THEIR USE.
“What good are the figures set down in these railway time-tables?” asked the sarcastic and angry would-be passenger.
“Why,” explained the genial Irish station-master, “if it weren’t for them figures we’d have no way of findin’ out how late the trains are.”
Tom Callahan got a job on the section working for a railroad. The superintendent told him to go along the line looking for washouts.
“And don’t be as long-winded in your next reports as you have been in the past,” said the superintendent; “just report the condition of the roadbed as you find it, and don’t use a lot of needless words that are not to the point. Write like a business letter, not like a love-letter.”
Tom proceeded on his tour of inspection and when he reached the river, he wrote his report to the superintendent:
“Sir: Where the railroad was, the river is.”