SWIFT'S IMMENSE PACKING PLANT READY SOON
" ' " - ' :''.'' $ -
I ..... ': :. : :. ' " ' . . v -' ' T: :", - : ;: : ..: '.'". U-:-:":: &'3:'l -M' ";: ' "'. :;v ;: r;C
. - . '. - j. . ' '.. ; ...... S ; ,. . ' :' ' . i J (.:." :A - r - .s ;..-- i- "j'jS-;;j f fi-wii.i f: : 'ij ,.!;.: ,' :' iii- ' ; .? f . f: wK,;S::S'i& "'M .:?5. . ' V t3
,- . ' ' .- ' ': ' i '-' :. .-" : ' '" . -:, ; . o - -'..... ---::-- -'- : .-v .::::. v s . J
I ' v ' ' - ' '.' ' ' ' ." ' :i. 'i .: ' '' ";.""- ;V ' ;v ' -; : . : , - ; . " . ' N;ji V :: ' : . . :V ' A- " ' v , ,: v' 3
'--v. ;:.:v;.-m1 :- v, - V.,..v;- " : ,; X, -I fiiff- JT1'- - f5'',. '5"'T - . , -
NEW PORTLAND I XIOX STOCKYARDS OJf PENISSCLA, WHICH
AFTER the neater part of a year
pent In construction work, the big
plant of the Union Stockyards on
the Peninsula near the new packing-house
of Swift & Co. is so nearly completed
that preparations have been made to
open It for business on September 15.
This announcement was made this
week by D. O. Lively, of this city,
general agent of the company.
The new stockyards and the build
ings In connection represent a cost
of $200,000. They will offer to the
seller and buyer of livestock the last
word In conveniences. Although the
stockyards In some Eastern livestock
centers are larger, none is so thorough
ly modern In every detail of construc
tion and facilities for handling the
stock- The arrangement of the plans,
the location of the feed troughs and
racks, the swing of the gates, the
safety of the unloading chutes, the
modern sewerage system, the cemented
pens and alleys, the water supply, the
size of the scales and the arrangement
of the scale house, the automatic
weight-registering devices and the ca
pacity of the hay barn and office all
show improvements over similar de
vices at the older yards.
The exchange building of the plant
Is one of the finest structures of Its
kind in the country, and the arrange
ment of offices Is convenient. The
PORTLAND'S UNION
last month was placed at between 20.000
nd 2S,0i. and no single day did it drop
below 15A. This month this mighty
volume of passenger traffic Is growing
still heavier rather than decreasing.
They come from all parts of the coun
try. Perhaps more are coming from the
Middle West this year than from any
other one section, but there are thou
sands from New England, from the At
lantic States and from Boston. It's
peculiar about Boston. Whether be
cause Portland has the name of being
the "Boston of the Pacific Coast." or
for purely practical reasons can't be
told, but the number of Boston people
who are making this city their destina
tion Is quite surprising. And the states
south of the Mason and Dixon line are
Iso furnishing a big percentage of the
travelers to the city.
Now thousands of these persons have
already visited or are bound for the
Seattle Exposition, but other thousands
and this is of great significance outnum
bering the Exposition travelers almost as
three to two. make this city their direct
destination from the East. Hundreds of
them sre coming to look over farm sites
and agricultural lands in the rich Wll
: lamette Valley. Central Oregon and other
sections of which they nave heard much.
Thousands more were brought out by the
rcent drawings of land on the Spokane
nd Coeur d'Alene Indian reservations.
But by far the greatest number are tour
ists. " Portland at last Is coming Into its
own as the Mecca for West-bound tour
ist travel.
To handle these huge crowds and their
regular local passenger business, the
railroad companies are running 25 pas
senger trains each way in and out of
Portland dally. Time was and not so
very many years ago when we staid old
Portlanders were remarking to each
other that a total of 10 or 15 trains going
both ways was a remarkable showing
for our town. But that Isn't all. Of
those SO trains, a day. five of the inbound
and four of those outbound come and
leave In two sections, each larger than
the average heavy passenger train.
Trains In Two Sections.
The four outbound trains which are
now running regularly In two sections
every day are Southern Pacific No. 15,
the California Express, which leaves at
7:45 P. M., and Northern Pacific Nos. 14.
U snd 2. respectively the Portland and
Vancouver special, leaving at 10 A. M.;
th Puget Sound Limited, leaving at
3 P. Nr.. and the Eastern Express, leaving
at IMS A. M.
Inbound, the five dally trains running
in double sections are Southern Pacific
Nos. 1 and 14. respectively the Oregon
Express, arilving at 7:30 A. M.. and the
Portland Express, arriving at 11 A. M-.
and Northern Pacific Nos. 1. 7 and 33,
respectively the Eastern Express, ar
riving at 7 A. M.: the Seattle and Port
land Express, arriving at A. M., and
the Puget Sound Limited, which gets
in each night at 8:35 P. M.
Now perhaps you can get a better
idea of what all this means when you
know that each of those 60 passenger
trains a day will average about eight
passenger cars to the train, which does
not include express and bsggage cars
either. And each of the passenger cars
will seat at least SO persons. The newer
and more modern coaches seat SO, and
Ed Lyons, for many years manager of
the terminal grounds and the Union
Depot here, said the other day that the
average -number of passengers actually
being carried now would corns closer to
70 than to In each car for there are
no mr seats In the trains this month.
That means that In a single day. nearly
4rt nasserurer coacbes. carrying 24.O0O pas-
. senjera, enter and Jeavo ths depot. And
Postal and Western Union Telegraph
Companies will run wires and main
tain operators -In the exchange build
ing and both telephone companies will
have booths and switch boards there.
Streetcars carrying Union Stockyards
sign boards will run north on Second
street and will go to the door of this
building.
"When the Union Stockyards open for
business September 16 Portland will
take a Class A position as a livestock
market," said Mr. Lively yesterday.
"What this means to the commercial
life of the city and to the Pacific North
west Is understood or appreciated only
by those familiar with what like events
have done for such centers as Denver,
Omaha, Kansas City, Chicago, St. Jo
seph and Fort Worth. What the live
stock market have meant to those cities
will be repeated at Portland.
"The Immensity of the livestock In
dustry is almost unbelievable. Steel,
the standard of market comparison, is
but a child alongside the giant, meat.
The former has its furnaces where they
may be seen and heard, where the ton
na.ge and the price are as countable
as apples in a barrel, while there is
no hamlet so Insignificant that it can
not potnt with pride to Its local butcher
shop, more often than not the selling
place of the product from the packing
houses at the points named. In Chi-
it is throwing in the nine extra sections I
for good measure, to make ample allow- I
ance for a few local trains on stub runs !
which have fewer than eight cars. But
It's pertinent to add that these local
trains are every bit as crowded as those
coming overland.
Each Month Shows Gain.
Now perhaps you don't like statistics
any too well, but here are just a few
that are too good to keep. Tlie month
of July was much lighter in the amount
of traffic handled than August has been,
and August was lighter In traffic than
the first few days of this month. The
Northern Pacific Terminal Company i
among its records has some interesting
figures which throw light on the vast
number of persons carried by the rail
roads during July.
In July these figures show that the
terminal company received and sent
out 11.590 passenger cars. That was
an average of 374 cars for each of the
month's 31 days. It means that on
everyone of those 31 days no fewer
than 22.440 passengers came and went
through the depot gates. And for the
enirs month the number of passengers
reached a huge grand total of 695.400
persons.
It is as if the combined populations
of Seattle, Los Angeles and Taeoma
were to take a car ride through Port
land in one month. And as though
everybody in Oregon City. Salem. Al
bany and Eugene was to move in and
out of the city in a day.
The travel during August has been
from 10 to 20 per cent heavier than
it was in July." said Manager Lyons.
"We are handling the greatest crowds
we have ever had in Portland. The
traffic of the Lewis and Clark Exposi
tion cannot compare with it. The
tourist travel this Summer is simply
enormous."
Morning Is Rush Period.
v You can see for yourself what huge
crowds are passing In and out of the
depot if you will take the trouble to
go down there some morning about 9:45
o'clock. That is 15 minutes before
the two sections of the Portland &
Vancouver Special pulls out for Seat
tle. It Is the busiest time of the day
for the depot men and it looks it.
Every corridor, every waiting room
and the whole of the big platform
up to the fence which keeps people
back from the tracks is Jammed with
travelers. At three separate gates the
gatemen are hastily examining tickets
and sending people on their way in a
steady stream. Down the platform a
bit. Patrolman Dick Barter, the center
for a fusillade of questions, is fran
tically trying to keep the passage way
clear enough so the crowd can move
forward a foot a minute, at least, and
at the same time Is directing people
to one of the three gates, asking a
lost boy whom he belongs to. assuring
a tired woman that she will find a
seat in the waiting room, telling an
officious fellow in a white vest to "get
in. line," directing a business man who
ought to know better to pick up his
suitcase, over which seven or eight
people have already tripped, finding
the particulars of a purse snatching, re
storing a ticket to a girl who has
dropped it at his feet and is weeping,
telling him of her loss, and always,
every second, moving them on. If he
didn't, in about two minutes there'd
be such a Jam you couldn't turn around.
Barter, the big policeman who does
all this, is a walking encyclopedia of
stations. He knows every telegraph
shanty and section gang camp between
Portland and St. Paul. Omaha and San
Francisco. It is simply a matter of life
and death with him, for If be didn't,
is would go crazy, that's all, for lis
THE SUNDAY OREGOXI A PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 5, 1909.
W1U OPEX SKPTEMBKR 15
: ft p n f V '
ii,.; !J -Jr j-- L- ii. - f ; 1 i
t: . . . v - Y : ' : . "
H 1
V - '
LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING. WHERE STOCKYARD COMMISSION
PHONE AND TELEGRAPH OFFICES.
DEPOT A
has to enumerate 'em all about three
times a day. Barter has two service
stripes to his credii t, and he knows
his business. But off duty he has the
reputation of being the most silent po
liceman on the force. He has a pretty
good reason for keeping still. If he
didn't give his tongue a rest once in
awhile it could never keep up under
the strain of constant work.
Twelve Trains in Two Hours.
In the two hours of this big morn
ing rush period, from 8 A. M. (it really
begins at 7:30 A. M., with the depar
ture of the Atlantic Express) to 10
A. M., six trains leave the depot and
six more come in. Among those that
leave is the Portland & Vancouver Spe
cial, at 10 o'clock sharp, in two sec
tions. Every morning this train takes
between 1SO0 and 2000 passengers to
the Fair. One day last week they had
a dull day of It on this train the two
sections only had 15 cars between them,
and didn't carry more than 1200 pas
seng'ers! Everybody about the depot
was saying the Exposition traffic
must be falling off. The next day this
train made up for its temporary "In
activity" by taking out 25 cars and
more than 2000 passengers.
In that two hours something like
6000 persons leave the'- station on the
six outgoing trains, and on the six in
bound ones, three of which are locals,
3000 more come In. When you realize
that most of those 6000 outward pas
sengers have tickets to buy, baggage
to check, or something of the kind, you
can see that the depot staff has no
genteel siesta of it.
Another big rush takes place at 5:30
P. M. and still another at midnight.
In" between times it's comparatively
quiet, only 1000 or so an hour passing
through the gates.
To take care of this great crowd of
people requires a small regiment of 105
employes on duty during the day and
night. They are divided up into 56
baggage "smashers" and mail handlers,
seven ticket sellers, one depot master,
one assistant depot master, five gate
men, six red-cap porters, two Pullman
ticket sellers, eight men validating
tickets, ten men in the parcel room
checking hand baggage, four young
women telephone operators and five
telegraph bperators which is going
Some. It is the biggest force that Man
ager Lyons has ever bad on at the
depot, and half the time It Is being
worked to death with the press of busi
ness. Iepot Force Is largest.
It is. moreover, the largest force now
employed in the depot of any city on
the Pacific Coast, except San Francisco.
If this were not excellent evidence that
Portland's tourist travel is exceeding
that of the other Coast cities with the
single exception of San Francisco. - the
figures of the validating office at the
depot would pretty effectively clinch It.
The statement was made by the validat
ing clerks the other day after they had
checked up the business from May 15 to
the end of August, the practically 38.000
persons arriving with this city as their
destination have made side trips while
here, requiring the validation of their
tickets. They also made the announce
ment that San Francisco leads Portland
bv a small percentage, with Seattle a
close third, while for the first time in its
history Los Angeles is in fourth and last
place. .
Now, you can readily see in the face
of all this that being matron of a busy
place like the Union Depot Is not exactly
a Job that a physician would recommend
to one of his patients as a rest cure.
- Mrs. Carrie Fields, the present day
matron, has served in that capacity In
Portland for two years. Mrs. Fields Is
the best matron the depot has ever had.
-THE SWIFT PACKIXG-HOITSE, NEARLY COMPLETED, IS SHOW
OF THE TWO SCALE - HOUSES. ,
VERY BUSY PLACE
But It's fortunate for both the depot ;.r.d
Mrs. Fields that she was born with a
decided bump of humor, for otherwise
it's not very likely there would be much
left of her by this time. The nerve
strain of answering so many questions
and having so many responsibilities every
day alone would be enough to Incapaci
tate most people. -
What would the average woman do, for
instance, if she were suddenly called
upon to render first aid treatment to a
burly logger who had received such a
severe dose of knockout drops that lie
appeared to be deadT And how would
you take it. madam, if you had to take
a big bottle of whisky away from a
grown man who was determined to drink
it, while his family of three youngsters
were howling with fright and about to
miss their train? Matron Fields was
called upon to do both those things one
day recently, tut such trivial matters as
that don't bather her in the least.
She was sitting at her desk in one of
the waiting-rooms a few weeks ago when
MAIA'TAIXS MILK DEPOTS FOR
POOH IN AEW YORK.
i
V 1 jr.
.Nathan Straus.
Photo copyright. 1909, by George
, Grantham Bain.
Nathan Straus has sailed for
Europe to attend the Internation
al Medical Congress at Budapest.
Mr. Straus will urge the concert
ed action toward the Pasteuriza
tion of milk. Mr. Straus has
maintained milk depots in this
city for many years for the dis
tribution to the poor of Pasteur
ized milk. He recently estab
lished a similar station In Ger
man cities. Mr. Straus is at the
head of a big shop in New York,
ana he is just now in contro
versy with one of the New York
papers which has condemned his
milk. The question at Issue is
whether Mr. Straus withdrew his
advertising from the paper in
question before it began to op
pose his milk depots, or whether
the paper turned sour after Mr.
Straus had withdrawn his adver
tising. It has long been under
stood in newspaper circles in the
big city that Mr. Straus and his
pet scheme were sacred subjects
end not to be handled lightly.
fi ,X THE DISTANCE,
FIRMS H. I THEIR TELE-
in Hti, ih,e. mtle children.
As soon as she saw them. Matron Fields
knew something was wrong. When she
questioned the children, she found that
their mother had just died, and their
father, the man with the whisky bottle,
was taking them up to an aunt in Walla
Walla. He was trying to drown his
grief by drinking. They had to catch
their train in ten minutes, but the man
didn't seem disposed to catch anything.
Matron Fields collected their baggage
and made the man get up and stomp
around a bit to clear his head. Then she
very quickly and deftly reached into his
pocket and took out the whisky bottle.
"You can't take that on the train with
you." she said determinedly.
"What!" said the man, as he made a
grab for the bottle. But Mrs. Fields has
not been looking after all sorts of people
in depots for 20 years for nothing. What
she did was to take the man by the col
lar and give him a good shaking. Said
she: "You ought to be ashamed of your
self. Now march!" And the man
marched. With Mrs. Fields at his collar,
he marched out through the ticket gate
and onto his train, and he sat very meek
ly and quietly down in the seat where
Mrs. Fields plumped him.
"If I hear of your taking another drink
while you have these children with you,
It's going to be the worse for you." she
said. , "Do you hear?"
The man heard. And before Mrs. Fields
left him, he promised weakly that he
would do whatever she told him to do.
That little experience would be enough
to fluster most women for the rest of the
day, but Mrs. Fields only smiled and took
the whisky bottle up to the emergency
hospital ward at the depot, of which she
is in charge, in addition to her other du
ties. "I thought I might find a use for it
some time." she explained. She did find
a use for it. and the use came a good
deal sooner than she had expected. She
had hardly seen the man and the three
children safely on their way when one
of the gatemen came running up. He ex
plained that the Astoria train had Just
brought in a dead logger, or a logger who
looked like a dead one, and she was
needed.
Recovers From Knockout Drops.
Well, they put the logger in one of the
cots at the hospital, ' and Mrs. Fields,
who is also a trained nurse made a
careful examination of his Injuries while
they were sending for a doctor. If he
wasn't actually, dead, she saw that he
was at least a mighty sick logger. He
had a big gash in his scalp, and no sign
of a pulse could she detect. But Mrs.
Fields had seen sick loggers before, and
something made her think that this one
might have been given "knockout" drops.
She got .the bottle of contraband whisky,
pried open the logger's mouth with the
aid of some of his scared fellow-loggers,
and pouied about a gill of the burning
fluid down his throat.
In about three seconds a great change
came over that logger. His arms began
to wave wildly, his eyelids twitched, and
he suddenly sat straight up In the cot
and began to blink. When the doctor
came, the logger was so far recovered
that he was asking for another' drink.
What' would you think of the absent
minded father who would give hjs suit
case to his wife to hold and take the baby
over to Jhe baggage room to check him
through to his destination? Mrs. Fields
straightened out a lovely family mix-up
of that sort not long ago. It was a new
baby, too, and the father was so proud
of it he wouldn't let it get out of his
arms when he came to the depot. In
the excitement of looking after the bag
gage, however, he hurried over to the
checking-room and tried to explain to a
perplexed baggage man that he wanted
it checked at once. The hysterical moth
er, who hadn't realised at first what was
happening, hunted up Mrs. Fields, and
Under Way for a Year, Big
Be Thrown Open to
WHILE THE SQUARE BUILDING IN
cago fully 20 per cent of the population
gets its dally bread from the meat In
dustry. In St. Joseph, Mo., Inbound
livestock Increased 60,000 carloads in
ten years.
'In Kort Worth, Texas, Inbound live.
stock, shipments for eight months this
year will approximate 60,000 cars and
it is safe to say that the outbound,
freight added to the cars of fuel neces
sary to convert that many cars Into
sirloin and chops, bacon and lard, hides
and tallow, soap and fertilizer, and
even drugs, will make an equal num
ber of carloads. This means an added
100.000 cars of freight to the commerce
of the Texas town. It means that the
livestock market industry has tripled
the population of Fort Worth in ten
years and that fully 16.000 people fill
their dinner pails daily because of the
building up of a livestock market.
"Bach of the livestock markets men
tioned had a struggle. The adverse
conditions that Denver, Omaha and
Fort Worth had to overcome were
greater than those which confront
Portland. Each of them was in a less
favored location from a standpoint of
the then existing agricultural condi
tions, and then, too, each was nearer
the older and more prominent markets
than is Portland. , Even the most
optimistic saw times when they were
almost ready to give up the struggle.
ii :
Fifty Trains Daily With 25,000 People, Average
Throughout Summer. Continued From Page 2.
the matron rescued the infant from its
impending peril.
Family troubles? Oh. there are lots
of 'em at the depot. But if they ever
come to Mrs. Fields, she settles them
all. One night an eloping wife came
down to the station with the man for
whom she was deserting her home. Just
a few minutes before her rightful hus
band appeared on the scene. The hus
band wasn't wrathful, but he was ter
ribly excited. He kept following the
couple until the woman appealed to Mrs.
Fields to protect her from a fellow who
was annoying her, a6 she put it. But
Just then the husband rushed up. "You 11
sav goodbye to me. at least, won't you
Nellie?" he implored.
"Here, there's something behind all
this," said Mrs. Fields. "Now you tell
me all about It."
In two minutes she had the whole story,
the erring wife was weeping and promis
ing to return home, and the would-be
eloper was slinking out of the station.
A helpless woman Is bad enough, but
Mrs. Fields is authority for the state
ment that a helpless man is a little bit
worse. 'Every evening before she leaves
the depot, the matron makes the rounds
of the waiting rooms just to make sure
that no excited young parents, in the
rush rfor their train have forgotten the
baby. One day a month ago she thought
even this had come to pass. Wrapped
up in a bit of old shawl, a little fellow
not more than six months old was cry
ing lustily. For once in the day. there
was nobody in the waiting-room. It
seemed clear he was forgotten or de
serted. The matron took him over to the
hospital and was wondering what to do
with the youngster, when a man in a
great state of excitement rushed In.
He saw the child on the cot and made
a dive for it. taking it in his arms and
fairly sobbing In his relief.
The man was an Italian laborer. In
broken English and with tears running
down his cheeks, he told the matron that
the child's mother was dead and that he
was taking it to a little town up the
Columbia to leave it with a relative.
Just for a moment, while he snatched
something to eat before his train left, he
had left it alone In the waiting-room.
When he came back and found it gone
he had thought
After, that Mrs. Fields, who has three
grown sons of her own, felt a tender
spot expanding in her heart for that
baby. There wasn't time -. before the
train left for her to dress it up, but
she took it on the train herself and
left it witti a woman in one of the cars,
who promised to see that it had every
care a baby needs until it and Its father
reached their destination. The Italian was
so grateful he could only express his
thanks by taking the matron's hand
and kissing it in the Italian fashion.
Deals With Many Foreigners.
The matron has great success with the
foreigners. Scores of them come to the
city every day direct from the old coun
try, so ignorant of the customs and
language of America that they are
almost helpless. In the course of her
long experience, the matron has picken
up a smattering of half a dozen foreign
tongues, and she can converse with all
these .people and see them on their way.
Some of the foreigners are 60 grateful
for it that they send her letters and
little presents for months- afterwards.
Those are Just' a few of the interest
ing incidents that happen almost daily
to the matron at the Union Depot. One
could write of a host of others it space
or time permitted. But they serve to
show that it takes a remarkable woman
to fill the place, and that Mrs. Fields
must be a remarkable woman. Every
body there likes her; all the 105 employes
, at the big station call her mother and
Industry on Peninsula Will
Trade September 15. ,
THE FOREGROUND IS ONE
but while there is much to tie nons
before this market reaches such colos
sal proportions as those mentioned, the
natural surroundings are much mora
favorable. None of the big things that
have fallen into Portland's lap is of
greater importance than the establish
ment of its livestock market."
The new yards will be able to handle
from 75 to 80 cars of livestock a day.
The officers of the company are:
President, William II. Daughtrey, of
Portland; vice-president, Frank J.
Hagertbarth. of Salt Lake; secretary
treasurer, O. M. Plummer, of Portland;
general agent, D. C. Lively, of Port
land. l"p-to-Date Hotel Roofs.
Popular Mochanii-s.
Not many years hence a hotel will not
be up-to-date unless its roof is turned
into an airship station, and wsveral hotels
in other parts of the world and one In
Philadelphia have already made prep
arations, doubtless expecting immediate
advertising and future aerial guests.
The aerial garage planned for the roof
of the Philadelphia hotel will have a
repair shop, stored electricity, gasoline,
and all the paraphernalia needed by
aerial navigators. A wireless station,
now on the roof and used for com
municating with other stations on the
land and at sea. will then be used for
receiving room reservations from aerial
travelers as well.
when she has time between the ques
tions she is always having to answer, she
mothers them about as if they belonged
to one big family.
No story' about the great traffic they
are handling at the Union Dppot in this
record year would be quite complete
without a paragraph or so about the
baggage-room, and the man who
handle it.
W. F. Groh is the baggagemaster. and
he has made quite a remarkable record
In this remarkable year. He is a man,
with responsibilities that would make
your hair gray. Twenty-nine years of
continuous service, seven of them in the
office here, have finally done that wry
thing for him. Though he is not at all
an old man, his hair is gray and it will
be grayer in a few more years.
Every day in the week, Baggage
master Groh and the 56 men under htm,
check, load on trains and unload frnin
them 3500 trunks, bundles, suitcases and
the like, in addition to 33 tons of mail.
Baggagemen Are Rushed.
Durjr.g the month of July alone. 102.
396 pieces of baggage were handled by
Mr. Groh and his men, and last month
the figures were, more than 10 per cent
greater. In July, 1905, the Exposition
year, only 93,073 pieces of baggage were
handled and last year only tM.flfiO. You
can see for yourself what the growth
has been.
Since May the depot "baggage
smashera" have handled baggage to this
amount: May 87,000 and June 93.000. Cor
responding figures for 1905 were 62,000
pieces for May and 72.700 in June.
The efficiency of Mr. Groh and his
men Is strikingly illustrated when one
learns that in almost 2.".0,000 pieces of hag
gage handled since May, only two have
been permanently lost. One of those
was an Italian laborer's bundle, the
other a tourist's suitcase, and the bag
gagemaster hasn't yet given up hope of
recovering one of them.
The baggagemen have their troubles
just before a heavy train pulls out. when
all the way from 50 to 200 passengers of
the "last minute" variety are yelling
their heads off in the effort to get their
baggage checked. When, as often hap
pens, a ticket calls for several stop
overs and a side trip or two on some
obscure branch line, it isn't any ten
second job to fix up the checks, though
many passengers seem to think it is". No
trains leave the station until the depot
master in person has gone to the hag-gage-room
three minutes before leaving
time, and seen to it that all the bag
gage has been checked up and will get
into the baggage car on time.
Yes. everybody at the depot has his
troubles' these daya If you doubt It.
just run down and see for Ollrself. Only
whatever else you do. don't under any
circumstances ask them about it, for
from the matron to the policeman on the
beat, the gatemen and the red cap
porters, answering needless questions Is
by far the greatest of their troubles.
Unsale to Steal Radium.
PARIS, Sept. 4. (Special.) A doctor at
tached to a large hospital in Paris left
in a cab a few days ago a small box
containing salts of radium. Although
there were only some milligrammes of
radium in the box. they represent a value
of H500. The person who has found the
box and who does not want to return it
may meet with an accident, as the ra
dium in the small packet can by con- .
tact cause terrible burns. The sub
stance cannot be handled by inexperi
enced hands without danger.
It is expected that this announcement,
which appears in .the papers today, will
induce the possessor to return the -box
to the Prefecture of Police.