RAILROAD, SUPERSTITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 79

RAILROAD, SUPERSTITIONS.

Everybody's more o» less familiar with the superstitions of sailors, but those of railroad men, though perhaps equally curious, are by no means sc well known. A writer in the New York Railway and Locomotive Engineering has collected a few of them in the rather cautious spirit of the old rhyme : I know not how the truth may Ibe; I tell the tale as 'twas told to me. In fact, the writer admits that' reporter* "gifted with imaginations" may hear very qiieer things in "the resorts of stove committees." — Turning the Engine. — • Certain superstitions are held to be the monopoly of engineers abd firemen who never place confidence in any locomotive that has even bees, in an accident. The engine may be in perfectly^ good condition and the run mere child's play, but they would' prefer going out on the hardest possible ■ run and "on the worst scrap-heap belonging to tbe - road "' to trusting themselves with an engine, that has met with an accident, no matter "how long ago. Another superstition coHimon among enginemen has to do witb the direction to which the engine is turned on the turn-table. "Some of the men," says the writer in the railway paper, "prefer turning U the right, others to the left, and they are as particular about this as the Mussulman ! s about 'acing the east wlii&n howling Ms evening prayers." Many enginemen are mos i particula about being present while their engines are being turned. If, during their absence, 't has bc-en wrongly done, from their point of view, they will have it done over again before they consent to climlr into the cab. Many accidents have /been attributed to the fact of engines having been turned from east to west wifih the front buffers towards the/ north. —Left Foot First.— There is a superstitious prejudice against stepping on to J an engine with the right foot first, and ifc is an error of equal seriousness" to climb out of the right side of the cafe to oil the engine. Such a mistake would signify an accident sooner or later. Enginemen who are indifferent to the supposedly sinister number 13 aTe prejudiced ' against locomotives bearing the figure "9;" or a number that can be equally divided ;by 9. This number is detested by many workers in locomotive cabs. "One will sometimes ccc," . says the writer I bav<* quoted, --'-^a tracklayer who has stumbled ia crossing, a rail retrace hie steps and ' cross the, rail with sure feet. To stumble over.- a nail is productive of misfortune, and the only way to ward off disaster is to take the step again. Cross-eyed men are unpopular. Some support to this superstition is discoverable in the story of a gang of tracklayers who, during the 10 months' pre-

1 SKji* among -them of » cross-eyed man,. lost nine of their number by accidents on the line (so it is said), and the crosseyed man himself -was killed as the tenth I victim."