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THE COURIER
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Here is the woman who Is suing
Uusseil Sase for $73,000. The case
lias not yet gone to court The wo
man's name is Isahelle D'Ajuria,
anil she claims the title of mar
chioness. Her antecedents are
shrouded in much mystery. She is
said to be a. miniature painter of
considerable note, and many well
known society leaders here and
abroad have sat for her. The ill
treatment of which she accuses
Uusseil Sage is alleged to have oc
curred eighteen years ago. The
aged millionaire denies all the allegations.
Behind the C(WC
Slow and arduous is the course these
days that leads to the post of locomo
tive engineer. Endless hours of hard
toil with an unflagging ambition to
make the goal alone will fructify the
hopes of the youth who pines to be
master of an engine.
Twelve years in all is about the re
quired time though there was a period
in the history of railroading when less
than half that many years was suf
ficient. Is the reward worth the ef
fort? It all depends on the man. A
halo of romance crowns the locomotive,
dirty and greasy as it is, and it is a
rare tchoolboy who has not nursed a
passion to one day be an engineer. If
it lives until he Is twenty-one years of
age his application for the place of a
beginner will be accepted. If there is
need for him at the time, which does
not appear to be the case very often,
the young aspirant is given a physical
examination, principally with regard
to his sight and hearing. If he passes,
the struggle that will certainly test
his ambition is soon begun.
There is no overpowering joy in the
task or wiping an engine, helping to
operate the turntable or acting in one
of many capacities of helper, but that
is the way he must set out. If it does
not cure him at once of his passion it
is pretty safe to say he will some day
be engineer all right. Perhaps after
three years of this work he will be
advanced to the task of tiring on a
switch engine. Things are growing a.
little more interesting and the pay
takes a jump from Jl.2.1 to $1.50. Kight
here he has st golden occasion to sup
plement the knowledge of an engine
that he obtained at wiping and on his
adeptness at this point depends a good
deal of his future. His readiness to
learn will not go unnoticed and the
more acute the interest he shows In his
work the shorter will be his probation
ary service. After a year or two of
this he may be advanced to assist the
hostler at the roundhouse. Here again
lie adds to his experience and after
some months he may be made engineer
on a switchman or fireman on a freight
run. And from there he goes In a
bound to his goal when his turn comes,
nrst on a frelgh'fengine then a branch
passenger and finally on a main line
passenger. At last he has come to the
exalted height and generally he can
look back on ten or twelve years' of
the hardest kind of work in the battle
for his prize.
Said a railroad man the other day:
"A whole lot of sentiment is wasted on
the men who ride their engines at the
head of a train, plunging through a
storm of rain or snow, risking life at
j every culvert or bridge. There is no
? great quantity of nerve or bravery in
any of them. Most of them begin their
work when comparatively young. From
riding switch engines they work in the
course of years out onto the main line.
By this time they have become used
to fast running and it is as much a
matter of course to them as is the
commonest work to anybody else. Sud
den death to them Is no more feared
than to the man who walks the thickly
populated streets every day in the
week." But the man who said so was
not an engineer. Asked If an engineer
ever suffered with nervousness, a man
who has been one for the Burlington
many years said, with a shrug, that
they are not supposed to have nerves.
There are times though when they
feel considerable anxiety and strange
to say it is not over danger but over
time. With a heavy train behind him
and orders to make a siding, for in
stance, where he must pass another
train of the same kind he is oftentimes
fretful lest he fail to be there on time
and cause the other train delay. These
occasions are only when the weather
or other conditions are such that fast
running is greatly hindered.
"Why is it that railroad men and par
ticularly engineers, are so generally
cranky? Is a question many times
asked. The answer is that engineers
are no more gruff than any other class
of people. It is simply an Illusion.
Though railroad men are not so often
known by name they are the most
prominent of public men and that is
why their characteristics are generally
more noticed. But why shouldn't an
engineer be cranky? He has spent a
good many years In the purchase of his
position and It Is one of sufficient re
sponsibility and worrlment to work
bad on most anybody's nerves. The
probability Is that none of the com
plainants but would growl as gutteral
as the sullenest engineer. If placed In
his position and bothered by as many
thimble-brain people.
The pains and pleasures of an en
gineer's life are fairly well balanced.
The most unpleasant feature of the
work is that he is never certain of his
hours. In fact he is not certain of his
leisure at all, for he may come in from
one run only to be dispatched on an
other. And there is no telling at what
hour of the night he will be called out
for a lonely ride with an engine across
the country. When such calls come In
wet or wintry weather, then it Is that
the engineer feels disposed to invoke
relief in good round oaths. Neverthe
less it is always warm in the cab and
when he gets started he feels a good
deal better. He loves his great steel
steed and when he feels it obey his
touch he rarely fails to feel some
gently thrilling touches of pleasure.
Night or day. if he pulls out of town
with the headlight glaring on the track
ahead, or if he leans out on his window
pad In the sunlight to watch the sun
flowers pass back under him, his met
tle is invariably up. Though his mind
be full of train orders, sidings and all
the mechanism of his engine and the
art necessary to utilize all the steam
the fireman can make for him he does
not make a trip without some feelings
of exhilaration. If there were no other
pleasure In the work there would re
main that of delight in the constant
change of scenery, a panorama of
houses, trees, hills, valleys, plains,
rivers and woods, and a daily variety
of faces. Though every foot of the
route be learned by heart the engineer
has this daily Interest in things, added
to the fine sensations of traveling
through space, in the lead and out of
the dust and smoke, at the greatest
speed known. There is not a little
pleasure in the consciousness that the
power at the bottom of all this is in
his own hands. The roar and lurch
and swing of the engine adds to the
spice of the ride.
Explosions or other accidents are
never feared. There is no possibility
of a boiler exploding If it is kept in
water. When the engineer lets the
water run down he puts himself in
danger and only then. The safety
valve is set to blow on at a certain
pressure. If It falls to work when the
guage indicates -the proper time the
door of the firebox is opened and what
ever else Is necessary to cool oft the
engine is resorted to. In that manner
the pressure Is regulated until the de
fect can be repaired. Some of the en
gineers say they never knew of a valve
and a guage to be out of order at the
same time.
It is a rare engineer who has not
figured in a wreck of some kind but
they say they felt none of the pains of
fear. One Burlington engineer told of
a time when he collided with the rear
end of a freight train. He was on a
night run and the air was so thick
with fog that a brakeman who stood
in the gangway with a lantern could
not see the whistling post when it was
passed. As the train neared the sta
tion it came suddenly into view of the
tail lights of a caboose, not more than
two rods ahead. "We're going into
her jump!" was the only cry of the
engineer to his brakeman and fireman,
and they leaped. Thrusting in the
throttle, setting the brakes and throw
ing on sand the engineer followed suit,
just at the crash. He remembered as
he jumped, striking the platform of the
station with his feet and then he knew
no more. When he awoke It was to
hear the piteous bellowing or cattle In
a car that had been turned upside
down at his side. So heartrending
were their moans that he heard them
for weeks afterwards in his dreams. As
for the sensation when he saw the
wreck could not be averted, he said he
hadn't the faintest thought that ills
time had come. Hs only Idea was to
do the best to stop the train and then
get off as quickly as possible.
Toiling away year after year the
hair of the engineer will soon be turn
ing white. He has had a second physi
cal examination before getting his posi
tion on ar. engine and he was in fine
condition but now his eyes are grow
ing somewhat dim and his hearing is
not quite what it used to be. His in
creasing infirmities are soon disclosed
In his work and then, faithful as he
has been, the company sees fit to de
prive him of his engine. Out of his
salary of from S100 to $110 a month
these many years he may have saved
himself enough for fairly comfortable
retirement. The chances are equal, how
ever, that he did not. But at any rate
the company will not turn him off cold
if he has been a faithful employe. It
never does and that is one of the
constant comforts or the railroad man.
He knows his job is sure so long as
he behaves himself and does his work
right and he knows that his money
is alw o's forthcoming. The safety of
the traveling public demands that the
weakening engineer be retired and into
some cosy nook where he is still on
the company payrolls he spends the
rest of his days.
Such is the fascination of railroad
work that once at it he can't abandon
It and feel at peace. One of the very
reasons why it takes so long for a man
to make himself an engineer is that his
predecessors are so deeply in love with
their work that they will not resign
and can hardly be killed ofT to make
way for the younger generations.
AMa
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qti--'-57 3
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Lace Curtain Sale
Beautiful Import Lace Curtains reduced 331 to 50 per cent.
All one only, two and three pairs of 'a kind; all
siignuy sonea uurcains at any price.
Point de Arabe
$23.00 Curtains, now $14.00
18.00 " " 12.75
15.00 " " 9.00
14.00 " " 8.00
12.50 " " 7.00
Imported
Brussels
Nets
$6.00 Brussels Net.s, now $3.35
9.00 " " 5.90
10.00 " " fi.50
12.00 7.50
16.50 " " .... 11.00
31.00 " " 19.50
Hundreds of other Curtains Notting
ham, Brussels Net, P't De Calis, Bob
binett, 75c to $35.00 per pair.
Irish Point
$5.00 Curtains, now $2.40
7.00 " 4.50
13.00 " 8.00
Bonne Femme
$13.00 Curtains, now $8.50
11.00 " " G.00
Cozy Corner Dens.
Oriental Work to Order.
Indian and Turkish Drapery.
Rugs and Oriental Furniture.
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