The brightness had gone out of her face, and she fidgeted impatiently.

"Oh, everything is spoiled now," she exclaimed. "And we had such good times-they will never be as nice again." "There won't be any more," he said. "I am going away next week. We need some one out in China, and I shall take the position for a few years, since I can't-" He paused. She was looking at him, startled.

"China? You will go way off there?" she faltered.

"Unless you will let me stay, dear." "I-didn't think of that!" She pressed her hands tightly together.

He stooped till he could see under her hat rim and look into her deep blue eyes.

"You do care," he whispered. "My dear, my-"

"Pearl!" shouted the conductor.

She drew a deep, quivering breath. "It's so queer!" she said. "I never thought of your going so far!

Some

way I don't like it."

"And if I were to stay?"

She was silent a few moments, then

she lifted her head impulsively. "Oh, how can I help it?" she exclaimed. "I can't let you go. You're so-" Her

eyes fell again.

"White!" said the conductor. "Truly, truly?"

"I'm-afraid so!" For a moment they forgot the other passengers.

"This is the most beautiful day in the whole world," he said, with a deep sigh of ineffable happiness.

"Grand!" said the jolly conductor, ringing up a dozen fares.

"Oh, I haven't half enough to give you," he exclaimed, presently.

"As if I cared about that!" she laughed, with a happy, contented smile. "I'm not afraid of a-"

"Broom!" said the conductor.

"Look at the light on those buildings," she said, hurriedly. "Did you ever see such color! Everything looks so beautiful."

"Why, do you suppose?" he asked, smiling.

"Spring!" said the conductor.

"Oh, because we have had a jolly nice day out of doors, and you're not going to China, and I have found my-" "Your-?"

"Prince!" announced the conductor. "Never mind what. Aren't you glad

of everything, too?"

"Glad!" he laughed, happily. "And to think that half an hour ago life looked as bleak as the North Pole."

"Bleeker!" said the conductor.

"I was silly," she admitted. "I knew everything the moment you said China. How you frightened me! My hands are cold yet."

He stooped to pick up one of her gloves and, restoring it, laid his hand over hers for an instant.

"Great Jones!" said the conductor.

Beginning with this issue of THE RAILWAY CONDUCTOR, we will take up and discuss the Standard Code of Rules as affecting train orders. The Standard Code is without doubt the best system of regulation yet produced for the practical operation of a railroad. Its authors have endeavored to make it so plain that "he who runs may read" and understand, still there are some points upon which we may speak with profit to a great many of our readers. In connection with the Standard Code, the American Railway Association have compiled a list of definitions, part of which we give below:

TRAIN-An engine, or more than one engine coupled, with or without cars, displaying markers.

REGULAR TRAIN-A train represented on the time-table. It may consist of sections.

SECTION-One of two or more trains running on the same schedule displaying signals or for which signals are displayed.

EXTRA TRAIN-A train not represented on the time table. It may be designated

as

EXTRA-For any extra train, except work extra.

WORK EXTRA-For work train extra. SUPERIOR TRAIN-A train having precedence over other trains. A train may be made superior to another train by right, class or direction.

Right-Is conferred by train order; class and direction by time-table.

Right-Is superior to class or direction. Direction is superior as between trains of the same class.

TRAIN OF SUPERIOR RIGHT-A train given precedence by train order.

TRAIN OF SUPERIOR CLASS-A train given precedence by time-table.

TRAIN OF SUPERIOR DIRECTION-A

(1.) No. 1 will meet No. 2 at Bombay. No. 3 will meet 2d No. 4 at Siam, No. 5 will meet Extra 95 at Hong Kong. Extra 652 North will meet Extra 231 South at Yokohama.

(2.) No. 1 will meet No. 2 at Bombay, 2d No. 4 at Siam and Extra 95 at Hong Kong.

Trains receiving these orders will run with respect to each other to the designated, points and there meet in the manner provided by the Rules.

(1.) Application-Order No. 1. No. 1 will meet No. 2 at C. Both trains are of the same class, but No. 2 has right by direction. After order No. 1 is received train No. 1 suffers a delay and it is necessary to change the meeting point, which is done as follows:

Order No. 2.

No. 1 will meet No. 2 at D instead of C. Later another delay occurs to No. 1 and the following order is given.

Order No. 3.

Order No. 2 is annulled.

Rule No. 220 provides that orders once in effect continue so until fulfilled, superseded or annulled.

Form A is not fulfilled when the inferior train arrives at the meeting point. Both trains must arrive at the meeting point before the order is said to be fulfilled.

To supersede this form of order the words "instead of are added to form A.

In the case above, order No. 2 supersedes order No. 1, making the order of no effect, and order No. 3 annuls order No. 2, leaving no provision for a meet in the place of it, and in consequence No. 1 must be governed by their timecard rights in meeting No. 2, clearing No. 2's time as if no orders had been received.

The following, bearing on Form A, was submitted to the April, 1901, meeting of the American Railway Association:

Rule 14 (K)—To call the attention of trains of the same or inferior class to signals displayed for a following section.

Engine steam whistle 14 (K) is to call the attention of the same or inferior class (only) to signals displayed for a following section. If, therefore, No. 23, a second class train, which is displaying signals for a following section, receives an order as per Train Order Form A, in which order no particular sections of No. 23 are specified, and, therefore, as per rule 218, all sections are included, to meet No. 4, a first-class train, at B, No. 23 is not required, as No. 4 is a train of superior class, to give whistle signal 14 (K) to it at B. Is it not as important in such a case that whistle signal 14 (K) be given to a train of superior class as to a train of inferior class?

The Train Rules Committee replied as follows:

"Whistle signal 14 (K) is merely an auxiliary requirement and the identity of trains is not dependent thereon; therefore, it is non-essential and might be dispensed with altogether without jeopardizing safety of operation. In the opinion of Committee it would be objectionable to extend its application to superior trains for the reason that the great increase of whistling that would result therefrom would be seriously annoying to passengers, particularly at night.

In framing Rule 14 (K) the Committee relied upon the provisions of Rule 218 which, in the case referred to, would

require the conductor of No. 4 to find out and meet all the sections of No. 23."

Another case bearing on Form A is as follows: No. 2 holds order to meet No. 1, a train of inferior direction, but the same class, at C. Upon arrival at C, No. 2 finds that No. 1 has signals for a second section. At C they receive order that No. 2 will meet 2d No. 1 at D instead of C. Upon arrival at D they find 2d No. 1 there with signals for a 3d section; in the absence of further orders, how would No. 2 be governed?

No. 2 should immediately arrange to flag 3d No. 1, expecting them to be running to C upon the original order, rule 218 providing that where no sections are specified all sections are included and each section must have copies addressed and delivered to it. No 2, having no knowledge of a 3d section, had a perfect right to proceed to D upon the second order. In this case the second order should have included 2d and 3d No. 1, the dispatcher being in error.

Questions Answered.

Correspondents will be required to give their names and addresses, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith.

I. M. Briggs, DeSoto, Mo., asks:

I wish you will answer the following questions in the columns of THE CON

DUCTOR:

1. Do the words "instead of" supercede an order? For example: No. ten (10) and extra twelve thirty-eight (1238) south will meet at Salem instead of Nolen.

2. Should a time order include engine and number? For example: No. eight (8) engine 999 will run forty-five (45) minutes late A to B.

3.-"Engine twelve forty (1240) will run extra A to F and will meet number fifty-seven (57) at C." Letters sup

posed to represent stations in their order, A, B, C, D, E, F. When the extra arrives at C it has the necessary time to make D and before 57 is due to leave that station. Has the extra a right to proceed without further orders against 57 than those it has already received.

Answering question 1-The words “instead of" supercede an order or a portion of an order as the case may be.

2.-The Standard Code of Rules leaves the using of engine numbers in addition to the train number optional. We see no object in using the engine number in

the order quoted. It is the opinion of the editor of this department that the identity of a train should not depend upon the engine number in orders issued about such train, but should be provided for in a more regular manner.

3-The order fixes a positive meet at

C and Extra 1240 cannot proceed beyond C until No. 57 arrives at C, no matter how much time they may have to make D, as train orders are superior to the time card. The arrival of Extra 1240 at C does not fulfill the order.

*

Study well this vital question,
Ere it be for you too late;

You can find them by the hundred
Who have gone beyond the date.
Many hearts are filled with sorrow,
Many homes are filled with grief,
Putting off until tomorrow

That which guaranteed relief.
Think the matter over calmly,
It deserves your sober thought;

Is it justice to your family

Giving up before you ought? Remember well the world is careless Of your loved ones left behind; Life for them is bare and cheerless Though your friends be ever kind.

Trials come in untold number,
Battles yet there must be won;
Through them all don't be a grumbler
For your race may soon be run.

When your hands at last are folded,
Duty nobly has been done;
Useful lives by you were molded;
Fitted for the life to come.
Reinstate, do not delay it.

Think of those for whom you pay,
If you owe a payment, pay it,

Life for you may close today.
Not a day but what some household's
Called to mourn departed life:
Bitter struggle is oft the portion
of a true, devoted wife.

-George H. Colby, in the Artisan.

Years, years ago, when Love was young, You asked a song of me;

And from a heart of rapture, of bliss I sung, And a life on Love's summer sea.

But, even then, on that sea of gold

A billow of doubt rose high,

And from out the vast futurity rolled

A cloud o'er my youthful sky;

And I realized then, with a timid start,

The trust that God had given:

A man's great love, and a man's dear heart,
And a soul to be fitted for Heaven.

But love was young-and youth is bold-
And the trust in rose-leaves furled;

And years stretched out, like that sea of gold,
To battle and conquer the World.

And the World seemed weak in the eyes of

Love,

And Faith and Hope seemed strong; And Heaven as near as the blue above, And life one sacred song.

And I dreamed our souls would be as one,
And our work a work for God,
And after life's journey a sweet "Well done,
My children, pass under the rod."

But today we are far from the throne of God;
Forgotten is Love's young prayer;

So heedless was I of the paths we trod;

So careless, if you were but there.

And today I cry the World is strong,

And Love, ah, Love is sweet;

I, too, have drifted with the tide of wrong,
And its waters have touched my feet.

Then let us turn, oh, Heart of mine!
Retrace our steps-atone;

Before the throne of Grace Divine

I dare not kneel alone:

I dare not leave you upon the quay

In the treacherous sands entombed;
For Heaven would scarce be sweet to me,
If the Soul of my Soul were doomed.

-MARY WILLIS WHITE.

E. E. CLARK, Editor.

W. D. ANDERSON, Associate.

The recent street car troubles in the state of New York has set at least one company to thinking out some scheme by which these troubles may be averted. President Vreeland thinks he has hit upon a plan for the Metropolitan Street Railroad of New York City that will effectually put a stop to strikes, and we believe his plan a sure one. He has issued a printed circular that provides for the voluntary and involuntary retirement of all employes ranging between the ages of 65 and 75 after twenty-five years of service in the company or any of its constituent companies. Upon these it is proposed to bestow a pension and upon the following basis:

(a) If service has been continuous for thirty-five years or more, 40 per cent of the average annual wages for the ten previous years.

(b) If service has been continuous for thirty years, 30 per cent of the average annual wages for the ten years previous.

(c) If service has been continuous for twenty-five years, twenty-five per cent of the average annual wages for

the ten years.

Henry George, Jr., in the Chicago Record Herald exposes the working machinery of Mr. Vreeland's plan so well that we are inclined to reproduce it in part for the benefit of our readers.

He says:

In commenting in a public interview on this pension plan President Vreeland went back in the company's experience to what he called the "recruiting reform," by which the corporation began to make discrimination as to the men it employed, taking from the great numbers that applied for employment only those who showed the "greatest capacity for or adaptibility to the work." This policy of picking and choosing from among multitudes looking for employment brought in a large number of young men who really were equipped for far higher employment, but who were compelled to take to the street railroad service as the best chance that offered.

Ignoring the fact that want of opportunities had forced these young men to offer themselves for the treadmill street railroad service, President Vreeland drew attention to the superiority in the personnel of these recruits over the street railroad recruits of old, and spoke with something like astonishment of their independent organizing of an association with recreation and benevolent features, providing a library of 1,500 volumes, caring for their sick and burying their dead, and all this, as Mr. Vreeland observed, "unpatronized by the corporation whose property they operate.' Proceeding to the application of the pension scheme, the railroad president said:

"If one considers the fact which census statistics lately promulgated, that every able-bodied workingman has at least six individuals depending on him for support, and that we have over 15,000 men in our employment, some idea can be had of the steadying influ