conductors is that of the Bisbee Railroad, which has recently raised the salaries of the passenger conductors to $140 per month.

Announcement has been made of an increase in wages by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.

It is said that the wage proposition presented by the Erie Railroad Company to the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen for the Youngstown, Ohio, yards has been accepted by them.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad has advanced the pay of yardmasters on the entire system, the advances ranging from $5 to $15 per month.

size of engine. Among other concessions they are granted overtime for terminal and road delays.

An increase of about 8 per cent. in wages has been granted by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad to its engineers and firemen. The firemen hail with delight the abolition of the rule requiring them to clean the freight engines.

The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad has increased the wages of engineers and firemen about 10 per cent., and has relieved the firemen from cleaning pooled engines, or freight engines outside of the cab, and the blacking of front ends.

A general increase in salaries, averaging about 5 per cent., has been granted the trainmen on the Southern Railroad. Engine crews will receive from 2 to 8 per cent., and conductors and brakemen in a few cases as much as 10 per cent.

All employes of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad receiving less than $200 per month had their wages increased the first of the year.

A new schedule of pay is announced for the engineers of the Southern Pacific Railroad, effective January 1, 1903. Under the new schedule, two rates of pay are given to passenger engineers, $3.65 to $3.92 per hundred miles, according to the

The Chicago and Alton Railroad has announced an increase of pay to operators, agents and other employes, amounting to 10 per cent.

An increase of 7 per cent. has been added to the wages of the employes of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railroad, effective December 1, 1902.

The Jersey Central Railroad Company has announced a general advance of 10 per cent. in wages, dating from December 1, 1902.

Engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen, baggagemen and switchmen of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, as well as those on the Queen and Crescent System,

Firemen on the Boston and Albany division of the New York Central Railroad have been granted an advance in wages. The Ann Arbor Railroad Company has announced a general advance in wages, amounting to from 5 to 7 per cent., of all employes of the system.

A new schedule of wages was granted the engine and train crews of the Wabash Railroad, and applies to all men in those branches of the service, dating from December 1, 1902.

Railroad Accidents.-Exchanges report wrecks to have occurred recently as fol

lows:

The engine of the Stockton "Flyer" plowed into the rear of the "Owl" train at Byron, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, on the night of December 20, 1902, resulting in the injury of twenty-six persons and several deaths. The accident is said to have been caused by the "Owl" train stopping on account of a leaky flue, intending to pick up a freight engine to relieve them. The flagman's light was seen by the engineer of the following train and the brakes were applied, but for some reason it was impossible to stop the train in time to avoid the collision.

A passenger train on the Keokuk and Des Moines branch of the Rock Island, while entering Des Moines on the afternoon of December 25, 1902, was struck on the crossing of the Great Western by a switch engine, which backed into the passenger train. The passenger engine was turned over and the passengers received a severe shaking up, but no fatalities are reported.

A passenger train on the Pennsylvania Railroad collided with a freight train at Fort Hill, Pa., December 24, 1902. The engineer and fireman of one of the trains received serious injuries and were taken to the hospital at Philadelphia, but the passengers escaped with slight injuries.

An express passenger train on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was derailed at Whitcomb, W. Va., by a landslide of rock. The engineer and fireman were killed, the baggageman was hurt slightly, but the postal clerks escaped injury. No injuries to passengers are reported.

An engine bumped into the rear of a passenger train at Baden Station, on the Wabash Railroad. The fireman on the passenger engine was thrown against the boiler head, breaking three of his ribs.

The south-bound "Limited" on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad was wrecked near Moundville, Ala., December 17, 1902, in which the express messenger was killed, and the fireman and two mail clerks were badly injured.

A Santa Fe freight train running over the Rio Grande Division of the Frisco, endeavored to reach Dublin, Texas, for a westbound passenger train. Finding it impossible to do so, the engine was uncoupled from the freight train and sent forward with a flag, but met the passenger train when rounding a sharp curve. The engineer and fireman of the passenger train escaped by jumping, but the freight engineer was killed. The fireman of the freight engine was not injured, but the employe who was piloting the freight engineer was badly scalded.

A helper engine on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, near Liberty, Ind., got beyond the control of the engineer, December 22, 1902, and made two wild runs between that place and Connersville, resulting in the wrecking of two freight trains and four engines, the death of two men and injury to two others.

In a collision between a freight train and a light engine on the Northwestern Road, near Hurley, Wis., December 10, 1902, both engines were demolished and three men seriously injured. One fireman was putting coal into the firebox at the time of the collision and his head entered the firebox door, and he received frightful burns, while the other fireman was buried in the wreck and received cuts and bruises. The conductor of the light engine was slightly injured.

A double-header freight train on the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad collided with a car of lumber, which had run out of a siding and down a steep grade, near Wetmore, Pa., December 19, 1902. Both engineers were killed, and one fireman and a brakeman were injured.

A fast mail train of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad collided with a switch engine in the yards at Chicago, early in the morning of December 26, 1902, resulting in the possibly fatal injuries of both engine crews. None others are reported as being seriously injured.

A fast passenger train on the Illinois Central Railroad collided with a work train at Caneyville, eighty-four miles from Louisville, Ky., on the morning of December 27, 1902. One engine was demolished and one engine and three cars

were derailed. The engineer and fireman of the work train, and the fireman of the passenger train were killed, while the engineer of the passenger train was badly bruised and cut.

A passenger train on the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad jumped the track at Brady's Lake, Ohio., December 27, 1902, tearing up the track for 150 feet. The baggageman and two porters are said to have received slight injuries.

Two freight trains on the Missouri Pacific Railroad collided head-on on the night of December 26, 1902, near Dodson. Both engineers were badly injured, one brakeman was killed, and both firemen and one brakeman were slightly injured. In a collision between two freight trains on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad, December 19, 1902, at Little Ferry Junction, N. J., both firemen were killed and one engineer was injured.

A freight train on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad backed into the engine of a Milwaukee passenger train at a crossing, December 16, 1902. The passenger engineer was killed, and his fireman was slightly injured.

A passenger train on the Norfolk and Western Railroad struck a curve, where an angle bar had been removed, December 28, 1902, which caused the engine and two front coaches to be thrown down an embankment, and killing the engineer.

Through a misunderstanding of orders, a head-on collision occurred on the Penn. sylvania Railroad between a passenger train and a freight train on the night of December 30, 1902, resulting in both engines being demolished, and badly wrecking the express, baggage and smoking The passenger engineer was killed, the freight engineer and fireman probably fatally injured, the passenger fireman seriously injured, the express messenger fatally injured, besides minor injuries to some of the passengers.

cars.

Through a turned switch, supposedly by tramps, as the switch lock had been broken, a freight train on the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville Railroad was thrown in the ditch at Quincy, Ind., December 30, 1902, and the engineer, fire man and one brakeman were killed.

A wrecking train on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, while on its way to Bucklin to replace some cars which were off the track, went through a bridge spanning Yellow Creek, December 13, 1902, resulting in the death of the fireman and the serious injury of the conductor and roadmaster.

Two light engines, coupled together, which were sent out to help an incoming freight train on the Grand Trunk Railroad, on the night of December 25, 1902, collided with the freight train at Renton. One engineer and fireman were instantly killed, and one engineer and fireman were fatally injured.

In a collision between a freight train and a coal train on the Colorado Southern Railroad, on the night of December 24, 1902, both engineers and firemen, two brakemen, and two men riding as passengers are reported killed.

The Pacific Express and a freight train on the Sarnia branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad met in collision at Wanstead, on the night of December 26, 1902, the estimate of fatalities being thirty killed and over thirty-five injured.

On the night of December 24, 1902, by the projecting of a heavy freight engine from a siding onto the main track at Atlanta, near Bloomington, Ill., on the Chicago and Alton Railroad, a bad wreck was caused by a passenger train running into it. The force of the collision threw the passenger engine thirty feet to one side and into an embankment. No fataiities are reported, but there were several serious and minor injuries.

A head-on collision between two freight trains on the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad, on the night of December 25, 1902, resulted in the death of one fire man, serious injury to both engineers, and other members of the crews receiving painful bruises.

An incoming freight train on the Burlington Railroad crashed into another train standing in the yard at Table Rock, Neb., on the night of December 16, 1902. The fireman of the standing train was killed. It is said that the crew of the incoming train had been on duty for ninety hours, and that the engineer was conNeither he nor his pletely exhausted.

fireman were hurt.

Lubricator Accidents.-According to the Topeka (Kan.) Journal of December 16, 1902, T. H. Hurley, an engineer on the Santa Fe Railroad, lost an eye by the bursting of a lubricator glass on his engine, while the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News of December 15, 1902, says that R. D. Todd, engineer, and H. C. Black, air brake inspector of the Pennsylvania Company were preparing an engine for the road which had just come from the erecting shop. They found some defect in the lubricator and while they were engaged in fixing it, from some unknown cause the

contents exploded. The torch held by the air brake inspector ignited the oil and both men were covered by the burning fluid. In attempting to rub the oil from his face with some waste, Engineer Todd removed a quantity of skin.

More Engines Wanted. - The Chicago, Ill., Inter Ocean of December 30, 1902, says: "President Cassatt of the Pennsylvania System has offered to take any locomotives the locomotive works of the country can build if any road having orders placed for 1903 will turn its contract over to the Pennsylvania, and President Loree of the Baltimore and Ohio is quoted as saying that no man can get a locomotive until January, 1904, unless the orders are now in, and that money will not buy them previous to that date."

Claims for Fuel Oil.-A press dispatch to the Baltimore American, dated January 2, 1903, says that the American Head Light and Power Company, which controls the Johnston patents and processes for manufacturing both fuel and fixed illuminating gas from crude oil, “promises immediate developments in railroad work in the near future. The company maintains that in a tank, which can be readily accommodated within the usual locomotive tender dimensions, enough fuel gas of a fixed, permanent quality can be compressed and stored to run one of the largest types of freight or passenger locomotives at continuous high speed for ten or more hours and at one-third the cost of coal consumption. Tests of a practical nature are soon to be made."

Paying in Checks.-According to the Ogden (Utah) Standard of December 25, 1902, the Union Pacific is experiencing difficulty with its pay checks, which are given to employes unknown to the paymasters by sight, upon very slight proof of identity. At several points on the Wyoming division this month checks were given to the wrong men and a number of forgeries were committed.

The Great Lake Commerce.-There are twenty individual ports on the Great Lakes having each a registered tonnage of arrivals ranging from 1,000,000 to over 5,000,000 tons, says a bulletin from the Treasury Bureau of Statistics. On Lake Superior four different ports had a combined ton

nage of 14,353,972 net tons, of which Duluth is credited with 4,971,434 tons; Superior-West Superior, 4,087,139 tons; Two Harbors, 3,123,853 tons, and Ashland, 2,171,540 tons. Lake Michigan has seven ports which fall within this class, aggregating 18,773,132 tons of arrivals. Of these Milwaukee stands at the head, with 4,622,593 tons. Next in order comes Chicago, with 4,370,638 tons, followed by Escanaba, with 2,914,256 tons, whose freight cargoes consist very largely of ore shipments to the manufacturing districts of the lower lakes. South Chicago has a tonnage of 2,293,479 tons, and if included in that of Chicago the combined tonnage would exceed the registered tonnage of any other lake port by more than 1,500,000 tons. Next in order, on Lake Michigan, come Ludington, with 1,811,375 tons; Manitowoc, 1,751,609 tons, and Frankfort, with 1,008,685 tons.

The enormous volume of this movement is only appreciated when compared with similar marine operations on the ocean frontage. New York, during the entire calendar year 1902, is credited with 8,982,767 registered tons of arrivals and 8,815,291 tons of clearances. London, for 1901, had entrances amounting to 9,992,753 tons, and clearances of 7,282,892 tons. Hongkong reported 8,626,614 tons entering and 8,620,409 tons clearing in the year 1900.

The largest group of lake ports within the million-ton class is to be found on the lower lakes between Detroit and Buffalo, nine ports on this portion of the lake coast aggregating a registry of arrivals of 22,865,772 tons. At the head of this list stands Cleveland, with 5,087,565 tons; Buffalo, 4,830,632 tons; Ashtabula, 2,888,987 tons; Conneaut, 2,511,515 tons; Detroit, 1,986,697 tons; Toledo. 1,854,262 tons; Erie, 1,524,285 tons; Lorain, 1,117,340 tons, and Fairport, 1,064,439 tons.

The twenty ports mentioned above have an aggregate tonnage of 55,992,876 tons, or 78.3 per cent. of the entire registry reported for the season to the end of No. vember. All other ports have a combined total of 15,450,641 tons, or 21.7 per cent. of the total lake arrivals.

The number of vessels reported as arriving at Chicago to the above date was 6,525; at Milwaukee, 5,032; at Cleveland, 4,187; at Ashtabula, 1,737; at Buffalo, 3,258; at Duluth, 2,885; at Detroit, 2.854; at Escanaba, 2,341; at Toledo, 2,313; at Superior-West Superior, 2,144, and at Washburn, 2,065.

In the month of October, when the