Show RAILROAD MEN AND DRINK alny xay great disasters ll ter have come from the whisky AVIi leky ll ottle managers of roads are aware of the risk and danger of the service rendered by men who use spirits hence stringent droles rules are laid down and efforts made to employ only healthy temperate men ft especially on trains and where great re ao ability and exact duties are required while the vast majority of trainmen on all railroads are practically total abstainers abstain ers there is always a small number who are concealed drinkers growing worse steadily the result of their drinking is always some accident and exposure with discharge often the accidents are of little interest to the public because they are not attended with losa loss of life in some instances the person who made the mistake is killed and his uso ube us o of spirits as the real cause of the accident is concealed from the where gross carelessness and tepidity stupidity o 0 result in ili nn an accident among experienced trainmen alie use of alcohol js s not the real cause ys these men are not public drinkers kand and are known as tom temperate men but patter after accidents it will vill v ill appear that they have used spirits and probably carried it with them there is another classow class of L active responsible trainmen whose long tried services have given them reputation with the tile company who all unexpectedly make very serious mistakes in ia their ardi ordinary nary work which result in threat treat disasters alcohol and its compounds aro are often at the bottom of these sudden failures want of ordinary caution and sudden boldness in assuming a great risk failure to remember orders and faulty reasoning are the usual symptoms such men use alcohol is as a medicine and tonic to enable them to do their work better they fully recognize the danger of large doses but are deluded with the idea that in certain circumstances email small doses are necessary for their work the fact is well known that the continuous strain and irregularity of railroad work soon wears out the brain and nervous system producing states of exhaustion ha li austion for which alcohol in any form as a most seductive tonic to an overworked tired out trainman who has found spirits a perfect relief no rules or restrictions can prevent lafin from tak lag ing spirits from the traveling saloon orf on f the train or the saloon at the station of conree course no one will see him but his changed spirits and manner will tell the t story are the men who mako make the mistakes from which accidents I 1 come A tired brakeman took a glass of spirits and went back to flag nn an approaching pro aching train fell asleep and a frightful disaster followed an am overworked ol el engineer after a glass of spirits at the the station failed to see the danger signal nal a few miles farther on and was killed in a frightful wreck theao these and similar instances are repeated every year on nearly all the roads only many of them simply involve the lose loss of property and are unnoticed A railroad dispatcher at a saloon station after a glass of spirits gave the wrong order ten lives and over a million of dollars were lost the dispatcher in grief at ills union signal |