PUNY DIFFICULTIES VANQUISH THE IGNORANT ENGINEER.
A great many engineers who run passenger trains, and take an intelligent interest in the working of the locomotive, whose technicalities they have thoroughly mastered, display no desire whatever to understand the air-brake, and are perfectly contented with its action so long as it will stop the train. The air-pump, so wonderfully interesting to those who understand its movements, receives no more attention than is necessary to keep it going so that the required air-pressure is maintained. They know how to start and stop the machine, and they oil it regularly; but these are the limits of their attentions. Should the pump happen to stop working, the cause is mysterious, like many other mysteries; and the natural remedy suggested, is to hit the thing on the head with a monkey-wrench. Should it not respond to this treatment by renewed action, the hand-brakes are resorted to for the rest of the journey; and the round-house foreman or machinist is required to do the head-work which locates the trouble.
A belief prevails among men who labor principally with their hands, that laziness is exclusively physical. This is a mistake. It is a psychological fact, well known to metaphysicians, that mental laziness is prevalent enough to dwarf the minds of half the human race. Men who would willingly work with their hands during half their leisure time to keep their engines in proper condition for running, have to be driven, by fear or jealousy, before they will force their mental faculties to do trifling labor in a new channel.