Prairieland Magazine from Fort Scott, Kansas • 18

16 The Prairieland Magazine WESTERN RAILROAD RAILWAY PROGRESS. Col. David P. Jones, President of the Bandera Flagstone Company, with headquarters at Fort Scott, Kansas, was the principal speaker at the November meeting of the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Railway Club, his subject being "Some of the underlying causes for the total destruction of the Spanish fleet at Santiago." Col. Jones is at the head of the Government Board of Construction of the St.

Louis World's Fair, and is a very popular naval officer. Monthly Review By Mark Pinkston. The February issue of the Locomotive Fireman's Magazine publishes a picture of the Joint Protective Board of the Frisco System. Two Fort Scott men, H. L.

Kells and W. W. Duke appear in the group. We Wb itb Trainmen of the "Big Four" system are asking an increase of pay which willgive conductors $3 andbrakemen f2 per 100 miles. It is claimed that this will complete the restoration of the scale previous to a cut several years ago, one-half of which had already been restored.

We We The Emperor of China now rides in his palace car and the "Fire as the chinaman first christened a train, is fast' becoming an accustomed sight to the celestial' eye. The Chinese royal family, however, is afraid of the locomotive and the car is drawn over the track by Eunichs. We Hi We An official circular states that, effective on Feqruary 1, Mr. W. Scott is hereby appointed superintendent of telegraph of the Choctaw Oklahoma Gulf, with office in depot building, Little Rock, and will have general supervision of, telegraph and telephone lines, electric lighting and signals.

We we We A bill introduced into the national Senate proposes to place on the retired list of the army, with the rank and pay of a major, General Longstreet, now United States commissioner of railroads. This will vacate a comfortable government position with little work and a good salery, for which there will doubtless be many applicants. We We Vfe There were 5057.45 miles of track laid in the United States last year. Track Was laid in 43 states and territories. Texas leads with 583.60 miles.

This mileage in total exceeds any former year, excepting 1890. Scarcity of labor and inability of mills to get out steel more promptly kept last year's figures considerably lower than they otherwise would have been. we we By an agreement between officials of the Lakeshore Michigan Southern and a committee of the Brotherhood of Lo comotive Engineers, the pay of freight enginemen on that road has been raised from $3.80 to $4 per 100 miles or less; of way freight enginemen from $3.80 to of switch enginemen from 26 cents to 29 cents an hour. The pay of passenger enginemen remains $3 50, We We We He wanted an annual. During the recent drouth a rural ite through whoe land a small stream of water flowed, agreed with a western railroad company to allow that company use of the water.

In return he received a trip pass now and then. He grew tired, however, of calling and making requests for trip passes and finally one day called on the superintendent and asked for an annual pass "good for a week." Of course he got it. We We We Among the numerous decisions handed down by the Texas Railroad Commission jn a single iy last week was one abrogating the long-time rule which allowed passenger trains to wait 30 minutes at junction ints for connecting trains, and compelling the operation of trains on schedule time. The ruling may emphasize the authority possessed by the board, but its enforcement will apparently be a great disadvantage to many travelers without corresponding benefit to others. The use of oil as fuel on the Santa Fe in Texas has been in vogue for some time and is now pronounced a success The work of a fireman, so far as actual manual labor is concerned ts considerably lessened, but he must be more alert and watchful if anything than if coal were used.

As the oil is sprayed, the axtomizer must be kept in such condition that the proper pressure can at all times be secured. Also too much black smoke is not a good thing as it is a waster of oil. The flues must be kept well sanded to avoid the accumulating of grease. The use of oil is no doubt on the increase We Hi' Hie A new building of the Young Men's Christian Associa tion, at the Buffalo Creek yards of the Buffalo Rochester Pittsburg road, was opened last week with appropriate exercises, participated in by A. E.

Hedstrom, chairman of the board of directors of the B. R. J. F. Dunkey, treasurer and auditor; Mr.

George E. Merchant, general superintendent and others. The company appropriated $2,500 toward the construction of the building and the rest of the cost was raised by subscriptions from 115 of the employes. The building contains a social room, bathroom, restaurant and offices on the first floor and 14 sleeping rooms above. The Y.

M. C. A. now has eight departments on the various Buffalo roads. We We All honor to the locomotive engineer and fireman who bravely and without praise carry probably a million people safely through hazardous places daily.

Thesemen havegreater responsibilities than the operators of good business houses yet so worthy as a class are they that we trust them implicitly with our lives. The editor of this magazine expects to publish in the near future an interesting article from the pen of the wife of a well known locomotive engineer, giving the unexpected and startling experiences of her husband while on duty during a shord period of time, and what happened him is a part of the strenuous life of the average railroad man. We We We Beginning on February 2 the Chicago Northwestern will put into effect changes in the matter of signals, which will lead gradually to the introduction of the standard code in phice of the special cde under which- the line has theretofore been operated. The first order issued by Kobert Aishton, general superintendent, is as follows: "Effective on Sunday Febru ary 2, 1902, at 12 o'clock noon, rule 65 of book of rules and regulations, governing employes of the operating department, will be cancelled. Upon the above date white signals were substituted for.

green signals, as provided by rule 66, and when white signals are displayed upon anengineit will be understood by all concerned that the train displaying such signals is a special train." Colors of signals will be changed one at a time, and it is expected that the entire change will be effected in two or three months..