But, the height of his ambition is not
attained until he can write himself driver, and
have his name painted on the large lamp
which flames like a cyclopean eye in the
forehead of his engine. For some time at
first, he is probably set to drive a ballast or
mineral train, and is not entrusted with the
lives of men until his experience has been
thoroughly tested. He then comes into the
receipt of seven shillings or seven and
sixpence a day, and receives additional payment
for any extra journey he may make. These
wages may appear high in comparison with
those received by many classes of mechanics
and clerks; but the exposure and risk must
be considered—day and night exposure to
every kind of weather, during every season
of the year, and the per centage of risk
arises from causes beyond the control of the
most careful drivers, resulting, now and then,
in a fatal accident. The risk, however, with
careful drivers we are inclined to think is
not so great as some people imagine. We
have been acquainted these dozen years with
a certain driver on the Penzance and Berwick
line, who is so noted as a fast and daring
driver—daring, but not reckless—that he is
universally known by an expressive nick-
name too profane to be put down here; yet
this man has never been in an accident, great
or small, during the whole course of his
driving, although he has been in emergencies
where, had he been less prompt and ready
witted, results fatal to himself and others
might have been the consequence. Reckless
driving and disregard of signals is, without
doubt, one fruitful cause of rail way accidents.

The engine-driver is, generally, a sociable,
easy-going fellow. He earns his money
readily, and spends it freely. The publican
generally comes in for a good share of it.
The healthy out-of-doors life he is obliged
to lead, influences his tastes in several ways.
He is fond of company; fond of his pipe
and glass. He is a great dog-fancier; and
anything connected with the turf claims
his earnest attention. He is not altogether
unskilled in making up a book, and
generally stands to win a few pounds on the
Derby or Leger. One dark-visaged friend of
ours, won seventy pounds last Doncaster day
but one. Probably, he has lost it all by this
time, and something more. Our driver is
generally a good husband and father; and,
whatever his wife may be at home, he likes
to see her decked out like a real lady on gala
occasions. He himself, when he is spruced up
of an evening, is a very different individual
from the black, greasy-looking person who
brought you in by the four o'clock train
this afternoon. Long habit has made night
and day alike to him, and he will get up
at midnight as readily as at noon. He gets
a good meal at home before he sets off;
for the rest, he must take some coffee in a
can, and warm it over the boiler, as an
accompaniment to a few sandwiches, or some
bread and butter; though, indeed, he is not
above a steak or a chop, grilled over the
glowing embers as he rides along. Not
unfrequently he rents a garden allotment,
on which he labours assiduously during the
spring and summer months; cultivating large
patches of potatoes, cabbages, and other
vegetables. Sometimes he is a man of property,
having one or two shares in a building
society. If he be dismissed from, or become
disgusted with, the service, he is sure to open
a beer-house, and is as sure to be well
supported by his late companions.

The locomotive superintendent has a ledger
in which he keeps an account against every
engine on the line. In it is posted the
number of journeys performed during the
half year; the total number of miles run;
the amount of coke and oil consumed, and
the sum incurred for maintenance and repairs.
The cost of a new engine ranges from ten to
twelve hundred pounds.

Porters and guards occupy the same
position, relatively, as stokers and drivers;
and, although not one porter in twenty ever
becomes a guard, still each of them may hope
to be one of the fortunate. There are two
classes of porters and guards: those employed
in the coaching, and those in the goods. The
wages of a coaching porter are from
seventeen to eighteen shillings a week, with a suit
of clothes once a year. They work in sets,
and have a week of night duty and one of
day duty, alternately. Notwithstanding the
strict prohibitions respecting gratuities
promulgated on most lines; together with the
occasional example made of some unlucky
wight, caught in the act of receiving an odd
sixpence; numbers of the nimble-fingered,
both porters and guards, will make with ease
five or six shillings a week by such means;
besides sundry sly glasses of drink to which
they are treated by jovial passengers. The
most likely porters are generally picked out
to fill any vacancies that arise among the
guards. Their wages are then advanced to
four or five and twenty shillings a week, and
they are promoted to a smart uniform. Most
trains on trunk lines have two guards in charge
of them, each of whom has a separate van; one
next to the engine, and one at the end of the
train. Their duties are often very laborious.
We are acquainted with some guards whose
daily journey, Sundays excepted, is a length
of two hundred and forty-five miles. A
combination of vigilance, honesty, firmness,
and courtesy, is required to form a good
railway guard; happily for the public, the
combination is by no means rare. The guard
must keep a constant look out from his van;
and know the proper moment for putting on
the break, as the train approaches a station.
He must be out of his van the moment the
train stops, assisting the passengers to get in
or alight; keeping, in the meantime, a sharp
eye on the luggage; and having a ready
answer for any question that may be put to