Functions of general counsel, and those of general attorney--A shrewd legal mind's worth to a railroad--The function of the claim-agent--Men and women who feign injury--The secret service as an aid to the claim-agent--Wages of employees the greatest of a railroad's expenditures--The pay-car--The comptroller or auditor--Division of the income from through tickets--Claims for lost or damaged freight--Purchasing-agent and store-keeper.
His duty to keep employees in harmonious actions--"The superintendent deals with men; the general manager with superintendents"--"The general manager is really king"--Cases in which his power is almost despotic--He must know men.
His headship of the transportation organism--His manner of dealing with an offended shipper--His manner with commuters--His manner with a spiteful "kicker"--A dishonest conductor who had a "pull"--A system of demerits for employees--Dealing with drunkards--With selfish and covetous men.
Authority of the chief clerk and that of the assistant superintendent--Responsibilities of engineers, firemen, master mechanic, train-master, train-despatcher--Arranging the time-table--Fundamental rules of operation--Signals--Selecting engine and cars for a train--Clerical work of conductors--A trip with the conductor--The despatcher's authority--Signals along the line--Maintenance of way--Superintendent of bridges and buildings--Road-master--Section boss.
Men who run the trains must have brain as well as muscle--Their training--From farmer's boy to engineer--The brakeman's dangerous work--Baggagemen and mail clerks--Hand-switchmen--The multifarious duties of country station-agents.
The wrecking train and its supplies--Floods dammed by an embankment--Right of way always given to the wrecking-train-- Expeditious work in repairing the track--Collapse of the roof of a tunnel--Telegraph crippled by storms--Winter storms the severest test--Trains in quick succession help to keep the line open in snowstorms--The rotary plough.
He has to keep the road advertised--Must be an after-dinner orator, and many-sided--His geniality, urbanity, courtesy-- Excessive rivalry for passenger traffic--Increasing luxury in Pullman cars--Many printed forms of tickets, etc.