maintenance. Vibration is received and distributed by means of wooden blocks, acting as cushions, which are placed between the tie and the rail, and the blocks which are chemically treated can be quickly removed and replaced without disturbing the tie. Wooden plugs are placed in the ties during the process of manufacture, before the cement has set and hardened, and the blocks are held to the ties by spikes driven into these wooden plugs.

A Singular Accident.-On March 19, 1903, according to the Hutchinson (Kan.) News, when a passenger train on the Union Pacific Railroad was near Aroya,

that "brakemen astonished that Charles Geary, the engineer of a Philadelphia and Reading Railroad freight train, did not answer their signals, investigated and found him dead in his cab here this morning, with one hand clasping the reverse lever and the other on the throttle.

"A few hours afterward Charles Lindemouth, another Reading Company engineer, was overcome by gas while running through the North Mahanoy tunnel. He will probably die."

Another dispatch dated Neenah, Wis., March 25, 1903, to the Milwaukee Evening Post, says: "Charles Sharkey, an engineer on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul road, dropped dead in his cab this

morning. He had his hand on the throttle when he died. His fireman ran to his side when he heard him fall, but found him dead."

J.

Another dispatch dated Baltimore, Md., April 11th, says: "A fast-flying Royal Blue train on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, running between New York and Washington, ran twenty miles tonight without an engineer at the throttle. Frank Furley, the engineer, leaned out of the cab window at a point south of Wilmington, Del. At Hayes station, Cecil County, Md., the fireman found Furley lying dead in the cab. He had been struck by a telegraph pole and instantly killed."

President Theodore Roosevelt on an Engine. -A dispatch dated Pittsburg, Pa., April 1, 1903, to the Springfield (Ohio) Sun, says: "President Roosevelt viewed the

scenery around the famous Horseshoe Curve this afternoon from a seat in the cab of the locomotive attached to his spe

cial train, and after a ride of about fifty miles, expressed himself as delighted with the experience.

"When his special train reached Altoona at 4:50 o'clock this afternoon, the passengers alighted from his car and walked rapidly to the front of the train. Two locomotives were coupled to it ready to pull the heavy cars over the Allegheny mountains and the president shook hands with the crew of each. He then climbed into the cab of the rear locomotive. In

the cab with him were Secretary Loeb, Special Engineer Robert McLaren, and the regular engineer and fireman. As he took his seat the president remarked that, 'Being a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, I think I ought to take my turn at the feeding of the furnace,' but he did not shovel coal."

Mexican Methods.-The Albuquerque (N. M.) Democrat, of March 12, 1903, says: "Traffic on the gulf division of the Mexican Central railroad was tied up for twelve hours the other day on account of the peculiar law of Mexico relating to the responsibility of railroad trainmen for accidents. Early in the morning the station agent at San Francisco discovered the dead bodies of two Mexicans on the Mexican Central's track. He immediately notified the local judge at that place, who, in view of the fact that he could not discover exactly what train had killed the two Mexicans, ordered all trains coming

into San Francisco to stop, and not to proceed until it had been discovered which train struck the Mexicans. This order soon had the effect of completely blocking all traffic on the division, as the engineers would not proceed against the judge's order. At last, the matter becoming serious, Governor Reyes was appealed to. The trouble was explained to him and he was asked for an order that would allow the trains to proceed. This was given."

Locomotive Life Here and in England.-"An expert on railway affairs has recently said that on English railways it had been found most economical that locomotives should go through the shops every two with a view to longer service than in years, and that there engines were built America. It has only been the last two years that American roads generally have taxed the capacity of the locomotive manufacturers to the utmost replenishing their worn-out engines and providing new ones to meet the demands of the increas

ing volume of business. The economics of the nineties led many roads to overtax their motive power. Comparing the average lifetime of an engine, this expert says than an English company had stated the average lifetime of a boiler on a basis of 350,000 miles to be, passenger engines, 9 years; freight engines, 14 years; switching engines, 17 years, and branch passenger engines, 16 years.

"He did not agree with this, claiming last 25 years; freight, 26 years; local that passenger express engines in England 27 years. The mileage of express engines passenger, 25 years, and freight engines from this data varied from 700,000 to 1,000,000 miles; freight engines, from 500,000 to 800,000 miles, and local passenger engines, from 500,000 to 800,000 miles. Comparing this with American experience, he claims that the aim of Americans is to continue the life of a locomotive 15 years, getting the utmost out of it during that time, and then throwing it on the scrap heap, if it could not be sold to some smaller road. The average lifetime of engines on six American roads, as stated in this connection, has been demonstrated to be: Express engines, 18 years; freight engines, 16 years; local passengers, 19 years. He finds under this claim that all classes of American engines make a higher mileage than the English, the range being between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 miles. The average lifetime of the boiler varies slightly in the two countries. In America engines are taken to

the shops for overhauling on the average from every year and a quarter to a year and a half, as compared with two years in England."-New York Evening Post.

The Fellow-Servant Bill.-Hansbrough's fellow servant bill (H. B. 74), "providing that railroad companies shall be liable for injuries to employes whenever caused by wrongful act, default, or neglect of any employe superior to the person injured, or from such act, default, or neglect of the company or employe in another department or on another train," passed both House and Senate at Salem,

Oregon, February 5, 1903. A correspond ent writes that Mr. Hansbrough is a member of the Order of Railway Conductors, from Roseburg, Oregon, and was elected by organized labor, as was the Governor. The Governor was not a railroad man, but was a lawyer of Portland. However, he has shown by his acts that he is a strong friend of labor. To Mr. Hansbrough and the Governor is said to belong the credit for the passage of the bill.

Meant to be Funny.-A correspondent sends the following:

M. M. Jimmie, I have a stalling report here against you for the want of

steam.

Jimmie. It ain't so; who said so?
M. M.

Why the engineer says he stalled for the want of steam. Jimmie. It's a lie; he had 70 pounds of steam that he didn't use at all.

Some of Them Were Brotherhood Men.-The Indianapolis Union has the following to say of those railroad employes who came from distant States to defeat the Indiana railroad employes' bills in the Indiana Legislature:

In order to defeat the double-cab bill the railroad companies brought employes here from other States. Some from as far as New York and Maryland. These poor dupes asserted that they had not been told why they were brought here until they had arrived, but it is a notable fact that they did the companies' bidding after they had been acquainted with what their mission was, and this in one or two instances where they asserted they did not think they were doing right. What must one think of men who can sink to this position? Knowing they were in the wrong, carted here like so many cattle and instructed to follow their masters' bidding, yet knowing they were wrong in so doing-are not these men an inspiring

sight for Young America to contemplate? And they deserved every word said against them by Senator Fortune when he characterized them as the men who had taken the places of the strikers during the Chicago trouble, and that they had evidently heard of the contemplated trouble on the Wabash and were getting into this part of the country so they places of those men who went out. Every would be in easy position to take the one of them that heard Fortune's philippic-and they were all there if he had a grain of manhood left in him must surely have realized how Benedict Arnold feit after his little transaction. But the strangest thing about the whole transaction is that some of the Senators who are as fearful of doing something that is outsiders and admitted company men as wrong, would accept the word of these

against the word of home men, and those just as competent to know as the hirelings of the company. Is it possible that the fellow-servant act had any weight? It is, however, truly touching to see the solicitude of some of the Senators that all sides shall be heard on these questions, especially when the side that has not been heard is the corporation side.

Cause of Railway Bankruptcy.-Railway and Engineering Review says: "It is not true that bankruptcy is always staring railway managements in the face. The financial failures in railway operation have never been excessive as compared with those in any other kind of business. Such failures have rarely, if ever, resulted from bad management of the property; but have been due to lack of wisdom in planning new roads, over-capitalizing them, and sudden and unexpected changes in the general business situation. Whether 'commercial education' will prevent communities from wanting additional railway facilities in advance of the ability to support them, or will keep men from the effort to make money in railway building, is at least an open question. Ninetenths of the railway mileage of the country is now in such hands and so situated that bankruptcy is an impossibility even in the hardest of times. Much less does it confront them when business is plenty This or 'more than they can handle.' statement taken altogether is not only untrue, but stupidly so."

And Railway World says: "The amount of railway and industrial securities which are either authorized or shortly to be issued has been estimated to exceed $300,000,000. The variety and extent of the new offerings have overtaxed the capacity of the market, and much time will probably elapse before the new issues are absorbed by investors. Indeed, in

some quarters, the question is raised whether we have not gone too far in the creation of new securities, and some have even ventured to predict that the load of new capital would prove to be too heavy, and to call attention to the consequences of such overissue in the past. The creation of new capital during recent years has been enormous. From 1898 to 1902, the amount of new securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange, not including those substituted for old issues, amounted to $2,325,000,000. It is not unlikely that the operations of the present year will raise this total to three billion dollars. Railway corporations have borne their full share in this increase of capital. During the past year, for example, $434,612,000 of bonds and $390,388,340 of stocks were listed by railway companies to provide capital for various purposes. A large number of these issues were in exchange for the stocks of other companies at liberal prices. Construction and betterments were also paid for on a large scale from the same source. In short, we have had, on the face of things, a repetition of the expansion of railway capital from 1870 to 1873, from 1879 to 1882, and from 1887 to 1891. The question naturally arises, will the consequences of the present expansion be similar to those of former years? Of those consequences our recollection is unfortunately too vivid. From 1887 to 1891, for example, $1,038,794,000 of new capital was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. During the four years succeeding 1892, a number of the companies which had thus increased their capital took refuge under the protection of the courts. From 1873 to 1887, moreover, the experience of 1893 was duplicated twice."

American Methods. — At a meeting of the Yorkshire College Engineering Society, on Monday evening, Mr. R. J. Sloan, an old student, related his experiences in the United States, where he had stayed twelve months in order to obtain an insight into the methods in use in American engineering works. According to the lecturer, the best equipped machine-tool shops are found in the New England States. Most of the new shops used electricity at the time of his visit, but some had what he called a barbarous custom of employing naked arc lights, which greatly dazzled the eye. Comparing the shops of this country with those of America, he asserted that the worst shop he ever saw Iwas in the States. Speaking on the ques

tion of masters and men, he said that an American master might start at seven in the morning, but he leveled up the day by taking it pretty easy in the afternoon. The American manager, or superintendent, as they called him, engaged all the men employed and sent them to the foreman, who could discharge a man at his discretion. It was not considered necessary to have been brought up as an engineer to become a manager. One shop he came across was managed by a man who had been a barber in Leeds. Foremen were more numerous in American shops than here one to about every fifteen men

and they drove the men a trifle harder. The American workmen boasted much of their independence, and looked upon British workmen as something on a level with Russian serfs; but Mr. Sloan saw few evidences of independence among American workers. Their average hours were about 59 per week. Trades unionism was strongest in the West; in Chicago it was very strong. In some of the Eastern States it was very weak. One gang he encountered had a Norwegian foreman, and among them were a Dutchman, a Swede, an Irishman, a Frenchman, a German, and men of several other nationalities, and consequently there was no cohesion among them; each regarded the other as a foreigner. In conclusion, the lecturer compared American and British tools, and he advised all young engineers to pay a similar visit to his own to the States. In a discussion which followed. Professor Goodman said that half the shops in Leeds had now got American tools."-London Engineering.

A Brakeman's Lament. The following is from a clipping sent to this office by a friend, and purports to be a letter written by a Texas brakeman to his mother. While the "poetry” is awful, the lamentations are pathetic, and may console others

whose lot is hard-for it has been said that "misery loves company:"

I am braking on a road

They call the Cotton Belt;
And of all the grief that ever was
Has never yet been felt.

Now if you will kindly listen, ma,
I'll endeavor to explain
How we reached our destination
On one of these local trains.
We left the town of Tyler

One beautiful afternoon;
There being a wreck at Burlingame
Was why we left so soon.