The San Francisco call. [volume], March 30, 1913, Page 2, Image 2

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
Wife Helps Him Realize His Ambition When Chance Seems Slight.
WHEN I first entered the stockroom
of a wholesale house as a clerk
the three or four young men who
were working with me In the woolen
department were friendly. Several
times I went out with one or the other to
lunch. One of them tried to become chummy
and suggested that we go out to the theater
one Saturday night. I told him that my wife
had made different arrangements to spend
the evening and consequently I would have to
decline hi* Invitation.
At the word wife the man looked up at me In
amazement. I was only 22 and looked much
younger. None of them llpugiht I was mar
ried. Two of the clerks were in the 30s and
were still single. They were all getting a
bigger wage than I aad yet felt that they
could not afford to marry.
Little by little our relations chanced. They
no longer took me In their confidence. I
went out to lunch alone and kept pretty much
to myself in the store. Then gradually I
began to notice that there was more work'to
be done about the store than there had been
hitherto. It seems my associates had cod
"d the idea that I was a drudge, a fellow*
who lias been rut off from the world, as U
« ere, whose only interest in life was work. Ho
i hey began shirking their share of the work a
little and leaving it to me.
Associates Turn Against. Him.
I waited for some time hoping that they
would realize their injustice and would at
tend to their duties properly. But there was
no change. The longer I waited the more
.careless they became. They even at times
went to the extent of deliberately shoving
on work tv me and tellin* me to do it That
Now Going Forward to the Land
by Way of the Small Town Lot
L.M. JOHNSON.
FACED by three probJems—no salary In
crease, a steady ris« in living expenses,
and four remarkably healthy appetite*
u< pruvide for, I knew it was up to me
v do something.
1 was willing to hustle, but I didn't know
where to begin.
My wife and I had talked and talked, none
of which confabs threw any light on the
subject, until, In a fresh rehash, she said:
" If we only grew things."
From that minute we planned, instead of
Jaiked. We were paying for our six room
house, located on the fringe of a city of 50,
--000. A number of vacant lota w«re around
us; In fact, the three adjoining our to be
paid for on the installment plan domicile
were unsold. If you paid $25 down and 50
cents a week you—in time—owned a lot.
My brother-in-law's an accommodating
chap, so I went to him, outlined our plans,
and asked for the loan of $80 to pay on two
iots. Having faith in his sister's husband's
willingness to pay if he had time enough, he
dug up the fifty. I interviewed the real estate
men and the two lots next our home were
provisionally annexed. [They're (Umost ours
now, and the fifty's paid back to the trust
ing relative. When they're allpald out we've
other plan*—but that's, another story.
I described our needs in a letter to the
secretary of, agriculture and In return mail
came a library of specific directions on how
to make the city lot blossom as the rose.
It cost me $150 to have the lots and the
iand back of our house plowed and harrowed.
1 invested in a' hoe. a small rake, and atrow
el. Theee were for my wife's wielding, as
well as for my own, for we're partners in
everything.
Potatoes Chief Crop.
We had the lots fenced in with a cheap
jrrade of wire and along the sides we set out
raspberry and blackberry vines and goose
berry bushes. We also set out a fifteen *>'
twenty-five strawberry patch.
I am almost a crank on the fertilizer sub
ject and the more I work in my garden tn«
more my faith in it is juetified.
I had the man do deep plowing. We U
moet hed words on the subject, but as I was
paying him and stood by during the plowing:,.
I had my wey. A good job of harrowing
was also done. I nought a big sack of com
mercial fertilizer which I intended using !n
--acdiHon to the plowed in staible manure.
Each vegetable was allotted definite space
except, that among «n..e we interspersed
certain others. For Instance, between the
rows of corn we grew beans, lima and the
delicious yellow wax.
Man Who Starts Drinking at 40
Most Hopeless of AH, Says Boss.
ONEY FRED SWEET.
I h< ad when I see a fellow who is pa*t
40 starting to * light booze.' From my
experience I know that such a man ie going
io have a hard chance to ' com* back ' once
he starte down. A young , man maybta-Dle
■a throw off the effe-cts of the wild oats
:as sown, but a man past middle l>fe is
usually hopelete, according to my obeerva
«. once he gets into the habrt of being
odt with tht boya 'at nigiht.
"I A recall one man in my employ par
ticularly who, during the daye that he wu
L'llmbinc "P. led an exemplary life. He saved
money on an exceedingly email salary, was
devoted to hie family, and a worker in tne
church It wa* not until he was past 40, and
■was getting enough money so that he had a
Among Men Who Work with Hand or Brain
was the last straw and , h«ncea burst or anger
•nd remonstrance from me.
I regretted my Qutburst later. For from
that moment these clerks began working
asalnet me. They did not knock m< openly
to our superiors, but they kept on digging
at me silently. tried in every way to
create the impression that I did not amount
to anything and was a drag rather than a
help and was not worth my salt.
At flrst I thought of fighting it out, of show
ing the head of the department that I was
jiot-only doing my duty but was taking an
interest in the work and doing more than
some of my backbiter*-. But 1 soon lost my
nerve. It was no use. I baid to myeelf. In
trigue has a smooth tongue. 1 began to look
about for a Job One of the clerks
got wind of it »It came back to the bose and
I was discharged.
I came home that evening pretty much dis
couraged. We had $150 in the bank. But
that wats Mil. If I did not find work before
tl at money gave out we would be "up against
it." My father had not approved of my mar
riage and I could not bring myself to ask
him for hejp, though I knew he would gladly
give it.
* *
Love Had Changed His Plans.
I fell in love wKh Anne when I was a senior
In high school. Previous to that I had beefc
making all sorts of plans. I was going to go
to college and then a medical school, and then
go abroad to Vienna, where my father was
bom, to perfect myself in the hospitals there.
After I saw Anne my plans changed. I de
cided I would not have her wait until I
rounded out a career as a physician. Instead
Our main reliances were potatoes and to
matoes. H«!f our space was planted with
potatoes and during the winter month* when
the wholesale price was 72 cente and the re
tail 11.50 per bushel we feasted Upon tubers
and smiled when their high price was la
mentably or cuseedly told to us.
My wife planted tomato seed, and between
her efforts, a warm kitchen, and sunny win
dow ledges, the tomato plants received an
early start. We raised the Dwarf Champion
principally, for we desired a firm tomato
suitable for canning. All plants were staked
and the weaker buda picked off. Our crop
turned out satisfactorily. We had tU "w*
wished to eat and cared to can for winter
use and sold about $2 worth to neighbors.
We planted swe«t corn between the potato
rows, to ite«]f, and practically wherever
there was room for a sta.;k. We pjantcd two
weeks between plantings and as a conse
quence had sweet corn until frost.
Our crops were onions, radishes, ard Ut
tuce, fresh plantings giving us a tene*T
supply ail summer; cucumbers enough for
gome dill and sweet pickles; sweetcorn, fresn
during summer and early fall, and icme
canned for winter; peas, enough for sum
mer use [we canned none]; lima beans, fresh
throughout the summer, end about one and
cne-tialf gallons dried for winter; wax beans,
almost all eaten durinff summer except a
few made into a sort of bean relish. When
the potatoes were dug I refertili*«d and
planted turnips, enough to laat us all that
winter. We also grew a few beets,
* *
Crops Yield Good Income.
There were no strawberries the first year,
but a number of treats the second. This,
the fourth year, by constant cultivation and
malchlng, we reaped a bountiful harvest. Th*
blackberries, raspberries, and gooeebernes
are also paying their way*
My work is a character that the In
come remains practically stationary, but the
crops from the two and one-half lota by
constant fertilizing, thorough cultivation,
and ■•everlastingly" looking after Its whims,
are equivalent to a good income.
I have demonstrated that one does not have
to be on a farm to get results from the soil;
thet if-acity man with a willingness to work
after Tegultr hours, a wife— sireh as you and
I have—and a kiddie old enough to alelfl %
i.oe cr fingers agile enough to pick beans
gets down to and Intelligently lives with a
garden, that intensive living that takes every
seed into account and watches over it, giving
it every chance to produce results, he puts
up a winning fight against the high cost of
living problem in a way that makts the cor
ner grocer say—well, things he shouldn't.
sort of a foothold in the game of existence,
that he launched into what eventually bc
cfcme dittlpation. Gradually I noticed the
effect of -fUi drlnkinr and tlie morning re
rylt of h1« havlnf been out the night before.
" Things cinit finally to sm-h a pass that
I was obliged to call the man ' on the carpet.'
Hβ had been with me for years. In many
nays his work had been extraordinary. Our
interview ended by my offering him $I.C<X) if
he would leave drink absolutely alont lor
six montha. And this man who rad worked
for years and s-aved on a small salary early
in his career stayed ' on the wagon ' only a
month.
" After 40 a man is more or less in a rut.
His ways are easily fixed. He has not the
vitality of youth for throwing off a habit. I
•hake my head when I see a man of that age
start to ' h!t the pace.' "
Told to ANDREW B. ERDMANN.
I went to work the morning after I got my
diploma in the local bank.
I .worked in the bank a year and at the
end of that time was getting only $10 a week.
That did not seem like money to me, co I had
the banker writ* a letter of recommendation
and I left for Chicago. In Chicago I found
work in a bank at $15 a week. After having
been with the bank six weeks 1 wrote for
Anne to come and we got married. Six
months later a friend of mine suggested that
I try for a job in a wholesale hoese. He
knew there wae an opening there in the
woolen department, lie thoucht there w*a
much more chance for advancement there
than in the bank. He put In a few words for
' me with the proper person and I got the job.
And now I had lost it. I began looking for
a place with some other wholesale house. I
looked for days and days. There was noth
ing in sight.
* *
Wife Has « Plan.
A week pawed. Then another and a third.
But there was no job in sight. I was begin
ning to get ill. A spell of nervousness came
over me. I wondered if my father had not
been right—if I would not have done better by
waiting some time and accumulating money
before I got married. But it wae done The
question now was to find work—to find some
thing which would pay a sufficient wage
to keep up my little home.
Our savings had dwindled down to* 80. In
another three days rent would fall due. i
hardly touched any food that day. on the
way home I was thinking over the list of n.y
remotest acquaintances in the city. In the -.*-
--treme I thought I might appeal to some of
them for help. I was wondering what Ante
would say to this. I suspected that I wuuld
again find her in tears.
But I did not, Instead Arne greeted IB#*t
the door calmly, with even a shadow of a
smile.
" What has happened? " 1 asked rather per
plexed.
But Anne would not tell me. Instead she
made me go to the table and insisted that I
eat and not merely make a pffttßM at ra<
ing. When supper was over Anne blurted
opt what was on her mind.
" Ed," she said, " there is no use keeping
No Profit Sales Built Store;
Druggist Liked Postage Buyers.
T.W. SAMTER.
IF I were to tell why I succeeded in
business I would anew or. "Because I
learned how to sell poUage stamps"
That may sound ridiculous to lume, but
X is the real secret of what success I
have attained. The man who wishes to learn
the quickest way to become a millionaire
will not be interested in my simple story
because I am not a. millionaire and never will
be one. But I have a substantial bank ac
count, own my home, arid provide comfort
ably for a wife and three sons.
I em still the proprietor of the drug wore
where I learned to sell postage stamps, only
the store has grown to four times its former
size and has a branch in another part of
town.
When I was 15 I left eehool. I was inter
ested in chemicals then and obtained a po
sition a.s clerk in a drug store. It was a big
drug store and I waited on customers and
sold soap and patent medicines, but didn't
come near any chemicals. 1 kept the posi
tion until I was 19 and studied pharmacy
at nlgiht. At 10 I had saved MOQ. Tmn I de
cided to start in business Cor myself.
I looked all around for an opening and
finally found a vacant etore on a suitable
street. It was in the suburbs then, twenty
three years ago. I obtained credit from a
wholesale house. I had met the city sales
man during his visits to the store and he
made it possible for me to be ttutted with
a small stock. My $200 paid for the first
month's rent and a few simple fixtures. The
rest 1 bought "on time."
I had a thin partition built in the *tor#
and moved a cot and an old dre.««er back o-f
it. A curtain formed a closet. That was
where I lived for two years. T couldn't af
ford a clerk, so when I left the etore 1 had
to lock up. I wa»in that store iwt-nty-three
hour* a day sometimes, but I dsdn t mind it.
* »
Might Have Made Costly Mistake.
I opened my store without any announce
ment except a. modest sign in the window.
Advertising wasn't what it is today. I
waited for customers. For & while Iwn
half afraid I would spend my life ju«t wait
ing.
Then my postage stamp customers started
coming in. They didn't think that It was
necessary to purchase anything when they
bought stamps. At first these stamp cus
tomer* annoyed me. They never bought
anything, never even seemed to look around
at my modest stock of goods, In fact. They
Products of Inventors' Genius.
An international horticultural exposition
will be held In St. Petersburg in April.
Nevada procured six times as much lead
last year a* the year before, Us greatest
output in more than ten years.
Ineulated with specially prepared paper, an
electric cable carrying 10.000 volts was found
to be'in peffect condition after more than
twenty-three years' civice in England re
cently.
Approximately 81,942,000 barrels of Port
land cement were manufactured in the
United States last year, an increase over the
previous year's production of about 3,413,400
barrels.
Closely related to yeast, fungi discovered
up the flat just now. We are only v, asting
muney. And we have not much to w*aste. I
made inquiries today. We can store our fur
niture and take a furnished room fora time
until you find work or something turns up."
There was not much of an objection I could
make to this, so we took a furnished room.
Two or three days later I came home in
the afternoon. Anne was not in. She came
half an hour later and told me slie had a
place and would go to work n<fxt morning.
1 remonstrated, but she insisted.
At Last a Chance.
She had found such a place. It was in a
delicatessen store. They needed a girl there.
She just suited such a store, the owner of
the place thought, and he offered her *U a
week.
For six weeks longer I kept on pounding
the pavement, but it was all in vain. Then
one day I entered a business house where
I had been looking for work at least twenty
timc3- before. Tie manager gave me one
glance and told me to follow him Into the
next room. There he introduced me to an
other man. That man quizzed Rμ about my
experience. At the mention of the firm
where I had worked in the woolen depart
ment toe was pleased. He asked whether I
was married. I told him I was. He thought
an instant, and th«n said, rather apologet
ically, that $18 was all he could pay me at
the start. There would be advancement,
however. I grabbed the chance.
I wa«, of'OOOMM, for having Aniie give up
her job at onoe. But she would not listen
to it. Now thst 1 had a good Job! »he said,
was just the time for her to stick to that
delicatessen place. She wa« sure the boss
WOUtd her another dollar a week. With
mystlf and her working we could save up con
siderable money in a year's- time, and then
we would see what we could do
A year passed. With every day it jwinffl
to me that Anne was "becoming more econom
ical. Kit would buy our food !n the del
icatessen store, so that we did little cooking-
There were no gas bills to pay. Our bills were
smaller than ever. We saving Sls a
ftf-plt. When our bank hook showed a bal
anceof $SW> I suggested that she stop working
and we take out our furniture from storage
just bought stamps and left. I was polite
to them out of habit.
I almost made the greatest business error
of my life oneway when I decided to be a
bit cool to my numerous postage etamp
customers, When, Impossible as it seemed
at the time, on* of them bought a box of
tooth powder. It was one of the first sales
1 had made in my new store. The purchaser
was a little girl with pigtails. She was far
from being beautiful, but I wanted to kiss
her for her purchase. I didn't.
Gradually I got to know my postage stamp
customers. I would inquire about them
and tried to appear as interested in them
an I could. Th« little girl had awakened
a new train of thought. If she came in for
a postage stamp and then bought something
else, maybe the other* would, too.
I arranged my small show case* as neatly
as I knew how. 1 displayed advertised goods
even then, although then the lines were
fewer and not nearly so attractive. I fixed
up my windows with weekly bargains, ad
vertising some specialty and changing it
eech Bftturday morning. Gradually my
postHge stamp customer* became real cus
tomer*.
* ♦
Hardest Work He Ever Did.
I stayed alono in Mi* store until I was 21.
It was the hardest two years I have ever
spent, but at the end of that time I had paid
off all of my indebtedness, had a good stock,
*n& a little money in the bank.
Then I was married My wife was one of
thoae who had started a* a postage stamp
customer. Wβ took a four room flat in the
neighborhood and hired a young man clerk.
My wife helped me in the store on Saturday.
Moth she and the new clerk were instructed
how to treat postage stamp customers.
The gradual rise of my store is not inter
feting to the outilder. My trade grew be-
C*UM I kept up to date, carried advertised
goods, kept my etore clean, well arranged,
and attractive, and because I treated my
postage stamp; customers—and other cus
tomera, too, with all of the politeness of
which I was capable.
At the end of years the city
has grown bo that my store Is on a wide
awake business street. And my store is one
of the wide awake spots of the street. I
know hundred* of my customers by sight
and name. I believe they prefer dealing with
some one who takes a personal interest ia
them
in breweries by a Japanese aclentist have
been found to dye Bilk a beautiful rose color,
but to be harmless when u*td in the manu
facture of beer.
With one of 40,000 tons' capacity at Kiel
and a .Su.lM) ton one at Hamburg, Germany
claims to have the largest two drydocks in
the world.
The first motion picture thetter in which
two programs arc- exhibited at the same time
on separate screens has been opened in
Cleveland.
Sugar alone will sustain human life for a
considerable time.
A pound of dried apples contains as much
food value as four pounds of fresh fruit.
and start a little Home again. But Anne in
sisted we wait a little longer.
Launched in a New Business.
One day Anne came out with a plan that
we buy a delicatessen store. There was on*
for tale a few blocks from the place where
she was working. It was not in the best of
condition, but «he would work up a trade.
Khe knew the business She was even a
better cook by this time than her employer
she felt. I was of course taken aback at
first. But after considerable talking and
thinking it over I began to see that she was
right.
Two weeks leter we were installed in a
ltesl of our own ana , Anne was initiating me
into the stii:rtl< connected with (be prepara
tion of all sorts of meats and saiadt and other
delectable dishes.
I was getting used to the work and was
beginning 'to like it. We were getting up h
big trade.
One day Anne suggested that 1 put an
advertisement in the papers for a girl t<.
help out in a delicatessen store. I wondered
what she wanted help for, but she insisted
that I do as she said. We got a girl. Anne
began giving her instriu tions, and after two
weeks I had time hanging heavy on my
hands. I told Anne so.
"That is just what I have been planning
all along," Anne said smiling her happiest
Mnile. " But wait, we will put you to work
coon. There will be no idling for you."
I looked up at her, wondering what she
meant. But it soon became clear to me.
" There Is a straight line from here to the
university," Anne said, pointing to the
street. " I don't need you here except from
One Iron in the Fire Enough;
Concentration Brought Success.
DONALD SCOTT.
UT mmm |HKN I was a boy,"feays a whole
\ A / saler of general merchandise,
\#\# " I well remember a man fn our
■ ■ town who had a hand in a dozen
different businesses at the same
tJnie. 1 remember him because of hie failure.
"' II so happened that I was working for a
time as a bookkeeper in a coal office. That
man had not paid h!» coal bill foe the previous
) ear. Why he did not pay up was a mystery
to me, for I had always thought him to be
well off.
" I was given the task of collecting that
bill and, much to my surprise, was ottered
10 per crot if I succeeded in getting the en
tire amount before a certain date.
" Immediately 1 h«d visions of an easily
earned lit. but to this day that coal bill U
still unpaid, for the debtor ' pullrd g'takes '
and left town Just two days before the date
when he had faithfully promised to pay me.
" To the astoniehment I expressed my em
ployer replied that it was about what he ex
pected, that they should have known better
than to have trusted a man wfth so many
irons in the fire Hβ then mumbled some
thing about the folly of knowing a little
ebout everything,
" That incident bark there in the office
marked the beginning of my success. It set
m* to thinking, and the more I thought the
more important loomed Up the fact that I
must learn to do on* thing w<ll.
" But by far the biggest and most respected
business man in town, the man who seemed
to have the greatest influence, the man that
sernwei busiest and happiest, was Jeremiah
Sykfs, leading general merchant.
" His business appealed to me.
" Mr. Sykes promised to hire me the first
time he needed a man, which wai mighty
lndefliiM'e, for you know young men in small
towns have a way of hanging on to jobs for
dear life.
"Anyway, i made up my mind that I was
going to be a merchant. So I started to think
about retailing. I cultivated the eloee ac
quaintance of two of Sykes' clerks, and I
pumped them dry-with questions. Inei
dental!\ I learned that there .were no Im
mediate proepects of an opening at Sykes , .
" Therefore, in a short time 1 left my $8 a
Fine Record of Old Engineer.
MOVING the population of thirty town*
at & rate of speed from thirty to
sixty mllrs an hour, taking j aple
away from their homes and bringing
them back without injury to man,
woman, or child, Is the kind of a job a North
western engineer has just retired from after
sticking to it for fifty-seven years. Hβ be
gan with the first short line of the North
western when it was known as the Chicago
anfl Galena Union, and quits when it Is
UMMO milts long.
Dan Tuttle is the name of this engineer
who began working for the company five
years before the war. He quit long enough
to help in the war and then, went back to
his job.
Most of the service as engineer was per
formed on two Illinois lines, one of them
between Chicago and Freepo-rt and the other
between Chicago and Sterling. The trains
handled by Tuttle were fast between Chi
cago and West Chicago. He did businese
with all of the stations on both lines while
he was on one or the other, so that he car
ried the people of each town one way or the
other or both.
It is cafe to say that Dan Tuttle carried
every living soul in all the towns at one time
or another. Some of th*m he carried twice
a day, for they would come to the city with
him in the morning and go back home be
hind him in the evening. He has carried
at least three generations of the same fam
ilies, in some instances moral and in the long
about 4 o'clock in the afternoon on. Now
go ahead and study medicine. You shall be
the finest doctor in the city, and that trip
Ti hich your father planned for you to Vienna
thai! yet be made. It shall be made out of
the earnings of that delicatessen store, and
I shall accompany you.' ,
♦ *
Their Dreams Realized.
I wu too dazed to speak for the moment.
Many things which seemed strange before
now were clear to me. The dream which
I once cherished, but which I gladly gave
up for love of her, she, too, had cherished all
these years. She worked in silence and bore
thmgs pariently to bring that dream of mint
lo realisation.
Anne- was the happiest woman on earth
when a few wetVs later \ went out of t>.e
delicatessen store with a bundle of books
under my arm—a medical student, and not
en old at that. I nu only '24.
Ten years have passed sjnce that time. The
dc:i<atefcsen store not only paid my way
through college, but it built us the houM
mhere we now live and where I have my
office. Anne's dream and my dream have
been realised with one exception. I hay«
not yet taken that trip to Vienna. We trill
take it, honevfr, next summer.
My father and I have long been reconciled.
lie sometimes seems fonder of Anne than of
me. Anne, he tell* mft joshingly, looks more
like a child of his than I. She has more of
the grit and imagination rhat he looked for
in me. But then we don't quarrel over tffls.
The old man soon expects to move to town.
He is fascinated by the city. He 1» study
ing my machine and expects to take many a
spin along the boulevards with Anne and me
week Job at the coal office to take a position
at $5 the week in a etore at the county e*at.
" I believe that was a good move, for Sykee
had a way of being able to hold on to his
clerks—he might have kept me from getting
into business for myself until it would have
been too late to make much of a success.
" My new employer soon found me to be
hia hardest worker. I lived at the store,
and wu never nappy away from it. Within
three months I knew the stock in that store
almost as well as did my employer.
" My employer told me that he credited
his show windows with no email part of the
reason for his success. Forthwith I gave my
attention day and night to thinking about
that method of advertising. I read all that
I could find in trade Journals and special
books on the subject. Then I persuaded my
employer to let me try my hand as a trim
mer. I remember well that I worked all
night to get juit the effect I wanted on one
window display of dress goode.
•' That nights work gave me the regular
position as window trimmer with a ?2 salary
Increase. The man I had supplanted—no
man had a peivsion on any Job in this store
immediately got a better Job in a city store
I was mighty glad to hear it and managed
to keep up an acquaintance with that man
I visited him in the city and all the time I
was there I studied the big stores and
trammed my head full of ideas that might
be applied out at the little county seat store
whf-re I was working.
" Briefly, when I got back home, I began
to put into practice all thes« ideas, with the
result that after three year? of service in that
one store I became general manager at a sal
ary of $2000 a year, of which I saved $1,000
during each of three years.
" With $4,500 capital I started a email store
of my own—and the rest of course was com
paratively easy.
" Here Is the point to all this: Thousands
and thousands of men «ay. • O, if I could only
once get a start." ' I tell you it takes money
to make money, , and stj on.
" At lenst nlnety-nln© oyt of a hundred of
all such men could get together the necessary
starting capital if they would concentrate
on one thing. ,.
J. L. GRAFF.
run he has carried oth*r town* in the same
way, for there was a long time when the
train would etop at every etation between lv
terminals.
Tuttle is acquainted with not only thou
sand's of men, women, and children who
have seen his face framed in a cab window
so Ion?, but he knows almost every inch of
th« right of way by sound as well a« by
sight. Engineers «ro\v to accurately locate
their whereabouts in the densest fogs by
the rumble of the drivers over culverts and
bridges.
This man who has just been retired on a
pension has worked through the entire span
of railway improvements, from the time
when wood was burned in the furnace and
tallow candles illuminated the cars, and
from the day when the in the cab
had nothing to tfepend on' say* his keen
look ahead, and then on down to the modern
day when he is expected to pick all the
colors of the rainbow out of a myriad of
lights in a rallorad yard whether they be dis
placed at the end of a rail or high in a mate
of targets reaching clear aero-: i a right of
way.
It is almost incredible* that worklrg day
In and day out for over a half century a
human worker has handled such a job with-
out loss of life or even eerious accident, and
that's why Dan Tuttle !s proud of his record
and his employers have written his name
on its pension roll.