDUCING  LITIGATION 

The  illustration  which  appears  else- 
where in  this  Department  of  the  Mag- 
azine, entitled,  "Swat  the  Fly,"  seems 
appropriate  in  view  of  the  splendid 
manner  in  which  personal  injury  suits 
are  being  reduced  all  over  this  system. 

Four  counties  in  Mississippi,  namely, 
Hinds,  Yazoo,  Lincoln  and  Warren, 
have  in  recent  years  furnished  the  great 
bulk  of  personal  injury  litigation  aris- 
ing in  Mississippi  against  the  com- 
pany. The  following  statement  shows 
the  status  of  personal  injury  litigation 
in  those  counties  on  June  1,  1915,  as 
compared  with  the  same  period  two 
years  ago: 

Number  of  suits  pending  in  Hinds 
county  June  1,  1913,  71,  as  against  21 
June  1,  1915,  or  a  decrease  of  70.5  per 
cent. 

Number  of  suits  pending  in  Yazoo 
county  June  1,  1913,  15,  as  against  6 
June  1,  1915,  or  a  decrease  of  60  per 
cent. 

Number  of  suits  pending  in  Lincoln 
county  June  1,  1913,  25,  as  against  8 
June  1,  1915,  or  a  decrease  of  68  per 
cent. 


Number  of  suits  pending  in  Warren 
county  June  1,  1913,  145,  as  against  13 
June  1,  1915,  or  a  decrease  of  91  per 
,cent. 


DEATH  OF  L.  L.  LOSEY 

Former  Chief  Claim  Agent  L.  L. 
Losey  died  at  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  this 
city,  at  8  :10  o'clock  p.  m.,  June  25,  after 
an  illness  of  about  ten  days.  The  fu- 
neral was  held  at  the  family  residence 
at  2322  Calumet  avenue,  Sunday  after- 
noon, June  27,  and  was  largely  at- 
tended. The  remains  were  taken  to 
Nashville,  Tenn..  accompanied  by  rel- 
atives and  friends,  and  were  interred 
on  the  following  Tuesday. 

Mr.  Losey  was  the  Chief  Claim 
Agent  of  this  system  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  but  retired  from  active 
service  about  five  years  ago.  He  was 
on  the  pension  list  at  the  time  of  his 
death  and,  until  the  last,  took  a  deep 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  company. 

The  Claims  Department  of  this  sys- 
tem was  organized  by  Mr.  Losey  and 
was  ably  conducted  by  him  during 
the  many  years  that  he  was  at  the  head 


74 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


75 


L.   L.   LOSEY. 

of  it.  He  had  a  large  acquaintance 
among  the  officers  and  employes  of  the 
company,  and  his  friends  were  legion. 
He  served  as  President  of  the  National 
Association  of  Railway  Claim  Agents 
and  in  other  positions  of  prominence 
in  claim  work.  Among  the  railway 
claim  agents  no  man  in  the  country  had 
a  wider  acquaintance  and  none  stood 
higher  in  their  esteem. 


WILL  LOCOMOTIVE     ENGI- 
NEERS PLEASE  TAKE  NOTICE 

The  Aberdeen  District  of  the  Illinois 
Central,  running  from  Durant  to  Aber- 
deen, penetrates  a  section  where  there 
is  perhaps  more  live  stock  to  the  acre 
than  in  any  other  portion  of  Missis- 
sippi. In  this  section  a  great  deai  of 
attention  has  been  paid  to  improving 
the  breed  of  stock,  and  this  has  been 
going  on  for  a  number  of  years.  The 
waylands  on  this  district  are  unfenced. 
There  is  no  part  of  the  line  where  en- 
ginemen  are  required  to  be  on  the  look- 
out for  live  stock  more  than  on  the  Ab- 
erdeen District.  To  show  that  loco- 
motive engineers  can  do  a  great  deal 


toward  reducing  the  killing  of  stock  it 
is  but  necessary  to  state  that  Engineer 
George  Allen,  of  the  Aberdeen  District, 
who  has  made  daily  trips  during  the 
past  two  years,  has  during  that  length 
of  time  killed  but  one  animal.  When 
asked  for  an  explanation  as  to  why 
he  had  only  killed  one  animal  in  two 
years,  Engineer  Allen  stated  that  he 
not  only  preached,  but  he  also  prac- 
ticed, the  principles  of  "Safety  First." 
He  said  he  thought  any  locomotive  en- 
gineer could,  by  the  use  of  care  and 
precaution,  avert  the  killing  of  stock 
except  in  rare  instances.  We  trust  that 
locomotive  engineers  all  over  the  sys- 
tem will  try  to  emulate  the  example 
set  by  Mr.  Allen  in  the  matter  of  kill- 
ing live  stock  on  the  track. 


AN  INTERESTING  CASE 

Walter  Fisher,  an  old  colored  man, 
sued  the  owner  of  a  garage  down  in 
Mississippi,  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  Tal- 
lahatchie  county,  alleging  that  the 
owner  of  the  garage  had  negligently 
and  wrongfully  injured  him. 

Fisher  was  driving  a  buggy  up  a 
steep  hill  on  the  main  street  of  Charles- 
ton. He  was  on  the  right  side  of  the 
road,  where  he  had  a  right  to  be,  and 
was  pursuing  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way  in  a  careful  and  cautious  manner. 
A  negro  chauffeur  for  the  Red  Star 
Garage,  driving  one  of  the  garage  cars, 
was  going  down  the  hill  on  the  left  side 
of  the  road,  and  when  he  got  within 
about  60  feet  of  the  buggy  occupied  by 
the  old  negro,  he  called  to  the  driver 
to  turn  out.  The  horse  was  turned  out 
and  the  front  wheels  of  the  buggy  fol- 
lowed, so  that  the  automobile  could 
drive  between  it  and  the  edge  of  the 
road  or  bank,  but  the  rear  wheel  of 
the  buggy  did  not  quite  clear  the  auto- 
mobile and,  consequently,  there  was  a 
collision,  in  which  the  old  negro  was 
thrown  violently  out  of  the  buggy.  The 
testimony  in  the  case,  which  was  tried 
at  Charleston,  Miss.,  showed  that  his 
right  wrist  was  sprained,  left  hand  in- 
jured and  a  hernia,  from  which  he  was 
already  suffering,  aggravated  to  a  con- 
siderable extent.  The  owner  of  the 


PUBLIC 
OPINION 


Swat  the  Fly " 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


77 


automobile  testified  that  the  chauffeur 
was  inexperienced  and  an  incompetent 
driver;  that  the  brake  on  the  car  was 
worn  out  and  of  no  service,  and  that  he 
had  known  for  some  time  it  was  in  that 
condition,  but  in  spite  of  that  permit- 
ted the  car  to  go  out  to  carry  passen- 
gers. The  case  went  to  the  jury,  which 
returned  a  verdict  for  $50.00  in  favor 
of  the  plaintiff.  One  of  the  attorneys  in 
the  case  made  the  statement  that  if  he 
could  get  such  a  case  as  that  against 
the  railroad,  his  fortune  would  be  made. 


RIGHT  OF  WAY  FIRES 

Claim  Agent  M.  B.  Rothrock,  of  Mat- 
toon,  has  contributed  the  following: 

I  am  handing  you  herewith  a  compar- 
ative statement  of  right-of-way  fires  oc- 
curring on  the  Indiana  Division  during 
the  years  1913-14 ;  showing  some  splen- 
did results  obtained: 

Reduc- 
tion in 

Number    Per 
District        1913       1914  of  Fires  Cent 

Peoria   101  32  69         68 

Mattoon   ....377        164        213        56 
Indianapolis  .   97  38  59         61 

Effingbam  ...194           94         100         51 


Total   769        328        441        56 

The  districts  are  in  charge  of  the  fol- 
lowing Supervisors : 

John  C.  Crane — Peoria  district. 

J.  L.  Pifer — Mattoon  district. 

G.  A.  King — Indianapolis  district. 

T.  J.  Flynn — Effingham  district. 

To  whom  special  credit  is  due  for 
this  great  reduction  in  the  number  of 
fires  occurring  during  the  year  1914, 
although  it  is  said  the  greatest  drought 
in  seventen  years  prevailed  over  the 
territory  traversed  by  this  division. 

We  should  not,  however,  overlook 
the  part  taken  by  the  Section  Foremen 
in  their  watchfulness  to  discover  and 
extinguish  fires,  thereby  limiting  the 
damage  and  loss  which  would  have 
otherwise  resulted.  This  decrease  was 
brought  about  by  vigilance  on  the  part 
of  these  men,  the  plowing  of  fire 
guards,  etc.  This  demonstrates  that 
much  can  be  done  in  the  matter  of  pre- 


vention of  the  starting  of  fires  and  like- 
wise much  can  be  done  in  the  matter 
or  limiting  the  destruction  of  property 
when  a  fire  does  occur. 

It  is  the  practice  of  our  foremen  to 
request  the  farmers  to  stack  and  shock 
their  hay  and  grain  a  reasonable  dis- 
tance from  the  right-of-way.  If  they 
are  unwilling  to  do  it,  they  will  gen- 
erally give  the  foremen  permission  to 
move  it,  also  to  burn  fire  guards,  which 
is  frequently  done,  and  losses  are  not 
only  reduced  but  saved  entirely.  In 
my  interview  with  farmers.  I  have  re- 
quested them  when  gathering  their 
corn  in  the  fall  of  the  year  to,  when 
possible,  gather  that  along  the  track 
first.  Our  right-of-way,  for  the  most 
part,  is  very  narrow  and  special  atten- 
tion has  been  given  to  inducing  farm- 
ers to  plow  fire  guards,  and  while  it 
it  true,  it  creates  more  or  less  of  an 
inconvenience  when  it  is  necessary  to 
have  to  drive  over  them  in  gathering 
or  cultivating  crops,  a  great  many  pos- 
itively decline  to  plow  them  or  permit 
them  plowed  in  their  fields,  we  are 
meeting  with  better  success  each  year. 

There  has  been  an  unwarranted  an- 
tagonism on  the  part  of  the  farming 
community  toward  railroads  augmented 
by  failure,  too  often,  in  the  past  to  give 
their  claims  and  grievances  proper  at- 
tention ;  and  other  causes.  To  over- 
come this : 

We  must  get  acquainted  with  them. 

We  must  cultivate  them. 

We  must  prove  to  them  that  we  de- 
sire to  treat  them  on  a  fair  and  square 
basis. 

That  we  are  neighbors  and  friends. 

And  if  we  will  do  that,  my  faith  in 
them  is  such  that  I  am  convinced  we 
will  be  able  to  adjust  our  differences 
without  trouble  and  with  proper  re- 
gard for  the  rights  of  both  sides. 

When  we  shall  have  broken  down  the 
prejudice  due  to  misunderstanding 
that  has  prevailed  in  the  past,  I  feel 
warranted  in  saying  the  vast  majority 
will  join  hands  with  us  in  an  effort  to 
prevent  the  killing  of  stock  as  well  as 
the  starting  of  fires  and  I  feel,  then, 
in  order  to  bring  about  these  results,  all 


78 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


of  us  must  treat  them  courteously,  pay 
proper  regard  to  their  rights,  correct 
their  grievances,  which  in  many  in- 
stances are  well  founded,  settle  their 
claims  on  a  fair  and  equitable  basis 
even  to  the  extent  of  liberality,  where 
they  have  come  forward  and  assisted  us 
in  the  prevention  of  fires  by  plowing 
guards,  removing  grain,  hay,  etc.,  from 
the  track,  thereby  limiting  what  might 
have  been  a  great  loss. 


SECTION  FOREMAN  W.  H.  FAR- 
ROW 

Section  Foreman  W.  H.  Farrow, 
whose  picture  is  shown,  has  been  in 
the  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  for 


w.  H.  FARROW. 

more  than  ten  years,  rising  from  sec- 
tion laborer  to  section  foreman.  He 
has  been  in  charge  of  sections  at  Clin- 
ton, Wickliffe  and  Bardwell,  Ky.,  dur- 
ing these  years,  and  is  now  located  at 
the  latter  place.  On  many  occasions, 
Section  Foreman  Farrow  has  person- 


ally interested  himself  in  the  investiga- 
tion of  suits  and  claims  originating  on 
his  territory  and  rendered  the  Claims 
Department  valuable  assistance  in  fur- 
nishing names  of  witnesses  to  defeat 
fraudulent  claims.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
publish  in  this  Department  the  record 
of  one  who  appreciates  the  responsi- 
bilities of  his  position  to  the  extent 
that  his  services  have  become  so  valu- 
able as  is  true  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Far- 
row. 


TO  PROBE  LAWYER'S  CONDUCT 

The  following  article  appeared  in  the 
Waterloo  (la.)  Courier  of  the  llth  ult. : 

Attorneys  C.  E.  Ransier,  J.  W.  Ar- 
buckle  and  J.  E.  Williams,  appointed 
by  Judges  Mullon  and  Boies  to  investi- 
gate the  alleged  misconduct  of  Attor- 
ney Loren  Risk,  will  soon  begin  their 
work.  They  are  empowered  to  sum- 
mon witnesses  and  procure  documents. 

The  order  says  in  substance  that  be- 
cause of  "the  conviction  of  J.  W.  Ack- 
erman  of  perjury  in  the  case  of  Charles 
Scribner  vs.  the  Waterloo,  Cedar  Falls 
&  Northern  Railway,  and  because  of 
information  brought  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  court  since  his  conviction  by 
his  written  confession,  wherein  he  says 
that  by  promise  of  payment  of  money 
he  was  induced  by  Loren  Risk,  the  at- 
torney for  Scribner,  to  commit  perjury, 
and  that  he  was  summoned  in  other 
cases;  the  court  deems  it  its  duty  to 
have  an  investigation  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ascertaining  whether  the 
charges  made  in  the  confession  are  true 
or  untrue,  and  whether  charges  should 
be  preferred  against  Risk. 

"In  view  of  contradictory  statements 
made  by  said  Ackerman  in  regard  to 
his  connection  and  transactions  with 
said  Loren  Risk,"  the  order  continues, 
"it  is  by  the  court  deemed  advisable  to 
appoint  a  committee  of  representative 
members  of  the  bar  of  the  county  to 
make  investigation  and  report  the  re- 
sult thereof  to  the  court." 


S.  M.  COPP  WINS  PROMOTION 

S.  M.  Copp,  recently  appointed  chief 
clerk  to  H.  B.  Hull,  chief  claim  agent 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


79 


of  the  Illinois  Central,  at  Chicago,  was 
in  the  city  Monday  with  his  wife,  on 
his  way  to  Galvesfon.  Mr.  Copp  is  a 
young  Orealian  who  is  rapidly  winning 
promotion.  For  several  years  he  was 
chief  clerk  to  N.  G.  Pearsall.  general 
superintendent  of  the  New  Orleans 
Great  Northern,  and  later  became  the 
road's  first  claim  agent.  He  then  went 
with  the  Illinois  Central  and  served  as 
claim  agent  at  Fort  Dodge,  la.,  until 
named  chief  clerk  under  Mr.  Hull. — 
New  Orleans  Times-Picayune. 


BETWEEN  TWO  FIRES 

"I  educated  one  of  my  boys  to  be  a 
doctor  and  the  other  a  lawyer,"  said 
Farmer  Corntossel,  as  he  shifted  his 
crutch. 

"You  should  be  very  proud  of  them," 
answered  his  visitor.  "That  seems  like 
an  excellent  arrangement." 

"I  don't  know  about  that,"  replied 
the  aged  agriculturist;  "it  looks  as 
though  it  was  a-going  to  break  up 
the  family.  I  got  run  into  by  a  loco- 
motive, and  one  of  'em  wants  to  cure 
me  and  the  other  one  wants  me  to  go 
lame  so  he  can  sue  for  damages." — Ex- 
change. .  • 


ONE  BAG  SWEDE  FALLER 

Elbow  minn. 

Oct.  14  1914 
Mr.   Presedent  Central   Railroad 

Chicago  ill. 
Deer  Sirs. 

Day  before  today,  bout  25  minit  pass 
four  oclock  on  de  mornin,  ven  da  train 
vas  pass  127  mile  pose  near  pole  tela- 
graf  on  my  farms,  cla  ongoneer  he  bain 
blow  whisle  on  da  train  an  hay  make 
noise  like  a  yack.  Bout  do  tarn  ma  boys 
Emil  hey  pas  da  sain  plac  vid  milk 
vagon.  Hey  notic  bag  sine  vat  say 
"Luck  qvick  for  day  enchine"  He  luck 
off  right  avay  qvick,  but  hay  look  on 
dey  rong  plac,  ven  he  look  off  on  von 
plac  day  train  hey  hit  him  in  anoder 
plac.  Det  train  hey  bus  da  vagon  and 
trow  dey  boy  on  hay  feel.  Ven  dey 
boy  was  stan  up,  he  fine  hisself  lay 
dawn  again  and  sais  he  is  feelin  like  ay 


vas  run  tro  a  trashin  machine.  Dey 
horses  ay  can  no  use  for  netting  as  he 
vas  bot  ded.  Von  vas  havin  a  colt  in 
yanuary,  but  dis  come  too  qvick  in  Oct. 
an  aye  cant  use  ham.  How  much  you 
vil  tak  and  settle  day  hole  bill.  I  ban 
tellin  you  someding  now,  van  you  dont 
write  prety  qvick,  I  bain  goin  to  drop 
day  hole  basnass  an  mak  som  law  suit 
vid  you. 

much  oblige 

Ole  Lindrew. 


WHO  IS  THE  WINNER? 

Mr.  J.  D.  Doty,  Agent,  Hackleburg, 
Alabama,  is  moved  to  propound  the 
above  inquiry  after  observing  the  re- 
sult of  litigation  by  three  farmers  near 
his  station  in  suits  brought  by  them 
against  the  railroad  for  damages  on 
account  of  small  fires  on  their  prem- 
ises. The  claim  agent  offered  each  a 
sum  which  he  and  others  who  ap- 
praised the  damage  thought  sufficient 
to  cover  it.  The  offers  were  refused 
and  suits  brought  in  the  J.  P.  Court, 
where  each  recovered  a  judgment  for 
$30.00  or  $90.00  in  all.  .The  railway 
appealed  the  cases  to  the  Circuit  Court, 
where  the  combined  judgments  for  the 
three  were  reduced  to  $58.00,  and  they 
were  assessed  with  the  J.  P.  costs, 
amounting  to  $36.60.  As  their  attor- 
neys received  half  the  amount  recov- 
ered, the  plaintiffs  were  left  $29.00  with 
which  to  pay  the  costs  of  $36.60.  Con- 
sequently they  are  out  $7.60. 

Agent  Doty  in  writing  about  this 
matter,  says:  "I  understand  one  of  the 
gentlemen  says,  'A  man  loses  in  a  law 
suit  if  he  wins.'  "  It  is  an  example  for 
others-  to  be  careful  how  they  bring 
suits  and  will  probably  cause  these 
gentlemen  to  try  and  put  out  the  next 
fire  that  catches  on  their  land,  even 
though  they  think  the  railroad  set  it 
out.  They  made  statements  that  they 
could  have  put  it  out  in  fifteen  minutes, 
but  that  the  railroad  set  it  out  and  'we 
will  have  a  law  suit.'  Well,  we  had  it. 
Who  wins?" 

Many  others  like  Agent  Doty  have 
often  wondered  why  claimants  will  not 


80 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


accept  reasonable  offers  of  compromise 
made  by  the  railroad  to  save  them- 
selves the  annoyance  and  expense  of 
litigation.  They  seldom  litigate  with 
their  individual  neighbors.  The  rail- 
road is  also  a  neighbor.  Why  litigate 
with  it?  Is  it  because  demands  are 
made  upon  the  railroad  that  would  not 
be  made  of  an  individual  neighbor,  and 
is  it  not  about  time  that  the  farmers 
realized  that  their  interests  and  the 
railroad's  are  largely  one,  and  that  their 


difficulties  ought  to  be  settled  outside 
the  courts  if  possible? 

In  this  connection  we  want  to  com- 
ment upon  and  commend  the  interest 
displayed  by  Agent  Doty  in  these 
cases.  He  readily  and  eagerly  assist- 
ed the  claim  agent  in  investigating  the 
claims,  selecting  the  appraisers  and  ar- 
ranging for  the  witnesses.  In  other 
words,  he  was  thoroughly  alive  to  the 
company's  interests  and  performed  his 
dutv. 


McCOMB  SHOP  CLERICAL  FORCE 


Industrial. 
Immigration 

^5  and 

Development 
Department 


The  Lay  of  the  Land 

By  Herman  J.  Selferth 
Louisiana's  Human  Factor 


C.  N.  Brtinfield,  the  agricultural 
agent  of  the  Illinois  Central's  Southern 
territory,  recently  came  a  long  way  to 
talk  to  the  Rural  Progress  convention 
at  Baton  Rouge,  and  his  message  was 
more  to  the  business  men  than  to  the 
farmers  of  Louisiana.  He  said  his 
road  had  done  its  share  in  co-operating 
for  agricultural  success,  because  the 
railroads  recognized  the  importance  of 
the  industry  of  production. 

Increased  output  means  increased 
prosperity  for  the  common  carriers 
which  must  bear  the  crops  to  market. 
They  also  realize  that  the  lumber  in- 
dustry will  come  to  an  end  with  de- 
forestization,  while  agriculture  will  not 
only  grow  but  be  permanent. 

The  trend  of  the  times  is  towards 
co-operation  with  the  farmers  and  his 
travels  from  Louisville  to  New  Orleans 
had  shown  him  that  the  business  men 
of  many  centers  were  awakening  to 
their  duty  and  were  joining  with  the 
farmers  in  studying  and  solving  the 
problems  of  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  He 
cited  the  instance  of  Tipton  county, 
Tennessee,  in  which  Covington  is  lo- 
cated, which  has  formed  a  club  for  the 
advertisement  and  development  of  re- 
sources, and  goes  out  weekly  among 
the  farmers  to  get  into  closer  touch 
with  them. 

The  Boards  of  Trade  in  many  places 
are  inviting  the  farmers  to  attend  their 
meetings  so  as  to  learn  their  needs  and 
aid  in  supplying  them.  Jackson,  Tenn., 


Jackson,  Miss.,  Fulton,  Ky.,  Vicksburg, 
Clarksdale  and  Greenwood,  Miss.,  were 
examples  of  such  practical  fellowship 
and  concern. 

There  must  be  an  amalgamation,  a 
better  sentiment,  truer  understanding 
between  the  business  men  and  the 
farmers.  The  stronger  and  better 
status  must  be  brought  about  by  the 
business  men  and  the  agencies  they  em- 
ploy/ armed  to  reach  the  farmers  with 
proof  of  sincerity  and  eagerness  to  ad- 
vance the  common  cause. 

If  the  towns  become  thoroughly 
posted  in  conditions  around  them,  and 
the  farmers  acquire  more  accurate 
knowledge  of  conditions  in  the  towns 
it  will  be  an  easy  matter  to  evolve  mu- 
tual and  model  relationship. 

Mr.  Brunfield  asserted  that  there 
would  not  be  more  intelligent  and  tell- 
ing union  until  there  was  more  educa- 
tion. There  was  a  lack  of  scientific 
education  combined  with  practical  art. 
There  are  a  million  head  of  cattle  in 
Louisiana.  A  tax  of  five  cents  a  head 
would  go  far  towards  properly  main- 
taining the  main  institutions  for  agri- 
cultural education.  The  fact  that  there 
are  still  farmers  in  this  state  who  mar- 
ket hogs  weighing  forty  pounds,  con- 
vinces that  there  is  room  for  education 
that  would  guide  them  to  market  two 
million  hogs  a  year,  at  a  weigh  of  200 
pounds  each,  which  would  not  cost  the 
farmers  any  more  and  mean  the  differ- 
ence between  failure  and  prosperity. 


81 


82 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Agriculture  is  the  basis  of  the  de- 
velopment of  every  state  in  the  South. 
Science  has  to  do  with  finding  out  the 
working  resources  of  the  soil.  Art  is 
applying  this  science  so  as  to  bring 
about  the  largest  yield  with  the  great- 
est certainty  at  the  least  cost  and  the 
most  profit. 

Few  farmers  understand  the  re- 
sources of  their  land,  and  the  science 
and  art  of  production  and  marketing. 
They  do  not  study  carefully  the  condi- 
tions of  their  own  farms  and  the  cap- 
italization of  their  own  labor. 

The  business  men  must  shoulder  the 
responsibility  of  furnishing  the  busi- 
ness ideals  which  will  rescue  the 
farmers  from  the  slough  of  despond. 
He  regretted  to  say  that  not  all  bank- 
ers were  business  men,  and  assured 
them  that  they  must  learn  more  of  co- 
operation and  constructiveness  before 
the  state  would  make  any  long  stride 
in  progress  and  before  the  argicultural 
resources  and  opportunities  were 
known  and  appreciated  beyond  Louisi- 
ana herself. 

The  question  of  markets  was  being 
most  discussed  wherever  he  went. 
Farmers  told  him  they  could  raise  a 
hundred  bushels  of  sweet  potatoes  to 
the  acre  but  could  not  sell  them. 
Others  said  they  reared  and  fattened 
hogs,  but  could  not  find  the  way  to 
dispose  of  them  to  advantage.  He 
thought  that  the  market  problem 
would  eventually  solve  itself. 

The  man  who  is  generally  most  re- 
mote from  market  is  the  man  who 
has  nothing  to  sell.  If  each  farmer  in 
the  same  section  would  learn  to  grow 
the  same  crop  or  the  same  variety  of 
live  stock  they  could  not  only  gain 
reputation  for  their  output  and  mar- 
ket in  quantity  at  less  exoense,  but 
the  very  fact  that  they  had  so  much 
of  something  good  to  sell  would  at- 
tract dozens  of  buyers  from  the  cen- 
ters of  demand  to  pay  them  the  high- 
est price  and  pay  cash  besides. 

Mr.  Brunfield  said  that  Louisiana 
had  impressed  him  with  her  splendid 
possibilities.  When  she  removes  cer- 
tain obstacles  she  will  be  the  peerless 
feeding  and  breeding  ground  of  the 


entire  country.  The  main  thing  is  the 
human  factor  and  education  and  co- 
operation will  make  that  efficient  and 
triumphant.  -  -  The  Trmes-Picayune, 
Tuesday,  June  15,  1915. 


MISSISSIPPI  WHEAT. 

The  St.  Louis  market  is  just  in  re- 
ceipt of  a  carload  of  Mississippi  wheat, 
raised  in  Adams  county  and  shipped 
from  Natchez. 

The  owners  of  this  wheat  refused  an 
offer  of  $1.30  per  bushel  for  it  and 
shipped  it  to  St.  Louis,  where  they 
expect  to  get  a  better  price.  The  car- 
load graded  No.  2,  and  is  fully  as  good 
as  the  majority  of  wheat  shipments 
from  any  of  the  old  wheat-growing 
States. 

There  is  no  reason  why  wheat  can- 
not be  profitably  grown  in  Mississippi. 
While  never  attempted  on  a  large 
scale,  in  the  years  previous  to  the  war, 
wheat  was  grown  on  many  Mississippi 
plantations.  In  those  days  railroads 
were  few  and  transportation  slow  and 
difficult.  To  meet  home  needs  neigh- 
borhood flour  mills  existed,  and  on 
many  large  plantations  all  the  wheat 
necessary  for  home  consumption  was 
grown  and  carried  to  these  neighbor- 
hood mills  and  converted  into  flour. 

The  same  soil  conditions  exist  in 
Mississippi  as  were  present  then,  while 
the  necessity  for  the  production  of 
wheat  is  a  great  deal  more  urgent.  If 
it  could  be  raised  profitably  then,  it 
can  be  raised  profitably  now,  and  those 
Adams  county  farmers  are  in  a  fair 
way  to  prove  this  assertion. 

In  Lowndes  county,  located  almost 
entirely  across  the  State  from  Adams, 
wheat  is  being  profitably  cultivated 
and  a  wheat  mill  has  been  established 
and  is  in  successful  operation.  These 
two  experiments  in  widely  separated 
sections  of  the  State  prove  that  Missis- 
sippi lands  are  well  adapted  to  the 
cultivation  of  wheat,  and  the  fact  that 
the  price  must,  of  necessity,  stay  well 
advanced  for  some  time  to  come, 
should  encourage  more  Mississippi 
farmers  to  gfo  into  its  cultivation. — 
The  Daily  Herald,  Vicksburg,  Miss., 
Wednesday,  June  16,  1915. 


Name 

Wilhelm  H.  Kile 
R.  R.  Sutherland 
William  M.  Hicks 
Numa  Gravelle 
Frank  Moran 
Chas.  H.  Stickley 
Archie  R.  Wylie 
Wm.  D.  Paterson 


Occupation 
Section  Laborer 
Carpenter 
Section  Laborer 
Switchman 
Section  Laborer 
Train  Baggagm'n 
Conductor 
Agent 

Where 
Employed 
Mt.  Pulaski 
Paducah 
Milan,  Tenn 
New  Orleans 
Dubuque 
Dubuque 
Waterloo 
Cherokee 

Service 
23  years 
16  years 
36  years 
43  years 
25  years 
28  years 
28  years 
33  years 

Date  of 
Retirement 
Feb.  28,  1915 
Mar.  31,  1915 
April  30,  1915 
April  30,  1915 
Mar.  31,  1915 
May  31,  1915 
Feb.  28,  1915 
June  30,  1915 

ALPHONSE  E.  CLERMONT 

PENSIONED  ENGINEER. 
A  LPHONSE   E.   CLERMONT,   for 
**•   27  years  an   employe  of  the  Illi- 
nois  Central  Railroad   Company,  was 
retired  on  pension,  affective  March  1, 
1915. 
IVIr.  Clermont  was  born  in  Quebec, 


Canada,  October  26,  1848.  He  received 
his  education  in  the  public  school.  He 
left  school  at  the  age  of  16  years,  fol- 
lowing various  occupations  until  1867, 
when  he  came  to  the  United  States. 
He  commenced  his  railroad  career  in 
1868,  when  he  entered  the  service  of 
the  C.  B.  &  Q.  Railroad  at  Aurora,  in 
the  capacity  of  brakeman  and  switch- 
man. He  was  married  June  20,  1870, 
to  Miss  Annie  Leveque.  Five  children 
resulted  from  this  marriage,  four  of 
whom  are  living.  In  1872  he  left  the 
train  service  and  transferred  to  the 
position  of  fireman  on  the  Chicago 
and  Iowa  branch  of  the  C.  B.  &  Q., 
between  Aurora  and  Forreston.  Was 
promoted  to  position  of  engineer  in 
1875,  in  which  capacity  he  worked  in 
both  freight  and  passenger  service  un- 
til 1888,  when  he  came  to  the  Illinois 
Central  as  a  locomotive  engineer,  be- 
ing employed  on  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Wisconsin  division,  June  21, 
1888.  He  continued  in  the  service  of 
this  company  in  this  capacity,  both  in 
freight  and  passenger  service,  until  his 
retirement. 

Mr.  Clermont  was  considered  one  of 
the  best  and  one  of  the  most  reliable 
engineers  on  the  Wisconsin  division, 
and  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  Illinois 
Central  is  being  deprived  of  his  active 

83 


84 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


services  as  a  result  of  his  being  re- 
tired on  pension,  which,  of  course, 
comes  to  him  well  deserved. 


MARTIN  VANBUREN  HAM 


subject  of  this  sketch  was 
born  in  Otsego  County,  New 
York,  March  14,  1850.  Began  railroad- 
ing when  a  young  man  as  a  fireman. 
Promoted  to  an  engineer.  Took  serv- 
ice with  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  at  Water  Valley,  Miss.,  as 
an  engineer,  March  7th,  1898,  serving 
until  May  1st,  19J.5,  at  which  time  he 
was  retired  on  pension  at  the  age  of  65. 

Mr.  Ham  was  happily  married  and 
has  two  children,  a  son,  Ralph,  who  is 
an  electrical  engineer,  and  a  daughter, 
Mrs.  H.  W.  Clowe,  wife  of  Civil  En- 
gineer Clowe  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  located  at  Chicago. 

During  his  career  as  an  engineer, 
his  entire  time  has  been  spent  on  a 
local  freight  run  between  Water  Val- 
ley and  Durant.  Mr.  Ham  was  al- 


ways regarded  as  a  loyal  and  efficient 
engineer  and  retires  with  the  good  will 
of  division  officers  of  the  Mississippi 
Division  and  all  of  his  associates.  On 
his  retirement,  he  was  presented  with 
a  medal  of  the  International  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Engineers  for  a 
lifetime  membership.  This  medal  he 
prizes  very  highly. 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 

A  LEXANDER  WILSON,  for  forty- 
one  years  an  employe  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company,  was 
retired  June  1st,  1915.  Mr.  Wilson 
was  born  on  a  farm  near  Equality, 
Saline  County,  Illinois,  August  llth, 
1853. 

In  1874  Mr.  Wilson  entered  the 
service  of  the  Illinois  Central  as  a 
Switchman  at  DuQuoin.  He  remained 
in  this  position  until  1877  when  he 
accepted  service  in  the  Car  Depart- 
ment of  the  old  St.  Louis,  Alton  & 
Terre  Haute,  and  in  the  fall  of  1879 
went  to  Centralia  and  took  up  road 
service  as  a  brakeman.  He  continued 
in  this  capacity  until  1881,  having  as 


ALEXANDER    WILSON 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


his  run  the  "local  way  freight"  be- 
tween Centralia  and  Cairo. 

Since  that  time  he  was  employed  as 
Car  Repairer,  Switchman  and  Engine 
Foreman  until  his  retirement. 

Asked  how  he  now  spends  his  time, 
Mr.  Wilson  replied :  "Well,  sir,  I  just 


take  things  easy ;  go  over  to  the  yards 
and  watch  the  boys  work,  then  go 
home  and  read.  The  Illinois  Central 
has  certainly  been  good  to  me,  and  I 
am  happy  that  I  chose  my  lot  with 
them  way  back  yonder  in  the  '70s 
when  we  were  both  young." 


The  following  letter  is  self  explanatory  and  was  brought  about  by  pre- 
senting a  chair  and  pipe  to  Mr.  Mackintosh  by  employes  of  the  Car  Depart- 
ment. 

4121  Ellis  Avenue,  Chicago,  May  8th,  1915. 
Mr.  J.  M.  Borrowdale, 
Supt.  Car  Dept., 

I.  C.  R.  R. 
Dear  Mr.  Borrowdale  and  Friends: 

Your  handsome  and  valued  gift  reached  me  this  morning.  Words  fail 
me  when  I  attempt  to  thank  you  all,  sufficiently,  for  your  most  generous 
remembrance  of  my  long  and  very  pleasant  association  in  your  midst. 

Please  accept  my  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  magnificent  chair  and  pipe,  and 
think  of  me  as  spending  many  happy  hours  in  the  enjoyment  of  your  gift. 
In  your  selection  of  the  chair  for  my  comfort  you  could  not  have  pleased  me 
better,  and  the  accompanying  letter,  with  all  good  wishes,  will  be  cherished 
by  me  the  remainder  of  my  life. 

It  is  a  great  consolation  to  me  to  know  that  my  services  have  been  sc 
highly  appreciated  as  to  receive  such  honorary  retirement  from  the  Company. 
The  chair  is  indeed  beautiful  and  the  solace  received  when  using  the  pipe 
will  ever  bring  to  memory  that  life  without  friends  is  not  worth  living. 

Thanking  you  again,  and  assuring  you  that  my  many  kind  friends  in  the 
machinery  department  will  never  be  forgotten, 

Believe  me, 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

C.  F.  MACKINTOSH. 


COURTESY 

— AND  — 

EFFICIENT  SERVICE 

ALWAYS i^L 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


Acceptance  of  Freight  for  Shipment 


T^HERE  is  only  one  time  that  the 
agent  can  protect  the  Company 
against  payment  for  loss  or  damage  to 
freight  that  exists  when  received  for 
transportation,  and  that  is  at  time  of 
delivery  for  shipment,  before  bill  of 
lading  is  signed.  This  document  holds 
us  responsible  for  delivery  of  the  ship- 
ment that  it  covers,  at  destination  in 
good  condition,  unless  some  exceptions 
are  shown  to  have  existed  when  re- 
ceived. The  public  is  not  generally  in- 
terested in  our  methods  of  handling 
their  shipments,  nor  do  they  concern 
themselves  with  drafting  new  sugges- 
tions as  to  improved  plans  dealing  with 
transportation  of  freight.  They  do  not 
anticipate  any  loss  or  damage  to  their 
shipments,  for  they  rightfully  assume 
that  when  a  Bill  of  Lading,  or  receipt 
is  given  them,  the  person  signing  the 
Railroad's  name  has  undoubtedly  sat- 
isfied himself  that  the  shipment  is  in 
the  proper  condition  to  insure  its  safe 
transportation  to  marked  destination. 
If  it  were  presented  in  any  other  condi- 
tion, it  would  surely  be  rejected  and  a 
reason  given,  so  the  shipper  feels  ab- 
solved from  any  liability  in  connection 
with  its  future  safety. 

We  can,  therefore,  see  the  great  im- 
portance attached  to  acceptance  of 
freight,  and  the  saving  that  will  be 
made  with  the  proper  attention  ac- 
corded this  feature. 

The  various  classifications  provide 
for  the  proper  manner  in  which  most 
shipments  must  be  prepared,  but  it 
seems  a  few  commodities  escape  us 
more  than  others.  Cement  sacks,  for 
instance,  are  frequently  accepted  when 


improperly  prepared.  They  must  be 
securely  bound  with  not  less  than  3 
separate  wire  or  rope  ties,  rope  to  be 
not  less  than  3/16  inch  in  diameter. 
Each  bundle  must  be  tagged  with  a 
linen  tag  securely  attached  by  wire, 
showing  names  and  addresses  of  both 
consignor  and  consignee.  Freight 
charges  must  be  prepaid.  If  these  re- 
quirements are  enforced,  there  will  be 
no  question  of  shipments  arriving 
safely  at  destination  and  delivery  ef- 
fected. 

In  some  cases  failure  to  insist  on  cer- 
tain commodities  being  properly  pre- 
pared, results  in  damage  to  other  ship- 
ments. One  instance  is,  rendered  tal- 
low in  barrels.  No  provision  is  made 
in  different  territories  for  the  accept- 
ance of  such  shipments  in  barrels  with 
cloth  tops  or  without  tops  and  if  the 
agents  accept  these  shipments  improp- 
erly prepared,  the  loss  is  not  only  re- 
stricted to  the  tallow,  but  to  the  other 
freight  with  which  it  comes  in  contact. 

The  most  frequent  cases  of  loss  and 
damage  resulting  from  failure  to  com- 
ply with  instruction  relative  to  packing 
and  marking,  are  in  connection  with 
shipments  of  household  goods.  The 
only  way  to  avoid  payment  of  claims 
for  loss  and  damage  to  freight,  result- 
ing from  failure  to  properly  pack  and 
mark,  is  to  enforce  literally  the  classi- 
fication requirements  and  otherwise  be 
convinced  that  we  have  the  freight  and 
that  it  is  properly  prepared,  before  af- 
fixing the  name  of  this  Company  to  a 
Bill  of  Lading  at  time  of  delivery  to  us 
by  shippers.  Equally  as  important  in 
receiving  and  receipting  for  shipments, 


86 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  87 

is  the  careful  check  to  verify  the  nurn-  paring  them  with  Bill  of  Lading,  and 

her  of  pieces  given  us,  and  at  no  time  our  agent  satisfied  that  all  are  properly 

should  a  Bill  of  Lading  be  signed  by  packed  and  marked  in  accordance  with 

an  Agent  of  this  Company  for  a  less  classification  requirements, 

carload  shipment,  until  he  has  actual-  If  these  features  are  observed,  freight 

ly   seen   and   checked   the    freight   for  is  properly  billed,  loaded  in  the  right 

which  he  signs.     In  counting  the  num-  car  and  properly  stowed,  the  originat- 

ber  of  pieces  and  otherwise  inspecting  ing  agent  can  feel  assured  that  he  has 

the  freight,  preparatory  to  signing  Bill  done  his  part  toward  sending  the  ship- 

of    Lading,    careful    notice    should    be  ment  in  good  condition  to  its  destina- 

made  of  the  marks  on  each  piece,  com-  tion. 


WESTERN  WEIGHING  AND  INSPECTION  BUREAU 

1822  Transportation  Bldg. 
Circular  No.  87. 

Chicago,  June  3,  1915. 

FRAUD  ON  RAILWAYS  NIPPED  BY  CAMPAIGN. 
Victory  in  Damage  Claim  Case  Prosecuted  by  the  Commerce  Commission. 

HP  HE  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has  gained  a  victory  in  its  cam- 
•*•  paign  against  commission  companies  which  for  years  have  defrauded 
railroads  through  claims  for  alleged  damage  to  goods  in  shipment,  when  the 
Davidson  Brothers  Commission  Company,  of  Des  Moines,  pleaded  guilty 
to  such  a  charge  in  the  United  States  district  court  at  St.  Louis  yesterday 
and  was  fined  $2,500. 

The  suit  grew  out  of  claims  filed  by  the  Davidson  company  with  sev- 
eral southern  railroads  for  alleged  damage  to  peaches  shipped  in  1912.  The 
company  asked  for  $15,000,  alleging  that  the  shipments  were  delayed,  roughly 
handled  and  not  given  proper  refrigeration  facilities.  The,  Davidson  com- 
pany and  two  other  firms  were  indicted  on  evidence  collected  by  the  com- 
merce commission. — The  Chicago  Daily  News  of  June  2,  1915. 


liGinonous  oorvice 


entry  has  been  made 
on  the  records  of  the  following 
conductors  for  their  special  efforts  in 
lifting  and  preventing  the  use  of  ir- 
regular transportation  in  connection 
with  which  reports  (Form  972)  were 
rendered  to  the  auditor  of  passenger 
receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advise  the  other  departments  con- 
cerned, so  that  proper  action  may  be 
taken,  all  pass  irregularities  being 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  vice- 
president  : 

Illinois  Division 

Suburban  Flagman  T.  Ruther  on 
train  No.  118  May  27th  lifted  employe's 
commutation  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  Cavanaugh  on  train 
No.  2  May  13th  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel  on  train  No. 
3  May  15th  and  on  train  No.  21  May 
22nd  declined  to  honor  card  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fares.  Passengers  were  referred 
to  the  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  tickets. 

On  train  No.  3  May  15th  he  also  de- 
clined to  honor  trip  pass  account  not 
being  countersigned  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Burns  on  train  No. 
426  May  27th  lifted  trip  pass  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
other  transportation  to  cover  trip. 
St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train 
No.  623  May  llth  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  G.  Carter  on  train  No.  5 
May  17th  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to 


the  Passenger  Department  for  refund 
on  ticket. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train 
No.  22  May  25th  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbrough  on 
train  No.  103  May  13th  lifted  48  trip 
coupon  pass  book  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  C.  O.  Sims  on  train  No. 
323  April  25th  lifted  30  trip  family 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  J.  E.  Nelson  on  train  No. 
103  May  2nd  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson  declined 
to  honor  several  card  tickets  during  the 
month  account  having  expired  in  con- 
nection with  which  passengers'  were 
referred  to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  tickets.  Also  lifted  ex- 
pired card  ticket  on  which  passenger 
admitted  having  previously  secured 
transportation,  and  collected  cash 
fares. 

On  train  No.  134  May  27th  he  lifted 
mileage  ticket  account  being  in  im- 
proper hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  S.  E.  Matthews  on  train 
No.  9  May  10th  lifted  two  employes' 
trip  passes  account  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fares 

Conductor  J.  A.  Cunningham  on 
train  No.  10  May  20th  lifted  identifica- 
tion slip  Form  1572  account  having 
been  altered  and  parties  not  being  pro- 
vided with  pass.  Passengers  refused 
to  pay  fare  and  were  required  to  leave 
the  train. 

Mississippi  Division. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson  on  train 
No.  1  May  6th  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  being  in  improper  hands 


88 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


89 


and  honored  mileage  ticket  to  cover 
trip. 

Conductor  W.  D.  Howze  on  train 
No.  131  May  9th  lifted  Mississippi 
family  mileage  ticket  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  J.  Sitton  on  train  No.  3 
May  12th  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  N.  S.  McLean  on  train 
No.  124  May  15th  lifted  identification 
slip  Form  1572  account  having  been 
altered  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  143  May  22nd  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  the  Pas- 
senger Department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

Conductor  J.  T.  Nason  on  train  No. 

5  May   20th    declined   to    honor   card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected  cash   fare.     Passenger  was  re- 
ferred  to   the    Passenger   Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  H.  Weir  on  train  No.  234 
May  31st  declined  to  honor  returning 
portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to 
Passenger  department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

Louisiana   Division 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes  on  train  No. 

6  May  "2nd,  and  train  No.  3  May  20th 
declined  to  honor  mileage  tickets  ac- 
count   having    expired    and    collected 
cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  6  May  12th  he  lifted 
54  ride  individual  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  6  May  28th  he  lifted 
family  commutation  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  D.  Robbins  on  train 
No.  24  May  6th  lifted  annual  pass  in 
accordance  with  bulletin  instructions 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  Moales  on  train  No. 
34  May  19th  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 


lected mileage  from  another  ticket  to 
cover  trip. 

On  train  No.  34  May  25th  he  lifted 
mileage  ticket  account  being  in  im- 
proper hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  34  May  27th  he  lifted 
54  ride  individual  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  T.  Erickson  on  train 
No.  31  May  21st  lifted  54  ride  indi- 
vidual ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  E.  McMaster  on  train 
No.  4  May  30th  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.   Moales  on   train   No. 

33  May  30th  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  F.  B.  Bell  on  train  No. 
40  May  5th  lifted  employe's  term  pass 
and  identification  slip  Form  1572  ac- 
count identification  slip  having  been 
altered  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  M.  Carter  on  train  No. 
13  May  18th  and  train  No.  15  May  25th 
declined  to  honor  mileage  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fares. 

Vicksburg  Division 

Conductor  H.  J.  Lawrence  on  train 
No.  Ill  May  27th  lifted  mileage  ticket 
account  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  T.  Lang  on  train  Ex.  302 
May  9th  lifted  returning  portion  of 
special  excursion  ticket  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  C.  E.  Gore  on  train  No. 

34  May  9th  and  train  .No.  33  May  26th 
lifted  54  ride  individual  tickets  account 
having    expired     and     collected    cash 
fares. 

Illinois  Division 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  George 
Lindsay,  train  71,  June  25th,  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  BRC  car  408 
with  no  light  weight  stencilled  on  same. 


90 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Arrangements  were  made  to  have  car 
stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  F.  Ken- 
ney,  train  73,  June  29th,  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  I.  C.  34261  with  no 
light  weight  stencilled  on  same.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  have  car  sten- 
cilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  George 
Martin,  train  391,  June  14th,  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  I.  C.  47910  im- 
properly stencilled.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  correction  made. 

Favorable  entray  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  F.  Van 
Meter,  train  92,  June  14th,  for  discov- 
ering and  reporting  I.  C.  131068  improp- 
erly stencilled.  Arrangements  were  made 
to  have  correction  made. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  H.  L. 
Beem,  train  73,  June  20th,  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  car  in  his  train  im- 
properly stencilled.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  correction  made. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Agent  L.  E.  An- 
drews, Humboldt,  111.,  for  discovering 
and  reporting  I.  C.  33001  improperly 
stencilled.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  correction  made. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  I.  G. 
Bash,  Extra  1675  south,  June  15th,  for 
discovering  and  reporting  I.  C.  112572 
with  no  light  weight  stencilled  on  same. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  have  car 
stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  Ruby, 
Extra  1553,  June  6th,  for  discovering 
and  reporting  I.  C.  29823  with  no  light 
weight  stencilled  on  same.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  C.  H. 
Martin,  train  392,  June  llth,  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  I.  C.  15935  with 
no  light  weight  stencilled  on  same.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  have  car  sten- 
cilled. 

Favorable   entry   has   been   placed   on 


the  service  record  of  Brakeman  H.  C. 
Davis,  train  73,  at  Kankakee,  June  16th, 
for  discovering  and  reporting  brake  beam 
down  on  I.  C.  42633. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Agent  J.  M.  Purtill, 
Kankakee,  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing broken  rail  in  south  middle  track 
June  16th,  thereby  preventing  possible 
accident. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Fireman  H.  A. 
Kunde  for  discovering  and  reporting 
brake  beam  down  on  C.  St.  P.  M.  &  O. 
car  29228,  Extra  1510,  south,  June  5th 
at  Kankakee  Junction.  Brake  beam  was 
removed,  thereby  removing  possible 
cause  of  an  accident. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  of  Brakeman  J.  I.  Kinkaid, 
Extra  1597,  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing broken  arch  bar  on  M.  &  Co.  car 
7925. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Section  Foreman 
John  Johnson  of  Section  D-86  for  his 
watchfulness  during  storm  which  oc- 
curred at  Del  Rey,  May  15th. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Section  Foreman 
Frank  Martin  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting broken  !brake  beam  dragging 
in  train  Extra  1730  while  passing  Ash- 
kum  Section  Gang,  one  mile  south  of 
Ashkum,  June  8th. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on  the 
service  records  of  Engineer  Smith  and 
Fireman  Edmunds,  returning  from  Blue 
Island  July  2nd,  for  finding  a  sack  of 
U.  S.  mail  between  tracks  2  and  3  at 
107th  Street  and  turning  same  in  to 
office  at  Fordham. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Engineer  C.  A. 
Jenkins  for  discovering  and  reporting 
broken  rail  while  going  north  on  stock 
train  at  Ashkum,  March  16th.  Neces- 
sary action  was  taken  to  protect  trains 
until  repairs  could  be  made,  thereby  pre- 
venting possible  accident. 

St.  Louis  Division. 

At  2:15  p.  m.,  May  7th,  Engineer 
G.  S.  Brinker  and  Switchman  Harry 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


91 


Stafford,  of  Carbondale  uptown  switch 
engine,  observed  in  train  Extra  North, 
engine  1716,  passing  through  yard, 
bent  axle  on  I.  C.  67011.  They  at  once 
notified  dispatcher  who  stopped  the 
train  at  North  Yard  office,  thus  per- 
haps heading  off  a  very  serious  acci- 
dent, and  for  which  favorable  entry 
has  been  placed  upon  their  records. 
Car  Inspector  Ben  Chamberlain,  of 
Carbondale,  on  May  26th,  observed 
train  91  pasing  through  yard  with 
brake  beam  dragging  on  I.  C.  car  29726, 
stopped  train  and  made  necessary  re- 
pairs. His  action  without  doubt  pre- 
vented an  accident,  and  favorable  entry 
has  been  placed  upon  his  record. 

Springfield  Division 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Brakeman 
E.  C.  Bailey  for  discovering  and  prompt- 
ly reporting  a  car  improperly  stencilled. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  correct 
same. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Conductor 
W.  A.  Knight  for  his  watchfulness 
which  enabled  him  to  discover  fire  in 
car,  and  his  prompt  action  in  extinguish- 
ing same. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Conductor 
J.  W.  Carroll  for  discovering  and 
promptly  reporting  a  broken  rail. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  .record  of  Conductor 
C.  A.  Lawrence  for  discovering  a  brake 
beam  down  under  a  car  in  passing  train 
and  taking  action  resulting  in  train  be- 
ing stopped  and  defect  remedied  before 
damage  was  done. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Engineer 
J.  W.  Gallagher  for  discovering  and 
promptly  reporting  a  broken  rail. 


Indiana  Division 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  efficienty  record  of  Operator  J.  F. 
Glass  for  discovering  I.  C.  34298  im- 
properly stencilled.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  correct  same. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  efficiency  record  of  Conductor  E.  M. 
Thomas  for  discovering  I.  C.  115203 
improperly  stencilled.  Arrangements 
were  made  to  correct  same. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  efficiency  record  of  Operator  J.  F. 
Glass  for  discovering  broken  arch  bar 
on  engine  128,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  efficiency  record  of  R.  M.  Ferris, 
agent  at  Anita,  Ind.,  for  discovering 
brake  beam  hanging  from  car  in  Extra 
925. 

Minnesota    Division 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Brakeman  H.  H. 
Everhart,  train  No.  71,  June  27th,  for 
discovering  brake  beam  dragging  on 
P.  F.  E.  1772  in  train  Extra  1710  East. 
Train  was  signalled  to  stop  and  brake 
beam  was  removed  before  damage  re- 
sulted. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  R.  J. 
Flynn,  Extra  886,  on  passing  track  at 
Epworth  for  train  No.  60,  June  18th, 
for  discovering  rod  dragging  on  I.  C. 
39362  in  60's  train.  Train  was  signalled 
to  stop  and  rod  removed  before  damage 
resulted. 

Mississippi  Division 

•Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  records  of  Engineer  Cullen, 
Fireman  Flake,  Conductor  Monroe, 
Flagman  Reynolds  and  Brakeman  Glenn 
for  prompt  action  in  cutting  tree  off 
track  and  telegraph  wires  north  of 
Toone,  June  llth,  thereby  preventing 
delay  to  train  movement. 


A  Story  of  a  Visit  to  the  Healing  Wells  at  Metcalfe, 

Miss. 


By  F.  B.  Wilkinson 


'M 


IS'  SALLY,  yo'  sho'  hasteh 
git  sumboddy  en  my  place. 
Ise  bin  had  sech  er  turrerbul  mizry 
en  my  bak  dat  er  jes'  cain't  wuk  no 
mo'  tell  er  gits  rid  o'  hit." 

"Why,  Aunt  Caroline,  you  haven't 
been  complaining  of  being  sick.  I  am 
surprised  that  you  should  get  so  bad 
off  all  at  once.  Why  don't  you  let  me 
send  for  Dr.  Gamble  and  have  him 
give  you  some  medicine  like  he  did  the 
last  time  you  had  rheumatism?" 

"Lawd,  Mis'  Sally,  dat  med'cin'  ole 
Doctah  Gambul  gib  me  nevah  dun  me 
no  good  er  'tall.  All  dat  old  Doctah 
doos  es  ter  gib  pills  en  pills  en  pille. 
I  tuk  em,  en  tuk  em,  en  tuk  em,  'tell 
finully,  sez  I  ter  my  se'f,  I  sez ;  'I  ain' 
gwiner  tak'  no  mo'  uv  dem  pills.  Whut 
I  need  is  sum  lickrish  med'cin"  Den 
I  jes'  tuk  merself  rite  down  ter  de  drug 
sto  en  er  buys  merse'f  er  bottul  uv 
lickrish  med'cin'  en  er  tuk  it.  En  er 
fooled  dat  ole  Doctah  fur  he  thinks 
on'tel  yit  dat  he  kuoard  me  when  twuz 
dat  lickrish  med'cin'  en  not  him !" 

"Well  that's  all  right,  Aunt  Caroline, 
but  you  haven't  been  complaining  and 
I  cannot  understand  why  you  should 
get  so  sick  all  at  once." 

"Well,  Mis'  Sally,  hit's  jes  lak  I  tole 
yer.  Whut's  de  use  complainin'  whin 
yer  aint  got  noboddy  but  ole  Doctah 
Gambul  ter  doctah  on  yer?  I'se  bin 
er  hurtin'  en  er  hurtin',  end  dis  mawnin' 
Ise  bin  tawkin'  ter  Brudder  Johnsin  en 
he's  dun  bin  telin'  me  'bout  whut  he 
dun  seed  down  ter  de  Healin'  Well. 


Ef  er  kin  git  down  dar  en  drink  dat 
watter  I  won't  be  havin'  ter  suffah 
all  dis  heah  mizry  en  my  pore  ole  bak  all 
de  time  sosen  er  kain't  wuk  in  de  day 
time  en  er  kain't  sleep  at  night." 

"All  right,  Aunt  Caroline,  you  can 
go  home  and  rest  up,  but  I  wouldn't 
throw  away  my  money  paying  railroad 
fare  and  all,  going  down  to  that  Heal- 
ing Well,  because  it  won't  do  you  any 
good.  It  would  be  best  for  you  to  go 
down  home  to  your  daughter's  and  rest 
up  for  a  few  days.  We  can  get  Susie 
to  take  your  place." 

"Yas'm,  Mis'  Sally,  dat'll  be  all  rite, 
fer  Ise  dun  seed  Susie  en  she  sed  she 
wood  be  heah  brite  en  early  in  de 
mawnin'  en  hev  yo  breckfus'  reddy  en 
on  de  table  time  yo'  gits  up.  Yo'  ain't 
gwiner  be  putt  ter  no  trubble  er  tal." 

"Well,  Aunt  Caroline,  be  sure  and 
see  that  Susie  is  here  in  the  morning." 

"Yas'm." 

Aunt  Caroline  ambled  off  to  the 
kitchen  where  her  pastor,  Brother 
Erastus  Johnson,  was  waiting  to  ad- 
vise with  her  for  the  good  of  her  soul ; 
and,  incidentally,  to  get  his  handout, 
without  which  no  pastoral  visit  would 
be  complete. 

She  came  into  the  kitchen  with  a 
frown  on  her  usually  good-natured 
face,  mumbling  to  herself  about  what 
curious  ways  white  folks  had. 

Her  pastor,  scenting  trouble,  asked, 
"Sistah  Ca'line,  whut  in  de  worl'  am  de 
mattuh?" 

"Nuthin'    'zackly,    but   yo'    no    Mis' 


92 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


93 


HEALER'S   CABIN— PECAN   TREE,   AT   THE  BASE  OF  WHICH,  IS  THE  WELL.  AND  ALTAR 
AND   MAIN   ENCLOSURE   WITH   CONGREGATION   WAITING   FOR   HEALING   RITE 


Sally  jes'  lak  all  dem  white  fo'ks,  she 
don'  berleeve  in  nuthin'  er  nigger 
wants.  She  tell  me  ter  go  home  en 
res'  up  en  hab  ole  Doctah  Gambul  cum 
pokin'  pills  down  by  thoat.  Dat  ain't 
whut  I  needs." 

"Cos'  dat  ain't  whut  yer  needs,  Sis- 
tah  Ca'line.  Whut  yer  needs  ez  ter  go 
down  ter  de  Healin'  Well  en  hab  de 
Lawd  reemove  frum  yo'  boddy  de 
ufflickshuns  whut  he  dun  sont  uppun 
yo',  fur  Glory  be  ter  Gawd,  us  is  bin 
dare  en  us  knows  ef  yo'  'umbles  yo'sef 
in  de  dus'  dare  dat  he  gwinter  gin  de 
powah  ter  hez  Holy  Man  ter  kuoar  yo' 
uv  all  yo'  onfurmertez.  Al'  yo'  gotter 
do  ez  jes'  lay  yo'sef  in  de  dus'  befo' 
Hem  en  de  Holy  Ghos'  sho'  gwinter 
kuoar  yo'  jes'  lak  ten  thoussan  udders 
is  bin  kuoared." 

"Yassar !  I  knows  whut  Fse  gwinter 
do !  I'se  gwine  strate  ter  dat  deppo' 
in  de  mawnin'  en  I's  gwinter  cotch  dat 
'Vine  jes'  ez  sho'  dat  'Vine  runs,  en 
ef  hit  ever  gits  ter  Met  caf?  I'se  gwinter 
be  settin'  rite  on  hit." 

"Dat's  rite,  Sistah  Ca'line,  dat's  rite. 
Putt  yo'  trus'  in  de  Lawd,  en  He  sho 


gwinter  tek  kere  uv  yo'  en  kuoar  all 
yo'  sic'nes',  but,  Sistah  Ca'line,  w'en 
yo'  gits  dare  ter  de  well,  doan'  fergit 
ter  drap  yo'  conterbushun  inter  de  free 
will  offerin'  box,  'caze  Brudder  Meyers 
kaint  wuk  all  dem  merricles  en  den 
make  er  crap  et  de  same  time.  He 
ain't  got  no  way  ter  git  sump'in  t'eat 
'ceptin  whut  is  drapped  inter  de  free 
will  offerin'  box." 

Sunday  morning,  when  the  train 
pulled  into  the  station,  Aunt  Caroline, 
dressed  in  her  Sunday  clothes  and  ac- 
companied by  her  pastor,  who  had  de- 
cided to  go  with  her,  at  her  expense, 
was  standing  on  the  platform  waiting, 
and  when  the  train  came  in  they 
boarded  it.  In  the  course  of  the  trip 
the  conversation  naturally  turned  to 
the  wonderfully  curative  properties  of 
the  water. 

An  old  negro  who  sat  across  the 
aisle,  said :  "I'se  gwiner  tell  yo'  whut 
I'se  seed  wid  my  eyes.  Brudder  Miles 
hed  dun  felled  up  erbout  er  hunderd 
bottuls  en  jugs  wid  de  Healin'  Watter 
en  whilst  he  wuzen't  er  lookin'  er  nig- 
ger stold  wun  bottul  en  hid  hit  undah 


94 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


his  coat  fur  he  hedn't  putt  nuthin'  in 
de  box  en  he  wus  ershame  ter  ax  fur 
enny  watter.  Brudder  Myers  wuz  er 
lookin'  de  udder  way  when  dat  nigger 
stold  dat  bottul,  but  de  Holy  Ghos'  tol' 
him  whut  dat  nigger  hed  gone  en 
dun  so  he  ses,  'Sum  thievin'  nigger  dun 
stold  er  bottul  er  dat  watter.  De  Lawd 
tells  me  dat  dat  nigger  gwiner  fal' 
down  in  er  fit  in  less'n  er  minit.'  Shore 
nuff,  fus  thing  yo'  no  dat  nigger  fall 
down  on  de  groun'  er  slobberin'  en  er 
spittin',  den  Brudder  Miles  step  up  en 
tak'  dat  watter  frum  outen  his  shurt 
whar  he  dun  gone  hid  it!  Now  how 
he  know  dat  nigger  dun  stold  dat  wat- 
ter ef  he  ain't  seed  him  do  hit?  En  ef 
dat  ain't  er  merricle  whut  is  er  merri- 
cle?" 

"Metcaf  is  de  nex'  stop.  Eve'rboddy 
git  reddy  ter  git  off  et  Metcaf !"  shout- 
ed the  train  porter,  and  all  was  confu- 
sion for  nearly  everybody  was  ticketed 
to  disembark  there. 

From  Metcalfe  to  the  well  is  about 
four  miles  and  on  the  way  they  met 
swarms  of  negros  walking,  both  old 
and  young,  each  carrying  a  jug  or  a 
bottle  of  the  water,  and  each  negro  in 
each  wagon  or  other  conveyance  they 
met  had  his  or  her  bottle  of  water 
stowed  away  where  it  would  ride  safe- 
ly. On  the  way  out  they  passed  fifty 
or  more  negroes,  some  so  old  and 
feeble  that  they  could  barely  walk,  but 
each  had  an  empty  bottle  or  jug  jn 
which  to  bring  back  some  of  the 
precious  water. 

About  600  feet,  from  the  yard  in 
which  the  wells  are  located,  they  came 
to  the  end  of  the  road,  so  they  had  to 
alight  from  their  wagon  and  walk  a 
foot  path  which  winds  along  the  side 
of  a  ditch  bank. 

Sitting  beside  it  were  old  negroes 
and  young  ones,  the  halt,  the  lame, 
and  the  blind.  Some  too  old,  or  too 
sick  to  walk,  had  been  brought  on 
stretchers  and  beds  by  their  friends, 
who  sat  beside  them  in  the  hot  sun, 
and  fanned  away  the  flies  that  tor- 
mented them. 

One  poor  old  darkey,  deserted  by  his 
friends,  was  lying  in  the  hot  sun  on  the 


ditch  bank,  with  no  cushion  between 
his  emaciated  body  and  the  hard  earth 
except  a  thin,  ragged  quilt,  an  abject 
picture  of  misery,  friendless  and  alone, 
he  suffered  in  silence  save  when  now 
and  then  a  pitiful  moan  would  escape 
from  his  parched  lips. 

As  Aunt  Caroline  waddled  by,  she 
snorted  in  derision :  "Dey  sho'  is  er  lot 
uv  sic'  niggers  er  layin'  aroun'  heah! 
Dey  sho'  is !" 

Not  being  acquaintances  of  hers,  she 
felt  absolutely  no  interest  in  the  poor 
suffering  creatures. 

*     *     *     * 

Around  the  cabin  and  yard  in  which 
the  wells  were  situated  a  high  board 
fee  of  ten  cents  was  charged  for  col- 
ored and  twenty-five  cents  for  white 
people. 

Aunt  Caroline  and  her  escort  paid 
their  fee  and  entered. 

Directly  in  front  of  them  was  a 
rough,  wooden  platform  which  stood 
about  three  feet  above  the  ground.  It 
was  provided  with  steps  and  a  cover 
made  of  a  ragged  piece  of  canvas.  It 
had  bench  seats  and  a  railing  running 
around  it  on  the  north,  east  and  south 
sides,  leaving  the  west  side  open  to 
admit  those  who  came  up  to  the  steps. 

The  front  porch  of  the  Healer's 
cabin,  facing  south,  marked  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  the  main  enclosure. 
A  distance  of  perhaps  20  feet  sepa- 
rated the  west  side  of  the  cabin  from, 
the  fence  on  the  west  and  that  portion 
of  the  yard  between  the  cabin  and  the 
west  fence  had  been  sequesterd  from 
the  main  enclosure  by  a  close,  high 
board  fence  and  an  entrance  gate  was 
closed  tightly  and  securely  fastened 
with  a  chain  and  a  big  brass  padlock, 
making  it  necessary  to  pass  through 
the  Healer's  living  room  in  order  to 
gain  admittance  to  it. 

In  this  enclosure,  hidden  from  Aunt 
Caroline,  were  the  two  famed  Healing 
Wells,  one  of  which  is  for  the  healing 
of  males  and  females  and  the  other  for 
females  only.  One  was  three  feet  two 
inches  deep  and  the  other  three  feet 
six  inches  deep  and  each  had  been 
cemented  around  and  equipped  with  a 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


95 


pitcher  pump  with  pipe  with  free  end 
extending  about  2  inches  below  the  level 
of  the  water  in  the  pools.  The  first  one 
was  dug  near  the  base  of  a  large  pecan 
tree. 

Let  us  hear  what  the  Healer  himself 
has  to  say  of  them. 

"Las  fall,  boss,  erbout  seben  muntz 
ergo,  I  wuz  ersleep  en  my  bed  en  de  nite 
when  er  man  cum  ter  me  en  my  sleep  en 
he  sed  :  'Gawage,  aw  Gawge !'  I  wake' 
up  but  hit  twa'nt  no  natch  ful  wakin'  fur 
I  wuz  stell  ersleep.  I  sed  en  mer  sleep, 
'Lawd,  whut  doos  yer  want?'  He  says 
'Gawage,  I  wan'  yo'  ter  go  outen  yo' 
yard  clos'  ter  dat  big  puck-cawn  tree,  en 
dig  down  en  de  groun'  en  cut  dat  big 
puck-cawn  root  entwo,  en  dig  what  I'se 
gwine  sho'  yo'  in  de  groun'  by  dat  puck- 
cawn  tree  en  when  yo'  doos  yo'  is  gwine 
ter  see  two  blubbers  rize  up,  den  dey  is 
gwiner  bus'.  When  dey  bustez  two 
streems  uv  watter  is  gwine  ter  rize  up 
en  run  tergedder.  Dat  watter  gwine  be 
fer  de  kuoarin  uv  al'  de  sic'  peepul.' 

Well  sar,  dat  dreem  kep  'er  cummin' 
ter  me  ebery  nite  en  I  gits  wurried  en 
my  min'  fer  I  doan'  no  whut  ter  do.  I 
wuz  ershamed  ter  go  out  en  dig  fer  fears 
peepul  wud  make  fun  uv  me  en  think 
dat  I  hed  dun  gone  crazy  so  atter  erwhile 
I  tol'  my  wif  erbout  hit  en  den  I  tol'  sum 
udder  peepul  erbout  it.  Wun  day  I 
wuz  readin'  my  bibebul  'bout  dinner  time 
en  sumpin  tol'  me  ter  go  en  dig,  but  I 
dident  wanner  do  hit.  I  wen'  ter  my  pig 
pen  atter  er  while  en  sumpin  tol'  me  ter 
go  rite  now  en  deg  en  I  wuz  skeered  en 
went. 

Yo'  see  dat  big  puck-cawn  tree  root 
dare,  whar  it  runs  out  en  goes  down  en 
ter  de  groun'  ?  Well,  sur,  I  dug  er  leetle 
en  sho'  'nufF  I  cums  ter  dat  root  jes'  lak 
de  angul  sed  en  I  hed  ter  stop.  I  sez  ter 
my  wife  'o'  man,  bring  me  dat  ax !'  I 
tuk  dat  ax  en  er  cut  dat  root  en  er  dug 
down  en  two  big  blubbers  cummenced 
ter  rize  jes  lak  two  big  eyes  outen  de 
groun'  jes'  lak  dat  angul  sed  an  day  riz 
en  riz  en  den  dey  bus'  jes'  lak  dat  angul 
tol'  me  dey  wuz  gwine  ter  bus'  en  de 
watter  riz  up  frum  whar  de  two  blubbers 
wuz  'fare  dey  busted.  Hit  stay  jes'  so 


high  al'  de  time  no  matter  how  much  yo' 
pump  outen  dem." 

"Well,  George,  why  do  you  do  all  of 
the  pumping  of  the  water  and  filling  the 
bottles  yourself,  why  don't  you  have 
your  wife  or  someone  else  do  it  for  you 
and  save  time?" 

"Boss,  dat  angul  tol'  me  not  ter  let  no- 
boddy  cep'  merse'f  dip  up  de  watter  en 
sed  ef  dey  did  dat  de  watter  gwine  ter 
go  'way  en  not  cum  back.  Er  white  lady 
cum  out  chear  las'  week  en  fo'  us  cud 
holler  she  dun  started  ter  lif  up  dat 
pump  hanel  en  de  watter  'gin  ter  swurge 
eroun'  en  dry  up.  Hit  skeered  me  so 
dat  I  hollered  'Lawdy,  Lawdy,'  en  she 
drap  dat  pump  hanel  en  run,  fer  she  wuz 
skeered,  too." 

"George,  you  say  that  this  well  is  for 
men  and  women,  too?  How  did  you 
come  to  dig  the  one  for  the  women 
only?" 

"Well,  sur,  de  angul  cum  ba'k  ter  me 
en  he  said,  'Gawage,  dat  fus'  well  es 
bettah  fur  de  men  dan  tis  fur  de  wim- 
men.  Yo'  cum  wid  me  en  I  wel  sho'  yo' 
what  ter  dig  en  git  watter  fer  de  kuoarin 
uv  de  wimmen',  en  er  dug  whar  he  say 
en  dis  hear  watter  cum  bilin'  up." 

"How  does  the  water  in  the  men's  well 
taste  ?" 

"De  watter  don'  always  tastez  erlike. 
Sum  days  hit  is  salty,  sum  days  hit  es 
sweet  en  dem  hit  es  jec  lak  lime." 

"How  does  it  taste  to-day,  George?" 

"Well  sur,  les  see.  Terday  es  Sun- 
die.  Terday  hit  tastez  lak  lime,  termor- 
rer  hit  well  be  salty  en  nex'  day  hit  well 
be  sweetish  lak." 

After  George  had  dug  the  male  and 
the  female  drinking  wells  and  the  fame 
of  them  had  spread  abroad,  he  says  that 
the  angel  again  came  to  him  and  this 
time  told  him  to  dig  under  the  center  of 
the  extreme  eastern  end  of  his  front 
porch  and  he  would  find  a  well  of  heal- 
ing water  which  would  cure  all  who 
bathed  in  it.  This  well  has  been  dug 
and  the  water  found  and  now  he  says 
he  has  had  a  further  vision  directing  him 
to  again  dig  in  another  spot  which  he  has 
not  yet  made  known.  This  well,  when 
dug,  will  be  for  the  healing  of  all  kinds 
of  animals. 


96 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


REV.   GEORGE  MILES  (HEALER)  AND  WIFE 

WHEN  HEALING  HE  DRESSES  IN  LONG 

FLOWING  WHITE  ROBE  AND  A 

WHITE   SKULL    CAP 

He  says  the  angel  gave  him  strict  or- 
ders not  to  make  a  charge  of  any  kind 
for  the  water  for,  like  Salvation,  it  is 
to  be  free. 

Therefore  on  the  front  of  the  cabin  is 
a  box  and  above  it  the  legend: 

"Put  Y  o  Pen  in  Hear.  The  Lord  will 
Bless  Yo. 

So  many  came  to  the  wells  for  drink- 
ing water  that  the  Healer  found  it  im- 
possible to  serve  all  of  them  without 
working  practically  all  day  and  all  night 
and  he  was  greatly  worried  about  it,  he 
says,  until  the  angel  came  again  to  him 
and  told  him  that  it  would  be  sufficient, 
except  in  extraordinary  cases,  for  him  to 
shower  the  water  upon  the  sick  by  sprin- 
kling it  upon  them  with  his  hand  so  at 
stated  times  he  now  performs  this  rite. 

When  Aunt  Caroline  entered  the  main 
enclosure  there  was  in  it  probably  one 
hundred  and  fifty  negroes  of  all  ages, 


sexes  and  infirmities  and  their  number 
was  being  constantly  augmented  by  oth- 
ers who  were  hurrying  in,  in  order  not 
to  be  late  and  thus  miss  the  act  of  heal- 
ing. 


Aunt  Caroline  soon  noticed  a  negro 
preacher  standing  on  the  front  porch  of 
the  cabin  and  he  began  exhorting  the 
people  to  draw  nigh  and  place  a  free  will 
offering  in  the  box  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Healer. 

"Cum  rite  up  good  peepul  en  drap  yo' 
offerin'  in  de  box  fo'  de  Holy  Man.  He 
aint  erloud  ter  charge  fer  de  watter,  en 
he  aint  makin'  no  crap,  en  he  aint  got  no 
chickins  ner  nuthin  t'eat  so  he'se  gottah 
live  en  we'se  gottah  he'p  him.  Cum  rite 
up  now  en  drap  yer  conterbushun  inter 
de  box  fer  Gawd's  Holy  Man.  'Mem- 
ber dat  de  Lawd  lubs  er  cheerful  gib'er. 
Ef  yo'  wants  change  Fse  got  hit  fer  yo', 
so  cum  rite  up.  De  white  fo'ks  es  er 
lookin'  at  you' !  Don'  let  dem  say  yo'  es 
stingy.  Cum  rite  up  en  drap  sumpin  en 
de  box !" 

AND  THEY  ALL  DID. 

Soon  a  negro  man,  evidently  another 
preacher,  came  out  of  the  Healer's  door 
and  with  bowed  head  and  downcast  eyes, 
walked  slowly  across  the  yard  and 
mounted  the  platform.  Immediately  the 
negroes  swarmed  around  it  and  the 
preacher,  when  they  had  uncovered  their 
heads,  spoke  as  follows : 

"Brudderen  en  Sistahren,  us  gwinter 
hab  wun  prayer  en  wun  song  fo'  de  Holy 
Man  cums  out  ter  putt  yo  unner  de  show- 
ah  uv  hiz  han'.  I  wants  sum  man  whut 
ez  ustah  tawkin  ter  de  Lawd  ter  cum  up 
heah  on  dis  heah  alter  gn  HP  up  er  prayer 
dat  de  Holy  Ghos'  may  cum  down  on  us 
dis  ebenen." 

He  did  not  have  long  to  wait  for  a 
small,  extremely  black  little  neg.ro 
preacher  was  standing  ready  at  the  foot 
of  the  platform  and  he  lost  no  time  in 
mounting  it  and  kneeling,  while  with 
arms  outstretched  he  prayed  a  passion- 
ate prayer. 

His  audience  knelt  on  the  ground  in 
the  dust  with  heads  bared  to  the  hot  rays 
of  the  southern  sun,  and  as  the  preacher 
made  each  point,  they  joined  in  with  fer- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


97 


vent  "Amens"    and    "De    Lawd    he'p." 
"De  Lawd  he'p !" 

When  he  had  finished,  his  companion 
gave  out  the  first  line  of  a  hymn,  and  all 
united  in  singing,  all  swaying  to  and  fro 
keeping  time  with  their  bodies  as  they 
chanted  each  succeeding  line,  finally  end- 
ing in  a  plaintive  wail  and  moan. 
****** 

The  tall  form  of  the  Healer  could  be 
seen  coming  out  of  the  cabin.  His  skin 
black  as  ebony,  upon  his  head  a  white 
skull  cap,  home  made,  of  muslin,  and 
his  body  covered  with  a  long  flowing 
white  robe  of  the  same  material,  he  re- 
sembled a  surgeon  gowned  and  ready 
for  an  operation.  Slowly  he  mounted 
the  steps  of  the  platform  and  Aunt  Car- 
oline, pressing  forward,  touched  the  hem 
of  his  garment.  Rolling  his  eyes  heav- 
enward, until  only  the  whites  were  visi- 
ble and  with  ebony  hands  outstretched, 
he  clasped  and  entwined  his  fingers  as  if 
trying  to  wrest  power  from  some  unseen 
antagonist  and  commenced  to  pray: 
"Bow  yo'  knee,  O  Israel,  'umble  yo'se'f 
down  ento  de  dus'.  Git  down  on  yo' 
knees  en  de  dus'  en  sho'  de  Lawd  dat  His 
peepul  is  not  fersaken  Him." 

"Blessed  is  de  puoar  en  hart  fer  dey 
,shall  be  healed.  Putt  mallus  en  bac'- 
bitin'  en  all  sin  outen  yo'  harts  for  Lawd 
aint  gwiner  heal  noboddy  whut  air  en 
reebellyun  'ginst  Him !  O'  Lawd !  make 
us  'member  dat  in  de  skriptures  yo'  is 
sed  dat  ef  er  pus'un  thow  hisse'f  ento 
de  pool  uv  Saloam,  when  de  Angul  trub- 
bled  de  watters  dat  he  wood  be  healed, 
but  O  Lawd!  Ef  he  thow'd  hisse'f  in 
berfo'  de  Angul  trubbled  de  watters  dat 
hit  wuddunt  du  no  good  er  tall! 

"O,  Lawd !  make  us  'member  dat  man 
whut  set  far  28  years  by  de  side  uv  de 
gate  whut  am  cauld  beutterful  or  waitin' 
fur  Peater  ter  cum  en  kuoar  hem  ! 

"Oh  Holy  Ghos',  cum  down  on  dy  ser- 
vunt  en  gib  him  powah  ter  heal  al  whut 
corns  under  de  showah  uv  his  han' ! 

"Holy  Ghos' !  cum  down  uppon  dy 
peepul,  Israel,  dat  all  be  healed  whut 
cums  tinner  de  showah  uv  my  han'  dat 
my  name  may  be  'membered  thu  all  gen- 
nerashuns ! 

Lawd  us  knows  dat  us  kaint  be  healed 


'ceptin  us  is  puoar!  Oh  Lawd,  puoarify 
us  harts  dat  menny  may  be  healed  dat 
my  name  may  be  'membered  thu  all  gen- 
nerashuns ! 

Oh,  Holy  Ghos',  cum  in  powah  terday ! 
Cum  Holy  Ghos'!  CUM  HOLY 
GHOS !" 

The  Healer  paused. 

Looking  across  the  fields  a  gentle 
breeze  could  be  seen  coming,  swaying 
the  leaves,  of  the  not  far  distant  trees. 
In  the  enclosure  not  a  breath  of  air  was 
stirring. 

"Oh  Holy  Ghos' !  ef  yo'  ez  gwine  ter 
cum  in  powah  terday,  cum  nom,  Holy 
Ghos'  ez  er  coolin'  breeze  ter  fan  dy  pee- 
pul Israel!" 

The  Healer  lifted  his  eyes  Heaven- 
ward. 

Gently  the  breeez  began  to  blow. 

Feeling  its  cooling  touch  as  it  played 
across  her  sweaty  face,  Aunt  Caroline 
burst  out  shouting:  "De  Holy  Ghos' 
dun  cum!  He  dun  cum!  Glory  ter 
Gawd !  He  dun  cum !" 

Again  the  Healer  paused. 

Standing  on  tiptoe,  with  hands  out- 
stretched, perspiration  pouring  down  his 
face  in  rivulets,  he  grasped  the  air  as  if 
trying  to  clutch  some  unseen  spirit  and 
draw  it  to  him  as  he  moaned :  "Thou  ez 
cum  Holy  Ghos'!  Thou  ez  cum  Holy 
Ghos'!  Pourify  dy  peepul  Israel  dat  dey 
may  be  healed  dat  my  name  may  be 
'membered  thu  all  gennerashuns !" 

Heated  by  the  rays  of  the  summer  sun 
which  had  poured  down  mercilessly  upon 
their  heads  for  the  past  hour,  superheat- 
ed by  being  wedged  between  hot,  un- 
washed, perspiring  bodies,  and  lashed 
into  a  frenzy  of  excitement  by  the  mag- 
netism of  the  speaker  and  his  mesmeric, 
hypnotic  gestures,  his  audience  shouted 
and  sang  and  many  fell  upon  the  ground, 
their  sweaty  bodies  and  limbs  stiff  as 
if  in  a  trance  while  others  moaned  and 
cried.  At  the  height  of  the  excitement 
the  Healer  took  in  his  left  hand  a  small 
tin  basin  of  the  healing  water  and  with 
his  right  he  dipped  in  and  throwing  with 
all  his  migfht  he  began  to  circle  and 
sprinkle  all  the  people  around  the  altar. 

Each  time  as  he  would  shower  the  wa- 
ter from  his  right  hand  he  would  ex- 


98 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


claim:  "Cum  Holy  Ghos'!  Cum  Holy 
Ghos' !  Cum  Holy  Ghos' !  Heal  all  whut 
cum  unner  de  showah  uv  my  han' !" 

Three  times  he  circled  and  sprinkled 
them.  This  ceremony  ended,  the  Healer 
waited  and  from  the  audience  a  negro 
brought  his  little  5-year-old  daughter 
who  seemed  unable  to  walk  or  to  stand 
without  some  assistance. 

With  her  father  holding  her  tightly 
in  his  arms  the  Healer  took  her  by  the 
hand  and  with  water  from  the  basin 
rubbed  her  arms  gently,  all  the  while 
crooning,  "Cum  Holy  Ghos' !  en  shake 
dis  little  leg.  Cum  Holy  Ghos'  en  shake 
dis  little  arm !  Cum  Holy  Ghos' !  en 
shake  dis  little  body  dat  my  name  may 
be  'membered  thu  all  gennerashuns ! 
Cum  Holy  Ghos',  Cum  Holy  Ghos'! 
CUM  HOLY  GHOST 

Standing  erect  before  her  he  passed 
his  hands  up  and  down  as  does  a  hypno- 
tist when  inducing  sleep,  all  the  time 
crying :  "Cum  Holy  Ghos' !  Cum  Holy 
Ghos'!" 

Finally  he  stood  her  upon  her  feet  and 
passing  his  hands,  wet  with  the  healing 
water,  up  and  down  her  little  limbs  and 
body  he  cried,  "Cum  Holy  Ghos' !  Cum 
Holy  Ghos' !  CUM  HOLY  GHOS' !" 

Suddenly  with  an  exultant  cry  he 
shouted,  "I'se  got  er  witnes'.  I'se  got 


er  witnes',"  for  the  child  was  standing 
upon  her  feet  alone. 

Quickly  catching  both  her  hands  in 
his  he  lifted  her  arms  high  above  her 
head  and  turning  them  loose  bade  her 
stretch  out  her  fingers,  which  she  did! 
Now  crook  your  fingers.  AND  SHE 
DID !  Again  came  that  exultant  cry, 
"I'se  got  er  witnes' !  I'se  got  er  witnes' ! 
My  name  shall  be  'membered  thu  all 
gennerashuns !  Dy  Healing  Watter  shell 
heal  all  dy  peepul." 

Bathed  in  perspiration,  with  trembling 
steps  and  blood-shot  eyes,  the  Healer 
crept  down  the  steps. 

Awe  stricken,  the  crowd  opened  and 
made  way  for  him,  some  reverently 
touching  his  robe  as  he  passed  by. 

Aunt  Caroline  stood  for  a  moment  as 
one  petrified,  then  shouted:  "I'se  seed 
er  merricle.  Ise  seed  er  merricle!  De 
Holy  Man  dun  healed  dat  chile  en 
kuoard  de  mizry  in  dis  heah  ole  boddy  er 
mine.  Glory  ter  Gawd!  Glory  ter 

Gawd !" 

******_* 

Too  busy  talking  to  notice  them,  Aunt 
Caroline  passed  by  the  father  and  lit- 
tle girl  as  she  went  toward  the  gate. 

He  was  standing  dejectedly,  support- 
ing the  child  who  clung  to  him  as  before 
to  keep  from  falling. 


Second  Annual  "Get  Acquainted"  Meeting  of  the 

St.  Louis  Division 


(~)N  June  20th  the  second  annual  "Get 
Acquainted"  meeting  of  the  St. 
Louis  Division  was  held  in  the  Opera 
House  at  Carbondale,  111.  Superin- 
tendent W.  S.  Williams  presided,  and 
there  were  about  450  of  the  employes 
present.  In  addition  "to  the  division 
employes  there  were  the  following 
guests : 

Mr.  E.  J.  Ingersoll,  Hon.  W.  W. 
Barr,  Mr.  E.  K.  Porter,  mayor,  Dr.  H. 
C.  Mitchell,  Dr.  M.  Etherton,  Mr.  M. 
W.  Moore,  Mr.  C.  E.  Feirich,  all  of 
Carbondale,  111. 

Mr.  J.  C.  Muench,  secretary,  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  Mounds. 

Mr.  A.  E.  Clift,  general  superin- 
tendent. 

Mr.  S.  S.  Morris,  chairman,  General 
Safety  Committee. 

Mr.  J.  L.  East,  agent,  Loss  and  Dam- 
age Bureau. 

Also  pensioners  as  follows :  ' 

Mr.  John  Ridenbaugh,  Brookport. 

Mr.  M.  Corcoran,  Carterville. 

Mr.  Benjamin  James,  Centralia. 

Mr.  D.  E.  Stedelin,  Centralia. 

Mr.  John  Ruttinger,  Centralia. 

Mr.  D.  E.  Foley,  Carbondale. 

Mr.  H.  C.  Mertz,  Carbondale. 

Mr.  Joseph  Lantrum,  Marion. 

Mr.  Mat.  Hamilton,  Mounds. 

Mr.  Alexandis  Wilson,  Du  Quoin. 

Mr.  W.  R.  Thompson,  Du  Quoin. 

A  very  enjoyable  and  profitable 
meeting  was  held,  the  proceedings  of 
which  follow: 

Meeting  was  called  to  order  8  :30  a. 
m.  by  Superintendent  Williams,  chair- 
man, who  made  a  few  remarks  explain- 
ing the  purpose  of  the  meeting.  Pro- 
gram throughout  the  day  as  follows : 

Introduction  of  Mayor  E.  K.  Porter, 
who  welcomed  the  visitors  to  the  city. 

Introduction  of  Col.  E.  J.  Ingersoll, 
one  of  the  early  mayors  of  Carbondale, 
and  present  watch  inspector  for  the  Il- 
linois Central.  In  a  five  minute  talk 
Col.  Ingersoll  commented  on  the 


growth  of  Carbondale  and  its  railroad 
interest. 

Mr.  A.  E.  Clift,  general  superintend- 
ent, Northern  and  Western  lines,  was 
introduced  and  made  a  talk  on  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  such  meetings,  and 
also  comments  on  the  showing  made  as 
compared  with  last  year's  figures. 

Mr.  S.  S.  Morris,  chairman,  General 
Safety  Committee,  Illinois  Central  Sys- 
tem, was  introduced  and  gave  a  very  in- 
teresting talk  on  the  subject  of  Safety 
First. 

Mr.  J.  L.  East,  agent,  Loss  and  Dam- 
age Bureau,  Illinois  Central  System, 
was  next  introduced,  and  gave  a  re- 
view of  the  results  obtained  by  the 
Loss  and  Damage  Bureau,  and  par- 
ticularly as  applicable  to  the  St.  Louis 
Division. 

Mr.  P.  E.  Odell,  Chief  Train  ^Dis- 
patcher, St.  Louis  Division,  presented 
the  subject,  "Selecting  the  Man,"  in  a 
forceful  and  able  manner. 

Mr.  F.  Rauch,  Car  Distributor,  St. 
Louis  Division,  made  a  five  minute  talk 
on  the  subject  of  "Car  Handling  and 
Reports." 

At  this  point  the  audience  was  fa- 
vored with  a  selection,  "Illinois,"  sung 
by  Mr.  William  Hays,  of  Carbondale, 
which  was  very  much  appreciated  and 
enjoyed  by  all  present. 

Chairman  announced  adjournment 
during  noon  hour,  at  which  time  pic- 
ture of  those  present  would  be  taken 
in  park  immediately  after  adjourn- 
ment, also  announced  program  for  the 
balance  of  the  day.  Pensioners  were 
invited  to  the  homes  of  Division  Offi- 
cers for  dinner  as  special  guests. 

Afternoon  Session. 

Started  with  four  reels  of  moving  pic- 
tures, two  of  which  were  comedy  offer- 
ings by  the  opera  house  management, 
and  two  of  Illinois  Central  films  on 
Safety  First  and  proper  handling  of  ex- 
plosives and  inflammables.  These  later 


99 


100 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


were  very  instructive  and  interesting. 

Drs.  H.  C.  Mitchell  and  M.  Etherton 
of  the  Hospital  Department  were  pres- 
ent and  addressed  the  meeting  in  the 
interest  of  that  department. 

Hon.  W.  W.  Barr,  District  Attorney, 
and  Mr.  C.  E.  Feirich,  Local  Attorney, 
were  present  and  responded  to  invita- 
tion to  address  the  audience  and  their 
talks  were  of  value  and  interest. 

Mr.  J.  L.  East  again  addressed  the 
meeting,  going  into  detail  concerning 
the  loss  and  damage  showing,  causes 
thereof  and  urging  upon  all  present  the 
necessity  for  greater  effort. 

Mr.  J.  C.  Miiench,  General  Secretary 


of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Mounds,  addressed 
the  meeting,  calling  attention  to  the 
close  relation  of  Illinois  Central  em- 
ployes and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  His  re- 
marks on  the  word  "Thought"  were 
beneficial  and  interesting. 

The  meeting  was  addressed  at  fre- 
quent intervals  by  division  officers  and 
other  employes  in  five  minute  talks  on 
different  interesting  subjects. 

This  meeting  was  attended  by  ap- 
proximately 500  employes,  the  greater 
portion  of  whom  registered,  and  the 
above  indicates  that  each  department 
was  well  represented. 


Train-Load 

By  P.  E.  Odell 


A  PROPOS  of  recent  changes  in 
comparative  statements  whereby 
credit  is  given  each  division  for  train- 
load  instead  of  percentage  of  power 
efficiency  utilized,  it  seems  that  ap- 
preciative recognition  of  the  advan- 
tanges  and  benefits  derived  therefrom 
is  due  from  Chief  Dispatchers. 

In  the  mind  of  every  progressive 
operating  official  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion but  the  system  of  working  on  a 
time-table  tonnage  rating  basis  is  ob- 
solete and  wasteful  in  the  extreme,  un- 
less such  ratings  are  changed  every 
time  the  wind  shifts  or  the  thermom- 
eter rises  or  falls.  In  order  to  make 
statements  compare  favorably  and  to 
indicate  that  power  is  hauling  maxi- 
mum the  tonnage  rating  can  easily  be 
made  to  fit  the  report,  while  average 
train-load  comparisons  are  an  incen- 
tive to  all  concerned  to  reduce  train 
miles  by  taking  advantage  of  condi- 
tions and  increasing  train-load  regard- 
less of  fixed  time  table  ratings  which 
by  no  means  are  a  fair  guide  through- 
out the  life  of  a  time  table. 

No  one  is  in  a  better  position  to 
determine  the  train-load  than  the  Chief 
and  Trick  Dispatchers  who  have 
gained  their  knowledge  by  experience 
and  who  are  in  a  position  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  opportunities  and  every 


dispatcher  who  is  interested  in  the  wel- 
fare of  his  company  can  assist  ma- 
terially in  increasing  the  earnings  by 
watching  the  individual  train.  JL,ocal 
freight  trains  can  frequently  be  used 
to  assemble  loads  at  points  on  the  dis- 
trict where  grade  conditions  are  such 
as  will  permit  through  trains  to  han- 
dle additional  tonnage,  if  not  through 
to  terminal,  to  a  point  in  territory 
where  turn-arounds  can  be  used  to  ad- 
vantage at  convenient  hours  of  the 
day. 

In  our  efforts  to  increase  train- 
load  we  should  not  lose  sight  of  the 
importance  of  short  lay-overs  for 
crews  at  points  other  than  their 
home  terminals.  When  there  is  a 
large  amount  of  power  at  an  out- 
side terminal  it  causes  dissatisfac- 
tion among  the  crews  and  to  pacify 
them  yard  masters  will  often  run 
a  train  which  could  have  been  held 
for  consolidation  thereby  running  up 
expense  of  additional  and  unnecessary 
high-class  train  mileage.  Where  there 
is  an  abundance  of  power  it  is  an  easy 
matter  to  order  out  crews  to  "clean 
up  the  railroad"  but  the  day  of  reckon- 
ing comes  when  we  are  confronted 
with  train-load  performance  sheets, 
and  we  have  an  idea  that  it  only  takes 
two  sets  of  figures  to  convince  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


101 


higher  officials  whether  men  on  certain 
divisions  are  "cutting  the  corners"  or 
not  and  with  the  privileges  allowed 
local  officials  by  the  present  up-to-date 
broad-minded  management  there  is  no 
reason  why  we  cannot  boost  the  stock 
of  the  Company  and  incidentally  our 
own.  The  man  who  either  believes  re- 
ports and  comparative  statements  are 
a  joke  or  is  afraid  of  them  is  the  one 
who  says  a  great  deal  about  "paper 
railroading,"  but  intelligence  is  fast  re- 
placing bull-headed  force. 

Without  any  question  proper  car 
distribution  contributes  largely  to  in- 
creased net  earnings  and  this  branch 
of  the  business  is  too  often  left  to  in- 
competent clerks  who  do  not  appre- 
ciate the  importance  of  education  in 
car  distribution.  If  the  man  in  charge 
of  equipment  on  any  division  does  not 
study  and  keep  thoroughly  posted  on 
the  handling  of  cars  he  is  not  in  a  po- 
sition to  place  instructions  to  Agents 


and  Yard  Masters  and  is  therefore  an 
expensive  man  to  have  in  service  as 
the  the  mishandling  of  equipment  in- 
creases train  mileage  from  which  there 
is  no  revenue.  Train  mileage  has  been 
decreased  materially  within  the  past 
few  months  by  the  very  sensible  and 
practical  manner  in  which  empty 
equipment  is  being  hauled  from  one 
territory  to  another,  viz.,  moving  when 
light  power  is  required  and  not  on 
iron-clad  instructions  to  deliver  a  cer- 
tain number  of  cars  per  day. 

Altogether  we  believe  that  every  one 
is  falling  into  line  on  the  question  of 
train-load  and  the  result  will  be  mu- 
tually beneficial.  As  a  Government  of- 
ficial recently  remarked,  "If  the  Gov- 
ernment looked  after  the  interest  of 
the  people  as  well  as  you  fellows  are 
looking  after  the  interest  of  the  rail- 
road we  would  have  some  Govern- 
ment." Ain't  it  the  truth? 


Fuel  Economy 


Greenville,  Miss.,  June  22,  1915. 
Mr.  A.  H.  Egan,  General  Superintendent, 

Memphis,  Tenn. 
Dear  Sir: 

We  have  engineers  on  the  Vicksburg  Division  who  are  very  much  inter- 
ested in  fuel  economy. 

A  number  of  gratifying  records  have  been  made. 

The  most  efficient  performance,  however,  was  made  by  Engineer  A.  R. 
Bigleben,  trains  35  and  36,  135  and  136,  between  Greenville  and  Vicksburg; 
train  consisting  of  three  (3)  cars,  June  18th  to  20th,  inclusive.  Actual  miles, 
460,  including  fire  maintained  during  lay-over  periods  at  Greenville  and  Vicks- 
burg. Total  amount  of  coal  consumed,  nine  (9)  tons. 

This  is  the  most  remarkable  record  for  fuel  efficiency  which  has  come 
to  our  notice  since  we  have  been  connected  with  the  system ;  especially  when 
the  fact  is  taken  into  consideration  that  this  train  performs  local  service  ex- 
clusively, and  made  153  stops  during  the  period  referred  to. 

I  am  assuming  that  you  may  wish  to  have  some  mention  made  of  this 
remarkable  performance  in  the  Illinois  Central  Magazine. 

Yours  truly, 
T.  L.  DUBBS,  Superintendent. 


Appointments  and  Promotions 


Effective  July  1,  1915,  Mr.  Fred  B. 
Oren  is  appointed  superintendent  of  the 
New  Orleans  Division,  with  office  at 
Vicksburg,  Miss.,  vice  Mr.  John  W. 
Meehan,  resigned. 

Effective  July  1,  1915,  Mr.  John  W. 
Bledsoe  is  appointed  train  master  of  the 
Peoria  and  Mattoon  districts,  with  office 
at  Mattoon,  vice  Mr.  Fred  B.  Oren. 

Mr.  Victor  V.  Boatner  is  appointed 
train  master  of  the  Effingham  and  Indi- 
anapolis districts,  with  office  at  Mattoon, 
vice  Mr.  John  W.  Bledsoe,  transferred. 

Effective  July  1,1915,  Mr.  Arthur  M. 
Umshler  is  appointed  train  master  of  the 


Memphis  Division,  with  office  at  Mem- 
phis, Tenn.,  vice  Mr.  Victor  V.  Boat- 
ner. 

Effective  July  1,  1915,  Mr.  Frank  E. 
Hatch  is  appointed  train  master,  office 
at  Centralia,  with  jurisdiction  Branch 
Junction  to  Irvington,  vice  Mr.  Arthur 
M.  Umshler. 

Effective  July  1,  1915,  Mr.  James  D. 
White  is  appointed  train  master  Johns- 
ton City  and  Golconda  branches,  and  Car- 
bondale  and  Eldorado  districts,  except 
between  DuQuoin  and  Pinckneyville, 
with  office  at  Carbondale,  vice  Mr.  Frank 
E.  Hatch  transferred. 


MECHANICAL  DEPARTMENT  SUPERVISORY   FORCE  ON  THE  LOUISIANA  DIVISION 

MECHANICAL  DEPARTMENT  SUPERVISORY   FORCE, 

LOUISIANA    DIVISION 

'  I  AHE  Louisiana  Division  has  five  outside  points,  namely,  New  Orleans, 
Harahan,  Asylum,  Canton  and  Gwin.  On  the  first  Monday  in  each  month 
the  General  Foremen  from  these  points  are  called  to  McComb  and  together 
with  the  General  and  Shop  Foremen  of  McComb  Shop  a  Staff  Meeting  is 
held,  the  Master  Mechanic  presiding.  During  these  sessions  subjects  of  inter- 
est to  the  Foremen  are  gone  over,  such  as:  Mechanical  Department  payroll 
allotment  and  expense,  repairs  to  locomotives,  engine  failures,  rebuilding 
and  reinforcing  freight  cars,  etc. 

These  subjects  are  thoroughly  discussed  by  all  present,  and  proves  very 
beneficial  to  them,  especially  to  the  Foremen  from  outside  points  who  do  not 
have  the  advantage  of  personal  supervision  of  the  Master  Mechanic. 

102 


Qivisit. 


ILLINOIS    DIVISION.  Toole,  rf 4     0     1     1     0     0 

Fordham.  Manion,  2b 3     0     0     1     3     0 

Mr.  Preston  Blair  is  back  among  us 
after  a  siege  of  tonsilitis.  Total   35     3     9  27  12     0 

Mr.    James    Ferguson    passed    from  Ashkum  Collies, 

boyhood     to     manhood      Wednesday,  AR  R   H  PO   A   F 

June   23rd      He   is   now   21   years   of  pl          f 5*  6    6    0*  0    .6 

age  and  allowed  to  smoke.  Grovelit,  2b 5     00131 

Mr.    H.    Holcomb    is    able    to    get  Collett   '  3b 4     0     1     1     1     1 

around  nicely  Butler,  c 4     0     1  16     0     0 

Mr     T.    M     Kavangh    is    glad    the  N  j         lb 4     Q     Q     g     Q     Q 

street  car  strike  is  over.    It  does  away  j^  4     0     0     0     2     0 

with  the  four  long  miles  he  had  to  walk  Bonzet>   \(  ..400100 

everyday.  Schayea,   ss '.'.'.'.  '.'.'.'.'.  3     00031 

TU     T   r   ^  f  fsc£.    V  ,        .    „  .  Jensen,   rf 3     0     1     0     0     0 

The  I.  C.  Safety  First  baseball  team 

at    Fordham    continued    its    winning         T      ,  .  .36     0     3  24     9     3 

streak  by  defeating  the  Ashkum  and  g  f        pirst  ...  .0  1  0  0  1  1  0  0  0-3 

Buckley   111.,    earns  of  Iroquis  County.  Ashkim  Collies.O  00000000-0 
The  feature  of  the  last  two  games  was          Two.base  hit_B.  Johnson.     Struck 

the  plavmg  of    Johnson   on  first  base  T>      A/T   iu  n     A    ic     u      T  u 

,  i,    "    -f  ,  •     J  .  Y.          ,  ,,   ,  out — By  Mulholland,  15;  by  Johnson, 

and  the  pitching  and  catching  of  Mul-  ->.       r>  u  n       r\cc  \*   iu   n      A 

u   11      j       j  TXT-U  1        ..u     c-  r  ^     T?-  14.     Bases  on   balls — Off  Mulholland, 

holland  and  Whalen,  the  Safety  tirst  ,.       rr  T  u  -. 

.^      ,    .      TT  ,      '«        ,  4;  on     ohnson  1. 
star    battery.      Captain    Holcomb,    al- 
though unable  to  play  on  account  of  in-  June  13,  1915. 
juries    he   received    the   early   part   of  Safety  First, 
the  season,  was  out  in  uniform  coach-  AB.R.  H.  PO.  A.  E. 

ing  on   the   side  lines   and   it   seemed  Pilot,   ss..  ..6     14     0     3     0 

to  make  the  boys  try  all  the  harder  to  Toole,  rf. .  ..511000 

bring   home    a    victory.      The    Safety  Mulligan,  3b 5     23121 

First  has  now  won  5  and  lost  1  and  Berry,  If 5     2     2     1     0     0 

would  like  to  hear  from  some  of  the  Whalen,    c..  .  .5     2     2  12     0     0 

western  towns.    Address  all  communi-  Mulholland,    p 5     1     4     0     1     0 

cations  to  V.  Schle^er,  care  I.  C.  R.  R.,  Johnson,   lb 5     1     2     8     0     0 

Fordham  Yards,  Chicago,  111.  Manion,   2b 4     1     2     2     2     0 

Tune  6,  1915.  J.  Mulholland.  cf.  ..  .1     00000 

Safety  First.  Dawson.  cf 3     11000 

AB.R.  H.  PO.  A.  E.  

Pilot,   ss 4     0     1     1     5     6         Total   44122124     8     1 

Mulholland,  J.,  If.... 4     00000  Buckley. 

Mulholland,  p 4     1     3     0     2     0  AB.R.  H.  PO.  A.  E. 

Berry,  3b 4     00010  Gleason,  2b 6     32121 

Whalen,  c 4     1     2  18     1     0  A.  Krumwed,  rf 5     23002 

Keiser,  cf .4     0     1     0     0     0  VV.Kntipple.3b 5     22230 

Johnson,  lb 4     11600  E.  Krumwed,  lb.  ..  .5     12600 

103 


104 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Lietz,  ss 5  0  1  1  2  1 

Luhrsen,  c 5  0  1  13  0  0 

H.  Knupple,  If 4  1  2  2  0  0 

Doyle,   cf 4  0  2  0  0  0 

Lammers,   p 5  0  0  0  1  0 

Total   44     9  15  25     8     4 

Safety  First  ...02000063  1—12 
Buckley 310310001—9 

Two-base  hit — Knupple.  Three-base 
hits — Dawson,  Pilot,  Krumwed.  Home 
run — Johnson.  Struck  out — By  Mul- 
holland,  10;  by  Lammers,  11.  Base  on 
balls— Off  Mulholland,  1;  off  Lam- 
mers, 1. 

Chicago  Terminal. 

The  Signal  Department  employes  on 
the  Chicago  Terminal  have  organized 
a  Base  Ball  Club,  H.  Brandon  being 
elected  President,  O.  C.  Hinkle,  Man- 
ager, and  P.  J.  Knoop,  Captain. 

The  team  has  not  yet  lost  a  game 
and  would  like  to  arrange  games  with 
other  I.  C.  R.  R.  teams. 

Communications    concerning    games 
should    be   addressed    to    H.    Brandon, 
1612  East  53rd  Street,  Chicago. 
South  Water  Street. 

Heard  the  new  office  motto?  ''All 
business." 

Ernie    Cook    spent    Decoration    Day 


in  Minneapolis  with  his  brother,  who 
is  connected  with  the  Hamburg-Amer- 
ican Line  in  that  city. 

\Ye  hear  in-freight  girls  are  making 
clothes  for  the  Belgium  orphans. 

Mr.  D.  Leer,  assistant  station  ac- 
countant, is  on  the  sick  list. 

Mr.  Taylor,  the  stationer,  was  the 
first  clerk  to  wear  a  straw  hat.  E.  H. 
Belk  was  a  close  second. 

Howard  Haney,  our  excellent  and 
unexcelled  office  boy,  rides  forty  miles 
to  and  from  work  each  day.  Howard 
will  be  mayor  of  Harvey  some  day. 

Mr.  Leo  Froehlich  of  In-freight  De- 
partment went  to  Denver,  Colo.,  June  14. 

Mr.  Jerry  Casey  of  Claim  Depart- 
ment is  quite  a  violinist ;  also  a  very 
accomplished  Irish  step  dancer. 

Mr.  John  Brennan  and  Tom  Rus- 
sell of  car  record  desk  are  going  to 
spend  their  vacation  on  the  Missis- 
sipi  River.  They  leave  on  a  special 
train  over  the  I.  C.  to  St.  Louis  June 
21st. 

We  understand  that  H.  J.  Bowling's 
Boy  Scouts,  Benton  Mullin  and  Frank 
Hanley,  were  present  at  a  banquet  in 
Louisville,  Ky.,  May  1st. 

Jimmy  Murphy  (the  chief's  right 
hand  bower)  intends  to  spend  his  va- 
cation in  Denver,  Colo. 


T-XDEFEATKI)   SUPERINTENDENT'S  OFFICE     BA8EBALJ 


MEMPHIS,    TENN. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


105 


The  Misses  Henry  and  Rhen  pre- 
sented Howard  Haney,  our  gallant  of- 
fice boy,  with  a  pair  of  black  silk  sox 
on  his  birthday,  Wednesday,  May  12th. 

Quite  a  few  of  the  notice  boys  went 
to  St.  Louis  with  Mark  Bowling  and 
Harry  Stahl  for  Decoration  Day. 

Our  sympathies  are  extended  to  Mr. 
J.  A.  Pierce,  who  had  the  misfortune 
of  losing  his  father  and  mother  last 
month. 

Indiana  Division. 

John  F.  Dillsworth,  for  the  past 
twelve  years  janitor  in  the  Indiana 
Division  offices  at  Mattoon,  died  of 
heart  disease  June  1st,  after  an  illness 
of  less  than  an  hour.  He  performed 
his  duties  the  day  before  and  seemed 
in  his  usual  health.  John  will  -be 
greatly  missed  by  everybody  about  the 
office.  He  was  well  liked  and  respect- 
ed by  all  who  knew  him  and  had  many 
friends  in  and  around  Mattoon.  His 
widow  survives  and  to  her  we  tender 
our  sympathy  in  her  bereavement. 

To  John  Dillworth,  the  Janitor. 

It   is  only  the  Janitor, 
Someone  has  said, 
As  they  passed  by  the  bier, 
And  gazed  on  the  dead. 
So  they  laid  him  to  rest 
In  a  house  made  of  clay, 
There   he  will   sleep 
'Til  the  Judgment  Day. 

He  was  only  the  Janitor, 

Yet  faithful  and  true 

To  perform  all  the  duties 

He  was  required  to  do. 

Was  always  contented 

Whatever  his  lot. 

When   supplies  were  needed 

John  never  forgot. 

Yes,    only    the    Janitor, 

From  the  rank  and  file. 

But  he  was  loyal, 

On  his  face  was  a  smile. 

Sometimes  as  he  labored 

The  world  may  have  looked  drear, 

As  he  had  been   in   service 

For  fifteen  long  years. 


He  was  only  the  Janitor, 
But  kind-hearted  and  true. 
Though  humble  his  station 
He   had   friends  not   few, 
Who  surely  will  miss  him 
As  the  days  roll  by. 
Peace  be  his  ashes 
In  the  grave  where-  he  lies. 

Earl  McFadden,  formerly  file  clerk 
in  the  Superintendent's  office,  has  re- 
ceived a  well-deserved  promotion.  His 
new  title  is  Tonnage  and  Mileage 
Clerk. 

Roy  Stevens  of  Princeton,  Ky.,  has 
recently  come  to  Mattoon  as  File 
Clerk. 

Now  that  the  Illinois  Legislature 
is  threatening  to  adjourn,  the  Division 
Offices  anticipate  being  favored  occa- 
sionally with  the  presence  of  the  genial 
Superintendent. 

Conductor  Chris  Richmond  is  very 
popular  nowadays  with  Master  Me- 
chanic Bell's  office  force  because  of  the 
vigorous  measures  he  took  to  recover 
a  handsome  umbrella  belonging  to  one 
of  the  young  women  in  the  office.  The 
umbrella  was  carried  off  of  a  train  by 
a  passenger.  As  soon  as  the  loss  was 
discovered  Mr.  Richmond  wired  the 
agent  at  Sullivan  and  had  the  umbrella 
returned. 

Mr.  A.  F.  Buckton,  Chief  Clerk  to 
Master  Mechanic  Bell,  was  recently 
the  victim  of  a  birthday  surprise  party. 
Archie  is  the  possessor  of  a  beautiful 
traveling  bag  as  a  souvenir  of  the  oc- 
casion. 

Division  Accountant  A.  C.  Wilcox 
has  returned  from  a  three  weeks'  va- 
cation spent  in  St.  Petersburg,  Fla. 

Speaking  of  vacations,  Saturday 
afternoons  off  makes  a  vacation  every 
week,  and  isn't  it  great? 

Miss  Edna  Riggs,  stenographer  in 
the  Superintendent's  office,  expects  to 
leave  on  her  vacation  the  latter  part 
of  June.  She  will  visit  friends  in 
Princeton,  Ky. 

Miss  Victoria  Gustafson,  stenogra- 
pher in  Train  Masters'  office,  is  plan- 
ning an  extensive  trip  to  the  far  west. 

For   some   time   it   has   been   a   sus- 


106 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


picion  on  the  Indiana  Division  that 
Conductor  J.  V.  Fitch  keeps  a  poem 
up  his  sleeve  for  every  occasion.  The 
suspicion  appears  to  be  well  founded. 
A  few  evenings  since  a  reception  was 
given  at  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
at  Mattoon  in  honor  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
F.  J.  Blickensderfer  prior  to  their  de- 
parture for  Cincinnati,  Mr.  Blickens- 
derfer having  been  promoted  to  a  po- 
sition in  the  General  Offices  of  the  Big 
Four  Railway.  During  the  course  of 
the  evening  Mr.  Fitch  was  called  upon 
and  responded  with  the  following 
graceful  verses: 

The  Faithful  Few. 
J.  V.  Fitch. 

When  at  morn  or  evening  service, 
As  I  look  around  the  room, 
I  am  sure  to  see  some  faces 
From  out  the  shadows  loom ; 
They  are   always   at  the   service, 
And  stay  until  it's  through — 
Those  you  sure  can  count  on — 
The  always  faithful  few. 


They  fill   the  vacant  places, 
And  are  always  on  the  spot ; 
No    matter   what   the    weather, 
Though  it  may  be  very  hot; 
It  may  be  dark  and  rainy, 
But  they  are  tried  and  true — 
The  ones  you  can  rely  on — 
The  always  faithful  few. 

Tonight  we  lose  a  member 
Who  is  loyal  and  is  true ; 
The  Session  sure  will  miss  him, 
And  also  the  Pastor  too ; 
One  we  could  depend  on 
When  there  was  work  to  do; 
We'll  think  of  him  forever 
As  one  of  the  faithful  few. 

We  are  loath  to  have  him  leave  us, 
And  his  faithful  helpmeet  too; 
We  shall  miss  their  smiling  faces, 
We  are  sad  to  say  adieu ; 
Wherever  fortune  leads  them, 
Friends  they'll  find  both  leal  and  true; 
But  we  who've  loved  them  longest 
Still  call  them  the  faithful  few. 


SIGNAL   DEPARTMENT    BASE    BALL   TEAM 
CHICAGO    TERMINAL 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


107 


Springfield   Division. 

Switchman  Louis  L.  Lynn  has  been 
granted  a  leave  of  absence  and  is 
spending  the  time  with  friends  and 
relatives  in  Minnesota. 

Harry  Zimmerli,  Clerk  to  General 
Yard  master  at  Clinton,  has  returned 
to  work  after  three  days'  lay-off.  He 
spent  the  time  with  his  parents  in 
Rochester,  111. 

Conductors  C.  P.  Freeman  and  W. 
C.  Harris  have  recently  purchased  new 
automobiles.  The  former  has  a  new 
Mitchell  6,  and  the  latter  a  Moon  4. 
Anyone  wanting  a  free  auto  ride, 
please  notify  A  either  of  these  gentle- 
men. 

Brakeman  L.  J.  Oswald  of  the 
Springfield  District  has  taken  a  30 
days'  leave  of  absence  and  is  spending 
the  time  with  relatives  in  Alhambra, 
111. 

Brakeman  C.  L.  Gilliland  has  gone  to 
Denver,  Colo.,  and  other  points  in  that 
state.  He  expects  to  be  away  about 
sixty  days. 

Conductor  C.  L.  St.  John  has  been 
granted  a  leave  of  absence  for  six 
months,  account  sickness  and  has  gone 
to  Rochester,  Minn.,  and  other  points 
in  the  northwest  for  the  benefit  of  his 
health. 

J.  W.  Alexander,  employed  as  Pas- 
senger Flagman  on  the  Clinton  District 
for  the  past  two  years,  has  resigned 
from  the  service  and  returned  to  his 
home  in  Patoka,  111.,  where  he  has  pur- 
chased a  canning  factory. 

Conductor  W.  B.  Herron,  of  the  Ha- 
vanna  District,  who  was  granted  leave 
of  absence  for  one  year,  account  sick- 
ness, writes  from  Hastings,  Mich., 
where  he  is  located  on  a  farm,  that  his 
health  is  improving,  but  not  yet  able 
to  return  to  work  on  the  road. 

Conductor  Wm.  Sharkey  has  re- 
turned to  work  after  a  few  days'  lay- 
off. He  visited  with  friends  and  rela- 
tives in  Amboy  and  Chicago. 

Road  Department. 

James  Throckmorton,  formerly 
bridge  Foreman  and  Supervisor  of  the 
Rantoul  District  of  the  Springfield  Do- 


visron,  died  recently  at  his  home  in 
Urbana,  111.  He  was  on  the  honor  roll 
of  the  pension  department,  having  been 
retired  from  active  service  about 
twelve  years  ago. 

Joseph  Charbonneau,  retired  bridge 
carpenter  on  the  Springfield  Division, 
died  recently  at  his  home  in  Clinton, 
111.  He  had  been  on  the  pension  list 
since  June,  1914. 

Frank  Reed,  Foreman  of  concrete 
gang  on  the  Springfield  Division,  now 
constructing  concrete  pile  trestle  at 
bridge  264-3,  will  visit  with  his  parents 
in  Vandalia  during  the  inclement 
weather. 

After  several  months'  leave  of  ab- 
sence account  ill  health  J.  O.  Mathews, 
fourth  oldest  Agent  on  Springfield  Di- 
vision, returned  to  duty  at  Bondville 
Station  May  18th,  releasing  Extra 
Agent  E.  A.  Witte. 

J.  E.  Ward,  Agent  at  New  Holland, 
took  a  few  days'  lay-off  and  was  re- 
lieved by  Extra  Agent  O.  S.  Jackson 
May  10th. 

P.  R.  Bryson  was  checked  in  as  per- 
manent Agent. at  Hanson  May  19th. 

Dickerson  Station  on  Rantoul  Dis- 
trict will  be  discontinued  as  an  agency 
and  established  as  a  prepay  station 
July  1st. 

W.  Stone,  Agent  at  Marine,  returned 
from  25  days'  vacation  31st  May.  Ex- 
tra Agent  A.  L.  Vallow  looked  after 
the  station  during  his  absence. 

A.  M.  Clark,  Agent  at  Beason,  made 
a  business  trip  to  Chicago  May  10th 
and  was  relieved  by  Extra  Agent  L.  F. 
Giffin. 

Extra  Agent  J.  R.  Watts  is  holding 
down  the  station  at  White  Heath 
while  E.  R.  Deland  is  taking  his  annual 
vacation. 

G.  S.  Phillips  returned  to  agency  at 
Elwin  latter  part  of  April,  having  been 
off  duty  couple  months  account  sick- 
ness. 

C.  E.  Baugh,  Agent  at  Toronto,  will 
lake  two  weeks'  vacation  commencing 
Tune  8th  and  will  be  relieved  by  J.  L. 
Moore. 

Mr.      Louis      Lighthall,      Machinist 


108 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Handyman  at  Clinton  Shops,  will  visit 
friends  in  Taopi,  Iowa. 

Mr.  A.  D.  Wilson,  Blacksmith  Ap- 
prentice at  Clinton,  will  visit  friends 
in  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Mrs.  J.  Harris,  wife  of  engineer,  will 
visit  in  El  Paso,  Tex.,  and  New  Or- 
leans, La. 

Mr.  F.  Franek,  Car  Inspector  at  Glen 
Carbon,  is  visiting  relatives  in  Indian- 
apolis, Ind. 

Mr.  Martin  Tucker,  Carpenter,  and 
wife,  will  visit  relatives  in  Tustin, 
Mich. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Reigle,  Fireman  on  the 
Rantoul  District,  will  visit  relatives  in 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Mr.  E.  G.  Sterling,  Chief  Accountant 
at  Clinton  Shops,  has  returned  after  a 
visit  with  relatives  in  Onawa,  Iowa. 

Mr.  Jack  Agee,  Fireman,  and  wife 
will  visit  in  Brunswick,  Mo.,  with  rela- 
tives. 

Mrs.  A.  Rathburn,  wife  of  supply 
man,  will  visit  in  Eureka  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  R.  N.  Hoyt,  Engineer,  will  visit 
in  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  F.  W.  Sievekinsr,  Engineer,  and 
wife  will  visit  friends  in  Lewistown, 
Mont. 

Mrs.  L.  O'Brien,  wife  of  engineer, 
will  visit  in  Minneapolis.  Minn. 

Mr.  D.  C.  Potter,  Engineer,  and  wife 
and  son  Wilbur  will  visit  in  LaFayette, 
Ind. 

Mrs.  J.  M.  Dale,  wife  of  painter,  will 
visit  in  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

Mr.  E.  J.  Callahan,  Engineer  on  the 
Havana  District,  will  visit  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, Los  Angeles,  Portland,  Seattle 
and  other  points  in  the  west. 

Mr.  Andrew  Johnson.  Car  Oiler,  will 
visit  in  Menominee,  Mich. 

Mr.  Geo.  Ives.  pensioned  Engineer, 
and  wife  will  visit  in  Denver  and  Colo- 
rado Springs,  Colo.,  for  the  summer. 

Mr.  Robert  E.  Arndt,  Machinist 
Handyman  and  wife,  will  visit  relatives 
?n  Tustin,  Mich. 

Mrs.  M.  P.  Dougherty,  wife  of  Fire- 
man, and  two  daughters,  Frances  and 
Delores,  will  visit  in  Charles  City, 
Iowa. 


Vicksburg    Division. 

It  has  been  noted  that  since  the  last 
issue  of  the  Magazine,  our  efficient 
agent  at  Greenville.  Mr.  F.  B.  Wilkin- 
son, made  a  trip  to  the  "Healing 
\Vells,"  near  Metcalfe,  in  search  of  the 
remedy  to  better  his  health,  and  from 
the  best  information  obtainable,  Mr. 
Wilkinson  is  now  enjoying  good  health. 
All  concerned  are  glad  to  know  of  Mr. 
Wilkinson's  restoration  of  health. 

It  also  has  been  noted  that  Ticket 
Agent  at  W  right,  Miss.,  Mr.  F.  Men- 
linger,  made  a  trip  to  the  "Healing 
Wells"  for  the  purpose  of  "Taking  Pic- 
tures" of  this  noted  place,  and  its  sur- 
roundings, as  well  as  to  partake  of  the 
"Healing  \Vater." 

Engineer  Louis  A.  King  reported  do- 
ing nicely  after  having  undergone  an 
operation  at  the  Kings  Daughter's 
Hospital,  for  appendicitis,  June  llth. 
A  certain  visitor  called  at  the  Hospital 
to  see  Mr.  King  while"  he  was  there, 
and  asked  the  nurse  where  Mr.  King 
was,  the  answer  was :  "Just  go  up 
stairs." 

Chief  Clerk  to  Superintendent,  Mr. 
Seymour  Simmons,  left  Greenville  June 
23rd  to  attend  a  meeting  at  Chicago  in 
connection  with  the-  handling  of  the 
tonnage  in  Division  offices  ;  the  tonnage 
to  be  compiled  in  the  Office  of  Su- 
perintendents, effective  July  1st. 

File  Clerk,  Mr.  Wr.  B.  Marks  ten- 
dered his  resignation  June  oth,  on  ac- 
count of  poor  health.  Mr.  Marks  was 
relieved  by  Miss  Zetta  Beulah,  who  has 
been  working  for  the  past  several 
months  as  Clerk  in  Chief  Dispatcher's 
Office.  The  many  friends  of  Miss  Beu- 
lah are  glad  to  learn  of  her  promotion. 

Gravel  Inspector,  Mr.  P.  R.  Hender- 
son promoted  to  position  of  Masonry 
Inspector,  effective  June  15th.  Mr. 
Henderson's  headquarters  are  at  Du- 
buque,  Iowa.  Many  regrets  have  been 
expressed  at  this  young  man's  depart- 
ure, but  we  congratulate  him  on  his 
promotion. 

Effective  June  16th,  Roadman  W.  J. 
Apperson  promoted  to  position  as 
Gravel  Inspector,  vice  Mr.  P.  R.  Hen- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


109 


derson.  Mr.  F.  K.  Anderson  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  position  as  Roadman, 
relieving  Mr.  Apperson. 

Conductor  Mack  Mahoney,  Baggag-e- 
master  W.  E.  Hardin  and  Porter  Eu- 
gene Harris,  attended  court  in  the  Doll 
Wade  case,  May  26th,  27th  and  28th,  as 
witnesses  in  behalf  of  the  company. 

Mrs.  Myrtle  Hammons,  Clerk  in 
Greenville  Freight  Office,  recently 
made  a  few  days'  stay  at  Leland  with 
home  folks. 

June  6th  Baggage  Master,  Mr.  C.  G. 
Hill  tendered  his  resignation.  The 
many  friends  of  "John  Brown"  regret- 
ted to  see  him  leave. 

Conductor  W.  E.  Ross  is  now  cany- 
ing  his  right  arm  in  a  sling,  clue  to  in- 
jury sustained  in  an  accident  in  Green- 
ville yards,  June  2nd. 

Flagman  W.  S.  Ford  returned  to 
work  June  9th  after  making  a  trip 
down  in  Mexico  in  search  of  something- 
better,  but  failing  to  find  this,  returned 
to  his  post  of  duty,  and  now  seems  to 
be  satisfied. 

Conductor  N.  B.  Kaigler  has  returned 
to  work,  after  absenting  himself  from 
duty  for  several  days,  he  being  off  for 
the  purpose  of  rest  and  giving  "the 
other  fellow  a  chance."  Kaigler  was 
relieved  by  Conductor  D.  C.  Parker. 

Conductor  Tom  Hyer  has  again  re- 
sumed duty  on  his  run,  Train  Nos.  197- 
198,  after  a  few  days'  illness. 

Time  Keeper  M.  P.  Massey  spent  a 
couple  of  days  with  his  home  folks  at 
Eupora,  Miss.,  the  latter  part  of  June. 

Division  Accountant,  C.  Bourgeois 
made  a  "flying  trip"  to  New  Orleans 
June  29th,  for  the  purpose  of  attending 
to  "Some  unfinished  business." 

Anderson  Gladney,  who  has  been  in 
Red  Cap  Service  at  the  Grand  Central 
Station,  Memphis,  has  returned  to  his 
old  job,  as  Porter  in  Superintendent's 
Office  at  Greenville,  relieving  Porter 
Arthur  Washington. 


St.  Louis  Division. 
DID    IT   EVER   OCCUR   TO    YOU 

That — You  don't  have  to  have  a 
search  light  turned  onto  you  to  pick 
you  out  of  a  crowd  in  the  dark.  Just 
do  something  different. 


That — Many  a  disabled  booze  fight- 
ing soldier  wishes  he  had  been  killed 
in  the  first  battle? 

That — This  is  not  a  Christmas  rail- 
road in  the  Five  and  Dime  store  win- 
dow, and  that  it  takes  somebody  be- 
sides a  boy  in  knee  pants  to  run  it? 

That — You  can  often  separate  some 
common  sense  from  the  stuff  that 
floats  around  the  roundhouses  and 
switch  shanty? 

That — You  sometimes  visit  too 
long  on  the  telephone  while  a  higher 
salaried  man  is  waiting  to  use  it? 

That — No  good  sensible  "working 
Bee  will  take  business  advice  from  a 
Bed  Bug? 

That — There  is  another  way  to  raise 
the  figures  on  your  pay  check  besides 
being  crooked? 

Here  is  what  happened  at  DuQuoin 
recently.  Soon  after  No.  260,  St. 
Louis  stock  train  passed  the  telegraph 
office  a  man  informed  the  operator 


Have 

Healthy, 
Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort. 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual-^ 
ity."  Autoists— Golfers— Tour- 
ists—  Mechanics— All— should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eye  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co, 
Chicago 


110 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


that  a  cow  had  evidently  fallen  from 
the  train  as  there  was  one  on  the  right 
of  way  just  south  of  the  station.  Dis- 
patcher stopped  the  train  at  Yard  Of- 
fice and  sent  Night  Yard  Master 
Carlyle  after  the  cow.  While  driving 
her  up  the  track  he  was  stopped  by  a 
man  who  inquired,  "Where  are  you 
going  with  that  cow?"  He  was  told 
and  replied,  "I'll  be  damned  if  you 
are,  that's  my  cow."  And  it  was.  The 
next  time  this  cow  or  any  other  cow 
is  found  on  the  right  of  way  at  Du- 
Quoin,  Carlyle  says  she  is  going  to  the 
stock  yards. 

We  very  often  hear  outsiders  re- 
mark that  the  Illinois  Central  has  the 
best  looking  locomotives  of  any  road 
in  the  country.  We  know  that  is  the 
truth,  and  we  also  know  that  they  are 
just  as  good  as  they  look.  Some  of 
us  have  worked  on  railroads  from 
Portland,  Me.,  to  Mexico  City,  and 
from  Florida  to  Oregon,  but  the  Cen- 
tral has  about  the  best  of  everything, 


officials,  employes,  equipment,  ahd 
there  is  some  satisfaction  in  working 
under  these  conditions.  Think  it  over. 


They  Need  the  Money 

It  is  no  disgrace  to  die  poor — but  it's 
a  mean  trick  to  play  on  your  relatives. 


The  Excelsior  Hotel 

For  Sale  or  Lease 

One-fourth  cash,  balance  to  suit 
purchaser.  Good  patronage. 
Present  owner  retiring. 

Apply  to  Mrs.  Gibson-Davis 

MAGNOLIA,  MISS. 


XAVIER  A.  KRAMER 

Consulting  Engineer 
and  Architect 

Design    and    Supervision   of    Water   Works, 

Sewers,  Electric  Light  and  Power 

Plants,  Drainage,  Highways, 

Public    Buildings 

MAGNOLIA,   MISS. 


For  Sale 

2,500  acres  good  farming  land, 
in  and  near  Magnolia,  Miss. 
$10.00  per  acre.  One -fourth 
cash;  balance,  terms  to  suit 
purchaser. 

Apply   to 

H.  B.  DAVIS,  Magnolia,  Miss. 


Farm  Products  a  Specialty 

Meyer  &  Neugass 

General 
Merchandise 

Give  Us  a  Trial  Order  On  Our 
Special  "Mississippi  Cane  Syrup" 

MAGNOLIA,   MISS. 


For  INFORMATION 
In  Regard  to 

Magnolia  and  Vicinity 

Write 

Stonewall  Club 

MAGNOLIA,  MISS. 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing   to  advertisers. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


111 


Work  on  the  new  extension  to  West 
Frankfort  known  as  the  Benton  and 
Southern,  has  been  completed  and 
will  open  up  new  coal  fields  in  that  lo- 
cality. It  is  expected  that  coal  load- 
ing on  the  Eldorado  district  will  in- 
crease to  considerable  extent  the  com- 
ing season,  and  additional  facilities;' 
are  being  installed  in  anticipation. 

News  items  and  articles  of  interest 
for  publication  in  the  Magazine. should 
be  addressed  to  P.  E.  Odell,  chief  dis- 
patcher, Carbondale. 

The  clerks  in  the  local  office  at  East 
St.  Louis  have  organized  a  uniformed 
baseball  team  and  are  open  for  all  out- 
of-town  games.  Anyone  wishing  a  game 
with  this  team  address  A.  J.  Siratman, 
care  local  office. 

Miss  Estelle  Matthaei,  stenographer  in 
Mr.  Wells'  office,  will  spend  Sunday  at 
Coulterville,  111.,  visiting  relatives. 

Inbound  Warehouse  Foreman  N.  R. 
Huff  attended  the  Western  Handicap 
shoot  at  St.  Louis  last  week  and  made  a 
very  favorable  showing. 

For  12  months  May  31,  1914,  to  May 


5^?S^9S^!^5???S5 

WHEN  Tom  Jones  comes  over 
to  the  station  just  after  dark 
to  get  Aunt  Martha's  trunk, 
or  a  package  from  a  Chicago  mail- 
order house,  the  up-to-date  Station 
Agent  picks  up  his 

Federal  Electric  Lantern 

and  goes  out  to  the  baggage  nxm  and  takes 
care  of  the  work  to  be  done  without  the  in- 
convenience of  filling  and  lighting  the  old 
smoky,  greasy  oil  lantern.  Thereisnoflame. 
No  danger.  It  is  a  wonderful  help  to  all 
railroad  men  who  work  at  night 
The  hardest  wind  and  rainstorm  can't  put 

this  lantern  out.  L'ghts  instantly  without       

matches  by  a  single  turn  of  the  handle.  Cheapest  battery  cost. 
Handsomely  nickeled.  Collapsible.  You  will  be  glad  to  own 
and  use  one. 

Write  your  name,  occupation  and  address  in  the  margin  of  this 
pige,  and  mail  to  us  today.  We  will  send  you  our  handsome  free 
circular,  completely  describing  this  new  Electric  Lantern. 

F'DERAL  SIGN  SYSTEM  (ELECTRIC),         De»k  124.  CWc«go 

Dealers  and  Ac/ents  Wanted,  Everywhere  (7) 


SIGNAL   DEPARTMENT— ST.    LOUIS    DIVISION 


112 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


31,  1915,  49,360  cars  of  perishable  were 
handled  through  Mounds  yard. 

June  10,  1915.  was  heaviest  day  in 
history  of  Mounds  icing  plant  when  236 
cars  perishable  were  iced  in  24  hours. 


An  Emergency. 

The  station  master  on  the  Eastern 
Indian  Railway  had  been  given  strict 
orders  not  to  do  anything  out  of  the 
ordinary  without  authority  from  the 
superintendent.  This  accounts  for  his 
sending  the  following  telegram : 

"Superintendent's  Office,  Calcutta- 
Tiger  on  platform  eating  railway  por- 
ter. Please  wire  instructions." 


The  Limit 

"She  is  simply  mad  on  the  subject 
of  germs,  and  sterilizes  or  filters  every- 
thing in  the  house." 

"How  does  she  get  along  with  her 
family?" 

"Oh,  even  her  relations  are  strained." 
— Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 


THE  BUTTER  THAT  PLEASES 
SPREAD  IT  ON  THICK 


Made  from  Pure  Pasteurized  Cream 
Sealed  to   Protect  its  Flavor 

FOX  RIVER  BUTTER  CO. 
CHICAGO,  U.  S.  A. 


FILMS   DEVELOPED 

Photographic  Finishing.  Eighteen  years'  experience.  WHY 
experiment  with  failures?  One  6  exposure  roll  developed  FREE. 
Price  List  on  request.  GOFF,  3440  Michigan  Ave.,  CHICAGO. 


Advertisement 

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Wisconsin.  40  acres  cleared.  On  county  road,  spring  creek,  3 
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J.  H.  Nash — Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  During  the  Civil  Con- 
flict,   1861-5 9 

Public    Opinion 16 

Paducah,    Ky 20 

A  Letter  Complimentary  to  the  57th  Street  Training  School..  ..   27 
How    Employes    Should    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 

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Claim    Department 44 

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Freight  Traffic  Department 65 

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Engineering  Department 74 

Industrial  Immigration  and  Development   Department 77 

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Mechanical  Department 81 

Meritorious    Service 85 

Contributions  from  Employes: 

Performance  of  Tubes  in  Superheated  Locomotives 89 

Claims   89 

I   Should  Worry 92 

Loyalty  and  Disloyalty 92 

There  Is  No  Car  Shortage 94 

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The  Country  Agent 98 

Division  News . .  . .  100 


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J.   H.   NASH 
Superintendent  of  Motive  Power. 

AFTER  leaving  school  Mr.  Nash  started  in  railroad  work  as  an  apprentice  to  the  machinist 
trade  with  the  Vandalia  R.  R.  at  Terre  Haute,  Ind.  After  completing  his  apprenticeship 
and  serving  two  years  as  a  journeyman  machinist  on  that  railroad,  he  was  employed  in  a 
similar  capacity  by  the  Big  Four,  Santa  Fe,  C.  &  E.  I.  and  various  machine  manufacturers.  He 
entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  on  April  6,  1897,  as  a  journeyman  machinist  at 
Burnside  shops,  and  after  serving  in  that  capacity  for  seven  months,  was  advanced  to  position 
of  gang  and  machine  shop  foreman.  On  April  21,  1901,  he  was  transferred  to  East  St.  Louis, 
taking  up  the  duties  of  general  foreman  at  that  point,  and  on  January  1,  1903,  he  was  made 
general  foreman  at  Waterloo.  On  December  1,  1904,  he  was  promoted  to  position  of  master 
mechanic  at  East  St.  Louis,  and  on  October  4,  1907,  was  transferred  to  Paducah  as  master 
mechanic.  On  May  24,  1910,  he  was  promoted  to  position  of  shop  superintendent  at  Burnside, 
and  on  June  1,  1913,  was  promoted  to  position  of  superintendent  of  motive  power  in  charge  of 
northern  and  western  lines. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.4 


AUGUST  1915 


No.  2 


T(iQ  Story  of  tfie 
IllinoisContral  Linos 

during  tfi© 

Civil  Conflict  186-5 

From  Helena  to  Vicksburg  in  August,  1 862 

By  Major  John  D.  Crabtree 
(Read  before  the  Loyal  Legion  of  Illinois,  July  3,  1  893) 


HpHE  object  of  this  expedition  was 
understood  at  the  time  to  be  of  a 
two-fold  character. 

First,  as  a  reconnaissance  in  force, 
to  ascertain  what  was  being  done  by 
the  Confederates  towards  sending  men 
and  supplies  into  Arkansas,  and 

Second,  to  destroy,  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible all  means  of  transporting  the 
same,  from  the  east  to  the  west  side, 
of  the  Mississippi  river.  We  had  or- 
ders to  destroy  everything  in  the  shape 
of  water-craft,  large  or  small,  to  be 
found  on  the  river,  or  in  the  arms  or 
bayous  connected  therewith.  The 
forces  comprising  the  expedition  were  a 
fleet  consisting  of  the  gunboat  Benton, 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Phelps, 
of  the  gunboat  flotilla,  the  ram  Lioness 
and  three  other  rams  under  the  com- 
mand of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ellet,  and 
also  two  transports  carrying  the  Fifty- 
eighth  and  Seventy-sixth  regiments  of 
Ohio  Infantry,  with  four  pieces  of 


Hoffman's  Fourth  Ohio  Battery,  and 
also  a  detachment  of  about  eighty  men 
of  Bowen's  battalion  of  Missouri 
Cavalry,  with  two  twelve-pound  moun- 
tain howitzers,  under  command  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  D.  Bowen ;  the 
whole  expedition  being  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Charles  R.  Woods,  of 
the  Seventy-Sixth  Ohio  Infantry. 

The  expedition  left  Helena,  Arkan- 
sas, on  Saturday,  August  16,  1862,  and 
proceeded  down  the  river,  first  landing 
at  Island  No.  65.  On  the  way  down 
many  boats  were  destroyed,  of  almost 
all  shapes,  sizes  and  kinds  (except 
steam  boats),  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
after  we  got  through  there  was  little 
chance  left  for  carrying  troops  or  sup- 
plies across  the  river. 

At  one  large  bayou,  or  arm  of  the 
river,  we  must  have  destroyed  forty  or 
fifty  boats,  large  and  small,  from  a 
little  skiff  to  the  largest  kind  of  flat- 
boats.  Some  were  cut  to  pieces  with 


10 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


axes,  some  destroyed  by  fire,  while 
many  were  turned  adrift  in  the  river 
and  cut  to  pieces  by  the  rams.  During 
a  portion  of  the  time  when  the  last 
mentioned  process  was  in  operation,  it 
was  my  good  fortune  to  be  on  board 
the  ram  Lioness,  and  if  there  is  any- 
thing more  exhilarating  than  a  cavalry 
charge  or  a  toboggan  slide,  it  seems  to 
me  it  is  being  on  board  a  ram,  when, 
with  a  full  head  of  steam  on,  she  seems 
to  put  her  head  down  and  go  for  her 
victim,  with  all  the  vim  and  viciousness 
of  the  animal  after  which  she  is  so  aptly 
named. 

Beyond  this  destruction  of  water 
craft,  not  very  much  of  importance 
transpired  on  the  downward  trip  until 
our  arrival  at  Milliken's  Bend,  Loui- 
siana. Of  course  there  was  the  usual 
occasional  firing  upon  the  boats  from 
shore  whenever  the  channel  carried  us 
near  enough  so  that  the  fellows  along 
the  bank  thought  it  worth  while,  but 
as  the  decks  were  all  pretty  well  pro- 
tected by  cotton  bales,  no  one  was  hurt, 
and  if  it  did  the  rebels  no  good  it  cer- 
tainly did  us  no  harm.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  August  18th  we  reached  Milli- 
ken's Bend,  just  as  the  early  dawn 
began  to  give  promise  of  the  coming 
daylight,  and  there  at  the  landing  was 
tied  a  small  steamboat  called  the  "Fair- 
play,"  which  had  just  come  up  from 
Vicksburg  that  morning,  and  proved  to 
be  a  valuable  capture ;  but  as  there  was 
other  business  on  hand  just  then,  we  ^f 
the  cavalry  had  to  defer  paying  o  / 
respects  to  her  officers,  and  our  visit 
to  her  bar,  until  a  later  period  of  the 
day.  On  the  levee  were  about  eighty 
negroes  chained  together,  who  had  just 
been  brought  in  to  unload  the  boat. 
On  the  shore,  a  short  distance  away, 
was  the  camp  of  the  Thirty-first  Loui- 
siana Infantry,  with  camp  equipage  for 
about  1,000  men,  but  there  were  only 
about  700  in  camp.  They  evidently 
belonged  to  the  Southern  chivalry,  and 
were  no  poor  white  trash,  for  the  offi- 
cers had  fine  wall  tents,  furnished  with 
carpets  on  the  floors,  mirrors  hanging 
on  the  tent  poles,  and  other  articles  of 
luxury  which  soldiers  are  generally 


supposed  to  dispense  with.  Had  they 
supposed  the  "Yanks"  were  going  to 
capture  that  whole  oufit,  no  doubt  some 
of  those  luxuries  would  have  been  left 
at  home.  This  camp,  however,  was 
evidently  not  the  "last  ditch,"  for  none 
of  the  so-called  chivalry  died  there.  On 
the  contrary,  when  they  saw  "the 
smoke  way  up  the  ribber,"  wher  the 
"Linkum  gunboats"  were  coming,  to 
their  everlasting  discredit  be  it  said, 
they  incontinently  "skedaddled,"  there- 
by saving  themselves  for  an  opportu- 
nity "to  fight  some  other  day." 

It  happened  that  the  squad  of 
twenty  men  of  Bowen's  battalion, 
which  I  had  the  honor  to  command  as 
Second  Lieutenant,  was  the  first  to 
land,  and  having  learned  that  the  per- 
sonal baggage  belonging  to  the  officers 
of  the  valiant  regiment  which  had  just 
departed,  had  shortly  before  started 
out  after  them  on  the  road  towards 
Richmond,  Colonel  Bowen  ordered  me 
out  on  that  road  in  pursuit.  It  was  not 
yet  fairly  daylight,  but  we  went  out 
with  a  vim,  and  about  two  miles  from 
the  river  landing  we  came  up  with  an 
old  gray-headed  darkey,  driving  a  pair 
of  mules  as  fast  as  he  could,  and  behind 
them,  in  all  their  glory,  were  six  or 
eight  large  trunks,  said  to  contain  the 
baggage  of  the  gallant  officers  of  the 
Thirty-first  Louisiana.  That  darkey 
was,  or  no  doubt  would  have  been  later 
in  the  war,  an  "intelligent  contraband," 
but  at  that  particular  moment  he  ap- 
peared to  be  a  little  the  worst  scared 
specimen  of  humanity  possibly  to  be 
imagined.  When  ordered  to  stop,  turn 
around  and  head  his  team  for  the  river, 
he  jumped  off  his  wagon,  and  running 
to  the  head  of  his  team,  then  to  the 
rear  of  the  wagon  and  back  again,  he 
groaned  out  in  pitiful  accents,  "My 
God-a-mighty,  Massa,  whar  my 
mules?" 

When  we  got  him  calmed  down 
sufficiently  to  distinguish  the  difference 
between  a  mule  and  a  worm  fence,  he 
started  back  towards  the  river,  with 
one  man  as  an  escort,  but  not  before 
he  had  been  relieved  of  the  information, 
that  portions  of  the  fleeing  "Tigers" 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


11 


were  just  ahead  of  us,  and  having  still 
nineteen  good 'men  left,  we  went  for- 
ward at  a  brisk  trot  to  investigate.  We 
had  gone  but  a  short  distance  before 
we  came  in  sight  of  a  squad  ahead  of 
us,  who  at  once  climbed  the  fences  and 
broke  for  taller  timber. 

When  about  three  miles  from  the 
river  what  appeared  to  be  the  main 
body  of  the  regiment,  was  discovered 
in  and  around  some  cotton  gins  and 
negro  quarters,  in  such  a  position  as 
to  render  it  impossible  to  charge  them, 
on  account  of  the  fences  and  other 
obstructions  in  the  way,  and  my  little 
band  of  nineteen  men  being  outnum- 
bered, in  about  the  proportion  of  thirty 
or  forty  to  one,  it  was  deemed  best  to 
parley  a  little  before  going  too  far,  and 
at  once  one  man  was  ordered  to  go 
back  to  the  river  and  bring  up  our 
little  howitzers.  In  a  very  short  time 
Colonel  Bowen  came  up  with  the  guns, 
and  about  sixty  more  men,  and  after 
dropping  a  shell  or  two  into  the  enemy, 
we  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  them 
hastily  disperse,  and  retreat  rapidly  to- 
wards Richmond.  We  at  once  charged 
them  and  succeeded  in  taking  a  num- 
ber of  prisoners  and  capturing  the 
colors  of  the  regiment.  The  pursuit 
was  continued  until  we  came  within 
about  a  mile  of  the  town,  where  we 
could  see  that  the  enemy  was  trying 
to  make  a  stand  ;  a  few  more  shell,  how- 
ever started  them  on  the  run  again, 
but  when  we  got  within  about  three 
hundred  yards  of  the  railroad  station 
they  again  showed  fight,  and  again  we 
gave  them  more  shells,  and  charging 
them  with  the  old-fashioned  yell,  there 
was  a  hasty  throwing  away  of  guns 
and  knapsacks,  and  a  final  and  com- 
plete exodus  of  the  Johnnies,  while  we 
were  left  masters  of  the  situation,  with 
full  opportunity  for  investigating  and 
destroying  at  our  leisure. 

On  getting  into  town  we  found  quite 
a  large  amount  of  supplies  for  the  Con- 
federate Army,  being  a  considerable 
quantity  of  clothing,  twenty-two  hogs- 
heads of  sugar  and  many  other  valua- 
ble stores.  It  took  but  a  short  time  to 
fire  the  whole  lot,  burn  the  railroad 


station,  the  warehouses,  as  well  as  de- 
stroy the  railroad  bridge  and  telegraph 
lines,  all  of  which  was  speedily  done, 
with  no  loss  whatever  to  us,  the  rebels 
having  hardly  fired  a  gun. 

As  soon  as  possible  Colonel  Woods 
came  up  with  the  infantry,  they  having 
hastily  marched  about  ten  miles,  on  a 
very  hot  morning,  no  doubt  thinking 
from  the  sound  of  our  guns  that  we 
might  need  help,  and  indeed  we  would 
had  the  Confederates  stood  their 
ground,  and  shown  the  same  disposi- 
tion for  fight,  that  we  have  all  known 
them  to  do  on  so  many  other  occasions. 
To  me  their  conduct  on  that  day  has  al- 
ways been  most  unaccountable.  Pos- 
sibly they  were  not  all  armed,  or  were 
without  ammunition,  or  something  of 
that  sort;  otherwise  it  would  be  incre- 
dible that  some  seven  hundred  men 
should  allow  eighty  cavalrymen  to 
drive  them  ten  miles,  take  their  colors, 
some  twenty-five  prisoners,  and  de- 
stroy a  large  amount  of  stores,  right 
before  their  eyes,  and  scarcely  fire  a 
gun.  But  for  some  reason  they  seemed 
panic  stricken  from  the  start,  and  never 
once  got  in  shape  to  show  fight.  Un- 
doubtedly our  appearance  at  Milliken's 
Bend  was  a  very  great  surprise  to  them, 
and  yet,  knowing  the  usual  courage  and 
bravery  of  the  Southern  soldiers,  as 
displayed  on  many  a  well-fought  field, 
I  am  at  loss  to  understand  why,  in  the 
course  of  the  ten  miles'  retreat,  and 
when  they  could  see  what  a  small  force 
was  pursuing  them,  they  did  not  make 
at  least  a  decent  show  of  resistance. 

Having  no  "unfinished  business"  at 
Richmond  we  leisurely  retraced  our 
steps  toward  the  river,  stopping  to  rest 
for  a  while  at  one  of  the  finest  planta- 
tions I  ever  saw.  The  owner  had  busi- 
ness in  some  other  locality  that  day, 
and  was  not  at  home,  but  Madam  was 
there,  a  high-bred,  blue-blooded  South- 
ern lady,  who  showed  a  great  deal  of 
indignation  to  think  that  the  northern 
mud-sills  should  thus  trespass  upon 
her  premises.  We  were  the  first  Fede- 
ral troops  that  had  ever  been  at  that 
particular  plantation,  and  consequently 
the  cellar  and  smoke  house  were  well 


12 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


stocked  with  plenty  of  good  things  to 
eat  and  drink,  and  as  the  boys  were  hot 
and  tired,  hungry  and  thirsty,  they 
were  not  absolutely  prohibited  from 
helping  themselves  to  something  with 
which  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  nature 
in  this  respect.  Madam  complained 
bitterly  at  this,  and  very  indignantly 
asserted  that  we  could  never  subdue 
the  South,  preserve  the  Union,  or  put 
down  the  rebellion,  especially  if  our 
men  were  allowed  to  thus  trespass  on 
private  rights. 

I  remember  saying  to  her :  "Madam, 
the  Union  will  be  preserved,  the  South 
will  be  subdued,  and  the  rebellion  will 
be  put  down,  if  we  have  to  make  the 
South  a  desert  and  sow  it  with  salt." 
At  a  later  period  of  the  war  she  no 
doubt  became  better  acquainted  with 
Yankee  troops,  for  they  are  reported 
to  have  been  quite  numerous  in  that 
locality  when  Grant  went  down  to 
Vicksburg  in  1863. 

The  capture  of  the  steamer  Fairplay 
proved  to  be  a  valuable  one,  as  her 
cargo  consisted  of  5,000  or  more  En- 
field  rifles  and  muskets,  in  the  original 
packages  from  Europe,  a  very  large 
quantity  of  ammunition,  and  a  great 
many  boxes  filled  with  accoutrements 
and  army  equipment,  which  were  said 
to  have  been  destined  for  Little  Rock, 
Arkansas.  The  boat  was  not  wanting 
either,  in  that  necessary  part  of  a  Mis- 
sissippi steamboat,  to-wit,  a  reasonably 
well-stocked  bar,  in  which,  to  our  great 
surprise  we  found,  among  other  things, 
ice  water,  and  after  the  hot  and  dusty 
ride  of  the  morning,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  we  made  frequent  visits  thereto  to 
quench  a  soldier's  thirst,  singing  Jack 
Stibb's  favorite  song,  "Oh,  Lord,  how 
dry  I  am,  Oh,  Lord,  how  dry."  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  the  eighty  negroes  of 
the  chain  gang  didn't  unload  that  boat  at 
Milliken's  Bend,  neither  did  they  stay 
in  that  locality.  On  the  contrary,  they 
came  on  board  our  boat,  and  no  one 
attempted  to  put  them  off.  There  be- 
ing just  eighty  cavalrymen,  and  eighty 
of  the  colored  boys,  every  one  of  our 
little  command  had  a  servant  for  the 
remainder  of  the  trip.  The  contra- 


bands did  all  the  stable  duty,  and  it  was 
very  funny,  when  orders  were  given 
to  be  in  readiness  to  land  at  some  place 
along  the  river,  to  hear  each  private 
soldier  say  to  his  particular  darkey, 
"Boy,  saddle  my  horse,"  and  when  the 
landing  was  reached,  to  see  him  strut 
along  the  gang  plank  followed  by  a 
darkey  leading  his  horse,  holding  the 
stirrup  for  him  to  mount,  and  as  the 
soldier  rode  away,  touching  his  forelock 
with  that  peculiar  deference  so  common 
to  the  slave  in  the  days  "befo  de  wah." 
The  capture  of  the  Fairplay  and  her 
cargo  was  a  severe  loss  to  the  enemy, 
and,  judging  from  the  official  reports 
concerning  it,  found  in  the  volume  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made, 
it  was  a  complete  surprise  to  the  Con- 
federate general  commanding  the  dis- 
trict in  which  it  was  made,  and  whose 
headquarters  were  at  Vicksburg.  After 
finishing  our  business  at  Milliken's 
Bend  we  dropped  down  the  river  to 
within  a  short  distance  of  Vicksburg, 
so  near,  in  fact,  that  we  could  hear  the 
alarm  bells  ring  and  guns  fired.  It 
was  said  afterwards  that  had  we  known 
the  actual  condition  of  things  in  the  city 
at  the  time,  we  could  have  captured  the 
place,  as  all  the  available  forces  had 
been  taken  to  Baton  Rouge  under  Breck- 
enridge,  there  being  then  no  anticipation 
of  danger  to  Vicksburg.  We  lay  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Yazoo  river  for  a  couple  of 
days,  while  three  of  the  light  draft  rams, 
the  gunboat  Benton,  and  the  Mound 
City,  proceeded  up  that  stream,  and  at 
Haines'  Bluff,  seventeen  miles  from  the 
Mississippi,-  they  captured  six  pieces  of 
ordnance,  being  two  forty-two  pound- 
ers, two  thirty-one  pounders,  one  twelve- 
pounder  brass  field  piece  and  one  twen- 
ty-pounder brass  coast  howitzer,  with  a 
large  amount  of  ammunition  for  ord- 
nance, as  well  as  small  arms,  besides  some 
muskets  and  camp  stores.  The  four 
large  guns  being  too  heavy  to  be  re- 
moved, were  destroyed  by  bursting,  but 
the  remainder  of  the  captured  property 
was  safely  brought  away. 

On  the  23d  of  August  we  commenced 
the  return  trip  up  the  river.  At  Green- 
ville, Miss.,  we  landed  and  had  a  brush 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


13 


>vith  the  en  my,  near  which  place  they 
had  a  considerable  force,  not  only  of  in- 
fantry, but  also  cavalry  and  artillery.  On 
our  approach,  however,  they  fell  back 
some  two  miles  from  the  river,  and 
seemed  to  be  maneuvering  to  draw  us  in- 
to an  ambush,  when  orders  came  to  re- 
turn to  the  boats,  our  force  being  evi- 
dently too  small  to  successfully  meet  the 
one  opposing"  us,  so  far  away  from  the 
support  of  the  gunboats. 

The  latter,  however,  shelled  the  woods, 
and,  as  it  was,  there  being  no  good  place 
there  to  land  our  horses,  orders  were 
given  for  our  boat  to  go  up  stream  until 
a  good  place  was  found  to  get  them 
ashore,  which  was  done  in  about  half  a 
mile.  In  the  meantime,  however,  Cap- 
tain Benteen  (lately  Major  Benteen  of 
the  Regular  Army),  Lieutenant  Ballou, 
and  myself,  had  gone  on  shore  with  the 
infantry,  not  knowing  but  that  a  land- 
ing of  the  cavalry  would  be  made  at  that 
place,  until  our  boat  had  pushed  off  and 
left  us.  Hastening  along  the  levee  on 
foot,  we  noticed  tied  to  a  post  near  a  cab- 
in, a  cavalry  horse,  having  upon  him  a 
McClellan  saddle  equipment  complete, 
even  to  nose  bag  and  picket  pin. 

Seeing  no  one  in  the  vicinity  we  se- 
cured the  horse,  and  proceeding  on  after 
the  boat,  keeping  a  sharp  lookout  for 
signs  of  the  enemy,  we  discovered  over 
the  woods,  about  half  a  mile  away,  a  col- 
umn of  dust  arising,  which  seemed  to  us 
to  mean  business. 

Reaching  the  boat,  however,  about 
the  time  the  gang  plank  was  shoved 
out,  the  men  were  mounted,  and  or- 
ders were  given  me  to  proceed  with  my 
twenty  men  a  short  distance  down  the 
river  to  reconnoiter,  and  we  had  not 
gone  to  exceed  fifty  rods  when  I  halted, 
and  bringing  my  men  to  the  front,  dis- 
covered quite  a  large  force  of  rebel 
cavalry  not  more  than  eighty  rods 
away,  marching  through  the  woods. 
Reporting  this  fact  to  Colonel  Bowen, 
he  immediately  sent  me  a  couple  of  the 
howitzers,  with  which  we  commenced 
'shelling  the  woods  in  our  front,  and 
the  enemy  at  once  fell  back  out  of 
range. 

The  infantry  meanwhile  were  some 


distance  away  under  Colonel  Woods, 
and  we  having  only  our  eighty  cavalry, 
were  not  in  position  to  crowd  matters 
very  fast,  and  so'  could  do  little  more 
than  reconnoiter.  To  this  end  Colonel 
Bowen  ordered  me  up  the  river  with 
my  squad,  and  we  had  not  proceeded 
over  half  a  mile  above  the  boats,  when 
we  came  upon  a  picket  of  four  men, 
who  seemed  so  surprised  to  see  us, 
that  they  appeared  perfectly  dazed,  and 
neither  attempted  to  fire  a  gun  nor  to 
get  away,  but  surrendered  at  discre- 
tion. 

They  were  evidently  not  regular  sol- 
diers, but  home  guards  or  something  of 
that  sort,  neither  uniformed  nor  well 
armed,  and  no  doubt  just  put  into  serv- 
ice for  the  particular  occasion. 

Disarming  them,  they  were  sent 
back  to  the  boat,  with  an  escort  of  one 
man  and  we  proceeded  down  a  road 
leading  away  from  the  river,  and  which 
brought  us  to  a  plantation  where  there 
were  plenty  of  negroes,  who  were,  of 
course,  interviewed  as  to  the  number 
and  situation  of  the  enemy  in  the  vicin- 
ity. From  their  statements  it  would 
appear  that  quite  a  large  force  had  been 
gotten  together,  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
venting, if  possible,  the  return  of  our 
fleet  up  the  river.  We  were  sitting 
on  our  horses  in  a  little  yard,  the  ne- 
groes getting  water  for  the  men  and 
being  interviewed  by  me,  when  a 
mounted  rebel  suddenly  dashed  out  of 
a  corn  field  near  by,  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  another,  while  two  of  my 
men,  without  orders,  at  once  started  in 
pursuit.  Feeling  satisfied  it  was  a 
scheme  to  draw  us  into  ambush,  I 
shouted  to  the  men  to  come  back,  but 
the  order,  if  heard,  was  not  obeyed,  and 
I  waited  with  some  anxiety  the  result, 
expecting  every  moment  to  hear  a  vol- 
ley fired,  or  my  men  coming  back  with 
the  rebels  in  pursuit. 

Several  shots  were  fired,  but  in  a 
minute  or  two  my  men  came  back  all 
right,  bringing  with  them  the  belt  and 
revolver  of  one  of  the  men  they  had 
pursued,  whom  they  had  shot  off  from 
his  horse  as  he  ran,  and  dismounting 
had  secured  his  belt  and  revolver  as  a 


14 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


trophy.  They  had  better  luck  than  a 
squad  of  Company  A  of  our  battalion 
had  the  same  day,  under  somewhat 
similar  circumstances,  when  they  were 
drawn  into  ambush  and  lost  one  man 
killed  and  two  severely  wounded. 

Concluding  it  would  be  unsafe  to  re- 
main inside  the  enclosures  of  the  plan- 
tation much  longer,  we  passed  out 
into  the  highway  again,  and  were  sur- 
prised to  see  a  single  horseman  ap- 
proaching us,  clad  in  a  fine  new  gray 
uniform,  and  having  on  a  military  cap 
with  plenty  of  gold  bullion  around  it. 
He  was  splendidly  mounted,  and  came 
riding  towards  us  apparently  without 
any  misgivings,  until  he  was  within 
some  six  or  eight  rods,  when  he  shout- 
ed out  an  inquiry  as  to  where  a  certain 
Confederate  regiment  was,  the  name 
and  number  of  which  I  have  forgotten. 
I  replied  to  him,  "Here  it  is,"  when  he 
again  started  toward  us,  but  had.  not 
advanced  more  than  a  rod  or  so  before 
he  wheeled  his  horse  like  a  flash,  and 
showed  us  his  heels,  but  we  followed 
rapidly  and  commenced  firing,  and  pre- 
sumably the  balls  came  so  uncomfort- 
ably close  to  him  that  he  halted,  threw 
up  his  hands  and  surrendered.  He 
proved  to  be  an  officer  of  the  regular 
army,  C.  S.  A.,  just  come  from  Rich- 
mond to  join  his  command,  and  hav- 
ing only  arrived  that  day  had  not  yet 
found  it.  Notwithstanding  he  was  a 
high-toned  Southern  gentleman,  he 
was  that  day  a  much  chagrined  and 
crestfallen  Johnny,  and  found  a  place 
on  the  boat  with  our  other  prisoners. 

Rejoining  Colonel  Bowen,  the  en- 
emy was  discovered  in  large  force 
down  in  the  woods,  and  the  colonel  had 
just  ordered  a  charge,  when  Colonel 
Woods  came  up  with  the  infantry  and 
countermanded  the  order.  For  my 
part  I  was  very  glad  he  came  just  at 
that  particular  moment,  for  the  infor- 
mation obtained  from  the  negroes  had 
satisfied  me,  that  there  was  a  large 
force  of  the  enemy  down  the  road  upon 
which  the  charge  was  ordered,  and  that 
eighty  men  had  no  business  in  there.  It 
'simply  meant  a  ride  to  death,  without 
accomplishing  anything. 


It  was  afterward  learned  that  the 
Confederate  force  consisted  of  some 
2,000  cavalry  and  1,000  infantry,  be- 
sides some  artillery.  They  had  a  whole- 
some fear  of  the  gunboats,  how- 
ever, and  that  is  probably  all  that  saved 
our  small  force  from  a  fight  on  that 
occasion,  as  they  seemed  determined 
that  we  should  get  away  from  the  river 
before  they  would  attack  us.  As  it 
was  we  followed  them  a  mile  or  more, 
taking  a  number  of  prisoners,  horses, 
arms,  etc.,  and  then  Colonel  Woods 
being  satisfied  a  further  pursuit  would 
be  fruitless,  the  command  was  ordered 
back  to  the  boats.  The  loss  of  the 
enemy  must  have  been  considerable, 
as  the  Benton  shelled  the  woods  with 
great  persistency,  and  must  have  done 
considerable  execution,  as  its  shells 
certainly  dropped  in  the  vicinity  where 
we  knew  the  rebel  force  to  be. 

The  results  of  the  expedition  were  a 
complete  success.  We  had  captured  a 
steamboat  loaded  with  arms  as  stated, 
together  with  about  forty  prisoners, 
among  them  five  commissioned  officers. 
We  had,  also,  a  large  amount  of  am- 
munition, two  field  pieces,  camp  equip- 
age for  about  1,000  men,  and  many 
other  military  supplies.  We  had  de- 
stroyed a  railroad  bridge  and  tele- 
graph, on  lines  communicating  with 
Vicksburg,  besides  the  railroad  station, 
and  a  large  amount  of  Confederate 
stores.  We  had  destroyed  four  large 
siege  guns  at  Haines'  Bluff,  and  every 
boat  we  could  find  on  the  Mississippi 
river  and  its  immediate  tributaries, 
thus  very  materially  interfering  with 
the  transfer  of  troops  or  supplies  from 
one  side  of  the  river  to  the  other,  which 
had  up  to  that  time  been  carried  on  to 
a  very  large  extent.  The  only  losses  of 
the  expedition  were  one  man  killed  and 
two  wounded,  all  three  being  members 
of  our  little  cavalry  force.  We  had 
gone  where  we  pleased,  and  done  pret- 
ty much  as  we  pleased,  and  our  work 
being  accomplished,  we  proceeded  leis- 
urely up  the  river  and  back  to  Helena. 
We  stopped  at  one  plantation  on  the 
way  up,  located  in  a  horshoe  bend  of 
the  river,  where  it  was  said  to  be 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


15 


twelve  miles  around  by  water,  and  only 
three  miles  by  land  between  the  two 
points.  The  plantation  was  raided  for 
arms,  of  which  a  number  were  found, 
consisting-  mostly  of  rifles  and  shot 
guns.  These  were  carried  out  upon 
the  lawn,  where  the  lady  of  the  house 
watched  the  process  of  destroying 
them,  which  was  mainly  accomplished 
by  trying  to  wind  them  around  the  live 
oak  trees  by  which  the  mansion  was 
'surrounded.  Seeing  the  fun  the  boys 
were  having  in  this  proceeding,  Madam 
turned  to  her  coachman  who  stood  by, 
and  remarked  in  the  most  haughty  and 
sarcastic  tone  and  manner,  "There, 
Sam,  you  see  what  gentlemen  these 
Yankees  are."  "Yes,  Missis,  I  sees  it,'' 
returned  Sam,  in  a  tone  of  sincere  sym- 
pathy, which  proved,  however,  not  to 
be  very  heartfelt,  for  when,  later  in  the 
day,  we  had  passed  around  the  twelve 
mile  bend,  and  were  still  only  three 
miles  from  the  plantation,  a  bandanna 
handkerchief  was  waved  from  the  bank 
of  the  river  and  upon  landing,  there 
stood  the  identical  Sam,  all  his  worldly 
goods  tied  up  in  a  bundle  and  asking 
the  Yankee  gentlemen  to  take  him 
along  toward  the  North  and  to  free- 
dom. The  Yankees  were  good  enough 
for  him.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  for 
the  remainder  of  the  trip  Sam  was  a 
passenger. 

Among  our  prisoners  was  one  for 
whom  I  formed  quite  an  attachment 
during  the  few  days  he  was  with  us 
on  the  boat,  to  whose  limits  he  was 
paroled  during  our  return  trip  to  Hel- 
ena. He  was  a  Captain  Tucker  from 
Richmond,  Virginia,  and  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  was  one  of  the  pro- 
fessors in  a  University  of  Virginia.  It 
was  my  good  fortune  to  capture  him 
with  my  little  squad  while  following 
the  Thirty-first  Louisiana  three  or  four 
miles  out  from  Milliken's  Bend.  He 


was  a  scholarly,  cultured  gentleman, 
and  from  his  standpoint  no  doubt  a 
true  patriot.  Sitting  on  the  guards  of 
the  boat  during  those  summer  even- 
ings, we  had  many  long  conversations 
about  the  war,  its  causes,  its  probable 
termination  and  results;  and  altogeth- 
er I  found  him  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  companionable  gentlemen 
I  had  ever  met.  One  evening  the 
naval  officers  paid  a  visit  to  our  boat, 
and,  of  course,  we  entertained  them  as 
best  we  could  according  to  the  custom 
of  those  days.  On  my  invitation  Cap- 
tain Tucker  joined  us.  It  was  a  jolly 
party,  wine  flowed  freely  and  the  even- 
ing was  passed  with  song,  joke  and 
story.  We  sang  all  the  old  songs, 
such  as  America,  the  Star  Span- 
gled Banner,  Red,  White  and  Blue, 
and  others  of  that  character,  in 
all  of  which  Captain  Tucker  joined  us, 
with  apparently  as  much  earnestness 
and  spirit  as  any  one,  and  being  a  good 
singer  he  was  quite  an  acquisition  to 
our  party.  All  at  once,  however,  I 
missed  him,  and  going  to  his  state- 
room, upbraided  him  for  leaving  us 
and  insisted  on  his  return. 

In  the  pleasure  of  the  occasion  I 
had  forgotten  the  difference  in  our  cir- 
cumstances, but  he  recalled  them  to 
mind  by  saying:  "Lieutenant,  please 
excuse  me.  You  forget  that  I  am  a 
prisoner.  I  am  obliged  to  you  for 
your  kindness,  but  all  at  once  the 
thought  came  to  me  that  I  was  a  pris- 
oner and  I  had  to  leave.  Please  ex- 
cuse me."  Of  course,  there  was  noth- 
ing more  to  be  said,  and  I  left  him  to 
his  own  sad  and  bitter  reflections. 

On  arriving  at  Helena  we  parted, 
and  I  have  never  seen  or  heard  of  him 
since,  but  have  often  wondered  wheth- 
er he  survived  the  conflict  or  what 
became  of  him. 


PUBLIC  OPINION 


What  the 


A      CONCRETE      EXAMPLE      OF 

EVIL  IN  STATE  RAILROAD 

OWNERSHIP 

A  PROPOSITION  fraught  with  dan- 
•^  ger  to  the  future  of  Georgia  is  be- 
fore the  general  assembly  at  Atlanta. 
It  is  embodied  in  two  bills,  one  of  which 
is  to  amend  the  state  code  of  laws  and 
the  other  to  amend  the  state  constitu- 
tion, the  purpose  of  each  being  to  pre- 
vent the  construction  of  any  railroad 
which  would  parallel  the  Western  & 
Atlantic  Railroad,  that  is  owned  by  the 
state  and  extends  from  Atlanta  to  Chat- 
tanooga, 137  miles.  This  road  is.  now 
leased  to  the  Nashville,  Chattanooga  & 
St.  Louis  Railway  Company  until  De- 
cember 27,  1919,  the  latter  road  being 
controlled  by  the  Louisville  &  Nash- 
ville railroad  company  through  stock 
ownership. 

These  contemplated  changes  in  the 
law  and  the  constitution  are  results  of 
an  application  last  October  to  charter 
the  North  Georgia  Mineral  Railway 
Company  to  build  a  line  about  55  miles 
long  from  Atlanta  northward  to  War- 
ford's  Crossroads,  in  Bartow  county, 
connecting  there  with  the  Louisville  & 
Nashville  Railroad.  There  was  an  im- 
mediate agitation  against  the  projected 
enterprise,  arguments  being  advanced 
in  the  public  press  and  elsewhere  to 
the  effect  that  the  granting  of  a  char- 
ter for  it  would  depress  the  rental  value 
of  the  Western  &  Atlantic  Railroad 
when  the  question  of  renewing  the 
lease  had  to  be  considered.  It  was  sug- 
gested that  a  special  session  of  the  leg- 
islature be  called  to  act  in  the  situation, 
for  the  secretary  of  state  could  not  le- 
gally do  otherwise  than  grant  the  char- 


World  thinks 


ter  requested.  But  after  an  exchange 
of  correspondence  with  the  governor, 
the  petitioners  withdrew  their  demand 
for  a  charter  and  awaited  the  regular 
session  of  the  legislature  this  summer. 

On  behalf  of  the  petitioners  it  is  as- 
serted that  the  contemplated  line  would 
not  in  any  sense  parallel  the  Western 
&  Atlantic  Railroad,  that  it  would  con- 
nect with  the  Louisville  &  Nashville 
Railroad's  direct  line  to  Knoxville,  that 
it  would  cost  between  $3,000,000  and 
$4,000,000,  and  would  moreover,  re- 
sult in  extensive  mineral  and  industrial 
developments  in  Bartow  county,  where 
before  the  civil  war  there  were  four- 
teen iron  furnaces,  and  there  is  now  not 
one,  although  the  iron  ores  are  of  ex- 
cellent quality  and  are  sent  to  Chat- 
tanooga and  Birmingham  for  smelt- 
ing. 

Leaving  all  questions  as  to  the  value 
of  the  state's  railroad  property  and  its 
rental  aside,  there  remains  the  still 
greater  question  of  the  public  welfare, 
and  if  the  general  assembly  were  to 
make  the  changes  proposed,  and  there- 
by lay  down  a  narrow  rule  of  conduct 
respecting  railroad  charters,  a  blow  of 
such  grave  severity  to  future  enterprise 
would  be  dealt  that  the  commonwealth 
would  not  recover  from  its  effects  for 
many  years,  even  if  remedial  measures 
were  instituted  by  the  next  legislature. 
This  especially  is  no  time  to  impose  ob- 
stacles in  the  way  of  enterprise  and 
capital.  Elsewhere  there  have  been  re- 
actions from  the  extreme  anti-corpora- 
tion policies  which  have  delayed  devel- 
opment in  many  parts  of  the  country, 
and  it  is  discouraging  to  find  in  one  of 
the  greatest  of  southern  states  the  ex- 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


istence  of  a  militant  spirit  which  would 
hamper  enterprise  and  discourage  in- 
vestment, and  which,  moreover,  is 
wholly  out  of  harmony  with  the  dec- 
larations of  its  constitution  respecting 
freedom  of  competition  and  opposition 
to  monopoly. 

Involved  in  this  question  are  the 
great  possibilities  of  evil  of  state  own- 
ership of  railroads.  If  Georgia  should, 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  owns  the 
Western  &  Atlantic,  refuse  to  permit 
independent  interests  to  build  a  com- 
peting line,  it  would  give  the  fullest 
possible  proof  of  the  destructive  influ- 
ence of  state  ownership  or  of  nationaj 
government  ownership  of  railroads. 
Georgia  could  better  afford  to  give  the 
Western  &  Atlantic  away  than  it  could 
afford  to  use  its  ownership  of  that  line 
to  stifle  initiative  and  development 
work  on  the  part  of  its  people  or  of 
capitalists  from  other  sections  who  may 
desire  to  build  other  roads.  If  once 
state  ownership  is  used  in  this  way,  it 
will  bring  about  destructive  influences 
which  will  hold  in  check  material  de- 
velopment far  beyond  what  can  now  be 
easily  seen. 

These  statements  are  made  entirely 
without  any  relation  to  the  proposed 
road  which  has  aroused  such  interest 
in  the  state  or  as  to  the  ownership  of 
the  lease  of  the  Western  &  Atlantic. 
Anything  which  by  virtue  of  state  or 
national  ownership  of  railroads  would 
halt  the  initiative  in  building  other 
roads  to  open  up  undeveloped  sections, 
deserves  condemnation.  In  this  country 
we  are  more  and  more  needing  to  get 
away  from  the  restricting,  business- 
killing,  governmental  interference  with 
upbuilding  enterprises  and  encourage 
men  of  energy  and  capital  to  undertake 
broad  construction  work. — The  Balti- 
more Manufacturers'  Record. 


SOUTH'S  INDUSTRIAL  GROWTH 
Wonderful     Business     Activity      Re- 
ported  From   All   Sections 

HpHERE  are  increasing  evidences  that 
the  south,  instead  of    being    back- 
ward even  in  agriculture,  is  making  an 


advance  in  farm  and  factory  interests 
comparatively  greater  than  that  in  other 
parts  of  the  country.  Announcement 
has  been  made  of  the  organization  of  a 
large  shipbuilding  and  dry  dock  com- 
pany to  do  business  in  Mobile.  This  is 
possibly  of  less  importance  than  the  in- 
creased activity  of  concerns  now  operat- 
ing. The  Newport  News  Shipbuilding 
and  Dry  Dock  Company,  which  main- 
tains the  largest  shipyard  in  America, 
has  under  contract  between  $20,000,000 
and  $25,000,000  of  work.  Employes 
number  5,500,  an  increase  of  20  per 
cent  over  last  year's  roll.  The  Mary- 
land Steel  Company  is  building  nine  big 
steamships  at  Sparrows  Point,  Md.,  the 
contracts  amounting  to  $5,000,000.  This 
company  now  employs  2,400  men  and 
expects  shortly  to  add  300  more. 

The  South  is  actively  participating 
in  European  business.  The  prosperity 
of  the  two  organizations  just  referred 
to  has  given  an  impetus  to  the  Mobile 
venture,  in  which  $4,000,000  is  in- 
volved, and  has  also  induced  Galveston 
capitalists  to  organize  a  ship  company. 
All  things  considered,  the  South  has 
marketed  its  cotton  crop  with  success. 
It  is  now  the  general  opinion  that  the 
cotton  situation  could  have  been 
handled  without  the  elaborate  mea- 
sures provided.  The  present  sound 
conditions,  however,  could  not  be  fore- 
seen. In  other  ways  the  South  is 
awake  to  opportunities.  From  a  large 
oil  field  in  central  Oklahoma  comes  the 
report  that  "it  is  one  of  the  busiest 
spots  in  the  United  States,"  producing 
300,000  barrels  a  day.  Fourteen 
power  plants,  costing  $3,000,000,  have 
been  completed  there.  Many  pumping 
stations  are  being  constructed,  each  at 
a  cost  of  $70,000.  The  crude  oil  bus- 
iness of  southern  fields  is  increasing 
rapidly,  as  both  foreign  and  domestic 
demands  are  heavier. 

The  Manufacturers'  Record  of  Bal- 
timore points  out  the  wide  diversity 
in  the  industrial  activities  of  the 
South.  A  traction  company  in  West 
Virginia  is  preparing  to  erect  a  $500,- 
000  electric  power  station.  A  $1,000,- 
000  coal  pier  is  to  be  constructed  at 


18 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Baltimore  by  the  Pennsylvania  rail- 
road. In  Mississippi  a  lumber  com- 
pany is  erecting  a  $500,000  sawmill, 
driven  by  electricity.  A  tanning  en- 
terprise involving  another  $500,000  is 
reported  in  Tennessee.  North  Caro- 
lina is  to  increase  its  thread  mill  ac- 
tivities by  the  erection  of  a  $500,000 
plant.  A  Wheeling  iron  company 
plans  to  issue  $5,000,000  in  bonds  for 
permanent  improvements.  The  South- 
ern Power  Company  of  North  Caro- 
lina, which  already  has  more  than 
$10,000,000  invested  in  hydro-electric 
operations,  has  begun  construction 
work  on  a  plant  which  will  generate 
from  30,000  to  50,000  horse  power. 
Not  the  least  important  of  the  South's 
ambitions  is  the  reopening  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  to  freight  and  passen- 
ger traffic.  A  line  has  already  been 
placed  in  operation. — The  Daily  News. 


RAILROAD    RATES    AND    PROS- 
PERITY 

'"pHE  Herald's  well-informed  Wash- 
•*•  ington  correspondent  learns  that 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  virtually  decided  that  the  request 
of  the  western  railroads  for  higher 
freight  rates  should  be  granted.  What 
the  increase  will  add  to  railway  income 
remains  to  be  seen.  Guesses  of  "$100,- 
000,000  a  year"  emanating  from  op- 
ponents of  the  increase  are  subject  to 
heavy  discount. 

The  news  is  not  pleasant  to  ship- 
pers who  will  pay  the  higher  rates,  but 
is  not  unexpected.  Many  associations 
of  manufacturers  and  merchants  have 
urged  that  the  increase  be  granted,  on 
the  ground  higher  rates  are  better  than 
decreased  service.  Persons  having  no 
financial  interest  in  either  side  of  the 
controversy  have  long  regarded  some 
increase  as  inevitable,  for  this  simple 
reason : 

For  several  years  past  the  railroads 
have  had  to  pay  generally  increasing 
prices  for  nearly  everything  they  have 
to  buy  or  hire,  from  equipment  and 
supplies  to  labor  and  capital.  When  a 
great  industry  gets  into  that  situation 


one  of  two  things  is  bound  to  happen : 
Either  it  will  have  to  charge  more  for 
what  it  has  to  sell  or  it  will  have  to 
give  less  for  the  charge,  which  in  this 
case  means  less  or  poorer  service. 

The  situation  may  be  eased  by  econ- 
omies in  operation  and  by  increasing 
the  volume  of  business,  but  both  meth- 
ods have  their  limits.  When  those 
have  been  reached  then  income  must 
be  increased  by  higher  charges  in  order 
to  cover  the  outgo,  or  outgo  must  be 
decreased  by  cutting  down  the  service 
or  failing  to  keep  the  plant  at  highest 
efficiency.  Nor  are  these  general  con- 
clusions invalidated  by  pointing  to  cer- 
tain fortunately  situated  roads  which 
have  still  been  able  to  pay  good  divi- 
dends. That  ignores  the  many  other 
roads  not  so  fortunately  situated. 

It  is  deemed  unlikely  in  Washington 
that  the  increase  will  have  any  visible 
effect  on  the  average  family's  living 
cost,  and  is  likely  to  promote  pros- 
perity by  encouraging  investment  in 
railway  securities.  There  is  a  great 
deal  of  money  looking  for  investment, 
but  of  late  years  cautious  investors 
have  been  somewhat  shy  of  railroad 
securities  because  of  the  increasing 
narrowness  of  margin  between  rail- 
road income  and  outgo.  And  whatever 
increases  confidence  and  encourages 
savers  to  put  ..their  money  at  work  in 
constructive  enterprises  increases  pros- 
perity. And  that  is  what  we  all  want. 
— Chicago  Herald,  Tuesday  morning, 
July  6,  1915. 


W 


RAILWAY  MAIL  PAY. 

HEN  the  United  States  govern- 
ment engages  the  second  indus- 
try of  the  land  in  a  pitiless  war  "over 
the  proper  pay  for  a  railroad  hauling 
a  pound  of  mail,  some  sort  of  a  sur- 
prise is  not  out  of  order.  It  is  reserved 
for  Americans  alone  to  see  howitzers 
taken  up  to  settle  a  question  of  ac- 
counting. 

The  railroads  claim  that  the  govern- 
ment is  not  paying  them  sufficiently 
for  carrying  the  mails,  and  the  gov- 
ernment is  just  as  loud  in  its  denials 
and  counter  assertions  that  the  rail- 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


19 


roads  are  overpaid.  Incidentally,  no 
railway  mail  pay  legislation  was  en- 
acted at  the  last  session  of  congress  as 
a  result,  and  now  both  sides  are  pre- 
paring for  a  display  at  the  December 
session  of  congress.  Chairman  Moon 
of  the  congressional  committee  seems 
to  be  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  driving 
a  good  bargain  and  "saving  millions  for 
the  government."  But  the  public,  who 
must  support  the  railroads  through  the 
passenger,  freight,  express,  and  mail 
tolls,  certainly  expects  the  government 
to  bear  its  fair  share.  A  million  clip- 
ped off  the  mail  pay  will  mean  a  mil- 
lion added  somewhere  else.  One  con- 
gressional committee  has  already  sub- 
mitted a  report  favoring  more  liberal 
compensation,  and  congress  should 
either  accept  its  finding  or  be  in  a 
position  to  prove  its  falsity.  The  rail- 
roads have  suggested  that  the  matter 
be  left  to  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission. 

But  more  important  than  all  other 
considerations  is  the  question  of  eth- 
ics. The  government  has  the  power  to 
compel  the  railroads  to  carry  the  mails 
at  a  loss,  possibly,  but  its  power  should 
not  be  so  misused.  A  government  that 
demands  frank  and  honest  dealing  be- 
tween the  business  men  of  the  nation 
should  take  every  opportunity  to  set 
an  example. — The  Chicago  Tribune. 


SOMETHING  OUT  OF  THE 
USUAL 

It  is  something  of  a  rarity  these  days 
of  general  "knocking"  to  hear  a  man, 
especially  one  of  considerable  experience 
and  in  position  to  know  whereof  he 
speaks,  say  nice  things  of  a  railroad,  so 
unusual  and  out  of  the  ordinary  that  it 
is  worthy  of  mention  when  it  does  occur. 

A  group  of  men  were  standing  in 
front  of  a  local  hotel  the  other  morning 
waiting  for  No.  23 ;  three  or  four  drum- 
mers, a  couple  of  railroad  men  and  the 
writer.  The  conversation  was  general 
for  a  time,  until  one  of  the  railroad  em- 
ployes commented  on  the  efficiency  and 
general  method  of  the  I.  C.,.  remarking 
that  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  company 
had  a  mighty  poor  way  of  making 


itself  popular  with  the  people  along  its 
lines. 

One  of  the  traveling  men,  Ben.  T. 
Allen,  a  well-known  salesman  for  a 
Louisville  house,  making  his  home  at 
Jackson,  Miss.,  took  up  the  remark 
quickly,  with  about  this  answer;  "Well, 
I  want  to  tell  you  that  I've  found  the 
I.  C.  the  best  and  most  accommodating 
line  that  turns  a  wheel.  I  travel  it  reg- 
ularly as  well  as  on  other  lines  in  this 
trade  territory,  and  I  ship  my  stuff  from 
Louisville  hundreds  of  miles  out  of  the 
direct  line  in  order  to  route  over  the 
I.  C.  It's  the  best  and  quickest  and  the 
most  accommodating  line  that  I  know," 
and  continued  after  a  slight  pause,  "and 
the  I.  C.  don't  know  that  I'm  alive, 
either." 

The  little  chance  conversation  inter- 
ested the  writer,  not  because  of  the  nice 
words  for  the  I.  C.,  but  because  a  man 
who  spends  his  money  with  the  railroad 
should  so  quickly  defend  the  line  against 
the  charges  of  one  who  for  many  years 
has  drawn  his  living  from  that  very  rail- 
road.—The  Water  Valley  (Miss.)  Prog- 
ress, July  10,  1915. 


THE    SOUTHERN    GRAIN    BELT 

Do  you  know  that  the  grain  crop 
now  growing  in  the  fields  of  the  South 
exceeds  in  value,  largely,  the  total  of 
the  most  valuable  cotton  crop  ever 
gathered  in  this  section?  It  is  a  fact. 

Do  you  know  that  the  farmer  who 
diversifies  his  crops  finds  it  much  easier 
to  get  financial  backing  than  the  one 
who  clings  to  the  one-crop  fallacy?  It 
is  a  fact. 

Do  you  know  that  bankers,  mer- 
chants, transportation  agents  and  pro- 
fessional men  are  working  hand  in 
hand  with  the  farmer  to  find  econom- 
ical methods  of  marketing  these  "'new" 
crops?  It  is  a  fact. 

According  to  the  government  fore- 
cast, based  on  conditions  existing  July 
1,  the  Southern  states  this  year  will 
produce  1,540,000,000  bushels  of  wheat, 
corn  and  oats.  This  is  a  gain  of  286,- 
000,000  bushels  over  last  year.  These 
figures  do  not  include  an  increase  of 
fi.000,000  bushels  in  the  rice  crops  of 


20 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Louisiana  and  Texas  and  Arkansas. 

Tennessee  this  year  will  produce  14,- 
886,000  bushels  of  grain  more  than  in 
1914;  Arkansas'  increase  is  23,591,000 
bushels,  exclusive  of  rice;  Mississippi 
has  an  increased  grain  production  of 
19,914,000  bushels,  and  Alabama  shows 
a  gain  of  16,905,000  bushels. 

While  the  South  has  increased  grain 
production  approximately  23  per  cent 
this  year,  the  balance  of  the  country 
shows  an  increase  of  only  5^  per  cent 
over  last  year. 

The  Manufacturers'  Record  esti- 
mates that  grain  crops  of  the  South  in 
1915  will  represent  at  least  $250,000,- 
000  more  than  last  year. — Commercial 
Appeal,  Friday,  July  23rd,  1915. 


EGAN  HEADS  TERMINAL  CO. 

Many  Railroad  Men  Come  Here  to  Attend 
Annual  Meeting 

Representatives   of  nearly  all  railroads  en- 
tering Memphis  came  here  yesterday  to  attend 


the  annual  meeting  of  the  Memphis  Terminal 
Railroad  Company,  which  was  held  in  Grand 
Central  Station. 

A.  H.  Egan,  general  superintendent  of  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad,  was 
elected  president;  W.  S.  Martin,  president  of 
the  Union  Railway  Company,  vice-president, 
and  G.  T.  Roach,  Mr.  Egan's  chief  clerk,  sec- 
retary. 

The  Memphis  Terminal  Railroad  Company 
owns  a  large  tract  of  land  south  of  the  union 
depot,  between  Virginia  and  Iowa  avenues, 
which  all  the  roads  bought  a  few  years  ago 
when  they  considered  building  one  union  sta- 
tion. 

Attending  the  meeting,  beside  the  officers 
elected,  were  C.  N.  Burch,  Memphis,  general 
solicitor  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.;  W.  L.  Mapother, 
Louisville,  vice  president  of  the  Louisville  & 
Nashville ;  John  Howe  Peyton,  Nashville, 
president  of  the  Nashville,  Chattanooga  & 
St.  Louis ;  H.  B.  Spencer,  Washington,  vice- 
president  of  the  Southern  Railway;  C.  W. 
Nelson,  St.  Louis,  vice-president  of  the  Cot- 
ton Belt;  C.  P.  Cooper,  Memphis,  executive 
general  agent  of  the  Southern  Railway;  F. 
N.  Fisher,  Memphis,  superintendent  of  the 
Louisville  &  Nashville,  and  J.  N.  Cornatzar, 
Memphis,  general  passenger  agent  of  the 
Frisco. — The  Commercial  Appeal  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  Wednesday  Morning,  June  30th,  1915. 


mt*^irr»iv|j 


D  iaducah,  Kentuc 

"Trie  Pride  o/Jac£son's  Purchase 


>"V  ii.'W 

^jui»a  n  * 


Oiott  C.Miicfiell 

Associate  Editor"Paducah  Evemnc^Sun" 


HpHE  city  of  Paducah  nestles  at  the 
-*•  forking  of  the  Tennessee  into  the 
turbid  waters  of  the  Ohio,  Nature's 
child  in  a  rich  environment;  Queen  of 
West  Kentucky,  and  the  undisputed 
Metropolis  of  the  territory  to  north, 
south,  east  and  west,  for  a  distance  of 
200  miles.  With  30,000  souls  properly 
listed  among  her  inhabitants,  teeming 
with  industry  and  striving  for  greater 
industry,  rich  in  history,  but  richer  in 
history  to  be  made,  proud  of  the  past 
but  building  a  future  of  a  greater 
pride ;  Paducah  is  typical  of  the  "new 
south,"  that  Phoenix  which  has  arisen 
triumphant,  from  the  dead  ashes  of  an 
undeveloped  past. 

Paducah  revels  in  glories  come  and 
gone,  but  the  writer  does  not  believe 
that  the  past  is  of  as  much  interest  to 
the  possible  readers  of  this  article,  as 
the  present  and  future.  Historical  so- 
cieties might  take  issue.  If  they  do, 
they  will  find  here  all  their  hearts  de- 
sire of  heroes  dead  and  gone  and  the 
heroic  things  they  did. 

Battered  like  a  shuttlecock  in  the 
war  between  the  states,  Paducah 
served  alike  the  blue  and  the  gray, 
was  alternately  despoiled  by  both,  and 
buried  the  dead  with  tears  alike  for 
north  and  south.  Here  fought  and  died 
Lloyd  Tilghman ;  here  Morgan  raided ; 
here  Lew  Wallace  camped ;  here 
Grant's  eagle  eye  swept  the  vista  to 
the  south;  here  Nicholas,  grandfather 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  anchored  the 
first  adventurous  packet  to  come  south 
of  St.  Louis;  here  lived  and  died  the 


man,  Jack  Sleeth,  who  laid  the  first 
submarine  cable  in  existence,  and  here 
were  born  and  reared  a  score  or  more, 
whose  illustrious  names  have  done 
honor  to  history's  pages,  since  the 
twenty-sixth  day  of  a  fair  and  spark- 
ling month  of  May.  in  the  year  1827, 
when  Paducah  first  came  into  being, 
and  graduated  from  Indian  camp  of 
Chief  Paduke,  her  red  godfather,  to  the 
township  of  Paducah,  gratefully  so- 
called,  in  his  memory.  So  much  for 
the  old  Paducah  and  the  red  wine  of 
courage  that  moulded  in  her  ancient 
bottles. 

Of  the  Paducah  of  today  more  may 
be  said  by  an  hundred  times,  and  yet 
not  half  be  told.  Let  the  reader  be 
warned  our  contribution  to  "Who's 
Who  in  America"  has  not  ended  with 
the  work  of  the  past,  as  has  that  of 
many  an  eminent  producer.  Barney 
Dreyfuss  still  hands  Hanns  Wagner 
pay  checks  which  his  early  training  in 
Paducah  have  developed.  Marc  Klaw's 
genius  for  the  mastery  of  stage  and 
box  office  is  an  inheritance  from  Pa- 
ducah birth,  and  last,  but  not  least,  Irvin 
Shrewsbury  Cobb  has  gone  forth  to 
bully  Kaiser's  and  Kitchener's  and  to 
make  his  Majesty,  the  American  Man, 
laugh  with  the  laugh  that  knows  no 
equal,  firm  in  the  knowledge  that  one 
whose  cradle  has  rocked  in  the  breezes 
of  Paducah  and  whose  infant  destinies 
have  survived  the  ministrations  of 
dusky  nurses  from  the  Purchase,  has 
small  need  to  blink  the  eye  or  bow  the 
knee  before  musty  potentates  on  tin- 


21 


22 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


sel  thrones.  That  for  history  and  the 
Dame  is  welcome  to  it.  Now  for  the 
things  that  Bradstreets  likes  to  handle. 

To  begin  with,  Paducah  is  essentially 
the  center  of  the  dark  tobacco  growing- 
district,  the  "black  patch"  of  America. 
The  physical  valuation  of  her  receiving 
warehouse  borders  on  $1,500,000.  The 
value  of  the  annual  receipts  of  these 
houses  will  run  from  $5,000,000  to  $7,- 
000,000.  In  the  tobacco  season  deliv- 
eries come  into  the  city  from  a  radius 
of  seventy-five  miles  to  the  south  and 
west.  It  is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see, 
in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  600  loads 
of  the  weed,  parked  in  long  lines,  to 
await  their  place  at  the  barns.  When 
the  season  is  on,  retail  business  is  at 
the  best.  Thousands  of  dollars,  dis- 
tributed to  the  surrounding  territory, 
find  their  way  to  Paducah  mercantile 
establishments. 

During  the  season  of  1914,  when  cha- 
otic conditions  in  Europe  made  the 
export  tobacco  trade  duller  than  it  has 
ever  been,  Paducah  continued  to  buy 
heavily,  and  to  the  co-operative  assist- 
ance of  local  buyers,  many  tobacco 
growers  owe  their  continued  existence 
as  farmers.  The  present  season,  in 
prospect,  is  one  of  the  best  on  record. 
A  big  acreage  and  splendid  growing 
conditions  point  to  an  enormous  crop 
of  fine  quality. 

In  addition  to  the  receiving  ware- 
houses, two  tobacco  factories  are  es- 
tablished here,  live,  vigorous  concerns, 
with  good  payrolls. 

In  other  lines  of  agriculture,  Mc- 
Cracken  County,  surrounding  Paducah, 
is  fast  coming  into  its  own.  It  pos- 
sesses some  of  the  finest  truck  gardens 
and  orchards  south  of  the  Mason-Dix- 
on  line,  the  result  of  the  strenuous 
work  of  the  business  men  in  the  city, 
who  have  induced  the  farmers  to  ex- 
periment with  diversified  farming.  To 
assist  them  in  their  new  endeavor,  a 
county  farm  agent,  or  demonstrator,  is 
kept  the  year  round  at  the  joint  ex- 
pense of  city,  county  and  federal  gov- 
ernment. A  growers'  association,  or- 
ganized by  the  men  of  the  city  for  the 
benefit  of  the  county,  now  ships  Mc- 


Cracken  county  vegetables  to  all 
America.  Michigan  is  a  ready  taker  of 
its  celery  and  lettuce,  New  York  of 
beans,  Minnesota  of  potatoes,  Missouri 
of  anything  it  has  to  sell.  The  total 
wealth  of  the  county,  under  this  care- 
ful supervision,  has  increased  tremen- 
dously in  the  last  two  years,  and  is 
still  in>  its  infancy. 

Sales  of  produce  on  the  local  mar- 
ket are  made  through  the  medium  of  a 
municipal  market  house,  owned  and 
controlled  by  the  city.  This  market,  a 
block  in  length,  is  rented  in  sections, 
at  a  nominal  figure,  to  sellers  of  meat, 
fruit  and  vegetables.  It  is  sanitary  and 
convenient,  and  it  is  the  medium  of 
enormous  savings  to  the  housewife  and 
greater  gain  to  the  farmer  by  elimina- 
tion of  the  middleman. 

The  city  of  Paducah  is  under  the 
Commission  form  of  government,  now 
in  its  experimental  year.  Four  com- 
missioners and  a  mayor,  elected  on 
non-partisan  tickets,  control  its  mu- 
nicipal affairs.  The  usual  minor  offi- 
cials and  a  park  and  health  board  com- 
plete the  official  make-up.  The  city's 
tax  rate  is  $1.80,  based  on  60  per  cent 
of  the  valuation.  It  possesses  a  boule- 
vard and  park  system,  with  municipal 
play  grounds,  in  charge  of  a  competent 
salaried  instructor.  Its  streets  in  the 
residential  district  are  oiled,  in  the 
business  district  built  of  asphalt.  A 
ten-story  office  building,  two  handsome 
bank  buildings,  a  big  public  library, 
and  several  decidedly  imposing 
churches  constitute  its  architectural 
prominence. 

The  city  possesses  five  well  equipped 
fire  stations,  a  motorized  department, 
and  is  rated  as  first-class  by  the  state 
authorities.  The  police  force  is  com- 
petent. It  approximates  forty  men. 
Street  railway  facilities  are  abundant, 
eight  lines  and  modern  rolling  stock, 
under  good  management. 

A  live  Board  of  Trade,  with  a  splen- 
did freight  rate  bureau,  a  hustling  Re- 
tail Merchants'  Association,  associa- 
tions of  the  manufacturers,  the  coal 
men,  the  grocers  and  similar  minor  or- 
ganizations, are  ever  ready  to  handle 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


25 


municipal  problems  in  an  intelligent 
way.  A  Rotary  Club,,  a  Good  Roads 
Club,  and  an  automobile  club,  estab- 
lished for  mutual  benefit  and  social  in- 
tercourse, are  potent  factors  in  weld- 
ing- the  efforts  of  citizens  for  better 
things. 

The  manufacturers  of  Paducah  are 
varied.  The  Paducah  Cooperage  Com- 
pany, supplying  both  domestic  and 
South  American  trade;  the  Cohankus 
Manufacturing  Company,  Lack  Single- 
tree Company,  and  Lack  Malleable 
Iron  Companies ;  Lax-Fos  Co. ;  the 
Southern  Textile  Machinery  Co. ;  the 
Lancaster  Parquet  Flooring  Co. ;  Pa- 
ducah Hosiery  Mills;  Mayfield  Woolen 
Mills;  Langstaff-Orm  Mfg.  Co.;  Sher- 
rill-Russell  Lumber  Co. ;  Fooks  Lum- 
ber Co. ;  Smith  &  Scott  Tobacco  Co.  ; 
The  Paducah  Box  &  Basket  Co. ;  Little 
Spoke  &  Wagon  Works,  and  the  Pa- 
ducah Brewery,  are  among  the  more 
prominent.  The  trade  of  all  is  excel- 
lent, and  the  payrolls  big.  Trie  whole- 
sale liquor  business  is  also  a  big  factor 
in  city  revenue,  two  of  the  largest 
houses  in  the  south  operating  from 
here. 

As  a  river  point,  Paducah  retains 
whatever  of  the  fast  fading  glory  of 
the  old  river  days  remains.  Situated 
exactly  at  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and 
the  Tennessee,  but  a  few  miles  below 
the  entrance  of  the  Cumberland,  and 
with  the  Mississippi  miles  below,  the 
city  could  hardly  be  outmaneuvered  in 
river  facilities.  Daily  packets  ply  to 
Illinois  points,  and  semi-weekly  boats 
to  the  extreme  of  the  Cumberland  and 
Tennessee  and  to  St.  Louis.  Other 
craft  are  docking  continuously  on  their 
way  to  and  from  river  terminals.  An 
immense  coal  output  from  the  upper 
Kentucky  mines  goes  through  by  river 
continually.  Two  big  mining  com- 
panies, the  Eureka  and  the  West  Ken- 
tucky, maintain  headquarters  here,  and 
one  operates  an  extensive  barge  build- 
ing plant. 

Rich  mineral  deposits  are  adjacent, 
coal  and  floor  spar  predominating, 
with  a  good  deal  of  excellent  building 
clay. 


The  railroad  prominence  of  Paducah 
has  been  a  story  long  told.  The  site 
of  the  huge  shops  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral, the  city  for  years  has  possessed  a 
never  failing  source  of  revenue  from 
shops'  payrolls,  even  at  times  when 
other  industries  were  not  so  well  on 
foot.  Continuous  freight  and  passen- 
ger service  is  given  by  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral and  by  the  N.,  C.  &  St.  L. ;  the  di- 
vision headquarters  of  the  latter  road 
are  here. 

Railroad  growth,  however,  is  only 
beginning.  During  the  month  just 
ended,  the  work  of  building  the  Pa- 
ducah and  Illinois  railroad  has  been 
completed.  The  Paducah  and  Illinois 
is  14  miles  of  double  track  running 
from  Paducah  to  a  point  on  the  Ohio 
river,  where  a  four  million  dollar 
bridge  "is  now  in  process  of  construc- 
tion. The  other  approach  will  be  at 
Metropolis,  Illinois.  The  bridge  is  be- 
ing constructed  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Burlington,  and  when  completed 
it  will  carrv  trains  of  that  road,  of  the 
N.,  C.  &  St.  L.,  of  the  Illinois  Central 
and  of  the  Big  Four,  throwing  through 
Paducah  an  enormously  increased 
north  to  south  traffic. 

The  psychological  effect  of  the  great 
work  has  been  very  perceptible  and 
very  good.  It  has  proven  a  tonic  to 
business  conditions  at  a  time  when  na- 
tional depression  had  set  in,  and  the 
humblest  Paducahan  has  visions  of  the 
brightest  of  futures.  The  bridge  is  now 
well  under  way  and  its  completion  in 
two  years  and  a  half  is  expected. 

There  are  a  great  many  other  points 
the  careful  biographer  of  Paducah 
could  pick  up  with  which  to  impress 
the  unwary  reader.  In  full  possession 
of  those  attributes  which  stamp  a  com- 
munity as. metropolitan,  Paducah  daz- 
zles the  eye  on  first  inspection.  The 
general  expression  of  the  visitor  is  that 
the  population,  judged  from  appear- 
ances, would  reach  50,000.  Good 
streets,  pretty  homes,  city  and  country 
clubs,  broad  walks,  excellent  hotels, 
theaters,  and  all  the  externals  of  a 
"good  town"  are  readily  observed. 
There  is  little  lacking  to  make  condi- 


Junction  of  the  Ohio  &  Tennessee  Rivers 
Paducah  Ay. 


Palmer  House  and  I.C.R.R. 

Ticket  Office 


Looking  across  Ohio  River  from 
foot  of  Broadway 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


27 


tions  ideal  for  the  resident,  and  thor- 
ough satisfaction  is  a  standby  of  dwell- 
ers within  Paducah's  portals. 

But  dearer  than  all  these;  more  sig- 
nificant in  its  promise  for  the  future,  is 
the  undercurrent  of  pulsating  life  in 
business  and  society,  the  inner  evidence 
of  a  spirit  to  be  re-born,  and  to  forge 
ahead  where  others  fail,  which  so  thor- 


oughly permeates  Paducah.  It  is  a  city 
with  an  eye  on  its  destiny,  affixed  to  a 
bright  star.  It  is  a  city  which  believes 
the  good  things  of  life  couldn't  miss  it 
if  they  would,  and  because  it  is  all  that, 
it  is  a  city  of  the  times,  of  the  present, 
and  of  the  future;  a  city  that  holds  its 
young  men  to  its  side,  and  invites  their 
brothers  from  afar. 


A  Letter  Complimentary  to  the  57th  Street 
Training  School 

Mr.  J.  J.  Pelley,  Superintendent,  Fulton,  Ky. 

As  to  my  views  of  the  Illinois  Central  training  station  in  Chicago,  I  think 
any  young  man  that  has  given  railroad  life  the  thought  as  his  future  position, 
can  get  a  good  start  in  the  service  by  attending  the  station  school,  as  it  gives 
him  a  very  good  idea  as  to  the  agency  work,  which  should  be  mastered  in 
some  degree  by  all  beginners.  And  any  one  can  get  a  most  thorough  knowl- 
edge as  to  tariffs  and  what  order  they  should  be  in,  and  the  regulations  on 
inflammables  and  other  dangerous  articles  by  freight  and  baggage,  and  the 
kind  of  label  they  require  for  shipment.  And  the  ticket  office  department, 
which  all  the  students  can  get  very  familiar  with,  as  to  selling  tickets,  check- 
ing baggage,  local  and  excess,  and  the  checking  of  dogs  and  other  things  than 
regular  baggage.  And  the  freight  received  books,  tickets  and  cash  book,  and 
how  they  should  be  handled,  and  also  the  daily,  weekly,  monthly  reports,  and 
on  what  days  they  should  be  sent  off. 

Besides  the  agency  work  there  is  the  telegraph  department,  in  which  the 
students  can  get  the  real  "dope"  over  the  wires,  and  no  young  man  ever  goes 
and  regrets  the  four  weeks  spent  in  school  under  the  instructions  of  Mr. 
E.  A.  Barton.  J.  L.  Peacock. 


$>  Employes  max;  become  stock- 
holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 
on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 
desiring  to  acquire  stock  in  the  Illinois 
Central  R.R.,we  quote  belotp  from  the 
Circular  issued  by  the  President  May  95* 
1896, addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

ie  price  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  be  ac- 
cepted TOT  purchase  ofcJ.C.oFtocfi  is  based  upon  tne  mar- 
ket price  on  tne  day  tne  application  is  received  in  Comptrol- 

1         *  /Y*  J/  /  *  /Y*  )        /  '       '7  /*        '  f          *  / 

/ers  office... Csf/i  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  of  subscriD- 

/"         /         ^ '  +J         "  U  '  t.  '  '  j  11'    S  ' 
major  one  share  at  a  time, payable  by  installments  in  sums 

of^5~  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  tne.  completion  of 
which  the  Company  will  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 
the  share  registered  in  his  name  on  the  books,  of  me  Com- 
pany. oMe  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beg  in  the  purchase  of 
another  share  on  tne  installment  plan. c&ie  certificate 
of  stock  is  transferable,  on  tne  Company's  books,  and 
entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  be  de  - 
dared  by  the  &oard  of 'Directors,  and.  to  a  vote  in, 
their  election. 

Csfny  officer  or  employe  making  payments  on  this 
plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 
at  tne  rate  of  four  per  cent  per  annum,  durina  the  time  he 
is  payma  for  his  share  of  stock,  provided  he  does  not  al- 
low twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  maKinq 

/  ,      •         /~    f  '  /"        ')* 

any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period  interest 

will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  ms  credit  will  be 
returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

4  /7"  If'  /'  v/        f 

dsiny  officer  or  employe  maRina  payments  on  thefore- 
ooma  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desinna  to  discontinue 
them,  can  have  nis  money  returned  to  him  with  accrued 


interest,  £y  makmq  application  to  me  head  of  me  de- 
partmQnt  in  which  fie  is  employed. 

CX^>2  employe,  'who  has  made  application  -for  a  snare 
of  stock,  on.  trie  installment  plan ,  is  expected  to  make 
me  first  payment  from  me  first  waaes  which  may  he  due 

/  •  /  CTF^  /  /         *J      XT'     J'-'  //  •  /    ,/ 

him.  J-orms  are  provided  for  the  purpose,  on  which  the 

/      •/•  r  I/'  '       jf   v°     IC?^ 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  the  c£jocai~(oreasurerm 

Chicago,  or  the  ofjocal^oreasurer  in  (^/ew  Orleans,  or 


the'tfaymaster  or  the  (Assistant  Paymaster  to  retain 
•from  his  waaes  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  me  employe  for  the  purchase  or  a  snare  of  stock.. 

<yn  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  tne  Company 
from  any  cause,  he  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  the 
sfiare  for  which,  he  has  subscribed  ana.  receive  a  certifi- 
cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which, 
has  accrued. 

<v}he  foregoma  does  not  preclude  me  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock  for  casfi.  CLX//Z  employe  who  has  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 
the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 
Given  month  make  application  for  a  snare  ofstoc/tjor  cash 
at  the  price  quoted  to  employes  for  that  month, ,  ana  he  can, 

•       /    I  7  /•     ./-/    /       a      '/  /  /•         •         x- 

m  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  application ^or  an- 
other share  on  me  installment  plan. 

(Smployes  who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  tn  Chi- 
caao.who  will  obtain /or  them,  the  price  at  which  the  stock, 
can  fae  purchased. 

Cxmy  employe  desinncj  to  purchase  stock,  (except  in 
special  purchase  of  more  than  one  snare  for  cash.)  should 

/'/''  )*x  '  //*  s  jO/ 

QPP'y  to  his  immediate  superior  ofncer,  or  to  one  or  the 
<dJocalctoreasurers  jby filling  in  the  following  coupon : 
Mr.  O.  T.  Nau,  Date 

Local  Treasurer, 

Chicago  111. 

\)?ill  you  please  send  me   an   application 
for  tAe  purcnase  on.C.  StocE.  on  tA.c  installment  plan. 

Signed— 

Employed  as _ 

At   Station 


fa  fa  fa  fa  fa 


The  Railway  Mail  Service 

A  Sketch  of  Its  History  and  Principal  Features 
By  H.  L.  Fairfield,  Manager  Bagage  and  Mail  Traffic 


Early  Postal  Service  on  Railroads 
HP  HE  United  States  mails  were  first 
•*•  carried  on  railroads  in  1834,  at  the 
end  of  which  year  the  total  length  of 
mail  routes  in  operation  was  78  miles. 
By  1864,  30  years  later  (the  beginning 
of  the  distribution  of  mails  en  route ; 
in  other  words,  of  the  railway  mail  ser- 
vice proper),  there  were  22,616  miles 
of  mail  routes  in  service.  At  the  pres- 
ent time  mails  are  carried  on  231,398 
miles  of  railroad. 

Prior  to  1864  the  mails  carried  on 
railroads  were  in  closed  bags,  not 
opened  en  route,  although  for  a  short 
time,  immediately  preceding  1864,  there 
were  some  lines  on  which  a  postal  em- 
ploye traveled  on  the  train  and  assor- 
ted packages  of  letters,  not  individual 
letters,  received  from  local  postoffices 
so  as  to  avoid  the  delay  in  carrying  all 
of  the  mail  through  to  the  terminus  of 
the  train  for  distribution  in  the  ter- 
minal postoffice ;  however,  no  distribu- 
tion whatever  was  made  of  any  mail 
going  beyond  the  terminus  of  the  run, 
all  of  which  was  sent  to  the  terminal 
postoffice  for  separation,  of  course  de- 
laying the  mail  from  12  to  24  hours. 

Apparently  the  idea  of  separating 
mail  en  route  so  as  to  avoid  this  delay 
originated  in  the  mind  of  Geo.  B.  Arm- 
strong, who  had  been  for  many  years 
Assistant  Postmaster  of  the  Chicago 
postofrice.  Mr.  Armstrong  had  an  ex- 
tended reputation  as  an  exceedingly 
able  postal  official,  and  he  made  the 
Chicago  postoffice  a  model,  postmast- 


ers coming  many  hundreds  of  miles  to 
study  his  methods,  as  at  that  time 
there  was  practically  no  uniformity  in 
the  postal  service.  Mr.  Blair,  Post- 
master General  under  President  Lin- 
coln, had  a  great  deal  of  faith  in  Mr. 
Armstrong's  ability,  and  was  readily 
induced  by  the  latter  to  give  a  thor- 
ough trial  of  his  system  of  distributing 
mails  en  route.  Postmaster  General 
Blair  gave  authority  to  go  ahead  with 
the  trial  July  1,  1864.  Mr.  Armstrong- 
arranged  with  the  Chicago  &  North- 
western Railway  for  a  mail  apartment 
car  fitted  up  with  what  we  would  now 
consider  very  crude  letter  cases  and 
bag  racks.  The  car  was  placed  in  ser- 
vice on  August  28,  1864,  running  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Clinton,  la. 

The  advantages  of  this  system  were 
so  immediately  apparent  that  similar 
service  was  soon  established  between 
Chicago  and  Quincy  on  the  Chicago, 
Burlington  &  Quincy  Railroad,  and  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Rock  Island,  on  the 
Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and  a  little  later  between  New 
York  and  Washington  on  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Lines,  and  was  rapidly  extended 
to  cover  all  important  lines  of  railroads 
then  in  operation  in  the  northern  and 
central  states. 

The  first  service  requiring  an  entire 
car,  which  we  now  call  "Full  Postal 
Car  Service."  was  between  Boone  and 
Council  Bluffs,  la.,  on  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railway,  and  began  in 
1867,  three  years  later.  This  service 


30 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


31 


was  established  particularly  to  distrib- 
ute the  mails  for  the  far  west,  which 
had  previously  been  turned  into  the 
Council  Bluffs  postoffice  for  distribu- 
tion, thereby  delaying  the  mails  24 
hours,  as  there  was  only  one  train  a 
day  running  west  of  Council  Bluffs  at 
that  time,  and,  in  fact,  for  many  years 
thereafter. 

Among  the  first  to  be  appointed  rail- 
way postal  clerks  was  James  E.  White, 
of  Chicago,  afterwards,  for  a  great 
many  years,  General  Superintendent  of 
the  Railway  Mail  Service,  now  living 
in  retirement;  also  James  E.  Stewart, 
still  an  active  postal  official,  who  for 
many  years  has  been  Postoffice  In- 
spector-in-Charge  at  Chicago. 

The  Railway  Mail  Service  developed 
so  rapidly  that  it  soon  became  neces- 
sary to  organize  it  as  a  separate  de- 
partment of  the  postal  service.  The 
country  was  divided  into  six  divisions, 
each  with  a  superintendent  in  charge 
under  the  direction  of  a  general  super- 
intendent located  at  Washington.  Nat- 
urally Mr.  Armstrong  was  made  the 
first  general  superintendent  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service,  which  was  in  1869. 
However,  Mr.  Armstrong's  strenuous 
efforts  in  building  up  this  new  service 
undermined  his  health  and  he  died  two 
years  later.  While,  of  course,  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service  has  since  immensely 
expanded,  and  many  details  have  been 
added,  it  remains  in  principle  today 
the  same  as  established  by  Geo.  B. 
Armstrong  in  1864. 
Growth  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service 

The  six  original  divisions  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service  have  been  expanded 
to  fifteen,  having  140  supervisory  offi- 
cers and  19,569  postal  clerks.  There 
are  1,434  full  postal  cars  in  service  and 
4,257  mail  apartment  cars.  The  de- 
partment estimates  that  during  the 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1914,  the 
Railway  Mail  Service  handled  13,407,- 
594,861  pieces  of  ordinary  mail  matter, 
and  in  addition  thereto,  over  66,000,000 
pieces  of  registered  mail. 
Establishment  of  Fast  Mail  Service 

While  Geo.  B.  Armstrong  founded 
the  Railway  Mail  Service,  it  remained 


for  Geo.  S.  Bangs  to  inaugurate  what 
is  known  as  "The  Fast  Ms.il  Service." 
Mr.  Bangs  was  appointed  postmaster 
at  Aurora,  111.,  by  President  Lincoln. 
He  was  a  great  friend  and  admirer  of 
Mr.  Armstrong,  and  handled  his  post- 
office  in  the  same  efficient  manner.  He 
was  very  enthusiastic  over  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Railway  Mail  Service, 
and  when,  as  already  mentioned,  Mr. 
Armstrong  was  made  General  Superin- 
tendent, he  made  Mr.  Bangs  Assistant 
Superintendent  of  that  service  at  Chi- 
cago. When  Mr.  Armstrong  died,  Mr. 
Bangs  was  appointed  his  successor.  He 
inaugurated  the  system  of  checking  the 
accuracy  of  the  work  of  postal  clerks 
by  requiring  each  package  of  letters  to 
be  accompanied  with  a  slip  showing 
the  name  of  the  clerk,  his  run,  and  the 
date.  Other  clerks  or  postmasters  find- 
ing errors  in  the  package,  note  same 
on  this  slip,  which  is  sent  to  the  super- 
intendent of  the  division  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service  in  which  the  clerk 
works.  The  errors  are  charged  against 
the  clerk's  record  and  the  slip  is  sent 
to  him  in  order  that  he  may  correct  his 
distribution.  The  labels  of  sacks  of 
papers  likewise  show  the  clerk's  name 
who  made  up  the  sack,  and  the  errors 
found  therein  are  similarly  noted.  This 
system  is  still  in  use  and  has  been 
largely  responsible  for  developing  the 
accuracy  for  which  the  Railway  Mail 
Service  has  been  noted. 

Up  to  the  time  Mr.  Bangs  became 
General  Superintendent,  the  officials  of 
the  Postoffice  Department  had  not 
aimed  to  secure  for  the  mail  any  great- 
er expedition  than  passengers  could  ob- 
tain for  themselves.  Mr.  Bangs  was 
not  content  with  this,  and  he  conceived 
the  idea  of  exclusive  mail  trains,  whose 
departure  from  important  postal  cen- 
ters, especially  New  York  and  Chicago, 
should  be  timed  to  best  suit  the  needs 
of  the  postal  service,  and  to  run  at 
much  higher  speed  than  any  passenger 
train  in  those  days.  Mr.  Bangs  was 
authorized  by  the  Postmaster  General 
in  1874  to  open  negotiations  with  the 
New  York  Central  and  the  Lake  Shore 
&  Michigan  Southern  Railroads,  for 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


33 


fast  mail  service  between  New  York 
and  Chicago.  In  view  of  the  continual 
controversies  which  have  marred  the 
relations  of  the  Postoffice  Department 
and  the  railroads  in  recent  years  in  the 
matter  of  suitable  remuneration,  etc., 
the  history  of  the  establishment  of  the 
first  fast  mails  is  very  interesting,  and 
I  am  going  to  quote  a  brief  statement 
made  by  the  Honorable  Thomas  L. 
James,  who  was  at  one  time  Postmaster 
General,  as  follows : 

"It  was  the  old  story  of  making 
bricks  without  straw.  The  Postoffice 
Department  had  no  appropriation  to 
pay  for  such  facilities,  hence  it  had  to 
depend  at  first  on  the  public  spirit  of 
the  railroad  authorities.  Commodore 
Vanderbilt,  the  president  of  the  com- 
panies whose  lines  were  to  be  used,  had 
had  dealings  with  the  Department,  and 
was  perhaps  not  altogether  sanguine  as 
to  the  practical  issue  of  the  experiment, 
or  in  respect  to  the  countenance  it 
would  receive  from  Congress ;  but  Mr. 
William  H.  Vanderbilt,  the  vice-presi- 
dent, lent  a  willing  ear  to  Mr.  Bangs' 
proposition,  and  did  his  utmost  to  aid 
him  in  putting  it  into  effect.  There 
being  no  special  appropriation  avail- 
able for  the  purpose  in  hand  .  .  . 
Colonel  Bangs  stipulated  that  if  Mr. 
Vanderbilt  would  have  twenty  cars 
built  and  the  service  performed,  all 
matter  originating  at,  or  coming  into, 
the  New  York  postoffice,  which  could 
reach  its  destination  at  the  same  time 
by  this  line,  should  be  sent  by  this 
train,  and  that  the  railway  companies 
could  have  the  right  to  demand  a 
weighing  of  the  mail  matter  at  will,  all 
railroads  being  paid  according  to 
weight.  When  the  details  of  the  plan 
were  communicated  to  Commodore 
Vanderbilt,  he  is  reported  to  have  said 
to  his  son,  'If  you  want  to  do  this,  go 
ahead,  but  I  know  the  Postoffice  De- 
partment, and  you  will,  too,  within  a 
year.'  Mr.  Vanderbilt  did  go  ahead. 
He  constructed  and  equipped  the  finest 
mail  train  ever  seen,  .  .  .  ran  it  for 
ten  months,  never  missed  a  connection 
at  Chicago,  and  was  always  on  time  at 
New  York.  He  did  not  have  to  wait 


a  year,  however,  for  a  realization  of  the 
sagacious  old  Commodore's  prophecy. 
Within  three  weeks,  despite  the  indig- 
nant protest  of  Colonel  Bangs,  the 
mails  of  three  states  were  ordered  to 
be  taken  from  this  and  given  to  another 
route.  A  grosser  and  more  wanton 
breach  of  plighted  faith  it  would  be 
hard  to  find,  and  its  results  were  far- 
reaching  and  disastrous." 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  estab- 
lished a  similar  fast  mail  service.  The 
train  on  both  roads  made  the  run  in  26 
hours,  certainly  very  fast  service  for 
those  days,  in  fact,  only  two  hours  and 
ten  minutes  slower  than  the  New  York- 
Chicago  fast  mail  train  today. 

The  outlook  was  bright  for  even 
wider  extensions  of  expedited  mail 
service  when  Congress,  in  spite  of  pro- 
tests from  the  Postoffice  Department, 
passed  an  act  reducing  by  10  per  cent 
the  already  inadequate  compensation 
for  the  transportation  of  mails.  This 
was  too  much  even  for  W.  H.  Vander- 
bilt, and  he  notified  the  Department 
that  the  fast  mail  service  would  be  dis- 
continued July  22,  1876,  and  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  took  the  same  action. 
General  Superintendent  Bangs  was  so 
greatly  disappointed  at  this  abrupt  un- 
doing of  all  his  labors  that  he  tendered 
his  resignation  and  insisted  upon  its  ac- 
ceptance. 

Although  these  fast  mail  trains  had 
been  in  existence  less  than  ten  months, 
that  was  long  enough  to  demonstrate 
to  the  business  world  their  great  value, 
and,  in  the  following  year,  1877,  Con- 
gress made  a  special  appropriation  of 
$150,000,  to  be  paid  for  expedited  ser- 
vice, and  thus  was  inaugurated  what 
for  many  years  was  known  as  "Special 
Facility  Pay."  In  fact,  the  giving  of 
extra  compensation  to  have  exclusive 
mail  trains  operated  on  a  fast  schedule 
to  be  designated  by  the  Department, 
continued  until  within  the  last  eight  or 
nine  years,  since  which  time  the  fast 
mail  trains  have  received  no  extra  com- 
pensation. 

With  this  appropriation  the  Depart- 
ment was  enabled  to  restore  the  fast 
mail  trains  between  New  York  and 


34 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Chicago,  and  there  is  now  scarcely  any 
road  of  importance  which  does  not  op- 
erate at  least  one  train  known  as  "The 
Fast  Mail,"  although  now,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  they  carry  express  and  a 
limited  number  of  passengers  as  well 
as  mail. 

The  Clerical  Force 

For  many  years  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Railway  Mail  Service,  the 
appointment  of  clerks  was  purely  po- 
litical. The  Railway  Mail  Service  was 
the  first  great  department  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  be  brought  under  the  Civil 
Service,  as  experience  soon  demon- 
strated that  a  clerk  had  hardly  acquired 
the  extensive  knowledge  necessary  to 
efficient  service,  when  the  administra- 
tion would  change  and  a  new  lot  of 
men  would  be  appointed.  Since  the- 
establishment  of  the  Civil  Service,  rail- 
way postal  clerks  have  been  appointed 
as  result  of  passing  a  competitive  ex- 
amination. Successful  applicants  are 
first  appointed  as  substitutes,  who  must 
necessarily  spend  considerable  time  in 
study  before  they  are  competent  to  per- 
form service  in  the  postal  cars.  After 
becoming  competent,  they  take  the 
place  of  postal  clerks  granted  leave  of 
absence  account  of  sickness,  injury, 
etc.,  and  for  such  service  receive  pay  at 
the  rate  of  $800  per  annum.  As  vacan- 
cies occur  in  the  service,  substitutes  are 
appointed  regular  clerks  at  $900  per 
annum.  If  the  services  of  the  clerk  are 
satisfactory,  and  he  passes  the  required 
examinations  on  the  distribution  to 
which  he  is  assigned,  his  salary  is  in- 
creased $100  each  year  until  he  receives 
$1,200  per  annum,  which  is  virtually 
the  minimum  salary  in  the  service. 
Postal  clerks  on  heavy  runs  receive 
much  higher  salaries,  the  maximum  for 
a  clerk  on  road  duty  being  $1,800  per 
annum,  which  salary  is  paid  eventually 
to  postal  clerks-in-charge  of  crews  on 
heavy  runs. 

In  addition  to  their  salaries,  postal 
clerks  are  now  given  an  allowance  to 
cover  their  expenses  while  on  their 
runs,  the  maximum  allowance  per  an- 
num being  about  $130.  Postal  clerks 
on  heavy  runs  usually  work  six  days 


and  then  have  six  days  off  for  rest  and 
study.  Clerks  are  required  to  contin- 
ually pass  examinations  showing  their 
knowledge  of  the  dispatch^  of  mail  for 
postoffices  which  they  are  required  to 
distribute.  In  some  cases,  clerks  are 
required  to  know  the  proper  distribu- 
tion for  as  many  as  18,000  postoffices, 
in  addition  to  which  many  clerks  are 
required  to  distribute  mail  for  large 
cities  to  the  letter  carriers  who  deliver 
the  mail,  of  course,  saving  a  great  deal 
of  time,  enabling  mail  to  be  delivered 
to  addressees  early  in  the  morning, 
perhaps  on  the  first  delivery,  which 
would  otherwise  not  be  delivered  until 
the  afternoon.  This  distribution  of 
city  mail  to  carriers  has  reached  a  point 
where  mail  for  practically  every  city 
of  importance  is  worked  up  by  postal 
clerks,  in  the  case  of  trains  reaching 
such  cities  before  noon,  and  reaches  the 
postoffice  ready  for  immediate  delivery. 
The'Merit  System 

I  have  already  explained  how  errors 
in  distribution  made  by  clerks  are 
checked  against  them  and  how  their 
knowledge  of  their  distribution  is  con- 
tinually further  tested  by  examinations. 
Clerks  are  given  demerits,  or  minus 
points,  for  errors  in  distribution,  for 
poor  examinations,  and  for  all  other 
errors  and  delinquencies.  If  the  num- 
ber of  demerits  received  in  a  specified 
time  equals  or  exceeds  a  certain 
amount,  the  clerk  is  reduced,  or  even 
removed  from  the  service,  as  the  case 
may  be.  On  the  other  hand,  clerks  are 
given  plus  points  for  exceptionally 
good  car  records,  as  well  as  examina- 
tion records,  which  plus  points  operate 
to  cancel  minus  points,  if  any.  This  so- 
called  "Plus  and  Minus  System"  has 
been  very  elaborately  developed,  much 
too  elaborately  the  clerks  claim,  and  it 
is,  in  fact,  a  question  whether  or  not 
the  system  has  not  been  carried  too 
far  for  the  best  interests  of  the  service. 
Casualties 

The  Railway  Mail  Service  was  for- 
merly considered  a  very  hazardous  oc- 
cupation. Mail  clerks  rode  next  to  the 
engine  and  received  the  brunt  of  col- 
lisions and  derailments.  In  recent 


Home  of  Capt.  Jack  Lawson,  who  •?. 
brought  over  from  England  m  1827.  ",* 
the  first  locomotive  which  ran  on  St 
the  B.  §  O:  U.K.  from  Washington®* 
.  ,  D.C.  to- Baltimore."'  '  * 


36 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


years,  however,  steel  cars,  double 
tracks,  block  signals,  and,  by  no  means 
least,  the  very  general  "Safety  First" 
movement,  has  eliminated  the  hazard- 
ous nature  of  the  postal  clerks'  occupa- 
tion, and  serious  accidents  and  fatal- 
ities are  fortunately  now  very  rare.  The 
number  of  train  accidents  resulting  in 
fatal  injuries  to  postal  clerks  has  been 
steadily  decreasing  since  1903,  notwith- 
standing continual  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  clerks  employed,  number  of 
trains  run,  and,  to  some  extent,  in 
speed.  In  case  of  injury  on  duty  the 
postal  clerk  is  paid  his  full  salary  for 
one  year,  if  his  injury  incapacitates  him 
that  long,  and  one-half  his  salary  for 
an  additional  year,  if  necessary.  In 
case  of  accidental  death  on  duty,  his 
heirs  receive  $2,000. 

Cheapening  the  Mail  Service 

The  ideals  of  the  founders  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service  and  of  all  its  officers, 
until  recent  years,  have  been  efficiency 
and  expedition.  Within  the  last  eight 
years,  however,  there  has  been  a  very 
marked  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
Department  to  cheapen  the  postal  ser- 
vice at  the  expense  of  expedition.  The 
first  step  in  this  direction  was  to  take 
magazines  out  of  the  mails  and  ship 
them  by  freight  between  the  larger  cen- 
ters. This  was  perhaps  not  very  seri- 
ous in  the  case  of  the  magazines,  as  the 
publishers  could  print  them  as  much 
earlier  than  before  as  was  necessary  to 
offset  the  delay  consequent  upon  trans- 
portation by  freight,  instead  of  in  fast 
mail  trains ;  but  it  showed  a  tendency 
to  break  away  from  old  ideals  that 
every  class  of  mail  matter  was  entitled 
to,  and  should  receive,  the  fastest  pos- 
sible service.  This  tendency  has  more 


recently  been  very  strongly  exemplified 
by  the  distribution  of  mail  matter  in 
specially  organized  postoffices  oper- 
ated under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Rail- 
way Mail  Service,  commonly  known  as 
"Terminal  Postoffices."  These  Ter- 
minal Postoffices  are  in  operation  in  all 
of  the  larger  cities  in  the  United  States. 
They  were  originally  organized  to  dis- 
tribute bulky  and  fragile  parcel  post 
packages  which  could  not,  from  their 
size  or  character,  be  properly  distribu- 
ted in  mail  cars,  and  the  distribution  of 
such  mail  in  these  Terminal  Postoffices 
cannot  be  criticised.  However,  these 
Terminals  had  not  long  been  organized 
when  the  distribution  of  large  quanti- 
ties of  circulars,  catalogues  and  other 
advertising  matter,  magazines,  etc.,  and 
even  letter  mail,  was  taken  up  by  them, 
the  idea  being  to  save  some  expense  in 
salaries  of  clerks  and  in  postal  car  pay. 
The  theory  is  that  a  clerk  can  dis- 
tribute more  mail  in  a  given  time  in  a 
stationary  postoffice  than  in  a  travel- 
ing one,  and  cheaper  men  can  be  used. 
A  considerable  proportion  of  the  mail 
sent  to  these  Terminal  Postoffices  for 
distribution  is  necessarily  materially 
delayed  thereby.  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  public  is  as  yet  fully  aware  of  the 
amount  of  mail  being  held  for  distribu- 
tion in  Terminals,  and  the  extent  of 
delay  resulting.  I  believe  the  public 
wants  the  very  best  mail  service  which 
can  be  had,  not  a  cheap  service,  and  in 
any  case  the  saving  effected  by  the 
Terminals  is  much  too  small  to  justify 
the  delay.  However,  the  Railway  Mail 
Service  still  remains  a  great  service, 
probably  the  most  efficient  of  any  of 
the  government  departments,  a  service 
in  which  the  people  can  and  do  take 
just  pride. 


T  i  i  ij- 


JOniHC" 

nuu  ,,_,_, NOII 


How  to 


It  is  not  tne  Science  of  curing  Disease  so  much  as  tne  prevention  or  it 
tdat  produces  tne  Greatest  ^pod  to  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 

\f  r*.  f 

A     A     A     A     A  teaching  people  howio  live  A     A     A     *     * 
Hot  Weather  Suggestions 


C^  ET  the  body  ready  by  seeing  to 
^^  it  that  your  general  condition  is 
good  before  the  heated  term  arrives. 
Anticipate  it.  It  is  sure  to  come  ab- 
ruptly. Hot  weather  depresses  the 
vital  powers  in  most  persons  and  you 
will  need  all  the  store  of  health  and 
resistance  that  you  can  lay  in  to  tide 
you  over  the  hot  summer  months. 
Sleep. 

Get  plenty  of  sleep.  There  is  a 
tendency  in  the  warm  evenings  to  sit 
up  too  late.  Nothing  aids  the  diges- 
tion so  much  as  the  perfect  composure 
of  the  nervous  system  which  comes  on 
after  ample  sleep.  Sleep  prepares  the 
body  for  all  around  brain  work,  and 
increases  the  endurance  of  the  indi- 
vidual, both  to  perform  better  work 
and  also  to  offer  stronger  resistance 
against  disease. 

Exercise. 

If  you  are  a  city  dweller,  do  not  wait 
until  vacation  time  to  get  in  training 
for  the  exercise  you  will  want  to  take 
during  these  two  weeks  of  vacation  in 
the  very  hot  weather.  Get  in  training 
for  the  enjoyment  of  vacation,  and 
keep  in  trim  for  the  hot  weather  by 
walking  part  of  the  way  to  your  office 
each  day  and  by  taking  brisk  exercise 
daily  in  your  bedroom.  But  do  not 
over  exercise  and  do  not  exercise  in  the 
hot  sun  unless  you  are  accustomed 
to  it. 

The  Skin. 

Frequent  bathing  keeps  the  skin  in 
good  condition.  Cold  baths  to  most 


people  are  agreeable  and  are  a  tonic, 
but  they  should  not  be  taken  when  the 
body  is  perspiring  freely.  The  clean 
skin  should  be  covered  with  clean 
under  garment.  For  laborers  and  per- 
sons who  perspire  freely,  a  single  shirt 
made  out  of  cotton  and  wool  is  advis- 
able for  protection  against  the  chilling 
effect  of  sudden  change.  For  those  not 
doing  vigorous  physical  work,  thin 
open  cotton  underwear  is  preferable. 

Diet. 

The  most  important  suggestion  here 
as  to  eating  and  drinking  is  to  keep 
the  digestive  organs  in  the  best  pos- 
sible condition.  Diet  in  hot  weather 
depends  on  the  location  and  the  kind 
of  work  done  by  the  individual,  and 
should  be  regulated  accordingly.  Meat 
once  or  twice  a  day  is  good  for  out-door 
laborers  who  do  hard  physical  work. 
Fish  or  meat  once  a  day  for  those  less 
strenuously  employed,  with  plenty  of 
fruit  and  vegetables.  Simple  and  light 
meals  are  best  in  the  summer  time.  All 
the  meals  being  light  are  well  adapted 
to  the  sustenance  of  office  workers. 
Light  and  frequent  meals  with  plenty 
water  between  are  in  the  right  line 
for  all  hot  weather.  Drinking  water 
should  be  taken  freely  between  meals. 
The  temperature  of  the  water  should 
be  cool,  but  not  ice  cold.  Remember 
that  thirst  is  thirst  of  the  whole  body, 
not  of  the  mouth  only.  A  hot  dry 
mouth  is  indicative  of  a  lack  of  fluids 
in  the  body  and  is  quite  often  due  to 
some  disturbance  of  the  digestion  or 


37 


38 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


stomach.  Excessive  thirst  is  often  best 
quenched  by  drinking  something  hot, 
such  as  hot  tea  or  hot  lemonade.  La- 
borers in  the  field  and  shop  often  have 
a  practice  of  putting  ginger  and  mo- 
lasses in  the  field  water  jug.  Anything 
is  better  than  ice  water  for  field  or 
track  laborers,  or  the  furnace  room. 
Oatmeal  or  barley  water  are  good  and 
are  commonly  used  in  the  heated  terms 
of  summer.  Alcoholic  beverages  should 
not  be  indulged  in  during  hot  weather. 
The  temporary  sense  of  refreshment 
which  they  induce  is  quickly  followed 
by  a  re-action  causing  the  consumer  to 
feel  more  uncomfortable  than  before, 
and  it  has  been  incontestably  proven 
that  persons  who  use  alcoholic  drinks 
regularly  do  not  withstand  extremes  of 
temperature. 

The  Bowels. 

Constipation  should  be  avoided. 
When  the  fluids  of  the  body  are  drained 
off  in  the  excess  of  prespiration,  the 
contents  of  the  lower  bowel  becomes 
less  fluid  and  a  marked  tendency 
towards  constipation  results.  To  over- 
come this  tendency  it  is  desirable  not 
only  to  drink  freely  of  water,  but  also 
to  eat  coarse  foods  and  fruit.  Oily 
substances  of  nature  will  not  be  ab- 
sorbed, as  such  oily  foods  will  continue 
in  the  same  state  and  will  lubricate 
the  intestinal  canal,  thus  tending  to 
prevent  constipation. 

Over-Heating. 

The  dangerous  condition  known  as 
sunstroke  is  produced  by  exposure  to 


the  excessive  rays  of  the  sun  or  to  ex- 
cessive heat  in  a  room.  When  work- 
men are  exposed  to  the  prolonged  rays 
of  the  sun,  a  dizziness  comes  on  which 
is  the  early  indication  of  impending 
danger — unless  this  warning  is  heeded 
it  is  liable  to  be  followed  by  profound 
prostration-delirium,  and  in  severe 
cases  by  collapse.  It  is  wise,  then,  to 
be  careful  during  the  mid-day  hours 
when  the  sun  is  hotest.  In  very  hot 
weather  the  laborer  can  to  advantage 
commence  his  work  very  early  in  the 
morning,  and  work  until  the  sun  gets 
quite  hot.  Then  lay  off  during  the  ex- 
cessive heat  of  the  day  and  begin  again 
at  about  the  middle  of  the  afternoon. 
The  work  might  with  profit  be  extend- 
ed until  late  in  the  evening.  It  is  wise 
to  have  a  head  covering  that  will  pro- 
tect the  scalp.  Wet  leaves  placed  in 
the  crown  of  the  hat  are  extremely 
beneficial.  For  those  who  are  com- 
pelled to  be  out  in  the  hot  sun  and 
who  are  susceptible  to  its  heat — the 
helmet,  such  as  is  worn  in  the  tropics, 
is  of  great  value,  as  it  shades  the  head 
and  permits  the  circulation  of  air  be- 
tween the  hat  and  the  head.  To  step 
for  a  few  moments  into  the  shade  is 
an  excellent  precaution  and  cold  water 
allowed  to  run  over  the  wrists  pro- 
duce a  decidedly  cooling  effect  on  the 
entire  body.  Persons  who  have  be- 
come overheated  at  any  time  are  much 
more  susceptible  to  the  heat  and  must 
be  extremely  careful  after  exposure 
for  several  years. 


Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Vicksburg,  July  17,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,    Chief  Surgeon,  I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  Hospital  Dept., 

Chicago,  Illinois. 
Dear  Doctor: 

I  am  so  well  pleased  with  the  treatment  I  recently  received  from  the 
Hospital  Department  and  the  results  so  satisfactory  that  I  feel  it  incumbent 
upon  me  to  say  a  word  of  praise  for  you  and  your  staff. 

I  first  went  to  our  Hospital  Department  Surgeon  at  this  point  and  after 
receiving  treatment  for  some  time,  my  case  proved  to  be  very  stubborn  and 
I  was  sent  to  New  Orleans.  The  attention  and  care  given  was  as  courteous 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  39 

as  could  be,  and  after  having  a  Specialist  examine  me  I  was  advised  that  I 
should  report  to  you.  When  I  reported  to  you  I  was  very  much  exercised 
over  my  condition,  but  when  I  learned  that  you  had  arranged  to  turn  me 
over  to  one  of  the  best  specialists  in  Chicago  and  knew  that  treatment  was 
to  be  administered  by  one  who  stood  high  in  his  professional  rank,  I  grew 
hopeful.  My  condition  required  the  X-Ray  treatment  and  this  treatment  had 
the  desired  effect. 

In  addition  to  this  excellent  treatment,  your  Department  took  care  of  my 
living  expenses  and  by  these  arrangements  I  made  the  trip  to  Chicago  with 
practically  no  expense.  From  the  courteous  manner  in  which  you  and  each 
of  your  staff  received  and  consulted  me,  I  could  not  but  feel  that  it  was  your 
pleasure  to  give  me  the  best  medical  treatment  obtainable. 

I  feel  that  every  contributor  to  the  Hospital  Department  should  know  the 
good  effect  in  being  a  member  of  that  Department. 

Yours  faithfully, 
(Signed)  S.  J.  HARPER, 

General  Foreman. 


Burnside  Shops,  111.,  June  24,  1915. 
G.  G.  Dowdall,  M.  D., 

Chief  Surgeon,  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

I  have  just  returned  to  work  after  a  serious  illness  at  the  Mercy  Hos- 
pital at  Chicago,  and  wish  to  express  my  heartfelt  gratitude  and  appreciation 
of  the  Hospital  Department. 

Through  you  I  also  desire  to  thank  the  Doctors  and  Nurses  for  their 
kindness  and  courtesy  to  my  wife  during  her  visits  to  me  while  in  the 
hospital.  Yours  truly, 

(Signed)  JOSEPH  F.  STANTON, 

Accountant,  Burnside  Shops,  111. 


Jackson,  Tenn.,  July  2,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall, 
Chief  Surgeon, 

Chicago,  111. 
My  Dear  Doctor: 

Please  accept  my  thanks  to  you  and  your  noble  staff  of  Doctors  and 
Nurses  for  the  successful  operation  and  treatment  I  received  while  in  Mercy 
Hospital,  Chicago,  for  appendicitis.  I  feel  that  I  owe  my  life  to  the  Surgeons 
and  Nurses  of  Mercy  Hospital  and  to  the  Hospital  Department  of  the  I.  C. 
R.  R.  May  God  bless  each  and  every  one  of  you. 

My  kindest  regards  to  all  and  a  successful  future  to  Mercy  Hospital, 
is  the  wish  of  your  friend, 

(Signed)  LEE'E.  PORTER, 

Conductor,  Jackson,  Tenn. 


Chicago,  July  6,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall, 
Chief  Surgeon, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  was  a  patient  at  Mercy  Hospital  from  June  12th  to  July  3rd  and  was 
operated  on  June  14th  for  hernia,  and  wish  to  thank  the  Hospital  Depart- 


40  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

ment,  through  you,  for  their  kind  and  courteous  treatment  of  me.     I  re- 
ceived extraordinary  good  care  and  was  treated  royally,  for  which   I   am 
deeply  grateful.    I  am  improving  rapidly  and  will  soon  be  entirely  well. 
Again  thanking  you  and  your  staff  on  the  Hospital  Department,  I  am 

Yours  sincerely, 
(Signed)  S.  H.  O'NEILL, 

Engineer,  Chicago,  111. 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


AT  THE  last  Loss  and  Damage  meeting,  held  in  the  office  of  General 
Superintendent  Clift,  at  Chicago,  111.,  on  June  29th,  Mr.  N.  R.  Huff, 
Foreman  of  the  Freight  House  at  East  St.  Louis,  was  in  attendance.  The 
discussion  which  took  place  was  of  great  interest  to  him,  and  in  order  to 
carry  out  the  conclusions  of  the  meeting,  upon  his  return  to  his  headquarters, 
he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  his  subordinates. 

His  action  is  very  pleasing,  not  only  to  the  agents,  but  to  the  Superin- 
tendent and  General  Superintendent  as  well,  as  it  indicated  a  clear  determina- 
tion upon  his  part  to  follow  up  with  his  subordinates  the  advice  given. 

East  St.  Louis,  July  1st,  1915. 
Gentlemen : 

There  was  a  Loss  and  Damage  meeting  held  at  Chicago,  June  29th,  in 
the  office  of  General  Superintendent  Northern  Lines,  Mr.  A.  E.  Clift.  At 
this  coming  together,  there  was  assembled  the  Division  Superintendent  of 
the  Northern  Lines,  the  heads  of  the  Freight  Claim  Loss  and  Damage  and 
Special  Agent  Departments ;  likewise  the  agents  from  the  principal  stations. 
To  say  to  you  I  feel  elated  that  it  fell  to  my  good  fortune  to  be  present  at  the 
meeting  is  putting  my  appreciation  mildly. 

There  were  many  subjects  that  came  up  for  discussion ;  all  of  which  led 
up  to  one  paramount  issue,  what  can  be  done  to  stop  this  great  leakage  in 
the  earnings  of  the  Company,  that  is  passing  out  through  the  Claim  Depart- 
ment in  the  payment  of  claims,  just  and  unjust?  After  weighing  all  condi- 
tions, it  was  resolved  that  with  renewed  efforts  and  zeal  there  could  be 
made  a  reduction  of  $100,000  this  year. 

Men !  Listen  to  me.  Your  Agent  and  Superintendent  have  a  world  of 
confidence  in  you.  They  appreciate  your  past  record,  they  know  your  value, 
they  feel  that  you  have  done  your  full  share  in  placing  the  standard  of 
efficiency  on  the  St.  Louis  Division  in  the  high  esteem  that  it  so  truthfully 
enjoys.  It  is  the  hope  and  trust  of  Mr.  Williams  and  Mr.  Wells  that  you 
allow  no  station  or  division  to  lower  our  standard. 

Now  a  word  with  you  relative  to  the  reduction  of  claims.  I  do  not 
know  how  we  can  play  a  very  important  part  in  the  reduction  of  this 
$100,000 ;  however,  we  will  give  our  mite  toward  it. 

On  this  subject  I  will  talk  to  you  collectively,  that  you  may  understand 


42  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

as  a  whole  what  the  requirements  are,  of  not  only  yourself  but  that  of  the 
other  fellow.  I  will  take  up  with  each  class  in  order  to  point  out  what  he 
or  they  may  do  to  help. 

Mr.  Check  Clerk:  You  charge  this  station  with  all  the  freight  that 
you  check  from  cars  of  the  line.  From  you  we  expect  to  learn  the  exact 
condition  of  this  freight,  if  damaged,  to  what  extent?  What  was  the  cause? 
Was  it  due  to  bad  storing  in  the  car?  Was  it  due  to  rough  handing  of  the 
car,  or  was  the  physical  condition  of  the  commodity  such  as  not  to  permit 
safe  carrying  even  by  ordinary  handling?  These  points  are  all  important 
and  we  must  rely  greatly  upon  your  knowledge  in  supplying  them,  for  reasons 
which  I  will  make  clear  to  you  later  on. 

Mr.  Delivery  Clerk:  You  have  noted  what  has  been  said  to  our  check 
clerks.  Do  you  not  grasp  the  importance  of  making  notations  at  the  time  of 
delivery  to  reach  in  such  a  manner  that  the  cause  of  damage  may  be  prop- 
erly placed? 

It  was  said  at  the  meeting  that  we  must  tighten  up  to  make  this  $100,000. 
My  experience  teaches  me  the  trouble  lies  many  times  in  being  too  tight. 
We  are  holding  on  to  valuable  information,  which,  if  in  the  hands  of  the 
claim  and  loss  and  damage  departments,  could  be  used  against  paying  many 
claims,  as  well  as  avoiding  more.  My  instruction  to  you  is  loosen  up  and 
give  us  the  benefit  of  what  you  know  about  all  freight  handled  by  you  that 
is  in  any  way  in  other  than  perfect  condition. 

Mr.  Head  Team  Track  Clerk :  You  have  noted  what  has  been  said  to 
those  handling  L.  C.  L.  business.  The  same  applies  to  you  and  the  men 
working  under  your  supervision  handling  C.  L.  Your  receiving  clerk 
should  feel  the  responsibility  in  receiving  and  receipting  for  freight ;  he 
should  not  accept  freight  and  load  it  into  cars  unless  he  is  satisfied  that  it 
will  carry  to  destination  with  safety. 

Your  delivery  clerk  should  make  a  personal  examination  of  every  car 
lot  received,  and  if  there  is  a  damage  to  the  load,  let's  get  right  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  cause,  with  a  view  to  eliminating  a  repetition,  give  shipping  point, 
if  the  cause  is  due  to  the  loading  or  bracing.  If  it  is  a  damage  due  to  rough 
handling  of  the  cars,  we  will  make  a  special  report  of  it,  for  if  there  is  to  be 
a  material  saving  made  in  the  amount  of  payment  of  claims,  there  surely 
must  be  a  reduction  in  the  terminal  damages  due  to  rough  switching. 

As  to  your  supervisor  of  transfer,  this  is  a  very,  very  important  matter. 
One  that  plays  a  greater  part  in  claims  than  is  generally  understood.  I  want 
you  to  be  more  careful  in  your  handling  as  well  as  the  recording  of  condition. 

The  inspection  of  cars.  Though  I  consider  it  a  simon  pure  mechanical 
proposition  and  one  that  that  department  should  be  held  strictly  accountable 
for,  we,  nevertheless,  are  not  going  to  load  freight  in  any  car,  even  if  O.  K'd. 
by  that  department  for  that  commodity,  when  we  are  satisfied  that  damage 
or  loss  is  likely.  Another  matter,  a  continuance  of  some  of  the  practices 
seen  by  you  in  transferring.  Each  case  will  be  recorded  and  held  to  check 
against  claims  filed  account  transferred  loads.  Only  under  protest  will  we 
transfer  freight  liable  to  damage ;  except  when  advised  that  it  is  not  safe 
to  run  the  car.  There  must  be  no  letting  up  in  the  stripping  of  doors  and 
bracing  of  loads  in  cars;  let  us  be  just,  but  careful. 

Mr.  O.  S.  &  D.  Clerk:  You  understand  from  what  I  have  said  to  these 
men  what  we  want  in  the  way  of  reports.  We  want  a  report  that  is  intelli- 
gent. All  the  bad  orders  issued  covering  damages  are  classified  according 
to  the  cause  of  the  damage ;  in  tabulating  them  they  are  charged  to  that  par- 
ticular cause.  Do  you  not  see  how  important  it  is  that  the  check  and  delivery 
clerks  make  a  full  and  clear  explanation  that  you  may  record  the  same,  so  as 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


43 


to  enable  the  claim  department  to  charge  correctly?  Certainly  you  do,  and 
I  hope  you  will  keep  this  importance  in  mind,  issuing  no  report  until  you  are 
furnished  the  necessary  facts. 

Now  men !  You,  one  and  all,  understand  the  important  necessities  and 
the  burden  of  responsibilities  that  rest  upon  us.  And  I  know  your  ability 
to  carry  out  every  requirements  which  naturally  calls  for  results. 

Thanking  you, 

N.  R.  HUFF, 

Foreman. 


T  T  IS  expected  that  there  will  be  a 
heavy  grain  movement  for  the  next 
few  months,  and  as  the  price  will  be 
high,  we  should  make  every  effort  to 
prevent  loss  in  transit. 

All  cars  before  being  permitted  to  be 
loaded  with  grain  should  be  properly 
inspected,  and  only  tight  cars  furnished 
for  such  loading.  Grain  doors  should 
be  properly  applied,  and  high  enough 
to  prevent  contents  leaking  over  them. 

Losses  occur  through  loading  high- 
er in  end  of  car  than  in  the  center — 


grain  doors  applied  to  the  height  of 
grain  in  the  doorway,  with  the  result 
when  the  car  is  in  transit  the  grain 
shifts  to  an  even  height,  causing  leak 
over  the  grain  doors,  and  a  little  care 
taken  at  loading  point  will  avoid  the 
likelihood  of  a  claim. 

Chief  Train  Dispatchers  and  Train 
Masters  should  see  that  all  grain  is 
moved  without  delay.  To  delay  grain 
creates  a  liability  and  subjects  the  com- 
pany to  a  claim  for  damage. 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

CIMMS  DEPARTMENT 

fragments  of  a  Sfo/y 
Seldom    &ver  Told 


MR.  CONLEY'S  INNOVATION. 
O  UPERVISOR  LAWRENCE  CON- 
^  LEY,  of  Freeport  fs  a  very  enthusi- 
astic worker  in  the  cause  of  "Safety 
First"  among  the  employes  under  his 
jurisdiction.  He  has  made  a  prac- 
tice of  cautioning  his  men  against 
taking  chances  and  has  acquired  an 
enviable  record  in  the  cause  of 
safety.  However,  Mr.  Conley  found 
that  the  different  arguments  in  fa- 
vor of  safety  measures  had  been 
gone  over  so  often  that  they  had 
become  threadbare,  and  he  felt  that  the 
time  had  arrived  when  he  must  origi- 
nate something  new  and  novel ;  some- 
thing that  would  immediately  arrest  the 
attention  of  his  men  and  quicken  their 
thoughts  in  regard  to  the  important 
matter  of  safety  practices.  He  evolved 
the  idea  of  starting  out  on  a  tour  for  the 
purpose  of  delivering  safety  lectures  to 
his  men  and  of  getting  hurt  himself,  so 
that  he  might  be  enabled  to  illustrate  by 
bruises  on  his  own  person,  his  talks  to 
his  men.  Mr.  Conley,  than  whom  there 


is  no  more  popular  or  efficient  officer  in 
the  road  department,  did  not  take  any- 
one into  his  secret.  No  one  knew  that 
he  intended,  when  he  left  Freeport  on 
a  small  motor  car,  on  the  morning  of  the 
6th  ult,  to  deliberately  run  into  the  first 
automobile  he  saw  (or  failed  to  see)  on 
a  grade  crossing.  The  opportunity  to 
get  hurt  came  when  Mr.  Conley  neared 
the  grade  crossing  two  miles  south  of 
Forreston.  An  automobile  was  ap- 
proaching. So  was  Mr.  Conley  on  his 
little  motor  car.  It  is  said  the  drivers 
of  both  vehicles  were  going  slowly,  but 
that  neither  was  using  his  sense  of  sight. 
They  met  on  the  crossing,  very  much 
to  the  surprise  of  the  driver  of  the  au- 
tomobile, but,  of  course,  not  so  with  Mr. 
Conley.  No  one  would  suspect  that  an 
officer  going  out  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  delivering  safety  lectures,  with  his 
mind  full  of  the  subject,  and  with  safety 
papers  bulging  out  of  all  his  pockets, 
could  be  caught  in  a  trap  like  that. 

But  Mr.  Conley  will  not  admit  that  he 
knew  the  automobile  was  going  to  meet 


44 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


45 


46 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


him  on  the  crossing.  When  questioned 
by  Superintendent  Dignan,  he  said,  "I 
simply  can't  figure  out  what  I  was  think- 
ing about."  All  the  same,  this  little  inci- 
dent, as  pulled  off  by  Mr.  Conley,  has 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  best  safety 
"stunts"  that  has  been  "put  over"  by 
any  railroad. 

After  the  accident,  with  his  swollen 
head  and  bleeding  hands  carefully  band- 
aged, and  his  safety  papers  gathered  up 
and  tucked  away  in  his  pockets,  Mr. 
Conley  continued  his  trip,  delivering 
his  safety  talks  to  his  men  and  illustrat- 
ing his  remarks  by  means  of  his  own  in- 
juries. He  showed  in  the  most  effective 
way  imaginable  how  easy  it  was  to  be 
looking  the  other  way  at  the  wrong 
time. 

Every  employe  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Mr.  Conley  has  heard  the  story  of 
his  innovation  and  has  witnessed  the 
bandaged  wounds  of  the  distinguished 
exponent  of  the  doctrines  of  "Safety 
First."  Whether  supervisors  on  other 
districts  will  decide  to  emulate  the  ex- 
ample set  by  Mr.  Conley  in  doing  safety 
work  remains  to  be  seen.  For  further 
information,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
the  cartoon  appearing  in  this  issue. 


CAPERS  OF  A  HORSE  ON  THE 
TRACK. 

An  incident  worthy  of  remark  and 
illustrative  of  what  is  going  on  all  over 
the  system  in  the  way  of  preventing  the 
killing  of  stock  on  the  waylands  oc- 
curred as  No.  12  was  leaving  Omaha  on 
regular  schedule  time  on  the  14th  ult. 
In  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  where  the 
track  is  built  upon  an  embankment  for 
a  considerable  distance,  a  horse  ap- 
peared upon  the  track  in  front  of  the 
engine.  The  engineer  slowed  up  his 
train  and  sounded  the  whistle  in  short 
blasts,  but  the  horse,  in  perfect  tran- 
quillity, trotted  along  slowly  in  front  of 
the  spouting  locomotive.  "The  passen- 
gers were  craning  their  heads  out  of 
the  car  windows,  looking  ahead  and  en- 
joying the  Joke.  The  fireman  jumped 
off  with  his  broom  and  ran  ahead  of 
the  horse  and  broke  the  broom  handle 
over  the  horse's  head,  but  still  the  horse 


trotted  on,  and  the  fireman  returned  dis- 
gusted to  the  engine.  A  man  was  seen 
walking  on  the  track  from  the  opposite 
direction,  and  everybody  felt  relieved 
because  he  would,  of  course,  head  the 
horse  off  and  allow  the  train  to  pass, 
but  he,  too,  decided  to  enter  into  the 
levity  of  the  occasion  and  threw  his  arms 
about  the  horse's  neck  and  the  animal 
trotted  on,  but  the  man  got  tired  of  rid- 
ing and  let  go  his  hold  and  disappeared 
without  heading  off  the  horse.  All  this 
time  the  train  was  proceeding  slowly 
behind  the  horse  and  the  modern  loco- 
motive was  making  all  of  the  different 
noises  which  it  was  capable  of  creating. 
Superintendent  Sullivan  was  on  the 
train.  With  him  it  was  not  so  much  of 
a  joke  to  have  one  of  his  most  promi- 
nent trains  held  up  by  a  broncho  and  he 
could  not  appreciate  the  funny  side  of 
it.  He  became  out  of  patience  and  him- 
self grabbed  the  coal  pick  from  the  lo- 
comotive and  succeeded  in  heading  off 
the  horse  and  gaining  the  right  of  way 
for  No.  12,  which  lost  a  few  minutes' 
time,  but  easily  made  it  up  before  ar- 
rival at  Fort  Dodge.  The  company  did 
not  have  to  pay  out  any  damages  on 
account  of  killing  the  horse  and  the 
lives  of  the  passengers  and  employes 
were  not  endangered. 

From  all  over  the  system  stories  are 
coming  in  about  the  efforts  that  are  be- 
ing made  to  reduce  the  killing  of  live 
stock,  and  these  efforts  are  being  reflect- 
ed in  decreases  in  amounts  paid  out  on 
account  of  killing  stock.  It  is  being  dem- 
onstrated that  careful  locomotive  engi- 
neers (those  who  take  a  lively  interest 
in  company  affairs),  constitute  a  most 
important  factor  in  this  reform. 


PASSING  THE  BUCK 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge 
that  some  portions  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral pass  through  the  most  magnificent 
farming  lands  that  have  ever  felt  the 
touch  of  a  plow;  it  is  likewise  well 
known  that  other  portions  of  the  road 
traverse  country  with  soil  so  hateful 
and  mean  that  one  would  have  to  fer- 
tilize it  to  make  brick. 

We  are  about  to  relate  a  little  cir- 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


47 


cumstance  originating  on  the  bad 
lands.  John  Doe  came  to  a  portion  of 
this  barren  country  in  1879  and  bought 
a  small  tract  containing  80  acres.  For 
this  stuff  called  land  John  paid  the 
magnificent  sum  of  $10.00  per  acre. 
This  made  $800.00.  These  were  bot- 
tom lands;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  at 
the  bottom  of  some  water  most  of  the 
time.  He  included  a  few  hills  in  the 
bargain,  but  these  were  mostly  rock 
with  just  a  little  dust  on  top. 

Down  in  the  bottom  lands  John 
would  plant  the  corn  and  a  sprinkling 
of  wheat.  He  would  work  and  drill 
and  sweat  and  swear.  During  early 
June  everything  looked  magnificent 
each  year,  but  along  about  that  time 
would  come  the  rains.  Rain  for  forty 
days  and  forty  nights  was  simply  a 
mist  to  what  John  had  on  these  bot- 
toms. 

Year  after  year  he  experienced  sim- 
ilar catastrophies  and  John  began  to 
look  for  an  outlet.  Where  did  he  find 
it?  In  this  manner.  Some  one  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  it  would  be  fitting 
to  sue  the  Illinois  Central  for  back- 
ing up  the  water.  Capital,  thought 
Bill  Smith  across  the  way,  who  had 
been  drowned  out,  too,  by  the  rains ; 
he  would  swear  that  the  railway  did. 
it.  So  would  Hank  Evans.  "Dug" 
Peabody  said,  "Aye,  gad,  it  would 
make  that  land  worth  $100.00  an  acre." 
Suit  was  brought  for  drowning  out 
10  acres  of  Doe's  corn;  he  swore  it 
would  make  54  bushels  to  the  acre  and 
everybody  else  who  had  lowlands  said 
so,  too,  and  they  all  said  it  was  worth 
44  cents  a  bushel.  Doe  got  paid  for 
the  crop  and  did  not  do  a  tap  after  the 
flood  towards  harvesting.  Hank  Evans 
offered  Doe  $22.00  per  acre  next  sea- 
son for  his  submerged  lands.  Doe 
would  not  take  it.  "Dug"  Peabody 
started  suit  every  time  it  began  to 
sprinkle,  and  one  time  he  was  so  busy 
attending  court  he  forgot  to  plant  the 
crop,  and  that  year  it  rained  harder 
than  ever.  "Dug"  swore  he  had  the 
patch  planted  in  cow  peas  and  got 
paid  for  them.  Terms  of  court  were 


like  terms  in  jail,  and  soon  they  got 
one  of  Hicks'  Almanacs  and  began 
starting  suits  according  to  the  time 
when  Hicks  said  "Heavy  rains."  One 
man  offered  to  trade  Hank  Evans  a 
coal  mine  for  his  submerged  lands,  but 
Hank  simply  laughed  and  said,  "H — 1, 
you  gotta  work  to  git  that  coal  out." 
Everybody  was  chewing  Navy  plug 
and  living  high.  They  were  out  of 
debt.  The  land  was  paid  for  several 
times,  and  the  principal  occupation 
was  simply  to  sit  on  a  rail  fence,  squirt 
tobacco  juice  into  the  jimson-weeds 
and  look  for  clouds. 

But,  lo,  one  day  there  alighted  from 
the  train  a  mediocre  looking  fellow,  of 
average  ability,  commonplace  appear- 
ance and  sort  of  a  liberal  disposition. 
This  stranger  planted  himself  amid 
the  lowlands  and  began  making  bar- 
gains for  the  settlement  of  claims 
among  owners  of  the  lands  involved 
in  the  overflow  districts.  He  settled 
with  Hank  Evans  for  $250.00,  and 
Hank  liked  to  have  stripped  all  the 
duds  off  himself  hurrying  through  the 
fence  to  see  Bill  Smith  and  tell  him 
about  it;  the  stranger  settled  with  Bill 
for  $250.00.  Then  "Dug"  Peabody 
said  it  was  a  shame  to  take  money 
from  the  kid  that  way  and  settled  for 
$200.00.  When  they 'signed  up,  it  so 
happened  that  the  release  read  that  it 
was  a  perpetual  release  running  with 
the  land,  to  be  recorded  so  that  it 
would  bind  all  subsequent  purchasers, 
and  forever  be  a  bar  to  any  subsequent 
claim  for  the  wrongdoings  of  Nep- 
tune, Hicks'  Almanac  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

When  it  became  apparent  that  never 
again  throughout  the  long  domain  of 
years  and  to  the  end  of  time,  when  this 
old  planet  will  be  an  idle  cinder  use- 
lessly spinning  in  its  orbit,  was  this 
railroad  to  compenstae  for  the  short- 
comings of  nature,  Bill  Smith  threw 
a  fit,  Hank  Evans  tore  his  hair,  cursed 
and  swore,  backslid  and  was  turned 
out  of  the  Baptist  church ;  John  Doe 
was  committed  to  a  hospital  for  the 
incurable  insane,  and  "Dug"  Peabody 
became  an  intolerant,  maudlin  mons- 


48 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ter,  whose  wife  ran  away  with  a  nig- 
ger. 

Yea,  verily  it  is  written,  "For  these 
be  the  days  of  vengeance." 


A    PICCANINNY    SURPRISINGLY 
WELL   INFORMED 

The  amount  of  information  pos- 
sessed by  negroes  relating  to  what  is 
necessary  to  constitute  a  good  cause 
of  action  for  personal  damages  is  often 
both  amusing  and  amazing.  Claim 
Agent  Jolly  recently  had  a  case  in 
point  which  not  only  astonished,  but 
practically  paralyzed,  him.  A  switch 
engine  and  a  typical  negro  outfit  of 
mule  and  wagon  in  which  several 
darkies  were  riding,  met  on  a  public 
crossing.  The  collision  was  rather 
disastrous  to  the  wagon,  but  little  dam- 
age was  done  to  its  passengers.  Mr. 
Jolly  reached  the  scene  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible and  began  inquiries  of  the  by- 
standers regarding  the  circumstances. 
He  was  approached  by  a  little  kinky 
headed  Sambo,  who  might  well  have 
been  anywhere  from  six  to  twelve 
years  of  age,  so  far  as  appearances  in- 
dicated, who  volunteered : 

"Mister,  I  can  tell  you  jess  how  it 
done  happen." 

"All  right,"  replied  Mr.  Jolly,  "go 
ahead  and  give  me  the  story." 

"Well,  Mister  it  was  jess  dis  hyar 
way;  de  train  was  'unnin  about  30 
miles  an  hour  thru  de  corporation;  it 
didn't  blow  no  wisel  and  it  didn't  'ing 
no  bell  and  dar  was  nobody  'tall  gwine 
ahead  o'  de  enjine." 

When  Mr.  Jolly  recovered  his  pow- 
ers of  speed  the  little  darkey  had  dis- 
appeared. 


MORE  PERJURY 

A  carefully  prepared  damage  suit 
for  $5,000.00  in  which  the  arrangements 
sadly  miscarried  was  that  of  Miss  Allie 
Leggett,  age  18,  who  sued  the  Y.  &  M. 
V.  R.  R.  at  the  June  term,  1914,  Cir- 
cuit Court  of  Amite  County,  Miss.  The 
case  was  tried  at  Meadville,  at  that 
term,  resulting  in  a  verdict  of  $2,000.00. 
Miss  Leggett  testified  that  she  was  re- 


turning from  Gloster  to  Knoxville  on 
a  round  trip  ticket  on  train  22,  March 
27,  1914;  that  each  time  the  train 
stopped  between  Gloster  and  Knoxville 
the  flagman  would  come  to  her  and 
ask  if  that  was  her  station,  and  that 
his  manner  indicated  that  he  was  mak- 
ing fun  of  her ;  that  after  the  train 
whistled  for  Knoxville  and  the  flagman 
announced  the  station,  the  train 
stopped  and  she  went  to  the  front  of 
the  car,  and  at  the  flagman's  request 
went  down  the  steps  ahead  of  him  and 
stepped  off  on  the  ground,  when  the 
train  started  and  she  discovered  she 
was  not  at  the  station,  but  from  a  quar- 
ter to  half  a  mile  from  it ;  that  the  flag- 
man stood  on  the  steps  and  laughed  at 
her  as  the  train  pulled  away;  that  it 
was  misting  rain  at  the  time.  She  was 
without  wraps,  and  as  she  had  to  walk 
to  the  station  became  very  wet,  and  as 
she  was  suffering  from  neuralgia,  was 
made  much  worse  and  suffered  great- 
ly. She  was  corroborated  by  her  fath- 
er, who  said  he  was  at  the  station  to 
meet  her  and  seeing  her  get  off  down 
the  track,  walked  down  to  her.  She 
was  also  fully  corroborated  as  to  what 
took  place  on  the  train  by  a  man  who 
testified  that  he  was  on  the  train  and 
witnessed  the  flagman's  conduct. 

The  railroad  showed  that  when  the 
train  was  within  about  2,000  ft.  of  the 
depot  it  ran  over  a  torpedo  and 
stopped  ;  that  the  conductor  went  ahead 
towards  the  engine  and  the  flagman 
went  back  to  flag,  but  before  going  he 
told  the  plaintiff  that  they  were  not 
at  the  station  and  to  remain  in  her 
seat  until  the  station  was  reached ;  that 
when  he  was  called  in  he  got  on  the 
rear  of  the  train  and  saw  her  get  off 
the  front  end  of  last  car  and  he  con- 
cluded she  lived  in  one  of  several 
houses  near  by  and  preferred  to  get 
off  there  rather  than  to  go  to  the  depot 
and_  walk  back.  The  flagman  testified 
positively  that  at  no  time  did  he  laugh 
at  her  or  say  anything  to  her  at  which 
she  could  properly  take  any  offense.  A 
lady  passenger  in  the  same  car  corrob- 
orated the  flagman  in  every  partic- 
ular, and  especially  that  he  went  back 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


49 


and  flagged  and  was  not  present  when 
the  girl  got  off. 

Upon  motion  for  new  trial  several 
affidavits  were  produced  by  the  rail- 
road to  show  that  the  witness  who  tes- 
tified that  he  was  on  the  train  and  wit- 
nessed the  conduct  of  the  flagman 
complained  of,  was  not  on  the  train  at 
all,  but  was  in  the  depot  at  Knoxville 
at  the  time  playing  cards.  The  verdict 
was  set  aside  and  a  new  trial  granted. 
This  trial  was  had  at  the  June  term, 
1915,  at  which  time  the  witness  for 
the  plaintiff  referred  to  did  not  appear. 
However,  the  jury  returned  a  verdict 
for  $750.00,  which  the  court  promptly 
reduced  to  $100.00.  The  action  of  the 
jury  at  the  second  trial  was  no  doubt 
largely  influenced  by  sympathy  for 
the  plaintiff,  she  having  married  im- 
mediately after  the  first  trial  and  short- 
ly afterwards  her  husband  killed  her 
father  and  then  himself,  so  that  at 
the  time  of  the  second  trial  she  was  a 
widow  with  a  two-months-old  babe. 
The  trial  judge  was  very  much  aroused 
over  the  proof  of  perjury  committed 
upon  the  first  trial,  and  it  is  rumored 
there  will  be  a  further  chapter  to  this 
remarkable  case,  which  will  later  ap- 
pear on  the  criminal  side  of  the  docket. 


SECTION  FOREMAN  UNCOVERS 
ATTEMPTED  FRAUD 

Few  men  in  any  department  of  the  serv- 
ice are  more  loyal  to  the  company's  in- 


terest than  the  average  section  foreman. 
In  sparsely  settled  communities  he  is 
often  the  only  responsible  representative 
of  the  company  on  the  territory  covered 
by  his  section — a  distance  of  from  five 
to  eight  miles.  This  condition  brings 
opportunities  to  the  section  foremen  to 
serve  the  company  in  many  ways.  As  a 
rule  the  foremen  on  the  Vicksburg  Divi- 
sion take  advantage  of  these  opportuni- 
ties. 

Mr.  J.  Hart,  of  the  Redwood  Station, 
is  one  of  the  "live"  ones.  Mr.  Hart  got 
his  training  in  the  track  department  un- 
der his  father,  who  was  a  section  fore- 
man on  the  Louisville  Division,  and  was 
transferred  to  the  Vicksburg  Division 
about  a  year  ago. 

Early  in  March,  1915,  a  yearling,  be- 
longing to  a  negro,  was  struck  and  in- 
jured on  the  Redwood  Section.  It  was 
duly  reported  to  the  claim  agent,  but 
when_  claim  was  filed  it  was  for  a  dead 
animal.  The  negro  claimed  that  the  ani- 
mal had  wandered  off  and  died  from  the 
effects  of  the  injuries,  and  told  Mr.  Hart 
where  the  dead  animal  could  be  found. 
Sure  enough,  there  was  a  dead  cow  at 
the  place,  much  resembling  the  one 
struck.  However,  Mr.  Hart  was  not  sat- 
isfied and  did  a  little  scouting  of  his  own 
account  and  was  rewarded  by  discover- 
ing the  animal  which  had  been  struck  in 
the  swamps  of  the  Mississippi  River.  It 
had  practically  recovered  from  its  injur- 
ies. Of  course,  the  claim  was  declined. 


J.   HART. 


EXCEPTION  TO  THE  RULE 

Miss  E.  E.  Reynolds,  owning  property 
on  both  sides  of  the  right  of  way  of  the 
Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.  at  Caile,  Miss.,  refuses 
to  become  inoculated  with  the  prevailing 
greed  to  obtain  money  from  a  railroad 
company  without  just  grounds  for  doing 
so.  On  June  15,  at  5  p.  m.,  train  No. 
593  struck  and  killed  a  six-months'-old 
calf  300  feet  north  of  Mile  Post  LD  No. 
147,  belonging  to  her.  Section  Foreman 
E.  L.  Snaveley,  of  Isola,  called  on  Miss 
Reynolds  in  regard  to  the  accident  and 
she  advised  him  that  on  account  of  the 
negligence  of  one  of  her  hired  hands  in 
not  watching  her  stock,  which  had  been 
turned  into  a  lane  running  to  the  rail- 


50 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


road,  she  did  not  think  she  was  entitled 
to  any  compensation.  Miss  Reynolds  is 
to  be  commended  for  her  fairness  in  the 
matter,  and  her  example  should  be  a 
shining  light  to  others  living  adjacent  to 
our  right  of  way  who  have  stock  killed 
and  injured  through  their  own  neglect. 

FAKE  LAW  SUITS 

One  J.  S.  Burt,  through  his  attorneys, 
filed  suit  against  the  company  in  Mem- 
phis for  $25,000  damages,  based  on  al- 
leged personal  injuries  sustained  at  Pa- 
ducah,  July  10,  1914,  at  9  :30  p.  m.,  while 
working  in  the  capacity  of  car  inspector 
on  track  No.  7.  Investigation  developed 
that  theie  was  no  such  man  employed  by 
the  company  at  Paducah,  and  that  no  ac- 
cident occurred  at  the  time  and  place 
stated.  Burt  claimed  that  after  he  was 
hurt  he  was  taken  to  the  Paducah  Hos- 
pital and  there  treated  for  his  injuries  by 
Dr.  C.  W.  Mitchell.  Investigation  also 
developed  that  no  such  person  was 
treated  at  the  hospital  and  that  "Dr. 
Mitchell"  was  a  myth.  When  the  case 
was  called  for  trial  in  the  month  of 
June,  the  attorneys  who  filed  the  suit 
were  unable  to  find  their  client  and,  of 
course,  the  suit  was  dismissed. 

One  S.  L.  Carter,  colored,  filed  suit 
against  the  company  at  Natchez,  Miss., 
in  March,  1915,  alleging  that  he  was  in- 
jured at  Louisville,  November  17,  1914, 
while  working  with  Conductor  Robert 
Tilman  and  Engineer  Jack  Swanson  and 
engine  No.  1515.  Investigation  devel- 
oped that  engine  No.  1515  was  never 
north  of  Central  City  and  that  there 
were  no  employes  in  Louisville  by  the 
names  given.  As  soon  as  the  attorney 
who  filed  the  suit  found  out  that  he  had 
been  victimized,  the  case  was  promptly 
dismissed. 

There  are  a  lot  of  sharks  traveling 
about  the  country,  preying  upon  law- 
yers in  the  same  manner  recited  in  the 
foregoing  cases.  They  go  to  places 
where  they  are  unknown  and  stay 
around  for  a  few  days  until  they  can 
find  out  the  name  of  some  lawyer  who 
is  making  a  specialty  of  suing  railroads 
on  personal  injury  claims.  When  they 
locate  the  right  lawyer,  they  give  him 


the  case.  Before  the  lawyer  has  time  to 
find  out  that  he  has  fallen  into  a  trap, 
the  shark  has  usually  "touched"  him  for 
a  five  or  a  ten  and,  in  some  instances,  as 
high  as  fifty.  We  do  not  sympathize 
particularly  with  the  lawyers  who  are 
thus  victimized.  Our  only  complaint  is 
that  it  takes  up  a  lot  of  our  time  inves- 
tigating these  fake  cases. 

ONE  OF  THE  RAILROAD'S 
PROBLEMS 

The  railroad  company  has  been  found 
such  a  ready  market  for  stock  that  not 
only  are  there  grounds  to  suspect  that, 
in  some  instances,  stock  is  turned  on  the 
right-of-way  to  be  killed,  but  there  are 
sometimes  cases  where  it  is  suspected 
claims  are  made  for  animals  which  died 
from  other  causes. 

In  the  suit  of  J.  E.  Tillery  vs.  Y.  & 
M.  V.  R.  R.  Co.,  in  Amite  County, 
Miss.,  for  cow  killed  by  train  January 
22,  1914,  investigation  developed  that 
the  cow  was  found  dead  on  the  premises 
of  a  neighbor  and  at  a  distance  of  from 
a  quarter  to  half  a  mile  from  the  track. 
Three  men  examined  the  animal  and 
were  unable  to  find  any  evidence  of  it 
having  been  struck  by  a  train.  The  case 
was  called  for  trial  at  the  February  term 
of  court  and  the  company  was  ready 
with  all  its  witnesses,  but  the  plaintiff 
secured  a  continuance.  When  reached 
at  the  next  term  the  company  again 
having  all  its  witnesses  on  hand  plain- 
tiff took  a  non-suit,  evidently  having 
learned  what  the  company  was  pre- 
pared to  prove.  No  doubt  the  plaintiff 
and  his  attorney  were  in  possession  of 
as  much  information  about  the  killing 
of  this  animal  when  the  suit  was 
brought  as  when  it  was  dismissed,  but 
probably  thought  the  company  would 
pay  something  rather  than  stand  the  ex- 
pense of  a  defense.  A  considerable  sum 
of  money  is  expended  by  the  railroad 
every  year  in  preparing  to  defend  suits 
which  plaintiffs  and  their  attorneys 
know  are  without  merit  when  they  are 
brought  and  which  are  filed  purely  in 
the  hope  of  forcing  a  compromise. 

As  the  company  is  usually  charged 
with  setting  out  all  fires  which  occur 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


51 


within  several  hundred  feet  of  the  track, 
this  may  suggest  to  some  that  it  should 
be  held  responsible  for  all  animals  found 
dead  near  the  track. 


DERAILMENT     CAUSED     BY 
STRIKING  MULE 

The  danger  from  live  stock  on  the 
track  was  again  illustrated  when  Extra 
830  was  shoving  eleven  cars  ahead  of 
engine  from  Marissa  for  the  Consul 
mines,  on  the  St.  Louis  District,  at  12  :10 
a.  m.,  July  30,  when  the  advancing  car 
collided  with  a  mule  on  the  track,  re- 
sulting in  the  derailment  of  three  cars. 
The  killing  of  the  mule  and  damage  to 
track  and  equipment  amounted  to  $100. 
Fortunately,  there  were  no  personal  in- 
juries, but  the  accident  furnishes  anoth- 
er striking  illustration  of  the  damage 
which  an  animal  on  the  track  is  capable 
of  doing.  The  mule  was  the  property  of 
the  Tilden  Coal  Company. 

There  have  been  a  great  many  acci- 
dents on  the  Illinois  Central  Rairoad 
caused  by  striking  stock.  Happily,  the 
liability  for  these  accidents  is  being 
greatly  decreased  on  account  of  the  un- 
usual interest  which  is  being  taken  by 
division  officers,  employes,  and  espe- 
cially by  section  foremen  and  locomotive 
engineers,  in  preventing  the  striking  of 
stock. 


ACCIDENTS      AND      WHAT 

SHOULD  BE  DONE  WHEN 

THEY  OCCUR 

In  most  of  the  accidents  we  have  due 
to  running  of  trains  and  switch  engines, 
the  engineer  and  fireman  are  the  first  em- 
ployes of  the  company  to  know  of  the 
accident.  This  is  especially  true  when 
the  train  or  engine  strikes  something. 
The  other  members  of  the  train  or 
switching  crew  are  back  in  the  caboose 
or  back  of  the  engine  at  some  place,  and 
the  first  they  know  of  the  accident  is  the 
sudden  stopping  of  the  train. 

The  evidence  of  the  engineer  and  fire- 
man is  always  vital,  and  on  this  account, 
they  should  be  in  a  position  to  give  state- 
ments that  could  absolutely  be  relied 
upon;  that  is,  they  should  strive  to  give 


a  true  and  correct  history  of  the  acci- 
dent. In  order  to  illustrate  just  what  is 
wanted,  we  will  say  that  train  No.  4 
strikes  a  buggy,  the  buggy  is  demolished, 
horse  killed  and  occupant  injured.  May- 
be this  same  day  the  claim  agent  will 
call  on  the  train  crew  for  statements 
showing  just  how  this  accident  occurred 
and  the  engineer  and  fireman  should  be 
able  to  give  him  the  following  informa- 
tion: Rate  of  speed  train  was  running 
when  accident  occurred;  how  far  was 
train  from  object  when  brakes  were  ap- 
plied; was  it  emergency  or  slight  appli- 
cation ;  in  the  event  of  slight  application, 
about  how  many  pounds ;  were  you  on 
the  lookout ;  if  not,  what  were  you  doing 
at  time  of  accident?  How  far  did  train 
run  before  same  was  brought  to  a  stop? 
If  train  is  brought  to  a  stop,  a  mark 
should  be  made  on  the  rail  or  cross  ties 
in  order  that  the  exact  distance  could  be 
measured  from  point  the  object  was 
struck  to  where  the  engine  stopped.  How 
many  cars  in  the  train;  what  kind  of 
cars;  were  they  equipped  with  air 
brakes ;  were  the  brakes  in  good  condi- 
tion ;  how  many  loaded  cars ;  how  many 
empties;  was  the  bell  ringing;  was  en- 
gine equipped  with  automatic  bell  ring- 
er ;  where  was  the  whistle  sounded ;  was 
it  danger  signal  or  the  regular  station  or 
crossing  whistle;  was  there  anything  to 
have  obstructed  the  view  of  the  engineer 
and  fireman  (if  so,  what  was  it)  ;  was 
there  anything  to  have  prevented  the  in- 
jured party  from  seeing  the  approaching 
train  or  engine;  what  condition  was  the 
weather;  time  of  day;  if  at  night,  was 
the  headlight  burning,  kind  of  light? 

The  things  mentioned  above  are  the 
most  essential  in  fixing  responsibility, 
and  if  the  train  crew  would  observe 
these  things  when  an  accident  occurs,  it 
would  prove  most  helpful  and  beneficial. 


PECULIAR  SUIT  FILED  AGAINST 
I.  C.  R.  R.  CO. 

Claim  agent  Cary  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral has  been  notified  by  the  Mattoon 
agent  that  a  suit  against  the  company  is 
in  prospect  over  an  injury  to  a  boy,  Fred 
Linthcomb,  who  lost  two  fingers  and  a 
thumb  recently  by  the  explosion  of  a  dy- 


52 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


namite  cap  several  hundred  feet  distant 
from  the  Illinois  Central  right-of-way. 

In  a  barn  on  premises  formerly  rented 
by  a  civil  engineer  in  the  employ  of  the 
Central,  the  boy  discovered  a  box  con- 
taining some  dynamite  caps.  Several  of 
these  he  exploded  at  his  home  without 
injury  to  himself,  but  the  fatal  explosion 
nearly  tore  off  his  hand. 

In  the  box,  as  was  found  later  on  in- 
vestigation by  Linthcomb's  parents,  were 
some  business  cards  giving  the  name  and 
occupation  of  the  engineer,  who  left  the 
railroad  company's  employ  and  also  va- 
cated his  home  in  Mattoon  several 
months  previously.  The  presumption 
from  this  was  that  the  engineer  left  the 
dynamite  caps  in  the  barn  when  he  va- 
cated the  premises.  Acting  on  this 


presumption  the  boy,  though  his  par- 
ents, are  preparing  to  sue  the  engineer 
and  railroad  company  jointly  for  the 
injury. 

The  liability  of  the  railroad  company 
in  such  a  matter  is  not  clear,  unless  it  is 
on  the  same  layout  that  an  Iowa  jury 
years  ago  returned  a  verdict  against  the 
Northwestern  Railroad  Company  for 
killing  a  bull.  The  company  showed  by 
evidence  that  the  bull  was  killed  by 
lightning  three  miles  from  the  North- 
western tracks.  But  the  jury  gave  the 
farmer  a  judgment  against  the  company 
nevertheless  on  the  principle,  as  one  of 
them  remarked :  "If  the  railroad  don't 
pay  for  that  bull,  who  in  h — 1  will?" — 
Kankakee,  111.,  Democrat,  July  22,  1915. 
Recent  Commerce  Decisions. 


Name 

Dallas  D.  Tilton 
Frank  Seiffert 
William  L.  Reynolds 
George  Cunningham 
John  McFall  (col.) 
John  Sullivan 
Edward  J.  Steinbeck 
Robt.  C.  Banks  (col.) 


Occupation 
Machinist 
Bl'ksmith   H'lp'r 
Asst.  Lbr.  Agt. 
Section  Foreman 
Sweeper 

Section  Foreman 
Asst.  Eingineer 
Oil   Man 


Where      Serv- 

Date  of 

Employed    ice 

Retirement 

E.  St.  Louis21  yrs. 

March  31,  1915 

Waterloo       20  yrs. 

July  31,  1915 

Fulton            18  yrs. 

June  30,  1915 

Fonda             43  yrs. 

July  31,  1915 

Centralia        22  yrs. 

July  31,  1915 

Cobden           43  yrs. 

July  31,  1915 

Chicago          32  yrs. 

July  31,  1915 

Canton            24  yrs. 

March  31,  1915 

SWITCHING   CREW,   AMBOY  YARD,   AMBOY,   ILL. 


SflFETY 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,Nrr 
S  E,RVI  OE, 
LWAY  S 


Comparative  Statement  of  Fatal  and  Serious  Non-Fatal  Injuries  on  the  Illinois 

Central  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  Railroads  for  the  First  Six  Months 

of  1915  and  First  Six  Months  of  1914: 


January,  1915  5 

January,  1914  7 

February,   1915  4 

February,  1914  6 

March,  1915  3 

March,  1914  3 

April,  1915  2 

April,  1914  5 

May,   1915   4 

May,    1914   2 

June,   1915   5 

June,   1914  8 

Total  Six  Months  1915 23 

Total  Six  Months  1914 3JL 

Six  Months  1915  over 
Six   Months   1914.... 


Employes 
K.        I. 
10 
20 


5 

30 
28 
15 
14 
21 
16 
23 
10 
26 
83 
135 


Trespassers 
K.        I. 

16 

4 

16 

9 

7 

3 

10 

7 

11 

4 

15 

9 

12 

11 

12 

8 

16 

12 

11 

8 

8 

9 

14 

14 

70 

~43 

78 

56 

Others 

K.          I. 

4 

6 

9 

1  6 
2 
2 


1 
7 
3 
5 
2 

10 
21 
36 


*8      *52 


*8      *13 


*2      *15 


*Decrease. 


What  Can  We  Do  To  Prevent  Accidents  ? 

By  H.  G.  Taylor,  Foremen  Painter,  Clinton,  111. 


The  writer  has  chosen  to  present  this 
subject  somewhat  in  the  form  of  an  es- 
say, treating  it  on  general  lines,  rather 
than  as  a  set  of  suggested  means  and 
ways  to  accomplish  the  desired  end.  It 
is  felt  that  it  might  not  be  amiss  to  en- 
deavor to  contribute  some  little  help 


towards  the  general  campaign  of  educa- 
tion that  is  being  so  vigorously  and  suc- 
cessfully carried  on  to  develop  the  idea 
of  personal  responsibility,  in  the  preser- 
vation of  life  and  limb,  by  an  appeal  to 
the  innate  intelligence  of  the.  average 
employe. 


54 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


55 


The  result  of  the  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  writer  is  after  all  decidedly  meager, 
but  is,  nevertheless,  a  conscientious  ef- 
fort to  do  what  he  could. 

That  self-preservation  is  the  first  law 
of  nature  is  an  accepted  axiom;  and  yet 
it  is  an  indisputable  fact  that  this  very 
potent  law  of  our  natural  being  is  al- 
most universally  disregarded  in  the  ab- 
stract and  is  only  observed  when  some 
sudden  or  impending  danger  confronts 
us.  We  are  most  inconsistent  in  that  we 
are  far  more  likely  to  bring  disaster, 
which  we  all  dread,  than  to  avert  it  by 
disregarding  warnings  uttered  and 
placed  for  the  guarding  and  saving  of 
life  and  limb,  than  to  heed  them.  The 
solving  of  the  problem  of  safeguarding 
ourselves  and  others  lies  entirely  within 
our  own  province,  and  can  only  be 
solved  by  the  elimination  of  the  element 
of  carelessness  so  universally  promi- 
nent and  the  development  of  our  pow- 
ers of  observation. 

Safety  in  our  chosen  occupation  can 
only  be  assured  by  a  constant  and  intel- 
ligent development  of  the  antithesis  of 
carelessness :  CAUTION. 

The  remarkable  impetus  given  the 
movement  for  "Safety  First,"  in  recent 
years  is  the  result  of  thoughtful  con- 
sideration and  effort  of  men  of  action 
in  the  industrial  world,  and  demands 
our  individual  co-operation,  by  recogniz- 
ing our  personal  responsibility,  in  each 
and  every  effort  of  the  safety  of  life 
and  limb. 

The  institution  of  safety  appliances, 
the  formulation  of  innumerable  rules 
avail  but  little  of  themselves.  They  are 
rendered  of  no  value  if  we  are  going  to 
allow  ourselves  to  be  careless,  indiffer- 
ent and  disinterested  in  their  use  and  ob- 
servance. It  has  been  said — and  no 
doubt  with  truth — that  from  80  to  90 
per  cent  of  the  injuries  received  by  em- 
ployes of  the  railroads  are  due  entirely 
to  the  reprehensible  habit  of  careless- 
ness. Surelv  we  have  great  need  to  ed- 
ucate ourselves  to  a  keener  perception 
of  our  duty ;  not  only  to  ourselves  but 
to  those  who,  through  us,  may  jeopard- 
ize limb  or  life. 

After  all,  it  is  simply  the  develop- 
ment of  the  common  sense  with  which 


we  are  all  more  or  less  endowed.  Sure- 
ly it  is  far  better  to  inculcate  a  habit  of 
restraint  and  control,  with  its  accom- 
panying protection  and  advantages, 
than  through  criminal  ignorance  or  care- 
lessness to  invite  pain  and  suffering, 
with  perhaps  an  untimely  end. 

The  campaign  of  education  along  the 
line  of  personal  safety  which  is  now  be- 
ing actively  promulgated,  is  one  of  the 
many  evidences  of  a  deeper  mutual  in- 
terest between  employer  and  employed. 
The  preservation  of  life  and  limb  is  no 
longer  a  mere  commercial  proposition 
involving  the  question  of  compensation ; 
but  a  broad  humanitarian  effort  towards 
the  bettering  of  life  and  living. 

An  accident  is  an  event  proceeding 
from  an  unforeseen  or  an  unknown 
cause,  .and  accepting  the  proposition  as 
stated,  the  best  we  can  do  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  ourselves  and  our  fellow.0,, 
is  to  hold  in  restraint  and  control  our 
natural  tendency  to  carelessness  and  dis- 
regard of  adverse  chances  as  to  min- 
imize the  possibilities  of  accident,  and 
not  become  contributory  factors  in  ac- 
cidental injuries. 

To  attempt  to  enumerate  the  many 
"DON'TS"  in  any  given  occupation 
which  are  primary  factors  in  accidental 
injuries,  would  be  but  to  reiterate  what 
we  have  already  heard  and  same  would 
possibly  make  no  deeper  impression  than 
already  made.  It  is  only  as  we  recog- 
nize and  realize  our  duty  towards  our- 
selves and  our  fellows  that  we  will  be 
enabled  to  intelligently  and  effectively 
contribute  towards  the  prevention  of 
accidents  in  our  chosen  occupations. 
All  rules  promulgated  for  the  preven- 
tion of  accidents  should  receive  our 
earnest  and  intelligent  consideration. 
We  should  also  see  in  them  a  desire 
to  protect  from  injury  and  loss  to  the 
employes  as  much  as  the  protection  of 
the  property  and  interest  of  the  em- 
ployer. The  heedlessness  so  easily  en- 
gendered by  the  demands  and  conditions 
under  which  our  occupations  may  be 
pursued  should  be  by  every  effort  pos- 
sible eliminated  and  a  proper  exercise 
of  care  and  caution  will  insure  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  in  hand  without  in- 
jury or  mishap. 


the 


Recent  Commerce  Decisions 


LJ  OOF  Weights. — The  assessment 
of  freight  charges  upon  hoof  sell- 
ing weights ;  less  fill  allowances,  is  not 
unlawful,  but  the  requirement  that 
the  variation  between  weights  taken  on 
track  scales  and  hoof  selling  weights 
shall  amount  to  1,000  pounds  per  car  as 
a  condition  to  the  setting  aside  of  the 
one  in  favor  of  the  other  is  found  to  be 
unreasonable  in  so  far  as  the  variation 
exceeds  500  pounds. — Kansas  City  Live 
Stock  Exchange  vs.  A.  T.  &  S.  F.  R.  Co., 
34  ICC  423. 

Segregating  Terminal  Charge  From 
Through  Freight  Rate. — Where  a  ter- 
minal service  has  heretofore  been 
treated  by  the  carriers  as  a  part  of 
the  transportation  service  covered  by 
the  freight  rate  and  regularly  per- 
formed by  them,  they  may  not  now 
segregate  that  service  and  assign  to 
it  a  separate  charge  without  taking 
into  consideration,  in  order  to  justify 
such  charge,  the  entire  through  service 
of  which  it  forms  a  part,  and  the  com- 
pensation heretofore  received  for  such 
through  service. — Lighterage  &  Storage 
Regulations  at  New  York,  35  ICC  48. 

Shipper's  Load  and  Count. — Rule  23 
of  the  Western  Classification  which  re- 
quires that  "freight  loaded  by  shipper 
and  not  checked  by  carrier  must  be  re- 
ceipted for  'shipper's  load  and  count' " 
was  assailed,  the  complainant  contending 
that  it  violated  Section  20  of  the  Com- 
merce Act  known  as  the  Carmack 
Amendment,  as  amended  by  the  Cum- 
mins Amendment,  and  that  the  carrier 
should  either  send  a  representative  to 
complainant's  mills  and  check  the  load- 
ing of  rice  or  to  accept  statements  as  to 
quantities  without  checking,  and  to  issue 
so-called  "clean"  bills  of  lading  therefor; 


but  the  Commission  held,  following  the 
Ponchatoula  Case,  19  ICC  521,  that  the 
Cummins  Amendment  had  not  changed 
the  legal  status  of  the  rule  and  that 
"where  the  practice  is  shown  to  have  re- 
sulted from  a  situation  involving  the  mu- 
tual interest  and  convenience  of  the 
shipper  and  the  carrier,  we  do  not,  in 
view  of  all  the  facts,  circumstances  and 
conditions  "appearing  of  record,  find  the 
rule  and  practice  challenged  to  be  un- 
reasonable or  otherwise  in  violation  of 
existing  law.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  shipper  is  not  denied  his  right 
to  an  unqualified  receipt  in  any  case  in 
which  delivery  is  tendered  to  the  carrier 
at  any  of  its  public  stations  where  it  pro- 
vides facilities  for  the  receipt  and  deliv- 
ery of  freight." — Louisiana  State  Rice 
Milling  Company  vs.  M.  L.  &  T.  R.  R.  & 
S.  Co.,  34  ICC  577. 

Reconsignments. — In  Interior  Lum- 
ber Co.  vs.  Southern  R.  Co.,  Unre- 
ported  Opinion  2104,  the  commission  re- 
affirms its  conclusions  reached  in  previ- 
ous cases,  and  says  concerning  them  that 
it  was  there  held  when  a  request  for  re- 
consignment  or  diversion  is  made  at  a 
reasonable  time  and  entails  no  change  in 
the  contents  of  the  car  and  no  out  of 
line  haul,  the  reconsignment  or  diver- 
sion requested  should  be  effected  on  the 
basis  of  the  through  rate  from  the  point 
of  origin  to  the  new  destination  plus  a 
reasonable  additional  charge  for  the  ex- 
tra service  performed,  and  that  $5  con- 
stituted a  reasonable  charge  for  the  ad- 
ditional service. 

Publicity  Concerning  Classification 
Changes. — In  its  opinion  of  June  28, 
1915,  by  Commissioner  Meyer,  In  Re 
Western  Trunk  Line  Rules,  34  ICC  554, 
the  commission  directs  attention  to  its 


57 


58 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


views  expressed  in  the  Western  Classifi- 
cation Case,  respecting  publicity  of  pro- 
posed changes  and  method  of  classifica- 
tion procedure,  where  it  is  said  that  pub- 
lic business  cannot  be  conducted  in  a 
private  way,  that  the  failure  to  recog- 
nize this  fact  fully  and  to  proceed  ac- 
cordingly was  largely  responsible  for  the 
commotion  centering  about  Classification 
No.  51 ;  that  these  methods  must  be 
changed  to  meet  the  present  situation, 
and  the  Commission  adds  as  to  the  pres- 
ent case  that  "practically  all  changes 
proposed  in  Circular  1-K  have  been  ap- 
proved. Had  these  changes  been  adver- 
tised before  adoption  by  the  Classifica- 
tion Committee,  we  seriously  doubt  if 
this  proceeding  would  have  been  neces- 
sary." 

Car  spotting  covers  only  one  place- 
ment of  a  car  upon  an  industrial  track 
for  loading  or  unloading,  and  an  addi- 
tional charge  should  be  made  for  each 
additional  placement  of  a  car  for  that 


purpose,  and  also  for  the  movement  of 
cars  from  place  to  place  within  the  plant 
during  the  process  of  manufacture.  Car 
Spotting  Charges,  34  ICC  609. 

Sus-pended  Rates  Not  to  be  Increased 
Until  Proceeding  Ended. — Tariff  Circu- 
lar 18-A,  tenth  paragraph  of  Rule  9  (k) 
was  amended,  effective  July  15,  by  add- 
ing thereto  the  following: 

"It  is  ordered,  That  when  the  Commis- 
sion has  suspended  a  schedule  and  de- 
ferred the  use  of  a  rate,  fare,  charge, 
classification,  regulation  or  practice 
stated  therein,  the  rate,  fare,  or  charge 
thereby  continued  in  effect  shall  not  be 
increased,  and  the  classification,  regula- 
tion or  practice  stated  therein  shall  not 
be  changed,  by  any  subsequent  schedule, 
until  the  suspension  proceeding  has  been 
disposed  of  or  the  period  of  suspension, 
and  of  any  extension  thereof,  has  ex- 
pired, unless  such  change  is  specifically 
authorized  by  special  order  of  the  Com- 
mission." 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Controlling  the  Outgo 

By  A.  E.  Clift,  General  Superintendent 


TT  7  ITH  other  lines  of  business  rail- 
W  roads  suffer  from  business  de- 
pression, but  under  greater  obligations 
to  the  public,  as  a  common  carrier,  it 
is  incumbent  upon  them  to  maintain  a 
standard  of  service  to  accommodate 
the  travel  and  the  transportation  of 
freight,  which  is  so  closely  interwoven 
with  the  community's  welfare  that  it 
is,  indeed,  a  difficult  matter  to  reduce 
the  expenses  to  a  ratio  comparable 
with  a  largely  decreased  business.  In 
other  lines  of  business  the  same  condi- 
tions apply,  but  not  so  forcibly. 

The  business  of  the  country  is  now 
going  through  trying  times  and  the 
railroad  managements  are  confronted 
with  the  heavy  arbitrary  expenses  and 
decreased  earnings.  The  earnings  can- 
not be  materially  increased,  generally, 
and  the  only  available  recourse  to  in- 
sure dividends  and  funds  to  maintain 
the  properties  in  suitable  condition,  to 
meet  a  maximum  business,  is  that  of 
economy  in  all  lines  of  the  operating 
expense.  On  a  large  system  like  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  where  •'the 
disbursements  of  expenses  run  into 
large  figures,  and  which  thousands  ol 
employes  have  within  their  control, 
the  co-operation  of  all  employes  to  the 
end  sought  is,  of  course,  essential.  Per- 
haps some  employes  think  they  are  too 
"small  a  cog  in  the  wheel"  to  be  of  ma- 
terial assistance  in  keeping  down  the 
expense,  but  the  truthfulness  of  the 
old  adage,  "Save  the  pennies  and  the 
dollars  will  take  care  of  themselves/" 
I  venture  to  say,  cannot  be  more  clear- 
ly brought  out  than  in  the  operation 


of  a  great  property  such  as  the  Illinois 
Central. 

To  assume  it  is  in  the  power  of  each 
employe  to  save  ten  cents  a  day  for 
the  company  in  one  way  or  another 
would  amount  to  at  least  $4,000.00  a 
day,  $1,460,000.00  a  year.  I  do  not 
think  the  figure  has  been  placed  be- 
yond the  realms  of  possibility.  The 
economical  use  of  material,  supplies, 
stationery,  the  prevention  of  accidents, 
freight  claims,  stock  claims,  personal 
injuries,  and  increasing  our  efficiency 
in  directions  the  opportunities  offer  are 
a  few  of  the  items  on  which  we  can 
specialize.  Above  all  we  should  not 
overlook  the  importance  of  individual 
effort  in  advancing  the  company's  wel- 
fare, never  thinking  someone  else  will 
do  it,  on  the  contrary,  do  it  ourselves 
— do  it  now,  keeping  in  mind  the  com- 
pany's prosperity  is  our  prosperity  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  community  it 
serves. 

I  do  not  know  who  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing poem,  which  I  am  quoting  with 
the  idea  that  we  can  use  the  principles 
advanced  to  good  advantage : 

It  Can  Be  Done 

"Somebody    said    that    it    couldn't    be 

done, 

But  he,  with  a  chuckle,  replied 
That  maybe  it  couldn't,'  but  he  would 

be  one 

AYho  wouldn't  say  so  till  he'd  tried. 
So  he  buckled  right  in  with  the  trace 

of  a  grin 
On  his  face.    If  he  worried,  he  hid  it. 


60 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


61 


He  started  to  sing  as  he  tackled  the 

thing 
That  couldn't  be  done,  and  he  did  it. 

Somebody    scoffed:     'Oh,    you'll    never 

do  that; 
At  least,  no  one  ever  has  done  it.' 


That  couldn't  be  done,  but  he  did 
it. 

There  are  thousands  to  tell  you  it  can- 
not be  done, 

There    are    thousands    to    prophesy 
failure ; 


But  he  took  off  his  coat  and  he  took  off     There  are  thousands  to  point  out  to 


his  hat, 

And  the  first  thing  we  knew  he'd  be- 
gun it. 

With  the  lift  of  his  chin,  and  a  bit  of  a 
grin 


you,  one  by  one, 
The  dangers  that  wait  to  assail  you ; 
But  just  buckle  in  with  a  bit  of  a  grin, 
Then  take  off  your  coat  and  go  to  it ; 


Just  start  in  to  sing,  as  you  tackle  the 
Without  any  doubting  or  quiddit ;  thing 

He  started  to  sing  as  he  tackled  the          That  'cannot  be  done,'  and  you'll  do 


thing 


it.' 


Meeting  of  Central  Agents  Association 


By  F.  B.  Simcox,  Secretary 


The  quarterly  meeting  of  the  Cen- 
tral Agents'  Association  of  the  Spring- 
field Division  was  held  in  a  special 
coach  on  the  rear  of  the  Sunday  excur- 
sion train,  leaving  Clinton  at  7 :50  a.  m., 
Sunday,  July  18th,  for  Havana.  The 
following  persons  were  in  attendance: 
G.  E.  Patterson,  Superintendent,  Clin- 
ton. 

H.  L.  Moffett,  Trainmaster,  Clinton. 
P.  K.  Hanley,  Trainmaster,  Clinton. 
J.  A.  Meehan,  Claim  Clerk,  Clinton. 
G.  W.  Rollins,  Agent,  Moweaqua. 

A.  C.  Beckett,  Agent,  Walker. 

C.  C.  Baldwin,  Freight  Agent,  Pana. 

L.  E.  Barton,  Cashier,  Pana. 

H.  R.  Peters,  Clerk,  Madison. 

F.  Simcox.  Agent,  Ramsey. 

R.  I.  Leef,  Agent,  Thomasville. 

C.  O.  Shumway,  Agent,  Madison. 

F.  A.    Farnsworth,    Agent,    Midland 
City. 

W.  H.  Irwin,  Agent,  Hallville. 

O.  S.  Jackson,  Agent,  New  Holland. 

J.  W.  Schachtele,  Agent,  Skelton. 

G.  A.  Glens,  Agent,  Penfield. 

B.  W.  Horine,  Agent,  Glenavon. 

A  S  MOST  of  the  boys  had  never  seen 
•^  Havana  and  wished  to  spend  the 
afternoon  fishing,  rowing  and  seeing 


the  sights  in  and  about  the  town,  they 
all  agreed  to  get  right  down  to  hard 
work  and  spent  the  entire  time  on  the 
trip  en  route  to  Havana  straightening 
out  their  grief  and  making  suggestions 
for  the  betterment  of  the  service  and 
of  the  association. 

The  meeting  opened  as  soon  as  the 
train  cleared  Clinton,  with  a  talk  by 
Mr.  Patterson  on  the  matter  of  claims. 
He  expressed  appreciation  of  the  ser- 
vice rendered  by  agents  on  the  Di- 
vision and  quoted  figures  showing  that 
the  claims  had  been  materially  reduced 
in  the  past  six  months  and  said,  in  his 
opinion,  taking  receipts  from  con- 
signees had  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
reduction  in  claims.  He  informed  the 
agents  that  the  management  will  no 
longer  accept  excuses  for  failure  to  take 
receipt  for  freight  at  the  time  of  deliv- 
ery, and  that  he  must  insist  on  the  in- 
structions being  complied  with  liter- 
ally. So  remember,  "boys,"  no  more 
excuses  go ! 

From  this  the  topic  naturally  turned 
to  grain  claims,  and  Mr.  Patterson  said 
the  Illinois  Central  considers  itself 
equipped  with  enough  perfect  cars  to 
handle  the  crop  of  grain  now  starting 


62 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


and  does  not  want  any  "fairly"  good 
cars  loaded  this  year. 

Across  the  face  of  the  bill  of  lading- 
agents  should  put  the  following: 

"This  car  inspected  by  Mr.  (repre- 
sentative of  elevator),  and  myself,  at 
(insert  time  and  date),  andiound  to  be 
in  perfect  condition  for  grain. 

Signed,       Agent." 

A  copy  of  this  notation  should  ap- 
pear on  the  way  bill  covering  the  car. 
Even  with  these  rigid  inspections,  grain 
will  often  leak  en  route,  flue  to  slight- 
ly defective  ends  of  grain  doors.  Agents 
at  grain  loading  stations  were  instruct- 
ed to  talk  to  their  elevator  men  and  in- 
duce them  to  put  several  layers  of 
heavy  paper  between  the  grain  doors 
and  the  door  posts.  The  nails  would 
then  draw  the  doors  close,  making  it 
impossible  for  the  grain  to  leak 
through.  The  Illinois  Central  has  pur- 
chased a  number  of  new  cars  in  the 
past  year  and  has  done  a  great  deal  of 
work  on  the  older  cars,  such  as  putting 
iron  straps  around  them,  and  expects, 
at  the  end  of  the  season,  to  be  able  to 
report  as  great  a  reduction  in  grain 
claims,  proportionately,  as  has  been 
made  in  claims  of  1.  c.  1.  freight  in  the 
past  year.  As  the  weather  has  been 
abnormally  wet  up  to  date  this  summer, 
much  of  the  wheat  and  oats  will  be  in 
a  moist  condition,  and  Mr.  Patterson 
is  putting  it  up  to  all  concerned  to  see 
that  the  grain  is  kept  moving  while  on 
the  Springfield  Division  and  reaches 
the  terminals  or  destination  as  quickly 
as  possible.  The  station  men  have 
equally  as  much  to  do  with  the  prompt 
handling  of  grain  as  the  trainmen. 

About  this  time  one  of  the  agents 
(who  must  have  a  grudge  against  milk 
and  cream  cans),  brought  up  that  sub- 
ject for  discussion,  and  apparently  all 
present  had  more  or  less  of  a  spite 
against  these  cans,  as  all  the  remarks 
were  more  against  them  than  for  them. 
The  agents  have  the  idea  that  the  rail- 
road is  not  receiving  the  amount  of 
revenue  from  this  traffic  that  it  should, 
and  everyone  present  agreed  that  the 
company  should  assess  storage  for  cans 
on  hand  over  a  certain  length  of  time. 


It  seems  that  some  farmers  have  but  a 
few  milk  cows  and  when  these  cows 
go  dry  and  the  farmer  has  no  immedi- 
ate use  for  the  can,  he  generally  leaves 
it  at  the  depot  for  several  months  at  a 
time,  allowing  the  railroad  to  assume 
the  responsibility  for  the  can  during 
the  idle  period,  and  all  this  does  not 
cost  him  a  cent.  If  the  cans  are  lost, 
stolen  or  damaged,  the  railroad  is  pay- 
ing for  them.  One  agent  present,  who 
enters  all  outbound  cans  (under  load) 
in  a  book  and  then  checks  opposite  that 
entry  the  time  received  and  delivered 
to  owner,  finds  that  he  often  has  sev- 
eral cans  on  hand  empty  for  several 
months  at  a  time.  It  was  his  opinion 
that  cans  on  hand  empty  over  a  week 
ought  to  be  subject  to  just  as  much 
storage  as  a  shipment  of  freight  that 
size.  At  some  stations,  where  the 
shipments  of  cream  and  milk  are  rath- 
er heavy,  the  matter  of  properly  han- 
dling empties  and  getting  receipts  for 
them  is  a  big  item,  and  it  is  no  more 
than  just  that  the  railroad  should  re- 
ceive a  fair  return  for  the  extra  work 
required  in  taking  proper  care  of 
empties. 

While  the  agents  were  discussing 
cream  cans,  Mr.  Patterson  reminded 
them  that  they  should  inspect  all 
"loads"  to  see  that  they  are  properly 
sealed.  Practically  all  the  creameries 
are  fastening  two  wire  and  lead  seals 
on  the  empties  when  they  return  them, 
and  if  these  seals  are  drawn  up  tightly 
when  the  lid  is  put  on  the  filled  can 
and  then  sealed,  the  can  may  be  tipped 
over  more  than  once  without  spilling 
the  contents.  At  present  agents  are 
not  giving  this  matter  the  attention  it 
should  receive,  with  the  result  that  the 
Illinois  Central  is  paying  claims  for  loss 
en  route,  due  to  cans  being  turned  over 
and  part  of  contents  spilled.  In  con- 
nection with  these  shipments,  agents 
are  instructed  to  have  the  revenue 
stamps  put  on  the  tags  of  the  cans,  and 
not  on  bills  of  lading  or  receipts  for 
them. 

The  passenger  department  has  re- 
ported a  great  reduction  in  the  number 
of  cash  fares  collected  and  is  making 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


63 


a  vigorous  campaign  to  eliminate  them 
wherever  and  whenever  possible.  There 
has  been  a  remarkable  improvement 
made  in  the  matter  of  ticketing  all  pas- 
sengers before  they  board  trains,  but 
the  records  show  room  for  more  im- 
provement, and  agents  are  urged  to 
help  the  department  educate  the  pub- 
lic in  the  matter  of  purchasing  tickets. 

During  these  warm  months  there  are 
a  great  many  shipments  of  old  butter 
moving  over  the  road,  and  much  of  it 
is  being  shipped  in  sugar  barrels.  The 
classification  requires  these  barrels  to 
be  thoroughly  water-soaked  before  be- 
ing used  for  this  purpose,  but  even  at 
that,  they  leak  more  or  less,  and  have 
a  habit  of  "caving  in"  or  the  bottoms 
falling  out  before  arriving  at  destina- 
tions, causing  another  source  of  claims 
for  the  railroad  to  handle.  Agents 
should  take  the  matter  up  with  ship- 
pers of  this  butter  and  have  them  pro- 
cure regular  butter  tubs  with  handles 
attached,  such  as  are  furnished  by  most 
large  consignees  of  butter,  or,  if  they 
are  unable  to  get  these,  to- use  water 
soaked  candy  pails  that  carry  only  a 
weight  the  pails  will  withstand,  and 
are  easily  handled. 

Perishable  freight  is  another  matter 
of  much  importance  these  warm  days, 
and  agents  have  been  given  to  under- 
stand that  the  Claim  Department  will 
accept  no  excuses  for  allowing  perish- 
able shipments  to  spoil  on  their  hands. 
Mr.  J.  L.  East  should  be  wired  imme- 
diately when  shipments  are  refused,  get 
all  bids  obtainable  on  the  goods  and 
sell  to  the  highest  bidder,  even  if  he  is 
the  original  consignee.  Several  agents 
present  commended  Mr.  East's  depart- 
ment for  giving  very  quick  and  effi- 
cient service  in  disposing  of  such 
freight,  and  Mr.  Baldwin,  of  Pana,  told 
about  a  car  of  watermelons  recently  re- 
fused at  his  station  on  account  of  being 
spoiled.  Mr.  East  was  wired  at  7:10 
a.  m.  and  at  9  :50  a.  m.  he  had  received 
instructions  to  sell  to  the  highest  bid- 
der. Several  other  agents  mentioned 
cases  wherein  they  were  promptly  ad- 
vised, but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Mr.  East  must  be  wired  at  once  and  all 
facts  of  the  case  stated,  eliminating  the 


necessity  of  wiring  back  for  more  in- 
formation. 

Another  matter  of  interest  to  agents 
on  the  Springfield  Division  is  packages 
lost  while  moving  between  two  points 
on  the  Division.  Mr.  Patterson  wants 
the  facts  wired  to  his  office  in  such 
cases,  as  there  does  not  seem  to  be 
much  excuse  for  these  losses,  if  freight 
is  properly  checked  by  the  forwarding 
agent  and  properly  checked  out  by  the 
receiving  agent,  to  the  consignee.  Mr. 
Patterson  wishes  to  handle  these  cases 
promptly,  as  the  matter  is  then  fresh 
in  the  minds  of  all  concerned  and  quite 
often  the  lost  package  is  located  in  the 
warehouse  or  storeroom  of  the  ship- 
per. If  agents  can  educate  shippers  to 
present  their  freight  for  shipment  a  rea- 
sonable length  of  time  previous  to  the 
arrival  of  the  freight  train  at  the  sta- 
tion, in  order  that  the  agent  may  have 
time  to  properly  check  the  freight  ex- 
amine marking  and  packing,  most  of 
the  trouble  will  be  eliminated. 

In  closing  the  meeting,  Mr.  Patter- 
son reminded  the  agents  that  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Magazine  was  not  pub- 
lishing near  the  number  of  local  items 
from  the  Springfield  Division  as  from 
other  divisions,  which  is  due  entirely 
to  the  lack  of  interest  taken  by  em- 
ployes of  this  Division.  He  made  a 
personal  request  that  agents  watch  for 
valuable  and  interesting  items  or  sug- 
gestions and  send  them  in  so  that  they 
will  reach  his  office  on  or  before  the 
27th  of  the  month.  If  you  get  hold  of 
some  good  picture  of  interest  to  the  em- 
ployes along  the  line,  send  it  in,  too, 
and  see  what  a  good  job  our  magazine 
will  do  in  printing  it.  The  next  time 
you  hear  of  one  of  the  "boys"  along 
the  line  getting  married,  or  having  an 
addition  to  his  family,  or  doing  some- 
thing else  for  the  good  of  the  service, 
just  jot  it  down  on  a  piece  of  clip  and 
mail  it  to  the  Superintendent's  office. 

Our  train  rolled  into  Havana  "abt 
ot,"  as  the  dispatchers  say,  and  after 
visiting  Mr.  Berry,  agent  at  Havana,  a 
while,  the  boys  went  uptown  to  the 
Taylor  House  and  ate  a  fine  dinner 
"on"  Mr.  Patterson. 


By  B.  J.  Rowe,  Coal  Traffic  Manager 


'  I A  HERE  are  some  features  of  the  coal 
A  traffic  that  may  be  of  interest  at  this 
time,  on  the  eve  of  the  heavy  fall  and 
winter  movement. 

The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  orig- 
inates approximately  12,000,000  tons  of 
bituminous  coal  per  annum.  Thirty- 
seven  and  one-half  per  cent  of  its  total 
traffic  is  coal.  There  are  but  six  rail- 
roads in  the  United  States  that  orig- 
inate more  of  this  commodity.  It  serves 
four  of  the  most  important  coal  produc- 
ing states  of  the  Union,  viz.,  Illinois, 
Indiana,  Kentucky  and  Alabama. 

Illinois  ranks  third  in  point  of  pro- 
duction of  bituminous  coal.  The  annual 
output  of  its  mines  amounts  to  61,000,- 
000  tons,  and  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  of  the  mines  in 
this  state  are  served  by  the  rails  of  this 
company,  approximately  two-thirds,  or 
8,500,000  tons  of  our  coal  traffic  is  here 
originated. 

Illinois  was  one  of  the  earliest,  as  well 
as  the  greatest,  producers.  The  first 
mention  of  coal  in  the  territory  which 
afterwards  became  the  United  States  is 
found  in  the  journal  of  Father  Louis 
Hennepin,  published  in  1698,  which  con- 
tained a  map  on  which  is  marked  "cole 
mine"  on  the  banks  of  the  Illinois  river 
near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Ot- 
tawa, Father  Hennepin  having  passed 
through  that  territory  thirty  years  ear- 
lier, in  1668.  However,  nearly  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  elapsed  after  the  discov- 
ery of  coal  in  Illinois  before  mining  be- 
gan. The  first  actual  mining  operations 


conducted  by  white  men  were  on  the 
bank  of  the  Big  Muddy  river  in  Jackson 
county,  a  short  distance  from  its  conflu- 
ence with  the  Mississippi.  These  mines 
were  opened  in  1810  and  worked  to  a 
limited  extent  for  a  number  of  years, 
gradually  increasing,  until  for  the  past 
thirty-five  years  that  locality  has  been 
the  seat  of  important  mining  operations. 

Another  region,  said  to  have  been 
opened  about  the  same  time,  was  near 
Belleville  in  St.  Clair  county.  The  out- 
cropping of  coal  in  the  bluffs  along  the 
river  banks  first  attracted  attention,  and 
naturally  the  first  mining  operations 
were  started  on  these  exposures.  The 
earliest  recorded  production  was  in  1833, 
when  an  output  of  6,00.0  tons  is  said  to 
have  been  mined. 

Kentucky,  the  fifth  state  in  the  Union 
in  point  of  coal  production,  originates 
for  us  from  the  fifty-four  mines  served 
by  our  road,  about  3,000,000-  tons  of 
commercial  coal  per  annum.  Like  Illi- 
nois, the  coal  mining  industry  in  this 
state  dates  back  to  the  early  part  of  the 
last  century.  So  far  as  the  records  of 
early  coal  production  in  the  United 
States  are  to  be  accepted,  Kentucky  was 
the  third  state  to  enter  the  lists  of  the 
regular  coal  producers.  The  government 
reports  indicate  the  first  coal  produced 
in  the  state  was  mined  in  1827  on  the 
"right  side  of  the  (Cumberland)  river 
below  the  mouth  of  Laurel."  This  was 
evidently  in  Laurel  or  Pulaski  county, 
but  the  exact  location  is  not  definitely 
stated. 


65 


66 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


The  same  authority  says  that  from 
1834  to  1837  the  shipments  were  from 
75  to  100  boat  loads,  or  about  3,500 
bushels  annually,  while  the  production 
for  the  last  coal  year  was  in  round  fig- 
ures, 20,000,000  tons. 

Alabama  and  Indiana,  ranking  sixth 
and  seventh  in  the  production  of  coal  in 
this  country,  with  annual  outputs  of  17,- 
500,000  tons  each,  supply  the  remain- 
der of  the  traffic  in  this  commodity,  re- 
ferred to  herein  as  originated  by  this 
company.  There  are  five  active  mines 
in  Indiana  on  our  rails,  and  two  in  Ala- 
bama, although  in  the  latter  state  we 
have  close  traffic  arrangements  with 
roads  that  serve  the  more  important 
Alabama  fields. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  of  the  seven 
states  first  in  importance  from  the  stand- 
point of  bituminous  coal  production,  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  serves  four  and 
has  direct  connection  with  one  hundred 
and  seventy-six  active  coal  mines. 

It  is  small  wonder  then  that  coal  is 
the  largest  single  item  of  traffic  on  our 
railroad. 

The  movement  of  this  commodity  in 
the  territory  served  by  this  company  is 
seasonal,  the  apex  being  reached  usually 
in  November  with  a  tonnage  in  round 
figures  of  1,300,000  tons  and,  the  mini- 
mum in  May  with  600,000  tons,  a  var- 
iation of  over  100  p;r  cent ;  but  we  must 
be  prepared  to  and  do  take  care  of 


the  peak  load  at  all  times,  although  it 
takes  26,683  gondola  cars  to  do  it. 

Nature  has  deposited  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  this  great  necessity  at  our 
doors,  and  the  management  has  provided 
ample  facilities  for  its  transportation  to 
market ;  but  like  a  great  many  other 
lines  of  endeavor,  the  supply  exceeds 
the  demand.  Were  that  not  so,  our  car- 
rying of  coal  would  be  double  what  it 
is,  as  our  present  facilities  are  fully 
equal  to  the  demand,  and  there  is  room 
for  expansion  if  necessity  requires. 

And  now,  reader  (a)  what  can  you 
do,  and  (b)  what  are  you  doing  to  help 
find  a  market  for  this  "home  produced" 
coal  in  your  home  town?  The  answer 
to  query  "(a)"  is  that  each  and  every 
employe  regardless  of  department  should 
be  a  booster  for  the  road  and  its  traffic, 
which  is  the  only  commodity  it  has  for 
sale,  and  you  can  help  the  coal  traffic  by 
getting  your  dealer  to  handle  shipments 
from  mines  on  our  line.  Naturally,  the 
large  number  of  mining  operations  on 
our  road,  mining  the  varied  seams  of 
coal  they  do,  produce  all  grades  of  pre- 
pared coal  adapted  to  any  boiler,  fur- 
nace, stove  or  grate,  so  it  will  not  be 
necessary  for  any  dealer  or  consumer 
to  go  beyond  our  rails  for  what  he  seeks. 
If  you  know  of  any  that  have  failed  to 
find  what  they  want,  advise  this  depart- 
ment, and  we  will  do  the  rest.  As  to 
query  "(b)",  you  will  have  to  answer 
yourself. 


Passenger 
Traffic 

-/.  ;-v'j'lT^L-fi  -  '•- 

Department 

Little    Talks    with  the  Rambler 
Service  Notes  of  Interest 


Pro  Bono  Publico 


"  'Pro  bono  publico/  which  being 
translated  means,  for  the  good  of  the 
public,"  said  the  Rambler  in  a  dreamy 
sort  of  way  as  he  apparently  watched 
the  passing  boats  on  the  river  from  the 
banks  of  one  of  the  several  wooded  isl- 
ands. It  was  a  beautiful  Sunday  cli- 
matically, and  we  had  gone  to  the  park 
for  the  sake  of  a  quiet  afternoon  in  the 
open.  We  had  found  a  delightful  spot 
at  which  to  rest  and  be  comfortable, 
among  the  trees  on  the  shady  side  of  the 
island;  where,  with  knees  drawn  up  and 
clasped  in  his  outstretched  arms,  the 
Rambler  lazily  sat  with  his  back  to  a 
tree  while  I  had  found  a  seat  on  a  root 
of  that  same  tree  that  projected  from 
the  bank  to  the  water's  edge.  "Which 
brave  Latin  quotation,"  I  said,  "y°u  got 
out  of  the  back  of  the  dictionary,  and  I 
know  it.  So,  please  don't  try  to  give  me 
the  impression  that  you  are  deeply 
learned  in  the  classics,  but  come  out  in 
good  plain  English  with  what  particular 
thing,  or  things,  you  think  is  good  for 
the  public.  Is  it  the  attractions  of  the 
park  and  the  freedom  therein  enjoyed  by 
said  public?"  "Nothing  so  self  evident 
as  that,"  was  the  quick  response.  "I 
have  in  mind  the  frequent  cases  in 
which  the  railroads  are  called  upon  to 
enter  into  outlays  from  which,  as  a  strict 
business  proposition,  they  would  refrain 
but  for  the  element  of  public  service. 
Enterprises  in  which  direct,  immediate 


or  sometimes  even  ultimate  indirect 
profit  is  problematical."  "But  which,"  I 
added,  "are  often  gold  mines  in  the  es- 
timation of  the  public  that  is  served  by 
them,"  for  I  had  some  knowledge  myself 
of  that  phase  of  the  railroad  business. 
And  it's  often  hard  to  make  them  see 
to  the  contrary.  "In  fact,"  I  continued, 
"the  ability  of  some  people  to  see  a  prof- 
it in,  or  a  reason  for,  other  peoples'  ven- 
tures reminds  me  of  a  little  six-year-old 
niece  of  mine.  She  was  recently  taken 
by  her  mother  on  a  shopping  expedition, 
during  which  she  espied  a  gaudy  ready- 
made  frock  the  possession  of  which  be- 
came an  immediate  passion  with  her,  and 
she  begged  insistently  for  it.  But  the 
mother  said  'no!'  and  as  a  finality  said: 
'But  dear !  I  am  going  to  buy  you  a  much 
better  frock.  That  one  would  not  look 
pretty  on  you.  Besides,  it's  a  cheap, 
flimsy  material  and  would  not  last  you 
a  week.  It  would  be  throwing  money 
away  to  buy  it.'  'No,  it  wouldn't  be 
throwing  money  away,'  was  the  quick  re- 
sponse. 'After  the  week  you  could  give 
it  to  the  minister  for  the  missionary  bar- 
rel. I  heard  you  tell  him  last  Sunday 
you  hadn't  a  thing  to  give  him  for  it.'  " 
The  Rambler  smiled  and  observed  that 
the  illustration  was  good  in  certain  di- 
rections, but  that  what  he  had  more  par- 
ticularly in  mind  was  more  like  the  Kel- 
ley  invention.  "Kelley,"  he  said,  "had 
raised  a  large  family,  no  one  of  which 
bid  fair  to  be  of  any  great  comfort  or 


67 


68 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


financial  aid  to  him  in  his  nearly  at- 
tained declining  years.  Of  one  son,  how- 
ever, he  and  his  good  wife  had  hopes. 
This,  because  the  son,  for  twenty  years 
at  his  trade,  had  been  devoting  all  his 
spare  time,  money  and  brains  since  his 
apprentice  days  to  the  perfection  of  a 
wonderful  invention  of  his;  and  con- 
cerning which  Kelley  used  to  frequently 
confide  to  his  friends  that  'if  the  lad  ever 
finishes  it  and  if  the  dom  thing's  any 
good  it'll  be  worth  a  wad  of  money  and 
we'll  all  be  on  aisy  street  if  some  shark 
don't  steal  it  ofF'n  him.'  Which  sug- 
gests," continued  the  Rambler,  "that  in 
consequence  of  what  it  considers  its  ob- 
ligations to  serve  the  public,  a  railroad 
often  renders  service,  or  engages  in  en- 
terprises the  profitable  outcome  of  which 
is  as  problematical  as  that  of  Kelley's 
invention.  And,  just  as  that  persistent 
son  put  time,  money  and  brains  into  his 
venture,  such  cases  with  a  railroad  often 
require  an  extra  application  of  all  those 
elements.  In  fact,  more  likely  than  not 
they  require  an  acuteness  above  the  or- 
dinary, that  every  possible  turn  may  be 
taken  advantage  of  to  make  good  on  the 
enterprise.  Our  relation  to  the  Chicago 
Speedway  Park  enterprise  and  the  cam- 
paign we  went  through  in  connection 
therewith  is  a  recent  illustration  of  this. 
In  fact,  the  story  of  that  campaign  is 
interesting  and  I  have  a  mind  to  tell  you 
of  it."  On  my  expresing  an  interest,  he 
went  into  a  complete  history  of  the  mat- 
ter, giving  detail  facts  and  statistics 
galore,  for  he  has  a  wonderful  memory 
for  figures.  These  and  the  story  in  full, 
I  will  not  attempt  to  repeat.  In  rough 
outline,  however,  that  portion  of  his 
narrative  bearing  particularly  on  the 
problem  of  uncertainty  is  as  follows : 

There  was  formed  in  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago an  organization  known  as  the 
Speedway  Park  Association,  whose  main 
purpose  was  the  construction  of  a  two- 
mile  automobile  speedway,  with  other 
auxiliaries,  such  as  a  country  club  and 
facilities  for  athletic  events  of  various 
kinds,  as  an  ultimate  acquirement. 
About  three  hundred  acres  of  land  were 
secured  by  the  association  on  the  West 
Side,  and  in  due  course  construction  on 


the  speedway  began,  and  a  five  hundred 
mile  international  auto  race,  or  a,  "First 
Five  Hundred  Mile  International  Auto 
Derby,"  was  announced  for  June  of  the 
present  year.  Our  interest  in  the  matter 
began  in  January,  for  "Speedway  Park," 
as  the  track  was  named,  was  located  di- 
rectly on  our  western  line  thirteen  miles 
from  our  Van  Buren  Street  Station.  The 
actual  construction  of  the  speedway, 
which  with  its  grand  stand  and  property 
is  said  to  have  cost  the  promoters 
approximately  one  million  dollars, 
our  Freight  Department  were  nat- 
urally interested  in  on  account  of 
the  matter  of  hauling  material.  But 
it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  that  ex- 
cept to  say  that  it  was  one  of  the  inter- 
ests which  kept  the  Traffic  Department 
on  the  alert  from  about  January  1  to  the 
running  of  the  first  Derby  in  June.  From 
a  Pasenger  Traffic  point  of  view  our  in- 
terest in  the  Speedway  Park  lay  in  the 
question  of  not  only  a  possible  obligation 
"pro  bono  publico,"  as  the  Rambler 
would  say,  but  in  ways  and  means,  and 
of  possible  profit  or  loss.  It  was  all  an 
unknown  problem.  Would  the  race  it- 
self be  a  success,  would  it  have  an  at- 
tendance of  one  hundred  thousand,  two 
hundred  thousand,  or  more  or  less  than 
these  figures?  Upon  this  question  hung 
what  we  would  have  to  do  to  get  the 
people  back  and  forth  to  the  park,  for 
pur  road  was  the  only  means  of  trans- 
portation on  which  dependance  could  be 
placed  for  service  from  the  city  direct 
to  the  park  gates.  We  must,  of  course, 
be  prepared  for  the  maximum  service 
required;  but  what  were  the  probabili- 
ties of  that  maximum?  Nothing  of  the 
kind  in  Chicago  had  ever  been  tried  to 
give  us  a  basis  on  which  to  work,  and 
right  there  is  where  our  real  campaign 
began.  A  neighboring  city  maintained 
one  of  the  few  auto  speedways  of  the 
country,  so  a  passenger  department  rep- 
resentative went  to  that  city  to  investi- 
gate and  get  some  tangible  basis  on 
which  we  could  plan.  The  attendance 
at  that  Speedway,  the  traffic  facilities  to 
it,  the  number  of  trains  run  and  how 
they  were  loaded,  unloaded  and  handled 
— in  fact  thirty-five  specific  units  per- 


70 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


taining  to  the  matter  were  canvassed  in 
that  neighboring  city.     With    data    thus 
gleaned,   data    based   on   experience,   to 
work  on,  there  followed  at  home  numer- 
ous conferences  and  much  planning  cul- 
minating in   the    company's    expending 
many  thousands  of  dollars,  runing  well 
up  into  two  figures,    in    order    that    it 
might  handle  effectively  its  share  of  the 
Speedway  Park  travel  from  and  to  the 
city.     I  say  its  share,  because  notwith- 
standing its  being  the  only  line  direct  to 
the  park,  it  could  not  but  expect  oppo- 
sition   from    other    transportation    com- 
panies whose  facilities,  while  in  a  way 
but  comparatively  incidental,  still  would 
prove  more  or  less   available.     As   the 
first,  and  most  important  item,  on  which 
to  base  an  adequate  service,    the    com- 
pany extended  its  main  line  double  track 
from    Parkway    Station    to    Broadview 
Station,  a  distance  of  about  two  and  one- 
half  miles.     Thus  was  attained    double 
tracks  for  the  entire  thirteen  miles  be- 
tween the  city  and  Speedway    Park — a 
double  track  line  fully  protected  by  au- 
tomatic block  signals.     At  "Speedway," 
the  name  of  its  station  at  the  park,  it 
constructed  fifty-one  hundred     feet    of 
third  track  and  two  platforms  each  thir- 
ty-two hundred  feet    long.     These    two 
platforms  and  the  three  tracks  gave  fa- 
cilities for  loading  six  trains  at  a  time, 
twelve  cars  to  each  train  or  seventy-two 
cars  in  all.    Leading  from  the  platforms 
were  provided  six  exit  gates  at  which 
the  Speedway  Association  could  collect 
gate  receipts  from  passengers  upon  leav- 
ing the  trains.     For  controlling  the  pas- 
senger traffic  after  the  meet,  two  "bull 
pens"  were  constructed,  one  to  accom- 
modate exit  from  the  Speedway  and  each 
to  be  served  by  a  sufficient  number  of 
ticket  takers ;  also  booths  for  ticket  sell- 
ers, the  former  being  set  at  a  considera- 
ble distance  from  the  "bull  pen."    These 
"bull  pens"  were  each  to  accommodate 
from   one   thousand   to   fifteen   hundred 
people^  and  in  them  passengers  were  to 
be  retained  after  their  tickets  were  taken 
until  the  trains  were  ready,  at  which  time 
the  passengers  were  to  be  allowed  to  pass 
through  the  gates  and  embark  ;  the  trains 
to  pull  out  one  after  the  other  as  loaded, 


their  place  to  be  continuously  taken  by 
others  until  the  crowd  had  been  com- 
pletely served.  With  these  facilities  pro- 
vided for  handling  traffic  at  the  park,  it 
was  further  planned,  and  on  the  great 
race  day  carried  out,  that  beginning  at 
a  certain  hour  in  the  morning  for  conces- 
sioners, employes  and  others,  an  early 
train  should  be  run,  and  that  beginning 
at  6  a.  m.,  trains  were  to  be  operated  as 
frequently  as  the  travel  demanded  up  to 
2  p.  m.  In  other  words,  during  the  rush 
hours  both  for  the  going  and  returning 
trips,  the  service  was  to  be  continuous. 
To  accomplish  this  last  on  the  great  day, 
June  26,  there  were  fifteen  trains  of 
twelve  cars  each  in  commission  and  four 
relay  locomotives. 

But  this  was  a  single  phase  only  of  the 
campaign.  Having  worked  out  the  prob- 
lem of  facilities    for    handling    all    the 
traffic  that  could  be  reasonably  expected, 
it  remained  to  obtain  that  traffic.    Hence 
began  a  system  of  correspondence   (re- 
sulting in  a  file  three  inches  high),  so- 
licitation and  conferences.     Liberal  ad- 
vertising of   our   facilities  to  the  park 
was  engaged  in,  both  locally  and  over  a 
wide  range  of  country  in  which  it  was 
anticipated  there  would  be  sufficient  in- 
terest to  bring  outsiders  into  Chicago  for 
the   great   event.     Outside  local  agents 
sent  in  estimates  of  the  number  of  peo- 
ple that  would  probably  attend  the  race 
from  their  stations,  resulting  in  a  careful 
—+imation  of  extra  equipment  and  spe- 
cial trains  necessary  to  take  care  of  this 
outside  business.     "In  fact,"  the  Ram- 
bler concluded  on  this  subject,  "all  the 
multitudinous  details  involved  in  a  new 
venture  of  this  kind  were  painstakingly 
cared    for.     The  result  was  reasonably 
satisfactory  for  an  initial  trial,  but  like 
Kelley's  invention  all  "ifs"  in  the  mat- 
ter have  not  been  settled.    "If"  the  first 
try-out   can    be    repeated   often    enough 
the  venture  will  be  satisfactory,  but  in 
the  mean  time,  pending  that  and  various 
other   "ifs,"   the   railroad,    while   taking 
a  business  chance  in  its  own  interest  has 
at  the  same  time  entered  upon  a  venture 
'pro  bono  publico.' " 

As  the  Rambler  finished  I  was  so  im- 
pressed concerning  the  angle  of  the  rail- 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


71 


road  business  that  he  had  illustrated  that 
as  we  sauntered  homeward  my  mind 
went  back  over  the  broad  question  of  the 
many  ways  in  which  the  public  was 
served  by  the  railroads  beyond  the  mere 
transporting  it  from  point  to  point.  I 
expressed  myself  somewhat  crudely  on 
those  lines  to  the  Rambler.  "Just  think," 
T  said,  "what  the  traveling  public  really 
do  get  from  the  railroads  of  today  com- 
pared with  the  early  days  of  rail  traffic. 
Sleeping  accommodations,  meals  that  can 
be  taken  comfortably  en  route,  no  wor- 
ry or  bother  about  baggage,  and  a  hun- 
dred and  one  other  items  that  contribute 
to  its  ease,  safety  and  its  expedition  in 
travel.  What  wonderful  strides  have 
been  made  in  such  matters  since  the  old 
stage  coach  and  canal  boat  accommoda- 
tions of  other  days  have  become  forced 
into  the  background." 

"Well,  I  should  say  so,"  exclaimed 
the  Rambler  with  a  laugh.  "Every- 
thing's helps  nowadays,  from  an  elec- 
tric fan  in  a  day  coach  to  a  coat  hanger 
in  a  sleeping  car  berth.  But  this  re- 
minds me  of  a  newspaper  clipping  I 
have  in  my  pocketbook  that  I  came 
across  a  short  time  ago.  If  it  does  not 
make  one  feel  that  the  public  is  well 
served  by  the  railroads  in  the  present 
day,  then  such  a  one  will  have  to  be 
put  down  as  an  incorrigible,  pessimis- 
tic crank."  He  then  handed  me  the 
clipping,  which  was  from  the  London 
Times  of  nearly  thirty  years  ago  and 
referred  to  certain  railroad  matters  of 
Auld  Lang  Syne.  It  read  as  follows : 

"The  London  Times  gives  the  fol- 
lowing rules  as  appropriate  for  travel- 
ing forty  or  fifty  years  ago :  Passen- 


gers expecting  to  join  the  trains  at  any 
of  the  stopping  places  are  desired  to 
be  in  good  time,  as  the  train  will  leave 
each  station  as  soon  as  ready,  without 
reference  to  the  time  stated  on  the 
tables,  the  main  object  being  to  per- 
form the  whole  journey  as  expedi- 
tiously  as  possible.  Passengers  will 
be  booked  only  conditionally  upon 
there  being  room  on  the  arrival  of  the 
trains,  and  they  will  have  the  prefer- 
ence of  seats  in  the  order  in  which 
they  are  booked.  No  persons  are 
booked  after  the  arrival  of  the  train. 
All  persons  are  required  to  get  into 
and  alight  from  the  coaches  invari- 
ably on  the  left  side  as  the  only  cer- 
tain means  of  preventing  accidents 
from  trains  passing  in  an  opposite  di- 
rection. Each  passenger's  luggage  will, 
as  far  as  possible,  be  placed  on  the  roof 
of  the  coach  in  which  he  has  taken  his 
place ;  carpet  bags  and  small  luggage 
may  be  placed  underneath  the  seat  op- 
posite to  that  which  the  owner  occu- 
pies." 

"Imagine,"  said  the  Rambler  with  a 
grin,  "no  person  being  'booked'  in  these 
days  after  the  arrival  of  the  train !  But 
what  gets  me  is  that  'the  train  will 
leave  each  station  as  soon  as  ready 
without  reference  to  the  time  stated 
on  the  tables.'  The  ambition  to  have 
the  train  'perform  the  whole  journey 
as  expeditiously  as  possible'  was  laud- 
able, however."  He  put  the  clipping 
back  in  his  pocketbook,  and  in  the 
meantime,  we  having  reached  his  street 
car  line,  he  bid  me  good-bye  and 
boarded  the  car  by  which  he  reached 
his  apartments. 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


g  ELIEVING  that  an  official,  author- 
itative statement  of  the  policy  of 
the  Canadian  Government  in  relation 
to  American  tourists  in  the  Dominion 
would  be  valued  and  answer  the  ques- 
tion that  undoubtedly  arises  in  the 
minds  of  many  would-be  tourists,  Mr. 
J.  W.  Scott,  Superintendent  of  Immi- 


gration,  Department  of  the  Interior, 
Canada,  writes  the  Passenger  Traffic 
Manager  from  Ottawa  as  follows : 

"I  observe  from  newspaper  reports 
that  there  seems  to  be  an  impression 
in  the  minds  of  many  that  American 
tourists  will  not  be  welcomed  in  Can- 
ada this  year,  and  I  am  writing  you 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


73 


this  letter  to  correct  that  impression. 
Canada  continues  to  welcome  bonafide 
American  tourists  traffic  the  same  as 
in  other  years.  Passports  are  not  re- 
quired by  any  person.  Persons  nat- 
uralized in  the  United  States  will  be 
treated  exactly  the  -same  as  United 
States  citizens  by  birth.  German, 
Austro-Hungarian  or  Turkish  citizens 
who  are  employes  of  American  tour- 
ists will  be  permitted  to  enter  Canada 
without  any  difficulty  beyond  the  as- 
surance of  the  employer  of  the  good 
behavior  of  the  employe  while  in  Can- 
ada. The  only  supposed  tourists  who 
have  difficulty  on  the  International 
Boundary  are  undesirable  aliens  seek- 
ing to  effect  entry  as  immigrants  but 
under  the  guise  of  tourists." 

This  also  coincides  with  the  joint 
circular  issued  some  time  ago,  to  the 
same  effect,  of  the  Canadian  Steam- 
ship Lines,  Limited,  the  Canadian  Pa- 
cific Railroad  Company  and  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway  System.  Agents  should 
bear  the  above  in  mind  when  ques- 
tioned on  the  subject. 


its  to  farther  noted  points  of  interest 
either  reached  by  side  trips  or  enroute 
through  California." 


The  monthly  bulletin  of  the  Chi- 
cago and  North  Western,  in  an  article 
on  Pacific  Coast  Travel,  makes  the 
two  following  points  that  it  might  help 
Illinois  Central  agents  to  remember  in 
connection  with  the  sale  of  California 
Exposition  tickets:  "Tourists  who 
have  not  previously  visited  California 
will  undoubtedly  appreciate  the  sug- 
gestion from  agents  to  take  such  cloth- 
ing with  them  on  their  trip  as  they 
ordinarily  wear  late  in  the  spring  or 
in  the  early  fall,  as  mentioned  in  June 
Bulletin.  Along  the  Pacific  Coast  the 
temperature  during  the  day  is  not  ex- 
cessive and  the  evenings  are  cool. 

"Many  express  the  regret  that  they 
did  not  arrange  for  time  enough  in  San 
Francisco  and  other  points  in  Califor- 
nia as  they  failed  to  realize  in  advance 
the  number  of  attractive  trips  that  could 
be  taken  in  San  Francisco  and  vicinity 
including  trips  about  the  Bay  and  down 
the  Peninsula.  They  state  that  two 
weeks  can  be  well  spent  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  vicinity,  in  addition  to  vis- 


The  Michigan  Central  has  estab- 
lished modern  standard  sleeping  car 
service  daily  between  Chicago  and 
Portland,  Old  Orchard,  Kennebunk 
and  Kennebunkport,  Me.,  on  "The  Ca- 
nadian," leaving  Chicago  daily  at  6:10 
p.  m.  On  Fridays  out  of  Chicago  the 
through  car  runs  to  Kennebunk  only. 
The  route  is  via  Michigan  Central 
through  Detroit  to  Windsor,  Canadian 
Pacific  via  Montreal  to  Newport,  Boston 
&  Maine  to  St.  Johnsbury,  Maine  Cen- 
tral through  the  heart  of  the  White 
Mountains  to  Portland,  Boston  &  Maine 
to  Kennebunkport,  Me.  On  the  Wolver- 
ine, leaving  Chicago  9 :05  a.  m.  daily, 
sleeping  cars  are  operated  between  Chi- 
cago and  Montreal,  connecting  there 
daily  except  Sunday,  at  9  :55  a.  m.,  with 
parlor  car  for  Portland  and  Kennebunk- 
port, and  affording  a  daylight  ride 
through  the  heart  of  the  White  Moun- 
tains. 


The  Michigan  Central  has  advised 
the  discontinuance  of  its  passenger 
train  service  on  their  "London  Branch" 
extending  from  St.  Thomas,  Ont.,  to 
London,  Ont. ;  but  that  such  will  not 
affect  the  handling  of  traffic  to  Lon- 
don, Ont.,  from  points  west  of  De- 
troit routed  via  Michigan  Central  to 
Windsor,  Ont.,  thence  Canadian  Pa- 
cific to  London. 


The  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  calls  atten- 
tion in  circulars  it  has  issued  to  im- 
proved Trans-Continental  through 
electric  lighted  sleeping  car  service  it 
has  inaugurated  between  Winnipeg 
and  Prince  Rupert,  leaving  Winnipeg 
Tuesdays,  Fridays  and  Sundays  at 
6 :00  p.  m.,  arriving  at  Prince  Rupert 
at  6 :15  p.  m.  the  following  Fridays, 
Mondays  and  Wednesdays.  Also  to  the 
fact  that  in  addition  to  the  attractions 
of  the  route,  including  the  Canadian 
Rockies  and  the  Fraser  and  Skeena 
rivers  of  British  Columbia,  those  of 
the  seven  hundred  mile  sea  voyage 


74 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


through  the  sheltered  channels  of  the 
"Norway  of  America"  from  Prince 
Rupert  to  Seattle  via  the  Grand  Trunk 
Pacific  steamships,  are  covered  by  an 
extra  charge  of  $10  in  one-way  fares 
and  $20.00  in  round-trip  fares  per  tariff 
and  include  meals  and  berth  on  the 
steamers. 


The  attention  of  agents  selling  tick- 
ets to  St.  Louis  from  Chicago  and  in- 
termediate stations  is  called  to  the  fact 
that  train  No.  19,  the  Daylight  Special, 
runs  into  that  city  over  the  Merchants' 
Bridge,  hence  does  not  make  East  St. 
Louis.  While  this  arrangement  has 
been  in  effect  for  some  years,  it  is 
occasionally  overlooked  and  tickets 
for  that  train  sold  to  East  St.  Louis. 


This  should  not  be  done,  as  passengers 
holding  such  tickets  are  required  to 
either  leave  the  train  at  Madison  or 
pay  additional  fare  from  Madison  to  St. 
Louis,  which  is  apt  to  cause  contro- 
versy between  the  passenger  and  con- 
ductor. 


Effective  August  10th,  the  through 
steel,  twelve-section  drawing-room 
sleeping-car  that  has  been  running  be- 
tween Chicago  and  San  Francisco  over 
the  Illinois  Central  and  Union  and 
Southern  Pacific  via  Omaha,  was  with- 
drawn as  a  through  Pacific  coast  car. 
It  will  continue  to  run  over  the  Illinois 
Central  between  Chicago  and  Omaha 
only,  west  bound,  on  No.  13,  and  east 
bound  on  No.  14. 


DEP/qPTMENT 


Lake  Cormorant  Interlocking  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R. 


HPHE  mechanical  interlocking  at  Lake 
•*•  Cormorant,  Miss.,  was  placed  in 
service  October  22,  1914.  It  protects 
the  j unction  (  of  the  Lake  Cormorant 
District  line  with  the  Clarksdale  Dis- 
trict line.  The  Clarksdale  District  line 
is  double  track  north  of  the  plant  and 
single  track  south  of  the  plant,  the  junc- 
tion switch  being  interlocked.  The 
Lake  Cormorant  District  line  is  double 
track  through  the  plant. 

The  arrangement  of  tracks  and  sig- 
nals is  shown  on  the  opposite  page. 

High  speed  moves  are  routed  as  fol- 
lows: 

North  bound  from  Clarksdale  Dis- 
trict, signal  2,  straight  through  plant. 

North  bound  from  Lake  Cormorant 
District,  signal  6,  over  crossover  30-31. 

South  bound  on  Clarksdale  District, 
signal  47,  over  crossover  27-28,  and 
switch  26  normal. 


South  bound  on  Lake  Cormorant  Dis- 
trict, signal  46,  over  crossover  27-28, 
and  switch  26  reversed. 

Crossovers  24-24  and  19-20  are  used 
for  slow  speed  moves  only.  Low  speed 
signals  govern  all  possible  routes,  ex- 
cept those  governed  by  high  speed  sig- 
nals. 

The  interlocking  tower  is  the  stand- 
ard wooden  tower  for  a  Saxby  &  Farm- 
er machine.  The  foundation  is  con- 
crete, in  which  inverted  steel  rails  are 
set  at  intervals  of  1  foot  8  inches  for  the 
support  of  the  leadout  and  the  machine 
frame.  The  machine  frame  consists  of 
4  inch  by  12-inch  timbers  on  3  feet  4- 
inch  centers.  These  timbers  are  sup- 
ported by  the  concrete  foundation  and 
are  set  directly  over  the  inverted  steel 
rails  to  which  they  are  bolted  with  steel 
brackets.  At  the  top  the  timbers  are 
held  by  steel  braces  inclined  at  45  de- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


75 


grees,  and  bolted  to  the 
timbers  and  to  the  joists 
supporting  the  fl  o  o  r 
above.  The  leadout  con- 
sists of  2-inch  square 
steel  rocker  shafts  sup- 
ported on  steel  plates 
bolted  to  the  inverted 
steel  rails. 

The  Foster  adjustable 
pipe  carrier  top  was  used 
in  this  installation.  This 
is  a  newly  designed  de- 
vice made  up  of  angles 
bolted  together,  back  to 
back,  giving  a  very  stiff 
construction.  The  top 
has  continuous  slots 
throughout  the  length 
which  give  a  maximum 
of  laterial  adjustment. 
The  top  rests  on  four 
bolt  heads,  thus  permit- 
ting a  maximum  amount 
of  vertical  adjustment, 
and  in  case  one  side  of 
the  foundation  settles 
more  than  the  other,  it 
allows  adjustment  so 
that  the  top  can  still  be 
kept  horizontal.  The 
holes  in  the  top  which 
take  the  bolts  for  fasten- 
ing the  stands  are  sloted 
to  take  care  of  the  slight 
variations  in  the  spacing 
of  the  bolt  holes  cored  in 
the  pipe  carrier  stands. 

High  speed  derails  are 
I.  C.  standard  type  made 
by  the  Morden  Frog  and 
Crossings  Works.  Low 
speed  derails  are  Hayes 
Model  A-5.  Detector 
bars  7/16  inch  thick  and 
53  feet  long  with  mo- 
tion plate  clips  are  pro- 
vided at  each  switch  and 
derail  point. 

The  home  signals  are 
mechanical,  pipe  con- 
nected and  non-slotted. 
The  high  speed  arms  op- 
erate from  0  to  90  de- 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


grees  in  the  upper  quadrant,  and  the  low 
speed  arms  operate  from  0  to  45  degrees 
in  the  upper  quadrant.  Dwarf  signals 
are  U.  S.  &  S.  Co.  type,  pipe  connected 
with  spring  attachment  and  operate 
from  0  to  45  degrees  in  the  upper 
quadrant.  The  high  speed  arms  display 
a  green  light  when  in  the  vertical  po- 
sition, and  a  red  light  when  in  the  hori- 
zontal position.  Low  speed  arms  and 
dwarf  signals  display  a  yellow  light 
when  in  the  45  degree  position,  and  a 
red  light  when  in  the  horizontal  posi- 
tion. 

The  three  power  distant  signals  have 
Hall  style  "K"  bottom  post  mechanisms 
and  operate  from  45  to  90  degrees  in 
the  upper  quadrant.  They  display  a 
yellow  light  when  in  the  45  degree  po- 
sition, and  a  green  light  when  in  the  90- 
degree  position.  The  operating  battery 
for  each  signal  consists  of  sixteen  cells 
of  B.  S.  Co.,  400  A.  H.  capacity  housed 
in  a  knock-down  iron  battery  box. 

The  line  relays  are  500  ohm  Hall  wall 
type  housed  in  the  signal  mechanism 
cases.  Lightning  arresters  are  Hall 


style  EG  improved  type.  Electric  back 
locks  for  the  distant  signals  are  U.  S. 
&  S.  Co.  model  2,  half  reversed,  with  a 
resistance  of  500  ohms.  Two  Union 
mechanical  time  locks  are  provided,  and 
three  annunciators  of  the  U.  S.  &  S. 
Co.  train  drop  type,  two  being  500  ohms 
resistance  and  one  having  25  ohms  re- 
sistance. The  500  ohm  annunciators 
start  from  Hoeschen  selective  magneto- 
generators  and  respond  to  north  bound 
trains  only.  The  25-ohm  annunciator 
starts  from  a  Brach  style  "G"  mercury 
track  instrument  on  the  south  bound 
track  north  of  the  plant. 

Wire  used  at  signal  locations  is  No. 
14  Kerite  4/64  inch  wall  and  single 
braid.  The  jumpers  on  relays  are  No. 
12  lamp  cord.  Line  wire  is  No.  12  cop- 
per clad,  the  annunciator  wires  being 
bare,  and  the  signal  wires  being  double 
braid  weather  proof. 

This  interlocking  was  the  first  on  the 
system  to  be  installed  with  signals  op- 
erating in  the  upper  quadrant,  and  spe- 
cial instructions  were  issued  covering 
the  various  indications. 


Industrial, 

Immigration 


Development 
Department 

Progressive  Farming  in  Mississippi 

By  Charles  N.  Brumfield,  Agriculturist 


D  HENOMENAL  yields  in  agriculture 
•*•  are  obtained  under  conditions  that 
are  unusually  favorable,  and  there  must 
be  but  few  limiting  factors  to  such 
yields.  The  South  holds  the  .record  for 
the  largest  yields  of  corn,  oats  and  al- 
falfa. In  the  South  man  is  the  only 
limiting  factor  to  crop  production,  be- 
cause we  have  unusually  favorable  con- 
ditions for  phenomenal  results.  While 
repeated  maximum  yields  make  us  love 
to  boast  of  our  wonderful  resources, 
nevertheless  it  is  true  that  the  South  is 
growing  and  developing,  as  a  result  of 
the  simple  and  carefully  given  informa- 
tion, which  can  be  used  by  the  average 
man  day  in  and  day  out  on  the  farm.  It 
is  the  standard  of  the  average  man  that 
the  most  thorough  agricultural  workers 
are  seeking  to  raise,  instead  of  working 
altogether,  for  results  out  of  reach  of 
the  average  man.  That  education,  that 
standard,  that  uplift  which  directs  many 
men  to  greater  effort  along  the  general 
lines  of  farming;  which  endeavors  to 
direct  the  raising  of  a  few  pigs  well, 
caring  and  feeding  properly  a  few  dairy 
cows,  and  which  makes  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  home,  the  consolidation  of 
schools,  community  organization  and 
painted  churches  is  worth  far  more  to 
civilization  than  all  the  extraordinary 
results  which  it  is  possible  to  obtain 
only  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
After  several  years  of  experience  in 
teaching  the  simple  things  for  general 
farm  uplift,  we  are  convinced  that  the 
main  good  which  comes  from  speech 


and  illustration  is  the  original  thought 
which  results  from  the  personal  con- 
tact with  the  worker,  the  interest 
aroused  to  seek  for  himself  the  truth 
about  his  own  farm  and  business. 

It  is  interesting  to  take  an  inventory 
of  the  farm  conditions  of  a  state,  coun- 
ty, community  or  individual.  It  is  high- 
ly educational  to  take  such  an  inventory 
and  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  a  part 
of  the  agriculture  which  ought  to  be 
taught  in  the  public  schools  of  the  South 
are  the  inventories  or  conditions  of  the 
farms  in  the  community  around  the 
school,  and  the  methods  of  benefiting 
such  farms.  At  last  the  whole  prob- 
lem of  agriculture  is  the  problem  of 
education.  The  farmer  of  the  future 
must  be  a  good  sound  business  man,  ed- 
ucated to  love  the  business  of  farming 
and  able  to  understand  and  apply  the 
science  of  farming  and  to  use  them  on 
his  farm.  The  more  of  the  proper  kind 
of  education  we  receive  the  quicker  and 
surer  are  we  going  to  develop  into  a 
permanently  prosperous  agriculture. 

The  demonstration  farms  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  are  not  intended 
to  overshadow  every  farm  in  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  are  located.  In 
fact,  it  is  always  gratifying  to  the  man- 
agement to  know  of  results  superior  to 
the  results  obtained  on  these  farms. 
However,  it  is  intended  that  the  truth 
of  scientific  farming  shall  be  put  into 
practice  on  these  farms  in  so  far  as  it 
can  be  made  a  part  of  the  scheme  for 
a  permanent  farm.  Then  they  must 


77 


78 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


serve  as  an  object  lesson  to  other  farm- 
ers if  they  are  of  the  most  good,  but  to 
serve  as  object  lessons  it  is  realized  that 
the  work  of  these  farms  must  be  of  a 
superior  nature,  or  rather,  the  work 
must  be  thoroughly  sound. 

Freeman  Hales  owns  and  operates  the 
farm  at  McComb  City,  Miss.  This  farm 
was  put  into  operation  in  1913  by  Mr. 
J.  C.  Clair,  who  with  a  few  enterpris- 
ing business  men  of  McComb  called 
upon  Mr.  Hales  for  the  purpose  of  lo- 
cating and  outlining  the  work  to  the 
agriculturists.  Hales  was  just  an  av- 
erage man,  with  lots  of  energy,  and  an 
unconquerable  desire  to  become  a  pros- 
perous farmer.  He  loved  his  business 
and  did  nothing  else  and  talked  nothing 
else.  The  farm  is  now  in  its  third  year. 
No  special  interest  was  taken  in  this 
farm  the  first  year,  except  that  shown 
by  the  director  of  the  farm  and  its  pro- 
prietor. In  fact,  it  was  not  much  of  a 
departure  from  the  ordinary  way  of 
running  farms  in  that  county.  There 
was  an  ample  supply  of  stumps  all  over 
the  place.  Hales  had  some  dairy  cows, 
but  handled  them  in  the  old  box-stall 
fashion,  and  did  not  have  a  silo  nor  a 
modern  dairy  farm.  On  July  20,  1915, 
Mr.  Hales  _had  eliminated  the  stumps 
from  his  pface,  he  had  erected  a  splen- 
did concrete  silo,  and  had  just  com- 
pleted a  modern  dairy  barn,  built  ac- 
cording to  the  directions  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture.  On 
this  day  the  new  barn  was  dedicated  by 
holding  a  farmers'  all  day  meeting  in 
it.  The  meeting  was  attended  by  about 
200  farmers  and  their  wives  and  lasted 
from  10 :30  in  the  morning  until  4 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  .  Speeches  were 
made  by  Messrs.  Harper,  Brumfield, 
Moore,  Higgins,  Minge,  and  Prof. 
Moore.  The  work  from  the  railroad 
standpoint  was  outlined  by  Mr.  Har- 
per. Mr.  Moore  gave  an  interesting 
discussion  upon  community  organization 
and  co-operation,  Mr.  Higgins  outlined 
the  advantages  of  the  silo  and  modern 
dairy  barn.  Mr.  Minge  discussed  ter- 
racing land  and  soil  improvement,  and 
Prof.  Moore  discussed  the  dairy  cow 
and  her  value,  when  properly  looked 


after.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  Pike  Coun- 
ty is  developing.  Five  years  ago  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  have  had 
such  an  audience  meet  in  any  part  of 
the  county  for  the  purpose  of  an  all- 
day  discussion  of  farm  matters.  A  few 
miles'  drive  in  the  country  over  the 
magnificently  graveled  roads  is  indica- 
tive of  better  times  in  South  Mississip- 
pi and  in  Pike  County.  Crop  conditions 
are  magnificent,  and  conditions  are  gen- 
erally improved,  because  farmers  are 
beginning  to  settle  themselves  to  the 
task  of  working  out  a  permanent  agri- 
culture. 

At  Flora,  Miss.,  John  Anderson  op- 
erates the  demonstration  farm,  and  on 
July  21  a  similar  meeting  was  held  on 
his  place  to  that  just  outlined  about  the 
McComb  City  Farm.  Except  on  this  oc- 
casion a  much  larger  farm  is  being  used 
and,  instead  of  being  a  dairy  man,  Mr. 
Anderson  is  breeding  beef  cattle.  While 
this  is  not  uncommon  in  Madison  coun- 
ty yet  the  visitors  who  were  interested 
in  farming  took  delight  in  comparing 
Mr.  Anderson's  grade  calves  and  year- 
lings with  their  own  and  took  a  great 
deal  of  interest  in  observing  the  meth- 
ods of  cultivating  the  Demonstration 
Farm.  Mr.  Anderson's  corn  would  indi- 
cate a  yield  of  90  bushels  to  the  acre, 
and  this  is  on  land  that  would  not  make 
20  bushels  five  years  ago.  An  all-day 
meeting  was  held  in  the  beautiful  grove 
in  front  of  his  residence,  where  all  the 
discussions  were  interspersed  by  ques- 
tions asked  by  the  farmers,  and  we 
judge  there  were  500  in  attendance. 
All  left  well  pleased  with  the  day's 
work,  the  farmers  feeling  they  had 
truthfully  benefited  and  the  speakers  in- 
spired to  greater  efforts  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  good. 

At  O'Reilly,  Miss.,  Mr.  Louis  Wald- 
auer  operates  the  Demonstration  Farm, 
and  on  July  23  one  of  the  grandest 
farmers'  meetings  ever  held  in  Missis- 
sippi, and  especially  the  delta,  was  held 
on  his  farm.  About  1,000  people  at- 
tended and  devoted  the  entire  time, 
from  the  arrival  of  the  speakers  to  ad- 
journment, to  the  subject  of  farm  prob- 
lems. A  splendid  barbecue  was  given 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


79 


by  Mr.  Waldauer,  and  he  served  more 
than  a  thousand  plates.  It  is  especially 
gratifying  to  be  able  to  recall  that  it  is 
possible  to  ho'd  a  meeting  of  this  kind 
in  the  Yazoo  Mississippi  Delta. 

The  thing  that  marks  the  farm  meet- 
ings held,  and  which  gives  a  true  indi- 
cation of  the  trend  of  affairs  in  Mis- 
sissippi is  the  fact  that  at  all  of  these 


places,  by  unanimous  consent  of  the 
farmers  present,  it  was  agreed  to  make 
these  meetings  an  annual  affair.  We 
are  of  the  opinion  that  Mississippi  is 
developing,  and  that  her  development 
is  coming  fastest  along  agricultural 
lines,  because  her  farmers  are  assimi- 
lating the  truth  of  agriculture  in  the 
simplest  and  most  practical  form. 


The  Intelligent  Box  Car 


r-pHE  general  superintendent  and  the 
1  principal  assistant  engineer  stood 
side  by  side  at  the  top  of  the  hump  in 
the  shadow  of  the  switching  tower 
and  smiled.  And  that  was  all  there 
was  to  the  formal  opening  of  the  Chi- 
cago clearing  freight  transfer  yards 
it  took  more  than  two  years'  time 
and  $8,000,000  to  build.  They  are  said 
to  be  the  biggest  in  the  world. 

Below  the  two  men  the  tracks 
spread  out  fan  shape.  Fifty-two  pairs 
of  them,  rapidly  becoming  shiny  with 
use,  flowed  out  to  the  east. 

The  completion  of  the  clearing  yard 
is  an  important  step  toward  electrify- 
ing the  railroads  entering  Chicago.  As 
long  as  freight  transfers  are  made  in 
the  city  the  problem  of  electrification 
is  complex.  That  was  the  way  F.  E. 
Morrow,  the  principal  assistant  engi- 
neer, explained  it. 

"The  freight  transfer  yards  here  sort 
out  the  freight  that  comes  into  Chi- 
cago," he'  explained.  "A  train  conies 
in  from  the  east,  for  instance,  with 
sixty  or  seventy  cars  consigned  to 
points  on  different  railroads  west  of 
Chicago.  Some  of  the  cars  may  be 
consigned  to  Chicago  firms.  Now, 
what  we  do  in  this  yard  is  to  take  all 
the  cars  that  are  to  go  out  over  the 
Santa  Fe,  for  instance,  run  them  down 
one  track,  and  let  the  Santa  Fe  haul 
them  out  again." 

General  Superintendent  J.  H.  Brin- 
kerhoff  added  a  word. 

"If  Chicago,"  said  he,"  didn't  hap- 


pen to  be  about  the  only  city  in  the 
country  which  is  the  terminal  for 
every  road  that  enters  it  the  situation 
wouldn't  be  nearly  so  complex.  That's 
the  reason  the  switching  problem  is  so 
mean." 

The  way  they  classify  the  cars  is  a 
fine  art.  A  train  was  hauled  to  one  of 
the  receiving  tracks  situated  at  either 
end  of  the  yard.  There  the  Belt  Line 
railroad,  which  operates  the  yard,  took 
it  in  hand.  An  engine  was  hooked  on 
behind  and  the  long  train  was  pushed 
up  the  long  slope  until  the  first  car 
was  just  at  the  top  of  the  hump. 

The  man  in  the  switching  tower  had 
before  him  a  card  which  the  conductor 
of  the  freight  train  had  made  out  as 
his  caboose  jogged  along  over  the 
prairies.  That  card  gave  the  destina- 
tion of  every  car  in  the  train. 

When  the  car  came  to  a  full  stop 
the  tower  man  gave  the  card  a  hasty 
glance  and  a  moment  .  later  pressed 
one  of  a  half  dozen  small  buttons  on 
the  table  before  him.  A  blast  echoed 
down  the  yard ;  it  was  heard  half  a 
mile  away,  for  a  moment  later  the 
whole  train  quivered.  The  push  was 
strong  enough  to  send  the  first  car  on 
its  way  down  toward  the  fan  of  tracks 
below.  Just  as  the  car  started  the 
tower  man  pressed  another  button. 

On  top  of  the  car  which  bowled 
along  down  the  slope  stood  a -man  in 
faded  blue  overalls.  Presently  he 
leaned  over  and  bore  with  all  his 
strength  on  the  hand  brake.  The  car 


80 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


slid  along  until  it  reached  the  fourth 
rib  of  the  fan  when  it  changed  its 
course  and  slid  down  that  rib. 

The  tower  man  turned  and  grinned. 

"Did  you  see  that  button  I  pressed 
just  as  she  started  to  roll?"  he  asked. 
"Well,  that  threw  switch  No.  4  down 
there  and  she  just  had  to  roll  in.  Noth- 
ing to  it.  Watch.  Here  goes  for  track 
No.  7 — Illinois  Central  stuff  for  New 
Orleans." 

After  a  half  dozen  cars  with  their 


riders  have  slid  over  the  bump  a  gas- 
oline car  chugs  up  the  hill  with  the 
riders  who  are  ready  for  their  turn 
next.  It  took  twenty-three  minutes 
to  classify  sixty-three  cars. 

"Why  didn't  we  have  a  celebration 
when  we  opened  up?"  repeated  the 
general  superintendent.  "Well,  they 
had  one  in  Kansas  City  when  they 
opened  up  a  yard  there  and  they  got 
so  balled  up  they  didn't  get  straight- 
ened out  for  ten  hours." — Exchange. 


Operator  P.  Cummings 


Mr.  Cummings,  who  is  employed  in 
the  local  freight  office  at  New  Orleans, 
La.,  is  one  of  the  oldest  employes  in 
the  service. 

Entered  the  service  of  the  N.  O.  & 
Jackson  Railroad  at  Frenier,  La.,  as 
operator,  August,  1868;  remained  with 
that  company  until  March,  1877,  as  op- 
erator and  Superintendent's  clerk,  was 
taken  out  of  the  service  along  with  a 
number  of  other  employes  when  a  new 
superintendent  took  charge. 

From  1877  to  1885  .was  agent  and 
operator  for  the  M.  L.  &  T.  R.  R.  at 
Opelousas,  La. 

Entered  the  service  of  the  L.  N.  O. 
&  T.  R.  R.  January  3,  1885,  and  was 
employed  at  Clarksdale,  Miss.,  Burnside, 
Wilson  and  Baton  Rouge,  La.,  from  that 
date  up  to  February  15,  1889,  when  he 
was  transferred  to  New  Orleans.  When 
the  Illinois  Central  took  over  the  L.  N. 
O.  &  T.  R.  R.,  he  continued  in  the  serv- 
ice at  New  Orleans. 


PETER  S.  CUMMINGS,  NEW  ORLEANS,  LA. 


For  the  GoodFof  the  Service 

By  L.  A.  North,  Shop  Superintendent 


R 


ECENTLY  we  had  several  of  the 
representatives  of  the  Railway 
Magazines  visit  Burnside  Plant.  In 
conversation  with  these  gentlemen, 
their  attention  was  called  to  the  dif- 
ferent committees  we  have  on  the 
Plant,  i,  e.,  that  of  the  Shop  Craft  Com- 
mittee and  of  the  Safety  Committee. 
These  gentlemen  expressed  themselves 
very  highly  in  favor  of  the  way  the 
committees  were  handling  the  work 
which  had  been  assigned  to  them  and 
in  the  successful  manner  in  which  they 
were  handling  the  reports,  and  also  the 
numerous  suggestions  which  had  been 
given  by  them  at  the  various  meetings 
held  in  the  office  of  the  Shop  Super- 
intendent each  month. 

It  is  the  desire  to  bring  the  employes 
as  closely  in  touch  with  all  of  the  oper- 
ating Departments  as  possible,  in  order 
that  they  may  realize  the  necessity  of 
co-operation,  economy  and  careful 
handling  of  all  that  pertains  to  success- 
ful operation  of  a  Railroad,  the  size  of 
the  Illinois  Central.  The  spirit  which 
has  been  exhibited  by  the  various  em- 
ployes surely  must  be  very  gratifying 
to  all  concerned — so  much  so,  that 
during  the  recent  Street  Car  trouble, 
Mr.  Markham,  the  President  of  the 
Railroad,  commented  on  the  co-opera- 
tion of  all  of  the  employes  in  handling 
the  enormous  amount  of  traffic  which 
was  handled  at  that  time,  and  which 
could  not  have  been  handled  in  the 
manner  in  which  it  was,  had  everybody 
not  pulled  together. 

The  same  spirit  is  exhibited  at  the 


Burnside  Plant.  The  various  men  of 
the  different  Departments  realize  that 
the  co-operation  of  all  employes  is 
necessary  and  essential  for  the  welfare 
of  the  Plant.  During  the  meetings  of 
the  Shop  Craft  Committee  held  in  the 
Shop  Superintendent's  office — after  the 
various  committeemen  have  been  re- 
quested to  make  such  reports  as  neces- 
sary, it  is  the  rule  to  talk  to  them  rela- 
tive to  the  cost  of  operation  of  the 
Plant  for  the  preceding  month,  show- 
ing the  saving  effected  by  the  use  of 
scrap  and  second-hand  material,  illus- 
trating by  different  methods  what  can 
be  done  along  this  line,  what  has  been 
done,  what  other  Railroads  are  doing 
and  how,  by  each  employe  putting  his 
"shoulder  to  the  wheel",  in  this  respect, 
he  is  able  to  keep  some  other  employe 
at  work,  by  the  saving  effected  in  mate- 
rial, allowing  more  money  to  be  spent 
for  labor. 

The  Shop  Craft  Committee  is  also 
requested  to  talk  to  the  various  em- 
ployes on  this  subject,  so  that  they 
may  understand  what  is  being  done  to 
handle  the  plant  in  as  successful  and 
economical  a  manner  as  possible,  also 
what  is  being  done  to  place  the  power, 
both  locomotives  and  cars,  in  the  best 
condition  possible. 

The  subject  is  also  discussed  in  re- 
gard to  cleanliness  of  the  plant  and 
premises.  We  believe  that  the  em- 
ployes appreciate  what  is  being  done 
for  their  comfort  and  are  endeavoring, 
to  the  best  of  their  ability,  to  meet 
with  the  requests  which  have  been 


81 


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ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


made  in  regard  to  cleanliness  of  the 
plant  and  premises. 

The  question  of  safety  is  also  thor- 
oughly discussed  and  illustrations 
given  whereby  employes,  by  becoming 
careless  or  not  being  thoughtful 
enough  of  their  fellow  shop-mates  may 
bring  about  an  injury  which  may  de- 
prive them  of  the  means  or  methods 
of  a  livelihood  and"  suggestions  are  of- 
fered whereby  these  accidents  can  be 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  Safety 
Committee,  which  canvasses  the  plant 
thoroughly  once  each  month,  has  also 
made  a  very  good  showing.  It  is  not 
always  possible  to  do  all  that  is  re- 
quested by  this  committee  each  month, 
but  they  are  requested  that  in  case 
their  report  has  not  been  taken  care 
of,  or  report  has  not  been  fully  cov- 
ered, to  again  report  at  the  following 
meeting.  They  are  asked  to  be  per- 
sistent in  such  reports  until  every- 
thing has  been  done  that  can  possibly 
be  done  to  guard  against  accidents  for 
the  present  and  the  future. 

The  system  of  co-operation  we  be- 
lieve to  be  one  of  the  best  that  can  be 
installed  in  any  plant,  and  from  the 
manner  and  method  in  which  the  va- 
rious employes  here  have  adopted  this 
as  their  watchword  surely  indicates 
that  all  are  interested  in  the  success 
of  the  operation  of  the  plant. 

A  number  of  papers  have  been  writ- 
ten on  "Efficiency"  from  time  to  time 
— possibly  this  has  been  one  of  the 
worst  abused  words  in  the  dictionary. 
In  a  recent  article  in  the  Ladies'  Home 
Journal  a  very  clever  illustration  was 
given  as  to  the  abuse  to  which  this 
word  is  subject,  and  the  writer  of  the 
article  had  the  subject  well  in  hand. 
While  it  is  not  the  intention  to  be- 
little anything  which  may  have  a  tend- 
ency toward  economy  or  shorter  meth- 
ods, we  believe  that  co-operation  for 
any  organization  will  do  more  toward 
placing  a  plant  on  a  paying  basis  than 
any  other  system  which  may  be  in- 
stalled. 

We  also  desire  to  mention  the  co- 
operation exhibited  by  the  Store  De- 
partment with  the  Mechanical  Depart- 


ment. The  custom  of  one  department 
nagging  the  other  continually  is  not 
the  system  used  here — both  depart- 
ments working  hand  in  hand  and  ac- 
complishing that  which  would  be  con- 
sidered impossible  under  the  system 
now  in  use  on  some  of  the  railroads 
today.  By  both  departments  working 
together  in  handling  and  the  using  of 
material,  it  is  possible  to  reduce  the 
stock  to  a  reasonable  amount,  turn- 
ing the  money  over  very  rapidly,  which 
necessarily  must  be  invested  in  the 
amount  of  stock  carried  and  allowing 
but  very  little  dead  stock  to  remain  on 
the  plant.  This  in  turn  is  beneficial 
in  more  ways  than  one,  as  it  enables 
the  management  to  make  a  much  bet- 
ter showing  and  allows  more  money 
for  the  repairs  to  locomotives  and  cars, 
as  well  as  the  upkeep  of  the  premises. 
Occasionally  it  is  necessary  to  place 
an  emergency  order  and  it  is  very  grat- 
.ifying  to  witness  the  manner  in  which 
this  is  handled,  which,  if  under  other 
conditions  than  which  we  are  now 
working,  it  would  be  very  much  of  a 
handicap  to  endeavor  to  turn  out  the 
amount  of  work  that  is  necessary  for 
a  plant  of  this  size  to  produce. 

The  clerical  end  also  has  co-oper- 
ated in  a  number  of  instances  and 
short-cuts  have  been  adopted  whereby 
the  increase  of  correspondence  has 
been  handled  very  satisfactorily — each 
and  all  doing  whatever  is  possible 
within  their  power  to  handle  matters 
pertaining  to  them  as  quickly  and  sat- 
isfactorily as  can  be  done. 

We  also  believe  that  it  is  a  good 
policy  to  place  yourself  in  the  other 
fellow's  place  occasionally  to  get  his 
viewpoint  of  how  matters  pertaining 
to  the  different  affairs  of  a  plant  or 
railroad  are  handled,  and  if  a  spirit  of 
democracy  prevails  throughout  the  en- 
tire system,  it  has  very  much  of  a  ten- 
dency to  bring  all  concerned  closer  in 
touch  than  with  the  use  of  some  of 
the  efficiency  methods  which  are  ad- 
vocated by  theoretical  men  in  regard 
to  matters  of  which  they  have  no  prac- 
tical knowledge. 


Reducing  Mechanical  Department  Expenses 

By  L.  R.  Cleaves,  Chief  Clerk  to  Master  Mechanic,  Paducah 


)  subject  is  of  more  importance 
in  railroad  operation  than  that  of 
expenses  and  as  the  present  is  a  very 
opportune  time,  attention  is  called  to 
some  of,  the  saving  effected  at  Paducah 
shops  by  the  use  of  scrap  and  second 
hand  material,  both  in  application  and 
manufacture. 

Heretofore  considerable  has  been 
lost,  or  it  might  be  said,  thrown  away, 
by  material,  which  can  be  utilized  in 
various  ways,  being  sent  in  for  scrap. 

In  addition  there  has  also  been  loss 
in  labor  expense  in  the  use  of  second 
hand  material  on  account  of  not  hav- 
ing proper  system  for  handling  it. 

To  increase  the  use  of  serviceable 
second  hand  material  and  eliminate  all 
unnecessary  labor  expense  in  the  han- 
dling of  it,  a  scrap  dock  was  construct- 
ed at  Paducah.  One  end  of  th£  scrap 
dock  has  been  arranged  with  sufficient 
number  of  bins  so  each  class  of  ma- 
terial can  be  separated  and  placed  in 
separate  bin,  and  the  other  end  of  the 
scrap  dock  has  been  equipped  with 
machinery  to  rework  and  rehandle  it. 

The  reclaiming  plant  at  Paducah  is 
equipped  with  the  following  ma- 
chinery: 

Bolt  shears  (air  driven). 

Bolt  straightening  machine,  air 
driven). 

One  double  head  bolt  threading  ma- 
chine (motor  driven). 

One  machine  for  backing  off  nuts 
from  old  bolts  (air  driven). 

One  six  spindle  nut  tapping  machine. 

One  emery  wheel  (motor  driven). 

It  requires  in  its  operation : 

One  foreman. 

Five  machine  operators. 

One  assorter. 

Two  scrap  handlers. 

These,  with  the  exception  of  the 
foreman,  are  paid  by  the  hour,  making 


the  average  cost  for  labor  operating  the 
plant,  based  on  eight  hours  per  day, 
six  days  per  week,  approximately 
$320.00  per  month. 

The  monthly  output  of  the  reclaim- 
ing plant  in  bolts  and  nuts  alone 
amounts  to : 

Bolts 35,626  Ibs. 

Nuts 13,786  Ibs. 

This  results  in  an  added  saving  of 
$779.03  per  month,  arrived  at  in  the 
following  manner : 

Output    (new   value) $1,304.23 

Scrap  value $148.20 

Labor    320.00 

Power   25.00 

Overhead  expenses..     32.00 

525.20 


Av.  mo.  saving $    779.03 

The  above  saving,  however,  does  not 
take  into  consideration  the  saving 
made  in  reduction  in  the  cost  of  han- 
dling and  reclaiming  other  items. 

Exhibit  No.  1  shows  a  general  view 
of  the  reclaiming  plant  and  Exhibit 
No.  2  shows  a  view  of  the  bolt  corner 
room  of  this  plant. 

The  Car  Department  blacksmith 
shop,  used  exclusively  for  car  repair 
work,  is  located  near  the  scrap  dock 
in  the  blacksmith  shop.  A  coal  fur- 
nace has  been  provided  which  is  used 
exclusively  for  straightening  all  car 
iron,  repairing  brake  beams  and  reset- 
ting car  springs,  which  work  is  done 
by  a  force  of  two  men : 

One  blacksmith  handyman. 

One  helper. 

These  men  repair  an  average  of  four 
brake  beams  per  hour,  or  ten  springs 
per  hour.  Brake  beams  are  not  only 
repaired,  but  No.  2  beams  are  made 
from  No.  1  beams  by  the  application 
of  a  1%-inch  truss  rod  reclaimed  from 
destroyed  cars.  After  the  beams  are 


83 


84 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


repaired,  same  are  painted  by  dipping 
in  paint  baths.  The  total  cost  of  re- 
pairing brake  beams,  including  both 
labor  and  material,  amounts  to  80 
cents  each.  The  saving  on  brake 
beams  per  month  amounts  to  an  aver- 
age of  $552.50,  arrived  at  as  follows : 


One  new  brake  beam. 
One  repaired  brake  beam 


2.50 
.80 


Saving   $     1.70 

Av.  number  repaired  monthly.        325 
Monthly  saving $552.50 

In  addition  to  the  work  of  repairing 
brake  beams  and  straightening  all  car 
iron,  this  handyman  and  helper  also 
repair  all  coil  draft  springs,  giving 
them  the  proper  set,  tempering  them 
in  oil,  and  annealing  them.  These  two 


one  laborer,  rated  at  16  cents  per  hour. 
This  man  working  a  day  of  eight  hours 
prepares  fifty  car  brasses. 

Another  large  saving  is  made  in  re- 
claiming angle  cocks,  cutout  cocks,  re- 
lease valves,  etc.  All  reclaimed  angle 
cocks  and  valves  are  taken  to  the  air 
room  where  they  are  worked  over  and 
made  ready  for  use. 

In  addition  to  the  reclaiming  of  ma- 
terial, Paducah  shops  also  make  a 
good  showing  in  the  manufacture  of 
small  hand  tools,  sill  steps,  carrier 
irons,  tie  straps,  etc. 

The  statement  giyen  below  shows 
the  saving  effected  by  manufacture  of 
such  articles.  (See  Exhibit  No.  3.) 

All  employes  at  Paducah  shops  are 
very  much  interested  in  reclaiming  and 
using  scrap  and  second  hand  material 


•>w  of  the  reclaiming  plan 


Article  Made  From 

Coal    Pick Scrap    Steel   Tires $0.15 

"S"  Car  Wrench Scrap   Steel   Tires 

Hand  Chisel Scrap   Car   Springs 

Hand  Cold   Chisel Scrap   Steel   Tires 15 

"S"  Car  Wrench Scrap   Steel   Tires 

Gouge  Chisel Scrap   Car   Springs 

Hand   Punch Scrap  Steel  Tires 15 

Brake  Shoe  Key %-inch  Scrap  Iron 01 

Cape   Chisel Scrap   Car   Springs 

Sledge  Hammer Scrap   Steel   Tires 

Dump    Lever Scrap   1%-inch   Truss   Rods.... 

Machinist    Hammer Scrap   Steel  Tires 

40  T  Carrier  Iron Scrap  Arch  Bars 

U.   S.   Standard  25-in.   Sill  Step 1%-inch  Truss  Rods 14 

Tie  Strap  for  Economy  Draft  Rigging. .  Old  Tie  Bars 15 


ast      New  Value 

Saving 

>.15 

$0.40 

$0.25 

.14 

.15 

.01 

.04 

.16 

.12 

.15 

.32 

.17 

.18 

.32 

.14 

.04 

.12 

.08 

.15 

.24 

.09 

.01 

.03 

.02 

.04 

.10 

.06 

.32 

1.04 

.72 

.18 

.20 

.02 

.20 

.64 

.44 

.12 

.40 

.28 

.14 

.29 

.15 

.15     • 

.32 

.17 

men  average  ten  new  springs,  cost  64 
cents  each,  and  about  300  are  used  per 
month  at  Paducah  shops.  This  item 
alone  reflects  a  monthly  saving  of 
$132.00. 

The  blacksmith  shop  is  also 
equipped  for  relining  and  rebabbitting 
car  brasses,  this  work  being  done  by 


as  they  appreciate  in  so  doing  the  com- 
pany is  saving  the  value  of  the  article 
repaired  or  manufactured.  Sugges- 
tions frequently  offered  by  employes 
extending  the  use  of  scrap  and  second 
hand  material  are  given  consideration 
and  when  found  practicable,  are 
adopted. 


ilQrttonoiis  o  Qrvice 


L^AVORABLE  entry  has  been  made 
"  on  the  records  of  the  following 
conductors  for  their  special  efforts  in 
lifting  and  preventing  the  use  of  ir- 
regular transportation  in  connection 
with  which  reports  (Form  972)  were 
rendered  to  the  auditor  of  passenger 
receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advise  the  other  departments  con- 
cerned, so  that  proper  action  may  be 
taken,  all  pass  irregularities  being 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  vice- 
president  : 

Illinois  Division. 

Conductor  F.  A.  Hitz,  on  train  No. 
526,  June  12th,  lifted  trip  pass  read- 
ing for  passage  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare 
and  was  required  to  leave  the  train. 

On  train  No.  525,  June  23rd,  he 
lifted  drover's  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  502,  June  28th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  the  Passen- 
ger Department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel,  on  train 
No.  24,  June  14th,  and  train  No.  2, 
June  26th,  declined  to  honor  expired 
card  tickets  and  collected  cash  fares. 
Passengers  were  referred  to  the  Pas- 
senger Department  for  refund  on  tick- 
ets. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Mallon,  on  train  No. 
24,  June  18th,  lifted  employe's  term 
pass  account  passenger  not  being  pro- 
vided with  identification  slip,  Form 
1572.  Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare 
and  was  required  to  leave  the  train. 
St.  Louis  Division. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader,  on  train 
No.  10,  June  12th,  lifted  trip  pass  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  24,  June  14th  and  28th, 
he  refused  to  honor  expired  card  tick- 
ets and  collected  cash  fares.  Passen- 
gers were  referred  to  the  Passenger 
Department  for  refund  on  tickets. 


Wisconsin  Division. 

Conductor  B.  Lichtenberger,  on 
train  No.  124,  June  19th,  declined  to 
honor  local  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare.  Passen- 
ger was  referred  to  the  Passenger  De- 
partment for  refund  on  ticket. 
Minnesota  Division 

Conductor  F.  E.  Lucas,  on  train  No. 
27,  June  2nd,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbrough,  on 
train  No.  104,  June  7th,  declined  to 
honor  annual  pass  restricted  to  intra- 
state  travel  account  being  presented 
with  local  ticket  for  an  interstate  trip. 
Passenger  purchased  additional  trans- 
portation to  cover  through  trip. 

Conductor  E.  T.  Arnn,  on  train  No. 
104,  June  17th,  declined  to  honor  mil- 
eage ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn,  on  train 
No.  122,  June  19th,  lifted  mileage 
ticket,  which  was  presented  contain- 
ing mileage  strip  from  another  book, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  121,  June  21st,  he  lifted 
trip  pass  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  132,  June  25th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  local  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  D.  E.  Carroll,  on  train 
No.  101,  June  21st,  lifted  mileage 
ticket  account  being  in  improper  hands 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  E.  Nelson,  on  train  No. 
104,  June  26th,  declined  to  honor  mil- 
eage ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson  during 
June  lifted  several  mileage  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  and  being  in  im- 
proper hands  and  collected  cash  fares. 


85 


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ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


On  train  No.  2,  June  25th,  he  lifted 
scrip  exchange  passage  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  133,  June  28th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  Sunday  excursion 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  G.  P.  Kinkle,  on  train  No. 
105,  June  17th,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  being  in  improper  hands. 
Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare  and  was 
required  to  leave  the  train. 

Conductor  J.  S.  Wesson,  on  train  No. 

1,  June  22nd,  lifted  mileage  ticket  ac- 
count  being   in    improper    hands   and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  W.  Arnn  on  train  No. 
38  June  23rd  declined  to  honor  local 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  C.  N.  Melton,  on  train 
No.  134,  June  26th,  lifted  employe's 
trip  pass  account  being  in  improper 
hands.  Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare 
and  was  required  to  leave  train. 

Mississippi  Division 
Conductor  F.  J.  Hines,  on  train  No. 
3,  June  13th,  lifted  employe's  trip  pass 
account  returning  portion  being  miss- 
ing and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson,  on  train 
No.  1,  June  19th,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  returning  portion  being 
missing.  Passenger  refused  to  pay 
fare  and  was  required  to  leave  the 
train. 

Conductor  B.  B.  Ford,  on  train  No. 

2,  June  23rd,  lifted  mileage  ticket  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  G.  O.  Lord,  on  train  No, 
34,  June  1st,  and  train  No.  6,  June  5th, 
lifted  employe's  term  passes  account 
identification  slips,  Form  1572,  having 
been  altered.  Passengers  refused  to 
pay  fare  and  were  required  to  leave 
the  train. 

On  train  No.  1,  June  2nd,  he  lifted 
returning  portion  of  summer  tourist 


ticket  account  change  in  signature  and 
punch  description  of  passenger  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  M.  Kennedy,  during  June, 
lifted  several  mileage  tickets  account 
having  expired  and  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fares. 

Conductor  H.  T.  Erickson,  on  train 
No.  504,  June  5th,  lifted  two  54-ride 
individual  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  31,  June  19th,  he  lifted 
30-trip  family  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train  No. 
23,  June  6th,  lifted  trip  pass  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  33,  June  14th,  he  lifted 
30-trip  family  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Broas,  on  train  No 
34,  June  13th,  lifted  Sunday  excursion 
tickets     account     being    in     improper 
hands.   Passengers  refused  to  pay  fares 
and  were  required  to  leave  the  train. 

Conductor  W.  Moales,  on  train  No. 
1,  June  17th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected mileage  from  another  ticket  to 
cover  trip. 

Conductor  R.  Mclnturff,  on  train 
No.  331,  June  28th,  declined  to  honor 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  304,  June  29th,  he  lifted 
identification  slip  account  passenger 
not  being  provided  with  pass  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  Wm.  Trafton,  on  train 
No.  33,  June  29th,  lifted  mileage  ticket 
account  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee,  on  train  No. 
331,  June  3rd,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  date  of  sale  having  been 
altered  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  M.  Carter,  on  train  No. 
14,  June  23rd,  declined  to  honor  mil- 
eage ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  C.  Davis,  on  train  No. 
21,  June  6th,  declined  to  honor  Sunday 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


87 


excursion  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  S.  K.  White,  on  train  No. 
12,  June  19th,  lifted  trip  pass  restricted 
to  intrastate  travel  account  being  pre- 
sented in  connection  with  an  interstate 
trip  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  C.  R.  Day,  on  train  No. 
33,  June  28th,  lifted  54-ride  individual 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Illinois  Division 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  A.  E. 
Johnson,  train  73,  July  11,  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  I.  C.  37766  with  no 
light  weight  stencilled  on  same.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  C.  H. 
Martin,  train  391,  July  17,  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  I.  C.  131102  without 
light  weight  stencilled  on  same.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  have  car  sten- 
cilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  A.  J. 
Haettinger,  extra  1511,  July  6,  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  car  improperly 
stencilled.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  correction  made. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  H.  L. 
Beem  for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
104904,  with  no  light  weight  stencilled 
on  same.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  car  stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  C.  H. 
Redus.  train  92,  July  9,  for  discovering 
and  reporting  I.  C.  41996,  with  no  light 
weight  stencilled  on  same.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on  the 
service  record  of  Conductor  M.  C.  Shug- 
rue,  extra  1672,  July  22,  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  I.  C.  106009,  with  no 
light  weight  stencilled  on  same.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  have  car  sten- 
cilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Conductor  Bash, 
extra  1657,  July  20,  for  discovering  and 
reporting  I.  C.  45082,  with  no  light 


weight  stencilled  on  same.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Operator  R.  C. 
Balfe,  of  Oilman,  for  discovering  brake 
rigging  down  on  Extra  1595,  south, 
while  passing  Gilman. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Brakeman  J.  P. 
Mirgon,  train  92,  July  15,  for  discover- 
ing a  piece  of  flange  broken  out  of  wheel 
in  his  train  south  of  Neoga,  and  taking 
proper  action  to  have  car  sent  to  the 
shops  for  repairs. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Brakeman  G.  En- 
nis,  train  73,  July  7,  for  discovering  I.  C. 
107043,  with  truck  broken  and  taking 
necessary  action  in  order  to  avoid  an 
accident. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Agent  C.  W.  Mc- 
Knight,  Melvin,  111.,  for  discovering 
broken  rail  on  main  track  at  south  end 
of  Melvin,  July  18. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  made  on  the 
service  record  of  Brakeman  H.  A.  Pe- 
terson for  discovering  a  brake  beam 
down  on  truck  of  I.  C.  56716,  extra 
1645,  south,  while  extra  1729  north  was 
going  past  Monee  station,  July  11. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Brakeman  C.  Mat- 
thews for  discovering  brake  beam  down 
on  C.  F.  D.  X.  56855,  July  22. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Agent  A.  S.  Hatch, 
Kempton,  for  discovering  I.  C.  19015  at 
his  station  with  broken  arch  bar. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Porter  L.  West- 
brook,  for  discovering  and  reporting 
brake  connecting  rod  down  on  truck  of 
car  2064,  while  being  handled  in  train  21, 
June  22. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Engineer  Connerty, 
extra  1578,  south,  July  15,  while  train 
was  moving  through  Riverdale,  for  dis- 
covering brake  rigging  wedged  in  puzzle 
switch  on  track  four,  and  notifying  the 
towerman  to  have  it  removed,  thereby 
preventing  possible  accident. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  made  on  the 
service  record  of  Chief  Yard  Clerk  H. 


88 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


W.  Holcomb  for  discovering  C.  M.  &  St. 
P.  car  36970,  loaded  at  Libertyville  for 
Findlay,  Ohio,  way-bill  M-304  dated 
July  20,  indicating  the  car  was  loaded 
with  two  horses  and  one  man  in  charge. 
Car  also  contained  two  sulkies,  weight 
750  pounds  each,  way-bill  was  corrected 
accordingly,  thereby  increasing  the  reve- 
nue on  shipment. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Signal  Maintainer 
N.  Heft  for  discovering  and  reporting 
broken  rail  near  signal  592  on  July  21. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Fence  Foreman 
William  Willis,  Clifton,  111.,  for  discov- 
ering and  reporting  broken  rail  south  of 
that  station  July  6. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Section  Foreman 
Gurnsey  for  discovering  brake  beam 
down  on  I.  C.  29893,  extra  1678,  July  3, 
at  Tolono,  and  taking  such  action  which 
made  train  safe  to  move.  This  action  un- 
doubtedly prevented  possible  accident. 

Favorable  entry"  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Signal  Maintainer 
W.  D.  Roberts  for  discovering  brake 
beam  dragging  while  extra  1578,  north, 
was  passing  Ashkum,  July  11.  He 
stopped  train  and  brake  beam  was  re- 
moved, thereby  preventing  possible  ac- 
cident. 

Springfield  Division 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Section 
Foreman  David  Cheek,  for  discovering 
and  promptly  reporting  a  brake  beam 
dragging  under  a  car  in  a  passing  train. 
Defect  was  thereby  remedied  before 
damage  occurred. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Brakeman 
J.  Arneet,  for  discovering  and  promptly 
reporting  broken  arch  bar  in  passing 
train. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Conductor 
A.  Chatam,  for  discovering  and  prompt- 
ly reporting  an  empty  refrigerator  car 
with  no  light  weight  stenciled  on  east 


side  of  car.     Arrangements  were  made 
to  have  car  stencilled. 

Favorable  mention  has  been  placed 
upon  the  efficiency  record  of  Conductor 
J.  A.  Abrell,  for  discovering  and 
promptly  reporting  a  car  whose  sides 
bore  different  light  weights.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  correction 
made. 

Minnesota  Division 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Section  Foreman 
Geo.  W.  Parker,  Earlville,  Iowa,  for  dis- 
covering brake  beam  dragging  in  extra 
1524,  July  1.  Train  was  signalled  to 
stop  and  repairs  were  made,  thereby 
preventing  possible  accident. 

Favorable  entry  has  been  placed  on 
the  service  record  of  Agent  O.  W.  Reid, 
Peosta,  Iowa,  for  discovering  brake 
beam  down  in  train  extra  1707,  east, 
while  passing  his  station,  July  6.  Train 
was  signalled  to  stop  and  brake  beam 
was  replaced,  thereby  removing  possible 
cause  of  an  accident. 

Tennessee  Division 

On  June  6,  Conductor  D.  A.  Kenney 
observed  a  car  in  a  passing  train  on  the 
opposite  track  with  defective  axle  and 
notified  the  Chief  Dispatcher  at  Fulton, 
who  located  the  car,  probably  prevent- 
ing an  accident.  Suitable  entry  was 
made  on  Mr.  Kenney's  record. 

On  May  15,  Engineer  Sam  Rice  dis- 
covered an  engine  driving  brass  on  the 
right  of  way  while  passing  on  a  freight 
train.  He  stopped,  picked  up  the  brass 
and  turned  it  into  the  Mechanical  De- 
partment at  his  terminal.  Suitable  entry 
was  made  on  Mr.  Rice's  record  on  ac- 
count of  the  interest  he  displayed  in  the 
Company's  affairs. 

On  June  17th  three  brakemen,  Joe 
Thomas,  Louis  House  and  White  Tan- 
kersly,  while  laying  over  at  Haleyville 
rendered  very  valuable  service  when  ex- 
tinguishing fire  which  threatened  to  de- 
stroy retaining  wall  at  Station.  Suitable 
entry  was  made  on  the  efficiency  record 
of  these  men  for  their  efforts  in  the 
Company's  behalf  when  off  duty. 


Performance  of  Tubes  in  SuperheatecTJLocomotives 

By  J.  F.  Raps 


'VT  UMEROUS  articles  have  been  pre- 
^  pared  relative  to  the  construction, 
maintenance  and  efficiency  of  the  super- 
heated locomotive,  but  very  few,  if  any, 
have  taken  into  consideration  the  credit 
due  the  shop  organization  in  maintain- 
ing it  at  the  highest  standard  of  ef- 
ficiency, at  the  least  possible  cost. 

When  the  first  superheated  locomo- 
tives were  received  on  this  system, 
everyone  was  skeptical  as  to  the  service 
to  be  obtained  from  the  5^-inch  tubes. 
We  were  reasonably  sure  of  the  mileage 
to  be  derived  from  the  2-inch  tubes,  but 
not  having  had  any  experience  with  the 
larger  tubes  in  locomotives,  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  was  anticipated  and  prepared 
for  by  instructing  all  concerned  relative 
to  the  proper  method  of  cleaning  and 
working  the  tubes  and  inspecting  the 
units  during  running  repairs,  realizing 
that  an  insufficient  amount  of  care  would 
result  in  an  engine  failure  and  that  an 
excessive  amount  of  work  on  the  tubes 
would  cause  their  early  removal,  thereby 
increasing  the  cost  of  maintenance. 


The  results  obtained  from  careful 
supervision  and  work  have  been  most 
gratifying  as  the  locomotives  were  main- 
tained in  continuous  service  for  an  ex- 
tended period  of  time  before  it  became 
necessary  to  remove  the  large  tubes  on 
account  of  becoming  defective. 

The  statement  below  will  give  one  an 
idea  of  the  remarkable  service  which 
was  obtained  from  the  2-inch  and  5^- 
inch  tubes  in  the  Pacific  and  Mikado 
locomotives. 

Pacific — Average  mileage  2-inch,  102,- 
460,  5^-inch,  198,000 ;  average  length 
of  time  in  service,  39  months. 

Mikado — Average  mileage  2-inch,  74,- 
000,  5^-inch,  115,000;  average  length 
of  time  in  service,  46  months. 

The  above  results  were  obtained  with- 
out welding  any  of  the  tubes  in  or  onto 
the  back  tube  sheet  and  I  feel  that  a  great 
deal  of  credit  is  due  the  shop  organiza- 
tion for  the  skillful  and  efficient  man- 
ner in  which  they  have  performed  their 
several  duties. 


Claims 

By  W.  H.  Baugh,  Chief  Clerk  General  Yardmaster,  Vicksburg,  Miss. 


A  VAILABLE  figures  show  that  the 
•^  efforts  made  to  reduce  claims  have 
not  been  without  results;  yet  there  are 
opportunities  to  make  even  a  larger  re- 
duction than  ever  before.  The  men  in 
whose  hands  this  has  been  entrusted 
have  worked  out  and  put  into  effect 


plans  which  could  hardly  be  improved 
upon;  however,  there  is  one  branch  of 
this  subject  which  until  recently  seems 
to  have  had  very  little,  if  any,  atten- 
tion: That  of  providing  cars  for  load- 
ing suitable  for  the  particular  commod- 
ity which  they  are  to  contain.  This 


89 


90 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


alone  covers  a  large  field  and  the  ideas 
expressed  are  from  observation  and 
from  information  had  from  men  of  ex- 
perience in  both  the  mechanical  and 
transportation  departments. 

In  a  statement  showing  amounts 
charged  to  operating  expenses  in  the 
month  of  July,  1914,  to  April,  1915,  in- 
clusive, there  were  six  items  amounting 
to  $17,410.77,  which  if  not  directly 
could  indirectly  be  charged  to  defective 
equipment.  The  items  being  designated 
as  follows : 

Improper  refrigeration  and  ventila- 
tion. 

Loss  account  defective  car. 

Unlocated  loss  of  bulk  freight. 

Loss  account  defective  grain  doors. 

Damage  account  of  leaky  roof  and 
sides  of  car. 

Damage  account  nails,  bolts,  etc.,  in 
car. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  proper  in- 
spection to  insure  the  car  being  in  fit 
condition  before  loading  with  perishable 
or  other  shipments  requiring  refrigera- 
tion or  ventilation,  would  decrease  the 
number  of  claims  under  this  caption. 
Very  recently,  and  on  the  beginning  of 
this  season's  vegetable  movement,  the 
general  yardmaster  of  a  large  terminal 
called  a  meeting  of  all  engine  foremen, 
helpers  and  others,  in  his  department,  at 
which  time  an  endeavor  was  made  to  de- 
termine the  best  method  of  handling  this 
class  of  business,  in  so  far  as  he  and  his 
organization  were  concerned.  It  was 
decided  that  first  class  empty  equipment 
must  be  furnished  for  loading  and  in 
conjunction  with  the  Mechanical  De- 
partment it  was  decided  to  place  re- 
frigerator cars  on  repair  tracks  where 
rigid  inspection  could  be  had. 

In  a  great  many  cases  it  developed 
that  ice  bunkers  were  boarded  on  inside 
of  car  in  such  a  way  that  when  under 
refrigeration  free  air  circulation  could 
not  be  had.  These  boards  were  re- 
moved, which,  otherwise  would,  no 
doubt,  have  been  the  cause  of  damage  to 
goods  moving  under  refrigeration  or 
ventilation.  Care  was  taken  to  clean 
the  drip  pans  and  drain  pipes  of  all 
cinders  and  other  accumulation,  by  air, 


freeing  them  of  any  obstructions  which 
would  hinder  perfect  working  order. 
The  movement  of  some  commodities 
under  ventilation  require  drain  pipes  to 
be  plugged.  This  is  done  by  using  ex- 
celsior, straw,  etc.  When  cleaning  cars 
for  loading  perishables  this  important 
feature  should  not  be  overlooked,  as 
such  obstructions  should  be  removed, 
avoiding  possibilities  of  the  car  being 
flooded  when  iced.  The  car  should  be 
thoroughly  cleaned  and  aired,  when 
necessary  disinfected  and  deodorized 
and  the  sides,  roof  and  doors  inspected 
and  known  to  be  air  tight. 

Numerous  claims  result  from  unfit 
condition  of  refrigerator  cars  when 
loaded,  a  number  of  which  are  unjust 
and  must  be  paid  by  the  railroad  com- 
pany, due  largely  to  not  having  a  clear 
record  of  condition  of  empty  equipment. 
A  good  record  kept  in  the  terminal 
where  car  is  inspected  and  where  placed 
for  loading  would  facilitate  the  handling 
of  claims  resulting  from  this  source  and 
to  a  large  extent  eliminate  them. 

Unlocated  loss  of  bulk  freight  is,  no 
doubt,  chargable  largely  to  the  condi- 
tion of  cars  containing  such  shipments. 
In  order  to  keep  car  repair  expenses  to 
a  minimum  the  mechanical  department 
is  giving  attention  to  safety  appliances 
and  running  gear,  rather  than  to  condi- 
tion of  body  of  cars,  allowing  a  number 
to  be  moved  empty  for  first  class  loading 
which  are  fit  for  rough  freight  only, 
and  through  oversight  or  carelessness 
these  cars  are  placed  for  loading  with 
bulk  freight  which  is  lost  through  open- 
ings in  the  floor,  sides  or  doors,  or  dam- 
aged account  exposure  to  weather. 
Would  it  not  be  a  saving  to  make  the 
condition  of  all  cars  such  that  claims  of 
this  nature  be  minimized?  If  not  con- 
sistent to  do  this  each  car  should  be 
plainly  marked  showing  condition  and 
for  what  loading  it  is  best  suitable. 

The  other  items  mentioned  may  be 
classified  as  unfit  cars.  Claims  of  this 
nature  appear  to  be  the  result  of  care- 
lessness on  the  part  of  those  in  charge 
of  car  distribution.  Knowing  the  con- 
dition of  each  car  they  should  be  classi- 
fied according  to  fitness,  and  placed ;  the 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


91 


best  cars  for  high  class  freight,  liable 
to  loss  or  damage  account  of  defects, 
and  the  poorer  ones  for  rough  freight 
only.  Agents  in  selecting  cars  for  mer- 
chandise loading  do  not  always  know 
they  are  in  suitable  condition  as  evi- 
denced by  the  damage  done  account  of 
exposed  nails  and  bolts.  Leaky  roofs 
and  other  causes  which  are  very  easily 
detected  and  remedied  by  close  inspec- 
tion. Whenever  it  is  found  that  cars 
with  defects,  which  render  them  unfit 
for  loading,  are  placed  on  warehouse 
tracks  the  yardmaster  or  train  crews 
should  be  instructed  to  replace  them 
with  suitable  equipment  and  the  matter 
reported  to  the  superintendent  or.  train 
master  for  correction. 

While  not  bearing  directly  upon  this 
subject  it  appears  not  to  be  out  of  place 
to  mention  the  importance  of  observing 
rules  and  regulations  in  effect  relative 
to  fastening  end  windows,  so  as  not  to 
permit  entrance  to  the  car  through  them. 
Very  few  agents  obey  these  rules, 
whereas,  if  they  were  carried  out  and 
the  windows  cleated  properly,  the  sav- 
ing made  would  many  times  over,  repay 
the  expense  and  labor  incurred. 

There  are  three  other  items  on  the 
statement  referred  to  responsible  for 
34.86  per  cent  of  the  total  amount 
charged  to  operating  expenses,  for  lost, 
damaged  and  delayed  freight,  which  in- 
dicates lack  of  interest  in  observing  rules 
and  regulations  in  effect.  Those  items 
are:  Errors  of  employes  in  billing;" 
"Errors  of  employes  in  delivery,"  and 
"Loss  of  package;"  the  latter  repre- 
senting 27.73  per  cent  of  the  amount 
paid.  The  first  two  mentioned  seem  to 
be  lack  of  system  of  carelessness,  either 
of  which  could  be  corrected  by  proper 
supervision  of  those  in  charge,  special 
care  being  exercised  to  place  compe- 
tent clerks  in  these  positions  and  a  sim- 
ple system  of  double  checking:  installed 
which  would  result  in  a  noticeable  re- 
duction in  the  number  of  claims  as  well 
as  satisfying  patrons,  making  the  bene- 
fit derived  unlimited.  No  doubt  the 
shippers  are,  to  a  certain  extent,  respon- 
sible for  the  large  loss  of  packages  due 


to  improper  and  illegible  markings.  The 
following  suggestions  offered  by  Mr.  H. 
H.  Jenkins,  freight,  coal  and  traffic  man- 
ager of  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading 
Railroad,  in  an  address  before  the  Ro- 
tary Club  of  Reading,  set  forth  in  the 
January  issue  of  the  Railway  Journal 
will  be  of  interest : 

"First— Select  a  container  of  adequate 
strength  (free  from  any  old  marks) 
which  will  protect  its  contents  from 
damage  by  up  to  date  transportation. 

"Second — Secure  from  those  in  au- 
thority a  book  giving  a  list  and  descrip- 
tion of  all  articles  ordinarily  transported 
by  freight  officially  known  in  this  sec- 
tion of  the  country,  as  the  official  classi- 
fication ;  study  its  contents,  particularly 
those  items  in  which  you  are  directly 
interested,  and  when  you  ship,  pack  and 
describe  your  articles  just  as  the  book 
tells  you.  This  will  give  you  the  ben- 
efit of  the  knowledge  of  the  best  known 
practical  railroad  and  industrial  men  in 
the  country,  who  have  labored  incessant- 
ly for  years  to  compile  it. 

"Third — Mark  your  shipments  care- 
fully and  plainly  with  full  address,  i.  e., 
name,  place,  county,  and  state  in  printed 
type,  and  be  just  as  sure  to  show  your 
own  name  and  address  as  the  shippers. 
A  repetition  of  the  marks  on  the  reverse 
side  of  the  shipment  is  a  double  precau- 
tion. 

"Fourth — Consult  your  local  represen- 
tative how  to  route  your  shipments  and 
be  careful  to  place  this  routing  on  your 
shipments  just  as  legible  as  you  would 
the  address. 

"Fifth — Next  make  up  your  shipping 
instructions  to  the  carrier  so  that  they 
agree  identically  with  the  marking  on 
the  shipment  and  have  your  bill  of  lad- 
ing properly  signed  and  in  your  posses- 
sion the  same  date  shipment  is  made." 

Educational  campaigns  begun  and 
followed  up  along  these  lines  would 
bring  surprising  returns.  This  cam- 
paign not  to  be  restricted  to  employes 
but  extended  to  the  public  in  such  a  way 
that  the  patrons  will  realize  the  rail- 
roads are  interested  in  the  public's  wel- 
fare as  much  so  as  their  own. 


'I  Should  Worry' 

By  Helen  Lee  Brooks 


T  SHOULD  worry,"  is  employed  by 
•*•  the Railroad  Com- 
pany. The  name  does  not  stand  for 
an  individual,  but  a  class ;  does  not 
represent  a  trade  or  profession,  but 
a  type.  Unfortunately  the  class  is  a  large 
one  and  has  one  or  more  representatives 
in  every  department. 

Often  one  meets  "I  should  worry" 
in  the  guise  of  a  car  repairer  mending 
the  roof  of  a  box  car  soon  to  be  load- 
ed with  grain.  Another  nail — two 
perhaps — are  needed  to  complete  the 
job,  but  the  whistle  will  blow  in  a 
minute,  and  "I  should  worry."  It 
won't  rain  any  way  and  if  it  does — I 
should  worry.  And  it  does  rain — The 
company  pays  the  claim — "I  should 
worry." 

When  next  we  meet  him  he  is  work- 
ing on  the  interior  of  a  car.  It  would 
be  more  workman-like  to  remove  that 
protruding  nail  that  some  other  care- 
less workman  has  left  in  the  side  of 
the  car,  but  "I  should  worry — I  didn't 
drive  the  nail ;  it's  not  my  business  to 
pull  it  out."  In  a  day  or  so  the  car 
is  loaded  with  sacks  of  flour — Oh, 
yes,  the  shipment  is  damaged ;  some 
of  the  sacks  are  torn  by  the  offending 
nail.  Again  the  company  settles  the 
claim.  What's  the  loss  and  damage 
bureau  for,  anyway?  "I  should 
worry." 

"I  should  worry"  is  masquerading 
as  a  machinist  when  we  run  across  him 
again.  By  some  mistake  or  oversight, 
or  sheer  carelessness,  the  tire  he  is 
setting  is  the  merest  shade  too  large, 
but  who  will  notice  it?  Anyway,  "I 
should  worry."  An  engine  fails;  the 
report  reads,  "Caused  by  tire  slip- 
ping." An  important  train  is  delayed 


several  hours,  the  crew  earns  over- 
time, claims  are  filed  for  delay  to 
shipments — "I  should  worry" — the 
company  pays. 

He  is  back  on  his  old  job  of  carpen- 
ter the  next  time  we  see  "I  should 
worry,"  but  he  has  been  transferred  to 
the  road  department.  As  care  free  as 
of  old,  and  whistling  a  merry  air,  he 
tosses  a  discarded  board  on  the 
ground,  where  it  lies  unnoticed,  a  rus- 
ty nail  pointing  upward.  A  hurrying, 
careless  passerby  steps  on  the  board 
and  the  nail  penetrates  his  foot.  He 
too  belongs  to  the  "I  should  worry" 
family — no  need  to  bother  with  a  doc- 
tor. The  wound,  neglected,  becomes 
infected — lockjaw  develops  and  an 
agonizing  death  results — "I  should 
worry." 

Not  infrequently  "I  should  worry" 
may  be  found  in  an  office  and,  whisper 
it  softly,  he  has  been  known  to  climb 
to  an  Official  (with  a  capital  O)  po- 
sition. More  often  he  is  an  agent  or 
telegraph  operator,  a  stenographer  or 
clerk.  Is  the  work  being  done  effi- 
ciently and  economically,  or  is  there 
waste  that  might  be  eliminated ; 
methods  that  might  be  improved; 
routine  tasks  that  might  be  energized 
with  an  infusion  of  gray  matter;  a 
tactful,  courteous  word  spoken  that 
might  smooth  a  ruffled  patron ;  a  sav- 
ing effected  here ;  ai  curtailment  of 
useless  expense  there?  "I  should 
worry." 

Dull  business  means  reduction  in 
force.  It's  hard  on  the  fellows  who 
are  laid  off,  and  there  is  an  army  of 
them — but  "I  should  worry" — dull 
business  means  also  light  work,  and 
pay  checks  come  regularly — "I  should 
worry." 


92 


Loyalty  and  Disloyalty 


Mr.  Editor: 

There  is  an  idea  prevalent  among 
some  of  the  employes  who  are  not  con- 
siderate in  their  expressions  in  regard 
to  the  management  not  having  the 
proper  appreciation  for  a  loyal  service. 
All  such  expressions  are  erroneous  as  a 
whole  and  without  any  provocation 
whatsoever,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  observe,  and  I  would  be  exceedingly 
glad  if  all  such  expressions  on  the  part 
of  all  such  disloyal  employes  would  be 
eliminated,  for  all  such  language  is  not 
a  good  indication  that  they  are  loyal, 
not  only  to  the  company,  but  to  them- 
selves, and  thereby  creates  a  host  of 
like  followers.  I  can  heartily  say  that 
I  have  never  heard  any  employe  whom 
I  thought  was  strictly  loyal  utter  any 
such  out-of-place  language ;  in  other 
words,  it  indicates  that  they  are  striv- 
ing to  obtain  some  false  cause  for  not 
rendering  a  loyal  service. 

Please  allow  me  to  call  the  reader's 
attention  to  what  I  have  personally 
experienced  along  these  lines.  I  was 
promoted  to  the  position  of  engineer 
on  the  Memphis  and  Charleston — now 
part  of  the  Southern  Railway.  I  only 
remained  in  the  freight  service  about 
ten  months — then  placed  in  passenger 
service  with  engine  29,  named  the 
"Governor  Patron^"  This  engine  was 
known  as  the  "Jonah  of  the  Road"  for 
not  steaming  and  time-losing.  There 
were  three  other  engines  on  the  same 
runs  and  of  the  same  class — all  double- 
dome  Rogers  ;  15x24  cylinders  ;  wheel 
centers  seventy-two  inches.  The  other 
three  engines  made  the  time  the  hardest 
with  a  seven-car  train.  But  the  29  was 
invariably  late.  Major  M.  J.  Wicks, 
the  president,  instructed  Capt.  W.  J. 
Ross,  the  general  superintendent,  to  try 
every  engineer  on  the  road  in  rotation 
until  he  got  an  engineer  that  could 
make  the  time  with  this  engine,  and  if 
he  succeeded,  to  keep  him  on  this  en- 


gine regardless  of  any  other  engineer. 
I  was  the  seventh  man  and  the  only 
change  that  I  made  in  this  engine  to 
make  steam  was  in  the  draft  pipe.  I 
had  to  solve  this  problem  myself,  as  the 
master  mechanic  and  all  others  who 
had  anything  to  do  with  this  engine  in 
steam-making  had  lost  all  faith,  and 
said  the  "engine  could  not  be  made  to 
steam.  After  my  first  trip  on  the  29, 
Mr.  Sellers,  master  mechanic,  said  to 
me,  "Billy,  how  do  you  like  the  29." 
My  reply  was,  "I  would  not  have  a  bet- 
ter engine  if  he  would  let  me  have  the 
boilermaker,  Mr.  Thomas  Liddin,  about 
one  hour.  He  said,  "What  do  you  want 
to  do."  "I  want  him  to  raiss  the  draft 
pipe  two  inches  above  the  exhaust 
pipes."  He  said,  "What  good  will  that 
do."  I  said,  "It  would  burn  the  wood 
from  the  door  and  leave  it  at  the  flues 
to  hold  the  heat."  He  said,  "You  can 
have  him  as  long  as  you  want  him,  as 
we  want  to  give  you  a  fair  trial  as  we 
have  the  other  engineers.  Within  a  few 
minutes  Mr.  Liddin  was  in  the  steam 
arena  somewhat  out  of  humor.  "What 
do  you  want  done?"  I  remarked,  "Mr. 
Sellers  told  you  what  was  my  wants, 
did  he  not?"  "Yes!"  "All  right,  fix 
it,  and  I  will  be  responsible  for  the  29." 
After  this  light  change,  the  29  was  no 
longer  the  "Jonah  of  the  road,"  but  the 
"hero  of  the  service."  For  my  interest 
in  this  engine,  the  management  always 
greeted  me  with  kind  expressions  and 
good  wishes,  and  in  a  few  months  the 
29  was  shopped  for  light  repairs  and 
was  the  most  beautifully  painted  engine 
I  ever  saw  or  expect  to  see  again.  In  a 
few  years  the  E.T.V.  &  Ga.  System  was 
the  lessee  of  this  road.  Mr.  Wilson,  the 
noted  Federal  general  of  cavalry,  pres- 
ident ;  Mr.  Charles  McGee,  vice-presi- 
dent; Capt.  Joseph  Jaques,  general 
manager.  On  their  special  trips  over 
this  road  the  29  and  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  handling  their  three  cars  and  another 


93 


94 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


coach  from  Stevenson,  Ala.,  to  Mem- 
phis, Tenn.,  two  hundred  and  sixty-five 
miles,  with  stops  at  all  important  places, 
in  ten  hours,  and  on  the  arrival  at 
Memphis,  these  gentlemen  would  al- 
ways come  to  the  engine  and  thank  me 
for  the  good  run,  and  Capt.  Jaques 
would  always  say,  "Billy,  when  you 
want  a  better  position  come  to  Knox- 
ville."  I  and  the  29  were  called  again, 
with  Conductor  Charley  Reagin,  for- 
merly of  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.,  to  handle 
a  special  immigrant  train,  consisting  of 
five  coaches  from  Woodville,  Ala.,  to 
Corinth,  Miss.,  a  distance  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles,  in  five  hours,  with 
one  tank  of  wood. 

Now,  boys,  I  believe  that  the  kind  of 
greeting  that  I  received  from  the  high 
officials  for  my  fidelity  and  the  good 
letters  of  thanks  that  Mr.  Reagin  and  I 
received  from  the  officials  for  this 
loyal  service  would  change  any  disloyal 
employe,  if  there  was  one  spark  of 
loyalty  in  him.  But  if  he  had  passed 
over  the  dead  line  of  disloyalty,  there 
cannot  be  much  hope  or  a  possibility  for 
a  reformation,  because  this  power  is 
one  of  the  very  worst  of  servitude. 

Now,  boys,  I  come  with  great  pleas- 
ure (to  our  great  system  to  relate  how 
the  management  has  appreciated  my 
loyalty.  I  was  called  to  handle  Messrs. 
Fish,  Harahan  and  Wallace  special,  of 
three  cars,  from  Aberdeen  to  Canton, 
Miss.  At  Durant,  Mr.  Thomas  Bin- 
ford,  my  second  conductor,  said  to  me, 
"Mr.  Wallace  says,  'Please  place  them 
in  Canton  as  soon  as  possible.'  "  The 
run  was  made  in  thirty-seven  minutes- 
engine  2123.  At  Canton,  Mr.  Binford 
said  to  me,  "Mr.  Wallace  says,  'Please 


tell  you  that  he  did  not  have  time  to 
thank  you  in  person  for  the  best  run  he 
ever  saw  made.'  " 

I  was  also  called  to  handle  ex-Pres- 
ident Taft's  special,  of  four  coaches, 
from  Durant  to  Westpoint,  engine 
2119.  After  Mr.  Taft's  car  was  placed 
with  the  Southern,  General  Superin- 
tendent McCourt  came  to  the  engine 
and  said  to  me,  "Mr.  Thomas,  I  want 
to  shake  hands  with  you  and  thank 
you  for  the  smoothest  run  I  ever 
made."  "There  was  no  variation," 
said  he,  "except  where  it  should  have 
been,  and  I  am  sorry  that  I  have  not 
met  with  you  before,  as  you  are  re- 
liable to  the  letter  and  I  want  you  to 
know  that  your  service  is  highly  ap- 
preciated." 

I  said,  "Mr.  McCourt,  such  has  been 
my  purpose  from  the  time  I  entered  the 
service  and  shall  be  until  my  last  run 
is  made." 

A  few  months  ago  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  handling  Mr.  Porterfield's  car  on 
train  No.  234  to  Aberdeen.  He  also 
gave  expression  of  his  appreciation  for 
the  good  ride. 

Now,  boys,  let  us,  while  we  are  far 
better  off  than  thousands  of  others,  and 
possibly  better  than  we  will  ever  hope 
to  do  in  the  future,  examine  ourselves 
and  place  ourselves  in  any  of  the  offi- 
cials' positions  and  realize  that  their 
work  is  never  done,  and  I  feel  assured 
that  all  such  expressions  will  be  elimi- 
nated and  a  better  conception  will  be 
inaugurated  throughput  the  entire  sys- 
tem. 

Sincerely, 
(Signed)  Wm.  F.  Thomas. 

Durant,   Miss.,   March   19,   1915. 


There  Is  No  Car  Shortage 

As  Told  by  Illinois  Central  Car  Number  143,000 
By  F.  B.  Wilkinson,  Agent,  Jackson,  Tenn. 

T  HAVE  been  hearing  a  great  deal  He  says  if  they  would  operate  econom- 
*  about  a  lawyer  named  Brandeis  and  ically  a  la  Brandeis  that  no  rate  increases 
have  read  with  interest  a  number  of  his  would  be  necessary  and  that  the  public 
articles  in  which  he  has  been  telling  the  would  be  relieved  from  an  unjust  bur- 
railroads  how  to  manage  their  affairs,  den  of  expense  which  the  railroads,  to 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


95 


his  mind,  are  endeavoring  to  saddle  upon 
the  people  as  a  cover  for  a  multitude  of 
sins  of  gross  mismanagement  and  reck- 
less expenditures. 

Now  I  have  never  had  experience  on 
any  of  the  eastern  railroads,  but  -I 
imagine  that  they  have  about  the  same 
conditions  to  meet  as  do  the  lines  near 
Greenvillage  and  having  seen  what  the 
latter  have  to  contend  with  I  am  con- 
vinced that  if  Mr.  Brandeis  could  put 
himself  in  the  place  of  a  car  and  see  at 
first  hand  the  actual  conditions  which 
handicap  the  officials  and  employes  of 
the  rail  lines  and  which  make  it  impos- 
sible to  economically  operate  because 
the  public  do  not  carry  their  part  of  the 
burden  and  expense  of  providing  ade- 
quate facilities  and  force  for  the  han- 
dling of  their  freight,  that  he  would 
agree  with  me  that  the  railroad  people 
are,  to  say  the  least,  not  wholly  to 
blame. 

You  will  remember  that  winter  before 
last  I  told  you  about  some  of  my  ex- 
periences which  occurred  while  I  was 
engaged  in  hauling  cotton  seed  and  oth- 
er products  to  and  from  Greenvillage 
and  that  the  delays  which  I  witnessed 
were  very  serious  ones  arid  proved  very 
costly  both  to  the  public  and  to  my  own- 
er, the  railroad  company.  Notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  railroad  em- 
ployes were  working  night  and  day  in 
an  endeavor  to  handle  more  business 
than  the  wholesalers,  mills  and  indus- 
tries had  facilities  to  care  for,  the  ag- 
gravating delays  which  I  told  you  about 
took  place  in  face  of  the  fact  that  the 
railroad  was  using  three  switch  engines 
and  had  gone  to  the  additional  expense 
of  employing  a  general  yardmaster  to 
superintend  the  work. 

The  railroad  yard  was  badly  congest- 
ed; there  were  constant  complaints 
about  the  poor  service  and  there  were 
long  car  delays  which  held  the  equip- 
ment and  made  it  impossible  for  them 
to  furnish  cars  to  move  the  crops 
promptly.  Some  of  the  industries  had 
cars  on  hand  in  the  yard  awaiting  un- 
loading for  30  days  before  they  were 
released. 

It  seemed  to  me  then  that  something 
was  wrong,  but  I  didn't  know  just  what 


it  was.  This  reminds  me  of  an  investi- 
gation which  was  made  by  the  "Kan- 
garoo Court"  held  in  the  superintend- 
ent's office  at  Greenvillage  some  time 
ago,  in  which  a  negro  brakeman  was  be- 
ing questioned  about  an  accident  which 
had  occurred  to  his  partner.  The  su- 
perintendent questioned  him  at  length 
about  what  had  happened  to  Henry,  but 
his  replies  were  so  unsatisfactory  that 
finally  he  said,  "Sam,  you  go  ahead  and 
tell  us  in  your  own  way  just  how  this 
thing  happened,"  and  the  negro  proceed- 
ed as  follows : 

"Well,  suh,  Boss,  it  happened  jes'  lak 
dis.  Me  en  Henery  wuz  standin'  ovah 
in  frunt  uv  de  deppo  waitin'  fer  de  Fee- 
vine  en  jes  as  us  heerd  her  blow  I  steps 
ovah  to  de  sto'  ter  git  me  er  piece  er 
terbacker  en  whin  I  gits  bac'  de  Vine 
dun  gone  en  I  cain't  see  nuthin  uv  dat 
nigger,  soze  I  lights  out  down  de  trac' 
en  I  didn't  git  fur  fo'  I  seed  er  leg,  den 
I  kep  on  en  I  seed  er  arm,  den  I  cum 
to  her  head.  Twuz  Henery's  head." 

Sam  paused  and  the  superintendent 
prompted,  "Well,  Sam?" 

"I  stopt  right  dar,  Boss,  en  scratched 
mer  head  en  looked  at  dat  head,  en  I 
sez  ter  mer-se'f,  I  sez,  'well,  suh,  sumfin 
sho'  muster  happen  ter  Henery !' ': 

When  I  was  in  Greenvillage  last  sea- 
son I  thought  about  as  Mr.  Brandeis 
does  for  it  seemed  to  me  then  that  there 
was  a  lack  of  system  and  a  great  deal 
of  lost  motion  in  the  railroad,  for  as  I 
said  before,  they  were  working  three  big 
switch  engines  and  in  addition  had  gone 
to  the  unusual  expense  of  employing  a 
general  yardmaster  to  supervise  them. 
I  sized  him  up  and  decided  that  he  was 
working  hard  with  his  feet  for  he  was 
busy  from  morning  until  late  at  night, 
but  overlooking  his  brains,  if  he  had 
any,  for  the  results  he  was  obtaining 
with  his  costly  yard  organization  were 
nil  for  it  seemed  that  the  harder  he  tried 
to  undo  the  tangle  the  greater  the  con- 
gestion became. 

Like  a  soldier  fighting  for  his  life 
against  overwhelming  odds  for  four 
months  the  nerve  racking  battle  contin- 
ued and  then  the  pressure  gradually  be- 
gan to  diminish  as  the  volume  of  busi- 
ness grew  smaller  and  smaller  until 


96 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


finally  he  again  found  himself  master  of 
the  situation;  a  veteran,  badly  disfig- 
ured with  scars  of  battle,  which  to  friend 
and  foe  alike  were  scars  of  dishonor,  for 
like  myself,  they  were  too  busy  with 
their  own  affairs  to  look  beneath  the  sur- 
face, or  too  far  removed  from  the  scene 
of  hostilities  to  do  so  and  they  censured 
him  for  losing  ground. 

In  a  hopeless  endeavor  to  win  the  fight 
against  the  swelling  tide  of  heavy  busi- 
ness, which  rolled  down  upon  him  cease- 
lessly with  ever  increasing  volume  he 
would  each  night,  during  the  momentary 
lull  in  the  fighting,  call  his  staff  around 
him  and  hold  a  council  of  war.  Courag- 
eous, alert,  resourceful  and  energetic, 
they  would  plan,  then  fight.  Over- 
whelmed at  last  by  the  constant,  never 
ending  flood  of  cars  which  poured  in 
upon  him  and  beset  upon  every  side  by 
complaints  because  of  delays,  he  held  on 
grimly  never  knowing  or  acknowledging 
defeat,  but  all  of  the  time  he  and  his 
captains  felt  in  a  vague  sort  of  way  that 
all  was  not  just  right  and  like  Sir  John 
French  on  the  firing  line  in  France  last 
winter,  they  wondered  if  it  were  not 
possible  for,  the  government  to  more 
rapidly  send  them  reinforcements. 

Though  they  did  not  at  the  time  real- 
ize it  their  defeat  was  not  due  to  lack  of 
men  nor  materials,  but  to  that  immutable 
law  by  which  the  passage  of  water 
through  a  funnel  is  governed.  Water 
being  a  solid  this  law  has  fixed  the  time 
required  for  a  given  quantity  of  water 
to  pass  through  a  funnel  of  a  certain 
dimension  and  this  law  which  also  gov- 
erns the  passage  of  business  through  the 
facilities  provided  for  their  handling,  in- 
tervened to  prevent  the  general  from 
winning  the  fight  because  the  funnel 
provided  by  his  ally,  the  public,  was  too 
small  to  admit  daily  of  the  passage  of 
the  great  volume  of  business  which  was 
besieging  him  and  he  was  overwhelmed 
by  the  surplus  and  went  down  in  tempo- 
rary defeat. 

That  this  is  true  we  believe  is  proven 
by  the  changed  conditions  discovered 
when  I  again  visited  Greenvillage  dur- 
ing the  heaviest  period  of  this  season's 


business.  Having  in  mind  the  things 
to  my  surprise  that  only  one  switch  en- 
gine was  at  work,  that  no  general  yard- 
master  had  been  necessary  and  that  no 
delays  nor  complaints  had  occurred. 
Thinking  perhaps  that  there  had  been 
a  two-thirds  decrease  in  business  and 
therefore  a  like  decrease  in  the  amount 
of  switch  engines  I  made  further  in- 
quiry and  was  authoritatively  informed 
that  the  decrease  in  cars  handled  this, 
season  as  compared  with  last  was  only 
24  per  cent,  while  the  decrease  in  cost 
of  yard  operation  was  52.5  per  cent. 
That  the  railroad  was  not  the  only  one 
who  saved  money  is  evidenced  by  a  de- 
crease in  demurrage  paid  by  the  public 
of  95  per  cent. 

What  this  means  in  increase  of  car 
efficiency  I  leave  to  you  to  ascertain. 
Not  having  been  educated  in  higher 
mathematics  I  am  unable  to  calculate  it. 

Please  remember  that  this  story  is  not 
one  of  fiction,  but  is  a  picture  of  actual 
conditions,  and  the  figures  given  are 
taken  from  the  records  of  the  station  of 
Greenvillage. 

Now  how  could  any  organization 
make  such  an  astonishing  reduction  in 
operating  cost  as  compared  with  the  vol- 
ume of  business  handled  as  did  the  or- 
ganization at  Greenvillage  during  the 
past  season  of  heavy  business? 

Was  it  due  to  new  blood  and  more 
intelligent  and  efficient  supervision? 

As  I  was  wondering  about  it  the  lone 
switch  engine  which  was  performing  the 
miracle  came  puffing  along  and  to  my 
utter  astonishment  I  saw  that  the  man 
who  had  been  general  yardmaster  was 
now  in  charge  as  foreman,  with  one  of 
the  same  crews  which  had  fought  such 
a  losing  fight  under  his  supervision  the 
year  before. 

At  first  I  could  not  imagine  what  had 
happened  to  bring  about  such  wonder- 
ful changes,  and  while  thinking  it  over 
there  came  to  my  mind  again  the  story 
of  the  Kangaroo  Court. 

Surely  something  had  happened  to 
Henry ! 

Now  what  had  really  happened? 
Simply  this.  The  flood  of  business  flow- 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


97 


ing  through  Greenvillage  had  been  di- 
minished 24  per  cent,  and  this  shrinkage 
so  reduced  its  volume  that  the  funnel, 
which  is  the  facilities  and  force  pro- 
vided by  the  public  for  the  daily  move- 
ment of  their  business,  had  this  season 
been  sufficiently  large  to  admit  of  its 
uninterrupted  flow  each  twenty-four 
hours,  and  the  24  per  cent  surplus  did 
not  accumulate  as  it  did  during  the  pre- 
vious season  and  congest  the  facilities 
provided  by  the  railroad. 

Storage  tracks  at  Greenvillage  under 
circumstances  such  as  obtained  year  be- 
fore last  would  not  tend  to  hasten  the 
passage  of  the  business  through  the  fun- 
nel nor  would  they  in  any  way  relieve 
the  congestion  and  prevent  car  delay, 
for  when  in  the  midst  of  a  congestion 
and  car  famine,  it  is  just  as  aggravat- 
ing to  have  cars  standing  on  storage 
tracks  at  the  terminal  station  as  it  is  to 
have  them  held  on  some  intermediate 
side  track  where  they  can  be  brought 
in  when  wanted.  The  delay  in  either 
case  is  just  as  costly  and  is  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  the  so-called  car  fam- 
ines. 

Have  you  ever  stopped  to  consider 
the  low  estimate  placed  upon  the  value 
of  a  car  by  the  public  as  compared  to 
the  value  placed  bv  them  upon  one  of 
their  own  vehicles? 

Think  about  this.  What  do  you  im- 
agine would  occur  if  a  farmer's  wagon 
and  team,  valued  at  less  than  $400  went 
to  a  mill  and  was  compelled  to  wait 
five  hours  to  be  unloaded  on  account  of 
lack  of  facilities  at  the  mill? 

Let's  draw  the  curtain.  'Tis  sinful  to 
swear ! 

Now  what  happens  when  a  car  which 
actually  cost  $1,050  is  held  for  forty- 
eight  hours  by  an  industry  on  account 
which  I  saw  during  my  former  visit,  I 
immediately  made  inquiries  and  found 


of  lack  of  facilities  and  force  at  their 
plant? 

Nothing,  except  some  other  business 
man  has  to  wait  for  a  car  to  load  and 
he  censures  the  railroad  company  for 
loss  of  his  time  and  money. 

We  believe  that  all  will  concede  that 
it  is  an  established  fact  that  in  each  sec- 
tion of  our  country  there  is  a  certain  pe- 
riod during  which  the  business  sudden- 
ly each  year  swells  to  its  flood  tide  and 
remains  there  for  six  or  eight  months, 
then  as  quickly  recedes.  Just  as  the 
levees  must  be  sufficient  to  safely  pass 
the  waters  of  the  river  when  at  its  max- 
imum flood  stage  so  must  the  funnel 
provided  by  the  public  be  of  sufficient 
dimension  to  pass,  without  overflowing, 
the  business  which  the  railroads  pour 
down  upon  them  each  year  during  the 
period  of  stress,  and  if  the  funnel  fails, 
then  comes  the  congestion,  delay  and 
scarcity  of  cars  which  so  aggravate  us. 

The  river,  governed  by  Nature's  law 
must  receive  the  waters  poured  into  it 
by  its  tributaries,  and  the  railroads,  gov- 
erned by  the  People's  law,  must  receive 
the  traffic  offered  by  the  public. 

If  the  river  cannot  empty  its  waters 
with  sufficient  rapidity  to  afford  it  re- 
lief, disaster  follows,  and  if  a  railroad 
cannot  with  reasonable  promptness  free 
itself  of  its  .tonnage  at  destination,  con- 
gestion and  car  famine  are  inevitable. 

We  are  all  beginning  to  realize  that 
the  interests  of  the  public  and  that  of 
the  railroads  are  identical  and  with  this 
in  mind  the  two  should  combine  their 
forces,  each  providing  his  share  of  men 
and  accoutrements,  and  unite  to  over- 
come their  foeman,  Heavy  Business, 
who  digs  deep  into  their  coffers  each 
year. 

When  this  is  done  the  enemy  will  be 
routed  and  THERE  WILL  BE  NO 
CAR  SHORTAGE. 


Excess  Baggage 

By  J.  McMillan,  Train  Baggageman 


We  are  all  working  for  the  Com- 
pany and  the  Company  is  paying  us. 
Now  let  us  all  work  together  and  try 


to  increase  the  revenue  accruing  to  the 
Company  from  excess  baggage.  We 
can  do  it,  and  why  not?  Just  follow 


ILLINOIS.  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


the  instructions  from  the  Baggage  and 
Mail  Traffic  Department. 

The  Company  is  not  getting  enough 
revenue  for  the  amount  of  excess 
weight  handled,  and  it  is  up  to  us,  as 
Baggage  Agents  and  Train  Baggage- 
men, to  increase  this  revenue.  Agents, 
be  more  careful  what  you  check,  and 
if  you  have  a  new  man,  as  is  often  the 
case,  instruct  him  thoroughly. 

Do  not  check  baggage  that  you  think 
is  over  the  free  limit  without  weigh- 
ing it.  Do  not  check  boxes  with  nails 
sticking  out  or  boards  projecting,  as 
we  sometimes  have  to  pile  baggage  on 
top  of  these  boxes  and  very  often  the 
nail  or  the  projecting  board  will  rub 
a  hole  in  someone's  suit  case  and  then 
there  is  a  claim  against  the  Company. 
Do  not  check  baggage  loaded  with 


groceries  and  then  we  will  not  have 
to  wade  through  molasses,  applebutter, 
beans,  rice  and  other  junk  that  spills 
out  of  the  boxes  in  the  baggage  car. 
Do  not  check  John  Smith's  trunk  be- 
cause he  married  your  wife's  cousin, 
when  you  know  it  weighs  more  than 
the  free  limit,  without  attaching  an 
excess  baggage  check.  Do  not  check 
baggage  that  is  in  bad  order  without 
taking  a  release  and  notifying  the 
owner  that  it  is  checked  at  his  own 
risk.  Do  not  check  a  pack  for  a  ped- 
dler when  you  know  that  he  is  a  ped- 
dler and  is  checking  it  to  some  point 
for  sale.  Do  by  the  Company  as  you 
would  like  to  be  done  by  and  I  am 
sure  the  revenue  from  excess  baggage 
will  increase. 


The  Country  Agent 


His  Attitude  Toward  the  R.  R.  Co.,  Toward  His  Co-Workers  and  Toward 

the  Public 

By  Willie  Carrico,  Stithton,  Ky. 


\\7  HILE  each  department  of  the 
railroad  can  be  divided  and 
subdivided  to  afford  both  theory  and 
practice,  this  article  is  intended  to 
convey,  what  should  be,  the  agent's 
attitude  toward  the  railroad  company, 
his  attitude  toward  his  co-workers 
and  his  attitude  toward  the  public. 

Are  agents  always  mindful  of  the 
obligations  they  owe  to  the  company 
who  employs  them? 

To  depict  the  great  mass  of  people 
whose  sustenance  is  provided  for  by 
the  railroad  company  is  evidence  of 
what  a  very  large  per  cent  of  the 
great  human  family  is  being  support- 
ed through  the  avenues  of  the  rail- 
roads. A  source  that  is  represented 
financially  in  various  homes,  from  the 
most  humble  to  the  most  prosperous. 
A  reality  that  should  create  a  desire 
within  the  heart  of  every  employe  to 
reciprocate  abundantly. 

In  .numerous  country  towns  the 
station  agent  is  the  sole  representa- 
tive of  the  railroad  company  and  to 


the  company  who  has  entrusted  its 
business  to  his  keeping  he  owes  his 
very  best  service.  Through  the  chan- 
nels of  freight,  passenger  and  bag- 
gage, opportunities  for  soliciting  busi- 
ness, frequently  present  themselves, 
and  "To  Have  and  to  Hold"  those  op- 
portunities should  be  the  agent's 
motto,  thereby  increasing  the  earn- 
ings of  the  company. 

The  claim  subject,  which  affords  a 
topic  within  itself  and  which  at  pres- 
ent is  creating  such  agitation,  is  large- 
ly in  the  hands  of  agents  to  control, 
hence  the  necessity  for  careful  study 
and  discreet  action  that  claims  may 
be  discouraged  and  the  company's  in- 
terest protected. 

Realizing  the  railroad  companies  of 
today  are  experiencing  a  very  critical 
period  certainly  emphasizes  the  im- 
portance of  the  agent,  and  all  other 
employes,  familiarizing  themselves 
with  existing  conditions  and  exerting 
the  most  diligent  efforts  to  eliminate 
the  unnecessary  expense  and  to  ap- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


99 


ply  every  legitimate  method  to  pro- 
mote "the  interest  of  the  company  they 
are  endeavoring  to  serve.  With  the 
privilege  of  participating  in  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  company  we  repre- 
sent, our  attitude  to  that  company 
ought  to  be  one  of  appreciation,  co- 
operation and  loyalty. 

A  friendly  attitude  between  fellow 
employes  combined  with  the  spirit  of 
co-operation  exemplifies  "Unity  is 
Strength,"  and  demonstrates  pleasant 
and  profitable  results  that  can  only  be 
successfully  accomplished  through  a 
co-operative  channel.  Efficient,  ac- 
tive co-workers  harmonizing  their 
ideas  and  utilizing  their  faculties  to 
promote  the  interest  of  the  company 
they  represent  produces  a  mutual  ben- 
efit to  all  and  enables  each  to  become 
more  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  sympathetic  attitude 
towards  each  other. 

Last  the  agent's  attitude  toward  the 
public.  The  duties  of  the  country 
agent  naturally  place  him  in  personal 
touch  with  the  public. 

Unfortunately  a  number  of  people 
harbor  an  unfair  prejudice  toward  the 
railroad  company,  seemingly  having 
forgotten  the  vast  resources  open  to 
them  through  this  channel.  This  sad 
reality  is  not  mentioned  to  censure, 
but  such  conditions  should  be  instru- 
mental in  stimulating  within  the  heart 
of  every  employe  the  necessity  of 


campaign  work  to  eliminate  this  un- 
warranted feeling.  Then  to  accom- 
plish our  aim  depends  largely  upon 
our  attitude.  Through  the  service  of 
courteous,  efficient  and  reliable  em- 
ployes we  can  demonstrate  to  the  pub- 
lic our  willingness  to  co-operate.  To 
participate  in  civic  affairs  we  learn  the 
desires  of  the  people  we  serve  and 
have  an  opportunity  to  exhibit  a  mu- 
tual interest  and  share  alike  a  prof- 
itable and  pleasant  business. 

When  we,  as  representatives  of  a 
railroad  company,  display  an  attitude 
toward  the  public  that  will  manifest 
such  concern  in  the  welfare  of  the 
company's  patrons  that  they  can  con- 
ceive the  company's  rules  are  not  of- 
fensive, we  will  have  achieved  ad- 
vancement that  will  convert  a  feeling, 
once  unappreciative,  into  a  feeling  of 
good  will  and  genuine  friendship. 

This  article  is  not  written  in  a  dic- 
tatorial mood,  but  just  as  a  gentle 
reminder,  "Lest  we  forget"  our  loy- 
alty to  our  company,  our  duty  to  our 
co-workers  and  our  obligations  to  the 
public.  While  every  desire  cannot 
be  achieved  at  once,  with  combined 
forces  striving  for  a  goal,  ambitions 
become  realities  that  develop  the  in- 
dividual and  mark  the  company  they 
serve  pre-eminent.  That  we  may  ef- 
fect an  improvement  let  us  "Act,  act 
in  the  living  present." 


'eurs 


Minnesota  Division 

Division  Passenger  Agent  Gray  and 
Commercial  Agent  Kunz  moved  into 
their  new  office,  situated  in  the  old  rail- 
way postpffice  room  in  the  passenger 
station  at  Dubuque,  on  August  first. 
They  have  very  attractive  quarters  and 
are  justly  proud  of  them. 

Thomas  Callaghan,  Chief  Clerk  of  the 
Dubuque  Freight  Office,  and  August 
Becker,  Clerk  to  the  general  foreman  at 
Dubuque,  are  proud  fathers.  Tom's 
chest  swelled  up  so  he  had  to  get  a 
larger  shirt  and  August  can't  get  his  old 
hats  on. 

The  Minnesota  Division  conceived 
the  idea  of  a  coal  committee  composed 
of  the  men  actually  using  or  directly 
interested  in  the  efficiency  of  fuel. 
Train  Master  Brown,  Traveling  Engi- 
neer Ickes,  Engineer  Sweeney  and  Fire- 
man O'Neil,  have  been  meeting  regu- 
larly and  are  doing  some  very  interest- 


ing and  commendable  work  along  these 
lines. 

Engineers  Scroggy,  Calkins,  Hackett, 
Edwards  and  Wight  on  the  passenger 
runs  between  Waterloo  and  Albert  Lea, 
have  earned  the  appreciation  of  the 
management  by  making  the  round  trip 
of  two  hundred  and  thirty-two  miles 
on  one  tank  of  coal,  thereby  doing  away 
with  the  necessity  of  taking  coal  at  Al- 
bert Lea  and  reducing  the  consumption 
of  fuel  on  this  run. 

We  have  it. in  for  the  St.  Louis  Di- 
vision, they  have  stolen  our  Special 
Agent,,  Mr.  M.  B.  Burke,  who,  through 
his  unassuming  way,  has  won  a  place  in 
the  hearts  of  all  who  know  him  and  we 
wish  him  all  kinds  of  success  in  his  new 
territory.  His  successor,  Mr.  Hutton, 
comes  to  us  from  the  Wabash. 

In  the  Conductor's  Repair  Car  League, 
H.  A.  Clancy  and  his  brakemen,  Lam- 
bert, Gober  and  Hoeksma,  batted  the 


I.    C.    SAFETY   FIRST  BASEBALL   CLUB  WHO   BEAT    DANFORTH 

JUNE  20,   1915. 
100 


''WHITE    SOX"    3     TO     1, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


101 


highest  in  June  with  232  cards.  Con- 
ductor T.  E.  Kelly  and  his  brakemen, 
Pederson  and  Rust,  gave  them  a  merry 
chase  with  217  cards.  Kelly's  crew 
have  the  highest  number  of  cards  of  any 
on  the  system,  in  fact  the  Minnesota  Di- 
vision turns  in  more  than  all  the  rest  of 
the  divisions  put  together. 

Among  the  engineers  on  this  division 
there  is  a  very  interesting  race  on.  Ev- 
ery one  of  them  is  trying  to  keep  a 
clean  slate  on  the  stock  killed  reports. 
When  cattle  are  observed  near  the  right 
of  way,  they  are  slowing  down  and  are 
stopping  when  absolutely  necessary. 
Engineer  Banton  on  Train  No.  62  of 
July  16th  came  around  a  curve  east  of 
Delaware  just  in  time  to  see  a  steer  com- 
ing onto  the  track.  When  observed 
it  was  only  twenty-five  car  lengths  ahead 
and  Banton  did  his  best  to  stop  in  time 
to  avoid  hitting  the  "critter."  He  was 
most  upon  it  when  it  started  down  the 
track  ahead  of  the  train  and  Banton  de- 
clares he  believes  it  intended  to  go  to 
Earlville  to  take  siding  but  was  shooed 
off  at  a  cross  road.  That. was  all  that 
saved  him  from  a  dot  on  the  graphical 
report.  Engineer  Burhyte  on  Train  No. 
414  one  day  in  July  made  up  his  mind 
that  a  herd  of  Iowa  cattle  has  a  flock  of 
Missouri  mules  beat  for  being  contrary. 
On  this  day  in  question  he  noticed  a 
herd  grazing  near  the  right  of  way  and 
slowed  down.  Although  they  were 
headed  away  from  the  track,  as  he 
approached  they  turned  around  and 
swarmed  across  ahead  of  his  train  and 
the  only  thing  that  saved  him  from  hit- 
ting them  was  that  he  had  slowed  down 
on  observing  them. 

This  company  is  to  construct  two 
overhead  road  crossings  and  one  under- 
grade crossing  at  Center  Grove,  Julien 
and  Epworth,  respectively,  in  connection 
with  the  improvement  of  the  new  auto 
road,  the  Hawkeye  Highway,  being 
made  by  Government  and  State  engi- 
neers. 

Louis  Weiler,  File  Clerk  in  the  Super- 
intendent's office,  wants  to  be  the  strong 
man  in  Barnum  &  Bailey's  circus  and 
has  gone  in  training  on  his  uncle's  farm, 
wrestling  the  heavy  work  about  the 


place  and  driving  the  geese  to  water.  His 
nose  looks  as  though  he  had  hit  the  high 
places  though  the  sun  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  it. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Ward,  formerly  Division 
Accountant  at  Dubuque,  has  been  on  the 
old  beat  for  some  time  with  the  Govern- 
ment Valuation  Engineers  and  it  seems 
good  to  have  him  around  again. 

Assistant  Engineer  Coates  was  called 
to  his  home  in  Western  Tennessee  on 
the  eighteenth  of  July  on  account  of  the 
death  of  his  father,  and  on  the  same  day 
his  rodman  was  summoned  to  Morris- 
town,  Tenn.,  on  account  of  the  serious 
illness  of  his  sister,  who  has  since  died. 

Pete  Richardson  of  Memphis  is  track 
apprentice  this  season  and  Mr.  P.  R. 
Henderson  comes  to  us  from  the  Vicks- 
burg  Division  as  Masonry  Inspector. 

Engineer  White  is  a  big,  powerful 
man,  but  his  knees  shook  and  his  hair 
stood  on  end  one  night  not  long  back  as 
he  approached  the  Rock  Island  crossing 
at  Independence.  In  the  glare  of  his 
headlight  he  spotted  the  form  of  a  man 
peacefully  slumbering  at  the  crossing, 
his  head  pillowed  on  one  of  the  rails  of 
the  main  line  and  as  he  stopped  his 
train  about  ten  feet  from  the  sleeping 
form,  it  arose  and  stretched  itself,  then 
ambled  away  into  the  darkness. 

Vicksburg  Division 

Mr.  F.  B.  Wilkinson,  who  has  occu- 
pied the  position  of  freight  agent  at 
Greenville  for  the  past  three  years,  has 
just  been  given  a  well  deserved  promo- 
tion, having  recently  been  appointed 
freight  agent  for  the  Illinois  Central  at 
Jackson,  Tenn. 

We  of  course  regret  very  much  to 
lose  Mr.  Wilkinson  from  the  Y.  &  M. 
V.  ranks,  but  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Jackson  is  the  home  of  both  Mr.  Wil- 
kinson's parents  and  his  wife's  parents, 
he  will  be  much  better  pleased  with  his 
new  position,  as  he  can  now  get  fat  on 
the  regular  meals  "like  mother  used  to 
make  them." 

We  are  glad  to  note  that  Superin- 
tendent Dubbs  has  brought  his  wife 
and  children  to  Greenville  to  spend  the 
summer.  We  know  that  they  will  en- 
joy their  stay  in  Greenville. 


102 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Dispatcher  Claude  Campbell  has  just 
returned  from  a  two  weeks'  visit  to 
friends  and  relatives  in  Bardwell,  Ky., 
and  Chicago,  111. 

Extra  Dispatcher  Mr.  B.  M.  Childress 
is  at  present  working  in  the  dispatch- 
er's office  at  Greenville  during  the  ex- 
tra work  while  the  regular  dispatchers 
are  taking  their  annual  vacations. 

Effective  July  1,  Mr.  L.  W.  Olin  was 
promoted  to  fill  the  position  of  tonnage 
and  mileage  clerk  in  superintendent's 
office,  which  position  was  authorized  ef- 
fective that  date.  Mrs.  D.  H.  Smith, 
who  has  been  working  as  student  in 
chief  dispatcher's  office  for  the  past  sev- 
eral months,  was  promoted  to  fill  the  va- 
cancy in  supervisor's  office  by  Mr.  Olin's 
promotion. 

Mr.  S.  J.  Phillips,  the  efficient  and 
popular  clerk  to  Train  Master  Mays 
tendered  his  resignation,  or  rather  re- 
quested permission  to  accept  position  in 
the  superintendent's  office  at  Memphis, 
as  assistant  accountant. 

Mr.  R.  A.  Hallette,  appointed  clerk 
to  train  master,  effective  July  4. 

On  account  of  barbecue,  baseball 
game  and  political  speaking  at  Rose- 
dale,  special  trains  were  operated  from 
Cleveland  and  Greenville  and  large 
crowds  handled  on  both  trains. 

Baggage  Master  Howard  Shields  of 
the  passenger  department  at  Greenville 
has  been  away  for  a  few  days,  spending 
the  time  with  friends  and  relatives  in 
Baton  Rouge. 

Engineer  W.  P.  Stewart,  who  was 
recently  reinstated  made  his  first  trip  in 
through  freight  service  on  June  22. 

Conductor  O.  C.  Kelly  has  taken  the 
position  of  flagman  on  train  38  and  45, 
relieving  Junior  Flagman  McEvine. 

We  are  glad  to  see  Conductor  E.  C. 
Clay  back  on  92  and  93  after  being  off 
for  a  few  days  account  of  illness. 

Conductor  A.  C.  Henry  is  pleasing 
the  public  with  his  usual  smiles  on 
trains  111  and  114  after  an  absence 
of  about  thirty  days. 

Third  Track  Dispatcher  R.  H.  Mays, 
after  some  delay  and  figuring,  decided 
that  he  could  afford  a  Ford  and  ac- 
cordingly made  a  purchase,  but  there 


is  something  else  to  be  told  and  of  a 
great  deal  more  importance  about  this 
same  gentleman.  Shortly  after  the 
purchase  of  the  Ford,  he  became  the 
proud  father  of  a  son. 

After  going  through  about  thirty- 
five  years  of  single  bliss,  Engineer 
Fredie  L.  Clark,  decided  to  try  out  the 
old  fable  of  "two  can  live  as  cheap  as 
one"  and  in  a  very  few  days,  wedding 
bells  will  be  ringing  in  a  certain  Missis- 
sippi town,  at  which  time  Fredie  will 
take  onto  himself  a  better  half. 

We  are  sorry  our  Superintendent's 
Chief  Clerk  does  not  seem  to  have  the 
power  to  have  and  to  hold,  as  Mrs. 
Simmons  has  left  him  for  a  short  visit 
to  relative  in  Brownsville,  Tenn. 

Mrs.  S.  F.  Witherspoon  and  Mrs. 
W.  W.  Ellis,  wives  of  popular  Conduc- 
tors on  this  division  left  a  few  days  ago 
for  a  trip  to  San  Francisco,  and  several 
other  places  of  interest  in  the  west. 

Agent  E.  C.  Davis  of  Helena,  Ark., 
has  been  appointed  agent  at  Green- 
ville to  relieve  Mr.  Wilkinson,  trans- 
ferred. 

On  July  loth  the  Third  Quarterly 
Vicksburg  Division  Safety  and  Staff 
meetings  were  held  at  Greenville,  with 
a  large  attendance  and  good  live  meet- 
ing reported  by  all  who  attended. 

Mrs.  G.  W.  Robertson,  agent  at 
Avon,  Miss.,  has  been  enjoying  her 
annual  vacation. 

Mr.  L.  M.  Seago,  agent  at  Long- 
wood,  Miss.,  is  at  present  away  on  his 
vacation. 

Supervisors  Harrington,  Bishop  and 
Mayner  are  very  busy  men  at  this 
writing,  as  they  have  made  up  their 
minds  to  eliminate  the  live  stock  on 
the  way-lands  on  this  division  if  they 
have  to  work  night  and  day  to  accom- 
plish this.  From  all  indications  their 
efforts  are  meeting  with  fine  results. 
HEN  Mr.  F.  B.  Wilkinson,  for  a 
number  of  years  agent  at  Green- 
ville, Miss.,  was  promoted  to  the  agency 
at  Jackson,  Tenn.,  the  following  very 
complimentary  resolutions  were  adopted 
by  the  Greenville  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce : 

"Whereas,  We  have  learned  with  deep 


W 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


103 


regret  that  our  mutual  friend  and  co- 
worker,  Mr.  F.  B.  Wilkinson,  is  leaving 
Greenville,  to  be  located  elsewhere,  but 
this  regret  is  mingled  with  pleasure,  in 
as  much  as  his  moving  is  in  the  nature 
of  a  promotion, — a  merited  recognition 
of  his  loyalty  and  sterling  qualities  as 
a  business  man: 

Be  It  Resolved,  That  we  are  deeply 
appreciative  of  his  untiring  work  and 
loyal  support  during  the  time  he  has 
been  with  us,  and  that  our  sincerest 
good  wishes  go  with  him  in  his  new 
location." 

Be  It  Further  Resolved,  That  this 
resolution  be  spread  upon  the  records  of 
the  Greenville  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
and  a  copy  mailed  to  Mr.  Wilkinson,  di- 
rect. 

I  certify  that  the  above  resolution  was 
this  day  unanimously  adopted  at  a  spe- 
cial meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Greenville  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. 

R.  L.  PRITCHARD, 

Secretary. 

Greenville,  Miss.,  July  9,  1915. 


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Scaly  Eyelids  and  Granulation 


Illinois  Division 
Death  of  Albert  Hilmer 

A  LBERT  HILMER,  15828  Lathrop 
**  Avenue,  died  very  suddenly  last 
Sunday  while  with  his  family  for  an 
auto  ride. 

During  the  ride  Mr.  Hilmer  had  com- 
plained of  not  feeling  well  and  they  had 
concluded  to  return  home  on  that  ac- 
count. Death  from  heart  failure  came 
within  a  few  minutes. 

Funeral  services  were  held  from  the 
house  Tuesday  and  were  in  charge  of 
the  Odd  Fellow's.  Interment  was  at 
Hazelwood. 

Deceased  was  born  May  25,  1883,  and 
was  therefore  aged  32  years,  2  months. 

Besides  his  wife,  he  leaves  to  mourn 


his    father,    mother    and    four   brothers 
in  Riverdale. 

Mr.  Hilmer  was  held  in  high  esteem 
by  all  who  knew  him.  He  was  of  a 
bright  and  cheerful  disposition  and  will 
be  greatly  missed  by  a  large  circle  of 
friends. 

Chicago  Local  Freight  Office 

On  June  27th,  Mr.  O.  H.  Clark,  Chief 
Clerk  of  the  Out  Freight  Department, 
gave  an  outing  to  his  entire  department 
at  his  home,  Homewood,  111.,  which  in- 
cluding various  games :  Baseball,  rac- 
ing, horse  shoe  contest,  and  sack  race, 
after  which  a  table  was  laid  for  fifty- 
four,  and  an  elaborate  luncheon  was 
served  by  Mrs.  Clark,  that  occupied  one 
hour.  The  races  consisted  of : 

First  Race — 100-yard  race  for  rate 
clerks.  Won  by  Abe  Silverman. 

Second  Race — 100-yard  race  for  way- 
bill clerks.  Won  by  Harry  Fleming. 

Third  Race — 25-yard  sack  race.  Won 
by  Earl  Balinger. 

Fourth  Race — 100-yard  foot  race  for 
ladies.  Won  by  Laura  Sorenson. 

Horse  Shoe  Contest.  Won  by  D.  D. 
Lee  and  Otto  Remmert. 

The  grand  prize  was  given  in  guessing 
contest  of  a  jar  of  beans.  Won  by  Chas. 
Schouten. 

Among  the  feature  events  was  a  ball 
game  made  up  of  way-bill  clerks  vs. 
rate  clerks.  This  was  exceptionally  well 
played,  score  1  to  0  in  favor  of  the 
bill  clerks.  This  uncovered  a  clever 
pitcher  in  Thomas  Gordon  O'Connor 
for  the  bill  clerks,  pitching  the  entire 
game  and  only  allowing  but  three  hits 
and  winning  his  own  game  by  a  home 
run,  and  the  able  umpiring  of  Mr. 
Soper. 

Other  players  deserving  of  mention 
were  Phil  Roth,  Ed  Witt,  Abe  Silver- 
man, Grover  Cleveland  Wray,  Orville 
Pickens  and  Joe  White. 

The    Committee    had   badges    for   all 
with  inscription  as  follows : 
O  H  C 


Outing  Homewood  Clarks 


Out-Freight   Happy   Clerks. 

June  27,  1915 
In  concluding  this  article,  the  commit- 


104 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tee  wishes  to  say  in  behalf  of  the  entire 
department,  they  think  Mr.  and  Mrs.  O. 
H.  Gark  are  a  most  charming  host  and 
hostess. 

Committee  of  Arrangement, 

W.  S.  REEVES, 
V.  G.  SOPER. 
Springfield  Division 
Mrs.   A.  B.  Comer,  wife  of  fireman, 
and  two   daughters    will  visit    in    Au- 
burn, Ky. 

Mr.  A.  Woodward,  fireman,  and  wife ; 


Mr.  Hubert  Bush,  tinner  apprentice, 
will  visit  in  Winchester,  Ky. 

Mrs.  C.  Henson,  wife  of  Assistant 
roundhouse  foreman,  will  visit  in  Des 
Moines,  N.  M.  Mr.  Henson  will  ac- 
company her  to  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Mr.  Frank  Shirley,  car  inspector, 
wife  and  daughter  Delia,  will  visit  in 
Scottsburg,  Ind. 

Mr.  Ran  Nicholson,  carpenter,  and 
son,  Forrest,  will  visit  in  Springfield, 
Ky. 


>UT  FREIGHT   DEPT.   CHICAGO  LOCAL  FREIGHT  OFFICE. 


also  Mr.  W.  Woodward,  fire  kindler, 
and  wife,  were  called  to  Evansville,  Ind,. 
due  to  the  serious  illness  of  their 
brother. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Hayes,  car  repairer,  and 
wife  will  visit  relatives  in  Auburn,  Ky. 

Mr.  T.  A.  Grason,  engineer,  wife  and 
daughter,  Florence,  will  visit  in  Omaha, 
Nebraska.  They  intend  to  remain  there 
till  some  time  the  latter  part  of  August. 

Mr.  Charles  Kaiser,  machinist,  at 
Clinton  shops,  is  in  the  hospital  at  Chi- 
cago. 

Mr.  Amos  Harrold,  car  inspector,  and 
wife  will  visit  in  Valentine,  Nebraska. 

Mr.  Samuel  Snowberg,  machinist 
handyman,  will  visit  relatives  in  New 
York  City. 

Mr.  T.  B.  Scott,  engineer,  and  wife 
will  visit  in  Stroh,  Indiana. 


Mr.  B.  E.  Spink,  car  inspector,  wife 
and  two  daughters,  will  visit  in  Sioux 
City,  Iowa. 

Mrs.  L.  J.  Sieveking,  son  and  daugh- 
ter, wife  and  children  of  L.  J.  Sieve- 
king,  engineer,  will  visit  in  Mason,  111. 

Mr.  E.  Thompson,  fireman,  will  visit 
in  Wichita,  Kans. 

Mr.  G.  W.  Bayles,  engineer,  will  visit 
in  Lewistown,  Mont. 

Mr.  Roy  Jackson,  stationary  fireman 
at  Clinton  shops,  will  visit  in  Pine 
Bluff,  Ark. 

Mr.  F.  C.  Wright,  engineer,  and  wife 
will  visit  hi'Lemmon,  S.  D. 

Mr.  Steve  Turk,  machinist  at  Clinton 
shops,  has  returned  to  work  after  visit- 
ing in  Billings,  Mont. 

Mr.  John  Romine,  flue  borer,  at  Clin- 
ton shops,  will  visit  in  Bloomfield,  Ky. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


105 


Mr.  August  Yirovec,  machinist  at 
Clinton  shops,  will  visit  in  Pine  Bluff, 
Ark. 

Mr.  Wm.  Hewitt,  caller,  will  visit  in 
Cheyenne,  Wyo. 

Switchmen  R.  W.  demons  and  Elmer 
demons,  together  with  their  families, 
have  gone  to  Chadwick,  Mo.,  for  a  sev- 
eral weeks'  visit  with  their  parents. 

Passenger  Flagman  R.  M.  Heaton 
has  been  granted  a  10-day  lay-off  and 
has  gone  to  Lake  Geneva,  Wis.,  with  a 
party  of  friends  on  a  fishing  trip.  Mrs. 
Heaton  and  son  Forrest  accompanied 
him. 

Brakeman  F.  F.  McMahon  is  visiting 
with  friends  and  relatives  in  Fon  du 
Lac,  Wis.,  and  other  points  in  that  state. 

Switchman  Louis  L.  Lynn  has  re- 
turned to  the  service  after  a  thirty-day 
lay  off.  He  spent  most  of  the  time  in 
Gretna,  Neb. 

W.  V.  Bates,  O.  Wall,  G.  B.  Mays 
and  Rea  Lawrence,  who  have  been  in 
the  service  as  brakemen  on  the  Havana 
District  for  the  past  three  or  four  years, 
were  promoted  to  position  of  conductors 
at  Clinton,  Sunday,  June  27th. 

Brakeman  H.  E.  Hilbrant  of  the  Ha- 
vana District,  was  granted  a  ten-day 
leave  of  absence,  and  left  the  first  of 
July  for  Havana,  111.,  with  a  party  of 
friends,  where  they  will  spend  the  time 
fishing. 

Mrs.  W.  C.  McConnell,  wife  of  Con- 
ductor McConnell,  is  visiting  with  rela- 
tives in  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  for  a  week 
or  10  days. 

Chief  Dispatchers   Office 

Station  Agent  C.  E.  Baugh  resumed 
duty  at  Toronto  June  28th  after  20  days' 
vacation. 

Mr.  E.  R.  Deland  is  back  on  the  job 
at  White  Heath. 

Lee  Vallow  has  been  placed  as  agent 
at  Assumption  while  Frank  Allison  is 
motoring  to  the  World's  Fair. 

Miss  Julia  E.  Radford,  agent  at  Rad- 
ford,  took  30  days'  vacation  July  1st. 
and  will  be  relieved  by  Ray  Beckett. 

R.  F.  Deveney,  joint  agent,  Pawnee 
Junction  with  C.  &  I.  M.,  expects  to 
take  30  days  off,  commencing  July  1st. — 
L.  F.  Giffin  will  check  in  there. 


A.  P.  Yoder,  at  Litchfield,  has  lined 
up  for  a  couple  weeks'  vacation,  and  will 
be  relieved  by  Operator  C.  O.  Gray,  and 
the  latter  by  J.  L.  Moore. 

Road  Department 

Mr.  Jeff  Smith,  Section  Foreman  at 
Assumption,  is  on  a  vacation  in  Florida. 
He  will  be  gone  from  ten  to  twelve 
days  and  will  visit  several  places  of  in- 
terest while  down  there.  Mr.  Smith  has 
been  Section  Foreman  at  Assumption 
for  a  considerable  time  and  this  is  the 
first  time  he  has  laid  off  for  any  length 
of  time.  He  will  undoubtedly  enjoy 
himself  during  his  stay. 

The  Bridge  and  Building  Depart- 
ment will  have  plenty  of  work  to  do  in 
the  near  future  to  keep  them  busy.  They 
have  received  authority  for  several  large 
jobs  that  must  be  completed  in  the  next 
several  months. 

Another  large  piece  of  work  to  be 
done  by  the  Bridge  and  Building  De- 
partment will  be  the  installation  of  an 
eighty-five  foot  turntable  at  the  round 


Have 

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Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort. 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists — Golfers — Tour- 
ists —  Mechanics — All — should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
—accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eye  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago 11 


106 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


house  in  Clinton.  This  turntable  will 
be  driven  by  an  electric  tractor  and  will 
compare  favorably  with  any  of  the  up- 
to-date  turntables  used  to  turn  the  large 
engines  of  today.  The  installation  of 
this  large  table  will  require  considerable 
preparation  in  the  way  of  masonry  be- 
fore it  can  be  put  in  place. 

Authority  has  also  been  given  to  re- 
place several  bridges  now  consisting  of 
wooden  piling,  with  concrete  pile  and 
slabs.  This  work  will  be  the  first  of  its 
kind  to  be  done  on  this  Division. 

Owing  to  the  high  waters  in  the  last 
few  years  and  the  damage  that  was 
barely  escaped  by  the  present  structure 
across  the  Kaskaskia  River,  it  has  been 
decided  that  the  grade  approaching  the 
present  bridge  will  be  raised  for  a  half 
mile  each  way  and  a  plate  girder  put  in. 
When  this  work  is  completed  there  will 
be  ample  opening  for  the  water  even  in 
the  time  of  a  flood  and  there  should 
never  be  any  more  danger  from  a  jam 
of  drift  wood  above  the  bridge.  This 
raise  of  grade  will  require  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  twenty  thousand  yards  of 
additional  embankment  to  be  done  by 
contract.  The  dirt  will  be  gotten  from 
a  borrow  pit  only  a  short  distance  from 
the  bridge. 

Memphis  Division 
Mr.  Boatner  Transferred 

On  the  first  of  July  Mr.  V.  V.  Boat- 
ner, who  for  some  time  has  been  Train- 
master at  Memphis,  was  transferred  to 
Mattoon,  111.  At  a  meeting  of  the  em- 
ployes held  on  July  21st  complimentary 
resolutions  to  Mr.  Boatner  were  passed. 
It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  a  division 
official  is  held  in  such  high  esteem  by 
his  subordinates. 


Fixing  the  Blame 

He  found  his  own  front  porch  with 
wonderful  accuracy,  navigated  the  steps 
with  precision,  and  discovered  the  key- 
whole  by  instinct.  Once  in  the  dimly 
lighted  hall,  there  was  an  ominous  si- 
lence followed  by  a  tremendous  crash. 

"Why,  what  has  happened,  Henry?" 
came  a  voice  from  above. 

"It's  all  right,  Mary,  but  I'll— I'll 
learn  those  goldfish  to  snap  at  me!" 
— Everybody >s. 


WM.  LYDON 

Mausoleums,  Monuments 
Granite  and  Marble 

1610  Trimble  St. 

Near  Entrance  to  Oak.Grove'Cemetery 

Paducah,  Ky. 


C.  H.  Rieke  &  Sons 

Incorporated 

Wholesale 


Dry  Goods,  Notions 

and 

Furnishing  Goods 


Paducah,  Ky. 


The  Varnish 

That  Lasts  Longest 

Made  by 

Murphy  Varnish  Company 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


ILLINOIS 
CENTRAL 
MAGAZINE 


hes 
ondale  111. 


SEPTEMBER  1915 


STIFEL'S 
INDIGO 

is  the  "fabric  in- 
destructible." Will 
not  fade — easy  to  wash 
and  iron.     Look  for  this 

rial,  on  the  in-      REGISTERED      side 
of  garment.     That's  your  guar- 
antee of  the  genuine. 

Cloth  Manufactured  by 

J.  L.  Stifel  &  Sons 

Indigo  Dyers  and  Printers   -    Wheeling,  W.  Va. 

SALES   OFFICES 


New  York 360-262   Church   St. 

Philadelphia 324  Market  St. 

Boston 3J  Bedford  St. 

Chicago.  .223  West  Jackson  Blvd. 

San  Francisco,    

.Postal  Telegraph  Bldg. 


Baltimore 114  \V.  Fayette  St. 

St.  Louis 425  Victoria  Bids. 

St.  Paul 238  Endicott  Bldg. 

Toronto 14  Manchester  Bldg. 

Winnipeg 400  Hammond  Bldg. 


St.  Joseph,  Mo Montreal 

Saxton  Bank  Bldg.  Room  500,  489  St.  Paul  St. 


Win.    Smith,   Jr. — Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the   Illinois   Central   Lines  During  the   Civil   Con- 
flict, 1861-5 <) 

Public    Opinion 18 

Carbondale,     111 24 

Hospital    Department 32 

How   Employes    Sh.ould    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois   Central 

Stock   36 

Baggage  and  Mail   Traffic  Department 3s 

Shipping  U.  S.  Treasury  Funds  by  Mail  at  the  Expense  of  the 

Railroads    39 

Good  Roads  Day,  Fulton,  Ky.,  and  Vicinity 42 

Always  Safety  First 45 

Industrial,  Immigration  and  Development  Department 53 

Engineering  Department 59 

Mechanical   Department 64 

Passenger  Traffic  Department 69 

Roll  of  Honor 74 

Law     Department 76 

Transportation    Department 80 

Staff   Meeting,   Vicksburg   Division 82 

Claims    Department 92 

Contributions  from  Employes: 

How  the  I.  C.  Saved  the  Day 100 

The    Land   of    Beginning   Again 101 

Meritorious   Service 10:? 

Division   News  .  .  106 


nthly  6y  the  7/faois  Central  %  %  G)., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4^(W  Tijnployes 

^Advertising  •  rates  •  on    application^ 


Chicago 

1$  <fpr.  copy       $  1.JO  pr.  year 


WILLIAM  SMITH,  JR., 
Assistant  General  Freight  Agent. 

TIIT'AS  appointed  Commercial  Agent  and  opened  first  office  at  Nashville, 
V*  Tenn.,  Sept.  16,  1896.  Was  appointed  Assistant  General  Freight  Agent 
at  Evansville  in  1903;  transferred  to  Nashville  when  eastern  division  of 
Tennessee  Central  R.  R.  was  leased,  1905 ;  transferred  to  Louisville  in  1907  ; 
when  Traffic  Department  was  reorganized  in  1911  was  brought  to  Chicago 
in  charge  of  solicitation. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.  4 


SEPTEMBER  1915 


No.  3 


Trie  Story 
Illinois  Central  Linos 

during  th© 

Civil  Conflict  1861-5 


''"THEY  went  West  to  grow  up  with 
the  country."  That  was  the  plan 
of  Daniel  Brayman  and  his  bride  Mary 
English  Brayman,  on  Monday,  October 
9,  1809,  when  they  left  their  home  in 
the  pretty  little  town  of  Exter,  Otsego 
county,  New  York.  They  travelled  far 
towards  the  setting  sun,  as  they  thought, 
till  Sunday,  March  18,  1810,  when  they 
located  at  the  little  trading  village  of 
Buffalo  on  Lake  Erie,  in  Erie  county, 
New  York. 

Before  they  had  been  settled  long  in 
their  cottage  on  Niagara  Street,  some- 
where near  the  Albany  Street  of  today, 
the  war  of  1812  with  England,  broke 
out.  They  turned  their  house  over  to 
the  American  soldiers  for  barracks,  and 
moved  "out  into  the  country,"  near  Cold 
Spring,  on  the  main  road  to  New  York 
City,  about  where  Ferry  Street  is  now. 
Then  that  was  considered  in  the  quiet 
solitudes,  far  enough  away  from  the 
lake  to  be  safe  from  the  cannon  of  the 
threatening  English. 

There,  on  Sunday,  May  23,  1813,  was 
born  their  son  Mason ;  the  third  of 
eight  children.  When  he  was  only  sev- 


en months  old  the  family  fled  from  the 
allied  Indians  and  English  who  burned 
Buffalo,  and  part  of  Washington  City, 
destroying  many  public  records.  But 
when  peace  was  restored  they  located 
at  Hamburg,  N.  Y.,  where  Mason's  boy- 
hood was  spent,  and  where  he  obtained 
his  farming  and  other  youthful  educa- 
tion and  experience. 

From  childhood  he  had  taken  advan- 
tage of  every  opportunity  to  read  and 
study.  He  quit  work  for  school  when 
he  could,  and  quit  school  for  work  when 
he  must. 

When  about  18  years  old  he  went  to 
Buffalo  to  find  his  fortune.  He  was 
apprenticed  in  the  printing  office  of 
Day,  Follett  and  Haskins  and  was  soon 
made  foreman  of  their  shop.  In  due 
time  he  became  a  reporter ;  then  the  ed- 
itor of  the  Buffalo  Bulletin  in  1834  and 
1835.  He  developed  great  proficiency 
with  the  pen,  and  displayed  an  unusual 
power  of  grasping  public  questions,  and 
making  them  plain  to  the  readers  of  his 
paper  in  a  way  that  made  friends  in- 
stead of  enemies.  He  did  his  part  in 
preventing  the  secession  of  the  lake  and 


10 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Mississippi  valley  states  long  before 
South  Carolina  raised  her  independent 
flag;  and  he  helped  expose  and  defeat 
the  Aaron  Burr  conspiracy. 

His  life  at  Buffalo  was  full  of  active 
interest.  While  running  the  Buffalo 
Bulletin  he  was  diligently  studying  law 
under  the  instruction  of  a  good  law- 
yer, Benoni  Thompson,  and  he  was 
duly  admitted  to  practice  at  the  Bar  of 
New  York  in  1836.  The  Mormon  con- 
troversy was  raging  in  western  New 
York.  As  editor  of  the  Bulletin  he 
had  kept  informed  of  its  progress,  and 
he  appreciated  the  importance  of  the 
question  in  that  stage  of  our  civic  evo- 
lution ;  an  experience  that  was  to  count 
for  much  in  after  years  when  he  had 
become  a  citizen  of  Illinois.  He  was  now 
ready  to  take  up  the  more  serious  work 
of  life,  and  to  take  the  fair  partner  who 
was  waiting  for  him.  So  on  "Happy 
Tuesday,"  the  sixth  day  of  September, 
1836,  not  long  after  he  was  admitted  to 
the  Bar.  he  married  Miss  Mary  Wil- 
liams of  Fredonia,  New  York.  Ambi- 
tious to  go  farther  west,  the  young  cou- 
ple left  Buffalo,  and  located  at  Monroe. 
Michigan,  where  he  diligently  practiced 
his  new  profession,  and  was  elected  to 
the  office  of  city  attorney,  in  1838.  In 
1839  he  went  to  Worcester,  Ohio,  and 
edited  the  Daily  Advertiser.  He  ac- 
cepted the  editorial  chair  of  the  Louis- 
ville Advertiser  in  1841.  But  in  1842  he 
went  to  Sprinefield.  Illinois,  and  again 
devoted  himself  to  law  as  a  partner  of 
Jesse  B.  Thomas,  but  part  of  the  time 
as  partner  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  He 
made  rapid  progress  both  at  the  bar  and 
in  political  preferment.  He  wrote  edi- 
torials for  the  State  Register.  He  act- 
ed as  Secretary  of  State  for  a  time.  The 
Mormons  entered  Illinois  in  the  winter 
of  1838.  Nauvoo  was  chartered  in  1841 
with  many  privileges,  including  the  right 
to  govern ;  and  to  raise  and  maintain 
the  Nauvoo  Military  Legion.  • 

In  1842  he  was  appointed  special 
commissioner  under  the  government  to 
adjust  the  Mormon  troubles,  particular- 
ly at  Nauvoo,  Hancock  county,  Illinois ; 
and  he  was  also  appointed  counsel  to 
prosecute  Mormon  offenders,  of  whom 


there  were  many.  In  1844  Governor 
Ford  placed  Nauvoo  under  martial  law, 
and  dreadful  scenes  were  enacted, 
"largely  by  hoodlums  from  over  the 
river."  The  Mormon  problem  was  very 
complicated  in  Illinois.  Those  devoted 
followers  of  their  "Prophet"  Joseph 
Smith  were  a  thrifty,  industrious  peo- 
ple; and  they  had  made  a  garden  spot 
of  the  former  wilderness  around  Nau- 
voo, which  was  a  fine  steamboat  land- 
ing; and  they  had  largely  increased  in 
number  and  in  wealth.  They  published 
their  own  paper,  "Nauvoo  Times  and 
Seasons,"  later  "The  Pearl  of  Great 
Price."  But  religious  and  political  and 
perhaps  commercial  troubles  arose,  and 
strong  prejudice  and  bitter  feelings 
were  aroused  among  them  and  against 
them,  which  finally  culminated  in  blood- 
shed ;  at  first  secretly,  then  openly  and 
notoriously.  The  prophet  and  his  broth- 
er Hyrum,  the  Patriarch,  were  among 
the  victims.  Governor  Ford  ordered 
General  Clark  to  drive  the  Mormons 
out  of  the  state  as  a  necessity  for  peace. 
The  commissioners  gave  the  Mormons 
to  understand  that  they  had  to  abandon 
Nauvoo,  and  leave  the  state  of  Illinois ; 
peaceably,  if  they  would,  or  they  would 
be  driven  out  by  force  if  the  whole  mili- 
tia of  Illinois  had  to  be  called  upon  to 
drive  them  out.  But  Commissioner 
Brayman  got  them  out  without  further 
bloodshed.  One  test  of  a  man's  ability 
is  his  powers  to  handle  other  men,  and 
Brayman  proved  his  superiority  in  that 
crisis  with  the  Mormons.  Leaving  their 
agents  to  dispose  of  Mormon  property, 
the  Mormons  went  on  their  long  journev 
that  was,  after  many  stops  and  tribula- 
tions, to  end  at  Salt  Lake.  Before  they 
passed  through  Colorado  the  famous 
"Mormon  Battalion"  was  raised  among 
them  at  the  request  of  the  government 
to  help  the  United  States  army  against 
the  Mexicans.  It  marched  clear  across 
the  continent  to  California.  A  few  of 
them  remained  there  after  disbandin?, 
at  the  request  of  Brigham  Young:  and, 
strange  to  sav.  dug  the  famous  mill-race 
at  Sutter's  Mill  in  which  gold  was  dis- 
covered in  1840.  This  gave  new  im- 
petus to  ideas  of  transportation  to  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


11 


Pacific  coast  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama ;  or  better  still,  as  some  thought, 
by  way  of  Tehuantepec. 

For  a  very  large  section  of  country 
the  natural  route  was  by  river  to  New 
Orleans. 

Then  were  developed  the  ideas  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  to  Cairo ;  and 
Judah  P.  Benjamin's  dream  of  a  great 
railroad  north  from  New  Orleans,  con- 
necting with  a  New  Orleans  line  of 
steamers  on  the  Gulf  to  Tehuantepec, 
over  which  another  railroad  would  with- 
in a  day  connect  with  another  line  of 
steamers  on  the  Pacific  ocean  side  of 
that  Isthmus. 

Many  people  fail  to  realize  that  rail- 
roads kept  off  secession  of  the  West; 
prevented  the  secession  of  the  South 
from  succeeding,  and  even  now  are  the 
strongest  bonds  that  hold  our  North, 
South,  East  and  West  together.  But 
for  the  railroads  we  would  now  have  or 
soon  would  have  at  least  two,  and  pos- 
sibly three  or  four  small  nations  in  the 
land  over  which  the  Star  and  Stripes 
now  float  as  one  great  nation. 

From  its  location,  its  early  completion 
and  its  wonderful  enterprise,  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  is  entitled  to  such 
credit,  perhaps  beyond  any  other  rail- 
road. 

Well  might  Mason  Brayman  have  said 
concerning  the  birth  and  early  history 
of  that  company :  "All  of  which  I  saw ; 
part  of  which  I  was."  In  this  he  was 
associated  with  Lincoln,  Douglas,  Mc- 
Clernand,  Joy  and  other  great  lawyers 
and  statesmen. 

On  November  14,  1890,  a  few  years 
before  his  death,  he  wrote  to  an  officer 
of  that  company: 

"My  relations  to  the  projectors  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  began  in  the 
autumn  of  1850.  My  retainer  as  their 
professional  adviser  dates  November 
10,  1850.  The  history  of  the  company 
so  far  as  it  relates  to  Illinois,  and  es- 
pecially to  Chicago,  during  the  conten- 
tion for  entrance  on  Lake  Front  was  al- 
most dramatic  in  its  incidents." 

He  was  located  at  Springfield,  Illinois, 
and  was  a  law  partner  of  Colonel  Wil- 
liam H.  Bissell,  when  he  became  the 


first  attorney  for  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Co.,  that  has  since  employed 
thousands  of  attorneys. 

Later  he  promoted  various  railroad 
enterprises  in  Missouri,  Arkansas  and 
other  parts  of  the  Southwest.  He  was 
president  of  one  of  those  railroads  when 
the  Civil  War  began. 

In  1861,  soon  after  the  Civil  war  be- 
gan, he  enlisted  in  the  Union  Army,  and 
was  made  major  of  the  29th  Illinois 
Volunteer  Infantry.  He  took  a  very 
active  part  in  drilling  and  in  the  practi- 
cal preparation  of  his  regiment  for  the 
good  service  it  performed. 

He  was  appointed  one  of  the  staff  of- 
ficers of  General  John  A.  McClernand, 
commanding  the  13th  army  corps.  For 
efficient  service  he  was  soon  made  chief 
of  McClernand's  staff.  He  and  McCler- 
nand had  been  intimately  associated  in 
business  at  Springfield,  while  the  latter 
was  in  the  state  legislature  and  after- 
wards in  Congress. 

Because  Brayman  was  on  General 
McClernand's  staff,  his  individual  ex- 
ploits were  seldom  noted  in  public  re- 
ports. His  regiment,  the  29th  Illinois 
Infantry  Volunteers  belonged  to  the 
Third  Brigade,  under  Brigadier  Gener- 
al Raith,  in  the  1st  Division,  under 
Major  General  McClernand  in  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee.  So  Major 
Brayman  was  closely  connected  with 
General  McClernand  in  whatever  was 
done  by  the  1st  Division  of  that  very 
busy  army.  Brayman  took  prominent 
part  in  the  capture  of  Fort  Donnelson 
of  Belmont,  and  was  of  material  aid  to 
General  McClernand  in  all  his  other  mil- 
itary exploits  about  that  time. 

General  Fremont  had  ordered  Grant 
and  McClernand  to  co-operate  along  the 
line  of  the  Mississippi  River  in  the  fall 
of  1861.  They  went  down  from  Cairo 
in  transports,  accompanied  by  Commo- 
dore Worden  with  his  gunboats,  and 
menaced  Columbus  by  attacking  Bel- 
mont. General  Smith  from  Paducah 
was  to  menace  Columbus  in  the  rear. 
The  Union  troops  landed  about  three 
miles  above  Belmont,  Missouri,  Novem- 
ber 7,  1861. 

The  Confederate  Generals  Polks  and 


12 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Pillow  hastily  crossed  the  river  and  fell 
upon  General  Grant's  army  compelling 
it  to  fight  its  way  back  to  the  cover  of 
the  gunboats,  with  a  loss  of  about  500 
men.  But  Belmont  was  captured.  He 
helped  take  Fort  Henry,  February  6, 
1862. 

At  the  Battle  of  Fort  Donnelson,  Feb. 
14,  15,  and  16,  1862,  when  the  Confed- 
erates made  that  gallant  attempt  to  cut 
their  way  out  and  escape,  McClermand's 
men  were  in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  He 
twice  sent  for  help,  and  for  ammuni- 
tion. He  was  forced  back  for  a  time, 
but  finally  regained  the  lost  ground  and 
forced  the  enemy  back  into  their  works. 
General  Brayman  was  complimented  for 
his  part  in  that  action,  and  it  was  under- 
stood that  the  capture  of  Fort  Donnel- 
son was  due  in  a  large  measure  to  Mc- 
Clernand's  men. 

Colonel  Reardon  was  commanding 
the  29th  Illinois  in  these  engagements 
and  till  after  the  Battle  of  Shiloh. 

On  April  6,  1861,  at  the  opening  en- 
gagement in  that  historic  battle  which 
lasted  two  days,  the  29th  Regiment,  Illi- 
nois Infantry  Volunteers,  was  camped 
on  the  Hamburg  and  Purdy  road  with 
Brigadier  Julius  Raith's  Third  Brigade 
of  McClernand's  1st  Division,  Army  of 
the  Tennessee.  That  Sunday  morning, 
about  6  o'clock,  the  Third  Brigade  fell 
into  line  and  marched  to  support  Gen- 
eral Sherman  who  was  having  a  hard 
time  trying  to  hold  back  the  advancing 
enemy  coming  from  the  direction  of 
Shiloh  Meetinghouse,  but  was  compelled 
to  fall  back  towards  Pittsburg  Landing, 
and  rested  near  the  siege  guns  Sunday 
night.  In  that  day's  fight  he  had  per- 
sonally assisted  General  McClernand  in 
rallying  and  turning  back  into  the  fight 
an  Ohio  regiment  that  was  fast  becom- 
ing demoralized.  This  was  only  a  part 
of  the  gallant  service  rendered  that 
disastrous  day,  for  which  Major  Bray- 
man was  promoted.  The  29th  Regiment 
was  held  in  reserve  on  Monday,  the 
second  day  of  that  battle;  but  Major 
Brayman  was  kept  busy  as  one  of  Gen- 
eral McClernand's  staff  officers.  He 
had  good  reason  to  personally  appre- 
ciate something  said  by  Lieutenant 


Lemmon  of  the  49th  Illinois :  "Well,  I 
don't  know  just  how  it  was,  only  the 
Rebs  wouldn't  let  us  stay  anywhere 
Sunday,  and  we  did  the  same  thing  to 
them  next  day." 

General  Brayman  considered  the  Bat- 
tle of  Shiloh  or  Pittsburg  Landing,  of 
great  importance  because  it  was  the  first 
engagement  of  the  Civil  War  where  so 
large  a  number  of  troops  were  hurled 
against  the  enemy  by  either  side;  and 
because  it  demonstrated  a  grim  deter- 
mination in  comparatively  raw  volun- 
teers to  fight  to  a  finish,  driving  one  an- 
other back  and  forth  over  the.  same 
ground  many  times  in  one  day,  in  a  way 
that  won  the  admiration  of  army  men 
at  home  and  abroad.  It  proved  the 
American  citizen  to  be  an  instinctive 
soldier  on  whatever  side  he  fights  for 
what  he  considers  right. 

The  Confederates  had  once  a  line  of 
fortified  places  from  Columbus  on  the 
Mississippi  River  across  Kentucky  to 
Bowling  Green,  all  under  General  Al- 
bert Sidney  Johnston,  perhaps  the  ablest 
commander  in  the  Confederate  Army 
at  that  time.  But  so  many  of  his  forti- 
fied strategic  points  had  been  captured, 
he  had  been  compelled  to  establish  his 
line  farther  south,  concentrating  at  Shi- 
loh. In  that  great  battle  he  had  lost  his 
life  on  the  first  day  after  driving  the 
Union  Army  back  almost  to  the  river. 
With  his  death,  followed  by  General 
Wallace  arriving  in  time  to  save  Grant 
on  Monday,  the  tide  changed,  and  Shi- 
loh ended  in  a  calamity  to  the  Confed- 
eracy from  .which  it  never  entirely  re- 
covered in  some  respects,  whatever  mag- 
nificent victories  were  afterwards 
gained. 

The  possession  of  Shiloh,  or  rather 
of  Corinth,  determined  the  control  of 
the  junction  of  the  Mobile  and  Ohio 
Railroad  with  the  Memphis  and  Charles- 
ton Railroad,  and  its  loss  to  the  Confed- 
eracy was  irreparable. 

On  April  15,  soon  after  Shiloh  was 
won,  Major  Brayman  was  promoted 
and  became  Colonel  of  the  29th  Illinois. 
He  was  in  command  of  the  Union  troops 
who  defeated  General  Van  Dorn  at  the 
battle  of  Bolivar,  and  then  he  was  made 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


GEN.    MASON    BRAYMAN 


Brigadier  General,  having  already  dem- 
onstrated his  ability  to  successfully  han- 
dle a  brigade.  General  Van  Dorn  had 
attacked  him  at  Bolivar,  Tennessee,  and 
had  been  disastrously  repulsed. 

He  was  recalled  from  active  service 
at  the  front,  to  confer  with  President 
Lincoln  in  Washington,  and  sent  to 
Camp  Denison,  in  Ohio,  on  a  special 
mission  of  great  importance  at  that  stage 
of  the  war  game.  It  was  to  reorganize 
about  seventy  returned  Ohio  regiments, 
a  long,  difficult  undertaking,  which  he 


finished  with  efficient  results.  He  was 
placed  in  command  at  Natchez,  Miss., 
July,  1864,  and  remained  there  till 
March,  1865.  President  Lincoln  had 
commissioned  him  brigadier  general 
September  24,  1862. 

Then  he  was  sent  to  New  Orleans  as 
presiding  officer  of  the  commission  to 
examine  southern  cotton  claims  against 
the  government.  He  was  mustered  out 
with  the  rank  of  major  general  of  vol- 
unteers. 

After  the  war  he  revived  his  railroad 


14 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


interests  in  the  South.  He  had  a  spe- 
cial aptitude  for  railroad  promotion, 
construction  and  management.  In  1851, 
while  attorney  for  those  who  repre- 
sented the  Illinois  Central  Railroad, 
he  and  his  law  partner,  Colonel  William 
H.  Bissell,  aided  Lincoln,  McClernand 
and  Douglas  in  getting  a  charter  from 
the  state.  It  was  in  connection  with 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company's 
interest,  perhaps,  that  he  formed  the 
friendship  with  McClernand  that  was 
later  to  keep  him  so  closely  sympa- 
thetic during  the  war  and  afterwards. 

McClernand  was  the  associate  of 
Douglas  in  the  United  States  Congress 
in  1843  and  1851.  He  prepared  the 
bill  for  the  Land  Grant  under  which  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  was  built,  and 
introduced  it  in  the  house,  Mr.  Doug- 
las having  a  copy  which  he  offered  in 
the  Senate.  With  some  amendments  it 
was  passed  the  same  session,  Mr.  Bray- 
man,  as  attorney  for  the  company,  co- 
operating with  them. 

Mr.  Brayman,  as  attorney  for  the 
company,  co-operated  also  with  Asahel 
Gridley,  senator  from  McLean  county, 
who  on  January  14,  1851,  introduced 
in  the  Illinois  Senate  a  bill  for  an  "act 
to  incorporate  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company."  Senator  Don  Morri- 
son of  St.  Clair  county  introduced  a 
substitute  February  5,  which,  with  some 
amendments,  was  passed  February  6, 
1851,  by  a  vote  of  23  to  2  in  the  Sen- 
ate ;  and  it  was  passed  by  the  House 
four  days  later;  and  on  February  10, 
1851,  the  present  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company  was  started  on  its  event- 
ful career  of  usefulness,  which  has 
proved  such  an  efficient  agent  for  devel- 
oping the  resources,  and  supplying  a 
large  amount  of  cash  revenue  for  car- 
rying on  the  affairs  of  the  state  of  Il- 
linois. 

As  most  of  General  Brayman's  mili- 
tary operations  during  the  Civil  War 
were  southward  from  Chicago  and  Cairo 
in  the  way  of  transporting  troops,  mu- 
nitions of  war  and  supplies,  not  to  men- 
tion trainloads  of  dead  from  battlefield 
and  hospital,  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road was  a  necessarv  and  efficient  arm 


of  the  government  during  that  long- 
struggle  for  its  own  existence  and  per- 
petuity. 

Till  1872  he  busied  himself  with  his 
professional  and  railroad  interests. 

In  1872  political  conditions  assumed 
a  new  phase  when  Horace  Greeley  be- 
came a  candidate  for  President,  and 
Brayman  went  back  into  newspaper 
work  as  editor  of  the  Illinois  State 
Journal,  at  Springfield. 

Editorially  General  Brayman  dis- 
played the  courage  of  his  initiative,  both 
in  his  prejudices  and  in  his  well-found- 
ed convictions.  The  audacity  of  his 
limitations  was  also  in  evidence  when 
his  well-known  party  principles  clashed 
with  local  interests  important  to  the  state 
of  Illinois.  Even  eight  years  after  the 
war  ended  on  the  battlefields  of  the  sur- 
rendered South,  though  his  gun  was  si- 
lent and  his  sword  sheathed,  his  pen  was 
"flashing" — often  "gory" — and  the  bat- 
teries of  his  oratory  were  still  booming 
with  furious  patriotism.  During  most  of 
those  two  editorial  years  the  Illinois 
State  Journal  contained  much  of  what 
Horace  Greeley  called  "Mighty  Interest- 
ing Reading,"  and  much  that  made  the 
old  man  unhappy. 

An  old  settler  of  Illinois,  from  Eng- 
land, by  the  way,  gave  to  Brayman  his 
unique  idea  of  "Civic  Fraternity"  in 
those  uncertain  times.  He  said : 

"You  view  the  world  as  your  country, 
and  every  man  as  your  brother.  In  that 
you  will  find  the  best  security  and  guar- 
antee of  virtue  and  good  morals,  and 
the  main  spring  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty." 

General  Brayman  again  quit  journal- 
ism before  the  year  1873  had  expired 
and  went  to  Ripon,  Wisconsin,  where  he 
practiced  law. 

His  health  had  become  impaired,  and 
he  spent  a  great  deal  of  his  time  devel- 
oping a  large  tract  of  land  at  Green 
Lake,  which  he  had  taken  up  some  years 
before  to  prevent  *he  timber  thieves  from 
cutting  down  its  splendid  forest.  But 
the  lure  of  the  pen  was  too  strong,  and 
he  became  editor  of  the  Ripon  Common- 
wealth. Hardly  had  he  become  com- 
fortablv  established  there  before  his  old 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


friend  and  commander  in  the  army, 
President  Grant,  appointed  him  gover- 
nor of  the  territory  of  Idaho,  with  head- 
quarters at  Boise  City.  Then  came  a 
most  strenuous  four  years  with  the  fierce 
Nez  Perces  Indians,  and  other  tribes 
311  the  warpath.  Though  63  years  old, 
General  Brayman  was  able  to  put  down 
the  Indians  and  what  was  even  more 
difficult,  save  the  government  from  the 
raids  of  political  robbers  in  Idaho. 
They  were  doing  all  they  could  to  dis- 
grace the  administration  of  President 
Grant  who  had  appointed  them  to  of- 
fice. The  political  history  of  the  terri- 
tories, including  the  District  of  Alaska, 
was  for  many  years  a  disgrace  to  civil- 
ization, as  General  Brayman  said. 

In  1880  General  Brayman  was  doubt- 
less glad  enough  that  his  term  in  Idaho 
expired.  Returning  to  his  home  at  Ri- 
pon,  he  again  resumed  his  law  practice 
with  great  vigor,  though  67  years  old. 
While  there  his  daughter  Mary  was 
married  to  Mr.'  Theodore  Gowdy  of 
Kansas  City.  It  was  there  also  that  he 
lost  his  wife,  the  brave  life  partner  who 
had  shared  with  him  joys  and  troubles 
and  dangers  alike.  She  died  at  Ripon 
on  Tuesday,  February  19,  1886,  just  a 
few  months  before  they  were  to  have 
celebrated  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
their  wedding. 

Again  he  went  back  to  Ripon,  and  took 
up  the  lawyer's  burden,  but  soon  trans- 
ferred the  scene  of  his  labors  to  Kan- 
sas City,  Missouri,  where  he  died. 

The  following  excerpts  from  news- 
papers at  Ripon,  Wisconsin,  show  that 
Ripon  was  considered  his  home : 

"General  Mason  Brayman,  age  81 
years,  ex-governor  of  Idaho,  the  oldest 
Mason  in  the  United  States  and  former 
associate  in  legal  practice  with  Abraham 
Lincoln,  died  at  Kansas  City  Wednes- 
day, February  27,  1895,  at  the  home  of 
his  son-in-law,  Theodore  Gowdy. 

"General  Brayman  was  born  in  1813, 
in  Buffalo,  New  York.  In  1836  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  He  then  went  to 
Louisville,  where  he  edited  a  paper  and 
practiced  law.  He  alternated  between 
the  two  professions,  obtaining  eminence 
in  both.  In  1842,  he  removed  to  Spring- 


field, Illinois,  and  began  the  practice  of 
law.  While  in  Springfield  he  was  a 
neighbor  of  Lincoln,  and  was  associated 
with  him  in  many  cases.  The  intimacy 
began  then,  continued  until  Lincoln's 
death.  In  1861  General  Brayman  en- 
listed as  a  major  in  the  twenty-ninth 
Illinois  Infantry,  commanding  forces  un- 
der General  Grant.  He  served  with  hon- 
or and  received  promotion  rapidly.  He 
was  mustered  out  at  the  close  of  the 
war  as.  brevet  major  general.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  he  returned  to  Spring- 
field. In  1893  he  came  to  this  city 
where  he  gained  fresh  legal  honors.  In 
1876  President  Grant  appointed  him  gov- 
ernor of  Idaho.  In  1880  he  returned  to 
Ripon,  and  began  anew  the  practice  of 
law,  but  failing  health  caused  his  re- 
tirement, and  in  1895  he  went  to  Kansas 
City,  where  he  has  since  made  his  home 
with  his  daughter.  General  Brayman 
was  the  oldest  editor  and  the  oldest 
Mason  in  the  United  States.  He  leaves 
two  children,  Mrs.  Theodore  Gowdy  of 
Kansas  City  and  Mrs.  W.  H.  Bailhache 
of  California." 

It  may  be  added  that  another  daugh- 
ter, Nellie,  now  deceased,  became  Mrs. 
Sharpe  of  Green  Lake,  Wisconsin ;  Gen- 
eral Brayman  also  had  one  son,  Mason, 
who  died  in  childhood. 

"General  Brayman  at  Rest.  Funeral 
Took  Place  From  the  Baptist  Church 
"The  funeral  of  the  late  General  Bray- 
man occurred  Saturday  afternoon  at  2 
o'clock  from  the  Baptist  Church.  The 
remains  accompanied  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Theodore  Gowdy,  arrived  in  the  city 
Friday  evening  and  were  taken  to  the 
Baptist  church  where  they  were  guard- 
ed during  the  night  by  members  of  the 
G.  A.  R.  All  the  morning  the  church 
was  thronged  with  visitors,  some  of 
whom  came  from  a  distance  to  take  a 
last  view  of  the  general.  The  funeral 
services  were  conducted  by  Dr.  E.  H. 
Merrill,  assisted  by  the  Rev.  E.  R.  Clev- 
enger,  pastor  of  the  church  and  Colonel 
George  W.  Carter  of  the  G.  A.  R.  Post. 
Interment  was  at  the  city  cemetery  with 
the  military  burial  services. 

"General  Brayman's  connection  with 
Green  Lake  began  in  the  spring  of  1873, 


16 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


when  ill  health,  caused  by  hard  service 
during  the  war,  forced  him  to  relinquish 
his  labors  as  editor-in-chief  of  the  Illi- 
nois State  Journal  at  Springfield.  Pre- 
vious to  his  removal  to  this  place  he  vis- 
ited Green  Lake  and  was  much  incensed 
to  see  men  cutting  down  this  beautiful 
forest  for  firewood.  He  immediately 
went  to  the  owner  and  purchased  the 
land  in  order  to  save  the  forest  from 
destruction.". 

He  was  a  worker  of  many  interests, 
and  left  more  varied,  definite  impres- 
sions of  useful  abilities  on  more  people 
than  falls  to  the  lot  of  most  men.  So 
far  as  the  record  shows  he  was  connect- 
ed with  the  Baptist  Church  from  youth 
to  old  age,  having  been  baptized  at 
Wooster,  Ohio,  in  1840,  by  the  Rev. 
Charles  Morton,  a  minister  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church. 

He  was  particularly  interested  in  ed- 
ucational enterprises.  He  was  one  of 
the  incorporators  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  and  attended  the  first  meeting, 
held  May  21,  1857,  at  which  he  was  elect- 
ed trustee,  and  then  became  the  regent. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  had  offered  ten 
acres  of  land  for  such  a  purpose,  on  cer- 
tain conditions,  to  Rev.  A.  D.  Eddy,  who 
passed  the  offer  on  to  the  Presbyterians, 
who  also  refused ;  leaving  it  still  open 
to  be  accepted  by  the  Baptists,  through 
their  representative,  Dr.  J.  C.  Bur- 
roughs, of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Chicago ;  thus  aiding  to  found  an  in- 
stitution beyond  praise.  One  of  his  fa- 
vorite institutions  was  the  Chicago  His- 
torical Society,  of  which  he  was  a 
founder  and  an  ardent  member  and  pro- 
moter. 

Mr.  Brayman  also  took  a  personal  in- 
terest in  the  promotion  of  the  Illinois 
Industrial  University,  located  near  the 
Illinois  Central  Station  at  Urbana, 
Champaign  county.  To  this  university 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  donated 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  payable  in  trans- 
portation of  material  and  supplies. 

But  aside  from  the  promoting  directly 
the  interests  of  educational  institutions. 
General  Brayman  made  his  editorial 
work  educational  both  before  and  after 
the  war.  He  was  president  of  the  Amer- 


can  Baptist  Publishing  Society  and  presi- 
dent general  of  the  Baptist  General  As- 
sociation of  Illinois. 

His  educational  work  was  sane,  safe 
and  conservative,  and  much  of  it  will 
live,  perhaps,  long  after  his  name  shall 
have  been  forgotten. 

Truly  it  may  be  said  of  Mason  Bray- 
man :  "He  had  the  long-distance  edi- 
torial eye." 

A  personal  friend  of  General  Bray- 
man describes  him  as  follows: 

"He  was  tall,  straight,  slender  of  build, 
with  fresh  ruddy  complexion  and  bright 
gray  eyes,  quick  in  action,  and  every 
movement  betokened  the  alert,  deter- 
mined, restless  spirit  within."' 

Another  friend  of  the  family  took 
part  with  General  Brayman  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Belmont,  and  also  Pittsburg  Land- 
ing, and  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  fol- 
lowing incident  described  in  a  letter  to  a 
daughter  of  General  Brayman  a  few 
days  after  it  occurred  on  that  tragic 
Sunday  morning,  April  6,  1862 : 

"Early  on  Sunday  morning  our  regi- 
ment (the  18th  Illinois)  was  engaged, 
and  soon  after  going  to  work,  all  the  act- 
ing field  and  staff  officers  were  so 
wounded  as  to  be  entirely  disabled,  my- 
self among  the  number.  I  was  struck 
by  a  glancing  ball  on  the  spine,  and  aft- 
er going  around  with  the  regiment  for 
half  an  hour  or  more,  half  crazy  with 
pain  I  finally  lost  use  of  my  tongue,  the 
effect  of  a  species  of  paralysis,  and  was 
forced  to  give  in.  Although  that  left 
our  regiment,  together  with  the  8th, 
which  was  in  the  same  fix,  like  a  body 
without  a  head,  still  side  by  side  and 
wherever  they  could  find  an  opening, 
in  they  went,  helter-skelter,  pell-mell, 
and  always  at  the  enemy. 

"They  had  become  discouraged,  and 
like  a  poor  boy  out  in  the  cold,  with 
the  door  slammed  in  his  face  and  ice 
water  thrown  over  him,  were  just 
staying  around,  hoping  something 
would  turn  up  to  help  them  through, 
when  the  order  was  given  to  attack  a 
large  force  in  front  of  them.  They 
commenced  shooting  as  if  they  had  a 
mind  not  to,  when  your  father  (Major 
Brayman),  God  bless  him,  seeing 
something  must  be  done,  seized  a  flag, 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


17 


and  with  it  waving  aloft,  and  his  long 
white  hair  streaming  in  the  air,  dashed 
old  Charlie  (his  horse)  right  down 
between  the  two  lines — waving!  his 
flag  and  shouting  till  the  very  welkin 
rang !  Of  course  nobody  was  astonish- 
ed at  your  father.  He  does  that  sort 
of  thing  just  as  coolly  as  he  would 
write  his  name  to  a  letter. 

While    at    Natchez,    Mississippi,    he 
was  deeply  interested  in  a  school  for 


colored  people  which  he  founded.  He 
was  also  connected  with  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Wayland  Institute  at 
Beaver  Dam ;  and  he  greatly  aided 
Little  Rock  in  developing  her  schools. 
Though  half  a  century  has  passed 
since  those  heroic  war  days,  there  are 
many  people  still  living  who  keep  his 
memory  green,  something  history  will 
do  as  long  as  records  of  our  great  Civil 
War  shall  last. 


Stretch  of  track,  Mile  Post  104 
Section  Foreman  Hesse 


PUBLIC  OPINION 


World  thinks 


ON  THE  JOB 

other  day  the  editor  received  a  let- 
ter  from  an  old  and  esteemed  friend 
with  whom  he  associated  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and  who  has 
since  risen  to  prominence  in  organiza- 
tion life,  requesting  several  copies  of 
the  EMPLOYEE,  containing  an  edi- 
torial captioned,  "Are  you  on  the  Job?" 

Upon  receipt  of  advise  that  all  copies 
of  this  number  had  long  since  been  ex- 
hausted, he  comes  back  with  the  request 
that  "we  republish  the  article  in  ques- 
tion." 

"I  remember  reading  it  a  number  of 
years  ago,  he  continued,  "and  kept  the 
copy  until  recently,  when  it  was  acci- 
dentally destroyed.  It  is  too  good  logic 
to  be  lost  sight  of  or  forgotten,  and  if 
you  can  see  your  way  clear  to  republish 
it,  I  want  a  number  of  copies  to  forward 
to  persons  I  have  in  mind,  who  don't 
seem  to  view  the  matters  from  your 
viewpoint  or  incidentally  from  my 
own." 

The  editorial  which  appeared  in  the 
December,  1908,  number,  follows: 

Every  corporation  dealing  with  the 
public  is  to  no  small  extent  dependent 
upon  public  opinion.  In  fact,  THE 
MORE  THE  FAVOR  IN  WHICH  IT 
IS  REGARDED  THE  GREATER 
WILL  BE  ITS  BUSINESS,  ITS  IN- 
COME AND  ITS  ABILITY  TO  FIT- 
TINGLY REMUNERATE  THOSE 
WHO  GO  TO  MAKE  UP  THE 
RANK  AND  FILE  OF  ITS  SERV- 
ICE. 

To  the  end  of  favorably  influencing 
public  opinion  toward  the  big  public 
service  corporations  of  America  there 
is  spent  an  enormous  sum  in  the  aggre- 

18 


41 


gate  for  effectively  worded  newspaper 
and  other  advertising  matter,  all  of 
which  is  principally  intended  to  make 
the  public  look  and  feel  pleasant,  rather 
than  antagonistic. 

And  then,  the  public  having  been  thus 
impressed  goes  up  against  one  of  the 
company's  representatives,  possibly  an 
agent  or  possibly  a  conductor,  who,  hav- 
ing a  grouch  against  himself  or  having 
had  that  day  a  row  with  some  one,  pro- 
ceeds to  "take  it  out"  of  the  man  at  the 
window  or  on  the  train.  Perhaps  the 
other  fellow  is  not  feeling  cheerful  that 
day,  has  had  a  row  with  his  wife,  or  is 
naturally  redheaded  and  aggressive,  in 
which  event  there  is  a  pretty  "how-de- 
do"  and  another  drop  is  added  to  the 
bucket  of  adverse  sentiment  against  this 
corporation  in  particular  and  all  similar 
corporations  in  general. 

A  man  who  owns  his  own  business 
can  be  as  nasty  as  he  pleases  to  his  own 
customers  or  prospective  customers,  for 
it  is  his  own  pocket  only  that  suffers. 
In  fact  he  can  be  just  as  disagreeable 
as  he  can  afford  to  be. 

•A  MAN  WHO  WORKS  FOR  A 
CORPORATION  IS  PAID  ONLY 
INDIRECTLY  BY  THE  CORPORA- 
TION ITSELF.  HIS  REAL  WAGES 
-IF  BY  THE  WEEK— OR  SAL-1 
ARY— IF  BY  THE  MONTH- 
COMES  FROM  THE  PUBLIC 
WHICH  HE  SERVES.  Thus,  for  in- 
stance, a  ticket  agent  is  entrusted  with 
a  certain  amount  of  transportation  in 
which  is  included  a  portion  of  his  salary. 
HE  SHOULD  THEREFORE  TREAT 
THE  PURCHASER  WITH  ALL  THE 
RESPECT  AND  COURTESY  DUE 
TO  AN  EMPLOYER. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


An  employe  of  a  corporation  waiting 
upon  the  public  is  hired  chiefly  to  keep 
those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact 
in  good  humor.  Incidentally,  he  may 
have  other  duties,  as  for  instance  the 
passenger  conductor,  if  he  is  on  "his 
job,"  IS  TO  APPEAR  PLEASANT 
AND  GENIAL  HIMSELF  AND 
TO  KEEP  OTHERS  PLEAS- 
ANT AND  CONGENIAL.  He  must 
collect  tickets  and  attend  to  train  orders, 
in  all  of  which  the  trainmen  will  render 
efficient  aid.  The  station  or  ticket 
agent  will  speak  pleasantly  to  those 
who  make  inquiries,  answer  politely  to 
those  who  want  to  know  "whatell's"  the 
matter  with  the  road,  pay  due  attention 
to  the  desires  of  shippers  and  perform 
such  other  duties  as  to  exchange  tickets 
or  freight  receipts  for  coin  of  the 
realm. 

Of  all  methods  of  making  another 
person  angry  and  disagreeable  is  to  tell 
him  that  he  will  "HAVE  TO"  do  some- 
thing and  how  often  do  we  hear — "You 
will  have  to  go  to  the  other  window," 
"you  will  have  to  go  into  the  other  car," 
"you  will  have  to  wait  an  hour,"  "you 
will  have  to  write  the  general  passen- 
ger agent  or  superintendent,"  and  the 
like.  PRIMARILY  WE  ARE  ALL 
FREE  AGENTS  AND  DON'T  "HAVE 
TO"  DO  A  DARNED  THING.  WE 
MAY  FIND  IT  EXPEDIENT  OR 
NECESSARY  TO  A  CERTAIN 
END,  BUT  WE  DON'T  "HAVE  TO" 
EAT  IF  WE  DON'T  WANT  TO. 

How  easy  to  put  the  direction  in  an- 
other manner,  such  as,  "the  other  win- 
dow, please,"  "or  will  you  kindly  take 
the  car  ahead."  or  "the  rules  require ;" 
a  short,  very  short,  explanation  of  why 
a  certain  thing  is  necessary,  will  always 
work  wonders  in  avoiding  trouble. 

Another  prolific  source  of  irritation 
is  the  tone  of  voice  employed.  Every 
child  recognizes  this  in  a  parent,  and 
every  parent  recognizes  it  in  a  child, 
then  why  not  speak  pleasantly  to  the 
public  for  be  assured  the  public  will  ap- 
preciate it. 

One  very  good  reason  for  being 
pleasant  is  that  it  is  conducive  to  lon- 
gevity ;  another  reason  is  that  it  helps 


the  job  and  often  directly  results  in  ad- 
vancement. 

No  little  of  the  recent  adverse  rail- 
road legislation  has  been  due  to  hostile 
public  opinion,  and  no  little  of  this  hos- 
tility has  resulted  from  INCIVIL 
TREATMENT  HANDED  OUT  BY 
THOSE  WHO  OUGHT  TO  HAVE 
BEEN  EVER  COURTEOUS.  AD- 
VANCEMENT GOES  TO  THE  MAN 
WHO  IS  "ON  HIS  JOB"  AND  CI- 
VILITY IS  THE  ONE  ESSENTIAL 
TO  "DELIVERING  THE  GOODS." 

Let  us  again  take  as  an  example  the 
station  agent.  Every  one  in  town  knows 
him  and  every  one  meets  him  frequent- 
ly face  to  face— why  not  then  cultivate 
a  cheerful  countenance  for  people  to 
look  at  and  a  cheerful  tone  for  people 
to  hear;  why  not  make  a  few  friends 
that  will  speak  a  good  word  When  a  good 
word  means  something?  Why  cultivate 
a  grouch  that  will  hold  you  indefinitely 
to  the  present  dull  routine  for  life? 
ONE  SELDOM  KNOWS  WHO  THE 
FELLOW  IS  ON  THE  OTHER  SIDE 
OF  THE  WINDOW,  BUT  THE 
OTHER  FELLOW  KNOWS  WHO 
YOU  ARE  EVERY  TIME. 

In  conclusion  and  lest  the  reader  may 
infer  that  the  foregoing  is  the  vaporiz- 
ing of  a  distraught  mind  or  its  mere 
theorizing  of  one  who  has  never  met  the 
public,  it  may  be  mentioned  in  passing 
that  the  conclusions  drawn  are  those  of 
one  who  for  several  years  has  soothed 
the  turbulent  minds  of  the  excessively 
turbulent  and  dispensed  cheerful  solace 
to  the  casual  caller— THAT'S  HIS 
JOB. — The  Railroad  Employee. 


NEW  ERA  DAWNS  FOR  EM- 
PLOYES OF  RAILROADS 


Hospitals     Are     Being     Erected     and 

Great  Care  is  Taken  to  Prevent 

Disease 


By  Henry  M.  Hyde 

A  big  stone  and  tapestry  brick  build- 
ing, nearing  completion  at  Fifty-eighth 
street  and  Stony  Island  avenue,  is  the 
central  feature  of  a  great  campaign  of 
efficiency  and  conservation  which  the 


20 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Illinois  Central  railroad  has  been  car- 
rying on  among  its  60,000  employes 
for  more  than  a  year. 

The  new  building  is  the  central  hos- 
pital of  the  railroad  system.  Standing 
on  a  500  foot  stretch  of  greensward 
and  facing  Jackson  park,  pains  have 
been  taken  to  make  it  architecturally 
harmonious  with  its  surroundings.  It 
is  three  stories  and  basement  in  height 
and  a  great  solarium  covers  the  entire 
roof. 

The  company  has  about  10,000  em- 
ployes in  the  district  adjacent  to  Chi- 
cago and  the  hospital  is  primarily  for 
the  treatment  of  such  of  them  as  may 
be  injured  on  duty  or  who  may  be- 
rome  ill  from  any  cause.  Men  injured 
in  the  course  of  their  work  are  treated 
free  of  charge  and  the  cost  of  hospital 
care  and  medical  attention  during  ill- 
ness is  taken  from  the  so-called  hospi- 
tal fund,  to  which  each  employe  con- 
tributes 50  cents  a  month. 

Equipment  of  the  Best 

The  central  portion  of  the  hospital, 
now  under  construction,  will  provide 
for  110  beds,  but  the  plans  include  a 
wing  on  each  side  which  will  increase 
the  accommodations  to  a  total  of  300 
beds. 

Passengers  injured  in  the  Chicago 
district  also  will  be  taken  care  of  in 
the  new  hospital  and  first  aid  will  be 
given  to  trespassers  who  may  be  hurt 
on  the  railroad's  right  of  way. 

The  equipment  will  be  extraordinar- 
ily complete.  There  will  be  special 
apparatus,  automatically  operated,  for 
exercising  injured  limbs,  and  trained 
masseurs  always  wjll  be  in  attendance. 

But  the  hospital  is  only  the  biggest 
and  most  striking  feature  of  a  far 
reaching  campaign,  based  on  the  com- 
pany's intelligently  selfish  policy  of 
keeping  every  man  in  its  employ  in  the 
best  possible  condition  physically  and 
mentally. 

First  of  all,  the  company  makes  a 
thorough  physical  examination  of  ev- 
ery employe  before  he  is  put  to  work. 
This'  includes  not  only  trainmen  but 
even  clerks  and  section  hands.  In  this 
way  the  possible  introduction  of  con- 
tagious disease  is  avoided. 


Employ  Traveling  Physician 
Every  person  on  the  pay  roll  is  in- 
vited and  encouraged  to  consult  the 
company  physician  if  he  feels  in  the 
least  indisposed.  Both  medical  atten- 
tion and  medicines  are  furnished  with- 
out further  cost  than  the  regular 
monthly  payment  of  50  cents  to  the 
hospital  fund. 

On  the  newer  and  preventive  side, 
much  work  has  been  done  in  the  last 
year.  A  skilled  physician  and  sani- 
tarian has  been  employed  who  spends 
his  time  traveling  over  the  lines  and 
looking  after  sanitary  conditions  in 
stations,  shops,  and  offices  along  the 
road.  This  official  is  vested  with  the 
necessary  authority  to  order  somewhat 
sweeping  changes  in  the  arrangement, 
equipment,  and  handling  of  the  com- 
pany's property. 

Special  attention  has  been  and  is  be- 
ing given  to  an  attempt  to  eliminate 
malaria,  widely  prevalent  in  parts  of 
the  south  through  which  the  Illinois 
Central  runs.  Many  pools  of  standing 
water  along  the  right  of  way  have  been 
drained  and  hundreds  of  barrels  of  oil 
have  been  used  to  cover  the  surface  of 
other  ponds  in  order  to  prevent  the 
hatching  of  mosquitoes,  through  the 
bite  of  which  alone  malaria  is  com- 
municated to  human  beings. 

New  Discoveries  Made 
By  such  object  lessons  and  by  means 
also  of  an  occasional  lecture,  several 
southern  communities  have  been  con- 
verted to  the  belief  that  mosquitoes 
can  be  wiped  out  and  that  with  their 
disappearance  malaria  also  will  vanish. 
The  sanitary  inspector  sees  to  the 
proper  screening  of  all  windows. 

For  the  last  year  all  members  of  sec- 
tion and  construction  gangs  working 
in  the  malaria  infested  districts  have 
been  given  twelve  grains  of  quinine 
twice  a  week,  and  as  a  result  the  num- 
ber of  cases  has  been  cut  down  more 
than  25  per  cent. 

One  of  the  company's  physicians, 
living  in  the  malaria  country,  has  been 
doing  a  lot  of  research  work.  He  has 
dissected  and  examined  more  than 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


21 


1,000  mosquitoes  that  act  as  malaria 
carriers  and  finds  that  early  in  the  sea- 
son, shortly  after  the  first  insects  have 
been  hatched,  they  do  not  contain  the 
germs  of  disease. 

New  Mosquito  Harmless 
It  has  been  accepted  as  true  by  sci- 
entific men  that  the  malaria  germ  re- 
mained during  the  winter  in  the  bodies 
of  the  few  mosquitoes  that  protect 
themselves  from  the  cold  by  hibernat- 
ing in  cracks  in  logs  and  other  hiding 
places.  The  newly  discovered  evidence 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  germ  is 
rather  carried  over  the  winter  in  the 
blood  of  men  who  may  have  the  dis- 
ease only  in  a  mild  form,  and  that  the 
newly  hatched  mosquito  is  harmless 
until  after  it  has  sucked  the  blood  of 
a  malaria  patient. 

There  are  fourteen  railroad  compa- 
nies in  the  country  that  now  provide, 
through  hospital  funds  or  otherwise, 
for  the  care  of  their  employes  who 
may  become  injured  or  ill.  But  the 
idea  of  railroad  companies — that  have 
already  done  much  work  in  teaching 
progressive  agricultural  methods  to 
the  farmers  along  their  lines — acting 
also  as  missionaries  of  sanitation  and 
preventive  medicine  to  the  communi- 
ties they  serve,  is  a  new  one.  It  seems 
to  contain  great  possibilities  for  good. 
—The  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  July 
7th,  1915. 


RAILWAY  TRESPASSING 

'"PHE  National  Association  of  Railway 
Claim  Agents  at  its  convention  held 
in  Baltimore  in  May,  1913,  appointed  a 
committee  of  fifteen  to  collect  statistics 
on  accidents  caused  by  trespassing  on 
railway  property.  There  has  been  a 
popular  belief  that  the  trespassers  who 
are  killed  and  injured  on  railways  are 
mostly  tramps.  The  fallacy  of  that  be- 
lief developed  by  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee, which  was  made  at  the  conven- 
tion held  in  Galveston  in  May,  1915. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
collects  statistics  on  the  number  of  fatal 
and  non-fatal  injuries  received  by  tres- 
passers on  railway  property,  but  never 


before  have  any  figures  been  prepared 
showing  the  extent  of  the  non-fatal  in- 
juries, nor  the  character  of  the  tres- 
passers who  were  hurt,  nor  has  the  in- 
formation ever  been  worked  up  as  to 
states. 

There  were  192  accidents  to  trespass- 
ers in  the  state  of  Mississippi  during 
the  calendar  year  of  1914.  These  192 
cases  have  been  analyzed  by  the  commit- 
tee of  the  Claim  Agents'  Association  as 
follows : 

Extent  of  injury — Killed.  66;  loss  of 
one  limb,  22 ;  loss  of  two  limbs,  4 ;  oth- 
er injury,  100. 

Place  of  accident — In  country  district, 
56 ;  in  city,  48 ;  in  town  or  village,  88. 

Residence — Near  plaje  of  accident, 
94;  far  from  place  of  accident,  61;  un- 
known, 37. 

Sex— Male,  183  ;  female,  9. 

Domestic  status — Married,  35  ;  single, 
95 ;  unknown,  62. 

Occupation — None,  44;  unskilled  la- 
borer, 46 ;  skilled  laborer,  28 ;  profes- 
sion, 8;  clerical,  2;  housewife,  1;  un- 
known, 63. 

Regularly  employed  at  time  of  acci- 
dent, 32 ;  not  employed,  '78 ;  unknown, 
82. 

Nature  of  accident  —  Walking  on 
track,  69 ;  riding  on  train,  94 ;  other  ac- 
cidents, 16 ;  unknown,  13. 

Tramps,  26;  others,  95;  unknown,  1. 

Age  of  those  injured — 5  years  or  un- 
der, 4 ;  10  years  or  under,  6 ;  15  years 
or  under,  15;  21  years  or  under,  46;  30 
years  or  under,  69 ;  50  years  or  under, 
42;  60  years  or  under,  4;  65  years  or 
under,  1 ;  over  65  years,  5. 

Number  injured  while  intoxicated,  17. 

Nationality— American,  185 ;  foreign, 
3  ;  unknown,  4. 

The  foregoing  figures  refer  only  to 
the  state  of  Mississippi.  In  the  United 
States  the  total  number  of  trespassers 
killed  and  injured  during  the  calendar 
year  was  10,785.  Of  this  number  4,712 
persons,  or  44  per  cent,  were  hurt  while 
walking  on  the  railway  track;  3,840  or 
36  per  cent,  were  hurt  while  improperly 
riding  on  trains. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  only 
effective  means  of  regulating  the  matter 


22 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


of  trespassing  on  railways  in  this  coun- 
try would  be  the  enactment  of  a  feder- 
al law. 

A  few  self-serving  damage  suit  law- 
yers might  oppose  the  enactment  of  suit- 
able legislation  on  this  subject,  because 
of  the  fear  that  it  might,  in  an  occasion- 
al case,  interfere  with  recovery  of  dam- 
ages, but  among  humanitarians  there  is 
a  very  healthy  sentiment  in  favor  of  leg- 
islation to  protect  people  who  seem  un- 
able or  unwilling  to  protect  themselves. 

The  responsibility  in  this  matter  does 
not  rest  upon  the  railroads.  They  can- 
not pass  laws  preventing  trespassing  on 
their  property.  They  cannot  enforce 
these  laws  even  in  the  states  where  they 
now  exist.  The  responsibility  for  the 
thousands  of  fatal  injuries  and  the  suf- 
fering which  has  been  endured  by  the 
widows  and  orphans,  and  the  unfortu- 
nates who  are  maimed  for  life,  is 
upon  the  public  and  not  upon  the  rail- 
roads. 

We  have  to  have  the  railroads.  \Ye 
cannot  get  along  without  them.  They 
are  necessary  to  our  prosperity,  if  not 
our  very  existence,  and  as  long  as  we 
have  them,  there  will  be  the  annual  toll 
of  the  thousands  who  are  killed  and 
maimed  through  trespassing  until  ade- 
quate laws  on  this  subject  are  put  upon 
the  statute  books  and  fearlessly  en- 
forced. All  this  will  be  done  some  day. 
The  legislation  is  only  being  deferred 
because  of  the  fear  that  it  might  possi- 
bly be  helpful  to  the  railroads,  and 
while  we  are  waiting,  more  than  10,000 
people  in  the  United  States  every  year 
will  have  to  pay  the  penalty  of  our  neg- 
lect. 

In  this  state  we  have  statutes  mak- 
ing it  a  violation  of  law  and  providing 
punishment  for  those  who  trespass  upon 
trains,  but  these  laws  are  almost  a  dead 
letter  because  they  are  not  enforced. 
\Ye  have  no  general  statute  upon  the 
subject  of  trespassing  upon  railway 
premises,  and  if  we  had,  it  probably 
would  not  be  enforced.  The  crying 
need  is  for  a  federal  law.  People  seem 
to  have  a  more  wholesome  respect  for 
federal  laws  than  they  do  for  state  laws, 
and  besides  federal  officers  do  not  seem 


to  be  swayed  so  much  by  local  senti- 
ment and  questions  of  policy,  as  is  un- 
fortunately true  with  state  officers.  It 
is  believed  that  a  federal  law  regulat- 
ing trespassing  on  railway  trains  and 
premises  would  save  the  killing  and 
maiming  of  thousands  of  human  be- 
"ings  every  year.  If  those  among  our 
people  interested  in  the  conservation  of 
humanity  would  take  the  pains  to  write 
their  members  of  congress  on  this  im- 
portant subject,  their  efforts  would  un- 
doubtedly bear  fruit,  because  it  does  not 
seem  that  there  could  be  any  opposition 
to  the  proposed  law,  and  all  that  is  need- 
ed would  be  the  manifestation  of  inter- 
est on  the  part  of  the  people  in  favor  of 
such  a  law. — Jackson  Daily  News,  Mon- 
day, August  2,  1915. 


EDITORIAL 

The  general  management  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  is  inaugurating 
a  campaign  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
people  to  buy  their  tickets  before  they 
get  on  the  train.  They  are  not  going 
at  it  in  the  arbitrary  manner  which  was 
tried  out  and  found  impractical  by  the 
roads  several  years  ago.  That  plan 
might  work  in  the  countries  of  conti- 
nental Europe  where  the  people  are 
accustomed  to  arbitrary  systems  of 
governing,  but  will  not  work  in  a  coun- 
try where  the  people  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  being  ordered  around.  The 
railroad  management  proposes  to  inau- 
gurate a  system  of  education  to  bring 
this  about.  There  are  now  two  classes 
of  people  who  get  on  the  train  without 
tickets.  One  of  these  is  represented  by 
the  fellow  who  sits  around  the  depot  for 
half  an  hour  and  never  thinks  to  buy  a 
ticket  till  the  train  whistles.  It  will 
not  be  a  very  easy  task  to  educate  that 
fellow.  He  is  too  thoughtless.  Then 
added  to  these  are  those  who  make  no 
effort  to  get  to  the  train  in  time  to  get 
a  ticket.  Education  will  help  these 
cases.  There  have  also  been  many 
who  have  gotten  on  the  trains  without 
tickets  because  they  could  not  buy 
them.  It  is  a  mighty  busy  place  in 
the  average  ticket  office  just  before 
trains  arrive  and  many  times  the  agents 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


23 


have  more  than  they  can  do,  especially 
when  they  have  to  stop  and  check  bag- 
gage, and  if  the  ticket  window  is  shut 
down  as  soon  as  the  train  pulls  in, 
many  times  people  will  not  be  able  to 
get  tickets.  Under  the  Iowa  law  these 
now  could  not  be  required  to  pay  the 
ten  cents  extra,  but  under  the  rules  of 
the  railroad  companies  the  conductors 
are  compelled  to  charge  the  ten  cents 
extra  unless  there  is  no  agent  sched- 
uled to  be  on  duty  at  that  station  for 
that  particular  train.  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that  there  are  two  sides  to  the 
question  of  paying  on  the  train,  and 
as  we  understand  it,  the  management 
of  the  Illinois  Central  will  attempt  to 
remedy  the  fault  as  far  as  the  agents  of 
the  company  are  concerned,  as  well  as 
to  educate  the  public.  We  believe  that 
they  are  making  a  good  move  and  that 
every  person  should  try  to  comply  with 
this  reasonable  request  of  the  railroad. 
It  is  the  duty  of  the  traveler  to  try  to 
assist  the  railroad  in  any  reasonable 
effort  to  improve  the  service  quite  as 
much  as  it  is  the  duty  of  the  rokd  to 
make  things  pleasant  for  the  travelers. 
Both  working  together  can  make 
things  better  all  around. — St.  Ansgar 
Enterprise,  July  7,  1915. 


ALL    RAILROADS    WANT    FROM 
PUBLIC  IS  A  SQUARE  DEAL 

"Whenever  you  come  in  touch  with 
any  man  of  public  affairs  or  with  any 
citizen  with  whom  the  discussion  falls 
on  railroads,  do  your  share  to  con- 
vince him  that  all  the  railroads  and 
their  employes  want  is  a  square  deal 
from  the  public,"  said  J.  B.  Monahan 
at  the  July  16th  meeting  of  the  San 
Jose  branch  of  the  Railway  Employes' 
Welfare  Association,  held  at  Hale's 
Hall,  San  Jose.  "By  such  individual 


talks  public  opinion  will  gradually 
change  until  it  reaches  the  point  where 
the  railroads  will  be  treated  as  square- 
ly and  fairly  as  all  legitimate  business 
enterprises  should  be." — S.  P.  Bulletin, 
Aug.  1,  1915. 


DISCOURAGE       PRACTICE       OF 

THROWING  BOTTLES  FROM 

CAR  WINDOWS 

Employes  should  do  everything  pos- 
sible to  discourage  the  practice  of  pas- 
sengers carelessly  throwing  bottles 
from  car  windows.  This  will  help  re- 
duce the  hazard  of  employes  and  oth- 
ers on  the  right-of-way  being  struck 
and  injured.  The  matter  came  up  at 
a  recent  meeting  of  the  Stockton  divi- 
sion safety  meeting,  and  Supt.  C.  H. 
Ketcham  started  the  ball  rolling  by 
writing  Manager  Mobley  of  the  Van- 
Noy  Brown  News  Co.,  who,  as  soon 
as  possible,  will  have  labels  with  the 
words  "Do  Not  Throw  From  Car 
Windows"  pasted  on  the  soda  bottles. 
— S.  P.  Bulletin,  Aug.  1,  1915. 


COMPLIMENTARY  TO  THE  ILLI- 
NOIS CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

Copies  of  the  July  issue  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Magazine  have  been  re- 
ceived here  and  the  people  of  this  com- 
munity have  reason  to  feel  proud  of 
the  splendid  advertisement  given  the 
town  by  the  Railroad  Company's  offi- 
cial organ.  The  cover  of  the  magazine 
is  adorned  with  a  picture  of  Magno- 
lia's handsome  high  school  building, 
and  accompanying  the  historical  sketch 
and  write-up  there  are  some  forty  or 
fifty  illustrations  of  local  scenes.  Un- 
questionably it  is  the  finest  publicity 
ever  accorded  this  community. — Mag- 
nolia (Miss.)  Gazette,  July  21,  1915. 


aiilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIU: 


inois 


ailMIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIHIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIHHIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIlllHHH'S 

Carbondale  and  Vicinity,  "The  Athens  of  Egypt' 

By  John  T.  Galbraith,  Editor  Carbondale  Free  Press 


TT  IS  known  to  but  few,  probably,  that 
in  Carbondale,  111.,  rests  the  remains 
of   the   father   of    the    Illinois    Central 
railroad  system. 

In  a  secluded  and  neglected  spot  in 
the  "Old  Cemetery"  on  East  Main 
street,  Carbondale,  beneath  a  growth  of 
briars  and  grass,  is  the  dust  of  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  Alexander  M.  Jenkins. 
He  was  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Jack- 
son county,  Illinois,  and  of  Illinois.  He 
served  the  people,  who  delighted  to  do 
him  honor,  with  energy  and  ability.  A 
pioneer,  a  soldier,  a  statesman  and  a 
patriot,  it  is  well  that  he  now  have  cred- 
it for  proposing  the  act  that  has  made 
the  great  railway  system  of  the  Illinois 
Central  possible. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  ori- 
gin of  this  great  railroad  enterprise,  but 
after  all  available  data  has  been  sifted 
out  and  verified  as  well  as  possible,  it 
seems  that  Governor  Jenkins  was  prob- 
ably the  first  to  propose  action  by  the 
state  in  building  this  road  which  has 
added  so  much  to  our  state's  wealth  and 
enterprise.  Prof.  George  W.  Smith  in 
his  "Students'  History  of  Illinois,"  says, 
"It  is  stated  that  Senator  Alexander  M. 
Jenkins  of  Jackson  county  (111.),  pro- 
posed a  survey  of  a  route  for  a  central 
railroad  from  Cairo  to  Peru,  in  the  state 


senate  in  1832."  Many  other  authori- 
ties corroborate  Professor  Smith,  and 
would  seem  to  justify  the  statement 
that  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  railroad.  Governor  Jen- 
kins was  an  own  uncle  to  General  John 
A.  Logan,  who  at  the  breaking  out  of 
the  Civil  war,  was  a  resident  of  Carbon- 
dale. 

Carbondale,  111.,  is  located  308  miles 
south  of  Chicago,  on  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad;  90  miles  from  St.  Louis, 
95  miles  from  Paducah,  Ky.,  and  .">7 
miles  from  Cairo,  111.  Carbondale  de- 
rives its  name  from  the  coal  fields  in 
this  vicinity,  and  was  named  by  Colonel 
D.  H.  Brush,  one  of  the  early  settlers. 
His  nephew,  Captain  Sam  T.  Brush, 
was  the  first  coal  operator  in  this  dis- 
trict, of  which  Carbondale  is  the  center, 
and  which  is  now  the  greatest  soft  coal 
mining  district  in  the  country.  The  town 
was  laid  out  about  the  time  the  Illinois 
Central  was  built,  1852,  the  first  part  of 
this  great  system  being  that  part  from 
Cairo  through  Carbondale  to  Centralia. 
When  the  first  passenger  train  reached 
Carbondale  in  1854,  a  great  barbecue 
and  picnic  celebrated  the  day.  This,  we 
believe,  was  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  A 
year  previous,  or  to  be  exact,  January 
4,  1853,  the  first  public  sale  of  lots  in 


24 


i 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Carbondale  was  held.  It  is  said  that  the 
lot  now  owned  and  occupied  by  the  Car- 
bondale National  Bank  brought  at  this 
sale  $17,  the  highest  price  paid  for  a  lot 
at  that  sale. 

Carbondale  has  a  number  of  indus- 
tries which  contribute  to  its  prosperity. 
Chief  among  these,  of  course,  is  the  Il- 
linois Central  railroad.  In  Carbondale 
are  the  headquarters  of  the  St.  Louis 
division  of  this  road.  About  5,000  em- 
ployes are  on  this  division  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  alone.  In  Carbondale  are 
the  round  house,  machine  shops  and  the 
terminals  for  six  diverging  lines  of  this 
road,  with  a  combined  trackage  on  the 
St.  Louis  division  of  approximately  1,- 
100  miles.  Through  Carbondale  run 
the  Chicago-New  Orleans  double  tracks, 
and  the  St.  Louis-New  Orleans  track, 
and  this  station  has  36  passenger  trains 
daily,  all  making  stops,  and  an  average 
of  40  freight  trains  a  day.  The  month- 
ly pay  roll  for  the  Illinois  Central  at 
Carbondale  alone  approximates  $85,- 
000. 

In  connection  with  the  railroad  facil- 
ities it  is  well  to  mention  the  great 
amount  of  business  of  the  railway  mail 
service  at  and  through  Carbondale.  In 
this  city  is  the  headquarters  of  District 
No.  6  of  the  railway  mail  service  of  the 
United  States.  From  the  office  of  the 
chief  clerk  in  Carbondale,  who  has  su- 
pervision of  the  mail  service  over  this 
district,  the  postal  cars  running  over 
more  than  1,700  miles  of  railroads,  and 
the  business  of  over  300  postoffices  are 
directed.  In  and  out  of  Carbondale  88 
railway  postal  clerks  have  their  runs  be- 
tween Carbondale  and  Chicago,  and 
there  are  15  between  Carbondale  and 
Birmingham,  Ala.,  while  35  run  between 
Carbondale  and  St.  Louis.  Several  oth- 
er railway  postal  clerks  are  employed 
on  cross  lines  running  through  Car- 
bondale. 

Other  purely  local  industries  which 
contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  Carbon- 
dale  are  fl)  the  Ayer  &  Lord  tie  pre- 
serving plant,  employing  an  average  of 
110  men  and  having  a  monthly  pay  roll 
of  $8,000 ;  (2)  the  Central  Illinois  Pub- 
lic Service  Co.,  operating  the  electric 


light  and  power  plant,  the  city  water 
plant  and  ice  plant,  employing  a  large 
number  of  men  and  having  a  good-sized 
pay  roll;  (3)  the  Carbondale  Mill  & 
Elevator  Co.,  with  a  65,000  bushel  ca- 
pacity in  Carbondale  and  an  elevator  at 
McClure,  111.,  with  a  25,000-bushel  ca- 
pacity, the  Carbondale  mill  manufactur- 
ing the  celebrated  "Belle  of  Carbondale" 
flour;  (4)  Carbondale  Steam  Bakery  of 
10,000  loaves  capacity  every  24  hours ; 
three  smaller  bakeries;  a  creamery  with 
1,000  pounds  butter  capacity;  an  ice 
cream  factory  of  large  capacity,  and  nu- 
merous smaller  industries  scattered  over 
the  city ;  and  three  live  newspapers,  two 
weeklies  and  a  daily. 

Carbondale,  111.,  has  been  making 
rapid  progress,  especially  in  public  im- 
provements, in  the  past  five  years.  The 
ten  years  before  that,  1900  to  1910,  saw 
a  growth  in  population  of  over  62  per 
cent  and  that  without  any  boom,  or  un- 
usual cause.  This  city  claims  to  have 
more  paved  streets  than  any  city  of 
equal  population  in  Illinois.  With 
beautiful  churches,  fine  residences,  ex- 
cellent railroad  facilities,  pure  artesian 
water  from  wells  more  than  600  feet 
deep,  with  no  saloons  and  attendant 
evils  and  with  exceptionally  high  intel- 
lectual and  moral  atmosphere,  Carbon- 
dale  commends  herself  as  an  ideal  place 
to  live;  and  attests  the  wisdom  of  the 
early  founders  of  the  Southern  Illinois 
State  Normal  University  in  making  this 
place  the  location  for  this  large  and  in- 
fluential educational  institution. 

The  Carbondale  Retail  Merchants' 
Association  has  probably  done  more  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  city  the  past 
five  years  than  any  other  one  factor  in 
the  city's  history.  Its  membership  has 
more  than  fifty  of  the  city's  brightest 
and  best  business  men,  each  one  form- 
ing a  part  of  a  great  "booster  club," 
whose  object  is  to  advance  the  social 
and  commercial  interests  of  Carbondale. 
Among  the  many  improvements  this  as- 
sociation has  secured  for  their  city  is 
that  of  the  building  of  14  miles  of  hard 
roads  which  has  been  completed  under 
the  direction  of  the  Illinois  Highway 
Commission.  This,  taken  with  about 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


29 


ten  ^iles  of  brick  and  macadam-tarvia 
paving  constructed  within  the  past  few 
years,  makes  a  total  of  twenty-five  miles 
of  continuous  hard  roads  and  streets 
within  Carbondale  township.  Through 
the  efforts  of  the  merchants'  association, 
Carbondale  was  among  the  first  to 
adopt  the  commission  form  of  govern- 
ment, under  the  Illinois  law,  and  the 
city  is  now  upon  its  second  term  of  four 
years  under  this  form  of  government. 

Carbondale  has  a  hospital,  recently 
constructed  at  a  cost  of  $50,000,  and  it 
is  the  finest  equipped  hospital  south  of 
Chicago  on  the  Illinois  Central.  It  has 
every  convenience  and  appliance  need- 
ed in  modern  surgery.  It  contains  70 
rooms,  including  two  operating  rooms, 
and  has  accommodations  for  over  40 
patients  at  one  time.  This  splendid  hos- 
pital was  built  by  Dr.  J.  S.  Lewis,  a 
wealthy  man  of  Carbondale,  as  a  me- 
morial to  his  mother,  Mrs.  Amy  Lewis, 
and  is  in  no  sense  intended  as  an  invest- 
ment. 

Two  very  handsome  buildings,  erect- 
ed the  past  year,  in  addition  to  the  two 
new  public  school  buildings,  are  the 
Elks'  Home  and  the  City  Hall  and 
Armory.  The  Elks'  Home  is  a  beauti- 
ful and  commodious  building  with  par- 
lors, club  rooms,  and  delightful  lodge 
hall.  costing  with  lot  and  fur- 
nishings $30,000.  The  new  city  hall 
building  houses  the  city  departments 
and  offices,  and  one  floor  is  occupied  by 
Company  E.  4th  Infantry,  Illinois  Na- 
tional Guard,  with  headquarters  in  Car- 
bondale. The  third  story  is  owned  and 
occupied  by  the  Masons,  who  there  have 
one  of  the  most  spacious  and  beautiful 
lodge  rooms,  ante-rooms  and  banquet 
rooms  to  be  found  in  any  Masonic  lodge 
within  the  state.  The  cost  of  this  build- 
ing was  $30,000. 

Carbondale  has  the  best  hotel  accom- 
modations of  any  place  in  southern  Illi- 
nois. It  has  three  first-class  hotels,  but 
it  has  one  hotel  that  is  known  all  over 
the  country  for  its  unsurpassed  accom- 
modations and  its  cuisine.  The  Hotel 
Roberts  is  a  newly  built  hotel,  the  build- 
ing and  furnishings  amounting  to  some- 
thing like  $60,000.  The  building  is 


owned  by  James  Pease,  a  wealthy  resi- 
dent of  Chicago,  and  there  is  probably 
nothing  to  equal  it  in  the  line  south  of 
Springfield  or  St.  Louis. 

Carbondale  is  surrounded  by  a  splen- 
did agricultural  district,  and  grains, 
fruits  and  vegetables  are  raised  in  pro- 
fusion. Dairy  and  live  stock  interests 
are  now  getting  much  attention,  and  the 
farms  adjacent  to  Carbondale  are  dot- 
ted with  fine  herds  of  dairy  cattle  and 
much  fine  stock  of  beef  types.  There 
are  also  some  fine  apple  and  peach  or- 
chards near  Carbondale,  and  in  fact  it 
is  hard  to  find  any  part  of  the  country 
where  so  great  a  variety  of  grains,  vege- 
tables and  fruits  are  produced  in  such 
large  quantities  and  in  such  excellent 
grades.  From  old  records  we  find  that 
in  1831  less  than  ten  acres  in  Carbon- 
dale  township  were  under  cultivation, 
while  now  intensive  agriculture  is  the 
rule,  and  today  the  greater  portion  of 
the  land  within  shipping  distance  of  this 
point  is  valued  at  from  $50  to  $100  per 
acre,  while  land  in  the  immediate  vicin- 
ity of  Carbondale  cannot  be  bought  for 
less  than  from  $100  to  $150  per  acre. 
Modern  machinery  is  used  and  in  a 
great  many  cases  the  farmers'  homes 
are  fitted  with  all  the  conveniences  of 
the  modern  city  home. 

As  a  religious  and  educational  center 
Carbondale  has  no  equal  in  southern  Il- 
linois. The  Carbondale  public  schools 
rank  among  the  best  in  the  state.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  five  commodious  and  well 
equipped  buildings  of  the  Southern  Il- 
linois State  Normal  University,  of 
which  we  have  spoken  more  particular- 
ly in  another  place,  Carbondale  up  t  o 
this  year  had  three  other  school  build- 
ings used  for  public  school  purposes ;  to 
these  this  year  have  been  added  two 
splendid,  modern  school  buildings,  the 
Brush  building  costing  $27,500  and  the 
Attucks  building  costing  $22,500. 
Strong  and  well  organized  church  de- 
nominations are  a  great  help  to  the 
moral  uplift  of  Carbondale,  and,  while 
all  the  congregations  are  comfortably 
housed,  three  of  the  demominations, 
the  Baptist,  Christian  and  Presbyterian, 
have  church  buildings  of  most  modern 


Gen'I  Office  E>ld'£ 

Si. Louis  Division 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


architecture,  stone  and  brick  edifices, 
commodious  and  substantial,  which 
would  grace  a  city  many  times  the  size 
of  Carbondale.  Carbondale  has  not  had 
a  saloon  for  about  ten  years,  and  it  is 
entirely  safe  to  say  that  the  city  will 
never  have  saloons  again. 

One  of  the  most  important  institutions 
in  Carbondale  is  the  Southern  Illinois 
State  Normal  University.  This  school 
is  supported  by  the  state  of  Illinois  and 
has  passed  its  forty-first  year.  Since 
it  opened  its  doors  in  1874  nearly  15,000 
students  have  registered  and  have  at- 
tended for  one  or  more  terms.  It  has 
within  this  time  graduated  over  800. 
The  school  is  now  housed  in  five  spa- 
cious buildings,  the  total  investment  in 
buildings  and  equipment  approximating 
$600,000.  To  this  will  be  added  this 
year  a  great  auditorium,  for  which  the 
recent  legislature  appropriated  $135,000. 
The  faculty  of  this  school  number  50. 
The  degrees  A.  B.,  Ph.  B.  and  Ed.  B. 
are  conferred  by  this  state  institution. 
This  school  has  an  experimental  farm 


of  sixty  acres,  and  a  practical  agricul- 
tural department.  It  has  manual  train- 
ing and  household  science  departments, 
a  commercial  department,  a  musical  de- 
partment, and  other  departments  of 
practical  nature,  in  addition  to  the  re- 
quired courses  for  diplomas  for  teach- 
ers. This  school  is  growing  rapidly  and 
has  had  much  to  do  with  the  education- 
al uplift  of  southern  Illinois.  Its  grad- 
uates are  scattered  all  over  the  United 
States,  and  some  are  at  work  in  distant 
parts  of  the  world.  It  has  furnished 
five  district  superintendents  for  the 
Philippine  islands. 

Carbondale  is  a  clean,  moral,  healthy 
and  beautiful  city.  Attractive  shade  trees 
and  pretty  lawns  flank  its  paved 
streets.  Its  homes  are  homes  in- 
deed and  the  people  are  hospitable, 
refined  and  the  kind  of  folks  you  like  to 
meet,  and  among  whom  you  like  to  live. 
The  latch  string  always  hangs  outside 
the  door  in  Carbondale,  and  the  visitor 
will  always  have  a  cordial  welcome. 


EFFICIENT  SERVICE 
ALWAYS 


Hew  to 


It  is  not  trie  Science  or  curing  Disease  so  much  as  trie  prevention  or  it 
tnat  produces  tne^reatest  ^pod  to  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teaching  people  now  to  live  A  A  A  A  A 

Typhoid  Fever  —  Its  Prevention 


'~PYPHOID  fever  exists  with  the  con- 
sent  of  the  public,  and  should  be 
characterized  as  a  national  disgrace. 
An  average  of  300,000  people  annually 
are  afflicted  with  the  disease  in  this 
United  States,  of  whom  38,000  die  each 
year.  This  is  about  45  per  100,000  of 
population,  a  ratio  several  times  as  high 
as  any  other  civilized  nation. 

To  contract  typhoid  fever  the  germs 
must  be  swallowed.  From  the  stomach 
they  get  into  the  intestines  and  so  into 
the  blood  and  spleen.  We  then  have  a 
condition  of  profound  bacteraemia  or 
blood  disease.  While  in  the  blood  the 
germs  develop  a  toxin  or  poison,  this 
poison  causing  the  signs  and  symptoms 
of  the  disease  and  become  manifest  in 
about  two  weeks  after  a  sufficient  quan- 
tity of  the  germs  are  swallowed.  When 
any  germs  are  taken  into  the  system  an- 
ti-toxin is  elaborated  in  the  blood  of  the 
patient  as  its  chief  measure  of  defense 
in  an  effort  to  destroy  the  germs  and  to 
neutralize  the  poisons.  When  the  germs 
are  too  virulent  and  numerous  to  be 
overcome,  by  means  of  this  physiological 
reaction  of  the  body  tissues  and  fluids, 
the  symptoms  of  the  disease  become 
manifest.  Whether  the  patient  suc- 
cumbs or  recovers,  depends  upon  his 
physical  stamina,  his  recuperative  pow- 
ers and  the  ability  of  his  body  cells  and 
fluids  to  further  react  against  the  inva- 
sion and  multiplication  of  the  hostile 
army  of  germs  and  the  elaboration  of 
this  poison. 

Not  all  types  of  the  disease  are  severe 


— some  are  so  mild  as  not  to  be  easily 
recognized.  The  patient  sometimes  con- 
tinues his  duties  and  complains  a  little, 
but  is  not  really  sick.  These  cases 
are  dangerous  both  to  the  patient  as  well 
as  to  the  persons  about  him.  He  is  not 
sick  enough  to  go  to  bed  and  conserve 
his  strength,  consequently  has  not  the 
reserve  to  safely  pass  the  final  stages  of 
the  disease.  Then  too,  the  patient  be- 
comes in  fact  a  walking  reservoir  or 
walking  distributor  of  typhoid  germs. 
These  cases  are  dangerous  because  no 
precautionary  measures  are  taken  to 
prevent  the  further  spread  of  these 
germs  from  the  sick  persons  to  others. 
It  will  be  seen  how  important  it  is  to  rec- 
ognize the  disease  in  its  early  stages. 
Symptoms  such  as  languor,  lassitude  and 
a  prolonged  bilious  attack,  indisposition 
with  chills  and  fever  for  several  days, 
nose  bleed,  muscular  weakness,  or  aches 
all  over,  severe  frontal  headache,  and 
eye  ache,  loss  of  appetite  with  foul 
breath  and  nausea  taken  with  the  other 
symptoms  should  cause  grave  suspicion. 
A  few  drops  of  blood  taken  from  the 
finger  or  ear  within  a  week  of  the  first 
symptoms  for  laboratory  examination 
is  usually  sufficient  to  establish  the  test. 

How  to  Prevent  Typhoid  Fever. 

Scientists  have  devoted  their  lives 
and  energies  to  the  conquest  of  this 
dread  disease,  which  is  known  to  be  dis- 
seminated as  stated  throughout  the  en- 
tire civilized  world.  The  discovery  of 
typhoid  vaccine  was  a  marvelous  and 
monumental  achievement.  Prevention 


32 


34  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

of  typhoid  is  thus  an  established  fact.  livelihood,  by  a  procedure  causing  less 

It   now   devolves   upon  the  public  to  inconvenience   than    vaccination."     The 

eradicate  this  scourge  by  means  of  this  results    obtained    in   the    United    States 

preventive  vaccination  and  by    the    ob-  army   and  other   armies   where  typhoid 

servance  of  the  laws  of  hygiene  and  san-  fever  has  now  almost  disappeared,  are 

itation.  extremely   impressive.     .It   is  no  longer 

Among  the   soldiers   of    the    United  a  menace  as  formerly  it  was,  as  might  be 

States  army  of  90,000  enlisted  men,  dur-  inferred  among  men  at  the  most  suscep- 

ing  the  year  1913  but  a  single  case  of  tible  age.     Susceptibility  rapidly  lessens 

typhoid    fever  developed  after   vaccina-  after  the  forty-fifth  year.     With  the  in- 

tion,   whereas   formerly  the   ravages  of  troduction  of  vaccine  the  Navy  Depart- 

this  disease  caused  an  immense  loss  of  ment   likewise   has    obliterated    typhoid 

life  and  profoundest  concern.  The  one  fever. 

case  cited  as  developing  typhoid  fever  We  urge  all  employes  to  take  advan- 
following  the  prophylactic  inoculation  tage  of  this  protective  inoculation 
occurred  at  Tientsin,  China,  the  only  against  typhoid  fever,  as  the  hospital 
one  among  over  30,000  serving  abroad,  department  stands  ready  to  administer 
The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  it  free  through  the  local  surgeon.  We 
Association  says :  "Is  there  no  value  in  strongly  advise  all  to  take  advantage  of 
this  procedure  to  railroads  and  other  in-  it.  It  will  cause  practically  no  incon- 
dustrial  concerns  that  employ  armies  of  venience  and  will  be  an  absolute  pro- 
skilled  labor  as  well  as  to  the  individual  tective  for  at  least  five  or  more  years, 
on  farms  and  in  factories,  whose  family  An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound 
is  dependent  upon  his  manual  labor  for  of  cure. 

Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Mattoon,   111.,   July   24,   1915. 

Chief  Surgeon, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir : 

I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  fine  treatment  I  received  by  the 
Hospital  Department  in  the  past  three  months.  For  a  year  previous  to  your 
treatment,  I  had  been  going  to  other  doctors  just  when  I  needed  medicine  to 
build  me  up  from  a  nervous  break  down.  My  condition  grew  worse  and  I  saw 
the  need  of  immediate  and  continued  treatment.  I  came  to  Chicago,  explained 
my  case,  and  under  the  care  of  the  Hospital  Department  I  am  today  greatly  im- 
proved. 

Up  to  this  time  I  had  not  used  my  privilege  as  a  Hospital  Department  con- 
tributor to  any  extent,  but  I  have  now  received  many  times  my  money's  worth. 
I  think  every  Illinois  Central  employe  should  be  a  member  of  our  Hospital  De- 
partment. 

Thanking  you  again,   I  am  Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)  Clarence  R.  Plummer, 

Asst.   Accountant. 


Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Sallis,  Miss.,  August  9,  1915. 

Chief  Surgeon, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

Just  a   few  lines  to  express  my    appreciation    for    service    and    attention 
shown  me  while  a  a  patient  at  New  Orleans  Hospital. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


35 


I  cannot  find  words  to  express  my  gratitude  for  the  good  treatment  and  at- 
tention given  me  by  the  staff  of  the  New  Orleans  Hospital  Department.  I  must 
not  overlook  mentioning  the  excellent  and  efficient  nurses  and  attendants  at  the 
hospital. 

In  conclusion  I  migh  add  that  the  benefit  which  I  have  received  from  the 
I.  C.  Hospital  Department  can  only  be  repaid  by  praise  and  good  wishes,  and 
the  amount  I  contribute  toward  its  support  each  month  is  one  of  the  greatest 
investments  I  ever  made. 

Again  thanking  you  and  your  staff,  I  am 

Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)  R.  A.  Kyle, 

Section  Foreman. 


G^r 

Awaking  the  Arrnfrl  of  Resorte  at  roang  5ummerin§  Pke5 


It's  all  Verg  fine  to  go  awfcy  for  rest  and  recreation  — 

But  \\f>  mighty  unpleasant  t?  return  home  witb  typhoid 

fever  &  regrefe.  db-sg%>pg:  afooo  Id, 


LEARA  /10W  TO  AVOID  UrtPLEteArtT  RE5UU& 


Or  C  it  £t*i--  £>r-a.tt' 


Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Department 
of  Health ,  City  of  Chicago.  *****-**  * 


36  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


t\P  Employes  may  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stocic  in  the  Illinois 

Cbntral  R.R.,we  quote  below  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  A\ay95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(ohe  pnce  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  be  ac- 

cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffocA.  is  based  upon  the  mar- 
ket pnce  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  Comptrol- 

lers office...  <^1n  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  ofsuSscrif)- 

•     rj        /        *'  ^         "  Li    L'  '  *  ii'   s  • 
ma  tor  one  share  at  a  time,  pay  able  by  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  the  completion  of 

luhich  the  Company  mil  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 

me  share  registered  in  his  name  on  the  booRS  of  the  G)m- 
pany.  oJie  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 
another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  c&Ae  certificate 
of  stock  is  transferable  on  tfie  Company's  books,  and 

entitles  tne  owner  to  such,  dividends  as  may  be  de  • 

dared  by  the  &oard  ofjUirectors,  and  to  a  vote  in, 
/    •       t  y                        y 

their  election. 

Csfnv  officer  or  employe  majanq  payments  on  this 
i        j-n  jj  •        '  j   i  '     •?    •       •    -J  /    y      /  •     \ 
plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  tne  rate  of  -four  per  cent  per  annum,  dunna  the  time  ne 
is  payma  for  his  share  of  stock,  provided  Ae  does  not  al- 
low twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  maKina 
any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period  interest 

will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 

returned  to  him  onhis  application  therefor. 

c_sinv  officer  or  employe  maKina  payments  on  tne  mre- 
J1"      jy      '?           _,-/"•./    .      i-        .•  J 
ooma  plan,  andror  any  reason  desinna  to  discontinue 

them,  can  nave  Ais  money  returned  to  Aim  with  accrued 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  37 


interest,  by  mahmq  application  to  the  nead  of  the  de- 

partment in  which  he  is  employed. 

Of>z  employe,  who  nas  made  application  for  a  share 
r      f     '  /  '   •        //           /        *                >            / 
or  stock,  on  the  installment  plan  ,  is  expected  -to  make 

the  first  payment  from  the  first  waqes  which  may  he  due 
/  •  /  cr?0  /                   *j    Y  r    ,/   J                       -y  •  /  jf 
him.  J~orms  are  provided,  for  the  purpose.,  on  which  the 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  the  <sLocal~  Gj'easurer  in 

Chicago,  or  the  oUocal^oreasurer  in  ^fyew  (Drleans,  or 

the  Paymaster  or  the  (^Assistant   Paymaster  to  retain 
from  his  waqes  me  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  the  employe  for  the  purchase  of  a  share  of  stock. 

7  J              r  ,  7  y,         fj          .  y  /•  /-   ^>  j 
c/n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  or  the  (Company 

from  any  cause,  Ae  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  the 

share  for  which  he  has  subscribed  and  receive  a  certifi- 

cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which, 
/             J       •>                               y 

has  accrued. 

^^ohe  ioreaoina  does  not  preclude  me  purchase  of 

shares  of  stock  for  cask,  c^in  employe  who  has  not  al- 

ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 

the  installment  plan,  wmck  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 

^/     v          /'    /•'     /s      'f      J  r  *    /  y    7    / 
oiven  month  make  application  for  a  share  ofstockfor  cash 

at  the  price  ouoted  to  employes  for  that  month  ,  ana  he  can. 

in  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 
/        /               /   /•        //            /             TT             / 

other  share  on  the  installmQnt  plan. 
(Employes  who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
cago, who  will  obtain  for  them,  the  price  at  which  the  stock 
can  jbe  purchased. 
C^/zy  employe  desinna  to  purchase  stock  (except  in 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  snare  for  cask)  should 
l     '  /  *             )  *                 '        /y      s                  f  / 
apply  to  his  immediate  superior  omcer,  or  to  one  or  the 

tJfocal^^oreasurers  pyfillma  in  tke  follow  ing  coupon  : 

Mr  OF  Nan                                   Date,.. 

Local  Treasurer, 

Chicago  111. 

\)?ill  ^ou  please  send  me   an   application    blank. 

for  the  purchase  ofl.C.  StocE,  on  tA.e  installment  plan. 

Signed...  

Employed  as                                      

What  the  Railroads  Ask  of  Congress  in  Connection 
With  Mail  Transportation  Pay 

By  H.  L.  Fairfielcl,  Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic 


Feeling  as  the  railroads  do  that  every 
day's  delay  in  rectifying  existing  con- 
ditions is  an  accumulative  injustice,  the 
railroad  managers  of  the  country  have 
submitted  to  Congress  a  formal  recom- 
mendation as  to  a  definite  system  which 
should  be  followed  in  compensating  the 
railroads  for  carrying  the  mails. 

The  plan  embodies  four  main  prin- 
ciples, as  follows: 

1.  That  the  mails  should  be  weighed 
annually,    instead   of   quadrennially,    as- 
at  present. 

2.  That  mail  apartments,  in  railroad 
cars,  fitted  up  as  traveling  post  offices, 
should  be  paid  for. 

3.  That  side  and  terminal  messenger 
servtice,    between   railroad   stations   and 
post  offices,   and   other  special  s-ervices 
should  be  paid  for. 

4.  That  all  rates  of  pay    and    condi- 
tions of  service  should  be  definite  and 
not  subject  to  the  discretion  of  employes 
of  the  Post  Office  Department. 

Remarks 

1.  The  gross  injustice  of  readjusting 
mail  transportation  pay  only  once  in 
four  years  is  manifest.  As  an  illustra- 
tion: The  quarennial  weighing  of  the 
mails  just  completed  shows  an  increase 
in  mail  handled  at  the  Illinois  Central 
Station  in  Chicago  of  60  per  cent  over 
the  weighing  four  years  ago.  The  rail- 
road has  carried  this  tremendous  in- 
crease in  weight  without  increase  in 
pay.  This  injustice  can  be  partially 
remedied  by  weighing  the  mails  and  re- 
adjusting the  pay  annually  and  even 


then  the  railroads  will  lose  the  increase 
during  the  year. 

2.  Railroads  receive  a  very  small  ad- 
ditional allowance  when  the  postal  serv- 
ice demands  the  exclusive  use  of  a  full 
car  for  distributing  purposes,  the  rates 
being  as  follows : 

For  a  60  ft.  car  $.055  per  car  mile. 

For  a  50  ft.  car     .045  per  car  mile. 

For  a  40  ft.  car     .035  per  care  mile. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  railroads  re- 
ceive for  the  carrying  of  a  full  60  ft. 
postal  car  less  than  six  cents  per  car 
mile,  or  less  than  the  fare  of  three  pas- 
sengers at  two  cents  a  mile,  although 
frequently  these  cars  carry  five  to  ten 
postal  clerks  for  which  the  railroads 
receive  no  pay. 

The  railroads  furnish  a  very  large 
number  of  cars  called  "mail  apartment 
cars,"  in  which  the  space  assigned  to 
the  government  for  distributing  pur- 
poses is  less  than  a  full  car. 

Postmaster  General  Hitchcock,  in  a 
report  to  Congress  dated  August  12, 
.1911,  makes  the  following  comment  rel- 
ative to  this  matter: 

"No  additional  compensation  is  al- 
lowed for  space  for  distribution  pur- 
poses occupying  less  than  40  feet  of  the 
car  length.  This  distinction  is  a  purely 
arbitrary  one  and  without  any  logical 
reason  for  its  existence.  It  affords  a 
striking  example  of  the  unscientific  and 
unbusiness-like  methods  now  fol- 
lowed in  adjusting  railway  mail  pay." 

The  railroads  ask  for  pay  for  space 
furnished  in  such  cars  at  the  following 
rates : 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


39 


30   ft.  apartment  $.027  per  car  mile. 

25   ft.  apartment     .022  per  car  mile. 

20  ft.  apartment     .017  per  car  mile. 

15  ft.  apartment  .013  per  car  mile. 
Certainly  this  is  a  reasonable  request. 

3.  Railroads  are  not  only  underpaid 
for  transporting  the  mails,  but  they  are 
required  to  carry  the  mails  between  sta- 
tion and  postoffice  at  nearly  all  terminal 
stations  and  all  side  stations  where  the 
post  office  is  within  one-quarter  of  a 
mile  from  station.  No  pay  whatever 


is  allowed  for  any  of  this  service,  and  in 
addition  the  railroads  are  required  to 
furnish  considerable  space  in  stations 
for  use  of  government  clerks  without 
additional  pay.  Scarcely  anyone  will 
deny  that  this  service  should  be  paid 
for. 

4.  Only  the  government  demands  con- 
tracts where  the  compensation  and  con- 
ditions are  left  indefinite  and  subject  to 
the  arbitrary  interpretation  of  one  of 
the  parties  to  the  contract. 


Shipping  U.  S.  Treasury  Funds  by  Mail  at  the  Ex- 
pense of  the  Railroads 

By  Committee  on  Railway  Mail  Pay 


'  1^  HE  Treasury  Department,  acting 
in  concert  with  the  Post  Office 
Department,  has  issued  an  order  which 
became  effective  August  16th,  direct- 
ing that  all  public  moneys  and  securi- 
ties transported  between  the  Treasury, 
the  Sub-Treasuries  and  the  banks  shall 
hereafter  be  carried  by  registered  mail, 
instead  of  by  express.  This  order  in- 
volves results  to  the  railroads  concern- 
ing which  the  public  should  be  fully 
informed. 

The  express  companies  have  hitherto 
earned  about  a  half-million  dollars 
yearly  by  the  performance  of  this  serv- 
ice. Approximately  50  percent,  of  this 
sum,  or  $250,000  annually,  was  paid 
by  them  to  the  railroad  companies  for 
the  facilities  of  transportation. 

Both  the  railroads  and  express  com- 
panies will  be  deprived  of  these  rev- 
enues, but  the  railroads,  unlike  the  ex- 
press companies,  will  by  no  means  be 
relieved  of  the  service,  since  it  is  ob- 
vious that  whether  the  public  moneys 
and  securities  are  sent  by  express  or 
by  mail,  the  facilities  of  the  railroads 
must  be  used  in  either  case. 

For  carrying  the  public  moneys  and 
securities  as  mail  the  railroads  will  re- 
ceive no  compensation  whatever  until 
the  Government  again  weighs  the  mails 
to  ascertain  the  tonnage  being  carried. 
This  is  done  only  once  in  four  years. 
Even  then,  the  rates  the  railroads  will 
receive  for  transporting  the  funds  will 


be  so  utterly  inadequate,  by  compari- 
son with  the  unusual  value  of  such 
shipments  and  the  fair  worth  of  the 
service  to  the  Government,  as  to 
amount  practically  to  nothing. 

The  rates  paid  the  railroads  for 
carrying  the  mails  are  based  upon  the 
service  of  transporting  such  things  as 
letters,  printed  matter  and  small  mer- 
chandise. These  make  up  the  great 
bulk  of  the  mails,  and  with  few  ex- 
ceptions are  of  relatively  small  in- 
trinsic value. 

Rates  commensurate  with  service  of 
this  character  cannot,  by  any  recogniz- 
ed economic  principles,  be  held  com- 
mensurate with  the  service  of  carrying 
enormous  sums  in  money  and  negotia- 
ble securities,  the  shipments  of  which 
by  the  Government  probably  exceed 
two  billions  of  dollars  annually. 
A  Claim  of  Saving  Analyzed 

The  new  arrangement  has  enabled 
the  Treasury  Department  to  claim  that 
a  saving  will  be  made  equivalent  to  the 
entire  amount  hitherto  paid  to  the  ex- 
presss  companies,  because  the  Trea- 
sury is  to  receive  from  the  Post  Office 
Department  the  privileges  of  free  post- 
age and  free  registration  upon  all  ship- 
ments of  currency  and  securities. 

It  would  be  a  great  error,  however, 
to  suppose  that  the  revenue  loss  to  the 
carrier  companies  will  be  a  real  saving 
to  the  Government.  The  Treasury  ex- 
pense, it  is  true  may  be  somewhat  de- 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAQAZINE 


creased,  but  Post  Office  expenses  will 
necessarily  be  materially  increased. 

This  will  inevitably  result  from  the 
fact  that  there  is  to  be  imposed  upon 
the  Post  Office  Department  the  per- 
formance of  important  new  duties 
hitherto  regarded  as  lying  wholly  out- 
side the  proper  scope  of  the  postal 
service. 

Moreover,  the  cost  of  insuring  public 
moneys  and  securities  in  transit  has 
hitherto  been  borne  by  the  express 
companies  and  included  by  them  in 
their  charges.  This  expense  must  now 
be  assumed  by  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment  and  will  be  an  offset  to  the  gain 
exhibited  by  avoidance  of  the  express 
charges.  The  Treasury  Department 
will  naturally  be  obliged  to  make  ar- 
rangements for  insurance  through 
other  agencies,  presumably  the  corpo- 
rations which  are  engaged  in  general 
commercial  insurance. 

The  net  results  of  the  change,  there- 
fore, seem  to  be : 

1.  To  oblige  the  railroads  to 'render 
for  practically  nothing  the  actual  trans- 
portation service  required  in  effecting 
transfers  of  the  public  funds. 

2.  To  separate  the  risk  of  insurance 
in  transit  from  the  general  transporta- 
tion duty  and  turn  this  business  over 
to  new  interests,  at  rates  not  as  yet 
disclosed. 

3.  To  transfer  from  the  express  com- 
panies to  the  Post  Office  Department 
the  duties  involved  in  the  actual  han- 
dling, collection,  delivery  and  custody 
of    thousands    of    extremely    valuable 
packages    not    hitherto    carried    in    the 
mails. 

IN  THIS  ANALYSIS  IT  WOULD 
APPEAR  THAT  THE  ONLY  REAL 
AND  TANGIBLE  SAVING  OF  EX- 
PENSE TO  THE  GOVERNMENT 
LIES  IN  THE  SUBSTANTIAL 
ELIMINATION  OF  PAYMENT  TO 
THE  RAILROADS  FOR  THE 
TRANSPORTATION  SERVICE. 

In  other  respects  nothing  but  a  change 
in  agencies  is  effected,  which  is  as  likely 
to  increase  as  to  decrease  costs. 

This  must  be  held  true  unless  the 
Post  Office  Department  is  to  be  credit- 
ed with  the  ability  to  operate  more 
efficiently,  and  at  lower  labor  costs, 


than  the  express  companies,  or  unless 
the  Treasury  Department  is  enabled 
to  obtain  abnormally  low  'premium 
rates  from  the  insurance  companies,  by 
reducing  the  risk  in  transit  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  railroads. 

Safeguarding  in  Transit 

For  instance,  insurance  premiums 
are  naturally  based  upon  the  opinions 
entertained  as  to  the  risk,  and  the  risk 
assumed,  in  the  case  of  money  ship- 
ments, certainly  depends  largely  upon 
the  degree  of  physical  protection  afford- 
ed. It  is  in  every  way  probable  that 
the  new  interests  which  are  to  be 
awarded  the  business  of  insuring  the 
Government  funds  in  transit  will  insist 
upon  unusual  forms  of  protection,  as 
part  of  the  bargain,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  very  large  individual  sums 
that  are  quite  commonly  transported 
in  the  financial  operations  of  the 
Government. 

It  may  well  be  anticipated,  there- 
fore that  the  railroads  will  be  called 
upon,  from  time  to  time,  to  carry  not 
only  the  government's  money,  but  also 
to  carry,  free,  armed  guards,  as 
"agents  in  charge  of  the  mails,"  or 
even  to  furnish  special  cars  without 
additional  compensation. 

For  precedent  upon  these  points,  it 
may  be  recalled  that  when  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  last  summer,  shipped 
$100,000,000  in  gold  from  Philadelphia 
to  New  York,  as  "parcel  post,"  the 
Post  Office  Department  required  four 
special  cars,  for  which  no  additional 
payment  was  made,  and  also  the  trans- 
portation for  the  round  trip  of  100 
guards  without  payment  of  fare. 
Cost  Will  Fall  on  Railroads 

If  by  exacting  such  forms  of  special 
service,  and  insisting  upon  the  free 
transportation  of  armed  guards,  as 
postal  agents,  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment is  enabled  to  obtain  abnormally 
low  rates  of  insurance,  the  saving  will 
quite  evidently  be  effected  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  railroads. 

Under  the  practice  heretofore  o<f  ship- 
ping the  governmental  funds  by  express, 
the  express  companies  furnished  the 
guards,  supplied  the  safes  in  which  the 
moneys  were  carried  and  paid  the  rail- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


41 


roads  for  the  use  of  their  facilities  and 
for  the  transportation  of  the  money, 
the  safes  and  the  guards. 

Proper  Scope  of  the  Mails 

The  laws  of  this  country  limit  the 
Post  Office  Department  to  the  pay- 
ment of  an  indemnity  "not  to  exceed 
$100  for  any  registered  piece."  The 
indemnity  on  the  parcel  post,  upon 
payment  of  an  extra  insurance  charge, 
is  limited  to  $50  per  package.  In  the 
International  Postal  Union  mails  the 
indemnity  limit  is  50  francs  per  piece, 
or  about  $9.35. 

Does  it  not  seem  apparent,  from  the 
small  amount  of  indemnity  permitted 
by  law,  that  Congress  has  never  in- 
tended that  the  mails  should  go  be- 
yond a  service  of  ordinary  conven- 
ience to  the  general  public? 

If  the  Treasury  Department  can  use 
the  Post  Office  Department,  and  conse- 
quently the  railroads,  in  the  manner 
contemplated  by  the  order  respecting 
the  shipment  of  public  moneys,  what  is 
to  prevent  the  War  and  Navy  Depart- 
ments from  shipping  their  supplies  by 
mail,  with  United  States  troops  and 
marines  as  armed  guards,  to  be  carried 
free  by  the  railroads  as  "agents  in 

charge  of  the  mails"? 
*     *     * 

ACTION    BY    CONGRESS    PEND- 
ING 

The  entire  subject  of  readjusting  the 
compensation  to  the  railroads  for  carry- 
ing the  mails  is  still  in  the  hands  of  Con- 
gress. Until  some  adequate  steps  are 
taken  by  the  legislative  branch  of  the 
government  to  insure  that  hereafter  the 
payments  shall  be  upon  a  fair  basis  for 
service  rendered,  it  would  appear  that 
both  propriety  and  justice  require  the 
executive  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment to  refrain  from  imposing  addition- 
al burdens  upon  the  railroads. 

The  occasion  would  seem  to  be  ap- 
propriate for  recalling  the  confidence 
expressed  by  President  Wilson  in  his 
letter  to  Secretary  McAdoo,  on  the 
opening  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks 
last  fall,  when  he  said : 

"No  doubt,  in  the  light  of  the  new 
day,  with  its  new  understandings,  the 
problems  of  the  railroads  will  be  met 


and  dealt  with  in  a  spirit  of  candor  and 
justice." 

*     *     * 

"WE  OUGHT  TO  DO  THE  FAIR 
THING  BY  THE  RAILROADS" 

"The  postmaster  general  is  responsi- 
ble for  the  deficit,  if  there  be  a  deficit. 
He  is  naturally  very  anxious  not  to  have 
a  deficit.  He  is  very  anxious  to  make 
a  good  showing. 

"But  we  ought  to  do  the  fair  thing  by 
the  railroads.  It  is  easy  enough  to  make 
a  statement  showing  the  profitable  oper- 
ation of  the  parcel  post  if  you  do  not 
pay  anything  for  the  carriage  and  do  not 
charge  overhead  expenses." — Ex-Presi- 
dent William  H.  Taft,  at  Twenty-first 
Annual  Convention,  Pennsylvania  Bank- 
ers' Association,  Cape  May,  N.  J.,  June 
17,  1915. 

THE     GOVERNMENT     SHOULD 

SET  THE  EXAMPLE  IN 

FAIR  DEALING 

When  the  United  States  government 
engages  the  second  industry  of  the  land 
in  a  pitiless  war  over  the  proper  pay  for 
a  railroad  hauling  a  pound  of  mail, 
some  sort  of  surprise  is  not  out  of  or- 
der. It  is  reserved  for  Americans  alone 
to  see  howitzers  taken  up  to  settle  a 
question  of  accounting. 

The  railroads  claim  that  the  govern- 
ment is  not  paying  them  sufficiently  for 
carrying  the  mails,  and  the  government 
is  just  as  loud  in  its,  denials  and  counter 
assertions  that  the  railroads  are  over- 
paid. Incidentally  no  railway  mail  pay 
legislation  was  enacted  at  the  last  ses- 
sion of  Congress  as  a  result,  and  now 
both  sides  are  preparing  for  a  display  at 
the  December  session  of  Congress. 

Chairman  Moon  of  the  Congression- 
al Committee  seems  to  be  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  driving  a  good  bargain  and 
"saving  millions  for  the  Government." 
But  the  public,  who  must  support  the 
railroads,  through  the  passenger,  freight, 
express  and  mail  tolls,  certainly  expects 
the  government  to  bear  its  fair  share.  A 
million  clipped  off  the  mail  pay  will 
mean  a  million  added  somewhere  else. 

One  congressional  committee  has  al- 
ready submitted  a  report  favoring  more 
liberal  compensation,  and  Congress 


42 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


should  either  accept  its  finding  or  be  in 
a  position  to  prove  its  falsity.  The  rail- 
roads have  suggested  that  the  matter  be 
left  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission. 

But  more  important  than  all  other  con- 
siderations is  the  question  of  ethics. 

The  government  has  the  power  to 
compel  the  railroads  to  carry  the  mails 
at  a  loss,  possibly,  but  its  power  should 
not  be  so  misused.  A  government  that 
demands  frank  and  honest  dealing  be- 
tween the  business  men  of  the  nation 


should  take  every  opportunity  to  set  an 
example. — From  the  Chicago  Tribune, 
July  19,  1915. 

*     *     * 

The  Post  Office  Department  should 
deal,  as  should  all  departments  of  the 
government,  fairly  with  all  citizens  and 
the  Post  Office  Department  in  using  the 
trains  and  locomotives  of  a  railroad  is 
really  using  the  property  of  the  citizens 
who  own  the  stock  of  the  railroad. — 
Providence,  R.  L,  News-Democrat,  July 
7,  1915. 


Good  Roads  Day,  Fulton,  Ky.,  and  Vicinity 


July  29th  was  Good-Roads  Day  in 
the  territory  above  referred  to.  The 
day  was  declared  a  Holiday  by  the 
various  municipalities.  The  idea  be- 
hind the  move  was  to  complete  on 
that  date  a  public  highway  known  as 
the  Paducah-Fulton-Memphis  High- 
way connecting  the  three  points  men- 
tioned. The  following  named  Illinois 
Central  employes  volunteered  their 
services  and  that  they  worked  to  ad- 
vantage is  evidenced  by  the  letter  of 
appreciation  from  the  Merchants  and 
Business  Men's  Association  which  fol- 
lows: 

S.  Holt,  S.  Alverson, 

J.  W.  Shepherd,        B.  F.  Evans, 
H.  B.  Dezonia,  H.  C.  Choate, 

E.  Bodamer,  W.  P.  McAdams, 

W.  H.  Purcell,          C.  B.  Carlton, 
W.  H.  Cox,  R.  E.  Pickering, 

R.  E.  Hubbard,          J.  M.  Hoar, 
T.  J.  Travis,  W.  A.  Boyd, 

W.  A.  Love,  Paul  Croft. 

H.  S.  Moulder,  E.  C.  Miller, 

W.  W.  Johnson,         T.  M.  Pittman, 
H.  T.  Snow,  F.  S.  Irby, 

C.  A.  Stephens,          W.  W.  Claypool, 
G.  B.  Butterworth     J.  I.  Williams, 
Nat  Morris,  Vodie  Hardin, 

A.  T.  Nelson,  D.  C.  Ligon, 

P.  P.  Pickering,         W.  H.  Norman, 
G.  L.  Freeman,  F.  Carpenter, 

W.  C.  Valentine,         Utus  Hardin, 
V.  D.  McAlister,        R.  Stilley, 
Mose  Profit,  colored, 
Will  Hopkins,  colored, 
Dyal  Lewis,  colored, 


Geo.    Roberts,   colored, 
Elmus  Haris,  colored, 
Wes  Clayton,  colored, 

Merchants  and  Business  Men's  Asso- 
ciation 

Fulton,  Ky.,  July  31,  1915. 
Mr.  J.  J.  Pelley,  Supt.,  I.  C.  Railroad 

Company,  Fulton,  Ky. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  appeal  to  your  officials  and  the 
men  working  under  them  to  co-oper- 
ate with  us  in  working  the  Paducah- 
Memphis  highway  brought  wonderful 
results.  The  full  force,  as  promised  in 
your  letter  to  our  committeemen,  re- 
ported for  duty  early  Thursday  morn- 
ing, armed  with  the  necessary  tools, 
and  every  man  shouldered  his  part  of 
the  responsibility  in  the  work.  They 
all  worked  like1  Trojans  from  early 
morning  until  late  in  the  afternoon 
and  we  ask  that  you  please  convey  our 
thanks  and  appreciation  to  every  man 
who  worked  on  that  day.  They  very 
materially  assisted  us  in  convincing  the 
rural  people  that  business  men  are  real 
workers. 

By  order  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Merchants  and  Business  Men's 
Association  at  a  special  meeting  July 
31,  1915. 

(Signed)  Joe  Browder, 
Supt.  for  West  Section. 

W.  R.  Butts, 
Supt.  for  East  Section. 

J.  D.  Davis, 
Sec'y  of  the  Ass'n. 


flFETY  FIRST 


COURTESY 

AND 

EFFICIENT 
S  E,RVI  OE, 
LWAY  S 


Safety  Meeting,  Vicksburg   Division 

PRESENT 

Mr.  T.  L.  Dubbs,  Superintendent. 
Mr.  F.  R.  Mays,  Trainmaster. 
Mr.  J.  W.  Welling,  Roadmaster. 

Mr.  J.  M.  Chandler,  Chief  Dispatcher. 
Mr.  C.  Linstrom,  Master  Mechanic. 
Mr.  H.  Fletcher,  Traveling  Engineer. 
Mr.  A.  S.  Hurt,  Division  Agent. 

Mr.  J.  M.  Simmons,  Division  Claim  Clerk. 
Mr.  E.  D.  Meissonnier,  Division  Storekeeper. 
Mr.  Z.  T.  Jolly,  Claim  Agent. 

Mr.  G.  L.  Darden,  Claim  Agent. 
Mr.  C.  R.  Myer,  Assistant  Engineer. 
Mr.  W.  Shropshire,  Supervisor  B.  &  B. 
Mr.  H.  Maynor,  Supervisor. 
Mr.  F.  R.  Bishop,  Supervisor. 

Mr.  C.  J.  Harrington,  Supervisor. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Rode,  General  Foremen,  Cleveland. 
Mr.  J.  McClendon,  General  Foreman,  Greenville. 
Mr.  L.  M.  Elliott,  Agent,  Rolling  Fork. 
Mr.  E.  C.  Davis,  Agent,  Greenville. 
Mr.  S.  Simmons,  Chief  Clerk. 

ABSENT 

Mr.  George  McCowan,  Special  Agent. 
Mr.  R.  P.  Walt,  Agent,  Cleveland. 
Mr.  G.  B.  McCaul,  Agent,  Leland. 
Mr.  B.  B.  Kinard,  Agent,  Rosedale. 

Mr.  G.  A.  Hopkins,  Ticket  Agent,  Greenville. 
Mr.  R.  L.  Dillehay,  Foreman  Water  Works. 
Mr.  W.  L.  Carter,  Claim  Agent. 

'"pHE    Third    Quarterly    Division    Safety    Meeting    held    at 
Greenville  on  Thursday,  July  15th,  Superintendent  pre- 
siding. 

Introductory  The  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  were  read  by  the  Secretary 

and  the  various  subjects  which  had  been  discussed,  were  gone 
45 


46 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


New 
Subjects 


Location  of 
Structures 


Use  of 

Blue 

Flags 


over  in  a  general  way  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  failed  to 
attend  the  last  meeting,  as  well  as  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
the  subjects  live  in  the  minds  of  all  present  and  also  to  ascer- 
tain what  had  been  accomplished  along  these  lines  during  the 
past  ninety  days. 

The  Superintendent  gave  quite  a  nice  talk  on  the  subject 
of  "Safety  First,"  its  meaning  and  what  can  be  accomplished 
by  the  close  observance  to  all  of  the  details  connected  with 
the  move. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  Vicksburg  Division 
was  making  considerable  progress  along  these  lines  and  with 
the  continued  efforts  on  the  part  of  all  concerned,  the  result 
desired  would  surely  be  obtained. 

All  present  were  then  called  upon  to  prepare  for  the  discus- 
sion of  the  new  subjects  to  be  brought  up  and  also  to  present 
such  subjects  as  they  thought  would  be  of  interest  or  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Railroad  and  the  public  at  large. 

Location  of  structures. 

Use  of  blue  flags. 

Personal  injuries. 

Use  of  racks  in  coaches. 

No-disability  releases. 

Stock  on  way-lands. 

Motor  cars. 

Signs  on  cotton  platforms,  etcetera. 

Inauguration  of  trespass  law. 

Safety  first  cards. 

Attention  was  called  by  one  of  the  members  to  the  fact  that 
it  seems  to  be  a  general  practice  on  the  part  of  people  build- 
ing seed  houses  or  other  structures,  to  place  them  too  close 
to  the  track,  which  causes  quite  a  hazard  from  a  personal 
injury  standpoint  as  well  as  damage  to  property. 

All  division  officers  were  instructed  to  make  a  vigorous 
campaign  of  conditions  existing  at  all  points  on  the  division 
and  where  it  was  found  that  structures  did  not  afford  proper 
clearance  that  they  immediately  handle  with  the  owners  per- 
sonally and  if  unable  to  succeed  in  interesting  them  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  building  or  other  structure  be  moved  back 
sufficient  distance,  that  the  matter  then  be  called  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Superintendent  who  would  personally  visit  such 
property  owners  with  a  view  to  secure  their  co-operation  in 
our  campaign  to  improve  conditions,  eliminate  hazards,  and 
prevent  injuries  to  persons  and  damage  to  property. 

It  is  felt  that  by  following  up  each  individual  case  in  this 
manner,  that  we  would  soon  interest  all  concerned  and 
secure  the  results  desired. 

A  communication  was  read  which  originated  in  the  office  of 
one  of  our  general  officers,  which  had  reference  to  a  recent 
case  where  this  company  had  been  required  to  pay  out  a  con- 
siderable sum  to  a  car  repairer  who  was  seriously  injured 
while  working  under  a  cut  of  cars  due  to  the  fact  that  switch- 
ing crew  disregarded  blue  flag  which  had  been  properly 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


47 


Personal 
Inquiries 


Use  of 
Racks  in 
Coaches 


placed  by  the  car  repairer  before  going  under  the  car  to  do  the 
necessary  work. 

The  matter  was  canvassed  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  if 
the  blue  flag  signals  were  being  properly  observed  at  all 
points  on  this  division  so  as  to  prevent  an  accident  of  this 
nature.  It  was  stated  that  no  failures  to  observe  blue  flags 
had  been  found,  but  in  order  to  prevent  any  trouble  of  this 
character  the  matter  would  be  thoroughly  handled  with  all 
mechanical  men,  who  would  be  impressed  with  the  impor- 
tance of  using  blue  flag  in  all  instances;  and  train  and  en- 
ginemen  who  would  be  impressed  with  the  importance  .of 
strictly  observing  the  presence  of  a  blue  flag  whenever  and 
wherever  found. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  this  subject  has  been  dis- 
cussed at  practically  every  safety  meeting  held  on  this  divi- 
sion for  the  past  three  or  four  years,  it  was  felt  that  its  im- 
portance was  so  vital  that  it  warranted  handling  at  every 
meeting,  as  the  only  way  to  improve  the  situation  to  any 
great  extent  was  by  keeping  the  subject  before  all  employes 
constantly. 

It  was  noted  that  with  the  exception  of  a  few  old  cases, 
which  have  been  pending  for  several  months,  and  in  some  in- 
stances for  a  year  or  more,  which  were  just  settled  and 
charged  to  division  expenses  within  the  past  month  or  two, 
that  we  were  keeping  the  number  of  personal  injuries  down 
to  a  minimum,  insofar  as  avoidable  cases  were  concerned, 
and  that  the  showing  as  a  whole  is  very  favorable. 

The  claim  agents  present  stated  that  they  had  noticed  a 
marked  decrease  in  the  number  of  personal  injuries  sustained 
as  well  as  in  the  nature  of  the  injuries,  and  they  agreed  with 
all  others  present  that  by  continually  impressing  each  and 
every  employe  with  the  importance  of  exercising  the  greatest 
possible  care  to  prevent  personal  injuries,  and  then  going  into 
each  case  thoroughly,  showing  the  parties  at  fault  how  to 
prevent  injuries  of  this  kind  in  the  future,  that  we  could  ac- 
complish a  great  deal. 

In  line  with  the  "SAFETY  FIRST"  movement,  attention 
was  called  to  the  hazard  of  permitting  passengers  to,  place 
large  grips  or  other  packages  in  the  racks  in  our  passenger 
coaches,  a  case  being  mentioned  where  a  passenger  was  seri- 
ously injured  recently  on  account  of  being  struck  on  the  head 
by  a  large  package  falling  from  a  rack,  which  accident  oc- 
curred on  another  division,  and  resulted  in  the  payment  of  a 
large  amount  in  settlement  of  the  claim. 

It  was  suggested  that  we  watch  this  feature  closely  and 
issue  instructions  to  all  trainmen  to  handle  with  passengers 
and  prohibit  the  placing  of  large  packages  of  any  nature  in 
these  racks,  explaining  to  these  passengers  the  danger  which 
accompanies  such  a  practice. 

In  this  connection  the  matter  of  leaving  large  suit  cases, 
grips,  etc.,  in  the  aisles  of  coaches  was  mentioned,  it  being 
stated  that  this  practice  constitutes  quite  a  hazard  and  is  one 
which  should  be  discontinued. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


49 


No   Disability 
Release 


Live 

Stock    on 
Way  Lands 


After  some  discussion  it  was  decided  that  the  best  method 
of  handling  such  cases  would  be  to  have  all  trainmen  call  the 
attention  of  passengers  who  have  several  grips  or  other  pack- 
ages to  this  matter  and  explain  to  them  the  hazard  caused  by 
placing  these  articles  in  the  aisles  of  coaches,  and  show  them 
that  the  best  way  to  have  such  packages  handled  would  be  to 
take  them  to  the  baggage  room  and  have  them  checked,  it 
being  thought  that  in  this  way  we  could  greatly  improve  the 
condition  now  existing. 

In  addition,  it  was  suggested  that  trainmen  watch  this  very 
closely  when  going  through  trains,  and  whenever  grips,  suit 
cases  or  other  large  packages  are  found  in  the  aisles,  that 
they  assist  passengers  in  placing  such  baggage  between  the 
seats  or  in  the  seats  with  them  in  such  a  way  that  they  will 
not  interfere  with  their  comfort,  and  at  the  same  time  elim- 
inate the  possibility  of  some  other  passenger  being  injured  on 
account  of  falling  over  such  obstructions. 

The  matter  of  having  no  disability  releases  executed  by  em- 
ployes who  receive  slight  injuries,  and  as  a  result  of  such 
injuries  lose  no  time,  was  brought  up  and  discussed,  it  being 
agreed  that  a  very  good  plan  would  be  to  have  each  foreman 
or  other  employe  in  charge  of  a  number\of  men  provided  with 
a  supply  of  these  releases,  with  instructions  to  have  a  release 
executed  immediately  after  an  employe  receives  a  slight  injury, 
and  send  this  release  to  the  head  of  the  department  with  the 
477  report,  and  in  this  way  the  one  report  will  open  and  close 
the  case  without  the  necessity  of  writing  several  letters. 

The  good  to  result  from  this  practice  was  very  evident 
and  arrangements  will  be  made  at  once  to  supply  all  con- 
cerned with  some  of  these  releases  so  that  the  plan  recom- 
mended can  be  put  into  effect  immediately. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  present  practice 
of  having  one  dollar  releases  executed  by  employes  who  are 
slightly  injured,  and  as  a  result  of  such  injuries  lose  no  time 
is  causing  the  company  to  pay  out  large  amounts  each  month, 
which  unnecessary  expense  can  be  eliminated  by  the  placing 
of  the  above-mentioned  plan  into  effect. 

During  the  past  two  weeks  we  have  been  conducting  a 
vigorous  campaign  with  all  concerned,  with  a  view  of  reduc- 
ing the  number  of  head  of  live  stock,  both  large  and  small, 
which  is  struck  on  our  waylands,  to  the  lowest  possible  mini- 
mum, and  with  this  end  in  view  division  officers  have  been 
making  motor  car  trips  over  the  territory  of  the  various 
claim  agents.  The  superintendent,  roadmaster,  supervisors 
and  claim  agents  have  been  making  these  trips,  taking  pic- 
tures of  the  stock  found  on  the  waylands,  and  then  calling 
on  the  owners  of  the  stock  and  explaining  the  danger  of  this 
practice,  as  well  as  the  exceedingly  large  amounts  that  we  are 
required  to  pay  out  monthly  in  settlement  of  stock  claims, 
and  tried  to  secure  their  co-operation  with  a  view  of  keeping 
all  live  stock  off  of  our  waylands  at  all  times. 

Quite  a  number  of  pictures  were  presented  at  this  meeting 
showing  the  stock  found  at  various  points  during  recent  trips. 


50 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Motor 
Cars 


Signs  on 

Cotton 

Platforms 


Inauguration    of 
the    Trespass 
Law 


Each  picture  was  discussed  thoroughly  with  a  view  of  ascer- 
taining just  what  action  was  taken  to  see  if  there  was  any- 
thing further  that  could  be  done  for  the  good  of  the  service. 

It  was  found  that  in  practically  every  case  where  these 
matters  were  called  to  the  attention  of  the  owners  they  ex- 
pressed their  willingness  to  assist  us  in  correcting  these  un- 
desirable conditions,  and  at  this  time  some  improvement  is 
already  apparent,  and  it  is  expected  that  a  decided  improve- 
ment will  be  noted  before  our  next  meeting. 

Although  this  is  a  subject  to  which  we  have  devoted  a  great 
deal  of  time,  it  is  felt  that  we  cannot  devote  too  much  time 
to  the  education  of  all  employes  to  the  careful  handling  of 
motor  cars,  restricting  the  speed,  displaying  proper  precau- 
tion under  unfavorable  weather  or  other  conditions,  using 
proper  and  efficient  lights  when  it  is  found  necessary  to  oper- 
ate cars  after  dark,  and  also  to  become  thoroughly  familiar 
with  the  various  working  parts  of  the  machinery  so  that 
accidents  due  to  defective  machinery  can  be  eliminated. 

The  greatest  trouble  experienced  with  motor  cars  oper- 
ated on  this  division  during  the  past  few  months  is  careless 
handling  by  men  in  charge,  this  being  a  matter  entirely 
within  our  control  to  correct.  All  supervisors  will  handle 
personally  with  foremen  or  employes  who  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  operation  of  motor  cars  and  see  that  they  under- 
stand that  they  will  be  held  entirely  responsible  for  any  acci- 
dent which  may  occur,  and  that  in  cases  where  men  display 
a  disposition  to  disregard  the  instructions  governing  the  care- 
ful handling  of  these  cars,  that  they  will  be  removed  from  the 
service. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  in  some  localities  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  is  experienced  on  account  of  small  chil- 
dren playing  around  and  upon  our  cotton  platforms,  and  the 
possibility  of  such  children  being  injured  by  falling  from  plat- 
form or  by  trains  switching  at  or  near  such  platforms. 

In  order  to  correct  this,  it  was  suggested  that  a  sign  be 
placed  on  all  such  structures  prohibiting  persons  from  playing 
on  or  around  such  structures,  and  in  addition  that  all  em- 
ployes at  stations  call  attention  to  these  signs  and  insist  upon 
the  instructions  being  complied  with. 

Another  feature  attached  to  this  practice  is  the  fire  risk  due 
to  persons  when  playing  around  such  structures  dropping 
lighted  matches  which  may  result  in  serious  damage  to  prop- 
erty. 

It  was  suggested  by  a  member  that  as  much  pressure  as 
possible  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  various  state  legisla- 
tures with  a  view  of  having  laws  passed  which  would  hold 
the  railroad  company  harmless  in  case  of  injury  or  death  in 
a  trespasser,  it  being  stated  that  in  some  states  this  law  is 
now  in  force,  and  the  result  is  very  satisfactory. 

At  the  present  time  we  are  paying  out  large  sums  of 
money  each  year  in  settlement  of  claims  for  injury  or  death 
of  trespassers,  which  is  felt  unjust,  and  in  order  to  eliminate 
this  expense  and  bring  about  a  much  better  condition  gen- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


51 


Safety 

First 

Cards 


Adjournment 


erally  it  was  thought  that  we  should  do  everything  possible 
to  have  such  laws  passed,  as  it  would  bring  about  the  con- 
dition such  as  mentioned  above. 

The  subject  of  all  employes  filling  out  and  forwarding 
safety  first  cards  to  cover  each  hazard  noted  was  discussed 
and  attention  called  to  the  apparent  neglect  upon  the  part  of 
all  concerned  to  handle  these  cards  in  accordance  with  in- 
structions. 

During  the  past  quarter  only  ten  cards  had  been  received, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  quite  a  number  of  the  members 
present  admitted  that  they  had  noticed  conditions  from  time 
to  time  which  should  have  been  reported,  but  for  one  reason 
or  another  the  card  was  not  sent  in. 

After  discussing  this  matter  thoroughly  with  all  present 
it  is  felt  that  a  decided  improvement  will  be  found  at  the 
next  meeting. 

After  a  general  discussion  of  all  subjects  brought  up,  there 
being  no  more  new  subjects  suggested,  or  no  new  points  in 
connection  with  the  subjects  already  discussed,  the  meeting 
adjourned. 


Industrial, 


Illmois^Central^Demonstration  Farm  Meetings 

By  J.  C.  Clair,  Industrial  and  Immigration  Commissioner 

Since  the  location  of  the  twelve  Demonstration  Farms  in  1911  by  this  Company 
along  its  lines  in  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  and  the  addition  of  nineteen  farms  since 
that  time,  great  strides  have  been  made  in  diversified  agriculture  in  the  above  named 
states  and  particularly  in  the  localities  where  these  farms  have  been  operated  under 
the  direction  and  supervision  of  our  agriculturists. 

In  the  early  stages  of  this  demonstration  work,  it  would  have  been  almost  impos- 
sible to  have  induced  the  farmers  and  planters  to  attend  agricultural  meetings,  such 
as  have  been  held  this  year  on  the  Illinois  Central  Demonstration  Farms,  where  the 
farmers  turned  out  en  masse,  eager  to  learn  more  about  practical,  as  well  as  scien- 
tific farming.  The  spirit  of  co-operation  was  manifest  on  every  side,  as  well  as  a 
determination  on  the  part  of  the  communities  to  bring  about  the  highest  agricultural 
development  possible.  The  key-note  at  all  these  gatherings  was  "diversification,"  and 
as  a  fertile  soil  means  a  rich  and  prosperous  people,  and  as  no  community  can 
advance  much  beyond  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  the  most  important  lesson  to  be  taught 
the  farmer  is  the  rebuilding  of  the  soil,  not  by  the  application  of  commercial  ferti- 
lizer alone,  but  by  growing  legumes  and  applying  limestone  and  rock  phosphates 
as  well  as  natural  fertilizer  from  the  barn  yard,  which  necessitates  the  growing  of 
live  stock. 

This  last  thought  was  very  forcibly  demonstrated  at  the  first  meeting  held  at 
McComb  on  July  20th  in  a  new  dairy  barn  just  constructed  on  our  Demonstration 
Farm  at  that  point,  and  owned  by  Mr.  Freeman  Hales. 


DAIRY    BARN   AT   McCOMB,    MISS. 
53 


54 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


The  meeting  being  held  in  this  up-to-date  barn  was  in  itself  an  education  to  many 
farmers,  for  some  of  those  present  had  never  been  inside  of  a  really  modern  and 
well-kept  dairy  barn.  About  two  hundred  farmers  and  dairymen  with  their  families 
attended  this  meeting. 


DEMONSTRATION   FARM   AT   FLORA,    MISS. 

The  meeting  on  our  Demonstration  Farm  at  Flora  July  21st  was  pronounced  by 
many  as  being  the  best  farmers'  meeting  that  was  ever  held  in  Madison  County  and 
the  following  clipping  descriptive  of  same  is  taken  from  the  local  press: 

Flora,  Miss.,  July  24. — (Special) — The  farmers'  picnic  at  Anderson's,  though  pre- 
dicted to  be  an  assured  success,  surpassed  all  expectations.  More  than  a  thousand 
people  attended  and  there  was  a  most  excellent  and  elaborate  dinner  served  in  the 
beautiful  shady  and  spacious  grove  near  the  home  of  Mr.  John  Anderson.  There 
were  barbecued  lambs,  roasts  and  chickens  with  everything  else  that  goes  to  make  a 
grand  picnic  dinner  or  please  the  most  exacting  epicurean  appetite.  The  weather 
»vas  ideal — mild,  salubrious  and  balmy,  and  the  bright,  beaming  rays  of  "Old  Sol" 
were  mitigated  to  the  extent  of  being  even  soft  and  gentle,  while  the  cool,  leafy 
shade  of  the  lovely  grove  contributed  much  to  the  comfort  and  joy  of  the  happy 
"picnicers."  Many  men  of  prominence  were  present,  among  them  being  Messrs. 
Harper,  Brumfield,  Rigby,  Cothern  and  Webb  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  and 
Messrs.  Parker,  Moore  and  Jordan  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  who  enter- 
tained the  company  with  excellent  speeches  on  scientific  farming.  An  agricultural 
demonstration  was  also  given  which  afforded  much  pleasure  and  instruction  to  those 
present.  This  was  strictly  a  farmers'  picnic  and  no  time  was  allowed  to  political 
speakers. 

Much  credit  is  due  Mr.  Anderson  for  the  splendid  success  of  the  picnic  and  for 
the  delightful  hospitality  shown  by  him  and  his  estimable  wife. 

The  O'Reilly,  Miss.,  Demonstration  Farm  meeting  on  July  23rd,  was  the  first  of 
its  kind  to  be  held  in  that  vicinity  arid  its  success  is  clearly  shown  by  the  accom- 
panying write-up  from  one  of  the  Greenville  papers. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


55 


DEMONSTRATION    FARM    AT    O'REILLY,    MISS. 


Mr.  Louis  Waldauer's  plantation  at  O'Reilly  was  the  scene  yesterday  of  one  of 
the  grandest  celebrations  ever  pulled  off  in  the  Delta:  Over  2,000  visitors  were 
present,  including  many  prominent  men  of  the  state  and  a  number  of  high  railroad 
officials. 

At  10:00  o'clock  in  the  morning  was  held  a  farmers'  meeting  and  instructive 
addresses  were  made  along  the  lines  of  diversification  and  intensified  farming.  Prof. 
J.  W.  Carpenter  of  A.  &  M.  college  made  an  excellent  talk  on  "Live  Stock."  Mr. 
H.  J.  Schwietert,  traveling  immigration  agent  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  spoke 
at  length  on  "The  Needs  of  the  Delta."-  Mr.  J.  M.  Rigby  made  a  splendid  talk  on 
"Agricultural  Efficiency."  Hon.  T.  S.  Owen  of  Cleveland  ably  discussed  the  "Good 
Roads"  question.  Among  the  other  speakers  were  J.  C.  Clair  of  Chicago,  industrial 
commissioner  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  and  his  assistant,  Grantly  B.  Harper, 
of  Memphis;  Bradner  J.  Moore,  agent  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture;  C.  N. 
Brumfield,  of  the  Y.  &  M.  V.,  and  R.  C.  Mclnnes,  agricultural  commissioner  of  Boli- 
var county,  were  present  and  joined  in  the  discussion  of  matter  of  importance  to  the 
farmers  of  the  Delta. 

At  1:00  o'clock  the  barbecued  dinner  was  announced,  and  the  visitors  gathered 
around  the  table  and  were  served  by  Mine  Host  Waldauer  with  the  finest  barbecued 
beef,  mutton  and  pork  with  all  the  appetizing  side  dishes  necessary  to  make  the  menu 
complete. 

Taking  it  all  in  all,  it  was  a  big  day  for  O'Reilly,  and  the  success  of  the  event 
is  in  the  greatest  measure  due  to  the  energy  and  progressive  spirit  of  Mr.  Louis 
Waldauer. 

While  the  attendance  at  our  meeting  at  Corinth,  August  10th  was  not  so  large 
as  at  some  of  our  other  Farms,  at  the  same  time  every  one  present  was  a  practical 
farmer  seeking  scientific  knowledge  and  improved  methods  of  agriculture.  Chas.  N. 
Brumfield,  Agriculturist  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  delivered  an  address  on 
general  farm  topics,  followed  by  J.  W.  Willis,  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, who  made  a  talk  on  "Demonstration  Forces."  Mr.  G.  W.  Strickland,  owner  of 
the  Demonstration  Farm,  described  the  manner  in  which  the  crop  was  raised.  The 


56 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


DEMONSTRATION   FARM   AT   CORINTH,    MISS. 


"Weekly  Corinthian"  gives  the  following  brief  history  of  this  Demonstration  Farm, 
together  with  the  results  obtained  by  following  the  scientific  methods  advocated  by 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad's  Agriculturists. 

In  the  fall  of  1912,  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  through  its  Industrial 
and  Immigration  Commissioner,  J.  C.  Clair,  located  one  of  its  Demonstration  Farms 
on  the  plantation  of  G.  W.  Strickland,  about  one  and  one-half  miles  southeast  of 
Corinth.  Keenly  realizing  that  a  permanent  and  progressive  agriculture  depends  upon 
a  fertile  soil,  the  first  and  foremost  problem  was  the  resuscitation  of  the  land,  the 
fertility  of  which  had  been  depleted  by  constantly  cropping  it  in  cotton.  To  increase 
and  maintain  the  fertility  of  the  land  legume  crops,  such  as  peas  and  clovers  were 
grown,  and  as  a  result  larger  yields  and  better  grades  of  all  crops  have  been  harvested 
the  past  two  years  than  was  grown  the  first  year  under  the  new  methods.  In  1913, 
this  farm  produced  on  an  average  of  24  bushels  of  corn  per  acre  as  compared  to  40 
bushels  per  acre  in  1914,  or  an  increase  of  16  bushels  per  acre,  and  the  indications 
are  that  it  will  sustain  its  reputation  of  last  year,  in  spite  of  the  prolonged  drouth 
prevailing  a  few  weeks  ago.  Plenty  of  humus,  deep  plowing,  and  shallow  cultivation 
are  the  three  essential  factors  in  conserving  moisture,  all  of  which  were  employed 
on  the  Illinois  Central  Demonstration  Farm.  The  land  for  the  corn  was  plowed 
seven  inches  deep  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  then  thoroughly  harrowed  and  pulverized 
before  planting  the  seed,  and  the  corn  was  cultivated  five  times  very  shallow. 

This  farm  is  operated  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmers  in  the  vicinity  of  Corinth 
and  The  Corinthian  urges  all  farmers  to  avail  themselves  of  an  opportunity  to  visit 
this  farm  and  put  into  practice  on  their  own  farms  the  methods  employed  by  Mr. 
Strickland.  Let  the  bankers  and  business  men  and  farmers  unite  in  this  progressive 
movement  for  a  richer  agriculture,  because  the  prosperity  of  our  city  depends  upon 
the  prosperity  of  the  farmer. 


ENG-IN  BERING 


DEPARTMENT 


Grade  Reduction — Kentucky  Division 

By  F.  G.  Walter,  Jr.,  Assistant  Engineer 


DURING  the  year  just  passed  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  has 
completed  important  improvements  on  the 
Kentucky  Division  between  Princeton  and 
Paducah.  The  heavy  grades  on  this  line 
have  been  reduced  and  the  alignment  has 
been  improved.  The  line  from  Princeton  to 
Eddyville,  a  distance  of  eleven  miles,  has 
been  converted  into  double  track,  and  the 
freight  yard  at  Princeton  has  been  extend- 
ed. To  accommodate  the  longer  trains 
which  will  be  handled  on  account  of  the 
reduction  of  grades,  the  passing  tracks  at 
Princeton,  Gravel  Switch,  Calvert  and 
Clarks  have  been  lengthened. 

Grades  affecting  south  bound  traffic  were 
reduced  at  the  following  points:  Miles  181, 
182  and  a  part  of  mile  183,  just  south  of 
Princeton,  two  miles  at  Dulaney,  three 
miles  between  Kuttawa  and  Iron  Hill,  and 
at  Grand  '  Rivers.  Grades  affecting  north 
bound  traffic  were  reduced  at  Grand  Rivers; 
between  Cumberland  and  Iron  Hill  and 
between  Eddyville  and  Dulaney.  Originally 
all  of  these  grades  were  66  feet  per  mile, 
except  south  of  Princeton,  where  the  grade 
was  53  feet  per  mile.  The  revised  grades 
are  39  feet  per"  mile  against  north  bound 
traffic  and  26  feet  against  south  bound,  and 
are  compensated  for  curvature.  As  a  result 
of  the  grade  revisions  Mikado  engines, 
which  formerly  handled  trains  of  only  1,350 
tons  north  bound  and  1,450  tons  south 
bound,  will  now  handle  2,250  tons  north 
bound  and  3,000  tons  south  bound. 

Surveys  and  plans  for  the  work  were 
completed  in  June,  1914,  and  construction 
was  begun  in  the  same  month.  All  of  the 
work  had  been  completed  in  August,  1915. 
The  work  of  clearing,  grubbing  and  grad- 
ing, installing  culvert  pipe  and  concrete 
construction  was  let  out  by  contract.  All 
of  the  track  work  and  timber  bridge  con- 
struction was  done  by  the  Kentucky  Divi- 
sion road  department  forces. 

On  the  work  south  of  Princeton  the 
grades  were  reduced  without  change  of 
alignment,  and  the  new  second  track  was 
built  on  the  east  side  of  the  original  cen- 


ter line.  The  freight  yard  and  passing 
track  extensions  were  made  on  west  side 
on  mile  182.  At  the  two  summits  of  the 
old  grade  line  depressions  of  10  feet  and  12 
feet  were  made,  the  latter  being  in  a  rock 
cut,  and  the  maximum  raise  above  the  old 
grade  line  was  8  feet.  Provision  had  to 
be  made  for  doing  the  work  with  the  least 
interference  with  traffic.  The  grading  was 
completed  as  far  as  possible  on  each  side  of 
the  old  track,  and  the  new  tracks,  laid  on 
completed  portions  of  the  grade,  carried 
the  traffic  while  the  grading  under  the  lo- 
cation of  the  old  track  was  being  com- 
pleted. The  material  excavated  from  the 
cuts  was  used  in  raising  main  line  fills  and 
widening  for  second  track  and  for  grading 
the  yard  extenison.  The  laying  and  ballast- 
ing of  the  main  and  yard  tracks  followed 
closely  on  the  completed  grades  and  the 
new  freight  yard  was  put  in  service  April  1, 
1915.  The  tracks  on  this  and  other  por- 
tions of  the  Kentucky  Division  construction 
work  were  ballasted  on  gravel  from  the  pit 
at  Gravel  Switch,  and  gravel  was  also  used 
for  raising  tracks  under  traffic  at  points 
where  this  was  necessary  on  account  of 
the  revised  grades.  The  grading  contractor 
on  this  part  of  the  work  was  H.  C.  Hodges, 
Birmingham,  Ala.  The  equipment  used 
was  one  standard  gauge  steam  shovel  out- 
fit and  one  wheeled  scraper  outfit.  The  ma- 
terial excavated  by  the  steam  shovel  was 
loaded  in  12-yard  air-dump  cars  and  the 
fills  made  by  dumping  and  spreading. 
Grading  work  was  begun  in  July,  1914,  and 
completed  in  February,  1915. 

On  miles  184  and  185  the  new  second 
track  is  built  adjacent  to  the  old  track  on 
the  west  side  without  change  of  grade. 
From  mile  184]^,  a  distance  of  two  miles 
south,  a  new  track  has  been  built  on  the 
west  side  of  the  old  track,  40  feet  distant 
near  the  north  end  and  14  feet  at  the  south 
end.  This  forms  the  south  bound  track  of 
the  double  track  arrangement,  the  grade 
being  26  feet  per  mile,  as  compared  with 
66  feet  per  mile  on  the  old  single  track, 
which  under  the  new  arrangement  becomes 


59 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


the  north  bound  track,  with  the  heavy 
grade  descending  in  the  direction  of  traffic. 
Similarly,  between  a  point  one  mile  south 
of  Dulaney  and  a  point  one  mile  north  of 
Eddyville,  the  old  single  track  becomes  the 
south  bound  track,  the  heavy  grade  being 
in  favor  of  south  bound  traffic,  and  a  new 
track  on  the  east  side,  1,900  feet  distant  at 
the  farthest  point,  with  a  grade  of  39  feet  per 
mile  has  been  built  for  north  bound  traffic. 
The  grade  of  the  new  track  ascends  uni- 
formly with  compensation  for  curvature 
from  mile  post  191  to  the  summit  near  mile 
post  186,  and  is  above  the  grade  of  the  old 
track,  on  miles  191,  190  and  189.  North  of 
mile  post  188  the  new  grade  becomes  lower 
than  the  grade  of  the  south  bound  track, 
the  greatest  difference  being  26  feet  at  the 
summit  of  the  south  bound  track,  2,000  feet 
south  of  mile  post  186,  north  of  which  point 
the  grades  converge  and  reach  the  same 
elevation  at  the  summit  in  the  north  bound 
track  near  mile  post  186.  The  summit  cut 
is  6,500  feet  long,  and  its  greatest  depth  is 
40  feet.  On  mile  187,  although  the  two 
tracks  are  at  different  grades,  they  are  in 
the  same  cut,  the  south  bound  track  with 
the  higher  grade,  being  built  on  a  bench 
along  the  side  of  the  deeper  cut  for  the 
north  bound  track.  This  method  of  con- 
struction saves  the  expense  of  the  addition- 
al excavation  which  would  be  necessary  if 
separate  cuts  were  constructed.  On  miles 
188  to  192,  inclusive,  the  alignment  of  the 
new  track  follows  the  general  direction  of 
Dry  Fork  Creek  a  few  hundred  feet  east  of 
it  and  strikes  the  points  of  the  projecting 
higher  ground,  so  as  to  balance  the  cut  and 
fill  quantities.  The  heaviest  fills  are  on 
miles  191  and  192,  and  these  were  made  by 
hauling  material  from  the  summit  cut  near 
Dulaney.  On  this  work  the  equipment  used 
for  grading  the  smaller  cuts  was  one  stand- 
ard gauge  steam  shovel  outfit  and  three 
grader  and  wheeled  scraper  outfits,  also 
three  small  steam  shovels  loading  into  dump 
wagons.  This  equipment  used  in  the  sum- 
mit cut  included  two  70-ton  shovels,  eight- 
een 12-yard  and  twenty-two  16-yard  stand- 
ard gauge  air-dump  cars. 

The  amount  of  excavation  on  the  line 
between  Dulaney  and  Eddyville  was  ap- 
proximately 610,000  cubic  yards.  A  great 
number  of  culverts  had  to  be  provided  for 
the  drainage  into  Dry  Fork  Creek.  Three 
eight  foot  concrete  arches  were  built  and 
in  all  1,822  lineal  feet  of  concrete  and  cast 
iron  pipe  were  placed,  the  size  varying  from 
18  inches  to  60  inches  in  diameter.  Two 
public  roads  cross  the  line,  one  of  which  is 
carried  under  the  track  bv  means  of  a  con- 
crete subway,  and  the  other  crosses  on  an 
overhead  timber  frame  bridge. 

The  south  end  of  the  new  double  track 
is  one-fourth  of  a  mile  north  of  Eddyville 
depot.  South  of  the  depot  a  new  passing 
track  4,000  feet  in  length  has  been  provided. 


In  order  to  eliminate  from  the  main  track 
the  sharp  reverse  curves  in  the  small  rock 
cut  south  of  Eddyville  a  new  main  track 
was  built  between  the  rock  cut  and  the 
depot  and  the  old  main  track  was  convert- 
ed into  a  passing  track. 

All  of  the  grading  and  culvert  work  be- 
tween a  point  near  the  south  end  of  Prince- 
ton Yard  and  the  south  end  of  the  new 
passing  track  at  Eddyville  was  done  by 
Winston  Brothers  Company,  of  Minneap- 
olis, Minn.,  and  their  sub-contractors.  The 
work  was  started  in  July,  1914,  and  com- 
pleted in  July,  1915.  The  new  second  track 
between  Princeton  and  Dulaney  was  put  in 
service  in  May,  1915,  and  between  Dulaney 
and  Eddyville,  in  August,  1915. 

The  old  line  between  Kuttawa  and  Cum- 
berland was  perhaps  the  most  difficult  of 
operation  of  any  of  the  line  between  Prince- 
ton and  Paducah,  on  account  of  the  heavy 
grades  approaching  Iron  Hill  in  either  di- 
rection and  the  great  number  of  curves. 
The  country  between  Kuttawa  and  Cum- 
berland, lying  on  the  inside  of  a  great  curve 
in  the  Cumberland  River  is  comparatively 
rough,  being  interspersed  with  high  ridges 
and  deep  drainage  ways,  the  main  ridge 
rising  to  a  height  of  more  than  200  feet 
above  the  river.  The  old  line,  which  was 
constructed  in  1872,  was  located  so  as  to 
follow  very  closely  the  natural  drainage  of 
the  country,  in  order  to  lessen  the  cost  of 
construction,  and  consequently  was  built  on 
grades  and  curves  which  are  not  suitable 
for  economical  operation  with  the  equip- 
ment now  in  use  and  amount  of  traffic  now 
handled.  The  new  Iron  Hill  line  is  so  lo- 
cated that  the  cost  of  grading  was  not  ex- 
cessive, in  view  of  the  difficult  country 
traversed,  and  the  saving  in  rise  and  fall  of 
grade,  in  curvature  and  distance,  as  com- 
pared with  the  old  line  is  considerable,  and 
as  compared  with  other  proposed  locations 
introducing  more  curvature  the  saving  is 
ample  to  justify  the  additional  cost  of  the 
line  as  it  has  been  built.  As  compared  with 
the  old  line  the  summit  is  lowered  21  feet, 
the  amount  of  curvature  decreased  by  more 
than  300  degrees  and  the  distance  shortened 
2,230  feet.  In  addition  the  rates  of  grade 
are  less,  and  the  maximum  curvature  is 
two  degrees,  as  compared  with  five  degrees 
on  the  old  line. 

The  amount  of  material  excavated  on  the 
Iron  Hill  line  was  approximately  600,000 
cubic  yards,  the  distance  being  5.18  miles. 
The  summit  cut  through  Iron  Hill  con- 
tained 407,000  cubic  yards,  its  length  being 
4  200  feet  and  the  greatest  depth  76  feet. 
This  cut  was  taken  out  with  one  steam 
shovel  working  two  shifts,  which  began 
digging  Tune  28,  1914,  and  cut  out  on  De- 
cember 21.  1914.  The  excavated  material 
was  hauled  in  both  directions,  and  with  the 
material  from  the  other  smaller  cuts  was 
used  to  make  the  fills  for  two  miles  in  each 


New  Line  crossing  over  old  line  on  Iron  Hill 
diversion  just  south  of'Kuttawa 


New  line  throuoh  Iron  Hill  cut,  between 
Cumberland  River  and  Kuttawa 


Grand  Rivers  Ky.,  showing 
completed  work. 

The  street  at  overhead  bridfjp.  formerly 
crossed  tracks  at  faa.de 


62 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


direction  from  the  summit.  Twelve-yard 
standard  gauge  air-dump  cars  were  used, 
and  the  material  was  placed  in  fills  by 
dumping  from  temporary  wooden  frame 
trestles.  The  fill  at  Poplar  Creek,  north  of 
Iron  Hill,  contains  23,000  cubic  yards,  its 
length  being  1,700  feet  and  the  greatest 
height  65  feet. 

The  new  line  crosses  the  old  line  five 
times,  twice  near  the  lake  south  of  Kuttawa, 
where  the  new  grade  is  five  feet  above  the 
old;  at  a  point  one  mile  south  of  Kuttawa 
four  feet  above  the  old  grade;  at  construc- 
tion station  206  thirty  feet  above,  and  at 
station  65  two  miles  north  of  Cumberland 
20  feet  above  the  old  grade.  At  the  two 
latter  points  the  new  track  was  carried  over 
the  old  by  means  of  temporary  wood  pile 
trestles.  The  old  roadway  has  now  been 
abandoned,  and  the  track  taken  up  and  the 
temporary  trestles  will  be  filled.  The  cross- 
ing at  station  239  was  made  by  means  of 
temporary  grades  and  switches,  and  at  the 
lake  the  crossings  were  eliminated  by  means 
of  a  temporary  alignment  of  the  new  track, 
which  was  used  until  the  old  track  was 
abandoned  and  could  be  removed.  The 
alignment  was  considerably  improved  near 
the  lake  south  of  Kuttawa  by  building  the 
new  fill  much  nearer  to  the  river  bank  than 
the  old  fill,  and  if  it  is  found  necessary 
protection  against  the  current  of  the  river 
will  be  provided  by  the  use  of  riprap.  In 
addition  to  a  number  of  concrete  and  cast 
iron  pipe  culverts  placed  on  the  Iron  Hill 
line,  three  waterways  of  reinforced  concrete 
construction  were  built  at  the  principal 
drainage  ways.  At  Poplar  Creek  on  mile 
196  a  double  14-foot  concrete  arch  was  built. 
South  of  Kuttawa  a  double  4  foot  by  6  foot 
box  culvert  and  spillway  were  built  to  carry 
the  overflow  from  the  lake  under  the  new 
track.  At  construction  station  56  north  of 
Cumberland  there  was  constructed  a  rein- 
forced concrete  combination  subway  and 
waterway.  The  structure  consists  of  one 
opening  4T/2  feet  by  16  feet  in  width  for 
carrying  the  drainage  and  directly  above 
this  an  opening  12  feet  in  height  by  16  feet 
wide  for  the  driveway.  The  waterway  por- 
tion of  the  structure  extends  beyond  the 
base  of  the  fill  on  each  side  and  at  an  angle 
with  that  portion  directly  under  the  fill,  so 
that  the  drainage  does  not  interfere  with 
the  driveway  at  the  ends  of  the  structure. 
To  provide  a  crossing  for  a  public  road 
located  on  the  ridge  at  the  Iron  Hill  sum- 
mit a  wood  frame,  overhead  bridge  was  built 
near  construction  station  120.  All  of  the 
grading,  pipe,  culvert  and  concrete  work 
between  Kuttawa  and  Cumberland  was  done 
by  Walsh  Construction  Company,  of  Daven- 
port, la.  The  portion  of  the  line  from 
Cumberland  to  a  point  one  mile  south  of 
Kuttawa  was  put  in  service  January  26, 
1915,  and  the  remaining  portion  April  9, 
1915. 


South  of  Cumberland  the  railroad  crosses 
the  Cumberland  River  and  passes  over  the 
dividing  ridge  between  the  Cumberland  and 
Tennessee  Rivers  to  Gravel  Switch,  near 
the  east  bank  of  the  Tennessee,  the  two 
rivers  at  this  point  being  only  two  miles 
apart. 

Grand  Rivers,  a  town  of  several  hundred 
inhabitants,  is  situated  at  the  top  of  the 
dividing  ridge,  and  lies  on  either  side  of 
the  railroad.  The  original  grades  approach- 
ing the  summit  at  Grand  Rivers,  from  either 
direction,  were  66  feet  per  mile  and  these 
have  been  reduced  to  momentum  grades, 
equivalent  to  26  feet  per  mile,  by  depressing 
the  track  16  feet  at  the  summit  near  the 
depot,  where  the  main  public  road  crosses. 
The  depot  was  moved  to  a  point  800  feet 
south  of  its  former  location  and  the  old 
grade  crossing  of  the  public  thoroughfare 
was  replaced  with  an  overhead  bridge.  On 
this  work  a  temporary  traffic  track  was 
built  outside  the  slopes  of  the  new  cut  and 
the  excavation  was  handled  with  a  steam 
shovel  without  interference  with  the  regular 
traffic.  The  grading  contractors  were  Win- 
ston Brothers  Company,  of  Minneapolis, 
Minn.,  who  also  had  the  Dulaney  contract. 
The  work  was  finished  in  December,  and 
traffic  was  put  over  the  depressed  track 
December  2,  1914. 

The  saving  in  operating  expense  between 
Princeton  and  Paducah  on  account  of  these 
improvements  is  considerable.  In  addition 
to  the  saving  by  reason  of  the  increased  ton- 
nage per  train  there  is  considerable  saving, 
especially  in  overtime  expense,  on  account 
of  less  switching  at  Princeton  and  Gravel 
Switch,  and  fewer  train  movements,  both 
on  the  portion  of  the  line  which  has  been 
double  tracked  and  on  the  single  track  por- 
tion, where  the  grades  have  been  reduced. 
Under  the  old  arrangement  all  south  bound 
freight  trains  handled  1,450  tons,  Princeton 
to  Gravel  Swith,  and  filled  out  at  Gravel 
Switch  to  3,000  tons.  Numerous  turn- 
around runs  were  necessary  between  Prince- 
ton and  Gravel  Switch,  to  handle  this  addi- 
tional tonnage  to  Gravel  Switch.  Under  the 
new  arrangement  a  Mikado  engine  handles 
a  through  train  of  3,000  tons  from  Princeton 
to  Paducah,  and  2,250  tons  from  Paducah  to 
Princeton. 

The  plans  were  prepared  and  the  work 
executed  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  A.  S. 
Baldwin,  Chief  Engineer,  and  Mr.  F.  L. 
Thompson,  Assistant  Chief  Engineer.  The 
location  surveys  were  made  by  Mr.  A.  B.  B. 
Harris,  locating  Engineer.  The  Assistant 
Engineers  in  the  field  in  direct  charge  of 
construction  were  Mr.  L.  O.  Sloggett,  June 
1.  1914,  to  November  1,  1914,  and  Mr.  F.  G. 
Walter,  Jr.,  November  1,  1914,  to  com- 
pletion. The  Resident  Engineers  were  Mr. 
H.  W.  Clowe,  Princeton  to  Eddyville,  and 
Mr.  G.  C.  Wellman,  Eddyville  to  Gravel 
Switch. 


Princeton  K\/.,  showing  tracks  after 
being  lowered  between  Princeton  and  Uie 
north  end  of  Princeton  yard.. 


Showing  change  in  main  line  at  Lake  Clouqh  just  south 
of  Kuttawa.         '      __  ^      _ 

New  main  line  not  yet 
thrown  to  permanent 
position 


Keeping  a  Line  on  Daily  Expense 

By  A.  J.  Gibney,  Chief  Clerk,  Burnside  Shops 


ADVERSE  legislation,  increase  in  cost 
of  rolling  stock  and  materials,  as  well 
as  increase  in  wages  naturally,  has  de- 
creased the  earnings  of  every  railroad  in 
the  United  States  and  the  railroad  of  to- 
day must  make  the  pennies  count,  in  order 
to  overcome  excessive  drains  on  its  treasury. 
It,  therefore,  behooves  every  employe  to 
assist  in  overcoming  the  losses  brought 
about  as  mentioned  above.  The  supervis- 
ing employe  can  do  more  towards  effecting 
a  saving  than  others,  as  he  is  the  one  that 
lays  out  the  work,  the  one  that  should 
know  cost  of  various  operations,  and  the 
one  that  can  save  a  few  dollars  here  and 
there  which  amounts  to  thousands  of  dol- 
lars when  all  summed  up.  If,  however,  he 
is  not  in  position  to  know  just  what  his 
expenses  are  he  is  without  any  actual  basis 
upon  which  to  work  and  as  a  result  can- 
not overcome  extravagance.  Therefore,  the 
necessity  of  a  daily  check  of  all  moneys 
spent,  both  labor  and  material. 

No  doubt,  the  allotment  system  (origi- 
nating on  this  railroad  in  the  mechanical 
department)  is  responsible  for  the  daily 
check  of  expenses  now  being  carried  on. 
The  importance  of  working  on  an  allot- 
ment and  the  success  derived  from  the  al- 
lotment system  has  been  such  that  other 
departments  have  taken  it  up.  The  system 
of  allotment  can  easily  be  explained  as 
follows: 

A  man  receives  $100  per  month,  and  if 
he  is  wise  will  bank,  we  will  say,  $10  of 
this  amount,  leaving  him  $90  for  all  ex- 
penses. Figuring  on  a  30-day  month,  this 
means  that  his  daily  allotment  will  be  $3 
per  day.  If  he  fails  to  keep  a  daily  check 
of  his  expenses,  he  is  in  no  position  to 
know  until  the  end  of  the  month  his  cost 
of  operation,  and  as  a  rule,  it  will  be  too 
late  for  him  to  recuperate.  Had  he  known 
the  exact  day  on  which  he  had  overrun 
his  allotment  he  could  have  made  arrange- 
ments on  the  succeeding  day  to  overcome 
his  extravagance. 

The  allotment  plan  in  the  mechanical  de- 
partment and  which  has  been  handled  at 


Burnside  for  a  number  of  years  is  worked 
out  literally,  the  same  as  above.  The 
general  superintendent  of  motive  power 
grants  each  master  mechanic  a  certain 
amount  of  money  to  cover  one  month's  ex- 
penditures. This  money  is  received  in  the 
early  part  of  the  month  and  the  master 
mechanic  in  turn  grants  each  of  his  fore- 
men a  certain  proportion  of  the  amount 
as  given,  and  it  is  up  to  his  foremen  or 
in  other  words,  the  supervising  employe,  as 
mentioned  before  to  distribute  this  money 
to  the  various  gangs  and  see  that  expenses, 
both  labor  and  material,  do  not  exceed  the 
amount  as  given.  If  we  did  not  keep  a 
daily  check  on  the  money  expended  we 
would  be  in  exactly  the  same  fix  as  the 
man  that  was  allowed  $3  per  day  and  who 
overran.  It  is  an  absolute  necessity  to 
know  one  day  what  you  spent  the  preced- 
ing day  in  order  to  get  results. 

It  is  the  intent  of  this  article  to  sub- 
mit the  system  in  effect  at  Burnside  (which 
covers  two  departments,  namely  that  of  the 
shop  superintendent  and  master  mechanic) 
and  it  is  hoped  that  some  benefit  be  de- 
rived by  the  readers,  if  not,  this  attempt 
will  have  been  in  vain. 

The  first  necessity  is,  of  course,  a  proper 
distribution  of  the  moneys  spent,  to  see 
that  the  department  that  actually  used  ma- 
terial or  labor  is  charged  with  same,  and 
too  much  cannot  be  said  in  'line  with  this, 
as  the  whole  basis  of  expenditures  rests  on 
this  important  feature.  The  second  neces- 
sity is  receiving  reports  of  expenditures 
without  delay,  so  that  on  one  day  com- 
plete knowledge  is  had  of  the  amount  of 
money  expended  the  previous  day.  At 
Burnside,  by  telephone  we  are  advised  each 
morning  by  10:30  o'clock  the  labor  ex- 
penditures and  by  1:30  o'clock  of  the  same 
day  we  are  able  to  have  our  material  ex- 
penditures summed  up;  therefore,  by  2:00 
o'clock  we  know  just  how  much  money  was 
expended,  both  labor  and  material,  the 
previous  day. 

A  certain  master  mechanic  on  this  rail- 
road once  made  the  remark  that  he  wanted 


64 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


to  be  able  to  tell  at  a  glance  at  a  state- 
ment, just  what  the  statement  reflected,  as 
it  saved  him  time  and  annoyance  in  figur- 
ing out  the  details.  With  this  in  mind,  an 
expense  chart  has  been  perfected  in  this 
office  which  by  the  use  of  datum  or  zigzag 
lines,  the  master  mechanic  or  shop  super- 
intendent can  follow  up  the  trend  of  ex- 
penses, that  is,  whether  they  are  going  up 
or  coming  down.  '  Having  been  compli- 
mented on  the  manner  in  which  this  chart 
is  handled  and  the  results  derived  there- 
from, I  am  giving  below,  a  cut  of  the  chart, 
thinking  that  this  might  be  of  assistance  to 
others.  This  chart,  you  will  note  covers 
the  month  of  February  and  to  avoid  any 
confusion  to  the  reader  the  actual  moneys 
have  been  omitted  from  the  chart. 

Explanation   of  chart: 

Indicator  "A"  is  a  fixed  line.  When 
datum  lines  run  towards  the  upper  part 
of  the  chart  this  represents  an  overrun. 
When  below  line  "A",  it  represents  an  un- 
derrun. 

Indicator  "B"  represents  datum  lines.  A 
solid  line  being  mechanical  expense  and 
dotted  line  payroll  expense. 

Indicator  "C"  is  date  column  and  on  a 
horizontal  line  with  the  various  dates  are 
entered  under  each  column  the  expense  for 
that  date,  etc. 

Indicator  "D"  is  used  solely  in  connec- 
tion with  the  datum  lines. 

Indicator  "E"  represents  a  fixed  amount 
in  money,  and  is  also  used  in  connection 
with  datum  lines. 

Note: — To  explain  the  foregoing  we  will 
call  attention  to  the  mechanical  expense 
datum  line  on  this  chart.  Place  a  rule 
horizontally  across  the  page  at  the  highest 
apex  of  the  datum  line  and  you  will  find 
that  this  apex  is  directly  under  line  4500. 
Now  place  you  rule  perpendicular  with  the 
sheet,  and  it  will  be  found  that  this  highest 
apex  was  reached  on  a  line  with  figure  18, 
indicator  "D."  This  means  that  on  the 
18th  of  the  month  the  mechanical  expense 
was  over  the  allowance  nearly  $4,500.  By 
following  out  the  same  program,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  mechanical  expense  as 
shown  on  the  chart  dropped  to  nearly 
$6,500  under  on  the  26th. 

Insertions  can  be  made  on  the  bottom 
of  this  form  in  the  places  as  indicated  as 
a  matter  of  information  at  the  close  of  the 
month,  and  for  permanent  record. 

The  chart  given,  it  will  be  noted,  is  for 
the  shop  superintendent.  The  columns 
work  Order  A,  B,  etc.,  to  the  right  of  the 
chart,  I  do  not  believe  will  be  used  by 
other  master  mechanics,  but  this  is  valu- 
able information  to  the  shoo  superintendent 
and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  it  shows  on 
his  chart.  On  the  master  mechanic's  chart, 
in  place  of  these  items  we  show  the  bad 
order  car  situation;  sufficient  columns  be- 
ing placed  on  the  chart  to  show  bad  or- 


der situation  at  each  point  each  day.  In- 
stead of  running  indicator  "D"  across  the 
master  mechanic's  chart  similar  to  that  of 
the  shop  superintendent  we  use  the  same 
space  for  dates  1  to  31  directly  over  the 
expense  portion  of  the  chart  and  make  an- 
other line  of  dates  1  to  31  over  the  bad 
order  portion  of  the  chart,  and  datum  lines 
are  worked  on  each  portion  of  the  chart. 
To  take  care  of  this  bad  order  feature,  we 
use  instead  of  money  as  shown  under  in- 
dicator "E"  at  right  of  shop  superin- 
tendent's chart,  figures  representing  total 
number  of  cars.  On  the  lower  line  of  the 
chart,  we  place  what  in  our  opinion  is  the 
minimum  number  of  cars  on  the  division, 
and  on  the  upper  line,  the  maximum  number 
and  we  are  able  to  tell  by  looking  at  the 
datum  line  just  what  the  fluctuation  in  bad 
order  cars  may  be. 

The  fact  is,  a  chart  of  this  kind  can  be 
applied  to  a  great  many  cases  and  I  have 
named  two  which  we  find  of  great  interest. 

These  charts  are  kept  in  a  glass  frame  in 
the  private  office  of  the  shop  superintendent 
and  master  mechanic.  Each  day  the  clerk 
handling  expense  removes  the  chart  from 
the  frame,  inserts  figures  for  the  previous 
day  and  rules  his  datum  line  one  day 
further.  The  chart  is  permanently  filed  at 
close  of  the  month  and  makes  an  excellent 
record. 

Understand,  that  this  chart  is  merely  of 
a  supplementary  nature,  and  that  we  main- 
tain detailed  book  records  of  all  daily  ex- 
pense. It  is  useless  for  me  to  elaborate  on 
this  as  I  know  similar  records  are  being 
maintained  in  other  mechanical  department 
offices.  One  suggestion,  however,  that 
mifrht  be  of  interest  and  which  enables 
us  to  keep  a  permanent  indestructible  ex- 
pense record,  is  the  use  of  loose-leaf  sheets 
form  1237  and  the  binder  which  goes  with 
this  sheet.  We  find  this  a  very  convenient 
method  of  handling. 

By  creating-  good-natured  rivalry  between 
the  men  that  handle  distribution  at  the 
various  shops,  we  have  been  able  to  re- 
ceive estimates  during  the  month  that  come 
surprisingly  close  to  actual  figures.  Each 
.  month  the  man  that  comes  the  closest  is 
placed  on  top  of  a  list  and  the  man  who 
is  farther  off  than  any  of  the  others,  ap- 
pears at  the  bottom  of  the  list.  You  can 
rest  assured  that  the  man  who  is  on  the 
tail  end  this  month,  is  going  to  make  a 
special  effort  to  get  rid  of  that  unenviable 
location  for  the  following  month. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  article  will  prove 
of  some  benefit  and  that  the  explanations 
are  of  sufficient  intelligence  so  that  they 
will  be  understood  by  the  readers.  If  they 
are  not,  and  any  of  our  fellow  employes  are 
interested,  we  will  be  more  than  glad  to 
answer  inquiries  to  correspondents  or  to 
personally  explain  to  a  visitor  our  system 
and  benefits  derived  therefrom. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZ1M: 


07 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 

The  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 


JANUARY  1st.  1915 


LOCOMOTIVE   FUEL    ECONOMY 

TO  ROUND  HOUSE  FOREMEN,  ENGINEERS, 
FIREMEN  AND  HOSTLERS. 


THE  ATTENTION  OF  ALL  EMPLOYEES  who  are  required  by  their  duties  to  handle  or 
to  direct  the  handling  of  LOCOMOTIVE  FUEL  is  called  to  the  necessity  for  care  and 
economy  in  its  use. 

THE  COST  OF  FUEL  is  the  Chief  Operating  Expense  of  this  Company  and  exceeds 
5.J  MILLION  DOLLARS  a  year.  This  expense  can  be  reduced  many  thousands  of  dollars 
annually  by  the  effo'rt  of  employees  to  economize  and  avoid  waste.  Round  House  Foremen 
and  hostlers  are  particularly  cautioned  to  avoid  overloading  engine  tanks  at  terminal  coal 
docks,  in  order  that  none  may  be  lost,  and  engineers  and-  firemen  should  take  similar 
precautions  at  intermediate  coal  docks.  Engines  should  be  promptly  housed  on  arrival  at 
terminals  in  order  to  avoid  the  unnecessary  use  of  fuel,  and  should  not  be  heavily  fired  while 
waiting  for  their  turn  at  cinder  pits.  Round  House  Foremen  and  hostlers  should  see  that 
engines  are  not  fired  up  too  far  in  advance  of  the  time  at  which  they  are  to  be  used,  as  by 
doing  so,  coal  is  unnecessarily  consumed. 

The  Management  looks  to  the  locomotive  engineers  and  firemen  for  the  greatest  saving 
of  fuel,  and  other  employees,  by  their  co-operation,  can  largely  assist. 

ENGINEERS  should  use  judgment  in  starting  trains,  forcing  them  into  speed,  and  in 
moving  them  between  stops — to  do  so  with  as  small  consumption  of  fuel  as  is  consistent  with 
necessary  speed  and  time  requirements. 

STEAM  SHOULD  BE  USED  EXPANSIVELY— with  the  shortest  practicable  cut-offs, 
while  running  at  ordinary  speeds;  and  when  necessary,  with  a  full  throttle,  to  enable  the 
engines  to  do  satisfactory  work  at  such  cut-offs.  To  control  speed  when  the  shortest 
practicable  cut-off  is  in  use — steam  should  be  THROTTLED  down  to  sufficiently  low  pressure. 
The  advantages  of  the  highly  expansive  use  of  steam  are: — Less  water,  steam  and  fuel  used 
in  doing  the  same  work;  less  back  pressure;  and  a  lighter  draft  through  the  fire. 

BOILER  FEEDING  is  as  important  for  fuel  economy  as  is  the  right  use  of  steam.  Engineers 
should  maintain  nearly  STEADY  STEAM  PRESSURE,  but  permit  liberal  VARIATIONS  OF 
THE  WATER-LEVEL,  within  safe  limits,  to  save  fuel.  They  should  begin  all  trips  and  starts 
from  stops  with  nearly  full  steam  pressure,  and  the  boiler  as  full  of  water  as  it  properly  may 
be  without  danger  of  "priming." 

HARMONIOUS  CO-OPERATION  between  engineers  and  firemen  is  necessary  to  avoid 
waste  of  fuel.  Engineers  should  supervise  the  work  of  their  firemen  and  instruct  them  when 
necessary.  Firemen  should  anticipate  the  coming  conditions  of  work  and  should  prepare  the 
fire  in  advance  to  meet  them  properly.  At  starts  they  should  supply  the  fresh  fuel  needed 
on  the  fire  BtFORE  the  engine  starts,  and  avoid  heavy  firing  and  a  wide  open  door  while  an 
engine  is  working  the  hardest.  They  should  allow  for  the  injector  being  shut  off  during  the 
start,  and  should  not  force 'its  too  early  starting  by  making  too  hot  a  fire.  They  should 
spread  the  coal  well  over  the  full  fire  surface,  placing  most  in  the  corners  and  along  the  sides, 
firing  lightly,  and  as  frequently  as  is  necessary. 

In  burning  coal  TWO  CHEMICAL  actions  take  place.  They  are  chemical  UNIONS 
between  the  gases  and  substance  of  the  coal,  and  the  OXYGEN  in  the  air.  OXYGEN  is  but 
a  one-fifth  part  of  the  air;  yet  it  is  the  only  part  that  aids  burning.  About  two  box-cars 
full  of  air  must  be  drawn  through  the  fire  to  bring  in  the  needed  OXYGEN  to  PERFECTLY 
burn  each  shovelful  of  coal.  If  sufficient  air  is  not  supplied,  then  ALTOGETHER 
DIFFERENT  chemical  action  takes  place,  which  generates  but  ONE-THIRD  as  much 
HEAT  as  if  PERFECT  burning  were  secured  by  enough  air.  Hence  the  necessity 
for  a  CLEAN  fire,  FREE  grates,  OPEN  dampers,  a  CLEAN  ash  pan,  and  LIGHT  FIRING. 
Clogged  air  passages  or  too  large  charges  of  coal  cause  IMPERFECT  COMBUSTION,  and 
the  TOTAL  LOSS  of  TWO-THIRDS  OF  THE  HEAT  that  should  be  gotten  from  much 
of  the  coal  being  burned. 

"POPPING"  wastes  usually  about  a  shovelful  of  coal  per  minute,  or  a  lump  of  coal  as 
large  as  a  lemon  every  second,  avoid  "popping,"  and  utilize  surplus  steam  to  inject  more 
water  into  the  boiler,  when  practicable. 

It  is  hoped  that  employees  will  actively  co-operate  in  carrying  out  these  suggestions. 


Approved 

T.  J.  FOLEY, 

General  Manager 


R.  W.  BELL, 

General  Superintendent  Motive  Power 


Clinton,  111.,  and  Its  Facilities 

By  Thomas  J.  Burk 


'"PHERE  has  been  quite  an  improve- 
ment  in  the  facilities  for  handling 
engines  and  work  in  general  in  the  Clin- 
ton shops. 

Especially  so  is  the  washout  plant  for 
washing  locomotive  boilers,  recently 
installed,  a  great  saving  in  time  over 
the  old  system  of  washing  boilers  as  it 
consumes  about  half  as  much  time  as  the 
old  way. 

We  also  have  an  eighty-five  foot  elec- 
tric turn  table,  and  are  at  the  present 
time  building  two-  wash  rooms  for  en- 
gine and  shop  men ;  and  are  talking  of 
building  a  larger  tin  shop  as  the  present 
one  is  too  small  to  handle  the  increased 
work  caused  by  the  larger  engines  which 
are  mostly  of  the  Mikado  type,  being 
of  the  fifteen,  sixteen  and  seventeen 
hundred  class.  There  is  twice  as  much 
work  for  the  tin  shop  force  on  the  Mi- 
kado type  engines  as  on  those  used  here- 
tofore. We  are  babbitting  all  cross  head 
gibbs  the  size  required  without  plaining 
with  an  adjustment  form  that  is  quite 
a  saving  of  time  in  running  repairs. 

Too,  we  have  a  pipe  bender  which 
was  built  here  with  air  cylinder  that  we 
are  successfully  using,  and  can  bend 
pipe  without  heating,  making  the  work 
less  hazardous  for  the  pipe  fitter  as  he 
does  not  have  to  work  over  a  forge. 

We  found  it  necessary  to  inaugurate 
a  clean  up  system,  handling  it  the  same 
as  any  other  work,  in  order  to  keep  the 
shops  in  a  good,  clean  condition  for  there 


is  danger  of  giving  all  the  attention  to 
engine  work  and  slighting  sanitation. 
WTe  get  better  results  by  assigning  cer- 
tain men  whose  duties  are  to  keep  the 
shops  and  surroundings  clean  than  hav- 
ing gangs  of  men  clean  up  periodically. 

When  a  casting  or  part  of  an  engine 
that  is  taken  off  is  scrap  it  is  so  marked 
by  the  foreman  in  charge  and  taken  to 
scrap  bins  which  gives  the  shops  and 
round  house  a  better  appearance  and 
avoids  the  danger  of  falling  over  the 
scraps  on  the  floor  and  being  injured. 

We  have  successfully  cleaned  waste, 
that  has  been  used  to  clean  engines,  at  a 
very  small  cost  by  washing  machine 
which  was  built  here,  similar  to  those 
used  in  steam  laundries. 

Clinton  is  quite  a  railroad  center,  hav- 
ing five  districts,  namely  Chicago,  Wis- 
consin, Springfield,  Clinton  and  Havana, 
all  entering  one  of  the  best  depots  on 
the  Illinois  Central  lines.  The  depot  is 
surrounded  by  four  parks,  artistically  ar- 
ranged with  various  flowers  and  shrub- 
bery, owned  and  kept  up  by  the  com- 
pany which  gives  the  depot  a  grand  ap- 
pearance and  is  a  credit  to  the  city. 
The  depot  is  a  three-story  building  ac- 
commodating our  division  superintend- 
ent and  his  staff  with  offices.  Clinton 
is  a  city  of  six  thousand  population  and 
is  the  county  seat  with  fourteen  miles 
of  paved  streets  and  many  stores  that 
compare  favorably  with  cities  three 
times  the  size  of  Clinton.  It  is  sur- 
rounded with  a  rich  farming  district. 


68 


Passenger  Traffic 
Department 


Little  Talks  with  the 

Service  Notes 
of  interest 


A  Good  Time  Lost 


"PT  VERYTHING  helps,  you  know,"  said 
*— '  the  Rambler  one  noon  as  we  were 
lunching  together,  "and  I  have  a  notion 
that  I  will  be  helped  in  health  by  taking 
a  vacation."  "Been  working  pretty  hard?" 
I  said  to  him,  "or  are  you  just  imagining 
you  have  as  an  excuse?"  "O,  everyone 
knows  that  all  I  have  to  do  is  ride  around 
the  country,  dictate  a  letter  occasionally, 
give  and  receive  advice,  and  see  that  others 
keep  their  noses  to  the  grindstone,"  was 
the  laughing  reply.  "According  to  one's 
point  of  view,  that  is  work  or  it  is  not. 
You  ought  to  know.  The  most  laborious 
thing  I  recall  seeing  you  do  of  late  is  to 
ask  questions  of  me.  However,  the  fact 
is  that  I  have  recently  been  reading  an 
article  on  efficiency  and  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  if  I  would  increase  or 
maintain  mine  I  must  take  a  vacation.  As 
you  clearly  would  not  be  harmed  by  oiling 
up  your  own  efficiency  cogs,  why  not  come 
along  with  me?"  After  a  bit  more  of 
banter  we  became  serious  and  discussed 
the  feasibility  of  a  little  outing  together, 
with  the  result  that  while  it  was  found 
that  we  could  not  go  at  the  same  time 
I  agreed  to  meet  him  before  his  vacation 
was  over  so  that  we  would  be  in  each 
other's  company  for  a  week.  The  more 
we  discussed  the  "where"  to  go,  the  nearer 
agreed  we  became  that  we  wanted  to  ex- 
perience a  radical  change  from  our  usual 
environment,  and  the  Rambler  was  par- 
ticularly insistent  that  while  he  did  not 
want  to  isolate  himself  he  did,  as  he  was 
dealing  with  people  all  the  time,  desire 
to  avoid  coming  in  contact  with  any  more 
than  was  necessary  for  a  quiet  sociability. 
In  other  words,  while  he  by  no  means  de- 


sired  to  eritirely  exclude  the  human  ele- 
ment, he  wanted  it  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
"Just  enough,"  he  said,  "to  keep  young  and 
in  good  spirits." 

During  the  days  that  followed,  the  more 
we  talked  on  the  matter  as  a  whole,  and 
the  latter  phase  in  particular,  the  more 
thoughtful  he  seemed  to  be  over  it  as 
from  time  to  time,  on  meeting  him,  he 
asked  if  I  had  determined  where  we  should 
go.  It  was  not  for  nearly  two  weeks  after 
first  agreeing  broadly  on  the  subject  at 
our  noon  lunch  that  he  seemed  to  come 
to  a  determination  as  to  what  he  wanted 
to  do  in  the  matter,  which  was  rather  un- 
usual for  him,  as  he  was  generally  a  man 
of  quick  thought  and  action.  One  day, 
however,  he  came  into  my  office  with  his 
face  wreathed  in  smiles  and  exclaimed:  "I 
have  it!  We'll  go  play  with  the  kid,  or,  to 
be  more  specific,  with  some  good,  live- 
wire,  up-to-date  boy,  with  a  few  grown- 
ups for  a  balance,  and  I  know  such  a  boy. 
In  fact,  he  belongs  to  a  relative  who  has 
chided  me  often  for  neglecting  him  and 
his  family.  This  will  be  the  chance  for 
not  only  making  amends  along  social  lines, 
but  if  the  boy  is  anything  like  the  father, 
and  I  think  he  is,  he  will  at  least  keep  me 
just  interested  enough  to  drive  away  all 
thoughts  of  business  cares."  The  propo- 
sition seemed  rather  ambiguous  as  he 
thus  put  it,  but  on  a  little  questioning  I 
found  that  it  was  only  the  Rambler's  way 
of  getting  indirectly  at  his  subject  when 
he  was  in  a  merry  mood,  and  on  further 
questioning  the  plan  appealed  to  me  to 
go  to  his  relative's  summer  home  on  the 
New  England  coast.  This  home,  he  ex- 
plained, was  a  beautiful,  large  estate, 


69 


70 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


reached  only  by  nine  miles  of  steamboat- 
ing  from  the  nearest  railway  station,  the 
village  itself  consisting  of  four  houses  and 
a  colony  of  summer  resorters  of  three  fam- 
ilies and  their  visiting  friends,  in  which 
colony  the  combined  number  of  adults, 
young  people  and  children  made  things, 
he  was  sure,  far  from  dull  and  yet  free 
and  untrammeled  from  the  ordinary  con- 
ventions. "That  is,"  he  said,  "I  found  that 
to  be  the  case  when  I  visited  there  some 
eight  years  ago,  and  I  have  no  doubt  but 
that  the  same  conditions  still  prevail.  While 
isolated  in  a  way,  all  of  the  three  estates 
of  the  colony  have  comfortable  bungalows 
and  every  facility  in  the  way  of  motor  and 
sail  boats  for  the  aquatic  diversions  and 
automobiles  for  use  on  land."  I  gladly 
agreed  to  his  selection,  and  was  much 
amused  in  the  intervening  time  between 
then  and  his  departure  to  note  that  while 
he  spoke  enthusiastically  about  the  people 
and  the  place  that  we  were  going  to  see, 
his  mind  seemed  to  dwell  particularly  on 
the  boy,  who,  when  he  had  last  seen  him 
was  but  seven,  but  who  even  then,  in  his 
estimation,  bid  well  to  be  just  the  kind 
of  a  youngster  that  he  wanted  to  play 
with  at  his  present  age  of  fifteen.  I  was 
not  surprised,  therefore,  to  see  from  time 
to  time  significant  looking  packages  on 
his  desk  which  he  incidentally  told  me 
he  was  going  to  carry  to  the  bungalow. 
Hence,  I  was  quite  prepared  one  day  to 
see  there  a  long,  flat  package  on  which  was 
the  label  of  a  box  kite. 

In  due  time  the  Rambler  departed  on 
his  vacation  in  high  spirits,  I  to  follow  a 
week  later;  but  I  was  a  little  mystified 
four  days  after  his  leaving  to  receive  a 
terse  telegram  from  him  tHat  read  sim- 
ply, "A  good  time  lost."  I  failed  to  worry 
particularly  over  the  ambiguity  of  this 
message,  rightly  surmising  that  it  was  one 
of  his  little  jokes,  the  explanation  of  which 
would  be  learned  in  time.  But  as  a  happy 
comeback  on  him  and  as  a  record  of  a 
rather  singular  coincidence,  I  mailed  him 
a  short  article  that  I  had  read  only  the 
day  before  in  one  of  the  railway  publica- 
tions that  come  regularly  to  my  desk,  and 
which,  coincidently,  bore  practically  the 
same  heading  as  the  wording  of  his  tele- 
gram, i.  e.,  "Good  Time  Lost."  The  ar- 
ticle, the  publication  in  which  I  saw  it, 
by  the  way,  giving  no  information  as  to 
its  origin  beyond  a  formal  "clipped"  at 
the  end,  I  thought  rather  a  good  one,  in- 
dependent of  the  use  I  made  of  it.  So  I 
was  of  the  opinion  that  the  Rambler  would 
enjoy  seeing  it,  although  I  questioned  his 
thanking  me  for  thus  introducing  any  sug- 
gestion of  business  at  that  particular  time. 
As  I  have  said,  the  article  bore  the  cap- 
tion "Good  Time  Lost"  and  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

"A  circular  letter  requiring  a  reply  was 


recently  mailed  by  one  of  the  departments 
in  the  general  offices  to  all  station  agents. 
It  was  intended  that  the  agents  would  fill 
in  replies  to  certain  queries,  affix  their 
signatures  and  the  names  of  their  stations 
and  return  the  blank  to  the  general  of- 
fice. The  results  from  this  circular  were 
as  follows: 

Number  of  blanks  sent  out 345 

Blanks  returned  properly  filled  out~168 
Blanks     returned     improperly     filled 

out    65 

Blanks    returned  with   station   name 

lacking    71 

Stations  failing  to  reply 41 

"Possibly  the  71  agents  who  overlooked 
affixing  their  names,  as  well  as  the  65  who 
did  not  give  the  circular  sufficient  atten- 
tion to  reply  correctly,  may  find  sufficient 
excuse  to  satisfy  their  superior  office,  and 
that  excuse  may  be  'overwork.'  It  would 
be  easy  to  understand  how  an  agent  might 
be  overworked  if  he  were  compelled  to 
duplicate  items  of  his  daily  routine,  as 
he  most  certainly  will  have  to  do  in  the 
case  of  a  report  improperly  made  out, 
or  one  which  cannot  be  identified.  The 
above  instance  is  not  an  exceptional  one. 
It  has  been  the  experience  of  the  writer 
that  ten  to  twenty  per  cent  of  replies 
to  such  circulars  sent  to  station  agents  fail 
to  show  the  name  of  the  station,  and  in 
many  cases  the  agent's  name  is  also 
omitted.  A  similar  percentage  of  ineffi- 
ciency in  the  train  service,  the  track  main- 
tenance work  or  in  the  motive  power  and 
car  department,  would  certainly  spell  dis- 
aster for  the  company.  Why  should  the 
station  service  be  lacking  in  the  essential 
element  of  correctness?" — Clipped. 

I  joined  the  Rambler  in  due  course  and 
found  the  place,  the  few  people  with  whom 
we  came  in  contact,  the  air,  the  scenery 
and  the  diversions  much  to  my  liking.  The 
Rambler  seemed  a  great  favorite  with  the 
young  people,  although  he  was  also  liked 
and  enjoyed  by  the  fathers  and  mothers. 
He  seemed  as  young  as  any  in  entering 
into  their  sports,  in  the  suggesting  and 
carrying  out  of  excursions,  and  in  helping 
them  in  many  ways:  such  as  rendering  a 
hand  to  the  boys  in  building  their  hut 
in  the  woods,  gathering  driftwood  for  their 
beach  bonfire,  helping  make  and  sail  their 
toy  boats  or  entering  into  the  spirit  of 
their  evening  charade  parties,  joining  them 
in  their  little  dances  to  the  music  of  the 
phonograph,  and  in  many  other  ways.  But 
he  was  particularly  chummy  with  his  host's 
son,  of  whom  I  have  spoken.  It  is  true 
that  the  boy  more  often  than  otherwise 
left  the  Rambler  to  his  own  resources  as 
far  as  he,  the  boy,  was  concerned.  This 
the  Rambler  took  good-naturedly,  as  the 
boy  was  always  ready  to  follow  his  sug- 
gestions and  to  accept  his  help.  In  short, 
the  Rambler  was  being  a  boy  himself  again 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL' MAGAZINE 


71 


to  a  marked  degree,  much  to  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  entire  colony  who  voted  him 
the  most  popular  man  there  after  about 
two  days  of  his  sojourn.  So  busy  was 
he,  and  so  occupied  did  he  keep  me,  that 
I  forgot  the  incident  of  the  telegram  for 
several  days,  but  on  remembering  it  I 
asked  the  Rambler  what  it  meant.  "What 
did  I  say?"  he  queried,  with  a  smile  lurking 
in  the  corners  of  his  mouth.  "  'A  good 
time  lost?"  "Oh,  yes,  I  remember.  Well, 
I  surely  was  having  a  good  time  with 
that  boy  flying  his  box  kite.  You  ought 
to  feel  the  exhilaration  of  a  thing  like 
that,  the  kite,  almost  out  of  sight,  away  up 
in  the  air,  the  string  tugging  at  your  hands. 
Oh,  you  needn't  laugh.  If  you  keep  up-to- 
date  you  will  find  that  many  mature,  and 
particularly  scientific  men,  take  great  pleas- 
ure in  flying  box  kites,  and  have  reduced 
the  art  to  a  fine  point  both  in  their  man- 
ufacture and  in  flying  them."  "Yes,"  I 
replied,  "that  accounts  for  the  'good  time,' 
but  how  did  you  lose  it?"  "Lost  the 
kite,"  was  the  quick  response,  as  he  gave 
a  little  chuckle.  "You  see,"  he  went  on 
to  explain,  "kite  flying  had  not  been  a 
great  success  down  here  I  was  told,  and 
when  that  box  kite  I  brought  was  set 
up  there  were  exclamations  of  joy  from 
both  young  and  old,  for  it  promised  a 
new  sensation  if  successful.  Well,  it  went 
up  beautifully;  the  wind  was  strong  and 
it  soared  higher  and  higher,  and  we,  the 
boy  and  I,  had  got  to  the  end  of  the 
string.  With  the  resourcefulness  of  a 
youngster  he  ran  off  and  brought  back 
the  string  from  one  of  his  kites  that  had 
been  a  failure.  This  was  added  and  up, 
up  the  kite  went,  still  further,  until  the 
second  string  was  exhausted.  Oliver  Twist- 
like,  however,  we  cried  for  more,  and  the 
boy  started  off  for  the  one  store  of  the 
community  to  see  what  could  be  done  in 
the  way  of  still  more  string.  Well,  you 
know,"  he  continued  with  rather  a  sheep- 
ish grin,  "it's  some  years  now  since  I 
was  a  boy,  and  possibly  I  forgot  some  of 
the  tricks  about  kit  flying  that  I  might 
have  once  known,  for  exhilarating  as  the 
sport  was,  in  feeling  the  pull  of  the  string 
of  the  kite,  then  almost  out  of  sight,  I 
got  a  bit  weary  of  it  before  the  boy  re- 
turned, particularly  as  the  wind  was  rather 
strong  and  the  string,  with  its  constant 
jerks,  was  beginning  to  cut  my  fingers. 
So,  forgetting  that  the  pulline  of  my  hands 
more  or  less  by  the  string  was  an  easing 
of  the  strain  which  made  the  string  safe. 
T  thought  to  still  enjoy  the  beauty  of  that 
thing  up  in  the  ethereal  blue  and  at  the 
same  time  relieve  myself  of  some  little 
exertion  by  tying  the  string  to  the  one 
tree  that  stood  sentinel-like  on  the  bar- 
ren hill  from  which  the  flying  was  being 
done.  Sad  thought!"  said  the  Rambler,  in 
a  droll  tone  of  mock  sadness  and  with 


a  slow  shake  of  his  head.  It  hadn't  been 
tied  to  that  tree  more  than  three  minutes 
before  some  vicious  upper  current  gave 
the  kite  a  jerk  and  snapped  the  string  off 
only  about  ten  feet  from  the  tree.  Neither 
the  boy  nor  myself  have  seen  that  kite 
since  it  ceased  to  be  a  speck  in  the  clouds. 
I  certainly  was  enjoying  myself  with  it, 
and  if  its  unceremonious  departure  did 
not  make  for  me  'a  good  time  Ipst,' " 
he  laughed,  "I'd  like  to  know  what  would. 
However,  you  came  back  with  that  clip- 
ping of  yours  reading  the  same  as  my 
telegram  in  rather  good  fashion.  In  a 
way,  it  fitted  the  case  exactlv.  It  told  of 
the  agent's  shortcomings  in  little,  appar- 
ently unimportant  matters  in  the  formality 
of  answering  inquiries;  so  I,  in  not  con- 
tinuing to  hold  that  kite  string,  forgot 
an  essential  that  made  all  the  difference  be- 
tween efficiency  on  my  part  and  ineffi- 
ciency." 

We  were  sitting  on  the  boat  landing 
steps  as  we  talked,  the  Rambler  being 
busy,  as  he  chatted,  with  a  jack  knife  and 
a  piece  of  soft  pine  wood,  as  though  he 
got  the  Yankee  trait  of"  whittling  as  an 
aid  to  thought.  I  was  not  surprised,  there- 
fore, to  hear  him  continue  in  a  strain  evi- 
dently suggested  by  what  he  had  said  in 
regard  to  the  kite  episode.  "That  reminds 
me,"  said  he,  "of  a  rather  clever  article 
I  recently  read  in  the  advertising  section 
of  the  'Outlook'  on  the  subject  of  trans- 
portation efficiency.  I  do  not  recall  it  ex- 
cept in  an  interestingly  broad  way,  but 
remember  that  it  touched  on  the  social 
value  of  modern  transportation  facilities, 
on  the  fact  that  the  railroad  business  had 
created  of  itself  a  great  industry  while  at 
the  same  time  rendering  the  public  a  serv- 
ice that  carried  with  it  many  social,  eco- 
nomic and  physical  benefits.  Also  I  re- 
member that  it  expatiated  on  what  the  pas- 
senger transportation  end  of  the  business 
meant  to  the  public  in  recreation  and 
health  building,  and  on  the  magnificent  de- 
velopment and  systematizing  of  endless 
comforts,  enjoyments  and  luxuries  that 
have  been  given  the  public  in  passenger 
travel,  not  omitting  a  reference  to  the  great 
stretches  of  suburban  districts  that  have 
been  opened  throughout  the  country  by 
the  railroads  on  account  of  which  the  busi- 
ness man  in  the  town  or  city  is  given  the 
opportunity  of  experiencing  the  delights  of 
rural  life  in  the  locating  of  his  home. 
Other  matters  were  covered  in  the  article, 
such  as  .relating  why  and  how  the  alleged 
'remarkable  efficiency'  of  the  railroads  has 
been  obtained,  the  argument  being  sup- 
ported by  many  lists  and  statistics.  But 
the  thought  that  it  all  suggests  to  my  mind 
finds  a  practical  illustration  in  what  I  am 
doing  with  my  jack  knife  here.  You  re- 
member in  that  article  you  sent  that 
among  other  things,  some  of  the  blanks 


72 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


that  were  returned  failed  to  bear  the  sta- 
tion name  and  many  of  them  were  lacking 
the  signature  of  the  agent  sending  it  in. 
While  the  word  'careless'  may  possibly  be 
used  in  such  connection,  to  my  mind  it 
hardly  seems  to  fully  cover  the  case.  Un- 
doubtedly many  of  the  delinquents  men- 
tioned were  ordinarily  painstaking,  thought- 
ful and  careful  men.  Hence  their  oversight 
might  have  been  due  to  preoccupation  and 
concentration  of  mind  on  the  main  sub- 
ject of  filling  up  the  blank,  resulting  in 
failure  to  grasp  the  task  as  a  whole  and 
include  the  finishing  or  incidental  parts. 
As  if,"  he  suggested  as  an  aside,  "one 
should  be  so  relieved  at  having  finished 
a  social  letter  that  the  importance  of  ad- 
dressing an  envelope  for  it  is  overlooked. 
For  which  reason,"  he  laughed,  "in  my  per- 
sonal correspondence  I  always  address  my 
envelope  first.  But  whatever  the  reason," 
he  concluded,  "in  those  particular  instances 
there  was  illustrated  a  lack  of  efficiency  of 
the  mind  in  not  grasping  the  entire  detail 
of  what  should  have  been  done  to  properly 
cover  the  situation." 

He  stopped  and  began  to  give  minute  at- 
tention to  the  shaping  of  the  piece  of  wood 
he  was  whittling,  which  was  a  sign  to  me 
that  he  was  not  only  being  efficient  in 
the  particular  task  he  had  set  for  himself 
with  that  wood,  but  that  he  was  thinking 
how  to  express  his  next  thought.  The  lat- 
ter, rather  to  my  relief,  proved  to  be,  in 
a  way,  of  lighter  vein,  and  started  off  ap- 
parently at  a  different  angle.  "A  healthy 
boy's  mind  is  mighty  active,  you  know," 
he  began,  "and  but  for  lack  of  acquired 
knowledge  and  experience  would  have,  I 
am  sure,  an  efficiency  rating  of  one  hun- 
dred per  cent.  That  little  chum  of  mine 
here  is  a  shining  example  of  that  type.  He 
lost  but  little  time  mourning  over  the  loss 
of  his  kite,  but  took  up  the  rehabilitation 
of  a  small  sail  boat,  of  crude  home  manu- 
facture, that  he  had  traded  for  the  day 
before  with  another  lad  of  the  colony.  I 
enjoyed  puttering  around  with  him  on  that 
job,  showing  him  how  to  attach  a  tiller 
to  the  post  of  a  rudder  that  he  had  skill- 
fully fashioned  and  placed,  I  making  a  new 
bowsprit  while  he  worked  on  the  tiller, 
and  particularly  busy  was  I  in  the  placing 
of  lead  on  the  keel  to  give  the  boat  the 
desired  stability;  for,  notwithstanding  its 
rough  manufacture,  it  was  in  the  boy's 
mind  that  the  little  craft  should  be  a  racer 
and  beat  a  similar  one  concerning  which 
his  chum  Billy  had  made  boasts.  In  due 
course  we  came  down  here  to  the  boat  land- 
inf  to  test  the  craft  and  found  it  lacking 
in  buoyancy.  So  back  to  the  barn  we  had 
to  go  and  fashion  and  place  new  and 
larger  pieces  of  wood  between  the  keel  and 


the  deck;  for  the  boat  had  been  primitively 
made  on  the  T  principle.  A  second  trip  to 
the  landing  followed,  and  with  a  strong 
wind  blowing  the  little  boat  was  again  put 
into  the  water.  To  our  mutual  joy  it  sailed 
off  in  brave  fashion  over  the  somewhat 
rough  waters  of  the  bay,  rapidly  taking  up 
the  entire  length  of  a  ball  of  string  that 
the  boy  held  loosely  in  his  hand,  the  end  of 
which  was  attached  to  the  boat.  The  boy's 
intent  was  to  set  the  craft  afloat  and  let 
it  take  its  course,  we  to  follow  in  a  row 
boat.  At  my  suggestion,  however,  to  save 
time  and  trouble  in  case  it  was  not  yet  in 
trim  for  a  practical  trial,  the  string  was 
reluctantly  attached.  On  the  latter  being 
all  run  out  the  tiny  sail  of  the  boat  was 
visible  in  the  distance  only  as  it  arose 
above  the  waves  and  the  sunlight  struck 
it  at  the  proper  angle.  The  boy,  naturally, 
was  adverse  to  pulling  the  boat  back  by 
the  string,  so  we  followed  it  in  a  row  boat 
and  overtook  it  in  due  time.  It  was  then 
insisted  that  the  boat  be  given  a  further 
trial,  running  free  of  the  string,  to  see 
where  it  needed  tuning  up.  So  the  boy 
broke  the  string  and  we  watched  the  ac- 
tion of  the  little  craft  as  it  .sailed  unin- 
fluenced by  aught  but  the  wind,  wave  and 
its  construction  and  rig.  The  point  I  have 
in  mind  in  this  connection,"  said  the 
Rambler  thoughtfully,  as  he  paid  for  the 
moment  particularly  close  attention  to  his 
whittling,  "is  that  the  boy  unconsciously 
was  working  out  a  problem  of  efficiency. 
He  does  not-know,  perhaps,  that  the  weight 
of  the  string  in  the  water  acted  as  does 
the  tail  to  a  kite,  and  steadied  his  boat 
to  a  degree  that  aided  materially  in  its 
successful  sailing.  But  he  would  never  be 
satisfied  with  sailing  that  craft  at  the  end 
of  a  string,  especially  as  his  chief  motive 
in  getting  it  in  shape  is  for  the  race  I 
have  mentioned.  After  all  final  adjustments 
are  made  on  it  that  may  occur  to  his 
mind,  you  may  be  sure  it  will  be  sailed  with- 
out a  string.  Hence,  I  am  whittling  out  a 
little  dingy  to  be  towed  by  the  sail  boat. 
It  will  not  only  appeal  to  his  boyish  fancy, 
but  will  help  to  steady  it  in  the  sailing,  all 
of  which  will  be  explained  to  him,  and 
which  I  am  sure  will  appeal  to  his  active 
mind.  In  other  words,  you  see,"  said  the 
Rambler,  as  he  closed  his  knife  and  putting 
it  in  his  pocket  we  arose  to  go,  "the  little 
boat  that  is  to  be  towed  astern  is  an  effi- 
ciency matter,  both  in  the  boy's  training 
and  in  the  sailing  of  the  boat,  akin  to  the 
signature  of  a  letter.  As  everything  helps, 
I  am  sure  if  the  little  chap  ever  becomes  a 
station  agent,  this  small  practical  illustra- 
tion of  efficiency  will  help  him  in  remem- 
bering to  sign  his  name  to  his  letters." 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


Tariff  circular  No.  185,  I.  C.,  and  No. 
95,  Y.  &  M.  V.,  just  issued,  in  regard  to  all- 
year-round  rail  and  water  tours,  show  that 
effective  October  1,  1915,  such  tours  will 
be  available  via  Southern  Pacific  Steam- 
ships, between  New  York  and  New  Orleans; 
via  United  Fruit  Co.,  between  New  York 
and  New  Orleans  via  Havana,  Cuba;  via 
Southern  Pacific  Steamships  between  New 
Orleans  and  Havana  in  connection  with 
New  York  and  Cuba  Mail  SS.  Co.,  (Ward 
Line)  between  Havana  and  New  York;  via 
Ocean  Steamship  Co.  of  Savannah,  between 
Savannah  and  New  York.  It  will  be  noted 
that  the  list  includes  an  unusual  variety  of 
water  and  rail  routes  for  either  the  winter 
or  summer  tourist,  and  that  among  them 
there  is  a  new  one  to  which  the  agent's  at- 
tention is  particularly  called,  i.  e.,  the  rail 
and  water  tour  via  the  Oceaii  Steamship 
Co.  of  Savannah  between  Savannah  and 
New  York. 

This  is  not  only  a  new,  but  will  undoubt- 
edly prove  to  many  a  particlarly  attractive 
route,  both  on  account  of  its  being  the 
lesser  fare  tour  of  them  all  from  points  in 
the  north,  and  because  the  country  covered 
by  the  rail  portion  includes  the  privilege  of 
a  stop-over  at  Birmingham,  Ala,  a  city 
more  than  well  worth  seeing,  and  at  the 
intensely  interesting  southern  city  of  Savan- 
nah. This  last  is  a  city  not  visited  nearly 
as  much  as  its  attractions  deserve,  and  its 
new  and  modern  hotel  accommodations 
complete  the  inducements  for  a  visit  there 
en  route.  In  addition,  the  Ocean  Steamship 
Company's  service,  which  is  of  the  highest 
grade  and  character,  gives  a  voyage  just 
long  enough  to  satisfy  a  certain  class  of 
tourists,  occupying  as  it  does  but  two  and 
one-half  days  from  Savannah  to  New  York. 

As  combined  rail  and  water  tours  are  be- 
coming more  popular  every  year,  it  is  ex- 
pected that  this  new  one  via  Savannah  will 
prove  of  much  interest  to  the  traveling 
public.  Hence,  it  is  suggested  that  agents 
and  representatives  make  all  due  effort  to 
have  the  Savannah  tour  known  by  pros- 
pective passengers. 


The  Western  Maryland  Railway  has  add- 
ed to  its  tital  the  slogan  "Mason  and  Dixon 
Line."  it  in  future  to  be  officially  known  as 
the  "Western  Maryland  Railway  Company 
— The  Mason  and  Dixon  Line."  It  thus 
links  its  name  with,  and  perpetuates  the 
popular  appelation  of  an  important  his- 
torical event,  which,  more  than  150  years 
ago,  resulted  in  permanently  fixing  the 
boundary  between  Maryland  and  Pennsyl- 
vania; the  line  thus  established  being  popu- 


larly known  for  years  after  as  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line. 

Nearly  100  years  before  the  Western 
Maryland  was  ever  thought  of  as  a  railroad 
the  two  surveyors,  Mason  and  Dixon, 
known  all  over  England  on  account  of  their 
engineering  ability,  came  to  this  country 
for  the  purpose  of  running  an  east  and  west 
line  through  the  wilds  of  the  eastern  por- 
tion of  the  country.  They  were  brought 
here  by  Lord  Baltimore  and  Thomas  and 
Richard  Penn  of  London.  They  began  their 
labors  in  1763. 

The  railroad  had  two  reasons  for  adopt- 
ing the  new  name.  In  the  first  place,  it 
operates,  for  the  most  part,  in  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania,  the  two  states  through 
which  the  line  extends,  and,  in  the  second 
place,  the  road  crosses  and  recrosses  the 
line  surveyed  at  several  points  in  both 
spates.  It  crosses  it  near  Blue  Ridge  Sum- 
mit, again  near  Cumberland,  at  Lineboro,  at 
Highfield  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pen- 
Mar. 


The  North  Western  Monthly  bulletin  has 
the  following  on  how  to  increase  parlor 
car  revenue,  which,  while  addressed  to 
agents  of  that  line,  is  equally  applicable 
to  those  of  all  railroads: 

"Where  parlor  cars  are  run  to  accommo- 
date patrons,  it  is  desirable  to  have  them 
filled  to  as  near  seating  capacity  as  possible, 
in  order  to  furnish  sufficient  revenue  to 
justify  the  extra  character  of  the  service. 

"At  stations  where  parlor  car  tickets  are 
on  sale,  if  Ticket  Agents  when  selling  pas- 
sage tickets  for  trains  carrying  parlor  cars, 
would  make  the  inquirv  in  a  winning  tone, 
'Parlor  Car  Ticket,  Sir  (or  Madam),'  it 
would  doubtless  lead  in  many  cases  to  sale 
of  parlor  car  seat  ticket  also  that  might 
not  otherwise  be  purchased.  If  at  other 
stations  on  parlor  car  runs,  when  Ticket 
Agents  sell  passage  tickets  for  trains  carry- 
ing parlor  cars,  the  suggestion  'Parlor  car 
on  the  train.  Sir.  in  which  porter  can  ar- 
range for  seat.'  may  similarly  lead  to  pas- 
senerers  using  parlor  cars  in  many  instances 
and  increase  the  revenue  from  that  source." 


A  manufacturing  company  of  prominence 
has  issued  an  attractive  card  on  which  the 
fo11owinf  tribute  to  railroads  is  given: 

"A  railroad  is  not  the  unfeeling  and  re- 
lentless devourer  of  automobiles  at  grade 
crossings,  described  by  imoassioned  advo- 
rptps  in  crowded  court  rooms.  The  whistle 
of  rlantrer  is  an  engineer's  use  of  a  niece  of 
machi"p™.  b"t  it  is  ?>1co  the  echo  of  a  man's 
thoueht  for  his  own  babies  left  at  home. 


73 


74 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


"A  railroad  has  been  likened  to  an  octopus 
by  those  who  do  not  know  the  flesh  and 
blood  and  personality  of  railroads.  The 
soul  of  a  railroad  is  Fidelity,  and  if  a  rail- 
road is  an  octopus,  it  is  an  octopus  with  a 
soul. 

"A  railroad  is  a  disciplined  power,  owning 
rails  and  cars  and  locomotives;  engaging 
the  highest  quality  of  mechanical  skill  and 
expert  knowledge;  but  the  glory  of  a  rail- 
road is  the  adjustment  of  its  living  nerves 
to  patience,  courtesy,  speed  and  safety." 


The  "Information  Circular"  of  the  Erie 
Railroad  has  been  publishing  various  inter- 
esting items  concerning  the  history  of  that 
road,  and  in  its  August  number,  in  men- 
tioning the  opposition  that  arose  toward 
the  construction  of  the  line  in  the  early 
days  of  railroading,  the  following  occurs: 

"Buffalo  had  the  Erie  Canal,  and  a  num- 
ber of  stage  routes,  and  was  perfectly  satis- 
fied; in  fact,  some  of  its  enterprising  cit- 
izens were  alarmed  for  fear  that  the  rail- 


road would  put  these  other  'great  enter- 
prises out  of  business.'  Anyway,  it  was 
argued,  it  would  take  more  than  a  century 
to  build  the  line.  A  friend  of  the  canal  liv- 
ing in  Buffalo,  and  opposed  to  the  building 
of  the  road,  argued  that  a  locomotive  was 
noisy,  dirty  and  a  menace  to  vehicular 
travel.  'WTiy,'  said  he,  'the  other  day  a 
locomotive  frightened  a  team  of  canal  mules 
so  that  they  jumped  into  the  canal  and 
drowned!' " 


By  changes  of  time  on  Southern  Lines 
(Tennessee,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  Divi- 
sions) effective  Sunday,  August  22nd,  Fast 
Mail  train  No.  5  now  arrives  at  New  Or- 
leans at  8:10  A.  M..  instead  of  9:10  A.  M., 
leaving  Fulton  at  3:30  P.  M.;  connecting 
train  No.  105  for  Memphis  leaving  Fulton 
at  3:30  instead  of  at  3:35  P.  M.,  and  arriving 
at  Memphis  as  at  present.  Train  No.  134, 
between  Memphis  and  Fulton,  was  also 
changed  to  leave  Memphis  at  5:00  P.  M.,  in- 
stead of  at  4:35  P.  M.,  arriving  at  Fulton 
at  9:35  P.  M. 


Name 
Weldon  Harris 

(colored) 
George  Thomas 

(colored) 
Lathrop  P.  Farn- 

ham 

Lawrence  O'Brien 
Patrick  King 
Charles  E.  Adams 
John  N.  Abbott 
Byron  K.  Kilborne 
Carl  F.  Johnson 
Thos.  E.  Shadron 
Sidney  De  Berry 

(colored) 


Occupation 
Section  laborer 


Where 
Employed 


Oxford 


Section  laborer         Arlington 


Ticket  agent 
Engineman 
Section  foreman 
Train  baggageman 
Conductor 
Agent 

Section  foreman 
Switchman 
Y.  &  M.  V.  Cross- 
ing flagman 


Harvey 
Clinton 
Jackson 
Centralia 
New  Orleans 
Fort  Dodge 
Archer 
Murphysboro 

Memphis 


NUMA  GRAVELLE 


Service 
15  years 
34  years 

21  years 
44  years 
18  years 

38  years 
26  years 

34  years 

35  years 
29  years 

39  years 


Date  of 
Retirement 

3-31-15 
8-31-15 

8-31-15 
5-31-15 
8-31-15 
5-31-15 
5-31-15 
8-31-15 
9-30-15 
2-28-15 


J7  NTERED  the  services  of  the  Illi- 
*-^  nois  Central  Railroad  in  1872,  and 
served  consecutively  as  Flagman,  Fire- 
man, Switchman  and  Engine  Pilot,  up 
to  June  21st,  1914,  when  through  an 
accident  he  lost  his  right  foot.  Mr. 


Gravelle  was  recently  pensioned.  His 
services  were  satisfactory  and  honor- 
able to  a  degree,  and  the  hope  of  this 
publication  is  that  he  will  live  for 
many  years  to  enjoy  the  recognition 
which  this  company  has  given  him. 


JLLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


75 


Los  Angeles,  Calif.,  July  8,  1915. 
Mr.  N.  P.  Mills,  Train  Master, 
Illinois  Central  R.  R., 
Fort  Dodge,  Iowa. 
Dear  Sir: 

It  is  with  no  small  feeling  of  mingled  regret  and  gratitude  that  I  received 
your  letter  of  July  2  informing  me  of  my  retirement  from  service  on  a  pension, 
as  per  my  request,  my  retirement  being  due  to  failing  health. 

The  regret  is  due  to  the  realization  that  my  life  work  is  at  an  end,  although 
I  am  by  no  means  old  enough  to  be  retired  arbitrarily  because  of  having  reached 
the  age  limit. 

For  thirty  years  I  was  an  employe  of  the  Illinois  Central,  and  have  nothing 
but  a  feeling  of  gratitude  to  my  officials  who  so  appreciated  my  efforts  that  they 
perhaps  in  many  ways  closed  their  official  eyes  to  mistakes  that  I  made,  believ- 
ing undoubtedly  that  I  was  doing  my  best.  Retiring,  my  record  is  as  clear  as 
it  was  when  turned  over  to  me  at  the  beginning  of  my  services.  I  further  appre- 
ciate assistance  rendered  me  in  securing  the  pension,  and  they  certainly  have  my 
best  wishes  for  future  success. 

Through  my  remaining  years  my  time  will  be  to  do  whatever  I  can  to  assist  all 
connected  with  the  Illinois  Central. 

Very  truly  yours, 
(Signed)  A.  R.  Wylie, 

3106  Brighton  Ave. 


NUMA  GRAVELLE. 


A.  R.  WYLJE. 


the 


Biographical  Sketch  No.  16 


EDWARD  MAYES 

76 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


77 


P  DWARD  MAYES,  youngest  child 
*~*  of  Hon.  Daniel  Mayes,  was  born 
near  Jackson,  Mississippi,  on  Dec.  15, 
1846.  He  attended  Bethany  College,  in 
Brooke  county  Virginia  (now  West  Vir- 
ginia), during  the  winter  of  1860--61, 
which  was  then  under  the  presidency  of 
the  Rev.  Alexander  Campbell.  In  the 
years  1863  and  first  half  of  1863,  he 
managed  a  clothing  store  in  Jackson  for 
Thomas  Lemly ;  the  owner,  and  his  sons 
being  in  the  Confederate  service.  Jack- 
son was  captured  by  the  Federal  army 
in  May,  1863,  and  Mr.  Lemly's  store, 
with  others,  was  plundered.  Edward 
Mayes  then  went  to  Carrollton,  Missis- 
sippi, and  spent  the  latter  part  of  1863 
in  studying  under  a  Mr.  Ray  and  in  as- 
sisting him  to  teach  school. 

In  April,  1864,  he  enlisted  as  a  pri- 
vate in  Company  H,  Fourth  Regiment, 
of  Mississippi  Cavalry  (Wilbourn,  colo- 
nel), in  which  he  served  until  the  end  of 
the  war.  Was  in  the  battle  at  Harris- 
burg  (Tupelo)  in  July,  1864,  and  minor 
engagements. 

In  October,  1865,  he  entered  the  fresh- 
man class  of  the  State  University.  He 
graduated  in  June,  1868,  having  com- 
pleted the  four-year  course  in  three 
years.  He  then  read  law  at  his  home 
in  Carrollton  (to  which  place  his  wid- 
owed mother  had  removed  in  1865). 

On  the  llth  day  of  May,  1869,  he  was 
married  to  Frances  Eliza,  daughter  of 
L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  at  Oxford,  Mississip- 
pi, and  in  Tune  1869,  received  the  de- 
gree of  B.  L.  from  the  State  University 
which  entitled  him  to  practice  law. 

In  1871,  after  serving  a  year  as  tutor 
of  English  at  the  University,  he  removed 
to  Coffeeville,  Mississippi,  and  there  en- 
tered the  active  practice  of  law.  In  May, 
1872,  he  removed  to  Oxford;  and  in 
1877  was  elected  professor  of  law  in  the 
University,  which  position  he  filled  until 
December,  1891.  About  1886  the  degree 
of  LL.  D.  was  conferred  on  him  by  Mis- 
sissippi College.  In  1887  he  was  elect- 
ed chairman  of  the  faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity, performing  the  usual  duties  of 
a  chancellor,  and  in  1889,  the  chancellor- 
ship having  been  re-establis-hed,  was 
elected  to  the  office.  While  chairman,  he 
successfully  defended,  in  a  newspaper 


controversy  with  Senator  J.  Z.  George, 
the  endowment  act  of  1880,  by  which 
the  state  had  recognized  its  indebtedness 
to  the  University,  and  provided  for  an  ap- 
propriation of  the  annual  interest  on  the 
debt.  Under  Dr.  Mayes'  chancellorship 
the  course  of  study  at  the  University 
was  remodeled,  the  close  curriculum  be- 
ing abandoned,  and  the  present  system 
of  parallel  courses  and  independent 
schools  being  established.  He  also 
erected  the  present  library  building,  hav- 
ing the  bricks  burned  on  the  grounds, 
and  all  of  the  work  done  by  day  labor, 
paying  for  the  same  out  of  the  ordinary 
revenues  of  the  institution.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Mississippi  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1890,  he  served  as  chair- 
man of  the  committee  on  bill  of  rights 
and  general  provisions ;  and  many  of  the 
constitutional  provisions  originated  by 
him,  among  them  being  the  provision  by 
which  the  officers  for  the  state  at  large 
are  elected  by  the  electoral  vote  of  coun- 
ties. In  December,  1891,  Chancellor 
Mayes  voluntarily  resigned  his  office  and 
professorship,  in  order  to  move  to  Jack- 
son and  enter  upon  the  practice  of  law. 
Since  then  he  has  been  employed  as  dis- 
trict attorney  for  Mississippi  by  the  Illi- 
nois Central  and  the  Yazoo  &  Mississip- 
pi Valley  Railroad  Companies,  and  has 
taken  a  leading  part  in  several  of  the 
most  important  cases  in  the  legal  history 
of  the  state. 

On  the  establishment  of  the  law  school 
in  Millsaps  College  in  1895,  he  was  elect- 
ed a  professor  of  law  and  dean  of  the 
law  faculty,  which  latter  position  he  still 
holds.  In  1900  he  was  chosen  a  presi- 
dential elector  on  the  Democratic  ticket. 
In  1891,  and  again,  in  1901,  he  was  ap- 
pointed delegate  to  the  Ecumenical  Con- 
ferences of  the  Methodist  Church, 
South,  of  which  he  has  been  a  member 
since  his  college  days.  He  was  a  charter 
member,  and  the  first  president  of  the 
Mississippi  Historical  Society,  and  is  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  and 
ripest  scholars  in  the  South.  Dr.  Mayes 
has  made  the  following  contributions  to 
Mississippi  literature :  "A  Glance  at  the 
Fountains  of  Our  Land  Titles"  (Mis- 
sissippi Bar  Association  Minutes.  1887)  ; 
"The  Administration  of  Estates  in  Mis- 


78 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


sisippi"  (Ibid.,  1891)  ;  "Origin  of  the 
Pacific  Railroads,  and  especially  of  the 
Southern  Pacific"  (Publications  of  the 
Mississippi  Historical  Society,  1902)  ; 
"Life,  Times  and  Speeches  of  L.  Q.  C. 
Lamar"  (Large  8vo.  1896)  ;  "History  of 
Education  in  Mississippi"  (8vo.,  pub- 
lished as  a  public  document  by  the 
United  States  government,  1899)  ;  "Ribs 
of  the  Law,"  an  elementary  work  on 
Mississippi  jurisprudence. 

Edward  Mayes  has  also  written  and 
published  in  various  periodicals  a  num- 
ber of  other  articles  on  legal  and  his- 


torical subjects.  He  was  offered  in 
1905,  by  Governor  Vardaman,  first,  a 
seat  on  the  Supreme  bench  of  the 
state,  and  secondly,  the  chancellor- 
ship of  the  University,  both  of  which 
he  declined,  preferring  to  remain  in  the 
active  practice  of  law ;  and  the  chancel- 
lorship was  again  offered  him  by  Gov- 
ernor Brewer,  in  1914.  In  1902  he  was 
appointed  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Ar- 
chives and  History,  on  the  establish- 
ment of  that  board;  and  in  1912  was 
made  president  of  it. 


Recent  Commerce  Decisions 


VALUATIONS  of  live  stock— Cummins 
Amendment. — In  Iowa-  State  Board  of 
Railroad  Commissioners  vs.  A.  T.  &  S.  F. 
R.  R.  Co.,  36  I.  C.  C.  79,  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  in  its  opinion  rendered 
July  30,  1915,  states  that  on  March  4,  1915, 
Congress  passed  the  Cummins  Amendment 
to  Section  20  of  the  Act  to  Regulate  Com- 
merce; that  this  amendment  was  construed 
by  the  Commission  in  33  I.  C.  C.  682,  697, 
where  it  was  said  that,  "Where  rates  are 
lawfully  based  upon  declared  values  the 
difference  in  rates  should  be  no  more  than 
fair  and  reasonably  represents  the  added  in- 
surance;" that  this  amendment  has  in  effect 
abolished  in  interstate  commerce  the  whole 
system  of  released  rates  based  on  agreed 
valuations  as  distinguished  from  actual 
value;  and  the  Commission's  opinion  pro- 
ceeds: "The  carrier  only  'insures'  the  prop- 
erty which  it  receives  for  transportation. 
It  is,  strictly  speaking,  not  an  insurer  at  all, 
but  a  bailee  for  hire  which,  in  that  capacity, 
has  statutory  as  well  as  common-law  obli- 
gations for  the  safety  of  property  com- 
mitted to  its  charge.  Cases  may  arise 
where  elements  other  than  the  amount  of 
damages  which  might  be  recovered,  as,  for 
example,  the  degree  of  care  required  and 
the  value  of  the  service  to  the  shipper, 
would  have  a  substantial  bearing  upon  the 
reasonableness  of  rates  graded  according 
to  value,  as  well  as  of  other  rates.  As  was 
said  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  N.  P.  Ry.  vs. 
North  Dakota,  236  U.  S..  585,  at  599: 
'There  are  many  factors  to  be  considered — 
differences  in  the  articles  transported,  the 
care  required,,  the  risk  assumed,  the  value 
of  the  service,  and  it  is  obviously  im- 
portant that  there  should  be  reasonable 
adjustments  and  classifications.' " 

Applving  the  principles  enunciated  in  the 
Cummins  Amendment  Case  33.  I.  C.  C.  682, 
the  Commission  holds  that,  taking  each  class 


of  animals  by  itself  and  making  due  al- 
lowance for  the  minimum,  maximum  and 
average  values  of  each,  the  scheduled  values 
carried  in  the  present  live  stock  contracts 
are  unjustly  and  unreasonably  low  and  not 
representative  of  the  average  actual  value 
of  the  animals  shipped  thereunder;  that  the 
present  rates  may  be  applied  to  the  follow- 
ing values  (which  are  below  indicated  as 
fixed  by  the  Commission)  and  that  reason- 
able rates  for  the  transportation  of  any 
animal  of  actual  value  exceeding  the  amount 
specified  in  this  table  as  fixed  by  the  Com- 
mission may  exceed  said  present  rates  by 
not  more  than  two  per  cent  of  said  present 
rates  for  each  50  per  cent  or  fraction  there- 
of of  actual  value  over  and  above  that 
named  in  this  table: 

Fixed    by        Superseded 
Commission.         Values. 
Each    horse,    or  pony 
(gelding,    mare,    or 
stallion),  mule,  jack, 

or  jenny  $150  $100 

Each  colt,  under  one 

year 75  50 

Each  ox,  bull,  or  steer     75  50 

Each    cow   50  30 

Each  calf  20  10 

Each  hog  15  10 

Each   sheep  5  3 

Sample  baggage  rule. — In  Jewelers'  Pro- 
tective Union  vs.  P.  R.  Co.,  36  I.  C.  C.  71, 
opinion  by  Mr.  Commissioner  Hall,  it  was 
held  that  the  carriers'  regulation  defining 
sample  baggage  as  that  "carried  by  com- 
mercial travelers  .  .  .  and  not  for  sale 
or  free  distribution"  is  unreasonable  and 
that  a  reasonable  regulation  defining  sample 
baggage  would  be  as  follows: 

"Sample  baggage  consists  of  baggage  for 
the  commercial,  as  distinguished  from  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


79 


personal,  use  of  the  passenger,  and  is  re- 
stricted to  catalogues,  models  and  samples 
of  goods,  wares  or  merchandise  in  trunks 
or  other  suitable  containers  tendered  by  the 
passenger  for  checking  as  baggage  to  be 
transported  on  a  passenger  train,  for  use 
by  him  in  making  sales  or  other  disposi- 
tion of  the  goods,  wares  or  merchandise 
represented  thereby." 

On  the  question  of  the  public  interest  in 
proceedings  before  the  Commission,  the 
opinion  proceeds: 

"The  interests  of  the  public  cannot  go 
by  default  in  any  proceeding  before  the 
Commission.  They  must  be  considered  as 
fully  as  those  of  the  parties.  Unlike  the 
decision  of  a  court,  which  ordinarily  is 
conclusive  only  of  the  rights  of  the  inter- 
ested parties,  a  report  and  order  of  the 
Commission  prescribing  rates,  regulations, 
or  practices  for  the  future  must  effect  many 
who  are  not  directly  represented  before  it, 
and  public  interest  requires  that  the  pas- 
senger service  of  this  country  be  maintained 
in  a  state  of  high  efficiency." 

Commerce  with  adjacent  foreign  coun- 
tries.— In  Seymour  vs.  M.  L.  &  T.  R.  &  S. 
Co.,  35  I.  C.  C.  492,  opinion  by  Mr.  Commis- 
sioner Hall,  over  a  million  pounds  of  sugar 
were  shipped  from  Germany  for  final  de- 
livery to  Mexico;  upon  arrival  at  New 
Orleans  the  complainants  tendered  the  ship- 
ments to  the  rail  lines  for  delivery  in 
Mexico,  but  on  account  of  alleged  condi- 
tion of  disorder  in  Mexico  the  rail  lines 
were  unwilling  to  undertake  to  effect  de- 
livery thereby  the  Mexico  roads  connecting 
at  the  border  points;  bills  of  lading  were 
issued  by  the  carriers  and  accepted  by 
complainant  showing  Eagle  Pass  and  El 
Paso  as  destinations;  the  shipments  were 
transported  to  those  points  and  there  de- 
livered to  complainant's  representative,  and, 
as  shown  by  certificates  of  the  United 
States  Customs  officials,  were  actually  ex- 
ported to  Mexico,  some  of  the  bills  bear- 
ing the  notation,  "Ultimate  destination, 
Mexico."  Defendants  were  advised  of  the 
ultimate  destination  of  the  sugar  and  the 
shipments  were  made  in  bond.  Citing  the 
Supreme  Court  cases,  the  Commission 
says: 

"The  Supreme  Court  in  numerous  de- 
cisions has  declared  that  the  nature  of  any 
commerce  is  determined  by  its  essential 
character  and  not  by  its  mere  incidence. 
The  sugar  was  transported  from  a  non-ad- 


jacent foreign  country  through  the  United 
States,  to  destinations  in  an  adjacent  for- 
eign country.  We  entertain  no  doubt  that 
the  regulatory  power  of  commerce  extends 
to  the  transportation  within  this  country, 
but  apparently  the  jurisdiction  of  this  Com- 
mission does  not." 

Damage  for  failure  to  furnish  cars. — In 
A.  T.  &  S.  F.  R.  Co.  vs.  Vosburg,  238  U.  S. 
56,  the  Supreme  Court  held  that  the  Kansas 
statute  regarding  the  prompt  furnishing  of 
cars  by  carriers  and  the  loading  of  same 
by  shippers,  and  prescribing  damages  and 
penalties  for  failure  on  the  part  of  either, 
is  properly  within  the  police  power  of  the 
state;  that  in  this  respect  the  statute  dif- 
fers from  that  which  simply  imposes  penal- 
ties on  the  carrier  for  faiure  to  pay  a 
specified  class  of  debts;  the  case  of  G.  C.  & 
S.  F.  R.  Co.  vs.  Ellis,  165  U.  S.,  150,  is 
distinguished:  and  the  court  holds  that  this 
statute,  which  imposes  reciprocal  burdens 
on  both  carrier  and  shipper,  but  which  pro- 
vides that  in  the  case  of  the  deliquency  on 
the  part  of  the  carrier  the  shipper  may  re- 
cover an  attorney's  fee,  but  in  the  case  of 
the  deliquency  on  the  part  of  the  shipper 
does  not  provide  that  the  carrier  may  re- 
cover an  attorney's  fee,  does  in  fact  deny 
the  carrier  the  equal  protection  of  law 
guaranteed  by  the  Fourteenth  Amendment; 
that  such  a  classification  is  not  a  reasonable 
one,  and  that  there  is  no  ground  on  which 
a  special  burden  should  be  imposed  on  one 
class  of  litigants  and  not  on  another  class 
identically  situated. 

Advances  in  co?1  rates. — In  Western  Ad- 
vance Rate  Case,  I.  &  S.  555,  35  I.  C.  C. 
497,  in  so  far  as  that  case  relates  to  rates 
on  bituminous  coal,  the  advances  proposed 
of  approximately  10  cents  per  ton  from 
mines  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Ala- 
bama, Iowa,  Missouri,  Oklahoma,  Arkansas 
and  Co'orado  were  sustained  to  all  inter- 
state destinations  in  Western  Trunk  Line 
and  Southwestern  Tariff  Committee  terri- 
tories, except  to  South  Dakota.  The  Com- 
mission also  sustained  in  Coal  &  Coke 
Rates  in  the  Southeast,  35  I.  C.  C.  187,  ad- 
vances of  approximately  15  cents  per  ton  in 
the  rates  on  coal  from  mines  in  Illinois. 
Kentucky  and  Alabama  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley  territory,  with  certain  exceptions. 

Advances  in  import  rates. — The  Com- 
mission also  sustained  the  advances  pro- 
posed on  irrvports  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
parts,  in  the  Western  Advance  Rate  Case, 
35  I.  C.  C.,  497.  * 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


After  Three  Years 

By  H.  -Battisfore 


A  T  Chicago,  on  October  7th  and  8th, 
**•  1912,  was  held  the  first  annual 
meeting-  of  the  operating  officers  of  the 
Illinois  Central  and  the  Yazoo  &  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  Railroad  Companies. 
Although  almost  three  years  have 
elapsed  since  that  memorable  occasion, 
the  impressions  implanted  by  the  dis- 
cussion of  various  subjects  are  still 
vivid  in  the  minds  of  most  of  us. 

It  has  been  with  the  interest  of  an- 
ticipation during  those  three  years 
that  we  have  watched  closely  to  ob- 
serve in  what  manner  those  discussions 
have  proved  beneficial  or  otherwise  to 
these  properties  or  their  employes  who 
were  so  fortunate  as  to  have  been  per- 
mitted to  attend  the  meeting,  or  peruse 
the  minutes  of  same,  or  even  made 
cognizant  of  what  transpired  through 
the  verbal  reports  of  those  officers  who 
were  in  attendance. 

My  mind  retains  with  ever  increas- 
ing vividness  these  words  spoken  so 
earnestly  by  our  vice-president,  Mr.  W. 
L.  Park,  in  Jiis  opening  address,  and 
the  impression  born  with  them  will  not 
be  banished.  He  said,  "We  do  not 
hear  so  much  about  human  efficiency. 
What  are  we  doing,  especially  on  our 
railroads,  to  increase  efficiency  by  the 
conservation  of  men?  *  *  *  I  firmly  be- 
lieve that  human  efficiency  will  be  the 
strong  factor  from  now  on  in  conduct- 
ing the  modern  railroad,  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  those  who  naturally 
seek  the  best  and  most  dependable 
means  of  transportation.  Are  we  mak- 
ing railroad  men.  or  do  they,  like 
Topsy,  just  grow?" 


To  those  who  listened  to  and  could 
appreciate  these  words  and  could  dis- 
cern what  they  portended,  insofar  as 
their  influence  on  the  future  conduct 
and  policies  of  these  properties  was 
concerned,  success  in  their  particular 
sphere  of  activity  has  come  in  a  degree 
measured  only  by  their  understanding. 

Who,  at  the  time  these  words  were 
uttered,  could  see  beyond  the  drawn 
curtain  of  the  future  with  vision  so 
clear  as  to  prophesy  that  after  the  lapse 
of  only  three  short  years  practically  ev- 
ery employe  of  this  railroad,  from  track 
laborer  to  officer,  would  be  in  some  de- 
gree familiar  with  its  finances,  its  earn- 
ings and  expenses,  that  trainmen  and 
enginemen,  yardmen  and  stationmen, 
in  fact,  all  employes,  would  be  able  to 
discuss — and  intelligently — not  only 
the  conditions  directly  affecting  their 
particular  department,  but  the  condi- 
tion, operation  and  functions  of  other 
departments?  Who  could  foresee  the 
birth  and  development  of  the  spirit  of 
co-operation — in  magnitude  second  to 
none  in  this  country — that  has  come 
to  prevail  on  the  Illinois  Central?  That 
this  spirit  which  had  its  inspiration  in 
the  first  annual  meeting  still  continues 
to  grow  and  flourish  cannot  be  doubted 
by  those  who  are  observant,  but  we 
know  that  the  master  hand  which 
launched  this  co-operative  influence 
.  upon  its  journey  of  regeneration  such 
a  short  time  ago  still  has  a  firm  and 
friendlv  grip  upon  the  rudder  and  will 
pilot  the  ship  safely  to  its  appointed 
haven. 

What  are  the  rank  and  file,  the  "non 


80 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


corns,"  and  the  staff  officers  doing  to 
support  the  hand  that  guides  the  ship, 
to  promote  the  well-being  and  increase 
the  prosperity  of  the  company  for 
which  we  work,  the  source  of  our  bread 
and  butter?  If  a  reply  is  necessary,  we 
need  only  look  about  us  and  observe 
conditions  as  they  now  are  and  recall 
to  memory  our  previous  experiences 
and  conditions  as  they  at  one  time  ex- 
isted. To  dwell  on  the  changed  condi- 
tions would  add  nothing  to  the  knowl- 
edge we  already  possess.  Suffice  it  to 
say,  a  continuation  of  the  progress  so 
auspiciously  inaugurated  three  years 
ago,  and  which  has  grown  steadily  un- 
til this  day,  is  assured,  and  the  benefits 
to  both  stockholders  and  employes 
within  the  succeeding  three  years  will 
more  than  parallel  those  received  dur- 
ing the  three  years  just  passed,  pro- 
vided we  adopt  eternal  vigilance  as  our 
motto  and  make  co-operation  our  pass 
word.  Vigilance  to  see  that  no  atom 
of  disloyalty  nor  dissatisfaction  nor  dis- 
content is  permitted  to  permeate  our 
organization.  Co-operation  stands  for 
itself.  It  has  been  thoroughly  demon- 
strated in  the  pasj.  three  years  that  Illi- 
nois Central  officers  and  employes  fully 
understand  its  meaning — and  applica- 
tion. 

Apropos  of  dissatisfied  and  discon- 
tented employes.  We  read  much  in 
various  publications  that  come  to  hand 
of  efficiency,  merit,  ability,  etc.,  in  re- 
lation to  promotion,  one  article  in  par- 
ticular being  fresh  in  my  mind,  wherein 
it  is  argued  that  the  foregoing  qualifica- 
tions are  not  always  considered  when 
a  question  of  promotion  arises,  but  that 
the  immediate  superior  of  certain  em- 
ployes is  sometimes  an  obstacle  to  just 
promotion,  recommendations  or  re- 
ports being  influenced  by  his  own  in- 
terests. According  to  my  experience, 
this  generally  is  not  true,  and  particu- 
larly cannot  be  true  on  the  Illinois 
Central,  as  it  is  very  evident  that  the 
executive  officers  are  not  dependent 
upon  reports  and  recommendations  of 
the  immediate  superior  of  the  employe 
under  consideration  for  promotion, 
from  the  simple  fact  that  we  have  en- 


deavored to  educate  employes  in  what- 
ever capacity  they  may  be  engaged, 
that  they  each  and  all  are  superintend- 
ents in  their  particular  line,  and  when 
they  see  something  that  needs  to  be 
done,  to  do  it,  even  if  it  lies  without 
the  limits  of  their  particular  depart- 
ment. Proper  credit  will  be  given 
where  credit  is  due  and  I  am  confident 
in  saying  that  there  is  not  an  officer  on 
the  railroad  today  who  by  any  act  or 
word  would  hold  a  subordinate  back 
from  deserved  promotion  and  let  us  not 
delude  ourselves  into  believing  that  we 
are  fit  and  ready  for  promotion,  when 
the  results  we  achieve  do  not  warrant 
such  belief,  and  by  so  doing  permit 
ourselves  to  become  disloyal  to  those 
for  whom  we  are  working;  if  we  do 
then  our  usefulness  to  the  man  or  corp- 
oration in  whose  service  we  are  enlist- 
ed' ceases.  Loyalty  to  those  who  are 
paying  us  for  the  use  of  our  time  and 
talents  is  the  beginning,  the  zenith  and 
the  end  of  all  things  so  far  as  our  suc- 
cess or  failure  is  concerned.  With  loy- 
alty a  great  many  shortcomings  in 
other  directions  can  be  and  are  over- 
looked, but  where  loyalty  is  lacking  all 
the  talents  of  which  a  man  may  be 
possessed  are  as  naught — as  Fra  El- 
bert  Hubbard  so  aptly  said,  "If  you 
work  for  a  man,  in  Heaven's  name 
work  for  him.  If  he  pays  you  wages 
that  supply  you  your  bread  and  butter, 
work  for  him — speak  well  of  him,  think 
well  of  him,  stand  by  him,  and  stand 
by  the  institution  he  represents." 
These  words  can  be  studied  profitably 
by  railroad  men  of  whatever  grade  and 
be  assured  if  the  sentiments  expressed 
are  practiced  daily  we  won't  have  time 
to  worry  about  promotion. 

Further  in  the  article  quoted  from 
above,  the  writer  says  it  frequently  hap- 
pens that  a  man  has  outgrown  his 
job  and  is  having  his  "light  hidden 
under  a  bushel."  Mark,  he  does  not  say 
"is  hiding  his  light  under  a  bushel," 
but  "is  having  it  hidden."  This,  dear 
reader,  is  not  within  the  realms  of 
possibilities.  No  man's  "light"  can 
be  hidden  under  a  bushel  or  any- 
thing else,  unless  he  hides  it,  him- 


82  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

self.      Of     course,    some     of    us    may  provement  is  possible.     It  is  of  course 

sometimes    delude   ourselves    into   be-  a  laudable  ambition  to  seek  promotion 

lieving  that  we  are  being  held  back,  but  or  advancement,  but  do  not  neglect  the 

if  the  use  of  a  modern  idiom  is  per-  job  you  have  to  do  it;  otherwise  the 

missible,  "believe  me,  if  a  man  has  a  realization   of   your   ambition   will   be 

light   of   greater   candlepower   than   a  long  delayed. 

firefly,"  it  cannot  be  hidden.  In  conclusion  I  wish  to  invite  my 
Of  course,  we  cannot  all  be  man-  readers  to  again  peruse  the  words  of 
agers — only  one  being  needed  generally  our  vice-president,  spoken  three  years 
for  each  railroad — but  we  can  all  man-  ago,  as  quoted  above,  commit  them  to 
age  the  particular  job  which  we  have  memory,  and  let  us  resolve  in  all  earn- 
undertaken  for  a  consideration  to  estness  to  make  ourselves  more  pro- 
handle,  or  we  can  just  hold  it.  The  ficient  in  our  chosen  work,  exercise 
more  managers  of  jobs  we  have,  the  bet-  patience  in  matters  we  do  not  under- 
ter  the  railroad,  and  it  is  my  ambition  stand,  and  trust  to  the  fairness,  broad- 
to  see  the  day  when  every  employe  on  mindedness  and  mature  judgment  of 
the  Illinois  Central  will  be  both  man-  our  management,  founded  on  long  ex- 
ager  and  master  of  his  job.  When  that  perience  gained  by  stepping  on  every- 
day arrives,  the  railroad  will  have  rung  of  the  ladder  of  success,  and 
reached  the  point  where  no  further  irri-  loyally  follow  it  to  greater  success. 

Staff  Meeting,  Vicksburg  Division 

Greenville,  Miss.,  July  15th,  1915. 
PRESENT. 

MR.  T.  L.  DUBBS,  Superintendent. 
MR.   F.  R.  MAYS,  Train  Master. 

MR.  J.  M.  CHANDLER,  Chief  Dispatcher. 
MR.  J.  W.  WELLING,  Road  Master. 

MR.  C.  LINDSTROM,  Master  Mechanic. 

MR.  H.  FLETCHER,  Traveling  Engineer. 
MR.  A.  S.  HURT,  Division  Agent. 

MR.  J.  M.  SIMMONS,  Division  Claim  Clerk. 

MR.  E.  D.  MEISSONNIER,  Division  Store  Keeper. 
MR.  Z.  T.  JOLLY,  Claim  Agent. 

MR.  G.  L.  DARDEN,  Claim  Agent. 
MR.  C.  R.  MYER,  Assistant  Engineer. 

MR.  W.  SHROPSHIRE,  Supervisor  Bridges  and  Buildings. 
MR.  F.  R.  BISHOP,  Supervisor. 
MR.  H.  MAYNOR,  Supervisor. 

MR.  C.  J.  HARRINGTON,  Supervisor. 

MR.  W.  H.  RODE,  General  Foreman,  Cleveland. 

MR.  J.  McCLENDON,  General  Foreman,  Greenville. 
MR.  L.  M.  ELLIOTT,  Agent,  Rolling  Fork. 
MR.  E.  C.  DAVIS,  Agent,  Greenville. 
MR.  S.  SIMMONS,  Chief  Clerk. 

ABSENT. 
MR.   GEORGE  McCOWAN,   Special  Agent. 

MR.  R.  L.  DILLEHAY,  Foreman  Water  Works. 
MR.  W.  L.  CARTER,  Claim  Agent. 

MR.  R.  P.  WALT,  Agent,  Cleveland. 
MR.  G.  B.  McCAUL,  Agent,  Leland. 

MR.  B.  B.  KINARD,  Agent,  Rosedale. 

MR.  G.  A.  HOPKINS,  Ticket  Agent,  Greenville. 
The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  Superintendent,  who,  after 
giving  a  brief  talk,  had  the  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  read  for  the 
benefit  of  all  present.     The  subjects  which  were  discussed  at  the  last 
Introductory:          meeting  were  gone  over  in  a  general  way,  with  a  view  of  keeping 
them  fresh  in  the  minds  of  all  concerned  and  also  to  ascertain  what 
progress  had  been  made  in  correcting  the  various  matters  discussed. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


83 


The  staff  was  complimented  on  the  manner  in  which  all  concerned 
were  working  together  with  a  view  of  obtaining  the  best  results  and 
protecting  the  company's  interest.  The  continued  co-operation  of  the 
various  members  of  the  staff  was  requested  so  that  we  would  con- 
tinue to  make  as  good  a  showing  in  the  future  as  had  been  made 
during  the  past  quarter,  or  if  possible,  bring  about  a  further  im- 
provement. 

The    first    subject    offered    for    discussion    was    economical    use    of 
fuel,  figures  being  submitted  showing  the  amount  of  fuel  consumed 
in  the  various  classes  of  service,  as  well  as  the  cost  of  handling,  etc., 
Fuel  during     the     past     three     months     as     compared     with     the     three 

Economy:  previous  months,  also  as  compared  with  the  same  three  months  last 

year,  which  figures  indicate  a  handsome  saving  both  in  the  number 
of  tons  of  coal  used  and  in  the  expense  of  handling  at  various  coal- 
ing plants  on  the  division. 

The  conditions  at  each  individual  coaling  plant  were  discussed  in 
detail  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  if  anything  further  could  be  done 
in  the  way  of  improving  the  method  of  handling,  several  sugges- 
tions being  made,  which  will  be  investigated  and  if  found  practical 
will  be  adopted. 

Figures  indicate  that  with  the  mechanical  coaling  plant  at  Rolling 
Fork  we  were  able  to  discontinue  three  established  coaling  paints. 
We  are  handling  coal  at  the  mechanical  plant  for  approximately  five 
cents  per  ton  as  compared  with  fifteen  cents  at  former  plant. 

Several  tests  have  been  made  in  both  passenger  and  freight  serv- 
ice with  a  view  of  ascertaining  just  what  amount  of  coal  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  in  order  to  handle  tonnage  trains  between  certain 
points,  the  results  of  these  tests  being  used  as  a  basis  by  which  all 
engineers  are  governed.  The  figures  representing  result  of  these 
tests  are  placed  in  the  hands  of  all  engineers  for  their  information 
and  guidance. 

It  has  been  found  that  this  plan  has  been  working  out  very  satis- 
factorily and  all  of  the  men  are  co-operating  so  that  it  is  natural  to 
expect  that  we  will  make  a  very  favorable  showing  during  the  next 
quarter. 

A  member  offered  for  discussion  the  subject  of  Railroad  property 
occupied  by  outside  parties  for  various  purposes,  which  property  is 
covered   by   usual   form    of   lease.      It   was    stated   that   as   a   general 
Leases:  proposition,  seed  houses,  platforms,  warehouses  and  other  structures 

along  the  line  covered  by  leases  are  in  much  poorer  condition  than 
our  own  buildings,  platforms,  etc.,  which  greatly  impairs  the  ap- 
pearance of  our  way-lands,  in  addition  to  constituting  a  hazard  from 
a  fire  risk  standpoint  and  a  personal  injury  standpoint. 

A  committee  composed  of  all  division  officers  was  appointed  to 
make  a  thorough  inspection  of  all  such  buildings,  platforms,  etc.,  and 
in  each  case  where  the  property  is  not  in  proper  condition  the  matter 
be  taken  up  with  the  owner  personally,  his  attention  being  called 
to  the  condition  and  he  be  requested  to  make  necessary  repairs  at 
once,  explaining  that  it  is  our  desire  to  have  our  way-lands  present 
a  uniform  condition  with  regard  to  buildings  both  belonging  to 
this  company  and  to  outside  parties. 

The  committee  will  make  a  report  at  the  next  meeting  showing 
in  detail  result  of  campaign  which  is  now  being  conducted,  which 
report  we  feel  sure  will  be  very  gratifying. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  a  special  campaign  has  been  conducted  with 

regard  to  live  stock   on   our  way-lands   during  the  past  thirty  days, 

some  very  interesting  and  instructive  talks  were  given  by  the  various 

Live  members  of  the  staff,  and  the  results  of  the  various  motor  car  trips 

Stock  on  made   over  the   division   by   the   Superintendent,   Road   Master,   Claim 

Waylands:  Agents  and  Supervisors  were  discussed  in  detail. 

During  these  motor  car  trips  kodak  pictures  were  taken  of  each 
head  of  live  stock  found  on  the  way-lands  and  after  having  the  pic- 
tures developed  they  were  taken  to  the  owner  of  such  stock  by 
committee  composed  of  Claim  Agents  and  Supervisors  who  explained 
to  such  owners  the  desire  of  the  Management  to  reduce  the  number 
of  head  of  live  stock  struck,  injured  or  killed  to  the  lowest  possible 


84 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Office 
Organization: 


minimum  and  they  were  requested  to  assist  us  in  this  work  of  handling 
in  such  a  way  as  would  prevent  their  stock  from  being  permitted  to 
get  on  our  way-lands  in  the  future. 

Although  this  campaign  has  been  going  on  for  only  about  thirty 
days,  the  good  results  are  very  evident  and  there. is  no  question  but 
that  by  following  up  closely  each  individual  case,  we  will  soon  have 
the  matter  so  well  under  control  that  we  will  be  able  to  practically 
eliminate  the  expense  account  of  damage  to  stock  on  the  right-of-way. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  result  of  the  inauguration  of  the  unit 
system  of  office  organization  has  been  so  satisfactory  since  it  was 
started  on  July  1st,  1914,  the  subject  was  called  to  the  attention  of 
all  concerned  so  that  it  could  be  incorporated  in  the  minutes  of  this 
meeting  to  enable  other  divisions  to  favorably  consider  adopting  the 
same  plan. 

Under  the  old  arrangement  separate  organizations  were  main- 
tained in  Superintendent's  office,  Road  Master's  office,  Train  Mas- 
ter's office,  Supervisor's  office,  and  Chief  Dispatcher's  office,  or  five 
separate  organizations,  necessitating  a  great  many  letters  being 
written  between  the  various  offices  in  order  to  secure  the  informa- 
tion required. 


CHIEF  CLERK 


Chief  Accountant  \   \  Division  Claim  Clerft       \  Stenographer  \    \  pile  Clerk 


\Ass't.Acc't\       |  TimeKeeperl 


\Road  Master  ClerK\ 


[Train  Masters  Perk 


Sup'r  Clerk 


{Stenographer 


I  Chief Disp'rClerk\ 


Showing  Office  Organization 
Old  Plan 


Under  the  present  arrangements  only  one  organization  is  main- 
tained which  has  resulted  in  reducing  the  work  of  all  departments 
at  least  twenty-five  percent  and  has  increased  the  efficiency  approxi- 
mately the  same  percent. 

At  present  all  mail  and  other  matters  are  placed  on  the  Chief 
Clerk's  desk  who  distributes  to  the  various  clerks  who  handle  such 
matters  without  the  necessity  of  writing  any  letters.  After  the  in- 
formation desired  has  been  obtained,  letters  are  written  dierct  to  the 
parties  requesting  the  information  and  the  entire  file  placed  on  Chief 
Clerk's  desk  for  approval  and  signature. 


CHIEF  CLERK 


1 

i 

\ChkfAccountant    \   \Division  Claim  CM\       \  Stenographer    \ 

\Ass't.  Chief  Clerk\ 

\ 

| 

\AssJt.Acc't   \ 

\Time  Keeper  \ 

\File  Clerk  \ 

|  Stenographer 

| 

\TonnageQertf( 

Showing  Office  Or^ani; 
Present  Plan. 

\  Sup's  -Clerk  \ 

'atlOn                            |  Train  Masters  Clerk 

\:hlefDif,prOeri\ 

ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


Only  one  set  of  files  are  necessary  under  the  present  plan,  which 
greatly  assists  in  keeping  all  data  together,  also  places  all  files  where 
they  are  more  readily  available  and  as  a  whole  the  result  is  very 
satisfactory. 

Blue  prints  are  attached  hereto  showing  the  old  and  the  new  plan. 

During  the   last   cotton   seed   season   we   constructed   a   number  of 
doors   similar   to  grain   doors,   which   were   used  in   cars  when   load- 
ing cotton  seed,  which  prevented  the  weight  of  the  seed  from  get- 
ting against  the   door,  causing  it  to  bulge  out  and  resulting  in  the 
Use  of  Grain          loss  of  a  great  deal  of  seed  in  this  manner.     These  doors  were  dis- 
Doors  with  tributed    to    all   cotton    seed    loading   points    and    the    result    far    ex- 

Cotton  Seed  ceeded   our   expectations.     The   use  of  the   doors   resulted   in   claims 

Shipments:  for  loss  and  damage  to  cotton  seed  shipments  being  reduced  approxi- 

mately fifty  percent.  The  plan  met  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of 
the  shippers,  a  number  of  whom  have  stated  that  by  using  this  de- 
vice they  were  able  to  handle  their  entire  output  without  a  single 
claim  of  any  character  and  as  a  result,  we  are  receiving  requests  at 
this  time  to  furnish  these  doors  in  time  to  be  used  in  handling  this 
season's  output. 

An  appropriation  of  $500.00  has  been  requested,  it  being  felt  that 
by  purchasing  a  cheap  grade  of  lumber  and  having  these  doors  con- 
structed by  division  forces  we  can  take  care  of  our  requirements  for 
this  sum. 

In  addition  to  greatly  facilitating  the  movement  of  cotton  seed, 
these  devices  also  materially  facilitated  the  handling  of  cotton  seed 
products,  being  removed  from  the  cars  after  cotton  seed  was  un- 
loaded and  used  in  cars  when  loading  the  cotton  seed  hulls,  meal, 
etc. 

By  using  these  devices  we  not  only  prevented  the  loss  of  seed  and 
seed  products  but  also  enabled  shippers  to  load  cars  to  their  capac- 
ity so  that  we  can  secure  the  benefit  of  the  revenue  of  the  full  car 
capacity. 

Another  feature  of  advantage  to  be  considered  is  the  fact  that  by 
using  these  doors,  which  prevent  the  loss  of  cotton  seed  from  cars, 
we  also  eliminate  the  hazard  of  live  stock  coming  up  on  our  way- 
lands  to  feed  on  the  seed  wasted  from  the  cars  which,  of  course,  is 
a  very  important  matter. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  present  company  coal 
waybill  is  not  of  sufficient  size  to  enable  all  information  required 
being  shown  thereon,  and  is  also  made  of  inferior  material. 

Company  A  new  form  as  per  sample  next  attached  was  suggested,  it  being 

Coal  felt  that  by  printing  this  waybill   on  a  form   similar  to  the   present 

Waybill:  home  route  card,  size  6  inches  wide  and  9  inches  long  and  made  on 

cardboard  instead  of  the  paper  as  at  present,  that  it  would  be  more 

satisfactory. 

The  company  coal  waybill  is  a  very  important  document  and 
should  be  so  gotten  up  that  all  possible  information  can  be  shown 
thereon  and  should  be  made  of  material  that  will  withstand  a  great 
deal  of  handling. 

On  the  present  form  sufficient  space  is  not  provided  to  show  the 
mine  weight  as  well  as  two  or  three  track  scale  weights  as  is  required 
in  a  great  many  instances  and  as  a  result  it  is  necessary  to  mutilate 
the  face  of  the  waybill  in  showing  this  information  thereon. 

On  the  form  recommended,  it  will  be  noted  that  space  is  provided 
on  the  front  of  the  waybill  for  showing  all  necessary  information 
and  on  the  back  of  the  waybill  full  instructions  are  given  as  to  the 
proper  manner  of  showing  the  information  as  well  as  the  handling 
of  the  waybill.  Space  is  also  provided  so  that  office  stamps  can  be 
shown  showing  the  various  stations  where  the  cars  are  handled. 

(FRONT    OF    WAY-BILL) 
This   car   must   be   weighed    before   unloading. 

ILINOTS    CENTRAL    RAILROAD. 
YAZOO   &    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY   RAILROAD. 
Company   Coal  Waybill  No.   52. 
Car   number   105,462:    initial    I.    C. 
Kind   of  Coal,   mixed.     Date  July   5th,   1915. 
From  Southern  Coal  Company.     Isley,  Ky.,   mine. 
Consigned   to  Y.   &  M.   V.   R.   R. 


86 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Destination,   New  Orleans  Division. 

Waybill  from  Memphis   to  Nonconnah  Yards. 

Mine  Weight — Gross,   144,500;   tare,  39,500;   net,   105,000.     Advance  charges. 

Track    Scale    Weights — 'Southern    W.    &    I.    Bureau:      Weighed    at    Nonconnah — Gross,    1,434; 

tare,   395.      Southern  W.    &  I.   Bureau:     Weighed  at  Cleveland — Gross,   1,467;   tare,   410. 
Unloaded  at  Cleveland,  Miss.     Date  July  1st,   1915.     For  use  of  engines.     Received,  R.   P.   Walt, 

Title,   Agent. 
Use  the  reverse  side  of  this  card  for  junction  and  other  stamps. 

"SAMPLE   OF    PROPOSED    COMPANY    COAL,   WAYBILL." 

DIMENSION.   9  IN.   x  4  IN. 

(BACK   OF   WAYBILL) 

(1)  Each  Agent  at  point  of  origin,   our  line  and  at  pur  junction   stations   with   foreign   lines, 
will  be  furnished  a  list  showing  the  mines  in  which  he  is  interested,  from  which  we  pur- 
chase coal  on  the  basis  of  our  track  scale  weights.     Reference  to  this  list  is  essential  to 
proper  waybilling. 

(2)  Agents  should  use   this  form  in  billing  or  rebilling  company   coal  purchased  on   the   basis 
of  our  track  scale  weights. 

(3)  Agents   at  receiving   stations   should  keep   all    company   coal   waybills    in   their   possession 
until   the   coal   is   diverted   or   unloaded,   and    should   check   the    yards   frequently    (and    in- 
variably on  the  last  day  of  each  month)   to  s«e  that  such  coal  is  on  hand. 

(4)  When    diverted,    the    heading   of   the   waybill   should    be    changed    to    the    new    destination. 
When  unloaded   for  company   use,   Agent  should   immediately   secure   receipt   on   the   com- 
pany coal  waybill   of  officer  or   employe   to  whom    coal   is   turned   over,   and   when    deliv- 
ered   for    commercial    use   obtain    receipt   of    the    company   or    individual    to    whom    proper 
instructions  have  been  received  to  deliver  the  coal. 


STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 


Warehouse 
Gates: 


Continuous 
Home  Route 
Cards: 


STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 


STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 


STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 

STATION 

OFFICE 

STAMP. 


Several  months  ago  upon  the  suggestion  of  a  member  of  the  Vicks- 
burg  division  staff  we  experimented  upon  the  type  of  a  gate  to  be 
used  in  our  freight  ware-rooms  so  as  to  provide  protection  during 
working  hours  without  the  necessity  of  keeping  warehouse  doors 
closed,  which  was  found  impracticable  on  account  of  shutting  out 
light,  ventilation,  etc. 

These  gates  were  installed  at  one  of  our  important  stations,  after 
being  used  for  a  period  of  sixty  days;  the  result  was  so  satisfactory 
and  the  expense  of  providing  same  so  small,  that  we  arranged  to 
equip  a  number  of  other  stations  by  furnishing  gates  at  two  or  three 
stations  each  month.  At  present  all  of  our  important  stations  are 
provided  with  these  gates. 

The  gate  is  constructed  of  a  top  and  bottom  cross  piece  with  pick- 
ets of  Y$  inch  by  3  inches  by  6  feet,  being  equipped  with  strap  hinge 
and  clasp  so  that  they  can  be  kept  closed  and  locked  when  not  actu- 
ally in  the  act  of  receiving  or  delivering  freight.  In  this  way  unau- 
thorized parties  are  prevented  from  entering  warehouse  without 
the  knowledge  of  employe  in  charge  and  this  feature  has  played  an 
important  part  in  the  reduction  we  have  made  in  loss  and  damage 
to  freight  on  this  division  during  the  past  twelve  months. 

Blue  prints  are  attached  showing  the  construction  of  the  gate  as 
well  as  the  manner  in  which  it  is  to  be  applied  and  operated  and  it 
is  recommended  that  this  device  be  adopted  as  standard  on  the 
system. 

A  member  of  the  staff  brought  up  for  discussion  the  proposition 
of  revising  the  present  continuous  home  route  card  form  R-l,  which 
it  is  felt  could  be  greatly  improved  upon  by  printing  same  on  a  bet- 
ter grade  of  cardboard,  it  being  suggested  that  the  same  material  as 
is  used  for  home  route  card  waybill,  form  314,  would  answer  the 
purpose. 

It  was  also  suggested  that  when  revising  this  form  ,an  additional 
column  be  provided  to  show  the  mileage,  which  information  would 
be  of  considerable  assistance  to  agents  and  others  in  handling  cars, 
especially  at  our  smaller  stations  where  we  are  not  equipped  with 
necessary  data  for  figuring  mileage  via  the  various  routes.  This 
would  no  doubt  result  in  greatly  improving  the  service  and  avoiding 
delay  in  some  cases  where  it  is  necessary  for  agents  to  take  up  with 
different  offices  to  secure  the  information  required. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  87 

A  communication  from  the  General  Superintendent  with  regard  to 
the  practice  on  some  lines  to  provide  a  case  with  a  glass  door  in 
waiting-  rooms  for  the  purpose  of  posting  circulars,  was  read  and 
suggestions  and  recommendations  requested. 

After  the  matter  was  discussed  in  detail  it  was  unanimously  de- 
Cases  with  cided  that  it  would  be  a  very  good  plan  to  adopt  this  practice  on 
Glass  Doors  for  this  system  as  in  this  way  all  circulars  could  be  posted  in  a  uniform 
Posting  manner,  would  be  protected  so  that  they  could  not  be  defaced  and 
Circulars:  at  the  same  time  the  expense  of  providing  a  case  of  this  kind  would 
be  nominal. 

It  was  suggested  that  these  cases  be  provided  only  at  the  larger 
stations. 

For  the  benefit  of  those  present  who  were  not  familiar  with  the 
plan  in  effect  on  this  division  of  conducting  quarterly  station  checks, 
this  subject  was  brought  up  and  thoroughly  discussed. 

Effective  January  1st,   3915,  a  committee  composed  of  Train   Mas- 
Station  ter,  Chief  Dispatcher,  Division  Agent  and  Division  Claim  Clerk,  was 
Check:  appointed  to  make  motor  car  trips  at  intervals  of  every  two  or  three 
months    over   the    entire    division,    making   a    complete    check    of   all 
matters  at  each  individual  station.     After  these  checks  are  made  each 
period   a   report   is   compiled   by   the   committee,   showing  the   condi- 
tions found  at  each   station,  the  Agent  being  allowed  credit  on  the 
percentage  basis  according  to  conditions  developed. 

A  sheet  (a  copy  of  which  is  attached  hereto)  is  used  for  making 
report  at  each  station.  A  complete  set  of  these  reports  is  sent  to 
each  agent  on  the  division  as  well  as  to  all  of  our  general  officers, 
so  as  to  enable  them  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  conditions  at  each 
station. 

Station 

Agent .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.....'..'.'....'.'.' 

1.  Check     of    Warehouse % 

2.  Receipt  for  freight  at  actual  time  of  delivery % 

3.  Over.   Short,   Bad   Order,   Refused  and  Unclaimed   Reports % 

4.  Checking-  of  freight  from  trains  and  to  Consignee % 

5.  Proper  filing,  checking  and  general  condition  of  tariffs % 

6.  General  condition  of  Tickets,   Ticket  Cases  and  Records % 

7.  Daily  check  of  Yard,  and  posting  of  Demurrage  records % 

8.  Proper  assessing  and   collection  of  Demurrage  and   Storage % 

9.  Proper  compiling  and  forwarding  of  22  and  2214  reports — % 

10.  Receiving,    reporting  and   filing   Blind   Siding   reports % 

11.  Train  order  signals,  nagging  equipment,  Telephone  and  Telegraph  equip- 
ment             % 

12.  Proper  dating,  posting  and  general  condition  of  Bulletin  Board % 

13.  General  condition  of  waiting  room,  and  proper  posting  of  circulars % 

»14.     Proper  care  of  seals  and  keeping  complete  seal  records % 

15.  Condition  of  Fire  Extinguishers,  proper  number  of  extra  charges,  etc % 

16.  Condition  of  Warehouse  and  Cotton   Trucks % 

17.  Stationery,    surplus,    shortage,    and    condition % 

18.  Prompt  handling  of  correspondence,   railroad  mail,   etc % 

19.  Proper  handling  of  reports  and  statements % 

20.  General   condition   of   Station   Grounds,    Parks,   etc % 

Total   Station   average % 

Since  the  inauguration  of  this  system  we  have  found  a  decided  im- 
provement upon  each  trip  of  inspection,  the  agents  taking  a  personal 
interest  in  the  proposition,  there  being  considerable  rivalry  among 
them,  each  trying  to  rank  first  by  having  his  station  up  to  the  100 
per  cent  efficiency. 

In  order  to  prevent  agents  from  preparing  for  these  checks,  the 
trips  are  made  at  irregular  intervals,  and  in  this  way  we  are  able  to 
get  a  report  of  the  actual  conditions  at  the  station.  Where  irregu- 
larities develop  necessary  action  is  taken  to  prevent  a  repetition. 

During  the  past  five  months  all  concerned  have  been  devoting  a 
great  deal  of  time  and  energy  to  the  subject  of  reducing  claims  on 
account  of  loss  and  damage  to  freight. 

Each  and  every  individual  agent,  conductor  and  other  employes 

Loss  and  who  has  anything  to  do  with  the  handling  of  freight  has  been  fur- 

Damaged  nished  with  a  full  set  of  written  instructions  as  to  the  proper  method 

Freight:  of  handling  such  matters  and  in  addition  each  employe  has  been 

interviewed  personally  and  their  co-operation  solicited. 

It  is  pleasing  to  note  that  the  result  of  this  campaign  is  an  enor- 
mous reduction  in  the  number  of  claims  filed  as  compared  with  the 
same  month  last  year,  this  reduction  amounting  to  approximately 


88  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

75  per  cent  which,  of  course,  results  in  a  saving  of  several  thousand 
dollars  in  claims  paid. 

By  the  combined  efforts  of  all  concerned  the  Vicksburg  Division 
for  the  month  of  June,  1915,  as  well  as  for  July,  1915,  has  occupied 
first  position  on  statement  showing  number  of  claims  paid  for  lost 
packages  or  shipments,  with  a  total  of  thirteen  claims  paid  in  June 
and  ten  in  July,  as  compared  with  forty-one  claims  in  June,  1914, 
and  forty-five  claims  in  July,  1914. 

During  the  month  of  April,  ]914,  there  were  148  claims  filed  on 
this  division  as  compared  with  only  63  filed  in  April,  1915.  During 
May,  1914,  there  were  160  claims  filed  as  compared  with  only  67  in 
May,  1915.  During  June,  1914,  there  were  176  claims  filed  as  com- 
pared with  only  43  in  June,  1915. 

We  have  been  able  to  bring  about  this  reduction  only  by  all  con- 
cejned  closely  following  up  each  individual  case  and  securing  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  all  employes  as  well  as  all  shippers  and  con- 
signees. 

We  find  that  we  are  able  to  do  considerable  good  along  these  lines 
by  having  warehouse  foremen  in  company  with  division  claim  clerk 
make  trips  over  the  division,  accompanying  merchandise  cars  loaded 
at  their  stations  so  that  they  will  be  in  position  to  see  just  how 
their  freight  checks  out  and  be  in  position  to  note  the  various  irreg- 
ularities personally,  thereby  placing  them  in  better  position  to  take 
corrective  steps  to  prevent  a  repetition. 

On  the  next  page  you  will  find  a  facsimile  of  report  used  by  con- 
ductors in  reporting  freight  over,  short  or  bad  order  in  their  trains. 
This  report  gives  all  information  needed  in  order  to  enable  superin- 
tendent's office  to  investigate  thoroughly.  In  case  of  shortage  re- 
port shows  where  car  was  first  opened,  where  worked  and  where  set 
out.  In  case  of  overage  it  enables  us  to  immediately  locate  billing 
so  that  delivery  can  be  effected  without  delay. 

This  report  is  filled  out  by  the  conductors  and  left  at  station  where 
irregularities  occur  or  in  case  the  irregularity  occurs  at  a  non-agency 
station  or  a  non-telegraph  station,  report  is  carried  to  the  first  tele- 
graph station,  where  it  is  left  to  be  wired  and  then  the  original  re- 
port sent  by  mail  as  a  confirmation. 

Bv  furnishing  these  cards  to  conductors  it  greatly  simplifies  the 
work  of  reporting  the  irregularities  and  at  the  same  time  gives  all 
information  necessary. 

This  form  has  been  in  use  on  this  division  for  several  months  and 
it  is  recommended  that  it  be  established  as  standard  on  the  system. 

Conductors  telegraphic  and   mail  report   of  irregularities  noted   in  freight   shipments  handled 
by  them. 

191... 

Superintendent 


picked    up    at 

Car  No.  and  Initials  under  seals  East West car  opened  at 

and  checked the   following  shipment 

Over,  short  or  bad  order. 

covered    by to 

Billing  station.  Destination. 

W/B   No date consigned    to 

Consignee, 
at    

car   worked   at 

All  stations  where  car  worked, 
and  set  out  at 


Conductor. 

At  present  this  form  is  made  up  on  mimeograph  using  regular  letter  head  but  it  is  pro- 
posed to  have  the  form  printed  on  post  card  size  S1/^  by  6V£  inches  addressed  to  Superintendent 
similar  to  the  post  card  now  used  for  safety  first  suggestions. 

The  question  of  discontinuing  the  use  of  car  cleats  was  brought  up 
for  discussion  and  it  was  the  general  opinion  that  it  would  be  to  the 
interest  of  the  company  to  discontinue  the  use  of  cleats,  which  plan, 
_.  if    adopted,    would    effect    a    saving    of    approximately    $30,000.00    per 

P?r      _  annum    on    the    system    representing   the    cost    of   the    cleats,    to    say 

nothing  of  the  saving  that  would  be  effected  in  the  way  of  eliminat- 
ing  damage   to    our   equipment,   which   is   now   being   caused   by   the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


89 


Tariffs: 


Stationery: 


application  of  cleats.  While  we  are  not  in  position  to  give  an  esti- 
mate in  dollars  and  cents  of  the  damage  done  to  our  equipment 
each  year  by  the  application  of  cleats,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  this 
damage  amounts  to  several  thousand  dollars. 

There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  applying  cleats  to  cars,  as  a  cleat 
never  has  prevented  a  robbery.  If  an  attempt  is  made  to  rob  a  car 
the  presence  of  a  cleat  will  not  prevent,  as  it  can  very  easily  be 
removed  with  a  hatchet  or  a  bar  of  any  kind. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  applying  these  cleats,  it  is  necessary  to 
use  large  nails  to  hold  them  in  place  and  when  the  car  reaches  des- 
tination and  the  cleat  has  to  be  removed,  a  great  deal  of  damage  is 
caused  pulling  out  these  nails  from  the  woodwork  of  the  car. 

In  addition  to  the  above  facts,  there  is  another  feature  to  be  con- 
sidered, that  is,  the  hazard  of  personal  injury,  due  to  these  cleats 
with  nails  protruding  being  dropped  along  the  side  of  cars  when 
opened,  resulting  in  trainmen,  yard  men  and  others  being  injured  on 
account  of  coming  in  contact  with  these  nails. 

Cleats  cannot  be  applied  to  our  new  type  of  box  cars  except  on 
the  inside  and  therefore  no  protection  is  afforded. 

A  member  called  attention  to  the  trouble  that  is  being  experienced 
especially  at  our  smaller  stations,  with  regard  to  agents  familiarizing 
themselves  with  the  proper  method  of  handling,  filing,  etc.,  of  the 
various  tariffs,  as  well  as  to  acquaint  with  the  requirements  of  such 
tariffs. 

It  was  suggested  and  we  recommended  that  if  possible  the  agents 
at  smaller  stations  be  required  to  have  on  file  only  such  tariffs, 
classifications  and  circulars  as  are  actually  needed  to  carry  on  busi- 
ness at  such  stations. 

A  recent  check  of  the  tariff  files  on  the  division  developed  the  fact 
that  none  of  the  stations  had  a  complete  set  of  tariffs  in  accordance 
with  circular  97-J,  and  agents  in  each  instance  ordered  the  missing 
tariffs  but  were  furnished  only  a  small  number  of  those  ordered, 
being  advised  by  the  general  freight  agent  that  the  balance  could  not 
be  furnished  account  of  the  supply  being  exhausted.  This  still  leaves 
the  files  incomplete  and  does  not  comply  with  the  law. 

If  permission  can  be  obtained  by  our  Traffic  Department  from  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  to  revise  circular  97-J,  so  as  to 
require  us  to  carry  only  such  tariffs  as  are  needed  at  the  smaller  sta- 
tions, we  will  not  only  greatly  reduce  the  expense  of  printing  and 
distributing  the  tariffs,  but  at  the  same  time  will  enable  our  agents 
to  keep  their  tariffs  in  proper  condition  and  to  become  more  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  tariff  requirements  affecting  their  particular 
stations,  thereby  enabling  us  to  obtain  a  greater  degree  of  efficiency 
among  our  agents. 

The  subject  of  stationery  and  the  adoption  of  a  plan  which  would 
enable  us  to  improve  upon  the  present  system  of  handling  stationery 
was  discussed. 

It  was  found  that  considerable  trouble  is  being  experienced  at  the 
present  time  with  regard  to  keeping  agents  supplied  with  sufficient 
stationery  and  at  the  same  time  to  prevent  a  waste,  due  to  the  fact 
that  under  the  present  arrangement  an  agent  is  required  to  anticipate 
his  wants  from  sixty  to  ninety  days  in  advance  of  his  actual  require- 
ments, which  makes  it  a  matter  of  almost  impossibility  for  agents  to 
order  just  what  is  needed,  owing  to  the  fact  that  local  conditions 
which  govern  may  change  to  such  an  extent  that  an  over  supply  of 
certain  stationery  will  be  ordered  and  an  insufficient  supply  of  other 
forms. 

It  was  suggested  that  either  a  supply  of  stationery  be  kept  on  each 
division  and  distributed  from  the  superintendent's  office  every  thirty 
days  or  that  a  store  room  be  established  at  Memphis  and  one  at  New 
Orleans  in  addition  to  the  one  now  maintained  at  Chicago  so  that 
agents  in  all  sections  will  be  in  close  touch  with  the  supply  depart- 
ment so  that  they  can  secure  stationery  needed  on  short  notice, 
which  will  eliminate  the  necessity  of  ordering  an  unnecessary  amount 
of  certain  forms  in  anticipation  of  their  requirements. 

It  is  thought  that  the  best  plan  would  be  to  have  a  supply  of  sta- 
tionery kept  on  each  division  as  the  man  on  the  ground  is  in  better 


no 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


position  to  know  the  actual  requirements  of  agents  and  at  the  same 
time  agents  would  know  that  they  could  secure  stationery  within 
a  few  hours  when  found  necessary  and  therefore  would  not  order 
a  lot  of  unnecessary  supplies  resulting  in  considerable  waste. 

By  adopting  this  plan  it  is  our  belief  that  stationery  can  be  han- 
dled at  practically  the  same  expense  as  it  is  being  handled  at  present 
and  in  a  much  more  satisfactory  manner. 

Re-weighing  The   question  of  reweighing  LCL  freight   was  brought  up   for  dis- 

LCL  Shipments:  cussion  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  if  everything  possible  is  being 
done  to  insure  our  receiving  all  revenue  due  in  the  way  of  assessing 
charges  on  the  actual  weight  of  all  shipments  and  it  was  the  con- 
census of  opinion  that  this  proposition  was  being  followed  up  as 
closely  as  possible  on  this  division  and  that  from  all  indications 
the  same  conditions  exist  on  all  other  divisions. 

We  have  made  a  number  of  tests  on  both  in  and  out  bound  ship- 
ments at  various  stations  and  we  have  found  that  in  practically 
every  instance  shipments  were  being  billed  at  actual  weight  and  as 
a  result  we  were  not  able  to  secure  any  increase  in  revenue  ac- 
count of  increasing  the  weight  of  shipment  weighed. 

It  was  found,  however,  that  at  one  station  standard  packages  such 
as  cases  of  soap,  canned  goods,  sacks  of  oats,  corn,  etc.,  were  being 
under-billed.  After  making  several  tests  we  arrived  at  the  actual 
weights  of  such  packages  and  arranged  to  bill  them  at  proper  weights 
thereafter. 

We  have  handled  this  matter  with  shippers  and  consignees  and 
they  are  co-operating  with  us  so  that  we  feel  sure  we  will  have  no 
further  trouble  of  this  character. 

Several  communications  on  the  subject  of  getting  the  maximum  effi- 
ciency out  of  our  equipment  was  read  and  the  subject  was  discussed  at 
length.     As  a  general  proposition  it  is  felt  that  we  are  having  all  of 
our  cars  loaded  to  their  capacity  or  10  per  cent  in  excess  thereof,  and 
Loading  by  continually  following  up  with  shippers  and  by  watching  the  matter 

Cars  to  closely  ourselves  we  are  sure  to  overcome  the  few  exceptions  where 

Capacity:  we  find  cars  being  lightly  loaded. 

All  concerned  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  matter  and  we  feel 
confident  that  the  desired  results  will  be  obtained. 


STATEMENT   SHOWING   RESULT    OF   CLOSE    SUPERVISION. 

Vicksburg  Division. 
Freight  and   Passenger  train  operation  for  the  Month  of  June,   1915,  as  compared  with 

June,  1914: 
Freight   Train    Operation:  1915 

Train    miles    34,910 

Ton    miles    30,557,539 

Total    expense     $16,809.65 


1914 
35,658 
29,304,206 
$19,273.15 
54.05 
0.66 


Per  cent. 

2.1 

4.3 
17.9 
10.9 
16.6 


Cost  per  100   train  miles 48.16 

Cost  per  1,000  ton  miles 0.55 

Less  freight  charges  on  coal  both  years: 

Cost  per  100  train  miles 37.87                     43.09            12.1 

Cost  per  1,000  ton  miles 0.43                       0.53             19.0 

Passenger  Train   Operation: 

Train  miles  45,910                   47,643              3.6 

Total    expense     $10,706.21  $13,659.15            20.1 

Cost  per  100  train  miles 23.32       ^            28.67            19.0 

Less  freight  charges  on  coal: 

Cost  per  100   train  miles 20.48                     24.55             16.5 


Dec. 
Inc. 
Dec. 
Dec 
Dec. 

Dec. 
Dec. 

Dec. 
Dec 
Dec 

Dec. 


Cast  Iron  Heel  The  proposition  of  equipping  our  switches  with  cast  iron  heel  blocks 

Block  for  was  suggested  and  discussed,  after  which  it  was  decided  to  recommend 

Switches:  the  adoption  of  this  heel  block. 

A  great  many  points  in  connection  with  this  proposition  were  men- 
tioned and  all  present  favored  the  adoption  of  the  block  as  standard. 
Blue  print  is  attached  showing  the  general  plan,  from  which  it  will 
be  noted  that  the  block  will  act  as  a  foot  guard  and  in  addition  will 
strengthen  the  joint,  which  is  the  weakest  joint  in  the  switch,  and 
will  hold  it  perfectly  rigid  so  as  to  insure  the  switch  points  always 
being  faced  at  the  heel  of  point. 

It  is  also  shown  by  using  these  cast  iron  heel  blocks  they  will  also 
act  as  a  safeguard  against  injuries  being  sustained. 

In  addition  to  the  general  plan  shown  on  blue  print  it  will  be  noted 
that  we  have  shown  the  heel  block,  the  section  at  heel  and  the  heel 
joint  with  the  necessary  explanation  shown  with  each  drawing. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


91 


Passengers  During   the   past   three   or   four   months   we   have   been   conducting 

Purchasing  a   vigorous    campaign    with   a   view   of   interesting   all   employes    and 

Tickets  patrons  in  the  subject  of  having  all  passengers  provided  with  tickets 

Before  before  boarding  the  trains. 

Boarding  Our  investigation  develops  the  fact  that  local  conditions  at  a  num- 

Trains:  ber   of   stations   had   considerable   effect   on   this   proposition,   and   we 

have   worked   at   such   points  very   diligently,   putting   into   effect   an 

arrangement  which  would  work  to  the  best  interests  of  all  concerned. 

The  general  public  seem  to  be  interested  in  this  move,  and   this, 

together  with  the  interest  which  is  being  displayed  by  our  agents  and 

trainmen,  will  undoubtedly  bring  about  a  condition  which  will  be  very 

pleasing. 

For  the  months  of  April,  May  and  June  we  have  been  able  to  bring 
about  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  cash  fares  collected  on  trains  on 
this  division  of  approximately  50  per  cent,  and  during  the  next  three 
months  we  expect  to  make  a  further  reduction  of  at  least  50  per  cent 
in  the  number  of  cash  fares  now  being  collected. 

In  this  connection  we  are  also  closely  following  up  the  proposition 
of  having  all  children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  twelve  provided 
with  half-rate  tickets,  and  we  are  meeting  with  very  good  results. 

Standard  The  subject  of  interesting  all  gin  owners  in  the  proposition  of  adopt- 

Gin  Boxes:  ing  a  standard  gin  box  size,  27  by  54  inches,  so  as  to  enable  all  ginners 

to  turn  out  bales  of  cotton  of  standard  size,  was  discussed,  and  the 
opinion  prevailed  that  within  a  short  time  all  gins  in  this  section 
would  be  equipped  with  the  standard  gin  boxes,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  all  gin  owners  are  replacing  their  gin  boxes,  as  fast  as  the  old 
ones  wear  out,  with  new  ones  of  the  standard  size  mentioned  above, 
and  all  new  gins  constructed  are  so  equipped. 

In  handling  this  matter  with  gin  owners  it  was  explained  to  them 
that  their  interests  in  this  proposition  were  identical  with  ours,  which 
fact  seemed  to  be  realized,  and  they  assured  us  that  they  were  heartily 
in  accord  with  the  move  and  would  do  everything  within  their  power 
to  assist  us  in  bringing  about  the  condition  desired. 

At  the  same  time  the  question  of  properly  packing  and  marking- 
cotton,  as  well  as  using  bagging  of  good  quality,  was  discussed  with 
the  ginners,  and  from  the  manner  in  which  they  have  taken  hold  of 
the  proposition  we  feel  assured  that  a  great  improvement  will  be  noted 
during  the  coming  season. 

Conclusion  After  a  general  discussion  of  all  subjects  and  new  subjects  being 

solicited  and  none  offered,  the  meeting  adjourned. 


GLEANINGS 

from  me 

QAMS  DEPARTMENT 

fragments  of  a  Stoiy 
Seldom   &ver  Told 


Echoes  of  the  Coleman  Case 


HPHE  suit  of  Charles  M.  Coleman, 
brakeman,  for  alleged  personal  in- 
juries, at  Alworth,  111.,  June  2,  1914, 
when  he  claimed  to  have  fallen  from 
the  side  of  a  box  car,  due  to  handhold 
pulling  out,  occupied  the  center  of  the 
stage  at  St.  Paul  last  April.  The  case 
was  widely  commented  upon  by  the 
press  following  the  trial. 

Coleman,  it  will  be  remembered, 
swore  that  he  was  completely  paralyzed 
from  the  waist  line  down,  for  which  he 
asked  the  court  and  the  jury  to  allow 
him  the  Comfortable  sum  of  $50,000.00. 
He  was  carried  into  the  court  room  on 
a  stretcher,  and  his  claims  of  absolute 
helplessness  were  backed  up  by  the  tes- 
timony of  several  licensed  doctors,  and, 
too,  he  was  represented  by  one  of  the 
shiftiest  among  the  Minnesota  solicit- 
ing lawyers,  Mr.  Samuel  A.  Anderson, 
so  that  the  trap  was  all  set  and  it  looked 
as  though  the  Illinois  Central  stood  a 
good  chance  of  being  caught,  but  some 
very  unusual  things  happened. 


After  two  doctors  had  testified  that 
Coleman  was  completely  and  perma- 
nently paralyzed  and  that  he  could 
never  walk  again,  and  after  Coleman 
himself  had  sworn  that  he  had  no  con- 
trol whatever  over  his  lower  extrem- 
ities, Attorney  Anderson  made  the 
startling  announcement  to  the  court 
that  Coleman  was  not  paralyzed  at  all, 
but  was  suffering  from  some  nervous 
disorder.  That  was  exactly  what  the 
representatives  of  the  Railroad  Com- 
pany, in  charge  of  the  case,  had  been 
contending  all  along,  and  they  were 
most  curious  to  learn  what  caused  An- 
derson's sudden  change  of  front.  We 
now  give  the  story  for  the  first  time. 

For  some  time  prior  to  the  trial,  Cole- 
man had  been  at  Mounds  Park  Sani- 
tarium at  St.  Paul  under  the  care  of 
Dr.  C.  R.  Ball,  who  was  expected  to 
act  as  the  chief  medical  witness  to  es- 
tablish his  claims.  The  night  before 
the  day  he  was  to  go  on  the  witness 
stand,  Dr.  Ball  became  suspicious  and 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


94 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


CHARLES  M.   COLEMAN. 

Who    Sued    for    $50,000,    Alleging    Permanent    Paralysis   of  Lower    Extremities,   as   He   Appeared   a 

Short  Time  After  He  Lost  His  Case. 


set  out  to  satisfy  himself  about  Cole- 
man's  condition.  He  gave  Coleman  20 
grains  of  trianol  and  instructed  the 
nurse  to  watch  him  till  he  was  sound 
asleep.  When  the  nurse  called  the  doc- 
tor and  informed  him  that  the  patient 
was  asleep,  Dr.  Ball  went  into  the  room 
and  was  surprised  to  find  Coleman  ly- 
ing on  his  left  side,  he  having  testified 
that  he  could  not  move  himself.  The 
doctor  threw  the  bed  clothes  up  from 
the  feet,  exposing  Coleman's  legs.  He 
found  they  were  drawn  up  about  half 
way,  which  was  another  surprise,  as 
Coleman  had  sworn  he  could  not  bend 
his  legs  at  all.  Dr.  Ball  then,  in  the 
presence  of  the  nurse,  tickled  the  bot- 
toms of  Coleman's  feet  and  found  that 
his  limbs  were  lithe  and  supple.  Of 
course.  Dr.  Ball  immediately  notified 
Anderson,  the  lawyer,  and  the  sensa- 
tional announcement  to  the  court  fol- 
lowed. 

The  trial  was  proceeded  with  on  the 
theory  that  Coleman,  if  not  paralyzed, 
must  have  some  other  injury  which  the 
Illinois  Central  ought  to  pay  him  for, 
but,  finally  the  court  dismissed  the  suit 


on  the  ground  that  the  plaintiff  had 
failed  to  make  out  a  case  under  the 
complaint.  The  defeat  was  a  most  bit- 
ter and  humiliating  one  for  Anderson, 
the  widely  advertised  personal  injury 
lawyer. 

When  comparing  the  extravagant 
claims  those  who  are  in  the  pay  of  An- 
derson make  about  his  brilliancy  and 
success  as  a  personal  injury  lawyer, 
with  what  actually  happened  in  the 
Coleman  case,  one  is  reminded  of  the 
following  story :  A  woodpecker,  sun- 
ning himself  on  a  limb,  thus  solilo- 
quized :  "I  am  a  pretty  bird.  Indeed, 
there  are  few,  if  any,  birds  prettier  than 
I.  Then,  too,  I  am  a  smart  bird;  and 
there  are  those  who  think  that  I  am  the 
smartest  bird  that  flies."  Just  then  the 
shadow  of  a  real  fighting  bird  from  an- 
other state  caused  the  woodpecker  to 
seek  his  hole  in  the  trunk  of  a  near-by 
tree,  but  the  call  was  so  close  that  he 
entered  the  hole  minus  a  quantity  of 
feathers  plucked  by  the  fighting  bird. 
Later,  when  the  danger  was  over,  the 
woodpecker,  resuming  his  soliloquy, 
said :  "I  may  be  a.  pretty  bird,  and  even 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


9.r> 


a  fairly  smart  bird,  but  blamed  if  I 
didn't  come  near  being  picked  clean 
that  time." 

That  Dr.  Ball  made  no  mistake  in 
his  diagnosis  it  is  only  necessary  to  say 
that,  since  the  trial  Coleman  has  been 
living-  at  Springfield,  111.,  and  has  been 
walking  around  in  a  perfectly  normal 
manner,  sometimes  accompanied  by  a 
cane,  but  frequently  without  it.  He 
admits  himself  that  he  is  now  prac- 
tically well.  The  cut  of  Coleman  ap- 
pearing with  this  article  was  made 
from  a  kodak  picture  taken  shortly  after 
the  trial  at  the  home  of  his  mother-in- 
law  in  Springfield,  and  the  cartoon  by 
Afr.  Copp  illustrates,  with  a  good  deal  of 
accuracy,  some  of  the  things  that  oc- 
curred during  and  since  the  trial. 

Coleman  lay  in  bed  for  nearly  eleven 
months,  or  from  the  date  of  his  injury 
until  his  case  was  tried,  and  during  all 
that  time  was  waited  upon  and  treated 
as  though  he  were  perfectly  helpless 
and  unable,  without  assistance,  to  even 
attend  to  the  laws  of  nature.  A  remark- 
ably short  time  after  he  was  beaten  in 
the  law  suit  and  left  St.  Paul,  he  was 
walking  about  the  streets  of  Spring- 
field, the  termination  of  the  law  suit 
having,  apparently,  resulted  in  a  com- 
plete cure. 

The  costs  to  the  railroads  of  investi- 
gating and  defending  personal  injury 
suits  on  the  order  of  the  Coleman  case 
are  enormous.  That  these  conditions 
exist  may  seem  incredible  to  some,  but 
the  railroads  are  painfully  cognizant  of 
the  fact. 


SHRINKAGE  OF  A  DAMAGE  SUIT 
VERDICT 

If  the  subsequent  history  of  the  oc- 
casional large  damage  suit  verdict  was 
known  it  would  be  found  that  there  is 
as  much  or  more  difference  between  the 
verdict  and  what  the  plaintiff  actually 
receives  in  the  end  as  there  is  between 
the  attractive  salaries  which  vaudeville 
stars  are  said  to  be  paid  and  the  amount 
they  really  receive.  A  recent  damage 


suit  disposed  of  in  this  county  is  in 
point. 

W.  B.  McEwen,  who  was  employed 
as  a  car  repairer  for  the  Illinois  Central 
R.  R.  Co.,  in  its  shops  at  McComb,  was 
killed  on  June  3, 1914.  Suit  was  brought 
in  the  Circuit  Cou-rt  of  Lincoln  county 
at  the  1914  term,  and  a  trial  had  at  that 
term.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  for 
$22,000.00.  The  defendant  upon  hear- 
ing of  a  motion  for  a  new  trial,  con- 
tended that  this  amount  was  excessive 
and  made  such  a  showing  in  support  of 
the  contention  as  induced  the  court  to 
reduce  the  amount  to  $12,500.00  for 
which  sum  judgment  was  entered  and 
the  defendant  appealed.  We  are  ad- 
vised that  the  case  was  recently  set- 
tled for  $6,650.00,  out  of  which  the  heirs 
received  $4,575.00,  the  attorneys  re- 
taining a  much  smaller  portion  for 
their  fee  than  is  customary  in  such 
cases.  Even  so,  the  amount  secured  by 
the  heirs  is  but  20  per  cent  of  the  jury 
verdict.  No  doubt  the  amount  paid  is 
fair  and  equitable  taking  into  consider- 
ation the  liability  and  other  features  of 
the  case,  else  it  would  not  have  been 
accepted,  particularly  as  a  judgment 
was  pending  for  $12,500.00. 

The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  this 
by  those  who  have  claims  for  personal 
damage  or  wrongful  death  of  next  of 
kin,  is  that  they  should  not  be  encour- 
aged to  hold  out  for  large  sums  because 
of  large  verdicts  they  have  heard  of, 
read  of  in  like  cases.  Such  verdicts 
usually  cash  in  for  but  a  small  per  cent 
of  their  face  value.  Then,  too,  as  a 
usual  thing  only  the  large  verdicts  are 
given  publicity.  The  cases  in  which 
recoveries  are  small,  or  cases  in  which 
verdicts  are  large,  but  greatly  reduced 
or  entirely  wiped  out  on  appeal,  or 
those  in  which  verdicts  are  rendered  for 
the  defendant  are  seldom  mentioned 
and  hence  the  actual  result  of  such 
cases  does  not  come  to  the  attention  of 
the  prospective  litigant.  All  of  which 
goes  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  old  adage 
that  "a  poor  compromise  is  better  than 
a  good  law  suit." — Twice-a-Week  Jour- 
nal. McComb,  Miss.,  Aug.  25,  1915. 


96 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


SPRINGFIELD     DIVISION    OFFI- 
CERS ON  A  MOTOR  CAR 
TRIP 

Claim  Agent  J.  D.  MaGee,  of  Spring- 
field, writes  entertainingly,  under  date 
of  9th  nit.,  concerning  trip  he  made 
with  Division  Officers  on  motor  car 
over  the  entire  540  miles  comprising  the 
division,  as  follows: 

Late  Saturday  afternoon  I  finished  a 
motor  trip  over  the  Springfield  Divi- 
sion, having  traveled  over  540  miles 
from  early  Tuesday  morning  until  Sat- 
urday. Superintendent  Patterson  was 
with  me  part  of  the  time  ;  Train  Master 
Hanly  part  of  the  time,  and  Road  Mas- 
ter Backus  accompanied  me  on  most  of 
the  trip.  The  different  Road  Super- 
visors accompanied  us  over  their  re- 
spective districts.  The  main  object  of 
the  trip  was  to  check  stock  reports  and 
claims  with  the  different  Section  Fore- 
men for  the  first  six  months  of  the  year 
1915.  I  might  state  at  this  time  that 
our  records  seemed  to  correspond  and 
that  a  report  of  same  will  he  found  at- 
tached to  this  letter.  In  addition  to 
stock  reports,  we  checked  personal  in- 
jury reports  and  fire  claims,  discussed 
various  personal  injuries  and  accidents 
with  a  view  to  preventing  same  in  the 
future;  called  the  attention  of  the  dif- 
ferent officials  and  foremen  to  danger- 
ous crossings,  bad  gates,  defective 
fences,  station  platforms,  board  side- 
walks and  everything  which  might  be 
the  cause  of  an  accident  or  injury  from 
which  a  claim  might  result,  and  dis- 
cussed the  methods  and  advisability  of 
remedying  such  evils.  The  foremen 
were  examined  on  certain  flagging  rules 
and  all  curves  were  gauged  and  main 
and  switch  tracks,  switches  and  switch 
points  inspected.  Altogether,  it  was 
a  very  pleasant  trip  and  should  prove 
to  be  a  very  profitable  one. 

We  met  a  very  capable  and  loyal  lot 
of  Section  Foremen,  some  of  whom 
have  long,  faithful  and  splendid  records 
of  service ;  others,  who  have  served  a 
few  years  and  who  seem  determined  to 
and  probably  will  equal  the  good  rec- 
ords set  before  them ;  and  still  others 
who  have  recently  become  foremen  who 


are  ambitious,  energetic,  strong,  and 
who  seem  to  possess  the  proper  qual- 
ities to  make  them  successful  builders 
and  caretakers  of  the  road. 

When  a  man  sits  in  his  office  and 
reads  reports  and  considers  claims  as 
I  have  done  for  almost  two  years,  he 
is  apt  to  become  narrow  in  his  views 
and  inclined  to  believe  that  there  isn't 
a  careful  and  capable  foreman  on  the 
system ;  but  when  he  talks  to  such  men 
as  Section  Foreman  Fry,  of  Alhambra, 
who  claims  to  have  reported  only  one 
personal  injury  in  24  years,  Foreman 
Brennan,  of  Mt.  Olive,  who  has  had 
to  report  only  one  injury  in  12  years ; 
Foreman  Carmichael,  of  Clinton,  who 
was  the  only  man  on  his  section  to  be 
injured  in  10  years;  Foreman  Badget, 
of  New  Holland,  who  has  had  no  ac- 
cidents in  about  12  years;  Martin 
Hughes,  of  Lincoln,  who  has  had  none 
of  his  men  hurt  for  almost  20  years ; 
Foreman  Lynch,  of  Lanes,  who  has  re- 
ported no  personal  injuries  in  15  years; 
Foreman  Woods,  of  Lodge,  who  has 
had  only  one  cow  killed  on  his  section 
in  15  years ;  Foreman  Lindeman,  of 
Seymour,  who  has  reported  no  per- 
sonal injuries  in  15  years;  Foreman 
Harrington,  of  Argenta,  who  has  had 
only  one  injury  in  13  years ;  Foreman 
Snyder.  of  Monticello,  who  has  report- 
ed no  personal  injury  and  no  stock 
claims  in  8  years;  Foreman  Pyatt,  of 
Oconee,  who  has  reported  no  personal 
injuries  in  20  years,  and  other  such 
records,  and  learns  from  them  that  the 
reason  they  are  able  to  make  such  re- 
ports is  because  they  have  always  ex- 
erted themselves  to  prevent  personal  in- 
juries and  the  killing  of  stock,  it  is  a 
pleasure  for  him  to  admit  that  he  has 
had  a  wrong  impression  of  things.  It 
is  also  a  satisfaction  to  have  such  men 
testify  that  claims  growing  out  of  in- 
juries to  men  and  the  killing  of  stock 
can  be  prevented  by  proper  supervision 
and  care. 

Generally  speaking,  we  found  the 
fences  on  the  Division  to  be  in  fair  con- 
dition only.  There  are  many  places 
where  there  are  no  fences  at  all.  How- 
ever, usually  where  we  saw  stock  in 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


97 


the  adjoining  fields  the  fences  were  in 
good  condition.  At  one  or  two  places 
we  saw  a  bad  gate  or  a  bad  section  of 
fence  along  a  field  in  which  there  was 
live  stock.  We  called  the  attention  of 
the  foremen  to  same  and  they  agreed 
to  make  the  necessary  repairs  without 
delay.  It  is  my  opinion  that  the  gen- 
eral condition  of  the  railroad  fences  is 
better  than  on  other  parts  of  adjoining 
farms.  We  observed  a  number  of 
places  where  the  company  should  fur- 
nish good  gates  and  the  foremen  were 
instructed  to  make  requisition  for 
them.  We  also  observed  that  as  a  gen- 
eral proposition  the  gates  with  "KEEP 
CLOSED"  signs  on  them  were  closed 
while  the  others  were  not.  There  was 
one  place  near  New  Holland  where 
there  was  a  sign  at  a  crossing,  but  no 
guards  or  gates.  The  foreman  told  us 
that  he  had  recently  seen  a  farmer  go 
upon  the  track  at  that  place  and  ride 
horse-back  two  miles  north  to  Burton 
View.  The  Supervisor  was  instructed 
to  find  out  if  it  was  a  public  or  private 
crossing  and  put  in  gates  or  guards. 
There  is  a  peculiar  condition  existing 
near  Vera.  There  has  been  some  dis- 
pute in  the  vicinity  as  to  whether  a 
crossing  was  public  or  private,  and 
people  have  been  traveling  on  the  right 
of  way  to  a  certain  point  instead  of 
crossing  over  the  tracks.  The  foreman 
was  instructed  to  prevent  this  by  plac- 
ing posts  across  the  right  of  way.  I 
observed  one  bad  feature  about  the 
leasing  of  right  of  way.  Usually  the 
lessee  leaves  the  gate  in  the  wing  fence 
or  a  section  of  the  wing  fence,  open  or 
down,  making  it  very  easy  for  stock  to 
enter  upon  the  right  of  way  from  the 
public  highway.  I  feel  sure  the  fore- 
men will  be  instructed  to  remedy  this 
evil.  In  many  instances  our  right  of 
way  fences  or  the  fences  leading  to 
them  are  hedge  and  the  hedge  has 
grown  so  high  that  it  makes  the  cross- 
ings dangerous.  The  foremen  were 
directed  to  trim  such  hedge  fences. 

Near  New  Holland  and  Burton  View 
on  the  Havana  District,  there  are  two 
crossings  known  as  the  Bartman  Cross- 
ing and  the  Burton  View  Road.  They 


have  been  considered  dangerous  cross- 
ings for  several  years,  but  recently  the 
members  of  the  Road  Department  have 
repaired  them  and  changed  them,  les- 
sening to  a  great  extent  the  elements 
of  danger.  The  farmers  living  near 
them  are  well  pleased  with  their  pres- 
ent condition.  The  Mayor  of  New 
Holland  was  so  well  pleased  with  one 
of  them  that  he  wrote  a  very  compli- 
mentary letter  to  the  foreman. 

It  is  pleasing  to  relate  that  at  only 
two  places  did  we  see  live  stock  pas- 
turing upon  the  right  of  way.  One  in- 
stance Avas  at  Glenarm,  and  Superin- 
tendent Patterson  instructed  our  Agent 
to  have  the  horse  taken  away.  The 
other  was  just  south  of  Weldon,  where 
a  cow  was  tied  upon  the  right  of  way. 
The  foreman,  Mr.  Lynch,  took,  the 
cow  off  the  right  of  way  and  tied 
her  along  the  road,  but  the  owner 
took  her  back.  Our  former  agent 
at  Weldon  has  given  the  owner,  John 
Simpson,  written  notice  that  he  must 
not  leave  the  cow  on  the  right  of  way, 
but  he  insists  upon  doing  so.  I  think, 
however,  the  matter  can  be  success- 
fully handled. 

It  was  gratifying  to  note  that  there 
is  not  much  danger  of  damage  by  fire 
this  year.  In  a  great  many  places  the 
foremen  stated  that  the  farmers  were 
willing  and  had  agreed  to  plow  fire 
guards  inside  their  fields  should  the 
necessity  arise.  This  was  especially 
true  on  the  Havana  District.  A  num- 
ber of  fields  are  already  protected  by 
sufficient  guards,  and  farmers  have 
promised  to  plow  in  others.  In  some 
places,  however,  the  owners  will  not 
plow  guards  unless  they  are  paid  by 
the  company  for  doing  so.  This  con- 
dition exists  to  some  extent  along  the 
Decatur  District  and  on  the  Clinton 
district.  Wherever  this  was  found  the 
foremen  were  requested  to  exercise  all 
the  care  they  could  to  prevent  fires  and 
keep  them  from  spreading.  The  fore- 
men are  planning  to  mow  their  sec- 
tions some  time  this  month  and  some 
of  them  have  already  done  so.  We  no- 
ticed that  some  of  the  right  of  way 
tenants  had  mowed  the  land,  but  had 


98 


failed  to  cut  the  grass  and  weeds  along 
the  fence  line.  The  foremen  were  told 
to  have  them  do  that.  We  did  not  see 
any  buildings  close  enough  to  the 
tracks  to  be  considered  fire  traps. 

At  Mason  City  we  observed  some 
defective  crossing  planks  near  the  de- 
pot and  a  bad  sidewalk  leading  to  the 
station  grounds.  The  foreman  was  in- 
structed to  repair  them  at  once.  At 
Monticello  the  Supervisor  was  request- 
ed to  make  changes  in  nearly  all  of  the 
crossings.  The  depot  platform  at  Sho- 
bonier  is  in  very  bad  shape.  There  are 
two  holes  in  it.  The  curbing  is  worn 
off  where  passengers  alight  from 
trains  and  the  approach  from  the  side- 
walk is  not  very  good.  Repairs  should 
be  made  there. 

The  trespassing  evil  is  notable  at 
Glen  Carbon,  Divernon,  Pana  and  San- 
doval.  At  each  of  these  places  there 
are  coal  mines.  The  miners  use  the 
right  of  way  for  going  to  and  from 
their  work  and  there  are  always  a  num- 
ber of  children  picking  up  coal  along 
the  tracks.  At  Pana  we  noticed  two 
coal  carts  against  a  signal  post  in  the 
yards  near  the  mine,  and  at  Sandoval 
three  tiny  children  were  picking  up 
coal  between  two  tracks  on  which  there 
were  trains  and  our  motor  car  on  an- 
other track.  Their  mother  seemed  to 
be  near  them.  We  put  them  off  the 
right  of  way. 

Superintendent  Patterson  earned  an 
honor  mark  for  discovering  a  broken 
brake-beam  or  rod  on  a  car  in  the  yards 
at  one  of  the  stations  on  the  Springfield 


District.  The  car  was  marked  and  the 
agent's  attention  called  to  it. 

We  found  no  danger  of  accidents  due 
to  stock  pen  gates  being  open.  This 
is  because  the  officials  have  made  a. 
thorough  campaign  in  the  matter  of 
keeping  them  closed.  We  found  them 
open  at  only  two  places  and  the  fore- 
men were  instructed  to  close  them  im- 
mediately. 

It  was  wholly  a  business  trip,  but 
there  was  one  amusing  incident  which 
might-be  recorded.  The  motor  car  re- 
fused to  run  after  we  got  in  the  Lin- 
coln yards  one  day.  Our  chauffeur, 
Frank,  a  "master  mechanic,"  had 
worked  with  it  for  almost  two  hours. 
It  was  a  very  warm  morning.  He  was 
somewhat  aggravated  because  he  could 
not  detect  the  trouble.  Finally  he 
mopped  his  forehead  and  exclaimed, 
"If  anybody  can  tell  me  what's  the  mat- 
ter with  that  motherless  thing  just  let 
'em  come  forward."  The  motor  must 
have  resented  that  remark,  because  al- 
most immediately  afterwards  F'rank 
cranked  her  up  and  she  started  to  run 
and  gave  us  no  more  trouble  during 
the  remainder  of  the  trip. 

Everybody  manifested  a  desire  to 
prevent  injuries  to  life  and  limb  and 
the  reporting  of  the  killing  of  stock  and 
losses  by  fire.  The  officials  did  not 
hesitate  to  issue  instructions  with 
those  objects  in  view,  and  the  men 
seemed  anxious  to  do  all  in  their  pow- 
er to  please  their  superiors,  lessen  the 
danger  to  themselves  and  lighten  their 
burdens.  I  feel  confident  that  the  trip 
will  bring:  forth  excellent  results. 


What  Would  You  Do  if  You  Owned 
the  Railroad?" 


'  I  ^  HE  officers  of  the  Kentucky  Division 
-*-  are  making  a  determined  effort  to  re- 
duce the  number  of  head  of  stock  killed. 
Every  officer,  every  section  foreman,  ev- 
ery engineer,  every  conductor  and,  in  fact, 
every  employe  of  the  Division,  are  wag- 
ing an  unrelenting  war  against  the  killing 
of  stock,  and  they  are  fighting  a  winning 
battle.  Superintendent  Downs  called  a 
meeting,  which  was  held  at  Princeton  on 


the  night  of  August  18th,  for  the  purpose 
of  discussing  this  one  topic  of  killing  stock 
on  the  waylands.  The  text  of  the  meeting 
was:  "What  would  you  do  if  you  owned 
the  railroad?"  and  it  was  not  departed  from 
a  moment  during  the  entire  evening. 

Traveling  Engineer  Ryan  struck  the  key- 
note when  he  said  that  the  feeling  of  the 
men  on  the  Louisville  District  towards  the 
elimination  of  the  killing  of  stock  was  in- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


99 


tense,  and  that  men  in  the  dead  freight 
service  considered  it  almost  a  crime  to 
kill  an  animal. 

Master  Mechanic  Walker  read  a  message 
from  the  engineer  of  train  No.  102,  stating 
that  he  stopped  three  miles  south  of  Daw- 
son  Springs  to  prevent  killing  two  animals. 
Mr.  Walker  said  he  believed  if  we  could 
stop  No.  102  to  prevent  killing  stock,  that 
the  engineers  of  dead  freight  trains  cer- 
tainly could  offer  no  excuses  for  not  doing 
likewise. 

Train  Master  Thomas  said  that  every- 
body on  the  Division  seemed  to  feel  that 
they  were  doing  all  they  could  to  prevent 
the  killing  of  stock,  but  that  he  did  not 
agree  with  that  view.  He  said:  "Al- 
though we  have  done  a  great  deal,  and 
have  realized  results,  still,  I  believe  every 
man  here  can  do  a  little  more  than  he  is 
doing." 

Claim  Agent  Johnson  said:  "It  was  once 
said  by  an  ancient  philosopher  that  if  you 
would  give  him  lever  enough  he  could 
lift  the  world.  I  am  fully  convinced  that 
we  can  accomplish  most  anything  we  care 
to  if  we  go  about  it  in  a  concerted  man- 
ner and  as  a  unit,  and  through  individual 
effort  we  can  do  it." 

Claim  Agent  Payne  suggested  that  if 
engineers  would  slow  up  at  places  where 
they  know  from  experience  that  they  were 
likely  to  encounter  stock,  that  it  would  help 
a  great  deal  toward  reduction  of  number 
of  head  killed.  He  said  an  "ounce  of 
prevention  was  worth  a  pound  of  cure." 
He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  on 
his  territory,  during  the  last  four  months, 
only  one  large  animal  had  been  killed,  for 
which  he  had  failed  to  receive  an  engi- 
neer's report,  which  was  unusual. 

Local  Attorney  Gates  was  present  at 
the  meeting  and  made  a  little  talk,  during 
the  course  of  which,  among  other  things, 
he  said:  "This  is  a  most  unique  occasion 
to  me,  and  to  me,  men,  it  bespeaks  the 
solution,  not  only  of  the  difficulties  aris- 
ing from  the  killing  of  stock,  but  of  many 
of  the  other  difficulties  that  are  being  en- 
countered by  railroad  managers  of  today. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  the  con- 
dition of  fences,  nor  the  matter  of  stock 
laws,  in  the  beginning,  as  it  is  a  cordial 
and  universal  and  concerted  action  of  the 
primal  community  of  interest  that  must 
exist  between  railroad  employes,  from  the 
man  who  drives  spikes  on  the  section,  to 
the  president  of  the  company.  The  dif- 
ference between  these  two  is  merely  a  dif- 
ference in  degree.  Both  and  all  are  equal 
employes  of  the  railroad  company,  and  my 
observations  justify  me  in  stating,  I  think, 
that  so  far  as  the  Illinois  Central  is  con- 
cerned, every  man  connected  with  it  recog- 
nizes himself  as  an  employe  of  the  Illinois 
Central  and  as  a  conservator  of  that 
company's  interest.  Your  presence  at  this 


meeting  tonight  bespeaks  that  attitude  on 
your  part,  and  the  presence  of  the  super- 
intendent bespeaks  that  attitude  on  the 
part  of  the  company's  officials.  So,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  solution  of  the  trou- 
ble arising  out  of  the  killing  of  stock  is  in- 
evitable, if  it  be  pursued.  Not  more  than 
anyone  else  we  should  cordially  recognize 
the  fact  that  every  dollar  we  save  for  our 
employer,  to  that  extent,  advances  our  own 
position  in  his  employment;  that  we  owe 
pur  employer  just  as  much  in  serving  his 
interest  in  the  matter  of  keeping  to  a  mini- 
mum his  expenditure  in  loss  resulting  from 
our  participation  in  his  employment,  as  we 
owe  him  the  duty  of  giving  him  honest 
service  for  the  salary  he  pays  us.  In  other 
words,  the  engineer,  or  the  conductor,  or 
the  section  foreman  who  by  any  oversight 
partially  contributes  to  the  loss  of  his  em- 
ployer of  the  price  of  a  pig,  is  dishonest  to 
that  extent,  just  as  he  would  be  if  he  re- 
fused to  render  twelve  hours  service  for 
twelve  hours  pay.  I  am  presumptive  that 
the  employes  of  the  Illinois  Central  have 
come  to  a  full  realization  of  that  fact. 
Gentlemen,  in  its  larger  aspect  every  trans- 
portation problem  that  today  is  disturbing 
public  opinion  in  America  can  be  solved  by 
this  primal  community  of  interest  between 
men  engaged  in  this  grand  enterprise,  to 
be  cordially  and  universally  recognized.  It 
is  just  as  important  for  the  simplest  track- 
man to  do  his  work  well  as  it  is  for  the 
president  of  the  railroad  to  do  his  work 
well.  It  is  frequently  more  important,  and 
the  trackman  has  not  performed  his  duty 
fully  until  he  has  seen  that  to  the  limit  of 
his  ability  he  prevents  the  company's  re- 
sources from  being  dissipated  by  paying 
losses  arising  from  the  killing  of  stock. 
The  trackman  who  goes  home  in  the  even- 
ing knowing  that  there  is  a  head  of  stock 
on  the  right  of  way  that  he  could  drive  to 
a  zone  of  safety,  and  neglects  to  do  it.  is 
to  that  extent,  co-operative  in  the  dissipa- 
tion of  his  employer's  resources,  and  to 
that  extent,  renders  impotent  the  power  of 
his  employer  to  compensate  him  fully  for 
the  labor  he  performs.  Now,  gentlemen, 
it  seems  to  me  that  you  are  to  be  very 
much  congratulated  upon  the  campaign 
that  you  are  making.  It  has  been  some 
years  since  I  retired  from  the  Claim  De- 
partment, and  I  could  scarcely  believe  my 
ears  when  you  talked  about  killing  only 
two  head  of  large  stock  last  month  and 
seven  this  month  on  one  district.  I  re- 
member very  well  when  I  was  Claim  Agent 
that  between  Evansville  and  Princeton  I 
frequently  paid  out  $2,000.00  per  month 
for.  the  killing  of  stock.  Whenever  my 
monthly  report  got  below  $1,000.00  I  con- 
gratulated myself,  and  the  idea  of  assemb- 
ling a  crowd  of  men  like  this  to  discuss 
the  killing  of  stock  was  beyond  my  fond- 
est dreams.  I  counted  myself  lucky  in 


100 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


those  days  if  I  could  get  the  attention  of 
one  man  at  a  time,  and  frequently  it  took 
quires  of  paper  to  do  that.  Certainly,  I 
never  dreamed  that  a  company  of  men  like 
this  would  assemble  at  Princeton,  under 
the  direction  of  the  superintendent,  to  con- 
sider the  matter  of  how  the  killing  of  stock 
might  be  curtailed.  I  believe  that  any 
train,  I  do  not  care  how  important  it  is, 
should  stop,  if  possible,  to  prevent  the 
slaughter  of  stock.  There  are  two  rea- 
sons for  this:  first,  the  population  of  the 
world  has  grown  to  such  an  extent,  that 
the  life  of  stock  should  be  preserved  for 
necessity,  and  second,  the  drain  upon  the 
treasury  of  the  company  occasioned  by  the 
killing  of  stock.  The  efforts  of  every  em- 
ploye should  be  utilized  to  prevent  the 
killing  of  stock,  and  it  should  be  impressed 
upon  the  minds  of  our  locomotive  engi- 
neers that  they  must  not  kill  stock,  if  they 
can  prevent  it  by  stopping  their  trains.  I 
was  glad  to  hear  tonight  that  a  train  as 
important  as  No.  102  was  stopped  to  pre- 
vent killing  stock.  I  consider  it  next  to 
impossible  to  get  stock  owners  who  live 
along  our  right  of  way  to  make  any  serious 
effort  to  reduce  this  outlay.  They  gen- 
erally get  a  pretty  good  price  for  their 
stock,  and  are  not  going  to  co-operate 
with  you  very  cordially.  I  do  not  care 
what  the  conditions  are,  the  railroad  com- 
pany is  going  to  pay  more,  as  a  rule,  than 


what  the  stock  is  worth.  From  a  legal 
standpoint  the  railroad  is  practically  with- 
out defense  in  stock  claims.  It  is  prac- 
tically impossible  to  take  a  case  from  the 
jury,  and  the  juries  are  made  up  of  people 
who  have  had  stock  killed,  and  there  is  a 
pretty  well  understood  custom  that  when 
a  case  conies  up,  they  will  take  care  of 
the  plaintiff's  interest.  So,  therefore,  gen- 
tlemen, it  is  up  to  you  to  solve  this  prob- 
lem and  I  am  quite  sure,  from  what  I  have 
seen  and  heard  here  tonight,  that  you  are 
going  to  do  it." 

"What  would  you  do  if  you  owned  the 
railroad?"  was  the  pertinent  question  fre- 
quently put  to  those  present  by  Superin- 
tendent Downs.  "If  you  went  out  on  the 
road  and  saw  stock  on  the  right  of  way, 
and  knew  if  that  stock  were  killed  that  you 
would  have  to  sign  the  check  and  pay  the 
money  out  of  your  own  pocket,  what  would 
you  do?  You  would  not  kill  the  stock, 
would  you?  I  want  to  enjoin  upon  every 
man  here  this  evening,  and  upon  every 
employe  of  this  division,  that  his  interest 
lies  in  doing  just  as  he  would  do  if  he 
owned  the  road  and  had  to  pay  out  of  his 
own  pocket  for  the  stock  that  is  killed  on 
the  waylands.  I  believe  every  man  here 
can  do  something  toward  the  prevention  of 
killing  stock.  I  expect  every  one  of  you 
to  do  your  part,  and  I  am  sure  that  I  shall 
not  be  disappointed." 


How  the  I.  C.  Saved  the  Day 

By  J.  O.  Craig,  Fuel   Inspector 


JUST  a  few  words  on  an  efficient  rail- 
road and  how  an  efficient  railroad 
met  a  sudden  emergency.  On  the  night 
of  Aug.  19,  the  tail  end  of  the  great 
West  Indian  hurricane  struck  southern 
Illinois ;  the  rain  and  wind  continued  un- 
broken for  nearly  30  hours.  Naturally 
all  small  streams  and  rivers  were  on  a 
rampage,  and  it  would  be  indeed  a  well 
ballasted  and  efficiently  keot  railroad 
that  could  stand  the  onslaught  of  such 
a  terrific  storm  as  that  which  came,  and 


I  am  proud  to  say  there  was  one  which 
stood  the  test.  After  the  other  roads 
running  through  the  great  American 
bottoms  had  failed  account  of  washouts 
the  Illinois  Central  was  running  their 
trains  through  and  also  on  time,  with 
little  or  no  inconvenience. 

Came  an  order  from  the  chief  dis- 
patcher at  Clinton.  111.,  to  the  night  op- 
erator at  Litchfield  to  be  ready  to  handle 
any  number  of  foreign  passenger  trains 
over  our  line  to  St.  Louis.  The  oper- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


101 


ators  were  on  hand  and  ready  all  along 
the  route  four  hours  before  the  first 
train  came,  a  big  Pennsylvania  mail  and 
passenger,  and  then  came  the  others, 
Vandalia,  B.  &  O.,  Frisco,  C,  B.  &  Q.,  C. 
&  A.,  Big  Four,  C.  &  E.  I.  and  Wabash, 
and  coming  mostly  in  bunches,  part  of 
these  trains  detoured  over  the  I.  C.  atMt. 
Olive,  some  at  Springfield  and  some  at 
Litchfield,  all  on  their  way  to  St.  Louis. 
The  emergency  was  met,  and  efficiently, 
and  only  such-  time  was  lost  as  it  took 


to  transfer  them  over  the  connection, 
and  all  the  while  kept  their  own  traf- 
fic going,  north  and  south.  All  this 
work  was  done  over  a  single  track  rail- 
road, but  a  railroad  that  is  a  railroad. 
And  to  think  for  at  least  a  day  it  was  the 
only  railroad  between  St.  Louis  and  Chi- 
cago direct.  Three  cheers  for  such  a 
railroad. 

For  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  old  I.  C. 
Where  the  devil  would  them  trains  now 
be? 


THE  LAND  OF  BEGINNING 

AGAIN 

By  E.  W.  Gibbens,  Dist.  Mgr.,  Green- 
ville, Miss. 
1  wish  that  there  were  some  wonderful 

place 

Called  the  Land  of  Beginning  Again, 
Where   all   our   mistakes   and   all   our 

heart-aches 

And  all  of  our  poor,  selfish  grief 
Could  be  dropped,  like  a  shabby  old 
coat,  at  the  door, 

And  never  put  on  again. 

r 

I  wish  we  could  come  on  it  all  unaware, 
Like    the    hunter   who    finds    a   lost 

trail ; 
And   I   wish  that  the  one   whom  our 

blindness  had  done 
The  greatest  injustice  of  all 
Could  be  at  the  gates,  like  an  old  friend 

that  waits 
For    the "  comrade    he's    gladdest    to 

hail. 

We   would  find  all  the  things  we  in- 
tended to  do 

But  forgot,  and  remembered  too  late, 
Little  praises  unspoken,  little  promises 

broken, 

And  all  of  the  thousand  and  one 
Little  duties  neglected  that  might  have 

perfected 
The  dav  for  one  less  fortunate. 


It  wouldn't  be  possible  not  to  be  kind 

In  the  Land  of  Beginning  Again ; 
And  the  ones  we  misjudged  and  the 

ones  whom  we  grudged 
Their  moments  of  victory  here 
Would  find  in  the  grasp  of  our  loving 

hand-clasp 

More   than   penitent   lips   could    ex- 
plain. 

For  what  had  been  hardest  we'd  know 

had  been  best, 
And  what  had  seemed  lost  would  be 

gain; 
For  there  isn't  a  string  that  will  not 

take  wing 
When  we've  faced  it  and  laughed  it 

away; 
And  I  think  that  the  laughter  is  most 

what  we're  after 
In  the  Land  of  Beginning  Again. 

So  I  wish  that  there  were  some  won- 
derful place 

Called  the  Land  of  Beginning  Again, 
Where   all   our   mistakes   and   all   our 

heart-aches 

And  all  of  our  poor,  selfish  grief 
Could  be  dropped,  like  a  shabby  old 

coat,  at  the  door, 
And  never  put  on  again. 


102  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 


— AND— 


The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  13 


An  especial  effort  is  being  made  by  these  companies  to,  insofar  as 
practicable,    protect  the  health  of  the  traveling  public  and  employes. 

A  competent  Health  Officer  or  Sanitarian,  who  is  a  graduate 
physician,  at  frequent  intervals  inspects  all  waiting-rooms, 
ticket  and  general  offices  to  see  that  they  are  properly 
ventilated  and  kept  clean.  His  slogans  are  "Nail  the  window 
open"  and  "Clean  up  and  keep  clean." 

All  food  served  in  either  dining  cars,  restaurants  or  lunch 
rooms,  is  regularly  inspected  in  order  that  only  the  best  in 
quality  and  such  as  is  pure  and  clean  will  be  placed  before 
our  patrons.  Cream,  milk  and  butter  are  tested  to  see  that 
they  come  up  to  standard,  and  food  of  every  description 
is  properly  covered  to  protect  from  flies  and  dirt. 

All  water  and  ice  used  on  passenger  trains  and  in  stations 
is  regularly  examined,  and  water  coolers  are  sterilized  with 
live  steam  once  a  week. 

All  dining  cars  are  inspected  regularly  to  insure  their  clean 
and  sanitary  condition. 

For  the  protection  of  the  traveling  public,  as  well  as  them- 
selves, employes  on  dining  cars  who  come  in  contact  with 
passengers,are  required  to  submit  to  frequent  examinations 

by  competent  physicians,  to  see  that  they  are  absolutely 
free  from  any  communicable  disease. 

All  employesare  instructed  that  standing  water  is  a  breed- 
ing place  of  mosquitoes  and  garbage  the  breeding  place  of 
flies,  also  that  the  rat  is  a  medium  through  which  disease 
is  spread. 

Monthly  articles  treating  upon  health  measures  are  printed 
in  the   Company  Magazine. 

A  competent  Medical  and  Hospital  organization!*  at  all  times 
available  to  employes  and  advice  as  to  the  best  method  to 

pursue  to  avoid  sickness  of  all  kinds  is  freely  and  cheerfully 
given. 


Hernonous  o 


OriOUS  OGIV1CG 


LjVYVORABLE  mention  is  -made  of 
the  following  conductors  for  their 
special  efforts  in  lifting  and  preventing 
the  use  of  irregular  transportation  in 
connection  with  which  reports  (Form 
972)  were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of 
passenger  receipts,  who,  in  cases  of 
this  kind,  advises  the  other  depart- 
ments concerned,  so  that  proper  action 
may  be  taken,  all  pass  irregularities  be- 
ing brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
vice-president. 

Illinois  Division 

Suburban  Flagman  C.  G.  Scuffham, 
on  train  Xo.  228,  July  26th,  declined 
to  honor  returning  portion  of  ticket, 
account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks,  on  train  No. 
26,  July  7th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel,  on  train 
No.  24,  July  18th,  and  train  26,  July 
28th,  declined  to  honor  card  tickets 
account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fares.  Passengers  were  referred 
to  the  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  tickets. 

On  train  Xo.  5,  July  25th,  he  lifted 
annual  pass  account  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  26,  July  28th,  he  lifted 
employe's  term  pass  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 
St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  J.  W.  Hallagan,  on  train 
No.  606,  July  3rd,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  W.  L.  Wilder,  on  train 
Xo.  224.  July  10  lifted  card  ticket  ac- 
count date  of  sale  having  been  altered 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  lifted  several 
expired  card  tickets  during  the  month 
on  which  passengers  admitted  having 


previously  secured  transportation  and 
collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  23,  July  25th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  w'as  referred  to  the  Passen- 
ger Department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  G.  Carter,  on  train  No. 
302,  July  25th,  lifted  trip  pass  account 
not  being  countersigned  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Springfield  Division 

Conductor  J.  B.  Stewart,  on  train 
No.  124,  July  12th,  and  train  No.  120, 
July  31st,  declined  to  honor  card  tick- 
ets account  having  expired  and  collect- 
ed cash  fares.  Passengers  were  re- 
ferred to  the  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  tickets. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor  B.  Lichtenberger,  on  train 
No.  124,  July  llth,  lifted  employe's 
trip  pass  account  returning  portion 
being  missing  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  H.  Sharkev,  on  train 
No.  101,  July  23rd,  lifted  trip  pass  ac- 
count returning  portion  being  missing 
and  collected  cash  fare ;  also  declined 
to  honor  card  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare.  Pas- 
senger was  referred  to  Passenger  De- 
partment for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  P.  J.  Crosson,  on  train 
No.  123,  July  25th,  lifted  identification 
slip  Form  1572  account  passenger  not 
being  provided  with  pass.  Passengers 
purchased  tickets  to  cover  trip. 
Iowa  Division 

Conductor  D.  B.  Johnson,  on  train 
No.  716,  July  12th,  lifted  card  ticket 
account  date  of  sale  having  been  al- 
tered and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  715,  July  14th,  he  lifted 
expired  card  ticket  from  passenger 
who  admitted  having  previously  se- 
cured transportation  thereon  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbrough,  on 
train  No.  103,  July  16th,  lifted  48  trip 
coupon  pass  book  account  being  in 


103 


104 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  train  No.  104,  July  21st,  and 
train  103,  July  28th,  he  declined  to 
honor  mileage  tickets  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn,  on  train 
No.  131,  July  21st,  declined  to  honor 
returning  portion  of  Sunday  excursion 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson,  on  train 
No.  106,  July  5th,  declined  to  honor 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  Passenger 
Department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  133,  July  7th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  mileage  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  134,  July  24th,  he  lifted 
54  ride  commutation  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  S.  Ball,  on  train  No. 
37-38,  July  21st,  lifted  30  trip  family 
commutation  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  S.  E.  Matthews,  on  train 
No.  6,  July  21st,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  having  previously  been 
used  for  passage.  Passenger  refused 
to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to  leave 
the  train. 

Mississippi  Division 

Conductor  N.  S.  McLean,  on  train 
No.  124,  July  12th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was 
referred  to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson,  on  train 
No.  1,  July  17th,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  returning  portion  being 
missing.  Passenger  refused  to  pay 
fare  and  was  required  to  leave  the 
train. 

On  train  No.  1,  July  21st,  he  lifted 
mileage  ticket  account  being  in  im- 
prooer  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  J.  Hines,  on  train  No. 
5,  July  18th,  lifted  employe's  trip  pass 
account  having  expired.  Passenger 
presented  other  transportation  to  cover 
trip. 


Conductor  J.  Sitton,  on  train  No.  123, 
July  27th,  lifted  mileage  ticket  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  M.  H.  Ranson,  on  train 
No.  24,  July  31st,  lifted  expired  card 
ticket  from  passenger  who  admitted 
having  previously  secured  transporta- 
tion thereon  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  M.  Kennedy,  on  train 
No.  304,  July  5th,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  ticket  account  having  expired ; 
also  lifted  mileage  ticket  account  being 
in  improper  hands,  and  collected  cash 
fares. 

Conductor  R.  D.  Robbins,  on  train 
No.  34,  July  6th,  lifted  54  ride  individ- 
ual ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train  No. 
34,  July  8th,  lifted  card  ticket  account 
date  of  sale  having  been  altered  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff,  on  train 
No.  331,  July  10th,  lifted  expired  card 
ticket  from  passenger  who  admitted 
having  previously  secured  transporta- 
tion thereon  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  304-504,  July  31st,  he 
lifted  mileage  ticket  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Broas,  on  train  No. 
34,  July  llth,  lifted  non-transferable 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  Wm.  Trafton,  on  train 
No.  33,  July  13th,  lifted  employe's  term 
pass  account  holder  attempting  to  pass 
parties  not  entitled  to  transportation 
on  same.  Holder  of  pass  refused  to 
pay  fare  and  was  required  to  leave  the 
train. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes,  on  train 
No.  6,  July  13th,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  6,  July  13th,  he  lifted 
expired  card  ticket  from  passenger  who 
had  previously  secured  transportation 
thereon  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  E.  McMaster,  on 
train  No.  4,  July  28th,  lifted  employe's 
term  pass  account  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


105 


Memphis  Division 

Conductor  R.  H.  Kerr,  on  train  No. 
522,  July  5th,  declined  to  honor  Sunday 
excursion  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  P.  D.  Richards  on  train 
No.  331,  July  9th,  lifted  identification 
slip  form  1572  account  passenger  not 
being  provided  with  pass  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee,  on  train  No. 
503,  July  25th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  304,  July  26th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  Sunday  excursion 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  S.  K.  White,  on  train  No. 
12,  July  4th,  lifted  mileage  ticket  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  15,  July  16th,  he  lifted 
employe's  trip  pass  account  returning 
portion  being  missing.  Passenger  re- 
fused to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 

Conductor  A.  L.  Williams,  on  train 
No.  34,  July  5th,  declined  to  honor 
Sunday  excursion  tickets  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Cook,  on  train  No. 
12,  July  18th,  lifted  trip  pass  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  Tony  Lang,  on  train  No. 
22,  July  18th,  lifted  non-transferable 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  C.  R.  Day,  on  train  No. 
Ex.  2001,  July  25th,  lifted  non-trans- 
ferable Sunday  excursion  ticket  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Illinois  Division 

Agent  V.  E.  Mclntire,  Hayes.  111., 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
and  reporting  I.  C.  90989  improperly 
stenciled.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  car  restenciled. 

Conductor  Shugrue,  train  No.  71, 
Aug.  25,  has  been  commended  for  dis- 


covering and  reporting  W.  of  A.  car 
1120,  with  no  light  weight  stenciled  on 
same.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  car  stenciled. 

Conductor  J.  J.  Monahan,  train  No. 
71,  Aug.  13,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  four  cars  in 
train  with  no  light  weight  stenciled  on 
same.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  cars  stenciled. 

Conductor  S.  E.  Nelson,  Extra  1511 
south,  Aug.  8,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
90724  improperly  stenciled.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  correction 
made. 

Indiana  Division 

Brakeman  L.  Alsop  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  helping  to 
extinguish  fire  burning  on  P.  &  P.  U. 
Illinois  River  bridge  on  the  morning 
of  Aug.  19. 

Brakeman  Frank  French  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing broken  rail  in  siding  at  Greenup, 
Aug.  6. 

Switchman  P.  Stuckover  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing broken  truck  under  I.  C.  45017, 
July  25. 

Minnesota  Division 

Mr.  Frank  Andricks,  crossing  flag- 
man, Cascade  Crossing,  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting 
brake  beam  dragging  in  extra  1582  east, 
Aug.  5,  thereby  removing  possible 
cause  of  an  accident. 

Agent  C.  W.  Parkins,  Council  Hillr 
111.,  has  been  commended  for  discov- 
enng  and  reporting  truck  off  center 
when  extra  1588  east  passed  his  sta- 
tion, Aug.  8.  Car  was  set  out  at.  Scales 
Mound  before  accident  occurred. 

Memphis  Division 

Flagman  J.  W.  Stone  has  been  com- 
mended for  finding  12  inches  of  broken 
flange  behind  extra  763,  at  Sidon,  Aug. 
12.  Train  was  inspected  and  18  inches 
of  flange  was  found  missing  on  wheel 
under  I.  C.  104826. 

Agent  O.  D.  Hinshaw,  Banks,  Miss., 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
and  reporting  brake  beam  dragging  un- 
der car  in  Extra  777  north,  thereby  pre- 
venting possible  accident. 


ILLINOIS   DIVISION. 
South  Water  Street 

Ben  Bristovv  looks  lonesome  these 
days.  All  of  his  assistants  are  on  their 
vacations. 

The  Misses  Margaret  Hoss  and  Bes- 
sie Novak  spent  a  delightful  two  weeks 
in  the  east.  Ask  M.  &  B.  how  they 
liked  their  spring  chicken  dinner. 

Walter  Reeves  has  succeeded  Harley 
Tucker  as  Mr.  P.  N.  Bulley's  assistant 
on  the  mail  desk. 

The  "Corsican  Brothers,"  Max  and 
Louie  Enders,  are  racing  to  see  who 
will  be  the  tallest  and  handsomest  at 
the  Railroad  Clerks'  picnic. 

Geo.  Bailey,  who  has  recently  sev- 
ered connections  with  the  Drovers'  Na- 
tional Bank,  is  now  file  clerk  in  our  ac- 
counting department. 

Miss  Marie  Burke,  of  the  In-Freight 
Department,  enjoyed  every  minute  of 
her  visit  to  New  York  and  Connecticut. 

Matt  Murphy  and  Thos.  Cassidy  are 
showing  the  latest  in  hair-cuts  called 
"The  Barber's  Revenge." 

If  you  should  hear  Chas.  Kavanaugh 
and  Curley  Langan  talking  in  some 
corner,  you  would  look  for  wredding 
bells  soon,  for  their  conversation  is  al- 
ways of  the  "Love  Game"  that  raised 
the  "Deuce"  and  all  in  the  "Court." 

After  a  few  more  weeks  in  the  big 
league  Atwood  will  be  a  66  player. 

Tom  Raible  has  been  promoted  to  L. 
C.  L.  accountant.  Well,  Tom,  we  wish 
you  luck  with  your  balances  every 
month. 

Mr.  Armstrong,  of  Chicago  Bureau, 
is  spending  two  weeks  in  Cincinnati,  O. 

Al  Clauss,  our  invincible  machine  ab- 
stractor, has  taken  unto  himself  a  wife. 
Al  wa~  married  July  17th.  The  happy 
couple  spent  their  honeymoon  at  Buf- 
falo, X.  Y.,  and  Niaeara  Falls.  We 


wish  them  all  the  success  in  the  world. 

Ask  Clara  Wegstrin,  of  accounting 
department,  and  Harriet  Kerr,  how 
they  enjoyed  their  trip  to  St.  Joe  Sun- 
dav,  July  18th.  Also  Frankie  Fitzger- 
ald^. 

A  report  has  been  circulated  that 
Harry  Baechle.  of  the  Claim  Depart- 
ment, has  discovered  a  new  plant.  ''The 
Resurrection  Plant."  Heinie  and 
Frank  Squair  fall  for  all  canvassers, 
booksellers,  fakers,  etc.  Kindly  refer 
all  of  these  pests  to  Heinie  or  Frank. 

Miss  Edith  Anderson  and  Rose  Cla- 
der  are  spending  their  vacation  at  the 
"Falls." 

Gardner's  Park  is  becoming  quite 
popular  as  a  pleasure  and  picnic  grove, 
due  to  the  unexcelled  efforts  of  Jos. 
Isadore  Loadell. 

Miss  Anna  Quinliven  will  return  to 
work  Sept.  1st.  Anna  has  had  a  leave 
of  absence.  We  missed  her  very  much, 
so  did  Frank  Fitzgerald. 

Joe  McMahon  spent  two  weeks  in 
North  Dakota  and  reports  a  splendid 
time.  Received  a  post-card  signed 
"Harvey,  Irving  and  John."  The  boys 
are  evidently  practicing  economy. 

Mr.  Arthur  Devitt  and  Jas.  Gal- 
lagher, of  Chicago  Bureau,  will  spend 
their  two  weeks  on  a  ranch  in  Colorado. 
(So  gossip  has  it.) 

Miss  D.  Dolan  spent  her  vacation  in 
Pittsburgh. 

Mr.  W.  "V. .  Milliken  paid  Chicago 
Bureau  a  visit  Aug.  2nd. 

The  famous  Mr.  Cashun  left  Sunday, 
Aug.  1st,  for  New  York,  to  spend  his 
vacation,  a  good  place  to  "spend." 

Fred  De  Long,  of  Accounting  De- 
partment, is  earning  the  reputation  of 
being  the  equal  of  the  fellow  with  the 
two  oranges.  This  fellow  ate  one  and 


106 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


107 


kept  the  other.  (Taken  from  Mother 
Goose  Stories.) 

Con  O'Neill  is  getting  to  look  more 
like  John  D.  every  day. 

Miss  Gladys  Yarwood,  of  Claim  De- 
partment, will  spend  a  pleasant  two 
weeks  with  her  friend,  Mrs.  Tuthspinfs, 
of  Green  Bay,  Wis. 

Mrs.  M.  Williamson,  of  In-Freight, 
spent  a  happy  vacation  in  Nora,  111. 

Indiana   Division 
R.  I.  TAYLOR 

By  Wm.  Ward,  Agent,  Indianapolis 
Robt.  I.  Taylor,  better  known  as  Scott, 

Now  walks  the  streets 
When  the  days  are  hot. 

•He  wears  brass  buttons, 
And  uniform  of  blue, 

To  watch  the  Public 
Faithful  and  true. 

If  he's  as  faithful  to  the  City 
As  he  was  to  the  I.  C., 

They  couldn't  make  a  better  choice, 
His  friends  they  all  agree. 

If  you're  ever  in  the  City, 
And  get  into  a  mix. 

Ask  for  Robt.  Taylor, 
Number  five  five  six. 

Best  wishes  to  you  Scottie — 

And  do  as  the  law  demands, 
But  drop  around  the  old  I.  C., 
So  we  can  all  shake  hands. 
W.  H.   Rinehart  and  wife,  account- 
ant at  Indianapolis,  spent  a  few  days 
visiting  relatives  of  his  wife  in  Wing- 
ham,  Canada. 


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Minnesota    Division 

For  the  month  of  July  this  division 
was  assessed  with  ten  lost  packages, 
tieing  with  the  Vicksburg  Division  for 
first  place,  but  of  these  ten  only  one 
was  an  intra-division  shipment,  the 


other  nine  originating  on  other  divis- 
ions. This  is  one  of  the  best  records 
we  have  made.  The  crews  of  the 
locals  are  watching  the  exceptions 
charged  to  shipments  they  handle  very 
closely  and  there  is  keen  rivalry  be- 
tween them  for  the  top  place.  Watch 
the  bulletin  boards  for  the  scores. 

Miss  Jane  Munson  put  in  an  appear- 
ance at  the  home  of  Claim  Agent  Mun- 
son on  August  fifth  and  "Dad"  Mun- 
son is  sure  wearing  some  smile  these 
days. 

Instrumentman  G.  D.  Hill  has  been 
transferred  to  the  Valuation  Corps 
with  headquarters  at  Paducah.  While 
on  the  Minnesota  Division,  Mr.  Hill 
developed  into  quite  an  inventor.  One 
nice,  sunny  afternoon  he  pulled  the 
curtain  of  the  engineers'  drafting  room 
down  with  an  extra  yank  and  it  parted 
company  with  its  roller,  putting  the 
force  to  considerable  inconvenience  un- 
til repaired.  Thereupon,  "G.  D."  in- 
vented a  shade  roller  which  prevents 
such  accidents.  This  idea  has  been  pat- 
ented and  will  soon  be  on  the  market. 

Mr.  A.  R.  Montague  came  to  the 
Minnesota  Division  from  the  Bridges 
and  Buildings  office  in  Chicago,  where 
he  was  Masonry  Inspector,  to  succeed 
Mr.  Hill. 

Mr.  R.  E.  Downing,  Storekeeper  at 
Waterloo,  swapped  placed  with  Mr. 
E.  S.  Shaplin,  at  Mattoon. 

C.  C.  Harper  and  Ray  McLaren,  of 
the  Master  Mechanic's  office  at  Water- 
loo, have  been  attending  War  Col- 
lege at  Iowa  City  and  are  said  to  have 
mastered  the  strategy  of  many  of  the 
leading  European  generals  during  the 
"short  course." 

The  building  of  a  passing  track  at 
Orchard  and  a  business  track  at  St. 
Ansgar  has  been  authorized  and  work 
will  proceed  immediately,  to  get  them 
in  shape  for  the  potato  and  onion  crop 
this  fall,  which  promises  to  be  a  large 
one.  St.  Ansgar  has  the  reputation  of 
shipping  more  onions  than  any  other 
point  in  the  West  and  these  improve- 
ments will  be  greatly  appreciated  by 
the  shippers  in  that  vicinity. 

Those  who  have  had  typhoid  wish 


108 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


it  had  been  possible  to  have  had  the 
advantages  afforded  our  employes 
through  the  Hospital  Department  to- 
day. A  large  number  are  taking  the 
opportunity  to  be  inoculated  against 
this  dreaded  disease  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  within  a  very  short  time  at  least 
seventy-five  percent  of  the  Minnesota 
Division  employes  will  have  taken  this 
treatment.  It  is  an  advantage  which  is 
offered  by  very  few  corporations  in 
this  country  and  is  one  of  the  far- 
sighted  policies  that  has  placed  the 
Illinois  Central  in  the  front  rank  as  a 
railroad  today. 

Pete  Richardson,  track  apprentice, 
believes  it  never  rains,  but  it  pours. 
On  top  of  being  scalded  while  out  on 
the  line  with  Instrumentman  Hill,  he 
has  been  charged  with  a  reprimand  for 
failure  to  make  out  an  accident  report. 
He  is  able  to  be  about,  but  don't  know 
which  hurt  worse. 

Springfield  Division 

Dispatcher  A.  N.  Schafer  is  taking 
his  vacation. 

Operator  E.  N.  Williamson,  third 
trick  operator  at  company  office  at 
Clinton,  is  taking  three  weeks'  leave 
of  absence  and  relieved  by  H.  Tobin. 

G.  W.  Rollins,  agent  Moweaqua,  is 
on  a  month's  leave  of  absence. 

Dave  Tobin,  operator  and  assistant 
ticket  agent,  Springfield  Passenger 
Station,  is  taking  two  weeks'  vacation, 
being  relieved  by  A.  L.  Vallow. 

Conductor  W.  C.  McConnell  and 
wife  have  returned  from  a  several 
weeks'  visit  with  relatives  in  Chicago. 

Conductor  Wm.  Ashcraft  has  'been 
granted  a  leave  of  absence  for  three 
weeks  and  he  and  his  family  are  camp- 
ing at  Chautauqua  Beach,  Havana, 
111.  Also  attending  the  Chautauqua 
while  it  is  in  session. 

Conductor  D.  C.  Mulligan,  in  charge 
of  the  "switcher"  between  Clinton  and 
Lincoln,  has  moved  his  family  from 
Champaign  to  Clinton. 

Brakeman  H.  E.  Hilbrant  has  re- 
ported for  duty  after  a  ten-day  lay-off, 
which  time  he  spent  camping  with  a 
party  of  friends  at  Havana,  111. 


Conductor  T.  W.  Mclntyre  has  re- 
turned to  work  after  several  weeks' 
lay-off.  He  and  Mrs.  Mclntyre  have 
been  spending  the  time  visiting  with 
friends  and  relatives  in  Springfield  and 
Belleflower. 

Brakeman  J.  P.  Sears  and  wife  are 
spending  several  weeks  at  Hot  Springs, 
Ark.,  for  the  benefit  of  Mrs.  Sears' 
health. 

Laurence  Andrews,  a  brakeman  on 
the  Clinton  District  for  the  past  two 
years,  has  resigned  and  will  work  in 
the  Paint  Department  at  the  I.  C. 
Shops. 

Passenger  Conductor  Chas.  Ott  ex- 
pects to  leave  within  a  few  weeks  for 
California  to  attend  the  Exposition. 

Conductor  C.  L.  St.  John,  a  con- 
ductor on  the  Springfield  District,  and 
who  was  granted  six  months'  leave  of 
absence,  writes  to  friends  in  Clinton 
that  he  was  married  recently  and  is  at 
present  time  residing  in  Rochester, 
Minn. 

Mr.  Chas.  Williams,  car  repairer, 
wife  and  two  sons,  will  visit  in  Inde- 
pendence, Iowa. 

Mr.  Albert  Manning,  machinist 
handyman,  will  visit  in  Helena,  Mont. 

Mr.  Albert  Coleman,  boilermaker 
handyman,  and  wife,  will  visit  in  Ft. 
Wayne,  Indiana. 

Mr.  J.  L.  Danison,  car  inspector, 
wife  and  son,  will  visit  in  Ft.  Dodge, 
Iowa ;  also  Swaledale,  Iowa. 

Mr.  F.  M.  Moffitt,  engineer,  wife 
and  two  sons,  will  visit  in  Mortimer, 
Ohio. 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Fish,  stenographer  in  the 
master  mechanic's  office,  is  spending 
her  vacation  in  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah, 
and  other  places  in  the  west. 

Mrs.  E.  Thompson,  wife  of  fireman, 
will  visit  in  Duluth,  Minn. 

Mr.  Theodore  Nicholson,  labor  gang 
foreman  and  daughter,  will  visit  in 
Lebanon,  Ky. 

Mr.  A.  B.  Comer,  fireman,  will  visit 
in  Henderson,  Ky. 

Mr.  Cody  Diveley,  carpenter,  wife 
and  two  sons,  will  visit  in  Newton, 
Kansas. 

Mr.   C.   D.   Rice,   fireman,   wife  and 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


109 


son    Elmer,    will    visit    in    Johnstown, 
Pa. 

Mrs.  C.  L.  Day,  wife  of  timekeeper, 
will  visit  in  Jacksonville,  111. 

Mr.  James  Pate,  handyman  at  Clin- 
ton shop,  will  visit  in  Birmingham, 
Ala.,  and  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Mr.  Wm.  F.  Stern,  clerk  in  the  mas- 
ter mechanic's  office,  has  returned  to 
work  after  spending  his  vacation  in 
the  East. 

St.  Louis  Division 

All  Dispatchers  have  had  vacations 
and  are  back  on  their  regular  tricks. 

A  new  addition  to  the  Division  office 
is  being  built,  which  will  provide  four 
roomy  light  offices  to  be  occupied  by 
Superintendent  Williams,  Dispatchers, 
Special  Agent  and  Traveling  Freight 
Agent,  and  make  room  for  the  Tele- 
graph Department,  which  will  be 
moved  from  old  "C.  D."  office. 

General  Foreman  D.  L.  Barthel  of 
Mounds  was  married  Tuesday,  Aug. 
24th,  and  is  enjoying  ("enjoying"  is 
good  word  to  use  here)  the  honeymoon 
in  Wisconsin.  If  he  is  going  to  live 
with  his  wife's  folks  when  he  returns 
we  can  get  him  at  the  same  old  tele- 
phone. We  know  the  number. 

Read  the  special  write-up  on  Car- 
bondale  in  this  issue. 

Trainmaster  C.  W.  Shaw  of  East  St. 
Louis  returned  from  a  short  vacation 
just  in  time  to  fall  into  a  rubber  coat 
and  gum  boots  and  fight  high  water  at 
Belleville  and  New  Athens.  We  were 
glad  to  have  him  with  us. 

Trainmaster  H.  J.  Roth,  who  accom- 
panied Robinson's  Circus  over  the  Di- 
vision, reports  it  was  an  exceptionally 
good  show  to  handle  and  speaks  high- 
ly of  the  organization  of  transporta- 
tion employes. 

Superintendent  W.  S.  Williams  and 
Mrs.  Williams  have  returned  from  San 
Francisco,  where  Mr.  Williams  at- 
tended the  annual  meeting  of  Railway 
Superintendents.  The  pleasure  of 
their  trip  was  marred  by  the  sudden 
death  of  Mr.  Williams'  mother  in  De- 
catur  shortly  after  their  arrival  on  the 
coast. 


You  can  set  your  watch  at  2  :05  any 
day  at  Carbondale  when  Nos.  2  and 
202  leave  from  a  scratch  and  run  side 
by  side  to  St.  Louis  Junction. 

Did  It  Ever  Occur  to  You 

That — Two  pretty  good  green  flags 
are  the  Jew  and  the  Irish?  No  one 
ever  says  a  bad  word  for  the  Irish  flag 
and  every  mother's  son  of  us  is  fight- 
ing for  the  other  one. 

That — An  ounce  of  kindness  cures 
more  ills  than  a  ton  of  rawhiding. 

That — Worldly  wisdom  is  useful  to 
a  man,  but  it  steals  a  woman's  charms. 

That — You  don't  have  to  tell  the 
boss  how  great  a  man  you  are.  He 
knows  all  about  you  if  he's  any  good 
himself. 

That — A  Percheron  stallion  and  a 
Clydesdale  mare  never  bred  a  Ham- 
bletonian. 

Vicksburg  Division 

Miss  Walter  McClain,  Stenographer 
in  Superintendent's  office,  has  returned 


Have 

||    Healthy, 
Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists — Golfers — Tour- 
ists —  Mechanics — All — should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eya  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago II 


110 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


from  her  vacation,  which  was  spent  in 
Walter- Valley.  Miss.,  with  friends  and 
relatives,  and  in  Chicago,  sight-seeing. 

Conductor  A.  W.  Eaton  has  returned 
to  work  after  an  absence  of  twenty 
days. 

Mr.  W.  W.  Overby,  Fireman  on 
trains  111-114,  has  returned  to  work 
after  a  few  days'  absence  on  account  of 
using  his  fist  on  a  negro  thief  in  Mem- 
phis, disarranging  one  of  his  fingers. 

We  regret  to  note  the  serious  illness 
of  Mr.  W.  A.  Becker,  who  has  served 
this  company  as  road  supervisor  for  a 
number  of  years. 

Mr.  E.  Puckett,  Agent,  Arcola.  Miss., 
took  unto  himself  a  wife,  August  25th. 
Mr.  Puckett  and  wife  left  for  San  Fran- 
cisco, Cal.,  where  they  will  spend  their 
honeymoon. 

Mr.  I.  B.  Kelly,  Agent,  Beulah,  Miss., 
became  "Papa"  August  20th.  "It's  a 
boy."  Congratulations! 

Special  Excursion  Train,  in  charge  of 
Conductor  R.  S.  Rucker  and  Engineer 
H.  F.  Risher,  was  operated  from  Vicks- 
burg  to  Memphis,  August  21st.  return- 
ing August  22nd.  A  large  crowd  of 


people  took  advantage  of  the  greatly 
reduced  rates. 

Engineer  Joe  Healion  has  just  re- 
turned from  a  visit  to  friends  in  Illinois. 
He  reports  having  a  good  time. 

Mr.  E.  B.  Butler,  Agent,  Redwood, 
Miss.,  has  returned  to  work  after  a 
thirty-day  vacation,  which  time  was 
spent  in  Louisiana  and  Texas. 

Mr.  W.  A.  Mitchell,  Agent,  Gunni- 
son,  Miss.,  is  now  on  his  vacation, 
spending  this  time  in  Florida.  He  is 
being  relieved  by  Agent  L.  L.  Davis. 

Mr.  T.  R.  Marsalis,  Agent,  Hillhouse, 
Miss.,  has  just  left  for  a  few  days'  visit 
to  homefolks. 

Miss  Zetta  Beulah,  File  Clerk  in  Su- 
perintendent's office,  has  returned  to 
work  after  a  visit  to  Chicago  and  other 
points  in  Illinois. 

Chief  Clerk  S.  Simmons,  Division  Ac- 
countant C.  Bourgeois,  Assistant  Ac- 
countant B.  F.  Simmons,  and  Time- 
Keeper  M.  P.  Massey,  attended  ac- 
countant meeting  at  Memphis.  August 
17th.  They  report  much  benefit  was 
derived  from  this  meeting. 


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ILLINOISACENTRAL 


MAGIZINE: 


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T.  T.  Keliher — Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  During  the  Civil  Con- 
flict,   1861-5   9 

Remarks  of  President  C.  H.  Markham  at  23rd  Annual  Meeting 
of  the  Traveling  Engineers'  Association   Held  at   Chicago, 

Sept.  8-10,  1915 21 

Public   Opinion  24 

Indianapolis,  Ind 39 

A  Iways   Safety  First 49 

Hospital   Department  50 

How   Employes    Should    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock 56 

Claims  Department  58 

Engineering  Department 69 

Roll    of    Honor 73 

Loss  and  Damage  Bureau 1 74 

Transportation    Department 77 

Passenger   Traffic    Department 80 

Law  Department 89 

Mechanical  Department 92 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department , 94 

Contributions  from  Employes: 

The  Old  Timer .„ 96 

Railroad  Waterways  and  Overflow  Damage  Suits 96 

Meritorious  Service  100 

Division    News  ...  ....103 


tyufitished  monthly  6y  the  ffino/s  Central  *J?f$.  Gb., 
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'Chicago 

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T.  T.  KELIHER 

TIMOTHY  T.  KELIHER  was  born  in  Williamsport,  Pa.  At  an  early  age  his  parents 
moved  to  North  Platte,  Nebraska,  then  a  typical  Western  frontier  town,  and  underwent 
the  usual  trials  and  hardships  of  frontier  life. 

Received  a  high  school  education,  and  later  graduated  from  the  St.  Joseph  Commercial 
College,  of  St.  Joseph,  Mo. 

His  experience  has  been  varied;  served  npprenticeships  as  boiler-maker  and  machinist; 
studied  law  two  years  in  law  office  of  Hinman  and  Gaunt,  North  Platte,  Nebr. ;  Recording 
and  Docket  Clerk,  Nebraska  State  Senate,  1893;  worked  in  Abstract  Office,  and  served  eight 
years  as  Sheriff,  Lincoln  County,  Nebraska. 

In  1902  accepted  position  of  Special  Agent.  Wyoming  Division,  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Co., 
at  which  time  Vice-President  W.  L.  Park  was  Superintendent  of  the  Wyoming  Division; 
later  was  Special  Agent  for  both  the  Wyoming  and  the  Utah  Divisions;  resigned  May  1st, 
1910,  to  accept  his  present  position  as  Chief  Special  Agent,  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company. 

Has  always  manifested  great  interest  in  the  subject  of  lost  and  damage  freight  and  the 
prevention  thereof,  and  has  succeeded  in  inculcating  the  same  interest  in  every  member  of  the 
Special  Agent  Department.  As  a  result,  the  Department  is  co-operating  and  working  in 
complete  harmony  with  the  Loss  and  Damage  Bureau,  as  the  most  satisfactory  reduction  in 
freight  claims  filed  and  paid  show. 

At  the  last  Annual  Convention,  Mr.  Keliher  was  elected  President  of  the  International 
Association  of  Railway  Special  Agents  and  Police;  also  holds  the  position  of  Third  Vice- 
President  of  the  Federation  of  American  Peace  Officers. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 

Vol.  4  OCTOBER  1915  No.  4 

Story  of tfio 
IllinoisContral  Linos 

during  tfie 

Civil  Conflict  i86i-5 

Decatur,    111.,    May    19,    1902. 
Mr.  Wm.  T.  Rigby, 

Dear  Comrade:  I  was  so  busy  when  your  letter  reached  me,  that  I  could  not 
attend  to  it  until  now.  Of  course  I  will  be  glad  to  contribute  anything  that  I  can 
to  the  history  of  the  Vicksburg  campaign.  Unfortunately  for  myself,  I  missed  the 
first  part  of  it.  My  regiment  was  paid  off  near  the  last  of  April,  and  I  was  sent  home 
to  take  the  money  to  the  families  of  the  men,  starting  from  Young's  Point  just  as 
the  troops  were  embarking  to  make  a  feint  on  Haynes'  Bluff  while  the  main  army 
crossed  below.  I  got  back  to  Young's  Point  on  the  25th  of  May,  and  reached  my 
regiment  in  the  rear  of  Vicksburg,  on  the  27th.  From  that  time  till .  the  surrender 
each  day  has  its  record.  These  notes  were  written  for  my  own  eyes  alone;  I  had  no 
thought  of  anyone  else  ever  seeing  them.  They  contain  camp  rumors  and  guesses 
that  time  proved  to  be  wrong.  They  contain  statements  which  I  found  out  were 
untrue  before  the  siege  was  over,  for  instance  that  one  as  to  the  number  of  guns 
inside  the  enemy's  works  found  under  date  of  May  29th.  There  are  many  allusions 
to  myself  which  I  never  would  have  written  for  public  inspection.  I  have  called 
the  enemy's  large  earthworks  on  the  main  Jackson  road  "Fort  Beauregard,"  which 
I  now  think  was  not  its  name.  In  short,  I  could  not  write  the  matter  up  in  much 
better  shape,  but  I  suspect  that  should  I  do  so,  what  little  value  it  may  have  for 
your  purpose  would  all  be  lost.  So  I  send  it  to  you  just  as  it  was  written  at  the 
time,  without  alterations  or  corrections,  hoping  that  if  you  have  it  copied,  this  ex- 
planation may  be  copied  with  it.  • 

N.   M.   BAKER,   Chaplain   116th   Illinois, 

1019   North  Union   Street,   Decatur,   111. 

Extracts  from  Diary  of  Chaplain  N.  M.  Baker, 

1  1 6  Illinois 

Courtesy  of  Captain  Wm.  T.  Rigby 

Sunday,  May  24.     The  first  object  which  committing    depredations    for    some    time 

greeted    my    sight    this    morning    was    the  past.      The    wreck    of    a    steamboat    which 

charred  remains  of  the  once  pleasant  little  they  destroyed  a  short  time  ago,  was  lying 

village    of    Greenville,    Miss.      This    is    the  at  shore,   but  the  blackened  chimneys  and 

point    where    the    guerrillas    as    have    been  the  leaves  of  the  trees  seared  by  the  recent- 


10 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


fire,  bore  testimony  to  the  retribution  which 
they  have  received.  Some  houses  are  still 
standing,  but  the  most  of  them  have  been 
entirely  destroyed.  At  1  P.  M.  we  came  to 
Lake  Providence.  Here  we  heard  that  our 
army  was  not  in  Vicksburg,  but  that  the 
fight  was  still  progressing.  This  increased 
our  anxiety.  Oh,  that  the  boat  would  go 
faster.  Near  three,  we  again  started,  and 
just  before  sundown,  landed  at  Milliken's 
•Bend.  The  first  sound  that  greeted  our 
ears  was  the  heavy  booming  of  distant 
cannons,  and  I  was  glad  to  hear  it.  Some- 
how, it  nerves  my  frame  and  elevates  my 
spirits,  and  it  seems  very  natural,  too,  for 
all  the  ideas  of  this  place  and  all  the  im- 
pressions are  associated  in  my  mind  with 
the  roar  of  cannons  and  the  confusion  of 
battle.  Again  we  got  under  way,  and  about 
9  in  the  evening  came  to  the  upper  landing 
at  Young's  Point.  Walked  about  one  and 
one-half  miles  to  the  convalscent  camp, 
found  a  few  of  the  boys,  then  went  back  to 
the  boat. 

Monday,  May  25.  Heavy  cannonading  in 
front  in  the  morning,  which  slackened  in 
the  heat  of  the  day,  opened  heavily  near  3 
P.  M.,  but  ceased  entirely  near  night.  I 
went  down  to  the  lower  landing  and  re- 
ported myself  to  the  Provost  Marshal. 

Tuesday,  May  26.  Tried  to  get  a  pass  to 
the  regiment,  but  could  not.  Captain  Town- 
send,  to  whom  I  applied,  ordered  me  to  re- 
port for  that  purpose  to  the  Provost  Mar- 
shal. Last  night  when  I  applied  to  the 
Provost  Marshal  he  ordered  me  to  report 
to  Captain  Townsend,  and  so  it  goes.  Late 
in  the  evening  I  determined  to  go  without  a 
pass.  So  I  got  aboard  the  Planet.  She 
did  not  start  trll  after  dark,  so  I  went  to 
bed. 

Wednesday,  May  27.  Waked  up  this 
morning  and  found  myself  up  the  Yazoo, 
near  Johnson's  farm.  Found  a  teamster  of 
our  regiment  with  a  wagon  and  got  aboard. 
We  passed  over  a  part  of  the  ground  where 
Morgan's  division  fought  last  winter.  Frag- 
ments of  shell  were  lying  on  the  ground, 
the  trees  were  cut,  scarred  and  splintered  bv 
them.  Small  arms,  too,  had  been  brought 
into  requisition.  I  counted  the  marks  of 
25  balls  on  a  single  tree.  Saw  where  one 
cannon  shot  had  passed  though  a  cypress 
tree  two  feet  in  diameter.  We  crossed  the 
bayou  which  caused  us  so  much  trouble  last 
winter,  on  a  potoon  bridge,  and  soon  came 
to  the  wagoners'  corral.  Here  I  stopped 
and  spent  some  time  examining  the  bluffs. 
They  are  very  high  and  their  face  is  lined 
with  three  rows  of  rifle  oits  one  above  the 
other.  It  would  have  been  almost  impos- 
sible to  climb  them.  After  wandering  here 
for  some  time,  I  started  for  the  rep-iment. 
The  way  led  into  the  bluff  through 
a  narrow  gulch  which  had  been  fortified 
on  both  sides.  Indeed,  the  whole  country 
is  the  most  hilly,  broken  and  jagged  which 
I  ever  saw.  The  firing  which  was  indistinct 


at  first,  became  louder  and  louder  as  I  ap- 
proached until  a  ball  passing  across  the 
road  a  short  distance  in  front  of  me,  re- 
minded me  that  I  was  once  more  under 
fire.  Soon  after,  I  found  the  regiment 
camped  in  a  deep  ravine  between  two  high 
bluffs.  I  crawled  uo  the  bluff  on  the  west 
and  peeoing  over  a  log,  obtained  a  good 
view  of  the  enemy's  works,  and  of  our  rifle 
pits.  The  firing  (scattering  picket  shooting) 
still  continues.  I  could  see  the  smoke  curl 
up  from  the  enemy's  rifles. 

Thursday,  May  28.  Slept  soundly  last 
night.  Today  the  firing  was  constant — ar- 
tillery once  in  awhile,  and  picket  firing  all 
the  time.  Late  in  the  evening  Captain 
White  and  myself  went  up  to  our  rifle  pits 
within  50  yards  of  the  enemy's  works.  The 
balls  came  pretty  close,  and  fragments  of 
shells  passed  over  us.  A  piece  of  a  shell 
thrown  from  one  of  our  mortars  in  the 
river,  struck  in  the  bank  not  more  than  15 
feet  from  me.  At  dark  we  went  back  to 
camp.  Our  camp  is  in  a  deep  ravine  well 
sheltered  from  balls,  though  if  they  were 
to  throw  shells  over,  they  could  make  it  a 
warm  place  for  us.  We  have  our  tent 
floored  with  canes. 

Friday,  May  29.  Early  this  morning  our 
batteries  opened  on  the  enemy  with  great 
spirit.  Cannons  planted  on  the  bluff  behind 
us,  sent  the  shells  screeching  over  our  camp. 
There  was  also  heavy  musketry  far  on  our 
left.  Captain  White  and  myself  again  went 
up  to  the  rifle  pits.  We  could  watch  the 
effect  of  our  shells.  Some  would  strike 
right  in  the  breast  works  and  raise  great 
clouds  of  dust;  others  would  strike  the 
trees,  tearing  off  great  limbs  and  making 
the  splinters  fly  in  all  directions.  During 
the  night  the  enemy  had  thrown  up  new 
works,  making  a  nice  embrasure  for  a  can- 
non. I  saw  two  or  three  shells  explode 
right  in  this  embrasure,  tearing  it  all  to 
pieces.  But  one  had  something  else  to  do 
than  merely  to  watch  the  shelling,  for  their 
sharpshooters  kept  up  a  keen  fire  on  our 
pits,  and  we  had  to  mind  not  only  our  eyes, 
but  also  our  heads.  We  watched  them 
closely.  They  resorted  to  all  sorts  of  tricks 
in  order  to  draw  our  fire.  They  would  raise 
their  handkerchiefs,  white  rags,  etc.,  to  try 
to  get  us  to  lift  our  heads,  and  then  some 
one  in  another  place  would  shoot  at  us, 
but  we  returned  their  compliments.  I  got 
several  shots;  five  times  I  fired  deliberately, 
each  time  at  a  head  which  was  incautiously 
exposed,  and  once  I  fired  at  a  man's  arm 
which  he  raised  to  its  full  length  above  the 
ditch  while  loading  his  gun,  which  he  had 
just  fired  on  me.  I  was  behind  a  log,  his 
ball  struck  about  two  feet  from  me,  but 
the  log  was  too  thick  for  it.  I  was  amused 
at  Captain  White.  He  had  found  a  good 
place  to  shoot  from,  and  was  popping  the 
shots  in  pretty  thick,  when  they  got  range 
of  his  position.  Two  balls  struck  in  a  little 
chunk  which  was  placed  before  his  head 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


11 


for  protection.  The  balls  struck  with  such 
force  as  to  roll  the  chunk  over,  and  the 
captain  slid  down  the  bank  backwards  in 
double  quick  time.  We  were  not  to  be 
put  off  in  that  way,  however,  so  we  got  a 
large  chunk,  raised  it  on  the  point  of  our 
guns  and  fixed  it  up.  A  shower  of  balls 
passed  over  us,  but  we  were  not  hurt.  We 
stayed  in  the  pits  for  nearly  four  hours, 
when  they  quit  showing  themselves  and  so 
we  returned  to  camp.  Through  the  heat 
of  the  day,  there  was  much  cannonading. 
The  enemy's  sharpshooters  kept  at  work, 
however,  and  two  men  of  our  regiment 
were  wounded  while  cooking  at  the  fire  in 
camp.  About  five  in  the  evening,  the  bat- 
teries opened  around  the  whole  line,  and 
for  an  hour  and  a  half  the  cannonading 
was  most  terrific.  It  was  constant  thunder; 
how  they  can  endure  the  storm  of  iron 
hail  is  difficult  for  me  to  imagine,  for 
there  is  not  a  point  in  all  their  lines  but 
what  our  shells  can  reach.  In  the  battle 
near  Raymond  and  in  the  retreat  from 
there,  the  enemy  lost  nearly  all  their  big 
guns,  so  that  in  all  the  lines  in  rear  of 
the  city  they  have  but  two  or  three  guns, 
and  this  is  most  lucky  for  us. 

Saturday,  May  30.  Considerable  firing 
all  day,  both  from  the  cannon  and  rifle  pits. 
I  went  up  to  our  rifle  pits  in  the  morning, 
and  in  the  evening  I  went  in  company  with 
the  officers  of  the  day,  to  all  the  rifle  pits 
of  the  brigade.  It  was  after  dark,  but  the 
moon  shown  brightly.  The  pickets  were 
talking  and  joking  with  each  other,  and 
once  in  a  while  they  would  pop  away  with 
their  muskets. 

Sunday,  May  31.  In  the  forepart  of  last 
night,  the  mortar  boats  kept  up  a  constant 
fire  on  the  city,  and  just  before  daybreak, 
all  our  batteries  opened,  and  a  more  terrific 
fire  I  never  heard.  The  fiery  shells  went 
screeching  through  the  air,  and  their  ex- 
plosion made  horrible  discord  inside  the 
enemy's  works.  Indeed,  the  thunder  and 
blaze  of  the  artillery,  the  roaring,  scream- 
ing and  screeching  of  the  shells  and  their 
lurid  glare  and  diabolical  explosion  created 
a  scene  more  like  pandemonium  than  any- 
thing else.  It  must  have  been  a  trying 
ordeal  to  the  enemy.  About  daybreak  the 
heavy  firing  ceased,  then  occasional  shoot- 
ing was  kept  up.  At  10  o'clock  a.  m.  we  had 
a  meeting.  The  cannons  roared  around  us 
and  the  enemy's  musket  balls  passed  over 
our  heads,  but  nevertheless  there  was  a 
good  congregation  and  good  attention.  The 
theme  was  "The  Glorious  Gospel  of 
Christ."  In  the  evening  I  again  went  up 
to  the  rifle  pits.  I  know  not  how  it  is,  but 
there  is  a  strong  facination  about  the  place 
of  danger,  and  it  is  singular  to  see  with 
what  an  eager  interest  the  pickets  watch 
for  the  enemy;  their  eyes  glisten,  and  they 
peep  above  with  a  stealthy  movement  like 
a  cat.  While  I  was  going  up  to  see  the 
pits,  a  ball  cut  the  dirt  in  the  patch  not 
more  than  a  yard  from  me. 


Monday,  June  1.  Weather  very  warm. 
Firing  kept  up  all  day.  In  the  evening,  I 
went  to  the  rifle  pits.  The  moon  shown 
gloriously.  It  seemed  to  be  a  time  for 
the  converse  of  friends  and  the  communion 
of  loving  hearts.  But  alas,  how  the  evil 
passions  of  men  can  turn  a  Paradise  into 
a  pandemonium,  even  the  loving  moon  was 
compelled  to  look  down  on  the  earth 
through  the  smoke  of  battle,  which  turned 
its  brighest  smile  into  a  bloody  glare, 
while  the  peaceful  stars  were  eclipsed  by 
fiery  shells  which  went  hurtling  through 
the  sky  like  fateful  meteors.  But  two  or 
three  friendly  shells  passed  over  mv  head 
and  soon  roused  me  from  my  reverie. 

Tuesday,  June  2.  Considerable  firing  all 
day.  Late  in  the  evening  I  learned  that 
there  was  to  be  a  bombardment  from  all 
the  batteries,  so  I  went  up  to  a  battery 
on  our  left  composed  of  five  guns,  4  20- 
pounder  and  1  30-pounder  Parrotts.  I 
took  my  station  at  the  port  hole  to  the  left 
of  the  30-pounder.  It  was  rather  an  ex- 
posed position,  but  I  was  determined  to 
see  the  effect  of  the  bombardment.  A  lit- 
tle before  dark,  all  the  batteries  opened, 
nearly  400  guns  must  have  been  playing  on 
the  place  at  once.  The  sound  was  deafen- 
ing, especially  that  of  the  30-pounder  near 
which  I  was  standing.  It  almost  lifted  me 
from  the  ground.  My  position  commanded 
a  fair  view  of  the  enemy's  large  fort  on 
the  left.  I  could  see  our  shells  explode  in 
the  embankment,  raising  great  clouds  of 
dirt  from  20  to  30  feet  high;  others  passed 
beyond  the  entrenchments  into  the  tim- 
bers, and  splintered  trunks  and  falling 
limbs  .attested  their  tremendous  power, 
while  white  feathery  little  clouds  attested 
where  others  had  burst  high  up  in  the  air. 
The  smoke  rose  so  densely  as  to  be  almost 
suffocating,  yet  I  was  determined  to  see  it 
through,  though  several  balls,  whizzing 
through  the  port-holes,  showed  that  it 
was  not  a  safe  place  to  be.  As  it  became 
dark,  the  scene  gradually  changed.  I 
could  no  longer  see  the  smoke,  columns 
of  dirt,  and  featherly  clouds,  but  fire 
seemed  to  have  taken  the  place  of  all,  fire 
everywhere;  a  long  blaze  would  pour  forth 
from  the  cannon's  mouth,  a  streak  of  light 
like  the  train  of  a  meteor,  marked  the  rapid 
flight  of  the  shells,  while  a  brilliant  flash 
followed  by  a  hollow  roar,  announced  the 
fact  that  it  had  reached  its  destination; 
and  these  brilliant  flashes  could  be  seen 
on  almost  every  part  of  the  entrenchments. 
What  the  enemy  suffered  we  cannot  tell. 
Our  pickets  and  skirmishers  were  too  close 
to  the  enemy's  lines  that  they  suffered  to 
some  extent  from  our  own  shells;  one  of 
the  47th  Ohio  was  killed  and  some  others 
wounded.  The  mortar  boats  kept  up  the 
fire  after  the  batteries  ceased.  The  flight 
of  their  immense  shells  was  plainly  marked 
by  their  fiery  fuses;  they  would  rise  rapid- 
ly to  a  great  height,  then  pass  slowly  over 
the  upper  part  of  the  course,  and  then 


12 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


descend  with  an  almost  inconceivable  ve- 
locity, like  an  eagle  pouncing  upon  its 
prey. 

Wednesday,  June  3.  Cannon  firing  about 
as  usual.  There  was  rather  more  musketry 
than  cannonading,  and  it  seems  that  the 
enemy  fired  with  more  accuracy  than  they 
did  at  first;  four  wounded  men  were  car- 
ried past  our  headquarters.  After  dark 
the  firing  almost  entirely  ceased,  and  the 
stillness  seemed  unnatural. 

Thursday,  June  4.  Just  after  daylight, 
a  dead  man  was  carried  by,  shot  in  the 
head  while  on  p<cket.  The  enemy  has  a 
cannon  planted  in  position  to  take  our 
rifle  pits  and  the  hill  if  we  should  ever  at- 
tempt to  approach  by  the  way.  Capt. 
White  and  myself  started  out  in  the  morn- 
ing to  see  if  we  could  not  find  some  guns 
in  some  of  our  batteries  to  the  left,  which 
could  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  rebel 
gun  so  as  to  dismount  it.  We  spent  until 
2  p.  m.  visiting  the  different  forts  and  ex- 
amining the  enemy's  lines.  We  have  a 
great  amount  of  artillery,  but  could  not  find 
a  single  piece  to  do  the  work  which  we 
desired.  We  found  one  point  where  a  bat- 
tery might  be  established  which  would 
command  this  gun,  but  the  position  is  very 
dangerous,  being  within  100  yards  of  one 
of  the  main  forts  of  the  enemy.  Notwith- 
standing the  danger,  we  stayed  at  this 
point  for  some  time  (partially  sheltered  by 
little  peach  trees)  and  discovered  by  the 
aid  of  a  glass,  that  the  hill  in  the  rear  of 
the  fort  to  our  right  is  enclosed  by  an 
independent  line  of  entrenchments  which 
will  have  to  be  stormed  after  the  outer 
lines  are  in  our  possession.  The  hills  to 
the  left  of  our  position  are  bare,  and  al- 
though more  broken  .than  any  part  of 
Illinois,  they  have  yet  been  planted  with 
corn  to  the  very  top.  With  a  glass  I  saw 
all  around  the  enemy's  lines  to  the  left  to 
where  they  seem  to  terminate  in  a  very 
large  earthwork  which,  I  think,  faces  upon 
the  river.  After  satisfying  ourselves  that 
we  had  no  gun  mounted  that  would  bear 
upon  the  point  desired,  we  returned  to  our 
headquarters  covered  with  dust  and  almost 
suffocated  with  the  heat.  During  this  tour 
of  inspection,  we  made  several  narrow 
escapes;  once  while  in  a  battery  (it  was 
shooting  10-pound  shells  at  an  old  h-ouse 
inside  the  enemv's  lines,  and  could  not  hit 
it)  a  ball  struck  a  bastion,  throwing  the 
splinters  around  us  prettv  close,  yet  we 
were  not  hurt;  several  other  balls  came 
in  rather  uncomfortable  proximity,  but 
they  were  all  either  a  little  too  high,  or 
too  low  or  too  far  to  one  side,  so  we  es- 
caped. Among  the  minor  incidents  of  this 
trip,  I  will  state  that  I  saw  Maj.  Gen.  Mc- 
Clernand  who  looked  as  du^ty  as  any  other 
man.  I  ate  some  blackberries,  saw  a  corn 
tassel,  and  last  but  by  no  means  least,  &ot 
my  fingers  full  of  the  prickles  of  a  prickly 
pear.  After  dark,  I  again  went  to  our  rifle 


pits.  Just  as  I  was  crawling  up  the  steep 
hill  to  them,  I  was  bewildered  for  a  mo- 
ment by  a  dazzling  glare  and  a  stunning 
report;  a  defective  shell  from  our  own  bat- 
tery had  bursted  directly  over  my  head. 
I  was  not  hurt,  however,  and  was  soon 
safely  ensconced  in  the  trenches  watching 
the  flight  of  our  shells.  They  passed  di- 
rectly over  our  heads  at  an  elevation  of 
about  20  feet,  though  just  to  listen  to  the 
sound,  they  seemed  low  enough  down  to 
take  our  heads  off.  About  9  at  night,  I 
returned  to  camp,  and  so  ended  another 
day  of  danger. 

Friday,  June  5.  Heavy  firing  all  night 
both  from  the  land  batteries  and  the  river. 
I  slept  well,  however,  although  retaining 
a  distinct  rememberance  of  hearing  a  deep, 
heavy  roar  almost  all  the  time.  Early  in 
the  morning  I  again  went  up  to  the  rifle 
pits.  While  there,  a  percussion  shell  struck 
a  tree  just  in  front  of  us  and  exploded, 
another  struck  a  large  limb  which  came 
down  with  a  crash,  and  yet  another  bursted 
high  in  the  air  a  little  to  our  left.  We 
are  in  more  danger  from  this  battery  of 
our  own  than  we  are  from  the  rebels,  al- 
though they  succeeded  in  shooting  one  man 
through  the  head  this  morning  in  the  pit 
just  to  the  left  of  ours. 

Saturday,  June  6.  Last  night  was  very 
warm.  There  was  considerable  movement 
of  troops,  and  more  firing  than  usual.  I 
was  waked  up  at  one  time  by  heavy  vol- 
leys from  our  pickets,  and  almost  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  enemy  was  about 
to  make  a  sally  from  his  works,  but  he 
did  not  come  out,  so  I  went  to  sleep  and 
let  them  shoot  away.  Several  balls  have 
already  fallen  in  our  camp  this  morning, 
but  nobody  is  yet  hurt  that  I  know  of. 

Sunday,  June  7.  A  most  beautiful  day, 
though  hot  enough  to  roast  an  egg  in  the 
dust.  Early  in  the  morning  while  it  was 
yet  comparatively  cool,  I  went  out  back 
of  the  tent  and  commenced  to  sing.  Quite 
a  congregation  was  soon  collected,  the 
members  of  it  representing  the  6th  and  8th 
Missouri,  the  41st  and  the  113th  Illinois, 
as  well  as  our  own  regiment.  I  attempted 
to  urge  upon  them  the  necessity  of  a 
change  of  heart.  As  upon  last  Sunday,  so 
today,  the  balls  of  the  enemy  passed  over 
us  or  dropped  in  our  midst,  and  our 
cannons  from  behind  us  sent  the  shells 
over  our  head,  but  notwithstanding  all 
of  this,  we  had  a  pleasant  and  I  would 
hope,  a  profitable  hour  of  worship. 
After  service  I  obtained  and  distributed  a 
few  relisrious  papers.  Near  noon  a  min- 
ister from  Chicago  preached  to  the  113th 
regiment.  I  went  to  hear  him.  which  was 
a  great  treat  to  me.  In  the  evening  there 
were  many  rumors  in  camp:  rumors  of  a 
rebel  raid  on  Milliken's  Bend  and  on 
Youne's  Point,  but  the  principal  rumor  is 
that  Johnston  is  approaching  with  a  large 
force  in  our  rear.  There  are  some  indica- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


tions  which  show  that  something  is  in  the 
wind.  The  sick  are  being  sent  away,  three 
days'  rations  are  being  brought  up,  and 
the  ordnance  officers  are  required  to  have 
one  hundred  rounds  of  ammunition  con- 
stantly on  hand.  I  am  partly  inclined  to 
believe  that  Johnston  will  give  us  trouble. 
He  will  if  he  has  the  force  to  do  it.  I 
know  not  whether  the  preparations  are  for 
an  attack  on  the  city  or  for  defense  in  the 
rear.  Well,  we  shall  see  what  we  shall 
see,  that  is  all. 

Monday,  June  8.  No  change  in  the  situa- 
tion of  things. 

Tuesday,  June  9.  Bang,  bang,  bang,  the 
constant  firing  for  so  long  a  time  becomes 
monotonous,  one  longs  for  something  new, 
something  that  will  cause  excitement  and 
shake  off  the  ennui  induced  by  this  hot 
weather.  Excitement  at  last — woman  in 
camp,  Mrs.  Hoge  of  the  sanitary  commis- 
sion. It  is  amusing,  as  she  passes,  to  see 
how  quickly  the  boys  leave  off  their  rude 
pranks  and  settle  down  as  demure  as  kit- 
tens. She  stops  and  talks  kindly  to  almost 
every  group  and  the  boys  all  feel  better 
after  it.  Thev  are  as  polite  and  proper  in 
their  conduct  towards  each  other  for  full 
five  minutes  after  she  is  gone,  as  if  they 
had  suddenly  been  transferred  to  civiliza- 
tion and  the  drawing  room.  Oh!  what  a 
refining,  a  restraining  influence  even  this 
one  woman  can  exert.  She  is  an  old  lady 
and  not  very  handsome,  but  then,  to  use 
the  rough  expression  of  the  boys.  "She 
has  a  soul  as  large  as  a  wagon  wheel," 
and  somehow  reminds  them  all  of  their 
mothers. 

Wednesday,  June  10.  Rained  today.  Oh! 
how  tedious  a  rainy  day  is  in  camp.  We 
eat  breakfast,  then  lie  down,  get  up.  eat 
dinner,  and  then  go  to  bed,  etc.,  etc.  Noth- 
ing to  read,  nobodv  to  talk  to.  nothing  to 
do  but  to  dream  of  home  and  loved  ones. 
During  a  heavy  shower  firing  ceases,  but 
whenever  it  quits  raining,  it  breaks  out 
again  along  the  whole  line. 

Thursday.  June  11.  Last  night  was  aw- 
ful dark,  rainv.  and  muddy.  I  did  not  sleep 
much,  everything  went  wrong.  We  had  a 
sick  man  in  our  camp  who  kept  us  awake 
part  of  the  time:  then  Capt.  White  got 
a  bug  in  his  ear,  he  said  it  clawed  like  a 
team  of  mules,  so  we  had  to  pour  water 
in  his  ear  to  bring  the  gentleman  out;  the 
second  application  proved  ^successful,  and 
out  crawled  a  v.erv  diminutive  spider.  We 
had  just  eot  settled  down  after  the  spider 
chase,  when  the  enemy  opened  a  most 
wicked  fire:  the  balls  sounded  frightful  as 
thev  came  whiz/ing  along  in  the  darkness. 
Some  cut  branches  from  the  trees,  which 
fell  noon  our  tents,  while  others  struck 
in  the  ground  '  around  us  with  a  heavy 
"thud"  whi>h  made  one  feel  rather  "over- 
ish."  especially  as  he  did  not  know  where 
the  next  one  was  goine  to  strike.  T  think 
one  man  in  an  adjoining  regiment  was 


wounded,  though  I  believe  we  all  escaped, 
but  we  did  not  sleep  much  during  its  con- 
tinuance. Nothing  outside  of  the  ordinary 
operations  of  the  siege  occurred  during 
the  rest  of  the  day. 

Friday,  June  12.  Many  rumors  today. 
Some  say  Johnston,  reinforced  by  Bragg,  is 
threatening  our  rear.  Others  say  that  we 
have  been  reinforced  by  a  large  part  of 
Rosecran's  army.  I  do  not  know  what  the 
truth  is,  but  we  are  doubtless  on  the  point 
of  important  events. 

Saturday,  June  13.  Several  days  ago  I 
visited  the  batteries  to  our  left.  Today 
several  of  us  started  together  to  visit  our 
advanced  work  to  the  right.  We  went 
first  to  our  own  picket  post.  From  there 
we  crept  through  a  narrow  passage  to  the 
post  of  the  6th  Missouri,  and  from  there  to 
that  of  the  8th  Missouri.  In  all  the  posts, 
the  pickets  were  firing  with  great  spirit, 
the  object  being  to  keep  the  enemy  down 
so  that  they  could  not  fire  on  our  working 
parties.  From  the  post  of  the  8th  Mis- 
souri, we  crept  through  a  narrow  trench 
running  obliquely  over  the  rise  of  the  hill 
toward  the  enemv  and  at  the  same  time  in- 
clining to  the  right.  This  passage  led  into 
an  earthwork  calculated  to  mount  8  or  9 
guns.  It  has  been  thrown  up  after  night, 
and  is  situated  on  the  brow  of  a  hill  with- 
in 100  yards  of  the  large  fort  of  the  enemy 
which  is  at  the  northeastern  angle  of  their 
works.  This  work  of  ours  is  not  yet  com- 
pleted, there  are  no  guns  mounted  in  it 
yet,  but  there  was  a  large  body  of  infantry 
in  it  who  kept  up  such  an  incessant  fire  at 
such  short  range  that  the  enemy  did  not 
dare  to  show  themselves  upon  their  works. 
This  is  the  point  over  which  our  own  regi- 
ment attempted  to  charge  on  the  19th  and 
the  22nd  of  May,  and  the  appearance  of 
the  logs,  shrubs,  and  trees  bear  testimony 
to  the  terrible  nature  of  the  contest.  They 
are  everywhere  cut.  torn,  and  splintered 
with  balls.  One  large  oak  tree  standing 
on  the  crest  of  the  hill,  is  literally  rid- 
dled. There  is  scarcely  a  space  three 
inches  sauare  from  the  ground  upward  for 
30  feet,  but  what  contains  a  ball.  In  this 
earthwork  we  found  Gen.  Smith,  who  in- 
vited us  to  enter  with  him  into  a  deep 
trench  leading-  out  from  the  north  end 
of  the  fort.  This  trench  looked  suspicious, 
and  we  followed  it  with  caution.  It  wound 
round  the  base  of  the  hill,  and  although 
making  many  ansrles.  led  directly  toward 
the  enemv's  large  fort.  At  several  points 
we  passed  working  parties  silently  engaged 
in  widening  and  deepening  this  trench.  At 
last  we  came  to  the  end  of  it,  and  saw  a 
contrivance  which  was  certainly  invented 
bv  Yankee  brains.  Tn  the  first  place  an 
open  basket  like  a  gabion,  onlv  lonerer,  and 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter,  was 
formed  of  eranevines.  cane  to  the  thickness 
of  near  18  inches  was  laid  all  around  this, 
and  outside  of  the  cane  another  network 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


of  grapevines,  the  whole  bound  tightly  to- 
gether formed  a  bullet-proof  roller,  which 
is  laid  on  the  ground  and  rolled  forward 
in  front  of  the  workmen  as  the  trench  is 
dug.  It  is  about  5  feet  in  diameter,  and  is 
a  complete  protection,  for  to  shoot  down 
over  it,  a  rebel  would  have  to  expose  his 
whole  body,  and  that  they  well  know  would 
be  certain  death  to  any  one  who  should 
attempt  it.  We  passed  cautiously  between 
the  roller  and  the  ground,  and  there  about 
70  feet  before  us,  we  beheld  the  hostile 
fort.  It  would  have  been  an  easy  matter 
to  toss  a  clod  over  into  it.  After  exam- 
ining things  as  well  as  we  could,  we  left 
this  dangerous  locality,  and  passed  to  the 
outer  works.  Here  we  saw  some  batteries 
practice  firing  at  the  enemy's  stockade, 
which  they  breached  in  several  places.  At 
last  we  returned  to  camp,  having  passed 
through  what  we  would  have  called  great 
dangers  if  we  had  not  seen  greater.  After 
supper,  I  went  up  to  the  division  hospital 
and  had  several  interesting  conversations 
with  the  wounded. 

Sunday,  June  14.  Had  meeting  at  10 
a.  m.  Balls  whizzed  over  us  as  usual,  yet 
the  congregation  was  the  largest  which  I 
have  seen  since  I  have  been  in  Dixie.  All 
our  regimental  officers  as  well  as  those  of 
the  113th  Illinois  were  present.  The  theme 
was  this:  "The  path  of  the  just  is  a 
shining  light,  which  grows  brighter  and 
brighter  until  the  perfect  day."  Oh!  that 
all  the  men  might  see  the  glories  of  that 
day,  and  walk  in  it.  In  the  after  part  of 
the  day  there  was  heavy  cannonading  on 
pur  left.  I  went  up  to  the  rifle  pits  to  see 
if  I  could  ascertain  the  cause  of  it.  While 
there  a  large  bomb  bursted  high  in  the  air, 
which  must  have  been  thrown  from  a  mor- 
tar which  the  rebels  have  lately  got  in 
position.  A  while  before  night  an  indi- 
vidual was  arrested  close  to  our  quarters. 
It  happened  this  way:  He  was  a  stranger, 
and  someone  asked  what  regiment  he  be- 
longed to.  He  said  the  6th  Missouri.  Now 
it  was  one  of  the  6th  that  he  was  talking 
to,  who  knew  that  no  such  man  belonged 
to  the  regiment.  He  was  taken  up, 
searched,  and  a  paper  written  in  a  strange 
language  was  found  on  him.  This  paper 
was  brought  to  me,  but  I  soon  decided  that 
it  was  neither  English,  Latin  or  Greek. 
There  was  one  Latin  word  which  occurred 
frequently,  but  otherwise,  I  could  make 
nothing  of  it.  Dr.  Heckleman  decided  that 
it  was  not  German,  so  the  man  and  the 
paper  were  sent  to  Sherman.  They  could 
not  read  it  there  and  he  will  be  sent  to 
Grant.  A  white  man  shot  a  negro  in  the 
head  today,  who  saased  him. 

Monday.  June  15.  Visited  our  right 
again.  Quite  a  change  has  been  made  in 
the  last  two  days.  The  positions  of  sev- 
eral guns  have  been  altered,  and  prepara- 
tions are  rapidly  making  to  advance  these 
batteries.  I  found  a  position  which  com- 


manded a  very  .good  view  of  the  enemy's 
works,  and  was  taking  a  good  look  at  them 
when  I  was  suddenly  reminded  that  their 
works  commanded  a  good  yiew  of  me.  A 
ball  struck  a  considerable  sized  limb  above 
me  with  great  force,  bursted  out  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  upper  side  of  it,  and 
then  the  weight  of  the  limb  broke  the  rest 
and  it  came  swinging  down  with  a  crash. 
Well,  I  "come  away"  from  that  particular 
locality.  Spent  some  time  in  the  rifle  pits, 
and  then  visited  the  division  and  regimental 
hospitals. 

Tuesday,  June  16.  Visited  the  batteries 
to  our  left.  Many  of  the  guns  have  been 
moved  to  advanced  positions.  Spent  some 
time  in  one  battery  with  was  firing.  The 
enemy  replied  with  great  spirit  with  small 
arms,  and  we  were  all  compelled  to  use 
great  caution.  After  night,  went  up  to  the 
trenches  and  spent  until  10  o'clock  watch- 
ing the  flight  of  shells,  and  talking  to  the 
pickets,  who  had  an  animated  conversation 
all  along  the  lines. 

Wednesday.  June  17.  Capt.  White,  Lieut. 
Melimine,  and  myself  spent  ,the  fore  part 
of  the  day  in  the  advanced  work  on  our 
right.  Firing  both  of  small  arms  and  ar- 
tillery was  quite  heavy.  Our  batteries  on 
our  left  were  attempting  to  make  a  breach 
in  the  earthworks  opposite  to  them,  and 
the  way  they  made  the  dirt  fly  was  a  cau- 
tion. Since  my  last  visit,  four  pieces  of 
cannon  had  been  put  in  position  in  our 
advanced  earthworks.  One  of  the  4th  Vir- 
ginian was  wounded  at  this  place  just  be- 
fore we  got  there.  I  saw  the  pool  of  blood 
where  he  fell.  We  entered  the  sap  which 
we  are  working  up  to  the  enemy's  fort,  and 
found  that  it  was  advanced  to  within  about 
8  feet  of  the  ditch  in  front  of  this  fort. 
We  went  up  to  the  end.  As  I  have  before 
said,  a  bank  of  about  8  feet  in  thickness 
was  all  that  separated  us  from  the  enemy. 
Just  to  let  them  know  that  we  were  there, 
we  tossed  over  a  few  clods  and  chunks, 
and  thinking  that  they  might  be  hungry,  we 
tossed  over  a  bone  with  a  very  little  meat 
on  it.  They  acknowledged  the  compliment 
by  tossing  back  the  sticks  with  the  addi- 
tion of  a  brickbat  which  struck  one  of  our 
party  in  the  breast,  without  hurting  him. 
Well,  we  were  in  very  close  quarters  and 
were  enjoying  ourselves  in  a  very  good 
natured  way,  when  one  of  the  Rebs.  getting 
rather  bloody  minded,  suddenly  poked  his 
gun  over  the  bank,  elevated  the  breech,  and 
fired.  The  ball  passed  over  our  heads,  but 
I  never  heard  as  sharp  a  Whistle  to  any 
ball  before:  it  sounded  like  it  had  an  edge 
on  both  sides.  Well,  we  waited  a  reason- 
able time  for  him  to  show  himself  again, 
but  he  did  not  do  it,  so  we  returned  agrain 
to  camp  and  got  there  just  in  time  for  the 
paymaster.  I  received  $228.70.  While  I 
was  sitting  in  the  Colonel's  tent  a  ball 
struck  a  cot  near  me  with  great  force,  tear- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


15 


ing  out  a  considerable  piece  of  hard  seasoned 
wood. 

Thursday,  June  18.  Nothing  happened 
today  except  the  usual  amount  of  firing, 
but  we  have  got  so  used  to  this  that  we 
think  nothing  is  happening  at  all. 

Friday,  June  19.  One  of  the  8th  Mis- 
souri was  killed  on  picket  this  morning. 
I  saw  them  carry  him  by  on  a  blanket.  I 
did  not  visit  the  fortifications  today,  but 
went  up  to  the  hospital.  Spent  several 
hours  very  pleasantly  with  Lieut.  Grayson, 
and  the  other  boys.  This  was  the  division 
hospital.  From  there,  started  for  the  regi- 
mental hospital.  Bought  some  pineapple 
on  the  way,  which  I  enjoyed  finely.  Found 
the  boys  as  well  as  could  be  expected, 
talked  with  them  for  some  time,  then  re- 
turned to  camp.  One  of  the  battery  men 
was  killed  this  evening  while  passing  a 
point  which  I  have  passed  20  times. 

Saturday,  June  20.  Late  yesterday  eve- 
ning a  rumor  spread  through  camp  that 
some  demonstration  was  to  be  made  on  the 
enemy's  works  today.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  speculation  indulged  in  as  to  the 
probabilities  of  this  report,  but  it  was  gen- 
erally dismissed  as  unreliable.  In  the  morn- 
ing, this  rumor  was  brought  to  our  minds 
again,  however,  for  about  4  o'clock  the 
cannonading  became  very  heavy  along  the 
whole  line  and  was  kept  up  with  great 
spirit.  At  daylight  the  pickets  were  dou- 
bled, and  the  command  came  at  6  o'clock 
to  fall  in  line  and  stack  arms  in  front 
of  the  company's  quarters  so  as  to 
ready  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  can- 
nonading continued  from  4  in  the 
morning  till  11.  I  went  ^up  on  the  hill, 
but  could  see  but  very  little  on  account 
of  the  smoke  of  the  batteries.  The  in- 
fantry was  not  called  out  on  the  center. 
It  is  reported  that  Steele  captured  a  bat- 
tery on  our  right.  Whether  this  is  true 
or  not,  we  cannot  tell. 

Sunday,  June  21.  Had  meeting  in  the 
morning  at  8:30.  The  congregation  and 
attention  was  very  good.  The  theme  was 
"The  charity  brought  to  view  in  the  13th 
Chapter  of  1st  Corinthians."  Some  balls 
passed  very  near  by  us  during  the  service, 
yet  I  did  not  notice  any  one  wince.  Spent 
the  afterpart  of  the  dav  in  the  hospitals. 

Monday,  June  22.  Started  out  early  in 
the  morning  in  company  with  Capt.  White, 
to  examine  our  trenches  in  front  and  see 
what  improvement  could  be  made  on  them. 
We  went  first  to  our  own  rifle  pits.  The 
Rebs  were  firing  with  great  audacity.  One 
of  Company  F  had  just  been  struck,  the 
ball  entering  his  cheek  and  passing  out 
at  the  back  of  the  neck.  I  think  he  will 
die:  he  bled  profuselv  where  he  fell.  We 
took  a  spade  and  covered  up  the  blood, 
and  stood  for  some  time  at  the  port-hole 
where  he  was  shot,  trying  to  get  a  shot  at 
the  enemy  who  had  done  the  deed,  but  we 
could  not.  For  some  reason  the  enemy  had 


massed  more  troops  in  their  trenches  than 
usual,  and  they  were  firing  with  a  reckless- 
ness which   I   have  not  before  seem  them 
exhibit.      Balls     were     passing     over     and 
around  us  in  almost  every  direction.    Some 
with    a    hoarse    buzz,    others    with    a    soft 
melodious  whistle,  and   still  others  with  a 
sharp  shrill  tone  like  an  angry  bee.    There 
was   a   point  just   in   front  of  us   where   a 
heavy  force  seemed  concentrated.     At  this 
point    one    of   our   batteries   kept    firing   a 
single  gun.     The  shells  would  go  ploughing 
through    their   breastworks,   knocking    the 
sand  bags  in  every  direction,  but  no  sooner 
would  the  shell  pass  that  up  would  rise  a 
host  of  rebels,  pour  a  volley  into  the  bat- 
tery,   and    then    quickly    hunt    their    holes 
again.     This  continued  for  some  time,  and 
it    seemed    doubtful    whether    the     battery 
would  silence  them  or  they  would  silence 
the  battery;  but  at  last  a  ruse  of  our  gun- 
ners put  an  end  to  the  contest.    Two  guns 
were  brought  to  bear  on  the   same  point, 
both    were    loaded    and    sighted,    then    one 
was  fired  as  us.ual.    The  shot  barely  touched 
the    breastworks,   and   glanced   off  high   in 
the  air.     No  sooner  had  it  passed,  than  the 
rebels  again  rose  from  their  hiding  places, 
many  of  them  in  their  eagerness  for  a  shot, 
exposing  half  their  bodies.    At  this  moment 
a  shell  from  the  other  guns  dropped  in  their 
very  midst.     I  saw  the  flame  of  the  explo- 
sion shoot  out  among  them.     They  disap- 
peared in  a  cloud  of  smoke  and  dust,  and 
not  another  shot  was  fired  from  that  point 
during  the  rest  of  the  forenoon.     From  this 
time  the  firing  gradually  diminished  along 
the  whole  line.     The  Captain  and  I  passed 
through  nearly  all  the  trenches  of  our  brig- 
ade.    We  fired  several  shots  at  the  enemy; 
we  found  several  points  not  properly  pro- 
tected; these  we  noted,  and  a  detail  of  50 
men  will  be  sent  out  in  a  few  hours  to  fix 
them.     We   discovered   a   place   where   the 
enemy  pass  from  their  fort  to  the  trench  in 
front    of  it;   we   directed   the   attention    of 
the  artillery  men  to  this  and  it  is  likely  that 
they  will  find  it  a  rather   dangerous  pass- 
way    hereafter.     About    noon    we    retired 
from  the  inner  to  the  outer  trenches,  and- 
here  with  a  glass  we  had  a  good  view  of 
the  works  to  our  left.     We  saw  rebel  flags 
flying  in  the  citv.  b*ut  felt  that  thev  must 
soon   give  place  to   the   Stars  and   Stripes, 
for  we  had  the  satisfaction   of  seeing  our 
own  men  standing  at  the  base  of  Fort  Hill, 
digging    into    its    perpendicular    walls.      At 
last  we  returned  to  camp,  safe  and  sound 
although  we  saw  the  blood  of  those  who 
had  fallen,  and  dirt  was  thrown  on  us  by 
more  than  one  passinig  ball. 

Tuesday,  June  23.  Last  night  several  of 
our  batteries  and  a  large  number  of  our 
men,  were  drawn  off  to  the  rear.  We  may 
soon  have  hot  work  in  that  direction.  I 
spent  most  of  the  day  in  the  hospitals, 
writing  letters,  etc.  In  the  evening,  a  de- 
fective shell  bursted  over  a  rifle-pit,  kill- 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ing  one  man  and  wounding  others.  I  saw 
the  mangled  bodies. 

Wednesday,  June  24.  Heavy  firing  on  the 
left  during  the  night,  and  the  report  now 
is  that  the  enemy  attempted  to  come  out, 
that  they  failed,  and  that  900  of  them  were 
taken  prisoners,  and  two  pieces  of  artillery 
captured.  It  is  also  reported  that  Port 
Hudson  has  been  taken,  with  9,000  prison- 
ers. I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  it  is 
taken,  for  gunboats  are  now  thundering 
upon  Vicksburg  from  below.  The  rumor  is 
also  going  that  Hooker  has  taken  60.000  of 
the  enemy.  This  I  doubt,  indeed  I  am 
afraid  that  the  capture  is  on  the  other  side. 
I  spent  some  time  in  the  after  part  of  the 
day  in  the  rifle  pits  and  trenches.  No  great 
change  has  taken  place  since  my  last  visit. 
With  the  aid  of  a  glass,  I  saw  one  place 
where  I  think  the  Rebs  are  planting  a  bat- 
tery. 

Thursday,  June  25.  Heavy  firing  of  artil- 
lery in  the  morning.  I  spent  the  fore  oart 
of  the  day  in  visiting  the  hospitals,  writing 
letters,  etc.  At  2  o'clock  p."  m.  the  order 
came  for  the  men  to  "fall  in"  and  stack 
arms  and  be  ready  for  any  emergency. 
The  rumor  was  that  Fort  Hill  is  to  be 
blown  up  at  3  o'clock.  I  went  up  to  the 
rifle  pits  of  the  8th  Missouri,  from  where  a 
good  view  could  be  obtained.  Here  I 
found  Gen.  Smith,  who  had  come  for  the 
same  purpose  I  had.  The  rebels  had  a  can- 
non about  100  yards  from  where  we  were, 
which  kept  firing  and  one  of  our  guns  re- 
plying. This  kept  up  the  interest,  but  4 
o'clock  passed  a'nd  still  no  explosion.  Our 
men  opposite  the  fort  raised  a  loud  cheer 
now  and  then,  which  I  suppose  was  for  the 
purpose  of  drawing  as  many  of  the  enemy 
into  the  fort  as  possible.  Near  5  o'clock  the 
front  part  of  the  fort  rose  as  a  dense  cloud 
of  dust  into  the  air.  It  was  a  grand  spec- 
tacle, yet  no  report  could  be  heard  where 
I  was;  this,  however,  might  have  been 
owing  to  the  cheers  which  were  raised  by 
our  own  men.  Just  as  the  fort  rose  in  the 
air,  all  the  batteries  and  all  the  infantry  in 
the  trenches  opened  fire.  The  sound  was 
tremendous.  Where  we  were  situated  the 
shells  from  two  or  three  batteries  went 
hissing  over  our  heads.  Amidst  the  cloud 
of  smoke  and  dust,  I  saw  our  men  running 
forward  to  the  fort.  The  dirt  had  been 
blown  forward  and  filled  the  trenches,  yet 
they  pushed  forward  over  it.  although  in 
doing  so  they  exposed  their  whole  bodies. 
They  mounted  the  slopinsr  edge  of  the  fort 
and  poured  a  raking  fire  into  the  trenches. 
At  this  time  I  saw  two  rebels  jump  from 
the  western  parapet:  thev  seemed  to  turn 
a  complete  somersault  in  going  down. 
Spades  were  now  procured  and  a  party  set 
to  work  with  great  enerp-y  to  throw  the 
dirt  from  the  trenches,  while  others  kept  up 
a  rapid  fire.  A  cloud  of  dust  and  smoke 
enveloped  the  fort,  yet  thronsrh  it  I  saw  two 
flags  borne  forward  and  planted  half-way 


up  the  sloping  side  of  the  fort.  The  scene 
was  now  sublime  in  the  highest  degree. 
Our  shells  were  tearing  up  the  dirt  as  near 
to  our  men  as  prudence  would  let  them 
fire;  while  from  a  point  at  some  distance 
to  the  rear  of  Fort  Hill,  the  enemy  opened 
with  some  guns,  but  these  were  soon  si- 
lenced by  our  shells.  Hand  grenades  were 
now  thrown  and  their  flashes  and  smoke 
added  to  the  exciting  interest  of  the  scene. 
At  a  quarter  to  6,  a  flag  was  borne  up  the 
sloping  side  of  the  fort  to  the  very  summit, 
and  there  waved  and  planted.  This  was 
greeted  with  tremendous  cheers  from  our 
whole  line.  The  firing  was  incessant  until 
dark,  at  which  time  three  of  our  flags  were 
waving  over  the  fort.  What  the  result  is, 
I  cannot  tell.  I  never  experienced  a  proud- 
er feeling,  however,  than  when  I  saw  the 
flag  of  our  country  borne  through  the 
smoke  of  battle  and  planted  definantly  on 
the  enemy's  stronghold.  The  hills  and  hol- 
lows all  around  the  lines  were  covered  with 
smoke.  The  enemy  fired  with  great  rapid- 
itv.  and  many  balls  were  constantly  whiz- 
zing around  us.  I  was  so  much  absorbed 
in  the  scene  before  me  that  I  took  but 
little  notice  of  them.  I  have  a  distinct  re- 
membrance, however,  of  several  striking 
on  the  logs  around  me,  and  of  one  which 
threw  the  dirt  all  over  me.  After  dark  I 
again  ascended  the  hills  and  spent  several 
hours  watching  a  scene  whirh  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  describe  on  paper.  The  struggle  at 
the  fort  still  continued.  Our  men  held  the 
front  and  northern  angle  of  the  fort,  which 
was  illuminated  by  the  flashes  of  their 
musketry.  The  enemy  held  the  remainder 
of  the  fort,  and  stronsr  works  directly  in 
its  rear.  Hand  grenadbs  were  constantly 
hurled  from  earh  side,  and  so  near  were  the 
contending  parties,  and  so  desperate  the 
nature  of  the  contest,  that  even  10  and  12- 
pound  shells  were  ignited  and  thrown  over 
in  the  same  way.  castine  a  lurid  glare 
over  the  who1e  scene  hv  their  flashes,  the 
noise  of  their  explosions  sounding:  loud 
above  the  roar  of  musketry.  This  fort  was 
doubtless  the  center  of  conflict  for  *-ne 
nieht.  yet  it  rap-eH  in  other  directions.  The 
boom  of  the  eunhoats  came  over  from  the 
river:  the  deep  tones  of  tne  motors  re- 
sounded far  up  and  down  it.  while  their 
shells.  lifrViti'trr  their  own  wav.  rose  to  an 
immense  hei^t.  and  then  descen^rf  w'th 
evn1osions  which  mu^t  nave  shaVen  tV>e 
whole  ritv.  for  thev  shook  the  ve»-v  H11s 
tinon  wViich  T  sat.  A  V>s«-t  <"••«•  inst  V-fh'n^  me 
kent  firms'  30-nonnd  Ho*/>1iVis<:  sV>«11s.  wliVh 
came  over  mv  hear!  witVi  imeartMv  str-'ek, 
snrh  as  a  1o=t  sonf  mi^f  be  simnoserl  *n 
utter  a<=  't  enf<*'-<;  t*>e  realms  of  woe.  whMe 
to  the  left,  a  Howitzer  f»lA-<rptpff  •**.•%  r^^r_ 
tar,  was  throwing  12-potmd  shell  which 
went  like  shooting  stars,  over  into  the  city. 
Fridav.  Tune  26.  I  went  up  to  the  bat- 
teries early  in  the  morniner  and  found  the 
situation  of  things  unchanged.  The  strug- 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  " 


17 


gle  about  the  fort  still  continued;  it  was 
enveloped  in  a  cioud  of  smoke,  1  could  see 
tue  riasli  of  exploding  sneiis  which  the 
enemy  were  rolling  down  from  their  more 
elevated  position,  upon  •  our  men.  I  ex- 
amined the  whole  situation  with  a  glass, 
and  could  not  help  but  feel  that  unless 
our  men  could  speedily  gain  a  more  shel- 
tered position,  they  must  soon  abandon  the 
attempt.  Late  in  the  evening  the  firing 
from  the  fort  ceased.  I  at  once  hurried  to 
the  left,  and  my  worst  fears  were  soon  con- 
rirmed.  Our  men  had  been  compelled  to 
fall  back  from  tht  fort.  I  halted  a  short 
distance  in  the  rear  of  it.  The  enemy's  balls 
were  Hying  thickly  around;  one  passed  very 
near  my  head,  struck  a  tree,  and  fell  to  the 
ground.  1  picked  it  up  and  preserved  it. 
It  was  still  hot.  One  of  the  8th  Illinois 
was  shot  dead  near  me.  He  was  borne 
back  on  a  stretcher,  and  as  I  returned  after 
dark,  they  were  digging  a  grave  for  him  in 
the  hillside.  I  stood  and  gazed  upon  his 
pale  face  with  a  peculiar  interest.  How 
easily  it  might  have  been  me  instead  of  him ! 
In  the  uncertain  starlight  his  teatures  rested 
in  all  the  calmness  of  a  quiet  slumber.  Our 
loss  in  this  unfortunate  affair  will  probably 
reach  near  300  killed  and  wounded.  The 
enemy  must  have  lost  heavily  also. 

Saturday,  June  27.  Capt.  White  was  .out 
in  the  trenches  last  night  with  a  fatigue 
party.  Early  in  the  morning  while  shoot- 
ing from  a  port-hole,  a  rebel  ball  cut  the 
forward  band  from  his  gun.  After  break- 
fast he  again  went  out,  and  was  soon  after- 
wards brought  in  wounded.  He  had  been 
making  a  port-hold  by  running  the  handle 
of  a  pick  under  some  sand  bags.  Just  as 
he  withdrew  the  handle  of  the  pick,  he 
raised  his  eye  to  the  aperture,  and  the  same 
moment  was  struck  by  a  ball  which  grazed 
the  top  of  his  nose  and  entered  just  under 
his  right  eye,  the  ball  lodging  somewhere 
in  his  head.  It  is  a  serious  wound,  and  I 
fear  will  prove  fatal.  I  shall  miss  the 
Captain  much,  for  we  have  wandered 
through  our  trenches  together,  together  we 
have  examined  the  works  of  the  enemy,  and 
passed  through  many  dangers.  But  he  has 
fallen,  such  is  the  fate  of  war.  During 
the  last  few  days,  T  too  have  made  many 
narrow  escapes.  When  my  time  will  come 
I  cannot  tell.  God's  will  be  done. 

Sunday,  June  28.  Very  warm  today. 
Had  meeting  at  10:30  a.  m.  The  theme  was 
"The  Lord  Reigneth."  Just  at  the  close  of 
the  service,  Gen.  Grant  rode  by  and  lifted 
his  hat  in  token  of  reverence.  He  is  a  low 
man  and  presents  a  very  plain,  common 
appearance. 

Monday,  June  29.  The  enemy  did  a  great 
deal  of  shooting  last  night;  their  balls 
dropped  constantly  in  camp.  I  was  awake 
several  times,  and  each  time  "zip"  came 
the  hostile  missiles  as  though  they  were 
bent  on  an  errand  of  mischief.  No  one 
was  hurt,  however.  In  the  morning,  we 


got  a  mail,  which  is  always  a  joyful  event 
in  the  life  of  a  soldier — that  is,  if  he  is  lucky 
enough  to  obtain  a  letter,  which  at  this 
time  was  my  peculiar  good  fortune,  for  I 
received  one  from  one  of  my  most  valued 
correspondents.  In  the  evening,  I  went  up 
to  the  rifle  pits.  The  trenches  of  our  brig- 
ade are  now  advanced  very  near  the  works 
of  the  enemy,  and  large  working  parties  are 
still  pushing  them  forward.  The  enemy 
are  digging  a  trench  from  their  works  to 
meet  ours.  They  are  now  within  about 
40  feet  of  each  other. 

Tuesday,  June  30.  The  enemy  cannon- 
aded our  advanced  works  in  the  morning, 
and  for  a  time,  our  working  parties  were 
driven  out;  they  soon  returned,  however. 
Nothing  of  uncommon  interest  during  the 
rest  of  the  day,  except  we  were  mustered 
for  pay,  as  usual,  at  the  end  of  every  two 
months. 

Wednesday,  July  1,  1863.  Nothing  un- 
usual occurred  in  the  fore  part  of  the  day. 
In  the  evening  Fort  Hill  was  again  blown 
up.  A  heavy  cannonading  ensued,  but  very 
little  infantry  firing;  no  charge  was  made. 
I  think,  however,  that  the  fort  is  now  en- 
tirely untenable  for  the  rebels,  as  it  is 
scarcely  more  than  a  shapeless  mass  of 
earth. 

Thursday,  July  2.  Rather  more  quiet 
than  usual  today.  I  visited  the  advanced 
trenches  in  the- morning.  So  close  are  they 
to  the  enemy's  trenches,  that  the  Rebs 
threw  over  several  six-pound  shells  by 
hand;  fortunately  no  one  was  hurt. 

Friday,  July  3.  Many  rumors  today  as 
to  what  is  going  to  take  place  on  the  4th. 
One  of  Co.  I  was  accidentally  shot  in  camp 
last  night.  We  buried  him  in  the  morning. 
Immediately  after  this  I  went  to  the 
trenches.  Directly  after  I  got  there,  a  flag 
of  truce  was  brought  out  and  the  firing 
ceased.  Both  parties  got  up  on  their  breast- 
works, but  were  not  permitted  to  go  be- 
yond. It  was  indeed  a  singular  sight  to  see 
men  who  but  a  few  minutes  before  had 
been  engaged  in  deadly  conflict  rise  up,  as 
it  were,  out  of  the  very  ground  within  a 
few  feet  of  each  other,  and  exchange  the 
civilities  of  life,  and  talk  as  they  had  been 
old  friends;  indeed  many  did  recognize  old 
acquaintances.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
cessation  of  hostilities,  I  walked  out  in 
front  of  our  trenches,  and  saw  many  evi- 
dences of  the  disastrous  charges  of  the 
19th  and  22nd  of  May, — broken  guns,  cart- 
ridge boxes,  canteens,  and  haversacks 
were  lying  about,  while  every  tree,  stump 
and  shrub  was  cut  with  balls.  I  found 
some  ripe  tomatoes  and  saw  some  ripe 
watermelons.  I  suppose  that  it  was  about 
one  hour  from  the  time  the  firing  ceased 
until  two  blank  shots  were  fired  from  one 
of  our  batteries.  This  was  a  signal  to  get 
into  the  trenches,  and  I  returned  to  camp, 
although  the  firinp-  did  not  commence.  I 
know  not  the  object  of  the  truce,  but  sup- 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


pose  it  was  to  bury  the  dead  on  the  left, 
as  I  think  there  was  a  heavy  fight  in  that 
direction  last  night.  Later — near  2  o'clock- 
there  was  firing  for  a  few  minutes,  when 
it  again  ceased.  I  went  over  to  the  battle- 
ground again,  and  saw  some  very  hard 
sights,  among  which  was  a  long  hand 
reaching  out  from  a  grave.  It  is  now  late 
in  the  evening,  all  is  quiet.  Some  really 
begin  to  believe  that  proposals  for  a  sur- 
render are  now  under  discussion.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  Gens.  Grant,  Pember- 
ton  and  their  respective  staffs  met  between 
the  two  lines  and  held  a  long  conference. 
But,  although  some  things  look  as  though 
a  capitulation  might  be  contemplated,  oth- 
ers again  look  as  if  nothing  of  the  kind 
was  expected,  for  mining  parties  are  being 
sent  out  as  usual,  and  timbers  are  being 
hauled  by  for  the  purpose  of  constructing 
fortifications.  During  the  whole  day,  al- 
though the  flag  of  truce  was  up  on  the  rear 
lines,  firing  still  continued  from  the  gun- 
boats and  mortars,  and  from  the  enemy's 
water  batteries;  but  this  has  now  entirely 
ceased,  and  for  the  first  time  since  the  27th 
of  May  I  cannot  hear  the  report  of  a 
single  gun.  The  quiet  seems  strange. 
Would  to  God  it  might  continue;  yet  I 
cannot  believe  that  it  will. 


Saturday,  July  4,  1863.  I  expected  to 
be  waked  up  in  the  morning  by  the  roar 
of  artillery,  but  instead  of  that,  all  was 
quiet.  The  truce  still  continues,  and  the 
impression  that  a  capitulation  would  be 
made  became  very  general;  yet  there  was 
no  excitement  among  the  boys.  Later, 
10  a.  m.,  the  word  has  come  that  the 
stronghold  of  Rebeldom  is  indeed  ours. 
Loud  shouts  go  up  from  our  whole  line.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  our  division  gets  to  go 
into  the  city  or  not;  but  in  any  case,  this 
is  a  joyful  "4th"  to  us.  Henceforth  we 
will  celebrate  the  day,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  rise  of  our  country,  but  also  on 
account  of  the  fall  of  its  enemy.  Late 
in  the  evening,  I  went  out  and  examined 
a  good  portion  of  the  enemy's  works. 
They  are  formidable  in  themselves,  but  far 
more  so  on  account  of  their  position. 
Their  stockade  was  torn  into  slinters  by 
our  shells,  and  many  trees  were  torn  down, 
some  of  them  even  2%  feet  in  diameter. 
I  had  not  much  time  to  look,  however,  for 
the  order  came  to  be  ready  to  march  at  7 
o'clock.  Seven  passed,  however,  and  we 
did  not  march.  The  boys  extemporized 
fireworks,  and  so  passed  a  very  pleasant 
evening,  yet  we  could  hardly  realize  that 
the  western  Gibraltar  was  ours. 


The  Luck  of  the  War  Game  Sometimes  Makes 

Heroes 

The  Orderly  That  Was  of  the  Fifth  Company  Washington  Artillery — Shiloh! 

By  A.  Gordon  Bakewell 


At  the  battle  of  Shiloh  the  Fifth  Com- 
pany of  Washington  Artillery  was  com- 
posed of  four  pieces,  and  went  into  battle 
without  a  Captain,  who  was  indisposed  in 
the  rear. 

The  battery  was,  therefore,  under  the 
command'  of  Lieutenants  Slocomb  and 
Chalaron,  on  the  first  day. 

Slocomb  was  soon  wounded  and  retired. 

The  consequence  was  that  but  one  Lieu- 
tenant alone  remained,  which  necessitated 
the  Orderly  Sergeant  taking  command  of 
one  section  of  two  pieces,  and  he  fought  it 
out  till  the  end  of  the  battle,  that  first 
day. 

On  the  second  day,  at  dawn,  we  went 
into  battle,  still  without  a  Captain,  with 
Lieutenant  Chalaron  in  command  of  one 
section  of  two  pieces,  and  I,  the  Orderly, 
in  command  of  the  other  two  pieces. 


There  being  no  Captain  to  direct  us  we 
each  fought  independently,  and  in  the  con- 
fusion and  smoke  of  battle  soon  got  sep- 
arated, and  lost  all  knowledge  of  each 
other. 

It  is  the  section  under  Lieutenant  Chal- 
aron which  is  referred  to  in  the  narrative 
of  Captain  Jos.  Boyce  (1226  Pierce  build- 
ing, St.  Louis),  which  was  read  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Camp  of  the  Army  of  Ten- 
nessee, of  which  Section,  after  we  lost  sight 
of  each  other,  I  knew  nothing. 

For  I  was  in  another  part  of  the  battle- 
field, and  was  fighting  with  my  two  pieces, 
until  they  were  so  disabled  by  the  artillery 
fire  of  the  enemy  that  they  could  not  be 
moved,  but  had  to  fie  left  on  the  battlefield 
till  the  fight  was  over  in  the  afternoon. 

But,  further,  to  tell  how  they  were  lost, 
how  they  were  recovered,  and  how  we  final- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


19 


ly  rejoined  the  other  Section  under  Lieu- 
tenant Chalaron,  which  after  the  battle  was 
over,  this  second  day,  was  rejoined  by 
the  missing  Captain,  and  what  happened  be- 
fore and  thereafter  on  the  battlefield,  I  will 
now  relate,  with  some  necessary  repetition. 

But,  first,  for  a  better  understanding,  I 
must  go  back  to  the  early  morning  of  the 
second  day. 

The  battery  of  the  Fifth  Company,  Wash- 
ington Artillery,  with  replenished  ammuni- 
tion, but  still   short-handed  in   officers  and 
nen,  was  promptly  in  the  position  assigned 
to  it,  and  opposed  to  Buell's  batteries. 

Then  commenced  a  terrible  artillery  duel. 
In  the  rush  of  contending  armies,  and  en- 
veloped in  the  confusion  and  smoke  of  bat- 
tle, as  previously  related,  we  became  sep- 
arated from  the  other  Section  of  our  Com- 
mand, and  were  soon  left  in  a  forlorn  con- 
dition, with  but  five  or  six  of  our  men  un- 
hurt, some  horses  killed,  and  other 
broken  loose.  Nevertheless,  we  worked  the 
pieces  until  they  were  so  disabled,  so  en- 
tangled in  the  underbrush  and  trees,  and  so 
buried  in  the  soft  soil,  by  the  recoil,  that 
with  our  reduced  strength  we  could  not 
extricate  them. 

Looking  to  the  front,  to  my  dismay,  I 
saw  a  line  of  Federals  about  to  charge,  while 
in  our  rear,  on  turning  around,  I  beheld 
the  New  Orleans  Crescent  regiment  com- 
ing up  in  a  counter  charge,  at  double  quick 
— many  on  both  sides  firing  as  they  ad- 
vanced. 

Realizing  that  it  was  worse  than  useless 
to  remain  between  these  two  lines  of  com- 
batants, I  called  to  our  few  men  left:  "We 
can  do  nothing  more;  let's  get  out  of  this, 
or  we  will  all  be  dead  men." 

I  then  ran  to  my  horse,  who,  fortunately 
was  unhurt.  Then  mounting  rapidly  we 
all  prepared  to  scamper  off. 

But,  alas!    We  could  neither  advance  to 
the  front  nor  retreat  to  the  rear.     We  had, . 
therefore  to  run  down  the  lines  of  our  ad- 
vancing troops  to  gain  some  place  of  safety 
behind  their  right  flank. 

We  had  not  gone  very  far,  however,  be- 
fore my  poor  beast  dropped  down  from 
sheer  exhaustion. 

It  being  impossible  to  get  him  up  again, 
there  we  had  to  remain,  just  behind  a  little 
knoll. 

It  had  been  a  Federal  Quartermaster's 
Camp.  Oats  and  hay  lay  scattered  over 
the  ground. 

With  these  we  revived  my  famished 
horse,  and  after  some  time  got  him  on  his 
legs  again. 

Meanwhile  the  battle  had  swept  far  away, 
leaving  only  disabled  and  abandoned  Fed- 
eral Artillery,  loose  and  riderless  horses, 
with  other  sad  marks  of  mortal  combat, 
and  where  still  lay  the  unburied  dead, 
sleeping  their  last  sleep  among  the  heaps 
of  the /'debris"  of  battle. 
•  Peering  cautiously  over  the  knoll  I 


espied  our  cannon,  just  where  we  left  them, 
with  no  enemy  in  sight,  and  only  a  few 
stragglers  from  our  army,  who  in  the  rush 
of  battle  had  lost  their  commands. 

With  the  help  of  these  we  were  enabled 
to  extricate  our  guns,  and  from  the  aban- 
doned Federal  Artillery  (whose  carriages 
were  of  the  same  pattern  as  ours)  we  re- 
placed our  broken  wheels  and  harness. 

Then  catching  enough  stray  horses  to 
drag  our  guns  and  caissons  we  started, 
ravenously  hungry,  to  find  our  command, 
and  get  something  to  replenish  the  inner 
man,  somewhat,  however,  apprehensive  of 
censure,  for  so  long  delay  in  reporting. 

After  plodding  along,  all  faint  and  weary, 
more  than  a  mile,  we  saw  above  the  under- 
brush, in  that  bloody  woods,  the  battle  flag 
of  our  Company. 

Hastening  on,  we  soon  came  within  their 
view.  They  then  sent  up  a  mighty  shout, 
to  our  great  astonishment.  "What  can  that 
mean?"  I  asked,  turning  to  young  Denegre, 
who  was  one  of  us.  "I  don't  know,"  he 
replied,  unless  they  thought  we  were  all 
killed  or  captured  with  our  guns." 

At  once  I  took  the  hint,  and  gathering 
the  boys  about  me  thus  addressed  them: 
"Boys,  I  want  you  all  to  swear  that  you 
will  never  tell  how  we  recovered  these 
guns.  If  you  don't  blab  our  reputation  as 
heroes  is  made  forever." 

Now,  having  unaccountably  lost  my  Bible 
and  Prayer  Book,  "Boys,"  said  I,  "you  must 
all  take  the  most  binding  obligation  that  a 
Confederate  can  take,  not  to  divulge  the 
secret  of  our  heroism." 

Then,  we  all,  with  our  hands  upon  our 
empty  stomachs,  swore  never  to  tell. 

Upon  rejoining  our  command,  we  were 
greeted  with  warm  and  enthusiastic  con- 
gratulations, and  every  mother's  son  of  us 
remained  as  "dumb  as  a  drum  with  a  hole 
in  it." 

We  then  learned,  for  the  first  time,  that 
our  army  was  too  cut  up  and  incapacitated 
to  renew  the  fight,  and  that  we  were  to  fall 
back  to  Corinth. 

Our  battery,  however,  was  ordered  to 
remain  to  cover  the  retreat,  should  the 
enemy  pursue. 

Meanwhile,  while  1  was  standing  in  line 
at  the  head  of  the  Company,  General  Beau- 
regard  rode  up  with  his  Staff,  and  after 
some  few  words  with  our  Captain,  came 
over  to  me  and  said:  .  "You  have  done 
nobly,  Sir."  Your  humble  servant  said  not 
a  word,  but  bowed  low  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  compliment.  Of  course 
the  General  did  not  know  that  if  my 
poor,  old,  famished  beast  had  not  fallen 
down  exhausted  those  guns  would  have 
been  left  for  the  enemy's  only  triumph 
on  that  bloody  field,  and  we,  accidental 
heroes  and  distinguished  Confederates, 
would  have  been  far,  far  away  in  the  rear. 

As    it   was,    however,    by    our    fortuitous 


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ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


heroism,  we  had  saved  our  company  from 
the  mortification  of  having  lost  half  their 
battery. 

None  but  the  initiated  knew  how;  and 
we  might,  at  our  pleasure,  have  played  the 
Old  Soldier  upon  that  accidental  fact  to 
the  end  of  the  war.  For  this  is  how  we 


gained  our  reputation   for   bravery,   to  this 
day. 

I  never  divulged  how  those  guns  were 
saved  till  all  who  had  participated  in  their 
recovery  had  gone  to  join  the  "Grand 
Armies  of  Heaven"  on  the  other  side  of 
the  dark  river  of  death. 


GKN.    STEPHEN  D.    LEE. 


Remarks  of  President  C.  H.  Markham  at  23d  An- 
nual Meeting  of  the  Traveling  Engineers'  Asso- 
ciation Held  at  Chicago,  Sept.  8-10,  1915 


Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen: 

It  affords  me  pleasure  to  appear  be- 
fore the  Traveling  Engineers'  Associa- 
tion, for  the  position  at  the  throttle  has 
always  held  a  peculiar  fascination  for 
me  and  I  look  upon  the  calling  as  one 
requiring  intelligence,  courage  and  skill, 
qualities  that  develop  and  call  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  finer  sensibilities  of  man. 
My  first  job  on  a  railroad,  some  thirty- 
five  years  ago,  was  coaling  engines  by 
hand  at  Deming,  New  Mexico,  and  I  well 
remember  the  kindnesses  of  many  of  the 
engineers  to  the  boy  whose  strength  they 
feared  was  being  overtaxed.  It  requires 
mighty  good  "stuff"  to  sit  in  the  cab  on 
a  stormy  night  and  take  a  trainload  of 
passengers  through  in  safety  and  on 
schedule ;  depending  on  the  trackmen  to 
report  soft  places,  the  dispatcher  to  clear 
the  way  and  a  keen  vision  and  sense  of 
danger  to  avoid  trouble  up  ahead ;  a  great 
responsibility  calling  for  watchfulness 
while  the  world  sleeps ;  duty  if  it  means 
death.  I  admire  this  man-sized  job  and 
I  am  "with"  the  men  who  fill  it. 

The  railroad  business  is  the  greatest 
business  in  this  country  today.  Its  devel- 
opment has  made  possible  the  rapid  set- 
tlement of  our  vast  primeval  areas,  the 
linking  of  cities  and  of  people,  the  up- 
building of  an  empire  overnight. 

For  the  year  ending  June  30,  1914, 
the  railroads  transported,  in  round  fig- 
ures, two  billion  tons  of  freight  or  in 
the  neighborhood  of  three  hundred  bil- 
lion tons  one  mile.  They  carried  over 
one  billion  passengers  or  about  thirty- 
six  billion  one  mile.  Their  net  capitali- 
zation for  the  quarter  million  miles  oper- 
ated was  approximately  sixteen  billion 
dollars  or  sixty-four  thousand  dollars  per 
mile,  just  one-half  of  the  per  mile  capi- 
talization of  European  roads — and  physi- 
cal valuation  now  being  conducted  by  the 


Interstate  Commerce  Commission  is  go- 
ing to  show  that  on  the  whole  they  are 
not  overcapitalized.  They  employ  over 
one  and  a  half  million  men  and  a  like 
number  are  engaged  in  supplying  their 
demands — one  in  every  seven  of  our  pop- 
ulation being  dependent  upon  them  for 
their  daily  bread.  To  these  dependents 
the  annual  wage  distribution  is  over  two 
and  one-half  billion  dollars. 

Our  railroads  are  managed  today  by 
practical  men  who  have  come  up  from 
the  ranks.  They  belong  to  the  people, 
either  directly  through  stock  and  bond 
ownership,  or  indirectly  through  savings 
deposits  and  insurance  policies;  and  un- 
fair attacks  made  upon  them  but  re-act 
to  the  detriment  of  the  people  them- 
selves. I  hold  no  brief  for  the  past,  but 
there  is  very  little  reason  in  remember- 
ing the  shortcomings  of  previous  genera- 
tions and  attempting  a  belated  punish- 
ment on  people  wholly  innocent.  It  re- 
quired men  of  daring  and  initiative  to 
sponsor  this  development  and  whatever 
their  personal  motives  they  are  entitled 
to  some  measure  of  credit. 

The  thing  that  ails  this  country  is  too 
much  regulation,  too  many  laws ;  the  in- 
evitable accompaniment  of  a  change  for 
the  better  in  our  business  methods.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  purifying 
process  which  for  the  past  ten  years  has 
gripped  our  commercial  life  has  left  an 
undying  impression  of  good.  It  was  the 
drastic  way  we  went  about  it  that  hurt; 
and  the  process  has  left  us  too  prone  to 
complain  at  little  things,  too  excited  to 
analyze  anything.  Every  man  feels  he 
knows  all  about  every  other  man's  busi- 
ness. 

If  we  can  but  minimize  this  useless 
agitation  there  is  nothing  radically 
wrong;  but  if  continued  it  is  bound  to 
work  infinite  harm.  Our  business  men 


21 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


are  the  premiers  of  the  world;  they  are 
trained  fighters  in  worldwide  business 
strife;  they  are  exponents  of  the  best 
•thought  in  modern  business ;  they  have 
placed  the  banner  of  the  United  States 
where  all  the  world  might  see;  and  the 
majority  of  them  should  not  nor  in  the 
end  do  I  believe  they  will  be  held  respon- 
sible for  the  acts  of  the  few.  Calmer 
judgment  will,  I  think,  acknowledge  the 
tribute  due  them  and  that  calmer  judg- 
ment will  divorce  business  from  politics, 
something  the  people  want  but  which 
some  of  the  politicians  cannot  yet  real- 
ize. It  is  only  in  this  way  that  we  can 
really  progress ;  that  the  resources  of  this 
country  can  be  adequately  appreciated, 
fully  taken  advantage  of.  Our  wealth  is 
almost  untouched  and  there  is  no  end  to 
the  things  we  can  do. 

That  is  why  I  come  to  you  today  to 
urge  a  unity  of  railway  forces  in  a  great 
educational  move  for  our  own  and  the 
country's  preservation.  The  people  are 
coming  to  understand  and  sympathize 
with  us  in  our  troubles.  It  remains  for 
us  to  appeal  to  them  again  and  again, 
whenever  we  are  unjustly  attacked,  re- 
lying on  their  never-failing  fairness  to 
secure  us  equal  opportunity  and  fair  play 
But  if  we  expect  them  to  heed  our  appeal 
we  must  first  be  sure  we  are  absolutely 
in  the  right.  The  value  of  good  example 
as  a  means  of  frustrating  the  evil  designs 
of  our  detractors  cannot  be  over-stated. 
We  must  observe  the  statutes,  however 
onerous,  until  repealed  or  adjudicated. 
There  can  be  no  halfway  measures,  no 
resentful  or  lukewarm  obedience. 

And  if  we  would  succeed  our  internal 
relations  must  be  amicable  and  harmoni- 
ous. We  should  look  upon  the  day  of 
the  strike  as  over.  Food  supplies  for  the 
people  of  our  large  cities  are  dependent 
on  uninterrupted  daily  transportation  and 
if  the  time  should  ever  come  when,  be- 
cause of  failure  of  employers  and  em- 
ployes to  agree,  the  trains  should  be 
stopped,  the  people  will  take  charge  and 
run  them  for  us.  This  means  that  dis- 
putes likely  to  result  in  serious  incon- 
venience to  the  public  must  hereafter  be 
submitted  to  arbitration,  and  if  we  can- 
not agree  among  ourselves  we  must  sub- 


mit to  compulsory  arbitration  or  the  al- 
ternative of  government  ownership.  If 
it  be  compulsory  arbitration  it  will  prob- 
ably be  under  conditions  which,  while 
taking  into  consideration  the  interests  of 
the  shipping  and  traveling  public,  will 
recognize  the  right  of  the  railroads  to 
offset  increased  wages  by  corresponding 
increases  in  freights  and  fares. 

I  want  to  take  advantage  of  the  occa- 
sion to  urge  upon  your  Association  the 
importance  of  discouraging  the  activity 
of  representatives  of  many  of  the  organi- 
zations which  maintain  legislative  com- 
mittees whose  duty  it  is  to  influence  leg- 
islation designed  to  secure  concessions 
which  cannot  be  secured  through  the  reg- 
ular channels  of  negotiation  or  arbitra- 
tion. The  railroads  are  put  to  unneces- 
essary  expense  in  their  efforts  to  defeat 
what  to  them  seems  unfair  and  unjust 
regulation  of  their  business.  Instead  of 
combining  forces  and  working  to  de- 
feat legislation  antagonistic  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  roads  and  their  employees, 
our  forces  are  divided,  and  the  passage 
of  a  full  crew  or  train  limit  bill  may  be 
followed  by  the  passage  of  a  law  reduc- 
ing passenger  fares  or  creating  some 
other  condition  having  the  effect  of  either 
reducing  income  or  increasing  expenses, 
in  which  the  employees  have  no  direct  in- 
terest. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  railroads  to  fur- 
nish safe  and  convenient  transportation 
for  persons  and  property  and,  as  under 
the  existing  order  their  only  source  of 
income  is  from  freights  and  fares  paid 
by  those  who  travel  and  make  shipments 
of  goods,  they  must  be  permitted  to 
charge  rates  sufficient  to  yield  a  return 
large  enough  to  provide  for  improve- 
ments necessary  to  keep  pace  with  the 
constant  increase  in  business  and  grow- 
ing cost  of  operation.  But  the  cry  of 
over-capitalization  or  wrongdoing  result- 
ing from  high  finance  is  raised  and  re- 
lief is  denied;  and  yet  government  is 
ready  to  spend  millions  in  the  construc- 
tion of  waterways  to  compete  with  and 
perhaps  destroy  the  business  of  railroads 
privately  owned.  All  the  people  are 
taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  The 
Panama  Canal,  while  a  great  political 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


23 


necessity,  is  commercially  favorable  to 
the  interests  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
seaboards  and  discriminates  against  the 
business  and  commerce  of  the  middle 
west.  The  money  for  construction  of 
new  and  improvement  of  existing  inte- 
rior waterways  ought  to  be  raised  by  as- 
sessment on  the  property  of  or  by  taxing 
service  rendered  to  the  immediate  bene- 
ficiaries. I  see  no  reason  why  a  man 
who  ships  his  freight  on  an  interior  wat- 
erway built  by  the  government  should 
not  pay  for  its  use  in  precisely  the  same 
manner  as  does  the  man  who  ships  his 
freight  on  a  privately-owned  railroad. 
The  cost  of  artificial,  interior  waterways 
ought  to  be  borne  by  the  beneficiaries, 
as  is  done  in  the  matter  of  street  paving 
and  like  civic  improvements.  If  built  at 
government  expense  commerce  should  be 
assessed  tolls  sufficient  to  realize  a  sum 
calculated  to  pay  interest  on  the  cost  and 
a  fund  for  maintenance  and  operation. 
The  past  few  years  have  witnessed 


great  changes  in  the  railroad  business. 
There  is  a  better  understanding  of  the 
needs  of  all  concerned-  Publicity  is  the 
order  of  the  day  and  appeals  to  the  pub- 
lic for  relief  from  attempts  to  pass  un- 
fair laws  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  The 
wisdom  of  this  policy  is  proven  by  re- 
sults and  I  don't  know  of  a  case  where 
it  has  failed. 

Some  students  of  our  transportation 
conditions  are  predicting  government 
ownership  of  railroads,  but  I  am  one  of 
those  who  believe  that  it  will  be  a  long 
time  before  the  people  of  this  country 
will  be  ready  to  embark  on  an  experiment 
which ^has  not  proven  successful  in  coun- 
tries where  conditions  are  much  more  fa- 
vorable than  in  ours.  Whatever  might 
be  said  of  government  ownership  in  a 
thickly  populated,  finished  country,  like 
some  of  those  in  Europe,  it  won't  do  for 
us,  and  I  might  say,  in  passing,  that  Eu- 
rope is  not  setting  us  an  example  that 
we  can  afford  to  pattern  after. 


Little  Things  Which  Get  Business — The  Telephone 

By  F.  B.  Wilkinson 

1.  Answer  promptly.     Your  patrons  are  busy  business  men. 

2.  Have  a  smile   in   your  voice.     The  world  hates   a  grouch. 

3.  Be    coureous.      People    judge    the    railroad  by  your  conduct;  not  by  your  superin- 
tendents. 

4.  Some  people   seem  unable  to  master  the  art  of  being  agreeable   over  the  tele- 
phone.    Get  on  some  other  job  if  you  are  one  of  them.     If  you  do  not,  the  railroad 
and  yourself  will  lose  friends.     Their  loss  is  irreparable. 

5.  Speak  with  lips  close  to  transmitter.     Nothing  is  more  annoying  than  to  have 
a  voice  sound  faint  and  unintelligible. 

6.  Don't  be  in  top  great  a  hurry.     Let  your  patron  know  that  you  understand  what 
is  wanted  and  he  will  not  fret  while  you  are  securing  the  desired  information. 

7.  Don't  hang  up  receiver  too  quickly.     Be  sure  your  customer  is  satisfied  before 
you  ring  off. 

8.  Patrons  complain  that  your  phone  is  often  busy?     Te'll  the  boss.     He  will  have 
additional  phones  installed  if  they  are  needed.     Remember  that  people  will  call  your 
competitor  and  get  in  habit  of  giving  him  all  their  business  if  they  cannot  get  you 
quickly. 

9.  When  request  is  made  for  rate,  quote  it  and  tell  inquirer  about  your  service  and 
ask  him  for  the  business.     Secure  his  address  and  have  solicitor  call  on  him.    People 
appreciate    attention    shown    them.      IT    GETS    BUSINESS. 

10.  We  are  all  salesmen.     Treat  the  public  as  you  expect  to  be  treated  by  your 
grocer. 

11.  He  sells  groceries.     YOU  sell  TRANSPORTATION. 


PUBLIC  OPINION 

t  the          J^k     World  thinks 


Extract  from   an  Address  Entitled,   "A  Right  of 

the  States,"  Delivered  by  Alfred  P.  Thorn, 

of  Washington,  D.C.,  Before  the  State  Bar 

Association  of  Tennessee,  on  June  25, 

1915,  at  Chattanooga,  Tenn. 

*  *  *  Commerce  itself  in  these  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  years  has 
assumed  a  far  greater  consequence  in  the  affairs  and  destinies  of  men  and  of 
nations,  than  it  had  in  those  early  days.  Steam  and  electricity  have  come  with 
their  mighty  revolutionizing  influence  and  have  brought  all  the  states  and  all  the 
nations  into  close  and  intimate  commercial  relationships.  Men  no  longer 
deal  in  trade  most  largely  with  their  immediate  neighbors,  but  find  it  essen- 
tial to  their  success  to  have  free  and  unimpeded  and  adequate  access  to  the 
markets  of  the  world. 

The  interests  of  the  producing  states — particularly  the  states  of  the 
South  and  West  where  there  are  no  markets  of  the  first  imoortance — imper- 
atively require  easy  and  quick  transportation  to  the  world's  great  market 
cities,  such  as  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston  and  Chicago  in  this  country, 
and  Liverpool,  London,  Paris  and  Berlin  abroad. 

It  may  be  safely  stated  that  at  least  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  trade  of 
Tennessee,  and  of  the  United  States  generally,  moves  in  interstate  and  for- 
eign commerce.  It  traverses  vast  distances;  it  must  pay  low  mileage  rates 
to  reach  and  to  compete  in  these  distant  markets ;  it  cannot,  because  of  the 
value  of  time  and  the  small  margins  of  profit,  permit  frequent  handlings  or 
breakings  of  bulk. 

To  meet  these  economic  conditions — to  satisfy  the  essential  needs  and  to 
accommodate  the  movement  of  this  great  traffic — it  has  become  necessary  to 
create  long  and  continuous  lines  of  railroads  in  the  place  of  the  short  and  dis- 
connected lines  which  were  once  adequate  to  the  requirements  of  trade.  These 
large  systems  of  railroad,  which  have  come  in  obedience  to  the  economic 
law  which  demands  continuous,  rapid,  and  unbroken  transportation,  nec- 
essarily extend  across,  and  are,  under  existing  law,  in  many  respects  subject 
to  the  varying  policies  of  many  states. 

The  problem  of  greatest  magnitude  which  concerns  the  country  in  reard 
to  them,  is  how  their  continuity  of  service  shall  be  preserved  unimpeded  and 
what  shall  be  the  duality  of  adequacy  and  efficiency  which  their  transpor- 
tation facilities  shall  possess. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  transportation  capacity  of  the  carriers 
marks  the  minimum  limit  of  the  trade,  and  hence  of  the  producing  capacity, 

24 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  25 

of  the  people  whom  they  serve.  No  more  will  be — no  more  can  be — pro- 
duced than  can  be  carried  to  market.  Therefore,  each  state,  being  depend- 
ent for  its  prosperity  upon  the  producing  capacity  of  its  people,  is  deeply 
concerned  that  the  transportation  capacity  of  the  carriers  which  serve  it 
shall  be  adequate  and  shall  not  be  crippled  or  impaired. 

A  broad  and  wise  policy  in  dealing  with  the  instrumentalities  of  com- 
merce is,  therefore,  a  matter  of  supreme  interest  to  all  the  states.  A  narrow, 
or  niggardly,  or  selfish  policy,  if  adopted  by  any  one  of  the  states  through 
which  a  railroad  passes,  may  seriously  cripple  and  depress  the  commerce  of 
every  other  state  which  the  railroad  serves. 

No  adequate  conception  of  the  railroad  problem,  as  it  affects  the  devel- 
opment of  the  country  and  the  growth  of  its  commerce,  can  ignore  the  neces- 
sity that  transportation  facilities  must  be  all  the  time  growing  and  improv- 
ing to  keep  pace  with  the  growth  and  expansion  of  commerce — otherwise 
there  will  be  no  growth  or  expansion  of  commerce. 

Such  an  increase  in  railroad  facilities  involves  the  constant  input  of  new 
capital,  for  no  railroad  is  ever  finished  except  in  a  dead  country.  It  is  a  mere 
platitude  to  say  that  new  capital  can  only  be  attracted  by  credit.  While  no 
one  state  through  which  a  railroad  passes  can  alone  establish  its  credit,  a  sin- 
gle state  can  impair  or  destroy  it. 

If  a  railroad  runs  through  and  serves  eleven  states,  ten  of  them  may  be 
guided  by  broad  and  liberal  views  and  may  be  controlled  by  the  policy  of  en- 
couraging the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  adequate  transportation  fa- 
cilities. The  eleventh  may,  however,  have  no  adequate  commercial  outlook 
or  may  be  temporarily  under  the  domination  of  small  and  time-serving  poli- 
ticians. It  may  reduce  rates  on  state  traffic  so  as  to  barely  escape  the  line  of 
confiscation.  It  may  be  unwilling  that  its  state  traffic  shall  contribute  any- 
thing to  the  liberal  program,  favored  by  the  other  ten,  would  build  for 
the  future  and  insure  the  present  and  continuing  adequacy  of  the  transpor- 
tation facilities  on  which  all  are  equally  dependent. 

In  such  a  case,  what  shall  be  done?  Shall  the  ten  states  bow  to  the  will 
or  caprice  of  the  one  and  allow  it  to  control?  Shall  they  permit  the  narrow 
views  of  the  one  state  to  limit  the  standard  or  the  character  or  the  quality  of 
facilities  which  their  people  shall  enjoy? 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  standard  of  facilities  is  not  brought  down  to 
this  low  level  and  is  to  be  made  adequate  to  the  needs  of  all,  then  the  com- 
merce of  the  other  ten  states,  or  interstate  commerce,  or  both,  must  bear  the 
burden,  which  the  dissenting  state  has  refused  to  share,  of  building  up  ade- 
quate transportation  facilities. 

In  either  case,  the  dissenting  state,  in  a  very  effective  way,  regulates  the 
commerce  and  the  business  opportunities  of  all.  It  either  determines  the 
standard  of  the  commercial  facilities,  and  therefore  the  commercial  oppor- 
tunities of  the  other  states,  or  it  throws  on  them  an  unfair  and  undue  pro- 
portion of  the  burden  of  sustaining  them  at  a  level  of  higher  efficiency. 

Moreover,  in  the  Shreveport  case,  recently  decided  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  in  another  state  which  I  shall  not  more -par- 
ticularly identify  state  rates  have  been  greatly  reduced  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  preserving  state  markets  for  state  trade,  and  thus  excluding  and  dis- 
criminating against  the  trade  of  other  states. 

Is  it  not  a  right  of  each  of  these  states,  thus  oppressed  by  the  narrow 
and  selfish  policy  of  one,  to  have  its  commerce  freed  from  these  state  re- 
strictions and  regulated  by  congress,  representing  all  the  states,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  compact  of  the  Constitution? 

I  have  referred  to  the  great  importance  to  the  welfare  of  all  the  states 


26  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

of  transportation  facilities — to  the  complete  dependence  of  the  states  upon 
their  adequacy,  their  efficiency  and  their  readiness  for  service.  I  have  called 
attention  to  the  credit  of  the  carriers — their  capacity  to  obtain  new  money 
— as  bearing  an  important,  and  in  fact  controlling,  relationship  to  the  prob- 
lem of  transportation. 

In  this  connection,  and  as  exerting  an  important  influence  on  the  finan- 
cial capacity  of  the  carriers,  it  is  appropriate  to  consider  their  capacity  to 
issue  and  to  dispose  of  their  securities. 

It  is  manifest  that,  if  such  issue  is  to  be  regulated  by  the  individual 
states,  every  state  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  others.  A  bond,  to  be  available  in 
the  market,  must,  as  a  rule — especially  now  when  most  bonds  are  necessarily 
junior  liens — be  secured  upon  the  whole  railroad  line ;  and  this  crosses  many 
states.  One  of  the  states,  therefore,  if  it  possesses  the  power  to  regulate  the 
issue  of  securities  of  an  interstate  carrier,  may  disappoint  and  defeat  a  finan- 
cial plan  approved  by  all  the  other  states  and  necessary  to  the  carrier's  trans- 
portation efficiency. 

Even  if  the  state  does  not  press  its  authority  to  the  extent  of  absolutely 
declining  to  sanction  the  issue,  it  may  selfishly,  and  as  a  political  expedient, 
attach  a  condition  that  a  designated  portion  of  the  proceeds  shall  be  spent 
within  its  borders  where  it  may  not  in  fact  be  needed,  when  the  needs  of  inter- 
state commerce  and  the  commerce  of  other  states  fairly  require  that  the  whole 
shall  be  expended  elsewhere. 

The  power  of  the  state  to  consent,  or  to  withhold  its  consent,  is  equiva- 
lent to  a  power  to  control  the  character  and  the  location  of  additional  trans- 
portation facilities  against  the  views  and  the  interests  of  all  the  other 
states. 

But  even  if  the  necessity  for  the  new  capital  is  universally  recognized, 
and  the  approval  of  the  states  is  not  ultimately  withheld,  the  time  necessary 
to  permit  the  investigation  and  to  secure  the  approval  of  so  many  would,  or 
might,  constitute  a  fatal  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  successful  financial  opera- 
tion. Promptness — ability  to  avail  without  unreasonable  delay  of  a  favorable 
market — is  essential  to  success  in  placing  large  financial  offerings. 

Conceive  the  not  impossible  case  suggested  by  a  recent  dramatic  event  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 

A  railroad  company  has  been  maturing  for  some  time  past  a  large  financial 
plan  with  the  purpose  of  taking  advantage  of  a  general  market  such  as  we 
all  know  recurs  at  periods  some  times  widely  separated.  A  great  steamer, 
say  the  Lusitania,  sails  at  a  moment  of  international  tension.  Those  in  charge 
of  the  financial  policy  of  the  railroad  are  justified  in  believing  that  something 
may  happen  to  that  steamer  which  will  affect  international  relations  and  de- 
stroy for  many  months,  and  perhaps  for  years,  a  market  for  securities.  So 
far  as  their  own  business  preparation  is  concerned,  they  are  ready  to  bring 
out  the  carefully  matured  plan  and  place  their  securities.  It  becomes  then  a 
question  of  days  before  the  possibility  of  disaster  to  that  steamer  may  be 
realized.  Meanwhile  some  state  commission,  for  some  such  reason  as  has 
been  suggested,  is  delaying  the  approval  of  the  issue.  It  does  delay  until  the 
disaster  happens  and  so  defeats  the  financial  plan,  with  the  result  that  there 
is  at  least  an  indefinite  postponement  of  additional  railroad  facilities  essential 
to  the  best  interest  of  the  commerce  of  the  country. 

Of  course,  the  chances  for  such  delay  are  increased  just  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  states  which  must  be  consulted  in  the  matter  of  regula- 
tion. 

From  whatever  standpoint,  therefore,  it  be  considered,  the  destructive 
effect  of  a  power  in  the  several  states  to  determine  and  limit  the  financial 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  27 

capacity  of  the  carriers,  through  a  regulation  of  the  issue  of  their  securities,  is 
apparent.  It  is  manifest  that  the  financial  capacity  of  a  carrier  which  serves 
many  states  is  a  matter  of  transcendent  importance  to  them  all.  No  one  of 
them  should  be  allowed  to  control  or  to  injuriously  affect  it.  It  is  a  right 
of  each  of  the  states  that  a  matter  so  important,  and  in  which  all  of  them 
have  so  vital  an  interest,  shall  not  be  controlled  by  one  which  may  have  a 
selfish  interest  or  an  illiberal  policy. 

It  is  a  right  of  the  states,  .in  respect  of  this  matter  of  common  and  su- 
preme concern,  that  an  authority,  which  is  the  authority  of  all,  whose  power 
is  delegated  by  all,  which  represents  all  and  which  acts  for  all,  shall  alone  be 
the  arbiter  of  what  may  be  conflicting  views  and  interests,  and  shall  alone 
regulate  and  control. 

And  yet  sixteen  states  have  enacted  statutes,  each  asserting  for  itself  the 
individual  right  to  control  the  issue  of  stocks  and  bonds  of  interstate  car- 
riers. And  the  end  is  not  yet,  for  many  other  states  are  considering  legisla- 
tion which  will  give  to  them  a  power  which  they  see  is  already  being  exercised 
by  others. 

Another  striking  illustration  of  the  exercise  by  one  state  of  a  power  to 
discriminate  against  and  to  injure  the  commerce  of  other  states  and  inter- 
state commerce  is  found  in  the  state  laws  which  impose  heavy  penalties  for 
failure  to  furnish  cars  or  other  instrumentalities  of  commerce  within  a  limited 
time. 

One  of  the  states  now  imposes  a  fine  of  five  dollars  for  each  day  of  de- 
lay; an  adjoining  state  fixes  the  fine  at  one  dollar  per  day;  and  the  inter- 
state commerce  law  fixes  no  per  diem  penalty  at  all.  A  case  may  well  be 
imagined  where  a  carrier  is  reasonably  supplied  with  equipment,  but  a  large 
portion  of  it  has  moved  in  the  regular  channels  of  commerce  to  a  point  on 
or  off  its  "line  and  distant  from  the  place  where  the  demand  for  it  is  made. 
If,  under  these  circumstances,  there  is  a  demand  for  a  car  by  a  shipper  of 
intrastate  traffic  in  the  state  which  imposes  a  heavy  fine  for  delay,  and  is  also 
made  by  a  shipper  in  the  state  which  imposes  a  light  fine,  and  is  also  made 
by  a  shipper  in  interstate  commerce  as  to  which  no  fine  at  all  is  imposed,  and 
there  is  at  the  moment,  by  reason  of  special  circumstances,  only  one  car 
available  to  meet  all  three  of  these  demands,  it,  of  course,  results  that  the 
carrier  in  self-protection  must  deliver  the  one  available  car  to  the  shipper  in 
the  state  which  imposes  the  largest  fine,  and  the  other  must  go  without.  In 
other  words,  the  greediest,  the  most  selfish  and  the  most  unreasonable  state 
thus  secures  by  its  own  laws  a  preference  for  its  own  commerce  over  the 
commerce  of  its  sister  states  and  over  interstate  commerce  itself. 

Is  it  not  a  right  of  the  other  states  to  have  the  question  of  a  fair  distribu- 
tion of  available  car  supply  determined,  not  by  one  of  the  interested  states, 
but  by  the  authority  which  represents  them  all  and  can  see  that  a  rule  of 
equity  and  fairness  shall  prevail? 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  said,  a  long  and  formidable  list  of  state 
statutes,  already  in  effect,  might  be  given,  which,  without  the  consent  of 
the  other  states,  impose  serious  burdens  of  expense  upon  their  commerce, 
and  thus  upon  their  people.  All  discriminate,  or  have  the  effect  of  discrimi- 
nating, against  their  commerce,  both  state  and  interstate. 

Thus,  three  states  have  passed  laws  making  it  illegal  for  a  carrier  having 
repair  shops  in  the  state  to  send  any  of  its  equipment,  which  it  is  possible  to 
repair  there,  out  of  the  state  for  repairs  in  another  state ;  fifteen  states  have 
attempted  to  secure  preferred  treatment  of  their  state  traffic,  either  by  heavy 
penalties  for  delays  or  by  prescribing  a  minimum  movement  of  freight  cars, 
some  of  them  requiring  a  minimum  movement  of  fifty  miles  per  day,  whereas 


28  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

the  average  movement  for  the  United  States  is  not  over  twenty-six  miles  per 
day — one  of  these  states  imposing  a  fine  of  ten  dollars  per  hour  for  the  for- 
bidden delay;  twenty  states  have  hours-of-service  laws,  varying  from  ten  to 
sixteen  hours;  twenty  states  have  full-crew  laws;  twenty-eight  states  have 
headlight  laws,  with  varying  requirements  as  to  the  character  of  the  lights, 
and  fourteen  states  have  safety-appliance  acts. 

Let  me  take  an  illustration  from  a  single  class  of  these  statutes.  I  will 
select  the  Full  Crew  laws  of  the  states  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania. 

These  laws  impose  upon  the  railroads  operating  within  their  respective 
limits  an  expense  for  unnecessary  employes  amounting  to  more  than  one 
million  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year.  There  is  nothing  in  these 
state  laws  putting  the  burden  of  this  expense  on  their  own  traffic  alone. 
That  burden  extends  to  all  the  traffic  these  railroads  carry,  and  thus  the  traffic 
of  Virginia  and  Tennessee  and  Mississippi  and  of  all  the  American  states 
whose  traffic  enters  New  Jersey  or  Pennsylvania  is  laid  under  tribute  by  these 
state  enactments. 

Or,  the  proposition  may  be  stated  another  way.  The  expense  put  upon 
this  railroads  by  the  Full  Crew  statutes  of  these  two  states  would  pay  the  in- 
terest at  5  per  cent  upon  a  capital  fund  of  more  than  $34,000,000.  By  requiring 
an  amount  equivalent  to  the  interest  on  this  capital  to  be  expended  on  use- 
less employes — at  least  on  employes  as  to  which  the  other  states  were  not 
consulted — instead  of  being  used  to  obtain  new  caoital,  these  two  states 
have  by  their  own  independent  action  reduced  the  borrowing  capacity  of 
the  railroads  to  the  extent  of  $34,000,000.  That  amount  of  capital  would 
have  bought  1,360  locomotives,  or  3,400  steel  passenger  cars,  or  34,000  freieht 
cars,  or  1,133,000  tons  of  steel  rails,  or  would  have  block-signaled  13,600 
miles  of  road. 

Thus  facilities  immensely  valuable  to  the  traffic  of  the  other  states  have 
been  made  impossible — not  bv  their  own  action,  but  by  the  independent  action 
of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania. 

It  is  apparent  that  these  and  similar  statutes  which  impose  burdens  and 
create  discriminations  violate  the  princinle  of  just  and  equal  treatment  as 
against  the  states  which  have  a  more  liberal  policy,  and  constitute  serious 
invasions  of  the  field  of  regulation  by  the  states  which  adopt  them  to  the  sub- 
stantial prejudice  of  those  which  have  not  sought  to  obtain  special  or  pref- 
erential treatment. 

Again,  it  may  be  asked,  is  it  not  a  rieht  of  the  states  that  no  one  state 
shall  possess  the  power  of  imposing  a  burden  which  the  people  of  other 
states  must  help  to  bear,  or  of  securing  a  preference  for  its  own  traffic  over 
the  traffic  of  the  others? 

In  order  to  secure  equality  of  burden  and  of  privilege  and  the  benefit 
of  an  adequate  and  efficient  transportation  svstem,  the  power  to  reerulate 
commerce  among  the  states  and  with  foreign  nations  was,  by  their  own 
action,  withdrawn  from  the  individual  states  and  conferred  upon  Congress, 
which  represents  them  all. 

In  fact,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  Constitution  itself  was  the  offspring 
of  the  insistent  demand  of  the  states  for  protection  in  trade  aeain«t  the  other 
states.  It  is.  therefore,  peculiarly  a  right  of  the  states  to  have  this  purpose 
fully  and  fairly  carried  into  effect. 

It  seems  not  unprofitable  to  turn  from  the  problem  of  commercial  regula- 
tion, considered  only  as  a  problem  of  peace,  to  the  lessons  we  must  Varn  in 
regard  to  it  from  the  great  events  now  occurring  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

It  will  be  merely  fatuous  in  us  to  c1o<=e  our  eves  to  the  fact  t^at  the  or- 
ganization of  society  will  be  revolutionized  in  consequence  of  the  historic  de- 
velopments of  the  past  year. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  29 

We  had  fondly  dreamed  that  the  possibility  of  great  wars  had  disap- 
peared in  the  purer  light  of  civilization,  and  that  the  barbaric  and  savage 
instinct  of  nations  had  been  obliterated  by  the  advance  of  moral  and  in- 
tellectual principles  among  mankind. 

This  dream  has  been  rudely  dissipated  and  the  world  has  been  made  to 
realize  that,  when  it  comes  to  war,  there  has  been  no  advance  in  humanity 
or  morality  since  the  Goths  and  Huns  and  Vandals  fought  and  slew  and 
pillaged  fourteen  centuries  ago.  The  only  difference  is  a  difference  in  slaying 
power  and  in  efficiency.  These  have  advanced  as  science  has  marked  out 
the  way.  The  lesson  has  been  taught,  in  the  blood  and  agony  and  tears  of 
nations,  that  hereafter,  when  it  comes  to  the  test,  it  is  only  the  organized 
and  efficient  nation  which  can  survive. 

The  world  has  marveled  to  see  a  nation,  with  comparatively  small  terri- 
torial possessions,  rise  in  arms  against  the  strongest  nations  of  the  earth 
and  defy  them  all  with  its  organized  energy  and  power. 

Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  result  of  this  gitanic  struggle,  the  lesson 
of  national  efficiency  has  been  taught  and  will  never  be  forgotten.  Its  in- 
fluence has  reached  even  to  this  remote  Western  Hemisphere,  and  hereafter 
men  will  put  a  new  value  on  our  national  union  and  will  recognize  the  neces- 
sity for  stronger  and  more  perfect  national  organization  to  meet  the  dangers 
which  all  of  us  see  may  easily  assail  us.  We  have  had  it  borne  in  upon  us 
that  the  most  militant  and  most  efficient  nation  of  Europe  has  outgrown  its 
territorial  limits  and  is  looking  for  other  lands  to  colonize,  into  which  it  will 
introduce  its  own  national  ideals,  its  own  national  efficiency  and  its  own 
militant  and  aggressive  spirit. 

If  it  should  happen  that  her  policies  embrace  the  acquisition  and  coloni- 
zation of  certain  parts  of  South  America,  our  Monroe  Doctrine  would  stand 
in  the  path  of  her  ambition.  Whatever  course  we  may  then  pursue — whether 
we  limit  the  application  of  this  doctrine  to  North  America  or  undertake  to 
enforce  it  as  to  the  entire  Western  Hemisphere — we  shall  be  confronted  by 
greatly  increased  international  complications  and  will  need  both  national 
power  and  national  efficiency  to  deal  with  the  conditions  which  will  be  cer- 
tain to  arise. 

Steam  and  electricity  and  science  have  done  their  work  and  have  made 
great  nations  essential  to  meet  these  mighty  forces.  The  day  of  the  small, 
weak,  and  defenseless  state  has  passed  just  as  the  day  of  the  sailing  vessel 
and  the  wooden  ship  is  gone. 

Wisdom  requires  us  to  recognize  the  change  which  these  mighty  forces 
and  these  mighty  events  have  wrought.  We  cannot  step  backward  and  dis- 
integrate ourselves  into  separate  states.  We  must  be  efficient  as  a  nation  if 
we  are  to  deal  successfully  with  our  national  emergencies. 

All  this,  I  trust,  will  not  involve  us  in  the  necessity  of  becoming  a  mili- 
tary nation,  but  it  undoubtedly  puts  upon  us  the  imperative  obligation  to  or- 
ganize 'our  industrial  life  upon  the  most  efficient  basis.  Our  resources  must 
not  only  exist,  but  they  must  be  easily  available.  We  must  realize  that  the 
agitation  must  cease  for  a  divided  sovereignty  in  respect  of  functions  which 
are  in  essence  national.  We  must  appreciate  that  efficient  transportation  is 
an  essential  condition  of  national  efficiency,  and  if  we  are  to  halt  or  weaken 
our  transportation  systems  at  state  lines,  by  permitting  the  imposition  of 
burdens  or  the  exercise  of  hurtful,  inharmonious  or  unwise  regulation,  we 
will  make  national  efficiency  impossible.  The  creation  of  transportation 
facilities  for  a  great  nation  is  not  the  work  of  a  day.  It  is  a  matter  of  slow 
and  difficult  growth  and  is  the  work  of  "forward  looking"  men,  who  must 
anticipate  conditions  and  have  facilities  in  readiness  for  use  when  they  are 
needed. 


30  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL    MAGAZINE 

Is  it  wise.for  us  to  subject  a  matter  of  such  universal  concern  and  of  such 
national  importance  to  the  uncertain  policies  and  partial  and  inadequate  out- 
look of  a  single  state?  The  Constitution  confides  it  to  Congress,  which  repre- 
sents the  general  welfare  and  common  interests  of  all  the  states.  The  evolu- 
tion of  forces,  the  progress  of  events,  and  the  growth  of  nations  emphasize 
the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  reposing  the  power  of  commercial  regulation, 
which  so  essentially  involves  the  national  interest  and  the  national  efficiency, 
in  the  hands  of  the  authority  which  is  alone  responsible  to  all  the  people 
for  the  performance  of  national  duties  and  the  preservation  of  our  national 
liberty. 

If  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the  individual  states  to  have  a  single  and 
impartial  regulation  of  interstate  commerce  and  its  instrumentalities  when 
the  question  was  the  free  introduction  into  New  York  of  the  firewood  of 
Connecticut  and  the  dairy  products  of  New  Jersey,  it  is  far  more  so  now  in 
view  of  the  influential  relationship  which  transportation  has  come  to  bear 
to  our  national  efficiency  and  to  the  liberties  and  detinies  of  our  people.  For 
we  must  remember  that  in  a  period  given  up  to  a  frenzy  for  overlegislation 
no  business  interest  dependent  for  its  stability  upon  the  public  confidence 
can  long  survive,  if  it  is  assailable,  as  the  transportation  business  now  is,  on 
so  many  sides  and  from  such  an  infinite  variety  of  sources. 

We  must  realize  that  inevitably  commerce  will  eventually  be  regulated 
exclusively  by  the  Federal  Government.  The  existing  system  of  private 
ownership  cannot  long  endure  if  it  is  to  be  permanently  subjected  to  the 
increased  burdens  and  conflicting  policies  of  a  dual,  or  of  a  many  sided,  regu- 
lation. It  must  be  put  under  one  master  with  a  harmonious  and  constructive 
policy,  or  it  will  inevitably  fail.  When  this  failure  comes  and  governmental 
ownership  takes  the  place  of  the  present  system,  the  states  will  be  deprived 
of  all  power,  and  Congress  alone  will  necessarily  regulate  every  detail  of  rail- 
road management  and  all  the  instrumentalities  of  commerce. 

It  must  also  be  realized  that  the  regulation  of  interstate  commerce  and 
its  instrumentalities  is  no  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  states,  is  no  invasion 
of  their  prerogatives,  is  in  no  sense  in  derogation  of  their  reserved  sovereignty, 
but  in  reality  is  merely  the  specific  performance  of  the  contract  which  each 
state  bargained  for  when  it  subscribed  to  the  Constitution.  It  is  their 
covenanted  right,  and  the  covenanted  right  of  each  of  them,  as  well  as  their 
highest  interest,  that  the  commerce  in  which  one  in  common  with  another 
state  is  interested  shall  be  regulated  by  the  fair  and  impartial  judgment  of 
the  authority  which  alone  springs  from  and  is  responsible  to  them  all. 

As  was  said  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  McCullough  vs.  Maryland,  4 
Wheaton,  405,  in  speaking  of  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government,  of  which 
one  is  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  states  and  with  foreign 
nations : 

"It  is  the  government  of  all ;  its  powers  are  delegated  by  all ;  it  repre- 
sents all  and  acts  for  all.  Though  any  one  state  may  be  willing  to  control 
its  operations,  no  state  is  willing  to  allow  others  to  control  them."  *  *  * 


Trespassing  Accidents 


While  the  number  of  passengers  and  continues  to  increase,  says  the  Railway 

employes  killed  by  American  railroads  Age      Gazette.        This      condition      is 

has  been  decreasing  for  several  years,  ascribed  to  the  indifference  of  legisla- 

the   most   numerous   class   of   railway  tures.    courts    and    commissions    that 

casualties,  the  fatalities  to  trespassers-  have  failed  to  pass  and  enforce  laws 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


31 


to  stop  trespassing,  while  in  the  twen- 
ty-five years  for  which  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  has  reported 
accident  statistics  the  total  of  trespas- 
sers killed  has  amounted  to  113,480,  or 
over  53  per  cent  of  all  railway  fatalities. 

Comparing  the  last  five-year  period 
for  which  the  statistics  are  available, 
1910  to  1914,  with  the  period  1890  to 
1894,  the  Gazette  shows  that  while  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  passengers 
killed  was  8  per  cent,  and  in  the  num- 
ber of  employes  killed  was  30  per  cent, 
or  far  less  than  the  increase  in  mile- 
age, volume  of  traffic  and  number  of 
employes,  the  number  of  trespassers 
killed  was  52.6  per  cent  greater  in  the 
later  period.  Comparing  the  period  of 
1910  to  1914  with  the  previous  five- 
year  period,  1905  to  1909,  the  number 
of  passengers  killed  decreased  4  per 
cent,  while  the  number  of  trespassers 
killed  was  1.7  per  cent  greater. 

"Railway  travel  has  not  for  many 
years  been  especially  hazardous  and  it 
is  becoming  safer  every  year,"  says  the 
Gazette.  "Working  on  a  railroad, 
while  properly  classed  as  a  more  or 
less  dangerous  occupation,  according 
to  what  department  an  employe  is  in, 
is  also  each  year  attended  with  a  less 
degree  of  risk.  But  trespassing  on 
railway  tracks  and  trains  has  always 
been  and  still  continues  to  be  a  very 
unsafe  practice  and  is  not  growing  less 
so. 

"While  regulating  bodies  of 'all  kinds 
have  been  very  busy  passing  laws  and 
issuing  orders  to  prevent  railway  acci- 
dents, the  railways  themselves  have 
exerted  the  most  strenuous  efforts  to 
remove  one  of  the  most  serious  blots 
on  their  record,  with  the  result  that 
fatalities  to  passengers  as  well  as  to 
employes  have  T)een  decreasing.  To 
the  most  numerous  class  of  railway 
casualties,  however,  the  fatalities  to 
trespassers,  the  same  bodies  that  have 
been  most  vigorous  in  regulating  the 
railways  have  shown  indifference;  and 
this,  in  spite  of  the  fact  the  number  of 
people  killed  while  unlawfully  using 
the  railroad  tracks  as  a  short  cut  or 
stealing  rides  on  cars  and  engines  has 


continued  to  grow  from  year  to  year. 

"For  many  years  railway  casualties 
increased  very  rapidly,  mainly  because 
the  number  of  people  exposed  to  rail- 
way accidents  of  all  kinds,  the  mileage 
of  railroads,  the  number  of  trains  run 
and  the  volume  of  traffic  handled  were 
increasing  very  rapidly.  The  fact  that 
the  increase  in  accidents  was  less  than 
the  increase  in  the  chances  of  accident 
is  frequently  overlooked. 

"If  the  improvement  in  respect  to 
the  safety  of  railway  travel  and  em- 
ployment be  largely  attributable,  as 
some  maintain,  to  regulation,  to  what 
must  we  attribute  the  continued  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  fatalities  to 
trespassers?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
reduction  in  other  accidents  is  mainly 
creditable  to  the  managements  of  the 
railways,  while  the  continued  increase 
in  fatalities  to  trespassers  is  mainly 
due  to  bad  government.  The  railways 
have  policed  their  tracks  and  arrested 
trespassers  by  thousands,  only  to  see 
them  turned  loose  because  the  judges 
have  refused  to  convict  them  and  be- 
cause local  communities  have  declined 
to  stand  the  expense  of  their  incarcera- 
tion. 

"That  the  percentage  of  increase  in 
fatalities  to  trespassers  has  not  been 
larger  is  due  rather  to  the  activities  of 
the  railways  in  keeping  up  an  agitation 
regarding  the  evils  of  trespassing  than 
to  any  assistance  they  have  received 
from  legislatures,  courts  or  commis- 
sions. 

"While  the  railways  have  succeeded 
in  reducing  their  own  accidents  in 
spite  of  the  increase  in  mileage  and 
traffic,  the  number  of  trespassers  killed 
has  almost  invariably  fluctuated  with 
those  factors.  In  other  words,  it  has 
been  governed  almost  entirely  by  the 
increase  in  the  chances  of  accident. 
The  more  railroads  there  are,  and  the 
more  trains  that  are  run,  the  greater 
is  the  hazard  that  they  will  kill  per- 
sons who  insist  in  walking  on  the 
track,  and  apparently  the  more  people 
there  are  in  the  United  States  the 
more  trespassers  there  are. 

"The  railway  accident  record  is  bad 


32 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


enough  without  being  exaggerated.  It 
has  always  been  widely  published,  and 
hence  has  received  more  than  its  proper 
share  of  attention  as  compared  with 
the  casualties  in  other  industries.  We 
sometimes  read  of  an  accident  in  which 
people  have  been  'slaughtered  like 
sheep.'  But  the  American  railway  ac- 
cident record  can  never  be  properly 
understood  nor  adequately  dealt  with 
until  some  action  is  taken  by  the  con- 
stituted authorities  to  separate  the 
sheep  from  the  goats  and  protect  the 
goats  from  the  consequences  of  their 
natural  propensity." — Peoria,  111.,  Star, 
Sept.  20.  1915. 

TRESPASSING  ACCIDENTS 

A  CCIDENTS  to  trespassers  on  rail- 
wavs  are  increasing  so  much 
faster  than  accidents  to  other  persons 
that  in  the  last  six  months  for  which 
the  statistics  are  available  the  number 
of  trespassers  killed  amounted  to  near- 
ly 60  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of 
persons  killed  by  railways.  For  the 
preceding  ten  years  fatalities  to  tres- 
passers had  constituted  only  53  per 
cent  of  the  total. 

These  facts  are  brought  out  by  the 
Railway  Age  Gazette  in  an  editorial  in 
its  current  issue,  analyzing  the  acci- 
dent bulletin  just  issued  by  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  for  Janu- 
ary, February  and  March  of  this  year, 
together  with  the  bulletin  for  the  pre- 
ceding quarter.  During  the  same 
period  only  two  passengers  were  killed 
in-  collisions.  In  other  words,,  the 
chances  of  an  accident  of  this  kind 
were  so  small  that  the  average  passen- 
ger could  travel  continuously  at  a 
speed  of  60  miles  an  hour  for  16,770 
years  before  meeting  death  in  a  collis- 
ion. 

The  Gazette  says : 

"For  the  six  months  the  two  bulle- 
tins report  a  total  of  3,662  persons 
killed  in  all  kinds  of  accidents,  and  of 
these  2,165,  or  nearly  60  per  cent,  were 
trespassers.  During  the  same  time 
only  79  passengers  and  908  employes 
were  killed,  and  only  424  persons  other 
than  trespassers  were  killed  at  grade 
crossings.  In  train  accidents  only  14 


passengers  and  106  employes  were 
killed,  while  only  one  passenger  in 
each  quarter  was  killed  in  a  collision. 
During  this  period  the  number  of  pas- 
sengers carried  one  mile  was  approxi- 
mately 17,629,000,000.  Collision  acci- 
dents are  those  the  public  hears  most 
about ;  but  at  this  rate  the  average  pas- 
senger could  travel  continuously  at  a 
speed  of  60  miles  an  hour  for  16,770 
years  before  meeting  death  in  a  collis- 
ion! 

"Our  statute  books  contain  a  mass 
of  legislation  designed  to  prevent  acci- 
dents to  passengers  and  employes  and 
at  grade  crossings,  but  the  railways 
cannot  secure  the  enforcement  of  what 
meagre  laws  there  are  to  prevent  tres- 
passing, although  in  six  months 
twenty-eight  times  as  many  trespass- 
ers as  passengers,  over  twice  as  many 
trespassers  as  employes,  and  five  times 
as  many  trespassers  as  persons  at 
grade  crossings,  were  killed.  Most  of 
our  safety  legislation  is  directed  against 
train  accidents  or  defects  of  equip- 
ment. It  seems  to  take  little  cogni- 
zance of  the  human  element.  Yet  in  six 
months  only  143  persons  were  killed 
in  train  accidents,  while  no  less  than 
3,262  or  89  per  cent  of  the  total,  were 
killed  by  falling  from  cars  or  engines, 
while  getting  on  or  off  cars  or  engines, 
or  by  being  struck  or  run  over  by  en- 
gines or  cars  at  stations,  yards,  high- 
way grade  crossings  or  at  other  places. 
In  other  words,  these  accidents  were 
largely  attributable  to  carelessness  or 
willingness  to  take  a  chance  on  the 
part  of  the  victims  themselves." 

The  only  solution  of  this  problem  is 
the  enactment  of  an  anti-trespass  law, 
providing  that  there  shall  be  no  right 
of  recovery  in  behalf  of  persons  who 
are  killed  or  injured  while  trespassing 
on  railroad  property. 

Mississippi  needs  such  a  law.  In 
a  large  majority  of  the  damage  suits, 
filed  in  the  courts  of  this  state  against 
common  carriers  the  evidence  shows 
that  the  persons  killed  or  injured  were 
trespassing  on  railroad  rights-of-way. 

Death  and  accident  claims  wherein 
the  parties  were  not  trespassers  rarely 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


33 


reach  trials  in  the  courts.  Such  claims 
are  paid  by  the  railroads  without  liti- 
gation. It  is  natural,  however,  that 
common  carriers  should  resist  damage 
suits  wherein  they  were  not  directly 
responsible. 

An  anti-trespass  law  would  give  to 
the  corporation  the  same  rights  now 
given  to  the  individual.  Furthermore, 
it  would  relieve  our  court  dockets  of  a 
class  of  very  unjust  and  expensive  liti- 
gation, the  expense  of  which  must  be 
borne  by  taxpayers. — Jackson  Daily 
News,  Sept.  28,  1915. 

DEATH  TOLL  AMONG  TRES- 
PASSERS 

PUBLICITY  Bulletin  No.  14  of  the 
•*•  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  which  has 
just  been  issued,  is  of  unusual  interest 
to  the  general  public,  since  it  t'reats  of  a 
matter  in  which  the  general  public  is 
vitally  concerned  and  which  has  long 
called  for  positive  action.  The  bulletin 
says : 

"The  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion Bulletin  for  the  fiscal  year  1913 
shows  persons,  other  than  passengers 
and  employes,  killed  on  railroad  rights- 
of-way  of  the  United  States  as  follows: 

Killed   6,846 

Injured    12,352 


Total    ..19,198 

"Every  one  of  the  above  were  killed 
or  injured  because  they  were  either 
where  they  had  no  right  to  be,  or  be- 
cause they  did  not  'Stop,  Look  and  Lis- 
ten.' 

"If  an  individual  fishes  upon,  hunts 
upon,  or  even  walks  upon  (without  au- 
thority) posted  property,  he  is  a  tres- 
passer pure  and  simple  and  as  such  may 
be  prosecuted. 

"If  an  animal  strays  onto  the  prem- 
ises of  an  individual  and  does  damage, 
the  owner,  under  the  law,  is  responsi- 
ble. 

"Railroads  post  their  rights-of-way, 
and  not  only  warn  of  the  danger  of 
trespassing,  but  plead  with  the  unau- 
thorized to  keep  off  their  tracks.  If  an 
accident  occurs,  they  have  no  recourse 


in  law,  but,  on  the  other  hand  arc  prose- 
cuted and  made  to  pay. 

"Is  this  fair?    Is  this  just? 

"Railroads  are  the  largest  tax  pay- 
ers, the  largest  employers  of  labor  and 
purchasers  of  material,  and,  as  such,  are 
the  largest  factors  in  the  circulation  of 
money,  and  in  addition  they  are  arteries 
of  trade  that  make  commerce  possible. 

"Are  they  not  entitled  to  the  same 
protection  from  legislative  bodies  that 
is  accorded  the  individual?" 

Tresspassing  upon  railroad  rights-of- 
way  has,  for  years,  been  responsible  for 
a  larger  number  of  fatalities  than  any 
other  American  custom.  The  deaths  re- 
sulting in  America  from  trespassing  on 
railroad  property  since  the  first  steam 
train  was  run  would  make  the  slaughter 
in  Europe  appear  ordinary  and  the  num- 
ber is  growing  steadily  each  year,  despite 
the  efforts  of  the  railroads  to  discour- 
age the  practice. 

There  is  no  valid  excuse  for  trespass- 
ing on  a  railroad  right-of-way.  The 
way  may  be  shorter,  or  smoother,  or 
handier,  but  that  is  no  extenuation. 
Trespass  is  none  the  less  trespass  for 
the  reason  that  the  path  is  preferable 
to  a  different  way. 

Europe  deals  with  railroad  trespassing 
so  drastically  that  accidents  of  this  sort 
are  rare,  the  very  presence  of  an  unau- 
thorized person  on  a  right-of-way  being 
sufficient  cause  for  imprisonment.  There 
is  no  reason  why  American  should  not 
emulate  Europe  and  put  a  stop  to  this 
senseless  butchery. 

It  would  mean  an  economic  saving  in 
human  life  and  a  large  financial  saving 
to  th-*  railroads. — Dubuque  Telegraph- 
Herald,  Tuesday,  September  21,  1915. 

DEMOCRAT  REPORTER  AT- 
TENDS I.  C.  LECTURE 
COURSE 

Through  the  kindness  of  Charles  Beck, 
foreman  of  the  Illinois  Central  round- 
house and  shops,  a  representative  of  The 
Democrat  was  permitted  last  Thursday 
evening  to  visit  one  of  the  busiest  places 
in  Pinckneyville  and  attend  a  motion  pic- 
ture on  wheels. 

Few  of  our  people  realize  what  the 


34 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


round  house  and  shops  mean  to  this  city. 
A  large  force  of  men  were  at  work  that 
night  in  both  departments  and  at  the  car 
shop  the  men  were  cleaning  and  making 
such  repairs  as  were  necessary  in  prepar- 
ing trie  engine  for  the  next  trip.  It  was 
all  interesting,  especially  to  one  who  was 
not  familiar,  or  had  no  knowledge  what- 
ever on  such  work. 

A  recent  improvement  in  these  quar- 
ters is  Mr.  Beck's  office  which  was  built 
a  few  months  ago  and  is  nicely  fur- 
nished. Adjacent  to  this  is  a  wash  room 
and  in  a  few  weeks  a  bath  room  and 
lockers  will  be  added  for  the  conven- 
ience of  the  men. 

Office  car  No.  4  of  the  Illinois  Central 
was  in  charge  of  J.  W.  Dodge  and  O.  L. 
Lindrew  of  Chicago.  Lectures  were  de- 
livered in  the  afternoon  and  also  that 
evening  to  a  large  class  of  trainmen  and 
enginemen  on  "Fuel  Economy"  and  "Co- 
operation." The  lectures  were  held  in 
the  car  which  is  properly  equipped  for 
the  purpose,  being  fitted  up  with  a  mo- 
tion picture  machine  and  the  lectures  and 
instructions  were  demonstrated  by  pic- 
tures, which  were  interesting  and  is  sec- 
ond to  "Elaine  and  Harriet,"  in  entertain- 
ment. Messrs.  Lindrew  and  Dodge  spend 
most  of  the  twelve  months  of  the  year 
along  the  Illinois  Central  lines  instruct- 
ing employes  and  the  work  has  proved 
very  beneficial  to  all  concerned. 

Three  years  ago  the  car  made  its  ini- 
tiatory visit  to  Pinckneyville  and  on  com- 
menting on  the  improved  conditions  ex- 
isting on  the  St.  Louis  division  and  the 
state  of  affairs  on  their  first  visit  here, 
Messrs.  Dodge  and  Lindrew  were  very 
flattering  and  Pinckneyville  should  ap- 
preciate the  words  of  praise,  as  this  city 
furnishes  more  railroad  men  than  any 
other  in  Southern  Illinois. 

While  the  writer  is  not  up  on  cylinder 
packing,  piston  rod  packing,  valve  steams, 
flues,  stay  boltism,  or  any  other  ism,  yet 
it  has  been  our  privilege  to  attend  these 
annual  meeting  and  while  we  consider  it 
an  honor  to  have  the  acquaintance  of 
such  men  as  Messrs.  Dodge  and  Lin- 
drew, and  a  real  pleasure  to  spend  an 
evening  with  the  Railroad  boys,  whom 
we  hold  in  the  highest  esteem,  we  have 
also  learned  the  proper  method  of  firing 


an  engine,  how  to  eliminate  black  smoke, 
and  cut  down  the  coal  bill,  which  is  go- 
ing some. 

The  car  left  here  Friday  morning  for 
East  St.  Louis  where  similar  meetings 
were  held. — Pinckneyville,  111.,  Demo- 
crat, Sept.  16,  1915. 

RAILROAD  COMPANY  SHOWS 
CIVIC  PRIDE 

Lack  of  civic  pride  is  manifested 
in  Tamaroa  every  day,  and  some  of 
our  citizens  who  lack  this  virtue,  and 
we  thoroughly  believe  it  a  virtue, 
"hammer"  at  a  railroad  company 
whenever  opportunity  occurs. 

If  our  citizens  took  as  much  inter- 
est in  their  property  as  the  railroad 
company  does  theirs  we  would  have 
a  town  to  which  we  could  point  with 
pride.  It  is  too  often  that  in  early 
spring  it's  a  little  bunch  of  weeds  and 
in  late  fall  a  bumper  crop  of  seeds. 
Not  so,  however,  with  the  railroad 
company.  Men  are  continually  weed- 
ing from  spring  until  fall,  keeping  the 
right-of-way  clean.  We  might  add 
right  here  that  this  is  not  necessary 
in  order  that  the  trains  might  run,  but 
it  is  evidence  of  pride  on  the  part  of 
the  company.  It  costs  lots  of  money, 
to  be  sure,  but  it  is  considered  a  good 
expenditure  by  the  so-called  "money 
grabbers." 

You,  Mr.  Citizen,  can  do  as  much 
to  improve  your  premises  and  without 
any  expense — only  a  little  time.  But 
some  of  you  evidently  value  your 
time  more  than  the  "octopus"  does  its 
money.  In  times  past  we  have  exert- 
ed our  efforts  in  an  endeavor  to  get 
our  citizens  to  improve  their  premises, 
but  met  with  little  success. 

Now  back  to  the  railroad  company. 
A  short  time  ago  this  paper  mentioned 
the  fact  that  the  people  would  appre- 
ciate a  better  crossing  over  the  tracks 
of  the  Illinois  Central  on  Main  street. 
A  marked  copy  of  the  paper  was  sent 
to  the  superintendent  of  the  company. 
The  matter  was  at  once  turned  over  to 
the  proper  department  and  as  a  result 
a  better  one  was  put  in,  and  double 
the  width  of  the  old  one.  We  are  not 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


35 


mentioning  this  matter  in  order  to 
claim  praise  for  it,  but  simply  to  show 
that  the  company  is  always  ready  and 
willing  to  do  anything  within  reason. 

As  for  other  improvements.  People 
have  always  been  able  to  arrive  at  and 
depart  from  the  depots  of  the  Illinois 
Central,  but  a  short  time  ago  the  com- 
pany decided  to  improve  them  on  this 
division  where  it  thought  improve- 
ments might  be  made,  and  a  crew  of 
carpenters  and  painters  was  sent  out. 
The  carpenters  visited  Tamaroa  last 
week  and  made  several  improvements 
at  the  local  depot,  and  as  a  result  it 
will  be  more  convenient  for  both  the 
traveling  public  and  the  employes. 

Before  condemning  the  railroad 
company  you  should  give  it  credit  for 
doing  what  you  have  failed  to  do. — 
The  Tamaroa  Times,  Tamaroa,  Illi- 
nois, Thursday,  September  23,  1915. 

FOR  COMFORT  OF  EMPLOYEES 


Illinois   Central   Railroad   Is   Erecting 
Three  Buildings  Here  at  Cost  of 
$25,000.     Will  be  Built  Substan- 
tially and  Equipped  with  Wash 
Rooms  and  Lockers 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany  is  going  to  spend  $25,000  at 
the  Freeport  shops,  in  erecting  three 
buildings  to  be  used  as  wash  rooms  by 
the  employees  of  the  shops,  the  engine- 
men,  firemen,  brakemen  and  conduc- 
tors as  they  come  in  off  their  runs. 

The  company  will  spend  at  least 
$25,000  on  the  buildings  and  equip- 
ment and  the  probabilities  are  that  the 
sum  will  exceed  this  amount.  Three 
separate  buildings  will  be  erected,  one 
between  the  round  house  and  the  ma- 
chine shop,  one  behind  the  round 
house,  and  one  in  the  car  yard.  They 
are  to  be  built  of  brick  and  substan- 
tially. They  will  be  equipped  with 
washbowls,  hot  and  cold  water,  toilets 
and  lockers,  sufficient  to  accommodate 
all  the  employees  of  the  I.  C.  in  Free- 
port. 

Work  Started  This  Morning 

The  laying  out  of  the  ground  began 


this  morning  and  the  digging  of  the 
foundation  began  at  noon.  It  will  be 
some  time  before  the  buildings  are 
completed  and  equipped,  but  it  is 
thought  that  they  will  be  ready  for  use 
by  the  first  part  of  November. 

The  interior  of  the  washrooms  will 
be  finished  in  brick  tile,  a  distance  of 
five  feet  from  the  floor.  Above  the  til- 
ing the  walls  will  be  painted  with 
white  enamel.  The  plumbing  work 
will  be  the  best  which  can  be  obtained 
and  the  highest  grade  of  material  will 
be  used. 

Each  of  the  wash  rooms  will  con- 
tain three  rows  of  washbowls,  twenty 
in  each  row,  which  will  make  sixty 
washbowls  to  each  room  or  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  to  the  three  buildings. 
Two  hundred  lockers  will  be  placed  in 
the  washrooms,  each  with  a  combina- 
tion lock,  which  only  the  user  of  the 
locker  and  the  office  clerk  will  know 
the  combination  of.  Valuables  and 
money  will  practically  be  safer  when 
locked  in  the  locker  than  they  would 
be  in  some  banks. 

The  buildings  will  be  steam  heated 
and  will  be  made  as  comfortable  as 
possible  for  the  employees.  Tin  pails 
which  have  been  used  by  some  of  the 
employees  in  the  past  in  washing  will 
be  dispensed  with  and  all  of  the  shop 
men  will  use  the  washbowls.  Soap 
will  be  furnished  by  the  railroad  com- 
pany free  of  charge. — Freeport,  111., 
Bulletin,  Sept.  21,  1915. 

HOLDING  UP  THE  RAILROADS 

Despite  the  financial  straits  of  the 
country's  large  carriers  the  government 
is  engaged  in  the  process  of  holding  from 
the  railroads  just  revenues  for  service 
performed.  On  August  16,  the  treasury 
department  and  the  postoffice  department 
issued  an  order  under  which  all  public 
moneys  and  securities  carried  between 
the  treasury,  the  subtreasuries  and  the 
banks  are  to  be  handled  as  registered 
mail,  instead  of  as  express.  Official 
statements  have  it  that  the  express  com- 
panies earned  $500,000  annually  for  this 
service.  Of  this  sum  $250,000  was  paid 
to  the  railroads  for  transportation  facil- 
ities. Under  the  new  order  both  the  ex- 


36 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


press  companies  and  the  railroads  will  be 
deprived  of  the  revenue,  but  the  rail- 
roads, unlike  the  express  companies,  will 
not  be  relieve4  of  the  necessity  of  per- 
forming the  service. 

The  treasury  department  looks  upon 
the  new  method  of  handling  the  $2,000,- 
000,000  annual  shipments  of  money  as  a 
saving,  in  as  much  as  it  will  receive  the 
privilege  of  free  postage  and  free  regis- 
tration from  the  postoffice  department. 
The  change  may  be  summed  up  thus :  To 
force  the  railroads  to  render  service  for 
practically  nothing;  to  separate  the  in- 
surance risk  in  transit  from  the  general 
transportation  duty  and  turn  it  over  to 
other  interests ;  to  transfer  the  duties  in- 
volved in  transportation  from  the  express 
companies  to  the  postoffice  department. 

It  is  clear  that  the  saving  to  the  treas- 
ury department  will  be  partially,  if  not 
wholly  offset  by  the  new  expense  in- 
volved in  transportation  to  the  postoffice 
department,  and  the  insurance  rate 
changes.  Thus,  with  the  exception  of  a 
change  in  agencies,  the  only  important 
result  of  the  new  order  is  a  saving  to  the 
government  by  the  refusal  to  pay  the 
railroads  for  actual  service  in  transporta- 
tion. 

The  new  order  is  unfair  to  say  the 
least.  It  may  be  more  than  unfair  after 
it  has  been  in  operation  for  a  time.  And 
the  government  which  expects  fair  serv- 
ice, fair  dealings  and  fair  business  man- 
agement from,  and  proposes  a  fair  profit 
to  the  stockholders  of  railroads  should 
be  fair  in  the  payment  to  the  railroads  of 
a  just  rate  for  service  rendered.  This 
is  one  of  the  inequalities  of  the  present 
railroad-government  system  with  which 
the  next  congress  will  have  to  deal.  And 
it  is  time  to  start  talking  about  the  matter 
now. — Editorial,  Jackson,  Miss.,  News, 
Sept.  2,  1915. 

"SANITARY   FIRST"   AS  WELL 

AS  "SAFETY  FIRST"  TO 

BE  OBSERVED 

C  UCH  orders  as  "nail  the  window 
^  open"  and  "clean  up  and  keep  clean" 
are  being  dinned  into  the  ears  and 
flashed  before  the  eyes  of  the  employes 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad. 

A  campaign  of  "sanitary  first,"  a  twin 


sister  of  "safety  first,"  has  been  pro- 
claimed by  officials  of  the  road.  Offi- 
cers along  the  line  have  a  set  of  instruc- 
tions and  placards  to  be  posted  in  con- 
spicuous places  for  the  benefit  of  em- 
ployes and  the  public  as  well. 

A  competent  health  officer  or  sanitari- 
an will  inspect  all  waiting  rooms,  ticket 
and  general  offices  to  see  that  they  are 
properly  ventilated  and  kept  clean. 

All  food  served  in  either  dining  cars, 
restaurants  or  lunch  rooms  will  be  reg- 
ularly inspected  in  order  that  purity  and 
cleanliness  may  be  maintained.  Cream, 
milk  and  butter  will  be  tested.  Flies 
will  be  swatted. 

Water  and  ice  used  on  passenger 
trains  and  in  stations  will  be  regularly 
examined  and  water  coolers  will  be  ster- 
ilized with  live  steam  once  a  week. 

"For  the  protection  of  the  traveling 
public  as  well  as  for  employes  them- 
selves," says  the  notice,  "employes  on 
dining  cars  who  come  in  contact  with 
passengers  will  be  required  to  submit 
to  frequent  examinations  by  competent 
physicians  to  see  that  they  are  absolute- 
ly free  from  any  communicable  disease. 

All  employes  are  instructed  that  stand- 
ing water  is  a  breeding  place  of  mos- 
quitoes and  garbage  a  breeding  place  for 
flies.  It  is  also  set  forth  that  the  rat 
is  a  medium  through  which  disease  is 
spread. 

A  competent  medical  and  hospital  or- 
ganization will  at  all  times  be  available 
to  employes. 

This  campaign  is  the  opening  gun  of 
a  sanitary  propaganda  to  be  launched 
jointly  by  railroads  of  the  United  States. 
-Elizabeth,  111.,  News,  Sept.  22.  1915. 

I.  C.  DRAWBRIDGE  LONGEST  IN 

WORLD 
Engineering  Books  Declare  Span  Over 

Missouri  is  Longer  than  Others 
PLENTY  OF  ROOM  FOR  BOATS 
Motor    Company    Bridge    for    Street 
Cars,  Automobiles  and  Foot  Pas- 
sengers and  Union  Pacific 

Handle  Many  People 
"VTDT  many  Council  Bluffs  people  are 
^  aware    that    the    longest    swinging 
span  drawbridge  in  the  world  is  the  Illi- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


37 


nois  Central  bridge  between  this  city  and 
Omaha.  This  is  not  a  misstatement, 
nor  is  it  a  fabrication  intended  merely 
to  boost  Council  Bluffs  and  the  things 
that  are  hers.  Consult  any  treatise  on 
bridge  engineering  and  learn  that  the 
"Interstate"  bridge,  as  the  Illinois  struc- 
ture is  sometimes  .called,  is  the  longest 
single  swinging  draw  span  in  the  world. 

The  Illinois  Central  span  is  520  feet 
long,  pivoted  on  a  pier  which  leaves  a 
clear  fairway  on  either  side  of  over  200 
feet  for  passage  of  river  boats.  The 
ordinary  river  steamer  is  seldom  more 
than  forty  feet  beam,  so  it  would  be  pos- 
sible for  two  boats  to  pass  safely  in  eith- 
er gap  of  the  open  draw,  but  for  obvious 
reasons  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  re- 
quire this  risk  of  bad  steering  in  the 
treacherous  current  of  the  Missouri.  But 
there's  plenty  of  room  for  a  single  boat 
to  drift  through  sidewise  if  she  want- 
ed to. 

The  next  longest  similar  span,  accord- 
ing to  the  engineering  books,  is  that  of 
the  Thames  river  drawbridge  at  New 
London.  Conn.,  which  has  a  swivel  span 
of  503  feet.  The  third  longest  span  of 
its  kind  in  the  world  is  the  Arthur  Kill 
bridge  that  connects  Staten  Island  with 
the  New  Jersey  mainland,  which  is  496^ 
feet  long. — Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  Non- 
pareil, Sept.  26,  1915. 

POPULAR  ROUTE  SHORTENS 

ITS  SCHEDULE  FOR 

WINTER 

For  the  convenience  of  patrons,  an 
improvement  has  been  made  by  the  Il- 
linois Central  in  the  schedule  of  the 
Seminole  Limited,  running  between  Chi- 
cago and  Jacksonville,  which  will  go  into 
effect  on  October  17,  the  official  opening 
of  the  tourist  season. 

On  the  present  schedule  the  Seminole 
Limited  leaves  Chicago  daily  at  8  :15  p. 
m.  and  arrives  in  Jacksonville  at  7 :30 
a.  m.  on  the  second  morning,  and  leaves 
Jacksonville  at  9  p.  m.  and  arrives  in 
Chicago  at  8 :20  a.  m.  on  the  second 
morning. 

With  the  revision,  the  trains  will 
leave  Chicago  at  10:15  p.  m.  and  arrive 
in  Jacksonville  at  8  a.  m.  on  the  second 


morning.  Thus  the  running  time  will  not 
only  be  quickened  over  any  previous 
schedule,  but  the  later  departure  from 
Chicago  will  afford  many  convenient 
connections  at  that  point  with  lines  mak- 
ing evening  arrivals  that  have  heretofore 
not  been  made.  Corresponding  reduc- 
tion of  time  is  made  between  Jackson- 
ville and  St.  Louis. — Jacksonville,  Fla., 
Metropolis,  Sept.  26,  1915. 

EDITORIAL 

Giant  grain  elevators  and  the  modern 
facilities  for  the  handling  of  great  quan- 
tities of  grain  by  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  at  New  Orleans  are  given  con- 
siderable space  in  the  August  issue  of 
the  Trade  Index,  published  at  New  Or- 
leans. The  Illinois  Central  is  one  of 
the  big  roads  going  into  New  Orleans 
and  no  doubt  handles  more  grain  than 
any  other  railroad  in  the  United  States. 
Seven  ocean  going  freighters  can  line 
up  at  one  and  the  same  time  and  be  load- 
ed from  the  many  pipes  which  extend 
out  from  the  great  steel  "feed"  pipe 
which,  in  turn,  is  supplied  from  the  ele- 
vators. There  are  three  elevators,  two 
located  at  Stuyvesant  docks  and  one  at 
Howard  and  Perdido  streets.  The  two 
first  mentioned  have  a  capacity  of  2,- 
500,000  bushels  of  grain  each.  Each  el- 
evator has  a  delivering  capacity  of  80,- 
000  bushels  per  hour.  For  the  year  end- 
ing June  30,  according  to  the  New  Or- 
leans board  of  trade  figures,  the  I.  C. 
handled  37,450,000  bushels  of  grain 
through  the  port  of  New  Orleans. — Okla 
City,  Oklahoma,  Sept.  26,  1915. 

Railroad  Hospital  Nearing  Com- 
pletion 

A  big  stone  and  tapestry  brick  build- 
ing, now  nearing  completion  in  Chicago, 
is  the  central  feature  of  a  campaign  of 
efficiency  and  conservation  which  the  Il- 
linois Central  has  been  carrying  on 
among  its  60,000  employes  for  about  a 
year.  The  new  building  is  the  central 
hospital  of  the  railroad  system.  Stand- 
ing on  a  500-foot  stretch  of  greensward 
and  facing  Jackson  Park,  pains  have 
besn  taken  to  make  it  architecturally 
harmonious  with  its  surroundings.  It  is 


38 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


three  stories  and  basement  in  height  and 
a  great  solarium  covers  the  entire  roof. 
The  company  has  about  10,000  em- 
ployes in  the  district  adjacent  to  Chica- 
go and  the  hospital  is  primarily  for  the 
treatment  of  such  of  them  as  may  be 
injured  or  who  may  become  ill  from  any 
cause.  Men  injured  in  the  course  of 
their  work  are  treated  free  of  charge. — 
Waterloo,  Iowa,  Courier,  Sept.  24,  1915. 

SERIOUSLY  INJURED 

Ed  Peirson,  who  resides  at  Cobden, 
made  an  attempt  to  mount  an  I.  C.  south- 
bound freight  near  Makanda  yesterday 
afternoon  but  while  doing  so  came  in  con- 
tact with  the  superstructure  of  a  bridge* 
and  fell  to  the  track  and  was  caught  by 
the  wheels.  Several  of  the  cars  passed 
over  his  right  foot  above  the  ankle.  Ac- 
cidents such  as  this  are  absolutely  un- 
necessary and  are  the  result  of  trespass- 
ing on  the  railroad  property.  There 
would  be  less  accidents  and  fewer  per- 
sons minus  limbs,  if  this  habit  of  beating 
the  way  on  the  trains  could  be  stopped.— 
Daily  Free  Press,  Carbondale,  111. 

NEW  ISSUE  OF  I.  C.  MAGAZINE 
RECEIVED. 

The  September  number  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Magazine,  a  monthly  published 


in  the  interest  of  the  company  and  its 
45,000  employes,  is  just  off  the  press.  It 
is  a  fine  piece  of  work  both  typographi- 
cally and  otherwise. 

Among  the  many  interesting  contribu- 
tions is  "The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Lines  During  the  Civil  Conflict, 
1861-5,"  in  which  the  late  General  Ma- 
son Brayman,  former  governor  of  Ida- 
ho, is  the  principal  figure.  The  two  de- 
partments, "Meritorious  Service"  and 
"Division  News,"  are  of  especial  inter- 
est to  employes.  Several  of  the  Water- 
loo employes  are  mentioned  in  the  divi- 
sion news. — Waterloo,  la.,  Courier,  Sept. 
23,  1915. 

LONG  PASSENGER  TRAIN 

One  of  the  longest  passenger  trains 
in  the  history  of  the  Illinois  Central 
passed  through  Kankakee  this  morn- 
ing. The  train,  which  was  composed 
of  24  Pullmans,  was  a  special  convey- 
ing a  large  number  of  Republican  pol- 
iticians from  Chicago  to  the  "Love 
Feast"  which  is  scheduled  for  today 
at  the  state  fair  at  Springfield.  Mayor 
Thompson  of  Chicago  was  a  passenger 
on  the  train. 

The  special  passed  through  Kanka- 
kee at  1 :40  this  morning  and  arrived 
at  Springfield  at  6  :30. — Kankakee  Eve- 
ning Democrat,  Sept.  22,  1915. 


Indianapolis,    the   Center  of   Population   and    'The 

Heart  of  Trade,"  Is   America's   Largest   City 

Not  Situated  on  Navigable  Water 


T  T  is  named  "The  Heart  of  Trade"  be- 
1  cause  it  is  the  center  into  and  out  of 
which  large  volumes  of  commodities,  the 
life-blood  of  commerce  with  thousands 
of  communities.  It  is  renowned  as  a 
city  of  commerce  and  culture.  It  is  the 
capital  of  the  state  of  Indiana,  the 
world's  greatest  interurban  center,  an 
important  manufacturing  city,  a  widely 
recognized  jobbing  market,  a  big  agri- 
cultural center,  a  great  convention  city, 
a  most  desirable  residential  community. 

The  official  census  figures  prove  the 
rapid  development  and  growth  of  Indi- 
anapolis. In  1890  the  population  was 
105,000;  in  1900,  165,000;  in  1910,  233,- 
650 ;  in  1915,  it  had  easily  reached  280,- 
000.  The  next  government  census  be- 
yond doubt  will  find  this  "pivot  city"  in 
the  300,000  class. 

A  thousand  industrial  establishments 
mark  the  importance  of  the  Hoosier  cap-  . 
ital  as  a  manufacturing  city.  It  possess- 
es all  the  six  essentials  of  successful 
manufacturing — shipping  facilities,  pow- 
er, labor,  raw  material,  market  and  liv- 
ing conditions.  Not  only  does  it  possess 
these  six  main  factors  upon  which  in- 
dustrial success  depends,  but  it  possesses 
them  in  high  degree. 

Within  a  few  miles  of  the  city  are 
great  fields  supplying  Indiana  coal, 
a  fuel  that  is  hot  and  cheap.  The  Illi- 


nois Central  and  other  lines  tap  these 
fields.  In  the  list  of  twenty-eight  coal- 
producing  states,  Indiana  is  fifth  in  total 
quantity  mined.  Coal  can  be  bought  at 
85c  to  90c  per  ton,  the  freight  rate  to 
Indianapolis  being  50c  per  ton.  The 
geologists  of  the  state  have  estimated 
that  there  remain  50,000,000,000  tons  of 
coal.  At  the  present  rate  of  consump- 
tion, this  big  resource  is  sufficient  to 
last  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Two  electric  power  companies — The 
Indianapolis  Light  &  Heat  Company  and 
the  Merchants  Heat  &  Light  Company 
— furnish  current  under  rates  fixed  by 
the  Indiana  Public  Service  Commission. 
Indianapolis  is  noted  for  the  efficiency  of 
its  power  plants.  The  city  is  known  far 
and  wide  as  "the  cheap-gas  city  of 
America."  Artificial  gas  is  furnished  to 
the  small  consumer  at  55c  per  thousand 
feet,  the  price  decreasing  for  larger  con- 
sumption. Large  quantities  of  coke  are 
produced. 

Indianapolis  is  fortunate  in  its  water 
supply,  which  in  point  of  purity  is  not 
surpassed  anywhere  in  the  country. 
Water  comes  from  White  River,  Fall 
Creek  and  from  many  deep  rock  wells. 
The  filtration  plant  has  attracted  wide 
spread  attention.  Experts  from  all 
parts  of  the  United  States  and  even 
from  other  countries  come  to  Indianap- 


39 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


41 


olis  to  inspect  this  plant.  The  settling 
basin  covering  fifteen  and  one-half  acres 
holds  forty-five  million  gallons  and  is  so 
baffled  that  the  water  must  travel  5,100 
feet  from  inflow  to  outflow. 

The  pumping  stations  of  the  water 
company  were  built  with  the  idea  of 
beauty  as  well  as  utility.  These  stations, 
which  draw  their  supply  from  the  filtra- 
tion plant  and  from  the  deep  wells,  are 
the  Riverside  station,  with  a  daily  ca- 
pacity of  eighty-six  million  gallons;  the 
Washington  Street  station,  fourteen  mil- 
lion gallons ;  a  twelve-million  gallon  sta- 
tion northeast  of  the  State  Fair  grounds ; 
the  Broad  Ripple  station  and  the  boost- 
er station  at  Rural  and  Michigan 
streets. 

The  quality  of  the  water  supply  is  be- 
ing constantly  tested.  More  than  six- 
teen thousand  tests  are  made  in  a  year. 
Typhoid  fever  has  been  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  and  health  conditions  in  gen- 
eral are  very  good. 

Facilities  for  Indianapolis  shipping 
are  the  best  in  the  country.  Seventeen 
steam  carriers  and  thirteen  electric  car- 
riers, reaching  out  toward  every  point 
of  the  compass,  afford  a  transportation 
ability  equal  to  any  in  the  world.  The 
close  network  of  other  railroads  con- 
necting with  the  direct  lines  of  Indian- 
apolis, puts  within  easy  and  rapid  reach 
of  the  city  almost  every  town,  village 
and  hamlet  in  the  wide  expanse  of  ter- 
ritory embracing  Indiana,  Michigan, 
Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Illinois.  All  this  is 
the  wholesale  trade  zone  of  Indianapolis. 
The  trade  of  many  jobbers  and  manu- 
facturers of  the  city  extends  far  beyond 
the  limits  of  this  territory  and  practi- 
cally includes  world-wide  distribution. 
While  the  manufactures  reach  out  broad- 
cast, the  wholesalers,  as  a  general  rule, 
are  not  trying  to  cover  the  entire  United 
States,  but  are  concentrating  on  terri- 
tory directly  tributary  to  Indianapolis. 
This  concentration,  accompanied  by 
close  attention  to  the  needs  of  this  trade 
zone,  has  brought  about  the  great  up- 
building of  service  within  the  territory, 
so  that  today  this  territory  possesses  un- 
surpassed advantages  from  the  stand- 
points of  being  able  to  buy  what  is  de- 


sired and  having  it  delivered  with  the 
greatest  possible  dispatch. 

The  steam  railroads  maintain  two 
hundred  and  forty-eight  different  local 
and  package  cars,  and  in  addition  thereto 
Indianapolis  has  the  ability  to  reach  hun- 
dreds of  points  expeditiously  by  means 
of  service  on  electric  lines.  To  nearly 
two-thirds  of  its  trade  territory  Indi- 
anapolis is  able  to  give  express  serv- 
ice at  advantageous  rates. 

Indianapolis  freight  houses  are  prac- 
tically at  the  back  door  of  the  whole- 
salers. This  is  a  big  asset  to  the  city  as 
a  wholesale  market.  It  is  an  important 
factor  in  giving  the  retailer  two  things 
he  desires — quick  shipments  and  econo- 
my. Nearly  every  shipping  house  in  In- 
dianapolis is  within  four  or  five  blocks 
of  all  the  freight  houses.  Because  of 
the  short  haul,  the  shipment  is  deliv- 
ered at  the  freight  house  in  a  short  time 
and  at  a  very  low  drayage  cost.  The 
superiority  of  Indianapolis  in  this  re- 
spect over  many  other  market  cities  that 
necessarily  must  spend  many  thousands 
of  dollars  more  each  year  to  care  for 
the  same  volume  of  business,  is  of  ines- 
timable value. 

The  tonnage  handled  by  the  steam 
lines  of  Indianapolis  is  about  15,000,000 
tons  annually.  The  steam  roads  handle 
a  million  and  a  half  freight  cars  at  In- 
dianapolis during  a  year  and  a  half  mil- 
lion passenger  cars. 

In  1913  the  thirteen  electric  interur- 
ban  lines  carried  7,012,763  passengers 
to  and  from  the  city,  an  average  of  19,- 
213  a  day ;  713  passenger  cars  being  han- 
dled each  day  in  the  largest  and  most 
pretentious  interurban  station  in  the 
world.  Freight  cars  to  the  number  of 
23,501  during  the  year  also  were  han- 
dled by  these  lines. 

The  geographical  center  of  the  vast 
territory  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Rocky  mountains  and  from  the 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  Indianapolis  has  re- 
mained for  several  decades  the  largest 
city  of  the  country  in  close  proximity 
to  the  center  of  population.  The  United 
States  government  has  officially  deter- 
mined that  the  center  of  population  is 
at  Bloomington,  on  the  Illinois  Central 


Columbia  Club 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


43 


and  Monon  railways,  about  fifty  miles 
from  Indianapolis.  Because  of  its  ad- 
vantage as  the  center  of  population  it  is 
evident  that  from  the  standpoint  of  con- 
venience and  dispatch  in  transmitting 
mail,  from  the  standpoint  of  rapid  and 
economical  handling  of  commerce,  and 
from  the  standpoint  of  desirability  as  a 
convention  city,  Indianapolis  is  first 
among  all  the  cities  of  the  land.  Nearly 
half  the  population  of  the  country  can 
reach  Indianapolis  over  night. 

The  service  of  many  modern  passen- 
ger trains  on  the  steam  lines  and  on  the 
electric  lines  has  put  Indianapolis  to  the 
front  as  a  great  retail  city.  More  than 
three-fourths  of  the  population  of  In- 
diana gets  into  Indianapolis  some  time 
during  the  year  for  retail  shopping. 

Indianapolis  has  the  highest  priced 
real  estate  of  any  city  of  similar  size  in 
the  world,  this  being  the  real  estate  in 
its  central  down-town  retail  district. 

No  city  has  within  its  gates  all  forms 
of  raw  material  used  in  manufacturing. 
Indianapolis  has  its  full  share.  Its  cen- 
tral location  and  excellent  shipping  fa- 
cilities solve  the  problem  of  raw  mate- 
rial. As  Indianapolis  is  nearer  than  any 
other  city  to  every  possible  customer  in 
the  country,  it  also  is  nearest  to  all  ex- 
isting raw  materials. 

There  is  an  ample  labor  supply  of  di- 
versified character.  Industrial  peace  is 
less  disturbed  "than  in  any  other  large 
factory  center  in  the  country.  More 
members  of  the  working  class  own  their 
own  homes  in  Indianapolis  than  in  any 
other  American  city  of  its  class. 

The  city  is  almost  without  slums. 
There  is  a  clean,  wholesome  atmos- 
phere; there  is  room  for  life,  as  well 
as  industry,  to  grow.  The  schools, 
churches,  social  and  business  fabric  of 
the  city  take  high  rank.  The  city  streets 
are  broad,  clean,  well  paved  and  shady. 
Indianapolis  has  mapped  out  for  itself 
one  of  the  most  ambitious  programs  of 
park  and  boulevard  development  in  the 
country.  Great  strides  have  already 
been  taken  towards  the  completion  of 
this  magnificent  system.  Nearly  three 
thousand  acres  of  park  grounds,  most  of 


this  in  public  parks,  are  available  for 
the  use  of  the  people.  There  are  many 
handsome  bridges  across  White  river, 
Fall  Creek  and  Pleasant  Run.  The  boul- 
evard development  plan  includes  beau- 
tiful roadways  along  all  the  streams  in 
the  city.  A  boulevard  twelve  miles  in 
length  is  to  connect  Fort  Benjamin  Har- 
rison with  the  park  and  boulevard  sys- 
tem. 

The  city  covers,  thirty-eight  square 
miles,  has  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
of  permanently  improved  streets  and 
three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  sewers. 
There  are  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
miles  of  city  electric  car  lines  operating 
over  double  tracks,  with  the  four  cent 
fare  and  universal  transfer.  Building 
permits  for  several  years  have  averaged 
over  $9,000,000  a  year.  Real  estate 
transfers  run  over  $25,000,000  a  year. 

In  the  city  are  fifty  thousand  tele- 
phones with  long  distance  connection 
with  city,  town  and  farm.  There  are 
seventy-eight  graded  and  three  high 
school  buildings,  valued  at  more  than 
$5,000,000. 

In  the  John  Herron  Art  Institute  the 
city  has  one  of  the  noted  art  museums 
of  the  United  States.  In  Fort  Benjamin 
Harrison  it  has  one  of  the  largest  United 
States  army  posts  in  the  country.  It  has 
one  of  the  largest  city  market  houses 
of  the  central  west,  supplying  the  city 
with  the  best  products  of  the  country. 
The  United  States  Court  House  and 
Post  Office,  erected  at  a  cost  of  nearly 
$3,000,000,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
that  Uncle  Sam  has  constructed.  The 
City  Hall  is  new,  modern  and  beautiful. 
The  State  House,  the  erection  of  which 
consumed  nearly  ten  years,  is  an  impres- 
sive structure.  A  new  city  library  is 
now  being  built  at  a  cost  of  $500,000; 
there  being  numerous  branch  libraries 
throughout  the  city.  The  reference  li- 
brary in  the  Indiana  State  House  is  one 
of  the  largest  and  best  organized  to  be 
found  in  any  American  commonwealth. 

Indianapolis  is  the  seat  of  the  Indi- 
ana School  for  the  Blind,  the  Indiana 
School  for  the  Deaf,  Central  Hospital 
for  the  Insane  and  the  Indiana  Wom- 
an's prison.  The  Indiana  Girls'  School 


44 


is  situated  at  Clermont,  only  a  few  miles 
from  the  city  limits. 

The  Indiana  State  Fair,  .one  of  the 
best  known  state  expositions  of  the  coun- 
try, is  held  in  Indianapolis  each  year, 
drawing  a  total  attendance  of  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand.  At  the  fair 
grounds  is  one  of  the  best  race  tracks 
in  the  country.  The  Coliseum,  in  which 
the  famous  Indiana  horse  show  is  held, 
was  erected  at  a  cost  of  more  than 
$100,000,  and  is  one  of  the  finest  struc- 
tures of  its  kind  in  the  country. 

In  the  circle,  which  is  in  the  heart  of 
the  downtown  district,  is  the  Indiana 
Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument.  This 
is  the  finest  monument  ever  erected  in 
the  world  in  honor  of  the  men  who  have 
participated  in  war.  At  the  approaches 
to  the  monument  are  statues  of  four 
great  Indiana  men  of  war  times,  George 
Rogers  Clark,  of  fame  in  Indian  war- 
fare; William  Henry  Harrison,  con- 
queror of  the  Indian  confederacy,  and 
later  President  of  the  United  States; 
James  Whitcomb,  governor  of  Indiana 
during  the  Mexican  war,  and  Oliver 
P.  Morton,  Indiana's  famous  war  gov- 
ernor during  the  days  of  the  rebellion. 

Among  the  other  statues  in  the  city 
are  those  of  ex-President  Benjamin 
Harrison  and  former  Vice-President 
Schuyler  Col  fax  in  University  Square; 
those  of  Governor  Morton  and  former 
Vice-President  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  in 
the  State  House  grounds  and  the  statue 
of  General  Lawton  in  the  county  court 
house  grounds. 

The  Indianapolis  Motor  Speedway  is 
the  world's  greatest  race  course.  Here 
are  held  the  annual  five  hundred  mile 
international  races  each  Memorial  Day. 
The  largest  paid  admission  to  any  sport- 
ing event  in  the  history  of  the  world  has 
been  at  this  speedway. 

There  are  several  colleges  in  the  city, 
in  addition  to  schools  of  music,  art, 
law,  dentistry,  etc.  The  Medical  De- 
partment of  Indiana  University  is  sit- 
uated in  Indianapolis,  as  is  also  the  new 
Robert  W.  Long  Hospital,  conducted 
under  the  auspices  of  the  University 
School  of  Medicine.  The  other  hospital 
facilities  of  the  city  are  new  and  thor- 


oughly up-to-date.  Conspicuous  among 
these  are  the  St.  Vincent  Hospital  and 
the  Methodist  Hospital.  Indianapolis 
also  has  recently  greatly  enlarged  the 
City  Hospital. 

The  city  is  unique  in  its  handsome 
lodge  buildings.  Here  are  found  the 
thirteen-story  building  of  the  Odd  Fel- 
lows Grand  Lodge  of  Indiana;  the  elev- 
en-story Indiana  Pythian  Building;  the 
magnificent  Murat  Temple  of  the  Shrin- 
ers ;  the  great  York  Rite  Temple  of  Ma- 
sonry famous  throughout  America;  the 
headquarters  Castle  of  the  Knights  and 
Ladies  of  Honor;  the  very  attractive 
club  house  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus 
and  the  brand  new,  pretentious  building 
of  the  Eagles,  and  many  other  lodge 
structures  of  which  the  city  is  proud. 
Although  the  Scottish  Rite  Order  pos- 
sesses a  large  and  valuable  Temple, 
work  is  soon  to  be  begun  on  a  great  Tem- 
ple, the  most  elaborate  yet  erected  in  any 
Valley  of  the  Scottish  Rite  in  the  world. 
The  Red  Men  have  acquired  ground 
and  are  soon  to  begin  building  a  hand- 
some state  building.  The  Elks  have 
completed  plans  for  one  of  the  most 
elaborate  club  houses  possessed  by  that 
order  in  the  country. 

The  Indianapolis  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce has  an  individual  membership  of 
more  than  seventeen  hundred  and  in  ad- 
dition therto  has  more  than  three  hun- 
dred firm  or  division  memberships.  It 
is  the  result  of  the  consolidation  in  1913 
of  the  Indianapolis  Commercial  Club, 
the  Indianapolis  Freight  Bureau,  the  In- 
dianapolis Trade  Association,  the  Man- 
ufacturers' Association  and  the  Adscript 
Club. 

The  Advertisers'  Club  of  the  Cham- 
ber recently  won  international  fame  by 
winning  the  Truth  Trophy  awarded  by 
the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of  the 
world,  for  the  most  effective  work  done 
by  any  organization  in  the  past  year 
in  suppressing  fraudulent  advertising. 

In  Indianapolis  there  is  also  a  Board 
of  Trade.  The  best  known  political-so- 
cial clubs  are  the  Columbia  Club  and 
the  Marion  Club,  both  Republican,  and 
the  Indiana  Democratic  Club,  these  three 
having  handsome  club  houses.  Other 


Manual  Trainin 


Grammar  School 


Shomidge  High  School 


46 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


clubs  with  their  own  buildings  are  the 
University  Club,  German  House,  the  In- 
dianapolis Maennerchor,  the  Independ- 
ent Turnverein,  Canoe  Club  and  the 
Country  Club.  The  city  has  a  very  ac- 
tive Rotary  Club,  a  Jovian  League,  a 
wide  awake  Hoosier  Motor  Club  and 
numerous  other  organizations. 

Indiana  today  is  recognized  as  the  lit- 
erary center  of  America.  Indianapolis 
is  recognized  as  the  center  of  that  In- 
diana literature.  It  is  the  home  of 
James  Whitcomb  Riley,  the  great  poet 
whose  birthday  October  7  was  celebrated 
elaborately  by  the  citizens  of  the  state. 
It  is  'the  home  of  Meredith  Nicholson, 
Booth  Tarkington  and  other  geniuses  of 
literature. 

Indiana  has  contributed  far  more  than 
her  share  of  public  men  famed  through- 
out the  nation.  It  was  the  home  of 
Benjamin  Harrison,  President  of  the 
United  States;  the  home  of  Thomas  A. 
Hendricks,  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  the  home  of  Charles  W. 
Fairbanks,  formerly  Vice-President,  and 
of  Thomas  R.  Marshall,  now  Vice- 
Pr^sident.  It  has  produced  many  other 
men  powerful  in  the  national  councils. 

The  city  is  one  of  the  big  live  stock 
markets  of  the  world.  Last  year  $60,- 
000,000  worth  of  live  stock  was  han- 
dled in  the  extensive  yards  in  the  south- 
western limits  of  the  city.  More  than 
two  million  hogs  a  year  are  brought  into 
these  yards.  The  city  is  also  well 
known  as  a  horse,  cattle  and  sheep  mar- 
ket. The  largest  independent  pork- 
packing  plant  in  the  county  is  situated 
in  Indianapolis.  It  is  also  the  largest 
hominy  producing  center  of  the  country ; 
the  largest  center  for  quartered  oak 
veneer  in  the  world ;  a  famous  furniture 
city;  the  home  of  the  largest  buggy 
works;  the  second  city  in  the  produc- 
tion of  the  automobile;  a  Well  known 
production  center  for  men's  clothing,  in- 
cluding work  clothes;  the  home  of  the 
largest  mill  machinery  plant  and  the 
largest  davenport  factory.  Indianapolis 
also  has  many  other  large  industrial  in- 
stitutions. It  is  more  conspicuous,  how- 
ever, for  the  great  diversity  of  it's  pro- 
duction. 


As  an  illustration  of  the  kind  of  in- 
dustries Indianapolis  has,  may  be  men- 
tioned the  Talge  Mahogany  Company, 
whose  traffic  is  familiar  to  Illinois  Cen- 
tral men.  This  company  imports  for  its 
use  entire  shiploads  of  mahogany  from 
Africa.  This  is  unloaded  at  New  Or- 
leans and  brought  to  Indianapolis  over 
the  Illinois  Central,  a  shipload  contain- 
ing from  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
to  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  car- 
loads. 

A  great  factor  in  the  development  of 
industrial  Indianapolis  has  been  the 
Union  Railway,  a  belt  line  circling 
around  three  sides  of  the  city  and  afford- 
ing connections  with  all  the  steam  car- 
riers entering  the  city. .  This  belt  affords 
the  means  of  rapid  interchange  of  traffic. 
Along  it  are  located  hundreds  of  manu- 
facturing plants.  In  part,  the  belt  has 
a  four-track  system  with  a  double  track 
along  the  remainder.  Indianapolis  was 
a  pioneer  in  the  country  in  constructing 
the  belt  system.  The  big  advantage  then 
possessed  remains  with  it  yet,  for  Indi- 
anapolis has  never  lacked  in  the  impetus 
given  its  industrial  life  by  the  possession 
of  this  great  facility.  The  Union  Rail- 
way also  operates  the  passenger  termi- 
nal facilities,  all  passenger  trains  arriv- 
ing in  and  departing  from  the  Union 
Railway  station.  It  may  be  pointed  out 
that  Indianapolis  is  a  pioneer  in  the 
country  in  centralizing  its  passenger 
traffic  at  one  point. 

In  addition  to  having  still  available 
many  excellent  sites  for  factories  along 
the  Belt  Railway  and  connecting  carri- 
ers, Indianapolis  has  three  industrial 
suburbs,  all  of  which  are  well  known. 
At  Mars  Hill,  operated  by  the  Greater 
Indianapolis  Industrial  Association  com- 
posed of  public  spirited  business  men, 
free  factory  sites  are  offered.  As  an 
indication  of  the  progressiveness  and 
the  completeness  with  which  it  endeav- 
ors to  take  care  of  its  industries,  it 
might  be  cited  that  the  big  Mars  Hill 
tract  was  laid  out,  switching  system  in- 
stalled, water  service  and  power  serv- 
ice furnished  to  the  suburb  and  street 
car  extensions  run  to  this  tract  before 
industries  were  invited  to  take  advan- 


48 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tage  of  the  offer  Indianapolis  was  mak- 
ing. 

At  Beech  Grove,  another  industrial 
suburb,  where  may  be  found  the  shops 
of  the  New  York  Central  and  other  in- 
dustries, there  also  are  ample  facilities 
for  taking  care  of  factories. 

Near  the  Speedway  is  the  well  known 
"Horseless  City,"  which  offers  attrac- 
tions to  industries.  This  city  is  known 
as  the  Horseless  City  because  during 
its  preparation  and  construction  the  hoof 
of  the  horse  never  trod  the  tract  of 
ground  involved.  In  this  section  are  al- 
ready located  several  well-known  manu- 
facturing plants. 

Recently  the  railroads  and  the  city 
have  completed  plans  for  elevating  the 
tracks  in  Indianapolis.  Within  the  next 
two  or  three  years,  every  railroad  cross- 
ing in  the  city  of  Indianapolis  will  have 
been  eliminated.  A  part  of  this  work  has 
been  completed,  and  work  is  now  in 
progress  on  a  $3,000,000  piece  of  track 
elevation,  putting  the  total  cost  of  work 
completed  and  under  construction  in  ex- 
cess of  $5,000,000.  As  an  example  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral today  has  but  one  grade  crossing  in 
Indianapolis. 

In  1913  Indianapolis  was  visited  by 
the  flood  which  did  so  much  damage 
throughout  Ohio  and  Mississippi  basins. 
To  prevent  a  recurrence  of  damage  to 


the  comparatively  small  portion  of  the 
city  which  was  exposed  to  danger,  In- 
dianapolis immediately  became  active 
with  flood  prevention  plans.  The  actual 
protective  construction  work  at  a  cost 
of  more  than  one  million  dollars  is  now 
in  progress. 

The  steam  carriers  which  afford  In- 
dianapolis great  shipping  facilities  are : 
The  Illinois  Central,  the  I.  &  V.  Division 
of  the  Vandalia,  C.,  H.  &  D.,  Spring- 
field Division;  P.  &  E.  West,  the  Chica- 
go Division  of  the  Big  Four,  the  Cleve- 
land Division  of  the  Big  Four,  the  P. 
E.  Division  to  Springfield,  the  Cincin- 
nati Division  of  the  Big  Four,  the  L.  E. 
&  W.,  Michigan  City  Division;  the  L. 
E.  &  W.  to  Sandusky,  Ohio ;  Columbus 
Division  of  the  Pennsylvania ;  Louis- 
ville Division  of  the  Pennsylvania;  C., 
H.  &  D.,  Cincinnati  and  Hamilton  Divi- 
sion; Monon;  St.  Louis  Division  of  the 
Big  Four;  Pennsylvania  service  to  Chi- 
cago. 

The  advantages  the  city  possesses  are 
of  the  most  stable  and  enduring  kind. 
They  cannot  be  taken  away  from  it.  Its 
central  location  in  a  wonderful  agricul- 
tural district  and  a  commercially  impor- 
tant territory  with  nine  million  people 
within  twenty-four  hours'  freight  deliv- 
ery, and  with  fifty  million  people  within 
a  day's  ride,  is  both  unique  and  un- 
changeable. 


NEW   I.    C.    DEPOT,    LA    SALLE,    ILL. 


SflFClY  FIRST 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFioiE,isrr 

S  E,RVIOE, 
LWAY  S 


< 


Safety  First  Progress 

No  doubt  some  of  our  readers  will  be 
interested  in  knowing  of  the  progress  the 
Safety  First  Crusade  is  making  on  the  Illinois 
Central  System.  For  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1915,  there  was  a  decrease  of  25 
employes  killed,  and  1157  injured,  a  decrease 
of  50  trespassers  and  others  killed,  while 
there  was  an  increase  of  5  injured. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission's 
quarterly  Bulletins  for  nine  months  ending 
March  31,  1915,  show  a  decrease  of  1792 
train  accidents,  a  decrease  of  200  killed  and 
3326  injured  over  the  corresponding  nine 
months.  In  comparing  this  decrease  with 
that  made  by  the  Illinois  Central  Systems  it 
shows  we  have  made  good  progress  and  re- 
flects great  credit  on  employes  in  every  de- 
partment, and  the  Management  wishes  to 
express  its  appreciation  of  their  good  work, 
with  the  hope  that  it  may  continue,  as  it 
means  prosperity,  health  and  happiness. 


49 


How  io 


It  is  not  trie  Science  01  curing  Disease  so  much  as  me  prevention  or  it 
tdat  produces  tne  Neatest  ^pod  lo  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Health  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teacning  people  now  to  live  A  A  A  A  A 

Important  Meeting  of  Health  Officers  —  Its  Lessons 


MORE  than  2,000  health  experts  from  all 
parts  of  the  country  were  gathered  in 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  for  the  sessions  of  the  con- 
ference which  gathered  in  that  city  last  week. 
We  read  of  the  massacre  of  lives  and  prop- 
erty in  the  great  war  in  Europe,  and  what 
great  things  this  and  that  general  accom- 
plished. The  doctors  of  today  are  higher  in 
their  aims  than  the  generals  on  the  battle- 
fields. If  the  same  number  of  army  generals 
were  gathered  together  in  one  place  curious 
crowds  would  swarm  after  them,  merely  to 
gaze  on  so  many  eminent  killers.  If  the  same 
number  of  financiers  of  equal  eminence  were 
to  gather  in  Rochester,  there  would  be  no 
counting  the  crowds  that  would  hang  upon 
their  footsteps  wherever  they  went.  The 
doctors  are  neither  killers  nor  financiers.  They 
save  life  and  plan  how  to  prolong  life 
and  how  to  prevent  sickness.  They  do 
this  often  without  hope  of  pecuniary  re- 
ward. The  doctrine  of  service  never  was  bet- 
ter exemplified  than  by  the  medical  profes- 
sion of  today.  But  why  are  they  not  as  en- 
thusiastically received  as  would5  be  as  many 
military  captains  of  high  renown?  Simply 
because  the  idea  of  service  to  'humanity  is" 
not  yet  quite  comprehended ;  simply  because 
the  older  trade  of  taking  life  still  holds  more 
glamour  than  the  newer  of  saving  life.  The 
doctors  are  not  inferior  in  heroism  personally, 
or  as  a  class,  to  the  soldier  of  the  world. 
They  take  more  chances  in  their  every-day 
practice  than  a  general  officer  of  an  army 
ever  encounters. 

The  Rochester  meeting  was  probably  the 
most  important  gathering  that  this  country 
has  seen  in  many  years.  Among  those  pres- 
ent were:  Surgeon  General  Wm.  C.  Gpr- 
gas — the  man  who  made  possible  the  building 
of  the  Panama  Canal,  by  making  the  Canal 
Zone  sanitary;  Dr.  Wm.  T.  Sedgwick,  of 
Boston,  Professor  of  Biology  and  Public 
Health  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology and  president  of  the  American  Public 
Health  Association;  Dr.  Herman  M.  Biegs, 
Health  Commissioner  of  New  York  State; 
Professor  Winslow,  who  is  soon  to  become 


Professor  of  Public  Health  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity; the  Honorable  Wm.  C.  Redfield,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Department  of  Commerce,  be- 
sides the  health  officers  and  directors  of  labo- 
ratories of  nearly  every  state  and  important 
city  in  the  country. 

Probably  the  most  important  feature  of  this 
congress  was  the  address  of  welcome  by  the 
Honorable  Chas.  S.  Whitman,  Governor  of 
the  State  of  New  York.  It  was  most  encour- 
aging to  all  public  health  workers  to  hear  a 
man  of  Governor  Whitman's  prominence  in 
public  life  discuss  so  intelligently  a  field  of 
work  that  touches  in  so  many  places  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people  generally.  He  said,  in  the 
course  of  his  address:  "The  higher  ethical 
standards  and  the  broad  humanitarianism  which 
have  developed  among  large  masses  of  the 
people  in  these  recent  years,  imperatively  de- 
mand that  the  health  and  social  service  activi- 
ties of  the  government  shall  be  absolutely  di- 
vorced from  politics." 

But  a  few  of  the  important  subjects  can  be 
given  here : 

First,  the  disposal  of  the  wastes  of  the 
human  body  which  have  been  proven  so  harm- 
ful were  considered  in  detail.  One  afternoon 
was  given  over  to  a  symposium  on  milk.  The 
transportation  of  milk  was  discussed,  and  it 
was  pointed  put  that  the  milk  carried  by  the 
common  carrier  was  exposed  to  the  sun  in  open 
wagons  with  the  animal  heat  in  the  milk.  Also 
that  it  was  often  delivered  to  the  retailer  in 
open  wagons  and  driven  seven  to  ten  miles, 
and  that  the  care  of  the  milk  in  the  home  was 
just  as  important  a  feature  of  milk  as  the 
dairy  or  the  transportation.  It  was  also 
shown  that  the  temperature  of  milk  in  a  re- 
frigerator car  was  only  two  degrees  lower 
than  when  carried  in  a  car  not  iced.  This 
gave  rise^o  a  vigorous  discussion,  and  Health 
Commissioner  Robertson,  of  Chicago,  said 
that  during  Baby  Week  the  Chicago  Health 
Department  issued  600.000  cards  attached  to 
the  milk  bottle  instructing  all  mothers  how  to 
care  for  the  milk  in  the  home. 

The  prevention  of  the  infectious  diseases 
took  up  the  larger  part  of  one  day,  and  was 


50 


52 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


one  of  the  most  interesting  sessions  of  the 
congress.  It  was  shown  that  the  rays  of  the 
sun  and  fresh  air  were  able  to  destroy  the 
seeds  of  infection  from  measles  and  other 
diseases  without  fumigation,  but  that  if  this 
sunshine  and  fresh  air  could  not  be  gotten  into 
the  rooms,  then  scrubbing  with  soap  and  hot 
water  and  fumigation  was  necessary.  It  was 
also  shown  that  the  upward  curve  of  the  in- 
fectious diseases  'was  when  the  fresh  air  was 
denied  and  exercise  in  the  sunshine  was  not 
practiced — as  in  cold  weather. 

As  there  is  an  idea  abroad  that  vaccination 
against  small-pox  often  causes  tetanus,  the 
efficient  head  of  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  at 
Washington,  D.  C,  performed  some  inter- 
esting experiments.  He  took  six  rabbits  and 
had  them  vaccinated  and  at  the  same  time 
injected  tetanic  serum.  The  vaccination  was 
perfect,  but  there  were  no  symptoms  of ' 
spasms  to  indicate  that  the  tetanic  serum  had 
any  effect.  Then  he  selected  six  guinea  pigs, 
as  it  was  known  that  these  pigs  were  pecu- 
liarly susceptible  to  tetanus,  he  vaccinated 
them  and  also  injected  tetanic  serum;  the 
vaccination  was  successful  but  the  tetanic 
serum  had  no  effect  whatever,  hence  the  con- 
clusion is  reached  that  vaccination  is  in  no 
way  accountable  for  tetanus — that  it  may  de- 
velop days  or  weeks  after. 

The  hazardous  occupations  and  the  avoid- 
ance of  hazardous  afflictions  were  also  mat- 
ters that  received  attention. 

Dr.  Knopf,  of  New  York,  in  a  valuable 
paper  on  tuberculosis,  claimed  that  if  the 
mother  was  tubercular  the  child  would  be 
tubercular  in  99  per  cent  of  births,  and  that 
measures  should  be  used  to  prevent  the  propa- 
gation of  tubercular  children.  In  case  tuber- 
culosis is  present  anti-tubercular  serum  should 
be  used  and  supplied  by  the  state  early  in 
child  life. 

There   was   a  very   interesting  "symposium 


on  the  death-rate  of  the  age  groups,"  in  short, 
the  question  was  asked,  how  to  prolong  life. 
It  was  shown  that  what  were  formerly  con- 
sidered diseases  of  old  age  are  now  reach- 
ing down  into  middle  life.  These  diseases 
of  middle  life  are  due  to  bad  hygienic  habits, 
particularly  to  excesses  of  all  kinds,  espe- 
cially over-eating  and  drinking.  Over-eating 
is  as  harmful  as  under-eating.  A  sufficient, 
but  moderate  diet,  is  essential  to  good  health. 
Too  little  air — too  little  exercise,  too  much 
food,  too  much  tobacco,  too  much  alco- 
holic liquors  all  tend  to  shorten  life.  Wild 
speculation,  plunging  into  get-rich-quick- 
schemes  wrecks  the  nerves  and  ofttimes  blast 
the  mind — all  these  are  active  causes  which 
lead  to  an  untimely  death. 

Now  what  lessons  can  be  gleaned  from  such 
a  meeting? 

First — That  there  is  an  army  of  physicians 
working  early  and  late  in  the  laboratory  and 
outside,  to  improve  conditions,  to  prevent 
sickness,  and  to  aid  in  the  propagation  of 
healthy  children. 

Second — That  the  waste  products  from  the 
human  body  are  poisonous,  that  they  should 
be  so  treated  as  to  be  either  covered  or 
burned ;  that  in  cases  of  sickness  from  infec- 
tious diseases,  the  excretions  from  the  mouth 
and  nose  are  dangerous  and  these  should  be 
destroyed,  and  finally  that  sunshine  and  fresh 
air  destroy  all  these,  hence  the  great  value 
of  both  of  the  wonderful  remedial  agents  to 
humanity. 

Third — That  those  in  the  higher  age  group 
should  eat  less,  cut  down  on  heavy  eating, 
meat  once  a  day,  very  light  diet  as  age  ad- 
vances and  getting  lighter  as  years  roll  on, 
"The  wise  for  cure  on  exercise  depend, 
and  exercise. 

As  Dryden  wrote  100  years  ago : 

"The  wise  for  cure  on  exercise  depend, 
God  never  made  his  work  for  men  to  mend." 


Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Chicago,  111.,  August  24,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 

I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  Hospital,  Department, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

Kindly  accept  my  thanks  to  you  and  your  noble  and  generous  staff  of 
Doctors  and  Nurses,  especially  your  Chief  Surgeon  and  Surgeons  at  Mercy 
Hospital.  I  do  sincerely  say  that  I  got  the  most  courteous  and  best  treat- 
ment I  have  ever  received  anywhere. 

On  May  2nd  I  had  my  two  toes  mashed,  and  thinking  it  not  very  serious 
I  walked  on  the  foot  a  couple  of  days,  at  which  time  the  attending  physician 
requested  that  I  give  it  rest,  but  I  worked  and  went  around  with  that  foot 
until  the  Hospital  Department  Surgeons  came  to  my  house  one  morning  at 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  53 

8  o'clock  and  pulled  me  out  of  bed  to  make  a  thorough  examination.  The 
result  was  that  I  had  to  go  to  the  Hospital,  which  the  Hospital  Department 
Surgeons  wanted  me  to  do  at  the  start,  but  I  did  not  like  to  go  because  I 
never  was  in  a  hospital  before.  Nevertheless,  they  transported  me  in  one  of 
the  Doctors'  machines  before  breakfast,  as  they  told  me  that  I  would  get 
breakfast  at  the  Hospital,  which  I  did,  and  then  I  was  put  under  the  X-Ray 
Machine,  the  result  of  which  showed  several  fractures  of  the  bones.  I  stayed 
in  Mercy  Hospital  two  weeks  and  at  home  four  weeks,  or  six  weeks  in  all, 
and  now  my  toes  are  as  good  as  before,  and  I  am  glad  today  that  I  obeyed 
the  instructions  of  the  Hospital  Department  physicians,  or  I  would  perhaps 
be  a  couple  of  toes  short. 

Thanking  you  and  your  staff  of  Doctors  and  Nurses  again,  I  remain, 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  JOHN  A.  DITTBERNER, 
Stationary  Engineer,  Dynamo  Room,  Burnside,  111. 


Cherokee,  Iowa,  August  23,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 

Illinois  Central  Railroad  Co., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

I  resumed  work  August  15th,  and  am  so  well  pleased  with  the  treatment 
I  received  the  five  weeks  I  was  in  Mercy  Hospital,  Chicago,  under  the  care  of 
the  Chief  Oculist,  and  results  so  satisfactory  that  I  feel  it  incumbent  upon  me 
to  say  a  few  words  of  praise. 

I  believe  you  will  agree  with  me  when  I  say  that  my  eye  was  as  sore  as 
any  eye  can  get  when  I  went  to  you  on  May  27th.  I  received  treatment  from 
your  Chief  Oculist  twice  daily,  and  the  nurses  were  instructed  to  treat  it 
every  hour  during  the  day  and  every  two  hours  at  night,  which  they  did 
faithfully  for  nearly  four  weeks,  for  which  I  am  very  grateful.  In  addition  to 
this  excellent  treatment,  my  living  expenses  were  taken  care  of  also. 

I  feel  that  every  contributor  to  the  Hospital  Department  should  know 
the  good  effects  of  a  member  of  that  Department. 

Through  you  I  wish  to  thank  the  Surgeons,  Sisters  and  nurses  for  their 
kindness  and  courtesy  to  me  while  in  Mercy  Hospital,  Chicago. 

Yours  truly, 
(Signed)  LOUIS  J.  MOONEY,  Train  Dispatcher. 


Water  Valley,  Miss.,  August  1,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Co., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

Am  back  home  after  having  spent  twenty-five  days  in  Mercy  Hospital  at 
Chicago,  where  I  underwent  three  operations.  I  haven't  anything  but  praise 
for  treatment  I  received.  The  attending  physicians  and  nurses  were  especially 
kind  and  attentive. 

I  consider  the  50c  per  month  paid  to  the  Hospital  Department  the  best 
Investment  that  I  have  ever  made,  as  it  would  not  be  possible  for  me  to  live 
long  enough  to  pay  anything  like  the  amount  of  money  into  the  fund  for  the 
benefits  which  I  have  already  received. 

With  best  wishes  for  the  welfare  of  the  Hospital  Department,  I  am, 

Yours  truly, 
(Signed)  R.  E.  EDERINGTON,  Engineer. 


54  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

Palestine,  111.,  August  28,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 

Illinois  Central  Railroad  Co., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor : 

I  desire  to  herewith  report  to  you  the  following,  feeling  that  I  owe  it  to 
the  Hospital  Department  for  the  genuine,  and  to  me,  exceptional  interest  in 
my  case. 

I  was  injured  in  the  left  eye  February  9th,  1915,  carrying  in  wood  for 
locomotives.  This  accident  was  caused  by  the  way  of  a  blow  from  a  rebound- 
ing stick,  sustaining  an  injury  that  was  a  serious  one,  the  whole  structure  of 
the  eye  ball  being  bruised.  It  was  at  once  cared  for  by  the  Company's  Local 
Surgeon,  who  confined  me  to  a  darkened  room  and  visited  me  almost  daily 
for  some  weeks.  Recovery  was  necessarily  slow,  but  a  good  general  result  ob- 
tained as  to  the  eye  ball  especially.  The  most  serious  result  of  the  injury  was 
rather  late  in  appearance.  Slowly  a  cataract  developed  and  the  Local  Surgeon 
then  referred  my  case  to  Chicago,  where  I  came  under  the  care  of  the  Chief 
Oculist.  Under  his  excellent  care,  patience  and  skill  my  eyes  have  been  com- 
pletely restored. 

The  real  genuine  interest  taken  in  my  case  by  the  Hospital  Department 
appealed  to  me.  The  repeated  operations,  with  only  partial  results,  a  careful 
watching  between  times  that  nothing  should  happen  to  mar  a  final  perfect 
result  merits  the  highest  commendation. 

I  sincerely  want  to  thank  you  and  all  the  Hospital  Department  Surgeons 
who  had  charge  of  my  case,  and  feel  that  the  Illinois  Central  employes  have 
in  their  well  managed  Hospital  Department  the  greatest  protection  that  could 
possibly  be  provided  them. 

Yours  truly, 
(Signed)  VICTOR  H.  FLACK,  Boilermaker, 

Palestine,  111. 


Memphis,  August  26,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Co., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

While  on  duty  as  an  Engineer  in  Memphis  Terminal  I  recently  had 
both  of  my  feet  badly  scalded,  and  was  taken  to  the  Hospital  Department  in 
the  Grand  Central  Station,  Memphis,  where  I  received  the  best  possible  at- 
tention by  one  of  the  Hospital  Department  Surgeons. 

I  feel  that  I  received  the  very  best  of  medical  services  while  placing  my 
case  in  charge  of  the  Hospital  Department,  and  wish  to  thank  you  and  the 
entire  staff  at  that  point  for  the  patient  manner  and  excellent  attention  that 
I  received  while  under  their  care. 

Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)  J.  B.  CRAIG,  Engineer. 


Carbondale,  111,  Sept.  24,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall, 

Chief  Surgeon,  Chicago. 
Dear  Sir: — 

Having  just  been  released  by  Hospital  Department  Physician,  Dr.  M. 
Ethertpn,  after  having  passed  through  a  very  severe  case  of  typhoid  fever, 
I  feel  it  my  duty  and  pleasure  to  write  you  expressing  my  due  appreciation 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


55 


of  the  treatment  accorded  me  during  my  six  months'  illness  by  the  Hospital 
Department. 

At  the  time  I  was  attacked  with  this  disease  I  was  employed  on  the  sec- 
tion at  Carbondale  under  Foreman  Farrill,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  un- 
tiring efforts  of  Dr.  Etherton,  I  would  not  be  able  to  write  this  letter  today. 

I  feel  that  the  Hospital  Department  is  a  grand  thing  for  employes  and 
that  I  would  not  be  doing  my  duty  if  I  did  not  advise  you  of  my  apprecia- 
tion and  pleasure  of  being  a  member  of  the  Hospital  Department  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central. 

Again  thanking  you  for  the  excellent  service  received  and  with  best 
wishes,  I  am  Yours  truly, 

E.  G.  GUNN, 
Section  Laborer. 


SWITCHING  POWER,   ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  R.   R.,  INDIANAPOLIS,   IND. 


Employos  may  become  stock- 
holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 
on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 
desiring  to  acquire  stoclc  in  tne  Illinois 
Cbntral  R.R.,^0  quote  below  from  the 
Circular  issued  by  the  President  A\ay95* 
1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(one  price  to  6e  quoted  for  whicn  applications  will  be  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffocA.  is  based  upon  the  mar- 

/  *•/         1          "/  >'          •  '  '      '  )    '       S~)  J 

ket price  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  (^ompfroL- 

lers  office... C^n  empfoye  is  offered  the  privilege  ofsa6scri6- 

f"          £.          *  '  Jf         " //    /  '  '   j  //  '     /  • 

ma  for  one  snare  at  a  time,  payable  by  installments  in  sums 

of $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  me  completion  of 

Jf  /  ^/    r>^          '     'ir  )  r       j    /•  ~ic    ,     •* r 

which  the  (Company  torn  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 

me  snare  registered  in.  his  name  on  trie  DOORS  of  me  Com- 
pany. Cs%2  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  begin  the.  purchase  of 
another  share  on  the  installment  plan. c^he  certificate 
of  stock,  is  transferable,  on  tne  Company's  books,  and. 
entitles  tne  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  be  de  - 
dared  by  me  &oard  cfjJirectors,  and  to  a  vote  in, 
tfieir  election. 

Cx^?y  officer  or  employe  moRinq  payments  on  mis 
7          J-,j  JJ  •  /    /  /      J  .     .j  r    y       /•) 

plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  the  rate  of  four  percenter  annum,  durina  the  time  he 
is  paying  tor  his  share  of  stock,  rjrouided  ne  does  not  al- 
low ttuelve  consecutive  months  'to  elapse  without  moKinq 

/  *  *  /"      7  *    /"  '1* 

any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period  interest 
win  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 
returned,  to  him.  on  his  application  therefor. 

Cxwy  officer  or  employe  moKinq  payments  on  tne  K>re- 

Ji  M-       )  _/•      /     7.  )S  '••'';     j '        j.'J 

qoinq  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desiring  to  discontinue 
y~    7  /        /      J /  •      7  )  .  J  /•  •         •  /-  > 

them,  can  have  his  money  returned  to  him  with  accrued 


interest,  by  mahmq  application  to  tne  nead  of  me  de- 
partment in  which  fie  is  employed. 

c^/in  employe,  who  has  made  application  for  a  snare 
of  stock,  on  tne  installment  plan ,  is  expected,  to  maKe 
me  firstpayment from  thefirstwaaes  which  may  he  due 

him.  Jorms  are  provided. /or  tne  purpose,  on  which  the 

/      •/•  Y  */'    '        j£    '/?      lG7° 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  the  cjjocal-  (oreasurer  m 

Chicago,  or  tne oUocal^oreasurer  in  (5fyetv  Orleans,  or 
theraymaster  or  tne  C^ssistant  Paymaster  to  retain 
from  his  wages  tne  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 

monthly  to  tne  employe  for  the  purchase  of  a  snare  of  stock. 

7  J  '  t '   'i          if  •  •*  r^/    r*  ' 

c/n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  the  (Company 

/•  */   '         jf         '  f  '  •/'    /"  ii  ^    // 

from,  any  cause,  he  must  then  either  pay  intuit  for  the 

Share  fer  which  he  has  subscribed  ana.  receive  a  certifi- 
cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which, 
has  accrued. 

\ohe  foregoina  does  not  preclude  me  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock  for  cash.  O#i  employe  who  has  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  ofstoch.  on 
the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 
aiven  month  make  application  for  a  snare  ofstocfcjor  cash 

at  the  price  quoted  to  employes  for  that  month ,  ana  he  can, 
'    ,f   '  '          /    •/•/   '      °f     '/  /  /'     > '      y 

m  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 

f        /  /  '  *       //  /  /  /  / 

other  share  on  the  installment  plan. 

(Employes  who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  .the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
cago, who  will  obtain  mr  them,  the  price  at  which  the  stock 
can  he  purchased,. 

Oray  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stocd  (except  in. 
special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash)  should 
apply  fo  his  immediate  superior  omcer,  or  to  one  of  the 
<Jfocalctoreasurers  py 'filling  in  the  following  coupon : 

Mr.O.  T.  Nau.  Date,...,,.,...:.,....... 

Local  Treasurer. 

Ckicao  111. 


please  send  me  an   application 
for  tne  purcnase  ofl.C.  Stock  on  tA.e  installment  plan. 

Signed— v — _ 

Employed  as 

>     "At   Station - — 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

CIA1MS  DEPARTMENT 

fragments  of  a  Story 

Seldom    &vor  Told 


i      r 


Burning  of  a  Colored  Baptist  Chuch  in  Mississippi 


The  St.  Paul  Baptist  Church  (col- 
ored) located  two  hundred  feet  west 
of  the  southbound  main  line  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  at  Brookhaven,  Miss.,  was 
destroyed  by  fire  about  3  o'clock  p.  m., 
March  3,  1915.  The  church  was  built 
in  1906  at  a  cost  of  $1,150.00  and  was 
insured  for  $1,000.00.  A  short  time 
after  the  fire,  suit  was  filed  against  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  for 
$2,500.00  damages,  charging  that  the 
fire  was  caused  by  sparks  which  were 
negligently  emitted  from  the  stack  of 
a  locomotive. 

No  one  knew  how  the  fire  origin- 
ated, but  it  was  thought  that  the  rail- 
road company  ought  to  pay  the  dam- 
ages. 

The  case  was  tried  at  the  Septem- 
ber term  of  the  Circuit  Court  at  Brook- 
haven,  and  the  trial  afforded  much 
amusement  to  those  who  happened  to 
be  in  the  court  room  at  the  time  on 
account  of  the  testimony  of  the  St. 
Paul  Baptist  Church's  star  witness, 


Trustee  and  Deacon  W.  C.  Walker. 
He  was  selected  to  represent  the 
church  people  on  account  of  his  prom- 
inence and  plausibility.  He  was 
dressed  in  his  best  clothes  and  wore 
a  flaming  red  tie  and,  when  his  derby 
hat  was  removed,  there  were  evidences 
of  his  efforts  to  part  his  kinky  hair. 
When  he  commenced  to  testify  it  was 
very  plain  that  he  was  much  impressed 
with  his  own  importance,  as  well  as 
that  of  the  occasion,  and  that  it  was 
the  chance  of  his  life  to  make  a  last- 
ing impression,  and  he  succeeded. 

One  of  the  questions  in  the  case  was 
the  distance  between  the  church  and 
the  railroad  track.  When  the  attorney 
for  the  church  had  finished  the  direct 
examination  of  the  trustee  and  deacon, 
he  was  tendered  to  the  railroad's  law- 
yer, Mr.  T.  Brady,  for  cross-examina- 
tion, from  which  we  quote  as  follows : 

Q.  How  far  was  the  church  from 
the  track? 

A.     I  don't  just  remember,  but — 


58 


9    How  FAR 

CHURCH 

THE   TRACK? 
Q.  LENGTH  OF  WHAT 


p.  JJo  you 

WHAT       ou    A.RE 
ABOUT? 


60 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Q.  Well,  about  how  far?  Was  it 
as  far  as  the  saw  mill? 

A.  The  saw  mill  is  further  than 
the  church.  It's  ten  or  fifteen  ''foot" 
difference  in  each  side. 

Q.  What  is  it  that  is  ten  or  fifteen 
"foot"? 

A.  Difference  in  the  length  of  the 
church  from  each  side  of  the  railroad. 

Q.    What  do  you  mean  by  that? 

A.  I  mean  that  it's  further  on  one 
side  over  on  the  east  side  of  the  rail- 
road— difference  in  the  east  side  and 
the  west  side — there  is  ten  or  fifteen 
"foot"  difference  in  the  length  of  them. 

Q.     Length  of  what? 

A.     Difference  there  is  in  them. 

Q.    Length  of  the  difference? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.    What  is  the  difference? 

A.  I  couldn't  tell  you  exactly  un- 
less I  had  a  statement  of  it. 

Q.  Do  you  really  know  what  you 
are  talking  about? 

A.    Yes,  sir;  I  know. 

Q.     Well,  explain  it. 

A.  I'll  explain  what.  I'm  talking 
about.  I  mean  to  tell  you  that  on  the 
railroad  side  where  the  saw  mill  is, 
it's  further  from  the  railroad  than  the 
railroad  is  from  the  church  on  the  other 
side. 

Q.  You  mean  to  say  that  the  saw 
mill  is  further  from  the  railroad  than 
the  church  is  from  the  railroad? 

A.  I  mean  to  tell  you  that  the  saw 
mill  is  further  back  from  the  church 
than  the  saw  mill  on  this  side  of  the 
church  is  from  the  railroad.  I'll  show 
you  what  I'm  talking  about.  Here's 
the  saw  mill  over  here — (using  blotter 
for  an  illustration).  I  mean  to  say  that 
the  saw  mill  over  here  is  further  back 
from  the  railroad  here  than  the  church 
is  over  here  from  the  railroad  on  the 
other  side.  You  caught  my  idea? 

(Prolonged  laughter.) 

Q.  I  didn't  know  whether  you  had 
any  or  not. 

A.  That's  what  I'm  trying  to  show 
you. 

Q.     You  have  succeeded. 

It  is  reported  that  Deacon  Walker 
did  more  stunts  in  the  witness  chair 


than  a  monkey  ever  did  on  a  limb. 
The  crowd  in  the  court  room  roared 
with  laughter.  The  jury  returned  a 
verdict  in  favor  of  the  railroad. 

Assistant  General  Solicitor  H.  D. 
Minor,  of  the  Y.  &  M.  V.,  heard  about 
the  testimony  of  Deacon  Walker  at 
Brookhaven,  and  stated  that  he  did  not 
think  the  deacon  had  anything  on  a 
Memphis  darkey  named  Luther  Ken- 
nedy, who  testified  in  the  suit  of  Lot- 
tie Croft  against  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  at 
Yazoo  City  some  time  ago.  A  part 
of  the  testimony  of  Luther,  on  cross- 
examination,  is  quoted  as  follows : 

Q.  How  long  have  you  been  at  work 
for  the  I.  C? 

A.  I  tell  you  the  truth— the  I.  C. 
ain't  got  a  thing  in  the  world  against 
me. 

Q.  Who  ever  said  they  ain't  got 
anything  against  you — you  are  not 
working  for  them  now? 

A.  No,  sir.  I  will  tell  you  why  I 
ain't.  There  was  a  man  made  me  lose 
my  home  about  killing  another  woman 
and  taking  mine,  and  I  don't  want  my 
home  no  more.  He  was  prosecuted 
and  I  put  my  home  up  and  lost  it,  and 
he  lost  it  and  quit  her  and  then  he  put 
her  in  the  penitentiary,  and  I  don't 
want  her,  and  that's  the  reason  I  ain't 
in  Jackson. 


WHO  COMES  HERE? 

I  am  more  powerful  than  the  com- 
bined armies  of  the  world. 

I'have  destroyed  more  men  than  all 
the  wars  of  the  world. 

I  am  more  deadly  than  bullets,  and 
I  have  wrecked  more  homes  than  the 
mightiest  of  siege  guns. 

I  steal,  in  the  United  States  alone, 
over  $300,000,000.00  each  year. 

I  spare  no  one,  and  I  find  my  victims 
among  the  rich  and  poor  alike ;  the 
young  and  old;  the  strong  and  weak; 
widows  and  orphans  know  me. 

I  loom  up  to  such  proportions  that 
I  cast  my  shadow  over  every  field  of 
labor  from  the  turning  of  the  grind- 
stone to  the  moving  of  every  railroad 
train. 


62 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


I  massacre  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  wage  earners  in  a  year. 

•I  lurk  in  unseen  places,  and  do  most 
of  my  work  silently.  You  are  warned 
against  me,  but  you  heed  not. 

I  am  relentless.  I  am  everywhere; 
in  the  home,  on  the  streets,  in  the 
factory,  at  railroad  crossings,  and  on 
the  sea. 

I  bring  sickness,  degradation  and 
death,  and  yet  few  seek  to  avoid  me. 

I  destroy,  crush,  maim,  take  all  and 
give  nothing. 

I  am  your  worst  enemy. 

I  AM  CARELESSNESS. 

The  total  number  of  persons  report- 
ed killed  in  all  classes  of  accidents  on 
steam  railways  for  the  months  of  Jan- 
uary, February  and  March,  1915,  as 
shown  by  the  records  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  was  1,650,  and 
the  number  of  persons  injured  was  35,- 
428.  This  statement  includes  1,517 
persons  killed  and  11,874  persons  in- 
jured as  the  result  of  accidents  sus- 
tained by  employes  while  at  work,  by 
passengers  getting  on  or  off  cars,  by 
persons  at  highway  crossings,  by  per- 
sons doing  business  at  stations,  etc., 
as  well  as  by  trespassers  and  others ; 
and  also  sixty-eight  persons  killed  and 
21,582  persons  injured  in  casualties  re- 
ported as  "industrial  accidents,"  which 
includes  accidents  not  connected  with 
train  operation,  but  occurring  to  em- 
ployes of  the  railroad,  other  than  train- 
men, on  the  railroad  property. 

Railroad  men  are  stirred  up  to  a 
high  pitch  over  the  number  of  casual- 
ties, and  they  are  doing  their  utmost 
to  reduce  them.  If  the  public  will  co- 
operate with  the  railroads  in  this  laud- 
able work,  CARELESSNESS  will  be 
given  such  a  trouncing  that  it  will  soon 
be  ashamed  to  show  its  head,  because 
all  men  will  hate  and  despise  it  and 
those  responsible  for  it. 


"MY  COUNTRY  'TIS  OF  THEE" 

Not  far  from  the  city  of  Champaign 
there  happens  to  be  a  small  laboring 
camp  composed  of  one  American  and 
numerous  subjects  of  King  Emanuel 
and  Emperor  Frans  Josef  of  Austria. 


One  would  naturally  suppose  that  men 
of  those  unhappy  kingdoms,  residing 
in  a  land  of  tranquillity,  would  be  con- 
tent to  abide  by  the  situation  and  sing 
psalm  tunes  rather  than  provoke  the 
Old  Harry  so  remote  from  the  con- 
flict. 

It  so  happened  one  night  after  tamp- 
ing rails  all  days  that  the  spirit  of  the 
fatherland  prevailed  in  the  hearts  of 
these  various  subjects,  and  after  a  babel 
of  languages  and  diarrhea  of  ideas, 
they  proceeded  to  armed  conflict  with 
each  other,  having  not  so  much  as  re- 
ferred the  matter  to  arbitration  or  con- 
sidered the  indelicacy  of  omitting  a 
formal  declaration  of  war. 

For  about  15  minutes  the  battle 
waged  warm,  and  Au  tna  invaded 
Italy  about  two  car  lengths  and  chewed 
up  one  of  Italy's  ears.  Austria  was 
armed  with  spike  mauls  and  navy  plug, 
whereas  the  Italians,  for  the  time  be- 
ing, had  only  pick  handles  and  spear- 
head plug.  Soon  Italy  made  a  flank 
movement  and  came  around  in  the  rear 
of  Austria  with  barrel  staves  and  short 
cord  wood.  Austria  withdrew  her 
forces  about  nine  feet,  took  a  hitch  in 
her  suspenders,  bucked  the  line  and 
chewed  up  one  of  Italy's  thumbs.  Italy 
saw  she  was  going  to  be  eaten  alive  if 
the  melee  lasted  long  enough,  so  she 
withdrew  for  a  short  truce  and  took 
stock.  Soon  signals  of  war  were  flying 
about  when  two  of  Italy's  subjects 
broke  through  the  Austrian  line  and 
tore  out  two  handfuls  of  hair  that  was 
once  Austrian.  Austria  retaliated  with 
a  track  wrench  and  deprived  Italy  of 
one  bicuspid  and  two  molars.  All  par- 
ties were  pretty  much  hors  de  combat 
by  this  time  and  each  side  retreated  to 
their  respective  lines. 

In  two  or  three  days  the  whole  mat- 
ter was  brought  to  the  court  of  the 
Claim  Agent  for  that  Division  for 
final  adjustment.  He  felt  the  peculiar 
dignity  of  his  office,  but  had  misgivings 
as  to  his  destiny.  He  had  not  even 
dared  to  presume  that  in  some  distant 
day  he  should  be  called  upon  as  the 
arbiter  of  mighty  questions.  He  had 
hoped  to  escape  this  unusual  burden 


G4 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


and  unsought  honor,  as  he  thought  to 
escape  pretty  much  everything  else, 
but  he  felt,  diplomatically,  that  Aus- 
trians  should  feed  on  other  diet  besides 
Italians,  and,  likewise,  that  Austria 
should  not  become  denuded  of  hair 
simply  to  amuse  subjects  of  the  King 
of  Italy.  You  will  see  this  was  a  most 
delicate  situation. 

The  Claim  Agent  appreciated  more 
than  ever  why  the  Secretary  of  State 
resigned,  and  felt  impulses  of  resigna- 
tion deeply  within  him.  He  looked 
upon  heads  without  capillary  sub- 
stance, and  faces  twisted  for  the  lack 
of  macaroni  crackers.  He  saw  hands 
with  mutilated  digits  and  ears  that 
were  swollen  to  the  size  of  lamp  globes. 
The  spectacle  was  impressive  and  the 
heavy  responsibility  of  the  trust  was 
bewildering. 

The  Claim  Agent  heard  the  plea  of 
Austria  and  listened  to  the  wail  of 
Italy,  and  at  once  was  aware  that  un- 
less he  were  mighty  circumspect,  he 
should  become  involved,  for  both  Aus- 
tria and  Italy  proposed  that  the  rail- 
road should  pay  an  indemnity  to  them. 
That  made  the  Claim  Agent  sit  up 
straight  and  take  some  official  notice  of 
things.  Austria  demanded  pay  for  two 
handfuls  of  hair,  and  full  time  off.  Italy 
demanded  reimbursement  until  maca- 
roni could  be  well  masticated  without 
the  interference  of  any  outside  nation. 
The  Claim  Agent  felt  less  of  a  referee 
than  ever,  and  desired  to  inquire  if  his 
position  had  been  changed  to  that  of 
sack-holder.  He  was  abruptly  advised 
that  in  the  last  analysis  he  might  be 
subsequently  known  in  common  par- 
lance as  the  "fall  guy."  He  humbly 
begged  pardon  fo*r  his  stupid  misun- 
derstanding of  the  situation  and  bowed 
low  both  to  Austria  and  then  to  Italy. 
His  position  for  the  moment  was  awk- 
ward. Presently  he  took  a  reef  in  his 
"galuses"  and  casually  inquired  how 
and  by  what  process  he  gained  title  to 
the  missing  hair  and  lost  molars  so 
that  he  might  be  expected  to  supply 
them  in  this  most  extraordinary  occa- 
sion. Suddenly  he  was  made  to  un- 
derstand that  this  demand  had  in  it 


something  like  an  ultimatum  and  he 
was  given  a  time  limit  in  which  to  ex- 
hibit some  "real  and  ready."  That 
made  him  go  into  the  ultimatum  busi- 
ness as  a  matter  of  self-defense  and 
without  waiting  for  the  aid  or  consent 
of  any  other  nation,  and  not  having  a 
submarine  in  sight,  he  subsidized  a 
large  stove  poker  he  just  had  completed 
for  home  consumption,  and  with  this 
he  made  hostile  demonstrations  before 
Austria  and  Italy,  which  they  seemed 
to  understand  and  to  recognize  at  once 
the  emphasizing  power  of  weapons  of 
like  character.  The  Claim  Agent  still 
holds  the  fort  and  not  a  hostile  man-of- 
war  in  sight.  Likewise  no  indemnity 
in  sight. 


A  NEW  KIND  OF  CLAIM 

Trie  night  passenger  train  No.  5, 
passing  Holly  Springs,  Miss.,  at  8:40 
p.  m.,  on  June  10th,  1915,  and  due  in 
New  Orleans  at  9  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  was  delayed  27  minutes  from 
its  schedule.  Every  prospective  pas- 
senger expecting  to  board  this  train  at 
points  south  of  Holly  Springs  was 
given  about  thirty  minutes  more  to 
wait  for  the  train.  Passengers  who 
expected"  to  make  connections  at  junc- 
tion points  missed  their  connections 
and  were  obliged  to  wait  over  night. 
The  United  States  mail  was  delayed, 
and  all  passengers  using  this  train  ar- 
rived at  their  destinations  a  half  hour 
behind  time. 

A  horse,  left  by  its  owner  insecurely 
hitched  near  the  depot  at  Holly  Springs, 
had  taken  the  right  of  way  over  all 
trains.  Before  the  heavy  train,  just 
leaving  the  town,  had  scarce  gained 
any  speed,  the  wandering  animal  blocked 
its  course.  Refusing  to  do  the  horse 
an  injury  which  he  could  prevent,  and 
unwilling  to  risk  his  own  life  or  those 
of  his  passengers  or  a  possible  wreck- 
ing of  the  train  by  running  over  the 
animal,  the  engineer  reduced  his  speed 
to  that  of  the  trespassing  horse.  As 
the  horse  slackened  his  gait,  the  en- 
gineer followed  suit,  but  nothing 
seemed  to  deter  the  animal  in  its 
chosen  course,  always  in  front  of  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


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approaching  train.  For  a  mile  the  fast 
train  dragged  along,  then  two  miles, 
while  passengers  fretted  at  the  delay. 
But  the  engineer,  still  bent  on  saving 
the  animal  to  its  owner,  worried  along 
behind.  Three  miles  past  and  it  be- 
came a  mere  matter  of  endurance.  Never 
did  the  horse  leave  the  rails,  and  it 
was  not  possible  to  end  the  chase  until 
the  animal  slowed  down  to  a  jog  and 
then  to  a  walk,  when  the  fireman  ran 
him  down  and  taking  him  out  of  the 
way  tied  him  securely  to  the  fence. 

The  railroad  expected  to  make  no 
charge  against  the  owner  for  their 
trouble,  expense  and  delay  in  saving  the 
horse,  but  had  to  admit  some  surprise  in 
being  presented  with  a  bill  from  the 
owner  for  $100.00,  or  an  equivalent  of 
$25.00  per  mile  for  each  mile  the  animal 
ran  before  allowing  the  train  to  proceed. 


KILLED  BY  THE  TRAIN 

Joel  Exum,  a  colored  boy  known  as 
"Mobile,"  was  hit  by  an  engine  and 
one  car  doing  switching  in  the  I.  C. 
yards  here  on  last  Sunday  and  was 
instantly  killed.  There  are  several  ru- 
mors as  to  just  how  the  accident  oc- 
curred, but  it  is  the  general  belief  that 
it  was  his  intention  to  "hop"  the  north 
bound  train,  which  was  passing  at  the 
time,  and  take  a  ride  up  to  the  orchard 
about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from 
Ullin,  and  in  order  to  do  so  ran  in  front 
of  the  north  bound  train  so  as  to  get 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  track  from 
the  depot  and  was  hit  by  a  box  car 
being  backed  up  in  the  same  direction. 
The  car  and  engine  passed  over  his 
body  and  he  was  dead  before  assist- 
ance reached  him.  His  life  was  insured 
for  $226.50  in  the  Metropolitan  Life 
Insurance  Co. 

We  watch  daily  with  profound  re- 
gret boys,  both  white  and  colored, 
"hopping"  trains  as  they  pass  through 
Ullin  and  there  is  little  wonder  that 
there  are  not  more  accidents. 

There  are  state  laws  prohibiting 
such  insane  practice  and  these  laws 
should  be  enforced  and  prosecutions 
should  follow  each  case  until  this  evil 
is  righted.  Other  towns  right  these 


wrongs,  so  why  not  Ullin?  Surely  we 
are  just  as  civilized  here  as  they  are 
in  other  civilized  communities  and  we 
are  just  as  capable  of  enforcing  laws 
as  they  are  elsewhere. 

The  state  law  is  sufficient  to  put 
every  violator  in  the  county  jail  and 
any  excuse  on  the  part  of  the  city 
authorities  is  simply  an  evasion  of 
their  duty  as  public  servants. 

The  coroner's  jury  found  as  follows : 
"We,  the  jury  sworn  to  inquire  into 
the  death  of  Joel  Exum,  find  that  he 
came  to  his  death  by  crossing  in  front 
of  a  north  bound  freight  train  and  was 
struck  by  a  south  bound  train  back- 
ing north." — Ullin  (Illinois)  Times  of 
August  6,  1915. 


A  CASE  IN  POINT 

A  good  many  believe  that  the  rail- 
road company  is  always  liable  for  live 
stock  killed  on  the  track.  Possibly 
this  is  because  the  company  nearly  al- 
ways offers  to  share  the  loss  with 
owners  of  stock  which  come  to  an  un- 
timely end  through  collision  with  a 
locomotive.  However,  some  claimants 
demand  the  "full  pound  of  flesh"  and 
refuse  to  share  any  of  the  loss  with 
the  company.  People  who  ought  to 
know  better  are  often  heard  to  say 
that  the  railroad  company  never  pays 
anything  unless  it  knows  it  is  liable, 
but  there  never  was  a  greater  mistake 
than  that.  There  also  seems  to  be  a 
pretty  wide-soread  idea  that  the  com- 
pany loses  all  the  stock  suits  which  it 
litigates,  but  that  is  not  true.  The 
following  is  a  case  in  point : 

T.  C.  Wood,  of  Martin,  Tenn., 
owned  a  cow  which  was  killed  at  Mar- 
tin on  July  15,  1914.  He  valued  this 
animal  at  $65.00  and  declined  to  ac- 
cept anything-  less  in  compromise  of 
his  claim.  The  Claim  Aeent  investi- 
gated the  case  and  told  Mr.  Wood  he 
did  not  believe  there  was  any  liability 
upon  the  company,  but  rather  than 
have  a  law  suit  about  it,  the  company 
would  stand  75%  of  the  loss  if  he 
would  share  the  other  25%.  The  offer 
was  declined  and  the  claim  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  an  attorney,  and  suit 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


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was  filed  before  a  justice  of  the  peace. 
Mr.  Wood  secured  a  judgment  for  the 
full  amount  in  the  court  of  the  justice 
of  the  peace  and  the  railroad  took  an 
appeal  to  the  circuit  court,  where  the 
case  was  tried  in  August.  The  jury 
brought  in  a  straight  verdict  in  favor 
of  the  railroad  company. 


FALLACY  OF  POPULAR  BELIEF 

Out  on  the  Iowa  division,  as  on  all 
parts  of  the  system,  trainmen  are  tak- 
ing unusual  interest  in  trying  to  pre- 
vent accidents,  and  the  following  nar- 
rative is  illustrative  of  what  is  going 
on,  on  many  parts  of  the  road : 

On  August  30th,  Conductor  C.  A. 
Knott,  in  charge  of  train  No.  612  out 
of  Sioux  City,  was  notified  by  wire 
at  LeMars  to  be  on  the  look-out  for 
an  intoxicated  man,  supposed  to  be 
lying  on  track  somewhere  between 
Remsen  and  Marcus.  He  immediately 
advised  his  engine  crew,  composed  of 
Engineer  Frank  Rogers  and  Fireman 
B.  L.  Coburn.  Nearing  the  place 
where  he  expected  to  find  the  man,  En- 
gineer Rogers  brought  his  train  under 
control  and,  sure  enough,  when  at  a 
point  three  miles  east  of  Remsen  the 
drunken  man  was  found  lying  cross- 
wise of  the  track,  using  one  rail  for 
a  headrest  and  the  other  as  a  foot- 
stool. This  shows  the  fallacy  of  the 
popular  belief  that  railroad  men  are 
hard-hearted  and  indifferent  toward 
unfortunate  wayfarers.  If  all  the  peo- 
ple in  other  walks  of  life  had  the  big, 
responsive  hearts  in  them  that  the  av- 
erage railroad  man  possesses,  this  would 
be  a  better  world  to  live  in. 


AN  EDITOR  AND   A  PERSONAL 
INJURY  CLAIM 

Rev.  E.  W.  Pfaffenberger,  editor  of 
the  Western  Christian  Union,  pub- 
lished at  Booneville,  Mo.,  during 
March  made  a  trip  over  part  of  the 
Kansas  City  Southern  Ry.  on  a  local 
freight  train,  and  was  injured  while 
attempting  to  get  aboard  the  caboose. 
In. his  newspaper  he  makes  the  follow- 
ing comment  on  his  accident : 

"After  our  accident  on  March  12,  in 


which  we  were  severely  injured  by  a 
train,  many  well-meaning  friends 
urged  us  to  enter  a  claim  against  the 
railroad  for  damages.  We  also  had  a 
letter  from  a  Kansas  City  law  firm  re- 
questing us  to  place  the  case  in  their 
hands. 

"The  facts  were  these:  We  had  pur- 
chased a  ticket  at  Gentry,  Ark.,  for 
Sulphur  Springs,  and  got  on  a  local 
freight  train.  When  the  train  reached 
Gravette  (5  miles  from  Sulphur 
Springs),  we  stepped  off  and  asked  the 
conductor:  'Will  you  be  here  ten  or 
fifteen  minutes?'  He  replied:  'Yes,  I 
think  so,  but  we  will  go  as  soon  as  we 
can.'  Seeing  a  barber  sign  about  one 
block  distant  we 'went  there  quickly 
to  inquire  about  a  little  business  mat- 
ter. The  train  started  in  five  to  six 
minutes.  In  attempting  to  get  on  we 
fell  under  the  caboose  and  were  hurt. 
While  the  conductor  had  our  ticket 
and  suit  case  he  had  made  no  definite 
promise  as  to  the  length  of  time.  So 
that  if  we  could  have  collected  dam- 
ages from  the  railroad  company  on 
some  technical  point  it  would  have 
been  morally  wrong  for  us  to  do  so. 
Therefore,  when  the  courteous  claim 
agent  called  on  us  we  frankly  told  him 
that  we  did  not  feel  that  we  had  a 
just  claim  against  the  railroad. 

WON  A  BEEFSTEAK. 

Supervisor  F.  R.  Bishop,  of  the 
Vicksburg  Division,  recently  adopted 
a  unique  method  of  getting  rid  of  a 
troublesome  steer,  which  the  owner 
persisted  in  turning  upon  the  right-of- 
way,  at  a  point  where  there  was  great 
danger  of  its  being  struck  by  a  train. 

Attempts  to  get  the  owner  to  keep 
the  animal  from  off  the  waylands 
meeting  with  no  success  Mr.  Bishop 
bought  the  animal  and  sold  it  to  a 
butcher,  his  profit  in  the  transaction 
being  a  steak,  which  the  butcher  gave 
him  when  he  slaughtered  the  steer  for 
market. 


A  CASE  OF  LOYALTY 

Some  time  ago  a  section  foreman  on 
one  of  the  Ohio  railroads  who,  with 


68 


the  legal  department  in  mind  and  in 
a  spirit  of  unusual  loyalty,  made  the 
following-  report  on  one  occasion : 

"Yesterday  morning  on  my  way  to 
work  I  found  a  hole  in  the  fence  and 
a  hog  on  the  track.  I  drove  the  hog 
back  through  the  hole  and  repaired  the 
fence.  On  my  way  back  last  night  I 
found  the  hog  on  the  track  and  an- 
other hole  in  the  fence.  I  drove  the 
hog  back  through  this  hole  and  re- 
paired the  fence  once  more.  This  morn- 
ing at  about  the  same  spot  I  found  the 
hog  again  and  another  hole  in  the 
fence,  but  the  hog  was  dead.  He  was 


alt  cut  to  pieces.  I  can't  say  how  this 
happened ;  but  I  am  sure  the  hog  died 
a  natural  death,  and  I  am  willing  to 
swear  to  it." — Exchange. 


RAILROAD  ACCIDENTS 

The  Railway  Age  Gazette  notes 
that  while  the  loss  of  life  from  train 
wrecks  has  steadily  decreased  so  that 
railway  travel  has  become  compara- 
tively safe,  the  number  of  fatalities  to 
trespassers  on  railroads  has  been  on 
the  increase.  It  suggests  that  more 
stringent  laws  be  passed  against  tres- 
passing and  stealing  rides. 


HIGH    BRIDGE    ON    THE    INDIANA    DIVISION. 


ENG-INEEPIN6- 


DEPARTMENT 


That    Part    of    the    Indiana    Division   Which    Was 
Formerly  the  Indianapolis  Southern  Railroad 


T^HE  Indianapolis  Southern  Railroad 
•*•  is  one  of  the  recent  additions  to 
the  Illinois  Central  System  and  prob- 
ably, owing  to  its  isolated  location  with 
respect  to  the  main  lines,  has  not  re- 
ceived the  attention  it  is  entitled  to. 
The  magnitude  of  the  work  and  the 
difficulties  experienced  in  constructing 
this  line  are  not  fully  appreciated,  un- 
less a  journey  is  made  from  Effing- 
ham  to  Indianapolis,  a  distance  of  177 
miles. 

The  original  Indianapolis  Southern 
was  incorporated  August  10,  1899,  to 
build  a  railway  from  the  Indiana  capi- 
tol  to  Switz  City,  Indiana.  Work  was 
not  started  on  the  line,  however,  until 
four  years  after  or  about  1903  and  it 
was  only  a  short  time  after  construc- 
tion had  commenced  that  the  Illinois 
Central  formally  acquired  control. 

The  line  as  contemplated  was  a  sin- 
gle track  railroad  running  southwest 
to  a  connection  with  the  existing  Illi- 
nois Central  line  at  Switz  City.  The 
railroad  from  Effingham  to  Switz  City 
was  constructed  in  1869  and  1889  and 
was  known  as  the  Illinois  &  Indiana 
Railroad.  When  the  Illinois  Central 
acquired  the  Indianapolis  Southern 
Railway,  as  it  was  first  promoted,  a 
consolidation  was  effected  with  the  Il- 
linois &  Indiana  Railroad,  as  the  In- 
dianapolis Southern  Railroad.  Later 
this  railroad  was  combined  with  the 
Illinois  Central. 

Immediately  after  the  acquisition  of 
the  promoted  line,  a  study  was  under- 
taken with  the  view  of  constructing 


a  railroad  to  conform  with  the  traffic 
that  would  result  by  its  combination 
with  the  Illinois  Central  and  as  a  re- 
sult, a  more  economical  location  was 
secured. 

The  revised  location  adopted  re- 
quired the  abandonment  of  portions 
that  had  been  practically  completed 
and  the  new  location,  together  with 
the  cost  of  abandoned  completed  line 
was  constructed  at  a  less  expense  than 
if  the  old  location  had  been  adhered  to. 
The  portions  of  the  original  line  aban- 
doned can  be  observed  in  the  vicinity 
of  Glen  Valley,  north  of  Morgantown, 
near  Unionville  and  Stanford  Tunnel 
near  Bloomington.  That  part  of  the 
road  from  Bloomfield  to  Morgantown 
is  through  a  hilly  country  involving 
heavy  construction  work  in  many 
places.  That  part  of  the  line  north  of 
Morgantown  and  southwest  of  Bloom- 
field  presented  only  average  construc- 
tion features. 

A  large  quantity  of  expensive  exca- 
vation was  encountered  which  re- 
quired the  moving  of  2,000,000  cubic 
yards  of  hard  pan  and  rock,  while  the 
entire  grading  amounted  to  over  4,000,- 
000  cubic  yards  or  an  average  of  al- 
most 50,000  cubic  yards  per  mile. 

The  line  is  generally  designed  so 
that  with  a  few  exceptions  the  ruling 
maximum  grades  are  26  feet  to  the 
mile  for  north  bound  traffic,  and  53 
feet  for  south  bound.  The  curvature 
in  only  a  few  cases  exceeds  4°  as  it 
was  necessary  to  deviate  from  this 
maximum  and  put  in  some  curves  as 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


71 


sharp  as  7°.  The  line  was  constructed 
as  a  first  class  single  track  railroad 
throughout,  and  was  laid  with  75-lb. 
rail,  the  track  being  ballasted  with 
gravel  secured  from  several  gravel  pits 
along  the  line  of  railroad. 

There  are  several  noteworthy  via- 
ducts on  this  line  as  can  be  observed 
from  the  illustrations,  as  well  as  num- 
erous steel  spans  of  minor  importance. 
Richland  Creek  viaduct  is  located 
seven  miles  east  of  Bloomfield  and  it 
is  an  imposing  structure  that  crosses 
this  creek,  with  a  steel  superstructure 
132  feet  in  maximum  height  and  2,215 
feet  in  length  and  constructed  of  tow- 
ers and  intermediate  deck  girders.  The 
18  towers  were  designed  with  40  feet 
deck  girders  carrying  75  feet  deck  gir- 
der spans  between  and  there  are  also 
two  50  foot  deck  girder  spans  on  the 
end.  It  required  2,017  tons  of  steel 
to  carry  out  this  erection.  The  sub- 
structure of  this  viaduct  consists  of 
concrete  piers  of  which  part  are  on 
solid  rock  and  part  on  piles  driven  to 
rock. 

The  Shuffle  Creek  viaduct,  while  not 
such  a  long  structure  as  the  one  at 
Richland  Creek,  is  still  a  structure  of 
considerable  magnitude.  It  is  located 
between  Unionville  and  Trevlac  and  is 
a  viaduct,  960  feet  long  with  trestle 
approaches  and  is  77  feet  above  the 
waters  of  the  creek.  This  viaduct  is 
of  the  same  general  type  as  that  at 
Richland  Creek,  having  eight  40-foot 
towers  with  nine  60-foot  deck  girder 
spans. 

White  River  required  a  structure  of 
considerable  proportions  to  carry  the 
track  over  that  stream,  there  being 
installed  one  100-foot  deck  girder  and 
two  150-foot  deck  spans,  on  masonry 
piers,  which  together  with  the  trestle 
approaches  and  two  smaller  spans 
makes  the  aggregate  length  of  this 
bridge  3,200  feef  long. 

A  part  of  the  White  River  bridge 
crosses  above  the  tracks  of  the  Chi- 
cago, Indianapolis  &  Louisville  R.  R., 
and  the  Evansville  and  Indianapolis 
R.  R.,  by  an  arrangement  that  is  con- 


sidered novel  and  rarely  found  in  rail- 
road construction.  The  intersection  of 
the  two  roads  crossing  at  grade  is 
utilized  to  advantage  by  spanning  both 
roads  at  the  point  of  intersection  and 
in  this  way  a  separation  of  grades  with 
two  railroads  is  secured  by  one  over- 
head span.  The  advantage  of  con- 
structing the  overhead  crossing  at  this 
place  is  readily  recognized  by  observ- 
ing the  illustration. 

Another  unusual  construction  fea- 
ture was  met  with  in  the  city  limits 
of  Indianapolis  in  building  the  con- 
nection to  the  Union  Station.  It  was 
necessary  to  build  practically  above 
the  bed  of  the  creek  known  as  Poague 
Run,  but  at  the  same  time,  however, 
track  elevation  above  the  grade  of  the 
streets  was  obtained. 

A  steel  structure  2,279  feet  long  with 
1,220  feet  of  pile  trestle  approaches 
was  necessary  to  carry  the  tracks  over 
this  creek  and  it  allowed  of  a  connec- 
tion with  the  Union  Station  facilities 
with  only  the  use  of  short  pieces  of 
the  Vandalia  and  C.  C.  C.  &  St.  L. 
R.  R.  companies'  tracks,  which  is  an 
unusually  favorable  -condition,  seldom 
met  with  when  a  new  railroad  endeav- 
ors to  gain  entrance  to  a  Union  Sta- 
tion. 

The  situation  of  the  connection  with 
the  Union  Station  facilities  permitted 
of  the  advantageous  location  of  freight 
house  facilities  oh  Senate  and  South 
streets,  within  convenient  reach  of  the 
retail  and  wholesale  districts.  These 
facilities  are  as  well  situated  as  any 
other  freight  facilities  in  Indianapolis 
for  convenience  to  the  shippers. 

A  glance  at  the  illustration  of  the 
depot  at  Bloomington,  Ind.,  will  in- 
dicate that  it  was  designed  to  give  the 
city  an  edifice  of  beauty  and  a  station 
that  any  town  could  be  proud  of.  This 
depot  is  constructed  of  Bedford  Lime 
Stone  and  is  an  unusually  attractive 
structure. 

The  Indianapolis  Southern,  now  the 
Illinois  Central,  has  given  the  city  of 
Indianapolis  a  connection  with  a  large 
trunk  line  and  a  direct  connection  to 
the  Gulf  Coast,  and  when  the  Panama 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


73 


trade  has  attained  full  development, 
this  fact  will  have  a  considerable  sig- 
nificance to  Indianapolis. 

By  reason  of  a  railroad  radiating  in 
the  direction  that  the  Indiana  Division, 
formerly  the  Indianapolis  Southern 
Railroad,  does,  there  is  opened  up  to 
the  Hoosier  Capitol  a  new  territory 


within  the  State  of  Indiana.  A  great 
number  of  acres  of  farm  lands,  coal 
mines  and  stone  quarries  are  brought 
in  closer  touch  with  Indianapolis,  not 
to  speak  of  the  products  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  system  that  are  convenient- 
ly brought  to  Indianapolis  by  means  of 
the  old  Indianapolis  Southern. 


Name 

R.  D.  Beaver 
Lawrence  Burch 
Thomas  Lepper 
William  N.  Barr 
Frank  O'Neal  (colored) 
Frank  P.  Fish 
Syvert  Schoper 
William  H.  Platt 
Sven  P.  Tornstrand 
James  J.  Hanafy 
Asahel  A.  Hunter 
John  A.  Norman  • 
Jacob  Hieb 

Henry  Adams  (colored) 
John  H.  Garvey 
(Y.  &  M.  V.) 


Where 

Date  of 

Occupation 

Employed 

Service  Retirement 

Engineman 

Centralia 

26  years 

6-30-15 

Engineman 

Hodgenville 

39  years 

6-30-15 

Mason 

Rantoul 

18  years 

4-30-15 

Conductor 

Waterloo 

35  years 

5-31-15 

Section  Laborer 

Oxford 

14  years 

6-30-15 

Boilermaker 

Clinton 

35  years 

7-31-15 

Laborer 

Burnside 

19  years 

7-31-15 

Engineman 

Chicago  Term. 

44  years 

9-30-15 

Cabinet  Maker 

McComb 

40  years 

7-31-15 

Labor  Foreman 

New  Orleans 

30  years 

9-30-15 

Carpenter 

Burnside 

18  years 

9-30-15 

Crossing  Watchman 

Waterloo 

50  years 

9-30-15 

Car  Inspector 

Louisville 

24  years 

10-31-14 

Pumper 

Louisville 

24  years 

10-31-15 

Way 

21  years 

10-31-14 

Engine  Inspector 

Vicksburg 

31  years 

9-30-15 

Illinois  Central  Attorneys  Can  Win  Golf  Games  as 

Well  as  Law  Suits 


General  Attorney  Horton  and  his  son 
met  Mr.  R.  K.  Welsh,  the  Company's 
law  representative  at  Rockford,  and  his 
son,  in  a  contest  over  the  Rockford 
course  Saturday,  September  18,  as  a  re- 
sult of  many  discussions  of  the  respec- 
tive merits  of  the  players  in  this  new  na- 
tional pastime.  It  is  needless  to  say  the 
discussions  were  by  the  older  men.  Those 
who  saw  the  contest  report  that  the  sons 
played  brilliantly,  but  as  to  the  fathers, 


discreetly  confine  their  comments  to  the 
declaration  that  neither  broke  the  course 
record.  It  was  a  close  fight,  not  decided 
until  the  seventeenth  hole,  when  the  vic- 
tory landed  on  the  side  of  the  general 
officer.  In  consequence,  Judge  Horton 
is  now  somewhat  enthusiastic  and  won- 
dering whether  there  are  other  fathers 
with  golfitis  in  the  Company's  Law  De- 
partment whose  sons  play  the  game. 
(Helsell  &  Helsell  should  take  notice.) 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 

Inspection  of  Cars 


A  NEW  forrn  1269  "Inspection  rec- 
•^  ord  at  destination"  has  been  adopt- 
ed and  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  sta- 
tioner, and  agents  should  make  requisi- 
tion for  a  supply. 

In  case  agents  receive  a  shipment 
damaged  account  defects  in  car  they 
should  have  an  inspector  inspect  the  car, 
and  give  them  one  of  the  forms  1269, 
agent  making  copy  of  the  report,  attach- 
ing to  his  bad  order  report,  form  287, 
and  send  to  the  agent,  Loss  and  Damage 
Bureau.  This  will  enable  the  Mechanical 
Department  to  have  car  repaired  before 
the  car  is  again  loaded  with  a  like  com- 
modity. Also  can  be  handled  with 
originating  point,  and  result  in  reduc- 
ing correspondence  in  the  handling  of 
the  claim. 

The  importance  of  inspection  of  equip- 
ment furnished  shippers  should  be  ap- 
preciated by  all  those  having  to  do  with 
the  furnishing  of  cars.  When  a  car  is 
furnished  to  shippers  to  load,  which 
proves  incapable  of  protecting  the  lading 
by  allowing  same  to  become  damaged,  we 
are  not  only  deprived  of  our  revenue  for 
handling  the  car,  but  have  dissatisfied 
and  inconvenienced  patrons.  Damaged 
goods  at  destination  are  as  irritating  to 
the  shipper  and  consignee  as  they  are 
exoensive  to  the  carrier. 

When  a  car  is  desired  for  loading,  the 
commodity  to  be  loaded  into  the  same 
should  be  taken  into  consideration  and 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind  when  placing: 
the  car,  and  before  notifying  the  shipper, 
that  a  car  is  at  his  disposal,  we  should 
know  definitely  that  we  are  furnishing  a 
car  that  is  suitable  for  the  commodity  the 
shipper  desires  to  load,  and  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  detect  defects  and 
either  repair  them  or  another  car  fur- 
nished. 


Considerable  damage  is  caused,  espe- 
cially to  grain  and  grain  products  or 
other  commodities  shipped  in  sacks,  by 
rain  beating  in  at  car  doors.  These  dam- 
ages can  be  greatly  reduced  by  loading 
sacks  in  the  doorways  at  least  18  inches 
from  car  doors  and,  in  addition,  driving 
a  small  wedge  between  door  shoe  and  car 
door,  thereby  forcing  the  door  tightly 
up  against  the  body  of  the  car.  Careful 
search  should  be  made  for  any  protrud- 
ing nails  on  interior  of  car,  and  all  driven 
in  or  extracted,  not  bent  over. 

Stock  cars  should  be  inspected  before 
loading  in  order  to  avoid  injury  to  ani- 
mals from  holes  in  car  floor,  protruding 
nails,  etc. 

Coal  cars  should  be  inspected  as  to 
dumps,  seeing  that  they  fit  properly,  for 
the  result  of  failure  to  so  examine  may 
result  in  leakage  of  coal. 

Tank  cars  should  be  examined  inter- 
nally, ascertaining  what  the  car  last  con- 
tained in  order  to  avoid  loading  into  it 
som°  commodity  which  would  be  dam- 
aged by  coming  in  contact  with  foreign 
substance. 

We  are  requesting  shippers  to  co-oper- 
ate with  us  in  order  that  we  may  deliver 
the  shipments  they  favor  us  with  at  des- 
tination in  good  condition,  and,  while 
their  support  is  being  received,  we  cannot 
expect  them  to  be  responsible  for  the  con- 
dition of  cars,  nor  for  loading  of  cars 
which  we  place  for  them  and  which  are 
supposedly  capable  of  protecting  the 
freight  to  be  loaded. 

The  matter  of  inspection  of  cars,  with 
a  view  of  eliminating  damage  to  freight, 
is  a  very  live  issue  at  the  present  time, 
and,  with  the  co-operation  of  all  em- 
ployes, there  is  no  doubt  but  what  splen- 
did results  may  be  obtained. 


74 


Colored  .-fibre  e 


ai'tment,  Noncotinah ,  (M 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


If  You  Will  You  Can 

By  G.  W.  Berry 


•pvURING  the  past  three  years,  there 
*~*  has  appeared  in  the  columns  of  our 
magazine,  many  strong  papers  written 
by  officials  and  employes  of  the  Com- 
pany, which  papers  if  properly  analyzed, 
much  good  would  have  been  derived 
therefrom.  The  fear,  however,  comes 
from  the  fact  that  such  papers  are 
passed  over  lightly  and  immediate,  criti- 
cisms are  started  and,  unjustly  so,  a 
fault  that  seems  quite  impossible  to  cor- 
rect and  is  traceable  to  the  fact  that  we 
become  calloused  along  certain  lines  and 
are  narrow  in  our  views  and  will  not 
permit  our  minds  to  expand  to  the 
thoughts  given  out  by  others,  even 
though  they  are  broadening. 

This  condition  leads  beyond  this  and 
exposes  itself  quite  frequently  when  di- 
rect and  positive  instructions  are  given 
to  promote  a  certain  new  method  or  a 
change  in  the  regular  routine — result — 
orders  that  should  be  quickly  acted  upon 
are  allowed  to  drag  until  the  mind  of  the 
offender  or  offenders  can  be  regulated 
to  conform  with  the  views  of  the  origi- 
nator of  the  idea. 

This  was  quite  clearly  demonstrated  a 
short  time  ago  when  it  became  neces- 
sary to  change  a  condition  which  had 
been  in  practice  for  twenty  years  or 
more,  or  since  the  inauguration  of  our 
present  suburban  service.  To  those  who 
are  not  familiar  with  the  manner  in 
which  the  trains  are  manned,  it  might  be 
interesting  to  know  that  the  men  are  as- 
signed to  what  is  known  as  combina- 
tions, which  outline  to  them  in  detail, 
just  what  train  movements  they  shall  be 
in  place  to  protect.  It  must  therefore 
be  realized  that  the  routine  of  work  is 


practically  the  same  day  in  and  day  out 
from  year  to  year,  so  the  men  naturally 
become  mechanical,  so  to  speak.  How- 
ever, a  time  arrived  when  this  routine 
of  twenty  years  or  more  had  to  be  en- 
tirely changed  within  six  hours ;  to  make 
this  change  seemed  impossible  and  im- 
practicable because  our  minds  and  acts 
had  been  trained  along  a  certain  chan- 
nel. This  change,  however,  was  made 
and,  where  260  trains  were  being  oper- 
ated, carrying  60,000  passengers  per 
day,  an  increase  in  train  movements  took 
place  whereby  there  was  operated  760 
trains  carrying  248,000  passengers  per 
day.  With  this  tremendous  increase  in 
train  movements  and  of  passengers  car- 
ried, the  punctuality  of  the  movements 
was  beyond  all  expectations.  Further, 
out  of  approximately  700,000  passengers 
handled  in  three  days,  not  one  single  in- 
jury occurred  to  passenger  or  employe. 
There  were  no  engine  failures,  no  dis- 
abled equipment  and  not  one  employe 
reprimanded  or  disciplined. 

For  this  splendid  performance,  the 
whole  credit  is  due  to  the  employes  who 
are  assigned  to  the  suburban  service. 
Opportunity  knocked  at  their  door  and 
they  were  on  hand,  fully  equal  to  its  re- 
quests ;  it  also  gave  to  these  employes  a 
chance  to  show  their  real  worth  and 
their  splendid  high  standard  of  efficien- 
cy, under  so  radical  a  change,  and  so  it 
follows,  it  was  done,  whereas  the  origi- 
nal thought  ruled  it  could  not  be  done 
and,  so  it  is  with  other  problems ;  we 
don't  think  they  can  be  solved  until  we 
are  brought  face  to  face  with  them  and 
then  we  proceed  to  work  them  out  to  a 
point  of  100  per  cent  efficiency;  this  is 
where  the  test  of  our  ability  is  shown 


77 


78 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


and  demonstrated  that  correct  ideas  are 
held  in  check  by  a  wrong  thought.  This, 
in  a  measure,  is  the  fault  we  are.more  or 
less  controlled  by. 

When  these  narrow  errors  of  thought 


become  reconciled  and  less  using  of  the 
phrase  "it  can't  be  done"  and  supplant- 
ing it  with  "it  can  be  done,"  greater 
harmony  will  prevail  between  Employer 
and  Employe. 


Riolado 

By  W.  Klusmeier 


Far  out  from  the  Terminal  Station, 
Down  close  to  the  Rio  Grande  shore, 
Stands  a  lone  little  telegraph  office 
Suggestive  of  legend  and  lore. 

Whose  signal  lights  silently  gleaming, 
Like  fiery  blotches  of  red, 
Through  the  loneliest  hours  of  dark- 
ness, 
Tell  of  danger  or  safety  ahead. 

And   the   sounder's   disconsolate   mur- 
mur, 

As  solemn  as  Heaven's  decree, 
Chants  softly  it's  endless  complaining 
To  the  "Pounder  of  Brass"  at  the  key. 

Who  sits  through  his  wearisome  vigil, 
And  governs  the  Semaphore's  ray, 
To  halt  the  great  "Moguls"  for  orders 
Or  bid  them  proceed  on  their  way. 

And  the  "Limited"  rushes  at  midnight, 
Like  a  demon  with  shrieks  of  affright, 
And  leaves  the  lone  office  atremble, 
In  the  darkness  and  silence  of  night. 

There  oft  through  the  long  nights  of 

winter, 

I've  dozed  in  my  chair  at  the  key, 
And  listened  in  awe  at  the  wailing 
Of  the  wind  as  it  whispered  to  me. 

And  dreamed  of  the  far  away  city, 
Whose  voice  sounded  faint  o'er  the 

wire, 

And  pictured  its  splendor  and  glory, 
As  I  nodded  and  dozed  by  the  fire. 


And 


the 


spring  was  re- 


at  last  when 

turning, 

And  the  sun  wore  a  smile  in  the  sky, 
A  man  was  sent  down  to  relieve  me. 
And  I  bade  Riolado  good-bye. 

And  I  laughed  with  delight  to  be  leav- 
ing, 

And  the  far  away  world  seemed  to 
glow, 


But  when  to  depart  I  was  ready, 
I  almost  regretted  to  go. 

And,  standing  upon  the  rear  platform. 
As  I  left  on  the  "Flyer"  that  night, 
I  could  see  the  old  signal  lights  gleam- 
ing, 
And  their  glow  was  unusually  bright. 

Like  the  eyes  of  a  friend  never  failing. 
They  were  shining  so  earnest  and  red. 
And  I  thought  they  were  moist,  as  with 

tear-drops, 
Or  perhaps  it  were  my  eyes,  instead. 

And,  as  the  old  office  receded 

In   the   darkness,   there   welled   in    my 

heart 

A  feeling  like  that  which  arises 
When  two  old  companions  must  part. 

And  I  gazed  with  a  lingering  fondness, 
Till  their  glow  melted  out  in  the  sky, 
And  the  night  became  just  a  bit  darker 
As  my  lips  formed  a  silent  good-bye. 

And  deep  in  the  cushions  reclining, 
When  the  signals  had  faded  from  sight, 
I  tried  to  subdue  my  emotions. 
As    we    rumbled    along    through    the 
night. 

And  now  many  "pay  days"  have  van- 
ished 

Since  I  left  the  old  Rio  Grande  shore, 
But  often  my  heart  fills  with  yearning 
To  pull  the  big  levers  once  more. 

And  to  list  to  the  musical  babble 
Of  the  sounder's  perpetual  song, 
As  all-  through  the  night  the  great 

drivers 
Go  rolling  and  pounding  along. 

Where   the   "Limited"   rushes  at   mid- 
night, . 

Like  a  demon  with  shrieks  of  affright, 
And  leaves  Riolado  atremble, 
In  the  darkness  and  silence  of  nietit. 


Passenger  Traffic 
Department 

Little  Talks 
mth  the  Rambler 

Service  Notes 
of  interest 


The  Rambler  Has  a  Great  Scheme 


"LJIST!"  said  "Snap  Shot  Bill"  in 
*••*•  an  excited  undertone,  "there's 
an  effective  picture,"  and  adjusting  the 
stop  and  focus  of  his  kodak  he  stealth- 
fully  placed  it  on  the  outside  ticket  win- 
dow shelf  and  surreptiously  snapped 
off  a  quick  time  exposure  of  the  Ticket 
Agent  sitting  in  his  office.  Even  my 
prosaic  nature  responded  mildly  to 
Bill's  statement  as  to  his  having  be- 
fore him  an  effective  picture,  and  I 
was  not  surprised  to  hear  the  Rambler, 
who  is  somewhat  up  on  art,  remark 
under  his  breath,  "that  kodak  fiend  cer- 
tainly has  an  instinct  for  the  genre." 
He  afterwards  quietly  explained  to  me, 
at  my  request,  that  "genre"  was  from 
the  French  and  meant  a  form  of  art 
illustrative  of  common  life ;  particular- 
ly any  little  homely  scene  depicting  a 
human  interest.  From  such  point  of 
view  the  Agent,  as  he  sat  at  his  tele- 
graph desk  facing  the  window  that 
looked  out  onto  the  platform  and 
across  the  track,  did  make  a  somewhat 
striking  picture.  As  Snap  Shot  Bill 
pointed  out  after  we  got  the  print,  the 
lighting  on  his  features  was  "fine!"; 
but  the  real  forces  of  it  all  was  the 
Agent's  general  attitude  and  the  ex- 
pression of  his  face.  Sitting  half  side- 
ways of  the  desk,  with  elbow  on  the 
edge  of  the  latter  and  chin  supported 
by  the  palm,  and  with  legs  crossed  he 
held  on  his  lap  a  printed  circular  whose 
pages  he  was  listlessly  turning  with 


his  free  hand.  On  his  face  was  a  funny, 
rather  doleful  expression ;  so  marked 
that  Snap  Shot  Bill  on  completion  of 
the  exposure  for  his  picture  made  our 
presence  known  by  a  laughing  "Look 
pleasant,  please!"  as  we  started  to  file 
into  the  little  ticket  office.  "Why!" 
said  the  Agent,  his  countenance  imme- 
diately changing  into  a  genial  smile, 
"I  didn't  hear  you  gentlemen  come  in. 
Didn't  expect  you  back  so  soon.  Of 
course  I'll  look  pleasant  with  a  bunch 
like  you  about." 

"Well,  you  didn't  when  I  just  shot 
off  your  picture,"  said  Bill.  "Looked 
as  if  you  had  found  your  last  two-bit 
piece  to  be  counterfeit  with  the  next 
pay  day  a  week  off.  In  fact,  you  re- 
minded me  of  a  story,"  he  continued 
as  he  slipped  backwards  up  on  the 
telegraph  table  and  began  to  swing  his 
legs  over  the  ledge  while  the  Rambler 
and  myself  found  seats  in  the  one  chair 
of  the  room  and  on  a  box  in  the  cor- 
ner, respectively,  the  Agent  remaining 
standing.  "You  know,"  Bill  began, 
"in  the  long,  long  ago,  before  the  days 
of  'courtesy  always'  were  dreamed  of, 
a  man  went  to  a  then  so-called  picture 
gallery  to  have  his  photograph  taken. 
He  sat  before  the  camera  with  a  sul- 
len, scowling  face  while  the  operator 
fussed  around  adjusting  the  pose,  fo- 
cusing and  inserting  his  old-fashioned 
wet  plates.  Finally,  with  plate  slide 
removed  and  hands  on  lens  cap  he  said, 


80 


82 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


'I'm  now  about  to  take  the  picture, 
look  pleasant,  please!'  'I  can't,'  the 
subject  replied,  'I  am  a  Union  Depot 
ticket  seller.' "  "Was  I  as  bad  as 
that?"  laughed  the  Agent.  "No!  You 
were  not,"  spoke  up  the  Rambler,  "but 
you  surely  did  look  a  bit  doleful. 
What's  the  matter?"  "I  know  what," 
I  said,  picking  up  the  circular  he  had 
been  scanning  and  which  he  had 
thrown  aside  on  our  entrance.  "It's 
this  twelve  page  passenger  tariff  circ- 
ular that  was  giving  him  the  'willies.' 
Just  look  at  it.  Fine  print  and  course 
print,  lists,  abbreviations,  cross  refer- 
ences, and  goodness  knows  what." 
"Oh,"  said  the  Agent,  now  aroused 
professionally.  "That's  all  easy  enough 
when  you  get  the  hang  of  such 
things."  "And  'getting  the  hang,' " 
interrupted  the  Rambler,  with  what  I 
thought  a  rather  pitying  look  at  me, 
'is  just  where  learning  one's  business 
comes  in  as  against  the  specific  busi- 
ness of  others."  "That's  just  it,"  I 
replied  somewhat  obstinately,  I  fear. 
"It's  made  a  technical  matter,  and  I 
do  not  see  why  such  things  cannot 
be  constructed  so  that  they  are  simple, 
plain  reading."  There  was  a  general 
laugh  at  my  expense,  and  the  Rambler 
hastened  to  say,  as  I  at  first  thought 
irrevelantly,  "the  cat  has  caught  a 
rat.  He  realized  that  owing  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  occasion  it  became 
incumbent  upon  him  to  arrive  at  an 
immediate  conclusion.  There  you  have 
two  perfectly  clear  sentences,"  he  went 
on.  "The  first  undoubtedly  seems  the 
plainer  because  the  fact  it  conveys  is 
simple.  The  other  is  of  a  nature  to 
require  more  concentration  of  mind, 
but  is  equally  plain  to  you  I  am  sure, 
when  concentration  is  unconsciously 
or  otherwise  applied.  That's  how  it 
is  with  a  tariff  circular.  I  have  read 
it,  and  notwithstanding  what  I  have 
suggested  as  to  its  reading  being  part 
of  a  business,  there  is  but  a  single 
small  technical  item  in  it,  the  three 
lines  under  'basing  fares.'  The  rest 
any  layman  can  read  intelligently  by 
simply  giving  it  close  attention." 
Snap  Shot  Bill  looked  bored,  I 


thought,  as  he  lit  a  cigarette  and  be- 
gan to  swing  his  legs  more  vigorous- 
ly over  the  edge  of  the  table,  but  say- 
ing "nothing.  With  the  Agent,  how- 
ever, it  was  different.  The  Rambler's 
dissertation  had  struck  a  responsive 
chord,  and  he  hastened  to  say,  "That's 
so !  A  little  concentration  turns  the 
trick.  When  I  first  began  to  read  these 
tariff  circulars  I  was  somewhat  like 
you,"  and  he  nodded  to  me.  "There 
was  something  about  their  general  ap- 
pearance that  at  first  glance  seemed 
to  confuse  me.  Then  it  was,  I  guess," 
he  added  with  a  laugh,  "that  I  acquired 
what  I  call  my  'flurry  face,'  in  addi- 
tion to  what  I  trust  is  the  more  com- 
mon with  me,  and  which  I  call  my 
'concentration  face.'  You  know,  as  a 
telegrapher,  with  instruments  clicking 
all  about,  I  had  to  learn  to  concen- 
trate, and  now  it's  second  nature  to  me 
and  to  any  other  operator,  but  I  guess 
I  must  have  lapsed  into  my  old  flurry 
face  when  you  took  that  picture  just 
now.  If  so,  I  hope  it's  an  exception 
for  me  to  do  so  now-a-days,  and  I 
don't  see  how  I  came  to  do  it  then. 
This  circular  is  certainly  plain  enough 
after  a  preliminary  going  over  to  see 
how  it  is  constructed.  Just  see,"  he 
added,  as  he  reached  over  and  took  up 
the  circular  he  had  been  running 
through  when  we  interrupted  him. 
"It's  twelve  pages,  to  be  sure,  but  you 
don't  have  to  read  every  word  of  it 
through  consecutively  as  you  would 
a  story  book.  On  the  contrary,  after 
giving  certain  broad  facts,  it  works 
more  like  a  reference  book.  For  in- 
stance, on  the  first  page  it  clearly 
states  it  is  about  'Rail-Water — Circle 
Tours,'  and  briefly  defines  the  destina- 
tions, and  the  gateways.  That  is,  New 
York  via  New  Orleans,  via  New 
Orleans  and  Havana  by  either  of  two 
steamship  lines  and  via  Savannah. 
Now,"  he  continued,  as  he  turned  a 
page,  "what  are  the  questions  that  nat- 
urally arise  in  mind  from  that  much?" 
"Are  the  tours  applicable  from  your 
station,  what  are  the  dates  of  sale,  the 
fares  and  the  possible  rail  routes  in 
connection  with  the  three  prescribed 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


83 


water  routes,"  suggested  the  Rambler. 
"Precisely!"  said  the  Agent.  "Now 
see  how  quickly  all  of  those  questions 
are  answered  by  the  help  of  the  'Table 
of  Contents'  at  the  head  of  the  sec- 
ond page.  In  that  table  I  find  'Index 
of  stations  from  and  to  which  this 
tariff  applies' — Section  2.  By  turning 
to  that  section  it  refers  me  to  Section 
20  in  which  I  find  my  station  listed. 
Next  the  'Dates  of  Sale'  are  even  more 
quickly  found  by  the  showing  in  the 
contents  table  that  they  are  stated  in 
Section  4;  so  also  are  the  'Fares,'  the 
table  saying  they  are  to  be  found  in 
Section  26.  This  last,  of  course,  in- 
volves cross  reference  back  according 
to  route,  but  the  references  are  clearly 
and  simply  indicated,  and  there  is  no 
trouble  to  follow  them.  Finally  comes 
the  routing,  which  possibly  should 
have  been  determined  first,  fares  and 
routes  being  inter-dependent.  But  un- 
der 'Routes'  we  are  referred  to  Sec- 
tion 19  and  by  that  to  several  other 
sections  from  which  is  quickly  run 
down  the  desired  information,  accord- 
ing to  territory  and  circle-tour  de- 
sired." 

"Something  like  a  follow-up  system," 
interrupted  Snap  Shot  Bill,  as  he  threw 
the  butt  of  his  cigarette  into  the  cus- 
pidor and  slid  down  off  the  desk." 
"Then,  of  course,"  the  Agent  went  on, 
"there  follows  the  innumerable  ques- 
tions that  always  come  up  in  connec- 
tion with  the  sale  of  a  ticket  of  this 
kind.  Such  as  Children's  Fares,  Lim- 
its, Stop-overs,  Baggage,  Transfers, 
and  the  like;  and  in  this  case  Steam- 
ship Information.  But  they're  all 
quickly  and  plainly  answered  by  aid 
of  the  Table  of  Contents,  if  many  of 
them  do  not  stare  you  in  the  face  with- 
out its  aid.  My!"  he  abruptly  ex- 
claimed as  he  glanced  at  the  clock. 
"It's  nearly  supper  time,  and  the  wife 
will  be  expecting  us  up  at  the  house 
any  time  now.  Come  along.  But  there 
W3S  nothing,  as  you  have  seen,  in  that 
circular  to  eive  me  the  flurry  face. 
What  could  I  have  be-n  thinking  of?" 

The  Rambler  and  I  had  taken  a  run 
down  the  line  over  Sunday  to  look  into 


the  prospects  as  to  a  little  duck  shoot- 
ing later;  the  bagging  of  ducks  being 
one  of  the  Rambler's  alleged  delights, 
although  like  his  fishing,  my  observa- 
tion was  that  he  took  more  time  and 
pleasure  in  the  anticipation  of  those 
diversions  than  in  their  actual  enjoy- 
ment. Not  but  what  he  occasionally 
went  fishing  and  went  hunting.  The 
occasions  were  few  and  far  between, 
however,  and  it  took  but  a  trifle  to  di- 
vert him  from  either.  We  had  taken 
Snap  Shot  Bill  along  with  us,  at  his 
solicitation,  in  order  that  he  might 
have  a  day's  outing  with  his  kodak. 
After  having  supper  with  the  Agent 
and  his  family  we  remained  to  visit 
with  them  until  the  up  train  should 
arrive  on  which  we  were  to  return 
home.  During  the  evening's  conver- 
sation Snap  Shot  Bill  was  asked  how 
he  had  succeeded  with  his  particular 
sport,  for,  while  ke  had  been  with  us 
more  or  less,  there  were  times  when 
he  had  gone  off  by  himself.  "Fine !" 
he  replied.  "I  think  I  have  about  a 
dozen  beauty  compositions."  "I  don't 
see  where  you  got  them,"  I  remarked, 
"I  saw  nothing  about  here  I  consider 
particularly  pretty."  "Well,"  was  the 
retort,  "I  got  a  picture  of  you  for  one 
thing."  Thereupon  the  Rambler 
laughed  and  fell  into  a  discussion  with 
Bill  on  the  subject  of  picture  making; 
the  former  arguing  particularly  in 
favor  of  those  having  what  he  called 
a  human  interest.  In  the  course  of  the 
conversation  the  difference  was 
brought  out  between  the  ability  of  peo- 
ple with  a  kodak  to  find  good  subjects 
in  their  chosen  field  of  endeavor.  "Not 
counting  those  who  rarely  get  any- 
thing worth  while  anyway,  some  peo- 
ple," said  Snap  Shot  Bill,  "fail  to  see 
a  chance  for  a  good  picture  where  one 
more  observing  or  with  more  artistic 
feeling  obtain  many;  oftentimes  their 
most  appealing  compositions.  I  have 
often  thought,"  he  added,  as  if  turning 
the  matter  over  in  mind  as  he  spoke, 
"it  would  be  interesting  to  compare 
the  results  attained  with  a  given  num- 
ber of  kodakers  working  under  the 
same  general  conditions.  Not  neces- 


84 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


sarily  in  the  same  but  in  similar  fields, 
and  under  approximately  like  condi- 
tions; or  more  particularly  from  the 
same  general  motive.  Vacation  rec- 
ords, for  instance,  either  all  in  the 
mountains,  or  by  the  seashore,  or  all 
in  the  woods."  "Why  not  offer  some 
kind  of  a  prize,"  said  the  Rambler, 
"that  would  round  up  such  a  showing 
for  comparison  ?"  "How  can  I  go  about 
it?"  Bill  interrogated.  "I'm  neither  a 
dealer  nor  a  publisher  of  a  photo- 
graphic magazine."  "Still,"  mused  the 
Rambler,  "I  think  it  could  be  done." 
"Let  me  suggest,"  I  said,  for  I  thought 
by  the  Rambler's  face  that  he  was  work- 
ing out  an  idea  in  the  matter,  "that  we 
three  put  up  $10.00  each  for  a  prize  of 
$30.00,  or  three  prizes  of  ten  each,  as 
may  be  determined.  Then  we  will  let 
the  Rambler  work  out  a  means  of  quiet 
exploitation.  My  ide^,  however,  would 
not  be  to  make  it  general,  but  between 
three,  or  at  the  most,  four  competitors." 
"That's  the  idea."  the  Rambler  ex- 
claimed. "Now  how  would  this  do  for 
a  plan?  Among  the  would-be  winter 
tourists  that  we  unearth  I  might  be 
able  to  quietly  pick  four  kodak  enthu- 
siasts of  experience.  One  of  them  I 
would  try  to  pursuade  to  take  a  trip 
over  the  Central  to  New  Orleans, 
thence  an  ocean  voyage  via  a  Southern 
Pacific  steamship  to  New  York  and 
from  there  home  again  by  way  of  some 
one  of  the  several  rail  lines  that  are  at- 
tractive in  service  and  landscape  features 
en  route.  Think  of  the  chance  for  pic- 
tures. On  the  rail  lines  an  occasional 
good  one  from  the  rear  of  the  train  or 
at  a  station,  street  and  park  scenes  in 
the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and  New 
York,  and  marines  of  varying  nature 
from  and  on  ship-board.  The  second  and 
third  man,  or  woman,  I'd  also  send  on 
a  round  trip  through  New  York  via  the 
Central  to  New  Orleans,  except  that 
their  ocean  trip  would  be  first  to  Ha- 
vana, Cuba,  and  from  thence  to  the 
eastern  metropolis.  Of  course,  to 
avoid  a  certain  duplication,  one  would 
be  routed  from  New  Orleans  to  Hava- 
na and  from  Havana  to  New  York  on 
ships  of  the  United  Fruit  Company's 


'Great  White  Fleet',  while  the  other 
would  be  sent  from  New  Orleans  to 
Havana  on  a  Southern  Pacific  steam- 
ship connecting  at  Havana  for  New 
York  with  a  New  York  &  Cuba  Mail 
(Ward  Line)  steamship.  The  picture 
opportunities  would  be  the  same  as 
the  first  with  the  important  addition  of 
the  novelties  that  could  be  picked  up 
in  Cuba.  Now  for  the  fourth  and  last," 
the  Rambler  continued  as  he  looked  at 
his  watch.  "As  in  the  case  of  the 
others,  I  would  have  it  be  a  New  York 
tour,  but  I  would  send  that  individual 
via  Savanah.  By  the  Illinois  Central  and 
Central  of  Georgia  rail  linis  to  Savanah 
and  a  steamship  of  the  Ocean  Steamship 
Company  of  Savanah  from  the  latter 
port  to  New  York;  the  trip  to  be  fin- 
ished, as  in  the  other  cases,  over  some 
attractive  rail  line  from  New  York 
back  to  the  starting  place.  While  this 
would  be  a  new  route  as  far  as  the 
beaten  track  of  tourist  travel  is  con- 
cerned, it  is  attractive  in  its  way  as  are 
the  others,  besides  requiring  the  least 
expenditure  of  time  and  money.  By 
making  a  stopover  en  route  at  Bir- 
mingham, Ala.,  as  well  as  at  Savanah, 
both  of  which  are  mighty  interesting 
cities  to  visit  and  afford  much  ma- 
terial for  the  kodak  to  work  on,  from 
a  prize-picture  point  of  view  I  would 
not  be  surprised  if  this  fourth  tourist 
drew  the  prize,  given  equal  skill  and 
temperament  with  the  others.  Now  as 
to  the  prize,"  "Wait  a  minute !"  laugh- 
ingly broke  in  the  agent.  "I've  been 
waiting  for  you  to  reach  that  Savanah 
part  of  your  pretty  little  speech.  "He's 
been  describing,  gentlemen,"  he  said, 
nodding  to  Bill  and  myself,  "the  Rail- 
Water-Circle-Tours  Excursions  of  the 
circular  we  talked  about  this  afternoon. 
I  wouldn't  be  a  bit  surprised  if  he  wrote 
that  circular  himself,"  "No!  I  did  not," 
was  the  quick  response ;  "but  about 
the  prize  and  the  application  of  all  I 
have  suggested  to  get  in  a  good  show- 
ing of  pictures  for  Bill's  amusement. 
To  each  of  the  four  individuals  that 
I  have  routed  as  outlined  I  will  say, 
'on  your  return  send  me  a  print  of 
each  of  the  snapshots  taken  during  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


trip.  There  are  three  others  traveling 
by  as  many  different  routes,  who  will 
do  the  same.'  All  four  will  know  that 
there  are  that  many  in  the  game,  but 
their  identity  will  be  unknown  to  each 
other.  They  will  be  told  their  com- 
bined collections  will  be  given  to  a 
'photographic  critic  of  international 
fame,  noted  particularly  for  his  ac- 
curate judgment  and  fairness.'  That 
will  be  you,  Bill,  if  I  may  be  forgiven 
the  lie.  They  will  be  further  told,  that 
for  obvious  reasons  his  identity  will 
not  be  given  them,  neither  will  he  know 
theirs.  But,  from  the  combined  col- 
lections he  will  select  the  one  picture 
that  from  all  points  of  view  he  consid- 
ers the  best.  For  that  one  picture  will 


be  given  cash  prize  of  $30.00  with  no 
strings  attached.  All  other  pictures 
will  be  returned  to  their  owners.  Now 
what  do  think  of  that  for  a  scheme, 
Snap  Shot  Bill?"  the  Rambler  con- 
cluded with  beaming  face,  for  he  had 
grown  enthusiastic  as  his  idea  devel- 
oped while  he  talked. 

"Rotten !"  was  the  quick  response. 
"Why?"  "First,  because  for  you  to 
round  up  four  good  kodak  operators 
and  steer  them  over  those  four  specific 
routes  looks  to  me  like  catching 
a  bird  by  putting  salt  on  its  tail. 
Chiefly,  however,  because  I  don't  see 
where  'we  all'  are  going  to  get  the 
thirty  dollars.  I  can  ante  no  ten  spot 
to  get  into  the  game." 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


AFFECTIVE  October  17th,  1915, 
the  Seminole  Limited,  Florida 
train  No.  9,  will  leave  Chicago  at 
10:15  P.  M.  instead  of  at  8:15  P.  M. 
and  will  arrive  at  Jacksonville  8 :00  A. 
M.  the  second  morning  instead  of  at 
7 :30  A.  M.  The  running  time  from 
Chicago  will  thus  not  only  be  quick- 
ened over  any  previous  schedule,  but 
the  later  departure  from  Chicago  will 
afford  many  convenient  connections  at 
that  point  with  lines  making  evening 
arrivals  that  hitherto  have  not  been 
made.  There  will  be  no  change  on  the 
northbound  schedule  but  southbound 
the  arrival  at  Birmingham  will  be  at 
5:30  P.  M.,  at  Columbus,  Ga.,  10:55 
P.  M.,  and  at  Albany,  2:20  A.  M. 

Connection  for  Savannah  at  Birm- 
ingham or  Columbus  will  be  broken. 
This  fact,  however,  need  not  deter 
agents  from  soliciting  Savannah  busi- 
ness by  the  Central  of  Georgia  and 
Birmingham  Gateway  among  sight- 
seeing tourists,  as  the  last  may  very 
profitably  spend  a  day  in  Birmingham. 
As  one  of  the  new,  flourishing  cities  of 
the  south  Birmingham  is  a  most  en- 
tertaining place  to  visit.  It  has  the 
best  of  hotel  accommodations,  is  pic- 


turesquely located,  has  beautiful 
homes  scattered  over  the  sides  of  the 
mountains  and  parks,  country  clubs 
and  other  features  of  interest. 

The  sun-parlor  observation  car,  so 
popular  with  Florida  patrons  last  win- 
ter, with  the  change  of  schedules  on 
the  above  date,  will  be  restored  to  the 
Seminole  Limited  and  run  through  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Jacksonville. 

On  the  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  Divi- 
sions the  following  changes  will  occur : 
No.  822  will  be  changed  to  connect  with 
new  time  of  No.  9,  but  will  make  no  con- 
nection with  No.  122  at  Paducah,  Ky. ; 
No.  133,  between  Fulton  and  Memphis, 
will  leave  Fulton  at  8:25  A.  M.  instead 
of  6  :25  A.  M.  and  arrive  at  Memphis  at 
12  :30  P.  M.  The  motor  car  now  being 
operated  between  Covington  and 
Memphis  as  Nos.  135  and  136  will  be 
extended  to  operate  between  Dyers- 
burg  and  Memphis,  leaving  Dyersburg 
at  6:00  A.  M.  and  arriving  at  Memphis 
at  9  :00  A.  M.,  leaving  Memphis  at  6  :05 
P.  M.,  as  at  present,  and  arriving  at 
Dyersburg  at  9  :05  P.  M.  The  Chicago- 
Memphis  sleeping  car  now  being  car- 
ried on  No.  3  will  be  carried  on  Nos. 
0  and  133.  The  dining  car  running  on 


86 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


No.  25  between  Chicago  and  Cham- 
paign will  be  extended  to  Mattoon.  The 
sleeping  car  now  operated  on  Nos.  133, 
9,  and  822  between  St.  Louis  and  Padu- 
cah  will  be  carried  on  Nos.  207  and  822. 

A  few  changes  will  also  probably  be 
made  on  the  above  date  on  Western 
Lines,  details  concerning  which  will  be 
announced  by  circular. 


In  soliciting  California  business  it 
may  serve  many  of  our  agents,  par- 
ticularly those  in  agricultural  regions, 
to  be  able  to  refer  to  the  following 
facts  in  reference  to  live  stock  shows 
at  the  Panama-Pacific  International 
Exposition  at  San  Francisco: 

From  September  30  to  December  3, 
the  Panama-Pacific  International  Ex- 
position at  San  Francisco  will  be  the 
scene  of  a  succession  of  live  stock 
shows,  which,  it  is  believed,  will  sur- 
pass any  ever  held  in  the  United 
States,  or  even  in  the  world,  almost 
half  a  million  dollars  having  been  ap- 
propriated for  those  features.  The  Ex- 
position itself  has  apportioned  $190,000 
for  cash  prizes  for  live  stock  and  the 
horse  show ;  forty-five  breed  record  as- 
sociations have  set  aside  $100,327  for 
special  premiums  and  the  commissions 
of  various  states  have  appropriated  a 
total  of  $150,230  for  participation  of 
live  stock  from  their  respective 
regions. 

The  extensive  preparations  made  for 
the  shows  are  as  follows: 

Horses,  mules  and  asses — Sept.  30- 
Oct.  13. 

Cattle,  beef  and  dairy — Oct.  18-Nov. 
1. 

Sheep,  goats  and  swine — Nov.  3- 
Nov.  15. 

Car  lots  of  live  stock — Nov.  11-Nov. 
14. 

Poultry  and  pigeons — Nov.  18-Nov. 
28. 

Dogs,  cats  and  pet  stock — Nov.  12- 
Dec.  1. 

Children's  pets — Dec.  1-3. 

Between    12,000    and    15,000    people 


from  south  of  the  Ohio  River  spent 
the  summer  in  Chicago.  The  number 
was  a  slight  decrease  from  the  move- 
ment during  1914  and  was  due  to  the 
drop  in  the  cotton  market  of  last  Fall, 
which  affected  general  business  of 
Dixieland.  The  difference  in  the  num- 
ber who  came  to  Chicago,  however, 
was  not  so  heavy  as  was  anticipated, 
running  only  about  5,000. 

Speaking  of  the  travel,  Passenger 
Traffic  Manager  Hatch  of  the  Illinois 
Central  said: 

"We  carried  about  150  people  a  day 
from  the  territory  south  of  the  Ohio 
River  to  Chicago  during  ten  weeks  of 
the  Summer — that  is,  June  15  to  Sep- 
tember 1.  In  nearly  every  case  the 
traveler  came  to  the  Chicago  district 
for  climatic  reasons.  A  percentage 
went  to  the  Lake  Michigan  and  Wis- 
consin resorts. 

"Travel  from  the  South  to  the  Chi- 
cago and  Great  Lakes  district  has 
come  to  be  an  institution.  A  big  end 
of  the  people  make  their  Summer  resi- 
dences in  Chicago  and  mostly  at  the 
South  Side  hotels.  It  is  largely  a 
family  matter — that  is,  entire  families 
come  North  and  stay  the  whole  Sum- 
mer. The  business  is  increasing  year 
by  year  and  if  business  conditions  had 
not  interfered  1915  would  have 
broken  travel  records." — Chicago  Ex- 
aminer, Sept.  28. 

Last  month  a  through  daily  observa- 
tion-sleeping car  service  was  estab- 
lished by  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  & 
St.  Paul  Ry.  between  Sioux  City  and 
Tacoma  via  Mitchell,  Aberdeen,  Spok- 
ane and  Seattle,  operating  westbound 
on  S.  C.  &  D.  No.  3,  H.  &  D.  No.  103 
and  "The  Columbian"  train  No.  17; 
the  new  through  car  leaving  Sioux 
City  at  7:00  P.  M.,  Mitchell  12:50  A. 
M.,  Aberdeen  7:45  A.  M.,  arriving  at 
Seattle  10:25  A.  M.,  Tacoma  11:45  A. 
M.  (third  morning).  Corresponding 
service  eastbound. 


While  the  following  poem,  taken 
from  the  "Chicago  Elks  News,"  may 
not  properly  be  considered  as  a  "Serv- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


87 


ice  Note"  of  interest,  its  underlying 
thought  is  of  such  broad  application 
that  it  is  reproduced  as  a  matter  of 
general  interest. 

FORGET    IT 
If   you    see    a    tall    fellow   ahead    of   a 

crowd, 
A    leader    of    men,    marching    fearless 

and  proud, 
And  you  know  of  a  tale  whose  mere 

telling  aloud 
Would    cause    his    proud    head    to    in 

anguish  be  bowed, 
It's  a  pretty  good  plan  to  forget  it. 
If  you  know  of  a  skeleton  hidden  away 


In  a  closet,  and  guarded  and  kept  from 

the  day, 
In    the    dark ;    and    whose     showing, 

whose  sudden  display, 
Would    cause    grief    and    sorrow    and 

lifelong  dismay, 
It's  a  pretty  good  plan  to  forget  it. 

If    you    know    of    a    thing    that    will 

darken  the  joy 

Of  a  man  or  a  woman,  a  girl  or  a  boy, 
That  will  wipe  out  a  smile  or  the  least 

way  annoy 

A- fellow,  or  cause  any  gladness  to  cloy, 
It's  a  pretty  good  plan  to  forget  it. 


My  Boy  "Tonee' 

By  A.  M.  Taylor 


Each  time  hes  a  come,  my  boy  a  Tonee 
Hes  a  read  a  da  magazine  to  a  me, 
Me,  I  no  a  can  reada  da  Englisha,  but, 
Tonee,  hees  a  smart,  heesa  got  da  great 

nut. 
Heesa  learn  to   read  a  da  book  in  da 

school, 

An'  he  read  so  slick,  dat  boy  is  no  fool, 
An'  I  tella  you  dis,  da  ol'  magazine, 
Heesa  maka  me  glad,  hees  a  one  fina 

ting, 

But  Meester  Editor,  all  a  da  time, 
Heesa  read  a  to  me  a  da  story  or  rhyme, 
'Bout  da  brave  engineer,  or  some  oder 

man, 
An'  not  a  dam  ting  bout  da  section  han'. 

Who  is  it  a  builda  da  track  so  fine, 
An'  maka  dis  road  one  a  fine  a  line? 
Who  is  it  lay  a  da  rail  an  da  tie, 
An'   cutta   da  grass   when  he   getta  too 
•  high 


An'  keep  da  track  a  look  a  so  gran'  ? 
I  tella  you  who,  it  da  ol'  section  man. 
Hees  a  work  on  da  dig  wid  da  pick  an 

da  shove 
To  make  one  a  fine  track,  deesa  work 

heesa  love, 
Hees  a  fixa  him  so,  because,  some  day, 

by  gar, 
Bigga  boss  heesa  come  in  hees  ol'  private 

car. 
If  hees  lika  dat  track,  heesa  wave  a  da 

han' 

An'  a  make  him  feel  good,  dees  ol'  sec- 
tion man, 

So  please  Meester  Editor,  jus'  one  a  time, 
When  you  finda  nice  place,  jus  a  stick 

in  da  rhyme 
You  write  a  so  nice  an'  so  sweet  and  so 

gran' 
'Bout  disa  son  of  a  gun  of  an  ol'  section 

man. 

B.  R.  &  P.  Ry.  Magazine. 


the 


Biographical  Sketch  No.  1  7 


JOHN  T.  HAYS 
District  Attorney,  Sullivan,  Indiana 


89 


90 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


JOHN  T.  HAYS,  District  Attorney, 
graduated  from  Mount  Union  Col- 
lege, Alliance,  Ohio,  in  June,  1869,  and 
on  March  1,  1875,  began  ths  practice  of 
law  in  Sullivan,  Indiana,  where  he  has 
since  resided.  He  has  long  been  a  prom- 
inent figure  in  professional  and  civic  af- 
fairs in  Indiana,  occupying  many  posi- 
tions of  trust,  and  being  engaged  in  much 
of  the  important  litigation. 

In  1878  he  became  attorney  for  Re- 
ceiver General  John  C.  Black,  who,  from 
1878  to  1882,  constructed  the  Bloomfield 
Railroad  from  the  Wabash  river  to  Switz 
City,  Indiana,  and,  contemporaneous 
therewith,  the  Springfield,  Effingham  and 
South  Eastern  Railroad  from  the  river 
west  to  Effingham,  Illinois.1  From  1882 
to  1898  Mr.  Hays  was  at  the  head  of  the 
legal  department  of  these  properties, 
which  early  in  that  period  were  consoli- 
dated into  the  Indiana  and  Illinois  South- 
ern Railroad  Company.  In  1898  it  all 


came  into  the  control  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  and  was  extend- 
ed from  Switz  City  to  Indianapolis  by 
nleans  of  the  Indianapolis  Southern. 

In  the  process  of  bringing  this  prop- 
erty into  the  Illinois  Central  system  Mr. 
Hays  took  a  large  part.  He  was  direc- 
tor in  the  different  Indiana  corporations 
used  in  taking  over  the  property,  was 
trustee  in  one  of  the  purchases,  and  in 
1903,  as  such  trustee,  conveyed  the  line 
from  the  Wabash  river  to  Indianapolis 
to  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany. From  1898  until  February,  1915, 
he  was  in  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral as  local  attorney,  and  frequently  has 
had  charge  of  important  special  litiga- 
tion for  the  company. 

He  now  has  associated  with  him  his 
two  sons,  Will  H.  and  Hinkle  C.,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Hays  and  Hays,  and 
on  February  1,  1915,  this  firm  was  made 
District  Attorneys  for  Indiana. 


Commerce  News 


1.  Purpose  of  Act  is  to  promote  and 
not    hinder    trade    and    commerce. — I 

think  the  court  was  perfectly  right 
when  it  said  that  the  purpose  of  the 
aot  was  to  promote  and  not  to  hamper 
trade  and  commerce.  We  may  see  sit- 
uations and  conditions  which  are 
wrong  and  which  apparently  should  be 
corrected.  But  if,  upon  thorough  in- 
vestigation, it  is  demonstrated  that  in 
order  to  correct  it  other  situations 
equally  as  bad,  or  worse,  will  be  creat- 
ed, no  real  progress  is  made  by  forcing 
such  action.  The  conditions  which  the 
law  was  enacted  to  correct  or  over- 
come did  not  grow  up  in  a  day  and 
they  cannot  be  corrected  or  overcome 
in  a  day  without  doing  inestimable  and 
irreparable  injury.  The  evils  at  which 
the  law  is  aimed  were  not  created  by 
one  party  to  the  transactions.  No  rail- 
road official  ever  paid  a  rebate  except 
to  some  receptive  shipper.  (Excerpt 
from  address  of  Commissioner  E.  E. 
Clark  before  National  Industrial  Traf- 


fic League  at  Toledo,  Ohio  Spetember 
9,  1915.) 

Western  Advance  Rate  Case,  I.  &  S. 
555. — The  advances  approved  by  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in 
the  rates  on  coal,  imports,  hay,  fruits 
and  vegetables,  and  the  increases  in 
the  carload  minimum  weight  on  grain 
products,  became  effective  October  1, 
1915.  As  to  advances  on  other  com- 
modities, viz.,  grain  and  grain  prod- 
ucts, live  stock,  packing  house  prod- 
ucts, fertilizer,  fertilizer  materials,  and 
cotton  piece  goods,  the  carriers'  peti- 
tion for  rehearing  is  pending.  The 
shippers'  petition  for  rehearing  as  ap- 
plied to  advances  sustained  in  the  rates 
on  coal  has  been  denied. 

Discontinuance  of  free  storage  of 
coal  for  transhipment. — In  Plymouth 
Coal  Co.  vs.  L.  V.  R.  Co,  36  ICC  140, 
opinion  by  Mr.  Commissioner  Hall,  the 
carriers'  demurrage  and  storage  regu- 
lations, discontinuing  the  furnishing  of 
storage  bins  at  Perth  Amboy  for  the 
free  storage  of  anthracite  coal,  were 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  91 

approved  on  the  ground  that  such  free  crease  of  rate  to  give  less  service  for 

storage  "is  purely  a  commercial  con-  the  same  amount  as  to  charge  a  greater 

venience  and  not  a  transportation  ne-  amount  for  the  same  service,"  also  that 

cessity."  "if  the  service  so  offered  and  for  a  long 

time  performed  in  consideration  of  that 

Giving  lesser  service  is  tantamount  rate  includes  taking  the  property  trans- 
to  increasing  rate. — In  E.  J.  R.  &  T.  ported  from  a  given  point  and  deliver- 
E.  R.  R.  Co.  vs.  C.  R.  R.  of  N.  J.,  36  ing  it  at  a  given  point,  the  delivery  at 
ICC  149,  opinion  by  Mr.  Commissioner  that  point  is  in  no  sense  a  'free  de- 
Hall,  the  carriers  had  cancelled  light-  livery.'  A  carrier  may  increase  the 
erage  charges.  The  Commission  held  rate  or  it  may  curtail  the  service  per- 
that  this  resulted  in  the  advancing  of  formed  for  that  rate,  but  if  such  action 
freight  charges  as  to  which  the  carriers  is  challenged  it  must  bear  the  burden 
had  not  met  the  burden  of  proof.  Au-  of  showing  that  the  new  rate  or  service 
thorities  are  cited  in  support  of  the  is  reasonable  and  free  from  unjust  dis- 
proposition  that  "it  is  as  much  an  in-  crimination." 

Accountants'  Meeting  at  Memphis 

A  meeting  was  held  at  Memphis  and  at  Chicago,  on  August  17  and  19,  at 
which  were  present  the  accountants  and  others  concerned  of  the  Southern 
Lines  and  the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company,  and  of  the 
Northern  and  Western  Lines,  respectively. 

Various  matters  were  discussed  in  connection  with  the  Classifications  pre- 
scribed by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  and  other  accounting  in- 
structions. 

The  meetings  were  conducted  by  the  Accounting  Department,  Mr.  J.  F. 
Dartt,  Auditor  of  Disbursements,  presiding. 

These  meetings  will  be  held  at  Memphis  and  Chicago  each  month  here- 
after, thereby  extending  to  the  accountants  an  opportunity  to  bring  up  any 
accounting  instructions  and  methods  that  are  not  entirely  clear,  in  order  that 
such  matters  may  be  thoroughly  discussed,  clearly  understood  and  uniformly 
handled  by  all  concerned. 

It  is  the  opinion  that  this  plan  of  bringing  the  accountants  in  closer  touch 
with  each  other  and  also  with  the  Accounting  Department  will  assist  all 
concerned  materially  in  having  a  better  understanding  as  to  just  what  is  re- 
quired in  connection  with  accounting  matters. 

Illinois  Central  Band  Gives  Concert  at  Springfield 

State  Fair — Only  Band  From  Chicago 

Awarded  This  Contract 

Last  Thursday,  September  23rd,  Mr.  G.  F.  Fraser  and  twenty-eight  men 
left  on  a  special  car  to  attend  the  Springfield  State  Fair.  On  Thursday  he 
was  awarded  the  pavillion;  it  being  the  most  honorary  place  at  the  fair.  On 
Saturday  he  played  a  concert  to  twenty-five  thousand  people.  His  band  is 
highly  spoken  of  by  all  present,  more  especially  the  music  committee,  and 
they  promised  him  the  same  position  next  year,  if  possible.  He  was  con- 
gratulated on  several  occasions  by  the  visitors  at  the  fair  on  the  class  of 
music  he  played.  The  Illinois  Central  Band  was  the  only  band  from  Chi- 
cago that  was  aAvarded  this  favor. 


Fuel  Economy 

E.  C.  Roddie,  District  Foreman,  New  Orleans 


Fuel  economy  is  a  subject  that  we  might 
all  be  justified  in  sparing  a  few  moments 
to  give  serious  consideration,  as  it  is  a  sub- 
ject that  practically  every  Officer  and  Em- 
ploye of  a  Railroad  Company  is  interested 
in,  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  a  most  im- 
portant factor  in  Economical  Operation, 
which  has  much  to  do  with  the  success  of 
a  Railroad. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  in  dol- 
lars and  cents  the  amount  of  money  wasted 
by  this  Company  annually,  due  to  waste  of 
fuel,  not  only  on  account  of  careless  and 
inefficient  firing  on  the  part  of  the  Loco- 
motive Firemen,  but  also  on  account  of  Coal 
Handlers  at  the  various  coaling  stations 
placing  an  excessive  amount  of  coal  on 
engines,  same  falling  from  tank,  due  to 
motion  of  the  engine. 

In  this  connection  Fuel  Economy  can  also 
be  worked  in  conjunction  with  the  Safety 
First  campaign,  as  the  placing  of  an  ex- 
cessive amount  of  coal  on  an  engine,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  coal  wasted,  renders  us  liable 
to  damage  suits  resulting  from  persons 
being  struck  by  lumps  of  coal  falling  off 
of  tanks,  due  primarily  to  tanks  being  over- 
loaded. 

This  is  a  subject  that  not  only  the  Officers 
of  the  Company  are  very  much  interested 
in,  but  also  the  employes  themselves  should 
make  an  earnest  endeavor  to  bring  about 
the  economical  use  of  fuel,  as  it  is  to  their 
own  advantage,-  as  well  as  that  of  the  Rail- 
road Company,  in  more  ways  than  one. 
First,  it  has  been  proven  by  tests,  and  sta- 
tistics show  that  scientific  firing  of  loco- 
motives will  not  only  decrease  the  fuel  con- 
sumption, but  will  also  result  in  the  engine 
steaming  better,  and  reduce  the  labor  of 
the  engine  crew,  more  specially  the  Fire- 
man, as  the  less  coal  consumed  the  less  he 
is  required  to  handle.  Second,  it  will  entail 
a  substantial  saving  in  the  cost  of  Train 
and  Yard  Operation,  thus  paving  the  way 
for  the  Company  to  spend  the  money  that 
is  now  being  wasted  by  extravagant  use  of 
fuel  in  securing  additional  power  and  work- 


ing additional  crews,  thus  enabling  the  men 
to  increase  their  earning  capacity. 

The  Mechanical  Department  can  aid  ma- 
terially in  reducing  the  cost  of  fuel  if  the 
Roundhouse  Foreman  will  make  it  a  point 
to  see  that  proper  attention  is  given  to  fire- 
boxes, flues  are  kept  bored  put,  etc.,  and  in 
this  way  prevent  the  necessity  of  excessive 
use  of  fuel,  in  an  effort  to  keep  the  engine 
hot,  when  the  real  fault  lies  with  the  con- 
dition of  the  engine. 

In  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years  the  Rail- 
roads of  this  Country  have  made  rapid 
strides  towards  advancement,  until  at  the 
present  time,  while  there  is  still  a  great 
deal  of  room  for  further  advancement,  the 
Railroads  rank  high  among  the  Industries 
of  the  World  in  the  matter  of  efficiency  and 
organization,  and  we  should. pride  ourselves 
on  this,  and  do  everything  possible  to  per- 
fect economical  and  efficient  operation. 

The  principal  handicap  in  the  advance- 
ment along  the  lines  of  Fuel  Economy 
seems  to  be  that  the  men  did  not  go  into 
the  matter  carefully,  and  from  the  surface 
it  seemed  to  be  a  subject  of  minor  impor- 
tance, but  if  the  men  will  take  into  consid- 
eration the  amount  of  coal  consumed  on 
this  Railroad  annually  they  will  readily  see 
that  a  small  saving  at  each  Coaling  Station 
each  day  will  result  in  a  substantial  saving 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  when  the  entire 
system  is  consolidated  as  to  savings  ef- 
ected. 

There  has  been  considerable  improvement 
along  this  line  of  late,  since  the  recent  lec- 
tures and  illustrations  given  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Fuel  Bureau  in  their  Demon- 
stration Car,  which  has  tourned  the  system, 
but  there  is  still  need  for  a  much  bigger 
improvement,  and  the  power  to  bring  about 
this  improvement  lies  principally  with  the 
men  themselves,  as  it  will  be  through  their 
efforts  that  we  will  be  able  to  bring  about 
the  desired  condition  in  Fuel  Consumption, 
and  produce  a  very  gratifying  result — 
FUEL  ECONOMY. 


92 


Gauging  Lift  of  Air  Pump  Valve 

By  J.  A.  Elliott,  Air  Brake  Foreman,  I.  C.  R.  R.,  Memphis,  Tenn. 


\T  7  HEN  repairing  air  pumps  it  is 
*  *  very  necessary  that  air  valves  have 
a  correct  amount  of  lift.  The  best  of 
mechanics  are  apt  to  make  mistakes 
when  measuring  for  the  lift  of  air 
valves,  and  when  this  job  is  given  to 
the  apprentice  the  chances  for  mistakes 
are  greater.  The  gauges  in  the  accom- 
panying sketches  were  made  to  overcome 
all  this  trouble.  They  are  so  complete 
that  there  is  absolutely  no  chance  to 
make  mistakes,  and  this  work  could,  if 
necessary,  be  performed  as  well  by 
a  sweeper  as  by  a  mechanic. 

The  quarter  inch  pin  in  the  center  is 
held  secure  when  adjusted  by  a  3/16th 
inch  set  screw.  This  pin  is  exactly  the 
same  length  as  the  two  legs  of  the 
gauge,  and  thus  requires  only  one  ad- 
justment to  gauge  the  lift  of  a  valve, 
there  being  used  a  small  brass  button 
the  thickness  of  which  is  equivalent  to 
the  lift  of  the  valves  which  you  are 
gauging.  It  is  necesary  to  have  two 
gauges,  one  for  the  lower  cage  and  one 
for  the  upper  cap. 


When  using  the  cage  gauge  shown  in 
Fig.  1  place  the  upper  ends  of  the  gauge 
legs  against  the  cage  joint  of  the  pump 
cylinder  and  gently  push  pin  in  until  it 
touches  the  valve  boss  in  the  cylinder. 
Then  secure  the  pin  in  this  position  by 
means  of  a  set  screw.  Now  with  valve 
in  position  in  cage  and  brass  button  on 
top  of  valve,  the  pin  should  just  touch 
the  button  when  lower  ends  of  gauge 
legs  are  placed  on  joint  of  the  cage  as 
shown  in  Fig.  2. 

When  using  the  cap  gauge  shown  in 
Fig.  3,  place  the  valve  on  the  upper  seat 
in  cylinder  and  place  the  upper  ends  of 
the  gauge  legs  against  cap  joint  on 
cylinder  and  gently  push  the  pin  in  until 
it  touches  the  valve.  Secure  the  pin  in 
this  position  by  means  of  the  set  screw 
and  with  the  brass  button  on  the  cap 
boss  the  pin  should  just  touch  the  but- 
ton when  the  lower  end  of  the  gauge 
legs  are  placed  on  the  joint  of  cap 
shown  in  Fig.  4.  The  dimensions  of 
these  gauges  are  made  to  suit  the  cages 
and  caps  of  the  different  sizes  of  pumps. 


I 


-f" Ifounn 


*  "'*"  *" 
Scrtf 


esa     r/o.  / 

Oaqt   ,or  Air  Valve   Cage 


O   O   0 


I I 


r/G.4 

baqt  for  An    Vjive   Cjp  Gage  Applied    +o   Cap 


Gage  Applied  to  Cage- 
DEVICE    FOR    GAUGING    LIFT    OF    AIR    PUMP    VALVE. 


93 


fa  fa  fa  fa  fa 


EPARTOENT 


Some  Remarks  on  the  Handling  of  Baggage 

By  J.  A.  Osborn,  General  Baggage  Agent 


The  question  of  improving  the  bag- 
gage service  and  bringing  it  up  to  the 
highest  standard  of  efficiency,  should  be 
uppermost  in  the  minds  of  each  employe 
connected  with  this  service.  There  are 
some  matters  which  have  not  previously 
been  touched  upon  and  the  following  is 
offered  with  the  hope  that  the  employees 
will  give  their  support  to  the  sugges- 
tions. No  better  way  to  reach  those  con- 
cerned presents  itself  than  through  the 
Illinois  Central  Magazine. 

Those  not  familiar  with  the  baggage 
work  think  anyone,  experienced  or  not, 
can  handle  it.  Such  an  opinion  may  be 
all  right  so  far  as  the  manual  labor  is 
concerned,  but  that  is  only  a  small  part 
of  what  is  actually  required.  There  are 
many  features  about  the  business  that 
have  to  be  acquired  by  long  service  and 
experience.  In  these  days  there  are 
many  forms  of  tickets  routed  over  many 
different  railroads  that  a  baggageman 
must  be  familiar  with  before  he  can  hope 
to  become  an  expert  checkman.  A  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  geography  of  the 
country  is  of  much  assistance. 

It  is  a  good  practice,  when  checking 
baggage,  to  ascertain  from  the  passenger, 
his  destination  and  repeat  it  back,  so 
there  will  be  no  misunderstanding  as  to 
the  correct  destination.  The  ticket 
should  always  be  called  for  and  cancelled 
before  baggage  is  checked.  Many  names 
of  cities  and  towns  located  on  the  Illinois 
Central  are  duplicated  on  other  railroads, 
hence  the  state  should  always  be  clearly 
shown  to  prevent  mishandling  and  delay. 

All  baggage  should  be  weighed  and 
measured  as  soon  as  received  to  facili- 


tate handling  when  application  is  made 
to  check  it.  Never  accept  a  statement  of 
gross  weight  from  owners.  At  some  sta- 
tions baggage  is  weighed  as  soon  as  re- 
ceived. If  this  method  were  adopted  at 
all  stations,  the  company  would  be  great- 
ly benefited  by  it.  All  scales  should  be 
protected  from  the  weather,  as  far  as 
possible,  as  exposure  causes  them  to  rust 
and  get  out  of  order  and  they  will  not 
weigh  correctly. 

Storage  on  baggage  should  be  given 
close  attention  so  that  none  of  the 
charges,  which  accrue  on  it,  will  get 
away.  If  the  blanks  and  checks  are 
properly  filled  out  and  attached  to  bag- 
gage and  the  instructions  closely  ob- 
served, there  is  no  doubt  but  that  a  sat- 
isfactory increase  in  our  income  could 
be  made.  Don't  wait  until  baggage  is 
claimed  before  marking  and  tagging  it, 
but  attend  to  it  when  the  baggage  is 
received. 

Before  checking  baggage,  carefully  ex- 
amine it  and  if  it  is  not  in  first  class  con- 
dition, the  check  should  be  stamped  with 
bad  order  stamp.  If  baggage  is  in  a 
shaky  or  wrecked  condition  from  wear 
and  tear,  release,  form  GBO  8,  should  be 
taken.  It  is  important  to  show  on  all 
baggage  records  the  actual  condition  of 
baggage  and  abbreviations  for  the  de- 
scription of  bad  order  baggage  should 
invariably  be  used.  Neither  "B.  O."  nor 
"G.  B.  O."  should  appear  for  condition. 

Much  correspondence  could  be  saved 
if  more  pains  were  taken  in  making  up 
both  station  and  train  waybills.  Many 
of  them  are  incomplete  and  have  to  be 
sent  back  to  the  issuing  station  or  to  the 


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train  baggagemen.  The  department 
would  not  have  any  trouble  in  handling 
claims  for  loss,  damage  and  delay  to  bag- 
gage if  all  waybills  were  filled  in  as  per 
provisions  thereon. 

When  checking  baggage,  wait  upon 
one  passenger  at  a  time.  If  this  practice 
were  followed,  the  chances  for  making 
an  error  would  be  greatly  reduced. 
Sometimes  passengers  make  mistakes 
and  point  out  the  wrong  baggage  even 
when  it  bears  a  railroad  or  transfer  check, 
but  the  check  on  the  baggage  is  the  best 
guide  in  making  delivery.  When  bag- 
gage is  not  covered  by  a  check  and  the 
owner  is  in  doubt  as  to  the  outside  iden- 
tification, the  inside  identification  is  the 
safest  plan  to  follow. 

There  are  many  ways  to  prevent  bag- 
gage claims.  First,  careful  handling  of 
baggage.  Second,  protection  from  theft. 
Third,  protection  from  rain,  liquids,  iced 
shipments,  oil,  etc. 

Fifty  per  cent  of  damage  to  baggage 
could  be  avoided  if  ordinary  care  were 
given  it.  Our  claims  for  damage  to  bag- 


gage should  be  reduced  to  a  great  extent 
if  the  following  suggestions  were  ob- 
served by  all  concerned : 

Do  not  'drop  baggage  from  car  door  to 
platform  nor  one  trunk  upon  another. 

Do  not  spot  baggage  truck  loo  close 
to  track  for  loading  and  unloading  bag- 
gage. Move  the  truck  before  the  train 
starts  and  see  that  it  is  in  the  clear. 

Do  not  leave  baggage  on  truck  longer 
than  it  will  take  to  put  it  in  the  baggage 
room  or  on  the  train.  If  baggage  has  to 
be  left  on  the  platform,  it  should  be  care- 
fully watched.  The  safest  place  for  it, 
However,  is  in  the  baggage  room,  which 
should  be  kept  locked. 

Do  not  leave  baggage  between  the 
tracks  without  watching  it  to  prevent 
train  striking  it. 

Stations  supplied  with  tarpaulins 
should  use  them  to  cover  baggage  in 
rainy  weather.  This  equipment,  when 
properly  used,  will  save  dollars  which  the 
company  would  otherwise  pay  out.  An 
ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of 
cure. 


Careless  Addressing  of  Envelopes 

By  H.  L.  Fairfield 


A  NUMBER  of  cases  of  delay  to  mail 
*\^  matter  have  recently  come  to  the  at- 
tention of  this  department  in  which  the 
cause  of  the  delay  was  self-evident — il- 
legible address.  In  two  cases  of  delay 
to  envelopes  containing  waybills  the  ad- 
dress was  written  in  a  very  faint  red  pen- 
cil so  faint  that  it  could  hardly  be  read 
in  strong  sunlight.  These  envelopes, 
viewed  in  artificial  light,  appeared  to 
be  entirely  blank. 

The  delay  to  one  of  the  above  envel- 
opes required  the  equivalent  of  one 
man's  work  for  nine  hours  making  copies 
of  waybills.  It  is  strange  that  so  many 
persons  will  spend  a  great  deal  of  time 


and  care  in  making  reports,  writing  let- 
ters, etc.,  and  then  forward  in  envelopes 
so  carelessly  or  illegibly  addressed  as  to 
make  it  almost  impossible  to  handle 
properly,  yet  this  is  done,  repeatedly. 

So  far  as  possible  all  envelopes,  espe- 
cially those  containing  waybills,  should 
be  addressed  on  the  typewriter.  If  this 
is  not  practicable  use  black  ink  but  never 
address  an  envelope  with  a  pencil. 

But  go  farther  than  this  and  write  the 
address  in  a  legible  hand.  Some  envel- 
opes were  recently  called  to  my  atten- 
tion, addresesd  to  Bloomington,  but 
whether  Indiana  or  Illinois  was  a  mat- 
ter of  pure  guess  work. 


The  Old  Timer 

By  P.  E.  Odell 


\\7  ITH  a  week's  growth  of  stubby 
TT  gray  beard  and  his  white  shirt 
front  soiled  with  tobacco  juice,  Old 
Man  Talbot,  who  had  worked  as  dis- 
patcher on  almost  every  road  in  North 
America,  dropped  around  just  in  time 
to  catch  on  to  a  third  trick  on  the 
"West  End"  from  which  a  "pigeon" 
had  just  "resigned." 

During  the  afternoon  he  filled  out 
application  papers  a  foot  high,  swore 
he  was  only  42  years  of  age,  got  staked 
to  a  meal  ticket  and  walked  out  saying 
he  would  show  up  for  the  job.  The 
chief  dropped  around  to  the  office  aft- 
er supper  expecting  to  find  the  old 
man  "breaking  in,"  but  got  tired  of 
waiting  and  went  home  about  9 
o'clock,  but  first  took  another  third 
trick  man,  who  happened  to  be  loaf- 
ing around,  out  into  the  hall  and  said, 
"Tom,  look  after  the  old  man  tonight; 
put  him  next  to  everything  over  there 
on  the  West  End."  Tom  said  he  had 
never  worked  it,  and  did  not  know 
anything  about  it  except  many  a  good 
man  had  lost  his  reputation  on  it. 

"Well,"  said  the  chief,  you  know  our 
rules  and  they  must  be  complied  with. 
Don't  let  the  old  man  introduce  any 
of  his  own ;  keep  an  eye  on  him." 

About  11 :50  p.  m.  the  old  timer 
strolled  in,  borrowed  a  chew,  took  a 
look  at  the  time  table,  signed  the 


transfer  and  "sat  in."  Tom,  who  sat 
across  the  table,  got  busy  with  a 
bunch  of  drags  right  away  and  did 
not  pay  much  attention  to  the  old 
man  for  a  while,  but  when  he  had  a 
breathing  space  listened  to  him  work. 
He  was  putting  out  orders  as  fast  as 
operators  could  take  them  and  Tom 
thought,  "Well,  he  is  either  moving 
them  or  fixing  them  so  no  one  else 
can,"  and  went  back  to  work. 

All  of  a  sudden  the  old  timer  jumped 
up,  brought  his  fist  down  on  the  table 
and  exclaimed,  "My  God."  Tom's  hair 
stood  up  straight  as  he  reached  for 
the  telephone  to  call  the  "Big  Hook" 
and  the  doctors,  but  thought  he  would 
first  see  what  was  up.  He  went  around 
to  the  Old  man's  side  and  asked  what 
was  wrong.  The  Old  Man  pointed 
to  a  south  bound  train  on  the  sheet 
and  said,  "Do  you  see  that  train?" 
Then  pointed  to  a  north  bound  and 
said,  "Do  you  see  that  one?"  Well, 
they  have  orders  to  meet  at  Round 
Lake  and  the  operator  there  just  re- 
ported the  south  bound  train  pulling 
into  the  siding  and  the  north  bound 
coming  up  the  main  at  South  Switch. 
Did  you  ever  see  such  damned  dis- 
patching?" 

Tom  hit  him  over  the  head  with 
the  bulletin  book  and  went  back  to 
work. 


Railroad  Waterways  and  Overflow  Damage  Suits 

By  A.  B.  B.  Harris 

HERE   are    two    factors    governing  tory  drained  which  should  control,  the 

the  size  of  waterways  that  are  built  other,    fear   of    overflow    damage    suits 

by   railroads  to  care  for    flood    water ;  which  the  timid  often  let  control, 

one  is  the  area  and  topography  of  terri-  When  waterways  are  built  larger  than 

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necessary,    in    hope   of   preventing   law 
suits,  the  results  are : 

1st.  Excessive  cost  to  the  railroad 
company  which  often  amounts  to  more 
than  the  value  of  the  land  affected. 

2nd.  Lessening  the  advantages  that 
result  to  overflowed  lands  from  having 
embankments  built  across  same. 

3rd.  Does  not  stop  overflow  damage 
suits  in  territory  affected  and  may  lead 
to  such  suits  in  territory  not  affected. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  cultivated 
lands,  subject  to  head  water  overflow, 
are  greatly  improved  by  having  embank- 
ments built  across  same,  as  they  confine 
the  water  to  the  proper  channels,  thus 
preventing  erosion  (scouring)  which 
often  makes  large  sections  o.f  the  area 
overflowed  worthless,  increases  the  al- 
luvial deposits,  and  in  case  of  growing 
crops,  greatly  lessens  the  damage  to 
same. 

The  size  of  the  waterways  has  but 
little  bearing  on  the  overflow  damage 
suits,  as  in  a  great  majority  of  these 
cases  they  are  brought  from  a  desire  to 
get  something  for  nothing,  and  regard- 
less of  the  fact  that  the  party  bringing 
suit  has  been  benefited  instead  of  dam- 
aged. In  a  great  majority  of  cases  where 
railroads  pay  overflow  damages,  there 
has  been  no  damage  caused  by  the  rail- 
road embankment,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
a  real  benefit  has  resulted. 

The  prime  cause  of  a  number  of  these 
law  suits  is  the  industry  of  that  disgrace 


to  the  legal  profession,  the  so-called 
lawyer  who  hunts  up  damage  suits.  A 
case  in  point :  A  company  that  I  worked 
for  some  years  ago  built  an  embank- 
ment across  a  valley,  spanning  the  river 
with  a  bridge.  One  of  these  damage 
suit  hound  (apologies  to  the  dog),  who 
saw  the  property  during  high  water, 
went  to  the  land  owner  and  offered  to 
bring  suit  for  damages  on  account  of 
water  being  backed  over  his  land ;  the 
farmer  told  him  he  was  not  damaged, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  his  farm  had  been 
greatly  benefited  by  the  railroad  en- 
bankment;  the  lawyer  replied  that  made 
no  difference.  All  that  was  necessary  to 
secure  a  judgment  was  for  him,  the 
farmer,  to  go  to  court  and  swear  that 
he  was  damaged.  To  this  the  farmer 
replied  that  he  was  no  thief,  which  ter- 
minated the  interview. 

This  much  vexed  law  suited  drainage 
problem,  no  doubt,  would  be  solved  if 
the  Federal  and  State  authorities  were 
to  appoint  and  pay  competent  drainage 
engineers  to  pass  on  the  size  of  the 
openings  that  should  be  installed.  A  set 
of  tables  such  as  "The  Dun  Drainage 
Table"  might  be  adopted  by  the  Feder- 
al and  State  Drainage  engineers  and 
furnished  to  railroad  and  highway  offi- 
cials for  guidance  in  determining  the 
size  of  waterways.  With  waterways  so 
constructed,  the  law  suits  for  fictitious 
high  water  damage  would  be  a  thing  of 
the  past. 


The  Man 

By  Dr.  Reuben  T.  Clark,  Jackson,  Miss. 


Here  I  am  pleased  to  say  some  few 
words  in  appreciation  of  our  great  serv- 
ice corporations,  the  railroads,  the  steam- 
ship, the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  and 
the  street  railway,  and  of  the  daily  ne- 
cessity and  value  they  are  to  a  commun- 
ity. 

Consider  for  instance  the  living  daily 
necessity  that  the  railroads  and  steam- 
ships are  to  the  man,  the  broad  and  far- 
reaching  channels  over  which  the  com- 


merce of  his  brain  and  hand  must  pass 
and  repass. 

These  are  great  institutions  and  call 
for  master  minds,  to  man  and  manage 
their  every  department,  both  justly  and 
economically,  since  they  all  touch  every 
home  and  take  toll  from  every  life. 

For  all  employes  of  these  services 
corporations,  I  would  bespeak  a  mutual 
interest,  a  strong  effort  toward  economi- 
cal efficiency. 


This  is  the  Life  of  the  Banana  Man 


By  Geo.  H. 

The  steamer  arrives  with  a  big  deck 
load, 

The  messengers  are  off  for  a  trip  on 
the  road. 

They  pack  their  grips  with  a  sorrowful 
sigh, 

As  they  tell  the  wife  and  babes  good- 
bye. 

They  are  off  with  the  goods  no  telling 

where, 

It  matters  not  as  they  pay  no  fare. 
They  pack  in  the  caboose,  six,  eight,  ten 

in  a  bunch, 
The    conductor    seems    to    take    on    a 

hunch. 

The  brakeman  looks  as  in  surprise 
While  at  the  crowd  he  casts  his  eyes ; 
When  the  boys  ask  for  comfort  and  a 

place  to  sleep 
The  conductor  looks  up  the  cushions 

and  the  key  he  keeps. 

It  concerns  him  not  WHO  or  WHAT 

they  are, 

As  he  is  BIG  "I"  and  boss  of  the  car. 
There  is  no  fire  and  the  stove  is  cold; 
The  cab  is  crumy,  dirty  and  old. 


Fairchild 

The  messengers  lie  about  on  seat  and 

floor 

While  train  crew  rides  with  open  door. 
The  messengers  ask  to  be  treated  right. 
Train  crew  gets  sore  and  wants  to 

fight. 

It  makes  no  difference  if  they  don't  get 
rest, 

As  trainmen  don't  class  messengers  any 
the  best. 

And  when  they  lose  the  biz  and  can't 
get  by 

They  realize  the  cause  and  ask  mes- 
sengers why. 

Why  don't  you  route  the  bananas  our 

line? 
We'll  act  a  little  different  and  treat  you 

fine. 

But  it's  too  late  now,  dear  old  scout, 
We  are  handled  better  by  the  Illinois 

Central  and  like  our  new  route. 

We  are  very  sorry  but  can  not  cry, 

As  you  have  previously  made  us  sigh. 

But  we  wish  you  well  and  hope  you 
make  some  dough, 

And  never  again  at  the  messengers  in- 
sinuations throw. 


Today 


A  Western  Miner  Talks — Author  Unknown 


Old  Yesterday  hain't   no  more  use 
Than  rubber  boots  is  to  a  goose ; 
So  saddle  up  and  ride  away 
From  that  there  wuthless  Yesterday. 

Hook  your  spurs  in  the  broncho  Hope 
And  hit  a  high  and  swinging  lope 
Across  the  range  of  things  that  are ; 
Leave  that  old  past  so  blessed  far 
Behind   that  you  can't  even   view 
It  thru  a  glass  if  you  try  to. 

Your  failures?   Shucks!  forgit  'em  all; 
Don't  let  'em  know  you  hear  'em  call. 
Look  up  and  see  the  rainbow  smile ; 
Today's  the  only  time  wuth  while. 


To  worry  is  to  show  your  hand 
To  every  fellow  in  the  land ; 
To  worry  is  to  let  folks  know 
You  think  you  hain't  a  fighting  show. 

You  can't  win  fame  or  even  pelf 
Unless  you  sort  o'  bluff  yourself 
Into  believin'  that  you  be 
Plumb  failure-proof;  and  then,  by  gee, 
You  want  to  size  things  up  correct, 
Just  as  they  be,  and  don't  select 
A  pile  of  dirt  where  gophers  sit 
And  make  a  mountain  out  of  it. 

And  don't  forgit  the  sayin's  true, 
There's    millions    far    worse    off    than 
you. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  99 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

—AND — 

The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  14 


The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  Bulletin  for  the 
fiscal  year  1913  shows  persons  other  than  passengers  and 
employes,  killed  and  injured  on  railroad  rights  or  way  of 
the  United  States  as  follows: 

Killed      6,846 

Injured  12,352 

Total      19,198 

Everyone  of  the  above  killed  or  injured  because  they 
were  either  where  they  had  no  right  to  be,  or  because 
they  did  not  "Stop,  Look  and  Listen." 

If  an  individual  fishes  upon,  hunts  upon,  or  even  walks 
upon  (without  authority)  posted  property,  he  is  a  trespasser 
pure  and  simple,  and  as  such  may  be  prosecuted. 

If  an  animal  strays  on  to  the  premises  of  an  individual 
and  does  damage,  the  owner  under  the  law  is  responsible. 

Railroads  post  their  rights  of  way,  and  not  only  warn  of 
the  danger  of  trespassing,  but  plead  with  the  unauthor- 
ized to  keep  off  their  tracks—if  an  accident  occurs,  they 
have  no  recourse  in  law,  but  on  the  other  hand  are  pros- 
ecuted and  made  to  pay. 

Is  this  fair?  Is  it  just? 

Railroads  are  the  largest  tax  payers,  the  largest  em- 
ployers of  labor  and  purchasers  of  material  and  as  such 
are  the  largest  factors  in  the  circulation  of  money,  and  in 
addition  they  are  the  arteries  of  trade  that  make  com- 
merce possible, 

Are  they  not  entitled  to  the  same  protection  from  legis- 
lative bodies  that  is  accorded  the  individual? 

Will  you,  Mr.  Reader,  ask  the  members  of  the  legislature 
of  your  state  to  pass  an  anti-trespass  law,  according  to  the 
railroads  as  well  as  its  citizens  proper  protection? 


"CfAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
following  conductors  for  their  spe- 
cial efforts  in  lifting  and  preventing  the 
use  of  irregular  transportation  in  con- 
nection with  which  reports  (Form  972) 
were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of  passen- 
ger receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advises  the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,  all 
pass  irregularities  being  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  vice-president. 

Illinois  Division 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel  on  train  No. 
26,  Aug.  14  declined  to  honor  card  tick- 
et account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to 
Passenger  Department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks  on  train  No. 

23,  Aug.  19,  and  train  No.  5  Aug.  24, 
declined  to  honor  card  tickets,  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 
Passengers  were  referred  to  Passenger 
Department  for  refund  on  tickets. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  G.  Carter  on  train  No.  5, 
Aug.  3,  lifted  trip  pass  account  return- 
ing portion  being  missing  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  W.  Bibb  on  train  No. 
203,  Aug.  7,  lifted  mileage  detachment 
on  which  passenger  admitted  having 
previously  secured  transportation.  Con- 
ductor collected  other  transportation  to 
cover  trip. 

Conductor  C.  T.  Harris  on  train  No. 
21,  Aug.  10,  declined  to  honor  card  tick- 
et account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  td 
Passenger  Department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train  No. 

24,  Aug.  16,  and  same  train  Aug.  30,  de- 
clined to  honor  card  tickets  account  hav- 
ing   expired    and    collected    cash    fares. 
Passengers  were  referred  to  Passenger 
Department  for  refund  on  tickets. 

On  train  No.  10,  Aug.  21,  he  lifted 
trip  pass  account  being  presented  for 


transportation  of  person  other  than 
named  in  pass.  Passenger  declined  to 
pay  fare  and  was  required  to  leave  the 
train. 

Indiana  Division 

Conductor  E.  N.  Vane,  on  train  No. 
303,  Aug.  28,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred 
to  Passenger  Department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

Wisconsin   Division 

Conductor  J.  P.  Reece  on  train  No. 
124,  Aug.  26,  lifted  expired  card  ticket 
on  which  passenger  admitted  having  pre- 
viously secured  transportation  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbrough,  on 
train  No.  104,  Aug.  2,  declined  to  honor 
two  mileage  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  103,  Aug.  29,  he  declined 
to  honor  mileage  ticket  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn  on  train  No. 

122,  Aug.  5,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and    col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Tennessee  Division 
Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson,  on  train 
No.  133,  Aug.  11,  lifted  returning  por- 
tion of  non-transferable  excursion  tick- 
et account  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Mississippi  Division 
Conductor  J.  Sitton  on  train  No.  138, 
Aug.  11,  lifted  identification  slip  account 
passenger  not  being  provided  with  pass 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  M.  S.  McLean  on  train  No. 

123,  Aug.  14,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson,  on  train 
No.  1,  Aug.  14,  lifted  trip  pass  account 
not  being  countersigned.  Passenger  re- 
fused to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 

Conductor  F.  J.  Hines,  on  train  No. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


101 


5,  Aug.    17,   declined   to   honor  mileage 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  S.  R.  Cain,  on  train  No.  1, 
Aug.  25,  lifted  mileage  ticket  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
other  transportation  to  cover  trip. 

On  train  No.  4,  Aug.  26,  he  declined 
to  honor  mileage  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  mileage  from  an- 
other ticket  to  cover  trip. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train,  No. 
34,  Aug.  5,  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to 
Passenger  Department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

On  train  No.  34,  Aug.  22,  he  lifted 
mileage  ticket  account  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes,  on  train  No. 

6,  Aug.  10,  declined  to  honor  returning 
portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  T.  A.  Moore,  on  train  No. 
24,  Aug.  13,  lifted  mileage  ticket  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff,  on  train 
No.  332,  Aug.  14,  lifted  mileage  ex- 
change passage  ticket  account  passenger 
not  being  provided  with  mileage  book 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  Wm.  Trafton,  on  train  No. 
1,  Aug.  24,  lifted  trip  pass  account 
holder  refusing  to  sign  name.  Passen- 
ger declined  to  pay  fare  and  was  re- 
quired to  leave  the  train. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  G.  T.  Reeves  on  train  No. 
523,  Aug.  2nd  declined  to  honor  return 
portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  J.  M.  Carter,  on  train  No. 
13,  Aug.  16,  declined  to  honor  return- 
ing portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  G.  Beanland,  on  train 
No.  340,  Aug.  18,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  being  in  improper  hands. 


Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare  and  was 
required  to  leave  the  train. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  A.  L.  Williams,  on  train 
No.  733,  Aug.  3,  lifted  mileage  ticket 
account  being  in  improper  hands  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Cook,  on  train  No. 
12,  Aug.  7,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
ticket  account  haying  expired  and  col^ 
lected  cash  fare. 

Illinois  Division 

Signal  Maintainer  H.  Backus  of 
Monee,  111.,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering-  and  reporting  I.  C.  25068 
with  no  light  weight  stencilled  on 
same.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  car  stencilled. 

Section  Foreman  M.  Dolan,  Roberts, 
111.,  has  been  commended  for  discov- 
ering and  reporting  I.  C.  32568  im- 
properly stencilled.  Arrangements 
were  made  to  have  car  restencilled. 

Conductor  R.  H.  Cassidy  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing C.  W.  R.  &  N.  car  15115  with  no 
light  weight  stencilled  on  one  side.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  have  car 
stencilled. 

Conductor  J.  Swanson  train  No.  391, 
September  10th,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
141251  improperly  stencilled.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  have  car  re- 
stenciled. 

Conductor  J.  H.  Lively,  train  No.  51, 
September  3rd,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
38209  improperly  stenciled.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  correction 
made. 

Brakeman  C.  W.  Hippard  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing I.  C.  107683  with  about  12  inches 
of  flange  broken  off  on  wheel.  Neces- 
sary action  was  taken  to  prevent  pos- 
sible accident. 

Agent  J.  A.  Broom  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  brake  rod  drag- 
ging on  coal  car  in  train  No.  74  while 
same  was  passing  Alma,  111.,  Septem- 
ber 1st.  Brake  rod  was  removed, 
thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Section  Foreman  Charles  Curtis  has 


102 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


been  commended  for  discovering  brake 
rod  down  and  dragging  in  Extra  1554 
south,  just  north  of  Manteno,  Septem- 
ber 18th.  Necessary  action  was  taken 
to  remove  brake  rod,  which  undoubt- 
edly prevented  possible  accident. 

Memphis  Division 

Agent  O.  D.  Hinshaw,  Banks,  Miss., 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
.and  reporting  brake  beam  dragging 
under  N.  Y<  C.  27322  in  train  372  while 
passing  his  station  September  25th. 
Train  was  stopped  and  brake  beam  re- 
moved, thereby  preventing  possible 
accident. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  W.  B.  Norbury  and  En- 
gineer H.  Lemon  discovered  fire  in  I. 
C.  car  105317  at  Tilden  while  on  ex- 
tra north  engine  829  September  14th. 
Extinguished  same  and  prevented  loss, 


for  which  they  are  to  be  commended. 

Extra  820  north  5 :35  a.  m.  Septem- 
ber 18th,  Conductor  W.  B.  Norbury 
and  Flagman  J.  Newman,  at  Mile  No. 
21  south  of  Freeburg  saw  indications 
of  car  theft.  Train  was  brought  to 
stop  and  in  order  to  prevent  additional 
delay  to  the  train,  Conductor  Norbury 
instructed  flagman  to  go  back  and  in- 
vestigate, with  result  that  they  took 
into  train  master's  office  at  East  St. 
Louis  goods  amounting  to  approxi- 
mately thirty  dollars. 

On  morning  of  September  19th 
Agent  Freeburg  advised  that  Ameri- 
can Express  Company  invoice  was 
found  near  that  point  covering  ship- 
ment of  goods  mentioned  in  paragraph 
next  above,  and  which  had  evidently 
fallen  from  some  express  car.  The  ac- 
tion taken  by  the  men  mentioned  is 
meritorious. 


EFFICIENT  SERVICE 
ALWAYS 


'eu/s 


Springfield    Division 

Conductor  Clark  Watson  and  wife 
have  returned  home  after  a  three 
weeks'  trip  to  Colorado. 

Conductor  C.  P.  Freeman  and  wife, 
and  Flagman  E.  L.  Mitchell  have  re- 
turned to  work.  They  have  been  spend- 
ing the  past  three  weeks  in  Minne- 
apolis, Minn.,  with  relatives. 

W.  B.  Herron,  conductor  on  the 
Havana  District,  who  was  granted  an 
extended  leave  of  absence  some  time 
ago  on  account  of  poor  health,  and  who 
has  been  spending  the  time  on  a  farm 
near  Hastings,  Mich.,  writes  he  will 
return  to  Clinton  within  a  week  or  two 
ready  for  duty.  "Bill"  says  the  pay 
wagon  does  not  come  around  often 
enough  on  the  farm,  especially  when 
you  do  not  have  good  success  with 
your  crops. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Donegan  and  wife 
have  returned  home  after  several 
weeks'  visit  with  friends  in  Minne- 
apolis, Minn.  They  made  the  trip  in 
Mr.  Donegan's  Ford  automobile.  Mr. 
Donegan's  mother  who  had  been 
spending  several  months  in  Minne- 
sota accompanied  him  home. 

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Scaly  Eyelids  and  Granulation 

Brakeman  Carl  Johnsey,  J.  L.  Pickle 
and  Ernest  Sledge,  brakeman  from  the 
Tennessee  Division,  who  have  been 
working  on  this  division  for  the  past 
month,  have  returned  to  Water  Valley, 
Miss.,  at  their  own  request. 


J.  W.  Frey,  formerly  passenger  flag- 
man on  trains  19  and  20  between  Chi- 
cago and  St.  Louis,  is  laying  off  and 
moving  his  household  goods  to  Spring- 
field, where  he  is  working  as  brakeman 
on  local  trains  595  and  596. 

Conductor  Chas.  Ott  leaves  the  first 
of  October  for  London,  Ontario,  for 
a  visit  with  relatives.  He  expects  to 
be  gone  three  or  four  weeks. 

R.  Buckles  returned  to  duty  at  Le 
Roy,  September  17,  after  30  days' 
leave  of  absence. 

J.  M.  Pitts,  agent  at  Deland,  is  tak- 
ing his  annual  vacation,  being  relieved 
by  Henry  Tobin. 

J.  L.  Fleming  is  relieving  C.  W. 
Donaldson  at  Mt.  Pulaski  for  30  days. 

T.  B.  Walker,  agent  at  Patoka,  ex- 
pects to  take  30  days'  vacation,  com- 
mencing the  first  week  in  October. 

T.  R.  Cox,  agent  at  Macon,  is  on  a 
vacation  and  when  last  heard  from  was 
enjoying  himself  in  Sioux  City. 

The  station  at  Spaulding  was  closed 
September  6,  displacing  P.  H.  Espen- 
schied,  who  selected  Farmersville  as 
the  next  best  available  position. 

J.  R.  Thome,  dispatcher,  Rantoul 
District,  will  resume  his  duties  October 
3.  Extra  Dispatcher  A.  L.  Vallow  has 
been  on  the  job  six  weeks. 

Extra  Dispatcher  O.  C.  Harwood 
has  been  busy  at  Clinton  for  the  past 
two  months,  during  which  time  some 
of  the  regular  dispatchers  have  been 
taking  their  annual  vacations. 

Mr.  C.  L.  Drago,  engineer  and  wife 
will  visit  their  daughter  in  Crookston, 
Minn. 

Mr.  W.  G.  Kimble,  boilermaker,  at 
the  Clinton  shops,  will  visit  in  Pierre, 
S.  D. 

Mr.  Jesse  L.  Danison,  car  inspector, 


103 


104 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


at  the  Clinton  shops,  will  visit  in  Ack- 
ley,  Iowa. 

Mr.  Robert  Taylor,  engineer,  and 
wife,  will  visit  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  Roy  H.  Lane,  air  brakeman,  will 
visit  in  Louisville,  Ky. 

Mr.  E.  P.  Snyder,  fireman,  will  visit 
in  New  Orleans,  La. 

Mr.  D.  C.  Potter,  engineer,  wife  and 
son  Wilbur,  will  visit  in  LaFayette, 
Ind. 

Mr.  A.  T.  McKee,  engine  dispatcher, 
and  wife,  will  visit  in  Waterloo,  Iowa. 

Mr.  Fred  A.  Jones,  engineer,  will 
visit  in  Columbus,  Ohio. 

Mr.  W.  J.  Brewer,  engineer,  wife  and 
daughter  Jauneta,  will  visit  in  Ana- 
mosa,  Iowa. 


Mr.  Ernest  Manners,  boilerwasher 
helper,  at  the  Clinton  shops,  will  visit 
in  Central  City,  Ky. 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Fish,  stenographer,  in  the 
master  mechanic's  office,  attended  the 
state  fair  at  Springfield. 

Mr.  Carroll  Edward  Jordan  is  filling 
the  position  as  assistant  accountant 
while  Mr.  F.  B.  Mason  is  absent  on 
account  of  sickness.  Mr.  James  Victor 
Hines  is  filling  Mr.  Jordan's  place  as 
timekeeper  in  the  car  department  dur- 
ing his  absence. 

Mr.  Paul  Vandervort,  clerk  to  the 
general  foreman,  is  away  on  his  vaca- 
tion and  will  be  back  about  October 
4th.  Mr.  Ardth  Watt  is  filling  his  place 
while  away.  Paul's  girl  has  a  car  and 
it  is  a  sure  guess  that  he  will  have  a 
good  time. 


JOSEPH    CANNON. 


JOSEPH    CANNON— BANANA   CLERK, 
ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  R.  R.,  INDIAN- 
APOLIS, IND. 

Monday  morning  at  the  Indianapolis  Lo- 
cal Freight  Yards  of  the  Illinois  Central 
R.  R.  finds  a  large  congregation  of  fruit 
wagons  and  trucks  with  their  drivers  and 
Greek  and  Italian  buyers  awaiting  the  ar- 
rival of  the  fruit  for  the  market.  A  whistle 
is  heard  in  the  distance  and  the  motley 
crowd  lines  up  to  watch  the  long  string  of 
banana  cars  backing  down  the  perishable 
track.  A  switchman  is  on  the  rear  piloting 
the  engineer,  and  standing  close  to  him  is 
"Banana  Joe,"  right  on  the  job,  as  a  min- 
ute's delay  after  the  cars  reach  the  outer 
yards  rests  heavily  on  his  shoulders. 

"Joe"  has  made  himself  strong  with  the 
receivers  by  keeping  his  eye  on  the  needs 
of  the  market  and  forestalling  any  chances 
for  complaints.  From  Freight  House 
Trucker  to  Banana  Clerk  may  not  be  a 
long  jump  but  "Joe"  claims  he  "got  by" 
simply  by  making  friends  with  everybody 
that  could  do  the  Railroad  anv  good  and 
plugging  for  more  business  whenever  the 
opportunity  presented  itself.  Hats  off  and 
up  in  the  air  for  "Joe"! 

Minnesota   Division 

The  Coal  Committee  and  their  cam- 
paign are  coming  along  famously.  Our 
engineers  and  firemen  are  in  the  game 
for  all  they  are  worth  and  it  is  mighty 
seldom  these  days  that  black  smoke  can 
be  observed  coming  from  any  of  the  Min- 
nesota Division  locomotives  between  Al- 
bert Lea  and  Freeport. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


105 


In  the  passenger  service  Engineer 
Crockett  and  Fireman  Hoffman,  hold  the 
boards  with  a  run  of  sixty-nine  miles 
from  Dubuque  to  Freeport  on  Local  Pas- 
senger Train  No.  38,  making  all  stops, 
with  223  scoops,  approximately  one  and 
a  half  tons.  Also  a  total  absence  of  pop 
offs  was  noted  on  this  run. 

Engineer  C.  A.  Parker  and  Fireman 
Disstlemeyer  head  the  list  in  freight  serv- 
ice with  a  run  of  723  scoops  or  five  tons 
of  fuel  between  Waterloo  and  Dubuque 
on  Train  No.  52  handling  full  tonnage. 

For  twenty  continuous  days  Engineer 
Whittstock  and  Fireman  Ploeger  in  work 
train  service  used  but  forty  tons  of  coal 
or  an  average  of  two  tons  a  day. 

Cupid-Hymen  &  Company  announce 
through  their  efforts  and  the  assistance 
of  their  Waterloo  representative,  the 
Rev.  J.  B.  Smith,  Keith  Crowther  at  last 
became  a  Benedict  and  on  September  22 
was  married  to  Miss  Alma  Neubauer, 
also  of  Waterloo.  Sometime  ago  we 
announced  Accountant  Crowthers  of  the 
Master  Mechanic's  office  had  built  a  new 
house  and  this  evidently  clears  up  the 
mystery. 

That  the  Illinois  Central  is  at  all  times 
interested  not  only  in  its  employes  but 
also  the  welfare  of  their  families  is 
brought  out  by  the  recent  case  of  Frank 
Moran,  an  old  employe  of  the  Minnesota 
Division.  Mr.  Moran  becoming  mentally 
incompetent  was  committed  to  the  Asy- 
lum at  Independence  just  before  his  pen- 
sion was  granted.  After  investigation, 
the  Board  of  Pensions  decided  to  place 
the  pension  in  the  hands  of  a  bank  at 
Warren,  Illinois,  to  be  applied  on  the 
education  of  Mr.  Moran's  small  son  who 
had  gone  to  that  place  to  live  with  rela- 
tives. This  will  continue  as  long  as  Mr. 
Moran  lives. 

Agent  Sievers  at  Dubuque  says  he  did- 
n't want  a  new  freight  house  anyhow 
and  will  be  perfectly  content  when  he 
gets  his  new  platform  in. 

"Feel"  Lehman,  in  the  Road  Master's 
office,  strolled  in  the  nineteenth  all  puffed 
up  and  solemnly  handed  around  the  ci- 
gars. He  says  he  weighs  ten  pounds  and 
looks  just  like  his  dad. 

H.  L.  Crowell,  Tool  Room  Foreman 
at  Waterloo  shops,  has  won  a  place  on 


the  State  Team  which  will  attend  the 
National  Guard  Sharpshooters'  contest 
to  be  held  at  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  in  the 
near  future. 

September  17th  a  silk  train  of  ten  cars 
made  the  162  miles  from  Waterloo  to 
Freeport  in  four  hours  and  five  minutes, 
which,  considering  the  grades  on  the 
Minnesota  Division,  is  considered  pret- 
ty fair  running. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Engineer  McGuire,  who  spent .  sev- 
eral days  in  Chicago  on  committee 
work,  is  laying  off  for  a  few  days  and 
visiting  relatives  in  Anna. 

Former  night  yard  master  Don  Car- 
lisle has  been  appointed  day  yard  mas- 
ter at  Centralia  and  Conductor  Faulk- 
ner is  on  the  night  job. 

Conductor  "Joe"  Youngblood  and 
Mrs.  Youngblood  celebrated  their 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  Friday,  Sept. 
24th,  and  entertained  about  200  friends 
at  the  Elks'  home  in  the  evening.  They 
were  the  recipients  of  many  beautiful 


I  Have 

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Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

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Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
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Chicago 11 


106 


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342-3  Davidson  Bldg.    Auto.  Phone  4036 

MISS  BERYL  A.  STEELE 

LAW  STENOGRAPHER 


Depositions 
Daily  Transcripts 


SIOUX  CITY,  IOWA 


and  useful  presents.  We  hope  to  be 
able  to  attend  their  golden  annivers- 
ary. 

The  Eldorado  district  is  now  called 
the  "Firing  Line."  Several  new  mines 
have  opened  up  on  that  district  and  all 
loading  heavily.  Makes  business  good 
for  the  coal  runs. 

Mrs.  Parker  Chastaine,  wife  of  Di- 
vision timekeeper,  is  slowly  recovering 
after  a  prolonged  and  a  serious  illness. 

Miss  Erna  McGuire,  clerk  in  office 
of  Master  Mechanic  Branton,  at  Cen- 
tralia,  has  returned  from  a  two  weeks' 
vacation  in  Chicago  and  Michigan. 
The  lake  breeze  must  have  agreed 
with  "Mac,"  as  she  is  certainly  looking 
fine. 

Out  of  twelve  married  men  in  dis- 
patchers' office  at  Carbondale,  ten  own 
their  homes,  which  indicates  thrift  and 
contentment.  A  healthy  condition  to 
have  in  any  office. 

DID  IT  EVER  OCCUR  TO  YOU? 

That  some  short  men  do  some  tall 
thinking? 

That  the  stamp  of  disgrace  is  often 
applied  by  the  tongue  of  slander? 

That  worry  is  the  pace  maker  for 
fleeting  youth? 

That  it  took  six  hundred  years  for 
Noah  to  get  wise  enough  to  build  the 


ark  and  only  a  few  minutes  to  lose  his 
reputation? 

That  the  fellow  with  the  slide  trom- 
bone can  be  the  whole  thing  in  the 
band,  until  they  throw  him  out? 

That  we  would  all  be  brave  soldiers 
if  bullets  were  made  of  rubber? 

That  it  takes  a  pretty  wise  guy  to 
distinguish  that  one  knock  of  oppor- 
tunity they  talk  so  much  about? 


Vicksburg  Division. 

Mr.  C.  Bourgeois,  who  has  been 
serving  the  Vicksburg  Division  as 
division  accountant,  at  Greenville,  has 
severed  his  connection  with  this  divi- 
sion for  the  purpose  of  joining  the 
ranks  of  the  superintendent's  office  at 
Vicksburg,  Miss.,  where  he  will  han- 
dle the  accounts  of  the  New  Orleans 
Division.  All  Mr.  Bourgeois'  many 
friends  regretted  to  see  him  leave. 

It  has  also  been  noted  that  Mr. 
Bourgeois  became  "dada,"  which  took 
place  Sept.  13.  "It's  a  girl." 

Stenographer  Miss  Walter  McClain 
has  severed  her  connection  with  the 
company  "for  keeps,"  in  order  that 
she  might  prepare  for  her  wedding, 
which  is  to  take  place  October  20. 
Miss  McClain  tendered  her  resigna- 
tion, effective  September  27.  She  has 
been  in  the  employ  of  the  Y.  &  M.  V. 
for  the  past  four  or  five  years  and  has 
made  a  most  capable  stenographer. 
Her  railroad  friends  regret  very  much 
to  see  her  leave  the  service,  but  of 
course  it  was  nothing  more  than  was 
expected.  "May  her  joys  be  as  deep 
as  the  ocean,  and  her  sorrows  as  light 
as  its  foam." 

Time  Keeper  M.  P.  Massey  was 
promoted  to  the  position  as  chief  ac- 
countant, filling  the  vacancy  made  by 
the  transfer  of  Mr.  Bourgeois. 

Chief  Clerk  Mr.  Seymour  Simmons 
made  a  business  trip  to  Brownsville, 
Tenn.,  Sunday,  Sept.  26,  only  being 
absent  from  Greenville  one  day.  He 
says  that  is  too  much  mileage  for  him 
in  that  space  of  time,  but  of  course 
when  the  madam  says  "come,"  it's  up 
to  him. 

Mr.  Wright  Chenault,  who  has  been 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


II 


Your  very  job  depends  upon  your  watch  — 

Where  safety  is  measured  by  seconds,  you've  got  to  have  a  watch 
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FROZEN.  IN  ICE 
KEEPS  PERFECT  TIME  S 


working  in  Yard  Master  Cunning- 
ham's office  at  Vicksburg,  has  accept- 
ed the  position  as  stenographer  in 
Train  Master's  office,  at  Greenville. 

Mr.  H.  L.  Michaux,  accountant  in 
Greenville  freight  office,  made  a  flying 
trip  to  Helena,  Ark.,  visiting  friends. 
He  reports  having  a  nice  trip. 

Mrs.  D.  H.  Smith,  employed  as  clerk 
in  supervisor's  office,  has  been  pro- 
moted to  position  as  stenographer  in 
superintendent's  office,  change  to  take 
effect  October  1. 

Agent,  Mr.  E.  Puckett,  Arcola, 
Miss.,  is  now  back  at  work  after 
spending  his  "Honey-Moon"  in  San 
Francisco  and  other  points  of  interest 
in  the  "Golden  West." 

Mr.  G.  A.  Williams  is  now  pleasantly 
located  in  his  new  position  as  agent 
at  Louise,  Miss. 

Mr.  S.  E.  Stepp,  formerly  employed 
by  the  Southern  Railway  Co.,  in  Mis- 
sissippi, has  accepted  position  as 
agent  and  operator  with  this  com- 
pany and  is  working  at  Percy,  Miss. 


F.  W.  NAGBL         Established  1865         H.  L.  MEYER 

NAGEL  &  MEYER,  Jewelers 

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Expert  watchmakers  (only)  employed  to  care  for 
your  watches.  Ball  and  other  popular  makes  of 
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Arthur  Krouse  is  a  locomotive  fireman  who  had 
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years  ago  he  began  to  have  spells  of  illness.  His 
memory  was  getting  very  bad  and  his  eyes  both- 
ered him  a  good  deal.  He  had  tried  in  vain  to 
conquer  the  habit  until  he  got  a  certain  book  and 
now  he  is  freed  from  the  thraldom  of  tobacco  and 
his  health  is  wonderfully  improved.  Anyone  who 
desires  to  read  the  book  can  obtain  it  absolutely 
free  by  writing  to  Edward  J.  Woods,  189  M,  Sta- 
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in  three  days. 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


108 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


BURDSAL'S 
PAINTS 

"The  Kind  That  Won't  Come  Off" 
Ask  Your  Dealer 

The  A.  Burdsal  Company 

INDIANAPOLIS 


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Manufacturing  Confectioners,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 


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Overalls 

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Indianapolis,  U.  S.  A. 
Founded  in  1883 


Vonnegut  Machinery  Co. 

Machine  Tools,  Wood  Working  Machinery 

Factory  Equipment,  Power   Transmission 
Appliances 

43  South  Meridian  Street  Indianapolis,  Ind. 


KIEFER- STEW  ART  CO. 

WHOLESALE    DRUGS,    DRUGGIST'S    SUNDRIES    AND    CIGARS 

Capitol  Avenue  and  Georgia  Street 

TELEPHONES:  Independent:  26-27-28-29-66-1906—  Central  Union:  Main  25-26-66 

INDIANAPOLIS,  IND. 


Please   mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


Illinois  Contra! 


"Two  Out  and  the  Bases  Full" 

is  only  one  of  the  many  thrilling 
situations  to  be  found  in 

Hatfield's  Parlor  Base  Ball 

the  craze  of  fandom  everywhere— 60  cards,  eight  plays  on  a  card,  480  plays  to  the  deck, 
over  a  million  combinations — strikes,  balls,  double  plays,  hit  and  run,  hook  slide,  etc. 
You  don't  have  to  be  a  fan  to  enjoy  this  game— Play  it  solitaire  or  by  any  even  num- 
ber— attractively  boxed  it  makes  an  ideal  Christmas  gift.  Many  a  long  night  made 
short  by  playing  Hatfield's  Parlor  Base  Ball — The  game  Joe  Tinker  finds  interesting 
and  instructive — Invented  by  a  railroad  man,  and  dedicated  to  railroad  men — Nothing 
like  it  in  all  the  world. 

5Oc  —  Sent  postpaid  anywhere  for  —  5Oc 
Agents  Wanted  Big  Profits 

We  are  engaging  agents  everywhere  to  sell  this  game — They  are  making  big  money. — 
KING  KINNEY,  a  former  railroad  man,  averages  $12  a  day  in  Chicago — You  can  do 
the  same.    Write  for  our  agency  proposition — "Use  the  brains  God  gave  you"  and  send 
50c  for  a  game  anyway. 
Every  traveling  man  should  have  one  of  Hatfield's  games — Just  fits  in  your  grip. 

THE  HATFIELD  CO.,  Dept.  I.,  (Not  Inc.) 
6401  Normal  Boulevard  Chicago,  Illinois 


The  Bettendorf  Company 


L.  A.  Downs — Frontispiece. 

The   Story  of  the  Illinois   Central   Lines   during  the   Civil   Con- 
flict,   1861-5 9 

Public    Opinion 17 

L.   W.   Baldwin 23 

Murphysboro,    111 24 

How   Employes    Should    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock    30 

Claims    Department 33 

Always    Safety    First 43 

Industrial,  Immigration  and  Development  Department 52 

Transportation    Department '. 57 

Loss  and   Damage   Bureau 62 

Engineering  Department 63 

Hospital    Department 68 

Passenger  Traffic   Department 75 

Mechanical  Department 84 

Appointments  and   Promotions * 89 

Law    Department 90 

Railway  Transportation   in    Illinois 92 

Freight  Traffic  Department 97 

Roll    of    Honor 100 

William   E.   Butterworth 104 

Meritorious  Service 105 

Division  News ....107 


^uSlished  monthly  6y  the  Jt/inois  Central  (J2.<j2.  G>., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4^000  "Employes 
^dvertising  •  raies  •  on  •  application,^ 

Office  mWichian  9lt>.       ^Phone  ^aBasb  22GD 
11 


Chicago 

15  <fpr.  copy 


-goca/55 
$1.50  pr.  year 


L.  A.   DOWNS 

General  Superintendent  Southern  Lines 

L.  A.  Downs,  born  in  Greencastle,  Indiana,  May  9,  1872.  Graduated 
from  Purdue  University,  1894.  Began  with  Illinois  Central  in  March,  1896, 
as  rodman  and  promoted  through  the  various  grades  of  the  Engineering 
Department  and  appointed  Roadmaster  of  the  Amboy  Division,  Feb.  1,  1898 ; 
Kentucky  Division,  1900 ;  Louisiana  Division,  1901 ;  Springfield  Division, 
1902;  Illinois  Division,  1905.  Was  Assistant  Engineer  and  Assistant  Chief 
Engineer  Maintenance  of  Way  from  1907  to  1910.  Appointed  Superintendent 
of  Iowa  Division,  Dec.  6,  1910;  Superintendent  of  Minnesota  Division,  July 
1,  1913;  Superintendent  of  Kentucky  Division,  Jan.  15,  1915;  General  Super- 
intendent Southern  Lines,  Nov.  15,  1915. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.4 


NOVEMBER,   1915 


Story  of tfi© 
Illinois  Central  Linos 

during,  the 

Civil  Conflict  i86i-5 

General  Rufus  Polk  Neely 


"R  UFE  NEELY>"  as  he  was 

^   when  a  boy,  was  born  Saturday, 

November  26,  1808,  in  Maury  County, 
Tenn.,  on  a  farm  on  Cathey's  Creek; 
he  died  at  Bolivar,  Tenn.,  on  Sunday, 
August  11,  1901,  aged  93  years. 

He  was  the  son  of  Captain  Charles 
Neely,  of  Maury  County,  Tenn.,  who 
was  a  regular  United  States  Army 
officer  under  General  Jackson  in  all  of 
his  Indian  campaigns,  and  at  the  Bat- 
tle of  New  Orleans  which  practically 
ended  our  War  of  1812  with  England. 
His  mother  was  Louisa  Polk,  daughter 
of  Colonel  Ezekiel  Polk,  who  was  the 
grandfather  of  President  James  K. 
Polk.  Captain  Charles  Neely  was  the 
principal  contractor  to  furnish  pro- 
visions to  the  Creek  aiid  Seminole  In- 
dians after  their  defeat  by  the  United 
States  troops.  He  died  December  20, 
1821.  Rufus  Polk  Neely  came  to 
Hardeman  County,  Tenn.,  in  1821,  with 
his  grandfather,  Ezekiel  Polk,  and 
worked  for  him,  helping  to  clear  his 
plantation ;  going  to  the  common 


school  between  times.  Then  he  went 
back  to  middle  Tennessee  with  his 
grandfather  to  bring  the  family  to 
Hardeman  County,  which  has  since 
been  their  home. 

In  1825  when  Hardeman  County  was 
organized,  Rufus  Polk  Neely,  only  17 
years  old,  was  made  its  first  register 
of  deeds,  which  office  he  held  till  1833 ; 
and  from  that  time  he  served  as  deputy 
clerk  and  clerk  of  that  county  for 
thirty-two  years. 

While  register  of  deeds,  and  also 
while  deputy  clerk  of  the  county,  he 
found  time  to  clerk  in  various  stores 
and  learn  general  business ;  and  he 
made  some  money  taking  wolf  scalps, 
for  which  there  was  a  bounty  of  $3 
on  each  wolf  killed.  In  those  pioneer 
days  wolf  scalps  and  fur  skins  general- 
ly were  legal  tender  in  any  kind  of 
trade. 

In  1829,  at  Bolivar,  he  married  Miss 
Elizabeth  Lea,  daughter  of  John  Lea, 
a  prominent  merchant  of  Bolivar.  His 
duties  as  county  official  were  mostly 


10 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


performed  by  deputies,  and  he  was  en- 
gaged in  various  successful  money- 
making  enterprises. 

In  those  frontier  days,  most  of  the 
young  men  belonged  to  some  militia 
organization  as  a  matter  of  interest 
and  amusement,  as  well  as  a  wise  pre- 
caution against  sudden  need  for  troops. 
There  were  more  or  less  wars  or 
rumors  of  wars  all  the  time.  Men  gen- 
erally were  well  armed  with  deer  and 
bear  rifles,  and  had  practice  enough  to 
use  them  efficiently. 

Rufus  Neely's  military  record  be- 
came noticeable  in  1836  when  he  was 
elected  brigadier  general  of  militia,  re- 
ceiving his  commission  from  Governor 
Cannon,  and  being  placed  in  command 
of  the  Twenty-Second  Brigade  of  the 
Tennessee  State  Militia. 

Then  he  raised  a  regiment  of  volun- 
teers to  aid  General  Sam  Houston  in 
the  Texas  Revolution,  and  was  elected 
its  colonel.  They  were  expecting  to 
go  to  Texas  to  serve  under  General 
Edward  P.  Gaines ;  but  the  troops  were 
disbanded  by  President  Jackson  as  the 
United  States  was  then  at  peace  with 
Mexico. 

After  being  mustered  out  of  service 
he  kept  his  Bolivar  company  organized 
until  General  Scott  called  for  troops 
to  remove  the  Cherokee  and  Creek  In- 
dians, when  he  reported  to  General 
Scott  at  Fort  Cass,  on  the  Tennessee 
River,  near  Chattanooga,  in  1838,  and 
he  served  with  General  Scott  in  get- 
ting the  Indians  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River. 

When  the  Mexican  War  broke  out 
in  1846,  'he  had  a  good  military  com- 
pany well  equipped  and  drilled  which 
he  tendered  to  General  Scott,  and 
which  did  good  service. 

As  early  as  1855  it  was  demonstrated 
that  river  transportation  was  not 
adequate  or  entirely  suitable  to  de- 
velop the  natural  resources  and  the 
growing  trade  of  the  South.  There 
was  great  interest  in  railroad  building, 
and  General  Rufus  Polk  Neely  was  a 
leading  advocate  of  an  extension  rail- 
road system.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneer 
organizers  of  the  Mississippi  Central 


and  Tennessee  Railroad  of  which  Mil- 
ton Brown  was  the  first  prseident,  and 
General  Neely  was  the  secretary.  The 
first  superintendent  was  H.  P.  Handy. 
"Tracy  Robinson,"  now  a  citizen  of 
Colon,  Panama,  was  next,  and  J.  J. 
Williams  was  chief  engineer.  General 
Neely  succeeded  Milton  Brown  as 
president,  and  as  such  operated  it  till 
the  war  broke  out.  That  road  was 
chartered  to  run  from  the  state  line  of 
Mississippi  to  Jackson,  Tenn.  It  is  now 
a  part  of  the  great  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road system. 

Associated  in  that  pioneer  under- 
taking so  badly  needed  were  other 
prominent  citizens  of  west  Tennessee ; 
Robert  Hurt,  Dr.  Butler,  and  Austin 
Miller,  of  Bolivar,  wi'th  many  others 
of  Jackson,  Tenn. 

They  encountered  so  many  difficul- 
ties and  needless  obstructions,  it  is  a 
wonder  they  succeeded  in  building  the 
road  at  all  before  the  war.  Money  was 
scarce.  The  old-fogy-non-progressive 
element  did  not  stay  content  with  re- 
fusing to  contribute  money  to  the  en- 
terprise, but  they  did  all  they  could  to 
prevent  others  from  doing  anything  to 
help  it  along.  They  said 'river  trans- 
portation was  good  enough,  and  ap- 
peared to  think  that  railroads  would 
hurt  rather  than  help  the  state.  They 
were  opposed  to  anything  that  required 
either  exertion  or  money.  The  country 
had  done  well  with  ox  teams,  mule 
power,  and  flat  boats  when  they  could 
not  get  steamboats.  "The  old  way  was 
the  best."  Times  were  hard,  and 
money  was  very  scarce,  because  much 
was  going  out  and  but  little  coming  in. 
But  these  ancient  and  honorable  Trog- 
lodites  did  not  realize  what  caused  the 
financial  stress,  many  not  realizing  that 
there  was  any  stress.  An  employe  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 
now  a  leading  business  man  in  that 
county  says :  "In  looking  through  out 
files  of  letters,  90  per  cent  of  them  re- 
fer to  unpaid  accounts.  How  the  road 
was  ever  carried  through  to  comple- 
tion is  a  wonder;  but  that  indomitable 
Polk  will  and  push  sustained  General 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


11 


Neely  through  the  darkest  hour,  and 
to  success  most  worthily  deserved." 

The  Mississippi  Central  and  Ten- 
nessee Railroad  consolidated  with  the 
Mississippi  Central  Railroad,  of  which 
Walter  Goodman  was  the  first  presi- 
dent till  1865;  he  was  succeeded  by 
Gerald  West;  then  by  H.  S.  McComb, 
of  the  Southern  Railroad  Association. 
The  first  superintendents  were  Wall, 
Frost  and  Barry. 

General  Neely  was  a  director  and 
actively  engaged  in  the  management  of 
this  railroad  until  it  was  absorbed  by 
the  Southern  Railroad  Association  un- 
der H.  S.  McComb;  and  in  that  large 
corporation  he  was  also  a  director  and 
one  of  the  managing  men. 

He  sustained  a  similar  relation  to  the 
Chicago,  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans 
Railroad,  successor  to  the  New  Or- 
leans Association,  and  afterwards  a 
part  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
system. 

He  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  a  rail- 
road builder,  promoter,  manager  and 
operator,  an  unusual  combination. 

In  1876  Governor  Porter,  of  Ten- 
nessee, appointed  General  Neely  re- 
ceiver of  th.e  Mississippi  Central  & 
Tennessee  Railroad,  (which  old  or- 
ganization has  been  kept  up)  when  the 
Southern  Railroad  Association  failed 
to  pay  the  interest  on  the  first  mort- 
gage bonds  that  were  guaranteed  by 
the  state  of  Tennessee.  He  served  in 
this  capacity  till  that  road  was  bought 
by  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany under  the  federal  court's  fore- 
closure sale  to  pay  off  the  lien  of  the 
state  of  Tennessee  as  a  guarantor  of 
said  first  mortgage  bonds. 

During  his  administration  as  re- 
ceiver he  paid  all  the  expenses  of 
operating  the  road  and  turned  into  the 
state  treasury  over  $100,000  profit; 
something  that  no  other  railroad  re- 
ceiver ever  did  in  the  history  of  such 
matters  in  Tennessee. 

From  1878  until  he  was  incapacitated 
by  blindness  and  age  he  served  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  as 
resident  director. 

He    was    also   director   of   the   Mis- 


sissippi and  Tennessee  Railroad,  run- 
ning trom  Grenada,  Miss.,  to  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  from  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
in  1865  until  it  was  absorbed  by  the 
Illinois  Central  system,  of  which  it  is 
still  a  part. 

General  Neely  organized  the  Mem- 
phis &  Knoxville  Railroad,  designed  to 
run  from  Memphis,  Tenn.,  by  way  of 
Bolivar,  Somerville,  Pulaski  and  Fay- 
etteville,  to  Knoxville,  Tenn.  He 
built  a  part  of  this  line,  and  would  have 
put  the  project  through  had  not  the 
panic  of  1873  demoralized  its  financ- 
ing. 

He  was  also  a  director  in  the  Can- 
ton, Aberdeen  &  Nashville  Railroad; 
and  of  the  Yazoo  Valley  Railroad, 
both  now  parts  of  the  great  Illinois 
Central  Raijroad  system. 

General  Neely  was  a  practical  rail- 
road and  business  man,  and  for  his 
time  the  most  progressive  raihoad  man 
in  his  section  of  the  country.  In  his 
struggle  to  build  the  Mississippi 
Central  &  Tennessee  Railroad  he  had 
to  resort  to  every  possible  means  to 
get  the  needed  money;  and  he  fre- 
quently used  his  own  personal  credit 
to  meet  the  pressing  demands  of  con- 
tractors and  claimants  who  furnished 
supplies  and  materials  to  build  the 
road. 

In  those  days  money  was  scarce  and 
hard  to  get  in  large  amounts  neces- 
sary to  carry  out  such  an  enterprise 
as  building  a  railroad. 

To  overcome  these  difficulties  he 
took  subscriptions  of  planters  living 
along  the  line  of  the  railroad,  and  then 
allowed  them  to  work  out  the  amounts 
due  with  their  own  slaves  in  building 
and  constructing  the  road ;  or  to  pay 
in  supplies. 

It  was  only  through  his  indomitable 
pluck  and  energy  that  he  was  enabled 
to  successfully  carry  out  the  enter- 
prise which  at  that  time  was  a  great 
undertaking. 

General  Neely  was  not  only  the 
originator,  but  he  was  the  constructor 
and  builder  of  the  Mississippi  Central 
&  Tennessee  Railroad.  He  also  pro- 
cured the  means  to  equip  and  operate 


12 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


GEN.    RUFUS   POLK   NEELY 


it.  He  operated  it  successfully,  in 
spite  of  the  dull  times,  until  the  war 
came  on  and  the  ravages  of  contending 
armies  destroyed  the  line,  burning  its 
bridges  and  depots,  carrying  away  its 
rolling  stock  and  other  equipments ; 
each  side  trying  to  leave  nothing  that 
the  other  might  use  to  advantage. 
Such  conditions  left  little  chance  for  a 
railroad  to  exist  at  all,  much  less  for 
it  to  pay  dividends. 

In  1860,  through  his  personal  and 
Dolitical  influence,  and  his  friendship 
with  Postmaster  General  Aaron  B. 
Brown,  General  Neely  established  a 
continuous  southern  mail  rovite  from 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  to  New  Orleans; 
over  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  Railroad 
from  Cincinnati,  to  Odin,  111. ;  from 
Odin,  over  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road, to  Cairo,  111. ;  thence  by  boat  to 
Columbus,  Ky. ;  from  Columbus,  Ky., 
to  Jackson,  Tenn.,  over  the  Mobile  & 


Ohio  Railroad;  thence  from  Jackson, 
Tenn.,  to  New  Orleans,  over  the  Mis- 
sissippi Central  and  New  Orleans, 
Jackson  &  Great  Northern  railroads. 

General  Neely  was  present  when  the 
last  spike  was  driven  near  Durant, 
Miss.,  on  Tuesday,  January  31,  1860, 
connecting  .the  two  ends  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Central  Railroad,  which  had 
been  consolidated  with  his  road,  the 
Mississippi  Central  &  Tennessee ; 
thereby  completing  the  line  from  New 
Orleans  to  Columbus,  Ky. 

General  Neely  was  elected  to  the 
legislature  of  Tennessee  in  1839;  but 
he  appears  to  have  been  too  busy  do- 
ing larger  things  to  personally  spend 
much  time  enacting  laws.  However, 
he  always  exercised  great  political  in- 
fluence, being  one  of  those  powers  be- 
hind the  legislative  throne  that  are 
greater  than  the  throne  itself. 

General  Neely's  Civil  War  record  is 
as  interesting  as  it  was  unusual.  After 
the  trouble  between  the  North  and 
South  had  reached  the  breaking  point, 
General  Neely  was  not  far  away  when 
the  first  shot  of  the  Civil  War  was 
fired. 

He  claimed  that,  even  if  it  were  not 
"Heard  around  the  world,"  the  first 
shot  was  not  April  12th  at  Fort  Sum- 
ter,  as  many  said;  nor  yet  at  the  Star 
of  the  West,  the  United  States  vessel 
going  to  the  relief  of  Fort  Sumter. 
from  a  Confederate  gun  guarding 
Charleston  Harbor,  January  10th;  but 
that  historic  "first  shot"  against  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  was  fired  Wednes- 
day, January  9th,  1861,  from  a  Con- 
federate battery,  the  Quitman  Artil- 
lery, on  the  cliff  just  below  Vicks- 
burg,  Miss.,  by  Horace  Miller,  of 
Miller  and  Marshall,  attorneys  at  law, 
at  a  steamboat,  the  Tyler,  afterwards 
a  United  States  Gunboat,  carrying  the 
United  States  Flag,  on  her  way  to 
New  Orleans.  The  boat  did  not  stop, 
but  continued  on  her  way  to  New  Or- 
leans, and  then  soon  returned  to  her 
starting  point  up  the  river,  without 
being  stopped  by  the  enemy.  This 
statement  is  made  by  a  passenger  on 
board  the  boat  who  still  is  living.  The 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


four-pound  cannon  was  sent  to  Wash- 
ington, July,  1866,  as  a  war  relic. 

When  Tennessee  seceded  he  or- 
ganized the  Pillow  Guards  of  Harde- 
man  County.  He  was  elected  Cap- 
tain. Later  he  organized  the  Fourth 
Regiment  of  Tennessee  Infantry,  and 
he  was  elected  Colonel.  Otho  F. 
Stahl  was  his  Lieutenant  Colonel. 
His  regiment  was  part  of  the  Pillow 
Brigade,  under  Brigadier  Gideon  J. 
Pillow,  in  the  Division  of  the  Con- 
federate Army  of  the  Mississippi 
commanded  by  Major  General  Leon- 
idas  Polk,  known  as  the  Fighting 
Bishop,  he  being  a  Bishop  of  the 
Episcopal  Church.  The  Bishop  Gen- 
eral was  an  active  officer  in  the  Amer- 
ican Army  during  the  Mexican  War, 
but  had  since  been  made  a  Bishop. 
For  that  reason  he  was  depreciated  by 
some  of  the  other  Confederate  offi- 
cers; but  from  the  time  he  was  sta- 
tioned at  Columbus,  Ky.,  in  charge 
o.  the  First  Division  of  the  Confed- 
erate Army,  under  the  command  of 
Lieutenant  General  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  commanding  the  First 
Army  Corps,  till  he  was  killed  at  Pine 
Mountain,  on  Sunday,  the  seventh  day 
of  September,  1862,  "The  Fighting 
Bishop"  made  good  his  name. 

General  Pillow's  command  was  very 
active  in  numerous  preliminary  small 
engagements  and  skirmishes  during 
the  early  part  of  the  war,  and  Colonel 
Rufus  Neely  had  many  opportunities 
to  aid  the  Confederate  cause  with  his 
military  knowledge  and  experience 
which  was  later  to  be  utilized  in  a 
special  way  by  President  Davis  near 
Richmond,  and  at  other  places  along 
the  fighting  line. 

General  Neely  took  part  in  the 
battles  of  New  Madrid,  Steamboat 
Hill,  Camp  Redan,  Fort  Pillow,  Co- 
lumbus, Island  No.  10,  Fort  Donel- 
son,  Belmont  and  Shiloh,  or  Pitts- 
burg  Landing. 

Perhaps  the  Battle  of  Belmont, 
Missouri,  across  the  Mississippi  River 
from  Columbus,  Kentucky,  was  one 
of  the  first  hard  fights  that  he  en- 
gaged in.  About  September  4th, 


1861,  General  Polk  had  fortified  Co- 
lumbus so  well  that  it  was  called 
"The  Gibraltar  of  The  South,"  a  name 
later  given  to  Vicksburg  also,  and 
misapplied  as  to  both  places. 

As  a  preliminary  move  in  taking 
Columbus,  General  Grant,  soon  after 
he  was  put  in  charge  of  the  Union 
troops  at  Cairo,  decided  to  capture 
Belmont,  which  was  in  command  of 
General  Pillow,  under  Major  General 
Polk.  While  General  Pillow  was  over 
at  Columbus,  the  night  of  December 
6th,  1861,  the  steamers  Alex  Scott, 
Chancellor,  Memphis  and  Keystone 
State,  accompanied  by  the  gunboats 
Tyler  and  Lexington,  quietly  moved 
down  the  Mississippi  River  from 
Cairo,  loaded  with  troops ;  the  27th, 
30th,  22nd,  31st  Illinois  Regiments 
and  the  7th  Iowa  Regiment  of  In- 
fantry, Taylor's  Battery,  Delano's 
Cavalry  and  some  other  troops.  They 
landed  at  Lucas  Bend,  about  three 
miles  above  Belmont,  formed  in  line 
of  battle  and  noiselessly  as  possible 
marched  down  through  the  woods 
against  the  enemy  at  Belmont  con- 
sisting of  two  regiments.  The  4th 
Tennessee,  under  Colonel  Rufus  Polk 
Neely,  and  three  other  regiments  of 
the  Pillow  Brigade  were  located  at 
Columbus  with  Folk's  main  army. 

The  Cairo  troops  were  led  by  Gen- 
eral McClernand,  those  from  Bird's 
Point,  Missouri,  across  the  Missis- 
sippi River  from  Cairo, '  by  General 
Dougherty,  and  all  were  under  the 
command  of  General  Grant.  Colonel 
Buford  with  the  22nd  Illinois  was  on 
the  right.  Colonel  Foulke  in  the  cen- 
ter, and  Colonel  Logan  with  the  31st 
on  the  left. 

General  Pillow  was  surprised  and 
taken  at  a  disadvantage  by  the  great- 
ly superior  force,  but  he  hurried 
across  the  river  with  four  regiments 
and  was  soon  in  the  thick  of  the  fight. 
They  fought  fiercely,  and  the  Union 
troops  suffered  great  loss,  particularly 
in  the  center.  General  Pillow  tried  to 
cut  his  way  out,  but  had  to  retreat 
into  Belmont  again.  Meanwhile, 
something  was  doing  from  General 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Folk's  side  of  the  river.  He  quickly 
dispatched  troops  on  his  boats  and 
transports  up  the  river,  instead  of  di- 
rectly across  to  Belmont.  These 
troops  landed  between  General 
Grant's  attacking  force  and  their 
boats,  causing  their  hasty  withdrawal 
from  Belmont.  Between  Pillow  in  the 
rear,  and  the  fresh  Confederate  troops 
just  arrived,  General  Grant  was 
beaten.  There  was  a  wild  rush  for 
his  boats  and  the  slaughter  at  the 
landing  was  terrible.  A  Chicago 
paper  the  day  after  stated  that  the 
27th  Illinois  Regiment  was  practically 
abandoned  to  its  fate,  but  the  enemy 
failed  to  realize  the  situation,  and  let 
those  disorganized  men  escape,  in- 
stead of  capturing  them  as  might 
easily  have  been  done.  That  same 
paper  added :  "The  majority  of  our 
troops  reached  the  boats,  but  every 
regiment  suffered  terribly." 

The  4th  Tennessee  was  officered  as 
follows :  Rufus  Polk  Neely,  Colonel ; 
Otho  F.  Stahl,  Lieutenant  Colonel ; 
Majors  John  F.  Henry,  Henry  Hamp- 
ton and  Luke  W.  Finlay,  who  became 
Lieutenant  Colonal  when  Stahl  was 
made  Colonel  after  Neely  was  put  in 
command  of  a  Brigade.  That  regi- 
ment distinguished  itself  at  the  Battle 
of  Belmont  by  its  fierce  resistance  to 
such  an  overwhelming  attacking  force 
urged  on  by  such  gallant  leaders. 

General  Pillow's  Brigade  reached 
Fort  Donelson  February  9th.  They 
engaged  in  the  hard  fighting  Febru- 
ary 14th,  the  day  the  battle  began. 
General  Pillow  opposed  the  needless 
and  very  unwise  attack  on  the  attack- 
ing troops  on  the  15th.  But  he  was 
only  second  in  command,  and  General 
Floyd  had  his  way  which  led  to  the 
loss  of  the  Fort,  and  of  the  first  de- 
cisive battle  of  the  war,  for  Fort  Don- 
elson  was  the  key  to  the  whole  West- 
ern Campaign.  That  night  Forrest 
and  Pillow  refused  to  surrender  as 
Flovd  and  Buckner  advised.  They 
said  the  position  of  the  Confederates 
was  hopeless,  at  their  midnight  con- 
sultation, as  they  were  then  invested 
by  four  times  their  own  number;  they 


having  no  chance  for  reinforcements 
while  new  troops  might  continue  to 
come  to  Grant's  aid,  if  needed. 

Besides,  the  Confederates  were 
about  exhausted,  having  had  little  to 
eat  for  four  days,  and  their  ammuni- 
tion was  running  short.  When  the 
fighting  practically  stopped  about 
dark,  perhaps  the  Confederate  army 
might  have  marched  out  from  Fort 
Donelson  and  have  made  good  escape, 
as  Forrest  and  Floyd  advised.  But 
General  Pillow  wished  to  fight  again 
next}  day.  Buckner  wished  to  sur- 
render. Pillow,  Forrest  and  Floyd 
quietly  marched  away  before  daylight 
of  the  16th,  taking  with  them  over 
2,000  men.  Quite  a  number  of  others, 
including  General  Bushrod  Johnson, 
walked  out  and  away  to  safety  after 
Buckner  put  up  his  white  flag.  If 
foresight  had 'been  as  good  as  hind- 
sight, practically  the  whole  Confed- 
erate Army  in  Fort  Donelson  might 
have  withdrawn  and  been  able  to  aid 
in  making  that  first  lucky  dav  of  the 
Confederates  at  Shiloh  a  decisive  vic- 
tory. 

At  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  Rufus  Polk 
Neely  was  placed  in  command  of  a 
brigade  composed  of  the  13th  Arkansas 
Regiment,  the  Fourth  Tennessee,  the 
Fifth  Tennessee,  the  33rd  Tennessee 
and  Captain  Thos.  J.  Stanforth's  Mis- 
sissippi Battery.  Few,  if  any  others, 
made  a  better  record. 

He  was  second  in  line  of  battle  with 
General  Polk's  division,  and  among 
those  who  fought  their  way  down 
through  the  whole  battle  ground,  almost 
to  the  river  by  the  time  darkness  stopped 
the  fighting.  For  his  gallantry  in  this 
great  battle,  he  was  made  a  Brigadier 
General,  for  the  second  day's  fighting 
was  even  fiercer  than  the  first,  and  the 
Confederates  were  gradually  forced  back 
by  the  reinforced  enemy  to  the  point 
from  which  they  started  fighting  the 
previous  day ;  and  what  had  been  a  glor- 
ious victory  was  allowed  to  become  a 
practical  defeat.  The  night  after  the 
first  day's  victorious  fighting,  General 
Forrest,  who  had  gone  into  the  fight 
without  waiting  for  his  greatly  de- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


15 


layed  orders,  personally  did  some 
reconnoitering  on  his  own  initiative. 
He  went  down  within  the  enemy's 
lines,  heard  them  talking,  and  dis- 
covered that  General  Lew  Wallace 
was  arriving  with  reinforcements.  He 
hastened  back,  sought  out  the  Confed- 
erate commander,  and  told  him  they 
would  be  attacked  by  fresh  troops  by 
daylight  next  morning,  and  that  a  night 
attack  would  clinch  the  Confederate  vic- 
tory, if  made  at  once  before  the  demor- 
alized Union  Army  could  be  reorgan- 
ized. He  was  invited  to  go  back  to  his 
command,  and  nothing  was  done  to 
avert  the  terrfiic,  disastrous  slaughter 
prepared  for  the  next  day.  But  General 
Forrest  aided  by  General  Walthall,  was 
called  upon  to  protect  the  rear  of  the 
retreating  Southern  Army,  and  prob- 
ably saved  it  from  greater  disaster  than 
had  come  upon  it  from  ignoring  his  in- 
formation and  suggestion. 

General  Neely  and  his  brigade  were 
kept  busy  for  several  months.  After 
the  fall  of  Fort  Donelson  and  Fort  Hen- 
ry, General  Beauregard  came  from  Vir- 
ginia, examined  the  situation  at  Colum- 
bus, and  decided  with  General  Albert 
Sidney  Johnston  that  that  stronghold 
should  be  abandoned,  and  the  works 
blown  up  and  destroyed,  the  guns,  muni- 
tions and  supplies  to  be  transferred  to 
Island  Number  10.  This  was  done,  but 
that  stronger  stronghold  was  also 
duly  taken  by  Grant's  Army.  In 
the  meantime,  however,  the  rein- 
forced Confederates  concentrated  at 
Corinth.  Grant's  Army  was  slow- 
ly following,  when  Johnston  took 
the  initiative  and  moved  out  from 
Corinth  to  attack  Grant  concentrating 
at  Pittsburg  Landing,  on  his  way  to  Co- 
rinth. Johnston's  attack  was  delayed  one 
day  by  rain  and  other  causes  preventing 
the  arival  of  part  of  his  army.  Final  de- 
feat followed  his  own  death  in  the  first 
day's  fight,  Monday,  April  6th,  about 
2  p.  m.,  after  he  had  practically  won  the 
day.  "Men  plan.  The  God  of  battles 
gives  victory." 

After  that  battle  General  Neely  and 
his  brigade  stubbornly  fought  with  the 
other  unlucky  Confederates ;  but  day 


after  day,  week  after  week,  one  disas- 
ter followed  another;  either  as  a  defi- 
nite defeat,  or  a  partial  victory  not 
properly  followed  up.  The  Confederate 
Army  was  gradually  pressed  back. 
Later  in  the  year  1862,  General  Neely 
was  captured,  but  on  a  special  order 
from  General  Grant  he  was  released 
from  the  Federal  prison  at  Alton,  111., 
and  went  home  to  Bolivar  on  parole. 
While  there  attending  to  his  business  he 
was  re-arrested  and  spent  the  winter  of 
1862-3  in  the  same  prison  at  Alton. 
But  in  May,  1863,  he  was  transferred 
to  the  prison  at  Camp  Chase  in  Ohio, 
to  prevent  him  from  persuading  Con- 
federate prisoners  against  taking  the 
oath  of  allegiance,  and  so  getting  out 
of  Camp  Chase,  he  was  then  sent  on  to 
the  prison  at  City  Point,  Va.,  and  kept 
there  till  the  fall  of  1863,  when  he  was 
exchanged. 

President  Davis  sent  for  him  and  gave 
him  a  commission  to  make  Richmond  his 
headquarters,  and  devote  himself  to 
gathering  up  Confederate  stragglers  at 
different  places,  and  reorganize  them 
into  fighting  shape  again  when  possible; 
and  also  to  gather  up  Federal  stragglers 
along  the  Union  lines,  and  send  them  to 
prison.  This  was  his  principal  work  till 
he  surrendered  with  Lee's  Army  at  the 
end  of  the  war. 

General  Neely's  younger  brother. 
Colonel  J.  J.  Neely,  was  one  of  General 
Forrest's  most  trusted  and  efficient  lieu- 
tenants in  all  his  wonderful  military 
raids.  He  commanded  the  13th  Tenn. 
Cavalry  through  Tennessee,  Mississippi, 
and  Alabama,  in  all  their  battles  and 
campaigns.  For  a  time  he  commanded  a 
brigade  of  General  Chalmer's  Division. 

General  Neely  raised  a  family  of  ten 
children,  two  having  died  young.  Five 
are  now  living:  Mrs.  R.  L.  Walker, 
Mrs.  L.  Coleman,  Mrs.  Kate  Collins, 
Mrs.  F.  L.  Miller,  and  only  one  of  the 
three  boys,  Dr.  J.  J.  Neely,  now  the  lo- 
cal surgeon  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company  at  Bolivar,  Tenn. ;  and 
also  superintendent  of  the  Western  Hos- 
pital for  the  Insane,  the  largest  insane 
asylum  in  the  state  of  Tennessee,  with 


16 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


which  institution  he  has  been  connected 
for  over  twenty  years. 

General  Neely  was  noted  also  as  a 
journalist,  exerting  a  strong  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  his  state,  and  also  in 
Mississippi. 

He  lived  to  be  the  oldest  citizen  in 
Hardeman  County,  and  died  at  Bolivar, 
in  his  old  home,  on  Sunday,  the  llth 
day  of  August,  1901,  being  almost  93 
years  old. 

The  following  clippings  from  Tennes- 
see newspapers  show  something  of  the 
estimation  in  which  General  Neely  was 
held  in  his  native  state: 

"Time  flies,  32,872  days  have  passed 
since  Gen.  R.  P.  Neely  was  born  in 
Maury  County,  Tenn.,  on  the  26th  day 
of  November,  1808,  so  he  is  ninety  years 
old  today.  He  has  not  lived  all  these 
years  in  vain.  He  has  been  a  very  re- 
markable man  in  his  day.  He  has  al- 
ways been  a  healthy,  robust  man,  and 
continues  to  be  so  yet,  notwithstanding 
his  age.  His  memory  of  the  past  is 
good. 

"He  gave  a  birthday  dinner  and  had 
a  few  of  his  friends  present  to  enjoy  the 
occasion.  Capt.  R.  H.  Wood,  Hon.  Mil- 
ton Brown  Gilmore,  senator  elect  to  the 
51st  General  Assembly  of  Tennessee, 
and  the  Hon.  C.  A.  Miller  were  among 
the  guests.  He  looks  as  if  he  might 
reach  his  100th  anniversary. 

"Through  many  dangers,  toils  and 
snares  he  has  already  come,  and  may  a 
kind  Providence  lead  him  to  the  end 
and  to  eternal  rest. 

"  C.  C.  McDaniel, 

"Bolivar,  Tenn.,  Nov.  26,  1898." 

(From  Jackson  Sun,  November  29th, 
1898.) 

"There  is  yet  living  in  West  Tennes- 
see one  of  the  most  noted  characters  of 
the  early  days  of  the  state — Gen.  R.  P. 
Neely,  of  Bolivar.  Perhaps  there  never 
lived  a  man  in  the  state  of  a  more  event- 
ful career.  He  is  nearing  the  century 


mark,  and  participated  in  every  war  in 
which  the  country  has  engaged  for 
three-quarters  of  a  century  previous  to 
the  recent  little  brush  with  Spain,  in- 
cluding many  of  the  Indian  troubles. 
He  was  a  Confederate  officer  and  a  gal- 
lant soldier  in  the  war  between  the 
states.  In  the  peaceful  history  of  his 
state  for  many,  many  years  he  was  a 
notable  figure,  being  one  of  the  pioneer 
business  men  of  this  section  when  yet 
in  the  possession  of  the  Indians.  He 
was  one  of  the  chief  promotors  and 
builders,  and  was  afterward  president  of 
the  old  Mississippi  Central  railroad,  now 
the  Jackson  and  Water  Valley  division 
of  the  great  Illinois  Central  system,  and 
passed  as  an  officer  of  the  road  through 
all  the  stages  of  that  line  to  its  becom- 
ing a  part  of  the  Illinois  Central.  In- 
social  and  literary  circles,  Gen.  Neely  is 
especially  brilliant,  being  a  man  of  the 
broadest  views  and  the  most  genial 
spirits.  For  him  there  is  always  a  ray 
of  sunshine  in  the  blackest  cloud.  He 
raised  a  most  interesting  family,  each 
member  of  which  became  an  ornament 
to  the  society  of  the  state.  The  pity  is 
that  the  evening  of  the  life  of  this  dis- 
tinguished citizen  and  pioneer  is  being 
spent  in  gloom.  Some  years  ago  Gen. 
Neely  lost  his  eye-sight,  but  this  calam- 
ity in  no  wise  dimmed  his  spirits  or 
chilled  his  heart.  If  possible,  it  gave  to 
his  active  intellect  and  memory  a  broad- 
er scope,  and  broadened  his  views  of 
the  beauties  of  life.  He  is  now  old  and 
a  mine  of  memories,  whose  light  should 
not  be  permitted  to  go  out  before  his 
ripe  experience  and  great  knowledge  is 
caught  and  indelibly  written  upon  the 
pages  of  history,  that  coming  genera- 
tions may  know  something  of  the  man 
and  his  remarkable  career.  His  general 
health  is  reported  to  be  most  excellent, 
and  there  are  hundreds  of  Tennesseeans 
who  hope  that  he  may  yet  round  a  cen- 
turv." 


PUBLIC  OPINION 


the 


World  thinks 


Interesting  Court  Decisions 


A  T  the  September  term  of  the 
^^  Holmes  County,  Miss.,  Circuit 
Court,  verdict  was  rendered  against 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Co.  in 
the  suit  of  Harry  T.  Cole  for  $7,500. 
At  the  April  term  of  the  same  court 
in  1913  a  judgment  was  rendered 
against  the  same  company  in  suit  of 
V.  P.  Messina  for  $10,000  and  this 
judgment  has  been  affrmed  by  the  su- 
preme court  of  the  state,  appeal  hav- 
ing been  taken  by  the  company  to  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court. 

An  examination  of  the  facts  and 
circumstances  under  which  the  per- 
sonal injuries  were  sustained  for  which 
these  judgments  were  returned  fur- 
nishes an  interesting  story  and  food  for 
reflection  and  may  well  create  some  con- 
cern in  the  minds  of  railroad  officials  and 
employes,  and  also  in  the  minds  of 
all  good  citizens  as  to  the  state  of 
the  public  mind  and  the  attitude  of 
our  courts  and  juries  toward  railroads. 
While  it  is  a  truism  that  the  prosperity 
of  many  individuals,  the  state  and  the 
nation  depends  largely  upon  the  pros- 
perity of  the  railroads,  the  expression 
of  this  fact  by  many  is  evidently  a 
mere  platitude  and  not  the  expression 
of  a  conviction. 

On  July  18,  1912,  train  No.  2,  one 
of  the  fast  passenger  trains  running  be- 
tween New  Orleans  and  Chicago,  was 
derailed  at  3  :20  a.  m.,  near  Foltz,  Miss. 
After  the  derailment  it  was  found  that 
seven  trespassers  had  been  riding  on 
the  rear  sill  of  the  engine  tank  and  that 
three  of  these  were  very  seriously  in- 
jured. V.  P.  Messina  sustained  a 


compound  fracture  of  the  right  leg  and 
left  arm  and  other  injuries.  Harry  T. 
Cole  had  an  amputation  of  the  left  leg 
and  Robert  Murphy  an  amputation  of 
the  right  leg.  At  the  time  these  men 
all  admitted  they  were  stealing  their 
way  on  the  engine  and  did  not  claim  to 
have  permission  from  any  one  to  ride. 

The  board  of  injury  found  the  de- 
railment was  due  to  gravel  ballast 
washing  from  the  track  for  a  distance 
of  350  feef,  due  to  the  overflow  of  a 
small  creek  caused  by  a  hard  storm 
about  two  miles  west  of  the  railroad, 
but  which  did  not  reach  the  railroad. 
The  place  of  the  washout,  it  seems, 
was  one  not  usually  affected  by  over- 
flows. However,  the  engineer  of  No. 
2  had  been  advised  of  heavy  rains 
ahead  and  in  consequence  had  lost  nine 
minutes  between  Dura,nt  and  Foltz,  a 
distance  of  73  miles,  although  no  rain 
had  fallen  on  the  train  and  no  evidence 
of  trouble  within  that  .distance. 

In  the  suits  referred  to  it  was  claimed 
and  testified  to  by  trie  plaintiffs  that 
Messina  had  obtained  permission  from 
Engineer  George  Barnett  before  the 
train  left  Jackson  for  himself  and  the 
other  six  men  to  ride  on  the  engine 
and  without  transportation.  The  re- 
coveries were  sought  and  obtained  on 
the  ground  that  even  though  they  were 
trespassers  the  company  was  liable  be- 
cause the  engineer  willfully  and  want- 
only ran  his  train  at  a  reckless  rate  of 
speed  into  this  washout.  The  de- 
fendant proved  the  well  known  rule  of 
the  company  that  no  one,  not  even  an 
employe,  is  permitted  to  ride  upon  an 


17 


18 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


engine  without  a  special  permit,  and 
that  the  engineer  has  no  authority  to 
waive  his  rule,  much  less  to  let  one 
ride  without  any  transportation  what- 
ever. Mr.  Barnett  testified  that  he  did 
not  give  these  men  permission  to  ride 
and  did  not  know  they  were  on  the 
train  until  after  the  accident  and  he 
was  corroborated  in  this  by  some  of 
the  other  trespassers.  It  was  also 
shown  that  Mr.  Barnett  had  been  in 
the  service  twenty-six  years,  twenty- 
four  years  an  engineer,  the  last  sixteen 
of  which  were  spent  in  passenger  serv- 
ice. 

A  question  of  fact  was  therefore 
raised  as  to  whether  these  men  did 
ride  without  permission  and  whether 
knowing  that  they  were  on  the  engine 
the  engineer  was  guilty  of  wanton  and 
willful  negligence  in  derailing  his 
train.  Because  the  jury  found  for  the 
plaintiff  the  courts  say  it  must  have 
believed  the  stories  of  the  plaintiffs 
and  as  the  jury  is  the  sole  judge  of 
the  facts  the  verdict  in  the  Messina 
case  at  least  has  not  been  disturbed. 

Had  these  cases  not  been  tried  and 
one  of  them  passed  upon  by  the  su- 
ureme  court,  who  would  have  believed 
recoveries  possible?  Is  it  probable 
that  the  jury  and  court  really  believed 
that  this  engineer  in  utter  disregard  of 
his  own  life,  to  say  nothing  of  the  lives 
of  his  passengers  and  crew,  ran  his 
train  knowingly,  wilfully  and  wantonly 
into  a  place  of  known  danger? 

Of  those  in  their  proper  places  on 
the  train,  but  three  mail  clerks  and 
five  passengers  were  injured,  and  they 
only  slightly.  Had  these  seven  pas- 
sengers paid  their  fare  and  ridden  in 
the  place  provided  for  passengers,  they 
would  not  have  been  hurt.  Instead, 
they  rode  in  the  place  of  greatest  dan- 
ger, a  place  where  pay  passengers  are 
never  permitted  to  ride.  Even  officials 
of  the  company  must  be  provided  with 
special  permit  in  order  to  ride  on  the 
engine,  and  then  not  on  the  end  sill 
of  the  tank,  but  in  the  cab.  If  it  be 
conceded  that  the  engineer  gave  them 
permission  to  ride,  it  must  also  be  con- 
ceded that  he  did  so  in  violation  of 


rules  of  the  company  and  that  the 
company  received  absolutely  no 
revenue  for  their  carriage  and  abso- 
lutely nothing  to  compensate  it  for 
the  risk  of  having  to  pay  damages  if 
they  were  injured. 

Can  one  consider  these  cases  and 
consider  that  justice  has  been  done  and 
that  the  railroads  do  obtain  the  same 
even  handed  justice  in  courts  as  do  in- 
dividuals and  private  concerns?  If 
not,  why  not?  Is  such  treatment  good 
for  the  railroads,  good  for  the  state, 
good  for  the  best  interests  of  society? 
Who  pays  the  bill?  The  railroads  do, 
where  does  the  money  come  from?  If 
out  of  the  pockets  of  their  patrons, 
who  are  the  real  sufferers?  How  long 
will  this  condition  last?  Will  it  grow 
worse?  (It  certainly  is  growing  worse, 
for  such  verdicts  were  never  known, 
certainly  never  sustained  by  the  higher 
courts  until  recent  years.)  What  is  the 
remedy?  As  suggested  at  the  begin- 
ning, do  not  such  conditions  furnish 
serious  food  for  thought? — The  Mag- 
nolia News,  Magnolia,  Miss.,  October 
7,  1915. 


A  COMMON  POLITICAL  ILL 


after  time  the  Daily  News  has 
protested  with  vigor  and  earnest- 
ness against  the  unjust,  unfair  and  un- 
reasonable rulings  of  the  Mississippi 
railroad  commission,  believeing  that 
the  body  clothed  with  authority  to 
regulate  the  common  carriers  of  our 
state  is  causing  great  injury  to  the 
business  interests  of  the  common- 
wealth. 

Here  is  an  object  lesson  that  proves 
the  truth  of  the  prophecies  we  have  ut- 
tered. Another  great  Missouri  railroad, 
the  M.  K.  &  T.  system,  has  been  forced 
into  a  receivership,  and  now  shares  the 
fate  of  the  Wabash,  Rock  Island,  Frisco 
and  Missouri  Pacific,  the  other  great 
transportation  lines  in  that  state. 

Each  of  these  great  common  carriers 
have  been  forced  into  receiverships  by 
hostile  legislation  and  unfriendly  or- 
ders of  the  railroad  commission.  They 
were  not  even  given  a  half-way  decent 
show  to  operate,  and  it  looks  very 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


much  like  the  railroads  in  Mississippi 
are  going  to  share  the  same  fate  unless 
some  common  sense  is  manifested  by 
the  railroad  commission. 

Commenting  on  railroad  troubles  in 
Missouri  the  St.  Louis  Times  says : 

"Added  to  the  burdens  imposed  by 
adverse  legislation  and  reduced  freight 
and  passenger  rates,  come  the  addi- 
tional burden  of  the  parcel  post,  with 
its  attending  losses  to  the  railroads. 
Transportation  expenses  were  reduced 
in  every  direction  and  wherever  pos- 
sible by  the  officials  of  all  Missouri 
railroads,  but  notwithstanding  this  re- 
trenchment and  the  economies  that 
were  introduced  in  every  department, 
one  road  after  the  other  was  forced 
into  the  hands  of  receivers. 

"No  state  in  the  Union  has  suffered 
so  generally  and  so  decidedly  as  has 
Missouri.  Every  railroad  of  magni- 
tude operated  from  St.  Louis,  except- 
ing those  affiliated  with  the  Eastern 
railroads,  has  met  the  same  fate.  How 
long  the  roads  with  the  Eastern  con- 
nections can  continue  under  these 
same  adverse  conditions  is  a  matter 
which  time  alone  can  determine.  The 
fact  is  that  the  people  of  Missouri  have 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican  politicians,  who 
promoted  and  advanced  their  private 
ambitions  by  inciting  and  creating  a 
hatred  and  prejudice  against  the  rail- 
roads, which  prejudice  resulted  in  irrep- 
arable harm  and  injury  to  the  state 
and  the  bond  and  stockholders  inter- 
ested in  the  securities  of  the  respective 
railroads.  In  other  words,  we  have 
had  too  much  Hadleyism,  too  much 
Majorism  and  too  much  Barkerism. 
Political  ambitions  have  been  ad- 
vanced and  partially  satisfied,  but  how 
about  the  loss  suffered  by  the  general 
public? 

"How  many  more  receiverships  will 
we  have  to  experience  before  the  celeb- 
rities who  compose  our  state  legisla- 
ture will  awaken  to  the  necessity  of 
extending  to  the  railroads  substantial 
and  permanent  relief?" 

Right  now  is  the  time  for  the  press 
of  Mississippi  to  come  out  actively  and 


aggressively    and    insist    on    a    square 
deal  for  the  railroads. 

The  people  of  this  state  have  com- 
mon sense,  and  they  are  not  deceived 
by  the  specious  arguments  advanced 
by  the  persecutors  of  the  common  car- 
riers. They  have  learned  through 
the  pressure  of  hard  times,  that  they 
also  suffer  when  the  railroads  suffer. 
The  time  for  action  has  come  and  the 
sooner  that  our  people  make  these 
blundering  busybodies  realize  that 
their  motives  are  known,  and  that  un- 
fairness and  discrimination  will  not  be 
tolerated,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the 
public  welfare. — Jackson,  Miss.,  Daily 
News,  October  1,  1915. 


THE  TRESPASS  EVIL 

As  a  usual  thing  railroads  are  not 
hard  to  get  along  with.  A  great  many 
people  are  overbearing  and  expect  more 
of  a  corporation  than  they  would  an 
ordinary  private  firm  when  both  are 
equally  entitled  to  the  same  considera- 
tion. Railroads  are  usually  very  accom- 
modating and  when  they  are  at  fault 
about  any  matter  or  thing,  they  generally 
make  amends  for  it  without  having  you 
resort  to  law  and  are  even  glad  when 
such  an  opportunity  presents  itself. 
There  is  a  human  side  to  everything, 
but  as  a  usual  thing  railroads  are  not  al- 
ways treated  fairly.  One  of  the  matters 
with  which  the  railroads  have  to  con- 
tend is  the  question  of  stock  claims  and 
injuries  to  the  human  race.  From  time 
to  time  so  many  suits  are  filed  against 
railroads,  many  of  them  having  not  a 
semblance  of  justice  or  right,  that  the 
railroad  is  forced  to  fight  these  suits  at 
an  enormous  expense  and  in  many  cases 
juries  over-ride  justice  and  award  ver- 
dicts against  railroads  that  are  very  un- 
fair. 

The  I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  railroads 
have  6,000  miles  of  track  line,  28  per 
cent  of  which  runs  through  Mississippi 
and  about  78  per  cent  of  the  stock  killed 
on  the  entire  system  are  killed  in  this 
state.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that 
about  95  per  cent  of  the  stock  killed  lose 
their  lives  while  trespassing  on  the  tracks 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


or  dump  of  the  railroad,  when  in  truth 
and  right  they  should  not  be  permitted 
to  graze  on  the  track  or  ground  of  the 
railroads  at  all.  If  owners  of  stock 
would  see  that  this  is  done,  you  would 
rarely  hear  of  a  stock  claim  against  the 
railroad. 

Now  in  regard  to  accidents  and  loss 
of  life  among  the  human  race;  in  many 
instances  \vhen  people  are  hurt  on  rail- 
road trains  or  railroad  tracks  they  are 
to  blame.  When  they  are  not  to  blame, 
the  railroads  are  more  than  willing  to 
settle  the  matter  amicably,  giving  in  al- 
most every  case  full  compensation.  Oc- 
casionally a  person  is  hurt  on  board  a 
train  when  the  railroad  is  at  fault,  but 
statistics  prove  that  about  85  per  cent 
of  the  accidents  on  railroads  are  the  re- 
sult of  trespassing  on  the  company's 
property  and  it  occurs  to  us  that  a  law 
should  be  passed  prohibiting  people  from 
trespassing  promiscuously  on  the  prop- 
erty of  railroads  and  if  this  were  done 
about  75  per  cent  of  the  suits  against 
the  railroads  would  be  done  way  with. 
It  is  often  the  case  where  a  hobo  or 
negro  bum  is  hurt  aboard  railroad  trains 
while  stealing  a  ride  and  after  they  are 
discovered  railroad  people  are  forced  to 
send  them  to  a  hospital  and  are  not  only 
forced  to  pay  the  surgeon  for  treating 
them,  but  the  hospital  bill  as  well.  It 
doesn't  hurt  to  be  considerate  of  rail- 
roads ;  they  pave  the  way  of  civilization, 
transport  your  crops,  haul  your  family 
away  for  the  summer,  pay  their  just 
proportion  of  taxes,  assist  with  your 
levees  and  in  many  cases  of  dire  distress 
absolutely  haul  your  material  for  noth- 
ing. It  pays  to  do  right  by  the  railroad 
just  the  same  as  you  would  do  by  your 
neighbor. — The  Clarksdale  (Miss.)  Reg- 
ister, October  8,  1915. 


I.  C.  OFFICIALS  HERE 


President  and  Others  in  Inspection  of 

System — View  New  Depot 
Very  hurriedly  a  number  of  represent- 
ative citizens — officials  of  the  town, 
members  of  the  Commercial  Clubs  and 
others — were  called  to  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral station  Monday  forenoon.  The  oc- 


casion was  the  going  through  of  a  spe- 
cial train,  bearing  the  highest  officers 
of  the  system  on  a  tour  of  inspection 
of  the  lines.  The  party  included  Presi- 
dent Markham,  General  Superintend- 
ent Clift  and  others. 

The  stop  at  Storm  Lake  was  made 
primarily  that  these  officials  might  in- 
spect the  new  depot,  and  at  the  same 
time  get  into  touch  with  the  people 
through  their  representatives,  in  an  ef- 
fort to  learn  how  the  road  could  most 
effectively  aid  the  community  in  attaining 
its  highest  good.  The  local  party  was 
introduced  to  the  visitors  by  Division 
Superintendent  Sullivan,  of  Fort  Dodge, 
who  has  proven  himself  a  true  friend 
to  Storm  Lake  and  its  interests. 

"\\e  wish,"  said  President  Markham, 
"to  express  to  the  people  of  Storm  Lake 
our  appreciation  of  their  forbearance 
with  us  in  the  delay  that  was  necessary 
in  the  building  of  this  depot.  Yet  I  be- 
lieve the  town  has  gained  by  this  delay, 
in  that  we  were  the  more  inclined  to 
give  what  was  needed  in  fullest  measure. 
I  can  say,  frankly,  that  this  depot  in 
Storm  Lake  is  the  equal  of  any  on  the 
system  of  the  Illinois  Central  for  a  town 
of  anything  like  its  size." 

A  few  other  matters  were  talked  of 
that  were  for  advantage  here,  and  in 
every  particular  it  was  found  that  the 
officials  were  anxious  to  anticipate  the 
desires  of  the  town,  and  to  aid  in  its 
aspirations. 

Those  who  were  present  were  able  to 
assure  the  railroad  officials  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  town,  and  especially  the  trav- 
eling and  shipping  public  thoroughly  ap- 
preciated what  the  Central  had  done. 
The  new  depot  is  already  a  source  of 
pride,  and  when  the  approaches  and  sur- 
roundings have  been  brought  to  a  com- 
pletion as  intended,  the  road  will  have 
done  its  part  well  in  making  the  first 
impressions  of  visitors  of  the  best. 

From  this  informal  meeting  it  is  pos- 
sible that  results  will  come  that  will  fur- 
ther improve  the  town.  But  the  main 
thing  is  the  shown  desire  on  part  of 
these  directors  of  the  policy  of  a  great 
system  to  consider  the  particular  needs 
of  communities,  and  to  consult  these  so 


21 


far  as  may  be  possible  with  due  regard 
to  the  larger  interests  of  the  whole  cor- 
poration.—  Buena  Vista  Vidette,  Octo- 
ber 15,  1915. 


DANGERS    OF    THE    RIGHT    OF 
WAY 

T  F  you  are  going  to  fool  around  a  rail- 
road, the  safest  place  for  you  to 
"fool"  is  upon  the  trains.  There  is 
much  less  danger  than  there  is  in 
walking  upon  the  right  of  way,  or  even 
crossing  it.  In  fact,  it  seems  that  the 
safest  place  in  the  world,  anyway,  is 
upon  a  railroad  train. 

A  western  road  recently  published  a 
few  facts  concerning  its  experiences 
since  it  became  a  railroad.  It  showed 
the  number  of  millions  of  passengers 
that  had  been  carried  over  the  road, 
and  the  number  of  such  passengers 
who  had  been  killed  or  injured.  A 
few  persons  have  been  injured  upon  its 
lines,  but  only  two  persons  have  been 
killed  while  riding  in  its  coaches  dur- 
ing all  of  the  years  it  has  been  in  ex- 
istence. But  there  have  been  many 
killed  while  trespassing  upon  the  right 
of  way.  In  fact,  as  against  the  two 
persons  killed  while  riding  on  pas- 
senger trains  on  the  road,  no  less  than 
225  have  met  their  death  while  on  the 
right  of  way.  This  includes  the  num- 
ber who  have  been  killed  while  trying 
to  beat  the  trains  across  a  certain 
point. 

The  roads  themselves  are  everlast- 
ingly struggling  to  lower  this  death 
rate  of  the  right  of  way,  and  are  mak- 
ing some  progress,  but  there  can  be  no 
effective  remedy  employed  until  state 
laws  are  enacted  that  will  not  only 
provide  for  the  punishment  of  the  tres- 
passer, but  also  provide  that  there  shall 
be  no  right  of  recovery  when  a  person 
is  killed  or  injured  while  trespassing. 

If  you  are  hurt  while  trespassing  on 
the  property  of  an  individual  there  is 
no  right  of  recovery.  Common  car- 
riers are  entitled  to  the  same  protec- 
tion— in  fact,  there  is  much  more  rea- 
son why  this  protection  should  be 
given  the  common  carrier  than  to  the 


individual,   because   the   railroad   right 
of  way  is  always  dangerous. 

If  you  should  walk  into  the  front 
yard  of  a  private  residence  on  North 
State  street  tonight  and  get  shot  down 
a  jury  would  promptly  return  a  verdict 
of  justifiable  homicide.  But  if  you  get 
shot  tonight  while  trespassing  on  rail- 
road property,  your  family  would 
promptly  sue  the  company  for  dam- 
ages.— Jackson  Daily  News,  Oct.  12, 
1915. 


A  QUESTION  OF  JUSTICE 

A  SPECIAL  committee  of  the  New 
^^  York  Merchants'  Association,  in  a 
report  based  on  an  investigation  which 
it  has  made,  asserts  that  the  railroads 
are  underpaid  to  the  extent  of  $11,900,- 
000  a  year  for  carrying  United  States 
mail.  Embodied  in  the  report  is  a  sug- 
gestion that  payment  be  based  on  an- 
nual instead  of  on  quadrennial  weigh- 
ings, as  it  is  under  present  arrange- 
ments. 

The  New  York  Merchants'  Associa- 
tion is  the  body  that  was  responsible 
for  an  elaborate  investigation  a  few 
years  ago  of  the  subject  of  express 
rates,  showing  that  these  rates  were 
then  too  high.  Evidently,  therefore, 
a  finding  by  its  investigators  in  favor 
of  the  railroads  on  the  question  of  pay- 
ment for  the  transporting  of  mail  is 
deserving  of  full  consideration.  The 
Merchants'  association  report  on  ex- 
press rates  was  a  factor  of  importance 
in  the  campaign  that  resulted  in  the 
reduction  of  those  rates. 

If  the  association's  committee  is 
right  in  its  conclusions  in  regard  to  pay 
for  carrying  the  mail  it  is  clear  that 
compensation  to  the  railroads  for  per- 
forming this  service  should  be  in- 
creased. It  is  well  known  that  the 
railroads  have  felt  since  the  parcel  post 
service  was  inaugurated  that  they  are 
being  victimized  by  the  national  gov- 
ernment. 

The  public  wants  everybody  to  re- 
ceive justice  from  the  government, 
which,  being  particular  about  the  con- 
duct of  oppressive  private  agencies, 


22 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


should  be  equally  particular  about  its 
own  conduct. 

The  findings  of  the  New  York  Mer- 
chants' Association  are  not  conclusive 
on  the  subject,  but,  in  the  light  of  the 
railroads'  long  standing  protests,  they 
constitute  a  strong  presumption  in  fa- 
vor of  increased  payments  for  the  car- 
rying of  mail. — The  Daily  News,  Tues- 
day, October  26,  1915. 


DISCUSSES  PAY  TO  RAILROADS 
FOR  CARRYING  MAIL 

We  have  before  us  a  very  interesting 
document,  which  discusses  what  is  being 
said  of  the  railroads  of  the  country  for 
carrying  the  mail,  including  parcel  post 
packages.  The  report  of  a  committee 
representing  270  railroad  companies 
states  that  the  average  earnings  per  car- 
foot-mile  were  as  follows :  From  the 
mail  service,  3,228  mills ;  passenger  serv- 
ice, 4,417  mills,  and  from  express  serv- 
ice, 3,855  mills.  In  other  words,  the  ex- 
press business  yielded  19  per  cent  and 
the  passenger  service  37  per  cent  greater 
returns  to  the  railroads  than  did  the  car- 
rying of  the  mail.  We  know  nothing, 


of  course,  about  the  correctness  of  these 
figures,  but  the  subject  is  presented  in  a 
way  that  must  appeal  to  the  sense  of 
justice  and  fairness  of  the  public.  Thers 
has  been  a  great  deal  of  ''romping"  on 
the  railroads  in  the  few  years  past.  The 
time-server  and  the  politician  have  been 
by  the  railroads  like  some  others  of  the 
same  class  have  been  by  the  nigger, 
"cuss"  him,  and  by  so  doing  hide  a  mul- 
titude of  their  own  frailties.  For  many 
years  the  railroads  enjoyed  many  rich 
harvests  at  the  expense  of  the  public,  but 
they  were  no  more  responsible  for  that 
than  the  public  officials  who  made  it 
possible.  However,  it  is  a  generally  ac- 
cepted fact  that  for  the  past  half  dozen 
years  or  more  railway  lines  have  barely 
earned  more  than  expenses.  Whatever 
the  railroads  did  in  the  past  do  not  just- 
ify the  public  in  committing  a  wrong — 
two  wrongs  do  not  make  a  right.  The 
railroads  should  be  strictly  supervised 
and  held  to  a  strict  accountability,  but 
they  are  entitled  to  a  square  deal.  It  is 
due  to  ourselves  that  we  give  it  to  them. 
If  we  want  justice  for  ourselves  we  must 
give  it  to  others.- — Grenada  Sentinel,  Oc- 
tober 8,  1915,  Grenada,  Miss. 


At  the  suggestion  of  Superintendent  Egan  of  the  Tennessee  Division  the 
following  circular  is  printed  in  the  Illinois  Central  Magazine,  in  order  that 
those  who  may  feel  so  disposed,  may  contribute  toward  the  erection  of  this 
monument. 

Members  of  the  Engineering  Force,  Fulton,  Ky.,  October  7th,  1915. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad  Comany. 

Gentlemen : — The  bodies  of  two  Civil  Engineers  who  worked  on  the  loca- 
tion of  the  railroad  between  Paducah  and  Fulton,  Kentucky,  are  buried  in  the 
Maplewood  cemetery  at  Mayfield,  Ky. 

These  men  died  of  fever  at  the  time  this  line  was  being  located.  No 
trace  of  their  relatives  was  ever  found.  The  Ladies  of  the  Civil  Improve- 
ment League  of  Mayfield,  Ky.,  purchased  and  had  erected  a  tombstone  to 
mark  the  graves.  Same  was  blown  over  in  a  storm  about  a  year  ago  and 
broken,  and  the  ladies  request  that  the  members  of  the  engineering  force 
donate  such  an  amount  as  they  feel  they  can  spare  for  the  purchase  of  a 
monument  to  mark  these  graves. 

There  are  at  present  264  members  of  the  engineering  force  of  this  com- 
pany and  I  think  we  should  subscribe  in  the  neighborhood  of  $300. 

Will  you  please  send  such  an  amount  as  you  feel  you  can  spare  to  Mrs. 
J.  L.  Stunson,  Mayfield,  Ky.,  President,  Cemetery  Association,  which  amount 
will  be  deposited  as  a  fund  to  purchase  such  a  monument  as  the  amount 
collected  will  provide.  Sincerely, 

J.  M.  HOAR, 

Assistant  Engineer. 


L.   W.   BALDWIN 


OFFICE    OF   THE    PRESIDENT 


SAVANNAH,  GA.,  November  1,  1915. 

L.  W.  BALDWIN  is  appointed  General  Manager,  in  charge  of  the  Operating  Depart- 
ment,  effective   November   15th,  with  office  at  Savannah,  Georgia. 

On  and  after  that  date,  the  heads  of  the  Transportation,    Engineering    and    Mechanical 
Departments  will  report  to  the  General  Manager. 

W.  A.  WINBURN. 
President. 


Murphy sboro,   111 


"The  Chicago  of  Egypt" 

By   Fred  M.  Rolens, 

Publisher  Daily  and  Weekly  Independent 


A/f  URPHYSBORO,  Jackson  county, 
11  111.,  often  called  the  "Chicago  of 
Egypt,"  is  the  livest,  best  town  in  South- 
ern Illinois. 

It  is  known  everywhere  for  its  busi- 
ness activity  and  progressiveness.  The 
town  is  industrial,  backed  up  by  a  strong 
agricultural  community,  with  natural  ad- 
vantages, for  the  building  of  a  city.  Mur- 
physboro  is  destined  to  be  one  of  the 
largest  towns  in  Southern  Illinois. 

With  abundance  of  water,  plenty  of 
coal,  a  shale  unequaled,  farm  lands  un- 
surpassed, nature  has  done  much  and  an 
active  citizenship  is  utilizing  all  these  to 
build  up  a  city. 

Murphysboro  solicits  investigation  and 
invites  men  of  brains,  with  or  without 
capital,  to  come  and  share  her  hospi- 
tality and  her  opportunities.  It  is  lo- 
cated eighty-six  miles  south  of  St.  Louis 
on  the  Illinois  Central,  Mobile  &  Ohio 
and  Iron  Mountain  railroads  and  is  the 
county  seat  of  Jackson  county.  The 
three  essentials  for  the  successful  oper- 
ation of  industries,  i.  e.,  coal,  water  and 
transportation,  are  here  to  be  utilized 
by  more  and  larger  industries. 

With  an  abundance  of  soft  coal  mined 
in  five  large  colleries  about  the  city, 
owned  and  operated  by  the  Gus  Blair 
Big  Muddy  Coal  Co.,  the  Big  Muddy 
Coal  &  Iron  Co.,  and  the  Gartside  Coal 
Co.,  the  fuel  problem  for  the  manufac- 
turer is  solved.  The  Big  Muddy  vein  of 
coal  is  known  all  over  the  country  as 
one  of  the  best  soft  coals  mined.  The 
five  mines  employ  more  than  fifteen  hun- 
dred men. 


The  Big  Muddy  river  furnishes  an  in- 
exhaustible supply  of  water,  which  is 
filtered  and  piped  to  the  residents  of  the 
city  at  a  moderate  rate  by  the  Murphys- 
boro Water  Works,  Gas  &  Electric  Light 
Co. 

The  St.  Louis  division  of  the  Illinois 
Central,  the  main  line  of  the  Mobile  & 
Ohio,  and  the  St.  Louis  division  of  the 
Iron  Mountain  give  the  industries  of  the 
city  ample  outlet  for  their  products. 

The  Mobile  &  Ohio  have  their  division 
headquarters  in  this  city  and  have  a  di- 
vision shops  here  that  employ  more  than 
twelve  hundred  men,  beside  the  numer- 
ous road  men  who  make  this  city  their 
home. 

Murphysboro  is  the  best  lighted  city 
of  its  size  in  all  southern  Illinois. 
Through  the  service  of  the  Murphys- 
boro Water,  Gas  &  Electric  Light  Com- 
pany, the  city  maintains  a  great  white 
way  extending  seven  blocks  on  the  main 
thoroughfare,  Walnut  street,  besides  sur- 
rounding the  square. 

The  United  States  government  in  the 
selection  of  the  best  materials  for  the 
construction  of  the  Panama  Canal,  came 
to  Murphysboro  for  one  of  her  prod- 
ucts. The  Murphysboro  Paving  Brick 
Co.,  which  makes  a  vitrified  shale  brick 
unequaled  in  the  markets  of  the  world, 
from  shale  which  abounds  in  several 
points  about  the  city,  furnished  their 
product  after  a  competitive  test  that 
proved  the  worth  of  their  brick. 

The  Brown  Shoe  Co.,  of  St.  Louis, 
have  one  of  their  large  factories  in  this 
city,  employing  regularly  four  hundred 


24 


Federal  Building 


ospital 


26 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


men  and  women,  with  a  pay  roll  that  ex- 
ceeds one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  per  year. 

Two  flour  mills  with  a  capacity  of 
eight  hundred  barrels  per  day  each  em- 
ploy two  hundred  men.  The  Southern 
Illinois  Milling  Co.  is  located  on  the  Il- 
linois Central  and  the  Reliance  Milling 
Co.  is  located  on  the  Mobile  &  Ohio. 
They  make  an  excellent  grade  of  flour 
from  the  soft  wheat  grown  in  the  county 
and  have  a  ready  market  for  the  prod- 
uct throughout  the  south. 

The  Southern  Illinois  Machine  & 
Foundry  Co.  employs  a  hundred  skilled 
men  in  their  machine  shops  and  foundry 
and  do  a  large  business  with  the  mines 
and  other  industries  in  Southern  Illi- 
nois. 

The  Rudolph  Steelier  Brewing  Co. 
have  a  large  plant  in  which  are  employed 
four  hundred  men  in  their  brewing  and 
ice  manufacturing  departments  and 
their  products  meet  a  ready  sale  in  the 
south  half  of  the  state. 

The  Anchor  Ice  &  Packing  Co.  are 
large  manufacturers  of  ice  and  have  a 
storing  plant  of  large  capacity  which  is 
filled  each  season  with  apples  grown  in 
this  territory. 

The  Wisely  greenhouses  are  the 
largest  south  of  St.  Louis  and  supply 
a  large  trade  in  the  towns  about  Mur- 
physboro. 

The  home  offices  of  the  Murphysboro 
Telephone  Co.,  with  thirty  exchanges  in 
Southern  Illinois,  have  their  home  offices 
in  this  city. 

The  Murphysboro  Street  Railway 
Company  operate  an  electric  line  in  the 
city  limits  and  have  franchises  for  a 
line  between  Murphysboro  and  Carbon- 
dale.  It  is  planned  to  start  this  line  in 
the  spring. 

Three  large  wholesale  houses  cater  to 
the  trade  in  this  vicinity,  the  Borgsmiller 
Wholesale  Grocery  Co.,  the  Ben  Daniel 
Wholesale  Grocery  Co.,  and  the  Mur- 
physboro Commission  Co.,  each  enjoy- 
ing a  prosperous  trade  in  their  lines. 

The  Murphysbobo  Creamery  Co.,  in 
their  modern  plant  at  the  northern  lim- 
its of  the  city,  and  the  Murphysboro  Ice 
Cream  Co.  give  the  dairymen  in  the 


county  a  home  market  for  their  butter 
fats  and  produce  a  product  that  is  find- 
ing a  ready  place  in  the  larger  markets. 

That  the  citizens  of  Murphysboro  are 
thrifty  and  prosperous  is  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  the  five  banks  of  the  city 
have  a  total  of  deposits  exceeding  one 
and  one-half  million,  a  capitalization  of 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
and  a  surplus  of  one  hundred  and  nine 
thousand.  They  are  the  First  National 
Bank  and  its  allied  institution,  the  Mur- 
physboro Savings  Bank,  the  City  Na- 
tional Bank,  the  Citizens  State  and  Sav- 
ings Bank,  and  the  Bank  of  Murphys- 
boro. 

Two  newspapers,  each  with  rotary 
presses,  are  published  daily,  with  weekly 
editions. 

The  country  about  Murphysboro  is  rich 
in  soils  that  produce  large  crops  of  corn, 
wheat,  alfalfa,  clover  and  timothy,  the 
bottom  lands  of  the  Mississippi  south  of 
the  city  producing  corn  and  alfalfa  un- 
equaled  in  any  other  part  of  the  state. 
To  the  west,  north  and  east  fine  crops 
of  clover,  timothy  and  wheat  are  grown. 
South  of  the  city  the  soil  is  adapted  to 
the  growing  of  orchards  and  splendid 
crops  of  apples  and  peaches  are  grown. 

The  farmers  of  the  county  are  awak- 
ening to  the  possibilities  of  the  dairy 
and  live  stock  farming,  and  today  scores 
of  herds  of  fine  Holsteins,  Jerseys  and 
Guernseys  are  producing  a  profit  from 
the  butter  fat  sold  to  the  local  cream- 
eries. 

One  of  the  most  potent  factors  in 
building  up  the  live  stock  industry  of 
the  county  is  due  in  a  large  measure  to 
the  influences  of  Egypt's  Big  Fair,  held 
in  Murphysboro  each  fall  on  the  spacious 
grounds  of  the  Jackson  County  Fair 
grounds.  At  this  annual  exhibition  the 
finest  stock  of  the  countryside  is  exhib- 
ited, together  with  the  best  of  the  coun- 
ty's agricultural  products. 

The  city  has  15  miles  of  splendidly 
paved  streets,^  granatoid  walks  prac- 
tically all  over  the  city,  a  complete  sewer 
system  and  a  lighting  system  that  leaves 
no  dark  streets  in  the  residence  section. 
Its  schools  cannot  be  excelled  in  any 
city  its  size  in  the  state.  A  township 


28 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


high  school,  three  grade  schools  and  a 
parochial  school  care  for  the  boys  and 
girls  of  the  city.  The  high  school  is  a 
beautiful  building  of  buff  brick,  while 
two  of  the  grade  schools  have  been 
erected  in  the  last  five  years  and  are 
modern  in  every  respect. 

Seven  protestant  churches,  three  with 
modern  church  buildings,  and  a  fourth 
under  construction,  care  for  the  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  the  community,  together 
with  the  splendid  church  of  St.  An- 
drews, with  its  sisters  convent  and  mod- 
ern pastoral  home. 

The  latter  congregation  control  a  hos- 
pital, in  charge  of  the  Franciscan 
sisters,  that  has  no  equal  in  the  state  to 
which  the  public  at  large  are  willing  con- 
tributors, and  which  cares  for  the 
maimed  and  ill  from  a  large  radius  about 
the  city. 

The  M.  E.  Church  last  year  completed 
a  church  edifice  costing  over  $75,000. 


The  city  is  under  commission  form  of 
government  and  has  found  that  by  this 
system  the  affairs  of  the  city  can  be  kept 
in  better  condition. 

The  fire  hazards  in  Murphysboro  have 
been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  through  the 
efficient  work  of  a  paid  fire  department 
composed  of  chief  and  four  men  who 
are  on  duty  practically  all  of  the  twenty- 
four  hours.  The  chiefs  automobile  is 
equipped  with  chemical  tanks,  and  the 
horse  drawn  wagon  is  likewise  equipped. 
A  steamer  is  also  owned  by  the  city. 

It  has  good  retail  stores  and  its  busi- 
ness men  are  alive  to  the  opportunities 
that  surround  them.  A  new  federal 
building  costing  $88,000.00  was  com- 
pleted two  years  ago. 

The  Commercial  Association  of  the 
city  is  composed  of  five  hundred  of  the 
city's  most  wide  awake  citizens  and  is 
willing  and  glad  to  aid  any  industry  in 
securing  a  site  in  Murphysboro. 


LOGAN   HOUSE,    MURPHYSBORO,   ILL,. 


30  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


t\P  Employes  may  SGCOTTIG  stock- 

(                i 
holders  in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stocic  in  the  Illinois 

Cbntial  R.R.,we  quote  belotp  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  May  95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(One  pnce  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  be  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  afcZC.cffocA.  is  based  upon  the  mar- 
ket price  on  the  dau  the  application  is  received  in  Compfrol- 

}     '     ST               *             7      '  '•       rr       i    /         •   -i            /"'/•/ 

/ers  office...Csfn  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  of  subscnb- 

•     SJ         /         I/lt/         "  //    /  '  '  j  11"  s  • 
ma  ior  one  share  at  a  time,  pay  able  by  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  tne  completion  of 

which  tne  Company  will  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 
me  share  registered  in  his  name  on  tne  boons,  of  the  Com- 

pany, c^ze  can  men,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.purcn.ase  of 

another  snare  on  the  installment  plan.  c^one  certificate 
of  stock,  is  transferable  on  trie  Company  s  books,  and 

entitles  tne  owner  to  sucn  dividends  as  may  be  cle  - 

dared  by  the  &oard  of  L)  vectors,  ana  to  a  vote  in. 

their  election. 

Csfny  officer  or  employe  making  payments,  on  this 
plan  will  be  entitled  to  recerve  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  tne  rate  of  few  per  cent  per  annum,  during  the  time  ne 

is  paving  for  nis  share  of  stock,  provided  ne  does  not  al- 
i  >    J    ft/                   •    J         f  /        /            •./             /• 
low  twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 

/               •        '            /"     r*   /~                 1     ' 

am/  pai/ment,  at  me  expiration  of  which  period  interest 

•J//           J             .                                                            /   1           /                         ''if'                    )'y                 V/     / 

"will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 

returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

Cxwy  officer  or  employe  moKing  payments  on  thejore- 
ooma  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desinng  to  discontinue 
them,  can  nave  nis  money  returned  to  Aim  with  accrued 

- 

ILLINOIS, CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  31 


interest,  by  mahing  application  to  trie  head  of  the  de- 
partment in  lumen  fie  is  employed. 

Cx??z  employe,  who  has  made  application  for  a  snare 
ofstocK.  on  tne  installment  plan ,  is  expected  to  make 

the  first  payment  from  tne  first  wages  which  may  6e  due 
/ ' '  <5F^  7  'J    ry~    +f   7  '£•  /  *f 

him.  J-prms  are  provided.  TOT  tne  purpose,  on  which,  the 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  me  oOocal^Greasurer  in 
Chicago, or  the  oUocal-^foreasurer  in  (ty/ew  Or/eons,  or 
theraymaster  or  tne  c^fssistant  Paymaster  to  retain 
from  fiis  wages  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 

monthly  to  the  employe  for  tne  purchase  of  a  snare  of  stock.. 

7  J  r ,  7  j,          ff  .  j  s  /    ^>  y 

c/n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  tne  (Company 

from  any  cause,  ne  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  me, 
share  Jor  which  he  has  subscribed,  ana.  receive  a  certifi- 
cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which* 
has  accrued. 


oregoina  does  not  preclude  me  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock  for  cash.  Owi  employe  who  has  not  a/- 

~t  )'  1'  '          Y  /  f  / 

ready  an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 

the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  /or,  can  in  any 

,/      //  /•     .  •      /•/      7  F      /  /•        /  /-    /     / 

given  month  make  application  for  a  snare  ofstoatjor  cash 

at  the  price  quoted  to  employes  for  that  month  ,  ana.  he  can 

•        /I  I  /     •/•  /    /       ol       •/  /•  1'      j'         /" 

in  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 
other share  on  the  installmQnt  plan. 

(employes  who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 
at  a  timejor  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  tn  Chi- 
cago, who  will  obtain  fir  them  the  price  at  which  the  stock 
can  he  purchased,. 

Omy  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stock  (except  in 
•  //       IT'-/'         '/    '  s  e\   /     /) 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash)  should 

If''  )'  *  /?"  s  f     / 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  omcer,  or  to  one  of  the 
^uocalc^Dreasurers  jyy  filling  in  the  following  coupon  : 
Mr.O.  T.  Nau,  Date,  .....  „  ............. 

Local  Treasurer. 

Cru'ca^o  111. 

\Pill  you  please  send  me  an   application    tla 
for  tne  purcnase  ofl.C.  Stocc.  on  tA.e  installment  plan. 


. 

Emplove 
-At  'Stati 


as. 
tion... 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

CIAIMS  DEPARTMENT 

fragments  of  a  Stoiy 
Seldom    &ver  Told 


MRS.  HURLEY  FINALLY  LOSES 
HER  CASE 

The  trials  and  tribulations,  the  joys 
and  disappointments  which  follow  in  the 
'  wake  of  a  damage  suit  against  a  rail- 
road, have  been  fully  experienced  by 
Mrs.  Willie  Hurley,  who  formerly  re- 
sided at  Paducah,  Ky.,  but  who  moved 
her  residence  to  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  for  the 
purpose  of  suing  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company,  on  account  of  the 
death  of  her  husband,  a  switchman, 
which  occurred  at  Paducah,  March  29, 
1913.  Upon  the  first  trial  of  this  case, 
at  St.  Paul  last  November,  Mrs.  Hur- 
ley obtained  a  verdict  against  the  com- 
pany for  $16,700.  A  new  trial  was 
granted  by  the  court  upon  motion  of  the 
railroad  company,  and  this  occurred  at 
St.  Paul  in  October,  and  resulted  in  the 
court  taking  the  case  away  from  the 
jury  on  the  ground  that  Mrs.  Hurley 
had  failed  to  make  out  a  case  against 
the  company.  We  quote  below  some 
of  the  clippings  from  the  St.  Paul  news- 
papers concerning  this  second  trial: 


Kentucky  Woman's  Case  Against  Illi- 
nois Central  is  Sixth  to  Be 
Thrown  Out 


EVIDENCE   IS   HELD   WEAK 


Judge     Hanft     Rules     Circumstantial 

Testimony  is  Insufficient  Basis 

for  Plea  of  Negligence 


Another  imported  personal  injury  suit 
against  a  railway  met  disaster  today 
when  District  Judge  Hugo  Hanft  dis- 
missed a  $30,000  suit  brought  by  Mrs. 
Willie  Hurley,  of  Paducah,  Ky.,  against 
the  Illinois  Central  railroad. 

Second  Trial  of  Case 

This  was  the  second  trial  of  the  ac- 
tion in  seven  months.  Samuel  A.  An- 
derson, attorney  for  the  plaintiff,  had 
completed  his  case  when  Attorney  C.  C. 
Le  Forgee,  special  counsel  for  the  rail- 
way, moved  for  dismissal. 


33 


34 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Judge  Hanft  gave  his  decision  when 
court  resumed  today. 

Sixth  Suit  Dismissed 

This  is  the  sixth  important  suit 
against  the  same  railway  dismissed  in 
the  Ramsey  county  district  court  within 
a  year.  The  total  damages  asked  in  the 
six  cases  was  $225,000. 

Judge  Hanft  held  that  the  circumstan- 
tial evidence  introduced  in  the  plea  of 
negligence  was  not  strong  enough  to 
warrant  the  case  being  sent  to  the  jury. 

The  suit  was  based  on  the  fatal  in- 
jury to  Mrs.  Hurley's  husband,  switch 
foreman,  who  was  caught  between  two 
cars  March  29,  1913.— St.  Paul  Dispatch, 
October  22,  1915. 


OPPOSES     SUITS     HERE     FROM 
OUT    OF   STATE 


SWITCHMAN,     HERE    AS     WIT- 
NESS, DRAWS  PAY 


Admits  on  Stand  in  Damage  Suit  That 
His  Wages  Are  Made  Good 


Minnesota  may  be  a  trifle  more  stren- 
uous than  Tennessee,  as  far  as  the  cli- 
mate is  concerned,  but  the  life  of  a 
switchman  here  is  an  easy  one. 

Paid  While  Loafing  Here 

Vernon  Gorham,  Memphis,  Tenn., 
switchman,  so  indicated  in  his  testimony 
in  a  $30,000  personal  injury  suit  on  trial 
in  District  Judge  Hanft's  court  today, 
when  he  told  of  receiving  his  usual  pay 
while  awaiting  a  call  for  service  as  a 
witness. 

"I  have  been  here  since  the  first  of 
the  month  and  have  been  receiving  my 
usual  pay,  an  average  of  $3.70  a  day," 
testified  Gorham. 

Attorney  Provides  Cash 

The  switchman,  testifying  for  Mrs. 
Willie  Hurley,  who  is  suing  the  Illinois 
Central  for  damages  for  the  death  of 
her  husband,  Uel  Hurley,  switch  fore- 
man at  Paducah,  Ky.,  said  he  came  here 
at  the  instance  of  Attorney  S.  A.  An- 
derson, and  that  he  had  received  money 
from  the  latter  three  or  four  times. 
Shows  Switch  Operations 

Details  of  switching  operations  were 
described  to  the  jury  as  Gorham  was 
under  cross-examination  by  C.  C.  Le 
Forgee. — St.  Paul  Dispatch,  October  20, 
1915. 


John  Roubal  Excused  from  Jury  Serv- 
ice Because  of  Prejudice  Against 
Foreign  Cases 


At  least  one  St.  Paul  taxpayer  is 
opposed  to  lawsuits  originating  in  other 
states  being  tried  in  the  Ramsey  county 
courts.  As  a  result  he  will  not  serve  on 
the  jury  in  a  $30,000  personal  injury 
suit  against  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
way on  trial  before  District  Judge  Hanft. 

John  Roubal,  606  Van  Buren  street,  a 
salesman,  was  excused  from  service 
when  Attorney  S.  A.  Anderson,  for  Mrs. 
Willie  Hurley,  the  plaintiff,  exercised  a 
peremptory  challenge. 

"I  could  not  try  one  of  these  im- 
ported cases  fairly,  I  am  sure,"  declared 
Roubal,  while  being  examined  by  C.  C. 
Le  Forgee,  special  counsel  for  the  rail- 
way company. 

Sees  Added  Expense 

Asked  by  Attorney  Anderson  why  he 
held  this  opinion,  Roubal  declared: 

"I  am  a  taxpayer  and  I  don't  think 
it  is  right  to  bring  these  foreign  suits 
to  be  tried  here  and  cause  added  ex- 
pense to  the  taxpayers  of  this  county." 

Mrs.  Hurley  is  suing  the  railway  for 
damages  for  the  death  of  her  husband, 
Uel  L.  Hurley,  former  switch  foreman 
of  Paducah,  Ky.  He  is  alleged  to  have 
been  killed  March  29,  1913,  near  his 
home  when  caught  between  two  cars 
while  making  a  coupling. 

This  is  the  second  trial  of  the  case 
in  Ramsey  county.  The  wife  received 
a  verdict  early  last  year,  but  February 
23,  Judge  H.  R.  Brill  granted  a  new 
trial  on  motion  of  the  railway. — St.  Paul 
Dispatch,  October  19,  1915. 


WITNESS  DRAWS  GOOD  WAGES 
WHILE  IN  COURT 


Switchman    Testifies    He    Gets    from 
$3.70  to  $4.40  a  Day  from  Lawyer 


"I  am  supposed  to  be  paid  at  the  reg- 
ular switchman's  wages  of  $3.70  to  $4.40 
all  the  time  I  am  on  this  case.  I  have 
received  money  from  plaintiff's  attorney 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


35 


several  times  since  I  have  been  here," 
said  V.  R.  Gorham,  switchman,  witness 
for  the  plaintiff  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Wil- 
lie Hurley  against  the  Illinois  Central 
Railway  Co.,  when  asked  how  he  was 
being  paid  for  testimony  in  district  court 
today. 

Mrs.  Hurley  alleges  her  husband  was 
killed  while  in  the  employ  of  the  railroad 
as  a  switchman. — St.  Paul  Daily  News, 
October  20,  1915. 


EVADES  KENTUCKY  LAW 


Mrs.    Millie    Hurley   Testifies    She 

Became  St.  Paul  Resident  so  as 

to  Sue  Railroad 


That  she  became  a  resident  of  St.  Paul 
so  that  she  could  escape  jurisdiction  of 
the  Kentucky  court  and  bring  a  $30,000 
personal  injury  suit  against  the  Illinois 
Central  Railway  was  admitted  on  the 
witness  stand  in  District  Judge  Hanft's 
court  yesterday  by  Mrs.  Willie  Hurley. 

Mrs.  Hurley  testified  she  had  lived  six- 
teen years  in  Paducah,  Ky.,  where  Uel 
Hurley,  her  husband,  a  former  switch 
foreman,  was  killed  in  March,  1913.  She 
has  been  here  seven  months,  she  said, 
and  was  living  here  at  the  time  of  the 
first  trial  of  the  case,  which  Judge  Brill 
ordered  retried. 

She  admitted  she  had  been  previously 
enjoined  from  bringing  this  action  into  a 
foreign  county  for  trial  by  the  Kentucky 
courts,  because  she  was  then  a  resident 
of  that  state. — St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press, 
October  21,  1915. 


ARGUE  DISMISSAL  MOTION 


Attorney    for    Illinois    Central    Says 

Plaintiff  in  $30,000  Suit  Fails  to 

Establish  Case 


For  five  hours  yesterday  attorneys  in 
a  $30,000  personal  injury  suit  against 
the  Illinois  Central  Railway  argued  a 
motion  for  dismissal  of  the  action.  Dis- 
trict Jud^e  Hanft  took  the  motion  under 
advisement  and  will  make  his  decision  at 
10  a.  m.  today  when  court  resumes. 

Attorney    C.    C.    Le    Forgee,    special 


counsel  for  the  railway,  asked  that  the 
case  be  dismissed  on  the  ground  that  the 
plaintiff's  evidence  failed  to  show  the 
railway  was  guilty  of  negligence.  There 
was  no  eyewitnesses  and  the  weight  of 
the  circumstantial  evidence  is  the  prob- 
lem to  be  determined. 

Attorney  Samuel  A.  Anderson  repre- 
sents Mrs.  Willie  Hurley,  who  asks 
damages  for  the  death  of  her  husband, 
Uel  Hurley,  former  switch  foreman  at 
Paducah,  Ky. — St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press, 
October  22,  1915. 


COULD  NOT  "PUT  IT  OVER" 

Frank  McBee  sued  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  for  $15,000  at  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  in  November,  1912,  for 
an  injury  alleged  to  have  been  received 
one  year  previous  while  he  was  working 
as  a  car  repairer  and  engaged  in  the  act 
of  re-railing  a  car.  He  did  not  complain 
at  the  time  of  any  injury,  and  continued 
at  his  regular  occupation  for  nearly  a 
month  without  mentioning  the  matter. 
He  then  asked  for  a  leave  of  absence  for 
a  week,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time 
he  returned  to  work  and  continued  for 
a  little  over  two  weeks,  at  which  time  he 
left  the  service,  giving  no  reason.  The 
next  thing  that  was  heard  from  McBee 
was  notice  of  a  $15,000  law  suit  filed 
one  year  afterwards. 

From  the  action  of  McBee,  in  not  say- 
ing anything  about  the  alleged  injury  un- 
til a  year  afterwards,  it  appeared  that  the 
case  was  without  merit.  A  thorough  in- 
vestigation was  conducted,  which  devel- 
oped that  McBee,  during  his  lifetime,  had 
quite  a  checkered  career.  He  received  an 
injury  at  Bigelow,  Missouri,  about  four 
years  ago,  which  injury,  it  was  apparent, 
he  was  trying  to  palm  off  on  the  railroad. 
He  was  convicted  for  larceny  at  Leon, 
Iowa,  and  sent  to  the  Fort  Madison  pen- 
itentiary, where  he  remained  for  about 
eighteen  months.  In  addition,  he  had 
been  arrested  on  two  occasions  at  Coun- 
cil Bluffs ;  also  had  been  injured  at  Coun- 
cil Bluffs  while  working  with  a  con- 
tractor. He  requested  the  contractor  not 
to  tell  the  Illinois  Central  claim  depart- 
ment representative  anything  about  this 
accident. 


36 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


The  case  came  up  for  trial  in  the  Fed- 
eral court  at  Council  Bluffs  during  Sep- 
tember, and  McBee  testified,  on  cross 
examination,  that  he  had  never  been  in 
jail ;  had  never  been  injured  before  or 
after  the  alleged  accident.  He  was  put 
on  the  stand  in  the  forenoon  and  at  the 
noon  hour  his  attorney,  who  evidently 
became  disgusted  with  his  client,  advised 
that  he  would  have  nothing  further  to 
do  with  the  case,  and  when  court  con- 
vened, dismissed  the  suit. 

The  investigation  of  this  case,  which 
extended  over  a  period  of  three  years, 
required  that  this  man's  record  be  looked 
up  in  Missouri,  Nebraska,  and  Iowa,  and 
put  this  company  to  a  large  expense,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  trouble.  This  is  an 
illustration  of  the  many  injustices  per- 
petrated upon  railroads,  of  which  the 
public  has  very  little  knowledge. 


He  spoke  of  taking  chances  with  exas- 
perating pride — 

There  was  a  man  like  this ;  but  between 
those  cars  he  died. 

— New  York  American. 


MORE  TRUTH  THAN  POETRY 

There  was  a  man  who  fancied  that  by 

driving  good  and  fast 
He'd  get  his  car  across  the  track  before 

the  train  came  past. 
He'd  miss  the  engine  by  an  inch,  and 

made  the  train  hands  sore. 
There  was  a  man  who  fancied  this ;  there 

isn't  any  more. 

There  was  a  man  who  thought  that  he 

could  win  a  little  bet 
By  quenching  in  some  gasoline  a  lighted 

cigarette. 
He  thought  the  fluid,  being  wet,  would 

douse  the  flame  somehow. 
There  was  a  man  who  reasoned  thus.  He 

is  not  with  us  now. 

There  was  a  man,  once  on  a  time,  who 

confidently  swore 
That  he'd  jump  off  the  Brooklyn  bridge 

and  calmlv  swim  to  shore. 
He  said  the  thrill    that    he  would  get 

would  prove  extremely  pleasant. 
There  was  a  man  who  held  these  views. 

There  isn't  at  the  present. 

There  was  a  trainman,  who,  I'm  told,  did 

boastfully  declare, 
He'd  step  in  between  two  moving  cars. 

to  adjust  the  coupler  there. 


VIEWPOINT   OF  A  MISSISSIPPI 
WOMAN 

More  than  a  year  ago  General  Man- 
ager Foley  issued  a  circular,  which  was 
distributed  in  Mississippi,  calling  upon 
people  along  the  lines  of  the  Illinois 
Central  and  the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  val- 
ley to  co-operate  with  the  railroads  in 
keeping  live  stock  off  the  track,  and  di- 
recting their  attention  to  the  danger  to 
human  life  caused  by  derailments  of 
trains  on  account  of  striking  stock.  On 
the  margin  of  one  of  Mr.  Foley's  cir- 
culars, a  Mississippi  woman,  Mrs.  A.  L. 
Poison,  has  written  the  following,  which 
was  sent  to  Claim  Agent  Jolly  at  Clarks- 
dale  : 

"We  read  a  great  deal  about  this  mat- 
ter and  appreciate  the  situation  thor- 
oughly, but  when  a  fellow  presents  the 
railroad  with  a  rip-ht  of  way  through  his 
farm  and  'Old  Pide'  sees  fit  to  crawl 
through  the  wire  fence  and  stroll  on  said 
right  of  way,  the  usual  thing  happens, 
in  spite  of  all  our  wishes  to  the  contrary. 
However,  as  time  rolls  on,  the  common 
peoole  realize  the  railroads  are  not  built 
especially  to  put  them  out  of  business, 
for  the  roads  cannot  prosper  unless  the 
people  are  prosperous,  and  a  much  bet- 
ter feeling  exists  between  railroad  own- 
ers and  the  common  people  than  ever 
before,  because  the  companies  are  reach- 
ing out  to  the  people  in  a  fraternal  way, 
thereby  establishing  a  better  understand- 
ing. Personally,  I  protect  the  railroad 
property  on  my  farm  as  I  would  my  own 
and  feel  that  all  right-minded  people 
should  do  the  same." 


C.  M.  COLEMAN  AGAIN 

Our  readers  will  recall  C.  M.  Coleman, 
the  brakeman,  who  claimed  to  have  sus- 
tained an  injury  near  Freeport,  result- 
ing in  total  paralysis,  and  who  brought 
suit  at  St.  Paul  and  lost  his  case,  after 
which  bis  "permanent"  paralysis  of  lower 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


37 


extremities  improved  to  such  an  extent 
that  he  was  able  to  go  into  the  saloon 
business  at  Springfield,  Illinois.  It  seems 
that  the  tables  have  been  turned  on  Cole- 
man.  He  tried  to  "skin"  the  railroad 
company  and  failed.  According  to  the 
Springfield  News  Record  of  the  19th 
ult,  Coleman  has  been  "skinned."  The 
News  Record  says : 

Patrick  Carroll,  of  Edgar  county 
charged  with  working  a  confidence  game 
on  C.  M.  Coleman,  a  saloonkeeper  of 
1161  North  Eleventh  street,  waived  a 
preliminary  hearing  before  Justice  Reil- 
ly,  and  was  held  to  the  grand  jury  in  the 
sum  of  $500.  Carroll  gave  bond  and  was 
released. 

It  was  charged  that  during  fair  week 
Carroll  gave  a  check  to  Coleman  for 
$166,  which  the  latter  cashed.  When  the 
check  was  banked,  according  to  Coleman, 
it  was  announced  that  payment  had  been 
stopped. 

QUICK  ACTION   OF  A  JURY 

On  night  of  March  14, 1915,  two  negro 
men  boarded  fast  south-bound  passenger 
train  No.  103  at  Louisville  union  depot 
with  tickets  to  West  Point,  Ky.  On 
leaving  West  Point  th°y  were  still  on  the 
train,  and  upon  inquiry  they  advised 
Conductor  Hansbrough  that  they  wanted 
to  get  off  at  West  Point,  claiming  sta- 
tion was  not  announced.  It  was  such  a 
clear  case  of  trying  to  "work"  the  con- 
ductor for  a  longer  ride  that  they  were 
ejected  about  four  miles  south  of  West 
Point.  They  filed  suits,  claiming  illness 
on  account  of  being  put  off  at  midnight 
in  the  rain  and  no  place  to  stay.  They 
carried  a  suitcase  of  questionable  con- 
tents, but  in  the  confusion  they  left  a 
small  tarpaulin  which  was  marked  with 
letters  and  numbers,  nicely  fitted  up  for 
"crap  shooters."  This  gambling  cloth 
was  spread  before  the  jury  during  ex- 
amination of  witnesses,  and  the  com- 
ments of  some  of  the  negroes  on  cloth 
in  evidence  caused  considerable  laughter. 
Both  negroes  denied  any  knowledge  of 
said  article,  and  both  expressed  utter 
ignorance  of  purposes  of  its  use.  As  one 
of  the  negroes  could  not  name  a  single 
employer  for  whom  he  had  worked  in 


more  than  three  years,  and  both  looked 
the  part  of  having  a  fondness  for  the 
game,  and  as  the  proof  showed  there 
were  hundreds  of  negroes  working  down 
near  West  Point  on  the  government  dam, 
it  took  the  jury  only  five  minutes  to  re- 
turn a  verdict  for  the  railroad  in  each 
case. 


A   DANGEROUS   PLAY   GROUND 

An  eight-year-old  boy  lies  at  a  local 
hospital  hovering  between  life  and  death 
as  a  result  of  injuries  received  while 
"flipping"  a  railroad  train  at  Rockdale 
last  Sunday.  Both  legs  and  one  arm  are 
gone.  If  he  lives  his  future  will  be  dark, 
indeed. 

We  call  attention  to  this  unfortunate 
case  at  this  time  as  a  warning  to  parents 
to  try  and  keep  their  children  away  from 
railroad  trains.  Statistics  kept  by  rail- 
roads show  that  most  of  the  deaths  on 
railroad  tracks  are  those  of  trespassers. 
The  number  of  children  killed  or  maimed 
annually  is  staggering. 

Parents  and  teachers  should  use  every 
means  to  instill  in  the  minds  of  their 
charges  a  fear  of  the  danger  of  playing 
around  railroad  tracks  and  particularly 
"flipping"  trains.  --  Dubuque  (Iowa) 
Times-journal,  October  8,  1915. 

THE    RAILWAY    CLAIM    AGENT 

Mr.  R.  H.  Doolittle,  claim  agent  of  the 
Colorado  &  Southern  Railway  Company, 
was  recently  asked  to  give  his  views 
about  the  peculiar  qualifications  neces- 
sary for  success  in  a  claim  agent.  We 
give  his  reply  in  full : 

"The  claim  agent  must  listen  without 
fatigue ;  hear  and  be  deaf ;  bear  and  fore- 
bear. Be  truthful  and  cautious;  patient 
and  aggressive ;  retiring  and  p°rsistent ; 
gentle  and  firm ;  merciful  and  exacting ; 
humble  and  assertive;  just  and  economi- 
cal; joyful  and  serious.  A  fisrhter  who 
can  compromise ;  honest  and  diplomatic ; 
.human  and  humane;  measure  conse- 
quences and  abandon  them;  read  people 
and  not  judge  them ;  a  leader  and  suscep- 
tible of  being  led ;  a  seeker  after  truth 
and  approbation  and  stand  for  slander 
and  abuse ;  able  to  endure  and  survive 
between  consuming  fires  ;  know  all  trades 


38 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


"We've  won  that  case  of  Thompson's  against  the  railroad  company,"  said  the  junior  partner. 
"What  shall  we  charge  him?" 

"Let  me  see,"  said  the  senior  partner.     "What  was  the  amount  of  the  damages?" 

"Twenty  thousand   dollars." 

"Make  his  bill  out  for  nineteen  thousand  and  five  hundred.  He's  entitled  to  something  for  giv- 
ing us  the  case." — New  York  World. 


and  professions  (as  he  meets  them  all). 
Create  his  opportunities — they  are  rare- 
ly presented  to  him;  enter  contests  on 
short  notice,  where  only  the  'fittest'  sur- 
vive, without  choice  of  ground  or  wea- 
pons. Be  the  general  'dumping'  ground 
for  the  shortcomings  and  mistakes  of 
other  departments  and  dispose  of  them 
with  accuracy  of  judgment — conscious 
of  his  company's  rights.  Be  responsible 
for  alt  he  does  or  says,  and  carry  with 
him  an  abiding  faith  in  the  glory  and 
justice  of  his  God^-for  he  must  be  a 
Christian,  as  his  only  reward  and  the 
understanding  of  his  acts  will  be  in 
Heaven. 

He  is  successful  in  proportion  to  his 
ability  to  attain  the  above,  which  is  only 
a  part  of  what  may  be  required  of  him." 


ECHOES  FROM  THE  CLAIM 
DEPARTMENT 

The  claim  department  of  the  Illinois 
Central  is  continually  receiving  claims 
from  persons  for  some  minor  loss,  or 
what  they  imagine  to  be  a  loss.  While 
our  account  of  a  few  of  these  claims  may 
seem  an  exaggeration,  nevertheless  they 
are  really  true  as  the  claim  agent  has  the 
communications  on  file  and  they  can  be 
seen  by  anyone.  A  few  of  the  specimen 
communications  are  given  below : 

A  man  residing  at  Grand  Tower  claims 
$65  damages  for  his  cow  which  he  says 
will  never  be  any  good  to  him,  on  ac- 
count of  injuries  sustained  by  being 
frightened  by  an  I.  C.  train.  The  cow 
was  on  the  track  and  the  train  fright- 
ened her  off  the  track,  in  order  that  she 
would  not  be  hit.  In  leaving  the  track 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


39 


Bossie  missed  her  footing  and  started  to 
slide  and  in  this  slide  the  bone  in  her 
tail  was  broken.  There  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  embankment  a  large  amount  of 
quicksand  and  into  this  mirey  substance 
plunged  the  cow  nearly  submerging  her. 
The  man  says  this  cow  is  not  as  good  as 
before  the  accident,  so  refuses  to  accept 
her  and  demands  the  above  damages  to 
purchase  a  new  cow. 

Another  point  on  the  road  a  train  ran 
over  a  cat,  and  Pussie's  mistress  wrote 
the  company  that  they  should  pay  her 
damages  for  the  cat,  as  she  had  a  "per- 
fectly beautiful,"  bushy  tail  and  the  fam- 
ily was  so  lonesome  without  her. 

One  man  says  that  he  should  be  given 
$5  damages  for  lost  feathers.  The  claim 
agent  wrote  the  man  asking  him  in  just 
what  manner  these  feathers  were  lost  by 
him.  A  reply  was  received  stating  that 
he  owned  a  large  flock  of  geese  and  that 
one  of  the  company's  trains  frightened 
the  flock  from  the  track  and  that  they 
went  into  a  briar  patch  and  were  robbed 
of  some  valuable  feathers.  He  states  he 
went  to  the  briar  patch  and  after  examin- 
ing it  surmised  that  there  were  $5  worth 
of  feathers  there  and  demanded  the  com- 
pany to  pay  the  same. — Carbondale 
(111.)  Daily  Free  Press,  September  29, 
1915.  

"CINCHING"  THE  FACTS 
A  little  before  noon  on  August  1,  1915, 
Agent  A.  S.  Dale,  of  Ullin,  Illinois,  re- 
ported to  the  local  claim  agent  at  Car- 
bondale that  a  colored  boy,  fourteen 
years  of  age,  by  the  name  of  Jewel  Exum, 
had  just  been  killed  by  a  train  backing 
on  the  south-bound  main  track  a  short 
distance  north  of  his  depot.  Upon  the 
first  train  came  to  the  claim  agent  de- 
tailed written  statements  which  Mr.  Dale 
had  immediately  taken  from  eye  wit- 
nesses. Such  thoughtful  and  prompt  ac- 
tion is  a  wonderful  help  not  only  to  the 
local  investigator,  but  the  facts  are 
"cinched"  in  the  interest  of  exact  justice 
thereafter. 

ENGINEER      KILLED      WHEN 

TRAIN  HITS  COW 
Alexandria,  La.,  Sept.  22. — A  cow  on 
the  track  caused  the  derailment  of  the 


engine,  tender  and  five  cars  of  merchan- 
dise, which  was  being  hauled  by  fast 
freight  train  No.  93,  on  the  Rock  Island 
railroad  from  Memphis  to  Alexandria 
at  Quitman,  La.,  early  last  night,  result- 
ing in  the  instant  death  of  Engineer  Si 
Perkins  and  the  probably  fatal  injury  of 
Fireman  Mclnturff.  The  engineer  was 
caught  under  the  engine  when  it  turned 
over  and  the  fireman  was  thrown  out  of 
his  cab  across  the  right  of  way  fence. 
Two  of  the  cars  were  struck  by  the  en- 
gine about  100  yards  from  the  depot  at 
Quitman.  Perkins  resided  at  Eldorado, 
Ark.,  and  has  a  wife.- — The  Osyka 
(Miss.)  Herald,  Sept.  24,  1915. 


CHANGE     OF     SENTIMENT     IN 
ATTALA  COUNTY 

In  former  years  Attala  county,  Miss., 
was  a  fertile  field  for  the  damage  suit 
lawyer  and  litigant,  but  the  citizens  of 
that  county  have  evidently  discovered 
that  this  industry  does  not  benefit  the 
county  but  is  very  expensive  to  the  tax 
payers.  At  one  of  the  court  terms  last 
year  the  railroad  company  won  ten  suits 
in  a  row  and  at  the  September  term  this 
year  it  won  two  of  the  three  cases 
tried.  One  was  a  drainage  case  and  the 
other,  that  of  Hugh  Wilson,  colored,  was 
a  fair  sample  of  a  large  per  cent  of  the 
suits  with  which  the  dockets  in  many 
counties  of  Mississippi  are  crowded. 

This  negro  claimed  to  have  purchased 
a  ticket  at  Kosciusko  for  Hoffman,  a  flag 
stop  on  the  main  line  north  of  Durant, 
and  that  he  was  told  by  the  agent  to 
board  the  second  train  north  from  Du- 
rant after  his  arrival  there,  and  that  it 
would  stop  for  him  at  Hoffman ;  that  he 
did  board  such  train  and  was  cursed  and 
kicked  off  by  the  conductor.  Not  a  single 
witness  other  than  himself  was  intro- 
duced in  his  behalf,  while  six  white  men 
and  three  negroes  appeared  for  the  de- 
fense and  denied  his  story.  They  showed 
that,  although  he  had  been  advised  by 
the  agent  at  Durant  that  the  first  train 
that  stopped  at  Hoffman  was  one  at  10 
a.  m. ;  that  he  tried  to  board  No.  6,  not 
scheduled  to  stop  there,  and  was  pre- 
vented from  doing  so,  and  that  the  con- 
ductor never  saw  him  nor  had  anything 


40 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


to  do  with  him,  and  that  he  admitted  as 
much  to  his  employers  on  his  arrival  at 
Hoffman. 

In  the  face  of  the  overwhelming  proof 
against  them,  the  attorneys  for  the  ne- 
groe  wasted  forty  minutes  and  much  fer- 
vent oratory  in  trying  to  convince  the 
jury  that  their  client  should  be  believed 
in  preference  to  the  nine  witnesses  who 
appeared  against  him,  but  times  have 
changed  and  a  verdict  was  promptly  re- 
turned for  the  company. 

After  the  trial  several  of  the  jurors 
were  heard  to  state  that  there  was  a 
time  when  a  verdict  could  be  obtained 
against  the  railroad  company  in  Attala 
county  in  most  any  kind  of  a  case,  but 
that  they  had  got  tired  of  such  frivolous 
law  suits;  that  in  order  to  win  now  the 
plaintiffs  must  have  a  case  of  some  mer- 
it. Happily  for  the  tax  payers,  as  well  as 
the  railroad  company,  this  feeling  is  fast 
spreading  throughout  the  state,  and  the 
time  is  probably  not  far  distant  when 
juries  in  all  counties  will  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  those  in  Attala  and  examine 
more  carefully  into  the  merits  of  cases 
submitted  to  them. 


BEWARE,    OH    BEWARE! 

You  boys  who  jump  on  and  off  mov- 
ing trains  and  you  fellows  who  visit  the 
"hi-hi"  and  "fire-water"  joints,  listen 
here  to  what  the  newspaper  published  at 
Amite  City,  La.,  said  in  last  week's  issue 
about'  a  young  man  who,  it  seems,  in- 
dulged in  such.  According  to  the  Par- 
ishes here  is  the  way  it  all  happened: 

Fred  Cutrer,  a  young  white  man  aged 
about  twenty-six  years,  and  a  resident 
of  the  eastern  section  of  the  parish,  was 
sent  to  the  Charity  Hospital  in  New  Or- 
leans on  the  fast  mail  late  Saturday 
afternoon.  Cutrer,  it  is  alleged  while  tin- 
der the  influence  of  liquor,  attempted  to 
board  a  freight  train  near  Tickfaw,  a 
small  town  a  few  miles  south  of  Amite 
City,  and  missed  his  footing  resulting 
in  his  left  foot  becoming  badly  mangled 
under  the  wheels  of  the  train.  Mem- 
bers of  the  crew  evidently  did  not  know 
an  accident  had  occurred,  and  a  gravel 
train  passing  within  a  short  time  after- 
Ward  discovered  Cutrer,  stopped  and 


placed  the  young  fellow  aboard  and 
brought  him  here  where  Dr.  Stewart 
dressed  his  wounds  and  advised  that  he 
be  sent  to  the  hospital.  Cutrer's  leg 
from  knee  down  was  badly  injured  and 
the  foot  was  barely  hanging  by  a  thread. 
Cutrer  lingered  until  Sunday  morning, 
when  he  died  following  the  amputation 
of  his  leg.  His  body  arrived  in  Amite 
on  the  afternoon  train  Sunday  and  was 
met  by  members  of  his  family  who  con- 
veyed it  to  his  old  home  east  of  Tangi- 
pahoa  river.  The  burial  took  place 
Monday. 

Cutrer's  father  was  in  Amite  Sunday 
and  was  almost  prostrated  over  the  loss 
of  his  boy.  The  young  fellow  is  said 
to  have  been  very  industrious  and  was 
considered  a  splendid  young  farmer.  He 
leaves  a  large  number  of  relatives  to 
mourn  his  death. — The  Wesson  (Miss.) 
Enterprise,  September  3,  1915. 


KILLING  STOCK  IN  MISSISSIPPI 

The  I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  railroads 
have  6,000  miles  of  track  line,  28  per 
cent  of  which  runs  through  Mississippi 
and  about  78  per  cent  of  the  stock  killed 
on  the  entire  system  are  killed  in  this 
state.  In  the  face  of  these  figures,  who 
can  maintain  that  railroads  do  not  assist 
in  the  upbuilding  of  the  state,  with  re- 
plenishment of  the  finances  of  certain 
needy  citizens  of  Mississippi. — Vicks- 
burg  (Miss.)  Herald,  October  12,  1915. 


LAWYERS  OFFER  TO  COLLECT 
DAMAGES  ON  MOVIE  SMASH 
Within  a  short  time  after  a  street  car 
struck  an  old  wagon  at  the  intersection 
of  Second  Avenue  and  Nineteenth 
Street,  between  4  and  5  o'clock  Thurs- 
day afternoon,  part  of  the  moving  pic- 
ture taking  of  the  Birmingham  Railway, 
Light  and  Power  Company  on  "Safety 
First,"  several  attorneys  made  their  ap- 
pearance and  offered  "services"  in  col- 
lecting damages. 

After  the  accident,  a  big  crowd  gath- 
ered and  it  was  quite  a  while  before  it 
became  known  that  the  accident  was  all 
prearranged  and  that  it  was  pulled  off 
to  demonstrate  how  easily  accidents  can 
happen.  The  film  was  taken  from  a 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  41 

window  in  the  Florence  Hotel,  and  in  railway  company  and  the  people  on  the 

a  few  weeks  will  be  shown  to  the  pub-  street  car  had  been  warned  before  hand 

lie  here.     Of  course,  the  driver  of  the  not  to  be  frightened  when  the  accident 

wagon  was  in  the  employ  of  the  street  happened. — Birmingham  News. 


He  Turned  a  Deaf  Ear  to  Lawyers 

Walter  W.  Reyburn,  a  fireman,  was  seriously  and  permanently  injured  at 
Oilman,  Illinois,  on  August  24,  1914.  He  had  been  promoted  to  the  position  of 
engineer,  but  on  account  of  depression  in  business,  he  went  back  to  firing  tem- 
porarily, and  was  firing  engine  1509,  on  the  night  of  August  24,  1914.  While 
taking  coal  at  Oilman,  he  in  some  manner  fell  from  the  tank,  resulting  in  fracture 
of  his  spine.  He  had  been  in  service  for  many  years  and  had  a  splendid  record. 
He  was  loyal  to  the  company  while  he  was  working.  He  was  loyal  and  patient 
while  he  lay  in  bed  as  a  result  of  the  unfortunate  accident.  Scores  of  lawyers 
and  their  representatives  brought  great  pressure  to  bear  upon  him  to  enter  suit 
against  the  company,  but  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all  their  entreaties.  When  the 
time  arrived  and  he  was  ready  to  consider  settlement,  the  matter  was  taken  up 
with  him  in  the  regular  way,  and  finally,  a  few  days  ago,  the  claim  was  settled. 
After  the  settlement,  the  following  correspondence  passed  between  Mr.  Reyburn 
and  the  Chief  Claim  Agent : 

Mr.  W.  W.  Reyburn,  '  November  1,  1915. 

9438  Champlain  Ave., 
Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Mr.  Reyburn : 

I  wish  to  congratulate  you  on  the  splendid  manner  in  which  you  personally, 
without  assistance,  conducted  the  negotiations  for  settlement  of  your  case.  I 
am  pleased  that  the  claim  has  been  settled  and  is  out  of  the  way,  and  I  think 
that  your  friends  among  the  employes  and  officials  of  the  company  will  also  be 
pleased. 

I  sympathize  with  you  deeply  and  sincerely  trust  that  you  will  steadily  im- 
prove and  that  you  will  yet  be  able  to  enjoy  life.  If  there  is  anything  that  I 
can  do  for  you,  please  do  not  hesitate  to  call  upon  me. 

Yours  very  truly, 

H.  B.  Hull,  Chief  Claim  Agent. 
Mr.  H.  B.  Hull,  Chicago,  November  2,  1915. 

Chief  Claim  Agent. 
Dear  Mr.  Hull : 

Yours  of  the  1st  received  and  contents  noted.  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  your 
kindly  letter;  also  for  the  considerate  and  gentlemanly  manner  in  which  you 
carried  on  negotiations  with  me  in  the  settlement  of  my  claim.  The  more  I 
think  of  this  matter,  leads  me  to  believe  that  the  company  was  as  fair  as  possible 
with  me.  I  will  say  to  you  that  I  am  satisfied  with  our  settlement,  and  have  the 
best  of  feelings  and  good  will  for  the  old  I.  C,  and,  I  take  this  means  to  convey 
through  you  my  thanks  and  appreciation  to  the  present  management,  and  wish 
them  the  best  of  success  and  prosperity  in  the  future. 

I  am  vain  enough  to  say  that  I'm  proud  of  the  fact  that  the  money  I  got  is 
all  mine,  not  a  cent  of  it  went  to  any  legal  representative.  I  have  always  felt 
that  the  I.  C.  did  not  owe  the  minions  of  the  law  any  money ;  at  least  not  through 
me.  If  you  should  ever  have  reason  to  believe  that  I  can  be  of  any  service  to 
you,  and  it  is  in  my  power  to  help  you,  I  shall  be  only  too  glad  to  serve  you. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  W.  Reyburn. 

P.  S.    Don't  forget  Cary.    He's  O.  K.    A  gentleman  from  his  shoes  up. 


SflFEIY  FIRST 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,NTr 
S  E,RVI  OE, 
S 


Always  Safety  First — They  Just  Hate  to  Wait 


"Hurry  up,  and  we  can  get  across. 
He'll  hold  the  gates  for  us,"  said  the 
woman  in  the  automobile  approaching 
the  railroad  intersection. 

But  the  man  who  was  driving  stopped 
the  car  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  cross- 
ing. 

"What's  the  use?"  he  answered. 
"We're  in  no  particular  hurry.  Why 
should  we  risk  our  lives  just  to  get 
across  before  the  train  comes?" 

"Well,  I  just  HATE  to  wait,"  pouted 
the  woman. 

"Huh !"  grunted  the  man,  "you're  like 
a  lot  of  others  I  know.  That's  why  a 
crossing  watchman's  hair  gets  white  aft- 
er he's  been  on  the  job  a  few  months. 
If  you  haven't  any  regard  for  your  own 
skin,  be  a  little  considerate  toward  the 
poor  devil  that's  trying  to  keep  it  whole 
for  you." 

"Why,  I  never  thought  of  it  that 
way,"  exclaimed  the  woman. 

"Of  course  you  didn't!"  retorted  the 
man.  "Nobody  ever  seems  to.  It  takes 
a  fellow  that's  had  some  experience  to 
know  how  the  crossing  guard  feels.  It's 
these  geeks  who've  never  been  up 
against  real  danger,  and  who've  never 
had  the  responsibility  of  keeping  other 
folks  out  of  danger,  who  take  the  risks 
that  fill  the  newspaoers  with  acci- 
dent reports.  At  this  very  crossing 
there  have  been  several  automobile 
smashups  and  a  number  of  lives  lost, 


and  all  because  the  drivers  thought 
they  knew  more  than  the  crossing 
watchman.  They  thought  they  could 
'make  it'  even  if  the  gates  were  going 
down,  and  I'll  bet  that  watchman  has 
prayed  some  pretty  stout  prayer  every 
time  he  had  to  hold  the  gates  half  way 
for  one  of  those  fool  drivers  and  every 
time  he  watched  a  pedestrian  trying  to 
beat  it  across  the  tracks  when  a  fast 
train  is  coming." 

"Well,  I  don't  think  we  ought  to  have 
these  grade  crossings,  anyway,"  declared 
the  woman.  "They  are  a  menace." 

"Right-o,"  agreed  the  man.  "But  as 
long  as  they're  here  I'm  going  to  exercise 
some  common  sense  about  it,  and  not 
look  upon  the  guardian  of  the  place  as 
my  natural  born  enemy.  Gee  whiz — the 
way  some  folks  act  when  the  watchman 
flags  them,  you'd  think  he  was  doing 

them  a  personal  injury. 

****** 

"It's  the  same  way  with  the  crossing 
policeman.  You'd  think  he  was  there 
just  to  give  you  a  chance  to  sidestep  him. 
He's  doing  his  level  best  to  preserve  life 
and  limb  and  property,  but  because  he 
represents  authority,  the  average  Ameri- 
can thinks  it's  his  inalienable  right  to 
cut  catercorner  if  he  wants  to,  and  abuse 
the  'cop'  if  he  presumes  to  curtail  a  cit- 
izen's liberty  to  do  as  he  pleases. 

"You  don't  see  that  sort  of  spirit  any- 
where except  in  this  country.  We  resent 


43 


44 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


any  kind  of  authority  here,  even  though 
it's  exercised  for  our  protection.  The 
individual  is  rampant  in  America  and 
isn't  willing  to  concede  individual  rights 
to  others.  The  spirit  in  the  average 
American  would  stop  that  freight  train 
to  let  his  measly  carcass  get  by  first,  and 
it  doesn't  care  a  hang  about  the  other 
fellow's  rights  or  convenience. 


"Well,  it's  a  mighty  long  freight 
train,"  complained  the  woman.  "We 
might  be  almost  down  town  by  this 
time." 

"Yes — and  the  undertaker's  ambulance 
might  be  carting  us  to  the  morgue,"  com- 
mented the  man. — Cleveland  News — The 
Railway  Conductor. 


Will  they  STOP,  LOOKaiid  LISTEN 


Safety  in  Railway  Operation 

By  Francis  W.  Lane,  in  the  Searchlight 


'  I  A  HERE  is  probably  no  class  of  industrial 
-*-  accidents  that  has  ever  been  subjected  to 
so  minute  a  scrutiny  as  have  railway  accidents. 
There  is  no  class  of  casualties  concerning 
which  the  records  of  number,  causes  and  ef- 
fects are  so  complete  as  are  the  records  of 
those  resulting  from  the  operation  of  rail- 
ways. These  records  are  furnished  in  great 
detail  by  the  railways  and  are  compiled  and 
published  by  the  government.  They  are  re- 
liable. They  are  open  to  the  inspection  of 


every  one.  They  are  easily  accessible.  Yet 
probably  there  is  prevalent  more  general  mis- 
understanding as  to  the  causes  and  the  ex- 
tent of  the  hazard  in  railway  operation  than 
prevails  in  connection  with  almost  any  other 
industry. 

Not  the  least  curious  item  of  this  misun- 
derstanding is  that  the  very  feature  to  which 
is  attributed  much  of  the  danger  is  the  one 
which  investigation  has  shown  has  more 
largely  than  any  other  been  instrumental  in 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


45 


the  reduction  of  casualties.  It  is  known  that 
the  volume  of  service  performed  by  railways 
has  increased  enormously  within  recent  years, 
and,  with  occasional  fluctuations^  from  year 
to  year.  It  is  known  that  the  railways  have 
every  year  increased  the  size  of  their  loco- 
motives, the  capacity  of  their  cars  and  the 
number  of  cars  in  their  trains.  It  is  a  com- 
mon impression  that  the  hazards  peculiar  to 
the  business  have  increased  in  at  least  as 
great  a  ratio  as  the  increase  in  the  volume 
of  service  performed.  It  is  a  prevailing  be- 
lief that  the  business  is  more  dangerous  now 
than  formerly,  not  only  to  those  engaged  in 
it,  but  to  the  public  as  well.  It  is  even  as- 
serted that  in  the  interests  of  economy  an 
unnecessary  element  of  danger  has  been  intro- 
duced by  the  use  of  more  powerful  locomo- 
tives, bigger  cars  and  longer  trains. 

The  supposition  that  the  element  of  danger 
has  increased  with  the  increase  in  the  volume 
of  business  is  perfectly  natural.  Belief  that 
it  has  increased  in  the  same  ratio  is,  however, 
erroneous.  One  of  the  means  by  which  a 
seemingly  natural  tendency  has  been  offset  and 
the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  effective  are 
pointed  out  as  follows. 

Last  April  a  railway  accident  record  that 
has  been  kept  month  by  month  for  43  years, 
almost  fell  down  for  the  first  time.  This 
does  not  mean  that  in  that  month  no  train 
went  wrong  or  that  no  employe,  passenger, 
or  other  person  was  injured  by  the  movement 
of  a  railway  train.  There  were  two  accidents, 
it  is  true,  of  sufficient  importance  to  get  a 
mention  in  some  daily  paper.  But  in  the 
whole  month,  of  all  the  trains  of  every  kind 
upon  all  the  railways  of  the  United  States 
there  was  not  an  accident  that  would  make 
what  a  newspaper  man  calls  a  "first-page" 
story  and  only  two  that  appear  to  have  been 
important  enough  for  mention  upon  any  page. 
In  neither  of  the  two  accidents  was  any  per- 
son killed  and  in  the  two  only  seven  were 
slightly  injured. 

Nor  does  this  record  or  absence  of  record 
mean  that  there  are  to  be  no  more  railway 
accidents.  Unfortunately,  accidents  may  be 
counted  upon  as  an  occasional  certainty  so 
long  as  railways  run  trains,  so  long  as  me- 
chanical appliances  get  out  of  order  or  break 
and  so  long  as  human  nature  is  fallible  or  is 
so  constituted  that  a  man  will  take  a  chance. 

The  record  referred  to,  as  well  as  the  ac- 
cident statistics  kept  by  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  since  1901,  point  to  April 
as  a  month  that  seems  to  enjoy  a  degree  of 
immunity  from  casualties  incident  to  railway 
operation.  The  only  explanation  that  can  be 
given  is  a  combination  of  favorable  weather 
and  a  between-season  moderation  of  volume 
of  traffic.  A  decrease  in  traffic  enables  a  re- 
duction in  the  number  of  trains  operated. 

The  one  certainty  about  railway  accidents  is 
that  some  will  occur.  The  number  of  trains 
is,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  an  index  of  the 
extent  of  their  occurrence.  This  is  shown  by 
all  the  reliable  accident  statistics  that  have 


ever  been  kept.  Casualties  to  passengers, 
trainmen,  other  employes,  persons  at  grade 
crossings,  trespassers  on  railway  track  and  in 
yards,  hoboes  riding  on  trucks  or  truss  rods 
— the  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  are  hardly 
sufficient  to  prove  it,  if  one  were  bent  upon 
having  that  class  of  proof. 

During  the  last  few  years  there  has  been 
much  said  about  "safety  first."  More  has  been 
said  about  it  in  connection  with  railway  opera- 
tion than  in  connection  with  any  other  indus- 
try. Probably  this  is  because  railway  opera- 
tion is  recognized  as,  on  the  whole,  a  danger- 
ous occupation.  A  better  explanation  still  is 
that  it,  in  one  form  or  another,  comes  close 
to  the  path  of  almost  every  person  going  about 
his  own  business  or  pleasure.  In  other  words, 
whatever  element  of  danger  there  is  about 
the  movement  of  trains  affects  not  only  those 
who  operate  them,  but  those  who  are  directly 
or  indirectly  benefited  by  the  fact  that  they 
are  operated;  and  that  is  everybody.  There- 
fore, the  elimination  or  minimization  of  the 
element  of  danger  in  railway  operation  is  a 
matter  of  general  personal  concern. 

Under  the  conditions  that  control  railway 
operation  in  the  United  States  and  under  those 
which  must  control  until  the  whole  country 
is  populated  to  a  density  comparable  with  that 
of  the  principal  countries  of  Europe,  or  until 
the  capitalization  or  earnings  of  railways  are 
increased  to  many  times  their  present  amount, 
the  greatest  possible  measure  of  safety  that 
railways  can  adopt  is  in  the  reduction  of  the 
number  of  freight  trains  in  relation  to  the 
volume  of  traffic  handled.  The  connection  be- 
tween number  of  passenger  trains  and  total 
number  of  casualties  is  not  close.  This  will 
seem  strange,  but  the  accuracy  of  government 
statistics  that  show  it  is  unquestionable. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  relation  be- 
tween the  number  of  railway  accidents  and 
the  number  of  freight  trains  run  that  is  so 
close  as  to  be  almost  uncanny.  This  statement 
covers  accidents  resulting  in  death  or  injury 
not  only  to  railway  employes,  but  also  death  or 
injury  to  passengers  and  all  other  persons,  even 
trespassers.  In  90  per  cent  of  201  comparisons 
recently  made,  the  rule  holds  that  accidents 
increase  or  decrease  according  to  the  number 
of  freight  trains  run.  The  comparisons  cover 
collisions,  train  accidents  and  accidents  re- 
sulting from  the  movement  of  trains.  They 
cover  accidents  to  all  classes  of  persons  killed 
or  injured. 

The  accompanying  table  presents  the  facts 
regarding  the  relation  of  freight  train  miles 
(number  of  freight  trains)  to  number  of  col- 
lisions and  to  the  numbers  of  persons  killed 
and  injured  in  them.  The  table  includes  casu- 
alties not  only  to  railway  employes  but  to  pas- 
sengers and  others.  It  shows  that  during  the 
ten  years  covered  by  the  statistics  every  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  freight  trains  was 
accompanied  by  an  increase  in  number  of 
collisions  and  that  every  decrease  in  the  num- 
ber of  freight  trains  was  accompanied  by  a 
decrease  in  the  number  of  collisions.  In  every 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


47 


year  but  two  the  number  of  persons  killed,  and 
in  every  year  but  one  the  number  of  persons 
injured,  varied  with  the  total  of  freight  train 
miles  run. 

The  same  relation  is  shown  when  the  num- 
ber of  employes  and  the  number  of  passengers 
killed  and  injured  are  taken  separately.  It 
is  also  shown  when  the  comparison  is  made, 
not  as  to  collisions  alone,  but  as  to  all  classes 
of  train  accidents. 

There  is  space  for  but  one  more  comparison. 
This  relates  to  casualties  to  passengers  in  train 
accidents.  In  the  column  snowing  number  of 
passengers  killed  there  is  one  exception  to  the 
rule  that  increases  and  decreases  in  freight 
train  mileage  are  accompanied  by  increases 
or  decreases  in  fatal  casualties.  In  the  col- 
umn showing  number  of  passengers  injured 
there  are  two  exceptions. 

Collisions — Number  and  Resulting 
Casualties 

~Frt.  Train 

Miles  No.  of 

(Millions)       Collisions       Killed         Injured 
Inc.    Dec.    Inc.      Dec.   Inc.   Dec.    Inc.      Dec. 

1905 546     6,224    608  7,111    

1906 594     7,194    604  7,914    

1907 630     8,026    776  9,541    

1908 587    6,363  414    7,712 

1909 568    4,411  342    5,395 

1910 635     5,861    433  7,765    

1911 626    5,605  436  6,994 

1912 612    5,483  378  7,949    

1913 644     6,477    457  8,031    

1914 *612    5,241  287    5,876 

*Estimated  from  freight  ton  miles  and  num- 
ber of  locomotives  assigned  to  freight  service, 
according  to  basis  given  in  advance  sheets  of 
report  of  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  for 
1914. 

From  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  Ac- 
cident Bulletin  No.  36  (1910),  page  19;  Acci- 
dent Bulletin  No.  48  (1913),  page  28,  and 
Accident  Bulletin  No.  52  (1914),  page  28. 

Freight  train  miles  figures  are  from  Statis- 
tics of  Railway,  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, for  years  named. 
Casualties  to  Passengers — Train  Accidents. 

Frt.  Train 

Miles, 

(Millions)  Killed  •  Injured 

Inc.     Dec.  Inc.  Dec.  Inc.  Dec. 

526     164  ......  4,424  

535     270     4,945  

546     350     6,498  

594     182  6,778  

630     410     9,070  

587     165      7,430 

568     131      5,865 

635     217     7,516  

626     142      6,722 

612     139  9,391  

644     181  8,663 

*612     85      7,001 


1903  

1904  

1905  

1906  

1907  

1908  

1909  

1910  

1911  

1912  

1913    

1914  

*Estimated  from  freight  ton  miles  and  num- 
ber of  locomotives  assigned  to  freight  service, 
according  to  basis  given  in  advance  sheets 
of  report  of  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
for  1914.  All  accident  figures  are  from  Acci- 


dent Bulletin  No.  36  (1910),  page  18;  Acci- 
dent Bulletin  No.  48  (1913),  page  24,  and 
Accident  Bulletin  No.  52  (1914),  page  24. 

Freight  train  miles  figures  are  from  Statis- 
tics of  Railways,  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission, for  years  named. 

These  tables  are  presented,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exploiting  a  theory,  but  for  illustrat- 
ing a  fact.  They  are  typical  of  all  compari- 
sons that  can  be  made  as  to  this  relation  from 
the  data  in  the  possession  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  upon  the  subject  of 
railway  accidents. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  mere  comparison 
of  increases  and  decreases  in  casualties  which 
almost  invariably  accompany  increases  and 
decreases  in  freight  train  mileage  does  not 
represent  the  whole  truth.  The  ratio  of  in- 
crease or  decrease  in  casualties  is  greater  than 
the  ratio  of  increase  or  decrease  in  number 
of  freight  train  miles  run.  Analysis  of  the 
foregoing  and  of  other  similar  comparisons 
shows  this  clearly.  Between  1905  and  1907 
the  increase  in  freight  train  mileage  was  15.3 
per  cent;  the  increase  in  the  number  of  pas- 
sengers and  employes  killed  was  37  per  cent. 
Between  1907  and  1909  freight  train  mileage 
decreased  9.8  per  cent;  the  decrease  in  the 
number  of  employes  killed  in  train  accidents 
was  49  per  cent  and  the  decrease  in  the  num- 
ber of  passengers  and  employes  killed  was 
44  per  cent.  These  comparisons  can  be  multi- 
plied indefinitely.  The  tendency  is  so  marked 
that  if  one  could  assume  that  railway  freight 
traffic  were  equally  distributed  as  to  trains 
throughout  the  day  and  in  each  direction  a 
mathematical  proposition  could  be  enunciated, 
viz : 

Danger  points  in  railway  operation  vary  as 
the  square  of  the  number  of  trains  in  either 
direction. 

That  this  propos!  ion  is,  in  fact,  an  over- 
statement is  due  to  the  irregular  distribution 
of  traffic  as  to  both  time  and  direction,  which, 
however,  introduces  each  its  ow^  risk. 

Having  stated  the  proposition  so  baldly,  one 
naturally  expects  to  be  asked  for  a  solution — 
a  remedy.  There  is,  as  stated  in  the  opening 
paragraph,  no  remedy  that  is  entirely  efficaci- 
ous. None  need  ever  be  expected.  Moving 
masses  weighing  thousands  of  tons  cannot  be 
shot  through  cities  at  the  rate  of  speed  de- 
manded by  modern  conceptions  of  progress 
without  some  degree  of  hazard,  both  to  those 
who  are  responsible  for  their  movement,  and 
to  those  who  get  in  their  way,  or  close  to  it. 
But  the  diagnosis  of  the  controlling  element  of 
the  hazard  suggests  at  once  the  nature  of  the 
most  effective  remedy  that  can  be  applied.  It 
ought  to  be  said,  in  justice  to  the  management 
of  our  railways,  that  they  have  known  the 
remedy  and  have  been  applying  it  for  some 
time,  as  thoroughly  as  the  physical  condition 
of  the  patient  and  his  financial  ability  would 
permit. 

It  has  been  stated  in  a  preceding  paragraph 
that  the  influence  of  fluctuations  in  passenger 
train  mileage  is  not  closely  reflected  in  the 


48 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


number  of  casualties.  This  is  true  even  when 
casualties  to  passengers  alone  are  considered. 
Except  when  a  change  in  passenger  train  mile- 
age is  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  change 
in  freight  train  mileage,  its  influence  appears 
to  be  largely  negligible.  If  space  permitted,  the 
facts  could  be  shown  as  clearly  as  the  con- 
trary is  shown  in  reference  to  freight  train 
mileage.  Therefore,  in  what  follows  the  rela- 
tion of  accidents  to  the  conditions  of  freight 
train  operation  only  is  taken  into  account. 

In  ten  years,  from  1904  to  1913,  the  freight 
ton  mileage  of  the  railways  of  the  United 
States  increased  73  per  cent.  Freight  ton  mile- 
age is  a  short  term  used  in  railway  statistics 
and  means  the  number  of  tons  of  freight  car- 
ried one  mile.  It  is  the  unit  of  measure  of 
a  railway's  freight  business.  Because  of  the 
increase  in  railway  mileage  operated,  the  in- 
crease in  freight  density,  or  ton  miles  per 
mile  of  line,  has  not  increased  to  the  same 
extent.  This  increase  is  45.5  per  cent. 

During  the  same  period  in  which  the  freight 
ton  mileage  of  railways  has  increased  73  per 
cent  and  ton  miles  per  mile  of  line  45.5  per 
cent,  freight  train  density  has  increased  only 
3.6  per  cent.  Freight  train  density  is  another 
term  used  for  convenience  of  statistical  pur- 
poses, and  means  the  number  of  freight  train 
miles  per  mile  of  line.  It  affords,  therefore, 
an  accurate  indication  of  the  increase  in  the 
average  number  of  freight  train  movements 
required  to  handle  an  increased  tonnage.  Com- 
paring these  two  percentages,  both  on  a  mileage 
basis,  it  appears  that  notwithstanding  the  in- 
crease in  volume  of  freight  service  in  the  last 
ten  years,  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
freight  train  movements  from  1904  to  1913  has 
been  only  a  little  more  than  one-thirteenth  as 
great.  From  1904  to  1914  the  number  of 
freieht  train  movements  per  mile  of  line  act- 
ually decreased. 

It  follows,  then,  that  in  the  increase  in  ca- 
pacity of  trains  the  railways  have  brought 
about  in  recent  years,  they  have  introduced 
one  of  the  greatest  elements  of  safety  that 
has  ever  exerted  an  influence  upon  railway 


operation.  The  increase  has  been  effected  by 
larger  locomotives,  cars  of  greater  capacity 
and  more  cars  in  a  train.  It  is  true  that  the 
operation  of  such  trains  was  not  brought 
about  primarily  as  a  safety  measure.  It  is 
simply  a  movement  in  line  with  all  transporta- 
tion progress.  To  carry  a  larger  load  as  a 
unit  has  been  the  characteristic  tendency  of 
transportation  progress  since  the  first  human 
burden-bearer  transferred  his  load  to  a  pack 
animal  that  could  carry  a  greater  weight  and 
later  provided  the  animal  with  a  vehicle  on 
wheels.  Within  limits  varying  with  the  means 
employed,  the  capacity  of  the  unit  of  trans- 
portation measure  the  economy  and  efficiency 
of  the  service.  But  in  the  securing  of  this 
economy  and  efficiency  of  service  by  which, 
within  ten  years,  our  railways  have  been  able 
to  perform  twelve  and  one-half  times  as  much 
service  with  the  same  movement  of  trains,  the 
relative  safety  of  railway  operation  has  in- 
creased to  that  extent.  The  movement  of 
trains  constitutes  the  only  element  of  danger 
that  is  peculiar  to  railway  operation. 

So  far,  then,  as  the  record  of  what  has  hap- 
pened in  the  past  may  be  regarded  as  an  index 
of  future  happenings,  under  like  conditions, 
we  are  justified  in  the  statement  that  the  num- 
ber of  freight  trains  operated  by  a  railway  is 
a  controlling  influence  in  the  production  of 
railway  casualties.  It  appears,  also,  that  al- 
though the  freight  tonnage  has  largely  in- 
creased within  recent  years,  the  number  of 
freight  trains  operated  has  not  correspondingly 
increased,  but  has  increased  very  slightly  in 
relation  to  the  volume  of  freight  handled. 

By  the  use  of  units  of  transportation  of 
greater  load  capacity  the  railways  have  been 
able  to  increase  the  amount  of  public  service 
performed  and  the  degree  of  economy  and 
efficiency  in  its  performance  without  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  number  of  freight  train 
movements  and  a  consequent  increase  in  rela- 
tive numbers  of  casualties.  The  conclusion 
that  the  long  and  heavy  freight  train  is  a  fac- 
tor of  safety  in  railway  operation  is  inevit- 
able. 


Springfield  Division  Safety  Meeting 

Clinton,  111.,  Oct.  20,  1915. 
PRESENT 

G.  E.  PATTERSON,  Superintendent,  Clinton. 
M.  M.  BACKUS,  Roadmaster,  Clinton. 

WM.  O'BRIEN,  Master  Mechanic,  Clinton. 
W.  A.  GOLZE,  Chief  Dispatcher,  Clinton. 

W.  A.  SKINNER,  Division  Storekeeper,  Clinton. 
H.  M.  GLEADALL,  Chief  Clerk,  Supt.,  Clinton. 
S.  C.  DRAPER,  Supervisor,  Signals,  Clinton. 
A.  G.  TURLAY,  Traveling  Engineer,  Clinton. 

F.  R.  JAMISON,  Traveling  Frt.  Agt.,  Springfield. 

Local  A  greater  part  of  the  meeting  was  devoted  to  discussing 

Conditions  local  conditions  that  have  to  do  with  the  safety  of  employes, 

passengers  and  trespassers. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


49 


Drastic  Action 
For  Employes 
Who  Persist 
In  Taking 
Great 
Hazards 


Efficient 
Supervision  to 
Eliminate 
Personal 
Injuries 


Misuse  of 
Safety  Chains 
Between 
Tender  and 
Cab  of 
Engines 

Negligence  of 
Employes  on 
Passenger 


The  conditions  affecting  the  Mechanical  Department, 
Road  Department  and  Transportation  employes  were  gone 
over  in  detail  and  some  considerable  time  was  given  to  the 
discussion  of  trespassers.  This  is  the  greatest  evil  with 
which  we  have  to  contend,  and  but  very  little  assistance 
can  be  obtained  from  local  authorities,  in  fact,  police  offi- 
cers and  town  marshals  are  backed  by  Mayors  and  Village 
Presidents  in  their  efforts  to  drive  tramps  out  of  town, 
often  telling  them  at  what  point  our  trains  are  likely  to 
stop,  that  they  may  board  freight  trains  and  get  out  of 
town.  At  most  places  it  is  impossible  to  have  trespassers 
taken  off  of  freight  trains,  fined  and  locked  up.  Villages 
do  not  care  to  incur  the  expense  of  boarding  the  tramps. 

The  minutes  of  Safety  Meetings  held  by  Train  Masters 
and  Master  Mechanics  were  carefully  gone  over  and  all  of 
their  suggestions  discussed.  It  was  found  that  attention  has 
been  given  to  all  practical  suggestions  in  reference  to  safety 
matters. 

So  much  has  been  said  to  employes  about  taking  serious 
hazards  such  as  pushing  drawbars  with  their  feet,  riding 
brake  beams  while  holding  to  safety  irons,  riding  with  one 
foot  in  the  stirrup  and  the  other  foot  on  the  oil  box,  etc., 
that  any  observation  of  such  practices  on  the  part  of  the 
Division  Officers  will  be  met  by  promptly  taking  such  em- 
ployes out  of  the  service  for  formal  investigation  and  de- 
cision as  to  whether  or  not  they  should  be  allowed  to  return 
to  the  service. 

There  is  a  question  whether  the  Division  Organization, 
or  the  individual  members  of  the  Division  Organization, 
are  always  efficient  in  supervision  and  taking  immediate 
and  positive  steps  to  stop  dangerous  practices  at  the  time 
such  observations  are  taken.  It  was  thoroughly  agreed  in 
this  meeting  that  it  was  not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  of 
each  Division  Officer  to  immediately  intercept  any  danger- 
ous practice  that  he  observes,  and  if  not  in  his  immediate 
department,  to  correct  the  practice  by  calling  the  attention 
of  the  officers  who  have  jurisdiction,  so  that  immediate 
action  may  be  taken.  It  is  felt  that  a  great  mistake  is  made 
by  any  supervising  officer  who  will  countenance,  even  by 
silence,  any  dangerous  practice  or  condition.  The  super- 
vision and  action  must  be  thorough  and  decisive  and  dan- 
gerous practices  intercepted,  dangerous  conditions  foreseen 
and  corrected  if  personal  injuries  are  to  be  materially  re- 
duced. 

Recently  a  few  firemen  have  been  observed  sitting  on  or 
leaning  heavily  agains  the  chain  extending  from  tender  to 
cab  of  engines  for  their  protection  while  working  in  the 
gang-way  and  immediate  steps  have  been  taken  to  break 
up  the  practice  as  we  realize  that  sooner  or  later  a  serious 
accident  will  result  to  some  fireman  if  the  practice  is  con- 
tinued. 

This  matter  is  being  impressed  upon  employes  of  pas- 
senger trains  on  this  Division.  The  flagman's  position  is 
well  defined  and  generally  observed,  but  we  feel  that  some 


50 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Trains  For 
the  Safety  in 
Movement  of 
Train  and 
Handling  of 
Passengers 


Running 
Motor  Cars 
at  Night 


Loose  Wires 
Hanging  from 
Stakes  on 
Flat  Cars 


Co-Operation 
of  Agents  to 
Stop  Train 
Flipping 


Speed 
Restrictions 


Ice  Boxes 
For  Carrying 
Water  Jugs  on 
Engines 


conductors  do  not  thoroughly  realize  the  importance  of  the 
position  they  take  while  passengers  are  being  received  and 
discharged  at  platforms  and  that  too  much  of  the  responsi- 
bility is  delegated  to  flagmen  and  train  porters.  Conductors 
have  been  instructed  that  they  must  alight  promptly  when 
the  train  stops,  supervise  the  handling  of  passengers  and 
the  unloading  of  express  and  baggage  and  when  the  train 
is  ready  to  move,  signal  the  engineer.  Firemen  on  both 
passenger  and  freight  trains,  at  times,  neglect  to  remain  on 
the  firemen's  side  of  the  engine  while  passing  over  street 
crossings  or  approaching  platform,  and  are  inclined  to  pass 
to  the  engineer's  side  and  stand  in  the  gang-way  to  view 
passengers  that  may  be  standing  on  the  platform.  We 
intend  to  break  up  the  practice  on  this  division. 

The  running  of  motor  cars  at  night  on  this  division  is  pos- 
itively forbidden  except  on  the  authority  of  the  superin- 
tendent, with  the  exception  that  signal  maintainers  who 
may  be  called  to  repair  defective  signals  at  night  are  per- 
mitted to  use  the  motor  car  when  instructed  by  the  dis- 
patcher to  repair  certain  defective  signals  and  their  cars 
have  been  equipped  with  a  red  light  to  the  rear  and  white 
light  in  front  and  they  have  been  cautioned  to  ascertain  the 
location  of  all  trains  before  starting  the  trip. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  growing  disposition  to  allow 
loose  wire  to  remain  on  stakes  left  in  flat  car  pockets  after 
cars  are  unloaded.  It  is  dangerous  practice  and  inspectors 
on  this  division  have  been  instructed  to  see  that  all  such 
wires  are  removed. 

It  is  felt  that  agents  at  local  stations  can,  by  proper  co- 
operation with  the  village  authorities,  practically  break  up 
"train  flipping"  by  local  talent.  This  practice  is  much 
more  easily  controlled  than  ordinary  trespassing  wherein 
tramps  ride  freight  trains,  because  the  parents  of  train 
flippers  and  the  village  authorities  are  more  interested. 

A  circular  letter  has  been  issued  to  all  Agents  on  this 
division  asking  them  to  make  a  campaign  on  this  subject  by 
conferring  with  the  village  authorities  and  with  the  parents 
of  the  offenders  and  if  they  fail  in  their  effort,  to  call  atten- 
tion of  the  Superintendent  to  the  matter  and  the  Division 
Officers  will  be  sent  to  confer  with  the  parents  and  village 
authorities. 

Considerable  time  was  devoted  to  discussing  the  subject 
of  speed  restriction  which  we  have  learned  to  regard  with 
much  seriousness.  Ways  and  means  of  checking  the  speed 
were  discussed  and  the  campaign  that  we  have  made  dur- 
ing the  past  two  or  three  years  has  brought  results  that 
are  clearly  evident. 

We  have  recently  had  some  complaint  from  enginemen 
in  reference  to  the  box  in  which  the  fireman  carries  the 
water  jug  on  engines.  Since  back  boards  and  curtains  have 
been  installed  for  the  winter  it  is  claimed  that  the  clearance 
betwen  the  ice-box  and  back  boards  is  insufficient.  The 
matter  has  been  referred  to  the  General  Superintendent  of 
Motive  Power  for  proper  action,  as  it  is  felt  that  the  diffi- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


51 


Statistics  Show- 
ing Number 
Persons  Killed 
and  Injured 


culty  can  be  overcome  by  providing  a  smaller  box  in  which 
to  carry  the  jug  after  back  boards  and  curtains  are  put  up. 
Statistics  show  the  number  of  persons  killed  and  injured 
for  the  past  three  months  and  the  causes  on  the  various 
divisions  were  gone  over  carefuly  and  the  important  cases 
discussed  at  some  length. 


JACKSON  COUNTY  LUMBER  CO. 


THIS     CAR    IS     HANDLED 
PROMPTLY 

Canadian  Pacific  car  95690,  loaded 
with  empty  boxes  for  the  Morgantown 
Packing  Company,  arrived  at  Morgan- 
town,  Indiana,  in  train  391,  October 
28th,  at  10:30  a.  m.  It  was  placed  for 
unloading  at  11:00  a.  m.,  unloaded  and 
reloaded  with  canned  goods  ready  for 
movement  at  3  :00  p.  m.  It  went  for- 
ward in  train  392  at  3  :30  p.  m.  the  same 
date. 

If    all    cars    could    be    handled    as 


promptly   as   this   one,   there   would   be 
no  shortage  of  equipment. 


ERRATA 

TN  our  September  issue  we  published  a 
-*•  poem  entitled  "The  Land  of  Begin- 
ning Again"  and  credited  it  to  E.  W. 
Gibbens,  Greenville,  Miss.  This  was  a 
clipping  made  by  Mr.  Gibbens,  and  he 
is  not  sure  as  to  the  author,  but  he 
thinks  it  was  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox, 
and  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Gibbens  this 
correction  is  made. 


Industrial, 


Development 
Department 


What  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  is  Doing  to  Im- 
prove Agricultural  Conditions  Along  Its  Line 

By  J.  C.  Clair,  Industrial  and  Immigration  Commissioner,  in  the  Railway  ^Journal 


T  N  1912  the  Illinois  Central  and  Yazoo 
&  Mississippi  Valley  Railroads  estab- 
lished twelve  demonstration  farms  in 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana  for  the  pur- 
pose of  teaching  the  farmers  the  im- 
portance of  using  scientific  methods  in 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  as  well  as 
diversification  and  rotation  of  crops. 
This  work  was  carried  on  under  the 
supervision  of  a  trained  agriculturist  em- 
ployed by  the  railroad,  and  the  result 
of  the  first  year's  work  was  so  satisfac- 
tory that  the  number  of  farms  has  been 
increased  each  year  until  we  now  have 
thirty-one  demonstration  farms,  employ- 
ing three  agriculturists,  who  devote  their 
entire  time  to  this  work.  These  farms 
are  operated  as  follows  : 

The  railroad  company  enters  into  a 
contract  with  farmers  who  own  land  at 
different  points  along  the  right  of  way, 
to  farm  forty  acres  of  their  land  in  ac- 
cordance with  plans  and  instructions 
given  them  by  the  trained  agriculturists 
employed  by  the  railroad's  industrial  and 
immigration  department.  The  farmer  is 
required  to  agree  to  use  such  seed  and 
fertilizer  and  in  such  quantities  as  may 
be  prescribed  by  the  agriculturists  and 
to  follow  carefully  all  instructions  as  to 
methods  of  soil  preparation,  planting, 
cultivating,  etc.  He,  in  turn,  is  pro- 


tected by  a  guarantee  from  the  railroad 
company  to  make  good  any  loss  caused 
through  failure  of  the  method  pre- 
scribed— i.  e.,  in  case  the  products  of 
the  farm  do  not  equal  in  value  the  ex- 
pense for  seed,  fertilizer,  labor  in  plant- 
ing, cultivating  and  harvesting,  market- 
ing and  fair  rental  on  the  land,  the  rail- 
road company  will  make  good  the  loss 
up  to  a  certain  amount  agreed  upon. 

Since  the  location  of  these  demonstra- 
tion farms  in  1912,  great  strides  have 
been  made  in  diversified  agriculture  in 
the  South,  especially  in  the  localities 
where  these  farms  have  been  operated. 
In  the  early  stages  of  this  demonstration 
work  it  would  have  been  almost  impos- 
sible to  have  induced  the  farmers  and 
planters  to  attend  agricultural  meetings, 
but  this  summer  it  was  decided  to  hold 
farmers'  meetings  on  some  of  these  dem- 
onstration farms,  with  the  result  that  the 
farmers  turned  out  en  masse,  eager  to 
learn  more  about  practical  as  well  as 
scientific  farming.  The  spirit  of  co- 
operation was  manifest  on  every  side,  as 
well  as  a  determination  on  the  part  of 
the  communities  to  bring  about  the  high- 
est agricultural  development  possible. 

Demonstration  Trains — During  the 
last  ten  years  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road has  co-operated  with  the  agricul- 


52 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


53 


tural  colleges  along  its  system  in  the  in- 
terest of  improved  agriculture  by  run- 
ning various  demonstration  trains. 
When  the  boll  weevil  first  appeared  in 
Mississippi,  a  train  known  as  the  "Boll 
Weevil  and  Diversified  Farming  Special" 
was  operated  over  the  lines  of  Missis- 
sippi, co-operating  with  the  Agricultural 
&  Mechanical  College  of  Mississippi. 
The  lectures  were  devoted  mostly 
to  explanation  of  the  best  way.  to  cir- 
cumvent the  boll  weevil  and  advocating 
the  necessity  of  diversification  of  crops. 
These  lectures  were  attended  by  approx- 
imately 10,000  people. 

The  "Mississippi  and  Louisiana  Agri- 
cultural Demonstration  Train"  was  run 
through  various  Northern  states  to  dem- 
onstrate to  the  people  of  the  North  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  agricultural 
possibilities  in  the  states  of  Mississippi 
aand  Louisiana.  This  train  made  163 
stops  and  lectures  were  delivered  to 
40,000  people. 

The  "Louisiana  Farmers'  Demonstra- 
tion Train"  was  run  over  all  the  lines  of 
Louisiana,  and  professors  from  the  Lou- 
isiana State  University  addressed  about 
14,600  people  on  various  subjects  per- 
taining to  improved  agriculture. 

The  "Mississippi  Livestock  and  Agri- 
cultural Special  Train"  was  run  over  the 
lines  in  Mississippi  for  the  purpose  of 
interesting  the  farmers  in  raising  more 
and  better  livestock.  Sixty-five  stations 
were  visited,  with  an  attendance  aggre- 
gating 25,000. 

The  Illinois  Central,  together  with  the 
other  railroads  of  Tennessee,  has  co- 
operated with  the  state  department  of 
agricultrue  in  the  operation  of  two  agri- 
cultural demonstration  trains  over  the 
various  lines  in  that  state.  Every  phase 
of  farming  was  elaborated  upon  by  an 
able  corps  of  lecturers  and  demon- 
strators, and  more  than  500,000  people 
passed  through  the  train  during  the  tour 
of  the  state. 

A  "Special  Dairy  Train"  was  run  over 
the  Illinois  Central's  lines  in  Iowa  in  con- 
nection with  the  Iowa  State  Dairy  Asso- 
ciation. Lectures  were  delivered  on  the 
following  subjects:  Selection  of  dairy 
cattle,  silos  and  silage,  dairy  barn  con- 


struction, feeding,  testing,  breeding. 
Seventy-six  stops  were  made  and  a  total 
of  26,000  people  were  in  attendance. 

The  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment, arranged  for  a  "Reclamation 
Special,"  which  was  run  over  its  lines 
in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
by  illustrated  lectures  what  had  been  ac- 
complished by  the  government  by  stor- 
ing flood  waters  and  digging  dry  ditches 
for  irrigating  the  arid  lands  of  the  West, 
and  what  could  be  accomplished  by  dig- 
ging wet  ditches  to  carry  away  the  water 
from  the  swamp  lands  of  the  South. 

In  running  the  above  trains  the  rail- 
road company  provided  the  equipment 
of  the  trains  and  operated  them  free  over 
the  various  lines.  The  services  of  the 
professors  of  the  colleges  and  other 
speakers  were  furnished  free,  and  the 
colleges  also  provided  the  majority  of 
exhibits.  Representatives  of  the  indus- 
trial and  immigration  department  of 
the  railroad  accompanied  each  of  the 
demonstration  trains  and  had  supervision 
over  same. 

Good  Roads — The  Illinois  Central  was 
the  first  railroad  in  this  country  to  run 
a  "Good  Roads  Train."  Fourteen  years 
ago  this  company,  in  connection  with  the 
National  Good  Roads  Association, 
started  a  campaign  for  the  development 
of  an  interest  in  good  roads  through  its 
territory  south  of  Chicago.  A  special 
train  was  provided,  consisting  of  nine 
cars,  which  were  equipped  with  modern 
road-making  machinery,  and  represen- 
tatives of  the  United  States  government, 
civil  engineers,  as  well  as  road-making 
machinery  experts  accompanied  the 
train.  Conventions  were  held  at  the 
various  towns  visited  between  Chicago 
and  New  Orleans,  and  sections  of  road 
were  built  from  material  on  hand,  and 
at  all  points  where  conventions  were 
held  organizations  were  effected  in  the 
interest  of  the  good  roads  movement. 

In  order  to  demonstrate  the  benefits 
that  would  accrue  to  the  farmer  by  the 
betterment  of  wagon  roads,  and  to  show 
what  could  be  accomplished  with  mate- 
rial close  at  hand,  the  Illinois  Central 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


55 


four  years  ago  had  constructed  a  sample 
mile  of  road  at  three  different  localities 
on  the  system,  one  in  Iowa,  one  in  Illi- 
nois, and  one  in  Louisiana.  The  con- 
struction of  these  sample  miles  of  road 
has  undoubtedly  been  an  incentive  to  not 
only  the  farmers  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  but  to  the  state  and  local  au- 
thorities, to  encourage  the  good  roads 
movement. 

This  company,  through  its  industrial 
and  immigration  department,  has  been 
represented  at  good  roads  meetings  in 
various  parts  of  the,  country  and  has 
taken  active  part  in  such  conventions. 

Prizes  Offered — With  a  view  to  inter- 
esting the  farm  boys  in  improved  agri- 
culture, the  Illinois  .Central  Railroad 
from  time  to  time  offered  various  prizes, 
covering  different  branches  of  agricul- 
ture. For  example,  in  1911,  the  railroad 
had  an  exhibit  at  the  Illinois  state  fair, 
consisting  of  grains,  forage  plants,  vege- 
tables and  fruits.  This  exhibit  was  col- 
lected and  displayed  by  farm  boys  of 
various  counties  traversed  by  our  lines 
in  Illinois,  one  boy  in  each  county  hav- 
ing been  selected  by  the  county  superin- 
tendent of  schools  to  prepare  an  exhibit 
to  be  placed  in  competition  with  those 
from  other  counties.  In  order  to  en- 
courage the  boys  appointed  to  assemble 
these  exhibits,  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company  transported  the  boy  and 
his  exhibit  to  Springfield  and  return, 
furnished  sleeping  quarters  and  meals 
while  at  the  fair,  and  also  gave  $1,000 
in  prizes  for  the  best  exhibits. 

In  the  same  year  the  railroad  company 
offered  prizes  of  thoroughbred  registered 
pigs  to  the  boys  winning  first  prizes  in 
the  corn  club  contests  in  every  county 
traversed  by  its  lines  in  Tennessee,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Louisiana.  The  object  in 
offering  these  thoroughbred  animals  was 
two-fold,  viz. :  to  create  the  keenest  com- 
petition possible  in  the  growing  of  corn 
and  to  awaken  an  interest  in  animal  hus- 
bandry, as  well  as  to  show  them  what 
an  excellent  proposition  the  raising  of 
thoroughbred  corn  and  thoroughbred 
hogs  makes,  by  demonstrating  in  a  prac- 
tical way  that  it  costs  less  to  feed  and 
care  for  one  of  these  thoroughbreds, 
with  infinitely  greater  results,  than  had 


been  derived  previously  with  the  "razor- 
back"  or  "scrub"  pig.  The  following 
year  prizes  were  offered  to  the  corn  club 
boys  who  won  the  pigs  awarded  by  this 
company  the  previous  year  for  the  best 
pair  of  thoroughbred  pigs,  the  offspring 
of  such  prize  animals.  These  prizes  were 
divided  as  follows :  First  prize,  $100 ; 
second  prize,  $50 ;  third  prize,  $25.  Not 
overlooking  the  girls  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, prizes  amounting  to  $300  were 
awarded  by  this  company  last  year  to 
the  various  canning  clubs  in  the  state  of 
Mississippi  for  the  best  county  exhibits 
of  canning  club  work  at  the  Mississippi 
state  fair.  These  prizes  were  to  be 
used  in  the  counties  winning  them  to 
further  promote  the  club  work  therein. 

Creameries — Appreciating  the  impor- 
tance of  the  creamery  industry,  espe- 
cially to  the  farmer,  and  in  order  to 
demonstrate  its  successful  operation,  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  about  a  year 
ago  made  known  to  the  people  along  its 
southern  lines  that  for  any  community 
that  would  guarantee  the  required  num- 
ber of  cows  and  would  construct  an 
up-to-date  creamery  building,  equipped 
with  modern  buttermaking  machinery,  a 
business  manager  would  be  furnished  for 
one  year  at  the  expense  of  the  railroad 
company.  About  the  middle  of  last  No- 
vember two  creameries  were  located,  one 
by  the  citizens  of  Jackson,  Miss.,  known 
as  the  Mississippi  Creamery  Association, 
and  the  other  at  West,  Miss.,  called  the 
West  Co-Operative  Creamery  Company. 
In  both  instances  the  citizens  have  man- 
ifested great  interest  in  this  new  venture 
and  the  business  managers  are  most  en- 
thusiastic over  the  work  and  the  promis- 
ing outlook.  These  managers  were 
selected  with  a  view  to  not  only  handling 
the  buttermaking^  features  of  the  busi- 
ness, but  also  to  co-operate  with  the 
farmers,  aiding  them  in  handling  their 
herds,  discarding  cows  that  are  not  good 
milk  producers,  and  substituting  better 
grades,  advocating  the  use  of  separators 
and  keeping  the  sour  milk  on  the  farm 
for  use  in  feeding  pigs  and  calves,  all 
of  which  increases  the  value  of  the  farm. 
To  show  the  progress  made  by  these 
creameries  in  less  than  one  year,  the 
Jackson  creamery,  in  December,  1914, 


56 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


had  seventeen  cream  patrons  and  made 
1,600  pounds  of  butter,  while  in  July, 
1915,  they  had  200  patrons  and  18,910 
pounds  of  butter  were  made.  The  West 
Creamery  had  53  cream  patrons  in  De- 
cember, and  made  2,340  pounds  of  but- 
ter, while  in  July  they  had  319  cream 
patrons  and  made  20,326  pounds  of 
butter. 


Negotiations  are  now  under  way  with 
several  communities  for  the  establish- 
ment of  new  creameries,  and  with  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  the  bankers  and 
merchants  in  this  important  phase  of 
agriculture,  the  creamery  industry  will 
soon  make  the  southern  Mississippi  Val- 
ley one  of  the  greatest  dairy  districts  in 
the  United  States. 


INTERLOCKING  TOWER,  WINONA,  MISS. 


By  A.   L.  Washington 


Thanksgivin'  day  am  comin' ; 

I  hear  de  white  f oks  say. 
An'  Ise  got  no  tukey 

For  dis  Thanksgivin'  day. 

I'll  write  to  de  Presidint 

An  ax  him  for  de  bird, 
An'  if  he  isn't  got  one 

I  no  he'll  sen'  me  word. 

Dear  Mos   Mr.   Presidint, 

I  do  not  no  your  name ; 
Ise  well,  Mr.  Presidint, 

And  I  hope  you  am  de  same. 

No  Ise  down  in  Dixie, 

Whare  de  money  am  moity  scace 


Not  so  wid  de  white  foks, 
But  wid  dis  nigger  race. 

No  its  mos  Thanksgivin', 

'Bout  it  I  guess  you  is  heard. 

One  favor  Ise  gwinter  ax  you, 
To  send  me  one  little  bird. 

I  think  dey  call  'em  tukey ; 

I  guess  you  call  'em  de  same. 
De  rezon  I  want  a  tukey 

Is  simply  for  a  change. 

Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Presidint ; 

Manda  sends  love,  to. 
Now  if  you  got  no  tukey  to  send, 

A  ten  dollar  bill  will  do. 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Handling  of  Freight  Car  Equipment 

By  Mr.  W.  S.  Williams 


w 


'I EN  glancing  at  the  map  of  the 
Illinois  Central  one  is  immediate- 
ly impressed  with  its  favorable  loca- 
tion for  developing  of  an  enormous 
freight  tonnage,  and  that  the  Trans- 
portation Department  of  this  railroad 
must  be  organized  to  highest  possible 
efficiency  to  protect  the  diversified 
traffic  offered  for  shipment. 

It,  therefore,  must  occur  to  every- 
one who  has  to  do  with  the  distribu- 
tion of  equipment,  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  following  implicity  instructions 
as  issued  by  the  Transportation  De- 
partment, and  those  under  whose  su- 
pervision these  orders  are  to  be  car- 
ried out  must  at  all  times  be  fully  in- 
formed which  way  surplus  cars  are  to 
be  moved. 

On  St.  Louis  Division  we  issue  cur- 
rent instructions  for  the  handling  of 
all  equipment,  in  one  circular,  and  it 
covers  every  class  of  cars  except  those 
appearing  in  GO  40  which  is  issued  by 
the  General  Superintendent  of  Trans- 
portation. When  changes  occur  in  any 
of  the  different  classes,  we  issue  an 
entire  new  circular,  and  find  that  we 
do  not  have  the  confusion  which  was 
experienced  when  we  covered  the 
changes  in  general  orders  by  issuing 
amendments.  This  enables  Train  Mas- 
ters and  others  who  are  out  on  the 
line  to  determine  at  a  glance  whether 
or  not  empties  are  being  moved  in  ac- 
cordance with  instructions. 

The  delay  to  freight  equipment  is 
not  very  often  chargeable  to  the  ship- 
ping point.  The  heavy  tonnage  pro- 
duced on  the  St.  Louis  Division  is  coal, 


and,  of  course,  we  are  very  much  con- 
cerned in  getting  coal  cars  into  the 
mines  and  loaded  cars  started  towards 
their  destination,  /for  in  order  to  allow 
our  mines  to  work  it  is  just  as  essential 
to  remove  the  Ipads  from  the  mine 
tracks  as  it  is  to  place  the  empties  for 
loading. 

In  considering  the  movement  of  coal 
cars,  it  must  be  understood  that  aside 
from  cars  containing  Company  coal  for 
current  use,  very  few  are  made  empty 
on  this  division.  We  must,  therefore, 
depend  upon  those  made  empty  in 
other  territories  in  supplying  the  de- 
mand in  the  coal  field. 

The  first  day  of  October  found  us 
with  1,025  empty  coal  cars  on  the 
Division,  practically  all  placed  in  the 
mine ;  on  the  evejning  of  the  16th,  there 
had  been  loaded  10,084  cars  of  coal  and 
on  October  17th,  at  noon,  every  car 
of  this  coal  was  on  its  way  to  destina- 
tion, and  we  had  on  the  Division  1,150 
empty  coal  cars.  This  demonstrates 
that  practically  none  of  the  10,084  cars 
loaded  were  on  this  division  over  36 
hours.  The  above  figures  show  con- 
clusively that  the  delay  to  equipment 
always  occurs  at  the  unloading  point, 
therefore,  that  is  ;the  field  to  which  our 
efforts  must  be  directed. 

In  the  larger  cities  Commercial  and 
Traffic  Associations  make  it  a  practice 
to  issue  circulars!,  in  time  of  prospec- 
tive car  shortage,  urging  everybody  to 
give  special  attention  to  the  prompt 
unloading  of  cars. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion has  also  of  late  years  made  it  a 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


' 


59 


practice  to  appeal  to  patrons  of  the 
transportation  companies  along  these 
same  lines. 

Whatever  is  to  be  accomplished,  be- 
yond this,  is  left  to  the  Agents  of  the 
railroads  and  Local  Officials,  and 
while  we  always  insist  on  the  prompt 
placing  of  cars,  and  the  strict  enforce- 
ment of  the  car  service  rules,  a  great 
deal  of  missionary  work  can  be  done 
by  showing  a  delinquent  patron  that  it 
is  not  the  $1.00  demurrage  the  railroad 
wants,  but  it  needs  the  car,  that  while 
today  he  is  holding  a  car  an  unreason- 
able length  of  time,  and  depriving 
someone  else  of  being  served,  the  re- 
verse may  be  the  case  next  week  when 
he  will  suffer  the  loss  of  some  business 
simply  because  someone  was  delaying 
the  car  unnecessarily,  which  could 
have  been  applied  on  his  order.  It 
then  devolves  upon  those  who  have 
the  immediate  supervision  of  the  dif- 


ferent districts  to  see  tha;  t  cars  are 
promptly  placed  for  unlo.a  ding,  that 
the  car  service  rules  are  enf«a  'ced  to  the 
letter;  that  cars  which  are  ta  be  moved 
to  loading  points  empty  aras  promptly 
picked  up  each -day  and  a&&  embled  in 
such  trains  at  division  pcriin  ts  as  will 
insure  their  prompt  and  e  conomical 
transportation  to  the  disi;ri  cts  where 
they  are  required  for  lo?kdi.ng;  insist 
upon  car  reports  bein  g~  carefully 
checked  up  each  day,  f  ol  lowing  up 
every  delayed  car  until  i  released;  see 
that  car  orders  are  not  rnflated  and 
that  all  cars  on  hand  at  :  stations  are 
promptly  reported. 

In  this  day  of  keen  con  petition  sen- 
timent does  not  enter  in  to  the  equa- 
tion, but  to  have  the  prop  or  equipment 
at  the  proper  place  at  the  t  jproper  time 
is  the  most  essential  factc  «r  in  securing 
business  for  a  great  ti  ramisportation 
company. 


Former  General  Superintendent  Baxter  of  th.e  Illinois 

Central  Railroad,  in  Addition  to  Being  a    First 

Class  Railroad  Man,  is  Some  Snake  St:ory 

Teller,  as  the  Following  Will  Attest 

Rattler  That  Captured  Outlaws  Serves  as  Coupling  Pin  But  Never  Ag,  lin.  Looked 

the  Same,  Baxter  Says 


"This  world  is  full  of  doubting 
Thomases  and  disbelievers,"  said  R.  W. 
Baxter,  vice-president  of  the  Alaska 
Steamship  Company,  and  of  the  Copper 
River  and  Northwestern  Railroad,  "and 
this  sort  of  thing  makes  it  hard  for  us 
naturalists.  Personally,  I  have  every 
reason  to  bplieve  the  snake  stories  told 
by  the  eminent  and  veracious  naturalists, 
Harry  Lippman,  Barney  McGee  and 
George  Sample. 

"I  believe  McGee's  story  about  the 
snake  that  helped  the  old  prospector  to 
capture  a  band  of  outlaws,  because  I 
happened  to  know  that  very  snake  when 
I  was  running  construction  trains  out 
of  Sheridan,  Wyoming. 

"The  reptile's  name  was  Percy.     Yes, 


I  knew  him  well.  I  met  him  one  day 
down  at  Sheridan,  where  I  was  train 
dispatcher.  Percy  saved  t  he  lives  of  a 
train  crew  for  me  one  tim  e,  and  taught 
me  a  great  lesson  in  the  law  of  evolu- 
tion. Percy  was  a  rattler  when  I  first 
knew  him.  When  I  last  sa.w  him  he  was 
a  boa  constrictor. 

"It  gets  awfully  cold  back  in  Wyom- 
ing in  winter,  and  one  night  as  I  was 
sitting  in  the  telegraph  office  dispatching 
trains  I  heard  a  rattling  ai;  the  door.  I 
opened  it  and  there  was  ^Percy,  shiver- 
ing and  half-frozen.  I  invited  him  in, 
and  he  curled  around  the  stove,  grateful 
for  the  heat  it  afforded.  Br-r-r,  but  it 
was  cold  that  night— -colder  than  any 
weather  encountered  "by  the  great  ex- 


60 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


plorer.  Doctor  Cook  in  his  peregrina- 
tions back  and  forth  from  civilization  to 
the  North  Pole. 

Percy  Dines  on  Chicken 

"I  had  some  fried  chicken  for  mid- 
night lunch,  and  I  saw  Percy  eyeing 
every  mouthful  I  ate.  Finally,  I  threw 
him  a  drumstick  and  he  swallowed  it 
at  one  gulp.  He  was  grateful  for  it, 
too. 

"How  did  he  save  the  lives  of  the 
train  crew?  Well,  it  was  this  way. 
Percy  got  acquainted  with  the  engineers 
and  firemen  and  brakemen.  He  was  es- 
pecially fond  of  a  brakeman  named 
Slipshod  Jones,  and  always  went  out 
with  Jones  on  his  run.  One  summer 
afternoon  when  Percy  was  feeling  good 
he  was  coiled  on  the  forward  end  of  the 
car,  when  suddenly  Jones  gave  a  yell. 

"The  train  was  going  down  hill,  and 
the  couplings  between  the  two  cars 
parted.  The  front  half  began  to  draw 
away.  Jones  yelled  at  the  engineers  as 
he  clamped  down  his  own  brakes,  but  it 
was  too  late.  The  train  was  parted  and 
the  forward  half  of  it  would  have 
smashed  itself  into  a  million  pieces  at 
the  bottom  of  the  grade  if  Percy  had 
not  sprung  to  the  rescue. 

"Like  lightning  he  threw  his  tail 
across  the  breach  that  divided  the  two 
cars,  and  caught  the  brake  of  the  bolt- 
ing car.  He  wound  the  other  end  of 
himself  around  a  stanchion  on  the  for- 
ward end  of  the  rear  car.  The  train  in- 
creased its  speed  to  a  terrific  velocity, 
but  Percy  managed  to  hold  it  together, 
and  with  Jones  screwing  down  the 
brakes  on  the  after  section  it  was  fin- 
ally brought  to  a  stop. 

"But  poor  Percy  must  have  had  an 
awful  time.  He  stretched  and  stretched 
till  he  was  thirty-seven  feet  long.  As 
the  train  gradually  slowed  down  on  the 
level  grade,  Slipshod  Jones  eased  up  on 
the  brakes,  thinking  Percy  would  shrink 


back  to  his  normal  length.  But  he 
didn't.  He  simply  lay  there  sagging  in 
loose  coils  like  a  great  rope,  and  part 
of  him  came  near  getting  under  the 
wheels. 

"Well,  they  took  hold  of  Percy— he 
was  pretty  sick — and  coiled  him  up  on 
a  flat  car  like  a  ship's  hawser  and 
brought  him  back  to  Sheridan.  He  be- 
gan to  eat  at  an  enormous  rate,  and  had 
us  all  broke  buying  things  for  him  to 
gulp  down. 

"Percy  got  fatter  and  fatter.  He 
became  too  big  to  make  a  pet  of  any 
longer,  and  the  neighbors  began  to  miss 
their  chickens  and  dogs  and  sheep  and 
calves.  They  thought  at  first  that  there 
was  a  bunch  of  cattle  rustlers  around, 
but  one  morning  I  found  Percy  in  a 
field  and  the  tail  of  a  steer  was  sticking 
ing  out  of  his  mouth. 

"I  didn't  tell  the  cattle  men  about  it 
or  they'd  have  killed  him.  Wyoming  in 
those  days  was  full  of  men  who  were 
nervous  on  the  trigger  finger  and  they 
were  very  sensitive  about  interference 
with  their  cattle. 

Percy  Vanishes 

"I  was  vexed  at  Percy  and  gave 
him  a  good  call  down.  Somehow,  it 
seemed  to  hurt  his  feelings,  and  he  left 
the  town.  He  disappeared  suddenly.  I 
heard  that  he  went  over  to  another 
county  looking  for  a  newspaper  office, 
but  I  never  saw  him  again. 

"Poor  Percy  was  a  gentle  soul,  and 
it  may  be  that  the  loss  of  his  rattles, 
which  dropped  off  when  he  was 
stretched  into  a  python,  and  the  fact 
that  he  was  no  longer  welcome  at  the 
office,  preyed  on  his  mind  and  he  died 
of  a  broken  heart. 

"I've  often  been  sorry  that  I  was  not 
kinder  to  Percy"' — Baxter  wiped  a  tear 
from  his  cheek — "for  he  was  a  good  old 
snake  in  spite  of  his  appetite." 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


A( 


GENTS,  especially  those  at  the  larg- 
er stations,  state  that  they  do  not  re- 
ceive copies  of  all  over,  short  and  bad 
order  reports  that  are  registered  against 
them  by  the  loss  and  damage  bureau. 

The  rules  require  that  forwarding 
agent  be  furnished  with  copy  of  all  ex- 
ception reports  made  against  shipments 
originating  at  their  stations,  and  these 
should  be  mailed  promptly  in  order  that 
the  forwarding  agent  may  investigate  the 
causes  for  the  issuance  of  the  report 
as  closely  as  possible  to  the  time  the  er- 
ror was  made,  and  it  would  be  well  if  all 
agents  would  look  into  this  at  their  sta- 
tion to  see  if  the  party  whose  duty  it  is 
to  issue  these  reports  understands  that 
the  original  should  be  sent  the  loss  and 
damage  bureau,  one  copy  to  division  su- 
perintendent, the  other  to  the  forward- 
ing agent,  retaining  copy  of  each  report 
in  their  files.  Forwarding  agents,  in 
case  of  wrong  loading  or  improper  stow- 
ing, to  take  up  with  the  party  at  fault, 
listing  the  number  of  errors  against  each 
employe,  thereby  determining  which  car 
needs  attention. 

In  the  case  of  bad  order  reports  being 
issued  against  carload  shipments,  where 
the  indications  are  that  contents  were 
not  loaded  to  withstand  ordinary  trans- 
portation, the  forwarding  agent,  by  con- 
ferriing  with  shippers  no  doubt  can  se- 
cure their  co-operation  with  a  view  of 


having  improved  methods  of  loading 
adopted  by  shippers,  as  they  are  as  much 
interested  as  the  carrier  that  their  ship- 
ments reach  destination  in  good  condi- 
tion. 

These  exception  reports  are  forerun- 
ners of  freight  claims.  The  causes  for 
the  issuance  of  them  must  be  corrected 
if  the  final  figures  of  freight  claim  pay- 
ments are  to  be  reduced,  and  the  for- 
warding agent  is  of  course  working  in 
the  dark  if  he  is  not  furnished  a  copy 
of  these  reports,  giving  him  the  neces- 
sary information.  With  this  informa- 
tion agents  can  keep  the  car  department 
at  their  station  informed  as  to  the  result 
of  inspection  of  equipment. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  very 
few  refused  and  unclaimed  shipments 
found  at  our  stations  upon  which  ship- 
pers have  not  been  notified.  However, 
it  would  seem  that  with  the  instruction? 
that  have  been  given,  and  the  various 
discussions  made  upon  this  important 
subject  that  all  stations  would  be  free  of 
refused  and  unclaimed  shipments,  upon 
which  the  proper  notice  was  not  given 
to  shippers. 

Shippers  appreciate  this  information, 
and  agents  have  proved  that  it  is  a  splen- 
did means  of  securing  prompt  disposi- 
tion for  refused  and  unclaimed  ship- 
ments. 


7 


ENGINEERING 


DEPARTMENT 


til 


Water  Waste 


By  C.  R.  Knowles,  General  Foreman  Waterworks 


AS  an  example  of  what  may  be  ac- 
**  complished  by  a  campaign  against 
water  waste,  the  Illinois  Central  has 
reduced  the  expense  for  city  water 
alone  from  $225,112.94  during  the 
fiscal  year  1913-14  to  $190,438.50  dur- 
ing the  fiscal  year  1914-15,  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  cost  of  city  water  of  $34,- 
673.79.  This  is  a  net  saving,  prac- 
tically all  of  which  has  been  accom- 
plished by  the  elimination  of  water 
waste.  The  expense  for  city  water 
represents  only  about  forty  per  cent 
of  the  total  cost  for  water,  sixty  per 
cent  being  for  water  pumped  by  com- 
pany forces,  consequently  there  has 
been  an  additional  reduction  in  the 
waste  of  water  pumped  by  railroad 
water  stations  and  a  resultant  saving 
that  cannot  be  shown  by  figures. 

The  past  few  years  have  seen 
much  activity  on  the  part  of  water 
works  engineers  towards  the  preven- 
tion of  water  waste.  Many  of  the 
large  cities  have  organized  special  de- 
partments to  conduct  water  waste  sur- 
veys and  look  after  water  losses.  Un- 
fortunately with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions this  activity  has  not  been  felt  on 
railroads,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  railroads  are  among  the  larg- 
est users  of  water. 

Water  is  generally  considered  as 
free  as  the  air  we  breathe  and  much 
of  the  waste  is  due  to  carelessness 
on  the  part  of  employes  who  fail  to 
realize  its  cost. 

This  lack  of  co-operation  due  to 
ignorance  of  the  value  of  water,  some- 
times aided  and  abetted  by  depart- 


mental lines  and  jealousies  causes 
thousands  of  dollars  needless  expense 
to  the  railroad  company.  American 
railroads  consume  daily  approximate- 
ly 1,950,000,000  gallons  of  water  at  a 
daily  expense  of  over  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  These  figures 
should  be  enough  to  convince  almost 
anyone  that  water  is  not  free,  and  that 
a  saving  in  water  is  quite  as  important 
as  a  Saving  in  coal,  oil  or  other  sup- 
plies. It  is  safe  to  say  that  fifteen 
per  cent  of  all  the  water  used  by  rail- 
roads is  waste.  By  waste  is  meant 
that  quantity  of  water  drawn  in  ex- 
cess of  the  amount  actually  required. 
An  employe  who  has  the  interests  of 
the  Company  at  heart  will  not  de- 
liberately destroy  property  or  waste 
supplies,  yet  that  same  employe  will 
often  leave  a  valve  or  faucet  open,  al- 
lowing water  to  waste,  causing  a 
needless  expense  that  could  be  easily 
avoided.  The  opportunities  for  water 
waste  on  railroads  are  many  and  it  is 
within  tne  power  of  every  employe 
to  effect  a  saving  in  this  respect. 

A  few  illustrations  of  the  most  com- 
mon forms  of  waste  will  be  given  with 
the  cost  of  such  waste  and  suggested 
remedies. 

Large  quantities  of  water  may  be 
wasted  in  taking  water  at  tanks  and 
penstocks,  unless  care  is  exercised  to 
properly  spot  the  engine  and  avoid 
overflowing  the  tender.  Not  only 
does  this  cause  a  waste  of  water  but 
it  causes  an  additional  expense  for  re- 
moving ice  from  track  in  winter 
months  and  repairs  to  soft  track  dur- 


63 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


65 


ing  the  summer.  A  conservative  esti- 
mate of  the  total  cost  of  this  waste 
per  annum  is  $60  per  tank  or  5  per 
cent  on  $1,200  and  will  pay  the  inter- 
est and  depreciation  on  the  cost  of 
construction  of  a  new  100,000  gallon 
tank  at  each  station  in  five  years.  The 
remedy  is  to  keep  the  tank  spouts  and 
penstocks  in  proper  repair  and  exer- 
cise due  care  in  taking  water  on  loco- 
motives. 

One  of  the  most  expensive  sources 
of  water  waste  is  at  engine  houses  in 
connection  with  the  use  of  boiler 
washout  hose  and  valves.  The  water 
used  for  washing  locomotives  invari- 
ably has  to  be  handled  twice  to  se- 
cure the  high  pressure  necessary  to 
properly  wash  locomotive  boilers. 
The  average  cost  for  such  water  is  in 
excess  of  ten  cents  per  thousand  gal- 
lons. A  boiler  washout  hose  with  a 
one-inch  nozzle  at  100  Ibs.  pressure 
will  easily  waste  12,000  gallons  of 
water  per  hour  at  a  cost  of  $1:20  to 
$1.50.  This  does  not  take  into  con- 
sideration the  cost  of  heating  water 
where  hot  water  is  used  for  washing. 
This  is  a  very  hard  matter  to  control 
and  results  cannot  be  obtained  except 
through  the  co-operation  of  the  round- 
house force. 

Laws  prohibiting  the  use  of  public 
drinking  cups  have  made  the  bubbling 
drinking  fountain  a  necessity,  but  the 
makeshift  affairs  commonly  con- 
structed of  half  inch  to  one  and  one- 
half  inch  pipe  and  flowing  constantly 
are  an  abuse  to  this  system  of  provid- 
ing drinkino-  water  and  will  waste 
from  $150  to  $350  per  year  for  each 
fountain.  The  actual  amount  of  drink- 
ing water  required  by  a  man  is  about 
one-half  gallon  per'  day.  A  single 
bubbling  fountain  with  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  opening  at  25  Ibs.  pressure  will 
deliver  425  gallons  per  hour,  which 
would  furnish  ample  drinking  water 
for  10,000  men  and  allow  50  per  cent 
waste.  The  only  satisfactory  way  to 
control  this  waste  is  to  restrict  the 
size  of  opening  and  equip  all  fixtures 
of  this  kind  with  self-closing  valves. 

Yard  hydrants  for  sprinkling,  filling 
water  jugs  and  coach  yard  service  also 


cause  a  heavy  waste  of  water.  A  one 
inch  hydrant  of  this  type  will  waste 
from  20  to  30  cents  worth  of  water 
per  hour  or  $5  to  $7  per  day.  Forty 
or  fifty  of  these  hydrants  are  often  in- 
stalled in  a  single  coach  yard  and  as 
there  are  nearly  always  a  number  of 
them  open  and  running  the  loss  is 
enormous.  The  improper  use  of  hose 
for  sprinkling,  washing  coaches,  etc., 
causes  a  great  waste  of  water  that 
may  easily  be  avoided.  To  show  how 
water  may  be  wasted  in  this  manner 
three  illustrations  are  given. 

The  first  shows  a  hose  with  open 
end  and  is  of  practically  no  value  for 
washing  or  sprinkling  as  far  as  effi- 
ciency is  concerned.  The  water  being 
wasted  and  the  cost  is  given  in  the 
following  table : 

1  hour      1,080  gals,  at  $0.10....$  0.108 
10  hours  10,800  gals,  at      .10....     1.08 
300  hours  32,400  gals,  at      .10....  32.40 

The  second  illustration  shows  the 
hose  without  nozzle  and  the  stream 
partially  restricted  by  pressure  of  the 
thumb.  This  stream  is  probably  about 
50  per  cent  efficient  and  will  waste 
water  as  follows : 

1  hour         540  gals,  at  $0.10....$  0.054 
10  hours     5,400  gals,  at      .10....       .54 
300  hours  162,000  gals,  at      .10....  16.20 

The  third  shows  a  hose  properly 
equipped  with  nozzle.  This  stream  is 
doing  the  maximum  amount  of  work 
with  the  minimum  waste  of  water,  the 
water  used  being  as  follows : 

1  hour  180  gals,  at  $0.10....$0.018 

10  hours       1,800  gals,  at      .10 18 

300  hours     54,000  gals,  at      .10....  5.40 

Leaking  or  improperly  adjusted 
valves  in  toilet  flush  tanks  will  waste 
from  $3  to  $50  per  month  for  each 
battery,  depending  on  the  number  of 
fixtures  and  cost  of  water.  A  case 
was  found  recently  where  toilet  fa- 
cilities at  a  large  terminal  were  caus- 
ing a  loss  of  over  $400  per  month.  In 
another  instance  the  loss  was  over 
$150  per  month.  The  trouble  was  cor- 
rected by  cutting  down  the  waste  of 
water  and  the  saving  at  these  two 
points  alone  amounts  to  $10,000  per 
year. 

Wash  basins,   slop  sinks  and  other 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


67 


fixtures  connected  direct  to  sewers 
and  drains  offer  opportunity  for  heavy 
water  losses  and  a  saving  can  be  made 
in  almost  every  instance  by  giving  at- 
tention to  valves  and  faucets,  keeping 
them  in  proper  repair  and  making  it 
a  point  to  see  that  they  are  closed 
when  not  in  use. 

Another  source  of  waste  is  through 
leaks  in  underground  mains.  These 
underground  leaks  are  not  always 
easy  to  detect,  for  there  is  nothing  in 
the  old  saying  that  "leaks  will  always 
show  at  the  surface,"  for  if  the  pipe 
is  laid  in  a  porous  formation  or  near 
sewers  the  water  finds  a  ready  outlet 
without  reaching  the  surface.  The 
presence  of  leaks  of  this  kind  may 
sometimes  be  determined  by  use  of 
the  aquaphone  or  sonoscope  or  by  care- 
fully comparing  the  consumption  with 
the  pumpage  or  meter  readings.  But  lo- 
cating and  repairing  the  leak  is  often  such 
a  difficult  matter  that  one  sometimes 
wonders  whether  it  is  cheaper  to  permit 
the  pipe  to  leak  or  make  repairs. 
However,  this  question  is  easily  an- 
swered. It  always  pas  to  stop  leaks. 
As  an  illustration  of  what  may  be  ac- 
complished by  stopping  underground 
leaks,  the  following  figures  on  the 
work  done  along  this  line  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  in  1910  are  taken  from  the  Ameri- 
can Water  Works  Association  proceed- 
ings of  1911 : 

Waste 

Num-  in  gals. 

ber  per  day 

Abandoned  service  and  taps  leaking  11  305,000 

Iron  services  broken 204  2,438,000 

Lead  services  broken 87  1,202,000 

Wiped  joints  broken 74  710,000 

Couplings  on  services  leaking 18  119.000 

Curb  cocks  leaking 30  85,000 

Taps  blown  out 3  50,000 

Joints  on  mains  leaking 92  1,034,000 

Mains  broken 2  332,000 

Valves  leaking 11  89,000 

6,364.000 

This  included  no  leaks  or  breaks  de- 
tected by  reason  of  water  appearing 
on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  which 
goes  to  prove  that  watching  the  sur- 
face for  underground  leakage  is  a  very 
poor  method  of  locating  waste.  The 
great  majority  of  our  water  mains  are 
underground  and  their  importance  is 
sometimes  lost  sight  of,  but  if  they 
were  brought  to  the  surface  the  real- 
ization of  their  true  condition  would 


doubtless  prove  an  instructive  but 
very  unpleasant  surprise. 

The  saving  effected  in  handling  cin- 
ders with  modern  cinder  pit  facilities 
is  often  destroyed  by  the  waste  of  water 
through  hose  connections.  The  pho- 
tograph shows  an  actual  condition. 
The  waste  is  10  gallons  per  minute, 
600  gallons  per  hour,  14,400  gallons 
per  day.  The  cost  is  $1.44  per  day, 
$10.08  per  week  or  $524.16  per  year. 

Fire  hydrants  are  often  used  for 
drinking  and  other  purposes  with  a  re- 
sultant waste  of  water.  The  illustra- 
tion shows  a  condition  by  no  means 
uncommon.  One  hundred  gallons  of 
water  are  being  wasted  to  secure  per- 
haps a  pint  of  water.  Serving  drink- 
ing water  to,  say,  twenty  men,  by  this 
expensive  method  would  cost  as  fol- 
lows :  A  man  will  require  water  from 
four  to  eight  times  per  day  of  ten 
hours  or  an  average  of  six  times  per 
day,  thus  twenty  men  will  drink  120 
times  a  day  using  this  method  of  se- 
curing their  drinking  water  and  will 
waste  12,000  gallons  while  drinking  five 
gallons. 

A  faucet  may  be  noticed  to  leak,  but 
no  effort  is  made  to  close  the  faucet 
or  repair  the  leak,  for  the  reason  that 
the  possibility  for  loss  is  not  realized. 
The  first  picture  shows  water  leaking 
drop  by  drop: 

15  gallons  per  day     cost  at  $0.10 $0.0015 

105  gallons  per  week  cost  at      .10 015 

5,475  gallons  per  year    cost  at      .10 5475 

The  second  picture  shows  water 
leaking  through  a  one-fourth  inch 
opening: 

13,435  gallons  per  day      cost  at  $0.10...$    1.34 

94,045  gallons  per  week  cost  at       .10...       9.40 

4,890,340  gallons  per  year    cost  at      .10...  489.03 

The  third  picture  shows  water  leak- 
ing through  a  one-half  inch  opening: 

53,568  gallons  per  day     cost  at  $0.10  $        5.35 

374,976  gallons  per  week  cost  at      .10          37.49 

19,498,752  gallons  per  year  cost  at       .10     1,948.75 

While  the  figures  representing  the 
saving  in  water  on  the  Illinois  Central 
and  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley 
Railroads  are  substantial  and  indicate 
that  the  question  of  water  waste  is  re- 
ceiving some  attention,  the  result  is 
not  what  it  should  be  and  with  proper 
co-operation  a  still  further  reduction 
in  the  cost  of  water  may  be  accom- 
plished. 


Hew  to 


It  is  not  tne  Science  or  curing  Disease  so  much  as  me  prevention  of  it 
mat  produces  trie  greatest  god  to  Humanity;  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Health  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teacnin^  people  now  to  live  A  A  A  A  A 

Smallpox — Its  Dangers  and  Prevention 


CMALLPOX  is  largely  a  winter  dis- 
ease.  It  is  the  most  loathsome  of 
all  diseases.  All  writers  concur  in  tes- 
tifying to  the  extremely  high  death 
rate  in  all  countries  occasioned  by 
smallpox  in  pre-vaccination  times,  and 
to  the  consequent  terror  which  its  vis- 
itations everywhere  excited.  In  the 
middle  ages  its  death  roll  could  be 
counted  by  the  millions.  Before  the 
introduction  of  vaccination  a  little 
more  than  a  century  ago,  to  be  exact, 
in  the  year  1796,  the  annual  rate  of 
mortality  from  this  disease  in  England 
and  Wales  alone  was  three  thousand 
in  every  million  of  the  population.  In 
France  about  30,000  people  died  an- 
nually from  the  disease,  and  over 
40,000  in  the  regions  then  ruled  by  the 
Prussian  Monarch.  During  that  time 
it  was  said,  "From  smallpox  and  love 
but  few  escape."  And  even  those  who 
escaped  death  had  to  endure  for  the 
rest  of  their  lives  all  kinds  of  defects 
and  disfigurements  as  a  result  of  this 
frightful  disease.  Smallpox  spares 
neither  high  nor  low,  but  spreads  its 
terrors  in  the  huts  of  the  poor  as  well 
as  the  dwellings  of  the  rich.  It  has 
penetrated  into  the  palaces  of  Kings. 
William  II  of  Orange,  Emperor 
Joseph  of  Austria,  Louis  XV  of  France 
and  two  sons  of  Charles  I  of  England 
all  died  with  this  disease.  Even  our 
beloved  and  much  revered  George 
Washington  was  "seriously  attacked 
by  the  smallpox  during  his  early  man- 
hood while  on  a  visit  to  the  West  In- 
dies." 


Besides  personal  disfigurement,  any 
one  of  the  following  evils  may  result 
from  a  case  of  unmodified  smallpox: 
Death,  blindness,  deafness,  gangrene, 
heart  disease,  insanity,  paralysis,  other 
serious  nervous  diseases,  and  pneu- 
monia. Defects  of  vision  or  total  loss 
of  sight  often  follow  smallpox.  Chil- 
dren are  especially  liable  to  ear 
troubles  which  may  result  in  deafness 
for  life. 

Vaccination 

The  greatest  blessing  ever  conferred 
upon  mankind  was  first  performed  on 
May  14,  1796,  by  Dr.  Edward  Jenner, 
whose  discovery  has  made  his  name 
immortal. 

When  Jenner  was  studying  medi- 
cine at  Sudbury,  England,  a  milk- 
maid made  the  remark  in  his  presence, 
"I  cannot  take  this  disease,  for  I 
have  had  cowpox."  This  remark  is 
said  to  have  created  a  profound  im- 
pression in  the  mind  of  the  young  med- 
ical student  and,  as  aptly  stated,  "It 
may  be  said  to  have  been  the  awaken- 
ing impulse,  which,  after  years  of 
study  and  experiment,  culminated  in 
the  discovery  which  has  conferred  the 
greatest  benefits  upon  the  human 
race."  Strong  as  were  Jenner's  con- 
victions that  he  had  found  a  safe  and 
absolute  preventive  against  the  most 
dreaded  of  all  scourges  which  bade 
fair  to  depopulate  the  world,  he  bided 
his  time  and  conducted  sufficient  inves- 
tigation to  demonstrate,  most  con- 
clusively, the  value  of  his  discovery, 
before  venturing  to  publish  his  obser- 


68 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 
No.  1.    Never  Had  an  Arm  Like  This. 


69 


And  So  Was  Never  Protected  Against  Smallpox! 


vations  to  the  world.  He  says,  "I 
placed  it  on  a  rock  where  I  knew  it 
would  be  immovable  before  I  invited 
the  public  to  look  at  it." 


The  Efficacy  of     -iccination 
There  is  abundant  evidence  pointing 
to  the  marked  reduction  in  the  num- 
ber of  cases  of  smallpox  after  the  in- 


70 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 
No.  2.    Was  Never  Vaccinated. 


He  Did  Not  Believe  in  Vaccination. 


troduction  of  vaccination.  Sweden 
was  one  of  the  first  countries  to  pass 
compulsory  laws  regarding  vaccina- 
tion. For  eight  years  before  this  law 
was  passed  there  were  in  that  country 
1999  deaths  from  smallpox.  After  this 
law  was  passed  and  general  vaccina- 


tion enforced,  from  1802  until  1811, 
there  were  but  623  deaths  in  all  and 
and  from  1812  to  1821  but  133  deaths. 
The  contrast  in  smallpox  mortality 
may  be  expressed  in  another  manner. 
In  the  twenty-eight  years  before  vac- 
cination in  Sweden,  there  died  each 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 
No.  3.     Never  Vaccinated. 


71 


Tenth  Day  of  the  Eruption. 


year  from  smallpox  out  of  each  million 
of  population  2,050  persons ;  during 
the  forty  years  following  vaccination 
out  of  each  million  of  population  the 
smallpox  death  rates  annually  aver- 
aged 158. 

In  Copenhagen,  for  the  half  century 
1751  to  1800,  the  smallpox  death  rate 


was  3,128,  whereas  for  the  next  fifty 
years  it  was  286.  In  Berlin  for  twenty- 
four  years  preceding  vaccination  the 
death  rate  from  smallpox  was  3,422, 
and  for  the  first  forty  years  of  the  vac- 
cination era,  it  was  176.  It  is  thus 
seen  from  the  statistics  above  quoted 
that  after  the  discovery  of  vaccination 


72 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


the  deaths  from  smallpox  were  won- 
derfully decreased  in  every  country  in 
which  this  practice  was  introduced. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  the  opponents 
of  vaccination  that  this  decline  was 
due  to  improvement  in  sanitary  condi- 
tions. It  may  be  conceded  that  such 
improvements  as  better  drainage  and 
sewerage,  freer  ventilation,  purer 
water  supply,  lessened  crowding  in 
dwellings,  and  the  like  would,  by  im- 
proving the  average  individual  health, 
tend  to  lessen  the  fatality  of  all  infec- 
tious diseases,  not  excluding  smallpox. 
But  such  influences  are  totally  inade- 
quate to  explain  the  striking  and  pro- 
gressive decline  in  the  prevalence  and 
mortality  from  smallpox  that  followed 
the  introduction  of  vaccination.  If 
sanitary  improvements  were  respons- 
ible for  the  lessened  mortality  from 
smallpox  why  did  they  not  similarly 
influence  the  mortality  from  measles, 
scarlet  fever  and  whooping  cough, 
which  are  favored  by  the  same  con- 
ditions that  aid  the  dissemination  of 
smallpox?  Smallpox  and  measles  re- 
semble each  other  in  the  sense  that  the 
spread  of  both  diseases  is  not  depend- 
ent upon  any  special  sanitary  defect. 
Unlike  typhoid  fever,  cholera  and  ma- 
laria, their  occurrence  is  influenced  by 
personal  infection  rather  than  any  defi- 
nite vices  of  sanitation.  Measles  and 
smallpox  are  the  most  contagious  of 
all  diseases.  A  momentary  exposure 
of  an  unprotected  person  to  the  infec- 
tion of  smallpox  or  measles  suffices 
for  such  individual  to  contract  the  dis- 
ease. But  according  to  good  author- 
ity smallpox  has  declined  72  per  cent, 
but  the  mortality  from  measles  has 
fallen  only  9  per  cent.  The  death  rate 
from  whooping  cough  has  declined  but 
1  per  cent,  while  the  death  rate  from 
scarlet  fever  has  only  shown  slight  de- 
cline within  recent  years. 

You  Should  be  Vaccinated,  as  It  Is 
Much  Safer 

Better  have  a  slight  sore  on  your 
arm  for  a  few  days  (see  Cut  I)  than  to 
run  the  risk  of  losing  your  life  or  at 
least  being  disfigured  by  such  a  loath- 
some disease. 


Here  is  a  good  looking  man  as  you 
can  see  (Cut  II),  but  he  would  not  be 
vaccinated.  He  did  not  believe  in  vac- 
cination, so  he  got  smallpox,  and  look 
at  his  condition  after  he  was  sick  ten 
days  (Cut  III).  Try  to  estimate  the 
regret  he  feels  because  he  would  not 
submit  to  vaccination.  Even  if  he  does 
not  lose  his  life,  this  man  will  be 
marked  for  life,  to  say  nothing  of  other 
disabilities  that  may  cripple  him,  les- 
sen his  usefulness  and  bring  him  pos- 
sibly to  an  untimely  grave. 

A  little  over  a  century  ago  a  beauti- 
ful woman  evoked  the  wildest  enthus- 
iasm, for  there  were  so  few  women 
whose  faces  were  not  disfigured  by 
smallpox.  Smallpox  was  then  so  uni- 
versal a  disease  that  Ben  Johnson 
wrote  of  it,  "Envious  and  foul  disease, 
could  there  not  be  one  beauty  in  an 
age  and  free  from  thee?" 

It  has  been  said  that  if  an  English- 
man of  the  Eighteenth  Century  were 
to  return  to  life  in  London,  he  would 
be  astonished,  not  so  much  on  account 
of  the  wonderful  progress  made  in  arts 
and  science  within  the  past  one  hun- 
dred years,  as  over  the  absence  of 
pock-marked  faces.  The  telegraph, 
the  telephone,  the  wireless  communi- 
cation, the  buildings  of  the  day,  the 
modern  dress,  the  electric  car,  the 
steam  engine,  would  not  produce  on  his 
retrospective  mind  the  impression  that 
would  be  caused  by  the  absence  of  dis- 
figured countenances  resulting  from 
smallpox.  It  was  the  scourge  of  the 
world,  and  up  to  the  time  of  vaccina- 
tion was  the  most  widely  distributed, 
the  most  frequent  and  most  destructive 
of  all  pestilences.  Beautiful  women, 
equally  as  lovely  as  the  fabled  beauties 
of  the  past,  are  now  to  be  seen  every- 
where, in  the  home,  the  shop,  the  fac- 
tory and  the  street — thanks  to  vaccina- 
tion. And,  thanks  to  vaccination  also, 
the  sight  of  a  smallpox  disfigured 
countenance  is  as  rare  these  days  as 
was  the  sight  of  a  face  not  marred  by 
this  disease  at  the  time  when  George 
Washington,  whose  face  was  also 
pitted,  became  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Continental  Army. 

In   the   march   of   modern   progress 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


73 


toward  the  elimination  of  this  pesti- 
lential disease  from  the  face  of  the 
globe  the  State  of  Kentucky  leads  the 
van.  There  has  been  enacted  in  that 
State  by  statute  and  by  action  of  the 
State  Board  of  Health  a  law  compell- 
ing the  vaccination  of  all  school  chil- 
dren, students,  teachers  and  employes. 
This  practically  includes  the  entire 
population  of  the  State,  and  will  mean 
that  within  a  very  few  years  smallpox 
will  be  stamped  out  of  the  confines  of 


that  State.  This  is  a  most  excellent 
example  for  the  other  States  to  follow, 
and  the  good  results  which  will  be 
brought  into  the  commonwealth  of 
Kentucky  will  in  a  short  time  furnish 
positive  proof  as  to  the  efficacy  and 
safety  of  vaccination  to  prevent  small- 
pox. 


Note:.  Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Illinois 
State  Board  of  Health  we  are  supplied  with 
these  cuts. — Ed. 


Letter  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at  the 
Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Champaign,  111.,  Sept.  24,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 

Chicago. 
Dear  Doctor  Dowdall : 

I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  service  recently  given  me  by 
the  Hospital  Department  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad. 

As  you  know,  last  June  I  became  affected  with  an  acute  inflammation 
of  my  right  eye,  which  rendered  me  entirely  blind  in  that  eye.  Later  the  left 
eye  became  similarly  affected. 

From  the  beginning  of  this  trouble,  I  have  been  under  the  constant  treat- 
ment of  the  Local  Oculist  at  Champaign,  and  the  Chief  Oculist,  at  Chicago. 
Through  the  entire  treatment  I  have  been  the  recipient  of  the  minutest  care 
and  attention  and  at  this  time  my  eyes  are  restored  to  normal  and  I  have  a 
discharge  certificate  permitting  me  to  resume  work. 

I  wish  through  you  to  add  my  boost  for  the  Hospital  Department. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)  C.  A.  BEASLEY, 

Conductor. 


PASSENGER  TRAFFIC  ' 
DEPARIMENT 


Piffle  Talks  with 
the  Rambler 

Service  Notes 
of  Jnterest 


1  .jkv 


Figuring  It  Out 


HP  HE  Rambler  went  duck  shooting 
after  all,  and,  by  a  very  special  dis- 
pensation, I  was  allowed  to  go  with 
him.  Snap  Shot  Bill  begged  to  go,  too, 
but  he  was  peremptorily  turned  down. 
"Don't  want  him  fussing  around  with 
that  kodak  of  his.  He'd  frighten  all  the 
birds  in  two  counties,"  said  the  Ram- 
bler. I,  myself,  at  first  received  scarcely 
any  more  consideration  than  was  given 
Bill  until  I  urged  that  I  wanted  to  hunt 
ducks  as  well  as  did  the  Rambler.  The 
latter  expressed  his  surprise  at  hearing 
me  say  that  I  also  would  hunt,  it  being 
a  revelation  to  him  that  I  ever  dreamed 
of  such  a  thing,  as  he  had  never  heard 
me  mention  it.  Even  then  he  was  de- 
cidedly slow  in  giving  his  consent, 
grumbling  that  I  was  probably  such  an 
amateur  that  the  sport  would  be  spoiled. 
I  explained  to  him,  however,  that  I  did 
not  propose  to  hunt  with  a  shot  gun, 
but  with  an  opera  glass,  saying  that  I 
loved  to  watch  and 'study  the  birds,  and 
that  I  was  in  the  habit  of  doing  so  in 
the  parks  practically  all  the  year  through. 
Then  all  objections  were  removed  on  his 
part,  and  he  gladly  welcomed  my  com- 
pany on  condition  that,  in  my  study,  I 
would  not  go  prowling  around,  but 
would  "sit  tight"  with  him  and  observe 
only  what  came  my  way.  To  this  I 


agreed,  and,  in  due  course,  we  started 
off  for  the  station  where  was  located 
the  agent  with  whom  we  had  recently 
had  the  conversation  in  regard  to  Rail- 
Water  Circle  Tours.  The  day  was  a 
fine  one,  the  Rambler  said,  from  a  duck- 
shooting  point  of  view,  and  we  both  got 
down  to  business  promptly  upon  arrival 
at  our  destination.  We  went  through 
the  usual  selecting  of  position  and  the 
possessing  of  our  souls  in  patience  by 
"watchful  waiting."  The  ducks  were 
plentiful,  and  through  my  opera  glass  I 
had  many  good  opportunities  to  study 
their  movements,  which  to  me  seemed  a 
much  more  pleasant  occupation  than 
lying  in  wait  to  slaughter  them.  But,  not- 
withstanding the  many  opportunities  that 
presented  themselves  to  the  Rambler  to 
obtain  a  good  bag,  and  even  though 
he  popped  away  at  them  it  seemed  to  me 
almost  incessantly  all  the  day,  when 
nightfall  came  he  had  but  three  ducks  to 
show  for  his  pains.  He  said,  at  one 
time  during  the  afternoon,  when  miss- 
ing a  particularly  easy  shot,  that  the 
shells  that  had  been  sold  him  were  "on 
the  bum."  I  know  nothing  about  shells, 
and  perhaps  he  was  right,  but  I  secretly 
held  to  a  different  opinion  as  to  his 
failure. 

At  supper  and  during  the  evening  we 


75 


76 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


were  again  the  guests  of  the  agent,  the 
latter  laughingly  poking  sly  fun  at  the 
Rambler  on  his  lack  of  achievement  dur- 
ing the  day.  "Oh,  well,"  said  the  Ram- 
bler, "I  guess  it's  all  right,  and  as  every- 
thing helps,  those  three  ducks  will  save 
someone  the  cost  of  a  Sunday  dinner." 
We  spent  an  unusually  pleasant  evening, 
chatting  with  the  agent  and  his  wife, 
until,  in  an  evil  moment,  during  a  lull 
in  the  conversation,  I  asked  the  Rambler 
what  that  pamphlet  was  that  was  pro- 
jecting out  from  his  side  pocket.  I  had 
noticed  him  running  over  it  coming 
down  on  the  train,  but  as  at  the  time  I 
was  busy  reading  my  newspaper,  and 
afterwards  forgot  it,  I  had  not  learned 
its  nature  and  was  a  bit  curious  in  th? 
matter,  as  I  thought  it  must  be  some- 
thing more  or  less  interesting,  at  least 
to  him,  to  have  him  carry  it  around  on 
such  an  occasion.  His  face  brightened 
up  at  my  inquiry,  and  he  immediately 
produced  it.  "O,  it's  a  most  interesting 
book  of  statistics,"  he  said.  "The  statis- 
tics of  the  railways  of  the  United 
States  from  1904  to  1914,  issued  by 
the  Bureau  of  Railway  Economics. 
I  think  some  of  its  figures  will  be 
interesting  to  you  all.  Let  me  run 
through  it  for  you."  I  laughed  and  re- 
marked that  some  celebrated  writer  had 
once  said,  in  effect,  that  no  people  in 
the  world  searched  so  eagerly  for  statis- 
tics as  the  Americans,  and  that,  in  the 
writer's  mind,  no  people  so  systemati- 
cally disregarded  them  when  found.  "I 
hope,"  remarked  the  Rambler,  "that  you 
do  not  give  that  as  your  own  opinion.  In 
fact,  in  a  way,  it's  a  slur,  and,  at  least, 
whatever  use  is  made  of  them,  they  are 
oftentimes  mighty  interesting  and  in- 
structive. Take,  for  instance,  this  pam- 
phlet I  have  here,"  and  before  we  knew 
it  he  was  in  the  midst  of  a  dissertation, 
taking  his  varied  topics  from  the  pam- 
phlet as  he  slowly  turned  its  pages. 
"Just  start  here,"  he  began,  "and  see 
what  a  big  country  we  have  to  be  served 
by  the  railroads.  It  gives  the  total  area 
of  the  United  States  as  2,973,890  square 
miles,  and  says  that  its  population  is 
98,781,324  people.  Then,  it  further 
shows  that  the  density  of  our  population 


averages  33.2  people  in  each  square  mile 
of  territory.  Applying  this  to  the  rail- 
roads, we  find  the  population  to  be  399.3 
to  a  mile  of  line,  of  which  353.1  is  the 
population  pe/  mile  of  main  track.  From 
another  point  of  view,  12.02  is  shown  as 
the  square  mile  area  per  mile  of  line, 
while  8.32  is  the  number  of  miles  of  line 
per  100  square  miles  of  area.  The  single 
track  miles  of  line  operated  in  the  coun- 
try are  247,397,  the  figures  for  main  line 
track  miles  operated  being  279,769.  In 
addition,  there  are  97,334  miles  of  yard 
track  and  sidings,  thus  giving  a  mileage 
of  all  tracks  operated  of  377,103.  I 
should  have  called  attention,"  the  Ram- 
bler said  in  an  aside,  "to  the  fact  that 
these  figures  I  have  been  quoting  are  for 
the  year  1914;  the  latest,  and  bringing 
the  entire  matter  practically  up  to  .date. 
As  I  said  at  the  beginning,  the  pamphlet 
gives  similar  figures  for  ten  years  pre- 
vious, but  we  will  consider  only  those 
for  1914.  From  this,"  he  continued, 
hastily  running,  over  and  skipping  many 
pages  of  the  pamphlet,  "it  becomes  a  mat- 
ter of  interest  to  note  the  number  of 
employes  it  takes  to  operate  this  tremen- 
dous mileage,  spread  out  over  such  a 
vast  territory.  Hence,  we  find  that  all 
told,  there  are  1,695,483  employes.  This 
great  army  is  guided  and  directed  by  but 
15,215  general  and  other  officers ;  and. 
while  the  army  is  of  course  divided  into 
various  divisions,  in  all  probability  the 
details  do  not  interest  us  as  passenger 
traffic  representatives,  except  in  a  broad 
way.  We  are,  however,  interested  in 
knowing  that,  included  in  this  large 
number  of  employes  there  are  38,063 
station  agents  and  163,100  other  station 
men.  There  can  be  no  harm  to  note,  in 
passing,  that  the  compensation  for  the 
year  of  the  entire  army  aggregated 
$1,373,422,472 ;  but  possibly  we  need  not 
dwell  on  the  details  of  the  amounts  paid 
to  each  class.  It  might  make  us  feel  as 
though  it  were  a  'sin  to  take  the  money' 
when  we  see  the  average  compensation 
of  such  fellows  as  we  are."  Running 
back  and  forth  over  the  pages,  the  item 
that  next  attracted  the  Rambler  was  the 
statement  that  there  are  53,466  pas- 
senger service  cars  and  64,760  locomo- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


77 


tives  owned  by  the  railroads  of  the 
United  States.  He  remained  silent  for 
a  few  minutes  while  further  scanning 
the  pages,  and  then  began  again,  as 
though  having  made  up  his  mind  as  to 
the  next  phase  of  the  statistics  that  he 
thought  would  appeal  to  us.  "Now," 
he  said,  "after  having  glanced,  in  a  way, 
at  the  magnitude  of  the  physical  aspect 
of  the  great  railway  industry,  it  will,  I 
think,  be  profitable  to  next  note  what  it 
all  means  in  money.  So  we  find  here 
that  the  total  capital  securities  are  $20,- 
247,301,257,  of  which  the  capital  stock  is 
$8,680,759,704,  and  the  funded  debt 
$11,566,541,553.  It  is  significant  in  this 
connection  to  note  that  of  the  total  cap- 
ital securities  outstanding,  but  $4,527,- 
604,332  are  held  in  foreign  countries ; 
the  total  held  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States  being  $15,719,696,925.  While  on 
finance,  here  is  a  group  of  items  that 
naturally  follow  in  sequence  to  what  we 
have  just  gone  over.  That  is,  the  Bu- 
reau shows  the  amount  of  stock-paying 
dividends  to  be  $5,661,738,723.  It  will 
be  remembered,"  he  interpolated,  "that 
we  have  just  seen  that  the  total  stock  is 
something  over  eight  billion  and  a  half. 
There  was  $451,263,197  paid  in  divi- 
dends, and  the  per  cent  of  stock-paying 
dividends  was  65.22;  the  average  rate 
on  dividend-paying  stock  being  7.97  per 
cent,  and  the  average  rate  on  all  stock 
being  5.20  per  cent.  To  pay  these  divi- 
dends, of  course,  means  revenue,  and 
here  I  find  we  have  pages  of  figures  on 
that  subject  of  which  we  will  note  in 
passing  only  that  the  passenger  revenue 
was  $700,403,353,  and  the  passenger  ser- 
vice train  revenue,  including  passenger, 
excess  baggage,  parlor  and  chair  car, 
mail,  express,  milk  and  other  sources  of 
passenger  train  revenue,  was  $855,- 
046,516." 

"All  mighty  interesting,  isn't  it?"  said 
the  Rambler,  addressing  us  collectively, 
with  some  animation,  as  he  prepared  to 
turn  to  still  other  parts  of  the  pamphlet. 
"Yes,"  I  answered  somewhat  slowly, 
"there  is  undoubtly  much  in  what  you 
have  told  us  that  should  at  least  prove 
entertaining  to  both  the  layman  and  the 
professional  railroad  man."  I  must  have 


unconsciously  shown  by  my  tone 
and  manner  a  certain  lukewarmness 
in  the  matter,  notwithstanding  the  na- 
ture of  my  reply,  for  the  agent 
and  his  wife  both  broke  into  a  laugh, 
while  the  Rambler  gave  me  one  of 
his  characteristic  looks.  "Surely,"  the 
latter  said,  "you  must  be  enjoying  it 
to  the  limit."  "It  strikes  me,"  said  the 
agent's  wife,  who  had  really  been  our 
most  attentive  listener,  "that  he  is  try- 
ing not  to  hurt  your  feelings,  Mr.  Ram- 
bler, but  I  really  believe  at  heart  he  is 
a  bit  of  a  Imaum  Ali  Zade."  On  seeing 
the  look  of  inquiry  on  the  Rambler's 
face  and  my  own,  while  the  agent  was 
grinning  broadly,  she  hastened  to  add: 
"Let  me  read  you  something  that  may 
possibly  fit  the  case;  or,  however  that 
may  be,  that  will  intersperse  a  bit  of 
variety."  She  went  into  an  adjoining 
room  and  soon  returned  with  a  book  in 
her  hand,  from  the  index  in  which  she 
was  evidently  trying  to  locate  some  par- 
ticular extract.  While  her  back  had  been 
turned,  however,  the  agent  with  a 
chuckle  said :  "Do  you  know,  that 
woman  reads  everything.  What  is  best 
about  it,  though,  is  that  she  gets  fun  out 
of  it,  and  frequently  from  the  most  un- 
expected quarters.  What  she  is  going 
to  get  is  an  old  almanac  that  she  picked 
up  at  an  auction  with  a  lot  of  other 
books  about  ten  years  ago.  In  fact,  the 
almanac  was  thrown  in  with  the  lot,  and 
no  one  but  she  would  ever  have  gotten 
anything  out  of  it.  But  you  wait,"  he 
concluded,  with  a  wink.  The  lady,  find- 
ing her  place,  said :  "Now,  let  me  read 
you  a  short  extract  from  an  article  on 
statistics  published  way  back  in  this 
American  Almanac  for  1876."  She  then 
read  the  following: 

"  Tn  illustration  of  the  general  in- 
difference, if  not  incapacity,  of  the 
Oriental  mind  for  statistical  science,  take 
the  following  remarkable  letter  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Layard,  the  Oriental  trav- 
eler, and  written  by  a  Turkish  cadi,  in 
reply  to  some  inquiries  concerning  the 
commerce  and  population  of  his  own 
city: 

'  'My  Illustrious  Friend,  and  Joy  of 
My  Liver: 


78 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


"  'The  thing  you  ask  of  me  is  both 
difficult  and  useless.  Although  I  have 
passed  all  my  days  in  this  place,  I  have 
neither  counted  the  houses  nor  have  I  in- 
quired into  the  number  of  the  inhabi- 
tants; and  as  to  what  one  person  loads 
on  his  mules,  and  another  stows  away 
in  the  bottom  of  his  ship,  that  is  no 
business  of  mine.  But,  above  all,  as  to 
the  previous  history  of  this  city,  God 
only  knows  the  amount  of  dirt  and  con- 
fusion that  the  infidels  may  have  eaten 
before  the  coming  of  the  sword  of  Islam. 
It  were  unprofitable  for  us  to  inquire  in- 
to it.  O,  my  soul!  O,  my  lamb!  seek 
not  after  the  things  which  concern  thee 
not.  Thou  earnest  unto  us  and  we  wel- 
comed thee :  go  in  peace. 

"Of  a  truth  thou  hast  spoken  many 
words ;  and  there  is  no  harm  done,  for 
the  speaker  is  one  and  the  listener  is 
another.  After  the  fashion  of  thy  peo- 
ple, thou  hast  wandered  from  one  place 
to  another  until  thou  art  happy  and  con- 
tent in  none.  We  (praise  be  to  God!) 
were  born  here  and  never  desire  to  quit 
it.  Is  it  possible,  then,. that  the  idea  of 
a  general  intercourse  between  mankind 
should  make  any  impression  on  our  un- 
derstandings ?  God  forbid! 

"  'Listen,  O  my  son !  There  is  no 
wisdom  equal  unto  the  belief  in  God ! 
He  created  the  world ;  and  shall  we 
liken  ourselves  unto  him  in  seeking  to 
penetrate  into  the  mysteries  of  his 
creation?  Shall  we  say,  behold  this  star 
spinneth  around  that  star,  and  this  other 
star  -with  a  tail  goeth  and  cometh  in  so 
many  years  ?  Let  it  go !  He,  from 
whose  hand  it  came,  will  guide  and 
direct  it. 

"  'But  thou  wilt  say  unto  me,  stand 
aside,  O  man,  for  I  am  more  learned 
than  thou  art,  and  have  seen  more 
things.  If  thou  thinkest  that  thou  art 
in  this  respect  better  than  I  am,  thou  art 
welcome.  I  praise  God  that  I  seek  not 
that  which  I  require  not.  Thou  art 
learned  in  the  things  I  care  not  for; 
and  as  for  that  which  thou  hast  seen, 
I  defile  it.  Will  much  knowledge  create 
thee  a  double  belly,  or  wilt  thou  seek 
paradise  with  thine  eyes? 

"'O,  my  friend!     If    thou    wilt    be 


happy,  say  There  is  no  God,  but  God! 
Do  no  evil,  and  thus  wilt  thou  fear 
neither  man  nor  death ;  for  surely  thine 
hour  will  come ! 

"  'The  meek  in  spirit  (El  Fakir), 
"  'Imaum  AH  Zade.'  " 

"Yes,  I  guess  he  surely  is  an 
Oriental,"  said  the  Rambler,  nodding  in 
my  direction  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
reading;  and  just  to  pay  him  for  being 
such  I'm  going  to  throw  a  few  more 
facts  at  him  from  this  pamphlet.  Now, 
listen,  everybody.  Under  the  head  of 
Passenger  Traffic  Statistics,  it  says  that 
(as  before,  for  the  year  1914)  the  rev- 
enue passenger  train  miles  of  the  coun- 
try were  over  six  hundred  million  (not 
to  go  too  closely  into  details),  and  that 
the  passenger  train  density,  or  passenger 
train  miles,  per  mile  of  line,  was  2,450, 
while  the  revenue  passenger  car  miles, 
including  passenger,  sleeping,  parlor  and 
observation  cars,  was  2,295,120,978. 
From  another  point  of  view,  the  pas- 
sengers carried  one  mile  were  35,258,- 
497,509.  The  passenger  miles  per  in- 
habitant were  practically  357;  the  aver- 
age journey  per  passenger  was  33.61 
miles,  and  the  average  number  of  trips 
per  inhabitant  was  10.66.  Again,  it  is 
shown  that  the  passenger  density,  or 
passenger  miles  per  mile  of  line,  was 
144,278.  The  passenger  miles  per  pas- 
senger train  mile  (passenger  per  train) 
was  56,  and  the  passenger  miles  per  pas- 
senger car  mile  (passengers  per  car)  was 
15.4.  The  passenger  revenue  per  mile 
of  main  track  was  $2,504.  The  pas- 
senger revenue  per  passenger  train  mile 
was  $1.163.  The  average  receipts  per 
passenger  mile  were  1.982  cents.  The 
passenger  service  train  revenue  per  train 
mile  was  $1.345,  and  the  passenger  ser- 
vice train  revenue  per  mile  of  main  track 
was  $3.056."  He  rattled  all  this  off  for 
the  express  purpose  of  trying  to  mystify 
me,  but  I  was  really  more  interested  in 
it  than  he  imagined,  and  the  agent 
seemed  to  have  thoroughly  enjoyed  the 
whole  matter.  The  Rambler,  however, 
appeared  to  have  talked  as  much  on  the 
subject  as  he  cared  to,  for  he  slipped  the 
book  back  into  his  side  pocket,  as  he 
remarked:  "Of  course,  there  is  much 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


79 


additional  information  here  in  regard  to 
freight  operation,  expense,  and  so  on; 
but  possibly  we  have  had  enough  for  to- 
night." The  agent's  wife,  however,  vol- 
unteered the  statement  that,  to  her  mind, 
while  she  possibly  did  not  understand 
everything  that  had  been  cited,  it  had 
greatly  impressed  her  with  the  enormity 
of  the  railroad  business.  "No  wonder," 
she  concluded,  "that  accidents  sometimes 
occur  on  them."  "Ah,"  said  the  Rambler, 
quickly,  "that  reminds  me  what  the  pam- 
phlet shows  on  that  subject;"  and,  then, 
without  referring  to  the  book,  he  told 
us  that  in  it  were  some  interesting  state- 
ments showing  that,  including  pas- 
sengers, employes  on  and  off  duty,  tres- 
passers and  non-trespassers,  there  were 
but  89,281  persons  killed  and  injured 
during  1914  in  connection  with  the  rail- 
road business,  as  against  113,683  in  in- 
dustrial accidents.  "But  what  is  more 
remarkable,"  he  went  on,  "there  were 
but  85  passengers  killed  in  train  acci- 
dents during  the  year,  while  7,001  were 
injured.  This  in  itself  argues  for  the 
comparative  safety  of  passenger  railway 
travel,  when,  with  7,086  killed  and  in- 
jured, it  is  remembered  that  thirty-five 
and  one-quarter  million  passengers  were 
carried  one  mile." 


We  stayed  with  the  agent  that  night 
and  took  the  morning  train  home.  My 
outing  of  the  day  before  had  rather  tired 
me,  for  I  was  not  used  to  being  out  in 
the  open  for  so  many  continuous  hours, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  incidental  tramp- 
ing that  the  Rambler  subjected  me  to. 
Hence,  it  was  not  surprising  that,  soon 
after  seating  ourselves  in  the  observa- 
tion car  and  finding  the  morning  paper 
of  no  great  interest,  I  feel  asleep.  On 
awakening  I  found  that  the  Rambler  had 
disappeared,  but  I  thought  nothing  of 
that  fact  at  the  time.  Neither  did  the 
necessity  of  looking  him  up  occur  to  me 
as  we  neared  our  destination,  I  suppos- 
ing that  when  the  train  pulled  in  he 
would  join  me  and  we  would  go  to  lunch 
together.  He  did  not  put  in  an  appear- 
ance, however,  even  after  the  train 
reached  the  station;  but  knowing  some- 
thing of  his  erratic  movements  this  made 
no  particular  impression  on  me  as  I 
walked  up  the  platform,  until,  in  the 
distance,  I  noticed  him  through  the 
crowd  carrying,  not  only  his  own  grip, 
but  that  of  a  lady  beside  whom  he  was 
walking.  "Well,"  I  said  to  myself,  "it's 
all  accounted  for.  Unless  I'm  very  much 
mistaken,  that  is  the  Trunk  Lady'  he  is 
with." 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


The  Florida  East  Coast  Hotel  Com- 
pany announces  the  period  of  operation 
of  the  hotels  of  the  system  during  the 
season  of  1915-16  as  follows : 

The  hotels  of  the  Florida  East  Coast 
Hotel  Company  are  all  operated  on  the 
American  plan,  but  in  additien  the 
equipmrnt  of  each  one  includes  an  up- 
to-date  grill  room  with  service  equal  to 
any  demand: 

Ponce  de  Leon — St.  Augustine.  Opens 
Thursday,  January  6,  1916 ;  closes  Mon- 
day, April  3,  1916. 

Alcazar — St.  Augustine.  Opens  Mon- 
day, December  6,  1915 ;  closes  Monday, 
April  17,  1916. 

Ormond  --  Ormond  -  on-the-Halifax. 
Opens  Saturday,  January  8,  1916 ;  closes 
Monday,  April  3,  1916. 


The  Breakers — Palm  Beach.  Opens 
Thursday,  December  23,  1915;  closes 
Saturday,  April  1,  1916. 

Royal  Poinciana — Palm  Beach.  Opens 
Saturday,  Tarfuary  15,  1916;  closes  Mon- 
day, March  27,  1916. 

Royal  Palm — Miami.  Opens  Satur- 
day, January  1,  1916;  closes  Saturday, 
April  1,  1916. 

The  Colonial  -  -  Nassau  (Bahama 
Islands).  Opens  Tuesday,  January  4. 
1916 ;  closes  Monday,  April  3,  1916. 

Royal  Victoria  —  Nassau  (Bahama 
Islands).  Rooms  only.  Opening  to  be 
announced  later. 

Long  Key  Fishing  Camp — Long  Key. 
Opens  Saturday,  January  1,  1916 ;  closes 
Monday,  April  10,  1916. 

For    information    relative    to    other 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


81 


hotels  along  the  East  Coast  of  Florida 
and  at  Nassau,  Bahamas,  and  on  the 
Island  of  Cuba,  see  the  information 
booklet  of  the  Florida  East  Coast  Rail- 
way. 


Co.    The  necessary  arrangements  will  be 
made  for  handling  baggage." 


The  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul 
announces  that  on  Nov.  7th  "The  Colum- 
bian" trains,  17  and  18,  will  leave  Chi- 
cago at  8  :30  a.  m.,  and  that,  in  addition 
to  its  present  equipment,  it  will  operate 
a  standard  sleeping  car  between  Chicago 
and  Portland  via  Spokane  and  the  O.- 
W.  R.  &  N.;  trains  Nos,  11  and  12  of 
the  latter  connecting  with  "The  Colum- 
bian" at  Spokane,  and  carrying  the  sleep- 
ing car  to  and  from  Portland.  Tourist 
sleeping  cars  and  coaches  will  also  be 
operated  between  Spokane  and  Portland 
by  the  O.-W.  R.  &  N.,  in  connection 
with  similar  service  on  "The  Colum- 
bian." 


In  reference  to  its  new  route  to  Port- 
land, Ore.,  via  Spokane,  the  C.  M.  &  St. 
P.  makes  further  announcement  as 
follows : 

"An  optional  route  arrangement  will 
be  authorized  by  the  O.-W.  R.  &  N.  Co., 
under  which  tickets  via  the  C.  M.  &  St. 
P.  Ry.  to  Seattle  thence  O.-W.  R.  &  N. 
Co.  to  Portland  will  be  honored  by  the 
O.-W.  R.  &  N.  Co.  on  their  direct  line 
from  Spokane  to  Portland.  This  op- 
tional route  arrangement  applies  east- 
bound  as  well  as  westbound  and  will  be 
available  on  tickets  to  points  beyond 
Portland.  As  soon  as  practicable  tariffs 
will  be  amended  to  include  the  route  via 
C.  M.  &  St.  P.  Ry.  to  Spokane  thence 
O.-  W.  R.  &  N.  Co.  to  points  on  and  via 
that  line,  but  as  some  time  will  be  re- 
quired to  make  -the  necessary  adjust- 
ment in  tariffs  the  optional  route  ar- 
rangement shown  in  the  foregoing  will 
serve  the  purpose  until  tariffs  can  be 
supplemented.  Under  this  arrangement 
passengers  purchasing  tickets  via  Seattle 
and  the  O.-W.  R.  &  N.  Co.  to  Portland 
and  points  beyond  can  be  assured  that 
on  application  to  conductor  before  reach- 
ing Spokane,  they  will  be  furnished  with 
an  exchange  check  which  will  be  honored 
by  the  conductors  of  the  O.-W.  R.  &  N. 


Mr.  H.  E.  Fry,  general  agent  of  the 
Wolvin  Steamship  Lines,  New  Orleans, 
wrote  our  representative  in  that  city, 
under  date  of  October  21st,  as  follows : 
"I  wish  to  advise  that  we  expect  to 
have  the  steamship  'City  of  Tampico,' 
from  here  to  Vera  Cruz  and  Tampico 
(in  the  order  named),  about  November 
1,  1915.  First  class  fare  is  $50.00,  plus 
$3.00  war  tax;  children  two  to  twelve 
years,  $25.00,  plus  $1.00  war  tax." 

Under  date  of  October  25th  Mr.  Gabe 
Filleul,  general  agent  Mexican  Naviga- 
tion Co.,  also  wrote  as  follows :  "We 
take  pleasure  in  announcing  that  we 
will  have  the  'Steamship  Mexico'  due 
to  sail  from  New  Orleans  to  Vera  Cruz, 
Mexico,  direct,  on  or  about  November 
12th.  This  steamer  was  built  in  1913, 
has  latest  modern  improvements,  in- 
cluding wireless,  and  has  first-class  ac- 
commodations for  about  100  passengers. 
It  is  our  intention  to  keep  this  steamer 
in  the  New  Orleans- Vera  Crub  service, 
with  frequent  sailings,  dates  of  which 
you  will  be  advised  from  time  to  time. 
The  first-class  passenger  fares  are  $50.00 
and  $40.00,  according  to  accommodations 
furnished;  steerage,  $20.00." 

In  the  event  any  passenger  inquiries 
are  received  in  the  above  connection, 
agent  should  take  the  matter  up  prompt- 
ly by  letter  with  the  proper  passenger 
traffic  official  in  his  territory. 


The  Union  Pacific  has  issued  the  fol- 
lowing announcement : 

"The  Union  Pacific  System,  compris- 
ing U.  P.  R.  R.,  9.  S.  L.  and  O.-W.  R. 
&  N.,  has  added  its  weight  to  ticket  re- 
form by  making  one  coupon  good  be- 
tween any  two  points  on  the  system — no 
matter  how  many  of  our  lines  ar,e  trav- 
ersed in  the  journey  between  these  two 
points.  This  will  simplify  the  work  of 
ill  agents,  not  only  on  our  own  lines,  but 
on  all  connecting  lines  from  which  pas- 
sengers are  routed  Union  Pacific  System. 
It  also  will  simplify  the  work  of  gate- 
men,  conductors  and  auditors,  and  will 
help  remove  the  confusion  and  dissatis- 


82 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


faction  with  which  travelers  regard  long 
tickets.  Our  new  short-ticket  arrange- 
ment became  effective  Sept.  1,  1915. 
Until  such  time  as  tickets  are  reprinted, 
the  present  issues  having  separate  cou- 
pons for  each  line  will  be  accepted; 
where  skeleton  tickets  are  used  only  one 
coupon  will  be  necessary." 


The  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul 
announced  the  discontinuance  of  the 
through  standard  sleeping  car  and  chair 
car  operated  on  "The  Denver  Special," 
trains  Nos.  11  and  14-10,  between  Chi- 
cago and  Denver;  but  that  standard 
drawing-room  sleeping  car  will  be  regu- 
larly assigned  to  their  train  No.  11, 
Chicago  to  Omaha.  The  through  Chi- 
cago-Denver equipment  on  "The  Colo- 
rado Special,"  train  No.  19-13,  leaving 
Chicago  10  :45  a.  m.,  and  on  "The  Col- 
orado Express,"  No.  3-15,  leaving  Chi- 
cago at  10:00  p.  m.,  will  be  continued. 
They  also  announced  the  discontinuance 
of  the  standard  and  tourist  sleeping  cars 
formerly  operated  via  Omaha  on  "The 
Portland-Puget  Sound  Express,"  trains 
Nos.  19  and  4-12,  between  Chicago  and 
Portland,  but  that.no  change  in  through 
car  service  will  be  made  to  California 
on  trains  Nos.  19  and  20. 


We  are  advised  that  the  Great  North- 
ern Pacific  Steamship  Co.  announce  that, 
effective  November  26th,  they  will  inaug- 
urate service  between  San  Francisco  and 
Honolulu,  and  will  touch  at  San  Pedro 
and  Hilo.  Rates  to  be,  first  cabin,  $65.00 ; 
second  cabin,  $45.00,  and  steerage, 
$35.00.  For  this  service  the  steamship 
"Great  Northern"  will  leave  San  Fran- 
cisco on  November  26th,  San  Pedro  on 
the  27th,  and  Hilo  December  2nd,  arriv- 
ing Honolulu  December  3d ;  leave  Hono- 
lulu December  6th,  arriving  San  Fran- 
cisco December  llth.  Sailing  from  San 
Francisco  will  be  about  every  twenty 
days  thereafter. 

This  new  service  of  the  Great  North- 
ern Pacific  Steamship  Co.  will  not  inter- 
fere with  their  present  service  between 
San  Francisco  and  Northern  Pacific 
Coast  points. 


from  Chicago,  and  Friday,  November 
12th  from  San  Antonio,  the  Central's 
Chicago-San  Antonio  through  sleeping 
car  service  was  increased  by  the  addition 
of  a  second  sleeping  car  via  New  Or- 
leans in  connection  with  the  Southern 
Pacific  Lines ;  the  car  being  carried  on 
the  Central's  trains  Nos.  1  and  2,  and  on 
the  Southern  Pacific's  Sunset  Mail  No.  7 
westbound  and  Sunset  Express  No.  10 
eastbound.  This  in  addition  to  the 
through  Chicago-San  Antonio  sleeping 
car  on  the  Central's  trains  Nos.  3  and  4 
in  connection  with  the  Southern  Pacific 
Lines  from  New  Orleans. 


Effective  November  6th  the  United 
Fruit  Company  changed  the  schedules  of 
their  New  Orleans-Colon  service  so  that 
the  sailing  days  from  New  Orleans  for 
Colon  via  Havana  and  from  New  Or- 
leans for  Colon  direct,  have  been  re- 
versed. That  is,  ships  for  Colon  via 
Havana  now  leave  New  Orleans  11 :00 
a.  m.  on  Saturdays  instead  of  Wednes- 
days, and  ships  direct  for  Colon  leave  on 
Wednesdays  instead  of  Saturdays.  The 
new  schedules  give  longer  lay-overs  at 
Havana  and  Colon,  a  matter  of  much 
interest  to  the  tourist. 


The  Northern  Pacific  has  announced 
the  discontinuance  of  its  "N.  P.  Lim- 
ited," night  trains  19  and  20,  between 
St.  Paul,  Crookston,  Grand  Forks  and 
Winnipeg,  but  calls  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  operation  of  its  daylight 
trains  between  the  above  points,  "The 
Manitoba  Limited,"  trains  13  and  14, 
will  continue  on  the  same  schedules  as 
heretofore — i.  e.,  leaving  St.  Paul  at 
8:20  a.  m.  and  leaving  Winnipeg  7:30 
a.  m. 


Effective  Wednesday,  November  10th, 


The  Gulf  &  Ship  Island  Railroad 
Company  announces  by  special  circular 
that  the  recent  hurricane  that  ocurred  on 
the  eastern  Gulf  coast  damaged  their 
terminal  property  but  nominally,  so  that 
all  phases  of  their  business  at  Gulfport 
were  maintained  uninterruptedly.  Hence, 
it  desires  to  have  it  understood  that  it 
is  conducting  all  business  of  the  port  as 
usual. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


83 


The  Chicago  &  Northwestern  have 
announced  the  extension  through  to 
Seattle  of  the  standard  sleeping  car  on 
the  "Oregon-Washington  Limited"  for- 
merly running  between  Chicago  and 
Portland  via  the  C.  &  N.  W.  Ry.  and 
Union  Pacific  System. 


The  "Katy  Limited"  of  the  M.  K.  & 


T.  has  recently  changed  time  to  leave 
St.  Louis  for  Dallas,  Ft.  Worth,  Waco, 
Austin,  Houston  and  Galveston  at  9:10 
a.  m.  instead  of  at  9  :25  a.  m. 


The  Union  Pacific  has  announced  the 
discontinuance  of  its  "Denver  Special," 
trains  ll  and  ^4,  between  Omaha  and 
Denver. 


Putting  the  Railroad  on  the  Map 


. . 


PUTTING  the  Illinois  Central  on  the 
map"  is  an  expression  that  has  a 
greater  significance  in  a  city  or  locality 
where  such  an  operation  is  more  difficult 
to  perform.  The  city  of  Indianapolis  is 
a  case  in  point,  where  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral took  over  the  old  Indianapolis  South- 


B.  W.  FREDENBURG,  COMMERCIAL  AGENT. 

ern  and  changed  the  name  without  pomp 
or  ceremony. 

The  Pennsylvania,  Big  Four,  Vandalia, 
Lake  Erie  and  Western  and  Cincinnati 


Hamilton  and  Dayton  being  long  estab- 
lished and  with  large  shop  forces,  most 
of  whom  are  residents  of  the  city,  do 
not  need  to  advertise  the  fact  of  their 
presence,  but  when  you  start  to  talk 
about  the  Illinois  Central  you  might  be 
asked  questions  that  would  make  you 
wish  for  a  sledge  hammer  to  aid  in  sink- 
ing the  fact  in,  once  and  for  all,  that  the 
Illinois  Central  runs  from  Indianapolis 
to  Effingham,  111.,  and  there  connects 
with  the  main  line  for  the  south  and  west 
as  well  as  the  great  northwest. 

Much  has  been  accomplished  in  the 
last  year  or  so  by  a  hearty  co-operation 
of  the  employes  and  representatives  in 
the  different  departments  of  the  Road 
located  in  Indianapolis  and  the  write-up 
in  the  October  issue  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral magazine  showed  thought  fulness  on 
the  part  of  the  management  in  this  di- 
rection. 

The  Daily  Press  of  Indianapolis  has 
furnished  a  medium  for  bringing  the 
Illinois  Central  more  prominently  before 
its  readers,  and  occasionally  articles  re- 
garding improvement  expenditures,  the 
purchasing  of  new  locomotives  and 
equipment  and  comments  on  Annual  re- 
ports of  the  Road  have  been  willingly 
published.  This  is  where  the  shipper 
or  patron  of  the  Road  gets  his  cue,  which 
not  only  results  in  "Putting  the  Railroad 
on  the  map"  but  also  nurses  the  much 
desired  result,  namely,  "Putting  the  I. 
C.  on  the  bill  of  lading." 


lilii  i  iililililililililii  iliil 


tegPtarfcJtJ 


Keep  the  Place  Clean 

By  Win.  Woods,  General   Foreman,  Gwin,  Miss. 


I  DO  not  remember  who  first  said 
"Cleanliness  is  next  to  Godliness." 
I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  knew; 
I  have  heard  that  it  is  a  quotation  from 
the  Bible,  and  various  poets  of  long  ago 
are  credited  with  the  saying. 

My  first  recollection  of  the  words  was  . 
when  my  mother,  using  soap  and  water 
and  a  rough  cloth,  washed  my  neck  and 
ears,  and,  with  my  head  held  firmly 
under  her  arm,  threatening  the  use  of  a 
peach  tree  limb  if  I  did  not  keep  still, 
gave  a  final  pull  at  my  protesting  nose, 
saying:  ."Cleanliness  is  next  to  Godli- 
ness. Nice  little  boys  keep  clean";  and 
releasing  me,  "Run  out  to  play  and  keep 
clean." 

I  did  not  appreciate  the  truthfulness 
of  the  words  then;  in  fact,  I  seriously 
doubted  if  they  were  true. 

Then  ensued  a  period  of  tousled  hair, 
grimy  face  and  torn  trousers,  which  must 
well  nigh  have  run  my  mother  and 
my  teachers  distracted. 

And,  then,  what  boy  has  not  been 
there?  The  dirt,  the  rents  and  unkempt 
hair,  gave  way  to  a  new  desire — trousers 
pressed  and  shoes  shined,  a  tender  beard 
mown  each  day — you  know — 

This  condition  prevailed  for  a  space, 
and  it  was  then  that  I  received  my  first 
promotion — if  promotion  it  could  be 
called — the  title  of  "foreman,"  and  my 
force,  three  coal  heavers  and  two  fire 
cleaners,  upon  a  short  track  back  of  the 
depot. 

My  duties,  keeping  time,  hostling, 
machinist,  boilermaker,  blacksmith,  car- 
repairer  and — foreman. 

With  never  a  thought  about  cleaning 

84 


up,  the  place  presented  an  unkempt  ap- 
pearance, all  debris  which  collects  about 
an  engine  track  was  there ;  still,  my  col- 
lars were  clean  and  my  shoes  polished, 
for  was  I  not  foreman,  with  no  boss 
nearer  than  a  hundred  miles? 

Business  increased  and  a  new  round- 
house was  authorized.  When  it  was 
completed  I  stepped  in  as  foreman. 

I  could  not  be  gotten  along  with  for 
trying  to  keep  clean.  I  washed  the  win- 
dows, and  turned  the  hose  on  to  the  roof, 
scrubbed  the  floor  and  walls;  any  man 
who  fired  an  engine  up  from  under  the 
jack  got  fired.  I  thought  the  place  was 
clean  until  the  "Old  Man"  made  a  trip 
of  inspection.  After  he  had  gone  I  went 
into  my  office  about  ready  to  cry,  took 
a  chew  of  tobacco,  and,  seeing  no  cus- 
pidor, spat  on  the  floor.  I  sat  there  for 
a  long  time,  undecided  whether  to  quit 
or  stay  on  the  job. 

Darkness  came,  and  I  still  sat  with  my 
feet  upon  the  desk,  and  in  my  imagina- 
tion I  thought  that  I  was  the  "Old  Man," 
and  if  I  were  in  his  place  I  would  give 
myself  some  credit  for  trying,  and  after 
awhile  I  was  busv  in  my  imaginings,  fill- 
ing the  office  of  the  "Old  Man" ;  I  had 
just  fired  him  off  the  job  and  he  was 
begging  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  work  as 
hostler,  when  an  engineer  came  rearing 
around  outside,  cussing  about  a  lubricat- 
ing glass  that  had  not  been  put  in.  I 
threw  what  was  left  of  my  chew  into 
the  corner  and  went  out  to  see  what  I 
could  do  about  getting  him  out  without 
an  hour's  terminal.  After  he  was  gone 
I  said  to  myself:  "Well,  as  long  as  I 
have  fired  the  'Old  Man'  and  am  work- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


85 


ing  in  his  place,  I  might  look  around  and 
see  how  things  look." 

I  was  surprised.  Things  that  had  ap- 
peared to  be  alright  to  me  as  foreman 
looked  mighty  bad  to  me  as  the  "Old 
Man,"  and  I  congratulated  myself  that 
I  had  gotten  off  with  only  a  calling 
down. 

I  began  at  once  to  look  at  things  from 
the  viewpoint  of  my  superior,  and  every 
once  in  a  while  would  put  myself  in  his 
place. and  walk  over  the  plant. 

I  found  that  the  hostlers  were  putting 
too  much  coal  on  the  tanks,  allowing  it 
to  fall  off  up  and  down  the  track;  that 
the  firemen  were  shaking  the  grates  and 
dumping  the  pans  before  leaving,  dump- 
ing the  pans  anywhere  from  the  turn- 
table to  the  last  lead  switch.  The  cinder 
pit  men  were  not  getting  the  clinkers 
out  of  the  fire  boxes,  and  the  men  in 
the  house  were  dumping  them  into  the 
pits.  I  found  that  the  holes  in  the  deck 
for  the  draw  bar  pins  were  not  plugged 
and  scattered  coal  up  and  down  the 
track.  The  cinder  cars  had  doors  which 
would  not  fit,  the  men  on  the  job  would 
throw  waste  paper  down  anywhere, 
pinch  bars  and  wrenches,  blocks,  jacks 
and  scraps  were  left  where  they  fell. 

Hostlers  filled  fire  boxes  with  coal, 
leaving  the  engines  stand  beside  the  tank 
or  shop  or  chute,  ruining  the  paint  with 
smoke,  and  his  helper  would  fill  the  boil- 
ers too  full  of  water,  plastering  the  place 
with  soot  when  the  engine  was  moved. 
These  and  many  more  things  I  saw. 

It  required  continual  watching  for  sev- 
eral months  to  drill  the  men  into  keep- 
ing the  place  clean.  When  the  cinder 
pit  men  left  clinkers  in  the  fire  box  I 
would  call  them  up  and  make  them  clean 
the  grates  and  pan  and  then  wheel  the 
clinkers  to  some  distant  point,  thereby 
causing  them  to  do  additional  work,  as 
well  as  being  ridiculed  by  the  other  men. 

When  a  man  threw  waste  or  paper  on 


grounds  I  would  make  him  pick  it  up ; 
sometimes  it  required  half  a  day  to 
locate  the  man,  but  every  man  who 
dropped  trash  had  to  pick  it  up  himself. 
Engineers  who  scattered  orders  had 
them  mailed  to  them,  with  the  request 
that  they  throw  them  in  the  waste  cans 
provided  for  the  purpose.  Every  man 
who  came  on  the  place  had  it  impressed 
on  him  that  he  was  expected  to  keep 
it  clean,  and  there  are  very  few  men 
who  will  not  help  when  they  see  that 
you  are  trying. 

The  section  foreman  is  an  important 
factor,  not  only  in  keeping  the  place 
clean,  but  in  keeping  the  tracks  up; 
there  is  nothing  helps  the  looks  of  the 
place  more  than  straight,  clean  tracks, 
and  with  a  little  policy  and  politeness 
toward  these  men,  they  will  make  a 
smoother,  cleaner  job  and  will  come 
around  oftener  to  see  how  you  are  fixed. 

They  are,  after  all,  most  of  them 
human,  and  may  be  better  men  than  I. 
Then,  there  is  "Old  Henry,"  who  can- 
not take  orders  from  any  one  but  myself. 
He  has  his  wheelbarrow,  scoop  and 
broom,  and  all  he  is  expected  to  do  is 
to  keep  the  place  clean;  after  he  gets 
over  the  roundhouse  and  adjacent 
grounds,  he  gets  his  whitewash  brush 
and  touches  up  the  dark  spots.  There 
is  nothing  helps  more  than  whitewash. 

The  electric  lights  are  kept  wiped  by 
one  man,  whose  duty  it  is  to  work  one 
hour  every  day,  just  washing  the  re- 
flectors. 

The  scattered  coal  and  cinders,  the 
smoked-up  paint,  the  dirty  reflectors, 
represent  a  loss  to  the  company,  and, 
more  important,  perhaps,  betoken  a  con- 
dition that  is  costing  millions  of  dollars, 
carelessness. 

And,  after  all  has  been  said  about 
keeping  the  place  clean,  it  means  but 
one  thing — economy. 


Report  of  Memphis  &  Nonconnah  Joint  Safety  Meet- 
ing, Held  at  Memphis,  Tenn.,  Oct.  6,  1915 

The  following  present: 
W.  H.  Watkins,  Master  Mechanic. 
W.  F.  Lauer,  General  Foreman. 

E.  M.  Diffenbaugh,  Asst.  General  Foreman. 
B.  J.  Feeny,  Traveling  Engineer. 

Geo.  Paul,  Roundhouse  Foreman,  Memphis. 

G.  S.  Gaden,  Roundhouse  Foreman,  Nonconnah. 
H.  Dubowich,  Gang  Foreman   (Car),  Nonconnah. 
J.  R.  Lee,  Tool  Foreman,  Nonconnah. 
J.  B.  Higgins,  M.  C.  B.  Clerk,  Nonconnah. 
T.  W.  Jackson,  Machinist,  Nonconnah. 
C.  C.  Buck,  Machinist,  Memphis. 

C.  W.  Weathers,  Machinist,  Memphis. 
E.  L.  Givens,  Boilermaker,  Memphis. 
S  A.  Smith,  Boilermaker,  Nonconnah. 
F.  Stonier,  Boilermaker,  Nonconnah. 
H.  K.  Wagner,  Blacksmith,  Memphis. 
W.  S.  Kelly,  Blacksmith,  Memphis. 

M.  L.  Flowers,  Blacksmith,  Nonconnah. 
E.  Noltemier,  Tinner,  Memphis. 
J.  Breedlove,  Pipe  Fitter,  Memphis. 

B.  S.  McGinnis,  Mill  Man,  Nonconnah. 
C.  R.  Hodges,  Car  Repairer,  Nonconnah. 
E.  B.  Bateman,  Car  Repairer,  Nonconnah. 
B.  E.  Thomas,  Carpenter,  Nonconnah. 
F.  J.  Theobald,  Chief  Clerk  M.  M. 

\/r  R.  WATKINS  presided  as  temporary  chairman  at  this  meeting,  pend- 
ing reorganization  of  the  Safety  Committee,  and  he  made  a  lengthy  ad- 
dress in  behalf  of  "Safety"  and  endeavored  to  instill  in  the  minds  of  those 
present  the  responsibility  resting  with  each  employe.  He  explained  that 
an  employe  injured,  injures  his  entire  family  by  depriving  them  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  caused  by  injury  depriving  him  of  his  daily  income.  He 
also  apprised  them  of  the  enormous  sums  paid  out  each  year  account  of  per- 
sonal injuries,  not  saying  anything  about  the  suffering  of  those  injured.  He 
appealed  to  the  Committee  to  watch  our  men  and  see  that  they  do  not  place 
themselves  in  dangerous  positions  or  take  chances,  as  this  Company  does 
not  expect  our  employes  to  do  this. 

Ample  supplies  of  safe  trestles  should  be  provided,  car  jacks  kept  in  first 
class  condition,  scaffolds  should  be  put  up  safely,  and  care  should  be  exercised 
in  the  different  yards  where  cars  are  being  inspected  and  oiled,  air  hose  coupled 
and  light  repairs  in  general  made. 

The  rules  covering  the  use  of  blue  flags  and  the  blue  light  practice  must 
be  complied  with  literally,  as  we  have  some  of  our  most  serious  accidents  in 
the  train  yards.  All  machinery  should  be  inspected,  and  those  not  equipped 
with  safety  guards  should  be  equipped  at  once.  The  same  applies  to  belt- 
ing on  all  machinery,  and  pulleys  should  be  inspected  from  time  to  time,  es- 
pecially on  high  speed  machines  in  the  Planing  Mill,  to  avoid  damage  to  ma- 
chinery and  injuries  to  persons  in  the  building,  as  it  is  the,  duty  of  each  en> 

86 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  87 

ploye  to  protect  and  safeguard  his  fellow  workmen  and  leave  nothing  undone 
to  prevent  injuries. 

When  recommendations  are  made  by  any  employe  in  behalf  of  "Safety," 
immediate  action  should  be  taken,  and  if  the  recommendation  warrants,  it 
should  be  handled  for  improvement  without  delay. 

Statement  of  Personal  Injuries  by  Shops 

The  Master  Mechanic  had  just  received  a  statement  from  the  Chief  Claim 
Agent,  showing  the  number  of  personal  injuries  by  shops  and  by  Divisions, 
which  was  read  and  analyzed  for  the  benefit  of  the  Committee.  Chairman, 
Mr.  Watkins,  expressed  hopes  that  Memphis  Shops  would  rank  among  the 
first  in  future  months,  and  also  expressed  his  desire  that  this  statement  would 
be  sent  us  monthly,  as  they  are  very  instructive  and  give  the  Safety  Com- 
mittee an  idea  what  other  shops  are  doing  to  prevent  personal  injuries.  While 
on  this  subject,  I  might  mention  that  there  were  several  of  our  General  Super- 
intendent Motive  Power's  Circulars,  accompanied  by  statements  showing  per- 
sonal injuries  by  shops  and  the  various  causes,  read.  These  statements  were 
also  found  to  be  very  instructive,  and  they  were  turned  over  to  the  Safety 
Committee.;  also,  future  reports  will  be  turned  over  to  this  Committee  when 
received. 

Shop  Tools 

Inquiries  were  made  as  to  conditions  of  shop  tools,  especially  small  hand 
tools,  and  the  Committee  was  told  that  there  had  been  considerable  improve- 
ment in  the  maintaining  of  shop  tools  during  the  past'  few  months.  Hand 
chisels  and  hammers  are  in  better  condition,  and  very  few  are  now  seen  with 
"Sunflower"  heads.  The  Chairman  of  the  Nonconnah  Safety  Committee  told 
the  members  that  jacks  are  being  properly  lubricated  now  and  in  better  repairs 
than  he  had  ever  seen  them.  He  also  stated  that  a  supply  of  good,  substan- 
tial trestles  and  ladders  are  being  made  and  placed  in  convenient  places 
throughout  the  yard. 

Stacking  Lumber 

Attention  was  called  to  the  dangerous  practice  of  stacking  lumber  in 
stacks  too  high  and  too  narrow.  This  practice  is  considered  very  dangerous 
and  the  Division  Storekeeper  was  notified  to  reduce  the  height  of  lumber 
stacks.  Attention  was  also  called  to  some  improperly  stacked  car  sills  that 
were  stacked  in  high,  narrow  stacks,  and  the  Nonconnah  Safety  Committee 
ordered  the  height  of  stacks  reduced,  which  was  done  immediately. 

Protruding  Nails 

The  Committee  was  told  of  the  danger  of  protruding  nails  lying  on  the 
ground  promiscuously  where  car  sidings  and  planks  are  torn  from  car  and 
left  lying  on  the  ground,  thereby  endangering  workmen  by  stepping  on  them. 
Instructions  were  issued  to  General  Foremen  to  see  that  the  yards  are  kept 
clear  and  clean  of  rubbish  and  remove  it  as  fast  as  it  is  torn  from  cars,  to 
avoid  danger  of  employes  stepping  on  exposed  nails. 
Loose  Material  Placed  on  Cab 

It  was  reported  that  some  caps,  throttle  boxes,  bolts,  nuts,  etc.,  are  being 
removed  and  put  on  roof  of  cab,  too  near  edge,  until  such  time  as  they  are 
needed.  On  account  of  the  danger  of  these  rolling  off  and  striking  employes, 
the  Committee  was  instructed  to  watch  this  and  caution  careless  employes 
working  on  top  of  engines. 

Heaping  Coal  on  Engine  Tenders 

The  Committee  was  instructed  to  watch  for  locomotives  being  coated  at 
Memphis  and  Nonconnah  and  report  any  engine  noticed  with  coal  piled  too 
high,  which  is  liable  to  roll  off  and  strike  the  head  of  some  passerby.  Coal 
should  not  be  allowed  to  hang  over  the  edge  of  tank  at  any  time.  The  Com- 


88  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

rnittee  was  also  instructed  to  talk  to  enginemen,  explaining  to  them  the  dan- 
ger when  taking  coal  on  the  road. 

Address  by  Mr.  Feeny 

Mr.  Fenny  was  called  upon  to  address  the  Safety  Committee  and  he  made 
a  very  instructive  talk  in  the  interest  of  "Safety."  He  told  them  he  was 
glad  to  see  that  the  "Safety  First"  interest  has  taken  such  deep  root.  For 
the  benefit  of  the  new  members,  he  pointed  out  the  many  improvements 
and  safety  devices  that  have  been  installed  in  .each  Department,  and,  in  his 
opinion,  the  dangers  that  used  to  prevail  are  now  entirely  eliminated,  and 
could  see  no  excuse  for  any  one  becoming  injured.  All  machinery  and  belts 
are  safe-guarded,  signs  throughout  the  shop  warning  employes  of  danger- 
ous machinery  where  same  cannot  be  prevented,  and  yet,  it  is  surprising 
how  many  careless  employes  are  deliberately  walking  into  danger. 

He  suggested  that  close  co-operation  is  necessary  between  the  Safety 
Committee  and  the  employes  in  general.  He  explained  that  there  is  no  use  for 
jumping  on  and  off  trains  while  in  motion,  or  riding  in  dangerous  places  on 
trains  when  it  is  not  necessary,  which  is  often  practiced  by  thoughtless  people. 
Tinkering  with  the  hidden  danger  of  electricity  is  another  dangerous  practice, 
and  employes  should  never  attempt  to  handle  wires  or  metal  with  elec- 
trical appliances,  but  instead  they  should  call  an  electrician  who  knows  the 
danger.  The  placing  of  torpedoes  on  the  rail  is  another  dangerous  practice, 
as  the  explosion  of  a  torpedo  is  likely  to  result  seriously  to  any  one  happen- 
ing to  be  near. 

In  his  closing  remarks  he  told  the  Committee  he  hoped  to  be  present  at 
all  meetings  in  the  future,  and  would  assist  in  every  way  possible  to  help 
a  good  cause. 

Address  by  Mr.  Lauer 

Mr.  Lauer  made  an  enthusiastic  talk  and  brought  out  several  discussions 
that  were  very  beneficial  to  the  members.  He  told  those  present  that  the 
Safety  Committee  deserved  great  credit  for  what  they  had  done  in  the  past, 
as  it  was  by  their  suggestion  and  recommendation  that  Memphis  and  Non- 
connah  was  made  as  safe  as  it  is.  He  coincided  with  Mr.  Feeny  in  his  re- 
mark that  the  Safety  Committee  are  not  working  close  enough  with  the  em- 
ployes. The  Safety  Committee  should  especially  work  hand  in  hand  with 
the  Foremen,  and,  with  the  aid  of  the  Foremen,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about 
the  results  that  can  be  accomplished.  He  suggested  that  a  committee  of  two 
or  more  of  the  Safety  Committee  investigate  each  personal  injury  and  make 
a  fair  and  impartial  report  of  all  injuries  of  any  importance,  and  state  plainly 
whether  due  to  defective  machinery,  defective  tools,  bad  floor,  or  whatever 
the  cause  may  be. 

In  addition  to  this,  he  told  the  Chairman  he  would  instruct  his  Foremen 
to  frequently  call  employes'  attention  to  any  dangerous  practices,  and  would 
ask  t'hat  co-operation  be  encouraged  by  employes  not  placing  themselves  in 
dangerous  positions.  On  account  of  a  number  of  our  regular  Safety  Com- 
mittee having  resigned  and  their  places  not  filled  he  suggested  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  Safety  Committee.  After  some  discussions,  the  following  perma- 
nent Safety  Committee  was  appointed,  having  been  selected  from  the  dif- 
ferent Departments,  and  consisting  of  the  most  conservative  members : 

W.  T.  Waters,  General  Chairman. 
MEMPHIS  COMMITTEE 

E.  Noltemier,  Tinner,  Chairman. 

C.  W.  Weathers,  Machinist. 
S.  A.  Smith,  Boilermaker. 
E.  M.  Gray,  Painter. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  89 

W.  R.  Lewellen,  Pipe  Fitter. 
H.  K.  Wagner,  Blacksmith. 
J.  King,  Eng.  Dispatcher  (Night). 

Tom  Lemser,  Coachman  (Poplar  St.,  Day). 
Frank  Shock,  Coachman  (Poplar  St.,  Night). 
A.  R.  Castles,  Interchange  Inspector. 
H.  J.  Culleman,  Car  Repairer. 
H.  T.  Skelton,  Storekeeper. 
H.  Lickey,  Electrician. 
H.  J.  Riddell,  Clerk. 
NONCONNAH  COMMITTEE  * 
W.  B.  Higgins,  Clerk,  Chairman. 
X.  E.  Jackson,  Machinist  (Day). 
M.  L.  Flowers,  Blacksmith. 
A.  Hall,  Machinist  (Night). 
W.  G.  Conway,  Millman. 
B.  Thomas,  Carpenter. 
G.  M.  Carter,  Carpenter. 
M.  E.  Hager,  Car  Repairer. 
C.  Jarrett,  Painter. 

E.  W.  Williams,  Car  Inspector  (Day). 
_M.  F.   Bell,  Car  Inspector   (Night). 

W.  M.  Donaldson,   Car  Inspector   (Night). 

R.  L.  Ray,  Car  Inspector  (Night). 

It  will  be  noted  from  the  above  that  this  committee  has  been  selected  from 
employes  in  the  various  Departments,  both  day  and  night,  which  includes 
employes  in  the  Mechanical,  Transportation,  Electrical  and  Store  Depart- 
ments, and  they  have  been  instructed  to  meet  once  each  month,  or  more  often, 
at  time  and  place  selected  by  the  General  Foreman. 

There  being  no  further  business  to  discuss,  the  meeting  adjourned. 


Appointments  and  Promotions 

Effective  November  15,  1915,  Mr.  Lawrence  A.  Downs  is  appointed 
General  Superintendent  of  the  Lines  South  of  the  Ohio  River,  with  office  at 
New  Orleans,  La.,  vice  Mr.  Lewis  W.  Baldwin,  resigned  to  accept  service 
with  another  Company. 

Effective  November  15,  1915,  Mr.  Thomas  E.  Hill  is  appointed  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Kentucky  Division  with  office  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  vice  Mr. 
Lawrence  A.  Downs,  promoted. 

Effective  November  15,  1915,  Mr.  George  E.  Patterson  is  appointed  Super- 
intendent of  the  Louisiana  Division  (except  New  Orleans  Terminal)  with 
office  at  McComb,  Miss.,  vice  Mr.  Thomas  E.  Hill,  transferred. 

Effective  November  15, 1915,  Mr.  Frank  T.  Mooney  is  appointed  Terminal 
Superintendent  of  the  New  Orleans  Terminal,  which  will  be  operated  sep- 
arately from  the  Louisiana  Division. 

Effective  November  15,  1915,  Mr.  Joseph  W.  Hevron  is  appointed 
Superintendent  of  the  Springfield  Division,  with  office  at  Clinton,  111.,  vice 
Mr.  George  E.  Patterson,  transferred. 

Effective  November  15,  1915,  Mr.  Charles  A.  Phelan  is  appointed  Train 
Master  of  the  Chicago,  Bloomington,  Pontiac  and  Tracy  Districts,  and  Gil- 
man  Line,  with  office  at  Kankakee,  111.,  vice  Mr.  Joseph  W.  Hevron,  pro- 
moted. 


the 


Commerce  News 


Complaint  that  Illinois  Central's 
service  is  too  efficient. — There  was 
tried  in  July,  briefed  recently,  and 
there  is  to  be  argued  orally  on  No- 
vember 15th  the  complaint  of  certain 
coal  operators  in  Alabama  (ICC  Doc. 
7702),  wherein  the  principal  conten- 
tion of  the  complainant  coal  operators 
and  certain  roads  extending  from  Ala- 
bama to  Mississippi  is  that  the  Illi- 
nois and  Kentucky  roads  hauling  coal 
from  mines  in  those  states  to  Missis- 
sippi and  elsewhere,  violate  the  law 
because,  judged  by  distance,  they  do 
not  charge  enough  for  the  good  serv- 
ice they  render,  and  that  consequently 
the  coal  market  for  Alabama  pro- 
ducers and  roads  has  been  curtailed. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Illinois  and 
Kentucky  carriers  contend  that  water 
competition,  and  market  competition 
coupled  with  carriers'  competition  in 
the  consuming  territory,  are  such 
forceful  factors  in  limiting  the  meas- 
ure of  the  present  rates  on  coal 
from  southern  Illinois  and  western 
Kentucky  that  the  element  of  distance 
is  not  so  important  as  it  would  be  but 
for  these  competitive  conditions;  that 
when  competition  enters,  distance 
fades ;  that  the  extent  to  which  a  car- 
rier shall  lower  its  rate  to  meet  an- 
ticipated competition  is  a  matter  pri- 
marily for  its  decision ;  that  carriers 
operating  from  Illinois  and  Kentucky 
were  incorporated  to  do  business  as 
common  carriers  and,  among  other 
things  to  haul  coal  to  Mississippi  and 
elsewhere  for  those  who  choose  to  em- 
ploy them ;  that  if  they  ceased  to  com- 
pete for  such  traffic  to  such  extent  as 
to  exclude  mines  on  their  lines  from 


shipping  coal  to  said  territory  or  to 
exclude  consumers  there  from  the  use 
of  said  coal,  they  would  be  omitting 
to  do  one  of  the  things  for  which  they 
were  created,  and  that  they  have  a 
right  to  meet  this  competition  under 
existing  conditions. 

How  car  shortage  may  be  avoided. — 
The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
urges  co-operation  of  shippers  and 
carriers,  as  shown  in  the  following  ex- 
cerpt from  its  circular: 

"Informal  complaints  to  the  Com- 
mission indicate  that  the  annually  re- 
curring failure  of  transportation  fa- 
cilities known  as  'car  shortage'  is  again 
appearing.  The  Commission  urges  on 
all  shippers  and  all  carriers  that  close 
attention  to  methods  of  loading,  un- 
loading, moving, 'and  promptly  return- 
ing to  use  the  cars  now  available  will 
go  far  toward  making  the  present  sup- 
ply of  cars  sufficient  for  all  purposes. 

"In  order  that  the  business  of  the 
country  may  go  forward  without  in- 
terruption, the  Commission  urges 
shippers,  both  individually  and 
through  their  associations,  to  co-oper- 
ate to  secure  the  prompt  and  full  load- 
ing of  cars  and  their  prompt  release. 
One  of  the  chief  causes  of  failure  of 
car  supply  in  past  seasons  has  been 
the  unnecessary  detention  of  cars  by 
careless  shippers  and  by  shippers 
using  them  for  storage  purposes.  In 
the  general  public  interest,  shippers 
should  endeavor  to  release  cars  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment  without  re- 
gard to  the  free  time  given  by  the 
tariffs. 

"All  the  efforts  of  the  shippers  will 
be  unavailing,  however,  unless  the 


90 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


91 


carriers  also  use  extraordinary  meas- 
ures to  eliminate  all  delays  chargeable 
to  them.  The  failure  of  car  supply  is 
usually  a  failure  of  car  movement. 
The  congestion  of  terminals  is  the  ever 
present  feature  at  times  of  such  fail- 
ure. The  Commission  therefore  urges 
carriers  to  make  every  possible  en- 
deavor to  improve  their  methods  of 
operation  of  terminals  in  order  that 
cars  may  move  promptly.  Also  com- 
pany material  should  be  unloaded  with 
the  same  despatch  that  is  required  of 
shippers. 

"The  Commission  is  moved  to  make 
this  appeal  by  its  desire  to  save  both 
shippers  and  carriers  from  the  losses 
which  are  occasioned  by  failures  of 
car  supply,  and  by  its  knowledge  that 
measures  such  as  are  here  suggested 
to  have  operated  in  past  seasons  to 
save  all  concerned  from  heavy  losses." 

Fertilizer  advance  sustained.  —  In 
harmony  with  the  advanced  import 
rates  on  fertilizer  sustained  in  West- 
ern Rate  Advance  Case,  35  ICC  479, 
the  Commission  has  recently  sustained 
the  advanced  domestic  rates  from  the 
Gulf  ports  to  St.  Louis  from  $3.40  to 
$4.00  per  ton  with  corresponding  ad- 
vances to  Cairo,  Chicago  and  other 
points. — Fertilizer  and  Fertilizer  Ma- 
terials from  New  Orleans,  36  ICC 
247. 

Reparation  in  discrimination  cases. 
— In  a  discrimination  case,  the  meas- 
ure of  damage  is  not  the  difference 
between  the  two  rates  but  is  a  fact 
that  must  be  proved  with  the  same 
definiteness  as  would  warrant  a  judg- 
ment in  a  court  of  law.  (Gilmore  vs. 
C&NWRCo.,  36  ICC  226,  opinion  by 
Mr.  Commissioner  Clark,  October  12, 
1915.) 

In  the  case  of  Louisville  &  N.  R.  Co. 
v.  Chambers,  178  S.  W.  1101,  the  Court 


of  Appeals  of  Kentucky  decided  that 
where  the  car  of  a  railroad  company 
ran  off  a  switch  and  crashed  through  a 
fence  in  the  front  yard  of  plaintiff's  res- 
idence, and  when  the  plaintiff  woke  up 
he  found  his  head  between  the  rods  of 
his  bed,  without  any  explanation  of 
how  it  got  there,  the  railroad  company 
was  not  liable  for  any  injuries  caused 
to  plaintiff  by  getting  his  head  through 
the  opening.  The  court  distinguished 
the  case  of  a  man  who  acts  unwisely 
when  put  in  sudden  peril,  and  says: 

"But  in  the  instant  case  there  was 
no  apparent  or  seeming  peril,  render- 
ing reasonably  and  apparently  neces- 
sary a  choice  of  means  of  extrication 
therefrom  and  action  upon  that 
choice ;  nor  is  it  made  to  appear  that 
appellee  made  any  such  choice,  or 
acted  thereupon.  True,  there  came  in 
the  night  time  a  loud  crash  at  the  front 
of  his  residence  and  a  scream  from  his 
wife;  but  the  noise  of  that  crash  and 
that  scream  were  all  that  could  pos- 
sibly have  come  to  appellee's  senses. 
He  saw  no  seeming  peril ;  he  is  not 
here  insisting  that  he  sought  to  avert 
any  seemingly  impending  danger  and 
was  thereby  injured;  he  only  knows 
that  he  awoke  in  the  night  to  find  his 
neck  entwined  in  the  cool  embrace  of 
the  rods  at  the  head  of  his  bed.  How 
or  when  he  got  in  that  position  he  does 
not  pretend  to  know.  For  aught  the 
record  shows,  he  may  have  been  nest- 
ling in  that  snug  caress  for  some  time 
before  the  crash  of  the  car  or  the 
scream  of  his  wife  aroused  him  to  the 
stern  realities  of  his  peculiar  situation ; 
or  he  may  have  been  awakened  by  the 
crash,  and,  while  in  a  semi-conscious 
condition,  have  become  so  entangled ; 
or  he  may  have  been  awakened  by  the 
scream  of  his  wife,  and  got  in  that  posi- 
tion before  reaching  full  conscious- 
ness." 


Railway  Transportation  in  Illinois 


Synopsis  of  an  Address  of  the  Mr.  Blewett  Lee,  General  Solicitor  of  the  Illinois  Central 

R.  R.  Co.,  at  the  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Illinois 

Bankers'  Association 


In  the  State  of  Illinois  the  railroads 
have  constructed  over  thirteen  thou- 
sand miles  of  line  to  care  for  their 
carrier  business  at  an  investment 
(calculated  for  assessment  purposes 
and  excluding  the  Illinois  Central's 
charter  line)  of  eight  hundred  and 
twenty  million  dollars,  on  which  prop- 
erty taxes  of  seven  million,  eight  hun- 
dred and  forty  thousand  dollars,  this 
including  the  Illinois  Central  charter 
tax,  were  paid  in  1913,  the  latest  avail- 
able year  for  which  figures  could  be 
secured.  They  employ  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  thousand  people  at  an 
annual  disbursement  exceeding  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  million  dol- 
lars. Taking  five  as  the  average  num- 
ber in  a  family,  it  will  thus  readily  be 
seen  that  one  in  every  seven  of  the 
population  of  the  state  is  directly  de- 
pendent upon  them  for  livelihood. 
There  is  no  doubt  but  that  this  indus- 
try is  largely  responsible  for,  and  it- 
self grew  hand  in  hand  with  the  rapid 
development  of  the  resources  of  Illi- 
nois. 

Our  passenger  service  in  Illinois.  I 
believe,  is  about  the  average  for  the 
country,  and  the  journey  itself,  due  to 
block  signals,  improved  equipment  and 
strict  attention  to  business,  has  been 
made  comfortable  and  secure ;  but  the 
rates  we  are  allowed  to  charge  for  all 
of  this  are  very  low  and  in  fact  en- 
tirely inadequate  to  cover  the  cost  of 
the  service  rendered,  much  less  pro- 
vide for  an  investment  return.  In  this 
state,  with  a  population  density  of  491 
persons  per  mile  of  road,  we  are  per- 
mitted to  charge  a  per  mile  rate  of  not 
to  exceed  two.  cents.  Calculations  pre- 
pared for  court  review  in  passenger 
rate  cases  in  many  states  go  to  show 


an  utter  loss  from  the  service  at  such 
a  unit  return.  In  particular,  I  have  in 
mind  statistics  prepared  in  connection 
with  a  proposed  reduction  in  intra- 
state  passenger  rates  in  a  certain 
southern  state,  having  a  population 
density  of  561  persons  per  mile  of  road, 
which  placed  the  actual  cost  of  trans- 
porting one  passenger  one  mile,  with 
a  six  per  cent  return  on  the  invest- 
ment in  property  devoted  to  intra- 
state  passenger  use,  at  3.08  cents,  and 
I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the 
cost  in  Illinois,  with  more  expensive 
terminals  and  far  better  service  and 
facilities,  could  be  shown  to  be  at  least 
as  great.  Recent  Supreme  Court  rul- 
ings also  corroborate  the  confiscatory 
character  of  two-cent  rate  legislation 
and  support  the  theory  that  each  unit 
of  service  should  be  self-sustaining. 
We  inaugurated  a  campaign  for  an  in- 
creased passenger  rate  in  this  state 
this  spring  and  secured  voluminous 
petitions  from  commercial  organiza- 
tions in  support  thereof,  but  the  Leg- 
islature failed  us.  This  propaganda 
was  the  outcome  of  a  direct  suggestion 
from  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission, given  in  the  decision  of  that 
body  in  the  so-called  Eastern  Rate 
Case,  when  the  inadequacy  of  passen- 
ger rates,  although  not  under  discus- 
sion, was  nevertheless  recognized  and 
commented  upon,  and  it  has  come  to 
a  point  when  we  feel  that  we  must 
secure  this  relief  through  some  source 
if  the  present  service  is  to  be  continued 
and  improved. 

I  might  also  refer  to  the  effort  which 
the  railroad  companies  made  to  dimin- 
ish the  fees  required  under  the  law  of 
the  State  of  Illinois  by  which  the  bor- 
rowing of  money  by  railroads  is  taxed 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


93 


at  the  rate  of  $1.00  per  bond.  Owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  railroads  incorpo- 
rated in  Illinois  operate  lines  of  rail- 
road in  many  States,  the  section  of 
the  Public  Utilities  Law  of  this  State 
which  requires  the  approval  of  the 
Commission  before  bonds  are  issued, 
not  only  for  improvements  in  this 
State,  but  for  improvements  anywhere 
upon  the  line,  has  enabled  Illinois  to 
tax  the  improvements  made  in  many 
other  States  of  the  Union.  Large  sums 
of  money  have  been  paid  to  the  State 
of  Illinois  for  the  privilege  of  borrow- 
ing money  to  improve  railroads  in  the 
South  and  West.  In  this  way  the 
State  of  Illinois  is  enabled,  through  the 
railroad  companies,  to  collect  money  at 
the  expense  of  her  poorer  sisters  and 
to  throw  upon  other  States  part  of  the 
expense  of  carrying  on  the  State  Gov- 
ernment of  Illinois.  Theoretically, 
this  statute  is  a  charge  for  ascertaining 
the  propriety  of  issuing  bonds,  but  the 
charge  has  no  proportion  whatever  to 
the  character  of  the  inspection,  and, 
literally,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dol- 
lars are  extorted  by  the  State  on  ac- 
count of  investigations  of  the  simplest 
character.  More  than  a  quarter  of  a 
million  dollars  was  recently  extracted 
from  one  railroad  company  for  the 
privilege  of  putting  its  lines  in  the 
ownership  of  one  corporation,  since  it 
had  the  misfortune  to  have  a  small 
mileage  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  The 
effort  to  temper  by  legislation  the  wind 
to  the  shorn  lambs  was  a  complete 
failure,  for  after  successfully  passing 
both  Houses  the  statute  received  its 
quietus  from  the  Executive  hand,  upon 
the  ground  that  the  State  needed  the 
money. 

The  trouble  with  the  railroads  of  the 
country  is  that  they  are  always  in  pol- 
itics— not  of  their  own  choice  or  will 
— but  for  the  purpose  of  increasing 
the  popularity  of  those  who  are  en- 
gaged in  the  pursuit  of  office.  The 
regulation  of  the  railroads  of  the  coun- 
try is  in  the  hands  of  men  who,  with 
very  few  exceptions,  have  nothing  to 
look  forward  to  except  political  prefer- 
ment. Their  future  lives  depend  upon 
their  being  able  to  obtain  or  retain 


office,  and  the  surest  way  to  lose  office 
is  to  become  unpopular.  For  this  rea- 
son, almost  every  question  which  af- 
fects the  revenues  of  railroad  com- 
panies is  more  or  less  unconsciously 
decided  by  the  question,  "What  will 
the  effect  of  this  be  upon  my  political 
future?"  Any  increase  in  rates  would 
please  the  railroad  companies,  but 
would  displease  the  rate-paying  public. 
Any  decrease  in  rates  would  please 
the  public  and  would  only  displease 
the  railroad  companies.  For  this  rea- 
son, the  pressure  lies  heavily  all  the 
time  upon  the  rates,  and  the  railroad 
companies  are  in  the  position  of  having 
the  amount  of  wages  they  shall  pay 
fixed  by  one  set  of  men,  and  the 
amount  of  rates  they  shall  collect  fixed 
by  another,  over  neither  of  whom  they 
have  any  control.  Many  of  the  men 
who  fix  rates  feel  all  the  time  that  they 
are  taking  their  political  lives  in  their 
hands  if  they  give  the  railroad  com- 
panies any  more  money  . 

The  public  has  reached  a  stage  of 
education  where  it  revolts  at  the  idea 
of  appointing  a  judge  who  is  not  a 
competent  lawyer,  but  it  balks  at  the 
idea  of  appointing  a  railroad  commis- 
sioner who  is  a  competent  railroad 
man.  The  fact  that  he  is  trained  in' 
the  railroad  business  is,  rather,  a  dis- 
qualification for  the  post,  since,  for 
some  mysterious  reason,  he  must  be  an 
enemy  of  the  people.  In  all  seriousness, 
it  is  no  greater  piece  of  folly  to  appoint 
a  judge  who  is  not  a  competent  lawyer 
than  to  appoint  a  railroad  commis- 
sioner who  has  not  had  railroad  ex- 
perience. Why  is  it  essential  that  a 
man  should  know  nothing  about  the 
business  he  is  set  to  rule  over? 

The  great  conflict  in  state  laws  pre- 
scribing working  hours  and  conditions, 
the  number  of  men  in  crews,  the  num- 
ber of  cars  in  trains,  the  details  of  the 
construction  and  equipment  of  cars, 
and  the  like,  make  it  very  evident  that 
in  these  things,  in  which  a  national  uni- 
form rule  is  possible,  power  to  deal 
with  the  situation  should  be  granted  to 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
as  has  already  been  done  for  example 
in  the  matter  of  locomotive  inspec- 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


tions.  There  is  no  sense  in  the  present 
situation,  where,  for  illustration,  train 
crews  have  to  screen  car  windows 
when  the  train  goes  into  one  state,  and 
take  the  screens  off  the  windows  when 
it  goes  into  another.  In  this  day  and 
generation  we  would  laugh  at  the  idea 
of  each  state  putting  on  a  protective 
tariff  against  goods  coming  from  an- 
other state,  but  when  a  railroad  com- 
mission deliberately  undertakes  and 
accomplishes  the  same  thing  by  fixing 
railroad  rates  for  the  purpose,  nobody 
seems  to  notice  it.  The  commerce  of 
this  country  pays  no  respect  to  state 
lines.  The  laws  of  the  land  should  re- 
flect the  business  conditions  of  the 
country  and  a  strong  broom  should  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  to  sweep  away 
these  dams  and  obstructions  which 
are  perpetually  set  up  by  local  authori- 
ties to  impede  and  harass  the  business 
of  the  Nation. 

One  of  the  worst  curses  from  which 
the  railroad  companies  are  suffering 
today  is  the  discordant  orders  of  the 
federal  and  state  railroad  commissions. 
Perhaps  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  has  been  convinced  by  the 
railroad  companies  that  a  certain  in- 
terstate rate  should  be  increased.  The 
action  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  is  immediately  paralyzed 
by  the  state  commission  in  refusing  to 
allow  the  increase  of  a  competing  intra- 
state  rate,  so  that  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  the  state  commission  has 
vetoed  the  act  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission. 

The  experience  of  having  both  the 
state  and  the  federal  governments 
regulate  rates  has  resulted  in  show- 
ing that  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  and  state  commissions 
pull  in  opposite  directions  and  that 
the  state  commissions  pull  one  against 
the  other,  until,  in  the  present  state  of 
the  law,  we  have  confusion  worse  con- 
founded, a  situation  which  has  taken 
away  to  a  great  extent  the  power  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
to  grant  relief,  when  it  is  so  disposed. 
.Forty-eight  states  cannot  regulate 
railroad  finances  with  their  conflicting 


laws  and  independent  commissions. 
The  situation  which  is  rapidly  spring- 
ing up,  by  which  a  half  dozen  state 
capitols  must  be  visited  before  a  rail- 
road company  can  issue  a  bond,  ought 
to  give  place  to  the  single  unified 
management  of  federal  authority  to 
which  the  railroad  companies  could 
turn  and  which  could  bring  to  bear 
upon  delicate  financial  questions  the 
resources  of  expert  aid. 

By  all  means  let  us  have  a  uniform 
policy  as  to  the  issue  of  railroad  securi- 
ties and  let  the  matter  be  in  the  hands 
of  experts  under  the  supervision  of  the 
national  government,  instead  of  the  in- 
efficient and  extravagant  system  which 
prevails  today  in  those  states  which 
have  dealt  with  the  matter  at  all. 

In  1914  the  number  of  miles  of  rail- 
road built  in  the  state  of  Illinois  was 
3.17,  and  the  number  of  miles  of  rail- 
road built  in  the  entire  United 
States  was  only  1,531,80.  The  num- 
ber of  locomotives  built  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada  during  the  year 
1914  (2,235),  was  less  than  half  the 
number  built  during  the  preceding 
year  (5,332).  The  number  of  freight 
cars  constructed  during  the  year  1914 
was  104,541,  while  the  number  in  1913 
was  207,684.  These  figures  include  the 
equipment  built  in  railroad  shops. 

There  are  now  in  the  hands  of  re- 
ceivers 38,749  miles  of  railroads,  hav- 
ing a  capital  stock  and  funded  debt  of 
$2,582,909,413,  which  represents  over 
15  per  cent  of  the  mileage  and  over 
14  per  cent  of  the  total  gross  capitaliza- 
tion of  the  railways  of  the  United 
States.  Not  since  1893  has  so  large  a 
proportion  of  the  railway  mileage  of 
the  United  States  been  in  the  hands  of 
the  courts.  If  the  average  rates  and 
scale  of  wages  were  in  1915  what  they 
were  in  1905,  the  Rock  Island,  Mis- 
souri Pacific  and  M.  K.  &  T.  would 
have  been  able  to  meet  their  interest 
and  have  something  over  for  dividends. 
It  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  years 
immediately  following  the  panic  of 
1907  before  we  find  another  period  in 
which  the  net  income  of  the  railways 
was  not  larger  than  in  1915,  and  this 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  operated 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


95 


mileage  has  increased  18,000  miles 
and  the  net  capital  investment  approx- 
imately $7,300  per  mile  between  1907 
and  1915.  The  return  in  per  cent  upon 
the  capital  per  mile  owned,  has  shrunk 
from  5.74  in  1906-1907  to  4.36  in  1914- 
1915. 

In  1914  the  railways  reported  an 
average  of  1.981  cents  per  mile  for 
carrying  passengers,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  upon  a  great  portion  of 
American  railroads  an  average  fare  of 
2  cents  will  scarcely  pay  operating  ex- 
penses and  taxes.  The  average  return 
from  carrying  a  ton  of  freight  per  mile 
was  7.281  mills,  which  is  a  lower  fig- 
ure than  has  ever  before  been  reached, 
except  in  1899  and  1913. 

In  the  appeal  of  the  railroads  to 
President  Wilson  a  year  ago,  the  sit- 
uation was  put  into  a  nut  shell  as 
follows : 

"The  net  operating  income  of  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States  for  the 
year  ended  June  30,  1914,  was  $120,- 
000,000  less  than  for  the  previous  year, 
or  about  15  per  cent.  The  gross  earn- 
ings for  the  year  were  $44,000,000  less 
than  for  1913 ;  expenses  and  taxes  were 
$76,000,000  more." 

Let  us  now  consider  the  future.  In 
the  year  1915,  obligations  of  railroad 
companies  mature  in  the  aggregate 
amount  of  $581,712,619 ;  in  1916  the  . 
maturities  amount  to  $144,402,238,  and 
in  1917  to  $197,192,638.  These  figures 
you  will  observe  are  simply  the  re- 
funding of  obligations  already  out- 
standing, and  make  no  allowance  for 
borrowings  necessary  for  new  con- 
struction or  improvements. 

When  we  come  to  you  with  our  bond 
issues,  the  very  first  thing  you  ask 
for  is  a  statement  showing  our  net 
earnings.  What  kind  of  a  showing 
will  the  railroad  companies  be  able  to 
make  unless  they  are  permitted  an  in- 
crease of  rates?  Such  a  showing,  I 
fear,  as  will  lead  investors  to  put  their 
money  in  government  or  municipal  se- 
curities and  industrials — anything  in 
fact,  rather  than  a  railroad  bond. 

Whenever  the  government  lays  its 
hand  upon  a  business  and  forcibly 
li-.nits  its  earnings,  a  moral  obligation 


arises  to  see  to  it  that  the  investors 
in  the  business  receive  a  reasonable  re- 
turn upon  their  investment. 

Those  who  are  opposed  to  increases 
in  rates  say  that  other  lines  of  busi- 
ness also  are  showing  poor  returns; 
but  this  is  no  answer,  for  the  state 
compels  the  railroad  companies  to  con- 
tinue their  business  without  reference 
to  their  earnings;  the  work  of  trans- 
portation must  go  on;  there  is  no 
chance  of  warehousing  the  goods  or  of 
shutting  up  shop  and  awaiting  better 
times;  other  lines  of  business 'are  al- 
lowed to  charge  what  their  business 
necessities  demand  and  increase  their 
prices  with  the  increased  cost;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  government  of  the 
United  States  and  the  governments  of 
the  several  states  refuse  to  allow  in- 
creases of  rates  by  the  railroad  com- 
panies except  after  a  hearing  in  which 
the  law  makes  every  presumption 
against  them,  and  they  do  not  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  the  railroad  com- 
panies need  the  money  as  a  sufficient 
reason  why  they  should  have  it. 

The  pressing  need  of  the  railroad 
companies  of  the  United  States  is 
higher  rates.  They  have  already  cut 
their  expenses  to  the  bone  and  put  into 
effect  every  means  of  lowering  the  cost 
of  operation  which  they  have.  They 
have  to  face  a  steadily  rising  tide  of 
prices  for  all  materials  which  they  con- 
sume and  the  steady  increase  of  wages 
under  the  powerful  pressure  of  the 
great  railway  unions  and  the  re- 
curring arbitrations  in  which,  as  the 
manner  of  arbitrations  is,  there  is  al- 
ways a  compromise  .which  increases  to 
some  extent  the  expense  of  the  rail- 
road companies.  They  must  also  look 
upon  a  new  class  of  labor  legislation 
designed  to  create  employment,  such 
as  train  limit  laws,  full  crew  laws,  and 
other  laws  by  which  the  irresistible 
power  of  the  state  is  used  to  compel 
railroad  companies  to  employ  more 
men  than  are  necessary. 

The  important  thing  to  be  realized 
is  that  regulation  does  not  mean 
strangulation  and  that  railroad  com- 
panies cannot  give  good  service  while 
they  are  being  choked.  The  limit  of 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


economy  in  reducing  grades  and  in- 
creasing the  power  to  secure  a  greater 
unit  of  train  loads  is  in  sight,  if  it  has 
not  already  been  reached,  and  the  time 
has  come  when  the  great  American  de- 
sire to  get  something  for  nothing  can- 
not be  gratified,  so  far  as  railroads 
are  concerned.  The  railroads  should 
be  allowed  to  earn  enough  money  to 
encourage  investment  of  new  capital 
when  it  is  needed,  either  to  build  new 
railroads  or  to  improve  existing  lines. 
Any  policy  which  stops  the  building 
of  railroads  in  the  United  States,  con- 
victs itself  of  evil  for  it  strikes  at  the 
commercial  needs  of  the  Nation  in 
the  tenderest  place,  for  how  can  the 
business  of  the  country  be  carried  on 
or  the  country  be  developed  without 
transportation? 

We  are  rapidly  reaching  the  situa- 
tion where  rates  are  made  by  the 
method  of  interminable  law  suits,  and 
a  new  profession  of  commerce  lawyers 
has  arisen,  who  prosper  by  reason  of 
the  conversion  of  an  administrative 
body  into  a  court.  The  delays  inherent 
to  the  present  method  of  rate  making 
prevent  relief  to  the  railroad  com- 


panies. What  we  need  in  our  commis- 
sioners is  less  of  the  judge  and  more 
of  the  traffic  manager.  It  is  just  as 
absurd  to  adopt  the  law  suit  method 
of  fixing  rates  as  it  would  be  to  use 
it  in  fixing  prices  for  current  sales. 

Now  just  a  word  concerning  im- 
provements that  benefit  the  public,  but 
yield  no  adequate  return,  such  as  track- 
elevation,  ornamental  depot  structures, 
and  the  like.  These  improvements,  of 
course,  either  make  for  public  safety 
or  serve  to  gratify  civic  pride,  but  the 
railroad  secures  practically  no  return 
on  the  vast  outlays  increasingly  be- 
coming necessary  in  this  respect.  They 
are  refinements  of  service  whose  carry- 
ing charge,  if  such  expenditures  are 
added  to  capital  account,  must  eventu- 
ally absorb  all  of  the  net  available,  im- 
periling the  value  of  stock  issues.  The 
public  insists  upon  these  things,  and 
insists  upon  first  class  service.  Suf- 
ficient earnings  must  be  allowed  to  pay 
for  them,  all  of  which  makes  clear  the 
necessity  for  additional  revenues  in 
order  to  properly  spread  the  incident 
expense  as  a  tax  on  those  who  thereby 
benefit. 


Some  Things  OLD  and  Some  Things  NEW 
About  TOBACCO 

What  It  Means  in  Traffic  for  the  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  RAILROAD,  Especially 

the  KENTUCKY  DIVISION 


'T^OBACCO  belongs  to  the  order  of 
plants  commonly  known  as  the 
Nightshade  family.  The  aborigines  of 
America  grew  tobacco  long  before  the 
advent  of  the  white  man.  Its  generic 
name  "NICOTIANA"  was  probably 
given  to  it  in  honor  of  JEAN  NICOT, 
French  ambassador  to  Portugal  in  1560. 
Although  this  gentleman  is  credited  with 
the  greatest  service  in  giving  tobacco  its 
official  recognition,  it  was  really  first 
introduced  into  Europe  in  1558  by  Fran- 
cisco Fernandes,  a  physician,  who  had 
been  sent  by  Philip  II  of  Spain  to  in- 
vestigate the  products  of  Mexico. 
NICOT,  however,  on  his  return  to 
France  in  1560  carried  it  to  Catherine 
de  Medici,  the  Queen,  and  the  reception 
it  met  with  from  her  and  other  titled 
personages  gave  it  reputation  and  popu- 
larity. From  Nicot  and  the  Queen  were 
derived  the  titles  "QUEEN'S  HEAT" 
(Nicotiana). 

The  French  give  Sir  Francis  Drake 
the  credit  of  first  carrying  tobacco  to 
England.  However  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
name  will  always,  among  the  English 
speaking  races,  be  linked  with  that  of 
tobacco.  In  1576  he  joined  his  half 
brother,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  in  a  voy- 
age to  North  America.  He  found  to- 
bacco on  the  plantations  of  Virginia  (so 
named  by  Raleigh  in  honor  of  his  Vir- 


gin Queen,  Elizabeth),  and  on  his  return 
to  England,  two  years  later,  introduced 
it  there. 

In  connection  with  this — it  is  stated 
that  while  Columbus  was  the  first  Eur- 
opean to  discover  tobacco  and  that  when 
he  and  his  companions  saw  the  Indians 
smoking  it  and  blowing  the  smoke 
through  their  nostrils,  they  were  as  much 
surprised  as  they  had  been  at  the  first 
sight  of  land.  But  their  surprise  was 
no  greater  than  that  of  Ben  Johnson, 
Beaumont,  Fletcher,  Shakespeare,  et  al., 
when,  one  stormy  night  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  walked  into  the  Mermaid 
Tavern  and,  throwing  pipes  and  tobacco 
upon  the  table,  invited  all  hands  to 
smoke.  Shakespeare  thought  that  it  was 
anticipating  things  a  little  to  smoke  in 
this  world,  and  that  Bacon  should  have 
the  monopoly  of  it;  while  Ben  Johnson 
"the  wonderful  gruff  Johnson"  after  the 
first  pipe  full  or  so  growled :  "Tobacco, 
I  do  assert  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion, is  the  most  soothing  sovereign,  and 
previous  weed  that  ever  our  dear  old 
Mother  Earth  tendered  to  the  use  of 
man.  Let  him  who  would  contradict  that 
most  mild,  but  sincere  and  enthusiastic 
assertion,  look  to  his  undertaker.  Sir 
Walter,  your  health."  Then  every  one 
drained  his  mug's  contents  and  Sir  Wal- 
ter, was  happy  in  the  consciousness  of 


97 


98 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


having  given  something  to  civilized  man 
second    only    to    food.      Poor    Raleigh, 
that  courtly,  grand,  magnanimous  Eng- 
lish  gentleman,    the    regal    favorite    of 
Queen  Elizabeth — afterwards  murdered 
by  King  James,  the  First. 
"Sir  Walter  Raleigh !  name  of  worth, 
.   How  sweet  for  thee  to  know 
King    James,    who    never    smoked    on 
Earth, 

Is  smoking  down  below." 

About  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago  this  Indian  weed  was  first  introduced 
to  civilization  and  now  what  a  wonderful 
item  of  commerce  it  is.  I  have  no  doubt, 
says  Thackeray,  "that  it  is  from  the 
habit  of  smoking  that  the  Turks  and 
American  Indians  are  such  monstrous, 
well  bred  men.  The  pipe  draws  wisdom 
from  the  lips  of  the  philosopher,  and 
shuts  up  the  mouth  of  the  foolish;  it 
generates  a  style  of  conversation,  con- 
templative, thoughtful,  benevolent  and 
unaffected." 

Some  one  has  said  that,  "The  moment 
a  man  takes  to  a  pipe,  he  becomes  a 
philosopher.  It's  the  poor  man's  friend ; 
it  calms  the  mind,  soothes  the  temper 
and  makes  a  man  patient  under  difficul- 
ties. It  has  made  more  good  men,  good 
husbands,  kind  masters,  indulgent  fath- 
ers than  any  other  blessed  thing  on  this 
universal  earth."  Lord  Lytton  said,  "He 
who  doth  not  smoke  hath  either  known 
no  great  griefs,  or  refuseth  himself  the 
softest  consolation,  next  to  that  which 
comes  from  heaven."  There  is  no  com- 
posing draught  like  the  draught  through 
the  stem  of  a  pipe  filled  with  good  "old 
Kentucky"  tobacco.  We  can  puff  away 
our  cares  with  it  when  without  it  they 
remain  an  oppressive  burden  to  exist- 
ence oftentimes.  The  savage  Indians  of 
our  own  dear  land  enjoyed  the  blessing 
of  the  pipe  hundreds  of  years  before 
we  did,  and  to  the  pipe  is  often  ascribed 
the  wisdom  of  their  councils,  and  the 
laconic  delivery  of  their  sentiments.  It 
might  be  well  to  introduce  it  into  our 
Twentieth  Century  Legislative  Assem- 
blies. 

My  Pipe 
"When   love  grows   cool,   thy  fire   still 

warms  me ; 


When    friends   are   fled,   thy   presence 

charms  me. 

If  thou  art  full,  though  purse  be  bare, 
I  smoke  and  cast  away  all  care." 

There  are  fifty  or  more  species  of  the 
genus  Nicotiana,  though  few  of  them 
enter  into  the  commerce  of  the  world. 
The  species  grown  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
the  one  of  chief  importance,  is  Nicotiana 
Tobacum.  There  are  two  or  more  dis- 
tinct types  of  this.  That  grown  in  what 
is  known  as  the  White  Burley  District, 
Eastern  Kentucky,  Virginia,  the  Caro- 
linas  and  some  in  Ohio,  is  of  a  mild 
quality  and  bright  brown  silky  appear- 
ance. This  type  now  supplies  the  do- 
mestic market  with  chewing,  cigarette, 
cigar  and  pipe  tobaccos,  but  the  greater 
part  of  it  is  manufactured  into  chew- 
ing tobacco. 

The  dark  tobacco  district,  including 
western  Kentucky,  part  of  western 
Tennessee,  a  small  area  of  Missouri, 
Southern  Illinois,  and  southwestern  In- 
diana, produces  a  dark  reddish  brown 
heavy  type,  which  is  principally  exported 
to  European  countries. 

Kentucky  and  the  bordering  states 
produce  annually  between  375,000,000 
and  380,000,000  pounds,  or  268,571  to 
271,428  hogsheads  of  1,500  pounds  each, 
more  than  one-half  of  the  production  of 
the  United  States  and  about  one-sixtl; 
of  the  total  production  of  the  world. 
Kentucky  alone  probably  produces  from 
250,000,000  to  300,000,000  pounds  or 
178,571  to  214,285  hogsheads  of  1,500 
pounds  each.  That  grown  in  western 
Kentucky,  dark  tobacco,  sells  in  the  mar- 
kets of  Louisville,  Owensboro,  Hender- 
son, Hopkinsville,  Paducah,  Mayfield, 
etc.,  at  from  six  to  twelve  dollars  per 
one  hundred  pounds.  It  is  of  interest 
to  know  that  the  English  duty  on  that 
exported  to  that  country  in  normal  times 
is  $88.00  per  hundred  pounds  and  now 
during  war  times  is  $132.00  per  hundred 
pounds.  Nearly  all  of  the  European 
countries  have  representatives  or  agents 
at  the  various  Kentucky  tobacco  markets 
buying  for  their  respective  countries  and 
while  all  of  the  tobacco  exported  is 
packed  in  hogsheads  or  tierces,  it  varies 
largely  in  size,  according  to  the  country 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


99 


shipped    to,   the  weight   of  the   package  grown  in  other  countries  is  put  in  the 

running   from  800  to   1,800  pounds.     I  vats  of  this  extract  of  our  Kentucky 

suppose  a  fair  average  of  the  total  is  grown    stems,    to    give    it    body    and 

l.oOO  pounds.  strength,  as  well  as  flavor. 

In  former  years  nearly  all  of  the  ^  ,  .  ,  . 
tobacco  exported  was  stripped  or  ,  Tobacco  1S.  ha™js ted.  >n  thue  FallJ  at 
stemmed  before  it  was  shipped  abroad  ?"*., £t  1S  Puj  ftnde  stlcks  ab°u*  three 
but  now  it  is  shipped  on  the  stem  al-  ,fef  lonS  and  hung  up  on  scaffolds  and 
most  altogether.  Also  formerly  the  left  m  ,the  fields  several  days.  It  is 
tobacco  stems  were  usually  burned  then  taken  to  the  barns  where  r3lls 
(supposed  to  be  worthless)  ;  later  they  are  Put  far  enough  apart  to  permit 
were  ground  up,  mixed  with  some"-  each  end  of  the  stick  holding  the  to- 
thing  else  and  used  for  fertilizing  pur-  bacco  to  be  supported.  The  barns  are 
poses— now  they  have  a  value  of  from  made  with  plenty  of  openings  to  ad- 
twenty-five  to  thirty-five  dollars  per  mit  the  air  and  thus  the  tobacco  goes 
ton.  Some  of  them  are  used  in  the  through  a  process  of  curing, 
manufacture  of  snuff,  from  others  the  That  grown  in  1915  will  be  shipped 
nicotine  is  extracted  and  shipped  to  in  the  Spring  and  Summer  of  1916  and 
foreign  countries  where  the  tobacco  the  winter  of  1916-1917. 

The  Regularity  in  Making  Schedule  and  the  Safety 

and  Comfort  to  Patrons  of  the  "Seminole  Limited" 

Furnishes  a  Theme  for  an  Interchange  of  Letters 

Between  an  Employe  and  His  Pastor 

Rev.  Burke  Culpepper,  Jackson,  Tenn.,  September  27,  1915. 

Jackson,  Tenn. 
Dear  Sir  and  Brother  : 

I  have  been  selected  by  my  co-workers,  men  with  whom  I  have  been 
associated  for  many  years,  men  whom  I  have  learned  to  love,  not  only  as  my 
fellow  workmen,  but  for  their  noble  traits  of  character,  to  thank  you  for  the 
interest  shown  the  different  railroads  and  their  great  army  of  employes. 
The  Companies,  of  which  we  form  a  part,  have  endeavored  in  the  handling 
of  their  trains,  to  arrange  their  movements  after  the  hour  of  the  service.  We 
further  desire  to  say  that  we  believe  you  are  a  man  of  God.  The  interest 
that  you  have  shown  the  Railroad  people  has  accomplished  more  than  will 
ever  be  known. 

You  stated  in  one  of  your  sermons  that  the  Trainmen's  Picnic  was  given 
without  the  use  of  beer  or  whiskey.  This  statement  is  absolutely  correct. 

As  you  go  from  town  to  town,  as  you  preach  from  day  to  day,  we  call 
your  attention  to  the  Seminole,  not  only  as  a  railway  train,  but  the  marked 
inspiration  received  from  its  signal  lights.  White  of  safety;  the  way  is 
clear — Red  for  danger,  that  reminds  us  of  the  many  evils  and  temptations 
that  come  to  our  everyday  life.  You  have  been  a  great  helo  in  many  ways. 
You  have  told  us  many  times,  with  loving  kindness,  the  "Sweetest  Story" 
that  has  ever  been  told.  You  have  mentioned  each  night  the  "Seminole" 
that  plows  its  way  from  Jacksonville,  Florida,  to  Chicago,  Illinois,  in  safety, 
and  you  have  never  failed  to  point  out  the  right  train,  for  the  "Seminole  of 
Life"  that  runs  higher  and  higher,  crosses  over  the  river  under  the  shade 
of  the  trees  where  Stonewall  Jackson  is  resting;  where  Calvary  Stream  is 


100 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


flowing;  where  shouts  are  heard,  "All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name,"  and, 
as  each  one  of  us  alight,  the  welcome  news  will  be  told,  "Jesus  Included 
Me,  Too."  With  loving  kindness, 

(Signed)   R.  F.  PHILLIPS, 

Memphis,  Oct.  1,  1915. 
Capt.  Robt.  F.  Phillips, 
429  E.  Chester  St., 
Jackson,  Tenn. 
My  Dear  Robert: 

Your  kind  letter  is  just  before  me.  You  have  no  idea  how  much  com- 
fort it  is.  I  am  going  to  keep  it  and  put  it  with  my  important  papers.  I 
thank  you  for  every  word  of  brotherliness  and  kindness  that  breathes  in  it. 
God  bless  the  railroad  men  in  Jackson !  God  bless  the  old  Seminole !  I 
think  the  prettiest  picture  of  my  life  is  that  train  passing  by,  waving  her 
red  lights,  ringing  her  bell  and  blowing  her  whistle,  with  5,000  people  salut- 
ing her  by  waving  handkerchiefs.  I  will  see  it  in  my  dreams  and  I  believe 
the  angels  will  kodak  the  picture  and  show  it  in  the  picture  shows  of  Heaven, 
in  gold. 

With  much  love  to  you  and  yours,  I  remain 

Your  friend 

BURKE  CULPEPPER. 


Name 

Lawrence  B.  Flaws 
James  R.  Kane 
John  Smither 
Simon  Ivory  (Col.) 
Michael  L.  Hagerty 
John  U.  Graf 
George  F.  Barker 


Occupation 
Foreman 
Operator 
Engineman 
Sand  Drier 
Painter 
Towerman 
Operator 

Where 
Employed 
Burnside 
E.  Dubuque 
Rantoul 
Canton 
Chicago 
Alhambra 
Lena 

Service 
36  years 
29  years 
35  years 
42  years 
20  years 
23  years 
42  years 

C.  H.  Stickley 


Date  of 

Retirement 

Oct.  31, 1915 

Tune  30, 1915 

Oct.  31, 1915 

Tune  30, 1915 

Aug.  31, 1915 

Sept.  30, 1915 

Oct.  31,1915 


Mr.  C.  H.  Stickley,  Train  Baggageman,  was  retired  from  the  service  May 
30,  1915,  account  of  ill  health.  In  the  following  letter  he  expresses  gratitude 
to  the  officials  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  for  their  courteous 
and  considerate  treatment : 

Dubuque,  la.,  Oct.  10,  1915. 
Mr.  T.  H.  Sullivan,  Supt, 

Fort  Dodge,  Iowa. 

Dear  Sir: — Received  your  letter  notifying  me  I  had  been  placed  on  the 
pension  list.  When  I  was  first  notified  I  had  been  taken  out  of  the  service, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


101 


it  seemed  hard  to  know  my  railroad  days  were  over,  as  a  young  man,  I  am 
only  54  years  old. 

But  after  being  told  by  the  Chief  Surgeon  the  condition  of  my  heart,  I 
cannot  blame  the  Illinois  Central  officials,  as  I  know  they  are  always  look- 
ing out  for  the  interest  and  safety  of  their  patrons.  I  also  want  to  thank 
you  for  the  nice  letter  I  received  from  you  showing  my  thirty  years'  service 
record. 

I  have,  and  always  will  have,  a  kindly  feeling  for  the  Illinois  Central  offi- 
cials and  fellow  workmen  and  the  old  reliable  Illinois  Central  Railroad. 

Very  truly  vours, 

(Signed)     C.  H.  STICKLEY. 


WILLIAM  N.  BARR, 
Conductor  Minnesota  Division 


C.    H.    STICKLEY 


WILLIAM  N.  BARR 

VK/MLLIAM  NATHAN  BARR,  whose 
*  *  photograph  appears  herewith,  was 
born  in  Westchester,  Pa.,  March  6,  1854, 
of  Quaker  parents.  He  was  educated  in 
private  schools.  His  first  years  of  serv- 
ice on  a  railroad  were  with  the  Fort 
Wayne,  from  New  Brighton  to  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa.,  and  the  Wisconsin  Central, 
from  Portage  City  to  Stevens  Point. 
Entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral, October,  1876.  and  was  retired  May 
5.  1915. 


J.  J.  HANAFY 

r\  N  September  30,  1915,  after  an  ag- 
^^  gregate  service  of  39  years,  Mr 
J.  J.  Hanafy,  Assistant  Foreman  at  New 
Orleans,  La.,  has  been  retired  on  a  pen- 
sion. Mr.  Hanafy  entered  the  service  of 
the  N.  O.,  J.  &  G.  N.  R.  R.  at  New  Or- 
leans in  1865  as  a  brakeman  under 
General  G.  T.  Beauregard.  He  con- 
tinued in  that  position  until  1869,  when 
he  was  transferred  to  yard  service  as 
a  switchman  in  1871.  He  was  made 
labor  foreman  at  New  Orleans,  the 


102  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 


— AND — 


The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  15 


The  one  problem,  the  solution  of  which  is  most  vital  to 
the  people  of  this  country,  is  the  "High  Cost  of  giving." 

Unavailing  effort  has  been  made  to  secure  a  reduction 
in  the  cost  of  living  necessities. 

As  a  last  resort  demands  are  constantly  being  made  by 
workers  of  every  class  for  Increased  Compensation, the  idea 
being  of  course,  that  as  the  price  of  the  commodities  they 
must  have  cannot  be  lowered,  their  income  must  be  raised. 

This  puts  the  problem  squarely  up  to  Employers,  and 
they  very  properly  assert  that  the  "High  Cost  of  Living"  is 
even  more  of  a  factor  with  them  than  with  the  individual. 

As  an  example,  consider  our  railroads.  Everything  that 
they  have  to  buy  in  order  to  operate  safely  and  give  satis- 
factory service  has  increased  in  price  by  leaps  and  bounds; 
this  includes  labor. 

On  the  other  hand  the  price  of  the  only  commodity  that 
they  have  to  sell,  viz.,  Transportation  (except  in  isolated 
cases)  has  gone  down. 

Railroads  have  no  employers  that  they  can  go  to  with 
pleas  and  threats  and  successfully  force  an  advance  in 
rates;  they  are  tied  hand,  foot  and  middle  by  the  orders 
and  rulings  of  Municipal,  State  and  Federal  Commissions. 

No  community  can  be  prosperous  without  efficient 
transportation  facilities,  and  a  starved  railroad  cannot  give 
efficient  service. 

The  only  recourse  of  transportation  lines  is  for  the  people 
(who  basically  are  always  fair)  to  demand  for  them  fair  play. 

Remember  that  prosperous  railroads  always  serve  pros- 
perous sections,and  in  order  to  meet  their  ever  increasing  liv- 
ing cost,  transportation  lines  should  be  allowed  to  reasonably 
increase  the  price  of  the  commodity  which  they  have  to  sell. 

Won't  you,  Mr.  Reader,  help? 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


J03 


J.    J.    HANAFY 

line  at  that  time  being  known  as  the 
C,  St.  L.  &  N.  O.,  and  served  until 
1873,  when  he  left  the  railroad  to 
enter  the  employ  of  the  City  of  New 
Orleans  under  the  Administrator  of 
Public  Works.  He  re-entered  the  serv- 
ice as  labor  foreman  on  the  L.,  N.  O.  & 
T.  R.  R.,  and  continued  as  such  until  his 
retirement.  When  that  line  was  ab- 
sorbed by  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  he  was  continued  in  the  posi- 
tion of  Assistant  Labor  Foreman,  which 
he  held  until  his  retirement  His  photo- 
graph appears  herewith. 


JOHN  H.  GARVEY. 

TV/f  R.  JOHN  H.  GARVEY  entered 
1V1  the  service  of  the  L.  N.  O.  &  T. 
R.  R.,  which  was  afterwards  changed 
to  the  Y.  &  M.  V.,  Aug.  20,  1884, 
as  locomotive  engineer  in  construction 
service.  At  that  time  the  road  was 
completed  from  New  Orleans  to 
Shaws,  Miss.,  and  from  Memphis  to 
Clarksdale. 

He  remained  in  work  train   service 


JOHN  H.  GARVEY 

until  the  summer  of  1885,  when  he  was 
placed  in  freight  service  between 
Vicksburg  and  Memphis.  Three  years 
later  he  was  transferred  to  passenger 
.service  between  the  same  points.  After 
three  years  in  passenger  service,  he 
was  taken  off  passenger  run,  account 
of  his  vision  becoming  defective,  and 
was  made  night  foreman  in  the  Vicks- 
burg Shops,  which  position  he  held  for 
about  twenty  months  when  he  was 
sent  to  Wilson  as  General  Foreman. 
He  remained  at  Wilson  for  ten  years, 
and  was  then  made  switch  engineer, 
later  becoming  engine  inspector  at 
Vicksburg  Shops,  which  position  he 
held  until  he  was  retired  at  the  age  of 
70  years,  Oct.  1,  1915. 


William  E.  Butterworth 


WILLIAM   B.    BUTTERWORTH 


'"P  HE  subject  of  this  sketch, 
•*•  whose  photograph  appears 
herewith,  was  born  in  Ipswich, 
Mass.,  Nov.  27,  1872;  died  in 
Chicago,  Oct.  18,  1915.  Mr. 
Butterworth  attended  public 
school  in  his  native  town  until 
he  was  nine  years  of  age,  then 
accepted  a  position  as  mes- 
senger boy  with  Ward  &  Com- 
pany, Boston,  Mass.,  attending 
night  school  while  so  employed. 
He  entered  the  service  of  the 
Boston  &  Maine  Railroad  when 
19  years  of  age  as  brakeman, 
and  continued  with  that  com- 
pany for  11  years.  Entered  the 
service  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  at  Water 
Valley,  Miss.,  as  brakeman  in 
1902,  and  later  was  promoted 
to  the  position  of  conductor. 

Mr.  Butterworth  served  as 
chairman  of  the  Local  Commit- 
tee of  the  B.  of  R.  T.  for  sev- 
eral years.  Was  elected  Gen- 
eral Chairman  of  the  B.  of  R. 
T.  in  1912  and  re-elected  in 
1914. 

He  was  a  valuable  employe, 
not  only  to  his  co-workers,  but 
to  the  company. 


iiGinonous  oorvico 


•pAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
-F  following  conductors  for  their  spe- 
cial efforts  in  lifting  and  preventing  the 
use  of  irregular  transportation  in  con- 
nection with  which  reports  (Form  972) 
were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of  passen- 
ger receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advises  the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,  all 
pass  irregularities  being  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  vice-president. 

ILLINOIS  DIVISION— The  follow- 
ing suburban  trainmen  and  gatekeepers 
received  credit  in  their  records  for  lift- 
ing expired  suburban  card  passes  during 
September : 

Conductor — G.  Comer. 

Conductor — F.  Fuller. 

Conductor — W.  Clark. 

Conductor — W.  Gerry. 

Conductor — C.  White. 

Conductor — B.  F.  Dressier. 

Collector — H.  L.  Richardson. 

Flagman — D.  Flynn. 

Flagman — C.  G.  Scuffham. 

Flagman — M.  J.  Schaeffer. 

Flagman — E  Guy  ton. 

Flagman — F.  Sweger. 

Flagman — R.  Creps. 

Flagman — J.   Tucker. 

Flagman — E.  Ryan. 

Flagman — J.  Hoffman. 

Flagman — R.  O'Connor. 

Flagman — A.  Graf. 

Gatekeeper— T.  C.  White. 

Gatekeeper — W.  Gallon. 

Gatekeeper — O.  Gerhardy. 

Gatekeeper — R.  Fisher. 

Gatekeeper — A.  D.  Purner. 

Gatekeeper — W.  Bowe. 

Gatekeeper — H.  Quinlan. 

Gatekeeper — Maud  Sweeney. 

Gatekeeper — Anna  Smith. 

Suburban  Flagman  R.  Creps,  on  train 
No.  583,  September  12th,  lifted  two  60- 
ride  commutation  tickets,  account  having 
expired,  and  collected  cash  fares. 

Conductor  T.  W.  Ward,  on  train  No. 
1 .  September  3rd,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 


lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel,  on  train  No. 
4,  September  10th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  R.  W.  Carruthers,  on  train 
No.  32,  September  13th,  declined  to  hon- 
or local  ticket,  account  date  of  sale  hav- 
ing been  altered,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks,  on  train  No. 
1,  September  17th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket,  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  F.  Ennis,  on  train  No.  1, 
September  27th,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Mallon,  on  train  No. 
24,  September  28th,  lifted  trip  pass,  ac- 
count not  being  countersigned,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

ST.  LOUIS  DIVISION— Conductor 
A.  E.  Reader,  on  train  No.  23,  Septem- 
ber 19th,  lifted  employe's  trip  pass,  ac- 
count not  being  countersigned,  and  hon- 
ored other  transportation  to  cover  pas- 
sengers' trip. 

On  train  No.  1,  September  9th,  he  lift- 
ed card  ticket  from  passenger,  who  ad- 
mitted having  previously  secured  trans- 
portation on  same.  Passenger  purchased 
other  transportation  to  cover  trip. 

WISCONSIN  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor B.  Lichtenberger,  on  train  No.  124, 
September  llth,  declined  to  honor  going 
portion  of  card  ticket,  account  return 
portion  being  missing,  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

MINNESOTA  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor F.  R.  Cooley,  on  train  No.  29,  Sep- 
tember 2nd,  lifted  trip  pass,  account  be- 
ing in  improper  hands.  Passenger  de- 
clined to  pay  fare,  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 


105 


106 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Conductor  T.  O.  McCarthy,  on  train 
No.  515,  September  6th,  declined  to  hon- 
or card  ticket,  account  date  of  sale  hav- 
ing been  erased,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

KENTUCKY  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor W.  Y.  Hansbrough,  on  train  No.  103, 
September  8th,  lifted  48-trip  coupon  pass 
book,  account  being  in  improper  hands, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.  T.  Arnn,  on  train  No. 
103,  September  12th,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  book,  account  having  expired, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  T.  B.  Watts,  on  train  No. 
131,  September  17th,  lifted  employe's 
term  pass,  account  passenger  not  being 
provided  with  identification  slip,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

TENNESSEE  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor J.  E.  Nelson,  on  train  No.  104,  Sep- 
tember 14th,  lifted  mileage  book,  account 
description  of  passenger  and  signature 
having  been  altered,  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  S.  E.  Matthews,  on  train 
No.  5,  September  27th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket,  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

MISSISSIPPI  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor J.  Sitton,  on  train  No.  138,  Septem- 
ber, 7th,  declined  to  honor  mileage  book, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  M.  H.  Ranson,  on  train  No. 
24,  September  19th,  lifted  expired  card 
ticket  from  passenger,  who  admitted  hav- 
ing previously  secured  transportation  on 
same,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  O.  A.  Harrison,  on  train 
No.  33,  September  21st,  lifted  employe's 
trip  pass,  account  being  in  improper 
hands.  Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare, 
and  was  required  to  leave  the  train. 

On  train  No.  34,  September  28th,  he 
lifted  joint  trip  pass,  account  having 
expired,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

LOUISIANA  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor W.  Moales,  on  train  No.  1,  Septem- 
ber 3rd,  train  No.  34,  September  22nd, 
and  No.  1,  September  27th,  declined  to 
honor  mileage  books,  account  having  ex- 


pired, and  collected  other  transportation 
to  cover  trips. 

Conductor  E.  M.  Moales,  on  train  No. 
2,  September  8th,  declined  to  honor  re- 
turning portion  of  round  trip  ticket,  ac- 
count having  expired.  Passenger  re- 
fused to  pay  fare,  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train  No. 
4,  September  9th,  and  train  No.  3,  Sep- 
tember 27th,  lifted  mileage  books,  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands,  and  col- 
lected cash  fares. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes,  on  train  No. 
6,  September  llth,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  book,  account  having  expired, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Broas,  on  train  No. 
34,  September  15th,  declined  to  honor 
mileage-  book,  account  having  expired. 
Passenger  presented  local  ticket  to  cover 
trip. 

Conductor  M.  Kennedy,  on  train  No. 
304,  September  22nd,  declined  to  honor 
returning  portion  of  Sunday  excursion 
ticket,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

MEMPHIS  DIVISION— Conductor 
J.  M.  Carter,  on  train  No.  15,  September 
2nd,  train  No.  13,  September  15th,  No. 
13,  September  20th,  and  No.  15,  Septem- 
ber 22nd,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
books,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fares. 

Condutor  J.  S.  Lee,  on  train  No. 
304,  September  16th,  lifted  mileage  book, 
account  being  in  improper  hands,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  304,  September  18th,  he 
lifted  employe's  term  pass,  account  iden- 
tification slip  Form  1572  having  been 
altered.  Passengers  refused  to  pay  fare, 
and  were  required  to  leave  the  train. 

VICKSBURG  DIVISION— Conduc- 
tor R.  C.  Buck,  on  train  No.  38,  Septem- 
ber 6th,  declined  to  honor  mileage  book, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  R.  Hoke,  during  Septem- 
ber, lifted  five  mileage  books,  account 
being  in  improper  hands,  and  collected 
cash  fares. 


Springfield  Division 

Mr.  Charles  Beilsmith,  fireman,  will 
visit  in  Memphis  and  Hot  Springs. 

Mr.  W.  E.  Madden,  fireman,  was 
called  to  Evansville,  Indiana,  account 
serious  illness  of  his  father. 

Mr.  Thomas  Harris,  blacksmith 
helper,  and  wife,  will  visit  friends  in 
New  Hope,  Ky. 

Mr.  Fred  Ellison,  turn  table  man, 
wife,  son  and  daughter,  will  visit  rela- 
tives in  Lancaster,  Ky. 

Mr.  Henry  Lynch,  engineer,  and  son, 
Henry,  Jr.,  will  visit  in  Bismarck, 
N.  D. 

Mr.  Louis  Kemper,  engine  inspector, 
will  go  to  Hot  Springs,  Ark.,  for  his 
health. 

Mr.  W.  F.  Menefee,  wrecking  fore- 
man, will  visit  in  Fargo,  N.  D. 

Mr.  Geo.  M.  Garwood,  boilermaker 
helper,  will  visit  in  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  Roy  Russell,  boilermaker  appren- 
tice, will  go  to  Hot  Springs,  Ark.,  for 
his  health. 

Mr.  John  Hart,  bolt  cutter,  and  son 
Joe,  will  visit  in  Keokuk,  Iowa. 

Mr.  A.  Copeland,  engineer,  will  visit 
in  Omaha,  Neb. 

Mr.  Clarence  May,  roundhouse  clerk, 
has  returned  to  work  after  spending 
what  he  reports  an  enjoyable  vacation. 

Mr.  Effie  Walton,  ash  pan  and  grate 
man,  will  visit  in  New  Orleans  and 
Crowley,  La. 

Mr.  Joseph  Chaloupka,  machinist, 
wife  and  son  Joseph,  Jr.,  will  visit  in 
Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Mrs.  F.  W.  Sieveking,  wife  of  engi- 
neer, will  visit  relatives  in  Marietta, 
Ohio. 


Mrs.  J.  C.  Fish,  stenographer  in  the 
master  mechanic's  office,  has  returned  to 
work  after  spending  her  vacation  in  Salt 
Lake  City  and  other  places  in  the  west. 
Mrs.  Fish  reports  an  enjoyable  time. 

Mr.  J.  Sweazy,  fireman,  and  wife, 
will  visit  in  Bloomfield,  Ky. 

Mr.  R.  Cooper,  fireman  and  wife,  will 
visit  in  Webster  City,  Iowa. 

Mr.  James  Shelton,  flue  welder,  wife, 
daughter  and.  son,  will  visit  in  Fort 
Dodge,  Iowa. 

Mr.  I.  J.  Michaels,  boilermaker 
helper,  will  visit  in  Bedford,  Indiana. 

Mr.  T.  Nicholson,  labor  gang  fore- 
man, has  returned  to  work  after  spend- 
ing an  enjoyable  vacation  in  the  South. 

Mr.  William  Sylvester,  clerk  for  su- 
pervisors, is  on  his  vacation.  Mr.  Syl- 
vester is  accompanied  by  his  wife  and 
daughter,  and  they  expect  to  spend  sev- 
eral weeks  in  Kansas  and  points  of  in- 
terest in  the  West.  Mr.  John  Ives,  of 
Clinton,  Illinois,  will  look  after  Mr. 
Sylvester's  work  while  he  is  away. 


Free  to  Our  Readers 

Write  Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co.,  Chicago,  for 
48-page  illustrated  Eye  Book  Free.  Write  all 
about  Your  Eye  Trouble  and  they  will  advise 
as  to  the  Proper  Application  of  the  Murine 
Eye  Remedies  in  Your  Special  Case.  Your 
Druggist  will  tell  you  that  Murine  Relieves 
Sore  Eyes,  Strengthens  Weak  Eyes.  Doesn't 
Smart,  Soothes  Eye  Fain,  and  sells  for  50c. 
Try  It  ia  Your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes  for 
Scaly  Eyelids  and  Granulation 


John  Phillips,  clerk  to  supervisor  at 
Pana,  Illinois,  although  stationed  in 
Pana,  is  seen  quite  often  in  Clinton,  and 
when  questioned  as  to  the  reasons  for 
his  frequent  visits  to  Clinton,  is  ever 
ready  with  an  alibi.  His  most  usual 
alibi  is  "I  had  to  come  up  to  see  the 
road  master's  chief  clerk  about  come 


107 


108 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


reports"  (?).  We  have  our  doubts 
about  some  of  these  reports  and  we 
are  inclined  to  believe  that  there  is 
something  in  Clinton  more  interesting 
to  Mr.  Phillips  than  the  usual  reports. 
Anyway,  we  all  like  to  see  him  now 
and  then. 

Water  Foreman  Scott  is  now  at  Van- 
dalia  installing  a  new  steel  water  tank 
and  pipe  line  from  the  present  pump 
house.  The  new  tank  will  be  located 
north  of  town  about  a  mile,  and  a  pen- 
stock will  be  placed  between  the  main 


and  the  passing  track  near  the  north 
end  of  the  passing  track.  The  old  tank 
at  this  place  was  very  old'  and  leaky 
and  a  new  tank  was  badly  needed  here. 

The  automatic  block  signals  recently 
authorized  between  Marine  and  Glen 
Carbon  have  been  completed  and  were 
put  in  operation  on  the  27th  of  August. 
These  automatic  signals  will  make  a 
great  improvement  on  this  piece  of 
track. 

Section  Foreman  Jerry  O'Connor,  of 
Springfield,  is  now  taking  his  first  lay- 


GROTTO  CAFE 

10   NORTH    13TH   STREET 

MURPHYSBORO       ::      ILL. 


JOE  STEINLE,  President  A.  J.  WILL,  Vice-  President 

W.  F.  KULL,  Manager  and  Treasurer 

MURPHYSBORO  BOTTLING  CO. 

Manufact  urers  of 

TEMPERANCE  DRINKS 


Soda  Water 


and  Gin8er  AIe 


"KULLS  GRAPE" 

SALOON    SUPPLIES    A    SPECIALTY 


W.  H.  HILL,  President  and  General  Manager 


H.  H.  JENKINS,  Secretary  &  Treasur 


MURPHYSBORO  PAVING  BRICK  COMPANY 


ADDRESS  ALL 

COMMUNICATIONS  TO 

THE  COMPANY 


BRICK   MANUFACTURERS 

"EGYPTIAN" 

Paving  and  Building  Brick 

MURPHYSBORO,  ILLINOIS 


R.  R.  CONNECTIONS : 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL,  MOBILE  &  OHIO 

AND  MISSOURI  PACIFIC 


The  Gus  Blair  Big  Muddy  Coal  Co, 

J.  H.  Kane,  Manager 

Miners  and  Shippers  of 

Big  Muddy  Coal 


Mines  Located  on  Mobile  &  Ohio 
Missouri  Pacific  and 
Illinois  Central  Railroads 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


109 


off  in  twenty  years.  He  is  visiting 
points  in  the  West  and  expects  to  be 
gone  some  time  on  this,  his  first  vaca- 
tion. 

Conductor  V.  D.  Laws,  while  on 
work  train  at  Patoka,  111.,  was  taken 
sick  with  malaria  and  was  taken  to  the 
hospital  at  Centralia.  He  is  getting 
along  nicely  and  expects  to  return  to 
work  shortly. 

Brakeman  E.  J.  Cox,  who  has  been 
spending  the  past  several  months  on  a 
farm  near  Ospur,  111.,  has  been  recalled 
and  is  working  on  the  Clinton  district. 

Conductor  B.  A.  Nixon  and  family 
have  returned  after  a  two  weeks'  trip  to 
Havana,  111.  He  spent  the  time  on  the 
river  near  Havana. 

Brakeman  J.  W.  Mumbower  has  re- 
ported for  duty  after  an  absence  of  sev- 
eral weeks.  He  visited  with  relatives 
in  Greenville,  111. 

Conductor  J.  L.  Ford,  'who  was  regu- 
larly assigned  to  passenger  service  sev- 
eral months  ago,  is  making  arrange- 
ments to  move  his  family  to  Springfield 
the  first  of  September. 

Conductor  W.  C.  McConnell  and  wife 
have  returned  after  an  extended  trip 
to  Colorado,  and  Mr.  McConnell  has  re- 
ported for  duty.  He  informs  us  .he  had 
a  very  nice  trip. 

Many  a  long  night  made  short  playing 
Hatfield's  Base  Ball  Game.  See  Front  In- 
side Cover. 

Indiana  Division 

Mr.  A.  F.  Buckton  and  family,  chief 
clerk  to  Master  Mechanic  J.  A.  Bell, 
have  just  returned  from  a  delightful  va- 
cation spent  near  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Mr.  William  Kaumann,  machinist, 
has  purchased  a  new  automobile,  in 
which  he  says  he  will  break  all  records. 

Mr.  L.  W.  Mix,  roundhouse  fore- 
man; Mr.  Wm.  Eaton,  engineer  on  en- 
gine 179,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Seaman, 
fire-up-man,  spent  a  day  hunting,  but 
it  seems  as  though  their  luck  was  not 
along  with  them,  as  when  they  returned 
they  only  had  two  prairie  chickens. 

Miss  Flora  Adrian,  stenographer  in 
the  master  mechanic's  office,  is  now  on 


her  vacation,  visiting  in  Indianapolis, 
Ind.,  Freeport,  111.,  and  Chicago. 

Mr.  James  Spaugh,  pipe  fitter,  and 
wife,  are  spending  a  few  weeks  visit- 
ing relatives  in  South  Dakota. 

Mr.  George  Authenreith,  engine  car- 
penter, will  soon  leave  for  Virginia, 
where  he  will  visit  relatives. 

Mr.  Lambert  Owens,  fire  knocker,  who 
underwent  an  operation  for  appendicitis, 
seems  to  be  improving  wonderfully,  as 
he  expects  to  return  to  work  about 
October  15th. 

Hatfield's  Parlor  Base  Ball  Game  better 
than  ever.  See  Inside  Front  Cover. 

Minnesota  Division 

The  promotion  of  Roadmaster  T. 
Quigley  to  the  Louisiana  Division  has 
been  very  favorably  commented  upon  by 
tli2  principal  papers  throughout  Iowa 
and  is  proof  of  the  wide  acquaintance 
Mr.  Quigl  y  has  made  while  on  the  Min- 
nesota Division.  "T.  Q."  carries  with 


Have 

Healthy, 
Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists— Golfers— Tour- 
ists —  Mechanics — All — should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eyo  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago II 


110 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


him  the  very  best  wishes  of  the  entire 
division.  His  successor,  Mr.  Jas.  D.  Mc- 
Namara,  assistant  road  master  at  Mem- 
phis, is  an  Iowa  man  and  we  welcome 
him  back  to  his  "ain  countrie." 

Rodman  Walker  has  transferred  the 
scenes  of  his  missionary  endeavors  to 
the  New  Orleans  Division  where  he  has 
been  assigned  as  instrumentman,  being 
succeeded  by  L.  A.  Kibbe  of  the  Ten- 
nessee Division. 

Three  of  our  employes  to  be  pensioned 
this  month  have  an  average  service  of 
forty-three  years,  Flagman  Norman 
with  fifty,  Machinist  Handyman  Kelley, 
forty-three  and  Conductor  Barr  with 
over  thirty-five  years  to  his  credit. 

Conductor  Barr's  retirement  from  the 
service  has  caused  a  moving  up  in  the 
ranks  of  our  conductors,  Conductor 
Ward  succeeding  him  on  the  run  be- 
tween Dubuque  and  Fort  Dodge  with 
trains  No.  13  and  No.  14,  in  turn  F.  E. 
Lucas  taking  vacancy  on  the  Albert  Lea 
run  and  Conductor  Willier  who  has  been 


Large  furnished  room,  with  board,  home 
cooking;  suitable  for  two  gentlemen.  Electric 
lights,  steam  and  plenty  of  hot  water  day  and 
night.  Excellent  transportation;  I.  C.,  ele- 
vated and  surface  lines. 


6428  Dante  Ave. 


Second  Apartment 


WOULD  YOU 

,show  this  standard  high  grade 
fully  visible  typewriter   to 
your  friends  and  let  them 
see  wherein  it  excells  any 
other  $100  typewriter, 
"  if  by  doing   this  and   ren- 
dering other  small  assist- 
^  ance,  you  could  easily  earn  one 

to  keep  asyour  own. Then  hy  post  card 
or  letter  to  us  simply  say  "Mail  Particulars." 

WOODSTOCK  TYPEWRITER  CO., Box  N218,  Woodstock, I II. 


342-3  Davidson  Bldg      Auto.  Phone  4036 

MISS  BERYL  A.  STEELE 

LAW  STENOGRAPHER 


Depositions 

Daily  Transcripts  SIOUX  CITY,  IOWA 


Safety  First! 

Use  a  Gas  Power  Starter  on  your  gasoline  engine. 
Always  starts.     No  dirty  hands  or  broken  bones. 

Railroad  Water  &  Coal  Handling  Co. 

608  South  Dearborn  St.,  Chicago 


Spencer  Otis  Company 

RAILWAY  SUPPLIES 


Chicago,    New  York    and    St.   Louis 


United  Supply  &  Manufacturing  Co. 

Railway  Exchange 
Chicago 


Wool  and  Cotton  Wiping  and  Packing  Waste 
NuU,  BolU,  Rivets,  Spikes 

Axles 
American  Rail  Loader 


SHOP  FOREMEN 

Are  you  interested  in  improving  your  shop  conditions  and 
reducing  your  maintenance  and  labor  costs?      If  so,  write 

AYER  &  LORD  TIE   COMPANY 

RAILWAY  EXCHANGE,  CHICAGO 
for  their  booklet  "FLOORS/' 


Please   mention   this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


111 


on  the  extra  list  takes  Mr.  Lucas'  run  be- 
tween Dubuque  and  Chicago. 

On  the  morning  of  October  llth,  Act- 
ing Agent  Benda  of  Central  City,  who 
was  visiting  at  the  home  of  his  parents 
at  Delaware,  awoke  in  time  to  see  a  mare 
and  colt  rambling  up  our  track,  with  No. 
13  over  due.  Mr.  Benda  didn't  even 
hesitate,  but  went  right  after  them  and 
succeeded  in  clearing  the  track  before 
No.  13  came  along.  His  prompt  action 
saved  a  large  claim  and  is  very  much 
appreciated. 

The  work  on  the  new  yards  at  Du- 
buque has  begun  and  it  is  expected  will 
be  completed  before  the  cold  weather  sets 
in.  The  new  car  repair  shop  at  Waterloo 
is  coming  along  nicely  as  are  the  new  en- 
gine stalls,  cinder  and  inspection  pits, 
and  other  shop  improvements.  The  new 
passing  tracks  at  Orchard  and  St.  Ans- 
gar  are  about  completed. 

Watch  the  bulletin  boards  for  the 
final  October  score  in  the  Conductors' 
Repair  Card  League.  With  a  score  of 
1300  for  October  last  year  to  buck,  the 
crews  of  Conductors  T.  Flynn,  F.  A. 
Bradford,  Slack,  Catlin  and  Kelley  are 
batting  as  near  a  hundred  per  cent  as 
they  can  and  are  neck  and  neck  at  the 
finish.  The  latest  stunt  is  to  turn  in 
more  cards  than  the  rest  of  the  divisions 
put  together  and  it  looks  as  though  we 
can  do  it. 

Many  a  long  night  made  short  playing 
Hatfield's  Base  Ball  Game.  See  Inside 
Front  Cover. 

Wisconsin  Division 

On  Wednesday  night,  October  20,  Mr. 
William  Bruce  Leffingwell,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Order  of  Railway  Teleg- 
raphers, presented  his  most  famous  of 
Travel  Talks,  "Yellowstone  Park,"  illus- 
trated with  colored  slides  and  2,000  feet 
of  motion  pictures,  in  Eagles'  Hall,  Free- 
port.  Mr.  LerrmgweH's  entertainment 
was  most  interesting  and  instructive, 
and  was  attended  by  agents  and  opera- 
tors and  their  ladies,  from  the  majority 
of  stations  on  the  Wisconsin  Division,  as 
well  as  a  number  from  the  Minnesota 
division.  General  Chairman  C.  A.  Mul- 
hall  and  Local  Chairman  Walter  Kelly 
were  also  in  attendance.  An  invitation 
was  extended  to  the  division  officers, 
clerks,  etc.,  many  of  whom  attended. 


JUST  A  MOMENT 

Diamonds-or  Trash? 

There's  a  little  "inside  information"  that  a  man  ought  to 
have  before  he  lays  his  money  on  the  counter  for  a  diamond. 
You  can  buy  diamonds  as 
low  as  S50  a  carat.  That's 
the  kind  they  use  for  boringr 
holes  and  truing  up  emery 
wheels.  You  wouldn't  want 
to  wear  one  in  a  ring —  but 
they're  diamonds  just  the 
same,  and  "perfect"  too,  for 
their  purpose. 

Then   there  are  "perfect 
cut"  diamonds.    But  that's 
no  sign  they're  perfect  color. 
Then  there  are  "perfect  cut"  diamonds,  "perfect  color." 
But  that  isn't  saying  they're  flawless. 

Then— ah !  then  there  are  perfect  cut,  perfect  color,  flawless  dia- 
monds. NOW  you're  talking!  That's  the  ONLY  kind  that  a  wise  man 
invests  In  — for  no  other  sort  have  a  permanent,  standard  value,  the 
world  over. 

Now,  don't  you  see  how  easy  it  Is  to  be  mislead  by  the  little  word 
"perfect!" 

I  guarantee  that  my  whole  stock  of  diamonds  is  composed  of  noth- 
ing but  pure,  blue-white,  flawless,  perfect  cut  stones,  absolutely  per- 
fect in  every  particular. 

That's  one  guarantee  for  you.  But  that  isn't  all.  I  don't  stop  there. 
Here's  the  Square  Deal  selling  plan  that's  responsible  for  my  big- 
diamond  business. 

A  Diamond  Bond  goes  with  every  Pence  Diamond.  The  following 
table  shows  how  much  CASH  I  will  refund  you  on  any  Diamond  Bond, 
any  time  you  want  your  money  back.  No  time  limit. 

If  you  paid  me  $35,  I'll  refund  $23.50  In  CASH 
If  you  paid  me  $50,  I'll  refund  $45.00  in  CASH 
If  you  paid  me  $10O,  I'll  refund  $90.OO  in  CASH 

It's  a  mighty  comfortable  feeling  to  know  that  your  money  Is  ready- 
any  time  you  need  it  — besides  the  satisfaction  of  wearing  a.  stone 
that  ia  all  a  diamond  can  be. 

Select  the  Diamond  you  want,  send  me  a  Dollar — Five  Dollars 
— Ten  Dollars — I'll  lay  the  Diamond  away  in  the  safe  and  you 
can  pay  for  it  out  of  your  spare  change  in  any  convenient  way. 

Diamond  paid  for — Yours  truly — and  you've  never  missed  the 
money. 

Goods  sent  on  approval  where  personal  inspection  cannot  be 
made. 

I  also  carry  full  line  of  Howard,  Hamilton,  Elgin,  Waltham. 
Illinois  Watches  and  every  thing  in  High  G'rade  Jewelry,  and  will 
Guarantee  to  save  you  money  on  any  purchase.  Let  me  Quote  you 


prices. 


MILTON  PENCE 


High  Grade  \Vatches,  Jewelry,  Diamond t  &  Repairing 

Room  401  Heyworth  Bldg.,  Wabash  and  Madison  St. 

CHICAGO 


Ctias,  R,  Lone  Jr,  Co, 


Incorporated 

MANUFACTURERS  OF 


Railway,  Station  and  Bridge  Paint 

622  to  630  East  Main  St. 

Louisville,  Ky. 


Please   mention   this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


112 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


This  entertainment  was  followed  by  a 
dance,  for  which  the  services  of  a  nine- 
piece  orchestra  was  secured,  same  be- 
ing under  the  direction  of  Operator  H. 
E.  Keister. 

W.  E.  Horner  was  recently  transferred 
to  this  division  from  Chicago,  as  rod- 
man,  succeeding  E.  C.  Voodry,  trans- 
ferred. 

O.  H.  Voight,  agent  at  Sublette,  Illi- 
nois, and  family,  are  taking  an  extended 
trip  through  the  West.  They  intend  to 
visit  many  California  points. 

C.  O.  Thomas,  agent  at  Cloverdale,  is 
at  present  away  on  a  two  weeks'  leave 
of  absence. 

Hatfield's  Parlor  Base  Ball  Game  better 
than  ever.  See  Inside  Front  Cover. 

Conductor  C.  A,  Crowley  and  wife 
are  spending  a  few  days  in  Minnesota. 

J.  P.  Dean,  conductor,  Amboy  District, 
is  the  proud  father  of  a  baby  boy. 

Brakeman  C.  Rosebrough  is  spending 
a  few  days  at  Sioux  Falls,  South  Da- 
kota, where  he  went  to  attend  the  wed- 
ding of  his  sister. 


TOBACCO? 


Efficiency,  Advancement,  Success 

Demand  That  a  Man  Keep 
Close  Watch  Upon  Himself 

A  harmful  habit  is  a  drawback.  One  of  the  greatest 
joys  in  life  is  that  which  follows  victory  overabad  habit. 
The  active  principle  of  TOBACCO  is  nicotine,  seemingly 
innocuous  to  some  and  'seriously  poisonous  to  others, 
particularly  when  used  to  excess.  For  the  man  who 
knows  that  his  nerves,  heart,  eyes,  stomach,  blood,  etc., 
are  being  injured  by  addiction  to  tobacco,  pipe,  cigar- 
ettes, chewing,  snuff  or  cigars,  I  have  a  CHEERING  AND 
HELPFUL.  BOOK  to  send  gratis  upon  request. 

Are  You  Enslaved? 

If  your  own  intelligence  proves  you  are  being  injured 
by  tobacco,  don't  delay  in  getting  my  book.  It  is  INTER- 
ESTING and  will  convince  you  how  the  habit  may  be 
quickly,  easily  and  completely  conquered. 

Legions  of  former  tobbacco  addicts  have  described  the 
remarkable  benefitin  beingfreed  from  the  habit:  tranquil 
nerves,  improved  health,  new  ambition,  increased  effici- 
ency, etc.  Post  card  request-will  bring  free  book.  Address 
EDWARD  J.  WOODS,  189  N  ,  Station  E.  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


for  the  Watck  urfth  the  Purple  Ribbon 


When   a  man's   job   depends 
upon  his  watch  he  must  be  sure 

No  leeway  or  guess-work  is  allowed — 
his  watch  must  be  on-the-dot.  That's 
why  so  many  Railroad  men  carry  South 
Bend  Studebaker  Railroad  watches — 
they  give  that  kind  of  accuracy.  They 
are  built  with  the  precision  that 
assures  accurate  time  not  only  for  a 
week  or  a  month,  but  for  a  life-time. 


RAILROAD  WATCH 

With  every  watch  is  given  a  5-year  guaran- 
tee— pictured  above— against  time  changes. 
If  the  time  requirements  of  your  Road 
change — or  any  Road  you  go  to — we  make 
your  Studebaker  conform  to  the  new 
requirements,  or  give  you  a  new  watch 
that  will. 

Movements  Only 
16  Size— 17  J.— 5  pos.  $28.00 
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18  Size—17  24.00 

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Fitted  to  your  own  case  if  desired 

See  these  watches  at  your 

jewelers  or  inspectors. 

Write  today  for  68-page  book, "How  and  why 
own  a  South  Bend  Watch," 

South  Bend  Watch  Co. 

3711  Studebaker  Street 
South  Bend,  Ind. 


i 


i 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


Stare  Capitol 
Jackson  Aiss. 


DEC  22  1015 
r 


IIIINOIS 

CENTRAL 

"^GAZINE 

./»• 
T>ecem6er 


"Slide,  Kelly,  Slide" 

You  can  almost  hear  the  bleacherites  howl  when  you  play 

Hatfield's  Parlor  Base  Ball 

The  one  card  game  that  makes  you  think  you  are  sitting  in  the  bleachers 
with  the  score  tied  in  the  last  of  the  ninth.  It  is  replete  with  thrills  that 
have  made  the  national  pastime  so  popular.  Played  with  60  cards  —  8  plays  on 
a  card  —  480  plays  to  the  deck  —  over  a  million  combinations  —  strikes,  balls, 
double  plays,  hit  and  run.  hook  slide,  etc.  You  don't  have  to  be  a  "fan"  to 
enjoy  this  game.  Play  it  solitaire  or  by  any  even  number.  Attractively 
boxed,  it  makes  a  dandy  Xmas  gift.  Many  a  long  night  made  short  by  play- 
ing Hatfield's  Parlor  Base  Ball.  The  game  "The  Spit  Ball  King"  declares  is 
next  to  the  real  thing.  Invented  by  a  railroad  man  and  dedicated  to  railroad 
men.  Nothing  like  it  in  all  the  world. 

50c  —  Sent  postpaid  anywhere  for  —  50c 

___  .  r»*          r»          T-. 

Agents  Wanted  Big  Profits 

Ed  Walsh. 

We  are  engaging  agents  everywhere  to  sell  this  game  —  They  are  making  big  money.  —  KING  KINNEY, 
a  former  railroad  man,  averages  $12  a  day  in  Chicago^You  can  do  the  same.  Write  for  our  agency 
proposition  —  "Use  the  brains  God  gave  you"  and  send  50c  for  a,  game  anyway. 

Every  traveling  man  should  have  one  of  Hatfield's  games  —  Just  fits  in   your  grip. 

Every  man,   woman  and  child  should  have  one  Christmas  morning  —  Fits  in  any  stocking. 

THE  HATFIELD  CO.  (fi?.) 

Dept.  I,  6401  Normal  Boulevard  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


Ed  Walsh 


H  a  t  fi  e  1  d's     Parlor 
Base     Ball     is     the 


Bettendorf  One -Piece  Truck 


The  Bettendorf  Company 

Bettendorf 

Iowa 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


The  Varnish 

That  Lasts  Longest 

Made  by 

Murphy  Varnish  Company 


"61"  Floor  Varnish 

Showt  Only  the  Reflection 

You  may  dent  the  wood  but  you  can't 
crack  the  varnish.  Send  for  sample 
panel.  Test  it  with  your  heel  or  a 
hammer. 

PRATT  &  LAMBEKT-lNa 

Varnish  Maker* 

FACTORIES 

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London  Paris  Hamburg 

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HORLICK'S 

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Is  a  delicious  food-drink,  very  nourishing 
and  digestible.  It  upbuilds  the  young,  re- 
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More  healthful  than  tea  or  coflfee,  as  it 
assists  digestion,  nourishes  and  invig- 
orates. On  the  menus  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral and  all  leading  railroads.  At  all 
druggists.  Sample  free  on  request. 

Horlick's  Malted  Milk  Company 

Racine,  Wis. 


Niles-Bement-Pond  Co. 


Ill  Broadway,  New  YorK. 


McCorxnicR  Bldg.,  Chicago 


COMPLETE  EQUIPMENT 
For  Locomotive  and  Repair  Shops 

NILES  RAILWAY  MACHINE  TOOLS 

NILES  CRANES  BEMENT  HAMMERS 

PRATT  (SL  WHITNEY  SMALL  TOOLS  AND  GAUGES 


flfcorben  jfrog  ant>  Crossing  TOorfcs 

SPECIAL  WORK  /or  STJEAM'anc/  ELECTRIC  ROADS 


Office 
Chicago 


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Continuous   Kail  Joint 


The  Rail  Joint  Company 

GENERAL,   OFFICES: 

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Makers  of  Base -supported  and  100%  Rail  Joints  for  Standard,  Girder,  and 
Special  Rail  Sections.  Also  Joints  for  Frogs  and  Switches;  Insulated  Rail 
Joints  and  Step  or  Compromise  Rail  Joints.  Patented  In  United  States 
and  Canada. 

Grand  Prize — San  Francisco,  1915 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


F.  B.  Barclay  —  Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  during  the  Civil  Con- 

flict,   1861-5  ..............................................................................................  11 

Public    Opinion  ..............................................................................................  18 

President  C.  H.  Markham  Replies  to  Sumner  Herald-Progress  22 
Editorial  Comments   Mississippi   Newspapers  ....................................  24 

Railroad  Development  in  the  South,  Past  and  Present  ..................  26 

Efficient  Railroads  and  National  Defence.  .........................................  29 

How   Employes    Should    Proceed   to   Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock  ........................................................................................................  34 

Jackson,    Miss  ................................................................................................  36 

Always   Safety  First  ....................................................................................  52 

Passenger   Traffic   Department  ................................................................  54 

Claims   Department  ......................................................................................  67 

Transportation    Department  ......................................................................  78 

Roll  of  Honor  ................................................................................................  80 

Obituary  —  Harry    Orndorff  ........................................................................  83 

Hospital    Department  ..................................................................................  85 

Freight  Traffic  Department  ......................................................................  88 

Engineering  Department  ............................................................................  92 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department  ................................................  97 

Mechanical  Department  ..............................................................................  100 

Local   Talent  and   Exchanges  ..................................................................  103 

Law    Department  ..........................................................................................  105 

Loss  and   Damage   Bureau  ........................................................................  112 

Appointments  and   Promotions  ................................................................  114 

Meritorious  Service  ......................................................................................  115 

Division    News  ..............................................................................................  118 


nthly  6y  the  7//inois  Central  (J2.  ^?.  G>., 

in  the  interest-  of  the  Company  and  its  4^(JD  'Employes 

Advertising  •  raies  -  on  •  application^ 

Office  V@9*lichiqan9!tt       ^hone  ^ 
Chicago  y  £o 

1$  <fpr.  copy       $1.50  pr.  year 


ANOTHEBv  year  has  been  added  to 
the   history   of   the    Illinois    Central 
lines,  a  year  of  interest,  co-operation  and 
achievement. 

Notwithstanding  the  vicissitudes  inci- 
dent to  the  titanic  European  conflict,  af- 
fecting the  world's  commerce,  marked 
progress  has  been  made  in  our  activities. 

On  behalf  of  the  Management,  1 
extend  to  all  employes  a  Christmas  greeting 
with  the  most  sincere  wishes  that  they, 
with  their  families  and  loved  ones,  may 
enjoy  in  the  fullest  measure  during  the 
coming  year  every  degree  of  prosperity 
and  happiness  to  which  they  may  be 
entitled  or  aspire. 

W.  L.  PARK, 
Vice-President. 


F.  B.  BARCLAY 
Superintendent  Motive  Power,  Southern  Lines 

"C*  NTERED  service  at  Vicksburg  on  L.  N.  O.  &  T.  R.  R.,  as  engineer  (now 
*-^  the  Y.  &  M.  V.)  November  3,  1891.  Was  general  foreman  at  Vicksburg 
shop  from  1898  to  1900.  Was  general  foreman  at  New  Orleans  from  1900 
to  1901.  Was  appointed  master  mechanic  at  Memphis  from  1901  until  1907. 
Transferred  to  McComb  in  1907  and  remained  until  June,  1913,  when  pro- 
moted to  present  position. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.4 


DECEMBER,  1915 


No.  6 


Story  of  tjao 
IllinoisGontral  Linos 

during  the 

Civil  Conflict  1861-5 

General  Ambrose  Everett  Burnside 


one  man  ever  had  his  fame 
started  as  the  treasurer  of  a  great 
railroad  company,  then  made  national 
as  the  general  of  a  great  fighting  army, 
and  at  the  same  time  made  world-wide 
and  permanent  by  giving  his  own 
name  to  the  particular  style  of  whis- 
kers he  wore  from  youth  to  old  age. 
That  man  was  "Burnside." 

But  his  middle  name  was  Everts, 
not  "Everett,"  as  it  appears  on  the 
roster,  of  cadets  at  West  Point.  He 
was  christened  "Ambrose  Everts,"  for 
the  deceased  infant  son  of  Dr.  Sylves- 
ter Everts,  who  was  the  family  physi- 
cian of  the  Burnsides,  and  whose  sor- 
rowing wife  was  Mrs.  Burnside's  most 
intimate  friend. 

General  Grant's  middle  name  went 
wrong  on  the  West  Point  roster. 

It  is  quite  notable  evidence  of  what 
Max  Muller  calls  "the  disease  of  lan- 
guage," that  the  great  war  President's 
name  should  have  been  changed  from 
"Link-born"  to  Lincoln,  and  that  two 
of  his  most  illustrious  warriors  should 


be  known  to  fame  by  a  middle  name 
not  bestowed  at  the  christening,  and 
which  does  not  appear  in  the  family 
bible.  But  the  name  is  only  a  desig- 
nating incident  to  such  men  who  would 
have  been  famous  under  any  name. 

Robert,  of  Scotland,  whose  family 
lived  by  the  burn-side,  was  of  a  heroic 
race,  known  among  the  warriors  in 
the  bloody  battles  at  Bannockburn  and 
Flodden  Field.  He  and  his  brother 
were  with  Prince  Charles  Edward  at 
Culloden  in  1746.  After  that  disas- 
trous defeat  of  the  "Young  Pretender" 
they  fled  to  America  and  located  on 
the  Saluda  River  in  South  Carolina. 
His  son  James  had  a  son  Edghill. 

Robert  and  his  wife,  Rebecca  Did- 
son,  a  native  of  England,  believed  in 
"The  King,  the  Church  and  the  Con- 
stitution," and  so  were  Tories  in  1776, 
when  our  revolution  broke  out.  Their 
son,  James,  married  the  daughter  of 
the  Tory  Colonel,  James  Edghill,  and 
was  a  captain  in  his  regiment,  one  of 
the  21  Tory  regiments  of  South  Caro- 


11 


12 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


lina  in  the  Revolution.  He  and  Col- 
onel Edghill  went  to  the  loyal  colony 
of  Jamaica,  where  the  British  Gov- 
ernment gave  them  small  indigo  plan- 
tations instead  of  their  South  Carolina 
estates  that  had  been  confiscated  by 
the  Whigs. 

But  James  Burnside  was  pardoned, 
and  returned  to  South  Carolina  in  1786, 
with  his  wife  and  their  daughter.  They 
settled  on  a  plantation  in  Laurens  Dis- 
trict, where  Edghill,  the  father  of  Gen- 
eral Burnside,  was  born  in  1790. 

Edghill  received  a  good  English  ed- 
ucation under  a  Scotch  school  teacher 
in  a  Quaker  neighborhood.  His  elder 
brother,  James,  had  gone  to  the  New 
Eldorado  north  of  the  Ohio  River  to 
"spy  out  the  land."  His  report  was 
so  favorable  that  their  family  "moved" 
to  Indiana  Territory,  three  years  be- 
fore it  was  admitted  to  the  Union. 

Edghill  located  on  a  quarter  section 
of  public  land  near  Liberty,  a  town 
just  staked  out  in  what  was  then 
Franklin,  afterwards  Union  County. 

He  was  one  of  the  sturdy,  stalwart 
pioneers  of  Indiana,  and  the  conditions 
were  of  the  kind  that  made  men  hon- 
est, patient,  industrious  and  self-re- 
liant. There  were  great  forests  to 
clear,  grand  prairies  to  cultivate,  and 
savage  Indians  to  subjugate.  In  due 
time  the  forests  became  orchards,  the 
prairies  waving  fields,  and  the  Indians 
an  unpleasant  memory. 

This  Edghill  Burnside  on  July  14, 
1814,  married  Pamelia  Brown,  daugh- 
ter of  John  Brown,  of  Belfast,  Ireland, 
who  had  married  Sarah  Weeks  of 
Maryland.  They  were  neighbors  of 
the  Burnsides  in  the  Laurens  District, 
South  Carolina,  where  Pamelia  was 
born,  September  15,  1795,  a  comely  girl 
with  fair  skin  and  large  expressive 
hazel  eyes.  So  it  appears  that  General 
Burnside  was  of  Scotch-Irish  descent, 
and  that  all  his  ancestors  for  at  least 
two  generations  were  Southerners.  He 
was  born  in  a  log  cabin  on  his  father's 
farm  near  Liberty,  Indiana,  on  Sunday, 
the  23rd  day  of  May,  1823,  and  was 
the  fourth  of  nine  children.  When  he 
first  arrived  in  this  world  of  trouble, 


perhaps  he  was  subconsciously  pro- 
testing against  what  was  "coming  to 
him."  Anyhow,  he  would  not  breathe 
till  Dr.  Everts  had  tickled  his  nose 
with  a  chicken  feather  and  so  excited 
a  spasm  of  the  respiratory  organs,  to 
induce  them  to  give  him  a  start  in  life. 

In  addition  to  what  he  learned  from 
his  smart  moth'er,  and  his  school- 
teacher father,  Ambrose  had  the  placid 
instruction  of  Dr.  Houghton,  a  Quaker 
teacher,  one  of  those  who  believed  in 
freeing  slaves  in  the  South,  and  mi- 
grating to  a  region  where  all  were  free 
alike.  He  taught  Ambrose,  English, 
mathematics,  rhetoric,  logic  and  moral 
philosophy ;  and  so  aided  the  boy's 
parents  in  grounding  him  in  those 
sturdy,  inflexible  principles  of  equity, 
justice  and  right  which  characterized 
him  throughout  his  after  life.  On 
Wednesday,  May  19,  1841,  when  he 
was  17  years  old,  his  mother  died.  By 
the  way,  it  is  noticeable  how  often  the 
month  of  May  appears  in  General 
Burnside's  history.  His  sister  Hen- 
rietta was  born  May  21.  He  was  born 
May  23 ;  his  brother  William  May  24 ; 
Harrison,  May  28 ;  Benjamin,  May  30. 

May  23,  1850,  the  day  he  was  26 
years  old,  he  wrote  his  first  military 
report  of  his  first  excursion  against  the 
Indians  from  Las  Vegas,  New  Mex- 
ico;  this  report  was  addressed  to  Cap- 
tain Judd  of  "Bragg's  Battery"  and 
signed  "A.  E.  Burnside.  Lieutenant 
Third  Artillery,  Commanding  Detach- 
ment." 

May  1,  1861,  his  newly  organized 
First  Regiment  of  Rhode  Island  De- 
tached Militia  was  reviewed  by  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  in  front  of  the  Patent 
Office  in  Washington,  and  May  2  it 
was  mustered  in  by  Major  McDowell. 
May,  1862,  winning  favor  in  North 
Carolina.  May,  1863,  he  arrested, 
tried,  and  convicted  Vallandigham 
in  Ohio  for  the  speech  made  May  1. 
And  May  30  he  started  through  Ken- 
tucky to  go  to  Tennessee.  May  5, 
1864,  began  his  fierce  contests  in  the 
Wilderness  under  Grant.  May,  1865, 
he  was  elected  Director  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad.  Tuesday,  May  29, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


inaugurated  Governor  of  Rhode  Island ; 
re-elected  May  28,  1867,  and  May  26, 
1868.  May,  1869,  fighting  Senator 
Sprague's  slander  against  himself  and 
the  Ninth  Army  Corps,  and  hearing 
great  cheers  for  "Old  Burney" 
wherever  he  went.  May,  1870,  in  Lon- 
don, negotiating  bonds  of  the  Cairo  & 
Vincennes  Railroad.  May,  1874,  be- 
gan the  voting  that  made  him  Senator, 
to  which  high  office  he  was  re-elected. 
May  29,  1875,  he  made  his  great  speech 
at  Antietam  National  Cemetery,  and 
May,  1876,  he  was  member  of  the  high 
court  of  impeachment  trying  Secretary 
of  War  Belknap. 

His  father,  Judge  Edghill  Burnside, 
received  his  title  by  virtue  of  his  office 
as  "Side  Judge"  or  Associate  Judge  to 
the  President  Judge,  who  was  appoint- 
ed by  the  Legislature.  This  "Side 
Judge"  was  a  county  official  elected 
by  the  people,  and,  strange  to  say, 
though  the  "Side  Judge"  was  not  sup- 
posed to  know  much  about  law  or  legal 
forms,  he  was  the  direct  judicial  rep- 
resentative of  the  people,  and  was 
authorized  to  reverse  decisions  of  the 
President  Judge,  or  to  "out-guess  the 
President,"  as  the  people  put  it.  There 
was  more  honor  than  money  in  the 
office  and  he  was  not  financially  a'ble  to 
give  Ambrose  the  kind  of  education 
planned  for  him  by  his  devoted  mother. 
So  Ambrose  was  apprenticed  to  John 
E.  Dunham,  a  merchant  tailor  at  Cen- 
terville,  in  Wayne  County,  Indiana, 
about  15  miles  from  Liberty.  He  be- 
gan as  errand  boy,  delivering  clothes, 
and  calling  for  things  to  be  cleaned  or 
mended.  But  he  displayed  such  intel- 
ligence and  energy  that  he  was  soon 
promoted  to  the  "tailor's  board,"  where 
he  sat  cross-legged  and  sewing,  little 
dreaming,  perhaps,  how  often  in  after 
years  he  would  sit  on  a  "board"  of  a 
different  sort,  and  be  consulted  by  di- 
rectors, examiners,  commissioners,  gen- 
erals, senators,  and  even  by  the  Pres- 
ident himself.  His  work  in  the  tailor 
shop  did  not  prevent  him  from  'study- 
ing and  reading  and  thinking,  and  so 
continuing  his  education.  He  finished 
his  short  term  as  apprentice,  and  for' 


a  while  had  a  different  experience  as  a 
"journeyman  tailor."  But  he  soon 
formed  a  partnership  with  John  M. 
Myers  of  Liberty,  and  pictures  are  ex- 
tant showing  the  little  one-story  frame 
building  with  the  sign  of  "Myers  and 
Burnside — Tailors"  over  its  modest 
door,  down  between  a  story  and  a  half 
boot  and  shoe  store  to  the  left,  and  at 
the  right  the  more  pretentious  two- 
story  dry  goods  store  of  D.  Bowers 
with  its  false  front,  and  its  little  old- 
fashioned  window  panes,  and  its  door- 
less  stairway  entrance  to  the  dwelling 
rooms  above. 

While  at  school,  or  at  Dunham's, 
and  more  particularly  since  he  had  be- 
come "his  own  boss,"  young  Burnside 
was  what  one  of  his  Scotch  compan- 
ions called  "a  sad  dog  with  the  gels." 
He  attended  every  picnic,  party,  sing- 
ing school,  corn  husking,  "quilting," 
church  sociable,  Sunday  school  con- 
cert and  camp  meeting  in  the  neigh- 
borhood ;  and  he  was  Secretary  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Sunday  School,  in 
which  his  father  and  two  sisters  were 
teachers.  It  is  said  he  seldom  missed 
an  opportunity  to  see  the  girls,  and 
with  his  young  men  associates  found 
so  much  to  make  time  fly  pleasantly 
that  he  rarely  had  more  than  three  or 
four  hours  sleep,  often  not  that  much. 
He  was  "good-looking."  He  was  tall, 
broad-shouldered,  active  and  vigorous, 
and  with  frank,  genial  manners,  he  was 
a  very  popular  young  man.  But  such 
popularity  in  that  country  at  that 
time  implied  personal  courage,  in 
which  Ambrose  was  not  lacking.  He 
was  an  enthusiastic  member  of  "The 
Debating  Club,"  which  was  one  of  Lib- 
erty's favorite  functions.  It  met  in  the 
Court  House,  and  was  the  nest  from 
which  several  of  Indiana's  "oratorical 
eagles"  soared.  At  the  close  of  one 
meeting,  his  elder  brother,  "Henry  M.," 
missed  his  pocket-book,  containing  a 
small  amount  of  money.  Ambrose 
promptly  closed  the  door  before  any- 
one went  out,  and  locked  it,  putting 
the  key  in  his  pocket.  Then  he 
glanced  quickly  at  the  faces  of  his 
wondering  companions,  using,  perhaps, 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


his  inherited  "Scottish  Second  Sight," 
and  soon  said :  "There  is  the  thief," 
pointing  to  a  young  lawyer,  who  had 
lately  come  to  Liberty  at  the  request 
of  an  old  attorney,  and  was  already 
getting  a  good  business  start.  The 
young  lawyer  blustered  and  threatened 
but  Ambrose  forcibly  caught  him  by 
the  collar,  took  the  lost  property  from 
the  culprit's  pocket  and  gave  it  back 
to  its  owner.  The  unfortunate  disciple 
of  Blackstone  disappeared  from  Lib- 
erty before  daylight,  evidently  fearing 
that  he  would  lose  his  liberty  if  he  re- 
mained. 

One  day  the  Honorable  Caleb  B. 
Smith,  M.  C.,  stepped  into  the  tailor 
shop  to  have  a  rent  in  his  coat  mended. 
He  found  young  Burnside  contentedly 
stitching  away,  while  attentively  study- 
ing "Cooper's  Tactics,"  propped  up 
against  a  tailor's  "goose"  and  kept 
open  by  the  shears. 

The  Congressman  related  that  some 
unknown  influence  prompted  him  to 
particularly  notice  the  rather  unusual 
young  man,  and  then  say  to  him :  "You 
should  be  a  cadet  at  West  Point." 
Ambrose  heartily  agreed  with  him. 
His  partner,  Myers,  knew  something 
about  "Militia  Military,"  and  their  dis- 
cussion had  developed  the  interest  al- 
ready aroused  in  young  Burnside  by 
the  Texas  Revolution  and  the  stories 
of  the  Indian  fighters  who  had  made 
Indiana  habitable  for  the  white  man. 
Judge  Burnside,  his  father,  was  in  the 
legislature,  and  with  strong  endorse- 
ment the  application  was  sent  to 
Washington,  and,  in  spite  of  President 
Tyler's  animosity  against  Congress- 
man Smith,  the  appointment  was  re- 
ceived and  acknowledged  as  follows: 

"Liberty,  March  17,  1843. 
"Hon.  J.  M.  Porter,  Secretary  of  War. 

"Sir : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowl- 
edge the  receipt  of  a  communication  of 
8th  of  March,  informing  me  that  the 
President  has  conferred  upon  me  a  con- 
ditional appointment  of  Cadet  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States,  and  to 
inform  you  of  my  acceptance  of  same. 

"Very  respectfully, 
"Your  obedient  servant, 
"Ambrose  E.  Burnside." 


"I  hereby  assent  to  the  above  ac- 
ceptance of  my  son  of  his  conditional 
appointment  as  Cadet,  and  he  has  my 
full  permission  to  sign  articles  by 
which  he  will  bind  himself  to  serve  the 
United  States  eight  years,  unless  soon- 
er discharged. 

"Edghill  Burnside." 

It  is  said  that  the  appointment  was 
really  obtained  by  Congressman 
Smith's  defeated  competitor,  Judge  C. 
H.  Test,  who  requested  his  friend, 
Robert  Tyler,  to  intercede  for  Young 
Burnside  with  his  father,  the  Presi- 
dent. 

Since  Burnside  was  destined  to  have 
so  much  to  do  with  making  practical 
Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
it  is  interesting  to  note  the  attitude  of 
Washington  City  towards  slavery  at 
the  time  young  Cadet  Burnside  first 
saw  the  Capital  of  his  country  in  1843. 
"Long  John  Wentworth,"  in  his  "Con- 
gressional Reminiscences,"  tell  the 
story.  He  had  been  elected  when  27, 
the  youngest  Congressman  ever  sent 
from  Illinois  (except  D.  P.  Cook).  It 
was  about  his  first  visit  to  Washing- 
ton, and  he  had  never  been  to  the  Cap- 
ital of  his  own  state,  and  had  never 
seen  any  legislative  body  in  session. 
There  was  no  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
to  travel  around  on.  He  says,  "Illinois 
was  then  a  frontier  state.  All  north  was 
known  as  Wisconsin  Territory,  and 
all  west  as  far  as  the  Missouri  line 
was  Iowa  Territory.  We  had  no  Pa- 
cific possessions,  Texas  had  not  been 
acquired,  and  Florida  was  but  a  Terri- 
tory. My  Congressional  term  em- 
braced every  crisis  in  the  slavery  agi- 
tation." 

"Washington  was,  at  that  time,  the 
greatest  slave  mart  in  the  world.  With- 
in sight  of  the  Capitol,  not  far  from 
the  lower  gate,  and  near,  if  not  upon, 
the  land  where  the  public  garden  now 
is,  was  a  building  with  a  large  yard 
around  it,  enclosed  with  a  high  fence. 
Thither  the  slaves  were  brought  from 
all  the  slave-holding  regions,  like  cat- 
tle to  the  Chicago  Stock  Yards,  and 
locked  up  until  sold.  There  were  reg- 
ular auction  days  for  those  not  dis- 
posed of  at  private  sales.  The  Chi- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


15 


cago  Fire  destroyed  a  hard  cracker  I 
had  preserved  as  a  specimen  by  which 
purchasers  tested  the  age  of  slaves. 
The  theory  was  that  while  a  slave 
could  masticate  well  he  could  work." 

Young  Burnside  left  his  work-bench 
to  become  "an  officer  and  a  gentle- 
man" with  52  other  cadets  who  enrolled 
at  West  Point  July  1,  1843,  most  of 
them  to  be  graduated  as  "the  Class  of 
'47,"  the  roster  of  which,  with  those 
just  before  and  after,  contains  some  of 
the  most  illustrious  names  that  make 
the  history  of  our  Civil  War.  Among 
them  are :  Generals  McClellan,  Han- 
cock, Parke,  Pleasanton,  Fitz  John, 
Porter,  Hatch,  Sackett,  Granger,  Rus- 
sell, Pitcher,  Foster,  Reno,  Stoneman, 
Gibbs,  Frye,  Gibbon,  Griffin,  Viele, 
De  Russy,  Duane,  Michler,  Tidball, 
Gilmore,  Benet,  Baird,  and  McKeever, 
of  the  Federal  Army ;  while  Generals 
T.  J.  ("Stonewall")  Jackson,  Buckner, 
Bee,  Rhett,  Wilcox,  Maxey,  Pickett, 
Hill,  Heth,  Stewart,  Withers  and  Rob- 
inson fought  under  the  Confederate 
flag.  But  Cadet  Burnside  formed 
warm  personal  friendships  during 
those  four  swiftly  flying  years,  some 
of  which  were  marred  but  not  weak- 
ened by  the  furious  war  which  fol- 
lowed. 

One  of  those  most  notable  friend- 
ships was  with  Cadet  Heth  of  Vir- 
ginia, his  room-mate  in  the  old  North 
Barrack,  No.  8.  Cadet  Burnside  en- 
joyed fun,  and  "finesse,"  to  such  an 
•extent  that  more  than  once  he  narrow- 
ly escaped  losing  his  place  because  of 
•demerits.  Ben  Perley  Poor,  who 
wrote  his  biography,  writes  of  the 
most  peculiar  cadet  contemporary  of 
Burnside,  and  his  future  conqueror, 
"Cadet  T.  J.  Jackson,  of  Virginia,  af- 
terwards known  as  'Stonewall  Jack- 
son/ was  of  very  different  disposition." 
He  was  regarded  by  the  other  cadets 
as  an  awkward,  eccentric  hypochron- 
driac,  who  often  conceived  the  idea 
that  he  was  threatened  with  a  paralysis 
of  the  right  arm,  and  he  would  move 
it  up  and  down  like  a  pump-handle  a 
certain  number  of  times,  counting  as 
he  continued,  and  getting  very  angry 


if  he  was  interrupted.  Burnside  and 
Heth  "played  it  rough"  on  a  "wild 
and  wooley"  raw  cadet  from  the  far 
west,  who  had  such  long  tawny  hair 
and  beard  he  was  nick-named  "the 
Bison,"  there  being  millions  of  those 
animals  out  where  he  lived  when  he 
was  at  home. 

Heth  brought  him  to  their  room, 
fixed  up  in  imitation  of  a  barber  shop, 
and  the  coatless  Ambrose,  with  a  long 
white  towel  pinned  on  as  an  apron 
and  shears  in  hand,  was  standing  by 
the  improvised  barber's  chair.  They 
told  "Bison"  he  was  liable  to  be  ar- 
rested with  all  that  hair  on  him,  and 
he  was  eager  for  the  proposed  opera- 
tion. When  Ambrose  had  clipped  the 
hirsuit  mask  from  one  side  of  his  vic- 
tim's head  and  face,  the  expected  drum 
beat,  and  all  hurried  off  to  parade,  the 
"barber"  promising  to  finish  the  job 
later.  One  may  imagine  the  result. 
Burnside  later  acknowledged  his  fault 
to  the  Superintendent,  who  compelled 
him  to  finish  the  job,  and  he  paid  the 
penalty  of  being  called  the  "Cadet  Bar- 
ber" for  a  long  time  thereafter. 

The  war  with  Mexico  was  raging  in 
1846,  an  exciting  year  at  West  Point. 
One  of  the  four  captains  was  reduced 
to  the  ranks  for  violation  of  rules,  and 
Burnside  long  ago  having  been  made 
"Cadet  Corporal,"  because  of  his  effi- 
ciency in  drill,  was  promoted  to  the 
vacancy  in  October,  1846 ;  but,  unfor- 
tunately, Cadet  Captain  Burnside  was 
reduced  to  the  ranks  April  15,  1847,  for 
being  reported  absent  from  the  post 
without  leave. 

But  at  last  his  commission  came, 
dated  July  1,  1847,  with  an  order  to 
proceed  to  the  City  of  Mexico  in  com- 
mand of  the  recruits  destined  for  his 
regiment,  as  an  escort  to  the  baggage 
train.  But  the  war  was  over  when  he 
arrived,  and  the  handsome,  gallant, 
young  Lieutenant  had  opportunity  to 
see  something  of  Mexican  society,  and 
to  compare  "the  dark-eyed  senoritas  of 
the  Halls  of  the  Montezumas"  with  the 
fair  women  of  his  own  land.  This  he 
was  well  qualified  to  do,  for  he  ha4 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


lately  spent  a  week  at  Louisville,  and 
a  shorter  time  in  New  Orleans. 

From  Mexico  he  was  soon  ordered 
to  Fort  Adams,  near  Newport,  Rhode 
Island,  and  stationed  there  for  some 
time,  enjoying  the  delightful  hospital- 
ities of  that  society  resort  and  of  the 
nearby  Providence.  But  December 
10,  1849,  he  was  sent  to  New  Mexico 
with  "Bragg's  Battery,"  one  of  the  most 
efficient  in  the  service,  a  part  of  which 
was  afterwards  equipped  and  mounted 
as  Cavalry,  with  him  in  command  of 
the  detachment,  performing  escort 
duty,  protecting  mail  riders,  going  on 
scouting  parties,  and  doing  other  such 
service. 

His  only  chance  for  real  Indian  fight- 
ing came  August  16,  1850.  A  party  of 
60  Apaches  came  to  Las  Vegas  and 
asked  Captain  Judd  for  powder  and 
ball.  He  refused  because  Apaches  and 
Eutaws  had  lately  been  troublesome 
and  had  killed  mail  carriers  and  others, 
and  destroyed  their  wagons  at  Wagon 
Mound,  as  reported  by  Lieutenant 
Burnside,  May  23.  The  Indians  de- 
parted, grumbling.  Lieutenant  Burn- 
side  was  sent  with  29  men  to  arrest 
their  chief  before  they  reached  their 
camp,  about  half  a  mile  from  town. 
The  Indians  fired  at  the  soldiers  with 
rifles  and  bows,  and  fled,  the  soldiers 
after  them  deployed  as  skirmishers. 
In  the  running  hand-to-hand  conflict 
for  about  nine  miles,  the  soldiers  using 
only  sabers,  three  Indians  were  cap- 
tured, and  about  twenty  killed.  Lieu- 
tenant Burnside  was  wounded  by  an 
arrow  just  below  the  ear,  and  several 
of  his  men  also  received  arrow  wounds. 
Then  a  regular  Cavalry  force  was  sent 
to  New  Mexico,  and  the  much  compli- 
mented Lieutenant  Burnside  joined 
his  regiment  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  St. 
Louis.  Here  he  horsewhipped  a  news- 
paper reporter  for  an  insulting  paragraph 
in  his  paper;  on  Dr.  Johnson's  theory  of 
"a  free  press  and  a  free  cudgel."  Then 
he  was  sent  to  Colonel  Graham  at  El 
Paso,  Texas,  and  assigned  as  escort  to  the 
Boundary  Commission.  From  Santa 
Rita  he  was  returned  to  Washington 
with  special  dispatches  from  Colonel 


Graham,  who  also  sent  a  civilian  assist- 
ant with  duplicate  dispatches  by  way 
of  El  Paso  and  San  Antonio,  while 
Burnside  took  the  old  Santa  Fe  Trail 
for  the  Missouri  River,  with  an  escort 
of  three  men,  one  a  devoted  negro 
servant,  Robert  Holloway,  and  one  a 
veteran  frontier  guide  and  mail  rider. 
It  required  all  their  skill  and  hardi- 
hood to  escape  the  Indians.  They  lived 
on  buffalo  and  other  game,  and  by  way 
of  Fort  Leavenworth  and  St.  Louis, 
reached  Washington  in  31  days ;  over 
1,200  miles  journey  from  the  copper 
mines  at  Santa  Rita  del  Colere.  While 
waiting  at  Washington,  he  worked  on 
the  breach-loading  rifle  he  invented. 
It  was  twice  approved  by  examiners, 
but  he  failed  to  get  the  expected  $90,- 
000  Government  order,  it  is  said,  be- 
cause he  refused  to  pay  a  bonus  of 
$5,000  demanded  by  a  "middle  man" 
whose  influence  in  Washington  seemed 
potent.  December  16,  1851,  he  was 
made  First  Lieutenant  and  went  home 
to  Liberty  on  a  furlough.  His  old 
partner,  John  M.  Myers,  who  had 
served  in  Mexico,  was  there  to  greet 
him  as  Colonel  of  Volunteers. 

March  16,  1852,  he  was  ordered  back 
to  Fort  Adams,  and  attached  to  a  light 
battery  of  picked  men.  He  met  the 
Marine  Artillery  Corps  of  Providence, 
efficiently  drilled  by  Wm.  Sprague, 
afterwards  War  Governor  of  Rhode 
Island.  At  a  ball  in  Providence  given 
by  the  Marine  Military  Corps,  he  met 
Miss  Mary  Richmond  Bishop,  to  whom 
he  was  married,  April  27, 1852,  at  Prov- 
idence, where  she  was  born,  October 
26,  1828,  the  daughter  of  Major  Na- 
thaniel Bishop  and  Fanny  Windsor 
Bishop,  his  wife. 

The  bride  is  described  as  "a  lady  of 
courtly  presence,  rather  tall  and  state- 
ly, of  quiet  and  genial  temper,  self- 
reliant,  and  the  possessor  of  earnest 
religious  convictions." 

He  resigned  from  the  Army,  Novem- 
ber 1,  1852,  and  aided  by  his  friends, 
established  a  factory  to  manufacture 
his  invention,  a  brech-loading  rifle,  at 
Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  making  that  his 
home.  The  enterprise  was  not  a  sue- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


17 


cess.  While  there  he  was  Major-Gen- 
eral of  the  Volunteer  Militia  of  the 
State. 

In  1856,  President  Pierce  appointed 
him  one  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  of 
West  Point.  March  4,  1857,  he  was 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  Congress 
from  the  Eastern  District  of  Rhode 
Island.  He  was  defeated  by  the  in- 
cumbent, Daniel  B.  Durfee.  He  made 
an  assignment  for  the  benefit  of  the 
creditors  of  the  Bristol  Rifle  Works. 
In  New  York  he  sold  his  uniform,  sword 
and  epaulets  for  $30.00 ;  having  then  as 
his  total  assets,  $50.00,  he  sent  $35.00  to 
his  wife  at  Bristol,  and  started  west  to 
get  employment.  He  stopped  at  Lib- 
erty to  see  his  old  friends,  and  told 
them  he  was  penniless. 

His  former  comrade,  Captain  George 
B.  McClellan,  then  Vice-President  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 
offered  him  the  position  of  cashier  in 
the  railroad  land  office.  He  accepted 
and  began  work  in  Chicago,  April  27, 
1858.  Mrs.  Burnside  soon  joined  him, 
and  they  resided  in  the  house  with  Cap- 
tain McClellan,  still  a  bachelor.  Burn- 
side  finally  paid  all  his  debts.  He  was 
popular  in  Chicago,  and  became  a 
friend  of  Colonel  Ellsworth,  then  drill- 
ing his  famous  Zouaves.  In  June, 
1860,  he  was  made  Treasurer  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  with  his 
office  in  New  York  City.  He  devoted 
all  his  time  to  the  interests  of  that 
Company.  He  was  in  Cairo,  December 
19,  and  received  a  letter  from  Presi- 
dent W.  H.  Osborn  at  Chicago,  say- 
ing: "Mr.  Arthur  to  purchase  50,000 
bushels  of  corn  and  ship  same  to  your 
order  in  cars  to  New  Orleans."  To 
which  place  he  proceeded  forthwith. 
In  talking  to  old  New  Orleans  friends, 
Treasurer  Burnside  realized  that  the 
Democratic  Party  was  Southern  and 
geographical,  and  that  it  had  ceased 
to  have  any  national  ideas  except  the 
nationality  of  slavery ;  that  it  permit- 
ted the  surrender  of  forts  and  the  haul- 
ing down  the  flag ;  and  he  frankly  told 
his  Southern  friends :  '  ...  You 
entirely  mistake  the  character  of  the 
Northern  people.  They  will  fight. 


They  will  never  allow  the  Union  to 
be  broken.  .  .  .  Not  only  will  the 
North  fight,  but  they  will  also  tri- 
umph." 

Those  were  troublous  times  with 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad — early  in 
the  historic  year  of  1861.  Current 
money  had  become  so  unstable,  and 
much  of  it  so  depreciated  that  a  long 
list  of  banks  were  considered  unsafe, 
and  the  list  was  rapidly  increasing. 
That  road,  too,  making  history.  Pres- 
ident Osborn  wrote  to  A.  E.  Burnside, 
Treasurer,  31  Nassau  Street,  New 
York,  explaining  to  him  that  the  Act 
of  Congress  giving  land  did  not  put  on 
the  Illinois  Central  Company  the  re- 
sponsibility of  a  common  carrier.  The 
Government  has  the  right  to  demand 
unobstructed  use  of  the  road,  gratis, 
but  not  the  use  of  its  rolling  stock  and 
other  equipment  without  paying  for  it. 
This  grew  out  of  negotiations  to  carry 
Government  troops  and  supplies. 
Burnside's  prediction  to  his  New  Or- 
leans friends  were  rapidly  being  veri- 
fied, and  in  1861  a  letter  from  Presi 
dent  W.  H.  Osborn  said,  "since  the 
blockade  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  is  earning  as  much  trans- 
porting troops  as  it  earned  by  last 
month's  traffic  South";  but  Mr.  Burn- 
side  was  no  longer  connected  with  the 
railroad.  After  the  surrender  of  Fort 
Sumter,  Treasurer  Burnside  quickly 
balanced  up  his  books  for  he,  of  course, 
anticipated  a  call  from  the  Federal 
Government,  and  he  had  all  prepara- 
tions made  when  it  came.  In  the  New 
York  office  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road, on  Monday,  the  15th  of  April, 
1861,  he  received  the  following  dis- 
patch from  Governor  Sprague : 

"A  regiment  of  Rhode  Island  troops 
will  go  to  Washington  this  week.  How 
soon  can  you  come  on  and  take  com- 
mand?" 

The  prompt  reply  was,  "At  once." 
Burnside  turned  over  to  his  assistant 
the  treasury  books  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company,  and  reported 
for  duty  in  Providence  the  next  morn- 
ing, Tuesday,  April  16. 

To  Be  Continued. 


PUBLIC  OPINION 


the 


World  thinks 


Telling  the  Truth 


A  series  of  publicity  bulletins  being 
issued  by  the  Illinois  Central  and  Y. 
&  M.  V.  roads  set  forth  some  interest- 
ing facts  that  deserve  serious  con- 
sideration. 

The  following  bulletin  tells  a  truth- 
ful story  in  a  frank  and  straightforward 
manner,  and  the  statements  therein 
are  of  especial  importance  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Mississippi  at  this  time. 

The  one  problem,  the  solution  of 
which  is  most  vital  to  the  people,  of 
this  country,  is  the  "High  Cost  of  Liv- 
ing." 

Unavailing  effort  has  been  made  to 
secure  a  reduction  in  the  cost  of  living 
necessities. 

As  a  last  resort  demands  are  con- 
stantly being  made  by  workers  of 
every  class  for  increased  compensa- 
tion, the  idea  being  of  course,  that  as 
the  price  of  the  commodities  they  must 
have  cannot  be  lowered,  their  income 
must  be  raised. 

This  puts  the  problem  squarely  up 
to  employers,  and  they  very  properly 
assert  that  the  "High  Cost  of  Living" 
is  even  more  of  a  factor  with  them 
than  with  the  individual. 

As  an  example,  consider  our  rail- 
roads. Everything  that  they  have  to 
buy  in  order  to  operate  safely  and  give 
satisfactory  service  has  increased  in 
price  by  leaps  and  bounds ;  this  in- 
cludes labor. 

On  the  other  hand  the  price  of  the 
only  commodity  that  they  have  to  sell, 
viz.,  Transportation  (except  in  isolated 
cases)  has  gone  down. 

Railroads    have    no    employers    that 


they  can  go  to  with  pleas  and  threats 
and  successfully  force  an  advance  in 
rates ;  they  are  tied  hand,  foot  and  mid- 
dle by  the  orders  and  rulings  of  Muni- 
cipal, State  and  Federal  Commissions. 

No  community  can  be  prosperous 
without  efficient  transportation  facili- 
ties, and  a  starved  railroad  cannot  give 
efficient  service. 

The  only  recourse  of  transportation 
lines  is  for  the  people  (who  basically 
are  always  fair)  to  demand  for  them 
fair  play. 

Remember  that  prosperous  railroads 
always  serve  prosperous  sections,  and 
in  order  to  meet  their  ever  increasing 
living  cost,  transportation  lines  should 
be  allowed  to  reasonably  increase  the 
price  of  the  commodity  which  they 
have  to  sell. 

There  can  be  no  permanent  prosper- 
ity in  Mississippi  while  the  common 
carriers  are  being  nagged  by  commis- 
sions, harrassed  by  hostile  legislation, 
oppressed  with  useless  litigation  in- 
stituted by  the  Attorney-General,  and 
constantly  raided  by  a  horde  of  dam- 
age suit  lawyers. 

Our  people  may  not  realize  it,  but 
our  people  themselves  must  pay  for  all 
these  things,  for  they  simply  take 
money  out  of  their  own  pockets  when 
they  permit  or  tolerate  these  acts  of 
injustice. 

"A  starved  railroad  cannot  give  effi- 
cient service."  That  is  true  not  only  of 
railroads,  but  it  applies  to  every  other 
form  of  service.  Unless  a  mule  gets 
enough  to  eat  he  will  not  perform  a 
good  day's  work. 


18 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


The  railroads  in  Mississippi  have 
never  asked  for  more  than  common 
justice,  and  they  are  certainly  entitled 
to  that.  Unless  it  is  given  them  in 
more  unstinted  measure  every  form  of 
material  development  in  our  common- 
wealth will  be  seriously  hampered. — 
Jackson  (Miss.)  News,  November  19, 
1915. 


I 


THE  RAILROADS  AND  THE 
PUBLIC. 

T  was  a  gloomy  picture  that  Mr.  B. 
F.  Bush,  receiver  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific  system,  displayed  to  the  mem-- 
bers  and  guests  of  the  Commercial 
Club  of  St.  Louis,  at  its  meeting 
Wednesday  night,  in  his  address  upon 
the  question,  "Why  Are  Certain  Im- 
portant Western  Railroads  in  the 
Hands  of  Receivers?"  It  was  gloomy 
because  Mr.  Bush  had  little  else  but 
grays  and  blacks  upon  his  palette.  It 
is  true,  as  he  stated,  that  the  railroads, 
particularly  those  of  the  Central  West, 
are  in  a  bad  way.  It  is  true  that  a 
great  deal  of  legislation  has  been  ap- 
parently designed  for  the  destruction 
rather  than  the  regulation  of  railroads ; 
that  taxes,  wages  and  cost  of  materials 
have  increased  while  rates  have  been 
arbitrarily  lowered  below  the  possibil- 
ity of  profit;  that  the  railroads,  in 
short,  have  been  ground  between  the 
upper  and  the  nether  millstones  of 
public  antagonism  and  economic  cir- 
cumstances. But  there  was  a  bit  of 
brighter  color  that  Mr.  Bush  might 
have  put  into  his  picture,  for  it  be- 
longs there.  Let  us  apply  it,  and  then 
take  another  look.  The  picture  is  the 
same,  yes,  but  away  in  the  background 
we  may  now  discern  a  spot  of  blue 
that  breaks  the  leaden  sky.  Mr.  Bush 
and  the  gentlemen  who  listened  to  him 
the  other  night  would  do  well  to  keep 
their  eyes  upon  that  bit  of  blue,  for 
it  is  the  changing  attitude  of  public 
opinion. 

How  often  on  a  sad  and  dreary  day 
we  have  looked  up  and  observed  a  lit- 
tle rift  within  the  clouds  and  we  have 
murmured  hopefully,  "Perhaps  it  will 
clear  after  awhile."  We  go  on  about 


our  business  and  a  little  later  we  real- 
ize the  sun  is  shining,  although  we 
did  not  note  its  first  appearance.  We 
look  up  again,  and,  miracle !  the  clouds 
have  disappeared;  not  dispersed,  but 
dissolved.  So  it  will  be,  we  think,  with 
this  railroad  situation.  It  was  brought 
about  by  public  opinion,  largely  be- 
cause of  evils  that  did  exist  in  the  rail- 
road business.  It  is  public  opinion 
that  will  restore  it,  and  soon  restore 
it,  to  the  prosperity  to  which  it  is  en- 
titled and  without  which  there  can  be 
no  general  and  permanent  prosperity 
in  this  country.  The  people  are  learn- 
ing by  hard  experience  that  the  rail- 
roads, rightly  managed,  are  not  ene- 
mies but  friends,  not  evils  but  neces- 
sities, and  they  are  beginning  to  real- 
ize that  the  new  type  of  railroad  man- 
ager, the  type  that  has  come  up 
through  great  tribulation,  can  conduct 
his  properties  with  fidelity  to  its  stock- 
holders and  with  right  regard  to  the 
public  interests  at  the  same  time.  A 
new  era  is  dawning  in  the  railroad 
business.  One  of  these  days,  and  the 
time  is  not  so  far  distant,  the  railroad 
men  of  the  country  will  look  out  of 
their  windows  and  discover  a  clear 
sky. — St.  Louis  Globe  Democrat,  Oct. 
29,  1915. 


SHIPPERS  CAN  HELP 


Advice   of    I.    C.    C.    Concerning   Car 
Shortage 

"INFORMAL  complaints  to  the 
interstate  commission  indicate 
that  the  annually  recurring  failure  of 
transportation  facilities  known  as  "car 
shortage"  is  again  appearing.  The 
commission  urges  on  all  shippers  and 
carriers  that  close  attention  to  methods 
of  loading,  unloading,  moving  and 
promptly  returning  to  use  the  cars 
now  available  will  go  far  toward  mak- 
ing the  present  supply  of  cars  suffi- 
cient for  all  purposes. 

In  order  that  the  business  of  the 
country  may  go  forward  without  in- 
terruption, the  commission  urges  ship- 
pers, both  individually  and  through 
their  associations,  to  co-operate  to 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


secure  the  prompt  and  full  loading  of 
cars  and  their  prompt  release.  One 
of  the  chief  causes  of  failure  of  car  sup- 
ply in  past  seasons  has  been  the  un- 
necessary detention  of  cars  by  careless 
shippers  and  by  shippers  using  them 
for  storage  purposes.  In  the  general 
public  interest,  shippers  should  en- 
deavor to  release  cars  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment  without  regard  to  the 
free  time  given  by  the  tariffs. 

All  the  efforts  of  the  shippers  will 
be  unavailing,  however,  unless  the  car- 
riers also  use  extraordinary  measures 
to  eliminate  all  delays  chargeable  to 
them.  The  failure  of  car  supply  is 
usually  a  failure  of  car  movement.  The 
congestion  of  terminals  is  the  ever  pres- 
ent feature  at  times  of  such  failure. 
The  commission,  therefore,  urges  car- 
riers to  make  every  possible  endeavor 
to  improve  their  methods  of  operation 
of  terminals  in  order  that  cars  may 
move  promptly.  Also  company  mate- 
rial should  be  unloaded  with  the. same 
dispatch  that  is  required  of  shippers. 

The  commission  is  moved  to  make 
this  appeal  by  its  desire  to  save  both 
shippers  and  carriers  from  the  losses 
which  are  occasioned  by  failures  of  car 
supply,  and  by  its  knowledge  that 
measures  such  as  are  here  suggested 
have  operated  in  past  seasons  to  save 
all  concerned  from  heavy  losses."- 
Freeport  (111.)  Bulletin,  Nov.  5,  1915. 


A  SHOT  AT  THE  RAMSEY  BAR 

"Through  the  most  scandalous  and 
unethical  conduct  of  a  number  of  law- 
yers located  at  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  the 
courts  there  are  being  fairly  swamped 
with  cases  of  this  character  (imported 
personal  injury  cases)  to  the  great  in- 
jury and  inconvenience  and  inequitable 
treatment  of  the  residents  of  our  own 
and  other  foreign  states." 

This  is  a  sentence  taken  from  the 
decision  of  Judge  Thomas  J.  Maxwell, 
of  Creston,  Iowa,  perpetuating  an  or- 
der enjoining  a  citizen  of  his  jurisdic- 
ti|On  from  taking  a  personal  injury 
case  to  St.  Paul  for  trial. 

We  are  interested  at  this  particular 
moment  in  what  he  savs  of  certain 


"lawyers  located  at  St.  Paul."  So 
much  has  been  said  of  the  iniquity 
and  inequity  of  these  imported  dam- 
age suits  and  the  useless  expense  they 
saddle  upon  the  taxpayers  of  Ramsey 
county  that  the  public  must  be  in- 
formed and  disgusted.  But  now  comes 
a  judge  sitting  on  the  bench  and  di- 
recting attention  to  "most  scandalous 
and  unethical  conduct"  of  certain  St., 
Paul  lawyers  in  this  connection.  This 
is  a  serious  accusation,  brought  against 
members  of  the  Ramsey  county  bar 
and  officers  of  the  courts  of  Minne- 
sota. It  is  inconceivable  that  the  Iowa 
court  spoke  without  full  knowledge  of 
the  circumstances  and  the  names  of 
the  offending  lawyers.  Undoubtedly 
all  are  matters  of  record  in  the  Union 
county  court  proceedings. 

Surely  there  is  a  remedy  for  this 
state  of  affairs.  With  this  charge 
hurled  at  the  bar  of  Ramsey  county, 
surely  that  honorable  organization  will 
not  be  content  with  dodging  its  head 
and  letting  the  shot  shriek  past.  This 
is  a  grave  reflection,  as  long  as  it 
stands  in  this  form,  against  the  entire 
legal  profession  of  St.  Paul.  It  charges 
scandalous  and  unethical  conduct  on 
the  part  of  certain  members  and  the 
charges  runs  to  all  of  them  as  long  as 
the  organized  body  lolls  back  and 
shirks  action. — Editorial,  St.  Paul  Dis- 
patch, November  19,  1915. 


MURPHYSBORO       IS       GIVEN 
WRITE-UP    BY    BIG 
MAGAZINE 


Illinois  Central  Magazine  Devotes  Sev- 
eral Pages  to  Murphysboro  and  Vi- 
cinity.   Thousands   of  Copies 
Will  be  Distributed 

The  current  number  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Magaz-ine  which  has  just  been 
distributed  contains  much  good  adver- 
tising for  the  city  of  Murphysboro.  It 
contains  an  article  of  several  thousand 
words  devoted  to  Murphysboro  and  its 
advantages  as  a  manufacturing  center. 
The  article  deals  at  length  with  the 
various  mines  and  other  industries  of 
Murphysboro  as  well  as  with  the  ex- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


21 


cellent  dairy  interests  in  the  surround- 
ing country. 

In  addition  to  the  reading  matter, 
several  pages  are  devoted  to  views  of 
the  city  and  industrial  institutions. 
Among  the  scenes  shown  are  the  fed- 
eral building,  St.  Andrew's  hospital, 
scenes  in  the  business  and  residence 
section,  schools,  churches,  brick  plant, 
creamery,  shoe  factory,  dairy  farms 
and  hard  roads. 

The  edition  consists  of  50,000  copies. 
Of  this  number  45,000  will  be  distrib- 
uted to  the  employees  of  the  company 
and  the  remaining  5,000  will  be  dis- 
tributed by  the  industrial  agents  of  the 
company  to  the  large  concerns 
throughout  the  large  cities  with  which 
the  Illinois  Central  does  business. 

The  magazine  contains  120  pages  of 
well  written  matter  of  interest  to  the 
employees  of  the  company. — Daily  In- 
dependent, Murphysboro,  111.,  Monday, 
Nov.  22,  1915. 


PLAIN  WORDS  FROM  THE 
BENCH 

Let  us  tip  our  hats  to  the  Iowa 
judge  who  put  a  heavy  foot  down 
upon  the  foisting  upon  St.  Paul  the 
trial  of  a  personal  injury  case  in  which 
it  has  no  interest.  We  have  already 


commented  upon  his  caustic  reference 
to  the  scandalous  and  unethical 
lawyers  of  St.  Paul  who  bring  in  these 
outside  cases  and  now  we  may  wish 
there  were  more  of  this  class  of  judges 
so  that  there  would  be  less  of  that 
class  of  lawyers. 

It  will  cost  the  taxpayers  of  Ram- 
sey county  something  like  $70,000  this 
year  to  try  these  imported  cases.  They 
are  cases  in  which  Minnesota  has  no 
connection.  The  injuries  did  not  occur 
in  this  state  and  none  of  the  parties 
to  the  actions  resides  here.  Yet  the 
practice  cannot  be  reached  by  any  ex- 
pedient of  law.  Injured  men  are  as- 
sured they  can  get  larger  verdicts  by 
trying  their  cases  in  Minnesota  and 
we  have  foisted  upon  us  a  volume 
of  litigation  which  costs  us  money  and 
congests  and  delays  the  progress  of 
the  courts  with  our  own  legitimate 
business. 

It  is  a  singular  state  of  affairs  if 
the  bar  associations  of  the  state  and 
county  cannot  devise  means  to  put  an 
end  to  the  practice.  .  With  a  little 
courage  it  might  easily  be  done.  Mean- 
time, a  wassail  to  the  Iowa  judge,  who 
told  in  plain  language  what  he  thought 
of  it. — Editorial,  St.  Paul  Pioneer- 
Press,  November  21,  1915. 


HON.    W.    D.    HANNAH 
President,  Mississippi  State  Fair,  Jackson,  Miss. 


HON.  F.  E.  GUNTER,  PRESIDENT 
Jackson    Board    of    Trade    Jackson,    Miss. 


President  Markham  Replies  to  Sumner  Herald- 
Progress 


Chicago,  111.,  Nov.  2,  1915. 
Mr.  Charlton  M.  Brosius, 

Editor  of  The  Herald-Progress, 

Sumner,  Miss. 
Dear  Sir: — 

Some  one  was  kind  enough  to  send 
me  a  copy  of  your  issue  of  the  14th 
ult.  containing  an  editorial,  which  I 
have  carefully  noted,  reading  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Hon.  J.  J.  Breland  will  this  week 
file  two  suits  against  the  Y.  &  M.  V. 
Railroad  Company  with  the  circuit 
clerk  at  Sumner.  The  suits  are  for 
damages  and  are  brought  by  Mr.  Bre- 
land for  two  negro  men,  Davis  Brown 
and  Glen  Covington.  They  claim  that 
after  they  had  paid  their  fare  on  a  Y. 
&  M.  V.  passenger  train,  the  conductor 
accused  them  of  beating  their  way  and 
cursed  them  and  struck  them.  If  the 
allegations  set  up  are  true,  the  railroad 
should  be  made  to  pay  damages  to  the 
negro  men.  A  large  number  of  negroes 
travel  on  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  From  them 
the  company  receives  many  thousands 
of  dollars  annually.  We  have  been 
traveling  on  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  for  the 
past  four  years  and  we  have  never 
seen  any  bad  conduct  on  the  part  of 
negro  passengers.  Once  at  Webb  and 
once  at  Vance  we  saw  Y.  &  M.  V.  con- 
ductors curse  and  abuse  negro  men 
for  boarding  trains  without  a  ticket 
and  at  Webb  the  conductor  cursed  the 
negro  and  shoved  him  off  the  train  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  he  boarded 
the  train  without  .a  ticket.  He  had 
the  cash,  which  is  good  in  Mississippi 
for  everything  else  except  to  ride  on 
a  Y.  &  M.  V.  train,  and  was  willing  to 
pay  his  fare,  but  because  he  was  a 
negro  the  conductor  cursed  him  and 
pushed  him  off  the  train.  Negroes  are 
human  beings.  They  are  our  charges. 
And  it  is  a  duty  devolving  upon  the 
white  people  to  see  that  they  are 


treated  fairly  and  justly.  The  Damage 
Suit  Disease  will  never  be  cured  in  Mis- 
sissippi until  the  railroads  learn  to  treat 
all  their  patrons  with  fairness  and  a 
small  measure  of  courtesy." 

I  am  very  sorry  you  saw  fit  to  lend 
the  influence  of  your  newspaper  in  sup- 
port of  the  suits  brought  against  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad 
Company  by  Davis  Brown  and  Glen 
Covington,  both  colored,  without  first 
giving  us  an  opportunity  to  present  to 
you  our  side  of  the  controversy. 

The  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley 
Railroad  Company  is  perfectly  willing 
to  be  condemned  if  it  deserves  to  be, 
but  before  passing  sentence  upon  it,  I 
feel  that  we  should  at  least  be  entitled 
to  the  courtesy  of  a  hearing. 

Assuming  that,  at  the  outset,  your 
mind  was  open  and,  as  between  these 
two  negro  litigants  and  the  Railroad 
Company,  you  harbored  no  thought 
other  than  to  be  fair  and  just,  but  that, 
having  heard  a  report  of  what  the 
negroes  had  to  say,  you  accepted  it  as 
conclusive  of  the  entire  matter,  I 
caused  an  investigation  to  be  made  and 
am  taking  the  liberty  of  acquainting 
you  with  the  facts,  which  I  found  to 
be,  substantially,  as  follows : 

Mr.  W.  G.  Beanland  was  the  con- 
ductor in  charge  of  train  No.  340  on 
Sunday,  October  3rd.  Davis  Brown, 
colored,  boarded  the  train  at  rear  of 
white  compartment  and  took  a  seat  in 
the  negro  compartment  of  the  car.  A 
crowd  of  negroes  boarded  the  train  at 
Webb,  en  route  to  Sumner,  a  distance 
of  2.4,  the  running  time  being  only  five 
minutes.  Mr.  Beanland  says  he  did 
not  get  to  Brown  till  the  train  was 
leaving  Sumner  and  then  found  him 
very  busily  engaged  in  looking  out  the 
window.  He  says  he  touched  him  on 
the  shoulder  and  asked  for  his  ticket  and 
the  negro,  in  a  surly  manrier,  replied. 


22 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


23 


that  he  had  paid  cash  fare  from  Webb 
to  Clarksdale.  Mr.  Beanland  says  he 
assured  the  negro  that  such  was  not  the 
case,  whereupon  the  negro  cursed  him, 
and  that  he  then  struck  the  negro  in  the 
face.  This,  briefly,  is  the  substance  of 
Mr.  Beanland's  statement  and  it  is  cor- 
roborated by  a  number  of  witnesses. 
After  the  altercation  took  place,  Brown 
busied  himself  in  taking  the  names  of 
witnesses,  showing  that  he  had  in 
mind  a  suit  against  the  Company.  It 
occurs  to  me  he  might  have  thought 
of  that  even  before  boarding  the  train. 

As  to  the  other  case,  that  of  Glen 
Covington,  Mr.  Beanland,  in  his  state- 
ment, says :  "I  had  no  difficulty  or  con- 
troversy of  any  kind  with  any  negro  on 
that  trip  other  than  with  David  Brown. 
I  understand  the  negro,  Covington, 
says  he  boarded  the  train  at  Tutwiler. 
I  recall  a  tall  negro  getting  on  the 
train  there,  but  I  had  no  words  with 
him.  I  recall  him  because  I  saw  him 
setting  with  Brown  and  observed  them 
talking  together,  and  I  surmised  that 
Brown  was  telling  him  about  the 
trouble  he  had  with  me." 

You  say  in  your  article:  "Negroes 
are  human  beings.  They  are  our 
charges.  And  it  is  a  duty  devolving 
upon  the  white  people  to  see  that  they 
are  treated  fairly  and  justly."  You  are 
quite  right  and  I  am  in  full  accord  with 
you  on  that,  but,  surely,  you  would 
not  deprive  a  white  man  of  the  privi- 
lege of  resenting  an  insult  from  a 
negro.  I  take  it  that  you  think  good, 
law-abiding  negroes  ought  to  be  treat- 
ed fairly  and  considerately,  but  that 
bad  negroes  ought  to  be  held  in  re- 
straint. 

Our  investigation  clearly  develops 
that  Davis  Brown,  without  provoca- 
tion, cursed  the  conductor,  Mr.  Bean- 
land,  and  that  Mr.  Beanland  struck 
him.  That  is  all  there  is  to  this  matter 
which  you  have  made  the  basis  of  a 
damaging  editorial  in  your  newspaper. 
If  you  are  disposed  to  doubt  the  truth- 
fulness of  Mr.  Beanland's  statement,  it 
may  help  you  to  know  something  about 


who  he  is.  I  have  looked  that  up  and 
have  found  that  Mr.  Beanland  was 
born  in  Batesville,  Miss.,  and  resided 
there  till  he  entered  the  service  of 
this  company,  and  is  a  taxpayer  of 
Panola  county.  He  has  been  a  con- 
ductor running  through  Mississippi  for 
the  last  seventeen  years,  and  during  all 
that  time  has  never  been  called  into 
court  as  a  witness  in  any  case  where 
he  was  accused  of  mistreating  a  pas- 
senger, or  on  account  of  alleged  trouble 
of  any  kind  whatever,  where  it  was 
claimed  that  he  was  unfair  or  discour- 
teous towards  a  passenger,  white  or 
black. 

We  are  striving  to  conduct  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad 
Company  in  the  interests  of  the  people 
whom  it  serves.  If  they  are  not  suc- 
cessful, the  road  cannot  prosper.  We 
are  anxious  to  assist  in  building  up  the 
territory  in  which  our  lines  are  located, 
but  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  with 
which  we  have  been  confronted  is  the 
custom  which  obtains  in  Mississippi, 
but  which,  happily,  is  now  beginning 
to  show  signs  of  disappearing,  of  suing 
corporations  on  every  pretext.  Fre- 
quently, we  find  our  business  badly 
crippled  by  the  large  number  of  train 
crews  tied  up  in  courts  all  over  Mis- 
sissippi as  witnesses  in  cases  of  the 
most  frivolous  nature.  It  is  true  that 
we  are  successful  in  defending  the 
great  majority  of  these  cases,  but  the 
costs  are  burdensome  and  the  incon- 
venience which  we  are  put  to  is  tre- 
mendous. 

I  have  felt  by  getting  closer  to  the 
people,  through  free  and  open  discus- 
sion, that  we  might  reach  a  better  un- 
derstanding and  avoid  much  waste  of 
time  and  money.  This  response  to 
your  editorial  is  in  accordance  with 
that  policy.  We  have  nothing  to  con- 
ceal and  aje  only  asking  for  a  square 
deal.  Yours  truly, 

C.  H.  Markham, 

President. 

Greenwood  (Miss.),  Commonwealth,  of 
Nov.  19,  1915. 


24 


Editorial  Comments  of  Mississippi  Newspapers 


More  Fake   Damage  Suits 

In  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Sum- 
ner  Herald-Progress,  President  C.  H. 
Markham,  of  the  Illinois  Central, 
makes  an  interesting  exposure  of  two 
damage  suits  recently  filed  in  the  cir- 
cuit court  of  Tallahatchie  county 
against  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  road. 

The  plaintiffs  in  the  litigation-  are 
negroes  who  claim  that  the  conductor 
on  a  Y.  &  M.  V.  train  cursed  and 
struck  them  after  they  had  paid  their 
fare,  and  accused  them  of  trying  to 
beat  their  way  on  the  train. 

The  evidence  presented  by  President 
Markham  in  his  letter  to  the  Herald- 
Progress  shows  rather  conclusively 
that  one  of  the  negroes  was  a  "stool 
pigeon,"  for  a  professional  damage  suit 
lawyer;  that  an  altercation  with  the 
conductor  was  evidently  provoked  for 
the  specific  purpose  of  rinding  grounds 
for  a  damage  suit,  and  the  "stool 
pigeon"  was  actively  engaged  in  tak- 
ing the  names  of  "witnesses"  while  the 
altercation  was  in  progress.  It  was  the 
"stool  pigeon"  who  started  the  fuss, 
without  any  provocation  whatever,  loud- 
ly cursing  the  conductor,  whereupon 
the  latter  struck  him. 

The  conductor  on  the  train  was  Mr. 
W.  G.  Beanland,  one  of  the  most  pop- 
ular employes  on  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  sys- 
tem, a  man  well-known  and  highly 
esteemed  by  thousands  of  Mississip- 
pians,  and  who  is  noted  for  genial  man- 
ner and  courteous  treatment  of  pas- 
sengers. In  brief,  it  looks  verv  much 
like  a  "frame-up"  case,  in  no  wise  dif- 
ferent to  hundreds  of  similar  suits  in- 
stituted with  the  deliberate  purpose  of 
mulcting  the  common  carrier  for  a 
little  cash. 

In  his  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Sum- 
ner  Herald-Progress  President  Mark- 
ham  says : 

"We  are  striving  to  conduct  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Vallev  "Railroad 
Company  in  the  interests  of  the  peoole 
whom  it  serves.  If  thev  are  not  suc- 
cessful, the  road  cannot  prosner.  We 
are  anxious  to  assist  in  building  up 
the  territory  in  which  our  lines  are 


located,  but  one  of  the  greatest  ob- 
stacles with  which  we  have  been  con- 
fronted is  the  custom  which  obtains 
in  Mississippi,  but  which,  happily,  is 
now  beginning  to  show  signs  of  dis- 
appearing, of  suing  corporations  on 
every  pretext.  Frequently,  we  find  our 
business  badly  crippled  by  the  large 
number  of  train  crews  tied  up  in  courts 
all  over  Mississippi  as  witnesses  in 
cases  of  the  most  frivolous  nature.  It 
is  true  that  we  are  successful  in  de- 
fending the  great  majority  of  these 
cases,  but  the  costs  are  burdensome 
and  the  inconvenience  which  we  are 
put  to  is  tremendous." 

Commenting  on  the  above,  the 
Greenwood  Commonwealth  well  says : 

"We  suggest  that  there  is  food  for 
thought  in  Mr.  Markham's  statement. 
Regardless  of  the  merits  or  demerits 
of  the  cases  under  discussion,  it  is 
true  that  too  many  suits,  which  lack 
merit,  are  brought  against  corpora- 
tions in  this  state.  This  is  hurtful  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  people  in 
many  respects.  Railroads  are  quasi- 
public  institutions.  Every  commodity 
which  we  have  to  sell  is  transported 
by  them.  Every  article  which  we  have 
to  have,  either  to  eat  or  to  wear, 
reaches  us  over  our  transportation 
lines.  Everything  which  hinders  them 
also  injures  us  and  indirectly  the  peo- 
ple have  to  help  carry  the  burden.  But 
that  is  not  the  most  important  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  fair  treatment  of  the 
railroads.  If  we  gain  the  reputation, 
as  a  state,  of  taking  away  from  them  that 
which  is  justlv  theirs,  we  shall  see  no 
more  railroad  building  here.  We  shall 
see  capital-seeking  investment  giving 
us  the  go-bv.  We  shall  see  the  end 
of  outside  help  in  the  progress  of 
Mississippi. 

"Would  it  not  be  well  to  discourasre 
the  things  which  are  inimical  to  our 
best  interests  as  a  people,  and  com- 
mence to  set  our  house  in  order  so 
that  we  mav  share  in  the  wave  of 
prosperity  which  is  now  beginning  to 
sweep  over  the  country?  We  have 
been  narrow  long  enough.  Let  us 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


25 


throw  off  the  yoke  and  begin  to 
broaden  out.  In  our  humble  opinion, 
the  most  effective  start  which  we  could 
possibly  make  would  be  to  put  a  stop 
to  'peanut'  litigation  against  our  rail- 
roads." 

The  truth  of  this  is  being  realized 
in  quite  a  number  of  counties  in 
Mississippi,  notably  here  in  Hinds, 
where  a  complainant  must  have  just 
cause  for  action  against  a  common  car- 
rier before  a  damage  verdict  can  be 
hoped  for — and  if  there  is  just  cause  of 
action  it  rarely  reaches  trial  in  the 
courts,  for  the  railroad  company  is  in- 
variably willing  to  make  settlement  on 
reasonable'  basis. 

The  taxpayers  in  Hinds  have  awak- 
ened to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that, 
in  the  end,  damage  suit  judgments  are 
settled  by  the  taxpayers,  not  by  the 
railroad ;  that  that  expense  of  useless 
litigation  is  a  certain  item  in  the  fixed 
charges  of  a  railroad  company's  ex- 
pense budget,  and,  while  paid  by  the 
company,  it  is  the  general  public  that 
must  eventually  foot  the  bill. — Edi- 
torial, Jackson  News. 


"PEANUT"  LITIGATION 

In  another  column  of  this  issue  ap- 
pears the  reply  of  President  Markham, 
of  the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley 
Railroad  Company,  to  an  editorial  pub- 
lished in  the  Herald-Progress,  of  Sum- 
ner,  of  the  14th  ult.,  the  occasion  be- 
ing two  suits  brought  recently  in  the 
Circuit  Court  of  Tallahatchie  county 
by  a  couple  of  negro  men,  demanding 
heavy  damages,  alleging  that  they 
were  assaulted,  without  provocation, 
by  Conductor  Beanland,  on  October 
3rd,  while  passengers  on  train  No.  340 
running  between  Greenwood  and 
Memphis.  The  editor  of  the  Herald- 
Progress  says,  if  the  allegations  of 
the  negroes  are  true,  that  the  Rail- 
road Company  ought  to  be  made  to  re- 
spond in  damages ;  that  the  negroes 
are  our  charges  and  that  it  is  our  duty 
to  protect  and  see  to  it  that  they  are 
treated  fairly.  Mr.  Markham  agrees 
with  the  Herald-Progress,  but  ex- 
plains, in  the  instant  case,  that  one  of 


the  negroes  was  trying  to  beat  his 
way  and  when  the  conductor  caught 
him  in  the  act  he  became  abusive, 
which  caused  the  conductor  to  strike 
him;  that  nothing  whatever  is  known 
about  any  grievance  on  the  part  of 
the  other  negro,  except  the  allegations 
in  his  petition.  Mr.  Markham  sug- 
gests that  a  white  man  ought  not  to 
be  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  resent- 
ing an  insult  from  a  negro.  We  can 
all  get  together  on  that  proposition. 

It  appears  that  the  issue,  upon  trial 
of  the  cases,  will  be  resolved  into  a 
question  of  varacity  between  Conduc- 
tor Beanland,  a  native  Mississippian, 
who  has  been  running  a  train  for 
seventeen  years,  and  has  never  been 
accused  of  a  discourtesy  to  a  passen- 
ger, white  or  black,  on  the  one  side, 
and  a  couple  of  negro  bucks  "run 
amuck"  on  the  other.  The  valuable 
time  of  the  Court,  and  a  jury  of 
twelve  men,  at  the  expense  of  the  tax- 
payers of  Tallahatchie  County,  will  be 
consumed  in  deciding  whether  the 
conductor  or  the  negroes  are  telling 
the  truth. 

Mr.  Markham  complains  that  the 
legitimate  business  of  the  Railroad  is 
frequently  seriously  interrupted  by  the 
large  number  of  frivolous  suits 
brought  against  his.  Company  in  Mis- 
sissippi. He  says  that  many  train 
crews  are  often  tied  up  in  the  different 
Courts  at  the  same  time  as  witnesses 
in  cases  which  ought  not  to  be 
brought. 

We  suggest  that  there  is  food  for 
thought  in  Mr.  Markham's  statement 
Regardless  of  the  merits  or  demerits 
of  the  cases  under  discussion,  it  is 
true  that  too  many  suits,  which  lack 
merit,  are  brought  against  corpora- 
tions in  this  State.  This  is  hurtful  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  people  in 
many  respects.  Railroads  are  quasi- 
public  institutions.  Every  commodity 
which  we  have  to  sell  is  transported 
by  them.  Every  article  which  we  have 
to  have,  either  to  eat  or  to  wear, 
reaches  us  over  our  transportation 
lines.  Everything  which  hinders  them 
also  injures  us  and  indirectly  the  peo- 


26 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


pie  have  to  help  carry  the  burden.  But 
that  is  not  the  most  important  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  fair  treatment  of  the 
railroads.  If  we  gain  the  reputation, 
as  a  State,  of  taking  away  from  them 
that  which  is  justly  theirs,  we  shall 
see  no  more  railroad  building  here. 
We  shall  see  capital-seeking  invest- 
ment giving  us  the  go-by.  We  shall 
see  the  end  of  outside  help  in  the  prog- 
ress of  Mississippi. 

Would  it  not  be  well  to  discourage 
the  things  which  are  inimical  to  our 


best  interests  as  a  people,  and  com- 
mence to  set  our  house  in  order  so  that 
we  may  share  in  the  wave  of  prosper- 
ity which  is  now  beginning  to  sweep 
over  the  country?  We  have  been  nar- 
row long  enough.  Let  us  throw  off 
the  yoke  and  begin  to  broaden  out. 
In  our  humble  opinion,  the  most  ef- 
fective start  which  we  could  possibly 
make  would  be  to  put  a  stop  to  "pea- 
nut" litigation  against  our  railroads. 
—Editorial,  Greenwood  (Miss.)  Com- 
monwealth, November  19,  1915. 


Railroad  Development  in  the  South,  Past  and  Future 

By  President  C.  H.  Markham  in  the  Merchant  and  Manufacturer 


r"PHE  agricultural,  industrial  and  com- 
mercial  development  of  the  South 
has  been  more  rapid  in  proportion 
within  recent  years  than  that  of  any 
other  section  of  the  United  States. 
This  would  naturally  suggest  that  dur- 
ing this  time  the  development  of  the 
railways  which  serve  it  had  also  been 
proceeding  rapidly;  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  any  community  or  section  to 
grow  fast  along  agricultural,  commer- 
cial and  industrial  lines  without  its 
progress  being  accompanied  and  pro- 
moted by  a  proportionate  expansion 
and  improvement  of  its  facilities  of 
transportation. 

There  are  communities,  and  even 
large  parts  of  whole  countries,  which 
are  practically  self-supporting.  That 
is,  they  consume  most  of  what  they 
produce  and  produce  most  of  what 
they  consume.  Such  localities  are  de- 
pendent only  to  a  relatively  small  ex- 
tent on  railway  transportation.  There 
are  other  communities,  and  even  large 
territories,  which  consume  only  a  rela- 
tively small  part  of  what  they  produce 
and  produce  only  a  relatively  small 
part  of  what  they  consume.  For  their 
prosperity  they  are  dependent  in  a  very 
large  measure  on  railway  transporta- 
tion. Railway  and  ocean  transporta- 
tion afford  the  only  efficient  means  for 
distributing  the  products  and  supply- 


ing the  wants  of  such  communities  and 
sections.  Inland  waterways,  excepting 
perhaps  such  bodies  as  the  Great 
Lakes,  cannot  compete  with  railways 
in  rendering  this  indispensable  service. 

The  United  States  is  made  up  of 
communities  and  sections  which  are 
dependent  for  their  prosperity  on  rail- 
way transportation.  This  is  especially 
characteristic  of  the  South.  The  South 
is  still  chiefly  a  producer  of  raw  ma- 
terials ;  its  welfare  demands  efficient 
distribution  of  these  raw  materials  over 
a  wide  area.  It  must  still  depend 
largely  on  other  sections  for  finished 
products.  Its  welfare  requires  efficient 
means  for  bringing  in  these  products. 
It  is  chiefly  because  of  these  things 
that  its  recent  progress  has  been 
so  largely  due  to  the  expansion  and 
improvement  of  its  railways,  and  that 
its  future  progress  will  be  equally  de- 
pendent on  their  expansion  and  im- 
provement. 

The  South  has  agricultural  resources 
in  many  ways  unsurpassed.  Its  timber 
supply  and  mineral  products  are  of 
great  variety  and  value  and  well  dis- 
tributed. Its  climate  as  a  factor  in  in- 
dustrial development  is  in  its  favor 
because  many  of  its  activities  can  be 
carried  on  throughout  the  year,  while 
in  severer  climates  they  must  be  sus- 
pended during  a  large  part  of  the  year. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


27 


But  its  great  natural  advantages  the 
South  has  always  had.  Its  experience 
has  been,  therefore,  a  remarkable  de- 
monstration of  the  fact  that  natural 
advantages  alone  are  insufficient  to 
make  a  territory  rich.  To  turn  nat- 
ural resources  into  wealth  it  is  neces- 
sary to  secure  their  development  by 
the  investment  of  capital  in  agricul- 
ture, manufactures,  mining  and  trans- 
portation. If  the  necessary  capital  is 
not  available  locally,  it  must  be  at- 
tracted from  places  where  it  is  avail- 
able. 

With  the  South's  abundance  of  nat- 
ural resources  and  an  enlightened  con- 
ception of  how  they  may  best  be 
utilized,  a  spirit  of  co-operation  be- 
tween the  people  and  their  railroads 
cannot  fail  to  result  in  almost  unlimited 
prosperity,  and  in  this  the  railroads 
should  share.  Having  in  possession 
these  great  natural  resources,  the  next 
two  important  steps  are  the  adoption 
of  the  proper  means  for  their  develop- 
ment and  the  encouragement  of  the 
means  by  which  the  products  of  indus- 
try may  be  conveyed  to  the  markets 
where  their  value  is  greatest. 

In  1895,  twenty  years  ago,  the  de- 
velopment of  the  railways  of  this  sec- 
tion was  very  backward.  The  total 
railway  mileage  of  West  Virginia,  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi  at  that  time 
was  29,620  miles.  In  1905  the  mileage 
in  this  same  territory  had  increased  to 
37,105  miles,  a  gain  in  ten  years  of 
7,485  miles.  At  the  beginning  of  this 
period  the  railway  system  of  the  South 
consisted  mainly  of  numerous  small 
and  disconnected  lines,  which  were  un- 
able either  to  handle  their  business 
profitably  or  to  render  satisfactory 
service  to  the  public.  About  1900  there 
began  a  series  of  consolidations  which 
combined  most  of  the  mileage  into  a 
relatively  few  large  systems.  The 
formation  of  these  large  systems  was 
needed  both  to  make  railway  operation 
more  profitable  and  to  improve  the 
service  rendered,  and  during  the  decade 
since  1905  the  expansion  of  transporta- 


tion facilities  has  been  greater  than  in 
the  decade  before.  In  the  eight  years 
between  1905  and  1913  the  railway 
mileage  of  the  territory  south  of  the 
Ohio  and  Potomac  rivers  and  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River  increased  from 
37,105  miles  to  46,157,  or  9,052  miles. 
The  railway  mileage  of  the  United 
States  increased  only  27^2  per  cent  in 
the  eighteen  years  between  1895  and 
1913,  while  that  of  the  South  increased 
55  per  cent.  The  growth  of  the  South's 
railways  was  substantially  greater  in 
proportion  than  that  of  the  railways 
of  the  rest  of  the  country. 

The  increase  in  investment  in  the 
railways  of  the  South  was  much 
greater  in  proportion  than  the  increase 
in  mileage.  The  investment  in  them  in 
1895  was  $1,354,580,245 ;  in  1905  it  was 
$1,677,073,671,  and  in  1913  it  was  $2,- 
959,205,219.  The  increase  in  invest- 
ment between  1905  and  1913  was  al- 
most as  great  as  the  total  investment 
in  1895,  and  the  increase  from  1895  to 
1913  was  118  per  cent.  These  figures 
show  that  the  greater  part  of  the  rail- 
way growth  of  this  section  has  taken 
place  during  the  last  decade. 

There  is  no  better  indication  of  the 
rate  at  which  the  agricultural,  mining, 
manufacturing  and  commercial  devel- 
opment of  a  community  or  section  is 
proceeding  than  the  increase  in  the 
freight  tonnage  originating  on  its  rail- 
ways. The  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission began  in  1899  to  publish  sta- 
tistics regarding  the  tonnage  of  various 
kinds  of  commodities  originating  on 
the  railways  of  different  sections. 
These  statistics  show  that  between 
1899  and  1913  the  tonnage  which  orig- 
inated on  the  railways  of  the  South 
increased  223  per  cent.  The  increase 
in  tonnage  of  products  of  agriculture 
was  154  per  cent;  products  of  animals, 
214  per  cent ;  products  of  mines,  264 
per  cent;  products  of  forests,  220  per 
cent ;  manufactures,  167  per  cent ;  mer- 
chandise, 356  percent,  and  miscella- 
neous commodities,  24  per  cent.  The 
data  in  detail  are  given  in  the  follow- 
ing table. 


28 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Tons,  1899  Tons,  1913 

Products  of  agriculture  5,547,743     14,114,467 
Products  of  animals..  .       827,360       2,598,745 

Products  of  mines 27,701,985  101,003,003 

Products    of    forests..    9,500,833     30,789,088 

Manufactures 7,336,950     19,641,814 

Merchandise    1,600,237       7,312,038 

Miscellaneous    2,598,957       3,229,235 


Total 55,212,957  178,688,390 

The  increase  in  the  tonnage  originat- 
ing on  the  railways  of  the  western  dis- 
trict during  the  same  period  was  only 
193  per  cent. 

The  statistics  in  the  above  table 
show  that,  as  has  already  been  stated, 
the  South  is  pre-eminently  a  producer 
of  raw  materials.  The  output  of  its 
mines  and  forests  account  for  74  per 
cent  of  the  tonnage  it  supplied  in  1913 
to  its  railroads.  There  have  been  very 
marked  increases  in  its  tonnage  of  man- 
ufactures and  merchandise,  but  no  one 
can  study  the  table  without  being  im- 
pressed with  the  great  extent  to  which 
it  is  dependent  on  its  transportation 
facilities  for  getting  the  great  bulk  of 
its  products  to  the  markets  where  they 
can  be  sold  to  the  best  advantage. 

The  advance  in  railway  tonnage 
shown  resulted,  of  course,  in  a  large 
increase  in  railway  earnings.  Perhaps 
the  rapidity  of  the  development  of  the 
railways  of  the  South  since  1895  may 
best  be  made  clear  by  assembling  in  a 
small  table  some  statistics  regarding 
the  increase  in  their  mileage,  their 
freight  traffic  and  their  earnings  and 
expenses.  The  following  table  gives 
such  statistics  for  the  years  1895,  1905 
and  1913 : 


of  the  South  increased  300  per  cent. 
Meantime,  their  total  expenses  in- 
creased still  more,  or  316  per  cent,  and 
their  net  earnings  260  per  cent.  An 
uninformed  person  might  draw  from 
these  statistics  the  conclusion  that  the 
Southern  lines  have  become  very  pros- 
perous. This  is  not  the  case.  On  the 
contrary,  in  spite  of  the  large  increase 
in  their  net  earnings,  most  of  them  are 
still  relatively  unprosperous.  As  a 
whole  they  have  merely  advanced  from 
the  depths  of  adversity  to  a  somewhat 
better  position.  In  1895  they  were  in 
such  desperate  straits  that  they  were 
unable  to  pay  a  cent  of  dividend  on  90 
per  cent  of  their  outstanding  capital 
stock.  In  1905  they  were  still  unable 
to  pay  any  dividends  on  over  40  per 
cent  of  it,  and  in  1913,  when  their  total 
earnings  were  the  largest  in  their  his- 
tory, they  were  unable  to  pay  any  divi- 
dends on  36  per  cent  of  it.  In  other 
words,  in  1913  there  had  been  a  sub- 
stantial increase  in  the  amount  of  their 
stock  on  which  they  had  become  able 
to  pay  dividends,  but  even  then  there 
was  a  large  part  of  it  whose  owners 
received  no  return  from  their  invest- 
ment. Their  net  earnings  per  mile  al- 
ways have  been  less  than  those  of  the 
railways  of  the  other  large  sections  of 
the  country.  In  1913  the  net  earnings 
per  mile  of  the  Eastern  railways  were 
$6,301 ;  of  the  Western  railways,  $3,201, 
and  of  the  Southern  railways,  $2,856. 
In  1914  there  was  a  reduction  in  the 
net  earnings  of  all  the  railways  of  the 
United  States,  including  those  of  the 


Mileage    

1895 
29  620 

1905 
37,105 

1913 
46,157 

Per  Cent 
increase 
1895  to 
1913 

55% 

Railway   capital   invested  $1 

,354,580,245 

$1,677,073,671 

$2,959,205,219 

118% 

Freight    tonnage  

70,800,626 

143,624,955 

263,847,819 

272% 

Tonnage  originating  on  road  

55,212,957 

93,959,210 

178,688,390 

223% 

Average  rate  per  ton  per  mile,  mills 
Earnings  from  operation  

8.03 
118,789,176 

8.2 
260,964,909 

6.85 
473,044,918 

—14% 
300% 

Operating    expenses  

81,754,161 

177,907,098 

340,132,131 

316% 

Net    earnings  

37035,015 

83,057,811 

132,912,787 

260% 

It  will  be  seen  that  owing  to  both 
the  increase  in  mileage  and  the  still 
greater  proportionate  increase  in  traf- 
fic the  total  earnings  of  the  railways 


South.  The  railways  of  the  South  on 
the  whole  are  still  weak  financially, 
whether  measured  by  the  standards  of 
the  rest  of  the  country  or  by  the  per- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


29 


centage  of  return  which  they  are  able 
to  pay.  As  shown  by  the  table,  there 
has  been  a  heavy  reduction  in  the  aver- 
age freight  rate  received  by  the  rail- 
ways of  this  section.  In  1895  it  was 
8.03  mills;  in  1905,  8.2  mills,  and  in 
1913  only  6.85  mills.  There  was  also, 
chiefly  owing  to  legislation,  a  substan- 
tial reduction  in  the  passenger  rates 
received.  Only  by  efficient  manage- 
ment have  the  railways  been  able  to 
stand  the  heavy  increases  in  their  ex- 
penses and  reductions  of  their  rates 
which  have  occurred  in  recent  years, 
and  even  the  most  efficient  manage- 
ment would  not  enable  them  to  endure 
a  continuance  of  the  upward  trend  of 
wages  and  other  expenses  and  the 
downward  trend  of  rates. 

The  foregoing  outlines  the  history 
of  the  development  of  the  railways  of 
this  section  during  the  last  two  de- 
cades. What  of  the  future? 

There  can  be  no  question  that  it  is 
essential  to  the  prosperity  and  progress 
of  this  territory  that  the  development 
of  its  railways  shall  proceed  more  rap- 
idly in  the  future  -than  it  has  in  the 
past.  The  South  needs  a  larger  mile- 
age and  it  needs  better  railways. 
Whether  the  expansion  of  its  transpor- 
tation system  will  be  such  as  its  wel- 
fare demands  will  depend  on  its  peo- 
ple. No  industry  can  grow  rapidly  un- 
less it  can  attract  increasing  amounts 
of  new  capital.  No  industry  can  at- 
tract increasing  amounts  of  new  cap- 
ital unless  those  who  have  capital  can 
be  convinced  that  they  will  derive  a 
profit  from  putting  money  into  an  in- 
dustry unless  the  investment  already 
represented  by  it  is  earning  a  fair  profit. 
On  the  other  hand,  capitalists  can  eas- 
ily be  induced  to  invest  money  in  an 
industry  which  already  is  earning  sub- 
stantial profits.  It  follows  that  the 
main  prerequisite  to  such  future  ex- 


pansion of  its  railways  as  the  welfare 
of  the  South  demands  is  to  let  the  cap- 
ital already  invested  in  them  earn  fair 
and  substantial  profits.  The  existing 
lines  cannot  be  sufficiently  improved 
and  enough  new  mileage  cannot  be 
built  unless  capital  invested  in  railways 
is  treated  as  well  as  that  invested  in 
other  lines  of  business  in  this  section. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  if  railway  capital  is  fairly 
treated  the  development  of  the  railways 
of  the  South  will  be  even  greater  in 
the  next  ten  years  than  it  has  been  in 
the  last  ten  years. 

There  have  been  times  when  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South  have  dealt  unjustly 
with  the  railways.  This  was  conspicu- 
ously the  case  some  years  ago  when 
there  was  an  epidemic  of  anti-railway 
agitation  resulting  in  the  passage  of 
many  laws  reducing  rates  and  increas- 
ing expenses.  This  epidemic  was  less 
general  and  malignant  in  the  South- 
east than  in  the  Southwest  and  West, 
and  did  not  last  so  long.  In  conse- 
quence, the  Southeastern  states  have 
not  suffered  so  much  from  it  as  Texas, 
Oklahoma,  Arkansas  and  some  West- 
ern states.  The  railway  companies 
have  no  right  to  object  to  fair  regula- 
tion. But  they  do  have  a  right  to  op- 
pose arbitrary  regulation  of  their  oper- 
ations which  unnecessarily  increases 
their  expenses  and  to  arbitrary  reduc- 
tions in  their  rates  which  unjustly  re- 
duce their  earnings,  and  in  the  long 
run  this  kind  of  regulation  is  as  harm- 
ful to  the  public  that  indulges  in  it  as 
to  the  railways. 

The  relationship  between  the  rail- 
ways and  the  public  should  be  one  of 
co-operation  under  fair  and  intelligent 
regulation.  This  is  the  relationship 
which  will  most  certainly  and  effect- 
ively promote  the  expansion  of  the 
railways  and  the  prosperity  of  the  public. 


Efficient  Railroads  and  National  Defense 


By  President~C.  H.  Markham,_injhe  Economic  World 


Sir: — Your  letter  asking  for  an  ex- 
pression of  my  views  as  regards  the 
adequacy  of  the  railways  of  the  United 
States  as  an  integral  part  of  a  pro- 
gram of  defense,  was  duly  received. 
Under  modern  conditions  railroads 
constitute  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  any  system  of  preparedness 
for  national  defense.  This  has  been 
illustrated  repeatedly  by  experience 
in  actual  warfare.  The  superiority  of 
Prussia's  railways  contributed  very 
greatly  to  its  triumph  over  Austria  in 
1866  and  over  France  in  1870-1871.  The 
unsatisfactory  condition  of  Russia's 
railways  seriously  crippled  it  in  its 
struggle  a  few  years  ago  with  Japan. 
Railways  have  played  an  even  more 
important  part  in  the  present  war  in 
Europe  than  in  any  preceding  struggle. 

If  the  United  States  should  become 
involved  in  war  with  any  first-rate 
power,  the  celerity  with  which  it  could  •-. 
move  large  bodies  of  troops  from  one 
part  of  the  country  to  another  might 
determine  the  result  of  the  contest. 
"In  time  of  peace  prepare  for  war." 
This  warning  is  as  important  in  its 
application  to  the  railways  as  to  any 
other  arm  of  the  service. 

The  two  main  essentials  to  fitting 
them  to  serve  efficiently  in  war  appear 
to  be  first,  to  provide,  in  the  event  of 
war,  for  a  centralized  organization  and 
control  of  the  entire  system ;  and,  sec- 
ond, to  adopt  measures  that  will  pro- 
mote  the  raising  of  their  physical  effi- 
ciency to  a  standard  which  will  enable 
them  to  meet  every  demand  it  is  prob- 
able hostilities  would  make  on  them. 

Our  situation  in  some  important  re- 
spects is  similar  to  that  of  England 
before  the  present  war  in  Europe  be- 
gan. Our  railways  are  owned  and 
managed  by  numerous  private  com- 
panies. Any  sound  scheme  of  pre- 
paredness would  necessarily  provide 
means  whereby  in  case  of  need  they 
could  promptly  be  brought  under  the 

30 


direction  and  management  of  a  central 
authority  representing  the  Federal 
Government.  The  railways  of  Great 
Britain  are  owned  by  numerous  in- 
dependent companies,  and  the  plan  fol- 
lowed in  bringing  them  quickly  under 
central  control  and  management 
affords  an  example  which  we  might 
follow  here.  In  1871  a  regulation  was 
adopted  by  the  British  Government 
providing  the  method  by  which  in  case 
of  war  all  the  railways  should  at  once 
be  taken  over  by  the  government  for 
operation.  Immediately  on  the  declara- 
tion of  war  against  Germany  on 
August  4,  1914,  an  order  in  council 
was  issued  under  this  regulation  as- 
suming control  of  the  railways.  In 
nursuance  of  this  regulation  a  rail- 
way executive  committee  was  organ- 
ized of  which  the  president  of  the 
Board  of  Trade,  who  is  a  cabinet  min- 
ister, became  ex-officio  chairman, 
while  H.  A.  Walker,  general  manager 
of  the  London  and  South  Western,  be- 
came chairman.  The  other  members 
of  the  committee  are  the  general  man- 
agers of  ten  of  the  leading  railways. 
Under  the  act  of  Parliament  the  gov- 
ernment guarantees  the  companies  dur- 
ing the  war  the  same  net  return  which 
they  were  earning  when  it  began.  The 
railways  of  Great  Britain  have  been 
operated  under  this  arrangement  up  to 
the  present  time.  From  all  reports  it 
has  worked  admirably.  It  is  claimed 
that  there  never  has  been  a  time  when 
the  railways  have  not  been  able  to 
handle  promptly  all  the  military  traffic 
that  the  government  has  given  them. 
It  would  seem  that  one  of  the 
earliest  steps  that  should  be  taken  by 
the  government  of  the  United  States 
to  put  this  country  in  a  state  of  pre- 
paredness is  to  arrange  for  a  con- 
ference between  representatives  of  the 
government,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
the  railways,  on  the  other,  first,  to  de- 
cide on  the  form  of  central  organiza- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


31 


tion  under  which  the  railways  should 
be  operated  in  case  of  war;  and,  sec- 
ond, on  what  measures  should  be 
adopted  to  correlate  and  unify  their 
physical  facilities  as  may  be  necessary 
for  the  purposes  in  view. 

It  is  easy  to  recognize  three  or  four 
elements  on  which  the  efficiency  of  a 
railroad  system  as  a  military  instru- 
mentality depends.  They  are  illustrated 
in  the  history  of  the  operations  of  Ger- 
many in  the  present  war.  The  develop- 
ment of  Germany's  railroad  organiza- 
tion has  been,  if  not  whoHy,  at  least 
in  very  large  part,  based  on  mili- 
tary requirements.  Germany's  ex- 
perience seems  to  teach  that  as  an  ad- 
junct to  the  carrying  on  of  war  with 
another  nation,  the  effectiveness  of  a 
country's  railroad  system  depends : 
First,  upon  the  completeness  with 
which  it  affords  means  of  communi- 
cation between  different  sections  or 
between  all  and  any  one  that  may, 
for  the  time  being,  be  of  the  greatest 
importance.  Second,  upon  the  nicety 
with  which  each  normally  independent 
unit  of  such  a  system  is  articulated 
with  each  other  unit  with  which  it  is 
in  physical  relation.  Third,  upon  the 
unanimity  and  intelligence  of  the 
central  control.  Fourth,  upon  the 
physical  adequacy  of  each  unit  and 
consequently  of  the  system  as  a  whole 
to  carry  the  extra  burden  which  emer- 
gency may  at  any  moment  force  upon 
it. 

In  respect  to  the  first  head,  it  may 
be  assumed  that  the  railroad  system 
of  the  United  States  meets  all  the  rea- 
sonable requirements  of  a  nation  con- 
fessedly non-military.  As  require- 
ments of  a  system  of  national  de- 
fense the  importance  of  intelligent  con- 
sideration of,  and  action  upon,  the 
other  three,  can  hardly  be  over-esti- 
mated. The  consideration  should  prop- 
erly be  the  work  of  a  comprehensive 
conference  such  as  suggested.  Action 
would  necessarily  consume  time ;  but 
the  most  loosely-constructed  formula- 
tion of  data  and  plans  might  be  of  in- 
calculable value  to  a  board  hastily 
summoned  to  cope  with  an  emergency. 

Second   in   importance    only   to   the 


working  out  of  a  suitable  controlling 
organization,  and  a  co-ordination  of 
existing  facilities,  is  the  consideration 
of  means  for  putting  our  railway  sys- 
tem in  better  physical  condition.  The 
United  States  is  a  large  country.  Its 
railroad  system  covers  long  distances. 
Effective  military  service  between  one 
section  and  another  ordinarily  would 
mean  the  temporary  unification  of  pre- 
viously independent  systems.  The 
country's  frontiers  are  as  long  as  they 
are  widely  separated.  Protection,  to 
be  effective,  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count, not  only  accustomed  gateways, 
but  isolated  localities.  Branch  lines 
become  of  importance  substantially 
equal  to  that,  of  main  arteries.  The 
fingers  are  as  important  as  the  arm. 
This  means  that  even  seemingly  in- 
significant units  must  have  some  degree 
of  consideration.  Under  government 
control  for  military  purposes  any  line 
might  have  its  part  to  perform  as  a 
connecting  link. 

Unfortunately,  the  condition  of 
many  of  our  railroads  is  not  such  as 
to  encourage  the  view  that  they  could 
support  the  burden  of  an  enormous 
overload  suddenly  thrust  upon  them. 
Some  roads  are  even  now  having  diffi- 
culty in  handling  the  business  avail- 
able in  time  of  peace.  A  period  of  in- 
sufficient nourishment  has  left  them  in 
an  emaciated  condition.  They  are  far 
from  fit  for  the  extraordinary  exer- 
tions that  might  be  incident  to  mili- 
tary service. 

Heavy  increases  in  wages  and  taxes 
unaccompanied  by  adequate  increases, 
and  sometimes  accompanied  by  de- 
creases, in  rates,  have  not  only  re- 
duced their  net  earnings  and  disabled 
them  from  raising  capital  for  needed 
improvements,  but  have,  also,  in  many 
cases,  incapacitated  them  for  properly 
maintaining  their  properties.  These 
conditions  must  be  remedied  if  the 
railways  are  to  be  fitted  to  play  their 
part  in  a  scheme  of  national  defense. 
They  can  be  remedied  only  by  the 
adoption  of  a  more  liberal  and  en- 
lightened policy  of  public  regulation. 
A  policy  of  public  control  which  re- 
stricts the  earnings  and  profits  to  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


lowest  minimum  which  the  courts  will 
hold  does  not  transgress  the  limit  of 
confiscation,  and  which  in  some  cases 
is  even  held  to  be  confiscatory,  is  not 
one  which  will  help  the  railways  to 
contribute  their  share  toward  saving 
the  nation  in  case  of  war. 

It  may  be  argued  that  we  do  not 
seek  war  and  that,  therefore,  expendi- 
tures to  put  our  railways  in  shape  for 
it  are  unnecessary.  This  would  be  an 
equally  valid  argument  against  im- 
proving the  army  or  navy;  and  there 
is  an  argument  for  a  policy  of  regula- 
tion that  will  enable  our  railways  to 
be  put  in  better  condition  that  cannot 
be  advanced  in  favor  of  any  other  form 
of  military  preparedness.  This  is  that 
the  same  expenditures  that  are  needed 
for  putting  them  in  better  condition 
for  war  are  needed  to  put  them  in 
condition  to  insure  their  own  pros- 
perity and  that  of  the  public  in  time  of 
peace.  If  war  should  come  the  country 
would  be  the  winner  by  the  amount  by 
which  an  efficient  railway  system 
would  contribute  to  a  successful  out- 
come. If  it  should  not  come  the  coun- 
try would  be  the  gainer  by  the  amount 
which  a  prosperous  railway  system 
contributes  to  its  prosperity. 
Very  truly  yours, 

C.    H.    Markham. 

Chicago,  November  20,  1915. 


WILL  WAGE  FIGHT  ON  SENSE- 
LESS SUITS. 


Movement  Launched  in  Meridian, 
Miss.,  That  Ought  to  Be  Carried  on 
in  All  Parts  of  State — Foremost 
Business  Men  of  Community  Give 
It  Support. 

To  place  Meridian  on  the  surf  of  the 
wave  of  prosperity  and  for  the  benefit 
and  uplift  of  Mississippi,  to  pull  it  out 
of  the  rut  and  eliminate  the  obnoxious 
legislation,  which  has  made  it  practical- 
ly impossible  to  secure  new  industries, 
was  the  slogan  of  a  conference  of  thirty- 
five  business  men  of  Meridian  at  the 
Board  of  Trade  Tuesday  afternoon. 

The    keynote    of    the    meeting    was 


struck  when  it  was  announced  that  Me- 
ridian and  the  State  is  suffering  untold 
damage  through  the  useless  and  unmer- 
ited litigation  rampant  in  all  parts  of 
the  State,  particularly  noticeable  in  Me- 
ridian. 

"The  petty  suit  litigation  and  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  suits  filed  in  the  courts  of 
Lauderdale  county,  are  driving  manu- 
facturers away  from  our  State;  we  are 
suffering  because  of  the  acts  of  our  own 
people  and  because  of  the  witless  legis- 
lation, which  has  made  it  possible,  to 
pursue  business  interests,  until  they  had 
rather  abandon  business  in  Mississippi 
than  be  forced  into  endless  law  suits  of 
all  kinds  and  character,  and  new  busi- 
ness refuses  to  enter  the  State  because 
of  this  terrifying  record,"  declared  Cliff 
Williams,  who  called  the  meeting  of 
business  men,  which  was  composed  of 
practically  every  merchant,  banker  and 
manufacturer  in  the  city. 

"Business  wants  some  protection,  gen- 
tlemen, and  they  must  have  it,  if  we  are 
to  continue  to  grow  and  thrive,  and  I 
frankly  say  to  you,  that  we  have  reached 
the  point  where  we  are  taking  the  dry 
rot,  unless  we  take  some  immediate 
steps  towards  correcting  this  growing 
evil  ever  present  to  haunt  and  harrass 
all  kinds  of  business." 

Particular  attention  was  called  to  the 
numberless  suits  filed  in  the  courts  of 
Lauderdale  county  and  some  for  sums 
aggregating  $25,000  to  as  high  as 
$80,000. 

One  speaker  declared  that  75  per  cent 
of  the  damage  suits  filed  were  without 
merit  and  the  records  showed  case  after 
case  where  suit  was  entered  for  sums 
ranging  from  $5,000  up  had  been  set- 
tled for  $100  and  sometimes  less. 

"These  suits  are  brought  for  no  rea- 
son on  earth  except  to  try  and  get  a 
compromise,"  it  was  declared.  "It  is 
well  known  that  all  lawyers  base  their 
fees  on  the  amounts  involved  and  the 
object  that  seems  to  lay  behind  this  liti- 
gation is  the  hope  of  securing  as  much 
as  possible  out  of  a  man,  because  he 
would  rather  pay  a  small  amount  than 
go  to  court  with  the  case  when  he  knows 
it  will  cost  him  a  big  attorney's  fee  and 
when  he  can  settle  the  case  for  less 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


33 


money  than  it  would  cost  to  fight  it 
legitimately." 

Attention  was  called  to  the  alleged 
damage  which  the  state  revenue  agent's 
office  had  done  to  the  business  interests 
of  the  State,  when  it  was  declared  that 
this  department,  working  on  a  fee  basis, 
is  bringing  suits  right  and  left  against 
cotton  interests,  lumber  interests,  man- 
ufacturers of  all  kinds,  corporations  and 
what  not,  and  the  only  result  will  be  "the 
paying  of  attorneys'  fees"  based  on  these 
million  dollars  of  claims. 

The  keynote  of  the  meeting  was  that 
something  must  be  done  to  stop  this  liti- 
gation, which,  in  the  opinion  of  every 
business  man  present — and  every  busi- 
ness in  the  city  was  represented — was 
doing  irreparable  injury  to  the  State. 

"Capital  is  being  antagonized,  and  I 
know  of  two  big  industries  which  have 
been  absolutely  driven  away  from  Mis- 
sissippi— absolutely  scared  to  death,  be- 
cause of  this  endless  chain  of  costly  liti- 
gation rampant  in  the  State,"  declared 
Cliff  Williams.  "A  party  came  to  Me- 
ridian with  $400,000  only  a  short  time 
ago.  They  investigated  conditions  and 
the  record  of  damage  suits  absolutely 
drove  them  away,  not  only  from  Me- 
ridian but  the  State.  They  said  they 
could  not  invest  their  money  in  a  State 
where  such  a  condition  existed." 

The  business  men  went  on  record  to 
do  everything  in  their  power  to  correct 
conditions,  and  wanted  it  distinctly  un- 
derstood that  they  were  in  no  wise  sup- 
porting or  seeking  protection  for  those 
interests  that  are  violating  the  laws  of 
the  State  or  nation,  but  they  were  sol- 
idly united  in  their  demands  for  a  change 
in  the  laws  of  the  State,  inimical  to 
every  business  and  the  fee  system  in 
particular.  This  latter  they  declared, 
was  a  burden  under  which  the  State 
should  not  rest,  and  one  from  which  it 
should  be  immediately  relieved. 

"I  have  been  told  that  this  city  is  full 
of  what  is  commonly  called  ambulance 
chasers,  or  runners,"  declared  one  busi- 
ness man.  "A  slight  accident  can  occur 
in  any  part  of  the  city  and  county  and 
before  breakfast  next  morning  the  case 
is  in  the  hands  of  some  lawyer  and  a 
sum  of  money  is  asked.  This  is  regard- 


less of  the  merit  of  the  case,  whether 
right  or  wrong. 

Another  declared  that  he  had  been 
told  that  in  one  instance  he  could  show 
where  a  sum  of  money  had  been  paid  a 
runner  or  so-called  ambulance  chaser, 
for  getting  details  and  information  in 
an  accident. 

"This  condition  should  not  exist  and 
we  should  call  the  Lauderdale  County 
Bar  Association  to  meet  with  us  and 
ask  their  co-operation  along  this  line, 
which  will  go  far  towards  clearing  our 
State  of  the  bad  name  which  it  has  ac- 
quired and  which  is  driving  prosperity 
from  our  doors,"  declared  Mr.  Wil- 
liams. 

It  was  also  pointed  out  that  the  busi- 
ness interests  of  the  city  would  not  serve 
on  juries.  This,  the  business  men,  said 
they  would  correct,  and  see  to  it  here- 
after that  the  men  in  the  city,  those  men 
actually  in  touch  with  affairs,  would  do 
their  full  jury  duty. 

The  Meridian  Lumbermen's  Associa- 
tion met  immediately  after  the  business 
men  and  endorsed  the  plan  outlined. 
Other  organizations  in  the  city  have  also 
endorsed  the  move  and  will  work  hand 
in.  hand  with  the  business  men,  who  will 
organize  for  this  purpose,  in  their  ef- 
forts to  rid  business  of  the  incubus, 
which  is  tearing  at  its  vitals. 

The  business  interests  at  the  meeting 
said  that  it  should  in  no  wise  be  con- 
strued as  having  any  political  bearing 
whatsoever;  that  there  was  no  fight  on 
any  particular  department  of  govern- 
ment; that  they  were  not  upholding 
business  that  violated  the  laws  of  the 
State,  but  that  they  wanted  protection 
for  legitimate  business  and  wanted  sense- 
less litigation  and  harrassment  stopped. 

It  was  intimated  at  the  meeting  that 
a  strong  fight  would  be  made  on  the  fee 
system  in  the  next  legislature,  which  it 
is  believed,  is  the  mother  of  most  of  the 
evil  from  which  Mississippi  business  is 
suffering. 

Mr.  Williams  said  that  another  meet- 
ing would  be  called  in  the  near  future, 
when  all  business  interests  would  com- 
bine and  co-operate  to  one  end — the  pro- 
gressive uplift  of  the  Magnolia  State. — 
Meridian  (Miss.)  Dispatch. 


34  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tw  Employes  may  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stock  in  the  Illinois 

Cbntal  R.R.,we  quote  belote  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  A\ay95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(One  price  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  he  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffocA.  is  cased  upon  the  mar- 

,     >                       ./                 /                /•                   •)                    J/                                     ...                      .                                      .           /    J        .               y^J                                        » 

ket  price  on  the  dais  the  application  is  received  in  L,omptrol- 
i    *     rr              J           i      '  '•      ff      )    /         •   •/           /•    ff     '/ 
/ers  office...  C^fn  employe  is  offered  the  privileae  ot  subsaiD- 

ma  for  one  share  at  a  time,  pay  ao/e  oy  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  the  completion  of 

which  the  Company  mllaelwer  to  Aim  a  certificate  of 

me  share  registered  in.  his  name  on  the  DOORS,  of  the.  Com- 

pany, c^ze  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 
another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  °^ohe  certificate 

of  stock,  is  transferable,  on  me  Company's  600  fes,  and 
entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  6e  de  - 

dared  by  the  &oard  cfDirectors,  and  to  a  vote  tn. 

their  election  . 

Csfnv  officer  or  employe  makinq  payments  on  this 
,         >v/y^           'it'**        .     -j  r    7       /  •      ) 
plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  the  rate  of  'four  per  cent  per  annum,  danna  the  time  he 
is  payma  for  his  share  of  stocR.,  provided  he  does  not  al- 
low ttoelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 
f           *      '         /"/'/^        ')' 

any  payment,  at  the  expiration  or  which  penod  interest 
will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 

returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

C^iny  officer  or  employe  mahinq  payments  on  the  fore- 

Jl"        ;  y      '     ^            ^  '••  '   *    J'        AL^. 
ooma  plan,  and  tor  any  reason  aesinna  to  discontinue 

mem,  can  nave  rus  money  returned  to  Aim  with  accrued 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  35 


interest,  £y  mak,mq  application  to  me  h.ead  of  me  de- 
partment in  which  fie  is  employed. 

Cxf/z  employe,  who  nas  made  application  for  a  snare 
ofstocK.  on  me  installment  plan ,  is  expected  to  maRe, 
the  firtfjoayment from  thefirst  waaes  Wru.cn  may  &e  due 

him.  J-orms  are  provided,  for  the  purpose,  on  which  we 

/       •/  •  f  77s  •         F    //o      iG?0 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  theoL/ocal- -(oreasurerm 

Chicago, or  the  djocal^oreasurer  In  <?fyew  (Orleans,  or 
the  Paymaster  or  the  (^Assistant   /Paymaster  to  retain 
•from  his  wages  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  the  employe  for  the  purchase  or  a  share  ofstocK. 

c/n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  the  Company 
from  any  cause,  he  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  the 
share  Jor  which  he  has  subscribed,  ana  receive  a  certifi- 
cate tnerefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which, 
has  accrued. 

c^one 'foreaoma  does  not  preclude  the  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock  for  cash.  Cx//z  employe  who  nas  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 

the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for.  can  in  any 

±f     V          /'    *•'     /J     '  Y      J  y .,    /  y   '    / 
Given  month,  make  application  for  a  <snare  of  stockfor  cash 

at  the  price  auoted  to  employes  for  that  month ,  ana  he  can, 
m  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  maAe  application  for  an- 
other share  on  the  installment  plan. 

(omployes  who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should,  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
caao,  who  will  ontain/or  them  the  price  at  which  the  stock 
can  he  purchased,. 

Cxfrzt/  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stocK.  (except  in 

•  ft       7r    *      f          ' f    '  /        /•  /'\    /     / ) 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash)  should, 

/'/•'  <1 '  '  /T*-/  ^/"/ 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  officer,  or  to  one  of  the 

V»    '  1G7**  /      /*//'          '      v/y/  /"  //  ' 

bocal  (oreasurers  jby piling  in  the  following  coupon  : 
Mr.O.  F  Nau.  Date 

Local  Treasurer. 

Chicago  111. 

\X?ill  you  please  send  me  an   application    £>la 
for  me  purcfiase  of  I.  C.  Stock  on  me  installment  plan. 

Signed.. 

Employed  as _ 

-At  Station 


cTACKSON 

.Mississippi 

Tne  Commercial,  Industrial,  jCduca.- 
tional  and  Social  Center  off/te  State 

gH  r^y  James  B.Lusk, 

Secretary    Jac&son  Board  of  Trade . 


The  Commercial,  Industrial,  Educational  and  Social  Center  of  the  State 


By  James  B.  Lusk 
Secretary,  Jackson  Board  of 


de 


T^OR  its  population  and  surroundings, 
*  Jackson  enjoys  perhaps  the  most  ad- 
vantageous location  in  the  South. 

Certainly  no  other  city  in  any  of  the 
nearby  states  is  situated  to  better  advan- 
tage. 

Its  growth  in  population  from  7,816  in 
1900  to  21,262  in  1910,  and  about  28,000  in 
1915,  needs  no  special  comment,  but  shows 
on  its  face  a  record  unsurpassed  by  any  old 
established  city  in  the  United  States  and 
excelled  only  by  a  few  of  the  younger  gen- 
eration of  municipalities  in  percentage  of 
increase. 

Its  increase  in  population  from  1900  to 
1910  was  so  phenomenal  among  the  old  es- 
tablished cities,  being  172  per  cent,  that 
the  United  States  Census  Department  in 
its  1910  Report,  gave  it  first  publication 
over  all  cities  in  the  United  States. 

If  the  reason  were  sought  for  this  re- 
markable growth  and  development,  it  would 
be  found  to  be  largely  twofold. 

In  the  first  place,  being  the  Capital  City 
of  the  state  and  enjoying  the  best  of  indus- 
trial, educational  and  social  advantages, 
many  from  both  within  and  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  state  have  been  attracted 
here  as  a  desirable  place  in  which  to  live 
and  raise  their  families. 

In  the  next  place,  the  very  fact  that  the 
agricultural  wealth  of  Mississippi,  accord- 
ing to  the  last  United  States  Government 
Census  Report,  increased  from  $"04,221,027 
in  1900  to  $426,314,634  in  1910.  has  had  no 
little  to  do  with  this  remarkable  record. 

Furthermore,  a  summing  up  of  the  agri- 
cultural wealth  of  the  state  at  this  time, 


alter  general  diversification  has  been  in  full 
swing  for  the  past  five  years,  would,  no 
doubt,  show  practically  double  that  of 
1910. 

Note  must  also  be  taken  of  Jackson's  su- 
perb central  geographical  position  in  this 
state,  and  its  almost  unrivaled  railroad  and 
transportation  facilities,  the  railroads  radi- 
ating in  eight  different  directions  to  rapidly 
developing  farming  and  stock-raising  ter- 
ritories, and  with  forty  passenger  trains 
arriving  and  departing  from  Jackson's 
Union  Station,  every  twenty-four  hours. 

Manufacturing 

As  an  industrial  and  manufacturing  cen- 
ter, Jackson  presents  unusually  attractive 
advantages,  and  is  making  notable  progress 
in  securing  many  desirable  and  substantial 
industrial  plants. 

Quite  a  lengthy  list  of  substantial  manu- 
facturing enterprises  secured  for  this  city 
in  recent  years  could  be  placed  before  the 
reader,  but  the  writer  assumes  at  the  out- 
set that  neither  too  much  detail  nor  too 
much  length  are  especially  desirable. 

The  fact  that  Jackson  is  surrounded  by  a 
vast  wealth  of  raw  materials  in  many  lead- 
ing lines,  especially  all  kinds  of  desirable 
hardwoods  which  enter  into  the  manufacture 
of  furniture,  cabinet,  decorative  and  prac- 
tically all  kinds  of  wood  work,  very  natural- 
ly points  it  out  as  a  desirable  place  in 
which  to  embark  upon  these  lines  of  man- 
ufacture. 

Its  splendid  outlying  territory,  which  is 
so  admirably  adapted  to  advanced  agricul- 
ture, vegetable  and  fruit  growing,  and  stock- 


36 


IBBRBBI 


Street  scenes,  business  and  residential ,  Jackson  Miss. 


38 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


-  raising,  also  makes  it  a  fine  location  for  the 
canning  and  packing  industries. 

The  cotton  seed  oil  mill  industry  has 
grown  to  such  oroporticms  here  as  to  make 
Jackson  the  largest  cotton  seed  crushing 
point  in  the  world. 

Jackson's  manufactured  output  consists  ot 
such  commercial  articles  as  coffins,  cooper- 
age, seating  and  school  furniture,  office  fur- 
niture and  fixtures,  rough  and  finished  lum- 
ber in  both  pine  and  hardwoods,  wagons, 
sash,  doors  and  blinds,  burial  vaults,  har- 
ness and  saddlery,  iron  and  brass  foundries, 
structural  building  materials,  brick,  gas, 
electricity,  cigars,  mattresses,  canned  goods, 
vinegar,  muslin  underwear,  stock  food  prod- 
ucts, farm  fertilizers,  cotton  seed  oil,  cot- 
ton seed  food  products,  soft  drinks,  ice,  ice 
cream,  candy  and  confectioneries,  cakes, 
hreadj  cane  syrup,  etc. 

A  tremendous  economic  fact  which  indus- 
trial investigators  must  bear  in  mind  when 
considering  a  point  like  this  is,  that  the 
transmissio*n  of  the  raw  material  and  the 
finished  product,  combined,  entails  an  ex- 
pense of  only  7  per  cent  in  this  locality,  as 
against  14  per  cent  for  the  same  service  in 
the  New  England  district,  thereby  saving  a 
clear  7  per  cent,  which  is  a  god  dividend  in 
itself,  under  the  fierce  competition  of  to- 
day. 

Some  of  our  manufacturing  establish- 
ments are  of  immense  proportions,  and  their 
products  are  well  distributed  throughout 
the  southern  states. 

Jackson's  industrial  population  bears  the 
stamp  of  worthy,  intelligent,  high-class, 
peace-loving  and  home-loving  citizenship. 
In  this  respect  it  far  outclasses  many  of  the 
industrial  cities  of  the  North  and  East. 

The  writer  has  been  in  many  cities  in 
this  country  that  were,  to  all  appearances, 
veritable  beehives  of  stir  and  industry,  yet 
which  had  no  standard  worth  speaking  of, 
above  the  sordid  love  of  a  dollar  and  the 
brutal  separation  of  the  people  into  two 
distinct,  often  hostile,  camps — the  one  ar- 
rogating to  itself  the  position  of  unsympa- 


thetic and  often  disdainful  masters,  the 
ocher — from  dire  necessity — occupying  that 
of  sullen  and  often  vengeful  followers. 

Here  the  employer  and  the  employed 
are  personal  friends,  attend  the  same 
churches  as  such,  and  their  children  mingle 
in  the  schools  and  on  the  playgrounds  as 
chums  and  comrades. 

A  comparison  of  these  two  pictures  is 
decidedly  in  our  favor — don't  you  think? 

And  does  it  not  also  stand  to  reason  that, 
under  such  tranquil  and  splendid  conditions 
where  strikes  and  labor  troubles  are  prac- 
tically unknown,  manufacturing  operations 
of  all  kinds  can  be  conducted  with  much 
more  profit  and  satisfaction? 

At  this  time  Jackson  has  over  $3,000,000 
invested  in  manufacturing,  and  this  amount 
will  be  very  materially  increased  with  the 
coming  of  several  more  very  substantial 
plants  in  the  near  future. 

Educational 

As  an  educational  center  Jackson  takes 
high  rank  among  the  cities  of_its  size  in  the 
United  States.  Indeed,  with  one  law 
school,  four  literary  colleges,  two  commer- 
cial colleges,  one  magnificent  high  school, 
eight  splendid  graded  schools,  one  fine  Cath- 
olic school  and  several  fine  private  schools 
and  language,  art  and  music  studios,  its  ed- 
ucational advantages  may  be  regarded  as 
unexcelled. 

With  Millsaps  College,  for  boys,  founded 
and  endowed  by  that  eminent  financier  and 
philanthropist.  Maj.  R.  W.  Millsaps,  Belha- 
ven  College,  for  girls,  and  Jackson  College, 
for  colored  boys,  and  Campbell  College, 
for  colored  girls,  the  higher  branches  of 
education,  as  well  as  skilled  training  in 
manual  and  domestic  economics,  is  well 
cared  for  here. 

The  colleges  for  both  boys,  and  girls  here 
are  models  in  both  architecture  and  train- 
ing, and  are  presided  over  by  men  and 
women  of  the  highest  culture  and  efficiency. 

As  for  our  magnificent  system  of  high 
and  graded  schools,  which  are  located  to  the 


BELHAVEX  COLLEGE 


40 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


MILLSAPS    BUILDING 

best  advantage  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  no 
child  from  anywhere  need  have  the  slightest 
fear  of  not  enjoying  the  very  best  of  educa- 
tional features  here. 

Parents  moving  here  from  any  section  of 
the  United  States  may  feel  assured  in  ad- 
vance that  their  children  will  have  access 
to  just  as  fine  and  as  thorough  school  ad- 
vantages as  anywhere  in  the  world. 

Together  with  the  regular  class  work 
taught  in  our  graded  schools,  may  be  en- 
joyed also  the  finest  facilities  in  business 
and  manual  training,  physical  culture,  do- 
mestic science,  sewing,  cooking  and  the 
entire  range  of  thorough  and  practical 
training  for  head  and  heart  and  spirit. 

The  writer  could  go  into  great  length  up- 
on the  many  advantages  offered  for  secur- 
ing a  thorough  scientific  professional  or 
practical  school  education  here,  but  he  will 
assume  it  as  sufficient  when  he  assures  those 
who  may  read  this  article  that  no  better 
advantages  or  facilities  are  enjoyed  any- 
where in  this  great  country. 

Health 

As  to  health,  very  few  communities  in 
the  United  States  can  claim  superiority  over 
this. 

People  in  other  sections  of  the  country 
who  may  have  some  misgivings  about  the 
health  of  this  section,  may  as  well  disabuse 
their  minds  of  any  such  impression. 

Not  only  are  the  health  conditions  here 
most  favorable,  but  they  also  show  steady 
improvement — a  recent  report  here  showing 
a  mortality  of  only  9.91  Q£r  thousand  of 
white  population. 


The  old  bugaboo  about  mosquitoes  and 
malaria  in  this  section  has  long  since  been 
exploded  and  thrown  into  the  waste  basket. 

It  has  served  the  purpose  of  sharpers  and 
schemers,  who  -had  interests  elsewhere,  long 
enough. 

You  will  find  mosquitoes  just  as  numer- 
ous in  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Washington  City, 
Philadelphia  and  New  York. 

Mississippi   is    thoroughly   abreast   on   all 
questions    relating    to    pure    water,    correct 
lood,  proper  sanitation  and  ventilation,  cor- 
rect and  practical  exercise,  and  the  reader  I 
may  rely  upon  it  that  health  conditions  in 
this    section    are    not    only    first    class,    but  .' 
vastly    superior    to    that    of    many    sections  :; 
claiming  themselves  as  such. 

Water 

For  many  years  Jackson  has  drawn  its 
water  supply  from  Pearl  River,  which  runs 
just  to  the  east  of  the  city  and  flows  on 
down  and  empties  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

So  far  as  purity  is  concerned,  chemists 
claim  that  no  purer  running  water  is  to  be 
found  anywhere. 

But,  until  the  erection  and  completion  o*l 
a  magnificent  filtration  plant  here  about  two 
years  ago,  this  water  was  slightly  colored, 
or  cloudy,  after  heavy  rains. 

Since  the  filtration  plant  was  put  into  op- 
eration, however,  the  water  is  as  clear  as 
crystal  and  as  pure  as  any  water  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  supply  is  inexhausti- 
ble, affording  unlimited  quantities  for  all 
purposes. 

The  entire  water  works  system  here  is 
owned  and  operated  by  the  city. 

The  magnificent  electric  street  railway 
system  here,  including  public  and  private 
lighting,  both  electric  and  gas,  is  owned  by 
a  private  corporation,  Kelsey,  Brewer  & 
Co.,  of  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan. 
Banks  and  Banking 

Jackson  Banks  are  operating  on  a  capital 
of  about  $1,000,000.  and  the  combined  de- 
posits of  the  four  banks  aggregate  more 
than  $6,000,000. 

Each  of  the  four  banks  here  have  subsid- 
iary, or  savings  bank,  departments. 

The  character  and  personnel  of  our  bank- 
ers js  of  the  highest,  most  substantial  and 
conservative  type;  and  the  institutions 
themselves,  are  as  solid  as  the  Rock  of 
Gibraltar, 

Commercial 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  high  char- 
acter of  the  merchants  of  Jackson,  in  both 
wholesale  and  retail  lines. 

Both  wholesale  and  retail  merchandising 
has  grown  enormously  in  volume  in  Jack- 
son in  recent  years,  which  shows  that  the 
surrounding  farming,  trucking  and  stock- 
raising  territory  is  filling  up  and  develop- 
ing most  satisfactorily. 

The  commercial  agencies  will  bear  out 
the  statement  that  the  merchants  of  this 


42 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


city  are  of  a  very  substantial  character  and 
the  general  average  of  credits  good. 
Mississippi  State  Fair 

Perhaps  the  most  potent  factor  in  the 
upbuilding  of  Jackson  in  a  larger  sense  is 
the  Mississippi  State  Fair.  For  ten  years, 
prior  to  1915,  it  was  owned  and  operated 
by  a  small  body  of  patriotic  citizens,  who 
gave  liberally  of  both  their  time  and  money 
in  order  that  the  influence  of  this  great  edu- 
cational institution  might  radiate  among 
the  people  of  this  state,  and  fire  and  en- 
thuse them  to  the  upbuilding  of  a  stronger 
and  more  compact  agricultural  and  indus- 
trial civilization. 

The  splendid  mission  which  it  has  served 
in  this  respect  was  well  stated  a  year  or 
more  ago  by  Hon.  J. 
Luther  Enochs,  former 
president,  in  the  follow- 
ing significant  words: 

"It  is  showing  our 
people  the  finger  prints 
of  the  great  civilization 
into  which  they  are 
rapidly  moulding  them- 
selves; it  is  showing 
them  that  as  fine  live 
stock  can  be  raised  in 
Mississippi  as  anywhere 
in  the  world;  it  is  show- 
ing them  how  one  acre, 
intensively  and  intelli- 
gently cultivated,  is  now 
producing  more  and  far 
better  results  than  five 
acres  did  formerly." 

In  the  early  part  of 
this  year,  however,  it 
was  decided  by  a  popu- 
lar vote  to  have  this 
great  and  useful  institu- 
tion municipally  owned, 
and  it  is  now  managed 
and  operated  by  a  com- 
mission of  five  distin- 
guished citizens:  Hon. 
W.  D.  Hannah,  president,  and  Thad  B. 
Lampton,  S.  P.  McRea,  L.  B.  Moseley  and 
J.  Luther  Enochs,  commissioners. 

It    is    doing    a    tremendously    beneficial 
work   for   Mississippi,   and   its   inspiring   in- 
fluence   for    good    reaches    out    to    the    re- 
motest corners  of  the  commonwealth. 
Civic    and   Religious    Affairs 

Jackson's  spirit  of  civic  pride  and  right- 
eousness is  manifested  in  its  constantly  in- 
creasing area  of  nicely  paved  streets  and 
walks,  the  improvement  of  its  parks,  with 
notable  enlargement  of  its  park  service  in 
early  contemplation,  its  stately  and  beau- 
tiful residences,  business  buildings,  state 
institutions,  and  that  tolerant  and  finely 
poised  temper  of  its  people,  which  instinc- 
tively sees  the  right  as  opposed  to  the 
wrong,  and  which  is  neither  contracted  by 


HON.   S.   J. 
Mayor   of 


narrow    dogma    nor    swayed    by    licentious 
passion. 

Its  churches,  by  reason  of  their  large 
congregations  and  attendance  and  the  great 
variety  of  creeds  and  forms  of  worship 
enjoyed  within  their  hallowed  precincts,  at- 
test a  broad,  cordial  and  tolerant  welcome 
for  those  from  other  sections  who  may  be 
seeking  a  place  in  which  to  cast  their  lot. 
All  the  lodges  and  fraternal  orders  are 
strongly  entrenched  here,  and  homeseek- 
ers  and  visitors  will  have  no  difficulty 
whatever  in  being  made  to  "feel  at  home" 
at  once. 

Commission   Government 
For  nearly  three  years  Jackson  has  been 
under    the    Commission    Form    of    Govern- 
ment, and  in  the  opinion 
of  the   majority  here,    it 
is   esteemed  as  more  ef- 
ficient   than    the    old    al- 
dermanic  system. 

Under  the  commission 
form  of  government 
each  commissioner,  in 
addition  to  the  exercise 
of  general  and  collective 
supervision,  has  his  par- 
ticular sphere  of  re- 
sponsibility in  the  sub- 
division of  public  duty, 
sav  each  assuming  one- 
third,  and  is  at  hand  at 
•  all  hours  of  the  day  and 
ready  to  serve  the  pub- 
lic interests. 

This  necessarily  means 
much  quicker  and  bet- 
ter results,  and  more 
efficient  business  meth- 
ods. 

The  present   city  gov- 
ernment is  in  the  hands 
of    Hon.    S.    J.    Taylor, 
Mayor,  and  H.  Spengler 
and  R.  M.  Taylor,  Com- 
missioners. 
Jackson  has  two  live  and  .energetic  com- 
mercial   or    business    organizations:      The 
Jackson    Board    of    Trade    and    the    Young 
Men's  Business   Club. 

Hon.  F.  E.  Gunter,.^vice-president  of  the 
Merchants  Bank  and  Trust  Co.,  is  president 
of  the  former  organization,  and  Hon.  Sam 
Johnson,  of  the  Dry  Goods  firm  of  S.  J. 
Johnson  &  Co.,  of  the  latter. 

These  two  organizations  are  doing  a 
great  work  for  this  city  and^ftate,  making 
both  well  and  favorably  known  throughout 
this  country  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
Jackson  also  has  a  splendid  Rotary  Club, 
a  live  Automobile  Association,  a  magnifi- 
cent Country  Club,  with  golf  links  and  all 
moderri  accessories,  a  palatial  Elks  Home 
and,  taken  altogether,  is  one  of  the  health- 
iest, happiest  and  most  desirable  places  in 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


which  to  live  to  be  found  anywhere  in  this 
great  country. 

Agriculture      and      Stock-Raising     Around 
Jackson. 

Mississippi  has  the  rain,  the  sunshine  and 
the  long  growing  seasons  to  make  it  one 
of  the  finest  agricultural  states  in  the 
Union. 

Just  think  of  green  things  growing  al- 
ways, of  planting  your  garden  any  day  and 
continuing  to  make  crop  after  crop  on  the 
same  soil.  This  is  made  possible  by  the 
mild  winter. 

This  is  a  poultryman's  and  dairyman's 
paradise. 

Imagine    a    country    with    summer    time 


larger  profits  than  in  colder  or  dryer  sec- 
tions. 

There  is  an  abundance  of  all  kinds  of 
forage  crops  grown  in  Mississippi,  such  as 
rape,  alfalfa,  lespedeza,  red  clover,  white 
clover,  crimson  clover,  bur  clover,  cow 
peas,  soy  beans,  melilotus,  peanuts,  vetch, 
velvet  beans,  Bermuda  grass  Johnson 
grass,  Sudan  grass,  rye,  oats,  barley,  sor- 
ghum and  an  almost  endless  variety  of  na- 
tive grasses. 

And  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  an 
almost  endless  chain  of  combinations  can 
be  made  from  the  above  named  crops,  giv- 
ing in  many  instances  unequaled  pasturage, 
and  in  others  several  splendid  crops  in  ro- 


CITY   HALL,    JACKSON,    MISS. 


\  practically  all  the  year,  with  plenty  of 
)  shade,  with  good  rainfall  and  plenty  of  un- 
i  failing  running  streams,  no  fear  of  drought, 
I  with  live-stock  seeking  and  finding  their 
'  own  living  in  the  winter,  protected  by 
sheltering  fields  from  the  occasional  cold 
;  wave.  Such  are  the  ideal  stock-raising 
'Conditions  in  Mississippi. 

The  stock-raising  advantages  in  Missis- 
jsippi  are  apparent  when  it  is  remembered 
that  much  less  acreage  is  necessary  to  carry 
icattle  here — 1  to  3  acres  per  head  being  suf- 
ficient as  compared  with  15  to  20  in  dry 
sections. 

Stock-raising  has  the  advantage  of  about 
10  months  pasturage  here,  requiring  only 
about  2  months  feeding  out  of  12 — which' 
means  much  cheaper  production  and  much 


tation  from  the  same  piece  of  acreage  an- 
nually. 

Surely  these  unusual  advantages  must 
appeal  to  all  practical  thinkers. 

From. 3  to  5  tons  more  ensilage  per  acre 
can  be  produced  in  Mississippi  than  in 
colder  or  dryer  sections — which  means 
cheaper  production  and  larger  profits  in 
stock-raising. 

Advanced  stock  raisers  in  this  state  have 
succeeded,  at  minimum  cost,  in  producing 
the  finest  animals  in  the  world,  as  evidenced 
by  the  great  herd  of  Herefords  at  La  Ver- 
net  Stock  Farm,  one  and  one-half  miles 
from  Jackson,  which  has  enjoyed  an  un- 
broken triumphal  tour  through  the  leading 
stock  shows  of  the  country — culminating 
with  Point  Comfort  XIV  winning  the  World 


44 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Championship  Prize  on  Hereford  Bull  at 
the  International  Live  Stock  Show  at  Chi- 
cago, in  1913. 

Mr.  Samuel  De  Boer,  of  Nappanee,  Ind., 
was  so  deeply  impressed  with  the  ideal 
dairy  conditions  of  Mississippi  that  he  has 
secured  a  large  tract  of  improved  land 
about  three  miles  north  of  Jackson,  and 
proposes  to  bring  his  magnificent  herd  of 
Holsteins,  valued  at  $15,000,  from  Indiana 
and  locate  them  on  this  tract,  with  a  view 
of  establishing  a  modern  dairy  here. 

Moreover,  with  proper  breeding,  as  fine 
horses  can  be  raised  here  as  in  Kentucky, 


Boys,  under  the  direction  of  Prof.  C.  A. 
Cobb,  in  charge  of  Boys'  Club  Work  in  this 
state,  are  making  a  remarkable  record,  and 
their  fathers  are  following  in  their  foot- 
steps. The  yield  of  corn  has  been  increased 
in  this  state  from  28,429,000  bushels  in  1909 
to  70,623,000  in  1915,  which  means  that  a 
few  more  years  will  find  Mississippi  one  of 
the  great  corn  raising  states  of  the  Union. 
Under  the  United  States  'Government 
Corn  Club  Work,  as  much  as  227  bushels 
of  cojn  have  been  produced  on  one  acre 
here,  and  the  common  average  raised  to 
the  acre  under  the  demonstration  work  now 


Corn 


Same  field  of  oats  as  above,  before  cutting 


/Year  Jackson 


and  as  large  and  as  fine  mules  as  in  Mis- 
souri. 

Wheat  grows  well  in  Mississippi,  as  much 
as  42  bushels  to  the  acre  having  been  raised 
by  Mr.  Geo.  Wheatley,  of  Washington 
County,  and  an  average  of  over  30  bushels 
by  numbers  of  planters,  but  its  future  as  a 
commercial  or  profitable  crop  in  this  state 
is  yet  to  be  developed. 

Growing  oats  in  Mississippi  is  no  longer 
an  experiment,  as  they  are  fast  becoming 
one  of  our  great  staple  and  money-making 
crops.  The  Stoneville  Experiment  Station, 
in  Washington  County,  produced  126 
bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre,  and  numerous 
instances  can  be  cited  of  over  100  bushels 
to  the  acre  in  this  state. 

Corn  has  developed  wonderfully  in  Mis- 
sissippi in  recent  years.  The  Corn  Club 


being  conducted  in  Mississippi  is  betweer 
40  and  50  bushels.  Many  progressive 
farmers  are  producing  as  much  as  75  bush 
els  to  the  acre  on  large  tracts. 

Plenty  of  corn  means  plenty  of  hogs 
and  big  money  can  be  made  out  of  hog 
raising  in  Mississippi;  in  fact,  this  is  fas 
become  a  great  hog  raising  state. 

Cotton  will  always  remain  a  power  ir 
Mississippi,  but  under  the  "new  order"  i 
is  being  made  a  "surplus  cash  crop."  in 
stead  of  our  sole  dependence,  as  under  the 
old  regime. 

Figs,  sweet  potatoes  (or  yams)  and  Irisl 
potatoes,  all  the  vegetables,  and  nearly  al 
the  fruits  grow  in  rioutous  profusion  here 

The  prices  of  lands  in  the  farming  ter 
ritory  around  Jackson  range  from  $10  tc 
$40  per  acre,  according  to  location.  Thes< 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


45 


lands  can  be  built  up  inio  magnificent  farms 
in  from  one  to  three  years;  are  admirably 
adapted  to  a  wide  range  of  diversified 
farming,  trucking,  fruit  growing,  dairy  and 
stock  raising,  and  afford  ideal  homes  for 
thrifty  homeseekers  who  may  be  seeking 
relief  from  the  cold  climate,  hard  struggle 
and  high  cost  of  living  in  the  overcrowded 
districts  of  the  North  and  East.  As  an 
investment  these  lands  are  unsurpassed,  as 
they  are  certain  to  double  and  even  quad- 
ruple in  value  in  the  next  few  years. 

Mississippi  has  the  land  of  semi-tropical 
productiveness,  without  the  disadvantages 
of  semi-tropical  climate.  Here  seems  to 
1)6  the  only  real  "Land  of  Least  Resistance." 
Mississippi  can  grow  anything  that  can 
be  grown  in  the  North,  and,  in  addition, 
'many  things  which  cannot  be  grown  in 
;  the  Northern  States.  What  Mississippi 
I  wants  is  a  larger  number  of  sturdy  farmers. 
'The  land  is  here,  adapted  to  any  agricul- 
tural purpose,  and  ready  to  yield  handsome 
profits  as  a  reward  for  intelligent  culti- 
vation. 

Out    of    46,865    square    miles    of   territory 

I  in   Mississippi  only  503  square  miles  repre- 

j  sent  water  surface,  or  a  trifle  over  1  per  cent 

So,  far  from  being  a  swampy  state,  90  per 


cent  of  the  lands  in  Mississippi  are  high 
and  dry  and  above  any  overflow  whatever, 
whether  from  river,  creek,  or  branch.  The 
altitude  here  is.  288  feet. 

The  temperature  and  rainfall  are  admir- 
able, the  annual  average  of  the  former  be- 
ing 63.8  deg.  Fahr.,  and  the  latter  47.53 
inches,  which  is  well  distributed  through- 
out the  growing  season. 

The  health  of  the  city  and  surrounding 
country  will  compare  favorably  with  other 
localities  throughout  the  country;  indeed, 
is  vastly  superior  to  many  regarding  them- 
selves as  healthy — a  recent  report  here 
showing  a  mortality  of  only  9.91  per  thou- 
sand of  white  population. 

Don't  you  '  think,  Mr.  Homeseeker  and 
Mr.  Investor,  that  it  is  worth  your  while 
to  qome  and  "look  over"  this  great  and 
coming  state? 

Lots  of  good  people  are  coming  our  way, 
and  have  been  for  some  time,  and  they 
are  delighted  with  the  splendid  opportunities 
they  find  here. 

A  CORDIAL  WELCOME  AWAITS 
YOU. 

For  further  information  address  the 
Jackson  Bo'ard  of  Trade,  Jackson,  Missis- 
sippi. 


Public  Ltbraiy 


Jackson  the  Future  Metropolis  of  the  South 

By  W.  P.  Bridges 
Chairman  Industrial  Committee,  Jackson's  Young  Men's  Business  Club 


T  ACKSON,  MISSISSIPPI,  has  enjoyed 
J  the  most  remarkable  growth  of  any  city 
in  the  South  in  the  past  fifteen  years. 
Springing  from  a  town  of  7,000  population 
in  1900  to  a  progressive  city  of  30,000  at 
present  does  not  mean  that  she  has  had  a 
mushroom  growth  which  is  destined  to  col- 
lapse. Her  growth  has  been  steady  and 
substantial,  despite  business  depression 
and  an  epoch  of  necessary  transformation 
from  the  old  South  of  cotton  fame  alone, 
to  the  new  South  of  modern  ideas  and  cos- 
mopolitan interests. 
Jackson  is  essentially  an  agricultural  city. 


of  these  is  her  unsurpassed  railroad  facili- 
ties and  th.e  co-operation  of  the  broad- 
minded  and  progressive  men  at  the  head  of 
these  various  railroads.  It  is  largely  due 
to  the  railroad  that  we  have  received  the 
favorable  attention  of  the  business  men 
and  farmers  of  the  North.  It  is  due  to 
their  interest  and  co-operation  that  we  are 
now  able  to  produce  two  crops  where  we 
previously  produced  only  one,  and  to  them 
we  owe  the  credit  for  being  able  to  market 
quickly  and  profitably  various  products  of 
our  farms  and  manufactories. 
The  next  most  important  agency  in  our 


She  is  situated  in  the  midst  of  an  agricul- 
tural section  of  unsurpassed  fertility  and 
adaptability  to  all  kinds  of  diversified 
farming.  Jackson  is  a  city  of  the  future, 
not  the  past.  We  have  just  discovered  in 
the  past  four  or  five  years  what  our  soil 
is  capable  of  doing.  We  have  just  begun 
to  realize  the  opportunities  which  we  have 
for  development,  and  the  greatest  beauty  is 
that  the  opportunities  here  are  still  open  to 
the  young  man — the  man  with  progressive 
ideas,  willingness  to  work,  and  small  cap- 
ital. The  opportunities  are  still  open  here 
which  are  closed  in  the  more  highly  devel- 
oped and  thickly  settled  sections  where  the 
prices  of  land  have  gone  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  man  of  small  means. 

Jackson's  growth  is  due  primarily  to  three 
agencies;  the  first  and  the  most  important 


development  and  the  one  which  promises 
the  most  for  the  future  is  the  naturally 
productive  soil  of  our  surrounding  territory. 
It  is  this  that  has  enabled  us  to  produce 
the  best  cattle  in  the  world,  the  most  corn 
per  acre  in  the  world,  and  affords  the  best 
grazing  land  in  the  world. 

The  third  most  important  agency  is  the 
climate.  The  abundant  rain  fall  and  long 
growing  season  have  enabled  us  to  produce 
two  or  three  crops  a  year  where  a  colder 
climate  would  produce  only  one.  The  cli- 
mate also  recommends  this  section  to  the 
home-seeker  as  a  most  pleasant  place  to 
live. 

Due  to  the  co-operation  of  the  progressive 
business  men  of  Jackson,  of  the  Federal 
agricultural  experts,  and  of  the  Railroad 
Agricultural  Department,  our  farmers  have 


47 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


49 


been  and  are  being  educated  to  their  real  possibilities.  They 
are  beginning  to  realize  now  as  never  before  that  diversified 
farming  pays,  and  that  the  business  men  of  Jackson  have  their 
interest  at  heart,  and  that  it  is  only  through  their  prosperity 
that  the  city  man  can  prosper. 

Instead  of  raising  cotton  alone  and  having  to  buy  our  meat 
and  bread  out  of  the  State  we  now  produce  practically  every- 
thing necessary  for  home  consumption,  and  the  money  we  de- 
rive from  cotton  is  merely  a  surplus.  The  raising  of  stock  is 
only  in  its  infancy,  and  every  day  we  hear  of  waste  lands  being 
turned  into  profitable  stock  farms  and  ranches.  So  much  for 
Jackson  agriculture.  We  will  now  turn  to  Jackson  proper  and 
her  opportunities  for  the  business  man  and  her  industrial  needs. 
Jackson  offers  unsurpassed  advantages  as  a  place  to  live. 
We  have  the  purest  water  of  any  town  in  the  South  and  in 
quantities  sufficient  for  a  city  of  100,000.  All  of  Jackson's 
principal  residence  and  business  streets  are  paved.  Her  school 
facilities  are  unsurpassed.  Jackson  has  one  central  high  school  and 
five  up-to-date  grammar,  schools  now  in  operation,  with  another 
up-to-date  grammar  school  now  in  the  course  of  construction. 
She  has  in  Millsaps  College  one  of  the  best  and  most  modern 
colleges  for  boys  to  be  found  anywhere.  For  girls,  the  same 
applies  to  Belhaven  College.  These  improvements  we  have 
mentioned  are  already  built  and  paid  for,  thus  making  high 
taxation  for  city  improvements  unnecessary.  Jackson  has  over 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  of  fine  gravel  roads  radiat- 
ing in  every  direction,  all  of  which  have  been  built  in  the  past 
five  years.  With  the  present  road  building  enthusiasm  we 
expect  to  have  every  road  in  this  and  adjoining  counties 
graveled  within  the  next  two  or  three  years. 

Industrially,  we  yet  have  many  opportunities  for  new  busi- 
ness. With  the  fine  quality  of  our  brick  and  tile  clay,  the 
natural  gravel  found  in  abundant  quantities  in  and  around 
Jackson,  this  place  offers  an  unsurpassed  opportunity  for  a 
large  manufacturer  of  concrete,  brick  and  other  building  ma- 
terial. 

With  the  timber  near  at  hand  and  excellent  railroad  fa- 
cilities, Jackson  offers  advantages  hard  to  equal  for  a  manu- 
facturer of  furniture  or  vehicles. 

Jackson's  location  makes  it  an  excellent  distributing  point 
for  any  product  used  in  any  section  of  the  South.  This  fact  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  we  have  the  main  offices  of  the  Standard 
Oil  Company  for  this  section  of  the  South.  The  Dupont  Pow- 
der Company  and  other  eastern  manufacturing  concerns  have 
recently  located  distributing  agencies  near  Tackson. 

The  wonderful   increase   in   grain   production   in  this   section 

would  make  a  grain  elevator  located  in  Jackson  very  profitable. 

The    rapidly    increasing    live    stock    industry    makes    a    good 

opening  for  a  stock  yard  or  branch  packing  house  of  some  of 

the  larger  meat  packing  concerns. 

Jackson's  rapidly  growing  industrial  importance  is  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  the  various  manufacturers  of  the  North  and 
the  East  and  it  promises  to  become  art  early  rival  with  Atlanta 
and  Birmingham. 

Important  to  Jackson's  growth  is  the  fact  that  the  young 
men  of  Jackson  and  the  Jackson  vicinity  are  alive  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  on  them  that  the  future  Jackson  depends.  This  fact 
is  demonstrated  by  the  recent  organization  of  nearly  one 
thousand  of  Jackson's  young  live  wires  into  the  Jackson  Young 
Men's  Business  Club,  the  first  organization  of  this  nature  in 
the  South  and  the  second  in  the  United  States.  They_  are  not 
just  organized  to  talk  and  argue,  as  is  the  tendency  with  most 
organizations  of  young  men,  but  they  are  organized  to  do 
something  for  Jackson.  The  earnestness  of  these  young  men 
who  are  to  be  the  future  heads  of  business  in  the  citv  is -dem- 
onstrated by  the  works  which  they  have  already  accomplished. 
The  motto  of  this  organization  is  "let  us  try,"  and  nothing 
is  too  large  nor  to  small  to  be  undertaken,  if  it  tends  to  the 
betterment  of  the  future  of  the  city  of  Jackson. 


State  Highway  Department  Urged  for  Mississippi 

By  J.  D.  Morrison 
President  Mississippi  Highway  Association  in  Manufacturers  Record 


(Realizing  the  economic  advantages  of  good 
roads  and  their  great  influence  upon  the  broad- 
est possible  development  of  Mississippi,  Mr. 
Morrison  has  devoted  a  large  portion  of  his 
time  to  this  important  subject.  He  is  con- 
tinually delivering  addresses  in  all  parts  of 
the  state  to  impress  upon  the  people  the  great 
need  of  modernly-built  roads  and  the  desira- 
bility of-the  legislature  creating  a  State  High- 
way Department.) 

The  people   of  the  State   of 
Mississippi  have  joined  in  the 
clamor    with    all    other    states 
for  the  improvement  of  coun- 
try roads.     The  county  super- 
visors are  swamped  by  the  de- 
mand     for      improvement     of 
roads      in       their      respective 
counties.         The       Mississippi 
laws    are    inadequate    to    meet 
these    increasing   requirements 
for    building    substantial    and 
economical    roads.      The    peo- 
ple   generally    are    thoroughly 
aroused  to  the  value  of  them 
Every    department    of    indus- 
try   is    talking    and    preaching 
good    roads    and    how    to    im- 
prove them  most  economical- 
ly.    Bankers,   merchants,   law- 
yers,  doctors,   the    school   and 
the    church    all    have    had    a 
voice    in    influencing    the    re-' 
vision   of  laws  with   reference 
to    the    building    and    mainte- 
nance     of     public      highways. 
Mississippi     has     passed     the 
primary     department     in     the 
education    of    the    benefits    of 
good  roads,  and  the  man  who 
takes    time    to    argue   whether 
or  not  good  roads  pay  is  left 
on  the  wayside  by  the  throng- 
'ing    masses    who    are    rushing 
by  to  gain  economic  informa- 
tion as  to  the  construction,  of 
them. 

Mississippi  has  spent  for 
improvement  of  good  roads 
by  bond  issue  in  the  last  few 
years  over  $11,000,000,  and  the 
land  through  which  these 
good  roads  have  been  built 
have  doubled  and  trebled  in 
value,  and  their  neighbors 
who  have  no  good  roads  are 


now  demanding  them.  As  a  strictly  agri- 
cultural state,  Mississippi  has  had  a  sudden 
awakening  in  which  she  sees  her  greatest 
wealth  lies  in  her  agricultural  product  and 
a  cheap  and  efficient  transportation  for 
them  and  her  people,  and  our  next  legis- 
lature will  undoubtedly  reconstruct  all  of 
the  laws  governing  the  state  highways. 

The   wealth   of    our   nation   is   in   its    farm 
crops,  which  must  be  transported  to  the  con- 


A   COUNTRY  ROAD 


50 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


sumer.  For  the  present  year 
there  is  estimated  by  the  Na- 
tional Government  that  the 
value  of  this  year's  crop  is 
$5,500,000,000.  With  this  great 
wealth  wrapped  up  in  a  ton- 
nage of  products  in  the  field, 
what  can  a  sane  legislature 
or  country  do  but  improve  the 
transportation  facilities  for 
moving  it? 

It  is  estimated  that  where 
one  person  rides  on  steam- 
ships and  railroads,  ten  ride 
on  the  coiintry  roads,  and  90 
per  cent  of  rail  and  water 
traffic  originates  in  the  coun- 
try and  is  first  transported 
over  country  roads,  yet  until 
a  very  few  years  ago  the  im- 
provement and  development  of 
country  roads  had  gained  but 
little  notice  and  attention  from 
either  county,  state  or  federal 
departments,  and  conditions 
grew  from  bad  to  worse  for 
the  country  people,  and  the 
great  influx  and  flow  of  the 
tide  of  immigration  from  the 
country  was  to  the  towns  and 
cities  seeking  to  better  their 
condition.  This  resulted  in  a 
nation-wide  depooulation  of 
the  country  and  reduction  of 
farm  products.  Then  followed 
the  sharp  and  quick  advance  in 
food  and  clothing,  which  sent 
sky-high  the  "cost  of  living"; 
then  the  great  army  of  econ- 
omists began  to  figure  out  the 
cause  of  this  high  cost  of  liv- 
ing, and  the  vast  volume  of 
their  philosophy  and  figures  of 
their  statisticians  reduced  to 
its  simple  analysis  showed  that 
good  highly  improved  country 
roads  are  the  key  that  will  draw  back  from 
the  cities  to  the  country  the  productive  power 
which  was  lost  by  the  bad  condition  of  coun- 
try life  and  poor  roads. 

So  strong  and  potent  has  been  the  factor 
of  good  roads  in  controlling  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing in  the  United  States  that  within  the  last 
few  years  all  of  the  states  of  the  Union,  ex- 
cept seven,  through  their  legislatures  have 
created  a  highway  department  to  supervise 
and  economically  and  wisely  build  and  expand 
their  country  roads.  Mississippi  is  one  of 
the  seven  states  that  has  no  highway  depart- 
ment, and  the  Mississippi  Highway  Associa- 
tion has  undertaken  to  make  'a  campaign  that 


SAME  ROAD  AFTER  THE  APPLICATION  OF  GRAVEL 


our  next  legislature  will  pass  such  laws  gov- 
erning the  construction  and  maintenance  of 
our  highways  that  there  will  be  a  complete  re- 
organization of  this  department.  It  is  a  well 
proven  fact  that  the  $11,000,000  spent  for 
building  good  roads  in  the  State  of  Mississippi 
in  the  last  four  or  five  years  has  been  more 
or  less  in  a  haphazard  and  experimental  way, 
and  that  the  time  has"  come  when  experiment- 
ing with  other  people's  money  should  promptly 
and  vigorously  be  discontinued,  because  experi- 
mental work  is  always  expensive.  The  cam- 
paign and  fight  that  the  Mississippi  Highway 
Association  is  making  we  believe  will  appeal 
to  all.  patriotic  and  business  people. 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,NT 
S  E,R  VI  OE, 
S 


"Safety  First"  Suggestions  for  Maintenance 
of  Way  Employes 

Track  men,  in  the  performance  of  their  duty,  must  make  their 
track  safe ;  provide  for  proper  protection  when  track  is  obstructed, 
and  use  caution  signals  where  reduced  speed  is  required. 

Take  no  chances! 

Drill  your  men  in  handling  tools,  hand  and  other  service  cars — 
not  only  once,  but  often. 

DON'T  Run  hand  or  motor  cars  over  public  road  crossings  without 
slowing  down,  prepared  to  stop. 

DON'T  Run  hand  or  motor  cars  after  night,  except  when  necessary 
on  company  business,  and  then  provide  lamps,  according 
to  Book  of  Rules. 

DON'T  Allow  anyone  to  get  on  front  of  hand  or  push  car  while  it 
is  in  motion. 

DON'T  Leave  ties  or  other  obstruction  near  the  track  which  some- 
one may  fall  over. 

DON'T  Run  hand  cars  without  having  an  experienced  man  in  charge 
of  each  car. 

DON'T  Run  hand  cars  closer  together  than  provided  by  Book  of 
Rules. 

DON'T  Carry  tools  or  any  other  articles  likely  to  fall  off  on  front 
end  of  hand  car. 

DON'T  Run  a  hand  car  without  having  a  man  looking  in  both 
directions. 

52 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  53 

DON'T  Get  under  cars  on  siding  when  seeking  shelter  from  rain. 

DON'T  Stand  on  track  of  double  track  when  train  is  passing  on 
the  other. 

DON'T  Fail  to  flag  properly  when  track  is  obstructed. 
DON'T  Use  inexperienced  men  as  flagmen. 

DON'T  Forget  to  see  that  caution  flags  are  properly  displayed  when 
track  is  not  safe  for  usual  speed. 

DON'T  Fail  to  caution  men  when  unloading  rail  or  working  around 
machinery,  about  being  careful  in  taking  care  of  themselves. 

DON'T  Forget  to  look  over  your  tools  and  see  that  same  are  in  a 
safe  condition  for  work. 

DON'T  Attempt  to  couple  or  uncouple  cars,  let  the  Trainmen  do  it. 

DON'T  Attempt  to  get  on  cars,  work  trains  or  pile  drivers  while 
they  are  in  motion. 

DON'T  Stand  with  your  back  away  from  bridge  when  pulling  out 
side  spikes  on  a  bridge. 

DON'T  Cut  off  head  of  rivet  or  bolt  without  seeing  that  there  is  no 
one  around  likely  to  be  struck  by  it. 

DON'T  Give  signals  when  in  charge  of  work  train;   let  the  Con- 
ductor do  it. 

DON'T  Drop  load  of  a  jack  on  bridge  without  knowing  that  all 
men  are  in  a  safe  place. 

DON'T  Use  old  lines  in  handling  loads  on  bridges. 

DON'T  Work  with   any   tool   that  you   think   is   unsafe;    call   the 
Foreman's  attention  to  it. 


Passenger  Traffic  Department 

Little  Talks  with  the  Rambler 


•„  -JL  ft  **  i 


About  a  Golf  Tournament 


T  WAS  much  interested  recently 
*•  when  riding  in  the  coach  of  one  of 
our  western  line's  trains  at  an  exhibi- 
tion of  what  I  put  down  as  "exalted 
egotism"  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  pas- 
sengers. He  was  undoubtedly  a  good 
natured  fellow,  and  really  meant  no 
harm,  but  he  carried  with  him  in  all 
his  movements  an  aggressive  air  that 
seemed  to  challenge  any  possible 
thought  on  the  part  of  those  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact  that  he  was 
not  at  least  "a  considerable  sort  of  a 
fellow."  He  quickly  fell  into  conver- 
sation with  anyone  in  his  immediate 
vicinity  who  would  talk  with  him,  and 
in  anything  he  had  to  say  it  was  done 
in  a  loud  voice  for  the  edification  of 
those  about  him.  He  evidently  became 
a  bit  tiresome,  for  I  soon  noticed  that 
no  one  seemed  particularly  anxious  to 
keep  up  any  extended  talk  with  him 
and  answered  him  in  monosyllables. 
This  he  evidently  noticed,  too,  so  he 
finally  contented  himself  with  settling 
down  and  beginning  to  read  a  news- 
paper. Even  then,  however,  he  rather 
insisted  on  making  his  presence 
known  by  occasionally  leaning  over 
and  commenting,  to  the  gentleman  sit- 
ting in  the  seat  in  front  of  him,  on 


some  item  that  he  had  found  in  the 
columns  of  his  paper.  But  even  then 
he  was  so  nearly  squelched  by  inat- 
tention that  when  the  conductor,  who 
had  previously  taken  up  the  tickets, 
came  into  the  car  and  was  walking 
through  intent  on  some  business  at 
hand,  he  was  evidently  delighted  at 
having  a  prospective  new  victim  with 
whom  to  talk.  He  stopped  the  con- 
ductor, therefore,  saying  with  a  good 
natured  laugh  and  salutation,  but  in  a 
voice  loud  enough  to  be  heard  all  over 
the  car,  "Say,  Cap,  what  station  do  T 
want  to  get  off  at  to  see  this  town?" 
and  he  hastily  read  in  a  loud  voice 
from  his  paper  a  "short  story  to  the 
effect  that  a  passenger  on  purchasing 
a  railroad  ticket  asked  the  agent  if  he 
could  stop  over  on  it  .  at  a  certain 
station  and  the  agent's  reply  was. 
"Well,  this  ticket  is  only  good  for  so 
many  hours  and  there's  no  other  train 
leaving  there  until  after  it  expires.  Be- 
fore that  time  you  will  kick  yourself 
because  you  did  not  keep  on  going." 
The  conductor  slightly  smiled  in  a 
weary  sort  of  a  way  and  said  as  he 
started  off  down  the  aisle,  "I  fear  you 
have  made  a  mistake  in  your  train  if 
that  is  what  voti  want.  We  have  no 


54 


GOLF   TOURNAMENT   AT   MEMPHIS 
1.    2,    3,    5,    6,    7,    S — Players    in    Action;    4 — Getting:   the    Persimmons. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


such  station  on  this  road."  A  little 
later  I  followed  the  conductor  into  the 
baggage  car  and  chatted  with  him  be- 
tween stations,  for  I  had  a  semi-pro- 
fessional acquaintance  with  him.  I 
mentioned  the  little  incident  that  has 
been  related  and  asked  him  if  he  had 
many  such  passengers.  "Well,  not  so 
many,"  he  answered,  "there  are,  how- 
ever, very  often  some  who  like  to  have 
people  know  that  they  are  aboard  the 
train.  But  few  of  them  are  as  de-J 
monstrative  or  persistent  as  this  fel- 
low. I  felt  like  telling  him  that  he 
would  probably  feel  more  at  home  in 
'Buggville.'  The  fact  of  the  matter 
is,  it  was  on  the  tip  of  my  tongue 
to  give  him  some  such  an  answer,  and 
I  think  I  would  have  done  so  but  for 
the  slogan  'Courtesy  Always.'  How- 
ever," he  added  laughingly,  %e  wasn't 
so  worse.  He  at  least  had  the  decency 
not  to  hold  me  up  until  I  had  my 
tickets  taken.  Just  the  same,  I  wish 
I  had  the  Rambler's  gift  of  turning  a 
little  thing  like  that  back  on  the  per- 
petrator, and  in  a  way  that  makes  the 
latter  rather  enjoy  it  himself."  "Then 
you  know  the  Rambler?"  I  said.  "That 
makes  me  think,  I  haven't  seen  him 
myself  for  nearly  two  weeks.  I  must 
look  him  up  when  I  get  back."  "I 
think  he  has  been  away,"  said  the  con- 
ductor, "in  fact,  I  know  he  has,  as  I 
saw  him  last  week,  and  he  told  me  he 
had  been  down  to  Memphis.  To  a  golf 
tournament,  I  think  he  said  he  went." 
"Golf  tournament?"  I  thought  to  my- 
self. "I  heard  nothing  about  that.  Sup- 
pose he  was  looking  after  some  busi- 
ness in  connection  with  it,  but  I  don't 
remember  him  mentioning  it.  I  know, 
however,  that  sometimes  when  a  circus 
breaks  up  for  the  season  there  is 
oftentimes  quite  a  movement  from  that 
vicinity." 

Of  course,  I  immediately  dismissed 
the  matter  from  my  mind  as  an  in- 
cident of  no  particular  interest  to  my- 
self, and,  probably  much  to  my  own 
discredit,  forgot  even  the  Rambler  for 
several  days  after.  One  evening,  how- 
ever, finding  nothing  of  special  inter- 
est to  occupy  my  mind  in  the  home,  it 
occurred  to  me  to  drop  in  on  the 


Rambler  at  his  apartments,  and  so  1 
telephoned  to  see  if  he  was  in.  On 
receiving  a  hearty  response  in  the 
affirmative,  with  the  suggestion  that 
he  had  a  fresh  box  of  cigars  that  he 
would  open  if  I  would  come  over,  a 
short  time  afterwards  found  me  at  his 
door.  On  the  way  to  him  it  occurred 
to  me  that  at  the  last  time  I  had  seen 
him  we  had  made  a  sort  of  a  tentative 
agreement  that  we  would  go  to  church 
together  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  No- 
vember 7th,  and  I  remembered  that  when 
the  time  came  he  could  not  be  found.  So, 
on  arriving,  after  exchanging  greet- 
ings I  rallied  him  a  bit  on  the  matter, 
saying  that  while  I  presumed  it  was 
too  much  for  me  to  really  expect  of 
him  that  he  would  actually  go  to 
church  even  on  my  invitation,  it  might 
be  in  order  for  him  to  invent  his  ex- 
cuse for  giving  me  the  slip,  if  he  had 
not  already  framed  it  up.  "O,"  he  said 
laughing,  "to  be  honest,  I  had  forgot- 
ten all  about  it.  But  I  could  not  have 
gone  anyway,  as  I  was  in  Memphis 
that  day.  However,  I  was  at  a  meet- 
ing just  the  same."  "Yes,"  I  remarked, 
"I  see  your  little  joke,  remembering  as 
I  do  that  with  your  New  England  an- 
cestors 'church'  and  'meeting'  were 
practically  synonymous,  but  I  will 
wager  you  a  new  hat  that  you  were 
not  at  a  church  in  Memphis."  "Well, 
no,"  he  said,  "I  will  have  to  admit  that 
I  wasn't ;  still  I  was  in  a  pretty  good 
place.  Where  the  birds  sang  praises 
all  day,  and  where  the  sun  shone 
bright  and  the  breezes  wafted  gently 
through  the  trees  and  over  the  open, 
all  of  which,  together  with  the  beau- 
ties of  the  landscape,  combined  to  fill 
one  with  reverence."  "No  doubt,"  I 
laughingly  replied,  "you  seem  to  have 
a  faculty  for  getting  all  that  is  good 
out  of  life,  but  if  you  don't  mind,  why 
not  tell  me  something  more  about  this 
elysium,  and  how  you  came  to  be 
there?"  "Why,  certainly,"  was  the  im- 
mediate answer,  "here's  the  whole 
thing  in  a  nutshell,"  and  taking  an 
envelope  from  a  letter  drawer  in  his 
library  table  he  tossed  it  to  me.  The 
contents  of  the  envelope  I  found  to 
be  as  follows : 


,   W. 


GOLF  TOURNAMENT  AT  MEMPHIS 
,  VpP.Al..1WGJHvBSnfiaO.  P.  A  U.J.  0  .E  gtcfc 
°'  tee  MinolB  CeJirKa'sazlne.  15.  A  Mite  of  a  Gadfly. 


«.  H.  Bower, 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


You  are  cordially  invited  to  participate 

in  a 
GOLF  TOURNAMENT 

to  be  given  at  the 
MEMPHIS  COUNTRY  CLUB, 

Memphis,  Tenn., 
SATURDAY  AND  SUNDAY,  NOV.  6  AND 

7,  1915, 

for  the  members  of  the 
"Official  Family" 

of  the 
ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

and 

YAZOO  AND  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY 
RAILROADS. 

Suitable  handicaps  will  be  assigned  to  all 
players,  and  the  event  will  be  conducted  ac- 
cording to  the  program  shown  within. 

The  favor  of  an  early  response  is  requested 
in  order  that  the  necessary  arrangements  may 
be  made  for  your  entertainment ;  responses  to 
be  addressed  to  Mr.  Bower. 

G.  H.  Bower.  V.  D.  Fort.          J.  L.  Sheppard. 

C.  N.  Burch.  Jos.  Hattendor f .  E.  W.  Sprague. 

A.  H.  Egan.  Dr.  J.  L.  Minor. 

T.  A.  Evans.  J.  J.  Pelley. 

Memphis,  October  31,  1915. 

Accompanying  this  invitation  was 
also  the  following  from  the  Memphis 
Country  Club : 

The 
MEMPHIS  COUNTRY  CLUB 


A  number  of  our  members  having  arranged 
for  a  tournament  to  be  participated  in  by  the 
officers  of  the  Illinois  Central  and  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroads,  the  privileges  of 
the  Memphis  Country  Club  are  tendered  for 
this  event  for  Saturday,  November  Sixth,  and 
Sunday,  November  Seventh,  Nineteen  Hun- 
dred and  Fifteen. 

You  are  cordially  invited  to  attend. 
Memphis,  Tennessee, 
October  30,  1915. 

I  laughed  as  I  read  these,  remember- 
ing my  thought,  on  the  conductor's 
telling  me  that  the  Rambler  had  been 
to  a  golf  tournament,  that  he  was  prob- 
ably there  for  the  purpose  of  soliciting 
business.  In  explaining  the  occasion 
of  my  mirth  to  him,  the  Rambler  an- 
swered, "Well,  it  was  business  in  a 
way.  You  see  there  were  thirty  odd  of 
us  there  at  one  time  and  anotner ;  some 
of  course,  slipping  in  for  a  few  hours 
and  some  leaving  at  the  end  of  the 
first  day,  while  others  arrived  on  the 
second  day.  The  feature,  however, 
that  made  the  occasion  .in  a  way  more 


than  a  mere  congregation  of  people  at 
play,  was  the  representative  character 
of  those  who  formed  the  party.  It  was 
cosmopolitan  and  democratic  in  the  ex- 
treme. In  it  the  executive  department 
was  represented  by  the  vice-president 
in  charge  of  operation  and  by  the  as- 
sistant secretary;  general  and  division 
superintendents  and  others  were  there 
from  the  operating  department;  pas- 
senger traffic  was  represented  by  the 
passenger  traffic  manager,  one  of  the 
general  passenger  agents  and  the  two 
assistant  general  passenger  agents,  and 
freight  traffic  by  the  assistant  freight 
traffic  manager  and  assistant  general 
freight  agent  and  others;  the  hospital 
department  by  the  chief  surgeon,  and 
law,  telegraph,  claim,  general  agents, 
purchasing  and  accounting  officers 
were  also  in  evidence ;  and  possibly 
others,  although  I  think  I  have  cov- 
ered the  general  list.  They  came  from 
all  sections  of  the  system;  from  the 
South,  Southeast,  East  and  the  North. 
Those  from  the  latter  left  Chicago  on 
No.  3  Friday  night,  and,  having  a  car 
to  themselves,  the  evening  was  spent 
en  route  very  busily  in  talking  golf; 
the  handicap  problem  being  a  matter 
of  much  banter,  quiet  investigation  and 
good  natured  argument.  In  fact," 
laughed  the  Rambler,  "if  you 'had  ever 
been  in  the  State  of  Maine  in  the  olden 
days  and  heard  the  natives  at  the 
grocery  stores  and  around  the  hotel 
fires  in  winter  talk  horse,  you  would 
have  been  surprised  to  hear  how  these 
golfers  could  discount  them  with  golf 
talk.  That  great  game  was  practically 
all  that  was  talked  of  on  the  round  trip 
and  during  our  stay  at  Memphis,  and 
do  know,"  he  added  reflectively,  "for 
the  entire  two  days  while  we  were  at 
the  country  club  I  never  saw  a  busier 
set  of  men,  and  always  at  golf."  "Just 
so,"  I  suggested  dryly,  "but  how  does 
that  fact  fit  in  with  your  previous 
statement  to  the  effect  that  in  a  way 
it  was  railroad  business  that  took  you 
to  Memphis?"  "Oh,"  was  the  quick 
response,  "in  reality  it  was  also  a  sort 
of  'get  acquainted  trip'  among  our- 
selves. I  have  outlined  the  different 


60 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


departments  that  were  thus  together, 
and  who  can  doubt  but  that  such  a 
holiday,  or  week-end  taken  at  the  ex- 
pense of  but  a  half  day  from  the  regular 
routine,  is  not  calculated  to  bring  from 
those  participating  better  business  re- 
sults for  the  railroad  in  the  long  run? 
This  in  increased  physical  and  mental 
vitality  and  in  the  friendly  acquaint- 
ance thus  created  between  the  various 
officials.  It  cannot  fail,  I  think,  to  be 
productive  of  more  efficiency  in  trans- 
acting the  various  little  interwoven 
items  of  business  that  constantly  arise 
between  them."  "I  think  that  is  true," 
I  said,  "but  how  about  the  golf  it- 
self?" "Well,"  said  the  Rambler 
brightening  up,  "that  was  surely  in- 
teresting. It's  a  manly  game  all  right. 
But  first  let  me  tell  you  about  the 
country  club,  whose  guests  we  were, 
and  where  most  of  us  remained  Satur- 
day night.  The  club  house  itself  is  a 
beautiful  structure,  and  by  the  way, 
here  are  some  pictures  of  it. 

"No,"  he  added,  "Snap  Shot  Bill  was 
not  there,  but  his  kodak  is  not  the  only 
one  is  existence,  as  you  will  see  from 
these  prints  showing  the  players  in 
action."  The  Rambler  waited  before 
continuing  his  story  for  me  to  glance 
through  the  photographs,  which  I 
found  quite  interesting,  particularly  as 
he  made  comments  as  to  many  of  them 
as  I  turned  them  over.  "This  gentle- 
man in  the  ditch,"  he  remarked,  "seems 
to  be  in  trouble,  notwithstanding  which 
he  took  one  of  the  prizes.  It  illustrates 
a  truism,  I  suppose,  that  the  greater 
victory  in  all  lines  of  endeavor  is  to 
the  one  who  overcomes  obstacles  to 
achieve  it.  That  which  comes  too  easy 
is  not  apt  to  amount  to  much.  Yes," 
he  said  to  an  inquiry  of  mine,  "this 
one  shows  which  gentleman  'got  the 
persimmons.' 

"But  to  go  back  to  the  country 
club,"  he  resumed.  "It  is  beautifully 
located,  as  you  have  seen  by  the  pic- 
tures, with  a  surrounding  grove  of 
noble  trees.  The  latter  were  resplendent 
in  autumn  colors,  although  the  flower 
beds  about  the  house  were  still  in 
luxuriant  bloom.  The  golf  course  is, 


from   a   landscape   point   of   view,   ex- 
tremely attractive  and,  with  eighteen 
holes,  has  a  total  length  of  6,249  yards, 
divided  as  follows : 
Yards 
231 
396 


Hole 
1 
2 
3 

4 
5 
6 

7 


Out 


182 
528 
254 
437 
288 
388 
318 

3,022 

Yards 
271 
504 
312 
376 
370 
506 
169 
409 
310 


Bogey 
4 
5 
4 
6 
4 
5 
4 


41 

Bogey 
4 
6 
4 
5 
5 
6 
3 
5 
4 


Tn 


3,227 


Par 
4 
4 
3 
5 
4 
5 
4 
4 
4 

37 

Par 
4 
5 
4 
4 
4 
5 
3 
4 
4 

37 


Total  yards 6,249 

Total  bogey  for  eighteen  holes 83 

"You  will  find  the  program  of  the 
tournament  there  on  the  invitation," 
he  suggested,  in  response  to  which  I 
was  interested  in  reading  the  follow- 
ing: 

PROGRAM 


Saturday 

Competition  in  the  forenoon,  starting  at  ten 
o'clock,  lowest  net  score  for  eighteen  holes. 
Prize  to  the  winner. 

Competition  in  the  forenoon  for  lowest 
gross  score,  eighteen  holes.  Prize  to  the  win- 
ner. 

Competitors  to  be  eligible  for  only  one  of 
these  prizes. 

Competition  during  same  round  between 
teams  to  be  made  up  by  equal  division  of  -all 
players,  the  two  sides  to  be  chosen  by  lot,  and 
the  winning  team  to  be  the  one  with  the  low- 
est score  made  up  by  adding  together  the  in- 
dividual scores  and  deducting  individual  handi- 
caps. The  losing  team  to  pay  for  the  dinner 
for  both  teams. 

The  afternoon  to  be  devoted  to  such  addi- 
tional golf  or  other  recreation  as  may  best 
suit  the  pleasure  of  the  participants. 

Dinner  at  six-thirty  p.  m. 
Sunday 

Foursomes  with  such  competition  as  may  be 
arranged  by  the  players. 

"Well,  to  make  a  long  story  as  short 
as  possible,"  the  Rambler  resumed  as 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


61 


he  opened  his  fresh  box  of  cigars  and      Egan  55  51  106  81 

passed     it    to    me,    "the    tournament  g*j^JJ             g              J™               g 
proper  was  on  Saturday  morning  only, 

and  consisted  of  playing  the  eighteen         Total  1312 

holes   by  the  party,  divided   into   two  Y.  &  M.  V.  team  lost  the  dinners. 

...    .  •              ,1         Til-              r^«4-.-oi     +^o»v,  Df.  Dowdall  won  low  gross  prize, 

divisions     the    Illinois    Central    team  Mr.  Beck  won  the  low  net  prize, 

and  the jYazoo  & :   Mississippi  Valley  «y             m              „     resumed       he 

team,  the  losing  team  to  pay  for  the  Rambl       „  h      both' the  lowest 

evening's  dinner.     The  first  foursome  and          '             scofe  wag  made     * 

started  on  the  first  nine  holes  and  the  ^        so             he                  Memphis 

second   foursome  on   the   second  nine  man    V          '       .^         *        ize  ^ 

holes,    this   alternating   process   being  es  ^^               ^  lowegt 

continued  until  all  foursomes  were  in  and  p             m    further   note   that   two 

play;  each  foursome  keeping  a  separate  m>^  for  the  lowest               which 

score  card  for  each  nine  holes,  which  wag               Qver  the  ngxt  ^Qrni       with 

cards  were  turned  over  in  due  course  the  £^t  ghown  Qn  the  ^^8  The 

to  the  proper  official  for  record      You  Jze  for    fa     lowest  ngt  wag  a  dozen 

may  be  interested  to  see  the  result,    he  *            ,      and  for    he  lowest               a 

concluded   as    he   dove   into   his   coat  *  ^  bae" 

pocket  and  among  a  mass  of  papers  -              '        ,      gaid   ^  notice    fi      the 

pulled   out   the   following  official   rec-  y   &  M   y  >team  lost  the  dinner  HQW 

ord  sheet  about  that  dinner?"     "Oh,  yes,"  was 

the   laughing  reply,   "I   almost  forgot 

that,  and  yet  it  was  one  of  the  most 

YAZOO  &  MISSI^PP^VALLEY  TOUR-  ^^^    features    of    the    occasion. 

Memphis,  November  6,  1915  Thirty-three    of   us    gathered    at   6 :30 
Illinois  Central  Team  P.-  m-  ab,out  a  large  round  table   beau- 
Gross       Gross  tifully    decorated    with    dwarf    chrysan- 
First       Second         Total        Total  themums.  It  was  a  fine  dinner  in  every 
Player       Nine          Nine          Gross           Net  respect   as  to   viands,  but  the  best  of 
Mayes  66                             136             no  jt  ajj  was  jts  aftermath.     Genially  pre- 

Be°ck        ""54             54             108               77  sided    over    b7    the    assistant    freight 

Metz  "..   '.."^49             52             ioi               78  traffic  manager  who  was  with  us,  it  was 

Dartt  71              67              138              107  then    that   the    speech    making   began. 

Park  60                             us  At  first  it  was  probably  the  thought 

Wilbur  66                 63                 129                   98  tQ    hear    Qnjy     ^Qm    the     Qrators     ^ 

Anderson  -64             58             122               91  greater  luminaries,  but  so  terse  and  in 

Fort so             54             104               79  such    happy   vein   was   the   beginning 

Burch  48                             ioi               77  tjiat  before  we  got  through,  at  about 

Sheppard  ..54  nine  o'clock    each  one  at  the  table  had 

Pelley  06                 54                                         79  ' 

Cherry        54             57             in               so  been  called  upon  for  a  few  remarks. 

Bower 44             48               92               66  The  great  virtue  of  the  speeches  in  all 

i~~  cases  was  their  heartiness  and  brevity. 

......     .             That  dmner  was  Certaintly  a  perfect 

tu  success  from  beginning  to  end;  and,  I 

Tarbet    66                 56  '             fe          .         '     t(.   ' 

BriU           51             51             102               81  might  add,     he  said  reflectively,     in  a 

Baldwin  ....64             68             132             106  way  it  was  rather  impressive.     It  was 

Mann   .                                                         85  t^e  oniy  time  that  we  were  together  as 

g°]ps   -                                                       ;l  a  whole,  and  as  one  looked  about  the 

Hull     54                  59  ' 

Dowdall  ..-47             48               95               77  table  a  feeling  of  pride  must  have  en- 
Cox  52             58             no               85  tered   the    minds   of   each    at   the   ap- 

Gibons  64             62  pearance  of  the  individual  forcefulness 

gjjgj                                         Jo4               86  that  characterized  the  ensemble.  Sharp, 

Lanigan  "Zd7              56             123               98  clean-cut  appearing  men,  all  of  them  ; 


62 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


each  a  unit  in  our  great  machine  who 
in  his  own  peculiar  line  makes  for  its 
efficiency  and  power.  One  could  not 
help  being  proud  to  be  of  such  a  fam- 
ily. So  it  is  pleasant  to  recall  that 
throughout  the  entire  evening,  and  in 
fact,  throughout  the  entire  two  days, 
the  family  spirit  was  predominant  on 
every  hand." 

"Fine;  Rambler,  fine;"  I  said,  "you 
express  my  sentiments  to  a  nicety.  Un- 
fortunately I  knew  nothing  of  this  par- 
ticular gathering,  and  possibly  did  not 
belong  in  it,  as  I  am  not  a  golf  player. 
But,  by  the  way,"  I  said  as  the  thought 
occurred  to  me,  "where  particularly 
does  passenger  traffic  enter  distinc- 
tively into  a  matter  of  this  kind?"  "It 
was  all  passenger  traffic,"  was  the 
quick  reply,  immediately  modified  by 
"it  was  all  freight  traffic,  it  was  all 
operative,  it  was  all  accounting,  and  so 
on  along  the  line  of  the  various  de- 
partments. Which  means,"  he  hastened 
to  add,  "that,  as  we  had  it  in  a  speech 
from  our  highest  official  present  at 
the  supper,  all  of  those  units  blend 
into  one  and  there  are  not,  and  should 
not  be,  any  separate  divisions  as  far  as 
our  ultimate  aims  and  harmony  of 
working  together  is  concerned.  Hence, 


you  see,  it  is  just  as  legitimate  for  me 
to  talk  on  this  subject  from  passenger 
traffic  point  of  view  as  it  would  be  for 
any  other  of  the  departments  to  dis- 
cuss the  matter  on  a  basis  of  their  de- 
partments." "I  see,"  I  remarked,  "and 
I  guess  there  is  no  question  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  that  point  of  view.  What 
train  did  you  return  on?  I  suppose 
the  party  that  you  were  with,  having 
devoted  two  strenuous  days  to  playing 
golf,  dropped  the  subject  of  golf  on 
the  home-coming  trip  out  of  pure  ex- 
haustion and  ennui?"  "O,  ho;"  laughed 
the  Rambler,  "we  left  Memphis  on  No. 
134,  reaching  Chicago  on  No.  10  Mon- 
day, but  if  you  imagine  that  golf  was 
dropped  as  a  subject  en  route  home, 
you  have  another  guess  coming.  It  was 
nothing  but  post-mortems  all  the  way 
back." 

"By  the  way,  Rambler,"  I  remarked 
as  I  started  for  my  coat  preparatory 
to  leaving,  "I  never  heard  before  that 
you  played  golf."  "I  don't,"  was  the 
laconic  response.  "Then  what  the  mis- 
chief were  you  there  for?"  I  asked. 
"To  be  converted,"  was  the  naive  re- 
ply as  I,  putting  on  my  hat,  bade  him 
good-night. 


GOLF   TOURNAMENT   AT   MEMPHIS 
Early   Morning   Breakfast   in   the  Grill  Room   of  the   Club   House 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


Important  and  radical  changes  in 
train  schedules  will  take  place  on  the 
western  lines,  effective  December  19, 
the  main  features  of  which  will  be  as 
follows;  subject  to  possible  minor  cor- 
rections. Full  particulars  will  be  duly 
announced  in  circular  and  other  form : 

Trains  Nos.  27  and  28,  now  running 
between  Chicago  and  Waterloo,  will 
be  extended  to  run  between  Chicago 
and  Fort  Dodge,  leaving  Chicago  at 
8:00  a.  m.,  and  leaving  Fort  Dodge 
at  6:20  a.  m. 

New  trains,  "the  Clippers,"  Nos.  33 
and  34,  will  be  scheduled  to  run  be- 
tween Dubuque  and  Waterloo ;  train 
No.  33  to  leave  Dubuque  at  4:10  p.  m. 
and  train  No.  34  to  leave  Waterloo  at 
7 :00  a.  m.  Trains  Nos.  35  and  36,  now 
operating  between  Waterloo  and  Fort 
Dodge,  will  be  annulled. 

Train  No.  633,  now  operating  be- 
tween Fort  Dodge  and  Cherokee,  will 
be  extended  to  run  between  Fort 
Dodge  and  Sioux  City. 

Train  No.  16,  now  running  between 
Sioux  City  and  Chicago  will  be  dis- 
continued between  Sioux  City  and 
Fort  Dodge.  In  lieu,  train  No.  634 
will  be  scheduled  to  run  between  Sioux 
City  and  Fort  Dodge,  on  about  the 
present  time  of  No.  16  between  those 
points.  East  of  Fort  Dodge  No.  16  will 
be  rescheduled  to  leave  Fort  Dodge  at 
10:00  a.  m. 

Train  No.  614,  which  will  be  a  new 
train  between  Sioux  City  and  Fort 
Dodge,  will  be  scheduled  to  leave  Sioux 
City  at  10  :00  a.  m.,  connecting  for  Chi- 
cago with  train  No.  14  at  Fort  Dodge. 
Train  No.  716,  Sioux  Falls  to  Cherokee, 
formerly  connecting  with  train  No.  16, 
will  be  changed  to  train  No.  714  and 
leave  Sioux  Falls  at  8  :00  a.  m.,  connect- 
ing at  Cherokee  for  Chicago  with  train 
No.  614  to  Fort  Dodge  and  train  No. 
14  beyond. 

Train  No.  531,  between  Waterloo  and 
Albert  Lea,  will  be  changed  to  train  No. 


527  and  change  time  to  connect  with 
train  No.  27  from  Chicago.  Train  No. 
532,  between  Albert  Lea  and  Waterloo, 
will  be  changed  to  train  No.  528,  and, 
while  it  will  have  no  change  in  sched- 
ule, it  will  make  connection  with  train 
No.  28  for  Chicago. 

Train  No.  31,  between  Chicago  and 
Freeport,  will  leave  Chicago  at  1 :40  p.  m. 

There  will  be  minor  changes  on  Ce- 
dar Rapids  branch  to  make  connection 
with  main  line  trains,  and  radical 
changes  will  be  made  on  the  Madison  and 
Dodgeville  branches,  the  last  consisting, 
in  brief,  of  all  main  line  connections 
with  the  Dodgeville  branch  being  made 
at  Red  Oak  instead  of  at  Freeport,  the 
inauguration  of  new  trains  between  Red 
Oak  and  Dodgeville,  the  elimination  of 
the  carrying  of  passengers  on  mixed 
trains  Nos.  353  and  362,  and  other 
minor  changes  in  schedule.  Train  No. 
132,  between  Clinton  and  Freeport,  will 
be  changed  to  leave  Clinton  at  5  :15  a.  m. 
instead  of  at  5  :30  a.  m. 


The  following  specific  information  in 
regard  to  the  Great  Northern  Pacific 
Steamship  Company's  Hawaiian  service 
is  given  herewith  to  supplement  a  para- 
graph on  the  same  subject  in  last  month's 
"Service  Notes  of  Interest."  Sailings 
(subject  to  change  without  notice)  from 
San  Francisco  for  Hilo  (where  passen- 
gers are  afforded  an  opportunity  to  see 
the  volcano,  Kilauea),  and  Honolulu,  will 
be  at  4:00  p.  m.  on  December  16th,  Jan- 
uary 5th,  January  25th,  and  February 
14th ;  the  sailings  from  Los  Angeles  be- 
ing one  day  later  in  all  cases,  with  further 
sailings  approximately  every  twenty 
days,  to  be  announced.  The  return, 
which  is  made  direct  from  Honolulu  to 
San  Francisco,  is  on  the  following  days, 
from  Honolulu :  December  26th,  Jan- 
uary 15th,  February  4th,  and  February 
26th. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  of  value 
for  agents  to  be  in  position  to  cite  the 


63 


/.  C.  Passenger  Station 


I.C.  Freight  Depot 


l&c/zson  Miss 


65 


following  bits  of  information  from  the 
Union  Pacific  Bulletin  relative  to  the 
volcano  Kilauea  of  Hawaii : 

"There  is  no  sight  in  the  world  to 
equal  the  volcano  of  Kilauea — the  im- 
mense crater  being  a  seething,  bubbling, 
unfathomable  lake  of  liquid  fire,  flowing 
in  a  constant  stream.  At  night,  the  view 
is  indescribable.  One's  most  vivid  con- 
ception of  the  infernal  region  pales  into 
insignificance  at  this  operpowering  spec- 
tacle. Kilauea  is  of  easy  access  from 
Honolulu.  An  automobile  road  leads  to 
the  edge  of  the  crater. 

"An  auto  road  240  miles  long  encircles 
the  Island  of  Hawaii  and  is  becoming 
increasingly  popular  with  tourists.  The 
circuit  occupies  about  two  days,  through 
marvelous  tropical  scenery.  Excellent 
hotel  accommodations  are  provided  at 
proper  points  en  route." 

Incidentally,  it  might  be  added  that 
the  steamship  company  announces  that 
the  entire  cost  of  the  side  trip  to  the 
volcano  from  Hilo,  which  is  optional,  will 
not  exceed  $10. 


It  will  be  recalled  that  in  the  "Service 
Notes  of  Interest"  for  September  of  the 
present  year  an  interesting  item  was 
cited  in  regard  to  the  early  opposition 
to  railroads,  in  which  connection  the 
following  clipping  from  Railway  and 
Locomotive  Engineering  will  be  of  sup- 
plementary interest: 

"In  1828  the  school  board  of  Lancas- 
ter, Ohio,  refused  to  permit  the  school 
house  to  be  used  for  the  discussion  of 
the  question  as  to  whether  railroads 
were  practical  or  not,  and  the  matter 
was  recently  called  to  mind  by  an  old 
document  that  reads  in  part  as  follows : 

"  'You  are  welcome  to  use  the  school 
house  to  debate  all  proper  questions  in, 
but  such  things  as  railroads  and  tele- 
graphs are  impossibilities  and  rank  infi- 
delity. There  is  nothing  in  the  Word  of 
God  about  them.  If  God  has  designed 
that  his  intelligent  creatures  should 
travel  at  the  frightful  speed  of  fifteen 
miles  an  hour,  by  steam,  He  would  have 
clearly  foretold  through  His  holy  proph- 
ets. It  is  a  device  of  Satan  to  lead  im- 
mortal souls  down  to  hell.'  " 


The  following  letter,  in  regard  to  the 
annual  Mid-Winter  Vacation  Party 
which  has  been  sent  to  passenger  depart- 
ment representatives  as  a  preliminary  an- 
nouncement is  also  of  interest  to  agents 
as  a  matter  of  general  information,  in 
order  that  they  may  be  in  position  to 
take  advantage  of  any  advance  interest 
that  may  become  manifest  in  it  on  the 
part  of  patrons  at  their  station. 

"Tuesday,  March  7th,  1916,  will  be 
Mardi-Gras  Day,  and  the  usual  Mardi- 
Gras  festivities  will  be  held  in  New  Or- 
leans on  that  date,  details  of  which  will 
be  announced  in  literature  now  in  course 
of  preparation. 

The  third  annual  "Mid- Winter  Vaca- 
tion" to  Mardi-Gras  will  be  operated  up- 
on substantially  the  same  plan  as  here- 
tofore, special  train  to  leave  Chicago 
Saturday  morning,  March  4th,  returning 
to  Chicago  Friday  noon,  March  10th. 
Complete  information  will  be  furnished 
as  soon  as  details  are  arranged. 

Fares  to  New  Orleans  for  Mardi-Gras 
and  charges  for  the  "Mid- Winter  Vaca- 
tion" party  will  be  approximately  as  in 
effect  for  this  occasion  last  year. 


The  following  "suggestions"  are  from 
the  "Rio  Grande  Service  Gazette" : 
Spend  money  if  you  must,  but  earn  it 
first.  Take  a  chance  if  necessary.  If 
you  win  with  a  chance,  this  will  probably 
be  the  worst  thing  that  can  happen  to 
you.  You  will  probably  try  then  to  win 
without  work.  And  then  you  will  fail, 
you  bet  your  boots.  Remain  sober.  Get 
rich  slowly.  Keep  away  from  failures. 
Keep  your  engagements.  Promise  little 
and  perform  a  lot.  Be  enthusiastic  over 
what  you  are  doing,  and  keep  on  doing  it. 


The  Business  Men's  Racing  Associa- 
tion of  New  Orleans  has  officially  an- 
nounced 57  racing  days  in  that  city  dur- 
ing the  present  winter  season.  The 
races  will  start  January  1st,  1916,  and 
there  will  be  six  of  them  daily.  From 
this  it  will  be  noted  that  these  races  are 
to  be  a  feature  of  the  New  Orleans 
Mardi-Gras  season,  Mardi-Gras  Day  for 
1916  falling  on  March  7th. 


Attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  by 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


change  of  train  No.  22  of  the  New  Or- 
leans division,  Y.  &  M.  V.,  to  leave  New 
Orleans  at  7  :00  a.  m.  instead  of  7  :15  a. 
m.,  and  arrives  at  Vicksburg  at  4:45  p. 
m.,  there  is  now  thirty  minutes'  time  at 
Vicksburg  for  connection  with  the 
Queen  &  Crescent  route  train  No.  11 
for  Monroe,  Shreveport  and  intermedi- 
ate stations,  the  latter  train  leaving  at 
5  :15  p.  m. 


On  account  of  traffic  moving  to  and 
from  Mexico  via  Eagle  Pass,  Tex.,  the 
run  of  the  through  Chicago-San  Antonio 
sleeping  car  operated  in  trains  Nos.  1 
and  2  was  extended  to  Eagle  Pass,  ef- 
fective with  train  No.  1  from  Chicago, 
December  2.  It  is  operated  in  Illinois 
Central  trains  Nos.  1  and  2  between  Chi- 
cago and  New  Orleans,  Southern  Pacific 
Lines  trains  Nos.  7  and  10  between  New 
Orleans  and  Spofford,  and  trains  Nos. 
225  and  226  between  Spofford  and  Eagle 
Pass. 


The  Twenty  -  seventh  Consecutive 
Tournament  of  Roses  at'Pasadena,  Cal- 
ifornia, will  be  celebrated  on  January 
1st,  1916.  A  parade  in  the  morning,  to 
consist  of  hundreds  of  entries  decorated 
with  natural,  flowers  only,  and  an  inter- 
sectional  football  game  in  the  after- 
noon, will  be  the  principal  features  of 
the  occasion.  No  advertisements  of  any 
character  are  allowed  in  the  parade,  and 
the  football  game  is  to  be  between  two 
of  the  most  prominent  state  uni- 
versities, 


"Katy"  train,  to  be  known  as  the  "Katy 
Special,"  between  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City, 
San  Antonio  and  other  Texas  points, 
leaving  St.  Louis  daily  at  6 :30  p.  m. 
This  new,  fast  steel  train  is  train  No. 
7,  and  is  in  addition  to  the  "Katy  Fly- 
er" and  "Katy  Limited." 


The  origin  of  the  Overland  Route  is 
thus  given  by  the  Union  Pacific  monthly 
bulletin:  "The  route  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific from  Omaha  was  made  by  the  buf- 
falo, next  used  by  the  Indian,  then  by 
the  fur  traders,  next  by  the  Mormons, 
and  then  by  the  overland  immigrants  to 
California  and  Oregon." 


The  Chicago-San  Antonio  through 
sleeping  car  via  St.  Louis,  operated  in 
Illinois  Central  trains  Nos.  17  and  18 
between  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  and  Mis- 
souri, Kansas  &  Texas  trains  Nos.  9  and 
10  between  St.  Louis  and  San  Antonio, 
has  been  discontinued. 


The  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  & 
Southern  announces  important  changes 
in  time  and  train  service,  effective  De- 
cember 5th,  among  them  being  the  de- 
parture of  "The  Sunshine  Special,"  to 
leave  St.  Louis  at  6 :25  p.  m.  daily  for 
San  Antonio  and  other  Texas  points. 


The  M.  K.  &  T.  announces  the  inaug- 
uration on  December  5th  of  a  new  fast 


The  Louisville-New  Orleans  sleeping 
car,  operated  in  trains  Nos.  101-1  and 
2-102,  has  been  extended  to  run  through 
to  Cincinnati  in  connection  with  B.  &  O. 
S.  W.  trains  15  and  14.  This  gives  dou- 
ble daily  sleeping  car  service  between 
Cincinnati,  Louisville  and  New  Orleans. 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

CIMMS  DEPARTMENT 

fragments  of  a  Sfoiy 
Seldom   Sver  Told 


The  Ytiletide  season  should  be  a  rea- 
sonably happy  one  for  John  Carton, 
freight  handler,  who  was  unfortunate 
enough  to  lose  both  legs  while  assisting 
in  unloading  a  large  fly  wheel  from  a 
truck  at  South  Water  Street,  Chicago, 
May  13,  1914. 

John  has  enough  money  now,  if  prop- 
erly invested,  to  take  care  of  him  as  long 
as  he  lives,  and  he  did  not  have  to  have 
it  doled  out  to  him  at  the  end  of  a  law 
suit.  He  got  it  direct  from  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company. 

John's  injuries  consist  of  loss  of  left 
leg  above  the  knee  and  loss  of  right  leg 
at  the  ankle.  He  is  a  Lithuanian,  24 
years  of  age  and  single.  He  is  above  the 
average  in  intelligence  and  disposed  to  do 
the  right  thing  if  left  free  to  follow  his 
own  inclinations. 

Soon  after  John  met  with  his  great 
misfortune,  representatives  of  that  class 
of  lawyers  who  make  their  living  out  of 
the  misfortunes  of  others  set  upon  him, 
and  on  the  sixth  day  after  the  awful 
accident  occurred,  while  he  lay  upon  his 


bed  of  suffering  in  the  hospital,  his  ter- 
rible wounds  still  fresh,  while  he  was 
weak  in  body  and  mind,  he  was  induced 
to  sign  a  contract, -or  a  "death  warrant," 
as  it  is  commonly  called,  with  a  lawyer, 
agreeing  to  award  to  him  one-third  of 
any  amount  recovered  from  the  railroad, 
The  lawyer  had  sustained  no  injury  him- 
self and  had  never  heard  of  John  until 
after  the  accident.  He  had  suffered  no 
loss  of  any  kind  whatever,  but  was  to 
profit  to  the  extent  of  one-third  of  any- 
thing poor  John  might  get  from  his  em- 
ployer. 

John  remained  in  the  hospital  until 
December  14th.  The  railroad  company 
took  every  care  of  him  which  could  have 
been  accorded  a  man  of  means.  Skilled 
surgeons  and  competent  nurses  did  all 
that  it  was  possible  to  do  to  relieve  his 
suffering  and  to  conserve  his  body  and 
strength.  When  John  had  partially  re- 
covered, he  was  called  upon  by  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Company  for  the  pur- 
pose of  discussing  a  compromise  of  the 
claim,  but  his  mind  had  been  thoroughly 


67 


Getting  the  job 


The  Accident 


In  the  hospital,  6  days  later, 
signing  contract  with  his  lawyers  agent. 


The  Trial. 


POOR  JOHN   CARTON'S 

Unfortunate    Experience    Should    Prove  a    Lesson    to    Others.     But   He    Is   Now   as   Happy   as 

Anyone  Could  Be  in  His  Condition. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


69 


poisoned  against  his  employers.  He  had 
been  told  to  ask  for  damages  excessive 
enough  to  make  a  compromise  impos- 
sible. 

John's  most  frequent  callers  while  he 
was  in  the  hospital  were  the  smooth- 
tongued emissaries  of  his  legal  advisers. 
They  had  become  most  friendly  and  ex- 
ceedingly attentive.  When  John  left  the 
hospital  he  was  taken  to  his  boarding 
house,  where  he  was  held  practically  a 
prisoner.  His  new  made  friends  built  a 
net  work  around  him  from  which  there 
was  no  escape.  A  stranger  in  a  strange 
land,  with  both  legs  gone,  unaccustomed 
to  the  ways  of  the  world,  with  no  real 
friends  to  protect  him,  he  submitted  to 
the  inevitable.  Those  who  induced  him 
to  sign  the  "death  warrant"  six  days 
after  his  injury,  while  helpless  in  the 
hospital,  came  around  frequently  to 
cheer  him  by  building  air  castles  of  the 
great  fortune  which  awaited  him.  Their 
plan  was  to  keep  John's  mind  poisoned 
against  the  railroad  company  until  there 
could  be  a  trial  of  the  law  suit  and  a  di- 
vision of  the  spoils. 

On  Monday,  October  25th,  trial  of  the 
case  was  commenced  in  the  Circuit  Court 
of  Cook  County.  It  ended  Sunday,  Oc- 
tober 31st,  in  a  hung  jury.  One  of  the 
jurors  did  not  think  the  railroad  com- 
pany was  responsible  and  voted  against 
giving  anything.  Another  was  in  favor 
of  awarding  moderate  damages.  Ten 
were  for  heavy  damages. 

The  accident  which  resulted  in  John's 
great  misfortune  was  a  simple  one.  Six 
men  were  rolling  a  big  fly  wheel,  weigh- 
ing forty-eight  hundred  pounds,  off  a 
truck,  which  swerved  a  little,  causing  the 
wheel  to  become  unbalanced  and  topple 
over.  The  other  five  men  got  out  of  the 
way  safely,  but  John  was  a  little  slow 
and  was  caught. 

After  the  trial  John  was  a  wiser  man. 
He  realized  that,  perhaps,  after  all,  the 
company  was  his  best  friend,  and  that  he 
had  been  used  as  a  tool  for  purposes  of 
giving  others  a  chance  to  speculate  on  his 
misfortune.  It  dawned  upon  him  that 
he  could  not  afford  to  take  chances,  that 
he  had  no  case  except  his  own  to  fall 
back  upon,  while  his  case  was  only  one 


of  many  which  his  lawyers  had,  or  might 
have  in  the  future.  He  could  never  have 
another.  Unwittingly  he  had  become  in- 
volved in  a  struggle  which  meant  life  or 
death  to  him.  He  reasoned  that  a  "bird 
in  the  hand  was  worth  many  in  the  bush" 
to  a  man  in  his  condition;  that  what  he 
needed  was  money  and  not  glittering 
promises,  which  he  could  not  realize  on 
at  the  bank.  His  attitude  was  made 
known  to  the  Claims  Department,  and 
while  it  is  the  settled  policy  of  the  de- 
partment not  to  settle  cases  direct  with 
those  who  employ' lawyers,  it  was  ar- 
gued that  this  was  an  exceptional  case. 
John  had  made  a  mis-step.  Compromise 
could  not  be  effected  through  his  attor- 
neys. They  wanted  a  trial  "on  the 
shares."  Then  why  not  accord  to  John 
the  same  privilege  he  had  before  he  was 
inveigled  into  signing  the  "death  war- 
rant?" Courts  encourage  compromises 
and  frown  upon  those  who  obstruct 
them.  The  issue  was  decided  in  John's 
favor.  A  meeting  was  arranged,  and 
now  John  Carton  is  as  happy  as  any  mail 
could  be  in  his  physical  condition.  For 
him  there  will  be  no  more  trials,  no  more 
uncertainties,  and  he  can,  for  the  first 
time  since  his  unfortunate  accident  pur- 
sue the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  unmo- 
lested by  the  ghouls  who  prey  upon  un- 
fortunate cripples  with  possible  claims 
against  corporations.  The  experience  of 
poor  John  Carton  should  prove  a  valu- 
able lesson  to  other  unfortunates. 


B.  J.  Rainey,  freight  breakman,  was 
seriously  injured  at  Midway,  111.,  No- 
vember 14,  1912,  just  a  little  more  than 
three  years  ago.  He  fell  from  the  top  of 
a  car  and  claimed  that  he  was  jerked  off 
by  rough  handling  of  the  engine  by  the 
engineer.  The  injuries  consisted  of  frac- 
ture of  right  thigh,  left  hip  dislocated 
and  left  foot  amputated. 

Rainey's  case  was  sued  on  at  St.  Paul 
about  two  years  ago  and  was  tried  last 
month.  After  having  been  on  trial  for 
ten  days,  the  jury  brought  in  a  verdict 
for  $10,000.00.  That  sounds  large,  but 
after  Rainey  pays  his  lawyers  and  also 
pays  the  expense  of  the  litigation,  which 


70 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


has  been  enormous,  he  will  have  left  net 
to  himself  substantially  less  than  he  was 
offered  by  the  company  more  than  two 
years  ago.  However,  his  St.  Paul  law- 
yers will  be  ahead.  They  took  the  case 
"on  the  shares"  and  they  will  be  in 
pocket  the  amount  of  their  "share." 

As  a  result  of  his  injury,  Rainey  has 
been  left  quite  badly  deformed.  After 
he  went  in  with  the  St.  Paul  lawyers  he 
refused  to  follow  the  advice  of  a  man 
who  has  the  reputation  of  being  one  of 
the  greatest  surgeons  in  the  world,  Dr. 
John  B.  Murphy,  and  his  hip  has  never 
gotten  well.  It  was  believed  that  Rainey 
had  been  advised  to  the  effect  that  if  he 
were  left  in  a  pitiful  condition  that  he 
would  recover  more  money  than  he 
would  get  if  he  made  a  good  recovery. 

Rainey  was  greatly  disappointed  at  the 
amount  of  the  verdict  and  his  lawyers 
also  pretended  to  be  disappointed.  They 
had  made  Rainey  believe  he  would  get 
several  times  the  amount  of  the  verdict 
and,  of  course,  they  had  to  be  consistent. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  all  ought  to  be 
delighted  because  they  had  a  very  nar- 
row escape.  Five  of  the  jurors  were  op- 
posed to  giving  anything  and  two  of  them 
never  would  sign  the  verdict.  Jurors  in 
Minnesota  are  getting  very  dubious 
about  a  man  who  leaves  his  home — the 
one  place  where  he  is  best  known — and 
travels  hundreds  of  miles  to  Minnesota 
to  sue  a  railroad.  They  are  beginning  to 
ask  why  this  is  so,  and  when  one  reflects 
over  the  matter  he  promptly  sees  the  de- 
signing hand  of  the  damage  suit  lawyer, 
and  understands  all  about  his  activity 
and  interest,  but  he  is  still  very  much  at 
sea  because  of  the  ability  of  the  damage 
suit  lawyer  to  handle  the  cripple  like 
clay  in  the  potter's  hand. 

Commenting  editorially  on  the  trial  of 
the  Rainey  case  and  the  system  for  which 
Minnesota  soliciting  lawyers  are  respon- 
sible, of  reaching  out  all  over  the  coun- 
try for  damage  suits  to  be  tried  in  the 
courts  of  Minnesota,  the  St.  Paul  Dis- 
patch of  November  24th  said: 

"Much  has  been  said  and  written 
about  the  unjust  expense  being  heaped 
upon  the  taxpayers  of  Ramsey  county 
through  the  activity  of  Minnesota's  so- 


liciting lawyers  who  send  their  emis- 
saries into  other  states  in  search  of  dam- 
age suits  to  be  filed  and  tried  here.  If 
there  is  the  slightest  doubt  upon  the  part 
of  any  person  that  this  thing  is  going  on, 
or  that  it  is  costing  the  taxpayers  of 
Ramsey  county  a  lot  of  money,  we  direct 
attention  to  two  foreign  cases  which 
were  on  trial  all  of  last  week  and  are 
still  on  trial.  We  refer  to  the  personal 
injury  damage  suit  for  $50,000  against 
the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Rail- 
way company,  brought  in  from  Iowa,  in 
Judge  Lewis'  court,  and  the  personal  in- 
jury damage  suit  for  $60,000  against  the 
Illinois  Central,  brought  in  from  Illinois, 
in  Judge  Michael's  court.  It  is  a  very 
simple  problem  in  mathematics  to  show 
the  costs  of  maintaining  these  two  courts, 
and  their  necessary  equipments,  includ- 
ing the  juries. 

"To  £ay  that  these  plaintiffs  came  here 
on  their  own  initiative  is  too  nonsensical 
for  foolishness.  The  courts  in  their 
home  states  were  open  to  them  and  they 
had  the  same  remedies  there  which  they 
have  here.  There  are  able  lawyers  in 
Iowa  and  Illinois  capable  of  looking 
after  the  interests  of  those  having  bona 
fide  claims  against  the  railroads  of  those 
states.  The  business  that  is  "snitched" 
away  from  them  and  brought  in  here  is 
benefiting  a  small  coterie  of  soliciting 
lawyers  and  is  damaging  to  everybody 
else,  except  the  taxpayers  of  those  states. 
They  are  not  complaining.  They  are 
willing  to  have  Minnesota  relieve  them 
of  this  burden,  and  it  is  a  burden  in  the 
fullest  sense  the  word  implies. 

"Our  soliciting  lawyeis  are  a  detri- 
ment to  this  county  and  this  state,  and  a 
reproach  to  our  decent  lawyers,  of  whom 
we  have  many.  How  much  longer  are 
they  going  to  live  under  this  cloud? 
What  are  the  people  of  this  county  and 
this  state  going  to  do  about  it?  Every 
man  who  pays  taxes  is  affected.  It  is  a 
condition  and  not  a  theory  which  con- 
fronts them.  They  are  the  victims  of  a 
system  which  is  a  stench  in  the  nostrils 
of  decency. 

"That  our  courts  are  being  used  as 
tools  by  these  soliciting  lawyers  is  as 
clear  as  that  night  follows  day.  That 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


71 


our  county  and  state  are  being  held  up 
to  ridicule  and  advertised  in  an  unenvi- 
able way  in  our  neighboring  states  is 
positively  true,  and  for  what  purpose? 
Simply  that  a  few  soliciting  lawyers  who 
unfortunately  live  here  may  prosper  up- 
on the  misfortunes  of  others. 


IOWA  JUDGE   FLAYS   ST.  PAUL 

ATTORNEYS  WHO   IMPORT 

CASES 


"Scandalous     and     Unethical,"     Says 

Court  Concerning  Conduct  of 

Lawyers 


REFUSES  TO  LET  SUIT  BE  TRIED 
IN  RAMSEY  COUNTY 


Asserts  Evidence  Shows  Barton  &  Kay 
Have  Solicitors  in  Hawkeye  State. 

Importation  of  personal  injury  suits 
from  Iowa  to  Minnesota  for  trial  in  the 
courts  of  this  state  has  been  given  a 
severe  jolt  in  a  decision  recently  handed 
down  by  Judge  Thomas  J.  Maxwell  of 
Creston,  Iowa,  in  the  district  court  of 
Union  county,  Iowa. 

Scores  Lawyers  Here 
The  decision  scores  Minnesota  attor- 
neys, who  are  charged  with  maintaining 
paid  agents  in  other  states  who  are  hired 
to  solicit  for  them  damage  suits  against 
railroad  companies  for  persons  injured. 
These  actions  are  then  instituted  in  th? 
courts  of  Minnesota. 

"Scandalous  and  Unethical" 
"Through  the  most  scandalous  and  un- 
ethical conduct  of  a  number  of  lawyers 
located  at  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  the  courts 
there  are  being  fairly  swamped  with 
cases  of  this  character  to  the  great  in- 
jury and  inconvenience  and  inequitable 
treatment  of  the  residents  of  our  own 
and  other  foreign  states,"  declares  the 
court. 

Suing  a  Conductor 
The  case  in  point,  and  on  which  the 
decision  is  written,  is  one  in  which  the 
Burlington  railroad  brought  suit  against 
Warren  W.  McMahon,  one  of  its  freight 
conductors,  for  $7,500  for  damages  to  its 
equipment  through  the  alleged  gross  neg- 


ligence of  the  conductor  in  causing  a 
collision  of  his  train  with  a  passenger 
train  at  Maryville,  Mo.,  April  6,  1914. 

Started  in  U.  S.  Court 

The  conductor  is  alleged  to  have  left 
open  a  switch  into  which  the  passenger 
train  plunged.  This  suit  was .  begun  by 
the  railroad  company  in  the  United 
States  district  court  at  Creston,  Iowa, 
February  16,  1915. 

On  February  20,  1915,  McMahon, 
through  his  attorneys,  Barton  &  Kay 
of  St.  Paul,  brought  a  counter  action 
against  the  company  in  the  Ramsey 
county  district  court,  asking  $30,000 
damages  for  the  loss  of  his  left  hand. 

.  Asked  for  Injunction 
Last  June  Barrows,  Stewart  &  Ord- 
way,  attorneys  for  the  railroad  com- 
pany, filed  a  petition  in  the  district  court 
of  Union  county,  Iowa,  asking  that  Mc- 
Mahon be  enjoined  and  restrained  from 
prosecuting  his  action  in  the  Ramsey 
county  district  court.  Judge  Maxwell 
granted  a  temporary  injunction. 

Cites   Many   Decisions 

McMahon's  attorneys  then  asked  the 
court  to  dissolve  this  injunction  and  set 
aside  the  order  granting  it.  This  the 
court  refuses  to  do,  and  cites  a  long  line 
of  decisions  to  support  the  view  that  it  is 
within  the  power  of  the  court  of  equity 
to  restrain  the  citizens  of  Iowa  from 
taking  their  causes  of  action  to  another 
state  for  trial. 

Commenting  on  the  activities  of  Mc- 
Mahon's attorneys,  Judge  Maxwell  says  : 

Have  Solicitors  There 
"It  is  shown  by  the  evidence  here  that 
the  defendant's  attorneys,  Barton  &  Kay, 
have  one  or  more  solicitors  in  their  em- 
ploy in  this  state,  and  that  said  firm  has 
pending  in  the  courts  of  Ramsey  and 
Hennepin  counties  in  Minnesota,  thirty- 
two  such  cases  which  arose  in  Iowa,  for 
residents  of  Iowa,  wherein  the  aggregate 
the  amount  sought  to  be  recovered  is 
more  than  $550,000,  and  some  twenty 
cases  from  other  outside  states  where 
the  aggregate  amount  claimed  is  more 
than  $295,000."— St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press, 
November  19,  1915. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


73 


BOLIVAR    COUNTY    (MISS.) 
COURT 

A  two  weeks'  term  of  court  has  just 
been  concluded  at  Cleveland,  Bolivar 
County,  Miss.  The  calendar  contained 
nine  damage  suits  against  the  Y.  &  M.  V. 
Railroad.  They  were  a  pretty  sorry  lot 
and  in  character  resembled  much  the  ar- 
ticles usually  offered  in  a  rummage  sale. 

Lula  V.  Roberts  of  Rockford,  111., 
while  riding  from  Helena,  Ark.,  to  Lula, 
Miss.,  October  14,  1914,  claimed  to  have 
suffered  severely  from  cold  feet  and 
brought  suit  for  $2,010.  The  weather 
bureau  records  at  Helena  showed  the 
temperature  during  the  hours  she  com- 
plained of  to  have  ranged  from  57  to  61. 
A  motion  by  the  defendant  to  require 
plaintiff  to  file  a  cost  bond  gave  her 
counsel  cold  feet  also  and  the  suit  was 
dismissed. 

George  M.  Adams,  patent  medicine 
salesman,  was  another  cold  feet  victim. 
He  claimed  to  have  suffered  because  of 
lack  of  heat  in  the  station  at  Gunnison, 
Miss.,  on  the  night  of  March  12,  1914, 
and  brought  suit  for  $10,000.  He  testi- 
fied, too,  that  his  health  had  been  ruined 
and  that  prior  to  the  exposure  he  had  for 
years,  enjoyed  munificient  returns  from 
his  salesmanship.  The  company,  how- 
ever, had  investigated  and  presented 
some  documentary  proof  to  the  effect 
that  his  earnings  had  been  insignificant 
and  resulted  in  his  dismissal.  Also  that 
his  health  had  been  greatly  impaired  for 
years  and  that  he  was  suffering  from  a 
trouble  of  long  standing  which  prac- 
tically incapacitated  him.  The  investiga- 
tion of  the  case  covered  a  wide  field, 
from  Columbus  and  Hattiesburg,  Miss., 
to  Texas  points,  thence  to  St.  Louis.  Mo., 
and  other  places.  The  jury  found  for 
the  railroad. 

Irma  Travillian,  wife  of  a  barber  who 
conducts  a  shop  in  his  four-roomed  cot- 
tage at  Cleveland,  Miss.,  had  a  suit  for 
$2,000  which  she  later  raised  to  $10,000 
for  injuries  to  her  nerves,  because  on 
January  1,  1915,  a  young  white  man  who 
had  been  run  over  by  a  train  while  tres- 
passing on  the  track,  was  brought  to  her 
husband's  barber  shop  and  kept  there  in 
care  of  the  town  physicians  for  a  few 


hours  until  he  died.  The  evidence 
showed  that  the  plaintiff  was  not  in  the 
shop  but  was  in  an  adjoining  room.  The 
jury  was  evidently  not  favorably  im- 
pressed with  her  claim  so  removed  the 
figure  "1"  from  the  attractive  sum  asked 
and  returned  a  verdict  for  the  company. 

Jake  Finks'  Ford  car  balked  on  the 
railroad  track  at  Deeson,  Miss.,  October 
8,  1914.  While  he  was  attempting  to 
coax  it  to  "ramble  right  along"  a  pas- 
senger train  dashed  around  a  curve  and 
when  brought  to  a  stop  the  Ford  car  had 
moved,  but  involuntarily  and  with  dis- 
astrous results  to  the  machine.  The 
claim  agent  offered  $300  in  settlement, 
but  a  sum  was  demanded  sufficient  to 
purchase  a  higher  priced  car,  hence  the 
case  was  submitted  to  the  jury  for  arbi- 
tration and  much  to  the  chagrin  and 
amazement  of  Mr.  Finks,  resulted  in  a 
verdict  for  the  railroad. 

John  Henry  Polk,  colored,  through  his 
mother  as  next  friend,  sought  the  aid 
of  the  courts  in  a  demand  of  $2,000  for 
personal  injury  sustained  while  employed 
as  section  laborer  because  a  certain  steel 
rail  had  settled  down  upon  his  foot. 
When  John  asked  the  company  for  em- 
ployment he  was  22  but  when  injured,  as 
is  quite  often  the  case,  his  age  shrunk  to 
19.  The  jury  listened  to  his  story, 
viewed  the  foot  and  concluded  that  John 
was  at  least  of  sufficient  age  to  have  ap- 
preciated the  consequences  of  such  an 
occurrence  and  found  for  the  railroad. 

Maggie  Powell,  on  October  5,  1914, 
became  a  passenger  on  a  local  freight 
train  from  Heads  to  Shaw.  Maggie  had 
a  good  time  sticking  her  head  out  of  the 
window  at  each  station  and  visiting  with 
the  representatives  of  her  race  who 
gathered  around  the  car,  although  the 
flagman  repeatedly  advised  her  that  her 
position  was  dangerous.  Finally  a  little 
harder  jar  than  usual  brought  her  face 
and  the  window  in  juxtaposition,  where- 
upon Maggie  promptly  informed  the 
conductor  she  was  going  to  sue.  This 
was  no  idle  threat  for  suit  was  promptly 
instituted  for  $2,000.  The  jury  evi- 
dently concluded  that  Maggie  had  been 
sufficiently  punished  for  "rubbering"  and 
therefore  did  not  assess  any  damages 


74 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


against  her  but  simply  found  in  favor  of 
the  railroad. 

Tommie  Lack,  age  18,  related  a  story 
of  cruel  and  inhuman  treatment  on  the 
part  of  conductor  of  train  No.  12,  claim- 
ing to  have  purchased  a  ticket  from 
Vicksburg  to  Merigold,  which  the  con- 
ductor took  up  after  leaving  Vicksburg 
and  a  little  later  again  demanded  trans- 
portation, and  when  told  that  his  ticket 
had  been  previously  tendered,  he  ejected 
Tommy  from  the  train.  As  the  records 
at  Vicksburg  and  evidence  of  the  ticket 
clerk  showed  no  ticket  was  sold  to 
Merigold  on  the  date  in  question  and 
witnesses  were  produced  to  whom  he  had 
stated  on  reaching  his  destination  that  he 
had  walked  part  of  the  way  because  he 
only  had  money  enough  to  pay  his  fare 
to  Rolling  Fork,  the  twelve  arbitrators 
sitting  on  his  case  decided  that  Tom's 
memory  was  defective  and  that  they 
could  not  allow  him  the  $5,000  modestly 
named  in  his  declaration,  or  any  part 
thereof. 

A  clean  sweep  for  the  company  was 
prevented  by  a  verdict  of  $50  for  Will 
Braxton  in  a  cow  case.  The  company 
proved  the  cow  was  run  over  by  a  one- 
eyed  horse  which  was  trying  a  test  of 
speed  with  a  "Valley"  train.  The  plain- 
tiff admitted  that  such  an  incident  took 
place  but  that  his  cow  was  a  different 
animal  and  was  run  over  by  the  "iron" 
horse  and  not  the  one-eyed  one.  The 
jury  deliberated  for  three  hours  and  then 
decided  to  give  Willie  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt.  It  is  well  they  did,  for  Local  At- 
torney A.  W.  Shands  and  Claim  Agent 
Z.  T.  Jolly  were  growing  a  little  too 
chesty  and  needed  at  least  one  adverse 
result  to  seven  cases  won,  to  keep  them 
on  speaking  terms  with  other  mortals. 

Ths  remaining  damage  case  on  the 
docket  was  continued.  If  one  familiar 
with  former  experiences  of  the  railroad 
in  the  courts  of  Bolivar  County  happens 
to  read  this,  he  will,  no  doubt,  refuse  to 
credit  the  report,  as  things  were  not  al- 
ways thus.  The  company  appreciates 
the  change  and  is  grateful  to  the  courts 
and  jurors  for  the  fair  treatment  ac- 
corded it. 


WILKINSON   COUNTY   (MISS.) 
COURT 

A  very  successful  term  for  the  com- 
pany has  also  just  been  concluded  at 
Woodville,  Miss. 

Miss  Edna  Mounts  sued  the  company 
for  $25,000  for  alleged  permanent  de- 
rangement of  her  nervous  system  on  ac- 
count of  a  derailment,  February  3,  1915. 
The  evidence  showed  that  the  train  was 
moving  very  slowly  when  some  of  the 
cars  were  derailed.  The  train  stopped, 
and  after  a  few  minutes,  Miss  Mount 
inquired  the  cause  of  delay  and  then  for 
the  first  time  learned  of  the  derailment. 
She  and  other  passengers  were  taken  into 
the  station  on  an  engine.  She  rode  on 
the  fireman's  seat,  rang  the  bell  and  ap- 
peared to  thoroughly  enjoy  the  unique 
experience.  It  was  quite  fully  developed 
that  she  had  suffered  with  a  nervous  dis- 
order all  her  life.  The  case  attracted 
wide-spread  attention  in  the  community, 
as  many  of  the  citizens  knew  of  Miss 
Mount's  previous  condition  of  health. 
However,  several  doctors  testified  that, 
in  their  opinion,  her  trouble  was  the  re- 
sult of  injuries  received  in  the  derail- 
ment, and  strenuous  efforts  were  made 
to  present  quite  a  serious  case  against 
the  company.  A  verdict  was  returned 
for  the  railroad. 

Mrs.  Nellie  Gallatas  sued  for  $2,000 
because  the  conductor  ejected  her  from 
the  train  at  Laurel  Hill,  La.  It  appeared 
she  had  a  pass  from  New  Orleans  to 
Laurel  Hill,  but  upon  reaching  there 
notified  the  conductor  she  desired  to  go 
onto  Woodville,  Miss.  She  was  then  ad- 
vised that  she  would  have  to  pay  fare 
from  New  Orleans  to  Woodville,  as  it 
was  against  the  law  to  accept  free  trans- 
portation for  any  portion  of  an  inter- 
state trip.  She  refused  to  pay  and  the 
conductor  had  no  recourse  other  than  to 
request  her  to  leave  the  train,  which  she 
did.  A  non-suit  was  taken  just  before 
the  case  was  reached  for  trial,  Mrs.  Gal- 
latas insisting  that  suit  had  been  brought 
without  her  authority. 

Mrs.  M.  L.  Talbert  sued  as  adminis- 
tratrix on  account  of  fatal  injuries  to 
her  son  while  the  boy  was  train  flagman. 
The  case  was  settled  with  her  some 


76 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


months  previous  to  suit  and  the  money 
paid,  but  some  complication  arose  in  the 
distribution  of  the  sum  and  Mrs.  Talbert 
brought  suit  to  set  aside  the  settlement 
and  recover  a  larger  amount.  Before 
starting  the  trial,  however,  her  attorneys 
decided  the  chances  of  losing  what  the 
company  had  already  paid  were  greater 
than  the  chances  of  getting  more,  and  the 
case  was  dismissed. 

Beauregard  Peck,  minor,  sued  for 
$5,000  by  next  friend,  on  account  of 
ejection  from  train.  On  September  23, 
1914,  this  boy  wished  to  take  a  trip  on 
the  railroad  and  wanted  to  travel  for 
half  fare.  The  agent  was  acquainted 
with  him  and  knew  that  he  had  passed 
the  half-fare  age  of  12  years  by  several 
summers  and  refused  to  sell  him  a  half- 
fare  ticket.  Peck  then  got  a  negro  man 
to  buy  the  ticket  for  him  but,  while  to 
some,  "all  coons  look  alike,"  the  conduc- 
tor was  a  better  judge  and  put  him  off 
when  he  refused  to  pay  full  fare.  The 
array  of  witnesses  for  the  company 
"threw  a  scare"  into  the  Peck  crowd,  so 
before  the  case  was  called  a  non-suit  was 
taken. 

Thus,  the  term  of  court  passed  into 
history  without  any  verdicts  against  the 
company.  Of  course,  the  company  has 
a  considerable  bill  for  witness  fees,  claim 
and  law  department  expenses,  etc.,  but  at 
present  it  is  glad  to  get  off  at  that.  Per- 
haps later,  things  will  so  improve  that 
the  railway  may  not  have  to  pay  out  so 
much  money  in  the  defense  of  frivolous 
and  trumped  up  litigation. 


On  January  21,  1915,  four  men  elec- 
ted to  ride  from  LeMars  to  Cherokee  on 
the  local  freight.  It  was  a  bitter  cold 
day  but,  as  none  of  them  had  a  ticket, 
they  chose  to  ride  in  an  open  coal  car. 
They  were,  at  the  best,  nothing  more 
than  trespassers,  stealing  from  the  rail- 
road company  what  they  were  not  en- 
titled to. 

When  the  train  had  moved  less  than 
one-half  mile,  one  of  the  men  decided, 
for  reasons  not  known,  to  leave  the  car. 


After  alighting,  he  fell  back  under  the 
wheels  and  was  killed. 

His  three  companions,  all  of  whom 
were  tramps,  continued  their  journey  by 
foot  and  later  came  back  to  LeMars  to 
avoid  suspicion  that  they  were  respon- 
sible for  the  old  man's  death.  To  ex- 
onerate themselves,  they  concocted  and 
told  the  story  that  two  brakemen,  as  the 
train  was  leaving  town,  had  entered  the 
car,  one  with  a  club  in  his  hand,  and 
forced  them  to  leave  the  train,  and  that 
their  companion  was  killed. 

The  attorney  who  represented  the  heirs 
of  the  deceased  boarded  two  of  these 
men  free  at  his  home  town  for  some 
months ;  then  took  their  depositions,  in 
which  it  was  stated  that  their  companion 
had  been  assisted  by  a  brakeman  in  leav- 
ing the  car  and  had  been  killed  while 
alighting.  Suit  was  then  brought. 

At  the  trial  recently,  the  Railroad 
Company  presented  depositions  to  show, 
from  persons  who  knew  these  tramps  in 
Duluth  and  in  towns  in  the  Dakotas,  that 
they  were  a  worthless  lot,  not  to  be  be- 
lieved, and  that  one  was  a  gambler  and 
boot-legger.  In  addition  to  the  train 
crew,  three  passengers  testified  that  they 
were  riding  in  the  caboose  on  the  day 
of  the  accident  and  that  they  were  posi- 
tive neither  the  conductor  nor  two 
brakemen  left  the  caboose  at  any  time 
during  the  period  it  was  claimed  the 
accident  occurred. 

Likewise,  a  German  farmer,  who  was 
driving  past  the  scene  of  the  accident 
and  saw  the  man  fall,  testified  that  he 
alighted  without  help,  and  that  the  other 
three  men  in  the  car  were  not  near  him 
when  he  was  attempting  to  get  off.  Be- 
ing shy  of  words  to  fully  express  his 
meaning,  this  farmer  acted  out  before 
the  jury  the  manner  in  which  the  tramp 
met  death,  which  was  more  forceful 
than  he  could  have  described  it.  In  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  attorney  for  the 
plaintiff  to  confuse  the  witness,  his  story 
remained  unshaken,  and  members  of  the 
jury  were  later  heard  to  remark  that 
you  "couldn't  fool  a  Dutchman."  The 
jury  returned  a  verdict  for  the  railroad. 

That  the  statement  of  these  tramps 
should  be  made  the  basis  of  a  law  suit, 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


77 


which  cost  the  railroad  a  large  amount 
to  defend,  is  a  burden  which  the  rail- 
road has  frequently  to  bear.  Fortu- 
nately, the  attorney  bringing  the  suit 
was  put  to  considerable  expense  also, 
otherwise  the  scales  of  justice  would 
have  been  quite  unevenly  balanced.  It 
seems  very  ungrateful  that  the  railroad 
should  be  charged  with  attempted  man- 
slaughter after  these  tramps  secured  a 
free  ride.  We  regret  that  the  County 
in  which  the  suit  was  tried  had  to  be 
taxed  with  the  expense  of  the  trial. 


OFF  HIS  POISE 

Recently,  one  of  our  resourceful 
Claim  Agents,  who  was  dealing  with  a 
very  unreasonable  claimant,  became 
somewhat  out  of  patience  (a  very  un- 
usual thing  with  this  particular  Claim 
Agent,  noted  for  his  poise),  and  in  re- 
ply to  the  direct  question  of  what  he 
was  going  to  do  about  the  matter,  mad; 
the  following  response :  "Our  business 
has  been  established  many  years.  We 
have  been  pleasing  and  displeasing  the 
people  ever  since.  We  have  lost  money 
and  made  money.  We  have  been 
cussed  and  discussed,  knocked,  talked 
about,  lied  to,  held  up,  robbed,  etc.,  to 
the  end  of  the  chapter.  The  only  rea- 
son we  are  staying  in  business  is  to  see 
what  in  H will  happen  next." 


FAITH  SHOWN  IN  NEWSPAPER 
"AD" 

Railroads  of  the  United  States  have 
demonstrated  their  faith  in  newspaper 
advertising  by  spending  ten  million  for 
advertising  during  the  last  fiscal  year, 
according  to  an  address  before  the  Chi- 
cago Advertising  Agency  by  Garrett 
Ford,  General  Passenger  Agent  of  the 
Union  Pacific. 


THERE  ARE  A  FEW  EXCEP- 
TIONS 

More  than  five  thousand  persons  are 
killed  each  year  while  trespassing  on 
railroad  tracks,  and  a  very  large  pro- 
portion were  automobilists  it  is  said.  We 
are  not  at  all  surprised  to  hear  it  be- 


cause when  a  man  buys  an  automobile 
he  soon  becomes  obsessed  with  the  idea 
that  nobody  except  himself  has  any 
right  to  use  the  face  of  the  earth. — New 
Orleans  States. 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Obedience 

By  L.  E.  McCabe,  Superintennent 


f\  BEDIENCE  has  been  defined  as 
^-^  compliance  with  a  command,  pro- 
hibition, or  known  law,  or  rule  of  duty. 
Obedience  itself  should  be  the  watch- 
word of  every  railroad  from  top  to  bot- 
tom of  the  ranks.  Lack  of  obedience 
in  the  railroad  service  is  one  of  the 
most  costly  things  a  railroad  has  to 
contend  with.  It  is  manifested  in  va- 
rious ways.  Lack  of  obedience  on  the 
part  of  the  rank  and  file  results  in 
many  cases  in  loss  of  life  not  only  to 
the  employes,  but  to  the  passengers 
entrusted  to  their  care.  Lack  of  obe- 
dience on  the  part  of  the  supervising 
officers  takes  a  somewhat  different 
form  and  brings  about  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent result.  It  is  this  latter  form  to 
which  I  particularly  want  to  invite  at- 
tention. 

In  the  case  of  the  rank  and  file,  lack 
of  obedience  is  punished  by  inflicting 
punishment  on  the  particular  person 
who  has  failed  to  obey  the  rules  laid 
down  by  the  Railroad  Company,  while 
where  it  is  lack  of  obedience  on  the 
part  of  the  supervising  officer,  it  is 
handled  ordinarily  by  the  reissuing  of 
the  order  not  only  so  that  it  will  reach 
the  real  offender,  but  so  that  it  will 
reach  the  whole  railroad  system.  In  this 
way,  an  enormous  amount  of  extra  work 
is  caused,  and  an  enormous  amount  of 
time  is  lost  to  countless  employes. 
If  it  were  possible  to  get  at  and  to  dis- 
cipline the  one  offender,  as  it  is  in 
the  case  of  disciplining  the  rank  and 
file,  a  great  amount  of  time  and  cor- 
respondence might  be  saved  over  the 
entire  system.  Due  largely  to  this 


condition  and  mode  of  punishment,  in- 
structions, like  our  laws,  have  become 
so  voluminous  that  it  is  impossible  to 
expect  a  person  to  even  read,  much 
less  remember  them.  This  is  brought 
home  to  us  each  day.  Our  mail  is 
heavy  with  many  letters  calling  atten- 
tion to  some  violation  of  rules,  or  in- 
structions of  some  person  on  the  road, 
that  probably  do  not  concern  us  in  any 
way,  but  on  account  of  the  error  and 
lack  of  obedience  on  the  part  of  some 
one  person  who  may  be  many  miles 
away  from  us,  we  have  to.  go  over  old 
instructions  and  have  to  go  through 
old  correspondence,  losing  time  which 
ought  to  be  devoted  to  carrying  on  the 
business  in  hand  at  the  time,  and  thus 
causing  trouble  to  the  enire  system  of 
railroad  from  one  end  to  the  other.  If 
one  member  of  the  famliy  is  sick,  it  is 
not  customary  and  necessary  to  treat  the 
whole  family.  If  one  employe  of  the 
railroad  company  fails  to  do  his  duty, 
and  fails  in  his  obedience  to  the  rules  of 
the  company,  it  is  unnecessary  to  treat 
the  whole  system  of  the  railroad  com- 
pany, and  yet  that  is  what  is  done. 

In  the  October  magazine,  Mr.  Berry, 
in  describing  the  handling  of  the  subur- 
ban traffic  during  the  Chicago  street 
railway  strike,  gave  a  very  beautiful 
demonstration  of  what  can  be  done 
when  instructions  are  carried  out.  The 
situation  discussed  by  Mr.  Berry  arose 
over  night.  One  day,  passengers  to  an 
average  of  about  sixty  thousand  were 
carried,  and  the  next  day  an  abnormal 
situation  arose,  whereby  two  hundred 
and  forty-eight  thousand  passengers  were 


78 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


79 


carried  in  a  day.  This  situation  arose  so 
suddenly  that  there  was  no  chance,  or 
time,  to  give  written  instructions.  It  was 
all  done  by  verbal  orders  and  the  large 
increase  of  trains  and  business  was  han- 
dled without  writing  a  letter.  This 
was  only  possible  through  explicit  obe- 
dience of  orders  by  everyone  con- 
cerned in  the  handling  of  this  great 
increase  of  passengers.  This  same  sit- 
uation should  be  that  which  is  ordi- 
narily encountered  in  the  running  of  a 
railroad.  If  all  orders  were  obeyed, 
instead  of  having  a  great  mass  of  cor- 
respondence, most  of  whjch  covers  re- 
issued instructions,  which  only  tends 
to  puzzle  and  worry  employes,  a  rail- 
road could  be  run  with  greater  effi- 
ciency and  with  less  time  wasted  by 
all  concerned.  I  strongly  recommend 
the  reading  of  'TIGS  IS  PIGS."  If 
delayed  trains  were  pigs,  there  would 
be  no  room  on  the  right-of-way  for 
them. 

Not  so  long  since,  a  very  grave  dis- 
turbance occurred  on  a  railroad  and 
some  time  before  its  occurrence  the  va- 
rious officers  were  called  in  and  it  was 
outlined  to  them  verbally  how  the  sit- 
uation should  be  met  and  handled. 
The  instructions  which  were  then 
given  were  not  changed  during  the  en- 
tire time  that  this  disturbance  lasted, 
a  period  of  some  years.  Not  a  letter 
was  written,  nor  was  there  any  renewal 
of  the  original  instructions,  and  yet  I 
do  not  recall,  in  my  experience,  any 
event  that  was  handled  more  success- 
fully. In  this  case  had  there  been  any 
disobedience,  serious  results  might 
have  developed. 

We  are  too  careless  with  corre- 
spondence, and  there  is  entirely  too 
much  of  it  brought  about  by  disobe- 
dience of  some  person,  or  persons.  It 
frequently  occurs  that  several  officers 
are  writing  letters  to  the  same  person, 
or  persons,  each  requiring  investiga- 
tion and  reply ;  thus,  it  happens  that 
the  recipient  is  showered  with  a  vol- 
ume of  correspondence  from  various 
officers  and  soon  begins  to  take  the 
matter  with  very  little  seriousness,  re- 
sulting in  still  another  flood  of  letters. 
It  is  possible  that  our  democratic  sys- 


tem of  doing  business  is  responsible 
for  this  feature  in  the  organization. 

It  is  possible  that  we  can  have  a  les- 
son in  railroading  from  the  examples 
of  the  Democratic  Governments  of  the 
warring  nations  in  Europe.  The  same 
evils  which  make  or  mar  a  railroad, 
make  or  mar  a  nation.  The  same  rem- 
edy applied  by  those  countries  may  be 
of  service  to  the  railroad  world  in  in- 
creasing the  efficiency  of  the  service 
and  in  bringing  about  that  all  impor- 
tant element — obedience. 


THE  COAL  CAR'S  SHAME. 

By  Wm.  Woods. 
The  day  I  passed  inspection,  Oh  I  was 

filled  with  pride. 
I  was  proud  of  my  complexion  and  of 

the  name  upon  my  side. 
My   complexion    was    black    as   black 

could  be 
And  upon  my  side  a  big  I.  C. 

I  went  out  to  the  mine  to  be  loaded  up 

with  coal, 
Then  I  came  back  down  the  line  with 

a  rollick  and  a  roll. 
Oh  I  was  gay  as  gay  could  be 
And  upon  my  side  was  a  big  I.  C. 

I  stopped  in  a  mighty  yard  and  was 

switched  upon  a  track, 
They   bumped   into   me   awfully   hard 

and  pulled  me  out,  then  shoved  me 

back, 

But  that  was  nothing  much  to  me, 
For  upon  my  side  was  a  big  I.  C. 

And  then  a  man  came,  wrote  his  name 

right  upon  my  side. 
I  did  not  think  I  was  very  vain,  but 

that  did  hurt  my  pride. 
Still  that  was  nothing  much  to  me 
For  upon  my  side  was  a  big  I.  C. 

i 

Then   came   another   man,   "A    man," 

did  I  say? 
Nay,  he  could  not  be  a  man,  Nay,  Nay, 

Nay. 

And  I  blushed  though  black  I  be 
For  upon  my  side  was  a  big  I.  C. 

I  will  not  tell  what  he  wrote  nor  the 
pictures  that  he  drew. 


80 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


The  "verses"  I  cannot,  will  not  quote, 

nasty  verses  not  a  few. 
I  hate  for  verses  like  that  to  be 
Upon  my  side  by  a  big  I.  C. 

And  now  I  am  filled  with  shame ;  I 
hate  to  see  the  light  of  day. 

Sometimes  I  would  change  my  name 
but  it  is  painted  on  to  stay. 


Ah,  me,  I  hate  for  people  to  see 
Language  like  that  beside  a  big  I.  C. 

I  ask  my  friends,  if  friends  they  are, 
though  only  friends  in  name, 

To  pity  an  iron  coal  car  and  free  me  of 
this  shame; 

So  that  upon  my  side  will  be 

Only  my  numbers  and  a  big  I.  C. 


Name 

Wm.  C.  Schultz 
Calvin  Stephens 
Raymond  A.  Pike 
Mathew  Mulvaney 
Edward  A.  Wright 
George  H.  Resell 
George  Hurt 
Donald  McCulloch 


M 


Occupation 
Car  Scrubber 
Pumper 

Stationary  Engineer 
Switch  Tender 
Engineman 
Train  Baggageman 
Section  Foreman 
Crossing  Flagman 


Where 
Employed 
Burnside 
Ethel 
Paducah 
Champaign 
Chicago 
Waterloo 
Fairman 
Cherokee 


Date  of 

Service  Retirement 
6-30-15 
11-30-15 
11-30-15 
9-30-15 
9-30-15 
11-30-15 
11-30-15 
11-30-15 


B.  K.  KILBORNE 


R.  KILBORNE  entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany as  Agent  September  4,  1881,  and  continued  in  that  capacity  until 
September  4,  1915,  when  he  was  retired  on  a  pension  on  account  of  ill 
health.  His  last  location  was  at  Fort  Dodge,  la. 

The  attached  letter  to  Supt.  Sullivan  is  self  explanatory: 

Fort  Dodge,  la.,  Oct.  21,  1915. 
Mr.  T.  H.  Sullivan, 
Superintendent, 

Ft.  Dodge,  la. 
Dear  sir: 

There  comes  a  time  in  the  life  of  man,  when  questions  of  vital  importance 
confront  him,  his  destiny  hanging  in  the  balance,  uncertain  which  turn  in  the 
road  to  take. 

This  problem  was  recently  mine  to  solve,  in  the  matter  of  retirement  from 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  in  whose  service  I  had  been  for  thirty- 
four  years,  health  having  failed. 

It  was  a  question  of  grave  concern  to  me  and  for  a  time  was  unable  to 
reach  a  decision,  hoping  I  might  regain  health  and  strength  sufficient  to 
warrant  my  remaining  in  the  service,  but  after  days  of  hopeful  waiting, 
health  being  of  first  importance,  was  obliged  to  ask  for  sixty  days'  leave  of 
absence  which  would  permit  me  to  complete  my  thirty-fourth  year  of  serv- 
ice and  during  this  sixty  days  would  make  formal  application  for  retirement, 
my  request  was  granted. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


81 


I  cannot  express  the  feelings  of  regret  that  came  to  me  and  what  it  cost 
to  reach  this  decision ;  it  was  to  me  a  sacrifice  of  life  almost,  but  in  justice 
to  myself  and  the  company  this  seemed  my  only  course  and  on  July  17th,  made 
application  for  retirement. 

I  appreciate  very  much  your  support,  sympathy  and  hopeful  expressions 
for  the  return  of  health  which  I  trust  may  come  to  me  in  due  time. 

In  taking  a  retrospective  view  of  my  early  years  of  service  I  recall  many 
of  the  failures  and  discouragements  that  came  to  me,  due  to  inexperience  and 
ignorance,  and  in  later  years  realized  I  had  not  measured  up  to  the  pos- 
sibilities which  were  mine,  but  was  encouraged  in  profiting  by  past  ex- 
periences. 

I  was  familiar  with  the  faces  and  had  a  personal  acquaintance  with  most 
of  the  officials  in  the  earlier  days  and  felt  that  I  was  a  part  of  a  great  corpora- 
tion in  the  development  of  the  western  branch  of  the  system,  but  through  the 
many  changes  in  management  I  met  new  faces  and  for  a  time  the  Illinois 
Central  had  almost  lost  its  identity  to  me,  but  as  I  got  to  know  the  new  man- 
agement and  reali^cLsome  of  the  high  ideals  they  aspired  to,  .that  of  mak- 
'ing  the  Illinois  Central  a  great  artery  in  the  transportation  world,  it  was  with 
feelings  of  delight  there  came  to  me  the  thought  that  I  had  a  part  to  play  and 
trust,  that  with  yourself  and  others  of  the  Iowa  Division  I  have  contributed 
my  mite  in  aiding  the  management  in  the  realization  of  their  ambitions  and 
appreciate  ^more  fully  at  this  time  the  opportunity  I  have  had  with  the 
thousands  $f  other  employes  in  the  successful  operation  and  development  of 
one  of  the  greatest  if  not  the  greatest  railroad  systems  in  the  country,  travers- 
ing the  diverse  territory  it  does. 

I  want  to  thank  you  personally  for  the  patience  and  consideration  shown 


B.   K.    KILBORNE. 


WM.  H.  PL.ATT. 


82 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


me  during  the  years  of  service  together  as  Superintendent  and  employe.  .1 
have  erred  in  judgment  and  may  have  been  derelict  in  duty,  to  which  you 
have  closed  your  official  vision,  realizing  they  were  mistakes  of  the  head  and 
not  of  the  heart ;  I  have  never  come  to  you  with  a  burden  but  what  you  have 
done  what  you  could  to  lift  the  load,  and  I  believe  every  employe  under 
you  will  add  their  testimony  to  mine  in  this  respect. 

I  desire  also  to  thank  the  management  through  you  for  the  courteous  and 
generous  consideration  accorded  me  in  the  matter  of  retirement.  While  I  had 
not  reached  the  age  limit,  I  was  given  full  pension  benefits  and  assurance  that 
my  long  service  was  appreciated. 

I  want  to  assure  you  of  my  deisre  to  do  what  I  can  to  further  the  interests 
of  the  company  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  serve,  and  refute  the  base  libel 
often  expressed  that  corporations  have  no  soul. 

Yours  truly, 

B.  K.  Kilborne. 


WILLIAM  H.  PLATT 

MR.  PLATT  was  born  in  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  Feb.  25,  1847,  •  and 
came  west  with  his  parents  when  a 
child  to  a  point  near  Goshen,  Ind. 
Entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  Feb.  18,  1871, 
as  brakeman,  running  between  Cham- 
paign and  Centralia,  and  later  between 
Champaign  and  Chicago.  In  the  fall 
of  1872  he  became  a  fireman  on  the 
Chicago  Division,  and  in  1879  was  pro- 
moted to  the  position  of  engineer.  In 
1880  he  was  sent  to  the  St.  Louis 
Division,  running  between  Cairo  and 
Centralia  until  October,  1887,  when  he 
was  transferred  to  the  Chicago,  Mad- 
ison and  Northern,  which  was  then  be- 
ing constructed.  Upon  the  completion 
of  this  road,  he  resumed  work  as  an 
engineer  and  continuing  in  that  capac- 
ity until  1894  when,  for  personal  rea- 
sons, he  came  to  Chicago  and  entered 
the  terminal  transfer  service,  which 
position  he  held  until  his  retirement, 
October  15,  of  the  current  year. 

During  his  long  service  Mr.  Pratt  has 
seen  many  changes  on  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad,  the  system  during  that 
time  developed  from  one  of  1,000  miles 
to  one  of  its  present  proportions.  Dur- 
ing his  45  years  of -service,  Mr.  Pl-att 
has  been  a  loyal  employe,  and  in  his 
retirement  takes  with  him  the  earnest 
good  will  of  hosts  of  friends  who  hope 
he  will  live  long  to  enjoy  his  well 
earned  rest.  . 


FRED   REID,   Memphis. 

FRED  REID 

A/I"  R.  REID  entered  the  service  at 
•*• -~  McComb,  Miss.,  on  the  first  day 
of  January,  1870.  The  town  of  Mc- 
Comb was  then  known  as  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  Improvement  Company, 
Mr.  J.  D.  Billings  being  superintend- 
ent of  the  town  as  well  as  the  shops. 
Mr.  Reid  at  that  time  had  charge  of 
the  mill,  and  continued  to  run  same 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


83 


until  1873,  when  it  was  sold.  The 
railroad  then  was  known  as  the  Chi- 
cago, St.  Louis  &  New  Orleans.  After 
the  sale  of  the  mill,  Mr.  Reid  accepted 
work  as  carpenter  at  McCornb  under 
Foreman  M.  M.  Martin,  in  which  ca- 
pacity he  worked  until  October,  1881, 
when  he  was  transferred  to  the  ma- 
chine shop  as  wheel  press  man  under 
Master  Mechanic  Ed.  Anderson.  He 
latef  resumed  work  in  the  car  depart- 
ment with  the  L.  N.  O.  &  T.  R.  R., 
continuing  with  that  corporation  un- 
til 1892,  when  it  was  taken  over  by 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company. 
Mr.  Reid  then  left  McComb,  moving 
to  Memphis  as  carpenter  at  which 
point  and  in  which  capacity  he  worked 
until  March  1st,  1915,  when  he  was  re- 
tired on  a  pension. 


ENGINEER  L.  BURCH. 

X/f  R.  BURCH  entered  the  service  of 
A  Illinois  Central  Railroad  at  Eliza- 
bethtown,  Ky.,  in  1876,  working  in  the 
shops  at  that  point  in  various  capac- 
ities until  1881,  when  he  was  made 
foreman.  Served  in  that  capacity  un- 
til Feb.  7,  1891,  when  he  was  pro- 
moted to  the  position  of  engineer,  in 
which  calling  he  continued  until  June 
30,  1915.  when  he  was  retired  on  a 


ENGINEER,  L,.  BURCH. 

pension.  It  will  be  noted  that  Mr. 
Burch's  service  covered  a  period  of  39 
years. 


Harry  Orndorff 


Born  November  21,  1888;  Died  September  17,  1915 
By  Helen  Lee.  Brooks 


r*\EATH  always  comes  as  a  painful 
*^  shock ;  we  are  never  really  prepared. 
Even  when  a  man  has  attained  the 
scriptural  three  score  years  and  ten, 
yet  his  passing  is  not  quite  ex- 
pected. Always  the  dread  shadow 
seems  farther  ahead ;  never  actually 
present.  Life  can  never  accept  death 
as  an  actual  reality.  The  two  are  for- 
ever antagonistic,  and  "dust  to  dust, 
ashes  to  ashes,"  always  has  and  always 
will  be  the  universal  dirge  of  the  hu- 
man heart. 

But  when  Death   comes,  not  as  the 


garner  of  full-ripened  grain,  but  as 
the  grim  destroyer  of  the  flower  just 
blossoming  into  maturity;  when  without 
a  second's  warning  a  man  vigorous  in 
body,  alert  in  mind,  buoyant  with  hope, 
is  stricken  down,  surprise  deepens  into 
awe.  The  small,  hushed  group  that  a 
few  weeks  ago  stood  around  the  silent 
form  of  Harry  Orndorff,  in  the  Indiana 
Division  offices  at  Mattoon,  can  never 
forget  the  horror,  the  incredible  mystery 
of  it  all.  A  moment  before  he  was  alive 
and  well,  chatting  with  his  associates, 
busy  at  his  desk.  Suddenly  the  hand 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


that  was  writing  ceased  to  move,  the 
sentence  remained  unfinished.  For  a 
brief  moment  the  Angel  of  Death  hov- 
ered in  our  midst,  then  passed  on  and 
the  spirit  of  our  friend  was  gone. 

Harry  Orndorff  was  born  within  a 
few  miles  of  Mattoon  and  here  spent 
practically  all  his  short  life.  For  five 
years  he  had  served  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  in  the  Indiana  Division  offices. 
Soon  after  his  twenty-first  birthday  he 
was  employed  in  the  Superintendent's 
office  as  file  clerk.  This  position  he 
held  until  December,  1912,  when  he 


HARRY   ORNDORFF,    Mattoon,   111. 

was  promoted  to  the  post  of  Assistant 
Accountant.  In  June,  1914,  he  was  ap- 
pointed Chief  Clerk  to  the  Road  .Mas- 
ter, which  position  he  occupied  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

In  every  position  he  held  Harry  had 
the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his  supe- 
riors and  associates.  He  brought  to  his 
work  cheerfulness,  energy  and  intelli- 
gence, discharging  the  smallest  task 
with  the  thoroughness  that  distin- 
guishes the  true  worker  from  the  one 
who  is  merely  getting  through  the  day, 
thereby  proving  his  worthiness  of  a 


more  responsible  position.  His  rela- 
tions with  his  fellow  employes  in  the 
office  were  particularly  cordial.  The 
deadly  routine  of  office  work — each 
day  a  monotonous  replica  of  the  one 
preceding  and  the  one  to  follow — is 
not  conducive  to  evenness  of  temper, 
and  often  when  the  tension  was  near 
the  breaking  point,  Harry's  infectious 
laugh,  or  a  merry  jest  turned  the  tide 
and  restored  good  humor. 

While  we,  his  associates,  privileged 
to  call  ourselves  his  friends,  feel  that 
we  are  bereaved,  we  realize  how  much 
deeper  the  grief  and  greater  the  loss 
is  to  those  bound  to  him  by  the  closer 
ties  of  blood  and  sacred  bond  of  mar- 
riage. Especially  does  our  sympathy 
go  out  to  the  young  wife,  so  sadly 
stricken;  widowed  before  the  second 
anniversary  of  her  wedding  day.  In 
the  presence  of  such  grief  as  she  is 
called  upon  to  bear,  the  most. .sympa- 
thetic words  are  hollow  and  meaning- 
less, the  kindliest  act  unavailing.  The 
path  that  leads  through  Gethsemane 
is  a  narrow  one,  and  always  and  ever 
it  must  be  trodden  alone. 

I  have  read  a  story  olden, 

Of  a  castle  by  the  Rhine, 
Where  the  cruel  winds  of  winter 

Wrought  sweet  music  from  the  pine. 

But  the  Master  of  the  castle 
Stretched  from  tree  to  tree  with  care, 

Tiny  wires  of  purest  silver, 
That  brought  forth  a  tone  more  rare. 

Like  unto  the  harp  y£olian, 

Are  these  human  hearts  of  ours ;  ' 
Giving  forth  but  feeble  music 

In  the  happy  summer  hours. 

But  when  wintry  storms  of  anguish 
Sweep  our  heartstrings  o'er  and  o'er, 

Songs  of  love  and  faith-  triumphant, 
Rise  above  the  tempest's  roar. 

That  the  melody  be  sweeter, 
That  our  lives  may  richer  be, 

The  dear  Master  sends  deep  sorrow,, 
But  through  all  His  love  we  see. 


Hew  to 


It  is  not  tne  Science  or  curing  Disease  so  much  as  me  prevention  of  it 
inat  produces  trie  greatest  gpod  to  Humanity.  One  of  ine  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teaching  people  now  to  live  A  A  A  A  * 


The  Prevention  of  Granulated  Eye-Lids 
or  Trachoma 


/"\F  ALL  afflictions,  blindness  is  the 
^^  saddest.  This  affliction,  however, 
is  often  preceded  by  other  symptoms  of 
the  trouble  which  are  often  amenable  to 
treatment.  This  is  particularly  true  if 
the  disease  is  not  due  to  a  specific  vene- 
real infection  incurred  at  birth-.  This 
specific  infection,  if  neglected  at  birth, 
is  almost  certain  to  produce  blindness, 
and  for  this  reason  many  states  and  large 
municipalities  have  passed  stringest  reg- 
ulations which  must  be  followed  immedi- 
ately upon  the  birth  of  the  child. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  purpose  of 
this  paper  to  dwell  upon  this  phase  of 
the  subject,  but  to  refer  to  another  con- 
dition which  often  produces  blindness, 
and  oftener  total  economic  loss  to  the 
state  and  municipality.  This  is  the  prob- 
lem of  granulated  eyelids,  or  trachoma. 
Indeed,  trachoma  presents  a  problem 
more  largely  economic  than  any  other  in 
the  whole  field  of  preventive  medicine. 
No  one  dies  with  this  disease,  but  half 
of  those  who  have  it  are  eventually  made 
blind.  The  economic  usefulness  of  every 
infected  person  is  greatly  decreased.  It 
would  be  conservative  to  say  that  the 
average  earning  capacity  of  persons  hav- 
ing trachoma  is  less  than  one-fourth  of 
the  average  earning  capacity  of  well  in- 
dividuals. 

Trachoma  is  a  very  old  disease,  prob- 
ably as  old  as  the  Bible  itself.  It  is 
called  by  some  people  "granulated  lids," 
"sore  eyes,"  and  is  communicable,  or 


"catching,"  from  one  person  to  another. 
Those  who  have  it  'can  in  most  cases  be 
cured,  and  those  who  have  not  yet 
caught  it  can  avoid  doing  so  if  they  will 
learn  how  to  protect  themselves  against 
infection.  If  every  one,  men,  women  and 
children,  will  learn  about  this  disease 
and  take  means  for  its  prevention,  the 
disease  will  in  time  entirely  disappear. 

Early  Symptoms.  When  trachoma  be- 
gins, the  eyes  feel  as  though  a  cinder, 
dirt,  sawdust,  or  other  foreign  substance 
had  gotten  into  them,  and  usually  some 
of  these  substances  are  blamed  for  the 
eyes  getting  sore.  The  eyes  soon  be- 
come red  and  painful,  and  discharge 
water.  Some  pus  (matter)  is  present 
and  the  eyelids  stick  together  in  the 
mornings.  Soon  the  light  affects  the 
eyes,  and  in  time  this  light  causes  so 
much  pain  that  it  is  necessary  to  wear 
dark  glasses  or  to  tie  a  cloth  over  the 
eyes  in  the  effort  to  keep  out  the  light. 
The  inner  surface  of  the  eyelids  becomes 
rough,  somewhat  like  sandpaper,  and 
irritates  the  eyeball  with  every  wmk  of 
the  eye.  The  pain  is  often  described  as 
cutting.  It  is  this  constant  rubbing  or 
irritation  that  causes  the  eyeball  to  be- 
come red  and  painful.  Ulcers  may  ap- 
pear and  a  new  growth  is  formed  over 
the  pupil,  and  then  the  patient  is  liable 
to  slowly  become  blind.  While  the  red- 
ness, pain  and  discharge  may  cease  for 
a  time,  the  disease  is  almost  sure  to  re- 
turn unless  carefully  treated,  and  each 


85 


86 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


fresh  attack  damages  the  the  eye  more 
and  more.  Hence  early  and  persistent 
treatment  is  necessary,  and  it  should  be 
continued  until  the  disease  is  cured. 

Many  years  ago  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment realized  the  dangerous  and 
communicable  nature  of  trachoma,  and 
it  will  not  allow  any  foreigner  who  has 
the  disease  to  land  in  out  country.  Every 
alien  stepping  off  a  vessel  at  Ellis  Island, 
New  York,  has  to  submit  to  an  examina- 
tion. The  eyelids  are  turned  up,  and  if 
any  evidence  is  present  of  trachoma  they 
are  not  admitted,  but  are  referred  to 
the  Government  Hospital  and  are  kept 
there  until  thoroughly  cured.  Since  it 
has  been  found  that  a  great  many  cases 
are  present  among  our  people,  the  gov- 
ernment has  determined  to  extend  treat- 
ment to  those  in  the  mountains  of  Ken- 
tucky, or  scattered  throughout  the  length 
of  the  land,  in  order  that  these  cases  may 
be  cured  and  the  spread  of  the  disease 
prevented. 

Advice  to  those  having  sore  eyes: 

1.  Apply  at  once  to  the  nearest  hos- 
pital or  to  your  physician. 

2.  Follow  the  directions  of  the  doc- 
tors and  nurses  to  the  letter. 

3.  Do  not  stop  until  you  are  cured. 

4.  Wash  the  face  and  hands  several 
times  a  day  to  keep  the  finger  nails  clean. 

5.  Have  your  own  wash  basin,  soap 
and  towel. 

6.  Boil   your    handkerchiefs    before 
sending  them  to  the  wash. 

7.  Do  not  allow  your  clothing  or  bed- 
clothes to  become  soiled  with  the  dis- 
charge (pus)  from  your  eyes. 

8.  When  your  eyes  are  discharging 
matter,  collect  these  discharges  on  cloths 
which   can  be  burned,   and   stay   away 
from  members  of  your  family  as  much 
as  possible. 

9.  Sleep  alone,  and  with  the  windows 
open. 

10.  Keep  your  home  clean  and  have 
large  windows  to  let  in  fresh  air  and 
sunshine. 

How  to  avoid  getting  sore  eyes.  It  is 
the  duty  of  every  man,  woman  and  child 
to  do  all  he  or  she  can  to  prevent  the 
spread  o-f  trachoma.  Every  case  of  this 
disease  could  have  been  prevented.  Every 
case  occurring  in  a  child  is  the  fault  of 


somebody.  The  following  are  some  of 
the  things  that  people  should  do  to  avoid 
infection : 

1.  Keep  in  good  physical  condition. 
A  good,   strong   constitution   can   resist 
disease  and  throw  off  much  infection. 

2.  Have  large  windows  in  your  house 
which  will  admit  fresh  air  and  sunshine. 

3.  Sleep  with  windows  open  even  in 
winter  and   keep   the   room   well   aired 
where  you  live  and  study. 

4.  Do  not  use  the  common  towel. 

5.  Have   a   towel   and   handkerchief 
of  your  own  and  do  not  allow  any  one 
else  to  use  them. 

6.  Always  make  sure  that  the  wash- 
basin is  clean  before  you  use  it. 

7.  Do   not   sleep   with   persons   that 
have   "sore    eyes,"   nor   use   bedclothes 
that  have  been  used  by  them. 

8.  Do  not  wear  the  clothing  of  per- 
sons having  "sore  eyes,"  nor  use  their 
eating  utensils,  without  previous  careful 
washing. 

9.  Boil  the  handkerchiefs  of  persons 
having  "sore  eyes." 

10.  Use  your  influence  with  persons 
with  "sore  eyes"  to  have  them  treated 
at  some  hospital  or  dispensary. 

Impress  upon  all  so  afflicted  that  they 
may  eventually  become  blind  and  that 
blindness  is  of  all  afflictions  the  saddest. 
Here  is  a  touching  sonnet  inspired  by 
the  sight  of  a  little  girl  who  was  restored 
from  blindness : 

A  little  girl  am  I  that  once  was  blind 
And  shut  in  darkness  from  the  shining 

day, 
That   God,   through    you,  your    loving 

heart  and  kind, 

From  prison  led  me  to  the  sunlit  way 
Where  other  children  walk  and    danc<j 

and  sing. 
The  waving  trees,  the  grass,  a  rose,  the 

sky, 

And  little  babies  dear  that  run  to  me ; 
You  are  so  sweet  it  makes  me  cry — 
Just  cry  with  happy  tears  to  look  at  you, 
Instead   of   trying   hard   with   touch   to 

trace  you  out, 

And    then  to  see  that  picture  true 
You  gave  to  me  of  Jesus'  loving  face ; 
I  cannot  understand  that  it  could  ever  be 
That  anyone  is  sad  who  can  only  see. 


Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Nashville,  Chattanooga  &  St.  Louis  Railway,  Paducah  and  Memphis  Division 
W.  J.  Hills,  Superintendent 

Paducah,  Ky.,  October  2,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 
Illinois  Central  Railroad, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor : 

As  an  expression  of  my  extreme  satisfaction 'and  high  esteem  for  your 
hospital  and  staff  at  Paducah,  I  wish  to  advise  I  took  my  daughter  to  the 
hospital  on  Saturday  morning,  September  18,  an  operation  for  appendicitis 
was  performed  by  the  Hospital  Department  Staff  at  nine  o'clock  a.  m. ;  a 
week  later,  to  the  hour,  I  took  her  home  in  an  automobile  and  she  is  now  ap- 
parently entirely  recovered.  Had  no  trouble  of  any  kind,  except  a  few  hours' 
sickness  from  the  anesthetic. 

The  entire  staff,  as  well  as  nurses,  appeared  to  me  to  be  exceptionally 
competent  and  painstaking;  the  wards,  rooms,  and  everything  in  connection 
with  the  hospital  neat  and  well  kept,  and  the  management  generally,  appeared 
to  me  to  be  ideal.  You  have  every  reason  to  be  proud  of  your  organization 
here  and  I  felt  from  experience  you  would  like  to  know  the  impression  gained 
from  an  outsider. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)   W.  J.  HILLS,  Superintendent. 


Fulton,  Ky.,  October  26,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 
I.  C.  &  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R., 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: 

I  want  to  thank  the  Hospital  Department  Staff  for  the  services  rendered 
at  the  Illinois  Central  Hospital  at  Paducah,  Kentucky.  My  boy  was  operated 
on  there  the  20th  of  September  for  appendicitis.  Although  he  was  in  a  very 
critical  condition,  the  operation  was  successful  and  his  health  has  been  re- 
stored. 

I  can  certainly  recommend  the  entire  staff  of  the  Paducah  Hospital  to 
any  one.    I  never  received  nicer  treatment  from  any  one  than  I  did  there. 
Thanking  you  again,  I  am, 

Yours  truly, 
(Signed)  R.  P.  STEWART,  Engineer  Fulton  D'ist.,  I.  C.  R.  R. 


87 


To  the  Local  Railroad  Agent 

By  H.  G.  Powell,  Division  Freight  Agent 


John  J.  Ingalls  in  his  poem  on  "Op- 
portunity" says: 

"Master  of  human  destinies  am  I ; 
Fame,  love  and  fortune  on  my  foot- 
step wait. 

Cities  and  fields  I  walk ;  I  penetrate 
Deserts  and  seas  remote,  and  passing 

by 
Hovel  and  mart  and  palace — soon  or 

late 
I    knock,    unbidden,    once    at    every 

gate." 

TT  is  quite  evident  that  when  Mr.  In- 
galls wrote  this  poem,  he  did  not 
have  the  local  railroad  agent  in  mind. 
If  there  is  one  gate,  more  than  an- 
other, at  which  Opportunity  knocks,  it 
is  the  gate  of  the  local  agent;  there, 
Opportunity    knocks    not    once,    but 
daily. 

Have  you  carefully  thought  over  the 
traffic  Opportunities  of  your  station? 
The  local  agent  is  an  officer  of  the 
traffic  department,  and  the  volume  of 
business  that  we  handle  depends  to  a 
large  extent  upon  your  efforts. 

Where  do  the  inbound  shipments  of 
lumber,  cement,  coal,  tile,  brick,  build- 
ing material,  implements,  oil,  furniture. 
etc.,  originate?  Are  they  coming  from 
points  where  we  secure  a  short  haul? 
If  so,  we  may  possible  be  able  to  find 
a  remedy  for  this  condition. 

What  are  the  points  of  destination 
of  the  outbound  shipments  of  live 
stock,  grain,  hay,  vegetables,  fruit, 


etc.?  Are  we  handling  the  live,  stock 
to  the  market  which  gives  us  the  great- 
est revenue  with  the  least  liability  for 
shrinkage  claims?  Have  any  of  our 
patrons  at  your  station  commodities 
for  sale,  For  which  they  cannot  find  a 
suitable  market?  Possibly  we  can  help 
them  find  a  market  and  develop  a  new 
traffic. 

What  of  the  building  operations  at 
your  station,  particularly  the  con- 
templated construction  of  schools, 
churches,  federal  buildings,  water 
works,  gas  plants,  business  blocks, 
bank  buildings,  etc.?  Information  of 
this  character  in  the  hands  of  our  out- 
side representatives  is  of  decided  ad- 
vantage in  securing  the  material  and 
equipment  for  these  buildings,  as  well 
as  other  competitive  business,  from 
contractors  and  manufacturers  inter- 
ested. 

What  classes  of  raw  material  do  the 
manufacturing  plants  at  your  station 
use?  Where  do  they  purchase  same 
and  how  do  they  ship?  What  is  their 
principal  competition  on  the  outbound 
manufactured  products? 

Where  do  your  canning  factories 
market  their  output?  Do  you  secure 
each  year  a  list  of  their  sales  and  send 
to  our  traffic  representatives  in  the 
various  territories,  to  solicit  for  our 
haul? 

Do  you  keep  in  close  touch  with  the 
furniture,  implement  and  vehicle  fac- 


88 


90 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


tories  at  your  station,  with  a  view  to 
anticipating  their  wants  so  far  as 
equipment  is  concerned? 

Where  do  your  creameries  ship  their 
butter?  Is  it  going  to  a  nearby  con- 
centrating point,  where  it  is  lost  to  our 
Company?  We  serve  a  large  butter 
consuming  territory  and  can  haul  ship- 
ments from  Iowa  to  New  Orleans, 
Memphis,  Chicago  for  the  East,  etc., 
over  our  own  rails.  Would  your 
creameries  care  to  get  into  communica- 
tion with  dealers  in  the  South  and 
East?  Would  your  Southern  and 
Eastern  dealers  care  for  a  list  of  North- 
ern and  Western  creameries? 

Are  there  concentrating  houses 
scalping  our  local  territory  of  eggs 
and  poultry,  and  shipping  in  carloads 
via  our  competitors? 

Where  is  the  stock  man  at  your  sta- 
tion buying  his  feeders?  Is  it  at  a 
market  where  we  can  get  the  haul,  or 
does  he  purchase  where  he  will  use 
another  railroad,  and  drive  across 
country  to  feed  along  our  line? 

Does  he  use  cotton  seed  meal  or 
hulls  in  feeding?  Have  you  ever 
talked  with  him  regarding  the  value  of 
alfalfa,  molasses  and  other  mixed 
feeds?  Can  you  interest  him  in  these 
commodities?  We  have  a  large  cot- 
ton producing  territory  aleng  our 
Southern  lines  and  might  develop  a 
Northern  movement  of  cotton  seed 
products  and  a  Southern  movement  of 
corn  and  oats.  We  have  some  of  the 
largest  alfalfa,  molasses,  and  mixed 
feed  mills  in  the  United  States,  located 
on  and  adjacent  to  our  rails,  along  our 
Northern,  Western  and  Southern 
Lines.  Possibly  you  can  interest  the 
stock  feeder  and  dairy-man  at  your  sta- 
tion in  the  use  of  these  feeds,  which 
will  mean  an  increased  tonnage  of  mo- 
lasses, cotton  seed  products,  grain  and 
hay  into  the  .milling  points,  and  an  in- 
creased outbound  tonnage  of  the  feed 
products. 

How  about  that  new  settler  near 
your  station?  Have  you  made  his  ac- 
quaintance and  are  vou  making  a 
friend  of  him  for  the  Illinois  Central? 
Forget  that  he  is  a  "Foreigner."  It 
has  only  been  a  few  generations  since 


we  were  all  "Irish,"  "Dutch,"  "Swede," 
or  some  other  nationality,  which  has 
now  been  assimilated  into  the  broader 
name  of  "American." 

How  about  the  "Drummer,"  or  trav- 
eling salesman  who  visits  your  town? 
He  is  a  man  the  Illinois  Central  very 
much  desires  as  a  friend  and  patron. 
He  is,  as  a  rule,  a  live,  wide-awake 
hustler,  one  of  the  greatest  traffic  pro 
moters  in  the  United  States.  You  are 
the  first  man  to  meet  him  when  he 
comes  to  town,  and  the  last  to  see  him 
when  he  departs.  Get  acquainted  with 
him.  Find  out  what  he  is  selling,  and 
where  is  headquarters  are.  Notify  the 
traffic  representative  in  charge  of  that 
territory  of  this  man's  visit  to  your 
town,  the  line  of  goods  he  handles,  and 
the  firm  he  represents. 

Through  the  traveling  salesman  you 
can  build  up  our  merchandise  cars 
A  little  time  devoted  to  him  on  his  visit 
to  your  town,  will  get  results.  'You 
can  probably  prevail  upon  him  to  in- 
sert Illinois  Central  routing  on  orders 
for  the  town  beyond  your  station, 
which  is  a  junction  point  with  our  com- 
petitor. 

You  will  find  that  he  appreciates 
your  interest  in  his  business,  and  as  a 
consequence,  he  will  become  interested 
in  the  railroad  business. 

The  traveling  man's  opinions  are 
scattered  broadcast  over  the  land,  and 
his  views  regarding  the  railroads  are 
formed  from  the  treatment  he  receives 
from  you.  Get  busy  and  lend  your  as- 
sistance to  starting  a  public  opinion 
that  will  result  in  fair  treatment  of 
the  railroads. 

It  has  been  said  that  "Business  is 
sensitive ;  it  goes  only  where  it  is 
asked,  and  stays  only  where  it  is  well 
treated."  Shall  we  get  the  business 
and  work  to  retain  it? 


APOLOGIZING     TO     ASSISTANT 

GENERAL  FREIGHT  AGENT 

J.  L.  DURRETT. 

E  article  appearing  in  the  No- 
vember magazine  entitled  "Some 
Things  Old  and  Some  Things  New 
About  Tobacco"  was  written  by  J.  L. 
Durrett,  Louisville,  Ky. 


DEPARTMENT 


The  New  Well  at  Curve,  Tennessee 

By  C.  R.  Knowles,  General  Foreman  Waterworks 


'  I AHE  completion  of  the  new  well  at 
Curve,  Tennessee,  resulted  in  se- 
curing an  abundant  supply  of  good  wa- 
ter and  according  to  the  U.  S.  Geolog- 
ical Survey,  has  apparently  established 
a  hitherto  unknown  water  horizon. 
Samples  of  the  formation  encountered 
and  analysis  of  water  were  forwarded 
to  the  Director  of  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey  and  copy  of  his  letter  in  reply 
follows : 

"Your  letter  of  August  7th  and  the 
accompanying  twenty-four  samples  of 
material  from  the  well  at  Curve,  Ten- 
nessee, has  been  received. 

"I  wish  to  thank  you  for  sending  this 
information  and  I  am  interested  in  the 
fact  that  you  have  apparently  de- 
veloped a  new  water  horizon  at  this  lo- 
cality. Information  of  the  character 
you  have  supplied  is  of  unusual  value 
to  the  survey  and  the  samples  will  be 
filed  for  future  use  in  the  compilation 
of  reports  on  geology  and  water  re- 
sources." 

This  well  makes  possible  to  establish 
a  water  station  at  Curve  which,  with 
the  new  pumping  plants  at  Dyersburg 
and  Obion,  will  provide  ideal  water  fa- 
cilities on  this  district.  Curve  has  long 
been  considered  as  a  location  for  a 
water  station,  as  the  situation  is  excel- 
lent for  the  spacing  of  tanks,  but  the 
absence  of  surface  supplies  and  the  un- 
certainty of  obtaining  a  satisfactory 
supply  from  wells  prevented  the  prepa- 
ration of  any  definite  plans  for  provid- 
ing water  facilities  until  a  test  well 
was  drilled. 

Curve     is     located     in     Lauderdale 


County,  which  is  generally  well 
watered  by  many  small  streams  and  is 
bounded  on  three  sides  by  rivers,  the 
Mississippi  on  the  west,  the  Hatchie 
on  the  south,  and  on  the  north  by  the 
south  fork  of  Forked  Deer  River.  The 
domestic  water  supply  is  largely  from 
cisterns  constructed  of  brick,  but  it  is 
a  difficult  matter  to  maintain  these  cis- 
terns and  keep  them  from  cracking  in 
the  alluvial  region  because  of  the  soft 
yielding  nature  of  these  deposits. 
There  are  numerous  wells  in  the 
county,  most  of  which  are  shallow 
wells  chiefly  supplied  from  seep 
water,  which  is  hard  and  unpalatable. 
There  are  several  wells  in  the  immedi- 
ate vicinity  of  Curve  from  30  to  100 
feet  deep,  the  water  being  secured  in 
the  deeper  wells  from  sandy  clay 
stratum  which  are  generally  lignitic 
and  furnish  a  very  limited  supply  of 
poor  water,  and  it  was  a  generally  ac- 
cepted fact  that  good  water  could  not 
be  secured  except  at  a  great  depth. 

The  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  gives 
the  following  report  on  the  geology  of 
the  county  generally  and  Curve  Cut  in 
particular : 

"The  formations  represented  are  the 
Lagrange,  Lafayette,  Loess  and  allu- 
vium. The  Lagrange  is  rarely  exposed 
except  along  the  lower  parts  of  the 
steep  bluffs  and  in  deep  railway  cuts 
as  at  Ripley  and  Curve.  The  section 
in  the  long  deep  cut  just  south  of  the 
station  at  Curve  shows  at  the  base  15 
to  18  feet  of  a  dark  blue  lignitic  clay 
bedded  in  very  thin  layers  and  some- 
what sandv.  Over  it  lie  6  to  9  feet  of 


Newell 

at 

Curve 
°—  Term.. 


94 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


SECTION  SHOWING  LOG  OF  WELL 
CURVE,  TENN. 


10" WELL  4-64-' DEEP. 


Brown  So!  I  and  Alluvial  Deposit  Log  at  7ft 
Sand 


White  Sand 

Ye/ low  Spnd  Streaks  of  Clay 

Gray  Sand 

Gray  Sand  and  Lignite 

S>  •'•:•»:•    White.  Sand 

f:ine  Dirty  Gray  Sand 

^  fHjr~Ey=i   Dark  Gray  Clay  also  Lignite  and 

Decayed  Vegetation 
Dark  Gray  Clay  struck  Log  at  2OOft 
C lay  and  Lignite. 
Lignite 

r       ' 

^_       __^  Dirty  Sand  and  Clay. 

\ 

Clay 

fd 

Dark  Blue  Lignific  Clay 

fl^L 

Coarse  Wafer  Bearing  Sand. 
Hard  Clay 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


95 


a  yellow  to  rusty  yellow  purer  clay, 
also  lignitic,  covered  by  25  feet  of 
Lafayette  sand  and  gravel.  The  gravel 
is  well  rounded  chert  and  vein  quartz 
averaging  1  inch  or  less  in  diameter, 
but  with  occasional  pebbles  reaching 
2  or  3  inches.  The  gravel  is  in  irregu- 
lar streaks  throughout  the  formation 
and  composes  about  20  per  cent  of  it. 
The  sand  is  coarse  and  red  and  is  case- 
hardened  so  that  it  stands  with  ver- 
tical faces.  Over  it  is  a  variable  layer 
of  soft,  light  colored  sand  and  gravel 
up  to  3  ft.  thick.  This  grades  up  into 
25  ft.  of  loess,  which  seems  hardly  sep- 
arable into  a  lower  and  an  upper  di- 
vision, though  the  lower  5  or  6  ft.  are 
darker  than  the  remainder.  Beneath 
the  dark  Lagrange  clay  in  the  bottom 
of  the  cut  is  a  quicksand  on  which  the 
track  rests,  and  which  is  a  perpetual 
source  of  trouble  and  expense  to  the 
railway. 

The  Lafayette  in  Lauderdale  County 
is  a  coarse  sand,  with  a  considerable 
proportion  of  pebbles  as  a  result  of  the 
nearness  of  the  Mississippi  River.  It 
overlies  the  Lagrange  everywhere  ex- 
cept in  the  alluvial  region,  where  it  has 
been  removed  by  stream  erosion.  It  is 
exposed  in  only  a  few  places,  being  as 
a  rule  overlain  and  concealed  by  the 
loess,  which  varies  from  8  ft.  to  several 
score  feet  in  thickness.  The  loess  man- 
tles the  uplands  and  seems  to  extend 
down  over  the  second  bottoms  along 
the  main  streams,  though  the  observa- 
tions were  not  full  enough  to  settle  this 
last  point  definitely." 

The  remarks  on  Curve  Cut  are  cor- 
rect (especially  as  to  the  trouble  and 
expense  the  cut  has  been  to  the  Com- 
pany) with  the  exception  of  the  theory 
as  to  the  quicksand  underlying  the 
track  through  the  cut.  Twenty  test 
holes  were  drilled  through  the  bottom 
of  the  cut  and  slides,  these  holes  pen- 
etrating the  formation  to  a  depth  of  20 
to  30  feet  below  base  of  rail,  the  for- 
mation was  found  to  be  the  dark  blue 
lignitic  clay  to  the  bottom  of  the  doles. 
Drilling  operations  were  begun  on  the 
well  early  in  June  and  the  well  was 
finished  in  the  latter  part  of  July  at  a 
depth  of  486  feet.  A  log  of  the  well 


showing  the  formations  encountered  is 
given  herewith.  Samples  of  the  vari- 
ous strata  encountered  in  the  well  were 
examined  by  a  U.  S.  Geologist  who  is 
familiar  with  the  region  about  Curve 
and  his  comments  are  given  as  follows : 

"The  strata  encountered  in  the  well 
belonded  to  only  two  formations ;  the 
loess,  which  is  of  Pleistocene  age  and 
the  Lagrange,  which  is  several  epochs 
older  but  still  comparatively  young 
geologically. 

The  loess  is  called  alluvium  in  the 
driller's  record.  It  is  a  very  interesting 
and  unique  formation  which  is  found 
along  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri 
River  in  this  country;  the  Rhine  and 
Danube  and  other  rivers  in  Europe; 
and  the  Yellow  River  in  China.  In^this 
country  it  is  best  developed  on  the  high 
bluffs  along  the  east  side  of  the  river 
and  it  seems  to  consist  of  a  great  de- 
posit of  dust  which  was  swept  from 
the  river  bottom  by  the  prevailing 
western  winds  at  a  time  when  the  river 
was  subject  to  greater  floods  than  at 
present,  the  dust  being  swept  up  at 
times  of  low  water.  The  loess  is  thus 
the  dust  accumulation  of  many  centur- 
ies. The  log  found  in  the  midst  of  the 
loess  is  of  special  interest  because  it 
indicates  either  an  interruption  in  dust 
accumulation,  such  as  is  known  to  have 
occurred  elsewhere,  or  else  that  for 
some  reason  men  buried  the  timber  at 
that  depth. 

The  Lagrange  formation  is  almost 
the  same  as  that  known  in  Mississippi 
as  the  Wilcox.  It  consists  generally 
of  very  irregularly  bedded  sand  with 
lenses  of  clay  in  places  and  also  lay- 
ers of  legnite. 

A  microscopic  examination  of  the 
samples  collected  from  the  well  brings 
out  facts  which  may  be  used  to  modify 
and  extend  the  driller's  notes,  but 
no  modification  or  addition  of  great 
economic  importance  was  found  to 
be  needed.  The  sand  •  grains  are 
much  like  those  found  throughout 
the  Lagrange  formation  with  the 
exception  of  thg  water  bearing  sand 
in  which  the  grains  show  a  re- 
markable rounded  form  though  a 
great  variety  in  size.  As  a  general 


96 


rule  the  smaller  the  sand  grain  the 
less  rounding  it  shows,  but  in  this 
water  bearing  sand  even  the  small 
grains  show  a  good  deal  of  rounding. 
On  account  of  its  peculiar  makeup  and 
also  because  of  its  stratigraphic  posi- 
tion, it  seems  to  be  a  sand  not  before 
reported  as  a  water  bearing  layer.  It- 
may  have,  like  many  other  sands  of 
the  Lagrange  formation,  only  slight 
extent,  but  the  great  thickness  of  clay 
and  silt  overlying  it  is  sufficient  basis 
for  attempting  to  sink  wells  to  this 
sand  in  other  points  in  the  region,  for 
even  if  it  were  not  found  it  is  prob- 
able that  another  sand  would  be  found 
at  nearly  the  some  position." 

The  well  is  10  inches  in  diameter 
and 'is  cased  with  genuine  wrought 
iron  pipe  for  460  ft.  the  remaining  26 
ft.  is  formed  by  a  10-inch  Cook  screen 
with  openings  10/1,000  of  an  inch  wide. 
This  screen  rests  on  the  clay  bed  be- 
low the  water  bearing  sand. 

Upon  completion  the  well  was  tested 
out,  pumping  200  gallons  per  minute 
which  was  the  capacity  of  the  pump, 
the  static  head  being  72  ft.  below  the 
surface  of  ground  at  well  or  90  ft.  be- 
low top  of  rail.     The  analysis  of  the 
water  is  as  follows : 
Iron,    aluminum    and    silica    ox- 
ides .817 


Calcium  carbonate 3.033 

Magnesium  carbonate  700 


Total  incrusting  solids 4.550 

Alkali  chloride   560 

Alkali  sulphate  630 

Alkali  carbonate  ..  .  1.703 


Total  non-incrusting  solids 2.893 

Total  solids  7.443 

This  would  indicate  an  excellent 
drinking  water  and  a  fair  water  for 
boiler  use,  the  most  obectionable  ele- 
ment being  the  iron  which  would 
cause  discoloration  of  vessels  in  which 
the  water  was  allowed  to  stand. 

The  well  was  drilled  by  the  Com- 
pany forces  using  the  hydraulic  rotary 
method  in  which  the  drilling  is  ac- 
complished by  rotating  the  entire 
string  of  casing  with  a  toothed  cutting 
shoe  on  the  lower  end.  The  rotation 
under  pressure  cuts  and  grinds  up  par- 
ticles of  the  material  that  is  being 
penetrated  and  they  are  carried  to  the 
surface  by  water  that  is  pumped  down 
the  casing  under  pressure  and  rises  on 
the  outside  between  the  casing  and 
wall  of  the  hole. 

Photograph  of  the  derrick  and  drill- 
ing outfit,  also  photograph  showing 
discharge  from  well  are  reproduced 
herewith. 


<5S  fsS  (IS 


Illinois  Central    Railroad  Company- -The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department.      Information  and  Instruction  Bulletin  No.  1 


Chicago,  111.,  December  1,  1915. 
TT7E  will  hereafter  issue  bulletins 
**  from  time  to  time,  the  chief  ob- 
ject of  which  will  be  to  promulgate 
items  of  general  interest  to  our  bag- 
gage agents  and  train  baggagemen. 
We  will  also  include  in  these  bulletins 
such  instructions  and  comments  on 
existing  official  instructions  as  may  be 
deemed  necessary.  We  hope  these 
bulletins  will  serve  a  useful  purpose 
and  will  be  of  interest  to  the  employes 
of  this  department.  These  bulletins 
should  be  preserved  for  future  refer- 
ence. 

Loss   of   Stationery   and   Other   Com- 
pany Material. 

1 — We  are  often  called  upon  to  trace 
for  the  loss  of  chewing  gum  from 
packages  of  supplies  for  vending,  ma- 
chines, and. lead  pencils,  erasers,  pens, 
etc.,  from  stationery  packages.  In 
nearly  all  such  cases  it  develops  that 
the  packages  are  received  at  destina- 
tion in  bad  order,  although  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  some,  or  all,  of  the 
train  baggagemen  handliner  the  pack- 
ages have  no  record  of  such  bad-order 
condition.  Train  baggagemen  and 
agents  at  transfer  points  can  effect  a 
considerable  saving  and  obviate  a 
great  amount  of  correspondence  and 
tracing  if  they  will  give  more  atten- 
tion to  the  condition  of  such  packages 
and  take  a  little  time  to  put  bad-order 
packages  in  proper  condition,  restoring 


any  articles  which  may  have  dropped 
out  of  them,  and  making  the  proper 
record  of  all  bad-order  packages. 

Unnecessary   Use    of   Valuable   Pack- 
age Labels. 

2 — Train  baggagemen  who  have 
been  in  the  service  for  more  than  a 
year  or  two  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
recalling  the  enormous  number  of 
valuable  package  labels  which  were 
formerly  used  indiscriminately  on  mail 
matter,  Company's  supplies,  broken 
castings,  and  other  matter  of  every 
conceivable  nature.  We  think  we  have 
done  a  real  service,  both  to  the  Com- 
pany and  its  employes,  by  the  elimi- 
nation of  a  very  large  percentage  of 
the  valuable  packages,  and  if  train  bag- 
gagemen will  call  our  attention  to  the 
improper  use  of  valuable  package 
labels  on  wheel  reports,  other  reports 
and  material  not  requiring  them,  we 
shall  be  glad  to  take  the  matter  up 
for  correction. 

Checking  Baggage  and  Personal  Prop- 
erty on  Passes. 

3 — Under  a  recent  ruling  of  the  Gen- 
eranSolicitor,  it  is  held  to  be  not  con- 
trary to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Haw 
to  check  baggage  in  excess  of  150  Ibs. 
and  such  property  as  dogs,  baby  cabs, 
bicycles,  etc.,  for  employes  of  the  Com- 
pany traveling  on  passes.  This  re- 
fers only  to  personal  property  accom- 
panied by  the  employe  checking  it,  and 
not  to  such  commodities  as  butter, 


97 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


eggs,  groceries,  etc.,  not  accompanied 
by  the  owner. 

New    Forms    of    Station    and    Train 
Baggage  Waybills. 

4 — We  now  have  in  press  revised 
forms  of  station  baggage  waybill,  form 
GBO  4,  and  train  baggageman's  local 
and  through  waybill,  form  GBO  22, 
which  we  think  are  decided  improve- 
ments on  the  present  forms.  The  sta- 
tion baggage  waybill  is  somewhat  en- 
larged, giving  more  writing  space,  and 
the  heading  is  rearranged  to  provide 
more  satisfactory  space  for  writing  the 
name  of  the  station,  date  and  train 
numbers.  Some  unnecessary  parts  of 
the  heading  on  the  train  baggageman's 
waybill  are  eliminated  and  more  space 
provided  for  the  necessary  writing. 

Loss  of  Requisition  Books. 

5 — Considerable  confusion  in  the 
stationery  department  is  caused  by  the 
loss  of  requisition  books  which  are  re- 
turned to  agents  after  their  requisi- 
tions have  been  filled.  Train  baggage- 


men and  agents  at  transfer  points 
should  see  that  these  books  are  care- 
fully handled  and  properly  delivered 
to  the  agents  at  destination.  If  the 
losses  cannot  be  stopped  otherwise,  it 
may  be  necessary  to  forward  these 
requisition  books  under  valuable  pack- 
age labels,  a  measure  which  we  desire 
to  avoid,  if  possible. 

Failure  to   Make  Bad-Order  Records. 

6 — In  two  or  three  cases  recently 
this  Company  has  been  obliged  to  as- 
sume entire  responsibility  for  damage 
to  baggage,  which  our  investigation 
leads  us  to  think  was  in  a  damaged 
condition  before  delivery  to  us.  If 
agents  and  train  baggagemen  will 
carefully  note  the  condition  of  bag- 
gage, make  the  proper  records  of  bad- 
order  condition,  and  avoid  giving  clear 
receipts  for  baggage  which  is  in  bad 
order,  it  will  save  the  Company  a  good 
deal  of  money  in  the  payment  of 
claims  for  damage  to  baggage. 

H.  L.  Fairfield, 

Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic. 


CHRISTMAS  DISPLAY  OF  BEAMAN  DRUG  COMPANY,  BOWIE  BLDG.,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


The  above  represents  the  bronze  figures  to  be  placed  on  the  marble 
monument,  located  on  State  Capitol  Grounds,  Jackson,  Miss.,  and  dedi- 
cated to  the  Confederate  Women  of  Mississippi. 


Accounting  Department  Meetings 

By  L.  R.  Cleaves,  Chief  Clerk  to  Master  Mechanic,  Paducah,  Ky. 


writer  having  had  the  pleasure 
of  attending  meetings  held  with  Ac- 
counting Department  forces,  the  past 
few  months,  both  at  Memphis  and  Chi- 
cago, is  of  the  opinion  that  much  good 
should  be  accomplished  ^from  these 
meetings  in  the  way  of  perfecting  ac- 
counting on  this  system. 

As  all  may  not  understand  just  what 
meetings  are  referred  to,  by  way  of  ex- 
planation, will  state,  that  for  the  past 
several  months,  meetings  have  been  held 
at  Memphis,  for  Southern  Lines  and  Y. 
&  M.  V.  accounting  forces  and  at  Chi- 
cago for  Northern  and  Western  Lines 
accounting  forces. 

These  meetings  are  held  once  each 
month  and  are  presided  over  by  Mr.  J. 
F.  Dartt,  Auditor  of  Disbursements. 
The  meetings  are  held  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  all  accountants  and  others 
interested  together  with  a  view  of  get- 
ting a  clear  understanding  as  to  the  re- 
quirements of  both  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  and  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral as  to  proper  accounting  of  disburse- 
ments and  the  proper  reporting  of  same. 

At  these  meetings  Mr.  Dartt  first  calls 
attention  to  errors  and  matters  that  are 
not  uniformly  handled  which  have  been 
noted  in  his  office  in  the  previous 
month's  reports,  in  order  that  the  ac- 
countants concerned  may  have  a  thor- 
ough understanding  of  how  such  mat- 
ters should  be  handled. 

After  bringing  the  attention  of  all 
concerned  to  these  errors,  and  matters 


that  are  not  uniformly  handled,  any 
new  instructions  which  may  have  de- 
veloped since  the  last  meeting  are  dis- 
cussed. Questions  are  then  called  for 
and  each  present,  who  desire  informa- 
tion on  any  subject,  on  which  they  are 
not  clear,  present  same,  and  are  prop- 
erly instructed.  It  is  quite  often,  in  the 
discussion  of  these  subjects,  that  other 
good  points  are  brought  forth  and  acted 
upon. 

Present  day  accounting  is  much  more 
complicated  than  in  previous  years  and 
too  much  time  and  study  cannot  be 
given  this  important  matter. 

While  numerous  circular  letters  of  in- 
struction on  accounting  are  issued  by  the 
Auditor's  office  each  month,  still  a  more 
thorough  understanding  can  be  obtained 
by  all  concerned  in  a  personal  discussion 
of  the  instructions. 

Co-operation  is  as  essential  in  ac- 
counting as  in  any  other  line  of  railroad 
work,  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  that 
good  can  be  accomplished  from  such 
meetings  as  opportunities  are  presented 
for  one  office  to  obtain  good  points 
which  are  in  practice  in  another  office 
and  verbal  instructions  are  usually 
clearer  and  better  understood  than  writ- 
ten instructions.  Another  good  feature 
in  connection  with  these  meetings  is  the 
fact  that  in  the  course  of  their  work 
during  the  month,  various  questions 
come  before  the  accountants  on  which 
they  would  like  to  have  advice  and 
which  can  be  jotted  down  and  brought 


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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


101 


up  at  the  next  meeting,  whereas  prob- 
ably no  effort  would  be  made  to  handle 
same  by  correspondence. 

If  all  accountants  will  get  in  the  prac- 
tice of  making  these  memorandums  each 
time  a  question  occurs  to  them  and  pre- 
sent same  at  the  meetings  still  more  can 
be  accomplished. 

One  not  familiar  with  accounting  can- 
not conceive  of  the  many  complications 
which  arise  from  month  to  month  in 


railroad  accounting  which  are  neces- 
sarily left  to  the  judgment  of  the  ac- 
countant, and  different  accountants  will 
naturally  make  different  decisions.  Cor- 
rect solutions  can  be  better  obtained  by 
bringing  same  up  for  discussion  at  these 
meetings. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  accountants 
will  realize  the  importance  of  these 
meetings  and  take  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunities offered. 


Method  of  Repairing  Shells  of  Simplex  Injectors 


Editor,  Dear  Sir: 

Enclosed  please  find  a  sketch  of  a 
method  of  repairing  the  shells  of  Sim- 
plex injectors  where  the  seat  for  the 
steam  nozzle  has  cut  out.  On  account 


seat  and  in  the  corner  where  it  pro- 
jects through  the  shell  is  welded  with 
the  oxy-acetylene  torch,  using  manga- 
nese bronze  filling  rods  and  a  special 
brazing  compound.  This  makes  the 


Size 


spaced 


of  the  design  of  the  injector  it  is  im- 
possible to  bush  the  nozzle  seat  with- 
out bushing  the  mouth  of  the  shell. 
After  experimenting  with  different 
styles  of  bushings  I  adopted  this  meth- 
od as  the  best  and  cheapest.  The  bush- 
ing is  screwed  tight  into  the  nozzle 


shell  practically  as  good  as  new.  The 
dimensions  shown  are  for  10  and  11 
injectors,  the  sizes  most  used  on  this 
system.  Yours  truly, 

E.  L.  BOWEN, 
Air  Brake  Foreman. 
McComb  City,  Miss. 


102  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

AND 

The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Special  Publicity  Bulletin 

Washington,  Oct.  18.— "With  the  price  of  cotton 
going  up  are  you,  Mr.  Banker,  Mr.  Business  Man  and 
Mr.  Farmer,  going  back  to  the  old  way? 

'The  history  of  the  agriculture  of  the  south  has 
been  a  history  of  lean  years  and  fat  years.  The 
farmer  has  lived  in  distress  because  short  crops  and 
big  prices  are  almost  invariably  followed  by  big  crops 
and  low  prices. 

"If  we  would  produce  our  own  living  it  would 
steady  the  whole  system  and  keep  the  boat  from 
rocking.  The  entire  agriculture  of  the  cotton  belt 
has  been  a  gamble.  There  has  been  no  safety  in  it. 
It  has  not  produced  a  rich  and  prosperous  people 
because  of  the  uncertainty,  although  cotton  is  one  of 
the  greatest  cash  crops." 

The  above  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  addressed  to 
planters,  business  men  and  bankers  in  the  cotton  belt 
by  Mr.  Bradford  Knapp,  chief  of  the  farm  extension 
work  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

When  the  price  of  cotton  is  satisfactory,  prosperity 
in  the  south  is  assured,  but — when  the  supply  exceeds 
the  demand  and  logically  the  price  is  forced  down 
(as  has  happened)  below  the  cost  of  production,  under 
the  one  crop  system  there  is  no  other  product,  the 
profits  from  which  the  grower  can  rely  upon  to 
recoup  his  cotton  losses. 

With  millions  of  acres  of  land  which,  if  properly 
tilled  will  PRODUCE  MORE  VARIED  CROPS  IN 
GREATER  QUANTITIES  than  the  same  NUMBER 
of  ACRES  in  any  other  section  of  the  Union,  it  would 
seem  that  DIVERSIFICATION  is  the  only  safe  anchor 
for  the  agricultural  ship  of  the  south. 


COURTESY. 
By  C.  B.  Edwards. 

All  the  courtesies  of  manner 
Should  be  with  you  all  the  time, 

If  you  wish  to  be  successful 
On     the     ILLINOIS     CENTRAL 
LINE. 

Many  lives  are  often  saddened 
By  events  we  do  not  know ; 

We  should  show  them  true  politeness, 
And  the  things  they  wish  to  know. 

By  so  doing  you  will  help  them, 
Also  help  the  "I.  C.  Line" ; 

Just  a  kind  word,  rightly  chosen, 
Will  be  cherished  for  all  time. 

Sometimes  people  try  our  patience 
With  their  queer,  exacting  ways ; 

But  use  tact  with  all  your  efforts, 
For  at  last  it  surely  pays. 

All  the  grandeur  of  great  riches' 
Will  not  make  you  good  and  kind, 

If  your  heart  is  like  an  anvil 
And  you  have  a  selfish  mind. 

Gently  speak  to  those  around  you, 

Be  polite  and  also  kind; 
Then  they'll  purchase  tickets  from  you 

For  the  hustling  "I.  C.  Line." 


THE  LONE  HALF  RIDE. 

Up  the  aisle  the  conductor  strode. 
The  sternest  conductor  upon  the  road. 
Under  his  blue  cap,  left  and  right 
He  gazed,  'till  Jim  Blank  met  his  sight. 
"Tickets !"     The  blue  clad  form  stood 

fast. 
"Tickets!"      Jim's   turn    had   come   at 

last. 


But,  as  the  punch   made  a  glittering 

track 
Up  to  his  ticket,  Jim  snatched  it  back. 

He  leaned  far  in  toward  the  window 

sill, 
And    shook    the    ticket    with    dautless 

will, 

"Punch  if  you  must  this  ticket  red, 
But  spare  that  lone  half  ride,"  he  said. 
A  shade  of  sadness,  a  touch  of  shame, 
O'er  the  conductor's  stern  face  came. 
The  nobler  nature  within  him  stirred 
To  life  at  that  pale  commuter's  word. 

"Who  touches  a  hair  of  yon  half  ride, 
Dies  in  his  tracks  !  Now  punch  !"  Jim 

cried. 

Slowly  was  heard  the  fatal  crunch, 
Slowly    the    dread    hand    worked    the 

punch, 
And    strong   men    trembled    in    every 

limb 

As  the  ticket  was  handed  back  to  Jim. 
The  grim  conductor  went  on  his  way. 
But  the  lone  half  ride  was  saved  that 

day. 

— W.  C.  S.,  Tribune. 


THE  1099 

Come  all  you  firemen, 

And  get  in  line, 
And  I'll  tell  you  a  little  story 

'Bout  the  1099. 

She's  a  running  soul, 

Sho'  as  you'r  born 
But  you  got  to  be  a  "Cutter" 

Or  you  can't  stay  long. 

The  Engineer, 
Is  Geo.  Barnett, 


103 


104 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Whose   had  many   a   different   fireman, 
But  not  a  single  pet. 

He'll  treat  you  right, 

When  all  is  well, 
But  you'd  better  raise  dat  pop, 

Don't  there's  gonna  be  Hell. 

Look  out  for  1099— 

Look  out  for  No.  3. 
Look  out  for  Engineer  Barnett, 

And  Fireman  King  Bee. 


"RED  HOT  WIRE" 

By  C.  B.  Edwards 
If  you  wish  to  be  successful 

And  to  fame  you  do  aspire; 
Then  you  should  get  down  to  business, 
Be  a  lively,  red  hot  wire. 

If  you  have  a  fair  position 

And  you  wish  to  rise  still  higher, 

Keep  your  head  above  the  level; 
Be  an  earnest,  red  hot  wire. 

If  you're  picking  plums  around  you 
And  they're  better  ones  up  higher; 

Don't  be  'fraid  to  climb  the  ladder; 
Be  a  daring,  red  hot  wire. 

If  you're  in  an  open  contest, 
Don't  be  'fraid  you'll  break  a  tire ; 

Open  wide  life's  throbbing  throttle, 
Be  a  lighting,  red  hot  wire. 

If  your  friends  are  jealous  of  you 
And  would  push  you  in  the  mire; 

Rise  above  those  envious  people, 
Be  a  fighting,  red  hot  wire. 

If  you're  rowing  'gainst  life's  current 
And  your  brain  appears  to  tire, 

Say,  "I'll  conquer,  yes,  I'll  conquer, 
Be  a  dashing,  red  hot  wire. 

If  you're  working  for  a  railroad, 
Say  the  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 
LINE; 

You  should  be  a  red  hot  wire, 

Then  you'll  get  there  every  time. 


longed  to  Gus  Williams,  the  famous  Ger- 
man comedian.  They  were  his  own.  At 
one  time  the  well  known  actor  was  a  pro- 
lific writer  of  verse,  which  he  used  in 
his  stage  work : 
Build  for  yourself  a  strong  box, 

Fashion  each  part  with  care, 
When  it's  strong  as  your  heart  can  make 
it, 

Put  all  your  troubles  there; 
Hide  in  it  all  thoughts  of  failures, 

And  each  bitter  cup  that  you  quaff, 
Lock  all  your  heartaches  within  it, 

Then  sit  on  the  lid,  and  laugh. 
Tell  no  one  else  its  contents, 

Never  its  secrets  share, 
Drop  in  your  cares  and  all  worry, 

Keep  them  forever  there; 
Hide  them  from  sight,  so  completely 

That  the  world  will  never  dream  half ; 
Fasten  the  strong  box  securely, 

Then  sit  on  the  lid,  and  laugh. 
— C.  &  O.  Ry.  Co.  Employes'  Magazine. 


LAUGH 

These  verses  were  found  after  his  re- 
cent death  in  a  scrapbook  that  had  be- 


THE  TWO  FLAGS. 

By  Kathleen  Pinkerton,  Age  14. 
The  bells  are  pealing,  and  soldiers  old 

and  gray 
Are  marching,  as  they  did  in  years 

gone  by, 
And  o'er  a  grave  a  wreath  of  flowers 

gay, 

Is  strewn  with   saddened  face,  and 
tear-dimmed  eye. 

Only   a   soldier;   yet   how    strong   and 

brave 
He  left  his  home,  and  all  his  dear 

ones,  too, 
And  now  he  lies    within    a    soldier's 

grave, 

And  o'er  him   floats  two  flags,  the 
grey,  the  blue. 

Symbol  of  peace;  how  glad  we  are  to 

see 
The  flag  for  which  he  fought  so  well 

and  long. 
In  peace  with  all,  float  o'er  a  people 

free, 

Whose  voices  swell    in    one    grand 
freedom  song. 


the 


Biographical  Sketch   No.  18 


WILLIAM  ANDREW  HOWETT 
Local  Attorney  of  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co.  for  Cook  County,  111.,  1696-1906, 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


107 


VyiLLIAM  ANDREW  HOWETT 
was  born  in  Flora,  111.,  June  17, 
1858,  and  died  in  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
February  13,  1907.  He  was  graduated 
from  the  public  schools  of  Flora  when 
16  years  of  age;  studied  law  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  19 ;  was  gradu- 
ated from  Valparaiso  (Ind.)  University 
at  21  and  was  an  instructor  there  for 
one  year ;  he  then  engaged  in  the  general 
practice  of  the  law  at  Hillsboro  with 
Hiram  Rutledge,  and  upon  the  latter's 
death  succeeded  to  his  practice.  He 
then  formed  a  partnership  with  Jesse  J. 
Phillips,  who  later  became  a  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  and  after- 
ward with  Thomas  M.  Jett,  who  later  be- 
came a  member  of  Congress  and  is  now 
a  Circuit  Judge  in  southern  Illinois. 

Mr.  Howett  was  Master  in  Chancery 
for  Montgomery  County,  Illinois,  1894- 
1902;  and  Mayor  of  Hillsboro,  1889- 
1890;  and  connected  with  many  impor- 
tant corporate  enterprises  of  that  city. 
He  was  also  Captain  of  Company  "E" 
of  Fifth  Illinois  Regiment,  National 
Guards,  which  did  meritorious  service  in 
Cuba  during  the  Spanish-American 
War. 

Mr.  Howett's  first  connection  -with  the 
Illinois  Central  was  as  local  attorney  for 
Montgomery  County,  Illinois,  the  firm 
being  Jett  &  Howett;  on  July  18,  1898, 
he  was  appointed  Local  Attorney  for 
Cook  County,  in  charge  of  the  trial  work 
in  Chicago,  and  he  held  this  position 
until  January  1,  1906,  when  failing 
health  compelled  him  to  resign.  He 
made  an  enviable  record.  Although  im- 
portant cases  were  constantly  being  tried, 
there  was  a  period  of  about  three  years 
when  not  one  Cook  County  judgment, 
unfavorable  to  the  Company,  was  af- 
firmed by  either  the  Appellate  Court  or 
the  Supreme  Court.  His  success  was  in 
no  small  measure  due  to  his  pleasing 
qualities  as  an  advocate. 

He  was  married  in  1880  to  Ida  M. 
Rutledge,  whose  great-grandfather  was 
Edward  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina,  one 
of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, and  whose  father,  Edmund 
Rutledge,  was  United  States  District 
Attorney  for  Mississippi  in  1868,  and 


later  United  States  District  Judge.  She 
died  on  April  27,  1905.  Mr.  Howett 
left  three  sons  surviving:  William  Roy 
Howett,  a  Mining  Engineer  in  Peru; 
Wilbur  Edmund  Howett,  a  Director  of 
Sales  of  Railway  Supplies  in  Chicago, 
and  Hugh  Drexel  Howett,  in  the  service 
of  the  Seal  Products  Company.  His 
elder  son,  Guy  Earl  Howett,  died  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States  Navy  in 
1905. 


COMMERCE  NEWS 
What  is  a  reasonable  rate?  This  ques- 
tion is  of  great  interest  to  rate  regulat- 
ing bodies  as  well  as  to  the  men  charged 
with  the  responsibility  of  managing  the 
affairs  of  railroads.  We  frequently  hear 
it  asked  in  proceedings  before  Commis- 
sions. In  his  address  before  the  Ameri- 
can Association  of  Traveling  Passenger 
Agents  in  Boston,  Mass.,  on  October  4, 
1915,  Mr.  Howard  Elliott,  Chairman  of 
the  Board  and  President  of  the  New 
York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad 
Company,  made  this  answer :  "The  com- 
missions should  be  required,  in  ascertain- 
ing and  determining  what  is  a  reasonable 
rate,  for  any  service,  to  take  into  account 
and  duly  consider  the  value  of  the  serv- 
ice, the  rights  of  the  passengers,  shippers 
and  owners  of  the  property  transported, 
the  expenses  incident  to  the  maintenance 
and  operation  of  the  carrier  property ; 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  stockhold- 
ers and  creditors  of  the  corporation ;  the 
necessity  for  the  maintenance  in  the 
public  service  of  efficient  means  of  trans- 
portation and  for  the  establishment  from 
time  to  time  of  additional  facilities  and 
improved  service ;  and,  in  addition  there- 
to, any  further  considerations  pertinent 
to  arriving  at  a  just  conclusion.  All  of 
these  things  must  be  considered  by  the 
man  charged  with  the  responsibility  of 
managing  a  railroad,  and  by  the  commis- 
sions who  review  his  acts,  because  in  no 
other  way  are  we  to  be  able  to  get  the 
money  necessary  to  carry  on  these  great 
institutions  and  do  the  great  transpor- 
tation work  of  the  United  States.  The 
question  of  a  reasonable  rate,  taking  into 
account  all  the  conditions  which  go  to 
make  that  rate  reasonable,  is  one  of  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


109 


most  important  matters  now  before 
every  man  who  works  for  a  railroad  in 
this  country.  More  and  more  should 
we  impress  on  the  revision  bodies  that 
if  by  public  order  the  railroads  must 
assume  a  constantly  greater  burden  of 
facility  and  of  expense,  hand  in  hand 
with  that  order  should  go  some  assent 
to  the  railroads  to  receive  a  higher  rate 
to  pay  for  the  additional  cost  of  provid- 
ing the  new  facility  for  the  additional 
service." 

Excelsior  Rates. — The  last  chapter  in 
a  series  of  cases  (the  opinion  in  the  first 
of  which  was  filed  December  29,  1911) 
was  written  on  November  2,  1915,  when 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in 
"The  Excelsior  and  Flax  Tow  Cases/' 
36  ICC  349,  authorizing  the  carriers  to 
advance  their  rates  from  17  to  20  cents 
per  100  pounds  from  St.  Paul  to  Oma- 
ha and  other  Missouri  River  cities,  to 
and  including  Kansas  City,  and  their 
rates  from  Dubuque,  Iowa,  to  the  Mis- 
souri River  cities,  Omaha  to  Kansas 
City,  inclusive,  from  14*/2  to  17  cents 
per  100  pounds,  subject  to  a  20,000- 
pound  minimum  and  Rule  6-B  of  the 
Western  Classification.  The  Commission 
directs  attention  to  a  line  of  cases  hold- 
ing that  rates  may  be  too  low,  viz. :  "A 
rate  may  be  unreasonable  because  it  is 
too  low  as  well  as  because  it  is  too  high. 
Maximum  Rate  Cases,  167  U.  S.  479, 
and  this  Commission  regards  as  unrea- 
sonable a  rate  which  is  so  low  as  to  be 
noncompensatory  or  which  may  or  does 
transfer  a  portion  of  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation to  other  traffic,  Lumber  Rates 
from  the  Southwest  to  Points  North,  29 
ICC  1,  15,  and  has,  on  occasion,  refused 
to  find  a  challenged  rate  to  be  unreason- 
able even  when  a  carrier  was  willing, 
for  self-serving  purposes  more  or  less 
obvious,  to  admit  unreasonableness  in  the 
rate.  Rates  on  Empty  Beer  Packages 
Returned,  -6  ICC  4,  6.  It  has  power  to 
suspend  a  reduction  in  rates  to  prevent 
discriminations.  Suspension  of  Rates  on 
Packing  House  Products,  21  ICC  68 ; 
Board  of  Trade  of  Chicago  rs.  I.  C.  R. 
R.  Co.,  26  ICC  545,  552."' 

Import  Rates. — The  Commission  was 
requested  to  determine  the  propriety  of 


the  import  rates  on  brewers'  rice  from 
Gulf  ports  to  various  destinations  which 
were  lower  than  the  domestic  rates  on 
brewers'  rice  from  and  to  the  same 
points.  After  an"  investigation,  these 
were  the  conclusions  reached:  (a)  that 
since  these  import  rates  are  not  made 
with  relation  to  the  domestic  rates  but 
are  controlled  by  and  made  differentials 
under  the  import  rates  on  brewers'  rice 
from  north  Atlantic  ports,  the  circum- 
stances and  conditions  surrounding  those 
rates  are  substantially  dissimilar  from 
those  surrounding  the  domestic  rates, 
and  that  the  allegation  of  unjust  discrim- 
ination, except  where  the  differential  in 
import  rates  is  greater  than  the  recog- 
nized differentials  between  the  Gulf 
ports  and  the  north  Atlantic  ports,  has 
not  been  proven;  and  (b)  that  the  rela- 
tionship between  the  import  and  domes- 
tic rates  on  brewers'  rice  from  Gulf 
ports  to  Pueblo,  Colo.,  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah,  and  other  points  at  which  similar 
rate  relationships  obtain,  is  unjustly  dis- 
criminatory, and  that  where  defendants 
maintain  from  the  Gulf  ports  import 
rates  on  brewers'  rice  that  are  more  than 
6  cents  lower  than  the  import  rates  con- 
temporaneously in  effect  from  New  York 
to  the  same  points,  it  is  unjustly  discrim- 
inatory to  charge  higher  rates  on  domes- 
tic than  on  import  shipments. — In  Re 
Import  and  Domestic  Rates  on  Brewers' 
Rice,  36  ICC  389,  opinion  by  Mr.  Com- 
missioner Clark,  November  8,  1915. 

Coal  Rates. — Following  advances  sus- 
tained in  the  1915  Western  Rate  Ad- 
vance Case,  the  Commission  allowed  to 
become  effective  the  tariffs  of  several 
lines  which  had  not  been  transferred  to 
the  Western  Case.  The  opinion  reads  in 
part :  "The  amount  of  the  proposed  in- 
crease is  generally  10  cents  per  ton.  By 
Iway  of  illustration,  the  existing  rate 
from  Fulton  County  and  northern  Illi- 
nois to  Davenport,  Iowa,  is  85  cents  per 
ton  on  lump  coal  and  75  cents  on  fine 
coal.  These  rates,  which  are  important 
because  upon  them  are  constructed  more 
rates  to  interior  Iowa  points  than  upon 
the  rate  to  any  other  crossing  and  which 
apply  also  from  Peoria,  it  is  proposed  to 
increase  by  10  cents."  The  respondents 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


show  that  the  increased  rates  on  bitumi- 
nous coal  proposed  in  the  1915  Western 
Rate  Advance  Case,  35  ICC  497,  were 
found  to  have  been  justified  and  the  sus- 
pension orders  against  the  tariffs  in- 
volved herein,  including  those  of  the 
Illinois  Central  enumerated  above,  vacat- 
ed; that  the  same  reasons  which  moved 
the  Commission  to  permit  the  increases 
in  the  bituminous  coal  rates  involved  in 
that  case  are  presented  in  this  case ;  and 
the  Commission  finds  and  concludes  that 
the  advances  proposed  in  the  instant  case 
have  been  justified.  The  orders  of  sus- 
pension will  be  vacated  effective  Decem- 
ber 29,  1915. — Coal  from  Illinois  Mines, 
36  ICC  549,  opinion  by  Mr.  Commis- 
sioner Daniels,  November  24,  1915. 


Making  of  Fraudulent  Claim 
N  connection  with  the  making  of  a 
*  fraudulent  clajm  against  one  of  the 
eastern  lines  for  alleged  loss  of.  prop- 
erty   transported    in    interstate    com- 


I 


merce,  J.  Goldleger  has  been  convicted 
in  the  U.  S.  District  Court  at  Scranton, 
Pa.,  of  violating  Section  10  of  the  Act 
to  regulate  commerce  and  sentenced  to 
six  months  in  jail  and  to  a  fine  of  $100. 
—Traffic  World. 


AUTO     FIRM     AND     SALESMAN 
FINED  IN  FEDERAL  COURT 

HP  HE  Wisconsin  Auto  Sales  Com- 
pany, which  was  found  guilty  a 
few  days  ago  of  having  attempted  to 
pad  a  claim  for  damages  to  an  auto- 
mobile body  "in  shipment,  was  fined 
$500  by  Judge  Geiger. 

Orton  C.  Collins,  who  was  salesman 
of  the  company,  also  found  guilty,  was 
fined  $200. 

The  federal  officials  alleged  that  the 
damage  to  the  body  of  the  machine 
amounted  to  only  $15  and  the  company 
sent  in  a  bill  to  the  railroad  company 
of  $100. — Milwaukee  Sentinel. 


The  attached  letter  complimentary  to  Conductor  R.  W.  Carruthers  is  an 
added  proof  that  on  any  railroad  courtesy  is  an  asset. 

940  East  42nd  Place.     Telephone  Oakland,  4576. 
Mr.  Clift, 

Dear  Sir : — In  looking  over  The  Tribune  this  a.  m.,  and  coming  upon  the 
tribute  paid  to  a  Northwestern  conductor,  feel  that  I  have  a  tribute  to  one  of 
your  grand  employees. 

On  October  27th  I  boarded  the  early  train  at  Macon.  Was  very  ill  all  the 
way  to  Chicago  and  but  for  conductor's  kindness  to  me,  would  not  be  here 
to  write  his  praises.  He  was  not  only  attentive  and  courteous,  but  royal  in 
his  devotion. 

He  made  me  a  bed  in  the  end  of  the  coach  from  his  own  pillow  and  comfort 
and  kept  a  strict  watch  over  me  all  the  way  to  Chicago.  WThen  reaching  43rd 
Street  Station  he  carried  me  from  the  train  and  with  the  assistance  of  a  friend 
brought  me  to  my  own  door  and  I  am  unable  to  rest  till  telling  his  superior 
what  he  did  for  me. 

My  lamented  husband  was  at  one  time  general  superintendent  of  the  A.  T. 
&  S.  F.  R.  R.,  and  I  well  remember,  how  pleased  he  always  seemed  to  be,  when 
reports  of  some  gallant  deed  of  his  employees  reached  him. 

I  am  fearful  that  I  did  not  express  to  Mr.  Carruthers  all  the  gratitude  that 
was  in  my  heart  and  will  you  kindly  convey  to  him  all  I  failed  to  do? 

Sincerely  yours, 

Mrs.  D.  J.  Chase. 

Chicago,  November  3,  1915. 


A  Tribute  to  Women 


By  Kenneth  L.  Van  Auken* 


PRESIDENT  RIPLEY  of  the  A.  T. 
*  &  S.  F.  Ry.,  in  his  address  to  the 
railroad  presidents  at  a  dinner  given  in 
his  honor  in  Chicago  recently,  began 
with  a  glowing  tribute  to  his  wife  who, 
he  said,  had  made  his  great  success 
possible.  President  Ripley  rose  from 
the  ranks. 

Many  men  owe  their  success  to  their 
wives'  encouragement,  sympathy  and 
co-operation.  A  woman's  faith  has 
lifted  many  a  man  from  poverty  and 
mediocrity  to  affluence  and  fame — has 
often  restored  confidence  and  faith  in 
himself  when  he  was  almost  ready  to 
quit.  No  other  influence  in  a  man's 
life  is  so  potent. 

Every  man  is  capable  of  doing  more 
and  better  work,  but  he  needs  the  con- 
stant stimulus  and  help  of  an  unselfish 
woman  who  sees  beyond  the  petty 
trials  of  his  daily  work — who  has  her 
eyes  fixed  on  the  job  higher  up  and 
whose  faith  in  his  ability  to  reach  it 
never  wavers.  These  women  are  the 
Mrs.  Ripleys,  and  the  world  is  full  of 
them. 

A  man  who  would  rise  must  learn 
more  and  more  about  his  work.  He 
must  learn  how  to  do  his  own  work  as 
well  or  better  than  those  about  him 
and  how  to  do  the  work  of  those  above 
him.  This  he  can  only  accomplish  by 
working,  reading,  thinking  and  study- 
ing. Qf  these,  reading  is  most  im- 
portant because  a  man  will  naturally 
think  about  and  study  that  which  he 
reads  and  he  will  then  apply  the  knowl- 
edge to  his  daily  work. 

*Author   of   "Practical   Track   Work." 


Many  of  our  great  men  educated 
themselves  by  reading — Lincoln,  Edi- 
son, Westinghouse  and  many  others. 
The  day  was  never  too  long  or  too 
hard  for  these  men  to  prevent  them 
reading  some  at  night.  If  a  man  will 
acquire  but  one  new  fact  or  idea  each 
day  for  a  few  years,  his  success  is  as- 
sured. 

The  power  to  rise  lies  within  reach 
of  every  railroad  employe — and  his 
wife.  The  railroads  offer  good  oppor- 
tunities for  promotion  of  employes 
from  section  foreman  up — all  depends 
on  desire,  ability,  experience  and  edu- 
cation— and  practical  (not  college) 
education  is  the  prime  factor.  Any 
employe  can  educate  himself  in  rail- 
road work,  if  he  will  read,  so  that  he 
can  hold  almost  any  position. 

Recently  the  technical  magazines 
have  been  paying  more  attention  to  the 
education  of  the  trackman  and  it  is 
now  possible  through  the  magazines 
and  through  books  written  by  track- 
men, for  trackmen,  to  gain  much  valu- 
able information  besides  that  obtained 
by  experience.  Any  man  who  is  am- 
bitious* should  cultivate  the  habit  of 
reading  and  should  not  neglect  to  avail 
himself  of  all  the  information  available, 
not  only  on  track  subjects  but  on  rail- 
way subjects  of  a  more  general  nature. 
This  will  tend  to  make  him  capable 
not  only  of  holding  down  the  higher  po- 
sitions of  the  track  department  but  pos- 
sibly of  graduating  from  the  track  de- 
partment into  the  higher  paid  posi- 
tions. 


ill 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 

Our  Aim 


'~p  HE  aim  of  each  officer  and  employe 
of  these  companies — upon  whom  the 
duty  devolves — should  be  to  see  that  all 
shipments  that  our  patrons  favor  us  with 
are  delivered  at  destination  in  good  con- 
dition. The  very  best  solicitor  that  we 
know  of  is  the  careful  handling  of  all 
shipments  and  the  making  of  schedule 
time,  for  it  is  a  fact  that  cannot  be  con- 
troverted that  shippers  will  patronize  the 
line  that  gives  them  the  most  efficient 
service  which,  as  a  matter  of  course,  in- 
cludes regularity  of  delivery  and  arrival 
at  destination  in  saleable  condition.  There 
are  certain  classification  requirements 
which  experience  and  the  rules  have 
taught  us  must  be  complied  with  in  order 
to  successfully  handle  freight  shipments, 
and  when  shipments  are  accepted  not 
conforming  with  these  requirements  the 
liability  for  unsatisfactory  service  is 
greatly  increased,  and  there  is  no  valid 
defense  that  the  carrier  can  offer  when 
claim  is  presented.  Shipments  arriving 
at  destination  in  damaged  condition,  or 
those  that  are  lost  in  transit,  are  of 
course  irritating  and  expensive  to  the 
carrier,  but  infinitely  more  so  to  the  ship- 
per. 

Some  of  the  requirements  which  seem 
to  be  overlooked  more  frequently  than 
others  it  is  our  purpose  to  call  attention 
to  in  this  article. 

LIVE  STOCK— SOUTHERN  CLAS- 
SIFICATION 41;  ALSO  LIVE 
STOCK  TARIFF  144-B,  reads  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Horses  and  mules  may  be  loaded 
in  mixed  carloads  without  requiring 
partitions  between  the  two  kinds  of 
stock,  at  the  discretion  of  shipper. 
Stallions  and  jacks,  if  loaded  in  cars 


with  horses  and  mules  must  each  be 
separated  by  strong  partitions  and  se- 
curely tied. 

Other  kinds  of  stock  may  be  loaded 
in  mixed  carloads  on  the  same  floor, 
if  separated  by  strong  partitions. 
Young  calves,  except  suckling  calyes 
accompanied  by  cow  and  yearling  cat- 
tle must  be  separated  from  larger  cat- 
tle by  strong  partitions.  When  cow 
is  accompanied  by  suckling  calf  or 
mare  by  suckling  colt,  each  cow  with 
calf  and  each  mare  with  colt  must  be 
separated  from  the  other  stock  by 
strong  partitions.  Bulls,  if  loaded 
with  cattle,  must  each  be  securely  tied 
and  separated  from  the  balance  of  the 
shipment  by  strong  partitions. 

Partitions  must  be  put  in  by,  or  at 
the  expense  of  the  owner  or  shipper 
and  without  injury  to  the  car." 

The  interior  of  stock  cars  when 
placed  for  loading  live  stock  should  be 
thoroughly  inspected  to  see  that  there 
are  no  protruding  nails  or  bolts  to 
cause  injury  to  the  stock,  and  when 
loaded  in  the  manner  described  above, 
with  the  elimination  of  rough  han- 
dling and  delay,  satisfactory  service  is 
assured.  It  is  very  essential  that  live 
stock  should  reach  the  market  par- 
ticular days  for -which  it  was  intended, 
and  every  effort  should  be  made  to  do 
this. 

Household  Goods— Will  quote  be- 
low from  Southern  Classification  No 
41,  page  120,  No.  1,  article  (b). 

"In  addition  to  the  General  Rules 
applicable,  the  following  Special 
Rules  must  be  observed  on  L.  C.  L. 
Shipments :  Trunks  filled  with  House- 
hold Goods  must  be  boxed  or  crated; 


113 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


113 


Bedding,  including  Mattresses,  must 
be  boxed  or  crated,  or  in  bundles  thor- 
oughly and  completely  wrapped  and 
securely  tied;  Stoves  and  Ranges,  cast 
iron,  or  with  cast  iron  bases  and  tops, 
must  be  boxed  or  crated.  All  other 
Household  Goods,  except  Furniture, 
must  be  packed;  Furniture  must  be 
wrapped,  crated  or  boxed,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  requirements  of  the 
classification  for  New  Furniture,  L.  C. 
L. ;  chests  must  be  securely  nailed  or 
strapped.  Each  article  of  furniture, 
chest,  trunk,  bundles  or  box,  except 
when  loaded  in  Moving  Van  Bodies, 
must  be  marked  in  accordance  with 
the  requirements  of  General  Rule  7." 

Household  goods  so  prepared,  each 
piece  plainly  marked  either  with  sten- 
cil or  good  tags  securely  tied,  will 
greatly  assist  in  delivering  these  ship- 
ments at  destination  in  good  condi- 
tion. 

Cement — Western  Classification  No. 
52  (Item  7,  page  99).  Official  Classifi- 
cation No.  40  (Note  No.  2,  No.  1,  page 
51).  Southern  Classification  No.  41 
(Item  8,  page  45)  and  Illinois  Classi- 
fication No.  10-A  (Item  7,  page  71) 
provide  the  following  regulations  to 
govern  shipments  of  returned  empty 
cement  sacks: 

1 — Sacks  when  shipped  in  bundles 
must  be  securely  bound  with  not  less 
than  three  separate  wire  or  rope  ties, 
rope  to  be  not  less  than  3/16  inch  in 
diameter. 

2 — Each  bundle  must  be  tagged 
with  a  linen  tag  securely  attached  by 


wire,  showing  names  and  addresses 
of  both  consignor  and  consignee. 

3 — Freight  charges  must  be  fully 
prepaid. 

A  great  number  of  returned  empty 
sacks  are  received  by  the  different  ce- 
ment companies  and  they  are  unable 
to  give  shippers  the  proper  credit,  un- 
less they  are  handled  as  outlined 
above,  and  the  addresses  of  both  con- 
signor and  consignee  shown  on  tags. 
The  various  cement  companies  take 
exception  to  every  shipment  that  we 
attempt  to  deliver  them  which  is  not 
handled  in  accordance  with  the  above 
requirements. 

Forwarding  agents  should  call  the 
attention  of  patrons  to  these  rules  and 
insist  on  shipments  being  properly 
prepared  for  transportation  at  the  time 
they  are  tendered,  and  at  junction 
points  where  shipments  are  delivered 
to  us  by  connecting  lines,  the  agent 
should  insist  that  Classification  Re- 
quirements must  be  observed  and  the 
shipments  put  in  proper  condition  be- 
fore delivery  to  us  is  made. 

The  Loss  and  Damage  Bureau  will 
be  very  glad  to  be  advised  in  all  cases 
where  agents  experience  any  trouble 
at  junction  points  with  connecting 
lines. 

It  will  be  found  that  shippers  will 
be  only  too  glad  to  co-operate  with 
you  in  your  endeavor  to  give  them 
good  service,  as  they  are  as  much  in- 
terested as  we  are  that  the  consignee 
be  satisfied  with  the  shipment  when  it 
reaches  destination. 


Why  the  Dining  Car  Is  the  Most  Important  Car 

in  the  Train 

Chicago,  November  1,  1915. 

Refer  to  file  40. 
Mr.  T.  J.  Foley, 

General  Manager. 
Dear  Sir: 

To  the  successful  operation  of  dining  cars,  two  things  are  essential :  First, 
good  meal  service  to  patrons  of  the  road ;  second,  economical  operation  of  the 
cars,  both  of  which  cannot  be  had  without  the  co-operation  of  all  concerned 


114  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

in  the  handling  of  the  cars,  especially  the  division  forces,  who  must  handle 
the  switching,  watering,  icing,  coaling  and  other  matters  in  connection  with 
the  cars  while  operating  over  the  road. 

While  I  believe  we  are  now  getting  the  co-operation  of  the  division  peo- 
ple in  connection  with  the  handling  of  our  diners,  I  also  believe  this  co-opera- 
tion could  be  made  more  forceful  if  the  men  handling  our  diners  could  be 
shown  that  from  a  handling  standpoint,  the  dining  car  is  the  most  important 
car  in  the  train  ;  for  the  following  reasons  : 

Dining  cars  are  equipped  with  costly  china  and  glassware  which  is  easily 
broken,  especially  through  rough  handling  of  the  car  by  the  switching  crews. 
The  loss  each  year  through  equipment  being  broken  on  account  of  rough 
handling  by  switching  crews  is  no  small  amount,  and  in  my  opinion  it  is 
something  that  can  be  practically  eliminated  if  given  proper  attention  on 
the  part  of  the  division  people. 

A  large  stock  of  perishable  supplies,  such  as  meats,  fruits,  and  vegetables, 
are  carried  on  dining  cars  which  necessitates  icing  of  the  car  at  regular  inter- 
vals. Failure  to  properly  ice  these  cars  results  not  only  in  loss  of  supplies, 
but  loss  of  revenue  through  not  having  the  items  to  serve  at  the  following 
meals. 

On  dining  cars  while  out  on  the  road,  there  is  a  full  crew  of  men,  the 
wages  of  which  amount  to  approximately  $15.00  per  day,  and  any  delayed 
handling  of  these  cars  while  being  dead-headed  from  one  point  to  another 
results  in  a  loss  through  unnecessary  wages  having  to  be  paid  the  crew. 

My  idea  is,  that  a  plan  of  enlightenment  should  be  started  with  a  view 
of  having  all  men  concerned  in  the  handling  of  dining  cars,  understand  the 
importance  of  these  cars,  so  that  they  will  be  given  the  consideration  they 
merit  and  not  have  applied  to  them,  the  same  handling  that  is  given  a  coach 
or  other  cars  in  the  train,  for  taking  into  consideration  the  loss  that  can 
result  from  improper  attention  given  to  the  cars,  it  can  be  easily  seen  that 
the  dining  car  IS  the  MOST  IMPORTANT  car  in  the  train. 

We  do  not  want  to  be  misunderstood  in  this  article,  for  we  will  admit 
that  we  have  the  hearty  co-operation  of  all  concerned,  but  we  are  merely 
writing  these  few  lines  in  hope  that  it  will  reach  some  of  the  people  who  do 
not  fully  realize  the  important  part  they  may  play  in  the  successful  and 
economical  operation  of  dining  cars. 

Yours  truly,  • 
(Signed)  W.  C.  FRANCIS,  Superintendent  Dining  Service. 


Appointments  and  Promotions 

Effective    December    1,    1915,     Mr.  lines   south   of  the   Ohio   River,   with 

Henry   B.    Hull   is   appointed   general  office  at  Chicago. 

claim    agent,   with   office    at    Chicago,  Effective    December    1,    1915,    Mr. 

the  position  of  chief  claim   agent  be-  Edgar    W.    Sprague    is    appointed    as- 

ing  abolished.  sistant  general  claim  agent,  with  office 

Claim  agents  on  Northern  and  at  Memphis,  Tenn.,  the  position  of  as- 
Western  Lines  will  report  direct  to  the  sistant  chief  claim  agent  being 
general  claim  agent.  abolished. 

Effective    December    1,    1915,    Mr.  Effective    November    10,    1915,,   the 

Philip  M.  Gatch  is  appointed  assistant  following  appointments  are  made:  Mr, 

general  claim  agent,  jurisdiction  over  Charles    R.    Phoenix,    general    eastern 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


115 


agent,  headquarters  291  Broadway, 
New  York,  N.  Y.,  vice  Mr.  Walter 
E.  Downing,  deceased. 


Mr.  William  B.  Ryan,  commercial 
agent,  907  Oliver  Building,  Pittsburgh, 
Pa.,  vice  Mr.  Phoenix. 


H0nkmous  S 


onous  OGtvice 


FAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of 
the  following  conductors  and  gate- 
keepers for  their  special  efforts  in  lift- 
ing and  preventing  the  use  of  irregular 
transportation  in  connection  with 
which  reports  (Form  972)  were  ren- 
dered to  the  auditor  of  passenger  re- 
ceipts, who,  in  cases  of  this  kind,  ad- 
vises the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,  all 
pass  irregularities  being  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  vice-president. 
Illinois  Division 

K.  F.  Emmanuel,  gatekeeper. 

R.  J.  Fraher,  gatekeeper. 

T.  C.  White,  gatekeeper. 

Margaret  King,  gatekeeper. 

Suburban  Conductor  Jas.  M.  Hall, 
on  train  No.  342,  Oct.  llth,  lifted 
monthly  commutation  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Suburban  Conductor  Geo.  Miller,  on 
special  train,  October  14th,  lifted 
monthly  commutation  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Suburban  Collector  N.  J.  Crosby,  on 
train  No.  322,  Oct.  16th,  lifted  monthly 
commutation  ticket  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Suburban  Flagman  F.  J.  Statesly,  on 
train  No.  291,  Oct.  30th,  lifted  monthly 
commutation  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired. Passenger  declined  to  pay  fare 
and  was  required  to  leave  the  train. 

Conductor  E.  JVI.  Winslow,  on  train 
No.  34,  Oct.  10th,  declined  to  honor 
going  portion  of  round  trip  card  ticket 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to 
passenger  department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 

Conductor  C.  H.  Draper,  on  train 
No.  4,  Oct.  12th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired. 


Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare  and  left 
the  train. 

Conductor  D.  Ryan,  on  train  No.  3, 
Oct.  17th,  declined  to  honor  going  por- 
tion of  round  trip  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on'ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel,  on  train 
No.  25,  Oct.  20th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Mallon,  on  train  No. 
25,  Oct.  24th,  declined  to  honor  return- 
ing portion  of  homeseeker's  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks,  on  train  No. 

22,  Oct.  31st,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash   fare.     Passenger  was   re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  C.  T.  Harris,  on  train  No. 
21,  Oct.  5th,  lifted  expired  card  ticket 
from  passenger  who  admitted  having 
previously  secured  transportation  on 
same,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup,  on  train 
No.  208,  Oct.  llth,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader,  on  train  No. 

23,  Oct.  17th,  lifted  employe's  trip  pass 
account  not  being  countersigned   and 
honored  other  transportation  to  cover 
passenger's  trip. 

On  train  No.  24,  Oct.  18th,  and  No. 
23,  Oct.  31st,  he  declined  to  honor  card 
tickets  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fares.  Passengers  were  re- 


116 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


ferred  to  passenger  department  for  re- 
funl  on  tickets. 

Conductor  G.  Carter,  on  train  No. 
305,  Oct.  18th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund. 

Indiana  Division 

Conductor  E.  N.  Vane,  on  train  No. 
303,  Oct.  9th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor  J.  B.  Stewart,  on  train 
No.  120,  Oct.  23rd,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  havjng  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund. 

Conductor  B.  Lichtenberger,  on  train 
No.  120,  Oct.  29th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  C.  O.  Sims,  on  train  No.. 
302,  Oct.  9th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund. 

Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson,  on  train 
No.  2,  Oct.  19th,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  book  account  having  expired 
and  honored  mileage  from  another 
book  to  cover  trip. 

Conductor  S.  E.  Matthews,  on  train 
No.  23,  Oct.  25th,  declined  to  honor 
returning  portion  of  Sunday  excursion 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.   S.   Wesson,   on   train 
No.    133,    Oct.    31st,    lifted    employe's 
trip   pass   account  being  in   improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Mississippi  Division 

Conductor  O.  A.  Harrison,  on  train 
No.  34,  Oct.  12th,  lifted  identification 
slip  Form  1572,  account  passenger  not 
being  provided  with  pass  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  M.  King,  on  train  No. 


3,  Oct.  21st,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
exchange  passage  ticket  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  M.  Kennedy,  during  the 
month  of  October,  lifted  four  mileage 
books  account  being  in  improper  hands 
and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  331,  Oct.  4th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  returning  portion  of 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  H.  Robbins,  on  train 
Xo.  2,  Oct.  1st,  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age book  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff,  on  train 
No.  331,  Oct.  2nd,  declined  to  honor 
simplex  ticket  account  having  expired. 
Passenger  presented  another  ticket  to 
cover  trip. 

On  train  No.  304-504,  Oct.  19th,  he 
declined  to  honor  returning  portion  of- 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train  No. 
24,  Oct.  4th,  declined  to  honor  return- 
ing portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  34,  Oct.  9th,  he  declined 
to  honor  mileage  book  account  having 
expired,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes,  on  train  No. 


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34,  Oct.  14th,  declined  to  Jionor  mile- 
age book  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  W.  Chambers,  on  train 
No.  522,  Oct.  1st,  lifted  mileage  book 
account  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


117 


Conductor  T.  D.  Waller,  on  train 
No.  523,  Oct.  3rd,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  book  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  W.  Humphries,  on 
train  No.  333,  Oct.  10th,  lifted  mileage 
book  account  being  in  improper  hands 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  G.  I.  McLaughlin,  on 
train  No.  14,  Oct.  18th,  lifted  mileage 
book  account  being  in  improper  hands 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  15,  Oct.  19th,  he  de- 
lined  to  honor  card  ticket  calling  for 
transportation  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee,  on  train  No. 
304,  Oct.  28th,  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age book  account  having  expired.  Pas- 
senger presented  another  mileage  book 
to  cover  trip. 

On  train  No.  332,  Oct.  30th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  331,  Oct.  31st,  he  lifted 
employe's  trip  pass  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Vicksburg  Division 

Conductor  C.  B.  Garner,  on  train  No. 
12,  Sept.  29th,  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  returning  portion  being 
missing.  Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare 
and  was  required  to  leave  the  train. 

Conductor  A.  C.  Henry,  on  train  No. 
Ill,  Oct.  4th,  lifted  mileage  book  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  A.  L.  Williams,  on  train 
No.  34,  Oct.  2nd,  lifted  54  ride  monthly 
commutation  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  W.  McBurney,  on 
train  No.  96,  Oct.  4th,  lifted  monthly 
school  ticket  account  being  in  impro- 
per hands.  Passenger  presented  an- 
other commutation  ticket  to  cover  trip. 

Conductor  S.  K.  White,  on  train  No. 
22,  Oct.  18th,  lifted  mileage  book  ac- 
count being  in  impoper  hands  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 


Illinois  Division 

Conductor  C.  Squires,  extra  1645, 
November  15,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
107303  moving  into  Champaign  with- 
out light  weight  stencilled  on  same. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  have  car 
stencilled. 

Conductor  C.  H.  Martin,  train  391, 
November  17,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
86778  without  any  light  weight  sten- 
cilled on  same.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Conductor  O.  H.  Norman,  extra 
1644,  November  18,  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting 
G.  T.  75448  improperly  stencilled.  Ar- 
rangements were  made  to  correct  same. 

Conductor  H.  E.  Taylor,  train  392, 
October  26,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  broken  rail 
two  miles  south  of  Hersher  on  the 
crossing. 

Signal  Maintainer  W.  D.  Roberts 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
and  reporting  brake  rod  dragging  un- 
der extra  1644  while  same  was  pass- 
ing Ashkum  station,  on  the  morning 
of  October  28. 

Engineer  J.  Holly,  who  was  on  No. 
10,  October  30,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  switch 
on  the  north  end  of  stock  track  at  Man- 
teno  unlocked. 

Agent  B.  E.  Hull,  of  Neoga,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  brake  beam  down  and  drag- 
ging on  train  extra  1513,  north,  while 
passing  Neoga,  November  18. 

Engineer  Catcher,  extra  1670,  north, 
November  30,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  broken  rail 
on  north  bound  main  track  just  north 
of  yard  office,  at  Champaign. 

Fireman  T.  E.  Clarke,  engine  1081, 
November  24,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  tire  on 
back  engine  truck  wheel  cracked. 

Engineer  J.  Schlacks  and  Conductor 
Evans  have  been  commended  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  broken  rail  the 
morning  of  November  27,  when  extra 
1642,  south,  passed  a  point  about  two 
and  one-half  miles  south  of  Monee,  111. 


118 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Conductor  Callan,  extra  train,  north, 
October  31,  has  been  commended  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  I.  C.  94773  with 
draw  bar  nearly  out. 

Switchman  M.  Thompson  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing brake  beam  down  on  car  in  extra 
1580,  November  15. 

Conductor  J.  H.  Lively  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting broken  arch  bar  on  I.  C. 
120048,  November  7,  in  charge  of  train 
No.  74. 

Engineer  George  Dix  has  been  com- 
mended for  removing  piece  of  timber 
at  overhead  bridge  south  of  Peotone, 
111.,  November  21. 

Mr.  Cal  Shoemaker,  section  laborer, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
and  reporting  broken  flange  on  wheel 
under  C.  &  A.  16100,  November  13, 
train  295. 

Section  Foreman  J.  E.  Reynolds,  at 
Farmer  City,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  brake  beam 
dragging  under  I.  C.  95785,  while  pass- 
ing that  point,  October  27,  extra 
1632. 

Section  Foreman  H.  G.  Mulligan,  of 
Aetna,  111.,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  brake  beam 
down  and  dragging  on  car  in  extra 
1675,  south,  October  21. 

Minnesota  Division. 

Agent  L.  J.  Dodge,  Jessup,  Iowa, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
and  reporting  brake  beam  down  and 
dragging  on  car  in  train  extra  1567, 
west,  November  28. 

Memphis    Division 

Section  Foreman  H.  H.  Morgan, 
Sidon,  Miss.,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  truss  rod 
down  under  car  in  extra  685,  north, 
November  18. 


DIVISION  NEWS 
Springfield  Division 
Mr.   Jacob   North   went   to   Detroit, 
Mich.,  on  personal  business  and  pleas- 
ure. 

Mr.    Charles   H.    Walton,   machinist 

helper,  is  going  to  visit  in  Auburn,  Ky. 

Mr.  Chas.  Hofmann,  boilermaker,  is 


moving  his  wife  and  son,  Delmar,  from 
Chicago  to  Clinton. 

Mr.  H.  C.  Pennington,  boilermaker, 
and  wife  will  spend  the  winter  in  San- 
ford,  Fla.  Mr.  Pennington  has  been 
in  poor  health  for  some  time. 

Mr.  Frank  M.  Rosenbaum,  fireman, 
will  go  to  New  Orleans,  La. 

Mr.  E.  E.  Thompson,  machinist,  and 
wife  are  going  to  visit  in  Altoona,  Pa. 
They  will  go  by  the  way  of  Indian- 
apolis, stopping  there  for  a  short  visit. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Briley,  machinist,  was 
called  to  his  home  in  Jackson,  Tenn., 
due  to  the  serious  illness  of  his  sister. 

Mr.  F.  C.  Hills,  machinist,  is  mov- 
ing his  wife,  three  daughters  and  one 
son  from  Mattoon  to  Clinton. 

Mr.  Edward  C.  Jordan  attended  the 
football  game  at  Champaign. 

Conductor  C.  Ott  has  returned  to 
work  after  spending  three  weeks 
throughout  the  west,  visiting  with  rel- 
atives, also  attending  the  Exposition. 


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Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eyo  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy.  Co. 
Chicago II 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


119 


Conductor  W.  B.  Herron  has  re- 
sumed his  duties  as  local  conductor  on 
Havana  district  after  several  months' 
leave  of  absence  on  account  of  ill 
health. 

Conductor  S.  G.  McGavic,  of  Clin- 
ton district,  has  returned  to  work  after 
a  short  honeymoon  trip. 

Yard  Clerk  T.  LeRoy  Carmichael 
has  been  transferred  as  switchman  in 
Clinton  yard. 

Brakeman  W.  G.  Hartman  and 
Switchman  M.  G.  Snow,  V.  R.  Hoff 
and  Geo.  Whitcamp  have  left  the  ser- 
vice as  switchmen  in  Clinton  yard. 

Brakeman  J.  P.  Sears  has  given  up 
local  run  between  Pana  and  Centralia 
and  is  going  to  take  his  turn  in  chain 
gang  out  of  Clinton. 

W.  W.  Huff,  first  trick  dispatcher, 
Clinton  district,  is  on  vacation,  being 
relieved  by  Extra  Dispatcher  O.  C. 
Harwood. 

C.  E.  Ritchie,  first  trick  operator,  C. 
O.  office,  Clinton,  was  called  home  ac- 
count serious  illness  of  his  mother. 

T.  W.  Plate,  agent,  Maroa,  was 
called  to  Forreston  account  death  of 
his  father. 

T.  R.  Cox,  agent,  Macon,  resumed 
duties  Oct.  30th  after  six  weeks'  vaca- 
tion. 

C.  W.  Donaldson,  agent,  Mt.  Pu- 
laski,  retured  Oct.  28th  from  a  visit 
through  the  east. 

O.  L.  Martin,  operator,  Diverno.n,  is 
off  duty  account  sickness. 

Indiana  Division 

Air-brake  instruction  car  accompa- 
nied by  E.  Bales  was  at  Mattoon,  Nov. 


llth  and  12th.  Instructions  were  given 
switchmen  and  yard  enginemen. 

Messrs.  O.  L.  Lindrew  and  J.  A. 
Dodge,  with  business  cars  4  and  2874, 
paid  a  visit  to  Mattoon,  Nov.  12th  and 
13th. 

J.  N.  Hardwick  and  wife,  storehouse 
accountant,  left  on  his  vasation  the 
14th  to  visit  in  southern-  Oklahoma. 

James  Warren,  piecework  checker, 
has  returned  to  work  after  being  on  a 
vacation  of  several  days. 


For  your  convenience  there  has 
been  opened  a 

Watch  Inspection  Office 

in  the 

Southeast  Corner  of  the  Central 

Station  Waiting  Room 

Chicago,  Illinois 

where  employes  may  present  their 

watches  for  Comparison 

and  Inspection 

FREDERICK  U.  GOULD 

(Official  Watch  Inspector) 

Complete  line  of  Railroad  Watches 
carried  in  stock 


S.  J.  Johnson  Company 

Dry  Goods,  Clothing,  Shoes 
and   Ladies'  Ready-to-Wear 

CARPETS  and  MATTING 


Special  Attention 
to   Mail    Orders 


Our  new  building  57,000  sq.  feet  floor  space 


JACKSON, 


MISSISSIPPI 


120 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Minnesota  Division 

Conductor  Lighthart  has  taken  the 
East  End  Local  vice  Conductor  H.  A. 
Clancy,  who  has  returned  to  the  chain 
gang  and  Conductor  F.  A.  Hunt  has 
transferred  from  553-562  to  the  North 
Pole  Limited  the  new  fast  freight  re- 
cently placed  in  service  on  the  Albert 
Lea  District.  Brakemen  H.  D.  Claus- 
sen  and  F.  J.  Joyce  are  the  lucky  appli- 
cants for  run  on  Nos.  93  and  94,  while 
J.  M.  Joyce  drew  the  position  of  flag- 
man with  his  Uncle  Pat  on  the  Albert 
Lea-Freeport  passenger  pool. 

A  special  campaign  has  been  in- 
augurated on  this  division  to  locate 
and  forward  all  empty  box  cars  for 
grain  and  lumber  loading  with  the  re- 
sult that  every  agent  and  shipper  on 
the  Minnesota  Division  has  become 
interested  and  shippers  who  never  gave 
the  matter  a  thought  before  are  now 
co-operating  with  our  agents  in  getting 
the  cars  unloaded  and  away  in  record 
time. 

Special  Investigator  Hale  of  the  Loss 
and  Damage  Bureau,  accompanied  by 
Division  Claim  Clerk  Patrick,  Special 
Agent  Hutton,  Traveling  Engineer 
Ickes  and  Train  Masters  Duckwitz  and 
Brown  over  their  respective  districts, 
made  a  very  thorough  check  of  all  sta- 
tions, with  a  rating  of  very  close  to  100 
per  cent  for  the  division.  Our  agents 
are  certainly  getting  into  the  game. 

The  filling  at  Dubuque  yards  has 
been  completed,  the  five  new  tracks 
laid  and  are  about  ready  for  use.  The 
improvements  at  Waterloo  are  nearly 
finished,  which  will  place  the  shops  in 
good  shape  for  the  winter. 

Dubuque  proved  the  Mecca  of  nu- 
merous football  fans  on  Thanksgiving, 
crowding  our  trains  to  capacity.  It  is 
rare  that  two  schools  claiming  the 


This  is 
the  Diamond 
Ring  SHE  Wants 
for  a  Christinas  Gift 

The  famousLof  tis"Perf  ection 
6-prong  ring  mounting,  possess- 

The  large  illustration  shows ., 

detail   of    this    exquisite  design. 
Only  the  finest  Quality  pure  white 
s, perfect  in  cut  and  full 

jrilliancy,  are  used.  No. 

659,  price  $60.  credit  terms  $10     , 
lown,  balance  $6  a  month,  leads 
ill  others  in  popularity.     Cased  in 
'elvet  ring  box,  ready  for  presenta 
uon.  We  prepay  all  delivery  charges 
Our  large  illustrated  Catalog  shows  I 
Loftls  ^'Perfection"    Diamond   Kin 
prices  to  suit  any  purse.  Send  your  i 
today  for  No.  659.  or  send  for  Fre»  I 
mas   Catalog   and   make    your  sell 

You  should  have  our  handsome 
116-Page  Catalog:  In  your  . 
home  before  deciding  on  your 
List  of  Christmas  Presents. 


There 


2.000  auK 


for  all  your\ 
cheap,  .trifling  \ 
fine  Diamond,  ' 


LOFTIS     BROS.    &    CO. 
The  National  Credit  Jewelers 

Dept.    G939     1O8N.  State  St. .Chicago, III. 

Stores  also  in  Pittsburgh:  St.  Louis:  Omal 


WOULD  YOU 


type 


show  this    standard    high 
grade  42  key  fully  visible 
icwriter  to  your  friends 
an  diet  them  see  wherein 
It  excel  Is  any  other  $100 
typewriter,  if  by  doing  thia 
ind  rendering  other  small  as- 
stance,  you  could  easily  earn  one 
to  keep  as  your  own?   Then  by  post  card 
imply  say,     Mail  Particulars." 


sis 


Or  letter  to  as  si: 

WOODSTOCK  TYPEWRITER  CO.,Dept.  J  21  <  Chicago.lll 


TOBACCO  HABIT 

I    lonjf  your  life.  No  more  stomach  trouble, 


(Ton  can  conquer  14 
eaiilj  in  S  days,  im 
prove  your  health,  pro- 
ne your  lite.  ><>  more  .stomach  trouble,  no  foul  breath,  no  heart 
weakness.  Regain  manly  vigor,  calm  nerves,  clear  eyes  and  super- 
ior mental  strength.  Whether  you  chew;  or  tmoke  pipe,  cigarettes,  cig- 
ars, get  my  interesting  Tobacco  Book.  Worth  its  weigh*  in  gold.  Mailed 

free.  EDW.  J.WOODS.    189  P.      Station  E.     NewYork.N.Y. 


Illinois  Central  Employes 

(See  Suggestions  in  Picture  on  page  98) 

The  Beaman  Drug  Company 

Illinois  Central  Station  Prompt  Attention  Given  Mail  Orders 


Chicago,  Illinois 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


121 


same  name  can  put  two  such  good  and 
well  matched  teams  in  the  field  at  the 
same  time.  The  Alumni  of  both 
Dubuque  colleges  made  it  a  Home 
Coming  Day  as  well. 


HATFIELD'S  PARLOR  BASEBALL 
GAME 


The  Product  of  a  Railroad  Man's  Brain 

"Baseball!"  What  a  pleasant  sound  that 
word  has  to  the  ears  of  the  countless  thous- 
ands of  baseball  fans  all  over  the  United 
States  and  its  possessions. 

How  eagely  the  average  fan  awaits  each 
spring  for  the  news  of  the  training  camps, 
the  opening  game  and  other  incidents  prelimi- 
nary to  the  championship  season. 

The  exciting  race  for  a  pennant,  the  ex- 
ultation of  the  winner,  the  heartbreaking  bit- 
terness of  defeat;  the  hot  stove  league;  the 
thirst  for  a  real  game  during  the  winter;  all 
form  part  of  the  average  fan's  life. 

And  now  Harry  Hatfield,  a  Rock  Island 
clerk  at  Hamilton  Park,  has  made  it  possible 
for  you  and  friend  wife  to  play  your  favorite 
pastime  all  the  year  around. 

Mr.  Hatfield  has  invented  a  game  which  is 
so  simple,  that  any  man,  woman  or  child — 
baseball  fan  or  not — can  master  and  learn 
to  play  in  five  or  ten  minutes. 

And  it's  the  real  game — baseball  at  its  best. 
The  game  that  makes  you  think  you  are  sit- 
ting in  the  bleachers  or  grandstand  watching 
a  close  contested  game.  For  you  never  can 
tell  what  the  final  score  will  be  until  the  last 
man  is  out  in  the  last  of  the  ninth. 

The  game  is  manufactured  by  The  Hatfield 
Co.,  (not  inc.),  6401  Normal  boulevard,  Chi- 
cago, Ills.  It  consists  of  a  neat  box,  contain- 
ing a  miniature  cardboard  diamond  in  three 
colors,  a  dozen  ships  to  represent  players,  a 
deck  of  sixty  neatly  engraved  cards  and  a 
book  of  instructions. 

On  each  card  are  eight  plays,  representing 
eight  different  situations  possible  in  every 
baseball  game.  There  are-  over  four  hundred 
and  eighty  different  plays  to  the  deck  and 
a  million  different  combinations. 

The  game  can  be  played  by  any  even  num- 
ber of  players  or  can  be  played  as  solitaire. 
A  box  score  can  be  kept  showing  runs,  hits, 
errors  and  every  possible  play  in  baseball. 

It  is  a  game  with  a  moral.  Every  Railroad 
man  and  woman  should  have  one  of  Hatfield' s 
games,  not  because  we  say  so,  but  because 
it  is  a  real  game,  "a  slice  of  life,"  and  Hat- 
field  is  a  Railroad  man. 

Leagues  can  be  organized,  and  there  are 
several  of  them  in  the  general  offices  right  now. 
World  series  can  be  played  between  the  win- 
ners of  the  rival  leagues. 


JUST  A  MOMENT 

Diamonds-or  Trash? 

There's  a  little  "inside  Information"  that  a  man  ought  to 
have  before  belays  his  money  on  the  counter  for  a  diamond. 
You  can  buy  diamonds  as 
low  as  S50  a  carat.  That's 
the  kind  they  use  for  boring: 
holes  and  truing  up  emery 
wheels.  You  wouldn't  want 
to  wear  one  In  a  ring— but 
they're  diamonds  just  the 
same,  and  "perfect"  too,  for 
their  purpose. 

Then   there  are  "perfect 
cut"  diamonds.    But  that's 
no  sign  they 're  perfect  color. 
Then  there  are  "perfect  cut"  diamonds,  "perfect  color." 
But  that  isn't  saying  they're  flawless. 

Then— ah !  then  there  are  perfect  cut,  perfect  color,  flawless  dia- 
monds. NOW  you're  talking!  That's  the  ONLY  kin<i  that  a  wise  man 
invests  in  — for  no  other  sort  have  a  permanent,  standard  value,  the 

Now,  don't  you  see  how  easy  it  is  to  be  mislead  by  the  little  word 
"perfect?" 

I  guarantee  that  my  whole  stock  of  diamonds  la  composed  of  noth- 
ing but  pure,  blue-white,  flawless,  perfect  cut  stones,  absolutely  per- 
fect in  every  particular. 

That's  one  guarantee  for  you.  But  that  isn't  all.  I  don't  stop  there. 
Here's  the  Square  Deal  selling  plan  that's  responsible  for  my  big 
diamond  business. 

A  Diamond  Bond  goes  with  every  Pence  Diamond.  The  following 
table  shows  haw  much  CASH  I  will  refund  you  on  any  Diamond  Bond, 
any  time  you  want  your  money  back.  No  time  limit. 

If  you  paid  me  $25,  I'll  refund  $23.50  In  CASH 
If  vou  paid  me  $50,  I'll  refund  $45.0O  In  CASH 
If  you  paid  me  $100,  I'll  refund  $90.OO  In  CASH 

It's  a  mighty  comfortable  feeling  to  know  that  your  money  Is  ready 
any  time  you  need  it  — besides  the  satisfaction  of  wearing  a  stone 
tliat  is  all  a  diamond  can  be. 

Select  the  Diamond  you  want,  send  me  a  Dollar — Five  Dollars 
— Ten  Dollars — I'll  lay  the  Diamond  away  in  the  safe  and  you 
can  pay  for  it  out  of  your  spare  change  in  any  convenient  way. 

Diamond  paid  for-v-Yours  truly — and  you've  never  missed  the 
money. 

Goods  sent  on  approval  where  personal  inspection  cannot  be 
made. 

I  also  carry  full  line  of  Howard,  Hamilton,  Elgin,  Waltham, 
Illinois  Watches  and  every  thing  in  High  Grade  Jewelry,  and  will 
Guarantee  to  save  you  money  on  any  purchase.  Let  me  quote  you 


prices. 


MILTON  PENCE 


High  Grade  Watches,  Jewelry,  Diamonds  &  Repairing 

Room  401  Hey  worth  Bldg.,  Wabash  and  Madison  St. 

CHICAGO 


R.  H.  GREEN 

The  Wholesale  House  Which  Performs  the 
Service,  therefore  Gets  the  Business 

R.  H.  GREEN 


JACKSON,  MISS. 


Please   mention  this  magazine   when  writing  to  advertisers. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Belhaven  College 

Jackson,  Mississippi 

A  high-class  school  for  girls  at  exceptionally  reasonable  cost. 

New   modern   buildings   located   in   the   suburbs  within   a   few 
minutes  ride  of  the  city. 

Detailed  information  as  to  the  facilities  of  the  school  and  the 
cost  of  tuition  and  board  will  be  gladly  furnished  upon  request. 

Rev.  R.  V.  Lancaster 

President 


THE  EDWARDS 

JACKSON,     MISSISSIPPI 


Jackson's  Leading  Hotel 

Convenient  to  Depot  and  Car  Lines 

European  Plan.       Rates  $1  to  $2.50  per  day. 

Excellent  Cafe.      Prices  Reasonable 


B.    J.    SMITH,  Manager 


Please  mer.tion  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


X.L- 


JAN  2  4  1916 


3  (linois  Central 
SRagajine 


Hnte-dellum  home  m  Couisiojm 


iDol.4 


January 


Books  On  Efficiency 

No  matter  what  your  position,  or  what  line  of  work  you  are  engaged 
in,  you  are  sure  to  find  some  book  listed  in  either  our  Technical  or 
Business  Book  Catalog  that  will  be  of  use  to  you. 

Our  Business  Book  Catalog  contains  a  select  list  of  books  on 

Accounting,  Advertising,  Banking,  Collections,  Commercial  Law, 
Corporations,  Correspondence,  Credits,  Efficiency,  Finance, 
Industrial  Economics  and  Business  Education,  Insurance  Organi- 
zation and  Management,  Real  Estate,  Selling,  Transportation,  etc. 

Our  Technical  Book  Catalog  lists  books  on  nearly  every  technical  subject.- 

BOTH  ARE  FREE 

A  postal  will  bring  them.     Address 

A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Dept.  A,  Chicago,  Illinois 


Bettendorf 
Single  Center  Sill  Underframe 


The  Bettendorf  Company 

Bettendorf 

Iowa 


James  H.  Cherry  —  Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  during  the  Civil  Con- 

flict,   1861-5  ...............................  .  ..............................................................     9 

Public    Opinion  ..............................................................................................  16 

Appointments  and  Promotions  ................................................................  21 

The  Express  Service  of  the  Illinois  Central  ........................................  23 

Reminiscences  Pertaining  to  the  Illinois  Central  ............................  31 

How   Employes    Should    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock  ...................................................................  „  ...................................  36 

How  They  Railroaded  in  1879  ..................................................................  38 

Claims   Department  ..................................................................................  ....  41 

Mechanical  Department  ...............................  .-.  .............................................  46 

Hospital    Department  ..................................................................................  47 

Freight  Traffic  Department  ......................................................  ,  ...............  49 

Loss  and  Damage  Bureau  ..........................................................................  51 

Always   Safety  First  .......................................  .  ............................................  54 

Transportation    Department  ............  .  .......................................................     56 

Transportation   of  Perishable   Commodities  —  Need  of   Co-oper- 

ation of  Shippers  with  Carriers  ........................................................  58 

Engineering  Department  .................................  ,.  .........................................  62 

Roll  of  Honor  ................................................................................................  64 

Passenger   Traffic   Department  ................................................................  66 

Sixth  National  Drainage  Congress  ...........................  _  ...........................  70 

Law    Department  ..........................................................................................  72 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department  ................................................  75 

The  Largest  Corporations  in  the  World  ..............................................  77 

Fiction  — 

Two    Ringers  ..........................................................................................  79 

Meritorious  Service  .......................................................  „  .............................  86 

Contributions  from  Employes  — 

The  Difference  ........................................................................................  88 

The  Key  to  the  Situation  ..................................................................  89 

Local  Talent  and  Exchanges  ....................................................................  90 

A  Laugh  or  Two  ..........................................................................................  92 

Division  News  ..................................................................  ,  .............................  93 


^Pufilishod  monthly  fy  the  ffinois  Central  *j2.  *$.  G>., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4j(W  'Employes 

Advertising  •  raies  •  on  •  application.?? 


Chicago 

1$  <ppr.  copy 


U?ocal55 
$1.50  pr.  year 


JAMES  H.  CHERRY, 
Assistant  General  Freight  Agent 

AS  born  in  Allegheny,  Pa.;  began  railway  service  in  the  Chicago  local  freight 
office  of  the  Minnesota  and  Northwestern  R.  R.  (now  Chicago  Great  Western 
R.  R.)  in  1889;  entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  in  1894,  as  clerk  in  the 
General  Freight  Department,  and  was  appointed  Assistant  General  Freight  Agent 
in  1909. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 

JANUARY,  1916 


Vol.4 


No.  7 


Tne  Story  of  tfio 
Illinois  Central  Linos 

during,  the 

Civil  GbnfTict  i86i-5 

General  Ambrose  Everett  Burnside 


(Continued  from 

On  that  date  he  received  his  commis- 
sion as  Colonel  of  the  First  Regiment  of 
Rhode  Island  Detached  Militia.  Ben 
Perley  Poore  writes  of  this: 

"Colonel  Burnside's  activity,  energy, 
industry  and  military  training  accom- 
plished wonders.  He  superintended 
the  manufacture  of  a  serviceable  uni- 
form, consisting  of  dark  blue  blouse, 
gray  trousers,  broad-brimmed  felt  hat 
and  black  waist-belt.  He  had  the 
thick  scarlet  blanket  of  each  man  con- 
verted into  a  Mexican  poncho,  by  cut- 
ting a  slit  in  the  center  through  which 
the  head  could  be  put,  leaving  the 
blanket  resting  as  a  cloak  on  the 
shoulders.  He  instructed  officers  and 
drilled  enlisted  men;  he  was  quarter- 
master, commissary,  farrier,  and  sur- 
geon; and  his  promptness  electrified 
not  only  the  regiment,  but  the  entire 
population  of  Rhode  Island." 

On  April  20,  just  four  days  after  ar- 
riving in  Providence,  Colonel  Burnside 
departed  on  the  New  York  steamer 
with  six  rifled  cannon  and  500  men, 


December  Issue) 

detachments  of  one-half  of  each  com- 
pany, the  rest  of  the  regiment  followed 
in  two  days,  all  fully  armed,  equipped 
and  provisioned.  It  was  an  extraordi- 
nary feat.  At  New  York,  transfer  was 
made  to  the  Government  transport, 
Coatzocoalos.  Colonel  Burnside  was 
called  on  by  the  great  crowd  on  the 
wharf  to  make  a  speech.  But  all  he 
said  was,  "I  will  make  a  speech  when 
I  come  back."  His  regiment  reached 
Washington  April  26,  temporarily 
quartered  at  the  Patent  Office.  Thurs- 
day, May  2,  they  were  mustered  in  by 
Major  McDowell,  and  after  two  weeks 
at  the  Patent  Office  went  into  camp 
on  Keating's  farm,  a  couple  of  miles 
northeast  of  the  city.  The  camp  was 
laid  out  as  a  town,  with  streets  named 
after  those  in  Providence  to  make  the 
soldiers  feel  more  at  home.  Tempo- 
rary buildings  with  dormitories,  eating 
and  sitting  rooms,  bore  names  such  as 
"Chateau  de  Burnside,"  "Woodbury 
Castle,"  "Aldrich  House,"  etc.,  in 
honor  of  the  regiment's  Colonel,  its 


10 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Chaplain,  and  its  favorite  Rhode  Is- 
land citizen.  But  the  soldiers  were 
drilled  and  spared  no  pains  in  any  de- 
tails. Senator  Anthony  says,  "like  the 
Barber  of  Seville,  he  was  here,  he  was 
there,  he  was  everywhere.  His  govern- 
ment was  the  autocracy  of  love,  sleep- 


GEN.    A.    E.    BURNSIDE. 

less  in  vigilance,  yet  not  oppressive  in 
discipline,  no  deviation  from  duty  es- 
caped his  eye,  and  no  display  of  merit 
passed  unnoticed." 

It  is  said  that  he  was  greatly  beloved 
by  his  soldiers,  but  with  all  his  popu- 
larity he  could  not  get  his  breech-loading 
rifle  accepted,  though  it  was  twice  ap- 
proved, and  he  had  a  company  of  his 
sharpshooters  armed  with  it;  and  he 
demonstrated  its  usefulness  in  active 
service. 

June  10  they  joined  General  Patter- 
son's force  in  a  demonstration  against 
Harper's  Ferry,  held  by  General  Joe 
Johnston. 

Colonel  Burnside  trudged  along  on 
foot  with  his  men,  while  his  horse  was 
led  by  the  faithful  negro  servant  who  re- 
mained with  him  through  all  his  changes. 

He  returned  with  his  regiment  to  the 
former  camp,  June  25,  his  men  in  much 


better  fighting  condition  for  their  march- 
ing to  and  fro  in  Maryland.  Meanwhile 
there  was  insistent  cry  in  Washington, 
and  throughout  the  country,  "On  to 
Richmond  via  Manassas  Gap !"  a  gorge 
in  the  eastern  spur  of  the  Blue  Ridge, 
through  which  passed  the  old  "big 
road"  from  Washington  to  Richmond. 
But  General  Beauregard  and  his  big 
army,  behind  skillfully  erected  fortifi- 
cations, grimly  held  this  natural  gate- 
way, named  for  a  popular  hotel  long 
kept  there  by  "Old  Manasses,"  though 
just  how  strong  Beauregard  was  Wash- 
ington could  not  accurately  ascertain. 
One  of  Burnside's  reconniotering  bal- 
loons collapsed  while  being  inflated,  and 
the  other  got  away  and  tore  itself  to 
pieces  in  the  forest. 

Colonel  Burnside  commanded  the 
Second  Brigade  in  the  Second  Division 
under  General  Hunter,  consisting  of 
First  and  Second  Rhode  Island  regi- 
ments, the  Seventy-first  New  York,  the 
Second  New  Hampshire  and  the  Sec- 
ond Battery  of  Rhode  Island  Artillery, 
who,  as  the  other  brigades,  never  had 
manuevered  together,  and  were  but 
little  known  to  their  commanders. 
Against  Burnside's  protest,  President 
Lincoln,  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army,  insisted  on  a  forward  movement, 
confident  of  success ;  and  on  Tuesday, 
July  16,  1861,  General  Scott  also  or- 
dered a  direct  assault. 

The  enemy  appeared  to  be  retreating 
from  camp  all  along  the  road,  leaving 
half-cooked  food  and  fires  still  burning. 
Colonel  Burnside  thought  it  a  trap,  but 
General  McDowell  said,  "No,"  and  the 
terrible  disaster  at  Bull  Run  resulted, 
Sunday,  July  21,  1861,  in  an  attempt  to 
turn  the  left  flank  of  Beauregard's  army 
after  vainly  trying  the  direct  assault. 
Early  in  the  action,  General  Hunter  was 
leaving  the  field  severely  wounded,  and 
he  ordered  Burnside  to  assume  command 
of  that  part  of  the  division  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  oncoming  enemy.  He  did  it 
gallantly,  and  his  own  First  Rhode  Island 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  contest.  Their  re- 
treat was  orderly,  and  early  next  morn- 
ing, aften  an  all  night  march,  they  were 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


11 


again  in  their  own  camp  at  Washington, 
having  lost  123  killed  and  236  wounded, 
and  the  guns  of  his  battery.  In  spite  of 
the  disaster  Colonel  Burnside  at  once  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  country  to  his 
military  skill  and  gallantry.  Colonel. 
Burnside  tendered  to  President  Lincoln 
the  services  of  the  First  Rhode  Island 
Regiment,  its  term  having  expired  the 
day  before  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  But 
the  90-day  regiments  were  all  ordered  to 
their  respective  states,  and  three-year 
troops  were  recruited,  but  President 
Lincoln  and  Secretary  Seward  rode  out 
to  the  camp  and  personally  praised 
Burnside  and  his  men.  They  returned 
to  Providence  Sunday  morning,  July  28, 
and  were  mustered  out  August  2,  a  vote 
of  thanks  to  the  regiment  being  given  by 
the  General  Assembly.  In  September, 
Brown  University  honored  Burnside  with 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts. 

General  McClelland  arrived  in  Wash- 
ington Friday  evening,  July  26,  1861,  the 
day  after  Burnside  had  departed  with 
his  regiment.  Provision  for  better  pro- 
tecting the  city  and  for  organizing  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  at  once  began, 
and  progressed  rapidly.  President  Lin- 
coln appointed  Burnside  Brigadier  Gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  Volunteers, 
August  6,  1861.  He  at  once  reported  at 
Washington,  and  was  given  command 
of  a  provisional  brigade. 

October  23,  1861,  he  was  ordered  to 
organize  a  "Coast  Division,"  with  head- 
quarters at  Annapolis,  the  men  to  be 
mainly  from  New  England,  and  many 
of  them  to  be  sea-faring. 

General  McClelland  superseded  Gen- 
eral Scott  as  General-in-Chief  of  the 
Army  of  the  United  States,  November  1, 
1861.  He  made  plans  for  the  whole  war 
with  simultaneous  movements  through- 
out the  whole  country,  and  sent  General 
Burnside  on  the  North  Carolina  expe- 
dition. 

With  over  12,000  men  on  46  trans- 
ports (11  of  which  were  steamers),  9 
propellers  armed  as  gun-boats,  and  5 
barges  armed  as  floating  batteries,  in  all 
47  guns;  besides  55  heavy  guns  on  the 
navy  of  27  vessels  of  different  sizes;  he 
started  out  January  9,  1862,  the  destina- 


tion being  a  secret,  no  one  being  supposed 
to  know  but  General  Burnside  and  Com- 
modore Goldsborotigh,  who  commanded 
his  fleet,  the  other  officers  having  sealed 
orders  not  to  be  opened  till  they  were  six 
miles  from  shore.  They  were  caught  in 
a  terrific  gale  off  Cape  Hattaras,  but  got 
through,  and,  after  a  severe  battle,  cap- 
tured Roanoke  Island,  and  followed  it 
up  by  the  occupation  of  Elizabeth  City, 
Edenton  and  Plymouth,  N.  C.  The  spoils 
were  five  forts,  most  of  the  Confederate 
fleet,  and  guns,  and  about  2,500  prison- 
ers, besides  a  large  amount  of  supplies 
and  munitions  of  war.  Three  of  the 
forts  he  rechristened,  "Fort  Foster," 
"Fort  Reno"  and  "Fort  Parke." 

Rhode  Island  voted  him  her  thanks 
and  a  sword;  Massachusetts  and  Ohio 
legislatures  voted  him  their  gratitude, 
and  President  Lincoln  made  Burnside  a 
Major  General  of  Volunteers.  Then  he 
captured  Newburn,  N.  C.,  March  16, 
1862,  and  Fort  Macon  April  26,  1862, 
increasing  his  spoils  of  war  to  3,600 
'prisoners,  179  cannon,  much  ammunition 
and  other  supplies,  and  many  flags. 
After  Burnside  retired  from  command  of 
North  Carolina  he  was  on  his  way  to 
Washington,  and  at  Fortress  Monroe 
met  President  Lincoln  and  went  to  Bal- 
timore with  him,  where  Mrs.  Burnside 
joined  him.  At  Washington  he  had  a 
long  interview  with  Lincoln,  Halleck  and 
Stanton.  President  Lincoln  offered  the 
command  of  the  Army  to  Burnside,  who 
promptly  and  preemptorily  declined. 
Then  he  escorted  Mrs.  Burnside  to  New 
York  and  visited  the  offices  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  on 
Nassau  Street,  where  he  had  some  busi- 
ness matters  to  look  after,  growing  out 
of  his  former  connection  with  the  road. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  was  accept- 
ing corn  in  payment  for  transportation. 
Eager  advantage  was  taken  of  this  by 
shippers.  The  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  needed  to  have  large  storage 
facilities  to  handle  its  own  corn.  This 
was  accomplished  by  erecting  about  ten 
miles  of  corn  cribs  along  its  track  out  at 
Burnside  Station,  near  Chicago,  which 
was  named  for  its  former  treasurer,  now 


12 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


General  A.  E.  Burnside.  The  very 
extensive  -general  railroad  shops  of  the 
Illinois  Central  are  located  at  Burnside. 

General  Burnside  suffered  reverses  be- 
fore Richmond,  and  was  superseded  by 
General  Halleck,  and  Burnside  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  newly  organ- 
ized Ninth  Corps,  which  was  ordered  to 
Fredericksburg,  being  made  a  part  of  the 
"Army  of  Virginia."  It  arrived  in  time 
to  save  General  Pope's  left  flank  from 
being  turned,  and  the  "Army  of  Vir- 
ginia" cut  off  from  Washington,  but  he 
could  not  prevent  it  later  from  being 
"wrecked  beyond  repair,"  as  was  feared 
in  Washington  at  the  time. 

Burnside  had  to  evacuate  Fredericks- 
burg,  and  there  was  a  general  retreat  to 
Washington.  The  General  Command  of 
the  Army  was  twice  offered  to  and  re- 
fused by  Burnside,  who  evidently 
thought  his  personal  friend  and  comrade, 
General  George  B.  McClellan,  merited 
it  and  was  better  qualified  for  it,  which 
he  so  urged  upon  President  Lincoln  that 
McClellan  was  restored  to  supreme  com- 
mand. Burnside,  by  prompt  action  with 
the  Ninth  Corps  and  the  First  Corps, 
reached  Frederick  City,  Maryland,  Sep- 
tember 12,  and  his  brilliant  action  Aug- 
ust 12  at  South  Mountain,  Sunday,  Sep- 
tember 14,  1862,  repulsed  the  enemy. 

Poore  says :  "General  Cox's  division 
was  the  first  to  close  with  the  enemy." 
The  23rd  Ohio  Regiment  was  then  under 
the  command  of  Lieutenant  Rutherford 
B.  Hayes  (afterwards  President  of  the 
United  States).  They  came  within  30 
yards  of  the  Confederates,  2  regiments, 
who  poured  upon  them  a  terrific  fire  and 
charged.  The  23rd  stood  firm,  and  the 
enemy  halted  before  the  line  of  bayonets ; 
then  the  23rd  charged,  dashing  forward 
with  the  regimental  yell;  they  bayoneted 
a  large  number  of  the  enemy,  and  routed 
the  others.  The  left  was  turned  and  16 
captives  taken,  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
charges  of  the  war.  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Hayes,  during  this  charge,  was  struck  in 
his  left  arm  by  a  large  musket  ball,  which 
fractured  the  whole  bone.  He  soon  fell 
from  exhaustion  but  recovered  con- 
sciousness in  a  few  minutes,  and  ordered 
forward  his  men,  who  were  falling  back. 


He  continued  fighting  and  fell  again,  still 
giving  orders  to  fight  it  out.  A  suregon 
dressed  his  wound,  and  he  again  ap- 
peared on  the  field  and  finally  helped 
drive  off  the  enemy. 

Tuesday  night,  16th  of  September, 
General  McClellan  ordered  Burnside  to 
take  the  Stone  Bridge  and  move  on 
Sharpsbury  to  cut  off  the  enemy's  re- 
treat ;  and  on  Wednesday,  September  17, 
1862,  was  fought  the  Battle  of  Sharps- 
bury  Village,  or  "Antietam  Creek," 
which  flows  into  the  Potomac  about  five 
miles  above  Harper's  Ferry.  The  bridge 
was  crossed  and  held  by  the  Ninth  Corps 
as  the  key  to  the  position,  at  a  loss  of 
410  men  killed,  96  officers  and  1,645 
men  wounded,  and  120  missing. 

This  compelled  Lee  to  take  his  army 
back  into  Virginia,  which  he  very  quick- 
ly did  the  night  of  September  19,  tak- 
ing with  him  all  that  was  worth  having 
in  his  camp,  including  the  rich  spoils 
of  Harper's  Ferry.  General  McClellan 
did  not  follow  up  his  advantage,  and 
Lincoln  was  resolved  to  remove  him,  and 
this  time  so  urged  Burnside  against  his 
protests  that  McClellan  was  not  only  his 
personal  friend,  but  the  better  general, 
that  finally  Burnside  reluctantly  con- 
sented and  was  put  in  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  But  December 
13,  1862,  he  failed  to  take  the  heights 
of  Fredericksburg,  and  December  14  was 
compelled  to  fall  back  across  the  Rappa- 
hannock  in  the  face  of  the  enemy ;  but 
frankly  he  stood  up  squarely  and  said, 
"I  am  responsible  for  the  movement." 
President  Lincoln  relieved  him  on  Jan- 
uary 26,  1863.  By  General  Order  No. 
9  (the  last  issued  by  him  in  the  East), 
Major-General  Burnside  notified  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  that  he  transferred 
the  command  to  Major-General  Joseph 
E.  Hooker,  and  further  said:  "Your 
General,  in  taking  an  affectionate  leave 
of  the  Army,  from  which  he  separates 
with  so  much  regret,  may  be  pardoned 
if  he  bids  an  especial  farewell  to  his 
long  and  tried  associates  of  the  Ninth 
Corps.  His  prayers  are  that  God  may 
be  with  you  and  grant  you  continued 
success  until  the  Rebellion  is  crushed." 

General  Burnside  returned  to  Wash- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


ington  and  formally  tendered  his  resig- 
nation to  the  President,  "but  Mr.  Lincoln 
declined  to  receive  it,"  as  Mr.  Poore 
says,  quaintly  remarking  that  he  had 
"other  fish  for  him  to  fry,"  and  soon 
placed  him  in  command  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Ohio,  though  Burnside  was 
disappointed  in  not  being  reassigned  to 
his  old  command  of  the  Ninth  Corps. 
But  he  was  promised  that  two  divisions 
of  that  corps  should  be  sent  after  him 
at  once. 

He     reached      Cincinnati,     Tuesday, 
March  24,  3863,  and  issued  the  follow- 
ing order  next  day : 
Headquarters  Department  of  the  Ohio. 

Cincinnati,  March  25,  1863. 
General  Order  No.  27. 

In  accordance  with  the  instructions 
from  the  General-in-Chief,  the  under- 
signed hereby  assumes  command  of  the 
Department  of  the  Ohio. 

A.  E.  Burnside, 
Major-General, 

Commanding. 
Lewis  Richmond, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

He  was  enthusiastically  welcomed  in 
Cincinnati  from  the  balcony  of  the  old 
Barney  House,  so  favored  by  Southern- 
ers. Major-General  Lew  Wallace 
(afterwards  world-renowned  as  the  au- 
thor of  "Ben  Hur")  introduced  General 
Burnside,  and  said:  "The  great  West 
loves  all  her  sons,  of  whom  it  is  enough 
to  say  Ambrose  Burnside  is  the  truest 
and  best." 

Burnside  issued  very  strict  orders 
against  anyone  giving  any  kind  of  aid 
and  comfort  to"  the  enemy,  for  affairs 
were  v?ry  complicated  on  both  sides  of 
the  Ohio  River.  He  arrested  Clement  L. 
Vallandigham,  of  Ohio,  for  treason,  in 
publicly  calling  Lincoln  a  tyrant,  and 
saying  "resistance  to  tyrants  is  obedience 
to  God." 

This  famous  "Peace  Democrat"  was 
tried  and  convicted  by  a  military  court 
and  sentenced  to  close  confinement  in 
Fort  Warren,  Boston  Harbor,  during  the 
war.  The  United  States  Court  refused 
a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  but  President 
Lincoln  commuted  the  sentence  to  ban- 
ishment into  the  Confederacy.  Val- 


landigham was  taken  to  Nashville,  and 
General  Rosecranz,  under  a  flag  of 
truce,  delivered  him  into  the  Confeder- 
ate lines.  Some  think  Vallandigham's 
talk  in  Richmond  was  one  cause  of  Lin- 
coln's assassination.  General  Burnside 
forbade  the  circulation  of  the  New  York 
World  in  .the  Department  of  the  Ohio, 
and  suppressed  the  publication  of  the 
Chicago  Times,  under  very  stringent 
provisions,  in  General  Order  No.  84, 
June  1,  1863.  August  16,  1863,  he 
marched  his  army  from  Lexington,  Ken- 
tucky, for  Knoxville ;  while  General 
Rosecrans  started  the  same  day  on  his 
march  from  Winchester,  Kentucky,  to 
Chattanooga.  It  is  said  Burnside's  cross- 
ing the  Cumberland  Mountains  with  18,- 
000  men  in  five  columns  was  a  brilliant 
and  unique  military  achievement,  cutting 
loose  from  a  base  of  supplies.  He  con- 
ceived, as  the  War  Department  files 
show,  "the  march  to  the  sea,"  afterwards 
so  skillfully  made  by  General  Sherman. 
At  Knoxville  he  was  received  with  great 
enthusiasm.  General  Longstreet  ap- 
peared near  London,  Tennessee,  and 
Burnside  drove  him  back  to  the  Tennes- 
see River  November  14;  but  on  Sunday, 
November  15,  he  lost  a  desperate  battle 
with  Longstreet  at  Lenoir  Station,  near 
Knoxville.  Longstreet  pursued  and  they 
fought  a  third  battle,  Monday,  November 
16,  at  Campbell  Station.  Burnside  again 
retreated,  and  had  to  fight  a  fourth  battle 
near  Lenoir,  still  retreating  on  Monday; 
on  Tuesday  he  fought  a  fifth  battle,  near 
Knoxville.  Five  hard  battles  in  four 
days  is  greatly  to  General  Burnside's 
credit  as  a  soldier.  Longstreet  drove  him 
back  on  Knoxville,  which  was  beseiged 
November  17,  1863.  After  seven  as- 
saults and  counter-assaults  for  several 
days,  the  great  battle  was  fought  Sun- 
day morning,  November  29.  One  of  the 
most  terrible  hand-to-hand  struggles  oc- 
cnred  with  a  storming  party  of  veterans 
of  Lee's.  Jackson's  and  Longstreet's 
forces.  It  is  said  that  clubbed  muskets, 
bayonets,  sabers,  even  spades  and  axes, 
were  employed  in  the  dreadful  work,  and 
not  a  score  of  the  storming  party  es- 
caped. General  Longstreet  lost  the  bat- 
tle rind  General  Bnrnside  permitted  "him 


14 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


to  take  away  his  wounded  and  bury  his 
dead.  Major-General  John  G.  Foster 
succeeded  to  command,  and  General 
Burnside  returned  to  Washington. 

There  he  was  ordered  to  recruit  and 
fill  up  the  depleted  Ninth  Army  Corps, 
and  he  returned  to  Providence  with  his 
wife.  April  11,  1864,  he  returned  to  An- 
napolis and  took  command  of  the  Ninth 
Corps,  nearly  25,000  strong.  Then  came 
the  fierce  battles  of  the  Wilderness  and 
Cold  Harbor;  and  then  the  defeat  and 
retreat  of  the  Ninth  Corps,  after  hard 
fighting,  at  Fredericksburg,  July  30, 

1864.  Again  General  Burnside  was  re- 
lieved from  duty  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  by  Lieutenant-General  Grant, 
at  the  request  of  General  Meade,  who 
also  preferred  charges  against  him  for  a 
court-martial,  on  the  grounds  of  alleged 
"disobedience  of  orders"  and  "conduct 
prejudicial  to  good   order  and  military 
discipline."      General    Grant    refused   a 
court-martial  on  such  frivolous  charges. 
But  General  Meade  insisted  on  a  court 
of  enquiry,  which,  after  17  days  of  offi- 
cial   red    tape    and   general    dreariness, 
made  "findings"  that  were  nullified  by  the 
statement:    "The  court  is  satisfied  and 
believes  that  the  measures  taken  by  him 
would  insure  success." 

Relieved  of  military  service,  General 
Burnside  became  engaged  in  railroad 
construction  and  operation.  In  May, 

1865,  he  was  made  a  director  of  the  Illi- 
nois    Central    Railroad     Company,     of 
which  he  had  been  treasurer  when  the 
war  broke  out.     In  1865  he  was  elected 
president  of   a   small   railroad   running 
from  Fairland,  to  Martinsville,  Indiana, 
about  40  miles,  called  the  Cincinnati  & 
Martinsville    Railroad.      He    was    also 
president  of  the  Indianapolis  and  Vin- 
cennes  Railroad  Company  and  the  Rhode 
Island    Locomotive    Works    at    Provi- 
dence, as  well  as  a  director  in  the  Narra- 
gansett  Steamship  Company,  besides  be- 
ing governor  of  Rhode  Island. 

He  was  twice  reelected  governor  of 
Rhode  Island  on  the  Republican  ticket, 
and  then  declined  to  run  a  fourth  time. 
He  helped  his  old  West  Point  room- 
mate, General  Harry  Heth  of  the  Con- 
federate Army,  organize  the  Norwood 


Coal  Mines,  near  Richmond,  Virginia, 
but  said :  "Every  spare  moment  is  oc- 
cupied in  superintending  the  building  of 
a  railroad  in  Illinois.  You  must  take 
entire  charge  of  the  work  in  Virginia, 
and  all  that  I  promise  to  do  is  to  honor 
your  drafts,  to  any  amount  you  may  de- 
sire to  draw  for." 

In  1868  he  became  president  of  the 
Vincennes  &  Cairo  Railroad,  whose  con- 
struction he  completed  by  leasing  it  to 
other  corporations  in  advance,  and  so 
getting  its  bonds  guaranteed.  The  surviv- 
ing officers  of  the  Ninth  Corps  formed, 
in  1869,  the  "Society  of  the  Burn- 
side  Exposition  and  Ninth  Army  Corps," 
a  permanent  association.  He  went  to 
London  on  railroad  business  in  the  fall 
of  1869,  and  went  on  to  Paris  in  1870 
and  met  Bismarck,  who  invited  him  to 
his  quarters,  and  Burnside  unofficially 
entered  Paris  as  a  peace  negotiator.  In 
January,  1875,  he  became  United  States 
Senator  from  Rhode  Island,  succeeding 
Sprague,  and  next  afternoon  the  legis- 
lators and  other  state  officers  were  in- 
vited to  a  reception  at  his  home,  No.  312 
Benefit  Street.  About  this  time  he  was 
particularly  interested  in  his  model  farm 
of  87  acres  near  Bristol,  called  "Edg- 
hill  Farm,"  after  his  father,  Edghill 
Burnside,  and  his  maternal  grandfather, 
James  Edghill.  It  was  on  a  slope  of 
ground  gently  descending  to  Mount  Hope 
Bay,  an  inlet  of  Narragansett  Bay,  and 
in  sight  of  Mount  Hope,  King  Phillip's 
stronghold,  from  which  he  was  driven 
and  killed  by  Captain  Benjamin  Church, 
commander  of  the  Rhode  Island  troops, 
in  King  Phillip's  War. 

This  farm,  its  houses,  cattle,  horses, 
and  everything  connected  with  it,  was 
the  finest  and  best  money  could  buy. 
The  General's  bob-tailed  war  charger, 
"Major,"  lived  there  peacefully  till  he 
was  30  years  old  and  was  shot  just  after 
the  General's  death,  because  he  was  suf- 
fering and  slowly  dying  from  old  age. 

General  Burnside  kept  open  house  at 
Edghill  Farm,  which  was  visited  by  a 
great  many  people,  particularly  by  his 
old  army  comrades.  In  1875  General 
Grant  was  his  guest  there  for  two  days. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


15 


and  a  clambake  was  given  in  his  honor, 
enjoyed  by  about  two  hundred  others. 

General  Burnside  took  his  seat  at  the 
beginning  of  the  first  regular  session  of 
the  44th  Congress,  December  6,  1875. 
His  wife  died  at  Edghill,  March  9,  1876. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Court  of  Im- 
peachment which  tried  General  Belknap, 
Secretary  of  War,  in  April,  1876.  He 
advocated  General  Hayes'  election  as 
President,  and  remembered  his  gallantry 
at  the  Battle  of  Sharpsbury. 

Senator  Burnside  kept  house  in  Wash- 
ington, where  his  faithful  colored  serv- 
ant followed  him.  His  hospitality  there 
was  marked. 

He  died  suddenly  at  Edghill  Farm  at 
10:55  a.  m.,  Tuesday,  September  13, 
1881,  and  his  last  funeral  rites  were 
celebrated  at  Providence  on  Friday,  Sep- 
tember 16,  1881,  the  funeral  sermon 
service  being  held  in  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church,  at  which  the  General 
worshipped,  and  the  eloquent  funeral 
oration  was  delivered  by  Reverend  Au- 
gustus Woodbury,  who  had  served  on 
General  Burnside's  staff  as  chaplain 
early  in  the  war  and  at  the  famous 
camp  of  the  First  Rhode  Island  Regi- 
ments of  Volunteers  at  Washington 
in  1861,  the  man  for  whom  "Wood- 
bury  Castle"  in  that  camp  was  named. 
A  great  many  people  of  the  Army,  of 
Congress  and  of  social  circles  attend- 
ed the  funeral.  The  American  Band 
played  "Nearer  My  God  to  Thee"  and 
a  farewell  artillery  salute  was  fired  by 
Battery  A. 

On  Monday,  January  23,  1882,  the 
United  States  Senate  galleries  were 
crowded  while  the  Senate  did  honor 
to  the  deceased  Senator  from  Rhode 
Island.  His  desk  was  decorated  with 


a  beautiful  floral  tribute.  No  business 
was  transacted,  and  Senators  from 
North,  South,  East  and  West  vied  with 
one  another  in  eloquent  praise  of  Gen- 
eral, Governor  and  Senator  Burnside, 
as  man,  soldier,  statesman  and  friend. 
These  are  a  few  of  the  good  things 
said  there  and  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives : 

"He  was  a  soldier  and  a  gentleman, 
truth-teller  and  truth-lover." 

"He  was  always  sanguine  of  the  suc- 
cess of  any  cause  he  advocated,  as  he 
believed  in  the  ultimate  supremacy  of 
moral  forces  and  the  final  triumph  of 
right." 

"He  underwent  the  severest  ordeal 
of  criticism  and  came  out  of  the  fur- 
nace as  did  the  three  Hebrews  upon 
whom  the  fire  had  no  power." 

"When  victory  came  he  gave  the 
credit  to  others;  when  defeat  over- 
whelmed, he  said,  'the  fault  is  mine.' " 

"The  key  to  Burnside's  character 
was  his  big-heartedness,  and  his  un- 
faltering honesty  of  purpose." 

This  from  his  military  foe  and  his 
political  opponent,  General  Wade 
Hampton :  "His  life-long  friend,  his 
party  associates,  his  comrades  in  arms, 
the  whole  people  of  the  state  he  loved 
and  served  so  well  have  joined  in  be- 
wailing his  death  and  in  honoring  his 
memory.  They  have  worthily  bedecked 
his  tomb  with  a  wreath  of  immortelles : 
I  bring  but  a  simple  spray  of  Southern 
Cypress  to  lay  it  tenderly  and  rever- 
ently on  his  grave.  Peace  to  his  ashes, 
for  of  him  it  may  with  truth  be  said 
throughout  his  long,  varied  and  hon- 
orable career, 
"He  bore  without  reproach 
The  grand  old  name  of  gentleman." 


PUBLIC  OPINION 


What  the 


RATES  SHOULD  BE  RADICALLY 

LOWERED  ON  THE  FARMER'S 

NEAREST  FREIGHT  LINE 


Prepared  for  Committee  on  Agricul- 
ture,   Illinois    Bankers' 
Association 


By  W   H.  Miller,  Ottawa,  Illinois 

No  leading  farmer  was  ever  elected  to 
the  state  legislature  who  did  not  feel 
himself  thoroughly  competent  to  "wras- 
sle"  with  such  trifling  questions  as  those 
involved  in  the  immediate  reduction  of 
the  rates  on  every  railroad  in  the  state. 
And  he  feels  perfectly  free  to  do,  re- 
gardless of  the  fact  that  he  has  no  pro- 
prietary interest  in  the  railroad.  It  is 
true  that  the  farmer  does  own  a  road, 
doing  both  a  freight  and  passenger  bus- 
iness. Generally  speaking,  it  is  the  poor- 
est road  that  lies  out  of  doors.  It  is  the 
poorest  built  road,  generally  speaking, 
that  ever  happened.  The  road  that  the 
farmer  owns  runs  right  by  his  own 
farm.  The  freight  rates  on  it  are  so 
high  as  to  be  an  outrage.  If  the  rail- 
roads were  as  poorly  built,  kept  in  as 
poor  repair,  and  charged  such  prepos- 
terous rates,  there  would  be  a  revolution 
in  this  country.  And  we  could  have  no 
more  farmers'  institutes  until  the  farm;- 
ers  got  back  from  the  war.  This  road 
that  the  farmer  owns  is  the  common,  or 
garden  variety,  of  dirt  road,  found 
everywhere  in  America  and  Illinois.  To 
haul  wheat  over  it  for  the  average  dis- 
tance of  less  than  ten  miles  costs  $1.80 
per  ton.  The  rate  on  European  roads, 
of  the  same  class,  is  only  ten  or  twenty 
cents  per  ton.  It  costs  more  per  bushel 


World  thinks 


to  haul  wheat  the  average  distance  from 
an  American  farm  to  the  railroad  sta- 
tion than  it  does  to  transport  it  from 
New  York  to  Liverpool,  a  distance  of 
3,100  miles.  Not  being  a  high  browed 
professor  from  a  state  agricultural  col- 
lege, I  have  forgotten  the  number  of  the 
agricultural  department  bulletin  where 
I  got  the  figures.  But  they're  right.  The 
unnecessary  and  extravagant  cost  of 
haulage  on  the  poor  country  roads  of  this 
state  is  one  of  the  heaviest  taxes  that 
the  farmer  pays.  In  the  name  of  com- 
mon sense  why  don't  he  reduce  the 
freight  rate  on  the  dirt  roads  before  he 
asks  for  any  further  reduction  on  the 
iron  road.  He  owns  the  dirt  road.  He 
does  not  own  the  other.  But  he  can  only 
reduce  the  rates  on  his  own  road  by 
learning  from  the  men  who  have  re- 
duced the  rates — often  under  compulsion 
— on  the  iron  road.  He  can  do  it  by 
cutting  down  grades,  by  building  scien- 
tific and  permanent  roadbeds,  by  build- 
ing heavier  and  permanent  bridges,  by 
improving  his  motive  power  and  rolling 
stock.  The  King  road  drag  should  be 
as  common  on  the  dirt  road  as  the  hand 
car  and  section  gang  are  on  the  iron  one. 


OUR  "EMPIRE  BUILDER" 

"The  Jas.  J.  Hill  of  the  South," 
would  be  a  fitting  characterization  for 
Charles  H.  Markham,  president  of  the 
Illinois  Central  road. 

Mr.  Markham  is  unquestionably  try- 
ing to  do  for  the  South  what  "The 
Empire  Builder"  did  for  the  great 
Northwest. 

No  man  has  ever  beien  at  the  head 
of  that  railway  system  who  manifested 
such  a  keen  interest  in  the  material 


Hi 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


17 


welfare  of  Mississippi,  or  gave  more 
liberal  aid  for  the  promotion  of  its 
growth  and  prosperity. 

His  speech  at  the  Hinds  county 
court  house  Wednesday  night  was  a 
revelation  to  many  present.  He  de- 
stroyed all  common  delusions  concern- 
ing the  men  who  direct  the,  affairs  of 
the  great  common  carriers  of  the  na- 
tion. With  masterly  logic  he  showed 
how  the  welfare  of  the  individual  and 
the  transportation  system  are  indis- 
solubly  mingled,  and  one  cannot  pros- 
per without  the  other. 

There  was  no  cant  or  hypocrisy  in 
Mr.  Markham's  speech.  He  made  it 
plain  that  the  Illinois  Central  does  not 
claim  credit  for  philanthropy  in  con- 
nection with  any  of  the  good  work  it 
is  doing  in  Mississippi;  that  the  com- 
pany wants  to  see  the  people  becomes 
prosperous  because  a  prosperous  peo- 
ple will  mean  more  business  for  Mis- 
sissippi's chief  transportation  system. 
Furthermore,  het  had  no  tale  of  woe  to 
tell,  no  grievances  to  recite,  no  wrongs 
for  correction.  He  asked  only  that  a 
square  deal  be  given  the  common  car- 
riers. 

It  is  a  fact  known  to  all  who  possess 
any  acquaintance  with  the  subject  that 
the  Illinois  Central  has  spent  more 
money  advertising  the  resources  and 
opportunities  of  Mississippi  during  the 
past  five  years  than  all. other  agencies 
combined.  It  was  President  Mark- 
ham  who  created  the  policy  of  ex- 
ploitation, and  who  is  devising  new 
methods  each  year  to  bring  in  new 
settlers  for  our  vacant  lands,  and 
establish  new  industries  that  will 
manufacture  raw  products  and  give 
employment  to  our  people. 

The  Illinois  Central  is  doing  more 
than  its  share  of  this  great  work, 
thanks  to  the  energy,  sagacity  and 
progressive  spirit  of  its  president,  and 
when  the  history  of  this  new  era  of 
our  development  is  written  the 'name 
of  Charles  H.  Markham  will  be  broad- 
ly illumined  on  its  pages. — Editorial, 
Jackson  Daily  News,  Dec.  10,  1915. 


JAHNCKE'S  ELECTION 

Commodore  Ernest  Lee  Jahncke,  se- 
lected by  the  nominating  committee  to 
head  the  New  Orleans  Association  of 
Commerce  during  1916,  is  expected  to 
make  a  brilliant  record  as  president  of 
the  local  organization  of  business  inter- 
ests. Comment  heard  since  it  became 
known  that  Commodore  Jahncke  would 
be  selected  to  head  the  administration 
ticket,  is  indicative  of  the  high  regard 
he  is  held  in  by  the  business  men  of 
New  Orleans  and  Louisiana. 

The  selection  of  Commodore  Jahncke 
is  deemed  most  logical  by  the  member- 
ship of  the  New  Orleans  Association  of 
Commerce,  and  there  is  scant  doubt  but 
that  he  will  be  inducted  into  office  on 
January  10,  1916,  without  any  sem- 
blance of  opposition.  Under  the  demo- 
cratic charter  of  the  Association  of 
Commerce,  offices  are  left  open  for  the 
approval  of  the  whole  membership. 
Special  nominations  may  be  made  by 
petition  over  the  signatures  of  twenty- 
five  members  in  good  standing,  and  the 
petition  must  be  presented  to  the  gen- 
eral manager,  according  to  the  by-laws 
of  the  association,  not  later  than  Decem- 
ber 23. 

In  selecting  Commodore  Jahncke  from 
the  large  and  representative  list  of  avail- 
able candidates,  the  nominating  commit- 
tee was  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  to 
serve  the  best  interests  of  the  communi- 
ty. Commodore  Jahncke's  standing  in 
the  business  and  social  life  of  the  com- 
munity is  such  as  to  merit  universal  ap- 
probation, and  his  untiring  efforts  to  aid 
New  Orleans  and  Louisiana  in  the  on- 
ward march,  make  him  a  man  peculiarly 
fitted  to  head  an  organization  such  as 
the  New  Orleans  Association  of  Com- 
merce. 

Commodore  Jahncke  -has  always  been 
affiliated  with  the  best  interests  of  New 
Orleans.  As  head  of  the  Southern  Yacht 
Club,  member  of  the  other  leading  so- 
cial organizations  of  the  city,  and  one 
of  the  foremost  business  men  of  Louisi- 
ana, he  is  expected  to  direct  the  destinies 
of  the  Association  of  Commerce  in  a 
most  aggressive,  businesslike  manner. 
Although  one  of  the  youngest  of  the 


18 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


more  prominent  business  men  of  New 
Orleans,  he  has  always  taken  a  leading 
part  in  its  affairs,  and  he  enjoys  the  hon- 
or and  distinction  of  having  been  made 
king  of  the  New  Orleans  Carnival  dur- 
ing the  season  of  1915. — New  Orleans 
American,  Dec.  5,  1915. 


the  railroad  people  are  to  continue  into 
1916. — The  Waterloo  Times-Tribune, 
Wednesday  Morning,  December  15, 
1915. 


I.   C.   CHRISTMAS   PACKAGE 
READY 


Biggest  Semi-Monthly  Pay  Roll  Dis- 
tributed in  Waterloo  Will  be  Paid 
to  1,500  Employes  of  The 
Road  Saturday 


A  Christmas  package  of  $62,500  will 
be  distributed  by  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  Saturday  to  its  1,555 
employes  in  Waterloo.  It  will  be  the 
largest  semi-monthly  pay  roll  ever 
disbursed  by  the  company  in  this 
city.  The  November  total  of  $112,914 
is  also  the  greatest  on  record.  Com- 
pared with  one  of  the  big  months  of 
past  years,  that  of  November,  1911, 
when  995  employes  received  $81,889.89, 
the  big  increase  is  apparent.  The 
checks  given  out  Saturday  will  be  im- 
mediately turned  into  the  regular  chan- 
nels of  trade  and  should  give  a  big 
impetus  to  retail  buying. 

The  Illinois  Central  has  been  stead- 
ily enlarging  its  force  of  employes  in 
Waterloo  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
coming  year  will  see  the  record  estab- 
lished by  the  November  pay  roll  sur- 
passed. Freight  traffic  was  excep- 
tionally heavy  last  month  and  many 
of  the  regular  engine  and  train  crews 
turned  in  record  mileage.  The  force 
of  machinists,  boilermakers,  car  re- 
pairers and  other  crafts  employed  at 
the  local  shops  is  now  larger  than  ever 
before. 

During  the  past  summer  the  shops 
have  been  operated  practically  on  full 
time  while  many  of  the  big  roads  of 
the  country  worked  with  only  a  por- 
tion of  their  regular  force  and  then  on 
reduced  time.  The  last  six  months  of 
1915  have  witnessed  a  steady  increase 
in  the  pay  roll  of  the  "Old  Reliable" 
and  from  all  indications  good  times  for 


GOVERNOR    BILBO    FRIENDLY 
TO  CAPITAL 

Jackson,  Miss.  Dec.  3 — That  busi- 
ness interest  will  have  his  close  study 
and  that  he  will  do  everything  possible 
to  court  the  friendship  of  business  men 
and  influence  legislation  to  their  inter- 
ests in  all  legitimate  ways,  was  the  dec- 
laration made  here  this  afternoon  by 
Governor-elect  Theo.  G.  Bilbo,  in  ad- 
dress before  fifty  prominent  citizens  at 
a  luncheon  given  in  compliment  to  C. 
H.  Markham,  president  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad. 

Mr.  Bilbo,  in  his  speech,  gave  a  few 
glimpses  into  portions  of  his  first  mes- 
sage to  the  legislature  and  stated  that 
it  would  be  in  the  nature  of  a  message 
to  the  business  men  of  the  state.  He 
stated  that  he  would  recommend  a  de- 
partment of  immigration  and  publicity, 
and  the  sending  of  men  into  the  West 
and  North  under  state  expense  to  tell 
outsiders  of  the  wonderful  opportuni- 
ties for  investment  in  farming  lands  in 
Mississippi.  He  expressed  the  hope 
that  during  his  administration  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people 
would  move  to  Mississippi  and  help 
develop  her  natural  resources. 

Mr.  Bilbo  told  his  hearers  that  he 
had  never  been  antagonistic  to  rail- 
roads or  other  big  business,  and  frank- 
ly confessed  that  there  were  many  in- 
dustrial and  big  business  problems 
which  he  did  not  understand,  but 
stated  that  he  would  be  a  student,  and 
was  willing  to  learn  from  business  men 
those  things  that  would  enable  him  to 
act  wisely  and  well  in  his  attempt  to 
give  the  state  a  business  administra- 
tion.— The  Gloster  (Miss.)  Record, 
December  17,  1915. 


WHAT  CREAMERIES  DO 

A  statement  full  of  interest  and  val- 
uable data  has  been  issued  telling  of 
the  doings  of  the  Jackson  and  West 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


co-operative  creameries  at  the  close  of 
their  first  year  of  business. 

The  Jackson  creamery  began  busi- 
ness one  year  ago  with  17  patrons, 
made  1,957  pounds  of  butter  the  first 
month,  and  has  gradually  increased  its 
patronage  until  the  twelfth  month  it 
has  220  patrons  and  made  12,686 
pounds  of  butter. 

During  the  first  twelve  months  of 
business  it  made  a  total  of  106,265 
pounds  of  butter  and  paid  out  to  farm- 
ers of  the  territory  $30,095.66. 

That  at  West,  which  also  began  a 
little  more  than  a  year  ago,  had  53 
patrons  the  first  month  and  made  1,300 
pounds  of  butter.  The  twelfth  month 
it  had  279  patrons  and  made  15,562 
pounds  of  butter.  The  output  for  the 
year  was  128,187  pounds  of  butter  and 
$28,666.32  paid  to  the  farmers  of  the 
territory  for  butter  fats. 

Neither  of  the  plants  gives  a  finan- 
cial statement,  but  does  recite  in  each 
instance  that  the  demand  for  butter  is 
far  larger  than  the  supply  and  that  the 
business  at  both  the  supply  and  sale 
ends  of  the  line  is  increasing  all  the 
time. 

Both  creameries  are,  or  were  for  the 
first  year,  under  the  supervision  of  ex- 
perts furnished  and  paid  by  the  I.  C. 
railroad,  and  are  regarded  as  the  best 
and  most  helpful  enterprises  that  could 
be  started  for  the  benefit  of  the  farm- 
ing communities.  —  Water  Valley 
(Miss.)  Progress,  December,  18,  1915. 


EDITORIAL 

Illinois  Central  is  now  doing  the  larg- 
est business  in  its  history,  and  handling 
it  efficiently  with  a  thousand  cars  less 
than  it  owns.  Congestion  of  traffic  at 
eastern  ports,  and  other  operating  diffi- 
culties, have  prevented  return  to  the  Illi- 
nois Central  of  great  numbers  of  its  cars, 
and  the  result  is  that  the  rolling  stock 
now  on  the  company's  lines  is  far  less 
under  the  road's  own  complement.  The 
Illinois  Central  management  took  early 
measures  to  prevent  congestion  at  New 
Orleans,  the  only  point  at  which  anything 
of  that  kind  was  to  be  feared,  and  the 
order  was  sent  out  that  shipments  of 


grain  should  be  discouraged,  and  the  ton- 
nage left  at  interior  points  where  there 
were  adequate  facilities  for  its  storage. 
Illinois  Central,  with  its  subsidiary,  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley,  is  now  doing 
a  business  which  is  $1,000,000  a  month 
greater  than  a  year  ago,  and  handling  it 
at  $100,000  a  month  less  transportation 
cost.  Last  year's  annual  report  showed 
such  a  large  gain-  in  the  average  train 
load  as  surprised  railroad  men  all  over 
the  country,  and  there  will  be  an  even 
greater  surprise  in  the  road's  operating 
efficiency  when  the  full  results  for  the 
present  fiscal  year  are  disclosed. — Wall 
Street  Journal,  New  York,  December  22, 
1915. 


SHYSTER  LAWYERS 
CONDEMNED 

Lawyers,  who  respect  their  profession, 
have  been  observing  for  some  time  the 
practice  of  certain  shyster  legal  firms  in 
the  twin  cities,  who  have  been  engaged  in 
"ambulance  chasing"  on  a  large  and  im- 
proved scale. 

There  has  been  much  complaint  about 
our  legal  procedure  in  late  years.  There 
has  been  too  much  liberty  given  lawyers 
and  not  sufficient  guarantee  of  justice 
given  the  man  on  trial.  Such  proceed- 
ings as  carried  on  by  the  gang  of  shys- 
ters in  St.  Paul,  have  had  a  lot  to  do 
with  criticism  of  our  courts. 

It  has  been  the  business  and  practice 
of  these  lawyers  to  send  solicitors  into 
surrounding  states  to  drum  up  business 
against  corporations  doing  an  interstate 
commerce  and  take  their  actions,  mostly 
damage  cases,  some  good,  some  bad, 
some  indifferent,  into  Minnesota  courts. 
These  lawyers  have  not  only  preyed  up- 
on the  defendants  in  their  actions,  but 
they  also  victimized  the  plaintiffs,  unused 
to  legal  procedure,  by  methods  that 
would  do  credit  to  cheap  confidence  men 
— as  well  do  they  prey  upon  the  wit- 
nesses who  must  journey  from  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Nebraska,  Wisconsin,  the  Dakotas, 
leave  their  work  for  days  and  weeks,  to 
be  present  at  court;  certainly  an  un- 
warranted injustice. 

Iowa  courts  have  become  disgusted 
with  the  activities  of  these  shysters;  as 


20 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


ethical  lawyers  have.  Judge  Maxwell  of 
Union  county  has  taken  note  of  this  ir- 
regular and  grafting  business  and  has 
officially  rebuked  the  shysters  by  perma- 
nently enjoining  them  from  prosecuting 
a  personal  injury  case  in  the  Minnesota 
courts  and  rushing  Iowa  men  to  a  for- 
eign state  at  great  cost  to  them  in  time 
and  money.  Commenting  on  the  case 
Judge  Maxwell  said :  "It  is  shown  by  the 
evidence  here  that  the  defendant's  at- 
torneys *  *  *  have  one  or  more  solicitors 
in  their  employ  in  this  state,  and  that 
said  firm  has  pending  in  the  courts  of 
Ramsey  and  Hennepin  counties  in  Min- 
nesota, thirty-two  such  cases  which 
arose  in  Iowa,  for  residents  of  Iowa, 
wherein  the  aggregate  amount  sought  to 
be  recovered  is  more  than  $550,000,  and 
some  twenty  cases  from  other  outside 
states  where  the  aggregate  amount 
claimed  is  more  than  $295,000." 

Judge  Maxwell  quotes  a  long  list  of 
decisions  sustaining  his  action.  Thus  he 
not  only  protects  the  good  name  of  the 
law  but  he  protects  all  parties  from  the 
shysters.  No  lowan  having  a  legitimate 
claim  to  damages  of  any  character  will 
suffer  by  having  his  case  handled  by  Iowa 
lawyers  in  Iowa  courts. — The  Waterloo 
(la.)  Times-Tribune,  December  29, 1915. 


JACKSON     "WRITE     UP"     AT- 
TRACTS ATTENTION 


Appeared  in   50,000   Issue   of   Illinois 
Central  Magazine  for  December 

The  December  number  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Magazine,  fifty  thou- 
sand of  which  are  being  circulated 
throughout  the  country,  particularly  in 
the  North  and  West,  is  meeting  with  fa- 
vorable comment  from  the  press. 

Inasmuch  as  this  month's  issue  is  de- 
voted almost  entirely  to  Jackson  and 
vicinity  very  naturally  the  good  points 
and  features  of  this  city  and  section  will 
be  placed  before  the  eyes  of  thousands 
of  people,  many  of  whom  may  be  look- 
ing this  way  either  to  invest  or  settle  in 
this  section. 

It  is  hoped  that  great  numbers  of  stur- 
dy and  industrious  people  from  the 


northern  section  of  the  country  will  come 
to  this  section,  where  they  can  buy  good 
lands  much  cheaper  and  live  much  more 
comfortably  and  economically. 

If  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
prospective  investors  and  homeseekers  in 
the  overcrowded  Northern  States,  where 
lands  have  gone  out  of  sight  in  price, 
knew  about  the  splendid  advantages  to 
be  enjoyed  here  they  would  come  down 
in  great  numbers. 

It  is  being  suggested  that  the  next 
Legislature  make  some  adequate  provi- 
sion for  advertising  this  State  through- 
out this  country  and  the  Dominion  of 
Canada. 

The  "write-up"  in  the  Illinois  Central 
Magazine  for  this  month  is  a  step  in  the 
right  direction  and  will  do  great  good. 

Speaking  of  this  magazine  and  the 
write-up  of  Jackson,  the  Peoria  Journal, 
of  Peoria,  Illinois,  in  its  issue  of  Decem- 
ber 23,  had  the  following  complimentary 
notice : 

"The  December  number  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Magazine  has  just  been  distrib- 
uted and  is  fully  up  to  the  usual  excellent 
standard  of  that  publication.  The  feature 
of  the  issue  is  a  story  of  Jackson,  Miss., 
described  as  "the  commercial,  education- 
al and  social  center  of  the  State."  James 
B.  Lusk,  secretary  of  the  Jackson  Board 
of  Trade,  is  the  writer.  The  story  is 
profusely  illustrated  with  cuts  of  Jack- 
son's buildings,  residences  and  streets. 
There  are  a  number  of  other  interesting 
stories  and  features  in  the  December 
number." — Jackson,  Miss.,  Ledger,  Dec. 
28,  1915. 


WAGE    VIGOROUS    WARFARE 
AGAINST  PETTY  LITI- 
GATION 

Quite  a  large  number  of  the  most  rep- 
resentative business  men  of  the  city  of 
Meridian,  Mississippi,  have  launched  a 
timely  movement  for  the  purpose  of  rid- 
ding that  city  'and  county  of  the  multi- 
plicity of  the  petty  suit  litigation  filed  in 
the  courts  over  there,  which  are  driving 
the  investment  of  capital  in  manufactur- 
ing industries  away  from  the  State  of 
Mississippi. 

As  will  be  observed  by  reading  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


21 


news  items  which  we  publish  on  the  first 
p/ige  of  this  issue  of  The  Commonwealth, 
from  a  recent  issue  of  the  Meridian  Dis- 
patch, the  business  men  of  that  city  find 
it  necessary  to  hold  meetings  and  protest 
against  this  obnoxious  incubus  which  is 
absolutely  playing  havoc  with  the  mate- 
rial advancement  and  progress  of  our  be- 
loved State. 

There  is  no  question  but  that  the  vast 
amount  of  useless  and  unmerited  litiga- 
tion throughout  the  state  is  doing  us 
greater  damage  just  now  than  all  of  our 
other  hindrances  combined,  and  the  busi- 
ness men  of  every  city  and  town  and 
community  in  our  grand  old  common- 
wealth should  get  together,  as  have  the 
business  men  of  Meridian,  and  severely 
condemn  the  motives  behind  these  sense- 
less and  unjust  suits  for  imaginary  dam- 
ages against  corporations,  and  request 
the  Legislature  to  repeal  all  legislation 
that  in  the  least  gives  a  semblance  of 
grounds  for  the  filing  of  such  suits  in  the 
courts. 


The  Commonwealth  is  not  in  any  sense 
the  apologist  of  corporations,  except  in 
cases  where  they  are  being  unjustly  im- 
posed upon  by  unscrupulous  and  design- 
ing individuals,  who  prey  upon  the  pre- 
judices and  passions  of  the  ignorant  by 
inflaming  their  minds  with  the  infamous 
idea  that  simply  because  it  happens  to  be 
a  corporation  which  is  being  sued  that 
damages  should  be  given  regardless  of 
the  merits  of  the  case  at  issue.  We  be- 
lieve in  requiring  corporations  as  well  as 
individuals  to  do  right  in  all  their  deal- 
ings with  the  people,  but  when  either 
corporation  or  individual  is  being  liter- 
ally "held  up"  we  shall  always  insist  up- 
on calling  a  halt. 

In  the  name  of  right  and  justice,  in  the 
interest  of  the  material  welfare  and 
progress  of  Mississippi,  and  for  the  good 
of  future  generations,  let  us  all  join 
forces  with  the  business  men  of  Meridian 
in  their  commendable  efforts  to  stamp 
out  the  ever  increasing  petty  litigation  in 
the  courts  of  Mississippi. — Greenwood 
Commonwealth,  Dec.  10,  1915. 


Appointments  and  Promotions 

Effective  January  1,  1916,  the  firm  of  Mayes,  Wells,  May  &  Sanders,  con- 
sisting of  Robert  B.  Mayes,  Ben  H.  Wells,  Geo.  W.  May  and  J.  O.  S.  Sanders, 
has  been  appointed  District  Attorneys  for  this  Company  in  Mississippi  and 
Local  Attorneys  for  Hinds  County,  Mississippi. 

Effective  January  1,  1916,  the  firm  of  Mayes  &  Mayes,  consisting  of  Edward 
Mayes,  Lucius  L.  Mayes  and  Basil  L.  Mayes,  has  been  appointed  Special 
Attorneys  for  this  Company  in  Mississippi.  They  will  perform  such  work 
as  may  be  assigned  to  them  by  the  General  Solicitor. 

Effective  January  1,  1916,  the  firm  of  Mayes,  Wells,  May  &  Sanders,  con- 
sisting of  Robert  B.  Mayes,  Ben  H.  Wells,  Geo.  W.  May  and  J.  O.  S.  Sanders, 
has  been  appointed  District  Attorneys  for  this  Company  in  the  counties  of 
Adams,  Amite,  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Carroll,  Claiborne,  Copiah,  Grenada, 
Hinds,  Holmes,  Madison,  Warren,  Wilkinson  and  Yazoo,  in  Mississippi,  and 
Local  Attorneys  for  Hinds  County,  Mississippi. 

Effective  January  1,  1916,  the  firm  of  Mayes  &  Mayes,  consisting  of  Edward 
Mayes,  Lucius  L.  Mayes  and  Basil  L.  Mayes,  has  been  appointed  Special 
Attorneys  for  this  Company  in  Mississippi.  They  will  perform  such  work 
as  may  be  assigned  to  them  by  the  General  Solicitor. 

Effective  December  15,  1915,  Mr.  Harry  B.  Hatch  is  appointed  Freight 
and  Passenger  Agent  at  Fresno,  Cal.  Office,  Room  204  Rowell  Building. 


The  Express  Service  of  the  Illinois  Central 

By  W.  E.  Beckner,  Assistant  to  Vice- President  and  General  Manager,  American 

Express  Company,  Chicago 


While  everything  within  the  scope  of  the 
human  mind  has  had  its  beginning,  it  is 
natural  for  us  to  ac- 
cept as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  without 
more  than  a  passing 
thought,  those  features 
of  daily  life  with  which 
we  have  been  acquaint- 
ed from  our  earliest 
recollections.  This  is 
true  with  respect  to 
those  great  enterprises 

known  as  merchandising,  manufacturing, 
banking  and  transportation,  which  sprang 
from  man's  growing  consciousness  of  his 
daily  needs  and  his  unceasing  toil  by  head 
and  hand  to  supply  those  needs. 

None  the  less  truly  was  the  express  serv- 
ice born  of  necessity  and  custom,  which  it 
would  be  venturesome  to  endeavor  to  trace 
to  their  beginnings,  and,  yet,  which  we  may 
assume,  first  existed  in  the  accommodation 
and  personal  service  given  by  a  traveler  to 
his  friend  or  neighbor  at  home,  who  had 
need  to  consummate  transactions  with  other 
persons  at  the  place  to  which  the  traveler 
was  destined. 

This  grew  in  time  into  a  custom  of  those 
in  charge  of  public  conveyances,  which 
made  regular  trips  between  communities, 
undertaking  to  carry  parcels  and  perform 
commissions  of  special  service.  Less  than 
a  century  ago  the  public  vehicle  of  land 
travel  was  the  stage  coach,  and  by  degrees 
it  became  the  custom  for  the  stage  drivers 
to  perform  special  services  for  the  people 
along  their  routes. 

At  the  same  time  there  continued  the 
custom  of  travelers  conveying  packages  and 
performing  commissions  for  their  friends 
and  neighbors,  often  to  the  extent  of  being 
entrusted  with  considerable  sums  of  money 
by  merchants,  who  had  bills  to  pay,  or  by 
bankers,  who  had  credits  to  maintain  with 
their  correspondents.  If  a  person  were  go- 
ing to  New  York,  or  any  of  the  then  larger 
commercial  centers,  it  was  usually  known  a 
week  or  two  in  advance,  and  his  friends 
and  acquaintances  would  not  only  send 
their  own  parcels  by  him,  but  refer  others 
to  the  traveler  as  likely  to  accommodate 
them  also.  Thus  it  became  a  not  unusual 
custom  to  entrust  valuable  packages  to 
parties  who  were  personally  unknown  to 
the  forwarder,  but  who  were  introduced  by 
some  mutual  friend — a  degree  of  confidence 


that  no  doubt  was  frequently  abused,  and 
gave  rise  to  a  demand  for  a  method  afford- 
ing greater  responsibility  and  protection. 

It  was  not  long  until  a  new  means  of 
travel  made  its  appearance,  and  rapidly  sup- 
planted the  stage  coach  in  public  favor  and 
usefulness.  The  railroad  and  railroad  train 
crowded  the  stage  coach  from  the  field  of 
action,  and  with  the  stage  coach  went  the 
stage  driver,  but  the  system  of  special  trans- 
portation and  agency  service  did  not  dis- 
appear, but  continued  in  public  usefulness. 

It  was  in  1839  that  William  F.  Harnden, 
a  young  man  but  twenty-eight  years  of  age, 
perceived  the  opportunity  of  adapting  the 
stage  driver's  system  of  special  transporta- 
tion to  the  newer  means  of  travel  which  the 
railroad  and  the  railroad  train  afforded,  and 
accordingly,  only  a  little  over  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  ago,  the  express  service 
was  established  by  Harnden,  through  the 
medium  of  regular  trips  between  New  York 
and  Boston.  At  first  the  volume  of  busi- 
ness was  easily  within  the  compass  of  the 
carpet  bag  carried  by  Harnden,  but  the 
facilities  afforded  quickly  found  recognition 
by  the  public,  and  the  organizations  which 
conducted  it  soon  multiplied  and  rapidly 
extended  the  fields  of  their  operation. 
Other  men  engaged  in  the  new  line  of  busi- 
ness, partnerships  were  formed,  and  routes 
established  between  all  principal  points,  and 
to  the  then  Western  frontier. 

In  1841,  Henry  Wells,  then  the  agent  of 
Harnden  at  Albany,  with  George  Pomeroy, 
a  western  freight  and  passenger  forwarder, 
established,  in  the  name  of  Pomeroy  & 
Company,  an  express  route  from  Albany 
to  Buffalo,  which  was  in  part  by  railroad, 
in  part  by  stage  and  partly  by  private  con- 
veyance, the  trip  of  300  miles  each  way,  and 
but  once  a  week,  occuping  four  nights  and 
three  days,  which  distance  is  now  covered 
by  the  Twentieth  Century  train  in  approxi- 
mately six  hours.  Thus  was  established 
the  business  organization  now  conducted  by 
the  American  Express  Company.  In  the 
course  of  a  few  years  the  firm  name  was 
altered  to  Livingston,  Wells  &  Pomeroy, 
and  later  to  Livingston,  Wells  &  Company. 

The  government  was  then  charging  25 
cents  for  a  single  letter  between  New  York 
and  Buffalo.  Livingston,  Wells  &  Company 
advertised  to  perform  the  same  service  for 
six  cents.  The  express  messengers  were 
repeatedly  arrested  for  alleged  violation  of 
the  postal  laws,  but  in  every  instance  cit- 


23 


24 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


izens  stood  ready  to  furnish  the  necessary 
bail,  and,  in  fact,  so  great  was  public  opin- 
ion against  the  government  postage  rate 
that  the  next  Congress  was  moved  to  re- 
duce it  to  about  one-fourth.  The  country, 
therefore,  owes  to  the  express  service  one 
of  the  most  important  reforms  experienced 
by  the  mercantile  world. 

In  1845  Henry  Wells  and  William  G. 
Fargo,  under  the  name  of  Wells  &  Com- 
pany, established  an  express  service  from 
Buffalo  to  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  Chicago 
and  intermediate  points.  At  that  time  there 
were  no  railroad  facilities  west  of  Buffalo, 
and  express  shipments  were  transported  by 
stage  or  on  lake  or  river  boats.  The  fol- 
lowing year  Mr.  Wells  retired,  and  the 
business  was  conducted  under  the  name  of 
Livingston  &  Fargo. 

The  two  organizations  east  and  west  of 
Buffalo  were  operated  in  conjunction,  and 
in  1850  were  consolidated  as  the  American 
Express  Company,  the  new  concern  taking 
over  the  business  of  Butterfield,  Wasson 
&  Company,  which  had  established  service 
on  the  New  York  Central  Railroad.  Dur- 
ing the  succeeding  decade  just  preceding 
the  Civil  War  the  service  of  the  new  com- 
pany was  extended  through  the  rapidly  de- 
veloping central  states.  It  was,  therefore, 
befitting  that  upon  the  completion  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  in  1856  the  service 
of  the  American  Express  Company  should 
be  placed  thereon. 

In  1866  the  Merchants  Union  Express 
Company  was  organized,  but  after  oper- 
ating for  a  period  of  two  years  became 
stranded  through  reckless  expenditures.  A 
consolidation  was  thereupon  effected  in 
1868  between  the  American  Express  Com- 
pany and  the  Merchants  Union  Express 
Company,  under  the  name  of  the  American 
Merchants  Union  Express  Company,  with 
a  capitalization  of  $18,000,000,  which  has 
not  been  increased  in  nearly  a  half  century. 
The  name  of  the  Company  was  again 
changed  in  1873  to  that  of  the  American 
Express  Company. 

The  history  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road is  perhaps  too  well  known  to  the  read- 
ers of  this  magazine  to  require  more  than 
passing  mention.  Originally  projected  as 
part  of  a  through  line  from  Chicago  to 
Mobile,  it  was  incorporated  in  1851,  and 
completed  in  1856  between  Cairo  and 
Galena,  with  a  branch  from  Centralia  to 
Chicago.  The  nearest  to  a  connection  with 
the  Mobile  &  Ohio  Railroad  was  at  Colum- 
bus, Ky.,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  twenty 
miles  below  Cairo,  and  it  was  not  until 
1873  that  the  Mississippi  Central  built  a 
connecting  line  from  Jackson,  Tenn.,  to  the 
Ohio  River,  opposite  Cairo,  which,  with  the 
main  line  of  the  Mississippi  Central  from 
Jackson  south  and  the  New  Orleans,  Jack- 
son &  Northern  gave  a  through  rail  line 
from  Chicago  to  New  Orleans.  Tn  18T6  the 


two  latter  roads  were  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  receiver,  and  after  two  years  became 
practically  the  Illinois  Central,  although 
operated  under  the  name  of  the  Chicago. 
St.  Louis  &  New  Orleans,  until  1883,  when 
they  were  taken  over  as  the  Southern  Lines 
of  the  Illinois  Central. 

Previous  to  the  late  unpleasantness  be- 
tween the  states  the  American  Express 
company  had  not  extended  its  service  south 
of  the  Ohio  River,  and  the  occasion  of  that 
conflict  brought  forth  a  new  express  car- 
rier in  the  south,  known  as  the  Southern 
Express  Company.  So  it  was  on  the  ab- 
sorption of  its  Southern  Lines  the  Illinois 
Central  had  the  Southern  Express  Com- 
pany serving  its  patrons  in  that  territory 
and  the  American  Express  Company  on 
its  Northern  Lines,  and  this  condition  ob- 
tained for  a  number  of  years.  However, 
it  seemed  proper,  not  only  in  the  interests 
of  the  people  along  the  line,  but  also  from 
an  operating  standpoint,  that  the  express 
service  should  be  handled  by  one  company, 
and  to  that  end  the  American  was  awarded 
the  contract,  and  on  April  1,  1893,  extended 
its  service  through  to  New  Orleans,  follow- 
ing on  the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Lines 
on  January  1,  1894. 

The  American  Express  Company  is  an 
active  feeder  to  the  express  earnings  of 
the  Illinois  Central,  through  its  perform- 
ance of  the  express  service  of  the  following 
principal  railroads: 

New  York  Central  Lines. 

Michigan  Central. 

Cleveland,     Cincinnati,     Chicago     &     St. 
Louis. 

New  York,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis. 

Chicago,  Indianapolis  &  Louisville. 

Chicago  &  Northwestern. 

Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  &  Omaha. 

Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific. 

Chicago  &  Alton. 

Union  Pacific  System. 

Missouri,    Kansas   &  Texas. 

New  Orleans,  Texas  &  Mexico. 

Louisiana  Railway  &  Navigation  Com- 
pany. 

Tennessee  Central. 

Its  business  from  New  York  and  other 
eastern  coast  cities  is  handled  in  through 
cars  carried  on  fast  express  trains  of  the 
Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Chicago  &  St.  Louis 
Railway,  which  cars  are  placed  on  the  rails 
of  the  Illinois  Central  at  Mattoon,  and  af- 
ford an  expedited  express  service  to  the 
many  commercial  cities  of  the  South.  This 
system  of  through  cars  between  important 
centers  on  different  lines  of  railroad  is  one 
that  was  inaugurated  by  the  American  Ex- 
press Company,  and  affords  a  more  prompt 
and  efficient  service  to  its  patrons,  through 
the  elimination  of  frequent  transfers  and 
consequent  damages  to  freight. 

At  the  present  time  the  American  Ex- 
press Company  maintains  o.ver  10",00*0 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


25 


offices,  carries  over  30,000  employes  on  its 
payroll,  and  operates  the  express  service  on 
nearly  75,000  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  extending  from  Vance- 
boro,  Maine,  to  San  Pedro,  Calv,  from 
Washington,  D.  C.,  to  Victoria,  B.  C.,  and 
from  Winnipeg  to  New  Orleans  and  Gal- 
veston. 

The  chief  executive  officer  of  the  Com- 
pany is  George  C.  Taylor,  President,  65 
Broadway,  New  York.  Mr.  Taylor  has 
been  identified  with  the  American  Express 
Company's  service  iri  the  South  for  the 
past  twenty-three  years,  and  is  personally 
known  to  the  great  majority  of  the  ex- 
clusive employes  on  the  Illinais  Central 
Lines,  as  well  as  to  many  of  its  joint  rep- 
resentatives, by  all  of  whom  he  is  greatly 
admired  by  reason  of  his  personality,  his 
high  sense  of  honor  in  his  dealings  with  the 
public  and  with  the  Company's  employes, 
and  for  his  thorough  knowledge  of  the  busi- 
ness and  efficient  manner  of  handling  the 
many  problems  coming  before  him. 

Mr.  Taylor  is  ably  assisted  by  Francis 
F.  Flagg,  senior  Vice-President,  whose  ex- 
perience as  an  executive  of  the  company 
extends  over  a  period  of  many  years;  also 
by  H.  K.  Brooks,  Vice-President,  in  charge 
of  the  Financial  Department;  D.  S.  Elliott, 
Vice-President,  in  charge  of  Traffic,  and 


Harry  Gee,  General  Manager  of  the  For- 
eign Department. 

The  Operating  Department  is  divided  be- 
tween the  Eastern  and  Western  lines,  he 
latter  embracing  all  of  the  territory  west 
of  Buffalo  and  Pittsburgh  to  the  Pacific 
Coast,  and  from  the  Canadian  Provinces 
to  the  Gulf.  The  administration  of  the 
Company's  affairs  in  this  vast  empire  is  in 
charge  of  J.  A.  D.  Vickers,  Vice-President 
and  General  Manager,  with  headquarters  at 
Chicago. 

The  Western  Lines  are  in  turn  divided 
into  four  Departments,  in  charge  of  Man- 
agers, one  each  at  Cleveland,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis  and  Salt  Lake  City.  The  express 
business  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  from 
Chicago  to  St.  Louis,  Centralia  and  Evans- 
ville  is  in  charge  of  W.  A.  Naylor,  Manager 
of  the  Northwestern  Department,  Chicago, 
and  in  turn  under  the  direct  supervision  of 
C.  S.  Taylor,  Superintendent,  whose  head- 
quarters are  also  located  in  that  city. 

The  express  service  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral lines  south  of  St.  Louis,  Centralia, 
Evansville  and  Louisville,  together  with  the 
Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley,  is  under  the 
direction  of  the  Southern  Department, 
which  also  embraces  the  Southern  Lines  of 
the  Rock  Island ;  the  Chicago  &  Alton  west 
of  Roodhouse  and  St.  Louis ;  the  Missouri, 


AMERICAN  EXPRESS   COMPANY'S  DEPOT,   CHICAGO,   ILL. 


26 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Kansas  &  Texas;  Kansas  City,  Mexico  & 
Orient;  New  Orleans,  Texas  &  Mexico; 
Louisiana  Railway  &  Navigation  Company, 
and  other  smaller  tributary  lines.  This 
department  is  in  charge  of  C.  D.  Summy, 
Manager,  St.  Louis,  who  also  has  been 
connected  with  the  Company's  service  in 
the  South  during  the  past  twenty-three 
years.  The  direct  supervision  of  the  ex- 
press business  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines 
in  Illinois  south  of  St.  Louis  and  Centralia 
is  vested  in  H.  H.  Meek,  Superintendent, 
Kansas  City,  and  of  all  lines  of  the  Illinois 
Central  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  including 
the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley,  in  E.  K. 
Stone,  Jr.,  Superintendent,  at  Memphis. 

Express  service  is  exclusively  an  Amer- 
ican institution.  No  other  country  has  any- 
thing like  it.  What  is  known  as  express 
traffic  in  this  country  is  handled  in  Europe 
through  the  medium  of  the  parcel  post,  up 
to  a.  limit  of  eleven  pounds.  Shipments 
above  that  weight  and  under  one  hundred 
pounds,  are  usually  forwarded  via  fast  or 
slow  freight  service,  the  so-called  fast 
freight  service  of  Europe  being  consider- 
ably slower  than  our  own.  There  is  no 
comparison  whatever  between  the  express 
service  of  this  country  and  corresponding 
facilities  afforded  abroad. 

The  express  business  is  not  only  one  of 
great  volume,  but  one  of  great  detail  as 
well.  The  American  Express  Company 
handles  approximately  100,000,000  shipments 
per  year,  every  one  of  which  has  to  be  re- 
ceipted for,  weighed,  priced,  waybilled,  trans- 
ported, assorted  at  destination,  written  up 
on  delivery  sheets,  delivered  to  consignees 
and  charges  collected,  unless  prepaid.  To 
perform  this  work,  usually  done  under  great 
pressure,  the  express  company  must  rely 
upon  its  employes  for  accuracy  and  thor- 
oughness, and  investigation  has  shown  that 
the  number  of  errors  is  extremely  small  in 
comparison  with  the  volume  of  transac- 
tions handled,  and  are  not  relatively  great- 
er than  exists  in  the  most  perfectly  organ- 
ized business  establishments. 

A  very  large  percentage  of  all  express 
shipments  made  within  the  United  States 
are  picked  up  by  wagon  or  other  vehicle 
service,  either  at  place  of  business  or  resi- 
dence of  the  shipper,  and  free  delivery 
service  is  maintained  at  all  important  points 
within  certain  prescribed  limits  approved 
by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 
A  complete  and  descriptive  receipt  is  given 
for  each  consignment,  which  automatically 
carries  with  it,  and  without  charge,  insur- 
ance against  loss  or  damage  up  to  $50.00, 
when  the  weight  does  not  exceed  100 
pounds,  and  beyond  that  weight  at  the  rate 
of  50  cents  a  pound.  The  collection  of 
charges  at  destination  is  not  alone  a  con- 
venience, but  a  saving  of  time,  and  often 
expense  to  the  shipper.  Over  75  per  cent 
of  express  shipments  are  subject  to  col- 
lection of  charges  at  destination. 


Any  consideration  of  the  express  busi- 
ness of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  would 
be  incomplete  without  mention  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  fruit  traffic  from  its  South- 
ern Lines.  At  the  time  the  American  Express 
Company  succeeded  the  Southern  on  those 
lines  the  strawberry  traffic  from  Louisiana, 
Mississippi  and  Tennessee  was  scarcely 
sufficient  to  warrant  special  attention.  In 
fact,  it  was  many  years  after  the  close  of 
the  war  before  much  consideration  was 
given  diversified  farming,  as  the  raising  of 
cotton,  cane,  etc.,  received  almost  undivided 
attention. 

If  we  are  reliably  informed,  it  was  in 
1886  that  several  planters  at  Independence, 
La.,  were  supplied  with  plants  for  the  pur- 
pose of  encouraging  the  growth  of  straw- 
berries for  market,  as  the  soil  and  the 
climate  of  the  section  seemed  especially 
adapted  to  the  purpose.  However,  little 
had  been  accomplished  in  the  development 
of  the  industry  up  to  the  time  the  American 
Express  Company  extended  its  service 
south  of  the  Ohio  River  in  1893.  Within 
two  years  the  express  earnings  on  the  berry 
shipments  from  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and 
Tennessee  had  reached  $50,000  per  season, 
and  for  the  next  four  or  five  years  there 
was. a  steady,  although  small,  increase  in  the 
traffic.  Up  to  this  time  the  berry  shipments 
had  been  handled  in  ordinary  baggage  cars, 
practically  none  of  them  going  beyond  the 
Illinois  Central  Lines,  being  consigned  al- 
most exclusively  to  the  Chicago  market. 

About  1901  refrigerator  cars  were  first  sup- 
plied for  the  traffic,  ten  cars  having  been 
built  by  the  Merchants  Despatch  Trans- 
portation Company,  the  first  we  believe 
ever  constructed  with  a  view  of  their  move- 
ment by  passenger  train  service.  Needless 
to  say,  these  cars  were  of  wooden  construc- 
tion and  contained  none  of  the  modern  im- 
provements. While  they  answered  their 
purpose  as  an  experiment  and  satisfac- 
torily filled  the  limited  requirements'  at 
that  time,  they  would  be  considered  entirely 
obsolete  in  comparison  with  the  type  of 
cars  now  in  use. 

Refrigerator  cars,  since  the  year  they 
were  first  introduced  for  the  movement  of 
shipments  by  express  on  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Lines,  have  steadily  grown  in  number 
and  modern  efficiency.  In  two  years  the 
number  of  such  cars  in  service  had  in- 
creased to  sixty,  and  to  their  use  is  at- 
tributed the  remarkable  growth  of  the  busi- 
ness they  were  designed  to  carry.  In  1911, 
or  ten  years  after  their  introduction,  there 
were  eighty-four  cars  used  in  handling  this 
traffic  from  the  South;  the  following  year 
129,  and  in  1913  the  number  had  increased 
to  157.  The  next  year  the  Illinois  Central 
built  and  placed  in  service  150  refrigerator 
cars  of  the  latest  improved  type,  equipped 
for  passenger  train  service,  which,  added  to 
the  number  of  outside  refrigerators,  made  a 
total  of  231.  In  1915  the  Railroad  Com- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


27 


pany  built  an  additional  100  refrigerator 
cars  which,  with  those  already  in  the  serv- 
ice and  under  lease,  brought  the  total  up 
to  336  cars.  For  the  approaching  season  the 
Illinois  Central  is  building  still  another  100 
refrigerator  cars  to  be  added  to  its  present 
equipment,  making  a  total,  exclusive  of 
leased  cars,  of  350  available  for  this  traffic. 
In  the  last  ten  years  the  number  of  car- 
load shipments  of  berries  handled  in  re- 
frigerator cars  from  the  Southern  Lines  of 
the  Illinois  Central  has  increased  from  171 
to  1,089.  The  gross  weight  of  these  car- 
load shipments  last  year  was  over  15,000,000 
pounds,  and  instead  of  being  confined  to 
one  market,  as  was  the  case  for  so  many 


the  case,  it  is  now  necessarily  given  special 
movement,  a  day's  loading  reaching  in  one 
instance  fifty-five  cars,  which  were  handled 
in  three  special  trains. 

In  addition  to  the  carload  business,  the 
less  than  carload  traffic  in  berries  from  the 
Southern  Lines  of  the  Illinois  Central  is 
an  important  factor,  exceeding  a  quarter  of 
a  million  cases  per  season. 

Not  only  is  there  nothing  elsewhere  com- 
parable to  this  industry,  so  far  as  its  move- 
ment by  express  is  concerned,  but  in  many 
other  ways  it  is  unlike  similar  enterprises. 
Complete  failures  of  the  strawberry  crop 
are  comparatively  frequent  in  other  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  whereas  in  Louisiana 


AMERICAN  EXPRESS  COMPANY'S  DEPOT,  NEW  ORLEANS,  LA. 


years,  the  product  was  distributed  to  eighty- 
seven  different  cities  located  in  twenty-nine 
states,  extending  from  Bangor,  Me.,  to 
Seattle,  Wash.,  and  to  every  province  of 
Canada. 

This  extensive  distribution  was  possible 
only  through  the  active  co-operation  of  the 
local  representatives  of  the  Express  Com- 
oany  from  coast  to  coast,  acting  as  a  wide- 
ly scattered  soliciting  force  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  wonderful  industry,  and  is  a 
concrete  example  of  what  may  be  accom- 
plished by  an  efficient  organization. 

Also  by  this  wide  distribution  of  his  prod- 
uct the  Southern  grower  received  the  very 
highest  returns  for  his  labor,  and  in  the 
development  of  the  business,  instead  of  its 
movement  being  confined  to  regularly 
scheduled  passenger  trains,  as  was  formerly 


especially  there  has  never  been  anything 
like  a  failure  since  the  industry  was  estab- 
lished. The  plants  are  set  out  in  the  fall, 
and  come  into  full  bearing  the  next  year, 
something  that  is  also  extremely  unusual. 
The  shipping  season  in  Louisiana  lasts 
fully  six  weeks,  which  is  not  the  case  any- 
where else  in  the  United  States,  so  far  as 
we  are  advised.  The  Mississippi  and  Ten- 
nessee season  averages  from  fifteen  to 
eighteen  days.  The  main  crop  to  the 
Northern  markets  begins  to  move  from 
Louisiana  early  in  March,  and  continues 
without  interruption  from  that  section  and 
from  Mississippi  and  Tennessee  until  some 
time  in  May,  usually  about  the  10th. 

In  1915  there  were  approximately  5,000 
acres  of  strawberries  under  cultivation  in 
Tangipahoa  Parish,  La.,  alone,  the  returns 


28 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


from  which  to  the  growers  were  close  to 
$3,000,000.  Approximately  all  of  this  acre- 
age is  located  within  three  miles  of  some 
shipping  point  on  the  Illinois  Central  Lines. 
The  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  acreage  is 
steadily  increasing,  and  the  State  of  Ten- 
nessee will  very  nearly  double  its  acreage 
in  1916  as  compared  with  last  year. 

The  development  of  this  particular  traffic 
has  built  up  various  communities  along  the 
Illinois  Central  Lines  from  towns  of  little 
or  no  importance  to  thriving  and  more  pros- 
perous communities,  thus  adding  indirectly 
to  the  passenger  and  freight  revenues  of 
the  road  throughout  each  month  of  the 
year. 

The  shipment  of  early  vegetables  from 
New  Orleans  and  the  Louisiana  districts  is 
second  in  importance,  so  far  as  the  express 
department  is  concerned,  to  the  berry  busi- 
ness of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines,  and  an- 
nually great  quantities  of  these  commod- 
ities are  forwarded  to  the  Northern  mar- 
kets. Following  the  Southern  shipping  sea- 
son there  are  large  movements  of  berries 
and  early  fruits  from  the  Southern  Illinois 
districts,  which  in  turn  are  followed  by 
melons,  peaches,  etc.  The  poultry  and  egg 
business  is  also  an  important  one  along 
the  lines  of  the  Illinois  Central. 

The  same  energetic  development  shown 
in  the  fruit  and  vegetable  traffic  applies  to 
the  general  express  business  of  the  line,  as 
from  1900  to  1915  the  increase  in  earnings 
has  been  about  100  per  cent. 

A  brief  mention  of  some  of  the  other  im- 
portant features  of  the  express  business  as 
conducted  on  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  may 
not  be  out  of  place.  The  handling  of  horses 
and  automobiles  in  carloads  is  an  important 
feature  of  the  service,  involving  particular 
care  and  attention  and  the  use  of  special 
end-door  cars. 

The  C.  O.  D.  system  of  shipping  was 
originated  by  the  express  companies  many 
years  ago,  and  furnishes  a  simple  and  ef- 
fective method  of  selling  merchandise  with- 
out risk  to  the  shipper.  It  has  been  an  im- 
portant feature  in  extending  trade  relations 
between  thousands  of  manufacturers,  mer- 
chants and  individuals.  Without  it  the  pur- 
chaser would  be  obliged  to  establish  credit 
or  pay  in  advance  of  selection,  thereby 
limiting  his  opportunities  to  purchase  in  the 
market  he  might  consider  the  most  desir- 
able. Approximately  2,000,000  C.  O.  D. 
shipments  are  handled  by  the  American 
Express  Company  annually,  a  very  great 
portion  of  which  go  into  the  southern  ter- 
ritory. 

Special  commissions  for  the  performance 
of  almost  any  transaction  are  undertaken 
by  the  Express  Company,  through  the  chan- 
nels of  its  Order  and  Commission  Depart- 
ment, such  as  the  purchase  of  goods,  col- 
lection of  debts,  payment  of  bills  and  taxes, 
service  of  legal  papers,  claiming  of  baggage 


at  railroad  stations  or  steamship  piers,  and 
the  transaction  of  any  legitimate  service 
requiring  special  and  personal  attention  at 
home  or  abroad.  Through  its  efforts  mar- 
kets are  found  for  producers  in  the  same 
manner  that  the  strawberry  business  on 
the  Southern  Lines  of  the  Illinois  Central 
has  been  developed,  and  without  charge, 
except  the  regular  transportation  fees,  on 
basis  of  rates  fixed  by  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission. 

In  line  with  other  progressive  measures 
for  the  benefit  of  the  public,  the  American 
Express  Company,  in  1882,  devised  and  put 
in  use  what  is  known  as  the  express  money 
order,  a  substitute  for  the  older  method  of 
forwarding  small  sums  of  money  by  ex- 
press. This  system  gave  the  public  better 
and  more  businesslike  facilities,  and  mod- 
ernized the  old  method  of  making  such 
remittances.  It  also  originated  the  system 
of  issuing  money  orders  without  written 
application  of  the  purchaser,  and  without 
the  orders  being  limited  to  one  specified 
point  of  payment,  but  payable  at  any  ex- 
press office  in  the  United  States  or  Canada. 
In  this  feature  of  its  business  the  American 
Express  Company  has  maintained  the  lead 
of  all  competitors,  its  money  order  sales 
approximating  5,500,000  a  year,  nearly  as 
many  as  those  of  all  the  other  companies 
combined. 

In  1891  the  American  Express  Company 
introduced  its  popular  form  of  Travelers' 
Cheque,  which  was  brought  to  perfection 
after  years  of  pioneer  work  and  through 
the  expenditure  of  thousand  of  dollars. 
Before  the  outbreak  of  the  present  Euro- 
pean war  over  150,000  travelers  were  carry- 
ing these  cheques  each  year,  the  face  value 
of  the  cheques  aggregating  over  $30,000,000. 
These  cheques  are  known  the  world  over, 
and  are  readily  accepted  by  hotels  of  the 
better  class,  steamship  companies,  mer- 
chants, etc.,  by  reason  of  which  travelers 
avoid  loss  of  time  in  visiting  banks  to  ob- 
tain funds  and  escaping  the  annoyances  re- 
sulting from  inability  to  cash  other  forms 
of  paper  on  Sundays,  holidays  or  fete  days, 
and  before  or  after  business  hours,  and  the 
cheques  carry  an  absolute  guarantee  against 
loss  or  theft. 

The  enjoyment  and  comfort  of  foreign 
travel  depend  largely  upon  the  ease  with  which 
the  traveler  can  pass  along  his  chosen  way, 
and  while  familiarity  with  the  customs  of  a 
country  and  some  knowledge  of  its  language 
may  be  aids  to  that  end,  the  funds  he  car- 
ries may  be  either  a  source  of  pleasure  or 
the  cause  of  much  trouble,  inconvenience  and 
delay.  The  excellent  record  made  by  the 
American  Express  Company  with  its  Travel- 
ers' Cheques  at  the  outbreak  of  the  European 
conflict  is  one  that  will  commend  this  form 
of  credit  to  travelers  for  all  time,  for  when 
all  other  means  of  exchange  failed,  the 
stranded  tourist  who  was  possessed  of  these 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


29 


cheques  found  no  inconvenience  in  their 
prompt  encashment  and  without  the  payment 
of  exorbitant  discounts  frequently  demanded 
on  other  forms  of  credit,  or  the  absolute  in- 
ability to  raise  a  cent  on  certain  classes  of 
paper. 

The  American  Express  Company  also  is- 
sues travelers  and  commercial  letters  of 
credit,  sells  sight  drafts  payable  at  the  world's 
principal  commercial  centers,  transfers  money 
by  mail,  telegraph  or  cable  to  points  at  home 
and  abroad,  exchanges  foreign  money  and  ac- 
cepts from  tourists  checking  deposits  at  its 
offices  in  Europe. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  the  American 
Express  Company  has  had  its  own  inde- 
pendent foreign  agencies,  now  maintaining 
such  offices  in  all  important  European  cities, 
as  well  as  in  Buenos  Ayres.  Manila  and  Hong 
Kong,  in  addition  to  shipping  and  banking 
correspondents  at  all  principal  cities  and 
ports  of  the  commercial  world.  By  the  es- 
tablishment of  these  exclusive  offices  abroad 
it  is  able  to  give  the  traveling  public  the  bene- 
fits of  an  American  institution,  completely  and 
fully  equipped  with  facilities  tending  to  pro- 
mote the  comfort  and  convenience  of  Amer- 
ican travelers.  Mail  matter  may  be  addressed 
for  delivery  or  reforwarding  to  the  care  of 
the  American  Express  Company  at  its  foreign 
or  domestic  offices.  Reading  and  writing 
rooms  are  maintained  and  tickets  via  all  con- 
tinental railways  are  sold  at  its  principal 
European  offices.  Storage,  insurance  and  the 
forwarding  of  baggage  is  given  special  atten- 
tion at  all  of  its  offices  abroad. 

Through  the  medium  of  its  Foreign  De- 
partment the  company  offers  the  most  com- 
plete arrangements  for  transmission  of  ex- 
press shipments,  and  has  a  special  department 
for  the  handling  of  freight  shipments  of  every 
description,  either  small  or  carload  lots,  and 
by  every  class  of  ocean  service,  to  and  from 
all  foreign  countries.  Through  negotiable 
bills-of-lading  are  issued,  and  the  company 
undertakes  the  collection  of  accompanying 
drafts  or  invoices  at  the  lowest  rates  of  ex- 
change and  the  return  of  proceeds  by  mail  or 
cable. 

The  American  Express  Company  is  a  bond- 
ed line  for  the  immediate  transportation  of 
goods  to  inland  points  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  without  customs  examinations  at 
port  of  arrival,  thereby  avoiding  delays  at 
the  seaboard,  and  enabling  the  consignee  to 
personally  or  under  his  own  direction  attend 
to  the  entry  and  clearance  of  the  goods,  pay- 
ment of  duty,  etc.  The  company  itself,  by 
authority  of  consignees,  often  attends  to  the 
entry  and  clearance  of  shipments  at  the  Cus- 
tom House. 

The  Foreign  Department  of  the  company, 
and  later  through  its  Foreign  Trade  Informa- 
tion Bureau,  has  been  the  means  of  bringing 
together  American  and  foreign  buyers  and 
sellers,  manufacturers  and  distributors,  en- 
couraging business  relations  between  them 


with  distinct  benefit  and  stimulation  to  Amer- 
ican trade  development. 

One  of  the  more  recent  departures  of  the 
company  is  its  establishment  of  a  Travel  De- 
partment, which  undertakes  to  perform  all 
the  offices  of  the  regular  tourist  agencies,  in- 
cluding personally  conducted  foreign  tours. 
Already  trips  to  South  America,  the  West 
Indies,  Panama  and  to  China  and  Japan  have 
been  arranged. 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  investigation  into 
the  methods  and  practices  of  the  express  com- 
panies. It  was  charged  that  these  companies 
by  reason  of  high  rates  had  made  enormous 
profits  for  many  years,  but  the  answer  of  the 
American  Express  Company  showed  that  for 
the  period  from  1868  to  1911  it  had  paid  divi- 
dends averaging  but  6X^%  per  annum,  its  sur- 
plus having  been  derived  entirely  from  the 
accumulation  of  interest,  dividends  and  rentals 
received  from  its  investments  and  from  profits 
realized  in  the  sale  of  various  securities  from 
time  to  time. 

Effective  February  1,  1914,  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  prescribed  a  block 
system  of  rates,  under  which  it  was  estimated 
that  the  gross  revenue  would  be  decreased 
16%.  As  might  be  expected  this  resulted  in 
such  a  decrease  in  the  earnings  of  the  com- 
pany that,  regardless  of  every  conceivable 
economy  not  inconsistent  with  good  manage- 
ment and  the  desire  to  maintain  an  efficient 
organization  and  service,  the  company  suffered 
an  actual  loss  in  operations  for  the  ensuing 
twelve  months  of  over  $800.000.  leaving  noth- 
ing with  which  to  pay  dividends  to  its  stock- 
holders, many  of  whom  were  trustees  for 
estates  who  had  selected  the  company's  stock 
as  a  safe  investment.  The  situation  was  prac- 
tically the  same  with  the  other  express  com- 
panies, and  effective  September  1,  1915,  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  afforded  a 
slight  readjustment  of  the  rate  structure, 
which  it  is  estimated  will  result  in  an  in- 
crease in  the  gross  earnings  of  about  4%. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  as 
well  as  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  has 
recognized  the  necessity  of  express  service  as 
conducted  in  this  country  as  a  means  of  fast 
transportation  of  small  freight,  and  the  mer- 
cantile interests,  which  represent  90%  of  ex- 
press patrons,  are  as  much  concerned  in  main- 
taining its  efficiency  as  are  the  companies 
themselves.  Two  large  express  companies 
have  withdrawn  from  business  within  the  past 
year  and  a  half,  but  the  remaining  companies 
have  faith  in  the  ultimate  outcome  and  believe 
the  merchants  of  the  country  recognize  the 
value  and  need  of  express  service  in  their  busi- 
ness, and  will  not  be  satisfied  to  accept  any 
medium  of  the  transportation  of  their  ship- 
ments that  does  not  afford  equal  time,  perso- 
nal service  and  efficiency. 

It  has  required  unceasing  endeavor  extend- 
ing over  three-quarters  of  a  century  and  the 
expenditure  and  investment  of  many  millions 


30 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


of  dollars  to  establish  and  develop  a  world- 
wide organization  ,such  as  is  maintained  by 
the  American  Express  Company,  with  its 
ample  accommodations  and  representation  in 
every  country  of  the  globe  where  Americans 
seek  business  or  pleasure,  and  to  so  perfect 
its  system  that  business  of  any  character  can 
be  transacted  by  simple,  inexpensive  and  con- 
venient methods,  and  safeguarded  by  one 
single  responsible  agency  from  point  of  origin 
to  destination. 


In  closing  this  article  it  is  appropriate  that 
a  well  deserved  tribute  be  paid  the  small  army 
of  officials  and  employes  who  have  contributed 
toward  the  success  of  the  express  service  on 
the  lines  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.  A 
great  portion  of  this  number  are  men  who  are 
jointly  employed  in  the  service  of  the  rail- 
road company,  and  to  these  men  and  to  the  in- 
terest they  have  displayed  is  due  in  no  small 
measure  {he  successful  operation  of  the  very 
efficient  express  service  on  the  Illinois  Central 
Lines. 


LATEST  TYPE  OP  SUPERHEATER  MIKADO  ENGINE. 


The  Acid  Test  of  Honesty 

By  M.  E.  Melvin,  Supt.  Christian  Education  and  Home  Missions,  Synod  of  Mississippi 


HERE   are   two   brands  of  honesty  in 
•*•      this  country — the  common  and  the  un- 
common— the  sham  and  the  real.     It  takes 
an  acid  test  to  reveal  the  difference. 

A  man  will  fall  over  himself  to  pay  for 
the  cold  drinks  he  takes  with  a  friend,  but 
will  try  to  dodge  a  railroad  conductor  to 
save  a  25-cent  fare;  he  would  no  more 
think  of  taking  your  watch  without  paying 
for  it  than  the  gold  from  a  dead  brother's 
tooth,  but  he  will  ride  a  train  without  pay- 
ing for  it  if  he  has  the  chance;  he  will 
"boil" — and  fight — if  accused  of  "short 
changing"  his  neighbor,  but  he  will  take 
"long  change"  from  a  ticket  agent  if  he 
can,  and  then  smile  about  it;  he  would  not 
lie  to  you  on  a  trade  to  save  $100,  but  he 


lies  every  time  he  buys  a  ticket  for  little 
fourteen  year  old  Willie;  as  between  two 
fellow  citizens  he  makes  a  good  juror,  but 
in  a  damage  suit  against  a  corporation  or 
a  railroad  he  gives  a  verdict  for  the  plain- 
tiff simply  because  he  thinks  the  poor  fel- 
low needs  it. 

The  truth  is  that  a  man  who  is  honest 
only  when  persons  are  involved  is  not 
much  honest.  After  all  the  acid  test  of 
honesty  is  a  man's  attitude  to  a  corporation 
where  the  personal  element  is  eliminated 
and  principles  are  alone  left  to  determine 
his  conduct.  The  man  who  is  perfectly 
straight  with  a  railroad,  for  example,  has 
the  real  brand  of  honesty,  a  yard  wide  and 
all  wool. 


Reminiscences  Pertaining  to  the  Illinois  Central, 

1857-1905 


By  L.  P.  Morehouse 


*"p  HE  EDITOR  has  intimated  to  me  that 
•*•  I  could  contribute  to  the  Magazine 
some  interesting  reminiscences  pertaining 
to  the  nearly  fifty  years  of  my  active  con- 
nection with  the  Illinois  Central. 

I  tell  him  that  while  I  could  confide  to 
him  many  things  of  which  I  have  had  per- 
sonal knowledge  during  that  period,  I  am 
of  the  opinion  that  a  narrative  of  these 
would  be  of  little  interest  to  his  readers. 
But  Mr.  Editor  is  persistent  and  I  have 
consented  to  take  a  hand  and  let  You  Peo- 
ple umpire  the  game. 

The  following  is  a  sample  of  what  I 
should  say  and  I  am  perfectly  willing  that 
Mr.  Umpire  should  declare  me  out  at  the 
first  base. 

Looking  back  over  the  years  we  have 
referred  to  there  appears  to  me  a  simple 
division  into  four  noticeable  periods:  Pre- 
historic Times,  before  the  War,  1857  to 
1861-65;  the  Legendary  Age,  before  the 
Fire,  1861  to  1871;  Ancient  History,  before 
the  Fair,  1871  to  1893;  Modern  History, 
since  1893. 

If  I  call  these  A,  B,  C  and  D,  I  would 
say  that  my  recollection  is  quite  distinct 
as  to  A,  but  rather  hazy  as  to  B,  while  for 
C  and  D  I  consider  it  quite  unreliable. 

Strange  as  it  may  appear  to  me,  the  fact 
is  that  You  People  have  no  very  definite 
idea  with  regard  to  some  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  Chicago  during  period  A,  so  I 
must  make  allusion  to  some  of  these  which 
were  radically  different  from  those  at  the 
present  time. 

For  instance,  the  standard  of  domestic 
comfort  could  not  have  been  very  high  if 
Bishop  Whitehouse  was  correctly  quoted 
then  in  saying  that  he  could  not  bring  his 
family  to.  Chicago  from  Rochester,  New 
York,  as  there  was  not  a  house  in  the  state 
of  Illinois  suitable  for  Mrs.  Whitehouse  to 
live  in. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Bishop  did  re- 
fuse to  reside  here  for  several  years  after 
he  had  been  made  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
of  Illinois. 

But  things  were  on  the  mend  everywhere. 
Outside  of  the  city,  on  the  prairies  and  in 
the  hills  of  Southern  Illinois  matters  were 
primitive  but  there  was  a  marked  tendency 
toward  the  adoption  of  more  refined  meth- 
ods of  living.  Robinson,  one  of  our  men 
who  had  been  on  the  early  surveys,  told 
me  that  he  was  once  awakened  at  an  un- 


earthly hour,  the  lady  of  the  house,  who 
was  preparing  breakfast,  explaining  that 
she  wanted  his  one  sheet  as  a  tablecloth. 

When  I  first  saw  the  Garden  City,  in 
1857,  it  was  deserving  of  that  name,  for 
the  greater  number  of  the  one  and  two- 
story  dwelling  houses  that  largely  made  up 
the  city  were  built  on  lots  of  ample  size 
which  were  generally  used  for  garden  pur- 
poses. 

Many  of  the  streets  were  well  shaded 
and  not  unattractive,  but  in  •  the  business 
district,  extending  from  the  Lake  to  the 
South  Branch  and  from  the  River  to  Ran- 
dolph street,  where  the  old  city  was  being 
torn  down  and  rebuilt,  the  element  of 
beauty  had  received  but  little  consideration. 

For  a  block  or  two  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  courthouse  the  streets  were  im- 
proved with  some  sort  of  pavements,  but 
they  were  generally  in  the  condition  of  the 
ordinary  prairie  roads.  The  main  thor- 
oughfares leading  into  the  country,  Archer 
Road,  Blue  Island  Road,  Green  Bay  Road, 
and  the  like,  were  dignified  as  "plank 
roads"  and  during  some  months  in  the 
year  were  the  only  highways  where  horses 
and  vehicles  could  be  sure  of  escape  from 
the  deep  mud  that  prevailed  through  the 
wet  season. 

Sidewalks  were  of  wood,  and  downtown, 
where  the  street  grade  was  being  raised 
six  or  eight  feet,  were  on  different  levels 
connected  by  steps. 

In  the  central  part  of  the  city  a  system 
of  sewers  was  being  constructed  and  the 
new  buildings  were  connected  with  that, 
but  the  older  buildings  there,  as  in  all 
other  parts  of  the  city,  had  no  sewer  serv- 
ice. All  household  sewage  was  taken  care 
of  in  the  primitive  way. 

There  were  no  suburbs,  and  no  places  of 
resort  or  entertainment  near  to  the  city. 
But  Michigan  Avenue  from  Randolph  Street 
to  Park  Row  was  called  the  most  beautiful 
street  in  America  and  everybody  was  justly 
proud  of  it.  Lake  Michigan  came  up  close 
to  the  plank  sidewalk  on  the  east  side  of 
the  street  and  the  breakwater  built  by  the 
Illinois  Central  protected  the  inside  water 
so  that  there  was  awlays  a  quiet  lagoon 
where  sailboats  and  rowboats  could  be 
used. 

Beyond  the  lagoon  and  the  two  railroad 
tracks  was  the  expanse  of  blue  lake  stretch- 


31 


32 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


ing  indefinitely  to  the  east,  and,  except  in 
the  winter,  always  dotted  with  lake  craft, 
principally  sailing  vessels.  It  was  an  in- 
spiring sight  when  at  the  opening  of  the 
straits  in  the  spring  a  hundred  vessels  left 
the  harbor  and  spread  their  sails  in  the 
offing. 

In  the  winter  time  there  was  skating  on 
the  lake  basin. 

In  1857  Chicago  was  a  big  city  and  was 
growing  still  bigger.  It  had  a  population 
of  90,000  and  was  threatening  to  rival  St. 
Louis,  which  then  had  150,000  people. 

In  this  big  city  I  found  myself  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  April,  1857,  with  the  world  be- 
fore me.  The  time  had  come  when  I  must 
find  a  place  for  myself  in  the  business  of 
life  and  I  had  started  on  the  voyage  of  dis- 
covery. 

At  ShefF  we  had  been  pretty  pessimistic 
as  to  any  immediate  success  in  engineer- 
ing work,  when  we  occasionally  discussed 
the  matter.  We  were  about  ten  years  too 
late.  All  the  railroads  and  great  public 
works  were  completed  and  young  civil  en- 
gineers were  not  in  demand.  To  be  sure, 
after  the  civil  war,  which  was  so  certain 
to  come,  there  would  be  lots  of  work  in 
restoring  bridges  and  railroads  which  would 
have  been  destroyed,  but  that  might  not  be 
for  ten  years  or  more. 

In  Mexico  and  Central  America  there 
seemed  to  be  some  prospects,  and  it  might 
be  worth  while  to  accompany  General  Wil- 
liam Walker,  "the  gray  eyed  man  of  des- 
tiny," in  his  projected  excursion  to  the 
Halls  of  the  Montezumas. 

This  Mexican  business  so  much  appealed 
to  me  that  I  took  Spanish  as.  an  elective 
instead  of  French.  I  do  not  know  that  it 
has  been  of  much  value  to  me  as  yet,  but 
I  may  sometime  go  to  live  in  Mexico. 
Quien  sabe? 

However,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months 
after  graduation  several  of  the  fellows  had 
found  occupation  of  some  sort.  Anthony 
had  taken  a  position  as  tutor  in  the  De- 
partment; Barrows  was  in  an  architect's 
office  in  Boston;  Bqisblanc  had  gone  to 
Paris  to  continue  his  studies;  Bronson's 
father  had  bought  him  a  farm;  DeForest 
was  traveling  in  Europe;  Plata  had  gone 
to  Honduras  to  help  his  father  in  some 
revolution  business;  Simonds  was  back  on 
the  Fort  Wayne  as  a  division  engineer  and 
had  taken  Cardee  with  him  as  his  assistant; 
Prime  Williams  was  a  conductor  on  a  rail- 
road in  Ohio,  and  Mississippi  Williams  was 
on  the  road  selling  for  a  hardware  concern. 
I  do  not  recall  any  others  of  whom  I 
heard.  I  taught  in  a  boys'  boarding  school 
during  the  winter  and  learned  to  carve  tur- 
keys on  Sundays  and  holidays. 

I  say  "ShefF "  although  we  did  not  use 
that  name,  for  Mr.  Sheffield  had  not  then 
made  his  munificent  gift  to  Yale,  but  that 
designation  will  best  define  the  institution 


to  most  of  its  graduates.  Some  of  you 
Sheff  men  do  not  know  that  Mr.  Sheffield 
acquired  a  large  part  of  his  fortune  in  the 
construction  of  the  Rock  Island  road.  He 
and  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Farnham,  made  a 
pile  of  money  on  this  contract. 

As  I  said,  the  spring  found  me  in  Chi- 
cago essaying  the  Great  Adventure.  I  had 
letters  of  introduction  to  two  or  three  peo- 
ple and  on  presenting  the  first  of  these  I 
was  received  with  a  cordiality  which  I  ap- 
preciate to  the  present  day.  Samuel  S. 
Greeley  is  a  name  which  has  been  well 
known  in  Chicago  for  many  years,  and  Mr. 
Greeley,  who  was  then  city  surveyor,  not 
only  gave  me  kindly  suggestions  but  in- 
vited me  to  spend  that  evening  at  his 
house.  I  met  there  half  a  dozen  people 
and  passed  several  hours  very  pleasantly. 

The  last  time  I  saw  Mr.  Greeley  was  in 
a  court  room  a  couple  of  years  ago,  where 
both  of  us  were  giving  testimony  in  a  case 
which  went  back  to  this  period  A,  and  I 
came  very  near  calling  the  court's  atten- 
tion to  Mr.  Greeley  as  the  man  who  had 
given  me  my  first  pleasant  impressions  of 
Chicago.  But  I  didn't  do  this  and  Mr. 
Greeley  will  never  know  how  much  I  en- 
joyed my  introduction  to  Chicago  through 
him. 

The  next  day  I  started  to  look  for  em- 
ployment and  made  my  first  call  at  the  of- 
fice of  the  chief  engineer  of  the  Illinois 
Central.  I  was  ushered  without  ceremony 
into  his  presence  and  was  received  by  a 
pleasant  looking,  mature  young  man  of 
about  thirty  to  whom  I  confided  that  I  was 
a  recent  graduate  from  the  engineering  de- 
partment of  Yale  College  and  was  desirous 
of  getting  a  position  on  some  railroad.  Mr. 
Chief  remarked  that  they  had  recently  had 
one  of  our  Yale  men  and  he  hadn't  given 
satisfaction.  Upon  inquiry  I  found  it  was 

G from  our  class  and  I  hastened  to  say 

that  I  didn't  profess  to  know  as  much  as 

G professed  to  know  but  I  thought  I 

was  competent  to  do  what  I  said  I  could 
do. 

To  my  surprise,  Mr.  Chief  said  he  would 
give  me  a  chance  and  that  I  could  report 
for  duty  on  the  next  Monday,  the  first  of 
May.  And  I  did  so  and  have  been  contin- 
uously "on  the  job"  ever  since. 

— Oh,  yes,  I  have  a  furlough  now. 

The  fact  that  G had  been  on  the 

scene  and  had  made  a  swift  exit  amused 
me,  for  this  gentleman,  while  having  the 
reputation  with  the  class  of  being  the  near- 
est to  the  foot  of  our  ladder  of  learning, 
had  an  exalted  opinion  of  his  own  ability 
and  would  have  had  no  hesitation  in  giving 
the  chief  engineer  points  if  he  had  oppor- 
tunity. He  was  the  oldest  man  in  our 
class  and  always  carried  himself  with  much 
dignity.  I  suppose  he  did  vary  his  costume 
but  I  recall  him  as  always  wearing  a  silk 
hat  and  attired  in  a  bright  blue  coat  with 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


33 


a  velvet  collar,  light  trousers  and  white 
cotton  gloves. 

Incidentally,  I  may  say  that  I  heard  from 
him  some  time  after  this  and  (he  said)  he 
was  chief  engineer  of  a  road  under  con- 
struction in  Arkansas. 

I  soon  learned  that  our  chief  engineer 
was  Captain  George  B.  McClellan,  a  West 
Point  man  who  had  made  a  brilliant  record 
in  the  Mexican  war  and,  in  1855  and  '56, 
had  been  one  of  a  commission  sent  to  Eu- 
rope by  the  United  States  to  report  on 
certain  matters  pertaining  to  the  War  De- 
partment. He  had  been  made  chief  engi- 
neer of  the  Illinois  Central  in  January, 
1857,  and  was  soon  made  vice-president 
also. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  am  unable  to  give  in- 
teresting accounts  of  personal  confidences 
between  this  (afterwards)  distinguished 
man  and  myself,  but  the  truth  is,  I  came 
into  very  slight  contact  with  him.  As  vice- 
president  he  was  the  chief  executive  of  the 
Road  and  managed  all  the  departments. 

Mr.  William  F.  Biddle,  assistant  chief 
engineer,  was  the  man  most  in  evidence  in 
our  department,  as  orders  came  through 
him. 

During  construction  the  work  had  been 
divided  into  twelve  divisions,  but  on  com- 
pletion, in  September,  1856,  the  road  had 
been  divided  into  four  engineering  divi- 
sions. Mr.  Truman  M.  Kellogg  was  divi- 
sion engineer  of  the  Fourth  Division,  with 
headquarters  at  Chicago  and  I  became  his 
assistant.  Our  principal  work  in  1857  was 
the  extension  of  the  lake  shore  protection 
south  from  Twenty-fifth  Street  and  the 
completion  of  the  station  grounds  north  of 
Madison  Street  by  filling,  bridging  and 
tracklaying.  In  the  winter  we  spent  con- 
siderable time  cutting  ice  on  the  river,  at 
the  St.  Charles  Air  Line  bridge,  for  the 
supply  of  the  company's  ice  houses  along 
the  line. 

But  the  new  sewer  system  was  getting 
rapidly  into  service  and  I  guess  that  after 
1859  we  did  not  cut  any  ice  on  the  river. 

Captain  McClellan  was  a  gentlemanly 
man  and  was  respected  and  liked  by  all 
who  had  business  with  him,  although  I 
think  he  did  not  have  personal  dealings 
with  many  of  the  employees. 

My  own  relations  with  Mr.  Biddle  and 
Mr.  Kellogg  were  very  pleasant.  The  only 
act  of  mine  which  the  former  ever  objected 
to  was  the  shaving  off  of  my  whiskers. 
He  shook  his  head  and  said  it  impaired 
my  appearance.  Deferring  to  this  opinion 
(?)  I  have  never  repeated  the  act. 

Mention  of  Mr.  Biddle  recalls  some  other 
names.  Mr.  Austin  was  a  genial  gentleman 
holding  a  high  position  in  the  Land  De- 
partment. Mr.  John  A.  Lewis  was  the  lit- 
erary expert  who  edited  the  many  publica- 
tions of  the  Land  Department  and  all  the 
printing  of  the  Operating  Department.  He 


had  been  a  roving  printer  and  editor  and 
was  supposed  to  know  everything  about 
printed  matter  that  was  worth  knowing. 
Mrs.  Austin,  Mrs.  Biddle  and  Mrs.  Lewis 
were  delightful  ladies  from  Philadelphia 
and  Boston  and  brought  the  refinements  of 
those  old  cities  to  help  leaven  our  some- 
what primitive  society.  I  have  never  for- 
gotten their  kindness  to  me. 

Speaking  of  the  Land  Department,  you 
must  know  that  at  this  time  the  Operating 
Department  was  playing  second  fiddle. 
This  was  natural  for  this  was  the  financial 
power  that  built  the  road. 

Look  at  the  figures.  Two  and  a  half  mil- 
lion acres  at  ten  dollars  an  acre  gives 
$25,000,000  and  the  700  miles  of  road  would 
cost  only  $21,000,000,  leaving  the  stock- 
holders with  a  road  all  paid  for  from  the 
sale  of  lands  alone  and  a  neat  surplus  of 
$4,000,000!  Can  Mr.  Promoter  do  any  bet- 
ter than  that  nowadays, 

Going  back  to  Austin,  he  was  a  man 
given  to  practical  jokes  and  one  time 
caused  considerable  embarrassment  to  a 
fellow  employee.  You  remember  that 
Charles  Dickens  originally  wrote  under  the 
name  of  "Boz,"  this  being  a  family  nick- 
name for  his  young  brother  Augustus,  first 
pet-named  "Moses"  and  then — with  a  cold 
in  the  head — shortened  to  "Boz."  Well, 
Augustus  Dickens  was  a  clerk  in  the  Land 
Department  and,  shining  in  the  reflected 
light  of  his  famous  brother,  was  to  deliver 
a  lecture  at  Hyde  Park.  To  his  consider- 
able discomfort,  when  his  lecture  was  about 
half  over,  a  jangling  of  sleighbells  was 
heard  outside,  a  big  sleigh  unloaded  a  party 
of  Land  Department  people,  who  entered 
the  hall  and,  without  any  pronounced  dis- 
turbance, proceeded  to  emphasize  the 
speaker's  points  with  frequent  bursts  of 
applause.  It  is  said  that  they  did  not  very 
much  overdo  the  business,  but  the  lecturer 
must  have  earnestly  prayed  thereafter  to 
be  delivered  from  his  friends. 

A  prominent  figure  of  this  period  is  an- 
other gentleman,  Major  Ambrose  E.  Burn- 
side,  cashier  of  the  Land  Department.  I 
am  unable  to  recall  Captain  McClellan  as 
attired  in  any  particular  costume,  and 
therefore  it  is  evident  that  his  dress  must 
have  been  in  good  form,  but  Major  Burn- 
side  was  noticeable  for  the  nicety  of  his 
clothes,  which  were  not  obtrusive  but  uni- 
formly of  a  more  stylish  sort  than  were 
usually  worn.  I  think  of  him  as  wearing  a 
dark  frock  coat  with  velvet  collar,  white 
vest  and  light  gray  trousers.  He  was  a 
little  older  than  McClellan,  always  wore  a 
genial  smile,  and  carefully  cultivated  the 
side-burns  that  afterwards  became  famous 
as  "burnsides." 

Captain  Silas  Bent  was  from  the  navy: 
he  was  superintendent  of  the  Chicago  Divi- 
sion. 

McClellan,    Burnside    and    Bent    lived    in 


34 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


one  of  the  company's  brick  houses  on 
Michigan  Avenue  between  Lake  and  South 
Water  Streets.  You  see,  when  in  1852  the 
Illinois  Central  decided  to  establish  its 
terminal  station  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Street, 
the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  there  was 
only  a  few  hundred  feet  east  of  Michigan 
Avenue,  and  the  company  purchased  all  the 
lots  between  South  Water  Street  and  Ran- 
dolph Street  on  the  east  side  of  the  Av- 
enue, thus  acquiring  riparian  rights  and  en- 
abling it  with  the  consent  of  the  City  to 
make  the  necessary  filling  in  the  Lake. 

You  have  heard  about  the  predatory  dep- 
redations of  this  railroad  on  the  lake  front. 
Well,  this  was  the  first  of  these  "stealings," 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  owners 
sold  to  the  company  at  top-notch  prices. 

These  lots  were  disposed  of  as  soon  as 
possible  after  completion  of  the  road,  ex- 
cepting one  of  them,  on  which,  some  time 
in  the  sixties,  a  fireproof  building  was 
erected  for  the  Land  Department. 

Speaking  of  "stealings,"  it  is,  or  was  a 
few  years  ago,  a  prevalent  opinion  in  Chi- 
cago that  the  Illinois  Central  had  stolen 
from  the  public  not  only  its  right  of  way 
into  Chicago,  but  also  a  large  amount  of 
land  captured  from  Lake  Michigan.  The 
fact  is  that  the  company  has  paid  hand- 
somely for  every  foot  of  ground  that  it 
occupies  in  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  land 
north  of  South  Water  street  was  purchased 
from  the  United  States,  and  that  between 
South  Water  and  Randolph  streets  from 
private  owners.  From  Randolph  street  to 
Park  Row  the  rights  were  granted  by  the 
city,  while  all  the  tracks  south  of  Park  Row 
were  acquired  from  private  owners,  either 
by  direct  purchase  or  by  condemnation  in 
the  ordinary  way.  When  portions  of  the 
bed  of  the  lake  have  been  occupied  it  has 
been  done  legally  under  riparian  owner- 
ship, ordinances  of  the  city  and  authoriza- 
tion by  the  United  States. 

The  public  never  had  any  ownership  ex- 
cept to  the  "Lake  Front,"  so-called,  be- 
tween Randolph  street  and  Park  Row.  And 
here,  in  1852,  the  city  was  very  desirous 
that  the  railroad  company  should  make  its 
entrance  into  Chicago,  because  the  lake 
for  several  years  had  been  making  serious 
inroads  upon  Michigan  avenue,  and  the  city 
was  yearly  spending  considerable  money  in 
protecting  the  shore. 

The  people  on  Michigan  avenue  were 
relieved  of  a  great  anxiety  when  the  com- 
pany had  completed  the  substantial  break- 
water that  protected  both  the  railroad 
tracks  and  their  property. 

The  next  time  any  one  tells  you  that  the 
Illinois  Central  stole  its  way  into  Chicago 
just  ask  him  to  specify  the  particular  tract 
or  tracts.  Mr.  Farbet  will  give  you  chapter 
and  verse  to  show  their  legal  acquisition 
by  the  company.  If  the  Illinois  Central 
could  obtain  a  reasonable  sum  on  account 


of  the  libels  that  have  been  printed  con- 
cerning its  Lake  Michigan  property  it 
would  be  able  to  pay  off  a  considerable 
part  of  its  bonded  debt. 

Going  back  to  the  house  on  Michigan  av- 
enue, I  ought  not  to  omit  mention  of  an- 
other person  who  also  occupied  the  prem- 
ises. 

This  was  a  colored  gentleman,  who  acted 
as  butler  and  chef  for  the  other  gentlemen. 
I  use  the  word  "gentleman"  advisedly,  for 
John  Warner  possessed  many  of  the  char- 
acteristics which  we  associate  with  that 
term. 

He  "knew  his  place,"  indeed,  but  he  was 
a  man  of  pleasing  appearance,  was  well 
read  on  many  topics,  always  quiet  and 
dignified,  and  as  competent  to  discuss  na- 
tional affairs  and  literary  matters  as  the 
average  station  agent  or  division  superin- 
tendent or  civil  engineer. 

After  the  close  of  the  Michigan  avenue 
house  he  came  to  the  general  office  build- 
ing and  was  head  janitor  and  mail  man  for 
several  years. 

I  lost  sight  of  him  when  he  took  a  posi- 
tion in  the  federal  building.  But  I  always 
respected  him  for  his  sterling  qualities. 

Perhaps  I  recall  Captain  McClellan  in 
connection  with  an  incident  in  the  fall  of 
1857  as  clearly  as  in  any  other. 

He  brought  with  him  to  Chicago  as  his 
secretary  a  fine  looking  man  of  military 
bearing,  who  had  been  his  orderly  in  the 
army.  Powers  was  an  Irishman  and  had 
an  exalted  opinion  of  the  captain,  as  well 
as  of  the  position  which  he  himself  held. 
I  think  he  was  decidedly  more  dignified 
than  his  superior. 

But  he  was  a  good  fellow,  and  occasion- 
ally unbent  and  told  characteristic  Irish 
stories.  He  went  once  on  a  vacation,  and 
I  was  deputized  to  perform  his  duties, 
which  I  did  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  But 
when  Powers  came  back  and  went  over  my 
record  he  was  shocked  over  certain  things 
I  had  done.  He  was  sure  something  awful 
would  result.  However,  nothing  happened 
and  he  became  reconciled  to  me. 

Well,  something  did  happen  to  him.  One 
morning  he  didn't  get  around  as  usual,  and 
the  news  soon  spread  that  he  had  commit- 
ted suicide.  The  young  woman  had  persist- 
ently said  "No!"  and  he  had  decided  that 
life  was  not  worth  living. 

McClellan  and  Burnside  were  two  of  the 
pallbearers;  I  do  not  recall  the  others. 

There  were  three  or  four  carriages,  and 
I  occupied  the  company's  buggy  with 
David.  In  some  way  a  spot  for  the  grave 
had  been  obtained  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
cemetery.  I  think  it  must  have  been  about 
where  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer's  house  now 
stands,  but,  of  course,  no  priest  would 
officiate.  So  a  Methodist  preacher  said  the 
solemn  words  in  which  we  expressed  our 
sorrow  and  our  trust. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


35 


David  was  the  special  doorkeeper  who 
had  the  vice-president  in  charge  and  pro- 
tected him  from  unwelcome  intruders.  He 
was  a  middle-aged  Scotchman,  a  zealous 
theologian  and  a  frequent  sampler  of  Ken- 
tucky mountain  dew.  On  this  occasion  he 
gave  me  much  information  concerning  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  in  general,  and 
wondered  what  the  Pope  would  do  if  he 
discovered  our  desecration  of  consecrated 
ground.  But  apparently  the  Pope  never 
found  it  out. 

Perhaps  I  might  as  well  at  this  moment 
allude  to  an  incident  in  which  David  figured 
some  years  later.  It  came  to  pass  that 
David's  study  of  Kentucky  products  be- 
came so  absorbing  that  he  left  the  employ 
of  the  company  "for  the  good  of  the  serv- 
ice," and  devoted  himself  largely  to  drink- 
ing in  the  inspirations  which  a  thirst  for 
knowledge  often  develops.  And  one  Sat- 
urday afternoon  when  I  was  going  home 
on  an  Indiana  avenue  car  I  noticed  David 
engaged  apparently  in  a  spirited  theological 
discussion  with  another  passenger.  Pres- 
ently the  argument  became  so  forceful  that 
the  conductor  interposed  and  suggested 
that  David  get  off  the  car.  David  did  not 
accept  this  proposition,  whereupon  the  con- 
ductor undertook  to  throw  him  off. 

A  complication  and  general  mixup  en- 
sued, in  which  Mrs.  David  took  a  hand — the 
conductor  had  bushy  whiskers — and  a 
policeman  who  was  on  the  car  interposed 
in  the  interest  of  law  and  order.  David  and 
Mrs.  David  were  escorted  to  the  Cottage 
Grove  Avenue  police  station,  where  they 
would  have  plenty  of  time  to  cool  off  be- 
fore Monday  morning. 

But,  after  my  dinner,  having  meditated 
somewhat  on  the  matter,  I  concluded  to  go 
over  to  the  station  and  see  if  I  could  do 
anything  to  relieve  the  tension. 

When  I  entered  I  found  that  David  was 


pounding  on  the  door  of  his  cell,  and  ex- 
pounding his  theology  at  the  top  of  his 
voice.  "Oh,  you'll  catch  it!"  he  shouted. 
"There  IS  a  hell,  and  you'll  go  there; 
There  IS  a  Devil,  and  he'll  get  you!  Oh! 
there  is  a  good  old  Devil  for  just  such 
fellows  as  you!"  Mrs.  David,  from  some 
near-by  seclusion,  was  vociferating  loudly: 
"Amen!  Amen!  That's  the  talk,  David! 
Give  it  to  'em!  Give  it  to  "em!" 

As  soon  as  the  anathemas  quieted  down 
a  little  I  interviewed  the  lady,  and  found 
that  their  two  children  were  locked  up  at 
home,  no  doubt  wondering  at  the  prolonged 
absence  of  their  parents.  And  they  were 
locked  up  until  Monday.  Pretty  hard  for 
all  parties,  wasn't  it? 

So  I  had  a  conference  with  the  officer  in 
charge  and  deposited  the  necessary  amount 
with  him  as  bail  that  Mrs.  David  would 
appear  in  court  Monday  morning.  Need- 
less to  say,  the  mother  hurried  off  to  look 
after  and  care  for  the  children.  I  did  not 
think  it  necessary  to  take  David  away  from 
a  place  where  he  could  spend  Sunday  so 
profitably  to  himself  and  others. 

On  Monday,  of  course,  I  had  to  appear 
and  ascertain  the  fate  of  my  friends.  The 
case  was  very  simple.  The  officer  told  a 
straight  story:  Fracas  on  street  car;  man 
very  drunk  and  disorderly,  attacked  con- 
ductor, assaulted  officer;  and  the  court 
promptly  said:  "Thirty  days,"  and  was 
proceeding  to  the  next  case  when  I  stepped 
up  to  the  bench  and  asked  for  a  word.  I 
explained  that  this  man  was  well  known  to 
me — an  exemplary  citizen — church  member 
— once  in  a  great  while  affected  by  this 
temporary  insanity — devoted  wife — small 
children;  and  the  court  reversed  his  former 
decision  and  said:  "Five  dollars — next 
case."  And  as  it  was  possible  to  dig  up 
five  dollars  David  and  Mrs.  David  went  on 
their  way  rejoicing. 


VIEW    OF    THE    OLD    ILLINOIS    CENTRAL    STATION    PROM    THE    CORNER    OF    MADISON 

STREET  AND  MICHIGAN  AVENUE 


36  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


t\P  Employes  may  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stocic  in  the  Illinois 

Central  R.R.,we  quote  belott  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  May  95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(One  price  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  6e  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffoc/i  is  based  upon  the  mar- 
,i      ./     /     /     j      j/          ....          .   /j  .    f)          t 

ket  price  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  (^.omptrol- 
lexs  office...  Cx#/?  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  ofsubscril)- 
ma  for  one  share  at  a  time,  payable  by  installments  in  sums 
of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  the.  completion  of 

which  the  Company  will  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 

me  share  registered  in  his  name  on  the  books,  of  the  Com- 
pany. <zJie  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 
another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  <=^ohe  certificate 

of  stock  is  transferable,  on  me  Company's  books,  and 

entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  be  de  - 

dared  by  the  jPoard  of  'Directors,  ana  to  a  vote  in, 

their  election  . 

Cx^y  officer  or  employe  making  payments  on  tnis 

1           J'n  fl            '//'•'•         •     -J    ~    7        /  •       ) 

plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  the  rate  of  'four  per  cent  per  annum,  dunna  the  time  he 
is  paylna  for  his  share  of  stock,  provided  he  does  not  al- 
low ttaelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 
any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  penod  interest 
will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 

returned,  to  him  on  his  "application  therefor. 

Owy  officer  or  employe  makina  payments  on  thefore- 
aoma  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desinna  to  discontinue 
them,  can  have  Ais  money  returned  to  Aim  with  accrued 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  37 


interest,  by  mahmq  application  to  me  head  of  me  de- 
partment in  which  fie  is  employed. 

Cx^/z  employe,  who  has  made  application  for  a  snare 

f~  r         r    /  '     'II  I  ' '  )  / 

or  stock  on  the  installment  plan ,  is  expected,  to  make 
me  firstvaument  from  thefirst  waaes  wmcn  may  6e  due 
Aim.  J'prms  are  provided for  the  purpose,  on  wmcn.  the 
subscribing  employe  authorizes  tne  <docal ^Greasurer  in 
Chicago, or  the  Jjocal -treasurer  in  (i/^ew  Orleans,  or 
theraymaster  or  the  c^fssistant  '^Paymaster  to  retain 
from  fus  wages  tne  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  tne  employe  for  tne  purchase  of  a  snare  ofstocK. 

c7n  case  an  employe  leaves  tne  service  of  tne  Company 
from  any  cause,  he  must  men  either  pay  in  full  for  the 
share  Jor  which  he  has  subscribed  ana  receive  a  certifi- 
cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which, 
has  accrued. 


foreaoma  does  not  preclude  the  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock  for  cash.  Cxm  employe  zuno  Aas  not  al- 
ready an  outstandina  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 

the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 

i/      '/  /'    j'      /'      'r       '  /•  .     /  /    '     f 

a_iven  month  make  application  for  a  <snare  ofstockjor  cash 

at  the  price  ouoted  to  employes /or  tftat  month. ,  ana  he  can. 

in  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  made  application  for  an- 

f       /  /  *'       n  i  ''  / 

other  snare  on  me  installment  plan. 

Omp/oyes  Who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 
at  a  timeror  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  in  Cni- 
cayo,  who  will  obtain  fir  them,  the  price  at  which  the  stock, 
can  Repurchased. 

Cx^/zy  employe  desiriny  to  purchase  stock,  (except  in 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash)  should 

t     '  / '    '         ) '  '        /"/*      -f  /"  / 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  officer,  or  to  one  of  the 

<xuocalctoreasurers  jyy filling  in  the  following  coupon : 
Mr.O.  T  Naa.  Date 

Local  Treasurer, 

Chicago  111. 

-   Will  ^ou  please  send  me   an   application    klanR, 
for  tne  purcnase  ofl.C.  Stoce  on  tA.c  instollment  plan. 
Signed... 
Employei 
-At  'Stdtic 


yea1  as. 
uion... 


How  They  Railroaded  in  1879 

We  have  before  us  a  copy  of  Illinois  Central  Time  Table  (Iowa  Di- 
vision), effective  Sunday,  April  18th,  1879,  at  8:00  o'clock  A.  *M.  On  the 
back  of  the  table  is  printed  "Regulations  for  the  Running  of  Trains,"  and 
undoubtedly  the  extracts  that  follow  will  be  of  interest  to  those  employed  in 
the  Transportation  Department  at  this  time. 

Rule  1 — "The  standard  time  for  all  trains  will  be  the  chronometers  in  the  ticket 
office  at  Dubuque  and  the  trainmaster's  office  at  Waterloo.  Conductors  and  Engineers 
will  compare  time  daily,  and  are  required  to  keep  their  watches  in  exact  conformity 
therewith.  Conductors  and  Engineers  who  have  not  an  opportunity  to  see  the  chro- 
nometers, will  compare  time  dailv  with  Conductors  of  through  trains." 

Direction    Rights. 

Rule  5 — "Trains  going  east  and  south  are  entitled  to  the  track  for  thirty  minutes 
beyond  their  own  leaving  time,  and  also  thirty  minutes  beyond  the  leaving  time  of 
opposing  trains  of  the  same  or  inferior  class. 

Rule  6 — "Trains  going  west  and  north  will  not  leave  a  station  unless  they  can, 
without  doubt,  reach  the  meeting  place  on  or  before  the  time  marked  in  the  Time 
Table  for  the  departure  of  the  opposing  trains,  but  will  wait  where  they  expect  to 
meet  the  opposing  train  thirty  minutes  beyond  their  own  leaving  time,  and  also  thirty 
minutes  beyond  the  leaving  time  of  the  opposing  train,  and  then  proceed  with  caution, 
keeping  thirty  minutes  behind  their  own  leaving  time  until  the  delayed  opposing  train 
is  met. 

Meeting  Points  of  Passenger  and  Freight  Trains. 

Rule  7 — "Passenger  trains  will  not  wait  for  freight  trains  at  places  for  meeting. 
Freight  trains  will  wait  indefinitely  for  passenger  trains,  and  must  not  run  on  their 
time.  Between  trains  of  the  same  class  five  minutes  must  be  allowed  at  meeting 
points  for  variation  of  watches,  which  must  be  observed  until  the  trains  meet.  This 
time  in  no  case  to  be  used  by  either  train  in  running.  At  meeting  points,  freight  trains 
must  arrive  in  time  to  take  position  on  side  track  at  least  five  minutes  before  passenger 
trains  are  due  to  leave.  If  necessary  for  freight  trains  to  occupy  the  main  track  at 
meeting  points  with  passenger  trains,  Conductors  will  give  notice  of  their  position  by 
exhibiting  danger  signals  sufficient  distance  to  prevent  accident." 

Safety  First  seems  to  have  been  the  practice  even  in  those  days. 

Rule  9 — "Trains,  on  approaching  a  meeting  point,  will  enter  the  side  track  at  the 
nearest  end,  and  in  no  case  where  the  side  track  is  connected  at  both  ends  will  trains 
run  by,  to  back  in  from  the  direction  and  on  the  time  of  the  opposing  trains,  until  the 
Conductor  has  first  sent  a  man  in  advance  with  signals  a  sufficient  distance  to  stop 
the  opposing  train." 

Rule  10 — "All  trains,  when  approaching  stations,  watering  or  coaling  places,  must 
do  so  with  great  care,  excepting  to  find  some  train  occupying  the  main  track.  Con- 
ductors of  freight  trains  will  be  on  top  of  the  cars,  and  must  see  that  their  brakemen 
are  in  the  proper  place  to  immediately  apply  the  brakes  to  slow  or  stop  the  train  if 
necessary  to  do  so.  Also  before  commencing  and  while  descending  long  grades." 

Considerable  latitude  seems  to  have  been  allowed  in  the  issuance  of  train 
orders,  and  it  was  evidently  up  to  wild  trains  to  look  out  for  themselves. 

Rule  12 — "No  irregular  engine,  with  or  without  a  train,  will  be  allowed  to  pass 
along  the  line,  except  by  the  written  permission  of  the  General  Superintendent,  Di- 
vision Superintendent  or  Trainmaster. 

"Wild  trains  have  no  rights  whatever  against  any  regular  or  flagged  trains,  and 
must  be  kept  entirely  out  of  their  way,  clearing  their  time  at  least  ten  (10)  minutes." 

"Regular  trains  receiving  telegraph  orders  to  leave  stations  ahead  of  time  will  be 
considered  as  Wild  Trains  while  running  ahead  of  time." 

Engine  Inspectors  in  Round-Houses  Evidently  Not  a  Part  of  the  Mechanical  Force  in 

Those  Days. 

Rule  21 — "Engineers  must  use  all  possible  precautions  to  prevent  damage  by  fire 
from  their  engines.  They  must  see  that  the  netting  in  stack  and  ash  pan  is  in  good 
order  before  going  out  on  the  road.  Engineers  will  not  draw  fire  in  front  of  station 

38 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  39 

buildings,  nor  on  frogs  or  switches.  When  fire  is  drawn  upon  the  line  of  road,  En- 
gineers must  be  particular  to  see  that  it  is  extinguished  before  leaving  it.  Dampers  of 
ash  pans  must  in  all  cases  be  closed  while  crossing  bridges  and  passing  station  build- 
ings, wood,  etc." 

Speed  Restrictions. 

Rule  27 — "Passenger  trains  when  behind  time  will  not  exceed  card  time  in  run- 
ning, unless  the  condition  of  track,  weather,  etc.,  will  warrant  their  so  doing  and  insure 
safety.  Great  caution  must  be  exercised  in  this  respect. 

"Freight  trains  must  in  all  cases  conform,  as  near  as  practical,  to  card  time,  and 
must  never  exceed  a  speed  of  fifteen  miles  per  hour,  unless  by  special  orders  from 
Trainmasters  or  Superintendents.  Engineers,  Conductors  and  Trainmasters  will  be 
held  responsible  that  this  rule  is  complied  with.  In  every  case  where  the  maximum 
speed  prescribed  in  this  rule  is  exceeded,  it  must  be  reported  to  the  Division  Superin- 
tendent. A  speed  of  fifteen  miles  per  hour  will  pass  seven  telegraph  poles  in  one 
minute." 

Station  Agents  Considerable  Factor  in  Train  Movement. 

Rule  32 — "Station  Agents  must  know  that  all  switches  are  in  proper  position  for 
the  passage  of  trains  upon  the  main  track;  also,  that  standing  cars  have  the  brakes 
set  or  otherwise  secured,  so  that  they  cannot  be  blown  out  upon  the  main  track  by 
wind,  or  position  changed  to  interfere  with  the  free  and  unobstructed  passage  of  trains 
upon  the  main  track. 

Rule  33 — "Conductors  of  trains  will  promptly  report  to  the  Division  Superinten- 
dent any  lack  of  attention  on  the  part  of  the  agents,  or  other  persons  whose  duty  it  is 
to  aid  in  the  passage  of  trains.  Promptness  in  doing  work  at  stations  is  enjoined  upon 
all,  in  order  to  enable  trains  to  use  as  much  of  their  time  as  possible  in  running  be- 
tween stations.  Full  loaded  freight  trains  that  have  no  work  to  do  at  stations,  must 
not  arrive  any  longer  ahead  of  time  than  necessary  to  get  fuel  and  water;  and  at  meet- 
ing points  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  trains.  Engineers  and  Conductors  will  be  held 
responsible  for  the  speed  of  their  trains." 

Penalty  for  Carelessness. 

Rule  46 — "Any  employe,  who,  by  carelessness  or  negligence,  causes  or  permits 
damage  or  injury  to  the  property  of  the  company,  or  that  of  the  public  entrusted  to 
the  company,  will  be  required  to  pay  for  the  same,  and  the  amount  will  be  deducted 
from  his  wages." 

Movement  of  Trains  by  Telegraph. 

The  ranking  officials  probably  conferred  and  decided  each  day  whose 
duty  it  was  to  issue  train  orders. 

Rule  1 — "The  General  and  Division  Superintendent  and  Trainmasters  are  the  only 
persons  authorized  to  move  trains  by  special  orders,  and  but  one  person  ©n  the  same 
section  will  be  permitted  to  move  trains  by  special  order  at  the  same  time." 

Green  a  Train  Order  Signal. 

Rule  2 — "Operators  will,  upon  receiving  telegraphic  orders  for  trains,  immediately 
display  a  GREEN  FLAG  by  day  or  a  GREEN  LIGHT  by  night.     The  Agent  at  each 
station  will  select  a  conspicuous  location  for  displaying  green  signals,  and  when  once 
selected,  it  must  not  be  changed,  except  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons.     Should  the 
train  be  at  the  station,  Operators  will  in  person  first  notify  Conductor  and  Engineer  ; 
that  orders  await  them,  before  answering  the  Trainmaster  that  train  is  held.     When 
an  order  is  sent  to  an  Agent  or  Operator  to  hold  a  train  for  orders,  the  green  signal 
must  be  displayed  immediately,  and  before  the  understanding  of  the  order  is  returned;  : 
the  understanding  must  contain  the  phrase,  "My  green  signal  is  out."     Operators  must  . 
not  fail  to  take  in  the  green  signal  at  once  after  the  delivery  of  the  orders  to  the  Con- 
ductor and  Engineer  of  the  train  for  which  it  was  shown.     Green  signals  at  stations 
must  not  be  used  for  any  purpose   except  as  an   indication   of  orders   for   train,   and 
must  be  so  regarded." 

Conductors  Had  to  Write  Understanding  of  Train   Orders. 

Rule  6 — "All  orders  by  telegraph  for  the  movement  of  trains  will  be  taken  in 
duplicate  by  the  Operators  (the  manifold  paper  being  used  for  this  purpose,  that  cor- 
rectness of  copies  may  be  secured).  These  orders  will  be  addressed  to  the  Conductor 
and  Engineer,  to  whom  they  will  be  read  aloud  by  the  Operator.  The  Conductor  will 
write  the  understanding  of  the  order,  which  must  be  read  by  the  Engineer  and  signed 
by  both,  and  will  then  be  transmitted  to  the  person  giving  the  order,  who  will,  if  the 
same  is  correctly  understood,  give  his  "O.  K."  and  the  time,  'which  will  be  endorsed 
on  the  order  by  the  Operator  receiving  the  same.  After  which  endorsement,  one  copy 


40  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

of  the  order  will  be  given  to  the  Conductor  and  one  copy  to  the  Engineer,  who  must 
in  person  receive  them  from  the  Operator.  No  train  will  run  upon  such  an  order 
until  the  "O.  K."  is  received.  " 

Torpedoes  Were  Used  and  Three  Exploding  in  Quick  Succession  Called  for  Reversing 

of  Engine  and  Sand. 

"Six  torpedoes  will  be  furnished  to  each  Conductor  and  Engineer,  to  be  used  to 
call  attention  to  danger  signals  at  any  time  when  the  view  is  obstructed,  also  at  night 
or  stormy  and  foggy  weather. 

"When  a  train  is  detained  on  the  main  track  from  any  cause  whatever,  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  Conductor  to  send  a  Flagman  with  three  torpedoes  in  the  direction 
of  the  expected  train,  who  shall  go  at  least  the  distance  of  sixty  rail  lengths  and  fasten 
a  torpedo  to  the  rail,  on  the  Engineer's  side,  and  then  proceed  and  fasten  the  other 
two  at  intervals  of  twenty  rails  beyond  the  first. 

"If  he  should  be  recalled  by  the  return  signal  before  the  expected  train  comes 
within  hearing,  he  shall  leave  the  torpedo  last  laid  down  and  take  up  the  other  two 
and  return  to  his  train  with  all  possible  despatch. 

"Whenever  an  engine  explodes  a  torpedo,  the  Engineer  must  stop  immediately, 
and  then  will  proceed  with  extreme  caution  until  the  obstruction  is  passed.  If  three 
torpedoes  are  exploded,  the  danger  is  imminent,  and  sand  must  be  used  and  the  engine 
reversed. 

"Whenever  torpedoes  have  been  used,  application  must  be  immediately  made  to 
the  Trainmaster  for  a  full  supply,  and  Conductors  and  Engineers  are  required  to  know 
that  they  have  a  full  supply." 

THE  FOLLOWING  SCHEDULE  OF  ARRIVING  AND  LEAVING  OF  TRAINS 
APPEARED  IN  THE  GALENA  DAILY  ADVERTISER,  UNDER  DATE 

OF  JANUARY  28TH,  1857. 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  RAILROAD. 

Change  of  Time. 

ON  AND  AFTER  THIS  DATE  TRAINS  will  arrive  and  depart  from  Galena  as 
follows: 

FROM  DUNLEITH,  GOING  EAST  AND  SOUTH. 
Leave  Galena — 

Chicago  Express,  East,  leaves  Galena  at  8:50  A.  M. 
St.  Louis  and  Cairo  Express  at  7  A.  M.  and  6:50  P.  M. 
Trains  arrive  at  Galena — 

Chicago  Express,  North,  at  5:58  P.  M. 

Cairo  and  St.  Louis  Express  at  7:32  P.  M.  and  6:30  A.  M. 

No  train  going  East  Saturday  evening.  A  train  leaves  Galena  on  Sunday  evening 
at  7  P.  M.  JOHN  H.  DOANE,  General  Superintendent. 


CLEANINGS 

from  tfiQ 

CIAIMS  DEPARTMENT 


JntQTQSthig  -  J\ows  •  tjp  ^Doings  - 

(Claimants  •-  J^z  -  #W-  £?/#  -  c^  Court 


DECREASE   IN   LITIGATION   AT 

VICKSBURG 

'  I  ^HE  January  term  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  Warren  County,  Missis- 
sippi, will,  in  all  probability  not  continue 
in  session  more  than  two  weeks,  which 
will  be  most  unusual  inasmuch  as  the  full 
time  of  the  court  which  is  allotted  by 
law  is  eight  weeks.  The  last  April  term 
of  the  Circuit  Court  remained  in  session 
but  four  weeks,  while  the  October  term 
was  in  session  only  three  weeks.  At 
both  terms  parties  having  cases  on  the 
docket  were  given  an  opportunity  for 
trial,  in  that  every  case  was  called  for 
trial  before  adjournment.  Heretofore, 
the  Warren  County  Court  has  always 
consumed  its  full  time,  and  then  did  not 
succeed  in  disposing  of  the  business.  If 
the  January  term  finishes  its  work  in  two 
weeks,  the  record  will  prove  to  be  one 
which  the  taxpayers  of  Warren  County 
ought  not  overlook.  They  will  be  the 
gainers  on  account  of  the  great  decrease 
in  litigation  against  corporations,  for 
which  Warren  County  has  set  the  pace  in 
Mississippi.  The  taxpayers  of  Vicks- 


burg  and  Warren  County  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated. 

VERDICTS    FOR   $42,000.00   SET 
ASIDE 

On  April  14,  1914,  Dr.  R.  B.  Nelson 
and  Dr.  A.  C.  Lewis,  two  prominent 
physicians  of  Memphis,  Tenn.,  were 
struck  by  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.  train  No. 
Ill  at  the  Horn  Lake  Road  crossing, 
south  of  Memphis.  Dr.  Nelson  suc- 
cumbed to  his  injuries  a  few  days  later. 
Dr.  Lewis,  who  was  driving  the  machine, 
was  not  seriously  hurt  and  soon  re- 
covered. Suits  for  damages  were  filed 
against  the  railroad  company  by  an  ad- 
ministrator of  Dr.  Nelson's  estate,  and 
by  Dr.  Lewis.  The  cases  were  tried  in 
the  circuit  court  of  Shelby  County  and 
a  jury,  on  December  3rd,  last,  returned 
a  verdict  for  $30,000  in  the  Nelson  case 
and  $2,000  in  the  Lewis  case. 

The  preceding  day  a  jury  in  the  Fed- 
eral Court  of  Memphis  returned  a  ver- 
dict for  $10,000  in  favor  of  R.  E. 
Thomas,  a  freight  conductor  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.,  who  sus- 


41 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


tained  amputation  of  one  of  his  legs  at 
Hollywood,  Miss.,  November  2,  1914. 

On  Saturday,  December  18th,  a  mo- 
tion for  a  new  trial  was  argued  in  each 
of  these  cases  and  the  verdicts  were  set 
aside  by  the  courts.  In  the  Nelson  and 
Lewis  cases  the  court,  in  accordance  with 
a  new  Tennessee  rule  of  practice,  not 
only  set  aside  the  verdicts  but  entered 
judgments  in  favor  of  the  railroad.  This 
action  was  based  on  the  ground  that  the 
evidence  failed  to  show  that  the  engi- 
neer operating  the  train  was  at  fault,  but 
did,  in  the  opinion  of  the  court,  show 
that  those  riding  in  the  auto  were  guilty 
of  negligence  in  failing  to  observe  the 
approach  of  the  train. 

In  the  Thomas  case  the  court  simply 
set  aside  the  verdict  and  granted,  a  new 
trial,  whereupon  Thomas'  attorneys  dis- 
missed the  suit  and  have  since  brought 
another  action  in  the  state  court. 

As  things  are  arranged  in  this  world, 
frequently  what  profits  one  is  at  the  ex- 
pense of  another.  It  was,  of  course, 
quite  a  relief  to  the  railroad  to  have 
judgments  of  this  magnitude  set  aside 
but,  it  was,  no  doubt,  a  great  disappoint- 
ment to  the  plaintiffs  and  their  attorneys 
to  see  such  attractive  sums  so  auickly 
melt  before  their  eyes.  This  demon- 
strates the  uncertainties  and  disappoint- 
ments of  litigation  and  emphasizes  the 
wisdom  of  litigants  compromising  their 
differences  where  possible. 

Another  most  striking  example  of  the 
advantage  of  compromise  adjustments 
appears  also  at  Memphis.  On  August 
7,  1914,  James  I.  Fletcher,  a  flagman  on 
the  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.,  was  fatally  in- 
jured at  Lake  Cormorant,  Miss.,  leaving 
surviving  a  widow.  Within  a  few  days 
a  representative  of  the  company  called 
on  her  and  suggested  a  settlement  and 
was  assured  the  matter  would  be  taken 
up  later,  but  instead,  a  lawyer  was  re- 
tained and  suit  filed  in  the  Federal 
Court,  on  August  19th,  just  twelve  days 
after  the  accident. 

On  November  23,  1914,  W.  H. 
Fletcher,  a  brother  of  James  I.  Fletcher, 
employed  as  a  switchman  on  the  Mem- 
phis Terminals,  was  killed,  leaving  a 
wife  and  five  small  children.  A  different 


policy  was  adopted  by  this  family,  and 
the  subject  of  settlement  was  taken  up 
with  the  company's  representatives  and 
within  three  weeks  after  the  accident 
occurred  an  agreement  was  reached  and 
quite  a  substantial  sum  of  money  was 
paid. 

The  suit  for  the  death  of  James  I. 
Fletcher  is  still  pending,  there  having 
been  two  trials,  each  of  which  resulted 
in  a  disagreement  of  the  jury.  Instead 
of  having  the  matter  adjusted  in  three 
weeks,  this  case  has  been  pending  17 
months  with  very  gloomy  prospects  for 
any  recovery  ever  being  obtained,  and  at 
best,  the  final  disposition  of  the  case  is 
somewhere  in  the  distant  future.  The 
handling  of  these  two  painful  and  un- 
fortunate occurrences  would  appear  to 
furnish  food  for  reflection  before  either 
party  to  a  controversy  rushes  into  the 
courts. 


LEFT  IN  THE  LURCH 

On  June  19,  1914,  an  automobile  oc- 
cupied by  W.  E.  Bellis  and  his  son, 
Chester  Bellis,  was  struck  by  passenger 
train  No.  122,  on  public  highway  cross- 
ing near  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  hurled 
probably  fifty  feet,  demolishing  the  ma- 
chine and  injuring  both  occupants, 
though  not  seriously.  The  occupants 
then  and  there  expressed  their  determina- 
tion to  sue  the  company  and  force  them 
to  pay  damages.  They  employed  counsel 
and  instituted  separate  suits  for  their 
injuries  and  demanded  $1,000.00  for  the 
machine.  The  cases  were  continued  sev- 
eral times,  and  were  finally  tried  on  De- 
cember 6th,  and  it  took  the  jury  but  a 
short  while  to  bring  in  an  unanimous 
verdict  for  the  railroad,  leaving  the  cases 
in  such  shape  as  that  plaintiffs  will  not 
likely  undertake  an  appeal,  and  also  leav- 
ing them  with  judgments  against  them 
for  quite  a  large  bill  of  costs. 

EXPECTED  WITNESS  TURNED 
UP 

Many  witticisms  are  often  passed  upon 
the  fact  that  the  cow  killed  by  a  train  is 
invariably  a  Jersey.  It  is  equally  strange 
that  when  an  animal  is  killed  in  the  wee 
small  hours  of  the  night,  far  from  human 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


43 


habitation,  that  some  one,  usually  a 
negro,  is  found  who  was  up  with  a  sick 
child,  returning  from  a  dance  or  some 
other  plausible  explanation,  for  nocturnal 
rambles,  and  witnessed  the  accident  and 
appears  to  testify  to  the  details.  Pos- 
sibly the  revelations  in  the  suit  of  J.  W. 
Trott  vs.  the  I.  C.  R.  R.,  brought  at 
Charleston,  Miss.,  for  a  horse  killed,  may 
explain  this  phenomenon  in  some  in- 
stances. 

At  the  trial  Dewitt  Burns,  colored,  was 
produced  by  the  plaintiff  and  testified 
that  he  was  traveling  along  the  railroad 
track  from  a  visit  to  his  wife's  people  to 
the  home  of  his  own  folk  after  midnight 
and  met  the  horse  in  question  which  was 
walking  on  the  track  toward  the  trestle 
and  shortly  after,  he  met  a  train  going  in 
the  same  direction  as  the  horse,  stopped 
and  saw  the  train  strike  the  horse  and 
knock  it  off  the  trestle.  He  testified  that 
the  engineer  failed  to  whistle  or  slacken 
speed.  The  proof  showed  the  horse  bore 
no  marks  of  having  been  struck  by  the 
train  but  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  for 
$175.00.  Immediate  investigation  de- 
veloped that  Burns  had  not  been  seen  by 
his  wife's  or  his  own  people  for  many 
months.  Burns  was  located  a  few  days 
later  and  an  affidavit  secured  from  him 
to  the  effect  that  he  did  not  see  the  ac- 
cident, was  not  at  the  place  on  the  night 
in  question  and  did  not  know  the  horse 
was  killed  until  several  days  later,  but 
was  employed  to  testify  to  the  facts  as 
given  by  him  upon  the  trial. 

The  affidavit  and  the  negro  were  pro- 
duced in  court  at  the  hearing  of  a  motion 
for  a  new  trial  and  the  verdict  was  im- 
mediately set  aside.  The  facts  were  laid 
before  the  grand  jury  which  was  in  ses- 
sion and  the  negro  was  indicted  for  per- 
jury.   

LIMPED   ON  THE  WRONG   LEG 

A  New  York  Exchange  says :  "James 
Schmidt,  who  sued  for  $20,000.00  for  in- 
juries to  his  right  leg  sustained  in  falling 
through  a  coal  hole,  limped  on  his  left 
leg  when  he  hobbled  into  court  late  today. 
Judge  Mulqueen  sentenced  him  to  a 
year  in  prison  for  attempted  grand 
larceny." 


GETTING  AFTER  LAWYERS 

Last  week  the  Appellate  Division  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  cen- 
sured one  prominent  lawyer  severely,  dis- 
barred thirteen  and  suspended  seven  for 
various  terms.  A  little  purification  of 
this  kind  would  work  well  as  a  deter- 
rent to  malpractice  in  this  state. — The 
Meteor,  Crystal  Springs,  Miss.,  Nov. 
12,  1915. 

The  above  editorial  expression  from 
an  influential  newspaper  located  in  the 
heart  of  Mississippi,  shows  the  drift  of 
public  opinion  on  the  unethical  practice 
of  law.  A  profession  which  is  honored 
above  all  others  is  in  danger  of  losing 
its  prestige  unless  something  is  done  to 
check  offending  lawyers,  those  willing  to 
stoop  to  almost  any  depths  for  financial 
gain.  Ethical  lawyers  are  still  in  the 
majority,  but  they  are  being  rapidly 
swept  aside  by  the  members  of  the  other 
branch  of  the  profession  who  are  con- 
stantly on  the  alert  for  business  at  any 
cost.  No  doubt  the  example  set  in  New 
York  will  be  emulated  in  other  states. 
The  public  will  continue  to  appreciate 
and  revere  honorable  lawyers,  but  the 
scalawags  who  search  the  back  alleys  for 
cripples  and  use  them  as  tools  to  serve 
their  own  ends,  who  break  up  the 
friendly  relations  between  employe  and 
employer,  who  separate  unfortunates 
from  their  best  friends,  are  doing  a  very 
great  damage  to  society  and  are  deserv- 
ing of  the  execration  of  their  country- 
men. 


TRAFFIC  IN  LAWSUITS 

Importation  of  personal  injury  suits 
from  Iowa  to  Minnesota  for  trial  in  the 
courts  of  the  latter  state  was  given  a 
severe  jolt  in  a  decision  recently  handed 
down  by  Judge  Maxwell  in  the  district 
court  at  Creston,  Iowa.  The  decision 
charges  that  Minnesota  attorneys  main- 
tain oaid  agents  in  Iowa  who  solicit  dam- 
age suits  against  railroads.  These  ac 
tions  are  instituted  in  the  courts  of  Min- 
nesota. 

"Through  the  most  scandalous  and  un- 
ethical conduct  of  a  number  of  lawyers 
located  at  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  the  courts 


44 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


there  are  being  fairly  swamped  with 
cases  of  this  character  to  the  great  injury 
and  inconvenience  and  inequitable  treat- 
ment of  the  residents  of  our  and  other 
foreign  states,"  declares  the  court. 

It  is  true  that  a  great  many  cases 
originating  in  Iowa  have  been  taken  to 
Minnesota  for  trial.  This  in  itself  is  sus- 
picious and  bears  out  the  claim  of  Judge 
Maxwell.  The  conclusion  is  that  litigants 
should  patronize  home  industry. — The 
Dubuque  (la.)  Daily  Times-Journal,  De- 
cember 5,  1915. 

HALF  OF  WOMAN'S  MONEY  DID 
NOT  SATISFY  LAWYER 

Although  Attorney  Thomas  Lindsay 
received  a  fee  of  $3,200  when  Mrs.  Lillie 
Lipking  was  given  a  judgment  of  $6,500 
against  the  Evansville  &  Terre  Haute 
railroad,  he  seeks  a  $1,000  additional  fee 
for  collecting  the  judgment.  His  suit 
was  partially  tried  Thursday  and  con- 
tinued. 

Edgar  Durre  has  a  claim  against  the 
estate  for  services  for  $750. 

In  1908  John  P.  Lipking  was  run  down 
and  killed  in  the  C.  &  E.  I.  yards  and  in 
1910  a  damage  suit  was  filed  in  Posey 
County.  A  verdict  of  $5,000  was  returned 
but  the  case  was  appealed.  Later  by  a 
decision  of  the  supreme  court  the  widow 
was  awarded  $5,000  with  interest 
amounting  to  $6,500. — The  Evansville 
(Ind.)  Press,  December  23,  1915. 

NO,  THEY  HAD  RATHER  BE 
KILLED 

Dr.  John  J.  Coffman,  of  Scotland,  Pa., 
in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Journal  of 
the  American  Medical  Association  of  De- 
cember llth,  writes  as  follows : 

"Would  it  not  be  possible  for  the 
Journal  to  get  the  facts  in  regard  to  auto- 
mobile casualties  in  the  United  States? 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  your  practical 
system  of  collecting  and  tabulating  the 
accident  results  of  the  Fourth  of  July 
annual  observation  has  aided  forcibly  in 
bringing  about  a  change  from  a  danger- 
ous and  destructive  demonstration  to  one 
of  safe  and  sane  observance,  might  it  not 
be  possible  to  the  same  extent  to  make 
the  use  of  the  automobile  safe  and  put 


a  stop  to  the  frequent  deaths  and  in- 
juries? 

"I  am  convinced  that  if  the  daily,  or 
especially  the  annual  loss  of  life  could  be 
ascertained  and  shown  up  in  as  con- 
spicuous a  manner  as  has  been  done  in 
the  Fourth  of  July  casualties,  the  Ameri- 
can people  would  be  appalled. 

"The  American  public,  through  its 
legislative  bodies,  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  and  otherwise,  has 
demanded  that  the  railroads  and  other 
public  service  carriers  adopt  and  use 
every  device  and  plan  for  safety ;  and  yet 
the  private  citizen,  with  no  considera- 
tion of  his  own  or  other  persons'  safety, 
uses  the  automobile  with  its  many  horse- 
power engine  in  a  most  indifferent  and 
reckless  manner. 

"Many  of  these  machines  or  cars  are 
too  often  run  by  individuals  of  indiffer- 
ent judgment  or  physical  condition  or  by 
youths  or  others  incompetent  to  insure 
the  safety  of  their  own  lives  or  that  of 
others  traveling,  perhaps,  by  safer  meth- 
ods. 

"If,  in  every  case,  the  cause  or  in- 
fluence leading  to  the  accident,  even  in 
a  large  percentage  of  the  occurrences, 
whether  causing  death  or  other  injury, 
could  be  ascertained  and  shown  in  a 
lucid  form,  undoubtedly  it  would  lead  to 
better  and  safer  conditions  in  handling 
these  engine  driven  vehicles.  Laws  and 
regulations  could  be  urged,  and  enforced, 
making  this  mode  of  travel  one  of  safety. 

"If  you  can  do  this  work  you  will  con- 
fer on  the  traveling  public  a  blessing  and 
aid  that  would  be  inestimable." 

There  surely  can  be  no  controverting 
of  the  contentions  of  Dr.  Coffman. 
Moreover,  he  seems  to  have  viewed  the 
entire  situation  in  a  sane  and  sensible 
fashion.  Whatever  is  to  be  accomplished 
along  this  line  in  the  preservation  of  life 
must  be  done  by  a  campaign  of  educa- 
tion, of  constant  and  continuous  repeti- 
tion. 

Dr.  Coffman  speaks  of  the  American 
public  being  "Appalled."  When  you  "ap- 
pall" the  American  public  you  assume 
a  task  the  magnitude  of  which  is  a 
shameful  reproach  to  an  enlightened  age. 
They  are  not  appalled  at  the  death  rate 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


45 


of  400,000  people  of  this  country  an- 
nually from  tuberculosis.  There  seems 
to  be  no  undue  alarm  because  37,000  peo- 
ple are  destroyed  annually  in  this  coun- 
try on  account  of  typhoid.  They  were 
not  terrified  by  the  submarine  disasters 
of  warring  nations,  and  to  this  day  on 
belligerent  ships  sailing  in  dangerous 
waters  are  to  be  found  Americans  throw- 
ing an  open  challenge  to  death.  So  that 
when  one  speaks  of  "appalling"  Ameri- 
cans, he  immediately  associates  his  mind 
with  earthquakes,  Dante,  and  Paradise 
Lost. 


REED  RESTRAINS  TAKING 

SUITS  TO  FOREIGN 

COURTS 


Rules  Minnesota  Trials  of  State  Cases 
are  Not  in  Order 


Far  Reaching  Ruling  That  Bears  Sig- 
nificantly on   Ancient   Practice 


A  decision,  the  effect  of  which  will  be 
far-reaching,  was  handed  down  this 
morning  in  circuit  court  by  Judge  W.  M. 
Reed  in  a  judgment  filed  in  the  case  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
against  Linnie  Reed,  administratrix,  of 
the  estate  of  John  Reed,  deceased.  In 
the  judgment,  the  court  perpetuates  a 
temporary  injunction,  restraining  the  de- 
fendant from  further  prosecution  of  a 
damage  suit  for  $20,000  against  the  Illi- 
nois Central,  now  pending  in  the  courts 
of  Minnesota  and  in  the  St.  Paul  district. 

The  defendant,  through  her  counsel, 
Attorneys  Mike  Oliver  and  Joseph  R. 
Grogan  are  taking  the  necessary  steps  to 
carry  the  case  to  the  court  of  appeals. 

Judge  Reed  had  had  the  case  under 
advisement  for  several  months  as  it  is  of 
a  most  unusual  and  significant  nature. 

About  eighteen  months  or  two  years 
aeo,  Jerry  Reed,  a  Negro  employe  of  the 
Illinois  Central,  was  killed  by  being 
I'ammed  between  cars  while  at  work  near 
Union  station.  His  wife,  Linnie  Reed, 
qualified  as  administratrix  of  his  estate 
and  instituted  suit  in  the  courts  of  Min- 
nesota for  $20,000  damages,  through  At- 
torney Anderson. 


Railroad   Blocks    Move 

Some  time  before  the  day  set  for  a 
trial  of  the  case  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  the 
railroad  company,  through  its  counsel 
here,  Attorneys  Wheeler  and  Hughes, 
filed  a  petition  in  which  they  prayed  for 
an  order  temporarily  restraining  the  ad- 
ministratrix or  her  counsel  from  prose- 
cuting the  case  in  the  Minnesota  courts. 

The  railroad  company  charged  that  in- 
asmuch as  the  accident  occurred  in 
Paducah  and  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
Kentucky  courts,  it  should  be  tried  in 
this  state. 

Trial  of  the  Reed  case  had  been  held 
up  in  the  meantime  and  will  continue  to 
be  held  in  abeyance  until  the  court  of 
appeals  in  this  state  makes  its  decision. 

The  Injunction 

The  judgment  filed  this  morning,  in 
part  reads: 

"That  the  defendant,  Linnie  Reed,  as 
administratrix  of  Jerry  Reed,  deceased, 
be  and  she  is  hereby  temporarily  en- 
joined and  restrained  from  maintaining, 
carrying  on,  or  prosecuting  any  suit  or 
procedure  by  her,  now  instituted  .in  the 
state  of  Minnesota  against  this  plaintiff, 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  be- 
cause of,  or  on  account  of  the  death  of 
Jerry  Reed,  deceased  and  said  Linnie 
Reed,  as  administratrix  of  Jerry  Reed, 
deceased,  is  particularly  restrained  and 
enjoined  from  prosecuting  or  assisting  in 
the  prosecution,  or  in  any  manner  tryinsr 
the  case  of  Linnie  Reed,  as  administratrix 
of  Jerrv  Reed,  deceased,  plaintiff,  against 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 
now  pending  in  the  District  Court  of  the 
Second  Judicial  District,  in  the  county  of 
Ramsey  and  State  of  Minnesota  ;  and  the 
said  defendant,  her  attorneys,  represen- 
tatives and  agents,  and  all  persons  act- 
ing for  her  or  in  her  behalf,  be,  and  they 
are  restrained  and  enjoined  from  in  any 
manner  assisting  or  engaging  in  the 
prosecution  of  said  suit  so  instituted  by 
her  in  the  said  State  of  Minnesota,  which 
injunction  and  restraint  shall  remain  in 
force  until  the  final  hearing  and  de- 
termination of  this  case,  but  the  de- 
fendant is  given  leave  to  apply  within 
twenty  (20)  days  from  this  date,  to  a 


46 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


judge  of  the  court  of  appeals  of  Ken- 
tucky to  dissolve  or  modify  the  tempo- 
rary injunction  herein  granted." 

One  of  Many  Cases 

Numerous  cases  have  been  carried 
from  Paducah  to  the  Minnesota  courts 
and  in  some  of  them,  judgments  against 
the  railroad  company  were  returned. 


The  judgment  filed  this  morning  will 
affect  not  only  cases  arising  in  Mc- 
Cracken  county  but  in  counties  all  over 
the  state. 

There  are  a  large  number  of  damage 
suits  which  grew  out  of  accidents  on 
railroads  in  this  state,  now  pending  in 
the  Minnesota  courts. — The  Paducah 
(Ky.)  Evening  Sun,  December  10,  1915. 


The  McComb  Shop  Apprentice  School  Exhibit 


By  T.  L.  Smith,  Machinist  Apprentice 


'-pHE  McComb  Shop  School  exhibited 
-*•  its  work  to  the  public  for  the  first 
time  at  the  Pike  County  Fair  held  at  Mag- 
nolia, Miss.,  Nov.  3-6,  1915. 

The  exhibit  was  in  charge  of  H.  N. 
Seney,  Apprentice  Instructor,  who  was 
assisted  by  some  of  the  apprentices.  The 
display  consisted  of  two  distinct  parts, 
one  from  the  shop  school  and  the  other 
from  the  shops. 

That  from  the  school  consisted  of  free- 
hand sketches,  drawings,  tracings  and  even 
blue  prints.  Various  plates,  blue  prints  and 
text  books  used  in  instruction  were  also 
shown.  Some  samples  of  pen  and  ink 
work  and  free-hand  lettering  were  much 
admired. 

The  shop  exhibit  consisted  of  samples  of 
work  done  by  apprentices  in  the  various 
departments.  The  main  features  were  a 
complete  heating  stove  from  the  foundry; 
a  miniature  "one  class"  engine  cab  and 
pilot  complete,  from  the  carpenter  shop; 
an  entire  engine  oiling  outfit  from  the  tin 


shop;  and  a  wrist  pin,  link  and  back  end  of 
a  main  rod  (complete)  from  the  machine 
shop.  The  blacksmith  shop  produced  some 
very  creditable  forgings  and  the  boiler 
shop  some  samples  of  flue  setting,  rivet- 
ing and  flanging.  All  of  our  signs,  paint- 
ing, and  decorating  were  done  by  our 
painter  apprentices.  A  glass  checkerboard 
made  of  gold  and  silver  leaf  on  a  piece  of 
glass  was  perhaps  the  most  beautiful 
article  in  our  exhibit.  We  had  many  other 
articles  too  numerous  to  mention  and  can 
only  say  that  our  exhibit  was  too  crowded 
in  an  8x15  booth. 

This  exhibit  received  the  prize  as  the 
best  school  exhibit,  the  blue  ribbon  also 
for  manual  training  exhibit  and  second 
prize  for  pen  and  ink  work. 

This  display  attracted  widespread  atten- 
tion and  comment.  To  rnany  it  certainly 
was  a  revelation.  Many  people  could  hard- 
ly believe  that  such  a  thing  was  being 
accomplished  in  their  very  midst  and  that 
we  were  being  taught  something  beside 
hard  work. 


ft  is  not  tne  Science  of  curing  Disease  so  much  as  me  prevention  of  it 
inat  produces  trie  greatest  gpod  to  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teacning  people  now  to  live  A  A  A  A  A 

How  to  Keep  Well  and  Comfortable  During 
the  Cold  Weather 


AS  winter  approaches  it  is  important  to 
consider  the  means  by  which  our  health 
may  be  protected  and  comfort  maintained 
during  the  cold  weather.  It  is  true  that 
nature  is  able  to  go  a  long  way  toward  se- 
curing this  result,  for  the  resisting  power  of 
a  healthy  body  is  very  great  and  capable 
of  dealing  with  great  variations  of  temper- 
ature provided  proper  aid  is  given  the  body 
in  the  way  of  suitable  clothing  and  personal 
hygiene. 

Many  persons  are  able  to  pass  through 
the  entire  year  with  but  little  or  no  change 
in  the  form  of  dress  and  still  avoid  any 
unpleasant  consequences.  But  as  age  in- 
creases, and  when  sickness  occurs,  or  when 
the  rules  of  health  are  violated,  this  resist- 
ing power  of  the  body  becomes  weakened 
and  unable  to  perform  its  functions;  then 
this  loss  must  be  compensated  for  by  addi- 
tional clothing,  as  well  as  protection  from 
other  sources,  otherwise  unpleasant  and 
even  dangerous  results  may  follow. 

While  it  is  true  that  some  articles  of 
food  are  greater  heat  producers  than  others, 
still  it  is  hardly  necessary  that  any  change 
should  be  made  in  our  food  during  cold 
weather,  beyond  what  is  available  during 
winter  months.  A  fact  which  should  be 
remembered  is  that  breakfast  should  be  the 
best  and  most  important  meal  of  the  day; 
there  is  no  better  evidence  of  health  than 
a  good  appetite  upon  rising  in  the  morn- 
ing, for  the  digestive  organs  have  had  a 
long  rest  and  are  in  good  condition  to  digest 
a  generous  meal.  The  prevailing  notion 
that  it  is  sufficient  to  take  only  a  little 
fruit,  a  roll  and  cup  of  coffee  for  breakfast 
is  wrong  and  without  logical  foundation, 
and  there  is  no  time  when  this  idea  is  more 
detrimental  to  good  health  than  during  cold 
weather.  For  the  body,  like  an  engine, 
must  have  a  proper  amount  of  good  fuel  in 
order  to  perform  its  work. 

The  writer  believes  that  impure  air  is  re- 


sponsible for  many 'of  the  ills  of  life.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  particularly  in  cities  and 
towns  persons  remain  within  doors  not  less 
than  twenty  out  of  twenty-four  hours  of 
the  day,  and  in  our  offices,  and  more  so  in 
apartments  and  workshops,  the  temperature 
is  often  too  high — sometimes  reaching  80° 
to  85°.  If  a  person  remains  in  such  a  tem- 
perature all  day  the  skin  becomes  suscep- 
tible to  the  lowered  outside  temperatures, 
which  is  often  50°  or  60°  below  that  of  the 
room  or  office.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this 
condition  is  often  directly  responsible  for 
many  of  the  ailments  which  so  frequently 
occur  during  the  cold  weather.  How  neces- 
sary then  to  carefully  watch  the  temper- 
ature of  your  room  or  office  and  see  that 
it  is  kept  at  the  proper  temperature  and 
properly  ventilated. 

The  selection  of  clothing  for  the  cold 
season  generally  involves  a  change  in  the 
outer  as  well  as  the  under  garment,  and  the 
addition  of  great  overcoats  or  wraps  for 
outside  exposure.  There  is  but  one  mate- 
rial which  practically  and  scientifically  has 
received  general  approval,  and  that  is  wool, 
or  at  least  60%  to  75%  wool.  This  sub- 
stance offers  the  best  protection  against 
the  low  winter  temperatures,  for  it  is  a  very 
poor  conductor  of  heat  and  cold,  and  while 
in  this  way  it  helps  to  retain  the  body  heat, 
it  also  very  effectively  aids  in  preventing 
the  chilling  effects  of  the  external  temper- 
ature upon  the  surface  of  the  body.  Cotton 
is  the  least  valuable  for  this  purpose,  and 
yet  how  almost  universally  is  cotton  used 
as  underwear.  It  is  not  desired  that  under 
garments  shall  be  composed  entirely  of 
wool,  for  a  mixture  of  25%  of  cotton  does 
not  materially  affect  the  protective  value 
of  this  material,  while  it  renders  it  more 
agreeable  to  the  skin  and  prevents  excessive 
shrinking  during  the  process  of  washing. 
Not  only  the  material,  but  the  weight  of 
winter  under  garments  must  be  considered. 


47 


48  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

It  is  the  common  practice  to  have  winter  this  modern  and  reasonable  form  of  dress 

suits  for  those  of  the  lighter  weights  worn  are  fully  convinced  of  the  comfort  and  pro- 

during  the  summer.     That  is  largely  a  mat-  tection  it  affords,  particularly  within  doors. 

ter  of  habit  and  is  not  good  or  logical.     Dr.  Protection   against  the   diminished   temper- 

Doty,  of  New  York,  says:     "While  it  is  im-  ature    outside    should    be    provided    for    by 

portant  that  woolen  under  garments  should  using  a  heavy  overcoat  or  wrap. 

be  worn  during  the  winter,  since  they  con-  jt    js   aiso   very   important   that    the    feet 

stitute  a  direct  protection  to  the  skin  and  be  well  protected  in  cold  and  wet  weather, 

guard  against  the  unpleasant  effects  of  sud-  for.    the    footwear    of    the    present    day    is 

den  change  of  temperature  upon  the  surface  ridiculously    faulty.      Carelessness    in    this 

of  the  body,  a  variation  in  the  weight  and  way  constitutes  the  most  common  cause  of 

material    of    the    outer    garment    is    neither  colds,    sore    throat    and    other    conditions 

necessary  nor  desirable."     The  fact  is  that  which  are  not  only  uncomfortable  but  often 

during  the  winter  we  wear  heavy  and  un-  prove  dangerous.     Everyone  should  be  pro- 

comfortable  outer  garments  in  order  to  be  vided  with  rubbers  and  overshoes  and  use 

protected  for  a  short  time  while  in  the  open  them  whenever  the  streets  are  damp  or  wet 


then  some  form  of  heavy  wrap  added  when  are  t£  most  common  causes  o 

we     go     outside.     Under    these     conditions  sore  tnroats- 

there    is   no   reason   why   the    same   weight          Proper  protection  of  the  feet,  proper  care 

and    texture    of   outer    clothing   should    not  m   the   clothing  worn  and   care   to  prevent 

be  worn  throughout  the  year  except  prob-  the  over-heating  of  offices  and  living  apart- 

ably    the    very    thinnest    which    is    used    in  ments  during  the  winter  months  is  far  more 

very  hot  weather.    Those  who  have  adopted  important  than  the  general  public  realize. 

Letters  of  Appreciation  of  [  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Mr.  T.  J.  Foley,  Gen.  Mgr.,  Memphis,   Tenn.,   Nov.   29,   1915. 

I.  C.  R.  R.  Co., 
Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  want  to  thank  the  Illinois  Central  Hospital  Department  for  the  prompt  and 
efficient  attention  given  me  in  connection  with  an  operation  which  I  have  just  had 
performed. 

A  Hospital  Department  Surgeon  was  at  my  bedside  within  fifteen  minutes  after 
he  was  called.  He  diagnosed  my  case  as  appendicitis,  advised  me  to  go  to  the  hos- 
pital at  once,  and  had  an  ambulance  at  my  home  almost  immediately.  The  Division 
Surgeon  was  at  the  hospital  to  meet  me,  and  after  an  examination  advised  that  an 
operation  was  necessary.  I  was  on  the  operating  table  within  half  an  hour  after 
reaching  the  hospital.  The  case  proved  to  be  a  very  serious  type  of  appendicitis, 
but  owing  to  the  splendid  care  given  me  by  the  Surgeons  and  the  kind  treatment 
I  received  from  the  Sisters  at  St.  Joseph's  Hospital,  the  operation  w:  s  successful, 
and  I  am  now  improving  rapidly. 

I  can  never  forget  the  kindness  shown  me  by  the  Illinois  Central  Hospital  De- 
partment, the  Surgeons  and  the  good  Sisters  while  I  was  in  St.  Joseph's  Hospital. 

Yours   respectfully, 

(Signed)     E.  J.   WATSON, 
Conductor  Y.  &  M.  V.,    Memphis  Division. 


Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Fort  Dodge,  Iowa,  Sept.  9,  1915. 

Chief   Surgeon,   Chicago. 
Dear  Sir: 

As  you  are  aware,  my  son,  Emmett,  who  is  employed  as  stenographer  by  the 
company,  has  recently  been  attended  by  Hospital  Department  Surgeons  in  Chicago, 
and  in  his  behalf  and  in  view  of  my  natural  interest  in  the  matter,  I  wish  to  express 
my  appreciation  of  the  kindness  and  efficient  service  rendered  him.  We  are  very 
glad  of  the  opportunity  of  belonging  to  the  Hospital  Department. 

Again  thanking  you  for  the  attention  given  my  son,   I   beg  to  remain 

Yours   truly, 

(Signed)     M.  F.  COFFEE, 

Flagman,   Iowa  Div., 
Fort   Dodge,   Iowa. 


The  Export  and  Import  Business 

By  E.  L.  Throgmorton,  Commercial  Agent,  Kansas  City]] 


NO  one  knows  the  origin  of  the  export 
business,  but  the  basis  of  it  has  al- 
ways been  the  same,  supply  and  demand. 
This  is,  of  course,  the  basis  of  all  business, 
and  we  find  no  difference  between  domestic 
trade  and  the  export  and  import,  in  this  re- 
spect. 

The  origin  is  ancient,  and  in  the  early 
days  it  was  carried  on  under  great  difficul- 
ties, and  the  means  of  transportation  were 
very  limited.  On  land,  goods  were  trans- 
ported by  caravan,  and  on  the  sea,  the  gal- 
leys, and  sailing  vessels  were  used.  Months, 
and  often  years,  were  consumed,  in  an  ex- 
pedition of  this  kind,  and  yet,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  adversities,  it  has  constantly 
grown  and  prospered. 

The  conditions,  however,  changed  gradu- 
ally, and  through  civilization  and  man's  in- 
genuity, the  questions  of  transportation 
have  been  solved,  one  after  another,  until 
we  have  arrived  to  the  present  era,  known 
as  the  commercial  age,  which  is  beyond 
any  question,  the  greatest  the  human  race 
has  ever  known,  and  made  possible  only 
by  the  adequate  transportation  system  of 
the  present  day.  It  is  my  ooinion,  how- 
ever, tnat  the  public  in  general  give  very 
little  thought  to  this  question,  but  accept 
present  conditions  as  a  matter  of  fact,  but 
it  can  not  be  denied  that  next  to  religion, 
modern  transnortation  has  done  more  for 
the  civilization  of  man  than  any  other 
agency. 

Points  remote  from  each  other,  as  well 
as  foreign  countries  have  been  brought 
closer  together  so  far  as  time  is  concerned, 
and  thus  space  has  been  annihilated.  There 
is  no  difference  todav.  in  the  distance  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Liverpool,  or  between 
Kansas  City  and  Amsterdam,  than  one 
hundred  vears  aero,  but  modern  transporta- 
tion has  reduced  the  time,  from  a  matter 
of  weeks,  and  often  months,  to  a  very  few 


days.  Therefore,  our  export  and  import 
business  has  developed  along  with  the  im- 
provements in  the  matter  of  transportation. 

A  few  years  ago,  the  products  of  foreign 
countries,  on  our  American  markets,  were 
considered  more  or  less  as  luxuries,  but 
today,  practically  all  of  them  are  consid- 
ered as  necessities.  Did  you  ever  consider 
how  many  articles  you  use  or  at  least  come 
under  your  daily  observation,  which  were 
produced  in  a  foreign  country?  Or  did  it 
ever  occur  to  you,  in  your  own  home  while 
enjoying  a  delicious  cup  of  coffee,  that  it 
was  produced  in  Brazil  or  Central  Amer- 
ica, or  the  lemons  used  in  your  household 
may  have  grown  on  an  island  in  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea?  It  also  may  not  have  oc- 
curred to  you,  that  the  silk  in  your  wife's 
dress,  or  in  your  shirt,  was  produced  in 
Sunny  Spain,  or  some  Oriental  country, 
and  that  the  linens  on  your  table  were 
manufactured  in  Ireland.  Possibly  you 
have  given  the  matter  no  attention,  but  if 
you  will  think  it  over,  I  dare  say.  you  will 
be  astonished  at  the  number  of  articles 
you  use  daily  which  were  not  produced  in 
our  country. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  native  of  France, 
Holland,  England,  or  practically  all  other 
European  countries,  would  no  doubt  be 
equally  surprised  if  told  that  the  bread 
consumed  during  his  daily  meal  was  raised 
on  a  Kansas  farm,  and  milled  in  the  same 
state,  shipped  to  him  in  a  sack  of  jute, 
which  was  grown  and  woven  in  India, 
manufactured  by  an  American  bag  com- 
pany, just  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
him  with  that  daily  bread;  or  that  the 
lard  used  in  the  making  of  the  bread  or 
in  preparing  his  meal  in  general,  was  from 
a  hog-  raised  in  Illinois  or  Iowa,  slaught- 
ered in  a  packing  house  in  Chicago  or 
Omaha.  On  the  other  hand,  his  lard  may 
not  have  originated  from  the  Illinois  or 


49 


50 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Iowa  hog,  but  may  have  flourished  in  our 
own  Sunny  South,  in  the  seed  of  King 
Cotton.  Instance  after  instance  of  this 
kind  could  be  used,  but  it  would  be  merely 
a  repetition  and  a  waste  of  space  to  use 
them. 

During  the  past  year,  on  account  of  the 
European  conflict,  this  country  has  for- 
warded the  largest  volume  of  business 
from  its  shores  it  has  ever  produced  for 
this  purpose.  The  total  from  January  to 
October,  inclusive,  amounting  to  $2,867,123,- 
745.00,  while  the  business  for  all  of  1913 
amounted  to  $2,428,506,358.00,  that  year  be- 
ing the  largest  on  record  up  to  the  pres- 
ent. Apparently,  our  business  for  all  of 
this  year  will  reach  about  $3,500,000,000.00. 
The  bulk  of  this  movement  is  being  for- 
warded through  Eastern  ports,  but  more 
or  less  of  it  is  moving  through  the  Gulf, 
and  all  lines  have  enjoyed  a  share  of  it. 

The  enormous  business  mentioned  above 
consists  largely  of  munitions  of  war,  and 
so  long  as  the  European  countries  carry  on 
the  conflict,  it  will  undoubtedly  continue 
to  move.  However,  when  our  natural  for- 
eign markets  forsook  their  peaceful  voca- 
tions, a  large  part  of  our  industries  were 
seriously  crippled.  They  at  once  set  about 
for  new  fields,  and  the  result  is  that  Cen- 
tral and  South  America  are  nearer  us  than 
ever  before  in  our  history.  Much  investi- 
gation has*  been  carried  on  both  by  the 
government  and  the  business  interests  of 
our  country,  in  this  field,  and  the  result 
is  our  manufacturers  are  preparing  for  an 
enormous  business  in  a  field  which  has 
heretofore  belonged  almost  exclusively  to 
Europe.  This  together  with  the  fact  that 
after  peace  is  restored,  the  demand  for  our 
products  will  be  unusual,  both  in  the  East 
and  West,  is  the  silver  lining  to  the  pres- 
ent cloud. 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  will  be  a  factor  in  this  great  busi- 
ness to  move,  not  only  in  that  of  the 
present,  but  in  that  to  come.  This  great 
system  of  ours  reaches  out  through  the 
Mississippi,  Ohio  and  Missouri  River  val- 
leys, touching  directly  thirteen  states  and 


connects  with  all  lines  serving  the  Central 
and  Middle  Western  states.  It  is,  there- 
fore, the  logical  route  to  the  Gulf  from 
this  entire  territory. 

Years  ago  our  management  realized  that 
the  port  of  New  Orleans  would  one  day 
be  a  great  factor  in  the  export  and  import 
movement  of  this  country.  They,  there- 
fore, with  great  foresight,  established 
suitable  facilities  at  that  point  for  taking 
care  of  this  traffic.  These  facilities  are  a 
marvel  in  their  completeness,  and  are  a 
source  of  wonder  to  all  who  visit  them. 
Days  can  be  spent  in  going  over  them  and 
they  must  be  visited  to  be  appreciated. 

We  therefore,  have  the  facilities  at  the 
port  which  are  adequate  for  all  demands, 
and  with  a  railroad  which  is  second  to 
none,  whose  service  is  uniformly  the  best, 
serving  one  of  the  greatest  producing  and 
consuming  territories  of  the  United  States. 
What  more  could  we  ask?  Surely,  we  of 
the  Illinois  Central  are  to  be  envied. 

With  our  physical  requirements  all  that 
we  could  wish,  it  devolves  upon  the  Traffic 
Department  to  supply  the  business  for 
these  great  facilities.  The  question  there- 
fore arises,  how  can  we  reach  the  highest 
possible  standard  of  perfection  toward  this 
end?  By  co-operation,  or  in  other  words, 
harmony.  This  is  the  foundation  of  suc- 
cess in  all  lines  of  venture,  whether  in 
business  or  government.  A  man  of  medium 
ability  is  worth  more  if  he  will  co-operate 
with  his  fellow  man,  than  a  really  brilliant 
man  who  does  not  do  so,  as  the  latter 
brings  about  confusion  by  his  misguided 
efforts.  Teamwork  is  the  essential  quali- 
fication of  all  organizations,  and  while  I 
am  positive  from  my  experience,  that  the 
representatives  of  our  line  possess  this 
idea  to  a  greater  extent  than  most  lines,  it 
should  ever  be  held  up  as  our  guiding  star. 

Let  us  each,  therefore,  with  renewed 
energy  and  zeal,  put  our  shoulder  to  this 
great  commercial  wheel,  and  make  it  not 
only  in  name,  but  in  fact,  the  greatest  fac- 
tor in  the  export  and  import  business  in 
the  United  States. 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


How  to  Prevent  Damage  by  Rough  Handling  in  the 
Yard  and  on  the  Road 


For  the  Loss  and  Damage  Meeting, 
held  in  Memphis,  October  19,  1915,  a 
committee  prepared  the  following  pa- 
per on  the  subject  of: 

In  the  Yard. 

/COMMITTEE  recommends  constant 
active  effort  on  the  part  of  the  offi- 
cers, yard  foremen,  switchmen  and 
switch  tenders  to  keep  in  mind  cars 
switched  or  allowed  to  run  together 
hard  causes  damage,  by  rough  han- 
dling, to  the  contents  of  cars  which 
the  employes  handling  cars  are  not 
informed  of  unless  someone  calls 
their  attention  to  cars  striking  hard 
or  not  properly  handled  by  the  em- 
ployes when  switching.  Subordi- 
nate officers  who  fail  to  immediate- 
ly call  attention  of  employes  han- 
dling cars  to  the  rough  handling,  fail 
to  do  their  duty  in  preventing  dam- 
age to  contents  of  cars  for  the  reason 
that  the  switchmen  or  those  handling 
cars  are  not  made  aware  of  the  damage 
done  by  them  account  of  not  seeing  the 
claims  or  being  called  upon  to  account 
for  claims,  or  called  to  account  when 
they  permit  rough  switching  of  cars  in 
yards. 

The  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that 
employes  must  be  kept  informed  of  the 
important  duty  of  not  permitting  cars 
to  strike  hard  regardless  of  the  lading; 
and  engineers'  attention  must  be  called 
frequently  when  rough  handling  is  ob- 
served, and  the  subject  kept  continu- 
ally before  those  who  have  to  do  with 
the  handling  of  cars,  and  the  extent  of 


claims  made  known  to  the  individual 
members  of  the  switch  crews  for  the 
purpose  of  enlisting  their  support  and 
assistance  in  preventing  claims  by 
reason  of  rough  handling. 

Yard  crews,  unless  personally  ob- 
serving end  of  a  car  knocked  out  or 
contents  exposed,  do  not  seem  to  ap- 
preciate the  damage  is  frequently  done 
inside  of  cars  of  which  they  know  noth- 
ing about,  and  unless  the  supervising 
employes  call  attention  to  rough 
switching  it  is  not  improbable  that  this 
work  will  continue  because  the  em- 
ploye has  not  been  informed  of  the  re- 
sult of  his  careless  or  indifferent  work. 
The  work  may  not  be  careless  or  indif- 
ferent, it  may  be  the  habit  that  has 
been  formed  switching  and  allowing 
cars  to  strike  hard,  what  they  consid- 
ered a  moderate  rate  of  speed,  when, 
in  fact,  the  contents  of  cars  are  being 
greatly  damaged  by  such  switching. 
Unless  it  is  made  known  to  the  men 
who  do  the  work  that  they  are  doing 
wrong  it  is  very  likely  they  will  con- 
tinue wrong-doing  without  any  inten- 
tion of  doing  so.  The  greatest  pub- 
licity must  be  given  by  those  employes 
supervising  the  work  of  switching  and 
handling  cars  in  yards  and  the  men 
who  are  responsible  for  rough  switch- 
ing must  have  their  attention  called 
to  same — not  one  time,  but  every  time 
they  are  observed  handling  cars  ex- 
cept in  a  careful  manner. 

The  committee  recommends  the  line 
of  instructions  to  the  employes  who 
handle  cars,  should  be  with  a  view  of 


51 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


having  the  men  understand  that  the 
fewest  possible  movements  of  a  car  is 
the  success  of  proper  terminal  opera- 
tion, reduces  the  wear  and  tear  on  the 
car,  reduces  liability  of  accident — put 
a  car  where  it  belongs  with  the  least 
possible  movements  and  in  a  careful 
manner,  and  damage  paid  out  by  the 
company  for  rough  handling  will  be 
greatly  reduced. 

Committee  condemns  the  practice  of 
foremen  handling  long  cuts  of  cars, 
switching  "one  in — one  out,"  and  rec- 
ommends handling  of  short  cuts  with 
view  of  permitting  more  careful  hand- 
ling and  expedite  the  work  of  switch- 
ing as  well  as  preventing  wear  and 
tear  on  both  motive  power  and  cars. 
Enginemen  should  have  their  attention 
called  when  they  handle  cars  roughly, 
such  as  starting  them  or  stopping  them 
in  a  rough  manner.  There  is  more 
damage  done  by  stopping  cars  than  by 
starting,  but  both  movements  can  be 
made  with  care,  and  that  thought 
should  be  put  in  the  mind  of  every 
engineer  who  operates  a  yard  engine. 
It  is  evident  that  with  the  heavy  power 
now  used  that  great  damage  can  be 
done  to  the  lading  of  cars  by  rough 
handling  of  the  motive  power,  and 
every  yard  foreman  should  take  it 
upon  himself  to  speak  personally  to 
engineers  who  persist  in  handling  cars 
roughly.  The  foreman  who  will  take 
an  interest  in  that  direction  does  him- 
self a  benefit  by  reason  of  not  having 
to  handle  bad  order  cars,  made  so  by 
the  carelessness  of  his  own  crew. 
There  should  be  no  hesitancy  on  the 
part  of  any  yardmaster  or  foreman  of 
a  crew  in  conferring  freely  with  en- 
ginemen  who  handle  cars  roughly. 
There  should  be  no  hesitancy  on  the 
part  of  yardmasters  in  calling  atten- 
tion of  foremen  or  switchmen  when 
cars  strike  too  hard,  and  where  fore- 
men do  not  appreciate  the  requests  to 
assist  the  company  in  saving  the 
money  spent  for  damage  account  of 
rougfh  handling  such  employes  are  not 
entitled  to  consideration. 


On  the  Road. 

The  assistance  of  the  engineer  in 
handling  a  train  on  the  road  is  de- 
sired, and  he  should  be  asked  to  have 
in  mind  that  unless  care  is  taken  by 
him  in  the  handling  of  the  air  rough 
handling  may  result.  The  engineer 
should  be  assisted  in  being  furnished 
with  proper  air  equipment  in  good 
working  condition  when  he  starts,  and 
when  evidence  of  rough  handling 
reaches  the  attention  of  the  conductor 
or  brakeman  the  engineer's  attention 
should  be  called  to  it  immediately.  Re- 
cent investigation  developed  that  rough 
handling  of  trains  may  appear  at  the 
rear  of  the  train  without  the  resultant 
effect  on  the  engine,  and  for  that  rea- 
son an  engineers'  attention  should  be 
called  every  time  there  is  rough  han- 
dling, with  view  of  having  him  in- 
formed in  case  same  should  not  reach 
his  attention.  If  he  does  not  know 
he  has  no  chance  to  improve.  Adver- 
tise the  rough  handling  of  trains 
among  those  who  are  in  position  to 
prevent  same.  A  train  that  handles 
rough  on  the  road  the  Trainmaster 
should  be  informed,  or  the  Yardmas- 
ter where  train  was  made  up,  or  Me- 
chanical Department  should  be  in- 
formed that  the  air  equipment  on  that 
train  is  not  in  proper  condition,  if  the 
rough  handling  continues  after  the  en- 
gineer has  been  informed. 

The  parties  responsible  for  rough 
handling  should  have  their  attention 
called  to  same  or  the  evil  can  never 
be  remedied.  If  trains  are  permitted 
to  leave  terminal  without  air  equip- 
ment in  good  condition  and  that  ter- 
minal is  not  informed  of  that  fact  the 
careless  work  continues.  If  a  train 
leaves  the  terminal  in  good  condition 
and  is  roughly  handled  on  the  line  the 
engineer's  attention  should  be  called  to 
that  fact  immediately,  and  it  should  be 
his  duty  to  determine  if  the  fault  is 
with  the  handling  or  with  the  equip- 
ment in  the  train.  The  conductor  and 
brakeman  should  assist  him  in  that 
direction  and  the  cause  of  rough  han- 
dling ascertained.  If  defective  equip- 
ment is  found  same  should  be  report- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


53 


ed.  No  improvement  can  be  made  un- 
less the  cause  is  properly  investi- 
gated. Without  a  knowledge  of  the 
facts  an  investigation  is  frequently  of 
little  value.  The  scause  first  ascer- 
tained and  then  the  remedy  can  be 
more  easily  applied.  Co-operation 
among  every  man  on  the  crew  is  neces- 
sary to  prevent  rough  handling  of  cars 
on  the  road.  Proper  signals  to  the  en- 
gineman,  careful  responding  to  such 
signals,  careful  switching  at  stations, 
and  constantly  bringing  to  the  minds 
of  those  employes  that  care  on  their 
part  alone  will  prevent  rough  handling, 
will,  in  the  minds  of  the  committee, 
prevent  claims  on  account  of  that  evil. 


The  committee  urges  the  free  and 
friendly  sociable  co-operation  of  every 
man  on  the  yard  crew,  every  man  on 
the  road  crew,  to  acquaint  themselves 
with  wrongdoing,  rough  handling  be- 
ing in  that  class,  and  by  such  friendly 
co-operation  let  the  facts  be  brought 
to  the  surface  and  the  parties  respon- 
sible, or  the  equipment  if  defective, 
made  known,  and  that  will  do  more  to 
prevent  rough  handling  than  any  other 
action  that  can  be  taken. 

J.  M.  Walsh,  Term'l  Supt.,  Chm. 

B.  Herring,  Agent. 

H.  V.  Nevill,  Traveling  Engr. 

H.  Fletcher,  Traveling  Engr. 
Committee. 


A  Splendid  Showing 


T  T  NDER  date  of  Dec.  2nd  the  Agent  at  one 
^  of  our  important  stations  issued  the  fol- 
lowing bulletin  addressed  to  all  employes : 

"Recently,  this  station  has  been  checked 
thoroughly  by  the  Loss  and  Damage  Bureau 
representatives,  Division  Claim  Agent,  Car 
Service  and  Demurrage  Bureau,  Special  rep- 
resentatives on  car  equipment,  and  by  the 
Traveling  Auditor. 

"The  reports  of  these  gentlemen  have  been 
highly  satisfactory;  we  have  practically  shown 
a  record  of  100  per  cent  throughout  the  ex- 
amination of  the  station,  a  record  that  has 
never  before  been  attained  at  this  station,  and 
probably  at  no  other  station. 

"I  feel  that  it  is  due  to  the  employes  of 
this  station  that  such  a  remarkable  showing 
has  been  made,  and  I  wish  to  PERSONAL- 
LY thank  every  employe  of  this  station  for 
their  interest  and  assistance  in  bringing  about 
such  good  results,  which,  I  am  sure,  could 
not  have  been  reached  without  the  very 
strongest  of  co-operation  and  interest  by  all 
the  employes." 

This  is  indeed  a  splendid  testimonial  of 
efficiency  and  denotes  what  can  be  accom- 
plished through  organization  and  team  work 
at  each  individual  station,  with  the  result  that 
all  similar  investigations  conducted  at  each 
station  would  develop  like  conditions,  since  it 
is  made  possible  by  proper  performance  of 
duties  required  of  each  employe. 


The  instructions  issued  by  each  department 
to  Agents  are  formulated  to  provide  the  ac- 
complishment of  their  branch  of  work  along 
the  most  practical  lines,  and  to  suit  condi- 
tions. Every  feature  in  connection  with  sta- 
tion operation  is  covered  by  such  instruc- 
tions and  in  making  investigation  by  the  dif- 
ferent representatives  a  careful  check  is  made 
to  determine  whether  or  not  instructions  are 
being  complied  with,  and  the  report  made 
contains  the  result  of  inspection  along  these 
lines ;  at  stations  where  each  employe  appre- 
ciates the  importance  of  complying  with  the 
rules,  not  only  will  the  entire  organization 
be  pleased  with  conditions,  but  our  patrons 
will  receive  better  service,  thus  increasing  our 
revenue,  which  insures  not  only  success  to 
the  company,  but  employment  to  the  em- 
ployes. 

Local  conditions  at  most  stations  are  iden- 
tical with  the  volume  of  business  handled, 
and  stations'  forces  similar,  yet  one  Agent  and 
his  organization  will  be  commended  for  the 
efficient  manner  in  which  their  station  is  op- 
erated, while  the  other  station  is  found  far 
below  the  standard  of  a  well  operated  station 
— the  former  complying  with  instructions,  the 
latter  disregarding  same ;  and  as  we  approach 
the  new  year  we  trust  our  station  organiza- 
tions will  determine  to  show  one  hundred 
per  cent  efficiency  in  all  branches  of  work 
in  each  investigation  made  at  their  station. 


SflFCIY 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,NTr 
S  E,RVI  OE, 
LWAY  S 


When  Others  Think  of  Your  Safety,  Why 
Will  Not  You? 

\\7  E  APPEAL  to  each  employe,  whether  wearing  a  safety  button  or  not, 
to  ask  himself  this  question :  "How  can  I  prevent  accidents  ?"  Study 
the  question  carefully  and  submit  your  recommendations  and  suggestions 
to  the  Safety  Committee  and  you  may  be  assured  they  will  be  given  full  and 
prompt  consideration. 

If  a  dangerous  condition,  or  improper  practice,  is  observed — it  is  your  duty 
to  bring  it  to  the  attention  of  some  one  in  authority.  Your  promptness  may 
prevent  an  accident  and  probably  save  the  life  or  limb  of  a  fellow  workman, 
who  has  loved  ones  depending  on  him  for  support  and  happiness,  and  the 
consequence  of  an  accident  would  probably  bring  not  only  grief  but  destitu- 
tion among  them.  Try  to  prevent  a  happy  wife  from  being  made  a  widow, 
a  child  or  children,  orphaned,  and  a  mother  deprived  of  a  son  on  whom  she 
has  relied  for  care  and  support  in  her  declining  years. 

It  is  within  the  power  of  employes  to  bring  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
System  to  first  place  among  railroads  as  the  one  having  the  least  number 
of  accidents  in  proportion  to  the  mileage,  density  of  traffic,  number  of  em- 
ployes and  population  of  territory  served. 

Minutes  of  Meeting  of  Water  Valley  Shop  Safety 
Committee,  November  22,  1915 

MEETING  called  to  order  at  2:00  p.  m.  by  W.  W.  Nash,  acting  chairman.     The 
following  members  were  present: 

PRESENT 

W.   W.    NASH,   Pipe   Fitter   Foreman. 
E.  F.  CHRISP,  Engine  Inspector. 

W.  J.  KING,  Blacksmith  Foreman. 

W.  T.  EVERETTE,  General  Car  Foreman. 
C.  A.  TYREE,  Wrecking  Foreman. 

JNO.    McDERMOTT,    Boiler    Foreman. 

J.    W.    HARLEY,    Tool    Room    Foreman. 
C.   C.   BENNETT,   Painter  Foreman. 
WM.  JOHNSON,  Tinner. 

P.    M.    WHITEHEAD,    Blacksmith. 
C.  B.  WHITEHEAD,  Painter. 

54 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


55 


VISITORS 

S.  B.  HERRON,  Accountant. 

L.  R.  CHRISTY,  Chief  Clerk,  General  Car  Foreman. 

ABSENT 

J.  N.  CHAPMAN,  General  Foreman. 

R.  R.  ROYAL,  Roundhouse  Foreman. 
W.  J.  SHAW,  Gang  Foreman. 

W.  F.  HENRY,   Boiler  Maker. 

H.  F.  COLLINS,  Chief  Clerk,  Master  Mechanic. 
G.    H.    GREER,    Division    Storekeeper. 

Reports  from  GSMP  office  were  read  and  comments  and  comparisons  made  be- 
tween this  shop  and  other  shops  on  system. 

Each  injury  was  gone  over  from  the  first  of  the  month  to  date  and  comments, 
criticisms  and  suggestions  for  betterment  were  made. 

Mr.  Nash  made  short  talk,  calling  attention  to  duties  of  each  and  every  member 
of  the  committee.  Also  stating  that  each  time  an  employe  is  injured  he  should  go 
to  his  foreman  before  making  report  of  injury.  This  will  put  the  foreman  in  close 
touch  with  each  injury  and  will  help  him  to  keep  the  men  from  being  careless  and 
as  we  have  a  committee  to  investigate  cause  of  each  injury  it  seems  that  we  should 
not  have  any  trouble  in  reducing  the  number  of  injuries  at  this  shop. 

Mr.  Everette  then  stated  that  everything  possible  was  being  done  in  the  Car  Shop 
to  reduce  the  number  of  injuries  and  that  all  the  injuries  occurring  in  that  depart- 
ment, with  the  exception  of  J.  E.  Weir  being  burned,  were  very  slight.  He  also  called 
the  attention  of  the  committee  to  the  way  the  Car  Shop  men  came  and  reported  any- 
thing that  is  liable  to  cause  an  injury  and  he  thinks  that  interest  taken  by  the  men 
in  this  way  will  help  to  reduce  the  number  of  injuries. 

Mr.  Chrisp  called  attention  to  the  clean  and  sanitary  condition  of  the  shops 
and  grounds. 

Mr.  Tyree  called  attention  to  plank  being  moved  from  drop  pit  in  roundhouse, 
and  necessary  steps  were  taken  to  have  practice  stopped.  Mr.  Tyree  also  called 
attention  to  loose  ends  of  wire  dragging  and  swinging  from  flat  cars  from  which 
logs  have  been  unloaded  and  steps  were  taken  to  have  Car  Inspector  in  yard  to 
remove  wire  from  cars  while  passing  through  Water  Valley  Yard. 

Mr.  Nash  then  moved  that  meeting  adjourn  if  there  was  no  other  business  to 
be  brought  before  the  Committee. 

Meeting  adjourned  3:00  p.  m. 


EFFICIENT  SERVICE 
ALWAYS 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Train  Accidents 

By  J.  W.  Hevron,  Supt. 


A  S  a  matter  of  comparison,  our  Rail- 
road in  common  with  others 
throughout  the  country  classifies  train 
accidents  under  two  headings,  namely; 
avoidable  and  unavoidable.  However,  in 
this  article  I  am  treating  them  all  as 
avoidable,  as  the  number  of  really  un- 
avoidable, if  any  exist,  are  of  such  in- 
finitesimal character  as  to  render  a  dis- 
cussion of  them  unnecessary. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  time- 
worn  expression  "Accidents  will  occur 
as  long  as  railroads  exist,"  but  after 
carefully  reviewing  the  wonderful  reduc- 
tions made  in  this  respect  on  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  during  the  past  five 
years  as  reflected  by  the  monthly  state- 
ment furnished  us  by  the  management, 
and  the  very  intelligent  manner  in  which 
our  employes  are  entering  into  the  propo- 
sition, is  it  not  possible  the  next  like 
period  will  bring  us  very  near  to  a  reali- 
zation of  the  Operating  Department's 
most  cherished  dream  "The  Elimination 
of  the  Train  Accident." 

Nor  is  this  confined  alone  to  the  Oper- 
ating Department ;  accidents  may  be 
likened  to  barnacles  which,  attaching 
themselves  to  the  hull  of  a  ship,  retard 
its  progress  through  the  water  more  and 
more  as  they  multiply,  so  the  accidents 
on  a  busy  railroad  retard  its  progress 
through  every  department.  They  result 
in  a  direct  financial  loss  to  the  company, 
with  no  opportunity  for  remuneration, 
and  often  are  accompanied  with  serious 
personal  injuries  to  our  employes  and 
others. 

There    is   no   one   thing  that   can   so 


completely  demoralize  a  busy  railroad  as 
a  serious  train  accident.  It  is  true  the 
tracks  are  soon  reopened,  but  the  delays 
incident  to  such  accident  often  extend 
themselves  through  a  several-day  period 
until  normal  conditions  are  again  re- 
stored. Our  passenger  and  freight  traffic 
is  delayed,  passengers  are  annoyed  on 
account  of  missing  connections,  im- 
portant business  engagements,  etc., 
freight  shippers  are  dissatisfied  on  ac- 
count of  the  delay  to  their  shipments,  and 
instead  of  having  a  pleased  customer, 
future  shipments  are  oftimes  diverted 
from  our  line  on  this  account.  So  aside 
from  the  direct  loss,  the  results  may  be 
far-reaching  in  every  direction. 

When  investigating  a  train  accident, 
how  often  do  we  find  that  a  preventive 
could  easily  have  been  applied  in  the 
beginning.  Usually  of  a  very  small  and 
insignificant  nature,  but  rapidly  multi- 
plied, and  can  be  directly  traced,  as  the 
cause  of  the  accident. 

Inasmuch  as  the  train  dispatcher 
creates  all  orders  and  instructions  per- 
taining to  the  movement  of  trains  not 
otherwise  provided  for,  a  great  respon- 
sibility rests  upon  this  individual  in  the 
prevention  of  accidents  or  the  hazard  of 
same.  All  train  orders  should  be  issued 
strictly  in  accordance  with  the  various 
forms  provided  for  in  the  rules,  and  if 
necessary  to  issue  any  train  orders  or 
instructions  not  so  provided  for,  they 
should  be  issued  in  the  plainest  language 
possible.  While  the  orders  and  instruc- 
tions you  may  issue  from  day  to  day 
are  perfectly  plain  to  you  through  your 


56 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


57 


long  training  in  this  department,  you 
should  bear  in  mind  they  may  not  appear 
as  plain  nor  the  intent  as  celar  to  the 
person  selected  to  execute  them,  and  we 
should  often  ask  ourselves  the  question 
as  to  how  we  would  understand  them, 
were  we  placed  in  the  other  fellow's 
position. 

How  easy  could  an  accident  have  been 
avoided  had  the  conductor  and  engineer 
exercised  a  little  more  care  in  checking 
the  train  register,  reading  their  train 
orders  to  each  other,  afterwards  impart- 
ing this  knowledge  to  the  other  members 
of  their  train  crew  and  keeping  the  in- 
formation foremost  in  their  minds  until 
the  order  was  executed.  For  the  brake- 
man  to  have  properly  secured  and  locked 
the  switch  thereby  preventing  a  cocked 
switch  under  a  moving  train.  How  easy 
for  him  to  have  complied  with  Rule  99 
instead  of  supposing  "There  was  nothing 
behind  him." 

How  easy  for  the  section  foreman  or 
track  walker  to  have  replaced  the  broken 
angle  bar  or  tightened  the  bolt  at  an  ex- 
penditure of  possibly  fifteen  minutes 
time  and  thereby  avoided  a  possible  24 
hours  continuous  hard  labor  in  putting 
his  track  back  in  condition  for  passage 
of  trains,  and  possibly  weeks  before  it 
assumes  its  former  condition. 

How  easy  for  the  car  repairer  to  have 
detected  and  applied  a  missing  cotter 
key  from  a  brake  connection  or  a  bolt  or 
nut  from  some  part  of  a  car  truck  which 
sooner  or  later  may  result  in  a  derail- 
ment on  this  or  some  other  railroad  with 
a  corresponding  damage  to  equipment. 

Our  new  freight  and  passenger  equip- 
ment is  the  result  of  the  very  best  efforts 
of  our  foremost  American  Car  Builders. 
It  is  placed  in  service  in  perfect  condi- 
tion, every  part  secured  and  in  place  and 
it  devolves  upon  us  to  maintain  it  in  such 
condition.  The  careful  inspection  of  this 
equipment  by  car  repairers,  trainmen  and 
others  is  of  the  utmost  importance.  Our 
employes  are  daily  detecting  defects, 
both  large  and  small,  applying  the  neces- 
sary repairs,  thereby  removing  a  pos- 
sible hazard  of  accidents. 

The  importance  of  operators  and  other 
station  employes  carefully  inspecting 
moving  trains  passing  their  stations  can- 
not be  over  estimated.  Their  position  is 


usually  advantageous  to  detect  defects 
that  would  possibly  be  overlooked  if  the 
cars  were  standing. 

In  my  opinion  the  speed  of  a  train  has 
a  greater  relation  to  train  accidents  than 
any  other  one  factor,  and  the  restricting 
of  the  speed  of  our  freight  trains  to  25 
and  30  miles  per  hour  on  main  line  terri- 
tory and  a  corresponding  reduction  on 
some  of  the  branch  lines,  has  been  the 
paramount  cause  of  the  wonderful  re- 
duction in  accidents  on  all  Divisions.  I 
well  remember  when  these  speeds  restric- 
tions were  promulgated  by  the  manage- 
ment, the  misgivings  that  filled  my  mind 
(and  no  doubt  there  were  others  in  the 
same  position)  visions  of  a  conjested 
railroad,  delayed  trains,  crews  tied  up 
account  of  the  Federal  Law,  etc.,  how- 
ever, I  endeavored  to  have  the  rule 
obeyed  implicitly  on  the  District  with 
which  I  was  connected  at  that  time,  and 
after  it  had  been  in  effect  about  six 
months,  we  began  noticing  a  wonderful 
decrease  in  accidents  over  the  entire  sys- 
tem. I  distinctly  recall  one  Division  go- 
ing through  a  period  of  one  year  without 
a  crew  being  tied  up.  A  certain  district 
a  like  period  without  a  wheel  being  de- 
railed, and  the  writer,  a  few  months  ago, 
had  occasion  to  compile  a  rather  lengthy 
statement,  showing  the  time  consumed 
by  freight  trains  between  certain  ter- 
minals, at  the  present  time,  on  a  very 
conjested  District,  as  compared  with  a 
like  period  several  years  ago,  which  re- 
flected instead  of  decreasing  the  speed  of 
our  freight  trains  under  this  rule,  we 
had  in  the  aggregate  increased  it  from 
terminal  to  terminal  over  20  per  cent. 

It  is  very  encouraging,  indeed,  to  note 
the  lively  interest  the  employes  of  all 
departments  are  exercising  in  preventing 
train  accidents. 

The  observance  of  our  present  rules 
and  instructions  together  with  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  co-operation  in  all  de- 
partments having  to  do  with  the  oper- 
ation of  trains,  maintenance  of  track 
and  equipment,  will,  I  believe,  greatly 
assist  in  entirely  eliminating  the  "478 
report"  from  the  archives  of  railway 
literature  and  permit  our  various  jum- 
bos and  steam  derricks  to  be  worn  out 
in  work  of  construction  instead  of 
destruction. 


Transportation  of  Perishable  Commodities — Need  of 
Co-operation  of  Shippers  with  Carriers 

By  Eugene  F.  McPike,  Manager,  Perishable  Freight  Service,  Illinois  Central 

Railroad,  Chicago. 


(Abstract  of  paper  for  presentation  at  the 
Second  Pan-American  Scientific  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  Dec.  27,  1915-Jan.  8, 
1916.) 

pHE  conservation  of  human  food  prod- 
•^  ucts  is  a  national  problem  of  great  im- 
portance in  all  countries,  including  the 
United  States  where  in  spite  of  abundant 
natural  resources  the  people  are  experi- 
encing the  high  cost  of  living.  It  is  essen- 
tial, therefore,  to  reduce  to  the  lowest  pos- 
sible minimum  any  economic  waste  in  the 
handling  of  all  perishable  commodities 
which,  in  a  high  degree,  are  so  necessary 
a  part  of  the  sustaining  power  of  any  na- 
tion. The  American  railroads  have  made 
constant  and  strenuous  efforts  to  perform 
their  full  part  of  the  work  of  supplying 
the  requisite  facilities  for  the  proper  trans- 
portation of  the  goods  to  market.  They 
have  done  even  more  than  this  for  they 
have  invaded  the  wilderness  and  with  un- 
bounded faith  in  the  future  have  projected 
their  rails  into  the  most  uncultivated  re- 
gions which  have  been  converted  into  fields 
of  great  productive  usefulness,  supporting 
new  populations  and  exporting  to  their 
neighbors  far  and  near  the  constantly  in- 
creasing surplus  of  the  products  of  the  soil. 
The  natural  growth  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States  and  the  rapid  increase 
from  year  to  year  in  the  production  of 
fruits  and  vegetables  and  other  perishable 
articles  have  caused  the  railroads  to  be  con- 
fronted with  many  difficult  problems  of 
unparalleled  magnitude. 

There  are  in  actual  operation  in  the 
United  States  today  more  than  100,000  in- 
sulated refrigerator  cars  equipped  with  ice 
bunkers.  There  are  single  railroad  systems 
which  transport  considerably  more  than 
1,000,000  tons  .of  perishable  freight  per 
year.  The  business  as  a  whole,  therefore, 
is  large  enough  and  of  such  nature  as  to 
require  very  close  attention.  The  Amer- 
ican railroads  have  not  been  backward  in 
equipping  themselves  to  handle  the  perish- 
able freight  traffic  satisfactorily  and  with 
due  regard  to  its  importance  and  its  pe- 
culiar requirements.  It  is  entirely  safe, 
therefore,  to  predict  that  in  the  future  the 
railroads  will  continue  to  manifest  in  a 
substantial  form  their  interest  in  that  class 
of  traffic.  In  fact  the  transportation  of 


perishable  commodities  has  such  a  special 
hazard  of  its  own  as  to  make  it  imperative 
that  great  care  and  diligence  be  used  as 
indeed  are  almost  invariably  used  by  the 
carriers  which,  in  America,  under  the  com- 
mon law,  are  virtually  the  insurers  of  the 
freight  entrusted  to  their  custody.  It  may 
be  true  that  from  a  technical  or  legal 
standpoint  the  American  railroads  are  not 
actually  the  insurers  of  perishable  freight 
to  the  same  degree  or  in  the  same  sense  as 
they  may  be  insurers  of  other  non-perish- 
able freight,  yet  in  actual  practice,  all  things 
being  equal,  the  shippers  of  perishable  com- 
modities do  generally  rely  upon  the  rail- 
roads to  give  safe  transportation  to  such 
products  and  to  deliver  them  on  the  mar- 
ket in  as  reasonably  good  condition  as  their 
inherent  nature  and  the  normal  circum- 
stances of  transportation  may  permit.  This 
situation,  as  to  the  liability  of  American 
carriers,  is  in  some  respects  quite  different 
from  the  responsibilities  imposed  bv  law  or 
by  custom  upon  the  transportation  com- 
panies in  France  and  other  countries  of 
Europe.  The  American  carriers  are  not, 
however,  liable  for  any  losses  or  damages 
to  perishable  goods  in  transit,  the  proximate 
cause  of  which  may  consist  in  one  or  more 
,of  what  are  generally  known  as  the  exemp- 
tions of  the  common  law  rule  and  which 
exemptions  may  be  briefly  stated  as  fol- 
lows: 

(1)  Acts  of  God; 

(2)  Acts  of  the  public  enemy; 

(3)  Acts  of  public  authority  or  law; 

(4)  Acts   of  negligence   of  shipper; 

(5)  Inherent  nature  of  the  goods. 

It  has  also  been  possible  and  still  is 
possible  under  the  existing  laws  of  the 
United  States  regulating  interstate  com- 
merce for  a  carrier  under  certain  condi- 
tions to  enter  into  a  valid  contract  whereby 
its  liability  may  be  limited  provided  such 
contract  or  limitation  is  not  contrary  to 
any  specific  provision  of  law  or  public  pol- 
icy and  is  not  unjust  or  unreasonable. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  in  tendering 
for  transportation  any  shipments  of  perish- 
able goods  there  is  still  a  considerable  re- 
sponsibility which  necessarily  rests  upon 
the  shipper  himself  and  which  includes  vari- 
ous items  for  the  proper  handling  of  which 
it  is  essential  that  there  be  some  active 
co-operation  by  the  shippers  with  the  car- 


58 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


59 


riers  in  order  that  the  safe  transportation, 
which  is  mutually  desired,  may  be  made 
possible.  The  shippers  are  responsible  for 
the  proper  preparation  of  their  goods  for 
shipment  with  due  regard  to  their  inherent 
nature;  the  shippers  are  responsible  for 
the  proper  packing,  loading,  stowing,  strip- 
ping, bracing  of  carload  freight  and  for  its 
proper  and  specific  description  as  well  as 
for  reasonable,  definite  and  legible  shipping 
directions.  If  the  shipper  faithfully  per- 
forms his  duty  in  all  these  respects  he  is 
sure  of  receiving  substantial  rewards  in 
the  more  expeditious  and  satisfactory  han- 
dling of  his  goods  and  in  higher  market 
prices.  It  is  desirable,  therefore,  that  the 
local  agents  of  the  railroads  at  the  loading 
stations  should  endeavor  to  secure  the  con- 
stant co-operation  of  shippers  who  will 
generally  be  glad  to  give  it  because  their 
interests  and  those  of  the  carriers  are 
mutual. 

Preparation. — The  proper  preparation  of 
freight  for  shipment  is  of  itself  alone  a 
large  subject.  It  has  been  conclusively 
shown  by  experiments  conducted  by  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  of  the  U.  S.  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  that  if  the  pri- 
mary conditions  are  not  up  to  a  high 
standard  and  if  the  fruit  is  not  carefully 
picked  and  handled  so  as  to  keep  it  free 
from  bruising,  there  is  no  amount  of  sub- 
sequent refrigeration  or  other  service  in 
transit  which  could  possibly  overcome  the 
evil  effect  of  wrong-  handling  at  the  start. 

In  the  handling  of  organic  perishable 
freight  containing  animal  tissues,  such  as 
dressed  poultry,  it  has  been  demonstrated 
by  the  Food  Research  Laboratory  of  the 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Chemistry,  that  unless  all 
the  animal  heat  has  been  gradually  and 
completely  withdrawn  from  the  product 
before  it  has  finally  become  chilled  or 
frozen,  there  is  no  amount  of  subsequent 
refrigeration  in  transit  by  carriers  which 
can  prevent  the  goods  arriving  on  the  mar- 
ket in  bad  condition.  It  is  better  under- 
stood now  than  formerly  that  the  carriers 
cannot  become  responsible  for  damages 
arising  from  failure  of  shippers  to  prepare 
their  products  properly  for  transportation. 
The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in 
the  case  of  the  Georgia  Fruit  Exchange  vs. 
Southern  Railwav  et  al.,  decided  April  11, 
1911  (20  I.  C.  C.,  627),  said  that  the  rail- 
roads in  ^their  tariffs  undertake  to  supply 
refrigeration  "but  this  cannot  be  inter- 
preted as  an  offer  on  their  part  to  over- 
come physical  conditions  and  characterise 
tics  that  are  natural  to  the  traffic.  Nor  can 
it  be  interpreted  as  an  assumption  of  the 
burden  of  preparing  the  freight  properlv 
for  shipment.  Some  responsibility  rests 
upon  the  shippers  to  improve  the  condi- 
tions under  which  their  traffic  is  offered  for 
transportation.  The  experiments  conducted 
show  that  this  can  be  done  to  the  great 
benefit  of  the  shipper  and  the  carrier  alike 
and  also  to  the  benefit  of  the  public."  It 


seems  to  be  admitted  also  that  the  carriers 
may  refuse  any  freight,  particularly  perish- 
able goods,  when  not  properly  prepared  to 
permit  of  safe  transportation  to  final  des- 
tination. 

Packing. — Preliminary  to  packing  is  the 
question  of  properly  sorting  and  grading 
the  goods  as  to  quality  to  insure  uniform 
standard  of  condition.  A  vigorous  cam- 
paign of  education  has  been  conducted  to 
impress  upon  the  shippers  the  importance 
and  necessity  of  using  suitable  containers 
for  the  different  fruits  and  vegetables  and 
other  perishable  products.  Such  articles 
when  requiring  ventilation  or  refrigeration 
should  be  so  packed  as  to  permit  circula- 
tion of  air  within  and  through  the  indi- 
vidual packages. 

Loading,  Stowing,  Stripping  and  Bracing. 
— The  rules  in  the  several  classifications 
provide  that  when  any  temporary  lining, 
false  floors,  racks,  supports  or  other  port- 
able dunnage  are  required,  they  must  be 
furnished  and  installed  by  the  shipper  and 
at  his  expense.  The  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  in  its  decision  of  June  12,  1914, 
about  dunnage,  I.  &  S.  Docket  354  (30  I. 
C.  C,  pages  538-546),  said  in  substance  that 
carriers  are  not  obligated  to  furnish  nor 
assume  the  expense  or  responsibility  of 
furnishing  portable  dunnage  and  that  it  is 
not  the  duty  of  the  carriers  to  load,  strip 
or  brace  carload  freight  at  their  expense. 
If  shippers  fail  to  install  suitable  false 
floors  at  their  own  expense,  the  carriers 
cannot  be  expected  to  assume  liability  for 
any  consequent  loss  or  damage  by  heat  or 
cold.  It  is  also  the  privilege  and  duty  of 
the  shipper  to  line  the  car  with  paper  or 
otherwise  so  far  as  in  his  judgment  may 
be  required.  It  is  important  that  suitable 
strips  be  placed  between  individual  tiers 
and  rows  of  packages,  to  permit  necessary 
circulation  of  air  in  the  car.  The  loading 
of  a  car  within  a  few  inches  of  the  ceiling 
is  a  dangerous  practice  as  it  reduces  the 
air  circulation  or  restricts  refrigeration 
when  used.  The  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  in  this  connection  decided  that 
it  was  the  privilege  and  duty  of  the  ship- 
pers so  to  prepare  their  goods  as  to  permit 
the  loading  thereof  up  to  the  tariff  mini- 
mum weights  per  car  (20  I.  C.  C.,  623- 
630). 

Description  of  Freight. — It  is  important 
that  a  complete  and  specific  description  of 
the  goods  shall  be  given  by  shippers  to  the 
asrent  at  loading  station.  For  example: 
"Fresh  Meat"  should  never  be  described 
simply  as  "Meat."  Hams,  Dry  Salt  Meat, 
Sweet  Pickled  Meats,  etc.,  should  be  spe- 
cifically described  by  their  proper  name 
in  full  without  the  use  of  any  abbrevia- 
tions such  as  "P.  H.  P."  for  Packing  House 
Products.  The  different  kinds  of  fruits  and 
vegetables  should  always  be  separately 
specified  so  that  railroad  employes  may 
know  precisely  what  commodities  compose 
the  shipment. 


60 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Definite  and  Reasonable  Billing  Instruc- 
tions.— No  one  knows  so  well  as  the  ship- 
per himself  the  exact  condition  or  state  of 
maturity  of  his  fruits  and  vegetables  or 
other  perishables  at  time  of  loading.  It  is 
of  great  importance,  therefore,  that  the 
shipper  give  some  reasonable  and  definite 
instructions  concerning  the  desired  refrig- 
eration, icing,  ventilation  or  other  author- 
ized accessorial  service  in  transit  accord- 
ing to  carriers'  tariffs  applicable.  The  Act 
to  Regulate  Interstate  Commerce  provides 
that  refrigeration,  icing,  ventilation  and 
other  instrumentalities  of  transportation 
shall  be  furnished  by  the  carriers  upon 
reasonable  request  therefor.  The  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  in  a  case  de- 
cided Feb.  18,  1915  (33  I.  C.  C,  294-296) 
declared  that  the  need  for  ice  varies  with 
the  condition  of  the  shipment  when  loaded 
and  the  method  of  loading,  involving  vari- 
ous details  with  which  the  railroad  em- 
ployes at  icing  stations  may  not  ordinarily 
be  familiar,  especially  with  respect  to  any 
particular  shipment;  also  that  the  carrier 
cannot  be  expected  to  substitute  the  dis- 
cretion or  judgment  of  its  employes  for  the 
more  expert  knowledge  of  the  shipper  as 
to  whether  or  not  any  given  shipment  shall 
move  under  refrigeration  or  otherwise. 

When  shipments  are  forwarded  under 
tariffs  providing  stated  refrigeration 
charges  per  car,  per  package  or  per  100 
pounds  of  freight,  it  is  necessary  only  for 
the  shippers  to  declare  in  writing  whether 
or  not  their  freight  is  being  tendered  for 
transportation  under  refrigeration.  Where 
shipments  are  forwarded  under  ventilation 
or  under  tariffs  providing  a  charge  for  the 
service  of  icing  or  re-icing  by  carriers  on 
basis  of  a  price  per  ton  or  100  pounds  of 
ice,  the  shippers  should  give  in  writing  or>e 
of  the  standard  notations  which  are  definite 
and,  therefore,  not  easily  misunderstood. 
The  shippers  of  semi-perishable  freisrM 
such  as  apples  or  cheese;  for  example, 
when  they  do  not  wish  to  have  any  re- 
frigeration in  transit,  should  eive  a  nega- 
tive notation  accordingly  to  forbid  such 
service  so  that  there  will  be  no  doubt  as 
to  what  is  expected. 

Protective  Service  Against  Frost. — With 
the  exception  of  a  few  limited  territories 
the  American  railroads  have  not  generally 
recognized  nor  adopted  the  practice  of  fur- 
nishing heated  car  service  in  transit  but 
the  several  classifications  provide  rules  eriv- 
ing  the  shippers  the  privilege  of  installing 
their  own  heaters  or  stoves,  linings,  false 
floors,  etc.,  and  of  sendine  a  caretaker  in 
charge  of  the  car.  The  shippers  can  often 
so  prepare  and  pack  their  freight  or  wran 
individual  packages  in  such  manner  as  will 
reasonably  insure  protection  against  pos- 
sible freezing  in  transit.  Some  shippers 
may  prewafm  the  car  before  loading  or 
use  straw  packing  in_  the  ends  and  center 
of  car,  particularly  with  eggs.  In  cases  of 


this  kind,  it  is  presumed  that  the  shipper 
naturally  assumes  responsibility  for  loss  or 
damage  by  heat  or  cold  not  the  direct  re- 
sult of  any  actionable  negligence  of  the 
carriers.  According  to  a  rule  of  law,  the 
carrier  is  not  liable  for  loss  or  damage  by 
freezing  unless  by  some  act  or  negligence 
on  its  part  (6  Cyc.,  381).  A  carrier  is  not 
liable  for  failure  to  furnish  any  service  not 
contemplated  by  its  legal  tariffs  (C.  &  A.  vs. 
Kirby,  225  U.  S.  155). 

Any  alleged  agreement  which  is  not  in 
accordance  with  lawfully  filed  tariffs  on  in- 
terstate commerce  is  unenforcible  (A.  T.  & 
S.  F.  vs.  Robinson,  223  U.  S.  173).  It  is 
evident,  therefore,  that  on  an  interstate 
shipment  under  normal  conditions,  the  car- 
rier probably  would  not  be  considered 
negligent  for  failing  to  supply  heated  car 
service  not  provided  for  in  its  tariffs. 

The  furnishing  of  heated  car  service  by 
carriers  is  authorized  by  tariffs  published  in 
Maine,  also  by  the  Western  Trunk  Lines 
between  the  Missouri  River,  St.  Paul  and 
Chicago  and  by  the  North  Pacific  Coast 
Lines.  These  tariffs  give  the  shipper  the 
privilege  of  making  his  own  choice  between 
two  options;  that  is,  Option  No.  1 — ship- 
pers' protective  service,  and  Option  No.  2 
— carriers'  protective  service.  In  the  for- 
mer instance  the  shippers  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility for  loss  or  damage  by  heat  o~ 
cold  not  the  direct  result  of  carriers' 
negligence  and  in  the  latter  instance  th? 
carriers  assume  similar  liability  for  loss  or 
damage  not  due  to  shipners'  negligence 
The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in  at 
least  two  cases  has  decided  that  such  op- 
tional rules  are  reasonable  and  lawful  (2^ 
I.  C.  C.,  507;  34  I.  C.  C.,  157),  because  when 
the  shipper  elects  to  perform  the  protective 
service  himself,  any  subsequent  loss  o- 
damage  by  heat  or  cold  is  not  caused  by 
the  carrier. 

Reconsignments  and  Diversions. — When 
carload  shipments  of  fruits  and  vegetables 
or  other  perishable  freight  are  reconsigned. 
the  reconsie-ning  orders  should  include 
proper  instructions  as  to  refrigeration,  ven- 
tilation or  other  authorized  service  but  not 
in  conflict  with  standard  notations. 

Prompt  Loading  and  Unloading  of  In- 
sulated Cars. — The  shippers  and  consignees 
can  also  greatly  help  the  carriers  and  the 
shipping  public  in  general  by  promptly  load- 
ing and  unloading  all  special  equipment.  It 
is  unfair  to  the  shippers  as  a  whole  for  anv 
one  shipper  or  consignee  to  detain  such 
cars  an  unreasonable  length  of  time  for 
his  own  personal  benefit.  The  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  in  the  Track  Stor- 
age Case  (35  I.  C.  C..  pages  33-35)  said: 

"A  consignee  cf  freight  has  no  legal  right 
to  use  a  car  as  a  warehouse  or  storage 
plant." 

The  Office  of  Markets  and  Rural  Organi- 
zation of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture issued  an  interesting  bulletin  on  "De- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


61 


murrage"  which  was  published  in  March, 
1915,  and  which  shows  the  correctness  of 
these  principles.  Carriers  in  various  sec- 
tions of  the  country  have  been  forced  to 
adopt  somewhat  high  charges  for  detention 
or  demurrage  on  refrigerator  or  insulated 
cars  in  order  to  encouraee  prompt  release 
thereof. 

The  handling  of  perishable  commodities 
is  a  subject  having  many  peculiarities  of  its 
own  which  require  very  close  and  constant 
investigation  and  supervision  in  order  to 
insure  satisfactory  results.  The  carriers 
themselves  are  not  at  all  unmindful  of  the 
special  duties  and  obligation  resting  upon 
them  to  use  all  reasonable  care  and  dili- 
gence in  the  transportation  and  safe  de- 
livery of  perishable  goods.  The  principal 
shippers  being  experienced  in  their  own 
business  are  also  fully  alive  to  their  own 
special  duties  and  obligations.  It  remains 
only  to  bring  about  a  still  more  general 
understanding  of  the  requirements  of  per- 
ishable freight  traffic  and  at  the  same  time 
an  even  greater  degree  of  co-ooeration  be- 
tween shippers  and  carriers  than  has  here- 
tofore existed;  only  in  such  united  efforts 
will  it  become  possible  to  achieve  the 
maximum  efficiency  of  service  and  the  mini- 
mum of  economic  waste  which  is  mutuallv 
desired  and  which  would  certainly  be  for 
the  public  interest. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  from  the 
Canadian  borders  to  those  of  the  Republic 
of  Mexico  or  the  Gulf  bearing  the  same 
name,  are  living  as  a  single  nation.  Their 
cities  are  supported  and  the  population 
thereof  are  fed  not  so  much  by  the  rural 
districts  which  immediately  surround  them 


as  by  the  country  as  a  whole.  The  con- 
sumers in  New  York  City  or  in  Washing- 
ton, our  Federal  capital,  are  as  much  ac- 
customed to  having  upon  their  tables  the 
products  of  Florida,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Texas,  California 
and  Oregon  as  the  products  produced  in  th£ 
fields  much  nearer  home.  The  carriers  of 
the  United  States  under  such  conditions 
have  been  confronted  with  the  gigantic  task 
of  giving  safe  transportation  to  all  kinds  of 
perishable  commodities,  many  of  which  are 
exceedingly  delicate  in  character  and  must 
be  hauled  distances  of  1,000,  2,000  or  even 
3,000  miles.  That  they  have  been  able  on 
the  whole  to  perform  this  task  in  a  reason- 
ably satisfactory  manner  argues  well  for 
their  average  standard  of  efficiency  of  serv- 
ice. Under  our  common  law  no  man  is  ex- 
pected to  do  the  impossible;  neither  should 
the  carriers  as  such  be  expected  to  do  the 
impossible.  They  will  undoubtedly  con- 
tinue to  maintain  the  highest  possible  effi- 
ciency in  their  service  but  this  will  be  large- 
ly in  vain  unless  the  shippers  collectively 
will  also  exercise  the  utmost  care  in  the 
preparation,  loading  and  forwarding  of  the 
goods.  This  they  will  certainly  be  willing 
to  do  for  thus  they  will  conserve  and  pro- 
tect their  own  interests.  No  man  has  a 
right  to  destroy  his  own  house  by  fire  for 
that  we  call  arson  which  is  a  crime.  On 
the  same  high  moral  grounds,  involving  the 
public  interest,  no  man  has  a  right  de- 
liberately or  willfully  to  destroy  fruits  and 
vegetables  or  other  perishable  goods,  even 
his  own,  for  they  form  a  part  of  the  com- 
mon wealth  of  the  nation  at  large,  which  is 
entitled  to  the  conservation  of  the  means 
of  its  own  sustenance. 


DEPAPTMENT 


Illinois^Central  Railroad  Company 

The  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 
Chicago,  Memphis  &  Gulf  Railroad  Company 

To  Officers,  Employes,  Former  Employes  and  Others : 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  is  engaged  in  making  an  inventory 
of  the  property  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  and  its  allied  lines, 
and  in  doing  so  is  investigating  their  corporate  and  financial  histories.  The 
Railroad  Companies  are  required  to  give  the  Commission  all  available  relevant 
data,  and  it  is  desired  that  this  shall  be  done  to  the  fullest  extent. 

Unfortunately  many  important  records  have  been  destroyed.  Many  orig- 
inal note  books,  maps,  reports,  etc.,  are  known  to  have  been  kept  in  division 
offices  and  not  forwarded  to  the  general  offices,  and  in  many  cases  copies 
have  been  kept  in  the  division  offices,  but  the  originals  sent  in  have  been 
lost. 

It  is  probable  that  many  present  and  former  employes,  likewise  citizens 
along  the  line,  have  knowledge  of,  or  are  in  possession  of,  records  or  impor- 
tant facts  relating  to  the  corporate,  financial  or  construction  histories  of  these 
lines,  and  that  by  making  the  matter  public  and  having  a  full  understanding 
about  it,  the  company  may  be  able  to  collect  copies  of,  or  obtain  data  relating 
to,  such  information. 

The  attached  circular  is  issued  with  the  hope  that  those  who  read  it  and 
have  information  of  any  character  that  would  be  valuable  to  the  company 
in  arriving  at  what  is  required,  will  transmit  such  information  or  put  the  com- 
pany or  its  agents  in  position  to  get  it. 

A  Valuation  Committee  has  been  created  and  given  authority  to  call  on 
all  departments  of  the  railroad  to  furnish  information  required  for  use  in 
connection  with  the  Federal  Valuation  work.  Any  information  that  is  dis- 
closed, or  records  of  knowledge  or  facts  that  are  found,  should  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  Chairman  of  the  Valuation  Committee,  Illinois  Central  R.  R. 
Co.,  Chicago,  111. 

C.  H.  MARKHAM, 

President. 

Chicago,  111.,  August  1,  1915. 

List  of  Some  of  the  Items  in  Regard  to  Which  In- 
formation is  Especially  Desired 

1.  The  present  whereabouts  of  records  of  extinct  railroad  or  construction 
companies  that,  at  any  time  in  the  past,  constructed  or  controlled  any  lines 
of  railroad  now  a  part  of  these  companies'  systems,  such  as  minute  books, 
stock  records,  ledgers,  journals  or  other  data  pertaining  to  the  history  or 
the  cost  of  construction. 

62 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  63 

2.  Donations  of  lands,  or  other  aids  extended  by  states,  counties,  munici- 
palities or  individuals ;  also  financial  transactions  relating  to  the  cost  of  road 
or  property  that  are  not  matters  of  public  record. 

3.  Names  and  addresses  of  old  employes  and  others  who  may  have  knowl- 
edge concerning  the  original  construction  of  the  road,  such  as  contractors, 
real  estate  agents,  local  engineers,  etc. 

4.  The  present  location  of  note  books,  maps,  plans  or  other  documents 
relating  to  the  original  construction  or  early  history  of  the  railroad. 

5.  Increased  cost  of  construction  and  of  acquisition  of  rights  of  way  occa- 
sioned by  necessity  of  avoiding  dwellings,  cemeteries,   etc. ;   extraordinary 
expenditures  and  damages  paid  in  acquiring  property  on  account  of  buildings, 
orchards,    severance   damages,    interference   with   drainage,   etc. ;   structures 
moved  or  torn  down  on  account  of  construction. 

6.  Embankments  that  have  sunk  below  the  original  surface,  or  have  slid 
away  into  rivers  or  otherwise  out  of  place ;  special  construction   through 
swamps,  such  as  log  or  brush  mattresses,  etc. ;  roadbed  protection,  such  as 
piling,  cribs,  mattresses,  rip  rap,  retaining  walls,  etc. 

7.  Drainage  ditches  remote  from  right  of  way,  built  or  paid  for  by  the 
Company. 

8.  Hills  that  have  been  removed  or  hollows  that  have  been  filled  in  con- 
nection with  grading  of  roadbed  or  station  grounds  or  yards. 

9.  Unusually  difficult  material  encountered  in  grading,  not  now  in  evi- 
dence ;  material  excavated  from  cuts,  unsuitable  for  use  in  embankments  and 
therefore  wasted;  cuts  in  rock  where  rock  is  not  now  visible; 

10.  Borrow  pits  and  waste  banks  off  the  right  of  way;  old  borrow  pits 
or  other  excavations  now  filled  up. 

11.  Underpinning  buildings  on  adjacent  property. 

12.  Changes  in  highways  and  roads,  and  payments  for  privileges  of  closing 
road  crossings ;  construction  and  maintenance  of  temporary  public  and  private 
roads. 

13.  Changes  in  channels  of  streams ;  dikes,  rip  rap  and  other  work  on 
streams  for  protection  of  bridges. 

14.  Temporary  tracks,  trestles,  etc.,  on  account  of  highway  or  channel 
diversions  or  to  take  care  of  traffic  during  construction ;  roads  built  during 
construction  for  the  transportation  of  construction  material. 

15.  Unusual  difficulties  experienced  in  the  construction  of  tunnels. 

16.  Unusual  difficulties  experienced  in  the  construction  of  bridges,  culverts 
and  buildings,  especially  in  the  construction  of  foundations;  damages  from 
high  water,  ice  or  other  causes  during  construction. 

17.  Old  foundations  of  unusual  size  or  depth,  or  containing  piles  or  other 
forms  of  construction  which  might  not  be  suspected. 

18.  Culverts,  drains,  conduits,  sewers,  water  pipes,  etc.,  not  readily  dis- 
coverable, especially  those  built  by  the  Company  outside  of  the  right  of  way. 

19.  Construction  of  cattle  passes,  bridges  and  other  structures,  and  grad- 
ing and  other  improvements  off  the  right  of  way  in  connection  with  acquiring 
right-of-way  or  otherwise. 

20.  Items  in  connection  with  crossings,  such  as  street  work  done  or  paid 
for  by  the  Railroad  Company,  streets  or  structures  raised  or  lowered,  ap- 
proaches to  grade  crossings,  quantities  incident  to  elimination  of  grade  cross- 
ings, changes  in  roads  and  highway  bridges,  etc. 

21.  Curbing  and  paving  of  streets ;  construction  of  sidewalks,  water  mains    ' 
and  sewers;  river  protection  done  or  paid  for  by  the  Railroad   Company; 
drainage  district,  levee  or  other  special  assessments,  etc. 


64 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


22.  Unusual  difficulties  in  connection  with  development  of  water  stations 
and  water  supply. 

23.  Temporary  leases  of  property  in  connection  with  construction. 

24.  Ownership   of  industrial   spurs  and   other   facilities,   especially   joint 
facilities. 

25.  Destruction   of  property  on   account   of  war,   floods,   fire,   abnormal 
storms,  etc. 


Where  Date  of 

Name                                              Occupation                     Employed  Service  Retirement 

Baldwin    Wheeler Car  Foreman  Paducah  38  yrs.  11/30/15 

Robert    Davis    (Col.) Laborer  Water  Valley  48  yrs.  11/30/15 

George  H.  Holmes Engineman  Kankakee  37  yrs.  8/31/15 

Charles  Coleman   (Col.) Engine  Cleaner  Paducah  39  yrs.  9/30/15 

Michael   Steffen Crossing   Flagman  Champaign  18  yrs.  12/31/15 

Pat  O'Holey  (Col.) Brakeman  Evansville  25  yrs.  9/30/15 

John  Monahan Train  Baggageman  Freeport  35  yrs.  12/31/15 

John   Sullivan Supervisor  Freeport  50  yrs.  12/31/15 


JACOB  HEIB. 


OPERATOR  GEORGE  F.  BARKER. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


65 


JACOB  HEIB 

MR.  HEIB  was  born  in  Albersweiler, 
Germany,  Oct.  25,  1845;  came  to  Lou- 
isville, Ky.,  in  the  year  1865,  and  began 
working  as  freight  handler  on  the  old  L.  C. 
L.,  working  in  that  capacity  until  August, 
1881,  when  the  road  was  taken  over  by  the 
L.  &  N.  He  continued  in  the  service  of  the 
L.  &  N.  until  1892,  working  as  yard  clerk 
and  seal  clerk,  at  which  time  he  entered  the 
service  of  the  C.,  O.  &  S.  W.  as  car  in- 
spector, working  in  that  capacity  until  re- 
tired, Oct.  31,  1915. 


a  commendable  nature  which  were  made 
on  account  of  Mr.  Kane  discovering  de- 
fects in  passing  trains  and  stopping  them, 
thereby  averting  a  possible  accident. 


OPERATOR   JAMES    R.    KANE. 

JAMES  R.  KANE 

MR.  KANE  entered  the  service  as  a  tel- 
egraph operator  in  the  year  1886  and 
worked  continuously  in  that  capacity  until 
July  1st,  1915,  when  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  leave  the  service  on  account  of  poor 
health. 

He  was  a  loyal,  hardworking  employe, 
always  having  the  company's  interests  fore- 
most in  his  mind.  This  is  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  he  has  an  absolutely  clear 
record,  there  is  not  a  single  unfavorable 
entry  on  it,  but  there  are  three  entries  of 


GEO.    F.    BARKER. 

"V/fR.  BARKER  entered  service  as  oper- 
-L^-i-  ator  in  June,  1873,  and  worked  contin- 
uously as  operator  and  agent  until  Novem- 
ber 1st,  1915.  He  has  a  perfect  record,  no 
unfavorable  entries  of  any  kind  on  it, 
which  is  evidence  in  itself  that  he  was  a 
loyal  and  efficient  employe.  In  his  retire- 
ment, the  company  loses  a  good  man.  Mr. 


JOHN   SMITHER. 

Barker  has  returned  to  his  home  in  Farley, 
la.,  where  he  intends  to  enjoy  the  vacation 
he  has  so  justly  earned. 


JOHN  SMITHER 

JOHN  SMITHER  was  born  in  Louisville, 
Ky.,  Dec.  4,  1855,  and  began  railroad 
work  in  1881  as  fireman  on  the  H.  R.  E., 
then  a  narrow  gauge  road  out  of  Rantoul, 
and  continued  in  the  service  of  that  com- 
pany until  1887,  when  it  was  taken  over 
by  the  Illinois  Central  and  changed  from 
a  narrow  to  a  standard  gauge  road. 

For  the  last  22  years  Mr.  Smither  has 
had  a  regular  run  on  the  Springfield  Divi- 
sion, Rantoul  District,  retiring  Oct.  31, 
1915,  on  a  pension  on  account  of  poor 
health.  His  length  of  service,  of  course,  is 
an  indication  that  he  was  a  competent  and 
loyal  employe. 


Passenger 


Traffi 


Little  Talks  with 
the  Ramtler 


Service  Notes  oj  Interest 


Some  Christmas  Shopping 


CNAP  Shot  Bill  is  a  likable  sort  of  fel- 
^  low,  and  the  Rambler  and  myself  are 
rather  fond  of  him.  Still  I  can't  help  think- 
ing at  times  that  he  is  inclined  to  be  a  bit 
of  a  gossip,  but  not  maliciously,  I  am  sure. 
I  sometimes  wonder  if  his  habits  and  train- 
ing in  the  matter  of  keen  observation  of  all 
that  goes  on  about  him  from  a  kodak  point 
of  view  has  anything  to  do  with  what  I 
have  thought  his  gossiping  proclivities.  I 
asked  the  Rambler  about  this  one  day,  and 
he  said  he  thought  I  was  right.  "One  on 
the  alert  for  artistic  compositions  in  the 
pictorial  line,"  he  said,  "would  naturally  ac- 
quire a  sharp  sense  of  observation,  and  pos- 
sibly hearing,  in  other  directions.  But  per- 
haps after  all,  the  term  'gossiping'  is  a 
trifle  harsh,  for  I  never  knew  him  to  tell 
what  ordinarily  goes  under  that  head  in 
anything  but  a  kindly  spirit.  He  seems  to 
regard  it,  I  think,  more  as  a  joke  between 
friends  than  as  news  to  be  spread  broad- 
cast." Afterwards,  as  the  matter  occurred 
to  me  again,  I  recalled  that  I  never  knew 
Bill  to  retail  his  bits  of  personal  small-talk 
except  among  those  more  or  less  intimately 
acquainted  with  each  other,  some  one  of 
whom  was  the  subject  -of  his  stories.  For 
instance,  knowing  my  intimacy  with  the 
Rambler,  he  perhaps  thought  it  was  all 
right  to  ask  me  one  day,  in  a  quiet,  jocose 
way,  if  I  had  noticed  who  the  Rambler  had 
evidently  found  on  the  train  and  walked 
away  from  the  station  with  when  last  fall 
the  Rambler  and  myself  were  returning 
from  a  duck  shooting  trip.  I  evaded  the 
Question,  although  I  well  remembered  that 
I  had  been  surreptitiously  forced  on  that 
occasion  to  forego  his  companionship  that 
he  might  substitute  the  Trunk  Lady  for 


myself.  I  did  not  choose  to  discuss  the 
matter  with  Bill,  but  he  seemed  anxious  to 
chat  about  it  with  me,  and  so,  supposing 
from  my  reply  that  I  did  not  know  who  the 
lady  was,  he  hastened  to  add,  "I  know  who 
it  was.  It  was  the  Trunk  Lady."  "How 
do  you  know?"  I  said  in  a  way  that,  if 
possible,  was  intended  to  switch  the  subject 
from  his  mind.  "O,"  he  replied,  "I  hap- 
pened to  be  down  in  the  train  shed  when 
you  came  in  and  I  saw  them.  They  got  off 
the  train  together  all  right,  and  as  I  went 
upstairs  I  later  saw  them  walking  together 
down  the  Avenue."  "Well,  what  of  it?" 
was  my  rather  curt  response.  "O,  nothing. 
It  was  all  right.  I  don't  blame  the  Ramb- 
ler," he  said  with  a  good  natured  laugh, 
"but  isn't  he  the  sly  boy?  I  do  wonder, 
however,  where  she  came  from  that  day. 
Last  I  heard  of  her  before  then  was  when 
the  Rambler  was  helping  to  show  her  visit- 
ing friend  the  sights  of  the  city  last  sum- 
mer." "Well,  I  wouldn't  let  it  worry  me," 
was  my  comment,  as  I  held  out  my  hand  to 
take  the  picture  that  he  was  holding,  and 
which  he  had  evidently  come  to  show  me. 
On  another  occasion,  just  a  short  time  be- 
fore the  Christmas  holiday,  Bill  gave  an- 
other illustration  of  the  blending  of  his 
chatty  characteristic  with  his  powers  of  ob- 
servation. We  were  riding  home  together 
on  a  suburban  train  when  he  broke  out 
with,  "O,  by  the  way,  I  saw  the  Rambler 
today  in  a  Department  Store  buying  Christ- 
mas presents."  "He's  evidently  keeping  in 
the  swim  if  that's  the  case,"  I  remarked,  as 
I  glanced  about  me  and  saw  the  bundles  of 
all  sizes  in  the  hands  and  laps  of  almost 
every  commuter  on  the  train.  "O,  surely," 
said  Bill,  "that's  all  right,  but  what  gets  me 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


67 


is  that  he  was  buying  the  slickest  and  big- 
gest toy  sail  boat  you  ever  saw.  What  do 
you  suppose  he  is  going  to  do  with  that? 
He  has  no  family."  "A  man  apparently 
alone  in  the  world  may  have  relatives,"  I 
said,  for  my  mind  immediately  went  back 
to  our  vacation  of  the  summer  before,  and 
to  what  he  told  me  about  the  sailing  of  the 
crude  home-made  boat  of  the  youngster 
with  whom  he  had  such  a  good  time  at  the 
seashore.  "Lucky  chap,"  I  thought,  "those 
large  store  boats  cost  money,  but  I  wonder 
if  the  boy  will  have  any  more  fun  with  the 
fine  one  than  he  would  have  if  he  made  for 
himself  a  better  boat  than  he  had  last  sum- 
mer, even  though  it  would  be  of  rough 
workmanship?  Isn't  the  most  of  pleasure, 
after  all,  in  the  attaining,  scheming,  plan- 
ning and  bringing  it  about  rather  than 
having  it  thrust  upon  one  without  effort?" 
My  train  of  thought  was  interrupted  by 
Bill  chuckling  to  himself  as  though  there 
was  something  interesting  about  that  shop- 
ping of  the  Rambler  that  he  hadn't  yet  told, 
but  I  was  not  over  curious  in  the  matter,  so 
I  simply,  in  a  perfunctory  sort  of  way  said, 
"Did  you  speak  to  the  Rambler?"  On  his 
replying  in  the  negative  I  added,  "Why 
not?"  "Well,"  laughed  Bill.  "I  thought  he 
would  be  just  as  happy  if  I  didn't  butt  in. 
You  see,  just  as  I  was  going  to  say  'howdy' 
I  saw  the  Trunk  Lady  coming  toward  him 
from  an  adjoining  room.  Three's  a  crowd 
sometimes."  "Well,"  I  said,  "she  lives  in 
the  city  you  know,  and  it  was  probably  an 
accidental  meeting.  It  certainly  was  not 
strange  for  her  to  be  in  a  Department  Store 
at  this  season  of  the  year,  and,  as  you  say 
the  Rambler  was  busy  buying  a  boat,  it  was 
undoubtedly  a  chance  meeting;  if  in  fact." 
I  added  as  an  after  thought,  "they  reallv 
saw  each  other  after  all."  "Well,  to  tell 
the  truth,"  said  Bill,  "while  she  was  going 
in  his  direction  I  don't  think  she  had  seen 
him  at  the  time  I  first  noticed  her,  but  do 
vou  want  to  bet  anvthing  that  she  didn't 
before  she  got  out  of  that  room?  She  was. 
as  you  suggest,  'accidentally'  going  in  his 
direction."  "O,  well,"  was  my  rejoinder, 
"forget  it  Bill.  I  am  afraid  you  are  a  bit 
of  a  gossio,"  "Nothing  of  the  kind,"  he 
stoutly  maintained,  "but  can't  one  be  a  bit 
interested  in  one's  friends?" 

My  mild  suggestion  of  reproof  seemed 
to  have  no  lasting  effect  on  Bill,  for  the 
next  day  he  came  into  my  room  with  a 
broad  grin  on  his  face  and  with  a  serio- 
comic air  asked  me  if  I  had  ever  heard  of 
the  Rambler  being  of  a  particularly  philan- 
thropic turn  of  mind.  "He  is  liable  to  be 
anything,"  I  remarked  somewhat  coldlv, 
"but  I  do  not  'get  you'."  "Well."  said  Bill, 
with  a  mock  air  of  thinking  deeoly,  "do 
vou  think  he  is  a  man  of  such  softness  of 
heart  that  he  would  be  led  to  go  out  of  his 
way  to  do  some  particularly  human  act? 
Would  he  pick  up  a  stray  dog,  for  instance. 


with  its  leg  broken  by  a  passing  automobile, 
and  carry  it  to  the  nearest  veterinary  sur- 
geon? Or,  again  for  instance,  suppose  some 
fine  morning  he  found  at  the  door  of  that 
apartment  of  his  a  cute  little  baby  in  a 
basket,  all  wrapped  up  in  neat  but  humble 
clothing,  and  with  a  tag  on  it  saying,  'For 
the  love  of,'  etc.,  'please,'  etc.  What  do 
you  think  he  would  do  with  that  basket? 
Would  he  arrange  to  adopt  the  baby  or 
would  he  call  the  police?"  Bill  was  fairly 
bursting  with  suppressed  mirth  as  he 
rattled  this  off,  of  course  much  to  my  mys- 
tification as  to  what  he  was  coming  at. 
However,  I  fell  into  his  humor  sufficiently 
to  remark  "there's  no  telling  what  he  would 
do  under  such  circumstances.  He's  capable 
of  anything  that  calls  for  the  exercise  of 
the  functions  of  a  good  heart.  But  stop 
your  mystery  and  let's  know  what's  on  your 
mind.  I  warn  you  in  advance,  however,  if 
it's  any  more  of  your  gossip  about  the 
Rambler,  please  remember  where  the  door 
is  that  you  came  in  through."  "O  no!  No 
gossip,"  said  Bill  nonchalantly,  "but  I  got 
sight  of  a  mysterious  telegram  that's  come 
in  for  the  Rambler  and  I  was  just  wonder- 
ing. But  I  see  you  are  not  interested,  so  I 
guess  I  will  be  going,"  and  he  hurried  away 
with  mock  humility. 

Sometime  later  in  the  day  I  had  occasion 
to  go  to  the  Rambler's  room  in  reference 
to  some  correspondence,  and  after  trans- 
acting our  business  he  broke  into  a  laugh 
and  passed  me  a  telegram,  saying  "See  what 
Ben  is  trying  to  do  to  me.  Snap  Shot  Bill 
was  in  this  morning  and  saw  that  telegram 
and  is  having  more  fun  about  it  than  a 
little."  The  message  read  as  follows: 

"Meet  Pullman  porter  on  arrival  No.  .12 
in  A.  M.  and  get  baby." 

"Well?"  I  remarked  questioningly,  "I  see 
nothing  funny  about  that.  In  line  with 
your  routine  business  you  have  probably, 
out  of  the  goodness  of  your  heart,  offered 
to  see  to  some  patron's  child  who  has  of 
necessity  been  sent  on  alone,  you  to  turn 
it  over  to  some  Pullman  porter  of  a  con- 
necting train."  He  listened  with  evident 
delight  to  my  attempted  explanation,  and 
could  hardly  restrain  himself  until  I  was 
through.  When  I  was,  he  fairly  roared,  say- 
ing, "that's  fine!  I'll  tell  Bill  that.  He'll 
enjoy  it  too.  But  no,  my  friend,"  he  added 
after  his  mirth  had  subsided,  "nothing  so 
philanthropic  or  kind  hearted  lies  back  of 
that  telegram.  See  that  big  box  in  the 
corner?  That's  the  explanation;  which, 
being  interpreted  is  this.  You  remember 
when  we  were  at  the  seashore  together  last 
summer  that  the  boy  had  a  small  sister.  A 
sweet  little  miss,  who  evidently  took  a 
liking  to  me  although  I  paid  but  slight^at- 
tention  to  her,  boys  being  more  in  my  line. 
However.  I  suppose,"  he  musingly  con- 
tinued, "the  courtesy  I  showed  her  in  pre- 
tending to  be  interested  in  her  array  of 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


twenty,  more  or  less,  dolls  of  all  shapes  and 
sizes,  accounts  for  the  liking  on  her  part. 
And,  come  to  think  of  it,  I  reckon  I  must 
of  rather  liked  her  too,  although  the  fact 
had  not  dawned  upon  me  to  any  great  ex- 
tent until  a  day  oj-  two  ago.  Then,  being 
in  one  of  our  western  terminal  cities,  as  I 
was  passing  a  store  window  I  saw  on  dis- 
play some  dolls  as  big  as  a  sure-enough 
baby.  They  were  those  dolls  you  get  when 
you  play  the  paddle  game,  or  the  roulette 
wheel,  at  county  fairs,  you  know,  and  they 
were  marked  'Worth  $3.00;  only  98  cents 
next  Monday.'  When  I  saw  them  that 
little  sister  of  the  boy's  came  to  mind,  and 
while  I  did  not  expect  much  for  my  money, 
I  thought  she  could  possible  get  ninety- 
eight  cents  worth  of  fun  out  of  one  of  them. 
So  I  left  the  money  with  Ben  to  purchase 
the  doll  for  me  when  the  aforesaid  Monday 
came  around.  Hence,  the  telegram  and  that 
box  in  which  is  the  doll.  Didn't  think  Ben 
had  as  much  fun  in  him  as  that  telegram 
denotes,"  he  added,  reflectively  in  dismiss- 
ing the  matter. 

"That  reminds  me,"  I  said,  taking  a  seat 
and  accepting  one  of  the  Rambler's  prof- 
fered cigars.  "Snap  Shot  Bill  told  me  this 
forenoon  that  you  had  been  doing  some 
Christmas  shopping."  "Huh!  he  saw  me, 
did  he?  I  thought  I  saw  him  dodging  be- 
hind a  pillar  when  I  was  buying  a  boat  for 
the  boy.  Yes,  I've  been  shopping.  Didn't 
buy  much,  but  incidentally  I  had  lots  of 
fun.  A  big,  crowded  Department  Store  dur- 
ing a  holiday  rush  was  a  new  experience, 
and  afforded  me  as  many  thrills  and  sights 
as  does  a  county  fair  to  a  hayseed.  I  really 
found  it  quite  interesting  to  watch  the  peo- 
ple, and  before  I  knew  it,  I  was  uncon- 
sciously wandering  through  the  various  de- 
partments taking  a  general  survey  of  the 
vast  variety  of  really  wonderful  and  cer- 
tainly tempting  wares  that  were  on  display. 
But  the  shoppers  interested  me  the  most. 
My  own  business  transacted,  I  sauntered 
leisurely  from  room  to  room  on  my  way 
out,  and  was  amused  at  the  display  of  hu- 
man nature  that  was  manifested  on  every 
side  in  the  serious  business  of  making  ap- 
propriate purchases  at  prices  suited  to  in- 
dividual purses.  And,  do  you  know,"  he 
added  musingly,  "somehow  that  Christmas 
shopping  reminds  me  of  a  phase  of  passen- 
ger traffic. 

"There  were  countless  articles  in  the  store 
to  choose  from,  and  a  host  of  individuals 
hesitating  about  the  choice.  So  with  the 
traveling  public  on  pleasure  bent.  The 
claims  for  and  the  various  distinctive  fea- 
tures of  numberless  points  of  interest  the 
country  over  (and  the  world  over,  for  that 
matter)  seems  similar  to  the  articles  in  the 
store  in  that  each  of  them  individually  are 
desirable  under  proper  conditions  of  time 
and  purse;  but  the  public,  like  the  store 
shopper,  often  finds  it  difficult  to  make  a 


choice.  Take  for  instance  what  the  Illinois 
Central  has  to  offer,  directly  and  indirectly, 
in  the  way  of  a  choice  of  tourist-wares,  so 
to  speak.  Is  there  a  desire  for  the  semi- 
tropical  features  of  Florida,  for  a  visit  to 
tropical  countries  such  as  Panama  and  the 
West  Indies,  or  for  ocean  trips,  either  on 
sunny,  southern  seas  or  on  the  more  austere 
but  none  the  less  interesting  Atlantic? 
Perhaps  the  desire  is  for  the  attractions  of 
southern  cities,  such  as  New  Orleans,  Vicks- 
burg,  Memphis,  Savannah  or  Birmingham, 
or  for  those  of  the  north,  such  as  New 
York  and  many  others;  possibly  the  social 
and  health-giving  features  of  such  as  Hot 
Springs,  Ark.,  appeal,  or  may  be  the  fancy 
inclines  towards  the  Texas  resorts,  or  that 
the  beckonings  of  Colorado  and  California 
allure?  In  short,  the  display,  figuratively 
speaking,  of  that  class  of  tourist-wares 
more  than  fill  our  railroad-store  shelves. 
But  that  is  not  all.  How  about  the  settings 
and  the  different  materials  of  which  these 
railroad-store  wares  are  made,  for  on  them 
the  final  selection  largely  depends?  The 
settings  that  may,  again  figuratively  speak- 
ing, be  likened  to  an  attractiveness  that 
makes  their  attainment  desirable.  That  is, 
should  a  given  tourist  point  of  itself  seem 
to  be  desirable  for  the  winter  outing,  how 
about  getting  there?  Is  there  an  interest 
enroute  akin  to  the  settings,  or  material  of 
a  commercial  article;  for,  as  everything 
helps,  you  know,  as  one  may  desire,  say  a 
new  dictionary  but  will  not  consider  it  for 
a  moment  if  it  can  only  be  obtained  in 
paper  instead  of  leather  covers,  so  one  may 
select  a  given  tourist  point  for  an  outing, 
but  finally  eliminate  it  on  account  of  the 
means  of  getting  there  not  appealing  to  one's 
fancy  in  the  matter  of  travel.  So  here 
comes  in  the  element  of  the  shoppers, 
which,  in  this  case,  are  the  public  who 
travel  for  health  or  recreation  during  the 
winter  months.  They  have  first  learned  in 
a  general  way,  as  in  the  stores  where  one 
article  is  finally  looked  upon  with  favor  as 
against  another,  that  a  certain  locality  is 
the  one  that  appeals  to  them  in  preference 
to  many  others.  Suppose,  to  illustrate,  it 
includes  an  ocean  voyage,  or  that  a  trip  on 
the  water  is  primarily  desired  provided  an 
objective  worth  while  will  form  a  part  of 
the  general  plan.  The  detailed  inspection 
of  the  goods,  to  continue  the  shopping 
parallel,  then  begins.  It  is  learned,  particu- 
larly in  connection  with  our  so-called 
Water-Rail  Circle  Tours,  that  there  is  quite 
a  list  to  choose  from  for  a  water  trip,  and 
that  the  various  brands  of  the  goods  (in 
this  case,  the  carriers)  are  labeled.  'United 
Fruit  Company,'  'Southern  Pacific  Com- 
pany-Atlantic Steamship  Line,'  'Ward  Line- 
New  York  and  Cuba  Mail  Steamship  Line,' 
and  'Ocean  Steamship  Company,'  while  for 
a  desired  objective  can  be  selected  New  Or- 
leans, New  York,  Savannah,  Havana  Cuba, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


69 


Kingston  Jamaica,  Colon  Panama,  and 
other  West  India  and  Central  America 
ports.  Supplementing  and  forming  a  neces- 
sary part  of  such  tours  are  various  rail 
routes  among  which  a  choice  can  be  made. 
The  list,  which  of  course,  includes  the  Illi- 
nois Central,  is  naturally  too  ilarge  to 
enumerate  in  this  connection,  particularly 
when  is  added  to  the  so-called  circle  tours 
the  routes  to  various  other  resort  sections 
of  the  country  that  have  been  mentioned, 
and  which  are  a  matter  of  rail  routes  only. 
But  just  as  the  Christmas  shopper  in  the 
large  store  has  his  or  her  trouble  in  making 
a  final  selection  account  of  the  many  ele- 
ments entering  into  the  problem,  so  with 
the  tourist-shopper.  Probably  of  all  the 
considerations  that  will  determine  the  final 
choice  of  the  latter,  as  is  undoubtedly  the 
case  with  the  former,  is  the  element  of 
cost.  Hence  the  railroad-shopper  has  his 
further  investigation  to  make  in  the  mat- 
ter of  expenditure,  for  prices  are  found  to 
vary,  as  in  the  stores,  for  apparently  the 
same  tourist-goods.  Therefore  more  shop- 
ping; or  possibly  the  disposition  of  the  final 
unit  of  the  great  shopping  problem.  Out 
of  all  this  it  naturally  follows,  that  as  the 
stores  display  their  wares,  so  the  railroads 
have  their  ways  of  bringing  to  the  proper 
attention  of  the  public  all  the  items  that 
enter  into  the  final  selection  of  what  they 
have  to  offer.  Taken  as  a  whole,  however, 
does  it  not  seem  to  you,"  he  appealed  to 
me  semi-humorously,  "as  though  there  was 
a  great  similarity  between  the  Christmas 
shopping  activity  in  the  big  stores  and  what 
is  going  on  the  country  over,  in  the  homes 
and  elsewhere,  in  the  field  of  railroad 
travel?" 

I  was  about  to  make  what  I  considered  a 
pertinent  comment  on  the  Rambler's  par- 
allel, which  had  struck  me  as  being  rather 
good,  when  Snap  Shot  Bill,  who,  unob- 
served had  evidently  overheard  more  or 
less  of  the  foregoing  dissertation,  burst  in 


upon  us  with  the  apparent  irrelevant  re- 
mark to  the  Rambler  of,  "No  wonder  you 
were  interested  in  Christmas  shopping. 
Wandered  around  alone  speculating  on 
different  things,  did  you?  Why  didn't  you 
take  a  guide?"  Then  in  an  aside  to  me,  and 
with  a  wink,  he  observed,  "He  had  a  guide 
all  right."  "I  suppose,"  replied  the  Ramb- 
ler, good  naturedly,  for  he  would  stand  any 
amount  of  chaff,  "that  as  long  as  you  saw 
me  in  that  store  you  also  saw  that  the 
Trunk  Lady  was  with  me  a  part  of  the 
time.  An  accidental  meeting,  I  assure  you, 
and  one  which  lasted  only  while,  on  my 
being  about  to  leave  the  store,  her  direction 
was  the  same  as  mine.  However,  I  don't 
know  as  it  has  anything  to  do  with  the 
matter,  even  if  I  did  get  all  my  Christmas- 
shopping  inspiration  through  her  tutelage 
in  so  far  as  this  last  tour  of  which  I  have 
been  speaking  is  concerned.  In  the  past  I 
have  been  a  bit  shy  of  any  knowledge  of 
the  departments  of  a  big  retail  store  except 
that  of  'gents'  furnishings'."  "O,  that's  all 
right,"  said  Bill,  "I  hope  you  didn't  mind 
my  mentioning  the  matter."  Then,  as 
though  seeing  how  far  he  could  go  with 
the  Rambler,  he  added,  "By  the  way,  I  hope 
while  you  were  about  it  you  didn't  forget 
to  buy  some  little  present  for  her.  If  you 
had  been  a  thoroughbred  you  might  have 
suggested  her  selecting  it  herself."  "Surely, 
I  sent  her  something,"  replied  the  Rambler, 
as  though  falling  in  with  Bill's  mood  was 
the  easiest  way  out  of  it.  "What  did  you 
send  her?"  said  Bill,  with  unabashed  cheek. 
"A  postal  card,"  was  the  reply;  and  then 
with  a  far-away  look  and  in  soto  voce  he 
added,  "Everything  helps."  "Helps  what?" 
laughed  Bill,  who  had  overheard.  The 
Rambler's  reply  was  simply  a  look,  at  which 
Bill  faded  away;  for,  being  no  fool  he  knew 
when  he  had  reached  the  limit.  Neverthe- 
less, I  heard  him  whistling  after  he  got  out 
of  sight  and  was  walking  down  the  cor- 
ridor. 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


THE  Rio  Grande  Service  Gazette  has  the 
following  to  say  to  ticket  agents  in 
regard  to  the  application  of  fares,  which, 
while  it  undoubtedly  is  already  generally 
understood  by  our  agents,  is  of  such  gen- 
eral application  that  it  will  bear  reiteration: 

"The  law  requires  the  carrier  to  collect 
the  lawfully  established  and  published  fares 
without  deviation  therefrom,  but  this  fact 
does  not  seem  to  be  generally  understood 
by  ag_ents  and  ticket  sellers,  to  whom  the 
carrier  must  look  to  see  that  the  law  is 
respected. 

"One  of  the  first  rules  a  ticket  seller 
should  learn  and  always  observe  is  that, 


when  a  through  interstate  fare  is  quoted 
from  his  station,  either  as  a  headline  or 
sideline,  or  by  bases  specifically  shown  in 
tariff  to  be  used  in  the  construction  of 
through  fares,  such  through  fare  MUST  be 
used,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  a  combina- 
tion of  local  fare  with  other  fares,  basing  or 
selling,  may  make  a  less  fare." 

The  Grand  Trunk  Railway  System  an- 
nounces the  winter  schedule  of  its  Pacific 
Coast  Steamships  to  be  as  follows: 

The  "Prince  George"  leaves  Seattle  at 
12:00  night,  Mondays,  arriving  at  Victoria 
the  following  morning,  at  Vancouver  the 


70  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

following  evening,  at  Prince  Rupert  at  9:00  A  circular  of  the  Missouri-Pacific  and 
A.  M.  Thursdays  and  at  Anyox  7:00  A.  M.  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern 
Fridays.  Returning,  the  steamship  leaves  to  connecting  lines  advises  that  they  are  in 
Anyox  at  10:00  A.  M.  Fridays,  Prince  Ru-  receipt  of  advice  that  Constitutionalists 
pert  at  9:00  A.  M.  Saturdays,  arriving  at  Railway  trains  now  arrive  and  depart  from 
Vancouver  7:00  P.  M.  Sundays  and  at  I.  &  G.  N.  station  of  Laredo,  and  that 
Seattle  at  3:00  P.  M.  Mondays.  In  addi-  trains  are  running  continuously  and  are 
tion,  the  steamship  "Prince  John"  leaves  scheduled  to  leave  New  Laredo  8:00  A.  M. 
Victoria  Friday  mornings,  arriving  at  Van-  (American  time),  arriving  at  Monterey  in 
couver  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  six  hours,  Saltillo  in  eleven  hours  and  Mex- 
and  at  Prince  Rupert  on  the  evening  of  ico  City  in  seventy-two  hours,  with  Pullman 
Sundays,  returning,  leaving  Prince  Rupert  accommodations  through  to  Mexico  City, 
at  7:00  P.  M.  Tuesdays,  arriving  at  Van- 
couver Thursdays  and  at  Victoria  on  Fri-  New  Pullman  observation  sleeping  cars 
days.  recently  put  in  service  on  trains  Nos.  1 

and  2  have  in  their  observation  end  a  new 

The  Panama-California  Exposition  of  San  and  most  effective  feature  of  ventilation  in 

Diego    will    be    continued    during   the    year  two    electric    exhaust    fans.      These    differ 

1916.      In    addition    to    the    beauty    of    its  from  an  ordinary  electric  fan  in  that  they 

buildings  and  grounds  it  will  have  the  added  are  a  part  of  an  improved  mechanism  for 

features    of    many    exhibits    from    the    San  exhausting,     or     forcing    out     of    the     car, 

Francisco  fair.  smoke   and  impurities   in  the   air. 

A  high  standard  of  efficiency  in  passenger  On  a  recent  new  time  card  of  the  T.  P.  & 
train  service,  such  as  is  maintained  by  the  W.,  the  Peoria  train  of  that  road  is  now 
Central,  argues  many  things,  and  among  due  to  leave  Gilman,  111.,  at  7:35  P.  M.  As 
them  is  the  fact  that  clearly  there  are  loca-  our  No.  25  arrives  at  Gilman  at  the  same 
tions  along  the  lines  served  that  the  travel-  time,  it  will  be  observed  that  it  makes  con- 
ing public  think  worth  going  to.  nection  with  the  T.  P.  &  W.  for  Peoria. 

Sixth  National  Drainage  Congress 

The  Sixth  National  Drainage  Congress  will  be  held  at  Cairo,  111.,  January 
19  to  21,  1916. 

In  view  of  the  very  material  bearing  that  flood  prevention  and  land  drainage 
has  upon  the  prosperity  of  not  only  the  Mississippi  Valley,  but  every  other  sec- 
tion of  the  United  States  where  swamps  are  prevalent  and  overflows  periodically 
occur,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  Governors,  Mayors  and  others  who  are  permitted 
by  the  official  Call  (which  follows)  will  take  advantage  of  the  authority  con- 
ferred upon  them  and  appoint  as  delegates  those  who  will  attend.  Cairo  has  the 
necessary  hotel  facilities  to  take  care  of  delegates  and  will  extend  a  cordial  and 
hospitable  welcome  to  all  who  are  sufficiently  interested  in  this  great  work  to 
attend  the  Congress. 

Official  Call — Sixth  National  Drainage  Congress 

Cairo,  Illinois,  December  15,  1915. 

The  National  Drainage  Congress  will  hold  its  Sixth  Annual  Meeting  in 
Cairo,  Illinois,  January  19-21,  1916,  opening  at  the  Opera  House  at  2  :00  P.  M, 
Wednesday. 

Cairo  is  located  between  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers,  and  no  city  in 
our  country  is  more  intimately  connected  with  RIVER  REGULATION,  FLOOD 
CONTROL  and  DRAINAGE.  The  Belegates  will  not  only  enjoy  the  famed 
hospitality  of  Cairo,  but  will  see  some  of  the  most  urgent  and  successful  reasons 
for  the  existence  of  the  National  Drainage  Congress. 

The  ablest  statesmen,  engineers,  lawyers,  business  men,  contractors,  and 
scientists  will  discuss  questions  of  water  control  and  utilization. 

An  attractive  feature  in  connection  with  the  Cairo  meeting,  will  be  a  free 
exhibition  of  machinery  for  ditching,  leveeing,  road  building,  pumping,  etc. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


71 


The  presence  of  visitors  including  LADIES,  is  especially  appreciated  and 
invited. 

Delegates  are  appointed  under  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  as  follows: 

(1)  fifteen  delegates  from  each  state  appointed  by  the  Governor  thereof; 
(2)  ten  delegates  from  each  city  having  a  population  of  over  twenty-five  thou- 
sand, appointed  by  the  Mayor;  (3)  five  delegates  from  each  city  and  town  having 
a  population  less  than  twenty-five  thousand  and  over  one  thousand,  appointed  by 
the  Mayor  or  chief  executive;  (4)  five  delegates  from  each  coftnty,  appointed  by 
the  Chairman  of  the  governing  board;  (5)  two  delegates  from  each  incorporated 
town  having  a  population  of  less  than  one  thousand ;  from  each  regularly  or- 
ganized association  devoted  to  drainage,  irrigation,  or  other  reclamation  work, 
agriculture,  horticulture  and  engineering  and  from  each  college  and  commercial 
body  concerned  with  public  interests,  which  has  been  duly  organized  not  less 
than  one  year;  all  duly  accredited  members  of  state  and  federal  drainage,  irriga- 
tion, water  or  conservation  commissions;  (7)  all  state  engineers  and  state  com- 
missioners of  agriculture  and  horticulture;  (8)  all  officers,  members  of  commit- 
tees, Honorary  Vice-Presidents,  Members  of  the  Board  of  Control,  and  permanent 
delegates  of  the  Congress;  (9)  the  governor  of  each  state,  and  the  mayor  of  each 
city  and  town  having  a  population  of  over  1,000 ;  (10)  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  all  the  members  of  his  cabinet,  and  (11)  all  members  of  the  United 
States  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives. 

YOU  ARE  URGED  TO  ATTEND  THE  CAIRO  MEETING  OF  THIS 
GREAT  CONSTRUCTIVE  CONGRESS. 

For  information,  write  Hon.  George  Parsons,  Chairman  Executive  Com- 
mittee, Local  Board  of  Control,  Cairo,  111. 

The  National  Drainage  Congress, 

by  E.  J.  Watson,  President. 

The  Cairo  Board  of  Control  The  Committee  on  Arrangements, 

by  Walter  H.  Wood,  Mayor  of  Cairo.  by  Edmund  T.  Perkins,  Chairman. 


the 


Biographical  Sketch  No.  19 


HON.  WILLIAM  H.  GREEN 


Hon.  William  H.  Green 

Attorney  and  District  Attorney  for  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co.,  at  Cairo,  111.,  1861-1902 


WILLIAM  HENRY  GREEN,  State 
Senator,  Circuit  Judge  and  District  Attor- 
ney for  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany in  southern  Illinois,  was  born  in  Dan- 
ville, Kentucky,  December  8,  1830,  and  was 
the  son  of  Dr.  Duff  Green  and  Lucy  Ken- 
ton.  His  grandfather,  Willis  Creen,  was 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Kentucky  and 
the  first  delegate  from  the  District  of  Ken- 
tucky to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia.  His 
great  grandfather  was  General  Duff  Green, 
married  to  Anne  Willis,  a  cousin  of  Gen- 
eral George  Washington.  His  ancestors, 
who  were  among  the  first  settlers  of  Vir- 
ginia, came  originally  from  the  province 
of  Leinster,  Ireland,  about  the  year  1630. 
His  mother  was  a  niece  of  Simon  Kenton, 
the  celebrated  Indian  fighter,  and  was  of 
Scotch  descent. 

Judge  Green  was  educated  at  Centre  Col- 
lege, Danville,  Kentucky.  He  was  a  good 
classical  scholar,  and  was  well  versed  in 
the  sciences  and  in  Ancient  and  Modern 
History.  In  1847  the  family  moved  to  Mt. 
Vernon,  111.,  where  his  father  practiced 
medicine  till  his  death  in  1857.  At  the  age 
of  seventeen,  William  H.  Green  launched 
out  in  support  of  himself;  he  taught  school 
in  Benton,  111.,  and  in  St.  Louis  County, 
IMo.,  for  three  years,  and  at  the  same  time 
read  law  under  the  direction  of  Hon.  Wal- 
ter B.  Scates,  formerly  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Illinois  Supreme  Court;  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1852  and  commenced  practice 
in  Mount  Vernon,  111.;  removed  the  follow- 
ing year  to  Metropolis,  111.,  where  he  re- 
mained with  a  large  and  lucrative  practice 
for  ten  years;  removed  to  Cairo,  111.,  in 
1863  and  made  that  his  home  until  his 
death.  He  was  elected  to  the  popular 
branch  of  the  Illinois  legislature  in  1858  as 
a  democrat  and  voted  for  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las for  United  States  Senator;  was  re- 
elected  in  1860,  and  in  1862  was  elected  to 
the  State  Senate  for  four  vears.  In  1865  he 
was  elected  Judge  of  the  Third  Judicial  Cir- 
cuit and  served  as  Circuit  Judge  for  three 
years. 

He  was  apoointed  Attorney  for  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  in  1861  and 


acted  as  such  until  he  became  Circuit  Judge. 
Upon  his  retirement  as  Circuit  Judge,  which 
was  on  January  1,  1867,  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Hon.  William  B.  Gilbert,  who 
at  that  time  was  the  Company's  Local  At- 
torney for  Alexander  County;  and  the  firm 
of  Green  &  Gilbert  became  the  Attorneys 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 
with  jurisdiction  over  the  tier  of  Counties 
along  the  main  line  of  road  as  far  north  as 
Eflingham.  Subsequently,  during  the  ad- 
ministration of  Judge  James  Fentress  as 
the  Company's  General  Solicitor,  when  Lo- 
cal Attorneys  for  each  county  and  District 
Attorneys  for  wider  jurisdiction,  were  ap- 
pointed, the  firm  of  Green  &  Gilbert  was 
continued  as  Local  Attorneys  for  Alex- 
ander County,  and  Judge  Green,  on  June  1, 
1904,  became  the  Company's  District  At- 
torney for  southern  Illinois.  He  continued 
as  such  and  the  firm  continued  as  Local 
Attorneys  until  December  31,  1901,  when  he 
voluntarily  resigned  his  position  as  District 
Attorney,  the  firm  continuing  as  Local  At- 
torneys until  his  death,  which  occurred  at 
his  home  in  Cairo,  on  the  6th  day  of  June, 
1902. 

He  was  in  partnership  with  'Mr.  Gilbert 
for  more  than  35  years;  during  all  this  time 
was  an  Attorney  for  the  Company,  ex- 
cepting his  two  years'  service  on  the  bench; 
was  deeply  interested  in  the  Company's 
affairs,  always  had  its  well-earned  confi- 
dence and  esteem;  and  his  name  will  ever 
be  remembered  as  one  of  its  ablest  and 
most  successful  counsels.  He  literally 
"died  in  the  harness." 

He  was  a  ready  debater  in  the  Senate 
and  had  few  superiors.  As  an  advocate,  his 
style  was  dignified,  fluent,  easy  and  always 
elegant.  As  a  Judge,  he  was  able,  dignified 
and  impartial.  He  had  been  all  his  life  a 
student  of  history,  politics  and  literature, 
and  in  conversation  he  had  few  eauals. 

In  1854  he  was  married  to  Miss  Ann 
Hughes,  of  Morganfield,  Ky..  whose  father 
was  a  native  of  the  north  of  Ireland.  She 
died  in  1865.  leavinp-  two  children,  of  whom 
the  only  one  now  living,  is  the  Hon.  Reed 
Green,  formerly  of  the  State  Senate,  and 
one  of  the  leading  attorneys  of  Cairo,  111. 


Commerce  News 


T  N  the  Western  Passenger  Fares  Case, 
*•  37  ICC  1,  the  reasonableness  and 
propriety  of  the  proposed  increased  pas- 


senger fares  in  the  western  territory 
was  considered  by  the  Commission,  and 
it  was  held:  "(1)  In  the  states  of  Illi- 


73 


74 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


nois,  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  upper  penin- 
sula; Minnesota,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Mis- 
souri, north  of  the  Missouri  River ;  and 
in  Kansas  on  and  north  of  the  main  line 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  from  Kan- 
sas City  to  the  Colorado  state  line,  pro- 
posed increased  fares  not  justified,  but 
a  basis  for  interstate  fares  of  2.4  cents 
per  mile  is  justified;  (2)  in  the  state 
of  Missouri,  south  of  the  Missouri 
River,  and  in  the  state  of  Kansas,  south 
of  the  main  line  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  proposed  increased  fares  not 
justified,  but  a  basis  for  interstate  fares 
of  2.6  cents  per  mile  is  justified;  (3)  pro- 
posed increased  fares  from  points  in  ter- 
ritory in  which  these  fares  are  author- 
ized to  points  on  the  main  lines  of  these 
respondent  carriers  in  California  Utah, 
Nevada,  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Arizona, 
New  Mexico,  Arkansas.  Oklahoma,  and 
Texas  are  not  justified  in  those  instances 
where  such  proposed  increases  result  in 
higher  fares  than  would  be  obtained  by 
using  for  the  construction  of  such  fares 
the  bases  herein  authorized  in  the  states 
of  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Kansas, 
Minnesota,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  and  Mis- 
souri, and  a  basis  of  2l/o  cents  per  mile 
in  the  states  of  North  and  South  Da- 
kota, and  a  basis  of  3  cents  per  mile  in 
the  states  south  and  west  thereof ;  (4) 
proposed  increased  charges  for  mileage 
tickets  in  territory  north  of  the  Missouri 
River  in  Missouri  and  on  and  north  of 
the  main  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road in  Kansas  to  2*4  cents  per  mile, 
and  in  territory  south  of  the  Missouri 
River  in  Missouri  and  the  main  line  of 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  in  Kansas  to 
2~y2  cents  per  mile  are  justified;  (5) 
proposed  increased  fares  from  points  in 
Michigan,  upper  peninsula;  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Nebraska, 
Missouri,  and  Kansas,  to  points  in  states 
east  thereof,  which  result  from  the  con- 
struction of  such  fares  by  the  use  of  the 
bases  herein  found  reasonable  and  the 


use  of  the  lawfully  published  and  filed 
fares  in  eastern  territory  are  justified." 


DR.  J.  G.  O'MALLEY 

HpHE  above  is  a  photograph  of  Dr.  J. 
G.  O'Malley  who  was  for  several 
years  examining  surgeon  on  the  Illinois 
Central  and  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley 
Railroads.  Dr.  O'Malley  left  for  the 
seat  of  war  in  Europe  June  13,  1915, 
and  is  now  in  attendance  upon  those  in 
the  trenches. 


taaaar 


mnrimrlflhrirfrlrirfrirfirTnnn 


teg.£yl=°=  TQ-atoT 


nmririrrirr 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company- -The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department.      Information  and  Instruction  Bulletin  No.  2 


Chicago,  111.,  January  1,  1916. 

ITH  the  beginning  of  the  new 
year,  we  wish  to  assure  our 
agents,  baggage  agents  and  train  bag- 
gagemen of  our  best  wishes  for  a  pleas- 
ant and  prosperous  year,  and  to  ex- 
press our  appreciation  of  the  co-oper- 
ation we  have  received  during  the  past 
year.  We  hope  that  every  employe 
will  begin  the  new  year,  and  continue 
throughout  the  year,  with  increased 
zeal  in  the  performance  of  the  work  in 
the  department,  and  that  the  results  of 
the  year  will  clearly  reflect  a  material 
increase  in  efficiency. 

Baggage  for  Southern  Pacific  Steam- 
ship Line 

7.  The  Southern  Pacific  Company 
requests  us  to  promulgate  the  follow- 
ing to  our  agents  and  baggage  agents : 

"Recently  it  has  come  to  our  atten- 
tion that  passengers  (especially  tour- 
ists enroute  from  California),  booked 
via  Southern  Pacific  Atlantic  Steam- 
ship Line  from  New  Orleans  to  New 
York,  have  checked  their  baggage 
ahead  through  to  New  York,  intend- 
ing to  use  same  or  part  thereof  on 
board  the  steamer.  Baggage  Agent 
at  point  from  which  baggage  was 
checked  has  placed  thereon  a  "Want- 
ed" tag,  giving  name  of  the  steamer  on 
which  baggage  was  to  go  forward. 

"It  has-,  however,  been  found  that 
this  arrangement  is  not  feasible,  as 
through-checked  baggage  does  not 
reach  our  pier  at  New  Orleans  until 


shortly  before  sailing  time  and  bag- 
gage is  loaded  into  the  ship.  There- 
fore, request  is  hereby  made  on  all 
connecting  lines  to  check  baggage — 
wanted  by  passengers  on  board  the 
steamer  during  the  voyage — to  New 
Orleans,  Union  Station,  only  (not  to 
steamship  dock). 

"la  that  case,  passengers  should  be 
informed   that   they   must   claim   bag- 
gage at  Union  Station  and  arrange  for 
transfer  to   steamship   wharf." 
Weekly  Reports  Improperly  Mailed 

8.  March  1,  1915,  we  issued  Cir- 
cular No.  5,  instructing  agents  to  dis- 
continue enclosing  their  weekly  reports 
of  unclaimed  baggage  to  this  office  and 
to  deliver  them  unenclosed  to  train 
baggagemen  to  be  forwarded  to  us, 
thereby  effecting  a  substantial  saving 
in  envelopes  and  in  the  time  required 
in  opening  them  in  this  office.  Trains 
on  all  divisions  and  branches  were 
designated  for  forwarding  these  week- 
ly reports.  We  regret  that  we  are  not 
at  present  receiving  the  co-operation 
of  agents  in  this  respect.  For  exam- 
ple, one  train  baggageman  recently, 
who  should  have  received  weekly  re- 
ports from  eighteen  agents,  received 
but  three  reports  on  the  train  desig- 
nated for  their  collection.  The  great 
advantage  of  the  method  prescribed 
for  the  collection  of  weekly  reports 
can  be  readily  seen  and  we  hope  that 
the  instructions  in  Circular  No.  5  will 
be  complied  with  by  all  agents  in  the 
future. 


75 


76 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Importance  of  Weighing  Baggage 

9.  The  only  correct  way  to  protect 
the  excess  baggage  revenue  is  to  ac- 
tually weigh  all  baggage.     There  are 
exceptionally    few    times    and    places 
where  this  cannot  be  done,  and  when  it 
is  stated  by  some  one  to  be  imprac- 
ticable, he  has  not  studied  the  prob- 
lem as  closely  as  he  should.    Too  many 
are  willing  to  estimate  the  weight  or 
accept  the  owner's  statement,  and  this 
is  just  where  they  are    lax  in  the  serv- 
ice.    The  guessing  system  should  be 
buried  with  the  past  and  the  weigh- 
ing plan  adopted  instead.  If  those  who 
have  been  following  the  old  way  would 
change   their   method    and   adopt   the 
new,  they  would  soon  note  a  splendid 
increase    in    excess    baggage   receipts. 
Your  full  co-operation  in  this  matter 
is  requested. 

Train  Baggagemen's  C.  O.  D.  Tags 

10.  It  is  gratifying  to  observe  the 
considerable  number  of  C.  O.  D.  tags, 
form  G.  B.  O.  13,  issued  by  a  number 
of  our  train  baggagemen.     It  is  rather 
difficult,  however,  to  understand  why 
other  train  baggagemen  on  exactly  the 
same  runs  issue  comparatively  few  C. 
O.  D.  tags.  We  hope  that  all  train  bag- 
gagemen will  hereafter  give  very  close 
attention  to  this  matter  and  that  there 
will  be  a  material  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  train   baggagemen's   C.   O.   D. 
tags  issued  and  in  the  revenue  derived 
therefrom. 

Loading  and  Unloading  Baggage 

11.  The  best  system  by  which  to 
handle  baggage  is  to  have  an  empty 
truck,  if  one  is  available,  ready  to  un- 


load baggage  from  the  car,  after  which 
load  baggage  to  go  forward.  This 
would  relieve  the  baggage  car  and 
make  room  for  the  baggage  that  is  to 
be  loaded,  as  well  as  reduce  the  chance 
for  mishandling. 

Baggage  Claims 

12.  In  making  a  comparison  with  a 
number  of  other  roads,  recently,  we 
were  surprised  to  find  that  our  roads 
are  paying  in  claims  a  much  higher 
percentage  of  our  baggage  revenue 
than  are  a  number  of  other  large  roads. 
For  the  last  fiscal  year  our  claims 
amounted  to  approximately  two  per 
cent  of  the  excess  baggage  earnings, 
while  several  other  roads  paid  less 
than  one  and  one-half  per  cent,  and  a 
few  less  than  one  per  cent  of  their  ex- 
cess baggage  earnings.  There  is  no 
apparent  necessity  for  this  high  per- 
centage of  claims.  A  very  few  claims 
may  be  chargeable  to  unavoidable 
causes,  but  in  nearly  all  cases  claims 
are  the  direct  result  of  negligence  on 
the  part  of  some  employe  in  the 
handling  of  baggage  or  failure  to  make 
the  proper  records.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  all  employes  concerned  in  the 
handling  of  baggage  hereafter  will 
make  every  effort  to  handle  the  busi- 
ness in  such  a  manner  as  to  eliminate, 
as  far  as  possible,  claims  for  loss,  dam- 
age and  delay  and  that  subsequent 
comparisons  with  other  roads  will  be 
more  favorable  to  our  lines. 

J.  A.  Osborn, 
General  Baggage  Agent. 
Approved : 

H.  L.  Fairfield, 
Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic. 


The  Largest  Corporations  in  the  World 


By  Wilbur  Edmund  Howett 


C*  OR  ten  years,  the  writer  has  made  a  close 
•*•  observation  of  the  great  railroad  systems 
of  our  United  States;  has  watched  the 
growth  of  these  great  corporations.  It  has 
consumed  many  months,  to  gather  together 
the  complete  data  of  this  article  which  will 
readily  demonstrate  the  enormity  of  these 
big  companies. 

How  many  of  you  appreciate  just  how  far 
reaching  are  these  railroads?  Read  on,  and 
you  will  see,  that  while  you  occupy  a  big  resi- 
dence, or  an  apartment,  in  a  large  city,  you 
live  only  within  your  district  and  read  of  that 
without. 

The  total  railroad  mileage,  in  the  United 
States,  in  the  year  of  nineteen  hundred  and 
fourteen,  was  249,802.73.  This  represents  two 
rails,  or  a  complete  running  track  for  a  train. 
If  all  of  this  mileage  were  placed  end  to  end, 
it  would  stretch  nearly  ten  times  around  the 
earth.  If  each  one  of  the  rails  were  placed 
end  to  end,  they  would  stretch  about  twenty 
times  around  the  earth. 

There  were  14,683  Passenger  Locomotives ; 
Freight  Locomotives,  39,920 ;  Switching  Lo- 
comotives, 10,328 ;  Unclassified  Locomotives, 
1.285 ;  or  a  total  of  66,216  locomotives  in  the 
United  States.  If  you  figure  each  of  these 
locomotives  at  fifty  feet  length,  for  each,  if 
they  were  placed  end  to  end,  they  would 
reach  663  miles,  or  twice  the  distance  from 
Chicago  to  St.  Louis. 

There  were  54,285  Passenger  cars ;  Freight 
cars,  2,284,931 ;  Company  Service  cars,  132,268 ; 
Fast  Freight  Service  cars,  31,377 ;  or  a  total 
of  2,502,861  freight  cars  in  the  United  States. 
If  you  figure  each  of  these  cars  at  sixty  feet 
length,  they  would  reach,  if  placed  end  to 
end,  30,543  miles,  or  over  once  around  the 
earth. 

During  1908,  the  increase  in  freight  cars 
exceeded  100,000,  while  during  the  following 
year  (1909)  there  was  an  actual  decrease  of 
more  than  15,000  cars. 

The  total  number  of  employes  of  all  rail- 
roads in  the  year  of  1914  was  1,915,239,  or 
about  749  employes  to  each  100  miles  of  rail- 
road. 

The  classification  of  employes  with  the 
number  of  employes  to  each  road  mile,  with 
the  daily  compensation  of  each  classification, 
is  as  follows : 

General  Officers.  Number  4,398 ;  to  each 
mile,  2 ;  daily  wage  $15.70. 

Other  Officers.  Number  10,706 ;  to  each 
mile,  4;  daily  wage  $6.44. 

Gen.  Office  Clerks.  Number  84,267 ;  to  each 
mile,  34;  daily  wage  $2.51. 


Station  Agents.  Number  37,721;  to  each 
mile,  16;  daily  wage  $2.28. 

Other  Station  Men.  Number  167,450;  to 
each  mile,  69;  daily  wage  $1.96. 

Enginemen.  Number  67,027 ;  to  each  mile, 
27;  daily  wage  $5.20. 

Firemen.  Number  70,477;  to  each  mile,  29; 
daily  wage  $3.13. 

Conductors.  Number  52,086 ;  to  each  mile. 
21;  daily  wage  $4.39. 

Other  Trainmen.  Number  146,855;  to  each 
mile,  60;  daily  wage  $3.04. 

Machinists.  Number  60,726 ;  to  each  mile, 
25;  daily  wage  $3.26. 

Carpenters.  Number  78,654 ;  to  each  mile, 
32;  daily  wage  $2.63. 

Other  Shop  Men.  Number  271,095;  to  each 
mile,  111 ;  daily  wage  $2.31. 

Section  Foremen.  Number  44,747 ;  to  each 
mile,  18 ;  daily  wage  $2.14. 

Other  Trackmen.  Number  376,871;  to 
each  mile,  154 ;  daily  wage  $1.58. 

Switch  Tenders.  Number  38,253;  to  each 
mile,  16;  daily  wage  $1.70. 

Telegraph  Operators  and  Despatchers. 
Number  43,061 ;  to  each  mile,  18 ;  daily  wage 
$2.52. 

Employes  Floating  Eq.  Number  13,780;  to 
each  mile,  6 ;  daily  wage  $2.37. 

Other  Employes  and  Laborers.  Number 
247,076 ;  to  each  mile,  101 ;  daily  wage  $2.15. 

In  the  year  of  1903,  there  were  1,312,537 
employes  of  all  railroads  in  the  United  States, 
or  639  employes  to  each  100  miles  of  road. 

In  the  year  of  1915,  there  were  1,916,398 
employes,  or  about  700  employes  to  each  100 
miles  of  road. 

The  railroads  of  the  United  States,  car- 
ried 603,861  more  employes  on  the  payrolls, 
in  1915,  than  in  1903. 

The  amount  paid  by  the  roads  to  their 
employes  in  1912  to  1913  was  $1,373,830,589. 
The  amount  paid  all  employes  from  1900  to 
1901  was  $610,713,701,  showing  an  increase 
of  $763,116,888  from  1901  to  1913.  The 
amount  paid  to  employes  in  1915,  ending,  was 
$1,442,521,118;  showing  an  increase  of  $831,- 
806,417  over  the  wages  paid  in  1901. 

The  total  railroad  capital  invested  up  to 
1914  was  $19,796,125,712,  of  which  $7,231,515,- 
045  was  common  stock,  and  $1,379,086,283  was 
preferred  stock.  The  balance  of  $8,610,611,- 
327  was  held  by  issuing  companies  and  repre- 
sented receipts  outstanding  for  installments 
paid. 

The  issued  stock  per  mile  of  road  was 
$24,962.  The  funded  debt  was  $40,899,  mak- 
ing a  grand  total  per  mile  of  road,  $65,861. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


In  the  year  of  1913,  all  of  the  railroads 
combined,  paid  in  dividends,  $369,077,546. 
The  total  amount  of  stock  yielding  dividends 
was  $5,780,982,416.  The  percentage  of  stock 
yielding  dividends  was  66.14  per  cent.  The 
average  rate  of  dividend  paying  stock  was 
6.37  per  cent.  The  average  rate  on  all  out- 
standing stock  was  4.22  per  cent. 

The  railroads  carried  in  1914,  1,080,679,680 
passengers.  This  number  of  passengers 
represents  earning  revenue. 

The  number  of  passengers  carried  one  mile 
in  1914  was  34,876,879,980. 

The  number  of  tons  of  freight  hauled  in 
1914  was  2,998,035,487.  This  represents  earn- 
ing revenue. 

The  number  of  tons  of  freight  hauled  one 
mile  in  1914  was  309,398,752,108. 

The  average  receipts  from  each  passenger 
hauled  one  mile  in  1914  was  approximately 
$0.02  per  mile. 

The  average  receipts  per  ton  of  freight 
hauled  one  mile  in  1914  was  0.072  of  a  cent. 

In  the  year  of  1915,  there  were  82  railroads 
in  the  hands  of  receivers,  or  a  representative 
total  of  41,988  miles  of  railroad  with  a  cap- 
italization of  $2,264,000,000  affected  in  this 
respect. 

The  gross  income  of  the  railroads  com- 
bined, in  1914,  was  $3,705,504,980.00,  this  from 
passenger  and  freight. 

The  roads  paid  their  employes  out  of  the 
gross  income,  $1,442,521,118. 

The    roads    paid    dividends    of    $369,077,546. 

They  had  left  as  a  balance  for  rolling  stock, 
depreciation,  taxes,  purchase  of  materials, 
constituting  many  thousands  of  different 
items,  $1,811,598,664. 

You  will  note  in  this  statement,  that  while 
the  railroads  are  operating  under  a  greater 
expense,  than  in  1901,  that  their  incomes  have 
advanced  very  little.  This  is  duly  attributed 
to  the  fact,  that  the  public  in  general  do  not 
understand,  that  it  is  required  of  the  rail- 


roads, that  they  have  an  income  which  will 
offset  the  expenditures  and  leave  a  sufficient 
balance  in  the  treasury  of  the  companies  to 
maintain  the  properties  in  such  condition, 
that  the  public  can  travel  in  perfect  safety. 

The  freight  shippers  of  today  demand  that 
their  commodities  be  handled  promptly  and 
delivered  to  them  in  perfect  condition.  If  the 
roads  fail  in  this,  they  are  burdened  with 
claims  of  various  natures. 

The  traveling  public  demand  that  the  car- 
riers transport  them  to  their  destinations  as 
quickly  as  possible  and  without  accidents. 

To  accomplish  all  of  this  has  required  of 
the  roads,  that  they  make  heavy  investments 
in  steel  coaches  and  repair  and  remodel 
freight  equipment. 

In  my  estimation,  having  studied  the  situa- 
tion as  closely  as  I  have,  prompts  me  to  state 
that  the  railroads  are  entitled  to  a  greater 
passenger  and  freight  rate.  The  increased 
rate,  so  divided  among  the  traveling  public 
and  the  freight  shippers,  would  mean  very 
little  for  each  individual,  or  concern  repre- 
sented, and  would  enable  the  railroads  to 
make  greater  expenditures  for  all  classes  of 
commodities,  thereby  reviving  general  busi- 
ness conditions.  The  increased  rates  would 
enable  the  roads  to  expend  many  millions  of 
dollars  per  annum,  of  which  every  individual 
in  the  United  States  would  get  his  or  her 
share. 

There  are  thousands  of  manufacturers  in 
the  United  States  who  make  railroad  mate- 
rials. There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men  and  women  employed  by  these  manufac- 
turers who  will  pay  their  earnings,  or  a  part, 
to  some  one  else,  who  will  likewise  follow 
the  same  policy  and  in  the  long  run  all  those 
who  pay  an  increased  rate  will  be  doubly 
reimbursed  by  the  good  times. 

The  railroads  would  be  enabled  to  pay  their 
men  more  money  and  conditions  would  be 
much  better  in  general. 


'cft'o 


Two  Ringers 

By  John  Taintor  Foote 


"LJ"  ELLO,  ole  Four  Eyes!"  was  the 
semi-affectionate  greeting  of  Blis: 
ter  Jones.  "I  ain't  seed  you  lately." 

I  had  found  him  in  the  blacksmith 
shop  at  Latonia,  lazily  observing  the 
smith's  efforts  to  unite  Fan  Tan  and 
a  set  of  new-made,  blue-black  racing- 
plates.  I  explained  how  a  city  editor 
had  bowed  my  shoulders  with  the  labors 
of  Hercules  during  the  last  week,  and 
began  to  acquire  knowledge  of  ,the  un- 
certainties connected  with  shoeing  a 
young  thoroughbred. 

A  colored  stable-boy  stood  at  Fan 
Tan's  wicked-looking  head  and  ad- 
dressed in  varied  tone  and  temper  a  pair 
of  flattened  ears. 

"Whoa !  Baby-doll !  Dat's  ma  honey 
— dat's  ma  petty  chile —  .  .  .  Whoa! 

Yuh  no-'coun'  houn',  yuh !"  The  first 
of  the  speech  had  been  delivered  sooth- 
ingly, as  the  smith  succeeded  in  getting 
a  reluctant  hind  leg  into  his  lap ;  the  last 
was  snorted  out  as  the  leg  straightened 
suddenly  and  catapulted  him  into  a  cor- 
ner of  the  shop,  where  he  sat  down 
heavily  among  some  discarded  horse- 
shoes. 

The  smith  arose,  sweat  and  curses 
dripping  from  him. 

"Chris!"  said  Blister,  "it's  a  shame 
the  way  you  treat  that  pore  filly.  She 
comes  into  yer  dirty  joint  like  a  little 


lady,  fur  to  get  a  new  pair  of  shoes,  'n' 
you  grabs  her  by  the  leg  'n'  then  cusses 
her  when  she  won't  stand  fur  it." 

Part  of  the  curses  were  now  directed 
at  Blister. 

"Come  on,  Four  Eyes,"  he  said.  "This 
ain't  no  place  fur  a  minister's  son." 

"I'd  like  to  stay  and  see  the  shoeing!'' 
I  protested,  as  he  rose  to  go. 

"What  shoeing?"  he  asked  incredu- 
lously. "You  ain't  meaning  a  big  strong 
guy  like  Chris  manhandlin'  a  pore  little 
filly?  Come  awn —  I  can't  stand  to  see 
him  abusin'  her  no  more." 

We  wandered  down  to  the  big  brown 
oval,  and  Blister,  perching  himself  on 
the  top  rail  of  the  fence,  took  out  his 
stop-watch,  although  there  were  no 
horses  on  the  track. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with 
that  ?"  I  asked. 

"Got  to  do  it,"  he  grinned.  "If  I  was 
to  set  on  a  track  fence  without  ma  clock 
in  my  mitt,  I'd  get  so  nur-r-vous !  Purty 
soon  I'd  be  as  fidgity  as  that  filly  back 
there.  Feelin'  this  ole  click-click  kind-a 
soothes  my  fevered  brow." 

In  a  silence  that  followed  I  watched 
a  whipped-cream  cloud  adrift  on  the 
deepest  of  deep  blue  skies. 

"Hi,  hum !"  said  Blister  presently, 
and  extending  his  arms  in  a  pretense  of 
stretching;  he  shoved  me  off  the  fence. 


79 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


"You're  welcome,"  he  said  to  my  pro- 
tests, and  added :  "There's  a  nice 
matched  pair." 

A  boy,  leading  a  horse,  was  emerging 
from  the  mouth  of  a  stall. 

The  contrast  between  them  was  start- 
linsr — never  had  I  seen  a  horse  with  so 
much  elegant  apparel ;  rarely  have  I  seen 
a  boy  with  so  little.  The  boy,  followed 
by  the  horse,  began  to  walk  a  slow  cir- 
cle not  far  from  where  we  sat.  Suddenly 
the  boy  addressed  Blister. 

"Say,  loan  me  the  makin's,  will  you, 
pal?"  he  drawled. 

From  his  hip  pocket  Blister  produced 
some  tobacco  in  a  stained  muslin  bag 
and  a  wad  of  crumpled  cigarette  papers. 
These  he  tossed  toward  the  boy. 

"Yours  trooly,"  muttered  that  worthy, 
as  he  picked  up  the  "makin's".  "Heard 
the  news  about  Hicky  Rogers?"  he 
asked,  while  he  rolled  a  cigarette. 

"Nothin',  except  he's  a  crooked  little 
snipe,"  Blister  answered. 

"Huh !  that  ain't  news,"  said  the  boy. 
"They've  ruled  him  off — that's  what  I 
mean." 

"That  don't  surprise  me  none,"  Blis- 
ter stated.  "He's  been  gettin'  too  smart 
around  here  fur  quite  a  while.  It'll  be 
a  good  riddance." 

"Were  you  ever  ruled  off  the  track?" 
I  asked  Blister,  as  the  boy,  exhaling 
clouds  of  cigarette  smoke,  returned  to 
the  slow  walking  of  his  horse.  He  stu- 
died in  silence  a  moment. 

"Yep — once,"  he  replied.  "I  got  mine 
at  New  Awlins  fur  ringin'  a  hoss.  That 
little  ole  town  has  got  my  goat." 

"When  was  this?"  I  asked. 

"The  year  I  first  starts  conditionin' 
hosses,"  he  answered. 

I  had  noticed  that  dates  totally  eluded 
Blister.  A  past  occurrence  as  far  as  its 
relation  to  time  was  concerned,  he  al- 
ways established  by  a  contemporary 
event  of  the  turf.  Pressed  as  to  when  a 
thing  had  taken  place  he  would  say. 
"The  year  Salvation  cops  all  the  colt 
stakes,"  or  "The  fall  Whisk-broom  wins 
the  Brooklyn  Handicap."  This  had 
interested  me  and  I  now  tried  to  get 
something  more  definite  from  him.  He 
answered  my  questions  vaguely. 


"Say,  if  you're  lookin'  fur  that  kind 
of  info."  he  said  at  last,  "get  the  alma- 
nac or  the  byciclopedia.  These  year 
things  slide  by  so  easy  I  don't  get  a  good 
pike  at  one,  'fore  another  is  not  more'n 
a  len'th  back,  'n'  comin'  fast." 

I  saw  it  was  useless. 

"Well,  never  mind  just  when  it  hap- 
pened," I  said.  "Tell  me  about  it." 

'All  rieht,"  said  Blister.  "Like  I've 
just  said  it  happens  one  winter  at  New 
Awlins,  the  year  after  I  starts  condi- 
tionin' hosses. 

"Things  break  bad  fur  me  that  winter. 
Whenever  a  piker  can't  win  a  bet  he 
comes  'round,  slaps  me  on  the  wrist,  'n' 
separates  me  from  some  of  my  kale.  I'm 
so  easy  I  squeezes  my  roll  if  I  meets  a 
child  on  the  street.  The  cops  had  ought 
to  patrol  me,  'cause  larceny'll  sure  be 
committed  every  time  a  live  guy  speak? 
to  me. 

"I've  only  got  three  dogs  in  my  string. 
One  of  'em's  a  mornin'-glory.  He'll 
bust  away  as  if  he's  out  to  make  Salva- 
tor  look  like  a  truck-hoss,  but  he'll  lay 
down  'n'  holler  fur  some  one  to  come 
'n'  carry  him  when  he  hits  the  stretch. 
One's  a  hop-head  'n'  I  has  to  shoot 
enoueh  dope  into  him  to  make  him  think 
he's  Napoleon  Bonyparte  'fore  he'll 
switch  a  fly  off  hisself.  Then  when  he 
sees  how  far  away  the  wire  is  he  thinks 
about  the  battle  of  Waterloo  'n'  says, 
'Take  me  to  Elby.' 

"I've  got  one  purty  fair  sort  of  a  hoss. 
He's  just  about  ready  to  spill  the  beans, 
fur  some  odds-on,  when  he  gets  cast  in 
the  stall  'n'  throws  his  stifle  out.  The 
vet.  gets  his  stifle  back  in  place. 

:  'This  hoss  must  have  a  year's  com- 
plete rest,'  he  says. 

"'Yes,  Doc,'  I  says.  "N'  when  he 
gets  so  he  can  stand  it,  how'd  a  trip  to 
Europe  do  fur  him  ?' 

"Things  go  along  like  this  till  I'm 
busted  right.  No,  I  ain't  busted — I'm 
past  that.  I  owes  the  women  where  I 
eats,  I  owes  the  feed  man,  I  owes  the 
plater,  'n'  I  owes  every  gink  that'll 
stand  fur  a  touch. 

"One  day  a  messenger  boy  comes  'n' 
leans  against  the  still  door  'n'  pokes  a 
yellow  envelope  at  me. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


81 


"  'Well,  Pierpont,'  I  says,  'what's  the 
good  word?' 

"  'Sign  here.  Two  bits,'  he  says, 
yawnin'. 

"I  sees  where  it  says  'charges  paid,' 
'n'  I  takes  him  by  the  back  of  the  neck 
'n'  he  gets  away  to  a  flyin'  start  fur  the 
gate.  The  message  is  from  Buck  Harms. 

"  'Am  at  the  St.  Charles,  meet  me  nine 
a.  m.  to-morrow,'  it  says. 

"This  Harms  duck  is  named  right 
'cause  that's  what  he  does  to  every  guy 
he  meets.  He's  so  crooked  he  can  sleep 
on  a  corkscrew.  When  there  ain't  no- 
body else  around  he'll  take  money  out 
of  one  pocket  'n'  put  it  in  another.  He's 
been  ruled  off  twict  'n'  there's  no  chance 
fur  him  to  get  back.  I  wouldn't  stand 
fur  him  only  I'm  in  so  bad  I  has  to  do 
somethin'. 

"  'If  he  takes  any  coin  from  me  he'll 
have  to  be  Hermann,'  I  says  to  myself, 
'n'  I  shows  up  at  the  hotel  the  next 
mawnin'. 

"Harms  is  settin'  in  the  lobby  readin' 
the  dope-sheet.  I  pipes  him  off  'n'  he 
don't  look  good  to  me  fur  a  minute,  but 
I  goes  over  'n'  shakes  his  mitt. 

"  'Well,  Blister,  old  scout,  how're  they 
breakin'  ?'  he  says. 

"  'So,  so,'  I  says. 

"'that  right?'  he  says.  'I  hears  dif- 
ferent. Fishhead  Peters  tells  me  they've 
got  you  on  the  ropes.' 

"  'What  th'  hell  does  that  gassy  Fish- 
head  know  about  me?'  I  says. 

"  'Cut  out  the  stallin',  he  says.  'It 
don't  go  between  friends.  Would  you 
like  to  git  a-holt  of  a  new  roll?' 

"  'I  don't  mind  tellin'  you  that  sooner 
'n  have  my  clothes  tore  I  lets  somebody 
crowd  a  bundle  of  kale  on  to  me,'  I  says. 

"  'That  sounds  better,'  he  says.  'Come 
on — we'll  take  a  cab  ride.' 

"  'Where  we  goin'  ?'  I  asks  him,  as  we 
gets  into  a  cab. 

"  'Goin'  to  look  at  a  hoss,'  he  says. 

"'What  fur?'  I  says. 

'"Wait  till  we  git  there  'n'  I'll  tell 
you/  he  says. 

"We  rides  fur  about  a  hour  'n'  pulls 
up  at  a  barn  out  in  the  edge  of  town. 
We  goes  inside  'n'  there's  a  big  sorrel 
geldin',  with  a  blaize  face,  in  a  box-stall. 


"  'Look  him  over,'  says  Harms.  I  gets 
one  pike  at  the  hoss — 

''Why!  it's  ole  Friendless!'  I  says. 

"  'Look  close,'  he  says.  'Wait  till  I 
get  him  outside.' 

"I  looks  the  hoss  over  careful  when 
he's  outside  in  the  light,  'n'  I  don't  know 
what  to  think.  First  I  think  it's  Friend- 
less 'n'  then  I  think  maybe  it  ain't. 

"  'If  it  ain't  Friendless,  it's  his  dou- 
ble !'  I  says  at  last.  'But  I  think  Friend- 
less has  a  white  forefoot.' 

"  'Well,  it  ain't  Friendless,'  says 
Harms  as  he  leads  the  hoss  into  the 
barn.  'And  you're  right  about  the  white 
foot.' 

"Now,  Friendless  is  a  bird  that  ain't 
started  fur  a  year.  Harms  or  some  of  his 
gang  used  to  own  him,  'n'  believe  me, 
he  can  ramble  some  if  everythin'  's  done 
to  suit  him.  He's  a  funny  hoss,  'n'  has 
notions.  If  a  jock'll  set  still  'n'  not 
make  a  move  on  him.'  Friendless  runs 
a  grand  race.  But  if  a  boy  takes  holt  of 
him  or  hits  him  with  the  bat,  ole  Friend- 
less says,  'Nothin'  doin'  to-day !'  'n'  sulks 
all  the  way.  He'd  have  made  a  great 
stake  hoss  only  he's  dead  wise  to  how 
much  weight  he's  packin'.'  He'll  romp 
with  anythin'  up  to  a  hundred  'n'  ten, 
but  not  a  pound  over  that  can  you  slip 
him.  Looks  like  he  says  to  hisself. 
'They  must  think  I'm  a  movin'  van,'  'n' 
he  lays  his  ole  ears  back,  'n'  dynamite 
won't  make  him  finish  better'n  fourth. 
This  little  habit  of  his'n  spoils  him 
'cause  he's  too  good,  'n'  the  best  he  gets 
from  a  handicapper  is  a  hundred  'n' 
eighteen — that  kind  of  weight  lets  him 
out. 

"Goin'  back  in  the  cab  Harms  tells  me 
why  he  sends  fur  me.  This  dog  he's 
just  showed  me  's  named  Alcyfras.  He's 
been  runnin'  out  on  the  coast  'n'  he's  a 
mutt — he  can't  beat  a  fat  man.  Harms 
sees  him  one  day  at  Oakland,  'n'  has  a 
guy  buy  him. 

"Harms  brings  this  pup  back  East. 
He  has  the  papers  'n'  description  all  reg- 
ular. The  guy  that  buys  him  ain't  wise 
— he's  just  a  boob  Harms  is  stallin'  with. 
What  he  wants  me  to  do  is  to  take  the 
hoss  in  my  string,  get  him  identified  'n' 
start  him  a  couple  of  times ;  then  when 


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ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


the  odds  is  real  juicy  I'm  to  start 
Friendless  under  the  dog's  name  'n' 
Harms  'n'  his  gang'll  bet  him  to  a  whis- 
per at  the  poolrooms  in  Chicago  'n'  New 
York. 

"  'Where's  Friendless  now  ?'  I  asks 
him. 

"  'They're  gettin'  him  ready  on  a  bull- 
ring up  in  Illinois,  says  Harms.  He's 
in  good  shape  rn'  '11  be  dead  ripe  time 
we  get  ready  to  ship  him  down  here.  I 
figure  we'll  put  this  gag  across  about 
Christmas.' 

"  'What  does  the  boy  wonder  get  fur 
swappin'  mules  with  the  Association?'  I 
says.  'I'm  just  dyin'  to  know  what  Santa 
Claus'll  bring  little  Alfred.' 

"  'You  get  all  expenses,  twenty-five 
bucks  a  week,  'n'  a  nice  slice  of  the  vel- 
vet when  we  cleans  up/  says  Harms. 

"  'Nix,  on  that  noise !'  says  I.  'If  you 
or  some  other  benevolent  gink  don't 
crowd  five  hundred  iron  dollars  on  G. 
Percival  the  day  before  the  bird  flies, 
he  won't  leave  the  perch.' 

"'Don't  you  trust  me?'  says  Harms. 

"  'Sure,'  I  says,  'better'n  Cassie  Chad- 
wick.' 

"He  argues,  but  it  don't  get  him 
nothin'  so  he  says  he'll  come  across  the 
day  before  Friendless  brings  home  the 
bacon,  'n'  I  make  him  cough  enough  to 
pay  what  I  owes.  The  next  day  a  swipe 
leads  Alcyfras  out  to  the  track. 

"'What's  the  name  of  that  dog?' 
Peewee  Simpson  yells,  as  I'm  cross-tyin' 
the  hoss  at  the  stall  door. 

"  'Alcyfras,'  I  says,  as  I  pulls  the 
blanket  off.  Peewee  comes  over  'n' 
looks  at  the  hoss  a  minute. 

"'Alcy  nothin'!'  he  says.  'If  that 
ain't  Friendless,  I  never  sees  him.' 

"I  digs  up  the  roll  Harms  give  me. 

"  Til  gamble  this  pinch  of  spinach  his 
name  is  Alcyfras,'  I  says. 

"  'You  kin  name  what  you  like  far  as 
I'm  concerned,  'n'  change  it  every 
mawnin'  before  breakfast,'  says  Peewee. 
'But  if  you  starts  him  as  anythin'  but 
Friendless  we  don't  see  your  freckled 
face  'round  here  no  more.' 

"By  this  time  a  bunch  has  gathered 
'n'  soon  there's  a  swell  argument  on. 
One  guy'll  say  it's  Friendless  'n'  another 


'11  say  it  ain't.  Finally  somebody  says 
to  send  for  Duckfoot  Johnson,  who 
swiped  Friendless  fur  two  years.  They 
send  for  him. 

"When  Duckfoot  comes  he  busts 
through  the  crowd  like  he's  the  paddock 
judge. 

;'  'Lemme  look  at  dis  hoss,'  he  says. 

"Everybody  draws  back  'n'  Duckfoot 
looks  the  hoss  ever  'n'  then  runs  his 
hand  under  his  barrel  close  to  the  front 
legs. 

'  'No,  sah,  dis  ain't  Frien'less,'  he 
says.  'Frien'less  has  a  white  foot  on  de 
off  front  laig  and  besides  dat  he  has  a 
rough-feeling  scah  on  de  belly  whar  he 
done  rip  hisself  somehow  befo'  I  gits 
him.  Dis  dawg  am  smooth  as  a  possum.' 

"That  settles  all  arguments.  You  can't 
fool  a  swipe  'bout  a  hoss  he's  taken 
care  of.  He  knows  every  hair  on  him. 

"One  day  I'm  clockin'  this  Alcyfras 
while  a  exercise-boy  sends  him  seven- 
eights.  When  I  looks  at  my  clock  I 
thinks  they  ought  to  lay  a  thousand-to- 
one  against  the  mutt,  after  he  starts  a 
couple  of  times.  Just  then  somethin' 
comes  'n'  stands  in  front  of  me  'n'  be- 
gins to  make  little  squeaky  noises. 

"  'Are  you  Mr.  Blister  ?'  it  says. 

"  'I  bats  my  eyes  'n'  nods. 

"  'I've  got  'em  again,'  I  thinks. 

"  'Oh,  what  a  relief !'  it.  squeaks.  'I 
just  thought  I'd  never  find  you.  I've 
been  looking  all  over  the  race  course  for 
you!' 

"  'Gracious !  Ferdy,  you've  had  a  aw- 
ful time,  ain't  you?'  I  says.  'If  you  want 
to  stay  out  of  trouble,  read  your  Ladies' 
Home  Journal  more  careful.' 

"  'My  name  is  Alcibides  Tuttle,'  says 
pink  toes,  drawin'  hisself  up.  'And  I  am 
the  owner  of  the  horse  called  Alcyfras. 
I  purchased  this  animal  upon  the  advice 
of  my  friend,  Mr.  Harms,  whom  I  met 
in  San  Francisco.' 

"Say!  I've  worked  fur  some  nutty 
owners,  but  this  yap's  the  limit. 

"  'Well,  Alci,  here  comes  Alcy  now,' 
I  says,  as  the  boy  comes  up  with  the 
dog,  'n'  my  new  boss  stretches  his  num- 
ber three  neck  out  of  his  number  nine 
collar  'n'  blinks  at  the  hoss. 

"Alcibides  comes  back  to  the  stall  with 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


83 


me  'n'  from  then  on  he  sticks  to  me 
tighter  'n'  a  woodtick.  He's  out  to  the 
track  every  mawnin'  by  nine  'n'  he  don't 
leave  till  after  the  races.  He  asks  me 
eighty-seven  squeaky  questions  a  min- 
ute all  the  time  we're  together.  I  calls 
him  'n'  his  hoss  both  Alcy  fur  a  while, 
but  I  changed  him  to  Elsy — that  was  less 
confusin'  'n'  it  suits  him  better. 

"The  next  week  I  starts  Alcyfras 
among  a  bunch  of  crabs  in  a  seven  fur- 
long sellin'  race,  'n'  the  judges  hold  up 
his  entrance  till  I  can  identify  him.  I 
hands  them  his  papers  'n'  they  looks  up 
the  description  of  Friendless  in  the  stud- 
book,  where  it  shows  he's  got  one  white 
foot.  Then  they  wire  to  the  breeder  of 
Alcyfras  'n'  to  the  tracks  in  California 
where  the  dog  was  started.  The  answers 
come  back  all  proper  'n'  to  cinch  it  I 
produce  Elsy  as  owner.  They  look  Elsy 
over  while  he  tells  'em  he's  bought  the 
hoss. 

"  'Gentlemen,'  says  Colonel  King  to 
the  other  judges,  'the  mere  sight  of  Mr. 
Tuttle  has  inspired  me  with  full  confi- 
dence in  his  entry  and  himself.'  He  bows 
to  Elsy  'n'  Elsy  bows  to  him.  The  rest 
of  the  judges  turn  'round  'n'  look  at 
somethin'  over  across  the  center-field. 

"I  tells  Elsy  his  hoss  is  all  to  the  mer- 
ry, but  we  don't  want  him  to  win  till 
the  odds  get  right.  He's  standin'  beside 
me  at  the  race,  'n'  Alcyfras  runs  next  to 
last. 

"  'Of  course,  I  realize  you  are  more 
familiar  with  horse  racing  than  myself,' 
he  says ;  'but  I  think  you  should  have 
allowed  him  to  do  a  little  better.  What 
method  did  you  employ  to  make  him 
remain  so  far  in  the  rear?' 

"  'I  tells  the  jock  to  pull  him,'  I  says. 
The  boy  was  usin'  the  bat  half  the  trip, 
but  Elsy  never  tumbles. 

'  'What  do  you  say  to  a  jockey  when 
you  desire  him  to  lose?'  Elsy  asks  me. 

"'I  just  say— "Grab  this  one,'"  I 
says. 

'  'What  do  you  say  when  you  require 
him  to  win?'  he  squeaks. 

'  'I  don't  say  nothin'.  I  hands  him 
a  ticket  on  the  hoss  'n'  the  jock  wins  if 
he  has  to  get  down  'n'  carry  the  dog 
home,'  I  says. 


"Not  long  after  this,  Friendless  gets 
in  from  Illinois.  I  look  him  over  in  the 
car  'n'  I  see  he's  not  ready.  He's  not 
near  ready. 

'  'What  kind  of  shoemakers  give  this 
hoss  his  prep.?'  I  asks  Harms. 

'  'What's  wrong  with  him  ?'  he  says. 
'He  looks  good  to  me.' 

"  'He  ain't  ready,'  I  says.  'Look  at 
him  'n'  feel  him !  He'll  need  ten  days 
more  work  'n'  a  race  under  his  belt  'fore 
he's  safe  to  bet  real  money  on.' 

"Harms  buys  some  stuff  at  a  drug 
store,  'n'  gets  busy  with  the  white  fore- 
foot. 

"  'Only  God  A'mighty  can  make  as 
good  a  sorrel  as  that !'  he  says  when  he's 
through.  'Here's  the  can  of  dope.  Don't 
let  her  fade.' 

"  'What  are  you  goin'  t'  do  about  this 
Elsy  person?'  I  says.  'While  I  ain't 
say  in'  it's  pure  joy  to  have  him  around, 
I  ain't  got  the  heart  to  hand  it  to  him. 
I  don't  mind  trimmin'  boobs — that's  what 
they're  for — but  this  Elsy  thing  is  too 
soft.  He  must  be  in  quite  a  wad  on  this 
bum  hoss  of  his'n.' 

'"Who's  Elsy?'  says  Harms. 

"I  tells  him,  'n'  he  laughs. 

"  'Is  that  what  you  call  him  ?'  he  says. 
'What's  bitin'  you — ain't  Friendless 
goin'  to  win  a  nice  purse  for  him?' 

.."About  ten  o'clock  that  night  Alcyfras 
goes  out  one  gate  'n'  Friendless  comes 
in  another.  I  keeps  the  foot  stained 
good,  'n'  shuts  the  stall  door  whenever 
Duckfoot  shows  up.  In  ten  days  the 
hoss  is  right  on  edge  'n'  one  race'll  put 
the  finish  on  him,  so  I  enter  him,  in  a 
bunch  of  skates,  as  Alcyfras.  I  gives  the 
mount  to  Lou  Smith — he  ain't  much  of 
a  jock,  but  hee'll  rid  to  orders.  Just 
before  the  race  I  has  a  heart  to  heart 
talk  with  Lou. 

"  'Fur  this  hoss  to  win  you  don't  make 
a  move  on  him,'  I  says.  'If  you  hand 
him  the  bat  or  take  hold  of  him  at  the 
get-away  he  sulks.' 

"  'All  right,  I  let's  him  alone,'  says 
Lou. 

"  'When  I'm  ready  fur  you  to  let  him 
alone  I  slips  you  a  nice  ticket  on  this 
bird.  You  ain't  got  a  ticket  to-day,  have 
you?'  I  says. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


"  'Not  so's  you  could  notice,'  says 
Lou. 

"  'Are  you  hep?'  I  says. 

"  'I  got-cha,  Bo,'  says  Lou. 

"I  see  Lou's  arm  rise  'n'  fall  a  couple 
of  times  at  the  start  'n'  ole  Friendless 
finished  fifth,  his  ears  laid  back,  sulkier 
'n  a  grass  widow  at  a  married  men's 
picnic. 

"  'You  let  him  do  better  to-day,'  says 
Elsy.  'Isn't  it  time  to  allow  him  to  win  ?' 

"  'He  wins  his  next  out,'  I  says. 

"I  tell  Harms  we're  ready  fur  the  big 
show  'n'  I  looks  fur  a  nice  race  to  drop 
the  good  thing  into.  But  it  starts  to  rain 
'n'  it  keeps  it  up  a  week.  Friendless 
ain't  a  mudder  'n'  we  has  to  have  a  fast 
track  fur  our  little  act  of  separating  the 
green  stuff  from  the  poolrooms.  I'm 
afraid  the  bird  stales  off  if  I  don't  get  a 
race  into  him,  so  I  enters  him  among  a 
pretty  fair  bunch  of  platers,  to  keep  him 
on  edge. 

"Three  days  before  the  race  the 
weather  gets  good  'n'  the  track  begins  to 
dry  out  fast.  I  see  it's  goin'  to  be  right 
fur  my  race  'n'  I  meets  Harms  'n'  tells 
him  to  wire  his  bunch  to  bet  their  heads 
off. 

"  'I  don't  like  this  race,'  he  says,  when 
he  looks  at  the  entries.  'There's  two  or 
three  live  ones  in  here.  This  Blackjack 
ain't  such  a  bad  pup,  'n'  this  here  Pan- 
dora runs  a  bang-up  race  her  last  out. 
Let's  wait  fur  somethin'  easier.' 

"  'Well,  if  you  ain't  a  sure-thing  bet- 
ter, I  never  gets  my  lamps  on  one!'  I 
says.  'Don't  you  want  me  to  saw  the 
legs  off  the  rest  of  them  dogs  to  earn 
my  five  hundred?  You  must  have  for- 
got ole  Friendless.  He's  only  got  nine- 
ty-six pounds  up !  He'll  tin  can  sure ! 
He  kin  fall  down  'n'  roll  home  faster 
than  them  kind  of  hosses.' 

"But  Harms  won't  take  a  chance,  so 
I  goes  back  to  the  track  'n'  I  was  sore. 

"  'That  guy's  a  hot  sport,  not !'  I 
thinks. 

'I  hates  to  tell  Elsy  the  hoss  he  thinks 
is  his  won't  win — he'd  set  his  little  heart 
on  it  so.  I  don't  tell  him  till  the  day 
before  the  race,  'n'  he  gets  right  sassy 
about  it.  I  never  see  him  so  spunky. 

"  'As  owner,  I   insist  that  you  allow 


Alcyfras  to  win  this  race,'  he  says,  'n' 
goes  away  in  a  pet  when  I  tells  him  nix. 

"The  day  of  the  race  I  don't  see  Elsy 
at  all. 

"  'You  ain't  got  a  ticket  to-day,  'n' 
you  know  the  answer,'  I  says  to  Lou 
Smith  as  the  parade  starts.  He  don't 
say  nothin'  but  nods,  so  I  think  he's 
fixed. 

"When  I  come  through  the  bettin'  ring 
I  can't  believe  my  eyes.  There's  Alcy- 
fras at  four-to-one  all  down  the  line.  He 
opened  at  fifty,  so  somebody  has  bet  their 
clothes  on  him. 

'  'Where  does  all  this  play  on  Alcy- 
fras come  from?'  I  says  to  a  booky. 

"  'A  lost  shrimp  wanders  in  here  and 
starts  it,'  says  the  booky. 

"  'What  does  he  look  like?'  I  says. 

"  'Like  a  maiden's  prayer,'  says  the 
booky,  'n'  I  beats  it  out  to  the  stand. 

"Elsy  is  at  the  top  of  the  steps  lookin' 
kind  of  haughty,  'n'  say! — he's  got  a 
bundle  of  tickets  a  foot  thick  in  his  hand. 

'  'What  dead  one's  name  is  on  all  them 
soovenirs?'  I  says,  pointin'  to  the  tick- 
ets. 

"  'Mr.  Blister,'  he  says,  'after  our  con- 
versation yesterday  I  made  inquiry  con- 
cerning the  rights  of  a  trainer.  I  was 
informed  that  a  trainer,  as  a  paid  em- 
ployee, is  under  the  direction  of  the  own- 
er— his  employer.  You  refused  to  allow 
my  horse  to  win,  contrary  to  my  wishes. 
You  had  no  right  to  do  so.  I  intend  that 
he  shall  win,  and  have  wagered  accord- 
ingly— these  tickets  are  on  Alcyfras.' 
He's  nervous  'n'  fidgity,  'n'  his  voice  is 
squeakier  'n'  ever. 

'"Well,  Mr.  Belmont,'  I  says,  'did 
you  happen  to  give  instructions  to  any 
more  of  your  employees,  your  jockey, 
fur  instance?' 

"  'I  have  adopted  the  method  you  in- 
formed me  was  the  correct  one/  he  sajs, 
swellin'  up.  'I  gave  a  ticket  at  fifty-to- 
one  calling  for  one  hundred  and  two 
dollars  to  Mr.  Smith,  and  explained  to 
him  that  I  was  the  owner.' 

"Before  Elsy  gets  through  I'm  dopey. 
I  looks  over  his  tickets  'n'  he  figures  to 
win  eight  thousand  to  the  race.  I  have 
two  iron  men  in  my  jeans — I  don't  even 
go  down  'n'  bet  it. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


'  'What's  the  use  ?'  I  says  to  myself. 

"I  can't  hardly  see  the  race,  I'm  so 
groggy  from  the  jolt  Elsy  hands  me. 
Friendless  breaks  in  front  and  stays 
there  all  the  way.  Lou  Smith  just  sets 
still  'n'  lets  the  hoss  rate  hisself.  That 
ole  hound  comes  down  the  stretch  a- 
rompin',  his  ears  flick-flackin'  'n'  a  smile 
on  his  face.  He  wins  by  five  len'ths  'n' 
busts  the  track  record  fur  the  distance  a 
quarter  of  a  second. 

"Then  it  begins  to  get  brisk  around 
there.  I  figger  to  have  Alcyfras  all 
warmed  up  outside  the  fence  the  day 
Friendless  wins.  After  the  race  I'd  put 
him  in  the  stall  'n'  send  Friendless  out 
the  gate.  Elsy,  practisin'  the  owner  act, 
has  gummed  the  game — Alcyfras  is  over 
in  the  other  end  of  town. 

"Ole  Friendless  bustin'  the  track  rec- 
ord is  the  final  blow.  I  don't  hardly  get 
to  the  stall  'fore  here  comes  the  pad- 
dock judge  'n'  his  assistant. 

"  'We  want  this  hoss  and  you,  too, 
over  at  the  paddock,'  he  says.  'What's 
the  owner's  name?' 

"  'Alcibides  Tuttle,'  I  says. 

"  'Is  that  all?'  says  the  paddock  judge. 
'Gq,  get  him,  Billy!'  he  says  to  his  as- 
sistant. 'You'll  likely  find  him  cashin' 
tickets.' 

"When  we  gets  to  the  paddock,  there's 
Colonel  King  and  the  rest  of  the  judges. 

"  'Take  his  blanket  off,'  says  the  colo- 
nel, when  we  leads  in  the  hoss. 

"  'He's  red-hot,  Colonel,'  I  says. 

"  'So  am  I,'  says  the  colonel.  'Who 
was  caretaker  for  the  horse  Friendless 
when  he  was  racin?'  he  asks  some  of 
the  ginnies. 

"  'Duckfoot  Johnson,'  says  the  whole 
bunch  at  once. 

"  'Send  for  him,'  says  the  colonel. 

"  Ts  hyar,  boss/  says  Duckfoot,  from 
the  back  of  the  crowd. 

"  'Come  and  look  this  horse  over,'  says 
the  colonel. 

"  'I  done  looked  him  over  befo',  boss,' 
says  Duckfoot,  when  he  gets  to  the  colo- 
nel. 

"  'When?'  says  the  colonel.  'When  did 
you  see  him?' 

"  '  'Bout  a  month  ago,'  says  Duckfoot. 


"  'Did  you  reecogniz  him,'  says  the 
colonel. 

"  'Yeh,  sah,'  says  Duckfoot,  'I  done 
recnomize  him  thoully  fum  his  haid  to 
his  tail,  but  I  ain'  never  seed  him  befo'.' 

"  'Recnobize  him  again,'  the  colonel 
tells  him. 

"  'Boss,'  says  Duckfoot,  'some  folks 
'low  dis  hoss  am  Frien'less,  but  hit  ain'. 
Ef  hits  Frien'less,  an''  yo'  puts  yo'  han' 
hyar  on  his  belly  dey  is  a  rough-feelin' 
scah.  Dis  hoss  am  puffeckly  smo-o — 
then  he  stops  'n'  begins  to  get  ashy  'round 
the  mouth. 

"'Well?'  says  the  colonel.  'What's 
the  matter?' 

"  'Lawd  Gawd,  boss !  Diss  am  Frien'- 
less .  .  .  Hyar's  de  scah!'  says  Duckfoot, 
his  eyes  a-rollin'.  Then  he  goes  'round 
'n'  looks  at  the  hoss  in  front.  'Whar  his 
white  foot  at?'  he  asks  the  colonel. 

'  'That's  what  we  are  about  to  ascer- 
tain/ says  the  colonel.  'Boy/  he  says  to 
a  ginny,  'run  out  to  the  drug  store  with 
this  dollar  and  bring  me  back  a  pint  of 
benzine  and  a  tooth-brush.' 

"The  ginny  beats  it. 

"  'You  may  blanket  this  horse  now/ 
the  colonel  says  to  me. 

"When  the  ginny  gets  back,  Colonel 
King  pours  the  benzine  on  the  tooth- 
brush 'n'  goes  to  work  on  the  off-fore- 
foot. It  ain't  long  till  it's  nice  'n'  white 
again. 

"  'That  is  most  remarkable !'  says  Elsy 
who's  watchin'  the  colonel. 

''  'In  my  opinion,  Mr.  Tuttle/  says  the 
colonel,  'the  only  remarkable  feature  of 
this  affair  is  yourself.  I  can't  get  you 
properly  placed.  The  Association  will 
take  charge  of  this  horse  until  the  judges 
rule.' 

"The  next  day  the  judges  send  fur  me 
'n'  Elsy.  It  don't  take  Colonel  King 
thirty  seconds  to  rule  me  off — I  don't  get 
back  fur  two  years,  neither !  Then  the 
colonel  looks  at  Elsy. 

"  'Mr.  Tuttle/  he  says,  'if  your  con- 
nection with  this  business  is  as  innocent 
as  it  seems,  you  should  be  protected 
against  a  further  appearance  on  the  turf. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  you  have  acted  a 
part  in  this  littje  drama,  the  turf  should 
be  protected  against  you.  In  either  case 


86 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


the  judges  desire  to  bring  your  career  as 
an  owner  to  a  close ;  and  we  hereby  bar 
you  and  your  entries  from  all  tracks  of 
the  Association.  This  is  final  and  irrev- 
ocable.' 

"Three  years  after  that  I'm  at  Hot 
Springs,  'n'  I  drops  into  McGlade's  place 
one  night  to  watch  'em  gamble.  There's 
a  slim  guy  dealin'  faro  fur  the  house,  'n' 


he's  got  a  green  eye-shade  on.  All  of  a 
sudden  he  looks  up  at  me. 

"  'Blister/  he  says,  Mo  you  ever  tum- 
ble there's  two  ringers  in  the  New  Aw- 
lins  deal  ?  Me  'n'  Buck  Harms  has  quite 
a  time  puttin'  it  over — without  slippin' 
you  five  hundred.' 

"It's  Elsy!  'N'  say! — his  voice  ain't 
any  squeakier  'n  mine!" 


Copyrighted,  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company. 


Hemoriotis  o 


emonotis  OQrvice 


FAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
*•  following  conductors  and  gatekeepers 
for  their  special  efforts  in  lifting  and  pre- 
venting the  use  of  irregular  transportation 
in  connection  with  which  reports  (Form 
972)  were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of  pas- 
senger receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advises  the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,  all 
pass  irregularities  being  brought  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  vice-president. 

Illinois.  Division 

During  November  the  following  suburban 
gatekeepers  lifted  commutation  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  or  being  in  improper 
hands:  K.  F.  Emmanuel,  Otto  Gerhardy, 
T.  C.  White. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel,  on  train  No.  25, 
Nov.  26th,  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  date  of  sale  having  been  altered 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  21,  Nov.  25th,  he  declined 
to  honor  local  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare.  Passenger 
was  referred  to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup,  on  train  No. 
208,  Nov.  3rd,  No.  201,  Nov.  5th  and  20th, 
declined  to  honor  card  tickets  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fares.  Pas- 
sengers were  referred  to  Passenger  Depart- 
ment for  refund  on  tickets. 

On  train  No.  208,  Nov.  19th,  he  lifted 
trip  pass  which  was  restricted  to  intrastate 
travel  account  being  presented  in  connec- 
tion with  interstate  trip  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  train  No.  208,  Nov.  26th,  he  lifted 
employe's  trip  pass  account  not  being 
countersigned  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader,  on  train  No.  24, 
Nov.  8th  and  29th,  lifted  expired  card  tick- 
ets from  passengers,  who  admitted  having 
previously  secured  transportation  on  same, 
and  collected  cash  fares. 


On  train  No.  22,  Nov.  16th,  he  declined 
to  honor  card  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares.  Passengers 
were  referred  to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  tickets. 

Conductor  B.  E.  Blaney,  on  train  No.  5, 
Nov.  14th,  lifted  trip  pass  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  W.  Bibb,  on  train  No.  202, 
Nov.  16th,  declined  to  honor  trip  pass  ac- 
:ount  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Indiana  Division 

Conductor  D.  G.  Nichols,  on  train  No. 
302,  Nov.  14th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  Pas- 
senger Department  for  refund  on  ticket. 
Iowa  Division 

D.  B.  Johnson,  on  train  No.  712,  Nov. 
3rd,  declined  to  honor  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  Passenger  De- 
partment for  refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  831,  Nov.  17th,  he  lifted 
expired  going  portion  of  round  trip  card 
ticket  from  passenger  who  admitted  hav- 
ing previously  secured  transportation  on 
same  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbrough,  on  train 
No.  104,  Nov.  2nd,  declined  to  honor  em- 
ploye's trip  pass  restricted  to  intrastate 
travel  account  being  presented  with  local 
ticket  for  an  interstate  trip.  Passenger  re- 
fused to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to  leave 
the  train. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn,  on  train  No. 
121,  Nov.  5th  and  No.  122,  Nov.  9th,  de- 
clined to  honor  mileage  books  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  131,  Nov.  13th,  he  declined 
to  honor  card  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare.  Passenger 
was  referred  to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 


'ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


87 


Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson,  on  train  No. 
104,  Nov.  9th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  122,  Nov.  22nd,  he  declined 
to  honor  card  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare.  Passenger 
was  referred  to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 

Mississippi   Division 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson,  on  train  No. 
1,  Nov.  6th,  declined  to  honor  mileage  book 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  A.  M.  King,  on  train  No.  3, 
Nov.  16th,  lifted  two  mileage  books  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and  col- 
lected cash  fares. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  Wm.  Trafton,  on  train  No.  33, 
Nov.  14th,  lifted  employe's  term  pass  ac- 
count identification  slip  Form  1572  having 
been  altered  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train  No.  33, 
Nov.  17th,  lifted  mileage  book  account  be- 
ing in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  L.  M.  McLaurine,  on  train  No. 
33,  Nov.  18th,  lifted  30  trip  family  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff,  on  train  No. 
332,  Nov.  22nd,  declined  to  honor  round 
trip  card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  503-303,  Nov.  23rd,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare.  Passenger 
was  referred  to  Passenger  Department  for 
refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  332,  Nov.  30th,  he  lifted 
banana  messenger's  ticket  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  other  trans- 
portation to  cover  trip. 

Conductor  E.  Moales,  on  train  No.  2. 
Nov.  24th,  lifted  employe's  term  pass  in 
accordance  with  bulletin  instructions  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee,  on  train  No.  304, 
Nov.  1st,  lifted  employe's  term  pass  ac- 
count identification  slip  Form  1572  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  303,  Nov.  2nd,  and  No.  340, 
Nov.  17th,  he  declined  to  honor  mileage 
books  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  304,  Nov.  7th,  he  lifted  em- 
ploye's term  pass  account  identification  slip 
Form  1572  having  been  altered.  Passenger 
declined  to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 


On  train  No.  304,  Nov.  19th,  he  lifted 
employe's  term  pass  account  being  pre- 
sented with  blank  identification  slip  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  G.  I.  McLaughlin,  on  train 
No.  14,  Nov.  22nd,  declined  to  honor  mil- 
eage book  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

S.  K.  White,  on  train  No.  21,  Nov.  8th, 
declined  to  honor  returning  portion  of 
week-end  excursion  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  L.  Williams,  on  train  No. 
34,  Nov.  15th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  M.  J.  Moody,  on  train  No.  15, 
Nov.  23rd,  lifted  54-ride  individual  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Illinois  Division 

John  Caldwell,  Night  Clerk,  Tuscola,  has 
•been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting a  hot-box  blazing  on  No.  3,  De- 
cember 28th. 

Conductor  J.  Wienke  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  apprehending 
a  trespasser  in  C.  M.  &  St.  P.  car  75444, 
December  5th  on  train  56. 

Engineer  C.  A.  Jenkins  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  engine  496,  stand- 
ing on  the  siding  at  Paxton,  with  blow-off 
valve  open  and  taking  necessary  action  to 
remedy  this,  thereby  preventing  serious 
damage. 

Section  Foreman  P.  G.  Boudreau,  of  Gil- 
man,  has  been  commended  for  discovering 
brake  rigging  dragging  on  car  in  train  91 
at  Gilman,  December  3rd,  and  also  on  the 
same  date  reported  caboose  on  train  95 
improperly  stencilled. 

Section  Foreman  E.  W.  Harton,  of  Peo- 
tone,  has  been  commended  for  discovering 
and  reporting  brake  beam  wedged  between 
rails  on  the  south  bound  track,  north  of 
depot  at  Peotone,  December  8th. 

Signal  Maintainer  Joe  Burkett  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  broken  rail  on 
N.  Y.  C.  crossing  at  Kankakee  Junction, 
December  28th.  He  immediately  reported 
the  matter  and  arrangements  were  made  to 
have  section  men  repair  track. 

Minnesota   Division 

Conductor  R.  M.  Ickes  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  side 
bearing  missing  from  C.  M.  &  St.  P.  car 
30846,  December  llth,  train  1560  west. 

Indiana   Division 

Brakeman  T.  J.  Tannehill  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting 
broken  rail  at  Turpin,  November  23rd. 


The  Difference 


By  O.  J.  J. 


"CPEAKIN'  of  claims,"  remarked 
the  agent  at  one  of  the  stations  in 
western  Iowa,  "I'll  tell  you  of  a  little 
incident  that  happened  last  winter." 
We  loaded  two  cars  hogs  one  night  for 
Chicago.  The  shipper,  being  one  of 
those  good,  conscientious  old  farmers, 
who  believe  the  railroads  should  be  held 
responsible  for  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather,  the  war  in  the  east  and  his 
hired  girl's  disposition. 

There  was  a  decided  drop  in  tempera- 
ture while  the  hogs  were  en  route,  which 
turned  into  a  regular  blizzard.  The  trains 
were  unable  to  make  time  and  the  hogs 
were  set  out  when  the  36  hour  release 
expired,  which  resulted  in  a  delay  of 
twenty-four  hours  to  the  stock. 

When  the  shipper  received  his  returns 
from  the  sale  of  the  hogs,  down  he  came 
to  the  depot,  with  blood  in  his  eye. 
Spreading  the  account  of  sales  from  his 
commission  firm  on  the  desk,  he  ex- 
claimed : 

"I  want  to  file  claim  for  loss  on  that 
shipment  of  hogs."  "What  was  your 
loss?"  I  asked,  "And  how  do  you  figure 
it?"  I  had  been  keeping  pretty  close 
watch  on  the  market  and  knew  about 
what  was  coming. 

"Well,"  he  began,  "those  two  cars  hogs 
weighed  35,850  pounds  over  the  rail- 
road company's  scales  at  the  stock  yards 
here ;  they  weighed,  according  to  the  re- 
turns, 35,300  pounds  in  Chicago.  Now, 
I  never  have  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  shrink  on  a  car,  and  I  figure  I 
have  a  loss  of  250  pounds  extra  shrink 
at  $7.60  a  hundred,  what  the  hogs  sold 
for,  which  makes  $19.00  account  extra 
shrink.  Then,  there  is  the  feed  bill  of 


four  dollars  a  car  caused  by  the  hogs 
having  to  be  unloaded.  So  I  -figure  I 
am  out  $27.00  altogether  and  want  to 
file  claim  for  that  amount." 

"Now,  let  me  figure  a  bit,"  I  remarked. 
"What  would  your  hogs  have  sold  for 
had  they  reached  market  on  time, 
or  the  day  before  they  did  arrive?"  He 
replied  that  he  didn't  know.  I  got  a 
copy  of  the  market  report  and  laid  it 
before  him,  showed  him  where  the  same 
class  of  hogs  as  his  had  sold  for  $7.40 
the  day  before  his  were  on  the  market. 
"Now,  let  us  get  this  thing  correct,"  I 
continued.  "You  had  a  20-cent  increase 
in  the  market?" 

"Yes,"  he  admitted. 

"Thirty-five  thousand  300  pounds  at 
20c  a  hundred  equals  $70.60,  or  the  dif- 
ference in  market  values  on  the  two 
days?" 

"Yep ;  I  guess  that's  right,"  he  replied. 

"Now,  let's  figure  out  your  feed  bill 
and  extra  shrink  which  you  claim  is 
$27.00." 

"Alright,"  he  continued,  "figure  it 
out."  I  noticed,  however,  that  he  was 
getting  rather  uneasy  about  something. 

"Now,  according  to  these  figures, 
which  you  cannot  deny,  you  owe  the 
railroad  company  just  $43.60."  Getting 
a  blank  check,  which  I  placed  on  the 
desk  before  him,  I  continued:  "Fill  it 
out  for  that  amount  so  I  can  remit  it  to 
the  claim  department;  they  need  the 
money." 

He  began  feeling  in  his  pockets,  much 
embarrassed,  and  finally  pulled  out  a 
cheap  cigar,  which  he  handed  to  me,  ex_- 
claiming,  as  he  made  his  way  out  of  the 
door:  "That's  one  on  me." 


88 


The  Key  to  the  Situation 

By  W.  W.  Ramsey,  Engine  Foreman,  Vicksburg,  Miss. 


CUCCESS  is  what  every  man  is  look- 
ing for,  and  the  majority  of  men 
are  looking  the  wrong  way  to  find  it. 

A  young  man  asked  former  Senator 
Depew  what  was  the  secret  to  success, 
and  he  said:  "My  boy,  there  is  no 
secret  to  it,  it  is  just  dig,  dig,  dig."  Mr. 
Depew  was  exactly  right,  and  that  is 
what  every  man  must  learn  who  is 
striving  to  succeed.  He  must  put  suc- 
cess in  its  rightful  place,  for  there  is 
nothing  more  simple  so  long  as  we  do 
not  give  it  the  wrong  meaning. 

Take  twelve  men  and,  for  example, 
ask  them  what  success  means,  and 
eleven  of  them  will  associate  it  with 
something  to  be  attained  only  by  those 
who  are  exceptionally  clever.  It  is  the 
popular  impression  that  success  means 
some  commanding  talent,  but  that  im- 
pression is  wrong;  success  means  do- 
ing well  whatever  it  falls  your  lot  to 
do.  For  example,  the  man  on  the  little 
job  accomplishes  just  as  much  in  his 
position  as  the  general  manager  does 
in  his,  each  has  to  do  what  and  all  he 
can  do.  It  is  just  as  important  that  the 


man  on  the  ground  keep  the  business 
moving  as  it  is  for  the  general  man- 
ager to  give  orders.  Both  must  carry 
to  a  successful  conclusion  what  they 
start  out  to  do ;  and  that  is  what  suc- 
cess really  is.  What  a  man  does  well, 
he  succeeds  in. 

The  man  that  goes  up  like  a  rocket 
sometimes  comes  down  like  a  stick. 
True  success  is  earned  usually  very 
slowly,  and  by  doing  everything  the 
very  best  we  can.  Success  has  no 
secret,  and  any  man  can  make  a  suc- 
cess in  proportion  to  his  capacity  if  he 
is  willing  to  pay  the  price,  and  the 
price  is  hard  work. 

When  Mr.  Edison  was  asked  the  defi- 
nition of  genius,  he  answered,  "Two 
per  cent  genius  and  ninety-eight  per 
cent  hard  work;  genius  is  not  inspira- 
ration  but  perspiration." 

To  take  a  broad  view  of  it  all  the 
way  down  the  line,  the  key  to  the  sit- 
uation is  hard  work  and  co-operation, 
and  all  that  will  use  that  key  will  un- 
lock the  inner  vaults  of  success. 


A  Boost  for  the  57th  Street  Training  School 

Mr.  E.  A.  Barton.  West  Salem,   111.,   Dec.   19,   1915. 

Dear  Sir: 

I  will  write  you  a  few  lines  tonight  to  let  you  know  how  I  am  making  it.  This 
leaves  me  all  O.  K.  except  I  have  a  new  tooth  that  is  giving  me  trouble.  It  is  a 
wisdom  tooth,  so  I  guess  I  will  have  more  sense  now!  Ha,  ha. 

Well  how  is  everything  by  this  time?  I  guess  you  have  quite  a  number  of 
students  now,  haven't  you?  I  hope  so,  any  way.  I  have  a  nice  man  to  work  for; 
he  has  been  with  the  company  for  quite  a  while. 

Mr.  Barton,  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  what  you  have  done  for  me,  and  hope  that 
some  day  I  will  be  able  to  do  something  for  you.  I  also  wish  to  say  that  the 
I.  C.  Training  School  is  all  that  it  is  claimed  to  be  and  any  young  man  wishing  to  enter 
the  railway  service  should  take  a  course  in  your  school.  Before  entering  your  school, 
as  you  know,  I 'had  no  knowledge  of  station  work,  but  with  the  personal  instruction 
of  an  expert  instructor,  I  became  familiar  with  the  different  objects  of  station  work. 
I  can't  say  too  much  for  the  school  and  its  splendid  instructor. 

I  would  like  to  have  your  advice  about  when  would  be  the  best  time  for  me  to 
take  an  examination,  whether  to  try  to  pass  after  I  work  three  months  or  not.  You 
know  how  I  am  on  the  wires,  so  please  advise  me,  as  I  know  when  I  get  your  advice 
that  I  will  make  good  by  taking  it,  so  tell  all  of  the  boys  to  stick  to  it,  and  do  as 
you  tell  them  and  I  am  sure  they  will  make  good. 

Hoping  you  success,  and  wishing  you  and  Mrs,  Barton  a  Merry  Xmas  and  a 
prosperous  New  Year,  I  beg  to  remain  Your  old  student, 

Answer  soon.  EARL   RICHEY. 

89 


THE   AIR   REVERSE. 
By  W.  F.   Blauvelt,  Engineer. 

J    am   no   spring   chicken,   I'd   have  you  to 

know, 
And    if    you'll    look    up    my    record,    you'll 

find    it    to    show 

That  in  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-three 
I   done  my  first  firing  on  the  St.   L.  &  C. 

'T  was  a  little  pike  then,  forty-three  miles 

in   extent, 
From   Springfield    straight   south   to   Litch- 

field  it  went. 
Two  regular  crews  done  the  work  on  that 

pike, 
Six  trains  in  the  day-time,  not  any  at  night. 

No  trains  ran  on  Sunday,  the  peace  to  dis- 
turb, 

No  puffing,  no  rumbling,  or  whistling  was 
heard. 

But  since,  that  pike  from  oblivion  has 
risen, 

And  is  now  a  part  of  the  Springfield  divi- 
sion. 

Of  the  Illinois  Central,  greatest  road  north 

and   south, 
That    runs    from    Lake    Michigan    to    the 

Mississippi's    mouth. 
Promotion   was   fast  when   the   I.   C.   made 

her  grab, 
And  in  nineteen  hundred  I  was  placed  on 

the   right   side  of  the  cab. 

Promotion    I    spoke    of,    my    story   is    true, 
In  three  months  they  gave  me  the  472 
In      chain  -  gang      service,      hundred      mile 

stretch, 

Springfield  to  St.  Louis,  with  twelve  hun- 
dred tons  net. 

Sixteen    crews    in    the    service    and   worked 

overtime, 

To  handle  the  business  we  had  on  our  line. 
But  alas,   the  big  engines   have  come  here 

to  stay, 
And  they  lengthened  the  division  to  make 

the  road  pay. 

Six  crews  do  the  work  in  the  chain-gang 
to-day, 


And   it   looks  like   I'm  on  the  yard  engine 

to  stay, 
But   while    conditions   are   bad   they    might 

have  been  worse. 
The  one  I  run  now  has  the  air  reverse. 

I've  been  in  yard  service  for  ten  years  or 

more, 
And  yanked  that  old  lever  till  my  back  was 

sore, 
Gone   home   in   the  morning  like  one  with 

the    blues, 
With  muscles  so  sore  I  could  scarce  drag 

my  shoes. 

I'd    offend    the    good    wife   at   something    I 

said, 
Who'd  be  glad  when  at  last  I  had  gone  off 

to  bed. 
The  boys,  also,  would  hide  out  to  study  or 

skate 
When  they  saw  their  old  daddy  drag  in  at 

the  gate. 

But  now  'tis  far  different,  I  trot  home  like 

a  boy,        • 

The  house  is  all  sunshine,  mother's  all  joy. 
So    I'll   sing  my   best   praises,    in   prose   or 

in   verse, 
To    the    man    who    invented    the    great    ai  : 

reverse. 


THE  OLD  HOME. 

By    Mrs.   McKircher  Day. 

There's   a  mother  bent  and  wrinkled, 

In   a   home   back   '•  'mong  the   hills," 
And   a   longing   for   a   letter, 

One  that  mother's  lone  heart  fills. 
Just   a   line   from   son   or   daughter, 

Who  for  years  has  been  away; 
But   the   letter's   long  in   coming, 

None  she  gets,   day  after  day. 

No  one  knows  how  still  and  lonesome 
Is   that   house,  where   years  ago 

Mother   rocked   the   old   red  cradle 
Gently,   gently,   to  and  fro. 

Soothed   away   child    griefs   with  kisses, 

Bound    up    cuts    and    fineers   sore; 

Then,    all    smiling,    watched    them    playing 
On   the   spotless  kitchen  floor. 


90 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


91 


Merry   children   'round   the   table, 

Quaint    old    dishes    white    and    blue; 
Now   none  comes  when   dinner's   ready, 

Table's  only  set  for  two! 
Often    when    the    light    is   waning, 

From  the  little  parlor  stand, 
Mother  takes  an  old-time  picture 

In  her  work-worn,  trembling  hand. 

Gazes  on  the   face  intently; 

Such      love's      'mong      earth's      chiefest 

charms, 
I    was   never   half   so   happy 

As  when  you  were  in  my  arms. 
I   was  often  tired  and  weary, 

Filled  with  care,  and  oft  perplexed; 
Had   so   much   to   do   I   wondered 

What  the  task  I  should  do  next. 

But   I'd  bear  the  burden  gladly, 

Suffer  what  I  did  and  more 
If   those    days,   now   gone   forever, 

I    could    once   again    live   o'er! 
Now    her   longing's    for   a    letter, 

As  she   does  her  household  chores; 
Write   and   tell   her   how   you   love   her 

If    that    lonesome    mother's    yours. 


PAID  HIS  WAY. 

No,  Steve,  I  ain't  complainin'  any, 

I'll  go, — if  y'  think  it's  right  ; 
I  don't  ask  a  single  bite  n'r  a  penny, 

More  n'r  less  'n  jest  what's  white — 
But  son,  bime-by,  when  the  old  man's 
done  for, 

Jest  remember  my  words  today ; 
Y'  don't  like  to  have  me  round  h'yere 

But  I  reckon  I've  paid  m'  way. 

I  was  eighty-one  last  January, — 

Born  in  the  Buckeye  'State, 
I've  opened  two  farms  on  the  prairie, 

An'  worked  on  'em  early  and  late. 
Come  rain  or  come  shine,  a  scrapin'  t' 
earn 

Every  mouthful  we  eat  an'  I  want  'o 

say, 
That  I  never  rode  in  no  free  concern 

That  I  didn't  pay  my  way. 

Y'r    mother    and    me    worked    mighty 
hard, 

How  hard  you'll  never  know : 
In  cold  and  heat  a-standin'  guard 

To  keep  off  the  rain  and  snow. 
The  mortgage  kep'  eating  in  nearer  to 
bone, 

And  the  war  it  come  along  too, 
But  I  went — left  mother  alone 

With  Sis  in  the  cradle — and  you. 


Served  my  time,  an'  commenced  again 

On  an  loway  prairie  quarter, 
An'   there   I   ploughed   an'   sowed  an' 

fenced, 

And  nigged  as  no  human  orter, 
To  raise  you  young  ones  and  feed  m' 

wife — 
Y'r   mother   skimped   and   scrubbed 

till  her  hair  was  gray, 
And  I  reckon  we  paid  our  way. 

No,  y'r  high-toned  tavern   ain't  good 

enough 

F'r  a  man  like  me  to  die  in. 
The  work  that's  made  me  crooked  and 

rough 

Should  'a'  earned  me  a  bed  to  lie  in 
Under  the  roof  of  my  only  son, — 

If  his  wife  is  proud  an'  gay ; 
For  I  boosted  y'  into  the  place  y've 

won. 
O,  I  reckon  I've  paid  my  way. 

Y'r  wife  I  know  is  turrible  set, 

She's  mighty  hansome  to  see 
I'll  admit,  but  it's  a  turrible  fret 

This  havin'  to  eat  with  me. 
She  never  speaks,  and  she  never  seems 

To  be  list'nin'  to  what  I  say, 
But  the  childrin  do,  they  don't  know 
yet, 

Their  grandad's  in  the  way. 

I    d'    know's    you're    very    much    to 
blame 

For  wantin'  to  have  me  go, 
But  Steve,  I'm  glad  y'r  mother's  dead, 

'Twould  break  her  heart  to  know. 
She'd  say  I  orter  live  here, 

What  time  I've  got  to  stay. 
For,   Stephen,   I've  travelled   for  fifty 
years, 

An'  I've  always  paid  my  way. 

I  ain't  a-goin'  to  bother  y'  long, 

I'll  be  a-pioneerin'  further  West 
Where  mother  is,  and  God'll  say, 

"Take  it  easy,  Amos,  y've  earned  a 

rest"— 
So,  Stevie,  I  want  to  stay  with  you, 

I  want  'o  work  while  I  stay, 
Jes'  give  me  a  little  sumpin'  to  do, 

I  reckon  I'll  pay  my  way. 
— Western  Life  Indemnity  Advocate. 


A  Laugh  or  Two 


Two  Italians  sought  a  Jackson,  Miss.,  law- 
yer for  advice.  One  had  been  in  America 
for  years  and  was  a  naturalized  citizen.  The 
second  had  been  here  only  a  few  weeks, 
could  not  talk  English,  and  was  in  distress 
lest  he  should  have  to  return  to  Sunny  Italy 
and  take  up  arms  against  the  Teutons.  Num- 
ber one  acted  as  interpreter,  and  laid  the 
dilemma  before  the  lawyer. 

The  lawyer  is  known  for  his  deep  reading 
and  deeper  voice.  On  this  occasion  he  was 
highly  patriotic. 

"Ask  this  man,"  he  directed,  "if  he  does  not 
know  that  in  the  history  of  the  world  no 
country  has  played  a  more  important  role 
than  Italy.  Ask  him  if  he  realizes  that  it 
was  Italy  that  gave  to  the  earth  Garibaldi. 
Ask  him  if  he  has  not  heard  in  song  and 
story  of  the  glorious  traditions  of  ancient 
Rome;  if  in  infancy  he  was  not  told  of  how 
well  Horatius  kept  the  bridge  across  the 
Tiber j_  if  he  does  not  know  the  story  of 
great  Pompey  and  of  the  immortal  Julius 
Caesar  ?" 

The  interpreter  made  noises  for  about  ten 
minutes,  and  advised  the  lawyer  that  the 
new  American  was  familiar  with  all  these 
things. 

"Ask  him,  then,  if,  remembering  this  glori- 
ous heritage  of  being  a  Roman  citizen,  once 
more  honorable  than  to  be  a  nobleman  of 
any  other  nation,  he  is  not  proud  of  it,  and 
why  he  now  wants  to  shirk  this  splendid  op- 
portunity of  serving  so  righteous  a  cause." 

The  interpreter  said  something.  The  Ital- 
ian replied  with  a  shrug,  and  something  that 
sounded  like,  "Chica  I  aca  lee." 

"Well,"  said  the  lawyer,  "what  does  he  say 
about  it?" 

Said  the  interpreter,  while  the  office  force 
went  into  convulsions,  "He  say,  Hell ;  he 
eitta  shoot." — The  Clarion-Ledger,  Jackson, 
Miss. 


Started   Wrong 

"Two  old  salts  who  had  spent  most 
of  their  lives  on  fishing  smacks  had  an 
argument  one  day  as  to  which  was  the 
better  mathematician,"  said  George  C. 
Wiedenmeyer  the  other  day.  "Finally 
the  captain  of  their  ship  proposed  the 
following  problem  which  each  would  try 
to  work  out :  'If  a  fishing  crew  caught 
500  pounds  of  cod  and  brought  their 
catch  to  port  and  sold  it  at  6  cents  a 


pound,  how  much  would  they  receive  for 
the  fish?' 

"Well,  the  two  old  fellows  got  to 
work,  but  neither  seemed  able  to  master 
the  intricacies  of  the  deal  in  fish  and 
were  unable  to  get  an  answer. 

"At  last  old  Bill  turned  to  the  captain 
and  asked  him  to  repeat  the  problem. 
The  captain  started  off:  'If  a  fishing 
crew  caught  500  pounds  of  cod  and — ' 

"  'Wait  a  moment,'  said  Bill,  'is  it  cod- 
fish they  caught?' 

"  'Yep,'  said  the  captain. 

"  'Darn  it  all,'  said  Bill.  'No  wonder 
I  couldn't  get  an  answer.  Here  I  be  fig- 
uring on  salmon  all  the  time.'  "  — Ex- 
change. 

Particularly  the  "Obey" 
At  a  colored  wedding,  when  the  cler- 
gyman read  the  words,  "Love,  honor  and 
obey,"  the  bridegroom  interrupted  and 
said: 

"Read  dat  again,  sah!  Read  it  once 
mo',  so's  de  lady  kin  ketch  de  full  solem- 
nity ob  de  meanin'.  Fse  been  .married 
befo'. — Pittsburgh  Chronicle  Telegraph. 

Taken  at  His  Word 

The  suburban  minister,  during  his  dis- 
course one  Sunday  morning,  said:  "In 
each  blade  of  grass  there  is  a  sermon." 
The  following  day  one  of  his  flock  dis- 
covered the  good  man  pushing  a  lawn 
mower  about,  and  paused  to  say :  "Well, 
parson,  I'm  glad  to  see  you  engaged  in 
cutting  your  sermons,  short." — Philadel- 
phia Public  Ledger. 


How  is  it,  said  the  dentist,  who  was 
working  carefully  but  painfully  through 
a  small  opening  that  pricked  itself 
through  the  rubber  dam,  that  I  get  flakes 
of  gold  on  my  instrument?  You  say 
this  tooth  has  never  been  touched. 

Heavens  man,  said  the  weary  one,  you 
get  that  from  my  back  collar  button. 


92 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


93 


Obeyed  Instructions 
One  of  the  witnesses  was  a  little  chap 
of  eight,  who  had  to  give  evidence  on 
behalf  of  his  father.  The  child  ap- 
peared in. a  hat  that  almost  hid  his  face, 
in  trousers  so  big  that  the  knees  were 
at  his  ankles  and  in  a  coat  that  swept 
the  floor.  His  appearance  was  so  gro- 
tesque that  the  court  was  convulsed  with 
laughter. 

The  judge  as  soon  as  he  could  control 
his  amusement,  asked  the  little  fellow 
why  he  appeared  in  such  a  garb. 

He  fished  in  his  pocket  a  moment  and 
then  produced  a  summons,  and  with  a 
grave  look  of  concern  pointed  out  the 
words :  To  appear  in  his  father's  suit. 


Beginning  Early 

"Father,"  inquired  the  little  brain- 
twister  of  the  family,  "when  will  our  lit- 
tle baby  brother  be  able  to  talk?" 

"Oh,  when  he's  about  3,  Ethel.  He's 
only  a  baby  yet,  Ethel.  Babies  can't 
talk." 

"Oh,  yes,  they  can,  father,"  insisted 
Ethel,  "for  Job  could  talk  when  he  was 
a  baby." 

"Job!  What  do  you  mean?" 

"Yes,"  said  Ethel.     "Nurse  was  tell- 
ing us  today  that  it  says  in  the  Bible 
'Job  cursed  the  day  he  was  born.'  " 
Stray  Stories. 


Qivisit 


Minnesota  Division. 

The  Superintendent's  office  is  wonder- 
ing whether  or  not  it  has  become  a  civil 
service  preparatory  school.  On  Dec.  10, 
Richard  R.  Smith,  secretary  to  the  su- 
perintendent, received  a  call  from  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  Then  on  the  last  day  of  the 
year,  "Bill"  Heckman,  assistant  chief 
clerk,  was  grabbed  by  "The  Gentleman 
from  Texas,"  Mr.  Burleson,  and  put  to 
work  in  the  Post  Office  Department.  This 
makes  four  men  within  a  year  to  leave 
this  office  for  government  work.  Ed- 
ward Riley  succeeds  "Dick"  as  super- 
intendent's stenographer  and  Paul 
Ryan  comes  from  the  C.  M.  &  St.  P. 
Master  Mechanic's  office  to  take 
Riley's  place.  D.  F.  Huntoon  is  pro- 
moted from  tonnage  clerk  to  assistant 
chief  clerk,  John  Hall  succeeding  him. 

Notice  Night  Chief  Dispatcher  Rus- 
sell's smile  these  days?  He  has  a  great 
big  bouncing  baby  boy  up  his  way,  he 
ought  to  smile. 


On  December  2,  3  and  4,  the  main- 
tenance-of-way  inspection  train  was 
run  over  the  division,  inspecting  each 
section  thoroughly  and  grading  each 
foreman  on  line  and  surface ;  joints  and 
spacing;  policing;  right-of-way  fences; 
tool  houses ;  fire  protection,  and  main 
line  switches  of  his  section.  Foreman 
R.  Rust  of  Menominee,  111.,  carried  off 
the  "Banner"  with  average  of  95.7, 
with  several  other  foremen  close  on 
his  heels.  Supervisor  Sims  received 
high  district  average  with  91.1  for  all 
of  his  sections. 

Claim  agent  Tait  believes  that  "the 


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94 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


early  bird  catches  the  worm."  He  left 
a  call  recently  for  five  o'clock  A.  M. 
in  order  to  be  first  person  served  in 
the  new  Ellis  Hotel  Restaurant  at 
Waterloo.  Claim  Agent  Munson  has 
had  to  buy  a  new  hat.  He  received 
a  letter  from  Freeport  addressed  "To 
His  Excellency  the  Claim  Agent  at 
Dubuque." 

Christmas  holidays  took  Chief  Dis- 
patcher Talty  to  his  old  home  at  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa.,  Chief  Clerk  Taylor  to  Car- 
bondale,  Claim  Clerk  Patrick  and  In- 
strument Man  Montague  to  Chicago, 
Special  Agent  Munson  to  Moberly, 
Mo.,  and  Rodman  Zavitz  to  Valpa- 
raiso, Ind. 

The  Dubuque  yard  force  have  every 
reason  to  be  proud  of  the  splendid 
record  they  have  made  the  past  year. 
For  277  consecutive  days  no  terminal 
overtime  was  made,  during  which  time 
2,267  trains  were  made  up  in  the  yards 
and  only  one  hour  was  made  in  317 
days,  covering  handling  of  2,696  trains. 


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Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists — Golfers — Tour- 
ists —  Mechanics — All — should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
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Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago II 


Indiana  Division 

L.  N.  Searcy,  accountant,  has  returned 
from  a  vacation  spent  at  his  home  near 
Henderson,  Ky. 

Ray  E.  Crist,  painter  apprentice,  has  been 
confined  home  for  the  past  month  on  ac- 
count of  sickness. 

Mike  Cleveland,  machinist,  and  son  Rob- 
ert, machinist  apprentice,  were  called  to 
Morgantown,  Ky.,  on  account  of  death  of 
his  mother. 

Mattoon  Shop  can  now  boast  of  having 
among  the  employes  two  amateur  actors 
in  Robbins  Bledsoe,  clerk  in  division  store- 
keeper's office,  and  Maryon  Boulware, 
clerk  to  General  Car  Foreman,  who  with 
the  help  of  a  few  friends,  staged  a  very 
classical  musical  act  at  Charleston,  111.,  on 
the  evening  of  December  15th.  It  is  their 
intention  to  show  their  ability  to  their 
friends  in  Mattoon  within  a  short  time. 

Springfield   Division. 

Mr.  B.  E.  Spink,  car  inspector,  and  fam- 
ily, will  visit  relatives  in  Cedar  Falls,  la. 

Mr.  Chas.  F.  Smith,  car  repairer,  was 
called  to  hfs  home  in  Charles  City,  la.,  due 
to  the  serious  illness  of  his  father. 

Mr.  R.  A.  Cooper,  fireman,  will  visit  in 
Brunswick,  Md.,  during  the  holidays. 

Mrs.  John  Putnum,  wife  of  carpenter, 
will  visit  relatives  in  Seaman,  O. 

Mr.  Wm.  M.  Getzendanner,  machinist, 
will  visit  his  parents  in  Cumberland,  Md. 

Mr.  Fred  Labissoniere,  machinist,  is  visit- 
ing his  parents  in  McKeever,  Mich. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Wheatley,  fireman,  was  called 
to  his  home  in  Waverly,  Ky.,  due  to  the 
serious  illness  of  his  mother. 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Fish,  stenographer  in  the 
master  mechanic's  office,  spent  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day  in  Bloomington. 

Mr.  Carroll  Jordan,  assistant  accountant 
in  the  master  mechanic's  office,  makes  oc- 
casional trips  to  Pana,  111.  What  is  the 
attraction? 

Mr.  Victor  Hines,  timekeeper  in  the  Car 
Department,  spent  the  holidays  in  Har- 
vard, 111. 

Conductor  W.  B.  Herron  has  returned  to 
his  home  in  Champaign,  after  a  three 
weeks'  business  trip  in  Michigan. 

Conductor  T.  F.  Murphy,  who  has  been 
off  sick  for  some, time,  is  improving  very 
rapidly  and  expects  to  return  to  his  duties 
as  conductor  within  a  very  short  time. 

Conductor  J.  Lordan  has  been  assigned 
to  regular  passenger  service  between  Clin- 
ton and  St.  Louis. 

Tennessee  Division 

A  man  may  think  he  knows  all  about  a 
subject,  yet  be  deceived. 

In  the  Illinois  Central  Shops  at  Jackson, 
Tenn.,  there  works  a  carpenter,  a  special- 
ist in  his  line,  one  who  has  traveled  exten- 
sively and  who  is  well  posted  on  any  and 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


95 


all  subjects,  so  he  says.  He  stands  6  feet 
in  his  stockings,  and  the  subject  of  Christ- 
mas and  the  size  of  turkeys  having  come 
up,  he  said  that  he  was  once  called  upon 
to  box  the  largest  gobbler  that  was  ever 
shipped  from  Tennessee;  that  it  was  as  tall 
as  a  man,  weighed  58  pounds  and  sold  for 
$17.40  in  .New  York  City.  He  further 
stated  that  the  turkey  was  tied  around  the 
leg  with  a  rope  which  was  fastened  to  a 
tree  and  that  it  was  so  big  that  while  he 
was  standing  on  his  tip-toes,  nailing  on  the 
crate,  the  gobbler  stood  flat  on  its  right 
foot  and  kicked  him  in  the  face  with  its 
left. 

The  truth  has  leaked  out  and  the  boys 
are  chiding  the  carpenter  for  not  having 
learned,  during  his  travels,  the  difference 
between  a  turkey  and  an  ostrich,  for  it  was 
a  young  ostrich  and  not  a  turkey  that  he 
crated! 


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96 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


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azino 


VOL.4 


Saint.  Clair  Co.  Court  House.Belleville  IU. 


1916 


St.   Glair   Stoves   and   Ranges 


MADE  IN  ALL  THE  LATEST 
STYLES 

COMBINATION  COAL  and  GAS 

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MALLEABLE  RANGES 
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BELLEVILLE  STOVE  &  RANGE  CO 

BELLEVILLE,  ILLINOIS 


A.  F.  Blaess — Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  during  the  Civil  Con- 
flict,   1861-5 9 

Public    Opinion 14 

An  Illinois  Central  Employe  Recognized  by  the  Carnegie  Hero 

Fund    Commission _ 20 

General  Grenville  M.  Dodge 21 

Belleville,  Illinois 23 

Passenger  Traffic    Department 29 

Mechanical  Department 37 

Claims    Department 38 

How   Employes   Should    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock  52 

Safety   First 54 

Engineering  Department 56 

Hospital    Department 59 

Transportation    Department 63 

Obituary — Michael   H.    Long 64 

Freight  Traffic  Department 66 

Roll  of  Honor 68 

R.  J.  Carmichael  (Sporting  Records) 74 

Contributions  from  Employes: 

The  Traveling  Man's  Paradise 76 

Meritorious  Service 80 

Local  Talent  and   Exchange 84 

A  Laugh  or  Two 86 

Division  News ._  87 


y^ufilished  monthly  fy  the  7//mois  Central  /?.  /?.  G>., 
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A.  F.  BLAESS, 
Engineer  Maintenance  of  Way 

T3  ORN  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  1871,  educated  in  public  schools  of  Ann  Arbor  and  University 
*-*  of  Michigan.  In  1895-96  in  employ  of  the  Detroit  &  Mackinac  Railway  Company  on 
preliminary  and  location  surveys,  and  construction  work. 

Entered  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  early  part  of  1897  as  track  apprentice  at  Cher- 
okee, Iowa.  After  several  months'  service  on  section  work,  transferred  to  Engineering 
Department  and  served  in  various  capacities  ranking  from  Rodman  to  Assistant  and  Resi- 
dent Engineer,  until  1902.  In  1902  appointed  Supervisor  Cherokee  District ;  promoted  to 
Roadmaster  Springfield  Division  1905,,  transferred  to  Kentucky  Division  as  Roadmaster 
January  1,  1907,  and  appointed  Assistant  Engineer  Maintenance  of  Way  in  December,  1912. 
In  August,  1913,  was  appointed  District  Engineer  and  promoted  to  position  of  Engineer 
Maintenance  of  Way  April  1,  1914. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.4 


FEBRUARY,  1916 


No.  8 


T(io  Story  of tfio 
Illinois  Central  Linos 

during  the 

Civil  Conflict  i86i-5 

General  Wallhall 


PDWARD  GARY  WALTHALL  began 

•*— '  his  notable  career  in  the  heart  of  the 
Old  Dominion,  at  Richmond-on-the-James. 
The  date  was  Monday,  April  4,  1831.  He 
was  a  gentleman  by  inheritance — born  to 
the  purple  of  character. 

A  Virginian  by  birth;  a  Mississippian  by 
adoption,  a  Southerner  by  instinct,  he  well 
won  and  well  wore  his  unofficial  title:  "The 
Chevalier  Bayard  of  The  Confederacy." 

His  blood-blend  was  the  Shamrock  with 
the  Thistle — which  makes  for  victory, 
whether  in  peace  or  war;  because  by  nature 
it  tends  to  conform  to  the  constructive 
rather  than  to  the  destructive  principle. 

He  was  the  son  of  Barrett  White  Walt- 
hall  and  had  one  sister,  Fannv,  and  three 
brothers,  Bal,  Ben  and  George.  His 
mother's  maiden  name  was  Sarah  South- 
all  Wilkerson,  of  Virginia,  a  verv  superior 
woman,  from  whom  General  Walthall  is 
said  to  have  inherited  his  unusual  talents. 

When  ten  years  old  he  moved  with  his 
family  to  Holly  Springs,  Miss.,  where  his 
father  became  clerk  of  the  court. 

Young  Walthall  was  educated  at  St. 
Thomas  Hall,  a  noted  Episcopal  academy 
at  Holly  Springs.  Then  he  read  law  with 
his  brother-in-law,  George  R.  Freeman,  at 
Pontotoc,  Miss.,  for  one  year,  and  con- 
tinued the  study  while  deputy  clerk  of  the 
court,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1852.  Then  he  removed  to  Coffeeville,  Miss., 
and  formed  a  law  partnership  with  Judge 


Cheves.  Four  years  later  he  was  elected 
district  attorney,  which  office  he  held  at 
the  time  he  entered  the  Confederate  Army, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War. 

In  1856  he  married  Miss  Sophie  Bridges, 
who  died  the  same  year,  leaving  no  chil- 
dren. In  1859  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
Lecky  Jones,  of  Virginia.  They  had  one 
child,  a  son  who  died  in  early  infancy. 
They  adopted  one  child,  Courteny  Hamil- 
ton Walthall,  a  niece  who  is  now  Mrs.  J. 
Billings,  of  Atlanta,  Ga. 

His  wife  Mary  was  a  verv  beautiful  and 
gifted  woman.  She  shared  with  him  the 
hardships  and  privations  of  march  and 
bivouac;  and  during  every  one  of  the  many 
battles  in  which  General  Walthall  took 
part,  she  was  always  somewhere  near,  to 
go  to  him  when  the  fighting  was  over,  sel- 
dom knowing  in  advance  whether  she  would 
find  him  dead  or  wounded — or  unhurt  and 
happy  over  a  victory,  or  sad  and  over- 
burdened by  defeat  and  the  loss  of  personal 
friends.  But  like  the  wife  of  General 
Turchin.  one  of  the  Union  officers  directly 
opposed  to  him,  General  Walthall's  wife 
also  was  his  constant  attendant  until  the 
very  end.  She  survived  him  only  a  few 
months. 

Among  the  volunteer  companies  or- 
ganized in  Mississippi  during  the  latter 
part  of  1860  and  the  soring:  of  1861,  was 
the  Yalobusha  Rifles.  F.  M.  Aldridge  was 
captain,  and  E.  C.  Walthall,  first  lieutenant. 


10 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


His  friends  at  Coffeeville  offered  the  cap- 
taincy to  Walthall,  then  one  of  the  lead- 
ing citizens,  but  he  'insisted  on  that  honor 
being  given  to  his  friend  Aldridge  whom 
he  thought  better  qualified.  This  organiza- 
tion became  Company  H  of  the  Fifteenth 
Mississippi  Regiment,  composed  of  the 
very  flower  of  Mississippi  manhood.  Its 
worth  was  proved  on  many  a  battlefield.  It 
was  a  part  of  the  command  of  General 


Gen.  Edward  Gary  Walthall. 


Leonidas  Polk,  "the  Fighting  Bishop,"  who 
had  resigned  his  ministerial  office  to  fight 
for  his  state  and  his  new  country,  the 
Southern  Confederacy. 

Walthall's  first  station  on  duty  was  at 
the  town  of  Columbus,  Ky.,  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  a  few  miles  below  Cairo, 
where  the  Union  troops  were  concentrat- 
ing in  large  numbers;  the  strategical  point 
nearest  to  the  line  of  fortified  places  ex- 
tending across  Kentucky  from  east  to  west, 
under  command  of  General  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  who  was  a  West  Pointer,  and 
served  for  years  in  the  United  States  Army, 
but  had  resigned,  like  many  others,  to  take 
service  in  the  Confederate  Army.  His  pro- 
motions followed  rapidly. 

On  June  15,  1861,  he  was  elected  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  of  the  Fifteenth  Regiment. 
On  Friday,  April  11,  1862,  he  was  elected 
Colonel  of  the  29th  Mississippi  Regiment, 
but  was  their  Colonel  only  two  months, 
because  he  was  made  Brigadier  General 
June  30,  1862,  to  take  effect  December  13, 
1862. 

Then    the    "Walthall    Brigade"   became   a 


name  to  conjure  with,  being  the  3rd  brigade 
of  the  division,  under  Major  General 
Breckenridge,  in  the  Reserve  Army  Corps 
under  Lieutenant  General  Leonidas  Polk, 
of  the  Army  of  The  Mississippi,  under 
General  Beauregard. 

The  Walthall  Brigade  was  composed  of 
the  24th,  27th,  29th,  30th  and  34th  Missis- 
sippi Infantry. 

June  6,  1864,  he  was  appointed  Major 
General,  his  division  being  composed  of  the 
brigades  of  General  Quarles,  Canty  and 
Reynolds.  He  served  as  Major  General  to 
the  end. 

On  the  seventh  day  after  Walthall  be- 
came a  Major  General,  Lieutenant  General 
Leonidas  Polk  was  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Pine  Mountain.  General  Walthall  had  the 
best  opportunity  to  be  appointed  Folk's 
successor,  but  he  urged  the  appointment 
of  General  A.  P.  Stewart,  who  received 
the  honor. 

The  fierce  battle  of  Mill  Springs,  or  Fish- 
ing Creek,  Ky.,  gave  him  his  first  oppor- 
tunity to  show  that  as  a  great  civilian 
soldier  he  would  take  rank  with  Gordon 
and  Forrest.  When  the  commanding  gen- 
eral had  fallen,  and  the  raw  troops  were 
in  such  confusion  that  defeat  seemed  cer- 
tain, Lieutenant  Colonel  Walthall  of  the 
Fifteenth  Mississippi  held  that  gallant 
regiment  in  line,  then  led  them  in  front 
of  the  on-coming  enemy,  and  saved  the 
Confederate  Army  from  rout  and  ruin.  His 
cool  intrepidity  there  made  his  reputation 
and  caused  his  promotion  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  29th  Mississippi  Regiment,  In- 
fantry. 

At  the  Battle  of  Shiloh,  or  Pittsburg 
Landing.  April  6  and  7,  1862,  Colonel 
Stratham's  Brigade  including  the  15th  Mis- 
sissippi Regiment  with  its  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Walthall  in  command,  contained 
also  the  22th  Mississippi,  the  19th,  20th, 
28th  and  45th  Tennessee  Regiments  of  In- 
fantry with  Forrest's  Cavalry  and  the  Rut- 
ledge  Tennessee  Battery.  They,  with 
Bowen's  and  Trabue's  Brigades  constituted 
the  Reserve  Corps,  under  General  John  C. 
Breckenridge,  one  of  the  two  divisions  Gen- 
eral Leonidas  Polk  was  bringing  down  from 
Columbus,  Ky.,  he  having  nersonal  com- 
mand of  the  other.  General  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston  had  sent  for  them  to  consoli- 
date with  Beauregard's  Army  at  or  near 
Corinth,  with  a  view  to  fall  upon  Grant 
at  Pittsburg  Landing  before  he  could 
be  joined  by  General  Lew  Wallace  whose 
army  was  waitinsr  orders  a  few  miles 
further  down  the  Tennessee  River. 

The  plan  was  to  attack  early  on  Satur- 
day, April  5,  but  the  rain  and  bad  roads 
prevented  them  getting  together  till  late 
that  afternoon.  The  Confederate  Army 
bivouacked  Saturday  night  in  order  of  bat- 
tle, the  Stratham  Bridge  (the  Third)  oc- 
cupying the  rear,  four  miles  from  Pitts- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


11 


burg  Landing  and  nearest  Corinth,  near 
the  junction  of  the  Bark  Road  and  the 
Corinth-Pittsburg  Road,  where  General  Al- 
bert Sidney  Johnston's  headquarters  were 
located.  As  he  was  killed  that  day  about 
2:30  p.  m.,  after  practically  winning  a  vic- 
tory, there  is  no  report  from  him.  He 
was  succeeded  in  command  on  the  field  of 
battle  by  General  Beauregard  whose  official 
report  tells  the  story  in  part.  From  this 
report  it  appears  that  there  was  a  short- 
age of  commanding  officers;  a  colonel 
would  lead  a  brigade,  as  did  Stratham,  and 
a  brigadier  general  would  command  a  di- 
vision, or  even  a  corps,  as  did  Brecken- 
ridge.  So  many  Confederate  officers  were 
killed  or  disabled  that  promotions  were 
rapid  and  unexpected  on  the  battleground, 
in  the  heat  of  action.  The  movement  to- 
wards Pittsburg  Landing  began  about  5:30 
Sunday  morning,  in  three  lines  of  battle, 
followed  by  the  Breckenridge  reserve  which 
finally  pushed  forward,  past  Peach  Orchard, 
and  the  'Bloody  Pond,  and  pressing  for- 
ward went  almost  as  far  north  as  the  main 
line  of  battle  near  the  Landing,  with  most 
of  the  remaining  army  of  Grant  bunched 
up  under  the  big  guns  of  the  gunboats  on 
the  river.  At  6  p.  m.  that  was  the  situa- 
tion, the  Confederate  bivouacking  in  the 
Union  camps  of  the  night  before.  But  the 
next  day  Wallace  had  arrived,  and  his  fresh 
troops  gradually  forced  the  Confederate  left 
back  in  a  sort  of  stubborn  see-saw  move- 
ment, gaining  and  losing  the  same  ground 
many  times.  The  Confederate  right,  in- 
cluding Stratham's  Brigade  with  the  15th 
Mississippi  were  holding  their  own,  bul 
were  ordered  back  as  the  left  was  forced 
back,  keeping  practically  in  line  with  the 
center,  till  at  last  all  the  ground  gained 
the  day  before  was  given  up,  and  the 
whole  Confederate  Army  was  slowly  pass- 
ing up  the  Corinth  Road,  with  Stratham's 
Brigade,  including  Forrest's  Cavalry  bring- 
ing up  the  rear;  while  Grant's  Army 
seemed  willing  to  let  the  situation  remain 
as  it  was.  though  the  Confederates  had 
taken  another  position  on  the  Corinth  Road 
not  far  away,  and  were  awaiting  further 
attack.  So  it  is  clear  that  Lieutenant  Col- 
onel Walthall,  and  his  Fifteenth  Mississippi 
Regiment  saw  most  of  one  of  the  strangest, 
the  most  stubbornly  fought  and,  consider- 
ing the  number  involved,  the  bloodiest  bat- 
tle of  the  whole  war. 

In  his  Memoirs,  General  Grant  says  of 
Shiloh,  after  noting  the  fact  of  its  being 
much  misunderstood: 

"Upon  one  point  at  least  there  seems  to 
be  no  controversy.  Up  to  that  time,  Shiloh 
was  the  most  important  battle  of  the  war. 
The  best  blood  of  the  North  and  South 
was  freely  shed,  as  testified  to  by  over 
twenty  thousand  killed  and  wounded  on 
that  fiercely  contested  field,  yet  the  results 
were  so  evenly  balanced  that  at  the  time, 
victory  was  claimed  by  both  sides." 


Lieutenant  Colonel  Walthall  and  the 
Fifteenth  Mississippi  Regiment  <•'-'  '  their 
full  share  in  giving  "The  Bloody  Pond"  its 
name,  and  in  taking  the  prisoners  that  were 
there  compelled  to  surrender. 

Since  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  he  had  been 
made  Colonel  and  then  Brigadier  General. 
In  the  greater  battle  of  Chickamauga  again 
he  led  his  command  into  the  very  thickest 
of  the  carnage,  and  almost  a  third,  32  per 
cent,  of  his  men  were  killed  and  wounded. 
His  daring,  skill  and  firmness  in  that  con- 
test greatly  increased  his  reputation  as  a 
soldier  and  a  leader  of  soldiers. 

At  the  battle  of  Lookout  Mountain,  cele- 
brated in  song  and  story  as  "The  Battle 
Above  the  Clouds,"  one  who  was  there 
says  "There  was  no  clouds  that  day — only  a 
mist  that  came  up  from  the  valley." 

That  was  about  two  months  after  Chicka- 
mauga. The  Walthall  Brigade  then  con- 
sisted of  only  about  1,500  picked  men.  They 
were  ordered  to  hold  the  picket  post  posi- 
tion stretching  from  Lookout  Creek,  on 
up  over  the  mountain  side,  and  across. the 
benc.h  to  a  cliff.  The  Federal  big  guns  on 
Moccasin  Point  practically  cut  them  off 
from  reinforcements  or  from  retreat,  while 
"Fighting  Joe  Hooker,"  with  a  division  of 
10,000  men  attacked  Walthall  and  his  brave 
Mississippi  brigade.  But  Walthall  held 
them  steady  till  they  could  reform  their 
line  beyond  the  reach  of  the  batteries.  At 
last,  about  1  o'clock  General  Pettus  brought 
relief  with  his  brigade,  and  those  two 
brigadiers  held  that  precarious  position  till 
dark.  About  900  of  Walthall's  men  were 
killed  or  disabled  in  that  terrific  struggle 
for  position.  A  historian  aptly  says: 

"General  Thomas,  in  his  report,  says  the 
resistance  by  Walthall  was  'stubborn;'  Gen- 
eral Bragg  characterizes  the  resistance  as 
'desperate,'  and  the  impartial  historian 
writes  it  as  'brilliant  and  desperate.' " 

But  the  next  day  the  worn  and  battle- 
scarred  remnants  of  the  Walthall  Brigade, 
another  "Noble  Six  Hundred"  were  thrown 
across  Missionary  Ridge  to  cover  the  re- 
treating left  flank  of  Hardee's  exhausted 
and  overwhelmed  Third  Army  Corps.  Here 
again  Walthall  stubbornly  held  the  position 
entrusted  to  him,  till  ordered,  some  say, 
away  about  8  o'clock  that  night,  though  it 
may  have  been  earlier.  In  any  event,  he 
covered  the  Confederate  retreat.  He  re- 
ceived a  severe  wound  in  the  foot,  but  kept 
the  field  and  saddle;  bravely  enduring  the 
pain  and  loss  of  blood,  so  as  not  to  dis- 
courage his  men  by  leaving  them.  That 
wound  badly  disabled  him  for  about  six 
weeks. 

The  Walthall  Brigade  had  gained  the 
reputation  of  going  where  they  were  or- 
dered, and  then  "staying  put"  till  ordered 
away. 

Therefore  it  was  not  strange  when  Gen- 
eral Hood  was  retreatinsr  from  Nashville 
after  two  davs'  hard  fighting,  December  15 


12 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


and  16,  1864,  and  hard  pressed  by  Thomas, 
and  he  sent  for  Lieutenant  General  Forrest 
to  ask  if  he  would  undertake  to  protect 
the  retreat,  that  Forrest  replied:  "Give 
me  the  Major  General  of  infantry  I  shall 
choose  and  I  will  undertake  it." 

Neither  is  it  strange  that  he  chose  Wai- 
thall  and  his  remnant  of  a  brigade. 

History  shows  that  the  retreat  was  fierce- 
ly and  persistently  protected  till  the  much- 
harassed  Confederate  Army  had  recrossed 
the  Tennessee  River. 

Of  this  masterly  retreat  the  historian 
says: 

"Moreau's  military  reputation  was  made 
more  glorious  by  his  retreat  through  the 
Black  Forest  than  by -the  victory  of  Hohen- 
linden;  so  this  retreat  shed  as  imperishable 
glory  upon  Forrest  and  Walthall  as  any 
won  by  their  most  splendid  victories." 

The  defeated  army  to  which  Walthall 
then  belonsred  passed  on  southward  to 
Bentonville,  N.  C.,  and  there  just  before  the 
close  of  the  war,  Walthall's  Brigade  was 
lined  up  in  battle  array  for  the  last  time. 
Of  that  sad  event  Senator  Berry,  of  Arkan- 
sas, said  in  the  United  States  Senate,  just 
after  Senator-General  Walthall's  death  in 
Washington  City,  which  occurred  about  5 
o'clock  p.  m.,  Thursday,  April  21,  1898: 

"General  Walthall  once  told  me  that  on 
that  very  day  every  man  in  the  command 
knew  that  there  was  no  longer  any  hope  for 
the  South;  knew  that  the  days  of  the  Con- 
federacy were  numbered;  yet  no  man  fal- 
tered; and  he  said  that  nothing  in  his  life 
had  ever  touched  him  so  much  as  when  he 
rode  down  the  line  on  that  day  and  there 
burst  forth  from  the  tattered  and  torn  rem- 
nants of  his  old  division  the  old  familiar 
cheer  that  had  so  often  greeted  him;  and 
the  saddest  word  he  ever  spoke  was  to  givo 
the  order  for  the  charge  that  cost  many  of 
them  their  lives." 

Another  says:  "On  that  terrible  retreat 
from  Nashville,  never  to  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  followed  Hood,  General  Walthall 
folded  his  last  blanket  around  a  wounded 
soldier  and  spent  the  night  on  the  frozen 
ground  without  shelter." 

Senator  Spooner,  of  Wisconsin,  said  of 
him: 

"He  was  the  first  man  to  teach  me  that  a 
Confederate  soldier,  who  had  won  by 
chivalrous  daring  his  way  from  the  rank  of 
lieutenant  to  that  of  a  major-general,  and 
who  Kad  led  in  a  hundred  battles  under  a 
flag  which  I  had  hated  and  against  one 
which  I  loved,  could  be  as  loyal  and  as 
faithful  to  a  re-united  republic  and  to  its 
flag  as  if  there  had  never  been  a  division 
among  us." 

General  Pettus  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  after  telling  how  the  Walthall 
Brigade  saved  General  Bragg's  right  wing 
at  Chickamauga  said: 

"And  afterwards  while  commanding  in 
the  rear  guard  of  General  Hood's  Army  on 


the  second  day  of  the  retreat  from  Nash- 
ville, near  Pulaski,  General  Walthall  gave 
a  terrible  emphasis  to  the  common  learn- 
ing of  a  soldier;  that  it  is  rabid  folly  to 
rush  recklessly  after  even  a  defeated  army, 
alter  it  has  had  one  night's  sleep. 

"General  Walthall  never  had  a  separate 
command.  He  was  made  major  general 
during  the  siege  of  Atlanta. 

"Prior  to  General  Hood's  Nashville 
campaign  General  Walthall  was  a  perfect 
specimen  of  physical  manhood — tall,  grace- 
ful and  in  pertect  health.  But  that  month 
of  exposure,  without  shelter,  on  frozen 
ground,  covered  with  &now,  was  enough  to 
wreck  the  strongest  constitution.  He  never 
recovered  from  the  effects  of  that  most 
disastrous  winter  campaign." 

Congressman  Allen,  of  Mississippi,  said 
of  General  Walthall: 

"He  was  one  of  the  handsomest  and 
most  graceful  soldiers  in  the  army,  noted 
for  his  soldierly  bearing,  his  cool  and  in- 
trepid courage,  his  skill  as  a  commander, 
his  respectful  demeanor  to  those  who 
served  under  him,  as  well  as  to  those  who 
commanded  him,  and  devoted  to  the  wel- 
fare of  his  men,  and  idolized  by  them. 
While  a-  splendid  disciplinarian,  no  man 
who  served  under  him  feared  he  would  not 
get  justice  at  his  hands." 

When  Forrest  asked  him  if  he  would 
help  cover  Hood's  retreat,  he  is  said  to 
have  replied:  "As  a  soldier  I  have  never 
sought  a  post  of  danger  nor  shirked  one  of 
duty." 

He  served  on  the  Military  Committee  in 
the  Senate  for  twelve  years,  and  in  per- 
forming the  duties  of  that  committee,  it 
is  said  no  one  could  tell  from  his  com- 
mittee work,  on  which  side  of  the  Civil 
War  he  had  served — so  equal  and  exact 
was  his  justice  to  all. 

Statistics  taken  from  "Battles  and 
Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,"  page  31,  make 
it  evident  that  it  required  tremendous 
fighting  on  the  part  of  regular  army  leaders 
like  Lee,  Jackson,  Johnston,  Bragg  and 
others;  supplemented  by  citizen-soldiers 
such  as  Gordon,  Forrest,  Walthall  and 
others,  backed  by  the  intrepid  men  under 
them,  to  enable  8,000,000  Southerners,  with 
800,000  enlisted  soldiers  to  make  such  a 
gallant  fight  against  the  2,000,000  soldiers 
enlisted  in  the  Northern  armies,  backed  by 
20,000,000  people  of  the  North,  with  their 
practically  limitless  resources.  According 
to  the  authority  referred  to  it  required  15,- 
000  troops  to  take  old-fashioned  fort  Henry, 
manned  by  1,000  men;  35,000  men,  with  naval 
co-operation,  to  overcome  12,000  in  Fort 
Donelson;  60,000  to  secure  a  questionable 
victory  at  Pittsburg  Landing;  120,000  to 
force  the  retreat  of  65,000  Confederates  from 
Corinth. 

While  100,000  Blues  were  repelled  by  80,- 
000  in  the  first  Peninsular  effort;  70,000  and 
nine  months  to  take  Vicksburg's  (prac- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


tically  by  starvation)  40,000;  90,000  to 
barely  withstand  the  assault  of  70,000  Grays 
at  Gettysburg;  115,000  sustaining  a  fright- 
ful repulse  by  60,000  at  Fredericksburg; 
100,000  attacked  and  defeated  by  50,000 
Grays  at  Chancellorsville;  and  then,  with- 
out going  into  numerous  details,  to  con- 
sider that  it  finally  took  120,000  of  the 
best  and  most  seasoned  Union  troops  to 
overcome,  largely  with  exhaustion  from 
over  strain  and  lack  of  adequate  supplies, 
after  a  year's  struggle  in  their  depleted 
and  poverty-stricken,  war-wasted  Virginia, 
60.000  Boys  in  Gray. 

But  there  is  this  lesson  to  be  drawn 
from  those  admitted  facts:  If  any  one  or 
two  or  three  of  the  foreign  nations  shall 
attack  this  once  more  united  republic,  they 
will  be  "welcomed  with  out-stretched  arms 
to  hospitable  graves." 

After  duly  surrendering  with  the  Con- 
federate armies,  General  Walthall  returned 
to  his  home  at  Coffeeville,  Miss.,  and  re- 
sumed the  practice  of  law.  He  had  had 
considerable  railroad  business  before  the 
war,  as  part  owner,  as  official  and  as  at- 
torney of  certain  railroads  in  Mississippi 
and  Alabama,  that  later  became  part  of  the 
Illinois  Central  System.  He  easily  again 
took  up  his  railroad  interests,  being  one 
of  the  greatest  lawyers  in  Mississippi.  He 
was  general  counsel  for  the  Southern  Rail- 
road Association  which  was  for  a  number 
of  years  lessee  of  the  old  New  Orleans, 
Jackson  &  Great  Northern  Railway  Com- 
pany; likewise  of  the  Mississippi  Central 
Railroad  Company;  not  only  operating 
those  two  lines,  but  also  completing  the 
missing  link  from  Jackson,  Tenn.,  to  Cairo. 
In  1876  those  under  a  new  organization 
came  under  the  control  of  new  owners,  the 
Chicago,  St.  Louis  &  New  Orleans  Rail- 
road Company.  .  He  was  counsel  also  for 
the  Mississippi  &  Tennessee  Railroad 
Company,  which  owned  and  operated  the 
line  from  Greenville  to  Memphis.  For  two 
years  before  that  company  consolidated 
with  the  Chicago,  St.  Louis  &  New  Orleans 
Railroad  Company,  thereby  becoming  part 
of  the  Illinois  Central  System,  General 
Walthall  was  the  active  manager  of  the 
roa'd. 

He  had  a  good  practice  outside  of  rail- 
road circles,  also,  and  did  what  few  other 
Mississippi  attorneys  did  so  soon  after  the 
war;  built  up  a  law  and  railroad  business 
that  brought  him  an  independent  fortune. 

He  was  always  able,  willing,  industrious, 
capable,  honest  and  trustworthy,  and  was 
blessed  with  hosts  of  friends  in  all  walks 
of  life. 

In  1871  he  moved  to  Grenada,  Miss., 
which  remained  his  home  till  his  death, 
April  21,  1898. 

He  never  sought  office:  but  he  faithfully 
performed  the  duties  of  whatever  office  he 


accepted.  He  was  a  statesman  rather  than 
a  politician. 

When  Senator  Lamar  resigned  his  sen- 
atorship  to  accept  the  place  of  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  in  President  Cleveland's 
cabinet,  General  Walthall  was  appointed 
to  the  United  States  senatorship  by  the 
governor  of  Mississippi,  March,  1885.  Then 
in  January,  1886,  he  was  elected  for  the  un- 
expirecLterm.  Excepting  about  a  year  when 
he  resigned  because  of  ill  health,  he  was  in 
the  Senate  till  his  death,  for  he  was  re- 
elected  at  the  first  opportunity  after  that 
resignation. 

He  was  lucid,  convincing  speaker,  and  a 
master  of  plain  Anglo-Saxon. 

His  last  word  in  the  Senate  was  his 
splendid  eulogy  on  his  friend  and  associate, 
Mississippi  Senator  James  Z.  George.  He 
was  hardly  able  to  stand,  but  his  regard 
for  his  late  colleague  made  him  feel  com- 
pelled to  do  it  against^advice  of  his  physi- 
cians. His  great  consideration  for  others 
never  failed.  On  his  death  bed.  in  delirium, 
he  insisted  on  sending  word  to  Senator 
Spooner,  with  whom  he  was  -aired,  not  to 
lose  his  vote  on  the  important  questions 
pending  in  the  Senate.  He  said  it  would 
be  unfair  to  Senator  Spooner  not  to  have 
the  liberty  of  voting. 

With  him  it  was  a  basic  proposition  that 
the  Saxon  race  should  retain  supremacy  in 
this  country,  for  the  sake  of  the  country. 

Few  senators  have  died  in  office  to  whom 
Congress  paid  such  unstinted  honors. 

A  committee  from  both  houses  escorted 
his  remains  to  the  grave  in  the  beautiful 
family  burying  ground  in  the  cemetery  at 
Holly  Springs,  Miss. 

One  of  his  most  noted  speeches  was  his 
oration  over  the  remains  of  his  friend  Jus- 
tice Lamar.  A  strange  thing  about  that 
masterpiece  of  eloquence  is  that  with  a  few 
names,  dates  and  official  titles  changed,  it 
might  well  have  been  the  funeral  oration 
of  Lamar  over  Walthall's  body,  had  Lamar 
survived  him. 

These  are  some  of  the  things  that  others 
applied  to  him  in  varying  words: 

When  he  met  an  adversary,  he  faced  him 
sciuarely  and  fought  him  squarely,  but  very 
fieTely,  if  assailed  or  defied." 

"He  accepted  nothing  that  his  reason  did 
not  sanction;  and  though  tolerant  of  other 
men's  opinions,  no  man's  ipse  dixit  could  be 
law  to  such  a  mind  as  his." 

"He  loved  his  country  with  the  fervor  of 
a  pure  and  ardent  patriot;  he  loved  his 
section  for  her  history  and  traditions  and 
the  manly  virtues  of  her  people  and  their 
woes,  and  he  loved  his  friends  far  better 
than  himself." 

Thus  it  is  shown  that  a  great  and  good 
man  may  unconsciously  pronounce  his  own 
lordly  epitaph. 


WHAT    AMERICAN    RAILROADS 
NEED 


An  Examination  into  Existing  Condi- 
tions and  Suggestions  for  the  Ex- 
pression of  a  New  Spirit  Toward 
Transportation 


BY  OTTO  H.  KAHN 

Appearing  in  The  World's  Work  for 

February,  1916 


'"pHAT  vital  question  of  what  Ameri- 
can  railroads  need  and  how  to 
meet  that  need  is  discussed  in  its  broad 
national  aspects  by  Otto  H.  Kahn  in 
an  important  article  in  the  February 
number  of  World's  Work.  From  the 
viewpoint  of  the  citizen  and  in  the 
light  of  public  interest  Mr.  Kahn  con- 
siders both  the  causes  and  effects  of 
the  present  situation  of  the  railroads, 
and  indicates  measures  which  might 
be  taken  to  remedy  its  obvious  evils. 
"The  conflicts  and  the  storms  which 
have  raged  around  the  railroads  these 
many  years,"  he  says,  "have  largely 
subsided.  Abuses  which  were  found 
to  exist,  thought  it  is  fair  to  say  that 
for  their  existence  the  railroads  were 
by  no  means  alone  to  blame,  have 
been  remedied  and  ,their  recurrence 
made  impossible.  The  people's  anger 
has  cooled  and,  thought  some  poli- 
ticians still  sound  the  old  war-cry, 
many  indications  (such,  for  instance, 
as  the  recent  popular  vote  against  the 
Full  Crew  Law  in  Missouri)  tend  to 
show  that  the  people  desire  to  have 
the  railroads  fairly  and  justly  dealt 


UPIN19N 


World  thinks 


with,  exacting  and  expecting  from 
them  a  reciprocal  attitude,  treatment, 
and  spirit.  Railroad  executives  have 
come  to  recognize  their  functions  as 
those  of  semi-public  officers,  owing 
accountability  no  less  to  the  public 
than  to  the  shareholders  of  the  par- 
ticular property  they  represent. 

"A  system  has  been  evolved  which, 
while  preserving  for  the  country  in  the 
conduct  of  its  railroads  the  inestima- 
ble advantage  of  private  initiative,  ef- 
ficiency, resourcefulness  and  responsi- 
bility, yet  through  governmental  regu- 
lation and  supervision  emphasizes  and 
protects  the  community's  rights  and 
guards  against  those  evils  and  ex- 
cesses of  unrestrained  individualism 
which  experience  has  indicated.  It  is 
in  every  way  a  far  better  system  than 
government  ownership  of  railroads, 
which,  wherever  tested,  has  proved  its 
inferiority,  except  only  in  Germany, 
and  the  very  reasons  which  have  made 
government  ownership  measurably 
successful  in  Germany  are  the  reasons 
which  in  America  would  make  it  noth- 
ing short  of  an  economic  calamity, 
being  given  political  and  other  circum- 
stances as  they  now  exist  and  are  likely 
to  continue  to  exist  for  a  long  time 
to  come." 

Mr.  Kahn  considers  the  American 
system  of  private  ownership  combined 
with  public  regulation  "in  theory  an 
almost  ideal  one,"  but  says  its  prac- 
tical application  is  flagrantly  faulty  and 
that  "the  structure  of  Federal  and 
State  laws  under  which  American  rail- 
roads are  compelled  to  carry  on  their 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


15 


business  is  little  short  of  a  legislative 
monstrosity.  .  .  .  Considered  from 
whatever  point  of  view,  the  conclusion 
seems  to  me  unavoidable  that  Ameri- 
can railroad  legislation,  whilst  sound 
in  theory,  is  in  practice  a  patchwork, 
a  makeshift,  and  grossly  and  funda- 
mentally faulty.  It  has  been  added  to, 
modified,  tinkered  with  session  after 
session  in  national  and  state  legis- 
latures ;  it  is  illogical,  unscientific, 
confusing,  vexatious,  and  generally 
intolerable.  The  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  and  43  state  bodies  act- 
ing at  once  as  lawmakers,  prosecutors, 
judges,  and  juries  hold  the  destinies 
of  the  railroads  in  their  hands,  with 
the  power  almost  over  life  and  death 
— a  power  not  much  short  of  auto- 
cratic, for  it  is  subject  to  little,  if  any, 
executive  control  and,  as  far  as  the 
Federal  Commission  is  concerned,  to 
practically  no  effective  judicial  re- 
view. Unlike  the  courts  they  are 
bound  by  no  precedents  and  rules  of 
procedure,  guided  by  no  fixed  and 
well  understood  principles  or  rules  of  de- 
cision." 

Mr.  Kahn  traces  historically  the  pro- 
gressive steps  in  railroad  legislation, 
shows  that  continual  and  insufficiently 
considered  enlargement  of  the  functions 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  forced  upon  that  body  duties  which 
it  is  physically  unable  to  handle  efficiently 
and  fairly.  Congress,  while  conferring 
upon  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion almost  absolute  powers  over  the  in- 
terstate business  of  railroads,  entirely 
ignored  the  correlated  problem  of  the  ex- 
ercise of  control'  by  the  states,  and  in 
the  states  a  veritable  mania  of  railroad 
legislation,  including  drastic  rate  reduc- 
tions, extra  crew  laws,  heavy  additions 
to  taxation,  and  other  burdens,  has  fol- 
lowed. 

With  the  principle  of  regulation  Mr. 
Kahn  places  himself  in  full  agreement. 
"It  was  a  right  instinct,"  he  says,  "which 
had  guided  the  people,  under  President 
Roosevelt's  leadership,  to  determine, 
firmly  and  unmistakably,  that  the  time 
had  come  to  regard  the  pioneer  period 
of  this  country's  industrial  and  economic 
development  as  at  an  end,  to  revoke  the 


latitude  which  had  been  tacitly  accorded, 
to  insist  on  strict  adherence  to  the  rules 
of  business  conduct  laid  down  by  the 
law,  and  to  punish  any  violation  of  such 
rules,  by  whomsoever  committed,  high 

or  low It  is  the  faultiness  and 

inadequacy  of  the  law  under  which  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  works 
and  exercises  its  power,  and  the  multi- 
plicity of  masters  under  whom  the  rail- 
roads have  to  serve  and  whom  they  have 
to  satisfy  that  constitutes  the  burden  of 
their  grievances  and  that  cries  for  re- 
form." 

Delays  which  amount  to  denial  of  jus- 
tice, conflicting  orders,  uncertainty,  chill- 
ing of  enterprise,  lack  of  confidence,  etc., 
are  the  resulting  complaints  against  such 
regulation.  "That  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,"  Mr.  Kahn  says,  "be- 
ing at  the  same  time  prosecutor,  judge, 
and  jury,  combining  within  itself  legis- 
lative, executive,  and  judiciary  powers, 
is  a  negation  of  the  root  principle  from 
which  the  American  system  of  govern- 
ment springs,  may  be  stated  as  an  incon- 
trovertible fact.  Such  a  combination  of 
powers  in  one  body  has  been  styled  by 
James  Madison  'the  very  definition  of 
tyranny.' " 

Mr.  Kahn  does  rot  share  in  the  opin- 
ion that  the  members  of  the  Commission 
are  hostile  to  the  railroads,  but  on  the 
contrary  expresses  his  belief  that  "they 
are  earnestly  striving  to  do  justice  ac- 
cording to  their  conscience  and  judgment 
and  bravely  struggling  with  a  simply  in- 
tolerable burden  of  work  and  responsi- 
bility." 

As  illustrative  of  the  stupendous 
amount  of  work  with  which  the  Commis- 
sion is  burdened,  he  calls  attention  to  its 
annual  report  "with  its  formidable  array 
of  200,000  pages  of  testimony  taken, 
150,000  tariff  publications  received,  hear- 
ings held,  opinions  rendered,  orders  is- 
sued, claims,  complaints  and  applications 
disposed  of,  inspections  made,  accounts 
examined,  prosecutions  initiated  or  con- 
ducted, statistics  gathered,  Congressional 
inquiries  answered  and  so  forth.  And 
let  it  be  remembered  that  in  addition  to 
its  railroad  work  the  Commission  has 
also  to  supervise  and  regulate  telegraph, 
telephone,  pipe  lines  and  express  com- 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


panics.  For  years,  Congress  has  thrust 
upon  the  Commission  one  function  after 
another  until  it  is  simply  overwhelmed. 
The  result  is  not  merely  delay  and  in- 
sufficient time  for  deliberate  considera- 
tion but  the  necessity  to  relegate  the 
hearing  and  investigation  of  many  im- 
portant cases  to  clerks  or  agents." 

"But,"  Mr.  Kahn  points  out,  "the 
most  serious  grievance  is  the  fact  that 
in  addition  to  the  activities  of  state  leg- 
islatures there  are  not  less  than  43  state 
commissions,  exercising  varying  degrees 
of  power  over  railroads,  guided  in  their 
decisions  by  no  precedents  or  fixed  rules, 
their  jurisdiction  and  the  decrees  inter- 
twining, conflicting  with,  upsetting  those 
of  each  *ther  and  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission.  ...  It  is  not 
surprising  that  the  authority  of  such 
state  commissions,  of  which  it  would  be 
too  much  to  expect  or  even  to  ask  un- 
yielding imperviousness  to  public  pres- 
sure, should  have  been  exercised,  in  not 
a  few  instances,  frankly  for  the  selfish 
interest  of  each  state,  somewhat  on  the 
lines  of  creating  through  the  fixing  of 
railroad  rates  and  otherwise  the  equiva- 
lent of  a  protecting  tariff  or  of  an  export 
bounty  for  the  benefit  of  the  industries 
or  the  consumers  of  each  particular 
state." 

"What  with  the  regulating  activities 
of  43  commissions  besides  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  the  adoption  by 
state  legislatures  of  rate-fixing  measures, 
extra  crew  bills,  and  all  kinds  of  minute 
enactments  (between  1912  and  1915 
more  than  4,000  federal  and  state  bills 
affecting  the  railroads  were  introduced 
and  more  than  440  enacted),  the  enorm- 
ous increase  within  the  last  seven  years 
in  federal  and  state  taxation,  the  steadily 
mounting  cost  of  labor,  the  exactions  of 
municipal  and  county  authorities,  etc. — 
it  will  be  admitted  that  the  cup  of  rail- 
road difficulties  and  grievances  is  full. 
I  am  far  from  holding  the  railroads 
blameless  for  some  of  the  conditions 
with  which  they  are  now  confronted. 
Not  a  few  of  them  were  arrogant  in  the 
days  of  their  power,  many  mixed  in 
politics,  some  forgot  that  besides  having 
a  duty  to  their  stockholders  they  had  a 


duty  to  the  public,  some  were  guilty  of 
grievous  and  inexcusable  financial  mis- 
deeds. But  in  their  natural  resentment 
and  their  legitimate  resolve  to  guard 
against  similar  conditions  in  the  future, 
the  people  have  overshot  the  mark.  The 
proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating. 
Not  less  than  82  railroads,  comprising 
41,988  miles  and  representing  $2,264,- 
000,000  of  capitalization,  are  in  receiv- 
ers' hands  and  less  new  mileage  has  been 
constructed  in  1915  than  in  any  year  since 
the  Civil  War." 

As  a  result  of  this  situation  Mr.  Kahn 
shows  that  "railroad  credit  has  become 
gravely  affected.  It  is  true  that  faults 
of  management  and  disclosures  of  ob- 
jectionable practices  have  been  contribu- 
tory causes  in  diminishing  American  rail- 
road credit,  but  from  my  practical  ex- 
perience in  dealing  with  investors  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  affirming  that  the  main 
reason  for  the  multiplication  of  railroad 
bankruptcies  and  of  the  changed  attitude 
of  the  public  toward  investing  in  railroad 
securities  is  to  be  found  in  the  federal 
and  state  legislation  of  the  years  from 
1906  to  1912  and  in  what  many  investors 
considered  the  illiberal,  narrow,  and  fre- 
quently antagonistic  spirit  toward  rail- 
roads of  commissions  charged  with  their 
supervision  and  control." 

The  deduction  Mr.  Kahn  makes  is  that 
"railroads,  being  essentially  nation-wide 
in  their  functions,  should,  as  to  rates  and 
other  phases  of  their  business  directly 
or  indirectly  affecting  interstate  results, 
be  placed  under  one  national  authority 
instead  of  being  subject  to  the  conflicting 
jurisdiction  of  many  different  states — 
a  jurisdiction  the  exercise  of  which  is 
always  subject  to  the  temptation  of  be- 
ing used  unfairly  for  the  selfish  and  ex- 
clusive advantage  of  the  respective  in- 
dividual states.  State  commissions  have 
their  proper  and  important  functions  in 
the  supervision  and  regulation  of  street 
railways  and  of  public  service  corpora- 
tions other  than  interstate  steam  rail- 
roads, and  even  in  the  case  of  the  latter 
in  the  exercise  of  certain  administrative, 
police,  or  public  welfare  powers  within 
well  defined  limits.  But  the  fundamen- 
tal law  of  the  land,  the  Federal  Constitu- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


17 


tion,  expressly  reserves  to  Congress  the 
exclusive  power  of  dealing  with  com- 
merce between  states,  and  the  exercise 
by  state  authorities  of  rate-making  and 
other  powers  which,  though  technically 
confined  to  railroad  activities  within  the 
states,  yet  actually  must  and  do  affect 
interstate  relations,  is  clearly  opposed  to 
the  spirit,  if  not  to  the  language,  of  the 
Federal  Constitution." 

"Personally,"  he  states,  "I  believe  that 
the  principle  of  giving  to  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  power  to  regu- 
late rates  is  sound,  and  I  am  convinced 
that  it  has  come  to  stay.  But  I  think  that 
the  now  prevailing  rigid  and  cumbersome 
system  of  what  is  practically  rate  making 
by  the  Commission  is  neither  sound  nor 
wise.  I  believe  that  the  public  could  and 
would  be  just  as  fully  protected  and  that, 
in  fact,  both  the  public  and  the  railroads 
would  be  the  gainers  if  the  immensely 
complex,  difficult  and  delicate  task  of 
making  rates  were  left  in  the  hands  of 
those  trained  for  it  by  a  life's  study, 
experience,  and  practice,  i.  e.,  the  rail- 
road officials,  with  full  power,  however, 
in  the  Commission,  on  its  own  motion, 
to  reduce  or  to  increase  rates  for  cause." 

"The  present  lopsided  structure  of 
railroad  laws  ought  to  be  demolished," 
Mr.  Kahn  believes,  "and  superseded  by 
a  new  body  of  laws  designed,  not  to  pun- 
ish the  railroads,  but  to  aid  them  toward 
the  greatest  development  of  usefulness 
and  service  to  the  country,  conceived 
upon  harmonious,  carefully  considered, 
scientific  and  permanent  lines.  .  .  . 
The  banking  and  currency  legislation  of 
1913  affords  an  appropriate  precedent 
and  in  many  respects  a  parallel.  .  .  .  The 
formula  and  principle  of  the  banking  and 
currency  legislation,  viz.,  a  strong,  ef- 
^ective,  and  controlling  Central  Federal 
Board  in  Washington,  relieved  from  de- 
tail work  and  from  certain  essentially 
conflicting  functions,  with  Regional 
Boards  according  to  geographic  group- 
ings, might  prove  exactly  suited  to  rail- 
road legislation." 

Among  the  principal  remedies  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Kahn  to  meet  the  situa- 
tion are  the  following:  (1)  Creation 
of  a  strong,  effective  and  controlling 


Central  Federal  Commission  in  Wash- 
ington, with  Regional  Commissions  ac- 
cording to  geographic  groupings.  (2) 
The  Commission  to  be  relieved  of  much 
detail  work  and  of  certain  essentially 
conflicting  functions  which  should  be 
conferred  upon  a  separate  body.  (3) 
The  jurisdiction  of  state  bodies  in  rail- 
road matters  should  cease  as  far  as  it 
relates  directly  or  indirectly  to  interstate 
commerce.  (4)  The  function  of  rate 
making  should  be  left  to  the  railroads, 
with  full  power,  however,  in  the  Com- 
mission on  its  own  motion  to  reduce  or 
increase  rates  for  cause.  (5)  Pooling 
arrangements  should  be  permitted  sub- 
ject to  approval  by  the  Commission. 
(6)  In  determining  rates  due  weight 
and  consideration  should  be  given  to  all 
factors  that  go  to  enhance  the  cost  of 
operating  railroads,  such  as  legislative 
enactments,  increased  taxation,  advances 
in  wages,  etc. 

In  closing  his  argument  for  a  practical 
business-like  treatment  of  this  all  im- 
portant economic  problem,  Mr.  Kahn 
calls  attention  to  the  splendid  opportun- 
ity and  the  weighty  responsibility  which 
face  this  country  as  a  result"  of  the  Eu- 
ropean war,  calling  for  constructive 
thought  and  co-operation  between  busi- 
ness and  the  legislative  and  administra- 
tive powers. 

Paying  a  merited  tribute  to  the  presi- 
dents of  American  railroads  and  the 
heads  of  American  business  institutions, 
he  concludes :  "There  is  no  centre  in  the 
world  where  the  label  counts  less,  where 
it  is  less  possible  to  bequeath  position, 
however  backed  by  wealth,  where  the 
shine  and  effect  of  a  great  name  is  more 
quickly  rubbed  off  if  the  bearer  does 
not  prove  his  worth,  where  the  acid  test 
of  personal  efficiency  is  more  strictly 
applied,  where  strength  and  talent  are 
more  certain  to  come  to  the  top,  than 
in  the  great  mart  of  American  business. 
And  there  is  no  country  "where  the  capa- 
cities of  representatives  of  business  are 
so  little  availed  of  in  governmental  and 
political  affairs,  their  views  so  little 
heeded  and  so  frequently  rebuffed,  where 
legislation  affecting  economic,  industrial, 
and  financial  matters  is  framed,  and  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


resulting  laws  administered,  with  such 
disregard  of  the  counsel  and  expert 
knowledge  of  business  men  as  in  the 
United  States." 

"But,"  he  says,  "there  are  welcome 
indications  that  this  condition  of  affairs 
is  about  to  change,  and  that  prejudices 
and  antagonisms  which  have  been  preva- 
lent all  too  long  are  giving  way  to  more 
auspicious  relations." 

There  is  being  developed  a  tendency 
towards  mutually  trustful  co-operation 
between  business  and  the  legislative  and 
administrative  powers  on  broad  and  con- 
structive lines,  such  as  has  existed  for 
many  years  in  the  leading  countries  of 
Europe. 


RAILROAD  WAGES. 

TT  is  not  in  human  nature  to  be  wholly 
satisfied  with  present  conditions,  and 
it  is  only  natural  that  every  class  and 
every  individual  should  feel  that  there 
is  something  better  merited  than  what 
is  being  received.  Railroad  men  in  this 
country,  like  other  people,  believe  that 
they  are  not  sufficiently  compensated, 
and  perhaps,  they  are  right  about  it,  but 
the  fact  remains  that  wages  generally 
in  this  country  are  very  much  higher 
than  they  are  in  any  other  country. 
The  lives  of  our  laboring  people  are 
projected  on  a  higher  plane,  and  in 
order  to  maintain  themselves  in  bet- 
ter living,  it  is  necessary  for  them 
to  receive  a  much  greater  propor- 
tionate compensation.  Returning  to 
the  railroad  question,  it  has  been 
shown  by  statistics  that  in  foreign 
countries  for  the  year  1912,  the  aver- 
age yearly  compensation  paid  em- 
ployees in  England  was  $384.  The  av- 
erage in  Germany  was  somewhat 
higher,  reaching  $412,  while  the  aver- 
age in  the  United  States  was  $728,  or 
nearly  twice  as  much  as  paid  in  Eng- 
land. Since  that  time  railroad  wages 
have  greatly  increased  in  the  United 
States.  This  is  true,  even  in  the  face 
of  the  fact  that  operating  revenues 
were  decreased  by  business  depres- 
sion. One  of  our  home  railroads,  the 
Nashville,  Chattanooga  &  St.  Louis 
railway,  may  be  taken  as  an  illustra- 


tion. In  1913,  notwithstanding  de- 
pressed conditions,  this  company  paid 
its  locomotive  engineers  an  average 
of  $230.39  per  month,  or  $2,764.68  per 
year.  The  lowest  monthly  compensa- 
tion paid  an  engineer  was  $209.55,  or 
$2,514.60  a  year.  Conductors  aver- 
aged $173.54  a  month,  or  $2,082.48  a 
year,  while  some  who  were  longer  in 
the  service  received  as  much  as  $185 
per  month.  Firemen,  who  are  popu- 
larly supposed  to  get  comparatively 
small  wages,  were  paid  an  average  of 
$122.71  per  month,  the  lowest  paid  be- 
ing $112.15,  and  the  highest  $137.60, 
or  $1,651.20  a  year.  Brakemen  re- 
ceived an  average  of  $113.90  a  month, 
and  some  as  much  as  $120,  or  $1,440  a 
year.  These  figures  are  the  more  strik- 
ing when  compared  with  what  is  paid 
for  the  same  work  by  English  rail- 
ways, which  average  from  $30  to  $65 
a  month.  Laboring  people  in  this 
country  ought  to  be  paid  more  than  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world  be- 
cause this  is  a  richer  country,  and  our 
productive  capacities  are  greater.  The 
laws  of  distribution  must  be,  or  at 
least  should  be,  just  and  equitable,  and 
so  long  as  we  are  creating  and  de- 
veloping so  much  wealth  those  en- 
gaged in  creating  and  distributing  it 
should  receive  proportionately  a  high- 
er wage  than  in  less  prosperous  coun- 
tries.— The  News  Scimitar,  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  Monday  Evening,  January  10, 
1916. 


A  REAL  GOOD  CANE 
p  ERSONAL  experience  is  the  best 
teacher  as  the  editor  of  The  Ther- 
mometer has  found  out  much  to  his  cha- 
grin and  furthermore  that  when  it  comes 
to  trying  to  pick  a  row  with  a  Pullman 
porter  you'll  find  that  he  always  agrees 
with  you. 

The  editor  recently  had  occasion  to  go 
on  the  Seminole  Limited  to  Chicago  on 
business.  At  about  8 :30  on  the  evening 
of  December  27th,  1915,  we  presented 
ourselves  to  the  Pullman  conductor  who 
very  courteously  looked  over  our  trans- 
portation and  said  to  the  porter,  "Car  25, 
lower  6."  The  porter  took  my  ninety- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


19 


pound  bag,  while  I  took  care  of  a  walk- 
ing cane,  which  by  the  way,  had  been 
presented  to  me  by  the  Hon.  John  T.  G. 
Crawford,  National  Democratic  Commit- 
teeman  from  Florida. 

On  entering  the  car  the  editor  care- 
fully placed  his  top  coat  in  the  upper 
berth  and  then  adjourned  to  the  observa- 
tion end  to  enjoy  a  Havana.  Later  re- 
turning to  the  berth  and  finding  every- 
thing O.  K.,  left  the  cane,  which  had 
been  worn  on  the  left  arm  and  again 
went  to  the  observation  end  to  adjust 
the  "night  cap"  before  retiring. 

Upon  arriving  in  Chicago  on  the  sec- 
ond morning  and  gathering  up  our  pos- 
sessions the  cane  was  missing.  The 
porter  assured  the  Editor,  upon  interroga- 
tion, that  he  fully  remembered  my  having 
the  cane  and  immediately  began  a  thor- 
ough search  of  the  berth  and  linen  locker 
without  results.  The  observation  car 
porter  too,  remembered  my  having  the 
cane,  in  fact  he  even  remembered  my 
wearing  it  on  my  left  arm. 

Having  transacted  his  business  the 
editor  returned  to  Jacksonville  where  he 
found  a  letter  from  the  Pullman  district 
superintendent  in  Chicago,  notifying  him 
of  the  receipt  of  a  loss  report  by  the 
Pullman  conductor  and  porter  of  said 
cane  but  after  a  thorough  investigation 
the  Pullman  Company  had  been  unable  to 
find  it. 

Going  to  our  home  in  a  very  downcast 
spirit,  we  were  informed  by  our  superior 
officer  that  said  cane  was  still  on  the  hat 
tree  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  fact  that 
we  were  to  remain  such  a  short  time  in 
the  Windy  City  it  would  have  been  ex- 
pressed to  us.  And  just  to  think  of  all 
that  trouble  having  been  raised  about  a 
perfectly  good  cane  that  had  remained  at 
home. — Union  Terminals  Thermometer, 
Jacksonville,  Fla. 


EDITORIAL 

TN  this  issue  of  The  Record  we  publish 
•*•  an  account  of  a  movement  launched  by 
business  men  of  Meridian  to  discourage 
the  many  senseless  petty  suits  being  filed 
in  that  city  and  county  against  cor- 
porations. The  .people  of  Meridian 
see  that  the  multitude  of  litigation 


brought  against  corporations  upon  the 
flimsiest  pretext  is  having  its  hurtful 
effect  in  not  only  keeping  capital  from 
investing  in  their  midst,  but  is  driving 
that  already  invested  away.  What  is 
true  of  Meridian  is  true  of  every  other 
part  of  the  state.  Mississippi  has  suf- 
fered more  than  any  other  state  on  ac- 
count of  its  antagonistic  laws  and  the 
prejudice  of  its  people  toward  capital. 
Mississippi  needs,  and  must  have,  out- 
side capital  to  develop  her  resources, 
but  how  can  we  expect  it,  when  on 
every  hand  there  is  evidence  that  it 
will  not  receive  fair  treatment? 

Of  course  there  are  many  suits  filed 
in  the  state  against  corporations  which 
have  merit  and  the  parties  are  justly 
entitled  to  damage,  but  every  one 
knows  that  the  vast  majority  are  based 
upon  the  most  frivolous  claim — which 
as  a  matter  between  individuals  a  suit 
would  never  have  been  thought  of — but 
being  a  corporation,  suit  is  brought, 
relying  upon  the  prejudice  of  the  peo- 
ple to  insure  a  favorable  verdict. 

It  is  a  good  sign  to  know  that  the 
sentiment  expressed  by  the  Meridian 
meeting  is  spreading  all  over  the 
state,  and  the  people  are  realizing  that 
corporations  are  not  "the  green-eyed 
monsters"  so  often  painted  by  design- 
ing politicians,  but  is  only  outside  cap- 
ital which  is  to  be  used  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  state  and  will  redown  to 
the  good  and  betterment  of  its  citizens, 
and  as  such  is  entitled  to  a  fair  and 
just  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  peo- 
ple and  under  the  law. — The  Gloster 
(Miss.)  Record,  Dec.  17,  1915. 


I.  C.  RUNS  TRUE  TO  FORM  IN 

1915 

C\  VER  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars 
was  spent  by  the  Illinois  Central 
in  Waterloo  for  material  and  labor  on 
improvements  during  1915.  More  than 
double  this  sum  the  railroad  intends 
to  expend  this  year.  Enlargement  of 
the  big  machine  shops,  the  installation 
of  additional  machinery  and  a  general 
enlargement  of  terminal  facilities  are 
projected. 

The  round  house  was  enlarged  and 


20 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


six  additional  stalls  built  to  house  the 
mammoth  freight  and  passanger  loco- 
motives now  used  in  the  service  on 
the  Minnesota  and  Iowa  divisions. 
Cinder  and  inspection  pits,  a  new 
washing  system,  new  car  sheds,  sid- 
ings and  a  host  of  minor  improvements 
were  made. 

The  Illinois  Central,  with  1,555  men, 


is  the  largest  single  employer  in 
Waterloo.  The  payroll  for  1915,  $1,- 
354,968.12.  This  is  the  greatest  amount 
ever  paid  out  by  this  railroad  or  any 
other  concern  here  in  twelve  months 
and  is  responsible  for  much  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  retail  trade. — The 
Waterloo  Times  -  Tribune,  Sunday 
Morning,  January  9,  1916. 


An  Illinois  Central  Employe  Recognized  by  the 
Carnegie  Hero  Fund  Commission 


Harold  W.  Snow,  of  7429  Crandon  av- 
enue, Chicago,  a  private  secretary,  for  at- 
tempting to  save  Mollie  Meredith,  an  aged 
colored  woman,  from  being  killed  by  a 
train  at  Jackson,  Miss.,  April  26,  1912.  Snow 


sprang  in  front  of  a  locomotive  to  save  the 
woman,  but  both  were  struck.  She  died 
several  months  later  from  her  injuries,  and 
Snow  was  so  injured  that  the  amputation 
of  his  leg  was  necessary. 


President  Markham  has  written  Mr.  Snow  the  following  letter: 

Chicago,  January  21,  1916. 
Dear  Mr.  Snow: 

I  have  just  been  advised  that  the  Carnegie  Fund  Commission,  after  mature  delibera- 
tion, has  awarded  you  a  silver  medal  and  $1,000  in  cash  for  your  heroic  action  at  Jack- 
son, Miss.,  on  April  26,  1912. 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  of  their  decision  in  the  matter  and  hasten  to  congratulate 
you  on  this  well  deserved  recognition  of  your  deed. 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  C.  H.  Markham. 
Mr.  Harold  W.  Snow, 

Care  Law  Department, 
Chicago. 


General  Grenville  M.  Dodge 

r^  ENERAL  GRENVILLE  M.  DODGE,  an  army  commander  in  the  Union 
^'^  Army  during  the  Civil  War,  died  at  his  home  in  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa, 
January  3,  1916. 

A  biography  of  General  Dodge  appeared  in  this  publication  extending 
through  the  January  and  February  issues  of  1914.  He  was  a  wonderful  man 
in  a  great  many  respects.  After  the  declaration  of  peace,  covered  with  military 
honors,  he  planned,  surveyed  and  practically  built  the  great  Union  Pacific 
Railroad.  A  photograph  of  the  General  at  his  desk,  taken  by  the  Illinois 
Central  photographer  in  December,  1913,  appears  above. 

21 


The  Center   of  Population 
of  5O,OOO,OOO  People 

The  Logical  Point  for  Manufacturers 


The  Belleville   Commercial  Club.. 


DELLEVILLE,  Illinois,  the  county 
*-*  seat  of  St.  Clair  County,  Illinois,  the 
home  of  culture,  song  and  plenty,  is  lo- 
cated within  forty  minutes'  ride  of  St. 
Louis,  Mo. 

It  enjoys  the  reputation  of  being  one 
of,  if  not  the  healthiest  city  in  the  state. 
An  example  of  its  healthy  condition  is 
the  fact  that  at  the  present  time  its 
Municipal  Tuberculosis  and  Isolation 
Hospital  has  been  abandoned,  as  there 
have  been  no  patients  for  several  years 
to  take  advantage  of  its  splendid  facili- 
ties. '! 

The  death  rate  of  the  city  has  fallen 
way  below  the  customary  averages  of 
other  cities. 

Its  population  having  reached  the  num- 
ber of  28,000  souls,  is  well  known  for 
its  thriftiness  and  honesty. 

Nowhere  is  a  man's  word  held  in 
higher  esteem  or  respect  than  here,  it 
being  considered  better  than  his  note. 

It  enjoys  the  best  of  industrial,  edu- 
cational and  social  advantages,  and  many 
have  been  attracted  here  as  a  desirable 
place  to  live  and  raise  their  families. 

Its  public  school  system  compares  fav- 
orably with  that  of  any  other  city,  and  at 
present  is  engaged  in  the  building  of  a 
township  high  school,  which  will  over- 
shadow any  of  its  kind  in  our  great  state. 

Its     wonderful     public     library     was 


started  years  ago  by  The  Saengerbund, 
an  organization  brought  forth  by  the 
early  German  settlers  of  this  territory 
to  keep  alive  the  Germanic  spirit  of 
song  and  to  maintain  their  higher  literary 
culture. 

It  later  became  the  nucleus  for  the 
Belleville  public  library,  which  now  has 
been  housed  in  the  beautiful  edifice 
erected  through  the  generosity  of  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie. 

In  no  city  is  the  brotherhood  of  man 
more  truly  exemplified.  It  always 
reaches  out  its  helping  hand  to  other 
communities  when  in  need  and  is  ever 
ready  to  hear  the  cry  of  the  afflicted  and 
help  those  in  distress. 

Churches  of  almost  every  denomina- 
tion are  scattered  about  the  city,  making 
it  possible  for  its  citizens  to  worship  as 
they  choose. 

The  public  press  is  ever  ready  to  re- 
veal to  the  world  at  large  the  remark- 
able vitality,  progress  and  energy,  civic 
and  industrial,  commercial  and  social,  of 
its  citizenship.  They  all  stand  shoulder 
to  shoulder  encouraging  all  onward 
movements  and  to  their  efforts  a  great 
deal  of  the  success  attained  is  due. 

Belleville  is  known  for  its  beautiful 
and  well  kept  homes,  and  in  no  one  sec- 
tion of  the  city  are  they  exclusive,  but 
wherever  you  may  cast  your  eyes  you 


23 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


25 


MAYOR  DUVALL,  BELLEVILLE,  ILL. 


will  find  palatial  homes  scattered  among 
the  more  humble  ones. 

The  pride  of  its  people  to  keep  up  their 
homes  and  the  environments  thereof  is 
unsurpassed  anywhere.  Nearly  all  homes 
are  surrounded  by  beautiful  trees,  gard- 
ens and  lawns,  making  the  city  a  beau- 
tiful place  to  live  in. 

Two  of  the  finest  hospitals  of  Illinois 
equipped  with  all  modern  scientific  ap- 
pliances, including  X-Ray  machine  and 
the  largest  supply  of  radium  west  of  the 
Alleghany,  are  institutions  any  city  can 
be  proud  of. 

The  Safety  First  Society  of  the  city 
has  done  much  to  help  decrease  the  loss 


of  life  and  limb  and  deserves  encourage- 
ment in  its  work. 

Belleville  is  fortunately  situated  so  far 
as  -  railroad  facilities  are  concerned. 
Three  trunk  lines,  the  Illinois  Central, 
Southern  and  Louisville  &  Nashville, 
furnish  outlets  to  the  world.  These 
railroads  are  connected  by  belt  lines, 
built  by  the  business  men  of  Belleville 
and  donated  to  the  railroads  under  such 
conditions  and  restrictions,  that  every 
industry  on  any  of  these  lines  has  the 
advantage  of  shipping,  both  in  and  out, 
over  any  of  the  other  lines  without 
switching  charges. 

A  few  miles  away,  on  the  banks  of  the 


26 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Mississippi,  all  the  great  trunk  lines  of 
the  country  converge  and  the  city  enjoys 
the  local  rates  to  all  points  of  the  coun- 
try. 

Frequent  electric  railway  communica- 
tion unites  Belleville  with  the  great  city 
of  St.  Louis,  and  with  many  of  its  neigh- 
boring towns. 

The  rich  coal  deposits  at  its  very  door 
give  Belleville  a  pre-eminent  place 
among  the  manufacturing  centers  of  the 
middle  west.  Among  the  products  man- 
ufactured here  are :  stoves,  castings  of 
all  kinds,  flour,  brooms,  beer,  printing 
and  embossing  presses,  malt  tonic,  min- 
eral waters,  ice,  brick,  hosiery,  shoes, 
shirts,  sanitary  milk,  threshing  machines, 
hay  presses,  traction  engines,  refrigerat- 
ing machines,  grain  drills,  boilers,  carbon 
batteries,  mining  machinery  and  cages, 
powder,  cement  products,  tile,  sanitary 
drinking  fountains  and  nails. 

We  are  supplied  with  Keokuk  power 
as  well  as  electric  power  from  the  plants 
of  the  E.  St.  Louis  &  Suburban  Railway 
Company,  Great  East  Side  Division. 

The  high  class  of  labor,  not  refuse 
from  other  cities,  but  the  highest  class 
intellectually,  added  to  the  advantages 
already  enumerated,  is  the  secret  of  the 
phenomenal  success  of  those  engaged  in 
the  different  manufacturing  enterprises. 

The  city  has  three  banks,  neither  of 
which  have  ever  quivered  under  any 
financial  storm  or  stress  and  all  are  con- 
sidered as  solid  as  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar. 
The  total  capital  stock  represented  by 
them  amounts  to  $500,000.00,  with  sur- 
plus and  individual  profits  $900,000.00. 
Deposits  of  over  $4,500,000.00  of  which 
over  $2,750,000.00  are  time  deposits, 
represent  the  thrift  of  the  people  of 
the  city. 

Nearly  all  of  the  principal  streets  of 
the  city  are  paved  and  arrangements 
about  perfected  for  the  building  of  a 
sixty-foot  boulevard  for  a  distance  of 
about  seven  miles,  which,  when  com- 
pleted, will  be  one  of  the  finest  drives  in 
this  vicinity. 

An  intercepting  sewer  system,  connect- 
ing all  the  sewers  of  the  city  and  carry- 
ing the  sewage  to  sceptic  tanks  has  solved 
the  problem  of  its  disposition  along  mod- 
ern ideas  of  sanitation. 

The  government  building,  in  which  is 
housed  the  post  office  and  other  govern- 


HENRY   C.    G.    SCHRADER 
President,   Belleville   Commercial  Club. 

ment  offices  is  located  near  the  center  of 
the  city  and  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  its  kind. 

The  city  fire  department  is  very  effi- 
cient and  renders  remarkable  service  for 
its  size. 

The  water  supply  of  the  city  is  brought 
from  the  Father  of  Waters,  and  is  in- 
exhaustible and  of  excellent  quality,  pass- 
ing through  one  of  the  best  filtering  sys- 
tems in  the  world. 

Belleville  is  surrounded  by  some  of  the 
most  fertile  and  richest  farm  lands  in  the 
state,  which  are  adapted  to  any  form  of 
advanced  agriculture. 

Belleville  is  the  center  of  the  largest 
bituminous  coal  field  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  center  of  great  shale  de- 
posits from  which  the  finest  of  fire  clay, 
bricks,  tile  and  cement  can  be  made. 
Fuel  is  cheap  and  there  is  an  unlimited 
supply  of  it ;  the  same  can  be  said  of  the 
water.  Factory  sites  to  suit  any  investor 
and  track  facilities  without  number. 


Passenger 

Traffic 

Department 


Little,  Talks  with  the  Haonbler 
Service  Notes   of  InieiesL 


*<IPM*%'S®%! 


m 

Ll      i(    ^~C  vi    ,    S          ~\     I   I 

WW 


When  the  Humane  Instinct  Prevailed 


A  SHORT  time  ago  business  condi- 
tions  found  me  in  a  position  where 
I  was  wanted  in  New  York  and  at  New 
Orleans  at  about  the  same-  time.  The 
short  interval  between  dates  at  the  two 
cities  was  such,  however,  that  I  found  it 
possible  to  combine  business  with  a  little 
healthful  relaxation  that  I  needed,  by 
first  going  to  New  York  and  then  taking 
one  of  the  large  modern  steamships  that 
do  a  regular  passenger  business  between 
New  York  and  the  Cresent  City.  In 
other  words,  on  reaching  home  again  I 
had  taken  one  of  our  several  rail-water 
circle  tours.  The  voyage  of  five  days 
between  the  two  ports  was  most  delight- 
fully restful  to  me,  for  I  not  only  love 
the  water,  but  steamship  travel  I  have 
found  to  be  ideal  to  my  way  of  thinking. 
By  it,  for  one  thing,  one  is  so  circum- 
stanced on  shipboard  that  he  cannot  be 
tiresomely  active,  but  at  the  same  time  is 
amid  surroundings  admitting  of  just 
enough  freedom  of  action  to  be  agreeable 
and  to  admit  of  invigorating  exercise.  I 
had  slightly  known  the  captain  of  the 
steamship  before  making  the  trip,  and  on 
that  occasion  our  acquaintance  quickly 
ripened  into  a  genial  friendliness  that 
bids  fair  to  become  a  permanent  asset 
with  each  of  us.  We  were  together  as 
much  as  his  duties  permitted,  and  before 
landing  I  became  somewhat  saturated 


with  a  certain  kind  of  superficial  sea  lore. 
We  occasionally  talked,  however,  on 
other  things  than  matters  aquatic,  and  at 
one  time  I  asked  him  who  the  worthy 
•vas  that  his  ship  was  named  after.  "O," 
he  laughingly  replied,  "primarily  one  of 
the  ancient  gods ;  but  brought  down  to 
date,  one  of  the  Kings  of  the  carnival 
season  at  New  Orleans."  Then  he  ex- 
plained more  fully  as  to  the  mythology 
of  the  gentleman  and  that  one  of  the 
famous  carnival  societies  of  New  Or- 
leans bore  its  name.  From  this  we 
naturally  drifted  into  conversation  rela- 
tive to  the  Mardi  Gras  at  New  Orleans, 
on  which  topic  I  found  the  captain  so 
particularly  well  versed  in  apparently  all 
the  phases  of  the  subject  that  I  had  my 
suspicions  that  he  was  undoubtedly  a 
member  of  some  one  of  the  secret  or- 
ganizations that  work  so  assiduously  the 
year  through  to  produce  the  pageants 
that  are  such  attractive  features  on  the 
streets  of  New  Orleans  during  the  so- 
called  carnival  season.  It  so  happened 
that  I  had  never  seen  the  Mardi  Gras  and 
so  plied  him  with  questions  concerning  it, 
all  of  which  he  seemed  to  take  a  delight 
in  answering  in  a  vein  that  excited  my 
enthusiasm.  Business  conditions  with 
me  were  such  that  I  could  not  foresee 
being  able,  much  to  my  regret,  to  make 
the  Mardi  Gras  even  this  year.  So,  born 


29 


30 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


perhaps  of  an  unconscious  pique  growing 
out  of  my  disappointment,  I  carelessly 
made  a  remark  to  the  effect  that  after 
all,  I  supposed  the  grandeur,  or  the  im- 
pressiveness,  of  these  pageants  was  more 
or  less  of  a  myth.  I  admitted,  of  course, 
at  least  in  my  mind,  that  they  were 
taken  seriously  enough,  but  the  underly- 
ing thought  was  whether  they  really  suc- 
ceeded in  being  as  beautifully  impressive 
as  one  would  be  lead  to  suppose  by  the 
newspapers  and  other  publicity  expon- 
ents. The  captain  was  too  courteous  to 
use  the  proverbial  language  of  the  sea  in 
showing  me  where  I  was  wrong,  but  he 
earnestly  proceeded  to  convince  me  of 
my  error.  "Of  course,"  he  said,  "on 
Mardi  Gras  day  there  is  general  masking 
and  merry-making  on  the  streets  in 
which  human  nature  will  assert  itself. 
The  idea  of  fun  with  some,  when  given 
free  rein,  is  to  lapse  into  the  extremely 
grotesque,  and  in  some  cases  to  be  even 
coarse.  All  that,  however,  is  but  an 
aside.  Let  me  read  you  the  proclamation 
of  Rex,  King  of  the  Carnival,  that  is 
issued  every  year,"  and  he  stepped  into 
his  cabin  and  brought  out  a  copy  of  that 
document.  "Of  course,"  he  continued, 
"it  is  a  mock  assumption  of  royalty  and 
supremacy.  Supremacy  because,  you 
know,  he  is  given  the  keys  of  the  city  the 
day  before  the  Mardi  Gras,  and  his 
reign  is  supposed  to  be  supreme  from 
thence  on  to  the  close  of  the  festivities. 
It  is  true  also  that  the  King  is  one  of  our 
citizens,  unknown  as  to  identity  until  the 
unmasking  at  the  grand  ball  on  Mardi 
Gras  night.  Also  that  he  is  represented 
by  a  substitute  on  the  landing  of  the  day 
before.  Still,  for  the  time  being,  a  cer- 
tain spirit  prevades  both  the  actors  and 
the  populace  that  to  a  degree  makes  it 
all  seem  real.  The  spirit  is  of  a  nature 
that  begets  a  feeling  of  dignity  and  poetic 
beauty  in  connection  with  the  various 
displays  and  ceremonies.  This  proclama- 
tion here  I  think  epitomizes  the  thought 
I  am  trying  to  convey."  He  then  read 
the  proclamation,  which  ran  as  follows : 

PROCLAMATION 
By  the  King  of  the  Carnival 

Edict  (year) 

GREETING 
The  Lord  High  Chamberlain  of  His 


Majesty's  Household  announces  that  the 
King  will  pay  his  annual  v/isit  to  His  be- 
loved Capital  City  of  New  Orleans  on 
the  great  fete  day  of  Mardi  Gras,  the  . . 

day  of    ,    A  hearty 

welcome  is  extended  to  all  loyal  subjects 
to  participate  with  his  Royal  household 
in  the  fullness  of  this  Season  of  Joy. 
The  festivities  and  pageants  arranged 
for  his  Majesty's  reception  will  surpass 
in  joyousness  and  splendor  the  most  bril- 
liant attainments  of  his  glorious  past.  It 
it  ordained  that  good  weather  shall  pre- 
vail, and  the  City  of  Flowers  in  its 
festive  array  promises  abundant  pleasure 
to  all  within  her  gates. 

By  the  King  Himself, 

REX. 

Carnival  Palace,  New  Orleans. 
ATTEST : 
BATHURST,  Lord  High  Chamberlain. 

"Yes,"  I  said,  when  he  had  finished 
reading,  "I  rather  fall  into  the  spirit  of 
that  myself.  It  seems  to  appeal  to  some- 
thing that  is  in  most  everyone's  nature ; 
which  'something',"  I  added  reflectively, 
"might  possibly  be  likened  to  a  mental 
quality  that  encompasses  dreams  and 
high  aspirations  in  some  and  prompts 
the  'putting  up  a  front'  in  others."  The 
captain  laughed  as  he  remarked  that  he 
was  not  sure  that  he  followed  my  com- 
parison, but  was  sure  that  all  classes  of 
people  that  saw  the  Mardi  Gras  generally 
found  themselves  in  a  spirit  of  recep- 
tion, and  at  least  for  the  moment  were 
wont  to  look  upon  what  they  saw  as 
being  what  it  stood  for,  or  represented. 
"Tell  me  about  it,"  I  said,  as  stretching 
back  in  my  steamer  chair,  I  too  placed 
myself  in  a  receptive  mood  for  the  nar- 
ration, as,  with  half  closed  eyes,  I  inci- 
dentally watched  the  movement  of  the 
gulls  circling  the  masthead.  "Well,"  was 
the  reply,  "it  would  be  rather  difficult  to 
put  in  words  what  really  must  be  seen 
to  be  appreciated.  In  a  broad  way,  how- 
ever, one  must  first  know  that  the  cul- 
mination of  the  street  pageants  is  the 
work  of  at  least  fully  a  year,  and  that  it 
all  costs  a  mint  of  money.  No  expense 
is  spared  to  make  the  floats  in  such  per- 
fection as  the  art  of  the  builders  and 
decorators  of  such  specialties  can  achieve. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


31 


The  societies  that  produce  the  pageants 
and  otherwise  contribute  to  our  city's 
mid-winter  festivities,  vary  slightly  from 
year  to  year,  in  number  and  in  detail  of 
purpose.  Of  them,  those  that  during  the 
so-called  carnival  season  (which  gener- 
ally begins  about  January  1st),  are  in- 
strumental in  the  giving  of  balls  and 
tableaux  are  about  sixteen  in  number. 
But  four  of  them,  however,  Momus,  Rex, 
Proteus  and  Comus,  give  street  pageants, 
and  consequently  they  are  the  best  gen- 
erally known.  Momus  generally  ante- 
dates by  a  few  days  the  parades  known 
particularly  in  connection  with  the  Mardi 
Gras.  Of  the  latter  it  may  be  said  that 
they  begin  with  the  arrival  of  Rex  at  his 
'beloved  Capital  City.'  This  last  occurs 
on  Monday,  the  day  before  the  Mardi 
Gras,  and  His  Majesty  comes,  as  it  is 
generally  stated,  from  down  the  river  on 
his  'royal  yacht,  escorted  by  the  royal 
flotilla.'  To  be  sure,  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  that  his  entry  into  his  so- 
called  'royal  domain'  is  made  by  the 
water  route,  but  it  has  become  custom- 
ary, and  my  ship,  when  it  happened  to  be 
due  at  the  right  time,  has  in  times  past 
formed  a  part  of  his  flotilla.  The  parade 
on  that  day  in  such  connection  is  in  the 
forenoon,  and  consists  chiefly  of  the 
triumphal  progress  of  Rex,  with  floats 
and  military  procession,  to  the  City  Hall 
to  receive  the  keys  to  the  City.  On  re- 
ceipt of  the  latter  his  alleged  rule  is  ab- 
solute, and  his  'royal  standard  of  purple, 
green  and  gold'  waves  over  the  city  in 
token  of  his  sovereignty.  It  should  be 
understood  that  the  pageants  that  follow 
consist  of  tableau-floats  of  great  elabor- 
ateness, and  that  a  given  procession 
represents  in  its  floats  some  story,  or 
stories,  of  more  or  less  renown,  or  an 
event  of  a  more  or  less  romantic  nature. 
In  these  tableaux  dignity,  grace,  beauty 
and  sentiment  are  supposed  to  be  de- 
picted ;  and  it  is  in  this  connection  that 
the  real  spirit  of  the  Mardi  Gras  is  made 
manifest.  In  the  evening  of  the  day  of 
the  arrival  of  Rex,  the  first  of  three  im- 
pressive displays  occurs,  that  of  the 
pageant  of  the  Krewe  of  Proteus,  fol- 
lowed by  a  Proteus  ball.  On  Tuesday 
forenoon,  Mardi  Gras  day,  is  the  grand 
parade  of  Rex  in  float  tableaux,  and  in 


the  evening  the  parade  of  the  Mystick 
Krewe  of  Comus,  after  which  is  the 
Grand  Comus  ball.  On  that  evening  is 
also  the  Rex  reception  and  ball,  in  honor 
of  Rex  and  his  queen;  the  latter's  jewels 
worn  on  this  occasion,  having  been  on 
public  exhibition  for  days  before.  After 
their  reception  is  over  and  the  Rex  ball 
is  fairly  under  way,  their  Majesties  pro- 
ceed to  the  Comus  ball,  which  is  the  elite 
affair  of  the  carnival.  At  that  function 
there  are  first  spectacular  groupings  of 
the  costumed  maskers  from  off  the  floats 
of  the  street  parade,  after  which,  led  by 
the  King  and  Queen,  the  figures  of  the 
old-time  Southern  Lancers  are  danced, 
at  the  conclusion  of  which  masks  and 
costumes  are  dispensed  with  and  the  gen- 
eral dancing  begins.  All  three  of  the 
balls  mentioned  are  elite  affairs,  exact- 
ing full  dress,  and  can  only  be  attended 
by  invitation." 

As  the  captain  thus  roughly  sketched 
what  Mardi  Gras  means,  I  frequently  in- 
terrupted him  with  questions,  and  such 
was  my  curiosity,  and  so  many  were  my 
interruptions  that  he  laughingly  protested 
that  I  should  see  the  carnival  to  realize 
fully  what  it  was.  "I  think,"  he  re- 
marked, "you  would  be  as  interested  in 
it  as  was  one  of  your  men  whom  I  have 
the  pleasure  of  knowing,  among  many 
others  of  your  people.  I  refer  to  the 
Rambler,"  he  added,  seeing  my  look  of 
inquiry.  "O,  yes,"  he  continued,  "I  have 
known  him  for  years.  He's  quite  a 
character,  but  just  the  same  a  good 
friend  of  mine.  I  remember,"  he  said, 
laughingly,  "one  occasion  when  he  had 
an  unexpected  time  at  the  Mardi  Gras," 
and  on  my  questioning  look  he  told  me 
this  little  incident.  "As  you  probably 
know,  the  streets  of  our  city  are  not  as 
wide  as  are  those  of  some  of  your  mod- 
ern western  cities.  Hence,  as  the  Mardi 
Gras  parade  passes  through  them  they 
become  densely  packed;  although  for 
that  matter,  there  are  enough  people 
from  all  over  the  country  who  visit  us  at 
that  time  to  pack  any  city  of  our  size, 
even  with  wider  streets.  The  congested 
point  with  us,  however,  is  when  the 
parade  passes  through  Canal  street,  our 
main  artery.  Even  with  the  added  width 
of  the  once  so-called  'neutral  ground'  in 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


that  thoroughfare,  giving  a  total  width 
to  the  street  that  would  compare  favor- 
ably with  any  street  in  the  country,  it  is 
certainly  a  sight  worth  seeing  to  note 
the  mass  of  humanity  .packed  into  every 
available  inch  of  its  space  as  the  floats 
pass  up  one  side  and  down  the  other. 
Well,"  he  interrupted  himself,  "I  am  for- 
getting my  story  about  the  Rambler.  In 
brief,  he  on  one  Mardi  Gras  evening  was 
jammed  in  that  great  crowd  watching  the 
passing  parade.  He  had  standing  room 
some  dozen  or  more  rows  back  from  the 
front  line;  but  he  was  philosophical 
about  it,  and,  by  craning  his  neck  was 
taking  in  over  the  heads  of  the  crowd  in 
•  front  of  him,  with  keen  interest  all  that 
passed.  I  forget  the  subject  that  parade 
represented,  but  I  think  it  was  called 
'Songs  of  Long  Ago,'  various  of  the  old 
classics  of  song  being  represented  by  al- 
legorical floats.  So  absorbed  was  the 
Rambler  that  in  common  with  most  of 
the  good  natured  crowd,  he  did  not  mind 
small  waves  of  jostling  and  crowding 
that  occurred  every  now  and  then. 
When,  however,  one  of  a  particularly  in- 
tense nature  reached  him,  in  defense  of 
his  equilibrium  his  attention  was  neces- 
sarily diverted  from  the  passing  parade. 
Unusual  exclamations  and  cries  from 
those  about  him  caused  him  instinctively 
to  look  about  to  learn  the  cause,  and  he 
discovered  that  it  seemed  to  be  something 
on  the  ground  that  was  attracting  atten- 
tion. Twisting  about  as  well  as  he  was 
able,  he  got  sight  of  a  stray  terrier  dog 
that  was  being  laughingly  and  semi-good- 
humoredly  pushed  and  kicked  along 
under  the  feet  of  the  crowd.  The  dog, 
which  had  evidently  started  into  the 
crowd  at  its  outer  edge  and  became 
hemmed  in,  was  now  somewhat  wild 
with  excitement  as  to  which  way  to  turn 
to  get  out  of  his  trouble.  Perhaps  un- 
intentionally, but  nevertheless  truly,  the 
dog  was  receiving  rough  usage,  and 
naturally  had  reached  a  state  of  utter  be- 
wilderment. Turn  which  way  he  would, 
there  was  a  forest  of  feet  and  legs.  He 
added  to  the  confusion  he  made  by  wail- 
ing and  yelping.  But  his  yelping  ap- 
pealed to  the  Rambler,  so  that  the  latter 
worked  himself  around  in  the  jam  to 


take  in  the  situation.  Although  he  got 
a  glimpse  now  and  then  of  the  little  fel- 
low, the  dog  was  out  of  reach  and  his 
ultimate  finish  could  be  seen  at  a  glance. 
To  have  him  trampled  to  death  was 
something  the  Rambler  could  not  stand. 
So  with  a  desperate  twist  and  turn,  re- 
sulting in  a  rough  jostling  of  those  about 
him,  he  made  for  the  dog,  and  in  a  final 
stoop  that  threatened  to  throw  the 
Rambler  himself  off  his  feet,  he  finally 
reached  the  canine  and  picked  him  up. 
Those  in  the  immediate  vicinity  some- 
what resented  the  extra  jamming  they  had 
received  by  the  Rambler's  act,  and  began 
in  turn  to  jostle  him ;  but  they  addressed 
their  remarks  particularly  to  the  dog,  and 
some  of  those  that  were  near  enough 
tried  to  throw  it  out  of  the  Rambler's 
hands.  The  Rambler's  ire  was  up,  how- 
ever, and  it  became  the  chief  object  of 
his  life  for  the  moment  to  rescue  that 
animal  from  further  insults  and  calamity. 
A  few  in  the  crowd  nearest  him  seemed 
equally  determined  to  have  what  they 
called  fun  by  dispossessing  him  of  the 
creature.  Hence,  for  a  few  moments  the 
jostling,  snatching  and  crowding  around 
my  friend  was  decidedly  intense.  But 
finally  the  Rambler  relieved  the  strain 
by  working  his  arms  up  over  his  head, 
at  which,  as  the  dog  hung  in  his 
hands,  yelping  and  squirming  over  the 
heads  of  the  crowd,  a  shout  of  laughter 
and  cries  of  encouragement  went  up ; 
for  in  that  moment  the  majority  was  in 
sympathy  with  the  Rambler.  That,  how- 
ever, was  but  the  beginning  of  the  rescue, 
for  clearly  the  dog  could  not  be  held  at 
arms'  length  in  that  way  indefinitely. 
Hence  a  desperate  effort  was  made  by  the 
Rambler  to  reach  the  front  of  the  line; 
in  which,  as  far  as  was  possible  under 
such  circumstances,  he  was  helped  by  his 
sympathizers.  Consequently,  after  a  long 
struggle,  he  got  within  two  or  three 
persons  of  the  front  of  the  line.  But  his 
arms  began  to  give  out  and  the  dog  was 
struggling  fiercely.  So  in  sheer  despera- 
tion, and  as  a  last  resort,  seeing  that  the 
dog  would  drop  from  his  hands  in  a 
minute,  the  Rambler  gave  it  a  mighty 
throw  from  him  over  the  heads  of  those 
in  front  in  the  direction  of  one  of  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


33 


passing  cars.  The  dog  went  sailing 
through  the  air  and  upset  the  dignity  of 
one  of  the  masked  characters  on  the  float, 
who,  luckily  seeing  it  coming,  dodged  as 
the  little  terrier  whizzed  by  his  head  and 
landed  in  the  intricacies  of  the  orna- 
mental superstructure  of  the  car.  I  am 
not  sure,"  said  the  captain  musingly,  as 
he  began  on  the  bouillon  and  crackers 
that  the  deck  steward  had  just  passed 
around,  "but  I  think  that  particular  float 
was  labeled  'Listen  to  the  Mocking  Bird.' 
However,  the  dog  disappeared  in  the 
structure,  but  evidently  landed  safely 
somewhere  inside,  for  the  Rambler  told 
me  afterwards  that  the  masked  figure 
who  had  been  obliged  to  duck,  and  who 
evidently  was  of  the  same  humane  in- 
stinct as  the  Rambler  himself,  looked  be- 
hind some  papier-mache  creation  that 
was  a  part  of  the  superstructure  and  was 
evidently  satisfied  that  the  dog  was  all 
right,  as  he  reached  over  for  a  moment 
as  if  picking  the  animal  up,  and  then 
resumed  his  pose." 

"Do  you  know,"  the  Captain  resumed, 
"that  little  incident  upset  the  Rambler 
for  the  rest  of  the  evening  as  far  as  the 
parade  was  concerned.  Immediately 
after  disposing  of  the  dog  in  the  manner 
related,  he  as  quickly  as  possible  edged 
himself  out  of  the  crowd,  took  a  street 
car  and  cut  off  the  procession  on  another 
less  crowded  street  and  watched  until  he 
saw  that  'Listen  to  the  Mocking  Bird' 
car  go  by  again.  When  it  came  opposite 
him  he  attracted  the  attention  of  the  man 
on  the  float  by  waving  his  hand.  The 
man  seemed  to  understand,  and  again  so 
far  forgot  his  character  in  the  scene  his 
float  represented  as  to  nod  his  head 
affirmatively  and  point  quickly  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  car ;  from  which  the  Rambler 
was  encouraged  to  believe  that  the  dog 
was  all  right.  He  was  not  satisfied,  how- 
ever, and  followed  that  procession  by 
cross  cuts  until  its  end,  and  then  hunted 
up  the  'Mocking  Bird'  car.  He  went  to 
sleep  happy  that  night,  for  in  a  corner  of 
the  float,  safe  from  all  harm,  he  found 
the  dog  cuddled  up  asleep  and  apparently 
unharmed  by  his  adventure." 

As  the  captain  finished,  Snap-Shot 
Bill's  question  of  a  little  while  ago  came 


to  me  as  to  what  I  thought  the  Rambler 
would  do  should  he  see  a  dog  run  over 
by  an  automobile,  and  I  made  a  mental 
note  to  tell  Bill  this  story  at  the  earliest 
opportunity. 

In  due  course  our  good  ship  made  the 
Pass,  110  miles  below  the  Crescent  City, 
passed  through  the  jetties  and  wound  its 
way  up  the  river  to  its  dock  in  New  Or- 
leans, the  voyage  having  been  a  pleasant 
one  from  start  to  finish.  It  was  with 
regret,  shortly  after,  that  I  found  my 
business  in  the  southern  metropolis  had 
come  to  an  end,  and  I  left  for  home  with 
•  the  determination  if  possible  to  return  at 
Mardi  Gras  time.  Of  course,  I  took  an 
early  opportunity  to  see  the  Rambler  and 
tell  him  of  my  pleasant  acquaintance 
with  his  friend  the  captain,  and  inci- 
dentally asked  him  about  the  dog.  He 
laughed  and  said,  "O,  I  guess  'Cap' 
stretched  that  a  bit;  but  just  the  same  it 
was  certainly  a  crowd  I  was  in 
that  night  at  the  Mardi  Gras.  No 
greater,  however,  than  usual,  I*  under- 
stand ;  and  that  reminds  me,"  he  ad- 
ded thoughtfully,  "of  a  speculation  that 
is  'constantly  coming  to  my  mind,  and  to 
which  I  have  as  yet  found  no  satisfactory 
answer.  That  is,  where  do  crowds  come 
from,  any  way?  Take  for  instance  the 
Mardi  Gras.  New  Orleans  is,  of  course, 
a  large  city  in  itself,  and  capable  of  mass- 
ing people  together  on  its  own  account; 
but  possibly  at  the  carnival  these  are  aug- 
mented by  as  many  again  from  outside. 
This  for  the  reason  that  strangers  pour 
into  that  city  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try at  Mardi  Gras  time ;  and  that  re- 
minds me  again  of  a  matter  I  think  I 
have  mentioned  on  a  previous  occasion. 
How  come  those  outside  people  to  go  to 
see  the  Mardi  Gras;  or,  taken  more 
broadly,  what  is  the  motive  that  causes 
the  tourist  to  go  in  any  given  direction? 
Eliminating  the  first  answer  that  would 
naturally  come  to  mind,  that  they  go  to 
see,  learn  or  be  amused,  the  question  re- 
mains through  what  agency  would  they 
learn  that  they  could  be  instructed  and 
amused  at  a  given  place?  Was  it  by  as- 
sociation through  friends  who  had  gone 
before,  by  newspaper  description,  or  by 
Chamber  of  Commerce  or  railroad  ad- 


34 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


vertising?  In  other  words,  to  get  down 
to  personal  interests,  how  many  of  the 
people  from  the  outside  who  go  to  the 
Mardi  Gras,  Florida,  or  other  resorts 
which  we  advertise  heavily,  go  as  a  result 
of  that  advertising?  It  is  morally  cer- 


tain that  many  do,  but  if  we  could  only 
know  definitely  how  many."  He  shook 
his  head  in  apparent  deep  thought  for  a 
moment  and  then  aroused  himself  and 
said,  ''Well,  so  long  for  now.  I  am  par- 
ticularly busy  with  my  correspondence." 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


THE  RAILWAY  AGE  GAZETTE,  in  a 
lengthy  article  analyzes  the  Accident 
Bulletin  for  1915  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  from  which  article  the 
following  brief  parts  are  taken: 

"The  accident  record  of  the  railways  for 
1915  is  in  most  respects  the  best  ever  re- 
ported, even  when  allowance  is  made  for 
the  reduced  chances  for  accident  resulting 
from  the  decrease  in  traffic." 

It  then  shows  that  excluding  trespassers, 
the  total  number  of  fatalities  in  connection 
with  railway  operation  was  less  than  for 
any  year  since  1900,  and  27  per  cent  less 
than  in  1914,  while  the  number  of  passengers 
carried  one  mile  in  1915  was  approximately 
106  per.  cent  greater  and  the  number  of 
tons  of  freight  hauled  one  mile  was  about 
92  per  cent  greater  than  in  1900. 

"The  total  number,"  it  says,  "of  pas- 
sengers killed,  222,  out  of  approximately 
one  billion  carried,  was  less  than  for  any 
other  year  since  1898,  when  only  798,000,000 
were  carried;  and  the  total  injured  was  less 
than  for  any  other  year  since  1906." 

On  the  subject  of  operation  the  Gazette 
observes:  "Railroad  conditions  are  most 
truly  reflected  by  the  number  of  casualties 
resulting  from  train  operation,  which  ex- 
cludes industrial  accidents."  It  then 
goes  on  to  say  that  the  total  for  1915  as 
compared  with  1914,  was  a  decrease  of  20 
per  cent,  and  less  than  for  any  other  year 
in  the  last  decade,  exceot  1909,  when  the 
volume  of  business  handled  was  less  than 
in  1915.  Also  that  the  number  of  persons 
killed  in  accidents  connected  with  train 
operation  was  16.8  per  cent  less  than  in 
1914,  and  was  less  than  for  any  other  year 
since  1901.  The  number  iniured  was  20.9 
per  cent  less  than  in  1914,  and  was  less  than 
for  any  other  year  since  1910. 

Of  train  accidents  it  quotes  the  record 
as  showing  for  1915  as  compared  with  1914, 
a  decrease  of  23  per  cent,  which  "was  less 
than  for  any  other  year  in  the  last  ten 
years,  with  the  possible  exception  of  1909." 
Under  the  three  broad  heads  of  collisions, 
derailments  and  miscellaneous,  of  which 
there  was  a  decrease  of  32  per  cent  in  col- 
lisions, of  20  per  cent  in  derailments,  and  3.4 
per  cent  miscellaneous,  it  had  the  follow- 
ing to  say:  "The  number  of  collisions 
was  the  smallest  in  10  years,  and  the 
number  of  collisions  and  derailments  com- 


bined was  the  smallest,  excepting  in 
1909,  since  1903,  while  the  number  of  per- 
sons killed  and  injured  in  collisions  and  de- 
railments was  the  smallest  reported  by  the 
Commission  since  1902.  The  total  number 
of  persons  killed  in  the  11,542  train  acci- 
dents was  410,  or  34  per  cent  less  than  in 
1914,  and  the  number  injured,  8,362,  was 
32  per  cent  less.  The  number  of  passengers 
killed  in  train  accidents  was  89,  as  com- 
pared with  85  in  1914,  and  with  that  ex- 
ception was  less  than  for  any  other  year 
since  1899,  although  the  number  of  pas- 
sengers carried  one  mile  in  1914  was  146 
per  cent  greater  than  that  of  1899.  The 
total  for  the  two  years  combined  is  hardly 
greater  than  the  average  for  the  last  10 
years,  which  was  164." 


Mr.  Carlton  B.  Courtright,  ticket  agent 
of  the  Erie  Railroad,  at  Plains,  Pa.,  writes 
in  the  "Information  Circular"  of  his  road  as 
follows  unde«-  the  caption  "If  They  Were 
You."  While  it  is  presumed  that  conditions 
as  suggested  in  this  article  by  Mr.  Court- 
right  do  not  exist  at  any  of  the  stations  of 
the  Illinois  Central,  a  perusal  will  possibly 
help  to  avoid  lapses  of  the  kind  at  any  time 
in  the  future. 

"If  we  were  passengers,  Mr.  Ticket  Agent, 
would  we  appreciate  the  angry  look  and 
manner  of  the  ticket  agent  when  we  pur- 
chased our  tickets?  Would  the  carefulness 
and  efficiency  of  the  railroad  company  be 
considered  at  all  good  by  us  if  we  noticed 
the  waiting  room,  the  stove,  the  office,  and 
the  advertising,  dusty  and  dirty.  Should 
papers  be  scattered  in  helter  skelter  fashion 
in  the  office  or  notices  posted  any  old  way, 
in  the  waiting  room?  Would  we  be  pleased 
if  we  had  to  wait  three  or  four  days  when 
in  a  hurry  for  the  local  ticket  agent  to  an- 
swer our  letter  for  information,  or  hold  the 
'phone  fifteen  minutes  for  the  agent  to  give 
us  the  information  we  desired? 

"Let  us  all  remember  that  passengers  in 
judging  the  service  of  a  railroad,  determine 
their  judgment  by  the  character  of  the 
agent. 

"We  are  ambassadors  for  the  company 
and  let  us  show  our  worth  in  being  court- 
eous, careful  and  efficient  in  everything  and 
thus  add  greatly  to  the  service  and'  prog- 
ress of  the  'Old  Reliable.'" 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


35 


Visitors  to  the  Panama  Canal  Zone  will 
make  the  trip  with  added  interest  this  win- 
ter on  account  of  the  National  Exposition 
of  Panama,  which  opened  its  doors  on 
February  1st.  This  first  Central  American 
Exposition  is  held  to  commemorate  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  that  sturdy 
navigator  and  explorer  Don  Vasco  Nunez 
de  Balboa  on  September  25,  1513.  Another 
purpose  is  the  strengthening  of  the  bands 
of  friendship  and  sympathy  which  bind  the 
republic  of  Panama  to  the  sister  republics 
of  the  western  world.  The  exposition 
grounds  lie  along  the  bay  shore  to  the 
north  of  the  city  of  Panama  and  in  the 
direction  of  old  Panama.  A  number  of 
handsome  buildings  have  been  erected  and 
the  grounds  have  been  laid  out  and  im- 
proved. Spain  has  built  a  beautiful  edifice; 
so  has  Cuba  and  Venezuela  and  there  are 
delightful  buildings  dedicated  to  the  various 
South  American  Republics.  Many  of  the 
exhibits  owned  by  the  United  States  have 
been  sent  to  Panama  in  an  army  transport 
from  the  San  Francisco  Exposition.  There 
are  to  be  special  military  features  by 
United  Stages  troops  now  stationed  on  the 
Isthmus,  and  a  cavalry  troop  of  United 
States  regulars  will  give  frequent  exhibi- 
tions. Daily  flights  will  be  made  by  avi- 
ators and  there  will  be  a  big  Mardi  Gras 
festival,  sure  to  attract  a  host  of  visitors. 
Among  the  many  interesting  exhibits  will 
be  the  showing  of  Inca  and  Aztec  relics, 
the  flora  and  fauna  of  Panama  and  the  in- 
dustrial and  scientific  exhibits  in  the  Na- 
tional Museum. 


friends,  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  refer  to 
me  if  you  desire. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.   A.    Sipfle. 
AAS:H. 


The  following  letter  has  been  received 
from  Mr.  A.  A.  Sipfle,  cashier,  the  Farmers 
National  Bank  of  Pekin,  111.,  in  regard  to 
our  midwinter  party  to  New  Orleans  and 
the  Mardi  Gras.  This  should  serve  as  a 
reminder  to  the  agents  in  appropriate  ter- 
ritory that  if  they  have  not  already  done 
so,  it  is  well  to  get  busy  on  this  1916  vaca- 
tion party  business.  The  booklets  descr'b- 
ing  it  in  detail  are  now  out  and  will  be 
sent  on  application  to  any  agent  who  has 
not  already  received  at  least  a  copy  for  his 
general  information. 

January   22,    1916. 
Mr.  H.  T.  Phelps,  G.  P.  A., 

Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co., 
Chicago,  111. 

Dear  Sir: — It  would  give  us  nuch 
pleasure  to  make  the  southern  trip  again 
next  month,  but  for  various  reasons  find 
it  impossible  to  do  so. 

We  have  made  various  trips  to  different 
parts  of  our  country,  but  I  am  candid  in 
saying  that  we  never  had  a  better  time 
nor  did  we  ever  meet  pleasanter  people 
than  we  did  on  last  year's  personally  con- 
ducted tour.  It  was  everything  that  you 
advertised  for  it,  and  more. 

I   shall   be  pleased   to  mention   it  to  my 


A  new  train  between  Memphis  and 
Texas,  known  as  "The  Lone  Star,"  was  in- 
augurated on  January  16  on  Cotton  Belt 
Route — St.  Louis  Southwestern  Ry.  South- 
bound the  train  leaves  Memphis  at  9:30 
p.  m.,  arriving  Texarkana  at  6:00  a.  m., 
Dallas  11:25  a.  m.,  Fort  Worth  1:00  p.  m. 
Its  equipment  consists  of  modern  steel 
sleeper,  chair  car,  coach  and  baggage  car. 
In  addition  the  train  carries  between  Mem- 
phis and  Brinkley  a  coach  which  is  dropped 
at  Brinkley  and  picked  up  by  regular 
No.  3  and  goes  through  to  Waco.  This 
coach  accommodates  the  passengers  for 
local  Arkansas  points  at  which  "The  Lone 
Star"  will  not  stop. 

"The  Lone  Star"  makes  connection  at 
Texarkana  with  the  Kansas  City  Southern 
for  Beaumont,  Lake  Charles  and  points  on 
that  line.  Also  with  the  Texas  &  Pacific 
Railway  for  points  on  the  Transcontinental 
Division  of  the  T.  &  P.  At  Texarkana  it 
makes  connection  with  the  T.  &  P.  and  I. 
&  G.  N.  fast  trains  for  Houston  and  Gal- 
vestpn.  Connection  is  also  made  with  the 
M.  K.  &  T.  Railway  at  Dallas  with  their 
Texas  Special,  arriving  at  Waco  at  3:10  p. 
m.,  Temple  4:01  p.  m.,  Austin  6:00  p.  m., 
San  Antonio  8:30  p.  m. 


For  the  year  ending  December  31,  1915, 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  handled  26,- 
019,820  passengers  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  life  in  passenger  train  accidents. 
This  is  the  third  consecutive  year  that  the 
company  has  had  a  clear  record  in  this 
respect,  during  which  time  81,081,541  pas- 
sengers have  been  transported.  For  the 
sixty  years  ending  December  31,  1915,  the 
suburban  service  of  the  company  has 
operated  without  the  loss  of  a  single  life 
in  passenger  train  accidents.  In  this  branch 
of  its  service  the  road  handles  50,000  pas- 
sengers daily  and  operates  300  trains. 

This  remarkable  record  for  safety,  to- 
gether with  those  of  the  Burlington  and 
Pennsylvania  railroads  speaks  well  for  rail- 
road management. 

A  fact  not  generally  known  is  that  in- 
surance companies  pay  twice  as  much 
when  one  is  iniured  on  a  railroad  as  when 
one  is  injured  in  other  ways,  showing 
that  insurance  comnanies  consider  a  per- 
son safer  while  riding  on  railroad  trains 
than  otherwise. — Chicago  Evening  Ameri- 
can, January  15,  1916. 


C.  E.  Stone,  passenger  traffic  manager, 
Great  Northern  Pacific  Steamship  Com- 
pany, San  Francisco,  Cal.,  makes  the  fol- 
lowing announcements  in  regard  to  a 
Cruise  DeLuxe  to  Honolulu:  "Steamship 


36 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Northern  Pacific  discontinued  in  Coastwise 
Service.  After  February  8th  until  further 
notice,  leaves  San  Francisco,  February 
16th,  in  Cruise  DeLuxe  to  Honolulu  mid- 
winter carnival  via  San  Pedro,  both  di- 
rections following  schedule:  San  Pedro, 
17th;  Honolulu,  22nd;  leave  Honolulu  mid- 
night, 26th,  Hilo  27th,  arrive  San  Pedro 
3rd,  San  Francisco  4th.  Rate  double  local 
present  tariff,  plus  $25  per  passenger — 
minimum  $155 — includes  maintenance  on 
ship  in  Honolulu.  Only  two  passengers  in 
any  room.  All  first  class.  All  parlor  rooms 
two  fares.  Tariffs  schedules  and  folders  in 
preparation." 


We  are  advised  that  for  an  indefinite 
period  the  exposition  grounds  of  the 
Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  at 
San  Francisco,  will  be  kept  open  to  the 
public;  thus  giving  visitors  to  San  Fran- 
cisco an  opportunity  to  see  the  beautiful 
buildings  and  gardens  which  were  among 
the  chief  attractions  of  that  fair.  The  Palace 
of  Fine  Arts  is  open  daily  from  10:00  a.  m. 
to  5:00  p.  m.  and  band  concerts  are  given 
there  every  Sunday.  General  admission  25 
cents;  children  under  12  years,  10  cents. 


The  Sunshine  Special  of  the  St.  L.,  I.  M. 
&  S.  is  now  carrying  in  addition  to  the  all- 
steel  drawing  room  sleeper  between  Mem- 
phis, Dallas  and  Fort  Worth,  an  all-steel 
free  reclining  chair  car  of  the  very  latest 
design  between  the  same  points;  the  de- 
mand for  chair  car  service  havin«-  made  it 
necessary  to  add  this  additional  car. 


When  a  customer  pays  for  a  ticket  don't 
put  the  money  away  in  your  cash  drawer 
until  the  change,  if  any  is  due,  has  been 
counted  out.  This  simple  procedure  will 
avoid  many  arguments  over  the  amount  of 
money  involved  and  save  many  mistakes. — 
Erie  Information  Circular. 


Important  changes  in  train  schedules  will 
take  place  on  the  Illinois  Central  and  Y. 
&  M.  V.  on  February  20th,  details  concern- 
ing which  will  be  duly  announced. 


"Papa,  what  do  you  call  a  man  who  runs 
an  auto?" 

"It  depends  upon  how  near  he  comes  to 
hitting  me." — Houston  Post. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  PASSENGER  STATION,  BELLEVILLE,  ILL. 


New  Body  Hung  Suspension 

By  J.  D.  Younger,  Foreman  Electrical  Department 


E  axle  type  of  generator  suspension 
has  often  been  criticised  on  the  ground 
of  being  inaccessible  and  of  having  too 
many  wearing  parts  to  get  loose.  This 
has  led  to  the  development  of  several  types 
of  body  hung  suspensions.  The  advantage 
of  these  equipments  is  that  they  reduce  the 
unsprung  weight  on  the  trucks  as  well  as 
reducing  the  total  weight  of  the  suspension. 
These  body  hung  types  have  also  made  the 
generator  more  accessible,  which  is  a  point 
that  is  appreciated  by  the  repair  man. 

The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  have  just 
built  an  experimental  suspension  that  seems 
to  answer  all  objections  to  this  type  of 
equipment.  Illustration  shows  this  suspen- 
sion mounted  on  the  fish-belly  girders  of 
a  new  steel  coach.  By  removing  the  belt, 
the  repair  man  is  able  to  move  about  on 
all  sides  of  the  generator. 

The  mechanical  details  of  this  suspension 
are  very  simple.  Hub  shown  is  fastened 
onto  the  fish-belly  girders  and  a  pipe  runs 
between  them,  for  the  shaft  to  turn  in. 
The  2>4-inch  shaft  is  placed  in  this  pipe 
so  the  only  point  for  wear  is  the  shaft  in 
the  pipe.  To  insure  that  these  points  are 
well  lubricated  at  all  times,  a  grease  cup 
is  placed  on  the  pipe,  surrounding  the 
shaft,  so  that  bearing  is  greased  from  this 
one  source.  The  suspension  arms  are 
bolted  to  the  base  of  the  generator  and 


NEW   BODY   HUNG   SUSPENSION,    SHOWING 
BELT-TIGHTENING    SPRING 

are  keyed  to  the  bearing  shaft  and  secured 
with  cotter  pins,  making  the  whole  sus- 
pension integral  and  rigid.  As  the  matter 
of  safety,  the  generator  is  also  fastened  to 
the  girders  by  means  of  two  one-link,  1- 
inch  safety  chains  that  would  prevent  the 
generator  from  falling  onto  the  track  if 
the  main  suspension  should  break.  A 
brace  is  bolted  to  the  fish-belly  girders  for 
the  tension  spring  to  work  against. 


37 


CLEANINGS 

from  the 

CIAIMS  DEPARTMENT 

Jntewstfng  -  jfyews  -  of-  "Doings  -  of 
*  Jii  -  and-  Out  -  of*  Court 


The  Rogers  Case  at  Waterloo 


'"THE  trial  of  a  $20,000.00  personal  in- 
jury  law  suit  against  the  Illinois 
Central,  which  was  commenced  in  the 
District  Court  of  Blackhawk  County, 
Iowa,  at  Waterloo,  last  Monday  morn- 
ing, came  to  an  end  on  Saturday,  when 
the  jury  brought  in  a  straight  verdict 
in  favor  of  the  railroad. 

F.  A.  Rogers  was  the  name  of  the 
man  in  whose  favor  the  suit  was 
brought,  and  he  was  represented  by  At- 
torney Mike  Harrington  and  Dr.  T.  T. 
Harris,  who  hail  from  Nebraska. 

Rogers  was  employed  as  a  baggage- 
man in  November,  1911,  and  some  time 
during  that  month  (he  was  not  right 
positive  of  the  date),  he  claimed  that, 
while  transferring  mail  from  one  bag- 
gage car  to  the  other,  at  a  time  when 
the  train  was  in  motion,  a  cinder,  the 
size  of  a  large  English  walnut,  hit  him 
in  the  eye  and  all  but  put  him  out  of 
business.  He  testified  that  he  saw  the 
cinder  coming;  that  it  was  red  hot  and 
that  it  struck  him  on  the  eye  ball  be- 


fore he  could  close  his  eye.  The  speed 
of  the  cinder  must  have  been  some- 
thing terriffic  because  he  claimed  that 
the  blow,  and  not  the  heat  of  the  cinder, 
was  what  did  the  damage.  The  part 
taken  by  Dr.  T.  T.  Harris  was  to  show 
the  great  damage  inflicted  by  the 
cinder.  It  was  an  undisputed  fact  that 
Rogers  was  blind  in  the  right  eye,  but 
how  this  condition  came  about  was  not 
explained  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
jury.  At  any  rate,  the  jury  did  not  con- 
clude that  the  blow  of  the  cinder  had 
put  out  the  eye. 

Doctors  had  seen  Rogers  a  few  days 
after  the  alleged  injury  and  were  un- 
able to  find  any  evidences  of  an  ex- 
ternal injury,  and  so  testified  at  the 
trial. 

This  case  has  been  watched  with 
considerable  interest  on  account  of  the 
fact  that  Rogers  was  well  known  to 
many  of  the  employes  of  the  Minnesota 
and  Iowa  Divisions.  Thinking  that 
there  might  be  some  little  merit  in  the 


38 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


39 


case,  the  Company  offered  to  com- 
promise with  Rogers  before  the  trial, 
but  his  demands  were  prohibitory  and 
it  was  necessary,  in  order  to  satisfy 
Rogers,  that  the  time  of  the  court  and 
the  jury,  the  lawyers  on  both  sides, 
and  many  witnesses,  be  devoted  to 
the  extent  of  an  entire  week  to  a  trial 
of  the  cause.  This  is  a  little  bit  un- 
usual for  Iowa,  because  that  state  is 
not  much  given  to  the  encouragement 
of  personal  injury  damage  suits  which 
lack  merit,  and  the  jury  which  tried 
the  Rogers  case  is  on  record  as  up- 
holding this  policy  of  the  state. 


MISSISSIPPI  LAW  SUITS 
ENDED 

We  feel  proud  over  the  splendid  re- 
sults obtained  in  the  handling  of  suits 
against  the  Illinois  Central  and  Yazoo 
&  Mississippi  Valley  Railroads,  during 
the  January  term  of  the  Circuit  Court, 
which  has  just  adjourned  in  Madison 
County,  Miss. 

A  brief  synopsis  of  the  various  cases, 
together  with  results  of  trials,  follows : 

Rev.  Frazer  Scott  and  his  good  wife, 
Mary  Ellen,  boarded  the  Y.  &  M.  V. 
passenger  train  at  Jackson,  their 
destination  being  Flora.  So  absorbed 
were  they  in  conversation  that  they  did 
not  hear  the  flagman  and  conductor  an- 
nounce the  station,  though  several 
other  passengers  did,  and  they  were 
carried  to  Yazoo  City,  being  delayed 
about  three  hours  in  getting  to  their 
proper  destination.  Rev.  Scott,  who, 
by  the  way,  is  a  Holiness  preacher, 
thought  he  was  damaged  to  the  ex- 
tent of  $1,000.00,  while  he  placed  his 
wife's  damage  at  $2,000.00.  So  over- 
whelming was  our  proof  that  the  Com- 
pany had  discharged  its  obligation, 
that  both  suits  were  dismissed. 

Willis  Jackson  wanted  $308.78, 
wages  which  we  had  previously  paid 
his  son,  on  the  grounds  that  his  son 
was  a  minor  and  we  had  no  right  to 
employ  him.  His  son  traveled  all  the 
way  from  Memphis  to  assist  his  father 
in  extracting  the  above  sum  of  money 
from  us,  but  the  jury  thought  that  the 
son  was  of  age  and  that,  too,  the  Com- 


pany had  paid  the  son  every  dollar 
due  him,  and  they  would  do  their  part 
toward  stopping  this  character  of  liti- 
gation. 

Grant  Robinson,  a  gentleman  of 
color,  imbibed  too  freely  of  the  fluid 
which  made  Milwaukee  famous,  forgot 
his  color  and  tied  into  our  night  watch- 
man. The  doctor  brought  him  around 
and  Grant  thought  $6,000.00  would  about 
reimburse  him,  but  Grant  changed  his 
mind  about  the  time  the  case  was 
reached  for  trial  and  a  clear  verdict  was 
given  us. 

Albert  Patterson,  colored,  non  corn- 
pus  mentis,  accompanied  a  large  force 
of  laborers  to  Frenier,  La.,  where  they 
were  engaged  in  restoring  the  tracks 
after  the  September  storm.  Albert, 
not  being  a  Baptist,  objected  to  going 
into  the  water,  whereupon  he  claimed, 
the  foreman  persuaded  him  to  do  so, 
and  he  stepped  upon  a  nail.  He  want- 
ed $1,000.00,  but  the  jury  thought  oth- 
erwise and  were  not  long  in  bringing 
in  a  verdict  for  the  Company. 

Andrew  Davis,  of  African  descent, 
was  employed  as  a  section  laborer.  In 
running  down  tht  embankment  to  escape 
being  struck  by  the  fragments  of  a  hand 
car  about  to  be  struck  by  a  freight  train, 
got  his  feet  tangled  in  some  vines  and  fell 
to  the  ground.  One  of  his  fellow  labor- 
ers was  so  careless  as  to  trample  upon  his 
chest,  causing  injuries  which  did  not 
disappear  until  after  the  jury  had  re- 
ported adversely  on  his  $2,500.00  suit. 

At  the  present  time  there  is  not  a 
single  suit  pending  against  either  of 
our  companies  in  Madison  Country. 
This  is  truly  a  most  remarkable  and 
gratifying  condition,  when  it  is  recalled 
that  two  or  three  years  ago  there  were 
from  twenty  to  fifty  suits  pending 
there. 


DO  NOT  PAY  FOR  DOG  BITES. 

Max  Stark,  traveling  salesman,  while 
walking  up  the  passenger  platform  at 
Jackson,  Miss.,  spied  a  small  French 
poodle  and  snaped  his  fingers  at  it. 
The  dog  was  not  as  amiable  as  Max, 
at  least  did  not  take  kindly  to  our 


40 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Hebrew  friend's  overtures  of  friend- 
ship, and  fastened  his  teeth  in  Max's 
thumb.  The  effect  was  a  slight  scratch, 
but  Max  believed  in  "Safety  First"  and 
remained  in  Jackson,  taking  the  Pas- 
teur treatment. 

When  his  recovery  was  assured,  he 
visited  our  local  claim  agent  and  stated 
that  he  expected  to  hold  the  Company 
for  all  expenses,  mental  anguish,  suf- 
fering and  loss  of  time.  When  asked 
what  his  salary  was,  he  mentioned  a 
figure  which  caused  the  claim  agent 
to  immediately  get  into  touch  with  the 
firm  whose  wares  Max  was  offering,  in 
nn  endeavor  to  secure  a  similar  posi- 
tion. 

The  Company  did  not  feel  that  they 
should  be  made  to  pay  for  the  dog's 
dislike  for  Max  and  were  forced  to 
politely  decline  his  claim. 


A  BETTER  FEELING  TOWARDS 
THE  RAILROADS 

The  compromise  of  the  claim  of  Mrs. 
Deason,  whose  husband  was  killed  in 
the  early  fall  in  Clarksdale,  shows  that 
the  railroad  will  always  make  what 
reparation  in  case  of  an  accident  that 
is  possible. 

Mr.  Deason  was  comparatively  a 
young  man  and  leaves  a  wife  and  two 
children.  He  was  a  younger  brother 
to  Messrs.  O.  L.  Deason,  of  Yazoo 
county  and  John  Deason,  of  near  Bel- 
zoni.  The  Deason  brothers  were 
reared  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  county 
and  have  always  been  among  Yazoo 
county's  foremost  citizens.  —  Yazoo 
City  (Miss.)  Herald,  January  7,  1916. 


COURT  COSTS  IN  FAKE  SUITS. 
On  March  21,  1913,  the  engine  and 
a  baggage  car  of  Y.  &  M.  V.  train  No. 
114,  running  about  15  miles  an  hour, 
were  derailed  near  Farrell,  Miss.  The 
coaches  in  which  the  passengers  were 
riding  were  not  derailed  and  no  com- 
plaint of  injury  was  made  by  any  pas- 
senger on  the  train,  although  a  diligent 
inquiry  was  made  of  all,  the  train  re- 
maining at  the  place  for  several  hours 
before  the  derailed  cars  were  gotten 
back  on  the  track.  The  following 


month  three  suits  were  filed  in  the  cir- 
cuit court,  first  district  of  Coahoma 
County,  Miss.,  by  Earnest  Gaston,  Liz- 
zie French  and  Sarah  Walls.  In  the 
first  suit  $12,500,  and  in  each  of  the 
others  $8,000  was  demanded  as  dam- 
ages for  personal  injuries  claimed  to 
have  been  sustained  by  these  persons 
in  the  derailment  referred  to,  it  being 
alleged  they  were  thrown  from  their 
seats  against  the  side  of  the  car  and 
adjoining  seats  with  such  force  and 
violence  as  to  cause  serious  injuries, 
Gaston  claiming  to  have  sustained  a 
fractured  rib  and  other  injuries  of  a 
permanent  nature.  It  was  also  alleged 
that  immediately  following  the  acci- 
dent these  three  repaired  to  a  nearby 
house  where  they  remained  several 
hours  until  the  train  proceeded  on  its 
journey,  during  all  of  which  time  they 
suffered  excruciating  pain  and  were 
given  no  attention. 

It  developed  that  these  people  were 
negroes  and  that  Gaston  was  a  brother 
of  the  two  women.  Gaston's  case  was 
tried  in  April,  1914,  when  it  was  proven 
by  the  negro  man  and  his  wife,  at 
whose  house  they  stayed,  that  they 
made  no  complaint  of  injury  while 
there.  Other  witnesses  were  produced, 
both  white  and  black,  who  were  pas- 
sengers on  the  train,  and  stated  that 
they  heard  no  complaint  of  personal 
injury  from  any  of  the  passengers.  A 
doctor  did  testify  to  having  discovered 
serious  injuries  but  the  jury  evidently 
believed  the  case  was  a  fake  and 
promptly  returned  a  verdict  for  the 
railroad  company,  whereupon,  the  suits 
brought  by  the  women  were  dismissed. 
They  were,  however,  refiled  at  a  later 
term  of  court  and,  after  being  contin- 
ued from  time  to  time,  the  Sarah  Walls 
case  was  reached  for  trial  during  the 
first  week  of  January.  That  also  re- 
sulted in  a  verdict  for  the  railroad. 
However,  this  did  not  discourage  Liz- 
zie French  and  her  attorney,  who  in- 
sisted upon  a  trial  which  was  had  dur- 
ing the  second  week  of  the  term  and 
the  jury  found  for  the  company. 

The  important  feature  stressed  by 
the  institution  and  prosecution  of  these 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


41 


suits  is  that  the  county  and  the  rail- 
road were  subjected  to  a  large  expense 
in  the  trial  of  these  cases,  each  trial 
consuming  nearly  two  days.  Upon  in- 
quiry it  is  found  that  the  clerk's  costs 
aggregated  about  $165  and  the  sheriff's 
about  $110,  or  a  total  expense  to  the 
county  of  $275.  The  railroad  company 
also  expended  several  hundred  dollars 
in  witness  fees,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
time  of  its  employes. 

There  are  sound  and  sufficient  rea- 
sons with  which  all  are  acquainted, 
why  a  citizen  who  is  without  means, 
should  not  be  denied  recourse  to  the 
courts  because  he  is  without  funds  to 
advance  the  costs  and  there  are  also 
reasons  why  a  cost  bond  should  not 
be  required  in  all  cases,  but  in  view  of 
the  numerous  instances  where  outrage- 
ous advantage  is  taken  of  the  pauper's 
oath,  it  does  seem  that  some  means 
should  be  devised  to  discourage  suits 
of  this  nature.  Too  often  their  inspir- 
ation is  with  the  attorney  who  takes 
the  case  on  a  contingent  fee  and  who 
has  everything  to  gain  and  nothing  to 
lose.  In  such  cases  he  is  a  more  or 
less  equal  partner  with  the  plaintiff  in 
any  recovery  which  may  be  secured 
and  if  he  were  required  to  be  person- 
ally responsible  for  the  costs  or  furnish 
a  bond,  it  is  a  safe  prediction  that  there 
would  be  a  tremendous  decrease  in  this 
character  of  litigation.  Court  costs  are 
never  so  heavy  that  an  attorney  who 
has  an  abiding  faith  in  the  justice  of 
his  client's  suit,  need  complain  of  the 
risk  in  becoming  responsible  for  the 
costs  when  he  is  sure  the  proceeds,  if 
any,  will  be  far  in  excess  of  the  cash 
fee  for  which  he  would  gladly  perform 
the  same  amount  of  work. 


NOT  GUILTY. 

There  had  been  a  railway  collision 
near  a  country  town  in  a  southern 
state,  and  a  shrewd  lawyer  had  hurried 
from  his  office  to  the  scene  of  the  dis- 
aster. He  noticed  an  old  colored  man 
with  a  badly  injured  head,  and  hur- 
ried up  to  him  where  he  lay  moaning 
on  the  ground. 


"How  about  damages?"  began  the 
lawyer. 

"G'way,  boss,  g'way,"  he  said.  "I 
never  hit  de  train.  I  never  done  sich 
a  thing  in  all  mah  life,  so  help  me 
Gawd!  Yo'  can't  git  no  damages  outen 
me." — Chicago  Herald. 


TELL  ME  THE  OLD,  OLD 
STORY. 

In  one  of  the  cities  of  Illinois,  not 
many  miles  from  Chicago,  lived  a  good 
and  respectable  citizen.  He  was  a  man 
admired  by  all  who  knew  him,  his 
friends  were  in  number  equal  to  his 
acqaintances.  One  day  in  Febrary, 
while  walking  across  a  public  cross- 
ing he  was  struck  by  a  locomotive  that 
was  backing  up,  run  over  and  killed. 

At  a  convenient  season  thereafter 
the  Claim  Agent  in  charge  of  the  case 
addressed  a  communication  to  the  fam- 
ily suggesting  an  interview  with  them 
or  such  members  thereof  as  they  might 
designate,  with  the  view  of  initiating  a 
frank  and  unrestricted  discussion  of 
the  facts  for  the  purpose  of  reaching 
an  equitable  compromise. 

At  the  time  of  the  death  of  this  es- 
teemed man,  an  inquest  was  held,  and 
among  those  who  attended  was  a  cer- 
tain lawyer  who  presumed  to  act  for 
the  family  of  the  deceased.  This  in 
and  of  itself  is  ever  significant  and  a 
signal  whose  purport  is  not  altogether 
favorable. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  representa- 
tive of  the  family  and  the  Claim  Agent 
shortly  afterwards,  it  was  explained 
that  the  attorney  in  question  had  mere- 
ly appeared  as  the  friend  of  the  fam- 
ilv,  had  nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with 
the  matters  at  hand,  and  that  in  no 
event  was  he  to  act  unless  the  family 
were  unable  to  satisfactorily  adjust 
matters  in  question  with  the  railway. 
In  this  case  it  may  be  well  to  say  that 
the  representative  of  the  family  was  a 
well  balanced,  clear  cut,  conservative 
farmer,  a  son  of  the  deceased,  and  man 
of  affairs.  There  was  some  three  or 
four  interviews  between  him  and  the 
Claim  Aerent  before  terms  were  agreed 
upon.  In  the  meantime  the  Claim 


42 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Agent  had  received  some  two  or  three 
letters  from  the  lawyer,  but  in  each  and 
every  instance  was  advised  that  he  was 
not  acting  as  attorney  for  the  claimant 
or  the  family.  Finally  one  day  the 
Claim  Agent  suggested  to  the  Admin- 
istrator that  he  had  better  ascertain  just 
what  his  status  was  with  Mr.  Lawyer 
and  learn  if  they  both  understood  the 
matter  precisely  alike,  because  in  some 
cases  where  you  see  things  differently 
a  little  later  on,  you  fail  to  recognize 
some  of  the  things  you  once  had  in 
mind,  and  you  at  once  become  cog- 
nizant that  you  do  not  own  as  much 
as  you  formerly  did,  and  that  your 
temper  has  been  entirely  shattered, 
you  do  well  to  refrain  from  commit- 
ting a  breach  of  the  peace. 

Anyway  settlement  was  made  with 
the  representative  of  the  family  and 
the  voucher  went  forward.  In  a  few 
days  the  Claim  Agent  received  the  fol- 
lowing letter  from  the  family  repre- 
sentative : 

Dear  Mr 

I  received  the  voucher  you  sent  me 
and  thank  you  very  kindly,  but  Mr. 
Lawyer  is  claiming  that  he  has  col- 
lected this  money  for  us  and  is  asking 

$500  for  his  services.    Now  Mr 

you  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  this  is 
an  unjust  claim.  I  admit  that  I  talked 
to  him  a  good  deal  about  this  but  with 
the  understanding  that  I'd  employ  him 
providing  we  could  not  reach  an  agree- 
ment, but  I  never  doubted  but  what 
you  and  I  could  get  together  and  I 
always  felt  that  you  were  a  man  of 
honor  and  were  willing  to  do  what  was 
right  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to  deal 
with  you,  and  you  know  I  always  told 
you  I  wanted  to  make  a  peaceful  set- 
tlement and  save  expenses.  I  wish 
that  you  would  help  me  in  this  matter 
as  I  believe  you  are  a  man  that  be- 
lieves in  seeing  every  man  get  justice. 
I  am  very  sorry  to  bother  you  about 
this  matter  but  will  feel  ever  grateful 
to  you  if  you  would  do  me  the  favon 
Thanking  you  in  advance,  I  remain, 

Yours  very  truly, 


It  was  such  imposters  as  this  that 
Paul  had  in  mind  when  he  said : 

"Having  the  form  of  Godliness,  but 
denying  the  power  thereof,  from  such 
turn  away." 


TOLL  OF  TRESPASSING. 

"In  spite  of  all  the  laws  that  have 
been  enacted  and  the  vigilance  of  rail- 
road employes,  10,785  trespassers  on 
railroad  tracks  suffered  injuries,  of 
whom  4,746,  or  44  per  cent  were  killed 
In  New  York  state,  where  tracks  are 
well  fenced  and  guarded,  832  accidents 
occurred,  of  which  361  were  fatal,"  says 
the  New  York  Commercial.  "Of  these 
352  occurred  in  cities,  261  in  towns  and 
villages  and  219  in  country  districts ;  and 
most  of  those  killed  and  injured  were 
trespassing  in  freight  yards  under  sus- 
picious circumstances.  One-third  of 
those  killed  or  hurt  in  the  United  States 
were  reported  as  of  unknown  occupation, 
and  the  residence  of  one-fifth  of  them 
was  unknown.  Thirty-six  per  cent  were 
stealing  rides  on  trains  when  hurt.  Nine 
per  cent  were  children  under  15  years  of 
age. 

"Trespassing  on  railroad  property  can- 
not be  suppressed  by  putting  laws  on  the 
statute  books.  The  public  must  co-oper- 
ate with  the  police  and  the  railroad  em- 
ployes, and  judges  and  magistrates  must 
punish  all  offenders  who  appear  before 
them.  Trespass  consisting  of  walking 
across  the  right  of  way  would  be  a  trifl- 
ing offense  were  it  not  so  often  the  cause 
of  death  or  serious  injury.  The  railroads 
are  not  asking  too  much  when  they  ap- 
peal for  stringent  laws  and  enforcement 
of  them.  Several  states  have  no  laws 
forbidding  trespass  on  railroad  prop- 
erty, and  the  people  seem  to  think  that 
they  have  a  right  to  use  the  tracks  as 
common  thoroughfares,  arguing  that 
walking  on  the  tracks  does  not  hurt  the 
railroads.  A  sober  man  with  good  ears 
may  be  fairly  safe,  but  how  about  in- 
toxicated men  and  children?  The  rail- 
roads are  now  trying  to  get  congress  to 
pass  a  trespass  law  that  will  apply  to  the 
property  of  interstate  railroads,  and  it 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


43 


will  be  opposed  by  members  of  western 
states  which  have  refused  to  pass  tres- 
pass laws. 

"Popular  opposition  to  such  laws  is 
part  of  the  general  disregard  for  human 
life  so  prevalent  in  the  United  States. 
Joy  riding  in  automobiles  is  part  of  it. 
The  tramp  taking  chances  on  a  railroad 
track  or  on  the  bumpers  of  a  car  is 
neither  better  nor  worse  than  the  more 
prosperous  but  not  less  reckless  driver 
of  an  automobile  running  forty  miles  an 
hour  on  a  common  road,  'for  the 
Colonel's  lady  and  Judy  O'Grady  are  sis- 
ters under  their  skins/  which  is  true  of 
men  as  well  as  of  women." — Dubuque 
(la.)  Times  Journal. 


FALLS   WHILE   CHASIN'G   HOGS 
AND  SUES  RAILROAD. 

An  interesting  case  where  an  effort 
was  made  to  collect  damages  through 
a  law  suit  against  the  company  in  one 
of  the  courts  in  Mississippi,  for  an  in- 
jury sustained  by  the  plaintiff  on  ac- 
count of  falling  over  a  piece  of  pipe 
while  chasing  hogs  in  a  lot,  was  recently 
disclosed.  The  names  of  plaintiff,  at- 
torney and  place  of  accident  are  omitted. 
The  suit  was  filed  in  September,  1915, 
and  the  petition  stated  that  the  plaintiff 
was  standing  at  the  intersection  of  a 
street  crossing  in  the  city  of  "C",  wait- 
ing for  a  switch  engine  to  pass,  and 
while  the  engine  was  passing  the  cross- 
ing some  one  employed  thereon  threw  off 
a  lump  of  coal  weighing  several  pounds, 
which  knocked  the  plaintiff  down  and  he 
had  to  be  carted  away  in  a  wagon  and 
has  remained  disabled  ever  since,  on 
which  account  $5,000  actual  and  $5,000 
punitive  damages  were  asked. 

A  most  diligent  inquiry  was  made 
without  locating  anyone  who  knew  about 
the  occurrence,  but  the  attorneys  for  the 
plaintiff  did  furnish  an  unsigned  state- 
ment, supposed  to  have  been  made  by 
him,  of  the  facts  as  alleged  in  the  declar- 
ation and  also  a  negro  witness  to  the 
accident,  which  witness  it  was  claimed, 
hauled  the  plaintiff  away  from  the  scene 
of  the  accident  in  his  wagon. 

After  several  months  the  plaintiff, 
through  a  relative,  was  induced  to  state 


all  the  circumstances  and  an  affidavit 
was  taken  from  him  reading,  in  part,  as 
follows : 

"I  now  desire  to  make  a  frank  and 
full  statement  of  how  I  received  the  in- 
jury which  is  referred  to  in  the  suit.  I 
was  not  injured  on  the  date  stated  in  the 
declaration  by  a  lump  of  coal  falling 
from  a  switch  engine  and  have  never 
been  so  injured.  I  did  receive  an  injury 
to  my  left  leg  about  that  time  in  a  horse 
lot  in  "V",  Miss.,  while  chasing  a  hog, 
on  account  of  falling  over  a  pump  pipe 
sticking  out  of  the  ground.  The  injury 
caused  my  leg  to  bleed  quite  freely.  Some 
negro,  (I  do  not  know  his  name)  saw 
me  fall.  This  negro  was  helping  me 
chase  the  hog.  Dr.  "P"  of  V  treated 
my  leg  for  that  injury.  I  also  had  my 
sister  wrap  it  up  with  a  cloth  and  apply 
some  kind  of  medicine.  The  injury  dis- 
abled me  and  I  was  unable  to  work  for 
a  couple  of  months.  Some  two  or  three 
days  after  the  injury  I  went  to  C,  get- 
ting off  at  the  depot  I  walked  down 
the  track  to  a  highway  crossing.  A 
switch  engine  came  up  behind  me  and 
went  by  and  when  it  passed,  what  I  took 
to  be  some  gravel  thrown  up  by  the 
wheels  of  the  engine,  struck  my  leg 
which  I  had  injured  at  "V."  This  did 
not  injure  me  any  except  that  it  made 
my  leg  hurt  because  of  the  previous  in- 
jury. I  came  to  "C"  to  see  my  sister  and 
was  on  crutches.  After  leaving  the  rail- 
road and  while  walking  up  town,  I  met 
some  white  man  who  stopped  me  and 
asked  me  what  my  trouble  was  and  I 
told  him  about  my  injury  at  "V"  and  also 
about  the  gravel  striking  me  a  few  mo- 
ments before  while  walking  along  the 
railroad  track.  My  leg  was  bleeding 
some  at  the  time.  He  talked  to  me  about 
it  and  asked  me  to  go  up  to  his  office, 
which  I  did  and  I  then  found  that  he 
was  a  lawyer.  He  stated  he  could  file  a 
suit  against  the  railroad  and  get  fifteen 
or  twenty  thousand  dollars  out  of  it.  I 
told  him  I  did  not  have  any  witnesses. 
He  said  that  did  not  make  any  differ- 
ence, that  he  would  file  a  suit  and  fur- 
nish witnesses  and  it  would  not  cost  me 
a  cent ;  that  he  would  handle  it  for  what 
he  could  get.  He  told  me  not  to  say 
anything  to  anybody  about  getting  hurt 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


45 


at  "V"  and  to  say  that  my  injury  was 
due  to  what  occurred  on  the  railroad.  I 
agreed  to  let  him  go  ahead  with  it.  I 
went  to  my  sister's  and  staid  all  night 
and  the  next  day  the  lawyer  came  there 
to  see  me  and  told  me  to  go  to  a  certain 
doctor  and  have  him  treat  my  leg  and  he 
told  me  to  tell  the  doctor  that  I  was  hurt 
by  the  piece  of  coal  which  fell  off  of  the 
switch  engine.  I  told  the  doctor  that  and 
he  treated  me  two  or  three  times.  I 
staid  at  "C"  about  a  week  and  then  went 
back  home.  I  saw  the  attorney  about 
every  day  I  was  at  "C."  There  was  no 
one  at  all  with  me  when  I  walked  down 
the  track  from  the  depot  and  when  the 
gravel  struck  me  as  the  switch  engine 
went  by.  I  do  not  know  any  one  by  the 
name  of  the  negro  the  lawyer  said  was  a 
witness  to  the  accident  neither  is  there 
a  word  of  truth  in  the  story  that  the 
negro  or  anyone  else  helped  me  home  in 
a  wagon.  My  lee  was  not  hurt  on  the 
railroad  but  was  hurt  at  "V"  as  I  have 
already  stated  and  I  now  do  not  want  any 
suit  brought  against  the  company  and  if 
any  has  been  brought  I  want  it  dis- 
missed as  the  railroad  did  not  hurt  me 
and  does  not  owe  me  anything.  What 
I  have  said  herein  is  the  truth.  This 
affidavit  was  taken  down  and  read  to  me 
and  I  have  signed  it  as  a  true  statement 
of  the  facts  connected  with  my  case." 

Presumably  the  information  that  this 
affidavit  had  been  made  leaked  out  as 
before  the  case  was  tried  a  non-suit  was 
taken.  If,  at  times,  people  who  present 
meritorious  claims  or  file  meritorious 
suits,  are  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  it 
is  because  so  many  claims  and  suits  are 
filed,  the  investigation  of  which  develops 
situations  much  like  the  one  disclosed  by 
the  foregoing  affidavit.  Verilv,  eternal 
vigilence  is  necessary  to  guard  the  Com- 
panv's  treasury  against  attempted  raids 
of  this  character. 


CALLICUT    ARRESTED    DIS- 
GUISED AS  WOMAN. 

George  A.  Callicut,  formerly  a  rail- 
road brakeman,  who  last  summer  in  the 
circuit  court  was  awarded  an  $18,000 
judgment  against  the  Rock  Island  on  ac- 
count of  an  injury  which  resulted  in 
alleged  paralysis,  was  arrested  this  fore- 


noon while  disguised  as  a  woman,  carry- 
ing in  coal  at  his  home,  1311  Sacramento 
street,  says  the  St.  Joseph  (Mo.)  News- 
Press. 

The  charge  against  him  is  perjury.  It 
is  alleged  that  he  testified  falsely  in  the 
trial  of  the  case  which  resulted  in  the 
judgment. 

Warrants  charging  subornation  of  per- 
jury were  issued  for  Dr.  M.  J.  Farber, 
Callicut's  physician;  Harry  Callicut, 
brother  of  George,  a  witness,  Goldman 
&  Liberman,  his  attorneys,  and  Thomas 
Hicks,  student  in  the  attorneys'  office. 
Other  Arrest  to  Follow? 

At  the  sheriff's  office  today  it  was  said 
that  this  was  the  first  of  a  series  of 
arrests  to  be  made  in  cases  growing  out 
of  alleged  fake  judgments  against  rail- 
roads. It  was  said  that  an  organized 
gang  has  been  at  work  "staging"  spurious 
damage  suits,  and  that  railroads  running 
into  St.  Joseph  have  been  mulcted  to  the 
extent  of  $50,000  in  this  way  in  the  last 
two  years. 

While  the  Callicut  case  was  on  trial  in 
Judge  Allen's  division  of  the  circuit 
court  last  summer,  the  plaintiff  (Calli- 
cut) from  day  to  day  was  wheeled  in 
and  out  of  the  courtroom  on  an  invalid's 
chair,  on  which  he  lay  stretched  at  full 
length,  covered  with  blankets.  It  was 
alleged  that  he  was  totally  and  perma- 
nently paralyzed  from  the  waist  down. 
Several  Physician's  Testified 

Several  leading  physicians  called  as 
witnesses  both  by  the  railroad  company 
and  the  plaintiff,  testified  that  they  had 
applied  to  Callicut  all  the  tests  for  par- 
alysis, and  that  these  indicated  he  had 
no  use  of  his  legs,  and  that  nerves  of  that 
part  of  the  body  below  the  waist  ap- 
parently were  dead,  having  no  sensation. 
The  tests  included  application  of  electric 
batteries.  Pins,  needles  and  other  sharp 
instruments  thrust  into  his  feet  and  legs 
elicited  no  response.  The  "reflexes"  at 
the  knee  were  absent. 

At  the  same  time  there  was  some  testi- 
mony that  this  condition  can  be  produced 
artificially  through  injection  of  a  "Rus- 
sian drug  called  spinal  anaesthesia." 

At  midnight  last  night,  as  previously 
arranged  by  Sheriff  Jones,  they  entered 
a  house  (1313  Sacramento)  just  across 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


47 


the  alley  from  the  Callicut  home,  and 
there  spent  the  night  watching.  The 
Callicut  house  had  been  under  surveill- 
ance for  two  months,  and  the  officers  say 
that  once  every  day  Callicut  would 
emerge,  garbed  as  a  woman,  and  take 
exercise  in  the  yard,  usually  carrying  in 
coal,  hanging  out  clothes,  or  cleaning 
snow  off  the  walks. 

A  few  seconds  after  10  :30  o'clock  this 
forenoon  the  lookout  at  the  front  win- 
dow of  No.  1313  signaled  that  Callicut 
had  appeared  at  the  rear  door  of  his 
house.  Instantly  Moore,  Johnson,  Fagan 
and  Graham  dashed  out  of  the  rear  door 
of  No.  1313.  From  this  point  they  were 
unable  to  see  Callicut,  as  the  coal  shed 
was  between  them. 

To  reach  him  they  had  to  vault  two 
alley  fences,  and  by  the  time  the  first 
man  was  in  the  Callicut  yard,  Callicut 
spied  them.  He  dropped  his  coalhod  and 
ran,  they  say.  The  long  skirts,  however, 
interfered  with  the  freedom  of  his 
movements,  and  he  was  overhauled  be- 
fore he  had  taken  a  dozen  steps.  Then 
ensued  a  desperate  struggle. 

Desperate  Struggle  Reported 

As  Moore  and  Fagan  threw  their  arms 
about  him,  he  twisted  about  and  tried  to 
pull  away,  and,  failing  in  this,  struck  at 
them,  the  officers  say. 

By  this  time  all  four  men  had  hold  of 
him.  They  threw  him  to  the  ground, 
where  he  continued  to  struggle  desper- 
ately, but  in  silence. 

At  the  county  jail  a  few  minutes  later 
Callicut  was  photographed  in  his  dis- 
guise, the  intention  being  to  use  the  pic- 
ture in  the  trial  of  the  perjury  case 
against  him. 

He  wore  a  brown  sweater  coat,  a  white 
and  pink  flowered  kimona,  low  slippers 
and  over  his  head  a  brown  shawl.  On 
his  face  was  a  week's  growth  of  beard, 
but  while  in  the  yard,  before  the  arrest, 
his  face  was  practically  concealed  by  the 
shawl.  He  is  of  medium  size  and  in  the 
disguise  would  readily  pass  as  a  woman. 
Surrender  to  Sheriff 

Doctor  Farber,  Harrv  Callicut,  Gold- 
man, Liberman  and  Hicks  surrendered 
to  the  sheriff  at  2  o'clock  this  afternoon, 
and  all  were  arrainged  in  Justice  Wil- 
son's court,  where  C.  F.  Strop  appeared 


as  counsel  for  Farber,  Goldman  and 
Liberman.  All  asked  for  preliminaries, 
which  were  set  for  January  21.  George 
Callicut  will  be  arraigned  later  in  the 
day.  His  bond  was  placed  at  $5,000. 

Bonds  in  the  other  cases,  on  recom- 
mendation of  the  prosecuting  attorney, 
were  placed  at  the  following  sums : 

Doctor  Farber,  $2,000 ;  Harry  Callicut, 
$6,000;  Joseph  Goldman,  $2,000;  B.  L. 
Liberman,  $2,000 ;  and  Thomas  Hicks, 
$3,000.  There  are  two  cases  against 
Harry  Callicut,  one  charging  prejury  and 
the  other  subornation  of  prejury. 

In  explaining  the  difference  in  the 
amount  of  the  bonds,  Prosecuting  At- 
torney McDaniel  said :  "Some  people 
have  more  inducement  to  stay  here  than 
others  have." 

C.  F.  Strop  and  Abe  Leibowitz  are 
sureties  on  Doctor  Farber's  bond ;  Strop 
alone  is  on  the  Goldman  and  Liberman 
bonds,  and  Benjamin  Goldman,  father 
of  Joseph,  signed  the  remaining  three 
bonds. 

Rock  Island  Detectives  at  Work 

A  force  of  Rock  Island  operatives, 
headed  by  H.  H.  Germain  of  Chicago, 
superintendent  of  the  railroad's  special 
service,  has  been  in  St.  Joseph  for  the 
last  two  weeks  working  up  the  Callicut 
case,  and  their  movements  were  attended 
by  the  greatest  secrecy.  Within  the  last 
several  days  they  called  to  their  assist- 
ance Sheriff  Jones  and  his  deputies. 

Early  yesterday  evening  the  sheriff 
went  to  the  home  of  C.  L.  Green,  1313 
Sacramento  street,  just  across  the  alley 
from  the  Callicut  home,  and  arranged 
for  the  force  of  five  men  to  "take  posses- 
sion" last  night. 

"I  told  Green  that  I  suspected  the 
shack  across  the  street  was  a  'fence'  for 
stolen  goods  and  that  my  men  wanted 
to  use  his  house  while  they  watched  the 
'fence.'  Green  was  agreeable  to  this,  and 
he  and  his  family  moved  upstairs  and 
gave  my  men  full  swing  in  the  down- 
stairs portion." 

Callicut  has  been  confined  to  his  house 
for  a  vear.  According  to  information  at 
the  office  of  the  prosecuting  attorney,  he 
wore  a  nightgown  while  in  the  house. 
His  family  consists  of  a  wife  and  son, 


48 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


nine  years  old.    The  wife  did  not  testify 
at  the  trial  of  the  damage  suit. 
He  Sued  for  $50,000 

Callicut  sued  for  $50,000  damages, 
alleging  that  he  was  injured  at  Eighth 
and  Hickory  streets,  December  28,  1914, 
when  a  handhold  on  a  Rock  Island  box 
car  broke  under  his  weight  and  he  fell. 
The  iron  handhold  was  introduced  in 
evidence  at  the  trial. 

Two  Burlington  switchmen,  walking 
home  from  work  the  night  of  December 
28,  found  Callicut  lying  beside  the  tracks, 
apparently  helpless  and  suffering  great 
pain.  They  called  an  ambulance  and  he 
was  taken  to  his  home. 

He  employed  Goldman  &  Lieberman 
as  his  attorneys  and  they  filed  the  suit 
against  the  Rock  Island. 

The  case  of  George  Callicut  against 
the  Rock  Island  was  on  trial  in  Judge 
Allen's  division  of  the  circuit  court  June 
20-22,  last,  in  the  May  term,  the  jury  re- 
turning a  judgment  of  $18,000.  Motion 
for  new  trial  was  overruled  and  the  Rock 
Island  appealed  to  the  supreme  court 
where  the  case  is  now  pending. 


GROVER  CLEVELAND  AS 
CLAIM  AGENT 

The  mention  of  the  name  of  this 
sturdy  American  seems  like  a  refer- 
ence to  a  distinct  and  distant  age,  and 
when  we  recall  that  this  invincible  and 
determined  man  was  a  claim  agent, 
and  incidentally  President  of  the  United 
States  from  1885  to  1889,  and  from  1892 
to  1896,  we  have  some  faint  reminiscence 
of  the  latter,  but  fall  far  short  of  our 
appreciation  of  his  masterly  service  in 
the  former  position. 

As  claim  agent,  Mr.  Cleveland  in- 
vestigated the  facts.  He  was  a  busy 
man  and  it  is  recorded  that  many 
nights  as  late  as  3:00  A.  M.,  Claim 
Agent  Cleveland  was  found  busily 
pouring  over  the  files  of  his  office, 
heaped  high  with  complications,  asking 
and  demanding  wild  extortions  from 
him  who  once  said :  "A  public  office  is 
a  public  trust." 

Claim  Agent  Cleveland  had  in  view 
a  purpose.  He  desired  to  protect  the 
treasury  from  fraud,  from  circumven- 


tion and  deceit.  For  his  alert  and  ac- 
tive enterprise  in  this  matter,  he  called 
down  upon  his  head  an  avalanche  of 
criticism,  and  he  was  pointed  out  as 
an  ungracious  monster,  ruthless  and 
unsparing.  We  refer  to  his  handling 
of  the  pension  claims.  The  public  little 
knew  of  what  this  man  encountered, 
how  he  was  beset  by  a  mass  of  claims 
from  designing  and  unworthy  persons, 
how  he  was  deluged  by  pension  attor- 
neys who,  in  that  day,  played  the 
counterpart  of  the  modern  ambulance 
shyster.  They  were  then,  as  now,  men 
of  little  principle,  knavish,  cunning  and 
dishonest.  In  Claim  Agent  Cleveland 
they  ran  against  a  rock  of  devastation. 
He  exposed  their  vandalism  to  the  pub- 
lic gaze  and  branded  their  practice  as 
akin  to  that  of  Lucifer  and  Beelzebub 
of  ancient  days. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  article  to 
give  a  brief  review  of  some  of  the 
claims  handled  by  Mr.  Cleveland,  their 
kind  and  character  and  his  disposition 
of  them.  We  shall  be  willing  to  sub- 
mit his  ultimate  findings  to  any  fair 
and  sober  judgment.  WTe  shall  with- 
hold the  names  of  the  claimants  at  this 
time,  as  it  would  serve  no  useful  pur- 
pose to  include  them,  although  we  have 
the  names  of  each  and  every  person  re- 
ferred to. 

It  will  be  observed  the  reasons  as- 
signed by  Claim  Agent  Cleveland  for 
rejecting  claims  made  to  him  tor  pen- 
sions were  that  the  claimant  was  not 
injured  nor  incapacitated  while  in  the 
military  service,  nor  injured  while 
doing  military  duty. 

These  are  similar  to  some  of  the 
cases  that  come  to  railway  claim  agents 
of  today,  wherein  claimants  were  not 
injured  while  on  duty,  yet  claims  are 
presented  asking  for  relief,  but  let  us 
look  at  some  of  the  cases  that  per- 
plexed Claim  Agent  Cleveland. 

E.  G.  M.  was  a  second  assistant  en- 
gineer in  the  navy.  In  1871  he  asked 
for  a  pension.  He  was  examined  and 
found  not  in  any  manner  incapacitated 
from  performing  his  usual  duties.  On 
the  10th  day  of  August,  1873,  he  was 
accidentally  shot  and  killed  by  a  neigh- 


50 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


bor  who  was  attempting  to  shoot  an 
owl.  For  this  the  widow  made  claim 
for  a  pension.  Mr.  Cleveland,  on  May 
3,  1888,  wrote  as  follows: 

"As  long  as  there  is  the  least  pretense  of 
limiting  the  bestowal  of  pensions  to  disabil- 
ity or  death  in  some  way  related  to  the  in- 
cidents of  military  and  naval  service,  claims 
of  this  description  cannot  consistently  be 
allowed." 

W.  B.  was  a  soldier  who  enlisted  in 
August,  1862.  He  was  taken  prisoner 
and  paroled,  and  during  his  parole,  and 
while  he  was  at  his  home  in  Aurora, 
111.,  he  took  part  in  a  4th  of  July  cele- 
bration in  1863  and  was  terribly  in- 
jured by  the  premature  discharge  of  a 
cannon.  He  was  poor  and  had  a  wife 
and  children.  He  made  a  claim  for  a 
pension.  Concerning  this  case,  Mr. 
Cleveland  wrote  at  some  length  on 
July  2,  1886,  as  follows : 

"The  case  presented  is  that  of  a  brave 
soldier  not  injured  in  any  engagement  with 
the  enemy,  but  honorably  captured,  and  by 
his  parole  placed  in  a  condition  which  pre- 
vented for  the  time  being  his  further  active 
military  service.  He  proceeded  to  his  home 
or  to  his  friends  and  took  his  place  among 
non-combatants.  Eight  months  afterwards 
he  joined  the  citizens  of  the  place  of  his 
sojourn  and  the  citizens  of  every  town  and 
hamlet  of  the  loyal  states  in  the  usual  and 
creditable  celebration  of  our  national  holi- 
day. Among  the  casualties  which  unfor- 
tunately always  result  from  such  celebra- 
tions, there  occurred  a  premature  discharge 
of  a  cannon,  which  the  present  claimant  for 
a  pension  was  assisting  other  citizens  to 
discharge  and  manage.  Whether  any  of 
those  thus  engaged  with  him  were  injured 
is  not  disclosed,  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
paroled  soldier  was  very  badly  hurt.  I  am 
utterly  unable  to  discover  any  relation  be- 
tween this  accident  and  the  military  service, 
or  any  reason  why,  if  a  pension  is  granted, 
as  proposed  by  this  bill,  there  should  not 
also  be  a  pension  granted  to  any  of  the 
companions  of  the  claimant  who  chanced  to 
be  injured  at  the  same  time." 

And  then  Mr.  Cleveland  added  this 
very  significant  paragraph,  which  has 
been  stamped  upon  the  hearts  of  all  of 
us  time  and  again  : 

"A  disabled  man  and  a  wife  and  family 
in  need  are  objects  which  appeal  to  the 
sympathy  and  charitable  feelings  of  any 
decent  man,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  those  intrusted  with 
the  people's  business  and  the  expenditure 
of  the  people's  money  are  justified  in  so 
executing  the  pension  laws  as  that  they 


shall  furnish  a  means  of  relief  in  every  case 
of  distress  and  hardship." 

Another  remarkable  case  was  that  of 
J.  D.,  who  enlisted  March  25,  1865. 
Admitted  to  a  hospital  April  3,  1865, 
with  the  measles.  Removed  to  city 
hospital,  Indianapolis,  May  5,  1865. 
Returned  to  duty  May  8,  1865.  Must- 
ered out  May  11,  1865.  Of  this  dis- 
tinguished service  Mr.  Cleveland  wrote 
as  follows,  June  23,  1886 : 

"This  is  the  military  record  of  this  sol- 
dier, who  remained  in  the  army  one  month 
and  seventeen  days,  having  entered  as  a 
substitute  at  a  time  when  high  bounties 
were  paid.  Fifteen  years  after  this  brilliant 
service  and  this  terrific  encounter  with  the 
measles,  and  on  the  28th  day  of  June,  1880, 
the  claimant  discovered  that  his  attack  of 
the  measles  had  some  relation  to  his  army 
enrollment,  and  that  this  disease  had  'set- 
tled in  his  eyes,  also  affecting  his  spinal 
column.'  This  claim  was  rejected,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  its  de- 
termination." 

In  the  case  of  M.  A.,  widow  of  R. 
A.,  the  deceased  went  to  Sparta,  Wis., 
February  7,  1882.  He  was  an  old 
soldier.  He  called  upon  a  surgeon  and 
the  next  morning  was  found  beheaded 
along  a  railroad  track  under  circum- 
stances indicating  suicide.  Claim  was 
made  by  the  widow  for  a  pension.  Mr. 
Cleveland  wrote  June  23,  1886: 

"His  wife  and  family  present  pitiable  ob- 
jects for  sympathy,  but  I  am  unable  to  see 
how  they  have  any  claim  to  a  pension." 

A  brilliant  exhibition  of  some  of  the 
claims  that  perplexed  Claim  Agent 
Cleveland  is  displayed  in  the  follow- 
ing: 

J.  C.,  widow  of  T.  C.,  brought  claim 
for  pension  wherein  the  facts  showed 
that  he  was  mustered  into  service  Oc- 
tober 26,  1861.  He  never  did  a  day's 
service  so  far  as  his  name  appears  and 
the  muster-out  roll  of  his  company  re- 
ports him  as  having  deserted  at  Camp 
C.,  November  14,  1861.  He  visited  his 
family  about  the  1st  of  December,  1861, 
and  was  found  December  30,  1861, 
drowned  in  a  canal  about  six  miles 
from  his  home.  Mr.  Cleveland,  on  June 
23,  1886,  commented  thus: 

"Those  who  prosecute  claims  for  pen- 
sions have  grown  very  bold  when  cases  of 
this  description  are  presented  for  consid- 
eration." 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


51 


A.  J.  W.  was  drafted  in  February, 
1865,  discharged  in  September  of  the 
same  year  on  account  of  "chronic 
nephritis  and  deafness."  He  alleged 
that  he  contracted  rheumatism  in 
1865,  afterwards  inflammation  of  the 
muscles  of  the  back,  then  pain  of  the 
kidneys.  In  1884  he  contracted  diar- 
rhea, was  injured  in  one  testicle  and 
was  then  ruptured.  He  thought  he 
possessed  sufficient  ailment  for  a  large 
pension  and  approached  Claim  Agent 
Cleveland  concerning  his  claim.  On 
June  23,  1886,  Mr.  Cleveland  wrote : 

"Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  this  claim- 
ant's achievements  during  his  short  military 
career,  it  must  be  conceded  that  he  accu- 
mulated a  great  deal  of  disability." 

The  sagacity  with  which  Mr.  Cleve- 
land branded  some  of  the  attempted 
impositions  and  frauds  subjected  to 
his  consideration,  leads  us  to  remark 
that  no  doubt  had  he  been  identified 
with  railway  claims,  rather  than  gov- 
ernment claims,  any  small  derailment 
might  have  provoked  him  to  reiterate 
the  above  sentence  with  striking  em- 
phasis. 

This  one  sounds  as  though  Mr. 
Cleveland  had  just  returned  from  St. 
Paul,  Minn.  W.  H.  H.  claimed  a  pen- 
sion on  account  of  sand  blowing  in  his 
eyes,  and  in  discussing  the  case  Mr. 
Cleveland  wrote,  on  May  19,  1888,  as 
follows : 

"This  claim  is  largely  supported  by  per- 
jury and  forgery,  but  the  criminality  of 
these  methods  is  made  to  rest  upon  three 
rogues  and  scoundrels  who  undertook  to 
obtain  a  pension  for  the  soldier.  (Wonder 
if  he  referred  to  some  attorneys.)  Upon 
his  examination  under  oath  by  a  special 
examiner,  he  stated  that  he  was  brought  to 
Washington  to  further  his  claim  by  a  man 
named  Miller,  one  of  the  rascally  attor- 
neys spoken  of  in  the  Committee's  report; 
that  Miller  was  to  pay  his  expenses  while 
in  Washington,  and  was  to  receive  one- 
third  of  the  money  paid  upon  the  claim. 
(Boys,  don't  that  sound  natural?)  This  is 
not  the  conduct  of  a  man  claiming  in  good 
faith  a  pension  from  the  government.  In 
the  affidavit  made  and  prepared  by  the  at- 
torneys, he  was  made  to  say  that  sand  blew 
into  his  eyes  and  cut  them  all  to  pieces,  and 
that  E.  N.  B.  took  care  of  him  in  his  tent. 
Mr.  B.  was  found,  and  testified  that  he 
served  with  this  man  and  bunked  with  him 


and  that  he  never  knew  him  to  have  sore 
eyes  while  in  the  service,  and  that  he  never 
knew  of  the  sand  storm  spoken  of  by  Mr.  H. 
That  he  never  knew  of  H.  being  sick  but 
once,  and  that  was  when  he  had  eaten  too 
much.  Mr.  B.  was  shown  an  affidavit  pur- 
porting to  be  made  by  him  and  declared 
the  entire  thing  to  be  false  and  a  forgery. 
I  believe  this  claim  for  a  pension  to  be  a 
fraud  from  beginning  to  end,  and  the 
effrontery  with  which  it  has  been  pushed 
shows  the  necessity  of  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  these  cases." 

And  he  might  have  added,  "Yea, 
even  unto  this  day." 

It  may  be  well  to  cite  just  one  more 
incident  wherein  a  woman,  M.  A.  D., 
made  claim  for  a  pension,  and  it  be- 
came necessary  to  investigate  some  of 
the  past  and  interesting  history  of 
Mary  Ann.  She  seemed  to  have  been 
a  woman  of  easy  virtue  and  incident- 
ally worked  in  a  cartridge  factory, 
where  she  was  alleged  to  have  been 
injured  by  an  explosion.  In  some  of 
the  larks  and  escapades  of  this  wily 
siren,  she  would  have  made  Sappho 
look  like  a  saint,  and  Mr.  Cleveland 
must  have  found  this  much  of  the  story 
interesting  at  least.  He  made  the  fol- 
lowing comment  on  the  case  July  5, 
1888: 

"The  police  records  of  the  precinct  in 
which  she  has  lived  for  years  show  that  she 
is  a  woman  of  very  bad  character,  and  that 
she  has  been  under  arrest  nine  times  for 
drunkenness,  larceny,  creating  disturbance 
and  misdemeanors  of  that  sort.  The  theory 
seems  to  have  been  adopted  that  no  man 
who  served  in  the  army  can  be  the  subject 
of  death,  or  impaired  health,  except  they 
are  chargeable  to  his  service.  Medical 
theories  are  set  at  naught,  and  the  most 
startling  relation  is  claimed  between  alleged 
incidents  of  military  service  and  disability 
or  death.  Fatal  apoplexy  is  admitted  as  the 
result  of  quite  insignificant  wounds;  heart 
disease  is  attributed  to  chronic  diarrhea; 
consumption  to  hernia,  and  suicide  is  traced 
to  army  service  in  a  wonderfully  devious 
and  curious  way." 

Hundreds  of  these  fallacious  claims 
were  piled  high  upon  the  table  of  Mr. 
Cleveland  and  occasionally  he  would 
burst  forth  in  a  manner  that  portrayed 
his  indignation  with  great  emphasis, 
for  he  was  a  man  with  a  temper,  and  no 
citizen  of  the  republic  could  arouse  it 
to  intensity  as  could  a  shyster. 


52  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tw  Employes  may  become  stock- 

(                                 i 

holders  in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

T1       xL       •     f           f-              /"             1 

lor  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stodc  in  the  Illinois 

Central  R.R.,w  quote  belotfl  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  A\ay95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(o  he  price  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  be  ac- 

cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffocA.  is  Based  upon  the  mar- 

f                                  jf         )             /                  !'          •           '                   '      '  )     '        /^*                   / 

Ret  price  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  L-omprroL- 

lers  office...  Q^fn  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  of  subscrib- 

ing f)r  one  share  at  a  time,  payable  hy  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  af$5~t  on  the  completion  of 

which  the  Company  wilt  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 

tne  share  registered  in  his  name  on  the  DOORS  of  the  Com- 
pany. oMe  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 

another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  c^ohe  certificate 
of  stock  is  transferable  on  the  Company's  books,  and. 
entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  be  de  - 

dared  by  the  &oard  ofjuirectors,  ana  to  a  vote  in, 

their  election. 

C^fny  officer  or  employe  making  payments  on  mis 
plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  tne  rate  of  Jour  per  cent  per  annum,  during  the  time  he 

is  paying  for  his  share  of  stood,  provided  he  does  not  al- 

,  1    7     JjJ                       •     J           /  r         /               •  f                /• 

low  twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  snaking 

/                     »           »                 /~       r    *     /"                '       ~\      ' 

any  payment,  at  the  expiration  or  which  period  interest 

will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  be 

returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

Owy  officer  or  employe  moKing  payments  on  themre- 
aomg  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desiring  to  discontinue 

mem,  can  nave  nis  money  returned  to  Aim  with  accrued 

ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  53 


interest.  Ay  moAmq  application  to  trie  Aead  of  me  de- 
partment in  wAicA  fie  is  employed. 

Cxf>z  employe,  tuAo  Aas  made  application  for  a  snare 
ofstocft  on  tne  installment  plan,  is  expected  to  make 
me  firstpayment  from  tne  first  waaes  lumen  may  be  due 

Aim.  J'orms  are  provided,  for  tAe  purpose,  on  wAicA  tne 

L      '('  ¥  J'   '       jf    'P      iCr° 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  the  cJ^ocal- -(oreasurerin 

Chicago,  or  the  oUocal^Dreasurer  in  <5fyew  (Orleans,  or 
tne  paymaster  or  tne  c^fssistant  Paymaster  to  retain 
•from  fiis  wages  tne  amount  of  installment  to  he  credited 
monthly  to  the  employe  for  the  purcnase  or  a  snare  ofstocK.. 
c7n  case  an  employe  leaves  tne  service  of  tne  Company 
from  any  cause,  Ae  must  tAen  either  pay  in  full  for  me 
snare /or  whicfi  fie  Aas  subscribed  ana  receive  a  certifi- 
cate, therefor,  or  take  Ais  money  wit  A  tne  interest  wAicA 
Aas  accrued. 

\oAe  foreaoma  does  not  preclude  the  purcAase  of 

snares  ofstocAfor  casfi.  Cx//z  emploi/e  wAo  Aas  not  al- 

~>  )'  /''//         /~      / 

ready  an  outstanaina  application  for  a  share  of  stock,  on 

tne  installment  plan,  wnicA  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 

,/•     ' /          /•     ,  •      //     /  y      /  /-  ,     /  y    7    / 
Given  month  make  application  for  a  snare  ofstockjor  cash 

at  tne  price  ouoted  to  employes /or  that  raontA ,  ana  Ae  can 

in  tAe  same  month,  ifAe  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 

/        /  f  *'       n  /  ''  * 

other  snare  on  the  installment  plan. 

(omployes  'who  Want  to  purcnase  more  tAan  one  sAare 
at  a  time  for  casA,  sAould  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
cago, Wno  will  obtain  for  tAem  tAe  price  at  wAicA  the  stock 
can  be  purchased,. 

O^/zy  employe  desmna  to  purcAase  stock,  (except  in 
special pUrcAase  of  more  tAan  one  sAarefor  casA)sAould 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  officer,  or  to  one  of  tAe 

yp  '  /CT^  /   y*//       '    j£/'  y  // 

Local  (treasurers  Jbyjillmy  in  the  following  coupon : 

Mr.O.  T.  Nau.  Date 

Local  Treasurer, 

Chicago  111. 

Wi\\  you.  please  send   me   an   application    kla 
for  tne  purcnase  ofl.C.  Stock  on  Ac  installment  plan. 

Signed... 

Employed  as 

At  Station... 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,Nrr 
S  E,RVIOE, 
LWAY  S 


Notes  from  I.  C.  C.  Accident  Bulletin  No.  56 

IN  the  I.  C.  C.  accident  bulletin  No.  56,  just  issued,  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1915,  there  are  many  interesting  tables  showing  the  benefits  being  derived  in  the 
Safety  First  Movement. 

Table  No.  3,  causes  of  accident  to  employes  in  coupling  and  uncoupling  cars, 
steam  railroads,  shows  a  decrease  of  81  killed  and  699  injured. 

Table  No.  1-B,  casualties  to  passengers,  employes  and  other  persons,  steam  rail- 
ways, shows  a  decrease  of  1,615  killed  and  16,540  injured;  also  the  following  decreases 
are  shown: 

Employes  injured  on  duty:  929  killed,  12,781  injured. 

Employes  injured  while  not  on  duty:     112  killed,  257  injured. 

Other  persons  not  trespassing,  a  decrease  of  144  killed  and  585  injured. 

Trespassers,  a  decrease  of  387  killed,  but  an  increase  of  94  injured. 

Table  No.  1,  no  doubt,  will  give  the  casual  reader  more  food  for  thought  than 
any  other,  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1914,  the  casualties  to  all  persons,  including 
employes  on  and  by  steam  railroads,  were  10,302  killed,  192,662  injured. 

Same  period  ending  June  30,  1915,  8,621  killed,  162,040  injured,  a  decrease  of 
1,681  killed  and  30,662  injured. 

With  these  results  before  us,  and  the  possibilities  there  are,  that  a  still  greater 
decrease  can  be  obtained,  should  cause  every  railroad  employe  to  put  forth  extra 
effort  towards  "Safety,"  not  only  Safety  First,  but  Safety  First  all  the  time. 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company — Mississippi 

Division 

General  Safety  Meeting  Held  in  the  Superintendent's  Office  at  Water  Valley,   Miss. 
January  10,  1916. 

PRESENT 

A.   D.   CAULFIELD,  Superintendent — Chairman. 
N.  W.  SPANGLER,  Trainmaster, 
B.   A.   PORTER,  Trainmaster. 

S.  R.  MAULDIN,  Master  Mechanic. 
J.   J.    DESMOND,   Roadmaster. 
J.  T.  QUINNELLEY,  Chief  Dispatcher. 
R.    W.   CONDIT.   Claim  Agent,   Grenada. 
C.    C.   JOHNSON,   Special   Aerent,    Grenada. 
C.   E.  SEIBER,  Traveling  Engineer. 
J.   L.   CHAPMAN.   General   Foreman.   Durant. 
G.   R.  WILKERSON,  Supervisor,   Sardis. 
G.    H.    PEACOCK,    Supervisor,    Grenada. 
J.  F.  WATTS.   Supervisor,  Grand  Junction. 
W.  E.  McCUNE,  Supervisor,  Durant. 

54 


-  v  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  55 

G.    M.    HUBBARD,    Supervisor    Bridges    and    Buildings. 
R.   L.  BELL,   Carpenter  Foreman. 

G.   W.   SOWELL,    Section   Foreman,   Kosciusko. 
P.   B.   McWHORTER,    Section   Foreman,   McCool. 
J.   T.    KNIGHT,   Section   Foreman,   Taylor. 

J.    C.    TUBES,    Section    Foreman,    Malesus. 
M.   L.  BLACKSTON,  Section  Foreman,  Winona. 
A.  L.  CHAPMAN,  Section  Foreman,  Goodman. 
A.  M.   FISHER,  Section  Foreman,  Batesville. 
T.  J.  COMER,  Section  Foreman,  Pope. 
A.  R.  BROCK,  Bridge  Foreman. 
J.   A.  YOUNG,  Bridge   Foreman. 

L.   F.   HAREL,  Waterworks  Foreman. 
G.    W.    HADAWAY,    Conductor. 
J.   B.   MONROE,   Conductor. 
J.  M.  AZLIN,   Conductor. 

P.  Y.   DUPOYSTER,   Conductor. 
T.   F.   GAFFORD,   Engineman. 
L.    W.    DEKLE,    Engineman. 
C.    D.    MURRAY,    Engineman. 
A.  F.  JOHNSON,  Fireman. 
H.   JOHNSON,    Flagman. 
J.  W.  TERRY,  Fireman. 
F.    STORMS,    Fireman. 

W.    F.    ADAMS,    Yardmaster,    Water    Valley. 

IV/TINUTES  of  previous  meeting  held  in  October,  1915,  read.  Report  showing 
±V*-  number  of  personal  injuries  occurring  on  the  railroad  month  of  October  and 
November  read,  also  report  showing  number  of  personal  injuries  occurring  on  Mis- 
sissippi Division  in  December.  No  personal  injuries  of  serious  nature  occurred  dur- 
ing the  past  several  months.  A  number  of  slight  personal  injuries  occurred  at 
Water  Valley  Shop,  Road  Department  and  Transportation  Department. 

The  matter  of  operating  motor  cars  was  gone  over  carefully  with  employes  of 
the  Road  Department,  with  a  view  of  complying  strictly  with  instructions  pertaining 
to  the  handling  of  motor  cars  and  the  elimination  of  personal  injuries  from  this 
cause  entirely. 

Report  for  December,  1915,  shows  four  slight  injuries  in  the  Transportation  De- 
partment, nine  in  the  Maintenance  of  Way  and  fourteen  in  the  Mechanical  Depart- 
ments, total  thirty,  compared  with  thirty-eight  same  month  last  year,  reduction  of 
eight. 

Letter  read  from  General  Superintendent  Downs,  dated  December  6th,  giving 
list  of  50  personal  injuries  occurring  on  southern  lines  due  to  motor  car  accidents 
since  July  1st. 

Letters  from  Chairman,  General  Safety  Committee,  Morris,  dated  December  22nd, 
enclosing  list  of  personal  injuries  for  November,  1915,  showing  great  improvement, 
read. 

Letter  from  General  Superintendent,  dated  January  6th,  having  reference  to  fatal 
injury  sustained  by  two  colored  children,  ages  15  and  11  years,  of  Pulaski,  Illinois, 
due  to  train  No.  74  backing  out  of  passing  track  with  7  cars,  read.  All  employes  cau- 
tioned to  see  that  a  man  is  stationed  on  the  rear  car  before  trains  are  allowed  to  back 
up,  referring  also  to  passenger  trains.  Attention  also  called  to  the  Mississippi  State 
Law,  requiring  a  man  to  precede  a  train  on  foot  when  backing  by  or  along  side  of  a 
passenger  depot. 

Suggestion  of  C.  E.  Seiber,  Traveling  Engineer,  having  reference  to  discontinuing 
the  practice  of  yard  men  riding  on  platform  of  caboose  cars  when  trains  are  being 
pushed  out  of  Water  Valley  Yard.  Instructions  issued  to  Yard  Master  to  only  allow 
one  member  of  the  switching  crew  to  accompany  engine  in  case  trains  are  being  pushed 
out,  this  man  to  ride  on  the  switch  engine  instead  of  on  the  platform  of  caboose. 

Suggestion  from  several  employes,  Aberdeen  District,  having  reference  to  installing 
switch  lights  on  that  District,  read.  The  proposition  of  installing  switch  lights  on 
the  Aberdeen  District  is  now  up  with  the  Management.  With  the  number  of  night 
trains  now  being  run  on  that  District,  it  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  that  switch 
lights  should  be  installed. 

Trespassers. 

A  movement  is  now  on  foot  among  the  employes  of  Railroads  to  have  Committees 
appear  before  the  Mississippi  State  Legislature  now  in  session,  with  a  view  of  enacting 
a  more  strenuous  trespass  law,  protecting  the  Railroads  in  case  trespassers  are  killed 
or  injured. 


DEPARTMENT 


'The  Human  Side  of  Engineering" 

By  S.  T.  Henry,  Vice-President  McGraw  Publishing  Co.,  Read  Before  the 
Engineers  Club  of  Chicago 


HUMAN  factors  enter  into  every  phase 
of  engineering.  In  some  classes  of 
work  their  presence  is  negligible,  while  in 
others  they  control  results. 

The  many  and  varying  influences  of  hu- 
manity in  engineering  have  two  general 
aspects.  One  of  these  is  the  relation  be- 
tween men  in  the  mass  and  the  work  of 
the  engineer.  The  other  is  the  effect  on 
the  eneineer  of  technical  training  and  ex- 
perience, and  of  professional  ethics. 

Consider  the  first  aspect  by  comparing 
the  work  of  the  engineer  with  that  of  men 
in  other  professions — the  physician,  for  ex- 
ample. Until  recently  the  medical  profes- 
sion has  been  concerned  almost  solely  with 
curative  rather  than  with  preventive 
methods.  The  sanitary  engineer  on  the 
other  hand  deals  entirely  with  preventive 
means  of  protecting  public  health. 

The  design,  construction  and  operation 
of  a  water  purification  plant  are  strictly 
engineering  problems.  Yet  they  involve  the 
greatest  kind  of  human  benefits.  The  en- 
gineers who  build  such  a  plant  almost 
eliminate  water-borne  diseases.  The  physi- 
cian treats  a  few  patients  for  typhoid;  the 
sanitary  engineer  removes  the  source  of 
the  disease.  He  is  preventing  human  pain 
and  suffering,  not  merely  relieving  it. 

Take  the  situation  at  Cincinnati.  A  few 
vears  ago  that  city  was  tvphoid-ridden. 
Then  the  water  purification  plant  was  built. 
Almost  immediately  the  typhoid  death  rate 
dropped  to  a  very  low  figure.  Many  doctors 
who  had  been  rushed  in  their  efforts  to 
save  tyohoid  victims  found  their  practice 
greatly  reduced.  Indeed,  one  doctor  whom 
I  know  had  been  very  successful  there, 
actually  was  forced  into  another  line  of 
work. 

One  o_f  the  most  common  causes  of  tuber- 
culosis is  dust  in  factories.  The  physician 
can  _  cure  this  disease  when  he  locates  it 
in  time.  The  ventilating  engineer  and  the 
mechanical  engineer  develop  means  of  re- 
moving the  dust.  They  thus  certainly  bene- 
fit humanity  most  directly. 

The  doctor  and  the  engineer  sV>o"M  work 


in  harmony  to  prevent  disease.  Theirs  is 
a  combined  service  for  humanity.  In  the 
same  manner,  the  engineer  should  co- 
operate more  closely  with  the  lawyer,  the 
financier  and  the  merchant  in  the  great 
physical  and  material  problems  which 
affect  the  comfort,  the  happiness  and  even 
the  morals  of  the  community.  But  the  en- 
gineer is  too  frequently  merely  a  workman 
concerned  chiefly  with  his  plans  and  his 
physical  materials. 

The  very  existence  of  cities  often  de- 
pends on  the  work  of  the  engineer.  Take 
the  city  of  Los  Angeles  as  an  instance. 
Except  for  the  additional  water  supply 
provided  for  that  .community,  its  popula- 
tion would  be  limited  to  less  than  its  pres- 
ent size. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  go  over  the 
Los  Angeles  Aqueduct  in  detail  twice  dur- 
ing construction  with  Mr.  William  Mull- 
holland,  chief  engineer.  Some  of  you  know 
that  great  work  and  the  remarkable  man 
responsible  for  it.  He  told  me  at  different 
times  whi]e  we  were  in  the  Mojave  Desert, 
of  his  life  and  his  life  work — the  Aqueduct. 

Mr.  Mullholland  came  to  Los  Angeles 
after  years  before  the  mast  as  a  common 
seaman.  He  started  with  the  old  Los 
Angeles  water  company  in  1881  as  a  .ditch 
tender  when  the  municipal  supply  came 
from  an  irrigating  ditch.  From  the  be- 
ginning he  saw  the  limitations  of  the  local 
sources  of  supply.  These  sources  were 
developed  rapidly.  Finally  a  tunnel  was 
driven  beneath  the  bed  of  the  Los  Angeles 
River  to  intercept  the  underflow.  As  Mr. 
Mullholland  said:  "This  runp  the  last  drop 
out  of  the  tail  of  the  shirt."  For  more 
water  it  was  necessary  to  go  elsewhere. 

During  those  years  that  the  ultimate 
development  of  local  sources  of  supply  was 
in  sight — at  least  to  Mr.  Mullholland — he 
studied  every  other  available  source.  He 
spent  weeks  and  months  with  two  or  three 
nack  mules  along  the  slopes  of  the  high 
Sierras  and  in  the  desert  great  distances 
from  any  habitation.  He  prospected  every 
possible  underground  and  surface  source. 


56 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


57 


Finally,  he  concluded  that  water  must  be 
brought  nearly  300  miles  across  two  deserts 
and  two  mountain  ranges  from  the  eastern 
slope  of  the  Sierras.  Then  he  made  many 
reconnossiance  surveys  of  the  route  alone — 
afoot  and  on  mule  back.  He  worked  al- 
most in  secret  to  prevent  speculation  in  the 
lands  at  the  point  of  diversion.  At  last 
he  announced  the  scheme.  The  community 
was  aghast  at  the  boldness  of  it.  The  lack 
of  local  sources  was  ridiculed.  The  idea 
of  conveying  water  such  ereat  distances 
across  the  desert  was  held  to  be  absurd. 
Mr.  Mullholland  knew.  He  never  faltered 
in  his  determination.  He  forced  his  plans 
through  by  sheer  weight  of  evidence.  He 
gave  the  community  440  cubic  feet  of  water 
per  second,  a  sufficient  domestic  supply  for 
an  additional  population  of  at  least  1,500,000. 

Mr.  Mullholland  saw  this  great  work 
through  to  completion.  He  was  responsible 
for  the  principal  features  of  the  project 
and  for  many  details  of  the  design.  He 
never  lost  sight  of  the  proper  and  the 
economical  execution  of  the  plans,  because 
he  is  first  of  all  a  hard-headed,  two-fisted 
practical  man.  But  from  his  conception 
of  the  scheme  his  controlling  impulse  was 
to  provide  an  adequate  supply  of  good 
water  for  Los  Angeles — a  most  noble  work 
for  humanity. 

An  endless  number  of  instances  of  similar 
devotion  by  engineers  to  the  improvement 
of  the  living  conditions  of  communities 
could  be  cited.  At  least  one  other  one  is 
worth  mentioning — the  work  of  Mr.  R.  H. 
Thomson,  formerly  city  engineer  of  Seattle, 
in  the  conception  and  the  execution  of  plans 
for  the  regrading  of  that  city.  This  scheme 
is  most  noteworthy  in  scope  and  orginality. 
It  actually  provided  a  practical  site  for  a 
great  city  where  there  were  only  steep 
hills  and  tide  flats. 

Transportation  and  means  of  easy  com- 
munication are  two  of  the  greatest  factors 
in  advancing  civilization.  New  railroads 
open  up  new  lands  for  settlement,  good 
roads  make  possible  more  intensive  cul- 
tivation in  settled  country,  cheap  rapid 
transit  enables  people  from  the  tenements 
to  live  where  there  is  plenty  of  air  and 
light.  The  ship  in  distress  at  sea  sends 
call  for  help  to  land  or  other  ships  hun- 
dreds of  miles  away.  We  talk  from  San 
Francisco  to  New  York  with  ease.  All  these 
things  are  possible  only  through  the  work 
of  the  engineer. 

Men  in  every  branch  of  the  profession 
are  doing  directly  something  for  the  com- 
mon cause  of  humanity.  Observe  closely 
those  who  have  succeeded.  Tk«  ^-,,nf.  ma_ 
jority  of  them  appreciate  their  responsi- 
bility. All  the  really  big  men  find  in  their 
work  an  inspiration  which  cannot  come 
solely  from  the  successful  execution  of  a 
mere  plan  in  which  one  sees  only  Tines 
and  materials  ard  phvsical  thines. 

Consider  now  briefly  the  other  aspect — 


the  effect  on  the  engineer  of  technical 
training  and  experience,  and  of  profes- 
sional ethics.  The  engineer  is  a  human  be- 
ing before  he  is  an  engineer.  He  is  sub- 
ject to  influences  the  same  as  any  other 
human  being.  In  connection  with  his  work 
he  is  just  as  apt  to  have  prejudices,  pre- 
conceived notions,  jump  at  conclusions, 
make  mistakes,  be  luke-warm,  or  extremely 
partisan,  as  are  men  in  any  other  pro- 
fession or  line  of  business. 

Furthermore,  there  are  engineers — and 
engineers.  Some  are  studious,  well-posted, 
progessive,  and  always  up-to-the-minute  in 
methods  of  practice,  while  others  are  very 
far  from  having  these  qualities.  There  also 
is  a  class  of  engineers — just  as  much  in  the 
majority  as  in  any  other  group  of  human 
beings — who  are  comparatively  lacking  in 
initiative — who  get  into  a  rut  and  who 
work  along  strictly  customary  lines. 

Do  you  realize  that  out  of  more  than 
100,000  engineers  in  this  country,  less  than 
40,000  are  members  of  any  engineering  so- 
city?  What  is  more  to  the  point,  prob- 
ably one  in  ten  of  the  40,000  tak*e  any 
active  part  in  society  affairs.  In  other 
words,  4,000  out  of  100,000  are  doing  the 
promotion  work  of  the  profession;  and 
many  of  these  in  a  purely  incidental,  or 
technical  way. 

The  average  engineer  thinks  of  himself 
entirely  too  much  as  a  machine  for  figur- 
ing stresses  and  strains — for  designing 
structures  and  developing  technical  methods 
— in  a  word,  for  accomplishing  certain  de- 
sired and  specified  results  in  a  standardized 
way. 

Too  many  engineers  are  in  the  position 
of  those  who  serve  the  Cook  County  High- 
way Commission.  They  build  roads  of  the 
kind  of  materials  the  Commission  selects. 
The  law  puts  the  power  in  the  non-technical 
body.  The  engineer  knows  what  materials 
are  best  for  certain  conditions.  The  latent 
power  of  the  engineering  profession  should 
be  used  to  create  a  public  opinion  which 
will  demand  that  the  selection  of  the  type 
of  road  material  or  structure  be  based  on 
engineering  knowledge  and  experience. 
Engineers  must  cease  to  consider  that  such 
educational  work  is  not  in  their  province. 
Who  else  can  influence  the  public  state  of 
mind  so  effectively?  Each  engineer's  opin- 
ion on  technical  matters  stands  for  much 
in  a  wide  circle  of  laymen.  The  trouble 
is  that  most  engineers  are  deterred  by 
tradition  and  by  ethics  from  doing  what 
thier  conscience  tells  them  is  for  the  good 
of  their  fellow  citizens. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  humanity  really 
waits  upon  the  engineer  not  merely  to  do 
the  thing,  but  to  see  the  need  and  the  op- 
portunity for  doing  it.  The  time  has  come 
when  the  engineer  must  be  the  leader  in 
many  of  the  larger  problems  of  human 
endeavor. 

Numerous    influences    have    in    the    past 


58 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


contributed  to  the  opinion  of  most  en- 
gineers that  they  are  barred  from  taking 
the  lead  in  public  matters  in  which  en- 
gineering is  basic.  Their  technical  train- 
ing has  been  such  that  it  has  actually 
led  them  away  from  the  aftairs  of  men  iii 
the  mass.  Professional  ethics  likewise  have 
prevented  their  expression  of  opinion  pub- 
licly on  the  engineering  problems  of  their 
communities. 

Mr.  Mullholland  carried  his  case  to  the 
people,  as  they  say  in  England.  He  fought 
back  at  the  enemies  of  the  scheme — and 
there  are  many — by  publicity.  Mr.  Thom- 
son did  the  same.  They  sidestepped  all  the 
prejudices  of  the  profession  and  put  their 
plans  across.  Their  professional  reputa- 
tions suffered  not  one  whit. 

This  brings  up  the  professional  attitude 
generally  toward  publicity.  When  I  started 
in  technical  journalism  only  eleven  years 
ago  most  engineers  were  hesitant  about 
givin^  us  information  regarding  their  work. 
In  those  days  before  we  could  get  the 
data  we  had  to  sell  the  idea  that  the  right 
kind  of  publicity  was  invaluable  to  the  en- 
gineer concerned,  to  the  profession — and  al- 
though we  didn't  dare  say  so — to  the  com- 
munity or  communities  affected.  That 
feeling  has  passed  to  considerable  extent. 
The  attitude  on  the  part  of  some  toward 
mention  of  their  work  is  still  such  as  to  be 
amusing.  The  harm  that  can  come  from 
such  publicity  is  all  that  too  many  still 
see.  They  overlook  the  fact  that  the  good 
results  completely  eclipse  any  so-called  loss 
of  business  secrets,  or  misinterpretation  of 
facts. 

Just  one  typical  case  will  illustrate  how 
publicity  helps  the  work  of  the  engineer 
and  promotes  the  cause  of  civilization.  Mr. 
W.  T.  Blackburn  built  last  summer  at  Paris, 
111.,  a  stretch  of  brick  road  laid  directly 


on  the  concrete  base  while  the  concrete 
was  green.  This  type  of  construction  bids 
fair  to  revolutionize  brick  road  building. 
The  work  was  described  at  length  in  one 
or  two  technical  journals.  As  a  result  en- 
gineers, contractors,  highway  and  municipal 
officials  from  all  over  the  country  have 
gone  to  this  comparatively  out-of-the-way 
town  to  see  the  new  work.  Next  year  many 
miles  of  brick  roads  will  be  built  in  the 
manner  developed  there.  Communities  in 
which  these  roads  are  laid  will  get  much 
better  work  for  their  money — have  good 
roads  longer  and,  indeed,  many  will  have 
brick  roads  which  previously  could  not 
have  afforded  such  construction.  All  be- 
cause one  engineer  was  not  afraid  of  the  right 
kind  of  publicity. 

In  both  the  aspects  of  the  human  side 
of  engineering  that  I  have  mentioned  there 
is  an  urgent  and  immediate  need  for  the 
education  of  the  engineering  public — the 
rank  and  file  of  the  profession.  Their  re- 
sponsibilities and  their  opportunities  must 
be  driven  home  to  them  continuously.  They 
must  be  made  to  appreciate  that  engineer- 
ing is  ceasing  to  be  merely  the  handling 
of  facts  and  figures  and  materials.  The 
profession  is  assuming  its  proper  place  in 
civilization.  The  progress  made  in  this 
direction  depends  chiefly  on  the  members 
of  the  profession. 

The  technical  press  senses  an  opportunity 
to  help  spread  this  idea  of  a  bigger  and  a 
broader — a  more  human  viewpoint  for  the 
profession.  It  serves  as  the  voice  which 
carries  the  message  to  those  who  work 
along  the  old  lines.  It  provides  the  ma- 
chinery through  which  much  can  be  ac- 
complished in  this  great  movement  tending 
to  humanize  engineering.  It  is  more  than 
willing  that  this  machinery  should  be  used 
freely  and  gratuitously  by  the  profession. 


It  is  not  trie  Science  or  curing  Disease  so  much  as  trie  prevention  01  it 
tnat  produces  tne  greatest  god  to  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  A  A  A  A  teacnin^  people  now  to  live  *  *  A  A  A 

Scientific  Eating 


ALL  forms  of  life  are  governed  by  three 
laws  which  are  commonly  termed  eating, 
exercising  and  breathing. 

EATING  or  Nutrition  is  the  most  impor- 
tant problem  of  life.  The  majority  of  dis- 
eases are  traceable  to  wrong  nutrition,  while 
correct  nutrition  will  render  the  body  im- 
mune to  most  diseases.  Of  all  laws,  the 
laws  of  nutrition  are  perhaps  the  least  under- 
stood and  the  most  frequently  violated.  Food 
properly  selected,  combined  and  proportioned 
will  build  the  body  up  to  its  normal  weight 
and  energy.  Increased  vitality  will  demand 
increased  exercise.  These  two  will  cause  deep- 
er breathing,  thereby  completing  the  cycle  of 
the  first  trio  of  laws. 

NUTRITION  may  be  studied  from  three 
standpoints :  First,  in  order  to  secure  from 
our  food  the  greatest  benefits  we  must  select 
such  articles  as  contain  all  the  elements  of 
nourishment  required  by  the  body.  Second, 
our  diet  should  be  composed  of  such  things 
as  chemically  harmonize  when  combined. 
Third,  we  must  balance  our  diet  with  respect 
to  nutrition.  That  is  to  say,  we  should  so 
proportion  it  at  meals  as  to  not  overfeed  on 
some  things  and  underfeed  on  others.  The 
more  closely  these  rules  are  followed  the  more 
harmonious  will  be  our  working  of  all  these 
laws,  the  greater  resistance  there  will  be  to 
disease,  and  the  higher  our  bodily  develop- 
ment. Our  food  should  also  be  taken  ac- 
cording to  three  laws,  namely,  age,  climate 
and  work.  The  growing  child  or  youth  needs 
much  structural  material,  sulphate  of  lime, 
such  as  is  found  in  cereals  and  all  starch 
food.  With  these  the  building  of  bone,  teeth 
and  cartilage  will  be  most,  favored.  The 
middle-aged  persons  need  but  little  of  these 
elements,  just  enough  for  repair  of  tissue 
change,  and  the  aged  person  needs  practically 
none.  We  should  select  and  proportion  our 
food  according  to  the  temperature  of  the  air, 
the  climate  and  the  season  of  the  year.  This, 
because  heat  and  energy  are  equivalent  terms. 
If  the  weather  is  cold  we  require  foods  in 
which  Nature  has  stored  an  abundance  of 
heat.  If  the  weather  is  warm  we  should  not 


partake  of  foods  high  in  heating  qualities.  In 
other  words,  we  should  not  partake  too  liber- 
ally of  heat  producing  foods  when  the  sun 
is  giving  off  its  heat  direct.  By  so  doing,  we 
would  be  building  the  fire  inside  while  the 
sun  sent  us  the  necessary  heat  from  outside. 
Violation  of  this  rule  causes  nearly  all  the 
sunstrokes  and  heat  prostrations.  Then  we 
should  select  and  proportion  our  food  accord- 
ing to  the  work  we  do.  Eating  is  a  process 
of  making  energy.  Activity  or  work  is  the 
process  of  expending  energy.  Therefore,  we 
should  make  these  two  accounts  balance.  The 
nearer  we  balance  them,  the  stronger  will 
become  our  mental  and  physical  forces. 

As  long  as  civilized  people  eat  and  drink 
incorrectly  and  live  under  artificial  conditions, 
they  will  have  to  contend  with  disease.  Inas- 
much as  the  vast  majority  of  diseases  are 
caused  by  errors  in  eating  and  drinking,  cor- 
rective eating  becomes  the  most  important 
branch  of  the  food  question. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  errors  in  the 
modern  diet  is  mixed  and  complicated  dishes; 
another  grievous  error  is  the  eating  of  too 
many  things  at  the  same  time.  A  study  of 
the  average  "regular  dinner"  will  show  that 
a  majority  of  the  "foods"  served,  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  are  not  foods  at  all,  be- 
cause they  are  not  convertible  into  energy 
or  tissue.  In  reality  they  actually  consume 
energy  through  the  effort  the  system  exerts 
to  cast  off  these  things  which  are  eaten. 

The  following  articles  contain  all  the  ele- 
ments of  body  nourishment  needed  in  any 
climate  while  performing  any  kind  of  labor 
at  any  age :  fats,  eggs,  milk,  nuts,  grains,  vege- 
tables, fruits  and  sugars.  There  are  manv 
things  not  mentioned  in  this  table  that  will 
sustain  life.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate 
all  the  things  and  combinations  of  things 
that  people  eat  which  are  not  food.  The  best 
meat  that  can  be  bought  contains  only  about 
30  per  cent  of  food  value,  the  remaining  70 
per  cent  is  water.  The  protein  can  be  pro- 
cured from  milk,  beans,  eggs,  nuts  and  peas. 
The  fat  in  meat  can  be  procured  from  butter, 
cream,  nuts  and  vegetable  oils.  In  this  -way 


59 


60  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

families    can    get   along   well    without   buying  in  the  form  of  stored  energy  is  a  menace  to 

meat,  especially  an  advantage  while  the  price  health.     It  is  either  cast  out  at  great  expense 

is  so  very  high.  of     energy,     or     it     undergoes     fermentation, 

To   get   the    best   results    from    foods    they  which    is    the    beginning   of   nearly   all    stom- 

must   be   taken    as    fresh    from    the    hand    of  ach  and  intestinal  trouble.     Then,  too,   foods 

Nature  as  it  is  possible  to  get  them.     Grains  are    often   taken    in   badly   mixed    form    such 

should    not   be    bolted    and    separated    by    the  as   fish  and   milk  or  the  juice  of   an  orange 

milling   process.     The  bread   or   porridge,   or  followed    by    oatmeal    and    cream.      By    such 

in  whatever  way  they  are  used,   should  con-  inharmonious  combinations  much  of  the  nutri- 

tain  the  grains  in  their  entirety.    All  succulent  tive    element    is    destroyed    in    the    chemical 

and  watery  vegetables,   such  as  spinach,  car-  warfare  thus  produced. 

rots,    parsnips,    squash,    onions,    green    peas,  Eating    should    be    a    thoughtful,    carefully- 

beans,   corn,    cabbage,   etc.,   should  be   cooked  considered     function.       Everything     we     eat 

in    their    own    juice.      In    this    way    all    their  should  be  for  a  definite  purpose.    We  observe 

mineral  salts  are  preserved  and  they  are  much  this  general  rule  in  all  our  business  and  social 

more  nutritious  and  delicious.  affairs,  but  ignore  it  in  our  eating,  although 

Food    should    not    be    taken    in    quantities  this    is   by    far   the   most   important  thing   in 

greater  than  can  be  digested,  or  in  excess  of  life. 

that    which    the    body    needs.      Every    penny  We  hope  to  continue  this  discussion  in  fu- 

weight  of  food  taken  into  the  body  that  can-  ture  issues  of  the  Magazine,  as  these  are  very 

not  be   used   either   in   the  life   processes   01  important  subjects  to  all  of  us. 

Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Chicago,    December    27,    1915.- 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall, 
Chief,  Surgeon, 
Hospital    Department, 
Illinois    Central    Railroad, 
Chicago,  111. 
Dear    Doctor: — 

I  have  been  home  for  some  time  with  a  very  bad  throat  and  tonsils,  of  a  very 
bad  and  stubborn  nature,  which  required  very  great  attention  and  had  to  be  operated 
upon.  I  want  to  thank  the  Hospital  Deparment  for  the  treatment  and  care  I  received 
night  and  day,  and  also  want  to  state  that  the  Hospital  Department  Surgeon  in  charge 
of  the  case  who  attended  me  was  very  courteous,  and  I  wish  to  express  my  appre- 
ciation for  his  loyal  services  rendered. 

Wishing  you  success  in  your  good  work  for  next  year,   I   am 

Yours  truly, 

John    P.    Lennon,    Conductor, 

1435    E.    64th    St.,    Chicago. 

Dr.  G.  G.. Dowdall,  Council    Bluffs,    la.,    Dec.   23,   1915. 

Chief   Surgeon, 

Hospital    Department, 

Illinois    Central    Railroad, 

Chicago,  111. 

Dear    Doctor: — 

I  have  just  returned  home  after  two  weeks'  treatment  at  Mercy  Hospital,  Chi- 
cago, where  I  had  a  surgical  operation  performed  for  right  inguinal  hernia  and  re- 
moval of  my  appendix. 

I  want  to  say  for  the  benefit  of  my  fellow  employes  that  I  received  the  greatest 
care  and  attention  from  the  Hospital  Department  physicians  and  nurses.  The  Doc- 
tors were  very  attentive  and  the  nurses  also.  Not  one  minute  was  I  neglected,  and 
just  as  much  care  was  taken  of  me  and  every  man  in  Ward  C  as  was  taken  of  other 
private  patients.  I  especially  wish  to  express  my  gratitude  to  the  Surgeon  in  attend- 
ance and  to  the  night  nurse,  and  in  closing  I  want  to  say  the  Illinois  Central  Hos- 
pital Department  is  the  grandest  investment  mortal  man  ever  made. 

With  feelings  of  gratitude  to  you  and  your  most  able  assistants,  I  am 

Yours  very  truly, 

James  R.  Newcomb, 
Coach    Cleaner. 


Circular  No.  1 45 


Chicago,  December  29,  1915. 
TO  ALL  EMPLOYING  OFFICERS: 

In  calling  for  services  of  Company  Surgeon  to  attend  some  employe  who  may 
be  at  home  as  a  result  of  illness  or  injury,  it  is  desired  that  the  employing  officer 
either  refer  to  the  official  list  or  working  time  table  and  determine  the  nearest  physi- 
cian to  the  residence  in  which  the  employe  is  located  and  give  him  the  call,  advising 
that  Order  for  Treatment  will  be  mailed  to  the  Surgeon,  or  that  the  call  be  given  to 
the  Chief  Surgeon's  office.  In  the  event  the  call  is  telephoned  to  this  office  it  is  not 
necessary  to  ask  for  some  particular  person  here  to  whom  to  give  this  call  as  has  been 
the  custom  in  the  past,  but  the  information  should  be  given  to  whoever  first  answers 
the  telephone,  thus  avoiding  a  great  deal  of  unnecessary  loss  of  time. 

Care  should  be  used  to  furnish  the  name  and  occupation  of  the  patient,  exact 
location,  as  to  street  and  number  of  residence,  whether  patient  resides  in  a  house  or 
flat,  and  if  in  a  flat  the  number  of  flat,  and  if  there  be  a  telephone  the  telephone  num- 
ber should  be  given. 

It  should  also  be  stated  as  to  whether  it  is  a  case  of  sickness  or  of  injury,  and 
also  as  to  whether  there  is  anything  of  an  emergency  nature  requiring  immediate  at- 
tention. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  where  the  employe  is  not  sick  enough  to  really 
require  that  a  physician  call  at  his  home  that  the  employe  should  go  to  the  office  of 
the  Company  Surgeon  in  his  neighborhood. 

Yours  truly, 

G.  G.  DOWDALL, 

Chief  Surgeon. 


61 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Loyal  Efficiency  and  Its  Benefits  in  the  Operation 

of  a  Railroad 


By  J.  F.  Dignan,  Supt. 


LOYALTY  and  efficiency  in  the  opera- 
tion and  maintenance  of  a  railroad  in 
every  sense  means  economy  in  that  it 
means  the  elimination  of  waste,  while  on 
the  other  hand  indifference  and  inefficiency 
means  waste  and  waste  means  a  dead  loss 
directly  or  indirectly  not  only  to  the  stock 
holder  but  to  the  employe  as  well.  In  the 
operation  and  maintenance  of  railways, 
easily  determined  losses  due  to  preventable 
wastes  in  fuel  and  other  supplies  still 
amounts  to  vast  sums  annually,  wastes 
that  would  as  completely  disappear  as 
would  the  fog  before  the  morning  sun,  if 
properly  attacked. 

I  will  venture  the  assertion  that  there 
never  has  been  a  time  in  the  history  of 
American  Railroads  when  they  could  more 
ill  afford  to  meet  a  loss  from  whatever 
source,  however  small  it  may  be  than  at 
the  present  day. 

Individual  tests  of  efficiency,  I  am  sure 
my  readers  will  agree,  has  elevated  the 
standard  of  our  service  reflecting  itself  ben- 
eficially to  the  employe,  the  traveling  pub- 
lic, the  shipper  and  the  company.  Indi- 
vidual records  of  efficiency  surely  gives  a 
square  deal  to  all,  in  that  the  efficient  shall 
be  rewarded,  the  most  efficient  receiving 
the  greatest  recognition;  no  standard  could 
be  more  fair. 

A  few  words  on  the  principals  of  effi- 
ciency as  applied  to  all  who  have  to  do 
with  the  operation  of  a  railroad.  First  and 
foremost  should  be  the  desire  to  acquire 
useful  knowledge,  alertness,  and  last  but 
not  least  the  acquirement  of  tact,  for  tact 
is  an  asset  the  worth  of  which  cannot  be 
over  estimated,  and  its  use,  together  with 
the  virtue  of  forethought  in  the  operation 
of  trains  spells  a  good  railroad.  I  use  the 
word  virtue  in  connection  with  forethought 
for  the  reason  that  forethought  is  a  virtue 
and  an  indispensible  one  when  it  comes  to 
the  operation  of  trains. 

There  is  no  corporation  in  this  country, 


not  even  the  government  itself,  that  goes 
to  the  expense  that  the  railroads  do  in  the 
education  of  its  employes  and  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  promoting  efficiency,  to  the  end 
that  the  traveling  public  and  the  shipper 
may  be  best  served. 

Does  the  employe  receive  any  benefits 
from  this  educational  expense?  I  would 
answer,  yes,  untold  benefits.  Take  for  in- 
stance the  locomotive  fireman.  He  was  in 
all  probability  a  town  .boy,  possibly  a  coun- 
try lad,  received  a  common  school  educa- 
tion, and  the  best  possible  position  that  he 
could  expect  in  his  home  town  was  one 
that  in  all  probability  would  not  yield  him 
over  $40.00  or  $50.00  per  month.  As  a  loco- 
motive fireman,  he  receives  a  salary  of  ap- 
proximately $125.00  per  month,  and  about 
the  first  thing  he  attempts  to  do  in  the  way 
of  performing  his  duties  is  to  burn  up  twice 
the  amount  of  coal  that  a  competent  effi- 
cient fireman  would  burn,  and  were  it  not 
for  a  few  ounces  of  prevention  injected  by 
his  engineer,  the  irresistible  desire  of  this 
raw  recruit  to  burn  up,  in  the  shortest  pos- 
sible time,  everything  in  sight  would  surely 
be  satisfied.  Therefore,  the  railroad  com- 
pany must  educate  him  and  it  behooves 
them  to  speedily  do  so,  especially  in  the 
matter  of  fuel  economy. 

It,  of  course,  is  the  intention  that  this 
fireman  in  due  time  will  qualify  as  a  loco- 
motive engineer.  We  find  among  his  teach- 
ers the  locomotive  engineer,  the  traveling 
engineer,  the  master  mechanic,  the  air 
brake  instructor,  the  train  master  and  I  am 
not  going  to  forget  the  round  house  ma- 
chinist. All  are  men  who  have  qualified  at 
the  expense  of  the  railway  company  to 
teach  in  the  grades  they  represent  and  at 
no  hedge  school  master's  salary  either. 

In  a  very  short  period  as  compared  with 
a  few  years  ago  we  find  this  country  lad, 
whose  only  assets  starting  out  was  a  com- 
mon school  education  and  a  good  appetite, 
not  only  a  competent  fireman  but  also  qual- 


63 


64 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ilied  to  manage  a  modern  locomotive,  com- 
manding a  wage  surpassed  by  no  Skilled 
labor  in  this  or  any  other  country. 

Did  it  cost  the  young  man  anything  to 
attain  this  degree  of  intelligence,  this 
high  standard  of  efficiency?  Not  a  cent. 
The  same  can  be  said  of  the  conductor,  the 
brakeman,  the  flagman,  the  rodman,  the  of- 
fice clerk,  the  shop  employe  and  the  track- 
man. And  what  does  the  railroad  ask  in 
return?  They  merely  ask  that  we  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  educational  facilities  of- 
fered us,  always  bearing  in  mind  that  safety 
has  precedence  over  everything  else,  never 
hesitating  to  use  extra  precaution  to  ob- 
tain positive  safety,  that  we  exercise  good 
judgment  in  the  performance  of  our  duties. 

After  all  the  real  essential  to  successful 
operation  of  a  railroad  is  the  personnel, 
the  character  of  which  is  largely  reflected 
in  the  methods  pursued  by  the  supervising 
officers  for  if  we  would  have  high  and  con- 
tinuous efficiency  the  efforts  of  all  should 
especially  be  directed  toward  the  educa- 
tion of  men  under  their  charge  as  the 
greatest  possible  good  comes  from  patient 
and  proper  tutelage.  There  are  compara- 
tively few  men  who  will  not  improve  men- 
tally and  morally  if  given  the  benefit  of 


advice  and  instruction  from  their  superior 
and  there  is  no  one  in  a  better  position  to 
exert  influence  in  that  direction  than  are 
the  employes  themselves. 

Be  it  ever  remembered  that  no  man  can 
act  with  a  loyal  and  conscientious  sense  of 
duty  in  the  affairs  that  are  intrusted  to  him 
in  the  care,  attention,  and  conservation  of 
himself  and  fellow  workers  and  the  prop- 
erty of  his  employer,  without  building  up 
his  own  character  and  manhood  which  is 
immediately  reflected  beneficially  to  him 
and  his  fellowmen  in  all  of  life's  relations. 

Loyalty  is  a  solemn  obligation  every  man 
owes  his  employer;  it  not  only  raises  his 
own  standard  of  manhood  but  it  elevates 
the  esteem  in  which  he  is  regarded  by  all 
right  thinking  men.  We  are  all  fellow 
workers  and  with  the  spirit  of  co-operation 
and  loyalty  that  prevades  our  ranks,  suc- 
cess is  certain  to  crown  our  efforts. 

And  with  a  hearty  disposition  on  the  part 
of  all  to  obtain  the  best  possible  result  just 
so  surely  shall  we  have  obtained  the  high- 
est possible  standard  of  efficiency  from 
which  a  splendid  effort  will  reflect  itself,  a 
share  of  which  we  may  all  feel  justly  en- 
titled to. 


M.  H.  LONG 


OBITUARY 
Michael  H.  Long 

MICHAEL  H.  LpNG,  our  late  General 
Foreman  at  Chicago  Passenger  Yards. 
was  born  in  Ireland,  March  9,  1858,  and 
died  after  an  illness  of  nine  weeks  at  his 
home  at  7523  Kenwood  avenue,  Dec.  30, 
1915.  Heart  disease  was  the  cause  of  death. 

He  first  became  connected  with  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  when  he 
accepted  the  position  of  Car  Foreman  of 
the  suburban  force  at  Randolph  street  in 
August,  1899.  He  was  promoted  to  the  po- 
sition of  Assistant  General  Foreman  at 
Weldon  Passenger  Yard,  Chicago,  four 
months  later,  and  was  made  General  Fore- 
man in  August.  1900,  which  position  he  suc- 
cessfully held  until  his  death. 

He  was  a  leader  and  a  friend;  a  consci- 
entious worker  with  a  dominant  person- 
ality; one  of  the  whitest,  squarest  men  with 
whom  one  may  ever  come  in  contact,  and 
those  who  were  closely  associated  with 
him  feel  his  loss  very  keenly.  His  host  of 
friends,  business  associates,  his  employers, 
and  those  who  worked  under  his  super- 
vision feel  a  deep  sense  of  personal  loss 
which  nothing  can  replace. 

To  attempt  to  express  our  sympathy  to 
the  bereaved  family  and  relatives  at  this 
time  is  a  hard  task;  the  knowledge  that  he 
was  part  of  the  great  Illinois  Central  sys- 
tem arid  was  ever  striving  to  faithfully 
serve  it  and  to  bring  it  to  the  highest 
standard  possible  is  evidence  enough  that 
the  world  is  better  for  his  having  lived. 


Coke 

B.  J.  Rowe,  Coal  Traffic  Manager 


production  of  coke  in  the  United 
States  during  1914,  which  is  the  last 
period  for  which  reports  of  the  U.  S. 
Geological  Survey  are  available,  was 
34,555,914  short  tons,  the  smallest,  ex- 
cept in  1908,  for  ten  years  due  to  gen- 
eral business  conditions  throughout  the 
country. 

The  conditions  of  the  iron  and  steel 
trade  is  the  barometer  by  which  the  in- 
dustrial conditions  of  the  country  are 
judged.  The  number  of  coke  ovens  go- 
ing in  and  out  of  blast  in  Pennsylvania 
is  the  pulse  of  the  iron  and  steel  trade, 
and  therefore  of  the  country  at  large. 
But  the  marked  revival  of  business,  par- 
ticularly in  those  lines  that  use  coke,  has 
stimulated  this  languishing  industry  re- 
markably, and  it  is  predicted  that  the 
production  of  the  current  year  will  equal 
or  exceed  the  high  mark  of  46,299,530 
short  tons  in  1913. 

Pennsylvania  has  long  led  all  other 
states  in  the  production  of  this  commo- 
dity. The  output  of  the  ovens  in  that 
state  in  1914  was  20,250,000  tons,  ap-_ 
proximately  60%  of  the  output  of  the 
United  States.  Alabama  was  second  in 
point  of  production  with  3,084,000  tons. 
Indiana  third  with  2,276,000  tons,  and 
Illinois  fourth  with  1,425,168  tons. 

There  are  two  distinct  methods  of 
coke  manufacture.  In  the  beginning,  all 
coke  was  made  in  what  is  known  as  the 
beehive  oven,  but  in  1893  there  was  in- 
troduced into  this  country  the  so-called 


by-product  or  retort  oven,  and  while  the 
volume  of  both  kinds  has  steadily  in- 
creased, the  ratio  of  increase  has  nat- 
urally been  greater  under  the  newer  re- 
tort plan  than  the  older  method.  The 
output  of  1914  was  23,335,971  short  tons 
of  beehive  or  oven  coke  valued  at  $50 
254,050  at  the  oven,  and  11,219,943  short 
tons  of  by-product  or  retort  coke,  valued 
at  $38,080,167  at  point  of  manufacture. 
This  difference  in  price  is  due,  to  some 
extent,  to  the  fact  that  the  manufacture 
of  coke  under  the  retort  oven  process 
usually  takes  place  near  the  point  of 
consumption,  and  the  coal  from  which 
manufactured  has  paid  a  freight  charge 
from  distant  coal  fields ;  while,  converse- 
ly, the  major  portion  of  the  beehive  coke 
is  manufactured  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
consuming  iron  and  steel  districts  from 
coal  secured  locally. 

The  first  ovens  of  the  retort  type  con- 
structed in  this  country  comprised  an 
experimental  plant  of  twelve  ovens  with 
recovery  apparatus  in  an  eastern  state, 
built  in  1893  primarily  for  the  recovery 
of  chemical  by-products.  The  second  by- 
product plant  constructed  was  one  of 
sixty  ovens  in  another  eastern  state  com- 
pleted the  latter  part  of  1895.  Since 
these  experimental  plants  were  in- 
stalled, the  industry  has  had  a  steady 
growth,  until  at  the  present  time  there 
are  5,809  retort  ovens  in  existence  in 
the  United  States. 

With  the  advent  of  the  retort  ovens 


66 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


67 


or  by-product  process  of  coking  coal,  a 
factor  has  been  introduced  which  has 
had  an  important  bearing  on  other  lines 
of  industry  as  well  as  the  manufacture  of 
coke.  In  the  older  or  beehive  method  of 
manufacture,  no  part  of  the  coal  is  saved 
except  the  coke  or  carbon,  and  indeed, 
part  of  that  is  usually  burned  in  the 
process  of  manufacture. 

In  the  newer  or  retort  process,  the  tar, 
gas,  ammonia,  benzol,  and  other  valuable 
by-products  such  as  chemical  and  dye 
derivatives,  are  saved,  and  a  larger  yield 
of  coke  is  obtained,  which  has  stimulated 
this  method  of  manufacture  so  that  large 
plants  of  that  character  have  been 
erected  in  territory  tributary  to  our 
railroad. 

Indiana  leads  all  states  in  the  manu- 
facture of  by-product  or  retort  coke. 
Pennsylvania  is  second,  Alabama  third 
and  Illinois  fourth ;  and  while  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  coke  produced  in  this 
country  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
iron  and  steel  articles,  it  is  noticeable 


that  in  the  territory  served  by  this  road 
coke  is  being  used  to  a  large  extent  as 
fuel,  mainly  as  a  substitute  for  anthra- 
cite coal  in  the  heating  of  dwellings,  and 
also  in  apartment  and  office  buildings. 

In  this  territory  it  will  be  found  that 
the  coal  dealers  usually  carry  a  stock  of 
coke  for  retail  trade,  and  foundries  and 
machine  shops  purchase  direct  in  carload 
lots.  There  are  a  number  of  coking 
plants  at  various  points  served  by  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  direct,  or 
through  switching  or  connecting  roads, 
and  we  have  traffic  arrangements  with 
roads  serving  coke  ovens  located  at  more 
distant  points.  And  as  the  more  general 
use  to  which  this  commodity  is  being  put 
increases  its  importance  as  a  revenue  pro- 
ducer, our  agents  should  pay  particular 
attention  to  this  tonnage  moving  into  and 
out  of  their  territory. 

Further  information  with  respect  to 
point  of  shipment,  location  of  plants, 
rates  and  routes  may  be  had  on  applica- 
tion  to  the  Coal  Traffic  Manager. 


JOHN   J.   SULLIVAN. 

Mr.  John  J.  Sullivan,  for  50  years  an  em- 
ploye of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany, was  retired  on  pension,  effective  Jan- 
uary 1,  1916. 

Mr.  Sullivan  was  born  in  Ireland,  Febru- 
ary 2,  1848.  He  received  his  education  in 
the  National  School  of  Ireland,  afterwards 
coming  to  the  United  States  with  his 
parents.  He  commenced  his  railroad  ca- 
reer October  15,  1865,  when  he  entered  the 
service  of  the  D.  &  S.  C.  as  section  laborer, 
at  Earlville,  Iowa,  which  road  was  later 
taken  over  by  the  Illinois  Central. 

In  the  spring  of  1868  he  was  promoted 
to  the  position  of  Section  Foreman  at 
Floyd,  Iowa,  being  transferred  to  Dubuque 


in  the  same  capacity  in  the  year  1871,  and 
in  1877  he  was  transferred  to  Le  Mars,  Iowa, 
as  Section  Foreman,  which  position  he  held 
until  1881,  when  he  was  promoted  to  the 
position  of  Road  Supervisor,  with  headquar- 
ters at  Dubuque,  Iowa.  In  October,  1877, 
he  was.  promoted  to  the  position  of  Road- 
master  at  Cherokee,  Iowa,  being  transferred 
to  New  Orleans,  La.,  as  Roadmaster  in 
October,  1895.  In  February,  1898,  he  was 
transferred  as  Roadmaster  to  the  Springfield 
Division,  with  headquarters  at  Clinton.  In 
October,  1902,  he  was  transferred  as  Road 
Supervisor  of  the  Madison  and  Dodgeville 
Districts,  Wisconsin  Division,  with  head- 
quarters at  Freeport,  111.,  which  position  he 
held  until  the  time  of  retirement. 

At  the  time  Mr.  Sullivan  commenced  his 
career  railroading  was  practicaly  in  its  in- 
fancy; the  old  chair  iron  40-pound  rail,  18 
to  20  feet  in  length  being  in  use,  which  is 
quite  a  contrast  to  the  present  rail  used  on 
the  modern  railroad  of  today,  and  it  is  such 
men  as  Mr.  Sullivan  that  have  brought  rail- 
roading to  the  high  standard  of  efficiency  of 
the  present  day. 

In  connection  with  his  50  years  of  constant 
service,  Mr.  Sullivan  can  relate  many  changes 
in  railroading  that  would  be  wondrous  to 
the  young  railroad  men  of  today,  and  it  will 
require  a  great  deal  of  study  and  hard  labor 
to  advance  the  improvement  in  railroad  con- 
struction within  the  next  50  years  as  was 
done  during  the  past  50  years. 

Mr.  Sullivan  was  considered  one  of  the 
most  faithful  and  practical  railroad  men  in 
the  Maintenance  of  Way  Department  on  the 
Illinois  Central  System  and  there  are  but  few 
records  that  can  compare  with  Mr.  Sullivan's 
record  of  50  years  of  service,  without  a 
blemish. 

At  the  time  of  his  retirement,  he  was  in 
active  service  and  it  is  unfortunate  that  the 
Illinois  Central  is  being  deprived  of  his  serv- 
ices as  a  result  of  his  retirement,  which,  of 
course,  comes  to  him  well  deserved.  We 
trust  that  he  will  remain  with  us  in  social 
life  for  manv  years  to  en;^"  the  rest  and 
recreation  which  he  has  so  justly  earned. 


CONCERNING   MR.   SULLIVAN'S   SERVICE   THE   FOLLOWING   LETTERS 

ARE  ILLUMINATING 

Chicago,  January  8,  1916. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Sullivan : 

On  your  leaving  the  service  after  fifty  years'  employment  I  wish  to  convey  to  you  our 
appreciation  of  your  loyal  and  efficient  service  and  to  extend  to  you  our  best  wishes. 

6S 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


69 


I  am  gratified  that  our  pension  system,  in  a  measure,  enables  the  Company  to  reward 
you  for  the  efforts  you  have  put  forth  in  its  behalf  in  looking  after  its  welfare  and  inter- 
ests, but  regardless  of  this,  I  feel,  and  I  am  sure  you  do,  that  one's  greatest  satisfaction  is 
in  looking  back  over  this  term  of  service  to  realize  that  he  has  always  had  the  Company's 
interests  at  heart.  I  know  that  your  work  has  been  with  this  idea  in  mind  and  I  again 
wish  to  thank  you  for  it. 

With  kindest  regards,  I  am  Yours  very  truly, 

Mr.  John  Sullivan,  A.  E.  CLIFT, 

Freeport,  Illinois.  General  Superintendent. 


Freeport,  111.,  January  11,  1916. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  the  8th  inst.  has  come  to  hand,  and  in  reply,  I  wish  to  thank  you  sin- 
cerely for  the  good  wishes  you  had  the  kindness  to  express. 

I  desire  to  say  that  I  have  a  very  pleasant  remembrance  of  my  years  of  service  with 
the  road,  and  of  the  kind  and  considerate  treatment  invariably  accorded  me  by  its  officials. 
Now,  at  the  time  of  my  retirement  from  the  service,  I  wish  to  assure  you  that  my 
interest  and  best  wishes  will  ever  be  with  the  Illinois  Central. 

I  also  desire  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  pension  which  the  Company,  at  the  end- 
ing of  my  term  of  active  service,  generously  gives  me. 
Again  thanking  you  for  your  kind  letter  I  am, 

Gratefully  yours, 

JOHN   SULLIVAN, 

Mr.  A.  E.  Clift,  Road  Supervisor,  Retired. 

General  Superintendent, 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  Chicago. 


to  Paducah  in  1884  at  the  time  of  the  trans- 
fer of  the  shops  at  that  point.  He  was 
employed  first  as  Round  House  laborer, 
working  in  that  capacity  for  two  years, 
then  as  a  stationary  engineer,  which  posi- 
tion he  retained  until  retired  on  a  pension 
Nov.  30,  1915. 

Mr.  Pike's  services  covered  a  period  of 
35  years  and  were  to  the  management 
entirely  satisfactory.  It  is  hoped  that  he 
will  live  long  and  enjoy  th'e  pension  which 
has  been  given  him. 


RAYMOND   A.  PIKE 

MR.  RAYMOND  A.  PIKE  was  born  in 
Meade    County,    Ky.,    Dec.    25,    1845, 
and    entered    the    service    of   the    P.    &    E. 
Railroad     (now    the     Illinois     Central)     at 
Elizabethtown,   Ky.,  July  26,   1880.     Moved 


JOHN  MORLEY 

JOHN  MORLEY  was  born  at  Ratcliff, 
J  Nottinghamshire,  England,  September 
15,  1840,  and  died  at  Las  Animas,  Colo., 
October  19,  1915,  of  apoplexy.  He  came  to 
Chicago,  Illinois,  with  his  father's  family 
at  the  age  of  thirteen.  He  removed  to 
Dyersville,  Iowa,  at  the  age  of  about  twen- 
ty-one and  shortly  thereafter  entered  the 
employ  of  the  company  and  conducted  the 
agencies  at  Dyersville,  Cedar  Falls,  Man- 
chester and  Nashua,  until  his  retirement  on 
pension  thirteen  years  ago,  when  he  took 
up  his  residence  at  Denver,  Colorado. 

During  all  the  time  of  his  service  to  the 
company  at  the  localities  mentioned,  Mr. 
Morley  was  interested,  active  and  influen- 
tial in  the  public  affairs  of  these  towns 
and  localities:  he  was  prominent  in  the 
Masonic  order,  and  was  a  pioneer  in  sup- 
port of  the  prohibition  movement  in  Iowa. 
He  took  an  active  part  in  the  original 
constitutional  amendment  for  that  cause; 
he  was  connected  with  and  active  in  the 
Methodist  Church,  was  possessed  of  a 


70 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


JOHN   MORLEY 

beautiful  voice,  and  was  continuously  the 
chorister  of  his  church  at  these  places,  and 
was  widely  known  as  a  singer  of  sacred 
songs. 

It  seems  fair  4o  say  that  Mr.  Morley  in 
his  railroad  work  won  the  reputation  of  a 
kindly,  courteous  and  affable  officer.  He 
had  a  wide  acquaintance,  and  every  ac- 
quaintance was  his  friend.  He  was  truly 
an  earnest,  sincere,  consistent  Christian 
gentleman,  with  a  sunny,  happy  disoosition 
and  attributes  as  unspoiled  and  unselfish  as 
a  child. 


DONALD   McCULLOCH 

DONALD  McCULLOCH,  of  Cherokee, 
Iowa,  who  in  December  was  pensioned 
by  the  I.  C.  R.  R.  after  over  thirty-three 
years  of  continual  service  during  which 
time  he  never  missed  any  pay-day,  was 
born  in  Ross  Shire,  Scotland.  In  the  year 
1875,  he  came  to  America  with  a  wife  and 
three  children,  coming  first  to  Aurelia, 
Iowa,  where  for  a  short  time  he  resided, 
being  told  that  the  I.  C.  R.  R.  was  to  build 
a  new  side  track  there.  But  on  July  4th 
the  river  bridge  burned  down  and  they  did 
not  start  the  side  track  at  once.  But  upon 
the  completion  of  the  side  track  he  was 
sent  with  a  construction  train  to  clean 
ditches  west  of  Cherokee.  This  work 
lasted  for  some  time.  The  name  of  the 
engineer  in  charge  of  this  work  was  James 


Deboise,  the  conductor  being  Nat  Norton. 

Mr.  McCulloch  came  to  Cherokee  in  Sep- 
tember, and  worked  on  the  section  under 
Andrew  Ellison.  At  this  time  section 
hands  were  paid  $1.10  per  day.  Filling  this 
place  for  five  years,  he  was  then  made 
night  man  at  the  pump  house  on  the  nvei 
which  at  that  time  pumped  water  up  to 
the  tank  for  the  engines.  John  Densmorc 
was  the  foreman.  Later  Mr.  McCulloch 
was  made  stationary  engineer  in  the  round 
house  at  Cherokee.  The  first  year  and  a 
half  Wiilliam  Griffin  was  foreman;  then 
Thomas  Shannon  took  his  place.  After 
leaving  the  shops  Mr.  McCulloch  was  made 
flagman  at  the  Main  St.  crossing  at  Chero- 
kee under  Roadmaster  Gilleas  and  Agent 
William  Patterson,  the  later  latelv  succeed- 
ed by  Mr.  Morrison. 

To  one  who  with  such  steadiness  has 
served  a  company  so  faithfully  much  credit 
is  due.  The  pay  received  was  never  at 
any  time  very  large  and  the  fact  that  he 
has  out  of  this  raised  a  family  of  eight 
children,  gave  them  an  education,  and  by 
his  example  molded  their  characters,  for 
strong,  faithful  men  and  women,  is  an  ex- 
ample to  be  followed.  One  daughter  is 
connected  with  the  extension  department 
of  Ames  College.  Another  daughter  was 
an  instructor  in  the  Seattle  schools,  until 
recently  married.  His  youngest  daughter 
recently  graduated  from  Stout  Institute, 
and  is  now  teaching.  The  fourth  daughter 
is  married  to  a  Cherokee  merchant.  His 


DONALD  McCULLOCH 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


71 


oldest  son  is  manager  of  the  telephone  sys- 
tem in  Wessington,  S.  Dak.  One  other  son 
is  a  cattle  man  in  Montana,  another  is 
supervisor  of  the  block  system  for  the  Soo 
Line  in  Wisconsin.  His  youngest  son  is  a 
member  of  a  shoe  firm  in  Cherokee. 

Mr.  McCulloch  expects  soon  to  go  and 
spend  the  winter  in  California.  He  is  now 
at  liberty  to  enjoy  a  well-earned  rest,  but 
he  says  he  will  never  forget  his  affection 
for  the  I.  C.  R.  R.  Upon  his  retirement 
he  received  the  following  complimentary 
letter  from  the  General  Manager  of  the 
road: 

Mr.  Donald  McCulloch. 

Dear  Sir: 

My  attention  has  just  been  called  to 
your  retirement  from  the  service  of  this 
Company,  under  the  pension  rules,  effective 
Dec.  1st,  1915,  after  having  been  continu- 
ously employed  for  a  period  of  thirty-three 
years. 

This  is  indeed  an  exceptionally  fine  rec- 
ord, and  one  of  which  you  may  well  feel 
proud.  On  behalf  of  the  management,  as 
well  as  myself  personally,  I  wish  to  con- 
vey to  you  our  appreciation  of  this  loyal 
and  efficient  service,  and  express  the  wish 
that  you  may  thoroughly  enjoy  your  well- 
earned  rest.  Yours  truK 

T.  J.   Foley, 
Gen.  Mgr. 


Mr.  Wheeler  was  born  in  Dayton,  Catta- 
rangus  County,  New  York,  November  18, 
1845.  When  quite  a  young  man  he  moved 
to  Iowa,  then  on  the  frontier,  learning  the 
carriage  making  trade.  He  afterwards 
moved  to  Elizabethtown,  Ky.,  workin~  at 
that  point  at  his  trade  until  July  2nd,  1877, 
on  which  date  he  accepted  position  as  Car 
Repairer  with  the  old  E.  &  P.  Railway, 
now  the  I.  C. 

When  shops  were  removed  to  Paducah 
in  1884  he  was  transferred  to  that  point. 

Mr.  Wheeler  was  in  continuous  service 
38  years  and  five  months  without  losing 
as  much  as  30  days  continuously  at  anv 
time  during  his  service.  He  is  still  enjo"- 
ing  good  health  and  desires  to  thank  the 
management  for  the  good  treatment  tha 
has  been  given  him  during  his  service  with 
tnis  company. 


MR.   LAWRENCE   B.   FLAWS 

BORN  in  the  Shetland  Isles  in  1845, 
where  he  spent  his  youth,  and  was 
married  in  the  old  "Kirk"  of  his  native 
town,  Mr.  Flaws  came  to  this  country  in 
1871  and  settled  at  Chicago,  where,  shortly 
after  his  arrival,  he  entered  the  service  of 
the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co.,  at  the  car 
shop  then  located  at  the  foot  of  26th  St., 
as  carpenter,  under  Master  Mechanic 
Charles  Scoville.  He  remained  in  the  serv- 


B 


BALDWIN  WHEELER  LAWRENCE  B.  FLAWS 

ALDWIN    WHEELER,    Car    Foreman,      jce  about  one  year,  and,  in  1872  he  entered 

the  service  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  & 
Pacific,  remaining  in  the  service  of  that 
company  until  1879  when  he  re-entered  the 


Paducah  Shops,  was  retired  from  the 
service  November  30,  1915,  account  reach- 
ing age  limit. 


72 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


service  of  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co.  as 
carpenter  and  was  shortly  afterwards  pro- 
moted to  Truck  Foreman  under  Master 
Mechanic  W.  B.  Snow.  In  1891,  he  was 
transferred  to  Weldon,  where  he  remained 
until  1894  as  Foreman  in  charge  of  pas- 
senger car  repairs.  In  1894  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Freeport,  where,  under  Master 
Mechanic  E.  Dana,  he  served  as  Foremai 
in  charge  of  passenger  car  repairs  unt; 
1895,  when  he  returned  to  his  old  place  in 
Chicago. 

In  both  of  the  above  mentioned  positions, 
Mr.  Flaws  performed  his  duties  to  the  en- 
tire satisfaction  of  the  Company. 

The  old  plant  at  26th  St.  was  discontinued 
at  the  close  of  1895  and  was  transferred 
to  its  present  location  at  Burnside,  where 
it  was -affiliated  with  the  Locomotive  De- 
partment, under  Master  Mechanic  J.  W. 
Luttrell.  Mr.  Flaws,  was,  at  the  same  time, 
transferred  to  Burnside  Shops  where  he 
served  as  Foreman,  until  his  retirement 
under  the  Pension  Act,  at  the  close  of 
October,  1915. 

During  the  37  years  of  his  service,  he 
made  many  friends  through  his  sturdy  sense 
of  duty  and  his  sterling  integrity.  No  in- 
fluence could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him 
to  swerve  for  an  instant  from  the  straight 
path  of  duty,  and  he  leaves  behind  him  in 
the  service  many  friends  who  will  miss  his 
genial  comoanionship. 

May  he  live  for  many  years  in  the  com- 
panionshio  of  his  excellent  wife,  children, 
grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren,  to 
enjoy  his  well-earned  rest. 


MR.  JOHN  MONAHAN. 

MR.  JOHN  MONAHAN,  for  36  years  an 
employe  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company,    was    retired    on    pension,    effective 
January  1,  1916. 

Mr.  Monahan  was  born  on  a  farm  in  Lee 
County,  near  Amboy,  111..  January  26,  1855.. 
He  received  his  education  in  the  public  schools 
in  that  locality.  He  began  his  railroad  career 
as  passenger  brakeman  on  the  Amboy  District 
of  the  Illinois  Central,  November  16,  1879, 


JOHN  MONAHAN 

being  promoted  to  the  position  of  train  bag- 
gageman November  20,  1881,  which  position 
he  held  up  to  the  time  of  his  retirement. 

Mr.  Monahan  also  served  several  months 
in  freight  service  during  the  year  1881,  at 
which  time  all  braking  was  done  by  hand. 
Passenger  coaches  were  lighted  by  candles 
and  heated  by  wood  fires  and  one  of  the  duties 
of  the  passenger  brakemen  was  to  keep  a  sup- 
ply of  candles  on  hand  as  well  as  a  supply 
of  fire  wood,  when  laying  over  at  Amboy. 

Mr.  Monahan  was  always  considered  a  most 
reliable  and  efficient  railroad  man  and  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  the  Illinois  Central  is 
being  deprived  of  his  active  services  through 
his  retirement,  which  he  has  so  justly  earned. 


FOOD  FOR  FANS 


.  L.  MORELAND-STATIST1C1AN 


BOB  CARMICHAEL 


WORTH  KNOWING 

Greatest  number  of  innings  played  in  a  game — Brooklyn  Athletics  vs  East  End 
Stars,  two  Cleveland,  O.,  amateur  clubs,  30  innings  July  4,  1907. 


SPORTING  RECORDS 


Yearly  Subscription  Published  Dally  Except  Sunday  Copyright  1916 

$31.20  By  The  Sporting  Records  Publishing  Company.  333  South  Dearborn  Street,  Chicago,  111.  «^g»m 

General  Business  Office,  2456  Jackson  Boulevard,  Chicago.  Ill 


Voi.i.  No.  263  '      TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY  1,  1916 H^H^F" 

BOB   CARMICHAEL 

Division  Passenger  Agent  of  The  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Known  to  Every  Sporting  Man  in  the  United  States 

Has  Booked  More  Baseball,  Bowling,  Athletic  and 
Other  Teams  Than  Any  Man  In  The  Business 


To  personally  know  every  baseball  player  in  the  two  major  leagues,  is  some  task.  Knowing  hundreds  of  athletes  scattered  in 
all  parts  of  the  United  Slates  is  also  some  feat,  and  it  is  a  question  if  there  is  such  a  man  except  Robert  J.  Carmichael,  the  General 
Division  Passenger  Agent  for  the  I.  C.  Railroad. 

As  an  excursion  man  who  gets  up  trips  for  the  leading  Sporting  Events  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  "Smiling"  Bob  has  never  had 
an  equaL  From  St.  Paul  and  Omaha,  Neb.  to  New  Orleans  and  Jacksonville,  Florida,  he  is  known  by  every  man  who  ever  took 
a  trip  to  see  a  big  event. 

He  has  sent  more  people  to  the  Mardi  Gras  at  New  Orleans,  than  any  railroad  man  in  the  middle-west,  while  there  has  never 
been  a  big  event  of  any  description  held  that  he  has  not  sent  hundreds  to  that  match. 

He  was  for  sometime  hard  at  work  arranging  an  excursion  to  New  Orleans  for  the  heavyweight  match  between  champion  Jess 
Willard  and  Fred  Fulton,  having  up  to  the  hour  the  match  was  called  off,  275  reservation.  Every  man  with  an  ounce  of  sporting 
blood  in  his  veins  would  have  taken  advantage  of  the  trip,  and  been  on  hand  when  the  two  gladiators  shook  hands  in  the  ring. 

Mr.  Carmichael  is  some  athlete  himself,  for  when  he  went  to  school  there  was  not  a  better  baseball,  football  or  athlete  in  the 
business.  He  holds  a  record  of  10  flat  for  1  00  yards  and  22  3-5  for  2:20.  He  could  run  the  hurdles  and  jump  with  the  best  of  them. 

This  gentleman  missed  his  vocation  when  he  became  a  railroad  man.  He  should  have  purchased  a  baseball  team  in  a  major 
league  city.  Had  this  happened,  he  would  have  been  in  the  same  class  with  Comiskey,  Weeghman,  and  Mack,  all  of  whom  have 
made  enough  money  to  buy  a  railroad,  and  not  toil  for  a  living  as  Bob  has  since  he  followed  the  "Choo  Choos. 


The  Traveling  Man's  Paradise 


By  B.  W.  Fredenburg 


THE  professional  grouch  of  the  grip 
sack  profession  back  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  who  was  continually  goaded 
to  desperation  by  poor  meal$,  .hairless 
mattresses  and  trainless  schedules,  seems 
now  to  have  almost  completely  faded  from 
our  midst.  To  be  sure  we  occasionally 
hear  a  sputtering  murmur  from  some 
knight  of  the  traveling  bag  concerning  a 
"rotten  meal"  but  it  is  a  safe  ten  to  one 
shot  that  the  "rotten  meal"  in  quesion  was 
better  than  the  food  he  had  to  sit  down 
to  back  in  the  nineties;  thus  the  proposi- 
tion resolves  itself  into  a  slight  difference 
without  any  material  distinction. 

Compared  with  the  taverns  he  used  to 
frequent — where  the  sawdust  spit-boxes  in 
the  lobby  were  only  refilled  biennally — 
Spring  and  Fall,  and  the  hired  help  were 
so  unplentiful  that  he  was  obliged  to  as- 
sume the  duties  of  bellhop  and  chamber- 
maid or  run  the  risk  of  getting  in  bad 
with  the  watchdog  of  the  room  keys  be- 
hind the  counter,  the  present  day  palatial 
caravansaries  that  almost  every  good  sized 
town  can  boast  are  to  him  an  earthly  para- 
dise. 

Towns  that  have  just  emerged  from  the 
hamlet  stage  and  struggled  along  for  years 
with  a  "Central  House"  or  "Depot  Hotel," 
now  point  with  pride  to  a  "Biltmore"  or  a 
"Hotel  de  Royal"  where  the  lobbies  are 
decorated  with  oriental  rugs  and  real  easy 
chairs  upholstered  in  Turkish  leather,  while 
a  colored  attendant  in  a  white  duck  uni- 
form does  nothing  but  follow  around  with 
a  brush  and  dustpan  to  catch  the  ashes  as 
thev  fall  from  your  cigars. 

It  is  in  the  ladies'  reception  room,  how 


ever,  where  the  excess  help  seems  much 
more  apparent.  The  sole  duty  of  the  maid 
in  waiting,  it  seems,  is  to  dust  off  the 
colonial  furniture  something  like  fifty  times 
a  day  so  that  everything  will  be  perfectly 
formal  and  sanitary,  while  in  the  basement 
the  gorgeously  fitted  up  sanitary  barber 
shop,  with  professional  manicure  attendant, 
gives  a  metropolitan  finish  to  the  whole 
surroundings. 

To  be  sure  the  European  plan  meals  are 
stronger  in  prices  as  well  as  quality,  but 
the  business  concern  that  instructs  its  trav- 
eling men  to  discourage  good  hotels  on 
account  of  the  prices  is  not  an  influential 
factor,  and  besides  the  head  sales  manager 
can  now  afford  to  make  flying  trips  to  the 
provincial  communities  and  feel  the  pulse 
of  the  trade  without  running  the  risk  of 
starving  to  death  or  being  forced  to  de- 
pend on  one  train  a  day  to  get  back  to 
headquarters. 

Transportation  facilities  are  something 
akin  to  necessity  to  the  traveling  man  and 
instead  of  having  to  wait  for  a  4:50  a.  m. 
train,  or  lose  a  whole  day,  he  can  now 
catch  an  Interurban  Line  car  almost  every 
hour  and  make  his  schedule  without  pacing 
the  railroad  depot  platform  for  hours  wait- 
ing- for  the  train  that  never  seemed  to 
come — way  back  in  the  nineties. 

A  few  minutes'  conversation  with  the 
"soldier  of  the  business  trenches"  whose 
iron  gray  hair  and  easy  manner  proclaim 
a  long  experience  on  the  road  will  con- 
vince you  that,  considering  the  manner  in 
which  the  modern  hotels  of  today  are  con- 
ducted, orosperity  stalks  rampant  o'er  the 
land. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


77 


MONUMENT    TO    THE    SOLDIERS    AND 

SAILORS 

Walnut  Hill  Cemetery.    Erected  by  the  Women's 
Relief  Corps  of  Belleville 


TICKETS,  PLEASE! 

By  Arthur  Hancock. 

It  takes  the  crossing  flagman  to  stop  things. 

It's  a  darn  poor  engine  that  won't  "pull" 
for  the  railway  company. 

The  way  some  ticket  agents  can  answer 
questions  would  shame  an  encyclopedia. 

Passenger  trains  are  not,  as  a  rule,  stock 
trains ;  but  you  often  find  on  them  the  seat- 
hog. 

Competition  on  railroads  is  not  always  the 
life  of  trade.  Sometimes  it  is  the  death  of  it. 

The  old  lady  who  pulled  the  bell-rope  for 
a  drink  had  no  trouble  in  getting  it. 

If  you  want  to  please  the  conductor,  have 
your  tickets  ready. 

One  of  the  most  important  assets  of  a  rail- 
way, but  sel  lorn  in  the  limelight,  is  the  sec- 
tion man. 

There  is  a  lot  of  responsibility  in  the  end 
of  a  telegraph  operator's  finger. 

Sometimes  the  man  who  won't  look  out  for 
danger,  has  no  chance  to  look  out  for  any- 
thing else. 

Some  men  will  plant  their  dirty  shoes  on 
the  seat  cushions  of  a  coach  who  wouldn't 
think  of  doing  such  a  thing  at  home. 

Trains  stop  so  quietly  these  days  that  even 
the  sleeping  cars  don't  wake  up. 


A  Letter  of  Appreciation  from  a  Graduate  of  the 
Fifty-Seventh  Street  Training  School 

Mason,  111.,  January  21,  1916. 
Mr.  A.  E.  Barton, 

Instructor  Illinois  Central  Training  School, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir : 

You  will  please  pardon  me,  as  I  know  you  are  a  very  busy  man,  for  taking  up  a  por- 
tion of  your  valuable  time,  but  I  feel  it  is  a  duty  I  owe,  to  extend  to  you  many  thanks  for 
what  you  did  for  me  the  two  weeks'  stay  in  your  school. 

First,  because  of  the  thoroughness  of  your  school,  and  the  up-to-date  methods,  the 
many  points  you  brought  out  in  railroad  work,  which  in  my  five  months'  work  I  can  see 
why  you  emphasized  them  so  much.  Railroad  work  requires  it. 

Second,  because  I  was  one  that  did  not  receive  a  rebuke  from  you. 

Third,  for  the  favors  you  showed  me  in  looking  after  the  storing  and  checking  of  my 
baggage,  and  the  good  advice  you  gave  me  on  the  outside,  especially  advising  me  not  to  go 
to  Sioux  City  as  freight  checker,  and  last,  but  not  least,  for  the  location  you  gave  me.  I 
have  a  gentleman  in  every  respect  to  work  with.  He  is  .kind,  willing  and  ready  to  help 
and  direct  me.  He  gives  me  lots  of  work  to  do,  but  that  is  exactly  what  I  want.  I  want 
the  experience.  There  is  only  one  fault  I  have  with  him,  he  doesn't  give  me  enough  to  do. 

I  have  become  attached  to  the  people  here,  and  only  wish  that  I  was  the  agent  instead 
of  helper. 

In  conclusion,  I  again  thank  you.  Give  the  boys  my  respects  and  best  wishes,  and 
also  h —  — ,  if  they  need  it. 

With  best  wishes  to  you  and  Mrs.  Barton,  I  remain  Yours  very  truly, 

ARTHUR  ALLEN. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


A  Letter  of  Thanks  from  a  Patron  of  the  Illinois 

Central  Railroad  for  Courteous  Treatment 

by  Conductor  E.  M.  Winslow 

Onarga,  111.,  January  17,  1916. 
Superintendent  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 

Chicago,  Illinois. 
Dear  Sir : 

On  the  evening  of  the  13th,  I  left  Chicago  on  the  local  express  train  that  leaves  Chicago 
at  about  8:20;  think  the  number  of  train  is  No.  21. 

I  could  not  help  but  notice  the  way  in  which  the  conductor  looked  after  the  interests 
of  the  patrons  as  well  as  the  Company.  This  particular  evening  was  exceedingly  cold.  He 
went  through  the  train  and  pulled  down  all  the  curtains.  Around  the  drinking  fountains, 
where  some  water  had  been  spilt  and  frozen,  he  gathered  up  old  newspapers  and  placed 
them  on  the  floor  over  the  ice  so  there  would  not  be  any  one  hurt  by  slipping.  At  every  place 
the  train  stopped,  he  was  out  watching  the  passengers  off  of  the  train  and  cautioning  them 
about  slipping.  As  I  employ  a  good  many  men  myself,  his  actions  could  not  help  but  draw 
my  admiration.  If  I  could  get  my  men  to  take  an  interest  in  my  business  like  this  Con- 
ductor did  in  his  train,  it  would  certainly  mean  a  big  saving  to  me  during  the  year. 

I  do  not  know  this  Conductor's  name,  but  he  was  a  small  man  with  very  gray  hair. 
I  presume  there  is  something  wrong  with  this  man  that  I  do  not  know  about,  or  he  would 
not  be  running  the  passenger  train  at  his  age. 

Very  truly  yours, 

W.  D.  RANKIN, 


The  following  letter  is  another  indication  that  courtesy  of  employes  to  patrons 
is  a  valuable  asset  to  the  railroad: 

New   Yo.rk   City,   January   2,    1916. 
Mr.  T.  E.  Hill,  Supt.,  I.  C.  Railroad,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Dear  Sir: — On  a  recent  trip  to  Mississippi,  by  way  of  Louisville,  I  met  with  un- 
usual courtesy  at  the  hands  of  your  Mr.  Harvey,  conductor  of  train  leaving  Louis- 
ville at  9:45  p.  m. 

With  best  wishes  for  the  continued  success  of  the  I.  C.  R.  R.  and  my  best  thanks 
to  Mr.  Harvey,  I  am 

Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)    Miss  Blanche  Colton  Williams. 


Meritorious    Service 


FAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
following  conductors  and  gatekeep- 
ers for  their  special  efforts  in  lifting  and 
preventing  the  use  of  irregular  transpor- 
tation in  connection  with  which  reports 
(Form  972)  were  rendered  to  the  auditor 
of  passenger  receipts,  who,  in  cases  of 
this  kind,  advises  the  other  departments 
concerned,  so  that  proper  action  may  be 
taken,  all  pass  irregularities  being 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  vice- 
president. 

Illinois  Division 

During  December  the  following  subur- 
ban gatekeepers  lifted  commutation  tick- 
ets account  having  expired  or  being  in 
improper  hands :  K.  F.  Emmanuel,  T. 
C.  White,  J.  Powers,  M.  G.  Helden- 
brand,  Margaret  King,  Kittie  Dolan. 

Suburban  Flagman  H.  T.  Best,  on 
train  No.  280,  December  21st,  lifted  em- 
ploye's suburban  pass  account  being  in 
improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Winslow,  on  train  No. 
2,  December  1st,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket,  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected other  transportation.  Passenger 
was  referred  to  Passenger  Department 
for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel,  on  train  No. 
23,  December  3rd,  declined  to  honor  local 
ticket,  account  having  expired.  Passen- 
ger refused  to  pay  fare  and  was  required 
to  leave  the  train. 

On  train  No.  23,  December  20th,  he 
declined  to  honor  card  ticket,  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  Passenger  De- 
partment for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks,  on  train  No. 
4,  December  17th,  and  No.  5,  December 
21st,  declined  to  honor  card  tickets,  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fares.  Passengers  were  referred  to  Pas- 
senger Department  for  refund  on  tickets. 
St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader,  on  train  No. 
23,  December  5th,  No.  22,  December 
14th,  and  No.  1,  December  29th,  declined 
to  honor  card  tickets,  account  having  ex- 


pired and  collected  cash  fares.  Passen- 
gers were  referred  to  Passenger  Depart- 
ment for  refund  on  tickets. 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup,  on  train  No. 
208,  December  9th,  and  No.  201,  De- 
cember 13th,  declined  to  honor  card 
tickets,  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fares.  Passengers  were  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  tickets. 

On  train  No.  208,  December  21st,  he 
declined  to  honor  going  portion  of  round 
trip  ticket,  account  returning  portion 
being  missing  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  208,  December  30th,  he 
lifted  telegraphic  pass,  account  having 
expired,  and  honored  other  transporta- 
tion. 

Conductor  G.  Carter,  on  train  No.  506, 
December  12th,  declined  to  honor  card 
tickets,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fares.  Passengers  were  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  tickets. 

Conductor  H.  W.  Bibb,  on  train  No. 
624,  December  27th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket,  account  having  expired,  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Springfield  Division 

Conductor  O.  H.  Lawson,  on  train  No. 
19,  December  7th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred 
to  the  Passenger  Department  for  refund 
on  ticket. 

Conductor  T.  J.  Boyle,  on  trains  Nos. 
101  and  102,  December  22nd,  declined  to 
honor  card  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired, and  collected  cash  fares.  Passen- 
gers were  referred  to  Passenger  Depart- 
ment for  refund  on  tickets. 
Indiana  Division 

Conductor  E.  N.  Vane,  on  train  No. 
303,  December  4thr  declined  to  honor  lo- 
cal ticket,  account  having  expired,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor   G.   Neiman,   on   train    No. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


81 


195,  December  1st,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  B.  Stewart,  on  train  No. 
120,  December  4th,  and  No.  131,  Decem- 
ber 6th,  declined  to  honor  card  tickets, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fares.  Passengers  were  referred 
to  Passenger  Department  for  refund  on 
tickets. 

Conductor  J.  H.  Quinlan,  on  train  No. 
14,  December  14th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  date  of  sale  having 
been  erased,  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  Passenger  De- 
partment for  refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  13,  Dec.  30th,  he  declined 
to  honor  going  portion  of  trip  pass,  ac- 
count returning  portion  being  missing, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  B.  Lichtenberger,  on  train 
No.  131,  Dec.  23rd,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor    W.    Y.    Hansbrough,    on 
"train    No.    104,    December    16th,    lifted 
mileage  book,  account  being  in  improper 
hands,  and  honored  mileage    from  an- 
other book  to  cover  trip. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn,  on  train  No. 
132,  Dec.  17th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  date  of  sale  having  been 
erased  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  W.  A.  Graham,  on  train 
No.  5,  December  7th,  declined  to  honor 
foreign  interline  ticket,  account  having 
expired,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  W.  Robertson,  on  train 
No.  121,  December  25th,  declined  to  hon- 
or mileage  book,  account  having  expired, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  L.  Palmer,  on  train  No. 
10,  December  25th,  lifted  mileage  book, 
account  being  in  improper  hands,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Mississippi  Division 

Conductor  T.  Sitton,  on  Train  No.  104, 
December  8th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred 
to  Passenger  Department  for  refund  on 
ticket. 


Conductor  H.  W.  Caldwell,  on  train 
No.  131,  December  13th,  declined  to 
honor  returning  portion  of  card  ticket, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  T.  Nason,  on  train  No. 
23,  December  14th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket,  account  having  expired,  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson,  on  train 
No.  1,  December  26th,  declined  to  honor 
local  ticket  calling  for  transportation  in 
the  opposite  direction.  Passenger  pre- 
sented mileage  book  to  cover  trip. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  Wm.  Trafton,  on  train  No. 
1,  December  1st,  lifted  54  ride  ticket, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  4,  December  9th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  returning  portion  of 
card  ticket,  account  having  expired,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  Moales,  on  train  No. 
34,  December  7th,  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age book,  account  having  expired.  Pas- 
senger presented  another  mileage  book 
to  cover  trip. 

On  train  No.  34,  December  19th,  he 
declined  to  honor  mileage  book,  account 
having  expired,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Broas,  on  train  No. 
34,  Dec.  8th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book,  account  having  expired.  Passen- 
ger refused  to  pay  fare  and  was  re- 
quired to  leave  the  train. 

On  train  No.  34,  December  12th  and 
22nd,  he  declined  to  honor  mileage  books, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fares. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes,  on  train  No. 
6,  December  12th,  lifted  mileage  book, 
account  being  in  improper  hands,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff,  on  train 
No.  503-303,  December  15th,  lifted  iden- 
tification slip,  Form  1572,  account  being 
issued  in  error,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  G.  O.  Lord,  on  train  No. 
32,  Dec.  18th,  lifted  employe's  term  pass, 
account  identification  slip  having  been 
altered,  and  collected  cash  fare. 


82 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Conductor  T.  A.  Moore,  on  train  No. 
24,  December  19th,  lifted  employe's  term 
pass,  account  identification  slip  having 
been  altered.  Passengers  refused  to  pay 
fare  and  were  required  to  leave  the 
train. 

Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp,  on  train  No. 
31,  December  24th,  lifted  30  trip  family 
ticket,  account  being  in  improper  hands, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  E.  McMaster,  on  tr?' 
No.  4,  December  27th,  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket,  account  having  expired,  am' 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  Passenger  Department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee,  on  train  No.  303, 
December  6th,  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age book,  account  having  expired.  Pas- 
senger presented  another  mileage  book  to 
cover  trip. 

Conductor  G.  T.  Reeves,  on  train  No. 
523,  December  13th,  and  No.  304,  De- 
cember 27th,  declined  to  honor  card  tick- 
ets, account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fares. 

Conductor  B.  H.  Dameron,  on  train 
No.  331,  December  28th,  declined  to  hon- 
or returning  portion  of  Sunday  excursion 
ticket,  account  having  expired,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Vicksburg  Division 

Conductor  R.  C.  Buck,  on  train  No. 
144,  December  1st,  lifted  mileage  book, 
account  being  in  improper  hands,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  R.  Hoke,  on  train  No. 
12,  December  5th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  calling  for  transportation  in  the 
opposite  direction  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  C.  E.  Gore,  on  train  No. 
33,  December  1st,  declined  to  honor  re- 
turning portion  of  card  ticket,  account 
having  expired,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  L.  Williams,  on  train 
No.  733,  December  8th,  declined  to  hon- 
or mileage  book,  account  having  expired. 
Passenger  presented  another  mileage 
book  to  cover  trip. 


On  train  No.  33,  December  10th,  he 
declined  to  honor  54  ride  ticket,  account 
having  expired,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Cook,  on  train  No. 
507,  December  18th,  lifted  54  ride  ticket, 
account  being  in  improper  hands,  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Cook,  on  train  No. 
15,  December  22nd,  declined  to  honor 
mileage  book,  account  having  expired, 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  21,  December  29th,  he 
lifted  mileage  book,  account  being  in  im- 
proper hands,  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  M.  J.  Moody,  on  train  No 
15,  December  28th,  lifted  54  ride  ticket, 
account  having  expired,  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Springfield  Division 

Brakeman  R.  O.  Bratcher  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  prompt- 
ly reporting  broken  bolster  on  ajax  truck 
under  I.  C.  95406,  at  Vandalia,  111.,  No- 
vember 13,  1915,  thereby  avoiding  pos- 
sible accident. 

Brakeman  John  Lamon  has  been  com- 
mended for  firing  engine  No.  1538  extra 
south,  Decatur  to  Pana,  December  11, 
1915,  account  of  regular  fireman  becom- 
ing sick. 

Brakeman  E.  R.  Banks  has. been  com- 
mended for  discovering  fifteen  inches  of 
flange  missing  from  T.  St.  L.  &  W.  car 
2432,  at  Ramsey,  December  20,  1915. 
Proper  report  was  made,  resulting  i-i 
car  being  set  out,  thereby  avoiding  pos- 
sible accident. 

Illinois  Division 

Conductor  C.  Squires,  Extra  1509,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting I.  C.  86814  without  light  weight 
stencilled  on  it.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  car  restencilled. 

Conductor  C.  H.  Martin  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  I: 
C.  42973  improperly  stencilled.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  correction 
made. 

Yard  Clerk  L.  R.  Deany,  Gilman,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting I.  C.  39407  without  any  light 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


83 


weight  stencilled  on   it.      Arrangements 
were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

C.  A.  Beasley,  extra  1663,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing I.  C.  67305  improperly  stencilled. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  have  cor- 
rection made. 

Signal  Maintainer  E.  Bucus,  Monee, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering 
I.  C.  122654  with  no  light  weight  sten- 
cilled on  it.  Arrangements  were  made  to 
have  car  stencilled. 

Agent  L.  P.  Cailey,  Danforth,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing I.  C.  67305  improperly  stencilled. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  have  cor- 
rection made. 

Conductor  J.  J.  Monahan,  Extra  1647, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  I.  C.  106823  with  no  light 
weight  stencilled  on  it.  Arrangements 
were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Fireman  F.  A.  Chapman  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  some  timber 
which  obstructd  the  south  bound  main 
track  one  mile  north  of  LaClede,  Decem- 
ber 6th,  and  taking  the  necessary  action 
to  have  obstruction  removed,  thereby 
preventing  possible  accident. 

Conductor  E.  H.  Cassidy,  extra  136, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  rail  broken  in  two  places  in 
track  No.  1  at  Kankakee  Hospital. 

Conductor  F.  Van  Meter,  extra  1643, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  C.  G.  W.  60727  with  15  inches 
of  flange  gone. 

Brakeman  W.  H.  Burnside,  extra  1543, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  I.  C.  85101  with  cracked  wheel. 

J.  W.  Meadows,  Freight  Brakeman, 
Extra  1578,  has  been  commended  for  dis- 
covering a  pair  of  wheels  sliding  on  No. 
9.  He  immediately  gave  this  train  a  stop 
signal  and  train  was  stopped  and  air  was 
released  from  the  brakes  which  were 
sticking  on  the  wheels. 

C.  M.  Carbaugh,  clerk  at  Belleflower, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  D.  S.  K.  1632  off  center,  Janu- 
ary 8th. 

Conductor  J.  F.  McWilliams,  train  3, 
January  13th,  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  a  broken  rail 


north  of  drainage  ditch  between  Paxton 
and  Ludlow. 

Flagman  T.  J.  Hardsock  has  been  com- 
mended for  action  taken  in  rescuing  a 
small  girl  at  Mattoon,  January  7,  who  ran 
in  front  of  a  coach. 

Minnesota  Division 

Station  Helper  Arthur  Wilhelm,  Dy- 
ersville,  has  been  commended  for  dis- 
covering and  reporting  brake  beam  down 
on  I.  C.  150551,  train  62,  January  6. 

Station  Helper  W.  H.  Weir,  Jesup, 
Iowa,  has  been  commended  for  discov- 
ering and  reporting  brake  rod  dragging 
on  car  in  train  No.  60. 

I.  F.  Elliott,  brakeman,  Dubuque,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting broken  flange  on  C.  B.  &  Q. 
175267,  while  switching  at  Gilman,  Jan- 
uary 1st. 

Wisconsin  Division. 

Conductor  W.  M.  Riley  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on 
I.  C.  120,159,  November  28th,  La  Salle,  111. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Barlow  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on 
I.  C.  120,423,  December  7th,  Oglesby,  111. 

Conductor  R.  Boshelle  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on  I.  C. 
120,093,  December  16th,  Bloomington,  111. 

Conductor  J.  L.  Mathews  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on 
I.  C.  120,129,  December  21st,  Amboy,  111. 

Conductor  W.  M.  Riley  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on  I.  C. 
120,640,  December  22nd,  La  Salle,  111. 

Conductor  W.  M.  Riley  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on  I.  C. 
120,823,  December  24th,  La  Salle,  111. 

Conductor  F.  A.  Hume  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on 
I.  C.  120,196,  December  31st,  Heyworth,  111. 

Conductor  E.  F.  Burns  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on 
I.  C.  120,298,  January  5th,  Oglesby,  111. 

Conductor  B.  J.  Kuhn  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on  I.  C. 
120,544,  January  7th,  Minonk,  111. 

Conductor  E.  F.  Rockwell  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  truck  on  M. 
&  O.  11,700,  December  "15th,  Haldane,  111. 

Conductor  S.  B.  Mabey  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  brake  beam  down  under 
Mail  Car  247,  December  18th,  Dixon,  111. 

Conductor  E.  F.  Burns  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on  I.  C. 
120,614,  January  17th,  Mendota,  111. 

Conductor  J.  L.  Graham  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  arch  bar  on 
I.  C.  120,424,  January  20th,  Polo,  111. 


CASEY  JONES'  WORK  REPORT. 


By  T.  M.  Street,  Machinist. 

Pack  both  pistons  and  valve  stems,  too, 
Tighten     rocker     boxes     where     bolts     go 

through. 

Bell  ringer  won't  work,  whistle  won't  blow, 
Oil  in  the  lubricator  will  not  flow. 
The    flues    are    leaking   and    the    fire   won't 

burn, 
The  dump  is  broken,  and  the  grates  won't 

turn. 

Valves  are  blowing  and  piston  rings,  too, 
Be  sure  and  put  on  right  main  shoe. 
Brakes  leak  off  and  tripples  blow, 
Pump  governor  sticks  and  pump  runs  slow. 
Grind  in  chucks  and  right  steam  ram, 
Tank  is  dirty,  injector  nothing  but  a  sham. 
Raise  engine  in  front  and  on  left  back  box, 
Tighten    right    steam    chest    and    cylinder 

cocks. 

Clean   brake   valve — I   hate   to   ask  it, 
Please  put  in  new  body  gasket. 
Engine  won't   steam,   examine  front  end, 
Fix  leaks  in  train  line  where  it  bends. 
Tighten  bolts  in  front  and  back  drawheads, 
All  these  bolts  have  stripped  threads. 
True  down  wedges,  close  all  guides, 
Stay  bolts  leaking  in  fire  box  sides. 
Take  up  slack,  shorten  drawbar, 
Right  crosshead  travels  forward  too  far. 
The  tires  are  stripped,  and  eccentrics,  too, 
Cab  roof  leaking  and  rain  comes  through. 
Be  sure  and  clean  tank  brake  tripple, 
Fix  leak  in  right  brake  cylinder. 
File  and  line  all  main  rod  brasses, 
Put  in  new  lubricator  glasses. 
Grind  all  gauge  cocks  bottom  checked  up, 
Put  on  right  front  side  rod  cup. 
Headlight  leaks  and  chimneys  break, 
Fix  this  now  for  the  good  Lord's  sake. 
Coal  grates  broken,  won't  hold  coal, 
Tank  is  leaking  and  full  of  holes. 
Fix  hole  in  running  board  under  engineer's 

feet, 

Be  sure  and  put  down  a  shoveling  sheet. 
Throttle  needs  packing,  put  in  a  few  rings, 
Reverse  lever  latch  needs  new  springs. 
All  tank  truck  journals  are  badly  scored, 
Wash    boiler,    and    see    that    the    flues    are 

bored. 


Tank  springs  are  broken,  front  and  back, 
Piston  travel  too  long,  take  up  slack. 
Right  front  tank  truck  has  broken  arch  bar, 
Tender  is  leaning  to  the  right  too  far. 
Right  side  rod  needs  a  new  bushing, 
Engineer's  seat  needs  a  new  cushion. 
There  is  more  that  I  have  forgot, 
But  fix  all  this  and  get  some  spot. 


IT  SHO'  FAVORS  MASSA'S  HOG. 


By  Archie  L.  Washington,  Memphis,  Tenn. 

Put  de  big  pot  on  de  fireplace, 

Fill  it  full  of  water,  Joe, 
Ise  gwine  out  an'  git  a  possum, 

Any  better  you  het  not  no. 

Goodlow,  try  and  git  a  fat  one, 

Massa's   got   some   moity  poe, 
So  when  we  stire  up  de  craklins 

Have  nuff  grease  to  mix  de  doe. 

Little  Joe,  a  brighteyed  lad, 

Makes  the  fire  in  haste,  you  know, 

Sits  down  in  the  corner  glad, 
Listening  to  hear  dad  open  the  door. 

Look  here,  hog,  don't  you  holler, 
Ise  sure  gwinter  carry  you  home; 

Git  on  your  back,  let  me  in  your  collar. 
Massa  will  never  gnaw  on  your  bones. 

Say  here,  hog,  what  you  doin'? 

Breathe,  an'  let  dat  blood  come  flyin', 
Guess  you  thought  I  was  only  foolin', 

Layin'  here  trying  to  keep  from  dyin'. 

Yes,  ole  lady,  I  caught  a  fine  one, 

Rover  an'  put  treed  by  de  log, 
An'  I  would  er  caught  a  nudder  one 

Had  it  not  been  for  de  fog. 

Gee,  look  what  a  great  big  possum 
Rover  and  Put  treed  by  de  log; 

Do  I  reckon  its  a  possum, 
But  sho'  favors  massa's  hog. 


84 


Belleville  Stove  d?  "Range  Co 


Some  Industries  of 


Harrison  Maclune  Works 


Belleville    111.. 


Belleville  Buck  Co. 


A  Laugh  or  Two 


The  Last  Word 

Two  Pullman  porters,  representing 
different  railroads,  met  off  duty  and 
progressed  from  friendly  gossip  to  heat- 
ed argument.  Their  quarrel  centered 
about  which  one  worked  for  the  better 
road.  Their  claims,  figures  and  argu- 
ments came  fast  and  furious. 

At  last  the  tall,  thin  porter  settled  the 
dispute  with  these  classic  words:  "Go 
on,  niggah ;  we  kills  mo  people  den  you 
fellahs  tote." — San  Francisco  Argonaut. 


The  Verdict 

George  Ade,  at  the  Chicago  Athletic 
Club,  looked  up  with  a  yawn  from  a 
Nish  dispatch  announcing  another  Aus- 
trian defeat. 

"Austria  began  this  war,"  he  re- 
marked, "and  now  in  her  extremity,  the 
world  is  saying  to  her: 

"  'Servia  right !'  " 


Mighty  Quick  Word 

Some  time  ago  a  young  farmer  who 
had  joined  the  army  and  gone  to  the 
Philippines,  sent  a  cablegram  to  his  fa- 
ther. The  day  after  the  arrival  of  the 
message  the  father  was  speaking  about 
it  to  a  farmer  friend. 

"Great  thing  is  that  telegraf,  Josh," 
remarked  the  father.  "Jes'  think,  o' 
that  message  comin'  all  them  thousand 
miles !" 

"Yes,"  was  the  hearty  response  of 
Josh,  "an'  so  thunderin'  quick,  too." 

"Thunderin'  quick !"  exclaimed  the  fa- 
ther. "Well,  I  should  say  so!  When 
I  got  that  message  the  mucilage  on  the 
envellup  wasn't  dry  yet." — Philadelphia 
Telegraph. 


The  Bellicose  Kaiser 

At  the  French  consulate  in  Cleveland 
the  Viscomte  Jean  de  Camp  of  Aix  said 
in  excellent  English  to  a  reporter: 

"This    terrible    European    trouble   has 


all  been  the  fault  of  the  German  em- 
peror. They  who  try  to  exonerate  the 
theatrical,  bombastic,  fierce  and  treach- 
erous German  emperor  speak  feebly 
and  ignorantly.  Their  apology  is  like 
the  old  lady's. 

"  'The  German  emperor,'  said  the  old 
lady's  husband,  looking  up  from  his 
newspaper,  'has  got  very  bellicose 
again.' 

"  'Why,'  said  the  old  lady,  'according 
to  his  latest  photographs  he  seems  much 
thinner  to  me.'  " 

His  Excuse 

Wife  (after  callers  had  gone) — How 
dare  you  scold  me  before  company? 

Hub — Well,  you  know,  my  dear,  1 
don't  dare  to  do  it  when  we  are  by 
ourselves. 

Heard  in  a  Divorce  Court 

Judge  (to  woman  asking  separation) 
—How  long  have  your  relations  been 
unpleasant? 

Woman — Your  honor,  my  relations 
have  always  been  pleasant ;  it's  his  rela- 
tions that  are  the  old  grouches. 

In  a  Hobble  Skirt 

"I  suppose,  farmer,  that  the  crows 
created  the  usual  havoc  with  your  corn 
this  year?" 

"Gawsh,  no !  I  put  up  er  scarecrow 
dressed  in  the  kind  of  rig  the  women 
are  wearin'  nowadays,  and  it  scared  the 
daylights  out  of  'em." 


Easy 

Georgia  Lawyer  (to  colored  prison- 
er)— "Well,  Ras,  as  you  want  me  to 
defend  you,  have  you  any  money?" 

Rastus — "No ;  but  I'se  got  a  mule, 
and  a  few  chickens,  and  a  hog  or  two." 

Lawyer — "Those  will  do  very  nicely. 
Now,  let's  see — what  do  they  accuse 
you  of  stealing?" 

Rastus — "Oh,  a  mule  and  a  few 
chickens  and  a  hog  or  two." — Kansas 
Citv  Star. 


8G 


A  copy  of  "Locomtive  Engine  Run- 
ning and  Management"  by  Angus  Sin- 
clair is  at  hand.  This  book  is  filled 
with  information  which  undoubtedly 
will  be  of  value  to  locomotive  engi- 
neers. 


Springfield  Division. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Rosenbaum,  formerly  of  Cham- 
paign, has  taken  charge,  as  General  Fore- 
man, of  Clinton  Shops. 

Mr.  Carroll  E.  Jordan  went  to  St.  Louis 
to  take  a  look  at  the  Union  Station. 

Mr.  Victor  Hines,  Timekeeper  in  the  Car 
Department  has  resigned.  His  successor 
is  A.  E.  Jordan. 

Mr.  H.  F.  Horn,  Fireman,  has  returned 
to  work  after  a  short  Honeymoon  trip. 

Mr.  R.  T.  Ohley,  Machinist,  was  called 
to  his  home  in  Detroit,  Michigan,  due  to 
the  serious  illness  of  his  mother. 

Mr.  E.  J.  Summers,  Engineer,  will  visit 
in  Jacksonville,  Fla. 

Mr.  P.  T.  Sheehan,  Cinder  Pit  Man  at 
Rantoul,  111.,  was  called  to  Chicago,  ac- 
count serious  illness  of  his  brother. 

Mr.  Nathan  Manley,  Machinist  Handy- 
man, will  visit  in  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Mr.  H.  E.  Zook,  Fireman  and  G.  C.  Put- 
num,  Roundhouse  Clerk,  will  make  their 
annual  visit  to  Bellefontaine,  O. 

Mr.  John  Mclntire,  Machinist  Helper,  is 
preparing  for  a  trip  to  Auburn,  Ky. 

Mr.  Jack  Agee,  Fireman,  is  back  in  the 
service  after  being  away  on  leave  of  ab- 
sence. 

Engineer  G.  W.  Bayles  has  returned  to 
service  after  spending  a  three  months'  leave 
of  absence  in  Montana. 

Engineer  George  Simpson  is  confined  to 
the  hospital  with  pneumonia. 

The   new  wash   rooms   at   Clinton   Shops 
will  be  ready  for  use  in  a  short  time. 
Wisconsin  Division. 

Mr.  John  J.  Sullivan,  Road  Supervisor,  re- 
tired January  1,  1916;  was  succeeded  by  Mr. 
C.  G.  Bryan.  Assistant  Engineer  of  the  Wis- 
consin Division. 

Mr.    Bryan    was    succeeded    by    Mr.    P.    F. 


Lyons,  who  was  promoted  from  the  Chicago 
offices.  Mr.  Lyons  was  formerly  located  on 
this  Division  in  the  capacity  of  Rodman. 

The  promotion  of  Mr.  Bryan  and  Mr.  Lyons 
comes  to  them  well  deserved  and  we  wish  them 
the  best  of  success. 

Vicksburg  Division. 

Mr.  G.  C.  Bounds,  our  popular  Agent  at 
Midnight,  has  been  on  the  sick  list  for  the 
past  few  days,  but  is  better  now. 

Trains  No.  435  and  No.  436  have  been 
pulled  off  on  the  Silver  Creek  District,  be- 
tween Silver  City  and  Vicksburg,  account 
high  water  condition. 

Mr.   G.  A.  Williams,   Agent,   Louise,  Miss., 


I  Have 

Healthy, 
Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort. 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists — Golfers — Tour- 
ists—  Mechanics — All — should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eye  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago 


87 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


has  been  trying  to  invest  some  of  his  sur- 
plus money  in  the  rich  soils  around  Louise. 
We  wish  him  success,  and  that  he  will  make 
a  thousands  bales  this  year. 

We  are  very  sorry  to  loose  our  popular 
Conductor  and  Flagman  off  of  trains  No. 

435  and    No.    436,    but    Billie    does    not    seem 
to  worry;  he  claims  that  he  can  curve  it  on 
the  main   line.     Bill   Ellis   has  a  leave   for  a 
few  days  to  make  a  pleasure  trip  to  Boloxi, 
Miss. 

We  will  have  Conductor  Ellis  on  the  fast 
Dog  trains  No.  598  and  No.  599  between  Holly 
Bluff  and  Yazoo  City  next  week.  We  regret 
to  loose  Conductor  Kaigler. 

Engineer  Hatchett  and  Dunk  McKeller  do 
not  worry  about  the  man  bumping  them,  as 
Ed  says  that  he  has  been  sinking  some  of 
that  overtime  change. 

Conductor  Crichlow  will  handle  the  bag- 
gage and  express  on  trains  No.  598  and  No. 
599  between  Holly  Bluff  and  Silver  City 
during  the  time  that  trains  No.  435  and  No. 

436  will    be    off;    that   put    a    little    more    to 
Henry's  house  rent  and  coal  bill. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Doude,  Midnight's  popular  Sec- 
tion Foreman,  has  been  promoted  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Extra  Gang  Foreman.  The  Foremen 
of  the  Silver  Creek  District  are  very  glad 
to  see  Mr.  Doude  advance  in  promotion. 

Mr.  L.  R.  Nabers,  our  Foreman  at  Holly 
Bluff,  is  the  proud  father  of  a  nine-pound 
baby  girl. 

Mr.  W.  J.  Cowart.  Agent,  Holly  Bluff,  will 
soon  have  to  vacate  his  house  on  account 
of  high  water ;  will  occupy  part  of  the  depot, 
during  the  water ;  looks  like  the  Company 
would  raise  the  Agent  and  Foreman's  house 
at  this  station;  I  know  that  it  would  be  ap- 
preciated by  both  Mr.  Cowart  and  Mr. 
Nabers. 

Mr.  W.  A.  Mitchell,  Agent  at  Gunnison, 
Miss.,  had  the  misfortune  of  falling  from 
a  ladder  and  receiving  injuries  to  the  ex- 
tent that  he  is  unable  to  attend  to  his  sta- 
tion duties,  and  is  now  at  his  home  at 
Homestead,  Fla. 

Road  Master  Mr.  J.  W.  Welling  has 
just  recovered  from  a  case  of  La  Griope 
and  Tonsilitis;  we  are  glad  to  see  Mr. 
Welling  is  now  able  to  perform  his  official 
duties. 

Former  Road  Master  Mr.  G.  F.  Arthur. 
who  is  now  this  Company's  Representative 
with  the  Valuation  Party  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  is  doing-  the  "Val- 
uation Stunt"  on  the  Virksburg  Division. 


Free  to  Our  Readers 

Write  Marine  Eye  Remedy  Co.,  Chicago,  for 
48-page  illustrated  Eye  Book  Free.  Write  all 
about  Your  Eye  Trouble  and  they  will  advise 
as  to  the  Proper  Application  of  the  Murine 
Eye  Remedies  in  Your  Special  Case.  Your 
Druggist  will  tell  you  that  Murine  Relieves 
Sore  Eyes,  Strengthens  Weak  Eyes.  Doesn't 
Smart,  Soothes  Eye  Pain,  and  sells  for  50c. 
Try  It  in  Your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes  for 
Scaly  Eyelids  and  Granulation 


Traveling  Time  Inspector  Mr.  R.  R. 
Rose  was  noted  on  the  Vicksburg  Division 
the  latter  part  of  January. 

Mr.  L.  M.  Seagp,  Agent  Longwood, 
Miss.,  has  handed  in  his  resignation  as 
Agent.  Mr.  Seago  was  relieved  by  Mr. 
W.  S.  Ford,  who  has  been  in  the  employ 
of  the  Company  as  Flagman  for  the  past 
two  or  three  years.  This  change  was  ef- 
fective January  27,  1916. 

Mr.  P.  R.  Henderson,  Masonry  Inspec- 
tor, was  noted  in  Greenville  the  early  part 
of  January,  arriving  at  Greenville  on  train 
No.  15..  night  of  December  31.  "P.  R." 
came  all  the  way  from  Illinois  to  spend 
New  Year's  day  in  Greenville. 

Mr.  Tom  Brennan,  Former  Chairman  on 
the  Vicksburg  Division,  spent  a  couple  of 
days  with  his  Greenville  friends,  while  on 
his  vacation. 

Mr.  Robert  A.  Hallette  has  accepted  po- 
sition as  Clerk  in  Supervisor  Shropshire's 
office,  vice  Mr.  Fred  Moser.  resigned. 

Division  Accountant  M.  P.  Massey,  As- 
sistant Accountant  B.  F.  Simmons,  and 
Time  Keeper,  J.  W.  Gray  attended  the  Ac- 
countants' Meeting  at  Memphis,  January 
27,  and  report  an  interesting  meeting. 

Mr.  Wright  Chenault  has  been  promoted 
to  position  as  Second  Assistant  Accountant 
in  Superintendent's  Office.  Mr.  Chenault 
was  formerly  emploved  as  Clerk  to  Train 
Master:  he  was  relieved  by  Mr.  Oliver 
Crandall. 

Dispatcher  L.  R.  Swicher  has  returned  to 
his  post  of  duty  after  being  off  several 
days  on  his  vacation. 

Mr.  Neville  Buck  has  accepted  position 
as  Night  Ticket  Agent  at  Greenville,  re- 
lieving Mr.  H.  R.  Davis,  who  resigned 
from  the  employ  of  this  Company. 

Chief  Dispatcher  Mr.  J.  M.  Chandler, 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  made  a  business 
trip  to  Memphis,  January  15,  returning  the 
following  day. 

Superintendent  Mr.  T.  L.  Dubbs,  attend- 
ed Expense  Meeting  at  Chicago,  January 
27-28. 

All  the  many  friends  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
T.  M.  Simmons  are  pleased  to  know  that 
their  young  son,  Jake,  Jr.,  has  fullv  re- 
covered from  a  very  serious  case  of  Bron- 
chial Pneumonia. 

Account  of  trains  435-436  out  of  service 
temporarily,  due  to  high  water  conditions. 
Engineer  Tack  Leach  has  returned  to  his 
old  run,  trains  38-45,  relieving  Engineer  C. 
W.  AlcCaul. 

Special  Agent  Mr.  George  McCowan 
snent  Sundav  in  Greenville,  January  30. 
mingling  with  friends.  Of  course  it  is 
needless  to  say  that  "George"  is  always 
v-flcome. 

Mr.  Leonard  Olin,  Tonnage  Clerk  in  Su- 
perintendent's Office,  spent  Sunday,  Jan- 
uary 29,  with  his  mother  at  Vicksburg, 
Miss. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


89 


Hand  Car  Engines 


"Casey  Junior' 


The  picture  above  shows  a  hand  speeder  which  has 
been  converted  into  a  motor  speeder  with  our  new 
2%  H.P.  ''Casey  Junior"  engine.  The  manner  of 
attaching  is  so  clearly  shown  in  the  picture  that 
description  may  be  unnecessary.  Almost  any  kind  of 
speeder,  whether  three-wheel  or  four,  can  oe  con- 
verted into  a  motor  car  at  a  trifling  expense.  As  this 
engine  weighs  only  80  Ibs.  it  adds  very  little  to  the 
weight  of  the  car,  yet  develops  2%  H.P.  brake  test. 
The  picture  below  shows  the  comparative  size  of  en- 
gine with  the  man.  It  can  be  lifted  like  a  chunk  of 
stove  wood,  yet  will  propel  a  speeder  at  a  rate  of  15  to 
35  miles  an  hour,  with  a  gasoline  consumption  of  40 
to  50  miles  per  gallon.  Price  with  complete  equip- 
ment, $60.00  cash,  or  $65.00  with  monthly  payments  of 
$5.00  each.  Write  for  1916  Catalog. 


"Casey  Jones" 

This  engine  is  so  well  known  that  description  is 
hardly  necessary  to  the  railroad  public.  Over  10,000 
section  men  are  now  enjoying  the  comforts  of  owning 
this  engine.  It  is  the  only  engine  of  its  kind  in 
existence  that  starts,  stops,  and  reverses,  like  an 
automobile,  without  getting  out  of  the  seat,  and  can 
be  thrown  into  low  or  high  gear,  or  neutral,  by  simply 
shifting  a  lever.  Will  run  on  low  gear  so  slow 
that  you  can  walk  along  and  pick  up  material  on 
the  Right  of  Way,  or  thrown  into  high  and 
speeded  up  to  run  away  from  an  express  train. 

Price  with  complete  equipment  ready  to  install 
on  hand  car,  $85.00  cash,  or  $90.00  with  monthly 
payments  of  $5.00  each.  Send  for  1916  Catalog. 


Make  a  Motor  Car  of  Your  Hand 
Car  or  Speeder 


Changing  a  hand  car  into  a  motor  car 
is  a  job  that  can  be  done  in  a  couple 
of  hours  by  anyone.  The  work  con- 
sists simply  of  disconnecting  the  handle 
bars,  remove  the  hand  car  gears,  take 
out  a  couple  of  boards  from  the  car 
platform,  fasten  the  split  pulley  to  the 
driving  axle,  bolt  the  engine  to  the  car 
platform  with  four  bolts,  and  connect  the 
belt.  The  engine  comes  with  outfit  com- 
plete ready  to  install.  Nothing  to  buy — 
nothing  to  wait  for.  Connect  the  battery 
wires,  fill  the  tank  with  gasoline,  and  you 
have  the  most  up-to-date  and  modern  motor 
car  that  money  can  buy. 
To  Convert  a  Speeder  is  almost  as  easy. 
Sometimes  requires  a  new  driving  axle 
which  can  be  had  from  any  machinist  or 
blacksmith,  but  ordinarily  the  driving  pul- 
ley can  be  attached  in  place  of  sproket. 

NORTHWESTERN  MOTOR  COMPANY 

200  Spring  Street 
EAU  CLAIRE,  WISCONSIN 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


90 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


An  Exceptional  Case 

She  had  risen  several  times  to  let  a 
gentleman  pass  out  between  the  acts. 

"I  am  very  sorry  to  disturb  you,  mad- 
am," he  remarked  apologetically,  as  he 
went  out  for  the  fourth  time. 

"Oh,  don't  mention  it,"  she  replied 
pleasantly.  "I  am  most  happy  to  oblige 
you ;  my  husband  keeps  the  refresh- 
ment bar." 


How  They  Arranged  It 

Passenger — Your  trains  always  used 
to  be  late.  Today  I  arrive  twenty  min- 
utes before  departure  time  and.  find  my 
train  gone. 

Station  Master — Ah!  Since  our  new 
manager  took  charge,  we  are  trying  to 
make  up  for  lost  time. — Journal  Amuse- 
ment. 


Build  with  Brick 


BELLEVILLE  BRICK  &  TILE  CO. 


BELLEVILLE,  ILL. 


Practical  Books 
for  Ambitious  Men 


i 


(II  For  the  man  who  aspires  to  something  better — who  wants  to  fit  himself 
for  a  particular  line  or  trade — we  offer  a  most  complete  line  of  technical 
books  from  which  to  choose. 

{II  Here  are  elementary  books  for  the  beginner;  practical  handbooks  for 
the  student  and  worker,  and  more  advanced  and  technical  works  for 
those  who  desire  to  become  experts  in  their  line.  We  have  books  for 
practically  every  trade. 

(II  No  matter  what  your  position,  or  what  line  of  work  you  are  engaged 
in,  you  are  sure  to  find  some  book  listed  in  either  our  Technical  or 
Business  Book  Catalog  that  will  be  of  use  to  you. 

Our  Business  Book  Catalog  contains  a  select  list  of  books  on 

Accounting,  Advertising,  Banking,  Collections,  Commercial  Law,  Cor- 
porations, Correspondence,  Credits,  Efficiency,  Finance,  Industrial 
Economics  and  Business  Education,  Insurance  Organization  and  Man- 
agement, Real  Estate  Selling,  Transportation,  etc. 

Our  Technical  Book  Catalog  lists  books  on  nearly  every  technical  subject. 

BOTH  ARE  FREE 

A  postal  will  bring  them.     Address 

A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.       Dept.  A,        Chicago,  Illinois 


Please   mention   this  magazine   when  writing  to  advertisers. 


am,  Alabama 


48  inch  Lock  Joint  Pipe  installed  under  62 
ft.  Trestle.      View  before  fill  was    placed. 


LOCK  JOINT  CAST 
IRON  CULVERT  PIPE 

Approved  by  Engineering 
Dept.  of  I.  C.  R.  R. 

Designed  especially  for 
Railroad  Requirements. 
Mfgd.  from  Ala.  Pig  Iron  in 
3,  4  and  5  ft.  lengths  with 
Interlocking  Joints. 


AMERICAN  CASTING  CO. 

BIRMINGHAM,  ALA. 


Do  You  Believe  in 

PREPAREDNESS? 

Bismarck,  the  famous  German  statesman,  said:  "It  is  cheaper  to  support  an 
army  twenty  years  than  to  suffer  a  single  defeat." 

A  prominent  I.  C.  employee  recently  said:  "It  is  cheaper  to  carry  insurance 
in  the  Continental  Casualty  Company  than  to  be  seriously  injured  once  with- 
out insurance."  % 

Be  Prepared  With  a  CONTINENTAL  Policy 

Qkstmltg  (ttompmuj 


H.  G.  B.  ALEXANDER— President 

-TEAR  OUT  AND  MAIL  TO-DAY^ 


CONTINENTAL  CASUALTY  COMPANY,   910  Michigan  Ave.,   Chicago. 

Please  send  me  information  in  regard  to  Accident  and  Health  Insurance. 

Name 

Address   

Occupation  _ 

I.   C.    R.    R 


Age. 


E.  F.  Stovall  —  Frontispiece  .........  ..  ...................................................................    8 

Birmingham,  Ala  .................................................................................................    9 

Public  Opinion  ....................................................................................................  22 

Comments   of   Various    Newspapers   Upon   Circular   Issued  by  the 
General  Manager  ........................................................................................  29 

Hydro-Electric  Power  an  Aid  to  Industrial  Development  in  Ala- 
bama ................................................................................................................  40 

How  Employes  Should  Proceed  to  Purchase  Illinois  Central  Stock....  42 

Passenger  Traffic  Department  ......................................  .-.  ..................................  45 

Transportation  Department  ............................................................................  57 

Law  Department  ................................................................................................  58 

Roll  of  Honor  ......................................................................................................  67 

Illinois  Central  Hospital,  Chicago,  111  ...........................................................  69 

Hospital  Department  .....................  .....  ................................................................  71 

Safety  First  ...........................................................  ..............................................  74 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department  ..........................................................  77 

Freight  Traffic  Department  ...............................................................  ,  ..............  80 

Claims  Department  ............................................................................................  83 

Loss  and  Damage  Bureau  ..................................................................................  90 

Engineering  Department  ..................................................................................  92 

Mechanical  Department  ....................................................................................  96 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  16  ..................................................................................  105 

Meritorious   Service  .................................................................  .  ........................  106 

Division  News  ..................................  '.  ..........  .  ........................................................  108 

*-pu6lished  monthly  6y  fhe  JUinois  Central  /?.  ^?.  G)., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4^(EO  "Employes 

Advertising  -  rates  •  on  •  application^ 


Chicago 

1$  <£  pr.  copy 


£ocal55 
$  I.JO  pr.  year 


E.  F.  STOVALL 

Edgar  F.  Stovall,  general  agent,  Birmingham,  Ala.  Born  McNairy  County,  Tenn. 
Entered  service  Mobile  &  Ohio  Railroad  in  1886  as  telegraph  operator.  Entered^  serv- 
ice Newport  News  and  Mississippi  Valley  Co.,  now  Illinois  Central,  as  cashier  at 
Memphis  in  1891.  Served  as  agent,  Paducah,  Owensboro,  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  Mem- 
phis, Tenn.,  and  was  appointed  general  agent,  Birmingham,  in  1908. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.4 


MARCH,  1916 


No.  9 


Industrial 


Prepared  b^  the 

Ckamber  01  LommGico 


'"P  HE  history  of  Birmingham  is  one 
of  the  romances  of  city  building 
in  the  United  States,  and  an  interesting 
study  for  those  who  would  know  how 
to  make  the  best  use  of  the  resources 
of  a  section  richly  endowed  by  nature, 
full  of  inspiration  for  other  Southern 
communities  that  have  felt  themselves 
doomed  by  circumstances  to  non- 
progress, 

Cowper  said :  "God  made  the  coun- 
try and  man  made  the  town,"  and  here 
is  found  an  excellent  illustration  of  the 
truths  of  the  couplet,  though  not  carry- 
ing the  exact  meaning  intended  by  the 
poet.  The  country  round  about  Bir- 
mingham was,  indeed,  liberally  dealt 
with  by  the  hand  that  covered  the  sur- 
face of  the  valleys  with  soil  of  unsur- 
passed fertility,  and  laid  in  the  hills 
the  coal  and  iron  and  other  minerals 
that  complete  the  tale  of  resources  nec- 
essary to  the  support  of  a  great  city, 
and  yet  man  built  Birmingham,  inten- 
tionally, intelligently,  with  a  design 
that  has  carried  through  every  phase  of 
its  growth  and  progress.  From  the 


laying-out  process  in  1871  to  the  pres- 
ent time  the  city  has  been  hand-made. 
It  did  not  grow  up  from  cross-roads 
store  and  blacksmith  shop  into  hamlet, 
village,  town,  city,  with  streets  following 
ancient  lanes  and  tortuous  cowpaths — 
narrow,  crooked,  as  chance  happened  to 
direct,  or  grass  seemed  most  inviting. 
It  sprung  from  the  minds  of  men,  like 
Minerva  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter,  full 
panoplied,  its  streets  and  avenues 
straight,  wide,  parallel  and  at  right 
angles,  and  all  numbered  so  that  the 
stranger,,  with  simple  directions,  can 
find  his  way  about  with  as  much  ease 
as  the  best-posted  inhabitant.  These 
great  streets  and  avenues  are  now  well 
paved,  kept  clean  as  possible  and 
properly  sprinkled. 

In  the  matter  of  industries  the  men 
at  the  helm  realized  the  fact  that  while 
Birmingham's  location  would  render  it 
an  eligible  place  for  carrying  on  manu- 
facturing enterprises  vast  in  number 
and  importance  and  greatly  diversified 
in  character,  still  the  real  basis  for  its 
building  was  that  right  here  coal  and 


10 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


iron  ore  in  great  abundance  were  found 
lying  close  together  in  nearby  hills,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  iron  and  steel  busi- 
ness must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be 
first  developed,  forming  the  foundation 
for  whatever  other  developments  the 
future  might  bring  forth. 

Along  these  lines  Birmingham  has 
been  built  into  a  city  of  more  than 
135,000  people.  Birmingham,  however, 
was  not  built  without  its  backsets. 
The  first  town  lots  were  sold  here  in 
June,  1871,  and  before  the  end  of  the 
year  there  were  more  than  1,000  people 
here,  but  there  was  an  outbreak  of 
cholera  in  this  vicinity  a  short  time 
later  that  not  only  retarded  the  growth 
of  the  town,  ,but  actually  caused  a 
falling  off  in  population.  About  1879 
it  again  started  on  the  upgrade,  and 
the  census  of  1880  showed  a  population 
slightly  in  excess  of  3,000.  The  growth 
from  that  time  was  rapid,  until  the 
stagnation  in  the  iron  business  that 
came  in  the  early  nineties,  when  for 
several  years  the  town  again  practical- 
ly stood  still.  With  the  return  of 
prosperity  to  the  iron  business  Bir- 
mingham once  more  began  to  grow  and 
flourish,  and  has  kept  on  progressing 
steadily  and  rapidly  from  that  time 
until  now.  The  following  figures  show 
how  this  growth  has  progressed  be- 
tween census  periods : 

Population  in  1880,  3,086. 

Population  in  1890,  26,178. 

Population  in  1900.  38,415. 

Population  in  1910,  132,685. 

Increase  over  1900,  94,270,  or  245.4 
per  cent. 

Population  in  1913,  city  directory, 
189,000. 

In  treating  of  the  iron  and  steel  devel- 
opment and  the  coal  operations  so  closely 
connected  with  Birmingham  and  what 
Birmingham  illustrates  and  stands  for, 
we  must,  of  course,  consider  a  good  deal 
of  territory  not  lying  within  the  city 
limits,  for,  while  both  coal  and  iron  ore 
are  being  mined  inside  the  corporation 
lines,  the  vast  proportion  of  both  comes 
from  mines  not  so  embraced,  and  many 
of  the  manufacturing  plants  as  well  are 
situated  outside  the  political  boundaries 


of  the  municipality,  some  of  them  in  oth- 
er towns  and  cities  of  considerable  size. 
But  Birmingham  is  the  actual  focal  point 
of  the  developments,  and  therefore  the 
entire  group  is  summed  for  the  descrip- 
tion in  the  term  "Birmingham  district." 

Pig-iron  was  made  in  Alabama  early 
in  the  last  century.  Among  the  early 
furnaces  were  the  two  built  by  the  Shelby 
Iron  Company  at  Shelby  in  1844.  They 
were  one-stack,  15-ton  charcoal  plants, 
and  their  output  was  used  principally  in 
the  manufacture  of  car  wheels,  for  which 
purpose  it  found  a  market  throughout 
the  entire  country.  In  1852  tests  were 
made  which  showed  the  Alabama  iron  to 
be  of  very  high  quality,  and  in  1855  a 
shipment  was  made  from  the  Shelby  fur- 
naces to  Sheffield,  England,  where  it  was 
found  to  be  the  equal  of  the  best  Euro- 
pean irons  in  the  making  of  razor  blades, 
as  severe  a  test  of  its  quality  as  could 
be  made.  Since  the  Civil  War  the  iron 
business  has  increased  in  Alabama,  until 
now  there  are  50  stacks,  of  which  29  are 
in  the  Birmingham  district,  and  these  29 
make  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the 
iron  made  in  the  state.  Of  the  29,  the 
Tennessee  Coal,  Iron  and  Railroad  Com- 
pany has  15,  the  Sloss-Sheffield  Company 
4,  The  Republic  Iron  and  Steel  Company 
3,  the  Woodward  Iron  Company  5,  the 
Williamson  Iron  Company  1,  and  the 
Trussville  Furnace  Company  1.  All  these 
are  coke  furnaces,  and  their  annual  ca- 
pacity is  now  about  2,000,000  tons.  The 
Sloss-Sheffield  Company  also  owns  fur- 
naces elsewhere  in  the  state. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  Birming- 
ham iron  makers  sold  their  entire  product 
in  the  pig,  and  other  places  enjoyed  the 
profit  secured  from  turning  it  into  its 
various  finished  products,  but  latterly 
this  has  been  changed  to  a  large  extent, 
and  at  the  present  time  something  like 
60  per  cent  is  being  turned  into  rails, 
wire-rolling-mill  shapes,  water. and  san- 
itary pipe  and  other  finished  forms  be- 
fore it  leaves  the  district.  The  amount 
of  the  product  being  thus  utilized  here  is 
increasing  steadily,  and  it  is  thought  to 
be  a  matter  of  but  a  short  time  until 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


11 


practically  the  en- 
tire output  will  be 
worked  up  in  the 
district.   This  pol- 
icy will  be  largely 
to   the   advantage 
of  the  city  and  the 
district,  as  it  will 
mean    the    estab- 
lishment  and   the 
employment       o  f 
vastly  more  men. 
The   making  of 
steel   in   Birming- 
ham was  not  un- 
dertaken     until 
1897,  though  basic 
iron    made   here 
had  been  success- 
fully  used   in   the 
manufacture      o  f 
steel    elsewhere 
for  two  years.    In 
1897  the  Birming- 
ham Rolling  Mill 
Company    erected 
two  40-ton   open- 
hearth    steel    fur- 
naces,    in     which 
steel     was     made 
from    the    basic 
iron   produced  by 
the  Alice  furnace, 
close  by   and  the 
.  results     were     so 
encouraging    that 
the       Tennessee 
Coal,     Iron     and 
Railroad      Com- 
pany a  few  months 
later    began    the 
erection  of  a  steel 
mill,    which    was 
finished    in    1899, 
and    on    Thanks- 
giving Day  of  that 
year  made  the  first 
run    of    steel.     In 
1900    the    district 
made   66,076  tons 
of  steel,  which  had 
been  increased  to 
305,117     tons     by 
1905,  and  reached 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


529,684  tons  in  1910.  The  output  this 
year  will  probably  reach  600,000  tons, 
valued  at  about  $18,000,000. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  iron  ore,  the 
coal  and  the  limestone  necessary  to  make 
steel  and  iron  are  all  found  right  here 
together,  within  the  corporate  limits  of 
the  city.  Indeed,  a  portion  of  the  Red 
Mountain  group  of  mines,  among  the 
largest  in  the  world,  lie  within  the  city 
limits.  One  "company  in  the  district  se- 
cures its  ore,  its  coal  and  its  limestone 
for  fluxing  within  a  radius  of  five  miles 
of  its  furnaces.  Estimates  place  the 
amount  of  unmined  ore  in  the  district 
at  1,000,000,000  tons. 

In  the  production  of  coal  the  state  of 
Alabama  stands  sixth,  the  output  for 
1911  being  15,018,965  tons.  The  comple- 
tion of  the  Panama  Canal  and  the  im- 
provement of.  the  Warrior  River,  so  that 
coal  may  be  carried  down  it  in  large 
quantities,  is  expected  to  give  the  coal 
business  of  Alabama  a  great  impetus, 
and  the  prediction  is  made  that  the  out- 
put of  the  state  will  reach  35,000,000  tons 
in  1  years  and  that  the  Birmingham  dis- 
trict will  be  found  producing  a  full  half 
of  the  total  amount.  Of  coke,  Alabama 
made,  in  1910,  3,231,399  tons,  of  which 
the  Birmingham  district  made  2,767,568 
tons. 

In  the  making  of  coke,  by  the  way,  the 
iron  makers  of  this  district  are  making 
distinct  progress  by  the  adoption  of  the 
by-product  type  of  ovens,  by  the  use  of 
which  not  only  the  coke  is  produced,  but 
the  gas  and  other  elements  into  which 
coal  is  resolved  in  the  process  of  coke- 
making  are  also  saved  for  utilization. 
These  ovens  will  reduce  the  cost  of  coke 
by  an  amount  that  will  be  plainly  meas- 
ureable  in  the  reduced  cost  of  making 
iron.  The  Woodward  Iron  Company 
and  the  Tennessee  Coal,  Iron  and  Rail- 
road Company  were  the  first  to  install 
the  by-product  ovens  in  this  district,  but 
others  must  follow,  and  it  is  a  question 
of  but  little  time  until  the  old  wasteful 
beehive  oven  will  be  a  thing  of  the  past 
throughout  this  entire  section. 

The  iron  making  business  is  still  in  its 
infancy  in  Birmingham,  so  far  as  amount 
of  production  is  concerned,  and  with  the 


rapid  growth  which  the  South  seems 
destined  to  enjoy  in  the  next  few  years, 
creating  a  greater  demand  for  railway 
and  structural  steel,  and  the  various 
forms  into  which  iron  may  be  wrought 
by  the  skill  and  industry  of  man,  there 
will  doubtless  come  an  expansion  of  the 
business  here  that  will  vastly  increase  the 
importance  of  the  district  in  the  produc- 
tion of  the  world's  commonest  and  most 
necessary  metal. 

It  is  not  my  intention,  however,  to  de- 
vote too  much  space  to  the  iron  and  steel 
interests  of  Birmingham,  for  the  city  has 
become  so  well  known  as  a  center  for  in- 
dustries of  that  character  that  there  is 
danger  that  its  importance  in  other  lines 
may  be  overlooked  by  those  not  ac- 
quainted with  actual  conditions,  and  who 
do  not  know  of  the  many  and  varied  oth- 
er manufacturing  establishments  em- 
ployed here  in  turning  out  a  miscellane- 
ous assortment  of  products,  giving  em- 
ployment to  an'  army  of  workmen  and 
paying  out  in  wages  many  thousands  of 
dollars  weekly.  The  wide  range  covered 
is  shown  by  the  following  list : 

Agricultural  implements,  gasoline  en- 
gines, hoist  engines,  side-valve  engines, 
artificial  limbs,  tents  and  awnings,  babbit 
metals,  bread,  cakes,  crackers,  confec- 
tioneries, macaroni,  bar  iron,  barrels  and 
kegs,  baskets,  beds,  farm  bells,  sash  and 
doors,  saws,  scales,  boilers,  bolts,  nuts, 
beverages,  blank  books,  wooden  crates 
and  baskets,  boxes,  breakfast  foods,  cot- 
ton ties  and  buckles,  builders'  materials, 
brick,  cement  block,  roofing,  marble,  cut 
stone,  bridges  and  viaducts,  brooms,  can- 
dies, hats,  caps,  iron  and  steel  castings, 
Portland  cement,  chambrays,  clay  prod- 
ucts, chemicals,  cigars,  chimney  pipe, 
coal-tar  pitch,  creosote  oil  coats,  overalls, 
coffee  roasters,  coffins,  coke,  cornice,  cot- 
ton-ginning  machinery,  hullers,  cotton 
goods,  hosiery,  cotton  presses,  cottonseed 
oil,  cottonseed  meal  and  hulls,  crates  and 
boxing,  etchings,  cuts,  butter,  ice  cream, 
disinfectants,  drain  tile,  drays,  dressed 
beef,  dry-kilns,  dynamite,  powder,  ele- 
vators, blowing  engines,  Corliss  engines, 
eye  glasses,  wire  fencing,  fertilizers, 
fire-escapes,  fire-clay  products,  fire 
plugs,  fireproofing  and  flue  linings, 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


foodstuffs,  forgings,  brass  and  bronze, 
foundry  facings,  frogs  and  switches, 
furniture,  cast-iron  gears,  cut  gears, 
gin  presses,  grate  bars,  grate  shak- 
ers, grits,  shaft  hangers,  harness,  heaters, 
hollow-ware,  slag  hot  pots,  ice,  ink,  iron 
rod,  pig-iron,  railway  iron,  jewelry,  laun- 
dry supplies,  lintels,  lenses,  loose-leaf 
ledgers,  leaves  and  indexes,  lumber,  mac- 
aroni, manhole  sewers,  mattresses,  corn- 
meal,  medicines,  monuments,  mosquito 
bars,  nails,  overalls,  paints,  pants,  paving 
brick,  cotton  and  feather  pillows,  gas  and 
water  pipe,  soil  pipe,  rubber  stamps,  sad- 
dles, suitcases,  sample  cases,  seal  presses, 
stencils,  skylights,  bed  springs,  spaghetti, 
steel  billets,  store  fronts,  stoves,  struc- 
tural iron,  sugar  machinery,  tarpaulins, 
textile  products,  tile  fireproofing,  mosaic 
tile, tile  roofing,  tombstones,  towers,  tanks, 
trunks,  turnbuckles,  undertakers'  sup- 
plies, vinegar,  cast-iron  washers,  en- 
graved goods,  wire  and  rods,  working 
garments. 

Prominent  among  these  enterprises,  in 
addition  to  those  making  iron  and  steel, 
are  those  engaged  in  making  car  wheels, 
engines,  fertilizers,  brick,  sewer  pipe,  tile 
and  other  clay  products;  cement,  lumber 
and  wood  products  generally ;  cotton 
gins,  cotton  cloth,  bakery  products  and 
garments  of  various  kinds.  As  showing 
the  size  and  importance  of  some  of  these, 
it  may  be  mentioned  that  one  bakery  and 
confectionery,  making  bread,  cakes  and 
candies,  uses  one  carload  of  sugar  and 
two  of  flour  daily.  The  output  of  the 
brick  plants  reaches  7,000,000  a  month, 
in  addition  to  the  tile  sewer  pipe  and 
kindred  products.  Birmingham  is  among 
the  world  leaders  in  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  gins,  and  the  machines  made  here 
are  sent  to  every  country  and  every  sec- 
tions of  country  wherein  cotton  is  pro- 
duced. The  cement  plants  turn  out  a 
large  amount  of  Portland  cement  which 
ranks  very  high  in  all  this  section.  The 
fertilizer  factories  employ  1,500  men  and 
make  100,000  tons  of  fertilizers  annually, 
valued  at  $2,000,000,  which  they  distrib- 
ute all  over  the  southeast.  Car  wheels, 
both  for  standard  gauge  and  logging 
cars,  are  made  in  large  numbers,  and  log- 
ging cars  and  mine  cars  complete  manu- 


factured here  are  shipped  to  all  parts  of 
the  country. 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  a  full  list  of 
Birmingham's  industrial  establishments, 
because  no  full  list  has  been  compiled,  the 
United  States  census  not  listing  those 
smaller  concerns  of  which  there  are 
scores,  and  which  add  so  largely  to  the 
aggregate  product  of  the  city,  and  not  in- 
cluding in  its  Birmingham  jeports  those 
doing  business  outside  the  corporate  lim- 
its, though  they  are  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  except  those  of  census  taking, 
Birmingham  establishments.  But  the  fig- 
ures the  census  reports  do  give  show  that 
between  1904  and  1909  the  number  of 
manufacturing  plants  in  Birmingham  was 
increased  103  per  cent,  the  capital  invest- 
ed in  them  313  per  cent,  the  cost  of  raw- 
materials  used  255  per  cent,  the  number 
of  employes  170  per  cent,  the  amount  of 
wages  and  salaries  166  per  cent,  and  the 
value  of  the  output  178  per  cent.  The 
territory  embraced  within  the  limits  of 
the  city  in  1909  was  greater  than  in  1904, 
which  accounts  for  some  of  the  large 
percentage  of  increase,  but  the  larger 
part  represents  growth,  and  not  boundary 
extension. 

There  are  opportunities  here  for  great 
expansion  in  manufacturing,  the  most 
striking  being  found  in  plants  for  the 
production  of  sanitary  and  toilet  articles, 
road-making  machinery,  boilers,  furni- 
ture, twine,  household  and  office  supplies, 
sash,  doors,  blinds,  building  hardware, 
glassware,  steam  pumps,  fertilizer  and 
phosphate  machinery,  chains,  pottery, 
porcelain,  tiles,  hosiery,  shirts,  ties,  sus- 
penders, men's  and  women's  clothing.  The 
advantages  to  be  found  here  for  manu- 
facturing these  things  are  accessibility 
both  to  raw  materials  and  to  rapidly  ex- 
panding market,  transportation  facilities 
furnished  by  nine  great  railroad  systems 
represented  by  lines  entering  Birming- 
ham, together  with  abundance  of  cheap 
power  furnished  in  electric  form  if  de- 
sired, or  to  be  generated  at  the  individual 
plant  by  the  use  of  cheap  coal, if  that  plan 
be  preferred.  Electric  current  is  now  be- 
ing supplied  to  plants  doing  business  here 
at  a  price  considerably  less  than  that 
charged  in  most  cities  of  like  size.  It  is 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


17 


generated  at  present  by  the  use  of  coal, 
but  the  waters  of  the  Coosa  and  Warrior 
rivers  offer  fine  opportunities  for  the  de- 
velopment of  hydro-electric  plants,  and 
their  currents  will  soon  be  harnessed  to 
the  machinery  of  the  Birmingham  dis- 
trict. On  the  Warrier  River  work  is  al- 
ready going  forward  by  which  power  will 
be  secured  from  the  water  running  over 
the  dams  built  by  the  government  in 
canalizing  the  river  for  navigation,  and 
it  is  calculated  that  22,000  horsepower 
will  be  developed  in  this  way.  The  Coosa 
will  also  soon  be  the  scene  of  large  de- 
velopments. 

This  city  is  rapidly  growing  into  a 
wholesale  center  for  a  wide  scope  of 
territory  throughout  Alabama,  Missis- 
sippi, Georgia,  Tennessee,  the  Carolinas, 
Louisiana  and  Texas,  and  shipments,  es- 
pecially of  machinery,  are  regularly  made 
to  Central  and  South  America,  Cuba, 
Porto  Rico,  Panama  and  other  countries 
to  the  south.  The  list  of  things  handled 
by  Birmingham  jobbing  houses  comprises 
asbestos  supplies,  bakery  products,  bar- 
ber supplies,  hosiery,  notions,  millinery, 
boots  and  shoes,  bottles,  coca-cola,  build- 
ing materials,  hats,  seeds,  wallpaper,  can- 
dies and  confectionery,  buggies,  car- 
riages, wagons,  cigars,  vinegar,  show- 
cases, paper,  produce,  tobacco,  coffee,  tea, 
spices,  photographers'  supplies,  paints, 
oils,  packing-house  products,  sugar,  den- 
tal supplies,  drugs,  mill  supplies,  machin- 
ery, meal,  wool,  hides,  dry  goods,  elec- 
trical supplies,  explosives,  fish,  oysters, 
flour,  feed,  grain,  fruit,  furniture 
and  fixtures,  groceries,  hardware,  leather, 
leather  goods,  hides  and  numerous  other 
staple  articles. 

Of  these,  the  largest  business  is  done  in 
groceries,  hardware,  lumber  and  dry 
goods,  the  annual  sales  in  these  lines  ag- 
gregating more  than  $30,000,000,  while 
the  others  probably  carry  the  total  well 
above  $50,000,000.  Sales  of  $10,000,- 
000  annually  are  said  to  make  this  the 
chief  hardware  market  in  the  South, 
while  a  business  of  $3,000,000  annually 
makes  it  a  strong  pine  lumber  market. 
The  sales  of  groceries  total  $15,000,000 
a  year. 

In  addition  to  its  activities  as  a  whole- 


sale market,  Birmingham  is  also  a  great 
shopping  point,  the  trains  bringing  in 
from  the  surrounding  territory  hundreds 
of  buyers  daily,  who  come  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  great  variety  and  reason- 
able prices  to  be  found  in  the  large  retail 
and  department  stores  of  the  city.  The 
railroad  lines  reaching  out  in  every  di- 
rection have,  of  course,  had  much  to  do 
with  developing  this  trade,  furnishing 
those  who  live  many  miles  away  on  every 
side  the  opportunity  to  come  to  the  city 
in  the  morning,  spend  practically  the  en- 
tire day  shopping  and  return  to  their 
homes  in  the  early  evening.  The  inter- 
urban  traction  lines  have  also  helped 
much  in  making  Birmingham  a  shopping 
center. 

Of  prime  importance  in  giving  this 
city  the  manufacturing  and  wholesale 
strength  it  enjoys  are  its  unsurpassed 
transportation  facilities.  The  nine  trunk- 
line  railroads  centering  in  Birmingham — 
the  Southern,  the  Louisville  &  Nashville, 
the  Queen  &  Crescent,  the  Mobile  & 
Ohio,  the  'Frisco,  the  Illinois  Central,  the 
Central  of  Georgia,  the  Atlanta,  Birming- 
ham &  Atlantic  and  the  Seaboard  Air 
Line — give  this  city  direct  connection 
with  every  market  in  this  country,  and, 
through  various  terminals  at  tidewater, 
with  every  seaport  in  the  world.  During 
the  two  years  last  past  these  roads  spent 
in  the  Birmingham  district  in  better- 
ments, extensions  and  improvements 
more  than  $5,000,000,  a  very  consider- 
able part  of  which  went  into  enlarged 
and  improved  shops  and  terminals  in  the 
city.  In  addition  immense  sums  have 
been  spent  and  are  to  be  spent  upon  other 
parts  of  the  various  roads  in  such  man- 
ner as  to  have  direct  bearing  upon  the 
handling  of  Birmingham  traffic,  the 
grand  total  reaching  $22,402,000.  The 
reports  of  the  Alabama  Car  Service  As- 
sociation show  that  the  demand  for  cars 
in  the  state  has  increased  from  455,631 
in  1900  to  809,186  in  1911,  and  Bir- 
mingham has  made  in  that  time  an  even 
greater  advance  than  the  average  of  the 
state,  so  that,  while  the  traffic  of  the  en- 
tire state  has  about  doubled,  that  of  this 
city  has  considerably  more  than  doubled 
in  11  years.  The  showing  of  increase 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


would  be  larger  still  but  for  the  fact 
that  about  a  year  ago  a  number  of  rail- 
roads withdrew  from  the  association,  and 
the  cars  handled  by  them  are  not  shown 
in  its  reports. 

The  street  car  system  of  the  city  is 
fully  abreast  with  that  of  any  city  of  like 
size  in  the  country,  and  far  ahead  of  the 
average.  The  cars  are  now  run  over  133 
miles  of  track,  extending  to  all  parts  of 
the  city  itself,  and  into  all  the  closely  sur- 
rounding towns  of  the  district.  The  lines 
are  equipped  with  thoroughly  modern 
cars,  have  large  and  modern  power  plants 
equal  to  all  emergencies,  and  give  quick 
and  reliable  service.  The  street  railway 
system  will  be  greatly  augmented  within 
a  short  time  by  the  completion  of  the 
Tidewater  Railroad,  now  being  built  by 
an  independent  company,  with  the  pres- 
ent design  to  connect  Birmingham,  Tus- 
caloosa  and  Gadsden,and  ultimately  to  be 
extended  to  the  Gulf.  Philadelphia  capi- 
tal is  financing  the  new  company,  and  it 
is  said  that  it  will  spend  $1,700,000  in 
Birmingham  alone.  The  work  is  being 
pushed  rapidly,  many  miles  of  track 
having  been  laid  already. 

This  is  but  a  cursory  glance  at  the  rail- 
road situation  in  this  district,  but  it  must 
serve  to  hint  of  interesting  and  impor- 
tant facts  that  cannot  be  fully  set  out 
in  the  scope  of  an  article  such  as  this. 

Another  distinctly  helpful  factor  in  the 
upbuilding  of  Birmingham's  manufactur- 
ing and  wholesale  business  is  the  excel- 
lent banking  facilities  and  the  large 
amount  of  money  available  for  financing 
any  safe  and  legitimate  enterprise.  There 
are  11  banks  doing  business  here,  and 
several  branches.  Their  aggregate  cap- 
ital is  $3,238,700,  their  surplus  and 
undivided  profits  $2,948,000,  their  de- 
posits $25,735,000,  aggregate  resources 
$31,921,700.  Something  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  city's  banking  strength 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  the 
bank  deposits,  now  $25,755,000,  were  $7,- 
088,204  in  1900  and  $22,923,828  in  1910. 
The  bank  clearings  were  $43,980,448  in 
1900  and  $129,345,411  in  1911. 

Another  matter  that  shows  the  growth 
of  the  city  in  commercial  importance  is 
the  increase  in  receipts  by  the  postoffice. 


These  were  $104,526  in  1900,  $221,574  in 
1905,  $380,883  in  1910  and  $408,812  in 
1911. 

Just  now  Birmingham  is  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  an  impulse  in  building  not 
equalled  by  anything  of  the  kind,  even  in 
her  own  magical  previous  growth.  On 
every  hand  in  the  business  sections  may 
be  seen  excavations  and  foundations  and 
climbing  superstructures  for  great  busi- 
ness buildings.  These  will  be  towering  in 
height,  large  in  area,  modern  in  construc- 
tion and  equipment.  One  of  these  is  be- 
ing built  by  the  American  Trust  &  Sav- 
ings Company,  and  is  now  about  complet- 
ed. It  is  20  stories  in  height,  of  white 
glazed  terra  cotta,  and  is  altogether  one 
of  the  handsomest  and  most  imposing 
structures  to  be  seen  south  of  New  York 
City.  Two  others  now  under  way  are 
gigantic  hotel  buildings  each  to  cost  $1.- 
000,000  and  to  be  as  handsomely  fitted  and 
appointed  as  any  hostelries  in  the  coun- 
try. The  steady  growth  of  the  city  in 
the  building  line  is  shown  by  the  figures 
of  each  year's  work  from  1900  to  the 
present. 

1900 $1,190,000 

1901 1,345,000 

1902 1,408,000 

1903 1,509,678 

1904 1,602,348 

1905 1,817,641 

1906 2,132,469 

1907 1,979,079 

1908 2,575,111 

1909 2,341 ,705 

1910 3,484,352 

1911 3,554,157 

From  contracts  already  let  and  those 
which  it  is  known  will  be  let,  it  is  calcu- 
lated that  the  city's  building  operations 
this  year  will  reach  the  grand  total  of  $7,- 
250,000.  This  will  include,  in  addition  to 
the  business  and  factory  structures  being 
erected,  a  large  number  of  very  hand- 
some residences  and  hundreds  of  homes 
of  less  pretension  and  smaller  cost.  The 
city  has  some  of  the  most  beautiful  resi- 
dence sections  to  be  seen  anywhere  in  the 
country,  and  they  are  being  adorned  with 
many  handsome  and  costly  structures 
that  would  be  remarked  for  their  beauty 
in  any  community,  while  other  less  ex- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


pensive  residence  districts  are  being 
filled  up  with  homes  running  in  price 
from  some  thousands  to  a  few  hundred 
dollars,  but  all  modern,  homelike  and 
comfortable.  It  is  emphatically  the  era 
of  home-building  in  Birmingham. 


Of  public  school  building's  there  are 
many,  those 'of  the  later  construction  be- 
ing among  the  handsomest  and  most  com- 
modious to  be  seen  anywhere.  And  not 
only  in  the  matter  of  buildings  are  the 
public  schools  of  Birmingham  well  stip- 


TUTWILER    HOTEL,    BIRMINGHAM,    ALA. 


Yet  another  line  in  which  Birmingham 
has  been  distinguishing  herself  in  the 
matter  of  building  is  the  construction  of 
churches,  a  number  of  very  handsome 
edifices  of  the  kind  having  been  erected 
in  the  past  two  or  three  years,  and  some 
being  now  in  course  of  construction. 


plied — the  schools  themselves  are  of  the 
best  type  of  primary  educational  institu- 
tions, with  approved  courses  of  study 
well  maintained,  and  carrying  their  pu- 
pils thoroughly  to  the  point  at  which 
they  are  prepared  to  enter  either  univer- 
sity or  business  life.  The  public  schools 


20 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


are  supplemented  by  a  normal  training 
school,  by  two  colleges  of  high  character 
and  several  business  and  other  colleges, 
colleges  that  give  adequate  training  for 
business  and  professional  careers. 

As  a  place  of  residence  this  city  pre- 
sents many  attractive  features,  being  per- 
vaded by  a  spirit  of  hospitality  that  is 
most  generous  in  its  acceptance  of  strang- 
ers, welcoming  them  into  the  social  life 
of  the  community  and  making  them  feel 
immediately  at  home.  A  number  of  so- 
cial clubs  add  attractions  to  this  feature. 

The  Birmingham  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce is  one  of  the  most  active  bodies  of 
the  kind  in  the  country,  the  largest  in  the 
South  in  point  of  membership,  and  is 
composed  of  men  who  are  so  thoroughly 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  progress  for 
their  city  that  they  enthuse  the  visiting 
stranger,  and  none  can  pass  many  days 
among  them  without  being  impressed  with 
the  belief  that  this  is  to  be  one  of  the 
important  manufacturing  and  industrial 
centers  of  the  country,  probably  holding 
the  place  in  the  South  now  held  by  Pitts- 
burgh in  the  North.  The  members  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  now  numbering 
about  1,500,  not  only  keep  an  eye  open 
for  the  commercial  and  industrial  wel- 
fare of  the  city,  but  pay  close  attention 
also  to  its  civic  betterment,  believing  that 
the  one  must  largely  supplement  the  oth- 
er if  their  municipality  is  to  be  truly 
great. 

Birmingham  has  an  excellent  water 
system,  furnishing  an  adequate  supply 
of  water  which  daily  analyses  show  to  be 
practically  pure.  No  city  in  the  United 


States  has  better  water.  It  has  a  fine 
park  system,  with  a  total  area  of  600 
acres,  and  a  number  of  handsome  and 
costly  public  buildings.  It  is  situated  in 
the  midst  of  a  rich  farming,  trucking 
and  fruit-growing  section,  which  keeps 
its  market  supplied  with  all  that  is  best  in 
the  way  of  fruits,  berries  and  vegetables, 
adding  greatly  to  the  health  and  comfort 
of  the  community  and  the  pleasure  of 
residence  here. 

The  city  is  governed  by  a  commission 
composed  of  three  men,  and,  while  the 
plan  is  of  comparatively  recent  adoption, 
it  has  so  far  worked  well,  and  municipal 
affairs  are  considered  to  be  in  a  satisfac- 
tory condition. 

Possibly  the  most  surprising  thing  to 
be  learned  by  the  man  who  visits  and  in- 
vestigates Birmingham  for  the  first  time 
is  that  the  population  of  the  city  is  very 
largely  Southern.  The  large  majority  of 
the  men  at  the  head  of  its  various  affairs, 
commercial,  industrial  and  financial,  as 
well  as  political,  those  who  have  made 
the  active,  enterprising,  aggressive  Bir- 
mingham spirit  known  throughout  the 
country — are  Southern  bred,  Southern 
born,  and  reared  in  the  South.  Newcom- 
ers are  wecomed,  no  matter  whence  they 
hail — they  are  received  into  full  fellow- 
ship in  business  and  social  affairs  as  soon 
as  they  are  found  worthy — but  the  spirit 
of  the  city  is  Southern.  Birmingham 
is  simply  a  living,  breathing,  progressing 
illustration  of  the  triumph  of  the  South- 
ern spirit  that  boldly  grasps  and  insist- 
ently wields  Southern  resources  and  op- 
portunities. 


UPINION 


World  thinks 


STATE  BUILDERS 
'  1 Mi  ERE  is  no  longer  any  question 
as  to  the  actual  value  of  railroads 
as  factors  in  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  a  country.  From  a  low  plane 
in  the  scale  of  contributory  industries 
and  utilities,  their  importance  has  in- 
creased in  the  same  ratio  that  the  gen- 
eral public  has  progressed  in  its  esti- 
mate of  what  really  constitutes 
growth.  No  longer  the  "soulless  cor- 
poration," the  railroad  is  rapidly 
assuming  its  rightful  place  in  the 
scheme  of  national  as  well  as  local 
policies,  and  as  a  constructive  agency, 
there  is  perhaps  nothing  out-ranking 
it.  Time  was  when  it  was  the  fash- 
ion to  "outlaw"  a  railroad ;  not  be- 
cause of  what  it  really  was,  but  be- 
cause of  what  the  public  feared  it  was ; 
and  while  with  other  traditions  equal- 
ly meritorious,  that  tradition  too  has 
passed,  the  custom  of  looking  upon  the 
railroad  as  an  enemy  to  the  people, 
and  according  it  less  fairness  and 
courtesy  in  the  courts  either  of  law 
or  of  public  opinion,  than  is  accorded 
to  any  other  public  enterprise,  unfor- 
tunately still  a  part  of  our  general 
policy  toward  a  most  worthy  and  es- 
sential public  utility. 

The  actual  value  of  a  railroad  to  a 
community  is  perhaps  best  demon- 
strated by  its  temporary  suspension. 
What  value  the  product,  if  the  market 
be  lacking?  Every  farmer  knows, 
that  as  the  lessening  of  the  distance 
between  his  farm  and  the  markets,  so 
increases  the  value  of  his  marketable 
products.  Capital  follows  the  railroad. 
Citizenship  is  of  a  higher  order  where 


communities  through  railroad  facilities 
are  brought  in  touch  with  other  com- 
munities. 

Towns  grow  logically  and  thriftily 
where  railroads  penetrate  and  new 
countries  are  explored  and  developed 
by  these  vanguards  of  civilization- 
countries  that  would  be  wilderness  or 
forest  for  ages  to  come  but  for  the 
benefit  touch  of  this  transforming 
agency. 

That  the  railroad  has  rights  which 
should  be  respected;  that  the  railroads 
should  not  be  handicapped  by  laws 
more  restrictive  than  those  that  gov- 
ern any  other  public  enterprise,  and 
that  any  legislation  tending  to  burden 
them  unjustly  or  oppressively  will  re- 
act upon  a  public  with  which  they  are 
most  intimately  associated  and  to 
which  they  are  bound  by  a  common 
interest,  are  points  to  be  kept  in  the 
minds  of  legislators  and  states  at 
large.  Let  us  be  just  to  them — the 
greatest  forces  for  progress  and 
growth  known  to  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. Let  us  accord  them  fair  treat- 
ment at  least. 

The  tendency  of  the  times  to  load 
the  court  dockets  with  damage  suits 
instituted,  not  for  justice  sake,  but  at 
the  instigation  often  times  of  some 
otherwise  "briefless  barrister"  who 
sees  in  every  trifling  grievance  against 
the  railroad  a  possible  "fee,"  is  a  dan- 
gerous one.  It  is  a  practice  that  mili- 
tates against  the  state  and  hurts  the 
reputation  of  tihe  community  where 
it  is  indulged.  The  railroads  are  re- 
sponsible agents,  even  as  other  pub- 
lic or  quasi-public  enterprises  but  that 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


23 


they  should  be  marked  as  the  legiti- 
mate prey  of  every  unscrupulous  man 
who  the  convenience  of  an  equally  de- 
signing lawyer  feels  himself  justified 
in  asking  damages  in  the  courts  for 
the  most  trivial  injuries,  is  as  repre- 
hensible as  it  is  dangerous.  Justice  is 
a  term  as  full  of  meaning  to  railroad 
or  other  companies  as  to  the  individ- 
uals. But  to  the  layman  the  railroad 
has  few  rights  which  he  is  called  upon 
to  respect.  Hence  the  multiplicity  of 
suits  that  are  filed  with  every  term  of 
court,  suits  that  more  often  than  not 
are  compromised  by  the  railroads  to 
avoid  the  expense  and  inconvenience 
of  court  proceedings,  the  compromises 
being  sometimes  in  amounts  less  than 
one-tenth  of  the  amount  claimed  as 
damages.  Such  is  the  greed  of  the 
"damaged"  plaintiff  and  his  attorneys, 
however,  that  even  a  tithe  of  the 
amount  asked  is  too  tempting  to  risk 
the  loss  of  and  by  compromise  the 
matter  is  settled. 

Until  the  railroads  are  accorded  that 
fairness  •  and  justice  that  is  given  to 
every  other  public  enterprise,  and 
treated  not  as  a  common  enemy  but 
as  a  friend  and  ally  in  the  forward- 
looking  movement  of  the  country,  this 
great  public  utility  will  be  handi- 
capped in  greater  or  less  degree,  and 
its  usefulness  crippled.  Let  us  then 
be  fair.  Let  us  be  just  in  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  touching  them — let  us 
remember  that  while  they  are  not  run 
solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  public, 
they  are  undeniably  a  benefit  to  that 
public,  and  sadly  deficient  indeed  in 
public  and  progressive  spirit  is  that 
community  or  state  that  persists  in 
throwing  obstacles  in  the  way  of  their 
fullest  expansion  and  development. — 
Clarksdale  Challenge,  Feb.  11,  1916. 


WORDS  OF  WISDOM 
T  N  yesterday's  issue  the  Register 
published  a  news  item  from  Wash- 
ington outlining  the  speech  made  be- 
fore the  Chamber  of  Commerce  by 
Howard  Elliott,  president  of  the  New 
Haven  Railroad. 

Mr.    Elliott    stated    that    instead    of 


having  shorter  hours  which  most  labor 
unions  were  clamoring  for,  that  we 
should  work  longer  as  circumstances 
demanded.  The  contention  of  Mr. 
Elliott  seems  to  be  well  taken  and 
while  the  Register  would  like  to  see 
all  labor  organizations  get  what  was 
coming  to  them,  at  the  same  time  they 
should  be  reasonable  in  their  demands 
because  if  they  were  to- exact  too  much 
of  the  railroad  and  other  corporations 
they  would  be  unable  to  comply  with 
their  demands. 

The  railroads  have  in  many  cases 
been  badly  handicapped  for  several 
years  and  their  earnings  have  been 
materially  reduced  much  of  which  is 
attributed  to  the  high  cost  of  labor. 
Water,  war,  and  many  other  causes 
have  exacted  a  large  tribute  from  the 
railroads  in  the  way  of  losses  and  since 
railroads  build  up  the  country,  trans- 
port our  crops,  and  aid  us  in  a  number 
of  material  ways,  the  Register  believes 
always  in  giving  them  a  fair  deal. 
Without  them,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  get  along  and  unless  they  are  treat- 
ed fairly  it  would  be  impossible  for 
them  to  exist.  Mr.  Elliott's  talk  con- 
tains so  much  wisdom  that  we  take 
the  liberty  of  reproducing,  it  in  part 
herewith  : 

"In  most  kinds  of  work  it  is  no 
strain  for  a  healthy  man  to  work  10 
hours  a  day,  but  there  is  now  a  very 
strong  drift  to  an  8-hour  day  and  even 
less.  The  nation  is  confronted  with 
more  work  than  ever  before;  ships  to 
build,  factories  to  enlarge,  railways  to 
complete,  new  foreign  business  to  be 
attracted,  and  help  to  be  extended  to 
the  unfortunates  on  the  other  side. 
There  are  about  30,000,000  men  at 
work;  if  they  work  10  hours  a  day, 
that  is  300,000,000  hours  a  day,  or  93,- 
600,000,000  hours  a  year.  If  they 
work  8  hours,  it  is  74,880,000,000,  or  a 
difference  of  18,720,000,000  hours  a 
year.  At  8  hours  a  day  this  means  that 
about  7,400,000  more  men  must  be  em- 
ployed to  do  the  work  that  could  be 
done  by  the  30,000,000 ;  and  where  are 
they  to  come  from? 

"To  the  extent  that  is  represented 


24 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


by  these  figures,  the  new  work  that 
Uncle  Sam  should  do  in  building  his 
navy,  improving  his  railways,  expand- 
ing his  commerce,  will  be  checked. 
The  nation  is  busy  and  loyal  citizens 
should  cheerfully  work  'over  time'  in- 
stead of  less  time.  We  must  promptly 
do  those  things  that  must  be  done  if 
we  are  to  occupy  the  place  in  the 
world  which  events  have  forced  upon 
us,  and  if  we  are  to  help  our  children 
and  their  children. 

"Nearly  all  agree  that  the  railways 
should  increase  their  capacity  to  fur- 
nish transportation  as  fast  as  the  popu- 
lation increases,  if  not  faster. 

"Today  there  are  100,000,000  people 
in  the  land  who  must  be  fed,  clothed, 
sheltered,  kept  warm  and  many  of 
whom  travel  for  health,  pleasure  and 
business. 

"What  will  be  the  conditions  when 
there  are  150,000,000  people  to  be 
served  ?  That  time  is  not  far  off,  either 
measured  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  or 
by  the  time  an  energy  that  must  be 
spent  in  increasing  the  capacity  of  the 
railway  plant  to  turn  out  the  necessary 
transportation. 

"This  means  an  addition  cf  at  least 
50  per  cent  to  the  number  of  tons  of 
freight  moved  one  mile  and  the  num- 
ber of  passengers  moved  one  mile.  It 
means  that  the  railways  must  be  not 
only  well  and  strong  with  their  pres- 
ent facilities,  but  also  that  thev  must 
be  nourished  and  their  energies  and 
powers  conserved  and  increased. 

"Whatever  the  reasons  for  the  pres- 
ent malady  of  the  railways,  two  facts 
stand  out  prominently  in  the  history 
of  the  railways  of  the  United  States 
for  the  year  1915.  One  is  that  less 
mileage  was  built  in  that  year  than 
in  any  year  since  1864.  There  have 
only  been  three  years  since  1848  when 
there  was  a  smaller  mileage  of  new 
railway  constructed  than  in  1915.  The 
other  fact  has  to  do  with  the  amount 
of  railway  mileage  in  the  hands  of  re- 
ceivers in  1915.  With  only  one  ex- 
cenfion.  1893,  was  -the  mileage  that  en- 
tered into  the  hands  of  receivers  larger 
than  last  year;  and  1893  was  a  panic 


year. — Clarksdale,     Miss.,     Daily    Re- 
gister, Feb.  10,  1916. 


RAILROADS  IN  CHICAGO 
T  AM  inclined  to  agree  with  Alfred 
1  Beirly,  in  the  views  expressed  in 
his  letter  published  in  The  Daily 
News  of  Jan.  31,  to  the  extent  that 
"railway  encroachment  toward  the 
lake  shore  is  emphatically  not  for  the 
best  interests  of  Chicago."  Views 
upon  the  subject  were  summarily  ex- 
pressed by  the  city  council  some  six- 
ty-five years  ago.  Then,  however,  the 
idea  was  that  "the  further  encroach- 
ment of  the  lake  was  emphatically  not 
for  the 'best  interests  of  Chicago." 

By  Francis  W.  Lane 

Wholly  against  the  will  of  its  offi- 
cers the  Illinois  Central  was  forced  to 
locate  where  it  is  now,  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  serving  as  a  stopper  against 
the  encroachments  of  the  lake.  It  was 
not  then  considered  necessary  to  scru- 
tinize or  reject  the  railroad's  plans  for 
a  depot  at  Randolph  street  on  the 
ground  that  they  might  "be  of  a  na- 
ture to  benefit  the  railway  to  an  ex- 
tent not  desirable  and  prove  a  disad- 
vantage to  the  city." 

Robert  Schuyler,  first  president  of 
the  Illinois  Central,  asked  permission 
to  bring  the  road  into  the  city  along 
the  west  bank  of  the  south  branch  of 
the  Chicago  river.  The  plan  was  not 
viewed  with  favor  by  the  owners  of 
property  east  of  the  river.  This  is  the 
locality  now  described  by  Mr.  Beirly 
as  "the  distressing  saloon  and  dive 
rendezvous  and  hoodlum  infested  rube 
sucker's  paradise."  Again  he  speaks 
of  the  district  as  "comprising  several 
hundred  acres  of  the  most  valuable 
territory  of  the  city,  now  filth  laden 
from  railway  traffic  and  other  factors." 
What  the  district  might  by  now  have 
become  had  the  railroad  company  been 
allowed  to  follow  its  own  plans  with- 
out duress  is  a  matter  for  pleasing 
speculation.  Possibly  there  would 
have  been  in  this  valuable  territory 
some  more  of  "the  finest  streets  to  be 
found  on  the  globe" — as  Michigan 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


avenue  has  become,  notwithstanding 
(or  because  of)  the  presence  of  the  Il- 
linois Central.  But  in  1851  Mayor 
Gurnee's  house  at  the  corner  of  Mich- 
igan avenue  and  Monroe  street  was 
threatened  with  destruction  from  a 
lake  storm.  Unable  to  withstand  the 
importunities  of  the  mayor  for  pro- 
tection from  the  lake,  the  sentiment  of 
the  people  as  reflected  by  newspapers 
and  the  pressure  of  the  city  council, 
the  railroad  on  July  14,  1852,  accepted 
the  fifth  of  a  series  of  ordinances  pro- 
viding for  its  entrance  along  the  lake 
front.  It  constructed  a  breakwater 
from  Randolph  street  to  the  southern 
limits  of  the  city  and  has  ever  since 
maintained  it.  The  angry  waters  of 
the  lake  were  restrained. 

My  only  object  in  calling  attention 
to  these  historical  facts  is  to  use  them 
as  the  basis  of  a  suggestion  that  the 
people  of  Chicago  ought  to  "play  fair." 
The  railways  entering  the  city  are  not 
where  they  are  solely  for  the  purpose 
of  being  disagreeable.  Mr.  Beirly 
says  the  railways  that  enter  the  city 
from  the  south  "in  the  main  are  the 
causes  of  business  congestion."  That 
is  so.  It  is  one  of  the  remarkable 
peculiarities  of  business  to  follow  the  • 
railways.  They  were  there  first.  Some 
of  them  were  there  when  Chicago  had 
30,000  people  and  "when  a  year's  busi- 
ness would  look  small  compared  with 
the  business  of  a  day  now.  But,  he 
says,  "why  invite  or  allow  them  to  be 
a  menace  longer  to  the  expansion  of 
the  cramped  and  congested  business 
center?"  Why,  indeed.  Why  not  stop 
them  at  Gary,  or  Momence  or  Joliet 
and  let  Chicago  spread  out  until  its 
lake  shore  becomes  an  unbroken  soli- 
tude as  in  the  days  of  him  for  whom 
the  last  named  terminus  was  called? — 
Chicago  News,  February  14,  1916. 


THAT  FULL  CREW  LAW 

I've  just,  perused  the  "full  crew 
law"  which  brings  to  mind  the  Indian 
squaw,  who  rides  on  back  the  young 
papoose,  like  nigger  brakeman  in  ca- 
boose. And  thus  they  ride  thro' 


swamp  and  field,  on  old  squaw's  back 
and  iron  wheel,  the  papoose  idle  all 
the  day,  and  nigger  too,  tho'  he  gets 
pay,  for  riding  up  in  cupelo,  when 
should  be  jerking,  weeding  hoe.  Just 
another  foolish  tax  to  pile  upon  poor 
railroad  backs.  The  Indian  kid,  with 
painted  hide,  was  taught  this  way 
from  birth  to  ride,  but  nigger  up  in 
cupelo,  just  rides  and  makes  the  rail- 
roads sore ;  he  gets  to  ride  and  suck 
his  paw,  to  satisfy  this  "full  crew 
law"  and  cost  the  railroads  tons  of  ore, 
to  let  this  nigger  ride  galore.  It's 
just  another  foolish  play,  that  makes 
the  railroads  pause  each  day,  from 
spending  money  in  a  state,  which  in 
time  would  make  it  great.  Money  is 
a  timid  thing  and  every  dollar  has  a 
wing,  to  bear  it  thro'  the  atmosphere 
to  other  states  that  treat  it  fair.  We 
must  develop  this  fair  land,  and  every 
one  should  lend  a  hand,  to  bring  to 
state  the  good  rino,  to  put  to  work 
each  idle  hoe,  that  "two  blades  of 
grass  may  properly  grow,  where  only 
one  did  grow  before."  Of  all  the 
states  beneath  God's  sun,  we  need  the 
railroads  with  their  mon ;  to  run  their 
lines  thro'  every  field,  that  we  may 
double  yearly  yield ;  and  build  from 
lakes  to  golden  bowl — the  gulf  that 
laves  our  shore,  a  line  of  railway  with 
its  gold  and  then  let's  build  some 
more.  The  fellow  who  files  these 
drastic  bills  and  calls  them  up  on  floor, 
reduces  price  of  all  our  hills,  and 
rudely  shuts  the  door  of  hope  to  ev- 
ery struggling  town,  and  bids  Stagna- 
tion wear  the  crown.  I  know  the  peo- 
ple of  the  state,  and  I  know  that  every 
one  would  hate,  and  throw  the  whole 
thing  out  of  joint,  if  railroads  closed 
their  shipping  point,  and  stop  the 
"Great  Mogul"  sublime,  from  pulling 
into  town  on  time,  and  let  the  town 
grow  up  in  weeds,  once  busy  with  the 
iron-steeds,  for  then  they  could  not 
mark  it  grain,  for  lack  of  valued  rail- 
road train,  and  country-sides  and  pros- 
perous towns,  would  slink  off  map  like 
hungry  hounds.  Of  course  the  rail- 
roads claim  they  pay,  for  running 
lines  d,ay  by  day,  but  they  send  out 


28 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


agents  with  their  kale,  to  help  us  raise 
the  cotton  bale;  and  make  the  country 
bloom  and  grow,  where  only  sedge- 
grass  grew  before.  Without  the  rail- 
roads this  old  State  would  be  right 
now  at  pauper's  gate,  and  we  would 
each  be  wearing  moss,  if  railroads  did 
not  come  across.  Just  plain  old  red 
necks  sure  enough,  without  a  collar 
or 'a  cuff,  with  leather  breeches  on  our 
legs — no  chairs  at  all,  just  board  on 
pegs.  So  let  papoose  walk  and  cry, 
and  make  the  nigger  count  cross-tie, 
and  legislators  hide  in  straw,  the  bill 
providing  "full  crew  law." — "Poet  of 
the  Pines." — Jackson  Daily  News,  Feb. 
25,  1916. 


INADEQUATE  INCREASE 
HP  HE  postoffice  appropriation  bill  now 
before  Congress  involves  the  rail- 
way mail  pay  basis,  agitated  for  the  past 
year  by  the  railroads  on  the  ground  that 
the  existing  remuneration  is  unfair. 
Having  been  woefully  negligent  in  ad- 
justing this  matter  to  date,  the  govern- 
ment seems  equally  indifferent  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  question  is  to  be 
handled  now. 

Under  the  present  method  of  payment, 
the  railroads  receive  a  sum  that  is  ridicu- 
lously small  in  consideration  of  the  bur- 
dens imposed.  Every  four  years  an  esti- 
mated weight  is  taken  by  an  investigation 
of  actual  weight  covering  a  period  of 
105  days.  Upon  this  estimated  weight 
the  railroads  receive  so  much  for  the 
handling  of  all  mails,  whether  the  actual 
work  of  handling  them  be  vastly  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  105  days  or  whether 
or  not  the  mails  increase  or  decrease  in 
gross  weight  at  any  time.  The  aggregate 
amount  now  paid  the  railroads  is  about 
$59,000,000.  This  has  been  proved  abso- 
lutely inadequate  from  a  standpoint  of 
justice  to  the  roads. 

The  Postoffice  Department  and  mem- 
bers of  the  House  committee  which  re- 
ported the  pending  bill  recommend  a  plan 


basing  payments  for  railway  mail  upon 
the  space  used  for  the  mails.  They  say 
that  the  system  urged  will  net  the  rail- 
roads $63,000,000,  or  an  estimated  in- 
crease of  $4,000,000  over  the  present 
method.  Aside  from  the  fact  that  $4,- 
000,000  is  small  when  considered  in  rela- 
tion to  the  entire  country  and  the  volume 
of  mail  handled,  the  suggested  plan  lacks 
businesslike  method  or  procedure. 

Why  does  not  the  government  pay  the 
railroads  for  mail  in  the  same  way  that 
any  other  corporation  or  individual  has 
to  pay  for  services  rendered  by  the  rail- 
roads? Why  dillydally  around  with  a 
question  that  needs  only  common  sense, 
business  methods  to  settle  it  once  and  for 
all? — Editorial,  Jackson  Daily  News, 
Feb.  28,  1916. 


A  WORD  OF  APPRECIATION 


A 


SCORE  of  years  ago  the  occasion 
of  the  opening  of  a  new  modern 
passenger  station  would  have  had 
Lincoln  by  the  ears.  A  public  recep- 
tion would  have  been  planned,  speech- 
es prepared,  the  fatted  calf  sacrificed 
on  the  banquet  table  and  the  keys  of 
the  city  would  have  been  turned  over 
to  the  railroad  in  appreciation. 

Today  the  Illinois  Central  railroad 
is  preparing  to  shortly  throw  open  the 
handsome  new  passenger  and  freight 
stations,  sans  the  blare  of  trumpets, 
and  with  the  mere  formality  of  open- 
ing ticket  windows.  It  is  a  reminder 
that  we  live  in  a  different  age.  Peo- 
ple nowadays  seem  to  expect  more 
than  they  used  to.  They  grumble  if 
they  are  denied,  and  are  too  often 
prone  to  accept  the  good  things 
thrown  their  way  as  a  matter  of 
course.  There  will  be  no  red  fire 
burned  when  the  two  depots  are 
opened,  but  Lincoln  should  feel  a 
glow  of  gratification  and  just  pride  all 
the  same. — Lincoln,  111.,  Courier  Her- 
ald, Friday,  February  4th,  1916. 


Comments  of  Various  News  Papers  Upon  Circular 
Issued  by  the  General  Manager 


Unenviable  Record 

f  ENERAL  Manager  T.  J.  Foley,  of 
^^  the  Illinois  Central,  has  sent  out  a 
circular  to  all  passenger  conductors  em- 
ployed on  his  system,  showing  one  hun- 
dred law  suits  instituted  against  his  com- 
panies based  upon  charges  of  alleged  as- 
saults, discourtesy  and  wrongful  eject- 
ment of  passengers,  at  the  hands  of  con- 
ductors. We  have  had  the  opportunity 
of  examining  one  of  these  circulars.  Out 
of  the  hundred  cases  referred  to,  eighty- 
four  of  them  were  filed  in  the  courts  of 
Mississippi;  five  in  Tennessee;  four  in 
Louisiana;  four  in  Kentucky;  one  in 
Iowa;  one  in  Missouri;  one  in  Illinois, 
and  none  whatever  in  the  states  of  Ala- 
bama, Indiana,  Minnesota,  South  Dako- 
ta, Arkansas  and  Wisconsin.  This  should 
prove  interesting  to  the  people  of  Mis- 
sissippi. 

The  cost  of  defending  these  law  suits 
falls  heavily  upon  the  taxpayers  of  the 
state,  but  that  is  not  the  worst  feature  of 
this  wholesale  litigation  against  one  of 
our  corporations.  Being  advertised  in 
other  states  as  a  state  that  is  hostile  to 
corporations  is  far  reaching  in  its  detri- 
mental effects  and  has  injured  us  as  a 
people  more  than  any  of  us  have  ever 
suspected.  The  man  with  money  to  in- 
vest is  not  going  to  invest  in  a  state 
where  the  people  are  known  to  be  an- 
tagonistic to  capital. 

We  do  not  think  the  passenger  conduc- 
tors employed  on  the  railroads  of  Mis- 
sissippi are  responsible  in  many  cases. 
We  are  inclined  to  believe  that  they  rank 
as  high,  and  display  as  good  judgment 
in  the  handling  of  passengers,  as  conduc- 
tors employed  in  other  states.  Missis- 
sippi's bad  record,  as  shown  up  by  Mr. 
Foley's  circular,  is  the  outgrowth  of  a 
system  which  has  been  fostered  in  this 
state  for  many  years  and  which  ought  to 
be  destroyed,  root  and  branch.  Every 
man  with  a  genuine  claim  should  have 


the  protection  of  our  courts,  but  they 
should  not  be  used  by  damage  suit  law- 
yers as  a  thing  which  belongs  to  them  for 
the  purpose  of  furthering  their  own  ends 
and  for  gathering  in  shekels  to  feather 
their  own  nests,  at  the  expense  of  the 
well-being  of  our  citizens  and  the  repu- 
tation of  the  state. 

Many  of  our  people  have  never  looked 
at  this  system  of  suing  corporations  as 
they  should  look  at  it.  They  have  con- 
sidered the  question  lightly,  if  they  have 
ever  considered  it  at  all,  and  have  been 
inclined  to  feel  that  vexatious  law  suits 
against  a  railroad  was  not  a  matter  of 
any  concern  to  them,  but  they  have  reck- 
oned without  their  hosts.  What  is  the 
reason  why  Mississippi  has  not  devel- 
oped as  other  states  have  developed  ?  One 
of  the  reasons,  and  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant one,  is  the  attitude  of  the  people 
towards  the  capital  which  has  in  good 
faith  been  invested  here. 

The  railroads  have  justly  complained 
about  the  serious  interruption  of  their 
business  on  account  of  the  frequency  in 
which  their  train  crews  are  hauled  off 
and  required  to  attend  court  as  witnesses 
in  trivial  law  suits.  Mississippians  do 
not  approve  of  this  any  more  than  do  the 
people  of  other  states,  but  it  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  we  have,  through  inactivity, 
allowed  this  condition  to  go  on  without 
restraint  until  it  has  become  almost  in- 
tolerable. 

It  should  be  explained  that  the  Gen- 
eral Manager's  circular  was  not  intended 
for  the  people  of  Mississippi.  It  was 
prepared  and  sent  out  to  the  conductors 
with  the  earnest  request  that  they  do 
their  utmost  to  avoid  unnecessary  law 
suits  in  every  possible  way.  In  order  to 
assist  the  conductors  in  understanding 
what  he  was  talking  about,  Mr.  Foley 
gave  them  a  list  of  one  hundred  cases, 
taken  from  the  run  of  his  files,  and  it 
developed  that  the  great  bulk  of  them 


29 


30 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


were  filed  in  the  courts  of  Mississippi. 
The  incident  merely  shows  the  extent  to 
which  the  railroads  are  attempting  to 
please  the  public. 

Instead  of  complaining  about  Missis- 
sippi, Mr.  Foley  took  occasion  to  make 
use  of  these  words  in  his  circular : 

"It  will  be  observed  from  perusal  of 
the  appended  list  of  cases  that  eighty- 
four,  out  of  the  one  hundred  cases  ex- 
amined, were  filed  in  the  courts  of  Mis- 
sissippi. These  suits  were  brought  dur- 
ing the  past  few  years  when  conditions 
were  not  so  favorable  in  Mississippi  as 
they  are  now.  I  believe  that  the  tenden- 
cy to  sue  the  company  on  slight  provoca- 
tion in  that  state  has  undergone  a  great 
change  and  that,  in  the  future,  the  com- 
pany will  receive  as  fair  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  the  people  of  Mississippi  as  it 
receives  in  other  states.  However,  it  be- 
hooves our  conductors  to  leave  no  stone 
unturned  looking  to  the  avoidance  of 
controversies  with  passengers.  I  feel  that 
if  the  conductors  use  great  care  and  dis- 
play good  judgment  in  the  handling  of 
passengers  in  Mississippi,  that  this  class 
of  litigation  will  rapidly  disappear." 

In  answer  to  above  mentioned*  circular 
we  will  admit  that  in  many  cases  passen- 
gers are  at  fault,  but  not  in  every 
instance.  For  now  and  then  you  meet  a 
small  caliber  conductor  who  imagines 
that  he  owns  the  state,  because  he  has 
charge  of  a  passenger  train,  and 
becomes  very  "bossy,"  impolite  and 
dictatorial.  We  mean  one  of  those 
fellows  whose  job  is  entirely  too 
big  for  the  man,  but  we  believe  a  com- 
plaint lodged  with  General  Manager  J:  T. 
Foley,  would  soon  teach  all  such  conduc- 
tors that  they  are  a  very  small  part  of  the 
I.  C.  system,  and  that  trains  can  run 
without  their  assistance. — The  Winona 
(Miss.)  Times,  March  3,  1916. 


A  CLEAN  SLATE. 


Not  a   Damage   Suit   on  the   Lincoln 

County  Court  Docket  Against 

Illinois  Central. 


HpHE    TIMES    was    agreeably    sur- 
prised to  learn  the  other  day  that 
in  this  county  there  is  not  a  damage 


suit  in  the  courts  against  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad.  More  than  that, 
there  has  not  been  a  damage  suit  filed 
against  that  railroad  within  a  year.  In 
former  times,  nearly  half  the  court 
docket  was  taken  up  with  this  class 
of  litigation,  adding  greatly  to  the  ex- 
pense of  holding  court. 

This  gratifying  state  of  affairs  may 
be  attributed  to  several  causes.  The 
railroad  officials  are  continually  im- 
pressing on  their  employes  the  policy 
of  diplomacy  so  that  there  are  fewer 
clashes  over  their  personal  relations 
with  the  public ;  the  people,  seeing  the 
justice  of  the  appeal  a  year  or  so  ago, 
are  trespassing  less  on  the  railroad 
right  of  way  and  thus  are  avoiding 
danger;  the  motto  of  "Safety  First" 
in  the  management  of  trains  is  more 
highly  regarded  than  ever  before ;  and 
in  cases  of  real  injury  the  railroad 
officials  have  adopted  the  policy  of  set- 
tling out  of  court  whenever  it  can  be 
done. 

With  regard  to  the  personal  rela- 
tions of  Illinois  Central  employes  with 
the  public,  Mr.  T.  J.  Foley,  general 
manager,  recently  issued  a  circular  to 
passenger  conductors  in  reference  to 
damage  suits  brought  for  alleged  de- 
linquencies of  conductors.  He  gives 
a  list  of  one  hundred  suits,  covering 
the  entire  system,  of  which  eighty- 
four  were  filed  in  the  state  courts  of 
Mississippi  or  brought  before  Missis- 
sippi jurors  in  the  Federal  courts. 

Tennessee  comes  next,  but  Ten- 
nessee has  a  record  of  five  suits. 
Louisiana  has  four,  Alabama,  Indiana, 
Minnesota,  South  Dakota,  Arkansas 
and  Wisconsin  have  clear  records,  no 
suits  having  been  filed.  Very  many 
of  these  suits  are  no  doubt  frivolous, 
but  no  matter  what  the  basis  of  such 
legal  proceedings  may  be,  they  are  ex- 
pensive to  the  railroad  company 
whether  it  wins  or  loses,  as  well  as  to 
the  state.  When  suits  are  brought  in 
court  the  defendant  must  answer  and 
explain  them  away  by  satisfactory  de- 
fense. General  Manager  Folev  cau- 
tions the  employes  of  the  road  against 
giving  away  to  temper,  and  reminds 


32 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


them  that  very  often  "a  soft  answer 
turneth  away  wrath,"  and  that  the  ex- 
ercise of  good  judgment  will  contro- 
vert fraudulent  designs,  and  that  diplo- 
macy will  outgeneral  those  who  may 
be  seeking  to  lay  the  foundation  for 
successful  assaults  upon  the  treasury 
of  the  railroad  company.  Says  Mr. 
Foley : 

"The  general  public,  and  particularly 
fellow  passengers,  are  not  disposed  to 
be  unfair.  If  diplomatic  publicity  is 
given  to  complicated  situations  when 
they  arise,  the  svmpathy  of  prospective 
witnesses  can  be  enlisted  in  the  com- 
pany's behalf.  If  a  conductor  takes  a 
broad  view  of  the  conditions,  permit- 
ting nothing  to  anger  him,  or  to  induce 
him  to  enter  into  controversies  or  per- 
sonal altercations,  he  is  thrice  armed. 
He  should  take  the  precaution  of  en- 
listing the  sympathy  of  a  number  of 
witnesses,  explaining  carefully  to  them 
his  position,  in  the  presence  of  the  ag- 
grieved patron,  and  request  the  latter 
to  explain  his  side  of  the  controversy, 
if  he  will ;  in  other  words,  the  case  can 
be  frequently  tried  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment  before  those  who  are  con- 
versant with  all  of  the  details  and  sur- 
rounding conditions  and  in  this  man- 
ner disposed  of." 

If  employes  adopt  this  policy,  and 
they  seem  to  have  done  so  in  this  end 
of  the  state,  it  will  certainly  redound 
to  the  interest  of  all  concerned. 

It  is  humiliating  to  observe  that  such 
a  large  majority  of  the  cases  noted 
arose  in  our  own  state,  for  it  can 
hardly  be  possible  that  the  Illinois 
Central  has  placed  all  its  contentious 
conductors  in  this  section.  But  pub- 
lic sentiment  is  changing — the  record 
in  Lincoln  County  shows  that.  On 
this  point  the  Memphis  News-Scimitar 
says: 

"For  many  years  it  has  been  noted 
that  Mississippi  is  a  favorite  battle 
ground  selected  by  damage  suit  law- 
yers. For  one  reason  or  other  more 
law  suits  have  been  brought  in  that 
state  than  in  any  other.  The  rail- 
roads may  have  been  in  some  measure 
to  blame  for  this  condition  of  affairs, 


because  they  have  not  been  sufficiently 
candid  in  taking  the  public  into  their 
confidence.  As  a  rule  the  public  is  com- 
posed of  fair  minded  people,  and  while 
now  and  then  may  be  encountered  in- 
dividual prejudice  and  vindictiveness, 
these  weaknesses  are  by  no  means  gen- 
eral. Fortunately  public  sentiment  has 
changed  considerably  in  Mississippi 
of  late  and  suits  brought  either  to 
harass  railroad  companies  or  to  blud- 
geon them  into  compromises  are  be- 
coming less  numerous.  It  can  never 
be  overlooked  that  a  railroad  or  other 
corporation  is  responsibile  for  the  acts 
of  its  agents,  but  all  corporations 
should  be  accorded  the  same  degree 
of  fairness  and  justice  as  is  seldom 
withheld  from  individuals." — The  Lin- 
coln County  Times,  Brookhaven, 
Miss.,  March  2,  1916. 


RAILROAD     QUESTIONS    DIS- 
CUSSED BY  MISSISSIPPI 
EDITOR. 

HpHERE  is  no  longer  any  question 
•*•  as  to  the  actual  value  of  railroads 
as  factors  in  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  a  country.  From  a  low  plane 
in  the  scale  of  contributary  industries 
and  utilities,  their  importance  has  in- 
creased in  the  same  ratio  that  the  gen- 
eral public  has  progressed  in  its  esti- 
mates of  what  really  constitutes 
growth.  No  longer  the  "soulless  cor- 
poration," the  railroad  is  rapidly  as- 
suming its  rightful  place  in  the  scheme 
of  national  as  well  as  local  policies, 
and  as  a  constructive  agency,  there  is 
perhaps  nothing  outranking  it.  Time 
was  when  it  was  the  fashion  to  "out- 
law" a  railroad;  not  because  of  what 
it  really  was,  but  because  of  what  the 
public  feared  it  was ;  and  while  with 
other  traditions  equally  meritorious, 
that  tradition  too  has  passed,  the  cus- 
tom of  looking  upon  the  railroad  as 
an  enemy  to  the  people,  and  according 
it  less  fairness  and  courtesy  in  the 
courts  either  of  law  or  of  public  opin- 
ion, that  is  accorded  to  any  other  pub- 
lic enterprise,  unfortunately  still  a  part 
of  our  general  policy  toward  a  most 
worthy  and  essential  public  utility. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


33 


The  actual  value  of  a  railroad  to  a 
community  is  perhaps  best  demon- 
strated by  its  temporary  suspension. 
What  value  the  product,  if  the  market 
be  lacking?  Every  farmer  knows,  that 
as  the  lessening  of  Ihe  distance. between 
his  farm  and  the  markets,  so  increases 
the  value  of  his  marketable  products. 
Capital  follows  the  railroad.  Citizen- 
ship is  of  a  higher  order  where  com- 
munities through  railroad  facilities  are 
brought  in  touch  with  other  communi- 
ties. 

Towns  grow  logically  and  thriftily 
where  railroads  penetrated,  and  new 
countries  are  explored  and  developed 
by  these  vanguards  of  civilization — 
countries  that  would  be  wilderness  or 
forest  for  ages  to  come  but  for  the 
beneficent  touch  of  this  trans  forming 
agency. 

That  the  railroad  has  rights  which 
should  be  respected ;  that  the  railroads 
should  not  be  handicapped  by  laws 
more  restrictive  than  those  that  gov- 
ern any  other  public  enterprise,  and 
that  any  legislation  tending  to  burden 
them  unjustly  or  oppressively,  will  re- 
act upon  a  public  with  which  they  are 
most  intimately  associated  and  to 
which  they  are  bound  by  a  common 
interest,  are  points  to  be  kept  in  the 
minds  of  legislators  and  states  at  large. 
Let  us  be  just  to  them — the  greatest 
forces  for  progress  and  growth  known 
to  the  twentieth  century.  Let  us  accord 
them  fair  treatment  at  least. 

The  tendency  of  the  times  to  load 
the  court  dockets  with  damage  suits 
instituted  not  for  justice  sake,  but  at 
the  instigation  often  times  of  some 
otherwise  "briefless  barrister"  who  sees 
in  every  trifling  grievance  against  the 
railroad  a  possible  "fee,"  is  a  danger- 
ous one.  It  is  a  practice  chat  militates 
against  the  state  and  hurts  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  community  where  it  is  in- 
dulged. The  railroads  are  responsible 
agents,  even  as  other  public  or  quasi- 
public  enterprises,  but  that  they  should 
be  marked  as  the  legitimate  prey  of 
every  unscrupulous  man  who  the  con- 
venience of  an  equally  designing  law- 
yer feels  himself  justified  in  asking 


damages  in  the  courts  for  the  most 
trivial  injuries,  is  as  reprehensible  as 
it  is  dangerous.  Justice  is  a  term  as 
full  of  meaning  to  railroads  or  other 
companies  as  to  the  individuals.  But 
to  the  layman  the  railroad  has  few 
rights  which  he  is  called  upon  to  re- 
spect. Hence  the  multiplicity  of  suits 
that  are  filed  with  every  term  of  court, 
suits  that  more  often  than  not  are  com- 
promised by  the  railroads  to  avoid  the 
expense  and  inconvenience  of  court 
proceedings,  the  compromises  being 
sometimes  in  amounts  less  than  one- 
tenth  of  the  amount  claimed  as  dam- 
ages. Such  is  the  greed  of  the  "dam- 
aged" plaintiff  and  his  attorneys,  how- 
ever, that  even  a  tithe  of  the  amount 
asked  is  too  tempting  to  risk  the  loss 
of  and  by  compromise  the  matter  is 
settled. 

Until  the  railroads  are  accorded  that 
fairness  and  justice  that  is  given  to 
every  other  public  enterprise,  and 
treated  not  as  a  common  enemy  but  as 
a  friend  and  ally  in  the  forward-look- 
ing movement  of  the  country,  this 
great  public  -utility  will  be  handicapped 
in  greater  or  less  degree,  and  its  use- 
fulness crippled.  Let  us  then  be  fair. 
Let  us  be  just  in  the  enactment  of  laws 
touching  them — let  us  remember  that 
while  they  are  not  run  solely  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public  they  are  unde- 
niably a  benefit  to  that  public,  and 
sadly  deficient  indeed  in  public  and 
progressive  spirit  in  that  community  or 
state  that  persists  in  throwing  ob- 
stacles in  the  way  of  their  fullest  ex- 
pansion and  development. 

The  Challenge  holds  no  brief  for  the 

railroads  when  they  are  in  the  wrong, 

and  we  are  free  to  confess  that  in  a 

great  many  instances  they  are  wrong. 

—The  Clarksdale  Challenge. 


SUITS   AGAINST  RAILROADS. 

JV/T  R.  T.  J.  FOLEY,  general  manager 
of  the  Illinois  Central  and  Yazoo 
&  Mississippi  Valley,  has  issued  a  cir- 
cular letter  to  passenger  conductors  di- 
recting their  attention  to  the  frequency 
of   damage    suits    filed    against    these 
railroads  for  alleged  delinquencies  for 


34 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


which  the  company  is  held  responsible 
through  the  act  of  its  agent,  the  con- 
ductor. A  large  per  cent  of  these  suits 
are  based  upon  alleged  assaults,  dis- 
courtesy and  wrongful  ejectment  from 
the  trains.  Many  of  these  suits  are 
either  ficticious  or  do  not  possess  suffi- 
cient merit  to  justify  a  jury  in  return- 
ing a  verdict  against  the  defendants, 
but  the  burden  of  proof  rests  upon  the 
company  and  the  cost  of  defending 
these  suits  is  enormous,  outside  of  the 
question  of  verdicts  for  damages  that 
may  occasionally  be  rendered  against 
the  company.  Realizing  the  fact  that 
conductors  are  frequently  confronted 
with  situations  calculated  to  overtax 
the  patience  of  the  ordinary  man,  Mr. 
Foley  admonishes  them  to  remember 
that  the  reputation  of  the  railroad  is  in 
their  keeping  and  they  should,  there- 
fore, lay  aside  all  personal  feeling  and 
exercise  patience  and  discretion  much 
beyond  the  ordinary.  He  advises  con- 
ductors "to  cultivate  the  arts  of 
courtesy,  tactfulness  and  diplomacy, 
remembering  that  a  soft  answer 
turneth  away  wrath  and  "that  the  ex- 
ercise of  good  judgment  will  contro- 
vert fraudulent  designs  and  that  diplo- 
macy will  out  general  those  who  may 
be  seeking  to  lay  the  foundation  to 
mulct  the  company."  If,  after  exhaust- 
ing every  resource  to  avoid  trouble 
without  success,  the  conductor  is  ad- 
vised to  call  the  attention  of  other 
passengers  to  the  trouble  and  carefullv 
explain  to  them  his  position  in  the 
presence  of  the  aggrieved  patron,  and 
request  the  latter  to  explain  his  side 
of  the  controversy,  if  he  will,  and  thus 
try  the  case  on  the  spur  of  the  moment 
before  those  who  are  conversant  with 
all  of  the  details  and  surrounding  con- 
ditions. Mr.  Foley  says :  "The  com- 
pany does  not  object  to  defend  a  con- 
ductor when  he  is  in  the  ri^ht ;  it  can- 
not defend  him  when  he  is  in  the 
wrong,  but  it  may  be  compelled  to  re- 
spond in  damages  by  reason  of  his 
act." 

This  circular  letter  should  carry  an 
impressive  lesson  not  only  to  con- 
ductors and  others  employed  on  the 


passenger  trains,  but  to  the  public  as 
well.  Of  the  100  cases  examined  by 
Mr.  Foley,  84  of  the  suits  were  brought 
in  "Mississippi,  the  remainder  being  dis- 
tributed among  six  other  states  tra- 
versed by  these  railroads.  We  cannot 
believe  that  conductors  in  Mississippi 
are  more  disagreeable  than  those  em- 
ployed by  the  same  companies  in  other 
states.  Personally,  we  have  always 
found  them  to  be  exceedingly  court- 
eous and  accommodating.  Can  it  be 
that  patrons  of  the  roads  in  this  state 
sometimes  endeavor  to  create  a  dis- 
turbance with  train  men  in  order  to 
file  damage  suits  against  the  railroads? 
The  courts  should  look  carefully  into 
this  phase  of  the  case  when  called 
upon  to  try  such  suits.  There  was  a 
time  when  it  seemed  to  be  popular 
to  sue  a  railroad  in  Mississippi,  but 
public  sentiment  has  changed  consid- 
erably of  late  years,  and  law  suits  filed 
either  to  harass  railroad  companies 
or  to  force  them  into  compromises,  are 
becoming  less  numerous  on  the  court 
dockets.  It  is  well,  however,  for  rail- 
roads to  publish  just  such  letters  as 
this  circular  to  passenger  conductors, 
so  as  to  take  the  public  into  their 
confidence,  for  after  all  it  is  the  patron 
that  must  eventually  bear  the  burden 
of  expense.  We  would  like  to  learn 
what  experience  other  railroads  have 
h^d  in  Mississippi  in  this  respect. — 
The  Magnolia  (Miss.)  News. 


DAMAGE  SUITS 

A/f  R.  T.  J.  Foley,  general  manager  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  com- 
pany and  the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Val- 
ley Railroad  company,  has  issued  a  cir- 
cular to  conductors  and  other  employes 
of  the  transportation  department,  calling 
attention  to  the  number  of  lawsuits,  be- 
cause of  controversies  with  employes, 
that  have  been  filed  against  the  company 
during  the  past. year,  and  admonishing 
them  to  be  diplomatic  and  patient  in  deal- 
ing with  the  traveling  public.  Of  the 
hundred  suits  filed,  it  is  singular  to  relate 
that  84  of  them  were  brought  in  the  state 
courts  of  Mississippi  or  before  Missis- 
sippi jurors  in  the  federal  courts.  Ten- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


35 


nessee  comes  next,  but  Tennessee  has 
only  a  record  of  5  suits.  Louisiana  has 
4,  Kentucky  4,  Iowa,  Missouri  and  Illi- 
nois, 1  each.  The  states  of  Alabama, 
Indiana,  Minnesota,  South  Dakota,  Ar- 
kansas and  Wisconsin  have  clear  records, 
no  suits  having  been  filed.  Very  many 
of  these  suits  are  frivolous,  but  no  mat- 
ter what  the  basis  of  such  legal  pro- 
ceedings may  be,  they  are  expensive  to 
the  railroad  company,  whether  it  wins 
or  loses.  When  suits  are  brought  in 
court  the  defendant  must  answer  and  ex- 
plain them  away  by  satisfactory  defense. 
This  costs  money,  not  only  for  lawyers' 
fees,  but  for  court  costs.  General  Man- 
ager Foley  cautions  the  employes  of  the 
road  against  giving  away  to  temper, 
and  reminds  them  that  very  often  "A 
soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath,"  and 
that  the  exercise  of  good  judgment  will 
controvert  fraudulent  designs,  and  that 
diplomacy  will  outgeneral  those  who  may 
be  seeking  to  lay  the  foundation  for  suc- 
cessful assaults  upon  the  treasury  of  the 
railroad  company.  For  many  years  it 
has  been  noted  that  Mississippi  is  a  fav- 
orite battle  ground  selected  by  damage 
suit  lawyers.  For  one  reason  or  another 
more  lawsuits  have  been  brought  in  that 
state  than  in  any  other.  The  railroads 
may  have  been  in  some  measure  to 
blame  for  this  condition  of  affairs,  be- 
cause they  have  not  been  sufficiently 
candid  in  taking  the  public  into  their  con- 
fidence. As  a  rule  the  public  is  com- 
posed of  fair-minded  people,  and  while 
now  and  then  may  be  encountered  in- 
dividual prejudice  and  vindictiveness. 
these  weaknesses  are  by  no  means  gen- 
eral. Fortunately,  public  sentiment  has 
changed  considerably  in  Mississippi  of 
late  and  suits  brought  either  to  harass 
railroad  companies  or  to  bludgeon  -them 
i  into  compromises  are  becoming  -less 
!  numerous.  It  can  never  be  overlooked 
!  that  a  railroad  or  other  corporation  is 
responsible  for  the  acts  of  its  agents,  but 
,  all  corporations  should  be  accorded  the 
same  degree  of  fairness  and  justice  as  is 
seldom  withheld  from  individuals. — The 
Memphis  News  Scimitar,  February  17th, 
1916. 


REMARKABLE  INDEED. 


'  I^HE  Illinois  Central  and  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Com- 
panies have  issued  a  circular  letter  to 
their  passenger  conductors  admonish- 
ing them  to  use  more  care  to  avoid  any 
unpleasant  controversies  with  passen- 
gers. They  have  cited  a  list  of  suits 
brought  against  them  within  the  past 
few  years  for  alleged  delinquencies  of 
conductors,  which  is  a  startling  docu- 
ment. 

Out  of  one  hundred  cases  filed,  Mis- 
sissippi heads  the  list  with  84;  Ten- 
nessee has  5;  Louisiana  4;  Kentucky 
4  ;  Iowa  1  ;  Missouri  1  ;  Illinois  1  ;  while 
Alabama,  Indiana,  Minnesota,  South 
Dakota,  Arkansas  and  Wisconsin  have 
clear  records.  The  great  number  of 
such  suits  filed  in  this  states  as  com- 
pared to  other  states  is  the  most  start- 
ling feature  of  the  circular. 

We  hold  no  brief  for  the  railroad 
companies  and  when  they  are  in  the 
wrong  we  propose  to  say  so  as  quickly 
as  anyone  else,  but  can  it  be  possible 
that  the  conductors  in  charge  of  their 
trains  in  Mississippi  are  the  most  un- 
reasonable and  incompetent  in  their 
employ?  The  most  of  them  are  Mis- 
sissippi born  and  raised  and  our  rela- 
tions with  them  does  not  warrant  the 
opinion  that  they  are  prone  to  violate 
the  laws  of  our  land  with  reference  to 
the  passengers  in  their  care. 

Mississippi  needs  and  invites  capital 
in  order  that  her  great  resources  may 
be  developed,  but  what  guarantee  can 
we  give  capital  that  their  rights  will 
be  respected;  that  they  will  get  a 
square  deal,  when  such  conditions  as 
that  cited  above  exist?  We  do  not 
know  the  outcome  of  the  above  cases, 
but  it  must  have  cost  a  tidy  sum  of 
money  to  defend  them,  even  though 
they  did  not  result  adversely  to  the 
companies  involved.  This  money 
might,  and  in  all  probability  would 
have  been  used  to  give  us  better  serv- 
ice. 

There  has  been  a  great  change  in 
public  sentiment  within  the  past  year 
or  so  in  this  respect  and  juries  are  not 
so  prone  to  award  damages  on  the 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


37 


slightest  pretext,  and  we  know  of  no 
better  way  to  abate  the  evil  than  this. 
It  is  a  matter  which  every  citizen 
should  seriously  consider. — The  Wes- 
son (Miss.)  Enterprise,  March  3,  1916. 


OUR  DAMAGE  SUIT  RECORD. 

pEBRUARY  10th,  T.  J.  Foley,  gen- 
eral  manager  of  the  Illinois  Central 
and  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.  sent  out  from 
Chicago  a  letter  to  all  conductors  of 
the  companies,  calling  attention  to  the 
number  of  damage  suits  pending 
against  these  companies.  Of  100  suits 
against  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  and  I.  C.  R.  R. 
examined,  he  finds  that  84  were  filed  in 
Mississippi  courts,  5  in  Tennessee,  4 
in  Louisiana,  4  in  Kentucky  and  one 
each  in  Iowa,  Missouri  and  Illinois. 
Alabama,  Indiana,  Minnesota,  South 
Dakota,  Arkansas  and  Wisconsin  have 
no  such  suits  on  file  against  these  rail- 
roads. The  sums  demanded  in  these 
suits  run  from  $1,000  to  $25,000.  The 
letter  of  the  manager  is  for  the  pur- 
pose of  urging  the  conductors  to  use 
discretion  and  avoid  involving  the  com- 
panies in  damage  suits. 

It  may  be  possible  that  some  of 
these  suits  are  justified  by  the  facts, 
but  no  sane  man  will  think  there  should 
be  over  five  times  as  many  damage 
suits  against  these  railways  in  Missis- 
sippi as  in  the  other  dozen  states 
through  which  they  operate.  Evidently 
we  have  a  damage  suit  industry  in 
Mississippi  of  large  proportions,  and 
one  which  is  very  detrimental  to  the 

•  interests  of  the  public.  The  cost  of 
defending  all  these  suits  and  the  dam- 

'  ages,  if  allowed,  must  come  out  of  the 
expenses  of  the  railroads,  which  in 
turn  must  be  met  by  the  people  of  the 
state  who  patronize  them.  It  cannot 
be  expected  that  a  state  will  prosper 
when  the  occupation  of  so  large  a  per 
cent  of  its  people  seem  to  be  that  of 

i  suing  the  railroads ;  for,  as  must  be 
clear  to  all,  the  railroads  are  our  main 

i  highways  of  commerce.  Every  unjust 
damage  suit  filed  or  allowed  against 


a  railroad  is  putting  an  unjust  burden 
upon  the  people's  freight  and  pas- 
senger business.  It  is  becoming  a 
question  whether  the  people  want  to 
bear  only  their  legitimate  burdens  in 
this  line  or  want  to  maintain  in  addi- 
tion a  lot  of  shyster  attorneys  who 
foster  and  fatten  upon  this  kind  of 
business. — The  Greenwood  News. 


MISSISSIPPI,  SORRY  TO   SAY, 
LEADS. 

'"PHE  Illinois  Central  Railroad  has 
issued  a  circular  directed  to  pas- 
senger conductors,  and  signed  by  T.  J. 
Foley,  general  manager,  admonishing 
them  to  exercise  care  and  courtesy  in 
thei,r  conduct  toward  passengers  to 
prevent  cause  for  many  of  the  frivolous 
damage  suits  against  the  I.  C.  and  Y. 
&  M.  V.  railroads.  Mr.  Foley  has  favor- 
ed the  Sentinel  with  a  copy  of  the  cir- 
cular, in  which  he  shows  a  list  of  100 
law  suits  filed  against  these  companies 
in  seven  states,  and  deplorably  be  it 
said  84  of  the  100  were  filed  in  Missis- 
sippi. Of  these  84  suits  13  of  them 
were  filed  in  Pike  County,  be  it  said  to 
our  discredit,  and  we  are  aware  of  the 
fact  that  some  of  the  parties  had  no 
more  just  cause  to  sue  the  I.  C.  than 
they  had  to  sue  us.  The  railroads  pay 
big  taxes,  are  the  most  potent  agency 
in  our  agricultural  and  commercial  de- 
velopment, and  the  people  should  be 
appreciative,  and  not  jump  on  them 
with  damage  suits  under  the  flimsiest 
of  pretexts  because  some  corporation- 
baiting  lawyer  will  take  the  case  for 
half  he  can  squeeze  out  of  the  com- 
pany. Legitimate  suits  are  all  right, 
some  conductors  get  rough  and  insult- 
ing at  times,  but  the  vast  majority  of 
the  suits  brought  are  based  on  no  moral 
or  legal  ground  and  should  have  no 
standing  in  court.  Besides,  the  people 
have  to  pay  the  costs  in  increased 
freight  rates.  We  are  doing  it  now, 
then  stop  it. — Summit  (Miss.)  Sen- 
tinel. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


39 


E 


,.®  Piedmont 
ftacksonvill 


••^Jasper 
j&ontot 


Anniston 

son  Shoa 
alladega  - 


LMontgomer)/ 


DISTRIBUTING    SYSTEM 


ALABAMA  POWER  CO: 


FURNISHING  POWER  TO  ALL  CLASSES 
OF  INDUSTRIES  &  MUNICIPALITIES 


OFFICE^   Brown -Marx  Building 
Birmingham,  Ala. 


Hydro-Electric  Power  an  Aid  to  Industrial  Develop- 
ment in  Alabama 


(~)  NE  of  the  greatest  incentives  given 
to  industrial  development  in  Alabama 
within  recent  years  was  the  organization 
and  building  of  the  Alabama  Power  Com- 
pany's hydro-electric  system.  This  Com- 
pany has  built  at  Lock  12  on  the  Coosa 
River  a  dam  and  modern  power  plant. 
The  initial  development  is  70,000  horse- 
power and  the  future  installation  will  be 
105,000  horsepower. 

This  electric  power  is  distributed 
throughout  the  central  and  nothern  parts 
of  the  State  and  serves  numerous  indus- 
tries consisting  of  cement  mills,  marble 
quarries,  cotton  mills,  brick  plants,  coal 
mines,  ore  mines,  cotton  gins,  street  rail- 
way companies,  light  and  power  companies, 
rolling  mills,  etc.  In  every  case  where 
power  is  sold  a  saving  is  realized  by  the 
purchaser  over  the  previous  cost  of  steam 
power  and  other  efficiencies  are  obtained. 

This  is  an  age  of  efficiency.  The  indus- 
trial establishment  that  does  not  and  will 
not  recognize  this  trend  of  affairs  today 
will  plav  but  a  small  part  in  industry  to- 
morrow. 

We  have  said  this  is  an  age  of  efficiency. 
Even  more  truly  is  it  an  age  of  electricity; 
for  electricity  has  been  the  one  most  po- 
tent factor  in  the  revolutionizing  of  in- 
dustrial methods,  reducing  production  costs 
and  increasing  output.  In  Alabama  where 
the  greatest  industries  are  ore  mines,  coal 
mines  and  cotton  mills,  the  reducing  of 
production  costs  and  increasing  of  output 
are  the  main  objects  of  the  efficient  oper- 
ator. These  objects  are  obtained  by  the 
correct  use  of  electric  power. 

Undoubtedly  the  most  spectacular  result 
accomplished  by  properly  applied  electric 
drive  is  increased  production  in  cotton 
mills.  Practically  every  mill  that  has  been 
converted  from  mechanical  to  electric  drive 
has  shown  an  increase  in  output  besides  a 
decrease  in  power  cost.  The  fact  that 
higher  speeds  are  possible  with  electric 
power  than  with  mechanical  drive  is  so 
well  known  that  when  electric  motors  are 
installed  the  speeds  of  the  mill  are  re- 
adjusted and  nearly  always  increased.  The 
power  is  applied  more  directly  to  the  mill 
machinery,  there  is  less  slippage  of  belts, 
variations  in  speed  due  to  long  lines  of 
line  shaftinsr  are  eliminated  and  the  result 
is  not  only  a  higher  and  more  regular 
soeed  but  also  smoother  running  work 
which  in  itself  contributes  to  increased 
production. 

In  the  mining  industry  similar  results 
are  obtained  by  using  electricity  instead 


of  steam  and  air  for  hoisting,  pumping, 
haulage  and  coal  cutting.  Electric  power 
can  be  'economically  distributed  through 
comparatively  inexpensive  wires,  whereas 
steam  and  air  require  pipes  for  transmis- 
sion. These  systems  of  pipes  are  expen- 
sive to  install,  costly  to  maintain,  quick  to 
depreciate  and  are  inefficient  in  operation, 
due  to  leakage  and  condensation.  Cases 
can  be  cited  where  air  pumps  10  per  cent 
efficient — figuring  the  transmission  losses 
as  part  of  the  power  input — have  been  re- 
placed by  low-priced  electric  pumps  70  per 
cent  efficient. 

Similar  conditions  exist  in  other  Ala- 
bama industries.  In  marble  quarries  elec- 
tric power  is  used  for  pumps,  saws,  etc.,  to 
replace  steam  and  air  equipment  operating 
similarly  to  the  power  apparatus  of  the 
mines.  Electric  motors  have  replaced 
steam  engines  on  roll  mills  so  that  power 
economies  could  be  achieved  and  control 
of  speeds  made  easier.  ^  Brick  plants  have 
installed  individual  electric  motors  to  drive 
their  dry  pans,  pug  mills,  brick  machines, 
etc.,  so  that  shafting  and  belts  could  be 
disposed  of  and  steadier  speeds,  and,  there- 
fore, increased  outputs  obtained. 

Numerous  small  industries  heretofore  de- 
pendent on  the  unsatisfactory  and  noisy 
gas  engines  located  in  various  Alabama 
cities  and  towns  have  been  relieved  of 
power  troubles  by  the  reliable,  economical 
and  noiseless  electric  motor. 

It  is  true  that  electric  power  has  been  in 
use  in  these  various  industries  in  other  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  even  where  there  were 
no  large  power  companies.  In  those  cases, 
however,  the  operators  were  forced  to  build 
costly  electric  generating  stations.  Even 
then  all  of  the  advantages  of  purchased 
power  were  not  realized,  as  the  size  of  the 
operations  was  limited  in  each  case  by  the 
capacity  of  the  generator  plant. 

In  Alabama  the  industries,  as  a  rule,  have 
no  large  surplus  to  invest  in  electrical 
power  plants.  When,  however,  electric 
power  was  made  available  without  the 
necessity  of  large  investments  in  power 
plant  equipment  they  were  able  to  utilize  it 
and  obtain  efficiencies  formerly  attainable 
only  by  their  financially  powerful  com- 
petitors. 

The  hydro-electric  developments,  together 
with  the  loner  systems  of  distribution  lines, 
have  brought  about  this  change  and  will  be 
a  large  factor  in  making  of  the  State  of 
Alabama  a  section  industrially  second  to 
none  in  the  country. 


40 


42 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


tw  Employes  max;  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stocic  in  tne  Illinois 

.  Gsntral  R.R.,we  quote  below  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  May  95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(One  price  to  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  zoill  he  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cffocA  is  based  upon  the  mar- 

f                                  jf          1             /                  T          •           '                   .      /}'  .        /~)                    » 

Ret  price  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  Comptrol- 

lers office...  (2^/n  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  of  sukscrib- 

•     rj         /         *'  S         "LI    L  '  '   ,  rr  '    s  • 
ma  ior  one  share  at  a  time,  payable  by  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  the.  completion  of 
Wnicn  the  Company  will  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 

me  share  registered  in  his  name  on  the  DOORS,  of  the  Com- 

pany, c^/e  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 

another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  c&ie  certificate 

of  stock,  is  transferable  on  the  Company's  6ooks,  and 
entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  oe  ae  - 

clarea  Joy  the  tfoard,  ofjUirectors,  ana  to  a  vote  in, 

their  election. 

C^lny  officer  or  employe  making  payments  on  this 

7             -^'11   -f                '11                                '  .         '     .'           /') 

plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  the  rate  of  few  per  cent  per  annum,  dunna  the  time  he 
is  payma  for  his  share  of  stock,  provided  he  does  not  al- 
low twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 

/                       ••                   /~       f    *     f                 '1* 

any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period  interest 
will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  his  credit  will  he 

returned  -to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

O<mi/  officer  or  employe  mahinq  payments  on  the  fore  - 
ji  M       ,  >      r   J             >y  /r.  7                     •  J 
going  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desiring  to  discontinue 
7/J-i         /       -//"  •       /       .                   i  .  ./  /-  •          •  /                 > 
mem,  can  have  his  money  returned  to  him  with  accrued 

./ 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  43 


interest,  by  mahmq  application  to  the  head  of  the  de- 
partment in  which  he  is  emp/oyea. 
Cxf/z  employe,  luho  has  made  application  for  a  share 

r     /    '  /  y  •      //        /      *  '           )  ^       / 

of  stock  on  the  installment  plan  ,  is  expected  to  make 
the  prepayment  from  the  first  wages  which  may  be  due 

him.  J'orms  are  provided,  for  the  purpose,  on  which  the 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  me  aLocal-  •  (treasurer  m 
Chicago,  or  the  oUocal-^oreasurer  in  (^ew  Orleans,  or 

the  Paymaster  or  the  (Assistant   Paymaster  to  retain 
from  his  wages  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  the  employe  for  the  purchase  of  a  share  of  stock. 

t-  '            '  /  '  y/        v         •  y  A  /  /^>  y 

c/n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  the  (Company 

from  any  cause,  he  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  the 
share  for  which  he  has  subscribed  ana.  receive  a  certifi- 

cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which. 

has  accrued. 

((Dne  foreaoina  does  not  preclude  the  purchase  of 

shares  of  stock,  for  cash.  Cx//z  employe  who  has  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 
the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 
aiven  month  make  application  for  a  snare  of  stock-far  casn 
at  the  price  ouoted  to  employes  for  that  month  ,  ana.  he  can 

in  the  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 
/        /               /             //            / 
other  share  on  me  installment  plan. 

(Employes  'Who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  share 

at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
caqo,  Who  will  obtain  /or  them  the  price  at  which  the  stock 

can  be  purchased. 
Cxmy  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stock  (except  in 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash)  should 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  omcer,  or  to  one  of  the 
fci>  •'  icr^                 /    rti-'          j/"  /•  // 
o6oo7/  treasurers  jbyjillmy  in  the  following  coupon  : 

Mr  f~)  I"1  Ivlnii                                         Uate  

Local  Treasurer, 

C/iica^o  III. 

\PilI  you  please  send   me   an   application    klank. 

for  me  purcnase  on.C.  StocE,  on  tne  installment  plan. 

Employed  as  .    .... 

i 

Passenger 

Traffic 

Department 


Little  Talks  wiiK  fhe  Rambler 


Service  Nofes   of  Infeiesf. 


Winning  Out  on  a  Losing  Game 


4  *>J  OTWITHSTANDING  every- 
^  thing  helps,  I  am  rather  doubt- 
ful whether  there  wouldn't  be  an  ex- 
ception if  I  undertook  to  utilize  you  in 
a  matter  of  business  requiring  some 
finesse."  Such  was  the  cheerful  greet- 
ing given  me  by  the  Rambler  as  one 
day,  while  deeply  absorbed  at  my  desk, 
I  was  first  made  aware  of  his  presence 
by  the  remark  that  I  have  repeated. 
I  had  not  heard  him  come  in,  and  on 
looking  up  at  the  sound  of  his  voice, 
was  naturally  surprised  to  see  him 
standing  at  the  back  of  my  roll  top 
desk  resting  his  arms  on  its  top  and 
looking  down  at  me  with  a  sort  of  half 
doubtful  and  half  quizzical  expression. 
I  laughingly  said  in  response,  "If  you 
are  in  doubt  as  to  my  being  able  to 
help,  why  mention  it?  What's  on  your 
mind?"  "Well,"  was  the  thoughtful 
reply  as  he  stepped  around  to  the  side 
of  the  desk  and  seated  himself  in  a 
chair  by  my  side,  "I  was  just  thinking 
whether  possibly  you  could  be  of  serv- 
ice in  a  matter  of  solicitation  that  is 
bothering  me,  but  I  am  a  little  doubt- 
ful as  to  the  wisdom  of  making  use  of 
you  after  all.  You  know  Mr.  So  and 
So/'  he  continued,  "that  prosperous 
farmer  who  lives  out  on  the  line  near 
— station?"  "Yes,"  I  said,  "I 


know  him  to  the  extent  of  having 
boarded  at  his  house  during  one  of  my 
summer  vacations  a  few  years  back, 
but  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  say  I 
know  him  very  well.  What's  up?" 
"You  must  have  gotten  along  pretty 
well  with  him,"  the  Rambler  remarked 
reflectively,  "for  he  says  he  knows  you, 
and  from  his  manner  of  speaking  and 
from  one  or  two  little  incidents  he 
mentioned  in  your  connection,  I  have 
a  notion  he  thinks  pretty  well  of  you." 
"It  certainly  is  pleasant  to  be  thus  re- 
membered by  one  who  really  was  but 
a  casual  acquaintance.  But  what  of 
him?"  "The  point  is  just  here,"  the 
Rambler  said  as  he  reached  over  and, 
taking  a  pad  of  paper  from  my  desk 
and  a  pencil  from  his  pocket,  he  began 
in  an  apparently  abstracted  sort  of  way 
to  make  little  sketches  while  he  talked. 
"That  man,  always  well-to-do,  has  been 
particularly  prosperous  for  the  last  two 
or  three  years,  and  about  this  time  of 
the  year  he  has  considerable  leisure 
time  to  dispose  of.  So  for  the  first  time 
he  is  beginning  to  look  about  as  to  the 
desirability  of  traveling  a  little  to,  as 
he  himself  puts  it,  'broaden  his  mind 
and  see  a  bit  of  the  world.'  In  fact, 
he  has  definitely  made  up  his  mind  to 
take  a  certain  trip  next  month  with  his 


45 


46 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


wife  and  two  grown  up  daughters. 
Unfortunately  for  me,  while  our  line  is 
the  most  direct  and  best  one  to  his 
destination,  there  is  also  a  rival  line, 
not  so  very  much  worse  than  ours, 
that  reaches  the  same  point,  and  that 
farmer  has  about  concluded  to  take  the 
latter.  In  fact,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  it  is 
definitely  fixed  that  we  lose  the  busi- 
ness. Of  course,  I  have  given  him  all 
the  arguments,  pro  and  con,  in  favor 
of  our  line,  all  of  which  he  good  na- 
turedly  admits.  A  funny  part  of  it  is 
that  he  has  apparently  taken  some  sort 
of  a  fancy  to  me  in  so  far  as  personal- 
ity goes.  He  states,  however,  that  as 
this  is  to  be  his  first  considerable  rail- 
road journey  he  wants  it  to  last  as  long 
as  it  may,  and  that  hence  he  will  have 
to  turn  me  down  in  favor  of  the  other 
way,  as  the  time  en  route  is  naturally 
greater,  the  mileage  being  much  in  ex- 
cess of  ours.  Of  course,  I  have  sug- 
gested another  trip  that  will  give  him 
a  longer  rail  journey,  but  that  doesn't 
help,  as  he  is  equally  positive  as  to  his 
ultimate  destination.  I  am  anxious  to 
get  that  man,  as  there  are  others  just  like 
him  in  his  vicinity  who  will  be  apt  to  fol- 
low next  year,  or  later,  his  lead  in  the 
matter  of  travel  during  the  winter 
months.  For  the  present,  however,  I  feel 
that  I  have  worked  him  all  that  policy 
dictates.  It  may  be  best  to  let  him  go 
this  time  with  a  chance  of  getting  some- 
thing better  out  of  him  next  season,  but 
I  naturally  hate  to  give  him  up,"  "Why 
don't  you  go  down  and  make  a  last  ap- 
peal," I  suggested.  The  Rambler 
laughed  and  remarked  dryly,  "I  think  I 
had  occasion  to  tell  you  once  before  that 
you  would  probably  make  a  mighty  bad 
solicitor  for  passenger  business.  I  have 
made  it — like  opera  singers'  'farewells' — 
many  times.  There  is  no  further  appeal 
to  make,  don't  you  see  ?  He  doesn't  deny 
any  of  my  arguments,  and  as  a  matter 
of  courtesy  or  conviction,  I  don't  know 
which,  admits  all  I  claim  for  our  su- 
periority. He  has  either  got  his  mind 
fixed  in  one  direction  through  a  whim, 
or  the  rival  line  has  unearthed  a  better 
solicitor  than  I  am.  It  makes  no  differ- 
ence which.  So  the  fact  remains  that  I 


don't  want  to  get  him  so  tired  of  seeing 
me  now  that  when  I  want 'him  some 
time  in  the  future  worse  than  I  do  at 
present,  he  will  run  away  and  hide  when 
he  sees  me  coming.  I  had  thought  that 
possibly  with  your  acquaintance  you 
might  do  something  with  him.  That's 
why  I  came  in.  But  on  reflection  I 
guess  it  would  not  be  a  case  of  'every- 
thing helps'  if  I  were  to  let  you  butt  in. 
He's  too  smart  not  to  see  that  you  would 
be  only  myself  in  disguise,  so  to  speak; 
besides  which,"  he  continued  mischiev- 
ously, "you  would  muss  the  matter  up, 
anyway.  You  would  be  more  apt  to  get 
him  peeved  than  enthusiastic.  No,"  he 
concluded  as  he  arose  to  go,  "I  am  ob- 
liged to  you  just  the  same,  but  I  guess 
I  will  not  set  you  on  him,  at  least  for  the 
present."  I  admitted  that  my  experience 
did  not  run  particularly  in  the  line  of 
coaxing  people  to  do  things  they  didn't 
want  to,  but  suggested  that  if  a  letter 
from  me,  or  even  a  trip  to  see  the  gentle- 
man, would,  in  the  Rambler's  estimation 
be  of  service,  I  would  be  glad  to  make 
the  attempt.  "No,  not  yet,  anyway,"  was 
the  Rambler's  reply  as  he  walked  away. 
"You  are  too  thin  skinned  for  one  thing. 
In  fact,"  he  added  as  he  stopped  in  the 
doorway,  "I  am  afraid  you  are  too 
honest.  You  are  one  of  those  fellows 
who  don't  believe  very  much  in  working 
your  friends.  In  this  case,  for  instance, 
you  might  get  up  courage  enough  to  say 
to  that  farmer  friend  of  yours  (he  is 
your  friend,  even  if  you  don't  know  it 
yourself)  that  you  would  like  to  have 
him  go  our  way,  but  if  he  good  naturedly 
said  'No,  I  have  decided  to  go  the  other 
way,'  you  would  think  it  an  ethical  breech 
as  between  friends,  a  lack  of  courtesy, 
to  try  to  force  him.  Much  obliged  just 
the  same,  though,"  he  laughed,  as  he 
started  for  his  own  office. 

Several  days  later  he  sent  a  boy  to  my 
office  and  asked  for  one  of  our  depart- 
ment letterheads,  and  soon  after  he  came 
in  himself  with  the  sheet  in  hand  which 
he  smilingly  laid  on  my  desk,  saying 
tersely,  "Sign  it,  please,  and  ask  no 
questions."  The  letter  was  addressed  to 
the  farmer  that  I  have  been  telling  about, 
and  was  in  effect  an  introduction  of 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


47 


Snap-Shot  Bill  to  him.  It  said  in  a 
semi- jocose  way  that  the  bearer  was  a 
kodak  fiend  who  had  taken  the  notion 
that  he  wanted  to  get  some  farm  scenes 
in  winter — half -frozen  brooks,  possible 
snow  drifts,  snow  laden  boughs,  etc.,  but 
particularly  some  animal  pictures  in 
winter  environment,  and  that  it  was  on 
account  of  the  animals  that  it  had  oc- 
curred to  me  that  he,  the  farmer,  would 
be  willing  to  set  the  'kodaker'  loose  on 
his  place  some  Sunday.  After  reading 
the  letter  I  good-naturedly  signed  it,  but 
remarked  that  if  he  was  going  to  send 
Bill  instead  of  me  to  help  him  out  on  that 
solicitation,  he  at  least  had  eliminated 
one  of  the  objections  that  he  had  against 
my  interference — that  of  sending  a  man 
who  was  not  too  thin  skinned.  "I'll 
scratch  Bill  off  my  list,"  was  the  quick 
response,  "if  he  dares  breathe  a  word 
about  that  trip,  or  if  the  farmer  himself 
should  mention  it  if  Bill  expresses  a  thing 
more  than  a  polite  interest.  In  fact,  Bill 
needn't  even  mention  that  he  is  connected 
with  the  road  unless  he  is  asked.  In  the 
meantime,  you  needn't  discuss  this  letter 
with  Bill,  or  tell  him  anything  about  the 
man's  proposed  trip.  Just  be  indefinite 
with  him  about  this  communication 
should  he  take  it  up  with  you,  and  simply 
say  I  asked  you  to  write  it,," 

I  was  used  to  the  Rambler's  indirect 
ways  of  getting  at  things  at  times,  and 
ten  minutes  after  he  was  gone  the  entire 
incident  had  slipped  my  mind  and  did  not 
return  until  about  a  week  later  when  I 
was  making  a  short  trip  on  the  line.  On 
that  occasion,  not  being  sleepy  enough  to 
retire  for  some  time  after  the  berths  in 
the  sleeping  car  had  all  been  made  up,  I 
chose  to  remain  in  the  smoking  compart- 
ment. I  had  the  latter  to  myself,  and  as 
I  sat  in  the  single  arm  chair  that  forms  a 
part  of  the  equipment  of  the  combined 
washroom  and  smoking  compartment, 
busily  thinking  on  the  business  sub- 
ject that  would  engage  my  attention 
in  the  morning,  I  noted  that  the  porter, 
as  he  came  in  and  out,  seemed  to  glance 
in  my  direction  rather  earnestly.  Finally 
meeting  my  eye,  with  a  bow  he  said, 
"Mistah  Rambler  ain'  wif  you-all  dis 
evenin',  Cap'n?"  I  had  paid  no  particu- 


lar attention  to  him  before,  so  had  not 
recognized  him,  but  on  this  salutation 
noted  that  he  was  the  porter  of  the  car 
that  the  Rambler  deserted  in  favor  of 
some  other  portion  of  the  train  on  a 
recent  trip  that  we  had  taken  together. 
"No,"  I  said  in  reply,  "he  is  not  along 
this  time."  "Didn'  know,  sah,  but  he 
might  be.  'Peers  to  be  on  dis  train 
mighty  offen,  and  I've  seen  him  and  you- 
all  together.  Ain'  seen  him  for  quite  a 
HI'  time  now,  but  las'  when  he  rode  wif 
me  he  was  talking  to  a  gen'man  an'  I 
sho  would  like  to  know  who  dat  gen'man 
is  and  here  he's  at.  Mistah  Rambler 
called  him  Bill,  and  he  had  one  of  does 
picture  machines  wif  'im.  Reckon  he 
b'longs  where  you  do,  sah?"  My  proxy 
letter  for  Snap-Shot  Bill  immediately 
came  to  mind,  and  I  felt  sure  he  was  the 
one  the  porter  was  inquiring  after.  The 
Rambler  had  been  so  mysterious,  how- 
ever, about  Bill  and  that  letter,  that  be- 
fore committing  myself  I  wanted  to  make 
sure,  and  also  see  what  incidental  in- 
formation the  porter  might  drop  bearing 
on  the  matter.  So  I  answered  him  that 
his  description  of  the  man  he  wanted  to 
know  about  was  rather  vague,  as  there 
might  be  several  Bills  that  the  Rambler 
would  have  talked  to.  "Well,  sah,"  he 
replied,  "it  was  all  dis  way.  Dis  man  Bill 
he  stahts  out  wif  me  and  he  looks  out 
de  window  mos'  de  time,  but  bimeby  he 
seem'  to  get  restless  like  and  takes  dat — 
wa't  you  call  it,  dose  t'ings  dey  take 
pictures  wif?"  "A  kodak,"  I  said.  "Ko- 
dak, yes,  dat's  it.  He  takes  dat  kodak 
out  de  case  and  begins  to  rub  it  up,  shin- 
ing all  de  nickel  an'  blowin'  de  dust  off 
de  leather.  Bimeby,  when  we  get  down 
de  road  at  one  of  de  stations,  Mistah 
Rambler  comes  aboard.  He  seem  tired 
and  don't  notice  dat  man  Bill  right  off, 
'cause  he  comes  up  from  behin'  him  and 
you  can  only  see  Mistah  Bill's  haid  an' 
shoulders  above  the  seat.  De  Rambler 
looks  like  he's  sho  tired.  He  t.ho's  his 
grip  out  his  han'  on  de  flo'  an'  rests  his 
haid  on  de  back  of  de  seat;  'cause  you 
know  'twas  a  lil'  station  he  got  on  at,  an' 
he  didn'  get  on  my  car  but  walked  thro' 
de  rear  car  to  mine  so  I  didn'  see  him  to 
take  his  grip  in  fo'  him.  Well,  sah,  he 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


49 


takes  off  his  hat  and  stretches  out  with 
his  feet  on  de  seat  in  front  an'  he  shuts 
his  eyes  like  he  was  goin'  to  sleep. 
Bimeby  he  opens  his  eyes  and  see  Mistah 
Bill's  haid  an'  shoulders  in  front  an'  he 
sings  out,  'Hello,  Bill,  dat  you  ?'  Den  dat 
man  with  de  what-yo'-call  it?  O,  yes, 
kodak,  he  turns  'round,  sees  Mistah 
Rambler  and  says  'Hello.'  Den  he  gets 
up,  does  Mistah  Bill,  and  'stead  of  corn- 
in'  'roun'  and  settin'  down  with  Mistah 
Rambler,  he  leans  ovah  de  back  of  his 
seat  with  his  arms  restin'  on  de  top  an' 
his  kodak  in  his  han'  an'  says  again, 
'Hello.'  Mistah  Rambler  seemed  too 
tired  to  sit  up,  but  still  lyin'  back  he 
shake  his  finger  at  Bill  and  he  say,  'Now 
'member,  Bill,  what  I  done  tol'  you  if 
you  go  down  dere  an'  I  specs  you  is.'  Bill 
he*  shake  his  haid  an'  say,  'Yes,  I  know. 
I'm  goin'  down  dere,'  wherever  dat  was. 
Dat's  all  I  know  'bout  him  he  call  Mistah 
Bill,  but  I  wan'  to  see  him,  and  I  wan'  to 
see  him  mighty  bad."  From  the  descrip- 
tion I,  of  course,  recognized  Snap-Shot 
Bill,  but  before  so  admitting  to  the 
porter  I  naturally  said  to  him,  "What  do 
you  want  to  know  who  he  is  for?" 
"Well,"  was  the  cautious  reply,  "I  got 
sumpin'  I  wan'  to  give  him."  "O,"  I 
said,  "that's  it.  Was  it  something  he  left 
on  the  train  ?"  "Yes,  sah ;  sumpin'  he  lef ' 
special  wif  me."  "It  wasn't  anything  that 
you  could  turn  in  to  the  Lost  and  Found 
Bureau,  was  it?"  I  inquired  curiously. 
"No  sah;  No,  sah,  'twant  nottin'  like 
dat.  Sumpin'  purs'nal."  "Well,"  I  said, 
my  curiosity  somewhat  aroused,  and  with 
a  thought  of  possibly  getting  something 
on  Bill,  "what  was  it?"  Rather  re- 
luctantly the  porter  put  his  hand  in  his 
pocket  and  placed  a  handful  of  silver  on 
the  seat  in  front  of  me,  from  which  he 
picked  out  a  silver  half  dollar.  "Dat's  it, 
Cap'n,"  he  said,  and  he  passed  the  coin 
over.  It  was  unmistakedly  a  lead 
counterfeit,  and  I  involuntarily  made  a 
remark  to  that  effect.  "Yes,  sah,  I  knows 
dat.  Can't  get  rid  of  it  nohow.  Don' 
min',  only  dat  fellow  I  tell  you  'bout, 
when  he  gives  me  it  he  makes  me  give 
him  back  a  quatah  in  change.  Don't 
care  'bout  gettin'  nottin'  out  of  him,  but 
I  sho  would  like  that  good  quatah  of 


mine  back."  I  suppressed  a  laugh  as 
well  as  I  could  and  said  to  him,  "O,  I 
know  who  the  fellow  was,  and  I  am  sure 
he  didn't  mean  to  cheat  you,  but  I  will 
have  some  fun  with  him  about  it  just  the 
same.  I'll  keep  this,  and  here's  a  new 
fifty-cent  piece  to  take  its  place." 

Remembering  the  Rambler's  admonition 
not  to  discuss  the  subject  of  my  letter  to 
Snap-Shot  Bill  I  bided  my  time  on  the 
fifty-cent  episode  and  again  temporarily 
forgot  the  whole  matter  until  one  day, 
some  two  or  perhaps  three  weeks  later, 
the  Rambler  again  came  into  my  office 
and  this  time  with  a  file  of  correspond- 
ence in  his  hand.  There  was  a  curiously 
satisfied  expression  on  his  face  as  he 
handed  me  the  file  and  said,  "Read  it." 
The  first  letter  was  the  one  that  I  had 
signed  introducing  Snap-Shop  Bill  to  the 
farmer  and  soliciting  the  good  offices  of 
the  latter  in  allowing  Bill  facilities  for 
taking  farm  and  animal  scenes  with  his 
kodak.  The  next  was  a  copy  of  a  letter, 
of  considerably  later  date,  written  by  the 
Rambler  to  the  farmer,  which  in  brief 
said  that  he,  the  Rambler,  would  be  going 
through  the  farmer's  town  on  a  certain 
train  on  a  given  date  and  that,  the  latter 
being  on  a  Saturday,  it  was  presumed 
that  he,  the  farmer,  would  be  in  town 
that  day,  and  if  so,  if  he  cared  to  meet 
him  at  the  train,  he,  the  Rambler,  would 
hand  him  during  its  stop  some  pictures 
that  Snap-Shot  Bill  had  commissioned 
him  to  deliver  and  which  he  thought 
would  interest  him.  The  letter  further 
stated  that  the  Rambler  regretted  not 
having  time  to  stop  over  and  make  a  call, 
also  that  he  supposed  he  could  have  sent 
the  pictures  by  mail,  but  inasmuch  as  it 
made  a  somewhat  bulky  parcel  and  he 
was  passing  through  his  town  as  stated, 
he  thought  that  Bill  would  be  more  satis- 
fied if  he  knew  that  they  were  made  a 
matter  of  personal  delivery.  The  last 
letter  was  one  written  several  days  after, 
from  the  farmer  to  the  Rambler  express- 
ing warm  appreciation  for  the  pictures 
and  wishing  him  to  thank  Snap-Shot  Bill 
for  him.  It  read,  in  part,  as  follows : 

"You  saw  the  pictures,  I  suppose,  and 
so  you  will  know  that  they  could  not  fail 
to  be  very  much  appreciated  at  home. 


50 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


We  didn't  think  it  possible  to  make  such 
pretty  pictures,  and  ones  that  told  so 
many  stories  of  the  common  and  ordi- 
nary things  about  a  farm  in  the  dead  of 
winter.  Some  of  our  summer  boarders 
have  from  time  to  time  taken  a  picture 
of  the  house,  but  the  one  Bill  sent  shows 
the  whole  building  as  we  have  never  had 
it  shown  before.  The  trees  hide  more 
or  less  of  it  in  summer,  but  this  winter 
view,  with  the  trees  bare,  gives  us  a  com- 
plete record  of  it  with  the  trees  them- 
selves, in  skeleton  outline,  making  a 
beautiful  feature  of  the  composition.  We 
value  particularly  the  one  from  a  little 
ways  down  the  road  that  shows  not  only 
the  house  but  all  the  out-buildings  and 
the  barn,  for  no  one  has  ever  attempted 
so  much  as  that  before  on  account  of  the 
foliage  that  cuts  most  of  them  out  in 
summer.  Then  that  picture  of  my  new 
Percheron  team  I  think  the  world  of,  as 
does  my  wife  the  one  he  took  of  her  little 
driving  mare  'Kitty.'  Of  course,  we  have 
had  just  plain  pictures  of  our  animals, 
but  somehow  Bill's  look  different  from 
anything  that  has  ever  come  to  us  before, 
and  I  reckon  it's  because  they  have  been 
posed  with  such  appropriate  settings.  I 
can't  write  about  each  and  every  one,  but 
all  of  the  others  pleased  us  mightily ;  par- 
ticularly several  that  seem  to  have  been 
taken  not  so  much  as  a  record  as  to  make 
a  pretty  picture.  Such  as  the  one  of  my 
horse  'Charley'  reaching  his  neck  out  of 
the  stall  to  be  fed,  the  dog  begging  out- 
side the  door  to  be  let  in,  the  cattle 
drinking  at  the  holes  cut  in  the  ice  at 
the  edge  of  the  pond,  and  that  one  of 
the  rooster  perched  on  the  rim  of  a 
wagon  wheel  in  the  very  act  of  crowing. 
But  you  can  readily  imagine,  I  take  it, 
that  above  all  do  we  prize  the  picture  that 
he  took  of  our  little  girl  sitting  by  the 
fireplace  playing  with  her  doll,  and  the 
one  he  took  of  us  all  sitting  at  the  table 
eating  dinner.  That  makes  me  think,  I 
had  trouble  getting  that  fellow  to  stop 
taking  pictures  long  enough  to  take  din- 
ner with  us.  He  said,  when  dinner  time 
came,  that  he  had  brought  with  him  all 
the  lunch  he  needed  until  he  got  back  to 
the  train  at  night,  and  he  guessed  he'd 
just  nibble  at  it  as  he  went  along  over  to 


the  woods  to  see  what  he  could  find 
there.  Of  course  we  would  not  have  it 
that  way,  but  he  got  into  the  woods  just 
the  same,  and  among  the  different  land- 
scapes that  he  sent  me  was  a  mighty 
pretty  photograph  of  the  path  through 
the  pines  over  to  the  cross-roads,  with 
snow  on  the  limbs  of  the  trees,  while  on 
one  side,  making  a  foreground  feature, 
is  my  stacked  wood  pile  where  I  loosen 
up  my  muscles  at  odd  times  during  the 
winter.  As  I  have  said,  we  are  all  very 
much  pleased  with  the  pictures,  and  we 
liked  the  man,  too.  So  you  might  say  to 
Snap-Shot  Bill  for  us,  if  you  will,  that 
we  would  be  glad  to  have  him  come  down 
again,  some  time  during  the  summer,  and 
see  what  he  can  do  when  the  country 
looks  prettier  to  me  than  it  does  now." 

The  letter  was  signed  with  renewed 
acknowledgments  and  charges  to  the 
Rambler  to  convey  the  writer's  thanks  to 
Snap-Shot  Bill,  after  which  in  a  P.  S. 
was  evidently  that  which  caused  the 
peculiar  expression  on  the  Rambler's 
face.  The  P.  S.  said :  "By  the  way,  I 
have  changed  my  mind  about  that  trip 
and  guess  we  will  go  over  your  road. 
Will  see  the  agent  tomorrow." 

"I  see  Rambler,  you  are  a  deep  one, 
after  all,"  was  my  comment  as  I  passed 
him  back  the  correspondence.  "Putting 
this  and  that  together,  that  letter  of  mine 
for  Snap-Shot  Bill  and  Bill's  efforts  were 
only  a  part  of  a  deep  laid  plot  on"  your 
part,  but  I  congratulate  you  on  your  suc- 
cess. Are  you  always  as  under-handed 
in  your  methods  of  securing  business?" 
"That's  not  being  under-handed,"  said 
the  Rambler  with  some  little  show  of  in- 
dignation. "There  are  only  two  ways  of 
legitimately  soliciting  passenger  business. 
One  is  to  take  up  the  matter  purely  as  a 
business  proposition  and  the  other  is  to 
take  fair  advantage  of  human  nature. 
The  business  end  did  not  work  in  this 
case,  but  when  through  Bill  I  played  a 
bit  on  human  nature  I  won  out  in  a  fair 
and  honorable  way;  for,  as  you  will  ob- 
serve, unconsciously  Bill,  for  me,  gave 
full  value  received  for  my  finesse,  if  there 
was  any  question  as  to  such  a  value  in- 
volved." "In  other  words,"  I  remarked 
dryly,  "you  made  Bill  the  goat,"  for  I 


52 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


loved  to  tease  him  as  I  had  opportunity, 
for  the  sake  of  hearing  his  come-back. 
"Nothing  of  the  kind,"  was  the  quick 
response.  "I  gave  Bill  a  beautiful  time 
with  that  kodak  of  his,  and  as  you  will 
see  from  the  farmer's  letter,  opened  up 
an  avenue  of  future  pleasure  for  him 
when  the  summer  comes.  As  for  the 
farmer,  in  a  sense  I  put  nothing  over  on 
him.  He  will  have  double  value  received 
—in  the  pictures  and  in  the  greater  pleas- 
ure that  is  in  store  for  him  by  taking  our 
line.  I  know  he  will  enjoy  his  trip  bet- 
ter, for  our  service  is  not  only  the  best, 
but  the  country  through  which  he  will  go 
is  the  most  attractive."  "But  I  do  not 
quite  see  yet,"  I  remarked  reflectively, 
"just  how  the  thing  was  made  to  veer 
your  way.  I  readily  see  why  the  farmer 
was  pleased,  but  what  was  the  subtlety 
that  turned  his  mind  in  favor  of  our 
line?"  "That's  rather  interesting,"  re- 
plied the  Rambler,  "and  is  a  case,  I 
imagine,  suitable  for  psychological  an- 
alysis by  an  expert.  Bill  says  he  did  not 
intimate  to  the  farmer  his  connection 
with  the  road,  and  that  the  farmer  did 
not  ask  him.  Neither  did  I  in  my  letter 
to  the  latter,  asking  him  to  meet  me  at 
the  train  to  get  the  pictures,  suggest  in 
any  way  how  I  happened  to  be  the  mes- 
senger as  between  Bill  and  himself. 
Really  I  don't  think  the  fact  that  Bill's 
being  a  railroad  man  entered  the  mind  of 
the  farmer  even  when  he  met  me  and  I 
gave  him  the  pictures.  You  may  be  sure 
I  did  not  volunteer  any  information  along 
that  line.  Nevertheless,"  remarked  the 
Rambler,  sententiously,  "I  wouldn't  for 
money  have  given  to  Mr.  Farmer  more 
than  that  one  minute  of  the  train's  stop 
on  that  particular  occasion.  On  his  re- 
ceipt ofv.the  pictures  I  practically  dropped 
out  of  ihis  mind,  which  was  as  I  wanted 
it,  from  then  on.  In  time,  hrowever,  by 
association,  .-the  fact  soaked  into  his 
mind  through  the  pictures  and  my  simply 
passing  them  to  him,  that  Bill  was  prob- 
ably associated  with  us ;  and  by  further 
association  a  warm  spot  was  opened  up 
in  his  heart  toward  our  road  itself,  this 
in  turn  culminating  in  his  eventually  feel- 
ing that  he  wanted  to  make  his  trip  our 
way.  It  was  all  a  trick  of  the  mind  with 


him,  and  he  does  not  probably  realize  to 
this  minute  just  why  he  altered  his 
plans." 

"That  reminds  me,"  the  Rambler  went 
on,  abruptly  changing  the  subject,  "what 
a  funny  thing  human  nature  sometimes 
is.  I  have  often  thought  that  i-ailroad 
men  see  a  phase  of  it  not  given  to 
others."  "You  find  it  rather  good  natured 
as  a  whole,  do  you  not?"  I  said,  inter- 
ested in  his  turn  of  thought.  "Yes,"  was 
the  response,  "it  is.  Of  course  we  have 
some  hard  cases  to  deal  with,  but  as  a 
rule  I  have  found  that  if  treated  fairly 
it  is  not  a  very  disagreeable  thing  to 
come  in  contact  with."  "Still,  it  takes 
some  funny  streaks  sometimes,  does  it 
not?"  I  suggested.  "That  depends  upon 
what  you  call  funny.  A  peculiar  case  in 
that  line  came  up  only  a  day  or  two  ago. 
Let's  go  to  lunch  together,"  he  said  as 
he  arose  to  depart,  "and  on  your  way  out 
stop  at  my  office  and  I  will  show  you 
the  correspondence  about  it.  That  will 
tell  the  story  better  than  I  can." 

That  noon  I  called  on  him  as  sug- 
gested, and  he  showed  me  a  report  that 
had  come  in  that  said  a  gentleman  had 
called  on  the  writer  of  the  report  telling 
of  the  loss  of  his  cane  on  our  Seminole 
Limited,  and  insisting  that  it  be  restored 
to  him.  The  loser  gave  specific  details  as 
to  all  his  movements  on  the  train  that 
would  help  locate  the  walking  stick.  He 
said  the  Pullman  porter  advised  that  he 
distinctly  remembered  having  seen  him 
carry  the  cane  aboard  the  train,  and  the 
porter  of  the  sun-parlor  observation  car 
recalled  having  seen  the  cane  on  his  arm 
while  in  that  car.  Hence,  according  to 
the  report,  the  gentleman  seemed  very 
much  put  out  about  the  entire  matter. 
The  cane  was  not  found,  however,  al- 
though the  regular  routine  was'  gone 
through  for  its  recovery.  "Based  on  the 
loser's  statement  and  his  insistence  upon 
its  recovery,  it  seemed  that  the  cane  was 
of  considerable  value  from  a  sentimental 
point  of  view,  aside  from  its  intrinsic 
value  and  possible  convenience.  Upon 
his  having  to  depart  for  his  home  with- 
out it,  therefore,  I  could  readily  imagine 
he  was  somewhat  peeved.  That  is,  the 
Rambler  pointed  out  that  probability 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


53 


after  I  had  read  the  original  report. 
"Now",  continued  the  Rambler,  "here's 
where  the  human  nature  comes  in,  and 
that  of  an  unusual  kind.  Read  this," 
and  he  handed  me  a  newspaper  clipping 
which  was  an  editorial  from  the  pen  of 
the  gentleman  who  had  reported  the  loss 
of  the  cane;  it  developing  that  he  and 
the  editor  of  the  paper  were  one  and  the 
same.  The  editorial  was  headed  "A 
Real  Good  Cane"  and  told  in  a  funny 
sort  of  a  way  of  a  supposed  loss,  but 
ended  up  with  "and  just  to  think  of  all 
that  trouble  having  been  raised  about  a 
perfectly  good  cane  that  had  remained 
at  home." 

"This  is  the  original  of  that  famous 
editorial,"  said  the  Rambler,  "which  you 
may  recall  was  published  under  its 
proper  caption  in  our  February  Maga- 
zine." He  laughed  heartily,  however, 
on  my  completing  the  reading  and  as  he 
closed  his  desk  said,  "Now  note  where 
the  human  nature  comes  in  in  this  case, 
although  I  will  admit  that  it  is  unusual. 
First  the  absent  mindedness  and  evident 
preoccupation  of  the  editor  in  imagining 
that  he  has  his  cane  at  all ;  next,  in  their 
anxiety  to  please,  the  undoubted  honest 
thought  on  the  part  of  the  porters  that 
they  had  seen  that  cane,  but  last  and  best 


of  all,  the  good  nature  and  fairness  of 
the  editor  himself  in  acknowledging  his 
own  error  and  that  the  joke  was  on  him." 
As  we  walked  to  the  club  together,  I 
recalled  Snap-Shot  Bill's  lead  fifty-cent 
piece  and  laughingly  told  the  Rambler 
about  it.  "Give  it  to  me!"  was  the  im- 
mediate demand.  "Of  course  I  know 
that  he  is  such  a  dreamer  that  he  would- 
n't know  whether  he  had  a  leather,  lead 
or  silver  fifty-cent  piece  as  long  as  he 
was  not  challenged,  so  I  have  nothing  on 
him  in  the  episode  that  is  necessarily  to 
his  discredit.  That  is,  he  evidently  had 
no  dishonest  intent  in  the  matter.  But  if 
I  don't  have  fun  with  him  and  hold  it 
over  his  head  for  all  the  pictures  I  want 
in  the  future  then  I  am  not  the  Rambler. 
Everything  helps,  you  know.  Even,"  he 
added  as  an  evident  after  thought,  "you 
helped  a  bit  in  that  farmer  campaign  in 
spite  of  yourself.  You  wrote  that  letter 
of  introduction  for  Bill,  you  know,"  he 
concluded  with  a  wink.  "Yes,"  he  re- 
peated, "every-thing  helps."  "I  may  be 
a  worm,  as  you  have  often  said  I  am,  but 
I  draw  the  line  at  being  called  a 
'thing',"  was  my  laughing  rejoinder  as 
we  passed  through  the  doorway  of  the 
club. 


riim  i    r 


TI  riJLi 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


The  following,  entitled  "A  Few  Sugges- 
tions From  One  in  the  Ranks,"  is  clipped 
from  the  Employees  Magazine  of  the  B.  R. 
&  P.  for  February. 

Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  what  a  notice- 
able improvement  in  general  appearance 
of  your  station  would  result  from  the  oc- 
casional use  of  a  damp  cloth  over  the 
enameled  public  notices  and  the  various 
others  which  are  covered  with  glass  and  a 
neat  frame?  Don't  overlook  the  clock. 

Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  much  bet- 
ter results  would  be  obtained  in  securing 
legible  tissue  impressions  "without  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing"  by  cutting  oil 
sheets,  full  size  of  the  tissue,  thereby  avoid- 
ing wetting  the  margin  of  unused  sheets? 

Did  you  ever  notice  that  copy  cloths 
which  have  become  "fishy"  produce  very 
poor  impressions? 

Did  you  ever  estimate  the  amount  of 
wasted  energy  and  annoyance  caused  by 
dragging  a  squeaking  express  truck  out  to 
trains,  when  a  few  drops  of  oil  once'  a 
month  would  correct  the  trouble? 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  think  that  an  un- 
tidy stove  with  scattered  coal  and  ashes 
affects  the  general  appearance  of  your  sta- 
tion, as  shabby  shoes  affect  the  appearance 
of  an  otherwise  well-dressed  man? 

Wouldn't  it.  be  of  profit  for  every  agent 
to  have  a  book  of  "information  wanted"  in 
which  to  make  record  of  such  matters  as 
are  not  entirely  clear  to  him?  You  know 
the  result  of  trusting  to  memory  until  such 
time  as  the  traveling  auditor  or  other  offi- 
cial happens  around. 

Don't  you  think  the  waiting  room  would 
look  much  neater  if  stove  pokers,  coal 
hods,  and  brooms  were  kept  out  of  sight? 

Do  you  suppose  our  officials  never  see 
anything  except  those  to  which  they  call 
attention?  Sometimes  attention  to  little 
details  opens  the  way  to  better  things. 


Mr.  Enos  Mills,  of  Colorado,  in  a  recent 
speech  before  the  Chicago  Association  of 
Commerce  on  the  subject  of  a  National 
Park  Service,  said  among  many  other  in- 
teresting things,  the  following: 

"Two  years  ago  the  Americans  are 
known  to  have  spent  abroad  in  one  year 
$350,000,000.  Much  of  this  was  spent  for 
scenery.  Most  of  what  was  spent  abroad 
was  spent  there  simply  because  Europe 
and  other  countries  have  gotten  ready  for 
travelers  to  spend  money. 

"It  is  time  to  change  the  slogan,  'See 
America  first.'  For  the  last  year  the  na- 
tional parks  were  simply  overrun.  There 


was  not  room  for  the  people  who  wanted  to 
see  them.  The  slogan  should  now  be.  'Get 
our  national  parks  ready  to  be  seen.' 

"Now,  travel  is  going  to  increase,  be- 
cause this  country  is  increasing  in  popula- 
tion and  wealth,  and  I  am  sure  you  gentle- 
men of  this  association  must  realize  with 
every  passing  day  that  you  yourself  and 
your  employes  must  have  a  vacation  in  the 
out-of-doors,  or  you  won't  make  good.  We 
must  have  fresh  air  and  inspiring  scenes. 
Hence  the  amount  spent  on  travel  is  going 
to  increase. 

"Supposing  these  national  parks  were  got 
ready,  would  it  not  help  American  business 
and  industry  to  have  $200,000,000  or  more 
left  in  this  country  each  year  instead  of 
going  out  of  it?  Just  as  certain  as  any- 
thing, gentlemen,  Americans  will  see  Amer- 
ica, if  you  get  it  ready  for  them  to  see. 
And  it  is  well  worth  seeing.  Many  of  the 
scenes  in  these  national  parks  cannot  be 
duplicated  anywhere  in  the  world.  So, 
knowing  good  things  as  American  people 
do,  they  will  go  to  them,  if  these  places 
are  made  ready  for  the  traveler." 


The    Panama-Pacific    International    Exposi- 
tion,  Office  of  the   President. 

February  12,  1916. 
My  dear  Mr.  Hatch: 

The  Panama-Pacific  International  Expo- 
sition was  a  wonderful  success.  While  its 
beauty  of  grounds  and  setting,  its  wonder- 
ful collection  of  exhibits  and  the  partici- 
pation of  so  many  foreign  countries  and 
domestic  states  made  it  an  artistic  and_  ed- 
ucational triumph,  it  could  not  have  b'een 
such  a  symmetrical  success  without  its 
enormous  attendance. 

Nearly  nineteen  million  persons  passed 
through  the  Exposition  gates.  This  great 
attendance,  far  exceeding  our  estimates, 
was  due  in  large  measure  to  the  almost 
unanimous  support  and  the  great  publicity 
given  by  the  railroads  of  this  country,  and 
to  the  enthusiastic  interest  manifested  by 
railroad  men. 

To  you,  as  a  railroad  man,  I  take  great 
pleasure  in  expressing  on  behalf  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  Exposition  their 
appreciation  of  your  unfailing  interest  and 
support,  which  they  realize  and  here  grate- 
fully acknowledge  as  a  most  effectual  con- 
tribution to  the  Exposition's  success. 

Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)   Chas.  C.  Moore,  President. 
CCm-B. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


55 


The    Manufacturers'    and    Wholesale    Mer- 
chants Board,  The  Cleveland  Chamber 

of  Commerce. 

Cleveland,   Ohio,   February  19,   1916. 
Mr.  Samuel  G.  Hatch, 

Passenger  Traffic  Mgr.,  111.  Cent.  R.  R., 

Chicago,  Illinois. 
Dear  Sir: 

You  doubtless  .are  familiar  with  the  fact 
that  a  party  of  nearly  a  hundred  members 
of  this  organization  recently  effected  a  trip 
to  Oklahoma  City,  Texas  points  and  New 
Orleans,  using  your  line  in  return  from 
the  latter. 

It  is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge 
the  entirely  satisfactory  handling  our 
party  received  and  to  express  appreciation 
of  the  many  courtesies  afforded  us.  Par- 
ticularly do  we  feel  called  upon  on  the  in- 
terest taken  in  our  affairs  by  your  Mr.  J. 
J.  McLane,  who  spared  no  effort  to  make 
our  trip  pleasant.  As  a  single  incident  in- 
dicating thoughtfulness  in  regard  to  our 
effort,  may  we  comment  on  the  fact  that 
our  party  observed  our  organization's  name 
on  the  menu  cards  in  connection  with  the 
dining  car  service,  which  service  was  be- 
yond criticism,  and  we  should  be  glad  to 
have  you  so  state  to  those  having  its  man- 
agement in  hand. 

Very  respectfully, 

CSiened)  Samuel  R.  Mason,  Secretary. 
SRM-Q. 


The  dedication  of  San  Diego's  Exposi- 
tion has  been  set  for  Saturday,  March  18. 
The  informal  opening  came  on  New 
Year's,  but  the  two  months  and  a  half  are 
necessary  for  the  installation  of  foreign 
exhibits  (sixteen  foreign  nations  exhibit- 
ing), construction  of  new  buildings  and 
reorganization  of  the  Isthmus,  which 
houses  Exposition  amusements. 

The  author  of  "Curfew  Shall  Not  Ring 
Tonight."  Mrs.  Rose  Hartwick  Thorpe, 
has  written  the  poem  invitation  for  the 
Panama-California  International  Exposi- 
tion. Mrs.  Thorpe,  who  now  lives  in  San 
Diego,  and  who  is  engaged  in  writing  a 
novel,  sent  the  following  charming  verse 
to  President  G.  A.  Davidson,  of  the  Expo- 
sition, a  few  days  ago: 

A  Dream  City  on  the  hills  of  Balboa 
A  vine-covered  city  of  magical  art. 
Her   flower   gemmed   garments   of   emerald 

splendor 
Sprang   lush    from    the    fount    of   Earth's 

generous  heart. 
She  sits  like  a  queen  on  her  high  throne  of 

beauty 
Her  glance  reaching  far  to  the  west  and 

the  east, 
On   the   sun-crowned   mesa   her  banquet  is 

waiting — 

She  graciously  beckons  the  world  to  the 
feast. 

— Rose  Hartwick  Thorpe. 


THE   MAN   OF   CHEER. 

I  don't  know  how  he  is  on  the  creeds, 

I  never  heard  him  say; 
But  he's  got  a  smile  that  fits  his  face, 

And  he  wears  it  every  day. 

If  things  go  wrong,  he  doesn't  complain — 

Just  tries  to  see  the  joke. 
He's  always  finding  little  ways 

Of  helping  other  folk. 

He  sees  the  good  in  everyone, 
Their  faults  he  never  mentions; 

He  has  a  lot  of  confidence 
In  people's  good  intentions. 

You'll  soon  forget  what  ails  you 

When  you  happen  'round  this  man; 
He  can  cure  a  case  of  hypo 

Quicker  than  a  doctor  can. 

i 
No  matter  if  the  sky  is  gray, 

You  get  his  point  of  view, 
And  the  clouds  begin  to  scatter 

And  the  sun  comes  breaking  through. 

You'll  find  him  if  you  meet  him, 
And  you'll  find  it  worth  your  while 

To  cultivate  the  friendship  of 
The  man  behind  the  smile. 

— Progress  Magazine. 

The  monthly  bulletin  of  the  C.  M.  &  St. 
P.  for  February,  in  a  write-up  of  a  motion 
picture  reel  of  the  electric  locomotive  in 
use  on  its  through  trains  over  the  moun- 
tains, has  the  following  paragraph  that 
will  probably  appeal  to  the  old  railroader: 

"As  one  watches  the  triumphal  test  of 
the  electric  locomotive  as  flashed  on  the 
canvas,  one  would  be  unemotional  indeed 
not  to  feel  a  pang  of  regret  at  this  defeat 
and  displacement  of  the  steam  locomotive. 
The  great  commercial  strides  and  develop- 
ment of  this  country  and  the  growth  and 
romance  of  railroads  are  inseparably  in- 
terwoven with  the  steam  locomotive.  It 
began  with  the  wood-burner  whose  chief 
distinguishing  mark  was  the  flaring  smoke- 
stack. This  type  of  engine  was  succeeded 
by  the  more  powerful  coal-burner  which 
has  by  evolution  today  become  the  most 
interesting  piece  of  machinery  in  operation, 
but  the  successful  demonstration  of  the 
more  powerful  electric  locomotive  foretells 
the  decline  of  the  steam  engine." 


Under  date  of  February  15th,  Mr.  Geo. 
D.  Hunter,  general  passenger  agent  of  the 
Texas  &  Pacific  Railway  Co.,  advises  us  as 
follows:  "Effective  February  15th.  our 
trains  began  operating  into  the  Trans- 
Mississiooi  Terminals  at  New  Orleans, 
and  schedules  were  readjusted  enabling  us 
to  connect  with  your  morning-  trains  out 
of  New  Orleans,  which,  I  feel  confident, 
will  result  in  a  considerable  increase  in 


56 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


travel  through  the  New  Orleans  gateway, 
and  will  be  of  considerable  benefit  to  your 
line,  as  well  as  our  own."  Trains  of  the 
T.  &  P.  leave  New  Orleans  westbound  for 
Donaldsonville  at  6:35  A.M.,  12:30  P.M., 
4:45  P.M.,  9:45  P.M.;  for  Alexandria  at 
6:35  A.M.,  12:30  P.M.  and  9:45  P.M.,  and 
for  Shreveport,  Marshall,  Longview  Junc- 
tion, Dallas,  Fort  Worth  and  El  Paso  at 
12:30  P.  M.  and  9:45  P.  M. 


A  new  Union  Passenger  Terminal,  to  be 
occupied  by  the  Pennsylvania,  the  Burling- 
ton, the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul, 
and  the  Chicago  &  Alton  railroads,  is  now 
being  erected  in  Chicago.  It  is  claimed  that 
the  structure  is  conceived  on  a  most  mag- 
nificent scale,  equaling  in  general  scope  as 
well  as  in  detail,  the  finest  examples  of 
modern  railway  stations  in  the  world.  It 
is  expected  it  will  be  ready  for  occupancy 
in  the  summer  of  1919.  Its  cost,  it  is 
stated,  will  be  approximately  sixty  million 
dollars. 


Mrs.  Norah  Mulvaney  one  day  met  her 
friend,  Mrs.  Bridget  Carr,  who  had  in  her 
arms  her  twelfth  child. 

"Arrah  now,  Bridget,"  said  Norah,  "an" 
there  ye  are  wid  another  little  Carr  in  yer 
arms." 

"Another  it  is,  Mrs.  Mulvaney,"  replied 
her  friend,  "an'  it's  me  that's  hopin'  'tis  the 
caboose." — S.  P.  Co.  Bulletin. 


AN  ACROSTIC 

By  F.  P.  Redman,  Commercial  Agent, 
Dallas,  Texas. 

In  your  efforts  to  find  a 
Line   that   will   handle   your   business 
Look  up  schedules  of  [right 

Illinois  Central  R.  R. 
None  give  better  service 
Or  any  more  attention  to 
Important  business  or  give  more 
Satisfaction  to  its  patrons. 

Cars  are  new  and  latest  pattern ; 
Engines  unequaled  on  any  road. 
Nothing  left  undone 
To  satisfy  the  most  exacting. 
Rates  are  low  as  any  route. 
Always  looking  to  please  patrons. 
Let  us  do  business  with  you? 

Respectfully, 
Redman. 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Employment  of  Men 

By  W.  Atwill,  Supt. 


T  AM  a  firm  believer  in  railroads  em- 
•*•  ploying  men  who  reside  in  towns 
along  their  line  or  relatives  of  men  who 
are  already  in  their  employ. 

The  man  who  is  roaming  around  with 
no  well  defined  place  of  residence  and 
whom  upon  questioning  is  found  to  have 
worked  at  a  number  of  trades  in  different 
places  and  shows  every  indication  of  un- 
settledness  should  not  be  employed.  In 
variably,  they  have  no  immediately  avail- 
able funds,  are  improperly  and  insuffi- 
ciently clothed  and  in  no  condition  or 
frame  of  mind  to  properly  perform  the 
tasks  or  duties  assigned  them,  and  when 
business  falls  off,  leave,  never  to  return. 
The  welfare  and  interests  of  the  railroad 
are  not  theirs,  they  are  unreliable  and  ir- 
responsible. On  the  other  hand,  sons, 
brothers  or  other  close  relatives  of  those 
already  in  the  employ  or  young  men 
from  towns  along  the  line  of  road  are  the 
most  desirable.  Frequently  they  come  to 
the  railroad  with  a  good  knowledge  of  its 
requirements  and  responsibilities,  having 
been  coached  by  the  father  or  brother  or 
friend  or  have  unconsciously  acquired 
their  knowledge  from  many  years  of  con- 
versation or  association.  They  have  an 


interest  in  the  railroad,  probably  have  as 
boys  anxiously  looked  forward  to  the 
time  when  their  age  would  permit  them 
to  enter  its  employ;  are  always  well  and 
suitably  clothed,  are  able  to  provide  them- 
selves with  a  standard  watch  if  necessary 
to  have  one,  and  during  business  depres- 
sions have  a  home  and  oftentimes  a  trade 
or  position  to  fall  back  on  until  their 
services  are  again  required  or  they  have 
regular  employment. 

The  employment  of  such  men  attaches 
many  others,  relatives  and  acquaintances 
to  the  railroad  directly  and  indirectly, 
and  undoubtedly  brings  about  a  better 
feeling1  towards  the  railroads  in  the 
towns  along  its  line  and  an  increase  in 
business. 

Eventually  a  force  is  built  up  whose 
interest  is  wholly  with  the  railroad,  re- 
liable, responsible  men,  understanding 
the  methods  of  the  company  in  whose 
employ  they  are,  that  is  of  inestimable 
value. 

The  annual  "turnover"  in  men  on  a 
railroad  represents  a  loss  that  is  difficult 
of  estimation,  which  can  be  saved  by 
using  care  in  the  selection  of  new  em- 
ployes. 


The  1916  Meeting  of  the  American  Association  of 
Railroad  Superintendents 


THE  Executive  and  Advisory  Committee 
of  the  American  Association  of  Rail- 
road Superintendents  at  a  recent  meeting 
in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  selected  Memphis,  Term., 
as  the  place  for  the  1916  annual  meeting 
of  the  Association.  The  dates  are  August 
16,  17  and  18,  inclusive.  Mr.  W.  S.  Wil- 


liams, Superintendent  of  the  St.  Louis  Di- 
vision, is  First  Vice-President  of  this  As- 
sociation and  Mr.  J.  M.  Walsh,  Terminal 
Superintendent  at  Memphis.  Tenn.,  is  Vice- 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Train 
Rules. 


57 


the 


/ 

Biographical  Sketch  No.  20 


HON.  CORNELIUS  V.  GWIN 

District  Attorney  at  Chicago,  III.,    1890-1898.     By  His  Successor, 

Mr.  John  G.  Drennan 

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ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


59 


Hon.  Cornelius  V.  Gwin,  District 
Attorney  at  Chicago,  111.  1890-1898. 

By  his  successor,  Mr.  John  G.  Dren- 
nan. 

Mr.  Cornelius  V.  Gwin  was  born  at 
Lexington,  Miss,  on  December  19, 
1846,  and  died  in  Chicago,  111.,  on  June 
21,  1898.  He  was  local  attorney  for 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
from  1886  to  1889,  at  Lexington,  Miss, 
and  district  attorney  at  Chicago,  111., 
until  his  death. 

When  he  was  about  fifteen  years  of 
age  he  enlisted  as  a  Private  in  the  Con- 
federate Army,  and  served  through- 
out the  war  in  the  Cavalry  of  the  in- 
domitable General  Forrest.  His  older 
brother  was  an  officer  in '  the  same 
army.  While  he  was  in  practically 
all  of  the  battles  in  which  Forrest  was 
engaged,  he  escaped  without  injury. 
He  seldom  talked  of  his  service  in  the 
army,  but  when  he  did  his  conversa- 
tion was  most  interesting.  On  one 
occasion  he  talked  with  the  writer  of 
his  experience  in  the  noted  battle  at 
what  is  known  as  B  rice's  Cross  Roads. 
The  Cross  Roads  was  the  strategical 
point  that  the  Federals  and  Confeder- 
ates ere  each  trying  to  reach  first. 
General  Forrest  remarked,  as  he  was 
leading  his  troops,  that  his  Cavalry 
was  superior  to  the  Federals ;  that  he 
would  defeat  the  Federal  Cavalry ;  that 
the  Federal  Infantry  on  hearing  the 
firing  would  run  themselves  down  in 
their  endeavor  to  reach  the  battle 
ground,  and  therefore  after  defeating 
the  Cavalry  they  would  ride  over  the 
Federal  Infantry  as  they  would  over 
a  gang  of  sheep.  Mr.  Gwin  remarked 
that  it  was  the  hottest  battle  he  was 
ever  in  and  that  his  clothes  were 
actually  pierced  by  Federal  bullets 
seventeen  times  in  one  instance  the 
bullet  passing  between  his  underwear 
and  the  skin,  but  did  not  draw  blood. 

Gwin  remarked  to  the  writer  that  he 
believed  General  Forrest's  brother, 
Will,  as  he  was  called,  was  the  most 
fearless  and  reckless  man  he  ever 
knew,  and  that  even  his  own  men 
avoided  him  for  fear  of  an  altercation. 
Mr.  Gwin's  early  education  was  care- 


fully attended  to  by  wealthy  parents 
and  under  the  supervision  of  private 
tutors ;  and,  as  the  writer  recollects, 
General  Sooey  Smith  was  one  of  his 
private  tutors  prior  to  the  war. 

After  the  war,  Mr.  Gwin  studied 
law;  was  admitted  to  the  Bar,  and 
with  his  older  brother,  above  men- 
tioned, engaged  in  the  practice  at 
Lexington,  Miss. 

Mr.  Gwin  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Missis- 
sippi, and  held  that  position  at  a  time 
when  the  silver  craze  passed  along 
during  the  early  Cleveland  administra- 
tion. The  great  Lamar  was  Senator 
from  the  State  of  Mississippi.  A  free 
silver  member  of  the  State  Legislature 
introduced  a  resolution  which  was 
passed  with  but  one  dissenting  vote, 
and  that  dissenting  vote  was  Gwin. 
The  resolution  instructed  Senator  La- 
mar  to  vote  with  the  free  silver  ad- 
vocates, which  Lamar  very  properly 
refused  to  do.  In  stating  his  reasons 
for  not  voting  in  favor  of  the  resolu- 
tion, Mr.  Gwin  in  substance  said:  "Mr. 
Lamar  is  our  Senator.  He  is  one  of 
the  brainiest  men  that  the  State  .of 
Mississippi  has  ever  produced.  He 
has  given  his  life  to  studying  this 
class  of  questions.  He  knows  more 
about  the  subject  matter  than  all  the 
members  of  the  house,  and  therefore  he 
would  regard  it  as  impudent  for  the 
members  of  the  House,  and  therefore 
State  of  Mississippi  to  attempt  to  in- 
struct the  Senator  on  a  subject  which 
thev  knew  nothing  about,  and  there- 
fore he  voted  "NO." 

Mr.  Gwin  moved  from  Lexington, 
Miss.,  to  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  where  he  was 
practicing  law  when  the  former  Gen- 
eral Solicitor  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company,  Hon.  James  Fen- 
tress,  appointed  him  Local  Attorney 
at  Chicago,  which  position  he  held  for 
a  time,  and  he  was  then  made  Dis- 
trict Attorney.  Mr.  Gwin  became  con- 
nected with  the  Railroad  Company  at 
a  time  when  the  lake  front  litieation 
was  at  its  height ;  took  a  prominent 
part  in  shaping  the  result  of  this  litiga- 
tion; had  to  do  with  the  compromise 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


61 


ordinance  between  the  Swift  admini- 
stration of  the  City  of  Chicago  and 
the  Illinois  Central,  which  settled  for 
all  time  the  question  in  dispute  be- 
tween the  City  and  the  Railroad  Com- 
pany from  the  Chicago  River  to  16th 
Street,  and  which  gave  the  City  the 
prospective  Lake  Front  Park.  Mr. 
Gwin  also  had  to  do  with  the  litiga- 


tion growing  out  of  the  track  elevation, 
and  the  litigation  growing  out  of  the 
famous  A.  R.  U.  strike  of  1894,  in  all 
of  which  he  acquitted  himself  with 
credit.  He  was  a  natural-born  leader;  a 
thorough  scholar,  and  a  magnificent 
lawyer,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  opinions 
and  briefs  which  he  has  left  behind 
him. 


Some  of  the  Things  Reported  to  Congress  by  the 

Interstate   Commerce   Commission  in  Its 

Annual  Report  for  1915 


In  general — In  its  29th  annual  re- 
port to  Congress  for  the  year  ended 
October  31,  1915,  the  Commission  says, 
among  other  things,  that  its  work  con- 
tinues to  increase  in  volume  due  es- 
pecially to  the  greater  scope  and  in- 
tricacy of  the  problems  presented  and 
investigated;  that  of  the  905  formal 
cases  decided,  198  were  argued  orally, 
consuming  103  days  of  sittings;  that 
the  Commission  has  employed  some 
45  Examiners  to  conduct  the  hearings, 
digest  testimony,  analyze  exhibits  and 
otherwise  assist  in  assembling  the  per- 
tinent facts  necessary  to  reach  a  deci- 
sion ;  and  that  the  rate  structures  be- 
tween various  communities  are  now 
more  often  the  subject  of  complaint 
than  in  earliers  years. 

Classification  Committees'  work—- 
The Commission  says :  The  Western 
Classification  Committee  as  now  con- 
stituted has  been  in  continuous  session 
for  21  months,  a  sufficient  length  of 
time  to  demonstrate  the  practicability 
of  freight  classification  in  the  hands  of 
a  limited  committee  whose  duties  are 
entirely  confined  to  classification,  and 
whose  members  represent  no  particular 
line  or  lines  and  are  not  interested  in 
soliciting  traffic.  During  the  past  year 
the  Committee  has  effected  arrange- 
ments with  various  western  state  rail- 
road commissions  to  accept  and  adopt 
the  Western  Classification  for  state 
traffic,  effective  upon  the  same  date 


that  it  is  applicable  upon  interstate 
traffic,  thus  keeping  intrastate  and  in- 
terstate shippers  on  a  parity.  Further 
negotiations  are  in  progress,  and  with 
the  exception  of  four  states,  the  West- 
ern Classification  is  applicable  intra- 
state in  Western  Classification  terri- 
tory. The  Official  Classification  Com- 
mittee is  to  be  re-organized  along  the 
same  lines  upon  which  the  Western  is 
organized.  The  Southern  Classifica- 
tion Committee  holds  fewer  meetings 
than  either  of  the  other  committees. 
On  October  18,  1915,  the  Southern 
Classification  contained  3,392  less  than 
carload  ratings,  2,577  carload  ratings, 
and  3,505  any-quantity  ratings. 

Carriers'  accounts — The  underlying 
principles  of  the  uniform  system  of  ac- 
counts for  the  several  classes  of  car- 
riers are  now  well  established,  and  it 
is  believed  that  no  extensive  revision 
of  the  classifications  will  be  required 
for  some  years  to  come.. Material  prog- 
ress has  been  made  toward  standard- 
ization of  accounting  prectice. 

Effective  July  1,  1915,.  an  order  was 
made  requiring  all  the  carriers  having 
operating  revenues  in  excess  of  $1,000,- 
000  to  classify  each  of  its  various  items 
of  disbursements  relating  to  operating 
accounts,  according  to  the  relation 
which  the  certain  item  bears  to  the 
freight  service  or  to  the  passenger  and 
allied  services  of  the  carrier,  rules  be- 
ing given  for  apportioning  items  of 


62 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


expense  common  to  both  classes  of 
service,  except  as  to  certain  items  un- 
der maintenance  of  ways  and  struc- 
tures, which  are  for  the  present  left 
undivided.  The  data  resulting  from 
this  order  will  not  be  available  until 
after  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  ended 
in  1916.  It  is  expected  that  this  class 
of  information  will  be  of  assistance,  not 
only  in  rate  cases,  but  also  in  making 
comparisons  of  changes  in  operating 
costs  from  year  to  year  and  among 
various  railroads  in  a  given  year. 

Clayton  Act — The  Commission 
directs  attention  to  Section  10  of  this 
Act  to  become  effective  October  15, 
1916,  which  provides  that  in  instances 
where  the  carrier  and  a  corporation 
from  which  the  carrier  purchases  sup- 
plies have  offices  in  common,  the  car- 
rier may  not  purchase  supplies  from 
such  corporation  in  excess  of  $50,000 
in  any  one  year,  except  under  com- 
petitive bidding  conducted  under  reg- 
ulations provided  by  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  and  the  sec- 
tion provides  penalties  for  violation  of 
this  requirement.  The  Commission 
says  that  this  new  enactment  is  cal- 
culated to  correct  serious  abuses  which 
the  criminal  provisions  of  the  Com- 
merce Act  and  the  Elkins  Act  could 
not  reach. 

Leases — Attention  is  also  directed 
to  the  fact  that  violations  of  the  Elkins 
Act  may  result  from  leases  made  by 
a  carrier  to  a  shipper  at  less  than  a 
fair  rental,  as  announced  in  Union 
Stock  Yards  Case,  226  U.  S.,  286,  and 
in  Hirsch  Case,  204  Fed.  Rep.,  849.  A 
tendency  of  carriers  to  revise  all  of 
their  leases  to  avoid  granting  conces- 
sions to  shippers  in  this  indirect  way 
has  been  observed.  Nevertheless,  in- 
vestigations in  widely  scattered  sec- 
tions of  the  country  have  disclosed 
numerous  instances  where  carriers 
have  permitted  leases  to  continue 
which,  in  the  light  of  these  decisions, 
are  clearly  unlawful.  Certain  of  these 
cases  have  been  recommended  for 
prosecution,  and  others  are  under  re- 
view. 

Freight  claims  against  carriers — Of 


all  claims  presented  during  the  calen- 
dar year  1914,  against  steam  railroad 
carriers  in  the  United  States,  each  hav- 
ing revenue  exceeding  $1,000,000  per 
year,  48.36  per  cent  in  number  were 
settled  within  15  days  from  their  pres- 
entation ;  more  than  65  per  cent  were 
adjusted  within  30  days  from  their 
presentation,  and  all  but  6  per  cent 
were  settled  within  120  days.  From 
these  figures,  it  appears  that  much 
progress  has  been  made  by  carriers  in 
the  matter  of  handling  claims,  and 
there  are  reasons  for  believing  that 
their  claims  departments  are  now  or- 
ganized on  a  more  efficient  basis  than 
formerly. 

With  respect  to  risks  involved  in 
the  transportation  of  particular  com- 
modities, as  well  as  the  causes  which 
were  assigned  by  the  carriers  for  the 
loss  and  damage,  the  Commission  gives 
the  following  data,  which  are  intended 
to  be  helpful  in  the  efforts  now  being 
made  to  minimize  waste  by  improving 
the  general  conditions  respecting  mark- 
ing, packing  and  handling  of  freight, 
and  to  secure  the  adoption  of  measures 
by  which  the  causes  of  claims  may  be 
abated :  Unlocated  loss  of  entire  pack- 
age 15.92  per  cent;  other  unlocated 
loss,  7.79  per  cent;  robbery,  6  per 
cent;  rough  handling  of  cars,  13.4  per 
cent ;  defective  equipment,  10.8  per 
cent ;  wrecks,  6.47  per  cent ;  delays, 
6.75  per  cent ;  unlocated  damage,  20.9 
per  cent. 

The  commodities  bearing  the  larger 
relative  amounts  paid  on  23  classified 
commodities,  the  24th  being  all  others, 
appear  in  the  following  order:  Grain, 
8.39  per  cent;  fresh  fruitr,  and  vege- 
tables, 8.3  per  cent ;  live  stock,  6.8  per 
cent;  clothing,  dry  goods  and  notions, 
6.7  per  cent;  furniture  (new),  5  per 
cent ;  groceries,  4.4  per  cent. 

Posting  of  tariffs — agent's  duty — Ef- 
fective July  15,  1915,  the  Commission 
ordered  that  every  carrier  subject  to 
the  Act  is  required  to  have  its  agent, 
at  every  station  where  tariffs  must  be 
posted,  upon  receipt  of  a  tariff  or  sup- 
plement for  file  or  for  posting  at  that 
station,  immediately  write  or  stamp 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


63 


upon  the  title  page  thereof  the  date 
upon  which  it  was  received  by  such 
agent  or  other  representative,  and  to 
keep  and  preserve  a  separate  record 
by  ICC  numbers  and  supplement  num- 
bers of  the  receipt  of  each  tariff  or 
supplement  to  a  tariff,  showing  the 
date  received  and  the  date  posted  at 
that  station. 

Recommendations — The  Commission 
recommends  to  Congress,  (a)  that  the 
variety  and  volume  of  the  Commis- 
sion's work  necessitates  early  enlarge- 
ment of  its  membership  and  express 
statutory  authority  to  act  through  sub- 
divisions designated  by  the  Commis- 
sion to  perform  its  duties  with  regard 
to  specified  subjects;  (b)  that  the  pe- 


riod for  the  beginning  of  all  actions 
relating  to  transportation  charges  sub- 
ject to  the  Act  should  be  fixed  at  three 
years;  (c)  that  Section  20  of  the  Act, 
according  the  Commission  right  of  ac- 
cess to  accounts,  records  and  memo- 
randa kept  by  carriers,  be  amended  so 
as  to  also  accord  right  of  access  to 
the  carriers'  correspondence  files;  (d) 
that  there  should  be  appropriate  and 
adequate  legislation  on  the  subject  of 
control  of  railway  capitalization ;  (e) 
that  the  minimum  penalty  for  violation 
of  the  Hours  of  Service  Act  be  fixed 
at  $100 ;  that  the  use  of  steel  cars  in 
passenger  train  service  be  required, 
and  that  the  use  in  passenger  trains 
of  wooden  cars  between  or  in  front  of 
steel  cars  be  prohibited. 


What  Next  in  Railroad  Regulation 

Synopsis  of  an  Address  Delivered  Before  the  Transportation  Club  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  by 

General  Solicitor  Blewett  Lee 


13  AILROAD  regulation  in  the  United 
States  is  not  working  well.  Some 
states  have  two-cent  fare  laws  where  it 
costs  three  cents  to  carry  a  passenger. 
Some  states,  through  their  railroad  com- 
missions, are  taxing  the  borrowing  of 
money  by  railroads,  to  be  expended  for 
improvements  in  others  states.  One  rail- 
road commission  has  created  a  protective 
tariff  to  keep  out  merchants  residing  in 
other  states.  In  some  states  excessive 
taxes  are  imposed,  the  burden  of  which 
falls  upon  the  citizens  of  other  states, 
collected  in  the  form  of  freight  bills.  The 
next  thing  in  railroad  regulation  should 
be  exclusive  regulation  by  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  in  all  cases 
where  a  national  uniform  rule  is  possible 
or  desirable.  State  regulation  should  be 
confined  to  local  matters  in  which  a  uni- 
form rule  is  not  desirable;  indeed,  it 
would  be  better  to  have  national  regula- 
tion exclusively.  There  should  be  na- 
tional incorporation  of  interstate  carriers, 
with  federal  legislation  protecting  them 
from  being  discriminated  against  in  state 
taxation.  There  should  be  national  rail- 


roads, just  as  there  are  national  banks. 
As  it  is,  the  burden  of  excessively 
low  intra-state  rates,  excessively  high 
state  taxes,  and  excessively  expensive 
state  laws  controlling  the  operation  of 
railroads,  falls  upon  interstate  com- 
merce and  makes  interstate  rates  higher 
than  they  ought  to  be.  The  railroad 
systems  which  have  been  forced  into  the 
hands  of  receivers  by  excessive  regula- 
tion now  find  that  there  can  be  no  reor- 
ganization without  the  consent  of  the 
railroad  commissions  of  various  states, 
and  that  there  is  no  way  to  get  these  rail- 
road commissions  to  agree  upon  a  re- 
organization plan.  Railroads  cannot  bor- 
row money,  except  with  the  consent  of 
numerous  state  railroad  commissions, 
whose  policies  may  not  agree.  State 
laws  governing  the  operation  of  railroads 
have  the  effect  of  controlling  railroad  ac- 
tion beyond  state  lines.  Since  operating 
divisions  cross  state  lines,  clearances  re- 
quired by  one  state  must  also  be  pro- 
vided in  the  adjacent  states.  In  1915 
there  were  137  state  laws  passed  control- 
ling the  operation  of  railroads  by  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


different  states.  These  statutes  conflict 
with  each  other.  Some  of  them  have 
been  passed  to  force  the  railroads  to  em- 
ploy unnecessary  men.  Railroad  regula- 
tion has  practically  put  an  end  to  the 
building  of  railroads  in  the  United  States. 
In  Canada  the  conditions  are  much  bet- 
ter, because  their  railroads  are  regulated 
by  only  one  commission  and  one  legisla- 
tive body  at  a  time,  and  the  Provinces  do 
not  have  control  over  federal  railroads. 
The  system  works  well,  and  we  should 
have  it  in  the  United  States.  Our  ex- 
perience is  that  federal  regulation  is  very 
much  more  successful  than  state  regula- 
tion. Railroads  have  become  national 
institutions.  We  have  had  state  railroad 
commissions  since  1844.  The  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  has  had  rate 
making  powers  only  since  1906.  Ex- 
perience has  already  demonstrated  that 
federal  regulation  is  adequate,  and  that 
state  regulation  is  not.  Only  in  national 
regulation  are  the  owners  of  the  railroads 


represented;  in  state  regulation  they 
practically  have  no  voice  at  all.  Federal 
authority,  once  exercised  over  foreign 
and  interstate  commerce,  is  exclusive. 
Under  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  Congress 
has  power  at  any  time  to  make  national 
regulation  of  railroads  exclusive.  The 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  should 
be  given  power  to  authorize  agreements 
between  competing  railroads  regarding 
services  or  rates,  or  for  improvement  of 
the  public  service.  The  nation  should 
control  the  amount  of  wages  paid  by 
railroads  to  their  employes,  as  well  as 
the  rates  upon  which  the  wages  must 
depend.  Unless  the  railroad  business  is 
allowed  to  earn  sufficient  money  to  at- 
tract additional  capital,  the  business  of 
the  country  will  shortly  be  choked  by 
lack  of  railroad  facilities.  Regulating  a 
railroad  is  like  regulating  a  clock;  only 
one  person  should  do  it 'at  a  time;  that 
person  should  be  Uncle  Sam. 


The  Canadian  Plan  of  Railroad  Regulation 


r\  NE  of  the  worst  curses  from  which 
^^^  the  railroad  companies  are  suffer- 
ing today  is  the  discordant  character  of 
the  orders  of  the  federal  and  state  rail- 
road commissions.  Perhaps  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  has  been 
convinced  by  the  railroad  companies  that 
a  certain  interstate  rate  should  be  in- 
creased. The  action  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  is  immediately 
paralyzed  by  the  state  commission  in  re- 
fusing to  allow  the  increase  of  a  com- 
peting intra-state  rate,  so  that  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  the  state  commission 
vetoes  the  order  of  the  interstate  com- 
mission. 

The  experience  of  having  both  the  state 
and  the  federal  governments  regulate 
rates  has  resulted  in  showing  that  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  and 
state  commissions  pull  in  opposite  di- 
rections, and  that  the  state  commissions 
pull  one  against  the  other,  until,  in  the 
present  state  of  the  law,  we  get  nowhere ; 
instead,  we  have  confusion  worse,  con- 
founded, a  situation  which  has  taken 


away  to  a  great  extent  the  power  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  to 
grant  relief,  when  it  is  so  disposed. 

The  effective  work  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  upon  rates  begins 
after  the  Hepburn  Act  of  June  29,  1906. 
From  this  point  of  view  it  is  interesting 
to  compare  the  effect  of  regulation  upon 
railway  mileage  of  the  two  countries  of 
Canada  and  the  United  States  since  the 
working  of  the  Hepburn  Act.  The  fol- 
lowing table  of  railroad  mileage  in  the 
two  countries  will  be  found  of  interest: 
Canada  United  States 

1904  19,431      212,577 

1905  20,487      217,018 

1906  21,353      222,575 

1907  22,452      227,671 

1908  22,966      230,494 

1909  24,104      236,868 

1910  24,731  .    240,438 

1911  25,400      244,180 

1912  '      26,727      246,816 

1913  29,304      249,630 

1914  30,795      252,959 


65 


Increase 

in  10  years,         11,431  40,282 

Per  cent 

increase  59. 9  %  18.9% 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  the  percent- 
age of  increase  has  been  very  much 
greater  in  Canada  than  on  our  side  of  the 
line.  Another  interesting  feature  of  the 
situation  is  that  while  in  the  United 
States  we  have  something  like  390  in- 
habitants to  every  mile  of  railway,  they 
have  only  266 ;  in  other  words,  2  people 
in  Canada  have  as  much  railroad  mileage 
to  their  credit  as  3  in  the  United  States. 

We  do  not  pretend  that  railway  regula- 
tion in  Canada  is  ideal.  Although  the 
commissioners  hold  office  for  life,  and 
the  head  of  the  commission  receives  a 
salary  of  $15,000  a  year,  they  are  not 
free  from  human  frailties  altogether. 
The  point  is  that  under  the  system  of 
regulation  prevailing  in  Canada  the  con- 
struction of  railways  has  been  proceed- 
ing more  than  three  times  as  fast  as  it 
has  in  the  United  States,  and  this  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  United  States 
had,  and  still  has,  great  undeveloped 
areas. 

By  the  British  North  America  Act  of 
1867,  it  is  provided  in  Section  92,  re- 
lating to  the  exclusive  powers  of  Pro- 
vincial Legislatures,  that  they  may  make 
laws  in  relation  to  matters  coming  within 
the  class,  amongst  others,  of : 

"10.  Local  Works  and  Undertakings 
other  than  such  as  are  of  the  following 
classes : 

a.  Lines  of  steam  or  other  ships,  rail- 
ways, canals,  telegraphs,  and  other  works 
and   undertakings,    connecting   the   pro- 
vince with  any  other   or  others   of  the 
provinces,  or  extending  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  provinces. 

b.  Lines  of  steam  ships  between  the 
province    and    any    British    or    foreign 
country. 

c.  Such    works,    as    although    wholly 
situate  within  the  province,  are  before 
or  after  their  execution  declared  by  the 
Parliament  of  Canada  to  be  for  the  gen- 
eral advantage  of  Canada  or  for  the  ad- 
vantage    of     two     or     more     of     the 
provinces." 

By  the  previous  section  of  the  same 


act  the  Dominion  Parliament  is  given  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  over  such  classes  of 
subjects  as  are  expressly  excepted  in 
the  enumeration  of  the  classes  of  sub- 
jects by  this  act  assigned  exclusively  to 
the  legislatures  of  the  provinces. 

It  will  be  observed,  therefore,  that  in 
Canada,  as  soon  as  a  carrier  becomes 
what  we  would  call  an  interstate  line,  it 
slips  into  the  class  of  undertakings  which 
are  regulated  exclusively  by  the  federal 
government.  Indeed  most  of  the  im- 
portant Canadian  lines  operate  under 
charters  granted  by  the  Dominion  Par- 
liament. The  result  is  a  class  of  federal 
railways  which  are  within  the  exclusive 
regulation  of  the  general  government,  as 
distinguished  from  small  or  local  rail- 
ways which,  until  they  are  declared  by 
the  Parliament  •  of  Canada  to  be  in  the 
federal  class,  are  subject  only  to  the  pro- 
vinces in  which  they  are  respectively 
situated. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  sim- 
ple and  clear  system  by  which  there  is 
but  one  regulating  body  at  a  time  for  a 
railway  company.  There  is  no  clashing 
of  jurisdictions,  the  questions  in  each 
case  being  decided  by  the  kind  of  rail- 
way concerned,  whether  the  physical 
structure  or  railroad  itself  is  a  federal 
railway  or  a  provincial  one.  Our  breth- 
ren across  the  border  have  dealt  with  the 
matter  in  a  way  that  reflects  great  credit 
upon  their  intelligence.  It  remains  only 
for  Congress  to  say  when  the  regulation 
of  railway  companies  in  the  United 
States  shall  be  placed  upon  a  like  clear 
and  effective  basis.  Why  not  have  fed- 
eral railways  all  whose  rates  are  con- 
trolled by  the  federal  government? 

As  was  said  by  Mr.  Justice  Hughes, 
in  delivering  the  opinion  in  the  Min- 
nesota rate  case,  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  first  part  of  the  opinion  which  dis- 
cusses interference  with  interstate  com- 
merce : 

"If  the  situation  has  become  such,  by 
reason  of  the  interblending  of  the  inter- 
state and  intrastate  operations  of  inter- 
state carriers,  that  adequate  regulation  of 
their  interstate  rates  cannot  be  main- 
tained without  imposing  requirements 
with  respect  to  their  intrastate  rates 


66 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


which  substantially  affect  the  former,  it 
is  for  Congress  to  determine,  within  the 
limits  of  its  constitutional  authority  over 
interstate  commerce  and  its  instruments 
the  measure  of  regulation  it  should 
apply."  * 

All  that  would  be  necessary  would  be 
for  Congress  to  provide  that  wherever  an 
intrastate  rate  or  practice  substantially 
affected  interstate  or  foreign  commerce, 
power  to  fix  or  control  the  rate  or  prac- 
tice should  be  exclusively  in  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission.  The  pre- 
sent unseemly  conflict  of  jurisdiction 
would  then  be  removed  and  an  effective 
and  sensible  regulation  of  rates  would 
then  become  possible  in  the  United 
States,  there  had  been  no  appeal  provided 
from  the  highest  courts  of  the  states  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 


upon  questions  arising  under  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  the  con- 
stitutional law  of  the  United  States 
would  have  still  been  in  the  same  absurd 
muddle  which  we  now  find  in  case  of  the 
regulation  of  railroad  rates. 

If  Congress  is  not  prepared  to  deal 
with  the  matter  as  wisely  and  simply  as 
the  Canadian  Government  has  done,  and 
it  is  necessary  to  preserve  for  local  pur- 
poses the  offices  of  railroad  commission- 
ers which  have  been  created  in  so  many 
of  the  several  state,  a  less  effective  sys- 
tem, but  at  least  a  possible  one,  might 
be  constituted  by  granting  an  appeal  from 
the  state  railroad  commissions  to  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  where 
an  order  of  a  state  commission  substan- 
tially affects  interstate  or  foreign  com- 
merce. Illinois  Law  Review. 


UNITED   STATES    SENATOR   OSCAR  UNDERWOOD'S   HOME. 


Name  Occupation 

Patrick   Boyle Section   Foreman 

Daniel   W.    McMillan Blacksmith 

William    H.    Dickens Operator 

Vernon  A.   Pixley Engineman 

Alexander   McCall    (Col.) Laborer 

John    Avant    (Col.) Pumper 

Louis    N.    Bourdeau Messenger 

Joseph    B.    Kelly Machinist   Handyman 

Lester    L.    Neeley Agent 

Tony  Moore   (Col.)   Y.&M.V...Sec.  Laborer 


Where 

Date  of 

Employed 

Service 

Retirement 

Chatsworth 

21  years 

11/30/15 

Water  Valley 

51   years 

12/31/15 

Du   Quoin 

30  years 

1/31/15 

Centralia 

31  years 

1/31/16 

Mounds 

32  years 

1/31/16 

Sardis 

30  years 

1/31/16 

Dubuque 

35  years 

12/31/15 

Dubuque 

40  years 

10/30/15 

Storm  Lake 

31  years 

3/31/16 

Memphis 

30  years 

6/30/15 

CALVIN  STEPHENS. 

AT  R.  CALVIN  STEPHENS  entered  the 
*•  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company  about  31  years  ago,  serving 
about  sixteen  years  in  the  track  depart- 
ment and  fifteen  years  as  pumper;  and  was 
retired  November  30,  1915,  on  a  pension. 


GEORGE  HURT 

\/[  R.  GEORGE  HURT  entered  the  serv- 
^*-*-  ice  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  at  Patoka,  111.,  in  1871.  Promoted 
to  the  position  of  Section  Foreman,  and 
served  in  this  capacity  until  December  1, 
1915,  at  which  time  he  was  retired  on  a 
pension. 


67 


Illinois  Central  Hospital,  Chicago 

1.  Purpose — Primarily    for    railroad    employes,    but   other   patients    will   be    received 

when  space  is  available. 

2.  Capacity — 125  beds.     The  largest  ward  is  four  beds,  of  which  there  are  thirteen. 

There  are  three  three-bed  wards,  ten  two-bed  wards  and  twenty-one  private 
rooms. 

3.  Construction — Fireproof  throughout. 

4.  Finish — Highest  type  of  hospital  finish  throughout,  including  flush  steel  door 
frames,  flush  panel  doors  and  all  scientific  provisions  to  insure  cleanliness 
and  quiet. 

5.  Mechanical  Features — Unusual  feature  is  the  hot  water  heating  system,  insuring 

well  graduated  and  even  heating.  Vaccuum  cleaner  provided.  All  water 
filtered,  drinking  water  twice  filtered  and  refrigerated.  Refrigerator  system  is 
a  carbon  dioxide  with  large  ice-making  capacity.  Two  large  high  pressure 
boilers  and  garbage  crematory. 

6.  Exterior — Expresses  the  apparently  conflicting  character  of  its  use  and  ownership. 

Essentially  domestic  in  appearance,  it  develops  a  dignity  commensurate  with 
its  public  character,  railroad  ownership  and  conspicuous  position  in  Jackson 
Park.  Materials  are  of  Bedford  stone  and  brick,  running  from  the  pinks  into 
browns  and  purples,  laid  in  English  cross  bond,  which  adds  much  life  to  the 
texture  of  the  wall  surfaces. 

7.  Development — First  unit  of  the  hospital  is  completed.     It  is  planned  eventually  to 

erect  a  nurses'  and  helps'  home  on  the  north  and  another  hospital  wing  on  the 
south,  which  will  then  increase  the  accommodations  to  a  total  of  300  beds. 

8.  Facilities  for  Care  of  Patients— Are  here  developed  to  a  point  not  exceeded  by  few 

hospitals.  The  power  house  is  in  a  two-story  building  to  the  west  of  the 
main  building,  and  on  the  second  floor  is  a  commodious  light,  airy  and  well 
equipped  laundry.  This  building  is  connected  to  the  main  hospital  by  a  tunnel 
partially  above  ground  and  used  for  communication  between  buildings  as  well 
as  for  transmission  of  heat,  etc. 

9.  Kitchens  and  Food — Kitchen   is   two  stories   in   height;   is   light  and  airy.      It  is 

planned  for  a  much  larger  hospital.  Refrigerators  are  ample  and  all  lined 
with  white  enamel  and  cooled  mechanically.  Each  floor  has  a  commodious 
sewing  room. 

10.  Sun  Porches,  Etc. — An  unusual   and  interesting  feature   of  this   hospital  are   the 

facilities  for  the  recreation  and  open-air  treatment  of  ambulatory  cases,  con- 
valescent, and  the  acutely  ill.  For  the  acutely  ill,  on  each  patient's  bed  floor, 
second  and  third,  are  sun  porches,  26x18,  to  which  patients'  beds  can  be 
wheeled.  The  fourth  floor  is  entirely  given  over  to  the  ambulatory  and  con- 
valescent cases.  At  the  south  end  is  a  large  solarium  opening  onto  a  paved 
roof  garden.  At  the  north  end  a  large  billiard  room  and  an  adjacent  card 
room  are  provided.  All  rooms  on  the  fourth  floor  enjoy  the  beautiful  view 
over  Jackson  Park. 

11.  Grounds — Landscape  work  not  yet  begun,  but  entire  property  will  be  developed 

for  use  of  patients. 

12.  Special  Facilities — Three  operating  rooms  of  the  most  modern  type,  with  all  neces- 

sary accessories. 

Two  surgical  dressing  rooms. 

Emergency  operating  room  on  first  floor. 

Out-patients'  Department  consists  of  drug  room,  waiting  room  and  three 
examining  rooms. 

Laboratories — Two  laboratories  completely  equipped  for  advance  research 
and  study — a  department  of  great  value  to  the  patient. 

X-Ray  Department — Two  rooms  fully  equipped  with  the  latest  X-Ray  ap- 
paratus and  equipment. 

Hydro-Therapeutic  Department — Completely  equipped  for  the  treatment  of 
diseases  by  means  of  electric  light.  Nauheim,  hydro-electric  and  Sitz  Baths. 

Zander  Department — This  department,  the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  the  city, 
will  be  equipped  with  apparatus  for  the  mechanical  exercise  of  all  parts  of  the 
body,  and  with  electric  baking  apparatus  for  the  treatment  of  disease  by 
means  of  heat  applied  directly  to  the  affected  part. 

69 


70  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 

13.  Construction — Ground   broken    October  24th,   1914.      Building   opened    March   4th, 

1916.     Construction  of  building  was  interrupted  by  the  building  trades'  strike 
lasting  about  four  months. 

14.  Architects — Richard  E.  Schmidt,  Garden  &  Martin. 

Hospital  in  charge  of  Chief  Surgeon  Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  with  a  complete  attending 
staff  of  physicians  and  surgeons. 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 

OFFICE  OF  VICE  PRESIDENT 

Chicago,  March  1,  1916. 

NjOTICE 

^  •  . 

With  the  opening  of  the  new  Hospital  at  5744  Stony  Island  Avenue, 
March  6,  1916,  the  hours  of  the  Doctors  on  duty  at  the  12th  Street  Infirmary 
in  the  Dowie  Building  will  be  curtailed,  and  the  following  hours  will  obtain 
at  each  point: 

At  Illinois  Central  Hospital 

Dr.  T.  P.  Ranney 9  :00  A.  M.  to  11 :00  A.  M. 

Dr.  L.  L.  Iseman 12:00  Noon  to  2:00  P.  M. 

At  12th  Street  Infirmary 

Dr.  J.  E.  Kelley 10:00  A.  M.  to  12  Noon 

Dr.  W.  T.  Harsha 1 :00  P.  M.  to  3  :00  P.  M. 

In  any  emergency  case,  employes  will  receive  treatment  at  new  Hospital 
at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night. 

W.   L.  Park, 

Vice-President. 


How  to 


It  is  not  tne  Science  01  curing  Disease  so  much  as  me  prevention  of  it 
mat  produces  tne^eatest  ^3Dd  to  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
A  4  *  A  A  teaching  people  now  to  live  A  A  ±  *  *. 


The  Climatic  Treatment  of  Disease 


climate  is  helpful  in  many 
ailments  and  diseases  no  person 
will  deny,  but  it  is  absolutely  essential 
that  certain  measures  should  be 
adopted  and  inflexible  rules  followed 
in  order  that  the  beneficial  results  can 
be  obtained.  It  is  true  that  certain 
climates  are  especially  beneficial  in 
special  diseases  such  as  rheumatism, 
tuberculosis  and  catarrhal  conditions. 
Each  of  these  are  benefited  by  climate, 
but  in  selecting  the  place  with  a  view 
to  securing  the  desired  climate,  atten- 
tion must  be  paid  to  the  relative  hu- 
midity; the  amount  of  rain-fall  as  well 
as  the  amount  of  sunshine  and  also 
the  probable  effect  of  the  journey.  A 
most  important  point  which  concerns 
both  the  physician  and  the  patient,  as 
well  as  the  family,  is  in  cases  where 
the  bread-winner  himself  is  the  pa- 
tient, for  then  it  is  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance to  consider  the  possibility  of 
his  continuing  in  some  degree  to  add 
to  the  family  earnings. 

It  should  be  impressed  upon  our 
readers  that  in  order  to  obtain  the  best 
results  the  change  in  climate  must  be 
made  when  the  disease  is  in  its  incipi- 
ency;  that  is,  in  its  early  stages,  for 
it  is  worse  than  useless  for  an  individ- 
ual who  is  in  the  advanced  stages  of 
pulmonary  tuberculosis  to  be  sent 
away  from  home  with  the  idea  that  the 
change  in  climate  will  be  of  some  ben- 
efit to  him.  The  responsibility  of  the 
physician  in  consideration  of  such 
cases  calls  for  rare  judgment,  and  the 


patient  as  well  as  his  family  should  be 
governed  by  sound  medical  advice  in 
considering  the  matter  of  changing  a 
climate  with  benefit  to  the  one  seri- 
ously ill. 

Pulmonary  tuberculosis  and  pleurisy 
do  well  in  a  high  and  dry  climate,  and 
it  is  also  important  that  abundant  sun- 
shine should  be  present  in  such  cases. 
Excessive  cloudiness  is  an  objection- 
able factor  not  only  because  of  the  fact 
that  psychologically  it  produces  a  men- 
tal depressing  effect  on  the  patient,  but 
it  also  cuts  off  the  beneficial  effect 
which  would  be  obtained  from  the  sun- 
light. A  ratio  of  cloudiness  exceeding 
70  per  cent  of  the  total  results  serious- 
ly in  a  given  climate.  There  is  no 
truth  in  the  idea  that  was  at  one  time 
advanced  that  a  lack  of  sunshine  favors 
the  dissemination  of  infectious  dis- 
eases, other  than  that  in  such  condi- 
tions the  individual  has  fewer  days  in 
which  he  may  have  the  assistance  of 
the  sunshine  in  his  warfare  against 
the  infection.  The  sunshine  also  has 
a  tonic  effect,  and  consequently  the  re- 
sistance of  the  individual  against  dis- 
ease is  thereby  increased. 

In  considering  climates  it  might  be 
well  to  think  of  two  important  factors : 
First,  temperature,  and  second,  the 
relative  humidity  of  a  given  locality. 
In  diseases  of  the  chest  the  temperature 
should  be  such  that  the  patient  may  be 
out-of-doors  practically  all  the  time. 
It  should  be  high  and  dry,  and,  Colo- 
rado, California  and  New  Mexico  are 


71 


72 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


ideal  for  such  conditions.  As  one  ap- 
proaches the  lower  levels  and  the  sea 
shores  the  relative  humidity  is  so  great- 
ly increased  that  pulmonary  and  ca- 
tarrhal  conditions  generally  are  aggra- 
vated, consequently  the  beneficial  re- 
sults to  be  obtained  from  the  higher 
altitudes  are  especially  pronounced  in 
these  conditions. 

The  practical  side  must  be  borne  in 
mind  in  consideration  of  a  seriously  ill 
individual  going  to  some  other  climate. 
In  the  first  place,  in  order  to  be  of  de- 
cided benefit  to  a  patient  a  considerable 
period  of  time  is  necessary  in  order  to 
bring  about  any  permanent  benefit. 
Another  point  is  that  the  living  condi- 
tions are  usually  higher  for  sick  people 
in  these  localities  which  are  most  bene- 
ficial, because  of  the  considerable  num- 
ber of  patients  which  flock  to  those 
places.  A  young  man  or  woman 
should  have  at  least  $50.00  a  month  in 
order  to  provide  the  essential  living 
comforts,  and  this  may  be  stated  as  the 
minimum  amount,  as  in  some  localities 
a  greater  amount  may  be  necessary. 

A  second  point  is  that  it  is  unwise 
to  send  a  young  person  or  a  sick  per- 
son, unaccompanied  by  friends,  to  a 
strange  country  in  pursuit  of  health. 
Homesickness,  one  of  the  most  potent 
and  persistent  enemies  of  the  health 
seeker,  will  be  the  inevitable  result. 
Indeed,  homesickness  often  does  more 
harm  to  the  young  persons  than  the 
climate  can  be  of  benefit.  Then,  too, 
worry  over  meager  finances  is  sure  to 
be  a  serious  clog  to  the  patient's  re- 
covery. It  is  not  practicable  for  the 
health  seeker  who  has  a  serious  ail- 
ment to  expect  to  be  able  to  work  regu- 
larly while  in  his  new  climatic  sur- 
roundings, because  of  all  things  he 
must  avoid  overwork  and  worry. 
There  are  certain  conditions  and  cer- 
tain stages  of  diseases  which  are  ben- 
efited by  a  certain  amount  of  physical 
exercise,  such  as  can  be  obtained  by 
light  work  in  a  garden  or  a  farm,  but 
this  should  only  be  undertaken  under 
the  direct  supervision  of  a  capable 
physician. 


The  two  things  which  are  most  need- 
ed are  freedom  from  worry  and  ability 
to  rest  and  relax  from  physical  strain. 
When  a  physician  tells  a  patient  that 
he  has  pulmonary  tuberculosis  or 
pleurisy,  that  should  not  be  considered 
as  wholly  discouraging  to  the  patient. 
It  is  simply  a  call  to  arms.  The 
weapons  of  our  warfare  are  largely 
the  instruments  of  our  own  manufac- 
ture. They  are  intelligence,  cheerful- 
ness, and  a  determination  to  fight  the 
enemy  until  victory  is  ours.  The  cure 
is  not  to  be  found  at  the  drug  store. 
In  order  to  wage  a  successful  fight 
against  chest  diseases  the  patient  must 
give  attention  to  the  little  things,  for 
the  outcome  of  the  battle  depends  in 
no  small  measure  upon  the  faithful 
and  systematic  attention  to  the  little 
details  of  our  daily  habits. 

The  matter  of  dress  is  of  importance. 
Dress  simply  or  in  accordance  with  the 
climate  in  which  you  are  located.  The 
writer  is  firmly  of  the  opinion  that 
many  colds  and  many  acute  pleurisies 
are  due  to  the  lack  of  proper  clothes 
or  the  wearing  of  too  much  clothing. 
The  medium  is  to  be  aimed  at.  Wool- 
ens or  pure  linen  should  be  worn  next 
to  the  skin,  and  in  the  higher  altitudes, 
such  as  found  in  Colorado,  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  patient  to  dress  quite 
warmly  in  the  winter  time. 

Women  affected  with  pulmonary 
tuberculosis  should  accustom  them- 
selves to  going  without  a  corset,  and 
with  a  view  to  abandoning  it  alto- 
gether. All  tight  fitting  clothing  and 
collars  should  be  discarded  both  for 
man  and  for  women.  Shoes  should  be 
durable  and  comfortable,  with  soles 
that  are  sufficiently  thick  to  keep  out 
all  dampness.  To  the  sufferer  who  has 
a  daily  temperature,  rest  and  ease  are 
the  essentials.  Just  plain  do-nothing, 
lazy-as-you-please  rest  is  the  "big 
medicine"  in  tubercular  conditions  in- 
volving the  lungs  and  pleura.  For  the 
active  man  or  woman  this  is  a  very 
difficult  kind  of  medicine,  but  one 
should  accustom  oneself  to  it,  and  for 
the  time  being  forget  life's  ambitions. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


73 


With  the  renewal  of  life  and  strength 
there  will  be  a  return  of  the  ambition, 
and  the'capability  of  following  it. 

Because  the  spirits  are  low  and  the 
sky  laden  on  certain  days  it  should  not 
be  concluded  that  no  improvement  is 
being  made.  "Some  days  must  be  dark 
and  dreary."  In  daily  conversation  or 
correspondence  the  patient  should  not 
make  a  practice  of  talking  or  writing 
about  his  or  her  condition.  Think 
healthful  thoughts,  read  healthful 
books.  This  dreary,  never,  changing 
tale  of  mortal  maladies  is  worn  and 
stale. 

"You    cannot    charm    or    interest    or 

please, 
By    harping    on    that    minor    chord, 

disease; 
Say  you  are  well,  and  all  is  well  with 

you, 
And  God  will  hear  your  words  and 

make  them  true." 

Here  are  ten  commandments  for.  the 
health  seeker: 

1st.  Live  in  the  pure  air  and  sun- 
shine all  the  time. 

2nd.  Eat  all  the  wholesome  food 
you  can  properly  assimilate. 


3rd.  Rest  and  sleep,  with  plenty  of 
both. 

4th.  Be  cheerful,  talk  and  write 
cheerfully,  read  cheerful  books  and 
think  cheerful  thoughts. 

5th.  Keep  your  person  and  sur- 
roundings clean  and  sanitary,  both  as 
a  safeguard  to  yourself  and  others. 

6th.  Exercise  in  moderation,  but  un- 
der the  advice  of  the  physician. 

7th.  Eliminate  entirely  all  forms  of 
dissipation,  excesses  and  late  hours. 

8th.  Shun  patent  medicines  and 
quack  doctors. 

9th.  Employ  a  competent  physician 
and  follow  his  instructions. 

10th.  After  you  have  been  pro- 
nounced cured,  just  keep  on  living  sim- 
ply and  hygienically,  with  the  result 
that  your  days  will  be  long  in  the  land 
and  your  restoration  to  health  will  be 
an- inspiration  to  other  sufferers. 

There  is  no  greater  boon  to  human- 
ity than  favorable  climatic  conditions 
when  the  case  in  hand  is  of  the  type 
that  will  be  benefited  by  such  condi- 
tions, but  it  is  necessary  that  other 
treatment  be  considered  as  essential, 
and  always  that  the  matter  should  be 
discussed  with  and  decided  by  some 
capable  medical  adviser. 


Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Waterloo,  Iowa,  December  31st,  1915. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 

Chicago,  Illinois. 
Deac  Doctor: 

Recently  I  was  stricken  with  a  serious  illness  and  was  confined  to  my  bed  in  St. 
Francis  Hospital,  Waterloo,  for  two  weeks.  I  wish  to  advise  that  I  received  the  very 
best  of  treatment  at  the  hands  of  both  the  Company  surgeons  and  hospital  people. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)     Fred  Chevalier,   Conductor, 

Minnesota  Division.          McComb,  Miss.,  November  30th,   1915. 
Dr.  Wm.  W.  Leake,  Asst.  Chief  Surgeon, 

New  Orleans,  La. 
Dear  Doctor: 

Please  accept  my  thanks  to  you  and  your  entire  staff  of  hospital  department  doc- 
tors and  nurses  for  the  successful  operation  and  treatment  I  received  while  a  patient  in 
the  Illinois  Central  Hospital  at  New  Orleans,  La.  I  was  operated  on  for  appendicitis 
and  have  now  returned  to  work,  feeling  fine  and  have  entirely  recovered. 

My  kindest  regards  to  all  and  a  successful  future  to  the  Illinois  Central  Hospital 
is  the  wish  of  Your  friend, 

Monroe  McDaniel,  Car  Repairer, 

Illinois  Central  Shops. 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,NTT 
S  E,RVIOE, 
LWAY  S 


General. 


Minutes  of  Meeting  of  New  Orleans  Terminal 
General  Committee  —  "Safety  First" 

F.  T.  MOONEY,  Terminal  Superintendent,.  (Chairman). 
T.  QUIGLEY,  Roadmaster. 
J.  W.  COUSINS,  Agent,  Poydras. 

A.  E.  SCAIFE,  Agent,  Stuyvesant  Docks. 
E.  C.  RODDIE,  District  Foreman. 
L.  R.  WYMAN,  General  Yardmaster. 
D.  B.  MUGAN,  Division  Electrician. 
A.  SMITH,  General  Foreman,  B.  &  B. 
J.  E.  ROGAN,  Track  Supervisor. 

H.  A.  WILSON,  Supervisor  of  Signals. 

J.  E.  MULDREY,  Chief  Clerk,   (Secretary.) 
X/fR.  MOONEY  addressed  the  men  and  explained  to  them 
•    that  it  was  the  desire  of  the  Management  that  they  pur- 
sue the  campaign  of  Safety  First  with  renewed  vigor,  and 
asked  their  co-operation  along  this  line. 

Minutes  of  the  Stuyvesant  Docks,  Government  Yard, 
Poydras  Yard  and  Harahan  Yard  Sub-Committees  were  read, 
and  it  was  noticed  that  several  minor  features  had  been  taken 
up  by  these  sub-committees  and  corrected  by  them. 

This  subject  was  thoroughly  discussed.  One  track  should 
^e  thrown  over  to  give  sufficient  clearance.  The  necessary 
work  was  recommended  in  December,  1914,  and  it  was  then 
decided  by  the  Management  to  hold  the  matter  in  abeyance 
until  a  more  propitious  time. 

At  this  point  there  has  been  one  man  killed,  one  man  rolled 
between  the  cars  some  months  ago,  and  very  recently  an 
engine  cab  was  knocked  off.  Detailed  plans  and  estimate 
have  since  been  re-submitted,  and  the  work  again  recom- 
mended. This  is  a  very  dangerous  condition,  and  should  be 
corrected  without  further  delay. 

The  present  method  of  supplying  gasoline  to  motor  car  116 
*80™116  fo!o         at  Union  Station  is  very  unsatisfactory  and  dangerous.    This 

the   Motor   Car.  ,.         •  **•*_+•    t  j  r-  i.i_r 

gasoline  is  pumped  directly  from  drums  on  station  platform 
74 


Tracks  on  Front 
Street,  Levee 


Handling 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


75 


Proper 

Disposition    of 
Plugs   on   Top 
Of  Refrigerator 
Cars. 


into  the  motor  car.    The  element  of  danger  is  very  great,  and 
some  provision  should  be  made  to  overcome  this  hazard. 

We  recommended  several  months  ago  that  we  arrange  with 
the  West  India  Oil  Company  of  Destrehan  to  supply  us  with 
gasoline  at  that  point.  We  understood  they  would  install  one 
of  the  modern  oil  supplying  stations  at  Destrehan  for  this 
purpose. 

The  plugs  with  chains,  as  now  handled,  do  not  create  the 
hazard  of  personal  injury,  but  it  was  shown  that  the  plugs 
not  chained  were  an  element  of  danger  when  left  on  the  top 
of  a  car.  It  was  decided  to  instruct  all  concerned  on  the  New 
Orleans  Terminal  to  drop  such  plugs  into  the  ice  tanks,  and  it 
was  suggested  that  the  same  instructions  be  given  to  all  points 
on  the  system. 


High 

Explosives  in 
Outward 
Merchandise 
Warehouse 
No.  7, 
Poydras 
Yard. 


Report  of  sub-committee  showed  discussion  of  this  subject. 
It  was  decided  that  the  present  practice  of  holding  all  such 
freight  on  four-wheel  truck  at  the  extreme  north  end  of  the 
building,  to  be  loaded  just  before  closing  of  cars,  so  as  to  min- 
imize the  hazard  of  accident  throughout  the  day,  was  a  very 
good  one.  All  such  shipments  are  loaded  in  station  order,  the 
necessary  space  in  the  car  being  left  for  same. 

The  New  Orleans  Terminal  Safety  Committee  would  like 
to  know  the  practice  on  other  divisions,  as  regards  the  loading 
of  L.  C.  L.  shipments  of  high  explosives. 


Roof,   Wharves 

1  and  2 

Stuyvesant 

Docks  Leaning 

Toward 

Louisiana 

Avenue. 


This  matter  was  referred  to  General  Superintendent  re- 
cently, with  request  that  an  inspector  be  sent  to  New  Orleans 
to  look  into  this  condition. 


Condition   of 
Roof   Over 
Drip    Sheds, 
Elevator 
D.   &  E. 
Stuyvesant 
Docks. 


Attention  was  also  called  by  sub-committee  to  hazard  of 
accident  by  reason  of  loose  sheets  of  tin  on  these  drip  sheds. 
These  sheets  were  blown  loose  by  storm  of  September  29th. 
The  necessity  of  making  repairs  at  an  early  date  was  brought 
to  the  attention  of  General  Superintendent  a  short  time  ago. 
The  matter  should  be  given  immediate  attention. 


Exposed  Tanks 
At  Texas  Oil 
Company's 
New  Plant, 
South   End 
Government 
Yard 


Sub-committee  calls  attention  to  exposure  of  tanks  at  Texas 
Oil  Company's  new  plant  while  unloading  inflammable  oils 
and  materials.  It  was  decided  that  General  Foreman  of 
Bridges  and  Buildings,  A.  Smith,  would  visit  the  Local  Man- 
ager of  the  plant  and  endeavor  to  have  the  oil  company  build 
a  shed,  to  reduce  the  hazard  of  accident. 


Extending 
Constantinople 
Street 

Viaduct  to  a 
Point  Near 
Wharf. 


The  subject  of  liability  of  personal  injury  account  persons 
crossing  Stuyvesant  Docks  Yards  to  get  to  Constantinople 
street  viaduct  was  discussed,  and  it  was  recommended  that  this 
viaduct  be  extended  to  a  point  near  the  wharf,  the  same  as 
viaducts  at  Foucher  and  General  Taylor  streets. 


fa  fa  fa  fa  fa 


(IS 


Illinois  Central  rRailroadfCompany — The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 

Mail,  Baggage,  Express  and  Milk  Traffic  Department 

H.  L.  Fairfield,  Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic,  J.  A.  Osborn,  General  Baggage 
Agent — Chicago,   111.,  February  1,  1916 

INFORMATION  AND  INSTRUCTION  BULLETIN  NO.  3 


Transportation    of    Corpses    Through 
New  Orleans 

13.  Under  a  recent  ruling  of  the  Lou- 
isiana State  Board  of  Health,  it  is  no 
longer  necessary  to  secure  a  special  per- 
mit for  the  shipment  of  corpses  into  and 
through  New   Orleans.     However,  this 
does  not  affect  in  any  way  the  use  of  the 
regular  permits  for  the  transportation  of 
corpses  which  are  issued  by  the  State 
Board  of  Health  and  which  must  in  all 
cases  be  properly  filled  out  and  accom- 
pany the  shipment. 

Improper  Free  Baggage  Allowance 

14.  Attention  is  called  to  the  practice 
of   some   commercial   travelers   of   pur- 
chasing or  borrowing  additional  tickets 
to  evade  the  payment  of  excess  weight 
charges.     For  example,  a  salesman  car- 
rying   considerable    excess    weight    will 
borrow  one  or  more  tickets  from  other 
passengers   traveling  between  the  same 
points   and  present  them   for  the   pur- 
pose of  securing  more  than  the  proper 
free  allowance  of  150  Ibs.  on  his  sam- 
ples.    Or,  in  case  he  checks  between  sta- 
tions only  a  few  miles  apart,  he  will  pur- 
chase additional  tickets  for  less  than  his 
excess  baggage  would  cost  him.     Rule 
No.  3  of  our  tariff  provides  that  baggage 
will  be  checked  only  upon  presentation 


of  the  ticket  WHICH  IS  USED  BY 
THE  PASSENGER  FOR  HIS 
TRANSPORTATION;  also  that  all 
tickets  must  be  canceled  with  BC  punch. 
This  rule,  if  carefully  observed,  will 
break  up  these  practices  and  agents 
should  give  the  matter  very  careful  at- 
tention. 

Quadrennial  Weighing  of  U.  S.  Mails 

15.  The  regular  quadrennial  weighing 
of  U.  S.  Mails  on  all  trains  south  of  the 
Ohio  River  will  commence  sometime  in 
February.  Train  Baggagemen  will  please 
make  prompt  report  to  this  office  of  any 
mail  which  they  are  not  certain  is  being 
duly  weighed  at  some  point,  stating  the 
point  where  the  mail  is  received  and  its 
destination. 

Exchanging  Receipts  for  Baggage 

16.  Agents    and    train    baggagemen 
could  add  much  to  the  efficiency  of  the 
service  if  they  would  adopt  the  plan  of 
exchanging  receipts  for  baggage  before 
transacting  other  business,  which  could 
be  done  by  having  their  bills  ready  to 
exchange  as  soon  as  the  train  stops. 

Improper  Disposition  of  Lost  Check 
Receipts 

17.  Some  agents  seem  to  have  the 
idea  that  lost  check  receipt,  form  GB.O  5, 


77 


78 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


is  a  receipt  to  be  given  to  passengers, 
when  duplicate  checks  are  lost,  for  the 
50c  deposit  which  they  are  required  to 
make.  This  idea  is  altogether  erroneous. 
This  form  is  a  receipt  given  to  the  com- 
pany by  the  owner  of  the  baggage  for  de- 
livery of  his  baggage  without  surrender 
of  the  duplicate  checks  and  must  in  all 
cases  be  immediately  forwarded  with  the 
string  checks  covering  the  baggage  to 
the  General  Baggage  Agent. 

Record  of  Checks  Exchanged 

18.  It  is  very  important  that  when  an 
agent  exchanges  checks  with  a  passenger 
a  record  be  kept  of  the  numbers  of  the 
checks  taken  up,  as  well  as  those  issued. 
In  investigating  a  claim  recently,  where 
checks  had  been  exchanged  at  two  sta- 
tions by  the  passenger,  neither  agent  was 
able  to  give  the  numbers  of  the  checks 
which  he  had  taken  up.  Where  special 
forms  are  not  provided  on  which  to  keep 
this  record,  it  is  suggested  that  the  agent 
making  the  exchange  endorse  on  the 
check  originally  covering  the  baggage  the 
number  and  destination  of  the  check 
which  was  issued  in  exchange.  Since 
agents  are  required  to  hold  all  checks 
stripped  from  baggage  for  a  certain 
length  of  time,  it  would  be  a  very  easy 


matter  for  them  to  go  over  their  stripped 
checks  and  readily  locate  the  numbers  of 
checks  taken  up  and  issued  in  exchange, 
which  information  it  is  very  often  essen- 
tial for  us  to  secure. 

Embargo   On   Live  Animals  Into 
Canada 

19.  There  have  recently  been  impor- 
tant changes  in  the  Canadian  laws  gov- 
erning the   importation   of   live  animals 
and  animal  products  into  the  Dominion 
of  Canada.    The  only  change  directly  af- 
fecting the   baggage   department   is   the 
following : 

"Dogs,  other  than  those  used  for  herd- 
ing cattle  or  sheep,  may  be  admitted." 

Showing  Numbers  of  Tickets  On  Bag- 
gage Checks 

20.  It  has  been  noted  frequently  that 
agents    sometimes    endorse    on    baggage 
checks  "Two  Tickets,"  "Three  Tickets," 
etc.,   presumably   to   prevent  train  bag- 
gagemen or  agents  at  destination  making 
C.  O.  D.  collections  on  overweight  bag- 
gage.     This    endorsement   of    checks   is 
improper.    When  it  is  thought  advisable 
to    endorse    the    number    of    tickets    on 
which  baggage  is  checked,  the  form  and 
numbers  of  the  tickets  must  be  shown. 


A  Compliment  to  Illinois  Central  Service 


Refer  to  File  44-775 


Twin  Beds  Co. 


Memphis,  Tenn.,  February  14,  1916. 


THEATRICAL : 
MR.  HATCH : 

I  quote  below  for  your  information  letter  dated  February  10th,  received 
from  Mr.  Harry  Sweatman,  Business  Manager  "Twin  Beds  Co." 

"There  are  times  when  we  get  back  at  a  railroad  and  'cuss'  it  for  all  it  is 
worth,  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  congratulating  a  railroad  when  it's  coming 
to  them.  I  left  Helena  yesterday  at  4 :30  P.  M.  for  Greenville  ;  after  surmount- 
ing difficulties  that  would  make  a  saint  swear,  your  road  brought  me  into 
Greenville  on  time.  It  was  splendid  and  showed  efficiency  that  is  really  re- 
markable, and  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  road  in  the 
South  that  could  accomplish  the  feat  that  the  Illinois  Central  did  when  it 
landed  me  in  Greenville  on  time." 

G.  H.  Bower. 


Memphis  Traffic  irTCotton,  Cotton  Seed  Products 

and  Lumber 

By  W.  F.  Meath,  Commercial  Agent 

Cotton 

The  country's  total  cotton  crop  for  the  season  of  1914-15  was  15,108,011  bales;  of 
this  volume  Memphis  handled  in  net  receipts  660,748  bales,  gross  receipts  1,070,607 
bales,  and  the  value  of  Memphis  net  receipts  was  $25,967,396.40.  By  net  receipts  is 
meant  cotton  placed  in  warehouses  at  Memphis,  while  the  term  gross  receipts  includes 
cotton  passing  through  Memphis  without  being  warehoused.  Of  this  Memphis  cot- 
ton the  receipts  via  our  lines  were  a  very  large  proportion. 

Owing  to  perfect  conditions  for  the  handling  at  Memphis,  both  as  to  storage  and 
compression,  the  buyers  located  in  Memphis  are  sending  their  representatives  to  the 
small  towns  to  buy  direct  from  the  planters,  more  so  than  in  former  years,  knowing 
that  when  loaded  in  our  cars  at  the  small  stations  there  is  no  opportunity  for  damage 
after  arrival  at  Memphis  as  the  cotton  is  delivered  at  Memphis  in  the  same  cars  on  an 
interchange  track  for  the  Memphis  Terminal  Corporation,  the  latter  company  handling 
with  their  own  switch  engine  and  having  about  ten  miles  of  their  own  trackage  to 
serve  their  various  warehouses,  compresses,  and  handling  platforms  as  well  as  a  trol- 
ley system  for  handling  the  cotton  from  the  cars  to  the  various  consignees'  compart- 
ments, the  cotton  being  constantly  under  shelter. 

The  plant  of  the  Memphis  Terminal  Corporation  covers  an  area  of  170  acres.  The 
writer  would  be  glad,  were  it  not  for  limited  space,  to  endeavor  to  explain  at  length, 
the  care,  safety  and  perfection  of  handling  cotton  in  the  minutest  detail  by  this,  the 
largest  corporation  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  several  years  ago 
Northern  bankers  seeking  further  outlet  for  their  capital,  visited  Memphis,  investi- 
gated the  handling  of  cotton  by  this  corporation,  were  unstinted  in  their  praise  of  the 
system,  and  eager  converts  to  advancing  capital  on  cotton  warehouse  receipts  in  com- 
petition with  others,  insuring  minimum  interest. 

Cotton  Seed  Products 

Cotton  seed,  which  some  years  ago  was  not  considered  of  great  commercial  value, 
being  scattered  broadcast  on  the  land  as  a  fertilizer,  has  since  become  an  important 
factor  to  the  planter.  In  the  present  season  the  price,  per  ton  of  2,000  pounds,  has 
varied  from  $35.00  to  as  high  in  some  instances  as  $50.00  per  ton.  With  the  late  im- 
proved machinery  used  by  oil  mills,  a  ton  of  seed  should  yield  crude  oil,  40  gallons  or 
300  Ibs.,  meal,  810  Ibs.,  lint,  40  Ibs.,  hulls,  700  Ibs.,  waste,  150  Ibs.,  total  2.000  Ibs. 

The  oil  is  refined  and  principally  used  to  make  compound  lard  cooking  oils,  but- 
terine,  and  the  "off"  oil  or  tankage  is  used  by  soap  manufacturers.  Besides  the  large 
volume  used  as  above,  its  other  uses  are  as  cooking  and  baking  oil  and  salad  dressing; 
also  candles  are  made  from  it,  and  it  is  used  for  illuminating  purposes  in  its  oily 
state.  Considerable  of  it  is  exported.  This  oroduct  is  also  used  for  packing  sardines 
and  it  is  said  much  of  the  "pure  olive  oil"  that  comes  from  Europe  is  refined  cotton 
seed  oil. 

For  the  season  1914-15  the  oil  yield  was  200,000.000  gallons,  the  average  price  40 
cents  per  gallon,  value  $80,000,000.  The  production  for  1915  is  unknown  to  the  writer 
at  present,  but  the  present  price  is  52  cents  per  gallon. 

For  the  season  1914-15  it  is  estimated  there  were  produced  2,197,000  tons  of  meal 
at  an  average  market  price  of  $26  per  ton,  or  $57,137,600,  the  present  price  being  $30. 
Cotton  seed  meal  is  considered  by  many  feeders  of  experience  as  the  premier  feed  for 
cattle  and  stock. 

80  1  ;  -11 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  81 

The  fertilizer  companies  buy  some  of  the  meal,  known  as  "off  meal,"  which  they 
mix  with  German  Kanit  and  other  ingredients  and  make  fertilizer  of  excellent  quality. 

In  the  season  of  1914-15  cotton  linters  were  produced  aggregating  433,815,000 
pounds  at  2  to  2J^  cents  per  pound,  value  ranging  somewhere  between  $8,000,000  and 
$11,000,000,  the  present  price  being  6  cents.  Cotton  linters  are  used  to  manufacture 
rope,  twine,  carpets,  batting,  mattresses  and  for  many  other  purposes. 

The  production  of  hulls  in  1914-15  was  about  1,649,700  tons  ranging  from  $6.50  to 
$7.00  per  ton  and  value  ranging  somewhere  between  $9,000,000  and  $12,000,000.  The 
present  price  is  $12  per  ton. 

The  above  are  the  chief  by-products  of  cotton.  There  are  a  few  others  which  find 
ready  sale,  such  as  motes  and  tank  settlings  or  soap  stock,  not  included  in  above 
figures. 

About  80  per  cent  of  the  crop  is  crushed  by  the  oil  mills,  the  other  20  per  cent 
remaining  being  used  for  seed,  feeding  of  cattle  and  in  some  instances  for  fertilizer. 

The  industry  has  grown  in  Memphis  from  a  few  small  oil  mills,  some  years  ago, 
until  at  present  we  have  eleven  high  power,  latest  improved  machinery  oil  mills  with 
a  seed  crushing  capacity  of  about  1,200  tons  for  each  24  hours.  About  150,000  tons  of 
cotton  seed  are  crushed  by  these  mills  each  season. 

In  connection  with  these  oil  mills  and  separately,  we  have  seven  oil  refineries, 
some  of  them  manufacturing  the  lard  compound,  cooking  oils,  etc. 

We  also  have  two  fibre  plants  that  manufacture  fibre  and  mixed  feeds,  in  the  lat- 
ter using  the  hull  bran  or  ground  hulls  mixed  with  cotton  seed  meal  for  stock  food. 

Lumber 

Memphis  is  the  largest  hardwood  lumber  market  in  the  world.  We  have  twenty- 
seven  hardwood  sawmills,  eleven  handle,  spoke  and  hardwood  specialty  mills,  four  box 
factories,  three  veneer  factories,  four  dimension  stock  factories,  three  tight  cooperage 
stock  factories,  four  slack  cooperage  stock  factories,  five  wagon  and  carriage  factories, 
three  furniture  factories,  one  car  factory,  one  coffin  factory,  two  hardwood  flooring 
factories,  one  washboard  and  screen  door  factory,  thirteen  planing  mills,  twenty-five 
wholesale  hardwood  distributing  yards  and  twenty  retail  lumber  yards. 

The  manufacturing,  wholesale  and  retail  firms  handle  in  one  year: 

Total  Feet      Total  Value 

Hardwood  lumber  manufactured  in   Memphis 124,028,749         $  3,428,565 

Lumber  manufactured  by  Memphis  firms,  mills  outside  of  the 

city 169,139,012  3,543,242 

Yarded  in  Memphis,  not  included  in  amount  manufactured 118,592,983  3,266,924 

Direct  shipments  by  Memphis  firms  from  country  mills.     To- 
tal hardwood  handled  by  Memphis  firms 572,599,278  13,765,660 

Exported   from    Memphis 21,768,955  703,909 

Exported  by  Memphis  firms  from  outside  points 27,735,504  739,550 

Total    exports   49,564,459  1,443,459 

Logs  received  by  Memphis  sawmills  by  rail 90,564,000  2,010,631 

Logs  received  by  Memphis  sawmills  by  river 53,443,667  786,655 

Total    logs    received 143,007,667  2,797,286 

Amount,  paid  to  labor  in  Memphis  by  lumber  and  woodwork- 
ing  industries 1,697,454 

Amount  of  lumber  consumed  in  Memphis  by  manufacturers  of 

furniture,   coffins,   boxes,   flooring,  vehicle  and   implement 

stock,  screen   doors,  washboards  and  turned  work 78,876,282  2,023,335 

Lumber  handled  by  retail  yards,  mostly  yellow  pine 88,824,460  2,105,769 

The  above  figures  are  taken  from  an  average  year's  business. 

The  above  number  of  sawmills  and  woodworking  plants  will  give  a  fair  idea  of 
the  growth  of  the  lumber  business  in  Memphis,  as  compared  with  about  twenty-five 
years  ago,  when  we  only  had  about  six  sawmills,  two  box  factories,  one  specialty 
plant  and  several  planing  mills. 

In  1896  there  was  no  demand  for  gum  lumber,  whereas  today  it  is  an  important 
factor  in  the  lumber  market. 

While  it  is  claimed  that -one  of  our  large  meat:  packers  remarked  .prior  to  the 
phonograph  they  saved  everything  from  the  hog  except  tJie  squeal,  the  lumberman 
also  has  been  equal  to  the  occasion.  We  have  in  Memphis  a  plant  making  from  the 
refuse  lumber  and  wood  acetate  of  lime,  alcohol  and  charcoal;  also  the  following  by- 
products are  used:  bark  for  tanning,  shavings  and  sawdust  for  fuel,  sawdust  for  floor 
polish  and  small  pieces  of  wood  for  skewers,  cross  tie  plugs;  and  small  timber  for 
golf  sticks,  golf  blocks  and  shuttle  blocks.  Also  the  ashes  from  hardwood  are  used 
for  fertilizer. 

The  railroads,  and  the  Illinois  Central  and  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  in  particular,  have  in 
many  ways  encouraged  and  fostered  these  various  industries  and  plants  and  rightfully 
feel  they  are  entitled  to  a  large  share  of  the  credit  for  the  growth  of  the  hardwood 
business. 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

C1AIMS  DEPARTMENT 

JntQTQsting  >  JVews  -  of-  "Doings  *  of 
Claimants-  Jn  •  and-  Out  •  of-  Court 


That  List  of  1 00  Suits 


A  circular  issued  by  General  Manager 
Foley  under  date  of  the  10th  ult.,  and 
addressed  to  passenger  conductors,  has 
occasioned  a  great  deal  of  comment.  The 
circular  had  reference  to  the  last  one 
hundred  suits  filed  against  the  I.  C.  and 
the  Y.  &  M.  V.,  based  upon  allegations  of 
wrongful  ejectment,  insult  or  abuse  of 
passengers  by  conductors.  No  doubt 
it  is  the  intention  of  the  management, 
after  the  lapse  of  suitable  time,  to  get 
out  another  circular  of  a  similar  na- 
ture, and  it  goes  without  saying  that 
the  names  of  the  conductors  which 
appeared  on  the  list  of  one  hundred  cases 
referred  to,  will  not  all  appear  on  the 
next  list.  Our  understanding  is  that  the 
conductors  are  going  to  see  to  it  in  the 
future  that  if  any  controversies  arise 
with  passengers,  that  such  controversies 
will  not  arise  through  any  fault  of  theirs. 
A  very  successful  railway  official  recently 
said:  "Railroad  service  begins  at  the 


ticket  office  when  the  railroad  patron 
buys  his  ticket.  It  ends  at  the  station 
where  he  alights.  Between  these  two 
points  should  stretch  the  railroad  smile." 
Mr.  Foley's  circular,  with  the  exception 
of  the  list  of  one  hundred  cases  cited, 
follows : 

The  attention  of  conductors  is  directed 
to  the  frequency  of  lawsuits  brought 
against  the  Company  for  alleged  delin- 
quencies for  which  the  Company  is  held 
responsible  through  the  act  of  its  agent, 
the  conductor.  A  large  number  of  such 
cases  are  either  fictitious  or  do  not 
possess  sufficient  merit  upon  which  to 
justify  a  jury  in  returning  a  verdict 
against  the  Company,  although  the  bur- 
den is  upon  the  Company  to  defend  itr 
self.  Juries  generally  sympathize  with 
the  individual  bringing  the  suit  and  na- 
turally lean  in  that  direction.  The  situa- 
tion is  quite  a  serious  one,  as  the  cost 
to  the  Company  of  defending  these  suits 


83 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


is  enormous,  outside  of  the  question  of 
the  verdicts  that  may  be  rendered  against 
the  Company. 

An  analysis  of  the  suits  brought  will, 
to  a  certain  extent,  offer  a  guide  as  to 
how  many  of  these  cases  may  be  avoided. 
It  will  be  observed  that  a  very  large  per 
cent  of  them  are  based  on  alleged  as- 
saults, discourtesy  and  wrongful  eject- 
ment. It  is  well  understood  that  con- 
ductors are  frequently  confronted  with 
situations  calculated  to  overtax  the  pa- 
tience of  the  ordinary  man.  They  should, 
however,  remember  that  to  a  very  large 
extent  the  reputation  of  the  railroad  is 
in  their  keeping.  The  conductor  is  one 
of  the  few  employes  who  comes  in  daily 
contact  with  the  public,  and  in  a  very 
responsible  way.  It  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  he  lay  aside  all  personal  feeling 
and  understand  that  he  is  called  upon  to 
exercise  patience  and  discretion  muqh 
beyond  the  ordinary.  In  his  position  it 
is  incumbent  upon  him  to  cultivate  the 
arts  of  courtesy,  tactfulness  and  diplo- 
macy, remembering  that  "a  soft  answer 
turneth  away  wrath,"  and  that  the  ex- 
ercise of  good  judgment  will  controvert 
fraudulent  designs  and  that  diplomacy 
will  out-general  those  who  may  be  seek- 
ing to  lay  the  foundation  to  mulct  the 
Company.  The  general  public,  and  par- 
ticularly fellow  passengers,  are  not  dis- 
posed to  be  unfair.  If  diplomatic  pub- 
licity is  given  to  complicated  situations 
when  they  arise,  the  sympathy  of  pros- 
pective witnesses  can  be  enlisted  in  the 
Company's  behalf.  If  a  conductor  takes 
a  broad  view  of  the  conditions,  per- 
mitting nothing  to  anger  him,  or  to  in- 
duce him  to  enter  into  controversies  or 
personal  altercations,  he  is  thrice  armed. 
He  should  take  the  precaution  of  enlist- 
ing the  sympathy  of  a  number  of  wit- 
nesses, explaining  carefully  to  them  his 
position,  in  the  presence  of  the  aggrieved 
patron,  and  request  the  latter  to  explain 
his  side  of  the  controversy,  if  he  will ;  in 
other  words,  the  case  can  be  frequently 
tried  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  before 
those  who  are  conversant  with  all  of  the 
details  and  surrounding  conditions  and 
in  this  manner  disposed  of. 

For  the  information  of  conductors  and 


other  trainmen  who  are  brought  in  con- 
tact with  these  situations,  a  list  is  ap- 
pended of  such  cases  as  may  convey  an 
idea  of  the  general  situation.  It  is,  of 
course,  understood  that  all  of  the  con- 
ductors were  not  guilty  as  charged  in 
these  lawsuits ;  the  fact  is  that  but  few 
of  them  were.  A  number  have,  however, 
unquestionably  laid  the  Company  liable 
in  damages  by  failure  to  follow  the  line 
of  conduct  which  is  deemed  proper  under 
such  circumstances.  Through  tactfulness 
on  the  part  of  the  conductors,  however, 
many  of  the  cases  could  possibly  have 
been  avoided.  The  Company  does  not 
object  to  defending  a  conductor  when  he 
is  in  the  right;  it  cannot  defend  him 
when  he  is  in  the  wrong,  but  it  may  be 
compelled  to  respond  in  damages  by  rea- 
son of  his  act. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  note  where 
these  suits  were  filed.  The  record,  di- 
vided by  states,  is  as  follow's: 

Number 

State  of  Cases 

Mississippi   ..' 84 

Tennessee  5 

Louisiana 4 

Kentucky   4 

Iowa   1 

Missouri  1 

Illinois  1 

The  States  of  Alabama,  Indiana,  Min- 
nesota, South  Dakota,  Arkansas  and 
Wisconsin  have  clear  records. 

It  will  be  observed  from  perusal  of  the 
appended  list  of  cases  that  eighty-four, 
out  of  the  one  hundred  cases  examined, 
were  filed  in  the  courts  of  Mississippi. 
These  suits  were  brought  during  the  past 
few  years  when  conditions  were  not  so 
favorable  in  Mississippi  as  they  are  now. 
I  believe  that  the  tendency  to  sue  the 
Company  on  slight  provocation  in  that 
state  has  undergone  a  great  change  and 
that,  in  the  future,  the  Company  will  re- 
ceive as-  fair  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
the  people  of  Mississippi  as  it  receives  in 
other  states.  However,  it  behooves  our 
conductors  to  leave  no  stone  unturned 
looking  to  the  avoidance  of  controversies 
with  passengers.  I  feel  that  if  the  con- 
ductors use  great  care  and  display  good 
judgment  in  the  handling  of  passengers 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


in  Mississippi,  that  this  class  of  litigation 
will  rapidly  disappear. 


FAITHFUL   REPRODUCTION 

The  accompanying  picture  of  colored 
boys  playing  marbles  in  the  yards  at 
Tutwiler,  Miss.,  was  secured  by  Claim 
Agent  Jolly  recently.  The  picture  was 


makers  are  convinced  that  the  only  way 
to  prevent  this  heart-rendering  destruc- 
tion of  humanity  is  to  legislate  trespass- 
ers off  railway  properties.  Would  it  not 
be  much  better  to  save  these  unfortunates 
by  a  little  regulation  than  to  allow  them 
to  constantly  place  themselves  in  posi- 
tions of  danger?  It  is  not  reasonable  to 


NEGRO    BOYS    PLAYING    MARBLES    IN    THE    RAILROAD    YARDS    AT    TUTWILER,    MISS. 


taken  of  the  boys  without  any  pre-ar- 
rangement  and  is  a  faithful  reproduction 
of  what  is  daily  and  hourly  taking 
place  in  hundreds  of  railway  yards. 
If  any  of  these  boys  had  been  in- 
jured or  killed,  the  railroad  would,  of 
course,  have  been  promptly  sued  for 
damages,  and  many  unthinking  people 
would  think  properly  so.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  annual  toll  of  killed  and  maimed 
human  bodies  of  trespassers  on  railway 
property  is  so  staggering,  and  unfortu- 
nately it  will  always  be  so  until  our  law- 


suppose  that  trainmen  can  always  avert 
accidents  to  little  boys  playing  about  the 
railway  yards  where  ponderous  engines 
andjcars  are  constantly  moving.  It  is 
impossible  to  tell  how  many  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  cases  they  do  prevent, 
but  they  get  no  credit  for  what  they  do 
in  that  respect.  However,  they  are  fre- 
quently condemned  when  an  accident 
does  occur.  Verily,  the  custom  of  tres- 
passing on  railway  tracks  presents  an  un- 
happy situation. 


LARGE  VERDICT  GIVEN  NEGRO 


The  Supreme  Court,  one  judge  dis- 
senting, has  affirmed  a  judgment  for 
$2,500  in  favor  of  Henry  Walls,  obtained 
in  the  Circuit  Court  of  Sharky  County, 
in  March,  1913.  Walls  is  a  negro,  who, 
on  January  9,  1913,  purchased  a  ticket  at 


Duncan,  Miss.,  for  Hardee,  Miss.,  board- 
ing a  passenger  train  not  scheduled  to 
stop  at  Hardee,  but  claimed  that  he  was 
not  so  advised  by  the  ticket  agent  or  the 
conductor  and  made  no  inquiry;  that 
after  leaving  Rolling  Fork  the  conductor 


86 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


informed  him  that  the  train  would  not 
stop  and  he  would  have  to  pay  his  fare 
to  Vicksburg  and,  as  he  did  not  have  the 
required  amount,  the  train  was  stopped 
and  he  was  ejected  about  midnight  in  the 
rain  and  while  walking  along  the  track 
fell  from  a  trestle,  sustaining  injuries 
which  confined  him  to  his  bed  off  and  on 
for  five  or  six  weeks ;  that  he  was  treated 
by  a  negro  doctor  and  then  by  a  white 
t  doctor  and  at  the  time  of  the  trial,  two 
months  later,  had  not  fully  recovered. 

The  conductor  said  that  he  punched 
and  returned  the  ticket  and  advised  the 
negro  to  change  at  Rolling  Fork  and  re- 
peated the  instruction  just  before  the 
train  reached  there.  Finding  him  on  the 
train  after  it  left  there,  he  stopped  the 
train  and  put  the  negro  off,  when  he  said 
he  could  not  pay  the  fare  to  Vicksburg. 
There  was  no  complaint  of  abuse  or 
rough  treatment.  No  one,  other  than  the 
plaintiff,  appeared  to  contradict  the  con- 
ductor's statement.  A  negro  doctor  testi- 
fied that  he  had  treated  the  plaintiff  the 
day  following  the  accident,  he  having 
been  brought  to  him  by  a  son-in-law  of 
one  of  plaintiff's  lawyers,  a  negro;  that 
he  found  a  few  cuts  and  bruises  and  by 
external  examination  of  his  back  diag- 
nosed a  lacerated  kidney ;  that  after  two 
days  plaintiff  passed  out  of  his  care  and 
he  understood  was  treated  by  a  white  doc- 
tor, but  did  not  know  for  how  long.  The 
colored  doctor  also  admitted  at  the  trial 
that  he  had  that  day  examined  plaintiff 
and  found  the  soreness  gone  and,  with- 
out making  an  X-ray  examination,  could 
not  tell  the  condition  of  his  kidneys,  but 
that  a  lacerated  kidney  usually  lasted  a 
life  time.  He  did  not  explain  how  he 
could  tell  by  external  examination  the  day 
after  the  accident  that  there  was  a  lacer- 
ated kidney  and  be  unable  to  tell  about 
it  on  the  day  of  the  trial  by  X-ray  exam- 
ination. The  ticket  introduced  in  evi- 
dence bore  on  its  face  the  condition, 
"Good  one  day  from  date  of  sale  for 
continuous  trip  via  through  line  on 
trains  scheduled  to  stop  at  destination ; 
otherwise  passengers  must  transfer  to 
local  train." 

To  find  for  the  plaintiff  the  jury  had 
to  accept  the  negro's  unsupported  state- 
ment and  disbelieve  the  conductor.  Even 
if  the  company  were  liable,  what  was 


there  to  justify  such  an  enormous  ver- 
dict? Twenty-five  hundred  dollars  is  a 
substantial  sum,  even  to  a  railroad  com- 
nany  and  very  much  so  to  the  ordinary 
private  citizen  and  to  a  common,  cotton 
picking  country  negro  like  this  plaintiff, 
it  is  a  fortune  far  beyond  anything  of 
which  he  presumably  had  the  slightest 
conception.  It  represents  his  earnings  at 
any  occupation  for  which  he  is  fitted,  for 
a  period  of  seven  or  eight  years  and  the 
interest  on  this  amount  would  equal  or 
exceed  half  of  his  yearly  earnings. 
Twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  either  to 
negro  or  white,  is  a  pretty  big  temptation 
to  dispute  the  word  of  a  conductor  and 
to  invite  ejectment. 

Negroes  are  entitled  to  kindly  and  con- 
siderate treatment  when  passengers  and 
must  not  be  abused  or  ejected'from  trains 
without  cause,  but  when  questions  of 
veracity  such  as  were  presented  in  this 
case  arise,  certainly  something  more  than 
the  unsupported  statement  of  the  negro 
passenger  should  be  required  before  a 
verdict  is  returned  and,  if  entitled  to  a 
verdict,  it  should  be  reasonable.  There 
was  no  evidence  that  this  negro  was 
permanently  injured  or  disabled  beyond  a 
few  days. 

Much  has  recently  been  written  about 
the  baiting  of  railroads,  and  this  appears 
to  be  a  typical  example  of  that  practice. 
The  railroad  complains  that  such  verdicts 
are  seldom  returned  and  never  sustained 
in  other  states  along  its  lines  and  this 
probably  explains  why  85  per  cent  of  this 
character  of  litigation  against  it  is  found 
in  Mississippi.  It  seems  to  us,  however, 
that  a  much  more  serious  question  is 
presented  here  than  the  interests  of  the 
railroad — that  a  vital  question  of  pub- 
lic interest  and  public  policy  is  involved. 
That  this  same  negro  has  since  collected 
on  a  similar  claim  against  the  company, 
demonstrates  the  effect.  It  is  a  very  easy 
way  of  making  a  living  and  has  a  most 
demoralizing  effect  upon  our  negroes.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  one  who  so  easily 
recovers  through  the  courts  such  an 
enormous  sum  should  thereafter  look 
upon  ordinary  toil  with  distaste,  and 
others,  knowing  the  circumstances,  emu- 
late his  example  while  the  "easy"  money 
which  these  cases  afford  to  unscrupulous 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


87 


members  of  the  legal  profession,  is  bring- 
ing that  calling  into  disrepute.  We  view 
with  much  concern  the  demoralizing 


effect  which  cases  of  this  nature  have 
upon  our  people. — Yazoo  City  (Miss.) 
Herald,  February  25,  1916. 


We  show  above  a  very  vivid  picture 
of  one  of  the  obstacles  of  railway  opera- 
tion. It  is  remarkable  how  old  worn-out 
mules,  horses  and  cows,  when  they  be- 
come so  weak  that  they  can  scarcely 
move  under  their  own  "steam,"  find  their 
way  to  the  railroad  track.  Once  there, 
they  are  much  more  apt  to  be  struck  by 
locomotives  than  stock  in  good  condition 
because  of  their  inability  to  get  out  of 
the  way. 

A  few  months  ago  the  Claims  Depart- 
ment conceived  the  idea  of  furnishing 
Claim  Agents  with  kodaks  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taking  pictures  of  old  stock  be- 
fore inevitable  death  under  the  wheels 
takes  place,  for  after  that  occurs,  an 
animal  very  quickly  swells  up  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  requires  an  expert  veteri- 
narian to  tell  anything  about  the  previous 
condition  of  the  animal. 

In  many  instances,  the  taking  of  pic- 
tures has  had  the  effect  of  frightening  old 
stock  so  far  away  from  the  waylands 
that  they  never  have  returned,  and  per- 
haps never  will,  but  that  is  not  always 
true,  and  was  not  in  the  story  which  we 
are  about  to  relate. 


The  "right  of  way"  mule  shown  above 
was  the  property  of  Willis  Visor,  colored, 
of  Batesville,  Miss.  When  this  mule  was 
first  noticed  to  have  taken  up  his  abode 
on  the  waylands  during  the  month  of 
January,  Claim  Agent  Condit  was  no- 
tified and  soon  thereafter  secured  the 
snapshot  from  which  the  accompanying 
cut  was  made.  The  man  shown  in  the 
picture  holding  the  mule  by  the  ear  is 
Supervisor  G.  R.  Wilkinson.  The  man 
shown  on  the  horse  to  the  left  is  Ephram 
Cole,  colored.  That  it  may  be  fully  un- 
derstood that  the  facts  in  the  case  war- 
ranted the  preparation  that  was  made  in 
advance  for  later  adjusting  a  claim  for 
the  death  of  the  mule,  we  wish  to  say 
that  the  mule  was  struck  by  a  locomotive 
at  11 :00  o'clock  A.  M.,  February  14th, 
and  that  death  was  instantaneous.  Ne- 
gotiations for  settlement  of  the  claim 
are  at  the  present  time  being  conducted 
by  Claim  Agent  Condit. 


YOU  MAY  SAVE  YOUR  BOY'S 
LIFE 

The    Sentinel  has   been   requested  to 
admonish  those  parents  whose  boys  are 


3 

s 


: 


K; 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


89 


grabbing  the  rear  of  freight  trains  about 
the  depot  in  Grenada  and  taking  a  short 
ride  that  they  had  best  see  that  the  prac- 
tices are  discontinued  at  once,  otherwise 
history  will  repeat  itself  and  some  home 
will  be  in  sorrow  and  sadness  over  the 
death  of  a  dear  little  boy.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  it  is  a  very  dangerous  prac- 
tice and  while  it  is  known  that  the  boys 
do  not  appreciate  the  danger,  neverthe- 
less the  danger  is  there  and  the  parents 
of  the  town  would  do  well  to  see  that 
their  boys  are  kept  away  from  the  depot 
and  off  moving  trains. 

It  might  be  proper  to  say  that  the  boys 
are  violating  the  law  and  are  subject  to 
arrest  every  time  they  board  a  freight 
train. — The  Grenada  (Miss.)  Sentinel. 


The  Tennessee  Division  has  made  an 
enviable  record  in  reducing  the  number 
of  head  of  live  stock  killed  on  the  way- 
lands.  The  officers  and  employes  to  a 
man  on  that  Division  are  interested  in 
this  subject  and  their  good  work  is  re- 
flected in  the  steadily  decreasing  dis- 
bursements on  account  of  killing  stock. 
As  an  illustration  of  how  closely  the  sec- 
tion foremen  are  watching  this  impor- 
tant matter  on  the  Tennessee  Division, 
we  are  quoting  below  a  letter  which  Sec- 
tion Foreman  S.  W.  Williams,  of  Medi- 
na, Tenn.,  addressed  to  Superintendent 
Egan  at  Fulton,  Ky.,  under  date  of  Janu- 
ary 22nd : 

"In  answer  to  yours  of  the  17th  re- 
lative to  stock  claims  during  the  year 
1915.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  haven't 
had  any  stock  claims  on  my  section  in 
the  past  five  years,  nor  a  personal  injury 
report  in  six  years.  I  think  each  Fore- 
man should  watch  these  two  features 
very  closely.  Five  years  ago  I  made  up 
my  mind  to  watch  this  and  keep  this 
part  of  my  record  clear.  I  know  that 
every  Foreman  should  be  diligent  in  look- 
ing after  these  two  features.  We  should 
go  or  send  a  man  to  get  stock  off  way- 
lands  when  on  them.  When  I  have  a 
land  owner  to  put  his  stock  in  the  field 
where  the  fence  is  not  good  enough  to 
keep  them  off,  I  go  to  the  man,  approach- 


ing him  in  a  nice  way  and  ask  him  to 
keep  his  stock  up  until  I  can  fix  the 
fence,  and  find  this  to  be  a  good  plan. 
All  Foremen  can  keep  down  a  good 
many  claims  by  keeping  their  eyes  open. 
It  will  not  cost  as  much  to  go  drive  the 
stock  off  of  the  waylands  as  it  will  to 
have  them  killed.  I  am  making  every 
effort  to  keep  these  claims  down,  and 
aim  to  keep  it  up  as  long  as  I  can." 


THE   CRIME   OF   PERJURY 

The  fight  that  is  now  being  waged 
in  our  courts  to  weed  out  the  prac- 
tice of  perjury  is  one  that  cannot  be 
commended  too  highly.  The  court  was 
entirely  right  when  it  imposed  upon  the 
men  who  confessed  to  this  offense  and  to 
subornation  of  perjury  the  maximum 
penalty  of  the  law.  And  if  it  should  de- 
velop that  the  attorney  accused  of  hav- 
ing conceived  and  directed  the  amazing 
scheme  revealed  by  these  confessions  to 
procure  evidence  in  a  damage  case  is 
guilty,  he  should  likewise  suffer  that 
penalty.  There  are  no  real  considera- 
tions why  he  should  be  spared.  In  fact, 
his  position  renders  him  doubly  guilty. 
The  men  who  have  been  sentenced  may 
plead  ignorance  of  the  significance  or 
consequences  of  their  act.  They  were  un- 
lettered men,  unversed  in  legal  lore  and 
with  only  vague  conceptions  of  their  ob- 
ligations to  society.  The  attorney  can 
plead  no  such  extenuation.  If  we  are  to 
credit  the  testimony  that  has  been  thus 
far  presented,  he  deliberately  led  these 
ignorant  men  to  violate  their  oaths  and 
the  laws  of  the  land  with  the  under- 
standing that  they  were  to  share  the  ill- 
gotten  gains.  His  offense  is  of  the  worst 
because  it  strikes  at  the  very  roots  of  our 
system  of  justice.  If  such  practices  were 
not  rigidly  suppressed,  if  the  sacredness 
of  the  oath  were  not  firmly  upheld,  there 
would  no  longer  be  any  such  thing  as 
justice.  Neither  life  nor  property  would 
be  safe.  Both  would  be  at  the  mercy  of 
designing  attorneys. 

Naturally  and  rightfully  there  is  sym- 
pathy with  the  unfortunate  child  which 
suffered  the  accident  in  question  in  this 
case.  But  the  alleged  methods  employed 


90 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


by  the  attorney,  along  with  all  similar 
types  of  ambulance  chasing,  are  worthy 
of  the  severest  condemnation. — Water- 
loo (la.)  Courier-Reporter,  March  2, 
1916. 


THE  OLD,  OLD  STORY 

Another  fatal  accident, — horror  would 
better  express  it, — occurred  here  last 
Sunday  morning,  just  as  the  early  fast 
train  was  leaving  for  Memphis.  A  col- 
ored bum  had  ridden  the  blind  baggage 
from  Grenada  this  far;  eh  route  to  Mem- 
phis, (where  it  is  said  he  was  going  to 
work),  and  as  the  train  was  pulling  out 
from  here,  he  undertook  to  jump  on,  but 
in  some  way  lost  his  footing  and  fell 
under  the  car,  and  was  soon  cut  up  into 
an  unrecognizable  mass  of  flesh  and 
bones.  It  was  found  by  papers  in  his 
pocket  that  he  was  from  Water  Valley, 
and  the  body  was  sent  there  for  final 
disposition.  This  is  but  another  instance 
that  jumping  trains  under  any  circum- 
stances is  a  most  dangerous  practice. 
There  should  be  some  way  to  put  a  stop 
to  it. — Southern  Reporter,  Sardis,  Miss., 
January  28,  1916. 


WOULD    HAMPER   CLAIM 

AGENTS 

Lott  Introduces  Bill  of  Interest  in  the 
House  of  Representatives 

Representative  Lott  Tuesday  intro- 
duced a  bill  to  create  an  act  making  it 
impossible  for  an  agent  of  any  corpora- 
tion or  an  individual  to  stave  off  a  dam- 
age suit  by  paying  an  injured  person  any 
sum  of  money  and  securing  his  signature 
to  a  document  releasing  the  individual 
or  corporation  from  liability. 

The  bill  reads  that  in  no  case  can  any 
document  so  signed  act  as  a  quit  claim 
to  any  damages  "within  thirty  days  after 
a  person  is  injured." 

Mr.  Lott  wants  this  law  passed  to  pre- 
vent activities  of  claim  agents  securing 


releases  from  damage  claims  after  acci- 
dents, wrecks,  etc.,  from  those  who 
might  be  injured.  The  bill  specifies  that 
if  any  person  injured  signs  a  release  and 
receives  any  money  for  damages  for  a 
.30-day  period  thereafter  he  or  she  shall 
not  be  denied  the  right  to  institute  suit 
for  damages,  and  all  money  so  paid  by 
an  individual  or  corporation  shall  be  for- 
feited. 

The  News  thinks  claim  agents  should 
have  the  right  to  stave  off  damage  suits 
whenever  practical.  The  railroads  have 
been  harrassed  too  much  in  the  past  with 
lawsuits  which  could  have  been  compro- 
mised out  of  courts.  However,  there  has 
been  a  decided  change  in  sentiment  to- 
ward the  railroads  lately. — Yazoo  Coun- 
ty (Miss.)  News. 


WANTED,  ANOTHER  RAILROAD 
MAN 

An  accident  on  the  Seaboard  Air  Line 
made  a  widow  of  Amanda  Jones,  a  bride 
of  three  days.  The  company  proposed 
and  secured  a  cash  settlement  which  was 
made  with  a  showy  collection  of  new 
$100  bills.  Amanda  forgot  her  tears  for 
the  time  as  she  moistened  her  Senegam- 
bian  thumb  and  separated  the  notes 
which  clung  to  each  other  so  closely. 

While  checking  the  accuracy  of  the 
railroad  cashier  she  was  interrupted  by 
her  female  companion  who  saw  in  her 
the  potentialities  of  an  heiress. 

"Amanda,"  asked  the  companion,  "do 
you  reckon  you  will  ever  git  married 
agin  ?" 

The  widow  was  silent  and  apparently 
abstracted  for  a  moment,  during  which 
she  extended  the  moistened  thumb  half 
way  between  her  mouth  and  the  money. 
Of  a  sudden  she  resumed  counting  vig- 
orously, remarking : 

"Ah  don'  know,  but  if  Ah  do  it  will 
be  some  pusson  on  de  Seabode  Ayeh 
Line." — Exchange. 


DBP/qPTMENT 


A  Rapid  and  Accurate  Method  of  Cross-Sectioning 

Tunnels 

By  T.  H.  Robertson,  Assistant  Engineer,  Valuation  Department 


THE  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  undertaken  the  physical  valuation 
of  the  property  of  all  railway  carriers  in 
the  United  States,  as  they  now  exist  or 
may  hereafter  be  extended  or  changed,  and 
has  required  the  carriers  to  furnish  maps 
and  profiles  of  all  their  lines. 

In  order  to  meet  these  requirements,  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  has  found  it  nec- 
essary to  make  resurveys  of  certain  lines 
because  the  existing  maps  and  profiles  did 
not  comply  with  the  specifications  laid 
down  by  the  Commission. 

Since  October,  1914,  a  resurvey  party  con- 
sisting of  an  assistant  engineer  and  elev- 
en men,  has  been  engaged  in  making  sur- 
veys and  preparing  maps  and  profiles.  In 
connection  with  making  the  maps  and  pro- 
files, it  was  decided  to  take  an  inventory 
of  the  lines  surveyed,  taking  into  account 
all  items  inventoried  by  the  roadway  and 
track  parties  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission. 

This  resurvey  party  is  now  engaged  in 
making  a  valuation  survey  of  the  main  line 
of  the  Kentucky  division,  between  Paducah, 
Kentucky,  and  Cecilia,  Kentucky.  There 
are  four  tunnels  on  the  main  line  of  the 
Kentucky  division  between  Paducah  and 
Cecilia.  It  is  necessary  to  secure  accurate 
cross-sections  of  the  tunnels  as  a  part  of 
the  data  required.  It  is  difficult  to  take 
accurate  cross-sections  of  a  tunnel  by  the 
ordinary  method  of  a  wye  level  and  tape 
line,  and  as  the  cost  of  tunnel  excavation 
is  comparatively  high,  it  is  very  important 
to  do  accurate  field  work  in  order  that  act- 
ual excavation  quantities  can  be  deter- 
mined, as  nearly  as  possible.  In  order  to 
easily  and  quickly  secure  accurate  cross- 
sections  of  tunnels,  members  of  this  party 
planned  a  special  device,  as  shown  by  the 
accompanying  drawing. 
'  This  device  consists  of  a  triangular  "A," 
frame  of  wood,  fastened  together  with 
bolts  and  thumb-screw  nuts,  with  a  cross- 
piece  in  the  center  of  the  frame,  support- 
ing an  upright  piece  5  feet  6  inches  long. 
A  leveling  screw  is  placed  at  the  apex  of 


the  "A"  frame,  and  a  level  bubble  on  the 
cross-piece.  Reference  to  the  accompany- 
ing drawing  will  show  position  of  this  lev- 
eling screw  and  bubble.  To  the  upright  is 
attached  a  circular  protractor  24  inches  in 
diameter,  so  placed  that  the  center  of  pro- 
tractor will  be  4  feet  6  inches  above  base 
of  rail  on  tangents.  This  protractor  is 
graduated  to  single  degrees  from  0°  to  360° 
reading  from  left  to  right  in  the  clockwise 
direction,  zero  being  at  the  bottom  of  the 
protractor.  The  proractor  is  made  of  two 
pieces  of  wood  Y±  inch  in  thickness,  glued 
together  with  grain  crossed  in  order  to 
prevent  warping.  The  "A"  frame  is  put 
together  with  bolts  secured  with  thumb- 
screw nuts  in  order  that  it  can  be  taken 
apart  and  readily  carried  about,  also  can  be 
stored  when  not  in  use  without  occupying 
much  space.  The  device  was  made  by  the 
Car  Department  at  the  Paducah  shops. 

When  a  tunnel  section  is  to  be  taken, 
the  "A"  frame  is  placed  upon  the  rails  of 
the  track  and  is  held  in  place  bv  iron  cleats. 
The  frame  is  then  leveled  by  means  of  the 
leveling  screw  referred  to  above.  The  level 
bubble  on  the  center  of  the  cross-piece 
which  supports  the  upright  is  a  guide  for 
leveling  the  device.  A  plumb-bob  line  is 
also  used  in  order  to  be  absolutely  certain 
that  the  upright  piece  is  vertical. 

In  taking  the  cross-section,  an  ordinary 
13-foot  level  rod  is  placed  at  points  where 
readings  are  to  be  taken  and  held  against 
the  face  of  the  protractor,  one  edge  on 
line  with  center  of  same.  Angle  and  dis- 
tance (the  only  measurements  necessary  to 
be  taken)  are  recorded  in  an  engineer's 
cross-section  note-book.  The  rod  is  brought 
into  contact  with  the  controlling  points  of 
the  tunnel  outline,  which  are  those  of  the 
greatest  prelection  and  depression  of  the 
surface.  Cross-sections  are  taken  at  suffi- 
cient intervals  to  accurately  determine  ex- 
cavation quantities,  as  in  all  earthwork 
measurements. 

Three  men  are  required  to  operate  the 
tunnel  measuring  device.  One  man  holds 
the  rod  and  reads  distances  and  angles,  the 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


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levelman    directs    the    work    and    records  and  recorded  from  left  to  right,  thereby  as 

notes,  and  the  third  man  holds  a  light.   The  far  as  possible  eliminating  chance  of  errors, 

device  is  always  set  so  the  protractor  faces  It  can   be   set  up,   and  a  section  taken  in 

toward  zero  station,  and  readings  are  taken  from  ten  to  fifteen  minutes. 


94 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


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DEVICE  FOR  MEASURING 

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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


95 


The  field  notes  are  platted  in  the  office, 
and  the  tunnel  section  is  reproduced  to 
some  convenient  scale,  the  office  protrac- 
tor being  set  at  the  same  distance  above 
base  of  rail  or  grade  as  the  field  instru- 
ment measures.  The  height  of  protractor 
above  base  of  rail  is  recorded  in  the  field, 
as  it  varies  on  curves  due  to  elevation  of 
outer  rail.  The  points  platted  on  the  cross- 
section  sheet  are  joined  by  lines,  and  the 
area  is  determined  by  the  planimeter  or  by 
calculations  based  on  the  triangles  of 
which  the  figure  is  composed. 

The  actual  cost  of  securing  cross-sections 
of  Montgomery  tunnel,  which  is  an  unlined 
rock  tunnel  252  feet  long,  was  $4.16,  or  less 
than  two  cents  per  linear  foot.  Six  sections 
were  taken  in  this  tunnel,  averaging  about 
twenty  readings  each.  During  the  progress 
of  measuring  this  tunnel  it  was  necessary 
to  take  up  the  device  and  move  it  outside 
the  tunnel  five  times  in  order  to  permit  pas- 
sage of  trains.  Had  it  not  been  for  this, 
the  cost  of  measuring  this  tunnel  would 
have  been  reduced  one-half,  or  to  about 
one  cent  per  linear  foot  of  tunnel.  How- 
ever, similar  delays  are  to  be  expected  in 
every  tunnel  through  which  trains  are  op- 
erated, and  the  two  cents  cost  per  foot  of 
measuring  Montgomery  -tunnel  majy  be 
taken  as  a  fair  average  for  doing  this  class 
of  work. 


Comparing  this  method  of  measuring 
tunnels  with  the  ordinary  method  of  using 
a  wye  level  and  tape,  it  should  be  noted 
first  that  the  level  and  tape  method  re- 
quires five  men  as  against  three  with  the 
measuring  device.  Of  these  five  men,  one 
man  reads  the  wye  level  and  records  notes, 
two  men  operate  rod  and  tape,  another 
holds  a  light  to  illumine  the  cross-hairs  of 
the  level,  and  the  fifth  holds  a  light  for 
reading  rod  and  tape.  On  account  of  diffi- 
culty of  reaching  points  in  the  roof  of  the 
tunnel  by  the  latter  method,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  holding  the  level  rod  plumb  and 
keeping  the  tape  truly  horizontal,  the  tun- 
nel outline  can  not  be  as  accurately  deter- 
mined in  this  way  as  by  the  use  of  the 
device  described  above.  Also,  owing  to  dif- 
ficulty of  reading  wye  level  and  operating 
rod  and  tape,  it  takes  more  than  twice  as 
long  to  secure  each  cross-section  with  wye 
level,  rod  and  tape,  so  that  the  cost  of 
the  work  would  be  more  than  doubled 
thereby. 

The  data  taken  is  simple  to  record,  _and 
can  be  as  readily  platted  and  computed  in 
the  office  as  data  taken  by  any  other  meth- 
od. The  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
the  use  of  the  measuring  device  are  greater 
accuracy  of  measurement  and  greater 
speed,  and  the  cost  of  the  work  is  reduced 
over  half  in  comparison  with  other  meth- 
ods. 


Essay  on  Efficiency 

By  H.  S.  Jones,  Burnside 


Efficiency,  as  a  general  term,  has  been 
defined  by  an  eminent  authority  on  Eng- 
lish diction,  as  a  derivative  of  effect,  used 
in  reference  to  an  act  or  actions  intended 
to  produce  effects,  or,  in  a  more  modern 
sense,  higher  power. 

In  our  latter  day  the  term  is  much  abused. 
Considerable  confusion  is  encountered  by 
those  who  would  use  the  term  synonymous- 
ly with  proficiency.  However,  in  general 
application,  the  term  is  used  almost  ex- 
clusively in  reference  to  our  modern  in- 
dustrial system.  Thus,  we  speak  of  an  act 
or  actions  intended  to  effect  higher  power 
in  man  or  thing,  as  a  part  of  an  efficiency 
system. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  write  upon  a 
subject  so  broad,  without  departing  from 
that  strict  sense  of  local  color,  so  ^essential 
to  a  paper  intended  for  publication  in  a 
railroad  employes'  magazine  onlv.  How- 
ever, I  shall  earnestly  endeavor  to  main- 
tain the  strictest  unity  in  the  last  men- 
tioned element  of  composition,  and  will 
cite  for  reference  examples  which,  by  rea- 
son of  the  daily  associations  of  some  of 
us,  will  be  .  readily  understood,  and  by 
some  of  us.  will  be  appreciated  with  genuine 
interest  and  satisfaction. 

For  economic  reasons  many  industrial 
concerns  have  employed  men,  commonly 
called  "efficiency  experts"  to  study  condi- 
tions in  their  shops  and  factories;  and  by 
railroads  in  other  departments,  to  the  end 
that  their  suggestions  may  be  adapted  to 
use  in  the  promotion  of  higher  efficiency. 

Generally  speaking,  in  places  where  this 
system  has  been  introduced,  it  has  been 
found  to  be  a  very  unpoplar  innovation, 
both  with  the  individual  man  and  at  times 
with  the  immediate  management. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  system  of  this 
kind  has  one  great  failing.  It  seems  to  be 
possessed  of  the  idea  that  man  and  machine 
should  be  classed  categorically,  and  are  the 
onlv  elements  to  be  considered. 

Therefore,  to  the  mind  of  average  intelli- 
gence, the  cause  for  this  unpopularity  is 
readily  suggested.  And  alike  to  the  mind 


of  average  intelligence,  the  idea  suggests 
itself  of  elements,  equally  important  as  the 
first  mentioned  without  one  of  which  no 
lasting  progress  can  be  effected. 

Let  us,  therefore,  consider  the  effect  of 
applied  efficiency  methods  to  leadership 
and  organization,  as  well  as  to  the  in- 
dividual. 

According  to  the  idea  presented  an  effi- 
cient organization  cannot  be  had  without 
the  first  brand  of  efficiency  in  leadership, 
or  supervision,  as  it  is  generally  termed; 
and  in  the  individual. 

Not  many  years  ago  the  management  of  a 
concern,  when  appointing  a  supervisor  of 
their  interests,  generally  took  into  con- 
sideration as  the  first  qualification,  the  man 
whose  ability  was  greatest  in  the  art  or 
trade  at  which  he  was  engaged;  and  at 
times,  length  of  service.  However,  in  our 
modern  day  the  procedure  has  been  en- 
tirely 'changed. 

True,  the  last  mentioned  qualifications 
cannot  be  entirely  ignored,  but  in  late  years 
certain  conditions  have  arisen  in  the  in- 
dustrial world  which  make  it  necessary  in 
selecting  as  a  supervisor,  a  man  with  more 
than  an  adeptness  in  his  art;  but  a  man 
with  qualifications  necessary  to  cope  with 
those  conditions  which,  taken  in  two  phases 
we  generally  refer  to  as  industrial  discon- 
tent, and  the  necessity  for  a  curtailment  in 
economic  waste. 

Therefore,  the  efficient  supervisor  must 
necessarily  be  a  man  of  many  capabilities. 
He  must  be  a  man  capable  to  form  ideas 
and  capable  to  put  them  into  effect;  a  man 
capable  to  give  orders,  and  enforce  their 
obedience  and  willing  to  receive  orders,  and 
obey  them  himself;  a  man  capable  to  judge, 
and  criticise  and  willing  to^  be  judged,  and 
be  the  object  of  much  critcisism;  a  man 
capable  to  advise  and  willing  to  accept  ad- 
vice; a  man  above  all,  with  supreme  con- 
fidence in  his  executive  ability  to  cope 
with  any  situation  which  might  arise. 

The  efficient  supervisor  too,  must  be  an 
adept  in  discipline.  He  is  often  confronted 
with  cases  in  which  he  must  enforce  certain 


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ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


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rules  with  military  precision.  Alike  he  is 
often  confronted  with  cases  in  which 
leniency  will  work  most  wonderful  effects. 
He  must  always  rely  upon  his  power  of  dis- 
cernment and  discretion,  in  determining  the 
course  he  will  pursue.  It  has  often  been 
repeated  that  "discretion  is  the  better  part 
of  valor,"  but  applied  to  a  supervisor  of 
men — discretion  is  a  virtue. 

There  are  also  two  other  Qualities  which 
a  few  years  ago  would  not  have  been  con- 
sidered at  all  necessary  to  the  makeup  of 
a  supervisor. 

We  refer  to  our  age  as  an  age  of 
progress,  and  the  fact  is  plain  that'  he  who 
will  progress  must  be  the  aggressor.  Thus 
the  idea  presents  itself  that  the  efficient 
supervisor  must  be  both  progressive  and 
aggressive.  He  must  be  possessed  of  the 
initative  ability  to  enable  him  to  plan  steps 
of  progress,  and  of  the  aggressiveness 
necessary  to  carry  them  into  effect. 

Taken  as  a  whole  the  efficient  supervisor 
must  be  a  man  in  whose  makeup  are  em- 
bodied those  qualities  which  are  necessary 
to  his  being  classed  in  the  category  of 
representative  men,  and  which  entitle  him 
to  the  respect  of  even  his  enemies. 

Let  us  now  pause  to  consider  the  sub- 
ordinate supervisor.  It  is  natural  to  ex- 
oect  that  the  ideas  of  a  supervisor  would 
be  reflected  in  a  subordinate.  Such  is  gen- 
erally the  case,  although  there/  are  cases 
in  which  the  above  does  rtQt^hold  true. 

In  another  paragraph  I  mentioned  in- 
dustrial discontent  and  curtailment  in 
economic  waste,  as  two  conditions  with 
which  the  modern  supervisor  must  be  in 
continuous  combat.  In  the  former  it  is 
to  be  expected  that  a  man  possessed  of 
the  qualifications  which  I  have  enumerated, 
would  be  equal  to  the  task;  providing  he 
had  the  co-operation  of  his  subordinates, 
and  it  is  expected  that  he  would  have. 
However,  in  the  latter  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  he  have  their  earnest  co-opera- 
tion and  support. 

Generally  speaking,  it  is  the  subordinate, 
after  all,  who  comes  in  closest  contact  with 
the  main  _  element  in  an  efficiency  system — 
the  individual  man. 

The_  average  subordinate  if  he  is  desirous 
of  giving  his  employers  the  best  there  is  in 
him,  can  do  much  to  alleviate  industrial  dis- 
content. His  dailv  associations  with  the 
individual  man,  afford  him  manifold  op- 
portunities _to  win  the  confidence  of  his 
men;  and  if  he  is  not  courteous,  affords 
onoortunities  to  incur  their  actual  hos- 
tility. 

^A  careful  studv  of  each  individi^l  man 
will  afford  knowledge  which,  discriminatelv 
applied,  will  nroduce  wonderful  results.  I 
can  vividlv  recall  a  conversation  with  a 
train  dispatcher  of  one  of  our  great  Ameri- 
can trunk  lines  in  which  he  illustrated  how, 
in  order  to  operate  the  company's  trains 
nore  effectively,  he  made  it  a  point  to 


make  the  individual  acquaintance  and  study 
the  qualities  of  each  engineman  of  his  di- 
vision, and  further  than  that  studied  the 
speed  and  hauling  power  of  each  engine. 
Thus  it  is  shown  how  a  study  of  man  and 
machine  will  reveal  a  solution  to  the  ques- 
tions: What  do  they  like  and  how  do  they 
like  it?  And  as  I  said  before  this  knowl- 
edge, discriminately  applied  will  produce 
wonderful  results. 

It  is  also  necessary  for  one  in  direct 
charge  of  men  to  set  an  exemplary  ex- 
ample. He  cannot  rightfully  expect  his 
men  to  be  energetic  unless  he  is  enegetic 
himself.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  a  man  is  of 
the  caliber  that  typifies  the  old  proverb 
"Where  there's  a  will  there's  a  way,"  and 
if  he  has  any  magnetic  influence  at  all,  it 
stands  to  reason  that  his  men  will  emulate 
his  example. 

Contrary  to  this,  I  recall  of  hearing  a  man 
under  whom  I  was  once  working  say:  "It 
takes  a  lazy  man  to  make  other  men  work." 
Perhaps  he  was  right  to  a  certain  extent, 
but  I  personally  would  perfer  to  think  of 
him  as  entirely  wrong.  It  is  a  significant 
fact  that  wherever  this  last  mentioned  con- 
dition prevails,  the  germs  of  industrial  dis- 
content are  always  to  be  found.  - 

Thus,  the  idea  presents  itself,  that  if  a 
subordinate  supervisor  is  possessed  of  ex- 
emplary Qualities  he  can  assist  his  superior 
wonderfully  in  the  alleviation  of  this  so- 
called  industrial  discontent;  while  on  the 
other  hand,  if  he  is  the  opposite  type  of 
man  he  does  much  toward  aggravating  it. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  subordinate's 
relation  to  the  curtailment  in  economic 
waste.  Illustrative  of  this,  I  would  beg 
privilege  to  deviate  from  the  main  subject 
for  a  few  brief  paragraphs. 

A  railroad  company,  figuratively  speak- 
ing, closely  resembles  a  massive  tree.  Its 
many  departments,  each  closely  related  to 
the  other  and  the  life  of  all  sustained,  in 
most  cases,  entirely  by  a  main  department. 

Agreeing  that  operating  revenue  is  the 
main  support  of  the  railroads,  it  naturally 
follows  that  the  operating  department  is 
the  "trunk"  of  the  tree. 

We  also  hear  much  of  operating  revenue 
compared  to  operating  expense.  A  careful 
studv  of  these  figures  will  reveal  the  fact 
that  if  the  railroads  are  to  maintain  their 
financial  footing,  a  decrease  must  be  made 
in  this  one  item  "operating  expense"  with- 
out, at  the  same  time,  decreasing  operating 
efficiency.  And  it  has  been  demonstrated 
that  a  great  saving  can  be  effected  through 
what  I  have  termed  "curtailment  in  eco- 
nomic waste."  insomuch  that  this  movement 
has  been  given  the  attention  of  all  con- 
cerned. 

It  is  therefore  natural  to  expect  that,  that 
which  receives  the  attention  of  executive 
officers  must  necessarily  receive  the  strict- 
est attention  of  the  supervisor  of  a  de- 
partment. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


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Thus  a  supervisor  who  would  maintain  a 
high  state  of  efficiency  in  his  department 
must  see  that  his  subordinates  are  in- 
structed along  the  lines  of  economy;  and 
must  receive  support  from  them  which 
amounts  to  almost  a  personal  interest,  espe- 
cially in  one  of  the  main  features — the  dis- 
bursement of  supplies.  As  a  suggestion 
to  those  whose  duties  involve  the  signing 
of  orders  for  material,  I  would  say  that  it 
is  better  to  be  called  a  "crab"  a  hundred 
times  and  over  than  to  disburse  a  dollar's 
worth  of  Company  material  unnecessarily. 

Some  time  ago  I  had  occasion  to  listen 
to  a  lecture  on  fuel  economy  in  the  In- 
struction Car,  equipped  and  maintained  by 
the  Illinois  Central  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
structing enginemen  and  others  in  more  ef- 
fectively curtailing  the  waste  of  fuel;  to- 
gether with  instruction  designed  to  pro- 
mote higher  efficiency  in  the  handling  of 
the  locomotive  and  in  producing  higher 
efficiency  in  the  locomotive  itself. 

I  can  truthfully  say  that  I  was  very 
much  impressed  with  the  clear  and  concise 
way  by  which  it  was  shown  that  the  saving 
of  fuel  was  not  only  a  step  in  the  con- 
servation of  the  resources  of  the  railroads, 
but  was  also  conserving  the  resources  of 
the  nation,  and  in  compliment  to  Messrs. 
Dodge  and  Lindren  I  would  further  state 
that  no  one  can  appreciate  the  true  worth 
of  this  innovation  without  a  clear  knowl- 
edge of  the  wonderful  results  "they"  have 
produced. 

Equally  important  and  in  some  cases  of 
greater  importance  than  the  curtailment  of 
waste  in  material  things,  is  the  curtailment 
of  labor  waste.  Some  few  years  ago  the 
pay  roll  of  a  railroad  would  remain  prac- 
tically the  same  the  year  'round.  How- 
ever, this  condition  was  found  to  be  too 
expensive  to  endure.  At  the  present  time 
a  man  in  charge  of  a  department  is  given 
his  appropriation,  within  the  bounds  of 
which  he  is  expected  to  keep  his  expenses. 
In  devising  ways  and  means  of  keeping 
within  this  appropriation  we  are  confront- 
ed with  the  basic  principle:  the  outgrowth 
of  which  has  been  the  conception  of  the 
many  thoughts  and  ideas;  the  many  stra- 
tegic changes  and  innovations;  the  many 
expectations  and  wonderful  results;  of  ap- 
plied efficiency  methods  in  practice,  to  the 
individual  man  and  thing. 

Thus  it  has  been  shown  as  briefly  as  pos- 
sible, that  the  supervisor,  both  supervisor 
and  subordinate,  must  be  men  who  have 
the  power  to  lead  in  thought  and  action, 
whether  in  adverse  or  favorable  circum- 
stances, conscious  of  the  fact  that  their 
efforts  are  to  be  adjudicated  by  a  jury  of 
results  only;  and  willing  in  all  cases  to 
accept  the  verdict. 

Let  us  now  consider  efficiency  in  the  in- 
dividual man. 

In  late  years  a  large  number  of  so-called 
efficiency  systems  have  been  introduced 


into  practice.  Wonderful  results,  too,  have 
been  obtained.  However,  nearly  all  re- 
veal as  their  basic  principle  the  "speeding 
up  of  the  individual."  True,  this  phase  of 
the  question  is  of  great  importance,  for,  if 
we  wish  to  attain  a  certain  object  we  can- 
not expect  to  attain  it  quicker  than  a  given 
time  unless  we  think  and  act  quicker.  Thus 
the  idea  presents  itself  of  the  necessity  for 
the  devising  of  ways  and  means  for  ef- 
fecting faster  thinking  and  acting  power  in 
the  individual  man. 

Generally  speaking  though,  there  are  two 
ways  of  doing  anything — one  is  voluntary, 
the  other  is  involuntary.  Let  us  take  for 
example  the  engineer  who  handles  his  en- 
gine according  to  the  oft-repeated  asser- 
tion, "as  if  she  belongs  to  him."  This  man 
will  nearly  always  make  schedule  time  and 
is  not  often  subjected  to  the  criticism  of 
Transportation  Officers.  His  engine,  too, 
will  always  be  in  good  condition  and  will 
generally  make  her  mileage  without  much 
trouble  or  expense  to  the  Mechanical  De- 
partment. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  us  take  for  ex- 
ample the  engineer  who  does  not  take 
much  interest  in  "his  engine  and  who  con- 
tinually "crowds"  her  in  trying  to  make 
the  scheduled  time.  This  man  often  finds 
himself  the  object  of  much  criticism  of 
both  Transportation  and  Mechanical  De- 
partment Officers,  and  his  engine  is  in 
most  cases  a  source  of  much  trouble  and 
expense  in  the  keeping  up  of  repairs,  and 
often  does  not  make  the  mileage  required 
of  her.  One  case  presents  the  volun- 
tary, the  other  the  involuntary  speeding 
up  of  that  which,  in  an  efficiency  system, 
is  closest  related  to  the  individual  man, 
namely,  the  machine. 

Nature  has  decreed  that  in  material 
thines  there  is  one  main  element,  namely, 
strength.  Also, '  that  this  •  element  of 
strength  is  capable  of  withstanding  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  shock  or  stress.  Roughly 
speaking,  an  ordinary  piece  of  steel  is 
capable  of  withstanding  a  certain  amount 
of  shock  or  stress,  according  to  its 
strength.  If,  like  the  locomotive  which  is 
"crowded"  and  does  not  make  the  mileage 
required,  more  shock  or  stress  is  pitted 
against  an  ordinary  piece  of  steel  than  it 
is  capable  of  withstanding,  it  will  break. 

According  to  the  idea  presented,  if 
material  things  are  possessed  of  the  ele- 
ment of  strength,  capable  of  withstanding 
only  a  given  amount  of  shock  or  stress, 
what  then,  is  the  composition  of  the  hu- 
man thing,  or  man,  with  whom  this  paper 
is  dealing? 

Taken  in  this  sense,  Nature  has  also  de- 
creed that  man  too,  is  possessed  of  the 
element  of  strength;  but  in  man  this  ele- 
ment of  strength  is  measured  by  and  con- 
tributed to,  by  three  other  distinct  ele- 
ments— namely,  .spirit,  mind  and  body; 
through  a  combination  of  all  of  which  an 


100 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


amount  of  strength  comparable  to  steel  can 
be  developed,  and  without  all  of  which  a 
strength  of  no  stability  whatever. 

Thus  we  are  confronted  with  the  fact 
that  if  we  are  to  effect  lasting  efficiency 
in  the  individual  man,  we  must  cultivate 
more  than  strength  in  body — which  really 
represents  nothing  more  than  involuntary 
"speeding  up" — but  we  must  cultivate  the 
spirit,  in  strength  of  purpose;  the  mind, 
in  strength  of  will;  and  the  body, — if  the 
first  two  elements  are  cultivated  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  of  scientific 
management,  the  body  will  respond  itself, 
with  its  full  quota  of  strength,  and  volun- 
tary and  lasting  efficiency  will  be  effected. 

On  the  other  hand  if  we  apply  pressure 
to  the  strength  of  body  alone  we  have  as 
a  result  involuntary  efficiency,  subject  to 
breakage,  and  like  the  locomotive  which 
was  "crowded,"  incapable  of  making  the 
"mileage"  required. 

A  study  of  almost  any  kind  of  literature 
will  often  reveal  an  old  and  time-worn  as- 
sertion— "In  every  life  there  is  a  purpose." 
A  casual  observation,  however,  will  reveal 
the  fact  that  purpose  in  tEe  human  be- 
ing is  often  found  sleeping.  In  a  few 
it  oft-times  awakens;  in  many,  it  sleeps 
forever.  And  thus,  the  fact  is  plain,  if  we 
are  to  succeed  in  creating  a  high  state  of 
efficiency  in  the  individual  man,  we  must 
awaken  in  him  that  spirit  of  purpose  to 
voluntarily  give,  if  nothing  more,  only  a 
fair  measure  of  personal  effort  for  that 
which  he  receives.  If  we  accomplish  this 
alone,  we  shall  have  done  much. 

With  the  element  of  spirit  awakened  in 
strength  of  purpose,  let  us  consider  what 
can  be  accomplished  by  awakening  the  ele- 
ment of  mind  in  strength  of  will,  and  by  a 
combined  strength  of  the  two. 

The  creator  of  human  and  material 
things  placed  upon  the  hemispheres  heights 
which  men  long  thought  unattainable.  To- 
day we  take  as  commonplace,  things,  the 
thoughts  of  which  a  century  ago  would 
have  been  considered  the  thoughts  of  an 
abnormal  mind;  but  which  will  power  in 
man  has  made  easily  attainable. 

If  our  great  American  doctrine,  "All  men 
are  created  equal,"  be  true,  why  then,  is 
there  not  in  every  man  a  certain  amount 
of  will  power?  Granting  that  there  is,  we 
must  therefore  awaken  in  the  mind  of 
the  individual  man  a  strength  of  will,  if  it 
only  be  an  amount  that  would  typify  the 
old  proverb,  "Anything  that's  worth  doing 
is  worth  doing  well."  If  we  do  this,  we 
shall  have  done  much. 

And  in  line  with  this  thought,  if  any- 
thing is  worth  saying  it  is  worth  saying 
over  again — and  so  I  repeat,  "If  the 
strength  of  purpose  and  will  be  awakened, 
the  body  will  respond  with  its  full  quota 
of  strength." 

To  the  average  mind  the  question  there- 
fore presents  itself — what  state  or  condi- 


tion must  exist  if  this  high  state  of  effi- 
ciency is  to  be  effected?  The  answer  can 
be  summed  up  in  one  word,  environment. 

To  consider  systematically  the  environ- 
ment that  would  foster  the  growth  of  this 
high  state  of  efficiency  would  take  volumes. 
Let  us  therefore,  accepting  the  principle — 
"An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound 
of  cure" — consider  a  few  illustrations  of 
things  that  prevent  the  maintaining  of  this 
environment  which  we  have  in  mind. 

In  the  study  of  man  we  find  a  most  won- 
derful fertile  field  for  the  sowing  of  seeds 
of  discord.  His  thoughts  and  actions,  if  he 
be  considered  only  as  a  unit  of  a  multitude, 
can  be  easily  swayed  by  harrangue.  And 
even  as  we  have  in  our  political  life,  that 
which  we  term  the  "demagogue"  so  have 
we  in  our  industrial  life  that  which  we 
choose  to  term  the  "agitator." 

I  can  vividly  recall  an  incident  which 
occurred  during  the  time  when  I  was  serv- 
ing an  apprenticeship  in  Burnside  Shops, 
which  serves  as  proof  of  this  idea. 

Certain  individuals,  taking  upon  them- 
selves the  power  to  control  the  thoughts 
and  actions  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
men,  instituted  open  antagonism  to  the 
forming  of  what  was  to  be  termed  the 
Illinois  Central  Hospital  Association.  Re- 
gardless of  this  opposition  the  Association 
was  formed,  and  contrary  to  the  predic- 
tions of  the  opposition,  has  in  a  few  short 
years  grown  to  such  mammoth  importance 
that  even  the  outside  public  has  taken  cog- 
nizance of  its  great  worth  and  value.  And 
today  a  splendid  building  is  being  erected 
in  the  city  of  Chicago  to  be  used  exclu- 
sively by  this  same  Association,  and  taken 
in  a  larger  sense  a  structure  that  will  rep- 
resent a  dignity,  a  monument  to  the 
genuine  worth  and  value'  of  the  Associa- 
tion, and  a  lasting  rebuke  to  the  blindness 
of  the  ignorance  which  would  have  choked 
it  in  its  infancy! 

The  question  is  asked,  What  has  this 
to  do  with  efficiency  in  men?  And  the 
answer  is,  that  if  true  efficiency  de- 
pend upon  environment,  then  if  this  en- 
vironment exists,  the  efficiency  in  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  men  is  always  hanging  in 
the  balance,  and  can  be  utterly  demoralized 
at  any  time. 

Exnerience  teaches  us  that  we  should  al- 
ways stop  to  think  over  a  contemplated 
move  before  making  it;  also,  if  we  could 
realize  the  consequences  of  some  of  our 
actions  we  would  act  more  cautiously.  And 
so  we  find  many  instances  when  men  al- 
low themselves  to  be  led  against  their  bet- 
ter judgment  beyond  that  state  of  what 
might  be  termed  realization.  And  in  line 
with  this  thought  we  are  confronted  with 
the  fact  that  men  must  be  made  to  realize. 

One  way  of  making  a  human  being  real- 
ize the  right  direction  he  should  travel  is 
to  continuously  point  it  out  to  him.  We 
have  as  an  example  the  sign  which  we 


102 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


see  at  every  public  railroad  crossing.  Few 
people  realize  the  lives  that  have  been 
saved  by  these  signs;  yet  all  realize  when 
they  see  them,  that  they  should  "Stop, 
Look,  and  Listen." 

Some  time  ago  I  was  walking  through 
the  Boiler  Shop  at  Burnside,  when  at  a 
certain  point  I  turned  instinctively  to  my 
left,  not  knowing  why  I  had  turned.  I 
was  confronted  with  a  signboard  upon 
which  was  painted  the  following  words: 
KEEP  OUT  OF  DEBT  AND  DANGER. 

BOTH  ARE  ALLURING 
YET  POOR  FRIENDS  TO  MAKE. 

I  stood  awed  for  a  moment,  not  know- 
ine:  which  way  to  turn,  until  its  true  sig- 
nificance dawned  upon  me  and  then,  as  I 
turned  away  I  felt  as  if  I  had  escaped  some 
unseen  danger.  Thus  we  are  confronted 
with'  the  fact,  that  if  .these  words  startle 
the  mind  so  easily,  we  can'  readily  formu- 
late an  idea  of  what  the  effect  will  be  upon 
the  minds  of  those  to  whose  attention  they 
are  daily  presented. 

Although  I  have  made  mention  of  many 
things  which  contribute  to  and  against  in- 
dustrial efficiency,  a  study  of  industrial 
history  will  reveal  an  existing  condition 
which  is  of  mammoth  importance,  consid- 
ering that  it  will  not  only  destroy  effi- 
ciency in  men;  but  depreciates  the  efforts 
of  those  who  would  make  him  more  effi- 
cient. I  refer  to  men  allowing  their  course 
of  action  to  be  directed  by  irresponsible 
leadership.  And  a  further  study  of  in- 
dustrial history  will  reveal  a  fact  that  men 
are  beginning  to  realize  the  foolhardiness 
of  this  course;  for  as  we  turn  on  through 
its  pages  we  find  manifold  instances  which 
serve  to  prove  that  when  in  the  course  of 
human  events  it  becomes  necessary  for  in- 
dustrial concerns  to  assert  the  right  of 
ownership,  that  those  rights  are  asserted 
by  means  of  methods  stern  and  uncom- 
promising. We  are  also  served  with  many 
instances  which  prove  that  men  are  begin- 
ning to  realize  'that  much  can  be  saved 
through  a  compromise  of  differences.  We 
need  but  to  refer  to  the  cordial  relations 
which  exist  between  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers  and  the  railroad 
companies.  At  the  head  of  this  organiza- 
tion we  have  a  man  who  believes  in  com- 
promise of  differences;  and  taking  this  as 
an  example  we  see  that  it  is  far  better  to, 
figuratively  speaking,  give  little  and  receive 
a  like  amount,  than  to  demand  all  and  re- 
ceive nothing. 

Taken  as  a  whole  we  are  served  with 
many  thoughts  and  ideas  which  contribute 
to  and  against  the  efficiencv  of  the  indi- 
vidual man;  so  without  going  further  let  us 
consider  a  condition  which,  if  applied  ef- 
ficiencv is  manifested  in  leadership  and  the 
individual,  must  exist — Organization. 

That  organization  is  essential  to  ultimate 
success  is  demonstrated  in  many  ways. 
Taken  as  an  example,  we  are  all  familiar 


with  the  Colonial  history  of  our  country, 
which  teaches  us  how  the  thirteen  original 
colonies,  when  acting  as  separate  and 
sovereign  states,  did  little  toward  improv- 
ing their  state  of  affairs. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation  was  a 
step  in  the  right  direction,  but  it  lacked  one 
essential  feature — harmony.  Going  fur- 
ther we  find  them  drawn  into  a  single  unit 
by  means  of  the  Constitution,  acting  in 
harmony  with  one  another  and  recognizing 
as  the  main  feature — a  Central  Govern- 
ment. 

We  need  not  go  further  to  illustrate  the 
success  of  this  movement,  for  with  this 
we  are  all  familiar.  However,  we  must 
take  into  consideration  its  lesson,  which  is 
evidenced  in  our  great  American  industries, 
in  the  organizations  of  which  we  see  the 
same  principle  of  separate  and  individual 
units  linked  together  into  one  main  unit 
and  all  governed  by  a  central  authority. 

But  going  back  to  our  subject,  let  us 
ask  ourselves  the  question,  Are  we,  as  de- 
partments of  a  Railroad  Company  acting 
together  in  that  one  essential  feature — 
harmony?  The  answer  is  that  to  a  great 
extent  we  are. 

But  going  still  further,  are  we  as  sep- 
arate units  acting  in  harmony  with  our- 
selves? In  answer  to  this  I  would  beg  to 
ref,er  'to  an  article  which  recently  ap- 
peared in  this  Magazine,  illustrating  the 
wonderfully  efficient  showing  made  by  the 
Chicago  Terminal  Organization  during  the 
recent  Chicago  street  car  strike;  an  ex- 
ample of  harmoniously  inclined  units,  work- 
ing in  united  effort,  in  a  display  of  action 
which  called  forth  commendation  from  not 
only  the  chief  supervising  officer  of  the 
department  and  both  General  and  Exec- 
utive Officers  of  the  Company,  but  from 
the  general  public  itself. 

But  going  still  further  I  would  call  at- 
tention to  an  example  of  organization  with 
which  I  am  most  familiar  and  which  taken 
on  its  face  value,,  is  truly  wonderful. 

I  have  in  mind  an  incident  which  oc- 
curred less  than  a  half  a  decade  ago,  and 
bv  reason  of  its  suddenness,  left  the  Me- 
chanical Department  of  the  Illinois  Central 
in  a  truly  deplorable  condition.  And  chieflv 
I  have  in  mind  the  state  of  affairs  which 
existed  in  the  Company's  plant  at  Burn- 
side.  As  I  remarked  a  truly  wonderful  ex- 
ample of  organization  has  been  effected;  in 
proof  of  this  statement  I  would  need  but 
to  ask  a  visitor  to  Burnside  Shops  of  five 
years  ago,  to  visit  them  today. 

In  the  place  of  old  and  time-worn  ma- 
chinery he  will  find  new  and  mode_rn  mo- 
tor driven  machinery,  representing  in  itself 
a  state  of  efficiency  which  a  few  years  ago 
was  bevond  our  power  of  comprehension. 
He  will  also  find  the  rank  and  file,  which 
a  few  years  ago  might  have  been  consid- 
ered as  entirely  raw  material  as  regards  to 
efficiency,  today  representing  a  state  of  ef- 


104 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ficiency  which  is  truly  remarkable.  Illus- 
trative of  this  we  have  as  example,  the 
construction  of  a  brand  new  Mikado  type 
locomotive  in  the  erecting  shop  at  Burn- 
side;  truly  an  epoch-making  event  in  the 
history  of  Burnside  Shops. 

And  by  reason  of  taking  so  many  in- 
stances from  Burnside  Shops  for  illustra- 
tive purposes,  I  would  add  that  I  would  . 
consider  it  mtost  fitting  and  timely  to 
state  that  modern  English  does  not  afford 
words  that  could  be  used  too  highly  in 
compliment  to  the  man  under  whose  direc- 
tion these  remarkable  changes  ,were  ef- 
fected, a  man  possessed  of  a  major  por- 
tion, if  not  all  of  those  qualities  of  leader- 
ship which  I  have  enumerated  in  previous 
paragraphs,  and  under  whose  direction  the 
continued  progress  of  Burnside'  Shops  is 
assured. 

During  these  few  paragraphs  on  effi- 
ciency in  organization  I  would  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  I  have  not  endeavored 
to  present  a  cure  for  evils  in  organization; 
but  have  presented  examples  of  efficiency 
in  organization,  recognizing  the  principle 
that  in  the  example  of  others  we  find  the 
incentive  to  do  better  ourselves. 

Even  though,  however,  we  consider  our- 
selves, as  departments  of  a  railroad,  highly 
efficient,  we  must  not  neglect  to  consider 
that  in  anything  there  is  always  room  for 
improvement.  Continuing  in  this  line  of 
thought,  we  assure  ourselves  that  in  and 
between  our  organized  departments,  there 
exists  the  element  of  harmony;  but  let  us 
ask  ourselves  the  question,  Does  there  ex- 
ist in  and  between  our  organized  depart- 
ments that  sister  element — co-operation? 
We  allow  that  to  a  certain  extent  there 


does,  but  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  at 
times  this  spirit  of  co-operation  is  woefully 
lacking.  However,  I  would  consider  it 
highly  indelicate  to  mention  any  instance 
in  support  of  this  contention  but  I  would, 
however,  venture  to  predict  that  the  day 
will  come  when  all  aggressive  and  progres- 
sive managements  of  railroads  will  promul- 
gate and  enforce  to  the  letter,  an  order, 
designed  to  effect  absolute  co-operation  in 
and  between  all  departments,  in  the  han- 
dling of  the  Company's  business. 

Even  as  Literature  extends  to  the  writer 
of  lengthy  and  exhaustive  discourse,  so 
does  she  graciously  extend  to  the  essay- 
ist the  privilege  to  draw  from  his  own 
writings  his  own  conclusions. 

And  so,  in  conclusion  I  would  say:  That 
during  the  whole  course  of  this  essay  I 
have  endeavored  to  portray  a  veiled 
thought — a  thought  that  the  spirit  of  loy- 
altv,  and  loyalty  only,  is  the  core  around 
which  true  '  and  lasting  efficiency  is 
molded. 

And  therefore,  to  "all  concerned"  I 
would  present  the  admonition,  Let  us  not 
consider  ourselves  as  sinecure,  but  let  us 
consider  ourselves  as  always  open  to  im- 
provement; let  us  endeavor  to  assist  our 
employers  in  every  possible  way  to  pro- 
mote and  maintain  in  ourselves  a  higher 
state  of  efficiency;  let  us  be  mindful  of  the 
belief  that"  the  railroads  are  in  fact  the 
"backbone  of  the  nation"  and  let  us  be  not 
unmindful  of  belief  that  the  "trade  su- 
premacy" of  our  own  particular  road  de- 
r-^nds  largely  upon  how  much  of  that 
strength  of  spirit,  mind  and  body  we  are 
willing  to  contribute. 


Heniorious  S 


FAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
following  conductors  and  gatekeepers 
for  their  special  efforts  in  lifting  and  pre- 
venting the  use  of  inegular  transportation 
in  connection  with  which  reports  (Form 
972)  were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of  pas- 
senger receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advises  the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,,  all 
pass  irregularities  being  brought  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  vice-president. 

Illinois  Division 

During  January  the  following  suburban 
gatekeepers  lifted  commutation  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  or  being  in  improper 
hands:  K.  F.  Emmanuel,  W.  F.  Rowe, 
Eleanor  Jacobs. 

Suburban  Conductor  R.  C.  Rinearson  on 
train  No.  86  Jan.  1st  lifted  25-ride  commu- 


tation ticket  in  accordance  with  bulletin 
instructions  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Suburban  Flagman  Jas.  P.  Kirk  on  train 
No.  236  Jan.  .29th  lifted  employe's  suburban 
pass  account  being  in  improper  hands. 
Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare  and  was  re- 
quired to  leave  the  train. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Mallon  on  train  No.  34 
Jan.  6th  declined  to  honor  card  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  E.  M.  Winslow  on  train  No. 
23  Jan.  21st  lifted  expired  card  ticket  from 
passenger,  who  admitted  having  previously 
secured  transportation  on  same,  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel  on  train  No.  23 
Jan.  23rd  lifted  employe's  term  pass  ac- 
count passenger  not  being  provided  with 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  105 

ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

—  AND  — 

The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  16 


The  ACCIDENTS  constantly  occurring  at  RAILWAY 
GRADE  CROSSINGS  are  all  AVOIDABLE. 

That  no  RAILROAD  COMPANY  NOR  LOCOMOTIVE 
ENGINEER  DESIRES  such  accidents  is  a  FACT  that 
cannot  be  QUESTIONED. 

That  RAILROADS  to  make  the  SCHEDULES  that  their 
PATRONS  DEMAND  must  move  their  trains  (both  freight 
and  passenger)  often  at  HIGH  SPEED  is  of  public  knowl- 
edge. 

That  WARNING  SIGNALS  pleading  with  the  public  to 
stop,  look  and  listen,  BELLS  AUTOMATICALLY  operated 
and  CROSSING  FLAGMEN  are  constant  reminders  of 
danger  and  eloquent  sermons  on  "SAFETY  FIRST,"  we 
all  know. 

Why  then  will  not  THOSE  who  have  to  CROSS  THE 
TRACKS  (on  foot  and  in  vehicles)  before  placing  their 
PERSONS  IN  DANGER  assure  themselves  that  it  is  SAFE 
TO  PROCEED? 

It  is  INCONCEIVABLE  that  a  man  or  a  woman  would 
deliberately  walk  into  a  BURNING  BUILDING  that  was 
tottering  to  a  collapse;  and  yet  every  day,  men  and  women 
walk  on  RAILROAD  TRACKS  and  use  GRADE  CROSS- 
INGS  without  giving  the  slightest  CONSIDERATION  or 
THOUGHT  to  the  DANGEROUS  position  in  which  they 
have  DELIBERATELY  PLACED  THEMSELVES. 

STOP,  LOOK  AND  LISTEN,  is  an  admonition  that  calls 
for  CAREFUL  OBSERVANCE. 

"BE  SURE  YOU  ARE  RIGHT,  THEN  GO  AHEAD  "  is 
a  maxim  that  we  all  should  KNOW  AND  OBEY. 

Will  not  you  MEN  AND  WOMEN  who  live  contiguous 
to  the  rails  of  the  Illinois  Central  and  The  Yazoo  and  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  Railroads,  TODAY  make  up  your  minds  to 
HELP  THESE  COMPANIES  to  minimize  the  LOSS  OF 
LIFE  AND  LIMB,  by  exercising  the  CAUTION  AND  CARE 
that  will  keep  you  OUT  OF  the  DANGER  ZONE? 


106 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


identification  slip  Form  1572.  Passenger 
refused  to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup  on  train  No. 
201,  Jan.  2nd,  23rd  and  31st  declined  to 
honor  card  tickets  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  208,  Jan.  6th  and  23rd,  he 
declined  to  honor  returning  portions  of 
round  trip  card  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares.  Passengers 
were  referred  to  passenger  department  for 
refund  on  tickets. 

Conductor  H.  W.  Bibb  on  train  No.  624 
Jan.  4th  declined  to  honor  trip  pass  ac- 
count having  previously  been  used  be- 
tween the  same  points  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  J.  Allen  on  train  No.  605  Jan. 
20th  lifted  expired  card  ticket  from  pas- 
senger who  admitted  having  previously  se- 
cured transportation  on  same  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train  No.  1 
Jan.  26_th  lifted  annual  pass  account  not 
being  countersigned  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Indiana  Division 

Conductor  ~M:  O'Dea  on  train  No.  201 
Jan.  2nd  declined  to  honor  card  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor  J.  B.  Stewart  on  train  No.  132 
Jan.  7th  declined  to  honor  going  portion 
of  card  ticket  account  returning  portion 
being  missing  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  trains  No.  120  and  No.  119  Jan.  15th 
he  declined  to  honor  returning  portions  of 
round  trip  card  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares.  Passengers 
were  referred  to  passenger  department  for 
refund  on  tickets. 

Conductor  L.  Bowley  on  train  No.  16 
Jan.  8th  declined  to  honor  card  ticket  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  W.  Beatty  on  train  No.  62 
Jan.  26th  declined  to  honor  live  stock  con- 
tract account  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  B.  Lichtenberger  on  train  No. 
102  Jan.  30th  declined  to  honor  local 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  pas- 
senger department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Kentucky  Division 

H.    Nangle    on   train    No.    836   Jan.    17th 


lifted   telegraphic   pass   account  having   ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn  on  train  No.  122 
Jan.  24th  lifted  scrip  exchange  passage 
ticket  account  passenger  not  being  provid- 
ed with  penny  scrip  book  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  S.  E.  Matthews  on  train  No. 
9  Jan.  1st  and  No.  5  Jan.  28th  declined  to 
honor  card  tickets  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fares.  Passengers  were 
referred  to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund on  tickets. 

Conductor  J.  E.  Nelson  on  train  No.  103 
Jan.  llth  declined  to  honor  mileage  book 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  G.  P.  Kinkle  on  train  No.  101 
Jan.  24th  lifted  mileage  book  account  be- 
ing in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Mississippi  Division 

Conductor  F.  J.  Hines  on  train  No.  23 
Jan.  7th  a.nd  No.  24  Jan.  18th  declined  to 
honor  jnileage  books  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares. 

Conductor  M.  H.  Ranson  on  train  No.  24 
Jan.  17th  declined  to  honor  returning  por- 
tion of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  5  Jan.  18th  he  lifted  expired 
card  ticket  from  passenger  who  admitted 
having  previously  secured  transportation 
on  same  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  M.  Kennedy  on  train  No.  304 
Jan.  1st  declined  to  honor  trip  pass  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  same  train  and  date  he  declined  to 
honor  trip  passes  reading  via  the  111.  Cent. 
R.  R.  account  being  presented  for  passage 
via  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.  and  collected 
cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  303  Jan.  2nd  he  declined  to 
honor  card  ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  304  Jan.  9th  and  No.  SOS- 
SOS  Jan.  18th  he  declined  to  honor  mileage 
books  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fares. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes  on  trgin  No.  6 
Jan.  1st  declined  to  honor  returning  por- 
tion of  round  trip  caxd  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare.  Pas- 
senger was  referred  to  passenger  depart- 
ment for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  C.  E.  Dunbar  on  train  No.  4 
Jan.  23rd  lifted  penny  scrip  book  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


107 


Conductor  E.  S.  Sharp  on  train  No.  1 
Jan.  27th  declined  to  honor  mileage  book 
account  having  expired.  Passenger  pre- 
sented another  mileage  book  for  transpor- 
tation. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee  on  train  No.  303  Jan. 
1st  lifted  employe's  term  pass  account 
having  expired.  Passengers  refused  to^pay 
fare  and  were  required  to  leave  the  train. 

On  train  No.  303  Jan.  15th  he  lifted 
Banana  Messenger's  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  W.  Humphries  on  train  No. 
341  Jan.  16th  declined  to  honor  local  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 
New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  A.  L.  Williams  on  train  No. 
33  Jan.  13th  declined  to  honor  returning 
portion  of  round  trip  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  37  Jan.  25th  and  31st  he 
lifted  54-ride  individual  tickets  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

Conductor  C.  Davis  on  train  No.  12  Jan. 
27th  declined  to  honor  mileage  book  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Illinois  Division 

Conductor  G.  B.  McNeill  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
120014  in  train  1658  south,  Feb.  20th,  with  no 
light  weight  stencilled  on  one  side.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  car  restencilled. 

Conductor  W.  H.  Lee  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C.  48697,  train 
92,  Feb.  22nd,  with  no  light  weight  stencilled 
on  same.  Arrangements  were  made  to  have 
car  restencilled. 

Conductor  H.  F.  Carroll  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C.  97266, 


Extra  1639,  Feb.  3rd,  improperly  stencilled. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  correct  same. 

Conductor  H.  L.  Cramer  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
33325  improperly  stencilled,  train  94,  Feb.  5th. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  correct  same. 

Signal  Maintainer  H.  J.  Bacus  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
90362  and  120014,  Extra  1575,  improperly  sten- 
cilled. Arrangements  were  made  to  correct 
same. 

Brakeman  A.  L.  Dahling  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  and  reporting  Penna.  344297 
off  center,  Feb.  24th,  thereby  preventing  pos- 
sible accident. 

Flagman  C.  A.  Sachs  on  Extra  1643  north, 
Feb.  15th,  has  been  commended  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  I.  C.  112791  with  two  beams 
down,  thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Car  Repairer  E.  N.  Bethell  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering,  on  the  morning  of 
Feb.  22nd,  train  75  passing  Weedman,  brake 
beam  dragging.  Train  was  stopped  at  Farm- 
er City  and  brake  beam  taken  down,  thereby 
preventing  possible  damage. 

Section  Foreman  P.  McQuire  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  a  side 
dump  on  car  of  coal  in  Extra  1680  north, 
passing  Clifton,  Jan.  27th,  partly  opened  and 
coal  leaking  out. 

Foreman  C.  C.  Wilson,  of  Neoga,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  reporting 
brake  beam  dragging  on  car  in  Extra  1657, 
Jan.  22nd,  thereby  removing  possible  cause 
of  an  accident. 

Brakeman  C.  P.  Leach  has  been  commend- 
ed for  discovering  eight  inches  of  rail  gone 
from  south  end  of  east  siding  at  Paxton, 
Feb.  29th,  while  on  Extra  1575.  He  immedi- 
ately reported  the  matter  to  have  track  re- 
paired, thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Carpenter  C.  M.  Francis  has  been  com- 
mended for  assisting  two  young  women 
through  the  mud  and  water  at  103rd  street, 
Jan.  21st. 


Concrete  on  the  Railroads 


/CONCRETE  is  a  material  that  can  be 
^*  used  to  construct  practically  all  kinds  of 
buildings  that  have  heretofore  be,en  made 
of  wood.  Railroads  are  learning  that  con- 
crete offers  almost  unlimited  possibilities. 
Frame  stations  and  other  impermanent 
structures  along  the  right  of  way  often  be- 
come dilapidated  unless  persistently  main- 
tained. Some  steel  structures  are  more  or 
less  unattractive  in  appearance  and  re- 
quire constant  maintenance  such  as  paint- 
ing, to  prevent  deterioration.  Most  stone 
and  brick  masonry  calls  for  skilled  work- 
men. Concrete  on  the  other  hand  can  be 
used  by  relatively  inexperienced  laborers 
under  competent  supervision,  this  fact  be- 
ing of  especial  advantage  in  places  where 


skilled  labor  is  difficult  to  obtain.  The  use 
of  concrete  has  become  so  general  and  its 
application  is  now  so  well  understood  that 
it  must  eventually  figure  in  railroad  work 
on  a  much  larger  scale  than  at  present. 

Many  railroad  structures  present  an  ap- 
pearance far  from  the  pleasing,  restful  as- 
pect of  concrete.  Practically  every  rail- 
road structure  from  a  station  to  all  those 
structures  along  the  right  of  way,  may  be 
built  of  concrete.  If  they  are,  upkeep  will 
be  minimized  to  a  point  of  high  efficiency. 

In  the  hands  of  a  competent  architect, 
design  and  decorative  treatment  of  con- 
crete buildings,  even  though  their  loca- 
tions* be  governed  by  existing  track  and 
yard  conditions,  may  be  as  simple  or  as 


108 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


elaborate  as  desired.  Simple  treatment, 
however,  is  in  most  instances  preferable, 
and  the  artistic  effect  may  be  increased  by 
a  great  variety  of  surface  finishes  such  as 
rubbed  or  brushed  surfaces,  tooled  sur- 
faces, or  sand  blasted  surfaces. 

Railroad  stations  at  terminals  and  prin- 
cipal points  along  the  line  are  usually  more 
or  less  imposing  and  massive  in  design. 
In  such  cases,  concrete  lends  itself  ad- 
mirably to  the  several  architectural  styles 
commonly  used  for  such  structures.  The 
reduction  in  thickness  of  walls  necessary 
following  the  use  of  reinforced  concrete 
gives  increased  floor  areas  for  office  and 
station  purposes.  The  speed  possible  in 
the  erection  of  concrete  buildings  is  well 
known  and  is  an  important  factor.  The  de- 
structive effect  of  smoke  and  gases  on 
concrete  is  usually  far  less  than  upon 
steel,  while  the  surface  retains  its  original 
tone  fully  as  long  as  do  granite  buildings. 

Modern  railroad  practice  tends  toward 
standardizing  station  buildings.  Concrete 
structures  usually  outstrip  brick,  stone  and 
frame  buildings,  in  economy  of  first  cost 
and  upkeep,  because  of  the  adaptability  of 
concrete  forms  for  monolithic  structures 
and  blocks  of  other  precast  members  for 
unit  methods  of  construction.  Concrete 
roundhouses,  freight  sheds,  coal  bunkers, 
watertanks,  and  many  other  buildings  may 
be  built  at  least  in  part,  and  often  entire 
with  the  same  forms.  Such  structures  as 
switch  and  grade  crossing  tenders'  shanties, 
tool-houses,  lamp  standards,  posts,  etc., 
may  be  precast  at  a  central  point  and 
erected  at  their  respective  sites. 

This  brings  us  to  various  structures  and 
fixtures  along  the  right  of  way.  practically 
all  of  which,  with  the  exception  of  large 
trestles,  can  often  be  economically  precast 
at  a  central  plant  and  distributed  along 
the  right  of  way  where  they  are  to  be 
erected. 

It  is  often  more  economical  to  precast 
the  units  of  some  types  of  bridges  and  cul- 
verts and  assemble  the  units  in  olace,  than 
to  build  the  structures  monolithic. 

Reinforced  concrete  bridges,  trestles,  re- 
taining walls,  and  culverts  are  now  quite 
common  on  all  railroads.  Concrete  fence 
posts,  telegraph  and  telephone  poles,  sig- 
nal and  crossing  posts,  ties,  bumpers,  and 
switch  cabins,  are  rapidly  gaining  favor 
also. 

Concrete  fence  posts  are  made  at  a  cen- 
tral plant,  at  small  cost,  and  once  in  place 
the  only  maintenance  required  is  that  of 
keeping  the  wire  fencing  in  good  condi- 
tion. Many  railroads  have  adopted  con- 
crete posts  as  their  standard.  Concrete 
fence  posts  stand  up  better  than  wooden 
posts  and  they  therefore  retain  their  align- 
ment much  better.  They  are  fireproof  and 
rotproof.  The  wire  fencing  is  readily  and 
permanently  fastened  to  them,  with  no  dan- 
ger of  staples  or  fasteners  becoming  loose 
as  a  result  of  decay.  Heavv  wind  storms 


and  cattle  cannot  knock  down  a  properly 
built  fence  made  with  concrete  posts.  Such 
fences  not  only  best  serve  the  purposes  for 
which  intended,  at  the  lowest  possible  cost, 
but  also  present  a  pleasing  appearance. 

Telegraph  and  telephone  poles  made  of 
reinforced  concrete  were,  when  first  in- 
troduced, expensive  and  cumbersome  to 
handle  and  to  place;  but  the  present-day 
practice  has  brought  the  cost  down  to  a 
point  where  it  is  plain  economy  to  use 
them.  In  design  they  have  progressed 
from  the  awkward  and  impossible  to  the 
practical  and  economical — from  concrete 
poles  without  reinforcement,  used  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  by  Col.  G.  M.  Tpttin 
in  1856,  through  various  stages  of  inac- 
curate design,  to  the  present  well  propor- 
tioned and  thoroughly  effective  pole,  which 
will  withstand  the  effects  of  wind  and 
weather  better  than  poles  of  wood  or  steel. 
Like  concrete  fence  posts,  concrete  poles 
can  be  set  up  in  comparatively  soft  soil 
by  the  addition  of  a  concrete  slab  or  disc 
at  the  bottom,  thus  lowering  the  center 
of  gravity,  and  maintaining  an  almost  per- 
fect alignment.  In  the  light  of  present- 
day  methods  and  setting,  the  handling  of 
these  poles  is  but  little  more  difficult  than 
handling  wooden  poles,  and  once  set  up  in 
place,  they  require  no  further  attention. 

A  step  forward  has  been  made  in  the 
adoption  of  concrete  signal  and  crossing 
posts.  The  old  type  of  wooden  posts  de- 
teriorated rapidly,  not  only  from  the  ele- 
ments, but  also  from  ground  fires,  ants, 
worms,  and  other  wood-destroying  insects. 
These  posts  are  made  in  many  designs,  and 
like  fence  posts  and  telegraph  poles,  are 
adapted  to  all  temperatures  and  latitudes. 
A  right  of  way  provided  with  well  designed 
signal  and  crossing  posts  presents  a  most 
pleasing  appearance  and  invariably  proves 
more  interesting  to  the  cost  accounting  de- 
partment of  the  railway  using  them,  than 
to  the  sight-seeing  traveler. 

Another  interesting  possibility  of  con- 
crete in  railroad  work  is  the  concrete  tie. 
Much  study  and  effort  have  been  expended 
in  attempting  to  design  a  tie  that  would 
prove  satisfactory  in  every  way. 

Numerous  concrete  ties  have  been  sub- 
mitted to  railroads  for  actual  physical  tests, 
but  alwVys  some  slight  defect  was  appar- 
ent which  precluded  adoption.  Recently, 
however,  several  have  been  made  which 
gives  hopes  that  the  successful  concrete  tie 
will  be  found.  Should  this  prove  so,  one 
great  source  of  railroad  expense  will  have 
been  reduced.  Fire  may  rage  along  the 
right  of  way  without  affecting  the  tracks. 
Timber  for  use  as  ties  is  yearly  becoming 
scarcer  and  the  cost  of  wood  ties  is  in- 
creasing. If  the  concrete  tie  "arrives,"  in- 
itial cost  will  not  be  prohibitive  and  re- 
newals will  be  so  reduced  as  to  be  almost 
negligible  in  comparison  with  present  con- 
ditions. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


109 


Concrete  bumpers  are  among  the  latest 
innovations  in  railroad  structures,  and  the 
early  examples  which  are  in  use  by  some 
of  the  principal  railroads  give  evidence  of 
proving  as  effective  as,  and  less  expensive 
than,  the  old-time  types  of  bumpers. 

Important  applications  of  concrete  which 
should  secure  a  strong  footing  among  rail- 
roads are  the  precast,  portable,  concrete 
switch  and  grade  crossing  shanties.  The 
adoption  of  these  will  lead  to  a  distinct  re- 
duction of  maintenance  costs.  They  can 
be  made  in  any  style  to  suit  local  Condi- 
liens,  the  smaller  ones  being  cast  as  : 
unit  and  the  larger  ones  in  two  or  more 
i  nits.  The  former  are  deposited  on  the 
respective  foundations,  and  are  at  once 
complete;  whereas  with  the  latter  types  the 
••nits  are  delivered  at  the  proposed  site — 
the  foundation  having  been  previously  pre- 
pared— and  assembled,  the  necessary  work 
consisting  of  spreading  mortar  joints  for 


the  several  units.  This  type  of  construc- 
tion permits  the  precasting  of  as  many 
complete  cabins  at  a  stipulated  time  and 
place  as  may  be  required,  for  the  replace- 
ment of  condemned  shanties  of  the  old 
type.  The  cost  of  such  concrete  struc- 
tures will  be  considerably  less  than  the 
cost  of  frame,  brick,  or  stone  ones  of 
equal  dimensions  and  equally  as  attractive 
when  maintenance  is  considered.  The  mat- 
ter of  transporting  precast  concrete  units 
or  material  for  building  concrete  struc- 
tures at  their  respective  sites  naturally  is 
one  of  prime  importance  and  the  cost 
thereof  will  be  the  determining  factor  in 
the  adoption  of  one  or  the  other  of  these 
methods.  For  handling  precast  units,  sev- 
eral flat  cars  will  be  necessary,  provided 
with  skids  or  runways  for  loading  and  un- 
loading, or,  preferably  a  small  derrick  for 
rapid  unloading  from  the  main  line  where 
sidings  are  not  convenient  to  the  sites. 


Division  News 


Springfield   Division 

Rodman  G.  B.  Davis  has  been  trans- 
ferred from  this  Division  to  the  position 
of  draftsman  in  the  Valuation  Department 
with  headquarters  in  Chicago.  Mr.  Davis 
left  a  number  of  friends  in  Clinton  who 
wish  him  well  in  the  Valuation  Depart- 
ment. 

Mr.  E.  R.  Rail  has  arrived  in  Clinton  to 
fill  the  position  of  rodman,  vice  G.  B. 
Davis,  promoted.  Mr.  Ra.ll  is  from  Chi- 
cago, this  being  his  first  time  in  Clinton. 
He  will  certainly  become  attached  to  this 
Division  if  he  follows  the  example  of  his 
predecessors. 

Mr.  Dan  Leo,  a  pensioned  road  super- 
visor on  the  Springfield  Division,  is  at  his 
home  in  Clinton  recuperating  from  a  long 
siege  of  bad  health.  Mr.  Leo  was  associ- 
ated with  the  railroad  company  for  a  great 
number  of  years,  and  a  year  ago  the  rail- 
road company  rewarded  him  for  his  faith- 
ful service  by  retiring  him  on  pension. 
Uncle  Dan  has  been  enjoying  his  first  real 
vacation  in  his  long  career  since  retiring, 
traveling  extensively  to  different  parts  of 
the  country. 

Until  recently  he  had  enjoyed  the  best 
of  health,  but  seemingly  his  forced  inactiv- 
ity caused  him  to  become  ill.  All  of  his 
many  friends  join  in  wishing  him  a  rapid 
recovery. 

Mr.  Chester  Bradley,  painter  at  Clinton 
Shops,  will  visit  relatives  in  Adrian,  Mich- 
igan. 

Mr.  Robert  Rogers,  machinist  at  Clinton 
Shops,  wil.1  visit  friends  and  relatives  in 
New  York  City. 

Mr.  H.  C.  Heseman,  engineer,  will  visit 
in  Ocala.  Fla. 

Mr.    Charles   Beilsmith,   fireman,   is   mak- 


ing arrangements  for  a  trip  to  New  Or- 
leans and  Hot  Springs. 

Mr.  Carroll  Jordan  went  to  Chicago  to 
hear  John  McCormack  sing  and  Mr.  Win. 
Stern  attended  the  Follies.  Which  of  the 
two  had  the  best  time? 

The  new  wash  rooms  for  enginemen  and 
shopmen  at  Clinton  have  been  completed 
and  are  now  in  use. 

Mr.  A.  B.  Comer,  fireman,  wife  and 
daughter  Madge,  will  visit  relatives  in 
Henderson,  Ky. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Wheatley,  fireman,  will  visit 
his  parents  in  Waverly,  Ky. 

Mr.  M.  G.  Taylor  and  Paul  D.  Vander- 
vort  attended  the  Automobile  Show  in  Chi- 
cago. Paul  D.  is  quite  an  auto  bug. 

Vicksburg  Division 

On  account  of  high  water  conditions  trains 
598  and  599  have  been  discontinued  between 
Holly  Bluff  and  Colby.  The  water  is  about 
two  inches  higher  this  year  than  it  was  in 
1912  and  1913. 

Our  popular  Section  Foreman  at  Holly 
Bluff  has  been  having  a  bad  time  removing 
the  drift  from  the  track  since  the  trains  have 
been  discontinued. 

We  are  very  sorry  to  learn  that  our  Agent 
at  Louise  could  not  purchase  himself  a  lot  in 


Free  to  Oar  Readers 

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48-page  illustrated  Eye  Book  Free.  Write  all 
about  Your  Eye  Trouble  and  they  -will  advise 
as  to  the  Proper  Application  of  the  Murine 
Eye  Remedies  in  Your  Special  Case.  Your 
Druggist  will  tell  you  that  Murine  Relieves 
Sore  Eyes,  Strengthens  Weak  Eyes.  Doesn't 
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110 


his    city,    as    he    was    very   anxious   to    invest 
some  of  his  surplus  money  in  a  home. 

Mr.  G.  C.  Bounds  has  a  plantation  out  from 
Midnight,  and  we  learn  that  he  has  the  over- 
flow to  contend  with.  I  guess  that  Mr. 
Bounds  regrets  this/  as  it  costs  him  several 
dollars  for  his  tenants  to  live  on  while  this 
water  is  up. 

We  are  very  sorry  that  our  Engineer,  Mr. 
E.  F.  Hatchett,  and  his  Fireman  cannot  se- 
cure a  boarding  place  at  the  City  of  Colby, 
and  am  told  that  they  have  to  sleep  and  do 
their  own  burning  on  the  52. 

The  popular  Agent  at  Louise  wants  a  vaca- 
tion of  about  two  days,  and  wants  Agent 
Cowart  to  relieve  him,  but  Mr.  Co  wart  says 
he  is  drawing  pay  if  the  trains  do  not  run  into 
Holly  Bluff. 

Mr.  Bill  Ellis  claims  that  his  dog  train 
should  leave  Holly  Bluff  at  6 :30  a.  m.  in  order 
to  insure  connections  with  the  fast  mail  at 
Silver  City.  Bill  says  he  enjoys  the  layover 
at  Holly  Bluff,  as  he  has  such  a  nice  cozy 
room  in  the  waiting  room. 

Mr.  T.  L.  Dubbs,  superintendent,  spent 
several  days  latter  part  of  February  at  Jack- 
son, Miss.,  looking  after  legislative  matters. 

Miss  Zetta  Beuhler,  file  clerk  in  superin- 
tendent's office;  Mr.  Wright  Chenault,  as- 
sistant accountant,  superintendent's  office; 
Mrs.  H.  D,  Smith,  stenographer  in  superin- 
tendent's office,  and  Mr.  L.  H.  Michaux,  ac- 
countant in  local  freight  office,  spent  Sun- 
day, February  27,  in  Leland,  giving  Mrs. 
Josie  Rabb  a  surprise  visit.  They  report 
having  a  swell  time. 

The  Greenville  Stone  &  Gravel  Com- 
pany have  again  resumed  operations,  after 
having  made  general  repairs  to  their  ma- 
chinery, and  rebuilding  the  gravel  bins. 

Account  of  backwater  up  the  Yazoo 
River  from  the  Mississippi  River  it  was 
necessary  to  discontinue  train  service  be- 
tween Rolling  Fork  and  Vicksburg,  but  in- 
dications are  now  that  train  service  will  be 
resumed  on  or  about  March  1st. 

Effective  February  20,  1916,  Vicksburg 
Division  Time  Table  No.  43  went  into  ef- 
fect at  12:01  A.  M.,  and  attention  has  been 
called  to  the  many  important  and  minor 
changes  made  in  the  schedules  of  both  pas- 
senger and  freight  trains. 

Division  Accountant  M.  P.  Massey  and 
Assistant  Accountant  B.  F.  Simmons  at- 
tended the  Accountants'  Meeting,  held  at 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  February  24.  Notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  meeting  was 
not  a  lengthy  one,  at  the  same  time,  it  is 
felt  that  much  good  is  being  derived  from 
these  meetings. 

Mrs.  Annie  Davis,  agent  at  Hollyknowe, 
Miss.,  has  been  transferred  to  the  agency 


at  Charter  Grove,  111.,  at  her  request.  We 
wish  her  success  in  her  new  position. 

Mr.  Claud  N.  Campbell,  second  trick  dis- 
patcher, made  a  business  trip  to  Meridian, 
Miss.,  latter  part  of  February,  and  he  re- 
ports that  he  attented  -to  enough  business 
in  one  day  to  last  him  the  balance  of  his 
life. 

Third  Trick  Dispatcher  Mr.  R.  H.  Mays 
has  returned  to  work  after  an  absence  of 
two  weeks,  visiting  friends  and  relatives  in 
Louisiana  and  Texas. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Parker  has  temporarily  taken 
charge  of  Pace,  Miss.,  Section  in  place  of 
Mr.  Mitchell. 

Extra-Operator  Dispatcher  Mr.  A.  R. 
Triche  has  'returned  to  his  home  in  New 
Orleans,  after  working  at  Greenvill'e  as 
temporary  operator  on  account  of  high 
water  conditions,  also  relieving  Dispatcher 
R.  H.  Mays. 

We  learn  with  much  regret  that  our  pop- 
ular Traveling  Auditor,  Mr.  M.  F.  Freeman, 
has  tendered  his  resignation  to  take  effect 
March  1,  to  engage  in  business  for  himself. 
We  wish  him  great  success  in  his  new  un- 
dertaking, and  welcome  his  successor,  Mr. 
R.  H.  Lee,  in  our  midst. 


Have 

|    Healthy, 
Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort. 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists — Golfers — Tour- 
ists —  Mechanics — All — should 
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Chicago | 


Money  Grop ,     Tangipahoa  Parish  ,    Louisiana 


PITTSBURGH,  PA.  The  Industrial  Center  of  U.  S. 

BERRIES     are     wanted    here    in    large 
amounts  and  always  command  top  prices. 

The  Best  marketing  agents  are 

THE  IRON  CITY  PRODUCE  COMPANY,  Inc. 

and  they  are  the  largest  distributors 

Consult  Them   Before   Shipping  Elsewhere 


HALEY-NEELEY  COMPANY 
Wholesale  Dealers  in  Fruits  and  Vegetables 

OPERATING  SIX  WELL-EQUIPPED  HOUSES  IN 

SIOUX  CITY,  IOWA  SIOUX  FALLS,  S.  D.  MITCHELL,  S.  D. 

HURON,  S.  D.  ABERDEEN,  S.  D. 

Largest  outlet  in  this  part  of  the  country  for  STRAWBERRIES  in  carload  lots. 
Cold  storage  equipment  in  all  our  houses. 


M.  L.  CAMPBELL,  "The  Strawberry  Man" 

Specializes  in 

AH  kinds  early  Vegetables,  Berries,  etc.  Car  lots  or  less 

COMMISSION 

City  and  Country  Distribution  52   W.  So.  Water  St.,  Chicago 


Niles-Bement-Pond  Co. 

Ill  Broadway,  New  YorK.  McCormicR  Bldg'.,  CKicagO 

COMPLETE  EQUIPMENT 
For  Locomotive  and  Repair  Shops 

NILES  RAILWAY  MACHINE  TOOLS 

NILES  CRANES  BEMENT  HAMMERS 

PRATT  CSL  WHITNEY  SMALL  TOOLS  AND  GAUGES 


Jfrog  anfc  Crossing  TKHorfcs 

Manufacturer*  of 

SPECIAL  WORK  /or  STEAM  and  ELECTRIC  ROADS 

Office  OPEN  HEARTH— BESSEMER  and  MANGANESE  Works 

Chicago  Chicago  Heights 


P.  M.  Gatch  —  Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  During  the  Civil  Con- 

flict   ..........................................................................................................  11 

The  Public  and  the  Railroads  .........................................  .  ........................  22 

Letting   Railroads   Combine  ........................................................  .  .............  26 

The  Notorious  Jumping  Railroad  of  Calaveras  County  ..................  29 

Public   Opinion  ...........................................................................  ,  ..................  31 

Comments   of   Various    Newspapers    Upon    Circular    Issued    by 

the  General  Manager  ....................................................  .  .....................  33 

How   Employes   Should   Proceed   to   Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock    .............................................  ,  ........................................................  36 

Development  of  the  Louisiana  Strawberry  Industry  ........................  39 

Independence,    La  ........................................................................................  41 

Hammond,  La  ..........................................  ......................................................  47 

Amite,    La  ........................................................................................  1  .............    55 

Ponchatoula,  La  ............................................................................................  57 

Passenger  Traffic   Department  .............................................................  „.  61 

Freight    Traffic    Department  ....................................................................  72 

Engineering  Department  ............................................................................  74 

Loss  and  Damage   Bureau  ........................................................................  78 

Law    Department  ..........................................................................................  80 

Roll    of    Honor  .........................................  ......................................................  84 

Claims   Department  ...................................................................................  ...  85 

Safety    First  ....................  .  ...............  ...............................................................  91 

Perry  H.  Blue  ................  '.  ...............................................................................  93 

Francis   Hubert   Bowen  ..............................................................................  94 

Hospital    Department  ..................................................................................  '95 

Transportation   Department  ......................................................................  98 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department  ................................................  102 

Meritorious    Service  ...................................  *  ...............................................  103 

Division    News  .....................................  .........................     .............................  105 

^Published  monthly  6y  the  7/linois  Centrd  ^fR.  G>., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4^QD  'Employes 

Advertising  -  raies  -  on  •  application^ 


Chicago  J3ocal55 

1$  $pr.  copy       $  1.50  pr.  year 


P.  M.  GATCH 
Assistant  General  Claim  Agent. 

Philip  M.  Gatch  was  born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  September  23,  1876.  Was  grad- 
uated from  the  Linsley  Institute  (preparatory  school),  Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  June,  1894, 
and  from  Cumberland  University  at  Lebanon,  Tennessee,  in  June,  1898.  Entered 
service  of  the  Illinois  Central  as  Claim  Agent  of  the  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Springfield 
Divisions  June  1,  1901,  with  headquarters  at  Decatur,  Illinois.  In  1907  was  trans- 
ferred to  Evansville,  where  he  remained  until  May  1,  1913,  when  he  was  promoted 
to  the  position  of  Assistant  General  Claim  Agent,  Northern  and  Western  Lines,  with 
offices  in  Chicago.  December  1,  1915,  was  appointed  Assistant  General  Claims  Agent 
of  the  Southern  Lines. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.  4 


No.  10 


Story  of  tfao 
IllinoisContral  Linos 

during,  the 

Civil  Gonffict  i86i-5 

Lieutenant  General  Stephen  Dill  Lee 


CTEPHEN  D.  LEE,  a  Lieutenant 
General  of  the  Confederate  Army, 
was  born  in  Charleston,  September  22, 
1833,  of  an  old  South  Carolina  family. 
One  of  his  Revolutionary  ancestors 
languished  in  a  British  prison  ship  at 
St.  Augustine;  another  forebear  did 
good  service  against  the  Nullification 
movement  as  a  Federal  judge.  Caro- 
line Allison  Lee,  the  mother  of 
Stephen,  died  when  he  was  a  little 
child.  Dr.  Thomas  Lee,  his  father, 
married  again,  and  the  little  boy  was 
sent  to  boarding  school  very  early,  in- 
deed he  had  to  learn  to  take  care  of 
himself  at  a  time  when  most  boys  are 
in  the  shelter  of  home.  While  still  at 
school,  he  sought  out  a  candidate  for 
Congress  and  obtained  the  promise  of 
an  appointment  to  West  Point,  in  case 
of  his  successful  election.  The  man 
who  made  the  promise  was  Congress- 
man Orr,  afterward  Governor  of  South 
Carolina  and  Minister  to  Russia. 
"Stephen,"  he  said,  "you  have  so  much 
more  confidence  in  my  being  elected 
than  I  have  myself,  that  you  shall  cer- 


tainly have  the  place  if  I  succeed." 
Stephen  D.  Lee  entered  West  Point 
Military  Academy  in  1850  and  gradu- 
ated in  1854,  along  with  J.  E.  B.  Stu- 
art, Custis  Lee,  Pegram,  O.  O.  How- 
ard, and  others  who  afterward  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  the  Civil 
War.  Custis  Lee  was  the  son  of  Gen- 
eral Robert  E.  Lee,  who  was  then  the 
commander  of  the  post  at  West  Point. 
Upon  one  occasion  Custis  Lee's  room- 
mate brought  some  whiskey  into  quar- 
ters and  it  was  found  in  the  room.  As 
neither  Custis  nor  his  roommate  would 
say  who  brought  in  the  whiskey,  both 
were  arrested  and  threatened  with  ex- 
pulsion. General  Robert  E.  Lee  pri- 
vately sent  for  his  son,  and  told  him 
that  while  expulsion  would  probably 
follow  refusal  to  give  the  name  of  the 
student  who  brought  the  whiskey  into 
quarters,  that  he,  Custis,  should  on  no 
account  disclose  the  name  of  the  of- 
fender, but  should  preferably  accept 
expulsion  as  an  alternative.  As  the 
student  who  brought  the  whiskey  into 
quarters  would  inevitably  have  been 


11 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


expelled,  in  order  to  save  Custis  Lee 
from  expulsion  his  whole  class  took 
the  pledge  for  the  rest  of  their  stay 
at  West  Point. 

After  graduating  at  West  Point, 
Stephen  D.  Lee  spent  six  years  of  serv- 
ice on  the  western  frontier,  as  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Fourth  Artillery,  and 
during  a  portion  of  this  time  he  was 
regimental  quartermaster.  At  that 
time  the  arable  land  upon  the  western 
frontier  was  supposed  to  stop  at  the 
Missouri  river.  Life  at  an  army  post 
was  exceedingly  dull  and  a  certain 
amount  of  gambling  and  dissipation 
was  the  inevitable  result.  One  of  the 
older  officers  in  the  regiment,  who  was 
a  bachelor,  was  on  a  number  of  oc- 
casions very  tenderly  cared  for  by  the 
young  lieutenant  and  put  to  bed  when 
he  needed  the  ministrations  of  a  friend. 
The  older  man  had  saved  up  the  sum 
of  $14,000,  and  when  young  Lee  went 
south  to  join  the  Confederate  army 
his  friend  insisted  upon  making  him  a 
present  of  the  entire  sum.  The  young 
officer,  however,  refused  to  accept  the 
gift,  or  any  part  of  it,  upon  the  ground 
that  to  do  so  would  be  to  disappoint 
the  claims  of  somewhat  distant  rela- 
tives upon  the  old  man's  bounty.  Dur- 
ing all  this  time  the  young  soldier  al- 
lowed himself  the  bare  necessities  of 
life,  all  that  remained  out  of  a  lieu- 
tenant's pay  being  sent  back  to  educate 
his  sisters  and  to  aid  in  supporting  his 
father's  then  very  considerable  family. 

In  1857  trouble  arose  with  the  Sem- 
inole  Indians  in  Florida  and  the  young 
lieutenant  saw  service  there  under 
Colonel  Loomis  against  Billy  Bowlegs 
and  his  followers. 

Upon  the  approach  of  the  Civil 
War,  in  company  with  almost  all  of 
the  officers  of  the  United  States  Army 
from  the  seceding  states,  Lieutenant 
Lee  sent  in  his  resignation  and  offered 
his  services  to  his  native  state.  The 
more  fortunate  officers  who  came  south 
were  commissioned  as  colonels  and 
sent  to  the  front,  but,  having  no  po- 
litical support,  young  Lee  was  assigned 
to  the  quartermaster's  department.  He 
made  his  escape  from  this  service  by 


joining  a  volunteer  company  of  the 
Washington  Artillery  at  Charleston 
and  being  elected  its  captain.  In  the 
proceedings  immediately  before  Fort 
Sumter  was  fired  upon,  Lee  served  as 
aide  to  General  Beauregard,  and  in  this 
capacity,  along  with  Colonel  Chestnut, 
demanded  the  surrender  of  the  fort  and 
later  delivered  the  order  to  open  fire. 
Major  Anderson  tried  the  expedient 
of  holding  General  Beauregard's  mes- 
sengers as  long  as  possible  before  mak- 
ing reply,  and  offered  every  induce- 
ment which  the  sideboard  could  afford 
to  put  the  two  aides  out  of  commis- 
sion, so  far  as  returning  with  an  im- 
mediate reply  was  concerned,  but  the 
effort  was  in  vain.  The  artillery  offi- 
cer, Captain  Harrison,  to  whom  the 
command  was  given  to  begin  the  bom- 
bardment, offered  Colonel  Chestnut 
the  opportunity  to  fire  the  first  gun, 
but  upon  the  latter  refusing  with  con- 
siderable emotion  to  accept  the  invi- 
tation, Captain  Lee  offered  to  fire  the 
gun.  This  offer  was  not  accepted  as 
the  battery  commander  said  that  if 
Colonel  Chestnut  did  not  choose  to  fire 
the  cannon,  no  one  else  should  have 
the  opportunity  to  do  so,  and  dis- 
charged the  piece  himself.  Before  the 
war  was  over  this  resolute  officer  filled 
a  soldier's  grave. 

Captain  Lee's  first  employment  was 
with  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 
as  an  artillerist.  He  saw  hard  service 
in  the  battles  around  Richmond,  and 
at  Second  Manassas  was  able  to  ren- 
der exceedingly  effective  service,  so 
much  so  that  President  Jefferson  Davis 
afterward  declared  that  the  young  sol- 
dier had  saved  the  day.  In  the  terrible 
battle  of  Sharpsburg,  his  command  met 
with  serious  losses  and  participated  in 
very  bitter  fighting.  Upon  the  fol- 
lowing day  General  Robert  E.  Lee  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  crushing  the  Federal 
right  with  artillery.  Stonewall  Jack- 
son reported  that  it  was  impossible  to 
do  this,  and  requested  his  great  com- 
mander to  send  an  expert  artillerist  to 
report  upon  the  feasibility  of  the  plan. 

Stephen  D.  Lee,  then  colonel  of  artil- 
lery, was  chosen  as  the  expert  to  de- 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


cide  the  question,  and  this,  without 
any  previous  knowledge  of  the  opin- 
ions of  other  officers,  or  what  was  at 
stake  as  the  result  of  his  decision.  The 


ilege  of  making  the  attempt  in  case  it 
should  be  tried.  A  vivid  account  of 
this  incident  will  be  found  in  Hender- 
son's Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  also 


DOLLAR  RECEIVED  BY 


Dit-i:  bee 


,  GEN.C.S.A  . 

.     ,   AT.MJGH  POINT,  N.C.,  1063, 

at  the  stirrefi'derjof  Johnston's  army.the  only  specie  paid 
him  during  the  civil  war.  These  buttons  were  cut  from 
his  uniform  by  his  wife,  in  obedience  to  an  order  of  the 
Prpyost  Marshal  *tCoiumbus,Mi$Sv3fterfhe  surrender. 


advice  given  by  Colonel  Lee  was  that 
success  was  impossible,  but  in  order 
to  save  himself  from  the  implication  of 
unwillingness  or  fear,  at  the  time  he 
gave  the  opinion  he  requested  the  priv- 


in  "The  Long  Roll,"  a  novel  by  Mary 
Johnston,  which  gives  a  graphic  pic- 
ture of  the  campaigns  of  Stonewall 
Jackson  and  his  men. 

In  the  West  the  campaign  had  been 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


15 


going  against  the  Confederacy.  The 
effort  of  the  Federal  Government  to 
open  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  sea 
was  in  sight  of  success.  After  Sharps- 
burg,  President  Davis  requested  Gen- 
eral Robert  E.  Lee  to  select  his  most 
efficient  and  accomplished  artillery  of- 
ficer for  duty  on  the  Mississippi.  The 
choice  fell  upon  Colonel  Stephen  D. 
Lee,  who  was  made  Brigadier-General 
November  2,  1862,and  sent  to  Vicks- 
burg.  On  December  29,  1862,  at  Chick- 
asaw  Bayou,  with  2,700  men,  he  was 
so  fortunate  as  to  repulse  General  W. 
T.  Sherman  with  32,000  men  in  his 
command.  The  following  account  of 
this  battle  is  taken  from  Pollard's  "Lee 
and  His  Lieutenants,"  page  679 : 

"The  enemy  made  his  first  demon- 
stration by  disembarking  his  army  at 
the  north  of  Chickasaw  Bayou  five 
miles  from  Vicksburg,  on  the  Yazoo 
River,  and  at  once  commenced  push- 
ing towards  the  city  in  the  direction 
of  the  road  leading  from  Snyder's 
Bluff.  Encountering  him  with  his 
small  force,  Gen.  Lee  disputed  the 
ground  inch  by  inch  to  the  Bluff,  two 
and  a  half  miles.  By  holding  the  en- 
emy in  check  for  an  entire  day,  he  was 
enabled  to  construct  a  few  rifle  pits, 
tp  shelter  his  small  command  on  the 
long  line  he  had  to  defend,  a  distance 
of  twelve  miles  from  Vicksburg  to 
Snyder's  Bluff.  The  enemy,  seeing  the 
small  force  in  front  of  him,  determined 
on  an  assault,  and  crossing  Chickasaw 
Bayou  moved  gallantly  to  the  attack, 
Blair's  Missouri  division  and  part  of 
Morgan  L.  Smith's  in  the  lead.  Curi- 
ously enough,  a  week  before  the  ac- 
tion General  Lee  had  reconnoitered  the 
precise  field,  and  had  then  remarked 
to  one  of  his  officers  that  'it  was  the 
weakest  point  around  Vicksburg,  and 
that  if  the  enemy  ever  came  towards 
;the  city,  he  would  try  this  route.'  His 
predictions  were  exactly  realized.  But 
^the  assault  of  the  enemy  was  repulsed ; 
{four  hundred  of  their  dead  and  wound- 
ed were  left  on  the  field,  and  four  hun- 
dred prisoners :  and  so  decisive  was 
the  repulse,  and  so  blind  was  Sherman 
to  the  advantages  he  had  fallen  upon, 


that  he  desisted  from  further  action, 
embarked  on  his  transports,  and  left 
the  Yazoo  to  try  some  other  plan  or 
point  of  attack.  The  victory  was  a 
most  important  one;  it  came  near  ex- 
tinguishing Sherman's  then  flickering 
reputation;  and  it  was  achieved  by 
General  Lee  in  the  most  unequal  and 
desperate  circumstances." 

One  of  the  incidents  which  General 
Stephen  D.  Lee  used  to  tell  in  connec- 
tion with  this  battle  was  that  imme- 
diately after  the  battle  it  was  found 
absolutely  necessary  to  get  an  addi- 
tional supply  of  ammunition.  The  road 
to  Vicksburg  passed  under  the  fire  of 
the  enemy's  sharp  shooters,  so  that 
any  man  carrying  the  order  was  com- 
pelled to  ride  for  his  life.  Volunteers 
were  called  for.  After  two  men  had 
thus  fallen,  killed  in  sight  of  their  com- 
rades in  this  desperate  undertaking,  a 
third  gallant  horseman,  riding  like  the 
wind,  succeeded  in  running  the  gaunt- 
let and  carrying  the  necessary  order  to 
Vicksburg. 

In  the  campaigning  which  witnessed 
the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  Lee  saw  terrible 
fighting.  At  Baker's  Creek  he  discov- 
ered just  in  time  that  the  enemy  was 
about  to  gain  the  road  to  Vicksburg  in 
the  rear  of  Pemberton's  forces.  Lee's 
brigade  lost  more  than  1,000  men,  or 
about  one-third  of  its  full  number,  in 
this  engagement.  General  Lee  rallied 
several  regiments  by  taking  their  col- 
ors and  leading  them  on  in  person. 
Three  horses  were  shot  under  him 
within  a  period  of  twenty  minutes  and 
several  bullets  passed  through  his 
clothes,  but  he  was  only  slightly 
wounded.  During  the  retreat,  he  and 
his  adjutant,  Captain  Elliott,  fell  into 
an  ambush  and  rode  up  to  within  75 
yards  of  the  enemy  before  discovering 
their  situation.  They  wheeled  their 
horses  and  fled  under  an  infantry  and 
artillery  fire  which  made  their  escape 
seem  miraculous. 

In  the  assault  upon  Vicksburg,  June 
22,  1863,  a  part  of  Lee's  redoubts  were 
carried  and  three  stands  of  colors  were 
planted  upon  them.  The  trenches  were 
retaken,  however,  by  Colonel  Waul 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


HOME  OF  STEPHEN  DILL  LEE  AT  COLUM- 
BUS,   MISS. 

with  40  volunteers  from  Waul's  Texas 
Legion,  capturing  100  prisoners.  The 
most  extraordinary  feature  of  the  en- 
terprise was  that,  although  about  30 
cannon  were  trained  upon  the  spot,  not 
a  one  of  the  Texans  was  killed.  During 
this  assault  General  Lee,  Colonel  Waul 
and  the  latter's  adjutant  stood  in  an 
exposed  position,  the  adjutant  being 
shot  through  the  heart.  Afterwards  it 
was  ascertained  that  40  men  had  been 
ordered  to  fire  a  volley  at  the  three, 
but  only  one  was  touched. 

At  the  time  Vicksburg  was  sur- 
rendered, in  some  places  the  enemy's 
trenches  were  only  20  feet  from  parts 

of  Lee's  line. 

Being  exchanged  after  his  capture, 
he  was  raised,  August  3,  1863,  to  the 
rank  of  Major-General,  and  placed  in 
command  of  all  the  cavalry  in  Mis- 
sissippi. With  two  small  brigades  of 
cavalry  he  disputed  the  advance  of 
Sherman  from  Memphis  to  reinforce 
Grant  at  Chattanooga,  so  that  Sherman 
finally  crossed  the  Tennessee  river  at 
Eastport  and  marched  on  the  north 
side.  When  Sherman  made  his  expe- 
dition from  Vicksburg  to  Meridian, 
Lee  hung  upon  his  march.  It  is  hard 
to  say  just  why  this  expedition  was  ever 
undertaken,  as  General  Sherman 
marched  back  again,  after  having  de- 
stroyed nothing  of  very  great  value. 

On  June  23,  1864,  then  being  31  years 
of  age,  Lee  became  the  youngest  Lieu- 
tenant-General  in  the  Confederate 


army.  In  July  of  that  year  General 
A.  J.  Smith  moved  out  of  Memphis 
with  16,000  men  to  attack  General  For- 
rest. At  Forrest's  request,  Lee  took 
charge  of  their  united  forces,  only 
6,500  men  in  all.  The  battle  took  place 
at  Harrisburg,  near  Tupelo,  and  after 
three  days  of  desperate  fighting  Smith 
retreated  to  Memphis. 

When  General  Hood  was  placed  in 
chief  command  of  the  Army  of  Ten- 
nessee, General  Lee  took  command  of 
Hood's  corps  and  participated  in  the 
severe  fighting  in  the  battles  around 
Atlanta.  In  the  Tennessee  campaign 
General  Lee  was  given  the  task  of  en- 
gaging the  Federal  troops  under  Gen- 
eral Scofield  at  Columbia,  while  Hood, 
with  the  other  troops,  made  a  detour 
and  gained  their  rear  a;  Spring  Hill. 
The  pitiful  neglect  to  close  the  gap 


SASH    WORN    ETT    GENERAL    STEPHEN    D. 
LEE   DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


17 


at  Spring  Hill  and  cut  off  the  retreat 
of  the  Federal  army,  resulted  in  the 
terrible  slaughter  at  Franklin.  When 
the  battle  took  place  there  only  one 
division  of  Lee's  corps  had  reached 
the  field  from  Columbia.  As  Lee  rode 
up  to  General  Hood,  Hood  gave  orders 
that  the  division  should  at  once  be 
sent  into  action.  It  was  then  night- 
fall, and  when  Lee  requested  guides 
for  his  men,  Hood  pointed  to  the  red 
line  of  fire  upon  the  horizon  and  an- 


saults  of  Wilson's  cavalry.  About  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  first  day 
of  the  retreat  General  Lee  was  pain- 
fully wounded  in  the  foot,  but  did  not 
give  up  his  command  until  eleven 
o'clock  that  night. 

Lee's  corps  was  the  only  organized 
command  after  the  battle,  and  he  was 
the  only  corps  commander  compli- 
mented in  General  Hood',^  final  report. 

As  a  result  of  the  wound  received  in 
this  engagement,  General  Lee  was 


SPURS   AND   WATCH   CASE   OF  GENERAL,   ROBERT   E.   LEE   PRESENTED   BY   HIS   SON, 
GENERAL   G.    W.    CUSTIS    LEE    TO   GENERAL    STEPHEN   D.    LEE. 


swered :  "Your  men  will  need  no 
guides,  yonder  is  where  they  are  to 
go."  This  division  charged  through  a 
locust  thicket  and  took  three  stands 
of  colors.  After  Franklin,  the  result 
of  the  battle  of  Nashville  was  a  fore- 
gone conclusion.  At  the  battle  of 
Nashville,  Lee's  position  was  at  Over- 
ton  Hill  and  his  corps  was  successful 
in  repelling  the  charges  of  the  enemy. 
When  the  line  broke  elsewhere  his 
corps  became  the  rear  guard  and  it  is 
believed  saved  the  army  from  destruc- 
tion. For  two  days  they  fought  rear 
guard  actions,  repelling  the  fierce  as- 


compelled  to  give  up  his  command  for 
a  considerable  time.  He- spent  his  fur- 
lough at  Columbus,  Miss.,  and  during 

s  time  was  married  to  Miss  Regina 
Harrison,  the  daughter  of  James  T. 
Harrison,  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  a 
member  of  the  first  Confederate  Con- 
gress. 

As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  travel 
General  Lee  rejoined  his  command  on 
crutches,  was  with  his  corps  when  it 
surrendered  and  was  paroled  with  Gen- 
eral Johnston's  army.  The  Mexican 
dollar  which  he  received  at  the  disso- 
lution of  Johnston's  army  was  the  only 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


specie  paid  him  during  his  entire,  serv- 
ice for  the  Confederacy,  and  is  still  pre- 
served. With  this  sole  occupant  of  his 
purse  he  traveled  hundreds  of  miles 
from  North  Carolina  to  Mississippi, 
but  he  found  no  one  who  would  accept 
it  from  him  in  payment  for  food  or 
lodging,  when  the  circumstances  un- 
der which  it  had  been  received  were 
made  known. 

After  the  war  was  over,  General  Lee 
took  up  the  pursuit  of  farming  in  Nox- 
ubee  ,  county,  Mississippi.  Several 
times  he  undertook  other  pursuits.  He 
was  at  one  time  general  superintendent 
of  an  insurance  company,  but  was  com- 
pelled to  give  up  this  calling,  since  it 
enforced  separation  from  his  invalid 
wife.  Farming  in  Mis3issippi  during 
Reconstruction  days  was  a  very  un- 
grateful pursuit.  He  took  an  active 
part  in  the  overthrow  of  the  carpet- 
bag government  in  Mississippi,  but  did 
not  hold  any  public  office,  except  that 
in  1878  he  was  elected  State  Senator 
from  Lowndes  county. 

When  the  State  Agricultural  and  Me- 
chanical College  was  established  at 
Starkville,  in  1880,  he  was  made  its 
president,  and  there  for  nineteen  years 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  instruction  of 
Mississippi  youth  in  agricultural  and 
mechanical  arts.  He  considered  this 
his  life  work  and  would  have  preferred 
to  be  remembered  for  his  influence 
upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  young 
men  who  entered  this  institution  rather 
than  for  his  services,  however  brilliant, 
upon  the  battlefield. 

On  May  1,  1899,  he  resigned  the  pres- 
idency of  the  college,  having  been  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  three  commissioners 
of  the  Vicksburg  National  Park.  In 
1899  he  was  elected  president  of  the 
Mississippi  Historical  Society,  and  in 
1902  president  of  the  Board  of  Archives 
and  History  of  the  state  of  Mississippi. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1890,  and  at  that  time 
was  an  advocate  of  granting  suffrage  to 
women,  subject  to  educational  or  prop- 
erty qualifications. 

In  1904  he  was  elected  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  United  Confederate  Veter- 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


STEPHEN   D.    LEE   MEMORIAL   CHAPEL. 

ans,  and  was  from  time  to  time  re- 
elected  until  the  date  of  his  death,  May 
28,  1908.  During-  his  later  life  he  was 
very  active  in  endeavoring  to  further 
the  cause  of  historical  writing  which 
would  do  justice  to  the  merits  of  the 
soldiers  of  the  Confederacy  as  well  as 
those  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union.  He 
became  popular  as  a  public  speaker  at 
soldiers'  gathering's ;  indeed  he  lost  his 
life  on  account  of  the  exertion  and  the 
heat  of  the  day  on  May  22,  1908,  when 
he  delivered  an  address  of  welcome  to 
the  survivors  of  Lawler's  Brigade  of  the 
Union  Army  which  besieged  Vicksburg. 
General  Lee  stood  six  feet  in  his 
stocking's.  As  a  young  man  he  was 
conspicuous  as  an  athlete,  especially  as 
a  rider  and  swimmer.  His  manner  was 
unobtrusive  and  modest,  and  but  for  his 
shyness  and  reserve,  he  would  probably 
have  won  even  greater  distinction.  He 
was  a  man  of  no  concealments ;  his  char- 
acter was  as  clear  as  crystal ;  there  was 
nothing  in  his  soul  or  in  his  life  to  be 
hid.  Early  familiar  with  hardship  and 
misfortune,  his  nature  was  serious,  with 
a  touch  of  sadness,  possibly  due  in  part 
to  the  many  years  of  devotion  to  his 
invalid,  wife,  whose  own  cheerful  and 
sunny  nature  illuminated  her  physical 
suffering.  After  her  death,  and  during 
the  latter  years  of  his  life,  which  were 
spent  in  a  charming  old  house  at  Co- 
lumbus, Mississippi.  General  Lee  re- 
serving a  sum  sufficient  for  his  personal 
needs,  which  were  of  the  simplest  char- 
acter, was  accustomed  to  give  away  his 
entire  income  to  charitable  causes,  of 
which  his  church  was  the  most  im- 


portant. He  loaned  in  the  aggregate 
large  sums  of  money  to  poor  boys  to 
enable  them  to  complete  their  educa- 
tions, only  a  part  of  which  was  ever  re- 
turned to  him.  Women  and  old  soldiers 
had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  his  sub- 
scription to  books  which  he  never 
read,  while  in  his  daily  walks  beggars 
invariably  made  it  convenient  to  meet 
him,  and  he  never  turned  them  away. 
His  public  life  was  strong,  useful  and 
faithful;  his  private  life  had  a  sweet- 
ness and  charm  known  only  to  his  in- 
timates. He  was  an  early  riser  and  did 
his  most  important  work  before  break- 
fast. Writing  and  speaking  he  found 
always  difficult,  but  by  continual  effort 
he  accomplished  himself  well  in  them ; 
indeed  his  wife  used  to  say  that  al- 
though he  had  absolutely  no  ear  for 
music,  he  would  have  succeeded  as  an 
opera  singer,  if  he  had  thought  it  his 
duty  to  do  so.  While  he  was  never 
wasteful  in  the  use  of  money-,  he  really 


BRONZE   BUST   OF   STEPHEN   D.    LEE, 
MISSISSIPPI  A.   &  M.   COLLEGE. 


20 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


cared  nothing  for  it,  except  to  give  it 
away,  and  this,  perhaps,  was  one  of  the 
secrets  of  his  power.  He  had  a  beauti- 
ful old  age,  darkened  only  by  his  deep 
sympathy  with  the  suffering  of  others. 
At  the  time  of  the  Spanish-American 
War,  there  was  some  difficulty  in  secur- 
ing from  Mississippi  the  proper  quota 
of  volunteers,  and  General  Lee  made  it 
his  business  to  go  about  the  state  ad- 
dressing the  young  men  and  urging 
them  to  enlist.  His  influence  over 


ham  Reunion  in  June,  1908,  speaking  of 
the  Confederate  soldiery,  which  per- 
haps indicates  as  well  as  anything  his 
point  of  view.  These  are  bugle  notes 
for  the  living  as  well  as  the  dead. 

"These  men  fell  bleeding  and  with 
broken  swords  before  the  altar  of  their 
country.  Their  reward  was  the  im- 
perishable knighthood  of  their  service. 
I  imagine  that  the  knights  of  the  Holy 
Grail  never  sought  other  reward  than 
just  to  serve.  The  Confederate  soldier 


College  Pj-esi^ 


Stephen  Dill  Lee 


Commander  United  ConfedemteVet 


young  men  was  so  great  that  his  efforts 
were  quite  successful.  Some  one  took 
him  to  task  for  inducing  these  young 
men  to  take  up  arms,  when  very  likely 
it  would  cost  a  good  many  of  them 
their  lives.  General  Lee's  instant  reply 
was,  "Is  there  anything  better  that  can 
happen  to  a  young  man  than  to  give 
his  life  for  his  country?"  He  held  fast 
to  faith  in  a  living  God  and  immortal 
life.  There  is  a  passage  from  his  last 
address  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
United  Confederate  Veterans,  read  two 
weeks  after  his  death,  at  the  Birming- 


was  the  flower  of  noble  and  heroic 
courage.  Duty  laid  her  kiss  upon  his 
brow  and  love  of  country  folded  him  in 
her  arms.  He  enriched  the  world  in 
honor;  he  added  to  the  spiritual  riches 
of  mankind.  The  memory  of  his  deeds 
is  the  treasure  of  his  people,  incorrupt- 
ible, undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away.  No  noble  action  is  ever  lost, 
no  brave  deed  shall  ever  pass  away. 
They  are  written  upon  the  everlast- 
ing pages  of  the  universe,  they  are 
inscribed  upon  the  heart  of  God.  The 
mountains  and  hills  shall  be  made  low 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


21 


and  there  shall  be  no  more  sea,  But 
nothing  of  moral  worth  shall  perish. 
Upon  the  coral  of  such  lives  as  these 
God's  islands  lift  'their  fronded  palms 
in  air.'  But  if  religion  were  supersti- 
tion and  faith  were  folly,  if  death  ends 
all  and  icy  night  awaits  the  world,  these 
men  lived  the  only  life  fit  to  be  lived. 
"To  those  who  keep  alive  in  loyal 
hearts  the  memory  of  the  Confederate 
dead,  I  would  say  these  men  chose  the 
noblest  part.  This  is  the  best  life  of- 
fers any  man ;  to  strive  for  the  highest, 
the  greatest,  the  bravest  that  he  knows. 
Is  it  not  better  to  achieve  these  things, 
even  at  the  cost  of  life  itself,  than  to 
purchase  length  of  days  by  mean  and 
sordid  living,  by  cowardice  or  craft,  by 
surrender  of  the  fine  ideals  of  manhood 
in  base  compliance  to  dishonor?  In 
the  heart  of  every  man  the  Everlasting 
has  made  answer.  If  the  cause  failed, 
the  men  were  not  lost.  Looking  be- 
yond the  little  span  of  human  life  into 
the  white  light  of  eternity,  what  better 


could  we  have  wished  for  the  Confed- 
erate soldier  than  to  have  played  his 
part  as  he  did?  He  has  left  heroic  mem- 
ories that  chasten  and  purify  the  hearts 
of  all  who  shall  come  after  him.  He 
has  lifted  life  above  the  low  level  of  the 
commonplace  into  the  realm  of  precious 
and  immutable  things,  which  abide 
above  all  change,  beyond  the  reach  of 
years." 

It  is  hard  to  deal  with  such  a  life  as 
his,  strengthened  by  conflict,  sweetened 
by  suffering,  bravely  trampling  under 
foot  the  material  aims  and  selfish  de- 
sires which  hold  most  men  in  chains, 
without  entering  into  eulogy.  Here 
was  a  man  who  loved  the  highest,  when 
he  saw  it,  and  never  gave  up  its  quest, 
whatever  life  brought  of  poverty  or 
riches,  joy  or  sorrow,  accomplishment 
or  defeat.  He  never  lost  sight  of  the 
stars.  Peace  to  thy  spirit,  Stephen  Lee, 
wherever  in  the  wide  universe  thou  art, 
for  thy  soul  was  made  of  love  and  truth, 
and  these  elements  are  immortal ! 


OF    STATUE    OP    GENERAL    STEPHEN    DILL,   LEE,    IN    THE    NATIONAL    MILI- 
TARY  PARK,   VICKSBURG,    MISS. 


The  Public  and  the  Railroads 


Address  by  Vice-President  W.  L.  Park  Delivered   Before  the  St.  Louis  Railway  Club, 

Friday,  March  10,  1916 


'  I AHE  railroad  problem  is  the  greatest 
national  problem  that  confronts  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  Our  na- 
tion, since  its  discovery,  has  been  the 
"melting  pot"  of  the  world.  Into  it  has 
been  poured  the  best  blood  of  every 
country;  they  have  mixed  and  assim- 
ilated in  a  most  remarkable  way,  con- 
clusive that  a  Divine  power  is  shaping 
our  destiny. 

The  Latin,  Slavic,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  even  the  African  and  the 
North  American  Indian,  peoples  have 
mixed  their  blood  on  this  continent, 
while  no  apparent  reason  other  than  the 
guiding  hand  of  Providence  has  pre- 
vented the  Occidental  and  Oriental  races 
from  so  mixing,  indicating  that  there  is 
to  be  formed  here  the  greatest  nation  of 
the  earth,  whose  power  must  ultimately 
dominate  the  Orient  and  the  world. 
The  Teutonic,  Slavic,  Latin,  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  people  are  now  engaged  in  a 
titanic  struggle,  which,  unquestionably, 
places  the  omnipotent  mark  of  disap- 
proval upon  their  political  methods. 
From  this  chaos  must  inevitably  come 
governments  patterned  after  our  ideals 
and  institutions.  To  my  mind,  the  great 
contest  in  Europe  means  more  for  the 
people  of  the  United  States  than  for  any 
of  the  contesting  nations.  Monarchies 
and  kingdoms  are  doomed;  the  lesser 
monarchs  and  potentates  are  already 
seeking  asylums  elsewhere  than  in  their 
own  countries.  The  monarchs  leading 
each  of  the  contending  armies  in  Eu- 
rope all  solemly  claim  Divine  favor.  Can 
it  not  be  more  rightly  claimed  for  a  na- 
tion that  declares  that  all  men  are  cre- 
ated equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by 
their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights ;  that  among  those  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  se- 
cure these  rights,  governments  are  in- 


stituted among  men,  deriving  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned ? 

Lincoln's  words,  "With  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness 
in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,"  appeals  to  me  to  be  more  in  the 
interests  of  humanity  than  words  of  hate 
and  scorn  from  those  now  at  each  oth- 
er's throats,  without  a  semblence  of  hu- 
manity, madly  endeavoring  to  destroy 
all  that  is  good  in  churches,  the  arts  and 
sciences,  by  fair  means  or  foul — a  re- 
turn to  barbarism  and  savagery. 

A  general  resume  of  the  situation  in 
Europe  and  its  effect  upon  this  country 
appeared  in  the  World's  Work  for  Feb- 
ruary, written  by  Mr.  Otto  H.  Kahn. 
who,  perhaps,  has  a  clearer  vision  than 
any  other  living  man  of  the  cause  and 
effect  that  enters  into  the  problem  as  re- 
lates both  to  this  country  and  Europe. 
I  quote  part  of  Mr.  Kahn's  article : 

"The  situation  resulting  from  the  Eu- 
ropean war  has  brought  to  this  country 
a  scope  and  a  wealth  of  opportunity 
almost,  if  not  entirely,  without  parallel 
in  history.  It  has  never  happened  be- 
fore that  the  great  nations  of  the  earth, 
all  but  one,  were  engaged  in  a  terrible 
physical  and  economic  conflict — a  con- 
flict so  appallingly  costly  and  destructive 
in  lives  and  treasure  that  its  consequences 
must  be  felt  for  generations — whilst  the 
one  great  country  at  peace  not  only  en- 
joys its  blessings, ..in  an  undiminished  de- 
gree, but  is  actually  benefited  by  the  ur- 
gent necessity  of  some  of  the  fighting  na- 
tions to  turn  to  it  for  certain  of  their 
essential  requirements  during  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  war.  Granting  that  it 
is  true  that  no  nation  can  derive  lasting 
economic  advantage,  in  an  absolute  sense, 
from  the  destruction  of-  the  wealth  of 
other  nations,  yet,  it  must  be  borne  in 


22 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


23 


mind  that  all  values  are  relative,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  relation 
to  all  other  nations  the  position,  eco- 
nomic power  and  wealth  of  the  United 
States  have  received  an  immense  en- 
hancement in  consequence  of  the  war, 
and  the  opportunities  opened  up  to  it 
are  well  nigh  boundless.  But  there  is  no 
great  opportunity  without  a  correspond- 
ing duty,  no  privilege  without  a  corre- 
sponding obligation  to  use  it  wisely  and 
beneficiently.  To  fulfill  with  credit  and 
honor,  with  due  advantage  to  itself  and 
the  world,  the  part  which  the  favor  of 
Providence  has  allotted  to  America  is  a 
weighty  and  solemn  task.  It  calls  for 
thoroughness  of  thought  and  study,  in- 
tegrity, self-restraint,  and  conservation, 
boldness,  enterprise  and  adaptability, 
breadth  of  vision  coupled  with  attention 
to  details  and  last,  but  not  least,  wise  and 
mutually  trustful  co-operation  between 
business  and  the  legislative  and  admin- 
istrative powers." 

In  this  great  crisis  it  behooves  us,  as 
a  nation,  to  study  all  of  the  problems  en- 
tering into  the  conflict,  without  prejudice 
or  bias,  entirely  from  the  viewpoint  of 
our  national  welfare.  It  has  been  re- 
peatedly said  by  many  of  the  eminent 
political  scholars  of  Europe  that  our 
Constitution  is  the  most  wonderful  po- 
litical document  that  has  ever  been  writ- 
ten. Its  preamble  sets  forth  that  it  was 
adopted  for  the  purpose  of  creating  a 
more  perfect  union,  to  establish  justice, 
to  insure  domestic  tranquility,  to  provide 
for  the  common  defense,  to  promote  the 
general  welfare  and  to  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty  for  ourselves  and  our 
posterity.  These  principles  must  continue 
to  be  our  guiding  star.  Our  duty  lies  in 
maintaining  them  inviolate  and  in  the 
spirit  in  which  our  forefathers  saw  the 
possibilities  of  this  greatest  nation. 

The  most  important  principle  in  this 
document  is  the  first,  "to  establish  jus- 
tice." Our  experience  has  already  taught 
us  that  every  tendency  to  depart  there- 
from weakens  us  as  a  nation.  It  is  the 
basic  requirement  upon  which  the  four 
other  principles  of  government  rest. 

The  railroad  question  is  the  one  that 
will,  in  all  probability,  place  the  greatest 


strain  upon  the  firm  and  permanent  es- 
tablishment of  justice  and,  therefore,  is 
the  greatest  national  problem  that  con- 
fronts us  today.  Can  our  railroads  be 
owned  and  operated  by  private  capital? 
Are  the  people  of  this  country  patriotic 
enough  to  do  them  exact  justice?  Being 
semi-public  institutions,  they  are  vulner- 
able to  political,  financial'  and  social  at- 
tacks. They  must  be  protected  by  wise 
regulation  in  that  they  may  not  them- 
selves do  these  things  that  will  arouse 
public  animosity.  There  must  be  a  cen- 
tralized federal  supervision  that  will  so 
regulate  their  methods  as  to  bring  about 
uniformity  of  supervision  and  service. 
Their  accounting  to  the  public  must  be 
of  such  character  as  to  prevent  manipu- 
lation, discrimination,  and  undue  per- 
sonal gain.  It  must  make  comparisons 
possible  and  control  impartial.  To  this 
extent,  governmental  regulation  is  univer- 
sally approved;  further,  it  becomes  a 
more  complicated  and  serious  problem. 
To  what  extent  may  legitimate  business 
functions  be  supervised  by  federal,  state, 
county,  and  municipal  authority  ?  Where 
does  legitimate  and  proper  regulation  of 
its  activities  begin  and  end?  No  one 
should  object  to  any  such  regulation  if 
it  is  for  the  general  welfare.  Every  one 
should  object  if  it  seeks  to  bring  prefer- 
ential conditions  or  service  to  particular 
territories,  localities,  or  individuals. 
With  forty-eight  states,  sovereign  within 
themselves,  there  must  come  to  this  ques- 
tion many  complications.  I  have  the 
greatest  confidence  that  our  courts,  cre- 
ated to  safeguard  the  first  fundamental 
of  our  Constitution,  the  establishment  of 
justice,  will  work  these  problems  out. 
Also,  that  they  will,  in  connection  there- 
with, so  regulate  the  financial  affairs  as 
to  eliminate  the  mercenary  and  control 
the  striving  for  unfair  individual  advan- 
tage in  connection  with  their  operation. 

The  great  problem  entering  into  the 
railroad  question  is  that  of  its  working 
forces.  In  this  connection,  the  railroads 
are  just  as  vulnerable  as  they  are  in  the 
political  and  financial  aspects;  in  fact, 
much  more  so,  for  here  regulation  and 
control  is  more  difficult. 

"No  one  questions  the  right  of  railroad 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


labor  to  seek  adequate  and  just  compen- 
sation. It  must,  also,  be  conceded  that 
the  working  conditions  shall  be  fair,  rea- 
sonable and  comparable  with  other  allied 
vocations.  I  think  every  manager 
throughout  the  country  is  thoroughly 
imbued  with  this  idea.  He  must  recog- 
nize that  he  can  render  better  service  to 
the  public  and  to  his  stockholders  if  he 
can  surround  himself  with  competent, 
satisfied  and  loyal  subordinates.  The 
desire  on  his  part  to  render  the  best  pos- 
sible service  is  an  incentive  always  to 
give  every  consideration  to  the  condi- 
tions surrounding  those  who  are  directly 
in  charge  of  the  service  activities.  He 
expects  and  desires  that  the  conductor 
have  a  fine  personality,  to  be  courteous 
to  the  patrons,  to  be  intelligent,  so  that 
the  great  responsibilities  of  operating 
trains  may  be  reposed  in  safe  hands,  and 
that  he  shall  live  in  his  community  in 
such  a  way  that  he  and  his  family  shall 
command  the  respect  of  the  community. 
I  know  that  no  one  appreciates  this  more 
than  the  Manager  (and  in  this  term  I 
include,  as  well,  the  General  Superinten- 
dents, the  Superintendents,  Train  Mas- 
ters, the  Master  Mechanics  and  the 
assistants).  The  necessity  of  having 
in  charge  of  the  locomotive  an  en- 
gineer of  the  highest  intelligence,  of 
the  best  physique,  who  may  surround 
himself  with  such  domestic  conditions 
as  to  prevent  worry,  is  conceded; 
the  Manager  knows  that  in  a  mo- 
ment of  abstraction  or  amnesia,  the  en- 
gineer can  plunge  a  hundred  souls  into 
eternity.  Therefore,  it  is  human  as  well 
as  a  business  inclination  that  he  shall  be 
well  paid  and  the  conditions  surrounding 
bis  employment  shall  be  such  as  to  in- 
duce contentment,  which  in  turn  pro- 
vides a  clear  head.  This  applies,  in  turn, 
to  bis  assistant,  the  fireman,  the  coming 
engineer ;  and  to  the  brakeman,  the  com- 
ing conductor.  It  applies,  also,  to  the 
agent,  who  comes  in  contact  more,  per- 
haps, than  any  other  employe  with  the 
patrons  of  the  company,  and  to  the  train 
dispatcher,  who  handles  the  movement 
of  the  trains.  Therefore,  as  I  have 
stated,  there  has  been  an  inclination  on 
the  part  of  the  managers  to  treat  the 


classes  employed  in  train  operation  with 
the  utmost  consideration,  and  I  do  not 
think  that  any  manager  will  contend  that 
what  has  been  done  in  this  direction  is 
sufficient.  Many  roads  have  proved  the 
value  of  rest  rooms,  pensions,  hospitals, 
and  other  welfare  conditions  and  are 
generally  in  favor  of  all  those  things  that 
will  surround  the  service  to  the  public 
with  safety,  expedition  and  comfort.  At 
the  same  time,  the  manager  must  give 
consideration  to  many  other  worthy, 
loyal  and  efficient  employes  who  are  just 
as  important  factors  in  the  operation  of 
the  railroad  as  those  in  the  train  and  en- 
gine service.  His  duty  to  the  public  re- 
quires that  he  shall  do  exact  justice  to 
all  of  his  working  forces  and  not  permit 
those  who,  by  collective  bargaining,  are 
impelled  to  continuously  seek,  preferen- 
tially and  to  the  detriment  of  others,  ad- 
vantages beyond  the  proper  correlation 
of  all  of  the  labor  elements  that  enter 
into  the  working  of  the  railroad.  This 
is  a  problem  in  which  the  public  itself  is 
directly  interested,  not  only  so  far  as 
their  sense  of  justice  and  fair  play  may 
be  invoked  to  control  affairs,  in  which 
they  are  perhaps  not  pecuniarily  inter- 
ested, but  also  to  the  extent  they 
are  responsible  for  the  influence  that  in- 
dustrial conditions  in  one  line  of  activity 
may  exert  upon  other  industries,  and  the 
promotion  of  the  general  welfare. 

The  American  people  have,  to  an  ex- 
treme, the  virtue  of  fair  play.  Their  in- 
clination is  to  be  liberal ;  to  attend  to 
their  own  affairs  and  to  hold  responsible 
those  who  control  the  different  branches 
of  our  great  industrial  life  in  all  of  the 
minor  things  that  enter  into  it.  When 
this  gets  beyond  the  control  of  those  di- 
rectly responsible,  the  public  must,  and 
will,  take  cognizance  of  such  conditions 
and  exert  its  powerful  influences  to  keep 
it  within  due  bounds,  and  in  co-relatidi 
to  the  conditions  that  surround  other 
business  activities.  The  coming  wage 
movement  is  arousing  such  public  inter- 
est and  it  is  well  that  it  is  so,  for  the 
good  of  the  nation.  If  the  public  is 
lethargetic  and  does  not  interest  itself  in 
these  probelms  there  is  but  one  inevitable 
outcome — that  the  Government  owner- 


25 


ship,  which  hardly  anyone,  no  matter 
what  his  vocation  may  be,  will  concede 
is  the  solution  of  this  problem.  Govern- 
ment ownership  is  diametrically  opposed 
to  all  of  our  American  ideals  and  institu- 
tions— politically,  it  does  not  tend  to  in- 
sure domestic  tranquillity,  as  it  will  cer- 
tainly bring  about  centralized  govern- 
ment and  array  classes  against  classes. 
It  will  not  promote  the  general  welfare, 
as  it  would  necessarily  restrict  and  cir- 
cumscribe railroad  activities. 

The  progressive  achievement  of  our 
American  railroads  is  the  most  marvel- 
ous industrial  achievement  in  the  world's 
history.  The  possibility  of  industrial 
accomplishment  in  all  other  branches  of 
our  national  life  have  been  phenomenal, 
by  reason  of  the  opportunities  opened 
up  by  the  builders  of  our  railroads,  until 
now  our  existing  and  prospective  com- 
mercial supremacy  is  the  envy  of  the 
world.  The  opportunities  are  now 
greater  than  ever  before.  We  have  just 
passed  the  100,000,000  mark  in  our  popu- 
lation ;  there  will  be  an  increase  of  more 
than  1  per  cent  annually,  with  oppor- 
tunities for  millions  yet  to  come. 

It  is  our  duty  as  railroad  men,  no 
matter  what  our  position  may  be,  to  lay 
aside  our  personalities  when  it  come  to  a 
question  of  duty  to  our  nation;  such 
sacrifice  is  insignificant  as  compared  with 
those  our  forefathers  have  made  to 
create  it  and  prevent  its  dissolution,  or  as 
compared  with  the  sacrifices  that  are 
elsewhere  being  made  in  less  worthy 
causes.  Our  sense  of  patriotism  must  be 
aroused,  lest  great  calamities  befall  us 
and  we,  ourselves,  turn  back  in  our 
progress.  The  human  mind  throughout 
the  world  is  hysterical ;  let  us  keep  a 
cool  head  and  stamp  out  the  embers  of 
dissension  that  may  arise  out  of  indus- 
trial disputes,  in  such  a  way  as  to  pre- 
vent animosities,  which  may  easily  lead 
to  a  conflagration.  The  public  will  not 
stand  for  arbitrary  action  on  the  part  of 
either  the  railroads  or  the  men;  the 
stamp  of  disapproval  has  already  been 


set  upon  any  unpatriotic  or  ill-considered 
action  under  the  existing  chaotic  condi- 
tions. Wise  men  are  coming  to  the  front 
in  our  national  affairs,  and  those  who  go 
contrary  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
whole  country  will  be  consumed  in  the 
wrath  of  public  indignation. 

It  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  arousing 
public  antipathy  toward  labor  unions 
that  I  advocate  intervention  of  the  pub- 
lic in  their  controversies  with  employers. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  my  firm  belief  that 
the  fundamental  motive  of  unionism 
should  be  the  creation  of  an  instrument- 
ality by  which  arbitration  of  differences 
between  employer  and  employe  may  be 
undertaken.  Arbitration  cannot  be  in- 
voked in  differences  between  the  em- 
ployer and  each  individual  employe.  Col- 
lectively, it  puts  them  upon  an.  equality 
with  the  employer,  which  is  all  that  in 
justice  can  be  asked.  Public  opinion 
should,  therefore,  see  to  it  that  this  great- 
est function  of  unionism  shall  be  exer- 
cised in  preference  to  its  power  being 
used  in  an  attempt  to  force  concessions 
by  creating  a  chaos  out  of  which  shall  be 
taken  the  spoils  of  undue  preferment, 
thereby. inflicting  injury  upon  others,  as 
well  as  great  economic  loss  upon  the  dis- 
interested masses,  leaving  behind  it  the 
Napoleonic  lust  for  combat,  born  of  the 
concentration  of  too  much  power  in  the 
controlling  heads  of  particular  organiza- 
tions. 

Mr.  Charles  Nagel,  in  a  public  docu- 
ment, stated: 

"  ...  it  is  well  to  remember  that . . . 
even  labor  organizations  may  fall  vic- 
tims to  methods  which  they  would  have 
the  public  believe  constitute  the  peculiar 
weaknesses  of  industrial  oppressors." 

There  is  only  one  partisan  motto  that 
American  citizens  can  subscribe  to — that 
of  Stephen  Decatur : 

"Our  Country!  In  her  intercourse 
with  foreign  nations  may  she  always  be 
in  the  right;  but  our  country,  right  or 
wrong." 


Letting   Railroads  Combine 


By  Blewett  Lee 


HpHAT  railway  development  has 
•*•  reached  a  stage  in  this  country 
where  regulated  monopoly  is  more  ad- 
vantageous than  competition,  was  re- 
cently pointed  out  by  Dr.  Robert  James 
McFall,  in  his  work  on  "Railway  Mo- 
nopoly and  Rate  Regulation,"  just  pub- 
lished by  Columbia  University.  At 
page  219  he  states  the  following  con- 
clusion : 

"It  has  been  pointed  out  that  railway 
monopoly  is  not  just  a  necessary  evil 
to  be  tolerated  lest  we  plunge  into 
worse  evils.  Railway  monopoly,  in  so 
far  as  this  means  combination  of  con- 
trol and  financial  administration,  is  a 
positive  social  advantage  beyond  any 
results  which  might  be  hoped  for  un- 
der a  system  of  competition,  even 
though  competition  were  practicable  in 
this  enterprise.  Under  a  competitive 
system,  which  might  be  imagined  with 
the  destructive  effects  eliminated,  ow- 
ing to  the  necessary  interrelation  of  the 
rates  on  all  lines,  the  basis  for  the  rates 
would  have  to  cover  the  lesser  ability 
and  larger  costs  of  many  independent 
small  lines.  But  under  the  combina- 
tion which  rules  under  the  monopoly 
system,  owing  to  the  organic  nature  of 
the  business  and  the  mutual  helpful- 
ness of  the  business  on  the  various 
parts  of  the  systems,  the  basis  for  the 
rates  on  a  large  system  which  would 
include  these  weaker  small  lines  would 
be  the  profitableness  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem'-considered  as  a  single  unit.  The 
resulting  rates  would  be  considerably 
more  moderate  than  if  raised  to  make 
profitable  the  business  on  each  weak 
side  line  considered  by  itself,  as  these 
were  pushed  independently  into  new 
territory.  The  fact  of  concentration 
under  monopoly  has  meant  a  great  sav- 
ing, a  saving  which  in  the  lonp-  run 
must  work  a  great  advantage  to  the  in- 


terest of  the  public  as  well  as  to  that 
of  the  railways. 

"The  only  reason  to  fear  monopoly 
in  this  sphere  of  our  economic  life  is 
that  it  may  get  so  powerful  as  to  be 
beyond  the  power  of  public  control,  or 
that  we  may  not  be  able  to  work  out 
principles  and  methods  whereby  we 
may  keep  this  line  of  investment  on  a 
parity  with  other  investments,  having 
only  its  due  share  of  the  expansion  and 
profits  of  the  country's  business.  But 
the  recent  history  of  the  question 
should  quiet  our  fears  as  to  the  impos- 
sibility of  maintaining  the  public  con- 
trol, provided  we  can  work  out  the 
proper  principles  of  procedure ;  and 
these  principles  are  not  impossible  of 
attainment.  We  can  regulate  the  mo- 
nopolies." 

The  only  way  to  explain  the  severe 
statutes  which  have  been  passed  for  the 
control  of  railroads  in  this  country,  is 
to  suppose  that  at  one  time  there  was  a 
very  great  animosity  in  the  public  mind 
against  railroad  companies,  coupled 
with  a  fear  of  their  power  such  as 
required  extraordinary  safeguards 
against  their  misbehavior.  If  this  was 
at  any  time  the  state  of  the  popular 
mind,  the  occasion  for  it  has  certainly 
passed  away  years  ago.  Not  only  the 
General  Government,  but  the  State 
Governments,  have  fully  demonstrated 
their  power  to  make  the  railroad  com- 
panies eat  out  of  their  hands.  The 
States  have  shown  themselves  abund- 
antly able  not  only  to  put  an  end  to  any 
discriminations  or  excessive  charges  on 
the  'part  of  railroad  companies,  but  to 
bring  them  to  their  knees  by  adverse 
legislation. 

As  a  result  of  the  former  attitude  of 
the  mind  of  the  American  people 
toward  railroad  companies,  we  have  in- 
herited two  sets  of  statutes  for  their 


26 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


government ;  the  first  are  the  anti-trust 
laws  both  of  Congress  and  of  the 
States,  which  went  to  the  greatest 
length,  frequently  imposing  penalties 
of  the  most  severe  character,  punish- 
ing any  combination  which  has,  or 
might  have  had,  the  effect  of  diminish- 
ing competition  as  between  railroads. 
At  the  time  these  statutes  were  passed 
it  must  have  been  believed  that  com- 
petition between  railroads  was  a  good 
thing,  and  that  the  more  of  it  there 
was  the  better;  also  that  if  the  rail- 
roads were  made  to  compete  with  one 
another,  the  public  would  be  protected 
in  the  same  way  as  in  the  case  of  other 
businesses.  The  expectation  that  com- 
petition, if  it  could  be  preserved,  would 
be  sufficient  to  protect  the  people  from 
any  objectionable  behavior  on  the  part 
of  the  railroads  was  doomed  to  disap- 
pointment for  the  reason  that  the  mak- 
ers of  the  anti-trust  laws  overlooked 
the  fact  that  railroads  are  in  their  very 
nature  monopolies.  This  is  readily 
seen  in  the  case  of  waystations,  served 
only  by  one  railroad,  but  even  in  the 
case  of  places  where  there  are  two  or 
many  railroads,  the  monopolistic  fea- 
tures do  not  disappear,  because  almost 
always  the  location  of  the  terminals  of 
a  railroad  give  it  a  peculiar  advantage 
as  to  certain  business ;  indeed,  it  is  not 
at  all  infrequent  that  the  oldest  rail- 
roads in  a  city  have  pre-empted  the  sit- 
uation by  acquiring  terminals  which 
put  every  railroad  coming  afterward  at 
a  serious  disadvantage,  so  far  as  com- 
petition is  concerned. 

Experience  having  shown  that  com- 
petition between  railroads  is  insuffi- 
cient to  give  to  the  public  the  benefits 
which  they  obtain  in  the  case  of  com- 
petition in  other  industries  where  cap- 
ital is  free  to  enter  or  go  out  of  the  in- 
dustry from  time  to  time,  and  where 
conditions  do  not  naturally  create  a 
monopoly,  a  new  set  of  statutes  were 
enacted,  which  undertook  to  protect 
the  people  against  discrimination  or  ex- 
cessive rates  by  the  orders  of  regulat- 
ing bodies,  called  in  the  different 
States.  Railroad  Commissions,  or  Pub- 
lic Utilities  Commissions,  and  in  the 


case  of  the  Nation,  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission.  One  of  the  first 
steps  of  the  new  legislation  was  to  cre- 
ate a  pitiless  publicity  of  all  the  charges 
of  the  different  companies  by  having 
them  published  in  tariffs  to  be  filed 
with  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, in  case  of  interstate  rates,  and 
with  the  State  Commissions,  in  case 
of  state  rates.  Usually  these  tariffs 
must  be  filed  thirty  days  in  advance 
of  the  time  the  rates  go  into  effect. 
Whatever  competition  there  was  left, 
with  the  exception  of  the  matter  of  fa- 
cilities offered — a  comparatively  insig- 
nificant feature — was  effectively  put  to 
an  end  by  statutes  which  required  that 
all  rates  be  made  public  in  advance,  and 
punished  severely  any  departure  from 
published  rates  by  the  payment  of  re- 
bates, or  otherwise.  The  moment  a 
tariff  was  filed  reducing  rates,  all  com- 
peting railroads  had  immediate  access 
to  it,  and  without  delay  placed  their 
tariffs  upon  the  same  basis.  Competi- 
tion as  to  rates  and  charges  was  in  this 
way  absolutely  destroyed,  so  that  any 
hopes  that  might  have  been  entertained 
for  the  preservation  of  competition  aft- 
er the  anti-trust  laws,  were  finally  and 
completely  blasted  by  the  regulation 
acts.  -The  working  of  the  regulation 
acts  has  shown  that  an  entirely  ade- 
quate remedy  has  been  found  against 
the  evils  and  abuses  on  the  part  of  the 
railroads  which  sprung  up  under  the 
previous  system.  As  from  time  to  time 
it  has  been  found  expedient,  the  various 
Commissions  have  been  given  what- 
ever powers  have  been  necessary  to 
control  completely  the  railroad  situa- 
tion. Of  the  State  Commissions,  the 
Wisconsin  Commission  has  probably 
been  the  most  successful,  having  en- 
joyed from  the  beginning  a  personnel 
of  high-minded  and  skillful  men,  and 
having  brought  to  its  aid  the  best  ex- 
nert  talent  which  it  was  able  to  procure. 
Regulation  by  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  has  proved  to  be 
still  more  successful.  Experience  has 
shown  that  the  National  Government 
is  much  more  competent  to  regulate 
railroads  than  any  State,  since  the  rail- 


28 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


roads  have  become  a  National  matter. 
Indeed,  the  greatest  present  prospect 
of  improvement  in  railroad  government 
lies  in  the  direction  of  their  being  regu- 
lated as  far  as  possible  by  the  National 
Government,  and  being  regulated  by 
the  State  Governments  only  in  those 
matters  if  there  be  any  which,  on  ac- 
count of  their  local  character,  cannot  be 
dealt  with  to  advantage  by  the  Nation- 
al authorities. 

Not  only  has  experience  shown  that 
the  relief  sought  by  the  people  can  be 
and  is  effectively  obtained  by  Commis- 
sion regulation,  but  it  has  been  made 
plain  that  the  old  anti-trust  laws  to- 
day are  not  only  without  any  useful 
purpose  so  far  as  the  railroads  are  con- 
cerned, since  their  rates  and  practices 
have  become  regulated  by  the  Commis- 
sions, but  the  anti-trust  laws  are  a  pos- 
itive impediment  to  securing  to  the  peo- 
ple cheap  and  effective  service.  For 
example,  under  these  laws  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  a  railroad  system  to  ac- 
quire new  lines,  since  it  can  in  almost 
every  case  be  argued  with  more  or  less 
plausibility  that  there  is  to  some  ex- 
tent, or  might  be,  competition  between 
the  buying  and  selling  roads.  In  the 
sense  of  offering  facilities  or  service,  it 
may  almost  be  said  that  every  railroad 
competes  with  every  other.  As  a  result, 
the  country  is  full  of  little,  broken-down 
railroads  that  will  never  be  able  to  earn 
enough  money  to  give  good  service, 
and  which  the  strong  lines,  which  could 
develop  the  properties  and  make  them 
useful  to  the  public,  are  forbidden  to 
buy.  Not  only  this,  but  the  prohibition 
against  pooling,  contained  in  the  earlier 
acts,  does  not  secure  to  the  public  any 
cheaper  rates,  while  it  deprives  them 
of  convenient  service.  To  illustrate, 
travelers  have  frequent  occasion  to  no- 
tice that  where  there  are  three  or  four 
railroads  between  two  cities,  the  trains 
practically  always  leave  about  the  same 
hour.  There  will  be,  for  example,  four 
morning  trains  and  four  evening  trains, 
with  nothing  in  between.  All  of  the 
railroads  try  to  get  the  most  advan- 
tageous hour,  and  no  one  is  willing  to 
take  the  less  favorable  time  of  day.  In 


this  way  the  traveling  public  is  de- 
prived of  the  very  obvious  convenience 
of  having  trains  depart  at  different 
hours  from  one  city  to  another.  If  the 
railroads  were  allowed  to  pool  their 
service  and  their  earnings  upon  this 
particular  traffic,  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, not  only  would  no  unnecessary 
trains  be  run,  but  trains  could  be  run 
at  whatever  time  the  convenience  of 
the  public  required,  while  the  railroad 
companies  would  give  better  service 
and  would  save  money  in  doing  it. 

The  greatest  advantage  which  can  be 
derived  under  the  present  situation  is 
to  have  the  railroads  of  the  country 
become  parts  of  large  systems  which 
the  Government  can  regulate  as  a 
whole.  The  greater  the  systems,  the 
easier  it  is  for  the  Government  to  reg- 
ulate them,  and  the  better  the  service 
which  the  railroads  can  give  for  the 
money.  The  Government  finds  that 
the  thicker  the  grain,  the  easier  it  is 
mowed.  Those  who  favor  government 
ownership  ought  to  be  the  first  to  favor 
the  repealing  of  the  obsolete  statutes 
which  impede  the  work  of  integrating 
the  railroads  of  the  country  into  the 
systems  to  which  they  naturally  belong 
and  simplifying  the  work  of  regulation 
by  the  Government  by  diminishing  the 
number  of  railroads  with  which  it  has 
to  deal.  We  now  find  ourselves  in  the 
condition  in  which  the  railroads  are  for- 
bidden to  grow  and  expand  and  de- 
velop the  country,  by  the  anti-trust 
laws,  although  the  regulation  laws  have 
provided  absolute  security  to  the  people 
against  any  abuses  which  might  arise 
from  the  combination  of  railroads  into 
convenie  nt  and  solvent  systems. 
Whether  the  reader  of  these  lines  be- 
lieves in  government  ownership,  or  be- 
lieves in  government  regulation  of  rail- 
roads, he  ought  without  hesitation  to 
lend  his  influence  towards  the  work  of 
destroying  the  obsolete  statutes  which 
impede  the  process  of  combining  the 
railroads  of  the  country  into  strong 
systems  subject  to  government  control. 

Manifestly  the  combination  of  rail- 
roads should  be  entirely  under  the  con- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


29 


trol  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission. If  for  any  reason  the  acquisi- 
tion of  one  railroad  by  another  would 
be  against  public  interest,  the  Govern- 
ment should  be  in  position  to  say  so, 
and  immediately  put  its  veto  upon  any 
program  which  might  for  any  reason 
not  be  for  the  public  weal.  The  safe- 
guarding of  the  public  from  any  pos- 
sible evil  should,  however,  be  done  by 
an  investigation  into  the  actual  facts 
of  the  particular  case,  and  not  by  a 
general  forbidding  of  every  combina- 
tion, whether  it  would  be  for  the  public 
benefit  or  not.  The  statutes  governing 


the  railroads  in  this  country  now  con- 
sist— so  to  speak — of  an  old  suit  of 
clothes  and  a  new  suit  of  clothes.  The 
old  suit  is  outgrown,  ragged  and  has 
turned  out  to  be  worthless ;  the  new 
suit  is  entirely  adequate  and  suitable. 
The  railroads  are  compelled,  however, 
to  keep  wearing  both  suits  at  the  same 
time.  It  was  bad  enough  to  do  this  in 
the  cold  weather  of  hard  times,  but  now 
that  the  country  is  beginning  to  feel  the 
warmth  of  prosperity,  it  is  time  to  dis- 
card the  old  suit  of  clothes  and  to  en- 
joy the  freedom  and  health  of  the  new. 
— Chicago  Examiner,  March  19,  1916. 


The  Notorious  Jumping  Railroad  of  Calaveras 

County 


(With  Apologies  to  Mark  Twain) 
By  Blewett  Lee 


HISH-YER  Uncle  Sam  had  steam 
boats  and  clipper  ships  and  canals, 
and  all  them  kind  of  things,  till  you 
couldn't  rest,  and  you  couldn't  fetch 
nothing  for  him  to  bet  on  but  he'd 
match  you.  He  ketched  a  railroad 
one  day,  and  took  it  home,  and  said 
he  cal'lated  to  regulate  it;  and  so  he 
never  done  nothing  for  three  months 
but  set  in  his  back  yard  and  learn  that 
railroad  to  jump.  And  you  bet  he  did 
learn  it,  too.  He'd  give  it  a  little  punch 
behind,  and  the  next  minute  you'd  see 
that  railroad  whirling  in  the  air  like 
a  doughnut — see  it  turn  one  summer- 
set, or  maybe  a  couple,  if  it  got  a  good 
start,  a,nd  come  down  flat-footed  and 
all  right,  like  a  cat.  He  got  it  up  so 
in  the  matter  of  ketching  shipments, 
and  kep  'it  in  practice  so  constant,  that 
it'd  nail  a  shipment  every  time  as  fur 
as  it  could  see  it.  Uncle  Sam  said  all 
a  railroad  wanted  was  regulation,  and 
it  could  do  'most  anything — and  I  be- 
lieve him.  Why,  I've  seen  him  set 
Grand  Pacific  down  here  on  this  floor 
— Grand  Pacific  was  the  name  of  the 
railroad — and  sing  out,  "Shipments, 


Grandy,  shipments!"  and  quicker'n 
you  could  wink  it'd  spring  up  and 
snake  a  shipment  off'n  the  counter 
there,  and  flop  down  on  the  floor  ag'in, 
as  solid  as  a  gob  of  mud,  and  fall  to 
scratching  the  side  of  its  head  with  its 
hind  foot  as  indifferent  as  if  it  hadn't 
no  idea  it'd  been  doin'  any  more'n  any 
property  might  do.  You  never  seen  a 
railroad  so  modest  and  straightfor'ard 
as  it  was,  for  all  it  was  so  gifted.  And 
when  it  come  to  fair  and  square  jump- 
ing on  a  dead  level,  it  could  get  over 
more  ground  at  one  straddle  than  any 
property  of  its  breed  you  ever  see. 
Jumping  on  a  deal  level  was  its  strong 
suit,  you  understand;  and  when  it 
came  to  that,  Uncle  Sam  would  ante 
up  money  on  it  as  long  as  he  had  a 
red.  Uncle  Sam  was  monstrous  proud 
of  his  railroad,  and  well  he  might  be, 
for  fellers  that  had  traveled  and  had 
been  everywheres  all  said  it  laid  over 
any  railroad  ever  they  see. 

Well,  Uncle  Sam  kept  the  railroad 
in  a  little  box  like  a  court  house,  and 
he  used  to  fetch  it  down  town  some- 
times and  lay  for  a  bet.  One  day  a 


30 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


statesman— a  stranger  in  the  camp,  he 
was — come  acrost  him  with  his .  box, 
and  says : 

"What  might  it  be  that  you've  got 
in  the  box?" 

And  Uncle  Sam  says,  sorter  indif- 
ferent like :  "It  might  be  a  steam  boat, 
or  it  might  be  a  post-office,  maybe,  but 
it  ain't — it's  just  a  railroad." 

And  the  statesman  took  it,  and 
looked  at  it  careful,  and  turned  it  round 
this  way  and  that,  and  says:  "H'm — 
so  'tis.  Well,  what's  it  good  for  ? 

"Well,"  Uncle  Sam  says,  easy  and 
careless,  'it's  good  enough  for  one 
thing,  I  should  judge — it  can  out-jump 
any  property  in  Calaveras  county." 

The  statesman  took  the  box  again, 
and  took  another  long,  particular  look, 
and  gave  it  back  to  Uncle  Sam  and 
says,  very  deliberate,  "Well,"  he  says, 
"I  don't  see  no  p'ints  about  that  rail- 
road that's  any  better'n  any  other 
property." 

"Maybe  you  don't,"  Uncle  Sam  says. 
"Maybe  you  understand  railroads  and 
maybe  you  don't  understand  'em ; 
maybe  you've  had  experience,  and 
maybe  you  ain't  only  a  amature,  as  it 
were.  Anyways,  I've  got  my  opinion, 
and  I'll  resk  an  office  that  it  can  out- 
jump  any  property  in  Calaveras 
county." 

And  the  statesman  studied  a  minute, 
and  then  says,  kinder  sad  like,  "Well, 
I'm  only  a  stranger  here  and  I  ain't  got 
no  railroad,  but  if  I  had  a  farm  I'd 
bet  you." 

And  then  Uncle  Sam  says,  "That's 
all  right— that's  all  right— if  you'll  hold 
my  box  a  minute,  I'll  go  and  get  you 
a  farm."  And  so  the  statesman  took 
the  box,  and  put  up  his  bet  along  with 
Uncle  Sam's,  and  set  down  to  wait. 

So  he  sat  there  a  good  while  think- 
ing and  thinking  to  hisself,  and  then 
he  got  the  railroad  out  and  prized  its 
mouth  open  and  took  a  teaspoon  and 
fil.led  it  full  of  enactments — filled  it 
pretty  near  up  to  its  chin — and  set  it 


on  the  floor.  Uncle  Sam  he  went  to 
the  Public  Lands  and  slopped  around 
and  finally  he  ketched  a  farm,  and 
fetched  it  in  and  gave  it  to  the  states- 
man, and  says : 

"Now  if  you're  ready,  set  him  along- 
side of  Grandy,  with  his  forepaws  just 
even  with  Grandy 's,  and  I'll  give  the 
word."  Then  he  says,  "One — two — 
three — git!  and  him  and  the  statesman 
touched  up  the  railroad  and  the  farm 
from  behind,  and  the  farm  hopped  off 
lively,  but  Grandy  just  give  a  heave, 
and  hysted  up  its  shoulders — so — like 
a  Frenchman,  but  it  warn't  no  use — it 
couldn't  budge ;  it  was  planted  as  solid 
as  a  church,  and  it  couldn't  no  more 
stir  than  if  it  was  anchored  out.  Uncle 
Sam  was  a  good  deal  surprised,  and  he 
was  disgusted  too,  but  he  didn't  have 
no  idea  what  the  matter  was,  of  course. 

The  statesman  took  the  office  and 
started  away;  and  when  he  was  going 
out  at  the  door,  he  sorter  jerked  his 
thumb  over  his  shoulder — so — at 
Grandy,  and  says  agin,  very  deliber- 
ate, "Well,"  he  says,  "/  don't  see  no 
p'ints  about  that  railroad  that's  any 
better'n  any  other  property." 

Uncle  Sam  he  stood  scratching  his 
head  and  looking  down  at  Grandy  a 
long  time,  and  at  last  he  says,  "I  do 
wonder  what  in  the  nation  that  rail- 
road throw'd  off  for — I  wonder  if  there 
arn't  something  the  matter  with  it — it 
'pears  to  look  mighty  baggy,  some- 
how." And  he  ketched  Grandy  by  the 
nap  of  the  neck  and  hefted  it,  and  says, 
"Why,  blame  my  cats  if  it  don't  weigh 
five  pound !"  and  turned  it  upside  down 
and  it  belched  out  a  double  handful  of 
state  statutes,  45  acts  of  Congress,  187 
orders  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  245  orders  of  State  Com- 
missions, and  147  municipal  ordi- 
nances. And  then  Uncle  Sam  see  how 
it  was,  and  he  was  the  maddest  man — 
he  set  the  railroad  down  and  took  out 
after  that  statesman,  but  he  never 
ketched  him. — Railway  Age-Gazette. 


LIU      UPIN19N 


What  the 


World  thinfu 


RAILROAD  REGULATION 
Mr.  Stuyvesant  Fish  Urges  Full  Exer- 
cise of  Congressional  Powers 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Sun. 

Sir:  The  editorial  article  of  March 
5  on  "Federal  Charters  for  Railroads," 
the  letter  by  "Civitas"  therein  referred 
to,  his  later  letter  published  March  14, 
and  the  one  signed  "Lex"  in  The  Sun 
of  March  16  all  favor  the  enactment 
by  Congress  of  laws  for  the  incorpo- 
ration of  railroads. 

The  Sun  and  its  correspondents  are 
right  in  believing  that  neither  the  rail- 
roads nor  the  people  served  by  them 
can  longer  endure  the  economic  waste 
arising  from  the  regulation  of  our 
commercial  highways,  railroads,  by  the 
Federal  Government,  by  some  forty-odd 
state  commissions  and  by  municipalities. 

But  will  the  granting  of  Federal 
charters  bring  the  regulation  of  rail- 
roads under  one  single  control?  Many 
strong  railroad  corporations  enjoy  in- 
valuable rights  under  their  state  char- 
ters, such  as  perpetual  succession,  ex- 
emptions from  or  peculiar  provisions 
in  respect  to  taxation,  powers  to  cross 
and  divert  waterways  and  highways,  to 
condemn  needed  lands  and  to  make  by- 
laws for  the  conduct  of  their  business. 
Such  contractual  rights  directors  can- 
not, in  justice  to  their  stockholders,  re- 
linquish. However  attractive  Federal 
charters  may  seem  to  bankrupt  railroads 
in  process  of  reorganization  and  to  the 
promoters  of  new  ones,  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  the  strong  companies  will 
avail  of  them.  Especially  is  this  true 
of  those  which,  by  paying  dividends  for 


many  years,  have  established  in  their 
present  corporate  names  a  credit  known 
all  over  the  world.  The  enactment  of 
Federal  laws  for  the  incorporation  of 
railroads  will  therefore  tend  to  com- 
plicate further  the  situation  by  creat- 
ing a  new  class  of  corporations,  without 
getting  wholly  rid  of  the  two  existing 
classes  created  by  individual  states  and 
by  groups  of  states,  respectively. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
as  adopted  in  1787  and  now  in  force 
gives  to  Congress  power  "to  regulate 
commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and 
among  the  several  states,  and  with  the 
Indian  tribes." 

The  powers  thus  granted  in  respect 
to  commerce  with  foreign  nations  and 
with  the  Indian  tribes  were  availed  of 
at  once.  The  advent  of  steamboats  was 
at  an  early  date  followed  by  legislation 
for  the  regulation  of  all  of  them,  every- 
where. 

Congress,  having  in  1823  enacted 
"That  all  waters  on  which  steamboats 
regularly  pass  from  port  to  port  shall 
be  considered  and  established  as  post 
roads"  (Statutes  at  Large,  III,  p.  767, 
being  Sec.  3  of  Ch.  33),  in  1838  further 
enacted  "That  each  and  every  railroad 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States 
which  now  is  or  hereafter  may  be  made 
and  completed,  shall  be  a  post  route." 
(Statutes  at  Large,  V,  p.  283,  being  Sec. 
2  of  Ch.  172.)  There  were  then  few  if 
any  railroads  crossing  state  boundaries. 
In  the  whole  country  there  were  but 
1,843  miles  of  railroad. 

At  that  time,  July  7,  1838,  President 
Van  Buren  also  approved  another  act 


31 


32 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


for  the  better  security  of  passengers  on 
steamboats.  (Statutes  at  Large,  V,  p. 
304,  being  Ch.  191.)  This  required  "all 
owners  of  steamboats,"  without  excep- 
tion, to  take  out  a  new  license  thereunder 
and  made  it  unlawful  to  transport  goods 
or  passengers  without  such  license.  That 
act  called  for  the  periodic  inspection  of 
boilers,  machinery  and  hulls;  required 
the  employment  of  a  competent  num- 
ber of  skilled  engineers ;  that  the  safety 
valve  shall  be  opened  whenever  a  vessel 
is  stopped,  that  every  steamboat  running 
between  sunset  and  sunrise  shall  carry 
signal  lights  visible  to  other  boats;  that 
every  person  employed  on  board  any 
steamboat  by  whose  misconduct,  negli- 
gence or  inattention  to  duty  the  life  of 
any  person  on  board  may  be  destroyed 
shall  be  guilty  of  manslaughter  and  on 
conviction  sentenced  to  confinement  at 
hard  labor  for  not  more  than  ten  years ; 
that  in  all  suits  against  owners  of  steam- 
boats for  injuries  arising  to  person  or 
property  from  the  bursting  of  the  boil- 
er, or  the  collapse  of  a  flue,  or  other  in- 
jurious escape  of  steam,  the  fact  of  such 
bursting,  collapse  or  injurious  escape  of 
steam  shall  be  taken  as  full  prima  facie 
evidence,  sufficient  to  charge  the  defend- 
ant, or  those  in  his  employ,  with  neg- 
ligence. 

In  1852  an  exception  was  made  as  to 
steam  ferry  boats  and  canal  boats.  But 
at  present,  and  since  at  least  1871,  all 
vessels  and  boats  propelled  in  whole  or 
in  part  by  steam,  navigating  any  waters 
"which  are  common  highways  of  com- 
merce," are  under  Federal  regulation, 
with  the  single  exception  of  canal  boats. 
(Revised  Statutes,  Title  III,  Ch.  1,  Sec. 
4399,  4400.) 

Although  most  of  our  great  railroad 
systems,  substantially  as  they  exist  to- 
day, had  been  organized  under  state 
laws  long  before  1887,  it  was  not  until 
then  that  Congress  began  to  legislate  con- 
cerning their  regulation,  and  in  so  doing 
it  has  as  yet  availed  of  but  a  part  of  its 
constitutional  powers  over  them.  The 
initial  paragraph  of  that  which  has  come 
to  be  called  the  interstate  commerce  law, 
but  is  entitled  "An  Act  to  Regulate  Com- 
merce," approved  February  4,  1887,  lim- 


its the  application  of  the  law,  in  so  far 
as  it  relates  to  "commerce  among  the 
several  states,"  to  common  carriers  en- 
gaged in  transportation  "from  one  state 
or  territory  of  the  United  States,  or  the 
District  of  Columbia,  to  any  other  state 
or  territory  of  the  United  States,  or 
the  District  of  Columbia,"  and  ends  as 
follows : 

"Provided,  however,  that  the  provi- 
sions of  this  act  shall  not  apply  to  the 
transportation  of  passengers  ot  prop- 
erty, or  to  the  receiving,  delivering,  stor- 
age or  handling  of  property,  wholly 
within  one  state,  and  not  shipped  to  or 
from  a  foreign  country  from  or  to  any 
state  or  territory  as  aforesaid." 

Had  that  law  been  made  to  apply, 
without  limit,  to  all  carriers  by  rail  en- 
gaged in  "commerce  among  the  several 
states,",  such  commerce  would  long  be- 
fore this  have  been  freed  of  conflicting 
Federal,  state  and  municipal  regula- 
tions. 

The  time  has  now  come  when  Con- 
gress must  either  avail  of  its  power  to 
regulate  commerce  by  rail  in  its  entirety, 
that  is,  wherever  such  commerce  exists 
and  in  respect  to  whatever  it  consists  of, 
"among  the  several  states,"  or  confess 
failure  and  abandon  the  attempts  thus 
far  made  to  regulate  only  so  much 
thereof  as  passes  from  one  state  to 
another.  Neither  the  railroad  corpora- 
tions, nor  the  merchants  engaged  in 
commerce,  nor  the  ultimate  consumers, 
who  finally  pay  the  cost,  can  longer  en- 
dure the  uneconomic  chaos  in  which  the 
actions  of  forty-eight  mutually  jealous 
states  have  involved  and  are  further  in- 
volving such  commerce. 

As  long  ago  as  in  the  Mississippi 
Railroad  Commission  cases  (Stone  vs. 
Farmers  Loan  and  Trust  Co.,  et  cetra. 
116  U.  S.),  heard  by  the  Supreme  Court 
in  1885  and  decided  in  January,  1886, 
the  late  James  Fentress  argued  on  be- 
half of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  for  the  all  embracing  nature 
of  the  power  of  Congress  over  commerce 
by  railroad.  I  have  been  unable  to  find 
a  copy  of  his  brief,  but  well  remember 
that  among  other  things  it  showed  that 
the  word  "among"  means  "in  the  midst 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


33 


of,"  that  it  cannot  be  applied  to  two,  but 
only  to  large  numbers,  while  "between" 
must  of  necessity  refer  solely  to  two ;  and 
further  that  the  use  in  the  commerce 
clause  of  the  words  "the  several"  to 
qualify  "states"  absolutely  precludes 
such  a  narrow  meaning  as  that  the  power 
of  Congress  is  limited  to  the  regulation 
of  commerce  between  two  states  or  two 
groups  of  states.  The  cases  last  above 
referred  to  involved  other  issues  and 
the  court  did  not  see  fit  to  rule  on  the 
particular  point  thus  raised  by  Judge 
Fentress.  The  court  did,  however,  say, 
"Nothing  can  be  done  by  the  govern- 
ment of  Mississippi  which  will  operate 
as  a  burden  on  the  interstate  business 
of  the  company." 

I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that 
decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  have 
been  cited  to  show  that  Congress  has 
no  power  over  railroads  in  respect  to 
such  of  their  business  as  has  both  origin 
and  destination  in  the  same  state,  but 
let  me  ask :  How  far  have  those  cita- 
tions become  available  to  that  end  by 
reason  of  the  non-action  of  Congress 
from  the  inception  of  railroads  in  1830 
down  to  1887,  and  by  its  then  exercis- 
ing but  a  part  of  .its  power  to  regulate 
railroads?  I  have  always  believed  and 
often  publicly  said  that  when  Congress 
shall  legislate  in  respect  to  railroads  in 
the  precise  language  of  its  constitutional 
power  to  regulate  "commerce  among  the 
several  states,"  without  making  any  ex- 
ception, the  court  will  sustain  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  act. 

The  evils  under  which  our  whole  peo- 
ple suffer  are  commercial  and  national, 
and  their  removal  calls  for  the  exercise 


by  Congress  in  respect  to  railroads  of 
all  its  powers  over  commerce.  Except 
in  the  matter  of  rates  charged,  Congress 
has  for  eighty  years  most  minutely  reg- 
ulated all  steam  carriers  by  water.  It  is 
high  time  that  it  should  regulate  all  car- 
riers by  rail,  and  do  it  everywhere, 
"among  the  several  states." 

Stuyvesant  Fish. 

New  York,  March  22. 
— The  Sun,  New  York,  Thursday,  March 

23,  1916. 


O' 


TRACK  AND  TRAIN 

|VER  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars 
was  spent  by  the  Illinois  Central 
in  Waterloo  for  material  and  labor  on 
improvements  during  1915.  More  than 
double  this  sum  the  railroad  intends  to 
expend  this  year.  Enlargements  of 
the  big  machine  shops,  the  installation 
of  additional  machinery  and  a  general 
enlargement  of  terminal  facilities  are 
projected. 

The  round  house  was  enlarged  and 
six  additional  stalls  built  to  house  the 
mammoth  freight  and  passenger  loco- 
motives now  used  in  the  service  on  the 
Minnesota  and  Iowa  divisions.  Cinder 
and  inspection  pits,  a  new  washing  sys- 
tem, new  car  sheds,  sidings  and  a  host 
of  minor  improvements  were  made. 

The  Illinois  Central,  with  1,555  men, 
is  the  largest  single  employer  in  Water- 
loo. The  payroll  for  1915,  $1,354,968.12. 
This  is  the  greatest  amount  ever  paid 
out  by  this  railroad  or  any  other  con- 
cern here  in  twelve  months  and  is  re- 
sponsible for  much  of  the  prosperity  of 
the  retail  trade. — Fort  Dodge,  Iowa, 
Messenger,  Feb.  21,  1916. 


Comments  of  Various  News  Papers  Upon  Circular 
Issued  by  the  General  Manager 


TTNDER  recent  date,  the  Illinois 
^  Central  Railroad  Company  and  the 
Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.  Company  issued  a 
pamphlet  form  appeal  to  their  con- 
ductors, calling  attention  to  the  fre- 
quency of  lawsuits  brought  against 


these  companies  for  alleged  delinquen- 
cies for  which  they  have  been  held  re- 
sponsible through  the  act  of  their  con- 
ductors, and  urging  that  they  exercise 
all  possible  caution,  tact,  and  care  in 
the  proper  handling  of  passengers,  and 


34 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


in  this  way  avoiding  unnecessary  liti- 
gation. 

The  appeal  is  issued  by  General  Man- 
ager T.  J.  Foley,  from  the  head  Chi- 
cago office,  and  is  very  interesting. 
Manager  Foley,  while  insisting  that  a 
large  number  of  such  cases  are  either 
fictitious  or  do  not  possess  sufficient 
merit  upon  which  to  justify  a  jury  in 
returning  a  verdict  against  the  com- 
panies, shows  that  the  juries  generally 
sympathize  with  the  individual  bring- 
ing the  suit,  and  naturally  lean  in  that 
direction,  and  declares  that  this  situa- 
tion is  of  serious  import,  the  costs  of 
such  suits  being  enormous  outside  of 
the  question  of  verdicts  being  rendered 
against  the  companies. 

The  analysis  of  the  suits  brought  in 
this  connection  shows  that  a  very 
large  per  centum  of  them  are  based  on 
alleged  assaults,  discourtesy  and 
wrongful  ejectment.  It  shows  to  what 
extent  the  reputation  of  the  railroad  is 
in  their  keeping,  and  of  their  con- 
ductors. The  conductors  of  the  rail- 
roads are  frequently  confronted  with 
situations  calculated  to  overtax  the  pa- 
tience of  an  ordinary  man,  and  they  are 
often  called  upon  to  lay  aside  all  per- 
sonal feelings  and  to  realize  that  they 
are  called  upon  to  exercise  patience 
and  discretion  beyond  the  ordinary. 

The  pamphlet  sets  forth  a  long  list 
of  appended  cases  conveying  a  general 
idea  of  this  general  situation,  and  while 
it  is  contended  that  all  of  the  con- 
ductors were  not  guilty  as  charged  in 
the  lawsuits,  and  only  in  very  few  in- 
stances, Manager  Foley,  speaking  for 
the  Company,  shows  that  while  the 
Company  does  not  object  to  defending 
a  conductor  and  their  other  trainmen 
when  they  are  in  the  right,  that  they 
cannot  defend  him  when  he  is  in  the 
wrong;  and  therefore  he  urges  the  in- 
cumbency upon  these  trainmen  to  cul- 
tivate the  arts  of  courtesy,  tactfulness 
and  diplomacy,  and  that  the  exercises 
of  good  judgment  will  controvert 
fraudulent  designs  and  that  diplomacy 
will  out-general  those  who  may  be 
seeking  to  lay  foundation  to  mulct  the 
Company. 


The  cases  appended  to  the  pamphlet 
total  one  hundred,  and  represent  the 
staggering  sum  of  $452,933.50,  and 
eighty-four  of  such  suits  were  filed  in 
Mississippi.  This  timely  appeal  to 
their  trainmen  will  not  only  result  in  a 
better  effort  on  their  part  to  improve 
their  service  to  their  companies,  but 
will  have  a  resultant  effect  of  good  on 
the  part  of  the  public,  who  should  also 
try  and  give  the  same  consideration 
to  the  Companies  and  their  trainmen, 
as  they  expect  of  them. — The  Green- 
wood (Miss.)  Commonwealth,  Febru- 
ary 25,  1916. 


following,  clipped  from  the  Itta 
Bena  Times,  is  a  sad  commentary 
upon  the  juries  made  up  of  the  people 
of  Mississippi,  and,  if  true,  which  can- 
not be  doubted,  since  the  statistics  were 
gleaned  from  the  court  records  of  seven 
states  (Mississippi  Tennessee,  Louisiana, 
Kentucky,  Iowa,  Missouri  and  Illinois) 
out  of  a  filing  of  100  damage  suits  in 
the  above  states,  84  were  filed  in  Miss- 
issippi. 

There  must  be  some  reason  for  this, 
and  that  reason  appears  obviously  as  an 
unrestrained  prejudice  that  exists  un- 
governed  by  too  many  citizens  of  our 
state  against  corporations. 

It  is  a  cold  fact  that  the  line  of  rail- 
roads operated  by  the  above  company 
is  tinder  the  same  management  in  its 
ramifications  of  all  the  above  states, 
which  assuredly  would  result  in  a  uni- 
form service,  irrespective  of  the  state 
lines. 

Then,  if  the  conditions  are  as  appear 
from  these  records,  it  would  seem  that 
a  system  of  education  should  be  launch- 
ed by  the  fair-minded  people  of  the  state 
to  disabuse  the  popular  mind  and  give 
the  corporations  as  fair  a  showing  be- 
fore the  courts  as  is  accorded  private 
individuals.  We  have  read  the  instruc- 
tions recently  sent  out  by  the  I.  C.  R. 
R.  Co.  to  its  passenger  conductors  and 
employes,  enjoining  them  to  be  ex- 
tremely forbearing  in  their  treatment  of 
and  deportment  towards  the  public,  so 
as  to  take  extraordinary  precaution 
against  subjecting  the  railroad  to  the 


popular    prejudice    which    many    people 
hold  against  corporations. 

The  Itta  Bena  Times  says :  "A  re- 
cent statement  shows  that  84  out  of  100 
damage  suits  lately  brought  against  the 
entire  system  of  Y.  &  M.  V.  and  I.  C. 
railways,  in  more  than  a  dozen  states, 
were  brought  in  Mississippi.  Many  of 
our  people  refuse  all  offers  of  justice 
from  the  claim  agents  and  appeal  to 
the  courts  for  huge  damages  for  cold 
feet,  thoroughbred  stock  (they  lose  no 
other  kind),  bull  pups,  or  any  old 
thing.  The  healing  balm  of  a  railway 
check  is  supposed  to  be  luckier  than 
the  proverbial  rabbit's  foot  in  Missis- 
sippi. The  magic  of  these  checks  is 
such  that  some  time  since  a  man  who 
had  been  made  a  cripple  for  life  by  a 
villainous  railroad,  on  receipt  of  one  of 
these  magical  checks  for  $10,000  at 
Clarksdale,  immediately  threw  away 
his  crutch  and  'took  up  his  bed'  and 
walked.  The  raising  of  Lazarus 
wasn't  a  circumstance  to  the  resurre.ct- 
ing  power  of  a  railway  damage  check 
in  our  state." — Aberdeen  Weekly,  Aber- 
deen, Miss.,  March  10,  1916. 


M 


R.  T.  J.  FOLEY,  general  manager 
of  the  I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  Rail- 
roads, has  issued  a  circular  to  the  con- 
ductors and  other  employes  of  the 
transportation  department  calling  at- 
tention to  the  number  of  lawsuits  due 
to  controversies  with  the  employes.  In 
the  course  of  the  circular  he  cautions 
his  men  to  be  diplomatic  and  patient  in 
dealing  with  the  traveling  public. 

Of  100  suits  filed  we  regret  to  note 
84  of  them  were  brought  in  Mississippi. 
Tennessee  comes  next  with  only  5  suits. 
This  is  an  astonishing  record  to  us,  as 
we  know  the  men  of  this  particular  divi- 
sion that  the  circular  was  addressed  to, 
intimately,  and  we  can  not  help  but  be- 
lieve the  suits  are  of  a  frivolous  nature, 
and  in  many  instances  due  to  spite,  as 


we  know  the  conductors  on  the  Louis- 
iana division  are  as  courteous  and  polite 
a  set  of  men  as  can  be  found  in  any  pro- 
fession or  vocation. 

We  believe  that  a  majority  of  these 
suits  were  filed  merely  for  the  purpose 
of  a  hold-up  of  the  company  with  no 
hopes  whatever  of  getting  any  big 
amount  of  money  but  just  a  little  pocket 
change.  This  is  absolutely  wrong  if  the 
suits  were  filed  with  that  intention  or  if 
they  were  based  on  worthless  grounds, 
as  they  cost  the  company  considerable 
money  in  the  way  of  attorney  and  court 
fees. 

The  more  the  company  is  compelled 
to  pay  out  for  frivolous  lawsuits  in  our 
state  the  less  favors  will  be  extended  to 
our  people  and  to  the  employes.  To 
file  a  suit  against  the  company  on  frivo- 
lous grounds  is  a  detriment  and  should 
be  checked  in  some  way. — The  Mc- 
Comb  City  (Miss.)  Journal,  February 
24,  1916. 


'  I AHE  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  has  issued 
a  circular  directed  to  passenger 
conductors  and  signed  by  T.  J.  Foley, 
General  Manager,  admonishing  care  in 
handling  the  public  to  prevent  damage 
suits.  Mr.  Foley  gives  a  list  of  100 
suits  filed  against  his  companies,  the 
I.  C.  and  the  Y.  &  M.  V.,  in  seven  states, 
and  84  of  the  hundred  were  filed  in  Mis- 
sissippi. Two  of  these  suits  were  filed 
in  Jefferson  County,  one  in  1912,  and  one 
in  1911,  and  both  were  by  non-residents. 
The  railroads  are  our  biggest  tax  payers 
and  the  greatest  agency  in  our  commer- 
cial and  agricultural  development,  and 
the  people  of  our  country  are  appreci- 
ative ;  hence  damage  suits  based  on 
flimsy  pretexts  do  not  bear  fruit  in  our 
courts.  Besides,  fortunately,  our  bar  is 
free  from  demagogic,  corporation- 
baiting  malpractitioners. — The  Fayette 
(Miss.)  Chronicle,  February  18,  1916. 


36 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


t\P  Employes  may  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stocic  in  the  Illinois 

Central  R.R.,we  quote  below  from  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  A\ay95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(One  price  fb  6e  quoted  for  which  applications  will  be  ac- 
cepted for  purchase  ofcZC.cftocA.  is  based  upon  me  mar- 

/               '                   j/          1          4s                   /'          •           '                   '      '   )     '        /"">                   / 

ket  price  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  (Comptrol- 

lers office...  Ow  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  ofsu6scri6- 
ma  -for  one  snare  at  a  time,  payable  by  installments  in  sums 
of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of  $522,  on  the  completion  of 

which  tne  Company  low  deliver  to  Aim  a  certificate  of 
me  snare  registered  in  nis  name  on  tne  booAs  of  me  Com- 

pany. oMe  can  men,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the  purcnase  of 

another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  <-^ohe  certificate 

of  stock  is  transferable,  on  the  Company's  books,  and 
entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  be  de  - 

dared  by  the  &oard  of  'Directors,  and  to  a  vote  in, 

their  election. 

Csinv  officer  or  employe  makinq  payments  on  this 

7           -/•//-/'              "//'-'•          •     •?    ~    7         /  •       ) 

plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  the  rate  of  Jour  per  cent  per  annum,  dunna  the  time  ne 
is  paying  for  nis  snare  of  stock,  provided  ne  does  not  al- 

,  '     7     7,;                                          f  /           i                •  /•                /• 
low  twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 
/                          /"    /  *  f        '    )   ' 

any  payment,  at  me  expiration  or  which  period  interest 
will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  /us  credit  will  be 

returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

Owi/  officer  or  employe  maRinq  payments  on  tne  fore  - 

•?1  •"         J  S              ^               -J-7  ''  '  '    j.      -J  '          j.  '  J 
aoma  plan,  and  for  any  reason  desinna  to  discontinue 

them,  can  nave  nis  money  returned  to  him  with  accrued 

.  7 

ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  37 


interest,  by  making  application  to  me  nead  of  the  de- 
partment in  which  he  is  employea. 

C/zn  employe,  luho  has  made  application  for  a  share 
/-       /•      /  /  /  •         //            /          >'              )  *•           / 
of  stock  on  the  installment  plan  ,  is  expected  to  make 

the  firstpayment  from  thefirst  wages  which  may  be  due 

mm.  Jorms  are  provided,  for  the  purpose,  on  which,  the 

L      '(•             7            J'  '       J.     v°      fC?^ 
subscribing  employe  authorizes  thccbocal-  (oreasurenn 

Chicago,  or  the  oUocal^oreasurer  in  (ty/ew  Orleans,  or 

the  paymaster  or  the  csissistant  Paymaster  to  retain 
from  his  wages  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  the  employe  for  the  purchase  or  a  share  of  stock. 

c7n  case  an  employe  leaves  the  service  of  the  Company 

from  any  cause,  he  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  the 
share  for  which  he  has  subscribed  ana  receive  a  certifi- 

cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which. 

has  accrued. 

C7ohe  foregoing  does  not  preclude  the  purchase  of 

shares  of  stock,  for  cash.  C-/in  employe  wno  has  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  of  stock  on 
the  installment  plan,  which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 
given  month  make  application  for  a  snare  ofstocfi/or  casn 

at  the  price  quoted  to  employes  for  that  month  ,  and  he  can 
'    ,ff          '         /•/•/'     °)     ''           /           /*>'      /• 
m  me  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  applicationfor  an- 

other share  on  the  installment  plan, 
(employes  who  Want  to  purchase  more  man  one  share 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 

cago, who  will  obtain  /or  them  the  price  at  which  the  stock 

can  he  purchased,. 
Cxray  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stock  (except  in 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  cash  J  should 

apply  to  his  immediate  superior  omcer,  or  to  one  of  the 

djocal^foreasurers  jby  filling  in  me  following  coupon  : 

Mr  O  r  Nrm                                       Date 

i  .  \*J  .  r  .  IN  au.  , 

Local  Treasurer, 

Cfiica^o  111. 

Will  you  please   send   me    an    application    felan/L 

for  tne  purcnase  of  I.  C.  Stock  on  tne  installment  plan. 

Signed 

Employed  as             _         -     

Development  of  the  Louisiana  Strawberry  Industry 

By  W.  E.  Beckner,  Assistant  to  Vice-President  and  General  Manager, 
American  Express  Campany 


CTRAWBERRIES  in  March!  There 
is  nothing  in  this  statement  to  war- 
rant comment  or  excite  even  the  slight- 
est surprise  to  the  average  Northern 
consumer  of  today,  but  does  not  your 
recollection  run  back  to  the  days  of  the 
luscious  short-cake  "mother  used  to 
make,"  and  do  you  not  realize  that  it 
was  late  in  June  or  possibly  early  in 
July  before  the  home-grown  berry  came 
to  grace  your  table  or  appease  your 
boyish  appetite?  Yet  this  same  delicious 
fruit — of  which  it  has  been  said  that 
"possibly  God  could  have  made  a  better 
berry  but  he  never  did" — reaches  the 
Northern  cities  before  the  frost  is  fair- 
ly out  of  the  ground  and  even  in  some 
localities  before  the  snows  of  winter 
have  disappeared.  In  the  days  of  which 
we  speak,  an  occasional  shipment  of  a 
few  boxes  in  a  store  window  during  the 
early  spring  months  attracted  unusual 
attention,  but  the  berries  were  regarded 
more  as  a  delicacy  which  only  the  epi- 
cure could  afford.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  the  carrying  industry  however, 
the  gratification  afforded  the  epicure  has 
been  imparted  to  those  in  the  more  hum- 
ble walks  of  life,  until  now  the  average 
mechanic  or  wage-earner  of  the  North- 
ern city  or  town  may  procure  this  first 
of  the  season's  fruits  at  an  expense  prac- 
tically no  greater  than  that  of  the  home- 
grown commodity. 

The  strawberry  is  a  native  of  both 
North  and  South  America,  as  well  as 
Europe,  but  the  cultivated  berry  of  this 
country  has  been  traced  to  plants 
brought  to  Europe  from  Chile  about  two 
hundred  years  ago,  and  is  the  result  of 
persistent  crossing  of  different  varieties 
until  it  may  be  said  that  our  present 
commercial  berry  is  distinctively  an 
American  product.  The  famous  Klon- 
dike berry  was  originated  at  Independ- 


ence, La.,  as  a  result  of  a  series  of  ex- 
periments, and  has  since  became  well 
known  throughout  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  In  spite  of  repeated  efforts, 
its  equal  has  not  been  produced  and  the 
Klondike  continues  to  be  grown  almost 
exclusively  in  Louisiana. 

The  strawberry  plant  is  adapted  to  a 
wide  range  of  locality  and  to  greater 
extremes  in  environment  than  any  other 
cultivated  fruit,  and  can  withstand  con- 
siderable in  the  way  of  adverse  weather 
conditions,  such  as  drouth,  frost  and 
excessive  rains.  It  frequently  happens 
— sometimes  several  times  each  season 
— that  the  crop  will  receive  a  setback 
from  one  or  more  of  these  causes;  but 
nevertheless  the  little  plants  prove  their 
rigor  by  producing  an  immense  output. 
While  strawberries  are  grown  in  near- 
ly all  types  of  soil,  a  sandy,  loam  is  con- 
ducive to  best  results.  In  the  South, 
a  warm,  quick  soil,  although  otherwise 
poor,  is  preferable  to  a  heavy  soil.  An 
important  consideration  in  the  growing 
of  strawberries  for  the.  Northern  mar- 
kets is  the  selection  of  a  location  where 
the  climatic  and  soil  conditions  are  fav- 
orable to  the  early  ripening  of  the  fruit, 
so  that  there  may  be  little  competition 
with  sections  further  North. 

It  was  found  years  ago  that  the  cli- 
mate and  soil  of  the  pine  belt  of  Louis- 
iana were  particularly  adapted  to  the 
raising  of  strawberries,  and  if  we  are 
reliably  informed  it  was  about  1886  that 
several  planters  at  Independence,  were 
supplied  with  plants  for  the  purpose  of 
encouraging  the  growth  of  these  berries 
for  market.  Starting  therefore  in  a 
small  way  some  thirty  years  ago,  straw- 
berry growing  in  Tangipahoa  Parish 
was  carried  on  for  a  considerable  time 
without  any  great  interest  on  the  part 
of  the  growers,  as  it  was  considered  only 


40 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


of  minor  importance,  although  a  help- 
ful product  in  bringing  in  a  little  money 
when  most  needed — in  the  early  spring. 
The  berries  were  not  produced  in  suffi- 
cient quantities  to  ship  in  carload  lots 
but  were  sent  to  the  then  very  limited 
markets  in  ordinary  express  cars.  The 
proceeds  coming  in  so  opportunely,  how- 
ever, were  an  incentive  for  increased 
acreage,  until  finally  there  came  into  be- 
ing the  strawberry  farm. 

Considerable  difficulty  was  experi- 
enced at  the  start  in  getting  the  berries 
on  the  market  in  a  saleable  condition, 
for  which  reason  the  shipments  were  al- 
most wholly  confined  to  near-by  points. 
From  their  nature,  strawberries  must  of 
necessity  be  marketed  quickly  and  in  the 
course  of  transportation  handled  very 
carefully,  as  once  the  tender  skin  is  brok- 
en the  berries  bleed,  and  a  few  crushed 
berries  in  a  crate  will  practically  ruin 
the  sale  of  the  remainder.  Someone  fin- 
ally conceived  the  idea  of  shipping  ber- 
ries under  ice  in  pony  refrigerators, 
which  were  simply  large  boxes,  equipped 
with  trays,  in  which  the  berries  were 
placed,  and  so  constructed  that  the  ice 
and  water  did  not  come  in  contact  with 
the  fruit.  The  pony  refrigerators  served 
for  a  time  for  shipments  to  hotels  and 
restaurants,  and  in  fact  to  commission 
houses.  In  this  manner  the  growers 
were  able  to  ship  to  the  larger  cities  of 
the  North  and  get  the  berries  to  destina- 
tion in  fairly  good  condition. 

Little  however  had  been  accomplished 
in  the  development  of  the  strawberry  in- 
dustry up  to  the  time  the  American  Ex- 
press Company  extended  its  service  over 
the  Southern  Lines  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  in  1893,  and  there  was  scarcely 
sufficient  of  the  business  to  warrant  spe- 
cial attention.  For  several  years  there 
was  a  steady,  although  small,  increase 
in  the  traffic.  In  their  efforts  to  aug- 
ment the  business  of  the  line  in  every 
way  possible,  the  officials  of  the  Express 
Company  saw  that  the  strawberry  and 
vegetable  business  from  Louisiana  and 
other  Southern  points  was  a  class  of 
traffic  that,  with  careful  handling,  was 
susceptible  of  being  increased  to  enor- 
mous proportions.  With  that  idea  in 


view  special  attention  was  given  this 
traffic,  and  the  credit  for  its  early  de- 
velopment and  the  popularity  of  Ameri- 
can Express  service  in  the  strawberry 
districts  of  the  Illinois  Central  is  large- 
ly due  to  the  personal  efforts  and  pioneer 
work  of  Mr.  G.  C.  Taylor,  now  Presi- 
dent of  the  Company  at  New  York,  and 
to  Mr.  F.  D.  Adams,  formerly  Gen'l 
Sup't  at  St.  Louis,  now  deceased,  and 
later  to  Mr.  C.  D.  Summy,  Manager, 
St.  Louis,  and  Mr.  E.  K.  Stone,  Sup?t. 
Memphis. 

Up  to  this  time  practically  none  of 
the  berry  shipments  had  gone  beyond 
the  lines  of  the  Illinois  Central  Road, 
by  far  the  greater  portion  of  those  des- 
tined to  the  Northern  markets  going  to 
Chicago  or  St.  Louis  in  less  than  car- 
load lots — that  being  long  before  the  day 
when  growers'  associations  had  been 
formed.  One  of  the  first  steps  toward 
the  development  of  this  business  was 
the  furnishing  of  refrigerator  cars,  ten 
of  which  were  provided  by  the  Mer- 
chants' Despatch  Transportation  Co.  in 
1896,  the  first  we  believe  ever,  construct- 
ed with  a  view  of  their  movement  by 
passenger  train  service,  and  which 
proved  that  "express  service"  meant 
then,  as  it  does  today,  special  attention 
with  quick  and  satisfactory  delivery. 

Some  of  these  refrigerator  cars  were 
in  compartment  form — that  is  to  say, 
there  were  partitions  separating  each 
end  from  the  center  of  the  car.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  center  itself  had  no 
refrigerating  possibilities,  being  used 
solely  as  an  avenue  for  loading  and  un- 
loading the  contents.  Needless  to  add 
that  these  cars  were  all  of  wooden  con- 
struction, containing  none  of  the  modern 
improvements,  and  while  they  answered 
the  purpose  as  an  experiment  and  satis- 
factorily filled  the  limited  requirements 
at  that  time,  they  would  be  considered 
entirely  obsolete  in  comparison  with  the 
cars  now  in  use.  Since  the  year  they 
were  first  introduced  for  the  movement 
of  berry  shipments  by  express  on  the 
Illinois  Central  Lines,  refrigerator  cars 
have  steadily  grown  in  number  and  mod- 
ern efficiency.  By  1903  the  number  of 
such  cars  in  service  had  increased  to 


STREET    SCENES   BUSINESS    SECTION,    INDEPETSTDENCE,    LA. 


42 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


sixty,  and  to  their  use  is  attributed  the 
remarkable  growth  of  the  business  they 
were  designed  to  carry. 

At  that  time,  such  producing  points 
as  Ponchatoula,  Hammond,  Amite  and 
Independence,  were  comparatively  insig- 
nificant points,  but  with  each  succeeding 
strawberry  crop  these  places  have  grown 
to  be  thriving  and  prosperous  communi- 
ties ;  in  fact,  the  strawberry  crop  is  now 
the  mainstay  of  not  only  these  but  other 
producing  points  in  that  section;  box 
factories  have  sprung  up  as  a  result  of 
the  industry ;  work  is  given  a  large  num- 
ber of  pickers  and  others,  and  the  best 
feature  is  that  the  revenue  produced 
comes  from  outside  sources  and  remains 
at  home. 

One  by  one  strawberry  farms  were 
added,  and  additional  labor  became  neces- 
sary to  take  care  of-  the  crop.  Italians 
were  introduced  as  good,  cheap  laborers 
and  tenants.  They  lived  economically 
and  did  well.  Their  services  were  high- 
ly satisfactory  to  their  employers  and 
landlords.  As  the  berry  industry  grew, 
so  also  did  the  Italian  population.  They 
spread  through  the  Parish  and  soon  be- 
came land-owners  themselves,  growing 
strawberries  exclusively.  Endowed  by 
nature  with  the  necessary  energy  and 
qualifications,  the  Italians  soon  took  an 
important  place  in  the  growth  of  the 
strawberry  industry. 

Special  representatives  of  the  Express 
Company  were  detailed  to  give  their  ex- 
clusive attention  to  the  proper  handling 
of  the  business,  to  insure  the  berries 
reaching  market  in  good  condition,  and 
to  render  any  assistance  possible  to  the 
growers  in  finding  new  markets.  While 
for  the  first  few  years  Chicago  was  able 
to  take  care  of  the  strawberry  crop  from 
Louisiana,  the  time  came  when  it  was 
apparent  that  if  other  markets  were  not 
opened  to  the  growers  with  their  in- 
creased acreage,  they  would  not  be  able 
to  obtain  sufficient  returns  to  warrant 
the  expansion  of  the  industry.  It  was 
at  this  stage  that  the  Express  Company 
was  able  to  use,  for  the  growers'  benefit, 
its  vast  organization  throughout  the 
United  States,  and  as  a  result  of  special 


efforts  new  markets  were  opened  at  many 
of  the  larger  cities  of  the  North  and 
East,  which  never  before  had  been 
served  from  this  portion  of  the  coun- 
try. The  opening  of  these  markets  re- 
sulted in  the  practice  of  the  larger  com- 
mission houses  throughout  the  United 
States  sending  personal  representatives 
to  the  strawberry  district,  so  that  they 
might  secure  a  share  of  the  yield ;  in  fact 
each  year  adds  new  cities  to  which  straw- 
berries are  shipped  in  carload  lots,  until 
it  no  longer  excites  any  interest  to  re- 
ceive an  order  for  a  carload  of  berries 
from  points  as  far  West  as  Seattle, 
Wash.,  as  far  East  as  Bangor,  Me.,  or 
as  far  North  as  Regina,  Sask. 

The  growers  at  first  made  their  ship- 
ments almost  wholly  on  consignment, 
that  is,  to  be  sold  at  destination  and  the 
proceeds  remitted  to  the  grower,  after 
deducting  the  transporation  charge,  but 
as  their  number  increased  associations 
were  organized  for  mutual  benefit. 
These  associations  have  done  wonders 
in  perfecting  the  shipping.  Inspectors 
are  maintained  who  inspect  the  quality 
of  the  fruit  before  a  grower's  berries 
are  accepted,  and  if  picked  too  green, 
or  in  other  ways  it  does  not  come  up  to 
requirements,  the  fruit  is  rejected. 
Standard  crates  and  boxes  are  specified, 
insuring  full  measure  to  the  consumer. 
The  plants  are  mulched  with  pine  tops 
and  no  sand  will  be  found  in  eating  a 
Louisiana  berry.  With  the  perfected 
packing  of  good  fruit  only,  the  Louisi- 
ana product  always  brings  a  higher  price 
than  any  other  berry  on  the  market. 

In  1909  an  association  at  one  of  the 
principal  shipping  points  took  the  ini- 
tiative in  introducing  an  innovation 
known  as  the  "selling  deal,"  by  which 
the  berries  are  sold  f.  o.  b.  cars  at  ship- 
ping point.  The  association  sent  out 
advertising  matter  and  circulars  in  ad- 
vance of  the  shipping  season,  calling  at- 
tention of  the  trade  throughout  the 
United  States  and  Canada  to  the  new 
system,  and  inviting  their  presence  and 
co-operation.  The  plan  was  a  decided 
success  from  the  start,  and  the  selling 
deal  has  since  been  adopted  by  all  asso- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


43 


ciations  in  the  berry  district.  The  com- 
mission merchants  or  their  representa- 
tives are  now  on  hand  every  season,  and 
without  them  the  berry  industry  in 
Louisiana  would  be  much  less  prosper- 
ous. They  have  contributed  greatly  to 
its  success,  and  while  not  always  mak- 
ing much  of  a  profit  themselves  it  is 
seldom  they  complain  of  the  /market 
price  in  the  berry  district. 

After  the  cars  are  loaded,  if  not  sold 
outright,  they  are  started  rolling  by  the 
associations,  consigned  to  themselves  at 
Chicago  or  other  points.  During  the 
first  twenty-four  hours  the  sales  are  ef- 
fected, and  the  cars  diverted  to  various 
destinations.  These  diversions  are  usu- 
ally made  by  telegraph  to  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Express  Company  at  Car- 
bondale,  who  re-bills  the  cars  and  tags 
them  to  the  changed  destinations. 

In  1911  there  were  eighty-four  re- 
frigerator cars  used  in  handling  this 
traffic  from  the  south;  the  following 
year  129,  and  in  1913  the  number  had 
increased  to  157.  The  next  year  the 
Illinois  Central  built  and  placed  in  serv- 
ice 150  refrigerator  cars  of  the  latest 
improved  type,  equipped  for  passenger 
train  service,  which — added  to  the  num- 
ber of  outside  refrigerators — made  a 
total  of  231  used  in  handling  the  traf- 
fic. In  1915  the  railroad  company  built 
an  additional  100  refrigerator  cars 
which,  with  those  already  in  service  and 
under  leave,  brought  the  total  up  to  336 
cars.  In  the  last  ten  years  the  num- 
ber of  carload  shipments  of  berries 
handled  by  express  in  refrigerator  cars 
from  the  Southern  Lines  of  the  Illinois 
Central  has  increased  from  171  to  1,089. 
The  gross  weight  of  these  carload  ship- 
ments last  year  was  over  15,000,000 
pounds,  netting  to  the  growers  between 
$2,000,000  and  $3,000,000,  and  instead 
of  being  confined  to  one  market,  as  was 
the  case  for  so  many  years,  the  product 
was  distributed  to  eighty-seven  differ- 
ent cities  located  in  twenty-nine  states 
and  in  each  of  the  Canadian  Provinces. 

This  extensive  distribution  was  made 
possible  only  through  the  active  co-op- 
eration of  the  local  representatives  of 
the  Express  Company  from  coast  to 


coast,  acting  as  a  widely  scattered  solic- 
iting force  in  the  development  of  this 
wonderful  industry,  and  is  a  concrete 
example  of  what  can  be  accomplished  by 
an  efficient  organization.  Also  by  this 
wide  distribution  of  its  product,  the 
southern  grower  received  the  very  high- 
est returns  for  his  labor  and,  in  the 
development  of  the  business,  instead  of 
its  movement  being  confined  to  regu- 
larly scheduled  passenger  trains,  as  was 
formerly  the  case,  it  is  now  necessarily 
given  special  movement,  a  day's  loading 
reaching  in  one  instance  fifty-five  cars, 
which  were  handled  in  three  special 
trains.  It  is  also  frequently  necessary 
to  run  cars  special  from  Carbondale  to 
St.  Louis,  and  for  the  last  three  years 
the  eastern  business  has  been  so  heavy 
that  special  trains  have  been  operated 
as  far  east  as  Buffalo. 

The  refrigerator  cars  used  in  handling 
the  strawberry  shipments  are  iced  at 
McComb,  Miss.,  where  there  is  a  large 
and  modern  icing  plant.  The  initial  ic- 
ing is  done  at  night,  after  which  the  cars 
are  closed  and  taken  by  special  train 
early  in  the  morning  for  distribution  to 
the  loading  points,  such  as  Amite,  In- 
dependence, Tickfaw,  Hammond,  Pon- 
chatoula  and  others.  The  district  is  a 
small,  compact  one,  scarcely  thirty  miles 
in  length,  but  a  veritable  beehive  during 
the  shipping  season. 

Picking  commences  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, as  soon  as  the  dew  is  off  the  plants, 
and  after  the  berries  are  placed  in  boxes 
and  the  latter  in  crates,  usually  of  twen- 
ty-four pint  capacity,  they  are  hauled 
to  the  cars  which,  having  been  iced  the 
night  before,  provide  a  cool  place  in 
which  to  load  the  berries  from  the  ex- 
treme heat  in  the  open.  The  crates  are 
carefully  handled  by  experienced  car- 
loaders,  placed  in  tiers,  properly  spaced, 
so  as  to  permit  of  a  good  circulation  of 
air  around  them.  Each  layer  of  crates 
is  separated  from  the  one  below  by  pine 
strips  about  an  inch  in  thickness,  and 
when  each  end  of  the  car  has  been 
loaded,  gates  are  put  up  and  thoroughly 
braced,  so  that  after  a  car  is  stripped 
and  braced,  not  a  case  can  move  until 
the  car  reaches  destination. 


Residences,      Independence  La. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


45 


The  express  special  leaves  Poncha- 
toula  about  4:00  P.  M.  daily,  picking  up 
the  filled  cars  at  the  loading-  stations. 
Scattering  shipments  of  small  lots  are 
placed  in  way  cars  en  route  so  that  prac- 
tically all  the  fruit  is  now  shipped  under 
refrigeration.  After  the  last  loading 
point  is  reached,  the  train  is  run  to  Mc- 
Comb  without  stop,  and  there  every  car 
is  re-iced  to  its  full  capacity.  The  ice 
bunker  hatches  are  allowed  to  remain 
open  until  well  along  in  the  night,  to 
permit  the  field  heat  of  the  berries  to 
escape  and  insure  proper  refrigeration. 
Special  messengers  accompanying  the 
trains  go  over  the  tops  of  the  cars  clos- 
ing the  bunkers  before  morning.  The 
next  re-icing  is  at  Jackson,  Tenn.,  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the '  morning.  Each 
bunker  of  every  car  is  filled  with  crushed 
ice,  and  a  record  is  kept  at  every  icing 
station  of  the  amount  of  ice  placed  in 
each  car.  By  the  time  the  cars  get  to 
Jackson,  Tenn.,  they  have  become  thor- 
oughly cooled,  and  thereafter  the  con- 
sumption of  ice  is  much  less  through  to 
destination,  no  further  re-icing  being 
necessary  until  the  cars  reach  Chicago 
or  other  equally  distant  points. 

Independence  has  had  and  still  main- 
tains the  largest  output  of  strawberries, 
but  Hammond  is  the  rendezvous  of  the 
buyers  and  solicitors.  It  is  convenient 
to  the  whole  district  on  account  of  its 
central  location  and  affords  splendid 
hotel  facilities — the  Oaks  Hotel  being 
one  of  the  most  commodious  in  the 
South,  with  beautiful  grounds  and  sur- 
roundings, and  Colonel  Robinson,  the 
landlord,  has  a  reputation  for  hospital- 
ity well  known  throughout  the  North. 
The  train  service  is  all  that  could  be 
asked  in  reaching  the  neighboring  towns 
and  for  occasional  sight-seeing  trips  to 
New  Orleans. 

While  the  Louisiana  strawberry  field 
is  the  greatest,  berries  are  shipped  in 
large  quantities  from  Madison,  Ridge- 
land  and  Durant,  Miss.,  also  from 
Sharon,  Greenfield,  Medina,  Curve,  Rip- 
ley  and  other  points  in  Tennessee.  Dur- 
ing the  last  three  years  the  Tennessee 
shipping  has  grown  so  that  special  trains 
have  been  necessary,  the  method  of 


handling  being  practically  the  same  as  in 
the  Louisiana  district.  After  the  Ten- 
nessee crop  comes  that  of  Illinois,  from 
points  between  .Mounds  and  Carbondale 
and  between  Centralia  and  Mattoon,  so 
that  there  is  a  constant  movement  of 
strawberries  beginning  the  fore  part  of 
March  from  Louisiana  to  June  15th  from 
Illinois. 

Naturally  with  the  traffic  increasing 
in  such  proportions,  it  has  been  neces- 
sary for  the  express  company  to  add 
to  its  facilities  annually  in  order  to  keep 
up  with  the  demand  for  express  service, 
which  is  becoming  more  popular  each 
year.  This  popularity  is  the  result  of 
the  careful,  painstaking  manner  in  which 
the  company  has  endeavored  to  handle 
the  business  and  protect  the  interests  of 
the  growers.  The  long  years  of  per- 
sonal contact  with  the  growers  and  buy- 
ers has  proved  to  them  that  the  com- 
pany's officials  are  constantly  endeavor- 
ing to  find  ways  and  means  of  insuring 
their  shipments  of  strawberries  arriv- 
ing at  destination  in  first  class  condi- 
tion. As  an  example,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  mention  the  precaution  taken  in 
providing  a  personal  representative  at 
each  icing  station  to  see  that  the  cars 
are  properly  iced  at  the  start,  and  re- 
iced  to  full  capacity  at  all  icing  stations 
en  route.  In  selecting  men  to  look 
after  the  handling  of  the  strawberry 
crop,  only  the  most  careful  and  efficient 
employes  are  selected,  men  who  have 
initiative  and  understand  thoroughly  the 
careful  attention  necessary. 

This  occasion  should  be  taken  to  say 
that  the  officials  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company,  not  only  on  the 
ground,  but  those  in  executive  positions, 
have  been  a  most  important  factor  in- 
contributing  to  the  popularity  of  the 
movement  by  express  of  carload  ship- 
ments of  berries,  and  in  selection  of 
some  of  their  best  crews  for  the  handling 
of  the  special  trains.  This  has  been  a 
decided  assistance,  as  the  men  so  se- 
lected by  the  officials  of  the  railroad 
company  are  alive  to  the  fact  that  straw- 
berries in  carloads  must  be  handled  in 
the  same  careful  manner  that  they 
would  handle  a  passenger  train.  In  this 


46 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL    STATION    AND    GROUNDS,    INDEPENDENCE,    LA. 


connection  also,  nearly  all  of  the  berries 
are  handled  at  originating  points  by 
men  who  are  in  the  joint  railroad  and 
express  service,  all  of  whom — through 
their  close  association  with  the  grow- 
ers— have  rendered  the  best  of  service. 
What  the  strawberry  industry  of 
Louisiana  will  be  in  ten  years  from  now, 
or  even  in  five  years,  we  dare  not  ven- 
ture a  prediction.  Basing  our  figures 
on  the  past  five  or  ten  years  would  bring 
forth  some  startling  results.  The  rapid 
increase  in  acreage  and  high  price  of 
berry  farms  answers  the  question  as  to 
whether  or  not  the  industry  pays.  From 
a  few  growers  located  close  to  the  rail- 
road stations  the  district  has  spread  out 
several  miles,  and  it  is  estimated  there 


are  over  fifteen  thousand  acres  of  ber- 
ries under  cultivation  in  Tangipahoa 
Parish.  For  a  Northern  young  man,  or 
for  that  matter  any  person,  either  with 
or  without  a  family,  desiring  to  locate 
in  the  South,  the  growing  of  strawber- 
ries offers  a  good  opportunity  on  a 
small  amount  of  capital.  A  five,  or  not 
more  than  ten,  acre  piece  of  land,  if 
properly  cared  for,  will  bring  in  a  sur- 
prising amount  of  ready  cash  the  first 
year.  The  Italian  growers,  locating  in 
the  Louisiana  berry  district,  without 
other  capital  than  their  strong  arms  and 
industriousness,  frequently  pay  for  their 
farms  and  implements  the  second  year. 
Several  have  been  known  to  do  it  with 
their  first  year's  crop. 


SAFETY 


C* 


FI  RST 


Hammond,  La. 

The  Land  of  Strawberries  and  Cream 


LJ  AMMOND,  the  chief  commercial 
city  of  Tangipahoa  Parish,  is  lo- 
cated within  90  minutes  ride .  of  New 
Orleans,  the  South's  greatest  metropo- 
lis. It  has  a  population  of  5,000  and 
needs  no  prohpet's  vision  to  see  that 
with  the  resources  at  the  command  of 
this  efficient  population,  Hammond  will 
go  on  until  it  reaches  the  dominant  com- 
mercial position  of  not  only  the  Florida 
Parishes,  but  of  all  that  section  east  of 
Baton  Rouge  (the  State  Capitol)  even 
crossing  the  state  line  into  Mississippi. 
This  is  the  place  to  which  her  citizens 
aspire  and  confidently  look. 

Hammond  was  but  a  straggling  vil- 
lage until  the  year  1884,  when  the  great 
Cotton  Exposition  at  New  Orleans  af- 
forded the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  the  opportunity  it  had  been 
looking  for  to  attract  attention  and 
bring  settlers  to  this  section,  and  right 
well  has  it  succeeded,  for  today  Ham- 
mond is  one  of  the  most  modern  cities 
in  the  South,  based  on  population. 

Hammond  is  situated  at  just  the 
proper  altitude  above  sea  level  to  make 
the  temperature  agreeable,  both  winter 
and  summer.  Records  of  the  Weather 
Bureau  show  that  extreme  cold  weather 
is  unusual,  and  the  slightest  fall  of  snow 
is  regarded  as  an  unusual  event,  the 
temperature  seldom  falling  below  the 
freezing  point.  January  is  the  coldest 
month,  the  average  temperature  being  50 
deerees.  There  are  rarely  any  frosts 
before  November,  nor  after  February. 
With  the  balmy  gulf  breezes  constantly 
blowing  the  heat  of  the  summer  is  pleas- 
antly tempered.  July  is  the  month  in 
which  is  recorded  the  highest  tempera- 
ture, and  the  average  for  this  is  83.4 
degrees. 

Schools  and  Churches. 

Churches  of  almost  every  denomina- 
tion are  scattered  about  the  city,  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  its  citizens  to  worship 
as  they  choose. 


Our  public  schools  compare  favorably 
with  that  of  any  other  city  of  larger 
population.  We  have  one  of  the  finest 
High  Schools  in  the  Parish,  and  not  only 
in  the  matter  of  buildings  are  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Hammond  well  supplied 
— the  schools  themselves  are  of  the  best 
type  of  primary  educational  institutions, 
with  approved  courses  of  study,  well 
maintained,  and  carrying  their  pupils 
thoroughly  to  the  point  at  which  they 
are  prepared  to  enter,  either  university 
or  business  life. 

As  a  place  of  residence,  this  city  pre- 
sents many  attractive  features,  being 
pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  hospitality  that 
is  most  generous  in  its  acceptance  of 
strangers,  welcoming  them  into  the  so- 
cial life  of  the  community  and  making 
them  feel  at  home.  Our  fame  as  a  win- 
ter resort  has  reached  every  state  in  the 
Union,  and  every  winter  finds  northern 
people  here,  who  prefer  the  splendid 
artesian  water  and  delightful  climatic 
conditions,  to  the  more  fashionable  re- 
sorts of  Florida  and  California. 

It  has  also  become  quite  popular  for 
people  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Min- 
nesota, Wisconsin,  and  the  Dakotas  to 
spend  two  or  three  months  of  the  win- 
ter here,  doing  light  housekeeping,  or 
boarding  at  some  of  the  many  boarding 
houses.  To  the  tourist,  business  man  or 
visitor  who  sojourns  in  Hammond,  it 
will  have  been  pleasant  and  profitable 
if  he  has  enjoyed  the  comfort  and  lux- 
uries afforded  at  the  Oaks  Hotel,  prob- 
ably the  greatest  attraction  of  all  the 
many  attractions  that  Hammond  has  to 
offer. 

The  city  is  governed  by  a  commission 
of  three  men,  and  while  the  plan  is  of 
comparatively  recent  adoption,  it  has  so 
far  worked  well,  and  the  municipal  af- 
fairs are  considered  to  be  in  a  satis- 
factory condition. 

Hammond  today  has  many  of  the 
modern  public  utilities  of  the  times.  Few 


47 


BUSINESS   SECTION  HAMMOND,   LA. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


49 


cities  with  our  population  can  point  to 
a  24-hour  electric  service.  Our  water 
supply  comes  from  an  artesian  well, 
2,006  feet  deep,  with  a  flow  of  more 
than  600  gallons  a  minute,  and  is  the 
purest  water  on  earth.  The  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  dining  cars  and  hotel  din- 
ing rooms  use  the  water  from  the  noted 
geyser  well  which  has  a  depth  of  2,100 
feet. 

The  pumping  station  is  owned  by  the 
city  and  is  equipped  with  the  latest  build 
of  pumps,  with  power  capacity  to  main- 
tain a  fire  fighting  pressure  over  the 
entire  territory  covered  by  the  city  water 
water  mains,  therefore  we  have  a  water- 
works, and  system  of  mains  therefrom, 
that  is  modern  in  every  respect,  and 
which  ranks  with  any  installed  in  any 
city  in  the  country  of  its  size,  and  even 
with  many  cities  of  much  larger  popu- 
lation. 

We  also  have  a  paid  fire  department, 
that  consists  of  a  modern  motor  fire 
truck,  and  a  motor  hook  and  ladder 
truck,  and  the  department  consists  of  a 
chief,  assistant  chief  and  six  men  all 
paid,  and  a  corps  of  40  volunteers. 

The  first  shovelful  of  dirt  taken  from 
the  streets  of  Hammond  on  Tuesday, 
October  26,  1915,  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  modern  sanitary  sewerage  system, 
and  has  progressed  to  a  point  where,  in 
the  next  four  months,  same  will  be  com- 
pleted. The  contract  also  calls  for  the 
building  of  an  incinerator  for  the  pur- 
pose of  burning  the  garbage  of  the  city. 

A  model  state  highway  passes  along 
Thomas  street,  the  principal  street  in 
town,  and  runs  from  the  east  to  the  west 
end  of  the  Parish  line.  This  road  ranks 
with  any  in  the  country.  The  city  com- 
missioners have  begun  the  graveling  of 
other  streets  since  the  completion  of  the 
model  highway,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
but  that  all  our  streets  will  be  grav- 
eled within  the  next  two  years. 

We  have  a  first  class  ice  plant  and 
modern  bottling  plant  which  turns  out 
soft  drinks  of  all  varieties. 

The  Coca-Cola  Company  operates  an 
up-to-date  bottling  plant  for  the  drink 
that  refreshes  and  exhilarates. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Natalbany 
Lumber  Co.  is  in  Hammond,  and  their 


payroll  represents  an  outlay  of  $50,000 
per  month. 

There  is  a  shoe  factory  that  manufac- 
tures shoes  of  all  kinds,  that  has  not 
been  idle  in  20  years. 

We  have  two  box  and  veneer  facto- 
ries, that  manufacture  strawberry  boxes 
and  crates,  also  hampers  and  baskets. 

We  have  a  modern  brick  factory  that 
manufactures  millions  of  the  best  brick 
on  earth. 

We  have  a  modern  sanitary  ice  cream 
factory,  began  last  year,  and  is  working 
to  capacity  at  present  and  the  season  just 
opening. 

We  have  up-to-the-minute  dry  goods, 
grocery,  furniture,  drug  and  jewelry 
stores,  two  bakeries,  two  machine  shops, 
restaurants,  and  all  other  kinds  of  busi- 
ness houses  that  are  generally  found  in 
a  progressive  city. 

Hammond  has  one  daily,  and  two 
weekly  newspapers,  all  equipped  with 
modern  machinery,  operated  with  elec- 
tricity. 

The  Hammond  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce is  one  of  the  most  active  bodies, 
and  is  composed  of  men  who  are  so 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
progress  for  their  city,  that  they  en- 
thuse the  visiting  stranger,  and  none 
can  pass  many  days  among  them  with- 
out being  impressed  with  the  belief  that 
this  is  to  be  one  of  the  important  agri- 
cultural sections  of  the  South.  The 
members  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
not  only  keep  an  eye  open  for  the  com- 
mercial welfare  of  the  city,  but  pay  close 
attention  also  to  its  civic  betterment,  be- 
lieving that  the  one  must  largely  supple- 
ment the  other,  if  their  municipality  is 
to  be  truly  great. 

Hammond  has  also  a  retail  merchants' 
Credit  Association,  composed  of  the 
merchants  and  professional  men  of  the 
city,  which  has  since  its  organization, 
some  three  months  ago,  created  a  bet- 
ter understanding  and  a  more  friendly 
feeling  between  competitors,  also  bind- 
ing the  farmer  and  laborer  closer  to- 
gether with  the  merchant. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  there  is 
implanted  in  the  human  breast  a  natural 
inclination  toward  the  possession  of 
some  permanent  abiding  place — some 


50 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


spot  called  "Home  and  Fireside."  The 
love  of  mankind  for  that  particular  spot 
called  home  is  indeed  remarkable.  It 
is  the  love  of  home  of  the  sturdy  Swiss, 
in  their  cabins  clinging  to  the  sides  of 
the  snow  clad  Alps  that  has  made  Switz- 
erland a  democracy.  We  in  this  city 
claim  Louisiana,  and  especially  Tangi- 
pahoa  Parish,  to  be  the  fairest  of  lands, 
yet  each  has  a  warm  spot  in  his  heart 
for  the  special  locality  he  called  home. 


other  streets  and  avenues,  as  well  as 
with  Cypress,  and  pine  forests,  lake,  riv- 
er and  canal,  and  have  found  many 
beautiful  landscapes  worthy  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  canvas  by  the  greatest  of  paint- 
ers. 

The  products  of  Hammond  are  great- 
ly diversified;  in  fact  the  success  of 
Hammond  and  vicinity  as  a  truck,  fruit 
growing  and  farming  locality,  rests  up- 
on the  diversity  of  crops.  First,  as  a 


Be  this  as  it  may,  and  wonder  as  we 
will  at  the  love  of  some  for  their  rug- 
ged native  land,  yet  strange  indeed  would 
it  be,  if  the  people  of  Hammond  did 
not  love  and  admire  it  and  its  beautiful 
picturesque  environments.  The  natural 
scenery  in  and  surrounding  Hammond  in 
every  direction  has  won  the  admiration 
of  tourists,  while  artists  have  gone  into 
raptures,  over  the  superb  avenues  of 
trees  which  are  found  on  Magnolia,  Oak, 
Thomas,  Charles,  Robert,  Church  and 


money  producer,  is  the  strawberry  (that 
is  being  harvested  now)  which  is  a  suc- 
cess as  grown  for  market,  the  soil  being 
particularly  adapted  to  the  early  matu- 
rity and  rich  flavor  of  this  luscious  fruit. 
Plants  set  in  October,  November  or  De- 
cember produce  fruit  in  March,  April 
and  May,  that  yield  returns  varying 
from  $250  to  $500  per  acre,  and  in  ex- 
ceptionally good  conditions  going  much 
higher. 

The  shipments  of  strawberries   from 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


51 


the  great  strawberry  belt  in  Tangipahoa 
parish  totaled  over  $2,000,000  last  sea- 
son, Hammond  having  shipped  a  little 
more  than  $500,000,  and  we  look  for  an 
increase  over  this  amount  this  season, 
the  United  States  reports  stating  that 
the  crop  will  be  about  25  per  cent  bet- 
ter than  last  season.  These  berries  were 
distributed  as  far  west  as  Seattle,  up 
into  British  Columbia,  and  there  was  one 
export  shipment  to  London. 

Brokers  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try assemble  here  to  buy  the  berries  as 
soon  as  they  are  marketed.  The  same 
buyers  come  year  after  year,  and  with 
the  growth  of  the  industry,  their  num- 
bers increase.  Berries  have  brought  as 
high  as  $6.20  a  crate  of  24  pints  in  the 
beginning  of  the  season.  So  far  this 
season,  that  began  on  March  18th  (the 
season  is  earlier  this  year)  we  have 
shipped  from  Hammond  over  5,700 
cases,  and  were  distributed  as  follows: 
One  car  on  March  18th  to  Indianapolis, 
one  car  on  March  20th  to  Sioux  Falls, 
S.  D.,  one  car  on  March  21st  to  Lin- 
coln, Neb.,  all  through  the  American 
Express  Co. 

The  shipments  having  increased 
year  by  year,  the  American  Express 
Co.  has  had  to  increase  the  number 
of  cars,  and  have  added  for  this  season 
150  of  the  latest  type  refrigerator  cars, 
to  be  able  to  handle  this  season's  crop. 
They  run  special  fruit  trains  from 
Ponchatoula,  in  the  lower  end  of  the 
Parish,  shipments  being  picked  up  at 
all  stations,  say  within  100  miles,  and 
from  the  last  point  the  train  is  run 
through  to  Chicago  on  fast  schedule, 
stopping  only  for  coal  and  water,  and 
at  certain  points  for  re-icing.  As  the 
season  advances,  the  Illinois  Central 
runs  a  fast  fruit  train  in  addition  to 
the  express  shipments,  and  it  is  not 
an  unusual  sight  to  see  both  companies 
leaving  this  station  with  a  full  train 
load  of  solid  cars  packed  with  berries. 

Satsuma  oranges  is  another  industry 
that  is  also  coming  to  the  front  in  this 
vicinity,  and  it  will  not  be  many  years 
before  as  many  cars  of  Satsuma 
oranges  will  be  shipped  from  this  point 
as  there  are  strawberries  today.  It  has 
been  found  that  by  grafting  the  bud  on 


Citrus  Trifoliata,  that  the  Satsuma 
orange  can  stand  a  temperature  as  low 
as  12  degrees  above  zero,  and  there  has 
been  planted  this  season  over  20,000 
trees.  There  are  two  groves  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  at  present  that  are 
bearing  and  are  paying  between  $500 
and  $600  per  acre. 

All  vegetables  are  grown  easily,  the 
market  for  green  beans  in  the  spring 
and  then  again  in  the  early  winter 
makes  this  an  extra  good  crop  for  the 
cash  producer.  Shallots,  green  onions, 
lettuce,  radishes,  cabbage,  cucumbers, 
carrots,  peas,  melons,  all  yield  abund- 
antly and  are  sure  crops.  By  proper 
rotation  the  same  ground  produces 
three  seperate  and  distinct  crops  a 
year.  You  can  plant  something  here 
every  month  in  the  year,  and  if  you 
regard  local  conditions  your  planting 
will  do  well.  We  grow  two  crops  of 
Irish  potatoes,  spring  and  fall,  and 
both  are  very  profitable,  and  in  such 
instances  are  out  of  the  way  for  other 
crops  to  follow. 

'Dr.  W.  R.  Dodson,  dean  of  the 
Louisiana  State  University  and  direc- 
tor of  the  State  Experiment  Stations, 
says  the  following:  "I  doubt  very 
much  if  there  is  another  state  in  the 
Union  where  one  can  grow  a  supply 
of  those  things  that  make  good  home 
living,  on  a  small  area,  and  leave  the 
major  portion  of  the  land  and  the  en- 
ergy of  the  farmer  to  the  production 
of  money  crops." 

If  one  wishes  to  engage  in  stock  rais- 
ing, he  will  find  the  soil  will  gfow 
enough  Bermuda  grass  to  sustain  one, 
two  or  even  three  head  of  cattle  per 
acre  from  the  middle  of  March  to  the 
first  of  November,  and  the  sod  is 
perennial. 

Cultivated  crops,  like  oats,  rye,  bar- 
ley, clovers,  vetches,  sown  in  October 
furnish  excellent  grazing  throughout 
the  entire  winter  with  the  exception  of 
occasional  periods  when  the  soils  are 
too  wet  to  admit  of  pasturage.  Cat- 
tle, sheep  and  hogs  can  be  carried  on 
grazing  crops  throughout  the  entire 
year  with  little  or  no  grain.  However, 
much  of  our  soil  will  produce  excel- 
lent grain  crops.  Attention  has  turned 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


53 


to  corn,  and  Louisiana  is  now  contend- 
ing for  a  leading  place  among  the  corn 
states.  In  years  past  the  farmers  of 
this  section  seemed  to  think  it  was  a 
settled  fact  that  the  other  states  could 
raise  all  the  corn  the  country  needed 
and  at  a  price  cheaper  than  Louisiana 
could  raise  it,  but  they  have  changed 
their  minds  about  this.  They  have 
come  to  realize  that  their  soil  is  as 
rich  as  any  soil,  and  that  it  will  pro- 
duce as  big  a  yield  of  corn  as  the  soil 
of  any  state  when  properly  managed. 
Not  only  are  the  old  resident  farmers 
giving  more  acreage  to  corn,  but  a 
large  number  of  Northern  corn  grow- 
ers are  living  in  the  state.  In  five 
years  Louisiana  has  increased  her 
corn  acreage  from  1,424,500  with  a 
yield  of  19,516,500  bushels  to  2,493,000 
with  a  yield  of  58,835,000  bushels. 

Louisiana  corn  has  a  lower  per  cent  of 
water  than  the  corn  of  the  northern  or 
western  states,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
the  corn  dries  upon  the  stalk  and  is 
thoroughly  seasoned  before  pulling. 
Corn  is  grown  upon  practically  every 
farm.  The  southern  farmer  saves  his 
corn  fodder,  which  makes  the  finest 
kind  of  roughage  for  his  stock.  He 
also  saves  the  expense  of  shocking. 
At  the  last  plowing  of  corn,  cowpeas 
are  sown  between  the  rows,  and  in  the 
fall  when  the  grain  is  harvested,  the 
hogs  and  cattle  are  turned  in  the  corn- 
fields to  gather  the  second  crop  and 
eat  down  the  stalks.  The  pasturing  of 
the  stock  and  the  planting  of  cowpeas 
helps  the  soil,  and  next  year  it  pro- 
duces a  still  bigger  crop.  Because  of 
the  rank  growth  of  the  plant,  corn  is 
a  valuable  crop  for  silage  and  where 
silos  are  built  a  considerable  amount  of 
corn  is  cut  while  green  and  stored  for 
feeding. 


Probably  no  state  in  the  Union 
offers  such  splendid  opportunities  for 
profitable  enterprise  in  the  dairy  line. 
The  development  of  an  extensive  in- 
dustry only  awaits  the  coming  of  peo- 
ple who  understand  the  handling  of 
stock  and  the  production  of  dairy 
products.  The  long  pasturage  season, 
the  plentiful  supply  of  rich  foodstuffs 
and  the  nearness  of  large  markets  like 
New  Orleans  and  Baton  Rouge  makes 
the  advantages  of  this  industry  espe- 
cially attractive. 

As  this  article  will  find  its  way  into 
the  hands  of  many  people  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  it  will  impress  many 
readers  with  contemplation  of  purchas- 
ing a  farm  in  a.  territory  different  from 
that  in  which  they  are  now  located. 
While  the  land  is  somewhat  taken  up 
by  berry  growers,  truck  growers,  stock- 
men, etc.,  there  is  still  left  a  vast  scope 
of  territory  in  Tangipahoa  Parish,  on 
all  sides  of  Hammond,  unsurpassed  in 
richness  and  fertility,  that  can  be 
bought  at  reasonable  prices.  This  ar- 
ticle states  a  fact  when  it  says  there 
is  no  one  spot  in  Louisiana  better 
adapted  to  diversified  farming.  We 
do  not  claim  that  every  man  who  set- 
tles in  the  Hammond  neighborhood 
will  make  good,  or  all  who  have  set- 
tled here  have  made  good,  but  we  do 
claim  that  qny  man,  of  fair  health  and 
energy,  with  a  knowledge  of  reason- 
ably good  cultural  methods  and  intelli- 
gence, can  make  a  mighty  good  living 
on  a  modest  acreage. 

Indeed,  this  is  the  land  of  greatest 
diversification — the  coming  new  king- 
dom of  both  corn  and  cattle.  This  is 
already  the  place  of  lowest  cost  of 
living,  cheapest  production  of  crops 
and  stock,  and  best  markets. 


The  Stawberry  Industry  in  the  Amite  Section 

(Tangipahoa  Parish.) 
By  George  B.  Campbell,  Editor  Amite  Times 


HE  1910  strawberry  crop,  from  present 
indications,  will  go  down  in  the  history 
of  the  industry,  as  the  most  profitable  since 
the  inception  of  cultivation  of  the  luscious 
fruit. 

Not  only  from  a  monetary  standpoint  is  the 
present  crop  considered  a  bumper  one,  but  also 
from  the  viewpoint  of  acreage.  Various  esti- 
mates are  being  made  by  those  in  position  to 
forecast  as  to  the  size  of  the  crop,  and  the 
consensus  of  opinion  is  freely  expressed  that 
over  three  million  dollars  will  be  circulated 
in  this  parish  as  a  result  of  this  one  crop. 

During  the  year  1915  the  American  Express 
Company  handled  out  of  Tangipahoa  parish 
875  cars  of  berries,  distributed  throughout  the 
north  and  east  and  as  far  west  as  Seattle, 
Wash.,  Toronto  and  Montreal,  Canada,  and 
other  points.  About  five  hundred  cars  totaled 
tr>"  number  going  by  freight.  The  1916  crop 
will  exceed  this  record  by  several  hundred 
cars  owing  to  the  increase  in  acreage,  which 
is  estimated  to  be  twenty  per  cent.  Over  two 
million  dollars  were  received  for  the  1915 
crop  and  a  million  dollars  in  excess  of  that 
amount  should  be,  and  is  considered  a  fair 
estimate,  to  be  added  to  the  crop  for  this 
season.  • 

The  shipping  season  is  on  at  the  present  time 
and  with  favorable  climatic  conditions  should 
continue  for  five  or  six  weeks.  Already  in- 
quiries are  being  received  from  distant  points 
relative  to  consignments  from  this  section. 
On  Saturday,  April  1,  the  Union  Truck  and 
Berry  Association  of  this  place  sold  a  car 
to  Montreal,  Canada.  This  car  arrived  in 
good  shape  after  four  days  in  transit,  and 
brought  the  top  market  price. 

The  berry  industry  in  Tangipahoa  parish 
has  had  a  spectacular  career.  Fifteen  years 
ago  the  idea  of  car  lot  shipments  was  ridiculed 
and  only  a  few  of  the  truck  growers  were  en- 
gaged in  cultivating  the  fruit.  As  time  passed 
and  the  -northern  commission  men  sent  repre- 
sentatives here  to  buy  the  output  of  the  farms, 
the  industry  assumed  larger  proportions,  until 
today  it  is  the  chief  industry  of  the  parish 
and  receives  the  attention  of  thousands  of 
truck  farmers. 

Farmers'  associations  are  to  be  found  at 
every  town  in  Tangipahoa  parish,  whereas  a 
few  years  ago  all  shipments  went  on  the  con- 
signment basis.  It  was  soon  observed  that 
the  "man  higher  up"  was  reaping  the  harvest 
and  when  the  farmers  decided  to  organize  and 
concentrate  their  business  there  was  genuine 
regret  among  many  of  the  commission  houses 


of  the  north  and  east.  But  this  very  action 
of  the  tillers  of  the  soil  saved  the  day  for 
the  berry  industry  of  this  parish.  Had  steps 
not  been  taken  at  that  time  the  berry  business 
would  have  been  put  out  of  commission  and 
railroad  and  express  companies  would  today 
be  feeling  the  effect  of  the  monopolistic 
schemes  of  a  few  commission  houses. 

The  Tangipahoa  strawberry  is  regarded  as 
the  best  produced  anywhere  in  the  south.  Its 
fame  reaches  every  laree  market  of  the  United 
States.  Ponchatoula,  Hammond,  Independence 
and  Amite  share  equally  the  honors  of  produc- 
ing as  fine  a  grade  of  the  fruit  as  may  be 
found  in  any  of  the  Southern  States  similarly 
engaged  in  raising  berries.  Owing  to  the  ex- 
cellent weather  conditions  in  the  berry  belt  of 
Louisiana,  this  section  follows  Florida  each 
season.  The  Florida  berries  are  on  northern 
markets  a  few  weeks  earlier  than  the  Louisiana 
product,  but  the  prices  received  do  not  differ 
to  any  appreciable  extent.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  Louisiana  fruit  has  been  known  to 
bring  as  high  as  $8  per  crate  on  the  Chicago 
market  at  the  opening  of  the  season. 

The  industry  in  and  adjacent  to  Amite  is 
being  nursed  carefully  by  several  hundred  ex- 
perienced truck  growers.  While  these  truckers 
depend  largely  on  this  one  crop,  still  diversi- 
fication is  taking  the  day  and  fn  some  instances 
four  and  five  crops  are  raised  here.  Carrots, 
cabbage,  lettuce,  radishes,  spinach,  turnips, 
Irish  and  sweet  potatoes,  onions,  bell  peppers 
and  in  fact  nearly  all  crops  of  this  variety  are 
being  cultivated  on  lands  around  Amite.  Ow- 
ing to  the  excellent  railroad  facilities  the  truck- 
ers are  making  money,  for  they  are  only  a 
few  hours'  ride  to  several  principal  markets 
and  less  than  twenty-hours  from  Chicago. 
The  fast  express  trains  afforded  the  berry 
growers  by  the  Illinois  Central  railroad  an- 
nually, greatly  facilitate  the  handling  of  the 
crop  and  give  added  impetus  to  the  industry. 

Complaints  are  few  now  regarding  trans- 
portation facilities.  A  few  years  previous 
there  was  considerable  dissension  apparent 
among  the  truckers  owing  to  shortage  of  cars 
and  other  detrimental  features.  Thanks  to 
the  wise  counseling  of  railroad  and  express 
companies  no  such  condition  abounds  today. 
On  the  other  hand  the  shippers  of  berries  and 
vegetables  are  loud  in  their  praises  of  the 
service  rendered  them  by  the  transportation 
companies. 

Amite  p6ssesses  two  wide-awake  farmers' 
associations.  The  Union  Truck  and  Berry  As- 
sociation is  presided  over  by  Thomas  Cefalu, 


55 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


57 


who  is  popular  among  the  Italians  and  Amer- 
icans. His  association  is  the  largest  here  and 
was  established  a  few  years  ago.  Its  mem- 
bership comprises  many  of  the  leading  truck 
growers.  The  Amite  City  Farmers'  Association 
is  looked  after  by  Pleasant  P.  McMichael  and 
Millard  F.  Edwards,  two  of  the  leading  au- 
thorities on  berry  culture  and  farming  in 
general.  This  association  is  also  in  a  very 
healthy  condition  and  is  considered  as  strong 
as  any  in  the  parish. 

Amite  is  the  home  of  the  inventor  of  the 
Universal  Folding  Crate.  John  J.  Dahlstrom, 
after  several  years'  study,  perfected  the  crate 
which  is  destined  to  revolutionize  the  ship- 
ping of  berries  and  vegetables.  The  crate  is 
being  manufactured  now  by  twenty-three  fac- 
tories, yet  the  demand  is  greater  than  the  out- 
put. Berries  shipped  in  the  collapsible  crate 
command  higher  prices  than  the  fruit  shipped 
in  the  old-time  crate.  The  latter  is  not  so 
well  ventilated  as  the  Universal,  hence  the 
condition  of  the  fruit  is  not  as  good  when  it 
reaches  its  destination  as  is  the  case  with  the 
new  crate.  There  is  not  a  nail  used  in  the 
Universal  crate  when  it  is  given  over  to  the 
transportation  companies.  The  top  of  the 
crate  is  keyed  in,  making  it  easy  of  inspec- 
tion. Its  ventilating  qualities  are  declared  to 
be  superior  to  any  container  yet  put  on  the 
market.  Many  of  the  associations  have  adopted 
this  kind. of  crate  and  as  soon  as  the  promoters 
can  guarantee  prompt  delivery  of  all  orders 
it  is  said  that  practically  all  associations  will 
use  the  Universal. 

Amite  is  the  parish  site  of  Tangipahoa  par- 
ish. It  is  surrounded  by  ideal  agricultural 
lands.  Several  of  the  large  sawmills  are  lo- 
cated near  here  and  after  all  lands  have  been 


denuded  of  timber  they  are  sold  to  home- 
seekers  and  others.  These  cut-over^  lands 
prove  very  valuable  for  the  cultivation  of 
strawberries  and  no  difficulty  is  experienced 
in  disposing  of  them. 

Eventually  the  strawberry  industry  in  Louis- 
iana will  encompass  all  other  enterprises,  not 
even  excepting  lumber.  The  truck  farmers 
realize  that  there  is  money  in  the  crop  and 
each  year  convinces  them  of  the  desirability 
of  paying  more  attention  to  berries  in  pref- 
erence to  other  crops.  The  further  fact  that 
the  Illinois  Central  railroad  and  the  Amer- 
ican Express  Company  have  combined  to  as- 
sist the  truckers  in  every  practical  manner,  has 
greatly  stimulated  the  industry. 

While  Kentucky  is  famed  for  its  fast  horses 
and  good-looking  women,  her  sister  State  to 
the  south  is  making  a  reputation  in  cultivat- 
ing strawberries  that  would  make  the  old 
adage  about  the  liquid  that  made  Milwaukee 
famous  turn  to  the  color  of  a  lemon. 

Take  a  stroll  down  South  Water  Street  in 
Chicago  and  it  is  a  safe  bet  that  the  words 
"Grown  in  Tangipahoa  Parish,  Louisiana"  will 
greet  the  visitor.  Louisiana  berries  are  known 
for  their  luscious  qualities,  hence  the  demand 
for  them  is  nothing  short  of  marvelous. 

Really  the  berry  industry  is  just  in  the  in- 
fantile stage.  Ten  years  from  now  no  less 
than  four  trains  per  day  will  be  required  to 
transport  the  fruit  from  this  parish  to  north- 
ern markets  during  the  six  weeks  of  shipping. 
This  prediction  is  based  on  the  wonderful 
progress  of  the  business  for  ten  years  past.  It 
is  growing  all  the  time;  larger  acreage;  more 
farmers  entering  the  business ;  better  facilities 
for  handling  the  crop ;  and,  in  fact,  every  in- 
centive to  give  the  industry  a  boost. 


Ponchatoula- 


•An  Inviting  Community  for  the 
Homeseeker 


By  Jas.  E.  Bailey 


HEN  one  looks  back  several  years  re- 
calling  the  unpretentious  little  village 
of  Ponchatoula,  nestling  among  the  pines  of 
south  Tangipahoa  parish,  whose  citizens, 
unmindful  of  the  section's  latent  possibili- 
ties "kept  the  noiseless  tenor  of  their  way," 
he  cannot  but  wonder  at  the  marvelous 
changes  a  short  period  of  time  has  wrought. 
Ponchatoula  of  today  is  a  thriving,  prosper- 
ous and  beautiful  little  city  of  1,500  or  1,600 
inhabitants,  located  on  the  trunk  line  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  forty-eight  miles 
from  New  Orleans,  the  "Winter  Capital  of 
America."  Ponchatoula  is  truly  a  beautiful 
little  city,  the  attractiveness  of  its  many 
beautiful  homes,  paved  sidewalks,  wide,  well- 
arranged  thoroughfares,  is  accentuated  by 


the  inviting  natural  appearance  of  this  sec- 
tion. 

Climate  and  Water 

Ponchatoula  is  an  exceptionally  healthy 
community.  The  porous  soil  affords  perfect 
drainage  which  is  one  of  the  first  requisites 
for  a  healthy  section.  Water  is  obtained 
far  below  the  superficial  strata  from  ar- 
tesian wells  and  is  of  exceptional  purity, 
ladened  with  such  minerals  as  are  con- 
ducive to  good  health. 

The  winters  are  reasonably  mild  and  dry. 
The  summers  are  particularly  delightful. 
While  the  heat  is  sometimes  intense  on 
mid-summer  days,  the  nights  are  invariably 
cool  and  comfortable.  The  proximity  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  numerous  lakes  af- 


School 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


59 


fords  balmy  breezes  most  of  the;  time.  The 
climate  is  favorable  to  health  and  vigor,  and 
the  extreme  purity  of  drinking  water  makes 
contagion  practically  unknown. 

Agricultural    Section 

This  town  is  supported  by  an  exuberantly 
fertile  agricultural  section,  peopled  by  native 
Louisianians-,  northerners  and  sturdy  Ger- 
man immigrants,  who,  for  the  most  part, 
own  their  farms,  and  practice  intensive  cul- 
tivation rather  than  obtain  meagre  returns 
from  a  poorly  cultivated  large  acreage. 
This  is  chiefly  a  truck  and  strawberry  pro- 
ducing section,  the  soil  and  climate  con- 
ditions being  especially  adapted  to  the  sufc- 
cessful  cultivation  of  these  products.  The 
berry  crop  of  Tangipahoa  for  this  season  is 
estimated  at  three  millions,  and  Ponchatoula 
is  doing  more  than  her  share  toward  forg- 
ing the  figure  up  to  this  high  mark.  Pon- 
chatoula's  berries  are  among  the  best 
shipped  into  distant  markets.  At  this  writ- 
ing two  cars  of  choice  lettuce  and  one  of 
cabbage  are  being  prepared  for  shipment 
into  Chicago.  Eggs,  butter  and  country 
produce  of  every  description  is  plentiful, 
and  may  be  had  at  reasonable  prices. 

Churches 

The  high  moral  standing  of  a  community 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has  been'  permeated 
by  Christian  influence  and  education. 
Churches  in  any  community  exercise  a  most 
potent  influence  for  good.  The  spiritual 
needs  of  our  people  are  cared  for  by  Presj- 
byterian,  Methodist,  Roman  Catholic,  Bap- 
tist, Episcopal  and  German  Lutheran  clergy- 
men. These  denominations  have  houses  of 
worship  with  the  exception  of  the  Baptist 
and  Episcopal  congregations,  and  steps  are 
being  taken  for  the  erection  of  suitable 
structures  for  them. 

Educational  Facilities 

The  youths  of  Ponchatoula  are  fortunate 
in  possessing  excellent  educational  facilities 
in  the  splendid  high  school.  The  building  is 
a  three-story  brick  structure  and  is  strictly 
modern  in  every  respect,  fitted  with  the 
latest  appliances.  Prof.  J.  I.  Covington  is 
supported  by  a  strong  faculty.  The  1915-16 
session  marks  the  fourth  year  of  the  insti- 
tution's existence  as  a  state  accredited  high 
school. 

The  parochial  school,  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Catholic  Rector,  is  a  well  conducted  in- 
stitution and  enjoys  splendid  support  at  the 
hands  of  our  Catholic  citizens. 

Commercial  Establishments 
Ponchatoula  has  many  prosperous  and  sub- 
stantial business  establishments,  which  are  for 


the  most  part  domiciled  in  brick  structures. 
Besides  the  general  and  grocery  stores  are 
found  two  hardware  establishments,  two  drug 
stores,  a  modern  steam  bakery,  several  meat 
markets,  two  livery  stables,  a  garage,  three 
barbershops,  a  light  and  ice  plant,  saw  mill, 
and  four  farmers'  associations.  The  news- 
paper, The  Ponchatoula  Guide,  a  weekly  jour- 
nal, is  edited  and  published  by  George  A.  and 
James  E.  Bailey. 

Mr.  B.  Anthony  is  the  owner  and  man- 
ager of  Ponchatoula's  popular  movie  house. 
Only  the  highest  grade  films  are  shown, 
and  Mr.  Anthony  is  fast  building  up  an  at- 
tractive business. 

Financial   Institutions 

The  Merchants  and  Farmers  Bank  and 
Trust  Co.  is  domiciled  in  a  splendid  two- 
story  pressed  brick  structure,  equipped  with 
mahogany  fixtures  and  burglar  and  fire  proof 
safe  and  vault.  This  institution  has  a  capital 
paid  in  stock  of  $50,000,  and  surplus  $22,500, 
and  acts  as  the  fiscal  agent  for  the  parishes 
of  Tangipahoa  and  Livingston.  Mr.  H.  P. 
Mitchell  is  president  and  W.  M.  Mitchell  is 
the  efficient  cashier. 

Another  financial  institution  which  is  a  po- 
tent factor  in  the  development  of  this  section 
is  the  Ponchatoula  Homestead  Association,  do- 
ing business  with  an  authorized  capital  stock 
of  $500,000.  The  object  of  this  institution  is 
two-fold.  It  serves  as  a  good  investment  as 
a  savings  proposition  and  is  a  good  medium 
through  which  to  buy  or  build  a  home  on 
easy  payments. 

Fraternal  Organizations 

That  our  town  is  well  represented  in  fra- 
ternal circles  is  not  surprising  when  the  char- 
acter of  our  citizenship  is  taken  into  consid- 
eration. The  Masonic  order  is  possibly  the 
strongest  as  well  as  the  oldest  secret  organ- 
ization here.  Then  we  find  such  popular  fra- 
ternal bodies  as  the  Knights  of  Pythias, 
Woodmen  of  the  World  and  the  Maccabees. 

Ladies'  Clubs 

The  ladies  of  Ponchatoula  have  organized 
several  clubs  and  societies,  such  as  The 
Woman's  Club,  the  Civic  League,  W.  C.  T.  U., 
The  Mission  Society,  The  Altar  Society,  and 
possibly  others.  The  Woman's  'Club,  so  we 
understand,  makes  literary  work  the  chief 
study,  and  within  its  circles  are  found  some 
of  the  keenest  intellects  of  the  community. 
The  Civic  League  has  done  much  to  promote 
better  civic  conditions,  and  bids  fair  to  hold 
an  important  place  in  the  town's  development. 
The  other  organizations  have  done  much  good 
along  the  lines  as  suggested  by  their  names. 


FONCHATOULA,  LA. 


Passenger 

Traffic 

Department 


L  if  fie  Talks  wiih  fke   Rambler 


Service  Nofes   of  Inferesf. 


An  Explanation  to  the  Trunk  Lady 


It  is  not  only  interesting  but  some- 
times rather  remarkable  how  little  in- 
cidents, each  complete  and  independent 
one  of  the  other  in  themselves,  weave 
together  into  a  whole.  For  instance, 
there  was  the  case  of  a  chance  remark 
of  an  agent  down  the  line  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  checking  a  trunk  on  which 
the  Rambler  was  sitting  while  waiting 
for  a  train.  Shortly  afterwards  oc- 
curred the  impromptu  little  luncheon 
with  the  Trunk  Lady  in  a  Department 
Store  restaurant,  during  which  some 
amusing  conversational  passages  took 
place  on  petty  sharp  practices  that  led 
to  unwarranted  suspicions.  Finally 
there  was  the  call  made  by  the  Trunk 
Lady  on  the  Rambler  in  behalf  of  her 
friend  Miss  Ouri  in  regard  to  a  request 
for  a  refund  which  the  latter  had  made. 
All  three  of  these  incidents,  although 
having  absolutely  no  bearing  one  on 
the  other,  seemed  after  all  to  be  links 
that  forged  themselves  into  a  short 
chain  of  that  number  of  units. 

But  to  be  more  specific,  the  first,  that 
of  the  trunk  episode  at  the  way  station, 
while  trivial  at  the  time,  later  blended 
itself  into  the  refund  link  of  the  chain. 
It  was  simply  that  the  agent  of  the  sta- 
tion on  coming  out  to  check  a  trunk  on 
the  platform,  found  the  Rambler  seated 
on  it  awaiting  the  arrival  of  a  local 


train  due  in  a  short  time.  As  the  check 
was  being  attached,  the  agent,  who  had 
given  the  claim  portion  to  the  one  for 
whom  the  transaction  was  being  made, 
remarked  in  an  undertone  to  the  Ram- 
bler that  he'd  bet  a  cooky  he  had  a  case 
there  of  a  ticket  being  purchased  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  checking  that  trunk. 
Later  developments  proved  the  correct- 
ness of  his  assumption,  for  in  due 
course  the  ticket  was  returned  unused 
by  the  purchaser  with  a  request  for  a 
refund ;  it  not  having  been  made  use  of, 
it  was  claimed,  account  of  a  change  in 
plans.  Under  the  circumstances,  it 
having  been  clearly  established  that  the 
holder  had  never  intended  to  make  the 
trip,  it  followed  that  no  refund  was 
granted.  It  illustrated,  however,  one 
of  the  various  methods  by  which  un- 
scrupulous persons  will  sometimes  at- 
tempt to  make  railroads  unwarrantedly 
serve  their  personal  ends ;  it  developing 
in  this  case  that  the  ticket  rate  was 
cheaper  than  the  express  rate  to  the 
point  to  which  the  trunk  was  checked. 
Of  course,  had  refund  been  made  the 
item  of  the  checked  trunk  would  have 
entered  into  the  amount  refunded,  and 
from  the  purchase  price  of  the  ticket 
would  have  been  deducted  the  usual 
charge  assessed  to  cover  such  cases. 
Shortly  following  this  trunk-check- 


61 


62 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ing  matter,  particulars  concerning 
which  were  told  me  by  the  Rambler 
himself,  I  elected  one  noon  to  take  my 
lunch  at  a  certain  department  store 
restaurant.  In  doing  so  I  was  perhaps 
subconsciously  prompted  in  making 
my  choice  by  the  thought  of  a  certain 
table  in  a  cozy  corner  of  that  restau- 
rant, presided  over  by  a  waiter  who 
had  served  me  from  time  to  time  suf- 
ficiently often  to  be  acquainted  with 
my  whims  as  to  diet.  As  I  entered, 
much  to  my  gratification  I  saw  from 
the  distance  that  my  favorite  nook  was 
vacant,  but  was  naturally  surprised,  on 
making  my  way  toward  it  to  hear  my 
name  called  in  a  lady's  voice.  I  turned 
and  much  to  my  unexpected  pleasure 
saw  that  it  was  the  Trunk  Lady  who 
had  spied  me  in  passing  and  was  call- 
ing me  to  sit  with  them.  I  say  them, 
because,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
she  was  already  vis-a-vis  with  the  Ram- 
bler. The  latter  seconded  the  invita- 
tion with  a  nod  and  indication  of  the 
head  to  a  vacant  chair  at  their  table, 
and  while  he  was  nice  enough  about  it, 
I  was  not  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
he  was  extravagantly  pleased  at  the 
prospect  of  my  making  a  third  to  their 
little  party.  "Sit  down,"  said  the  Trunk 
Lady  vivaciously,  "we  were  going  to 
quarrel  here  in  a  moment  if  you  hadn't 
suddenly  put  in  appearance  to  serve  as 
a  peace-maker  between  us.  I  claim 
your  friend  has  been  libeling  my  sex; 
although,"  she  continued  half  apologet- 
ically, "perhaps  that  is  too  harsh  a 
term,  for  I  am  sure  the  Rambler  would 
never  go  that  far.  But  I  might  safely 
say,  to  put  it  mildly,  he  has  been  giving 
us  a  little  'rap."1  "Nothing  of  the 
kind,"  said  the  Rambler  with  what  I 
thought  a  slightly  embarrassed  air.  "I 
was  simply  telling  her  of  an  incident 
that  came  under  my  personal  observa- 
tion a  few  years  go  on  a  street  car  in 
this  city.  It  was  before  the  'Pay-as- 
You-Enter'  plan  now  in  vogue,  and  I 
happened  to  be  seated  in  a  crowded  car 
beside  a  woman  who,  after  the  con- 
ductor passed  through  in  collecting 
fares,  held  out  her  hand  to  him  as  he 
stood  in  the  doorway,  in  which  hand 
were  two  dimes,  at  the  same  time  say- 


ing to  him  in  a  quiet  and  interrogative 
inflection  of  voice,  'My  change?'  The 
conductor  glanced  at  the  two  dimes  in 
her  outstretched  palm  and  said,  'you 
have  your  change,'  whereupon  she 
shook  her  head  and  said,  'I  gave  you 
fifty  cents.'  The  conductor  looked  at 
her  and  then  at  the  change  for  a  min- 
ute, after  which,  with  equal  quietness 
said  courteously,  'you  are  mistaken, 
Madam,  you  gave  me  a  quarter.'  She 
quietly  insisted  on  the  fifty  cents,  and 
he  was  equally  persistent  that  he  had 
not  received  a  fifty-cent  piece  from  her. 
So  sure  of  this  latter  fact  was  he  that  he 
stated  he  hadn't  such  a  coin  in  all  his 
change  and  offered  to  let  her  go 
through  his  .pockets  to  verify  the  truth 
of  that  statement.  There  was  no  com- 
motion in  the  matter,  neither  of  the 
parties  seemed  to  get  angry  over  the 
controversy,  but  both  were  equally  in- 
sistent as  to  their  point  of  view.  Be- 
fore the  argument  was  over  the  car 
stopped  at  a  crossing  and  the  conductor 
became  otherwise  engaged,  in  which 
interval  a  lady  friend  who  was  with  the 
protesting  woman  said  in  an  undertone 
to  the  latter,  'did  you  give  him  fifty 
cents?'  and  the  answer  by  a  shake  of 
the  head  was  in  the  negative.  This  I 
happened  to  see,  and  as  I  got  out  at 
that  stop  when  I  passed  the  conductor 
I  said  quietly  'she  didn't  give  you  fifty 
cents.'  The  prompt  response  was,  'bet 
your  life  she  didn't,  and  I  know  it.'  " 
"Well,"  I  remarked,  "why  did  you 
want  to  tell  such  a  story  as  that  on  a 
lady?  Of  course,  our  friend  here  does 
right  to  resent  it  as  an  implication." 
"Especially,"  broke  in  the  Trunk  Lady 
with  a  gleam  of  mischief  in  her  eye  but 
with  a  perfectly  straight  face,  "when  it 
started  over  my  remarking  that  my 
friend  Miss  Ouri  had  received  a  letter 
from  your  road  in  regard  to  a  claim  for 
refund  which  she  did  not  understand 
and  asked  me  to  see  Mr.  Rambler 
about."  "Worse  and  worse !"  I  said 
to  her  with  mock  concern.  "I  don't  un- 
derstand why  the  Rambler  is  so  ungal- 
lant  today.  What  could  you  have  done 
to  him  to  get  him  in  such  a  bad  frame 
of  mind,  for  I  assure  you  that  as  far  as 
my  knowledge  goes  he  as  a  rule  is  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


63 


most  polite  of  all  men  with  the  ladies." 
"O,  well,"  she  laughingly  replied,  "per- 
haps maybe  I  did  start  him  a  bit." 
"But,"  interrupted  the  Rambler,  "first 
of  all  let  me  assure  both  of  you  that  I 
did  not  mean  to  connect  in  any  pos- 
sible way  that  story  of  the  lady  in  the 
street  car  with  what  may  develop  in 
connection  with  any  claim  that  Miss 
Ouri  may  have  made."  He  evidently 
did  not  enjoy  the  turn  things  had 
taken,  and  failed  to  understand,  as  I 
did,  that  the  lady  was  having  some  lit- 
tle fun  with  him.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  when  they  first  met  at  the 
hotel  in  the  south  one  evening  and  the 
•Rambler  was  of  service  to  her  in  con- 
nection with  a  lost  trunk,  it  was  dis- 
covered she  had  a  teasing  way  with  her 
at  times;  which  fact  I  had  recognized 
in  the  situation  as  I  found  it  on  being- 
called  to  their  table.  She  evidently 
noticed  the  Rambler's  slight  embar- 
rassment and  was  inclined  to  ease  him 
a  little,  for  she  continued  as  before  the 
Rambler's  interruption,  "as  I  have  said, 
it  is  possible  that  I  started  this  little 
breeze  myself  in  telling  the  Rambler 
of  an  experience  I  have  just  had  in 
shopping  here  in  the  store.  Which  ex- 
perience, I  assure  both  of  you  gentle- 
men, I  attribute  to  an  act  .of  an  individ- 
ual clerk  that  in  no  way  reflects  upon 
the  store  itself  or  on  its  large  army  of 
clerks  as  a  whole.  It  was  this  way.  I 
had  made  a  cash  purchase  amounting 
to  seventy-five  cents,  and  in  payment 
gave  the  clerk  who  waited  on  me  a  five 
dollar  bill.  When  the  change  came  he 
was  unduly  profuse,  I  thought,  in  the 
manner  in  which  he  returned  it  to  me. 
With  a  smile  and  a  bow  he  placed  a 
twenty-five  cent  piece  in  my  out- 
stretched hand  and  then  hastily 
glanced  over  four  one  dollar  bills  that 
he  held,  as  though  assuring  himself  as 
to  their  number  and  denomination. 
Then,  as  he  handled  them  preparatory 
to  passing  them  over  to  me  he  said, 
first  pointing  to  the  quarter  in  my 
hand,  'Twenty-five  cents  is  one  dollar,' 
then  added  hastily  as  he  also  placed  the 
bills  one  by  one  in  my  hand  'Two  dol- 
lars, Three  dollars,  Four  dollars,  Five 
dollars.'  But,  although  he  counted 


right,  he  gave  me  my  first  bill  on  his 
count  of  'three.'  Fortunately,  in  my 
outstretched  palm  I  saw  that  he  had 
given  me  but  three  one  dollar  bills  in- 
stead of  the  four  I  should  have,  al- 
though I  think  I  missed  the  trick  as  he 
played  it.  I  did  not  withdraw  my  out- 
stretched hand,  but  looked  at  him  as 
though  expecting  another  bill.  He, 
after  a  moment's  hesitation,  as  though 
he  had  unconsciously  made  a  mistake, 
placed  the  fourth  and  final  bill  in  my 
hand  with  an  apology  for  having  over- 
looked it,  in  the  meantime  he  having 
had  it  somewhere  between  his  hand 
and  his  salesbook,  just  where,  I  could 
not  see.  The  whole  thing  was  done  so 
quickly  that  I  did  not  realize  at  the 
time  what  I  afterwards  was  convinced 
of.  That  is,  that  is  was  not  an  accident 
on  his  part.  If  I  had  been  careless  and 
taken  his  verbal  count  without  looking 
at  my  change,  I  probably  never  would 
have  known  that  I  was  a  dollar  short. 
So  you  see,"  she  concluded  with  a  little 
laugh,  "I  really  began  the  attack  on  a 
man  before  our  friend  retaliated  with 
his  story  of  the  tricky  woman."  "It 
was  not  meant  as  a  retaliation,"  said  the 
Rambler,  rather  too  seriously  I  thought. 
"The  similarity  of  the  act  of  holding  out 
the  palm  of  the  hand  with  money  in  it 
of  your  incident  simply  brought  to  mind 
the  story  I  told."  "Well,"  she  said, 
"we'll  call  it  quits  anyway,  for  I  want 
you  to  be  in  a  good  humor  when  I  come 
up  to  your  office  on  Miss  Ouri's  errand ; 
if  I  do,"  she  added  reflectively.  "There's 
quite  a  bunch  of  correspondence  about  it 
and  a  business  woman  friend  of  mine 
said  that  the  way  to  handle  it  is  to  sim- 
ply endorse  the  papers  over  to  the  proper 
party  with  a  notation  to  the  effect  'Please 
advise,'  and  then,  being  on  the  ground, 
to  take  them  along  and  have  a  personal 
interview  with  the  right  person  about 
the  entire  matter.  This  last,  she  claimed 
would  remove  the  business  from  the  per- 
functory routine,  and  be  apt  to  accom- 
plish more  in  ten  minutes  than  would  an 
interchange  of  letters  for  months."  "O, 
by  all  means  bring  the  correspondence 
up  to  me,"  quickly  observed  the  Rambler. 
"If  there  is  anything  about  it  that  needs 


64 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


explanation  I  am  sure  that  I  can  give  it 
so  that  the  matter  will  be  much  better 
understood  by  your  friend  than  would 
be  the  case  with  a  letter.  You  see,"  he 
continued,  "your  friend  has  probably 
written  up  asking  for  a  refund  on  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  an  unused  ticket  and  does 
not  understand  the  reply  she  has  re- 
ceived to  the  effect  that  what  she  has 
turned  in  has  no  redemption  value." 
"No,  it  is  not  just  like  that  as  I  remem- 
ber it,"  was  the  reply.  "I  think  a  check 
has  been  sent  to  her  which  she  thinks  is 
too  small."  "Well,  we'll  see  how  it 
stands  and  what  can  be  done  when  the 
correspondence  is  available,  although 
probably  the  proper  department  has 
handled  the  matter  justly  and  correctly. 
In  that  case  it  will  be  up  to  me  to  con- 
vince you  and  your  friend  of  that  fact." 
This  he  said  in  a  way  that  practically 
dismissed  the  matter  as  a  topic  of  con- 
versation, and  we  drifted  into  other  lines 
of  talk.  In  time  our  little  visit  came  to 
an  end,  and  as  the  Rambler  and  I 
walked  back  to  the  office  together  I 
thought  he  seemed  rather  preoccupied. 
In  fact,  he  had  not  been  quite  himself 
through  the  entire  luncheon,  not  having 
once  remarked,  as  I  remembered,  that 
"everything  helps."  This  was  a  sure 
sign  of  a  lack  of  his  usual  optimistic 
cheerfulness. 

It  was  not  until  about  a  week  later 
that  the  question  of  Miss  Ouri's  refund 
was  brought  to  mind  again.  This  oc- 
curred rather  unexpectedly,  as  I  was 
standing  in  front  of  the  Rambler's  desk 
having  a  conference  with  him  on  a  busi- 
ness matter,  by  the  ushering  in  of  the 
Trunk  Lady  by  the  Office  Boy.  She 
was  not  expected,  as  far  as  I  knew,  at 
any  particular  time,  and  her  thus  mak- 
ing a  sudden  appearance  was  in  a  way  a 
surprise  to  both  of  us.  But  of  course 
there  were  mutual  salutations,  after 
which  the  Rambler  seated  her  in  the 
guest's  chair  by  the  side  of  his  desk, 
while  I,  after  passing  the  time  of  the 
day,  was  about  to  bow  myself  out  when 
she  interposed,  saying  "Please  do  not 
go.  I  may  require  help  in  this  little  busi- 
ness matter  I  have  brought  up."  As  she 
spoke  she  produced  a  file  of  letters  which 


the  Rambler  took  and  first  glanced 
through  hastily,  then  turning  to  me,  at 
the  same  time  indicating  that  he  would 
like  to  have  the  Trunk  Lady  listen,  he 
read  extracts  from  the  correspondence 
showing  the  nature  of  the  business  to  be 
as  follows. 

It  appeared  that  Miss  Ouri  had  pur- 
chased a  round-trip  ticket  over  our  line 
and  others  reading  from  New  Orleans 
to  a  point  in  Canada.  She  had  used  the 
ticket  to  its  northern  destination  and  re- 
turned as  far  back  as  Toronto.  Upon 
reaching  that  city  she  changed  her  plans 
and  went  east  instead  of  south,  her 
route  not  enabling  her  to  use  any  fur- 
ther portion  of  her  original  ticket.  That 
which  remained  of  the  latter  she  had 
asked  for  a  redemption  on,  and  in  a 
very  clear  and  courteous  manner  she 
had  been  advised  that  it  had  no  redemp- 
tion value.  "You  see,"  said  the  Ram- 
bler to  the  lady,  "my  surmise  was  right 
as  to  the  nature  of  this  correspondence, 
and  your  recollection  that  a  check  had 
been  sent  was  evidently  a  confusion  of 
mind  in  connection  with  some  other  in- 
cident that  has  come  within  your  knowl- 
edge. Probably,"  he  added,  "you  or 
some  of  your  friends  have  asked  for 
refund  on  some  of  our  suburban 
tickets."  "Yes,"  she  laughingly  replied, 
"that  is  true.  One  of  my  friends  who 
recently  moved  out  of  the  city  did  ask 
for  a  refund  on  a  part  of  a  commutation 
ticket  for  which  she  had  no  further  use. 
She  obtained  the  refund,  but  the  amount 
returned  she  never  could  quite  under- 
stand. I  remember  her  mentioning  it  to 
me."  "I  thought  so,"  said  the  Rambler 
nodding  his  head. 

"However,  to  return  to  Miss  Ouri. 
You  see  she  turned  in  a  perfectly  good 
remainder  of  a  ticket  available,  under 
certain  conditions,  between  Toronto  and 
New  Orleans.  That  distance  is  great 
and  it  looks  to  her  as  though  it  ought  to 
be  worth  some  money  while  we  tell  her 
that  it  is  not,  although  the  writer  of  this 
letter  has  taken  great  pains  to  explain 
fully  and  clearly  why.  I  doubt,  how- 
ever, if  she  has  given  that  phase  of  the 
correspondence  much  attention,  due  to  a 
natural  first  flush  of  disappointment.  I 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


65 


am  rather  glad,  therefore,  that  she  has 
sent  this  to  you,  for  while  I  will  be  un- 
able to  tell  you  anything  more  than  the 
letter  says,  or  to  impart  its  information 
any  more  clearly,  I  have  the  advantage, 
and  indirectly  your  friend  as  well,  of 
obtaining  by  this  interview  a  careful 
hearing,  which  is  all  that  is  necessary  to 
make  it  clear,  I  think,  to  you  and  in  turn, 
through  you,  to  your  friend.  Now  these 
are  the  facts,"  he  went  on  to  say,  as 
holding  the  correspondence  in  his  hand 
he  tipped  back  in  his  chair  and  measured 
his  words  carefully,  while  the  lady  on 
her  part,  leaning  her  arm  on  the  shelf 
of  his  desk  listened  intently.  "You  know, 
do  you  not,"  he  began,  "that  you  can 
buy  in  wholesale  lots  any  household  or 
feminine  commodity  cheaper  than  you 
can  buy  it  at  retail,  and  you  presumably 
understand  the  reasonableness  of  such  a 
possibility."  With  a  smile  and  shake  of 
the  head  she  indicated  that  that  much 
was  clear.  "Well,  then,"  he  continued, 
"the  original  ticket  that  your  friend  pur- 
chased was  sold  on  what  might  be 
termed  a  wholesale  basis.  That  is,  in 
consideration  of  a  much  cheaper  fare 
than  could  have  been  obtained  other- 
wise, she  bought  her  ticket  at  a  reduc- 
tion from  the  ordinary  fare  conditional 
on  its  being  used  for  a  trip  from  New 
Orleans  to  her  destination  in  Canada, 
and  return,  via  certain  prescribed  routes 
within  a  specified  time,  and  under  con- 
ditions as  to  stopovers.  In  other  words, 
by  accepting  the  ticket  at  the  fare  she 
paid  for  it,  she  agreed  to  adhere  to  the 
routes,  time  and  other  minor  conditions 
called  for.  One  of  the  most  important 
of  these  conditions  however,  she  failed 
to  abide  by.  Namely,  on  reaching  To- 
ronto on  the  return  trip,  she  not  only 
changed  her  route,  but  went  elsewhere 
than  directly  back  to  New  Orleans.  Do 
you  not  see,  therefore,  that  she  thereby 
made  questionable  the  right  to  have  had 
that  ticket  originally  sold  to  her  at  all  at 
the  reduced  price  she  paid  for  it  ?  How- 
ever, in  the  meantime  she  has  had  cer- 
tain service  from  the  routes  involved, 
and  they  stood  ready  to  perform  the 
complete  service  called  for  on  the  ticket 
within  its  proper  limits,  but  which  she 


did  not  choose  to  accept.  Consequently, 
under  the  conditions  of  sale  and  her 
abandoning  her  route,  she  forfeited  the 
right  to  any  further  interest  in  the  re- 
maining portion  of  her  original  ticket 
except  to  use  it  within  the  prescribed 
time  if  she  so  elected. 

"Right  here,"  he  added  so  earnestly 
that  the  lady,  with  her  chin  resting  in 
her  hand  and  elbow  on  the  desk,  uncon- 
sciously became  a  little  more  tense  in  her 
attitude  of  listening,  "is  an  angle  of  the 
matter  which  I  wish  you  would  try  to 
impress  on  Miss  Ouri.  While  I  have 
used  the  word  'forfeited'  it  is  not  tech- 
nically the  right  word,  as  in  reality  there 
is  no  forfeiture  in  the  matter  in  the  full 
meaning  of  that  term.  But  it  simply 
amounts  to  the  same  thing  for  this  rea- 
son. As  I  have  said,  the  ticket  was 
originally  sold  at  a  reduced  fare,  $57.10 
to  be  exact,  on  what  may  be  called  the 
wholesale,  or  conditional  plan.  With 
the  conditions  not  complied  with,  we 
technically  ceased  to  have  had  any  right 
legally  to  issue  such  a  ticket  at  the  figure 
named.  That  is,  had  we  known  at  the 
time  of  her  original  purchase  that  Miss 
Ouri  would  make  the  trip  as  she  did 
back  to  Toronto  only,  we  would  have 
been  obliged  to  sell  her  another  kind  of 
a  ticket  at  a  higher  fare.  Undoubtedly 
she  called  for  the  ticket  she  did  in  good 
faith  at  the  time,  and  changed  her  plans 
en  route.  That  however,  clearly  would 
not  alter  the  status  of  the  two  kinds  o\ 
ticket.  Therefore,  if  on  the  original 
purchase  a  ticket  had  been  called  for 
reading  from  New  Orleans  to  the  point 
in  Canada  to  which  your  friend  went 
and  from  thence  a  return  to  Toronto,  we 
would  have  sold  to  her  according  to 
another  tariff,  which  would  have 
amounted  to  a  larger  sum,  or  $66.50, 
made  up  in  this  way.  She  would 
have  been  given  the  benefit  of  the  round- 
trip  summer  tourist  fare  of  $37.40  then 
in  effect  between  New  Orleans  and  Chi- 
cago, to  which  would  have  been  added 
fifty  cents  transfer  charge  across  the 
city,  a  local  fare  of  $19.60  to  her  Ca- 
nadian destination  and  another  local  of 
$9.00  from  thence  back  to  Toronto.  This 
all  makes,  as  you  will  observe,"  he  con- 


66 


tinued  as  he  put  down  the  figures  hastily 
on  a  slip  of  paper  and  passed  it  to  her, 
"the  total  sum  I  have  mentioned.  Now 
that  $66.50  is  $9.40  in  excess  of  the 
$57.10  she  actually  paid  for  her  round- 
trip  ticket.  Hence,  you  see,  I  trust,  that 
there  would  be  nothing  coming  to  her." 
The  Trunk  Lady  thought  she  saw, 
but  whether  she  did  or  not  she  was  evi- 
dently convinced  that  the  explanation 
was  correct.  The  Rambler,  however, 
did  not  seem  to  be  satisfied.  There  ap- 
peared to  be  a  something  in  her  manner 
which  told  him  that  while  she  under- 
stood his  explanation,  and  did  not  doubt 
its  correctness,  there  was  not  the  full 
understanding  in  her  mind  that  he  de- 
sired. Hence,  after  a  moment's  pause, 
he  took  from  his  desk  a  considerable  file 
of  papers  and  began  running  through 
them,  remarking  as  he  did  so,  "Here  is 
a  large  file  on  the  subject  of  refunds  in 
their  various  phases,  and,  devoid  of  all 
technicalities  they  make  rather  an  inter- 
esting story.  Blended  in  them  will  be 
found  the  rigor  of  the  law,  the  require- 
ments of  business,  and  above  all  the 
vagaries  of  human  nature."  After  go- 
ing through  the  correspondence  for  a 
few  moments,  he  came  to  what  he 
seemed  to  be  seeking,  for  turning  the 
papers  back  for  a  more  close  perusal, 
he  said  to  the  Trunk  Lady,  "now  I  am 
going  to  show  you  something  further 
that  has  a  bearing  on  your  friend's  case. 
Here  is  one  that  is  fairly  similar  only  it 
worked  out  so  that  the  party  did  get  a 
considerable  refund.  I  want  you,  if  you 
please,  to  remember  this,  so  that  you  will 
not  get  the  impression  that  through 
alleged  sophistry,  the  law,  or  otherwise, 
the  railroads  always  become  exempt  as 
in  the  case  of  Miss  Ouri.  Here  was  a 
party  who  purchased  a  round-trip  ticket 
from  Chicago  to  Havana,  Cuba,  via 
Jacksonville  and  Key  West,  Fla.,  for 
which  was  paid  $85.30;  the  same  being 
an  excursion,  or  reduced  fare,  condi- 
tional among  other  things  on  the  pur- 
chaser making  continuous  passage  in 
both  directions.  This,  however,  the 
holder  failed  to  do,  stopping  over  at 
Jacksonville,  St.  Augustine,  and  Day- 
tonia,  Fla.  On  reaching  Havana  the 


route  was  changed,  so  that  the  return 
portion  of  the  ticket  was  not  used  but 
was  sent  to  us  for  redemption.  Not, 
however,  having  complied  with  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  ticket  was  ob- 
tained at  the  greatly  reduced  fare,  it  be- 
came a  matter  of  the  trip  being  made  to 
Havana  under  another  tariff,  in  accord- 
ance with  which  it  was  necessary  to 
charge  a  different,  and  one-way  fare ; 
made  up  of  the  sum  of  the  locals  Chicago 
to  Jacksonville,  $26.61,  Jacksonville  to 
St.  Augustine,  $1.15,  St.  Augustine  to 
Daytonia,  $2.20,  Daytonia  to  Havana, 
$26.10,  making  $56.06  in  all.  The  hold- 
er, in  short,  had  become  a  one-way  pass- 
enger, and  the  difference  between  what 
was  paid  for  a  round-trip  and  what 
should  have  been  paid  for  the  one-way 
passage  was  refunded,  amounting  to 
$29.44.  From  this  you  will  see,"  con- 
cluded the  Rambler  laying  the  file  on  the 
desk,  "that  the  difference  between  one 
party  not  receiving  a  refund  as  in  the 
case  of  Miss  Ouri,  and  the  receipt  of  one 
lies  wholly  in  the  conditions  governing 
the  tariffs  under  which  tickets  are  sold 
and  in  the  distance  traveled  before  an 
unused  portion  of  a  ticket  becomes  such. 
You  will  note  the  Havana  ticket  was  but 
half  used,  while  Miss  Ouri's  was  used 
quite  a  little  more  than  one-half  the 
mileage  it  represented.  This  last  un- 
doubtedly was  the  real  cause  of  their 
being  nothing  coming  to  her  on  the  re- 
adjustment of  her  rates  of  fare." 

On  the  Rambler's  completion  of  the 
citation  of  this  illustration  all  doubts 
were  evidently  removed  from  the  Trunk 
Ladys  mind,  and  we  both  felt  that  our 
case  was  safe  in  her  hands.  Also  that 
Miss  Ouri  would  in  some  way  be  made 
to  feel  that  she  had  been  fairly  and  justly 
dealt  with  even  if  disappointed.  So  sat- 
isfied did  the  Trunk  Lady  seem  to  feel 
that  she  smilingly  remarked  to  the  effect 
that  she  had  expected  more  or  less  of  a 
dry  time  on  such  a  technical  errand,  but 
was  rather  pleased  that  it  had  turned 
out  to  be  somewhat  diverting.  So  she 
suggested,  if  the  Rambler  did  not  mind, 
that  she  would  not  be  adverse  to  hearing 
some  of  those  interesting  stories  that  he 
said  the  file  in  his  hand  contained.  "I 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


67 


don't  know,"  was  the  rejoinder,  "wheth- 
er you  would  care  about  them  or  not. 
Certain  it  is  however,  that  you  would 
probably  not  care  to  hear  this  corres- 
pondence in  detail  even  if  I  was  so 
minded.  But  the  meat  of  some  of  it 
might  be  interesting,  and  as  everything 
helps,  I  don't  mind  spending  a  little  more 
time  to  help  finish  your  education  along 
the  line  of  being  satisfied  with  a  rail- 
road's procedure  in  questions  of  contro- 
versy. "O,"  she  laughed,  "I'm  afraid 
that  will  never  be  accomplished — a  com- 
plete education  as  to  the  acceptance  of  a 
railroad's  decisions.  But  however,  tell 
me.  You  are  always  an  interesting  talk- 
er." I  think  I  have  mentioned  before 
that  the  Trunk  Lady  seems  to  have  pro- 
livities  for  teasing  and  jollying  her 
friends.  "Well,"  said  the  Rambler,  pick- 
ing up  the  file  and  making  running  com- 
ments as  he  went  through  it,  "first  is  a 
case  where  a  lady  returns  money  to  the 
railroad  company  as  a  matter  of  con- 
science, the  fact  being  that  she  purchased 
a  ticket  between  two  points  on  the  road 
and  made  the  journey,  the  conductor 
failing  to  secure  her  ticket  en  route.  She 
claimed  refund,  in  doing  which  she  was 
obliged  to  testify  that  she  had  not  made 
the  journey  as  called  for.  On  receiving 
her  check,  however,  she  though  better  of 
her  smallness  in  the  transaction  and  re- 
turned it."  "Score  one  for  the  women," 
said  the  Trunk  Lady  jocosely,  "al- 
though," she  added  more  seriously,  "I 
don't  know  as  she  is  entitled  to  very  much 
credit  after  all.  She  never  should  have 
made  the  first  fraudulent  step  in  the 
matter."  "Suppose  we  let  that  pass," 
remarked  the  Rambler,  "as  too  big  a  sub- 
ject to  argue  for  the  present  and  offset  it 
by  a  somewhat  similar  case  against  a 
man.  Sometimes  errors  are  made  by 
ticket  agents  in  selling  and  they  charge 
too  little.  The  law  says  all  shall  be 
charged  alike,  and  further  insists  that 
the  railroad  shall  obtain  their  full  tariff 
charge.  So  it  occasionally  happens  that 
it  becomes  necessary  for  us  to  call  upon 
the  purchaser  of  a  ticket  to  pay  us  an 
amount  due  acount  of  an  error  in  sell- 
ing. I  see  there  are  one  or  two  such 
cases  in  as  many  different  forms  in  the 


file  here,  but  one  of  them  is  with  a  man 
who  evidently  thinks  it  smart  not  to  pay 
if  he  can  help  it.  Therefore  here  is  a 
record  in  regard  to  a  suit  being  brought 
against  him  for  the  recovery  of  the 
amount  due  us.  It  is  no  more  than  fair, 
however,  to  state  that  in  the  majority  of 
such  requests  on  the  part  of  the  railroad 
a  friendly  and  prompt  response  is  the 
result,  for  the  public  is  beginning  to  be 
familiar  with  the  mutual  obligations  that 
exist  between  themselves  and  the  rail- 
road. Of  course  we  also  find  cases  here 
where  errors  have  been  made  in  the  other 
direction ;  that  is,  where  the  mistake  by 
the  selling  agent  has  been  in  charging  too 
much,  and  I  am  glad  to  see  that  all  the 
letters  that  I  note  in  turning  these  pages 
that  bear  on  that  subject  are  communi- 
cations submitting  checks  to  the  pur- 
chasers. The  misplacing  of  a  ticket  is 
a  frequent  cause  for  requested  redemp- 
tion, and  is  rather  a  delicate  thing  to 
handle.  Here  is  a  copy  of  a  contract, 
or  bond,  which  the  party  asking  refund 
in  such  case  is  obliged  to  sign  if  refund 
is  made  to  protect  the  company  in  its 
just  revenue  in  case  the  ticket  should  ever 
turn  up  and  be  used.  A  bit  of  humor 
enters  into  the  next  letter  I  find.  It 
shows  that  a  party  holding  a  ticket  be- 
tween two  given  stations  was  carried  by 
his  destination  account  of  being  asleep. 
He  naturally  had  to  pay  fare  to  the  next 
point  he  could  get  off  at  after  waking 
up,  and  also  back  J:o  where  he  should 
have  gotten  off.  Yet  the  party  thought 
it  about  right  that  the  railroad  company 
should  make  him  a  refund  for  the  extra 
fare  paid  on  this  account.  Incidentally, 
his  request  was  not  granted." 

"I  see,"  said  the  Trunk  Lady,  "I  see. 
I  think  you  have  given  enough  to  con- 
vince me  that  at  least  you  railroad  peo- 
ple have  your  troubles."  "But  wait," 
said  the  Rambler,  "I  recall  at  least  a 
dozen  more  minor  cases  that  are  in  this 
file  that  cover  different  reasons  for 
granting  or  refusing  refunds.  I  don't 
suppose  you  would  be  interested  in 
them  all,  but  there  might  be  a  few  more 
broad  cases  that  would  appeal  to  your 
interest,"  and  as  he  said  this  he  began 
to  turn  over  the  file  again.  But  she  in- 


68 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


terrupted  him,  saying  "No,  thank  you, 
I  think  I've  had  enough,"  and  looking  at 
her  wrist  watch  said  hastily,  "Really,  I 
must  be  going.  I  have  an  appointment 
that  I  can  scarcely  make  on  time  as  it 
is.  Thank  you  ever  so  much  for  the 
information  as  to  Miss  Ouri's  ticket  and 
for  your  interesting  talk.  I  am  sure 
my  friend  will  be  satisfied  when  I  ex- 
plain how  the  matter  lies  in  connection 
with  her  request.  Just  how  I  will  do 
it  I  am  sure  I  do  not  know.  I  feel  that 
I  have  not  your  gift  of  making  matters 
clear,  especially  as  this  is  a  technical 
and  complex  affair.  However,  as  you 
know,"  she  added  with  a  laugh,  "we 
women  have  a  way  of  making  each 
other  understand,  and  I  am  sure  Miss 
Ouri  will  still  have  a  friendly  feeling 
for  the  Central,  which  of  course  I  want 


her  to  continue  to  have.  As  you  know, 
she  comes  to  see  me  at  least  once  a  year 
and  she  liked  the  journey  over  your  line 
very  much  the  last  time  she  was  here. 
As  a  reward  for  your  courtesy  today,  I 
want  her  to  give  you  as  much  additional 
revenue  as  would  be  represented  in  at 
least  one  more  trip." 

I  was  about  to  make  my  adieus  and 
leave  before  she  had  finished  saying 
good  bye  to  the  Rambler,  but  she  antici- 
pated my  thought  by  suggesting,  as  she 
shook  hands  with  him,  that  if  I  would 
be  so  good  she  would  be  glad  to  have 
me  show  her  the  way  to  the  elevator. 
"I  wonder,"  thought  I  to  myself  as  a 
few  minutes  later  she  disappeared  in  the 
dropping  car,  "if  that  little  last  act  of 
her's  was  to  tease  the  Rambler." 


HOME   NEAR   PONCHATOULA,    LA. 


Service  Notes  of  *  Interest 


Announcement  is  made  of  the  Seventh 
Annual  "Round-Up"  Frontier  Exhibition 
at  Pendleton,  Oregon,  on  September  21st, 
22nd  and  23d,  1916. 


The  Michigan  Central  is  now  running  a 
through  first-class  coach  from  Chicago  to 
New  York,  on  their  extra  fare  train  No. 
8,  the  "Wolverine,"  leaving  Chicago  at 
9:05  A.  M.;  the  coach  on  the  return  be- 
ing carried  on  N.  Y.  C.  No.  1  and  M.  C. 
No.  3,  leaving  New  York  10:30  A.  M.  and 
arriving  Chicago  at  8:00  A.  M. 


The  Big  Four  announces  through  serv- 
ice between  Chicago,  Springfield  and  Co- 
lumbus, Ohio,  eastbound  leaving  Chicago 
at  10:05  P.  M.,  arriving  Springfield  6:40 
A.  M.  and  Columbus  7:45  A.  M.;  west- 
bound leaving  Columbus  9:45  P.  M.,  Spring- 
field 10:45  P.  M.  and  arriving  Chicago  7:20 
A.  M.  The  equipment  carried  between 
these  points  consists  of  standard  twelve- 
section  drawing  room  electric  lighted  all 
steel  sleeping  cars  and  steel  coaches. 


The  following  changes  of  interest  to 
agents  have  recently  taken  place  on  the 
Missouri  Pacific:  Train  No.  6,  formerly 
leaving  Kansas  City  at  9:45  A.  M.  .but  now 
at  9:00  A.  M.,  arrives  at  St.  Louis  5:30 
P.  M.  instead  of  at  6:15  P.  M.  Train  No. 
21,  leaving  St.  Louis  at  7:00  A.  M.,  ar- 
rives at  Kansas  at  9:30  P.  M.  instead  of 
at  7:00  P.  M. 


The  United  Fruit  Company  announces 
that  its  offices  in  New  York  and  New  Or- 
leans have  a  very  good  allotment  of  state- 
rooms on  all  steamers  of  the  various  lines 
sailing  from  Balboa,  Panama,  to  West 
Coast  Ports  of  Ecuador,  Peru  and  Chile. 
This  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  agents 
in  connection  with  the  Fruit  Company's 
service  from  the  Port  of  New  Orleans,  as 
good  stateroom  accommodations  are  thus 
assured  from  that  Port  to  the  South  Amer- 
ican and  West  Coast  Ports. 


We  are  advised  by  the  Lehigh  Valley 
Railroad  that  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  settlement  of  the  city  of  Newark,  N. 
J..  May  to  October,  1916,  will  be  of  con- 
siderable imnortance  it  has  been  arranged 
that  Summer  Excursion  tickets  to  New 
York  City  from  various  sections  of  the 
country  reading  via  Lehigh  Valley  will  be 
validated  at  Newark.  N.  j.,  for  return  pas- 
sage, instead  of  at  New  York  City,  N.  Y., 
if  desired. 


The  United  Fruit  Company  has  issued 
a  circular  announcing  that  several  new 
regulations  with  respect  to  the  granting 
and  issuing  of  passports  in  the  United 
States  have  recently  been  put  into  force, 
and  calling  particular  attention  to  the  fol- 
lowing: "Effective  at  once,  all  persons 
(including  cruise  passengers)  who  desire 
to  enter  or  touch  at  any  point  in  Jamaica, 
B.  W.  I.,  or  British  Honduras,  are  re- 
quired to  have  passports  issued  by  the 
Government  of  which  thev  are  citizens  or 
to  which  they  owe  allegiance.  Although 
not  absolutely  required,  it  is  recommend- 
ed that  passengers  going  to  countries  in 
Central  and  South  America  have  pass- 
ports." The  circular  also  gives  very  fully 
the  rules  covering  the  granting  and  issuing 
of  passports  in  the  United  States. 


The  Grand  Trunk  makes  the  following 
announcement  of  steamship  service  to 
Alaska  in  its  Bulletin  for  March  1st: 

"The  extension  of  the  Grand  Trunk 
Pacific  Coast  Steamship  service  to  Alaska 
is  announced.  The  fine  Steamships  'Prince 
George'  and  'Prince  Rupert'  will  furnish 
a  weekly  service  throughout  the  summer 
between  Seattle,  Victoria,  Vancouver, 
Prince  Rupert  and  Skagway,  leaving  Seat- 
tle each  Monday  at  9:30  A.  M.  and  Prince 
Rupert  each  Wednesday  at  noon. 

"This  through  service  will  be  effective 
from  Seattle,  June  12th,  1916,  and  will  con- 
tinue until  the  end  of  September. 

"From  March  30th,  1916,  to  June  8th, 
1916,  the  'S.  S.  Prince  John'  will  provide 
service  between  Prince  Rupert  and  Skag- 
way, calling  at  intermediate  ports,  taking 
care  of  the  spring  traffic  to  Alaskan  points. 

"Between  Seattle,  Victoria,  Vancouver 
and  Prince  Rupert  there  will  be  a  tri- 
weekly service  this  summer,  the  'Prince 
George,'  'Prince  Rupert'  and  the  'Cheloh- 
sin'  operating  from  Seattle  northbound  on 
Mondays,  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  and 
from  Prince  Rupert,  southbound,  on  Mon- 
days, Tuesdays  and  Saturdays. 


There  has  been  issued  from  the  office  of 
the  Quartermaster  General  of  the  United 
States  Army,  Washington,  a  request  on 
the  railroads,  through  the  proper  channels, 
that  the  attention  of  ticket  agents  be  called 
to  the  fact  that  the  Quartermaster  Corps 
requests  which  show  alterations  in  points 
between  which  travel  is  to  be  performed, 
or  any  other  apparent  changes  that  may 
affect  the  class  or  cost  of  transportation, 
should  be  refused.  I.  C.  agents  are  re- 
quested to  scan  such  requests  carefully, 


69 


70 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


and  be  governed  accordingly  in  case  al- 
terations or  changes  are  discovered.  The 
communication  asking  a  cautionary  word 
in  this  matter  cited  a  case  where  a  trans- 
portation request  had  been  altered  as  to 
date,  name  of  carrier,  points  between 
which  transportation  was  to  be  furnished 
and  route,  the  request  being  altered  for 
travel  altogether  different,  and  to  more 
value,  from  what  was  originally  called  for. 
It  also  stated  that  the  erasures  and  changes 
on  that  request  were  so  apparent  that  they 
could  have  been  readily  oerceived  at  the 
time  the  request  was  granted  for  trans- 
portation had  it  been  given  proper  atten- 
tion. It  is  hoped  that  none  of  our  agents 
will  overlook  a  matter  of  this  kind. 


Under  date  of  March  24th,  1916,  says  the 
Grand  Trunk  Bulletin  for  March  31,  the  fol- 
lowing information  was  given  out  by  the  Su- 
perintendent of  Immigration,  Canada,  in  re- 
sponse to  an  enquiry  with  respect  to  the  move- 
ment of  Excursionists  and  Tourists  through 
Canada  during  the  coming  summer. 

It  is  self  explanatory,  and  all  concerned  are 
requested  to  have  the  conditions  made  clear 
thereby,  brought  to  atention  of  persons  likely 
to  be  interested: — 

"There  will  be  no  interference  with  legiti- 
mate tourist  traffic  and  excursion  parties. 

"All  United  States  citizens, — whether  of 
birth  or  naturalization — are  treated  alike,  i.  e., 
we  are  not  interested  in  the  origin  of  an 
American  citizen ;  but  persons  of  alien  enemy 
birth,  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  or  in 
some  other  friendly  or  neutral  country,  would 
dp  well  to  carry  their  naturalization  papers 
simply  as  a  means  of  identification.  Pass- 
ports have  not  been,  and  are  not  now,  neces- 
sary between  Canada  and  the  United  States. 

"Natives  and  citizens  of  Germany,  Austro- 
Hungary,  Turkey  and  Bulgaria  should  not  be 
encouraged  to  travel  through  Canada,  while 
the  war  lasts. 

"This  Department  views  sympathetically  the 
tourist  and  excursion  business  and  unneces- 
sary delay  or  difficulty  in  examination  will  be 
avoided  as  far  as  possible,  in  fact,  so  far  as 
excursion  parties,  or  individual  tourists  are 
concerned,  we  will  welcome  them,  the  same 
as  in  other  years,  so  long  as  the  transporta- 
tion companies  will  see  that  those  who,  from 
our  viewpoint,  are  alien  enemies  and  might 
do  us  harm,  are  not  encouraged  to  come 
through.  If  any  special  case  arises  at  any 
time,  where  you  think  an  enemy  subject  should 
be  permitted  to  pass  through  Canada,  such 
a  case  may  always  be  taken  up  by  correspond- 
ence." 


The  following  items  in  regard  to  the  Pan- 
ama California  International  Exposition  at 
San  Diego,  Cal.,  may  prove  of  interest  to 
patrons : 

The  first  visiting  newly  weds  to  inspect  the 
San  Diego  Exposition's  Court  of  Leap  Year 


were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Kiphaut  of  New- 
York  City.  They  gave  the  beautiful  court 
their  endorsement. 

A  Spanish  flag  16  x  10  feet  has  been  re- 
ceived from  King  Alphonso  of  Spain  by  Presi- 
dent G.  A.  Davidson  of  the  San  Diego  1916 
Exposition.  Spain  is  represented  in  the  ex- 
position by  exhibits. 

Exhibits  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  are 
to  be  seen  at  the  Panama  California  Interna- 
tional Exposition  at  San  Diego  throughout 
1916.  They  will  be  found  in  the  Science  and 
Education  building,  under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  Walter  Hough,  and  comprise  one  of  the 
many  interesting  additions  to  the  San  Diego 
Exposition  for  the  year  1916. 

With  every  building  crowded  with  exhibits, 
new  buildings  in  course  of  construction,  and 
a  special  field  being  built  for  the  display  of 
motor  transportation  vehicles,  the  official  ros- 
ter of  state,  national  and  county  participants 
at  the  San  Diego  Exposition  shows  nineteen 
nations,  seven  western  states,  two  United 
States  territories,  and  sixteen  California 
counties. 

The  exhibits  of  the  French  government  at 
the  Panama  California  International  Expo- 
sition were  of  such  great  value  that  the  gov- 
ernment would  not  permit  them  to  be  sent 
by  freight,  but  insisted  that  the  two  car  loads 
be  sent  by  express  under  heavy  insurance. 
The  Luxembourg  paintings,  valued  at  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  have  been  on  display  for  several 
weeks  in  the  Fine  Arts  building,  and  the  re- 
mainder of  the  French  display  is  installed  in 
the  California  building, — the  only  permanent 
building  on  the  exposition  grounds. 

A  set  of  rules  has  been  suggested  to  the 
San  Diego  Exposition  as  fit  to  govern  the 
activities  in  the  new  Court  of  Leap  Year. 
The  young  woman  who  offered  them  has  a 
keen  sense  of  humor  and  if  for  no  other  rea- 
son Exposition  officials  may  consider  adopt- 
ing them. 

The  suggested  rules  follow : 

1.  The  Court  is  strictly  for  business.     Re- 
member there  are  others  waiting.     Get  it  off 
your  chest  and  move  on  to  any  one  of  the 
adjoining   shady   paths    for   the   hand-holding 
stage. 

2.  Don't  be  bashful.     Remember  the  poor 
boob  would  probably  do  the  same  to  you  but 
is  scared. 

3.  If    your    man    attempts    to    flee,    call    a 
guard.     None  must  escape. 

4.  Proposing  to  the  same  man  twice  in  one 
day  is  forbidden.     If  any  can  resist  the  first 
time  he  doesn't  deserve  a  second  trial. 

5.  No  flirting  with  some  one  else's  "pros- 
pect." 

6.  Every  dance  a  ladies'  choice. 

7.  If    partner    insists    upon    "leading"    you 
in  dancing,  you  may  leave  him. 

8.  Honeymooners  welcome.     Special  shady 
paths   with   arbored  benches   for  their   exclu- 
sive use. 

9.  Class  A,  includes  girls  under  18;  Class 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


B,  between  18  and  24;  Class  C,  over  24;  old 
maids  over  90  referred  to  the  citrus  grove 
across  the  street. 


Get  a  Transfer 

If  you  are  on  the  gloomy  line, 

Get  a  transfer. 
If  you're  inclined  to  fret  and  pine, 

Get  a  transfer. 

Get  off  the  track  of  doubt  and  gloom, 
Get  on  the  sunshine  train,  there's  room— 

Get  a  transfer. 
If  you're  on  the  worry  train, 

Get  a  transfer. 
You  must  not  stay  there  and  complain — 

Get  a  transfer. 

The  cheerful  cars  are   passing  through, 
And  there's  lots  of  room   for  you — 

Get  a  transfer. 
If  you  are  on  the  grouchy  track, 

Get  a  transfer. 
Just  take  a  happy  special  back — 

Get  a  transfer. 

Jump  on  the  train  and  pull  the  rope 
That  lands  you  at  the  station  hope — 

Get  a  transfer. 

— Anon. 


has  been  suffering  is  not  due  to  any  financial 
unsoundness.  It  is  due  to  confusion,  the  con- 
fusion that  war  always  causes. 

"War  causes  confusion  similar  to  that  in 
the  washroom  of  the  sleeper. 

"Some  twenty  men  were  hurriedly  and  con- 
fusedly washing  in  this  dark  washroom  at 
daybreak  when  one  of  them  swore  and  said: 

"  'Oh,  thunder !  Here  I've  been  washing 
somebody  else's  face  instead  of  my  own.' 

"  'That's  nothing,'  said  another  man.  'You've 
got  nothing  to  grumble  about.  The  face  I 
was  washing  bit  me.' " — Chicago  Herald. 


Armino  Conte,  the  Italian  consul  at  Milwau- 
kee, said  the  other  day : 
"The  very  low  exchange  from  which  Italy 


Away  from  the  Danger 

With   hopeful   hint   the  .farmer's   boy 
Leaned  on  his  hoe  and  said : 

"The  fish  is  bitin'  fiercest  kind, 
Down  by  the  mill  pond's  head." 

"Don't  be  afeerd,"  the  farmer  said, 

Dropping  a  seed  or  two. 
"Jes"  keep  on  kiverin'  'taters,  son, 

'N'  the  fish  they  won't  bite  you !" 

—Ed   Mott,    in   N.   Y.   Sun. 

"Hey,    Moike,    and    phwat    do    yez    tink   of 
these  new  sanitary  drinkin'  cups?" 

"Not  much,   Pat.     Soon   and  we'll  have  to 
spit    on    our    hands    wid    an    eye-dropper."— 
Clipped. 


A  Get  Acquainted  Idea 


I 


N  order  to  enjoy  a  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  the  younger  officials 
of  all  the  railroads  comprising  the  Pas- 
senger Traffic  Club  at  Indianapolis,  Mr. 
R.  A.  Hill,  Chief  Clerk  to  Division  Pas- 
senger Agent  Harlow,  of  the  Illinois 
Central,  at  Louisville,  conceived  the 
idea  of  having  the  members  of  the  Louis- 
ville Passenger  Traffic  Club  make  a  trip 
to  Hoosierville  and  indulge  in  a  bowling 
contest.  The  idea  met  with  a  happy 
response,  Mr.  R.  L.  Murphy,  Assistant 
to  District  Passenger  Agent  Morisey  at 
Indianapolis,  conducting  the  negotiations 
at  that  end.  February  6th  was  selected 
for  the  first  contest,  which  took  place  at 
Indianapolis,  and  sad  to  relate,  the 
Louisville  boys  did  not  win  a  single  vic- 
tory, her  first,  second  and  third  teams 
being  forced  to  succumb  to  the  supe- 
riority of  the  Indiana  teams.  After  the 
games  the  Louisville  visitors  were  ban- 
queted at  the  English  Hotel,  returning 
home  the  same  evening. 

February  20th  saw  the  Indianapolis 
aggregation  of  28  at  Louisville.  On 


their  arrival  at  10 :50  they  were  met  with 
autos,  shown  over  the  city,  and  enter- 
tained at  luncheon,  the  games  following 
at  the  alleys  of  the  Louisville  Bowling 
Association.  The  Kentucky  boys  did 
somewhat  better  at  home,  as  team  No.  1 
registered  two  victories,  and  team  No.  4 
one  victory,  the  Indianapolis  boys  cap- 
turing the  balance  of  the  games.  At 
the  Old  Inn  Hotel  a  banquet  was  given, 
65  being  in  attendance.  Many  of  the 
Assistant  General  and  Division  Passen- 
ger Agents  of  all  the  railroads  entering 
Louisville  were  on  hand  to  cheer  the 
home  boys  and  meet  the  visitors.  While 
each  and  every  one  of  the  different  lines 
worked  hard  to  make  the  affair  a  grand 
success,  the  Illinois  Central  trio  of 
Messrs.  Hill,  Murphy  and  Assistant  City 
Ticket  Agent  Pearce,  of  Louisville,  put 
forth  special  efforts  in  that  direction. 
The  "Get  Acquainted"  idea  was  well  car- 
ried out,  so  much  so  that  the  Louisville 
boys  have  already  received  invitations 
from  Chicago  and  Cincinnati  "railroad- 
ers" for  games. 


Import  Traffic  and  Its  Peculiarities 

By  L.  L.  Purvis,  Import  Clerk 


HP  O  a  large  majority  of  the  magazine's 
readers  the  term  "import  freight" 
is,  doubtless,  a  rather  vague  one,  yet  the 
fact  remains  that  this  particular  busi- 
ness is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
important  with  which  the  Traffic  De- 
partment has  to  deal,  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  difficult  to  solicit,  handle,  rate 
and  supervise.  The  difficutlies,  of 
course,  are  due  to  the  great  diversity 
and  singularity  of  the  commodities  in- 
volved, the  peculiar  and  varying  condi- 
tions under  which  they  are  transported, 
the  complex  technicalities  of  the  customs 
regulations,  the  large  number  of  points 
of  origin,  scattered  as  they  are  over  the 
whole  face  of  the  globe,  and  the  keen- 
ness of  the  competition  as  between  the 
Atlantic  ports  and  New  Orleans. 

The  Illinois  Central  management, 
however,  has  organized  a  Foreign  Traf- 
fic Department,  with  representatives  in 
London  and  Liverpool,  England ;  Bor- 
deaux, Havre  and  Marseilles,  France; 
Hamburg  and  Bremen,  Germany;  Ant- 
werp.. Belgium;  Rotterdam,  Holland; 
Genoa  and  Leghorn,  Italy;  Cadiz, 
Spain ;  Dundee,  Scotland ;  Patras, 
Greece ;  and  Havana,  Cuba ;  as  well  as 
maintaining  special  departments  in  New 
York,  Chicago  and  New  Orleans,  de- 
voted exclusively  to  the  solicitation, 
handling  and  supervision  of  this  large 
and  growing  traffic. 

Since  the  organization  of  this  depart- 
ment, in  1905,  import  traffic  from  west- 


ern Asia  and  Europe,  including  the 
British  Isles,  which  formerly  moved  al- 
most entirely  via  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
has  been  gradually  seeking  the  port  of 
New  Orleans  in  an  ever-increasing  vol- 
ume; this  being  due  partly  to  the  ener- 
getic efforts  of  the  various  representa- 
tives of  the  Foreign  Department  here 
and  abroad  aided  by  the  co-operation  of 
the  domestic  soliciting  force ;  and  largely 
to  the  splendid  terminal  facilities  which 
the  Illinois  Central  has  constructed  at 
Stuyvesant  Docks,  New  Orleans,  includ- 
ing miles  of  covered,  water-tight,  fire- 
proof docks,  sheds  and  warehouses 
which  are  superior  to  any  in  this 
country. 

While  New  Orleans  is,  of  course,  the 
port  of  paramount  importance  to  the  Il- 
linois Central  Railroad,  it  is  not  the  only 
one  through  which  imports  reach  the  va- 
rious distributing  centres  located  on  its 
rails,  as  there  are  also  large  quantities 
of  tea,  silk,  matting,  curios  and  soya 
bean  oil  which  move  through  the  Pacific 
Coast  ports  and  reach  the  rails  of  the 
Illinois  Central  at  Council  Bluffs,  Albert 
Lea  and  other  western  termini  of  the 
road. 

An  interesting  feature  of  this  traffic 
is  the  peculiar  nature  of  some  of  the 
commodities  handled,  making  it  some- 
times difficult  for  anyone  without  tech- 
nical knowledge  or  experience  to  clas- 
sify them.  For  instance,  the  average 
reader  of  the  magazine  would  hardly  be 


72 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


73 


expected  to  know  that  myrabolans  and 
divi-divi  pods  are  dried  fruit  or  beans, 
used  for  making  canning  or  dyeing  prep- 
arations; that  ixtle  and  azacatan  are 
fibres,  used  in  making  rope  or  twine; 
that  chicle  is  the  main  ingredient  of 
chewing  gum;  that  barytes  is  a  mineral 
clay,  used  in  making  paints;  that  mag- 
nesite  is  an  ore  used  in  making  furnace- 
lining;  that  quarries  are  bricks;  that  co- 
cobolo  is  a  hardwood,  "oilman's  stores" 
are  pickles  and  table  sauces,  etc.,  etc. ;  but 
anyone  working  in  the  Foreign  Depart- 
ment must  not  only  know  what  these  cu- 
rious commodities  are,  but  must  also 
know  where  they  originate,  from  what 
foreign  port  they  are  usually  forwarded, 
their  value,  how  they  are  packed,  by 
whom  they  are  imported,  whether  they 
are  dutiable  and  to  what  destinations  they 
usually  move ;  all  of  which  knowledge  is, 
of  course,  necessary  to  the  proper  solici- 
tation, handling  and  rating  of  the 
traffic. 

All  imports  destined  to  points  in  the 
United  States  must  be  entered  at  the 
Custom  House  at  the  port  of  import, 
i.  e.,  the  United  States  port  of  first  ar- 
rival, either  for  consumption  or  for  im- 
mediate transportation  in  bond.  New 
Orleans  is,  of  course,  the  port  of  first 
arrival  on  shipments  from  foreign  coun- 
tries received  at  that  port.  When  a  con- 
sumption entry  is  desired,  the  duplicate 
stamped  consular  invoice  (or,  in  lieu 
thereof,  quadruplicate  consular  invoice 
bearing  notation  that  the  Consul's  stamp 
has  been  applied  on  duplicate  invoice 
of  same  issue)  and  the  original  invoice, 
together  with  the  amount  of  duty  (if 
the  goods  are  dutiable)  must  be  sur- 
rendered with  the  consumption  entry  to 
the  Custom  House.  When  the  importa- 
tion is  valued  at  less  than  one  hundred 


dollars,  no  consular  invoice  is  neces- 
sary, the  original  bill-of-lading  and  a 
certified  invoice  being  all  that  is  re- 
quired. When  an  entry  is  to  be  made 
for  immediate  transportation  in  bond, 
there  must  be  surrendered  to  the  Cus- 
tom House  at  the  port  of  New  Orleans, 
with  the  entry,  the  duplicate  stamped 
consular  invoice  (or,  in  lieu  thereof,  the 
quadruplicate  consular  invoice,  as  above) 
and  the  duplicate  signed  bill-of-lading. 
These  documents,  surrendered  in  con- 
nection with  the  I.  T.  (Immediate 
Transp'n)  entry,  are  forwarded  by  the 
New  Orleans  Custom  House  to  the  Cus- 
tom House  at  the  interior  destination, 
where  they  can  be  used  by  the  con- 
signee in  making  the  final  or  consump- 
tion entry,  he  paying  the  duty  (if  the 
goods  are  dutiable)  to  the  Customs 
officer  at  such  point  of  destination.  All 
importations  arriving  at  an  United 
States  port  which  are  not  covered  by  a 
customs  entry  within  forty-eight  hours 
after  discharge  of  vessels  are  taken  pos- 
session of  by  the  Customs  authorities 
and  placed  in  United  States  bonded 
warehouses. 

The  Illinois  Central  has  a  bonded 
Customs  Agent  at  New  Orleans,  whose 
entire  time,  together  with  that  of  his 
staff,  is  devoted  to  taking  care  of  all 
these  customs  details  for  the  convenience 
of  the  Company's  patrons. 

It  will  be  quite  apparent,  from  a  pe- 
rusal of  the  foregoing,  that  the  handling 
of  this  particular  traffic,  with  its  infinite 
variety  and  its  ramifications  reaching  to 
every  quarter  of  the  globe,  never  be- 
comes monotonous,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
is  a  constant  source  of  interest  to  those 
handling  it,  as  well  as  a  constantly  in- 
creasing source  of  revenue  to  the  Illi- 
nois Central. 


ENGINEERING- 


DEPARTMENT 


The  Cairo  Bridge 


HP  HE  Cairo  Bridge  crosses  the  Ohio 
River  about  three  miles  above  its 
junction  with  the  Mississippi  River  at 
Cairo,  Illinois.  It  is  a  single  track 
structure  consisting  of  the  bridge  proper 
and  the  Kentucky  and  Illinois  ap- 
proaches. It  was  built  by  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  and  the  old 
Chicago,  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans 
Railroad  Company  in  the  years  1887, 
1888,  1889  and  1890. 

The  construction  of  a  trunk  line  of 
railroad  connecting  the  region  of  the 
Great  Lakes  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
was  encouraged  by  Acts  of  Congress  as 
early  as  1848.  In  1851  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  was  chartered  by 
the  State  of  Illinois  for  the  purpose  of 
building  a  line  north  from  Cairo.  In 
the  same  year,  at  a  popular  convention 
in  New  Orleans,  resolutions  were 
adopted  requesting  the  States  of  Louis- 
iana, Mississippi,  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky to  aid  in  the  establishment  of  a 
line  north  from  New  Orleans,  and  in 
1852  and  1853  the  New  Orleans,  Jack- 
son and  Great  Northern  R.  R.  Co.  ex- 
tending from  New  Orleans  north  to 
Canton,  Miss.,  and  the  Mississippi  C^n- 
tral  Railroad  between  Canton  and  Jack- 
son, Tennessee,  were  chartered  by  these 
states. 

In  1872  the  Mississippi  Central  Rail- 
road was  extended  to  Fillmore,  Ken- 
tucky, a  point  nearly  opposite  Cairo  and 
a  transfer  ferry  was  established  between 
these  points. 

The  first  definite  action  relative  to 
bridging  the  Ohio  River  was  taken  in 
1879  when  soundings,  surveys  and  esti- 
mates were  made  under  the  direction 
of  Mr.  A.  W.  Ackerman,  President  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company. 


On  March  29th,  1886,  the  State  of  Ken- 
tucky approved  an  Act  authorizing  "The 
Chicago,  St.  Louis  &  New  Orleans  Rail- 
road Company  and  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  or  either  of  them 
separately,  to  build  and  maintain  a  rail- 
road bridge  across  the  Ohio  River."  In 
1877  the  New  Orleans,  Jackson  and 
Great  Northern  and  the  Mississippi  Cen- 
tral Railroads  had  been  sold  under  fore- 
closure to  corporations  which  consoli- 
dated under  the  title  of  the  Chicago,  St. 
Louis  and  New  Orleans  Railroad  Com- 
pany. After  this  act  was  formally  ac- 
cepted in  1887  work  was  started  and 
plans  for  the  entire  work  were  prepared. 
The  first  work  actually  done  on  the 
bridge  was  on  the  caisson  for  Pier  XI, 
which  was  begun  July  1st,  1887.  The 
bridge  was  completed  for  traffic  in  Octo- 
ber, 1889,  but  was  not  finally  turned  over 
to  the  Operating  Department  until 
March  1st,  1890. 

The  total  length  of  the  bridge  and 
trestle  approaches  as  originally  built 
was  20,461  feet  or  about  3  7-8  miles, 
and  was  divided  as  follows : 

The  Illinois  approach  was  made  up 
of  5,307  feet  of  timber  trestle,  one 
106.25-foot  deck  span,  seventeen  150- 
foot  and  two  249-foot  deck  spans.  The 
total  length  of  the  approach  was  8,472 
feet. 

The  bridge  proper,  4,137  feet  in  length, 
consists  of  seven  400-foot  and  two 
518.5-foot  through  spans  and  one  249- 
foot  deck  span.  These  spans  rest  on  ten 
dimension  stone  masonry  piers  with 
pneumatic  foundations  and  one  masonry 
pier  on  a  pile  foundation. 

The  Kentucky  approach  consisted  of 
a  steel  viaduct  similar  to  the  Illinois  ap- 
proach, and  timber  trestle.  There  were 


74 


76 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


twenty-one  150-foot  and  one  106.25-foot 
deck  spans  in  the  viaduct  and  4,594  feet 
of  trestle,  the  total  length  being  7,852 
feet.  The  two  249-foot  spans  of  the  Illi- 
nois approach  rest  on  masonry  piers  with 
pile  foundations  and  the  remaining  steel 
spans  of  both  approaches  were  built  on 
steel  cylinder  piers  on  piles.  The  timber 
trestles  were  filled  as  soon  as  the  bridge 
was  completed. 

The  steel  structure  10,560  feet  in 
length  was  at  that  time  the  longest  metal- 
lic structure  over  a  river  in  the  world. 
The  bridge  proper  is  on  a  level  grade 
and  is  straight.  It  crosses  the  river  prac- 
tically at  right  angles.  On  each  approach 
there  is  a  fine  degree  curve,  there  being 
90  degrees  of  curvature  on  the  Kentucky 
approach  and  96  degrees  45  1-2  minutes- 
on  the  Illinois  approach.  The  curved 
portions  are  on  .56  per  cent  grades  and 
the  tangent  portions  on  .75  per  cent 
grades,  the  grades  running  down  toward 
the  ends  of  the  earth  fills  at  each  side. 

The  bridge  was  built  conformed  to  the 
law  demanding  a  clearance  of  53  feet 
above  high  water.  The  variation  be- 
tween high  and  low  water  as  assumed 
by  the  engineers  was  51.2  feet,  making 
the  lowest  steel  104.2  feet  above  low 
water.  The  deepest  foundations  are  76 
feet  below  the  low-water  line  and  the 
vertical  distance  between  the  lowest 
point  of  the  foundations  and  the  high- 
est point  of  the  steel  work  is -248. 9  feet. 

In  1906-07  all  of  the  steel  viaduct  of 
the  Illinois  approach  was  taken  down 
except  the  two  249-foot  spans,  and  a 
50-foot  double  track  deck  plate  girder 
span  was  put  in  at  the  end  of  the  north 
deck. span.  The  steel  spans  taken  down 
were  replaced  by  a  double-track  earth 
fill  and  the  earth  fill  of  the  Kentucky 
Approach  was  made  double-track  at  the 
same  time.  As  it  now  stands  the  bridge 
is  a  single-track  steel  structure  7,954  feet 
or  1.51  miles  long,  with  a  double-track 
earth  fill  up  to  each  end. 

The  trusses  were  originally  designed 
for  a  moving  load  of  3,000  pounds  per 
lineal  foot  and  the  floor  system  for  a 
uniform  load  of  5,000  pounds  per  foot. 
These  assumed  loads  were  far  in  excess 
of  the  actual  weights  of  any  engines  then 


operated  and  were  considered  high 
enough  to  take  care  of  any  probable  in- 
crease in  weight.  Owing  to  increased 
traffic  conditions,  heavier  engines,  such 
as  Mikados,  have  been  designed  which 
exceeded  the  assumed  loads  and  because 
of  the  fact  that  the  lighter  engines  could 
not  haul  as  heavy  loads  as  the  Mikados 
the  larger  trains  had  to  be  broken  up  in 
some  cases.  This  condition  was  so  un- 
satisfactory that  an  investigation  was 
made  to  ascertain  the  practicability  of 
reconstructing  the  bridge  to  accommo- 
date the  use  of  230-ton  Mikado  engines. 
Plans  were  prepared  at  once  and  work 
was  started  on  the  Kentucky  Approach 
October,  1914. 

The  floor  systems  of  the  249-foot 
spans  and  of  the  through  spans  were  re- 
inforced by  means  of  an  additional 
stringer  on  the  outside  of  each  of  the 
original  track  stringers.  Needle  beams 
were  suspended  from  the  new  auxiliary 
stringers,  at  their  quarter  points.  By 
means  of  shim  plates  the  track  string- 
ers were  brought  to  a  bearing  on  the 
needle  beams,  thus  cutting  down  the  ef- 
fective span  of  the  track  stringers.  This 
arrangement  also  helped  out  the  floor 
beams  as  the  new  stringers  were  put 
outside  the  old  ones,  which  reduced  the 
distance  from  the  center  line  of  truss  to 
the  point  where  the  stringer  load  was 
transferred  to  the  floor  beam. 

The  trusses  on  the  through  spans  were 
strengthened  1)y  the  addition  of  2  by  2- 
inch  square  counterbars.  These  bars 
were  attached,  on  the  center  line  of  the 
truss,  to  the  pin  of  the  lower  chord  and 
middle  points  by  means  of  U-shaped 
bars  and  clevises.  At  the  upper  chord 
points  the  connection  was  made  with  a 
stiff  bracket  riveted  to  the  bottom  of 
the  top  chord  and  to  the  sides  of  the  ver- 
tical posts.  The  counter-rod  was  at- 
tached to  this  bracket  by  means  of  a 
clevis  and  pin. 

All  of  the  adjustable  counters  of  the 
bridge  were  originally  provided  with 
closed  sleeve  nuts.  At  the  time  of  the 
reconstruction  work  the  condition  of 
many  of  these  sleeve  nuts  was  bad,  mak- 
ing it  hard  to  keep  the  bars  in  adjust- 
ment. A  detail  was  devised  whereby 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


77 


the  sleeve  nuts  were  adjusted  and  a  rigid 
splice  connection  was  riveted  over  each 
sleeve  nut,  thus  eliminating  any  danger 
of  the  bar  losing  its  adjustment. 

In  many  of  the  hip  verticals,  consjst- 
ing  of  two  bars,  one  bar  was  found  to  be 
loose.  As  there  was  no  method  pro- 
vided for  adjustment  a  clamp  consist- 
ing of  two  flat  bars  connected  with  bolts 
was  put  on  in  each  case  and  the  bars 
drawn  together  until  both  were  tight. 
This  proved  to  be  a  very  effective  way  to 
make  each  bar  take  its  share  of  the  load. 

Additional  sway  bracing  and  lateral 
rods  were  placed  on  the  deck- spans  to 
make  them  more  rigid  and  various  other 
points  on  the  structure  were  strength- 
ened by  the  addition  of  detail  material. 
This  ingenious  design  for  strengthening 
this  structure  was  worked  out  by  the 
consulting  engineer  of  bridges,  Mr.  J. 


M.  Johnson,  and  carried  out  under  the 
supervision  of  himself  and  the  engineer 
of  bridges,  Mr.  Crawford. 

The  work  was  done  by  the  floating 
bridge  gangs  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  with  their  regular  equipment. 
Two  of  these  gangs  were  on  the  bridge 
most  of  the  time  and  at  one  time  there 
were  over  one  hundred  men  at  work, 
using  four  air  compressors.  Modern 
methods  were  employed  on  this  work 
throughout,  all  cutting  of  old  material 
being  done  by  oxy-acetylene  torches. 

Field  measurements  were  taken  where 
it  was  thought  there  would  be  any  dan- 
ger of  the  new  material  not  connecting 
well  with  the  old  steel  and  no  trouble 
was  experienced  in  this  respect.  The 
work  of  reconstruction  was  completed 
in  April,  1915,  and  the  Mikado  engines 
were  started  over  at  once. 


The    Robbins    Table    Company   Is   Evidently   Dis- 
posed to  Treat  Transportation  Lines  Fairly  as 
the  Attached  Letter  Will  Indicated 

Owosso,  Mich.,  March  6,  1916. 
James  Ryan  &  Son, 

New  Holland,  111. 
Gentlemen : 

Your  favor  of  March  3rd  received,  from  which  we  are  sorry  to  note  that 
one  of  the  tables  in  the  last  shipment  reached  you  in  damaged  condition. 
Just  as  soon  as  this  arrives,  so  that  we  may  know  what  it  is,  we  will  send 
you  another  one  to  take  its  place.  We  run  low  on  Yellow  Pine,  which  is  very 
hard  to  get  just  now,  and  this  shipment  was  crated  with  Hemlock,  so  that 
we  do  not  think  the  fault  really  rests  with  the  railway  company  and  as  we 
desire  to  be  fair  with  every  one,  would  prefer  under  the  circumstances  to 
stand  this  loss  ourselves,  so  will  prepay  the  freight  on  the  return  shipment 
to  you  and  if  there  has  been  any  other  expense  this  can  be  charged  to  us  and 
deducted  from  remittance.  Under  these  conditions  you  will  not  need  the 
original  bill  of  lading. 

Trusting  this  manner  in  handling  the  proposition  will   meet   with   your 
approval,  we  remain, 

Yours  very  truly, 

ROBBINS  TABLE  CO., 
JHR/CL  J.  H.  Robbins. 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


'~PHE  question  of  proper  billing  of  all 
freight  to  agree  with  the  original 
bill  of  lading  given  to  the  shipper  is 
one  that  should  not  have  to  be  touched 
upon  in  connection  with  the  different 
items  of  expense  to  the  company,  for  it 
should  be  assumed  that  this  feature 
would  be  so  performed  as  to  insure  its 
being  correct. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  matters  to 
explain  satisfactorily  to  our  patrons, 
and  one  which  very  often  cannot  be  ex- 
plained, is  our  failure  to  deliver  their 
shipments  at  destination  in  accordance 
with  a  bill  of  lading  which  they  hold — 
within  a  reasonable  length  of  time,  and 
such  failure  often  results  in  bitter  feel- 
ing toward  the  carrier  by  the  public, 
which  seriously  affects  future  business. 

For  instance  we  have  a  case  where  a 
car  was  billed  by  shipper  to  Lowell, 
Mich.,  and  bill  of  lading  was  issued  ac- 
cordingly. Subsequent  to  the  time  that 
car  left  point  of  origin  a  wire  was  re- 
ceived from  the  billing  Agent  that  car 
was  waybilled  showing  destination 
Lowell,  Mass.,  requesting  that  instruc- 
tions be  placed  to  have  billing  changed 
to  Lowell,  Mich.,  sending  car  to  that 
point  under  protection  of  through  rate 
from  point  of  origin.  Car  had  left  our 
rails  en  route  to  Lowell,  Mass.,  and 
succeeded  in  arriving  at  that  point  over 
a  route  other  than  we  had  supposed  it 
would  travel,  there  being  no  routing  in- 
structions of  course  shown  beyond 
connecting  line  to  whom  the  car  was 
delivered  by  us.  The  result  was  that 
we  were  forced  to  assume  the  entire 
expense  incident  to  the  movement  of 
the  car  to  Lowell,  Mass.,  and  return, 
we  receiving  only  our  portion  of  the 
throueh  rate  from  point  of  origin  to 
Lowell.  Miss.,  which  did  not  take  care 
of  the  loss  that  we  were  forced  to  as- 
sume. Our  patrons  of  course  were  only 


interested  to  the  extent  of  having  the 
car  arrive  at  its  correct  destination 
within  a  reasonable  length  of  time,  as 
they  cannot  be  expected  to  assume  any 
responsibility  in  connection  with  the 
transportation  of  their  shipments. 

Another  recent  case  pertains  to  the 
improper  billing  of  a  car,  which  in- 
volved an  excess  haul  of  ten  hundred 
and  ninety-four  miles,  resulting  in  a 
delay  to  the  car  of  some  nine  days,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  expense  of  handling 
the  car  while  out  of  route. 

Closely  related  to  the  question  of  im- 
proper billing  is  failure  to  complete 
diversion  instructions  as  accepted  from 
our  patrons.  These  instructions  are 
accepted  with  an  understanding  that 
every  possible  effort  will  be  made  to 
reconsign  the  car  en  route  in  accord- 
ance with  request  as  received,  and  if 
we  conduct  an  intelligent  handling  in 
each  case  we  will  not  be  subjected  to 
any  criticism,  even  though  the  diver- 
sion cannot  be  made.  The  following 
case,  however,  is  one  that  creates  a 
poor  impression  on  our  patrons,  sug- 
gesting to  them  perhaps  that  our  gen- 
eral efficiency  in  connection  with  any 
subsequent  business  that  they  might 
favor  us  with  should  be  measured  by  a 
similar  case  that  they  had  experienced. 

Car  originated  off  our  line,  destined 
to  a  point  off  our  line,  we  being  only 
intermediate  carriers.  Shipment  was 
moving  under  order  bill  of  lading, 
which  was  surrendered  to  us  three  days 
prior  to  receipt  of  the  car  from  our 
connections.  Instructions  were  imme- 
diately placed  with  our  Agents  at 
points  of  reconsignment,  giving  com- 
plete reference  as  to  the  billing  under 
which  car  was  moving,  as  well  as  the 
desired  change.  Having  no  advice 
with  a  reasonable  length  of  time  from 


78 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


79 


any  of  the  Agents  informed,  repeated 
our  instructions,  knowing  that  ample 
time  was  given  to  admit  of  no  failure 
to  so  carry  out.  The  result  was  that 
car  was  given  to  the  connecting  line  by 
us  as  originally  billed,  and  was  re- 
ceived at  destination  in  accordance 
with  the  original  billing  instructions, 
from  which  point  it  was  of  course  nec- 
essary to  forward,  after  considerable 
delay,  to  the  destination  requested  by 
the  shipper  at  time  of  surrender  of  orig- 
inal bill  of  lading. 

Another  case  of  improperly  handling 
reconsignments,  is  shown  by  an  Agent 
accepting  diversion  orders  from  a  ship- 
per several  days  after  the  car  had  left 
his  station,  issuing  a  new  bill  of  lading 
in  accordance  with  the  desired  change. 
Every  possible  effort  was  made  to 
effect  the  diversion  en  route,  but  while 
our  handling  was  without  fault,  the 
car  traveled  to  the  original  destination. 
The  shipper,  however,  had  in  his 
possession  bill  of  lading  calling  for  de- 


livery of  the  car  at  another  destination, 
which  involved  considerable  haul,  the 
expense  of  which  the  carriers  could  not 
rightfully  assume.  This  of  course  re- 
sulted in  a  very  sensitive  situation  for 
all  concerned,  causing  a  delay  to  the 
car  as  well  as  a  feeling  of  acrimony 
with  the  shipper,  all  because  our  Agent 
and  representative  of  this  company 
promised  something  which  was  not 
within  our  physical  power  to  do. 

Large  amounts  are  being  expended 
account  loss  and  damage  to  freight 
through  delays,  and  while 'of  course  we 
do  not  guarantee  to  provide  any  def- 
inite time  for  the  delivery  of  shipments 
at  destination,  we  do  presume  to  han- 
dle all  shipments  our  patrons  favor  us 
with  in  an  intelligent  manner,  without 
unvoidable  delay,  and  without  negli- 
gence. Since  the  advertisement  to  any 
and  all  business  is  reckoned  by  the 
efficiency  known  to  exist  by  the  people 
coming  in  contact  with  the  dealings  of 
such  companies — 


Governmental  Requirements — Seals 


1.  Para.  2,  Section  14,  Regulation  25 
of  Order  No.  211  of  the  Bureau  of  Ani- 
mal Industry,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, reads : 

"In  case  of  wreck  or  other  extraordi- 
nary emergency,  the  department  seals  on 
a  car  containing  any  inspected  and 
passed  meat  or  product  may  be  broken 
by  the  carrier,  and,  if  necessary,  the  arti- 
cles may  be  reloaded  into  another  car, 
or  the  shipment  may  be  diverted  from  the 
original  destination,  without  another 
shipper's  certificate ;  but  in  all  such  cases 
the  carrier  shall  immediately  report  the 
facts  by  telegraph  to  the  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  Such  report  shall  include  the 
following  information : 

(a)  Nature  of  the  emergency. 

(b)  Place  where  seals  were  broken. 

(c)  Original  points  of  shipment  and  des- 

tination. 

(d)  Number  and  initials  of  the  original 

car. 


(e)  Number  and  initials  of  the  car  into 

which  the  articles  are  reloaded. 

(f)  New  destination  of  the  shipment 

(g)  Kind  and  amount  of  articles. 

2.  Excerpt  from  Customs  regulations 
relative  to  seal  protection  of  bonded 
freight : 

CUSTOMS  SEALS.— Agents,  upon 
receipt  of  cars  containing  bonded  freight, 
must  examine  Customs  seals  or  locks  to 
determine  whether  or  not  fastenings  are 
intact.  If  found  broken  or  tampered 
with,  car  should  be  sealed  with  station 
seal  and  facts,  including  old  and  new 
seal  numbers  noted  on  way-bill.  Agent 
at  destination  of  way-bill  will  make  re- 
port to  the  Chief  Officer  of  the  Customs 
at  the  destination  of  the  car.  CUS- 
TOMS SEALS  must  not  be  broken  for 
any  purpose  except  under  the  immediate 
supervision  of  a  Customs  Officer,  unless 
wreck  or  other  emergency  necessitates 
transfer  of  lading. 


the 


Biographical  Sketch  No.  21 


Benjamin  F.  Ayer. 


81 


THE  chief  legal  adviser  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  and  executive  officers  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
from  November  27,  1876,  to  December  1, 
1901,  was  Benjamin  F.  Ayer.  That  per- 
haps was  the  most  important  quarter  of  a 
century  in  the  company's  history.  He  en- 
tered the  service  of  the  road  on  the  for- 
mer date,  in  the  fifty-second  year  of  his 
age,  already  known  as  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  accomplished  lawyers  at  the 
American  bar,  and  retired  voluntarily  from 
active  duty  November  30,  1901,  acknowl- 
edged, even  by  the  most  sucessful  of  his 
contemporaries  in  the  profession,  as  one 
of  the  great  lawyers  of  his  time.  About 
five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  of  sturdy 
build,  with  large  well-formed  head,  regular 
features,  blue  eyes — very  slightly  promi- 
nent, brown  hair — always  cut  close  and 
even  in  his  later  years  not  entirely  gray, 
smooth  shaven — save  sometimes  a  close- 
cropped  moustache,  always  well  groomed 
and  neatly  and  quietly  attired,  his  appear- 
ance was  distinctly  that  of  the  American 
gentleman  of  refinement  and  culture. 
When  silent  his  habitual  poise  was  expres- 
sive of  thought  and  reserve  power.  In 
conversation,  animated  and  entertaining, 
and  indeed  a  charming  companion,  his  most 
marked  characteristic  was  dignity,  a  dig- 
nity that  was  never  simulated,  but  arose 
from  strength  of  character  and  was  sus- 
tained by  mental  endowments  and  train- 
ing that  brought  him  unconscious  defer- 
ence, whatever  the  company.  Free  from 
extravagance  and  excess,  his  tastes  and 
habits  simple  and  scholarly,  his  mind  cul- 
tivated and  stored  by  thorough  research  in 
various  fields  of  literature  and  science,  his 
private  life  singularly  happy,  to  the  end  of 
his  active  years  he  pursued  his  labors  with 
a  composure  and  peace  of  mind  that  con- 
tributed in  no  little  degree  to  the  accuracy 
and  soundness  of  his  work,  and  more  espe- 
cially of  his  legal  opinions.  It  was  largely 
therefore,  that  at  the  close  of  his  career 
the  board  of  directors  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  was  able  to  say 
officially  of  him  "During  the  twenty-five 
years  that  have  since  elapsed,  the  board  of 
directors  and  officers  of  the  company  have 
relied  in  perfect  safetly  upon  his  opinions." 
It  was  in  part  due,  also,  to  each,  the  type 
of  man.  the  natural  quality  of  mind,  and 
thorough  preparation  and  fullness  of  ex- 
perience at  the  bar  before  coming  to  the 
service  of  the  company. 

Of  English  ancestry  whose  descendants 
included  also  Lewis  Cass  and  Daniel  Web- 
ster, he  was  born  April  22.  1825,  in  south- 
eastern New  Hampshire  (Kingston,  Rock- 
ingham  County),  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  town,  prepared  for  col- 
leeg  at  Albany  Academy,  Albany,  N.  Y., 
graduated  from  Dartmouth  College,  Han- 
over, New  Hampshire,  with  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts,  in  the  class  of  1846, 


studied  law  for  two  years  at  Manchester, 
heard  the  lectures  in  the  Dane  School  of 
Law  of  Harvard  University  for  one  year, 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  July  1,  1849,  and 
entered  practice  at  once  at  Manchester, 
New  Hampshire,  then  the  metropolis  of 
that  state.  He  gave  some  assistance  for 
a  time  in  the  editing  of  a  newspaper  there, 
and  in  1853,  was  elected  to  the  New  Hamp- 
shire legislature,  served  as  speaker  of  the 
house  before  he  was  30,  and  on  retiring 
was  appointed  prosecuting  attorney  of 
Hillsboro  County,  which  then  included 
Manchester,  served  until  1857,  and  then 
resigned  and  came  to  Chicago. 

Admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar  May  15, 
1857,  he  entered  practice  at  once,  with  of- 
fice at  81  Marine  Building,  corner  Lake  and 
LaSalle  streets,  Chicago.  Melville  W. 
Fuller,  later  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  a  native  of 
Augusta,  Maine,  and  eight  years  Mr.  Ayer's 
junior,  had  preceded  him  to  Chicago  by 
eleven  months,  and  on  Mr.  Ayer's  arrival 
was  employed  in  an  office  at  40  South 
Clark  street,  or  less  than  two  blocks  away. 
The  acquaintance  then  formed  between  the 
two  ripened  into  a  friendship  that  con- 
tinued through  life. 

In  1861,  or  some  four  years  after  his 
arrival,  Mr.  Ayer  was  appointed  Corpora- 
tion Council  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  and, 
while  serving  in  that  capacity,  drafted  the 
city  charter  adopted  in  1863.  After  some 
five  years  in  that  office,  he  returned  to 
private  practice.  At  that  time  he  formed 
a  partnership  -with  Thomas  Hoyne,  Sr., 
and  later  Oliver  H.  Horton.  subsequently 
one  of  the  justices  of  the  Armellate  Court, 
was  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  firm, 
which  was  thereafter  known  as  Hoyne,- 
Ayer  &  Horton.  A  year  later  Mr.  Ayer 
went  into  partnership  with  Judge  Corydon 
Beckwith,  under  the  name  of  Beckwith  & 
Ayer,  a  firm  often  mentioned  by  later-day 
leaders  of  the  Illinois  bar  as  the  strong- 
est law  firm  the  State  of  Illinois  has  ever 
had.  Later  the  firm  became  Beckwith, 
Ayer  &  Kales.  Subsequently  Judge  Beck- 
with withdrew,  and  the  firm  became  Ayer 
&  Kales.  From  May  15,  1857,  the  date  of 
his  admission  to  the  Illinois  bar,  to  No- 
vember 27,  1876,  when  he  gave  up  his 
private  practice  to  devote  his  entire  time 
to  the  business  of  the  company,  Mr.  Ayer 
appeared  in  more  than  ^-'ehty  cases  that 
were  heard  and  disposed  of  in  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Illinois,  and  reported  in 
the  Illinois  Reports.  Necessarily  many 
questions  were  involved  in  those  cases, 
.and  some  were  of  major  importance.  Men- 
tion may  be  made  of  the  suit  of  Madison 
Y.  Johnson  v.  J.  Russell  Jones,  Elihu  B. 
Washburne  and  others  (44  111.  142),  which 
involved  Questions  of  right  to  personal 
liberty  during  the  early  davs  of  the  Civil 
War,  prior  to  the  suspension  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus;  the  consolidated  cases 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


of  Kingsbury  v.  Burnside  and  Buckner  v. 
Kingsbury  (58  111.  310),  involving  title  to 
property  of  the  value  of  more  than  $500,- 
000  held  in  trust  by  Lieut.  rlenry  K.  Kings- 
bury,  of  the  5th  Regiment  of  the  United 
States  Artillery,  for  his  sister,  the  wife  of 
General  Simon  B.  Buckner.  Lieut.  Kings- 
bury  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Antietam, 
and  had  disposed  of  the  property  by  will, 
insufficiently  executed,  in  which  he  had 
named  General  Ambro=p  E.  Burnside,  as 
one  of  the  executors.  The  suit  effectuated 
in  part  what  was  intended  to  be  done  in 
a  will  made  in  haste  by  Lieut.  Kingsbury 
as  he  was  leaving  Fortress  Monroe  for 
the  front,  never  to  return.  Mention  may 
also  be  made  of  the  case  of  Rawson  v. 
Rawspn  (52  111.  62)  which  involved  the 
question  of  the  effect  of  a  will  giving-  the 
testator's  property  to  his  "heirs,"  without 
other  designation.  The  writing  was  held 
inoperative. 

But  Mr.  Ayer's  princinal  monument  is 
to  be  found  in  the  results  of  the  work  he 
did  in  the  years  of  his  service  with  the 
company,  from  his  fullest  maturit-'  until 
his  death.  The  evidences  of  that  work,  in 
part,  are  contained  in  the  records  of  the 
company,  and  particularly  in  documents 
reoroduced  in  the  vohimes  kno"rr> 
"Laws  and  Documents  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Comnanv."  and  in  the 
records  and  opinions  of  the  courts  in  the 
cases  in  which  he  appeared. 

The  impression  he  then  made  upon  men 
and  the  standing  accorded  him  by  them 
are  fairly  indicated  by  the  recommendation 
of  the  "Foreign  Delegates,"  made  a  short 
time  after  he  entered  the  service.  As  al- 
ready noted,  Mr.  Ayer  came  to  the  com- 
-pany  November  27,  1876.  At  that  time 
more  than  150,000  shares  of  the  company's 
stock  were  owned  in  England,  and  more 
than  77.000  shares  in  Holland,  while  only 
about  56,000  shares  were  owned  in  the 
United  States.  At  a  meeting  held  in  Lon- 
don within  two  months  thereafter,  the 
British  shareholders,  acting  in  conjunction 
with  representatives  appointed  for  the 
Dutch  shareholders  by  the  "Administration 
Office  for  American  Railroad  Securities  in 
Amsterdam,"  selected  a  joint  committee  to 
look  after  their  interests  in  the  company: 
and  that  committee  then  selected  two  dis- 
tinguished delegates  to  visit  America  and 
investigate  and  report  to  the  foreign  share- 
holders on  the  condition  and  management 
of  the  road.  After  careful  inspection  of 
the  road  itself  and  inquiry  into  the  finan- 
cial affairs  of  the  company,  those  delegates 
advised,  among  other  things,  that  more, 
persons  residing  on  the  line  of  the  road  be' 
elected  directors  of  the  company,  and  that 
"Mr.  Ayer.  the  legal  adviser  of  the  com- 
pany at  Chicago,"  be  chosen  as  one  of 
those  directors;  and,  they  so  reported  to 
the  English  and  Dutch  shareholders.  Mr. 
Ayer  was  elected  a  director  of  the  com- 


pany April  25,  1877,  and  served  in  that 
capacity  until  his  death,  more  than  26 
years  thereafter,  and  during  all  that  time 
held  the  proxies  and  voted  the  shares  of 
many  of  the  foreign  shareholders. 

Another  incident  may  be  mentioned. 
When  Mr.  Ayer  was  suggested  for  the 
office  of  Corporation  Counsel,  or  as  it  was 
then  called,  City  Attorney,  according  to 
the  files  of  the  Chicago  Tribune  of  that 
time,  one  of  the  aldermen  remarked  in 
the  city  council:  "I  see  no  objection  to 
Ayer,  except  that  he  is  a  Democrat,  and 
that  is  overshadowed  by  the  city's  need  for 
a  good  lawyer." 

When  Mr.  Ayer  came  to  the  Illinois 
Central  Company  near  the  close  of  the 
year  1876,  the  company  owned  only  the 
original  charter  line,  comprising  705.5 
miles  of  road;  and  in  addition  thereto, 
operated  under  lease  only  the  Dubuque  & 
Sioux  City  Railroad,  and  its  leased  line 
the  Cedar  Falls  &  Minnesota  Railroad, 
comprising  together  402.16  miles  of  road. 
So  that  the  company  was  then  operating 
in  all  only  1,107.66  miles  of  railroad,  lying 
entirely  in  two  states,  Illinois  and  Iowa. 
At  that  time  the  total  capital  of  the  com- 
pany (stock  and  funded  debt)  was  $39,- 
662,000.  When  Mr.  Ayer  resigned  25  years 
later,  the  company  owned  4,265.5  miles  of 
road  extending  through  or  into  thirteen 
states,  and  the  aggregate  of  its  capital 
stock  and  funded  debt  was  $204,797,925. 
That  is,  its  capital  had  increased  to  more 
than  five  fold  and  its  mileage  to  more  than 
six  fold.  And  the  same  general  officers 
were  then  operating  also,  the  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad,  comprising 
1,090.72  miles. 

Incorporation  of  railroad  companies,  and 
bridge  companies,  consolidation  of  railroad 
companies  of  the  same  and  also  of  differ- 
ent states,  supervising  the  acquisition  by 
purchase,  in  various  forms,  of  the  property 
of  other  railroad  companies,  and  the  leas- 
ing of  the  property  of  others  for  long 
periods  of  years,  the  preparation  of  bonds 
and  deeds  of  trust  for  many  and  large 
bond  issues,  the  preparation  of  construc- 
tion, traffic  and  trackage  agreements,  the 
preparation  of  contracts  with  telegraph, 
sleeping  car  and  express  companies  for 
the  use  of  the  property  and  facilities  of 
the  company,  the  preparation  or  examina- 
tion and  approval  of  contracts  with  com- 
nanies  and  individuals  for  use  of  the  com- 
pany's way  lands,  and  advising  the  board 
of  directors  and  officers  of  the  company 
as  to  its  corporate  powers  and  rights,  are 
only  some  of  the  things  that  engrossed 
his  mind  during  those  busy  years. 

It  was  no  idle  encomium  which  at  the 
close  of  his  career  was  entered  officially 
on  the  minutes  of  the  company.  With 
analytical  mind,  sound  judgment,  wide  ex- 
perience and  the  cultivated  habits  of  close 
attention  and  industry,  he  had  compelled 


83 


the  tribute,  possibly  the  highest  that  can 
be  paid  a  lawyer,  that  his  counsel  had  al- 
ways been  safe. 

Among  his  cases  may  be  mentioned 
People  v.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  16  Fed.  881,  fur- 
ther reported  as  State  v.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co., 
33  Fed.  721  and  730,  and  as  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co. 
v.  Illinois,  146  U.  S.  337,  and  as  People  v. 
I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  91  Fed.  955,  and  as  Illinois 
v.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  184  U.  S.  77,  collectively 
known  in  Chicago  as  "the  Lake  Front 
Case,"  and  involving  the  title  to  certain 
lands  lying  under  water  and  to  certain  re- 
claimed grounds  occupied  bv  the,  com- 
pany, on  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  in 
the  city  of  Chicago.  Likewise  the  case  of 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  &  Chicago  Railroad 
Company  v.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  137  111.  9, 
which  involved  the  question  of  right  of  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  Company  to  retain  sta- 
tion grounds  in  the  yards  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  in  Chicago;  and 
that  of  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.  v.  C.  B.  &  N.  R.  R. 
Co.,  122  111.  473,  which  involved  the  right 
of  the  latter  company  to  condemn  and 
take  many  miles  of  way  lands  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  between 
Galena  and  East  Dubuque,  Illinois. 

Among  the  lawyers  whom  he  met  in 
legal  controversies  may  be  mentioned  W. 
C.  Goudy,  Melville  W.  Fuller,  A.  M.  Pence, 
Murray  F.  Tuley,  Edwin  Walker,  Robert 
G.  Ingersoll,  Lyman  Trumbull,  Emory  A. 
Storrs,  Frederick  S.  Winston,  Lloyd  W. 
Bowers,  William  D.  Guthrie  and  Joseph 
H.  Create. 

William  C.  Goudy,  famous  as  one  of  the 
first  lawyers  of  his  day,  gave  a  just  esti- 
mate of  Mr.  Ayer's  professional  reputation 
and  attainments,  when  he  wrote: 

"Benjamin  F.  Ayer  has  stood  in  the 
first  rank  of  Chicago  lawyers  for  more 
than  thirty  years.  Nothing  is  allowed  to 
divert  him  from  his  profession 


The  most  remarkable  is  his  ability  to  make 
a  connected  and  logical  statement  of  his 
case  to  the  court.  This  is  done  in  .lan- 
guage which  cannot  be  misunderstood, 
and  when  presented  orally,  it  is  with  a 
clear  voice  and  proper  emphasis,  giving 
the  greatest  pleasure  to  the  listener.  The 
manner  is  one  of  honesty  and  candor, 
that  leaves  no  doubt  of  his  own  convic- 
tions." 

In  1902  Edwin  Walker,  long  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Illinois  bar,  remarked  to  the 
writer:  "I  came  to  Chicago  in  1865,  and 
in  my  day  there  has  never  been  a  lawyer 
here  that  Benjamin  F.  Ayer  was  not  per- 
fectly qualified  to  meet,  in  every  way." 

John  M.  Palmer,  ex-governor  of  Illinois 
and  ex-senator  from  Illinois  in  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States,  writing  in  1899, 
spoke  of  Mr.  Ayer  as  "one  of  the  most 
accomplished  lawyers  that  ever  practiced 
at  the  Chicago  bar." 

Mr.  Ayer  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Sons  of  New  Hampshire,  organized  in 
1889,  and  for  two  years  was  president  of 
the  organization.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  Chicago 
Law  Institute,  Chicago  Literarv  Club  and 
the  Chicago  Club;  and  he  was  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association,  and 
in  1875  was  its  president. 

In  1878  Dartmouth  College  conferred 
upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

He  was  married  January  29,  1868,  to 
Miss  Janet  Hopkins,  a  daughter  of  James 
C.  Hopkins  of  Madisor-  Wisconsin,  later 
Judge  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United 
States. 

On  April  6,  1903,  after  a  life  singularly 
free  from  physical  ailments  and  discom- 
fort, he  succumbed  to  a  brief  illness.  Mrs. 
Ayer,  a  son  and  three  daughters  survive 
him. 
Chicago,  April  3,  1916.  George  C.  Otto. 


ABOVE  IS  FOUND  A  REPRODUCTION  OF  THE  CARNEGIE  HERO  MEDAL  AWARDED  TO" 
HAROLD  W.   SNOW,  SECRETARY  TO  GENERAL  SOLICITOR  BLEWETT  LEE. 


Name 

Martin  Irvin 
Andrew  Compton 
Leopold  Deschynck 
Matthew  Morgan 
Edward  J.  Robbins 
Robert  Holmes 

(Col.) 

Thos.  R.  Anderson 
Stephen  Hogan 
Lemuel  A.  Parker 
Thomas  Hails 
Septimus  Davies 
D.  C.  Einfeldt 
Burton  E.  Nichols 


Occupation 
Crossing  Flagman 
Section  Laborer 
Carpenter 
Car  Repairer 
Foreman 
Switch  Tender 
(Y.  &  M.  V.) 
Engineman 
Crossing  Flagman 
Laborer 
Baggageman 
Gang  Foreman 
Carpenter 
Commercial  Agent 


Where 

Date  of 

Employed   Service 

Retirement 

Mayfield      44  years 

April  30,  1915 

Colfax          33  years 

Nov.  30,  1915 

Burnside      16  years 

Jan.  31,  1916 

Chicago        24  years 

March  31,  1916 

Clinton         41  years 

March  31,  1916 

Memphis      49  years 

March  31,  1916 

Canton         18  years 

Nov.  30,  1915 

Normal         58  years 

Oct.  31,  1915 

Clinton         16  years 

Jan.  31,  1916 

Centralia      47  years 

March  31,  1916 

Burnside      23  years 

March  31,  1916 

Kankakee    29  years 

April  30,  1916 

Sioux  City  46  years 

April  30,  1916 

JOSEPH  B.  KELLY. 

MACHINIST  Handyman  Joseph  B. 
Kelly  was  born  February  23,  1853. 
He  entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  in  November,  1875, 
at  Dubuque,  la.,  and  was  in  continuous 
service  at  that  point,  until  retired  with 
pension,  October  31,  1915.  Always  a  loyal, 
hard  working  employe  with  the  company's 
best  interests  foremost  in  his  mind,  and  his 
willing  and  pleasant  disposition,  made 
"Old  Joe"  as  he  was  called  by  all  who 
knew  him,  many  friends,  who  will  be  glad 
to  hear  that  the  Company  has  placed  him 
on  the  "Honor  List"  with  a  pension,  which 
shows  that  his  long  and  faithful  service  has 
been  appreciated. 


JOSEPH  B.  KELLY. 


TICKFAW,  LA. 


84 


GLEANINGS 

from  me 


JntQTQsthig  <  jVows  -  of*  ^Doings  -  of 
Claimants  *  Jn  •  and  -  Out  -  of*  Court 


Efforts  to  Reduce  Accident 


'"PHE  great  efforts  being  made  by  the 
management  of  this  Company  to 
prevent  personal  injuries  and  the  suf- 
fering which  invariably  follows,  not 
only  upon  the  part  of  the  injured  per- 
son but  those  who  love  that  person,  are 
not  generally  known,  and  perhaps  all 
that  is  being  done  along  this  line  can 
never  be  generally  known.  It  would  be 
a  big  task  for  one  division  organization 
to  acquaint  another  division  organization 
with  all  that  it  is  doing,  and  to  acquaint 
all  of  the  other  divisions  would  be  im- 
possible. If  all  the  letters  written  by  the 
division  officers  of  the-  Kentucky  Divi- 
sion, in  a  single  month,  to  people  living 
along  the  line,  about  simple  questions  of 
safety  and  the  importance  of  taking  pre- 
cautions in  the  vicinity  of  railroad  tracks, 
were  printed  they  would  fill  the  magazine 
from  cover  to  cover.  If  an  effort  were 
made  to  secure  a  report  of  all  that  is  said 


about  safety  measures  by  the  officers  and 
employes  of  the  Kentucky  Division  dur- 
ing a  single  month,  no  magazine  published 
would  be  large  enough  to  accommodate 
the  report.  To  give  some  idea  of  what 
is  being  done  by  the  Division  to  prevent 
accidents,  we  will  quote  just  one  letter. 
It  was  written  by  Trainmaster  James,  of 
Louisville,  to  Misses  Cummings  and 
Mansky  at  Valley,  Ky.,  under  date  of 
the  llth  ult.  The  letter  read  as  follows : 
"It  has  come  under  my  observation 
that  a  number  of  children  between  the 
ages  of  7  and  14  are  using  the  railroad 
tracks  in  going  to  and  from  the  schools 
at  Valley.  It  is  very  dangerous  for  any- 
one to  walk  along  the  right  of  way,  as 
we  cannot  tell  when  a  car  might  break 
down,  a  large  lump  of  coal,  heavy  piece 
of  timber  or  machinery  roll  off,  or  a  car 
door  drop,  and  should  something  like  this 
occur  while  these  children  are  so  close 


85 


86 


to  a  train  they  would  be  injured  or  killed. 
I  know  that  you  love  these  children,  and 
their  fathers  and  mothers  love  them,  and 
it  would  be  a  great  calamity  if  one  of 
them  should  be  killed,  especially  if  no 
one  had  called  their  attention  to  the  dan- 
ger. I  would  ask  you  to  talk  to  these 
children  and  their  parents,  and  ask  them 
not  to  walk  on  the  right  of  way.  If  I 
can  be  of  any  assistance  to  you,  I  will  be 
glad  to  do  what  I  can." 

What  is  being  done  on  the  Kentucky 
Division  is  true  of  all  the  other  divisions 
of  this  system.  In  spite  of  this  we  pre- 
sume uninformed  people,  those  who 
know  not  of  what  they  speak,  will  con- 
tinue, whenever  an  accident  does  occur, 
to  howl  about  the  "soulless  corporation." 
If  the  people  living  along  the  Illinois 
Central  System  could  be  induced  to  take 
half  as  much  interest  in  the  prevention 
of  accidents  as  the  management  of  the 
Company  is  taking,  there  would  be  a  very 
substantial  decrease  in  the  number  of 
casualties  which  we  are  monthly  com- 
pelled to  report. 


is  square  dealing  and  prompt  settlements, 
the  said  roads  are  proving  to  the  public 
that  acceptance  of  fair  offers  and  imme- 
diate payments  is  better  than  law  suits. — 
Vicksburg  Herald. 


PROMPT    SETTLEMENTS    BY 
Y.  &  M.  V. 

Speaking  of  the  prompt  settlement  of 
damage  claims  by  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  rail- 
road, the  Greenwood  News  said:  "H. 
W.  Hagan,  Claim  Agent  for  the  Y.  &  M. 
V.  immediately  hunted  all  the  injured 
people  and  gave  all  the  assistance  possible 
and  very  promptly  settled  all  claims  for 
damages,  except  those  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Eubanks,  with  whom  he  could  not  settle 
until  it  is  determined  just  how  serious 
their  injuries  may  prove.  This  prompt 
settlement  is  a  splendid  indication  that 
the  railroad  company  is  willing  to  do  the 
right  thing,  when  to  blame  for  any  acci- 
dents." Furthermore,  "this  prompt  set- 
tlement is  a  splendid  indication"  of  the 
teachings  of  the  school  of  experience. 
Time  was  when  the  "claim  agents"  pur- 
sued a  policy  of  wearing  out  claimants 
by  pettifogging  delays  and  niggardly  of- 
fers of  compensation  for  damages.  That 
such  custom  no  longer  obtains  is  a  trib- 
ute to  the  good  in  the  "ambulance  chas- 
ers"— the  "damage  suit  lawyers."  Having 
taught  the  railroads  that  their  true  policy 


DOG  SUITS 

The  damage  suit  industry  takes  in  al- 
most every  form  of  known  or  imaginary 
damage  done  by  railroad  companies  but 
there  is  one  class  of  claims  which  this 
company  continues  to  frown  upon  with 
fair  success  and  that  is  claims  for  dogs 
killed  on  the  track.  In  the  first  place, 
notwithstanding  wars,  pestilences,  high 
cost  of  living,  etc.,  the  supply  of  canines 
continues  to  more  than  meet  the  demand 
so  that  the  few,  who  are  so  lacking  in 
sagacity  as  to  permit  themselves  to  meet 
such  an  untimely  end,  are  not  greatly 
missed;  and,  secondly,  there  are  not  as 
yet  many  people  who  believe  that  rail- 
roads should  fence  dogs  off  the  track  or 
operate  their  trains  so  as  to  avoid  strik- 
ing them. 

Occasional  recoveries  have  been  had 
through  the  courts  but  they  have  been 
almost  entirely  due  to  local  conditions. 
The  unpopularity  of  this  class  of  litiga- 
tion is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  rail- 
roads can  win  such  suits  even  in  justice 
courts.  A  suit  in  a  justice  court  at  Meri- 
gold,  Miss.,  to  recover  $75.00  for  a  dog 
said  to  have  been  killed  by  a  Y.  &  M.  V. 
train,  was  recently  tried  and  the  justice 
found  for  the  company. 

The  lasting  and  undying  affection  of  a 
man  for  his  dog  and  the  dog  for  his 
master,  has  afforded  many  writers  an 
opportunity  too  display  their  prowess 
in  the  realms  of  sentiment  but  it  would 
seem  that  people  in  general,  as  well  as 
the  courts,  are  of  the  opinion  that  a  dog's 
value  is  largely  sentimental,  therefore 
cannot  be  measured  by  the  railroad's 
money.  If  the  dogs  themselves  were  per- 
mitted to  vote  on  the  subject,  their  wide- 
ly heralded  intelligence  would  undoubted- 
ly assert  itself  and  the  question  would  be 
overwhelmingly  defeated  as  they  would 
surely  realize  that  to  establish  any  gen- 
eral, widespread  practice  of  gainful  law- 
suits in  such  instances  would  make  canine 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


87 


existence  within  twenty-five  miles  of  a 
railroad  intolerably  precarious. 


VERY    CLEVER,    MR.    STEWART 

Claim  Agent  George  Mixon  received 
a  letter  from  a  citizen  of  Gullett,  La., 
presenting  claim  for  a  hog  killed.  Mr. 
Mixon  promptly  took  up  with  the  section 
foreman  in  charge  of  the  section  where 
the  animal  was  struck  and  secured  a  re- 
port, but  he  was  still  short  report  from 
the  engineer  of  the  accused  locomotive. 
After  some  investigation,  Mr.  Mixon 
learned  that  Engineer  Alex  Stewart  was 
at  the  throttle  and  for  some  unaccount- 
able reason  had  failed  to  make  the  usual 
report.  He  wrote  Mr.  Stewart  and  re- 
ceived reply,  dated  the  13th  ult.,  which 
we  quote  in  full : 

I  much  regret  to  say,  while  nearing 
Gullett  the  other  day.  I  saw  approach- 
ing towards  the  track,  a  measly  look- 
ing razor  back. 

He  was  both  thin  and  woebegone; 
he  seemed  reduced  to  skin  and  bone. 
His  looks  and  movements  both  implied 
that  he  intended  suicide. 

The  fireman  looked  and  gave  a  yell, 
then  pulled  a  racket  from  the  bell ;  but 
all  in  vain,  the  razor  back  still  came 
a-hiking  up  the  track. 

I  seized  the  cord  that  sounds  the 
quill  and  blew  some  blasts  both  loud 
and  shrill ;  I  tried  the  air,  applied  the 
sand,  and  did  all  things  at  my  com- 
mand ;  it  was  of  no  avail.  I  hit  that  hog 
about  the  tail,  and  honestly,  to  you  I 
swear,  that  hog  went  twelve  feet  in  the 
air. 

He  landed  on  his  back  "kerplunk" 
and  lay  there  like  a  pile  of  junk. 

Oh,  woeful  tale,  Oh,  sad  to  tell,  we 
marked  the  spot  whereon  he  fell,  and 
raised  this  legend  by  the  track, 
"HERE  LIES  A  FOOLISH  RAZOR 
BACK." 


THE   LIVE   STOCK  QUESTION 

One  of  the  foremost  questions  of  the 
hour  at  this  time  is  ways  and  means  to 
prevent  killing  of  stock  on  the  way- 
lands.  Fences  are  being  built  where 
they  will  do  the  most  good  and  a  per- 
sistent and  constant  campaign  is  being 


kept  up  on  each  division  to  induce 
section  men  to  maintain  them  and  keep 
gates  closed.  Section  men,  as  well  as 
station  employes  and  all  others,  are 
being  urged  to  watch  for  stock,  and 
when  found  near  the  track  to  drive  it 
off.  Engineers  are  directed  to  exercise 
the  utmost  care  to  prevent  striking 
stock.  Personal  visits  have  been  made 
by  officers  and  employes  to  the  owners 
of  stock,  and  letters  written  them,  ask 
ing  that  they  co-operate  by  keeping 
private  gates  closed  and  their  stock  up 
or  at  least  away  from  the  track.  Every 
practical  means  is  being  employed  to 
reduce  this  evil  and  its  menace  to  the 
lives  of  passengers  and  train  employes. 

The  trouble  is  especially  hard  to  al- 
leviate because  it  has  so  long  existed 
that  it  has  almost  universally  come  to 
be  accepted  as  one  which  could  not  be 
corrected. 

There  are  parts  of  the  country  where 
stock  owners  could  not  sleep  if  they 
knew  their  stock  was  out  and  likely  to 
get  upon  the  track  and  be  killed,  but  in 
some  sections  along  the  Southern  Lines 
insomnia  would  be  a  prevailing  disease 
with  owners  of  live  stock  if  they  had 
knowledge  that  their  stock  was  out 
and  near  the  railroad. 

Improvement  cannot  be  accom- 
plished solely  by  the  Company  and  its 
employes.  If  stock  does  not  get  on 
the  track  it  will  not  be  struck  by  trains. 
Therefore,  the  simplest  means  of  eradi- 
cating this  trouble  is  to  keep  the  stock 
off  the  tracks,  and  to  do  this  the  officers 
and  employes  of  the  Company  must 
have  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the 
owners  of  stock  along  the  Company's 
line.  As  a  large  percentage  of  the 
stock  is  struck  on  highway  crossings 
and  within  station  limits  where  fencing 
is  impracticable,  the  building  of  fences 
will  only  eliminate  it  in  part,  but  if 
owners  will  keep  their  stock  up,  or  at 
least  away  from  the  track,-  the  difficulty 
will  be  solved,  train  operation  will  be 
made  safer  and  more  efficient  and  the 
stock  raising  industry  will  be  greatly 
improved. 

Every  employe  of  the  Company  who 
is  in  position  to  do  so  should  enlist  in 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


this  campaign,  not  only  by  preventing 
the  striking  of  stock  where  possible,  or 
in  driving  it  off  the  track,  but  also  in 
creating  public  sentiment  against  a 
practice  both  dangerous  and  wasteful. 

ANOTHER  TRESPASSER  CASE 

At  the  recent  term  of  the  Talla- 
hatchie  County  (Miss.)  Circuit  Court, 
several  small  personal  damage  suits 
were  disposed  of,  only  one  being  tried. 
That  was  the  suit  of  Clarence  B.  John- 
son, minor,  by  next  friend,  for  $10,- 
000.  Johnson  claimed  he  was  working 
his  way  on  a  freight  train  and  while 
attempting  to  board  the  train  at  As- 
kew, fell,  because  of  a  missing  grab 
iron,  and  was  seriously  injured.  Noth- 
ing was  known  of  the  occurrence  until 
institution  of  suit,  when  it  was  found 
the  boy  was  simply  beating  his  way  on 
the  train,  slipped  and  fell.  The  flag- 
man, L.  W.  Deeson,  who  has  since 
died,  was  the  only  member  of  the  crew 
who  knew  anything  about  the  occur- 
rence and  he  simply  saw  the  boy  on 
the  ground,  crawling  away  from  the 
train,  but  did  not  have  any  idea  that 
he  was  injured.  Fortunately,  outsiders 
were  found  who  witnessed  the  occur- 
rence and  when  the  facts  were  fully 
shown  upon  the  trial,  the  court  in- 
structed a  verdict  for  the  Company. 

The  trespasser  evil  is  a  great  tribula- 
tion to  railroads.  Under  the  law  of 
Mississippi,  the  railroads  are  held  to 
almost  as  high  a  degree  of  care  of 
trespassers  as  they  are  of  employes 
or  passengers,  while  the  percentage  of 
injuries  to  the  total  number  of  tres- 
passers is  very  much  larger,  owing  to 
the  great  hazard  in  walking  on  the 
tracks  and  the  stealing  of  rides.  Then, 
when  such  accidents  occur,  frequently 
witnesses  cannot  be  found,  so  that  the 
expense  of  defending  such  suits  is 
great,  and  contributes  materially  to  the 
railroad  company's 'high  cost  of  living. 
No  one  is  benefited  by  permitting  the 
trespass  practice  to  continue,  while 
many  useful  members  of  society  are 
annually  killed  or  permanently  injured 
and  much  woe  and  expense  results  to 
all  concerned. 


A  CHANGED  SITUATION 

In  summing  up  the  recent  successes 
in  handling  damage  suit  cases  in  Mis- 
sissippi courts,  Grenada  County  should 
not  be  overlooked,  or  passed  up  lightly. 
There  was  a  time  when  our  local  at- 
torneys and  claim  agents  looked  upon 
the  approach  of  terms  of  court  in 
Grenada  County  with  serious  appre- 
hension, but  not  so  now.  It  seems  that 
the  good  citizens  of  the  county  have 
come  to  realize  that  it  is  bad  business 
judgment  to  employ  a  lawyer  and  rush 
into  court  without  giving  the  railroad 
an  opportunity,  through  its  claim  de- 
partment, to  compromise  their  claims. 
As  evidence  of  this,  refer  to  results  of 
several  court  terms  past,  especially  the 
one  just  ended  in  which  every  suit  tried 
was  won  by  the  company. 

Prentice  Johnson,  colored,  sued  the 
Y.  &  M.  V.  R.  R.  for  damages,  alleging 
that  on  a  certain  night  he,  with  a  com- 
panion, entered  the  depot  waiting 
room  at  Whaley,  intending  to  take  pas- 
sage on  the  train  to  Grenada ;  that  it 
was  dark,  and,  having  provided  himself 
with  a  pistol  with  which  to  keep  away 
"varmints,"  through  a  mere  accident 
shot  and  wounded  his  companion.  He 
charged  that  on  this  account  the  agent 
and  others  wrongfully  assaulted  him. 
The  facts,  as  developed  at  the  trial, 
showed  that  the  darkies  had  had  at 
least  one  drink  of  whiskey ;  that  they 
entered  the  waiting  room  of  the  depot 
in  the  darkness,  long  before  train  time ; 
that  there  was  no  one  else  in  or  about 
the  building;  that  the  companion  was 
wounded  and  a  doctor  called  who 
entered  the  room  with  the  agent  and 
another  party,  peace  officers,  and  be- 
cause he  resisted  the  officers  he  was 
roughly  handled,  knocked  to  the  floor, 
arrested,  put  in  jail  and  convicted  on  a 
criminal  charge.  .  The  jury  promptly 
brought  in  a  verdict  in  favor  of  the 
railroad  and  probably  would  have  im- 
posed a  heavy  fine  on  the  negro  for 
bringing  the  action  if  it  had  been  with- 
in their  power. 

Wesley  Miers,  colored,  sued  the  I. 
C.  R.  R.  for  $2,000.  charging  loss  of 
crops  by  reason  of  overflow  on  his 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


89 


land  which  is  located  in  Yalobusha 
River  bottom,  because,  as  he  alleged, 
a  great  many  years  ago  the  railroad 
cut  a  certain  trestle  to  let  the  water 
under  at  a  point  where  it  was  flowing 
over  the  track,  and  cut  a  ditch  out  into 
adjoining  property  with  the  consent  of 
the  owner.  This  river  bottom  over- 
flows annually,  everywhere,  at  points 
far  from  the  railroad  as  well  as  along 
the  right-of-way,  and  after  the  jury 
was  made  familiar  with  the  facts  it 
found  the  railroad  not  guilty. 

Joe  Phillips,  colored,  a  neighbor  of 
the  above  mentioned  Wesley  Miers, 
sued  for  damage  to  land  and  loss  of 
crops  by  the  same  waters,  but  on  learn- 
ing of  the  verdict  in  the  Miers  case  de- 
cided to  dismiss  his  suit  and  not  trust 
it  to  a  jury. 

These  results  are  calculated  to  dis- 
courage petty  law  suits,  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Grenada  County  will  realize  divi- 
dends on  their  new  departure  in  the 
way  of  decreased  expense  of  running 
the  county.  If  there  are  any  citizens 
of  the  county  who  have  meritorious 
claims  against  the  Railroad  Company, 
they  will  not  be  forced  to  bring  suit, 
if  they  will  kindly  take  their  matters 
up  direct  with  the  Company's  repre- 
sentatives. 


WON,  AND  ALSO  LOST 

Mollie  Brown,  a  negress,  residing  at 
Hazlehurst,  Miss.,  boarded  our  train 
No.  3,  at  Canton,  Miss.,  with  a  ticket 
for  Hazlehurst.  When  her  destination 
was  reached  it  was  clearly  announced 
by  the  train  employes  and  the  train 
stopped  long  enough  for  her  to  safely 
alight  therefrom.  Mollie  had  previ- 
ously been  an  inmate  of  the  Insane 
Asylum  and  her  mind  evidently  be- 
came clouded  while  the  stop  was  being 
made,  for  she  made  no  effort  to  alight 
from  the  train  until  it  had  pulled  out 
of  the  station  and  had  gone  several 
hundreds  yards  south  of  the  depot.  She 
then  got  up  and  went  to  the  vestibule 
door,  opened  same  and  jumped  from 
the  train.  She  sustained  several 
bruises,  but  none  of  a  serious  nature. 

In  a  few  days  this  woman  recovered 


sufficiently  to  get  out  and  hunt  a 
lawyer.  She  approached  several  of  the 
best  lawyers  in  Hazlehurst,  to  whom 
she  stated  the  truth  about  how  the  ac- 
cident occurred.  They  promptly  told 
her  that  the  Railroad  Company  owed 
her  nothing,  as  it  had  discharged  its 
obligation  in  full.  She  also  told  a  num- 
ber of  other  people  that  she  had  for- 
gotten where  she  was  and  had  jumped 
from  the  train  while  in  motion. 

Mollie  finally  found  an  attorney  who 
specializes  in  damage  suits,  and  he  filed 
suit  for  $200.  The  case  has  just  re- 
cently been  tried  and  the  Justice  of  the 
Peace  very  promptly  rendered  judg- 
ment in  favor  of  the  Company. 

At  the  trial,  Mollie  swore  that  the 
porter  did  not  call  the  station,  yet  ad- 
mitted she  saw  people  getting  on  the 
train  and  knew  that  she  was  at  her 
destination,  but  became  worried  and 
did  not  get  up  at  first.  She  testified 
she  got 'up  from  her  seat  before  the 
train  started  and  walked  out  on  the 
platform  while  the  train  was  standing 
still.  As  she  walked  down  the  steps 
the  train  started  and  she  slipped  and 
fell,  the  vestibule  door  being  open,  and 
she  was  thrown  to  the  ground.  The 
Company  was  put  to  a  good  deal  of  un- 
necessary expense,  likewise  the  tax- 
payers of  Copiah  County,  none  of 
which  can  ever  be  recovered,  since  the 
plaintiff  took  the  pauper's  oath,  her  at- 
torney, not  thinking  enough  of  the 
merits  of  the  claim  to  go  on  Mollie's 
bond  for  the  court  cost,  and  left  it  to 
the  county  to  "hold  the  bag."  The 
railroad  won,  and  also  lost,  through 
the  transaction. 


I.  C.  RAILROAD  WINS  $30,000 
DAMAGE  SUIT 

A  case  which  attracted  some  notice 
in  circuit  court  last  week  was  that  of 
Williams  Pears  vs.  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  and  J.  M.  Egan. 

It  appears  that  this  has  been  a  long 
drawn  out  litigation,  dating  back  to 
1912. 

As  a  basis  of  this  suit  it  appears  that 
the  plaintiff  was  seen  in  a  merchandise 
car  while  in  the  employ  of  the  I.  C. 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Railroad  Company  as  engineer  and 
while  on  a  side  track  at  Malesas,  Tenn. 
The  matter  was  reported  and  the  plain- 
tiff arrested,  and  when  tried  in  the 
court  at  Jackson,  Tenn.,  was  acquitted. 

In  his  declaration  the  plaintiff  avers 
that  in  December,  1912,  he  was  in  the 
employ  of  the  defendant  company ; 
that  the  defendant,  J.  M.  Egan,  is  di- 
vision superintendent  of  said  road, 
having  offices  at  Water  Valley ;  that  on 
the  said  date  Egan,  agent  of  and  acting 
for  said  defendant  company,  caused  the 
complainant  to  be  charged  with  burg- 
larizing a  car  and  larceny  and  entered 
said  charge  against  him  and  caused 
said  charge  to  be  published ;  that  the 
plaintiff  was  not  guilty  of  the  charge 
or  other  crime  as  alleged  by  said  com- 
pany or  Egan. 

Plaintiff  goes  into  the  courts  and  for 
all  wrong  and  injuries  complained  of 
in  his  declaration  sues  for  damages, 
actual  and  punitive,  in  the  sum  of  $30,-' 
000  and  all  costs,  which  sum  he  de- 
manded as  judgment  against  the  de- 
fendants, J.  M.  Egan  and  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company,  attorneys  R. 
F.  Kimmons,  McGowen  &  Bradley,  of 
Water  Valley,  representing  the  plain- 
tiff. • 

The  case  was  called  for  trial  Friday, 
when  Hon.  H.  H.  Creekmore,  of  Water 
Valley,  and  Stone  &  Son,  of  Oxford,  ap- 
peared in  behalf  of  and  representing 
the  defendants. 

_  After  hearing  the  evidence  on  both 
sides,  and  the  plaintiff  failing  to  prove 
his  declaration  as  set  forth  in  his  bill 


of  complaint,  a  verdict  was  rendered  in 
favor  of  the  defendants,  without  going 
to  the  jury. — Oxford  (Miss.)  Eagle, 
March  23,  1916. 


HE   WOULD   NOT   SETTLE 

On  June  9,  1915,  fast  passenger  train 
No.  103  killed  a  horse,  the  property  of 
Henry  Cecil,  on  station  grounds  at 
Cecilia,  Ky.,  and  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  occurrence  indicated 
that  the  railroad  should  not,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  right,  have  to  pay  anything  at 
all  by  way  of  settlement  of  claim.  Re- 
gardless of  the  facts,  however,  the  rail- 
road offered  a  reasonable  compromise, 
which  claimant  refused,  and  instituted 
suit  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  Hardin 
County,  Ky.,  to  recover  $150,  alleged 
value  of  the  animal  killed.  When  the 
case  was  called  at  the  November,  1915, 
term  of  the  court,  plaintiff  dismissed 
his  case  without  prejudice,  and  refiled 
it  to  the  March  term,  1916,  when  it  was 
tried,  and  the  jury  returned  a  unani- 
mous verdict  in  favor  of  the  defendant, 
leaving  plaintiff  with  a  large  cost  bill 
and  attorneys  fees  on  his  hands,  as  he 
had  to  execute  bond  for  payment  of 
costs  on  second  trial  of  the  case.  The 
Railroad  Company  will  be  enabled  to 
collect  a  good  part  of  the  cost  to  which 
it  was  wrongfully  subjected  as  result 
of  having  to  defend  this  claim. 

It  is  a  common  thing  for  the  Com- 
pany to  offer  small  settlements  in 
claims  that  are  later  sued  upon  and 
won  by  the  Company. 


SflFEIY  FIRST 


COURTESY 

AND 

E,FFIOIE,Nrr 
S  E,RVI  OE, 
LWAY  S 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 

Office  of  Superintendent,  Springfield  Division. 
Springfield  Division  Safety  Meeting. 

Clinton,  111.,  March  15,  1916. 
Present: 

J.  W.  HEVRON,  Superintendent,  Clinton. 
H.  L.  MOFFETT,  Trainmaster,  Clinton. 
WM.  O'BRIEN,  Master  Mechanic,  Clinton. 
M.  M.  BACKUS,  Roadmaster,  Clinton. 
D.  S.  BAILEY,  S.  T.  &  T.,  Rantoul. 
A.  G.  TURLAY,  Traveling  Engineer,  Clinton. 
F.  R.  Jamison,  T.  F.  A.,  Springfield. 
J.  J.  CLEARY,  Claim  Clerk,  Clinton. 

J.  D.  MAGEE,  Claim  Agent,  Springfield. 

S.  C.  DRAPER,  Supervisor  B.  &  B.,  Clinton. 
M.  DOYLE,  Road  Supervisor,  Clinton. 

C.  F.  WELD,  Supervisor  Signals,  Clinton. 
H.  M.  GLEADALL,  Chief  Clerk,  Clinton. 
C.  H.  ST.  JOHN,  Conductor,  Clinton. 
THOMAS  CLIFFORD,  Conductor,  Clinton. 
WM.  SMITH,  Engineer,  Clinton. 
JOHN  BELL.  Engineer,  Clinton. 

FRED  ANDERSON,  Engineer,  Clinton. 

CHARLES  WALLACE,  Brakeman,  Clinton. 
H.  A.  TETLEY,  Brakeman,  Clinton. 

C.  F.  HODGES,  Brakeman,  Clinton. 
General  Discussions. 

\/f  F.ETING  was  opened  by  Mr.  Hevron,  who  made  it  very  plain  that  each  individual 
*•  member  of  the  committee,  as  well  as  each  employe  of  the  entire  division  should 
consider  himself  a  committee  of  one.  to  see  that  any  unsafe  practice  which  might  come 
under  his  observation  be  immediately  stopped  and  that  his  office  be  notified  in  order 
that  positive  action  could  be  taken. 

The  various  reports  from  General  Claim  Agent  Hull,  and  the  minutes  of  the  safety 
meetings  of  Master  Mechanic  and  Train  Masters,  were  read  and  discussed  at  length  by 
all  present.  It  was  found  that  corrective  action  had  been  taken  on  matters  brought 
out  in  the  various  meetings  of  the  Master  Mechanic  and  Train  Masters. 

Letter  from  General  Superintendent  Clift  was  read,  with  reference  to  personal 
injuries  resulting  from  passengers  alighting  from  trains  before  they  are  brought  to  a 
stop,  due  to  trap  doors  being  open,  permitting  their  exit.  This,  of  course,  can  be  over- 
come by  porters  not  opening  trap  doors  until  such  time  as  trains  have  been  brought 
to  a  stop  at  station  platform. 

Trespassers  on  Trains  During  Summer'Months. 

During  the  summer  months  our  trains  are  used  more  or  less  extensively  by  tramps, 
and  while  we  cannot  always  succeed  in  ejecting  each  and  every  occupant  of  our  freight 

91 


92  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

trains,  we  can  break  up  the  practice  of  boys  riding  the  local  freight  trains  from  sta- 
tion to  station,  merely  for  the  sake  of  taking  a  ride.  Local  freight  trains  are,  as  a  rule, 
not  long,  and  it  should  be  urged  upon  all  trainmen  to  see  that  this  practice  is  dis- 
continued. 

Automobile  Accidents  at  Street  Crossings. 

The  time  of  year  is  now  approaching  when  all  of  our  country  roads,  as  well  as 
our  city  streets,  will  be  alive  with  automobiles.  It  is  unfortunate  that  all  of  these 
machines  are  not  being  handled  by  careful  drivers.  Some  will  be  driven  by  the  care- 
less and  chance-taking  person,  while  others  will  be  in  the  hands  of  children,  whose  age 
will  preclude  any  possibility  of  their  using  the  good  judgment  which  should  always  be 
exercised  when  crossing  railroads.  It  is  very  necessary,  therefore,  that  nothing  be  left 
undone  to  impress  upon  each  and  every  engineer  the  importance  of  ringing  the  bell 
and  properly  sounding  the  whistle  at  all  road  crossings  and  keeping  a  careful  lookout 
at  all  times.  This  action  will  save  the  careful  automobile  driver  but  will  not  in  all 
cases  prevent  the  reckless  from  attempting  to  cross  ahead  of  the  train.  However,  if 
we  make  every  effort  to  prevent  crossing  accidents  our  conscience  will  at  least  be  clear. 
If  an  engineer  makes  it  an  invariable  practice  to  properly  sound  whistle  and  ring  the 
bell  for  a  road  crossing,  then  in  case  of  an  accident,  there  will  be  no  question  in  his  mind 
as  to  whether  or  not  these  signals  were  given,  and  he  can  conscientiously  take  the  wit- 
ness stand  if  necessary  and  swear  to  these  facts. 

Another  thing  which  is  very  essential  in  the  prevention  of  accidents  at  road  cross- 
ings is  to  see  that  weeds,  hedges,  trees,  etc.,  are  properly  cut  or  trimmed,  so  that  the 
view  is  not  obscured.  This  will  and  has  been  done  when  the  vegetation  is  on  our  way 
land,  but  it  is  not  always  an  easy  matter  in  the  event  these  obstructions  are  on  private 
property  adjoining  our  way  lands.  So  far  as  this  division  is  concerned,  however,  we 
have  had  practically  no  trouble  in  handling  such  matters.  If  the  owner  of  property  will 
not  cut  the  weeds,  trim  the  trees,  etc.,  we  have  been  successful  in  securing  his  permission 
to  go  on  his  land  and  do  the  work  ourselves. 

Boys  Flipping  Trains. 

Trainmen  always  experience  more  or  less  trouble  when  passing  through  and  doing 
work  at  different  stations  by  boys  getting  on  and  off  of  moving  cars.  This,  of  course, 
is  a  very  dangerous  practice,  and  has  resulted  in  some  very  serious  accidents.  This 
cannot  always  be  prevented  by  trainmen  and  therefore  it  has  been  our  custom  in  addi- 
tion to  using  our  own  endeavor  to  call  upon  city  and  village  authorities  for  assistance. 
A  few  arrests,  however,  had  the  desired  effect,  at  least  it  serves  to  put  an  end  to  the 
practice  for  a  time. 

Crawling  Through  and  Under  Cars  at  Street  Crossings. 

Regardless  of  the  nation-wide  "Safety  First"  movement  and  its  continuous  agita- 
tion, there  are  people  who  will  crawl  under  or  over  cars  at  street  crossings  instead 
of  waiting  perhaps  a  few  minutes  for  train  to  clear  crossing  or  cut  it  so  that  they  may 
proceed  in  safety.  We  must  constantly  keep  in  mind  that  all  kinds  of  people  make  up 
this  great  country,  and  it  is  not  only  our  privilege  but  our  duty  to  protect  those  who 
will  not  look  after  their  own  welfare.  We  must,  therefore  put  forth  every  effort  to 
see  that  crossings  are  never  held  any  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary.  This  will 
make  unnecessary  the  above  mentioned  practice,  and  will,  therefore,  eliminate  acci- 
dents from  this  cause.  This  practice  is  indulged  in  by  children,  who  have  not  yet- 
reached  ages  when  it  is  supposed  that  they  should  exercise  good  judgment  about  their 
safety,  and  everything  possible  must  be  done  to  guard  against  accidents  of  this  nature. 

Importance  of  Prompt  Action  Immediately  After  Accident  Happens. 

Constant  efforts  of  the  "Safety  First"  movement,  and  systematic  weeding  out  of 
careless  employes  will  eventually  bring  railroad  accidents  down  to  a  minimum,  and 
we  must  be  ever  on  the  alert  to  get  first  hand  information  in  regard  to  accidents  from 
each  and  every  one,  and  then  use  this  information  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  another 
from  the  same  causes.  I  am  afraid  that  all  of  our  train  and  enginemen  are  not  suf- 
ficiently impressed  with  the  importance  of  collecting  all  facts  with  reference  to  any 
accident  immediately  after  it  occurs.  The  ones  to  which  I  am  particularly  referring  are 
those  which  happen  to  pedestrians  and  vehicles  at  road  crossings.  It  should  be  brought 
out,  when  it  is  a  fact,  that  whistle  was  sounded  and  bell  rung,  and  this  impressed  upon 
the  minds  of  all  concerned.  Then  later,  when  we  are  perhaps  forced  into  court  to  pro- 
tect our  rights,  these  things  will  assist  materially  in  seeing  that  justice  is  done.  In  our 
opinion. the  mere  fact  that  these  warning  signals  were  mentioned  and  dwelled  upon  on 
the  ground  immediately  after  the  accident  happens  will  lessen  the  liability  of  a  state- 
ment to  the  effect  that  no  warning  of  any  kind  in  regard  to  the  approach  of  the  train 
was  given. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


93 


Unintelligible  Signals  Given  by  Crossing  Flagmen. 

We  are  of  the  opinion  that  more  attention  should  be  given  to  instructing  crossing 
flagmen  with  reference  to  giving  proceed  and  stop  signals  and  see  that  these  signals  are 
given  in  such  an  emphatic  manner  that  no  error  can  be  made  in  their  interpretation. 
We  believe  that  in  some  cases  the  signals  given  by  crossing  flagmen  are  so  imperfect 
that  it  is  possible  to  misinterpret  them.  We  therefore  suggest  that  this  matter  be  con- 
stantly watched  by  all  supervising  officials  on  their  trips  over  the  railroad  and  where 
it  is  found  that  a  flagman  is  not  giving  signals  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  sure  of 
their  proper  interpretation,  steps  should  be  immediately  taken  to  see  that  the  matter  is 
corrected. 

Loading  Rails  on  Coal  Cars. 

We  must  protest  against  the  practice  of  loading  rails  in  coal  cars  because  of  the 
great  danger  of  personal  injury  when  unloading  and  also  on  account  of  the  additional 
expense  incurred  in  unloading  rails  from  this  class  of  equipment.  If  it  is  at  all  con- 
sistent to  prohibit  this  practice,  we  would  recommend  that  orders  be  issued  accordingly. 

New  Motor  Cars  too  Heavy. 

Our  new  motor  cars  are  to  be  equipped  with  fifty-pound  wheels  and  two-inch  axles, 
which  will  probably  make  them  too  heavy  for  two  men  to  handle,  and  inasmuch  as  many 
of  our  section  gangs  on  branch  lines,  especially  in  the  winter  time,  consists  of  only  one 
man  in  addition  to  the  foreman,  and  it  is  a  question  as  to  just  how  this  matter  is  to  be 
handled  in  the  event  that  such  a  motor  car  so  manned  is  overtaken  or  is  met  by  a  train. 
It  is  our  intention  to  weigh  one  of  these  cars  just  as  quickly  as  we  can  get  one  equipped 
in  order  to  see  just  exactly  how  much  the  increase  in  weight  will  amount  to. 

Running  Motor  Cars  at  Night. 

The  running  of  motor  cars  at  night  on  this  division  is  positively  forbidden  except 
on  personal  authority  of  the  Superintendent.  The  only  exception  to  this  rule  is  when 
signal  maintainers  who  may  be  called  out  at  night  to  repair  defective  signals  are  per- 
mitted to  use  motor  car  when  so  instructed  by  the  dispatcher  and  their  cars  are 
equipped  with  red  light  to  the  rear  and  white  light  in  front.  In  cases  of  this  kind  the 
maintaiher  is  advised  by  the  dispatcher  the  location  of  all  trains,  before  motor  trip  is 
started. 


PERRY  H.  BLUE. 


PERRY  H.  BLUE. 

ly/TR.  PERRY  H.  BLUE,  who  was 
general  manager  of  the  Indiana 
and  Illinois  Southern  Railroad — ex- 
tending from  Effingham,  Illinois,  to 
Switz  City,  Indiana,  at  the  time  it  was 
acquired  by  the  Illinois  Central  in  1898 
— died  at  his  home  in  Indianapolis,  In- 
diana, on  November  21,  1915.  He  was 
born  in  Knox  County,  Ohio,  November 
12,  1851 ;  moved  with  his  father  to 
Greene  County,  Indiana,  1854,  where  he 
resided  on  a  farm  until  1866  when  he 
moved  to  Sullivan,  Indiana,  where  he 
was  employed  as  a  clerk  by  his  father 
and  others  until  1872,  when  he  com- 
menced the  study  of  law.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  shortly  thereafter, 
and  served  as  deputy  district  attorney 
under  the  old  Common  Pleas  system 
until  that  court  was  abolished.  He  was 
town  attorney  for  several  years,  and 
also  served  as  a  justice  of  the  peace.  In 
1878  he  was  elected  prosecuting  attor- 
ney of  the  district  composed  of  the 
counties  of  Sullivan  and  Vigo. 

In  1881  he  was  appointed  superinten- 
dent of  the  Bloomfield  Railroad  com- 


94 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


pany  and  in  1882  superintendent  of  the 
Springfield,  Effingham  and  South- 
eastern Railroad.  In  1886,  when  these 
two  roads  were  consolidated  under  the 
name  of  the  Indiana  and  Illinois  South- 
ern, he  was  elected  general  manager  of 
the  new  company,  which  position  he 
held  until  1898,  when  the  line  was  ac- 
quired by  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company,  and  which  it  later  extended 
to  Indianapolis,  Indiana.  Mr.  Blue 
earned  his  promotion  to  the  position  of 
general  manager  by  the  skill  and  ability 
with  which  he  handled  the  litigation 
growing  out  of  the  original  construc- 
tion of  the  Bloomfield  Railroad  and  the 
Springfield  and  Southeastern. 

Upon  the  Illinois  Central's  acquiring 
the  property,  the  new  owners  desired 
him  to  continue  in  the  railroad  service, 
but  large  business  interests  which  he 
had  at  Vincennes,  Indiana ;  Chicago, 
Illinois,  and  in  Sullivan  County,  In- 
diana, led  him  to  decline  the  offer.  He 
was  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Engle  & 
Blue,  hardware  dealers  in  Sullivan  ;  was 
president  of  the  Merom  Gravel  Com- 
pany and  the  Spencer  Stone  Company, 
and  was  interested  in  farming  &nd  va- 
rious other  enterprises.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Democratic  National  Con- 
vention at  St.  Louis  in  1888,  and  served 
as  a  trustee  of  the  Southern  Indiana 
Hospital  at  Evansville,  Indiana,  from 
1889  to  1895.  He  was  married  in  1890 
at  Evansville,  Indiana,  to  Lulu  I. 
Thompson,  and  had  one  child,  a  daugh- 
ter, born  October  10,  1894.  He  was  a 
Mason,  a  Knight  of  Pythias  and  a 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 

Mr.  John  T.  Hays,  district  attorney 
for  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany at  Sullivan,  Indiana,  writes :  "Mr. 
Blue  was  a  splendid  business  man.  He 
had  a  mind  that  was  masterful  and  logi- 
cal, and  a  memory  that  was  wonderful. 
But  it  was  not  in  the  business  world 
that  Mr.  Blue  attained  his  greatest 
achievements.  In  his  home  life  he  was 
an  exemplary  husband  and  father.  His 
sterling  qualities  were  known  to  all 
with  whom  he  had  either  business  or 
social  dealings.  Those  who  knew  him 
best  loved  him  most.  He  was  unas- 


suming, entirely  free  from  egotism,  and 
absolutely  honest.  He  accorded  to 
every  man  a  square  deal.  His  friends 
place  him  in  the  list  of  God's  noblemen. 
He  was  my  friend,  then  whom  I  had 
none  better,  and  I  mourn  his  loss." 


FRANCIS  HUBERT  BOWEN.  ENGINEER. 

FRANCIS  HUBERT  BOWEN 

iy/f  R.  Francis  Hubert  Bowen,  whose 
photograph  appears  herewith,  died 
January  26,  1916. 

Mr.  Bowen  was  the  oldest  passenger 
engineer  on  the  Louisiana  Division.  He 
was  born  in  Monticello,  Miss.,  August 
27,  1855 ;  entered  the  service  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company,  January 
1,  1873,  as  a  machinist  apprentice  at  Mc- 
Comb,  Miss. ;  served  his  time  in  that  ca- 
pacity and  worked  two  years  as  machin- 
ist; promoted  to  engineer  October  14, 
1879,  and  worked  continually  in  that  ca- 
pacity up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

He  was  one  of  the  most  regular  work- 
ers on  the  Louisiana  Division,  in  fact, 
he  rarely  laid  off.  It  is  reported  that  a 
trip  recently  made  to  California  was  his 
only  vacation. 


Q  greatest  ^axl  io  Humanity:  One  of  ine  most  i 
lin  Department  should  be  trie  educational 
*  teacnin^  people  now  to  live  *** 


>st  important 
service 


Scientific  Eating 


A  T  the  present  time  there  is  no  word 
which  is  more  overworked  or  more 
misconstrued  than  the  word  "diet."  It 
seems  that  every  period  and  every  era 
has  its  catch-word.  In  the  time  of  Pres- 
ident Cleveland  it  was  "innocuous  des- 
uetude," and  every  state  of  leisure,  of 
recuperation,  or  mere  laziness,  was  re- 
fered  to  as  innocuous  desuetude. 
During  the  time  of  President  McKinley 
it  was  the  "full  dinner  pail,"  and  dur- 
ing that  of  President  Roosevelt,  "a 
square  deal"  was  the  catch-word. 
"Watchful  waiting"  in  the  last  year  or 
two  has  had  an  equal  prominence,  and 
just  now  "Preparedness"  is  the  catch- 
word of  the  general  public.  These  have 
crowded  "Safety  First"  out  of  its  popu- 
larity. Among  the  various  catch-words 
and  catch-phrases,  however,  should  be  in- 
cluded that  oft  heard  lament,  "on  a  diet." 
Everybody  is  on  a  diet  at  one  time  or 
other.  It  is  as  fashionable  as  having 
appendicitis,  and  there  are  more  reasons 
for  individuals  being  on  a  diet  than  for 
the  prevalence  of  the  above-named  dis- 
ease. 

There  are  the  various  diets  for  the 
digestive  troubles,  and  an  individual  is 
indeed  to  be  pitied  who  is  compelled  to 
forego  all  the  good  things  of  the  table 
and  live  on  scientifically  prepared  husks 
and  dyspepsia  tablets.  The  diets  for  in- 
digestives  are  many,  but  each  individual 
must  have  a  rule  made  for  him  and  to 
find  out  by  painful  experience  the  arti- 
cles which  are  and  which  are  not  allow- 
able in  his  digestive  canal.  Some  dys- 


peptics can  take  hot  milk,  while  the 
cold  liquid  throws  them  almost  into  a 
spasm.  Others  cannot  take  milk  at  all 
and  some  cannot  touch  tea.  To  others 
coffee  is  a  menace,  and  again  a  banana 
will  wreak  disaster  to  a  digestive  ap- 
paratus that  never  finds  the  slightest 
fault  with  mince  pie  or  rabbit.  The 
gentle  radish  has  perhaps  caused  as 
much  trouble  in  unsuspected  digestions 
as  any  other  article  of  food.  Asparagus 
cannot  be  borne  well  by  those  afflicted 
with  trouble  in  the  genito-urinary  tract. 
The  statement,  "Experience  teaches," 
is  a  truth  perhaps  more  applicable  to 
questions  of  diet  than  anything  else.  By 
and  by  we  will  all  learn  what  it  is  safe 
to  eat  and  wise  not  to  eat,  but  most  of 
us  pass  the  age  of  forty  before  experi- 
ences of  acute  discomfort,  perhaps  even 
danger,  teach  us  this  important  lesson. 

Complexion  diets  are  of  course  closely 
related  to  diets  for  the  benefit  of  diges- 
tion. What  relieves  one  trouble  usually 
relieves  the  other  providing  both  spring 
from  the  same  cause,  and  the  great  ma- 
jority of  complexion  troubles  are  trace- 
able to  disordered  stomachs.  As  in  the 
case  of  digestive  diets,  the  same  remedy 
does  not  help  in  a  like  manner  all  in- 
dividuals. Strawberries  eaten  freely  by 
some  will  produce  a  decided  rash  or 
breaking  out  on  the  skin  and  the  result- 
ing itching  causes  marked  misery.  Clams 
or  oysters  will  produce  a  very  serious 
skin  eruption  in  other  individuals. 
Chocolate  in  any  form  will  cause  ugly 
red  patches,  which  are  often  quite  irrita- 


95 


96 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ting  and  painful  and  frequently  come 
to  a  head  like  a  small  boil.  The  individ- 
uals who  are  thus  affected  soon  learn  to 
avoid  this  which  is  a  delicacy  to  others 
because  of  its  persistent  and  unfortunate 
results.  Frequently  these  same  persons 
may  find  that  they  can 'indulge  any  other 
kind  of  a  rich  candy  except  the  choco- 
lates. As  a  rule,  however,  over-indulg- 
ence in  candies  and  sweets  is  bad  both 
for  the  digestion  and  the  complexion. 
Any  complexion  will  be  benefited  by  an 
occasional  course  of  diet,  which  means 
the  elimination  of  heavier  foods  and 
pastries  and  includes  fresh  fruits  in  the 
morning  and  cooked  fruits  at  night,  with 
milk,  whole  wheat  bread,  rare  juicy  meat  . 
once  a  day,  with  plenty  of  fresh  salads 
and  the  avoidance  of  fried  greasy  foods, 
rich  pastries  and  sweets. 

Speaking  of  being  "on  a  diet"  reminds 
the  writer  of  a  most  pitiable  case,  that 
of  a  large  fat  woman  who  is  compelled 
to  diet  one-half  the  year  on  account  of 
rheumatism,  and  to  remain  on  a  diet 
the  other  half  of  the  year  to  keep  down 
superfluous  fat.  Unfortunately  for  stout 
people  rheumatism  diets  and  reducing 
diets  do  not  coincide.  Neither  diet  per- 
mits sweets,  but  while  the  reducing  diet 
allows  plenty  of  nourishing  red  meat, 
the  victim  of  rheumatism  has  nothing  to 
satisfy  the  yearning  for  good  filling 
foods.  As  meats  and  sweets  are  denied, 
they  are  limited  to  vegetables,  cereals  and 
bread  and  butter.  The  seeker  after  slim- 
ness,  on  the  contrary,  may  not  even  look 
at  cereals  and  bread  and  butter  and  milk 
is  also  denied,  but  the  latter  is  the  stand- 
by of  the  rheumatic. 

Rheumatism  in  the  first  stages  may 
easily  be  fended  off.  by  strict  attention 
to  diet,  but  the  difficulty  is  that  the  rheu- 
matic subjects  are  fond  of  the  things 
which  cause  uric  acid  and  this  tends  to 
aggravate  their  condition.  One  great 


difficulty  js  that  the  first  warning  twitches 
are  not  taken  seriously  and  the  individ- 
ual must  have  serious  aches,  with  stiff- 
ness and  enlargement  of  the  joints  be- 
fore he  seriously  contemplates  dieting. 
By  this  time  the  trouble  is  well  seated 
and  only  strenuous  measures  with  a 
really  heartrending  diet  will  remove  it. 
For  gout  the  milk  diet  is  the  best  remedy, 
but  this  milk  diet  must  include  plenty 
of  milk,  a  pint  every  three  hours  at  least, 
so  that  the  strength  of  the  individual  may 
be  kept  up.  Olive  oil,  Cod  Liver  Oil 
and  butter  freely  eaten  are  very  effective 
agents  in  putting  fat  on  too  prominent 
bones  and  joints.  Warm  milk  at  night 
with  plenty  of  cereals  and  cream  for 
breakfast  will  also  help  materially.  The 
man  or  woman  who  wishes  to  get  fatter 
should  sleep  a  great  deal  and  get  as  much 
rest  as  possible.  As  a  rule  the  stomach 
is  less  disturbed  by  animal  than  by  vege- 
table fat  taken  in  excess.  The  limit  of 
digestibility  of  increasing  quantities  of 
food  is  much  sooner  reached  with  fats 
than  with  other  articles  of  diet.  Fats 
also  produce  satiety  early  in  a  meal,  but 
as  in  the  case  of  other  things  in  con- 
nection with  the  body  as  well  as  in  eat- 
ing, toleration  may  be  acquired  by  habit 
or  by  practice.  For  instance,  many  per- 
sons cannot  at  first  digest  Cod  Liver  Oil 
but  after  a  period  of  faithful  effort  it 
will  be  tolerated  nicely  by  the  stomach. 
Seemingly  it  all  becomes  a  habit  and  that 
habit  makes  the  law  to  the  individual. 
Those  who  customarily  are  abstemious 
in  their  diet  and  eat  sparingly  find  that 
this  is  sufficient  for  them,  while  those 
who  by  habit  are  large  eaters  would  seem 
to  require  an  over-abundance  of  food, 
complaining  that  they  suffer  a  hardship 
unless  this  food  is  provided  them,  an- 
other proof  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton's observation  that  "Habit  is  ten  times 
stronger  than  nature." 


Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Chicago,  111.,  February  1,  1916. 
Sharp  &  Smith, 

155  North  Michigan  Avenue, 

Chicago,   111. 
Gentlemen: — 

As  I  am  an  Illinois  Central  employe  and  had  the  misfortune  to  meet  with  an 
accident  which  necessitated  an  amputation  of  my  right  leg,  I  wish  to  write  you  in  re- 
gard to  the  "Sharp  &  Smith"  leg  furnished  me  by  the  Illinois  Central  Hospital  De- 
partment. I  have  had  occasion  to  carefully  study  the  different  artificial  limbs  on  the 
market  and  I  desire  to  speak  a  word  of  praise  of  the  leg  you  furnished  me  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1914.  It  is  perfectly  comfortable  and  permits  me  to  walk  gracefully  and  any 
reasonable  distance  without  the  least  fatigue.  I  highly  recommend  this  leg  and  am 
satisfied  it  is  the  best  that  Can  be  had. 

Again  thanking  you  for  the  attenion  given  my  case. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)     James  Powers, 
Checker. 


East  St.  Louis,  February  12,  1916. 
G.  G.  Dowdall,  M.  D.,  Chief  Surgeon, 
Illinois   Central  Railroad  Co., 
13  East  Eleventh  Place, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Doctor: — 

After  consulting  two  physicians,  neither  one  being  able  to  determine  the  cause 
of  a  large  swelling  on  my  jaw,  I  decided  to  place  my  case  in  the  hands  of  the  Hospital 
Department,  at  this  place,  and  at  the  expiration  of  three  days  I  was  advised  that  they 
had  found  it  necessary  to  send  me  to  the  hospital  in  Chicago  for  an  operation. 

I  arrived  on  January  12,  1916,  and  after  being  examined  by  some  of  the  ablest 
surgeons  on  the  staff,  also  receiving  the  benefit  of  the  best  specialists,  was  operated 
on  nine  days  after  my  entry.  In  addition  I  was  placed  under  an  X-Ray  three  times, 
which  is  conclusive  evidence  that  my  case  was  given  all  the  attention  possible. 

The  treatment  accorded  me  during  my  entire  stay  of  four  weeks  at  Mercy  Hospital 
was  the  very  best,  and  I  feel  certain  that  my  case  would  not  have  been  the  success 
it  was  had  I  been  under  the  care  of  other  surgeons,  the  operation  being  of  a  serious 
nature.  However,  I  was  released  on  February  10th,  entirely  cured. 

My  experience  has  taught  me  that  the  Illinois  Central  Hospital  Department  is  equal 
to  the  best  and  every  employe  can  be  thankful  to  have  it  at  their  service. 

With  heartiest  thanks  for  all  the  favors  accorded  me  during  my  recent  illness,  and 
hoping  that  others  will  have  occasion  to  feel  as  grateful  as  I  do,  I  remain 

Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)     A.  M.   Shaneman, 

Second  Clerk, 
East  St.  Louis  Bureau. 


97 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


The  Value  of  a  Good  Record 

By  T.  H.  Sullivan,  Superintendent 


)  all  employes,  and  especially  to 
those  amenable  to  the  Efficiency 
System  of  Discipline  in  force  on  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  the  above 
subject  is  worthy  of  consideration. 

The  purpose  of  this  system,  which 
was  inaugurated  May  15th,  1910,  is  not 
to  enforce  compliance  with  the  rules 
and  instructions  by  causing  the  offend- 
ing employe  to  suffer  pecuniary  loss,  as 
was  formerly  the  practice,  but  rather  to 
enable  him  to  improve  or  retrieve  his 
reputation,  and  in  effect  permits  him  to 
be  the  maker  of  his  own  record.  In  its 
operation  this  system  is  so  manifestly 
fair  that  it  should  and  does  enlist  loyal, 
diligent  and  competent  performance  of 
duty.  The  system  of  discipline  in  force 
is  not  intended  to.  and  does  not  by  its 
application,  place  in  jeopardy  the  posi- 
tion of  any  honorable  and  industrious 
employe,  but  directs  attention  of  the 
individual  to  the  importance  of  estab- 
lishing a  good  record  which  should  be 
a  source  of  satisfaction  to  himself; 
would  be  appreciated  by  the  Manage- 
ment, and  might  prove  his  most  valu- 
able asset  in  time  of  need. 

The  fact  that  the  present  method  of 
administering  discipline  is  approved 
and  appreciated  by  employes  generally 
is  evidenced  by  the  increased  interest 
and  consequently  increased  efficiency 
displayed  by  them  in  the  performance 
of  their  duties,  and  also  by  the  fact 
that  the  relations  between  the  Com- 
pany ana  its  employes  have  never  been 
more  harmonious  than  at  the  present 
time. 


The  policy  of  the  Management  in 
seeking  by  this  system  to  retain  its  ex- 
perienced employes  in  the  service  is  en- 
tirely in  accord  with  the  observation  of 
an  eminent  military  commander,  who 
said,  "That  army  will  have  the  best 
discipline  which  has  the  most  humane 
laws.  One  battalion  of  experienced 
and  morally  good  men  is  better  than  a 
regiment  of  Falstaffian  recruits." 

Under  existing  conditions,  every 
man  entering  the  service  may  be  as- 
sured that  the  avenue  to  promotion  is 
open  and  his  advancement  is  depend- 
ent upon  his  ability,  deportment,  and 
readiness  to  accept  increased  responsi- 
bility, all  of  which  are  reflected  by  the 
general  character  of  his  service,  as  in- 
dicated by  his  personal  record.  There 
is  in  the  situation  much  to  lend  en- 
couragement to  the  young  employe  and 
to  direct  his  vision  hopefully  toward 
the  rising  sun — for  the  Station  Helper 
is  the  future  Station  Agent ;  the  Fire- 
man the  future  Engineer,  and  the 
Brakeman  of  today  is  the  Conductor  of 
tomorrow.  As  an  inspiration  to  laud- 
able ambition  one  has  but  to  reflect  on 
the  fact  that  the  officials  of  our  railroad 
from  our  President  down  rose  from 
the  ranks,  beginning  their  activities  in 
minor  positions,  and  receiving  their 
education  at  the  School  of  Experience. 
To  the  older  employes  their  records  are 
a  matter  of  pride ;  their  loyalty  has 
never  been  questioned,  and  they  realize 
that  their  interests  and  those  of  the 
Company  are  mutual.  Feeling  secure 
in  their  positions,  and  enjoying  the 
confidence  of  their  co-employes  and 


98 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE  99 

officials    they   present    to    the    profes-  thing  to  stay  us  against  the  winds  of 

sional  agitator  a  barren  field  for  his  adversity,   and  it   can   be  attested  by 

operations.  many  of  our  employes  that  in  cases  of 

It   has   been   said   that   in   times   of  trouble,   no   influence   has   been   more 

prosperity  it  is  well  to  "Cast  an  anchor  potent  in  determining  their  status  with 

to  windward,"  in  order  that  we  may  in  the  Management  than  the  records  they 

times  of  stress  and  storm  have  some-  have  made. 


The  Following  Papers  Were  Read  at  the  Quarterly 
Staff  Meeting  of  the  Tennessee  Division  Held 
at  Fulton,  Ky.,  March  10,  Superintend- 
ent J.  M.  Egan,  Presiding 

Acceptance  and  Handling  of  Live  Stock 

See  Rules  of  General  Freight  Department;  Quarantine  Rules  and  Regulations  of 
United  States  Government  published  in  ICRR  Circular  No.  111-C  or  reissues  (E.  B. 
Boyd's  Circular  No.  5-B  or  reissues) ;  also  Special  Instructions  issued  by  Superintend- 
ent and  other  officers. 

By  way  of  emphasis,  particular  attention  is  directed  to  the  following  require- 
ments which  are  to  be  found  in  above  issues: 

Condition  of  cars  for  loading: 

Floors,  doors,  sides,  and  ends  of  cars  must  be  free  from  nails,  spikes,  projections, 
broken  slats  or  defects  which  might  cause  injury  to  stock. 

Floors  must  be  bedded  (covered)  with  cinders,  sawdust  or  sand,  to  a  depth  of 
not  less  than  2^4  inches. 

Cost  and  duty  of  furnishing  and  installing  bedding.  (See  Classifications  and 
Tariffs). 

Cars  must  be  equipped  with  cross-bars  (bull  boards)  which  must  be  securely 
fastened  in  places  provided  for  them  so  they  will  adequately  protect  the  doorways 
and  prevent  injury  to  stock. 

Acceptance  of  Live  Stock  for  shipment: 

General: 

See  Classifications  and  Tariffs  for  Rules  and  Regulations  governing  rates,  valua- 
tions, caretakers,  double-decking,  mixed  carloads,  partitions  for  separating  bulls  and 
cattle;  stallions,  jacks,  and  horses  and  mules. 

Quarantine  Restrictions,  Disinfecting,  etc.: 

Agents  must  see  that  cattle  from  quarantined  area  are  properly  placarded 
"SOUTHERN  CATTLE"  and  that  Live  Stock  contracts,  waybills  and  stubs  are 
marked  plainly  "Southern  Cattle." 

Under  no  circumstances  can  "Southern  Cattle"  be  put  in  CLEAN  (non-infected) 
pens,  without  first  obtaining  permission  from  Superintendent.  After  having  been 
used  for  "Southern  Cattle"  such  pens,  chutes  and  alleys  must  be  securely  locked  and 
must  not  be  used  for  CLEAN  (non-infected)  animals  until  after  the  pens,  chutes,  etc., 
have  been  cleaned  and  disinfected  under  the  supervision  of  an  Inspector  of  the  Bureau 
of  Animal  Industry  of  the  U.  S.  Government. 

WARNING! 

AGENTS<  and  CONDUCTORS  are  yarned  that  it  is  their  duty  to  familiarize 
themselves  with  United  States  Quarantine  Laws  and  to  strictly  comply  therewith 
in  order  to  avoid  prosecution. 

CAUTION! 

Where  Live  Stock  is  not  moving  for^  IMMEDIATE  SLAUGHTER,  health  cer- 
tificate is,  in  majority  of  instances,  required  and  Agent  must  comply  strictly  with 
Quarantine  Rules  and  Regulations,  Circulars,  etc.,  governing  health  certificates  and 
other  requirements  of  destination  area. 

Prevention  of  Claims: 

When,  in  the  judgment  of  receiving  Agent,  the  live  stock  is  too  poor,  weak,  or 
otherwise  unfit  to  make  the  trip  safely  and  without  damage,  Agent  will  call  attention 


100  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

of  shipper  to  its  condition  and  will  make  proper  notation  on  original  and  on  duplicate 
Live  Stock  contract,  and  on  waybill  and  waybill  stub. 

After  Live  Stock  is  loaded,  Agent  will  inspect  carefully  and  if  car  is  overloaded 
and  injury  is  liable  to  occur  by  reason  of  such  overloading,  Agent  will  so  advise 
shipper  and  will  endeavor  to  persuade  shipper  to  reduce  the  load  to  a  safe  number.  If 
shipper  refuses  to  reduce  the  load  and  insists  upon  the  car  moving  as  loaded,  Agent 
will  make  the  following  notation  on  Live  Stock  contract  and  on  waybill  and  waybill 
stub:  "Accepted  under  protest  at  shipper's  risk  account  overloaded." 

Unloading  En  Route  for  Feed,  Water  and  Rest: 

It  is  unlawful  to  confine  Live  Stock  in  cars  for  a  longer  period  than  twenty-eight 
consecutive  hours  except  that  the  time  of  confinement  may  be  extended  to  thirty-six 
consecutive  hours  upon  WRITTEN  request  of  owner  or  person  who  has -the  stock  in 
custody.  (See  Release  form  178.) 

Special  exception: 

Where  cars  are  provided  with  feed  racks  and  water  troughs  and  the  animals  can, 
and  do  have,  proper  food,  water,  space,  and  opportunity  to  rest,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
unload  them  en  route  for  feed,  water  and  rest. 

Hogs  may  be  handled  without  unloading  for  feed,  water  and  rest  provided  ALL 
the  hogs  have  sufficient  space  to  lie  down  at  SAME  time,  that  trains  ap£  stopped 
for  sufficient  time  to  allow  watering  troughs  to  be  prepared  and  to  allow  every  hog 
time  to  drink  its  fill  and  that  care  is  exercised  to  distribute  properly  through  each 
car  sufficient  shelled  corn  or  its  equivalent  in  ear  corn  or  other  grain  for  each  hog. 

Amount  of  Feed  to  be  Given: 

For  each  twenty-four  hours  the  ration  shall  be  as  follows: 

Horses  and  Cattle,  1^4  pounds  hay  to  each  hundredweight  of  animal. 

Sheep,  \y?  pounds  hay  to  each  hundredweight  of  animal. 

Hogs,  one  pound  of  shelled  corn,  or  its  equivalent  in  ear  corn  or  other  grain,  to 
each  hundredweight  of  animal. 

For  periods  greater  or  less  than  twenty-four  hours,  the  ration  should  be  greater 
or  less,  respectively,  in  the  same  proportion. 


The  More  Orderly  and   Economical  Operation  of 

Our  Railroad  from  an  Agency  View-Point 

For  Discussion  at  the  Quarterly  Staff  Meeting  Held  in  Superintendent's  Office,   Fulton, 

Ky.,  March  10,  1916 

Mr.   Chairman — Gentlemen:  The   fundamental  element  necessary  to  the 

Mr.  Egan  wrote  me  a  few  days  ago,  invit-  orderly  and  economical  operation  of  our  rail- 
ing me  to  be  present  at  this  Quarterly  Staff  road,  in  my  humble  judgment,  is  co-opera- 
Meeting,  and  to  be  prepared  to  present  for  tion  on  the  part  of  its  employes,  and  to  bring 
discussion,  a  subject  looking  towards  the  about  such  conditions,  we  must  have  men  of 
more  orderly  and  economical  operation  of  character,  ability,  activity  and  a  brotherhood 
our  railroad.  as  it  were  of  true,  loyal  manhood. 

The   letter   referred   to,   was   addressed   to  When   we   have   men   of   this   makeup,   we 

Messrs.    Hoar,    Travis,    Parker    and    myself,  will    have    a    prosperous    railroad,    the    com- 

which  left  me  guessing,  whether  or  not,  any  pany's    interest    well    protected    and    no    need 

other  agent  was  to  attend  this  meeting.    Pre-  for    "safety    first,"    success    will    crown    our 

suming  that  I   am  not  the  only  agent  to  be  every  effort. 

"shot  at"  my  remarks  will  be  very  brief  and  As  we  are  to  run  our  railroad  under  me- 

from  an  agency  viewpoint.  thodical  plans,  we  must  do  our  best  to  raise 

By    referring    to    Websters     dictionary,     I  the    standard    and    efficiency    of    the    service, 

find    the    words    "orderly    and    economically"  our  employes  must  be  kind,  considerate  and 

defined  as  follows :  courteous    to    our    friends    and    patrons    and 

"Orderly"  means  well  regulated,  methodic-  the  public  at  large.    A  railroad  is  judged  by 

ally,  performed  in.  good  order.  its    employes,    just    as    a    man    is    judged    by 

"Economically"  means  with  economy.   Econ-  the  company  he  keeps. 

omy   means    frugality   in   expenditures.     Fru-  An    agent's    office    records    are   essential    to 

gality  means  thrift  and  economy.  the  orderly  conduct  of  a  station ;  they  should 

The  meaning  of  these  words  brings  about  be  neat  and   clean,   complete. in   every  detail, 

a  very  broad  and  interesting  subject,  and  one  should  be  filed  in  such  a  systematic  manner 

that  is  governed  by  many  conditions.  that  will  enable  any  one  to  find  what  is  de- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


101 


sired  in  a  moment's  time;  our  records  are  a 
matter  of  history  of  the  station's  doings,  they 
are  current,  historical,  modern  and  profane. 
I  imagine,  some  official  sometimes  finds  our 
records  in  such  a  condition  that  they  are  not 
only  constrained,  but  do  use  language  that  is 
truly  and  honestly  profane.  These  conditions 
should  not  exist.  If  we  are  not  keeping  them 
in  good  shape,  now  is  the  time  for  all  of  us 
to  "put  our  house  in  order,"  for  we  know 
not  the  day  or  the  hour  our  Superintendent 
commeth. 

We  should  not  feel  this  a  burden  and  "a 
have  to  proposition"  and  do  it  just  because 
we  have  to,  or  just  to  get  a  little  praise  from 
our  officials,  as  they  visit  us,  but  do  it  from 
the  fact  we  owe  it  to  our  employers.  Let  us 
be  great  big,  broad  shouldered  men,  putting 
our  might  to  the  wheels  of  progress  and  push 
things  along. 

I  find  many  of  us  complaining  of  some 
one's  shortcomings,  what  one  man  has  not 
done,  and  what  another  should  have  done ; 
let's  quit  finding  fault  with  others,  take  the 
moat  out  of  our  own  eyes,  get  down  to  busi- 
ness, co-operate  with  our  officials,  with  our 
own  organizations,  treat  all  kindly,  get  their 
confidence,  keep  it,  get  everybody  working 
harmoniously  for  the  good  of  the  cause,  don't 
let  one  employe  be  at  outs  with  another ;  when 
we  _find  such  conditions  existing  as  this,  the 
business  of  the  company  suffers;  have  them 
make  up,  or  have  one  or  both  leave  the  serv- 
ice: when  this  is  done,  untold  results  will 
follow. 

Don't  be  a  grouch,  always  complaining,  if 
the  weather  is  bad,  and  it  is  raining,  try  and 
make  our  fellow  beings  think  the  sun  is 
shining,  let's  always  keep  in  tune  with  the 
bright  side  of  life,  never  get  worried  or 
fretted,  let's  try  and  put  on  a  great  big 
smile,  make  the  world  brighter  and  happier 
by  our  having  lived  in  it.  This  will  not  only 
make  us  feel  good,  but  it  gets  business  for 
our  railroad. 

"STAY  GOOD-NATURED" 
Jes  go  'long  good-natured, 

Dat's  de  safest  way. 
Sun  goes  on  a-beamin' 

An'  a-smilin'  all  de  day. 
Keeps  de  crops  a-growin' 

An'  de  blossoms,  an'  de  fruits, 
Until    de    storm    comes    'round    an'    trys 

To  lif  'em  by  the  roots. 

Sun  goes  on  a-shinin' 

Up  above  de  cloud; 
Wind  it  keeps  a-blowin' 

An'  de  thunder  rattles  loud. 
Sky  gits  blue  an'  peaceful, 

Like  no  storm  ain't  never  bin — 
Sun  he  stays  good-natured 

An'  he  allus  boun'  to  win. 


The  economical  operation  of  our  railroad 
consists  in  what  we  make  and  save  for  the 
company,  instead  of  a  continual  drainage  of 
its  resources.  It  has  been  said,  that  it  is  not 
what  we  make,  but  what  we  save  that  makes 
a  successful  business  man;  same  is  true  of 
our  railroad. 

We  find  the  Transportation  Department 
putting  forth  its  every  effort  and  energy  at 
this  time  to  take  care  of  the  car  shortage 
on  our  railroad,  this  shortage  brought  about 
largely,  and  almost  entirely,  by  the  congestion 
at  the  eastern  ports.  These  conditions  have 
become  so  alarming  and  of  such  universal 
interest  to  the  commerce  of  the  country  that 
the  Car  Service  Committee  of  the  American 
Railway  Association  is  endeavoring  to  relieve 
the  situation  and  have  urged  the  entire  rail- 
roads of  the  east  to  return  box  cars  west- 
bound in  excess  of  at  least  20  per  cent  above 
what  they  receive  from  their  western  connec- 
tion. 

It  is  no  doubt  quite  interesting  to  know 
this  association  has  compiled  a  report  of  car 
surplus  and  shortage  for  the  month  of  Janu- 
ary, and  same  shows  surplus  box  cars  only 
21,485,  counting  all  the  cars  in  shops  and  un- 
der repairs. 

This  is  truly  an  alarmin"-  condition,  and 
agents  can  add  a  little  mite  possibly  towards 
relieving  this  disastrous  situation  on  our 
railroad,  by  consolidating  merchandise  cars, 
and  using  every  effort  in  our  vocabulary  of 
words  to  induce  our  friends  and  patrons  to 
promptly  load  and  unload  cars,  also  to  load 
cars  to  the  marked  capacity,  instead  of  merely 
the  minimum:  in  other  words,  make  one  car 
carry  the  load  and  earning  capacity  of  two. 

Quite  a  lot  of  money  is  expended  by  this 
company  for  damages,  occasioned  by  non- 
compliance  with  standard  and  special  instruc- 
tions governing  the  manipulations  of  vents 
and  plugs  on  cars  loaded  with  perishables; 
these  conditions  can  be  averted,  if  we  will 
see  to  it  that  such  property  is  actually  pro- 
tected, rules  and  instructions  complied  with, 
a  full  and  affirmative  record  kept;  a  defec- 
tive record  of  adjustment  of  vents  and  plugs, 
sometimes  result  in  this  company  suffering 
entire  loss  or  damage,  just  the  same  as  if 
no  record  were  made  at  all. 

Diligent  education  of  employes  and  the 
education  of  shippers  up  to  the  importance 
of  proper  preventation  of  loss  and  damage 
will  bring  about  better  and  more  economical 
results. 

When  we,  as  employes,  conduct  our  busi- 
ness in  an  orderly,  economical,  energetic  and 
progressive  way,  our  railroad  will  blossom, 
bloom  and  grow  as  never  before  in  its  his- 
tory. I  thank  you. 

L.  G.  McMillian, 
Agent,  Martin,  Tenn. 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company — The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 

Mail,  Baggage,  Express  and  Milk  Traffic  Department 

H.  L.  Fairfield,  Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic.     J.  A.  Osborn,  General  Baggage 
Agent— Chicago,  111.,  March  1,  1916 

INFORMATION  AND  INSTRUCTION  BULLETIN  NO.  4 


EFFORTS  TO  DEFEAT  PUB- 
LISHED INTERSTATE  FARES. 
21. — Owing  to  the  numerous  efforts 
to  defeat  the  through  interstate  pas- 
senger fares,  train  baggagemen  and 
agents  should  very  carefully  observe 
the  instructions  in  Passenger  Depart- 
ment Circular  I.  C.  4224,  Y.  &  M.  V. 
778,  issued  January  11,  1916.  Baggage 
should  not  be  checked  through  on  split 
transportation;  for  example,  baggage 
should  not  be  checked  from  New  Or- 
leans to  Chicago  for  a  passenger  hold- 
ing mileage  not  good  on  the  northern 
lines  and  intending  to  avail  himself  of 
the  two-cent  per  mile  passenger  rate 
north  of  the  Ohio  River.  Train  bag- 
gagemen having  baggage  checked  to 
any  point  should  not  change  the  desti- 
nation to  a  point  beyond  the  original 
destination  when  it  is  apparent  that 
the  object  of  the  owner  is  to  defeat  the 
through  published  fares. 

Checks  Illegibly  Stamped 
22. — It  has  frequently  been  noticed 
that  checks  are  more  or  less  illegible 
on  account  of  using  worn-out  rubber 
stamps  or  ink  pads,  or  ink  which  is  not 
suitable  for  checks  of  various  colors. 
It  is  suggested  that  this  matter  can  be 
remedied  to  a  great  extent  by  the  use 
of  black  ink  pads,  instead  of  red,  for 
the  stamping  of  checks  of  all  colors. 


Agents  should  also  see  that  their  rub- 
ber stamps  and  ink  pads  are  kept  clean 
and  replaced  when  worn  out. 

Baggage  for  North  Hampton,  N.  H., 
and  Northampton,  Mass. 

23.— The  Boston  &  Maine  Railroad 
calls  attention  to  frequent  delays  to 
baggage  checked  to  North  Hampton, 
N.  H.,  or  Northampton,  Mass.,  on  ac- 
count of  the  similarity  in  the  names  of 
these  two  stations  and  the  state  not 
being  shown  on  the  check.  Agents 
will  use  care  to  write  the  name  of  the 
station  correctly  and  show  the  abbre- 
viation of  the  state  when  checking  bag- 
gage to  either  of  these  stations. 
Failure  to  Show  Proper  Information  on 
Lost  Check  Receipts 

24. — Space  is  provided  on  the  back 
of  our  present  form  of  lost  check  re- 
ceipts, form  GBO  5,  for  personal  iden- 
tification of  persons  claiming  baggage 
wjthout  the  presentation  of  duplicate 
checks.  This  identification  consists  of 
description  of  certain  articles  in  the 
baggage,  names  and  addresses  on  let- 
ters, papers,  etc.  On  about  four-fifths 
of  a  number  of  lost  check  receipts  re- 
cently issued  this  feature  was  wholly 
ignored.  In  order  to  prevent  unscrupu- 
lous persons  from  fraudulently  secur- 
ing possession  of  baggage  which  does 
not  belorr*  to  them,  this  personal  iden- 


102 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


103 


tification  should  be  required  in  every 
case. 

Baggage  Room  Doors  Not  Properly 
Locked 

25. — Observation  at  many  stations 
develops  that  there  is  considerable 
negligence  in  the  matter  of  keeping 
baggage  room  doors  properly  closed 
and  locked  when  the  agent  or  baggage 
agent  is  absent  from  the  room.  We  are 
frequently  called  upon  to  pay  for  bag- 
gage, the  loss  of  which  can  be  ac- 
counted for  only  upon  the  theory  that 
it  was  stolen  from  stations.  When  a 
baggage  agent  is  required  to  go  to  the 
baggage  car,  possibly  a  full  train 
length  away  from  the  baggage  room, 
he  affords  every  opportunity  for  the 
theft  of  baggage  or  other  valuables 


which  may  be  in  the  room,  unless  he 
locks  the  door  when  leaving.  It  is 
hoped  that  agents  will  give  this  mat- 
ter very  careful  attention  with  a  view 
to  reducing  the  number  of  claims  for 
loss  of  baggage. 
Incomplete  Information  on  Excess 

Baggage  Checks 

26. — In  going  over  several  thousand 
local  excess  checks,  recently,  we  are 
surprised  to  note  the  large  number  of 
cases  in  which  issuing  agents  have 
failed  to  show  the  proper  information 
on  the  place  of  the  checks  as  to  the 
number  of  tickets  presented,  number 
of  pieces  of  baggage,  form  and  number 
of  transportation,  and  other  informa- 
tion provided  for  on  the  check.  All  of 
this  information  is  very  essential  and 
it  should  invariably  be  shown. 


Meritorious  Service 


"t^AVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
•••  following  conductors  and  gatekeepers 
for  their  special  efforts  in  lifting  and  pre- 
venting the  use  of  irregular  transportation 
in  connection  with  which  reports  (Form 
972)  were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of  pas- 
senger receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advises  the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,  all 
pass  irregularities  being  brought  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  vice-president. 

Illinois  Division 

During  February  the  following  suburban 
gatekeepers  lifted  commutation  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  or  being  in  improper 
hands:  K.  F.  Emmanuel,  J.  H.  Quinlan, 
Eleanor  Jacobs. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks  on  train  No. 
34,  February  8th  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  on  account  of  having  expired,  also 
going  portion  of  ticket  on  account  of  re- 
turning portion  being  missing  and  col- 
lected cash  fares.  Passengers  were  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  refund 
on  tickets. 

Conductor  T.  W.  Ward  on  train  No.  2, 
February  18th,  lifted  trip  oass  on  account 
of  not  being  countersigned  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  A.  Hitz  on  train  No.  8, 
February  22nd,  lifted  annual  pass  on  ac- 
count of  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel  on  train  No.  2, 
February  19th,  declined  to  honor  card 


ticket  on  account  of  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  refund 
on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  24,  February  24th,  he  de- 
clined to  honor  mileage  book  on  account 
of  having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

St.    Louis    Division 

Conductor  G.  Carter  on  train  Np.  5, 
February  6th,  lifted  going  portion  of  em- 
ploye's trip  pass  on  account  of  returning 
portion  being  missing  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train  No.  22, 
February  8th  and  No.  3,  February  llth, 
declined  to  honor  card  tickets  on  account 
of  having  expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 
Passengers  were  referred  to  passenger  de- 
partment for  refund  on  tickets. 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup  on  train  No. 
201,  February  29th,  declined  to  honor  go- 
ing portion  of  card  ticket  on  account  of  re- 
turning portion  being  missing  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor  W.  H.  Sharkey  on  train  No. 
101,  February  5th,  declined  to  honor  go- 
ing portion  of  card  ticket  on  account  of 
returning  portion  being  missing  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  B.  Stewart  on  train  No.  123, 
February  15th,  declined  to  honor  returning 
portion  of  card  ticket  presented  for  pas- 
sage in  the  opposite  direction  and  collected 
cash  fare.- 


104 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Conductor  P.  J.  Crosson  on  train  No. 
132,  February  28th,  lifted  expired  card 
ticket  from  passenger  who  admitted  hav- 
ing previously  secured  transportation  on 
same  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Kentucky   Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbrough  on  train 
No.  103,  February  9th,  lifted  trip  pass  re- 
stricted to  intrastate  travel  on  account  of 
being  presented  in  connection  with  an  in- 
terstate trip.  Passengers  declined  to  pay 
fare  and  were  required  to  leave  the  train. 

Conductor  I.  D.  Farrington  on  train  No. 
835,  February  10th,  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age book  on  account  of  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Tennessee    Division 

Conductor  R.  F.  Phillips  on  train  No.  24, 
February  19th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  on  account  of  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  B.  Pope  on  train  No.  110, 
February  27th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  on  account  of  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Mississippi    Division 

Conductor  O.  H.  Harrison  on  train  No. 
34,  February  1st,  declined  to  honor  monthly 
commutation  ticket  on  account  of  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  N.  S.  McLean  on  train  No.  124, 
February  1st,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book,  also  monthly  commutation  ticket,  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  A.  M.  King  on  train  No.  3, 
February  20th,  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  which  purchaser  attempted  to  trans- 
fer to  another  passenger  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  R.  F.  Cathey  on  train  No.  23, 
February  28th,  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
on  account  of  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff  on  train  No. 
332,  February  14th,  declined  to  honor  re- 
turning portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket 
on  account  of  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  G.  O.  Lord  on  train  No.  34, 
February  14th,  declined  to  honor  return- 
ing portion  of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  on 
account  of  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  W.  E.  McMaster  on  train  No. 
4,  February  29th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  on  account  of  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  refund 
on  ticket. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee  on  train  No.  331, 
February  4th,  lifted  expired  ticket  from 
passenger  who  admitted  having  previously 


secured    transportation    on    same    and    col- 
lected cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 
Conductor    C.    Davis    on    train    No.    12, 
February    1st,    declined    to    honor    mileage 
book    on    account    of    having    expired    and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Illinois  Division 

Conductor  J.  P.  Leuck  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
106009  with  no  light  weight  stencilled  on 
same.  Arrangements  were  made  to  have 
car  stencilled. 

Mr.  Frank  Davis,  clerk  at  the  freight 
house,  Kankakee,  111.,  has  been  commended 
for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C.  42025 
improperly  stencilled.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  car  number  corrected. 

Signal  Maintainer  H.  J.  Bacus,  of  Monee, 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  I.  C.  92567  with  no  light  weight 
stencilled  on  same.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  car  properly  stencilled. 

Extra  Conductor  W.  C.  Devereaux  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  broken 
rail  north  of  Clay  Street,  Bloomington, 
February  18th,  and  calling  section  foreman 
to  make  repairs,  thereby  removing  possible 
cause  of  an  accident. 

Engineer  S.  Kellogg,  Fireman  F.  R.  Shap- 
land,  Conductor  G.  F.  Coffing,  and  Brake- 
men  W.  C.  Devereaux  and  E.  D.  Ehrick, 
Train  364,.  March  16th,  have  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  fire  on  right  of 
way  near  Stoddard.  Fire  was  extinguished 
and  possible  loss  prevented. 

Brakeman  R.  H.  Bobbitt  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  rail  in  pass- 
ing track  at  Otto,  March  20th,  and  report- 
ing matter  so  repairs  could  be  made,  there- 
by preventing  possible  accident. 

Agent  G.  E.  Ricketts,  Monee,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  brake  beam 
down  on  car  in  Extra  1635  South,  March 
23rd.  Train  was  flagged  and  crew  removed 
the  beam,  thereby  preventing  possible  acci- 
dent. 

Engineer  J.  O.  Francoeur  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  a  piece  of  iron 
caught  in  the  frog  on  southbound  main 
track  opposite  the  Kroehler  Manufacturing 
plant  at  Bradley.  Obstruction  was  removed, 
thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Operator  T.  L.  Behrends  at  Monee  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  brake 
beam  down  on  car  in  train  74,  March  30th. 
Train  was  stopped  and  crew  removed  the 
brake  beam,  thereby  preventing  possible  ac- 
cident. 

Switchmen  E.  Hughes,  F.  Fennell  and 
J.  G.  Wilson,  have  been  commended  for  dis- 
covering calf  in  yard  at  Kankakee  and 
taking  the  necessary  action  to  have  calf 
placed  in  car. 

Operator  O.  E.  Meeks,  at  Otto,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  hot  box  on 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


105 


Express  car  698  in  No.  22,  March  28th. 
Train  was  stopped  and  crew  gave  same 
necessary  attention. 

Agent  R.  O.  Dornblazer,  Aetna,  111.,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  report- 
ing brake  rod  dragging  under  car  in  Extra 
1663  south. 

Operator  J.  Crannell,  Tolono,  and  Night 
Yard  Clerk  Raymond  Powers,  at  Tuscola, 
have  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  door  open  on  car  of  merchandise 
•  in  train  53  passing  their  station.  Door  was 
closed  and  sealed,  thereby  preventing  pos- 
sible loss. 

Conductor  E.  C.  Bright  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  car 
in  his  train  with  24  inches  of  flange  missing, 
February  2nd.  Car  was  set  out  at  Effing- 
ham  and  repairs  made,  thereby  preventing 
possible  derailment. 

Conductor  J.  J.  Monahan  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  M.  C. 
88818  with  no  light  weight  stencilled  on 
same.  Arrangements  were  made  to  have 
car  stencilled. 

Conductor  C.  H.  Redus  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  coal  leaking  in  Erie 
car  11174  in  Extra  1678  north  at  Alma, 
March  14th.  Leak  was  stopped,  thereby 
preventing  loss. 

Conductor  M.  D.  Leuck  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  and  reporting  I.  C. 
124014  listed  as  empty  while!  moving  in 
Extra  1674  south,  March  2nd,  while  car 
really  contained  a  pair  of  trucks. 

Agent  C.  Sisspn,  Mason,  111.,  and  Con- 
ductor Nelson  in  charge  of  Extra  1512 
south,  January  28th,  have  been  commended 
for  manner  in  which  they  handled  case  of 
gentleman  accompanying  shipment  not  hav- 
ing any  ticket. 

Switchman  J.  R.  Williams,  Decatur,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting broken  arch  bar  on  truck  of  C.  S. 
1353,  Vandalia  Line,  Extra  151,  March  9th, 
thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Agent  J.  C.  Lloyd  Shobonier,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  reporting 
brake  beam  down  in  Train  156,  March  18th, 
thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Agent  A.  C.  Beckett,  Walker,  has  been 
commended  for  discovering  and  reporting 


brake  beam  down  on  car  in  train  164,  March 
20th,  thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Minnesota  Division. 

Operator  H.  A.  Finn,  Warren,  111.,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting broken  beam  dragging  under  car  in 
train  71,  March  8th,  thereby  preventing  pos- 
sible accident. 

Operator  Fackenthall,  Dyersville,  la.,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting brake  beam  down  on  K.  C.  S.  14069, 
train  Extra  1525,  March  27th.  Train  was 
stopped  and  brake  beam  removed,  thereby 
preventing  possible  accident. 

Section  Foreman  Reed  Baldwin,  Dyers- 
ville, la.,  has  been  commended  for  discover- 
ing and  reporting  brake  beam  down  on  A. 
R.  L.  10830,  in  No.  62,  March  7th.  Train 
was  stopped  and  brake  beam  removed, 
thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 

Conductor  F.  A.  Bradford,  Waterloo,  la., 
has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  brake  beam  down  on  car  in  train 
No.  16,  March  4th,  at  Dyersville.  Brake 
beam  was  removed,  thereby  preventing  pos- 
sible accident. 

Brakeman  F.  J.  Theno,  Dubuque,  la.,  has 
been  commended  for  discovering  and  re- 
porting broken  arch  bar  I.  C.  120081,  Extra 
1611  West,  March  17th.  Car  was  inspected 
at  Scales  Mound  and  set  out,  thereby  pre- 
venting possible  accident. 

Springfield  Division 

Conductor  D.  C.  Mulligan  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  broken  rail  on  mile 
42  on  the  Havana  District.  Section  Fore- 
man was  immediately  notified  and  neces- 
sary repairs  made,  thereby  avoiding  pos- 
sible accident. 

Brakeman  E.  C.  Bailey  has  been  com- 
mended for  discovering  switch  in  Centralia 
Yards  with  points  gapping  open.  Section 
foreman  was  promptly  notified  and  repairs 
made,  thereby  preventing  possibility  of  de- 
railment. 

Memphis  Division 

Mai  Rutherford  has  been  commended  for 
discovering  and  reporting  N.  O.  G.  No.  74'6 
off  center  in  train  593  at  Rome,  Miss., 
thereby  preventing  possible  accident. 


Di 


i  vision 


ILLINOIS    DIVISION    GENERAL 

OFFICES. 

Miss  Gertrude  Huber,  who  for  the  past  three 
years  has  been  entertaining  the  employes  in 
Room  400,  and  incidentally  operating  a  comp- 
tometer, announces  that  she  is  soon  to  leave 
us  to  become  engaged  in  motion  picture  work, 
the  Universal  Company  having  offered  her  an 
opportunity  to  become  associated  with  such 
screen  stars  as  Blanche  Sweet,  Charlie  Chaplin, 
et.  al. 


News 


Her  host  of  friends,  while  sorry  to  see  her 

3,  wish  her  a  most  prosperous  career. 

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Try  It  in  Your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes  for 
Scaly  Eyelids  and  Granulation 


106 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Springfield   Division 

Mr.  W.  B.  Crowe,  engineer,  visited  in 
Blanchaster,  Ohio. 

Mr.  Joe  Berrey,  painter,  and  wife,  visited 
in  Detroit,  Mich. 

Mr.  R.  A.  Cooper,  fireman,  visited  rela- 
tives in  Wellington,  Kan. 

Mr.  W.  E.  Madden,  fireman,  who  is  off 
duty  on  account  of  a  mashed  finger,  is 
visiting  his  parents  in  Evansville,  Ind. 

Mr.  Gratton  Ives,  engineer,  and  wife, 
visited  in  New  Orleans  during  the  Mardi 
Gras. 

Mr.  Theodore  Nicholson,  labor  gang 
foreman,  and  wife,  were  called  to  Lebanon, 
Ky.,  due  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Nicholson's 
father. 

Mr.  F.  M.  Moffitt,  engineer,  and  family, 
visited  relatives,  in  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Mr.  Lon  Carter,  laborer,  visted  in  Cen- 
tral City,  Ky. 

Mr.  E.  J.  Robbins,  machine  shop  fore- 
man, and  wife,  will  visit  in  New  Orleans 
and  Pensacola,  Fla. 

Mr.  W.  G.  Kimble,  boilermaker,  and 
family,  will  visit  in  Waterloo,  Iowa. 

Mr.  Virgil  Gotten,  machinist  helper,  will 
visit  relatives  in  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Mr.  Wm.  Buchanan  and  Louis  Lighthall, 
handymen,  are  making  arrangements  for  a 
trip  to  New  Orleans,  La. 

Mr.  E.  B.  Barlow,  blacksmith  foreman, 
and  wife,  were  called  to  Amboy,  111.,  due 
to  the  death  of  Mr.  Barlow's  brother. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Gossett  who  has  been 
on  leave  of  absence  on  account  of  sickness 
is  reported  doing  nicely. 

Brakeman  A.  D.  Jolly  is  still  off  duty  on 
account  of  rheumatism. 

Brakeman  J.  H.  Belnap  has  resigned  from 
the  service. 

Switchman  S.  J.  Davis  and  C.  H.  Riggs 
have  resigned  from  the  service. 

Switchman  Ed  Palmer  who  has  been 
absent  from  duty  on  account  of  injury,  has 
resumed  service. 

K.  Groves,  day  train  crew  caller,  has  been 
appointed  file  clerk  in  superintendent's 
office. 

Dispatcher  J.  A.  Vallow  has  returned 
from  20  days'  vacation,  having  made  a  tour 
of  the  south,  including  a  trip  to  Havana, 
Cuba. 

C.  E.  Baugh,  Agent  Toronto,  is  on  a  30- 
day  leave  of  absence. 

Ned  Warrick,  Agent  Kenney,  is  taking 
3  or  4  weeks'  vacation,  commencing  April 
4,  being  relieved  by  J.  L.  Fleming. 

R.  C.  Fortman,  3rd  trick  Operator  E.  Gd. 
Ave.,  expects  to  be  off  duty  15  days  com- 
mencing April  5,  and  will  be  relieved  by 
T.  R.  Beach. 

H.  O.  Williamson,  second  trick  Operator, 
Mt.  Pulaski,  has  taken  the  Agency  at  Paw- 
nee Junction  and  the  position  at  Mt.  Pu- 
laski goes  to  A.  C.  Beckett,  at  present 
Agent  Walker,  Illinois. 


Divernon  has  been  closed  as  a  night 
train  order  office  and  made  a  day  office 
April  1st. 

Passenger  Flagman  R.  M.  Heaton  has  re- 
turned to  work  after  spending  a  couple  of 
weeks  in  Texas  visiting. 

Brakeman  C.  J.  Wallace  resigned  from 
the  service. 

Brakeman  W.  J.  Dailey  has  taken  sixty- 
day  leave  of  absence  and  will  visit  with 
relatives  in  Ohio. 

Trainmen's  extra  list  on  Clinton  District 
has  been  cut  and  some  of  the  men  have 
gone  north  in  hopes  of  finding  work  for 
the  summer  months. 

In  order  that  train  on  the  Decatur  Dis- 
trict may  be  turned  and  won't  have  to  run 
backwards  as  heretofore,  authority  has 
been  issued  to  construce  a  wye  track  at 
White  Heath.  This  wye  will  greatly  fa- 
cilitate the  movement  of  trains  on  this  dis- 
trict, and  lessen  the  danger  of  derailment 
owing  to  engine  backing  up. 

Rodman  E.  R.  Rail  has  resigned  his  po- 
sition on  the  Springfield  Division  to  ac- 
cept a  position  with  the  Pennsylvania  R. 
R.  in  the  Chicago  terminals.  Mr.  William 
Meyer  was  appointed  rodman  on  the 
Springfield  Division,  vice  Rail,  resigned. 
Mr.  Meyer  has  worked  at  several  places 
for  this  Company  previously  and  is  well 
acquainted  with  the  work. 


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Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago II 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


107 


Adapted  for  4  wheeled  light  cars 


Can  be  installed  easily  on  a  3  wheeled  velocipede 


CASEY  JUNIOR 

An  Engine  for  Light  Cars  and  Speeders 

% 

You  all  know  "Casey  Jones"  the  famous  hand  car  engine. 
"Casey  Junior"  is  its  little  brother,  only  one-third  the  size  and 
half  the  power.    It  is  the  first  and  only  practical  engine  on  the 
market  for  converting  hand  speeders  into  motor  speeders.    Not 
a  "Jim  Crack"  nor  a  toy,  but  a  powerful  engine,  built  almost 
like  a  watch  and  so  compact  that  it  can  be  picked  up  like  a  piece 
of  stove  wood,  yet  develops  2%.  H.  P.  brake  test, 
and  weighs  only  80  pounds,  including  water  cooler, 
gasoline  tank  and  all.    It  will  fit  any  speeder  or  light 
car.    Runs  either  way  with  equal  power  and  speed, 
starts,  stops  or  reverses  like  an  automobile,  or  can 
be  left  running  free  while  car  is  standing.    It  is  not 
necessary  to  push  car  a  block   or  two  to  start  it. 

Motorize  Your  Speeder 

Why  pump  your  speeder  when  this  little  engine  will  do  it  for 
you?  Why  swelter  in  the  broiling  summer  sun  or  shiver  in  the 
blizzards  of  winter  when  this  thoroughly  practical  motor  can  be 
had  at  such  a  low  price?  It  is  sent  out  complete  ready  to 
install  and  run  by  filling  the  tank  with  gasoline. 

Price  $60.00  cash  or  terms  of  $10.00  down  and  $5.00  per  month. 
Ride  while  you  are  paying  for  it.  Send  for  one  and  try  it  for 
thirty  days  at  our  expense.  If  you  don't  like  it  send  it  back. 
We  will  be  just  as  good  friends. 

Get  our  1916  descriptive  folder  which  describes  very  completely 
both  the  "Casey  Junior"  velocipede  motor,  and  the  famous  "Casey 
Jones"  4-8  H.  P.  hand  car  engine  which  we  furnish  complete  for 
the  converting  of  a  standard  hand  car  into  a  motor  car. 

NORTHWESTERN  MOTOR  COMPANY, 

2OO  Spring  Street  Eau  Claire,  Wisconsin 


Please   mention   this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


108 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


StifeTs 


Indigo  Cloth 


Standard  for  over  75  years. 

OVERALLS 

JUMPERS  8c 

UNIFORMS 


has  a  history  parallel  with 
American  Railroads. 

It  began  its  existence  at  the 
same  time  and  has  kept  pace 
with  railroad  advancement  from 
past  to  present. 

STIFEL'S  INDIGO,  the 
cloth    invincible,  is    the 
typical    railroad    man's 
garment  cloth. 

Look  for  the  label 
on  the 


REGISTERED 

cloth  on  the  inside  of 
the  garment.  It's  your 
guarantee  of  the 
genuine. 

CLOTH  MANUFACTURED  BY 

J.  L.  STIFEL  &  SONS 

INDIGO  DYERS  &  PRINTERS 
WHEELING.  WEST  VIRGINIA 

NEW  YORK. 

260-262  Church  Street 
PHILADELPHIA. 

324  Market  Street 
BOSTON.  -  31  Bedford  Street 
CHICAGO, 

223  W   Jackson  Blvd. 
SAN  FRANCISCO, 

Postal  Telegraph  Bldg. 
3T.  JOSEPH,  MO.. 

Saxton  Bank  Bldg. 
BALTIMORE,  -  Coca  Cola  Bldg. 
ST.  LOUIS,  -  928  Victoria  Bldg. 
ST.  PAUL,  -  238  Endicott  Bldg. 
TORONTO,  14  Manchester  Bldg. 
WINNIPEG, 

400  Hammond  Bldg. 
MONTREAL, 

Room  500,  489  St.  Paul  St. 


Building  and  Bridge  Supervisor  Draper 
has  made  his  annual  spring  inspection  of 
all  bridges  and  buildings  on  the  division 
and  reports  a  large  per  cent  of  structures 
in  excellent  condition.  When  the  author- 
ized work  on  bridges  has  been  completed 
this  summer  they  will  all  be  in  first  class 
shape. 

With  the  advent  of  spring  "Shorty"  the 
gardener  has  begun  actively  fighting  the 
bleakness  of  the  landscape.  Like  Keats, 
Shorty  says  "A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy 
forever,"  and  he  is  determined  to  make  all 
the  stations  on  the  division  a  place  of 
beauty.  In  past  years  he  has  been  very 
successful  in  this  uphill  fight.  At  the  pres- 
ent moment  he  can  be  seen  from  the  office 
window  pulling  a  heavy  iron  roller  that 
was  very  evidently  built  and  designed  by 
the  maker  to  be  moved  by  a  mule. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Wheatley,  Fireman,  will  visit 
in  New  Orleans,  La.,  and  Mobile,  Ala. 

Mr.  T.  A.  Grason,  Engineer,  and  daugh- 
ter Helen  will  visit  in  Muskogee,  Okla. 

Mr.  Virgil  Mileham,  Coach  Cleaner,  will 
visit  in  New  Orleans,  La. 

Mr.  W.  H.  McAnally,  Fireman,  and  wife 
will  visit  in  Memphis  and  Chattanooga. 
Tenn. 

Mr.  C.  L.  Drago,  Engineer,  and  wife  will 
visit  their  daughter  in  Crookston,  Minn. 

Mr.  J.  C.  Trobaugh,  Engineer,  will  visit 
in  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  W.  J.  Brewer,  Engineer,  wife  and 
daughter  will  visit  in  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  Thomas  Nicholson  and  son  Rector 
will  visit  in  Louisville,  Ky. 

Mr.  Charles  J.  Chrisman,  Boilermaker, 
will  visit  in  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  James  E.  Snyder,  Boilermaker 
Handyman,  will  visit  in  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  Fred  C.  Silger,  Fireman,  will  visit 
in  Houston,  Texas. 

Mr.  Geo.  A.  Sheehan,  Fireman,  will  visit 
in  Denver,  Colo. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Gallagher,  Engineer,  and  wife 
will  visit  Poplar  Bluff,  Mo.,  and  Hot 
Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  R.  M.  Weedman,  Engineer,  and  wife 
will  visit  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Mr.  E.  G.  Sterling,  Chief  Accountant  in 
the  Master  Mechanic's  office,  missed  his 
calling,  as  he  has  a  voice  as  good  as  Ca- 
ruso's but  we  like  Sterling's  better  still. 

Goods— Restauranl 

OPEN  ALL  NIGHT 

Best  of  Meals  and  Service 

Located  in  Jackson  Park  Hotel 

1541  East  63rd  Street 
100  Rooms  Reasonable  Price 

Two  blocks  from    the  III.   Central  Hospital 

Employes  having  relatives  or  friends  whor 

they  wish   to   be  near  will  find  this  a  mos 

convenient  location. 


Please   mention   this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


109 


Preparing  for  Eventualities 
Bather — Have  an  eye  on  my  clothes, 
my    boy — you    shall    have    twopence 
when  I  come  out. 

Boy — An'  if  yer  don't  come  out,  kin 
I  'ave  the  clothes  instead  o'  the  tup- 
pence?— London  Opinion. 

Signs  of  the  Times 
In  a  dance  hall  at  Starved  Rock: 
"Kindly  remember  introductions  given 
during  dances  are  not  recognized  after- 
ward unless  the  lady  speaks  first."  In 
Montreal :  "This  church  for  sale  or 
lease.  Can  be  used  for  hall,  stores,  or 
moving  picture  theater."  In  Washing- 
ton, D.C.  :"D.  Kantor,  Fine  Wines  and 
Liquors."  In  Lake  Placid,  N.  Y.:  "We 
make  the  most  leading  fashionable 
style  skirt  of  the  very  latest."  In  a 
Wabash  avenue  restaurant:  "High 
class  chef,  redecorated  and  in  a  position 
to  serve  the  public  with  the  best  food 
the  market  affords." 

There  were  two  section  men  riding 
along  on  a  hand  car.  One  was  heard  to 
remark,  "I  don't  like  to  mention  any 
names,  but  there's  some  one  on  this  hand 
car  that  ain't  pushin'."— B.  R.  &  P.  Ry. 
Emloyees'  Magazine. 


Why? 

"And  you  wouldn't  begin  a  journey 
on  Friday?" 

"Not  I." 

"I  can't  understand  how  you  can 
have  faith  in  such  a  silly  superstition." 

"No  superstition  about  it.  Satur- 
day's my  pay  day." — Minneapolis 
Journal. 

"How  realistic  your  painting  is!  It 
fairly  makes  my  mouth  water." 

"A  sunset  make  your  mouth  water !" 

"Oh,  it  is  a  sunset,  is  it?  I  thought 
it  was  a  fried  egg." 


Mortimer  &  Ryan  Co. 

(INCORPORATED) 

CONTRACTORS 

Plumbing.  Gas  Fitting.  Iron  and  Tile  Drainage 
Telephone  Oakland  678          4308  Cottage  Gr»vt  ATC. 


F.  W.  NAGFL         Established  1865         H.  L.  MEYER 

NAGEL  &  MEYER,  Jewelers 

Third  and  Broadway  PADUCAH,  KY. 

Expert  watchmakers  (onjy)  employed  to  care  for 
your  watches.  Ball  and  other  popular  makes  of 
railroad  watches  for  your  selection. 


Practical  Books 
for  Ambitious  Men 


{[I  For  the  man  who  aspires  to  something  better — who  wants  to  fit  himself 
for  a  particular  line  or  trade — we  offer  a  most  complete  line  of  technical 
books  from  which  to  choose. 

C|  Here  are  elementary  books  for  the  beginner;  practical  handbooks  for 
the  student  and  worker,  and  more  advanced  and  technical  works  for 
those  who  desire  to  become  experts  in  their  line.  We  have  books  for 
practically  every  trade. 

{]j  No  matter  what  your  position,  or  what  line  of  work  you  are  engaged 
in,  you  are  sure  to  find  some  book  listed  in  either  our  Technical  or 
business  Book  Catalog  that  will  be  of  use  to  you. 

Our  Business  Book  Catalog  contains  a  select  list  of  books  on 

Accounting,  Advertising,  Banking,  Collections,  Commercial  Law,  Cor- 
porations, Correspondence,  Credits,  Efficiency,  Finance,  Industrial 
Economics  and  Business  Education,  Insurance  Organization  and  Man- 
agement, Real  Estate  Selling,  Transportation,  etc. 

Our  Technical  Book  Catalog  lists  books  on  nearly  every  technical  subject. 

BOTH  ARE  FREE 

A  postal  will  bring  them.     Address 

A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.         Dept.  A,        Chicago,  Illinois 


Please   mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


110 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


DON'T  PUMP  YOUR  LIFE  AWAY 

on  a  hand  car  or  a  velocipede  when 
you  can  ride  in  an  automobile. 

The  No.  2  Rockford  Car 
is  a  light,  speedy,  serviceable  run- 
about for  the  rails 

Simple  in  Construction 
Easy  to  Operate  Easy  to  Pay  For 


No.  2  Rockford  Car 
Send  for  Catalogue  No.  43 

Address  Dept.  FF 

CHICAGO  PNEUMATIC  TOOL  CO. 
CHICAGO  NEW  YORK 

1049  Fisher  Building  52  Vanderbilt  Ave. 

Branches  Everywhere 


LEYDEN-ORTSEIFEN  COMPANY 


THOMAS  F.  H.  LEYDEN 
President 


ADOLPH  J.  ORTSEIFEN 
Sec'y  &  Treas. 


RAILROAD  BUILDINGS       WAREHOUSES 
INDUSTRIAL  PLANTS    HEAVY  MASONRY 

Telephone  Harrison  3436 

MONADNOCK  BUILDING 
CHICAGO,  ILL. 


THE  FOWLER  CAR  COMPANY 

Single  Sheathed 

BOX   CARS 

For   All  Purposes 
THE  BEST 

1135  Monadnock  Bldg.,     Chicago,  111. 


Bunn 
Special 

Adjusted  to 

6 

Positions 

Dial  up 
Dial  down 
Pendant  up 
Pendant  left 
Pendant  right 
Pendant  down, 
as  shown  in 
illustration 


Sangamo 
Special 

Adjusted  to 

6 

Positions 

Dial  up 
Dial  down 
Pendant  up 
Pendant  left 
Pendant  right 
Pendant  doxvn, 

as  shown  in 

illustration 

Is  Your  Watch  Adjusted  to 

Six  Positions? 

Most  railroad  watches  are  adjusted  to  only  five 
positions  but  owing  to  their  superior  quality 
the  famous 

"Sangamo  Special" 
and  "Bunn  Special" 

Railroad  Watches  are  adjusted  to  six  posi- 
tions. Ask  your  jeweler  about  these  superior 
watches.  Descriptive  folder  sent  on  request. 

Illinois  Watch  Company 

Springfield 


United  Supply  &  Manufacturing  Co. 

Railway  Exchange 
Chicago 

Wool  and  Cotton  Wiping  and  Packing  Waste 
Nate,  Bolts,  Rivets.  Spike* 

Axle* 
American  Rail  Loader 


PANTASOTE 

A  perfect  substitute  for  leather 
and  one-third  the  cost  of  genuine 
leather.  Will  be  pleased  to  for* 
ward  samples  upon  application. 

THE  PANTASOTE  COMPANY 

11  Broadway,  New  York 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


ILLINOIS 
CENTRAL 

MAGAZINE 


American  Gentleman 
Trousers 


Fabrics 

Worsted,  Serges,  Cassimers,  Palm  Beaches,  Panamas, 
Florida  Cloths,  Fustians,  Corduroys,  Khakis,  Etc. 

Design  and  Workmanship 

Every  pair  cut  by  the  best  skilled  cutters  that  money 
can  procure.  Fashioned  and  made  by  Tailors,  not  mere 
seamsters.  Every  garment  guaranteed  to  be  perfect  in 
Workmanship,  Style  and  Fit. 

Why  Experiment 

with  other  lines  when  you  can  buy  the  best  for  less 
money?  If  you  are  not  wearing  "AMERICAN  GENTLE- 
MAN TROUSERS"  buy  them  this  season. 


Pony  Boy  Suits 

Many  Lines  Higher   Priced   But   None   Better 

The  manufacturer  who  makes  boys'  clothing  has  a  hazardous 
position — not  only  must  he  put  style  and  finish  into  his  product, 
but  above  all  things  he  must  have  quality — wear.  It  is  perfectly 
natural  for  the  boy  to  run,  jump,  kick,  tumble  and  scuffle.  He 
puts  his  clothing  to  a  test  every  day  in  the  week  that  would  put 
his  father's  suit  out  of  commission  in  one  day. 

We  knew  all  of  this  in  the  beginning  and  have  tailored  our  line 
accordingly.  These  qualities — Fabric,  Workmanship,  Style,  Wear 
and  Finish  combined — have  made  "PONY  BOY  SUITS"  the  most 
popular  line  in  America.  Handled  by  thousands  of  merchants  in 
almost  every  state  in  the  Union. 

PONY    P  O  Y     QUITS 
Fit  Well  JLJ  Wear  Well          kj  Look  Well 


iiiiniiiiiminiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiim 


Try  Them  and  You  Will  Always  Buy  Them 
Twenty  Years'  Experience,  Reputation  and  Progress 

MERIT   MANUFACTURING    COMPANY 

INCORPORA TED 

May  field  : :  Kentucky 


Martin  L.  Costley — Frontispiece. 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  During  the  Civil  Con- 
flict. 1861-65  9 

The  Ponchartrain   Railroad — The  Birth  of  the   Railroad  in  the 

Mississippi    Valley 12 

Public    Opinion 21 

Courtesy 23 

Story  of  AH  Baba  and  the  Forty  Railroad  Commissions 24 

Letters    Complimentary    to    the    57th    Street    Station    Training 

School   27 

Mayfield,    Kentucky 28 

Claims    Department 35 

How    Employes    Should    Proceed   to    Purchase    Illinois    Central 

Stock   46 

Industrial,   Immigration   and   Development   Department 48 

Passenger   Traffic    Department 52 

Law  Department 02 

The  Fable  of  Congress,  the  Legislature  and  Their  Railroad....   66 

Mechanical   Department 68 

Roll  of  Honor ^72 

Loss   and   Damage   Bureau 73 

Freight  Traffic   Department 77 

Transportation    Department 7'S 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department 79 

Engineering  Department 81 

Hospital   Department 84 

Safety   First 87 

Meritorious   Service 90 

Division  News 9't 

tyuSlished  monthly  By  the  7/linois  Central  */?,  */?.  G>., 
in  the  interest-  of  the  Company  and  its  4^000  ^Employes 

Advertising  •  raies  •  on  •  app/icafionJ^ 

im^ichiqan^.       ^Phone  ^WaSast 22OD 
Chicago   *  £ocal55 

1$  $pr.  copy       $  1.50  pr.  year 


MARTIN  L.  COSTLEY 

13  ORN    in    New    Orleans    September    4,    1881.      Educated    in    public    schools,    New 
*-*     Orleans,  and  Louisiana  State  University,  Baton  Rouge,  La. 

Entered  railway  service  as  stenographer  in  general  freight  office,  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  New  Orleans,  May  1,  1901.  Succeeding  promotions  were  as  follows:  Rate 
clerk,  December,  1903;  chief  rate  clerk,  January,  1905;  traveling  freight  agent,  Jan- 
uary, 1908;  chief  clerk  commercial  office,  November,  1911;  chief  clerk  general  freight 
office,  February,  1912;  assistant  general  freight  agent,  August,  1915. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.  4 


MAY,  1916 


No.  1 1 


Tfio  Story  of tdo 
IlKnoisContral  Linos 

during  the 

Civil  Conflict  i86i-5 

Samuel  Emory  Carey 

Formerly  General  Passenger  Agent,  Chicago,  St.  Louis  &  New  Orleans  Railroad 


The  subject  of  this  sketch,  Samuel 
Emory  Carey,  was  born  in  the  town 
of  Boston,  Erie  County,  New  York, 
September  12th,  1831.  Nothing  is 
known  to  the  writer  concerning  the 
early  portion  of  his  life,  until  March, 
1850,  while,  animated  by  the  spirit  of 
adventure  and  the  desire  of  change,  he 
left  the  family  circle  and  came  South 
to  settle  in  the  flourishing,  and  at  that 
time  wealthy  town  of  Holly  Springs, 
in  the  northern  portion  of  Mississippi. 
Here  his  ready  intelligence,  winning 
address,  and  remarkable  aptitude  for 
business,  soon  gained  for  him  the  es- 
teem and  friendship  of  the  social  and 
business  community,  and  he  shortly 
after  received  the  appointment  of  cash- 
ier of  the  Bank  of  North  Mississippi, 
which  was  located  in  that  town,  and 
which  position  he  filled  acceptably  for 
a  number  of  years. 

March  2d,  1852,  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Annie  Walter,  the  charming  sis- 
ter of  Col.  Harry  W.  Walter,  a  dis- 


tinguished member  of  the  Mississippi 
bar,  who  had  some  years  previously 
emigrated  from  Kalamazoo,  Michigan, 
to  Holly  Springs.  In  August,  1861, 
Mrs.  Carey  died,  leaving  no  children, 
although  several  had  been  born  to 
them  in  the  meantime. 

In  1860  Mr.  Carey  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  general  ticket  agent  of  the 
Mississippi  Central  Railroad  Company, 
with  headquarters  at  Holly  Springs, 
and,  although  this  was  his  first  experi- 
ence in  railroading,  soon  developed  a 
fitness  and  talent  for  the  position, 
which,  expanding  and  increasing  with 
the  passing  years,  placed  him,  before 
his  death,  second  to  none  in  the  profes- 
sion, and  made  his  name  a  synonym  for 
sagacity,  shrewd  and  intuitive  percep- 
tion, and  that  rare  personal  magnetism 
which  makes  friends  of  all  and  enemies 
of  none,  so  invaluable  to  the  success  of 
a  general  passenger  agent.  He  re- 
mained with  the  Mississippi  Central 
during  all  the  changes  and  vicissitudes 


of  the  war,  and  followed  its  fortunes 
to  the  close. — always  the  life  and  lead- 
ing spirit  of  "headquarters,"  which, 
domiciled  in  a  train  of  coaches  and  bag- 
gage cars,  shifted  its  position  from 
point  to  point  on  the  line  as  often  as 
the  exigencies  of  war  and  the  dangers 
of  falling  into  the  hands  of  Federal 
raiding  parties,  rendered  necessary. 


After  the  war  he  remained  with  the 
road  until  1869,  when,  having  been 
tendered  the  position  of  general  pas- 
senger and  ticket  agent  of  the  "Little 
Jeff"  road,  he  resigned  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi Central  to  accept  the  latter. 
His  loss,  however,  was  seriously  felt, 
and  in  1871  the  New  Orleans,  Jackson 
and  Great  Northern,  the  Mississippi 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


11 


Central,  the  Mississippi  and  Tennessee, 
and  the  Paducah  and  Memphis  roads 
having  passed  into  the  hands  of  one 
management,  he  was  tendered  and  ac- 
cepted the  general  passenger  and  ticket 
agency  of  these  four  roads,  with  head- 
quarters at  New  Orleans.  Shortly 
after  the  appointment  of  a  receiver  for 
the  New  Orleans,  Jackson  and  Great 
Northern  and  Mississippi  Central  rail- 
roads in  the  spring  of  1876,  an  offer  was 
made  him  to  take  charge  of  the  pas- 
senger department  of  the  New  Orleans 
and  Mobile  Railroad,  then  under  the 
trusteeship  of  Messrs.  Raynor  and 
Morgan.  This  he  accepted  in  consid- 
eration of  the  handsome  inducement 
offered  in  the  way  of  salary,  and  of 
unlimited  discretion  in  the  manage- 
ment of  his  department,  although  leav- 
ing for  the  second  time,  with  much  re- 
luctance his  old  associates  of  the 
"Great  Jackson  Route,"  his  first  love. 
During  his  connection  with  the  New 
Orleans  and  Mobile  Railroad,  he  won 
for  himself  golden  opinions,  and  for  his 
road  a  large  increase  of  traffic,  by  the 
ability,  energy  and  tact,  which  marked 
the  organization  of  his  department, 
and  the  direction  of  its  labors.  This 
position  he  resigned  May  1st,  1880— 
the  New  Orleans  and  Mobile  Railroad 
having  passed  into  the  control  of  the 
Louisville  and  Nashville  system — to 
return  to  his  former  position  with  the 
Great  Jackson,  which  had  meantime 
been  reorganized  under  a  solid  arid 
vigorous  management,  and  which  again 
realized  that  "Sam  Carey"  had  no  equal 
in  the  South  in  his  particular  line.  Un- 
fortunately his  career  in  this  last  po- 
sition was  brief — extending  only  from 
May  1st  to  November  26th, .  the  date 
of  his  death — but  it  was  long  enough 


to  demonstrate  the  wonderful  influence 
that  can  be  exercised  by  the  tact,  popu- 
larity and  sagacity  of  a  single  indi- 
vidual, upon  the  tides  of  travel  to  and 
from  a  great  community  like  New  Or- 
leans. Rare,  indeed,  is  the  ability, 
which  in  a  double  transition  between 
two  competing  lines,  can  carry  with  it 
in  each  change  the  popular  heart  and 
the  bulk  of  the  travel,  and  retain  the 
sincere  esteem  and  confidence  of  the 
management  of  both  lines,  whether  as 
friend  or  antagonist. 

February  24th,  1870,  Mr.  Carey  mar- 
ried his  second  wife — the  lovely  and 
accomplished  Mrs.  Cora  Watson,  of 
Holly  Springs,  whose  first  husband 
had  fallen  at  the  battle  of  Fishing  Creek 
— and  who,  with  two  little  daughters, 
the  elder  seven,  the  younger,  one  and 
a  half  years  old,  survives  him. 

"Sam  Carey's"  place  will  not  readily 
be  filled,  nor  his  memory  quickly  for- 
gotten, either  among  those  who  knew 
him  officially  as  a  man  of  rare  business 
talent,  or  in  the  hearts  of  thousands 
who  loved  the  frank  and  sincere  friend, 
whose  genial  nature  made  him  wel- 
come from  Maine  to  Mexico.  But  it 
is  at  his  own  fireside  that  the  loss  falls 
most  heavily,  and  the  grief  is  deepest, 
for  it  was  there  that  his  tender  nature, 
gentle  almost  to  womanliness  shone 
prominently  beautiful ;  and  it  was  about 
the  inmates  of  his  home — the  noble, 
true-hearted  wife,  and  the  budding 
little  ones — that  his  affections  en- 
twined themselves  with  a  great  wealth 
of  devotion  that  made  the  picture 
lovely.  Into  these  lives  fall  the  rain 
drops  of  a  grief  so  bitter — a  loss  so  ir- 
reparable— that  only  the  tender  over- 
shadowing of  a  Divine  Mercy  may  dare 
to  offer  them  consolation. 


The  Ponchartrain  Railroad — The  Birth  of  the 
Railroad  in  the  Mississippi  Valley 

By  C.  R.  Calvert,  Traveling  Freight  Agent,  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Co. 


T  ET  us  imagine  that  we  are  in  the 
*-*  historic  old  town  of  New  Orleans 
in  the  year  of  Our  Lord,  1825.  The 
streets  are  narrow  and  paved  with  great 
blocks  of  stone  that  bid  definance  to  the 
ravages  of  time.  Balconies,  bright  with 
flowers,  overhang  the  narrow  sidewalks. 
Great  wooden  shutters  at  the  doors  and 
windows  of  the  lower  stories  stand  idly 
ajar,  here  and  there,  and  give  us  glimpses 
of  the  quaint  courtyards  within.  Dark 
skinned  matrons,  of  portly  figure,  are 
seated  in  the  doorways  scolding  their 
numerous  progeny  in  a  jargon  that  is 
not  of  this  time  nor  this  land.  And, 
about  it  all  there  hovers  an  atmosphere 
of  romance,  like  the  fragrance  about  a 
faded  flower,  which  is  the  legacy  of 
those  older  days  when  the  emissaries  of 
France  and  Spain  and  England  strove 
for  the  mastery  and  when  these  narrow 
streets  were  the  scenes  of  intrigue  and 
violence. 

Cathedral  and  convent,  where  the 
chimes  of  the  vesper  bell  echo  to  notes 
of  the  chanting  nuns ;  merchant  shop  and 
old  market,  where  the  busy  hum  of  trade 
gives  life  and  color  to  the  daylight  hours  ; 
sailor's  lodging  house  and  drinking  place, 
where  revelry  and  rioting  mar  the  sil- 
ence and  beauty  of  the  night;  all  are 
gathered  in  the  confines  of  the  old  Span- 
ish town  with  little  regard  for  the  incon- 
gruity of  their  surroundings. 

Anchored  in  the  great  river  before  us 
we  see  fishing  sloops  and  schooners  from 
the  Gulf  Coast,  unloading  their  fish  for 
the  markets ;  and,  just  beyond,  the  great 
square  rigged  ships  from  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  or  from  foreign  ports,  un- 
loading their  cargoes  of  vehicles,  iron, 
liquors  and  merchandise,  or  loading  cot- 
ton, sugar  and  tobacco  to  be  carried  back 
to  the  ports  from  which  they  came. 
Here,  too,  are  the  steamboats — even  in 


1825  objects  of  wonder  and  curiosity. 
Then,  there  are  multitudes  of  smaller 
craft  of  strange  appearance  and,  appar- 
ently, endless  numbers — pirogues  or  dug- 
outs from  the  far  Northwest  that  have 
made  the  long  journey  from  the  Upper 
Missouri  with  furs,  skins  and  peltries; 
flatboats  or  "Kentucky  Broadhorns" 
from  the  Ohio  River  and  its  tributaries, 
filled  with  produce,  flour  and  whisky, 
and  guarded  by  the  noisy  and  quarrel- 
some flatboatmen  that  have  made  this 
period  so  notorious  on  the  river ;  and,  just 
a  little  way  off,  the  batteaux  or  barges, 
with  cotton  and  sugar  from  the  neigh- 
boring plantations,  with  their  crews  of 
negro  slaves,  happy  and  lazy  in  the  sum- 
mer sun.  An  occasional  keel  boat  makes 
its  way  about  the  harbor — the  relic  of 
the  old  up-stream  traffic  that  is  slowly 
giving  way  to  the  more  rapid  and  cer- 
tain service  of  the  giant,  Steam. 

These  small  boats  are  in  tiers,  four  or 
five  deep,  and  number  several  hundred. 
The  booming  of  the  cannon,  that  an- 
nounces the  arrival  of  the  vessels;  the 
bands  playing  and  the  "rousters"  singing 
on  the  departing  steamboats ;  the  bicker- 
ing of  the  natives  with  the  half-drunken 
flatboatmen  over  the  sale  of  the  pro- 
duce ;  together  with  the  hurrying  too  and 
fro  of  the  drays  and  carts  on  the  wharf, 
presents  a  scene  that  is  both  strange  and 
interesting  and  lays  bare  the  very  heart 
throbs  of  the  city's  life.  From  the  Al- 
legheny Mountains  to  the  Rockies  and 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  the 
great  river  is  pouring  into  the  lap  of  the 
Crescent  City  the  wealth  of  the  Nation, 
until  New  Orleans  has  become  the  third 
port  of  the  world  in  the  volume  and. im- 
portance of  her  commerce.  Somewhat 
back  from  the  river  front  there  lies  a 
basin,  the  terminus  of  the  canal  leading 
from  that  great  inland  sea — Lake  Pon- 


12 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


chartrain — six  miles  distant,  and  canal 
boats  are  moving  in  and  out,  drawn  by 
their  plodding  horses,  while  lake  schoon- 
ers are  coming  into  the  basin  from  the 
opposite  shores  of  the  lake  with  their 
cargoes  for  New  Orleans,  thus  carrying 
the  water  traffic  into  the  very  center  of 
the  town. 

It  will  take  us  nearly  three  hours  to 
travel  the  six  miles  to  the  lake ;  but,  we 
will  lay  aside  our  twentieth  century  im- 
patience and  enjoy  ourselves  in  the  leis- 
urely fashion  of  our  fellow  voyagers  who 
have  settled  themselves  to  reading  or 
social  enjoyment,  apparently  indifferent 
to  the  passing  hours ;  and  the  quaintness 
of  our  surroundings  proves  of  such  in- 
terest that,  before  we  are  aware,  the 
broad  expanse  of  the  lake  spreads  be- 


and  from  the  ceaseless  grind  of  the 
wheels  of  commerce. 

Such  is  New  Orleans — rinding  her 
business  and  her  pleasure  limited  by  the 
extent  of  her  water  facilities. 

Away  to  the  north,  over  the  "Old 
Natchez  Trace,"  the  stage  brings  the 
mail  to  Natchez,  where  the  post  rider, 
on  horseback,  with  the  New  Orleans 
mail,  sets  out  for  the  town  of  Madison- 
ville,  on  the  north  bank  of  Lake  Pon- 
chartrain,  where  he  will  take  boat  for  the 
city.  Far  away  in  another  direction  the 
stage  brings  the  mail  and  passengers 
from  Washington  City  and  the  East  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Pascagoula  River, 
where  it  is  again  turned  over  to  the 
coast-wise  boats  and  brought  to  the  city 
through  Lake  Ponchartrain.  The  news- 


fore  us,  bounded  only  by  the  faintly 
marked  line  where  the  blue  of  the  sky 
melts  into  the  deeper  blue  of  the  water 
below. 

Here,  again,  we  find  the  water  alive 
with  boats.  At  the  custom  house  the 
larger  vessels  are  discharging  their  car- 
goes that  they  have  brought  to  Port 
Ponchartrain  to  avoid  the  long  and  haz- 
ardous journey  up  the  river.  Along  the 
shores,  at  the  bath  houses,  fishing  camps 
and  summer  cottages,  with  their  attend- 
ant pleasure  boats  of  every  description, 
the  people  are  seeking  recreation  and  re- 
lief from  the  heat  and  dust  of  the  city 


papers  and  heavy  mail  are  brought  across 
the  mountains  to  Pittsburgh  and  then 
down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers. 

Separated,  thus,  from  the  other  inhab- 
ited portions  of  the  United  States  by 
hundreds  of  miles  of  almost  impassable 
wilderness ;  and,  dependent  upon  the 
water  as  a  means  of  communication, 
New  Orleans  is  almost  as  close  to  Lon- 
don and  Liverpool  as  to  New  York  or 
Washington,  and  it  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  to  find  the  happenings  in  Eu- 
rope attracting  more  attention  among 
the  people  of  New  Orleans  than  the 
events  taking  place  in  our  own  country. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


15 


At  this  time,  England  began  to  build 
tramways  upon  which  cars  or  carriages 
were  drawn  by  horses ;  and,  a  little  later, 
began  to  experiment  with  steam  carriages 
on  these  tramways,  and  New  Orleans 
became  intensely  interested,  almost 
every  issue  of  the  newspapers  contain- 
ing some  reports  of  the  progress  of  the 
railways  in  England  and  on  the  conti- 
nent. 

Not  content  with  following  the  steps 
of  the  older  countries,  American  ingenu- 
ity began  to  improve  upon  the  locomo- 
tive machine,  and  Mr.  Lambert,  who 
lived  in  New  Orleans,  secured  letters 
patent  to  cover  an  invention  from  which 
great  things  were  expected.  An  account 
of  this  invention  is  published  in  the 
Louisiana  Gazette  of  June  20,  1825,  and 
is  worth  quoting  in  full : 

New  Steam  Engine 

A  steam  engine  has  been  invented  by 
Mr.  Lambert,  of  this  city,  and  for  which 
he  has  received  letters  patent  from  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  upon  a 
perfectly  new  and  novel  principle. 

His  improvement  consists  in  a  strong 
cast-iron  steam  generator  which  is  heat- 
ed to  a  given  point,  when  a  portion  of 
steam  heated  to  a  low  temperature  is  in- 
troduced from  a  boiler  of  very  small  di- 
mensions, which,  coming  in  contact  with 
the  high  temperature  of  the  steam  gen- 
erator, becomes  immediately  heated  to  a 
great  elasticity  and  is  then  let  off  in  a 
cylinder  with  a  common  piston  and  upon 
the  return  stroke  the  same  process  is  re- 
peated. 

There  cannot  remain  a  doubt  that 
when  he  brings  his  improvement  to  per- 
fection it  will  remunerate  him  immense- 
ly and  will  entail  upon  mankind  the 
greatest  obligation.  It  will  obviate  all 
of  the  objections  now  made  to  the  steam 
engine  for  locomotive  power. 

At  this  time,  the  tubular  boiler  had  not 
come  into  use  and  the  greatest  difficulty 
had  been  experienced  in  getting  a  boiler 
that  would  generate  sufficient  steam  to 
run  the  engine  without  being  so  large 
as  to  be  impracticable  for  a  locomotive 
machine. 

This  news  only  added  fuel  to  the  en- 
thusiasm over  the  subject  of  railways 


and  this  enthusiasm  crystallized  into  ac- 
tion when,  on  June  24,  1825,  the  editor 
of  the  Louisiana  Gazette  suggested  that 
a  railroad  should  be  built  from  New 
Orleans  to  Lake  Ponchartrain — four  and 
a  half  miles.  He  quoted  the  recent  suc- 
cesses in  England,  where  a  railroad  had 
been  built  over  a  bog  for  the  small  sum 
of  three  thousand  pounds,  sterling,  per 
mile  (equivalent  to  about  $13,320),  and 
asserted  that,  after  buying  the  land  and 
clearing  it,  he  was  confident  that  the 
road  could  be  built  for  $73,260  without 
any  difficulty. 

This  suggestion  apparently  met  with 
immediate  response,  and  a  company  was 
organized,  under  the  name  of  "The  Pon- 
chartrain Railroad  Company,"  with  Mr. 
Morris  Hoffman  as  president  and  Mr.  R. 
Clague  as  secretary,  and  with  a  board 
of  directors  prepared  to  build  a  railroad. 
But,  while  the  organization  of  the  com- 
pany and  the  election  of  the  officers  was 
a  familar  operation,  the  actual  work  of 
construction  was  an  entirely  different 
matter;  there  were  no  engineers  in  this 
country  with  experience  in  railroad 
building,  the  officers  had  never  seen  a 
railroad,  and,  indeed,  the  very  concep- 
tion of  the  proposed  road  was  very  hazy 
in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  promoters. 

We  read  with  amusement  of  this 
board .  of  directors  seriously  discussing 
whether  the  passenger  cars  should  have 
springs  or  have  the  beds  resting  directly 
upon  the  axles ;  whether  iron  rails  should 
be  used  or  simply  cedar  timbers  for  the 
cars  to  run  upon;  whether  the  new- 
fangled steam  carriages  should  be  used 
or  the  less  picturesque  but  more  reliable 
horses.  And,  yet,  these  and  many  oth- 
ers that  have  become  common-place  with 
us  were  questions  for  anxious  consid- 
eration, and  some  of  them  remained  sub- 
jects for  dispute  for  years. 

At  this  time  there  were  no  railroads 
under  construction  in  this  country — the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  had  not  been  projected 
and  the  Quincy  Road  in  Massachusetts 
was  not  yet  begun — but  the  people  of 
New  Orleans  did  not  hesitate  to  venture 
into  the  untried  field,  leaving  the  others 
to  follow. 

The  preliminary  work  was  slow  and 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


took  much  time,  and  it  was  not  until 
January  20,  1830,  that  the  charter  was 
finally  approved  authorizing  the  Pon- 
chartrain  Railroad  Company  to  "con- 
struct a  railroad  from  New  Orleans  to 
some  suitable  point  on  Lake  Ponchar- 
train  or  Bayou  or  stream  leading  to  said 
lake,  not  exceeding  ninety  feet  wide, 
with  as  many  tracks  as  the  said  company 
may  deem  proper." 

The  road  was  located  at  the  lower  end 
of  the  old  town  and  an  avenue  was  made 
from  the  river  to  the  lake,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  wide,  perfectly  straight  and 
lined  with  trees.  One  contemporary 
writer  says  "a  person  standing  at  the 
river  and  looking  down  the  broad  avenue 
lined  with  trees  can  see  the  mast  of  the 
vessels  on  the  lake  as  they  pass  the  end 
of  the  avenue."  This  was  probably  an 
exaggeration. 

The  actual  work  of  construction  was 
begun  on  March  10,  1830,  and  public 
interest  grew  as  the  work  progressed 
until,  when  the  roadway  was  cleared, 
public  announcement  was  made  that  sev- 
eral days  would  be  set  apart  in  which 
the  public  could  drive  over  the  road  to 
the  lake  before  the  rails  were  laid,  and 
crowds  of  vehicles  lined  the  way  during 
the  days  set  apart. 

This  incident  again  awakened  discus- 
sion through  the  papers  in  regard  to  the 
use  of  the  engine  invented  by  Mr.  Lam- 
bert on  the  new  road,  when  the  startling 
announcement  appeared  in  the  Louisiana 
Advertiser  of  April  19,  1830,  that,  at 
No.  27  Conti  Street  an  exhibition  would 
be  made  of  a  small  steam  engine  and 
railway  in  actual  operation,  to  demon- 
strate that  the  steam  engine  was  prac- 
ticable for  use  in  drawing  railway  car- 
riages. The  existing  excitement  assured 
that  the  exhibition  would  be  well  patron- 
ized. This  railway  consisted  of  a  cir- 
cular track  one  hundred  and  ten  feet 
long  on  which  a  car,  in  which  three  men 
were  seated,  was  drawn  by  .a  steam 
carriage  at  the  rate  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  per  minute.  This  exhibi- 
tion was  probably  made  by  a  Mr. 
Shields,  of  Cincinnati,  who  at  this  same 
time  was  exhibiting  a  similar  railway  in 
Cincinnati,  and  who,  later,  sold  an  en- 


gine to  the  Ponchartrain  Railroad.  The 
announcement  stated: 

This  novel  machine  has  been  con- 
structed expressly  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  the  public  the  vast  improvement, 
that  our  wide  extended  country  is  cap- 
able of. 

By  this  mode  of  transportation  passen- 
gers and  mail  can  be  carried  from  one 
extremity  of  the  United  States  to  the 
other  in  four  days,  traveling  with  per- 
fect safety  to  the  passengers  at  a  rate  of 
twenty-five  miles  per  hour. 

The  demonstration  was  a  success  and 
the  railroad  attracted  so  much  attention 
that  the  manager  of  the  American  The- 
ater arranged  a  series  of  exhibitions,  on 
the  stage  of  the  theater,  before  the  regu- 
lar performances. 

The  theater  advertisement  is  interest- 
ing in  that  it  gives  a  picture  of  the  first 
locomotive  engine  west  of  the  Allegheny 
Mountains,  operated  on  the  first  com- 
pleted railroad  in  this  country. 

Like  all  beginnings,  it  was  small,  but 
it  played  no  small  part  in  convincing  the 
people  of  the  success  of  the  steam  en- 
gine and  in  confirming  the  officers  of  the 
Ponchartrain  Railroad  in  their  purpose 
lo  use  the  steam  engine. 

It  was  now  April,  1831,  and  the  Pon- 
chartrain Railroad  was  ready  for  the 
cars.  It  was  fitting,  therefore,  that  the 
event  should  be  celebrated  in  a  manner 
commensurate  with  the  occasion. 

Accordingly,  on  the  23rd  of  April,  in 
response  to  an  invitation  from  the  offi- 
cials of  the  road,  a  distinguished  gath- 
ering assembled  in  New  Orleans.  The 
governor  and  state  officials,  members  of 
the  legislature,  mayor  and  city  officials 
and  many  other  noted  guests  paraded  the 
streets  in  carriages ;  after  which — ac- 
cording to  a  local  scribe — "they  pro- 
ceeded, in  procession,  to  the  railway, 
and  arriving  there  without  any  difficulty, 
entered  the  cars  allotted  them  by  the 
management." 

While  they  are  embarking,  let  us  look 
at  the  cars : 

The  steam  engine  has  not  yet  been 
purchased,  but  there  is  "a  brigade  of 
cars,"  drawn  by  horses,  lined  up  along 
the  road  at  the  end  of  the  Marigny 


LOUISIANA  ADVERTISER,  MAY  18,  1830. 

AMERICAN     THEATER 


The  Manager  respectfully  announces  to  the  public  generally  that  the  Theater  will  be 
closed  for  the  season  on  Saturday  Evening,  the  22nd  inst. 

LAST   NIGHT   BUT   FOUR 


The  public  are   respectfully  informed   that  an  arrangement  has   been   made   with   the 

Proprietor  of  the 

RAILROAD    AND    STEAM    ENGINE 
FOR    THREE   NIGHTS    ONLY 

iiV  evening,  Tuesday,  May  18th 


the  entertainment  will  be  commenced  with  the  novel  exhibition  of  the  miniature 

RAILROAD    AND    STEAM    CARRIAGE 

which  has  lately  been  on  exhibition  on  Conti  Street  to  the  great  admiration  of  all  who 

have  seen  it. 


After  which,  Tobin's  admired  Comedy 

THE    HONEYMOON 

Duke  Aranza Mr.  Caldwell 

The  whole  to  be  concluded  with  the  laughable  farce 

THE   BENEVOLENT   TAR 

Edmond  (with  several  sea  songs) — Mr.  Howard 


18 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


Canal.  The  first  car,  bright  with  paint 
and  varnish  and  bearing  the  name 
"Louisiana"  in  conspicuous  letters  upon 
its  side,  resembles  an  old  English  stage 
coach,  except  that  it  is  larger  and  will 
hold  about  thirty  people.  This  car  is 
set  apart  for  Governor  Roman  and  the 
other  state  officials.  The  other  cars  are 
rough  and  show  evidence  of  rough  use 
and  we  strongly  suspect  that  they  were 
used  in  hauling  the  materials  for  con- 
structing the  road,  before  they  were 
fitted  up  for  their  distinguished  guests. 
These  cars  are  like  our  dump  cars  or 
"Larries,"  and  it  takes  considerable  skill 
for  the  members  of  the  party  to  clamber 
aboard  without  the  loss  of  their  dignity. 

When,  at  last,  everything  was  ready, 
the  drivers  cracked  their  whips  and  the 
cars  moved  off  between  the  lines  of  ad- 
miring citizens  who  greeted  them  with 
shouts  of  approval. 

The  trip  to  the  lake  and  back  was 
made  without  mishap  and  the  success 
of  the  road  was  assured  from  the  first. 
The  cars  were  run  from  the  city  every 
day  at  three,  four  thirty  and  six  o'clock 
p.  m. ;  and,  if  parties  of  twelve  or  more 
made  application  to  the  offices  of  the 
company,  the  car  "Louisiana"  would 
make  special  trips  in  the  morning  or  at 
night.  On  Sunday  the  cars  ran  every 
two  hours,  beginning  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  but  it  soon  became  evident 
that  the  facilities  would  have  to  be  in- 
creased to  handle  the  passenger  traffic, 
while  as  yet  little  effort  had  been  made 
to  handle  any  freight.  The  efforts  of  the 
officers  were  directed  toward  completing 
the  road;  turnouts  were  constructed  so 
that  cars  could  be  run  in  both  directions 
at  the  same  time;  new  cars  were  bought 
or  built ;  and,  in  a  short  time,  everything 
was  working  smoothly  and  to  the  great 
satisfaction  of  the  patrons  and  to  the 
promoters. 

The  planters  to  the  north  of  the  lake, 
who  were  dependent  on  the  slow-going 
canal  boats,  were  urgent  in  their  de- 
mands for  the  freight  service  and  atten- 
tion of  the  road  was  now  given  to  that 
branch  of  the  operation.  With  that  op- 
timism that  made  the  decade  from  1830 
to  1840  noted  for  its  financial  operations, 
the  plans  were  drawn  on  a  liberal  scale; 


the  land  on  either  side  of  the  road  at 
the  lake  belonging  to  Mr.  Alexander 
Milne,  Sr.,  was  laid  off  in  the  town  of 
Milneburg  and  one  hundred  and  sixty 
lots  were  sold  at  auction  at  Hewlett's 
Coffee  House  in  New  Orleans.  Hotel 
Washington  was  built  near  the  lake,  fac- 
ing the  railroad;  and,  here,  in  the  spac- 
ious halls  and  on  the  broad  porticos,  sur- 
rounded by  the  great  trees  and  luxuriant 
vegetation  that  adds  such  beauty  to  the 
homes  of  New  Orleans,  many  brilliant 
social  events  added  to  the  prestige  and 
popularity  of  the  railroad.  Piers  were 
built  out  into  the  lake  and  an  artificial 
harbor  was  made  to  enable  the  boats  on 
the  lake  to  unload  alongside  the  cars  and 
the  progress  was  so  satisfactory  that 
early  in  the  year  1832  everything  was  in 
readiness  for  the  steam  engine. 

At  that  time  Mr.  John  Shields,  of  Cin- 
cinnati, who  is  referred  to  in  the  news- 
papers as  "one  of  the  leading  machinists 
of  this  country,"  was  giving  his  atten- 
tion to  the  subject  of  locomotive  engines. 
He  had  exhibited  in  Cincinnati,  as  early 
as  1830,  two  small  railroads  in  operation 
on  circular  tracks  at  the  Ampitheater; 
and,  tradition  says,  he  made  an  engine 
to  run  on  the  public  roads;  but  it  was 
not  a  success  and  he  rebuilt  it  and 
shipped  it  to  New  Orleans,  arrivng  on 
.the  steamboat  "Seventy-Six,"  June  15, 
1832. 

Here  he  approached  Mr.  John  Grant, 
Superintendent  of  the  Ponchartrain 
Railroad,  and  offered  to  sell  him  the  en- 
gine. Mr.  Grant  arranged  for  a  test; 
and,  when  no  engineer  could  be  found, 
offered  to  run  it  himself.  The  engine 
utterly  failed  to  meet  the  requirements 
and  was  a  "white  elephant"  on  the  hands 
of  Mr.  Shields,  who  was  a  thousand 
miles  from  home  and  without  funds.  He 
offered  to  sell  it  to  Mr.  Grant  at  his 
own  price;  but,  as  it  could  not  be  used 
on  the  road,  it  was  of  no  use,  except  as 
a  piece  of  machinery,  and  Mr.  Grant 
offered  him  one  thousand  dollars  for  it 
and  put  it  in  the  shops  to  run  one  of  the 
lathes.  Thus  the  erstwhile  highway 
carriage  and  steam  locomotive  engine 
was  relegated  to  the  inglorious  positon 
of  "helper"  in  a  machine  shop. 

Sic  transit  gloria  mundi. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


19 


Arrangements  were  now  made  to  se- 
cure a  locomotive  machine  in  England; 
and,  about  September  1,  1832,  one  of 
the  vessels  that  cast  anchor  in  the  river 
at  New  Orleans  carried  the  steam  car 
"Ponchartrain,"  built  for  the  new  rail- 
road. It  was  unloaded  and  taken  to 
Milneburg  to  await  the  day  of  the  in- 
auguration of  the  steam  service,  and, 
on  September  5th,  was  put  under  steam 
"to  see  if  the  joints  were  steam-tight." 
We  are  told  that  "it  passed  playfully  up 
and  down  before  the  Washington  Hotel 
under  as  complete  control  as  a  hackney 
coach." 

September  17th  was  set  as  the  time 
for  the  first  regular  trip  of  the  steam 
carriage,  and  about  four  hundred  guests 
were  invited  to  ride  to  the  lake  and  back 
on  the  initial  trip.  The  day  broke  dark 
and  threatening,  but  the  excitement 
aroused  by  the  announcement  of  the 
railroad  company  took  no  account  of  the 
weather ;  and,  long  before  the  time  desig- 
nated, crowds  assembled  about  the  depot 
and  along  the  streets  through  which  the 
train  must  pass,  eager  to  get  the  first 
glimpse  of  this  wonder  of  the  age.  About 
one  o'clock  the  cry  went  up  that  the  en- 
gine was  coming  and  soon  the  smoke 
was  seen  down  the  broad  avenue  when 
the  train  "came  up  in  fine  style,  amid 
the  plaudits  of  the  multitude  and  a 
shower  of  rain." 

"The  beautiful  steam  car  Tonchar- 
train'  had  a  retinue  of  twelve  cars  in 
her  rear,"  and  into  these  the  guests,  to 
the  number  of  three  hundred  or  more, 
hurriedly  climbed  out  of  the  rain.  When 
the  bystanders  saw  the  crowding  of  the 
cars,  predictions  were  freely  made  that 
the  steam  carriage  would  not  be  able  to 
move  them;  and  the  officials  themselves 
gave  the  signal  to  start  with  some  anxiety 
over  the  result ;  but,  "after  a  few  labored 
aspirations,"  the  "Ponchartrain"  gallant- 
ly gathered  up  her  train  and  moved  off 
without  a  hitch  or  tremor.  The  tension 
was  relieved ;  and,  while  the  band  played 
and  the  people  shouted,  the  steam  car 
gained  momentum  and  was  off  to  the  lake 
at  a  speed  that  made  the  passengers 
catch  their  breath  with  astonishment. 

As  they  passed  out  into  the  open  coun- 


try and  approached  the  Hopkins  Planta- 
tion, the  black  population  crowded  to  the 
track  to  see  the  coming  marvel;  but,  as 
it  came  rushing  upon  them,  emitting 
smoke  and  sparks,  and  making  unearth- 
ly noises,  their  fear  overcame  their  curi- 
osity and  they  took  to  their  heels,  stop- 
ping only  when  they  were  a  safe  distance 
from  this  iron  monster. 

After  a  delightful  ride  to  the  lake,  a 
stop  was  made  at  the  Washington  Ho- 
tel, where  a  cold  collation  was  served 
above  stairs,  while,  below,  "to  counteract 
the  effects  of  the  drenching  rain,  many 
drank  success  to  the  'Ponchartrain'  in 
brandy  toddies,  gin  slings,  etc." 

But,  notwithstanding  this  auspicious 
beginning,  and  the  consideration  shown 
the  "beautiful  steam  car  'Ponchartrain'," 
its  pride  had  a  most  humiliating  fall. 
Only  three  days  after  the  brilliant  trial 
trip,  while  coming  up  from  the  lake  with 
his  train,  the  engineer  found  his  passage 
disputed  by  a  cow.  The  eye-witnesses 
all  agree  that  he  used  all  of  the  means 
at  his  command  to  persuade  the  cow  to 
make  way  for  the  train,  but  she  refused 
to  move.  The  train  could  not  be  stopped 
and  trouble  inevitably  followed.  We  are 
not  told  what  became  of  the  cow,  but 
the  beautiful  steam  car  was  ignominious- 
ly  thrown  into  the  ditch. 

The  steam  car  was  not  seriously  in- 
jured, however;  for,  only  a  few  days 
later,  a  black  boy,  in  trying  to  pass  from 
one  car  to  another  while  the  train  was 
moving,  was  thrown  under  the  wheels 
and  killed. 

These  more  serious  accidents  appear 
to  have  been  accepted  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  attributed  to  the  demands 
of  the  Fates ;  but,  when  the  editor  of  the 
Daily  Afgus  with  a  party  of  friends, 
returning  from  a  pleasure  trip  to  the 
lake,  discovered  one  of  the  cars  afire 
from  sparks  from  the  engine,  and,  later, 
found  that  the  tail  was  entirely  missing 
from  the  Sunday  coat  of  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  party,  a  vigorous  protest 
was  made  to  the  railroad  officials  and 
they  were  urged  to  find  some  way  to 
extinguish  the  sparks  before  they  left 
the  engine  so  that  the  passengers  might 


20 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


safely  wear  their  best  apparel  when  rid- 
ing on  the  railroad. 

In  spite  of  these  early  troubles,  the 
railroad  prospered;  and  its  traffic,  both 
freight  and  passenger,  increased  rapidly 
and  steadily.  As  the  freight  began  to 
move,  Superintendent  Grant  noticed  that 
much  time  was  lost  in  loading  the  freight 
from  the  ground  into  the  cars  with  a 
crane  and  he  suggested  to  the  directors 
that  a  raised  platform  be  built  so  that 
the  freight  could  be  loaded  without  the 
crane.  This  was  a  radical  departure 
from  the  practice  in  Europe  and  the 
directors  declined  to  authorize  the  inno- 
vation, but  Mr.  Grant  seems  to  have  had 
some  ideas  of  his  own  which  he  promptly 
proceeded  to  carry  out.  He  instructed 
the  workmen,  who  were  building  the 
depot,  to  construct  the  raised  platform 
according  to  his  plans  and  to  pay  abso- 
lutely no  attention  to  any  instructions  ex- 
cept from  himself.  He  then  disappeared. 
When  the  directors  made  a  tour  of  in- 
spection— as  he  evidently  expected  they 
would — they  instructed  that  the  work  be 
stopped.  But  the  workmen  were  em- 
ployed by  Mr.  Grant  and  would  take 
orders  from  no  one  else,  and,  before  Mr. 
Grant  could  be  located,  the  platform  was 
completed.  The  advantages  were  so  ob- 
vious that  the  work  was  allowed  to  re- 
main and  the  other  stations  were  similar- 
ly provided.  It  is  claimed  that  this  was 
the  first  use  of  the  raised  platform  in 
handling  freight,  and  that  prior  to  that 
time  the  use  of  the  crane  was  general. 

The  Ponchartrain  Railroad  was  now 
completed;  and,  for  eighty  years,-  in 
prosperity  and  adversity,  in  war  and 


peace,  its  trains  have  run.  In  1880,  it 
passed  into  the  control  of  the  Louisville 
&  Nashville  Railroad,  but  the  old  name 
has  been  retained  and  the  old  road  from 
the  city  to  the  lake  preserves  its  identity. 

The  old  Washington  Hotel  still  stands, 
in  remarkable  state  of  preservation,  but 
its  deserted  halls  and  balconies  are  no 
longer  filled  with  music  and  revelry.  It 
stands  in  the  public  playground  at  Milne- 
burg,  silent  and  grim,  its  past  glories  for- 
gotten— a  ghost  of  departed  greatness. 
But,  as  we  stand  in  the  shadow  of  the 
old  stairway,  it  takes  only  a  little  clos- 
ing of  the  eyes,  a  little  play  of  the 
imagination  to  see  again  the  brilliant 
party,  dining  and  toasting  some  distin- 
guished visitor  with  true  southern  hos- 
pitality; to  see  the  lights  and  hear  the 
music  of  the  ball,  where  the  beauty  and 
chivalry  are  gathered  for  a  night's  pleas- 
ure; or  to  see  the  two  little  groups  of 
men  as  they  go  silently  out  in  the  grey 
dawn,  to  the  sheltered  place  among  the 
trees,  from  which  they  return,  bearing 
one  of  their  number  in  their  arms — the 
wounded  honor  vindicated  and  the  seed 
of  bitter  memories  sown,  to  be  reaped 
in  the  long  after  years. 

Yet,  these  are  but  dreams !  Off  toward 
the  lake  we  hear  the  "chug-chug"  of  the 
motor  boat;  and,  in  the  'other  direction, 
we  see  the  smoke  of  the  many  industries 
and  the  dim  outlines  of  the  great  city; 
while  the  modern  locomotive,  with  its  six 
coaches,  that  rushes  almost  upon  us  be- 
fore its  speed  is  checked  by  the  air  brake 
tells  us  that  these  quaint  old  days  of 
romance  are  gone  forever  and  the  infant 
railroad  has  "come  of  age." 


LIC      UPINION 


th 


What  is  believed  to  be  a  record- 
breaking  achievement  in  freight  trans- 
portation was  made  by  the  Illinois 
Central,  the  Nashville,  Chattanooga  & 
St.  Louis  and  the  Georgia  Railroad  last 
week  on  a  monster  printing  press 
shipped  from  this  city  to  a  newspaper 
at  Augusta,  Ga.  This  shipment  left 
Chicago  Monday  night,  April  3,  and  ar- 
rived in  Augusta  at  8  p.  m.  Thursday 
night,  April  6,  being  en  route  less  than 
seventy  hours.  In  view  of  the  dis- 
tance, Chicago  to  Augusta,  via  the 
route  used,  1,022  miles,  and  the  neces- 
sary time  consumed  at  principal  ter- 
minal points,  the  time  made  is  consid- 
ered remarkable. — Chicago  Post,  April 
12,  1916. 


THE    RAILROAD'S    PREDICA- 
MENT 

Railroads  produce  one  thing  and  sell 
another.  Transportation  may  be 
called  a  commodity,  .but  it  is  not  mer- 
chandise. What  a  railroad  sells  is  a 
capacity  to  effect  transportation :  and 
what  the  public  buys  is  the  use  of  that 
capacity  and  not  the  means  itself.  All 
the  money  a  railroad  spends,  whether 
for  labor,  capital,  materials,  intelli- 
gence, or  terminal  structures,  is  direct- 
ly or  indirectly  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
ducing train  miles.  All  the  money  a 
railroad  takes  in  is  for  passenger  and 
ton  miles.  A  railroad  does  not  sell  its 
trains;  it  sells  only  their  capacity. 
What  it  gets  from  the  passengers  and 
tons  which  occupy  that  capacity  is  out 
of  its  control  entirely.  Rates  are  made 


World  thinks 


by  state  laws  or  by  the  interstate  com- 
merce commission.  Unable  to  control 
its  income,  the  railroad  has  all  the 
greater  reason  to  look  at  the  cost  of  its 
train  miles,  that  is,  to  the  control  of  its 
outgo.  If  it  should  lose  control  of  its 
outgo,  having  already  lost  control  of 
its  income,  it  would  obviously  be  in  a 
precarious  condition.  But  exactly  that 
is  taking  place. — New  York  Times. 


FUEL   ECONOMY 

By  J.  K.  McCraney,  Engineer,  Colum- 
bus Division,  Central  of  Georgia  Ry. 

'"PHERE  having  been  a  great  deal 
said  recently  relative  to  Fuel  Eco- 
nomy and  the  elimination  of  excessive 
black  smoke,  all  for  the  purpose  of  im- 
proving and  to  promote  the  efficiency 
of  the  service,  it  is  therefore  my  aim 
to  confine  what  I  shall  say  to  these 
principles  and  direct  a  few  remarks 
to  those  in  charge  of  transferring  coal 
from  tender  to  firebox. 

Owing  to  my  very  limited  knowledge 
of  the  theory  of  combustion,  I  will 
only  refer  to  a  few  things  that  are  of 
most  importance  to  us;  things  every 
fireman  should  know  in  order  to  give 
good  service.  However,  there  are  a 
great  many  firemen  who  accomplish 
this  who  do  not  know  the  reason  for 
their  having  done  so.  But  we  can  best 
understand  and  appreciate  the  im- 
portance of  Fuel  Economy  when  we 
have  learned  the  value  of  a  given 
quantity  of  coal,  or  in  other  words, 
what  a  given  quantity  of  coal  is  ca- 
pable of  producing  when  handled  prop- 


21 


22 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


erly  and  compare  this  with  the  results 
obtained  from  the  same  quantity  of 
coal  when  handled  improperly.  Of 
course,  we  all  know  that  conditions  * 
are  not  at  all  times  perfect,  and  for 
this  reason  we  cannot  expect  to  ob- 
tain perfect  or  complete  combustion, 
but  by  adhering  to  the  correct  princi- 
ples of  firing  we  may  improve  these 
conditions  to  a  great  extent  and  as  a 
result  save  a  considerable  amount  of 
coal  and  partly  eliminate  the  black 
smoke  nuisance,  for  there  are  certain 
undesirable  conditions  that  are  un- 
questionably due  to  improper  firing. 
The  condition  of  the  fire  is  the  most 
important,  for  here  is  where  combus- 
tion takes  place,  either  perfect  or  im- 
perfect. It  is  therefore  necessary  to 
keep  the  fire  in  good  condition  in  or- 
der to  get  the  most  desirable  form  of 
combustion.  We  sometimes  speak  of 
Fuel  Economy  and  the  elimination  of 
black  smoke  as  though  they  were  two 
difficult  problems  to  overcome,  but 
such  is  not  the  case,  if  Fuel  Economy 
is  practiced  by  firemen  using  the  cor- 
rect principles  of  firing.  The  elimi- 
nation of  excessive  black  smoke  will 
automatically  follow,  and  there  will 
be  no  cause  for  complaint  from  this 
source,  as  it  is  invariably  the  extrav- 
agant use  of  coal  that  produces  exces- 
sive smoke.  Now,  as  to  the  value  of  a 
given  quantity  of  coal,  one  scoopful 
for  example:  We  all  know,  or  at  least 
should  know,  that  one  pound  of  coal 
when  combustion  is  complete  will 
evaporate  about  seven  pounds  of  water, 
or,  in  other  words,  turn  that  much 
water  into  steam.  There  being  about 
fifteen  pounds  of  coal  to  the  average 
scoopful,  we  can  readily  see  that  this 
amount  should  evaporate  one  hundred 
fifteen  pounds,  or  about  fourteen  gal- 
lons of  water.  Under  these  conditions 
one  pound  of  coal  is  capable  of  pro- 
ducing about  10,000  heat  units  (a  unit 
of  heat  is  the  heat  required  to  raise 
a  pound  of  water  at  near  32  degrees 
one  degree),  enough  heat  to  raise  the 
temperature  of  10,000  pounds  of  water 
1  degree,  or  about  6  gallons  to  212  de- 
grees (Boiling  point).  These  results 


can  only  be  obtained  by  firemen  using 
economy  in  the  distribution  of  coal 
over  the  fire.  Some  firemen  seem  to 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  a  free  pass- 
age of  air  is  as  essential  to  proper 
combustion  as  plenty  of  coal.  This 
is  true,  however,  and  a  generous  sup- 
ply of  air  is  necessary  in  order  to  get 
good  results.  If  the  air  is  restricted 
by  the  formation  '  of  clinkers,  it  is 
a  known  fact  that  the  steam  pressure 
will  fall  back.  It  is  therefore  neces- 
sary to  keep  the  fire  free  from  clinkers 
so  that  the  air  will  pass  evenly  and 
freely  through  the  grates  to  supply  the 
required  amount  of  oxygen  that  is  nec- 
essary for  complete  combustion.  In 
order  to  get  the  highest  degree  of  heat 
and  at  the  same  time  reduce  the  work 
to  a  minimum,  the  fireman  should 
comply  strictly  with  the  correct  prin- 
ciples of  firing.  By  doing  this  there 
will  be  very  little(  clinker  formation,  as 
clinkers  are  invariably  caused  by 
heavy  or  overloading  fire  with  coal, 
retarding  the  free  passage  of  air 
through  the  grates  which  is  essential 
to  good  service.  Firemen  should  bear 
this  in  mind  and  guard  against  such 
practice.  The  exclusion  of  air,  no 
matter  from  what  cause,  has  the  same 
effect  on  the  steaming  qualities  of 
coal.  The  coal  should  be  distributed 
evenly  over  the  fire  in  quantities  only 
necessary  to  keep  a  good  bright  fire 
and  never  in  such  quantities  as  will 
have  a  tendency  to  smother  it  or  re- 
duce the  temperature  of  the  firebox 
to  any  great  extent.  This  method  of 
firing  gives  cause  for  great  volumes  of 
smoke  to  be  emitted  from  the  stack 
and  is  an  acknowledged  indication  of 
useless  extravagance.  When  such 
methods  as  these  are  followed,  it  re- 
quires three  pounds  of  coal  to  produce 
the  energy  that  one  pound  is  capable 
of  producing  when  proper  methods  are 
followed.  It  will  therefore  require 
three  pounds  of  coal  under  such  condi- 
tions to  evaporate  seven  pounds  of 
water.  We  can  see  by  this  compari- 
son that  two-thirds  of  the  value  of 
the  coal  has  been  wasted  bv  improper 
firing,  and  ultimately  the  fireman  has 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


23 


given  the  whole  of  his  labor  for  only 
one-third  of  its  value  and  the  compan-1 
has  given  full  value  for  one-third  effi- 
ciency. So  the  full  value  being  de- 
rived from  a  given  quantity  of  coal 
means  one-third  work  for  the  fireman 
with  full  reimbursement  for  his  labor, 
and  maximum  fuel  efficiency  to  the 
company  for  their  expenditure.  Then, 


should  we  wonder  at  being  urged  by 
the  management  to  resort  to  the  best 
possible  means  to  get  the  highest  de- 
gree of  heat  from  the  minimum  sup- 
ply of  coal?  No.  Hence  the  correct 
principles  of  firing  should  be  adhered 
to  in  order  to  accomplish  this. 
The  Right  of  Way,  Savannah,  April, 
1916. 


Courtesy 


C.  L.  Bent,  Inspector  Passenger  Service 


Personal  prosperity  depends  upon 
business  success  and  business  success 
depends  not  only  upon  supply  and  de- 
mand but  upon  the  methods  followed 
in  the  conduct  of  the  business.  Supply 
and  demand  are  governed  by  the  con- 
ditions of  the  times  but  the  methods  of 
conducting  the  business  are  controlled 
by  all  those  connected  with  the  busi- 
ness, and  it  is  with  these  methods  that 
employes  are  directly  concerned  and 
their  co-operation  with  the  manage- 
ment will  produce  the  greatest  success. 

Courtesy  is  one  of  the  methods  adopt- 
ed by  the  management  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company.  By  incor- 
porating it  in  the  slogan — "Safety  first, 
courtesy  and  efficient  service  always" 
— and  by  issuing  bulletins  recommend- 
ing, requesting  and  even  demanding 
its  use,  they  have  pronounced  the  ex- 
ercise of  it  to  be  one  of  the  essential 
methods  to  be  followed  in  securing-  a 
successful  railroad. 

The  success  of  a  railroad  is  of  vital 
importance  to  every  employe,  for  on 
this  success  depends  not  only  its  pow- 
er to  pay  increased  wages  but  its  pow- 
er to  maintain  its  full  force  of  employes 
at  full  time.  Hence  if  an  employe 
should  be  lacking  in  loyalty  to  his  com- 
pany which  not  only  supplies  his  bread 
and  butter  but  his  luxuries  as  well,  he 
should  be  alive  to  his  own  personal  in- 
terests and  realize  that  they  are  liable 
to  suffer  if  those  of  his  company  does. 

This  management,  as  well  as  others. 


have  advised  that  courtesy  is  absolute- 
ly essential  to  a  salesman.  All  em- 
ployes of  a  railroad  are  salesmen,  en- 
gaged in  selling  the  only  thing  a  rai' 
road  has  to  sell,  namely  transportation. 
All  acts  of  employes  either  please  or 
displease  the  patrons  of  a  railroad  and 
add  to  or  drive  away  from  its  business. 
Every  man  knows  that  whenever  h- 
has  dealings  with  another  that  he  per 
sonally  prefers  to  be  treated  with  cour- 
tesy, and  what  he  himself  wants,  the 
patron  of  a  railroad  demands  and  if  he 
cannot  get  it  from  one  road,  he  is  ant 
to  go  to  another.  No  employe  of  this 
road  intentionally  desires  to  see  any 
of  its  patrons  leave  but  he  may  be  the 
cause  thereof  from  a  thoughtless  action 
on  his  own  part.  To  prevent  this  re- 
quires that  he  be  continually  awake 
and  alive  to  the  interests  of  his  com- 
pany, not  lazy  or  indifferent.  He  must 
always  keep  before  him  the  answer  to 
the  question,  "What  should  be  said  or 
done  to  sive  the  best  results  for  the 
company?"  In  other  words  by  putting 
the  company  first  and  exercising  self 
control,  the  proper  action  will  be  taken. 
Consideration  and  courtesy  are  sy- 
nonymous as  used  in  the  business 
world  and  means  not  only  a  consider- 
ation of  persons  but  of  property.  One 
can  be  just  as  discourteous  in  the  man- 
ner of  handling  baggage  as  if  remarks 
were  made  aloud.  If  consideration  is 
fully  and  pleasantly  shown,  courtesy 
will  not  be  far  away. 


Story  of  Ali  Baba  and  the  Forty  Railroad 
Commissions 


A  Fairy  Tale 
By  Blewett  Lee 


/^v  NCE  upon  a  time  there  lived  in 
^*s  the  Youessay  two  Railroads  who 
were  brothers,  one  named  Cassim,  and 
the  other  Ali  Baba.  Cassim  had  a  large 
business  in  coal,  iron  and  grain,  and 
became  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
considerable  of  Carriers.  Ali  Baba,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  nothing  but  a  local 
lumber  traffic,  and  not  much  of  that. 

One  day,  when  Ali  Baba  was  solicit- 
ing lumber  business  and  absolutely  up 
a  tree,  he  saw  a  tribe  of  horsemen 
coming  toward  him.  They  were  all 
well  mounted,  each  riding  an  Office, 
and  with  a  sharp  Order  stuck  through 
his  belt,  and  their  wallets  were  full  of 
taxes,  depots,  fares,  grade  crossings, 
and  other  valuables.  Ali  Baba  counted 
forty  of  these  horsemen — there  were 
really  forty-eight,  but  they  were  so  ac- 
tive and  perpetually  fighting  that  he 
always  lost  count  when  he  came  to 
forty.  One,  who  seemed  to  be  the  cap- 
tain of  the  band,  was  a  long  skinny 
person  who  wore  the  collar  of  the 
Association  known  as  the  Kornbellut 
Meetprodeusahs,  one  of  the  fiercest 
tribes  of  the  Shippahs.  He  came  up  to 
a  rock  which  stood  in  the  way,  and  pro- 
nounced distinctly  these  words,  in  a 
language  which  Ali  Baba  remembered 
to  have  heard  when  he  was  a  child, 
"State's  Rights."  As  soon  as  the  cap- 
tain of  the  band  had  uttered  these 
words,  a  door  opened  in  the  rock,  and 
after  he  had  made  all  his  band  enter 
before  him,  the  captain  entered  and 
the  door  shut  itself. 

Ali  Baba  remained  up  the  tree  until 
the  forty  came  out  again,  mounted 
their  offices,  and  returned  by  the  way 
they  had  come.  When  they  had  gone 
Ali  Baba  descended  to  the  front  of  the 


rock  and  pronounced  the  words, 
"State's  Rights."  The  door  instantly 
flew  wide  open. 

Ali  Baba  was  surprised  to  find  a  cav- 
ern, well  lighted  and  spacious,  and 
filled  with  precious  stores  of  Interstate 
Commerce.  There  were  rich  bales  of 
silk  stuff,  brocade,  and  valuable  carpet- 
ing, and  every  kind  of  treasure  of  art 
and  handicraft.  It  was  evident  that 
there  were  incalculable  riches  inside 
the  cave.  He  gathered  together  such 
as  he  was  able  to  carry  away,  and  by 
the  use  of  the  words  "States  Rights" 
he  found  his  way  out  again  and  re- 
turned to  the  city. 

The  effect  of  Ali  Baba's  carrying 
Interstate  Commerce  from  the  cave 
was  that  he  found  himself  in  possession 
of  a  heap  of  gold.  This  was  discov- 
ered by  a  crafty  Accounting  Officer 
in  the  service  of  his  brother,  Cassim. 
Cassim  then  threatened  to  denounce 
Ali  Baba  to  the  Commander  of  the 
Faithful  falsely,  as  being  a  member  of 
a  Trust  or  Combine,  and  so  compass 
his  ruin.  Under  this  compulsion,  Ali 
Baba  told  Cassim  the  secret  of  his 
wealth. 

With  this  information  Cassim  also 
went  to  the  cave  and  pronounced  the 
words,  "States  Rights."  The  door 
opened  immediately  and  when  he  en- 
tered, closed  upon  him.  He  found 
therein  so  much  more  riches  than  he 
imagined,  and  was  so  anxious  to  move 
the  priceless  Interstate  Commerce 
which  lay  all  about  him,  that  he  forgot 
the  ancient  and  mysterious  words  he 
was  to  speak.  Instead  of  saying 
"States  Rights"  he  said  "National  Sov- 
ereignty," "The  Constitution,"  "United 
States,"  "Free  Trade,"  "Simple  Jus- 


24 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


25 


tice,"  "Square  Deal,"  "Common  Sense" 
and  a  great  many  other  things  which 
might  have  moved  a  door  of  stone,  but 
it  was  to  no  purpose. 

About  noon  the  forty  Commissions 
came  to  visit  their  cave.  They  saw  in 
the  distance  the  line  which  Cassim  had 
made  for  the  purpose  of  moving  the 
Interstate  Commerce,  and  were  great- 
ly alarmed.  They  dismounted  and 
some  of  them  went  directly  to  the  door 
with  naked  orders  in  their  hands,  and 
upon  pronouncing  the  proper  words,  it 
opened.  Cassim  tried  to  escape,  but 
the  Commissions,  with  their  orders, 
soon  deprived  him  of  his  life. 

The  Commissions  held  a  counsel  and 
could  not  imagine  how  Cassim  had 
gained  entrance  to  their  cave  or  dis- 
covered the  treasures  of  Interstate 
Commerce  there.  They  decided  to  cut 
Cassim's  system  into  four  quarters,  to 
hang  two  on  one  side  and  two  on  the 
other,  within  the  door  of  the  cave,  in 
order  to  terrify  any  one  else  who  might 
attempt  to  enter. 

Cassim's  stockholders  were  very  un- 
easy when  darkness  approached  and 
Cassim  did  not  come  back.  They  spent 
the  night  in  tears,  and  when  morning 
came  they  ran  to  AH  Baba  in  alarm. 
Ali  Baba  went  at  once  to  the  cave,  and 
when  he  pronounced  the  words  "States 
Rights"  the  door  opened  and  he  was 
filled  with  horror  at  the  dismal  sight 
of  his  brother's  four  quarters.  He  en- 
tered the  cave  and  took  down  the  re- 
mains and  carried  them  away  with  him, 
and  in  spite  of  his  fears  he  also  car- 
ried away  some  Interstate  Commerce, 
selecting  only  the  most  valuable  ar- 
ticles. 

When  he  returned  to  his  house,  he 
consulted  with  his  handmaid,  Morgana, 
an  intelligent  slave,  whom  Ali  Baba 
knew  to  be  faithful  and  resourceful  in 
the  most  difficult  undertakings.  At 
the  advice  of  Morgana,  an  old  cobbler 
by  the  name  of  Foarklosiah  was 
brought  in  and  sewed  together  the 
quarters  of  Cassim's  system,  so  that 
he  appeared  to  be  reorganized,  only 
there  was  no  life  in  him. 

Cassim  had  a  great  funeral  and  his 


body  was  followed  to  the  grave  not 
only  by  stock  holders,  but  by  many 
bond  holders  as  well.  There  came  also 
many  holders  of  life  insurance  policies, 
and  those  who  had  savings  bank  de- 
posits besides,  and  a  great  number  of 
Shippahs  who,  now  that  Cassim  was 
gone,  found  that  they  missed  him  very 
much. 

When  the  forty  Commissions  found 
that  Cassim's  body  had  been  removed, 
and  that  some  Interstate  Commerce 
had  been  moved  also,  they  said 
amongst  themselves,  "It  is  evident 
that  some  railroad  has  been  moving 
Interstate  Commerce,  and  has  made 
good  its  escape.  He  evidently  must 
have  been  in  league  with  the  one  we 
found  here.  Let  us  send  one  of  our 
number  to  the  City  and  ascertain  if 
any  railroad  has  lately  died  a  strange 
death." 

One  of  the  Commissions  therefore 
came  to  the  City  and  accidentally  fell 
upon  Foarklosiah.  The  Commission 
saluted  him,  and  had  no  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  from  him  that  Foarklosiah 
had  recently  sewed  a  railroad  up.  Upon 
the  Commission's  insistence,  Foark- 
losiah finally  led  the  Commission  to 
the  house  of  Ali  Baba.  Having  found 
the  house,  the  Commission  marked  the 
taxes  up  high  on  Ali  Baba's  door  with 
a  piece  of  white  chalk. 

A  little  while  after  the  Commission 
had  gone,  one  of  Ali  Baba's  servants 
discovered  that  the  taxes  had  been 
marked  up  on  the  door,  and  so  she 
made  similar  marks  upon  the  doors  of 
all  the  neighbors'  houses. 

Meanwhile  t  he  Commissions  had 
armed  themselves  and  in  the  night 
gathered  in  front  of  Ali  Baba's  house, 
but  they  could  not  for  the  life  of  them 
tell  who  had  paid  the  taxes  which  had 
been  marked  on  Ali  Baba's  door.  In- 
creased expenses  were  marked  on  all 
the  houses  round  about,  and  in  every 
place  they  heard  groaning  about  the 
high  cost  of  living,  so  they  were  com- 
pelled to  return  to  their  cave  without 
knowing  who  it  was  that  had  ultimate- 
ly paid  Ali  Baba's  taxes. 

As  the   safety  of  the   Commissions 


26 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


required  that  an  injury  should  not  go 
unpunished,  another  Commission  of- 
fered to  go  into  the  City  and  see  what 
he  could  discover.  He  also  succeeded 
in  finding  old  Foarklosiah,  and  having 
been  shown  AH  Baba's  house,  this  time 
instead  of  marking  up  the  taxes  he 
marked  the  profits  away  down  with 
red  chalk. 

Not  long  afterward  Ali  Baba's  serv- 
ant, whose  eye  nothing  could  escape, 
went  out  and  seeing  the  chalk  ma'rks, 
marked  down  the  profits  on  all  the 
neighbors'  houses  in  the  same  place 
and  manner. 

The  second  Commission,  on  his  re- 
turn to  the  cave,  reported  his  adven- 
ture and  the  captain  and  all  the  band 
were  overjoyed  at  the  thought  of  im- 
mediate success.  They  went  into  the 
City  the  same  as  before,  but  when  they 
came  to  the  street  where  Ali  Baba  re- 
sided they  found  that  profits  were 
marked  down  in  houses  all  along  the 
street,  and  there  was  much  wailing  in 
the  houses  at  hard  times,  and  mourn- 
ing over  lost  profits,  so  that  once  more 
the  band  returned  to  the  cave  in  dis- 
tress. 

This  time  the  captain  took  upon 
himself  the  important  task  of  ascer- 
taining who  was  moving  Interstate 
Commerce.  He  also  addressed  himself 
to  Foarklosiah,  who  did  him  the  same 
service  that  he  had  for  the  two  Com- 
missions. The  captain  did  not  mark 
the  house  with  chalk,  but  he  examined 
it  so  carefully  that  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  mistake  it.  Well  satis- 
fied with  his  attempt,  he  returned  to 
the  cave  and  said  to  the  Commissions, 
"Now,  comrades,  nothing  can  prevent 
our  full  revenge,  as  I  am  certain  of 
the  house."  He  then  ordered  the  mem- 
bers of  the  band  to  go  out  in  the  vil- 
lages round  about  and  buy  twenty- 
four  mules  and  forty-eight  large  leath- 
ern jars,  one  full  of  oil,  and  the  others 
empty. 

The  captain,  after  putting  one  of  his 
Commission  into  each  of  the  jars, 
rubbed  the  outside  of  the  vessels  with 
the  Oil  of  Popularity.  He  then  led  the 
mules  through  the  streets  until  they 


came  to  the  house  of  Ali  Baba.  Ali 
Baba  was  sitting  on  his  house-top  after 
supper  to  take  a  little  fresh  air.  The 
captain  addressed;  him  and  said,  "I 
have  brought  some  oil  a  great  distance 
to  sell  at  tomorrow's  market,  and  it  is 
now  so  late  that  I  do  not  know  where 
to  lodge.  If  I  should  not  be  trouble- 
some to  thee,  do  me  the  favor  to  let 
me  pass  the  night  in  thy  house."  This 
was  arranged,  and  Ali  Baba  bade  his 
servant  prepare  a  good  supper  for  his 
guest. 

When  preparing  supper,  Ali  Baba's 
servant  discovered  that  the  Oil  of  Pop- 
ularity was  almost  missing  in  the 
house.  She  remembered  the  oil  jars 
brought  by  the  stranger,  and  went  into 
the  yard.  When  she  came  to  the  first 
jar,  the  Commission  within  softly  said, 
"Is  it  election  time?"  She  was  nat- 
urally surprised  to  find  the  Commis- 
sion in  the  jar,  instead  of  oil,  but  she 
immediately  apprehended  the  danger 
to  Ali  Baba,  and  with  great  presence 
of  mind  said,  "Not  yet,  but  soon."  She 
went  this  way  to  all  the  jars  until 
finally  she  came  to  the  jar  containing 
the  Oil  of  Popularity. 

Ali  Baba's  servant  made  what  haste 
she  could  to  fill  her  oil  pot.  She  then 
took  a  great  kettle  and  filled  it  with 
the  Shreveport  Doctrine,  which  was 
hot  stuff.  As  soon  as  it  was  ready  she 
went  forth  and  poured  enough  of  it  on 
each  of  the  Commissions  to  prevent 
their  interfering  any  more  with  Inter- 
state Commerce. 

When  the  captain  of  the  Commis- 
sions gave  the  appointed  signal,  he 
found  it  impossible  to  get  any  of  the 
Commissions  to  interest  themselves  in 
national  affairs.  Going  to  the  first  jar 
he  smelt  the  Shreveport  Doctrine. 
Enraged  to  despair  at  having  failed  in 
his  design,  he  forced  the  lock  on  the 
door  and  ran  for  Congress.  In  this 
way  he  made  good  his  escape. 

When  Ali  Baba  found  that  the  Com- 
missions were  confining  their  attention 
to  local  affairs  and  no  longer  interfer- 
ing with  national  business,  he  set  out 
again  for  the  cave.  When  he  arrived 
there,  he  pronounced  the  ancient 


27 

words,  "States  Rights,"  and  the  door  Baba,  obedient  to  the  Prophet,  had  a 
opened  immediately.  large  harem,  and  many  little  railroads 
From  this  time  forward,  Ali  Baba  were  reared  in  his  house,  which  after- 
began  to  move  Interstate  Commerce  wards  proved  to  be  of  great  usefulness 
very  greatly  and  with  entire  freedom,  and  honor  so  that  the  whole  land  was 
His  good  fortune  spread  to  his  neigh-  filled  with  prosperity  because  of  the 
bors,  and  the  whole  City  became  very  Interstate  Commerce  which  had  been 
prosperous  by  reason  of  the  Interstate  brought  out  of  the  cave. — Railway  Age- 
Commerce  which  came  there.  Ali  Gazette. 


Letters  of  Appreciation  from  Graduates  of  the 
Fifty-Seventh  Street  Station  Training  School 

Mr.  E.  A.  Barton,  Flossmoor,  111.,  Feb.  12,  1916. 

Chicago,  111. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Barton : — Allow  me  to  thank  you  for  the  splendid  instruc- 
tions and  lectures  I  received  while  in  the  Station  Training  School.  I  feel 
that  you  have  helped  me  in  every  way  with  my  work,  and  that  your  teachings 
will  enable  me  to  hold  a  better  position,  which  I  hope  to  do. 

If  the  students  will  only  follow  your  instructions,  there  is  no  doubt  but 
what  they  will  succeed  with  their  work. 

Thanking  you  and  wishing  you  much  success. 

Your  former  student, 

C.  B.  HALL,    Ticket  Clerk. 

Abbeville,  Miss.,  March  1,  1916. 
Mr.  E.  A.  Barton. 

Dear  Friend : — I  want  to  thank  you  for  the  many  favors  and  splendid 
training  I  received  while  taking  the  course  in  the  Station  Training  School, 
which  you  have  under  your  control. 

I  am  now  working  as  clerk  here,  and  like  my  work  very  much,  but  intend 
to  do  my  best  to  earn  a  higher  position,  which  I  am  sure  will  come  in  its 
own  good  time. 

The  agent  here,  Mr.  Knight,  is  a  perfect  gentleman,  and  is  always  ready 
to  help  me  in  my  work  when  I  need  help. 

Thanking  you  and  wishing  you  the  best  of  success,  which  I  am  sure  you 
will  gain,  I  remain,  Yours  very  truly, 

PATSY    McCARRON,    Abbeville,  Miss. 

Garyville,  La.,  March  3,  1916. 
Mr.  E.  A.  Barton. 

Instructor  of  57th  Street  Training  School. 

Dear  Professor  Barton : — Owing  to  the  fact  that  I  am  now  a  real  busy 
railroad  man,  and,  like  the  majority,  have  been  too  busy  to  write  you.  I  wish 
to  state  that  I  owe  you  many  thanks  for  what  you  did  for  me  the  few  weeks 
I  spent  under  you  in  school,  and  appreciate  your  pains  and  instructions  very 
much.  Also  thank  you  for- sending  me  to  the  land  where  I  can  see  a  summer 
time  all  of  the  year. 

A  few  words  to  the  fellows  who  now  are  under  your  care.  If  they  will  just 
do  as  you  say,  they  will  never  regret  it,  and  am  sure  when  they  get  out  on 
the  road,  they  can  look  back  and  say,  "Those  few  weeks  were  well  spent." 

I  will  close,  with  respectful  appreciation  to  you  and  your  wife,  I  beg  to 
remain,  A  former  student, 

O.  D.  WEITZEL. 


ayiio 


Kentucky 


'"PHE  City  of  Mayfield,  is  located  on 
the  edge  of  the  foothills  of  the 
Cumberlands,  is  one  of  the  most  pro- 
gressive cities  in  the  State,  and  harbors 
within  its  bounds  about  ten  thousand 
souls. 

Mayfield  was  founded  about  1825, 
and  while  she  has  never  been  graced  with 
a  boom,  her  growth  has  been  continuous 
and  healthy,  and  much  could  be  said  of 
her  history ;  but  the  present  will  perhaps 
be  of  more  interest  to  the  reader,  so 
will  omit  the  glories  of  the  past  and 
write  of  the  present  and  what  is  yet  to 
come. 

Among  the  many  good  things  she  can 
justly  boast  of,  are  her  many  magnifi- 
cent churches,  schools  and  other  public 
buildings  of  modern  construction.  The 
schools  speak  for  themselves  through 
the  young  citizens  they  are  returning  to 
our  commercial  life,  prepared  in  a  thor- 
ough and  practical  way  to  take  up  a 
vocation  and  secure  for  themselves  the 
most  there  is  in  it.  Present  school  sys- 
tem is  composed  of  3  grammar  and  one 
high  school  and  has  a  faculty  of  23 
teachers  that  can  best  be  judged  by  the 
product  they  are  turning  out.  From  an 
estimate  made  by  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, in  which  forty-two  schools  com- 
peted, there  were  but  two  that  could  com- 
pare with  the  high  grade  work  done  by 
Mayfield  High  School;  this  estimate 
shows  that  out  of  73  graduates  in  the 
past  six  years,  57  have  entered  23  of 
the  larger  universities  and  colleges 
throughout  the  country,  among  them 
being  Chicago,  Transylvania,  Vander- 


bilt,  Indiana,  Syracuse,  Sewanee,  Ken- 
tucky, Randolph,  Macon,  Peabody,  Lo- 
gan, State  Normal,  Georgetown  and 
Tennessee,  of  this  number  not  one  of 
them  has  failed  to  make  their  grade, 
which  is  an  enviable  position  for  a 
school  to  hold  when  you  take  into  con- 
sideration the  well  known  fact  that  25 
per  cent  of  all  entrants  in  larger  schools 
fail  to  make  their  grades  the  first  year. 

Her  water  and  lighting  system  is  very 
elaborate,  efficient  and  will  compare  with 
any  town  its  size  in  the  country,  having 
recently  added  a  modern  white  way 
which  extends  throughout  her  business 
district,  furnishes  ample  power  and  water 
for  industries  and  water  and  light  for 
city.  Water  supply  is  inexhaustible  and 
as  pure  and  free  of  mineral  as  any  in 
the  country,  being  98  per  cent  pure  and 
absolutely  free  of  malaria. 

We  have  brick  streets  throughout  the 
business  district  and  good  streets  and 
roads  all  over  city  and  county. 

Mayfield  can  also  claim  for  her  own 
more  travelling  men  as  residents  than 
any  other  city  in  the  state,  including 
Louisville;  we  have  150  residenters  of 
that  description  in  our  midst,  which  is 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  it  is  one 
of  the  healthiest,  most  up  to  date  cities 
where  property,  rent  and  eeneral  cost 
of  living  are  most  reasonable.  Is  cen- 
trally located  for  this  territory  and  has 
transportation  facilities  that  will  connect 
you  with  any  point  in  the  central  west 
or  south  within  ten  hours,  and  with  a 
minimum  loss  of  time  to  any  point. 

Of  the  well  known  industries,  tobacco 


28 


ASSORTING    AND    PACKING    TOBACCO,    MAYPIELD,  KY. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


31 


is  probably  the  best  known.  Mayfield  is 
famed  throughout  the  United  States  and 
Continental  Europe,  for  her  high  grade 
of  dark  tobacco,  and  is  the  largest  loose 
leaf  tobacco  market  in  the  world,  mar- 
keting thirty  million  pounds  annually, 
ships  to  practically  all  parts  of  the  civil- 
ized world  and  has  buyers  on  its  mart 
the  year  round  from  all  parts  of  the 
continent. 

Another  industry  in  our  midst,  that 
is  no  less  known  in  every  state  and  ter- 
ritory in  the  United  States,  is  our  cloth- 
ing industry.  It  can  be  well  said  of  them 
that  they  are  one  of  the  Seven  Wonders 


Mayfield  Woolen  Mills  and  Merit  Mfg. 
Co. 

The  first  named  manufacture  the 
Famous  Sheep  Brand  of  pants,  from 
the  raw  wool.  This  product  enjoys  an 
enviable  reputation  with  over  ten  thou- 
sand merchants  selling  them  and  over  a 
million  wearers  testify  as  to  their  su- 
periority. 

For  a  half  century  this  business  en- 
terprise has  been  building  its  reputation, 
and  how  well  it  has  builded  and  how 
strongly  it  is  entrenched  is  evidenced  by 
its  constantly  growing  business,  and  its 
thousands  of  satisfied  customers. 


MERIT    MANUFACTURING    COMPANY,    MAYFIELD,    KY. 


of  the  industrial  world  and  that  they 
even  defy  the  laws  of  gravity,  situated 
as  they  are  far  away  from  the  source  of 
supply.  They  can  well  be  compared  to 
the  Furniture  Industry  of  Grand  Rapids, 
which  holds  a  similar  position  in  the 
furniture  world,  and  like  unto  that  in- 
dustry have  come  to  the  front  by  sheer 
force  of  honest  quality  and  efficient 
management. 

This   industry   is   represented  by  the 


Success  has  been  attained  by  strict  ad- 
herence to  its  old  time  and  established 
principle,  to  make  a  piece  of  honest 
cloth  out  of  honest  wool.  This  plant 
today  is  one  of  the  greatest  in  the  state 
and  the  largest  of  its  kind  in  the  United 
States,  and  employs  the  year  round, 
over  500  skilled  workmen. 

The  plant  itself  covers  an  area  equal 
to  a  city  square,  with  modern  buildings 
and  up  to  date  machinery  and  it  can  be 


32 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that 
no  plant  is  better  fitted  to  manufacture 
its  product.  This  plant,  together  with 
their  Paducah  branch,  has  in  all,  a  total 
of  125,000  square  feet  of  floor  space, 
with  yearly  sales  of  over  a  million  dol- 
lars, and  their  product  is  sold  in  every 
state  and  territory  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  and  from  the  Dominion  to 
the  Gulf. 

The  last  named  manufacture  the  re- 


further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  their 
sales  are  steadily  increasing  each  year. 

This  industry  has  a  factory  covering 
three  quarters  of  a  city  block,  with  floor 
space  of  seventy-five  thousand  square 
feet,  and  employs  over  three  hundred 
skilled  tailors  throughout  the  year. 

Another  industry  that  has  come  to  be 
known  as  a  synonym  of  Mayfield,  is 
the  Clay  Mine,  owned  and  operated  by 
The  Kentucky  Construction  and  Im- 


nowned  American  Gentleman  Trousers, 
Pony  Boy  Suits,  and  Merit  System 
Clothes.  While  they  have  been  estab- 
lished less  than  a  score  of  years  their 
clothing  has  become  known  as  clothing 
of  merit,  containing  quality,  workman- 
ship and  style  that  is  unsurpassed. 

They  have  scattered  throughout  the 
several  states  and  territories,  over  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  wearers, 
that  are  wearing  Merit  merchandise  be- 
cause the  last  suit  wore  well,  fitted 
snugly  and  was  a  good  value,  which  is 


provement  Company,  who  are  miners 
and  shippers  of  High  Class,  Plastic 
Ball  and  Sagger  Clays.  This  industry 
is  served  by  its  own  standard  gauge  spur 
track  making  it  especially  adaptable  to 
carload  business. 

The  deposit  of  this  remarkable  mate- 
rial is  known  to  underpay  a  major  por- 
tion of  a  tract  of  three  hundred  square 
acres,  which  is  owned  by  the  company 
in  fee  simple,  and  is  ample,  at  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  mining,  to  supply  trade  for 
more  than  fifty  years. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


33 


With  a  beginning  in  1891,  of  ship- 
ments at  the  rate  of  some  two  or  three 
cars  per  month,  supplying  this  to  manu- 
facturers of  floor  tiles  only,  the  busi- 
ness has  grown  to  a  volume  of  approx- 
imately 75  cars  per  month,  and  ships  to 
practically  all  users  of  plastic  clay.  In 
addition  to  the  long  established  demand 
for  this  material  by  manufacturers  of 
Floor  and  Wall  Tiles,  Dinnerware,  Elec- 
trical Porcelain,  Sanitary  Ware,  etc., 
etc.,  which  lines  are  increasing  their 
consumption  of  this  clay,  the  European 
unpleasantness  has  caused  former  users 
of  English  and  German  Clays  to  inves- 
tigate American  materials  very  carefully. 
The  result  has  been  that  the  better 
grades  have  been  adopted  by  the  most 
exacting  trade,  including  Steel  Enamels, 
Brass  and  Silver  Crucibles,  Glass  Melt- 
ing Pots,  etc.,  with  which  this  company 
now  enjoys  a  very  large  business  on  the 
standing  order  plan. 

These  mines  produce  eight  separate 
and  distinct  grades,  enabling  the  com- 
pany to  reach  practically  all  the  users 
and  serving  to  regulate  operations  in  a 
most  satisfactory  manner,  as  all  the 
lines  of  manufacture  rarely  suffer  a 
heavy  'falling  off  in  demand  at  the  same 
time. 

It  is  claimed  that  one  grade  of  this 
clay  stands  in  a  class  by  itself,  in  that 
it  is  absolutely  free  from  the  slightest 
particle  of  grit,  being  highly  plastic  and 
uniformly  one  thing  all  the  way  through. 
This  cannot  truthfully  be  said  of  any 
other  known  clay,  either  of  American 
or  European  origin. 

The  mines  are  equipped  in  a  most 
modern  and  efficient  way,  all  haulage 
being  done  by  steam  operated  steel  rope 
cables,  the  product  being  so  carried  to 
storage  sheds  or  dumped  through  chutes 
directly  into  railway  cars  when  practical, 
for  shipment. 

To  be  able  to  promptly  serve  a  very 
large  trade  under  all  weather  conditions, 
storage  sheds  of  a  total  capacity  of 
390,000  cu.  ft,  are  located  along  spur 
track.  These  will  very  soon  be  greatly 
increased  in  order  that  the  rapidly  grow- 
ing demand  for  this  material  may  be 
properly  handled. 


Our  brick  industry  is  fostered  by  the 
Standard  Brick  Co.,  president,  X.  B. 
Wickersham,  who  is  without  a  peer 
when  it  comes  to  making  brick.  They 
specialize  in  dry  pressed  red  and  color 
brick  and  are  jobbers  in  building  mate- 
rials in  quantities,  and  their  only  com- 
petition is  due  to  the  better  location  of 
some  industries  who  enjoy  better  freight 
rates,  the  quality  of  the  product  being 
unsurpassed. 

Last,  but  not  least,  comes  our  flouring 
and  grain  industry,  represented  in  the 
main  by  R.  U.  Kevil  &  Sons,  who  are 
well  and  favorably  known  in  this  sec- 
tion. This  plant  has  a  daily  capacity 
of  200  barrels  and  is  known  throughout 
the  territory  for  the  excellent  quality  of 
the  output. 

Other  local  industries  worthy  of  hon- 
orable mention  are  the  Mayfield  Water 
&  Light  Co.,  Mayfield  Planing  Mills, 
and  Mayfield  Coal  &  Ice  Co. 

It  would  seem,  by  the  foregoing,  that 
progressiveness  is  fostered  alone  by  the 
city  business  men.  Not  so.  The  busi- 
ness men  of  our  county  are  getting  away 
from  the  one  crop  system,  are  intro- 
ducing into  their  soils  minerals  that  have 
been  exhausted  by  that  continual  one 
crop,  and  are  making  that  land  a  more 
valuable  possession. 

At  one  time,  in  this  county,  one  could 
see  little  but  tobacco  provided  the  roads 
would  permit  travelling  far  enough 
from  the  city  limits  to  find  it;  now  we 
have  good  roads  everywhere  and  you 
cannot  travel  far  without  seeing  dairy 
and  beef  herds,  alfalfa,  clovers  of  every 
kind,  wheat,  oats,  corn,  rye,  barley,  pas- 
tures and  gardens  sufficient  to  furnish 
feedstuff  for  both  man  and  beast  and 
prosperous  looking  farmhouses  that 
naturally  follow  good  roads  and  diver- 
sification. 

Above  all,  we  have  in  our  citizenship, 
the  sort  of  progressiveness  that  is  con- 
tagious to  the  newcomer,  that  selfsame 
spirit  will  still  create  new  industries,  de- 
vise ways  to  utilize  what  is  now  wasted 
and  continue  to  make  Mayfield  the  best 
place  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  if  not 
in  the  entire  south  in  which  to  live  and 
prosper. 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

CIA1MS  DEPARTMENT 

Jnterosting  -  Jvews  -  of-  ^Doings  -  of 
Claimants*  Jn  -  and-  Out  -  of-  Court 


"Mosquito"  Suits  Knocked  Out 


On  the  3rd  ult.,  the  Mississippi  Su- 
preme Court  handed  down  an  opinion  in 
the  case  of  Mrs.  Harriett  Shackleford 
vs.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  appealed  from  a 
judgment  for  $100  in  the  Circuit  Court 
of  Tishomingo  County,  the  Supreme 
Court  reversing  the  judgment  and  dis- 
missing the  suit. 

The  Shackleford  case  grew  out  of  the 
Company's  acceding  to  the  request  of  a 
number  of  people  at  Tishomingo  and 
Paden,  Miss.,  and  accommodated  them 
by  stopping  the  Seminole  Limited,  south- 
bound, for  passengers  destined  to  Den- 
nis, Miss.,  and  the  stopping  of  the 
northbound  Limited  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day  to  pick  up  the  same  pas- 
sengers at  Dennis  for  Tishomingo  and 
Paden.  By  the  institution  of  this  suit 
and  31  others,  plaintiffs  showed  a  lack 
of  appreciation  of  a  courtesy  rendered 
by  the  Company  for  which  it  could  re- 
ceive so  little  remuneration  as  to  hardly 
pay  the  expense  of  stopping  and  start- 


ing the  trains.  The  distance  from  Tisho- 
mingo and  Paden  to  Dennis  is  only 
eight  and  six  miles  respectively . 

On  the  day  in  question  a  "Song-Fest" 
was  scheduled  at  Dennis  and  a  number 
of  people  living  at  Tishomingo  and 
Paden  desired  to  attend  it,  but  there  was 
no  train  service  which  would  enable  them 
to  do  so.  After  train  No.  9  had  left 
Jackson,  Tenn.,  a  request  was  made  on 
the  Road  Master  to  stop  it  and  also 
northbound  train  No.  10,  and  the  request 
was  granted.  It  appeared  that  train  No. 
10  had  an  unusual  number  of  passen- 
gers after  leaving  Birmingham  and  prac- 
tically all  the  seats  in  the  day  coach 
were  occupied,  so  that  on  arrival  at 
Dennis  the  conductor  requested  the  pas- 
sengers boarding  the  train  there  and  for 
whose  accommodation  these  trains  stop- 
ped, to  go  into  the  baggage  car  and 
stated  that  seats  would  be  arranged  on 
the  trunks  and  boxes  for  the  ladies.  To 
reach  the  baggage  car  it  was  necessary 


35 


36 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


for  them  to  pass  through  the  combina- 
tion smoker  and  negro  car.  There  were 
two  negroes  in  the  negro  compartment 
and  Mrs.  Shackleford  and  the  other 
thirty-one  passengers  who  filed  suits, 
claimed  that  their  sensitive  olfactories 
were  irritated  by  the  odors  in  the  negro 
.compartment  as  they  passed  through. 
They  also  complained  of  cinders,  dust, 
etc.  The  trip  from  Dennis  to  Paden 
occupied  about  ten  minutes  and  to 
Tishomingo  about  five  minutes  more. 
Some  person,  together  with  a  lawyer, 
shortly  after  the  trip,  conceived  the  idea 
of  profit  by  looking  up  the  passengers 
and  inducing  them  to  permit  suit  to  be 
filed  and,  in  this  way,  the  thirty-two 
suits  were  instituted,  among  them  being 
one  by  the  Mayor  of  Tishomingo,  who 
also  appeared  as  a  witness  for  the  plain- 
tiff in  the  Shackleford  case.  Several 
gentlemen  and  some  of  the  ladies  refused 
to  countenance  such  a  program  and  per- 
mit suits  to  be  brought  in  their  behalf, 
but  did  appear  as  witnesses  for  the  de- 
fendant in  the  trial  of  the  Shackleford 
case.  Both  ladies  and  gentlemen  testi- 
fied that  they  suffered  no  inconvenience 
whatever,  but  rather  considered  the 
experience  in  the  nature  of  a  lark,  as 
did  everyone  else,  as  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  hilarity  indulged  in  and  no  com- 
plaint was  made.  Evidently  no  one 
dreamed  of  being  damaged,  much  less 
of  filing  a  claim  or  suit,  until  they  were 
solicited  to  do  so.  In  spite  of  this,  the 
jury  returned  a  verdict  for  $100,  this 
being  the  only  suit  tried,  the  others 
being  otherwise  disposed  of  later.  It  is 
pleasing  to  record  that  the  Supreme 
Court  did  not  look  with  favor  upon  this 
litigation  and  reversed  the  judgment, 
dismissing  the  suit. 

The  total  revenue  from  the  trip  did 
not  exceed  $20.00  for  the  Company, 
while  many  times  this  amount  was  ex- 
pended in  the  investigation  of  these 
claims  and  suits,  the  preparation  for 
defense  and  the  actual  trial  of  the  one 
case.  There  was  no  legal  obligation 
upon  the  Company  to  stop  these  trains 
and  this  experience  would  not  tend  to 
encourage  a  repetition  of  such  a  cour- 
tesy. This  is  not  an  isolated  experience 


but  it  very  frequently  happens,  where  the 
Company  attempts  to  accommodate  peo- 
ple that  that  fact  is  given  little  consid- 
eration if  an  opportunity  presents  itself 
to  file  a  claim  or  suit;  yet  in  face  of 
such  exhibitions,  railroads  are  frequent- 
ly referred  to  as  heartless  corporations. 


NOT   LIABLE  FOR   KILLING 
MULES 

Comment  has  heretofore  been  made 
upon  the  fact  that  most  owners  of  stock 
seem  to  be  firmly  imbued  with  the  idea 
that  the  killing  of  stock  by  a  train  fixes 
liability  upon  the  Company,  irrespective 
of  the  circumstances.  The  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Mississippi  in 
the  J.  Carl  Jones  stock  suit  clearly  and 
emphatically  shows  the  error  in  such 
an  impression.  The  decision  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

"We  have  examined  the  evidence  taken 
at  the  trial  of  this  case  and  it  seems 
clear  to  us  that  the  defendant  below  met 
the  burden  imposed  by  the  prima  facie 
statute.  The  defendant  snowed  just 
how  and  under  what  circumstances  the 
mules  were  injured  by  the  running  train. 
It  appears  that  the  engineman  did  every- 
thing possible  to  avoid  striking  the  ani- 
mals after  he  saw  them.  We  find 
nothing  in  the  testimony  of  plaintiff's 
witnesses  in  conflict  with  the  testimonv 
of  the  engineman.  We  may  admit  all 
that  plaintiff's  evidence  tends  to  prove, 
and  yet,  we  are  unable  to  see  wherein 
the  defendant's  witnesses  are  contra- 
dicted. It  stands  undisputed  that  the 
train  crew  were  not  negligent  when  they 
discovered  the  mules  on  the  track.  There 
is  no  obligation  on  the  servants  of  the 
Company  to  keep  a  lookout  for  trespass- 
ing stock.  We  think  the  engineman 
gave  a  perfectly  valid  reason  for  his  not 
seeing  the  mules  earlier  and  we  can  find 
no  facts  or  circumstances  warranting  a 
belief  that  he  falsified.  We  are  unable 
to  say  that  the  engineman's  statement 
of  the  facts  is  unreasonable,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  evidence  tending  to  a  con- 
tradiction thereof  and  we  find  no  such 
evidence  in  the  record.  REVERSED 
AND  REMANDED." 

Upon  the  trial  of  this  case  the  plain- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


37 


[ATTORNEY   AT  LAW. I 

LINCOLN 


flTTORNEY 


'JDISCOURA&E    LITIGATION- 
PERSUADE  YOUR  NEIGHBORS  TO 
COMPROMISE       POINT  OUT  TO  THEM 
HOW  THE  NOMINAL  WINNER  IN  A  LAW 

SUIT  IS  OFTEN  A  REAL    LOSER        AS 
A  PEACE-MAKER,  THE   LAWYER    HAS  A 
SUPERIOR    OPPORTUNITY    OF  BEING  A 
GOOD    MAN       THERE   WILL    STILL   BE. 
BUSINESS      ENOU&H." 


ML  LICKUM 

SHYSTER 


ENCOURAGE     LITIEATIDN- 
PtRSUABE   YOUR  NEIGHBORS  TU 
FIGHT.    POINT  OUT  TO  THEM  HOW 
THE  WINNER   BENEFITS  THE    LAW- 
YER     AS  A  TROUBLE- MAKER- 

THE.    LAWYER    HAS   A  SUPERIOR 
OPPORTUNITY.     THERE    IS    BUSI- 
NESS    ENOUGH,  IF    YOU    liO    AFTER 
IT. 


38 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tiff  and  several  witnesses  testified  that, 
while  they  did  not  see  the  accident,  they 
did  observe  the  tracks  of  two  mules  upon 
the  roadbed  for  a  considerable  distance 
along  the  track  and  that  the  engineer 
should  have  stopped  and  avoided  strik- 
ing them.  While  this  proof  has  very 
frequently  been  resorted  to  with  con- 
siderable success,  it  has  always  seemed 
immaterial  and  unfair  for  the  reason 
that  it  has  long  been  established  as  the 
law  that  an  engineer  is  not  required 
to  maintain  a  look-out  for  stock  but  only 
to  use  ordinary  care  to  avoid  striking 
them  when  they  are  seen.  The  presence 
of  foot  prints  on  the  roadbed  does  not 
indicate  that  the  engineer  saw  the  ani- 
mal as  he  might  have  been  doing  some- 
thing about  the  engine  at  the  time,  which 
prohibited  his  looking  out,  or  the  curva- 
ture of  the  track,  weather  conditions  or 
something  else,  might  have  prevented 
his  seeing  it. 

It  has  always  been  looked  upon  by 
railroad  people  as  a  hardship  that  they 
were  held  liable  for  the  killing  of  stock 
when  it  was  practically  impossible  to 
prevent  killing  it.  The  fencing  of  the 
track  does  not  keep  them  off  except  to 
a  small  extent,  as  private  gates  are  left 
open,  there  is  no  known  cattle  guard 
which  will  turn  them,  they  get  upon  the 
track  at  highway  crossings  and  at  sta- 
tion grounds  and  other  paces  where  it 
is  impossible  to  fence,  and  where  the 
owners  make  no  effort  to  keep  up  their 
stock  but  permit  it  to  run  at  large,  it 
has  seemed  unreasonable  to  require  the 
railroad  company  to  take  more  care  of 
it  than  the  owners  themselves.  An  en- 
gineer ought  to  avoid  striking  stock 
where  he  sees  it  and  can  do  so  and  it  is 
fair  to  presume  that  he  does  avoid  it 
where  he  can,  if  for  no  other  reason 
than  his  protection  as  the  striking  of  an 
animal  is  likely  to  result  in  the  derail- 
ment of  an  engine  and  injury  or  death  to 
the  engineer.  If  it  were  more  generally 
known  among  the  public  that  the  courts 
do  not  favor  holding  railroads  liable  for 
all  stock  killed,  it  would,  perhaps,  result 
in  stock  being  kept  up  and  thus  greatly 
reduce  the  peril  to  train  employes  and 
passengers,  as  well,  of  course,  as  some 


saving  to  the  railroad  company  in  stock 
claims  and  wreckage  expenses. 


A  PROFITABLE  CALL 

Another  case  passed  on  recently  by  the 
Supreme  Court  did  not  result  as  favor- 
ably for  the  company.  That  was  the 
case  of  L.  E.  Martin,  filed  in  Sharkey 
County,  Miss.,  for  damages  sustained 
account  waiting  at  a  country  road  cross- 
ing at  Rolling  Fork,  February  5,  1913, 
the  crossing  being  blocked  by  a  freight 
train  which  had  been  backed  on  to  the 
Riverside  track  to  allow  of  the  meeting 
of  a  freight  and  passenger  train.  In 
this  case  a  judgment  was  rendered 
against  the  railroad  for  $2,500,  which 
was  sustained  by  the  Supreme  Court. 

The  night  was  chilly  and  the  hour 
late  and  the  delay  to  Martin,  a  country 
physician  was,  no  doubt,  annoying  but 
it  is  doubtful  if  the  doctor  ever  had  a 
more  profitable  call  than  the  collection  of 
this  judgment  for  that  trip.  The  laws  of 
compensation  and  relative  values  are 
sometimes  very  peculiarly  handled  in  the 
jury  room. 

In  the  light  of  this  verdict  it  would 
seem  a  misfortune  to  those  who  find 
crossings  open  rather  than  to  those  who 
find  them  blocked.  It  is  hoped  that  mem- 
bers of  train  crews  reading  this  will  re- 
member, when  necessary  to  stop  their 
trains  over  a  public  crossing  that  it 
sometimes  proves  very  expensive  to  keep 
a  crossing  blocked  longer  than  the  statu- 
tory period  and  if  necessary  to  remain 
longer  than  such  period,  see  that  the 
crossing  is  cut. 

SUNFLOWER    COUNTY    LITIGA- 
TION 

At  the  April  term  of  Sunflower 
County  court  at  Indianola,  Miss.,  the 
railroad  came  off  victorious  in  two  stock 
suits  and  one  personal  damage  suit.  In 
one  of  the  stock  suits  a  verdict  was  ren- 
dered by  the  jury  in  favor  of  the  defen- 
dant and  thus  challenges  attention,  and 
in  the  other  stock  suit,  the  court  gave 
a  peremptory  instruction  for  the  de- 
fendant. 

The  personal  damage  suit  was  the  case 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


39 


of  W.  W.  Brown  against  the  Y.  &  M. 
V.  R.  R.  Company.  Brown  called  on  the 
agent  at  Blaine,  Miss.,  January  8th,  1916, 
carrying  more  wet  goods  than  was  good 
for  him,  and  got  into  an  altercation  with 
the  agent  in  which  both  failed  to  show 
any  modesty  in  the  expression  of  their 
opinions  of  each  other.  Some  blows 
were  struck  but  without  much  damage 
to  either  participant  in  the  fray.  Eleven 


of  the  jurors  were  of  the  opinion  that 
Brown  was  the  aggressor  and,  if  dam- 
aged any,  got  what  he  merited,  but  one 
juror  thought  he  ought  to  receive  $1000, 
the  eleven  finally  compromising  with  the 
one  upon  a  verdict  at  $50.00.  After 
the  payment  of  attorney's  fees  and 
costs,  the  net  proceeds  will  hardly  en- 
courage Brown  to  repeat  the  experience 
as  a  financial  undertaking. 


The  Right  of  Way  Horse 


ONE  OF  THE  CHIEF  CAUSES  OF  DANGER  TO  LIVES  AND  LIMBS  OF  RAILWAY  TRAIN- 
MEN AND  PASSENGERS. 


The  accompanying  picture  of  a  "right 
of  way  horse"  was  secured  by  Super- 
visor W.  E.  McCune,  two  miles  north  of 
West  Point,  Miss.,  on  the  llth  ultimo. 
It  is  a  true  picture  of  the  horse  which 
was  still  alive  when  the  picture  was 
snapped.  Mr.  McCune  is  shown  in  the 
picture.  The  colored  men  are  Bob  Man- 
ning and  Monroe  Jones.  The  horse  is 
the  property  of  Jacob  Smith.  Of  course, 
no  one  could  expect  this  horse  to  keep 
out  of  the  way  of  trains  for  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time.  The  bones  of 
an  old  animal  of  this  kind  are  tougher 


than  those  of  younger  animals  and  more 
likely  to  derail  trains.  When  this  class 
of  stock  is  killed  on  the  track  the  Rail- 
road Company  is  invariably  asked  to 
respond  in  damages.  If  our  neighbors 
living  along  the  line  knew  how  many 
worthless  old  animals  we  pay  for  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  and  how  much  risk 
had  to  be  endured  by  passengers  and 
trainmen  in  order  that  the  old  stock 
might  be  killed,  there  probably  would  be 
a  loud  protest  on  their  part  against  sub- 
jecting human  beings  to  such  unneces- 
sary dangers. 


40 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


PASSENGER  WRITES  SENSIBLE 
LETTER 

A  passenger  on  train  No.  3  of  the  23rd 
ult.,  who  had  evidently  heard  a  great  deal 
about  the  campaign  being  made  on  the 
Illinois  Central  to  prevent  killing  live 
stock  on  the  track,  wrote  a  letter  to  Su- 
perintendent Patterson,  at  McComb, 
reading  as  follows : 

"I  was  a  passenger  on  train  No.  3 
to-day  and  as  such  observed  an  occur- 
rence which  I  feel  deserves  being  brought 
to  your  attention.  Engineer  Ike  Martin 
brought  his  big,  ponderous,  magnificent 
train  to  a  full  stop  at  the  road  crossing 
at  Thayer  in  order  to  let  a  couple  of  cows 
pass  over  in  safety.  I  am  a  frequent 
traveler  on  the  Illinois  Central  and  have 
noted  many  times  the  most  extraordinary 
efforts  made  by  engineers  to  prevent 
killing  stock  on  the  track.  It  does  look 
like,  if  the  public  would  co-operate  with 
the  Railroad  Company,  that  the  two 
forces  could  entirely  dispense  with  the 
danger  to  trains  by  reason  of  striking 
stock.  Public  sentiment  in  Mississippi  is 
broadening  out  and  the  owner  of  a  cow 
or  mule  who  persists  in  permitting  his 
property  to  endanger. the  lives  of  people 
riding  on  trains  is  almost  entirely  with- 
out any  backing.  About  the  only  thing 
that  is  needed  is  to  bring  the  true  situa- 
tion to  the  attention  of  the  public." 


made  Mr.  Lee,  but  it  was  the  full  amount 
or  a  law  suit  with  him. 


HE  WOULDN'T  COMPROMISE 

The  case  of  J.  H.  Lee  against  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  in  the 
Circuit  Court  of  Lauderdale  County, 
Tenn.,  was  tried  April  llth,  1916,  at 
Ripley,  Tenn.,  resulting  in  a  directed  ver- 
dict for  the  railroad,  which  means  that 
Mr.  Lee  has  very  little  to  show  for  his 
time  and  trouble,  unless  it  is  the  expe- 
rience and  a  good  big  bill  of  costs.  The 
case  has  been  pending  since  August, 
1915,  and  arose  out  of  the  killing  of  a 
horse,  the  property  of  Mr.  Lee,  struck 
by  train  within  the  switching  limits  at 
Gates,  Tenn.,  under  circumstances  which 
in  law,  entirely  relieved  the  Railway  of 
any  responsibility.  Notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  the  company  had  an  absolute 
defense,  an  offer  of  compromise  was 


APPRECIATES  GOOD  TREAT- 
MENT 

Brakeman  Ray  V.  Abrams,  under  date 
of  the  6th  ult.,  wrote  Claim  Agent  J.  D. 
MaGee,  at  Springfield,  as  follows: 

"I  want  to  thank  you  and  your  Depart- 
ment for  the  good  and  fair  treatment  I 
received  at  your  hands  account  my  in- 
jury some  few  months  ago.  I  could  not 
have  received  better  treatment  and  the 
settlement  made  with  me  is  sure  a  satis- 
factory one.  I  also  wish  to  thank  the 
Hospital  Department  for  the  exception- 
ally good  care  I  received  at  their  hands. 
The  attention  and  treatment  they  gave 
me  was  first  class  at  all  times  and,  I  am 
sure  the  Hospital  Department  is  under 
the  best  of  management  and  I  will  thank 
you  to  convey  this  information  to  that 
Department." 

IMPORTED  DAMAGE  SUITS 

A  Montgomery  county  jury  put  an 
imported  damage  suit  out  of  business 
yesterday,  returning  a  verdict  for 
defendant  in  the  $50,000  suit  of  J.  H. 
Matthews  vs.  Illinois  Central. 

Matthews  claims  that  he  was  injured 
at  Cairo,  111.  He  now  resides  at  Pine 
Bluff,  Ark.  Just  why  he  should  bring 
his  damage  suit  to  Mississippi  was  not 
explained  in  the  declaration,  but  it  is 
tolerably  safe  to  assume  that  he  had 
heard  something  about  big  damage  ver- 
dicts juries  in  this  State  used  to  give 
against  the  railroads,  and  felt  that  he 
would  be  equally  favored.  But  he  was 
two  or  three  years  behind  the  times.  Big 
damage  verdicts  are  no  longer  fashion- 
able in  this  commonwealth.  It  isn't  so 
easy  to  mulct  a  railroad  as  it  used  to  be. 
The  men  who  compose  our  juries  are 
waking  up  to  the  fact  that  the  common 
carriers  are  entitled  to  the  same  square 
deal  that  is  accorded  an  individual,  and 
that  verdicts  should  be  based  on  facts, 
not  on  prejudice. 

Incidentally,  there  is  no  reason  on 
earth  why  a  man  who  claims  to  have  been 
injured  in  Illinois  should  bring  his  ac- 
tion for  damages  to  Mississippi.  When 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


41 


you  see  a  change  of  venue  thus  at- 
tempted it  is  a  safe  guess  that  the  plain- 
tiff is  not  looking  for  justice.  He  ex- 
pects favoritism. 

A  strong  and  determined  sentiment  is 
being  manifested  in  all  parts  of  Missis- 
sippi to  give  the  railroads  fair  play. 
The  men  who  compose  our  juries  are 
realizing  that  heavy  damage  verdicts, 
and  especially  unjust  verdicts,  increase 
the  cost  of  operating  railroads,  and  when 
the  cost  of  operation  is  increased,  trans- 
portation charges  must  be  increased 
accordingly..  In  the  long  run  the  public 
must  bear  the  burden. 

Good  headway  is  being  made  in  this 
State  towards  putting  a  quietus  on  fake 
and  frivolous  damage  suits.  The  Supreme 
Court  decision  a  few  weeks  since  on  the 
contingent  fee  question  was  a  hard  blow 
to  the  shyster  lawyers  who  stir  up  litiga- 
tion of  this  character,  and  who  are  will- 
ing to  take  any  sort  of  a  case,  realizing 
that  they  have  everything  to  gain  and 
nothing  to  lose,  especially  when  they 
bring  a  plaintiff  into  court  on  a  pauper's 
oath  and  thus  forestall  any  possibility 
of  being  required  to  pay  costs  of  action. 
— Jackson  (Miss.)  Daily  News,  April 
15,  1916. 

A  NEW  AND  VERY  BAD  CONDI- 
TION AT  DUBUQUE 

"I  shudder  to  think  of  what  will  hap- 
pen this  summer  if  men  and  boys  persist 
in  'hopping  trains'  between  Dubuque  and 
East  Dubuque." 

This  statement  was  made  yesterday  by 
Fred  F.  Munson,  claim  agent  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central,  while  the  death  of  Paul 
Cooper,  who  met  his  death  in  leaping 
from  the  "blind  baggage"  of  a  passenger 
trajn,  was  being  discussed. 

Mr.  Munson  was  merely  voicing  the 
belief  of  all  railroad  men  who  are  famil- 
iar with  the  perils  of  "hopping  trains" 
and  who  realize  that  this  practice  is  sure 
to  be  more  common  than  ever  this  sum- 
mer unless  a  way  can  be  found  to  elimi- 
nate it. 


Iowa  side  of  the  river,  hundreds  of  men 
and  boys  are  now  stealing  rides  over  the 
Mississippi  on  both  freight  and  passen- 
ger trains.  By  "hopping"  a  train,  the 
men  are  able  to  save  the  price  of  a  drink 
or  two.  Boys  are  stealing  rides  across 
the  river  out  of  boyish  curiosity  "to  see 
what  is  going  on  over  there."  The  re- 
sult is  that  the  "hopping"  practice  has 
had  a  rapid  growth  since  the  first  of  the 
year  and  it  is  certain  to  increase  with 
the  arrival  of  warm  weather.  This 
means,  according  to  railroad  men,  an  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  accidents. 

Although  the  practice  is  dangerous  at 
any  time,  it  is  even  more  so  after  dark. 
A  tunnel  and  a  long  railroad  bridge  also 
add  to  the  perils  between  Dubuque  and 
East  Dubuque. 


PREDICTS  FATALITIES 

"There  will  be  any  number  of  them 
ground  under  the  wheels  this  summer  if 
they  continue  to  'hop'  trains,"  a  railroad 
official  said  yesterday.  "Some  of  these 
fellows  who  go  over  the  river,  get  drunk 
and  then  try  to  hang  onto  the  side  of  a 
box  car  coming  home  are  sure  to  be 
killed.  It's  bad  enough  for  a  man  to 
'hop'  a  train  when  he's  sober,  but  when 
he's  drunk  it  is  almost  a  certainty  that 
he  will  be  either  badly  hurt  or  killed.  We 
hear  of  close  calls  every  day.  But  you 
can't  convince  them  of  the  danger,  and 
no  matter  how  hard  we  try  to  keep  them 
off,  they'll  manage  to  hang  on  some- 
where. A  few  arrests  by  the  police  on 
both  sides  of  the  river  would  help  to 
eliminate  the  practice  and  that  is  about 
the  only  way  that  it'  can  be  done.  Ar- 
rest them  and  fine  them  and  they'll  be 
glad  to  travel  the  safe  way." — Dubuque 
(la.)Telegraph-Herald,  April  2,  1916. 


WHERE  THE  DANGER  LIES 

Because  of  the  sudden  popularity  of 
East  Dubuque,  due  to  prohibition  on  the 


JUST  AMONG  OURSELVES— A 
TRUE  STORY 

By  C.  H.  Wegerslev 

For  obvious  reasons  the  names  given 
in  this  little  true  story  are  not  the  true 
names  of  the  parties  in  interest,  but  aside 
from  that  I  can  vouch  for  the  facts. 

A  good  old  friend  of  mine,  whom  I 
will  call  Daniel  Smith,  had  a  faithful 
horse  that  had  served  his  family  for 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


43 


many  years.  One  day  the  horse  wan- 
dered on  the  track  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railway  just  before  a  train  came  along, 
and  after  the  affray  was  over  the  horse 
was  lying  by  the  side  of  the  track  very 
dead. 

Dan  felt  sorry  for  the  horse,  but  he 
determined  to  make  the  corporation  pay 
him;  so  he  filed  his  claim  with  the  sta- 
tion agent  for  $125  as  the  value  of  the 
horse.  In  due  time  his  claim  received 
attention,  and  he  was  notified  that  if  he 
would  accept  $75  and  sign  a  receipt  in 
full  the  check  would  at  once  be  for- 
warded. Now  Dan  did  not  like  litiga- 
tion, but  he  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
offer;  so  the  next  day  he  was  in  town 
he  called  on  his  friends,  Harris  &  Har- 
ris, attorneys  at  law,  and  laid  the  case 
before  them.  Judge  Harris,  the  senior 
member,  had  good  common  sense,  and  he 
talked  in  a  fatherly  way  to  his  friend 
Dan  Smith. 

"Now,  see  here,  Dan,"  said  the  Judge, 
"if  you  can  get  $75  without  a  lawsuit 
for  that  old  horse,  you  had  better  take  it. 
I  would  advise  a  settlement,  even  at 
some  sacrifice,  every  time,  if  it  can  be 
accomplished  without  a  lawsuit.  You 
never  know  what  a  jury  will  do,  and  if 
the  company  is  not  satisfied  it  can  take 
an  appeal,  and  in  the  end  you  will  be 
money  out." 

Dan  considered  the  advice.  It  seemed 
good  to  him,  and  he  accepted  the  offer 
of  the  company,  received  his  check,  and 
forgot  about  the  matter.  At  the  end  of 
the  month  he  received  a  statement  of  ac- 
count from  Harris  &  Harris,  which  read 
something  like  this:  "To  professional 
services  and  advice,  $25." 

"What  the  blazes  can  that  be  for?" 
thought  Dan  when  he  opened  the  letter; 
but  he  soon  recalled  the  matter  of  the 
claim  against  the  railroad  company.  "I 
won't  pay  it,"  he  told  his  wife,  "as  it  is 
too  darned  much.".  And  he  didn't  pay 
it. 

The  next  month  he  received  another 
statement,  and  with  it  a  polite  remind- 
er that  "we  furnished  the  advice,  and 
you  acted  upon  the  same  and  secured 
an  amicable  adjustment  of  your  claim, 
and  we  must  ask  you  to  be  so  good  as 


to  send  us  check  to  cover  the  amount." 

Dan  was  stubborn.  He  didn't  like 
litigation,  but  he  didn't  propose  to  let 
any  one  run  over  him  if  he  could  help 
it,  so  he  went  to  another  attorney  and 
laid  the  matter  before  him. 

"Well,  Dan,  I  don't  know  as  I  blame 
you  very  much,"  said  William  Mul- 
rooney,  the  other  attorney  who  re- 
membered a  slight  the  firm  of  Har- 
ris &  Harris  had  shown  him;  "but  what 
can  you  do?  Old  Harris  told  you 
what  he  would  advise,  and  you 
acted  on  his  advice.  It  is  true  he 
charged  you  a  good  stiff  fee,  consid- 
ering the  amount  involved ;  but  if  he 
sues  you,  as  I  think  he  will  if  you  don't 
pay,  he  will  put  Guy  Jones  and  Fred 
Smith  and  Tom  McNulty  on  the  stand, 
and  they  will  all  swear  that  the  services 
performed  were  well  worth  $25,  and  in 
the  end  you  will  be  stuck  for  the  costs, 
for  an  attorney's  fees,  and  for  the  orig- 
inal $25.  Of  course,  if  you  don't  feel 
that  you  want  to  pay  it,  I  will  be  glad 
to  take  your  case,  and  we'll  make  old 
Harris  smoke  some,  but  you  must  be 
the  judge.  I  have  given  you  my  best 
advice  in  the  matter." 

Dan  considered  the  advice,  and  sent 
Harris  &  Harris  a  check  for  $25,  and 
thought  of  the  $50  that  now  represented 
the  value  of  the  horse. 

The  next  month  he  received  a  state- 
ment from  William  Mulrooney,  which 
read  like  this :  "To  professional  serv- 
ices and  advice  in  matter  of  Self  v.  Har- 
ris &  Harris,  $25." 

Dan  paid  the  bill.  What  would  you 
have  done? 


SMALLEST     CALENDAR     IN 
YEARS 

The  Circuit  Court  of  Pike  County, 
Miss.,  convened  on  Monday,  March 
20,  1916,  Judge  J.  F.  Guynes  presid- 
ing. The  calendar  for  this  term  was 
probably  the  smallest  that  has  been 
in  the  last  twenty  years.  The  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  was  de- 
fendant in  seven  suits ;  two  of  these 
suits  were  settled  for  very  small 
amounts  and  in  both  instances,  the 
amount  paid  was  about  the  same  as 


44 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


was  offered  in  compromise  before  suit 
was  filed.  The  only  case  of  any  im- 
portance was  the  case  of  Tim  Martin. 
This  case  was  filed  for  $5,000.00  and 
before  same  was  tried  was  compro- 
mised for  the  sum  of  $250.00.  The 
railroad  company  was  ready  for  trial 
in  all  except  two  cases,  while  the 
plaintiffs  asked  for  continuances  in  the 
others.  Three  of  the  cases  were  dis- 
posed of,  while  four  were  carried  over 
to  the  next  term. 


RAILWAY  PROSECUTION ;  RAIL- 
WAY PERSECUTION 

Towns  get  in  wrong  with  legitimate 
corporations  because  of  acts  of  a  cer- 
tain element  of  people.  For  example, 
damage  suits  against  railroads  fre- 
quently sour  railroad  companies 


against  towns  and  cities,  to  the  extent 
of  putting  them  off  the  map.  This  pre- 
vents them  from  obtaining  outside  rec- 
ognition that  would  otherwise  be 
given.  The  railroads  of  the  country 
have  blazed  ways  to  higher  civiliza- 
tion, and  while  The  News  does  not  be- 
lieve in  giving  them  the  earth  with  a 
fence  around  it,  because  of  the  good 
they  have  accomplished,  we  believe  in 
giving  them  a  square  deal  in  every 
respect;  just  the  same  sort  of  treat- 
ment as  is  accorded  individuals.  We 
do  not  believe  in  turning  prosecution 
into  persecution,  as  is  frequently  done. 
We  do  not  believe  a  $10.00  cow  is 
worth  $75.00  after  having  been 
"crossed"  with  a  locomotive  pilot. — 
The  Carroll  (Miss.)  News,  March  24, 
1916. 


CLAY    PITS,    MAYFIELD,    KY. 


46  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


t\X>  Employes  may  become  stock- 

holders in  the  Illinois  Central  R.R. 

on  the  installment  plan. 

Ibr  the  information  of  employes 

desiring  to  acquire  stoclc  in  the  Illinois 

Central  R.R.,we  quote  below  fiom  the 

Circular  issued  by  the  President  May  95* 

1896,  addressed  to  officers  and  employes: 

(One  price  to  6e  quoted  for  wnicn  applications  zoill  £>e  ac- 
cepted ror  purchase  afcZC.cffocA.  is  cased  upon  the  mar- 
ket price  on  the  day  the  application  is  received  in  Comptrol- 

lers office...  <2sfn  employe  is  offered  the  privilege  ofsuDscnD- 

/**         /         >  /   ,  y          "  Li    t  '  '  j  n'    s  • 
ma  tor  one  share  at  a  time,  pay  able  by  installments  in  sums 

of  $5—  or  any  multiple  of$5~,  on  the  completion  of 
which  the  Company  will  deliver  to  him  a  certificate  of 
the  snare  registered  in  his  name  on  the  DOORS,  of  the  Com- 

pany, cvfe  can  then,  if  he  wishes,  beam  the.  purchase  of 
another  share  on  the  installment  plan.  °&ie  certificate 

of  stock  is  transferable  on  the  Company's  books,  and 

entitles  the  owner  to  such  dividends  as  may  ne  de  - 

dared  by  the  voarct  cfL)irectors,  ana  to  a  vote  tn. 

their  election. 

Cs/nv  officer  or  employe  making  payments  on  this 

,           J-n  JJ            '-'11'*'         .      J  r     7        /  •       ) 

plan  will  be  entitled  to  receive  interest  on  his  deposits, 

at  tne  rate  of  -four  per  cent  per  annum,  durina  the  time  ne 
is  payma  for  his  share  of  stock,  provided  he  does  not  al- 
low twelve  consecutive  months  to  elapse  without  making 
f           '      '         /"/*/'            ) 

any  payment,  at  the  expiration  of  which  period  interest 
will  cease  to  accrue,  and  the  sum  at  nis  credit  will  he 

returned  to  him  on  his  application  therefor. 

(Lsinv  officer  or  employe  moRinq  payments  on  the  fore  - 

Si   "             )/"          '        J                       l-^   '•    '  '      i        3  '             *.'  •/ 

qomq  plan,  and  for  any  reason  aesirina  to  discontinue 

j  /    J  r        /       J  /  -7                        j     j  /-  •         •  /               ) 
them,  can  have  his  money  returned  to  him  with  accrued 

ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  47 


interest,  by  making  application  to  me  n.eaa  of  me  de- 
partment in  which  fie  is  employed. 

O^>z  employe,  who  has  made  application  for  a  snare 
of  stock  on  trie  installment plan ,  is  expected  to  make 
me  firstpayment  from  the  first  waaes  which  may  6e  due 

Aim.  J-orms  are  provided /or  tfie  purpose,  on  which,  the 

f      Y  •  /  If'  '       jf    v°     /  C?^ 

subscribing  employe  authorizes  me  c&ocal  ~ (oreasurerm 

Chicaoo.or  the  oUocal^oreasurer  in  <?/ww  Orleans,  or 
the  paymaster  or  the  c^jssistant   Paymaster  to  retain 
from  his  wages  the  amount  of  installment  to  be  credited 
monthly  to  tine  employe  for  the  purchase  of  a  share  of  stock. 

cm  case  an  employe  leaves  me  service  of  the  Company 
from  any  cause,  Ae  must  then  either  pay  in  full  for  the 
share  for  which  he  has  subscribed  ana  receive  a  certifi- 
cate therefor,  or  take  his  money  with  the  interest  which, 
has  accrued.    .  . 

c^oAe foregoing  does  not  preclude  the  purchase  of 
shares  of  stock  for  cash,.  C^in  employe  who  has  not  al- 
ready an  outstanding  application  for  a  share  ofstoca  on 
jf  It  Iff'  -7~  n          ')/'•' 

tne  installment  plan, which  is  not  fully  paid  for,  can  in  any 

,/      v  /•      ••      //      7r      /  /-  ,     /  y         / 

aiven  month  make  application  for  a  snare  ofstocttfor  cash 

at  the  price  quoted  to  employes  for  that  month ,  ana  he  can 
•     /  r         i         ,    ./• ,  /     of    •/          /          /•/•/- 
m  me  same  month,  if  he  so  desires,  make  application  for  an- 

/        /  /  //  / 

other  share  on  the  installment  plan. 

(Smployes  Who  Want  to  purchase  more  than  one  snare 
at  a  time  for  cash,  should  address  the  Comptroller  in  Chi- 
caao,  who  will  obtain  for  them  the  price  at  which  the  stock 
can  be  purchased.. 

Cxmy  employe  desiring  to  purchase  stock  (except  in 
•  ///?//-          '//  s         ,  ,/r    /      ») 

special  purchase  of  more  than  one  share  for  casnj  should 
apply  to  his  immediate  superior  officer,  or  to  one  of  the 
djocalctoreasurers  £y filling  in  the  following  coupon : 
Mr.O.r.Nau.  Date- 

Local  Treasurer, 

C-kicado  111. 

Will  you  please  send   me   an    application 
for  tne  purcftase  of  I.  C.  Stock  on  trie  installment  plan. 

C' J        J 

oigned-     -. 

Employed  as __ 

At   Stdtion... 


Industrial  ^Immigration  and  Development 

Department 

Illinois  Central  "Bull  Day"  at  Carbondale,  111. 

By  J.  C.  Clair,  Industrial  and  Immigration  Commissioner 


*"PHE  "Bull  Day"  celebration  at  Car- 
bondale, 111.,  on  April  1st,  attracted 
over  eight  thousand  people  from  all 
parts  of  the  State. 

Southern  Illinois  was  especially  in- 
terested, inasmuch  as  it  had  been  adver- 
tised that  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
was  going  to  distribute  twenty-four  pure 
bred  Holstein  bulls  to  communities  along 
its  lines  in  that  part  of  the  State  and 
each  delegation  came  to  Carbondale 
with  the  intention  of  taking  back  one  of 
these  high  grade  animals. 

This  celebration  was  the  outcome  of 
months  of  persistent  effort  and  co-op- 
eration on  the  part  of  State  Food  Com- 
missioner Matthews,  the  Illinois  Bankers 
Association  and  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road. Several  months  ago  a  body  of 


men  representing  the  dairy  interests, 
the  bankers  and  the  railroads  were 
called  together  for  a  meeting  by  Mr. 
Matthews  'to  consider  a  plan  for  the 
extension  of  the  dairy  industry  in  Sou- 
thern Illinois.  The  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  having  been  greatly  interested 
in  the  development  of  that  part  of  Illi- 
nois for  a  long  time,  desired  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  anything  that  would  improve 
its  agricultural  condition,  and  found  in 
this  movement  an  opportunity  to  render 
great  assistance  by  agreeing  to  furnish 
pure  bred  Holstein  bulls  to  points  along 
its  lines  where  the  communities  showed 
a  disposition  to  encourage  dairying.  The 
bankers  entered  into  the  spirit  of  co-op- 
eration by  offering  to  loan  money  on 
easy  terms  to  those  farmers  who  would 


48 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


49 


purchase  cows  of  good  breeding  and 
begin  dairying. 

It  was  decided  that  the  launching  of 
this  great  plan  should  take  place  at  Car- 
bondale,  inasmuch  as  the  bankers  and 
citizens  at  that  point  were  among  the 
first  to  interest  themselves  in  this  move- 
ment, and,  furthermore,  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  entering  that  city  from 
six  different  directions,  Carbondale 
seemed  to  be  most  advantageously 
situated  for  the  distribution  of  the  ani- 
mals. 

Train  loads  of  people  from  surround- 
ing and  far  distant  cities  and  towns 
came  to  participate  in  the  celebration, 
Delegations  from  rural  schools  arrived 
in  large  numbers  to  enter  the  contests 
for  attendance  and  cow  judging  rep- 
resentatives of  the  St.  Louis  Business 
Men's  League  and  the  Chicago  Asco:ia- 
tion  of  Commerce,  as  well  as  officials  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  were  in 
attendance. 

President  Markham  took  an  active 
part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  day  and 
was  one  of  the  principal  speakers  at  the 
large  outdoor  meeting  in  the  afternoon, 


as  well  as  at  the  banquet  in  the  evening. 

The  parade,  which  took  place  "in  the 
afternoon,  was  made  up  of  high  grade 
Holstein  cows  which  had  been  shipped  in 
to  Carbondale  to  be  sold  to  the  farmers, 
the  pure  bred  bulls  presented  by  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  and  several  choice 
specimens  of  bulls  and  cows,  which  were 
sent  down  for  exhibition  by  Mr.  S.  P. 
Stevens,  of  Oak  Glen  Farm,  Bartlett, 
111.,  and  from  whom  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  purchased  its  bulls.  This 
parade  was  headed  by  Marshall  R.  V. 
Black  and  the  Southern  Illinois  Normal 
University  Band,  followed  by  the  State 
delegates,  Illinois  Central  officials,  the 
speakers  and  legislators.  Next  came 
representatives  from  the  Chicago  Asso- 
ciation of  Commerce  with  the  Illinois 
Central  Burnside  Band,  the  St.  Louis 
Business  Men's  League  with  their  band, 
as  well  as  delegations  from  other  busi- 
ness men's  associations  from  different 
parts  of  Southern  Illinois.  Hay-rack 
loads  of  children  from  the  rural  schools 
proved  to  be  a  great  attraction. 

Great  interest  was  manifest  when  at 
noon  a  cow  judging  and  guessing  con- 


MILKING   "HOPE  DE  KOL,"   CARBONDALE,  ILL..  APRIL  1,   1916. 


50 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


test  was  held  in  the  pubic  park.  Mr.  S. 
P.  Stevens  had  on  exhibition  two  of  his 
celebrated  cows,  each  with  records  of 
over  500  pounds  milk  and  25  pounds 
butter  fat  in  seven  days.  Mr.  Stevens 
offered  prizes  to  the  students  coming 
nearest  to  guessing  the  amount  of  milk 
given  by  these  cows.  Each  cow  gave 
two  pails,  amounting  to  over  40  pounds. 
The  Carbondale  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce also  donated  prizes  for  the  largest 


of  the  State  Normal  at  Carbondale;  Mr. 
James  A.  Walker,  of  the  Blue  Valley 
Creamery  Company;  Mr.  E.  K.  Slater, 
former  State  Dairy  Commissioner  of 
Minnesota;  Mr.  R.  R.  Ward,  represent- 
ing the  Illinois  Bankers'  Association ; 
Mr.  F.  Kohl,  of  Centralia;  State  Food 
Commissioner  Matthews,  and  J.  C.  Clair. 
This  big  meeting  at  Carbondale 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign for  the  extension  of  dairy  farm- 


attendance  from  any  one  school,  and  the 
DeLaval  Separator  Company  offered  a 
prize  of  $25.00  for  the  best  essay  on 
"The  Advantage  of  Dairying." 

The  bulls  distributed  on  this  occasion 
went  to  the  following  communities : 
Pinckneyville,  DuQuoin,  Murphysboro, 
Vergennes,  Makanda,  Marissa  and  Car- 
bondale. 

The  day  closed  with  a  banquet,  Mr. 
John  M.  Crebs,  banker  of  Carmi,  111., 
acting  as  toastmaster.  President  Mark- 
ham  was  the  first  speaker  and  his  re- 
marks were  enthusiastically  received. 
The  other  speakers  were  Prof.  Shryock, 


ing,  which  will  revolutionize  the  dairy 
industry  in  Southern  Illinois.  It  marked 
the  beginning  of  an  industry  that  will 
bring  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  farmers 
and  business  men.  Just  as  fast  as  other 
communities  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
State  become  organized  and  purchase 
sufficient  cows  to  warrant,  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  is  prepared  to  furnish 
pure  bred  bulls,  either  Holsteins  or  other 
dairy  types. 

In  addition  to  the  work  being  done  in 
Southern  Illinois,  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  through  the  Industrial  and 
Immigration  Department,  is  extending 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


51 


OKX    GtEK    FtfffM 


BKH-TLlTf.  COOK  COWKTY,  IU>. 


this  campaign  into  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see, Mississippi  and  Louisiana.  The 
conditions  in  this  part  of  our  territory 
vary  somewhat,  but  the  same  object 
is  in  view. 

At  Martin,  Tenn.,  a  Boys'  and  Girls' 
Dairy  Club  has  been  organized,  with 
about  seventy  members.  Each  mem- 
ber of  the  club  has  agreed  to  buy  a  pure 
bred  Holstein  cow,  the  money  for  same 
being  loaned  by  the  bankers,  and  notes 
are  endorsed  by  the  each  child's  father. 
To  this  club  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 


has    offered    five    pure    bred    Holstein 
bulls  as  prizes. 

In  Mississippi  prizes  of  both  Hol- 
stein and  beef  type  bulls  are  being 
offered  to  the  Baby  Beef  Clubs  in  the 
various  counties.  These  prizes,  how- 
ever, are  offered  only  to  counties  that 
are  free  from  cattle  tick,  have  farm 
demonstration  agents  and  Baby  Beef  or 
Dairy  Clubs,  and  will  be  awarded  at 
the  Mississippi  State  Fair  to  be  held 
in  Jackson,  Miss.,  next  fall. 


SIRED  BY 

KING  SEC  IS   PONTIAC 
44444 


KilfG  SEGIS  PONTiaC  VtHNHMrll  **  26- 

31  LB  DAH 
*ALF  BROTHER  TO 

KMG  rceis  PONTIAC  ALCARTRA 


S.P.  sffv£/<s,  aw/tea* 


Passenger 

Traffic 

Department 


Little  Talks  viih  ihe  Rambler 


Seivice  Notes  of*  Inferesf. 


Queer  Things  in  Odd  Places 


T  RECENTLY  had  occasion  to  take  a 
trip  over  the  line  covering-  iseveral  days, 
during  which  when  on  one  of  our  through 
trains,  while  it  stopped  at  a  considera- 
ble station,  I  got  off  and  walked  up 
and  down  the  platform,  as  is  my  habit. 
This  I  like  to  do  both  for  the  exercise 
and  because  the  activity  of  a  way  sta- 
tion between  the  arrival  and  depar- 
ture of  a  train  always  interests  me.  On 
this  particular  occasion,  as  I  was  about 
to  return  to  my  sleeping  car  a  clerical 
looking  gentleman  approached  me  and 
asked  if  I  was  the  occupant  of  Lower 
6,  and  on  being  advised  in  the  affirma- 
tive he  said  that  his  little  boy  would  be 
my  companion  in  the  section  to  the  end 
of  the  run,  he  having  Upper  6,  and 
asked  if  I  would  kindly  have  an  eye  on 
him  for  the  remainder  of  my  journey. 
He  added  hastily,  however,  that  I  would 
find  him  no  trouble,  as  the  boy  was  a 
good  traveler  and  friends  would  meet 
him  on  the  arrival  of  the  train  at  its 
final  destination.  The  little  chap  won 
my  heart  at  once,  and  his  father's  as- 
sertion that  he  would  be  no  trouble 
was  soon  verified,  for  the  boy  was  self- 
reliant,  and  withall  well  bred.  In  fact, 
he  was  a  veritable  little  man,  not  for- 
ward, but  answering  my  questions  po- 
litely as  I  began  to  be  interested  in  him, 
and  in  turn,  as  he  became  better 
acquainted,  asking  me  questions  as  to 
what  was  passing  without  at  all  being 


tiresome  in  the  matter.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  was  more  than  entertaining  in 
his  observations  and  the  interest  that 
he  took  in  what  was  going  on  about 
him.  He  was  traveling  light  as  to  bag- 
gage, having  only  a  cute  little  hand  grip, 
which  was  clearly  used  for  his  school 
books  when  at  home.  This  he  kept 
opening  quite  often,  viewing  the  con- 
tents with  apparent  delight.  The  latter 
were  of  a  simple  nature  and  evidently 
had  been  placed  with  care,  with  the  sole 
end  in  view  of  covering  his  necessities 
until  the  next  forenoon,  with  a  few  ac- 
cessories for  amusement  thrown  in. 
These  last  were  purely  of  a  boyish  na- 
ture, and  from  that  point  of  view  inter- 
ested me  fully  as  much  as  they  did  the 
youngster  himself.  There  was  a  block 
of  paper  and  a  box  of  pencils,  a  package 
of  coupons  with  the  flags  and  coats  of 
arms  of  all  nations  in  colors,  and  one 
or  two  other  trinkets ;  but  above  all  a 
pile  of  letters,  each  addressed  to  him. 
These,  he  explained,  had  been  written 
for  him  to  read  on  the  train,  one  every 
hour  until  he  reached  his  journey's  end. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  an  hour 
was  a  remarkably  short  space  of  time 
in  that  boy's  mind,  for  although  he  con- 
stantly referred  to  an  Ingersoll  watch 
that  he  carried,  before  supper  time  he 
they  conveyed  of  a  sweet  home  life  it 
was  evidenty  his  good  fortune  to  enjoy. 
He  apparently  was  supplied  with  suffi- 


52 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


53 


cient  money  to  meet  all  necessities  and 
give  him  some  incidental  enjoyment  en 
route,  for  he  looked  keenly  over  all  the 
wares  of  the  train  News  Agent,  or 
had  perused  all  of  his  letters.  He  con- 
fided in  me  about  them,  saying  that  they 
were  written  by  his  mama,  his  papa  and 
his  sister,  and  even  offered  to  let  me 
read  one  of  them,  which  privilege  I 
politely  refused.  Still,  he  chatted  more 
or  less  to  me  about  their  contents,  from 
which  I  was  much  impressed,  from 
what  he  told  of  them,  with  the  evidence 
"butcher,"  as  he  went  through  from 
time  to  time,  and  eschewing  candies, 
edibles,  magazines,  and  the  like,  finally 
settled  down  on  and  purchased  one  of 
the  toy  lanterns  that  is  such  a  good  seller 
on  railway  news  stands  and  on  trains. 
I  noticed,  however,  that  he  did  not  touch 
the  candy  that  it  contained,  but  seemed 
to  take  a  great  pleasure  in  the  lantern 
feature  as  such.  I  took  him  in  the  dining 
car  with  me  for  supper,  but  not  being 
able  to  be  seated  together,  and  seeing 
that  he  was'  being  properly  taken  care 
of,  I  left  before  he  did,  and  was  much 
amused  on  his  return  to  hear  him  re- 
mark that  he  had  enjoyed  a  very  satis- 
factory supper,  and  that  it  cost  him 
much  less  than  he  anticipated,  so  that 
he  was  able  to  "give  the  waiter  fifteen 
cents."  The  sleeping  car  porter  had 
also  evidently  been  told  to  look  after  the 
boy,  for  at  a  very  early  hour  in  the  eve- 
ning he  came  to  him,  and  .with  the  in- 
gratiating smile  peculiar  to  his  race  with 
children,  suggested  that  it  was  bed 
time,  to  which  no  demurrer  was  made. 
So  while  his  berth  was  being  made 
down,  the  boy  and  I  sat  together  in  an 
adjoining  section,  and  there  being  noth- 
ing to  be  seen  out  of  the  window  and 
in  a  way  he  having  exhausted  for  the 
time  being  his  topics  of  conversation, 
he  began  to  empty  his  little  pockets  out 
on  the  seat  beside  him  as  he  sat  opposite 
me.  There  was  the  usual  miscellaneous 
collection  that  is  generally  in  a  boy's 
pockets;  in  his  case,  handkerchief,  jack- 
knife,  string,  a  brass  button  from  off  an 
army  uniform,  and  one  or  two  other  little 
articles  which  I  have  forgotten.  How- 
ever, what  particularly  caught  my  eye 


was  a  brass  check  on  which  was  stamped 
"Good  for  one  Drink."  "I  wonder,"  I 
thought,  "where  a  little  fellow  like  that 
got  such  a  thing  as  that  check?  Not 
from  his  father  is  certain,  if  I  am  any 
judge  of  human  nature  as  I  saw  him  on 
the  platform,  and  judging  from  the  boy's 
manner  he  is  evidently  of  careful  breed- 
ing." But  I  asked  him  no  questions  in 
the  matter,  and  dismissed  the  mental 
speculation  from  my  mind  as  simply  one 
of  those  accumulations  which  boys  make 
in  a  manner  known  only  to  themselves. 
When  the  porter  told  him  his  berth  was 
ready  I  bade  him  good  night  and  went 
into  the  observation  car  for  the  rest  of 
the  evening,  prepared  to  spend  it  with 
the  Rambler,  whom  I  knew  was  to  get 
on  at  the  next  stop  and  go  through  with 
me. 

The  Rambler  made  his  appearance  in 
due  time  in  accordance  with  a  previous 
understanding,  and  we  spent  a  pleasant 
couple  of  hours  together  before  retir- 
ing. Incidentally,  in  the  course  of  our 
conversation,  I  told  him  of  the  boy  and 
mentioned  my  momentary  speculation  as 
to  where  such  a  one  as  he  could  pos- 
sibly have  picked  up  the  check  I  have 
mentioned.  The  Rambler  laughed  and 
said  "Easy  enough.  You  said  his 
father  was  a  minister?"  "No,"  I  re- 
plied, "I  did  not  say  that,  but  I  remarked 
that  he  looked  like  one,  which  makes  it 
all  the  more  curious  to  me  that  his  boy 
should  have  that  particular  check."  "On 
the  contrary,"  was  the  laughing  reply, 
"it  is  the  reason  for  his  having  it ;  for 
if  I  may  venture  a  guess,  it  was  taken 
from  the  contribution  box  of  his 
church."  I  laughingly  admitted  the  pos- 
sibility of  such  an  explanation,  remem- 
bering that  in  my  personal  experience 
I  had  often  found  many  oddities  in  the 
church  collection  boxes,  placed  there  by 
would-be  jokers  or  possible  scoffers. 
The  Rambler  looked  tired ;  in  fact  I 
knew  that  he  had  been  on  the  road  for 
quite  a  number  of  days,  so  I  was 
prompted  to  say  that  I  supposed  doing* 
the  great  amount  of  traveling  he  did 
had  made  it  somewhat  monotonous  and 
uninteresting.  "O,  I  don't  know,"  was 
the  reply,  "it  is  true,  of  course,  that  ow- 


54 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ing  to  my  long  experience  the  edges  of 
any  novelty  that  there  may  be  in  traveling 
have  become  well  rounded.  Still, 
there  is  a  certain  fascination  in  it 
after  all,  Perhaps,  however,"  he 
said  musingy,  "  'fascination'  is  not 
the  proper  word.  No,  I  think 
'exhilaration'  would  be  better,  although 
even  that  does  not  seem  to  define  just 
what  I  have  in  mind.  At  any  rate,  what 
I  mean  is  this:  Take  this  train  for  in- 
stance. It  is  composed  of  one  mail  car, 
two  baggage  cars,  two  coaches,  one  din- 
ing car,  four  sleeping  cars  and  this 
large  observation  car.  Eleven  cars  in 
all,  and  a  solid  steel  train  throughout. 
This  consist  of  the  train,  or  the  eleven 
cars,  aggregate  in  weight  691  tons, 
which  tonnage,  not  counting  the  addi- 
tional weight  of  the  passengers,  ex- 
press, baggage,  and  other  contents,  is 
moved  along  over  90  to  100  pound  stee? 
rails  laid  on  a  rock-ballasted  road  bed 
at  the  high  speed  we  are  now  going  by 
a  Pacific  type  engine  weighing  213  tons, 
thus  making  a  train  of  904  tons  regard- 
less of  all  other  weights.  Now  then," 
he  said,  as  he  changed  his  listless  atti- 
tude to  one  of  alertness,  "it  always  im- 
presses me,  as  such  tonnage  is  being 
continuously,  speedily  and  smoothly 
rushed  on  and  on,  as  the  highest  type 
of  what  I  would  call  'efficiency  of  ac- 
tion.' In  a  way,  it  always  inspires  me, 
to  be  moving  on  such  a  train,  never  mind 
how  tired  I  may  be,  how  often  I  may 
have  made  the  same  trip  or  how  mo- 
notonous it  may  be  from  any  other  point 
of  view.  I  am  even  lulled  to  sleep  when 
I  am  in  my  berth  by  the  sensation  of 
the  onward  movement.  The  sensation 
of  being  continuously  rushed  onward 
and  onward,  with  no  responsibility  on 
my  part  for  the  time  being,  seems  to 
beget  relaxation  of  mind  as  well  as 
body,  and  induces  sleep.  Then  again," 
he  continued,  relaxing  somewhat  from 
his  earnestness,  "just  think  what  it  all 
means — a  train  like  this.  Facilities  for 
eating  under  the  same  conditions  as  at 
home  as  far  as  neatness  and  complete- 
ness of  service  is  concerned,  your  bed 
when  bed  time  comes,  comfort  during 
waking  hours  in  the  matter  of  seating 


or  lounging,  and  even  luxury  and  inci- 
dental conveniences  as  exemplified  by 
this  observation  car.  And  one  of  the 
wonders  of  it  all,  when  you  come  to 
think  of  it,  is  that  the  power  that  moves 
this  enormous  weight  at  this  speed  is 
concentrated  on  a  piston  but  twenty-five 
inches  in  diameter;  and  probaby  more 
wonderful  in  that  respect  will  be  the 
electric  locomotive  when  it  becomes  of 
universal  use." 

"Of  course,"  he  resumed  after  having 
sat  in  apparently  dreamy  silence  for 
several  minutes,  as  if  under  the  spell 
even  then  of  the  "onward"  movement 
of  the  train,  "one  thing  is  pretty  gen- 
erally realized  now-a-days.  That  is  the 
rapid  strides  which  have  been  made 
within  the  last  fifty  years  in  passenger 
traffic  facilities,  culminating  from  rela- 
tive crudeness  into  the  development  of 
today.  In  which  connection,"  he  added 
as  though  a.  thought  had  struck  him,  "I 
am  reminded  that  I  made  a  pickup  today 
that  this  talk  reminds  me  of.  I  will  go 
get  it ;  it  may  be  interesting,"  and  leaving 
me  he  went  into  the  sleeping  car  and 
brought  back  from  his  grip  a  small  red 
covered  book,  of  about  ninety  pages, 
that  looked  rather  the  worse  for  wear. 
"Incidentally,"  he  said,  as  leaning  over 
on  the  arm  of  his  chair  in  my  direction 
he  opened  the  book  and  began  hastily 
to  run  through  its  pages,  "this  reminds 
me  of  your  little  friend's  check  in  that 
it  illustrates  the  fact  that  queer  things 
are  often  found  in  odd  places.  For  in- 
stance, a  church  contribution  box 
hardly  seems  the  place  in  which  to  find 
a  drink-check,  neither  would  one  expect 
to  find  a  book  like  this  that  I  hold  in  the 
town  where  I  obtained  it.  In  fact,  fol- 
lowing that  train  of  thought,  did  you 
ever  think  how  often  you  come  across 
little  things  in  places  where  you  would 
least  expect  to  find  them  ?  For  instance, 
in  the  early  days  of  Kansas  I  have  heard 
of  many  a  cabinet  organ,  and  in  one 
instance  a  piano,  in  a  dugout.  In  a 
miner's  cabin  in  the  Rockies,  thousands 
of  miles  away  from  the  sea,  I  once  saw 
the  model  of  a  full-rigged  barque;  and 
as  to  this  little  volume,  you  would  not 
have  expected  to  have  found  a  second 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


55 


hand  book  store  at  the  station  I  have 
just  come  from.  Had  it  been  one  of 
our  university  towns,  it  would  not  have 
been  so  surprising.  But  there,  in  a 
town  of  under  a  thousand  inhabitants 
whose  business  caters  to  a  farming 
community  only,  was  a  full  fledged 
second  hand  book  store,  located  between 
a  boot  and  shoe  store  and  a  barber  shop, 
making  as  brave  a  bid  for  business  as 
though  in  the  heart  of  a  large  city.  Had 
it  also  included  a  department  of  sta- 
tionery, periodicals,  and  books  of  the 
day,  it  would  not  have  been  so  remark- 
able. But  it  had  nothing  of  the  kind; 
only  musty  out-and-out  second  hand 
volumes  with  the  traditional  marks  as 
to  price,  on  various  shelves,  and  on 
tables  outside  of  the  store  containing 
the  'take-your-choice'  kind  at  five  and 
ten  cents  each.  However,  the  same  as 
everything  helps,  most  everything  is 
easily  accounted  for;  in  this  case  the 
book  shop  being  the  excuse  of  an  old 
retired  antiquarian  of  a  neighboring 
large  city.  This  man,  who  was  'dear' 
in  his  way,  in  his  declining  years  had 
longed  for  the  country  air  and  quiet.  So 
he  had  migrated  to  the  old  boyhood 
home,  and  is  making  his  little  shop  the 
excuse  for  something  to  do.  In  other 
words,  he  could  not  transplant  himself 
wholly  from  habits  of  practically  a  life- 
time. Hence  his  books  and  a  shop  is 
his  connecting  link  with  the  past.  I 
dbubt  whether  he  expects  to  sell  his 
books  or  cares  whether  he  does  or  not." 
Settling  back  in  a  comfortable  posi- 
tion in  his  chair,  the  Rambler  refrained 
from  further  comment  for  quite  a  while, 
in  the  meantime  reading  his  book, 
which  he  finished  in  a  comparatively 
short  time.  During  this  interval  I  gave 
myself  up  to  my  thoughts  and  to  the 
observation  of  those  about  me  in  the 
car.  Finally,  however,  the  Rambler, 
noting  that  I  was  apparently  not  occu- 
pied, passed  the  book  over  to  me  saying, 
"I  thought  I  would  be  interested  in  that 
five  cent  purchase.  You  see,  it  is  an 
English  gentleman's  description  of  a 
journey  that  he  made  from  Calcutta  to 
Liverpool  via  China,  Japan  and  Amer- 
ica, and  that  it  was  written  thirty-eight 


years  ago.  About  then,  if  I  have  been 
correctly  informed,  was  the  time  when 
gentlemen  of  his  nationality  were  rather 
prone  to  visit  America  for  the  express 
purpose  of  'writing  a  book/  and  the 
hasty  manner  in  which  they  not  only 
made  their  tours  but  the  conclusions 
that  they  drew  as  to  us  and  our  char- 
acteristics as  a  whole,  did  not  gener- 
ally appeal  to  our  then  sensitive  natures. 
This  gentlemen  seemed,  however,  to  have 
been  a  rare  exception,  evidently  being 
broad  minded,  intelligently  observant 
and  predisposed  to  see  the  good  side  of 
everything.  It  is  true  he  did  not  at- 
tempt a  general  dissertation  on  the  coun- 
tries through  which  he  went.  Still  his 
naive  purpose  in  writing  the  book  is 
rather  interesting  from  our  point  of 
view  of  today ;  for  it  will  be  remembered 
that  at  the  time  he  wrote  long  journeys 
were  considered  matters  of  importance, 
as  against  the  matter-of-course  way  in 
which  we  would  now  undertake  a  jour- 
ney around  the  world.  Listen  to  what 
he  says  as  to  why  he  wrote,"  and  taking 
the  volume  from  my  hands  he  read  as 
follows : 

"Having  recently  returned  to  Eng- 
land from  Calcutta,  by  way  of  China, 
Japan  and  America,  it  has  occurred  to 
me  that  particulars  of  the  journey  may 
be  useful  to  some  who  contemplate  un- 
dertaking it;  for,  notwithstanding  the 
number  of  books  descriptive  of  the 
whole  or  part  of  this  route,  I  know  by 
experience  that  it  is  not  easy  to  ob- 
tain all  the  various  details  of  infor- 
mation likely  to  be  desired  by  intend- 
ing travelers  with  respect  to  routes,  cost 
of  journey,  conveyances,  equipment,  and 
climates  to  be  encountered.  It  is  my 
aim  to  supply  this  to  the  intending  trav- 
eler, and  not  to  write  a  descriptive 
account  of  the  route." 

"He  certainly  appears  to  have  been  a 
practical  person,"  the  Rambler  went  on. 
"in  fact,  there  are  passages  scattered 
throughout  here  that  lead  me  to  believe 
that  he  was  an  army  officer.  But  as 
to  his  being  practical,  in  speaking  of 
forwarding  his  baggage  while  making 
a  side  trip  to  the  Yosemite  he  notes  that 
'No  charge  was  made  for  this.  Usually 


56 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  lug- 
gage are  allowed  free  on  the  United 
States  railways,  but  my  luggage,  which 
was  probably  about  that  weight,  was 
never  once  weighed  or  charged  for 
while  I  was  in  America.'  This  idea 
of  not  being  hampered  with  the  respon- 
sibility of  looking  after  baggage  seems 
to  have  made  quite  an  impression,  for 
he  refers  to  it  several  times  in  describ- 
ing his  journey  across  the  American 
continent.  For  instance,  here  he  says 
'A  short  time  before  reaching  — 
a  baggage  agent  came  through  the  cars 
to  know  if  we  had  baggage  awaiting  us 
which  required  rebooking,  and  by  his 
agency,  without  trouble  to  ourselves, 
the  boxes  we  had  sent  on  nearly  a  fort- 
night previously  were  rebooked  to  Chi- 
cago.' Again,  we  find  the  following: 
'Before  reaching  Chicago  a  baggage 
agent  took  over  our  baggage  receipts 
and  arranged  for  the  boxes  to  be  sent 
to  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  whither  we 
were  going;'  while  later  on  he  further 
refers  to  the  matter  by  saying  'On  show- 
ing our  through  tickets  we  were  allowed 
to  send  such  portion  of  our  luggage  as 
we  pleased  to  New  York  direct,  and 
there  we  found  it  awaiting  our  arrival.' 
By  the  use  he  makes  of  the  words 
'booking,'  'boxes'  and  'luggage'  in  these 
passages  I  have  just  read,  you  would 
have  no  difficulty  .in  determining  the 
writer's  nationality  were  there  not  other 
evidences  to  that  effect,"  suggested  the 
Rambler  with  a  little  smile  as  he  turned 
over  the  pages.  "That  he  knew  how  to 
get  the  most  comfort  out  of  travel,  and 
that  he  was  appreciative  of  what  was 
found  that  he  considered  good,  is  evi- 
denced by  this  little  allusion  to  the  sleep- 
ing car  of  those  days,"  he  said  as  he  con- 
tinued reading:  "Our  party  of  three  had 
engaged  four  berths  so  as  to  have  a 
spare  berth  at  night  and  a  spare  seat  in 
the  day  time  in  which  to  put  our  bags, 
etc.  Nothing  could  be  more  comforta- 
ble than  our  car  by  night  or  by  day, 
and  everything  connected  with  the  bed- 
ding, washing  arrangements,  etc.,  was 
•clean  and  well  managed.'  He  appears 
to  have  been  sufficiently  impressed  with 
our  custom  of  through  service  to  make 


this  observation  on  a  change  of  cars  at 
the  Missouri  River.  'From  —  -  to 
Chicago  there  are  alternative  lines  of 
railway.  At  San  Francisco  we  had  se- 
lected the  —  line,  and  we  now 
changed  to  a  Pullman  car  of  that  line, 
with  a  refreshment  car  attached  to  the 
train,  as  we  were  not  to  stop  for  meals, 
and  in  it  we  had  a  comfortable  supper. 
We  found  that  we  no  longer  had  the 
smoothness  of  the  -  -  line,  but  on 
the  contrary  had  a  very  considerable 
amount  of  jolting  as  we  were  running 
through  -  — .  We  had  breakfast  and 
luncheon  in  the  refreshment  car,  but 
I  much  prefer  the  plan  of  getting  out  for 
refreshment,  as  undoubtedly  the  jolt- 
ing of  the  car  is  inconvenient  at  meal 
times.'  You  will  note,"  the  Rambler 
chuckled,  "that  he  was  over  thirty  years 
ahead  of  the  times  in  his  homely  but  de- 
scriptive appellation  of  what  we  from  the 
first  called  the  'dining  car,'  and  you  will 
also  note  that  with  characteristic  tenacity 
for  old  customs,  he  much  preferred  the 
plan  of  getting  off  the  train  for  refresh- 
ment, although  he  was  fair  enough  to 
say  that  in  the  'refreshment  car'  he  had 
a  'comfortable  supper.'  His  reason  for 
mildly  objecting  to  the  car  on  the  grounds 
of  being  jolted  while  eating  his  meals 
was  clearly  based  on  conditions  before 
the  present  days  of  rock-ballasted  road- 
beds, 100  pound  steel  rails  and  heavy 
steel  dining  cars.  If  the  gentleman  is 
still  living  I  would  like  to  have  him  take 
that  same  trip  again  for  the  pleasure  of 
knowing  what  he  would  think  of  the  sta- 
bility of  the  dining  car  as  now  operated. 
All  this,"  concluded  the  Rambler  as  he 
prepared  to  put  the  book  in  his  pocket, 
"is  rather  interesting  to  me  from  a 
travel  point  of  view,  although  in  a  sense, 
it  tells  nothing  new.  It  shows,  how- 
ever, in  unbiased  outline  certain  travel 
features  of  'auld  lang  syne.'  By  the 
way,"  he  added,  opening  the  book  again, 
"it  is  no  more  than  fair  to  note  the  gen- 
tleman's impressions  of  our  country  in 
the  seventies.  So  just  listen  to  this,  his 
valedictory,  as  he  was  about  to  leave 
our  shores.  'But  my  time  in  the  country 
had  been  very  pleasant.  The  political 
system  I  believe  to  be  bad ;  but  I  had  ex- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


57 


perienced  nothing  but  civility  from  all 
with  whom  I  came  in  contact,  and  I 
found  none  of  that  offensiveness  which 
Dickens  caricatured.  It  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  the  people  can  have  changed 
so  much  since  he  visited  America,  and 
I  am  fain  to  think  he  sketched  very 
exceptional  people  as  representatives  of 
the  whole.  It  may  be  said  that  my  stay 
was  short;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  dur- 
ing seven  weeks,  owing  to  the  way  of 
life  in  America,  I  was  constantly  meet- 
ing people  of  all  classes  in  hotels,  stage- 
coaches, steamboats,  railway  cars,  re- 
freshment rooms,  etc.,  and  I  was  not 
pestered  with  questions  as  I  might  have 
anticipated,  but  treated  with  kindly  con- 
sideration. I  am  sure  that  to  be  an 
Englishman  gives  one  an  immense  ad- 
vantage when  traveling  in  America, 
provided  you  treat  the  people  you  are 
brought  in  contact  with  courteously,  and 
I  never  found  inconvenience  from  the 
circumstance  that  all  of  us  were  consid- 
ered equals.  The  tradesman,  or  the  con- 
ductor of  a  car,  who  shook  hands  with 
me,  did  not  do  their  work  the  worse,  and 
I  found  them  almost  invariably  intelli- 
gent and  able  to  give  interesting  infor- 
mation. The  hack-carriage  coachman  of 
an  American  town  can  tell  you  what  is 
best  worth  seeing,  and  can  converse  in- 
telligently about  the  town,  its  sights  and 
its  institutions,  in  a  way  I  have  not  seen 
equalled  elsewhere.'  A  bit  'English, 
you  know/ "  laughed  the  Rambler  as 
he  closed  his  book  and  bid  me  good 
night,  "but,  just  the  same,  what  we  would 
call  now-a-days  'a  good  sport.'  " 

Our  run  the  next  forenoon  was  of 
comparatively  short  duration  before 
reaching  our  objective  point,  but  in  that 
time,  particularly  at  breakfast  in  the 
dining  car,  I  had  a  chance  for  further 
bits  of  conversation  with  the  Rambler, 
among  which  I  alluded  to  the  recent 
visit  to  him  of  the  Trunk  Lady  in  re- 
gard to  a  refund  for  one  of  her  friends. 
In  that  connection  I  said  to  him,  "By 
the  way,  you  told  on  that  occasion  of  the 
railroads  having  at  all  times  to  call  on 
a  purchaser  for  an  additional  amount 
of  money  in  case  of  tickets  purchased 
being  sold  under  tariffed  fare,  and  also 


on  our  making  a  voluntary  refund  where 
overcharges  had  been  made.  I  have 
thought  several  times  since  of  that  fea- 
ture and  wondered  how  the  railroads 
know  who  purchased  the  tickets,  as 
without  that  information  they  would  be 
clearly  at  sea  in  the  matter  of  collecting 
or  refunding."  "Well,"  was  the  some- 
what serious  reply,  "that  oftentimes  is 
quite  a  problem,  but  you  would  be  sur- 
prised to  learn  what  a  large  percentage 
of  people  thus  interested  we  get  with- 
out trouble.  For  one  thing,  it  is  almost 
invariably  the  fact  that  in  the  case  of 
tickets  purchased  at  stations  on  our  own 
line  the  agent  knows  the  purchaser. 
Still  there  is  a  large  number  not  easily 
located,  as  you  can  readily  imagine, 
especially  when  tickets  are  purchased 
in  the  larger  cities.  That,  however, 
is  rather  a  deep  matter  to  go  into, 
and  the  present  is  not  a  propitious 
time.  That  reminds  me,  however,  that 
I  put  into  my  pocket  before  leaving  home 
the  Monthly  Bulletin,  for  April,  of  the 
Northwestern,  in  which  I  noted  a  little 
item  practically  bearing  on  this  same 
subject,  and  which  I  thought  good 
enough  to  think  over.  It  reads  as  fol- 
lows," he  continued,  taking  the  publica- 
tion mentioned  from  his  inside  pocket 
and  turning  to  the  item,  which  he  had 
marked,  and  which  read  in  part  as  fol- 
lows : 

"When  tariffs  require  signature  of 
purchaser  on  tickets,  as  on  round-trip 
tourist  tickets  and  on  one-way  tickets, 
.  .  .  ,  signature  of  purchaser  should 
not  only  be  secured  on  contract  with 
office  pen  and  ink,  in  accordance  with 
instructions,  but  name  and  address  of 
purchaser  should  be  secured  or  written 
by  ticket  seller  on  stub  for  record  and 
reference  in  case  the  information  should 
be  required  later,  as  frequently  occurs. 
This  record  should  be  made  on  stub, 
even  when  ticket  is  issued  to  other  than 
the  purchaser  for  delivery  to  and  sig- 
nature by  purchaser.  .  .  ." 

"The  new  feature  of  this,"  he  re- 
marked as  he  placed  the  pamphlet  back 
in  his  pocket,  "is  that  agents  place  the 
name  and  address  of  purchaser  on  their 
stub  at  the  time  ticket  is  originally  pur- 


58 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


chased  and  signed.  Undoubtedly  some 
of  our  progressive  agents  have  been 
doing  this  of  their  own  initiative  as  a 
matter  of  future  protection,  but  as  every- 
thing helps,  it  certainly  is  an  excellent 
practice  for  all  of  them  to  follow,  as 
obviously  it  may  oftentimes  prove  of 
inestimable  value  or  convenience  to  have 
that  information  in  such  available  and 
unquestionable  form." 

Arriving     at     our     destination,     the 
Rambler  went  his  way  and  I  mine,  for 


they  were  not  in  the  same  direction ;  he 
going  at  once  to  one  of  our  offices  while 
I  took  the  transfer  for  a  hotel.  As  we 
parted,  however,  he  dryly  remarked, 
"Be  sure  and  not  work  too  hard." 
About  my  little  comrade,  the  boy?  O, 
yes,  his  friend  met  him  as  he  smilingly 
alighted  from  the  train  looking  as  fresh 
and  rosy  as  if  he  had  slept  in  his  own 
bed  at  home  that  night.  I  watched  him 
as  he  walked  up  the  platform  until  he 
and  his  escort  became  lost  in  the  crowd. 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


Effective  Sunday,  May  28th,  changes  in 
schedules  will  be  made,  the  general  fea- 
tures of  which  are  as  follows: 

The  Seminole  Limited:  Train  No.  9, 
will  arrive  at  Birmingham  at  5:25  P.  M. 
instead  of  5:30  P.  M.  Arrive  Albany  2:10 
A.  M.  and  Jacksonville  at  7:40  A.  M. 
Train  No.  10  will  leave  Jacksonville  at 
8:50  P.  M.  instead  of  9:00  P.  M.,  Albany 
2:15  A.  M.  instead  of  2:40  A.  M.,  Colum- 
bus 6:10  A.  M.  instead  of  6:40  A.  M.,  Bir- 
mingham at  12:15  P.  M.  instead  of  12:45 
P.  M.  and  arrive  Chicago  at  7:45  A.  M. 
Train  No.  208  will  leave  Carbondale  about 
4:10  A.  M.  instead  of  5:05  A.  M.  and  ar- 
rive St.  Louis  at  7:20  A.  M.  The  Jackson- 
ville-St.  Louis  sleeping  car  will  be  carried 
on  train  No.  10  to  Carbondale  and  thence 
No.  208  to  St.  Louis  instead  of  on  train  No. 
20^  Fulton  to  St.  Louis  as  at  oresent. 

Train  No.  204  will  leave  Memphis  at 
9:45  P.  M.  instead  of  10:00  P.  M.  and  ar- 
rive St.  Louis  at  7:44  A.  M.  Train  No. 
110  will  leave  Memphis  at  4:40  P.  M.  in- 
stead of  4:50  P.  M.  and  arrive  Fulton  at 
8:55  P.  M. 

Effective  from  St.  Louis  except  Sunday, 
June  1st  to  24th,  inclusive,  and  from 
Petoskey,  Mich.,  except  Saturday,  June 
2nd  to  25th,  inclusive,  a  steel  twelve-sec- 
tion drawing  room  sleeping  car  will  be 
placed  in  service  for  the  1916  Michigan 
resort  season  in  connection  with  the  Michi- 
gan Central  Railroad  and  the  Grand  Rapids 
&  Indiana  Railway.  This  car  will  be  run 
daily  between  St.  Louis  and  Harbor  Springs, 
June  25th  to  September  22nd,  inclusive, 
last  car  to  leave  the  latter  point  September 
23rd.  The  car  will  be  operated  on  Illinois 
Central  daylight  special  trains  No.  20 
northbound  and  No.  19  southbound.  In 
addition,  to  accommodate  the  heavy  travel 
during  the  beginning  of  the  season,  a  ten- 
section  two  compartment  one-drawing  room 
sleeping  car  will  be  operated  northbound 
only,  leaving  St.  Louis  June  6th,  9th,  13th, 
16th,  20th,  23rd,  27th,  30th,  and  July  4th 


The  Michigan  Central  announces  schedule 
changes  of  the  G.  R.  &  I.  among  which 
the  following  are  of  special  interest  to 
Illinois  Central  agents  at  this  time: 

Train  No.  1  will  be  established  in  con- 
nection with  "The  Wolverine"  leaving  Kal- 
amazoo, (Mich.)  Central  Station,  12:40  p. 
m.  daily,  arriving  Grand  Rapids  2:00  p.  m. 
with  through  coach  from  Chicago  to  Grand 
Rapids,  connecting  at  Grand  Rapids  with 
G.  R.  &  I.  No.  11,  leaving  2:lo'p.  m.,  ex- 
cept Sunday  for  points  north. 

Train  No.  3,  the  Chicago-Grand  Rapids 
equipment  from  Michigan  Central  No.  44 
will  be  transferred  to  G.  R.  &  I.  No.  17 
(re-established),  Kalamazoo  to  Grand 
Rapids;  service  will  be  re-established  north 
of  Grand  Rapids,  Train  No.  3  leaving  Grand 
Rapids  10:45  p.  m.  daily,  except  Sunday, 
arriving  Mackinaw  City  7:15  a.  m.,  except 
Monday. 

Train  No.  9  will  leave  Grand  Rapids  at 
6:00  p.  m.  daily,  except  Sunday,  running  to 
Cadillac  only,  arriving  at  9:45  p.  m. 

Train  No.  17  will  be  re-established,  leav- 
ing Kalamazoo  (Mich.)  Central  Station,  8:35 
p.  m.  daily,  arriving  Grand  Rapids  10:10  p. 
m.  This  train  will  carry  the  Chicago-Grand 
Rapids  equipment  from  Michigan  Central 
No.  44. 


The  Southern  Pacific  Lines  is  now  run- 
ning on  their  Sunset  Limited  trains  Nos. 
101  and  102,  local  standard  electric  lighted, 
all-steel  sleeping  cars  between  New  Orleans 
and  San  Antonio  and  between  San  Antonio 
and  Los  Angeles,  Cal.  With  the  recent 
inauguration  of  the  above  service  the  fol- 
lowing explanatory  announcement  was 
made: 

"These  local  sleepers  will  be  placed  at 
a  convenient  location  at  the  Southern 
Pacific  Lines'  ^passenger  station  at  San 
Antonio,  and  will  be  open  for  occupancy  at 
9:30  p.  m.  daily,  and  picked  up  by  the 
Sunset  Limited  early  the  following  morn- 
ing. 

"When    Train    No.    101    arrives    at    San 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


59 


Antonio  at  4:40  a.  m.  the  New  Orleans-San 
Antonio  sleeper  will  be  cut  out  of  this  train 
and  placed  at  a  convenient  point  at  pas- 
senger station  and  passengers  will  be  per- 
mitted to  occupy  same  until  7:30  a.  m.  The 
same  arrangement  will  be  placed  into  effect 
as  to  Los  Angeles-San  Antonio  car  on  No. 
102,  arriving  at  San  Antonio  at  4:00  a.  m. 
While  we  have  been  enjoying  a  nice  travel 
on  the  Sunset  Limited  between  New  Orleans 
and  California  we  believe  that  with  the 
establishment  of  the  above  service  the  travel 
should  be  materially  increased,  as  it  will 
permit  passengers  to  use  the  Sunset 
Limited  to  and  from  San  Antonio,  and 
tourists  to  stop  off  at  that  point  and  visit 
the  numerous  points  of  interest,  avoiding 
the  necessity  of  leaving  and  boarding  train 
at  such  an  early  hour." 


The  Estes  Park  a*nd  Rocky  Mountain  Na- 
tional Park  season  extends  from  May  15th 
to  October  31st,  for  it  is  during  these 
months  that  the  parks  are  at  their  best. 

"It  is  well  for  travelers  to  bear  in  mind 
when  planning  their  trip  to  these  parks," 
says  the  Union  Pacific  Bulletin,  "that  the 
temperature  of  this  section  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  is  about  the  same  as  that  of 
the  month  of  May  further  East  and  cloth- 
ing should  be  provided  accordingly.  Not 
a  foot  of  Rocky  Mountain  National  Park 
is  less  than  8,000  feet  above  sea  level  which 
accounts  for  the  difference  in  temperatures. 

"While  many  of  the  mountain  peaks  in 
the  park  may  be  ascended  at  the  beginning 
of  the  season  the  earliest  date  that  Long's 
Peak  (14,255)  feet  may  safely  be  climbed 
is  July  4th. 

"Riding  habits  may  be  rented  at  Estes 
Park  village  and  the  tourist  may  also  pur- 
chase there  every  sort  of  supplies,  in- 
cluding camera  films,  fishing  tackle,  fishing 
license,  etc.  Non-residents  fishing  license 
fee  is  $2. 

"Tents  and  camping  sites  may  be  rented 
for  any  period  of  time,  from  one  week  to 
an  entire  season.  Furnished  cottages  may 
also  be  rented,  but  this  is  not  recommended 
for  any  excepting  those  staying  for  an  ex- 
tended period  as  they  are  almost  invariably 
rented  by  the  season  only. 

"Estes  Park  is  only  one  travel  day  dis- 
tant from  Chicago  during  the  summer  sea- 
son. This  includes  forty  mile  automobile 
trip  from  Fort  Collins,  twenty-five  miles  of 
which  lies  through  the  famous  Big  Thomp- 
son Canyon." 


The  C.  &  N.  W.  makes  a  preliminary 
announcement  in  regard  to  their  North 
Woods  service  for  the  season  of  1916  in 
which  is  the  following:  "In  addition  to  their 
existing  service  for  the  accommodation  of 
tourists  and  fishermen,  train  No.  Ill,  leav- 
ing Chicago  6:00  p.  m.,  will  on  Fridav,  May 
26th,  June  2nd  and  9th.  carry  through  Pull- 
man sleeping  cars  from  Chicago  to 


Marenisco  (via  Monico,  Watersmeet  and 
Cisco  Lake).  Returning  on  Tuesday  even- 
ing, May  30th,  and  Sunday  evening,  June 
4th  and  llth,  an  extra  train  will  leave 
Marenisco  with  through  Pullman  sleeping 
cars  for  Chicago,  operating  via  Cisco  Lake 
and  Watersmeet  and  connecting  at  Monico 
with  train  No.  112,  arriving  at  Chicago  9:00 
a.  m.  the  following  morning.  Coach  ac- 
commodations will  also  be  provided  on 
these  trains. 

"An  entire1"  new  train — 'The  Northern 
Lakes  Special' — will  be  operated  daily  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Cisco  Lake,  via  Monico 
and  Watersmeet,  northbound,  effective 
June  16th  to  September  3rd,  inclusive,  and 
leaving  Chicago  at  7:00  p.  m.  It  will  carry 
sleeping  cars  and  coaches. 

"Effective,  northbound,  June  16th  to 
September  3rd,  inclusive,  daily  Pullman 
sleeping  car  service  will  be  established  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Marenisco  on  trains 
Nos.  111-44,  via  Ironwood,  leaving  Chicago 
at  6:00  p.  m.,  arriving  Marenisco  7:50  a.  m. 

The  Monthly  Bulletin  of  the  C.  M.  & 
St.  P.  announces  its  proposed  summer 
service  to  northern  Wisconsin  as  follows: 
"The  Fishermen's  Special,"  a  new  Friday 
only  train  (No.  41)  from  Chicago,  will  be 
placed  in  service  about  June  9th,  leaving 
Chicago  6:10  p.  m.,  arriving  Star  Lake  at 
7:45  a.  m.  Returning,  a  new  Sunday  only 
train,  No.  42.  will  leave  Star  Lake  at  6:30 
p.  m.,  arriving  at  Chicago  8:30  a.  m.  This 
train  will  carry  sleeping  cars,  dining  car 
and  coaches  between  Chicago  and  Star 
Lake.  Trains  Nos.  1  and  2  will  be  ex- 
tended to  run  to  and  from  Star  Lake  in- 
stead of  Minocqua  commencing  about  June 
10th,  and  the  standard  sleeping  car  being 
run  on  these  trains  between  Chicago  and 
Minocqua  will  be  extended  to  run  between 
Chicago  and  Star  Lake. 

Elkhart  Lake  service:  Through  coach 
service  will  be  established  on  trains  Nos. 
21  and  24  between  Chicago  and  Elkhart 
Lake  about  June  10th. 

Delavan  Week-End  service:  Saturday 
only  train  No.  49  will  be  placed  in  service 
about  June  10th,  to  leave  Chicago  at  2:00 
p.  m.  Returning,  Sunday  only,  train  No. 
50.  to  be  placed  in  service  about  June  llth, 
will  leave  Delavan  about  6:45  p.  m.,  arriv- 
ing Chicago  about  9:30  p.  m. 

An  exchange  has  the  following  to  say: 
"So  completely  have  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
evolved  from  the  old  Hawaiian  life  that 
steps  are  now  being  taken  to  preserve  a 
few  grass  houses,  such  as  were  used  in 
ancient  times  by  the  Hawaiian,  race,  and 
these  will  be  grouped  to  form  a  'Hawaiian 
A^illage'  in  Kapiolani  Park,  one  of  the  show 
nlaces  of  Honolulu,  the  capital  city  of  the 
Territory  of  Hawaii.  Original  grass  houses 
are  rare  and  have  been  preserved  in  but 
few  parts  of  the  Islands.  Those  for  Kapi- 


60 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


olani  Park  will  be  of  modern  make.  The 
grass  hou_se  has  reached  the  relic  stage, 
along  with  the  ancient  tapas,  or  cloth  made 
from  wood  and  vegetable  fiber.  Even 
Hawaiian  outrigger  canoes  are  becoming 
more  rare  each  year.  The  few  new  ones 
launched  do  not  conform  to  the  old 
methods  of  hewing  from  a  single  log.  Aside 
from  a  few  outrigger  canoes  used  by 
Hawaiian  fishermen,  the  others  are  used 
only  at  the  famous  Waikiki  Beach,  every 
day  in  the  year,  lp  give  tourists  a  thrilling 
ride  on  the  big  billows.  Tours  to  Hawaii 
are  becoming  more  popular  each  season." 

The  conductor  of  a  passenger  train  on 
one  of  New  York's  numerous  railroads,  re- 
ceived a  memento  a  few  days  ago  of  the 
days  when  a  great  many  of  the  conven- 
iences of  travel  of  the  present  were  yet 
undreamed  of. 

It  is  related  that  a  man,  gray  bearded 
and  face  furrowed  with  the  accumulation 
of  years,  boarded  the  train  at  a  small  sta- 
tion, and,  when  asked  for  his  ticket,  pre- 
sented it  to  the  conductor.  It  was  dis- 
colored and  frayed  at  the  edges,  larger 
than  the  single  trip  tickets  now  in  use,  and 
of  "different  shape.  The  conductor  was  about 
to  return  it  to  the  old  gentleman  thinking 
he  had  handed  him  the  wrong  ticket  when 
he  happened  to  notice  that  the  starting 
point  and  destination  were  stations  on  his 
line  and.  upon  closer  examination,  he  also 
noted  that  the  stamp  date,  still  "legible, 
was  March  13.  1852,  and  as  there  was  no 
time  limit  clause  on  the  ticket,  he  accepted 
it — and  the  old  gentleman,  unaware  of  the 
near  brain-storm  to  the  conductor,  calmly 
gazed  through  the  window  at  the  passing: 
landscaoe  as  the  train  swiftly  sped  on  its 
way. — Service  News  of  the  Nickel  Plate 
Road. 


Hotel  and  transportation  service  in  the 
Yosemite  National  Park,  Calif.,  is  now 
operated  by  the  Desmond  Service  Co.,  un- 
der which  able  direction  the  wonders  of 
Yosemite  may  be  seen  with  a  convenience 
and  comfort  not  attainable  before. 

Pending  the  completion  of  new  buildings 
now  being  constructed,  Sentinel  Hotel  and 
Glacier  Point  Hotel  have  been  completely 
refurnished.  New  features  of  interest  to 
tourist  this  year  is  the  inauguration  of 
mountain  inn's  and  canvas  bungalow 
camps.  Automobiles  driven  by  competent 
chauffeurs  will  be  operated  to  Mariposa 
Grove  of  Big  Trees,  and  through  Yosemite 
Valley  to  all  centers  of  attraction.  Saddle 
horses,  especially  suited  to  mountain  travel, 
may  also  be  obtained  at  nominal  rates. 
Automobile  stages  make  it  possible  to  visit 
quickly  and  conveniently  places  in  or  near 
the  park  which  have  heretofore  been  diffi- 
cult to  reach.  Ticket  agents  desiring  com- 
plete information  as  to  rates,  etc.,  may  ad- 
dress the  Desmond  Park  Service  Co.,  Un- 
derwopd  Building,  San  Francisco. 


In  "Service  Notes  of  Interest"  for  April, 
mention  was  made  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Canadian  Government  in  regard  to  tourists 
in  that  country.  Since  the  publication  of 
that  announcement  we  are  in  receipt  of  a 
letter  from  Mr.  W.  W.  Scott,  Superintendent 
of  Immigration  for  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment, in  which  he  says: 

"At  the  beginning  of  another  season  I 
am  again  taking  the  opportunity  of  writ- 
ing you  to  say  that  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment still  welcomes  tourist  traffic  as  in 
previous  years.  Out  of  the  thousands  who 
visited  this  country  last  year,  I  think  few 
il  any  had  reason  to  complain  of  their  re- 
ception or  treatment.  All  bona  fide  tourists 
being  cit'^ens  of  the  United  States  or  sub- 
'ects  of  allied  or  neutral  countries  are  wel- 
come to  visit  Canada.  Passports  are  un- 
necessary and  conscription  does  not  exist. 
Persons  naturalized  in  the  United  States 
should  carry  their  naturalization  papers  as 
a  means  of  identification. 


A  railroad  sells  transportation,  but  it 
sells  something  else  along  with  it.  It  sells 
"service."  The  price  of  a  railroad  ticket 
covers  both.  Transportation  means  the  same 
thing  on  all  railroads.  Service  may  mean 
a  very  different  thing  on  one  railroad  from 
what  it  does  on  another.  *  *  * 

Railroad  service  begins  at  the  ticket 
office  when  the  railroad  patron  buys  his 
ticket.  It  ends  at  the  station  where  he 
alights.  Between  these  two  points  should 
stretch  the  railroad  smile.  It  helps  busi- 
ness. *  *  * 

Good  service  depends  not  only  upon  what 
you  do,  but  upon  the  way  you  do  it.  That 
is  true  whether  you  be  a  clerk  in  a  drug 
store  or  a  brakeman  on  a  railroad. — Ex- 
tracts from  editorial  in  Rio  Grande  Service 
Gazette. 


What  time  can  I  get  a  train  for ? 

How  many  times  have  you  been  asked  that 
question?  How  mary  times  have  you  been 
able  to  answer  satisfactorily,  or  how  manv 
times  have  you  had  to  confess:  "I  don't 
know?"  Did  you  not  feel  that  your  ques- 
tioner looked  upon  you  as  lacking  interest 
in  your  business?  Information  regarding 
the  time  of  trains;  their  destination,  equip- 
ment, etc..  should  not  be  restricted  to  a 
few,  but  all  should  be  interested  enough 
to  study  the  time  table  folder — learn  the 
names  of  the  splendid  through  trains — see 
what  a  large  part  of  this  wonderful  coun- 
try they  reach — trace  the  routes  over  which 
thev  run — ascertain  what  equipment  is  car- 
ried and  disolav  a  knowledge  that  will  not 
only  fully  satisfy  the  inquirer,  but  also 
give  you  a  feeling  of  pride. — Exchange. 

The  management  of  one  of  the  leading 
hotels  of  Denver  announces  that.  b?=ed  on 
experience  of  the  past,  it  has  decided  to 
enlarge  their  equipment,  during  the  ao- 
proaching  summer  tourist  season,  along  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


61 


line  of  a  special  chicken  dinner  on  the  top 
ol  Lookout  Mountain  lor  parties  ot  troni 
ten  to  two  hundred.  It  says  ot  the  reature: 
"Cooking  and  serving  a  chicken  dinner 
some  nine  thousand  teet  above  sea  levei, 
overlooking  the  plains  stretching  tar  out 
into  Kansas  and  .Nebraska  'on  one  side  and 
viewing  the  snow-capped  mountain  range 
on  the  other,  is  a  treat  so  rare  that  no 
one  should  overlook  it."  This  may  be  ol 
interest  to  patrons  ot  the  Illinois  Central 
about  to  make  a  summer  trip  to  Colorado. 


Perhaps  the  most  unique  train  of  the 
present  war  is  what  is  known  as  the  "bath 
train"  of  the  Russian  army — a  sort  of  com- 
bination bath  and  sterilizing 'section  with 
a  special  department  for  destroying  para- 
sites. The  trains,  of  which  there  are  three, 
each  capable  of  giving  3000  soldiers  a  bath, 
are  lighted  by  electricity  and  heated  by 
steam.  The  bath  rooms  are  provided  with 
hot  water  from  the  locomotive  boiler,  two 
extra  tanks  being  carried,  also  an  electric 
pump  by  means  of  which  water  can  be 
drawn  into  the  tanks  from  nearby  streams. 
The  baths  are  of  the  steam  and  shower 
variety.  While  the  soldier  is  enjoying  his 
bath  his  clothes  are  being  sterilized  and 
mended. — Union  Pacific  Bulletin. 


The  Colorado  Springs  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce announce  the  following  item  that 
will  probably  be  of  interest  to  prospective 
tourists: 

"There  was  transported  from  the  Yellow- 
stone Park  Country  to  the  Pikes  Peak  Re- 
gion last  winter  a  herd  of  fifty  elk.  This 
herd  has  been  kept  during  the  winter  in 
a  corral  on  the  northern  slopes  of  Pikes 
Peak,  but  early  in  the  spring  the  animals 
will  be  released.  It  is  expected  that  their 
presence  in  this  locality  will  be  an  added 
feature  of  interest  to  the  tourist." 


The  L.  &  N.  announces  a  new  over  night 
sleeping  car  service  between  Birmingham 
and  Pensacola,  Mobile  and  New  Orleans  in 
connection  with  a  new  train  in  each  direc- 
tion between  Birmingham  and  Montgomery. 
The  steel  sleeping  car  service  is  between 
Birmingham  and  New  Orleans  and  Pensa- 
cola and  Birmingham  and  Mobile.  The  new 
train  will  leave  Birmingham  at  7:40  p.  m., 
corresponding:  train  northbound  arriving  at 
9:20  a.  m.,  from  which  it  will  be  noticed 
that  this  new  train  and  new  service  con- 
nects with  our  Seminole  Limited  in  both 
directions  at  Birmingham. 


Portland,  Ore.,  celebrates  its  tenth  an- 
nual Rose  Festival,  June  7-9,  1916.  Three 
days  will  be  given  over  to  merrymaking, 
narades,  band  concerts  and  flower  fetes. 
The  festival  center,  a  great  bed  of  bloom, 


will  cover  four  city  blocks.  The  growers  of 
Portland  estimate  more  than  20,000,000 
roses  are  produced  in  that  city  each  year. 
There  is  one  city  park  where  1,000,000 
roses  are  in  bloom  at  one  time  and  in 
which  vast  gardens  are  more  than  700 
varies  of  that  flower. 


The  Michigan  Central  announces  that  the 
"Michigan  Central  Limited,"  train  No.  18, 
operating  between  Chicago  and  New  York 
and  leaving  Chicago,  from  Central  Station 
at  5:40  p.  m.,  arriving  Niagara  Falls  6:10 
a.  m.,  Buffalo  7:00  a.  m.,  Grand  Central 
Terminal,  New  York,  5:30  p.  m.  and  Boston 
8:35  p.  m.,  is  now  a  solid  Pullman  all-steel 
train  consisting  of  club  car,  standard  sleep- 
ing cars,  observation  car  and  barber  and 
maid  service.  Through  sleeping  cars  are 
also  operated  Chicago  to  Boston,  Buffalo, 
Niagara  Falls  and  Hoboken. 


The  Denver  &  Rio  Grande  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  wonderful  scenic  and  historic 
attractions  of  the  Mesa  Verde  National 
Park  portion  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  re- 
gion traversed  hv  its  line,  and  announces 
the  bringing  of  the  peaks  within  easy  reach 
by  a  new  automobile  highway  built  by  the 
government  from  Mancos,  Colo.,  on  the  Rio 
Grande  Southern,  direct  to  the  famous 
ruins  of  that  region. 


St.  Louis  will  celebrate  the  300th  anni- 
versary of  the  death  of  William  Shake- 
speare by  producing  in  the  open  air,  June 
5  to  11,  1916  under  the  direction  of  the 
Pageant  Drama  Association,  with  a  cast 
of  1,000  persons,  headed  by  Margaret 
Anglin,  Shakespeare's  great  outdoor  comedy 
"As  You  Like  It,"  and  a  30-minute  pro- 
logue showing  May-Dav  revels  of  Shake- 
speare's time. 


We  are  advised  by  Mr.  C.  E.  Stone,  Pas- 
senger Traffic  Manager  of  the  Great  North- 
ern Ry.,  that  while  the  regular  summer 
Glacier  Park  season  will  not  open  until 
June_  1st.  their  small  chalet  at  Glacier  Park 
Station  is  now  open  for  visitors.  It  is  op- 
erated on  the  American  plan  at  a  rate  of 
$3.00  per  day.  There  is  fishing  in  the  vicin- 
ity. 


It  may  be  of  interest  for  Illinois  Central 
agents  to  be  advised  thus 'early  that  it  is 
the  present  intention  to  hold  a  fall  race 
meet,  to  run  about  25  da^s,  at  Hot  Springs, 
Ark.,  commencing  Thanksgiving  Day,  No- 
vember 30,  1916. 


The  annual  original  "Frontier  Days"  cele- 
bration will  be  held  in  Cheyenne,  Wyo., 
July  26th  to  29th  this  year;  its  participants 
being  real  cowboys,  cowgirls  and  Indians. 


the 


Biographical  Sketch  No.  22 


EDMUND    F.    TRABUE. 


X/TR.    EDMUND    F.    TRABUE,   se- 
nior   member     of    the     firm     of 
Messrs.   Trabue,   Doolan   &   Cox,   our 


District  Attorneys  for  Kentucky,  was 
born  and  has  always  resided  in  that 
state.  Mr.  Trabue  received  the  degree 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


63 


of  Bachelor  of  Arts  from  the  Ken- 
tucky Eclectic  Institute  and  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Law  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Louisville,  also  taking  the  Sum- 
mer Law  Course  at  the  University  of 
Virginia.  His  father  was  S.  F.  J.  Tra- 
bue,  a  lawyer,  and  his  mother  was 
Alice  Elizabeth  Berry,  a  daughter  of 
Edward  Taylor  Berry,  of  the  same 
profession. 

Mr.  Trabue,  as  junior  member  of 
the  firm  of  Messrs.  Pirtle  &  Trabue, 
was  appointed  District  Attorney  by 
James  Fentress,  former  General  Solic- 
itor, on  August  1,  1896,  at  which  time 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 
was  operating  the  lines  of  railroad  for- 
merly owned  by  the  Chesapeake,  Ohio 
&  Southwestern  Railroad  Company, 
and  now  known  as  the  Kentucky 
Division.  The  firm  of  Messrs.  Pir- 
tle &  Trabue  represented  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  in  the  fore-, 
closure  proceedings  involving  the  va- 
rious railroad  companies  whose  lines 
of  railroad  are  now  a  part  of  the  Ken- 
tucky Division. 

While  the  firm  of  which  Mr.  Trabue 
is  a  member  is  engaged  in  the  general 
practice  of  law,  Mr.  Trabue  has  always 
given  a  large  portion  of  his  time  to 
corporation  practice  and  has  for  many 
years  represented  railroads  and  ex- 
press, as  well  as  telephone,  insurance 
and  banking  companies.  Mr.  Trabue 
has  represented  the  Illinois  Central 


Railroad  Company  and  its  affiliated 
companies  in  Kentucky  in  extremely 
important  litigation  during  the  years 
of  his  connection  with  the  company. 
Among  the  cases  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  to  which  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Railroad  Company  was  a 
party  and  which  were  in  Mr.  Trabue's 
charge  may  be  mentioned  the  follow- 
ing: 

Siler  v.  I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  213  U.  S.  199. 

I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.  v.  Shegog,  215  U.  S. 
308 ;  217  U.  S.  599. 

I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.  v.  Kentucky,  218  U.  S. 
551. 

I.  C.  R.  R.  Co.  v.  Henderson  Elevator 
Co.,  226  U.  S.  441.  - 

As  District  Attorney  for  Kentucky, 
Mr.  Trabue  and  the  members  of  his 
firm  have  charge  of  all  litigation  in 
that  state  in  which  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  has  any  interest, 
and  Mr.  Trabue  has  successfully 
briefed  and  argued  many  cases  on  be- 
half of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  in  the  Court  of  Appeals  of 
Kentucky.  He  is  a  lawyer  of  great 
ability  and  profound  learning  and  is 
recognized  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
bar  in  the  South. 

Mr.  Trahue  married  Miss  Caroline 
Cochran,  daughter  of  Gavin  Hamilton 
Cochran,  Esq.,  of  Louisville,  and  they 
have  one  daughter,  Lucinda  Trabue 
Morrison,  wife  of  Dr.  John  Rowan 
Morrison. 


Commerce  Notes 


False  billing. — The  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  on  April'  3,  1916, 
in  United  States  vs.  Union  Mfg.  Co. 
and  /.  T.  Prince,  HELD,  That  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act 
against  false  billing  applies  to  con- 
signees as  well  as  to  consignors ;  that  it 
is  but  one  of  many  provisions  enacted 
by  Congress  with  the  object  of  pre- 
venting discriminations  and  favorit- 
ism as  between  shippers  by  requiring 
the  publication  of  tariffs  and  prohibit- 
ing any  departure  from  them ;  that  in 


denouncing  as  criminal  "false  billing, 
false  classification,  false  weighing,  fals^ 
representation  of  the  contents  of  the 
package  or  the  substance  of  the  prop- 
erty, false  report  of  weight,  false  state- 
ment, or  other  device  or  means"  em- 
ployed in  order  to  "obtain  or  attempt 
to  obtain  transportation  for  such  prop- 
erty at  less  than  the  regular  rates  then 
established,"  the  lawmaker  regarded 
not  merely  the  physical  transportation 
of  the  property,  but  the  entire  trans- 
action through  which  consignor  or  con- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


65 


signee  might  seek  to  evade  the  policy 
of  the  act  to  subject  all  interstate  ship- 
ments to  uniform  rates  of  charge  pre- 
scribed in  published  tariffs.  In  a  case 
where  for  any  reason  the  payment  of 
the  freight  is  not  made  prior  to  the 
delivery  of  the  goods  to  the  consignee 
but  remains  to  be  afterward  adjusted, 
the  effort  to  maintain  an  advantage 
not  permitted  by  the  schedule  may 
still  be  exerted  through  fraudulent  rep- 
resentation influencing  the  adjustment 
of  the  freight,  with  precisely  the  same 
effect  as  if  the  representations  had  pre- 
ceded delivery  of  the  goods.  When 
this  is  accomplished,  there  is  a  fraudu- 
lent obtaining  of  transportation  at  less 
than  the  established  rate,  within  the 
meaning  of  the  prohibition. 

Discrimination  applies  to  compulsory 
and  voluntary  services.  When  brokers 
are  patrons. — In  Emery  vs.  B.  &  M.  R. 
Co.,  38  ICC  636,  it  was  held  (a)  that 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  jurisdiction  over  the  domestic 
movement  of  traffic  originating  in  Can- 
ada; (b)  that  the  duty  of  carriers  not 
to  discriminate  between  persons  is 
owed  only  to  patrons  of  their  transpor- 
tation service,  but  customs  brokers  who 
act  as  consignees  at  ports  of  entry, 
and  who  forward  the  shipments  con- 
signed to  them  for  entry  to  the  ultimate 
consignees,  are  patrons  of  the  transpor- 
tation service  afforded  by  the  carriers 
employed;  and  (c)  that  the  duty  of  car- 
riers not  to  discrimate  between  shippers 
obtains  for  voluntary  as  well  as  for  com- 
pulsory services. 

Fourth  Section  Departures  Between 
Points  on  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers. 
—In  38  ICC  Rep.  411,  the  Commission 
said  on  April  8,  1915,  opinion  3,492: 
The  class  and  commodity  rates  of  car- 
riers operating  both  north  and  south 
of  the  Ohio  River  in  the  territory  lying 
between  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  and  East  St. 


Louis,  111.,  on  the  one  hand  and  Ohio 
River  points  on  the  other,  and  between 
the  various  Ohio  River  points  them- 
selves, are  in  many  instances  in  con- 
travention of  the  long  and  short  haul 
rule  of  the  Fourth  Section  of  the  Act ; 
these  carriers  ask  to  be  allowed  to  con- 
tinue these  rates  between  the  river 
points,  which  are  lower  than  rates  at 
intermediate  points.  Upon  the  facts 
disclosed  by  the  record;  HELD,  (a) 
that  water  competition  justifies  depar- 
tures from  the  long  and  short  haul  rule 
of  the  Fourth  Section  in  rates  between 
points  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
Rivers,  and  relief  should  be  granted  to 
the  extent  prescribed  in  the  report; 
(b)  that  authority  to  continue  to 
charge  class  and  commodity  rates  be- 
tween the  same  points  via  Chicago 
and  Chicago  Junction  lower  than  rates 
contemporaneously  applicable  on  like 
traffic  to  intermediate  points  is  denied; 
and  that  (c)  authority  to  continue  class 
and  commodity  rates  between  the  same 
points  via  the  route  of  the  L.  &  N.  R.  R. 
through  Guthrie  lower  than  rates  con- 
temporaneously applicable  on  like  traf- 
fic to  intermediate  points  is  denied. 

Passenger  Fares. — The  rule  of  the 
A.  T.  &  S.  F.  R.  Co.  under  which 
tickets  for  transportation  on  the  "Cali- 
fornia Limited"  train  from  Chicago, 
111.,  to  Albuquerque,  N.  Mex.  were  not 
honored  and  the  assessment  of  charges 
for  transportation  on  this  train  from 
Chicago  to  Albuquerque  on  the  basis 
of  the  fare  from  Chicago  to  Williams, 
Ariz.,  the  first  point  west  of  Albuquer- 
que to  which  tickets  were  honored  on 
this  train,  was  not  found  to  have  been 
unjustly  discriminatory.  Johnson  vs. 
A..T.  &  S.  F.  R.  Co.,  38  ICC,  294.) 

Condensed  Milk. — Fifth  class  rate, 
per  Official  Classification,  minimum 
carload  weight  36,000  pounds,  was  pre- 
scribed in  Hires  Condensed  Milk  Co. 
rs.  P.  R.  Co.,  38  ICC,  441. 


The  Fable  of  Congress,  the  Legislature  and 
Their  Railroad 


By  Blewett  Lee 


£*  ONGRESS  and  his  Son,  the  Legis- 
lature,  were  driving  their  Railroad 
to  the  fair  at  Wall  Street  to  sell  him. 
They  had  not  gone  far  when  they  met 
a  troop  of  farmers  returning  from  the 
town,  talking  and  laughing. 
''Look  there!"  cried  one  of  them.  "Did 
you  ever  see  such  fools,  to  be  trudging 
along  on  foot,  when  they  might  be 
riding?  Why  that  Railroad  could  be 
made  to  carry  anybody  for  two  cents 
per  mile."  Congress,  when  he  heard 
this,  bade  his  Son,  the  Legislature,  to 
get  on  the  Railroad,  and  walked  mer- 
rily along  by  his  side.  Soon  they  came 
to  a  group  of  old  men,  talking  gravely. 

"There"  said  one  of  them ;  "that 
proves  what  I  was  saying.  What  re- 
spect is  shown  to  old  age  in  these  days? 
Do  you  see  that  idle  young  rogue  rid- 
ing, while  his  Father  has  to  walk?  Get 
down,  you  scapegrace,  and  let  the  old 
man  get  on.  Can't  you  see  that  the 
Railroad  is  engaged  in  interstate  com- 
merce?" 

Upon  this,  the  Legislature  got  down 
from  the  Railroad  and  Congress  took 
his  place.  Nevertheless,  the  Legisla- 
ture liked  to  ride  on  the  Railroad  so 
much  that  he  couldn't  stay  off  very 
long,  and  soon  took  his  place  behind 
the  old  man's  back.  They  had  not 
gone  far  when  they  overtook  a  young 
son  of  Congress,  called  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  and  with  him 
was  a  company  of  women  and  children. 

"Why,  you  lazy  fellows !"  cried  sev- 
eral tongues  at  once.  "How  can  you 
ride  upon  that  Railroad,  when  that 
poor  little  lad  there  can  hardly  keep 
pace  by  the  side  of  you?" 

So,  good  natured  Congress  took  his 
son,  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion also  up  behind  him.  They  had 


now  almost  reached  the  town,  when 
they  met  a  husky  young  fellow,  called 
the  State  Railroad  Commission.  He 
did  not  wait  for  an  invitation,  but 
climbed  right  up  behind  without  more 
ado. 

"Pray,  honest  friend,"  said  a  towns- 
man, "is  that  Railroad  your  own?" 

"Yes,"  said  Congress,  "it  is  true  that 
other  people  paid  for  it,  but  I  feel  just 
the  same  as  if  I  owned  it." 

"I  should  not  have  thought  so,"  said 
the  townsman,  by  the  way  you  load  it. 
Why,  the  four  of  you  are  better  able 
to  carry  the  poor  thing  than  it  is  to 
carry  you,  and  none  of  the  others  can 
ride  without  your  permission." 

"Anything  to  please  the  people," 
said  Congress.  "We  can  but  try." 

So  Congress,  the  Legislature,  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  and 
the  State  Railroad  Commission  got 
down  from  the  Railroad ;  then  they 
tied  its  legs  together  and  all  four,  tak- 
ing a  stout  pole,  tried  to  carry  it  on 
their  shoulders  over  a  bridge  called 
Net  Earnings  that  led  to  Wall  Street. 

This  was  so  odd  a  sight  that  crowds 
of  people  ran  out  to  see  it  and  to  laugh 
at  it.  The  Railroad,  not  liking  to  be 
tied,  kicked  the  cords  away,  and  tum- 
bled off  the  pole  and  was  drowned  in 
Insolvency.  At  this,  Congress  and  the 
Legislature,  and  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  and  the  State  Rail- 
road Commission  hung  down  their 
heads  and  made  their  way  home  again, 
having  learned  that  by  trying  to  please 
everybody,  they  had  pleased  nobody, 
and  had  lost  the  Railroad  in  the  bar- 
gain. 

Moral :  Let  only  one  ride.— Railway 
Age-Gazette. 


66 


Transformers 


By  J.  H.  Wickman 


"TPHE  question  is  often  asked  by  the 
non-technical  man  and  others, 
"What  is  a  transformer  and  what  are 
its  uses?"  To  this  we  may  reply,  the 
transformer  is  a  piece  of  electrical  ap- 
paratus that  is  designed  to  take  alter- 
nating current  from  the  supply  mains 
or  feeders,  as  they  come  from  the  power 
house,  at  a  certain  voltage  and  fre- 
quency and  deliver  current  to  the  re- 
ceiving circuit  at  a  different  voltage  but 
at  the  same  frequency.  To  put  this  in 
other  words  the  supply  circuit  from  the 
power  house  usually  carries  a  voltage 
of  2,200  volts  and  above,  while  the  volt- 
age used  for  lighting  purposes  usually 
is  either  110  volts  or  220  volts,  there- 
fore the  transformer  steps  this  higher 
voltage  down  to  a  value  that  is  adapt- 
able and  safe  for  using  for  lighting 
purposes  and  not  dangerous  for 
handling. 

There  is  but  one  condition  that  must 
be   precisely    met    in   the   design   of   a 
transformer  and  that  is  the  ratio  of  the 
primary  to  the  secondary  turns  which 
must  be  equal  to  the  ratio  of  the  pre- 
scribed   primary    and   secondary  volt- 
ages, all  other  points  of  design  are  but 
a   matter   of   choice   which    are    deter- 
mined by   experience  of  the  designer, 
however,  he  should  strive  for 
1 — Good  insulation, 
2 — Good  regulation, 
3 — High  efficiency, 
4 — Small  open-circuit  current, 
5 — Small  rise  in  temperature, 
P — Low  first  costs, 
7 — High  safety  factor. 


Some  of  these  conditions  are  opposed 
to  others,  as,  for  example,  high  effi- 
ciency and  low  first  costs. 

The  transformer  is  made  of  essen- 
tially of  three  materials,  namely :  cop- 
per, steel  and  insulation.  The  copper 
is  in  wire  form,  wound  on  the  core 
which  is  composed  of  laminated  iron 
or  steel.  Designers  of  transformers 
are  using  Silicon  steel  to  build  up  the 
core  because  of  its  non-aging  proper- 
ties. After  the  winding  is  done  the  as- 
sembled coils  and  cores  are  placed  and 
fastened  in  an  iron  case.  The  coils  of 
most  transformers  are  form  wound  and 
are  so  placed  that  they  surround  the 
iron  core.  The  core  or  iron  part  of  the 
transformer  is  made  up  by  pressing 
sheet  iron  hydraulically  or  by  air  pres- 
sure, so  that  when  pressed  it  resem- 
bles a  solid  mass.  The  idea  of  using 
sheet  iron  instead  of  one  solid  mass  is 
that  each  sheet  can  be  slightly  coated 
with  some  kind  of  an  insulating  com- 
pound which  tends  to  separate  the 
sheets  and  breaks  the  circuits  of  eddv 
currents  which  are  always  present  with 
all  inductive  apparatus.  Different  man- 
ufacturers assemble  the  coils  and  cores 
in  various  ways,  some  have  the  sec- 
ondary coil  next  to  the  core,  some  have 
the  primary  coils  next  to  the  core  while 
others  mix  the  two  by  placing  differ- 
ent layers  of  each  next  to  the  core. 

All  transformers  have  two  windings 
that  are  called  the  primary  and  sec- 
ondary and  each  winding  is  usually 
made  up  of  two  coils  which  allows  the 
same  transformer  to  be  operated  on 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


69 


-El 


PRIMAP  y 


'"VVVvW  WWW 

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SE  COM  DAW 


DIAGRAM 

CO/VNECTIOA/S. 


different  voltages,  thus  by  referring  to 
the  diagram  of  the  coils  as  shown  in 
Fig.  1,  the  primary  part  of  it  may  rep- 
resent the  coils  composed  of  many 
turn  of  small  wire.  As  an  example 
each  one  may  be  thought  of  as  a  1,100- 
volt  coil,  so  if  a  transformer  of  this 
nature  was  to  operate  on  1,100  volts  on 
the  supply  of  primary  side  the  ends  of 
each  coil,  or  1  and  3  would  be  connect- 
ed to  one  line  and  2  and  4  would  be 
connected  to  the  opposite  line  or  sup- 
ply, or  if  this  same  transformer  was 
to  operate  on  2,200  volts  the  two  coils 
would  be  connected  together  at  2  and 
3,  and  1  and  4  would  be  connected 
across  the  supplv. 

Fig.  1 

The  secondary  part  of  the  transfor- 
mer is  wound  with  proportionally 
heavier  wire  because  it  carries  more 
current  than  the  primary  side  and  there 
would  also  be  a  great  many  less  turns 
in  each  coil,  thus  if  there  were  1,100 
turns  in  each  primary  coil  and  the  ratio 
of  the  transformer  was  10  to  1  the  sec- 
ondary coils  would  have  but  110  turns. 
The  secondary  part  of  it  could  also  be 
connected  for  110  or  220  volts,  by  con- 
necting X  and  Y  to  one  line  and  A  and 


B  to  the  opposite  would  give  110  volts, 
while  if  Y  and  A  were  united  there 
would  be  difference  of  220  volts  be- 
tween X  and  B. 

There  are  three  different  types  of 
transformers  each  deriving  its  name 
from  the  method  by  which  it  is  cooled, 
namely,  oil  cooled,  air  cooled  and  water 
cooled. 

Oil  Cooled — After  the  coils  and  core 
are  placed  within  the  case  it  is  filled 
nearly  to  the  top  with  transil  oil  which 
carries  the  heat  generated  by  the  coils 
to  the  case  from  which  it  is  dissipated 
into  the  air.  The  coils  are  therefore 
kept  at  a  safe  operating  temperature, 
providing  the  transformer  is  not  over- 
loaded. Nearly  all  electrical  apparatus 
is  rated  by  the  temperature  rise  above 
the  atmospheric  temperatures,  trans- 
formers being  limited  to  about  95  de- 
grees centigrade  which  is  higher  than 
is  allowed  with  machinery  which  has 
motion. 

Air  Cooled — The  laminations  of  an 
air  cooled  transformer  are  separated  by 
fillers,  placed  between  them  to  allow  a 
circulation  of  cool  air  to  pass  through 
which  collects  the  heat  and  is  forced  to 
some  outside  duct,  thereby  cooling  the 
transformer.  The  air  is  supplied  from 
a  fan  which  receives  its  air  supply  from 
an  out-of-door  source.  The  air  is  forced 
into  the  transformer  from  the  bottom 
side  through  and  around  the  core  and 
coils  hence  out  through  the  damper  at 
the  top.  The  air  pressure  used  for 
cooling  purposes  varies  from  1  to  4 
ounces  per  square  inch.  The  motors 
that  are  used  for  running  the  blower 
set,  are  as  a  rule,  connected  to  the  sec- 
ondary side  of  the  transformer  to  be 
cooled  and  are  self-starting.  In  this 
way  the  blower  set  is  never  in  opera- 
tion only  when  the  transformers  are 
being  used  and  are  never  forgotten 
when  needed.  The  capacity  of  the 
blower  set  is  but  a  small  percent  of 
the  capacity  of  the  transformer  or 
transformers  to  be  cooled  often  not 
amounting  to  more  than  1  or  2  per 
cent. 

Water  Cooled — This  type  of  trans- 
former resembles  the  oil-cooled  trans.- 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


former  in  as  much  as  it  is  filled  with 
oil  besides  having  water  coils  placed 
within  the  case,  these  water  coils  dis- 
sipating the  heat  from  the  oil  which 
becomes  heated  from  the  coils  carry- 
ing the  current.  This  type  of  transfor- 
mer can  be  operated  at  a  greater  over- 
load indefinitely  than  either  of  the 
other  types  by  passing  more  water 
through  the  cooling  coils. 

A  special  grade  of  oil  known  as  tran- 
sil  oil  is  used  in  transformers  because 
of  its  insulating  properties  and  that  it 
will  not  absorb  but  little  moisture  from 
the  air  even  if  directly  exposed ;  how- 
ever if  moisture  should  get  into  it  and 
reduce  its  value  as  an  insulation  it  can 
be  removed  by  a  filter  process.  To 
those  not  familiar  with  this  oil  a  word 
of  precaution  is  worth  while,  it  is  of  no 
value  as  a  lubricant;  however,  it  has 
been  the  writer's  experience  to  find  it 
being  used  by  those  not  familiar  with 
it  at  different  times. 

A  word  farther  may  be  said  relative 
to  the  several  points  heretofore  men- 
tioned as  to  what  constitutes  a  good 
transformer.  Good  insulation  means 
that  each  turn  of  wife  should  be  insu- 
lated from  all  others,  each  layer  of  wire 
should  be  insulated  from  all  the  other 


layers,  and  that  each  coil  should  be 
insulated  from  all  other  coils  and  that 
the  entire  windings  should  be  well  in- 
sulated from  the  core  and  case. 

Good  regulation  of  a  transformer 
may  be  defined  as  the  per  cent  rise  in 
secondary  voltage  when  the  full  rated 
load  is  thrown  off,  all  other  conditions 
remaining  the  same,  that  is  there  may 
be  a  raise  of  4  per  cent  or  5  per  cent 
of  voltage  with  and  without  full  load 
on  the  secondary  side ;  this  may  be  reg- 
ulated by  the  size  of  copper  used  in 
designing  the  coils,  on  the  secondary 
side. 

High  efficiency  may  be  taken  as  the 
ratio  of  watts  input  to  watts  output. 

Small  open-circuit  current  means  the 
energy  required  to  magnetize  and  de- 
magnetize the  iron  core  due  to  rever- 
sals of  current.  This  is  a  very  impor- 
tant factor  and  all  purchasers  should 
keep  this  one  point  in  mind  as  this  last 
is  constant  and  continues  every  hour 
the  transformer  is  in  use. 

Small  rise  in  temperature  at  full  load 
output  is  controlled  by  the  size  of  cop- 
per used  in  the  coils  while  the  high 
safety  factor  is  controlled  by  good  in- 
sulation. 


Failure  of  Carriers  to  Observe  Strictly  Their 
Published  Tariffs 


"A  certain  railroad  company  was  in- 
dicted for  failing  strictly  to  observe 
the  plain  requirements  of  the  demur- 
rage tariffs.  The  carrier  first  demur- 
red to  the  indictment,  but  without  suc- 
cess. It  then  went  to  trial,  and  after 
all  of  the  facts  were  laid  before  the 
jury  a  verdict  of  guilty  was  returned 
and  a  fine  of  $24,000  was  imposed. 

"Another  railroad  was  indicted  for 
failure  to  collect  demurrage  from  a 
coal  company  on  coal  held  in  barges 
operated  by  the  railroad  in  New  York 
Harbor  in  accordance  with  its  pub- 


lished demurrage  tariffs.    This  case  is 
still  pending. 

"A  third  railroad  has  been  indicted 
for  failure  to  collect  demurrage  upon 
a  large  amount  of  coal  shipped  over  its 
line.  The  carrier  has  a  demurrage  tar- 
iff providing  that  demurrage  shall  ac- 
crue for  the  detention  of  cars.  The 
practice  has  been,  however,  to  hold 
cars  out  about  8  miles  from  destination, 
awaiting  orders  from  the  consignee. 
No  demurrage  has  been  charged  on 
such  detention,  although  notices  of  ar- 
rival are  sent  to  the  consignee  and  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


71 


cars  are  at  the  consignee's  disposal  as 
soon  as  they  reach  outlying  yard.  Two 
indictments  of  51  counts  each  were 
returned  against  the  carrier  on  the 
theory  that  the  above  acts  constituted 
a  willful  failure  to  observe  its  demur- 
rage tariff,  if  that  tariff  was  applicable 
at  outlying  yard,  or  else  a  device  for 
granting  concessions,  if  the  cars  were 
held  to  evade  application  of  the  demur- 
rage tariff.  It  is  of  interest  to  note 
that  since  these  indictments  were  re- 
turned, the  Supreme  Court,  in  the 


Berwind-White  Coal  Mining  Co.  v. 
Chicago  &  Erie  R.  R.  Co.,  235  U.  S. 
371,  has  declared  that  as  a  matter  of 
law  shipments  detained  before  reach- 
ing destination  may  be  held  subject  to 
the  demurrage  tariffs  applicable  at  the 
point  of  destination." 

Chicago,  111.,  January  31,  1916. 

In  view  of  the  above  we  should  be 
zealous  at  all  times  in  our  efforts  to  as- 
sess and  collect  all  demurrage  charges 
accruing  under  our  published  tariffs. 


Name 
Joe  Strolin 
Oscar  E.  Adams 
Christ  Rupp 
Daniel  Flynn 
Isaac  R.  Sweets 
J.  C.  Stewart 
James  T.  Winters 


Occupation 
Machinist 
Engineman 
Laborer 
Foreman 
Engineman 
Section  Foreman 
Section  Foreman 


FREDERICK  SCHLINKERT 

.  FREDERICK  SCHLINKERT, 
for  forty-five  years  an  employe  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  died  April 
8,  1916,  after  an  illness  of  about  three 
months.  For  thirty-five  years  of  his  em- 
ployment Mr.  Schlinkert  was  Supervisor 
of  Scales,  his  jurisdiction  including  both 
the  Illinois  Central  and  The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroads. 


Where 

Date  of 

Employed 

Service 

Retirement 

Water  Valley 

38  yrs. 

Apr.  30,  1916 

Fort  Dodge 

36  yrs. 

May  31,  1916 

Kankakee 

22  yrs. 

Nov.  30,  1915 

Chicago 

12  yrs. 

Dec.  31,  1915 

E.  St.  Louis 

30  yrs. 

Jan.  31,  1916 

Velma 

25  yrs. 

Apr.  30,  1916 

Palestine 

34  yrs. 

May  31,  1915 

He  was  born  in  Dinslaken,  Germany, 
November  4,  1850,  and  served  his  ap- 
prenticeship in  a  machine  shop  in  his 
native  town,  later  he  was  appointed 
Assistant  City  Sealer  in  Dinsburg.  When 
twenty  years  of  age  he  came  to  the 
United  States  and  located  at  Centralia, 
111. 

He  was  a  competent  and  loyal  em- 
ploye, and  his  death  is  greatly  regretted 
by  many  friends. 


EDWARD   DONOGHUE 


72 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


73 


\/f  R.  EDWARD  DONOGHUE  was 
***•  born  in  Ireland,  County  Wick- 
low,  Aug.  15,  1829.  He  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1846  and  was  em- 
ployed on  a  farm  until  1851,  when  he 
entered  construction  work  on  the  C.  & 
A.  Railroad,  going  from  there  to  the 
same  class  of  work  on  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral at  Cairo,  after  which  he  returned 
to  farm  work  near  Springfield.  He  re- 
entered  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral in  1876,  in  charge  of  extra  gang 


to  1880.  Supervisor  at  Centralia  1887, 
Supervisor  Trains  and  Track  to  1890 
on  Ratoul  District,  changing  it  from 
a  narrow  to  standard  gauge.  Road- 
master  Springfield  Division  one  year, 
Roadmaster  Chicago  Division,  Centra- 
lia,two  years  then  returning  to  Ran- 
toul  as  Supervisor  of  Trains  and 
Track;  retired  on  pension  in  1901,  and 
died  Feb.  14,  1916. 

Mr.  Donoghue  was  highly  esteemed 
by  all  those  who  knew  him  best. 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


TPHE  handling  and  reporting  of 
•*•  astray,  damaged,  refused  and  un- 
claimed freight  is  one  that  needs  the 
most  careful  attention  of  every  agent, 
and  those  in  daily  contact  with  the 
movement  of  all  freight. 

Before  the  adoption  of  our  present 
over  report  and  astray  waybill,  it  was 
necessary  for  agents  to  issue  an  over 
report  on  all  shipments  at  his  station 
without  revenue  waybill,  in  addition  to 
which  freight  without  such  revenue 
waybill,  when  traveling,  had  to  move 
on  a  free  astray  waybill.  With  the 
adoption  of  the  combination  over  re- 
port and  free  astray  waybill,  the  pur- 
pose of  each  of  the  old  reports  was  re  t 
tained,  but  a  great  deal  of  work  elimi- 
nated through  its  use.  It  is  this  ref- 
erence, however,  to  the  same  purpose 
that  we  wish  to  emphasize,  and  with 
which  in  mind,  proper  issuance  of  the 
present  report  will  be  readily  suggest- 
ed to  those  who  are  required  to  render 
these  reports.  For  instance,  under  the 
old  system  astray  shipments  were  wa"y- 
billed  to  their  marked  destination  on 
the  regular  form,  but  "ASTRAY" 
shown  in  the  freight  charges  column. 
Upon  receipt  of  this  shipment  at  des 
tination,  if  revenue  billing  was  not  at 


hand,  thereby  causing  the  shipment  to 
have  been  short  at  that  time,  it  was 
necessary  to  issue  an  over  report  show- 
ing disposition  made  of  the  shipment. 
The  same  shipment  now  moving  would 
travel  on  the  combination  over  report 
and  free  astray  waybill,  the  billing 
agent  making  four  copies  and  distrib- 
uted as  follows : 

Shipment  moves  on  the  original  with 
coupon  left  intact.  Second  copy  mailed 
to  Loss  and  Damage  Bureau.  Third 
copy  mailed  to  the  billing  agent,  r~ 
superintendent  if  this  is  not  shown,  and 
the  fourth  copy  retained  for  station 
record.  Upon  arrival  of  this  shipme 
at  destination,  if  agent  has  previous! 
received  revenue  billing,  it  is  only  ne ~- 
essary  to  show  reference  on  the  face 
of  the  F.  A.  waybill,  abstract  and  for- 
ward to  the  Auditor  Freight  Receipts, 
but  detaching  the  coupon  and  answer- 
ing the  several  questions  provided  for 
thereon,  and  mailing  such  coupon  c 
the  Loss  and  Damage  Bureau.  If  rev- 
enue billing,  or  reference  thereto,  is 
not  in  possession  of  the  destination 
agent,  he  should  issue  station  to  sta- 
tion combination  over  report  and 
astray  waybill,  adding  such  charges  as 
are  required  in  making  delivery,  and 


74 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


sending  to  the  Loss  and  Damage  Bu- 
reau the  second  copy  of  his  station  to 
station  waybill  with  the  coupon  from 
the  original  attached  thereto,  showing 
disposition  made  of  the  shipment.  This 
latter  station  to  station  waybill  has  the 
same  value  as  the  former  over  report 
and  is  used  for  a  similar  purpose. 

As  a  matter  of  information,  will  ex 
plain  why  such  handling  is  required. 
Upon  receipt  in  this  office  of  the  copy 
of  free  astray  waybill  as  issued  by  the 
billing  agent,  this  report  is  placed  in 
our  file  under  the  destination  station 
reference,  and  upon  receipt  in  the 
freight  claim  office  of  all  claims  for 
shortages,  this  file  containing  a  com- 
partment for  each  station  on  the  line, 
is  consulted  in  order  to  ascertain  if  the 
shipment  on  which  claim  has  been  pre- 
sented has  checked  over  at  some  other 
point.  The  coupon  from  the  original 
of  this  waybill  issued  by  the  billing 
agent  and  sent  us  by  the  destination 
agent,  showing  disposition  made  of  the 
shipment,  is  attached  to  this  waybill  in 
file,  from  which  the  Freight  Claim 
Agent  can  determine  the  present  loca- 
tion of  the  shipment.  If  the  agent  at 
destination  has  been  unable  to  obtain 
proof  of  ownership  and  accordingly 
has  failed  to  deliver  shipment,  it  is  nec- 
essary that  this  office  assist  him  in  ob- 
taining disposition,  but  in  order  to  do 
so  without  disturbing  our  file  as  above 
mentioned,  which  will  service  the 
Freight  Claim  Agent  in  connection 
with  the  investigation  of  his  claim,  we 
must  have  a  report  rendered  for  a  dif- 
ferent purpose — that  of  showing  the 
shipment  on  hand  undelivered.  It 
must,  therefore,  be  understood  that  in 
all  cases  where  an  astray  shipment  can- 
not be  reconciled  at  destination  with 
the  revenue  waybill,  and  where  delivery 
cannot  be  made  owing  to  the  absence 
of  information  proving"  ownership,  such 
as  bill  of  lading,  invoice,  etc..  that  sta- 
tion to  station  F.  A.  waybill  must  be 
issued,  sending  this  office  the  second 
copy,  and  the  coupon  from  the  first 
copy  attached  thereto. 

If  shipment  is  received  on  an  inter- 
line through  over  astray  waybill  and 


revenue  waybill  reference  is  not  at 
hand,  the  same  method  must  be  fol- 
lowed as  above. 

The  revised  form  of  combination  free 
astray  over  report  provides  for  the 
waybilling  of  astray  freight  to  marked 
destination  regardless  of  existing  in- 
terline waybilling  instructions,  it  be- 
ing understood  that  the  various  lines 
will  so  handle.  Therefore,  in  all  cases, 
in  waybilling  astray  freight  do  not 
head  the  waybill  on  our  junction  or 
some  intermediate  point,  but  bill  ship- 
ment through  to  its  marked  destina- 
tion. 

Whenever  we  for  any  reason  are  un- 
able to  deliver  shipments  to  consignee 
and  it  becomes  necessary  to  sell  same, 
it  is  very  important  that  the  proceeds 
from  such  sale  be  credited  and  dis- 
trubuted  to  the  account  to  which  it  be- 
longs in  order  that  "loss  and  damage 
to  freight"  might  not  be  deprived  of 
any  credit  which  it  is  entitled  to.  In- 
structions have  been  issued  to  cover 
the  proper  distribution  of  these 
amounts,  and  the  proper  manner  in 
which  to  make  remittances  of  the  pro- 
ceeds from  sale  or  refused,  unclaimed, 
astray  and  damaged  freight,  but  a 
word  of  explanation  will  probably  be 
beneficial. 

In  all  cases  where  freight  is  astray 
or  in  damaged  condition,  and  it  be- 
comes necessary  for  us  to  dispose  of 
such  freight,  the  freight  charges  have 
not  been  earned,  for  in  earning  freight 
charges  it  is  necessary  to  transport  the 
shipment  properly  to  the  agreed  des- 
tination. It  is  therefore  not  proper  to 
deduct  freight  and  other  charges  from 
the  proceeds  derived  from  sale  of  such 
astray  or  damaged  freight,  since  we 
are  going  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  for 
the  value  of  such  shipments,  and  the 
divisions  at  fault  charged  as  operat- 
ing expenses  with  the  amount  of  this 
payment.  It  is  necessary  and  proper 
to  credit  this  same  operating  expense 
with  the  entire  amount  received 
from  the  sale.  Relief  claim  should 
then  be  filed  for  the  accumulated 
charges  against  these  shipments  so 
that  the  "freight  revenue  account" 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


75 


might  not  erroneously  contain  a 
credit  for  a  shipment  on  which  the 
transportation  was  irregular.  In  cases 
where  shipmints  are  refused  or  un- 
claimed for  any  reason  other  than 
the  condition  brought  about  through 
negligence  of  the  carrier,  the  accumu- 
lated charges  against  these  shipments 
have  been  properly  earned  and  must 
be  deducted  from  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale  of  such  shipment  if  it  is  necessary 
as  a  final  expedient  to  dispose  of  the 
shipment  for  the  account  of  whom  it 
may  concern. 

The  initial  step  necessary  for  the  in- 
telligent handling  of  any  shipments  as 
above  described,  is  the  reporting  by 
the  destination  agent,  which  informs  us 
that  the  shipment  is  on  hand  undeliv- 
ered. The  one  person  on  the  railroad 
who  is  best  acquainted  with  all  of  the 
conditions  surrounding  any  particular 
shipment  is  the  destination  agent,  with 
whom  the  shipment  is  in  charge.  These 
conditions  alone  must  be  carefully 
weighed  before  an  intelligent  conclu- 
sion can  be  arrived  at  as  regards  dis- 
posing of  the  shipment.  This  agent, 
therefore,  in  reporting  a  case  to  this 
office  should  acquaint  us  with  all  of 
these  conditions,  and  offer  his  sugges- 
tions in  every  case,  giving  his  reason 
for  such  suggestions,  and  instead  of 
feeling  that  in  reporting  on  our  regu- 
lar form  certain  shipments  on  hand, 
that  his  duties  have  been  fulfilled,  he 
should  emphasize  the  particular  con- 


ditions surrounding  this  shipment,  and 
make  a  suggestion  as  to  what  he  feels 
should  be  done  under  the  circum- 
stances. .  Ofttimes  an  agent  will  wire 
or  write  us  that  a  certain  damaged 
shipment  has  been  refused  owing  to  its 
condition,  but  that  a  certain  proposi- 
tion has  been  presented  to  him  by  the 
consignee,  and  concludes  by  stating 
that  he  would  like  to  be  advised  imme- 
diately whether  the  proposition  will  be 
accepted  or  rejected.  This  invariably 
necessitates  a  presumption  on  our  part 
that  would  not  have  to  be  so  pro- 
nounced if  the  agent  would  add  his 
suggestions,  and  how  arrived  at.  We 
are  always  glad  and  willing  to  assist 
whenever  and  in  any  manner  possible, 
but  we  want  a  feeling  to  exist  among 
all  employes  that  their  duties  have  not 
ceased  until  the  company's  interests 
have  been  fully  protected,  and  very 
often  a  few  suggestions  from  the 
agent  or  employe  in  connection  with 
some  particular  shipment  with  which 
he  is  best  familiarized  often  results  in 
a  large  saving  to  these  interests.  Let 
it  be  understood  why  a  report  is  neces- 
sary, of  what  use  it  is  made  and  the 
ultimate  effect  of  the  manner  in  which 
it  is  made  and  followed  up,  and  if  at 
any  time  there  are  local  conditions 
that  seem  to  warrant  a  deviation  from 
any  of  the  rules  pertaining  to  these 
suggestions  it  is  not  only  the  privilege 
but  the  duty  of  the  employe  to  ac- 
quaint us  with  such  conditions. 


By  John  J.  Enright 


A  S  autumn  waned  we  planned  for 
^^  winter — of  the  things  we  were  go- 
ing to  do.  We  felt  that  the  gray  days 
and  frosty  nights  would  keep  us  in- 
doors, and  we  hugged  ourselves  with 
delight  at  the  thought  of  the  hours  of 
study  and  self  improvement  which  we 
would  indulge  in. 

In  imagination  we  felt  the  steam  bub- 
bling in  the  radiators,  we  saw  ourselves 
the  table  on  which  lay  our  books  and 
slippered  and  jacketed  sitting  beside 
our  pipe,  with  the  rose  shaded  lamp 
casting  its  glow  over  all ;  giving  a 
touch  of  coziness  that  added  to  the 
charm  of  the  mental  picture. 

We  felt  that  the  germs  of  the  natur- 
alist, the  philosopher,  the  artist  or  the 
poet  which  were  beginning  to  develop 
within  us  when  we  left  college  were 
not  wholly  dead,  and  that  this  winter 
would  find  us  resurrecting  and  study- 
ing a  particular  taste  from  the  long  ago. 

Now  that  the  winter  is  nearly  over  is 
it  not  time  we  examined  our  con- 
sciences carefully,  and  made  a  profit 
and  loss  account  of  the  hours  that  have 
gone? 

With  most  of  us,  all  the  entries 
would  be  on  the  debit  side,  yet,  with 
that  as  an  example  before  our  minds, 
we  still  keep  on  planning  the  great 
deeds  we  will  do  in  the  future ;  always 
gliding  swiftly  and  inattentively  over 
the  glorious  present. 

Soon  the  wonderful  thought  of  spring 
will  have  us  in  its  toils.  The  lure  of 
the  open  and  the  call  of  the  green  grass 
will  rush  upon  us  and  fill  us  with  new 
fancies,  new  hopes  and  new  aspirations. 

The  tang  in  the  spring  air  is  a  har- 
binger of  fresh  life  and  ambitions,  and 
from  the  pleasant  feeling  of  physical 
well-being  we  again  revolve  over  and 
over  in  our  minds  the  marvelous  things 
we  are  "going  to  do." 

Few  of  us  are  doing  the  biggest  thing 


we  are  capable  of  doing.  When  our 
moments  of  inspiration  come  instead  of 
gritting  our  teeth,  and  buckling  our  ar- 
mour we  put  off  the  doing  until  we 
have  more  time.  Our  lazy  mental 
quirks  won't  allow  us  to  cope  with 
our  purpose  at  the  present,  and  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  we  make  to  ourselves 
the  excuse  that  later  on  we  will  have 
more  time  to  tackle  the  problem. 

Outside  of  our  business  we  have  a 
craving  for  some  particular  knowledge, 
but  as  the  word  "time"  is  a  bugbear  to 
the  majority  of  us  we  tuck  away  our 
craving  in  some  dusty  part  of  our  cra- 
niums  until  we  have  the  time  to  give 
to  it;  foolishly  and  unreasoningly  not 
recognizing  the  fact  that  we  never  will 
have  any  more  time  than  we  have  at  the 
present. 

The  beginning  of  anything  is  the  most 
difficult,  but  once  the  start  is  made, 
when  we  are  absorbed  in  the  joy  and 
pleasure  of  our  study,  it  is  a  demon- 
strated fact  that  we  can  always  find 
time  to  give  to  it. 

The  late  John  Muir,  the  famous 
author  and  naturalist,  said  "Longest  is 
the  life  that  contains  the  largest 
amount  of  time-effacing  enjoyment;  of 
work  that  is  a  steady  delight." 

Then  are  we  not  spendthrifts  of  our 
time  and  happiness  if  we  have  not  an 
additional  pleasure  and  zest  to  that 
which  we  derive  from  our  business? 

It  is  a  duty  we  owe  to  ourselves  to 
keep  up  our  own  mental  development 
in  any  and  every  path  wherein  our  im- 
agination and  our  craving  leads  us. 

Most  of  us  know  that  we  are  fritter- 
ing away  our  time,  and  when  we  think 
it  over  calmly,  the  perpetual  protest 
within  us  against  this  waste  makes  us 
shamefaced,  and  again  the  resolution  is 
made  that  we  will  begin  to  do  things — 
perhaps  to-morrow  or  the  day  after — 
when  we  have  time. 


76 


.Individual  i  Efficiency 

By  C.  C.  Cameron,  General  Freight  Agent,  Chicago 


TN    these    columns    there    has    been 

shown  from  time  to  time  data  re- 
lating to  the  geography,  people  and 
products  of  the  country  served  by  our 
road,  and  information  as  to  the  supe- 
rior facilities  of  the  Company  for  serv- 
ice. Suggestions  have  appeared  as  to 
how  traffifc  may  be  developed  and  the 
average  haul  increased;  as  to  econo- 
mies that  might  be  practiced  and  the 
courtesy  that  is  due  the  public. 

In  brief,  there  have  been  brought  in 
review  the  resources  of  the  country, 
the  possibilities  of  the  Company  and 
the  opportunity  of  the  organization  to 
realize  on  its  obligation. 

The  control  and  direction  of  the  or- 
ganization are  in  the  hands  of  the 
Company's  officers  and  theirs  is  the 
responsibility  of  supervising  any  sys- 
tematizing the  activities  of  the  forces. 

Without  intelligent  management,  no 
organization  is  successful  but  with  such 
management  as  we  know  we  have,  it 
remains,  nevertheless  true,  that  no 
small  part  of  the  effectiveness  of  the 
organization  depends  upon  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  individual. 

Efficiency  is  largely  an  achievement, 
and  all  of  us  may  aspire  to  it,  and  with 
such  measure  of  success  as  we  will. 

In  other  words,  each  of  us,  has  in 
his  or  her  own  position,  the  opportun- 
ity to  contribute  to  the  success  of  the 
Company,  to  the  extent  that  individual 
efficiency  is  developed. 

Efficiency  finds  one  of  its  best  meth- 


ods of  expression,  in  co-operation  with 
other  individuals  not  only  in  the  same 
branch  of  the  service,  but  in  other 
branches  as  well,  and  all  branches  are 
more  or  less  related. 

In  the  Chicago  General  Freight 
Office,  while  we  make  no  claim  to  per- 
fection, we  feel  that  steady  progress  is 
being  made  in  individual  and  office 
efficiency,  with  consequent  benefit  to 
those  other  offices  depending  upon  the 
General  Freight  Office  for  authority, 
information  and  instruction.  . 

While  circumscribed  by  Federal  and 
State  Laws  in  the  method  of  construct- 
ing and  distributing  tariffs,  we  are  ac- 
complishing something  in  the  way  of 
simplifying  and  consolidating  our  own 
issues,  and  our  influence  is  constantly 
at  work  to  bring  about  the  use  of 
Agency  or  so  called  common  tariffs. 

As  the  opportunity  is  afforded,  divi- 
sion sheets  are  likewise  consolidated 
and  simplified. 

A  relatively  high  state  of  efficiency 
has"  been  acquired  in  the  prompt  and 
correct  quotation  of  rates  to  agents  and 
the  public  and  in  furnishing  informa- 
tion to  outside  offices. 

The  effort  is  constant  to  reach  con- 
clusions with  the  minimum  of  corres- 
pondence and  supervision  is  exercised 
over  all  letters  and  telegrams. 

While  we  still  have  room  for  im- 
provement a  great  deal  of  what  has 
been  accomplished  has  been  owing  to 
the  application  of  individual  efficiency. 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Making  Friends  of  the  Farmer 

G.  B.  James,  Train  Master,  Louisville  District 


'"PHERE  has  been  a  great  deal  writ- 
ten  by  Transportation  officials  con- 
cerning increase  in  ton  miles,  decrease 
in  train  miles,  fuel  economy,  and  other 
matters  connected  with  train  operation 
and  reduction  of  expenses.  We  all 
know  that  the  cost  of  transportation  is 
being  checked  daily  and  monthly  and 
comparisons  made  with  previous  years, 
but  we  have  been  so  absorbed  with  these 
subjects  that  other  things  which  vitally 
affect  the  welfare  of  railroads  have 
been  overlooked.  One  of  these  is  the 
attitude  of  farmers  toward  railroads, 
and  what  can  be  done  to  break  down 
this  prejudice  and  unkindly  feeling. 
The  first  agitation  favoring  government 
control  and  regulation  started  among 
farmers  of  the  Middle  West,  and  if  this 
one  class  of  people  has  the  power  and 
influence  to  originate  a  movement  which 
has  resulted  so  disastrously  to  the  rail- 
roads, it  is  certainly  worth  our  while  to 
cultivate  their  friendship. 

Making  friends  of  the  farmer  has 
proved  by  experience  no  small  affair, 
but  where  success  along  this  line  has 
been  gained,  it  has  always  resulted  ad- 
vantageously. I  recall  an  instance  where 
a  farmer  put  in  his  lawyer's  hands  for 
collection  a  claim  of  $118.00  based  on 
our  failure  to  furnish  cars  when  wanted 
for  loading  logs  which  he  had  stored  at 
one  of  our  stations  for  shipment.  This 
claim  looked  like  it  would  result  in  a 
law  suit  which  we  would  no  doubt  lose. 
One  spring  day  I  went  to  see  this  farmer 
and  talked  to  him  about  his  claim.  I 
told  him  that  if  he  could  show  us  that 
the  Company  owed  him  the  money  it 


would  be  paid.  We  talked  over  the  mat- 
ter quite  a  while,  and  then  he  showed 
me  his  barns,  stock  and  garden.  He  be- 
came very  friendly,  and  we  discussed 
several  subjects,  including  operation  of 
the  railroad,  duties  of  the  officials  and 
trainmen,  and  the  expenditures  neces- 
sary to  carry  on  the  business,  all  of 
which  interested  him.  When  I  left  he 
invited  me  to  visit  him  again,  telling  me 
that  he  had  a  very  different  opinion  of 
the  railroad,  and  agreed  to  settle  his 
claim  for  $18.00.  I  again  assured  him 
that  if  it  was  just,  it  would  be  settled, 
but  we  never  again  heard  from  his 
lawyer. 

Every  farmer  living  along  our  line 
is  a  prospective  juror  who  may  some  day 
hear  the  evidence  in  a  damage  suit 
against  the  Company.  He  no  doubt 
knows  the  man  who  has  instituted  the 
suit,  but  if  you  have  made  him  a  friend 
of  the  railroad,  he  will  render  a  verdict 
in  accordance  with  the  testimony  sub- 
mitted, and  not  be  governed  by  preju- 
dice. When  passing  over  the  line  on 
motor  car  inspection  trips,  I  never  fail 
to  wave  my  hand  to  the  farmer  at  work 
in  his  field,  and  when  time  and  oppor- 
tunity permit,  shake  his  hand  across  the 
fence,  and  in  doing  this  I  feel  that  I  am 
making  a  friend  of  a  juryman  in  our 
courts.  I  am  sure  that  farmers  are 
sometimes  unreasonable  in  asking  for 
drainage,  and  it  devolves  upon  the 
Division  officials  to  convince  him  that 
he  is  wrong,  but  it  will  be  a  difficult  mat- 
ter if  you  have  not  first  made  a  friend 
of  him.  We  have  had  considerable  suc- 
cess in  our  campaign  to  prevent  the  kill- 


78 


79 


ing  of  live  stock  on  the  right-of-way, 
but  when  we  approach  the  farmer  who 
owns  the  stock  and  persuade  him  to  con- 
fine it  in  his  pastures  or  dispose  of  it,  our 
campaign  will  be  ended.  It  has  been 
the  custom  at  several  points  on  the 
Louisville  District  for  children  to  use 
the  right-of-way  in  walking  to  and  from 
school,  but  by  enlisting  the  co-operation 
of  teachers  and  principals,  and  in  many 
cases  parents  of  the  children,  we  are 
fast  breaking  up  the  practice. 


If  the  Division  officials  will  attend  the 
County  fairs,  Farmers'  Institutes,  and 
other  public  gatherings,  mingle  with  the 
farmers  and  their  families,  and  give 
every  farmer  he  meets  a  friendly  greet- 
ing, it  will  create  a  more  cordial  feeling 
among  our  patrons,  and  tend  to  overcome 
a  prejudice  which  has  long  existed. 
When  this  is  done,  it  will  give  the  rail- 
road a  friend  which  has  long  been 
needed. 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company — The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 

Mail,  Baggage,  Express  and  Milk  Traffic  Department 

H.  L.  Fairfield,  Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic.      J.  A.  Osborn,   General 
Agent— Chicago,  111.,  March  1,  1916 

INFORMATION  AND  INSTRUCTION  BULLETIN  NO.  5 


Carelessness  in  Piling  Baggage 
27. — We  find  that  a  considerable 
number  of  lamps  in  the  baggage  cars 
are  broken  by  being  struck  by  trunks 
in  stacking  the  baggage  in  the  cars. 
In  throwing  trunks  into  the  top  tier, 
train  baggagemen  should  be  very  care- 
ful to  avoid  striking  and  breaking 
lamps  in  the  cars. 

Loss  of  Revenue  From  Failure  to 

Weigh  Baggage 

28.— In  our  Bulletin  No.  2,  dated 
January  1,  we  called  attention  to  the 
importance  of  weighing  baggage.  We 
have  now  under  investigation  three 
cases  where  certain  traveling  men  have 
succeeded  in  getting  from  200  to  300 
pounds  of  excess  baggage  over  the  road 
for  as  many  as  five  or  six  consecutive 
movements  without  paying  for  it.  In 
one  case  an  agent  failed  to  weigh  the 
baggage,  which  carried  900  pounds  ex- 
cess weight,  but  checked  it  on  the  own- 
er's statement  that  he  had  700  pounds 
excess,  and  the  next  five  or  six  agents 
did  the  same  thing.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  see  that  an  occasional  case  of  this 
kind  over  the  entire  system  through- 


out the  year  means  a  large  loss  of  rev- 
enue, and  agents  are  again  urged  to 
see  that  baggage  is  properly  weighed 
and  that  all  charges  due  for  excess 
weight  are  collected. 
Failure  to  Make  Bad  Order  Records 

29. — In  Bulletin  No.  1  dated  Decem- 
ber 1,  1915,  attention  was  called  to  fre- 
quent failures  on  the  part  of  the  agents 
and  train  baggagemen  to  make  the 
proper  records  of  bad  order  baggage. 
We  have  since  been  obliged  to  investi- 
gate and  pay  a  number  of  claims  for 
damaged  baggage  which,  according  to 
our  own  records,  was  checked  in  good 
order  but  reached  destination  in  bad 
order.  In  many  such  cases  only  part 
of  the  employes  handling  the  baggage 
made  any  bad  order  record,  while  those 
who  showed  the  baggage  in  bad  order 
were  unable  to  give  any  information 
as  to  how  the  damage  occurred.  In  a 
considerable  percentage  of  such  cases 
we  are  satisfied  that  no  actual  dam- 
age occurred  while  the  baggage  was 
in  our  possession,  but  through  failure 
of  our  employes  to  inspect  baggage 
and  make  the  proper  notations  of  bad 


80 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


order  our  own  records  were  against  us 
and  we  were  obliged  to  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility. Any  employe  handling 
a  piece  of  baggage  should  know  its 
condition  and  make  proper  record  of 
it  for  his  own  protection  if  not  in  the 
company's  interest,  and  we  hope  to  see 
a  marked  improvement  in  this  respect 
at  once. 

Some  Items  About  Excess  Baggage 

30. — In  preparing  data  for  a  baggage 
rate  case  now  pending  before  one  of 
the  states  commissions,  the  intrastate 
excess  baggage  business  in  the  state  in- 
volved for  an  entire  month  was  care- 
fully reviewed,  as  well  as  all  intrastate 
excess  baggage  business  at  ten  selected 
stations  for  a  period  of  ten  days.  Some 
of  the  information  developed,  which 
may  be  of  interest  to  employes,  fol- 
lows: 

The  average  revenue  per  piece  re- 
ceived by  the  comoany  for  handling 
excess  baggage  is  23.7  cents. 

The  net  revenue  received  by  the 
company  for  handling  5230  movements 
of  excess  baggage  was  $184.82  less 
than  it  would  have  cost  to  move  the 
same  baggage  by  freight. 

The  average  weight  of  baggaee 
checked  by  all  passengers  is  6.79 


pounds  per  passenger.  The  average 
weight  of  baggage  checked  by  passen- 
gers who  check  personal  baggage  is 
78.5  pounds  per  passenger.  The  aver- 
age weight  checked,  by  passengers  who 
check  sample  baggage  is  248  pounds 
per  passenger. 

Approximately  75  per  cent  of  all  ex- 
cess baggage  movements  are  handled 
under  the  15  cents  minimum  rate. 
Loss  of  Dogs 

31. — A  number  of  dogs  have  recent- 
ly been  lost  wnile  in  possession  of  the 
company,  some  of  which  appear  to 
have  been  quite  valuable  according  to 
the  claims  presented  by  the  owners. 
In  most  cases  the  losses  have  occurred 
by  the  dogs  slipping  their  heads 
through  collars  or  breaking  light 
string,  with  which  they  were  tied. 
Agents  and  train  baggagemen  to  whom 
dogs  are  presented  for  transportation, 
before  accepting  them  should  carefully 
examine  the  equipment  with  which 
they  are  secured,  and  if  the  collar  ap- 
pears to  be  too  loose  or  the  leash  con- 
sists of  string  or  cord  that  can  be  easi- 
lv  broken,  they  should  be  rejected  until 
the  owners  have  securely  equipped 
them  with  properly  fitting  collars  and 
strong  leashes. 


Several  months  ago  one  of  our  promi- 
nent agents  made  a  requisition  for  a  clock 
for  his  office.  The  clock  not  being  re- 
ceived he  appeals  to  the  superintendent 
in  the  following  lines  : 

The  Mute's  Appeal 

For  sixty  grim  years  mid'st  sunshine  and 
tears, 

I  have  patiently  vended  the  time 
For  those  who  are  yet  upon  Mother  Earth 

And  those  in  the  other  clime- 
Alas  !  how  sad,  yet  sorrowfully  true 
I  have  ticked  my  last  tock  for  you. 

Paralysis  has  gripped  me  in  its  clutches 

of  death 

'Till  my  vitals  all  rattle  and  creak, 
And  the  time  that  I  would  in  pure  Eng- 
lish give 


Must  needs  be  given  in  Greek. 
However  reluctant  to  yield  up  the  ghost 
It  was  never  the  fault  of  my  host ; 
He  has  twisted  my  motor  when  vitality 

was  low 
And  scrubbed  me  and  oiled  me,  when  I 

was  slow. 

But  I  appeal  to  you  now  as  never  before 
To  cease  the  mad  laughter  and  jeers, 

And  replace  me  by  one  who  is  shining 

and  bright 
And  one  not  given  to  tears. 

Then  lay  me  along  side  the  old  down  and 

outs 

Where  fate  has  decreed  that  I  be, 
And  do  unto  him  as  you  would  have  him 

do 
And  worry  no  more  about  me. 


ENG-I  NEE-PI  NG- 


DEPflRTMENT 


The  History  and  Growth  off  a  Water  Station 

C.  R.  Knowles,  General  Foreman  Waterwork 


A  compilation  of  the  figures  showing1 
the  consumption  of  water  at  Centralia, 
Illinois,  for  the  past  twenty-three  years, 
from  1893  to  1915  inclusive,  brings  to 
mind  the  enormous  increase  in  the  con- 
sumption of  water  on  railroads  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 

These  figures  would  indicate  that  the 
consumption  of  water  is  practically 
doubled  every  ten  years.  The  con- 
sumption of  water  at  Centralia  in  1895, 
was  72,000,000  gallons  per  year,  while 
in  1905  the  annual  consumption  had  in- 
creased to  141,404,000  gallons.  In  1915 
the  consumption  was  238,630,000  gal- 
lons. It  may  be  said  in  passing  that 
the  consumption  in  1915  was  42,000,000 
gallons  less  than  that  of  1914,  due  chief- 
ly to  a  campaign  against  water  waste. 
Had  no  effort  been  made  toward  the 
elimination  of  water  waste  the  con- 
sumption in  1915  would  have  been  fully 
double  that  of  1905.  While  these  fig- 
ures as  to  the  rate  of  increase  may  not 
apply  to  outlying  stations  they  would 
certainly  appear  to  apply  to  many  wa- 
ter stations  at  main  line  terminals. 

An  interesting  feature  of  these  fig- 
ures is,  that  they  are  not  based  on  esti- 
mated quantities,  but  are  taken  from 
actual  meter  readings  throughout  the 
entire  period. 

At  Centralia  is  one  of  the  first  wa- 
ter stations  constructed  on  the  Illinois 
Central,  a  brief  history  may  be  of  in- 
terest. 

The  first  water  supply  at  Centralia 
was  secured  from  a  small  creek  known 
as  Shop  Creek  just  south  of  where  the 
old  shops  were  located.  The  supply 
of  water  from  this  creek  was  very 


limited  and  barely  sufficient  for  the 
few  engines  running  into  Centralia  at 
the  time  the  road  was  constructed  in 
1852.  The  Illinois  Central  owned  but 
few  engines  in  1852,  the  largest  of 
which  had  cylinders  13^x22  inches  and 
it  may  be  assumed  that  the  demand  on 
the  Centralia  wrater  station  during  its 
infancy  was  not  very  heavy.  The  addi- 
tions to  the  motive  power  were  very 
rapid  during  the  first  few  years  after 
the  road  was  built  and  the  question  of 
water  supply  was  of  relative  impor- 
tance as  the  power  was  increased.  The 
demand  for  water  soon  outgrew  the 
supply  from  the  creek  and  a  water  sta- 
tion was  established  about  two  miles 
north  of  Centralia  in  the  early  part  of 
1855.  This  station  was  near  Central 
City,  where  it  was  first  intended  to  lo- 
cate the  shops.  The  water  was  secured 
from  a  stream  which  crosses  the  right 
of  way  at  this  point.  This  stream  chose 
such  a  tortuous  winding  course  that 
there  appeared  to  be  no  name  that 
could  be  applied  to  it  more  appropriate 
than  Crooked  Creek,  and  so  it  was 
named.  The  supply  was  apparently 
ample  for  several  such  stations  as  was 
constructed  at  that  time  and  as  the 
country  was  very  sparsely  settled  there 
was  but  little  contamination  and  the 
quality  of  the  water  was  fairly  good,  or 
at  least  if  it  was  not  good  no  one  was 
the  wiser,  as  a  chemical  or  sanitary 
analysis  was  unknown  to  railway  wa- 
ter supply  at  that  time. 

This  pumping  station  was  operated 
by  horse  power,  the  first  pump  installed 
at  Crooked  Creek  being  operated  by 
one  horse,  while  later  as  the  consump- 


81 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tion  increased  a  tread  mill  horse  povve 
was  installed.  This  tread  mill  was 
operated  by  two  horses,  or  properly 
speaking  two  mules,  as  mules  were 
used  to  furnish  power  until  the  first 
steam  plant  was  erected  about  1858. 
During-  flood  periods  it  was  impossible 
to  operate  the  horse  power  and  an  aux- 
ilary  tank  and  hand  pumps  were  lo- 
cated above  high  water  and  used  when 
the  stream  was  high.  The  tanks  were 
located  at  the  Crooked  Creek  station 
it  was  necessary  to  bring  the  engines 
out  from  Centralia  for%vater.  The  wa- 
ter supply  for  the  shops  at  Centralia 
was  secured  from  a  well  in  the  round- 
house. This  well  was  12  ft.  in  diam- 
eter and  40  ft.  deep.  Locomotives  were 
also  supplied  from  this  well  when  the 
supply  was  low  at  Crooked  Creek. 
This  well  was  dug  in  1855  and  was  used 
for  drinking  water  and  shop  supply  for 
over  forty  years. 

A  well  was  drilled  at  the  shops  in 
1857  to  a  depth  of  1,500  feet  in  an  effort 
to  secure  artesian  water,  but  with  no 
success.  This  well  was  eight  inches 
in  diameter  at  the  top  and  was  cased 
with  copper  casing. 

In  1859  the  consumption  of  water 
had  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
was  found  necessary  to  build  a  dam 
across  Crooked  Creek,  forming  a  reser- 
voir for  the  storage  of  water  during  the 
dry  seasons.  This  dam  was  rebuilt  and 
made  permanent  two  years  later  in 
1861,  also  at  this  time  a  300,000  gallon 
reservoir  was  constructed  at  the  shops 
and  walled  with  stone  and  the  water 
station  enlarged  and  rebuilt  throughout 
including  2*4  miles  of  4  inch  cast  iron 
pipe  for  conveying  the  water  from 
Crooked  Creek  to  the  Shops. 

Another  effort  was  made  to  secure 
a  more  convenient  and  satisfactory  wa- 
ter supply  in  the  vicinity  of  the  shops 
in  1861  when  a  well  was  sunk  at  what 
is  now  227  Elm  Street.  This  well  was 
of  unique  construction.  It  was  8  feet 
square  and  50  feet  deep.  Galleries  were 
run  out  50  feet  on  each  of  the  four 
sides  of  the  shaft.  This  well  did  not 
meet  expectations,  as  it  afforded  only 
a  limited  supply.  A  small  tank  was 


erected  near  the  well  and  such  water 
as  it  furnished  was  used  for  local  pur- 
poses. It  was  after  the  failure  to  se- 
cure an  adequate  water  supply  from 
this  well  that  the  pipe  line  was  laid 
from  Crooked  Creek  to  the  shops. 

The  pumping  station  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1865  and  a  new  brick  pump 
house  and  40  feet  brick  stack  construct- 
ed. A  Weldon  pump  built  at  the  old 
Weldon  Shops,  Chicago  was  installed 
and  two  40,000  gallon  tanks  erected.  A 
year  later  a  second  Weldon  pump  was 
installed,  a  large  intake  sump  con- 
structed at  the  river  and  new  suction 
lines  laid. 

The  four  inch  pipe  became  inade- 
quate for  the  supply  in  1867.  It  was 
found  heavily  incrusted  and  was 
cleaned  and  part  of  the  line  relaid 
with  cleanout  boxes  every  100  feet,  this 
proved  only  a  temporary  relief  and 
5,000  feet  of  the  four  inch  pipe  was 
taken  up  and  relaid  with  eight  inch 
pipe  in  1868.  This  pipe  is  cast  iron 
and  is  still  in  service  after  being  in  the 
ground  forty-eight  years. 

The  history  of  the  station  for  the 
next  few  years  is  incomplete,  but  it 
seems  that  the  old  Weldon  pumps  re- 
mained in  service  until  the  early  80's 
when  more  modern  pumping  machin- 
ery was  installed. 

The  pumping  equipment  in  1885  con- 
sisted of  a  locomotive  boiler  from  one 
of  the  earlier  engines  and  2-14x7x10 
Worthington  Duplex  pumps.  The  wa- 
ter wras  pumped  through  12,240  feet  of 
pipe  5,500  feet  of  the  pipe  being  8 
inches  and  6,740  feet  of  6  inch  pipe. 
There  were  two  tanks  a  12x12  tank  at 
the  North  (then  known  as  the  New 
Yard)  and  a  16x22  foot  tank  at  the 
shops.  The  overflow  from  the  tank  at 
the  shops  was  piped  to  the  reservoir. 
Another  pump  at  the  shops  pumped 
water  from  this  reservoir  for  washing 
boilers  and  for  fire  protection. 

In  1891  a  contract  was  executed  with 
the  Citv  of  Centralia  covering  the  joint 
use  of  Crooked  Creek  reservoir,  but  the 
records  do  not  show  that  the  City 
pumped  from  this  reservoir  until  1893, 
when  the  Company  leased  the  reservoir 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


83 


and  pumping  plant  to  the  City.  The 
consumption  of  water  by  the  City  and 
railroad  outgrew  the  pumping  equip- 
ment in  1903  when  the  City  constructed 
their  own  plant. 

It  was  apparent  shortly  after  this 
that  Crooked  Creek  was  becoming  in- 
adequate to  the  demand.  Also  the 
creek  had  acquired  a  reputation  for 
pollution  that  appeared  to  justify  the 
name  of  "Crooked."  For  the  next  few 
years  the  creek  threatened  to  go  out  of 
business  as  a  water  course  and  finally 
made  good  the  threat  in  1908  when  the 
City  was  practically  out  of  water  for 
over  three  months. 

The  shortage  of  water  caused  an 
enormous  amount  of  trouble  and  ex- 
pense to  the  Railroad  Company.  A 
temporary  station  was  established  at 
a  small  artificial  lake  about  two  miles 
south  of  Centralia  where  the  present 
shops  and  hump  yard  are  located. 
While  this  afforded  temporary  relief 
it  was  soon  realized  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  look  to  another  supply  if  the 
drought  continued.  Accordingly  an 
additional  pump  and  boiler  was  in- 
stalled at  the  Little  Muddy  water  sta- 
tion 20  miles  south  of  Centralia  and  a 
temporary  station  established  at  Grand 
Tower  81  miles  south  of  Centralia  and 
we  began  hauling  water  in  earnest. 
Regular  crews  were  assigned  to  the 
water  trains,  which  consisted  of  twenty 
large  tank  cars  with  a  capacity  each  of 
from  8,000  to  10,000  gallons,  each  train 
hauling  about  2,000  gallons  of  wa- 
ter. In  spite  of  the  most  rigid  econ- 
omy it  required  at  least  two  trains  a 
day  to  keep  up  the  supply.  The  un- 
loading tracks  were  converted  into  wa- 
tertight troughs  and  additional  troughs 
laid  to  a  reservoir  and  the  water  re- 
pumped  to  the  tank. 

Appreciating  the  danger  of  a  whole- 
sale conflagration,  with  the  City  prac- 
tically out  of  water,  emergency  fire 
pumps  were  connected  up  so  that  fire 
pressure  could  be  obtained.  These  fire 
pumps  were  so  connected  that  it  was 
possible  to  pump  into  the  City  mains 
as  well  as  the  Railroad  Company's 
mains,  affording  protection  to  the  City 


as  well  as  the  shops.  Fortunately  no 
serious  fires  occurred,  but  the  citizens 
of  Centralia,  as  well  as  the  local  officers 
breathed  easier  for  the  presence  of  the 
pumps. 

It  was  necessary  to  haul  water  from 
October  30,  1908,  until  February  6? 
1909,  during  which  time  4,450  cars  of 
water  were  handled  at  a  cost  of  $16,- 
993.41. 

The  total  failure  of  the  water  sup- 
ply brought  the  citizens  of  Centralia 
to  their  feet,  figuratively  speaking,  and 
in  the  summer  of  1909  a  committee  of 
seven  was  appointed  and  given  au- 
thority to  devise  and  carry  into  execu- 
tion plans  to  provide  an  adequate  wa- 
ter supply.  The  Illinois  Central  gave 
this  committee  full  support  by  agree- 
ing to  a  substantial  increase  in  water 
rates,  which  practically  guaranteed  the 
success  of  the  undertaking.  A  bond 
issue  of  $50,000  was  voted.  These 
bonds  were  taken  by  the  local  banks 
and  the  remainder  of  the  $158,000 
which  represented  the  cost  of  the  new 
reservoir  and  pumping  station  was 
guaranteed  by  citizens  of  Centralia. 

The  new  reservoir  was  formed  by 
constructing  a  660  foot  dam  across  a 
valley  about  eight  miles  east  and  up- 
stream from  the  Crooked  Creek  pump- 
ing station.  The  submerged  area  is 
approximately  250  acres  and  the  water- 
shed is  about  8  square  miles.  The  ca- 
pacity of  the  reservoir  is  nearly  a  bil- 
lion gallons.  The  water  flows  by  grav- 
ity through  a  20  inch  wood  stave  main 
to  the  pumping  station,  which  is  locat- 
ed near  the  original  site  of  the  Crooked 
Creek  station. 

This  proved  to  be  a  timely  move  on 
the  part  of  Centralia,  as  when  the  new 
mechanical  facilities  were  constructed 
two  miles  south  of  Centralia  the  con- 
sumption of  water  increased  from  164,- 
427,000  gallons  in  1911  to  236,021,000 
gallons  in  1912.  If  something  had  not 
been  done  by  the  City  it  would  have 
been  necessary  for  the  Railroad  Com- 
pany to  have  established  their  own  wa- 
ter station  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  City 
could  have  handled  such  a  big  propo- 
sition without  the  help  of  the  railroad. 


Hew  to 


It  is  not  trie  Science  dr  curing  Disease  so  much  as  trie  prevention  or  it 
tnat  produces  trie  Neatest  ^x>d  io  Humanity.  One  of  trie  most  important 
duties  of  a  Health  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 
*  *  *  A  *  teaching  people  now  to  live  *  *  A  A  A 

The  Prevalence  and  Prevention  of  Malaria 


jV/f  ALARIA  as  a  disease  is  known  to 
nearly  all  the  readers  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central  Magazine.  In  fact,  it  is 
so  well  known  and  so  common,  espe- 
cially in  the  territory  south  of  the 
Ohio  River,  that  it  is  sometimes  diffi- 
cult to  obtain  very  much  interest  in  a 
discussion  of  the  disease.  People  who 
come  in  such  familiar  and  daily  contact 
with  any  condition  soon  learn  to  have  a 
tolerant  and  neglectful  attitude  to- 
wards it  and  appear  to  be  simply  sat- 
isfied to  go  along  with  that  condition 
and  accept  it  as  a  matter  of  course. 
However,  to  a  person  who  has  lived 
in  a  territory  which  is  free  from  Ma- 
laria and  then  comes  in  contact  with 
people  living  in  a  Malarial  district,  to 
them  is  emphasized  the  importance  of 
making  desperate  efforts  to  eradicate 
this  deadly  disease;  deadly  so  much 
not  in  point  of  producing  death,  but 
deadly  to  the  efficiency  and  the  happi- 
ness of  the  individual  sufferer. 

It  is  hoped  that  by  giving  some 
attention  to  this  disease  in  the  Maga- 
zine that  we  shall  be  able  to  educate 
at  least  a  portion  of  our  readers  who 
live  in  the  infected  territories,  and  en- 
courage them  to  wage  a  successful 
fight  against  this  disease  which  has 
been  so  important  in  the  shaping  of 
the  world's  history. 

Malaria  fell  like  a  blight  upon  an- 
cient Greece,  and  we  find  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Hypocrates  that  he  recorded 
the  degradation  and  subjugation  of 
those  people  who  inhabited  malarious 


places.  He  stated  that  those  who 
lived  in  low,  moist,  hot  districts  and 
drank  stagnant  water  suffered  from 
enlarged  spleen,  were  stunted  and  ill- 
shaped  and  dark — bilious  rather  than 
phlegmatic.  Their  nature  was  to  be 
cowardly  and  averse  to  hardship,  but 
good  discipline  and  improved  living  con- 
ditions could  improve  their  character 
in  this  respect.  How  remarkable  it  is 
that  a  picture  so  true  of  present  con- 
ditions in  malarious  districts  was 
pointed  out  by  this  early  writer,  who 
furnished  us  certain  proof  that  the 
Greeks  were  well  aware  of  the  dele- 
terious effects  of  Malaria. 

It  is  generally  known  and  univer- 
sally accepted  that  the  presence  of 
Malaria  and  resulting  conditions  is 
transmitted  by  the  Auopheles  Mosqui- 
to, and  it  is  also  generally  true  that 
malarious  regions  are  extremely  fer- 
tile, for  the  moisture  which  favors  the 
growth  of  this  particular  mosquito 
renders  the  soil  more  suitable  for  agri- 
culture. Therefore,  the  districts  in 
which  Malaria  is  most  prevalent  is  of 
the  greatest  economic  importance  be- 
cause unless  reclaimed  the  country  is 
robbed  of  its  most  precious  source  of 
wealth.  So  tempting  indeed  are  these 
fertile  swamp  lands  that  many  come 
from  more  healthful  localities,  and 
with  their  lives  in  their  hands  endeavor 
to  reclaim  the  land  which  has  been 
abandoned  by  their  predecessors. 
This  was  true  of  modern  Greece,  and 
two  hundred  years  ago  it  was  likewise 


84 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


true  of  England.  It  is  true  to-day  in 
our  own  land  in  the  South,  and  if  the 
Southern  lands  were  thoroughly  and 
scientifically  drained,  whether  by 
State  or  Federal  Laws,  or  by  individual 
endeavor,  that  land  which  is  now  deso- 
late would  bloom  with  the  finest  of 
agricultural  products  and  indeed  would 
be  a  garden  spot  of  the  world. 

Where  there  are  swamps  and 
marshes  there  must  be  Malaria,  but 
this  generalization  is  too  sweeping. 
It  is  said  that  the  ancient  Romans  were 
as  subject  to  unhealthtul  influences 
as  are  the  modern  inhabitants  of  Italy, 
but  the  former  were  saved  from  the 
worst  effects  by  the  use  of  their  thick 
woolen  togs,  which  prevented  the  bites 
of  the  insects.  As  wool  gave  way  to 
linen  and  silk  so  did  the  fever  increase. 
Many  writers  believe  that  as  the  pros- 
perity of  the  country  increases  Ma- 
laria declines.  This  no  doubt  is  true 
but  is  due  to  the  fact  that  drainage 
and  the  cultivation  of  land  tends  to 
clean  up  the  breeding  places  of  the 
mosquito.  North  boldly  declares: 
"It  is  inconceivable  that  a  civilized 
and  powerful  people  such  as  the  an- 
cient Etruscans  should  have  estab- 
lished themselves  and  built  great  cities 
in  a  country  so  fever  stricken  as  the 
northern  part  of  the  province  of 
Rome."  He  says  further:  "What  we 
do  know  is  that  their  prosperity  and 
civilization  were  quite  incompatible 
with  the  presence  among  them,  in  any 
grave  form,  of  such  an  enemy  to 
progress  and  prosperity  as  Malaria." 
The  inference  drawn  by  North  is  that 
Malaria  increased  as  prosperity  de- 
clined, being  the  cause  of  the  decay 
of  civilization. 

If  the  Greeks  of  the  great  classical 
period  were  highly  malarious  they  were 
truly  marvelous  people.  Stephanous 
believes  that  Malaria  has  much  in- 
creased since  the  middle  ages  and  is 
very  positive  as  to  the  mischief  it 
causes.  Furthermore,  he  refuses  to 
admit  that  there  were  great  endemic 
foci  in  the  majority  of  Greek  districts 
during  the  classical  times.  Other 
writers  have  attributed  the  decadence 


and  fall  of  ancient   Greece  largely  to 
Malaria. 

One  of  the  most  serious  conse- 
quences of  this  all  too  prevalent  and 
general  a  disease  is  the  bad  effects 
upon  babies  and  children,  as  well  as 
upon  those  in  their  youth.  In  the 
districts  which  are  the  greatest  affected 
'every  child  is  more  or  less  infected 
with  the  disease.  However,  because 
of  the  prevalence  of  the  disease  nature 
produces  a  partial  immunity,  which  is 
the  most  that  can  be  hoped  for,  but 
this  does  not  prevent  the  disease  and 
neither  does  it  prevent  the  infection 
being  carried  from  the  one  person  to 
another  person  by  the  same  type  of 
mosquito  which  originally  produced 
the  disease.  Aside  from  the  direct 
effect  of  endangering  the  life  of  the 
working  efficiency  of  the  individual, 
as  Hypocrates  pointed  out,  the  disease 
produces  not  only  laziness  but  cow- 
ardice. It  interferes  with  the  indi- 
vidual initiative  and  prevents  a  normal 
incentive  to  work  and  to  do  good  work. 
Excluded  from  the  Arctic  zone  Ma- 
laria appears  to  increase  in  frequency 
and  virulence  as  the  Equator  is  ap- 
proached, but  this  progression  lacks 
both  constancy  and  uniformity  and 
does  not  exactly  correspond  with  the 
Iso-thermic  lines.  In  certain  tropical 
countries  like  Australia  and  Caledonia, 
they  are  free  from  Malaria.  In  gen- 
eral, however,  the  disease  bears  a  close 
relationship  to  warm  climates  and  of 
late  years  the  highest  mortality  of  Ma- 
laria has  occurred  in  the  tropics.  In 
this  country  the  present  prevalence  of 
Malaria  (in  the  United  States  Armv) 
is  greatest  among  troops  stationed  in 
the  Southwest  and  in  the  Missis- 
sippi basin,  although  the  few  posts  on 
the  Potomac  River  are  notoriously 
malarial.  The  cleaning  up  of  Cuba 
and  the  Panama  Canal  Zone  are  two 
of  the  best  examples  of  what  can  be 
done  by  proper  drainage  and  sanitary 
measures,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  day 
is  not  far  distant  when  the  great  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  may  be  similarly  re- 
deemed from  this  insiduous  scourge  of 
humanity. 


Letters  of  Appreciation  of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Memphis,  Term.,  January  10,  1916. 

Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall, 

Chief  Surgeon,  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  Chicago,  HI. 
Dear  Doctor: 

A  very  serious  accident  happened  to  me  Nov.  17,  while  at  my  work  as 
blacksmith.  I  sustained  a  rupture  of  my  intestines. 

I  wish  to  sincerely  thank  the  Hospital  Department  at  Memphis,  for  the  skill 
and  constant  attention  that  was  given  to  me  while  confined  in  St.  Joseph's 
Hospital.  I  am  sure  that  my  life  was  saved  only  by  the  exceptional  care  and 
skill  of  the  Hospital  Department  Staff  and  was  aided  in  every  way  by  the 
most  excellent  attention  I  received  from  the  Hospital  Sisters  and  nurses. . 

I  have  been  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  for 
nearly  three  years,  and  have  had  several  occasions  to  call  on  the  Hospital  De- 
partment for  treatment  and  have  always  found  the  members  of  your  Staff 
courteous  and  willing  to  give  me  any  needed  attention. 

I  feel  it  a  great  privilege  to  work  for  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany, which  takes  great  care  of  the  welfare  of  their  employes. 

Gratefully  yours, 

M.  L.  Flowers, 
Blacksmith,  Memphis. 


McComb,  Miss.,  January  23,  1916. 

Dr.  Wm.  W.  Leake,  Asst.  Chief  Surgeon, 

I.  C.  and  Y.  &  M.  V.  Railroad  Companies, 

New  Orleans,  La. 
Dear  Doctor: 

I  desire  herewith  to  express  to  you  the  feeling  of  gratitude  that  I  have  for 
the  kind  and  courteous  treatment  received  at  Company  Hospital  in  Decem- 
ber, 1915.  I  can  truthfully  state  that  anyone  desiring  treatment  could  not  in 
my  opinion  find  any  finer  place  and  could  not  be  treated  any  nicer  at  any 
other  hospital,  whether  private  or  charitable,  than  they  will  be  treated  at  the 
Illinois  Central  Hospital  at  New  Orleans. 

I  was  operated  on  there  and  can  certainly  say  that  better  treatment  could 
not  have  been  received  either  from  the  nurses  or  doctors  in  attendance.  The 
small  amount  that  we  pay  each  month  to  the  Hospital  Department  is  the 
best  investment  that  any  employe  could  make,  regardless  of  what  may  hap- 
pen to  him. 

Thanking  the  Hospital  Department  and  its  Staff  for  the  kind  treatment 
that  I  received,  I  remain. 

Respectfully  yours, 

(Signed)  Car  Repairer  McMixom, 

McComb,  Miss. 


86 


MEMPHIS    DIVISION. 
Safety  Meeting. 


Held  at  Tutwiler,  Miss., 
Wednesday,  April  12,  1916. 


PRESENT: 

J.  J.    PELLEY,   Superintendent,   Memphis,   Tenn. 
J.   L.   DOWNS,   Roadmaster,   Memphis,   Tenn. 

A.   M.  UMSHLER,  Trainmaster,   Memphis,  Tenn. 
J.  W.  REA,  Trainmaster,  Memphis,  Tenn. 

J.  S.  REEDY,  Division   Claim   Clerk,   Memphis,  Tenn. 
G.   L.   EDWARDS,   Agent,   Tutwiler,   Miss. 
J.  W.  STONE,  Yardmaster,  Tutwiler,   Miss. 
L.  E.  CARRINGTON,  Supervisor,  Greenwood. 
JOE  CRAHEN,  Supervisor,  Tutwiler. 

L.  S.  BURDSONG,  Section  Foreman,  Tutwiler. 
W.  A.  WARREN,  Section  Foreman,  Tutwiler. 

S.    W.    ALEXANDER,    Section    Foreman,    Tutwiler. 
M.   L.   LONG,   Section   Foreman,   Tutwiler. 
W.  A.   SHARP,   Section   Foreman,  Tutwiler. 
C.  A.  CONNERLY,  Car  Foreman,  Tutwiler. 
W.   S.   LARKIN,   Wrecker   Foreman,   Tutwiler. 
C.   E.   SPIVEY,   Section   Foreman,  Tutwiler. 
H.    BEATTY,    Section    Foreman,    Tutwiler. 
L.  W.  PUCKETT,  Section  Foreman,  Tutwiler. 
L.  S.  TULFORD,  Car  Repairer,  Tutwiler. 
J.  H.  BARKSDALE,  Agent,  Elaine. 
D.  A.  COUNTS,  Conductor,  Elaine. 
J.  S.  TULFORD,  Conductor,  Elaine. 
B.  A.  SMITH,  Conductor,  Elaine. 

H.   E.   GAULDING,   Engineer,   Elaine. 
SCOTT  ANDREWS,   Engineer,   Elaine. 
R.  C.  BRENNAN,  Engineer,  Elaine. 

ED    MATHIS,    Engineer    (Derrick),    Elaine. 
R.    R.    DAUGHTRY,    Flagman,    Elaine. 
N.    B.    McFARLAND,    Flagman,    Elaine. 
G.    L.    RODENBAUGH,    Machinist,    Elaine. 
C.  A.  DOUGLAS,  Clerk,  Elaine. 

FRANK   HANNIGAN,    Operator,    Elaine. 
A.   BURTON,   Operator,   Elaine. 
R.    E.    HOUSE,    Operator,    Elaine. 

S.   M.   DANIELS,  Visitor. 
Also  35  colored  employes  from  different  departments. 

f  I  A  HE  meeting  was  opened  by  Superintendent  Pelley,  who  expressed  much  pleasure 
-*•       at  having  so  many  present  to  hear  the  discussions  on  a  subject  that  was  of  vital 
interest  to  every  one  connected  with  any  railroad  in  any  department,  and  not  only 
railroad  employes  but  to  people  in  every  walk  of  life,  as  it  was  a  movement  that  was 
nation  wide  in  its  scope,  brought  about  as  it  has  been  by  a  desire  on  the  part  of  every 
one  to  bring  more  attention  to  bear  on  the  subject  of  Safety  First.     He  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  there  are  two  duties  a  railroad  man  is  called  upon  to  perform: 
First:     That  of  taking  every  precaution  to  protect  his   own   life  and  limbs,  and 
Second:     That  of  looking  out  for  the  welfare  of  his  fellow  employe. 
The   speaker   called   attention'  Jo   the   fact   that   the    Government   has   taken   this 

87 


88 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Section  Men 
and  Others 
Watching 
Trains  As 
They  Pass. 


subject  up  very  actively  and  that  strict  laws  have  been  enacted  all  having  in  view 
safety  of  life  and  limb,  not  only  on  railroads,  but  on  street  railways,  factories  and  in 
fact  every  place  where  any  hazard  was  to  be  come  in  contact  with. 

He  called  especial  attention  to  the  great  steamship  disasters  that  we  have  had 
in  the  past  few  years  which  have  been  appalling  and  horrifying,  yet  when  we  read 
or  hear  of  some  poor  fellow  who  is  killed  in  a  railroad  wreck  or  loses  a  limb,  dis- 
abling him  for  life,  we  think  about  it  for  a  while  and  then  the  impression  gradually 
wears  off.  And  yet  railroad  fatalities  seem  to  have  no  stopping  place,  and  probably 
claim  more  victims  than  any  of  the  other  disasters  we  so  often  hear  of. 

Mr.  Pelley  said  that  he  was  sure  that  everyone  would  agree  with  him  that  the 
"Best  Safety  Device  Known  is  a  Careful  Man,"  and  that  everything  pointed  to  the 
fact  that  people  in  every  walk  of  life  are  realizing  more  fully  the  importance  of 
"Safety  First." 

Mr.  Pelley  told  his  hearers  that  this  was  a  big  subject  and  wanted  everyone  to 
have  something  to  say  along  this  line,  and  quite  a  number  of  talks  were  made  on  the 
several  ways  of  making  railroad  life  safe. 

Trainmaster  Umshler  cited  a  case  within  the  last  few  days  of  where 
a  Section  Foreman  was  watching  a  train  pass  and  noticed  a  wheel 
wobbling  and  he  knew  instinctively  that  something  was  wrong  and 
followed  the  train  and  had  it  stopped  and  inspected  for  the  trouble, 
and  finally  a  flagman  on  a  work  train  discovered  the  disabled  wheel 
and  necessary  repairs  were  made,  thus  probably  avoiding  a  serious 
accident.  It  shows  that  these  men  had  their  heart  in  the  work  and 
were  interested  not  only  in  protecting  human  life,  but  in  caring  for 
the  property  of  the  Company  as  well.  In  this  way  a  great  many 
accidents  could  be  avoided,  by  simply  watching  for  the  little  things 
that  eventually  cause  the  accidents,  costing  many  thousand  dollars 
and  the  loss  of  life. 

All  of  the  expressions  on  this  subject  tended  to  show  that  it  was 
a  subject  that  too  much  could  not  be  said  about.  The  different  Fore- 
men and  conductors,  engineers  and  all  others  present  stated  that  they 
were  trying  to  impress  their  men  with  the  vital  importance  of  passing 
signals  correctly  and  observing  them  correctly,  and  were  continually 
cautioning  the  men  about  carelessly  going  between  cars  when  they 
were  being  cut  off  or  coupled  up.  So  many  accidents  occur  in  this 
way,  as  a  man  will  use  his  foot  to  assist  in  making  a  coupling  that 
is  somewhat  obstinate;  or  he  will  be  standing  between  the  cars  and 
let  his  hand  get  caught  in  the  drawhead  when  the  coupling  is  made, 
or  in  some  way  not  exercise  the  proper  care,  and  in  a  few  seconds' 
time  he  sustains  an  injury  that  if  it  does  not  prove  fatal,  he  is  injured 
and  disabled  for  life.  Special  stress  was  laid  on  the  observance  of 
the  Blue  Flag  displayed  for  protection  of  Car  Repairers  and  the  im- 
portance of  carrying  out  the  Rule  to  the  letter  in  this  one  thing 
which  has  so  often  resulted  fatally  when  the  Rules  were  carelessly 
violated.  Statements  submitted  at  the  meeting  showed  that  our  men 
are  carefully  complying  with  this  and  all  other  flagging  rules  on  the 
Memphis  Division. 

This  is  a  serious  evil  that  should  be  fully  corrected  and  it  is  a 
matter  that  is  claiming  the  close  attention  of  all  our  supervisors, 
foremen,  engineers,  conductors,  and  all  others  whose  duty  it  is  to 
see  these  things.  An  engineer  present  called  attention  to  the  practice 
that  is  prevalent  to  a  large  extent  among  the  negroes  in  some  of 
the  gangs  where  the  matter  is  not  continually  watched.  They  will 
hop  a  train  when  it  is  pulling  out  or  in  a  siding  or  anywhere  close  to 
their  work  and  ride  a  few  feet  or  a  few  yards  just  for  the  fun  of  it 
and  before  they  realize  the  risk  of  it  someone  is  hurt.  All  of  our 
men  are  watching  this  very  closely  and  those  in  charge  of  the  gangs 
on  the  Memphis  Division  state  that  when  one  of  their  men  does  a 
trick  like  this  it  is  his  last  offense  of  that  particular  kind  or  he  is  not 
tolerated  in  the  service. 

Several  accidents  may  be  recalled  that  can  be  charged  to  this  one 
thing  and  our  men  are  frequently  cautioned  to  look  for  these  cleats 
lying  around  and  pick  them  up;  also  planks  with  nails  in  them. 

This  is  a  matter  that  is  claiming  the  attention  of  all  concerned' 
and  they  report  a  continual  improvement,  as  shippers  are  continually 
being  cautioned,  and  trainmen  are  watching  cars  more  closely  before 
moving  them,  in  order  to  prevent  possible  chance  of  accidents. 


The  Matter  of 
Passing  Signals 
Properly  and 
the    Importance 
of  a  Correct 
Understanding 
of  Them  Before 
Taking    Action. 


Jumping  On 
And  Off 
Moving  Trains 
and  Engines. 

Cleats    with 
Nails  in  Them 
Carelessly  Left 
Around  Where 
They  Can  Be 
Stepped    On. 

Cars  Loaded 
With  Lumber 
Which  Are 
Not  Properly 
Staked  and 
Lumber  Piled 
Too   High. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


89 


Proper  Lock- 
ing of 
Switches. 


Motor  Car 
Accidents 
and    Improper 
Use  of  Motor 
Cars,  Running 
At  Night 
Without  Lights 
Or  At  Too 
High  a  Rate 
Of  Speed. 


Personal 
Injuries. 


Negroes 
Yelling  at 
Passing   Trains 
and    Making 
Other 

Unnecessary 
Noises. 


The  same  is  true  of  LOG  LOADING.  In  some  cases  the  shippers 
have  not  wired  their  logs  properly  or  have  used  old  wire  which  is  too 
easily  broken.  Our  officials  and  employes  are  giving  more  attention 
to  this  than  ever  before,  and  if  a  car  is  not  properly  loaded,  or  the 
logs  not  securely  fastened  on  with  good  wire,  the  car  is  not  moved  by 
a  train  until  these  requirements  are  fully  complied  with. 

This  came  in  for  some  useful  comments,  and  particular  stress  laid 
on  the  importance  of  seeing  that  switches  are  not  left  unlocked.  Our 
men  report  that  they  are  not  having  any  trouble  from  this  source. 

A  great  deal  was  said  about  this,  as  we  have  recently  had  an  acci- 
dent caused  by  a  collision  of  a  motor  car  with  a  cow  when  running 
at  night.  Our  foremen  are  cautioned  to  keep  their  cars  locked  when 
not  in  use  on  the  company's  business,  to  prevent  any  of  the  employes 
or  others  from  "stealing  a  ride."  An  opinion  was  expressed  to  the 
effect  that  one  of  the  greatest  dangers  in  this  line  is  running  of  hand 
cars  or  motor  cars  at  night  without  light,  and  running  too  fast.  At- 
tention was  called  to  the  fact  that  when  it  was  necessary  to  use  these 
cars  on  business  at  night,  it  was  not  necessary  to  go  so  fast,  but  to 
go  slow  and  be  sure  lights  were  in  proper  condition.  The  Superin- 
tendent cited  a  case  in  his  own  knowledge  that  occurred  on  another 
division  several  years  ago  where  some  men  were  using  a  hand  car 
at  night  for  their  own  pleasure  and  ran  into  another  hand  car  being 
used  in  the  same  manner,  both  of  which  were  running  at  an  excessive 
rate  of  speed  and  the  accident  resulted  fatally  to  five  or  six  of  the 
party. 

It  was  shown  that  on  the  Division  as  a  whole  number  of  personal 
injuries  has  decreased  to  a  great  extent,  showing  that  our  employes 
are  paying  more  attention  to  Safety  and  are  very  much  more  careful. 
Of  course  now  and  then  a  fellow  gets  a  broken  finger  or  some  other 
minor  injury,  and  in  these  cases  the  man  afterwards  acknowledges 
that  it  was  his  own  fault  in  getting  hurt,  because  if  he  had  taken 
proper  cautions  and  had  thought  of  Safety  First,  the  accident  could 
have  been  averted.  This  is  also  true  of  the  more  serious  accidents, 
because  if  they  would  only  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Rules 
and  then  comply  with  them  there  would  be  a  few  if  any  personal 
injuries,  those  of  the  avoidable  class.  One  section  foreman  reported 
that  he  had  not  had  a  personal  injury  to  occur  in  his  gang  since  he 
had  been  in  the  service,  due,  he  said,  to  careful  training  of  his  men 
to  the  idea  of  "Safety  First." 

It  was  stated  that  a  great  many  of  the  negroes  would  amuse  them- 
selves by  yelling  at  a  passing  train  when  the  work  was  suspended  to 
allow  the  train  to  pass.  This  is  also  a  dangerous  practice,  because 
of  the  fact  that  if  anyone  should  get  hurt  and  suddenly  call  for  help 
he  could  not  make  himself  heard  because  of  the  noise  the  men  were 
making.  Our  foremen  are  making  an  effort  to  break  up  this  kind  of 
play  and  have  succeeded  in  a  very  large  measure. 

Roadmaster  Downs  in  his  talk  along  this  line  reminded  those  pres- 
ent that  we  must  not  forget  that  when  a  bunch  of  negroes  are  stand- 
ing around  a  train  it  is  perfectly  natural  for  them  to  hollow  at  other 
negroes  on  trains,  just  as  it  is  natural  for  a  negro  to  "steal  a  ride" 
on  the  steps  or  side  of  box  car  for  a  short  distance,  and  it  is  a  matter 
that  lies  entirely  with  those  in  charge  of  the  men  to  break  up.  The 
head  man  of  the  gang  is  the  one  we  must  look  to  first  drill  this 
"Safety"  idea  into  the  body  of  men  with  whom  he  has  to  deal,  and 
it  is  a  thing  that,  if  brought  to  their  attention  in  a  forceful  manner, 
they  will  readily  respond  to  provisions  which  we  throw  around  them 
for  their  own  good. 

Our  men  in  every  department  on  the  division  as  a  whole  are  a  very 
careful  set  of  employes  and  we  believe  that  each  year  will  show  a 
decrease  in  accidents  and  personal  injuries,  until  our  division  will 
rank  among-  the  first  in  this  respect. 

Trainmaster   Rea  made   an   interesting  and  impressive   talk   to  the 

r  men,   saying  that  it  was   indeed   gratifying  to   see   so   much   interest 

being  manifested  and  it  all  had  a  tendency  to  show  that  we  had  a 

careful   set  of  men.      He   told   the   men   that   these   Safety   Meetings 

were  held  for  the  common  good,  to  afford  every  man  an  opportunity 

'to  advance  an  idea  looking  towards  the  betterment  of  conditions  in 


00 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


general,  and  that  we  not  only  extended  them  the  invitation  to  say 
something,  but  we  expected  them  to  freely  offer  suggestions,  because 
lots  of  times  the  men  out  on  the  line  would  see  things  that  needed 
correcting  and  it  was  entirely  with  them  to  report  it  to  the  officials 
and  it  was  their  duty  to  do  so.  He  said  that  the  "careful  man"  is 
the  one  that  does  his  duty  day  by  day. 

Conclusion.  Superintendent  Pelley  made  a  good  talk  in  conclusion,  expressing 

a  great  deal  of  confidence  in  the  men  on  the  Memphis  Division,  and 
saying  that  he  believed  that  about  all  the  accidents  and  other  irregu- 
larities were  being  reported  that  needed  to  be  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  officials.  He  also  read  some  interesting  figures  showing  how 
this  division  compared  with  others  in  the  record  of  personal  injuries. 
Mr.  Pelley  read  a  record  of  a  very  serious  accident  that  had  occurred 
on  another  division  some  years  ago  that  was  due  to  improper  flag- 
ging. This  particular  accident  happened  where  they  had  the  best  of 
everything  in  equipment,  tracks  and  well  trained  men.  But  just  for 
this  one  little  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  flagman  not  going  back 
far  enough  in  a  fog,  and  a  fast  mail  and  passenger  train  ran  into  a 
suburban  accommodation  and  dealt  death  and  destruction  to  many 
people  and  a  lot  of  fine  equipment.  The  Superintendent  told  his 
hearers  that  it  was  beyond  his  understanding  why  a  man  would  not 
do  his  duty  in  proper  flagging,  as  that  was  what  he  is  on  the  train 
for,  and  has  very  little  else  to  do.  He  said  that  he  was  glad  to  see 
things  improving  everywhere,  and  that  when  an  accident  or  personal 
injury  occurs  now,  we  want  to  know  all  about  it  and  find  out  just 
what -the  cause  was  and  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  thing  and  remedy 
the  defects  so  as  to  avoid  a  repetition.  This  is  true  to  a  much  greater 
extent  than  it  was  several  years  ago. 

The  meeting  was  closed  with  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  everyone  that 
it  had  been  well  worth  while  and  that  much  lasting  good  had  been 
accomplished. 

The  records  bear  out  the  statement  that  the  Memphis  Division 
has  a  lot  of  very  careful  men. 


MERITORIOUS  SERVICE 

pAVORABLE  mention  is  made  of 
the  following  conductors  and  gate- 
keepers for  their  special  efforts  in  lift- 
ing and  preventing  the  use  of  irregular 
transportation  in  connection  with  re- 
ports (Form  972)  were  rendered  to  the 
auditor  of  passenger  receipts,  who,  in 
cases  of  this  kind,  advises  the  other 
departments  concerned,  so  that  proper 
action  may  be  taken,  all  pass  irregular- 
ities being  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  vice-president. 

During  March  the  following  subur- 
ban trainmen  and  gatekeepers  lifted 
commutation  tickets  account  having 
expired  or  being  in  proper  hands : 

Conductor  Geo.  Miller 

Conductor  R.  Gums. 

Conductor  W.  H.  Gerry, 

Conductor  J.  J.  Zimmerman. 

Conductor  C.  White. 

Conductor  D.  M.  Gerry. 

Conductor  H.  M.  Cain. 

Flagman  J.  Statesly. 

Flagman  J.  Daily. 

Flagman  J.  Curley. 

Flagman  R.  Creps. 


Have 

Healthy, 
Strong 
Beautiful 
Eyes. 

Oculists  and  Physicians  used 
Murine  Eye  Remedy  many  years 
before  it  was  offered  as  a  Domestic 
Eye  Medicine.  Murine  is  Still  Com- 
pounded by  Our  Physicians  and 
Guaranteed  by  them  as  a  Reliable 
Relief  for  Eyes  that  Need  Care.  Try 
it  in  your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes 
—No  Smarting— Just  Eye  Comfort 

Twenty  years  of  honorable  success  have 
firmly  established  Murine  "In  the  World's 
Eye"  as  the  "Standard  of  Eye  Remedy  Qual- 
ity." Autoists — Golfers — Tour- 
ists —  Mechanics  — All — should 
have  Murine  handy  by  as  First 
Aid  in  Emergencies. 

Ask  your  Dealer  for  Murine 
— accept  no  Substitute,  and  if 
interested  write  for  Book  of 
the  Eyo  Free. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co. 
Chicago | 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


91 


Flagman  J.  Hoffman. 
Flagman  J.  Flynn. 
Gatekeeper  A.  D.  Ptirner. 
Gatekeeper  R.  Fraher. 
Gatekeeper  J.  Powers. 
Gatekeeper  A.  Gerhardy. 
Gatekeeper  J.  H.  Quinlan. 
Gatekeeper  K.  F.  Emmanuel. 
Gatekeeper  Daisy  Emery. 
Gatekeeper  Bertha  Johnson. 
Conductor  J.  P.  Mallon  on  train  No. 

23  March  1st  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected   cash    fare.     Passenger  was    re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  D.  S.  Weigel  on  train  No. 
25  March  4th  and  No.  34  March  17th 
declined  to  honor  card  tickets  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  21  March  6th  he  de- 
clined to  honor  going  portion  of  card 
ticket  account  returning  portion  being 
missing  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Jacks  on  train  No. 

24  March  8th,  No.  23  March  10th  and 
27th,  declined  to  honor  card  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fares.    Passengers  were  referred  to  pas- 
senger department  for  refund  on  tick- 
ets. 

Conductor  E.  M.  Winslow  on  train 
No.  5  March  29th  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

St.  Louis  Division 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup  on  train 
No.  208  March  2nd  declined  to  honor 
portion  of  card  ticket  account  return- 
ing portion  being  missing  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  201  March  19th  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  other  trans- 
portation. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train  No. 
3  March  3rd  lifted  trip  pass  account  not 
being  countersigned  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  train  No.  1  March  22nd  he  de- 
clined to  honor  card  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 
Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  G.  Carter  on  train  No.  6 
March  17th  lifted  trip  pass  account  not 
being  countersigned  and  collected  cash 
fare. 


NOTE — E.  O.  Whitecome,  engineer,  who  pulls  one  of 
Hie  world's  finest  trains  says:  "The  'Santa  Fe'  Special' 
is  the  BEST  watch  I  ever  carried." 


Extra  Offer 


We  will  send  you  the  famous  Santa 
Fe  Special  "Direct  to  You"  with- 
out one  cent  down.  If  you  want  to 
take  advantage  of  our  "Easy  Pay- 
ment" plan  after  you  have  seen 
and  examined  the  watch,  we  will 
save  you  about  half  the  money 
usually  asked  for  such  high  grade 
watches. 


The  one  standard  railroad  wat'-h  that's 
GUARANTEED  TO  L.AST  YOU  ALL, 
YOUR  LIFE,  yet  priced  so  low  and  on 
such  easy  terms  that  any  man  may  own 
one.  21  or  17  jewels,  thin  model. 
The  "Santa  Fe  Special"  is  ADJUSTED  to 
positions,  ADJUSTED  to  isochronism, 
ADJUSTED  to  temperature,  ADJUSTED 
to  the  second. 

Payments  to  Suit  You 

and  terms  so  fair,  prices  so  low  that  any 
honorable  person  may  own  a  "Santa  Fe 
Special"  and  never  miss  the  money.  Men 
in  every  part  of  this  country,  on  the  seas, 
in  foreign  lands  are  buying  these  famous 
watches  and  every  owner  is  delighted  with 
the  "Santa  Fe  Special." 

New  Case  Designs 

Marvelous  indeed,  are  the  newest  designs 
in  "Santa  Fe  Special"  watch  cases.  Every 
day  brings  out  some  remarkable  combina- 
tion of  name,  monogram  or  initial  with 
emblem,  in  the  wonderful  3-color  enamel 
process  inlaid  in  solid  gold. 

Our  beautiful,  4-eolor,  52-page  watch  book 
shows  these  and  many  other  distinctive 
designs,  including  French  art,  special  em- 
blems and  engraved  monograms. 

We  want  you  to  see  this  remark- 
able watch.  Send  for  New  Watch 
Book  today.  It's  FREE. 

Santa  Fe  Watch  Co.r«,  Is',1 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Conductor  H.  W.  Bibb  on  train  No. 
623  March  24th  declined  to  honor  inter- 
line ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Springfield  Division 

Conductor  F.  A.  Hitz  on  train  No.  17 
March  25th  declined  to  honor  card  tick- 
et account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor  J.  B.  Stewart  on  train  No. 
124  March  llth  and  No.  131  March  21st 
declined  to  honor  card  tickets  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  123  March  6th  and  No. 
124  March  20th  he  declined  to  honor 
going  portions  of  round  trip  card  tick- 
ets account  returning  portions  being 
missing  and  collected  cash  fares.  Pas- 
sengers referred  to  passenger  depart- 
ment for  refund  on  tickets. 

Conductor  J.  P.  Reece  on  train  No. 

123  March  9th  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  L.  Bowley  on  train  No. 
330  March  13th  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  refer- 
red to  passenger  department  for  refund 
on  ticket. 

Conductor  J.  T.  Birkmeyer  on  train 
No.  14  March  19th  lifted  employe's  trip 
pass  account  being  in  improper  hands 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  P.  J.  Crosson  on  train  No. 

124  March  21st  declined  to  honor  round 
trip  card  ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Kentucky  Division 

Conductor  W.  Y.  Hansbroueii  on 
train  103  March  16th  declined  to  honor 
48-ride  coupon  pass  book  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  F.  P.  Coburn  on  train  No. 
121  March  19th  declined  to  honor  mile- 
age book  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Tennessee  Division 

Conductor  S.  E.  Matthews  on  train 
No.  207  March  20th  lifted  mileage  book 
account  being  in  improper  hands  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

Mississippi  Division 

Conductor  N.   S.   McLean   on   train 


No.  123  March  9th  declined  to  honor 
card  ticket  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  H.  Weir  on  train  No.  234 
March  14th  lifted  penny  scrip  book  ac- 
count being  in  improper  hands  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  B.  B.  Ford  on  train  No.  3 
March  16th  lifted  mileage  book  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  O.  A.  Harrison  on  train 
No.  33  March  21st  lifted  46-ride  month- 
ly school  ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson  on  train 
No.  6  March  26th  declined  to  honor 
Sunday  excursion  ticket  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  F'.  Cathey  on  train  No. 
5  March  26th  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Conductor  S.  R.  Cain  on  train  No.  4 
March  23rd  lifted  mileage  book  account 
being  in  improper  hands  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes  on  train  No. 
1  March  13th  declined  to  honor  Sun- 
day excursion  tickets  account  having 
expired  and  collected  cash  fares. 

On  train  No.  34  March  24th  he  de- 
clined to  honor  mileage  book  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  G.  O.  Lord  on  train  No. 
ft  March  21st  declined  to  honor  card 

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ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare.  Passenger  was  re- 
ferred to  passenger  department  for  re- 
fund on  ticket. 

Memphis  Division 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee  on  train  No.  313 
March  7th  lifted  scrip  exchange  pas- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  RAILROAD  COMPANY 


Mudge   and   Company , 
443  Railway  Exchange, 
Chicago,   Illinois. 


Gentlemen: 

I    am  going  t6  quit   pumping   and  'make  a  motor   car  out   of 
my  hand   car.     Your  "Wonder  Pull"    complete  top   (photo   attached) 
looks  good  to  me. 

Heres  what  I   want   and  I    think  you've  got   it. 

An   "air   cooler"  because  they  never  run   dry  and   cannot 
freeze  in   cold  weather  like   the  water   cooler.      I   want   the 
cylinder  to   lie  with   the   car   (not  up  and  down)    as   the  thrust 
of   piston  will   be   absorbed  in   car  travel   and  I   want   the  engine 
solid  in  the  frame  where  it   always  "stays  put"   in   one  place 
and  cannot  work  loose* 

I   want   everything  furnished  to  me   complete  and  assem- 
bled  30  that   there  is  nothing  left   for  me  to  do  but  bolt  the  top 
to    car  body   -   apply   split   pulley  -  lace  belt   and  give  her  the 
juice.     I   don't  want   to   spend   one  penny  for  an   extra  bolt  or  nut. 
What  I    pay  you  must  take   care  of   everything. 

I   don't  want   to  wait  for  my  hand   car  to  go   into  the   shops 
but  want   everything  to    come  to  me  in   such   shape  that  I    can  build 
myself  just    as  good  a  motor    car  as   there  ie   on  this  road  and  do 
it  in  an  hours  time  and  be   out   on  the  line. 

Send  full   particulars  by  next  mail    so   that  I    can   see  if 
the   "Wonder-Pull"   fills  the  bill. 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


94 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


sage  ticket  account  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  314  March  16th  he  lift- 
ed mileage  ticket  account  being  in  im- 
proper hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  313  March  19th  he  lift- 
ed employe's  term  pass  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  G.  T.  Reeves  on  train  No. 
523  March  20th  declined  to  honor  Sun- 
day excursion  ticket  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  B.  Bell  on  train  No.  37 
March  17th  lifted  employe's  term  pass 
account  passenger  not  being  provided 
with  identification  slip  Form  1572.  Pas- 
senger refused  to  pay  fare  and  was  re- 
quired to  leave  the  train. 

Vicksburg  Division 

Conductor  M.  Mahoney  on  train  No. 
113  March  12th  declined  to  honor  in- 
terline ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 
Conductor  R.  E.  Cook  on  train  No. 
15  March  llth  declined  to  honor  mile- 


age book  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

General  Offices. 

J.  W.  Bennett,  auditor  of  the  Disburse- 
ments Office,  advises  that  he  has  lost  a 
stick  pin,  dragon  head  design,  with  ruby 
eye,  diamond  in  mouth,  and  will  be  grateful 
if  the  finder  will  return  it  to  him. 


DIVISION  NEWS 
Memphis  Division 
"Mr.  L.  E.  Whatley,  recently  ap- 
pointed Supervisor,  Road  Department 
at  Greenwood,  Miss.,  April  2nd  called 
a  general  get-to-gether  meeting  of 
foremen.  Various  subjects  relat- 
ing to  the  Maintenance  of  Way  De- 
partment were  discussed,  among 
which,  was  'Ways  and  Means  of  Re- 
ducing the  Killing  of  Live  Stock.' 
Mr.  Hagan,  Claim  Agent,  this  Divis- 
ion, gave  a  few  timely  suggestions 
which  would  prove  effective.  He 
stated  that  it  would  be  a  good  idea  to 
take  pictures  of  old  worn-out  stock 
that  habitually  trespass  on  our  right 
of  way,  and  send  owners  of  such  stock 
a  photograph.  Much  attention  was 
given  to  the  discussion  of  the  above. 


Adherence  to  schedule  in  every  department  of  railroad  operation  is  easy  for  the  man 
who  places  dependence  on  the  unfailing  accuracy  of  a  South  Bend  Railroad  Watch. 

We  guarantee  South  Bend  Railroad  Watches  not  only  to  meet  the  time  requirements 
of  your  road  ;  but  to  conform  to  any  change  in  specifications  of  either  your  present 
road  or  any  to  which  you  may  go  within  five  years. 

Ask  your  jeweler  or  inspector  to  show  you  a  South  Bend 
Watch — distinguished  by  the  band  of  purple  ribbon 
across  the  dial.  Write  for  interesting  watch  book. 


South  Rend  Watches 


SOUTH   BEND  WATCH  COMPANY 

375  Studebaker  Street,  South  Bend,  Ind. 


MOVEMENTS  ONLY 


16  Size— 17].— Spos.     $28.00 
"        21          "  30.00 


Fitted  to  your  own  case 
if  desired. 


Please  mention  this  magazine  when  writing  to  advertisers. 


ite 


HOPK1NSVILI1 

KENTUCKY 

DAISIES 


Hopkinsville,  Kentucky 

"The  Pearl  of  the 
Pennyroyal* 

Put  on  the  map  as  the  Capital  of  the  Black  Tobacco 
Patch,  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the  county  seat  of 
Christian  County,  the  biggest  tobacco  growing  county  in 
the  world. 

Population  15,000 

Midway  between  Evansyille,  Indiana,  and  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, 1 2  hours  from  Chicago  and  20  hours  from  New 
Orleans,  twenty  passenger  trains  every  twenty-four  hours, 
located  on  the  I.  C.,  L.  &  N.,  and  T.  C.  Railroads. 

Conceded  by  every  visitor  to  be  the  most  up-to-date  town 
in  old  Kentucky. 

We  have  the  best  City  in  the  South,  inhabited  by  the  best 
people,  backed  by  the  best  agricultural  lands,  and  seemingly 
by  the  favor  of  God  Himself.  Magnificent  streets  with  225 
miles  of  free  turnpike  running  into  the  county  and  $400,000 
worth  additional  in  process  of  construction,  fine  sewerage, 
fine  water,  fine  everything.  The  most  magnificent  Public 
School  system  imaginable  crowned  with  a  High  School 
Building  that  equals  anything  ever  built  in  Athens,  of 
Greece,  by  Pericles. 

Churches  of  every  denomination  but  non-believers  in 
sumptuary  laws. 

We'll  be  glad  to  have  you  and  yours 

Write   the   Business   Men's   Association 


I  Bonzano  Weeks— Frontispiece 

The  Story  of  the  Illinois  Central  Lines  During  the  Civil  Con- 
flict  1861-5    11 

Public  Opinion  23 

Hopkinsville,    Kentucky 26 

Sindbad's  Eighth  Voyage — the  Eight-Hour  Day 42 

Freight  Traffic  Department"  Passing  the  Buck" ..'. '. 45 

Transportation    Department 47 

Loss  and  Damage   Bureau 49 

Safety    First 51 

Roll    of    Honor 52 

Law    Department 55 

Claim    Department 60 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  17 69 

Passenger  Traffic   Department 70 

Hospital    Department 80 

Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic  Department 83 

The  Cubs'  Special  to  Training  Ground 86 

That  Ain't  My  Department 89 

Personal  Recollections  of  L.  P.  Morehouse 90 

Meritorious    Service 96 

Division    News 97 

*Pu6lished  monthly  6y  {he  ffinois  Central f]^.  */<?.  G>., 
in  the  interest  of  the  Company  and  its  4^dD  'Employes 

Advertising  •  rates  •  on  •  application^? 

^Phone  WaSast  22® 
Chicago  £ocal55 

$  I.JO  pr.  year 


BONZANO  WEEKS 
Superintendent  of  Telegraph,  Southern  Lines 

EARNED  telegraphy  during  school  days.  Served  apprenticeship  and  employed 
•I—1  as  machinist  Lewis  Johnson  Foundry  &  Machine  Company,  New  Orleans. 

Manager  Gulf  Towing  Company,  Port  Eads,  La.,  and  Clerk  and  Operator  New 
Orleans  Police  Department. 

November,  1883,  entered  railway  service  as  agent  L.  N.  O.  &  T.  R.  R.,  Kenner,  La. 

Transferred  to  New  Orleans  as  operator  and  chief  clerk  to  general  agent  same 
company  until  it  was  absorbed  by  the  Illinois  Central,  when  he  became  chief  operator 
at  New  Orleans. 

June,  1903,  acting  assistant  superintendent  telegraph. 

May,  1905,  assistant  superintendent  telegraph. 

August,    1909,   appointed   superintendent   telegraph. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

Magazine 


Vol.  4 


JUNE,  1916 


No.  12 


Tne  Story  of  tfio 
Illinois  Central  Linos 

during,  the 

Civil  Conflict  i86i-5 

Colonel  Josiah  B.  Park 


Vale,  in  his  history  of  the  Cavalry 
Campaign  in  the  Western  armies,  says: 

"To  the  student  of  the  military  oper- 
ations during  the  war  of  the  Rebellion, 
the  question  frequently  presents  itself— 
What  caused  the  almost  uninterrupted 
success  of  the  Federal  forces  in  the 
Middle  Department,  embracing  the 
armies  of  the  Ohio,  Cumberland  and 
Tennessee,  while  at  the  same  time,  for 
so  long  a  period,  the  armies  of  the  East 
were  unable  to  make  any  substantial 
progress  against  the  Confederate  forc- 
es? It  can  certainly  not  be  contended 
that  it  was  any  superiority  in  bravery 
in  the  Army  of  the  West  over  that  of 
the  East,  that  enabled  the  former  to 
make  its  advance  from  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio  through  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Georgia  to 
the  sea;  thence  north  through  South 
and  North  Carolina,  .over  the  greatest 
natural  obstructions  of  the  continent 
and  in  the  face  of  a  foe  equal  in  num- 
bers and  their  peers  in  bravery ;  a 
march  of  over  fifteen  hundred  miles ; 


while  the  utmost  efforts  of  their  com- 
rades in  Virginia,  although  comparative- 
ly free  from  natural  difficulties  and 
never  confronted  with  superior  numbers, 
scarcely  able  to  maintain  itself  one  hun- 
dred miles  from  its  base.  Neither  can 
it  be  said  that  the  Armies  of  the  West 
were  superior  in  their  military  equip- 
ment and  supplies  to  the  East;  for  the 
latter  were  armed  and  equipped  under 
the  very  eyes  of  the  Capitol  and  the 
whole  nation,  while  those  of  the  former 
were  supplied  from  the  refuse  of  the 
arsenals  and  workshops  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Nor  yet,  highly  gratifying  as  it 
may  be  to  the  military  pride  of  those  so 
lauded,  can  it  be  justly  said  that  the  su- 
perior generalship  of  the  commanders 
of  the  West  gave  to  our  armies  their  su- 
periority. If,  then,  it  was  not  to  num- 
bers, to  superior  arms  and  equipment, 
to  discipline  or  to  superior  generalship 
that  the  Western  armies  owed  their  un- 
paralleled and  astonishing  success,  while 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  as  the  East- 
ern Army  was  designated,  was  but  able 


11 


LIEUTENANT- COLONEL  JOSIAH   B.    PARK,    4TH   MICHIGAN    CAVALRY. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


13 


to  make  the  battlefield  in  Virginia  a 
Golgotha,  barren  of  practical  results,  to 
what  cause  should  it  be  assigned?  For 
in  military  campaigns,  as  in  the  opera- 
tions of  the  physical  world,  for  every 
effect  a  cause  must  exist. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  author,  the 
verdict  of  posterity  will  be  that  the 
prime  and  controlling  cause  of  the  dif- 
ference in  the  relative  achievements  of 
the  two  Departments  is  that  the  cavalry 
arm  of  the  service  was,  in  the  West, 
early  in  the  war,  developed  and  perfect- 
ed into  a  mighty  engine  of  warfare, 
while  in  the  East,  it  was  neglected,  ridi- 
culed, dwarfed  and  stunted  until  just 
before  the  overthrow  of  the  enemy."  * 
*  *  * 

Among  the  distinguished  cavalry 
commands  of  the  Western  armies  the 
brigade  commanded  by  Colonel  R.  H. 
G.  Minty,  with  the  division  to  which  it 
was  attached,  occupied  no  second  place, 
belonging  as  it  did  to  the  Army  of  the 


ROBERT  H.  G.  MINTY. 


Colonel  4th  Michigan  Cavalry,  Brevet  Britf. 
General  U.  S.  Volunteers,  Brevet  Maj.  General 
U.  S.  Volunteers. 


Cumberland,  it  had  a  central  position  in 
the  grand  field  of  the  operations  of 
the  Armies  of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumber- 
land and  the  Tennessee.  Its  sabers 
flashed  on  every  battlefield  from  Knox- 
ville  to  Vicksburg  and  from  Columbus, 
Kentucky,  to  Macon,  Georgia.  Its  guns 
were  heard  on  almost  every  ridge  and  in 
practically  every  ravine  in  the  States  of 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Georgia,  and  its  horses 
were  watered  at  every  considerable 
stream  from  the  Ohio  at  Louisville  to 
the  Mississippi  at  Vicksburg,  and  from 
The  Father  of  Waters  at  Columbus, 
Kentucky  to  the  Oconee  in  Georgia.  It 
received  the  surrender  of  over  thirty 
thousand  men  and  officers;  captured 
over  eighty  thousand  stand  of  arms ; 
nearly  twenty  thousand  horses,  and  took 
in  battle,  by  direct  charges,  seventy-six 
pieces  of  artillery,  including  seventeen 
heavy  siege  guns,  and  as  a  division  com- 
manded by  General  Eli  Long  consisting 
of  the  two  brigades  of  Minty  and  Mur- 
ray, captured  by  assault  the  second 
strongest  fortified  city  in  the  Southern 
Confederacy. 

Colonel  Josiah  B:  Park  was  born  in 
Cheemung  County,  New  York,  April 
23,  1831,  and  died  at  North  Platte, 
Nebraska,  in  June,  1873.  Colonel  Park 
acquired  his  early  education  in  the  dis- 
trict schools  of  New  York,  supplement- 
ed by  a  course  in  English  and  Civil  En- 
gineering at  the  Elmira  (N.  Y.)  Acad- 
emy; in  1851  he  migrated  to  Michigan, 
where  he  followed  surveying  and  engi- 
neering for  several  years.  He  was  the 
first  settler  and  the  founder  of  Ovid, 
Michigan.  When  the  Civil  War  broke 
out,  he  raised  a  company  of  volunteers 
and  was  mustered  into  the  1st  Michi- 
gan Cavalry,  with  the  rank  of  Captain. 
This  regiment  left  its  rendezvous  at  De- 
troit for  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  took 
part  with  distinction  in  various  battles 
that  were  fought  in  Virginia  and  con- 
tiguous territory. 

The  Battle  of  Winchester,  Va.,  took 
place  March  23,  1862,  and  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  Capt.  Park's  Com- 
pany was  not  engaged  he  volunteered 
for  service  to  General  Shields.  The 


14 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


battle  was  a  severe  one,  lasting  for  sev- 
eral hours  and  concluding  about  dark 
with  the  repulse  of  General  Thomas  J. 
("Stonewall")  Jackson.  During  this 
battle  Capt.  Park  was  severely  wound- 
ed. 

Concerning  his  service  the  report  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Joseph  T.  Coapland 
says: 

"Headquarters  First  Michigan  Cavalry, 
Strasburg,   March  25,   1862. 

*  *     *     When   all   did   their   duty    so 
well,  at  times  under  a  shower  of  balls,  it 
would    seem    invidious    to    discriminate, 
and  yet  I  cannot   forbear  commending 
Lieutenant    Heazlit,    the    Adjutant    of 
our    regiment;    Lieutenants    Gray    and 
Freeman;    and    Capt.    Park,   and   Lieu- 
tenant Gallagher,  of  the  first  battalion, 
who  happening  to  be  present,  volunteered 
their  service. 

"Capt.  Park  received  a  severe  wound, 
soon  after  reaching  the  enemy's  posi- 
tion, and  was  compelled  to  retire  from 
the  field." 

(Signed)  J.  T.  COAPLAND, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Commanding. 
To  T.  F.  Brodhead, 

Chief  of  Cavalry  for  D'Armee." 
Upon   receipt   of   this   in   making  his 
report    to    the    Commanding    General, 
Colonel  Brodhead  says : 
"Headquarters  Chief  of  Cavalry, 
Fifth  Corps  D'Armee, 

Strasburg,   March   27,   1862. 
"My  command  on  the  23rd  actively 
engaged  in  battle  consisted  of  four  com- 
panies of  the  first  Michigan  Cavalry.     * 

*  *     *    Capt.  J.  B.  Park,  who  was  de- 
tached from  his  company  now  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  Geary,  was  severe- 
ly  wounded    while    acting   as    volunteer 
in  supporting  the  storming  party.    This 
gallant   officer   deserves   my   commenda- 
tion for  his  gallantry. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respect- 
fully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

T.  F.  BRODHEAD, 
Colonel  and  Chief  of  Cavalry, 

Fifth  Corps  D'Armee." 
Captain    Park     accompanied     General 
Pope  on  his   return   across  the  Rappa- 
hannock.     On  August  20,  1862,  Captain 


Park  was  promoted  to  be  a  Major  of 
the  Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry;  Decem- 
ber 9th,  was  appointed  Inspector  Gen- 
eral of  Cavalry,  Department  of  the 
Cumberland;  and  in  April,  1863,  was 
promoted  to  be  Lieutenant-Colonel  and 
assumed  command  of  his  regiment  at 
Murfreesboro,  Tenn.  In  April,  1864, 
Governor  Blair  appointed  him  Colonel 
to  raise  a  regiment  of  engineers  and  me- 
chanics. Col.  Park  while  on  the  staff 
of  Major  General  David  S.  Stanley  dur- 
ing the  operations  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland;  in  1862-1863,  acted  as  In- 
spector General  of  Cavalry,  wrote  sev- 
eral manuals  of  arms,  among  them  that 
for  the  use  of  the  Spencer  Carbine,  the 
first  small  arm  gun  using  a  metallic  cart- 
ridge. As  a  civil  engineer,  his  services 
were  valuable  to  General  Stanley  in  oth- 
er respects ;  Colonel  Park  was  Superin- 
tendent of  Fortifications  at  the  battle  of 
Franklin,  and  performed  tnany  other 
similar  staff  duties,  not  ordinarily  as- 
signed to  a  cavalry  officer.  During  the 


»;-•"       •  "'• 


CAPTAIN    PARK    CONVALESCING    FROM 

WOUND    RECEIVED    IN    THE 

BATTLE  OF  WINCHESTER. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


15 


fall  of  1864,  he  was  in  charge  of  the 
Alabama  and  Tennessee  railroad,  used 
at  this  time  for  military  operations. 

During  his  service  with  the  Army, 
Colonel  Park  participated  in  the  follow- 
ing battles  of  prominence  :  Winchester, 
Va.,  Second  Bull  Run ;  Perryville,  Ky. ; 
Stone  River,  Tenn. ;  Franklin,  Tenn. ; 
Nashville,  Tenn. ;  Dallas,  Ga.,  and  Mc- 
Minnville,  Tenn.  Hisi  service  was  a 
continuity  of  skirmishes  and  activity. 
He  was  six  feet  two  inches  in  his  stock- 
ing feet;  of  fine  physique  and  pleasant 
personality,  a  dashing  horseman,  always 
a  favorite  with  his  fellow  officers. 

He  was  wounded  a  number  of  times, 
to  which  is  attributed  his  untimely 
death  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war. 

During  the  campaign  of  1862-1863, 
Colonel  Minty  was  in  command  of  the 
first  brigade  and  frequently  in  command 
of  the  division.  Colonel  Park  followed 
him  in  succession  at  the  head  of  his 
regiment  or  in  command  of  the  Brigade. 
Of  Colonel  Park's  own  regiment,  the 
Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry,  Vale  has  to 
say: 

"This  the  most  distinguished  of  all 
the  noted  regiments  from  the  Penin- 
sular State,  was  organzed  at  Detroit,  on 
the  25th  of  July,  1862,  and  entered  the 
service  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  October, 
1862." 

The  regiment  was  fully  equipped, 
armed  and  mounted,  consisting  of  one 
thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-three 
men  and  officers.  They  were  upon  ar- 
rival at  Louisville  immediately  ordered 
to  take  the  field  and  on  the  10th  of 
October,  led  the  advance  upon  Stan- 
ford, Ky.,  where  Morgan  was  posted 
with  twenty-five  hundred  men  and  a 
number  of  pieces  of  artillery.  The  bat- 
tle resulted  in  a  short  but  brilliant  vic- 
tory, Morgan  retreating  to  Crab  Or- 
chard. 

He  (Morgan),  was  again  overtaken 
at  Lebanon,  Tennessee,  suffering  a  sec- 
ond defeat  and  a  loss  of  all  his  commis- 
sary stores  and  transportation  stock. 

During  November,  the  regiment  was 
actively  engaged  in  picketing  and  scout- 
ing the  country  in  front  of  Crittenden's 
position  at  Silver  Springs,  Tennessee. 


Major  General  Rosecrans,  now  being  in 
command  of  the  Army,  moved  the  right 
flank  into  Nashville,  the  fourth  Michi- 
gan Cavalry  forming  the  advance;  the 
regiment  here  reported  to  Major  Gen- 
eral Stanley,  Chief  of  Cavalry,  who 
took  personal  command  of  an  expedi- 
tion against  the  enemy  at  Franklin, 
Tenn.  Here  the  repeating  rifles  of  the 
Fourth  Michigan  were  very  effective, 
the  town  was  captured  with  a  large 
quantity  of  stores.  General  Stanley  at 
this  time  reorganized  the  Cavalry,  form- 
ing it  into  two  divisions  of  two  brig- 
ades each.  The  Fourth  Michigan  be- 
came a  part  of  the  First  Brigade,  sec- 
ond Division.  Colonel  Minty,  as  Brig- 
ade commander,  and  Colonel  Park  in 
command  of  the  Fourth  Michigan. 
During  the  Spring  of  1863,  Colonel 
Minty  being  in  command  of  the  divi- 
sion, Colonel  Park  was  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  brigade,  which  consisted  of 
the  Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry,  Seventh 
Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  Middle  Tennessee 
Cavalry  and  the  First  Ohio  Cavalry. 
They  were  constantly  engaged  with  the 
enemy  Cavalry  under  Forrest  and 
Morgan,  and  effectually  frustrated  the 
efforts  to  establish  the  right  wing  of 
Bragg's  Army  at  McMinnville. 

The  Battle  of  Chickamauga,  in  which 
the  Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry  took  a 
conspicuous  part,  was  fought  Sept.  17th, 
1863. 

As  the  account  of  it  by  Historian 
Vale  is  very  interesting,  we  embody  it 
in  this  article. 

"Bragg,  his  army  reinforced  to  num- 
ber over  eighty  thousand  of  the  best 
fighting1  veterans  of  the  Confederacy, 
on  the  17th  moved  Longstreet  from 
LaFayette  North  and  East  to  occupy 
and  hold  the  passes  into  McLemore's 
cave,  only  a  few  miles  from  Thomas ; 
Hill  to  a  point  opposite  and  three  miles 
south  of  Lee  &  Gordon's  Mills ;  Polk  to 
and  within  a  mile  of  Dalton  ford,  and 
Buckner  to  Ringgold,  with  Hood's  Divi- 
sion of  Longstreet's  Corps  opposite 
Alexander's  Bridge.  About  200  of 
Forrest's  Cavalry  moved  with  Buckner. 

It  was  Bragg's  intention  to  move 
Buckner  and  Forrest  from  Ringgold  and 


16 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Leeds  at  3  o'clock  the  morning  of  the 
18th  and  sweeping  away  all  opposition 
cross  Reed's  Bridge  by  8  a.  m.,  at  which 
hour  Hood  was  to  cross  Alexander's 
Bridge,  the  combined  force  to  seize  the 
Chattanooga  and  LaFayette  road  north 
of  Lee  &  Gordon's  Mills  and  attack 
Crittenden's  left  at  Vineyard  house, 
while  Polk  crossing  at  Dalton's  ford  and 
at  the  mills  attacked  him  in  front  and 
thus  to  crush  him  before  noon,  then  to 
turn  to  Thomas,  overwhelm  him  by  a' 
left  front  and  right  assault  from  the 
whole  army  before  night,  leaving  Mc- 
Cook  forty  miles  away  to  be  dealt  with 
at  leisure. 

Minty's  Brigade  consisting  of  the  4th 
Michigan  Cavalry,  2nd  Indiana  Cavalry, 
3rd  Kentucky  Cavalry,  and  the  7th 
Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  was  encamped  at 
Reed's  Bridge.  During  the  night  of  the 
17th  Minty  had  sent  almost  hourly  dis- 
patches to  Crittenden  that  train  after 
train  of  Confederates  was  arriving  from 
the  South — the  only  reply  received  by 
him  was  "The  Confederate  army  is  re- 


treating and  are  trying  to  get  away  some 
of  their  abandoned  stores;  they  have 
nothing  but  dismounted  cavalry  in  your 
front." 

Being  fully  convinced  of  the  correct- 
ness of  his  information,  Minty  had  his 
men  aroused  before  daylight  of  the  18th, 
horses  and  men  fed,  and  at  daylight 
horses  saddled,  artillery  harnessed  and 
baggage  loaded  up.  At  5  a.  m.  he  sent 
one  hundred  men  of  the  4th  United 
States  towards  Leed's  and  one  hundred 
from  the  4th  Michigan  and  the  7th  Penn- 
sylvania towards  Ringgold.  At  6  a.  m. 
couriers  arrived  from  both  stating  the 
enemy  was  advancing  in  force.  He  then, 
after  strengthening  his  pickets,  moved  the 
4th  United  States  and  4th  Michigan  and 
a  section  of  artillery  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  east  of  a  ridge  overlooking  Pea  Vine 
Valley;  dispatching  couriers  at  the  same 
time  to  General  Granger  at  Rossville, 
Col.  Wilder  at  Alexander's  Bridge,  Gen- 
eral Wood  commanding  the  left  of  Crit- 
tenden's Corps  at  the  mills,  and  to  Gen- 
eral Crittenden  at  Crawford  Springs. 
In  the  meantime  the  Confederate 
infantry  in  strong  force,  with  cav- 
alry flankers,  advanced  steadily  to 
the  foot  of  Pea  Pine  Valley,  driv- 
ing the  skirmishers  back.  While  em- 
ployed in  contesting  the  advance  of 
the  infantry  General  Minty  noticed  a 
column  of  infantry  miles  in  length  mov- 
ing toward  the  ford.  He  sent  a  courier 
to  Col.  Wilder  asking  him  to  send  a 
force  to  the  ford  to  cover  his  left,  and 
being  pressed  in  front  and  on  left  flank 
fell  back  to  a  position  immediately  cov- 
ering Reed's  Bridge.  The  brigade  now 
being  together  Minty  ordered  an  ad- 
vance and  drove  the  enemy  over  the 
ridge  and  back  into  Pea  Vine  Valley. 
The  Confederates  formed  a  line,  cres- 
cent shaped,  reaching  from  the  creek 
above  Dyre's  ford  across  the  ridge  into 
Pea  Pine  Valley,  numbering  between 
seven  and  ten  thousand  men,  and  ad- 
vancing drove  the  brigade  back  toward 
the  bridge  which  after  hard  righting  it 
crossed. 

Minty  soon  after  crossing  sent  Capt. 
Vale  with  wagon  train  and  guard  with 
instructions  to  select  ground  where  stand 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


17 


could  be  made,  and  report  to  him.  About 
half  past  four,  p.  m.,  he  received  from 
Capt.  Vale  the  following  dispatch,  "Col. 
Wilder  has  fallen  back  from  Alexander's 
bridge — he  is  retreating  toward,  Gor- 
don's mills  and  the  enemy  is  crossing 
the  river  at  all  points  in  force."  Minty 
fell  back,  making  a  stand  of  one  hour 
at  Jackson  Saw  Mill,  and  finally  joined 
the  left  division  of  Crittenden's  force  at 
Lee  &  Gordon's  Mills. 

Without  waiting  to  report,  Minty  dis- 
mounted his  men  and  formed  line  on  the 
right  of  Col.  Wilder's  brigade  extending 
the  line  from  Chickamauga  to  the  vine- 
yard house  on  the  Chattanooga  road. 
He  then  reported  to  Gen.  Crittenden 
near  Gordon's  Mills  when  he  found  Gen. 
Thos.  Wood  in  Command.  Gen.  Wood 
looked  up  and  said,  "Colonel,  I  have  just 
reported  to  Gen.  Rosecrans  that  your 
brigade  was  cut  off  and  captured."  Col. 
Minty  said,  "What  grounds  have  you 
for  making  such  a  report  General? 
My  brigade  is  now  covering  your  posi- 
tion." 

Gen.  Wood  added  a  postscript  to  his 
dispatch,  stating  that  "Minty's  Brigade 
had  just  come  in." 

Minty  had  for  two  days  been  doing 
his  best  to  convince  Gen.  Crittenden  that 
Bragg's  Army  was  practically  massed 
in  front  of  the  Union  Army's  left  rear, 
and  that  he  was  reinforced  by  Long- 
street  from  the  Army  of  Virginia,  but 
had  been  scoffed  and  jeered  at  for  his 
pains. 

Crittenden  in  denying  the  correctness, 
of  Minty's  information  had  said  to  Gen- 
eral Rosecrans,  "General,  I  can  whip 
every  Confedeate  within  twenty  miles  of 
us  with  my  on  corps." 

General  Wood,  as  well  as  the  other 
officers  of  the  corps,  shared  Crittenden's 
disbelief  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy. 
An  illustration  of  this  is  shown  in  the 
visit  of  Capt.  Vale,  who,  under  instruc- 
tions of  Col.  Minty,  about  dark  report- 
ed to  General  Crittenden's  headquarters 
to  advise  him  of  the  near  approach  of 
the  Confederate  army,  no  reply  having 
been  received  to  his  numerous  commu- 
nications during  the  day.  The  Captain 
found  Crittenden  in  company  of  Gen- 


eral Wood  and  Colonel  Wilder  at  the 
vineyard  house  in  the  Chatta- 
nooga road  and  delivered  his  mes- 
sage. Crittenden  asked  in  reply,  "Who 
is  that  coming?  "What  have  you  been 
fighting  out  there?"  The  Captain  re- 
plied, "Buckner's  Corps,  Hood's  Di- 
vision of  Infantry  and  Artillery  and 
some  of.  Forrest's  Cavalry."  Crittenden 
scoffed  at  the  idea  and  said,  "Wilder 
here  has  come  in  with  the  same  outland- 
ish story.  There  is  nothing  in  this  coun- 
try except  Pegram's  dismounted  and 
Forrest's  mounted  Cavalry  with  a  few 
pieces  of  artillery.  They  have  been  fir- 
ing at  me  all  day,  but  could  not  cross 
the  creek."  About  that  time  Col.  Minty 
rode  up  and  reported  and  Crittenden 
said,  "Well,  Wood,  as  Wilder  has  been 
chased  in  from  Alexander's  and  Minty 
from  Reed's  bridge,  I  suppose  we  will 
have  to  get  ready  for  a  little  brush." 

Wood  ordering  a  brigade  of  infantry 
to  follow  moved  to  the  line  where  Wil- 
der's and  Minty's  men  'were  already 
skirmishing.  Wood  said,  "Well,  Wilder 
where  is  the  enemy  ?"  Wilder  answered, 
"Ride  forward  General  ten  paces  and 
you  will  see  for  yourself."  Just  then 
the  infantry  brigade  came  up  and  filing 
past  Wilder's  left  formed  in  front  and 
as  it  passed,  Gen.  Crittenden  added  as  a 
supplement  to  Gen.  Wood's  order  ad- 
dressing the  Colonel  commanding  it,  but 
with  a  grimace  toward  Wilder,  "And 
Colonel  we  expect  to  have  a  good  re- 
port from  you." 

Wood  laughed  cheerfully  at  the  im- 
plied compliment,  Wilder  swore  in  an 
undertone  and  Minty  gritted  his  teeth. 

The  brigade  had  advanced  a  few  paces 
beyond  the  skirmish  line  when  it  was 
assailed  with  a  tremendous  discharge  of 
musketry  in  front  and  on  both  flanks, 
and  breaking  in  pieces  rushed  back  over 
Wilder's  and  Minty's  men  in  utter  rout 
and  disorganized  panic.  Wilder  turned 
to  Crittenden  and  addressing  Minty 
with  grim  humor  said,  "well,  Colonel 
Minty,  the  General  has  got  his  report." 
General  Wood  exclaimed,  "By  Gad  they 
are  here!" 

The  Brigades  of  Minty  and  Wilder 
held  their  positions  against  a  continuous 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


19 


and  well  sustained  fire  for  two  hours, 
and  in  fact,  until  relieved  at  four  o'clock 
the  morning  of  the  19th.  For  this  re- 
pulse at  dark  the  report  read,  "Wood 
repulsed  a  feeble  attack  of  the  Confed- 
erates on  the  evening  of  the  18th." 

Brevet  Major  General  Emerson  Op- 
dyke,  U.  S.  V.,  says  in  volume  3,  Bat- 
tles &  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,  by 
Johnson  &  Buell— page  688: 

"Rosecrans  halted  at  the  Western  base 
of  the  Cumberland  Mountains  August 
16th,  1863,  and  between  him  and  Halleck 
the  question  of  delay  was  renewed  with 
spirit.  Rosecrans  justly  urged  that  be- 
fore crossing  the  Tennessee  River  his 
right  and  rear  ought  to  be  protected  by 
the  part  of  our  army  made  idle  by  the 
surrender  of  Vicksburg,  because  the 
enemies  superiority  in  cavalry  forced 
him  constantly  to  weaken  his  line  of  bat- 
tle to  protect  the  long  line  over  which 
supplies  were  brought  to  him.  This, 
sound  view  did  not  prevail" — and  again 
"Up  to  the  9th  of  September — the  day 
Rosecrans  reached  Chattanooga — his 
plans  and  movements  had  been  brilliant 
and  faultless.  Halleck  himself  deceived, 
misled  Rosecrans  who  judged  that  his 
present  work  was  to  pursue  an  alarmed 
adversary,  and  accordingly  ordered  Crit- 
tenden's  corps  to  seek  the  enemy  in  the 
direction  of  Ringgold,  thus  still  further 
separating  his  army." 

History  of  the  Southern  Rebellion,  by 
Orville  J.  Victor.  Volume  4,  Page  153 : 

"Not  the  least  singular,  features  of  the 
General  in  Chiefs  (Halleck)  conduct  of 
his  office  was  ignorance  regarding  the 
enemy's  movements  against  Rosecrans. 
This  will  appear  from  the  following  or- 
ders and  what  follows : 

Major  General  Foster,  Headquarters 
of  the  Army,  Fortress  Monroe,  (Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  September  14th,  1863)  : 
Information  received  here  indicates  that 
part  of  Lee's  forces  have  gone  to  Peters- 
burg. There  are  various  suppositions  to 
this.  Some  think  it  is  intended  to  put 
down  the  Union  feeling  in  North  Caro- 
lina, others  to  make  an  attempt  to  cap- 
ture Norfolk,  others  again  to  threaten 
Norfolk,  so  as  to  compel  us  to  land  re- 
inforcements there  from  the  Army  of 


the  Potomac,  and  then  to  move  rapidly 
against  Meade.  Such  was  the  plan  last 
Spring  when  Longstreet  invested  Suf- 
folk. It  will  be  well  to  strengthen  Nor- 
folk as  much  as  possible  and  to  closely 
watch  the  enemies'  movements.  I  think 
he  will  soon  strike  a  blow  somewhere. 
H.  W.  Halleck, 

Com.  in  Chief. 
Headquarters  of  the  Army. 
Washington,  D.  C.,  Sept.  14th,  1863. 
To  Major  General  Hurlbert, 

Memphis,  Tenn. 

There  are  good  reasons  why  troops 
should  be  sent  to  assist  Gen.  Rosecrans' 
right  with  all  possible  dispatch.  Com- 
municate with  Sherman  to  assist  you  and 
hurry  forward  re-enforcements  as  pre- 
viously directed. 

H.  W.  Halleck, 

Gen.  in  Chief. 
Headquarters  of  the  Army. 
Washington,  D.  C.,  Sept.  14th,  1863. 
To  Major  General  Burnside, 

Knoxville,  Tenn. 

There   are   several   reasons   why   you 
should    re-enforce    Rosecrans    with    all 
possible    dispatch.      It    is    believed   that 
the  enemy  will  concentrate  to  give  him 
battle.     You  must  be  there  to  help  him. 
H.  W.  Halleck, 
Gen.  in  Chief. 

And  yet  Halleck  telegraphed  the  next 
day  (Sept.  15th)  to  Rosecrans  that  no 
troops  had  gone  from  Lee's  Army  to  re- 
inforce Bragg. 

Rosecrans  in  his  testimony  before  the 
Investigating  Committee  assumed  that 
General  Peck,  commanding  at  Suffolk, 
knew  of  Longstreet's  detachment,  for 
service  elsewhere  as  early  as  Sept.  6th, 
and  this  further  statement  was  added : 
"Col.  Jacques  (73rd  Illinois)  endeavored 
to  communicate  the  fact  that  Long- 
street's  corps  was  going  to  join  Bragg 
to  the  authorities  at  Washington  so  long 
before  the  battle  that  he  was  able  to 
wait  ten  days  in  vain  in  Baltimore  for  a 
hearing  and  then  to  reach  us  and  take 
part  in  the  Battle  of  Chickamauga." 

It  is  impossible  for  the  historian  to 
reconcile  such  discrepancies,  and  the 
reader  is  left  to  make  his  own  infer- 
ences in  the  premises.  One  thing  is  cer- 


20 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


tain — Bragg  was  powerfully   reinforced 
and  Rosecrans  was  not  sustained." 

In  1864,  Col.  Park  was  Post  Com- 
mander and  Superintendent  of  Fortifica- 
tions at  Franklin,  Tenn.  One  of  his 
characteristic  reports  which  indicates  his 
decision  and  confidence,  follows : 

Nashville,  Oct.   1,   1864,   10:15  p.  m. 
Major  General  Rosseau, 
Tullohoma,  Tenn. 

The  following  dispatch  just  received 
from  Franklin: 

"As  sure  as  you  live,  Forrest,  at 
Springhill,  at  3  this  p.  m.  General  Lyon 
is  with  him.  This  you  can  rely  on.  I 
have  good  information  Roddey  was  at 
Huntsville  this  a.  m. ;  said  to  have  15,000 
men  and  twenty-three  pieces  of  artillery. 
I  cannot  get  a  piece  of  artillery  on 
Roper's  Knob  without  machinery.  Shall 
I  do  it?  You  need  have  no  fears  of  our 
being  taken.  He  will  not  catch  me  nap- 
ping, and  I  have  full  confidence  I  can 
whip  any  force  that  may  come. 

(Signed)   J.  B.  Park, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Commanding." 

I  sent  down  to  Franklin  this  evening 
two  3-inch  Parrotts  and  400  rounds  of 
ammunition.  Shall  any  guns  go  on 
Roper's  Knob,  or  shall  all  go  in  the 
large  fort? 

B.  H.  Polk, 
Major  and  Ass't  Adj.  General. 

The  Fourth  Michigan  Cavalry  reg- 
iment frequently  distinguished  itself  to 
the  end  of  the  war,  its  record  culmi- 
nating in  the  capture  of  Jefferson  Davis, 
President  of  the  Confederacy,  at  Irwins- 
ville,  Ga.,  on  May  9,  1865. 

There  were  captured  with  President 
Davis,  John  H.  Reagan,  Postmaster 
General  of  the  Confederacy,  together 
with  Colonels  Johnson  and  Lubbock, 
aid-de-camps,  Burton  N.  Harrison,  Pri- 
vate Secretary  to  President  Davis,  and 
a  number  of  other  officers,  together  with 
the  family  of  Mr.  Davis. 

A  Confederate  paper,  the  Memphis- 
Atlanta  Appeal,  published  at  this  time 
in  Macon,  Ga.,  in  September,  1864,  pays 
its  compliments  to  the  Fourth  Michigan 
Cavalry,  the  Fourth  United  States  and 
the  Seventh  Pennsylvania  in  a  saber 
charge  under  Colonel  Minty,  at  Love- 


joy,  Ga.,  on  August  20th,  1864,  as  fol- 
lows: 

.  .  .  "The  newspapers  have  lately  been 
full  of  accounts  of  how  Martin's  divi- 
sion of  cavalry  was  'run  over'  by  the 
Yankees  at  Lovejoy,  on  the  20th  ult. 
The  writer  was  on  the  field  on  that  oc- 
casion, and,  in  justice  to  the  much- 
abused  cavalry,  states  the  facts  in  the 
matter :  Martin's  division,  supporting  the 
battery,  was  formed  on  the  McDonough 
road.  Ross'  and  Ferguson's  commands, 
on  foot,  were  in  front  and  on  each  side 
of  the  battery,  behind  rail  breast-works. 
A  brigade  of  Cleburne's  division  was 
on  the  left  of  the  road,  in  three  lines, 
the  last  one  in  a  piece  of  woods,  about 
one  hundred  yards  in  rear  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  battery.  On  the  right  of 
the  road  (east  side)  the  State  troops 
were  formed  in  line.  When  the  Yan- 
kees charged,  they  came  in  a  solid  col- 
umn, ten  or  twelve  lines  deep,  running 
their  horses,  and  yelling  like  devils. 
They  didn't  stop  to  fire  or  attempt  to 
keep  any  kind  of  order  or  formation, 
but,  each  fellow  for  himself,  rushed  on, 
swinging  his  saber  over  his  head.  They 
rode  right  over  Ross'  and  Ferguson's 
men  in  the  centers  and  over  and  through 
Cleburne's  lines,  one  after  the  other,  on 
the  left.  Cleburne's  first  line,  they  say, 


GRANDDUKB   ALEXIS, 
Admiral  of  the  Russian  Navy. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


21 


tried  to  use  their  bayonets,  but  the  Yan- 
kees cut  them  to  pieces.  After  the  Yan- 
kees had  cut  through  all  the  other  forces 
and  captured  the  battery,  Martin,  seeing 
•the  ifield  was  lost,  retreated  in  good 
order  to  the  east  and  joined  Cleburne's 
main  body,  and  aided  in  the  final  de- 
feat of  the  enemy  on  the  McDonough 
road  that  evening,  and  pursued  them  to 
and  through  McDonough  that  night,  re- 
capturing nearly  five  hundred-  of  our 
men,  which  they  took  in  the  charge.  The 
effort  to  arouse  the  people  against  Mar- 
tin and  his  brave  division  is  more  dis- 
graceful and  demoralizing  than  the  Yan- 
kees' 'charge'  itself,  and  should  be 
frowned  upon  by  all  who  wish  well  to 
our  cause." 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  Col- 
onel Park  moved  to  Omaha,  Nebraska. 
Major  General  Grenville  M.  Dodge, 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  appointed  him  as  one  of  his 
agents  in  the  sale  of  the  Union  Pacific 
land  grant  lands.  Until  his  death  in 
1873,  Colonel  Park  was  employed  in 
United  States  Government  surveys  in 
the  .'Westv  The  Sioux  Indians  were 
very  much  opposed  to  this  work,  as 
they  well  understood  it  was  a  forerun- 
ner of  the  settlement  by  the  whites  of 
their  favorite  hunting  ground.  They 
massacred  several  of  the  surveying  par- 
ties and  drove  others  from  the  work. 
Colonel  Park's  military  experience  saved 
his  party  from  the  same  fate;  a  number 
of  skirmishes  occurred.  Finally  Col- 
onel Park  out-generaled  and  captured  a 
band  under  Chief  Whistler,  entirely  dis- 
arming them,  although  they  outnumber- 
ed his  party  four  or  five  times.  There- 
after he  commanded  their  respect  and 
was  not  further  molested. 

The  Grand  Duke  Alexis  was  the 
guest  of  the  Government  on  a  Buffalo 
hunt  on  the  Republican  River,  in  the 
fall  of  1872.  The  party  started  from 
the  United  States  Military  Post  at 
North  Platte,  Neb.  Many  prominent 
army  officers  accompanied  him,  includ- 
ing General  P.  H.  Sheridan,  and  Gen- 
eral Custer.  During  a  reception.  Col- 
onel Park  was  presented  to  the  Grand 
Duke.  General  Sheridan  threw  his 


COLONEL  WILLIAM  F.   CODY, 
Popularly  Known  as   "Buffalo  Bill". 

arms  around  him,  exclaiming:  "Stone 
River,  Colonel,  Stone  River!" 

Colonel  Park  was  the  only  American 
present  who  approached  the  Grand  Duke 
in  height  and  build.  He  was  much  in- 
terested in  making  comparison  and 
seemed  gratified  that  he  was  slightly 
taller. 

W.  F.  Cody  (Buffalo  Bill)  guided 
the  party  to  a  good  hunting  ground  and 
arranged  at  some  considerable  personal 
risk  to  bring  Spotted  Tail  and  a  band 
of  Siouxs  who  were  hunting  some  dis- 
tance away,  to  the  camp.  The  Grand 
Duke  was  much  interested  in  their 
habits,  many  of  their  characteris- 
tics being  displayed  to  him. 

Even  a  Western  newspaper  can 
sometimes  become  too  vitriolic.  An  un- 
provoked personal  attack  upon  the  char- 
acter of  John  Marston,  the  Master 
Mechanic  of  the  Union  Pacific,  at  North 
Platte,  by  Seth  Mobley,  editor  of  the  lo- 
cal newspaper,  was  bitterly  resented  by 
the  railroad  men.  A  night  or  two  there- 
after a  mob  collected,  with  the  deter- 


22 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


mination  of  wrecking  the  newspaper 
office  and  doing  bodily  harm  to  the  edit- 
or. Colonel  Park  came  to  the  rescue 
of  the  besieged  and  much  frightened 
Mobley  and  his  wife.  He  confronted 
the  vigilants  and  in  a  speech  delivered 
in  front  of  the  newspaper  office  induced 
them  to  disband,  through  a  promise  to 
himself  purchase  the  plant,  if  the  owners 
would  and  were  permitted  to  leave  the 
town,  which  was  agreed  to. 

The  name  and  address  of  the  paper 
was  changed  and  for  several  years,  until 
just  prior  to  his  death,  Colonel  Park 
published  the  Lincoln  County  Adver- 
tiser. True  to  its  name,  it  was  used 
largely  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
New  West.  Colonel  Park  succeeded  in 
bringing  out  a  number  of  colonies  from 
New  York,  Michigan,  and  other  states. 

He  was,  unquestionably,  the  first  in- 
dividual to  bring  alfalfa  into  the  coun- 
ty, having  purchased  a  large  quantity 


of  the  seed  and  planting  it  on  his  ranch 
at  North  Platte,  in  1870.  He  also  in- 
corporated at  this  time  and  built  the 
first  irrigation  ditch  in  Nebraska,  or  east 
of  the  Rocky  mountains.  In  his  news- 
paper he  advocated  the  culture  of  sugar 
beets,  bringing  from  France  the  first 
seed  into  that  territory.  He  predicted 
that  irrigation,  alfalfa  and  the  sugar 
beet  would  become  exceedingly  profit- 
able in  the  West,  a  prediction  that  has 
exceeded  his  greatest  expectation. 

Colonel  Park  had  been  badly  wounded 
at  Winchester,  Va.  He  was  shot  by 
sharpshooters  through  the  shoulder,  in 
the  side  and  through  the  foot,  his  horse 
having  been  shot  from  under  him.  The 
wounds  were  all  on  the  left  side,  event- 
•ually  producing  paralysis  causing  his 
untimely  death  at  42  years  of  age.  He 
left  surviving  him  one  son,  Wm.  L. 
Park,  now  Vice-President  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad. 


HOPKINSVILLE,   KY. 


Efficiency  of  Railroad  Operation 

By  Samuel  O.  Dunn,  Editor  of  the  Railway  Age  Gazette 


It  is  the  irony  of  fate  that  the  man- 
agements of  the  railways  of  the  United 
States  should  have  been  subjected  to 
criticism  for  alleged  inefficiency  at  the 
very  time  when  they  have  been  giving 
the  most  splendid  demonstration  of  effi- 
ciency in  the  history  of  transportation. 
It  is  not  exaggerating,  but  speaking  the 
words  of  truth  and  soberness,  to  say  that 
the  courage  and  efficiency  displayed  by 
their  managements,  in  meeting  and 
triumphing  over  the  unfavorable  con- 
ditions with  which  they  have  had  to  deal 
during  the  last  ten  years,  have  never 
been  exceeded  in  industrial  history. 

Many  abuses  have  existed  and  many 
offenses  have  been  committed  on.our  rail- 
ways; but  we  should  begin  to  recognize 
and  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  short- 
comings of  their  managements  have  been 
far  more  than  compensated  for  by  their 
constructive  achievements.  Consider 
briefly  the  circumstances  in  which  their 
officers  have  had  to  do  their  work  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years.  In  August,  1906, 
the  Hepburn  act  went  into  effect,  giving 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in- 
creased authority  over  rate-making  and 
accounting  and  over  some  features  of 
operation.  Maximum  freight  rate  laws, 
2-cent  fare  laws,  acts  prescribing  the 
number  of  hours  that  employees  might 
be  kept  at  work,  the  number  of  them 
there  should  be  in  train  crews,  etc.,  were 
poured  forth  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 
There  was  a  perfect  cloudburst  of  regu- 
latory laws  and  orders.  There  was  one 


great  and  successful  movement  after 
another  by  railway  employees  for  in- 
creases in  their  wages.  There  were  de- 
mands for  new  and  improved  facilities — 
for  steel  cars,  the  elimination  of  grade 
crossings,  the  installation  of  block  sig- 
nals, and  so  on — which  caused  heavy  ad- 
ditions to  the  investment  demanding  that 
a  return  be  paid  on  it. 

Let  us  see  what  was  the  effect  of  cer- 
tain of  the  more  important  changes 
which  occurred  during  this  period  on 
earnings  and  expenses.  The  average 
freight  rate  per  ton  per  mile  was  re- 
duced from  7.48  mills  in  1906  to  7.33 
mills  in  1914,  and  the  average  passenger 
rate  from  2.003  cents  to  1.982.  That 
cost  the  railways  $50,800,000  a  year ;  and 
it  includes  nothing  for  the  reduction  of 
express  and  mail  rates. 

The  taxes  the  roads  had  to  pay  were 
increased  from  3.2  per  cent  to  4.6  per 
cent  of  their  total  earnings.  This  in- 
crease in  the  rate  of  taxation  made  the 
total  taxes  paid  in  the  year  1914,  $42,- 
650,000  greater  than  they  would  have 
been  if  this  increase  in  the  rate  of  tax- 
ation had  not  occured.  The  average 
compensation  of  a  railway  employee  in 
1914  was  $218  greater  than  in  1906, 
which  makes  a  total  of  $369,600,000 
more  than  it  would  have  been  on  the 
basis  of  the  average  wages  paid  in  1906. 
These  reductions  in  rates  and  increases 
in  taxes  and  wages  between  1906  and 
1914  made  a  total  increase  in  the  annual 
burden,  direct  and  indirect,  that  the 


23 


24 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


managements  had  to  carry  of  $462,902,- 
000.  In  1906  it  took  69  cents  out  of 
every  dollar  earned  to  pay  operating  ex- 
penses and  taxes.  In  1914  it  took  77 
cents  out  of  every  dollar  earned  to  pay 
operating  expenses  and  taxes.  If  none 
of  these  changes  in  rates,  taxes  and 
wages  had  occurred,  and  the  roads  had 
been  managed  and  operated  otherwise 
just  as  they  were,  their  net  operating 
income  in  1914  would  have  been  $1,168,- 
900,000  instead  of  only  $706,000,000, 
and  it  would  have  required  only  61  cents 
out  of  each  dollar  earned  to  pay  ex- 
penses and  taxes,  as  compared  with  69 
cents,  the  outlay  per  dollar  of  earnings 
for  operating  expenses  and  taxes  in  1906, 
and  77  cents,  the  actual  outlay  for  these 
purposes  in  1914. 

These  data  are  a  striking  vindication 
of  the  efficiency  of  the  management  of 
our  railways.  They  show  clearly  that 
the  roads  were  constantly  being  operated 
more  and  more  economically,  but  that 
much  faster  than  they  could  save  money 
it  was  being  taken  from  them.  They 
also  show  that  it  was  the  rate-regulating 
authorities,  the  tax  gatherers  and  the 
employees  who  were  taking  it.  Let  us 
hope  that  the  time  will  come  when  those 
who  serve  the  railways,  and  through 
them  the  public,  so  well  as  do  the  Inter- 
national Railway  Fuel  Association  and 
its  members,  will  have  their  work  better 
appreciated  by  the  public,  and  will  not 
see  the  results  of  it  constantly  swept 
away  chiefly  to  benefit  classes  of  persons 
connected  with  the  railways  who  con- 
stantly strive  to  prevent  increases  in  the 
efficiency  of  operation  or  other  classes 
of  persons  who  are  not  connected  with 
the  roads  at  all. — Railway  Age  Gazette. 


WILL  WAGE  WAR  ON  SHYSTER 
LAWYERS 


Mississippi    Bar   Association   Decides 
to  Purge  Profession  of  Unworthy 
Members — The  Plan  of  Pro- 
cedure Adopted  by  Body 


The  Mississippi  Bar  Association  is 
going-  to  wage  a  relentless  war  on  trie 
shyster  lawyers. 


Spurred  by  the  vigorous  campaign 
that  has  been  editorially  waged  by 
the  Daily  News  during  the  past  -year 
against  ambulance  chasers  and  fee- 
grabbers,  the  association  has  decided 
to  give  its  membership  a  thorough 
purging,  and  the  unworthy  practition- 
ers will  be  barred. 

This  decision  was  reached  at  the 
•recent  annual  convention  in  Laurel 
when  the  president  was  instructed  to 
appoint  a  special  committee  on  griev- 
ances to  wage  prosecutions  against 
members  where  charges  of  unprofes- 
sional conduct  are  preferred. 

The  committee  also  has  power  to 
originate  prosecutions  and  it  is  stated 
by  several  of  the  leading-  members  of 
the  profession  that  several  procedures 
are  contemplated  for  the  near  future. 

This  action,  closely  following-  the 
enactment  by  the  Legislature  of  a 
statute  creating  a  State  Board  of  Legal 
Examiners,  will  make  it  more  difficult 
for  the  shyster  to  ply  his  nefarious 
trade. 

At  the  Laurel  meeting  the  following 
resolution  submitted  by  a  committee 
was  adopted : 

"Your  committee  to  which  was  re- 
ferred the  report  of  the  committee  on 
Grievances,  having  considered  the 
same,  beg  leave  to  report  as  follows : 

"They  concur  entirely  in  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  report  and  present 
the  following  suggestions  as  remedy 
for  the  grievances  therein  mentioned : 

"First.  That  a  committee  of  not  less 
than  three  nor  more  than  five  shall 
be  immediately  appointed  by  the  chair, 
to  be  known  as  a  Prosecuting  Com- 
mittee ;  which  committee,  upon  being 
advised  by  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  Grievances  of  any  complaint 
against  any  lawyer  resident  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi  charging  said  law- 
yer with  unprofessional  conduct,  shall 
immediately  investigate  the  complaint 
against  the  said  lawyer,  and  if  in  their 
judgment  the  complaint  is  well  found- 
ed, then  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
committee  to  proceed  to  the  residence 
of  said  attorney  and  to  institute  pro- 
ceedings against  the  said  attorney  to 
disbar  him. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


25 


"Second.  In  case  any  member  of  the 
committee  appointed  shall  certify  eithv- 
er  to  the  president  of  the  association 
or  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
that  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  attend 
the  meeting  called  for  the  purpose  of 
proceeding  to  disbar  said  attorney 
against  whom  charges  may  be  pre- 
ferred, then  the  president  of  this  asso- 
ciation is  authorized  to  appoint  anoth- 
er or  other  members  to  take  the  place 
temporarily  of  those  who  shall  certify 
that  they  are  unable  to  attend. 

"Third.  The  actual  traveling  expens- 
es of  said  committee  and  any  other 
actual  and  necessary  expenses  incurred 
by  them,  shall  be  paid  out  of  the  funds 
of  the  association  upon  a  warrant 
drawn  as  provided  by  the  law  of  the 
association. 

"Your  committee  does  not  believe  that 
any  additional  legislation  is  necessary 
by  the  Legislature  in  order  to  correct 
the  evils  complained  of,  for  the  reason 
that  the  code  now  contains  specific 
authority  for  the  disbarment  of  any 
attorney,  and  therefore  does  not  recom- 
mend any  further  legislation." — Jack- 
son, Miss.,  Daily  News,  May  14th,  1916. 


AGAINST   "HOPPING"   TRAINS 


Cobden    Marshal    Ordered    to    Arrest 

Every  Offender  Caught  in 

That  City 


C  OME  of  the  Anna  boys  who  have 
made  a  practice  of  hopping  trains 
and  going  to  Cobden  most  every  after- 
noon will  have  to  watch  the  Cobden  mar- 
shal hereafter.  It  seems  a  very  good 
plan  to  save  the  boys'  lives  against  their 
will. 

The  following  article  we  clip  from  this 
week's  issue  of  the  Cobden  Sentinel.  It 
may  save  some  of  you  boys  a  fine.  You 
may  actually  care  more  for  a  dollar  than 
a  climb. 

The  Town  Board  has  decided  that 
they  will  do  all  in  their  power  to  pre- 
serve the  lives  and  limbs  of  the  coming 


generation  by  taking  all  the  necessary 
steps  toward  the  elimination  of  one  of 
the  greatest  evils  of  the  present  time  in 
Southern  Illinois..  M.  A.  Lowry,  the 
Marshal  has  been  instructed  to  arrest 
every  person  he  sees,  or  has  proof  of,  of 
jumping  on  or  off  trains.  We  are 
strongly  in  favor  of  this  movement  and 
we  hope  that  the  public,  whether  they 
have  children  who  are  apt  to  be  killed 
or  crippled  for  life,  will  assist  in  every 
way  they  can  toward  the  abatement  of 
this  practice.  Tell  the  proper  authorities 
when  you  see  any  of  the  boys  jumping 
on  the  trains,  and  also  if  it  is  your 
child,  see  that  you  make  him  understand 
that  if  he  does  these  things  that  he  must 
stand  punishment  for  them  the  same  as 
some  other  boy.  Let's  all  work  and  do 
what  we  can  to  stop  this  train  jumping 
before  the  boys  get  killed  or  injured. 
You  know  the  old  saying  about  an  ounce 
of  prevention. 

Last  Sunday  Mr.  Lowry  picked  up 
three  boys  from  Carbondale  and  three 
from  Makanda  for  jumping  off  trains  in 
Cobden  and  has  already  arrested  five 
Cobden  boys  and  one  from  Mounds. — 
Cobden  Sentinel. 


EDITORIAL 

On  Monday  the  Illinois  Central  put 
on  a  through  solid  steel  train  for  its 
through  service  between  Chicago  and 
Sioux  Falls  on  both  the  8  :42  train  and 
the  5  o'clock  train  going  east.  It  con- 
sists of  a  combination  steel  mail  and 
baggage  car,  a  day  coach,  a  cafe  car, 
where  meals  and  lunches  are  served, 
and  the  latest  type  of  Pullman  sleeping 
car.  This  is  one  of  the  most  nifty  trains 
in  service  on  this  trans-continental  route, 
and  in  caring  for  the  convenience  and 
safety  of  the  patrons  of  the  Illinois  Cen- 
ral  is  not  excelled  by  any  railroad.  The 
patrons  of  this  road  in  Rock  Rapids  and 
vicinity  will  note  with  pleasure  this  im- 
provement and  when  going  east  will  no 
doubt  take  the  train  which  insures  them 
safety  and  comfort. — The  Rock  Rapids 
Review,  Thursday,  May  11,  1916. 


t          and 
Christian  Co.,  Kentucky. 


A  Foreword  in  Four  Words  About  Hopkinsville 

By  George  E.  Gary 


PHERE  is  no  law — State  or  Federal — nor 
*•  is  there  one  in  the  great  spiritual  code, 
that  says  "thou  shalt  not  exaggerate  the  at- 
tractions and  advantages  of  thy  home  city." 

Hence  the  "boost  writer"  says  to  himself, 
"go  to  it,  they  can't  do  anything  to  you,  and 
if  you  overslop  just  a  wee  bit,  it's  in  a  good 
cause." 

In  consequence  whereof  such  articles  are 
apt  to  be  a  compound  of  three-fourths  gross 
exaggeration  and  twenty-five  percent  plain 
unalloyed  lie. 

For  many  reasons  the  writer  of  this 
chooses  the  straight  and  narrow  path  of 
truth  in  what  he  shall  here  depose,  two  of 
which  reasons  are  given: 

First:     His  given  name  is  George. 

Second:  The  truth  about  Hopkinsville  is 
stranger  and  more  attractive  than  any  fic- 
tion that  could  be  framed  up. 

Consequently,  these  facts  about  our  city, 
presented  in  this  magazine,  have  no  frills  of 
the  imagination  adorning  them. 

If  the  hundreds  of  thousands  whose  eye 
they  reach  could  spend  one  hour  in  our  little 
city  these  pages  would  be  useless. 

Hopkinsville  weaves  a  sort  of  spell  about 
every  visitor,  more  potent  than  words,  either 
written  or  oral;  makes  a  man  wonder  at  his 
misfortune  and  his  blindness  that  thus  much 
of  his  life  and  effort  have  been  wasted  else- 
where. It  strikes  a  beholder  like  a  whole- 
some, healthful,  beautiful  girl,  resulting  in 
love  at  first  sight  and  fetters  that  bind  just 
as  surely. 


When  the  master  builder  of  universes  had 
in  the  course  of  work  painted  a  setting  sun 
in  the  West  and  a  rainbow  in  the  East,  he 
gave  the  finishing  touches  to  the  tint  of  a 
maiden's  cheek,  and  the  shade  and  slant  to 
her  eyebrow,  and  while  his  hand  was  in  at 
that  sort  of  thing,  he  did  the  landscape  gar- 
dening for  Christian  County,  Kentucky,  and 
made  the  setting  for  the  future  city  of  Hop- 
kinsville. 

Now  Hopkinsville  is  not  that  old — just  a 
little  over  a  centenarian.  She  is  the  County 
seat  of  Christian  County,  which  was  one  of 
the  original  seven  counties  of  Kentucky. 

Jeff  Davis  was  born  in  Christian  County, 
eight  miles  East.  That  portion  of  the  county 
afterwards  became  Todd  County. 

Addison  Cammack  and  Jno.  C.  Latham, 
prominent  figures  on  Wall  Street  of  the  past 
generation,  Vice-President  of  the  U.  S.  Adlai 
Stevenson,  and  some  prominent  officials  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  first  saw  light 
within  her  borders. 

Some  of  the  best  blood  of  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas  coursed  through  the  veins  of 
her  original  settlers,  a  hardy,  sturdy  stock 
whose  descendents  are  generally  all  still 
here,  because  there  was  no  better  place  to 
go. 

Hence  a  better  people  can  nowhere  be  found. 

But  they  have  been  planters  rather  than 
manufacturers.  The  richness  of  the  soil  has 
held  these  men  closely  to  the  farm,  and 
while  Christian  County  is  now  the  most 
talked  of  county  of  the  state  of  Kentucky, 


26 


28 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


producing  as  she  does  twelve  million  pounds 
of  tobacco;  one  million  bushels  each  of 
wheat  and  corn;  is  the  home  of  the  Penny- 
royal Fair;  all  tending  to  make  of  Hopkins- 
ville  a  most  prosperous  city,  yet  it  has  not, 
for  the  above  reasons,  made  the  strides  in 
manufacturies  that  the  county  has  in  agri- 
culture. 

Not  that  we  are  lacking  even  in  this  re- 
spect, boasting  as  we  do  in  this  immediate 
vicinity  flour  mills  grinding  out  25,000  bbls. 
of  flour  daily;  a  great  wagon  plant — the 
MOGUL — with  a  capacity  of  18,000  wagons ; 
vast  tobacco  houses  handling  thirty  million 
pounds;  cigar  factories;  big  ice  plants;  saw 
mills;  sash  and  door  factory;  bottling  and 
brick  making  plants,  etc.,  yet  we  are  not 
satisfied  with  our  manufacturing  record. 

WE  WANT  MORE  FACTORIES— we 
should  have  more  factories. 

The  Illinois  Central,  the  Tennessee  Cen- 
tral and  the  L.  &  N.  R.  R.  all  help  to  make 
of  Hopkinsville  a  most  attractive  point  for 
new  manufacturing  enterprises,  and  they  are 
coming. 

The    close    alliance    between    county    and 
city,   the    excellent   educational   advantages, 
healthfulness    and    beauty    of    location,    our 
handsome    homes    and    churches    and    high 
schools,  our  splendid  streets  and  pavements, 
the  high  character  of  our  citizenship,  all  ap- 
peal eloquently  to  the  homeseeker  as  well  as 
the  manufacturer.    Two  hundred  and  fifteen 
miles  of  Christian  County  pikes  already  radi- 
ate out  from  our  city  and  a  $400,000.00  bond 
issue  has  just  been  voted  for  building  addi- 
tional macadam  roads. 
Past  running  brooks  and  grassy  slopes, 
Past  blooded  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills, 
Past  cozy  farm  houses  embedded  in  ances- 
tral trees. 
Past  school  and  church  and  fields  of  waving 

grain. 
Past  the  rich  green  leafage  of  the  tobacco 

patch, 

Past  the  towering  silo  and  the  dairy  barns, 
Past  green  pastures  with  their  mettlesome 
horses, 


Past  blossoming  orchards  rich  with  promise 

of  fruit. 
While  everywhere  bees  and  birds,  with  hum 

and  song, 
Vie  each  with  each  to  add  his  quota  to  the 

world's  melody. 

That  great  trunk  line,  the  I.  C.  Railroad 
Company,  recognizing  the  importance,  pres- 
ent and  future  of  Hopkinsville,  built  in  to 
our  city  a  decade  and  a  half  ago  and  the 
volume  of  traffic  has  fully  vindicated  the 
wisdom  of  that  policy.  A  traffic  agreement 
with  the  T.  C.  Railroad  Company  virtually 
makes  of  the  I.  C.  Railroad  another  through 
trunk  line.  Its  attitude  toward  Hopkins- 
ville has  been  most  considerate  and  gener- 
ous, and  has  been  fully  appreciated  as  shown 
in  the  reciprocal  relations  existing  between 
it  and  our  flourishing  city.  The  good  seed 
sown  a  dozen  years  ago  when  the  I.  C.,  co- 
laborating  with  the  U.  S.  government,  ran 
a  Good  Roads  Special  train  into  our  city, 
bringing  the  government  officials  here  and 
organizing  a  Good  Roads  Association, 
brought  forth  fruitage  in  the  recent  voting 
of  $400,000.00  for  turnpikes. 

Signal  honor  was  paid  Hopkinsville  and 
Christian  County  when  the  Year  Book  of 
the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  wrote 
an  exhaustive  and  highly  commendatory  ac- 
count of  a  visit  paid  her  by  a  Government 
official,  Mr.  Jesse  Jones,  in  Jj)15.  This  com- 
pliment has  been  paid  to  only  one  other 
county,  Culpepper  County,  Va.,  and  speaks 
volumes  for  the  leading  agricultural  county 
of  our  state  if  not  of  the  entire  nation. 

Hopkinsville  was  never  afflicted  by  a  spas- 
modic boom.  Commercial  hysteria  does  not 
consist  with  the  character  of  her  citizenship. 
A  sturdy  growth,  leaving  no  weak  spots  to 
heal,  no  errors  to  retrieve,  no  lost  motion  to 
redeem,  summarizes  her  past  history,  and 
presages  a  wonderful  and  abiding  future  de- 
velopment, whenever  she  shall  receive  that 
impetus  as  a  manufacturing  point  that  her 
railroad  facilities,  that  the  sterling  character 
of  her  business  men.  and  her  moral  and  eco- 
nomic advantages  fully  warrant. 


The  Real  Thing  in  Co-Operation 


By  Merriwether  E.  Bacon 


A  CCORDING  to  no  less  an  authority 
*»  than  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  Christian  County,  Kentucky,  is 
the  banner  co-operative  county  in  this  coun- 
try-. For  this  reason  it  has  been  singled  out 
as  the  subject  of  a  highly  complimentary 
special  article  appearing  in  the  department's 
Year  Book  for  1915.  To  secure  the  data 
for  this  article,  Jesse  M.  Jones,  one  of  the 
officials  of  the  bureau  of  farm  extension 
work,  visited  the  county  in  person.  This  is 
the  first  time  that  such  signal  recognition 


in  the  Year  Book  has  ever  been   accorded 
the  public  spirit  of  a  county. 

In  1911,  when  the  Hopkinsville  Business 
Men's  Association  was  organized,  the 
motto  selected  was,  "Develop  the  Resources 
We  Now  Have."  Carrying  out  the  spirit 
of  this  motto,  the  Hopkinsville  Business 
Men's  Association  turned  its  attention  to 
helping  the  farmers  rather  than  trying  to 
secure  factories,  the  object  of  previous  ef- 
forts but  which  had  accomplished  little  in 
substantial  results.  In  the  winter  of  1911-12 


30 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


it  was  decided  to  employ  a  county  farm 
agent,  this  county's  application  being  the 
first  filed  from  the  Blue  Grass  State.  To 
file  this,  R.  E.  Cooper,  one  of  the  leading 
tobacco  dealers  and  business  men  of  Hop- 
kinsville,  made  a  trip  to  Washington. 

Geoffrey  Morgan  was  the  farm  agent  as- 
signed to  the  county,  beginning  his  work  in 
the  spring  of  1912.  That  he  was  the  right 
man  for  the  place  was  shown  by  the  re- 
markable progress  made  in  the  two  and  one- 
half  years  he  remained  on  the  job.  He  found 
the  county  altogether  receptive  to  him  and 
the  new  ideas  he  advanced.  He  not  only 
taught  improved  methods  of  agriculture  but 

eached  co-operation  from  the  first,  and  it 
was  not  long  until  he  began  to  get  results. 
Farmers  took  a  new  view  of  their  work  and 
their  responsibility  one  to  another.  The 
town  people  showed  corresponding  interest 
in  the  farmers  and  a  willingness  to  help 
bring  about  better  conditions.  So  the  era 
of  friendly  feeling  was  begun. 

Since  then,  it  has  continued  unabated,  and 
the  harmony  and  community  spirit  pervad- 
ing the  entire  county  is  the  source  of  com- 
ment by  everyone  who  comes  in  touch  with 
it.  As  one  speaker  at  a  public  meeting  held 
in  Hopkinsville  last  summer  said:  "You 
can't  tell  where  Hopkinsville  leaves  off  and 
the  country  begins."  Another  said:  "Hop- 
kinsville extends  to  the  borders  of  Christian 
County  and  Christian  County  extends  to  the 
courthouse  door  in  Hopkinsville."  And  this 
is  true  for  town  and  country  work  together 
whole  heartedly  for  mutual  upbuilding  and 
improvement.  Neighboring  counties  freely 
admit  the  progressiveness  of  their  sister 
county,  and  refer  to  the  "Christian  County 
Spirit"  as  something  real  and  worthy  of 
emulation. 

The  results  obtained  in  improving  the 
roads  of  the  county  show  the  steady  growth 
of  this  co-operative  spirit.  In  1901  a  $75,000 
bond  issue  was  voted  after  a  hard  fight. 
With  this  money  the  then  existing  system  of 
pikes,  totalling  about  fifty  miles,  was 
bought,  the  toll  gates  torn  down  and  travel 
made  free  to  everybody.  The  good  effects 
were  so  apparent  that  in  1907  a  $100,000 
bond  issue  was  carried  with  comparative 
ease  and  in  1910  still  another  $27,000  issue 
was  made.  But  so  keen  were  the  country 
people  for  macadam  roads  that  they  offered 
cash  subscriptions,  or  to  furnish  teams, 
labor  or  material,  in  order  to  get  their  roads 
piked.  With  this  additional  help  many  more 
miles  of  pike  were  built  than  would  other- 
wise have  been  possible.  Yet,  in  time,  all 
the  money  was  gone,  and  as  the  county  was 
then  bonded  to  the  limit  allowed  bv  law, 
there  was  no  way  to  raise  more.  The  an- 
nual road  and  bridge  fund  was  approxi- 
mately $35.000,  all  of  which  was  required  to 
make  repairs.  But  the  people  still  kept 
clamoring  for  more  pikes. 

In  this  extremity,  the  county  officials  told 
the  country  people  if  they  would  help  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  dirt  roads,  it  would  give 


some  money  for  building  new  pikes.  The 
proposition  was  accepted  generally.  The  of- 
ficials arranged  to  furnish  split  log  drags  to 
every  farmer  who  would  agree  to  use  it  on 
a  mile  or  more  of  road.  Several  hundred 
drags  were  taken  by  the  farmers  and  used 
to  great  advantage.  The  business  men  of 
Hopkinsville"  helped  create  an  interest  by 
offering  $200  in  prizes  for  the  best  mile  of 
road  made  with  a  drag. 

The  people  of  the  northwest  part  of  the 
county  were  very  anxious  for  ten  miles  of 
pike  to  be  built  on  the  Buttermilk  road  and 
to  get  it,  they  offered  to  keep  in  condition 
fifty  miles  of  dirt  road  in  that  section. 
They  were  told  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  build  the  ten  miles  at  once  but  that  two 
miles  per  year  would  be  built  for  five  years 
if  the  farmers  would  keep  up  the  fifty  miles 
of  dirt  road  for  the  same  period.  The  offer 
was  accepted  and  the  first  two  miles  of  pike 
were  laid  last  year.  Similar  cases  of  co-op- 
eration in  securing  roads  are  to  be  found  in 
nearly  every  section  of  the  county. 

Such  methods  are  all  right,  but  it  is  too 
slow  to  suit  Christian  County  when  anything 
better  offers.  So,  when  Kentucky's  new 
road  law,  providing  for  state  aid  for  the 
counties  in  their  road  building  and  raising 
the  limit  of  bonded  indebtedness  from  two 
to  five  per  cent  of  the  assessed  value  of 
property,  went  into  effect,  agitation  for  an- 
other bond  issue  was  begun. 

This  time,  the  amount  was  placed  at 
$400,000  and  the  election  was  held  on  March 
18th.  The  proposition  carried  by  more  than 
3  to  1.  With  this  money  it  is  estimated  the 
present  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  pike 
can  all  be  reconstructed  and  about  fifty 
miles  of  new  pike  built.  This  would  carry 
all  trunk  line  roads  to  the  county  limits  and 
possibly  take  care  of  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant cross  roads,  giving  the  county  one 
of  the  finest  systems  of  pike  in  Kentucky. 

The  improvement  of  the  rural  schools  is 
another  matter  in  which  co-operation  has 
produced  great  results.  L.  E.  Foster,  the 
present  county  superintendent,  is  a  great  be- 
liever in  co-operation  and  he  has  encouraged 
active  support  of  the  schools  among  the 
people. 

Like  so  many  counties  in  Kentucky. 
Christian  a  few  years  ago.  had  a  number  of 
small,  poorly  constructed,  unsanitary  and 
badly  equipped  school  houses.  In  urging 
the  necessity  fo_r  repairing  some  of  these 
that  would  permit  of  it,  and  the  building  of 
new  ones  where  the  need  was  imperative, 
Superintendent  Foster  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  county  revenues  would  al- 
low only  about  $800  each  for  new  buildines 
and  proportionate  amounts  for  repairs.  He 
called  on  the  patrons  of  the  school  districts 
to  add  to  this  by  giving  money  and  furnish- 
ing teams  for  hauling,  labor  and  such  ma- 
terial as  they  could.  His  advice  was  heeded 
to  such  an  extent  that  really  amazing  results 
have  been  attained. 

In  1914-15  eighteen  school  buildings  were 


32 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


erected  and  twenty-five  were  remodeled  at  a 
total  cost  of  $19,000.  Of  this  amount,  the 
patrons  contributed  $5,000. 

Perhaps  the  best  of  the  new  buildings  is 
the  one  erected  at  Howell.  This  building 
and  grounds  complete  cost  $3,500  of  which 
the  school  district  paid  in  money  and  labor 
$2,000.  But  they  have  a  high  school  that 
would  do  credit  to  any  town.  Further  evi- 
dence of  the  whole-hearted  interest  of  the 
people  in  the  rural  schools  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  there  are  seventy-nine  school  im- 
provement leagues  or  parent-teacher  clubs 
in  the  county  outside  the  towns  or  graded 
school  districts.  Also  the  school  houses 
have  come  to  be  recognized  as  neighbor- 
hood gathering  places  where  all  sorts  of 
meetings  and  social  affairs  are  held. 

There  are  eighteen  active  farmers'  clubs 
in  the  county,  one  of  which  is  composed  en- 
tirely of  negroes.  Through  these  clubs, 
about  3,000  tons  of  fertilizer  have  been 
bought  co-operatively  at  an  average  saving 
of  $3  per  ton. 

Notable  work  has  been  done  in  eradi- 
cating hog  cholera  by  the  administration  of 
serum.  In  this  work  at  least  eleven  veteri- 
narians and  farmers  tendered  their  services 
to  the  county  agent  free  of  charge.  The 
success  attending  this  treatment  is  shown 
by  the  following  figures:  In  1912,  before 
the  administration  of  serum  began,  it  is  es- 
timated $225,000  worth  of  hogs  were  lost  in 
the  county.  In  1913,  serum  was  being  used 
and  $150,000  worth  of  hogs  died.  In  1914-15, 
the  loss  had  been  cut  to  $10,000. 

Standardization  of  the  cattle  and  poultry 
industries  in  the  county  has  been  under- 
taken in  an  enthusiastic  manner  under  the 
leadership  of  the  present  county  agent,  A. 
M.  Casey.  A  beef  cattle  association  has 
been  formed  and  the  Polled  Durham  se- 
lected as  the  breed  to  be  raised  and  it  is 
rapidly  being  adopted.  A  dairy  cattle  as- 
sociation has  been  formed  and  the  Jersey 
selected  for  it.  One  of  the  most  promising 
movements  ever  inaugurated  is  the  poultry 
association  which  has  adopted  the  White 
Wyandotte  chicken  as  the  standard  for  the 
county.  As  the  result  of  these  organizations 
herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  chickens  are  be- 
ing started  under  the  new  plan.  All  three 
are  receiving  the  hearty  support  of  the  busi- 
ness men  of  the  towns. 

The  success  attained  by  the  Pennyroyal 
fair  is  another  thing  which  shows  what  town 
and  country  men  can  accomplish  when  they 
are  united.  This  fair  was  organized  in  1912, 
and  has  been  so  successful  that  it  has  been 
invited  to  join  the  circuit  of  state  fairs.  It  is 
designed  primarily  to  boost  agriculture,  live 
stock,  poultry  and  allied  branches  of  farm 
life. 

The  merchants  are  constantly  doing 
something  to  show  their  interest  in  the 
farmers  and  their  projects.  A  Good  Roads 
Day  was  declared  last  summer  and  scores 
of  business  and  professional  men  of  Hop- 
kinsville  and  the  other  towns  went  out  on 


the  roads  and  with  pick  and  shovel  helped 
to  put  them  in  first  class  condition.  Every 
time  a  road  has  been  built  in  any  neighbor- 
hood, the  merchants  have  contributed  to  it 
liberally  and  have\  also  given  freely  to 
prizes  for  Boys'  Corn  Clubs,  Girls'  Can- 
ning Clubs,  etc.  A  poultry  firm  in  Hopkins- 
ville  desired  to  encourage  the  raising  of 
guineas  and  gave  away  8,000  eggs  to 
the  farmers  to  get  flocks  started  and 
then  offered  the  highest  market  prices 
for  the  fowls.  A  bank  has  offered  for 
the  coming  summer  $200  in  prizes  of  $5 
each  to  the  forty  corn  club  boys  who  most 
faithfully  follow  the  directions  of  the  county 
agent  in  cultivating  their  corn  crop.  An- 
other bank  has  offered  to  loan  money  with- 
out interest  to  any  boy  or  girl  who  wishes 
to  start  a  flock  of  White  Wyandotte  chick- 
ens this  year  and  who  hasn't  the  necessary 
funds.  A  flouring  mill  has  this  spring  given 
away  1,000  White  Wyandotte  eggs.  A  big 
department  store  has  for  several  years  of- 
fered prizes  to  the  women  of  the  county  for 
turkey  raising. 

Most  of  the  stores  of  Hopkinsville  have 
rest  rooms  for  use  of  the  people  of  the 
county  and  places  where  they  may  leave 
their  bundles.  The  city  has  a  public  library 
which  is  open  to  the  country  people  under 
the  same  conditions  as  the  town  people  en- 
joy. There  is  a  $100,000  city  high  school  to 
which  country  pupils  are  also  admitted. 
Even  politics  is  subordinated  to  the  all  im- 
portant question  of  public  welfare.  In  the 
recent  bond  issue  election  Democrats  and 
Republicans  went  hand  in  hand  in  support 
of  the  proposition  and  worked  day  and  night 
with  no  thought  as  to  political  advantage. 
Speakers  generally  went  put  in  pairs,  one 
Democrat  and  one  Republican. 

Last  summer,  Geoffrey  Morgan,  who  had 
been  promoted  to  the  position  of  state 
agent,  suggested  that  it  would  be  a  valuable 
experience  for  the  farmers  aad  farm  agents 
of  Central  and  Eastern  Kentucky  to  go^  to 
Western  Kentucky  and  see  what  was  being 
done  there.  His  proposition  met  with  ready 
favor  and  in  June  the  trip  was  made,  War- 
ren and  Christian  counties  being  visited  for 
one  day  each  by  about  two  hundred  men 
who  made  the  trip  on  a  special  train.  In 
Christian  county  one  hundred  automobiles, 
most  of  them  owned  by  town  people,  were 
donated  for  the  occasion  and  generally 
with  the  owner  along  in  person,  these  ma- 
chines spent  the  entire  day  carrying  the 
visitors  over  the  farming  sections.  The 
hotel  bill  of  the  visitors  was  paid,  they 
were  served  an  old  time  barbecue  at  the 
fair  grounds  at  noon  and  an  open  air  re- 
ception was  given  at  one  of  the  parks  that 
night. 

The  three  newspapers  of  the  county  are 
potent  factors  in  advancing  the  general 
good.  Their  columns  are  always  open  to 
promoting  any  public  cause. 

Now,  of  course,  the  question  will  be  asked, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


33 


"Does  all  of  this  pay?"  To  this  Christian 
County  can  most  emphatically  answer,  "Yes, 
indeed  it  does."  And  proof  is  to  be  had  on 
every  hand.  In  the  first  place,  the  farmers 
have  gained  a  new  vision  of  their  oppor- 
tunities. They  are  producing  more  per  acre 
than  they  ever  produced  before.  They  are 
in  many  cases  showing  substantial  savings 
in  the  cost  of  production  by  discarding  old 
and  wasteful  methods  and  adopting  new  and 
scientific  measures.  They  are  conserving 
their  lands  as  never  before  and  are  actually 
reclaiming  some  lands  that  had  practically 


lands  has  steadily  advanced  from  $20  to  $50 
per  acre  a  decade  ago  to  $50  to  $150  per  acre 
now.  And  social  conditions  throughout  the 
country  have  improved  along  with  all  these 
things  and  farm  life  is  more  attractive  and 
profitable;  consequently,  fewer  boys  and 
girls  are  leaving  the  farms  for  the  cities. 

The  town  can  also  point  to  great  benefits. 
First,  the  estimates  of  the  United  States 
census  bureau  of  the  gain  in  population  at 
the  end  of  the  first  five  years  since  the  last 
census  was  taken,  show  that  Hopkinsville 
ranks  second  among  Kentucky  cities  as 


"PRINCE  ALBERT" 
Saddle,   Harness,    Trick  and   High    School   Pony    Owned   by   Dr.    G.    P.   Isbell,   Hopkinsville,   Ky. 


been  abandoned.  They  are  diversifying 
crops  and  are  turning  from  old  staples  that 
have  been  proved  unprofitable  to  new  prod- 
ucts which  offer  greater  returns.  They  are 
keeping  in  close  touch  with  market  condi- 
tions, in  which  they  have  the  earnest  aid  of 
the  merchants  and  are  selling  at  opportune 
times  and  thus  realize  the  best  prices.  And 
the  better  roads  which  they  now  have  per- 
mit them  to  deliver  their  grain,  tobacco  or 
other  produce  at  any  time  of  the  year,  and 
thus  get  the  advantage  of  the  best  prices. 
Now  that  the  $400,000  bond  issue  has  been 
voted  their  advantages  along  this  line  will 
be  greatly  increased.  The  value  of  farm 


showing  the  greatest  per  cent  of  increase. 
In  1910  the  census  figures  gave  the  town  a 
population  of  9,419  and  in  1915  it  was  10,545. 
Only  one  town,  Lexington,  shows  a  greater 
per  cent  of  gain.  Equally  favorable  indica- 
tions of  good  results  are  shown  in  the  report 
of  building  operations,  in  which  the  record 
for  a  single  year  has  been  as  high  as  $1,000,- 
000.  In  this  respect,  also,  Hopkinsville's  per 
cent  of  improvement,  according  to  popula- 
tion, compares  most  favorably  with  any 
other  town  in  the  state.  Bank  clearings  and 
deposits  and  general  business  have  not  only 
held  their  own  but  show  a  substantial  in- 
crease year  by  year  and  the  popularity  of  the 


34 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


town  as  a  trading  center  has  been  largely 
extended.  Out  of  town  and  mail  order  busi- 
ness is  at  a  minimum  and  the  country  people 
loyally  support  their  home  merchants.  Town 
property  has  also  advanced  in  value  and  has 
held  steady  at  these  advances. 

So,  naturally,  both  the  business  men  and 
farmers  are  thoroughly  convinced  of  the 
value  of  co-operation.  And  for  the  future 
still  greater  things  are  planned  along  this 
line.  Right  now  the  Hopkinsville  Business 
Men's  Association  is  formulating  plans  to 
assist  the  farmers  more  in  marketing  their 


products  profitably  and  will  establish  and 
maintain  a  bureau  for  this  purpose;  they  ex- 
pect to  attend  the  farmers'  club  meetings 
and  talk  on  subjects  calculated  to  aid  them 
and  in  many  ways  to  show  by  their  works 
that  they  want  to  be  of  real  assistance  to 
their  country  brethren.  And  the  farmers 
are  reciprocating  by  joining  the  H.  B.  M.  A. 
and  helping  to  administer  the  affairs  of  their 
chief  city. 

All    of    which    portends    still    further    ad- 
vancement for  Christian   County. 


Real  Estate  in  Hopkinsville  and  Christian  County 

By  T.  J.  MeReynolds 


F\URING  the  period  from  1900  to  1910 
•^  Hopkinsville  showed  a  gain  of  thirty 
per  cent  in  population  according  to  the  of- 
ficial census,  which,  with  two  exceptions, 
was  the  largest  increase  made  in  Kentucky. 
Since  that  time  she"  has  been  growing  at 
about  the  same  rate,  and  for  thrift,  energy 
and  enterprise  the  pride  of  the  "Pennyrile" 
stands  at  the  top. 

Hopkinsville  has  never  had  a  boom,  but 
her  growth  has  been  continuous  and  healthy. 
Real  estate  values  in  the  city  have  advanced 
in  about  the  same  ratio  as  our  population 
and  during  the  past  ten  years  a  number  of 
additions  have  been  added  to  the  city  and 
sold  at  reasonable  prices,  and  in  nearly 
every  instance  have  been  built  up  with 
nice  modern  homes. 

When  it  comes  to  REAL  SURE 
ENOUGH  VALUES  the  farming  lands  in 
Christian  County  easily  take  first  rank.  The 
country  around  Hopkinsville  is  rich  in  soils 
that  produce  large  crops  of  wheat,  corn,  to- 
bacco, oats,  barley,  alfalfa,  clover  and 
timothy.  Peaches,  apples,  pears  and  straw- 
berries where  properly  cared  for  reach  the 
acme  of  perfection  on  these  lime  stone  soils. 
The  farmers  of  the  county  are  awakening  to 
the  possibilities  of  dairy  and  live  stock 
farming,  and  today  scores  of  herds  of  Here- 
fords,  Polled  Durham,  Black  Angus,  Hoi- 
stein  and  Jerseys  are  oroducing  beef  and 
butter-fat  which  are  making  a  nice  profit  to 


the  farmer.  One  of  the  most  potent  factors 
in  building  up  the  live  stock  industry  of  the 
county  is  the  Pennyroyal  Fair  Association, 
which  is  held  annually  and  attended  by 
thousands  of  people  from  all  over  this  sec- 
tion of  the  state.  This,  together  with  our 
Beef  Cattle  Association,  Dairy  Cattle  Club, 
Poultry  Club,  Crop  Improvement  Associa- 
tion and  Boys'  Corn  and  Pig  Club,  all  under 
the  direction  of  our  efficient  county  agent, 
have  done  much  to  stimulate  an  interest  in 
stock  and  poultry  raising.  Christian  County 
is  one  of  the  few  counties  where  the  United 
States  Government  has  had  a  geological  sur- 
vey made  showing  all  the  different  kind  and 
tvpes  of  soil,  which  is  of  great  advantage  to 
the  farmer,  as  it  enaoles  him  to  find  out  verv 
readily  just  what  his  land  needs  to  make  it 
produce  the  best. 

It  has  often  been  said  bv  competent  judsres 
of  land  from  Illinois,  Indiana  and  even  other 
sections  of  our  own  state,  that  when  von 
consider  the  quality  of  our  land,  the  char- 
acter of  our  improvements,  our  geographical 
location,  the  diversity  of  our  croos.  thp 
abundance  of  cheap  labor,  our  hundreds  of 
miles  of  hard  roads  and  good  markets  that 
we  bavp  tVip  best  values  in  land  to  be  found 
on  EARTH. 

An  investment  in  Christian  County  real 
estate  at  this  time  is  sure  to  prove  profit- 
able, for  this  is  truly  the  land  of  promise, 
peace  and  plenty. 


Live  Stock  in  Christian  County 


By  S.  L.  Cowherd 


CHRISTIAN  COUNTY,  through  its 
amazing  stride  of  co-operation,  has 
justly  won  the  reputation  as  one  of  the 
most  progressive  counties  of  the  United 
States,  and  is  so  considered  by  the  Ex- 
tension Department  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 


Our  soils  produce  most  luxuriantly  all 
varieties  of  grasses  and  clovers,  which  so 
amply  provide  us  with  pasture  and  hay,  such 
as  red  top,  orchard  grass,  blue  grass,  sweet 
clover,  white  clover,  crimson  clover,  alfalfa 
clover,  and  red  clover.  The  latter  two  varie- 
ties are  pretty  sure  crops,  and  large  yielders, 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL    MAGAZINE 


35 


therefore  predominant.  The  northern  por- 
tion of  Christian  County,  which  is  pretty 
generally  undulating,  and  the  lands  of  a  poor 
kind,  is  especially  adapted  to  sheep  raising, 
and  offers  great  inducement  to  investors.  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  at  the  present  prices  for 
wool  and  mutton,  thousands  of  acres  of  this 
land  can  be  bought  at  a  price  that  the  profits 
of  one  year  will  easily  pay  for  the  land.  It 
is  also  a  good  breeding  territory  for  hogs 
and  cattle,  but  it  should  have  100  sheep 
where  it  only  has  one  now,  and  the  time  is 
not  far  distant  when  this  land  will  be  made 
most  profitable  in  this  manner. 

South  Christian  is  gently  rolling,  just 
enough  to  drain  well,  and  is  very  fertile; 
capable  of  producing  all  crops  that  are 
needed  for  breeding  and  feeding  live  stock, 
and  with  the  fast  growing  interest  in  these 
lines,  I  predict  Christian  will  soon  be  one  of 
the  large  live  stock  producing  counties  of 
our  country. 

Dairying 

Dairying  is  growing  profitable  through  the 
organization  of  the  Christian  County  Dairy- 
men's Association.  The  establishment  of  a 
first  class  creamery,  a  large  branch  of  an 
out-of-town  creamery,  and  two  wholesale 
ice  cream  factories.  Less  than  three  years 
ago,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  dairying 
interest,  large  enough  to  take  care  of  the 
city  trade,  our  people  did  not  know  that 


milk  and  butter  had  a  money  value,  and  in 
most  cases  cdnsidered  a  "slam  on  dignity" 
to  offer  it  for  sale,  but  this  sentiment  has 
changed,  and  our  people  have  discovered 
that  the  Jersey  cow  is  their  Friend;  a  credit 
maker;  a  debt  payer;  a  land  builder,  and 
therefore,  especially  adapted  more  than  any 
other  one  thing  for  the  farmer  with  less 
than  200  acres  of  land.  The  dairy  cow  can 
and  will  surely  return  you  a  substantial 
profit.  It  is  estimated  that  4,000  cows  are 
now  being  milked  in  the  vicinity  of  Hop- 
kinsville,  and  the  numbers  are  increasing 
monthly,  and  you  cannot  find  a  dissatisfied 
man  in  the  business.  But  listen — when  God 
created  Christian  County  He  provided  it 
with  everything  that  a  dairyman  needs. 

Beef  Cattle 

We  have  a  Christian  County  Beef  Breed- 
ers' Association,  the  object  of  which  is  mani- 
fold, such  as  agitating  the  interest  in  better 
beef  cattle;  standardizing  as  near  as  pos- 
sible the  breed,  and  I  may  say  right  here 
that  the  "Polled  Durham"  has  been  ac-- 
cepted  by  this  county  as  the  standard,  and, 
that  with  the  energy  that  will  be  injected  by 
this  association,  and  with  the  determined 
resolution  to  make  this  county  famous  as  a 
Polled  Durham  county,  it  will  only  be  a  few 
years  until  Christian  County's  fame  will 
spread  over  the  land,  and  this  will  be  the 
bright  star  in  the  Polled  Durham  world. 
Less  than  six  years  ago  you  could  search  the 


36 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


county  over  and  you  could  not  find  one 
dozen  farms  that  were  breeding,  feeding  or 
pasturing  beef  cattle.  There  was  not  enough 
beef  cattle  produced  to  feed  the  small  city 
of  Hopkinsville,  and  it  was,  therefore, 
necessary  that  our  fresh  meat  markets  be 
supplied  by  the  packers  or  live  stock 
shipped  in  for  slaughter.  But  now  things 
have  changed.  Our  people  are  thinking,  and 
today  you  will  find  a  few  cattle  on  most  ev- 
ery farm,  and  many  of  them  have  large  num- 
bers, and  a  general  desire  prevails  to  in- 
crease as  fast  as  it  is  practicable.  Our  peo- 
ple are  making  money  on  beef  cattle,  and  it 


many  of  the  greatest  breeding  and  show 
hogs  before  the  public.  It  is  my  opinion 
that  no  other  county  in  the  United  States 
offers  so  much  breeding  and  quality  in 
Duroc  hogs  as  does  Christian  County  breed- 
ers for  the  money.  I  could  mention  the 
names  of  many  prominent  show  hogs  but, 
no  doubt,  enough  has  been  said  on  this  sub- 
ject. 

Mules 

On  account  of  so  many  large  farms,  and 
this  being  doubly  the  largest  wheat  produc- 
ing county,  and  the  second  largest  tobacco 
producing  county  in  the  state  of  Kentucky, 


"THE   MAIN    GUY" 
Combined   Saddle  and  Harness  Stallion.  Owned  by  Dr.  G.   P.  Isbell,   Hopkinsville,  Ky. 


is  only  in  its  infancy.  We  know  of  no  bet- 
ter place  to  breed  and  feed  beef  cattle  than 
in  South  Christian,  and  we  are  sure  to  grow. 

Our  people  are  becoming  better  judges  of 
type   and   breeding,   and   the   scrub   and   off 
kind  must  make  room  for  better  cattle,  be- 
cause our  people  are  demanding  it. 
Hogs 

As  of  all  other  breeds  of  live  stock,  we 
have  had  all  the  prevailing  families,  but  of 
hogs  the  Duroc  Jerseys  predominate  to  such 
an  extent  that  90  per  cent  of  all  hogs  bred 
in  Christian  County  are  red  hogs,  and,  at  the 
present  time,  we  have  a  number  of  promi- 
nent breeders,  and  are  justly  entitled  to  the 
distinction  of  having  within  our  borders 


it  necessitates  a  large  number  of  heavy  farm 
mules  to  do  the  heavy  work,  and  hot 
weather  following,  I  know  of  no  other 
county  that  uses  so  many  mules  of  good 
quality  as  does  Christian  County.  There 
seems  to  exist  a  feeling  of  pride  to  outdo 
our  neighbor  by  having  a  better  set  of  mules 
to  use  on  the  farm  than  the  neighbor  does. 
The  mule  teams  usually  weigh  from  2,200 
to  3,200  pounds,  and  quite  a  bit  of  finish  is 
demanded.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  a  set 
of  farm  mules  that  cost  the  owner  on  an  av- 
erage of  $500.00  the  pair,  and  many  instances 
$550.00  to  $600.00.  They  prefer  to  buy  a  four 
to  seven-year-old,  and  generally  use  them 
until  they  are  about  worrt  out,  at  which  time 


Residences,  Hopkinsvi'Ue  K 


38 


they  are  traded  to  a  mule  dealer  for  younger 
and  more  active  ones,  and  then  they  find 
their  way  to  a  cheap  trade  or  Jockeys.  It  is 
no  doubt  a  mistake  that  pur  large  farmers 
do  not  keep  at  least  a  pair  of  heavy  brood 
mares  to  raise  mules  from  to  annually  pro- 
vide a  fresh  supply,  and  avoid  the  expense 
of  buying  high  priced  teams.  I  know  of  no 
farm,  large  or  small,  that  can  not  find 
enough  work  for  a  brood  mare  to  let  her 
pay  her  board  on  the  side,  and  make  her  foal 
as  a  profit.  Farms  of  less  than  200  acres  can 


These  facts  are  realized  by  a  few  of  Hop- 
kinsville's  business  and  professional  men, 
and  an  organization  was  perfected  by  them 
for  holding  a  poultry  show  in  connection 
with  the  Pennyroyal  Fair  in  1913,  knowing 
that  a  poultry  show  was  the  means  of  in- 
teresting the  most  people  in  pure  bred 
poultry.  Out  of  840  entries  at  the  first 
show  a  very  small  proportion  were  from  the 
county,  but  in  succeeding  shows  the  increase 
was  40  per  cent  the  second  and  80  per  cent 
the  third  year  of  the  total  number  of  birds 


'THE  JEW,"  SADDLE  AND  HARNESS   STALLION,   OWNED  BY  DR.  G.    P.   ISBELL, 

HOPKINSVILLE,  KY. 


be  successively  run  by  the  use  of  three  mares 
to  take  the  place  of  two  mules,  and  I  know 
when  our  farmers  begin  to  think  along  this 
line,  we  will  raise  most  of  our  own  teams, 
and  some  to  sell,  instead  of  buying  them. 
A  few  have  already  begun  this  plan  and  are 
now  aware  that  it  is  a  paying  proposition. 
We  have  as  good  breeding  jacks  as  you  will 
find,  and  we  should  give  these  "long  ears"  a 
chance  to  show  their  ability. 


POULTRY 
By  B.  D.  HU1 

No  county  in  Kentucky  has  more  natural 
resources  for  the  development  of  the  poul- 
try industry  than  Christian  County.  Pure 
water,  lime  and  grit  are  abundant.  The  soil 
and  climate  produce  all  green  foods  and 
grains  that  are  necessary,  and  the  railroad 
facilities  are  the  best  to  b.e  had  for  quick 
transportation  to  the  large  markets. 


shown.  At  the  same  time  the  number  grew 
to  1,490  birds  on  exhibition. 

In  the  fall  of  1915  the  Christian  County 
Poultry  Improvement  Association  was  or- 
ganized by  the  same  men,  with  the  addition 
of  a  number  of  others  for  the  further  im- 
provement of  poultry  in  the  county.  Their 
organization  adopted  the  White  Wyandottes 
as  the  standard  fowl  for  the  county,  and  se- 
cured the  co-operation  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  in  the  stand- 
ardization plan. 

With  the  aid  of  the  fiscal  court,  the  mem- 
bers of  which  are  always  on  the  progressive 
side  of  any  movement  for  the  betterment  of 
conditions  in  the  county,  a  demonstrator 
was  employed  to  organize  boys'  and  girls' 
poultry  clubs,  and  at  this  time  the  member- 
ship of  these  clubs  numbers  93,  and  they 
are  all  growing  pure  bred  White  Wyan- 
dottes. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


39 


The  Acme  Mills,  a  local  concern,  greatly 
assisted  in  the  standardization  of  the  poultry 
interests  by  a  free  distribution  of  White 
Wyandotte  eggs  to  adult  farmers.  Several 
hundred  eggs  were  bought  through  the 
Christian  County  Crop  Improvement  Asso- 
ciation, so  at  the  present  time  there  has  been 
distributed  in  the  county  about  4,000  pure 
bred  White  Wyandotte  eggs. 

Christian  County  now  boasts  of  no  less 
than  300  flocks  of  pure  bred  poultry,  and 
through  the  co-operation  of  the  interests 
above  mentioned,  this  number  will  continue 
to  increase  until  Christian  County  will  be- 
come the  foremost  poultry  producing  county 
in  the  state,  and  Hopkinsville  will  be  known 


as  the  "CITY  OF  WHITE  WYAN- 
DOTTES." 

A  few  years  ago  the  poultry  industry  at 
Hopkinsville  amounted  to  only  $25,000.00; 
now  the  business  totals  a  half  million. 

Christian  County  offers  great  opportunity 
for  those  who  desire  to  engage  in  poultry 
raising.  Near  Hopkinsville  land  can  be 
bought  at  a  low  price  on  long  time.  Dealers 
buy  poultry  and  eggs  at  the  farm  doors,  and 
give  good  prices.  The  Hopkinsville  retail 
market  is  good,  and  poultry  products  find  a 
ready  sale.  With  this,  and  the  wholesale 
dealers  located  here,  thousands  of  dollars 
worth  of  poultry  products  will  find  a  ready 
market  through  Hopkinsville. 


The  above  illustration  is  a  true  representation  of  the  Factory,  Dry  Sheds,  and  Lumber  Yard 
of  the  Mosul  Wagon  Company.  Inc.  The  plant  is  located  on  both  Illinois  Central  and  L.  &  N. 
Railroad  tracks  and  covers  fifteen  acres  of  ground.  The  building  proper  is  a  two-story  brick 
and  of  the  most  modern  construction  with  total  floor  space  of  85.000  square  feet.  It  is  equipped 
throughout  with  Automatic  Sprinkling  System,  which  makes  it  practically  fireproof.  They  own 
and  operate  their  own  Electric  Power  and  Lighting  Plant,  as  all  of  their  Machinery  is  driven  by 
electricity.  In  each  department  they  have  installed  the  very  latest  and  most  up-to-date 
Machinery  that  is  on  the  market  for  making  wagons.  With  their  present  plant  and  equipment 
they  have  sufficient  capacity  to  turn  out  annually  from  12  to  15,000  complete  wagons. 


Agriculture 

By  A.  M.  Casey,  County  Agriculturist 


CHRISTIAN  COUNTY  has  continued 
to  progress  during  the  year  1915  and 
1916  with  unabated  regularity.  Outstand- 
ing features  are  the  co-operative  spirit 
manifested  by  the  business  men  and  the 
farmers,  equalled  nowhere  in  the  state  and 
hardly  excelled  anywhere;  a  $400,000.00 
bond  issue  voted  on  for  the  building  of 


better  roads,  almost  75  per  cent  of  the 
voters  being  for  the  issue. 

The  fairness  and  justice  of  the  citizens  of 
this  county  are  indeed  worthy  of  note. 

The  business  men  of  Hopkinsville  and  the 
farmers  of  South  Christian,  although  pay- 
ing most  of  the  taxes  paid  in  the  county, 
unanimously  decided  that  North  Christian, 


40 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


which  section  only  pays  about  20  per  cent 
of  the  taxes,  should  have  half  of  the 
amount  of  money  obtained  from  the  bond 
issue  spent  on  roads  in  North  Christian. 

The  business  men  of  Hopkinsville  are  very 
much  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  farm- 
ers of  the  county,  and  particularly  of  the 
northern  portion  of  the  county,  willing  to 
give  time  and  money  toward  any  move  for 
the  upbuilding  of  that  section.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  farmers  of  the  county  take  great 
pride  in  the  "best  town  in  Kentucky,"  be- 
lieve in  patronizing  home  trade,  and  are  con- 
tinually boosting  Hopkinsville  and  her  mer- 
chants. 

The  co-operative  spirit  shown  by  the 
farmers  in  organizing  the  Dairymen's  Asso- 
ciation, the  Beef  Cattle  Breeder's  Associa- 
tion, the  poultry  Improvement  Association, 
and  adopting  as  the  standard  beef  breed  of 
cattle  for  the  county  "Polled  Durham"  and 
"Jersey"  cattle  for  the  dairy  breeds,  with 
"White  Wyandottes"  for  the  farm  utility 
breed,  these  not  being  surpassed  by  any  oth- 
er county.  Red  hogs  will  be  made  the 
standard  breed  of  hogs  in  due  time. 

The  agriculture  of  the  county  is  only 
partly  developed;  the  best  is  yet  to  come. 

North  Christian  will  some  day  produce 
enough  live  stock  to  feed  a  population  equal 
to  that  of  the  entire  state's  population  at 
the  present  time.  There  are  great  possibil- 
ities in  that  section  of  the  county,  and 
when  the  farmers  finally  get  in  the  habit  of 
turning  under  more  legumes  and  grazing 
more  live  stock,  and  keeping  more  lands 
in  permanent  pasture,  there  will  be  a  great 
revolution  in  conditions  now  existing  there. 

South  Christian  is  an  ideal  farming  sec- 
tion, with  its  wonderful  soil,  that  seems  to 
be  made  of  iron,  it  is  so  hard  to  impoverish, 
and  with  the  methods  now  being  used  in  the 
improvement  of  the  soil  through  legumes, 
live  stock  and  manure,  it  being  a  rare  oc- 
currence to  find  a  farm  without  a  manure 
spreader,  the  land  in  South  Christian  will 
double  in  value  in  the  next  fifteen  years. 

This  section  has  the  advantage  over  more 
rolling  lands,  in  that  there  is  practically  no 
.  washed  and  eroded  fields  in  the  section  south 
of  Hopkinsville.  The  farmers  are  studying 
these  conditions  more  and  more  every  year, 
and  are  paying  more  attention  every  year  to 
soil  improvement. 

A  large  percentage  of  the  farmers  are  now 


feeding  cattle  through  the  winter,  putting 
them  in  the  barn  in  December  and  feeding 
them  until  spring,  getting  fancy  prices  for 
their  fattened  bullocks  after  feeding  them 
out  of  the  silage.  Hogs  invariably  follow 
the  cattle,  picking  up  the  waste. 

The  farmers  are  taking  up  the  standardiza- 
tion of  Polled  Durham,  jersey  cattle  and 
White  Wyandottes,  as  has  been  stated  be- 
fore. A  score  of  the  farmers  have  produced 
bulls  or  heifers  of  the  chosen  breed,  and 
more  are  awaiting  an  opportunity  to  do  like- 
wise. About  4,000  White  Wyandotte  eggs 
have  been  placed  under  hens  or  in  incu- 
bators. 

There  is  no  better  class  of  men  to  be 
found  than  those  found  on  Christian  County 
farms  and  in  the  towns  of  Christian  County. 
The  courtesy  and  hospitality  of  Christian 
County  people  is  proverbial.  They  are  "to 
the  Manor  born." 

The  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture has  featured  Christian  County  in  the 
"1915  Year  Book,"  as  a  model  of  co-opera- 
tion, only  one  other  county  in  the  South  be- 
ing mentioned  in  the  same  connection. 

There  is  a  vast  acreage  of  undeveloped 
lands  in  Christian  County  which  can  be 
bought  at  a  nominal  price. 

These  lands  are  susceptible  of  much  im- 
provement at  little   cost  and  can  be  made 
worth  several  times  the  present  selling  price. 
North  Christian  Farmers  Visit  South 

Christian 

The  visit  of  North  Christian  farmers  to 
Binns'  mill  was  a  great  stunt. 

County  Agent  A.  M.  Casey  arranged  the 
trip  for  the  entertainment  of  North  Chris- 
tianites.  The  main  object  of  this  trip  was 
to  show  the  farmers  what  Mr.  Binns  had 
done  with  land  similar  to  that  of  North 
Christian,  through  the  agency  of  lime,  phos- 
phate and  live  stock  farming. 

Mr.  Binns'  land  was  practically  worn  out 
when  he  took  hold  of  it.  Now  the  land  is  in 
good  tilth  and  fine  state  of  cultivation.  He 
is  raising  good  crops  and  has  fine  fields  of 
clover  and  alfalfa  on  his  hillsides. 

Mr.  Casey  is  working  out  the  details  of 
other  trips  of  a  like  nature  for  the  near 
future.  He  says  there  is  no  land  that  can 
be  brought  up  easier  than  Christian  County 
land  and  wants  all  the  farmers  of  the  county 
to  see  results  accomplished  by  some  of  the 
farmers  as  an  object  lesson. 


Church  Hill  Mineral  Well 


Location. 

The  Church  Hill  Mineral  Well  is  located 
on  an  eminence  five  and  one-half  miles 
southwest  of  Hopkinsville,  on  the  Cox 
Mill  Road,  and  one  mile  northeast  of  the 
village  of  Church  Hill.  It  is  an  exceed- 
ingly healthy  community,  on  the  highest 
point  in  the  vicinity,  and  surrounded  on 


all  sides  by  a  section  of  fine  farming  lands. 
The  well  was  bored  in  1897,  and  is  105 
feet  deep,  the  first  thirty  feet  being 
through  clay,  and  the  remainder  through 
solid  limestone.  A  very  strong  stream  of 
mineral  water  was  found  at  this  depth  and 
the  water  at  once  rose  to  a  depth  of  sixty 
feet  in  the  well,  and  has  since  so  remained. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


41 


CHURCH    HILL,    MINERAL    WELL 


The  medicinal  qualities  of  the  water  were 
soon  appreciated  by  friends  and  neighbors 
and  the  water  was  distributed  free  of 
charge  to  all  who  cared  for  it.  Many  peo- 
ple were  greatly  benefited  by  its  use. 

In  1906  a  specimen  from  the  well  was 
sent  to  the  Experiment  Station  of  Agricul- 
ture at  Lexington,  and  an  analysis  pro- 
cured, which  showed  the  water  to  be  of 
some  medical  value.  In  the  early  summer 
of  1913,  and  at  the  urgent  request  of  many 
who  had  continued  the  usage  of  the  water 
all  along,  another  analysis  was  procured, 
this  time  showing  the  water  to  contain 
very  decided  medicinal  properties,  after 
which  the  same  was  placed  on  the  market. 
The  result  of  this  latter  analysis  showed 
the  water  to  be  strongly  impregnated  with 
calcium  sulphate,  magnesium  sulphate,  so- 


dium suplhate,  iron  sulphate  and 
traces  of  sodium  chloride,  potas- 
sium and  lithium.  Immediate  sale 
was  found  for  the  water  in  Hop- 
kinsville  and  surrounding  sections 
of  the  country,  and  by  each  and  all 
it  was  pronounced  of  great  value  to 
them. 

Since  July,  1913,  I  have  delivered 
many  thousands  of  ga'llons  of  water 
to  people  in  Hopkinsville.  I  have 
not  delivered  less  than  300  to  500 
gallons  of  water  through  the  win- 
ter, and  during  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer months,  very  many  more. 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  peo- 
ple who  tell  me  they  have  never 
had  anything  to  do  them  so  much 
good  in  relieving  sour  stomach  and 
indigestion,  and  restoring  lost  ap- 
petite. There  are  several  little  chil- 
dren whose  parents  attribute  the 

saving  of  their  lives  to  the  Mineral  Water. 
The  leading  doctors  of  both  the  city  and 

county  endorse  and  recommend  the  water. 

Analysis 

One  gallon  contains  398.4  grains  of  min- 
eral matter  (6.83  grams  per  liter),  com- 
posed of  calcium  sulphate,  magnesium  sul- 
phate, sodium  sulphate  and  sulphate  of 
iron  (copperas).  A  small  amount  of  so- 
dium chloride  and  distinct  traces  of  potas- 
sium and  lithium  sulphates,  also  traces  of 
strontium  and  silica. 

This  is  rather  a  strong  chalybeate  water. 
S.   D.  Averitt,   Chemist 
Lexington,  Ky. 


Sindbad's  Eighth  Voyage — The  Eight-Hour  Day 

By  Blewett  Lee 
Address  Delivered  Before  the  Annual  Meeting  of  Illinois  Central  Surgeons 


Know,  O  my  brothers,  that  after  my  sev- 
enth voyage  I  determined  to  go  to  sea  no 
more,  and  my  time  was  spent  in  enjoying 
pleasures. 

But  one  day  someone  knocked  on  the 
door  of  my  house  and  the  doorkeeper 
opened,  and  a  page  entered  and  summoned 
me  to  the  Caliph.  I  immediately  went  with 
him,  and  kissed  the  ground  before  the 
Prince  of  the  Faithful,  who  said:  "O  Sindbad, 
I  have  an  affair  for  thee  to  perform.  Know 
then,  that  the  transportation  between  Bag- 
dad, the  Abode  of  Peace,  and  Balsora  is 
in  great  distress.  The  owners  of  the  ships 
are  receiving  scanty  return  upon  their  in- 
vestments or  none  at  all.  The  building  of 
ships  has  come  to  an  end.  Verily,  O  Sind- 
bad, eighty-two  of  the  ships  are  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  Cadi,  which  is  one-sixth  of  all, 
and  for  our  sake  thou  wilt  go  forth  this 
time  and  employ  thy  ship  in  the  traffic  be- 
tween Bagdad  and  Balsora,  for  the  need  of 
the  merchants  is  great."  So  I  replied,  "I 
hear  and  obey,"  being  unable  to  oppose  this 
command. 

I  was  compelled  to  ship  my  crew  upon  the 
same  terms  as  those  of  the  other  ships  in 
the  business,  and  the  things  which  now  hap- 
pened to  me  were  more  wonderful  than 
anything  which  occurred  during  my  seven 
former  voyages.  Between  Bagdad  and  Bal- 
sora, on  account  of  the  swiftness  of  the 
river,  it  was  necessary  to  tie  up  the  ship 
at  night,  and  by  the  mercy  of  Allah,  the 
all-compassionate,  there  were  cities  built 
along  the  way  only  ten  hours  apart  going 
up  stream,  so  that  at  the  end  of  each  day's 
work  rest  and  refreshment  could  be  found 
in  them.  There  were  no  other  places  be- 
tween Bagdad  and  Balsora  where  the  ships 
could  abide. 

One-fifth  of  the  men  in  my  crew  had 
joined  themselves  into  four  great  Bands, 
along  with  the  sailors  of  the  other  ships, 
and  every  time  the  ship  went  one  hundred 
miles  they  were  paid  a  day's  wiages,  even 
though,  on  account  of  the  swift  current 
in  the  river,  sometimes  they  would  go 
down  from  one  town  to  the  other  in  five, 
four,  or  even  three  hours,  and  never  in 
more  than  six  or  seven;  nevertheless,  each 
man  received  his  pay  as  if  he  had  worked 
all  day;  or,  if  by  chance  the  ship  should 
pass  two  towns,  or  even  three,  during  the 
day,  they  each  received  two  or  three  days' 
pay  accordingly,  although  they  had  worked 
only  one  day. 


Sometimes  it  was  necessary,  on  account 
of  business,  to  tie  up  the  boat  after  only 
one  or  two  hours,  but  nevertheless  the  men 
received  pay  for  a  full  day's  work,  even  if 
they  had  spent  most  of  their  time  rejoicing 
with  their  friends  in  the  city.  I  found  that 
if  a  sailor  spent  a  part  of  his  time  aloft  and 
a  part  in  the  hold  on  the  same  day,  he  was 
paid  for  two  days'  work,  and  under  the 
rules  of  the  Bands,  for  doing  some  kinds 
of  work  or  services  he  was  paid  twice,  as 
if  he  had  done  two  services  instead  of  one. 
If  a  ship  were  compelled  by  bad  weather 
or  accident  to  return  a  part  of  the  way,  the 
sailors  had  to  be  paid  for  that  particular 
distance  three  times,  going,  coming  back, 
and  going  forward  again,  although  it  was 
all  accomplished  in  a  day's  work.  In  case, 
by  reason  of  fog  or  some  other  ship  being 
in  the  way  there  was  a  delay  in  getting 
the  ship  into  dock,  although  the  sailors  had 
not  worked  their  full  day,  they  were,  not- 
withstanding, paid  extra  wages  for  the  time 
lost  in  docking  the  ship,  the  same  thing  be- 
ing true  as  to  delay  in  getting  started.  If, 
on  the  way,  a  ship  should  encounter  another 
ship  in  distress,  so  that  it  became  necessary 
to  stop  and  aid  the  injured  boat,  all  of  the 
time  spent  in  aiding  the  unfortunate  ship 
had  to  be  paid  for  at  a  greater  price.  If 
the  ship  should  stop  at  any  point  inter- 
mediate between  the  various  cities  to  take 
on  camels  or  goats,  or  put  off  bales  of  goods, 
extra  wages  had  to  be  paid  for  the  entire 
period  that  the  ship  was  in  the  place,  am 
if  there  were  acrobats  and  dancing  girls 
aboard  the  ship,  and  a  stop  was  made  in 
order  that  they  might  display  their  art,  the 
sailors  would  be  paid  two  whole  days'  wages 
every  time  the  ship  stopped,  no  matter  how 
short  a  time  it  was,  and  if,  while  the  acro- 
bats and  dancing  girls  were  performing,  the 
sailors  were  called  upon  to  do  any  work, 
they  were,  in  addition,  paid  extra  for  that. 
If  a  sailor  was  kept  away  from  home  longer 
than  he  expected,  he  was  entitled  to  receive 
pay  whether  he  worked  or  not.  The  rules 
for  computing  wages  were  very  wonderful, 
and  no  one  but  a  wizard  could  understand 
them  all,  but  I  learned  that  they  were  all 
made  to  secure  more  pay  for  doing  the 
same  or  less  work,  and  that  any  rule  which 
brought  this  about  was  considered  beautiful 
as  an  houri,  however  ill  favored  it  might  be 
otherwise. 

On  my  ship  there  were  four  times  as 
many  rowers  as  there  were  sailors.  The 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


43 


rowers  worked  very  hard,  particularly  going 
up  the  river,  but  they  were  only  paid- half 
as  much  as  the  sailors.  I  wondered  greatly 
because  of  this,  but  the  Master  of  the  ship 
told  me  that  it  was  because  the  rowers  did 
not  belong  to  the  Bands.  There  were  many 
servants  at  the  towns  along  the  river  who 
labored  at  the  docks  and  in  the  warehouses 
and  brought  supplies  to  the  ship  and  re- 
paired it.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  were 
heavily  burdened,  but  none  of  them  received 
but  half  as  much  wages  as  the  sailors.  For 
that  matter,  neither  did  the  people  of  the 
cities  along  the  way,  for,  as  the  Master 
of  the  ship  said,  "No  Moslem  could  expect 
to  receive  more  than  half  the  pay  of  a  sailor, 
except  by  the  special  favor  of  Allah,  the  all- 
merciful." 

The  highest,  paid  among  the  sailors 
worked  only  certain  days  in  each  month,  and 
were  accustomed  to  rest  from  eight  to  ten 
days  in  every  thirty.  Indeed,  many  of  them 
lived  better  than  the  Cadis  in  the  cities 
along  the  way.  But  what  filled  me  with 
astonishment  was  that  those  who  received 
the  highest  pay  were  the  most  dissatisfied, 
and  that  every  year  at  the  time  when  the 
Masters  of  the  ships  were  in  the  greatest 
distress,  the  Chieftains  of  the  Bands  would 
require  the  Masters  of  the  ships  to  increase 
the  pay  of  the  sailors  who  were  already 
receiving  the  most  money,  threatening  to 
put  an  end  to  all  the  trade  between  Bagdad 
and  Balsora  unless  this  were  done.  For 
this  cause  the  Prince  of  the  Faithful,  in 
order  that  the  merchants  might  not  be 
ruined,  had  required  the  Masters  of  the 
ships  to  submit  the  demands  of  the  Chief- 
tains to  certain  officers,  called  Ahbetraitors, 
who  were  instructed  that  under  no  circum- 
stances should  they  hear  any  complaints  from 
the  Masters  of  the  ships,  and  in  no  event 
should  their  judgment  leave  the  sailors 
any  worse  off  than  they  were  before.  So 
the  Ahbetraitors  every  year  had  ordered 
the  Masters  of  the  ships  to  pay  more  money 
to  the  most  prosperous  of  the  sailors,  but 
nothing  had  been  done  for  the  rowers,  be- 
cause they  were  not  entitled  to  be  treated 
differently  from  other  citizens. 

One  day  when  I  was  at  Balsora  and  was 
condoling  with  the  Masters  of  certain  of 
the  ships  because,  in  spite  of  the  great 
movement  of  bales  of  goods,  the  profits  of 
our  business  continually  shrank,  we  were 
visited  by  the  Chieftains  of  the  Bands,  who 
were  goodly  men  to  look  upon  and  enjoyed 
great  emoluments  because  of  their  state. 
After  we  had  saluted  one  another,  the 
Chieftains  of  the  Bands  explained  to  us  that 
no  more  ships  were  to  go  from  Balsora  to 
Bagdad  until  the  sailors,  who  were  members 
of  the  Bands,  were  paid  extra  wages  every 
day  after  the  ships  had  been  eight  hours 
upon  their  way,  whether  the  ships  were 
going  down  stream  or  up.  They  said  that 
some  of  the  ships  could  go  up  stream  in 


eight  hours  if  they  were  built  only  half 
as  large  and  more  sailors  were  employed, 
but  be  that  as  it  may,  henceforth  it  would 
be  necessary  to  pay  the  members  of  the 
Bands  one-fourth  more  wages  for  doing  the 
same  work. 

When  the  Chieftains  ceased  speaking  our 
countenances  fell,  for  we  knew  that  in  or- 
der to  satisfv  them  one  hundred  million  gold 
pieces  would  have  to  be  paid  every  year, 
in  addition  to  the  present  wages.  The  Mas- 
ter of  my  ship  cried  out  in  rage  and  grief, 
threw  down  his  turban,  slapped  his  face, 
plucked  his  beard,  and  fell  down  into  the 
hold  of  the  ship.  The  other  Masters 
saluted  the  Chieftains,  kissed  the  ground 
before  them,  and  stood  hanging  their  heads 
in  humility.  After  some  words  with  them, 
on  their  behalf  I  addressed  the  Chieftains: 
"O  Shiekhs,"  said  I,  "You  are  our  brothers 
and  sincere  friends,  and  the  affection  for 
you  that  is  in  our  hearts  is  great,  therefore 
favor  us  with  a  reply.  We  beg  thee,  our 
brothers,  to  graciously  consider  in  our  be- 
half certain  proposals  by  the  owners  of  the 
ships,  upon  whom  Allah  has  laid  the  btir- 
den  of  finding  the  necessary  gold  pieces. 
Since  overtime  is  to  be  paid  for  all  work 
done  over  eight  hours,  we  propose  that 
everybody  shall  work  eight  hours  each  day; 
that  no  one  shall  be  paid  a  day's  wages  who 
has  not  done  eight  hours'  work,  and  that 
no  one  shall  be  paid  anything  for  work 
which  he  has  not  actually  done,  or  be  paid 
twice  for  the  same  work."  The  Chieftains 
were  very  stern  and  their  countenances  were 
so  formidable  that  I  did  not  dare  to  ask  that 
the  owners  of  the  ships  should  be  allowed 
interest  on  their  investment,  although  I 
could  not  help  seeing  that  no  more  ships 
would  be  built  until  this  was  done,  and  the 
merchants  of  both  Bagdad  and  Balsora 
were  complaining  bitterly  that  they  were 
being  ruined  because  there  were  not  enough 
ships  to  carry  their  goods. 

The  Chieftains  of  the  Bands  consulted 
briefly  among  themselves,  after  which  their 
spokesman  said  unto  us:  "O  my  Masters, 
may  Allah  bless  you,  for  you  seem  to  have 
no  other  friend.  It  is  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence to  us  whether  you  accept  our  terms  or 
not,  but  no  ships  sail  from  Balsora  except 
according  to  the  word  which  we  have 
spoken." 

At  these  words  we  were  filled  with  dis- 
may, for  the  command  of  the  Caliph,  to 
whom  be  peace,  was  heavy  upon  us,  and  we 
knew  that  because  of  the  merchants  it  was 
as  much  as  our  lives  were  worth  to  tie  up 
the  ships.  The  Masters  of  the  ships,  find- 
ing that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  go 
o-n  as  they  were  doing  and  pay  in  addition 
the  one  hundred  million  pieces  of  gold, 
ceased  the  use  of  their  large  ships  and  en- 
gaged instead  twice  as  many  little  ones.  At 
first  this  arrangement  pleased  the  Chieftains 
of  the  Bands  very  much,  as  it  increased  the 


44 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


numbers  of  those  in  the  Bands.  It  was 
not  long,  however,  before  there  were  many 
complaints  of  ships  falling  afoul  of  each 
other  in  the  stream,  and  many  more  of  them 
were  sunk  than  had  been  the  case  with  the 
larger  ones.  It  also  came  to  pass  that  al- 
though the  smaller  ships  would  run  faster, 
two  of  them  would  not  carry  as  many  bales 
of  merchandise  as  one  of  the  larger  ships, 
so  that  the  goods  piled  up  upon  the  wharves, 
and  the  Cadis  in  every  town  threatened  the 
Masters  of  the  ships  with  imprisonment 
and  bastinado. 

Since,  notwithstanding  the  little  ships,  it 
was  often  impossible  to  get  from  one  city 
to  another  in  eight  hours  instead  of  ten, 
the  Masters  of  the  ships  plucked  out  their 
beards  by  the  handsful,  and  made  great  lam- 
entations. Some  of  them  hit  upon  the  plan 
of  building  new  towns  only  eight  hours 
apart,  so  that  the  ships  could  reach  them 
without  the  payment  of  overtime.  The  new 
towns  were  miserable  little  villages,  and  no 
sooner  did  the  ships  start  using  them  than 
the  citizens  of  the  old  cities  complained 
bitterly  to  the  Caliph,  may  he  be  blessed 
forever,  that  their  lands  had  become  worth- 
less and  their  business  was  falling  away. 
Not  only  this,  but  the  sailors  were  very 
bitter  against  us,  because  under  the  new  ar- 
rangement they  earned  much  less  than  they 
did  before  the  Chieftains  had  visited  us,  and 
although  very  many  of  them  received  a 
day's  wages  for  working  but  a  few  hours, 
and  did  not  work  at  all  many  days  in  tjhe 
month,  they  were  grieved  because  they 
could  not  earn  more  than  a  day's  pay  on 
each  day  that  they  worked.  Last  of  all, 
the  merchants  along  the  route,  who  had 
been  compelled  to  pay  more  than  ever  for 
the  transportation  of  their  goods,  and  who 
had  found  it  necessary  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  Chieftains  for  increased  payment  of 
wages,  since  we  had  no  money  to  do  so, 
our  own  fortunes  already  having  been 
swept  away  in  obedience  to  the  commands 
of  the  Prince  of  the  Faithful,  complained 


also  to  the  Caliph  with  many  bitter  groans 
and  -lamentations. 

The  good  Haroun  Er  Raschid  sent  for 
me  to  my  secret  place  in  Bagdad  where  I 
was  hiding  from  the  Bands.  I  went  before 
him  and  fell  at  his  feet  and  said:  "O  my 
lord,  I  have  a  horror  of  voyaging,  and  when 
it  is  mentioned  my  limbs  tremble,  and  this 
is  because  of  the  terrors  and  troubles  I 
have  experienced.  Moreover,  under  no 
circumstances  do  I  dare  go  forth  from  Bag- 
dad." Then  I  informed  the  Caliph  of  all 
that  had  befallen  me  from  first  to  last  and 
he  wondered  exceedingly  thereat  and  said, 
"Verily,  O  Sindbad,  it  hath  not  been  heard 
from  times  of  old  that  such  events  have 
befallen  anyone  as  have  befallen  thee!" 
When  the  Caliph  found  that  my  fortune 
was  exhausted,  my  business  at  an  end,  and 
that  death  had  no  more  terrors  for  me,  in 
his  royal  mercy  and  compassion  he  pur- 
chased from  me  my  ship,  and  although  the 
recompense  was  very  small  and  my  loss 
very  great,  I  thanked  Allah,  whose  name  be 
exalted. 

After  this  time  the  business  of  transporta- 
tion between  Bagdad  and  Balsora  was  con- 
ducted by  the  officers  of  the  Caliph  himself. 
The  amount  of  wages  that  the  sailors  re- 
ceived was  fixed  by  the  Cadis,  and  if  any 
sailor  refused  to  go  out  with  his  ship,  he 
was  punished  for  conspiracy  to  delay  the 
business  of  the  Realm.  The  Caliph  made 
the  ships  sail  between  the  old  cities,  instead 
of  the  new  towns,  and  brought  back  into 
use  the  large  ships  instead  of  the  little  ones. 
The  Prince  of  the  Faithful  also  commanded 
that  the  Bands  be  broken  up  and  threw 
the  Chieftains  into  prison.  By  this  time  the 
merchants  were  greatly  pleased  to  have 
their  goods  move  at  any  price,  and  although 
the  rates  were  higher  than  ever  before, 
they  praised  Allah,  whose  name  be  ex- 
alted, because  their  goods  were  moving 
at  all. 

And  this  is  the  end  of  the  history  of  the 
events  that  happened  to  me  during  my 
eighth  voyage,  and  praise  be  to  Allah,  the 
One,  the  Creator,  the  Maker! 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  45 

"Passing  the  Buck" 

A  few  reflections  by  Robert  C.  Perkins 
General  Freight  Agent,  New  Orleans 

In  the  seductive  but  uncertain  game  of  draw  poker  the  "Buck" 
indicates  the  place  where  everybody  is  required  to  "ante  up"  for  a 
jack  pot  and  its  possession  usually  entitles  the  holder  to  the  "Age." 
If  he  passes  the  "Buck"  he  loses  this  advantage. 

He  who  holds  the  "Buck"  in  the  great  game  of  life  and  business 
holds  a  summons  to  decide  something,  to  do  something,  and  if  he  is 
a  man  with  determination,  application  and  initiative,  the  elements 
which  constitute  success,  he  never  passes  the  "Buck." 

In  contrast,  are  the  men  who  pass  the  "Buck,"  who  will  not  carry 
any  load,  assume  any  responsibility  or  decide  anything.  They  pass 
it  on  to  George  to  do  it. 

This  deficiency  is  sometimes  due  to  lack  of  training,  restrictive 
environment,  or  physical  or  mental  incapacity.  These  causes,  how- 
ever, cannot  compass  the  vast  army  of  laggards  and  ineffectives  who 
decline  to  assume  any  responsibility  or  to  manage  any  situation,  the 
class  who  habitually  pass  the  "Buck"  and  sneak  through  life  avoiding 
all  obligations  and  responsibility.  They  never  get  anywhere  them- 
selves, they  are  obstacles  in  the  path  of  others  and  barnacles  on  the 
ship  of  progress. 

Do  not  pass  the  "Buck."  Do  not  be  dependent  upon  the  brains, 
determination  and  judgment  of  others  to  decide  the  things  you  should 
decide  yourself,  otherwise  your  permanent  status  in  life  will  be  meas- 
ured by  that  of  the  Fox  Terrier  in  front  of  the  talking  machine 
listening  to,  "His  Master's  Voice." 


r 


TRANSPORTATION 
DEPARTMENT 


Weighing  Cars 


By  W.  H.  Streeter,  Grand  Division  Secretary,  in  the  Yard  and  Terminal  Monthly 


npMERE  is  at  all  times  in  a  great  many 
places  a  tendency  to  slight  this  very 
important  feature  that  is  looked  upon 
as  more  or  less  of  a  bug-bear  in  most 
yards  and  terminals.  It  takes  time  to 
stop  and  weigh  a  car  and  when  the  work 
is  heavy  and  every  one  is  trying  to  make 
the  most  of  the  limited  time  alloted  to 
his  work,  the  stopping  long  enough  to 
correctly  scale  weigh  a  car  is  oftentimes 
looked  upon  as  an  unnecessary  hardship. 
In  some  places  where  the  weighing  is 
left  to  the  foreman  of  the  yard  engines 
and  especially  so  in  outlying  districts 
the  temptation  to  "guess  weight"  is 
stronger  than  ever.  Of  course  this  does 
not  apply  to  all  cases,  but  when  a  crew 
is  daily  handling  cars  loaded  with  the 
same  commodity  and  these  cars  have  to 
be  weighed  and  it  is  their  duty  to  weigh 
them,  they  are  very  liable  after  they 
have  weighed  a  few  of  the  cars  and  have 
got  fairly  familiar  with  the  approximate 
scale  weight  of  the  cars,  to  take  the  light 
weight  of  the  car  or  cars  to  be  weighed 
and  estimate  the  weight  of  the  load. 
This  is  a  very  common  occurence  and 
can  be  found  in  most  any  of  the  yards 
or  terminals  and  not  a  few  cases  could 
be  traced  to  train  crews  doing  local 
work,  where  they  have  occasion  to  weigh 
cars  that  they  pick  up  along  the  line  and 
are  to  be  weighed  enroute. 

A  very  good  example  of  what  estimat- 
ing weights  amounts  to  was  brought  to 
my  notice  a  few  days  ago.  A  certain 
crew  whose  duty  it  was  to  weigh  and 
set  "ice  cars"  for  team  track  delivery 
as  well  as  cars  destined  for  several  of 
the  packing  houses,  got  into  this  very 


swift  method  of  doing  this  particular 
part  of  their  work.  They  had  handled 
the  ice  cars  for  a  considerable  length  of 
time  and  had  a  carefully  tabulated  scale 
of  weights  that  they  had  acquired  from 
actual  scale  weights  of  the  same  class 
of  cars,  and  invariably  used  these 
weights  to  assist  them  in  getting  through 
with  their  work,  and  as  long  as  the  cars 
continued  to  arrive  loaded  with  the  usual 
amount  of  ice  there  was  nothing  said 
about  the  matter,  for  in  fact  the  weights 
were  not  questioned  as  they  seemed  to 
be  perfectly  satisfactory  all  around,  but 
it  so  happened  that  an  ice  company  re- 
ceived a  special  order  from  one  of  the 
packing  houses  that  was  located  in  the 
district  where  this  crew  was  working 
and  as  the  track  space  of  this  particular 
house  was  rather  limited,  they  requested 
that  the  cars  be  loaded  to  their  capacity, 
and  this  was  done.  Ordinarily  the  ice 
cars  would  scale  from  eighteen  to  twenty 
tons,  but  in  this  case  larger  cars  were 
used  and  instead  of  loading  two  tiers 
of  ice  in  them  they  loaded  three,  or 
from  thirty-five  to  forty  tons.  The  reg- 
ular foreman  of  the  engine  that  had 
been  handling  this  work  had  laid  off  and 
one  of  the  men  who  had  been  working 
on  the  crew  was  in  charge  of  the  engine 
and  he,  in  the  course  of  his  night's  work, 
estimated  the  cars  as  usual  and  set  them, 
knowing  nothing  about  the  excess  load. 
The  weights  were  turned  in  at  the 
freight  office  in  the  due  course  of  time 
and  the  freight  bills  sent  to  the  manage- 
ment of  the  packing  house,  who  of  course 
accepted  the  bills  as  correct,  paid  the 
charges,  and  paid  the  ice  company  for 


47 


48 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL    MAGAZINE 


the  amount  of  ice  shown  on  the  freight 
bills.  Of  course  there  was  a  very  urgent 
protest  on  the  part  of  the  ice  company. 
The  management  of  the  packing  house 
claimed  that  they  were  paying  for  what 
they  had  received  and  produced  their 
freight  bills  as  evidence.  The  ice  com- 
pany of  course  knew  that  there  had  been 
a  far  greater  quantity  of  ice  furnished 
and  claimed  that  the  weights  furnished 
by  the  railway  company  were  not  cor- 
rect, and  in  order  to  settle  the  contro- 
versy the  ice  had  to  be  measured  as  the 
only  means  left  of  determining  the 
amount  that  had  been  delivered.  This 
was  finally  accepted  by  all  concerned  as 
correct  or  as  nearly  so  as  could  at  that 
time  be  determined;  the  railway  com- 
pany to  adjust  its  end  of  the  transaction 
had  to  revise  its  freight  bills  and  admit 
the  incorrectness  of  the  weights  fur- 
nished and  the  entire  transaction  had 
the  tendency  to  cause  quite  an  undercur- 
rent of  anything  but  good  feeling  on  the 
part  of  all  concerned,  and  purely  because 
a  foreman  saved  about  thirty  minutes  at 
the  outside  on  his  work,  and  if  the  error 
had  not  been  discovered  would  have  lost 
many  times  that  amount  in  revenue  for 
his  company,  to  say  nothing  of  the  extra 
work  that  he  occasioned  by  being  caught 
up  on  his  estimated  weights. 

The  old  adage  of  "a  penny  saved  is 
two  pence   earned,"   does  not   work  to 


any  good  advantage  when  it  comes  to 
weighing  cars,  for  the  penny  that  you 
save  in  cutting  the  time  down  on  the 
work,  will  in  the  long  run  lose  itself 
in  the  dollars  that  are  lost  through  the 
road  not  getting  the  revenue  that  it 
should  rightfully  receive,  and  does  not, 
through  weights  being  underestimated, 
or  the  expense  that  it  is  put  to  re-weigh- 
ing cars  whose  weights  have  been  dis- 
puted as  being  overweight,  and  these 
disputed  claims  are  rather  on  the  boom- 
erang order  as  they  not  only  are  expen- 
sive to  trace  and  adjust,  but  they  at  the 
same  time  have  the  tendency  to  discredit 
the  integrity  of  the  road  where  they 
originated.  Therefore  take  the  long  way 
around;  weigh  the  cars  on  a  scale  desig- 
nated for  that  purpose  and  not  while 
going  over  a  bridge  or  in  an  office  after 
you  have  completed  your  days's  work. 
Your  company  would  rather  pay  you  for 
the  time  that  you  are  supposed  to  take 
in  weighing  your  cars,  so  take  the  time 
and  weigh  them  on  a  scale  that  is  pro- 
vided for  that  purpose.  The  minutes 
that  you  use  in  so  doing  will  save  hours 
that  would  perhaps  be  spent  somewhere 
else  in  correcting  the  error  that  you 
made  in  estimating  your  weights.  Don't 
estimate ;  the  car  that  you  think  is  loaded 
with  shavings  may  contain  scrap  iron 
and  the  two  don't  fit  well  together. 


Appointment  and  Pro- 
motions 


£  FFECTIVE  April  1,  1916,  Mr.  E.  L. 
Throgmorton  is  appointed  General 
Agent  at  Havana,  Cuba,  vice  Mr.  W.  M. 
Daniel,  resigned  to  accept  service  with 
another  company. ' 


THOS.    L.    MORROW. 
Popular  I.  C.  R.  R.  Agent,  Hopkinsville,  Ky. 


LOSS  &  DAMAGE 
BUREAU 


P\  URING  the  present  period  of  extra 
*"^  heavy  business  on  all  railroads  in 

this  country  it  is  extremely  important 
that  all  freight  be  moved  with  every  pos- 
sible dispatch  to  its  billed  destination,  in 
order  to  avoid  congestions,  and  in  order 
to  release  equipment  so  much  in  demand. 
The  necessity  for  issuing  embargoes 
against  the  acceptance  of  certain  freight 
for  certain  points  is  due  to  failure  of  the 
interested  carriers  to  properly  handle 
such  shipments  owing  to  lack  of  facil- 
ities, and  in  order  to  avoid  excessive 
delays  it  is  imperative  that  Agents  read 
carefully  all  of  the  embargo  notices  re- 
ceived by  them  in  order  that  they  might 
not  accept  freight  which  we  have  been 
informed  cannot  be  transported. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  120  ship- 
ments on  hand  at  one  of  our  stations  for 
delivety  to  connecting  lines  which  are 
held  for  several  reasons,  all  of  which  are 
attributable  to  originating  Agents'  fail- 
ure to  observe  instructions.  The  weight 
of  these  shipments  aggregate  47,645 
pounds,  which  is  of  sufficient  proportion 
to  greatly  hamper  the  handling  of  other 
freight  through  this  house,  and  had  we 
the  space  now  utilized  for  storing  the 
shipments,  and  were  we  permitted  to 
employ  our  men  now  connected  with  ob- 
taining necessary  means  for  forwarding 
there  is  no  doubt  but  that  a  great  re- 
lief would  be  felt,  and  the  regular  duties 
of  the  men  carried  on  with  less  obstruc- 
tion. 

The  cause  for  holding  these  ship- 
ments is  made  up  as  follows: 

Embargo — 52,  prepay — 26,  correct 
destination — 23,  county  reference — 4, 
manufacturer's  order — 5,  expert  declara- 
tion— 2,  liquor  certificates — 2,  billing 
station — 2,  correct  marking — 4.  Each  of 
the  shipments  refused  by  connecting  line 


account  their  inability  to  handle  is  now 
detained  en  route  through  failure  of  the 
different  Agents  to  read  the  embargo 
notices  with  which  they  have  been 
served,  and  act  accordingly.  Owing  to 
the  fact  that  there  are  a  great  many 
more  embargoes  at  the  present  time  than 
under  normal  conditions  more  attention 
should  be  given  this  feature,  and  every 
one  connected  with  the  receiving  of 
freight  should  be  informed  along  the 
lines  of  information  contained  in  the  em- 
bargo notices  in  order  that  we  might  not 
erroneously  accept  shipments  coming 
under  our  limitations.  If  at  any  time 
the  embargo  notices  are  not  understood, 
the  Agent  should  immediately  get  in 
touch  with  the  office  by  whom  issued 
for  enlightenment. 

The  26  shipments  held  for  prepay 
would  probably  have  not  been  accepted 
had  the  Agents  consulted  our  General 
Freight  Department  circular  No.  65-O. 
"Restrictions  covering  the  acceptance  of 
freight,"  for  we  find  that  virtually  all 
of  the  shipments  are  of  commodities  des- 
tined to  consignees  for  which  special  pro- 
vision has  been  made  that  such  shipments 
must  be  prepaid. 

Conspicuous  among  the  items  coming 
under  this  head  are  shipments  of  empty 
cement  sacks  and  animal  food,  which  by 
reference  to  the  above  mentioned  circu- 
lar must  be  prepaid  before  forwarding. 

This  circular  also  provides  for  the  dif- 
ferent commodities  that  must  be  accom- 
panied by  manufacturer's  written  order 
for  return.  A  careful  observance  of  this 
circular  will  result  in  the  elimination  of 
a  large  majority  of  our  shipments  now 
held  at  junction  points,  and  the  result 
will  be  far  more  satisfactory  to  both 
shipper  and  consignee  than  by  allowing 
shipment  to  move  a  portion  of  the  way 


49 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL    MAGAZINE 


and  held  in  transit  until  the  necessary 
remittance  be  made,  or  authority  secured. 

The  23  shipments  held  for  correct  des- 
tination suggest  that  in  some  instances 
the  markings  on  the  shipments  are  not 
legible,  resulting  in  a  bill  of  lading  being 
so  issued,  and  the  waybill  showing  refer- 
ence to  some  town  not  in  existence.  In 
a  great  many  cases  a  person  will  want 
to  ship  a  box  to  a  town  not  located  on 
a  railroad,  and  will  so  mark  the  box, 
as  well  as  the  shipping  directions.  Agent, 
without  consulting  guide  to  learn 
whether  or  not  such  a  town  can  be  reach- 
ed, signs  the  bill  of  lading  and  waybills 
the  shipment  accordingly.  These  things 
contribute  towards  the  delays  to  freight 
and  the  resulting  congestions. 

General  Freight  Department  circular, 
No.  490-B  outlines  the  manner  in  which 
export  shipments  must  be  handled,  show- 
ing clearly  that  certain  declarations  are 
demanded,  and  with  fairness  to  the  pub- 
lic we  must  give  them  the  benefit  of 
such  information  as  this  in  order  that 
they  may  not  be  deceived  into  feeling 
that  their  shipments  will  go  through  as 
they  desire  without  other  documents.  In 
a  great  many  instances,  and  especially  so 
in  connection  with  shipments  of  house- 
hold goods,  the  shipper  departs  from 
the  originating  point  promptly  after  de- 
livery of  his  goods  to  the  railroad,  which 
results  in  additional  delay  when  neces- 
sary to  hold  shipment  en  route  as  above, 


as  the  originating  Agent  upon  receipt  of 
request  from  the  transit  Agent  must 
communicate  with  shipper  at  his  new 
address. 

It  is  not  only  a  duty  we  owe  to  our  pa- 
trons to  deliver  their  freight  at  destina- 
tion with  all  reasonable  dispatch,  but  a 
duty  we  owe  ourselves  in  knowing  that 
every  shipment  for  which  we  sign  is 
actually  in  our  possession,  and  properly 
packed  and  marked,  and  answering  all 
requirements  incident  to  its  movement 
before  promising  safe  delivery  within  a 
reasonable  time  by  affixing  our  name  to 
the  bill  of  lading  contract.  It  requires 
a  great  deal  less  time  to  consult  a  class- 
ification, tariff  or  circular  at  the  time 
that  shipment  is  tendered  us  to  see  that 
all  requirements  are  protected  than  it 
does  to  handle  the  correspondence  and 
subsequent  work  when  the  shipment  has 
been  allowed  to  leave  improperly  pre- 
pared in  any  manner. — J.  L.  East,  Agent, 
Loss  and  Damage  Bureau. 


A  splendid  record  has  been  made  at 
Garyville,  La.,  during  the  period  March 
22nd,  1915,  to  March  23rd,  1916.  This 
station  handled  9831  inbound  shipments, 
on  which  the  revenue  amounted  to  $43,- 
031.96.  During  this  period  there  was  not 
a  single  short  piece  of  freight.  Many 
other  stations  have  come  close  to  this 
record,  but  this  station  seems  to  hold  the 
record  of 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 

The  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 


C  OR  the  five  year  period  ending  June 
30,  1916,  there  will  have  been  spent 
on  the  Illinois  Central  System  approx- 
imately $59,000,000.00  in  providing  more 
engines,  freight  and  passenger  cars,  in- 
creased station  and  yard  facilities,  ad- 
ditional main  and  passing  tracks,  grade 
reductions,  track  elevation  and  bridges, 
heavier  rails,  automatic  block  signals, 


etc.,  in  order  to  safely,  expeditiously, 
and  economically  take  care  of  the  freight 
and  passenger  traffic  offering  and  pros- 
pective. The  Company  now  has  facil- 
ities ample  to  properly  care  for  a  great- 
ly increas'ed  business  and  is  prepared  to 
meet  your  transportation  needs. 

Our  entire  organization  is  at  your 
disposal.  Please  give  us  an  opportunity 
to  serve  you. 


Meeting  of  Shop  Safety  Committee  Held  at  Memphis, 

May  24,  1916 


Present : — 

W.  F.  Lauer,  Gen'l  Foreman,  Mem- 
phis. 

G.  M.  Carter,  Carpenter,  Nonconnah. 

S.  A.   Smith,  Boilermaker,  Memphis. 

W.  R.  Lewellyn,  Pipe  Fitter,  Mem- 
phis. 

B.  Thomas,  Carpenter,  Nonconnah. 

M.  F.  Bell,  Car  Inspector,  Noncon- 
nah. 

F.  L.  Hogue,  Painter,  Memphis. 

Win.  Donelson,  Car  Inspector,  Non- 
connah. 

E.  W.  Williams,  Car  Inspector,  Non- 
connah. 

F.  J.  Reedy,  Blacksmith,  Memphis. 
T.   W.   Jackson,   Machinist,   Noncon- 
nah. 

FETING  was  called  at  1:30  p.  m. 
Mr.  Lauer  opened  the  meeting  with 
a  talk  in  regard  to  personal  injuries. 
He  referred  to  G.  S.  M.  P.  circular 
X-2312,  and  read  letter  originating  in 
Superintendent  Pelley's  office  regarding 
personal  injuries,  with  special  reference 
to  prohibiting  employes  other  than  the 
regular  operator,  from  riding  cinder  pit 
hoists.  He  also  read  several  reports 
showing  standing  and  rank  of  the  dif- 
ferent shops — also  relative  to  amount  of 
money  expended  per  personal  injury. 
He  gave  an  interesting  incident  that 
came  to  his  notice — that  of  a  man  in  the 
shop  conducting  a  short  Safety  First 
meeting  among  his  fellow-workmen  at 
the  noon  hour.  He  stated  that  talks  of 
this  kind  should  be  encouraged,  as  very 
good  results  could  no  doubt  be  obtained 


J.  O.  Arnett,  Painter,  Nonconnah. 

W.  G.  Conway,  Millman,  Nonconnah. 

E.  M.  Gray,  Painter,  Nonconnah. 

Vito  Sweeney,  Steel  car  repairer, 
Nonconnah. 

A.  R.  Castles,  Car  Inspector,  Mem- 
phis. 

Tom  Limford,  Coachman,  Poplar  St. 

Frank  Sharpe,  Coachman,  Poplar  St. 

H.  Lickey,  Electrician,  Memphis. 

E.  W.  Weathers,  Machinist,  Chair- 
man, Memphis  Committee. 

M.  L.  Flowers,  Blacksmith,  Chair- 
man, Nonconnah  Committee. 

W.  B.  Higgins,  Clerk,  Nonconnah, 
Joint  Chairman. 

therefrom.  He  spoke  of  the  prestige 
the  Safety  Committee  had  acquired  and 
cautioning  them  not  to  abuse  it  by  mak- 
ing the  safety  meetings  a  place  to  air 
grievances,  but  to  bring  up  and  discuss 
topics  for  the  general  safety  of  the  em- 
ployes and  the  company's  property.  He 
went  on  to  state,  that  the  careful  man 
is  the  one  desired,  therefore,  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  to  help  educate  everyone 
else  to  be  cautious  at  all  times. 

Mr.  Lauer  read  several  letters  per- 
taining to  personal  injuries  and  advised 
every  one  present  to  do  all  in  their 
power  to  watch  all  appliances  and  ma- 
chinery closely  and  to  report  to  the  Gen- 
eral Foreman,  any  defects  that  might  be 
detected,  in  order  to  have  them  rem- 
edied. 

The  report  for  the  week  ending  April 


51 


52 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


8th  was  read  and  discussed ;  also  the 
report  for  Memphis  and  Nonconnah 
Shops  for  month  of  April.  The  figures 
for  the  month  show  a  slight  decrease 
over  the  month  of  March,  which  is  en- 
couraging. 

Chairman  Higgins  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  hereafter  the  regular 
monthly  meeting  of  the  Safety  Commit- 
tee would  be  held  not  later  than  the 
25th  of  each  month,  in  order  that  ample 


time  may  be  had  to  get  report  to  the 
Chicago  office  before  the  5th  of  the  fol- 
lowing month. 

Chairman  Higgins  brought  the  meet- 
ing to  a  close  with  an  appropriate  talk 
on  safety  in  general  and  again  brought 
out  the  fact  that  carelessness  is  the 
prime  cause  of  most  all  personal  injuries. 
He  further  stated  that  these  short  talks 
by  the  committeemen  to  the  other  em- 
ployes should  be  encouraged,  after 
which  the  meeting  adjourned. 


Where 
Name  Occupation        Employed 

Harry  Crawford  (Y.  &  M.  V.) Laborer Memphis.. 

Almus  McAllister  Allen Trav.  Frt.  Agt....  Jackson, 

Tenn 

James  Clancy Crossing   Watch.. Waterloo- 
Patrick  F.  McMahon Yardman Chicago 

Theodore  Daniels  Tool  Room  Man..Freeport.... 

Nathaniel  P.  Mills,  Sr Agent   Smithland 

Jeremiah  M.  Falvey Crossing   Flagrn.. Chicago 


Date  of  Re- 
Service  tirement 
29  yrs.  3/31/16 


5/31/16 

2/29/16 
5/31/16 
5/31/16 
5/31/16 
5/31/16 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  oldest  pensioners  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  in  rank  of  age : 

Date  of 
Birth 

12/19/24 
3/17/25 

ll/  1/28 

11/15/29 
8/16/30 

10/12/30 
7/20/31 


Rank 

1  Edward  W.  Ward, 

2  John  McNally, 
John  Howard, 
Con   Sheehan, 
Wm.  E.  Ratliff, 
James   Farnum, 
Jacob   Frank, 


Oilman, 

Crossing  Flagman 

Watchman, 

Crossing  Flagman 

Pumper, 

Car   Repairer, 

Engine  Cleaner, 


Mississippi  Division 
Illinois  Division 
Illinois  Division 
St.  Louis  Division 
Louisiana  Division 
Wisconsin  Division 
Illinois  Division 


JOHN  McNALLY 

X/fR.  JOHN  McNALLY,  whose  first 
employment  with  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  was  as  a  mem- 
ber of  a  construction  crew  grading  the 
roadbed  near  the  present  town  of  Mo- 
nee,  111.,  in  November,  1852,  now  resides 
at  Arcola,  and  is  second  on  the  list  of 
pensioners  in  rank  of  age,  being  past 


ninety-one  years.  He  is  very  proud  of  a 
service  medal  which  he  possesses,  show- 
ing that  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  com- 
pany for  47  years. 

Mr.  McNally  was  born  in  Donegal, 
Ireland,  March  17,  1825,  and  landed  in 
America,  July  23,  1852,  entering  the 
service  of  the  company  shortly  there- 
after as  section  laborer.  Two  years 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


53 


JOHN  McNALLY 

later  he  was  promoted  to  the  position  of 
section  foreman  at  Tolono,  later  on  mov- 
ing to  Arcola. 

In  the  early  sixties  he  accepted  a  posi- 
tion with  the  Terre  Haute  &  Alton.  Rail- 
road at  Shelbyville,  but  re-entered  the 
service  of  the  Illinois  Central  in  1866  as 
section  foreman  at  Arcola,  and  in  1893 
was  made  flagman  at  the  same  place.  He 
served  as  flagman  for  ten  years  and  was 
then  retired  on  a  pension. 

During  his  47  years  of  service,  he 
made  many  friends  through  his  sturdy 
sense  of  duty  and  integrity,  and  was  al- 
ways considered  a  most  reliable  and  effi- 
cient man,  and  it  is  regrettable  that  the 
Illinois  Central  loses  the  services  of  an 
employe  of  Mr.  McNally's  type. 


STEPHEN  HOGAN 
QN  Feb.  17,  1916,  at  the  age  of  84 
^^^  years,  and  after  an  unbroken  service 
record  of  58  years  and  7  months — ex- 
ceeding the  maximum  service  record 
thus  far  met  among1  pensioners — Mr. 
Stephen  Hogan  died. 

Born  in  Buffer  Parish,   County  Tip- 


STEPHEN    HOGAN 
From    Photograph    Made    Thirty   Years    Ago 


perary,  Ireland,  about  1830,  at  the  age 
of  ten  years  he  came  to  this  country 
and  settled  in  New  York.  In  1857  he 
moved  to  Normal  and  received  employ- 
ment as  a  section  hand  on  the  Illinois 
Central.  After  serving  a  number  of 
years  as  a  section  hand,  he  was  promoted 
to  section  foreman  and  held  that  posi- 
tion for  sixteen  years.  Later  on  he  was 
made  flagman  at  the  North  Street  cross- 
ing in  Normal,  where  he  remained  for 
21  years.  Owing  to  an  oversight  he  was 
not  retired  on  pension  until  November  1, 
1915. 

The  example  set  forth  by  Mr.  Hogan, 
in  performing  every  task  so  satisfactory 
that  his  employer  continued  his  service 
for  over  half  a  century,  can  well  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  young  men  of  today. 


SEPTIMUS  DA  VIES 

-  DA  VIES  was  one  of  the  most 
loyal  and  faithful  employes  of  the 
Company.  He  was  born  at  Leicester, 
England,  March  12,  1846,  at  which 
place  he  served  his  apprenticeship  to 
the  machinist  trade  and  also  worked  as 


54 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL    MAGAZINE 


SEPTIMUS  DAVIES 

journeyman,  coming  to  this  country  in 
November,  1869,  and  after  service  as  a 
machinist  with  various  concerns  until 
March,  1893,  he  entered  the  service  of 
the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  and  remained 
in  continuous  service  until  the  transfer 
to  the  Roll  of  Honor.  He  served  in 
the  capacity  as  that  of  machinist  and 
also  gang  foreman  of  the  link  gang. 

Mr.  Davies  was  very  popular  among 
his  fellow  workmen,  being  of  a  very 
accommodating  disposition,  always 
pleasant  and  cheerful,  always  ready  to 
go  out  of  his  way  to  accommodate  any 
of  his  shop-mates,  or  advise  the 
younger  men  in  regard  to  the  best 
method  and  manner  of  fitting  up  va- 
rious parts  of  the  locomotive.  Young 
men  often  sought  the  advice  of  Mr. 
Davies  for  the  reason  that  he  was  al- 
ways ready  and  willing  to  oblige  in 
this  respect.  He  also  had  the  entire 
confidence  of  his  superior  officers. 


following  positions  :  Agent  at  Kankakee, 
111.,  to  February  1,  1882;  traveling 
Freight  Agent  in  Illinois  to  February 
20,  1888;  agent  at  Madison,  Wis.,  to 
January  1,  1890 ;  Traveling  Freight 
Agent,  Cherokee  Division,  to  December 
15,  1891;  Commercial  Agent  at  Sioux 
City  to  January  1,  1894,  at  which  time 
he  was  made  General  Agent  at  Sioux 
City  in  charge  of  Freight  and  Passen- 
ger business  and  the  local  agency.  In 
1900  he  was  promoted  to  the  position 
of  Commercial  Agent  in  charge  of 


B.  E.  Nichols. 

JV/TR.    B.    E.    NICHOLS    entered    the 
A   service  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road September  20,  1870;  and  held  the 


B.  E.  NICHOLS 

Freight  and  Passenger  business  in  Sioux 
City  and  freight  business  in  the  territory 
tributary  thereto,  and  on  January  1,  1908, 
Commercial  Agent,  Sioux  City,  which 
position  he  held  until  retired  on  a  pen- 
sion May  1,  1916.  During  his  46  years 
of  service,  Mr.  Nichols  has  been  a  con- 
scientious and  faithful  employe,  and  in 
his  retirement  takes  with  him  the  re- 
spect and  good  wishes  of  the  Manage- 
ment. 


the 


/ 

Biographical  Sketch  No.  23 


HON.  CHARLES  K.  WHEELER 
Local  Attorney,  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co.,  Paducah,  Ky. 

55 


56 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


fJON.  CHARLES  K.  WHEELER, 
was  born  in  Christian  County, 
Kentucky,  53  years  ago  and  was  edu- 
cated at  the  Southwestern  University, 
Clarksdale,  Tenn.,  and  at  the  Cumber- 
land University,  Nashville,  Tenn.  Be- 
fore he  was  21  years  of  age  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  under  a  special  act 
of  the  legislature  of  Kentucky,  and 
since  then  he  has  been  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  the  law  at  Paducah.  He 
was  City  Solicitor  of  Paducah,  in  1904 
and  1905.  In  1906  he  was  elected  to 
Congress  from  the  First  Kentucky 
District  and  was  twice  re-elected. 
When  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 


was  extended  from  Cairo  to  Paducah, 
in  1902,  Wheeler  &  Hughes,  now  con- 
sisting of  Charles  K.  Wheeler,  D.  H. 
Hughes  and  James  G.  Wheeler,  were 
appointed  Local  Attorneys  for  the 
Railroad  Company  in  McCracken  and 
Marshall  Counties,  Kentucky.  They 
have  represented  the  Company  ably 
and  satisfactorily  ever  since,  and  they 
have  handled  for  it  many  important 
cases.  Aside  from  their  connection 
with  this  Company,  they  have  an  ex- 
tensive general  practice  and  among 
their  clients  are  two  other  railroads, 
several  banks,  insurance  companies, 
and  other  corporations. 


Recent  Commerce  Decisions 


Carmack  Amendment.  Damage  to  Flour 
in  Transit.  Notice  to  Carrier. — In  Georgia 
F.  &  A.  R.  Co.,  vs.  Blish,  241  U.  S.,  190,  the 
Supreme  Court  held  on  May  8,  1916  as  fol- 
lows, concerning  a  shipment  of  flour  from 
Seymour,  Ind.  to  Bainbridge,  Ga. :  (a) 
Under  the  Carmack  Amendment,  the  bill 
of  lading  required  to  be  issued  by  the 
initial  carrier  upon  an  interstate  shipment 
governs  the  entire  transportation  and  fixes 
the  obligation  of  all  participating  carriers 
to  the  extent  that  its  terms  are  applicable 
and  valid.  This  law  casts  upon  the  initial 
carrier  responsibility  with  respect  to  the 
entire  transportation.  In  case  of  a  mis- 
delivery by  the  terminal  carrier,  the  initial 
carrier  is  liable.  (b)  The  multitudinous 
transactions  of  a  carrier  justify  the  re- 
quirement of  written  notice  of  misdeliv- 
eries of  merchandise  and  claims  against 
it,  even  with  respect  to  its  own  operations, 
(c)  Parties  to  the  contract  made  pursuant 
to  the  Act  to  Regulate  Commerce  cannot 
waive  its  terms;  nor  can  the  carrier  by 
its  conduct  give  the  shipper  the  right  to 
ignore  such  terms  and  hold  the  carrier 
to  a  different  responsibility  than  that  fixed 
by  the  agreement  made  under  the  published 
tariffs  and  the  regulations. 

Demurrage.  Embargo.  —  In  Menasha 
Paper  Co.,  vs.  C.  &  N.  W.  R.  Co.,  241  U. 
S.  55,  the  Supreme  Court  held  on  April  24, 
1916,  concerning  demurrage  charges  at 
Menasha,  Wis. :  (a)  Where  shippers,  who 
are  under  contract  to  deliver  interstate 
shipments  in  carload  lots,  call  upon  an  .in- 
terstate carrier  for  cars,  the  carrier  is  bound 
to  furnish  them,  and  the  consignee  cannot 
refuse  delivery  and  by  notifying  the  carrier 
of  its  intention  to  do  so,  relieve  itself  of 
demurrage  charges  according  to  the  pub- 


lished tariff,  (b)  The  carrier  cannot,  at 
the  request  of  the  consignee  who  is  under 
contract  to  receive  interstate  shipments, 
declare  an  embargo  on  the  shipments  and 
refuse  to  furnish  cars  for  the  shippers; 
and  if  it  temporarily  does  so  and  then 
removes  the  embargo,  the  latter  act  is 
but  a  return  to  its  duty  under  the  act,  and 
failure  to  notify  the  consignee  of  its  action 
does  not  relieve  the  latter  from  liability 
for  demurrage  provided  by  the  published 
tariff,  (c)  The  fact  that  an  interstate  car- 
rier complied  with  the  request  of  a  con- 
signee having  a  private  siding  to  deliver 
daily  on  its  siding  only  the  number  of 
cars  that  could  be  conveniently  handled, 
although  more  could  be  actually  placed  on 
such  siding,  did  not  in  this  case  relieve 
the  consignee  from  demurrage  charges 
specified  in  the  published  tariff  on  cars 
held  by  the  carrier  awaiting  the  consig- 
nee's convenience  after  arrival  and  read- 
iness to  deliver  on  the  siding. 

Carmack  Amendment.  Damage  to  Cat- 
tle in  Transit.  Notice  to  Carrier. — On 
April  24,  1916,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  held  in  Northern  Pacific  R. 
Co.,  vs.  Wall,  241  U.  S.  87,  concerning  a 
shipment  of  cattle  from  Belgrade,  Mont., 
to  Chicago,  111.:  (a)  A  stipulation  in  a  bill 
of  lading  of  an  interstate  shipment  of  cat- 
tle that  the  shipper  must,  as  a  condition 
precedent  to  his  right  of  recovery  for  in- 
jury to  the  cattle  while  in  transit,  give 
notice  thereof  in  writing  to  some  officer 
or  station  agent  of  the  initial  carrier  be- 
fore the  cattle  are  removed  from  the  place 
of  destination  or  mingled  with  other  live 
stock,  is  to  be  construed  in  the  light  of 
the  Carmack  Amendment  making  the  con- 
necting or  delivering  carrier  agent  of  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


57 


initial  carrier;  and  notice  given  to  the 
station  agent  or  officer  of  the  former  oper- 
ates as  notice  to  the  latter,  and  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  officer  or  station  agent 
primarily  employed  by  the  initial  carrier 
at  the  point  of  destination  does  not  re- 
lieve the  shipper  from  compliance  with 
the  stipulation,  (b)  A  bill  of  lading  is  a 
contract;  and,  if  interstate,  it  Ts  to  be  con- 
strued in  the  light  of  the  provision  of  the 
Carmack  Amendment,  which  prescribes 
how  it  shall  be  issued  and  makes  the  con- 
necting carrier  the  agent  of  the  receiving 
carrier  for  the  purpose  of  completing  the 
transportation  and  delivering  the  goods. 

Money  Only  as  Compensation  for  Trans- 
portation.— The  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals 
of  West  Virginia  held  that  under  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Act  a  carrier  cannot  law- 
fully collect  anything  except  money  for 
personal  transportation,  nor  any  compen- 
sation different  from  that  specified  in  its 
published  schedule  of  rates,  (Dorr  vs.  C.  & 
O.  R.  Co.,  88  S.  E.,  666). 

Reparation  Rule  in  Discrimination  Cases. 
—In  Brooks  vs.  Wabash  R.  Co.,  39  ICC 
426,  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
held  on  May  16,  1916,  that  damage,  if  any, 
resulting  from  unjust  discrimination  in 
rates  is  not  always  measurable  by  the 
exact  difference  in  which  the  rates  are 
found  to  be  unduly  preferential  or  un- 
justly discriminatory.  It  may  be  more  or 
less.  The  fact  of  damage  attributable  to 
the  undue  or  unreasonable  prejudice  or 
advantage  complained  of  and  the  amount 
of  such  damage  must  both  be  proved. 
Citing  Penna.  R.  Co.,  vs.  International 


Coal  Co.,  230  U.  S.  184;  New  Orleans 
Board  of  Trade  vs.  I.  C.  R.  Co.,  29  ICC  32. 
Switching  for  Shipper's  Convenience. — 
An  importer  of  bananas  had  a  contract 
with  Z.  under  which  all  ripe  bananas  and 
all  bananas  that  were  turning  ripe,  became 
his  property.  Upon  the  arrival  of  a  ship 
a  railroad  would  furnish  cars  to  move  the 
cargo,  and,  as  the  track  on  which  cars  for 
the  ripe  bananas  were  usually  placed,  held 
only  five  cars,  the  five  cars  first  placed, 
when  loaded,  were  hauled  off  to  some  con- 
venient team  track  in  the  same  yard.  There 
they  were  disposed  of  from  the  cars  to 
local  buyers;  a  small  percentage  of  the 
cars  being  shipped  to  other  points.  HELD, 
that  this  movement  of  the  cars  from  the 
wharf  track  to  the  team  track  was  for  the 
benefit  of  Z.,  and  not  solely  for'the  conveni- 
ence of  the  railroad  company,  and  the 
company  was  required  to  collect  therefor 
a  switching  charge,  contained  in  its  tariffs 
and  schedules  on  file  with  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission.  The  Court  held 
further  that  it  is  well  settled  the  "inten- 
tion of  the  shipper  as  to  the  ultimate  des- 
tination at  the  time  the  freight  starts  is 
the  test  of  its  character,"  regardless  of 
whether  the  voyage  is  temporarily  broken, 
more  than  one  carrier  transports  it,  or  it 
moves  on  through  or  local  bills  of  lading. 

All    parties    know    at    the    time    a 

cargo  starts  from  Central  America  that  a 
portion  of  it  belongs  to  Zemurray  by  the 
inevitable  force  of  circumstances;  and  the 
entire  movement  from  plantation  to  team 
track  is  a  continuous  voyage  for  his  ac- 
count. (U.  S.,  vs.  I.  C.  R.  Co.,  230  Fed., 
940. 


EE     AMERICA    FIRST. 

JL 


Strict    AccountaLility. 


Lax  -Accountability. 


THE  RAILWAY  TRESPASS  PROBLEM 


CLEANINGS 

from  me 

OA1MS  DEPARTMENT 

Jntewstfny  -  JVews  -  of-  "Doings  -  of 
Claimants-  Jn  -  and-  Out  -  of*  Court 


Illinois  Central  at  the  National  Association  of  Railway 

Claim  Agents 


T"*HE  Twenty-seventh  annual  convention 
*•  of  the  National  Association  of  Railway 
Claim  Agents  was  held  at  Atlantic  City, 
N.  J.,  May  17th,  18th  and  19th,  and  was  by 
far  the  most  largely  attended  convention 
ever  held  by  the  Association.  Claim  Agents 
from  every  part  of  the  country  were  present 
and  exchanged  views  with  reference  to  the 
important  matter  of  handling  claims  on  the 
different  railroads  to  the  very  great  benefit 
of  the  railroads. 

The  annual  address  of  the  President  of 
the  Association,  Mr.  H.  B.  Hull,  General 
Claim  Agent  of  the  Illinois  Central  System, 
and  addresses  made  by  Assistant  General 
Claim  Agents  E.  W.  Sprague  and  P.  M. 
Gatch,  follow: 

VALUE    OF    THE    ASSOCIATION    OF 

RAILWAY    CLAIM   AGENTS  TO 

THE  RAILROADS 

By  H.  B.  Hull 

T^HE  value  of  the  Association  of  Railway 
1     Claim  Agents  to  the  railroads  is  a  sub- 
ject which  has  not  received  much  attention. 


Each  year  the  railroads  are  put  to  some  ex- 
pense in  transporting  their  representatives 
to  and  from  our  conventions,  in  the  loss  of 
the  time  of  these  men  while  attending  the 
conventions  and  in  the  payment  of  their 
traveling  expenses.  I  think  they  are  entitled 
to  a  little  more  information  about  the  actual 
benefits  which  accrue  to  them  as  a  result  of 
this  outlay.  It  is  true  the  proceedings  of 
our  conventions,  during  recent  years,  have 
been  quite  fully  reported  and  widely  distrib- 
uted. After  reading  one  of  these  reports, 
any  man,  having  had  experience  in  the  han- 
dling of  claims,  would  very  naturally  con- 
clude that  a  railroad  management  which 
would  undertake  to  conduct  its  claim  busi- 
ness in  ignorance  of  the  views  and  recom- 
mendations of  this  body  of  men  would  be 
short-sighted,  indeed.  Happily,  but  few,  if 
any,  are  doing  that.  Claim  Agents  of  the 
member-roads,  unable  to  attend  the  conven- 
tions, receive  the  printed  minutes  and  use 
them  as  a  guide  in  the  handling  of  claims, 
and  the  non-members  borrow  these  reports, 
or  read  them  in  the  offices  of  members. 
Thus,  the  work  of  the  Association  covers 
pretty  much  the  entire  field  embraced  in 


60 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


61 


the   claim   business   of   the    steam   railroads 
of  the  United   States. 

No  department  of  a  railway  organization 
has  been  confronted  with  greater  perplex- 
ities during  the  past  five  years  than  has 
been  true  of  the  Claim  Department.  Form- 
erly, the  railways  had  available  the  defenses 
of  fellow  servant,  contributory  negligence 
and  assumed  risk.  An  injured  employe 
had  to  have  a  very  plain  case  of  negligence 
on  the  part  of  the  employer  in  order  to  re- 
cover damages.  Now,  many  of  the  States 
have  Compensation  Acts,  which  do  away  en- 
tirely with  all  questions  of  negligence,  the 
only  questions  being  the  extent  of  the  in- 
jury and  whether  sustained  in  the  course  of 
employment.  This  would  seem  to  simplify 
matters  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Claim 
Agent  in  Compensation  States,  and  it  would 
have  that  effect,  if  State  laws  occupied  the 
entire  field.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  great 
majority  of  railway  employes  who  are  in- 
jured are  engaged  in  interstate  commerce 
at  the  time  the  accidents  occur,  and  their 
cases  are  controlled  by  the  Federal  Employ- 
ers' Liability  Act,  and  State  laws  have  no 
application  whatever.  When  is  a  railway 
employe  engaged  in  interstate  commerce? 
That  question  confronts  us  more  frequently 
than  any  other.  Every  case  has  to  be  in- 
vestigated with  great  thoroughness  before 
the  question  can  be  determined,  and  then  it 
is  frequently  not  properly  determined.  At 
each  convention  of  our  Association  we  have 
illuminating  papers  upon  this  subject,  and 
but  for  these,  and  the  discussions  and  ex- 
change of  views  at  our  meetings,  we  would 
scarcely  know  which  way  to  turn.  Some  of 
the  brightest  minds  employed  in  any  of  the 
fields  of  railway  endeavor  are  to  be  found  in 
this  Association.  Our  discussions  never  fail 
to  assist  us  in  reaching  conclusions,  and 
upon  these  conclusions,  when  we  return  to 
our  respective  homes,  we  pay  out,  in  the 
aggregate,  millions  of  dollars  annually. 

The  most  comprehensive  and  valuable 
statistics  ever  prepared  on  the  important 
question  of  injuries  to  trespassers  on  Ameri- 
can railways  were  compiled  and  published 
by  this  Association.  Prior  to  the  publica- 
tion of  this  report,  the  only  information  ob- 
tainable on  this  subject  was  contained  in  the 
reports  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission, giving  the  total  number  of  tres- 
passers killed  and  injured  in  the  United 
States  each  year.  These  statistics,  while  in- 
teresting, were  too  general  in  their  nature 
to  bring  home  to  the  people  of  the  various 
States  the  importance  of  taking  some  action 
having  for  its  purpose  the  abatement  of  the 
evil.  It  was  apparent  that  the  railroads 
were  doing  all  that  they  possibly  could  do 
to  prevent  trespassing  on  their  properties, 
but  that  the  public  was  not  co-operating 
with  them.  The  number  of  passengers  and 
employes  killed  during  the  year  ended  June 
30,  1915,  decreased  42.28%  over  the  year 


1911,  while  the  number  of  trespassers  killed 
in  1915  decreased  but  3.79%  over  1911,  show- 
ing that  the  railroads  are  doing  a  noble 
work  towards  reduction  of  accidents  within 
their  power  to  control,  while  the  States  are 
doing  practically  nothing  towards  reducing 
the  class  of  accidents  within  their  power  to 
control.  The  statistics  compiled  by  this  As- 
sociation gave  the  number  of  fatal  and  non- 


THE  5TOCK5 

OF  THE 

JRGPfl55 


fatal  injuries  to  trespassers  by  States  for  a 
period  of  one  year,  and  classified  the  latter' 
as  between  those  sustaining  the  loss  of  one 
limb,  the  loss  of  both  limbs,  and  other  in- 
juries, gave  the  place  of  accident,  residence, 
occupation,  whether  struck  while  walking  on 
track,  riding  on  trains,  or  otherwise,  the 
number  intoxicated,  sex,  age  and  nationality. 
These  statistics  were  furnished  important 
newspapers  of  each  of  the  States  and  were 
widely  commented  upon.  As  a  result  of  this 
movement,  public  sentiment  has  been 
strengthened  considerably  in  favor  of  some 
sort  of  legislation  having  for  its  purpose  the 
saving  of  the  lives  and  limbs  of  the  thous- 
ands of  unfortunates  who  annually  meet 
death  or  injury  upon  the  rails  through  no 
fault  of  the  railroads. 

Through  this  Association  the  Claim  De- 
partments of  the  railroads  which  are  mem- 
bers are  cemented  together  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  result  in  a  very  great  saving  to  the 
railroads  in  advantageous  interchange  of 
work.  This  could  not  be  accomplished  with- 
out the  personal  acquaintance,  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  capabilities  of  one  another  and 
the  wholesome  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
members  of  the  Association  to  serve  and 
promote  the  best  interests  of  each  other. 
Were  it  not  for  this,  the  expenses  of  the 
railroads  would  be  increased  many  thous- 
ands of  dollars  per  year.  Our  work  differs 
from  that  of  other  departments  of  railroad 
organizations  in  that  it  takes  us  everywhere. 
An  accident  occurs  in  Florida.  The  injured 
and  the  witnesses  reside  in  New  York  and 
California.  If  the  Florida  railroad  had 


62 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


to  send  its  Claim  Agents  to  those  remote 
States  to  interrogate  the  witnesses,  or 
make  adjustments,  as  formerly  was  the  case, 
the  traveling  expenses  and  loss  of  time  of 
the  Claim  Agents  would  be  considerable, 
and  they  would  be  in  strange  lands,  totally 
unacquainted  with  local  conditions  and 
thereby  unable  to  obtain  the  best  results. 
Under  the  system  which  we  have  so  suc- 
cessfully worked  out  through  this  Associa- 
tion, the  Claim  Department  of  the  Florida 
railroad  would  simply  write  the  Claim  De- 
partments of  railroads  located  in  New  York 
and  California,  and  Claim  Agents  of  those 
Companies,  acquainted  with  local  condi- 
tions, perhaps  the  very  people  whom  it  was 
desired  to  interview,  would  quickly  and  effi- 
ciently attend  to  the  business  just  as  though 
it  were  a  matter  of  their  own.  The  Florida 
railroad  would  receive  all  the  benefits  of 
local  organizations  in  those  far-away  States, 
and  at  a  small  part  of  the  costs  of  sending 
out  its  own  men.  A  few  days  ago,  I  desired 
to  have  a  claimant  at  Spokane,  Wash., 
quickly  interviewed.  I  looked  over  our  As- 
sociation list  and  found  that  we  had  a  mem- 
ber living  at  Spokane.  I  immediately  sent 
him  a  telegram,  explaining  the  nature  of  the 
case.  By  the  next  mail  I  received  a  com- 
plete report.  If  I  had  sent  a  representative 
to  Spokane,  the  cost  to  my  Company  would 
have  been  considerable  and  the  report  could 
not  have  been  as  satisfactory,  because  it 
would  have  been  devoid  of  the  local  flavor 
added  by  our  resident  member.  A  young 
man  from  Nebraska,  who  had  evidently 
been  watching  the  results  of  the  efforts  of 
a  certain  personal  injury  lawyer  and  a  dam- 
age suit  doctor,  who  usually  appeared  in  a 
case  together,  went  South  and  obtained  a 
position  as  switchman  in  one  of  the  im- 
portant terminals  of  the  Illinois  Central.  In 
a  very  short  time  he  fell  from  a  box-car  on 
account  of  an  alleged  defective  grab-iron 
and  sustained  one  of  those  typical  and  fa- 
miliar cases  of  "permanent  paralysis  of  low- 
er extremities."  Three  suits  for  $40,000 
each  were  filed  in  three  different  States — 
one  in  the  extreme  North,  one  in  the  Middle 
West  and  one  in  the  South.  The  plaintiff 
elected  to  try  the  case  in  the  Southern  State 
and  in  a  County  where  railroad  prejudice 
had  subsided  and  where  jurfes  are  usually 
composed  of  fair  and  reasonable  men,  but 
the  triumvirate  from  Nebraska — the  lawyer, 
the  doctor  and  the  plaintiff — played  their 
respective  parts  so  well  that  an  unsuspect- 
ing jury  allowed  them  to  get  away  with  a 
verdict  for  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  al- 
though proof  of  the  most  convincing  nature 
was  introduced  showing  that  the  alleged  in- 
jury did  not  exist.  The  trial  occurred  fif- 
teen months  ago.  Since  that  time  one  of 
the  members  of  this  Association,  who  re- 
sides not  far  from  where  the  plot  was 
hatched,  has  kept  his  ear  to  the  ground,  and 
only  a  few  days  ago  advised  me  that  a  re- 
markable cure  had  taken  place,  one  of 


those  cures  which  we  hear  about  so  often, 
and  that  our  young  man  with  the  "perma- 
nent paralysis  of  lower  extremities"  was 
now  able  to  pitch  horse-shoes  and  play  golf 
in  the  most  approved  fashion.  I  could  go  on 
citing  instances  showing  the  value  to  the 
railroads  of  the  close  co-operation  between 
the  members  of  this  Association.  Doubtless, 
members  of  every  Claim  Department  repre- 
sented here  could  do  the  same  thing.  There 
is  scarcely  ever  a  time  that  the  Claim  De- 
partment of  the  Illinois  Central  is  not  doing 
some  work  for  'other  lines,  or  that  other 
lines  are  not  doing  some  work  for  it,  and  I 
suspect  this  is  true  with  all  of  our  members. 
The  importance  of  interchange  of  work  be- 
tween us  has  become  so  well  understood 
that  our  members  actually  give  preferred 
attention  to  requests  from  each  other;  in 
other  words,  defer  their  own  work  to  serve 
a  distant  member,  which,  in  reality,  has  be- 
come a  part  of  their  own  work.  If  the  rail- 
roads received  no  other  benefit,  this  alone 
would  be  worth  many  times  the  cost  to 
them  of  maintaining  this  organization. 

We  discuss  annually  at  our  conventions 
the  important  question  of  fraudulent  claims, 
about  which  the  members  are  constantly 
corresponding.  Suppose  we  had  no  organ- 
ization of  this  kind,  no  systematic  method 
of  keeping  in  touch  with  each  other  con- 
cerning the  hundreds,  I  might  say  thous- 
ands, of  professional  crooks  who  make  a 
business  of  preying  upon  the  railroads  in 
fraudulent  personal  injury  claims  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  What  would  be  the 
situation  of  the  railroads  with  reference  to 
this  problem?  Let  me  say  to  you  that  it 
would  be  chaotic.  Fraudulent  claims  would 
multiply  with  great  rapidity.  This  Associa- 
tion has  accomplished  more  than  all  other 
factors  combined  in  discouraging  fraudulent 
claims.  Its  work  in  this  direction  has  been 
far-reaching  in  its  effect.  Let  one  of  these 
professionals  bob  up  his  head  in  any  part 
of  the  country,  the  members  of  this  Asso- 
ciation are  immediately  advised,  and  as  a 
result,  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  pro- 
fessional claimant  to  escape,  for  any  con- 
siderable period,  the  network  of  the  claim 
organizations  of  this  country  represented 
by  membership  in  this  Association. 
Through  the  combined  efforts  of  our  mem- 
bers each  year  some  of  these  fellows  are 
brought  to  bay.  Consequently,  fraudulent 
claims  are  on  the  decline,  and  eventually, 
through  the  work  of  this  Association,  I  be- 
lieve they  will  be  brought  under  control; 
that  is,  so  far  as  repeaters  are  concerned. 

We  claim  the  credit  for  the  birth  of  the 
new  propaganda,  relative  to  the  prevention 
of  accidents,  which  has  swept  over  this 
country  and  across  the  seas  to  foreign  lands. 
One  of  our  distinguished  members  origi- 
nated the  idea,  and  the  subject  was  discussed 
from  its  every  angle  in  this  Association  be- 
fore it  was  sent  out  to  receive  the  enthusias- 
tic approval  of  the  world.  How  many  lives 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


63 


have  been  saved  cannot  be  accurately  stated; 
how  much  woe  and  suffering  have  been 
averted  cannot  be  told.  If  we  had  the  ac- 
tual figures,  we  know  that  they  would  speak 
eloquently  of  the  great  good  that  has  been 
accomplished. 

We  are  succeeding  gradually  in  educating 
employes  and  patrons  to  understand  that 
we  are  anxious  to  meet  our  obligations  in  a 
fair  and  honorable  way.  If  a  man  has  a 
bona  fide  claim  against  a  railroad,  he  has 
but  to  make  it  known  and  in  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  one  hundred  a  satisfactory  ad- 
justment can  be  made.  The  old  popular 
belief  that  one  has  to  sue  a  railroad  in  order 
to  get  justice  is  gradually  fading  away.  The 
difference  in  what  a  claimant  receives  in  a 
direct  compromise  and  what  he  would  re- 
ceive in  the  same  case  at  the  end  of  a  law 
suit,  if  successful,  is  usually  the  amount 
necessary  to  pay  lawyers  and  the  expenses 
of  litigation.  We  endeavor  to  pay  every 
honest  claimant  about  what  he  could  re- 
cover net  to  himself,  and  save  for  our  Com- 
panies only  the  profits  of  the  "middle-men" 
and  costs  of  litigation.  When  this  becomes 
well  understood,  our  hope  is  that  the  rail- 
roads will  not  be  troubled  with  so  much 
litigation. 

We  do  not  complain  of  law  suits  brought 
in  good  faith  against  the  railways  in  cases 
where  efforts  to  compromise  have  been  ex- 
hausted and  agreements  as  to  amounts 
coujd  not  be  reached.  Such  cases  are  rare. 
The  class  of  litigation  which  interferes  most 
seriously  with  railway  operation,  and 
throws  upon  the  carriers  an  unjust  burden, 
grinding  them  between  the  upper  and  the 
nether  millstones,  is  speculative  litigation 
based  upon  frivolous  claims,  for  which  the 
contingent  fee  system  is  responsible.  If  the 
railroads  could  save  the  hundreds  of  thous- 
ands of  dollars  they  are  annually  required 
to  spend  in  the  defense  of  claims  devoid  of 
merit,  they  could  use  the  money  most  pro- 
fitably in  the  improvement  of  the  service 
rendered  to  the  public.  Not  only  in  that 
respect  would  the  public  feel  the  good  effect 
of  such  a  change,  but  also  in  a  very  sub- 
stantial saving  to  the  taxpayers,  who  are  re- 
quired to  bear,  with  the  railroads,  the  hard- 
ships which  are  the  outgrowth  of  the  per- 


nicious system  built  up  and  fostered 
through  the  contingent  fee.  A  lawyer  who 
brings  a  suit  under  a  contingent  fee  should 
be  considered  a  party  to  the  suit  and  re- 
quired to  be  responsible  for  the  costs.  Why 
should  the  taxpayer,  an  innocent  party,  be 
mulcted  as  a  result  of  an  experimental  and 
speculative  suit  advised  and  instituted  by  a 
lawyer?  A  great  majority  of  the  people  will 
readily  concede  the  evils  of  the  contingent 
fee  system.  They  will  concede  that  it  is  a 
nuisance  to  general  business  interests  and 
inimical  to  the  public  weal,  but  will  take  it 
for  granted  that  the  conditions  must  be  tol- 
erated. An  exploitation  of  the  iniquities  of 
the  system,  the  imposition  upon  the  Courts, 
the  taxpayers,  the  railroads  and  the  busi- 
ness interests  of  each  community  afflicted, 
would  no  doubt  do  good.  Publicity  is  the 
entering  wedge  leading  to  the  solution  of 
all  railroad  problems. 

In  the  investigation  and  adjustment  of 
claims,  this  Association  has  uniformly 
taught  that  righteousness  should  always  be 
the  underlying  principle  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  railway  Claim  Agent;  that  the 
other  side  should  have  a  complete  monop- 
oly of  wrong-doing  of  every  kind.  Should 
a  Claim  Agent  seeking  to  advertise  himself 
flaunt  before  this  Association  any  instance 
in  which  he  had  over-reached  an  ignorant 
claimant,  unadvised  of  his  rights,  and  con- 
cluded him  in  an  inadequate  settlement,  he 
would  be  severely  frowned  upon  by  this 
Association.  We  do  not  seek  unfair  advan- 
tages of  any  kind.  We  believe  in  a  square 
deal  between  employer  and  employe,  and 
between  the  railroad  and  its  patrons.  We 
do  not  strive  to  "put  over"  anything  on  any 
man.  If  we  can  prevent  jobs  being  per- 
petrated upon  the  railroad,  we  are  satisfied. 
We  have  been  trained  by  this  Association 
to  think  about  the  interest  of  our  respective 
Companies  in  its  broadest  aspect,  to  build 
for  the  future  instead  of  trying  to  make  a 
record  in  the  disposition  of  a  single  claim. 

Our  Association  has  grown  because  it  had 
important  work  to  do;  because  it  has  never 
failed  to  meet  and  unflinchingly  discharge 
responsibilities  thrust  upon  it.  For  these 
same  reasons,  it  shall  continue  to  grow. 


Close  Co-operation  of  Claim  Department  and  Operat- 
ing Department  in  the  Investigation  and 
Settlement  of  Claims 


By  Assistant  General  Claim  Agent,  E.  W.  Sprague 


SO  much  has  been  said  about  co-operation 
in  its  different  phases  and  application  to 
various  enterprises,  that  it  may  seem  at  first 


blush  that  the  subject  is  threadbare.  Effi- 
ciency, conservation,  co-operation,  etc.,  are 
modern  business  expressions.  They  are  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


foundation  stones  of  large  business  enter- 
prises and  the  constant  working  maxims  of 
captains  of  industry.  However,  many  who 
are  the  best  living  exponents  of  these  prin- 
ciples are  unacquainted  with  the  terms  and 
probably  could  not  define  them  if  asked  to 
do  so,  while  those  with  the  least  practical 
experience  frequently  employ  them  as  the 
themes  of  more  or  less  learned  dissertations 
or  frequently  use  them  as  verbal  ornamenta- 
tions. 

I  assume  that  no  member  of  this  associa- 
tion will  take  issue  with  the  assertion  that 
close  co-operation  between  the  Claim  and 
the  Operating  Departments  of  a  railway  is 
desirable.  Presumably  the  most  of  you 
would  say  that  it  is  now  an  established  fact 
with  you  and  not  a  theory  and  probably  the 
majority  of  us  would  have  so  said  ten  or 
twenty  years  ago.  Perhaps  we  may  have 
given  little  thought  to  what  really  consti- 
tutes close  co-operation  between  the  two 
departments,  but  where  the  relations  of  the 
two  have  been  harmonious  we  may  have 
unconsciously  assumed  that  harmony  and 
co-operation  are  synonymous.  Because  the 
two  departments  get  along  without  friction, 
the  Operating  Department  refraining  from 
criticizing  or  interfering  with  the  Claim  De- 
partment, considering  it  the  trouble  depart- 
ment of  the  railway  and  readily  conceding 
it  to  be  the  proper  repository  for  the  claims 
and  complaints  of  the  road's  patrons  and 
employes,  does  not  necessarily  imply  that 
there  is  co-operation  between  the  two,  al- 
though it  may  indicate  that  harmony  exists. 
Formerly  it  was  quite  often  felt  and  stated 
that  the  less  each  department  knew  of  the 
other's  activities  and  the  less  they  had  to 
do  with  each  other,  the  better  for  the  rail- 
way. The  fact  that  some  Claim  Depart- 
ments have  not  enjoyed  a  better  standing 
in  the  railway  family;  that  they  were 
relegated  to  some  dark  corner  or  attic 
for  office  space,  were  seldom  consulted 
and  had  little  influence  in  the  rail- 
road's affairs,  was  evidence  of  the  fact 
that  there  was  much  ignorance,  or  at 
least  failure,  to  recognize  the  relative 
importance  of  claim  work  and  such  ignor- 
ance was  fatal  to  sincere  co-operation.  Of 
course  we  are  all  acquainted  with  the  dic- 
tionary definition  of  "Co-operation,"  but  do 
we  all  know  what  the  proper  application  of 
it  to  our  work  means,  how  it  can  best  be 
brought  about  and  what  it  will  accomplish? 
We  did  not  know  much  about  it  on  the  Illi- 
nois Central  System  up  to  the  last  two  or 
three  years,  but  we  now  think  we  do  know 
something  of  it.  So,  in  this  paper,  instead 
of  discussing  or  advancing  abstract  theories 
of  the  subject  or  resorting  to  quotations 
from  the  many  treatises  heretofore  written 
by  all  sorts  of  people,  I  am  going  to  content 
myself  with  a  statement  of  that  which,  on 
our  road,  is  the  conception  of  what  consti- 
tutes close  co-operation  between  the  two 


departments,  how  it  was  inaugurated  and 
what  it  has  accomplished. 

As  a  first  step  toward  co-operation,  of 
course,  the  management  of  a  railroad  must 
be  convinced  of  its  desirability  and  see 
something  of  its  advantage  and  must  be- 
lieve in  the  Claim  Department  as  an  im- 
portant constructive  factor  in  the  railway 
service.  It  must  not  believe  that  the  de- 
partment's only  function  is  the  investigation 
and  adjustment  of  claims  and  that  its  work 
is  of  no  interest  or  concern  to  the  other 
department.  The  management  should  be- 
lieve that  the  information  secured  by  the 
Claim  Department  in  the  course  of  its  work 
ought  to  be  known  as  the  Operating  De- 
partment and  should  be  of  great  benefit  to 
the  latter  in  the  prevention  of  accidents 
and  claims;  it  should  realize  that  the  Claim 
Department  does  not  kill  or  maim  people 
but  that  such  misfortunes  come  through  the 
operations  of  the  Operating  Department 
and  that  that  department  and  not  the 
Claim  Department  is,  in  fact,  responsible 
for  the  financial  burden  falling  upon  the 
road  as  a  result  of  accidents,  claims,  and 
suits  and  that  all  members  of  the  Oper- 
ating Department  should  be  impressed  with 
their  responsibility  in  this  regard  and,  if 
fully  informed  and  held  responsible,  can 
be  more  readily  concerned  and  interested 
in  the  prevention  of  accidents  and  the  in- 
vestigation and  handling  of  claims  and 
suits. 

Starting  out  with  this  view  of  the  situa- 
tion, the  management  of  the  Illinois  Central 
System  some  three  years  ago,  began  with 
an  effort  to  impress  upon  the  Operating  De- 
partment officials  and  employes  that  their 
duties  and  responsibilities,  with  reference  to 
accidents  and  claims,  did  not  terminate  with 
the  filing  of  reports  of  same,  but  that  it  was 
also  a  part  of  their  duty  to  assist  the  Claim 
Department  in  procuring  all  the  facts  and 
rendering  any  assistance  they  could  in  the 
investigation  and  just  disposition  of  the 
claim  or  suit. 

To  forcibly  impress  this  upon  the  operat- 
ing officials,  a  circular  embracing  the  ideas 
and  instructions  as  to  how,  in  part,  it  was 
desired  that  they  co-operate  with  the  Claim 
Department,  was  issued  to  division  super- 
intendents. The  matter  was  not  permitted 
to  rest  with  the  issuance  of  the  circular  as 
unfortunately  many  attempted  reforms  do 
terminate,  but  the  general  manager  made  a 
trip  over  the  entire  system  with  the  general 
claim  agent,  and  on  each  operating  division 
the  superintendent,  trainmaster,  roadmaster. 
master  mechanic,  claim  agent  and  any  and 
all  other  division  officials  or  foremen  in 
charge  of  employes  were  gotten  together 
and  the  prevention  of  accidents  and  the 
manner  of  co-operation  with  the  Claim  De- 
partment in  their  handling  of  claims  and 
suits  was  fully  outlined.  The  division  offi- 
cials were  quizzed  regarding  their  knowl- 
edge of  the  facts  in  certain  important  pend- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


65 


ing  or  recently  disposed  of  cases;  what  in- 
vestigation they  themselves  had  made  of 
the  cases,  who  was  found  at  fault,  what  dis- 
cipline had  been  administered  or  what  other 
steps  taken  to  prevent  a  repetition;  also 
whether  they  knew  what  certain  cases  were 
costing  their  division;  what  information 
they  had  furnished  the  Claim  Department 
and  what  assistance  they  had  rendered  it. 
If,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  the  official 
had  not  heard  of  such  an  accident  or  claim, 
he  was  informed  that  he  had  overlooked  one 
of  the  most  important  things  on  his  division 
and  a  matter  which  the  management  felt 
should  have  been  of  real  concern  to  him. 
All  were  then  advised  that  a  trip  of  like 
character  would  be  made  in  a  short  time 
and  it  would  then  be  expected  that  the 
officials  would  know  all  about  such  matters. 
Such  a  trip  was  made  within  a  few  weeks 
and  like  trips  have  been  made  from  time  to 
time  since.  In  addition  to  this  trips  have 
been  made  over  each  division  on  a  motor 
car  by  the  claim  agent,  accompanied  by  the 
superintendent,  trainmaster  and  roadmaster, 
the  claim  agent  carrying  with  him  all  pend- 
ing claims  on  that  division.  When  a  sec- 
tion gang  was  reached,  if  any  of  its  mem- 
bers had  been  injured  or  had  a  claim  pend- 
ing, or  if  there  were  pending  a  claim  grow- 
ing out  of  the  operations  of  such  crew,  or 
any  fire,  stock  or  drainage  claim  in  which 
they  were  interested  a  stop  was  made  and 
the  matter  carefully  gone  over  with  the  sec- 
tion foreman.  A  short  talk  was  also  made 
to  the  entire  gang  with  reference  to  being 
carefuf  in  the  performance  of  their  work  so 
as  to  prevent  accidents.  Stops  were  made 
at  all  stations,  shops  or  other  places  where 
employes  were  engaged  and  any  claim  mat- 
ters pending,  growing  out  of  work  at  such 
places,  were  handled  with  the  men  in  this 
manner.  It  was  observed  that  a  trip  of  this 
character  gained  much  added  weight  and 
importance  by  the  presence  of  the  superin- 
tendent and  other  officials  in  that  it  pro- 
foundly .  impressed  the  minor  officials  and 
employes  with  the  fact  that  the  accidents, 
claims  and  claim  work  were  considered  very 
important  features  and  it  also  greatly  en- 
hanced the  standing  of  the  claim  agents  in 
the  eyes  of  such  officials  and  employes,  and 
secured  for  the  claim  agent  thereafter  much 
more  ready  and  hearty  co-operation.  In 
many  instances  the  claim  agent  by  personal 
contact  with  shop  foremen,  etc.,  and  the 
cultivation  of  friendly  relations  had  secured 
their  aid  and  assistance  to  a  marked  extent, 
but  such  foremen  frequently  felt  much  un- 
easiness as  they  feared  they  were  rendering 
such  aid  as  a  personal  favor  to  the  claim 
agent  and  in  doing  so  might  be  considered 
by  their  superiors  as  stepping  aside  from 
and  neglecting  their  regular  duties.  Such  a 
trip  as  the  one  referred  to  promptly  dis- 
abused their  minds  of  any  such  impression 
and  likewise  disclosed  to  those  who  had  not 
previously  rendered  such  favors  to  the  claim 


agents,  that  it  would  be  well  for  them  to  do 
so  in  future. 

The  Superintendents  all  attend  a  meeting 
in  the  general  manager's  office  orice  a 
month  to  discuss  operating  matters  and  par- 
ticularly estimates  of  expenses  for  the  en- 
suing month.  At  some  of  these  meetings 
the  General  Claim  Agent  appears  with  a  list 
of  claims  and  suits  which  may  be  disposed 
of  during  the  period,  with  an  estimate,  as 
nearly  as  he  can  get  at  it,  of  the  probable 
cost  of  each  case.  The  cases  are  then  care- 
fully gone  over  and  the  superintendents  are 
required  to  state  what  they  know  about 
them,  what  suggestions,  if  any,  they  have 
to  make  as  to  handling,  what  attention  they 
have  given  the  matters  and  what  steps  have 
been  taken  to  avoid  other  cases  of  like  na- 
ture. The  expense  from  this  source  is  so 
dwelt  upon  and  the  responsibility  of  the 
division  officials  in  the  matter  is  so  referred 
to  as  to  deeply  impress  the  superintendents 
with  the  importance  of  division  officials  co- 
operating with  the  Claim  Department. 

Monthly  statements  of  the  expense  occur- 
ring on  each  division  and  disbursements  by 
the  Claim  Department  are  prepared  and 
mailed  to  each  superintendent.  One  state- 
ment shows  the  number  of  casualties,  fatal 
and  non-fatal,  the  total  number  of  employes 
on  the  division  and  the  percentage  of  em- 
ployes injured  to  the  total  engaged  in  the 
work  and  the  divisions  are  ranked  accord- 
ing to  their  percentage  showing  of  casual- 
ties on  this  basis.  As  some  divisions  have 
shops  and  others  have  not,  the  number  of 
employes  engaged  in  the  shops  and  the 
casualties  occurring  therein  are  shown  sep- 
arately from  those  of  all  other  employes  on 
the  division  so  that  a  separate  ranking  is 
given  shops.  Another  statement  shows  dis- 
bursements on  each  division  on  account  of 
personal  injuries  and  another,  the  expendi- 
ture on  account  of  stock  killed  on  the  right 
of  way  and  these  disbursements  are  dis- 
tributed on  the  basis  of  100  engine  miles, 
the  divisions  being  ranked  according  to  the 
showing.  Accompanying  these  statements 
are  others  showing  exactly  the  same  (Jata 
for  the  preceding  months  of  the  fiscal  year, 
so  not  only  is  the  information  given  for  the 
month  just  concluded  but  also  for  the  fiscal 
year  up  to  the  close  of  the  month.  It  is 
surprising  how  much  interest  is  shown  in 
these  statements,  how  extensively  they  are 
analyzed  and  digested  by  the  various  offi- 
cials and  how  fully  and  earnestly  they  are 
discussed  in  the  various  division  staff  meet- 
ings. The  ranking  creates  quite  a  rivalry 
between  the  divisions. 

When  an  accident  occurs,  instead  of  sim- 
ply filing  a  report  and  then  dismissing  the 
matter  from  mind,  the  trainmaster,  master 
mechanic  or  other  proper  official  calls  an 
investigation,  notifies  the  claim  agent  of  the 
time  and  place  and  he  attends.  All  the  em- 
ploye witnesses  to  the  occurrence  are  called 
in  and  carefully  examined.  In  this  way  the 


66 


Claim  Department  gets  the  benefit  of  the 
expert  knowledge  of  the  employing  officials 
with  reference  to  the  particular  class  of- 
work  which  was  being  done  at  the  time  of 
the  accident,  and  also  of  such  influence  and 
effect  as  the  holding  of  the  investigation  in 
the  office  and  in  the  presence  of  the  em- 
ploying officer  may  have  upon  the  employe. 
This,  of  course,  very  forcibly  brings  before 
the  employing  officer  the  facts  and  circum- 
stances of  the  occurrence  and  places  him  in 
a  position  to  take  corrective  action.  Of 
course  the  claim  agent  is  not  limited  to 
such  investigation.  He  supplements  it  with 
further  interviews  with  the  employes,  if 
necessary  and  statements  of  other  wit- 
nesses. 

In  settling  with  an  injured  employe  his 
superior  officer  is  first  consulted  by  the 
claim  agent  and  his  ideas  obtained  as  to 
what  consideration  should  be  given  the  em- 
ploye because  of  his  period  of  service,  his 
record  and  the  facts  and  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  accident  tending  to  excuse 
him.  The  employing  officer  does  not  in 
any  way  dictate  to  the  Claim  Department 
the  amount  to  be  paid  but  simply  recom- 
mends and,  if  desired  by  the  claim  agent, 
uses  his  influence  with  the  claimant  in  en- 
deavoring to  bring  about  a  satisfactory  ad- 
justment. In  matters  of  unusual  import- 
ance, such  as  train  wrecks,  large  fires,  etc., 
the  division  superintendent  gets  into  the 
game  and  personally  conducts  an  investi- 
gation at  which  the  claim  agent  is  present 
and  participates.  The  claim  agents  and 
heads  of  the  Claim  Department  are  almost 
in  daily  consultation  with  the  division  offi- 
cials and  the  general  superintendent  re- 
garding claim  matters.  The  heads  of  the 
Claim  Department  are  frequently  invited  by 
the  general  superintendent  and  other  gen- 
eral officers  to  accompany  them  on  trips 
over  the  line  and  on  such  trips  time  is  al- 
ways found  for  some .  discussion  of  claim 
conditions.  This  keeps  constantly  before  the 
different  officials  and  employes  the  fact  that 
the  Claim  Department  is  recognized  by  the 
management  as  an  important  part  of  the 
railway  service.  In  other  words,  claim  mat- 
ters are  considered  and  treated  as  those  of 
common  interest  between  the  two  depart- 
ments, just  as  much  as  the  procurement  of 
business  or  the  providing  of  improvement 
of  facilities  is  considered  and  treated  by  the 
Operating  Department  and  Traffic  Depart- 
ment as  matters  of  mutual  interest  and  con- 
cern. 

Now,  what  is  the  result  of  such  co-opera- 
tion. Instead  of  producing  criticism  or  fric- 
tion between  the  two  departments,  it  has 
almost  entirely  eliminated  it.  It  has  made 
the  members  of  the  two  departments  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  each  other  and  has 
developed  that  in  their  railroad  work  they 
have  many  interests  in  common,  and  by 
bringing  the  two  departments  in  such  close 


and  frequent  contact  departmental  lines 
have  been  almost  eliminated.  The  Claim 
Department  no  longer  has  the  opportunity 
to  complain  that  the  Operating  Department 
is  unacquainted  with  and  unappreciative  of 
the  difficulties  attending  the  investigation 
and  handling  of  claims,  and  the  Operating 
Department  is  not  disposed  to  treat  the 
Claim  Department  as  one  apart  from  the 
general  service  and  to  contend  that  large 
sums  are  paid  in  compromise  or  suits  poor- 
ly defended  because  the  claim  agents  are 
unacquainted  with  practical  operating  meth- 
ods. But  not  only  has  it  established  better 
personal  relations  between  members  of  the 
two  departments  but  such  close  co-opera- 
tion has  given  great  impetus  to  the  safety 
first  movement  and  it  will  be  readily  con- 
ceded has  been  responsible  for  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  marked  success  of  such 
movement,  it  being  true  that  during  the 
period  of  co-operation  as  outlined  herein, 
the  railroad  has  enjoyed  a  very  consider- 
able decrease  in  accidents  and  a  very  large 
decrease  in  litigation. 

Preparedness  is  the  great  political  issue 
of  the  day.  It  has  become  a  great  catch 
word  and  is  more  or  less  applied  to  every 
subject  and  is  brought  into  every  discus- 
sion. It  can  be  truly  said,  however,  that 
where  a  railway  has  a  Claim  Department 
and  an  Operating  Department  and  close 
co-operation  does  not  exist  between  the 
two  that  that  road  is  not  well  prepared  to 
resist  inroads  upon  its  treasury  through 
the  medium  of  fraudulent  or  greatly  mag- 
nified claims,  nor  to  handle  with  perfect 
fairness  meritorious  claims;  nor  is  it 
well  prepared  to  obtain  the  best  re- 
sults in  the  prevention  of  accidents.  The 
latter  is  by  no  means  of  least  im- 
portance. The  medical  and  surgical  pro- 
fessions are  honored  as  much,  if  not 
more,  for  what  they  have  accomplished  in 
the  way  of  preventing  disease  as  for  what 
they  have  been  able  to  do  in  curing  it.  In 
other  words,  the  preventative  measures  they 
have  discovered  are  a  greater  boon  to  pres- 
ent and  future  generations  than  is  their 
ability  to  heal.  These  preventative  meas- 
ures have  been  the  result  of  a  careful  an- 
alysis and  study  of  the  causes  of  disease. 
So  the  Claim  Department  should,  by  care- 
fully analyzing  and  studying  the  causes  of 
accidents,  be  able  to  furnish  the  Operating 
Department  information  which  can  be  effec- 
tively used  in  preventing  accidents  and  thus 
the  Claim  Department  may  be  as  valuable, 
if  not  more  so,  to  the  railway  than  by 
simoly  investigating  and  adjusting  claims. 

There  are  probably  many  other  ways  than 
what  is  referred  to  here,  of  establishing  and 
maintaining  close  co-operation  of  the  two  de- 
partments. The  subject  presents  a  field  for 
originality  and  the  accomplishment  of  a  thing 
by  original  methods  makes  success  sweeter. 
However,  the  plan  herein  outlined  is  neither 
patented  nor  copyrighted  so  if  it  contains  any 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


67 


helpful  suggestions  you  are  heartily  welcome 
to  them.  All  that  is  contended  for  is  that 
close  co-operation  between  the  Claim  De- 
partment and  the  Operating  Department 
is  not  only  desirable  but  absolutely  es- 
sential if  the  railway  is  to  have  an  effi- 
cient claim  organization  and  if  it  is  to  take 
advantage  of  the  information  and  assist- 
ance which  such  organization  can  and 
should  supply  for  the  prevention  of  acci- 
dents or  in  the  interest  of  what  has  re- 
cently been  so  popularly  termed  "the  safety 
first  movement." 

HOW  BEST  TO  COPE  WITH  THE  AM- 
BULANCE-CHASING LAWYER  AND 
DAMAGE-SUIT    DOCTOR. 

By  Assistant  General  Claim  Agent  P.  M. 
Gatch. 

'  I  ^HE  question  of  how  best  to  cope  with  the 
-*•  "Ambulance-Chasing"  Lawyer  and  the 
Damage-Suit  Doctor  is  one  which  has  always 
confronted  large  corporations. 

At  the  threshold  of  this  question,  it  is  per- 
haps interesting  to  note  that  there  are  some 
personal  injury  cases  which  legitimately  come 
to  the  hands  of  the  reputable  practicing  law- 
yer, and  which  cases,  as  to  injuries,  are  based 
upon  the  testimony  of  a  reputable  physician, 
where  the  injured  person  either  has,  or  thinks 
he  has  a  good  cause  of  action.  Such  cases 
should  of  course  receive  that  degree  of  atten- 
tion usually  accorded  any  legitimate  attorney 
representing  any  other  kind  of  reputable  claim. 
However,  it  is  not  this  type  of  claim  to  which 
I  wish  to  direct  your  attention,  but  rather  to 
the  claim  which  even  though  it  possesses  legal 
merit,  and  has  in  law  a  right  of  recovery 
against  the  defendant,  yet  seeks  recognition 
through  dishonest  and  disreputable  practices, 
at  the  instance  of  the  unscrupulous  and  de- 
signing lawyer. 

There  are  many  cases  wherein  a  man  is 
injured,  as  a  result  of  which  a  clear  liability 
exists,  and,  very  naturally,  it  is  desired  to  settle 
the  claim  and  compensate  the  man  in  such  sum 
as  will  represent  a  reasonable  compensation 
for  the  injuries  received.  It  is  at  this  point 
the  "ambulance  chaser,"  so  called,  makes 
his  appearance  and  presents  a  problem 
which  renders  the  task  much  more  diffi- 
cult than  if  the  man  were  acting  without 
a  lawyer,  as  in  the  majority  of  instances 
the  claim  is  unnecessarily  based  upon  per- 
jury and  disreputable  tactics. 

As  a  concrete  illustration  of  personal  ex- 
perience, I  may  use  the  following  statement 
of  actual  conditions.  In  the  City  of  St.  Paul 
prior  to  November  1914,  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  was  the  defendant  in  per- 
sonal injury  suits  aggregating  approximately 
a  million  and  a  quarter  dollars.  The  Com- 
pany owns  about  forty  miles  of  track  inside 
the  State  of  Minnesota.  The  plaintiffs  in 
these  suits,  were,  practically  all  of  them,  non- 
residents bringing  cases  extending  as  far  west 


as  the  western  limits  of  Iowa,  and  as  far 
south  as  Mississippi.  Without  criticising  the 
method  of  the  court  procedure,  or  the  hold- 
ings of  the  courts  in  Minnesota,  it  is  perhaps 
sufficient  to  say  that  the  decisions  in  that  State 
were  generally  regarded  as  advantageous  to 
a  plaintiff's  suit.  A  rigid  inquiry  being  in- 
stituted disclosed  that  a  number  of  lawyers 
in  St.  Paul  had  established  various  points  in 
Illinois,  Kentucky  and  Iowa  with  paid  solici- 
tors to  secure  the  claims  of  injured  persons. 
It  was  the  business  of  the  solicitor,  upon  hear- 
ing of  an  injured  employe,  to  interview  the 
representative  of  the  man  killed,  or  the  in- 
jured person  if  living,  and  by  quack  repre- 
sentations sufficiently  impress  the  claimant  with 
the  ability  of  the  particular  lawyer  he  repre- 
sented, and  the  advantages  to.  be  had  in  in- 
stituting a  suit  at  St.  Paul,  or  in  the  State 
of  Minnesota,  and  further  assuring  the  claim- 
ant of  the  great  damage  which  would  result 
to  him  by  listening  to  any  talk  of  compromise 
with  the  claim  agent  of  the  Company.  This 
was  usually  followed  by  a  contract  in  the 
name  of  the  attorney  by  which  the  case  was 
practically  turned  over  to  the  St.  Paul  lawyer, 
who  was  to  receive,  usually  thirty-three  and 
one-third  per  cent  of  the  amount  collected,  in 
consideration  of  which,  the  lawyer  agreed  to 
make  all  investigations  of  the  case,  transport 
the  plaintiff  and  his  witnesses  from  the  for- 
eign state  to  the  State  of  Minnesota,  pay  the 
hotel  bill  and  expenses  for  a  stay  in  St.  Paul, 
and  during  the  interim,  to  pay  to  the  claimant 
usually  a  stated  amount  ranging  from  twenty- 
five  to  seventy-five  dollars  per  month,  and  in 
some  instances  more.  All  costs  of  appeal  and 
every  expense  incident  to  the  litigation,  was 
to  be  advanced  by  the  lawyer.  (All  money 
advanced  on  monthly  allowance,  as  well  as 
costs  of  every  kind,  to  be  adjusted  at  the  close 
of  litigation,  and  these  expenditures,  of  course, 
not  to  affect  the  thirty-three  and  one-third 
per  cent  fee  of  the  lawyer.)  Surrounding  this 
attorney  in  the  city  of  St.  Paul  were  several 
physicians  and  surgeons,  men  of  considerable 
ability  and  apparently  good  standing  in  the 
medical  profession,  who  were  ready  and  will- 
ing to  take  charge  of  the  injured  person  upon 
his  arrival  in  St.  Paul,  and  during  the  course 
of  pretended  treatment  in  that  city,  qualify 
themselves  to  testify  to  the  very  great,  last- 
ing and  permanent  injuries  the  plaintiff  had 
received.  The  disadvantage  at  which  the  Rail- 
road Company  was  called  upon  to  defend,  un- 
der .such  circumstance,  was  quite  apparent. 
The  trial  of  a  few  of  these  cases  soon  illus- 
trated that  rank  perjury  was  being  practiced, 
yet  the  scene  of  trial  was  so  remote  from  the 
place  of  accident  that  it  was  quite  impossible 
to  have  the  witnesses  present,  or  properly 
prepare  the  case  in  advance,  as  it  could  not 
be  prophesied  upon  which  particular  fact  the 
perjury  would  concentrate.  Two  or  three 
large  verdicts  were  secured,  and  conditions 
were  such  that  the  Company  determined  upon 
an  active,  aggressive  effort  to  eradicate  the 
evil  as  it  existed  at  that  point,  and  plans  were 


68 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


laid  accordingly,  it  being  recognized  at  the 
threshold  that  the  power  to  be  combated 
was  the  ''ambulance  chasing"  lawyer,  the  physi- 
cian who  supported  him,  and  the  solicitor 
whose  business  it  was  to  procure  the  testimony. 
It  so  happened  that  the  newspapers  of  St. 
Paul  had  for  some  months  been  watching  the 
practice  of  these  lawyers  which  was  fast  clog- 
ging the  progress  of  the  courts.  They  had  no 
concrete  facts  upon  which  to  direct  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public,  but  were  evidently  willing 
and  anxious  to  correct  the  evil,  desiring  to  ac- 
complish nothing  but  that  which  would  be  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  public  generally,  real- 
izing, as  one  of  them  put  it,  that  the  tax-pay- 
ers would  have  to  pay  the  piper.  They  watched 
and  fairly  and  impartially  published  the  pro- 
ceedings disclosed  by  the  various  suits.  The 
climax  of  the  situation  probably  developed 
through  a  case  in  which  a  trusted  employe 
feigned  injuries,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
resulting  in  a  fall  from  a  bc»x  car.  He  was 
taken  to  a  hospital,  and  there  conveniently 
secreted  was  an  expert  court  reporter  who 
immediately  proceeded  to  take  down  the  in- 
terviews between  the  supposedly  injured  man 
and  the  various  solicitors  of  the  St.  Paul, 
lawyers  who  called  on  him.  The  competition 
was  strong.  Finally  one  of  the  lawyers  -him- 
self put  in  an  appearance  and  again  the  de- 
tails of  the  accident  were  taken  down  at  first 
hand.  The  physician,  acting  at  the  instance  of 
the  lawyer,  proceeded  to  take  the  man  in 
charge  and  furnished  a  report  to  the  Company 
as  to  the  grave  and  dangerous  injuries  which 
the  man  had  received,  all  of  which  were  ab- 
solutely false  and  untrue.  A  suit  was  act- 
ually instituted.  The  time  for  the  trial  ap- 
proaching, we  took  the  affidavit  of  the  man 
himself  into  court  in  support  of  a  motion  to 
dismiss  the  suit.  In  detail  the  fake  plain- 
tiff stated  that  he  never  was  injured  at  all, 
that  he  did  *not  fall  from  the  car,  and  that 
representation  by  the  physicians  and  plaintiff's 
lawyers  were  false.  This  matter  got  into  the 
St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  papers,  was  pub- 
lished in  full  and  then  followed  some  forty 
or  fifty  editorials  and  news  items,  many  of 
which  were  copied  in  the  newspapers  of  other 
cities  and  towns,  so  that  the  methods  of  the 
"ambulance  chasers"  were  published  far  and 
wide,  and  was  of  great  advantage  to  the  Com- 
pany. 

During  the  year  mentioned  in  the  City  of 
St.  Paul,  about  fifteen  cases  were  tried.  By 
persistent  efforts,  each  case  was  won  and  some 
nine  or  ten  were  tied  up  by  injunctions  pro- 
cured in  the  State  where  the  plaintiffs  re- 
sided, restraining  them  from  prosecuting  their 
suits  in  foreign  courts.  Usually  in  the  trial 
of  a  personal  injury  case,  the  sympathy  of 
the  jury,  to  begin  with,  is  all  for  the  plain- 
tiff, but  not  so  in  these  cases.  By  turning 
the  light  on  the  methods  of  these  attorneys, 
a  prejudice  soon  began  to  manifest  itself 


against  "foreign  personal  injury  suits"  and  if 
anything,  the  juries  were  for  us  rather  than 
against  us.  The  leading  one  of  the  injunc- 
tion cases  referred  to  was  tried  in  Paducah, 
Kentucky,  where  a  temporary  injunction  was 
issued.  A  motion  was  later  made  to  dissolve 
the  injunction  but  was  overruled,  and  the  case 
was  taken  to  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Ken- 
tucky where  the  plaintiff  asked  to  have  the 
order  of  the  lower  court  reversed.  The  posi- 
tion of  the  lower  court  was  sustained  as  a 
result  of  which  we  have  in  a  measure  at  least 
in  that  state  established  the  railroad  com- 
pany's right  to  prevent  the  people  of  that  State 
running  into  foreign  states  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  an  inequitable  advantage.  We 
hope  ultimately  to  procure  a  holding  by  the 
court  of  last  resort  in  Kentucky  which  no 
doubt  will  have  a  very  beneficial  effect  on 
the  "ambulance  chasing"  lawyers. 

In  most  every  community  the  "ambulance 
chasing"  lawyer  with  some  particular  doctor 
as  his  friend  is  apt  to  be  found.  The  larger 
the  city,  of  course,  the  more  of  them  there 
are.  This  is  an  evil  which  probably  must  al- 
ways be  contended  with  and  for  which  I  really 
have  nothing  new  to  present.  My  remarks 
are  chiefly  pertinent  in  the  light  of  my  ex- 
perience at  certain  points  where  the  contagion 
of  personal  injury  suits  exists,  and  like  a  pest, 
bother  the  people  of  that  particular  locality, 
and  cause  the  Company  the  expenditure  of 
large  sums  in  assembling  witnesses  so  far 
from  their  base.  In  these  pest  ridden  com- 
munities, I  would  respectfully  urge  the  adop- 
tion of  a  well  defined  plan  of  campaign  by 
which  everything  is  contested,  nothing  settled, 
and  to  cause  as  much  publicity  to  the  disreput- 
able practices,  as  you  are  able  to  secure,  for  in 
these  cases  while  the  plaintiff's  claim  may 
have  merit,  the  practice  is  dishonest,  unjust 
and  outside  the  pale  of  decent  ethics.  To 
treat  the  "ambulance  chasing"  lawyer  as  an 
outlaw,  a  bandit,  granting  him  no  quarter, 
giving  none,  making  him  earn  every  penny 
he  receives.  Experience,  limited  though  it 
may  be,  has  taught  me  that  while  some  one 
case  may,  through  this  process,  cost  a  little 
more,  the  excess  is  saved  many  times  over  in 
the  course  of  continuous  litigation.  The 
"ambulance  chasing"  lawyer  would  deny  his 
occupation  before  a  court,  he  would  resent 
the  imputation  as  a  slander.  He  should  be 
called  by  his  right  name,  treated  as  one  who 
plunders  through  the  misfortunes  of  others. 
He  should  be  driven  out  of  the  business.  I 
do  not  believe  in  an  attack  by  direct  proceed- 
ings against  him  for  champerty  or  mainte- 
nance or  barratry.  You  will  simply  make  him 
a  martyr  and  arouse  public  sympathy  for  him. 
The  best  way  in  my  judgement  to  injure  his 
business  is  to  beat  him  in  his  law  suits,  to 
beat  him  by  determined  effort  and  by  planning 
against  perjury  and  the  unfair  methods  he 
invariably  employs. 


ILLINOIS  CENTRAL 

AND 

The  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Companies 

Publicity  Bulletin  No.  17 


CAR  SHORTAGE 

There  is  an  ABNORMAL  CONGESTION  OF  CARS 
loaded  with  export  material  |j^  TH&EAST  °ue  *°  SCAR- 
CITY OF  SHIPS  and  STORING  FACILITIES. 

This  naturally  has  brought  about  more  or  less  of  a 

SHORTAGE  of  cars  in  theMIDDLE  WEST  AND  SOUTH. 

When  RAILROADS  PROVIDE  the  necessary  equip- 
ment to  HANPLE  THE  TRAFFIC  tnat  is  offered  under 
normal  conditions,  with  REASONABLE  PROMPTNESS, 
they  have  done  THEIR  PART  an"  cannot  be  JUSTLY 
CRITICISED  f°r  Delays  to  cars  that  are  being  used  as 
WAREHOUSES  ON  RAILS  other  than  their  own>  and 
for  causes  OVER  WHICH  THEY  HAVE  NO  CONTROL. 

The  present  situation  is  a  "CONDITION  AND  NOT  A 
THEORY"  and  can  ke  alleviated  in  two  ways:— 

1st:— By  every  shipper  LOADING  and  everv  consignee 

RELEASING  within  TWENTY-FOUR  HOURS  a11  cars 
that  have  been  placed  at  their  disposal 

2nd:~By  thepRQMPT  MQVEMENT  bv  transportation 
lines  of  all  empty  cars  to  points  where  freight  is  awaiting 
shipment,  and  the  handling  WITHOUT  UNNECESSARY 
DELAY  °f  I°ao1ed  cars  to  destination. 

The  shipper  who  has  REPLENISHED  HIS  STOCK  TO- 
DAY may  be  in  need  of  ADDITIONAL  SUPPLIES  NEXT 
WEEK  a»d  it  is  only  through  the  CO-OPERATIVE  EF- 
FORT OF  ALL  SHIPPERS  AND  THE  CARRIERS  *a* 
the  best  results  can  be  obtained. 

If  you  will  do  YOUR  SHARE,  MR.  SHIPPER, 
TRANSPORTATION  LINES  WILL  DO  THEIR'S. 


Passenger 


Department 


LiMe  Talks  wiiK  fhc  Rambler 


Service  Noies  of  Interest. 


Spring  Fever  Gossip 


4<YV7ELL,    well,    Tyro,    Old    Man! 

**  Where  did  you  get  the  fine  Rook* 
wood  vase?"  Such  was  my  salutation 
as  I  unexpectedly  walked  in  on  the  in- 
dividual mentioned  in  his  little  cubby- 
hole of  a  room,  and  noted  on  a  shelf  in 
the  corner  a  huge  bunch  of  beautiful, 
white  hawthorne  blossoms  loosely  ar- 
ranged in  what  was  once  a  large  size 
earthen  paste  jar.  Tyro  was  sitting 
tipped  back  in  his  chair,  with  arms 
thrown  up  and  the  back  of  his  head 
resting  in  the  palms  of  his  hands  held 
together  by  interlocked  fingers.  He  was 
gating  intently  at  the  beautiful  jblos- 
soms  offset  in  their  loveliness  by  the 
tracery  of  branches  and  their  supple- 
mentary green  leaves.  Remembering  his 
love  in  the  olden  days  for  the  out-of- 
doors  and  all  that  pertains  thereto,  he 
wore,  I  thought,  a  far-away  dreamy 
look,  as  though  in  mind  he  was  com- 
pletely removed  from  the  city's  strife 
and  confinement  and  was  out  where  the 
blossoms  grew.  In  fact,  it  would  have 
been  entirely  in  harmony  with  what  I 
knew  of  him  to  have  him  tell  me  that 
he  himself  had  gathered  that  exquisite 
bouquet  on  some  hasty  outing  in  the 
country,  although  I  later  learned  that 
such  had  not  been  the  case.  They  had 
been  contributed  by  a  co-worker,  on  the 
newspaper  which  Tyro  honored  by  his 
gifts,  who  lived  far  out  in  the  suburbs. 

Tyro,  by  the  way,  was  not  his  name, 
but  an  appelation  he  had  earned  in  his 


college  days,  and  which  had  stuck,  ac- 
count of  his  signing  his  early  contribu- 
tions to  the  press  with  the  pen  name  of 
"Tiny  Tyro."  Since  those  days  he  had 
been  through  the  crucial  mill  of  news- 
paper writing  from  a  space  writer  and 
cub  reporter  up  to  his  present  position, 
which  was  that  of  editorial  writer.  We 
had  been  friends  from  boyhood,  and, 
as  I  have  intimated,  we  went  through 
college  together.  Of  late  years,  however, 
we  saw  but  little  of  each  other  owing 
to  the  circumstance  of  our  business  life 
lying  in  different  directions.  We,  how- 
ever, managed  to  see  each  other  occa- 
sionally, and  always  on  the  old  familiar 
footing  of  our  younger  days.  When, 
therefore,  on  this  particular  occasion  I 
found  myself  unexpectedly  down-town 
well  toward  evening  one  Sunday  after- 
noon, I  happened  to  think  of  Tyro  and 
that  he  would  probably  be  grinding  at 
his  desk  at  about  that  time  for  the  morn- 
ing edition,  and  so  went  up  and  found 
his  as  described. 

On  hearing  my  voice  he  jumped  from 
his  chair  with  a  hearty  salutation,  ask- 
ing where  I  had  rained  down  from,  why 
I  hadn't  seen  him  oftener,  knowing  that 
I  was  more  free  to  come  and  go  than  he 
was,  and  suggesting  that  there  was  al- 
ways the  telephone  that  took  but  a  mo- 
men  when  time  admitted  of  -nothing 
better.  Forcing  me  into  his  only  chair, 
he  seated  himself  on  the  top  of  his  desk 
and  looked  me  over  long  and  earnestly, 


70 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


71 


with  an  expression  and  attitude  which 
made  me  feel  sure  of  the  sincerity  of 
his  welcome.  I  apologized,  however,  for 
intruding  in  what  was  possibly  his  work- 
ing hours,  knowing  by  experience  that 
men  in  his  profession  were  not  over- 
pleased  as  a  rule  at  the  intrusion  of 
visitors  when  their  best  concentration 
was  desired.  "Oh,  that's  a'll  right," 
laughed  Tyro,  "you  know  the  story  of 
battles  are  often  written  on  the  field. 
But  I  was  through,  I  guess.  I  have 
pushed  a  bit  of  stuff  over,  and  doubt 
if  I  would  have  gotten  any  further  today 
even  if  you  hadn't  come  along.  It  was 
mighty  hard  work  any  way,  doing  what 
little  I  did  do.  In  fact,  I  guess  I  have 
spring  fever."  "That's  what  I  thought," 
I  replied,  "when  I  found  you  so  ab- 
sorbed in  those  hawthorne  blossoms  as 
not  to  hear  me  come  in.  But  possibly 
it  was  not  those  that  were  on  your  mind. 
It  was  some  deep  thought,  perhaps,  cal- 
culated to  benefit  mankind  when  put 
into  form  in  your  inimitable  way  on  that 
pad  of  paper."  "No,"  was  the  smiling- 
ly response,  "I  doubt  if  I  was  having 
any  deep  thoughts.  In  fact,  I  know  I 
have  the  spring  fever.  My  mind  was 
away  with  those  blossoms.  Remember 
when  we  used  to  go  into  the  woods 
every  Sunday  at  this  spring  time  of  the 
year  in  the  old  college  days?"  I  nodded 
my  response,  and  fell  myself  into  the  re- 
miniscent mood.  "Well,  for  one  thing," 
Tyro  continued,  "you  know  this  •'has 
been  the  first  hot  day  we  have  had,  and 
it  has  probably  taken  a  little  starch  out 
of  me.  Then  Quad  brought  me  in  these 
hawthorne  blossoms,  and  as  a  climax  I 
found  in  this  little  publication  here  an 
article  that  went  deep  down  into  my 
system.  Let  me  read  you  enough  of  it 
to  show  its  drift."  Reaching  over  he 
picked  up  from  the  top  of  his  desk  a 
neat  appearing  periodical  and  hastily 
read  from  it  snatches  of  the  plaint  of 
a  brother  editor  as  to  why  he  could 
not  write.  "I  will  not  bother  about 
names  and  localities,"  Tyro  prefaced, 
"but  just  skim  enough  of  this  to  give 
you  an  idea  of  its  infectiousness.  Later 
you  might  be  interested  to  read  it  in  de- 
tail. Now  listen : 


"  'Spring  is  here  and  we  'know  a  bank 
whereon  the  wild  thyme  blows.'  *  *  * 
Where  we  are  writing  this,  the  maple 
trees  are  in  full  leaf  and  the  breeze 
blowing  over  the  hills  is  laden  with 
vernal  odors.  And  yet  the  Editor  *  *  * 
disregarding  the  spring  season  and  all  it 
implies,  is  calling  stridently  for  copy. 
Why,  confound  it  all,  *  *  *  the  hills 
are  covered  with  the  purple  bloom  of 
the  wild  plum  and  the  woods  are  full 
of  purple  iris,  *  *  *  the  star-like  blos- 
soms of  the  dogwood  are  floating  in  the 
air  which  is  heavy  with  the  odor  of 
locust  flowers  and  you  ask  for  copy; 
the  king  fishers  are  darting  like  flashes 
of  blue  fire  along  the  surface  of  the 
streams ;  the  crystal  water  from  hun- 
dreds of  springs  is  trickling  and  falling 
melodiously  down  the  moss-covered 
rocks  and  the  birds  are  mating  every- 
where, yet  you  prate  for  copy.  But  all 
nature  is  calling  on  her  children  to  lay 
aside  for  a  brief  space  their  ordinary 
cares  and  come  to  her  if  only  for  a  few 
days  to  be  refreshed,  and  how  under 
such  circumstances  can  we  be  expected 
to  grind  out  copy  when  we  might  be 
tasting  all  these  delights.  *  *  *  Back  to 
Nature  where  *  *  *  Back  to — confound 
that  trolley  car — it  has  broken  the  train 
of  thought  and  brought  us  back  with 
a  jerk  to  the  everyday  world  where  most 
of  us  live  and  move  and  have  our  be- 
ing. We  are  free  to  confess  that  a  lim- 
ited number  of  days  of  this  'back  to 
nature'  is  quite  enough,  but  you  should 
have  them  at  least  twice  a  year  to  enable 
you  to  enjoy  and  appreciate  more  thor- 
oughly the  comforts  and  conveniences 
which  the  city  affords  and  Dame  Na- 
ture does  not.'  "There !"  was  his  ex- 
clamative  as  he  threw  the  paper  on  his 
desk,  "between  the  heat,  those  blossoms 
in  the  corner,  and  that  article,  do  you 
wonder  that  I  am  through  writing  for 
the  day?"  "No,"  I  said,  "you  have  my 
sympathy.  I  feel  more  or  less  that  way 
myself.  But  how  is  the  good  wife  and 
the  kiddies?"  "O,  they  are  all  right, 
thank  you.  But  perhaps  that's  another 
reason,"  he  added  reflectively.  "They 
have  gone  away  for  a  week's  outing, 
and  I  am  left  to  my  own  resources." 


72 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


"Good,"  I  exclaimed,  "let's  both  of  us 
go  up  and  spend  the  evening  with  the 
Rambler,  for  I  know  he  is  in  town." 
Tyro's  acquaintance  with  the  Rambler 
was  of  long  standing  although  not  of 
such  an  intimate  nature  as  that  between 
ourselves.  "Agreed,"  he  said  enthusi- 
astically, "although,"  was  the  reflection, 
"I  rather  half  thought  I  would  go  out 
into  one  of  the  parks  and  sit  on  a  bench 
for  a  while.  Somehow  or  other  a  stuffy 
apartment  does  not  exactly  appeal  to  me 
this  evening,  even  if  it  has  been  quite 
a  long  time  since  I  have  seen  the  Ram- 
bler. However,  it  is  such  a  rare  op- 
portunity for  us  three  to  be  together 
that  I  guess  I  will  adopt  your  sugges- 
tion." O,  forget  that  'stuffy  apartment' 
idea,"  was  my  reply.  "The  Rambler 
has  recently  moved  into  new  quarters, 
on  one  of  the  boulevards  in  a  section  of 
the  city  where  there  is  more  or  less 
clear  open  space;  and  best  of  all,  his 
apartment  has  one  of  those  modern  open 
porches,  so  we  will  be  very  close  to 
being  out-doors.  We  certainly  will  not 
let  the  Rambler  keep  us  inside  while  he 
expatiates  on  some  recent  acquisition 
for  his  library  or  for  his  stamp  collec- 
tion." 

So  we  started;  not,  however,  before 
Tyro  had  removed  the  hawthorne  from 
the  jar,  replenished  the  latter  with  fresh 
water  and  then  carefully  rearranged  the 
blossoms  in  the  jar.  This  last  he  did  in 
a  most  artistic  manner,  remarking  as  he 
finished,  "the  old  paste  pot  makes  some 
Rookwood  after  all." 

In  due  course  we  received  a  hearty 
welcome  from  the  Rambler.  As  I  rath- 
er anticipated,  that  individual  made  no 
suggestion  whatever  as  to  our  staying 
inside  but  took  us  immediately  out  on 
that  wonderful  porch  of  his.  Cozily 
seated  in  our  host's  most  comfortable 
chairs,  which  he  brought  out  from  the 
library  in  special  honor  of  our  visit,  we 
began  to  enjoy  a  delightfully  social  even- 
ing. We  watched  the  animated  scenes 
of  the  brilliantly  lighted  boulevard, 
and  talked  on  many  subjects  of  com- 
mon interest.  Incidentally  I  touched 
on  the  mood  in  which  I  had  found  Tyro 
in  his  little  den,  and  laughingly  described 


to  the  Rambler  as  well  as  I  could  what 
he  had  read  to  me.  "O,  yes,  I  know 
that  article,"  was  the  quick  response. 
"It  was  in  the  'Way-Bill,'  published  by 
the  Traffic  Club.  I  have  a  copy  of  it 
on  my  desk  in  the  office  and  I  remem- 
ber reading  it.  But  the  writer  of  that 
charming  little  effusion  has  nothing  on 
me  in  a  way,  as  I,  too,  have  a  certain 
phase  of  the  spring  fever.  Somewhat 
less  poetical,  however,  than 'his,  and  pos- 
sibly it  might  be  twisted  to  the  asser- 
tion that  I  am  taking  my  usual  'spring 
medicine'."  He  said  this  with  a  little 
chuckle  as  though  there  was  a  humor- 
ous side  to  it.  So,  as  we  expected,  he 
quickly  explained  by  adding,  "I  too,  am 
reading  spring  effusions,  although  mine 
is  really  the  spring  crop  of  inspiration 
for  preparation  for  the  summer.  It 
runs  something  in  this  way: 

:  'The  wonderfully  beautiful  scenery 
along  this  new  route  has  won  everlast- 
ing admiration  from  the  enthusiastic 
tourists  who  have  traversed  its  pictur- 
esque course.'  'Experienced  travelers 
who  know  what's  what  agree  that  in  the 
sustained  beauty  and  grandeur  of  its 
scenery,  it  far  excels,  etc.'  'The  Prince 
who  hunted  in  this  region  some  time 
ago  said,  'I  was  deeply  impressed  by  the 
grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  scenery.' 
'Neither  by  pen  nor  picture  can  justice 
be  done  the  magnicent  scenery.'  'Pop- 
ularity must  always  and  ever  be  the 
proof  of  the  charm  of  a  place — a  thing 
—or  a  pastime,  and  when  thousands 
from  all  points,  of  the  compass  set  their 
seal  of  approval  by  coming  year  after 
year  to  a  summer  outing  place,  seem- 
ingly there  is  no  argument  left.'  'Best 
of  all,  one  may  be  out  every  day  in  the 
rare,  invigorating  air,  under  bue  skies 
and  a  bright  but  scorchless  sun,  and  may 
know  that  every  long,  cool  night  will 
bring  the  refreshing,  upbuilding  sleep 
that  only  the  air  of  the  mountains  can 
induce.'  'Glide  down  enchanting  riv- 
ers whose  shifting  blue  waters  wash  the 
shores  of  charming  green  islands.'  'The 
vacation  has  established  itself  in  Amer- 
ican life  as  a  fixed  institution.'  'After 
crowded  intense  months  of  arduous 
work,  relaxation  and  change  of  scene  is 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


73 


a  positive  necessity.'  That  ought  to  ap- 
peal to  you,  Tyro,"  the  Rambler  re- 
marked in  an  aside,  and  then  continued.. 
"  'Splendid  hotel,  with  every  comfort 
that  brain  can  devise  and  money  can 
procure,  it  ranks  with  the  best  hotels  in 
the  country/  I  might  add  there  some- 
thing on  the  subect  of  'the  cuisine,'  and 
could  go  on  indefinitely  with  phrases 
running  the  entire  gamut  from  a  camp 
life  to  a  palatial  summer  resort  hotel, 
from  mountain  to  seashore,  from  trout 
brooks  to  pine  forests,  from  sail  boats 
to  steamships,  and  from  stage  coaches 
to  the  most  modern  of  steam  railroads. 
But  I  will  be  satisfied  with  but  one  more 
quotation  which  seems  to  me  a  sort  of 
classic  in  its  way.  Mentioning  a  certain 
tour,  it  went  as  follows :  'It  is  an  invest- 
ment that  means  a  lot — and  you  should 
buy  your  ticket  via  that  route  which  will 
give  the  biggest  dividends  in  scenic  en- 
joyment and  luxurious,  smoothly-han- 
dled service.'  Of  course,"  he  concluded, 
"I  am  reciting  what  I  remember  of 
phrases  from  summer  folders  of  rail- 
roads and  steamship  companies,  a  large 
stack  of  which  I  have  on  my  desk  and 
which  in  a  certain  way  it  is  to  my  inter- 
est to  peruse  to  a  greater  or  less  extent." 
"Yes,"  broke  in  Tyro,  with  an  assumed 
growl,  "I  suppose  it  is  a  part  of  your 
game  to  coax  people  out  into  the  world 
during  the  summer  season,  even  includ- 
ing such  poor,  chained-down  chaps  as 
newspaper  men.  I  hope,"  he  continued 
facetiously,  "that  you  do  not  forget  to 
remind  all  that  it  is  their  duty  to  'See 
America  First' ;  in  which,"  he  added  re- 
flectively, "I  am  sure  you  railroad  peo- 
ple are  right.  But  come,"  he  continued 
briskly,  "you're  getting  mighty  near  to 
talking  shop.  I  know  what  you  are  ca- 
pable of  when  warmed  up  on  the  sub- 
ject of  passenger  traffic,  and  warn  you 
that  this  is  not  the  season  when  I  am  in 
a  receptive  mood;  although,  as  you 
know,  there  are  times  when  T  am  more 
than  glad  to  hear  you  on  that  subject, 
as  a  matter  of  both  personal  and  pro- 
fessional interest.  But  I  realize  how 
difficult  it  is  for  you  to  ever  get  your- 
self very  far  removed  from  what  is  next 
to  your  heart,  so  on  this  hot  night  sup- 


pose we  compromise  by  your  telling  us 
some  intresting  story  of  your  experi- 
ence of  getting  passenger  traffic."  "Well, 
I  don't  know  of  anything  of  peculiar  in- 
terest in  my  own  personal  experience 
that  occurs  to  me  at  present,"  quietly 
replied  the  Rambler,  as  Tyro  and  myself 
helped  ourselves  to  fresh  cigars  from 
his  box  while  he  reached  out  for  his 
pipe.  Then,  as  we  all  lit  up,  he  con- 
tinued, "This  may,  however,  interest 
you.  It  is  not  about  anything  that  hap- 
pened to  me,  but  an  experience  of  one 
of  our  men."  Taking  a  few  vigorous 
puffs  from  his  pipe,  as  we  settled  back 
with  our  freshly  lighted  cigars  to  listen, 
he  began. 

"About  a  year  or  more  ago,  one  of 
our  representatives  whose  territory 
stretches  many  miles  across  the  northern 
portion  of  the  country,  received  a  rou- 
tine letter  from  the  general  office  quot- 
ing a  request  from  a  correspondent  in 
his  territory  who  asked  the  party  rate 
for  ten  or  more  from  Chicago  to  -  — . 
The  representative  followed  the  usual 
course  in  such  matters  and  communicat- 
ed with  the  agent  of  a  connecting  line 
in  the  city  from  which  the  correspond- 
ent wrote,  and  in  due  course  received  re- 
ply that  such  a  party  could  not  be  found. 
'He  must  exist,  however,'  argued  the 
representative  to  himself,  'or  the  letter 
could  not  have  been  written.'  So  a  sec- 
ond letter  was  written  to  another  party 
in  the  city  referred  to,  and  the  reply 
thereto  was  most  encouraging.  It  stat- 
ed that  such  a  party  lived  in  that  town, 
although  at  that  writing  he  had  not 
been  located.  The  haul  involved  was  a 
long  one  for  our  line,  and  a  prospective 
party  of  ten  was  by  no  means  to  be 
ignored.  So,  taking  no  more  chances 
and  having  lost  as  much  time  as  was  per- 
missible in  this  preliminary  skirmish, 
the  representative  made  a  long  journey 
of  some  thirty-eight  hours  to  the  city, 
located  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the 
Northwest,  where  the  writer  of  the  in- 
quiry had  been  partially  located.  Reach- 
ing there,  however,  search  and  inquiry 
developed  the  fact  that  the  man  who 
wanted  the  ten-party  rate  had  moved  to 
another  city  some  distance  further  west. 


74 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


He  was  quickly  followed  to  his  new  lo- 
cation, and  another  search  began  for 
his  whereabouts.  Patient  inquiry,  how- 
ever, failed  to  locate  him,  and  finally, 
tired,  disappointed  and  disgusted,  our 
man  gave  him  up  and  went  into  a  bar- 
ber shop  to  be  refreshened  by  a  shave. 
While  in  the  chair  of  the  'tonsorial  ar- 
tist,' as  he  was  being  cleaned  up  he  ven- 
tured to  remark,  'I  came  out  here  to 
find  a  man  by  the  name  of  so  and  so, 
but  nobody  seems  to  know  him  around 
here  and  I  have  been  unable  to  locate 
him.  You  don't  happen  to  have  heard 
of  such  an  individual?'  'Why,'  laughed 
the  barber,  'that's  my  name.'  'Did  you 
ever  live  in  such  a  town?'  'Yes,  I  came 
from  there  last  week.  Expect  I  haven't 
been  here  long  enough  for  any  one  to 
know  me  yet.'  'Well!'  was  the  relieved 
exclamation,  'I  guess  you  are  the  man  I 
am  after.  Did  you  write  the  Central 
for  the  party  rate  for  ten  from  Chica- 
go to  -  —  ?'  'Yes,'  was  the  response. 
'Then  you  are  surely  the  man  I  am 
after.  I  came  to  see  you  about  that 
party.'  The  barber  burst  into  a  laugh, 
from  which  he  quickly  recovered  him- 
self, and  said  apologetically,  'Well,  I  am 
mighty  sorry,  but  I  have  no  party.'  'But 
you  wrote  the  letter,'  was  the  retort. 
'Yes,  I  wote  the  letter  but  in  it  I  did  not 
say  I  had  a  party.  I  simply  asked  what 
the  party  rate  was.'  Then  of  course, 
explanations  followed,  developing  that 
the  barber  had  at  one  time  been  a  mem- 
ber of  a  theatrical  troupe,  in  which  con- 
nection he  had  often  traveled  on  party 
rates.  When  living  in  the  town  first 
mentioned,  he  got  to  gossiping  with  an- 
other citizen  of  the  town  as  to  the  old 
days  of  travel.  It  was  learned  that  the 
latter  had  also  traveled  on  party  rates, 
but  claimed  to  the  barber  that  such 
rates  did  not  exist  at  the  present  time. 
The  barber  thought  differently  and, 
after  discussing  the  matter  more  or  less 
between  them,  it  finally  ended  in  the 
citizen  and  himself  entering  into  a  wa- 
ger. If  the  barber  could  not  prove  that 
party  rates  were  still  in  effect  he  was 
to  buy  the  citizen  a  suit  of  clothes,  and 
if  it  was  proven,  the  barber  was  to  re- 
ceive a  new  hat.  Hence,  the  'Knight  of 


the  Razor'  took  the  very  simple  but  sure 
course  of  writing  us,  asking  what  the 
party  rate  was,  and  on  its  being  quoted 
he  had  proved  his  case.  'So  you  see,' 
our  representative  always  ends  with 
when  telling  this  story  on  himself,  'the 
barber  got  the  hat  and  was  decent 
enough  to  take  me  out  to  dinner;  while 
incidentally,  on  my  return,  I  took  the 
occasion  to  visit  portions  of  my  terri- 
tory which  it  was  difficult  to  get  out  to 
very  frequently'."  "That  story's  all 
right,"  laughed  Tyro,  "but  I  have  my 
doubts  whether  you  haven't  taken  a  suf- 
cient  amount  of  liberty  with  it  to  hide 
your  own  identity.  If  it  wasn't  so  warm 
and  I  had  any  way  of  proving  it,  I 
would  be  willing  to  bet  that  you  were 
the  man  who  got  stung."  "Nothing  of 
the  kind,"  was  the  response,  "but  per- 
haps sometime  I  will  tell  you  of  in- 
stances in  which  I  have  lost  out.  For 
no  one  is  immune  from  occasional  de- 
feat. Even  your  editorials,"  he  said 
smilingly,  "do  not  always  have  the 
amount  of  ginger  and  punch  in  them 
that  they  should  have."  "I  guess  that's 
right,"  smiled  Tyro,  "especially  when 
the  spring  fever  is  on." 

While  chatting  during  the  evening,  we 
had  been  much  interested  in  watching 
the  automobiles  whiz  and  chug  past,  for 
it  was  a  busy  avenue  and  there  was 
scarcely  a  moment  when  from  one  to 
a  dozen  were  not  directly  before  us. 
It  had  begun  to  grow  late,  however,  and 
while  the  autos  were  still  much  in  evi- 
dence, the  street  was  beginning  to  grow 
relatively  quiet.  So  much  so,  in  fact,  that 
we  could  distinctly  hear,  as  the  Rambler 
closed  his  story,  the  unusual  sound  of 
the  clink,  clink,  clink  of  a  horse's  hoofs 
on  the  pavement,  in  a  deliberate  and 
measured  gait.  Soon  there  approached 
within  our  vision  a  mail  collector's  two- 
wheeled  bob-cart,  drawn  by  the  ease-tak- 
ing horse  the  sound  of  whose  iron  shoes 
we  had  heard.  A  horse  of  any  descrip- 
tin  was  a  rare  sight  on  that  boulevard, 
but  this  particular  one,  and  the  rig  it  was 
drawing — the  low-bodied  two-wheeled 
cart  of  the  mail  collector — struck  us  as 
being  rather  incongruous  as  compared 
with  the  automobiles  of  high  and  low  de- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


75 


gree  with  which  the  street  was  usually 
so  thickly  infested.  "Slow,  slow,"  mut- 
tered the  Rambler.  "And  the  pity  of  it 
is  that  it  is  Uncle  Sam's  messenger  that 
seems  so  behind  the  times,"  added  Tyro, 
"although,  of  course,  it  is  not  the  fault 
of  the  man  in  the  gray  uniform  who  is 
sitting  on  that  side  seat  while  the  horse 
apparently  relieves  him  of  all  effort  in 
driving,  knowing  his  way,  like  a  milk- 
man's horse,  from  box  to  box  and  in- 
stinctively keeping  free  from  automo- 
biles." "That  cart  suggests  to  mind," 
said  the  Rambler,  "the  transition  of  the 
railroads  from  the  wooden  cars  to  those 
of  steel.  Uncle  Sam  seems  to  have  ex- 
pedited us  in  this  last  regard  without 
having  time  to  accelerate  his  own  col- 


lecting vehicle  by  the  use  of  the  auto. 
It  reminds  me  of  an  item  in  the  Bureau 
of  Railway  News  and  Statistics  Report 
for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1915.  That 
shows  the  railroads  of  the  United  States 
had  at  the  time  covered  by  the  report, 
58,378  passenger  cars,  of  which  10,841 
were  of  all-steel  construction  and  4,334 
had  steel  underframes.  The  total  seating 
capacity  of  all  cars  in  passenger  service 
was  2,277,438." 

"I  knew  he  would  begin  to  talk  shop," 
Tyro  remarked  to  me  laughingly  as  he 
arose  to  go.  Then  turning  to  the  Ram- 
bler, as  he  shook  hands  with  him  he  said, 
"No  use  talking,  I  can't  stand  anything 
of  that  kind  today.  Good-night,"  he 
added,  and  was  off. 


Service  Notes  of  Interest 


The  Panama  California  International  Ex- 
position at  San  Diego  is  proving  such  an  at- 
traction that  it  will  be  well  for  agents  to 
keep  in  touch  with  what  is  going  on  there 
as  a  possible  aid  to  ticketing  business.  The 
following  items  are  hence  in  order: 

The  Exposition  is  located  in  Balboa  Park, 
on  an  eminence,  overlooking  San  Diego  and 
the  blue  Pacific,  with  snow-capped  moun- 
tains for  a  background. 

Tia  Juana,  Mexico,  is  just  a  few  miles 
south  of  San  Diego;  this  little  town  has  be- 
come known  as  the  "Monte  Carlo  of  North 
America." 

The  myriad  flowers,  trees  and  shrubbery 
at  the  San  Diego  Exposition  thrive  with  a 
beauty  and  luxury  made  possible  by  the 
superb  climate  of  San  Diego,  which  is  the 
same  every  month  in  the  year.  Here  is  con- 
centrated all  that  natural  beauty  for  which 
California  has  become  justly  famous. 

Motion  picture  stars  recently  had  a  two 
days  gala  time  at  the  Panama  California 
International  Exposition.  Among  the 
features  was  a  "Motion  Picture  Ball,"  the 
grand  march  being  led  by  Miss  Edna  Good- 
rich and  Dustin  Farnum.  On  one  of  the 
days  the  visiting  film  stars  gave  a  special 
program  at  the  Exposition's  big  outdoor 
pipe _ organ,  and  in  addition  to  a  number  of 
special  stunts,  Miss  Myrtle  Stedman  sang 
several  solos. 

The  recent  big  Shakespearean  pageant 
offered  at  the  Panama  California  Interna- 
tional Exposition  as  a  part  of  the  Shakes- 
pearean tercentenary  celebration,  estab- 
lished two  records.  Not  only  did  it  prove 
the  most  wonderful  pageant  ever  presented 
by  children  of  the  West,  but  it  established 


a  record  for  economy,  from  the  fact  that  500 
children,  representing  as  many  Shakespear- 
ean characters,  were  completely  costumed  at 
a  total  expense  of  $500.00.  The  brilliant 
colors  used  did  not  suffer  from  cheapness, 
and  the  credit  is  due  club  women,  school 
children  and  teachers  of  San  Diego  county, 
who  dyed,  cut  and  sewed  every  garment. 
All  the  music  for  the  beautiful  pageant  was 
provided  by  a  juvenile  orchestra. 

Two  famous  women  composers  have  been 
honored  by  the  Panama  California  Interna- 
tional Exposition  at  San  Diego.  The  first 
person  to  have  a  day  named  in  their  honor 
during  the  year  was  Mrs.  Carrie  Jacobs- 
Bond,  who  was  honored  at  the  Exposition 
April  27.  Several  special  programs  were 
given  and  every  musical  organization  on 
the  grounds  played  the  Bond  music.  An 
interesting  feature  was  the  playing  of  "A 
Perfect  Day"  by  the  natives  of  the  Hawaiian 
Village.  The  other  woman  to  be  honored, 
who  is  considered  the  greatest  woman  com- 
poser in  the  United  States  and  one  of  the 
greatest  in  the  world,  was  Mrs.  H.  H.  A. 
Beach,  for  whom  May  2,  was  named  Beach 
day  at  the  Exposition.  Mrs.  Beach's  most 
popularly  known  song  is  "Years  at  the 
Spring." 

Motorists  are  finding  California's  lure 
unusually  strong  during  1016.  The  famous 
good  roads,  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
state  have  proved  a  paradise  for  the  motor- 
ist, and  the  additional  rewards  and  attrac- 
tions provided  by  the  Panama  California  In- 
ternational Exposition  are  influencing  hun- 
dreds of  travelers.  As  a  part  of  the  Ex- 
position's motor  demonstration  field  where 
daily  tests  and  special  events  have  been 


76 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


inaugurated,  a  bronze  button  is  being  given 
every  automobile  driver  who  travels  more 
than  500  miles  to  the  Exposition.  A  Tiffany 
silver  medal  has  been  offered  to  every  trans- 
continental motorist  by  "Motor,"  the  New 
York  magazine.  To  obtain  the  Tiffany 
medal,  it  is  necessary  for  the  driver  to  check 
out  at  New  York  city  and  in  at  the  Expo- 
sition. One  Exposition  entrance  is  open  to 
automobile  drivers  at  a  nominal  admission, 
and  free  parking  space  is  provided  on  the 
grounds. 


The  Michigan  Central  announces  through 
sleeping  car  service  between  Chicago  and 
Portland,  Old  Orchard  and  Kennebunkport, 
Me.,  on  "The  Canadian,"  through  the  heart 
of  the  White  Mountains,  beginning  June 
28th.  From  that  date  a  standard  sleeping 
car  will  be  operated  on  "The  Canadian" 
daily  to  the  points  mentioned,  except  that 
car  leaving  Chicago  on  Fridays  will  be 
operated  only  to  Kennebunkport,  and  on 
Sundays  cars  will  start  from  Kennebunk- 
port. The  route  is  via  Michigan  Central  to 
Windsor  via  Detroit,  Canadian  Pacific  to 
Newport  via  Montreal,  Boston  and  Maine  to 
St.  Johnsbury,  Maine  Central  to  Portland 
(through  the  White  Mountains),  Boston 
and  Maine  to  Kennebunkport,  Me.  "The 
Canadian"  No.  20,  will  leave  Chicago  at 
6:10  p.  m.  and  arrive  at  Portland,  Me.,  at 
6:15  a.  m.  and  at  Kennebunkport  7:58  a.  m. 
the  second  morning.  Attention  is  called  to 
the  fact  that  Kennebunk  Beach  and  Kenne- 
bunkport are  not  the  same  place.  There  are 
several  hotels  at  Kennebunk  Beach  best 
reached  via  the  Boston  &  Maine  Road  sta- 
tion of  that  name.  Kennebunkport  and 
Kennebunk  Beach  are  both  on  a  branch,  the 
former  being  five  and  the  latter  three  miles 
from  Kennebunk  (the  main  line)  station, 
twenty-five  miles  from  Portland.  The  par- 
lor cars  and  the  sleepers,  except  on  Sunday 
mornings,  run  through  to  Kennebunkport. 
On  Sundays  the  sleeper  which  left  Chicago 
Friday,  train  No.  20,  remains  at  Kennebunk 
station.  Particular  attention  is  also  called 
to  direct  connection  of  "The  Canadian"  at 
Portland  with  Bar  Harbor  Express,  having 
Pullman  equipment  and  dining  car,  Portland 
to  Bangor,  leaving  Portland  6:20  a.  m.  daily 
for  Maine  resorts,  passing  Poland  Spring 
(Danville  Jet.),  Auburn,  Lewiston,  Belgrade 
(Lakes),  Oakland  (for  Mt.  Kineo),  Water- 
ville,  Bangor  and  Mt.  Desert  points  (Bar 
Harbor,  etc.) ;  also  connections  at  Portland 
with  trains  for  Bath  and  points  along  state 
to  Rockland,  on  Penobscot  Bay.  Return- 
ing "The  Canadian"  will  leave  Kennebunk- 
port at  7:55  p.  m.  and  arrive  at  Chicago 
7:55  a.  m.,  the  second  morning.  Last 
through  sleeping  cars  will  leave  Chicago, 
Sept.  2nd,  Kennebunkport,  Sept.  4th. 

In  addition  to  the  service  of  "The  Cana- 
dian," train  8-22,  "The  Wolverine,"  leaving 
Chicago  daily  at  9:05  a.  m.  carrying  a  sleep- 
ing car  Chicago  to  Montreal,  connects  at 


Montreal  daily  except  Sunday  with  parlor 
car  for  Portland  and  Kennebunkport,  thus 
providing  daylight  ride  through  the  heart  of 
the  White  Mountains.  Similiar  service  re- 
turns daily,  except  Sunday,  from  Kenne- 
bunkport and  Portland  via  Montreal  and 
the  fast  "Dominion"-"Western  Express." 

Chicago-Montreal  through  sleeping  car 
service  will  continue  all-year  and  Montreal- 
Portland  sleeping  car  service  will  be  oper- 
ated until  about  middle  of  September. 

Beginning  June  5,  leaving  Montreal  9:25 
a.  m.,  except  Sunday,  parlor  car  service  will 
be  operated  to  Portland,  Me.,  arrive  8:05 
p.  m.  Effective  June  19,  from  Montreal,  the 
parlor  car  will  be  operated  through  to  Ken- 
nebunkport. 


An  innovation  in  steamship  journeys  will 
be  the  "Courier  Service"  available  on  the 
steamships  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  this 
season.  On  each  ship  there  will  be  an 
especially  qualified  officer,  familiar  with  all 
points  of  interest  along  the  route,  and  with 
no  other  duties  to  prevent  him  keeping  pass- 
engers fully  informed. 

Even  without  a  guide,  however,  the 
Alaska  trip  is  one  which  continually  sus- 
tains the  interest,  but  the  pleasure  is 
heightened  with  some  one  to  point  out  the 
special  features. 

The  "Courier,"  which  is  the  title  this 
special  officer  will  bear,  will  name  the 
mountain  whose  appearance  you  wish  to  fix 
in  your  memory,  will  tell  you  of  the  salmon 
fishing  as  you  pass  the  canneries,  of  the  deep 
sea  search  for  halibut  as  a  trawler  crosses 
your  course,  will  point  out  the  porpoises  at 
play,  will  explain  if  you  have  the  luck  to 
see  it,  that  the  gigantic  fish,  the  "Thresher," 
leaping  high  out  of  the  water  is  endeavoring 
to  kill,  with  the  blows  of  his  body,  the  in- 
offensive whale  who  cannot  escape  him.  He 
will  tell  you  where  the  best  Indian  totem 
poles  are  to  be  seen  and  photographed,  and 
will  help  the  camera  enthusiast  save  a  film 
or  two  for  the  best  effects.  He  will  tell  of 
the  habits  of  the  Indians,  "fisher  men  all" 
on  the  coast,  but  with  different  customs  in 
different  localities;  different  physiognomy 
too,  until  one  imagines,  on  the  progress 
north,  that  he  is  sure  of  the  Japanese  origin 
of  these  Indians,  whose  ancestors  may  well 
have  progressed  along  the  Alaska  Penin- 
sula and  down  the  coast.  The  "Courier" 
will  not  be  idle  during  the  brief  interval  of 
the  evening  when  darkness  shuts  off  sight- 
seeing. He  will  be  charged  with  the  duty 
of  organizing  concerts,  games  and  enter- 
tainments, and  no  hour  will  be  without  its 
special  amusement. — Grand  Trunk  Bulletin. 


As  is.  generally  known,  trains  of  the  New 
Orleans,  Texas  &  Mexico  Ry.  have  been 
running  over  the  Y.  &  M.  V.  between  Baton 
Rouge  and  New  Orleans  with  their  own 
motive  power.  Beginning,  however,  at  mid- 
night May  31,  1916,  all  traffic  of  the  N.  O. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


77 


T.  &  M.  is  now  handled  between  those 
points  with  the  motive  power  of  the  Y.  &  M. 
V.  This  under  a  new  arrangement  interest- 
ing agents  handling  passenger  traffic  to  the 
extent  that  it  involves  a  certain  change  in 
ticket  issue  as  provided  for  by  specific  in- 
structions. 

This  also  involves  the  use  of  the  Illinois 
Central's  Union  Station  at  New  Orleans, 
instead  of  Teminal  Station,  by  the  "Gulf 
Coast  Lines"  (N.  O.  T.  &  M.),  concerning 
which  the  General  Passenger  Agent  of  the 
Coast  Lines  says  in  an  announcement  cir- 
cular, that  the  new  station  location  enables 
them  to  shorten  their  train  schedules  be- 
tween Houston  and  New  Orleans.  Hence, 
he  also  announces  a  change  in  time  of 
through  trains  between  New  Orleans, 
Beaumont  and  Houston,  which  time  is  now 
in  effect,  as  follows:  Train  No.  1  leaves 
New  Orleans  8:00  p.  m.  and  arrives  at 
Houston  7:30  a.  m.;  Train  No.  3  leaves  New 
Orleans  8:20  a.  m.  and  arrives  at  Houston 
9:05  p.  m.  Returning  trains  from  Houston 
arrive  at  New  Orleans:  No.  4,  8:35  p.  m.; 
No.  2,  7:45  a.  m.  Agents  will  note  that  this 
last  is  an  earlier  arrival  at  New  Orleans, 
giving  ample  time  for  connections  with 
trains  of  connecting  lines  leaving  New  Or- 
leans for  the  North  and  East. 


The  following  from  the  N.  W.  Monthly 
Bulletin,  while  addressed  to  agents  of  that 
line  will  possibly  be  found  of  help  to  our 
agents  as  a  reminder: 

The  readiness  with  which  the  interstate 
fares,  both  basing  and  through,  were 
adopted,  as  distinguished  from  intrastate 
fares,  the  smoothness  with  which  they  have 
passed  into  general  use  for  such  travel,  and 
the  comparatively  small  percentage  of  er- 
rors, have  been  gratifying.  Doubtless  this 
was  largely  due  to  the  extra  care  taken  at 
the  start,  following  the  careful  explanatory 
circulars  issued.  Continued  care  will  how- 
ever be  necessary  to  use  the  interstate  bas- 
ing and  through  fares  (instead  of  the  intra- 
state fares)  for  all  interstate  tickets,  espe- 
cially as  after  the  newness  of  the  situation 
has  worn  off,  there  is  a  tendencv  to  laxity. 

For  a  passenger  making  an  interstate  trip, 
the  interstate  fare  for  proper  interstate 
ticket  from  starting  point  to  destination  is 
the  lawful  one,  and  the  railroad  through  its 
Agents  or  otherwise,  may  not  lawfully  do 
anything  to  defeat  the  use  of  the  through  in- 
terstate fare  and  ticket  lawfully  applicable 
for  such  travel.' 

Ticket  Agents  and  Ticket  Clerks  should 
accordingly  be  careful  not  to  suggest  the 
use  of  an  intrastate  fare  or  ticket  to  an 
intermediate  point  when  passenger  asks  for 
a  ticket  or  fare  to  an  interstate  destination. 
This  is  required  by  consistency  as  well  as 
due  regard  for  the  interest  of  the  railroads 
to  receive  the  interstate  fares  awarded  by 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  for 
use  for  interstate  traffic. 


The  Burlington  has  issued  an  attractive 
circular  entitled  "The  Cody  Road  to  Yellow- 
stone Park,  The  Only  Auto  Route  Into  the 
Park,"  extracts  from  which  read  as  follows: 

"Although  comparatively  new  and  but  lit- 
tle known,  the  wonderfully  beautiful  scenery 
along  this  new  route  from  Cody  Wyoming 
(the  Eastern  entrance)  to  Yellowstone 
Park,  has  already  won  everlasting  admira- 
tion from  the  enthusiastic  tourists  who  have 
traversed  its  picturesque  course.  Expe- 
rienced tourists  who  know  what's  what 
agree  that  in  the  sustained  beauty  and  gran- 
deur of  its  scenery,  it  far  excels  the  Park 
itself,  except  in  one  particular — the  Grand 
Canyon  of  the  Yellowstone  River. 

The  route  lies  across  the  "Buffalo  Bill" 
country,  through  the  precipitous  Shoshone 
Canyon  and  the  loftv  snow-capped  ever- 
green covered  mountains  of  the  Absoraka 
Range,  via  beautiful  Sylvan  Pass.  This 
great,  Government-maintained  highway  is 
one  of  the  grandest  mountain  motor  roads 
in  existence  today.  It  costs  no  more  to  en- 
ter the  Park  via  the  Cody  Road  than  via 
any  other  Gateway.  Both  one  way  and 
round  trip  Pacific  Coast  tickets  via  the  Bill- 
ings Gateway  can  be  split,"  the  circular 
continues,  "enabling  passengers  to  enter 
the  Park  via  Cody,  leave  it  via  Gardiner; 
the  reverse  of  this  being  also  true." 


Visitors  to  Niagara  Falls  this  summer, 
says  the  Erie  Information  circular,  will  have 
a  chance  to  indulge  in  one  of  the  oddest  rail 
trips  in  the  world.  The  project  is  a  cable 
railway  suspended  across  the  whirlpool,  and 
carrying  a  car  in  which  forty  sightseers  can 
ride  at  one  time. 

This  tramway  is  located  on  the  Canadian 
side,  and  will  operate  directly  over  the 
whirlpool  on  six  parallel  track  cables.  The 
trial  trip  was  made  on  February  10th,  1916, 
in  about  seven  minutes.  The  trip  can  be 
made  in  four  and  one-half  minutes,  but  it  is 
planned  to  permit  it  to  occupy  six  minutes 
by  running  at  half  speed  part  of  the  time. 
It  is  the  second  cableway  of  its  kind  in  the 
world,  and  the  only  one  in  America.  Work 
was  started  July  12th,  1915,  and  the  cost  of 
the  project  was  nearly  $60,000,  of  which 
more  than  one-half  was  taken  up  by  en- 
gineering construction  work.  The  fare  will 
be  50  cents  one  way  and  75  cents  round  trip. 
They  are  not  operating  on  regular  schedule 
at  the  present  time,  but  intend  to  do  so  dur- 
ing the  coming  season. 


The  following  from  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Bulletin  in  regard  to  Alaska  side  trip  may 
be  of  interest  to  some  of  the  Central's  pa- 
trons .  "In  connection  with  the  Alaska  Excur- 
sions by  Canadian  Pacific  Steamships,  the 
White  Pass  &  Yukon  Route  supplies  the  fol- 
lowing information  with  regard  to  the  Atlin 
side  trip :"  Steamers  leave  Caribou  (on  the 
White  Pass  &  Yukon  Route  68  miles  north 


78 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


of  Skagway)  for  Atlin  Mondays  and  Thurs- 
days 5:30  p.  m.  arriving  at  Atlin  9:30  a.  m. 
Tuesdays  and  Fridavs.  Leave  Atlin 
Wednesdays  and  Saturdays  5:30  p.  m.  arriv- 
ing at  Caribou  on  the  return  trip  Thursdays 
and  Sundays  5:00  a.  m.  On  the  inbound 
trip  trains  leaving  Skagway  and  White 
Horse  in  the  morning  make  connection  with 
the  steamer.  On  the  outbound  trip,  steamer 
makes  connection  with  the  train  in  either 
direction  Thursdavs  onlv.  By  arriving  at 
Caribou  Sunday  it  is  necessary  to  stay  at 
that  point  until  departure  of  trains  Monday. 
There  are  two  hotels  at  Atlin:  rates  $1.00 
per  night  for  bed  and  75  cents  for  each  meal. 
These  hotels  have  pretty  good  accommoda- 
tion. On  arriving  at  Atlin,  tourists  gen- 
erallv  make  a  trip  out  to  the  mines  a  few 
miles  from  Atlin  proper.  Stages  run  regu- 
larly on  arrival  of  steamer  from  Caribou; 
the  fare  is  said  to  be  $1.00,  and  the  trip  oc- 
cupies the  greater  part  of  a  day — meals  can 
be  obtained  at  any  of  the  camps  for  a  nom- 
inal sum.  On  Saturdays,  when  there  are  five 
or  more  tourists  and  the  steamer  has  no 
other  work  to  do,  passengers  are  given  a 
free  trip  to  the  Llewellyn  Glacier  which 
takes  something  like  six  hours.  Free  lunch 
is  served  on  the  trip.  It  is  seldom  that  the 
steamer  has  not  time  to  make  the  whole  dis- 
tance to  the  Glacier  but  if  time  does  hap- 
pen to  be  limited, 'she  goes  as  far  as  Goat 
Island,  within  sight  of  the  Glacier  and  takes 
about  four  hours  for  the  round  trip. 


The  Union  Pacific  have  made  the  follow- 
ing announcements  in  connection  with  their 
train  service:  Tourist  sleeper  is  now  oper- 
ated through  between  Chicago  and  Seattle 
(instead  of  only  Portland,  as  heretofore)  in 
"Oregon-Washington  Limited  Nos.  17  and 
18  via  Northwestern  to  Omaha  thence 
Union  Pacific  System;  a  standard  sleeper 
is  also  in  service  between  Chicago  and 
Seattle,  both  cars  being  handled  on  the  fol- 
lowing schedule: 


No.  17 

9:35  P.M.  Lv.  Chicago 

10:30  A.M.  Lv.  Omaha 

7:00  P.M.  Ar.  Portland 

4:40  A.M.  Ar.  Tacoma 

6:15  A.M.  Ar.  Seattle 


No.  18 

Ar.  11:00  A.  M. 
Ar.  8:15  P.M. 
Lv.  10:00  A.  M. 
Lv.  12:45  A.  M. 
Lv.  11:15  P.  M. 


This  train  carries  free  reclining  chair  car 
Chicago  to  Portland,  electric  lighted 
throughout,  a  la  carte  dining  car  service, 
steel  equipment.  "Oregon-Washington 
Limited"  is  just  three  nights  en  route. 

A  davlight  ride  of  200  miles  along  the 
scenic  Columbia  River  is  a  feature  enjoyed 
by  patrons  of  this  train  in  either  direction. 
Only  one  coupon  necessary  from  Omaha  to 
Seattle  or  between  any  two  points  on  Union 
Pacific  System.  This  "One  coupon"  plan 
was  recently  inaugurated  for  the  conven- 
ience of  all  ticket  agents. 


We  are  advised  by  the  Grand  Trunk  of  the 
following  important  changes  on  that  system 
that  will  take  place  June  25th:  No.  8,  leav- 
ing Chicago  10:55  a.  m.  daily  for  Detroit, 
Port  Huron,  Niagara  Falls  and  New  York, 
in  addition  to  present  equipment  will  have 
an  observation  parlor  car,  Chicago  to  De- 
troit, Mt.  Clemens  and  Port  Huron.  New 
train  No.  4  will  leave  Chicago  3:00  p.  m. 
daily  for  Niagara  Falls,  Buffalo  and  New 
York,  and  will  carry  observation  sleeping 
car  to  Buffalo,  through  Pullmans  and 
coaches  to  New  York,  and  from  Buffalo  to 
New  York  will  be  known  as  the  "Black 
Diamond."  It  will  also  have  Pullman  sleep- 
er, Chicago  to  Toronto  via  Hamilton.  The 
International  Limited,  No.  14,  will  leave 
Chicago  6:05  p.  m.  daily  (instead  of  5:00  p. 
m.)  and  arrive  Toronto  same  time  as  at 
present,  viz  8:35  a.  m.,  and  Montreal  5:45 
p.  m.,  making  less  than  23  hours  service 
Chicago  to  Montreal.  It  will  carry  through 
coaches,  standard  sleepers  and  compartment 
drawing  room  sleepers,  and  observation 
sleeper  Chicago  to  Toronto  and  Montreal. 

Night  Express  No.  6  will  continue  to 
leave  Chicago  at  11:00  p.  m.  daily. 


"Railroading  isn't  the  hard  and  bitter 
business  some  folks  think  it  is,"  said  Louis 
W.  Hill,  heir  to  the  power  of  the  late  James 
J.  Hill,  in  a  remarkable  interview  with  Jack 
Lait.  "It  is  very  close  to  the  people.  It  is 
an  affair  of  sympathies  and  sentiments." 

The  railroad  world  today  realizes  this  as 
never  before.  The  successful  railroad  is 
coming  to  mean  the  one  that  keeps  close  to 
the  people.  The  day  of  "the-people-be- 
damned!"  railroad,  the  "all-the-traffic-will- 
bear"  railroad,  is  past  in  the  United  States. 
The  railroads  are  talking  straight  to  their 
patrons  about  their  mutual  interests  and 
needs  as  they  never  did  before. 

It  is  a  proof  of  the  vision  and  the  genius 
of  James  J.  Hill  that  he  grasped  this  simple 
but  immensely  significant  fact  long  before 
it  had  become  almost  a  commonplace  in  the 
railroad  world.  His  roads  reaped  the  ben- 
efits of  a  wise  policy,  and  the  son  is  evi- 
dently the  true  heir  of  this  essential  part  of 
the  father's  wisdom. — Chicago  Record- 
Herald. 


"Ticket  Selling  Talks,"  the  monthly  bulle- 
tin of  the  Santa  Fe,  has  the  following  to  say 
in  regard  to  folders  which  is  equally  appli- 
cable to  the  Central:  When  giving  out  time- 
card  folders  to  the  public  be  certain  that 
they  are  current.  Folders  are  issued  and 
distributed  as  a  general  rule  about  once 
every  thirty  days.  When  supply  of  a  new 
issue  is  received,  if  there  has  not  been  a 
general  change  of  time  made  previous 
thereto,  supply  of  old  issue  should  not  nec- 
essarily be  destroyed.  Folders  are  rather 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


79 


an  expensive  item  and  it  is  our  desire  that 
as  great  a  saving  as  possible  be  made  of 
them.  However,  when  there  has  been  a 
change  of  time  made  on  some  certain  divi- 
sion only,  agents  when  giving  out  folders 
which  do  not  show  current  information  rela- 
tive to  such  change  should  advise  passen- 
gers that  a  slight  change  in  time  has  re- 
cently been  made  on  such  a  division. 


Mr.  C.  E.  Stone,  Passenger  Traffic  Man- 
ager of  the  Great  Northern,  calls  our  atten- 
tion to  the  Colville  Indian  Reservation 
which  will  be  thrown  open  for  settlement 
this  summer.  The  Reservation,  he  says,  is 
located  in  the  northeast  portion  of  Wash- 
ington; being  bounded  on  the  east  and  south 
by  the  Columbia  River  and  on  the  west  by 
the  Wenatchee-Oroville  branch  of  the 
Great  Northern.  The  points  of  registration 
located  on  that  line  are  Spokane,  Wenat- 
chee,  Colville,  Republic  and  Omak.  The  lat- 
ter point  is  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
registration  and  the  others  are  within  a 
short  distance.  The  registration  dates  are 
July  5th  to  22nd,  inclusive.  The  drawing 
will  be  held  at  Spokane  beginning  July  27th 
and  entries  may  be  made  beginning  Sept. 
5th.  The  regulations  for  the  opening  of  the 
Reservation  have  not  yet  been  announced, 
but  will  no  doubt  be  similar  to  those  used 
for  opening  the  Berthold  and  Fort  Peck 
Reservations. 


The  Great  Lakes  Transit  Corporation,  op- 
erating between  Buffalo  and  Cleveland,  De- 
troit, Mackinac  Island,  Sault  Ste  Marie, 
Marquette,  Houghton  and  Duluth,  an- 
nounces that  it  has  taken  over  and  will  op- 
erate the  passenger  steamships  "Octorara," 
"Juniata"  and  "Tionesta,"  formerly  owned 
and  operated  by  the  Erie  &  Western  Trans- 
portation Company,  Anchor  Line.  Intended 
sailings  of  passenger  steamers  for  the  sea- 
son of  1916  are  as  follows:  Leave  Buffalo 
and  Cleveland  on  Mondays,  Thursdays;  De- 
troit on  Tuesdays,  Fridays;  Mackinac  Island 
and  Sault  Ste.  Marie  on  Wednesdays,  Satur- 
days; Marquette  and  Houghton  on  Thurs- 
days, Sundays;  arrive  Dututh  on  Fridays, 
Mondays.  Returning,  leave  Duluth  on  Sat- 
urdays, Tuesdays;  Houghton  and  Mar- 
quette on  Sundays,  Wednesdays;  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  and  Mackniac  Island  on  Mondays, 
Thursdays;  Detroit  and  Cleveland  on  Tues- 
days, Fridays;  arrive  Buffalo  on  Wednes- 
days, Saturdays. 


William  Sproule,  president  of  the  South- 
ern Pacific  Company,  writing  on  the  subject 
of  "Who  Owns  the  Railroad,"  in  Leslie's, 
says: 

"There  are  in  the  United  States  over  a 
quarter  of  a  million  miles  of  steam  railroads, 
which  have  about  six  hundred  thousand 
shareholders  and  about  a  million  and  three- 
quarters  of  employes.  This  figures,  roughly, 


one  shareholder  to  three  employes.  If  you 
will  average  the  railroad  shareholders  ac- 
cording to  the  railroad  mileage  they  would 
stand  within  seven  hundred  yards  of  each 
other  along  every  mile  of  steam  railroad  in 
the  nation.  This  means  that  throughout  the 
United  States  each  shareholder  would  be  in 
plain  sight  of  two  other  shareholders  along 
the  right-of-way,  under  conditions  of  nor- 
mal vision." 


The  Burlington  gives  advance  notice  of 
train  service  changes  effective  June  4th, 
among  which  are  the  following:  Trains  Nos. 
1  and  10  between  Chicago  and  Denver  will 
be  restored  to  service;  train  No.  1  leaving 
Chicago  at  5:30  p.  m.,  arriving  at  Denver 
9:15  p.  m.  It  will  carry  a  lounge  car,  stan- 
dard sleeping  cars,  dining  car,  chair  car  and 
coach.  The  schedule  of  train  No.  9,  the 
Colorado  Limited,  will  not  be  changed,  nor 
will  the  equipment,  except  that  it  will  carry 
an  observation  sleeping  car  instead  of  a 
lounge  car.  Train  No.  5,  Chicago-Nebraska 
Limited,  Chicago  to  Omaha  and  Lincoln, 
will  leave  Chicago  at  6:15  p.  m.,  run  via 
Plattsmouth,  and  arrive  Omaha  and  Lincoln 
the  same  as  now. 


The  Canadian  Northern  Railway  System 
announces  its  intention  of  opening  on  or 
about  July  1st,  a  fishing  lodge  at  Orient 
Bay,  on  the  Nipigon  River,  famous  the 
world  over  for  the  wonderful  trout  fishing 
to  be  had  in  its  waters.  The  lodge  will  be 
operated  as  an  annex  of  the  company's 
Prince  Arthur  Hotel,  Port  Arthur,  Ont.,  and 
will  have  accommodation  for  about  25 
guests.  Accommodation  must  be  reserved 
in  advance  from  the  management  of  the 
above  hotel,  who  look  forward  to  a  very 
successful  season  at  this  resort. 


The  "movie"  showed  a  bevy  of  shapely 
girls  disrobing  by  the  "old  swimming  pool" 
for  a  plunge.  They  had  just  taken  off  shoes, 

hats  and  coats  and  were  beginning  on — . 

A  passing  freight  train  obscures  the  view. 
The  next  scene  shows  them  in  the  water. 

An  old  railroader  sat  through  the  show 
again  and  again. 

Finally  a  friend  tapped  him  on  the  shoul- 
der and  said:  "Aren't  you  ever  going 
home?" 

"Oh,  I'll  wait  a  while,"  was  the  answer. 
"One  of  these  days  that  train  is  going  to  be 
late." — Exchange. 


The  C.  M.  &  St.  P.  have  recently  made 
the  following  important  changes  in  train 
service.  "The  Columbian,"  train  No.  17. 
now  leaves  Chicago  at  10:10  a.  m.  instead 
of  8:30  a.  m.,  arriving  at  its  Pacific  Coast 
destinations  —  Butte,  Spokane,  Portland, 
Seattle.  Tacoma — the  same  as  formerly. 
"The  Day  Express."  train  No.  T<,  for  St. 
Paul  and  Minneapolis,  now  leaves  Chicago 
at  8:15  a.  m.  instead  of  10:10  a.  m. 


80 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


It  is  announced  that  the  stage  lines  in  Yel- 
lowstone Park  will  be  continued  this  season 
substantially  as  in  previous  seasons.  It  is 
expected,  however,  that  commencing  with 
the  season  of  1917  automobile  equipment 
will  be  used  exclusively.  The  regulations 
governing  the  use  of  private  automobiles  in 
the  park  will  be  continued  in  a  modified  way 
as  in  1915. 


has  been  an  increase  in  the  berth  rate  since 
then." — The  Right  Way. 


Student  (at  the  station) — "What!  A  dol- 
lar and  a  half  for  an  upper.  I  only  paid  a 
dollar  last  year." 

Ticket  Agent — "I  know,  but  you  see  there 


"Met  the  original  tightwad  the  other 
night." 

"What  did  he  do?" 

"After  I  bought  him  dinner,  theater  tick- 
ets and  a  midnight  supper,  he  wanted  to 
match  me  to  see  who  paid  the  carfare 
home."— Louisville  Courier  Journal. 


One    thing    worse    than    a    quitter    is    the 
chap  who  is  afraid  to  begin. — Personality. 


How  to 


It  is  not  trie  Science  of  curing  Disease  so  much  as  trie  prevention  or  it 
triat  produces  trie  greatest  ^pod  to  Humanity.  One  of  tne  most  important 
duties  of  a  Healtn  Department  should  be  tne  educational  service 

people  now  to  live  *     *    >     *     * 


The  following  article  from  the  pen  of  General  Foreman  William  Woods  at  Gwin,  Mississippi,  is  ong  that 
deserves  careful  reading  on  the  part  of  employing  officers  and  employes  generally.  It  shows  that  Mr.  Woods 
is  a  student,  and  is  alive  to  the  great  advantage  to  be  derived  by  this  Company  from  the  prevention  of 
malaria  among  its  employes.  —  Editor. 


TT  may  appear  unusual  for  one  other 
than  a  physician  to  discuss  things  per- 
taining to  medicine  and  disease,  but  there 
is  nothing,  perhaps,  which  causes  more 
inconvenience  to  a  foreman  than  for  his 
force  to  be  sick,  and  this  article  is  in- 
tended to  portray  the  views  of  The 
Southern  Foreman  upon  a  subject  which 
has  been  treated  by  some  of  the  most 
prominent  medical  men  of  the  world. 
Sickness  gives  the  foreman  more  con- 
cern than  all  the  other  causes  through 
which  men  lose  time.  The  most  perfect 
organization  is  destroyed  when  men  who 
are  trained  in  their  duties  become  sick 
and  lay  off. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  said  about 
typhoid ;  the  Illinois  Central  has  supplied 
anti-typhoid  vaccine  free  to  its  employes ; 
applicants  for  employment  are  examined 
for  smallpox  vaccination  scars ;  much  has 
been  done  toward  safeguarding  the 
health  of  the  employes.  In  the  South, 
especially  in  the  low  delta  country,  tra- 
versed by  the  Yazoo  &  Mississippi  Val- 
ley, smallpox  and  typhoid  are  rarely 
seen.  Yellow  fever  has  disappeared  due 
to  the  discovery  of  its  cause  and  the 


strict  quarantine  by  the  government,  but 
we  still  have  malaria  with  us.  Its  cause 
is  the  same  as  yellow  fever,  rather,  it  is 
transmitted  by  the  same  means,  the  mos- 
quito, and  its  prevention  is  easy,  depend- 
ing upon  the  care  one  takes  of  one's  self. 

As  it  is  known  that  malaria  is  caused 
by  the  mosquito,  it  follows  that  if  the 
mosquito  is  prevented  from  biting,  mala- 
ria will  not  be  contracted.  The  malaria 
mosquito  usually  attacks  its  victim  while 
he  is  asleep,  therefore,  the  sleeping 
rooms  should  be  well  screened  with 
screen  fine  enough  to  prevent  the  en- 
trance of  mosquitos.  18-mesh  wire  is 
considered  fine  enough,  and  it  is  not 
enough  to  screen  the  windows  and  doors, 
but  the  flues  should  be  covered  to  keep 
the  mosquito  from  coming  down  the 
chimney,  all  knot  holes,  cracks  and 
crevices  should  be  stopped  and  in  the 
event  that  a  mosquito  has  slipped  in, 
the  screens  should  be  examined  from  the 
inside  at  daylight  in  the  morning  and 
just  before  dark  at  night.  The  mosquito 
lights  on  the  screens  at  these  times  and 
is  easily  killed. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  mosquito  and 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


81 


many  types.  The  Culex  is  a  city  mos- 
quito and  will  not  transmit  malaria;  the 
Genus  Anopheles,  of  which  there  are 
four  types,  is  the  malaria  mosquito  and 
is  easily  distinguished  from  the  Culex; 
the  Anopheles  is  primarily  a  country 
mosquito  and  does  not  breed  in  large 
bodies  of  water,  but  in  small,  shallow 
places,  therefore,  the  premises  around 
the  house  should  be  kept  free  from 
standing  water,  all  dark,  damp  places 
should  be  oiled  and  plenty  of  lime  ap- 
plied, cut  the  weeds  and  pick  up  and 
bury  all  cans  and  bottles  which  might 
catch  water  and  furnish  breeding  places 
for  mosquitos. 

As  a  protective  measure  in  the  event 
of  being  unconsciously  bitten  by  mos- 
quitoes, ten  grains  of  quinine  taken  a 
week  during  the  warm  season  will  pre- 
vent chill.  This  can  be  divided  so  that 
five  grains  be  taken  on  Wednesday  and 
five  grains  be  taken  on  Saturday  at  bed- 
time. If  taken  this  way  no  ill  effects  will 
ensue  and  next  morning  the  dizziness 
usually  caused  by  quinine  will  have  dis- 
appeared. It  is  important  that  some 
kind  of  laxative  be  taken  when  needed. 
All  cases  of  chills  from  malaria  are  due 
to  ignorance  or  neglect.  A  person  with 
lice  upon  his  body  would  waste  no  time 
before  getting  rid  of  them.  Malaria  is 
only  a  parasite  in  the  blood  which  de- 
stroys the  red  blood  corpuscle  and  de- 
creases the  vitality  until  enough  of  these 
corpuscles  have  been  destroyed  to  cause 
a  paroxysm  or  chill. 

Many  persons  infected  with  malaria  do 
not  develop  chills  and  subsequent  high 
temperature,  but  drag  around,  feeling 
too  bad  to  attend  to  their  work  and  not 
bad  enough  to  go  to  bed,  complaining  of 
the  weather  or  climate.  Others  have  a 
slight  fever  or  rise  in  temperature  with- 
out the  chill.  Some  have  accompanying 
soreness  in  the  side,  still  others  do  not 
know  that  they  are  infected  with  mala- 
ria because  of  greater  vitality,  enabling 
them  to  throw  off  the  poison,  but  fur- 
nish a  means  for  spreading  malaria  be- 
cause the  mosquito  that  bites  them  will 
infect  the  next  person  it  bites ;  rather,  it 
is  claimed  that  it  requires  about  seven 
days  for  the  infection  to  evolutionize  in- 


side the  mosquito  before  it  can  infect  a 
person. 

Many  remedies  are  recommended  by 
the  "Know  Alls,"  such  as  putting  one 
china  berry  in  a  gallon  of  whiskey  and 
drinking  the  whiskey  in  small  doses,  put- 
ting red  pepper  in  one's  shoes,  wearing 
a  red  flannel  belt  next  to  the  skin  and 
wearing  a  buckeye  on  a  string  around 
one's  neck.  Many  persons,  and  not  all 
of  them  negroes,  either,  believe  in  these 
remedies  and  keep  on  having  chills. 

Quinine  will  destroy  the  malaria  para- 
site and  regardless  of  all  said  to  the  con- 
trary will  be  found  in  all  chill  tonics  of 
merit.  When  the  infection  is  new  from 
the  mosquito  bite,  the  parasite  is  easily 
killed,  but  left  to  multiply  in  the  blood 
stream,  this  minute  "blood  louse"  will 
penetrate  to  the  very  marrow  of  the 
bones,  and  the  deeper  the  infection  the 
more  quinine  required  to  get  rid  of  it. 

The  malaria  germs  multiply  or  hatch 
about  every  three  days  and  those  that 
are  so  deep  in  the  blood  stream  that 
they  are  not  destroyed  by  the  small 
amount  of  quinine  taken  when  the  doc- 
tor prescribes,  multiply  until  in  from  one 
to  three  weeks  the  infection  is  as  dense 
as  it  was  before  quinine  was  taken. 

There  are  said  to  be  three  kinds  of 
malaria  parasites,  Tertian,  Quartan  and 
Aestivo-Atumnal,  they  all  cause  chills 
and  it  makes  very  little  difference  to  the 
victim  which  kind  he  has,  except  that  it 
requires  more  quinine  to  the  Aestivo- 
Atumnal,  perhaps,  than  the  others.  With 
a  heavy  infection  it  is  necessary  to  take 
large  quantities  of  quinine  systematical- 
ly, over  a  period  of  two  months  or  more, 
to  be  sure  that  it  will  not  remain.  There 
are  records  of  cases  where  the  patient 
took  fifty  grains  of  quinine  a  day  for 
eighteen  consecutive  days  with  no  bad 
results. 

Education  is  necessary  to  decrease  the 
amount  of  sickness  from  malaria.  The 
people  who  cannot  or  will  not  read,  must 
be  told  how  to  prevent  it.  The  doctor 
will  tell  his  patient  to  take  quinine  and 
someone  who  knows  nothing  about  ma- 
laria will  recommend  something  else  and 
because  the  latter  is  more  pleasant  to 


82  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 

take  the  doctor  gets  a  bad  reputation  be-  more  chills,  and  those  that  were  not 
cause  "Willie  Jones  had  chills  and  Doc-  down  with  chills  felt  so  badly  that  50 
tor  So  and  So  could  not  cure  him."  The  per  cent  of  their  efficiency  was  lost. 
people  must  be  educated  to  know  that  It  is  my  idea  to  have  a  committee  of 
"that  tired  feeling"  with  which  so  many  employes  to  inspect  the  premises  of  the 
persons  in  the  South  suffer  is  due  to  homes  of  employes  and  by  a  general 
"lice  in  the  blood,"  and  that  almost  any  campaign  of  education  show  the  men 
doctor  can  put  a  drop  of  their  blood  un-  that  it  is  possible  to  get  through  the  sum- 
der  the  microscope  and  tell  them  wheth-  mer  season  without  having  chills, 
er  they  have  malaria  or  not,  and  it  is  The  work  done  by  the  Hospital  De- 
the  duty  of  the  more  fortunate  who  can  partment  in  the  way  of  administering 
study  to  do  so  and  educate  the  ignorant  quinine  generally  to  all  employes  ex- 
persons  who  cannot  read,  thereby  mak-  posed  to  malaria  is  a  grand  work.  There 
ing  themselves  more  secure  from  infec-  is  nothing  that  is  more  annoying  to  an 
tion  and  lessening  the  number  of  infected  employing  officer  than  for  the  force  to 
persons.  During  the  summer  and  fall  of  be  sick,  and  the  results  obtained  by  high- 
the  year  1915  I  had  fully  30  per  cent  of  er  efficiency  will  more  than  repay  the 
my  men  laid  off  with  chills  at  one  time.  company,  as  well  as  employes,  for 
There  was  not  a  man  working  at  Gwin  whatever  time  and  expense  is  incurred 
except  myself  who  did  not  have  one  or  in  the  campaign  against  malaria. 


Letters  of  Appreciation   of  Treatment  Received  at 
the  Hands  of  the  Hospital  Department 

Mayfield,  Ky.,  January  16,  1916. 
Dr.  G.  G.  Dowdall,  Chief  Surgeon, 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  Co., 

Chicago,   Illinois. 
Dear  Doctor: 

I  want  to  thank  the  Hospital  Department  for  the  services  rendered  at 
the  Illinois  Central  Hospital,  Paducah,  Ky.  I  was  operated  on  December  1, 
1915,  for  a  rupture  on  right  side  by  the  Hospital  Department  Surgeons  and 
two  weeks  from  day  of  operation  I  was  at  home. 

The  entire  staff,  including  the  nurses,  were  very  kind  and  nice  to  me. 
I  am  getting  along  fine  and  have  had  no  trouble  whatever  since  my  oper- 
ation. 

Thanking  you  again,  I  am 

Yours  very  truly, 
(Signed)     R.  M.  Williams, 

Operator. 

Ackerman,  Miss.,  March  8,  1916. 
Dr.  W.  W  Leake, 

Assistant  Chief  Surgeon,  I.  C.  R.  R.  Hospital, 

New  Orleans,  La. 
My  Dear  Dr.  Leake: 

I  wish  to  express  to  you  my  appreciation  of  your  kind  treatment  ren- 
dered me  while  in  the  hospital  at  New  Orleans.  I  was  down  and  out  and 
had  been  for  nearly  two  years.  I  went  to  New  Orleans  and  placed  myself 
in  the  Company  Hospital  for  treatment.  After  examining  me  thoroughly, 
I  had  a  number  of  X-Ray  examinations  and  pictures.  The  treatment  that 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


83 


I  received  from  doctors  and  nurses  was  of  the  best,  and  I  am  most  grateful 
to  the  Hospital  Department. 

When  entering  the  hospital  I  weighed  120  pounds,  and  could  not  eat 
anything  without  suffering  greatly  from  it.  I  was  very  much  run  down 
and  was  not  able  to  do  anything.  Three  months  from  the  time  I  placed 
myself  under  your  care  I  weighed  140  pounds;  am  working  every  day 
and  feeling  better  than-  I  have  for  years.  Words  cannot  express  my  appre- 
ciation for  the  good  done  me. 

Everything  was  done  for  me  good  doctors  could  do.     I  often  wonder 
what  would  have  become  of  me  had  it  not  been  for  the  Hospital  Department. 
Hoping  to  see  this  in  the  Company  Magazine  soon,  I  am 

Yours  respectfully, 

R.  L.  White, 

Operator. 


fa  fa  fa  fa  fa 


Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company — The  Yazoo  & 
Mississippi  Valley  Railroad  Company 

Mail,  Baggage,  Express  and  Milk  Traffic  Department 

H.  L.  Fairfield,  Manager  Baggage  and  Mail  Traffic.     J.  A.  Osborn,  General  Baggage 

Agent— Chicago,  111.,  June  1,  1916 

INFORMATION  AND  INSTRUCTION  BULLETIN  NO.  6 


Ordering  Local  Excess  Baggage 
Checks— Form  GBO  11 

32. — Notwithstanding  our  permanent 
instructions  that  local  excess  baggage 
checks  GBO  11,  must  be  ordered  at  least 
thirty  days  before  the  stock  on  hand  be- 
comes exhausted,  many  agents  are  wait- 
ing until  their  stock  of  local  excess 
checks  is  almost,  or  completely,  exhaust- 
ed before  ordering.  These  checks  are 
not  carried  in  stock,  but  must  be  ordered 
and  printed  after  the  receipt  of  requisi- 
tions. It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  our 
instructions  to  order  these  checks  thirty 
days  in  advance  be  complied  with. 
Taking  Receipt  of  Train  Baggagemen 
on  Form  GBO  4 

33. — In  presenting  their   station  bag- 


gage waybill  books  to  train  baggagemen 
to  be  receipted,  agents  should  have  the 
original  waybill  torn  out  and  hand  it 
direct  to  the  train  baggageman  or  attach 
it  to  some  of  the  baggage  to  be  forward- 
ed. When  the  waybill  is  left  in  the 
agent's  book  it  creates  more  or  less  con- 
fusion and  delay,  and  is  apt  to  result  in 
the  train  baggageman  not  receiving  the 
station  baggage  waybill. 
Hyphenated  Numbers  on  Local  and 

Interline  Checks 

34. — Agents  and  train  baggagemen 
will  observe  that  the  local  and  interline 
checks  now  being  furnished  from  this 
office  have  the  hyphenated  numbers.  The 
idea  of  the  hyphenated  number  is  that 
the  mind  and  eye  more  readily  grasp  it 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


85 


than  the  old  form  of  number  and  it  re- 
duces the  chances  of  mis-matched  checks. 
We  hope  that  this  will  be  found  the  case 
and  the  number  of  mis-matches,  which 
heretofore  have  occasioned  considerable 
trouble  and  expense,  will  be  greatly  re- 
duced. 

Misuse   of  Louisiana  Interchangeable 
Penny  Scrip 

35. — A  connecting  line  has  called  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  baggage  is  being 
checked  from  points  in  Louisiana  to 
Natchez,  Miss.,  on  Louisiana  Inter- 
changeable Penny  Scrip  Books.  These 
books  are  valid  only  for  intrastate  busi- 
ness in  Louisiana  and  should  not  be  hon- 
ored in  checking  baggage  to  interstate 
points. 

Responsibility  in  Handling  U.  S.  Mails 
at  Joint  Stations 

36. — The  Post  Office  Department  has 
promulgated  the  following  rule  for  de- 
termining responsibility  of  railroad  com- 
panies in  handling  transfer  mails  at  joint 
railroad  stations : 

"At  joint  stations  where  mail  is  due  to 
be  transferred  from  a  train  of  one  rail- 
road company  to  a  train  of  another,  the 
mail,  after  being  unloaded  from  the  in- 
coming train,  will  be  in  the  custody  of 
the  company  operating  the  train  to 
which  the  mail  is  due  to  be  dispatched, 
and  the  transfer  will  devolve  upon  that 
company." 


Lost  Articles 

37. — A  great  deal  of  tracing  and  cor- 
respondence is  necessitated,  and  the 
owners  of  property  lost  on  our  trains 
and  in  our  stations  are  permanently  de- 
prived of  their  property  through  failure 
of  employes  to  comply  with  instructions 
in  Rule  No.  376,  General  Instructions 
No.  4,  outlining  the  method  of  handling 
lost  articles.  If  this  rule  is  strictly  com- 
plied with,  it  will  not  only  enable  us  to 
restore  a  much  larger  percentage  of  lost 
articles  to  the  owners,  but  will  obviate  a 
great  deal  of  correspondence. 
Unclaimed  Baggage 

38.— Rule  338,  General  Instructions 
No.  4,  provides  that  baggage  not  claimed 
by  the  owners  within  thirty  days  from 
the  time  it  is  received  at  destination  must 
be  forwarded  to  the  unclaimed  baggage 
room.  Notwithstanding  these  instruc- 
tions, we  find  that  agents  in  many  cases 
are  holding  baggage  from  two  to  six 
months.  In  a  good  many  instances  bag- 
gage is  not  claimed  by  the  owners  on  ac- 
count of  its  being  astray  and  the  owners 
not  being  aware  of  its  whereabouts.  As 
,all  baggage  received  in  the  unclaimed 
baggage  room  is  thoroughly  examined,  it 
is  obvious  that  the  holding  of  a  piece  of 
baggage  by  an  agent  for  more  than  thirty 
days,  is  very  apt  to  result  in  its  tempo- 
rary or  permanent  loss  to  the  owner. 
Agents  should  see  that  rule  338  is  com- 
plied with. 


The  Last  Word  in  Training  Trips 

A  Glimpse  at  the  Luxury  Which  Surrounds  the  Annual  Jaunt  of  a  Major  League  Club 

to  the  Spring  Training  Camp 

By  H.  L.  Kanter,  Special  Representative  of  Baseball   Magazine  With  the  Chicago  Cubs 

HP  HE  wealth  of  baseball  as  an  industry  was  never  more  plainly  indicated 
than  in  the  special  train  which  carried  the  Chicago  Cubs  to  their  training 
quarters  at  Tampa,  Florida.  There  were  singing  canaries  and  billiard  tables ; 
in  fact,  all  the  luxury  that  a  millionaire  could  possibly  command  in  railroad 
transportation. 

The  farsighted  magnate  who  first  conceived  and  put  into  operation  a  spring 
training  trip  for'  a  major  league  ball  club  would  have  gasped  for  breath 
at  sight  of  the  superb  special  flier  which  carried  the  Chicago  Cubs  to  their  an- 
nual sunning  quarters  at  Tampa,  Florida.  Baseball  has  grown  in  wealth  and 
power  and  prestige  with  the  passing  of  the  last  spring  snowflake  from  year  to 
year,  but  there  is  no  detail  of  its  marvelous  development,  neither  in  the  cost  of 
the  collosal  grand  stands  nor  the  fortune  involved  in  club  franchises  nor  the 


CHICAGO  CUBS  1916 

TOP  Row-M?CARTHY,Mt«4JOAN,YERXB8,PACKARD,Fl.ACKj*lANN. 

LioDLE Row- ZIMMERMAN, FISCHER ,  M?  CONNEU., WILLIAMS, VAUGHN, DOOLAN,HENDRIX, 

SAIER 

BOTTOM  Row- LAVENDER  .BROWN,  SEATON.  ARCHER,  Z  WILLING 

TINKER  ,  PIERCE  ,  PREKDERGAST,  CLEMENS,  SCHULTE 
ROLAND  TINKER,  MASCOT  JOE  TINKER  JR.  MASCOT 


Courtesy  of  Mr.   George  L.   Mureland,   Sporting  Records,   Chicago,   111. 

86 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


87 


spectacular  rise  in  players'  salaries  quite  so  striking  as  the  increasing  luxury  -of 
this  annual  jaunt  to  the  Southland. 

We  are  tracing  no  page  from  fancy.  The  truth  is  strange  enough !  Here  was 
a  special  train  equipped  with  every  luxury  that  ingenuity  could  conceive  devoted 
to  the  exclusive  use  of  the  traveling  ball  players,  the  accompanying  newspaper- 
men and  the  owners  and  directors  of  the  Chicago  Club.  It  was  known  as  the 
Charles  Weeghman  Cub  Special.  Orders  flashed  along  the  busy  telegraph  wires 
to  give  this  train  the  right  of  way.  From  Chicago  to  Tampa,  Florida,  it  bowled 
along  on  a  schedule  of  clock-like  regularity.  The  crack  engineer  of  the  road 
'piloted  the  train.  Robert  Carmichael,  of  the  Illinois  Central,  accompanied  the 
tourists  and  gave  every  detail  of  the  trip  personal  supervision.  And  the  accom- 
modations which  he  supplied  the  guests  would  have  made  Pop  Anson  and  the 
rugged  players  of  the  old  days  rub  their  eyes  and  pinch  themselves  to  see  if  they 
were  awake ;  that  these  gorgeous  accommodations  were  really  for  ball  players 
and  not  for  millionaires. 

In  the  first  place  there  were  observation  car,  lounging  car. and  the  accompany- 
ing Pullmans,  all  of  the  very  latest  pattern,  and  supplying  the  guests  with  the 
best  that  any  road  is  supposed  to  furnish.  But  there  were  several  additional  fea- 
tures, some  of  them  at  least  unique.  There  was  a  band  of  professional  entertain- 
ers who  accompanied  the  tourists  and  exerted  themselves  to  make  things  pleas- 
ant for  the  company.  There  was  a  combination  pool  and  billiard  table  set  up 
in  the  baggage  car  for  the  use  of  the  guests.  There  were  two  pianos  (one  would 
not  suffiice),  there  were  two  victrolas  and  crowning  touch  of  luxury  bordering  on 


Courtesy   of    Burke   &   Atwell,    Chicago.   111.,   Photographers. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE  89 

the  fantastic,  there  were  real,  live  canary  birds  in  cages  that  regaled  the  diners 
in  the  dining  car  with  their  song. 

Three  of  the  Cub  directors  and  their  wives,  including  President  Charles  Weegh- 
man,  were  of  the  party.  An  immense  crowd,  led  by  the  Mayor  of  Chicago,  came 
down  to  the  station  to  see  the  party  off.  They  were  greeted  at  every  town  in 
which  they  stopped  by  a  welcoming  crowd  which  cheered  the  Cubs  to  the  echo. 
Verily  the  National  League  has  come  strong  in  the  last  few  months  in  Chicago 
and  Comiskey,  popular  as  he  is,  can  no  longer  claim  a  monopoly  on  the  good 
will  of  his  fellow  townsfolks. 

There  were  other  unique  features  of  this  trip.  The  utter  absence  of  the  recruit 
player  was  conspicuous.  This  was  a  getting-acquainted  party  between  the  Fed- 
eral League  and  the  National  League,  elements  in  the  new  Cubs.  But  these 
players  comprised  a  surfeit  of  talent.  There  was  no  room  nor  space  for  un- 
tried material  on  that  luxurious  special. 

What  with  watching  the  swiftly  passing  scenery,  with  music  and  entertain- 
ment, with  poker  games  and  the  general  feeling  of  good  fellowship,  the  time 
slipped  away  even  more  swifty  than  the  fifty-mile-an-hour  schedule  seemed  to 
warrant.  These  are  the  incidents  of  every  well-conducted  training  trip.  But 
there  were  elements  in  this  particular  pleasure  excursion  (it  would  be  unjust  to 
call  it  less)  which  merit  special  attention. 

It  is  unique  for  the  president  of  a  major  league  club  to  play  a  game  of  pool 
with  his  manager  on  their  own  special  train  while  that  train  is  rushing  full  speed 
for  the  south.  But  such  was  an  incident  of  this  trip.  .Mr.  Weeghman  and  Joe 
Tinker,  in  a  spirit  of  friendly  rivalry,  played  just  such  a  game.  The  trairt  whiz- 
zing along  the  level  roadbed  of  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  did  not  jar  the  table 
enough  to  interrupt  that  game.  The  Brunswick-Balke-Collender  Co.  donated 
their  finest  make  of  table  and  it  fully  lived  up  to  the  established  reputation  of 
that  firm.  True,  the  game  was  interrupted,  but  not  by  the  motion  of  the  train. 
It  was  the  stentorian  voice  of  Heine  Zimmerman  announcing  that  dinner  was 
ready  and  such  a  call  is  irresistible  anywhere. 

Much  has  been  written  of  training  trips  and  their  influence  on  the  subsequent 
success  of  a  major  league  team.  Of  late  the  tendency  has  been  to  cut  into  the 
once  established  schedule  and  to  minimize  the  importance  of  this  formative  per- 
iod in  club  development.  But  so  far  as  wealth  and  variety  of  accommodation 
is  concerned  the  Cub  Special  forged  ahead  of  any  similar  training  tour  in  the 
entire  history  of  the  game.  Which  was  but  another  evidence  that  baseball  is 
still  advancing,  still  increasing  in  popularity. — Baseball  Magazine,  May,  1916. 


T 


'That  Ain't  My  Department" 

HAT  ain't  my  Department."  curs.  Yet  how  wrong  he  is !  How 
This  expression  is  frequently  narrow  and  self-centered !  How  short- 
heard  in  railroad  conversations  and  us-  sighted  to  save  a  little  inconvenience 
ually  seems  so  matter-of-fact  that  it  and  a  little  time  for  his  Department 
passes  without  comment.  The  one  who  and  cause  some  other  Department  to 
uses  it  is  very  likely  what  is  termed  "a  stand  a  greater  expense  !  Would  it 
good  railroad  man"  and  we  are  so  used  not  be  vastly  better  to  always  keep  in 
to  accepting  his  judgment  in  railroad  mind  the  welfare  of  the  Company  as 
matters  that  the  thought  that  he  can  well  as  that  of  his  own  Department 
be  radically  in  the  wrong,  never  oc-  and  when  the  opportunity  comes,  to 


90 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


boost  the  other  fellow's  game  instead 
of  trying'  to  make  a  showing  at  his  ex- 
pense ? 

A  stock-keeper  was  starting  for 
home  one  Saturday  afternoon  when 
one  of  his  men  called  his  attention  to 
the  arrival  in  the  yard  of  a  carload  of 
bar-iron.  "Maybe,"  said  the  man,  "that 
car  has  the  bars  they  need  for  making 
the  arch  bars  for  the  derrick  car  in  the 
shop.  You  know  they  are  working  on 
the  car  tomorrow."  "I've  been  jacked 
up  enough  about  over-time,"  replied 
the  stock-man.  "If  the  shop  wants  the 
stuff  let  them  dig  it  out  of  the  car. 
That  ain't  my  Department."  As  a  re- 
sult the  shop  paid  over-time  wages  for 
men  to  hammer  down  new  arch  bars 
for  the  derrick  from  a  larger  'size  of 
iron,  and  a  stock-man  was  given  a 
chance  to  hunt  work  at  which  he  was 
better  suited  than  at  handling  material 
for  a  railroad. 

A  storekeeper  received  a  carload  of 
heavy  castings  intended  for  current 
month's  shop  output  and  started  to  un- 
load them  just  outside  the  shop.  "You 
can't  pile  that  stuff  there,"  said  the 
foreman,  "there's  going  to  be  an  in- 
spection party  of  general  officers  here 
in  a  few  days  and  I've  got  to  keep  the 
premises  nickel-plated.  Put  it  out  in 
the  yard."  "But,"  said  the  storekeeper, 
"you  need  some  of  this  tomorrow  and 


some  every  day  until  it's  all  gone. 
Think  of  the  cost  of  handling."  "That 
ain't  my  Department,"  the  foreman  re- 
plied, and  the  company  stood  the  ex- 
pense of  hauling  the  material  from  the 
yard  to  the  shop  each  day  while  an- 
other burden  was  placed  on  the  store- 
keeper's already  over-taxed  payroll. 

A  section  gang  was  renewing  ties 
through  an  interlocking  plant  and 
dragging  the  old  ties  from  the  track, 
across  the  pipe  lines,  when  the  signal 
maintainer  came  along.  "Say,  boss," 
he  addressed  the  foreman,  "can't  you 
pull  those  ties  out  between  the  main 
tracks?  You're  making  me  a  lot  of 
work  in  repairing  that  trunking  and 
cleaning  the  dirt  off  the  cranks  and 
equalizers."  "Too  much  digging  on 
that  side,"  replied  the  foreman,  "and  I 
ain't  got  enough  men  now.  Besides, 
that  ain't  my  Department,  anyhow." 

It  is  astonishing  how  much  of  our 
daily  work  affects  some  other  Depart- 
ment or  is  interwoven  with  the  duties 
of  some  other  fellow  employe.  Just  a 
little  study  and  an  honest  desire  to  co- 
operate will  almost  always  show  the 
way  to  save  a  little  trouble  for  the 
other  fellow  and  save  a  few  dollars  for 
the  Company.  The  man  who  shapes 
his  daily  work  along  these  lines  is  the 
one  who  earns  advancement  in  his 
position  and  who  is  successful  in  his 
own  business  and  social  life. 


Personal    Recollections   of  L.  P.   Morehouse,  Who, 

Up  to  the  Time  of  His  Recent  Death,  Although 

on  the  Pension  Roll,  Still  Considered 

Himself  an  Employe 


ALTHOUGH  my  personal  recollections 
do  not  extend  back  of  1857,  I  learned 
a    long    time    ago    some    details    of    Illinois 
Central   history   before   that   year.      One   or 
two  of  these  may  be  recorded  here. 

The  charter  of  the  company  was  ap- 
proved by  the  Governor  of  Illinois,  on  the 
10th  of  February,  1851.  Robert  Schuyler 
was  the  first  president.  William  P.  Burrall 
succeeded  him  in  1853.  John  N.  A.  Gris- 
wold  came  next  in  January,  1855.  William 


H.  Osborn  took  the  office  in  December, 
1855,  holding  it  for  ten  years. 

Other  names  I  may  mention  hereafter. 

In  1857,  Mr.'  William  H.  Osborn  was 
president  of  the  company,  and  I  soon  made 
his  acquaintance,  and  not  in  a  specially 
pleasant  manner. 

Mr.  Osborn  was  a  man  who  at  once  im- 
pressed his  personality  upon  one.  He  was 
of  a  nervous  temperament,  came  to  con- 
elusions  quickly  and  made  no  bones  of  ex- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


91 


pressing  his  sentiments  on  any  subject  that 
came  up.  He  was  considered  a  remarkable 
financier  and  had  been  made  president  when 
the  affairs  of  the  young  company  had  been 
in  a  ticklish  condition.  Some  people  thought 
he  was  too  hasty  in  his  judgments,  and 
sometimes  unjust  to  his  subordinates,  but 
no  one  ever  questioned  his  supreme  de- 
votion to  the  interests  of  the  company. 
After  his  declining,  in  1865,  to  remain  longer 
as  president,  he  remained  "The  Whole 
Thing"  until  the  end  of  1882.  Whether  he 
was  president,  or  chairman  of  the  Board, 
a  director,  and  the  proxy  of  the  Governor, 
or  whether  he  had  no  official  standing  what- 
ever, he  controlled  the  proxies  and  elected 
the  Board,  and  being  a  dominant  man  of 
wide  experience  he  controlled  the  corpora- 
tion, and  every  man  in  it  from  the  president 
down. 

At  spasmodic  intervals,  Mr.  Osborn,  de- 
cended  upon  Chicago,  from  New  York,  and 
his  coming  was  marked  by  a  general  clean- 
ing up  of  matters,  and  a  general  clearing 
out,  as  far  as  possible,  of  people  who  could 
find  an  excuse  for  being  out  of  Chicago. 

As  I  just  intimated,  my  first  experience 
with  Mr.  Osborn  was  quite  embarrassing. 
He  had  recently  acquired  a  large  farm  down 
the  line  and  was  making  improvements 
there.  I  was  sent  down  for  a  few  days  to 
attend  to  some  of  these  "and  was  obliged 
to  give  directions  about  something  of  which 
I  was  totally  ignorant.  A  day  or  two  after 
I  returned  I  was  called  into  Mr.  Osborn's 
office  where  he  was  reading  a  letter.  He 
looked  sharply  at  me  and  rasped  out,  "Did 
you  tell  them  to  do  so-and-so?"  I  was 
unable  to  prove  an  alibi,  and  confessed  that 
I  had  done  so.  Looking  into  the  waste 
basket,  I  plainly  saw  my  head  lying  there. 
But  to  my  astonishment,  Mr.  Osborn  simp- 
ly opened  his  eyes  to  the  widest  extent, 
ejaculated,  "Good  Lord!"  and  motioned  to 
the  door.  After  that  I  never  felt  any  fear 
of  him. 

I  suppose  he  had  a  fellow  feeling  for  me, 
for  it  was  reported  that  he  had  confessed 
that  when  he  first  came  with  the  Board  of 
Directors  he  did  not  know  what  a  railroad 
tie  was. 

While  I  was  not  brought  into  much  busi- 
ness contact  with  Mr.  Osborn,  I  saw  him 
often  enough  to  feel  a  little  acquainted.  On 
Sunday  mornings  he  would  frequently  leave 
the  office  in  time  to  get  over  to  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church,  on  the  corner  of  Wa- 
bash  Avenue  and  Washington  Street,  to 
hear  the  sermon  and  would  quietly  slip  into 
the  rear  pew.  I  sat  in  the  next  pew  forward, 
and  he  would  occasionally  lean  over  to  me 
and  make  some  whispered  remarks  on  the 
sermon  as  it  proceeded.  "That's  the  tariff," 
"He's  hitting  the  railroads  now,"  and  the 
like. 

There  was  nothing  peculiar  about  Mr. 
Osborn's  costume  which  I  remember,  except 


that  it  was  said  he  wore  the  worst  hat  in 
Illinois.  I  have  never  seen  all  the  hats  in 
the  state  so  I  will  not  vouch  for  this  asser- 
tion. 

I  do  not  propose  in  these  desultory  pages 
to  go  into  a  general  or  connected  history 
of  the  Illinois  Central,  but  Mr.  Osborn 
was  so  intimately  a  part  of  this  that  a  few 
words  ought  to  be  given  to  him  here. 

In  1867  we  leased  the  Dubuque  and  Pa- 
cific Railroad  and  Mr.  Osborn  despite  a 
strong  opposition  in  the  Board  was  success- 
ful in  bringing  this  about.  It  was  said  in 
Chicago  that  the  old  fogies  were  satisfied 
with  their  ten  per  cent  dividends  and  were 
in  favor  of  letting  well  enough  alone.  But 
there  were  some  keen  minds  who  saw  the 
necessity  of  reaching  out  for  the  business 
of  the  northwest  and  giving  up  the  idea 
that  the  Central  could  depend  alone  on  its 
local  traffic  and  that  which  would  naturally 
gravitate  to  it. 

Mr.  Osborn  was  very  desirous  that  the 
Illinois  Central  should  practically  extend  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  as  early  as  1871 
made  overtures  to  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  to 
that  effect,  but  soon  changed  his  mind  as  to 
Mobile  as  a  terminus,  being  satisfied  that 
New  Orleans  was  preferable.  He,  there- 
fore, immediately  took  up  the  matter  with 
Colonel  H.  S.  McComb,  who  controlled  the 
New  Orleans,  Jackson  and  Great  Northern, 
and  Mississippi  Central,  extending  from 
New  Orleans  to  Jackson,  Tenn.  The  im- 
mediate result  was  the  extension  of  the 
Mississippi  Central  from  Jackson  to  East 
Cairo,  and  the  final  resultant  was  the  lease 
in  1882  of  the  Southern  Lines  to  the  Illi- 
nois Central. 

Having  accomplished  this  task,  Mr.  Os- 
born definitely  retired  from  his  life  work. 

The  Second  Presbyterian  Church  has  been 
for  many  years  a  prominent  organization  in 
Chicago,  and  I  might  jot  down  a  few  items 
relating  to  it,  some  of  which  had  to  do  with 
my  personal  experience.  I  believe  it  is  a 
matter  of  history  that  several  years  before 
my  time  this  congregation  had  gone  out 
from  the  First  Church  on  account  of  the 
heresy  of  abolitionism  which  was  spreading 
therein.  Conservatism  was  the  watchword 
all  over  the  country.  But  I  knew  nothing 
of  this  and  simply  attended  there  because  it 
was  the  most  convenient  place  for  me,  as  I 
boarded  on  Michigan  Avenue  near  South 
Water  Street.  That  was  quite  a  "toney" 
locality  then.  When  Albert  Edward,  Prince 
of  Wales,  visited  Chicago  in  1860,  he 
stopped  at  the  Richmond  House,  the  prin- 
cipal hotel,  on  the  corner  of  South  Water 
Street,  just  opposite  our  boarding  house. 
From  our  balcony  I  looked  across  the  street 
to  the  hotel  balcony  when  he  came  out  and 
bowed  to  the  crowd  cheering  him  in  the 
street  below.  A  nice  looking  young  fellow. 

But  going  back  to  our  Presbyterians — 
whatever  the  Second  Church  people  may 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


have  thought  about  "the  peculiar  institu- 
tion," it  was  never  alluded  to  in  my  time, 
and  I  made  the  acquaintance  there  of  some 
of  the  most  consistent  Christian  men  I  have 
ever  met.  It  was  said  to  be  the  wealthiest 
church  in  the  City  and  its  membership  in- 
cluded many  of  the  most  prominent  citi- 
zens. The  Honorable  John  Wentworth, 
our  Representative  in  Congress,  was  a  more 
or  less  liberal  supporter  of  the  Church,  and 
a  very  regular  attendant  when  his  duties  at 
Washington  allowed  him  a  vacation  at 
home.  He  was  a  large  man  and  of  a  height 
variously  stated  at  from  six  feet  seven  inch- 
es to  seven  feet  six  inches.  The  cub  re- 
porter would  say  that  he  located  him  for 
an  interview  at  night  by  observing  at  which 
window  in  the  Tremont  House  a  pair  of 
legs  were  sticking  half  way  across  the  side- 
walk. He  was  rather  proud  of  the  cogno- 
men "Long  John"  by  which  he  was  gener- 
ally referred  to  both  by  friends  and  foes. 

He  had  a  pew  pretty  well  up  the  middle 
aisle  and  it  was  his  custom  to  enter  the 
church  just  as  the  pastor,  the  Reverend 
Doctor  Patterson,  the  "Presbyterian  Pope 
of  the  Northwest,"  was  beginning  the  serv- 
ice. With  no  light  tread  he  strode  to  his 
pew,  not  removing  his  hat  till  he  took  his 
seat.  It  was  a  tall  silk  hat  and,  I  think, 
about  as  shocking  a  one  as  you  could  find, 
decidedly  worse  than  Mr.  Osborn's. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  character  of  some 
of  the  church  members.  I  had  no  acquain- 
tance with  the  Honorable  John,  although 
I  heard  Mrs.  Bee  say  once  that  she  had 
faith  to  believe  that  John  finally  might  be 
converted. 

Incidentally  I  might  say  that  the  church 
not  only  looked  after  our  spiritual  welfare, 
but  it  gave  us  a  regular  course  of  church 
sociables  with  their  customary  hilarious 
features.  At  some  of  the  houses  where 
these  sociables  were  held,  there  would  be  a 
dance  the  latter  part  of  the  evening.  We 
always  counted  on  this  at  Judge  Mather's 
and  at  Edwin  Hunt's.  Mrs.  Hunt  was  very 
popular  with  the  young  people;  she  always 
tried  to  promote  good  fellowship. 

Oh,  of  course,  only  square  dances  and 
the  Virginia  reel. 

Another  recreation  in  connection  with 
the  church  which  I  enjoyed  was  the  ring- 
ing of  the  big  bell — it  was  the  largest  in 
the  city.  Mr.  Bee,  the  sexton,  was  a  good 
natured  man  and — this  was  before  Tom 
Sawyer  and  Mark  Twain — he  frequently  al- 
lowed me  to  ring  the  bell  in  his  place,  for 
Sunday  services  and  the  weekly  meetings. 
After  you  got  it  started  it  went  all  right 
if  you  kept  the  rythm  of  it,  but  some  times 
it  would  wabble  pretty  badly.  And  when  it 
got  full  swing  and  turned  over  you  had  to 
let  go  the  rope  in  time  or  you  would  be 
snatched  up  to  crack  your  head  against 
the  rafters  of  the  belfry  loft. 


Oh,  the  church  did  a  good  many  things 
for  us. 

Quite  a  number  of  years  afterward  I  was 
surprised  to  hear  Mr.  George  Trumbull, 
who  was  then  the  head  of  the  Law  De- 
partment, say  that  people  went  to  church 
principally  on  account  of  the  social  fea- 
tures which  attended  them.  I  expressed 
my  dissent,  but  Mr.  Trumbull,  who  had 
lived  in  the  rural  districts  a  good  part  of 
his  life,  insisted  on  his  point. 

You  and  I  do  not  agree  with  him  as  to 
our  church,  but  perhaps  in  case  of  some 
men  this  may  be  a  fact. 

Mr.  Trumbull,  you  know,  was  a  brother 
of  the  Honorable  Lyman  Trumbull  so  long 
a  United  States  Senator  from  Illinois. 

I  think  Mr.  Trumbull  was  with  us  when 
we  were  getting  ready  to  improve  the  Chi- 
cago Harbor  under  the  Act  of  1869. 

What  was  that?  Well,  we  will  get  to 
it  by  and  by. 

Mention  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
a  while  ago  reminds  me  that  the  Illinois 
Central  for  many  years,  modestly  and  un- 
obtrusively, has  been  carrying  on  part  of 
the  good  work  which  that  organization 
started  more  than  eighty  years  ago.  The 
original  frame  church  building  on  the  cor- 
ner of  Lake  and  Clark  Streets  gave  place 
to  a  handsome  brick  edifice  on  the  corner 
of  Washington  and  Clark  Streets,  and  this 
was  succeeded  by  a  stone  church,  near  the 
corner  of  Wabash  Avenue  and  Congress 
Street.  After  the  fire  the  present  building 
on  Indiana  Avenue  and  Twenty-first  Street 
was  erected. 

But  the  original  Noah's  Ark  of  a  build- 
ing was  navigated  about  from  street  to 
street,  being  used  for  various  purposes,  un- 
til it  was  finally  anchored  on  its  present 
site  and  there  benevolently  appropriated  by 
the  Illinois  Central  as  a  shelter  for  way- 
farers who  when  winter  winds  were  whis- 
tling without,  might  thaw  themselves  out 
under  the  genial  heat  of  the  big  stove. 

Since  1880  this  historic  building  has  been 
the  Illinois  Central  Suburban  passenger 
house  at  Sixteenth  Street. 

I  think  it  must  be  the  oldest  public 
building  of  the  original  city  now  standing. 

Speaking  of  Sunday  matters  reminds  me 
of  Judge  Lane,  who  was  in  Chicago,  and 
as  Resident  Director  kept  general  tab  on 
proceedings  in  Illinois.  I  think  he  had 
no  specific  duties  but  was  supposed  to  make 
suggestions.  Probably  some  of  these  were 
accepted.  At  a  later  day  the  Honorable 
Nathaniel  P.  Banks  occupied  a  similar  po- 
sition and  evidently  had  a  pretty  hard 
time.  At  least  that  it  what  I  thought  when 
I  happened  to  get  into  his  hermit  like  of- 
fice and  saw  how  grateful  he  seemed  at 
anything  coming  his  way.,  But  I  was 
about  to  say  that  Judge  Lane,  good  church- 
man, had  an  order  issued  closing  the  gen- 
eral office  on  Sundays.  Of  course  the 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


93 


trainmaster's  office  had  to  be  kept  open 
as  there  were  some  trains  running  and  the 
people  whose  duties  necessitated  their 
presence  on  Sundays  had  special  keys  given 
them  to  the  outer  door.  The  rank  and 
file  clamoring  for  Sunday  work  were  ruth- 
lessly excluded.  However,  I  think  we  all 
got  in  after  a  short  time. 

I  suppose  it  was  in  these  days  when 
we  were  not  allowed  to  work  Sundays  that 
I  used  to  go  Sunday  mornings  and  take  a 
swim  in  the  lake  off  the  breakwater  east 
of  Elevator  B.  Slip  C  and  the  land  be- 
yond had  not  then  been  constructed.  Quite 
a  lot  of  fellows  did  the  same  as  I  did,  and 
as  were  were  far  removed  from  the  mad- 
ding crowd  there  was  no  special  bathing 
costume  required  and  everybody  was  at- 
tried  in  puris  naturalibus  only. 
'  Happy  days! 

A  good  many  years  later,  Judge  Fent- 
ress,  who  was  the  General  Solicitor  for 
the  lines  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  inti- 
mated to  me  that  a  Sunday  closing  law  of 
this  kind  might  be  a  good  thing.  He  lived 
on  his  plantation  at  Shandy  and  had  his 
office  in  the  Bolivar  passenger  station 
house,  secluded  from  the  great  world.  He 
told  me  that  he  heard  that  Clarke  and 
Jeffery  went  to  their  offices  on  Sunday, 
but  he  hoped  Mr.  Ayer  did  not.  I  was 
able  to  quiet  his  apprehensions  as  to  Mr. 
Ayer,  informing  him  that  the,  latter  gen- 
tleman lived  several  miles  from  town,  and 
was,  moreover,  a  vestryman  in  a  prominent 
Episcopal  Church. 

I  am  a  little  afraid  that  after  Judge 
Fentress  came  to  Chicago  to  live  he  him- 
self occasionaHv  visited  his  office  on  Sun- 
day instead  of  going  to  Church.  "Evil 
communications,  etc." 

But  perhaps  it  was  a  case  of  pulling  the 
ox  out  of  the  pit.  I  can  hear  him  now 
deprecating  the  fact  that  "it  takes  all  my 
time  to  keep  you  fellows  out  of  jail!'* 

Among  the  people  whom  I  remember 
pleasantly  in  the  General  Office  while  I 
was  serving  my  apprenticeshio  were  Mr. 
Joseph  Kirkland,  Auditor,  and  Mr.  William 
Vernon.  who  succeeded  him. 

Mr.  Kirkland  became  Major  Kirkland 
during  the  war,  and  afterwards  was  quite 
well  known  as  the  author  of  several  works 
of  fiction.  I  recall  him  often  when  I  meet 
here  (Cos  Angeles)  now-a-davs  his  sister. 
Miss  Cordelia,  who  is  a  neighbor  of  ours. 

Mr.  Vernon  was  an  old.  white  haired 
gentleman,  who  knew  all  about  accounts, 
for  he  had  been  bookkeeper  for  the 
famous  Frink  and  Walker  Line  that  ran 
stage  coaches  out  of  Chicago  to  several 
important  cities.  Oh,  he  was  quite  an  old 
man,  sixty  at  least.  But  he  was  vigorous 
for  a  man  of  his  age.  He  and  I  went 
trout  fishing  once  in  Minnesota  and  he 
made  no  complaint  about  fatigue  and 
rough  living. 


While  I  lived  in  Connecticut  I  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  attending  the  annual  state 
fairs,  so  when  I  saw  that  the  Illinois  State 
Fair  was  to  be  held  at  Centralia  I  sup- 
posed it  to  be  my  duty  to  continue  the 
practice.  Accordingly  I  took  the  two 
nights'  trip  from  and  to  Chicago  and  spent 
a  day  in  attendance  at  Centralia.  Please 
remember  that  this  was  before  the  advent 
of  sleeping  cars.  The  principal  thing  about 
the  fair,  which  I  recall,  was  the  presence 
of  Mr.  James  C.  Clarke,  General  Super- 
intendent, 'tending  switch  at  Main  Line 
Junction. 

A  good  many  trains  were  being  run  and 
Mr.  Clarke  was  on  deck  to  personally 
handle  them  as  they  passed  this  important 
point.  This  was  characteristic  of  Mr. 
Clarke;  he  was  always  on  the  spot  where 
the  most  important  thing  was  transpiring 
and  he  never  lost  sight  of  very  small  de- 
tails. 

He  was  one  of  the  batch  of  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  people  who  came  to  the  road  in 
1856. 

Up  to  that  time  Colonel  R.  B.  Mason 
had  been  Chief  Engineer  and  General  Su- 
perintendent, portions  of  the  road  being  put 
into  operation  from  time  to  time  and  en- 
tire line  of  705  miles  being  completed  in 
September,  1856.  About  that  time  Colonel 
Mason  left  the  road  and,  with  some  others, 
took  the  contract  to  build  the  Dubuque 
and  Pacific  road.  I  think  Mr.  John  H. 
Doane  was  then  made  General  Superinten- 
ent. 

A  considerable  space  might  be  given  to 
Colonel  Mason.  You  remember  he  was 
Mavor  of  Chicago  at  the  time  of  the  fire. 

He  built  the  longest  railroad  in  the 
world  at  that  time,  the  Illinois  Central;  and 
also  built,  as  President  of  the  company, 
one  of  the  shortest,  the  first  street  rail- 
way in  Chicago.  This  was  constructed  in 
1858  on  State  Street,  and  extended  from 
Lake  Street  to  Twelfth  Street. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  when  it  was 
completed.  Everybody  had  a  free  ride  the 
first  day.  The  next  year  the  road  was 
extended  to  Twenty-second  Street.  In 
those  days  it  was  not  easy  to  raise  money 
for  hazardous  undertakings. 

In  1850  the  bottom  had  dropped  out  of 
pretty  much  everything.  A  gentleman 
whom  I  had  known  in  New  Haven  was 
looking  for  a  safe  investment.  He  told 
me  that  a  lot  on  State  Street  between 
Washington  and  Madison  Streets  had  been 
offered  to  him  at  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  a  front  foot.  But  it  was  too  risky 
and  he  did  not  take  it. 

I  am  informed  that  this  land  is  now  con- 
sidered worth  $15,000  a  foot. 

Mr.  Doane  and  Mr.  Kellogg  went  one 
day  to  Hyde  Park  to  locate  the  terminus  for 
the  suburban  trains  which  were  soon  to 
be  put  in  operation,  and  in  attempting  to 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  MAGAZINE 


board  a  moving  freight  train  Mr.  Doane 
was  killed.  I  think  Mr.  Clarke  succeeded 
him;  this  was  before  my  time. 

A  good  many  years  later  I  heard  Mr. 
Clarke  narrate  an  incident  connected  with 
his  first  coming  onto  the  road  which  was 
very  funny  as  he  told  it.  He  was  called 
about  as  good  a  story  teller  as  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

He  had  heard  that  there  was  considerable 
dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  some  oper- 
ating officers  on  account  of  the  coming  of 
another  B.  and  O.  man,  and  he  went  out 
one  day  incog,  to  the  division  headquar- 
ters at  Amboy  to  take  a  look  there. 

Amboy  was  purely  a  railroad  town,  re- 
cently built  on  the  prairie  and  comprising 
only  a  few  houses,  the  shops  and  the  rail- 
road buildings,  including  a  hotel  along 
with  the  division  offices  in  the  same  build- 
ing. Arriving  about  nightfall  he  got  his 
supper  and  then  "loafed"  around  until  later 
in  the  evening  when  there  was  quite  a  com- 
pany of  railroad  men  in  the  hotel  lobby,  in- 
cluding Mr.  Blank,  the  Division  Superin- 
tendent. This  gentleman,  the  landlord  be- 
ing absent,  was  running  the  hotel  as  well 
as  his  division.  Mr.  Incog,  took  a  seat  be- 
hind the  big  stove  and  listened  to  the 
talk,  which  was  largely  on  the  subject  of 
the  new  man.  Mr.  Blank  was  quite  sure 
he  could  teach  him  some  tricks  and  make 
things  generally  pretty  warm  for  him.  And 
there  was  no  dissent  from  his  opinion. 

Amboy  was  not  then  a  prohibition  dis- 
trict and  the  pro  tern  landlord  had  been 
treating  freely  as  well  as  himself  sampling 
the  corn  juice,  so  that  a  sentiment  some- 
thing like  "Britons  never  will  be  slaves!" 
was  meeting  with  hearty  applause,  when 
Mr.  Incog,  signified  his  desire  to  retire 
from  the  festive  scene. 

Mr.  Blank  took  a  lamp  and  escorted 
him  to  his  room,  where  on  the  bed  re- 
posed a  large  cat  in  peaceful  slumber. 
"There's  that  damn  cat  again!"  exclaimed 
the  landlord,  and  putting  down  his  lamp, 
he  seized  the  cat  and  hurled  it  through  the 
window,  demolishing  a  good  part  of  the 
sash.  One  of  the  pillows  from  the  bed, 
however,  was  used  to  plug  up  the  opening 
and  the  guest  was  left  to  his  quiet  slum- 
bers. 


The  next  day  there  was  a  surprise  party 
in  Amboy. 

A  few  years  later  Colonel  Blank  was 
killed  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  on  a 
southern  battle  field. 

I  think  it  was  in  1858  that  the  Board  of 
Directors  proposed  to  economize  by  taking 
off  one  of  the  two  daily  trains  that  were 
running  between  Chicago  and  Cairo.  Mr. 
Clarke  pleaded  hard  to  retain  both  trains 
and  no  change  was  made. 

I  forget  just  what  year  Mr.  Clarke  left 
us,  about  1860,  perhaps,  to  return  in  1876 
as  General  Manager.  I  know  he  was  Vice- 
President  in  1878  and  President  in  1883. 

In  the  pre-historic  times  of  which  I  am 
telling,  there  were  some  things  in  rail- 
road operation  different  from  those  at 
present.  There  was  no  perfect  check  on 
the  money  paid  on  trains  and  it  was  qjuite 
commonly  believed  that  some  conductors 
did  not  turn  over  to  the  treasury  all  that 
they  received.  A  great  many  passengers 
did  not  purchase  tickets,  but  paid  their  fare 
to  the  conductor,  so  that  his  receipts  were 
large.  The  follosviner  story  was  believed 
to  be  Founded  on  facts. 

Conductor  Soandso  was  suspected,  and 
the  Superintendent  secreted  himself  in  a 
room  adjacent  to  the  one  where  Mr.  So- 
andso was  accustomed  to  make  out  his  re- 
port. This  official  proceeded  to  take  the 
money  from  various  pockets  and  placed  it 
on  the  table.  Then  he  carefully  assorted 
it  into  two  piles,  each  containing  the  same 
amount.  Bui  therf.  was  a  dollar  left  over 
and  he  was  uncertain  where  to  place  it. 
"Well,"  he  said,  "I  don't  know  whether  I 
better  take  it  or  let  the  Old  Man  have  it. 
I  guess  we'll  toss  up  for  it.  Heads  for 
the  Old  Man  and  tails  for  me." 

And  heads  it  turned  up.  Mr.  Soandso 
hesitated.  "Believe  I'll  try  that  again,"  he 
said.  But  it  was  heads  again.  "Oh,  I 
guess  I'll  take  it  anyway."  And  he  added 
it  to  his  pile  just  as  the  "Old  Man" 
bounced  into  the  room,  shaking  his  fist  and 
crying  out,  "John,  you  rascal;  that's  mine! 
I've  won  it  fair,  twice!'' 

It  was  never  proved  that  Mr.  Clarke  was 
the  "Old  man,"  but  it  sounded  very  much 
like  him. 

L.  P.  Morehouse. 


LlQid/orious  S 


ornonous  oorvice 


T^AVORABLE  mention  is  made  of  the 
-*-  following  conductors  and  gatekeepers 
for  their  special  efforts  in  lifting  and  pre- 
venting the  use  of  irregular  transportation 
in  connection  with  which  reports  (Form 
972)  were  rendered  to  the  auditor  of  pas- 
senger receipts,  who,  in  cases  of  this  kind, 
advises  the  other  departments  concerned, 
so  that  proper  action  may  be  taken,  all  pass 
irregularities  being  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  vice-president. 

Illinois  Division 

During  April  the  following  suburban 
gatekeepers  lifted  commutation  tickets  ac- 
count having  expired  and  being  in  im- 
proper hands: 

K.  F.   Emmanuel, 

J.  H.  Quinlan. 

T.    C.    White. 

Suburban  Conductor  T.  P.  Lennon  on 
train  No.  132  April  26th  lifted  54  ride 
monthly  commutation  ticket  account  being 
in  improper  hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  H.  B.  Tacks  on  train  No.  5 
April  1st  and  No.  34  Anril  16th  declined 
to  honor  card  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares.  Passengers 
were  referred  to  passenger  department  for 
refund  on  tickets. 

On  train  No.  1  April  8th  he  declined  to 
honor  foreign  interline  ticket  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  -F.  A.  Hitz  on  train  No.  17 
April  24th  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

St.  Louis  Division. 

Conductor  O.  S.  Fulkerson  on  train  No. 
223  April  1st  declined  to  honor  local  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  A.  N.  Wakefield  on  train  No. 
24  April  22nd  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
deoartment  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Reader  on  train  No.  2 
April  28th  lifted  exoired  card  ticket,  on 
which  passenger  admitted  having;  previous- 
ly secured  transportation  arid  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  W.  C.  Walkup  on  train  Xo. 
208,  April  19th,  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Wisconsin  Division 

Conductor  T.  B.  Stewart  on  train  No.  124 
April  1st,  and  No.  132  April  llth,  declined 
to  honor  card  tickets  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fares.  Passengers 
were  referred  to  passenger  department  for 
refund  on  tickets. 


Conductor  J.  P.  Reece  on  train  No.  124 
April  9th  lifted  expired  card  ticket  on  which 
passenger  admitted  having  previously  se- 
cured transportation  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  J.  T.  Birkmeyer  on  train  No. 
16  April  24th  lifted  going  portion  of  trip 
pass  account  returning  portion  being  miss- 
ing and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  L.  Bowley  on  train  No.  331 
April  24th  and  27th,  and  train  No.  330 
April  28th,  declined  to  honor  card  tickets 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fares.  Passengers  were  referred  to  pas- 
senger department  for  refund  on  tickets. 
Kentucky  Division. 

Conductor  D.  E.  Carroll  on  train  No. 
122  April  13th  declined  to  honor  card 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Tennessee    Division 

Conductor  W.  B.  Pope  on  train  No.  110 
April  2nd  lifted  46  ride  monthly  commuta- 
tion ticket  account  having  expired  and  col- 
lected cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  E.  Nelson  on  train  No.  207 
April  10th  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account"  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  train  No.  207  April  13th  he  lifted  go- 
ing portion  of  card  ticket  account  returning 
portion  being  missing  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  train  No.  204  April  15th  he  lifted 
employe's  trip  pass  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  T.  W.  Robertson  on  train  No. 
122  April  10th  and  No.  132  April  28th  de- 
clined to  honor  card  tickets  account  hav- 
ing expired  and  collected  cash  fares.  Pas- 
sengers were  referred  to  passenger  depart- 
ment for  refund  on  tickets. 

On  train  No.  121  April  24th  he  declined 
to  honor  trip  pass  presented  for  passage 
via  indirect  route  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  J.  A.  Cunningham  on  train 
No.  11  April  16th  lifted  annual  pass  in  ac- 
cordance with  bulletin  instructions  and  col- 
lected rash  fare. 

Conductor  F.  S.  Ball  on  train  No.  39 
April  16th  lifted  identification  slip  account 
passenger  not  being  provided  with  pass  and 
col!ected  cash  fare. 

Mississippi  Division 

Conductor  F.  J.  Hines  on  train  No.  5 
Anril  18th  declined  to  honor  local  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

On  train  No.  24  April  27th  he  declined 
to  honor  mileage  book  account  having  ex- 
pired and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  F.   Cathev  on  train  No.  23 


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ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


97 


April  3rd  lifted  identification  slip  account 
passenger  not  being  provided  with  pass  and 
collected  cash  fare. 

On  same  train  and  date  he  declined  to 
honor  returning  portion  Sunday  excursion 
ticket  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

Conductor  C.  M.  Anderson  on  train  No. 
24:  April  18th  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  5  April  29th  he  declined  to 
honor  card  ticket  account  having  expired 
and  collected  cash  fare.  Passenger  was 
referred  to  passenger  department  for  re- 
tund  on  ticket. 

Louisiana  Division 

Conductor  R.  E.  Mclnturff  on  train  No. 
24  April  1st  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

Conductor  A.  E.  Broas  on  train  No.  1 
April  3rd  declined  to  honor  returning  por- 
tion of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  L.  E.  Barnes  on  train  No.  34 
April  5th  declined  to  honor  mileage  book 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

On  train  No.  34  April  19th  he  lifted  trip 
pass  restricted  to  intrastate  travel  account 
being  presented  with  local  ticket  for  an 
interstate  trip  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  same  train  and  date  he  lifted  annual 
pass  presented  with  letter  calling  for  trans- 
portation outside  of  territory  in  which 
same  was  good  for  passage.  Passenger  re- 
fused to  pay  fare  and  was  required  to 
leave  the  train. 

Conductor  T.  A.  Moore  on  train  No.  31 
April  10th  declined  to  honor  returning  por- 
tion of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  G.  O.  Lord  on  train  No.  6 
April  30th  declined  to  honor  card  ticket 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare.  Passenger  was  referred  to  passenger 
department  for  refund  on  ticket. 

On  same  train  and  date  he  lifted  em- 
ploye's term  pass  account  signature  on 
identification  slip  having  been  altered. 
Passenger  refused  to  pay  fare  and  was 
required  to  leave  the  train. 

Memphis   Division. 

Conductor  J.  S.  Lee  on  train  No.  314 
April  17th  declined  to  honor  returning  por- 
tion of  Sunday  excursion  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  314  April  27th  he  lifted 
mileage  book  account  being  in  improper 
hands  and  collected  cash  fare. 

Conductor  R.  H.  Kerr  on  train  No.  46- 
139  declined  to  honor  card  ticket  account 
having  expired  and  collected  cash  fare. 

On  train  No.  47  April  24th  he  declined 
to  honor  returning  portion  of  Sunday  ex- 
cursion tickets  account  having  expired  and 
collected  cash  fares. 


Conductor  P.  D.  Richards  on  train  No. 
12  April  29th  declined  to  honor  mileage 
book  account  having  expired  and  collected 
cash  fare. 

New  Orleans  Division 

Conductor  C.  Davis  on  train  No.  22 
April  14th  declined  to  honor  mileage  book 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Conductor  R.  E.  Cook  on  train  No.  22 
April  21st  declined  to  honor  mileage  book 
account  having  expired  and  collected  cash 
fare. 

Illinois    Division 

Conductor  George  Lindsay,  extra  1576, 
May  31,  has  been  commended  for  discov- 
ering and  reporting  CFDX  54967  without 
light  weight  stencilled  on  same.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

Conductor  J.  McManus,  extra  1754,  May 
20,  has  been  commended  for  discovering  and 
reporting  CFDX  52349  without  light  weight 
stencilled  on  same.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  have  car  stencilled. 

DIVISION  NEWS. 
Illinois  Division. 

Bowling  score  of  I.  C.  R.  R.  team  from 
local  freight  office- was  rolled  on  the  open- 
ing night  of  the  Illinois  State  Bowling 
Tournament  in  Chicago  April  82,  1916. 

The  team  broke   no  records,  but  is  well 


Railway 
Employes 
Eyes  are 
Exposed  to 
Wind,  Dust 
and  Alkali 
Poisons 

The  Rush  of  Air,  created  by  the 
swiftly-moving  train,  is  heavily 
laden  with  coal-smoke,  gas  and 
dust,  and  it  is  a  wonder  that  train- 
men retain  their  normal  Eye-sight 
as  long  as  they  do. 

Murine  Eye  Remedy  is  a  Con- 
venient and  Pleasant  Lotion  and 
should  be  applied  follow- 
ing other  ablutions. 

Murine  relieves 
Soreness,  Redness 
and  Granulation. 

Druggists  supply  Murine 
at  50c  per  bottle. 


The  Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co., 
Chicago,  will  mail  Book  of 
the  Eye  Free  upon  request. 


98 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


pleased    with    the    first    attempt,    and     no 
doubt  will   do  better   next   season. 

The  opening  of  the  bowling  season  next 
fall  will  find  this  team  as  challengers  of 
all  I.  C.  R.  R.  teams  within  easy  distance 
of  Chicago. 

Arrangements  are  nearly  complete  where- 
by this   team  will  be   entered   in   the   Rail- 
way Transportation  League  of  Chicago. 
1st     2nd    3rd    Tot.    Ave. 

Ed  Long  177     199     152     528     176 

M.   Murphy    125     124     176     425     141% 

Fred    D.    Long 143     158     160     458     152% 

C.  Johnson  160     162     191     513     171 

Ed    Lichtenfels 208     210     132 '  550     183% 


Totals    813     853     811  2477 

Ed  Long  and  Ed  Lichtenfels  entered  the 
individual  event  with  the  following  score: 

Total 

Ed    Long 154     178     180     512 

Ed  Lichtenfels  181     191     142     514 

Springfield  Division 

Mr.  Harry  Hall,  Machinist  Handyman, 
will  visit  in  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Mr.  Robert  Taylor,  Engineer,  will  visit 
friends  and  relatives  in  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Fireman  E.  Thompson  will  visit  in 
Omaha,  Neb. 

Mr.  Frank  Grason,  Engineer,  wifl  visit 
in  Stroud,  Okla. 

Mr.  Frarik  Franek,  Car  Inspector,  will 
visit  in  Miami,  Fla.,  and  other  points  in 
the  South. 

Mr.  F.  E.  Norton,  Engineer,  and  wife, 
will  visit  friends  and  relatives  in  Medicine 
Lake,  Mont. 

Fireman  O.  L.  Finch  will  visit  in 
Omaha,  Neb.,  and  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Firemen  J.  D.  Livesay  and  F.  Mielke 
will  visit  in  Minneapolis  and  Duluth,  Minn. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Lee,  Machinist,  will  visit 
friends  and  relatives  in  Altoona,  Pa. 

Mr.  Jack  Agee,  Fireman,  and  wife,  will 
visit  in  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Fireman  J.  C.  Miller  will  visit  in  Mor- 
land,  Kan. 

Mr.  Loran  Peacock,  Car  Repairer,  will 
visit  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Mr.  J.  C.  Trobaugh,  Engineer,  has  re- 
turned .  to  service  after  spending  three 
weeks  in  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  Edward  Ellis,  Piecework  Checker, 
will  spend  his  vacation  in  Cleveland.  Ohio. 

Mr.  W.  J.  Brewer,  Engineer,  has  returned 
to    work    after    spending   a    month    at    Hot" 
Springs,  Ark. 

Mr.  B.  E.  Spink,  Car  Inspector  and 
family,  will  visit  relatives  in  Cedar  Falls, 
Iowa. 

Mr.  Chas.  F.  Smith,  Car  Repairer,  was 
called  to  his  home  in  Charles  City,  Iowa, 
due  to  the  serious  illness  of  his  father. 

Mr.  R.  A.  Cooper,  Fireman,  will  visit  in 
Brunswick,  Md.,  during  the  holidays. 

Mrs.  John  Putnum,  wife  of  Carpenter,  will 
visit  relatives  in  Seaman,  Ohio. 

Mr.  Wm.  M.  Getzendanner,  Machinist, 
will  visit  his  parents  in  Cumberland,  Md. 

Mr.  Fred  Labissonniere,  Machinist,  is 
visiting  his  parents  in  McKeever,  Mich. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Wheatley,  Fireman,  was  called 


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and  examined  the  watch,  we  will  save 
you  about  half  of  the  money  usually 
asked  for  such  high  grade  watches. 

Payments  to  Suit  You 

Payments  so  easy,  terms  so  fair,  prices  so 
low  that  any  honorable  person  may  own  a 
"Santa  Pe  Special"  and  never  miss  the 
money.  Men  in  every  part  of  this  country,  on 
the  seas,  in  foreign  lands  are  buying-  these 
famous  watches  and  every  owner  is  delighted 
with  the  "Santa  Fe  Special." 


THE  FAMOUS  "SANTA  FE  SPECIAL" 
is  the  one  standard  railroad  watch  that's 
guaranteed  to  last  you  all  your  life.  21 
or  17  jewels,  thin  model,  16  size,  adjusted 
to  positions,  adjusted  to  isochronism,  ad- 
justed to  temperature. 


NEW  CASE  DESIGNS 

Marvelous,  indeed,  are  the  newest  designs 
in  "Santa  Fe  Special"  watch  cases.  Every 
day  brings  out  some  remarkable  combination 
of  name,  monogram  or  initial  with  emblem 
in  the  wonderful  3-color  enamel  process  in- 
laid in  solid  gold. 

Our  beautiful  4-color,  52-page  watch  book 
shows  these  and  many  other  distinctvie  de- 
signs, including  French  art,  special  emblems 
and  engraved  monograms. 

A  letter  or  a  postal  brings  the  FREE   Watch 
Book. 


Dept.  614 
Topeka,  Kas.,  U.  S.  A. 


Santa  Fe  Watch  Co. 

XOTE — One  of  the  finest  passenger  trains 
in  the  world  is  pulled  by  Engineer  E.  O. 
Whitcomb  and  a  "Santa  Fe  Special"  watch. 
He  says,  "It's  the  BEST  WATCH  I  EVER 
CARRIED." 

E.      O.     Whitcomb, 
his      giant      engine, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


99 


to  his  home  in  Waverly,  Ky.,  due  to  the 
serious  illness  of  his  mother. 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Fish,  Stenographer  in  the 
Master  Mechanic's  office,  spent  Thanksgiv- 
ing day  in  Bloomington. 

Mr.  Carroll  Jordan,  Assistant  Account- 
ant in  the  Master  Mechanic's  office,  makes 
occasional  trips  to  Pana,  111.  What  is  the 
attraction? 

Mr.  Victor  Hines,  Timekeeper  in  the 
Car  Department,  is  going  to  spend  the  holi- 
days in  Harvard,  111. 

Conductor  W.  B.  Herron  has  returned  to 
his  home  in  Champaign  after  a  three  weeks' 
business  trip  in  Michigan. 

Conductor  T.  F.  Murphy,  who  has  been 
off  sick  for  some  time,  is  improving  very 
rapidly  and  expects  to  return  to  his  duties 
as  conductor  within  a  very  short  time. 

Conductor  J.  Lordan  has  been  assigned 
to  regular  passenger  service  between  Clin- 
ton and  St.  Louis. 

Free  to  Our  Readers 

Write  Murine  Eye  Remedy  Co.,  Chicago,  for 
48-page  illustrated  Eye  Book  Free.  Write  all 
about  Your  Eye  Trouble  and  they  will  advise 
as  to  the  Proper  Application  of  the  Murine 
Eye  Remedies  in  Your  Special  Case.  Your 
Druggist  will  tell  you  that  Murine  Relieves 
Sore  Eyes,  Strengthens  Weak  Eyes.  Doesn't 
Smart,  Soothes  Eye  Pain,  and  sells  for  50c. 
Try  It  ia  Your  Eyes  and  in  Baby's  Eyes  for 
Scaly  Eyelids  and  Granulation 

Indiana  Division. 

Still  we  hear  about  "reducing  corre- 
spondence." Let  the  good  work  go  on! 

Business  on  the  Indianapolis  District 
continues  to  increase,  the  movement  of 
joth  manifest  and  dead  freight  being  heavy, 
ind  a  great  deal  of  fruit  moving. 

941  class  engines  have  been  assigned  to 
Mattoon  District. 

A  special  train  consisting  of  twelve  cars, 
:arrying  the  Peoria  Boosters,  on  May  18th, 
irrived  at  Mattoon  from  Centralia.  They 
remained  in  Mattoon  during  the  noon  hour, 
ind  were  addressed  by  Mayor  Bell.  Pedes- 
rians  who  happened  to  be  down  town  at 
hat  time  were  favored  with  various  ar- 
icles  "boosting"  Peoria,  and  many  mindJ 
vere  made  up  to  visit  this  beautiful  city 
it  the  first  opportunity.  The  train  left  for 
Deoria  at  1:00  p.  m.,  accompanied  by  Train 
faster  Boatner  and  Traveling  Engineer 
Danver. 

Mr.  L.  P.  Streeter,  Air  Brake  Engineer, 
>f  Chicago,  visited  the  Division  Offices  a 
ew  hours  recently. 

Miss  Rea  Willis,  former  stenogranher  in 
he  Road  Department,  has  accepted  a  po- 
sition with  the  Central  Illinois  Public 
Service  Company.  Miss  Edith  Riggs  has 
aken  Miss  Willis'  place. 

Earl_  Brown  of  the  Accounting  Depart- 
nent  is  on  a  leave  of  absence,  due  to  ill 
lealth. 

:    Ed  Knight.  Accountant,  is  contemplating 
'another"   fishing  trip. 

Mr.  C.  C.  Powers,  General  Car  Fore- 
man, Mattoon  Shops,  has  been  absent  from 
luty  on  account  of  illness. 


StifeTs 

Indigo  Cloth 

Standard  for  over  75  years. 

I  OVERALLS 
JUMPERS  8c 
UNIFORMS 


It  began  its  existence  at  the 
same  time  and  has  kept  pace 
with  railroad  advancement  from 
past  to  present. 

STIFEL'S  INDIGO,  the 
cloth   invincible,  is   the 
typical    railroad    man's 
garment  cloth. 

Look  for  the  label 
on  the 


back 


REGISTERED 

cloth  on  the  inside  of 
the  garment.  It's  your 
guarantee  of  the 
genuine. 

CLOTH  MANUFACTURED  BY 

J.  L.  STIFEL  &  SONS 

INDIGO  DYERS  &  PRINTERS 
WHEELING,  WEST  VIRGINIA 

NEW  YORK, 

260-262  Church  Street 
PHILADELPHIA. 

324  Market  Street 
BOSTON,  -  31  Bedford  Street 
CHICAGO, 

223  W.  Jackson  Blvd. 
SAN  FRANCISCO, 

Postal  Telegraph  BIdg. 
ST.  JOSEPH,  MO., 

Sax  ton  Bank  Bide. 
BALTIMORE,  -  Coca  Cola  BIdg. 
ST.  LOUIS,  -  928  Victoria  BIdg. 
ST.  PAUL,  -  238  Endicott  BIdg. 
TORONTO,  14  Manchester  BIdg. 
WINNIPEG, 


has  a  history  parallel  with 
American  Railroads. 


MONTREAL 

Room  500,  489  St.  Paul  St. 


100 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


Mr.  F.  Crockett,  Clerk  to  General  Fore- 
man, Indianapolis,  has  been  given  a  tem- 
porary leave  of  absence  account  of  ill 
health.  Mr.  Crockett  is  being  relieved  by 
W.  L.  Stephenson,  Assistant  Accountant 
in  Master  Mechanic  Bell's  office,  Mr.  M. 
L.  Boulware,  Time  Keeper  in  Mr.  Bell's 
office,  acting  as  Assistant  Accountant.  Mr. 
L.  Jobe  transferred  as  Clerk  and  Time 
Keeper  from  General  Car  Foreman's  office 
to  Time  Keeper  in  Master  Mechanic's  of- 
fice. Mr.  N.  Parks  has  been  employed  to 
fill  vacancy  in  General  Car  Foreman's  office 
as  Clerk  and  Time  Keeper. 

Mr.  J.  L.  Warren,  Piece  Work  Checker 
at  Mattoon  Shops,  was  recently  sent  to 
pur  new  hospital  at  Chicago  on  account  of 
infection  of  iris  of  right  eye.  Reports  from 
the  attending  physician  indicate  he  is  get- 
ting alone  nicely  but  probably  will  be  ab- 
sent from  duty  three  or  four  weeks. 


Memphis  Division 
ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  BASEBALL 

LEAGUE 

Welcome  to  Everybody 
Here's  to  the  season  of  1916  which  we  will 
endeavor  to  make  the  best  ever. 

You  see  we  have  a  few  nice  comfortable 
high-backed  seats — which  are  free  to  any- 
one— more  especially  the  ladies — and  we 
hope  to  have  a  large  number  of  the  fair  fans 
at  all  our  games.  We  promise  that  all  games 


will  be  conducted  in  a  clean  and  sportsman- 
like manner  so  they  will  be. enjoyed  by  all. 

Next  Saturday  we  will  have  a  large  bleach- 
er stand  to  accommodate  a  large  number, 
and  will  have  cold  drinks,  peanuts,  cracker- 
jack  and  cigars.  Everybody  come. 

Seats  all  free,  but  as  we  have  gone  to  con- 
siderable expense,  any  contribution  will  be 
greatly  appreciated.  However,  if  you  do  not 
feel  like  contributing  it  is  all  right — you  are 
just  as  welcome  as  can  be. 

FIRST  GAME 


Mechanical  Dept. 

Kleinman  3b 

Townsend ss 

Hyde    cf 

Wells  2b 

McAlexander c 

Phillips    rf 

Lemm  Ib 

Owens  p 

Harrison    .  ....If 


Local  Office. 

Kelley If 

Regan rf 

L.  Brady ss 

Bensinger    cf 

Rutherford    Ib 

R.  Brady 2b 

O'Callaghan    3b 

G.  Taylor c 

Long  p 


SECOND  GAME 

Supt.'s  Office.  Gen'l.  Frt.  Office. 

O'Brien 2b     McKinney    ss 

Crutchfield  cf     Scott    2b 

Wilmot  ss     Spelger  p 

Cannot   3b     Hovey  Ib 

Ruby  If     Moore    If 

Humason  Ib     Vance    cf 

Trotter   c     Ramsey 3b 

Concklin  rf     Atkins rf 

Cissel    p     Hanson  c 


•The  Watch  That's  Guaranteed  to 
Pass  Inspection  for  Five  Years! 


However  close  your  time  limits,  we  guarantee  the  South 
Bend  Railroad  Watch  to  meet  them.  Further  still,  we 
guarantee  the  South  Bend  Railroad  Watch  to  meet  any 
changes  in  time  requirements  of  either  your  present  road 
or  any  road  to  which  you  may  transfer  within  five  years. 

It  is  the  only  watch  so  guaranteed! 

You  can  tell  South  Bend  Watches  at  jewelers'  and  inspec- 
tors' by  the  identifying  bands  of  Purple  Ribbon. 

Interesting,  illustrated  watch  book  gladly  mailed  on  request. 


South  Rend  \Vatches 


MOVEMENTS  ONLY 

16  Size— 17  J.— Spos.     $28.00 


South  Bend 

Raihvad  Watch 


Fitted  to  your  own  case 
if  desired. 


SOUTH  BEND  WATCH  COMPANY 

375  Studebaker  St.,    South  Bend.  Ind. 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


101 


Vicksburg  Division 

Mr.  T.  L.  Dubbs,  superintendent, 
and  Mr.  J.  W.  Welling,  roadmaster. 
attended  expense  meeting  held  at  Chi- 
cago, May  23,  1916. 

Conductor  S.  F.  Witherspoon  has 
just  returned  from  a  trip  to  Hot 
Springs,  Ark.,  and  reports  having  a 
good  time. 

Mr.  M.  P.  Massey,  wife  and  little 
daughter,  Juanita,  spent  Saturday  and 
Sunday,  May  20  and  21,  with  home- 
folks  at  Eupora,  Miss. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Hayles,  clerk  in  Green- 
ville freight  office,  is  relieving  regular 
agent,  Mrs.  M.  Scarbrough,  at  Green 
Grove,  for  a  few  days. 

Effective  Saturday,  May  13,  and 
continuing  each  Saturday  morning 
thereafter,  there  will  be  held  in  Super- 
intendent's private  office  a  Staff  Meet- 
ing for  the  purpose  of  discussing  mat- 
ters for  the  good  of  the  service,  especial 
attention  to  be  given  relative  to  hand- 
ling correspondence.  At  the  meetings 
already  held  much  interest  was  mani- 
fested and  it  is  felt  that  much  good 
will  be  derived  from  these  meetings. 

Mr.  L.  W.  Olin,  tonnage  clerk,  and 
Mr.  B.  F.  Simmons,  assistant  account- 
ant, made  a  pleasure  trip  to  Memphis 
the  first  part  of  May  and  report  hav- 
ing a  good  time. 

Mrs.  Annie  Davis  has  returned  to 
her  old  post  of  duty,  "Agent,  Holly 
Knowe,  Miss.,"  after  a  month's  ab- 
sence, which  time  was  spent  working 
as  agent  at  Charter  Grove,  111. 

Mr.  Wright  Chenault,  assistant  ac- 
countant, and  Mr.  Oliver  Crandall, 
trainmaster's  clerk,  took  in  the  May 
festival  at  Vicksburg,  May  13-14,  and 
both  report  having  a  lovely  time. 

Mr.  S.  Simmons,  chief  clerk  to  super- 
intendent, made  a  trip  to  Brownsville, 
Term.,  May  21-22,  to  return  home  with 
his  wife,  who  has  been  spending  sev- 
eral days  at  Brownsville  with  her 
parents  and  friends. 

Effective  April  18,  Mr.  N.  T.  Buck 
was  appointed  timekeeper  in  the 
Superintendent's  office,  vice  Mr.  John 
'  W.  Gray,  transferred  to  the  Memphis 
Division  as  instrumentman.  Mr.  Buck 
was  relieved  as  baggagemaster,  Green- 


ville ticket  office,  by  Mr.  S.  P.  O'Ban- 
non. 

Mr.  K.  H.  Siecke  has  been  appointed 
chainman  on  the  Vicksburg  Division, 
effective  May  13,  vice  Mr.  J.  K.  Rose, 
promoted  to  position  as  rodman  with 
headquarters  at  Freeport,  111. 

Greenville  has  added  a  "White 
Way"  to  the  beauty  of  the  city,  which 
makes  it  much  more  attractive  to  visit- 
ors as  well  as  to  its  citizenship. 


Tobacco  Habit 


Easily  Stopped 


Mr.  S.  D.  Lent,  a  railroad  man,  was  an  in- 
veterate smoker  for  30  years.  He  used  the 
strongest  tobacco  obtainable.  After  arising  he 
says  he  would  light  a  pipe  and  keep  it  hot  for 
the  rest  of  the  day  with  the  exception  of  meal 
times.  Often  he  would  get  up  in  the  middle  of 
the  night.  The  habit  was  doing  him  great  in- 
jury. He  got  a  certain  book,  the  information 
in  which  he  followed  and  thereby  freed  him- 
self from  the  habit  quickly  and  easily.  Anyone 
who  uses  cigars,  cigarettes,  pipe,  snuff  or  chew- 
ing tobacco  excessively  and  who  knows  the  in- 
jury being  done  through  nervousness,  heart 
weakening,  kidney  disorder,  eye  weakness,  im- 
paired memory,  loss  of  vitality,  etc.,  should 
write  to  Edward  J.  Woods,  189  S,  Station  E, 
New  York  City,  and  get  the  very  interesting 
free  book  that  will  be  sent  promptly  upon  ap- 
plication. 


THOMAS 

Rail  Anchor  Tie  Plate 

Two  Devices  Combined  In  One.       Efficient,  Eco- 
nomical, Reasonable  in  Price 
Manufactured  for  all  sections  of  rail  by  the 

CHICAGO  MALLEABLE  CASTINGS  CO. 

Refined  Malleable  Iron  Castings  and  the  "Thomas 
Track  Specialties" 

West  Pullman  Station  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


102 


1UJXOIS    CENTRAL   MAGAZINE 


TICKETS,  PLEASE 

A    cold    fact    is    quite   often    ci   "hot 
box." 

A  flat  wheel  is  always  known  by  its 
turn. 

Railroad  "frogs"  never  croak. 

Engineers  nearly  always  get  a  run 
for  their  money. 

It  takes  a  man  with  a  "punch"  to  be 
a*  conductor. 

A  third-class  ticket  is  good  to  a 
first-class  place. 

Pity  the  baggageman.  He  has  to 
wrestle  with  the  "grip"  the  year  round. 

What  better  moving  picture  do  you 
want  than  can  be  seen  from  the  coach 
window  ? 


Engineers  are  always  looking  for 
something  they  hope  they  won't  find- 
obstructions  on  the  track. 

A  claim  for  damages  is  not  always 
a  claim  for  justice. 

If  a  man  had  to  pay  to  travel  in 
proportion  to  what  it  cost  to  haul  him 
—oh,  Lord! 

It's  just  as  well  not  to  repeat  what 
the  man  said  who  got  up  at  1  o'clock 
on  a  cold  morning  and  hurried  to  the 
station,  only  to  '  find  the  train  just 
gone. 

Railroads  are  like  an  endless  chain; 
every  link  must  work  smoothly. 

Some  people  like  to  discuss  rail- 
roads, while  others  like  to  cuss  'em. 


flfcorfcen  SWQ  ant>  Crossing 


SPECIAL  WORK  /or 


ELECTRIC  ROADS 


OPEN  HEARTH-BESSEMER  and  MANGANESE 


Office 
Chicago 


United  Supply  &Manuf  actnring  Co. 

Railway  Exchange 
Chicago 

Wool  and  Cotton  Wiping  and  Packing  Wa.te 
Nut.,  BolU,  Rivets.  Spike* 

Axle* 
American  Rail  Loader 


LEYDEN-ORTSEIFEN  COMPANY 


THOMAS  F.  H.  LEYDEH 
President 


ADOLPH  J.  ORTSEIFEN 
Sec'y  &  Treas. 


BUILDING  CONSTRUCTION 

RAILROAD  BUILDINGS       WAREHOUSES 

INDUSTRIAL  PLANTS    HEAVY  MASONRY 

Telephone  Harrison  3436 

MONADNOCK  BUILDING 
CHICAGO,  ILL. 


B  u  n  ni 
Special 

Adjusted  to 

6 

Positions 


Dial  up 
Dial  down 
Pendant  up 
Pendant  left 
Pendant  right 
Pendant  dowt, 
as  shown  in 
illustration 


Is  Your  Watch  Adjusted  to 

Six  Positions? 

Most  railroad  watches  are  adjusted  to  only  fiv< 
positions  but  owing  to  their  superior  qualitj 
the  famous 


Sangamo 
Special 

Adjusted  to 

6 

Positions 


Dial  up 
Dial  down 
Pendant  up 
Pendant  left 
Pendant  right 
Pendant  down, 
as  shown  in 
illustration 


"Sangamo  Special 
and  "Bunn  Special" 

Railroad  Watches  are  adjusted  to  six  posi 
tions.  Ask  your  jeweler  about  these  supero 
watches.  Descriptive  folder  sent  on  request 

Illinois  Watch  Company 

Springfield