Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/328

514 The shop crews were reduced, and even those who were retained were put on short time.

A howl went up at once. It was impossible to get work done on engines and cars; breakdowns on the road became the rule instead of, as heretofore, the exception; conductors and engineers had to do most of the repairing when in the side track. The want of links and pins kept the train crews on the lookout for "iron." As brake-shoes were never renewed while a vestige remained, several wrecks were caused by inability to stop trains, any one of which cost the company more than all the brake-shoes used on the road in a year, and for once "no brakes" became, if not a valid, at least a reasonable excuse.

Cheap oil that would not lubricate cut our journals and crankpins, and, besides the time lost on the road, the cars and engines had to be laid up for want of shop men to repair them. Waste was no longer issued, so that the engines became coated with grease and dirt, making it next to impossible to detect a fracture in any of the parts. Under this reform administration the quality of the fuel became so depreciated that it was impossible to make time, the first result of which was that engineers and firemen were suspended, and the next, that business fell off, for people would neither ship their goods nor travel on a road where the service was so unreliable.

Within three months two engines were wrecked, and their engineers killed by broken parallel rods tearing up through the cabs, like huge iron flails, and flogging them to death. In the suit for damages brought by their widows,—as it was proved that the men had reported the necessity of having the brasses in those rods reduced for weeks, but there were no men to do it,—the company had to pay heavy damages. A broken driving-wheel tire ditched a passenger train—more damages.

Discontent was rampant; grumbling and cursing at the management became the order of the day. There was not a mile of safe track on the whole line. The wrecking train was hardly ever idle, and on more than one occasion it became necessary to send another train out to bring her in.

While we were laboring under these aggravating inconveniences, an order was posted on the bulletin board to the effect that, after the first of the next month, all employees receiving one dollar and a half per day, or over, would be cut ten per cent, until further notice. This included engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen. The men gathered in knots and discussed the cut; but as there appeared to be no prospect of their arriving at an understanding, Frank Manly, my friend and particular chum, and I adjourned to my room and drew up two notices, as follows:

These we printed with pen and ink, so as to make it impossible for any one to trace our handwriting; for, never having written anything of importance before, we had an exaggerated idea of our present undertaking. Then we had them posted, one on the round-house bulletin board and one on the conductor's bulletin board. But it proved hard enough to get the men to the meeting. The genuine railroader, although he would like exceedingly to possess the earth and the fulness thereof, is so everlastingly afraid of losing his job, that he submits to impositions that would cause a revolt in a Chinese laundry, contenting himself with damning the company in a low voice from behind the coal-pile or in the seclusion of his home, while a nod of recognition from the division superintendent, or the mention of his first name by the master mechanic, sets his heart to fluttering with ardent self-congratulations.

The meeting really accomplished nothing, and we held a second, and then a third, when a motion was finally passed to appoint a committee to wait on the president. I started in to nominate members for the committee. After I had nominated half a dozen unwilling candidates, an old fellow jumped up and bawled out: "Sa-ay! you've nominated about everybody in the room to serve on this committee, an' now, by gum, I nominate you." There was a roar of laughter at this, and as soon as it subsided, I turned to the chairman, and said. "I accept." This brought down the house. When the cheering was over I nominated the previous speaker, and amid