There can be no explanation as
to why Pat forgot the special. It is one of those things that happen;
that's all.
The rule of seniority was followed in the office, and in the natural
sequence of events the night man got my job, I was promoted to the third
trick--from twelve midnight until eight A. M.--and a new copy operator
was brought in from Vining.
If any trick is easier than another it is the third, but none of them
are by any means sinecures. When I was a copy operator I used to imagine
it was an easy thing to sit over on the other side of the table and give
orders, "jack up" operators, conductors and engineers, and incidentally
haul some men over the coals every time I had to call them a few
minutes; but when I reached the summit of an operator's ambition, and
was assigned to a trick I found things very different. Copying with no
responsibility was dead easy; but despatching trains I found about the
stiffest job I had ever undertaken. I had to be on the alert with every
faculty and every minute during the eight hours I was on duty. While the
first and second trick men, have perhaps more train order work attached
to them, the third is about on a par with them as far as actual labor is
concerned, because, in addition to the regular train order work, a new
train sheet has to be opened every night at twelve o'clock, which
necessitates keeping two sheets until all the trains on the old one have
completed their runs.
Pages:
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373