Show A N Y OR DRIVEL i 4 he Is a sti anger tit ills owai fireside HE SEES 1118 abo story of life at tie cir brake by ono of the drivers in his own words new york sun perhaps some of y our readers saw me talking I 1 to a lady the other lay I 1 know it looked curious to eee a lady standing upon the front platform of it borse car talking to the driver but what was she to do she is my sister and she had come in from the west with just a day to spare before taking the steamer to she knew I 1 could not afford to take a day off with my sick wife and my children and the doctors bills to look after so the epand down with deou the fro nt platform and we bad i t out together sheba girl with a heart the size of her muff and she wants me to quit the brake and let her do for me till I 1 can get some of my own for she aint like the run of my family she was all for books and reading and finding out every thing when she was a kid and when ehe got long skirts on she wen t in for style and put on so many airs and held her head so high that we all used to whisper to each other that if ebe did not bring us shame it would be surprising we did her a great wrong in that for she married a likely young fellow and he went west abild got rich and ever since ashes wanted me to take money and help myself out of railroading but never a cent 3 hit ive always told her and its h t 1 told her ag ain the other day 1 I ca n be as proud as she can thong hi must any I 1 kinder ad nir e d her when I 1 found her cling ing on to the dashboard of the car it full couple of hours just to see me before she took the steamer and site must here arent another two hours after that for if site abend the full of a bar rel of things for christmas ill eat my head first came a basket with a turkey and all the trimmings down to the bit of pork and the cranberries and the bunch of thyme for the then came it box with a buddi in i it ti in can and some nuts an apples and raisins and things and then came a tub and it was full of toys for the young ones and fur gloves for me ind a worsted thin g for my wife and even the tub was what she bad seen we needed cause ours is only held together by the goodness of providence and would fall apart if it th ia the same rooan where it is there aint a man on the road got a chrie atmaa if ike that and I 1 have had no at all barring a horn for my boy and a twenty cent doll for little emma if my a happened along now a word about myself never min d who I 1 jim except you want to call rne 48 which is the name I 1 get the most im writing this because the sim reporter was ask ing me about railroading and I 1 told him I 1 would think of all there osay Think ilig about it started me a writing and you must read it and fix the spelling all right ile said the kafun printed a piece about the national organization of horse car employees made up in phila delphia the other day and be want ed w know what the life of a dri ver is and what is the best way for that organization to help us along im driving in brooklyn now ard ill tell what the last tie up ne for u about organizing befog that we used to get flye minute for lunch and the super told us we came there to work and not to eat dow we get forty min utes then we used lo 10 have to put the team away ands take the collars off when we came in at the end of the days work and also get there half an hour early and find our team one in one end of the stable anti the other in the other end and harness ern and bring em out to the car now fill lone for Us and then we used to have to wash our cars and we used to have to buy the bell for the off bor I 1 e which cost 75 cents well th ats all changed we dont do none of those things now aad get forty minutes for lunch besides the difference is this that I 1 know plew ty of fellows that used to lea vehome 61 r at 3 in the morning and not get harne again till after 8 at night and then if another man was took sick you bad to take his place so that ive done three houra extra on top of my day and got home at and not seen at soul of my in thirty eight boure many A bitile without a cent extra fay but theres no more of that I 1 get up about balf past five in tho morning anti light the fire and ofick the ice in the pitcher mayba and I 1 myself an egg or two some coffee and if my cifes awake I 1 slip in and whisper a word with her without awaking tile chi dren and then im on lick at 7 I 1 dont live near the stable on acco ant of the begres and the bad n eig for bring ingup little ones so I 1 cant get benlo to my lunch but ive got four decent rooms and decent people far neigh bors above abid below me and I 1 pay 10 a month I 1 get 2 a day and work seven days because I 1 need all I 1 can make I 1 giva my wife all except twelve shillings which gets me alny itina hea and t bacco anti she used to a dollar now and then but nil gone and there no laying tip now 0 13 account of her and in e needing the doctor well I 1 get at 8 at night and tadd my I 1 oaf and read my kim till 10 Welde kii with the bite of she saya ovar I 1 roe and thin I 1 go 6 bed the tlde hara is my not seeing my children t ii I 1 I 1 aa I 1 I 1 ca truly thank god bat MY it atle emma knows nia now but up to three years old jilie did not inov ine frodi any passerby passer by in the street I 1 bad n cli tini and lie believe mo when I 1 inid that but lie believes me now this is how it was I 1 was doing my fourteen faur teen and sixteen tire work on the third avenue in ner york and had need olevery acut and a cons titu don like it borse so I 1 made every tiny tell I 1 had been doing that till little aminie was three years fild nud then my leg began to trouble roe and one day I 1 had to lay off I 1 walk vt so jack my chum got away and elpe toe home there wasE mw and her mother and aach and rile each took a chair a nd I 1 whispered to my wife so that t e little girl apu bear me aminie Em inie dear aa MY W I 1 fe r G 04 hie 8 it nil kee p er to me one oi gentlemen is your father 11 u know which one t is this is mt raan says she and I 1 hen I 1 ev believed what I 1 d been f 11 7 liua for the little child I 1 rix climb ed on ili knee and put up her mouth for A kiss she hail seen my beard in the bed once in A while but jacks beard and mine were as like as two brooms and she chose the wrong one well in one w ay of looking at it im sorry to say that she knows me now quite as a child ought to maybe its what they call a provi dence find the finger of god is in it but anyhow my legs ie that add now that ance in a while I 1 have to lay off for a day and rest them by walking abut and sitting down for wb it tet a car drivers leg on yot I 1 I 1 L curious thing that w dg i good for it if von can alki tid abe as sitting down what do I 1 deap by it drivers leg well find a man at jany the broke has in these three cities where not let a driver sit dolan and in fact all will get it booner or later if they stick to the b usi i nes it comes of 9 up 11 0 many hours withof t the chance to walk that a conductor haf up and down the cr collect i the fares one drivers legs will re the size of telegraph pole 3 and another one like me will get bunches of veins as biz as your flit sticking gg out of his legs do curo except tile limehouse aIm ehouse or the potters field though I 1 do filid a great he I 1 p in my stocking im a better man since I 1 put it on all this talk about the torture a man feels when ile first gets on a car well it bosh youtie fellows give nil their jobs ever y week on accod nt of the agony they suffer but it aint the few days its the whole life its hard on the legs and they never get used to i t A young fellow thinks if hes stranded and knows about horses that lie can be a driver well hell and out its more in the con atit ution ofa nian than in hn 1 11 about horses I 1 wore out th fi r ig pa y ir i ahree or four days but then came the swollen veins they mutt come its the natural of the business busi nees leave railroading says my doctor oh its CASY to say it but when a man is tied to a pair of car horses find has a wife and family to support Bup port theres no such thing djs looking for other work it wont come to him and bow can he go to it but in the re garde of that I 1 think I 1 am very lucky for my boy will be old enough to apprentice to a maelia of m R in another coupe of ears and after that hell chip in a T tile toward the family and ill be able to lay ot a day now and then I 1 wrote about the almshouse alms bouse and the potters field but theres no such thing for up another old thing done away with by means of organizing in our local beget 85 a week when we are sick which will pacify the landlord and kee a bite in the cupboard in death theres no provision but we make up a subscription and get together forty or fifty dollars maybe which is enough to leave the potters field in the distance and the only cost to us of keeping up the local is 35 cents a month sh that we dont feel it very hard though theres a dozen crying for every cent that most of us earn now pretty much all I 1 can think of about driving a car I 1 have been able to stick to m y ca r every day bow to my stocking till its three months since I 1 beard the sound ofay little voices and I 1 cant afford to take christmas off at home with them on account of my wife being so ill that I 1 have to lose a little sleep now and then to do the mending she leaves out for me for she i 3 nor abl ato leave her bed but the doctor ba a her veil in ban and all we hope for is that be able to hitup part of the day chrismas Chri amas in the rocker find it will be the befit bioli day we have iteen since I 1 took t 0 railroading the doctor is c atai n ahe will be on her feet aglitz by new years antl I 1 am going to leave my car and my fifteen cents an hour on tu day that she cele brates her recovery if I 1 never ila ve a holiday again other men there fore might haie told you better about railroading than I 1 who am to fortunate I 1 |