Fostering a Bad Practice.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 265, 27 October 1874, Page 7

Fostering a Bad Practice.

(American I'apt'-.)

There is a good deal said in censure of the custom of jumping off and on the cars when in motion. It. is righteous condemnation, but it is not consistent when coming from railroad companies. If they truly desire a reform they must begin at home, for as long as employes will jump on a train when in motion, and pei'sist in doing it as gracefully as they do, an imitative public will be the sufferers. People don't jump on a train before it stops because they are in a hurry, but because they have seen a-brakeman or conductor do it, and have a terrible dread of being surpassed. Now, at the station the other day, Conductor Phillips, of the eastern train, after giving the word to start, waited until the last car reached him, and then raising one hand to the rail and one-foot gently from the earth, he swung majestically around, and was at once firmly on the car. Mr Phillips weighs two hundred pounds, but there was such grace and poetry in his motion that he seemed to blend with the car. First there was yellow paint, and then gold leaf, and maroon, and Phillips. There was an elderly person who saw Phillips do this, and his eyes glistened with anticipation. He was going on the western train, and when it came along he waited until a fine rate of speed was gained, and then raising his hand and leg, just as he had seen Phillips do, and looking carelessly away, jnst as Phillips did, he reached out for the rail, and the next instant was trying to push his head through the platform planks, and fighting the air with his heels, and madly pawing round with his hands, and swearing and praying at an awful rate. They stood him rip on his feet, and rubbed his head with some snow, but it was a long time before they convinced him that the locomotive had not exploded.