and so well."

"I'll tell yuh how 'tis, boss. I sticks de match ob enthusiasm to de
fuse ob yenergy--and jes natchurally explodes, I does."


"Don't be so long-winded in your reports as you have been in the
past," said the manager of the "Wild West" railway to his overseer.
"Just report the condition of the track as ye find it, and don't put
in a lot of needless words that ain't to the point. Write a business
letter, not a love-letter."

A few days later the railway line was badly flooded, and the overseer
wrote his report to the manager in one line: "Sir--Where the railway
was the river is.--Yours faithfully,----."


In Montana a railway-bridge had been destroyed by fire, and it was
necessary to replace it. The bridge-engineer and his staff were
ordered in haste to the place. Two days later came the superintendent
of the division. Alighting from his private car, he encountered the
old master bridge-builder.

"Bill," said the superintendent--and the words quivered with
energy--"I want this job rushed. Every hour's delay costs the company
money. Have you got the engineer's plans for the new bridge?"

"I don't know," said the bridge-builder, "whether the engineer has
the picture drawed yet or not, but the bridge is up and the trains is
passin' over it."--_Harper's_.