The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 28, 1901, Page 3

SUNDAY CALL. ICHAFL HOGAN, ®ir.” A primy face appeared at a tiny red window as the name e nd two muscular s with twitching fingers rubber met in front of & th gold he three men In- these mys- usly there ch was almost the mat by the kad re- eared at the name was called, more so it went on most endless line of men, left kond has already done its work, and there is a fifty-cent plece and a nickel on the rubber mat. The sum being 57 cents, we keep the 0dd 2 cents. 1f it !s 8 cents er 2 nlekel the employe gets It, and this method of doing away with oGd pen- Dlesheomes out mo even at the end of u trip that there won't be 1) cents to ac- other.” rely teo enrly ~1 was reuted out of my berti &nd informed t breskfust was Hul‘\it‘d, It was » royal meal, prepered by ma fine & cook £s ever enginecred the galley in a dining car, and while we were diseussing it the speclal was speeding over the rails | £, the end of tho old road, Bta- statlon was passed, but 1o rtop who were disncsed of at the rate of not—was made Secticn men knew the pay less than six or seven per minute. This sceme trenspires in the Southern ear almost every hcur of In the vear. While the expe- e paymaster and his assist- ents must of necessity become fearfully monotonous te themselves, nevertheless the pay car presents inexhaustible oppor- les for the study of human nature he one who makes an occasional trip over the road &s the guest of Paymaster C. J. Robinson, ed to make a trip In the ough the courtesy General Pes- renger Agent Goodr lffld Treasurer and was told that the special 4 lepve the San Francisco depot on over the new coast line at 2 and minute. T was also told that the speclal always left at exactly the time scheduled, although not one man outside the pay car crew ever knew what its schedule is, when it will start or where it will go. This is a part of the system, As I was uneble to leave at the hour des- ignated it occurred to me that it would be & simple matter to take the limited an hour later and overtake the special a few miles down the road, particularly as the per car stops at every station, as well as between stations, wherever there is a man or a gang of m to pay. I found, how- ever, that that pay car i= about the hard- est thing on the rafls to locate or to over- take. Not only did it make all the stops end pay all the men from San Francisco to San Luls Obispo, but it made such time between stops that we never got within miles of it all day. At dusk that night when the regular train pulled into San Luis o the pay car stood on siding in front of the depot and dinner wes served iders have ever seen the ins!de For obvious reasons it is not Aeemed best by the officlals to have it ton well known, and while T am permitted to give a general description of it, yet there are some detafls of its interior mechanism constructed for special purposes in case need, about which nothing can be sald e front end aof the car contains the kitchen and dining-room, the latter a apartment, the full width of about twelve feet in length m this room & narrow passage, closed ree, & ¢ steel plated doors, self-locking, the middle compartment, where four full sections, arranged and as In a first-class This s the livir and £ the paymaster and hisas heavy partition of eak, lined separates this room which is aleo the arsenal bout £x10 feet in size and of room is - utilized of oalk, interlised with the ~dows are the center of the master's window. A onerates automatical- be Instantly closed rce to take off 2 man's a cleaver. affords con- funds in charse n addition to this also other devices, which is forbidden. Thera ays leading to A cross passage, just row paseaze to admit one person at a cct= these two. pas<ing direct- he little window. A line r at one side of the car, pass before the dow ote at a time &nd emerge from the other side. but all as to rds of the payear, On either side of the rear wall of the of- the time are in such posit be covered by the g fice are loop holes covered with steel lids. These holes are just large enough to ad- mit the muzzie of a sawed-off shotgun or & Winchester. On the desk, immediately under these loopholes, lies a heavy Colt's eix-rhooter, fully loaded and readv for In- stant use, and there are men In that car who know how to use them with deadly effect. On the office wall, within arm’s length of the lo les, is.the gunrack, with a dozen Winchesters and shotguns. The payear never been attacked, much less robbed, and if such an at- tempt is ever made It wili re ais- estrously to the robbers. Even they #ucceed In eapturing the car they won't Fet the money, for the money stmply ut that's one of the se- n doesn't want made n't be there— crets Mr. Robt public. “The systemi of paving our emplo¥es in eofn instead of by check as some other roads 80" sald Mr. Robinson, *“has been found to be more satisfactory all around than the other plan. Since the war rev- enue stamp has been required on checks the cost of revenue stamps alone, should we pay our thousands of employes by check, would perhaps more than equal the entire cost of the present system, not to mention the clerical expense of pre- parng the che and the cost of dis- tributing them to the employes. ‘Again, when s workingman out on a country dlvision gets o check it is a matter of {neonvenience to him sometimes rorious to get it eashed and he appreciates the sotual coin in his own hands for this ad- ditfonal reason. t of the offce you will note the counter where the checking and ing cierks sit. Mr. Ruthrauff has charg which you will note are of the payrolls bound books, each month by itself. Mr. aylor, who checks all payments, enters in his books the amount of money I pay ch man, and in addition the two mbers that always follow the naming of a sum of money by Mr. Ruthrauff when en employe appears at the window. The system eppears complex to any one who ® tands here snd listens to what we =ay, e and absolutely perfect so ar as identification goes, unless it is a new man, whom we have never in the car before. In such cases the of each section gang stands in I niche In the passageway there end identifies the man. When a regular e appears at the window he gives e, Mr. Ruthrauff instantly finds y on the payroll, calis off the mt due him—for example, $55 57—and as soon I hear this sum called my right Ps two twentles, a ten, a five; my traln was on the division, but experlencs had taught them that this was no crite- rion to fetermine the time of their re- celving their pay. Jt doesn’t do, you LTSSTAN ) DIVIDING — ZARNINVG, / PAVING A GANG AT THE QUARRIES NEAR GAVZOZA A 2 Ve xnow, to Yave tnmegs done 1n too metnod- ical a way with a pay tra It may run over half a division. pay all the men that far and then skip all the rest until another day, or perhaps two or three days. The men know this and never reckon upon their coin until they see the car stop. I watched the work of the pay crew all that day and the day following. Thelr sysetem of work was perfect. No d!sputes, no claims made by workmen of shortage in amcunts, no attempts to get something that belonged to some one else, for every old employe of the road knows that Mr, Robinson makes no mistakes, or if he has ny they are so few and have kly detected that It doesn't pay to try to take advantage of them, “I neticed that one man claimed some- thing due him from last month.” said T, when the till was closed and the special pulled out of a small statlion, “Yes,” replied the paymaster, “we have a great lot of savings bank accounts in this car. have money here for six months or a year, belonging to employes who leave it with me from month to month rather than draw and spend it. Some of these men have large sums to thelr credit. Bome of them draw a full month once in a while and It |s Aufficient to supply thelr needs for several months. They allow their mon. credit until they have a v to stand to thelr rood round sum, Most of them are careful, provident men and use the pay car as a safe deposit box. When we get to the rock crusher down here, where the big camp s, you will sece how t#e Russian laborers have saved their money.” All the ballast for the nmew coast line is crushed stone. It Is all made at e company’s crushers, near Gaviota. These quarries are' operated by Russians and Poles. When the car stopped in a deep cut near the crusher a young Russlan who spoke fair English entered the car and asked for the money due'eleven men. He gave the names correctly, and each name was checked off. The total due them, covering several months in some ceses, amounted to a very large sum and when the gold twenties, with additional large stacks of silver dollars and halves, were handed out the young man’s large sombrero was filled to the brim with coin. Just beyond the barbed wire fence a group of Russlans awaited him, Not one of them attempted to interfere with the money, for if one had put a hand into PAVINE IV SAN FRANCECD YArps' that nac «ll the others woure mave Jump- ed on him In an instant. The cashier of the party knew just how many dollars and cents were due to each man and he céunted the money out slowly and care- fully, gIving to each his exact due, When the pay car came back past the quarry an hour and a quarter later he was still counting the coin, piling it up in little stacks, while the men to whom it be. longed watched eagerly and intently, awalting his signal that the job was fin. fshed. The system of paylng as observed in this car is so complete that if a man clalms not to have recelved his pay for last December, for example, the paymas- ter can tell him in an instant who the man was immediately in front of him in line, who was next behind hum and who every man was in that line, in the gang in which he belonged. He can also tell him the exact amount of money paid to him, as well as to every other man in his gang, and can further prove by the man In front of him and behind him thas he was there and that he got his money, That's why the paymaster never takes a receipt. The mystic numbers, called out by the pay roli clerk, are the key to this system, but just how thess numbers are applied Mr. Robinson doesn't really care to make public. The great work camps of the company on the new line are populated densely and a more cosmopelitan community than some of them it would be hard to find, ‘Wherever it is possible to get them white men are employed, but for some of the work Mexicans and Japanese are hired as well as Chinese for camp cooks and laundrymen. Although the foreign element is largely represented, there is little or no thieving or other lawlessness in these camps, for the majority of the employes are long In the service of the company and will not tolerate such prace tices. A thief in a railroad camp is cere tain to meet very severe treatment when his peculations are discovered. Dishone esty is at a discount In Southern Pacifia camps, and it i3 rarely Indeed that steale Ing s reported. The pdy car stops anywhere® Wherever there is a gang of men at work on the roadbed Paymaster Robinson opens up his little office and in less tima than it takes to tell it the workmen have ra- cetved their shining coin and the special !s gone. Sometimes, particularly on the rew line of road. stops wers made for isolated ndividuals who bhad been assigned to complete some specific work, or for a solitary track walker whose lonely vigil was seldom Interrupted, save by the advent of the pay car. Now and then at a country siding a passenger or frelght traln stopped and the pay ecar opened up for business. Not two minutes® time is required to pay off a train crew ‘and the accommodating spirit of the pay~ master is appreciated by these men, who otherwise might have to wal* an indefin- ite time to catch the pay car at a station where their own trains also stopped. In one instance, near Gaviota, a bridge ine spector was tightening some bolts on the great viaduct when the pay car hove in sight. He mads no signal to stop the spe- cfal, but the engineer had his instructions and the car stopped in the middls of the structure. The inspector received his money and the train was off In just fif- teen seconds by the watch. A day or two later we were running down a steep grade in the Senta Cruz Mountains. The spe- clal slowed up and stopped. Thers was & telegraph lineman astride the crossarm of a telegraph pole, ‘and by the time he reached the ground Mr. Ruthrauff had found his entry in the payroll books, the coln wag counted out ready for him and Mr. Lineman had his money befors he had time to begin gosstp about the weather and erops. The opportunity afforded by the pay car for character study !s simply unlim- ited. ‘““When we stop up hers at the next statlon,” sald Mr. Robinson, “you will mee the agent come aboard. He is an old man and has been here for many years, His rame? I don't remember many hames; its faces I know. This old fallow will get his left hand hooked down ready to rake his money off the counter the instant he comes in at the door. If he aldn’t do that I'd know at a glanes that e wasn't the man who belonged here He'll grin from ear to ear as soon as you can see his face and he'll swipe that cofn off the board with his right hand nto his left in one sweep. Then he'll divide the pile, giving each hand some- thing to ecarry. When he gets outside he'll put the silver in one pocket. bits each gold coin and put them Into the fod pocket in his trousers. He lives on the silver and saves the gold, T suppose. Now watch htm." ‘With a precision that could only come from long practice the old station agent went through every detafl of the perform- ance just as Mr. Robinson had said he would and the last T saw of him as the train pulled out he was jamming gold tens into the little watch, pocket, one at a time, after first carefully testing them in his teeth to be sure that they were gen- uine. Thers is the careful man who wants to be sure that the paymaster knows him and 1s in no danger of mistaking him for some other persen of the same name. There is the fresh young man with a red tle at a way station, who imagines he is funny and that the pay crew look for ward with great pleasure to thelr month. 1y visit to Is station. There Is the man who is always late and who misses ihs pay car when it is on his own division and catches it on another, only to add his trifle to the vicissitudes and cares of the clerks. There is the burly, honest eection boss, who wants Mr. Robinson to be entirely satisfled that he Is paying the men who are entitled to the coin, and there is the ‘voucher flend,” who has shaved the pay warrants of Tom, Dick and Harry at usurious rates and who ap- proaches the pay car in deadly fear that some one may have garnisheed the money that is coming on his vouchers. All sorts and conditlons of men present themselves at the pay-car window. In earller days, when the system was newer ond less perfect, every possible sort of scheme was devised to beat the paymas- ter. They all failed, however, and to-day nothing of the sort Is tried. There is another car attached to the pay car, which, while it plays no pa-t fn the business of this department, is nevertheless important. It is a tourist car and carries from two to four passen- gers. They are all stockily built men, with grizzled mustaches and sharp gray eyes” Thelr coats have a suspicious bulge on the side jand If there ever happens to be a little/matinee on a londly section with bandits these gentlemen will play a conspleuous part. This is the guards’ car and the men who travel in it are sa- Jected for special traits of character and proficlency in certain lines pecullarly ¢helr own. They are quiet, uncommuni- cative, astute and clever In their lines and are all men with records. Month after month, year after year (Mr. Robin- son has been in the business for thirty years), this little epecial with its valuable cargo speeds over the Southern Pacifio ralls from San Francisco to El Paso. Its schedule 1s known to no one and it never travels In the night. Its ona greatest sle- ment of safety lles in the fact that every raflroad employe has a personal interest n that pay car and when It pulls Into & town from the “east or west at nightfall and remains at the depot all night every one of the hundred or more employes in the night yards feels that it Is to his personal interest to keep a watchful eye on the car and its occupants. Its ad- ventures and wrecks would fill columns and its marvelous financial system, which s perpetually in balance, would be a revelation to financiers and bankers could its detalls be made public. W. J. ROUSE. — e Salzburg, Austria, now puts in a claim for the record birth rate of a single fam- fly. Johann Steiner, a farmer, married ais wife, Martha, nineteen Yyears ago, when he was 52 and she was %. In the nineteen years since they have had thirty- seven chlidren—triplets three times and twins twelve times, while the bables have come along singly four times. Of the children thirty-four are living and they are all healthy and normal. The thirty- seventh child was born a couple of weeks ago, on the day on which the father cele- brated his seventy-second birthday. The mother is still in robust health. Who knows.of a record to beat this?—New York Press.