EMPLOYES.

bourne by wives, by mothers and by daughters. Their brows are pierced by thorns. They shed the bitterest tears. They live and suffer and die for others. It is almost enough to make one insane to think of what woman, in years of savagery and civilization, has suffered.

"I have always wondered that the great corporations have made no provisions for their old and wornout employes. It seems to me that the Pennsylvania road, the New York Central and many others-and not only these railway companies, but great manufacturing corporations-ought to provide for their workmen. Many of them are wornout, unable longer to work, and they are thrown aside like old clothes. They find their way to the poorhouse or they die in tenements or by the roadside. This seems almost infinately heartless. Men of great wealth engaged in manufacturing, instead of giving $500,000 for a library or $1,000,000 for a college, ought to put this money aside, and the interest ought to be used in taking care of the old, of helpless, of those who meet with accidents in their work. Under our laws if an employe is caught in a wheel or a band and his arm or leg is torn off he is left to charity of the community, whereas the profits of the business ought to support him in his old age.

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On the great railways very few people know the number of the injured, of those who lose their hands or feet, of those who contract diseases riding on the tops of freight trains in snow and sleet and storm; and yet, when these men become old and helpless through accident, they are left to shift for themselves. The company is immortal, but the employes become helpless. Now, it seems to me that a certain per cent should be laid aside, so that every workman could feel that he was providing for himself, so that when the dark days came there would be a little light.

As a straw show which way the politicial wind blows the following is sufficient. It is from the Northwestern

Railroader, a journal which is far from being a labor advocate: "One thing

has been established in the State of Min

nesota by the recent elections, and that is that henceforward the railroad employes are a political factor which will always have to be reckoned with-not the railroads, but the railroad employes. The foundations at least have been laid of an organization which has nothing to do with the railroad companies or the corporations, as the political paragrapher loves to call them, as a whole. It has nothing to do with any party, and will not be controlled by party influences. It has one object only-the protection of the employe. Of course attempts will be made by every party to capture the adhesion of the organization at each sucFrom the outside ceeding election. party leaders will endeavor by pledges and sweet words to win the partisan support of the members. Inside the organization itself, probably, agitators will arise who will endeavor to control the organization's vote to advance their own interests. But the railway employes clubs of Minnesota must on no condition forfeit their independence as distinct organizations with definite aims. They must suffer themselves to be neither coerced nor cajoled into forgetfulness of their one permanent object--the guarding of their own interest as railroad em.ployes."-Trades Journal.

The lot of the section foreman, in the North-west, is not a happy one judging from the dispatch which states that the foreman on the C. P. R., at Swift Current, was brought before the magistrate, charged with allowing a prairie fire to escape while burning along the C. P. R. track. The defendant pleaded guilty. This being the first case of the kind yet tried, the magistrate took a lenient view of the matter and imposed a fine of $50 and costs, or one month's imprisonment. -Railway Life.

BE AN EDITOR.

A young man writes from one of the rural villages of Tennessee: I have been teaching school ever since I quit school about a year ago, but I do not like it. It is time I had chosen a profession, and I think I would rather be an editor than anything else, for I like ease and comfort and plenty of money, and do not like to work. To be an editor, to sit in an elegant sactum, with nothing to do but write when I feel like it, to have plenty of money and to go where and when I please, free of cost, and lead the editor's quiet life of ease, without care or trouble of any sort, is the height of my ambition. My friends think I ought to study law or medicine, or keep on teaching; but to be a lawyer or doctor requires too much study, and too much brains to start with, and teaching is too much work. Under these circumstances, would you not ad

vise me to become an editor?

We certainly would; your ideas of the life of an editor and of his surroundings and freedom from care and toil are singularly accurate. An editor is the happiest being on earth. He has little or nothing to do and his pay is all that heart could wish. His sactum, with its Persian rugs and Turkey carpets, its costly rosewood furniture, its magnificent mirrors, its beautiful pictures, its complete library of splendidly bound books, its buffet stocked with the finest wines, liquors, and cigars which cost but a puff or two, its silver bells to summon an attendant whenever a julep or cocktail is wanted, and, in short, with every thing that human ingenuity can devise for its comfort and pleasure, is a perfect little paradise, where he sits or lounges and reigns a young lord,-with the world of fashion and pleasure at his feetstudy, no brains, no preparation, nothing but a little money to start with and once started the money pours in upon him in a steady stream and the chief effort of your life is to spend it. As for the labor of editing a newspaper, that is mere moonshine. A mere glance at the columns of a newspaper is enough to convince you that it requires no labor to

-no

edit it and less brains. It is certainly a glorious life, that of an editor, a life of luxurous ease and elegant leisure-a life for the gods, filled, like that of the young lover in his first sweet dream of requited love, with flutes and rose leaves and moonbeams.

Where not a wave of trouble rolls Across his peaceful breast; and that all men are not editors is one of the strangest things beneath the stars.-Louisville Courier Journal.

Ex-Secretary Joseph Maize, of the river miners, has the following to show what organization has shcured for Mon

ongahela coal workers in the past two years: During 1887, he says, there were shipped to down-river pools, in round numbers, 80,000,000 bushels of lump coal. Miners secured an advance of cent per bushel, or $200,000 in all. In 1888, there were likewise 30,000,000 bushels, and the miners received a further advance of cent per bushel, or $400,000 over the amount received in 1886. Drivers, day hands, &c., receiving proportionate advances within the two years,' of $700,000 over 1886 in earnings. Duror about $150,000 making a total advance the same period of time the miners' organization has expended $5,000 raised by

a yearly per capita assessment of 70 cents on 7,000 miners. The result has been

that for $1.40 expended they have received $107.14 apiece increased earnings in two years.-Greenburg Independent.

out, obliterated, and the chance a man The middle classes are being wiped better to the best is becoming more and used to have to crawl up from good to more slim every day. One man takes $1,500,000 out of his business in a single year, and his workmen can't make both

ends meet to save their lives. Put this in your pipe and smoke it. -N. Y. Herald.

Monreal has thirty boot and shoe factories. Four thousand persons, all over fourteen years of age are employed. Wages average $12 a week for men and $7 for women.

LEGAL DEPARTMENT.

ACTION AGAINST A RAILWAY IN HANDS OF A RECEIVER-CRIMINAL' CONDUCT OF SERVANTS. Held, that where a corporation is in the hands of a receiver, who has full possession of its property, and entire charge of its affairs, the corporation cannot be prosecuted for crimes or misdemeanors committed by the agents or servants of the receiver, as the corporation can do no act or commit no offense while the receiver is in full control. (State v. Wabash Ry. Co. Ind. S. C., Sept. 18, 1888.

MASTER AND SERVANT DEFECTIVE APPLIANCE UNUSUAL RISK-CONTRIBUTARY NEGLIGENCE OF EMPLOYE. In an action for injuries the court Held, that it is not necessarily negligence on the part of a railroad company, as between the company and a brakeman on duty in its yard, that a freight car is found in use on its road in such a damaged and crippled condition that it exposes the employe to more than the common risk and danger incurred in handling ordinary cars. A yard brakeman cannot recover against a railroad company for an injury received in falling from a flat car loaded with coal while attempting to stop it from running down a side track, by jumping upon the brakebeam in the front of and under the car and pressing it down with his feet, holding himself to the car with one hand and pulling up the brake chain with the other; the excuse for this act being that the brake-staff was so bent that it could not be effectively used in the ordinary manner, there being no rule of the company nor any order from any officer requiring such an undertaking on his part. (Judlins v. Maine Cent. Ry. Co. Me. S. C.-1888.)

CONDUCTORS AUTHORITY SICK SERVANT.-1. A conductor of a freight train has implied authority, in case of the sickness of one of his brakemen, to employ a person to take his place.

2. Where a night watchman about a station was accustomed to go on defendants to a distant station for his meals, and while going there on one occasion

was asked by the conductor, one of the brakemen being sick, to make a coupling for him, in doing which he was injured. Held, that there was no such employment as a brakeman as rendered the company liable for the injury relating to the liability of employers. (Georgia Pac. Ry. Co. v. Propst. Ala. S. C.-1888.

RULES KNOWLEDGE OF DEFECTIVE SPRINGS-INJURIES.-In an action for damages resulting by reason of a defective car spring the court held: When plaintiff in coupling a car was injured through a defective car spring, he can receive when, in ordinary mode of coupling cars, he could not discover the defect, though he did not couple with a stick, as required by the rules of the company, it appearing that the servant had no knowledge of such rules, and the company had neglected to instruct him in regard thereto. (Brunswick & W. R. Ry. Co. v. Clement. Ga. S. C. 7 S. E. 84.)

MACHINE HAND LATENT DEFECTDUTY OF EMPLOYER. Plaintiff, while employed in the defendants machine shop, was injured by the falling of a pulley, caused by a wheel working from its shaft impinging upon and unscrewing the nut holding it on the shaft. The nut should have been so fastened that the friction would tighten it. The defect was known to the company, but not to servant. Held, that the injury was caused by a latent defect for which defendant company was liable and must respond in damages. (Columbia, etc., Ry. Co. v. Hawn. S. C. Wash. Ter. 19 Pac. R. 25.)

MACHINE HAND-CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE-GUILTY OF.- -Action to recover for the loss of a hand. The evidence showed that plaintiff, while in defendants employ, attempts to clean an open, running cog-wheel, which he has power and authority to stop, as he has done before, when cleaning it, and his hand is drawn in and cut off, he is guilty of contributory negligence, and cannot recover against the company for such injury. (Stoll v. Hope etc. Co. Pa. S. C.--1888.

OUT OF LINE OF DUTY-CONTRIBUTORY

TOOL GRINDING MACHINE.

The American Machinist of December 15th, 1888, under the head of "Shop Notes," has the following regarding a grinding machine in use in Wm. Sellers & Co.'s shops:

The tool grinding machine which we illustrated in our issue of Aug. 13th, 1887, is proving in use to be all that was expected of it, and no mechanic, witnessing its operation, and seeing the results achieved by its use, can fail to be convinced of its great utility as a means of improving the quality and cheapening the products of machine shops. It seems to be capable of griuding any tool of almost any conceivable shape, and a surface or line upon that tool intended to be straight will be straight, and at just the desired angle to any other line of surface. A curved surface or line will have just the curve intended, and every time the tool is ground, these conditions will be preserved or restored with infalible accuracy, and the exasperating and seemingly inherent tendency of what are intended to be flat surfaces, and straight lines when ground by hand, is entirely avoided. It seems to be especially valuable in grinding tools for cutting threads of various shapes and the nuts to fit them; also for flat, broad tools used for finishing-cuts in the planer. One man runs the machine and does all the grinding, turning the tools into the tool room, from where they are taken by the men upon checks, the same as other tools. The cost of grinding is thus reduced to a small fraction of its cost when done by hand, and the men being relieved of what is always an unpleasant and usually a slighted task, and having tools always ready for use, ground in the best possible shape, are pleased with the innovation, and would very reluctantly go back to the old way. All tools are ground to a standard form, which has been adopted as representative of the best practice of the best mechanics in that shop, and thus the highest degree of efficiency is secured for

stead of for an occasional tool for a part of its existence.

An objection which might be urged against the use of such is, that it has a leveling tendency, which may prevent the best mechanics from reaping the full advantage of their superior skill in shaping and grinding tools. One of the chief reasons why a good mechanic can do better work, and more of it, on a lathe or planer, than a poor mechanic, is that he can grind tools to a better shape, so that more work and better work can be done with them than the inferior mechanic can do with his inferior tools, and it is questionable whether or not the ambition and study necessary to secure this advantage can be expected where no advantage to the superior workman can be secured by it.

There are many shops where, if there is ever a properly shaped tool, it is more the result of an "unintentional accident" than anything else, a machine would perhaps help to crystallize the bad practice of such a shop, and prevent the influence of a good workman, who might subsequently be employed in it, from being felt.

But, whatever force there may be in such an agreement, it applies to comparatively few tools, since the large class of tools, regarding which there can be and is but little difference of opinion, or of practice in the grinding, is the very class in which the superiority of the machine is most manifest. It would, of course, devolve upon the management of a shop introducing such a machine, to see that the leveling process is a leveling up, and not a leveling down. Whether or not this is the best possible machine for the purpose, is of course yet to be determined; but until its builders or some one else improve upon it, it will, of course, be considered so; at any rate, no mechanic, we think, can witness the results obtained by its use in these shops without being convinced that it is very ingeniously and well designed, that there is a field for such a machine, and that its advantages over hand grinding are great.