return to her former home in Portland, Ore., for a time. After but a few weeks, Bro. Webber received a telegram stating that Mrs. Webber was very low, and he departed for Portland immediately, but before reaching there he received another message, announcing the death of his noble young wife. Mrs. Webber had many friends, all of whom join in their sympathies for the bereaved husband, mother, father, brother and two sisters who survive her.

From 104.-(MEMBER, Saxton, Pa.) I will write of that which is on the H. & T. R. R. There are about sixteen B. of L. F. men here, most of them belonging to Lodge No. 104. The members who live in Saxton have a very poor chance to attend lodge meetings. So we don't get to lodge very often.

Bro. Sam McCahan and Bro. J. W. Grimes have been promoted. Bro. McCahan was promoted some time ago, Bro. Grimes very recently. We hope that they may do honor to their new positions.

At last the wave of prosperity has reached this out-of-the-way place and we are making about full time. This road is receiving 500 forty-ton cars, making something over 3,000 freight cars for the H. & B. T. R. R. The shops of this road are located here, and this road is at present completing one of the finest round houses in southwestern Pennsylvania. It is semi-circular in form, with twenty stalls or tracks for engines, and is built of rough cut stone and has iron rafters supported on inner circle by iron columns, with slate roof and fitted with pancoast ventilators. They also have in course of construction a coal wharf and oil house. These improvements are of great benefit to the company and help to beautify the town.

Last New Year's day the engineers and firemen met and discussed the advisability of asking our general manager for hostlers to take our engines at coal wharf. A committee of three was appointed to get signatures of engineers and firemen, also a committee of three to take said paper to General Manager Gage, asking for hostlers.

Mr. Gage promised to attend to it at once and did put in one assistant hostler, and at

night the hostlers take engines when we are not in more than six hours for rest. The reason why we did not get them as promised is not yet known. I for one hope to see the time when we can leave our engines at the coal wharf and go home without staying from one-half hour to two hours getting our engine away.

The Brotherhood men here need something in the way of an instructor. Some one who will stir them up and make them realize that they are B. of L. F. men and are under obligations to one another. We don't think before we act. We say harsh things of one another regardless of who it hurts. "Brothers, be brotherly."

From 286.-(S. T. PHILI IPS, Saginaw, E. S., Mich.) We wish to express through the columns of the MAGAZINE our thanks to

First Vice Grand Master Bro. Hannahan for his recent visit and for the interesting and valuable talk he gave to us upon that occasion. Our lodge is in a flourishing condition and gaining in membership at a very satisfactory rate.

From 284.-(F. F. Clark, New Haven, Conn.) A few weeks ago our lodge was called upon to pay its last respects to a worthy and promising member, Bro. B. N. Chatfield, who joined our lodge four months before his death. When he became a member he was an exceptionally healthy man and was sick only ten days with typhoid fever. Bro. Chatfield leaves a wife and two children, one only a few months old. His body was taken to Seymour, Conn. Mrs. Chatfield and family have the sympathy of every member of Elm City Lodge.

See what she has gained by Bro. Chatfield joining our Brotherhood. He paid in just sixteen dollars and his widow has received fifteen hundred dollars! Just think of it, non-Brotherhood men! See the chances you are taking by not coming into our Brotherhood.

Bro. J. E. Hunt acted as master of ceremonies. The pall-bearers were Bros. J. E. Hunt, J, F. Farrell, F. F. Clark, H. Holmes, A. McIntosh and C. A. Moody.

Times.

On December 21, 1899, Too Good the Interstate Commerce Commission granted another extension of time in which railway companies may comply with the requirements of the safety appliance laws. The following is taken from the official report of the Commission:

The carriers base their claim to further re

lief mainly upon two grounds: First, that they have acted in good faith, having made

satisfactory progress in the equipment of their cars and all the progress that, under the circumstances, could have been reasonably expected; second, that to refuse to extend the time, and to put this law into effect on January 1st, would result in withdrawing from interstate traffic a large number of freight cars, to the great hardship both of the railways, which would thereby be compelled to refuse the traffic, and of the shipping public, which would thereby be denied the necessary facilities for the moving of its traffic. It was also urged that the necessary material could not be obtained, and that the roads could not get possession of their cars for the purpose of equipping them in less than one year.

We are satisfied that the first claim of the railways is, in the main, well founded. We do not think that any company, upon the showing made before us, would have found it absolutely impossible to complete its equipment by January 1, 1900. Two years

ago the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, out of almost 21,000 cars, had only 4,000 equipped. On December 1, 1899, that company had completed its equipment. The same thing is true, in a somewhat less degree, of several other companies. If these companies have equipped practically all their cars in two years we cannot presume, in the absence of some positive showing, that other companies might not have done equally well; but still, on the whole, especially in view of the difficulty of

withdrawing freight cars from service for the last year, and of obtaining the necessary material during the last six months, we are disposed to find that satisfactory progress has, as a rule, been made. This is not unimust be dealt with as an entirety, it is versally true, but, inasmuch as this situation hardly worth while to discuss individual in

stances.

The second position of the carriers is also, in the main, well taken, although it presents something of an anomaly. Two years ago the excuse for not having completed their equipment was too little business; now the excuse is too much business. Then it was the financial depression of 1893 and the years following which had rendered it impossible for them to obtain the money with which to make the changes, Today it is the abundance of traffic which renders it impossible to withdraw from service their cars for the purpose of receiving the equipment. All this is, however, substantially true.

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