WEST SHORE.
RAILROADING IN MONTANA.
QAIMtOA!) hum) have many difliculties, annoyan
T era and dangers to contend with that the travel-
jug public know little of. Sitting in hie comfort
able neat in tho Pullman and engrossed in the
morning pu t purchased at the last station or in the
pagea of the latHt novel, or enjoying a quiet gnme of
whiHt with hin fellow travelers, the passenger on one
of our first class trains is carried at great speed across
the continent and never realizes how many times his
life lias liecn saved hy the steady hand and faithful
attention to duty of the engineer. Nor are the con
ductor of the train, the telegraph operators at the sta
tions and the train dcspatchcr at division headquarters
less resNinsilile than the hrave engineer and his as
sistant, the fireman, for the lives of the millions of peo
ple who annually travel on the railroad lines of tho
I'nited States. A slight mistake on the part of either
of these might send scores of people to their death and
destroy thousands of dollars worth of projicrty. The
comparatively few accidents in proportion to the mini
1st of trains show with what fidelity, ;.eal, intelligence
and ofU'ii heroic devotion to duty the employees of
our great railroad corsirations can lie credited. Not
only do statistics show that the danger of railroad
travel is very light, hut tho fact that accident insurance
companies do not charge a higher premium simply he
cause the insured travels a great deal on the railroad
indicates it as well. Perhaps the best evidence is the
fact that millions of people annually travel on the lines
in the I'nited States without giving a thought to any
extra hazard of their lives on that account. And yet,
a Ix-fore stated, this sense of security and this almost
certain immunity from accident, is not the result of
any inherent safety in that method of traveling, hut
solely Isiause of the bravery and intelligent fidelity
of tin we who have the management of the trains, espir
islly the engineer.
Sitting in the cah, Irtwtvn the locomotive Isiiler
and the tender holding the coal or wood used for fuel,
the engineer and lireman. one on each side, maintain
constant scrutiny of the track as far in advance of
the engine as possible. They are looking for all sorts
of obstructions and dangers. Perhaps n switch at a
siding is not in exact x.sition, a rail may be broken,
a land slide may have occurred on the side of a deep
cut or a st.-ep hill, heavy rains may have washed the
bank out from under the track leaving it unsuported,
a trestle, or bridge or culvert may have been burned,
Hssilily some despicable wrcU h may have put some
oUtruction on the track just around a sharp bend that
wotihl hide it from view until the locomotive approach
within a few yards, or it may lw that by some one's er
ror another train may come thundering down the track
from the opposite direction. All these dangers and
many more the lookout is maintained to detect, and
the instant he sees one, or hears the warning cry of
his mate, as the fireman is called, the engineer grasps
the lever, if his hand be not .already upon it, reverses
his engine, applies the full force of the air-brakes, and
shuts his teeth to await the doubtful result. It is here
that devotion to duty and heroic courage have been
so often displayed, at the sacrifice of the engineer's life,
that no men Btand higher as a class in the general es
teem and confidence of the public than those who, with
grimy hands and smutty faces, stand faithfully day
and night, in heat and cold, in sunshine and storm, in
the cab of the locomotive engine.
There is one danger encountered in railroad travel
in the west that is absent, or rather has been overcome
in the older states of tho east. So frequent and con
stant is this that " cattle on the track " is tho almost
instant exclamation whenever the piercing shriek of
the locomotive's whistle is heard in any way except
the regulation toots for brakes and crossings and the
long blasts for stations. The railroads of the west are
not guarded by fences from the incurison of cattle,
who seem to be attracted by the level grade. They
come out of the woods in the day time to sun them
selves on the track, and often at night they find upon
it a comfortable lied. In times of storm deep cuts fur
nish them a shelter from the elements they gladly
seek, and at other times they are found upon the track
simply liecause they happened to stray there and
there was no fence to prevent them. In Montana,
where thousands of cattle graze upon the ranges, quit
considerable bands of cattle sometimes obstruct the
track, but the country being ojien and but sparsely
timbered, the engineer can generally see them in time
to stop his train if they do not heed tho warning
shrieks of the whistle, but in the more densely tim-la-rod
regions of Oregon and California, tho danger ia
enhanced by the fact that the view is often obstructed
by trees and brush at a curve in the track, and the
locomotive in rounding tho lend suddenly plunges in
to a bund of cattle whose presence was entirely un
known. There is little for tho engineer to do. He
can not stop the train, and it would be folly t at
tempt to do so, for if tho engine muBt strike one of
them it tatter do so at full speed, as it will Is- more
certain of throwing the animal ofT the track, instead of
simply knocking it down, as in the latter case it might
get under tho engine and derail it or turn it over. So
he sounds his whistle to frighten tho cattle and, or
haps, increnses his speed. Tho startled animals run
in all directions, some up tho bank and some down,
while others start down the track with head and tail
erect as though to race the train with only a handicap
of a few yards. Occasionally a belligerent steer or