e wreck was an awful one. The superintendent's son was riding on the
engine, and he and the engineer and the fireman were mashed and crushed
almost beyond recognition. The superintendent, his wife and daughter,
and a friend, were badly bruised, but none of them seriously injured.
The second trick man was not to be found immediately, so I worked until
four o'clock, and the impression of that awful day will never leave me.
Pat's personality was constantly before me in the shape of the blood
stain on the train sheet. It was a long time before I recovered my
equanimity.

The next afternoon we buried poor Pat under the snow, and the earth
closed over him forever; and thus passed from life a man whose character
was the purest, whose nature was the gentlest: honest and upright, I
have never seen his equal in the profession or out. I often think if I
had not gone over to the hotel that morning, the accident might have
been averted, because, perhaps, I would have noticed the mistake in time
to have prevented the collision. But, on the other hand, it is probable
I would not have noticed it, because operators, not having the
responsibility of the despatchers, rarely concentrate their minds
intensely on what they are taking. A man will sit and copy by the hour
with the greatest accuracy, and at the same time be utterly oblivious of
the purport of what he has been taking. There can be no explanation as
to why Pat forgot the special. It is one of those things that happen;
that's all.

The rule of seniority was followed in the office, and in the natural
sequence of events the night man got my job, I was promoted to the third
trick--from twelve midnight until eight A. M.--and a new copy operator
was brought in from Vining.

If any trick is easier than another it is the third, but none of them
are by any means sinecures. When I was a copy operator I used to imagine
it was an easy thing to sit over on the other side of the table and give
orders, "jack up" operators, conductors and engineers, and incidentally
haul some men over the coals every time I had to call them a few
minutes; but when I reached the summit of an operator's ambition, and
was assigned to a trick I found things very different. Copying with no
responsibility was dead easy; but despatching trains I found about the
stiffest job I had ever undertaken. I had to be on the alert with every
faculty and every minute during the eight hours I was on duty. While the
first and se