Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/134

 118 nearest station along the road rather than journey all the way to College Point shops for it as had been the custom. He also did not hesitate to post an order directing all employees who were behind in their rent to their landladies to pay up or be fired! The ability to combine discipline with tact was a sorely needed quality in those halcyon days of railroading; numbers of the men were attracting unfavorable attention to themselves and to the company for getting arrested for drinking and brawling, and on at least one occasion the passengers were scandalized to find their engineer and brakeman sitting on the track drunk, the run being made perforce by the fireman. When the engineer was coaxed aboard, he pulled the throttle full open, and the locomotive dashed at full speed down the track, with the passengers white with terror in their seats. After Barton became superintendent, these abuses ended at oneconce [sic].

The road suffered a real loss in February 1876 when Barton resigned. At the inquest on the South Side R.R. accident of July 1875, the Poppenhusens felt that Barton had given testimony in court damaging to the company and strained relations resulted. Barton was too good a man to continue working under a cloud, and he tendered his resignation as of March 1, 1876, a resignation which the directors in their foolish pride accepted. The post went to an obscure man from the Pennsylvania Railroad, John Fisk.

It is fitting in closing to honor the memory of four humble conductors of the North Shore and Central roads, Messrs. H. A. Hurlbut, Calvin Curtis, Cheshire, and G. W. Whidden, mentioned often in the Island press of the day for their popularity among the men commuters and their gallantry to the fair sex.