TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, OCTOBER 11. 1908,
2
YCI7 have seen from the car window,
as your train slid smoothly down
mountain grade, a yellow flame that
lit up the bank for a few yards around;
or, mayhap from the platform have
een a red flame sputtering in front of
the engine and have wondered why the
train had stopped; or. from the rear
platform of an observation car, you have
watched the semaphore lights blinking
and have found satisfaction In noting the
swift change from red to gren. If you
know anything about rallroadlnc you axe
e-liaring. in your degree, a pleasure with
the division superintendent.
""Just to sit here and watch the light
Mink." said the superintendent of the
Shasta division of the Southern Pacific
one morning last week. "If I live an
other hundred years, that will still be my
Ideal of an unmitigated happiness." lie
settled hi huge bulk in a stout, un
cushioned arm chair, braced his feet
asalnet either side of one of the rear
windows of his car, and, tilted on two
less of the chair, swayed with every
jump and roll of the car.
For It was not the luxurious private car
of a railroad magnate In which the divis
ion superintendent and his gut eat.
It was a privato car, but one which
bluehed at the designation earned since
Its change from a work car to the trav
eling: abode of the superintendent. The
superintendent's name In Wlialcn. and he.
aijo. is out of hie environment. W. II.
Whalen came out to the Pacific Coast
two months ago, to take the place of
Thomaa Ahem, transferred to the Coast
division, as superintendent of the Shasta
division. For the eight years before hie
coming he had been superintendent of a
prairie division of the Chicago 4 North
Western, crossing Iowa.
lhere Cars Reeled Like Drunkards.
"Yes. thw is different," said Whalen,
perng Intently through the window at
the blackness without. It was not yet 4
n'clork In the morning. The chill of
dawa penetrated the ex-work car. The
truest took on faith the statements as to
the nature of the country over which the
ar was drunkenly reeling, and pon
dered on the nature of the man as
Whalen continued:
"On this division, from Red Bluftv In
California, to A&hland. In Oregon, there
are IS bridges across the Sacramento
River and 1 tunnels. There are 53 miles
of curve, and most of these grades are
' degrees. Back where I come from a
7-8 grade ia the maximum, and the curves
are few. But I love the change, and I
hope you don't find this car too uncom
fortable. I came out here to run a rail
road division; not to travel in a, privato
car."
The car lamps had been extinguished
as the train pulled out from Dunemulr
for the run north, and the figure of the
I'lvlslon superintendent loomed vastly
and dimly before the pondering guest.
Division superintendents are evolved
from all sorts of material. They emerge
usually from one of the operating depart
ments, and their experience may first
have been gained as engineer or con
ductor. Whalen started as a boiler
maker and machinist, in which trades he
paused his examinations In his early 20s.
Then he played baseball for a space. For
two seasona he was a National League
pitcher. He pitched for Detroit. Then
he taught school for three years.. He
was not JO years old, however, before be
was back in the railroad service. (Fur
ther. Whalen Is now 46 years old, stands
fret. 5 Inches, and "weights 300 pounds.
He does not look fat, but pretty substan
tial.) From bollermaker he became lo
comotive fireman, then locomotive en
gineer. HI next etep was to the position
of traveling locomotive engineer, and af
ter that he was roundhouse foreman,
master mechanic, trainmaster, road fore
man of engines, air brake instructor,
and, eight years ago was made superin
tendent of the Iowa division of the Chi
cago North-Western. He still lovea
baseball, is a friend of Chautauqua cir
cles and a close student of politics.
When He AYaa Stabbed by a Loco
motive. "I don't know if my nearly losing my
life last year affected a measure before
the Iowa Legislature, or not; but it was
a close call, for the measure and for
me." said Whalen. (It Is not day, yet.
Whalen's reminiscences told In the gloom
of the work car were of politics and oth
er ungodly railroad affairs that It Is
well to know when traveling with a di
vision superintendent, and they show a
side of an Interesting character.) "In
February of 1907 I was up before the
Ir:slature to explain things about a
rate measure .that looked aa If It would
surely pass. Our company's attorney and
another official were also present, but
things so shaped themselves as to make
It necessary for me to talk. I talked for
4 nouns and 16 minutes against that
measure. Then I returned to my division
headquarters at Boone. The next day.
aa I was standing on the track In the
yard, an engine came up behind me and
slabbed me In the back. If I were not so
lengthy. It would have caught me In the
ribs and driven some of them into my
Inngs or other vital organs. As It was. I
was pitched from the track into a pool
of water. They sent for the Coroner, and
IS minutes after the engine stabbed me
ro one had though of a doctor or of pick
ing mc out of the pool.
A Blit Boy Interfered.
My son he's 22. In his last year at
Ames College and pretty near as big
as his father arrived then. He lifted
my head out of the water, found my eye
glasses and placed them before my lips.
There was moisture on the eyeglasses.
My son countermanded the order for the
undertaker as too premature, followed
me to the hospital, forbade the surgeons
using an anaesthetic 'His heart Is
scarcely beating now and you mustn't
put It entirely out of commission.' says
my boy the surgeons sewed up a few
cuts and operated upon a fractured skull,
and, three months later, I recognised my
son for the first time. He bad been the
only man that could handle me in those
months. My mind was a baby's mind. I
was convinced that a man had hit ma
with a hatchet and I wanted to reach
that man. Knew his name. too. And
wasn't I afraid of my son? His face,
through all those weary weeks seemed
familiar but I couldn't place It. and
when 1 would raise up in bed and storm
for the man that hit me with the hatchet,
and my son would say 'Lie down there or
I'll put you down," I did He down and the
sweat rolled off me. I Intended to lick
him every day, but I was afraid I was
not yet strong enough.
"Well, the day before the locomotive
changed things for me I had been up
before the Iowa Legislature. The day
after that appearance, the Legislature
passed resolutions of sympathy for my
family in its supposed loss and the rate
bill was defeated by a vote of 68 to 3.
Was It -ray talk or the accident? The bill
seemed certain of passage only 24 hours
before that locomotive pitched me into
the water.
Nearer Deatb, Yet Xot Injured.
"I have been nearer death, though,
without suffering an injury. It was back
in '94. When the great railroad strike
was on I was roundhouse foreman In
Chicago for the Chicago ft North-West-ern.
The troops had not come. The
railroads and the municipal and state au
thorities seemed powerless. I was sit
ting In the roundhouse at Forty-eighth
street when the telephone rang and the
voice at the other end was from tho
down town office, five miles away. It
said, in effect: 'The police have ordered
us to run our stock cars out Into the
country. Get them out if you can.' (The
stock was dying and rotting In the cars
for many days, then.) 'Get help If you
can.' There was more of the telephone
talk. I got help one man. He was tho
only railroad man besides myself in that
roundhouse. The rest of them were 'out.
We went to the stock cars, through a
mob of a thousand men. and I climbed
up into an engine and talked. Without
telling you all I said that morning, let
me assure you that I realized that my
life hung on a hair trigger. I told the
boys that we had elected to take opposite
sides; they to go 'out' and I to remain
with the company; but that that should
not Interfere with our personal feelings
toward each other; that the police had
ordered the removal of the pestilence
breeding stock cars; that I was fully
aware that I could do nothing without
then permission. A man I never was
able to find out his name shouted 'Throw
a brick at him.' I demanded his name
and warned him that there were too
many friends of mine in that crowd for
a brick-thrower's life to be safe, and
asked for help from the strikers to
coupling the cars to my engine. Two
strikers responded and a number of
others cleared a passage for the train
through the crowd. That's a story, along
with a few others, that never appeared in
the papers at the time, but the vtce
president of the Chicago ft North-Western
heard of it the next day and asked
me how my nerves felt.
"'There she goes to the green"' ex
claimed the division superintendent, soft
ly, as the slowly descending semaphore
arm that had been protecting the front
of the train showed that the block Just
passed was clear for the passage of a
train coming the other way, and the sem
aphore's light changed from red to green.
"It makes a man feel good. I tell you,
to see the signals operating smoothly; to
know that his train is protected right."
The sun was not yet up, but there was
light, and mountains and canyons and.
when a sharp curve showed the front of
the train through the side windows, the
two giants, stertorously breathing engines,
showed clear and distinct.
"There's a yellow fusee in the bank,"
eaid tho superintendent. "You know
what that means? 'Proceed cautiously."
The first section of this train Is not far
ahead, and the brakeman has thrown the
fusee. It will bum five minutes after
throwing. Now. If that were a red fusee
speared In the bank, our engineer would
have stopped the train and sent a flag
man ahead to find out what waa the mat
ter. Now what's the troulbe?"
Guarding the Train.
The auperintendent leaned far out from
the window to look ahead, as the train
slowly came to a stop. A mountain elde
on the right, a precipice on the left,
glooming and lowering on the presumptu
ous steel monsters that puffed and panted
in resentment at their stopping. The arm
of the semaphore on the right of the en
gines stood at the horizontal. That meant
that the next block of 2W0 feet was not
clear. The flagman went forward, was
gone five minutes and then, upon the en
gineer's five whistles of recall, came back
at a dog trot. The first section of the
train was yet within the next block, and,
under the circumstances, the second sec
tion could only proceed under protection
of a flagman. A train proceeding under
protection of a flagman runs at a speed
of less than six miles an hour, a quarter
of a mile behind that functionary. When
a flagman ia sent to the rear of the train
which Is the explanation of most of the
delays between stations over -which the
average passenger idly and sleepily pon
dershe goes back a quarter of a mile
and places one fusee, yellow or red, ac
cording to whether it is desired to make
the following train proceed cautiously un
der control or to come to a stop. Some
times he goes another quarter of a mile
and places two more fusees; sometimes
still another quarter of a mile and places
still two more fusees. But that is only in
case of an accident to his train, of which
it is desired to convey the fullest warn
ing to following trains.
Chan-ring s Bad Alignment.
The division superintendent's guest saw
some disciplining of a train crew before
the day was quite over, but first he
went to Ashland and almost back to
Dunemuir. It's a crooked road. An elon
gated letter "S" is formed many times
by the railroad In crossing the Siskiyou
Mountain, and at several places the rail
road track may be seen at three different
altitudes. A few miles south of the Ore
gon state line an engineering problem
that broke one contractor and Is making
a second contractor sweat blood is being
solved. The Bailey trestle, 1S00 feet long,
ta being moved. The Southern Pacific
wishes it to carry the trains 20 feet near
er the mountain side. The first con
tractor endeavored to scoop the mountain
side down Into the space that must be
bridged. He went broke. The mountain
side looks as if it had not been touched.
The present contractor is running dirt
and rocks on a spur track from the north
end of the trestle. Nearly a million cubic
yards of dirt and rocks will be thrown
Into the cavernous maw of the Bailey
trestle. Further south, between Mon
tague and Weed in California, Black
Butte, a eteep mountain approaching 10,
000 feet altitude, is being quarried for rail
road ballast. No shoveling is done. The
mountain Is simply torn down and run by
a chute into the cars below. Ballasting
from Black Butto costs the railroad only
22 cents a cubic yard, laid on the road.
Other ballasting costs nearly TO cents.
There was a fog on the California side
of the Siskiyou Mountains. Descending
to Ashland the fog was left behind, and
at 11 o'clock, when the start was made
for the south again, there was no hint
of mist even in the mountain.
At ( o'clock In the evening the second
section of the train, to which was still
attached the division superintendent's
car, was approaching Shasta Springs
above Dunsmulr. The train came to. a
stop and the engineer blew the whistle
ordering a flagman to proceed a quar
ter of a mile to the rear of the train.
The flagman, a boy of not much more
than 20 years, stood irresolutely at the end
of the train before he spoke to the division
superintendent, who stood on the plat
form eyeing him.
"Am I to go back, sir?" he finally
asked.
"If you are ordered back, certainly,"
curtly responded Whalen.
The flagman took a few hesitating
steps.
"Those are your orders, are they?" he
ventured again, and the other man on
the platform. In his Ignorance, thought
that annihilation would be the doom of
the boy. The division superintendents
Goes 60,000 Miles After Birds
AFTER eight years of preparation, in
which he crossed the continent four
times and traveled altogether more than
60,000 miles on land without going out
side of North America, Frank Michler
Chapman, ornithologist of the American
Museum of Natural History, and a warm
personal friend of President Roosevelt,
has now the satisfaction of watching his
work blossom Into completion.
The task set for Mr. Chapman nearly
a decade ago was to present In the
museum every important bird of the
American continent, nearly 1000 in
number, surrounded by its natural en
vironment. Some appreciation of what
this means in the way of work may be
gained from the very fact that though
he had been engaged upon it so long,
aided by skilled men In their peculiar
lines, the results are Just beginning to
be seen.
Mr. Chapman has brought shrubbery,
grass and soli from the Everglades of
Florida as a setting for the various
birds of the heron type which he ob
tained there. From the Rocky moun
tain peaks he brought the stones and
sticks with which an eagle had built
its nest. And so, wherever he has
found the bird he has brought with it
for the final picture the nearby shrub,
stone or soil, and often all three and
more, that the setting might be true
to nature.
More than that, wherever he has
traveled he has had a competent artist
at his back to paint in the native
background. Mr. Chapman is making
what he calls a "habitat group." Not
only are the soil, the shrub which
grew In it, and the leaves which fell
from It, transported from the other
side of the continent as the chief set
ting of the picture, but the artist, on
the spot when Mr. Chapman shoots a
bird, makes a sketch and photograph
of the exact surroundings of the bird
when it is killed, so that those who
behold it mounted see it as nearly like
the ornithologist found it in the
depths of the forest as it is possible
to make it.
Seven years ago a friend ofMr. Chap
man showed him a photograph he had
made of an eagle's nest high up on a
ledge In the Rocky Mountains. It was
picturesque, and Mr. Chapman deter
mined to obtain it if possible. The op
portunity never came until a. short time
ago. The nearest railroad station was
scores of miles from the place, and this
distance was traveled by Mr. Chapman
and bis artist In a prairie schooner.
When he reached the vicinity of the
place they learned that the guide whom
they expected to engage was 100 miles
away, rounding up cattle. Mr. Chap
man's friend had given him a number of
photographs of the section, and with the
aid of these the nest was located seven
years after the first photograph had been
taken, after a two days' search. For all
that the nest and the environment
showed no human being had been there
since the Chicago man left, and the nest
was in an excellent state of preserva
tion. The mother eagle had called to her
face turned to stone. (It Is a fine,
cleanly cut face surmounted by a shock
of thick, snow-white hair.) "Do as you
are ordered to do." said Whalen. with
out turning his head to tho flagman.
"The engineer'!! not call mc back," in
sisted the flagman, but taking a few
more stops, nevertheless, from the train.
"There, I told you so." The train had
started, and the flagman ran after It.
He stumbled as he eahght at the rail
and Whalen reached out a mighty arm
and scooped him In.
By this time the other man on the
platform had vaguely surmised that,
something was happening that was not
unexpected by tho division superintend
ent, who listened with unmoved counte
nance to the further explanations of the
boy flagman.
"The engineer always orders a flag
man back from the second section," h
said, "while the passengers on the first
section drink the mineral water at the
springs; but he never calln him to. the
train again. He don't expect the flag
man to go. It's the custom." The boy's
apologetic voice trailed off into silence
under the effect of Whalen's own silence.
Learning the Block System.
In a few minutes the train had reached
Shasta Springs, and then could be seen
something; of train discipline; not a great
deal, for thera were but few worda
spoken by the division superintendent or
by the engineer and train crew whom he
called before him. Apparently the engi
neer waa excusing his work and shield
ing himself under the orders of the train
master. It further developed that be
sides the lack of protection given the
rear of the train, the front of the train
had not been properly protected by a
flagman. . It had been the custom, said
the engineer. The superintendent de
rided the custom,, and averred that the
engineer had no right to take an order
from the highest official of the Southern
Pacific Company that was in conflict
with the trainman's book of rules. And
the engineer was ordered to appear the
next morning in the office of the division
superintendent to explain.
What happened further to the engi
neer the division superintendent did not
disclose the next morning when he
escorted his guest to the Southern Paclflo
examination car, that, for the first time
In five years, is traveling over the sys
tem, examining all train crews as to
their knowledge of the book of rules by
which all trains in the United States are
run. But several things were made clear
that' had before been a puzzle to the lay
man. What the block system Is that pro
tects trains Is shown by a working model"
representing six miles of single track and
side tracks, with the block signals 3000
feet apart. Miniature semaphores raise
and lower their arms as miniature trains
pass. With an adjustable time table, the
examiners put hypothetical questions to
the trainmen as to when trains may
be started; and with charts, they are
examined as to their knowledge of what
entitles trains to precedence. All of rail
roading is brought out In the examina
tion, and even the novice may learn
something from the discussions that
intersperse the questions. The present
tour of the examination car, taking, in .
the entire Southern Pacific system, will
last 14 months.
aid a variety of things in building her
nest, Including a buffalo's horn. This,
too, in a section where Mr. Chapman
says there has not been a buffalo in
20 years.
Not only can that nest, with the sticks
and all the rubbish which the eagle had
employed, be seen in the museum, but
the ledge on which it was found has been
reproduced, and the artist has painted in
U?e background.
Mr. Chapman prides himself on a cer
tain grouping of reed birds. The scene
this time is a marsh in Virginia. There
are the wild oats, the cut lemon, the
tuckahoe and through It all runs a tiny
stream of scummy, marsh water, a typi
cal marsh drain or sluice.
Two or three days ago several young
women were passing, but, attracted to
the birds in the marsh, .stopped in front
on the group.
"That's pretty good," said one, "but I
don't see why the museum authorities
allow that dirty water to stand there like
that. You can smell It clear through the
glass case, and I should think It would
be unhealthy." Slie was speaking of a
celluloid preparation used as a water
substitute which has no odor at all.
The wild turkey group from the moun
tains of West Virginia is particularly at
tractive. Not only are there fine speci
mens of wild turkeys there,- near their
nest, but the decaying pine log, the light
wood knots, the pine tags, the yellow
leaves of dogwood, and everything. Just
as the collector found It, have been
transported to the museum. About this
the artist lias painted s a background
the more distant scenery.
Mr. Chapman was engaged lately in
putting together a much twisted and
stunted tree which he recently brought
from the Florida Everglades. He had
to cut it Into a number of pieces for
transportation, numbering each Joint so
that It could be put together as It grew,
and assistants were Joining the several
sections by means of stout Iron bolts.
The several species of heron found In
the Everglades will be mounted against
this background when It Is complete.
Mr. Chapman has one of the finest pho
tographic collections of birds In America
and has been unusually successful In Ills
camera studies of them. But for the
habitat series he had to shoot with the
shotgun rather than with the camera,
and he has again shown himself a good
marksmen, where often great Ingenuity
had to be employed to get within killing
distance of his quarry. Now York Times.
When Lve Din,
Lady, when you spear spaghetti.
Mingling sweetly skill and graee.
You are not uneliquettey,
Though I cannot see your face.
When asparagus you fletcher.
comlHK ipoon and fork and knife.
You are beautiful, you betcher
Sweet young life.
When you take a cob of corn up
And you sweetly masticate
Till the kernels all are torn up.
You are perfect you are great.
But when steamed clams maka jour menyoa,
Then I quit I can't be leal.
Sweetheart, then I cannot pen you
How I f-New Torfc BT,niDg jiall