Letters from an Old Railway Official to His Son, a Division Superintendent

My Dear Boy:--When you have a conference of your staff, do not overlook the storekeeper. Even if he reports to the general storekeeper, he should be on your staff in somewhat th...

My Dear Boy:--Your chief dispatcher blew through here the other day on his vacation and dropped in to pay his respects. He rather apologized for so doing, as he seemed to think...

My Dear Boy:--Blacksmiths' horses and shoemakers' wives proverbially go unshod. A railroad puts up its poorest sample of transportation in the routine handling of its own materi...

My Dear Boy:--I am so sure that you will be a general manager some day that I have been writing you a good deal of advice as to matters that are above the control of a division...

My Dear Boy:--I once heard General Sheridan, my old commander, say that when he was a lieutenant he made up his mind to be the best lieutenant in his regiment; that in every gra...

My Dear Boy:--"What will you put in its place, Bob?" was perhaps the hardest query that the brilliant Ingersoll had to answer in his assaults on the Christian religion. Does not...

My Dear Boy:--You ask what we are going to do to prevent so many wrecks. My various admonitions to you have been in vain if I have failed to score some points looking to that en...

My Dear Boy:--While in Washington last week I dropped in to see some old cronies at the War Department. The iconoclasts have been at work there, too, with gratifying results. Th...

My Dear Boy:--History repeats itself, and railroad history is made so fast that we repeat ourselves very often. Mankind absorbs a certain amount from the experience of others. I...

My Dear Boy:--You write me that you have been kept very much in your office of late because the general superintendent has taken your chief clerk for the same position in his ow...

My Dear Boy:--I have your letter about the supply train. Please do not fail to consider that it is an inspection and administrative train as well as a traveling storehouse. The...

My Dear Boy:--We were speaking of railroad civil service, so called. As I told you before, our civil service is so far from the genuine article that I always feel like qualifyin...

My Dear Boy:--You ask what I mean by the rack of the comparative statement. I mean that, figuratively speaking, we are all pretty securely fastened to the corresponding month of...

My Dear Boy:--You have asked me to say something more on the subject of correspondence and telegrams. In these days of push the button for the stenographer, letters and telegram...

My Dear Boy:--An able and successful general manager--not all able men and not all general managers are successful--recently called attention to a most important distinction in...

My Dear Boy:--The evolution of the relative importance of the several departments in railroad work is an interesting study. The early railroads were short and usually had for pr...

My Dear Boy:--I promised in my last to say something about helping your train dispatchers. The way to help any man is first to encourage him and by showing that you appreciate h...

My Dear Boy:--The progressive president of a rustling railroad has recently gone on record as regretting the too rapid introduction of big engines. To which from many an ancient...

My Dear Boy:--I have your letter telling about your new trainmaster. You feel that a man from another division has been forced on you by the general superintendent; that you hav...

My Dear Boy:--I happened to meet your general manager the other day, and the way he spoke of the good work you are doing warmed the cockles of my old heart. He said that you cou...

My Dear Boy:--The circular announcing your appointment as division superintendent has just been received, and it brings up a flood of thoughts of former years. I felt that you h...

My Dear Boy:--While backing in on a branch idea I bumped into a load consigned to the American Railway Association which, with your permission, I wish to bring in behind the cab...

My Dear Boy:--You have asked me to give you some pointers on handling a yard. You will find that nearly all situations in a yard hark back to one simple rule, which is: When you...

My Dear Boy:--I have yours saying that my letter on yard work omits mention of the most important feature, the safety of trains in yards; that the letter is much like a cup of l...