. The American railway; its construction, development, management, and appliances . erks—Efforts to Make the Railroad Mans Life Easier. jHE typical railroad man runs on the road; heis not the one whose urbane presence adorns themuch-heralded offices of the railroad companies onBroadway, where the gold letters on the front win-dow are each considerably larger than the elbow-room allowed the clerks inside ; nor, indeed, is he,generally speaking, the one with whom the public orthe publics drayman comes in contact when visitinga large city station to ship or receive freight. These and others,whose
. The American railway; its construction, development, management, and appliances . erks—Efforts to Make the Railroad Mans Life Easier. jHE typical railroad man runs on the road; heis not the one whose urbane presence adorns themuch-heralded offices of the railroad companies onBroadway, where the gold letters on the front win-dow are each considerably larger than the elbow-room allowed the clerks inside ; nor, indeed, is he,generally speaking, the one with whom the public orthe publics drayman comes in contact when visitinga large city station to ship or receive freight. These and others,whose part in the complex machinery of transportation is in a de-gree auxiliary, are indeed largely imbued with the esprit de corpswhich originates in the main body of workers ; but their duties aresuch that their interest is not especially lively. Even the menemployed at stations in villages and large towns acquire a shareof their railroad spirit at second hand, as life on a train is neces-sary to get the experience which embodies the true fascinationwhich so charms Young 384 THE EVERY-DAY LIFE OF RAILROAD MEN. The railroad mans home-life is not specially different fromother peoples. There have been Chesterfields among conduc-tors, and mechanical geniuses have grown up among the locomo-tive engineers, but these were products of an era now past. Sta-tion-men are a part of the communities where their duties placethem. Trainmen and their families occupy a modest thoughhighly respectable place in the society they live in. Trainmenwho live in a city generally receive the same pay that is given totheir brothers, doing the same work, whose homes are in thecountry. The families of the latter therefore enjoy purer air, les-sened expenses, and other advantages which are denied theformer. On most railroads the freight trainmen—engineers, conduc-tors, brakemen, and firemen—are the most numerous and promi-nent class, as the number of freight trains is generally larger thanthat o
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