QUALIFICATIONS THAT MAKE A SUCCESSFUL ENGINEER.
The ability to manage his engine skillfully, so that its best powers may be economically developed, is the first requisite of a good engineer; but that qualification must be supplemented by others scarcely less essential. Sagacity, sound judgment, judicious self-reliance, are attributes which advance men in all callings; and they are peculiarly valuable possessions for the man who presides over the safety of a railway train. It would be hard to find a business where capacity for suddenly adapting circumstances to ends is likely to prove so useful as it is to an engineer. Some men get along smoothly with engine and train so long as every thing goes on regularly,—trains on time, and engines in perfect order. But let the least difficulty arise, and they succumb like a house of cards. Imbecile, helpless creatures, they are vanquished by the first cloud of trouble. Their true vocation is away from railways. Self-confidence is not always popular; but the engineer who is perfectly satisfied with his own ability to grapple successfully with every emergency, to overcome every difficulty, and avoid every danger, is the individual who gets trains promptly over the road. He who possesses adaptability for railroading acquires a mastery of the work quickly, but mere affinity for the calling will not invest a man with the aggregation of facts respecting the business which are requisite for meeting the emergencies of train service. This must be acquired by industry and observation.