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Show The Old Red Undershirt Passes I Along the lines of western railroads this year tourists will gaze no longer on red flannel undershirted huskies, leaning on their track-fixing tools as the Limited roars by. The old red flannel undershirt has bowed to the ideal of "Safety First." Time was when the tracks were embroidered, at intervals, inter-vals, with large, muscular men, sometimes with sweeping black mustachios. They wore corduroy or blue denim pants and undershirts that made a prairie sunset look like weak tea. Then the roads discovered that engineers and firemen frequently mistook a red undershirt for a signal that the bridge was out. Wear and tear on the brake-gear and the train crew's nerve grew appallingly. We are sorry the old red undershirt has gone. It was a spot of color in the drab world of black locomotive, brown ballast and gray rails. |