He was employed as a switchman in East St. Louis a number of years, and was prominent in the great railroad strike of 1886.
One switchman is the same as another, and a thousand are but as one, in all the essential points that originally brought them together.
He first did duty as a clerk, but found that was little better for him than the law, and he then entered the service as a switchman on the P.
The old switchman who becomes a yardmaster often proves a failure because he cannot overcome his inclination to follow one engine and take a hand in the switching himself.
The switchman drew back with a curse to express his astonishment, his surprise, the sudden fright that confused and angered him.
Even the engines in the yards joined by sounding sharp, angry blasts on their whistles, and behind the little group that was rapidly becoming a mob, raced the switchman with two of the railroad's detectives.
And there, looking full in their faces, was a switchman with a red, rough face and a stubble of reddish beard.
It was all the same as far as telling the switchman was concerned.
At home they knew a switchman who lived in a little shanty just like this.
Oh, yes, I know that queer tramp," said the water-tank switchman with another laugh.
Bunny, when the dancing animal, wagging his tail, came to Mr. Black to be petted after the switchman stopped playing the mouth organ.
Here's my house," said the switchman a little later, as he turned into a path that led through a yard and up to a white cottage.
You children seem to have had a better time than your mother or I had," said Mr. Brown, after he had thanked the kind switchman for the care he and his wife had given Bunny and Sue.
Yes, he is a very good dog," the switchman answered.
Well, if she doesn't I have thought of a way to get word to her and the father, too," the switchman said.
It was new and strange, this stopping at the cottage of a switchman whom they had never before seen.
Well, yes, I have taught him a few tricks," the switchman answered.
Mr. Black got a broom from a corner, and as Bruno stood upright on his hind legs the switchman put the broom over the dog's shoulder and under one paw.
I was told by a switchman that by walking out about a mile to the signal-tower I could catch a freight.
In three swift rounds the big switchman was thrashed into a proper state of submission and hospitality, and again, being Irish, he bore no grudge.
A brawnyswitchman was passing, and he came and unhasped the door in response to Smith's shower of kicks upon it.
Way car jumped track at middle lead switch in Pewaukee yard and switchman Jno.
Falesburg, was under end of car on repair track; Switchman Moody backed train No.
No switchman riding on the car at the time of the accident.
A switchman came up, and one of the men, a lank American whom we should recognise by the sound of his voice (having heard it before), asked whither the train was bound and when it would first stop in its flight.
Most of the crews are in the city for the--" But the switchman had no listeners beyond that statement.
He had been waiting nearly two hours when the switchmancame in.
I was foreman in the yards at Buffalo, had a scrap with the yard-master who had boasted that he would not have a switchman he couldn't curse, an' got fired.
The yard master unbent sufficiently to say to the switchman on the engine that the Limited was ten minutes late, adding, that she would probably be fifteen at the junction, for it was storming all along the line.
The switchman of a decade ago could always be counted upon to fight.
Presently, the switchman went back to the stove and began to button his thin coat up about his throat.
The switchman went over to the bar where a couple of non-union men were shaking dice for the drinks.
Hoffman, a switchman in the Chicago & Atlantic yards, was run over and killed this morning.
He was a good switchman and more than ordinarily intelligent.
The engine was within a few seconds of reaching his signal box when, on turning his head, the switchman saw his little boy playing on the line of rails over which the train was to pass.
The unhesitating obedience which springs from a loving confidence is beautifully illustrated in the following incident: A switchman in Prussia was stationed at the junction of two lines of railroad.
But when Shockley talked Callahan always listened, and when he asked for a new switchman he got him.
The switchman started on the word for the front door.
The switchman recovered himself instantly, and taking off his cap laughed as he examined the hole.
And don't you know a switchman oughtn't t' put his feet in flatboats?
The grip of the frog seemed to stifle him; half the time was gone; the near truck wheels screeched two car-lengths away: and the switchman played his last card.
The little switchman screamed again in a frenzy, and turning, raced stumbling up the track to the cab.
The one-armed switchman who had charge of these tracks appeared on the scene, his signal flag stuck under his perfect arm, and looking flustered.
He blocked the doorway with his bulky frame as the foreman and his charge passed through, admitting a moment later a switchman with a can of water, and two of the older engineers at his heels.
