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Show When a presidential train like thnt which Is now Journeying throughout tho South and WnI start on & lone Journoy scroti the continent, much more li Involved than nppears on tho surface. In the load which iuch a train carrlei li Involved the poialble safsty and the welfare of tho nation, and It Is literally tho chief bualnciui of thousand! of men, while tho train li on tho road, to see that It panes In safety and without delays or Inconvenience! of any kind. In tho flrat place, overy division eu- rv PILOT ENOINB TRAVELS AHEAD berlntondont, and practically every employe em-ploye over which the presidential train pane la notified days In advanco of Its coming. The oiact mlnuto of Its Departuro and a carefully arranged schedule of Its arrival at and departuro from every station on the lino was sent put to every etatlonagent and section hand. Deglnnlng saveral hours beforo Iho train waa due overy foot of tho track was carefully patrolled by keen-syed keen-syed men, who felt the responsibility Krhlch rested upon them. If President ftcKlnley bad sat up In tho obiSrva-lon obiSrva-lon car attached to tho train he might have aecn at Intervals of a few mln-- mln-- MdsiMUnd nil nlsht.ntonc-lheijrallow. , lights of the lantern or the sleeploia h ' sentinels who were to guard his safety and assure bis convenience. Practl-1 Practl-1 tally, It might almost be said that tho i train passed betweon two lines of watchmen, so close are they together ; and so careful Is their watch. : Nor does railroad vlgllanco atop there. That, In fact, Is only tho begin-V begin-V nlng. All day and all night long a . , pilot englno runa a llttlo In advance i' of tho Presidential train to mako euro " that nothing has been overlooked V WAITINQ FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL PRESIDEN-TIAL TIIAIN which could by any human possibility endanger Its safety. Close behind tha presidential train Is usually seen a second sec-ond engine, so that It la closely guard-fed guard-fed before, behind and on both atdei. Still other precautions are taken. Every station agent Is notified that on tho nlgbt or day when tha train bear- J Ing tho President la to pass his station ho must be continuously on duty He f may not leavo tho responsibility to his l4 subordinates. He must personally at tend to the arrangement of the proper Ignals and see to It with his own eyes that everything posslblo Is done to forward the train with speed and aafe-ty. aafe-ty. It may pasi his little backwoods itatlon at sixty mtlea an hour, but ho must stay on duty and watch and wait until It Haines by In tho night, and, with a sigh of relief ho ran call up the next station on the wlro and announce an-nounce that tho President's train has gone by and the weight haa been lifted from his shoulders Even weeks bofora tbo date of tho lourney'a start tho roadbed haa been , carefully Inspected by tho higher offl- itals of the several roads over which tbo presidential train la to pass, and Improvements and alterations ordered. I llttlo later a second trip of Inspection Is made to aeo that tho orders previously pre-viously given have been carefully and properly carried out There are three Instead of two men In tho cab. One of them Is tbo en gineer Ho li as carefully lelectcd as I the beit man on the dlvlilon Tho second sec-ond man Is the fireman Tho third li the matter of trnniportatton He alts In the cab alongside tho engineer, and the eyes of both are centered on tho twin lines of rail before them. They watch to make sure that nono of their aubordlnates mako n mistake nnd to be certain that nothing Is In the way of tho presidential train When the train pines from one division di-vision to tho next tho transportation manager leaves the train to mako way for the man who Is responilblo over the next dlvlilon Whoever covers tha entire 15,000 miles of the Journey mtght obicrvo at least thirty different men, sitting perhaps per-haps In a seat In tho smoking car, with slouch hits pulled over their eyes, keeping csreful track of eery Incident of tho trip. They nre tho dlvlilon superintendents, su-perintendents, each of them with tho entire burden and responsibility of the presidential train on his shoulders until It posies safely beyond tho limits of his territory. When such connecting points nro reached the observer, If ho walked out on the platform, would bo likely to hear a conversation llko this: "Hello. Ed." "Hello, mil." "Everything 0. K.7" "Yes, thank Clod." "How's 267" "Watting at Ccdarvlllo." "Wish mo tho samo luck. Oood-night," Thon tho train would pull out at forty miles an hour and another man would take tho placo In the smoking car Just vacated by tho sleepy-eyed man who has left tbo train at tha division di-vision terminus. When a train carrying a king or emperor leaves ono of tho great capitals capi-tals of Europo It Is always posslblo to stop every other wheel on tho line and leavo tho track perfectly frco for tho passage of the Imperial special. Dut In the United States tho railroad manager man-ager has also tbo problem of running the regular passenger trains and keeping keep-ing freight tralna moving with as little lit-tle delay aa possible. This greatly complicates the problem. As rt mat-trrof,fiu:tvfwirrMhUtrln-"hm'oa" the regular schedules when the presidential presi-dential train la moving Its wheels, and tho traffic manager has troubles of his own for a day or two after It has passed. Every train dispatcher on each division knowa that tho special has passed for icvcral days by the complaints which como In from shippers ship-pers of perishable goods, oven If ofll-clal ofll-clal notice were lacking It Is his hard task to see that everybody Is kept satisfied, oven while tho demands of the presidential train are compile! with. It Is safo to say that traffic will bo entirely upset on overy road which Is traversed by tho train for at least forty-eight hours. Theso samo train dispatchers and their assistants have In chargo tho difficult task of keeping tho president and bla movable cabinet In conitant communication with Waiblngton. Telegrams Tel-egrams In tha obscuro presidential cipher ci-pher msy bo thrown from tbo train at tho most out-ot-tho-way station and tbora muit alwaya bo on duty thero a man capable of handling tho work In sn Intelligent way. A mlitake made by a night operator at Spodunk might possibly result In an International difficulty. dif-ficulty. Tho responsibility which overy ov-ery man connected with one of tho roads over which the train panes may thereforo bo Imagined. After all Is said and dons tho man who Is chiefly responsible for tbo comfort, com-fort, nnd In a largo degree for tbo welfare, of the presidential party, rides In the lost car of the train. Ho Is a colored man, and bo Is In charge of tbo culinary department of tho presidential presi-dential train, neforo he Is selected tho whole force of tho road Is carefully care-fully scrutlnlxcd. He Is chosen as one among a hundred, and as a rule he feols not only tho responsibility but the honor of his appointment. It Is told of the chief cook on a provlous presidential Journey that after an especially es-pecially flno breakfast tho president expressed a detlro to sea and'eongrnt-ulate and'eongrnt-ulate tho chef on hit triumph Word was taken to tho magnate In his special spe-cial car anil bo sent back word that If tho president desired to seo him be could bo found In tho kitchen. TUB SCOTT RESIDENCE, WHERE THE PRESIDENT WILL STAY WHILE IN SAN FRANCISCO. |