ants on the line that
coal was being stolen from wagons in transit by engine drivers. Nothing
so disgraceful could possibly occur, always answered Mr. Watkin. Down
the line one day, with his officers at a country station, a driver was
seen in the very act of transferring from a coal wagon standing on an
outlying siding some good big lumps to his tender. This was pointed out
to Mr. Watkin, who only said--"The d---d fool, _in broad daylight_!" When
Mr. Allport learned that I came from Derby, and was the son of an old
Midland official, he treated me with marked kindness. Mr. Oakley came in
the year 1880 to Glasgow, where he sat for several days as arbitrator
between the Glasgow and South-Western and Caledonian Railway Companies,
on a matter concerning the management, working, and maintenance of
Kilmarnock Station, of which the companies were joint owners, and I
learned for the first time how an arbitration case should be conducted,
for Mr. Oakley was an expert at such work. This experience stood me in
good stead, when, not many years later, I was appointed arbitrator in a
railway dispute in the North of Ireland.

In the front rank of the railway service I do not remember many beaux.
General managers were men too busy to spend much time upon the study of
dress. But there were exceptions, as there are to every rule, and Sir
James Thompson, General Manager, and afterwards Chairman of the
Caledonian Railway, was a notable exception. Often, after attending
Clearing House meetings or Parliamentary Committees, have I met him in
Piccadilly, Bond Street, or the Burlington Arcade, faultlessly and
fashionably attired in the best taste, airing himself, admiring and
admired. We always stopped and talked; of the topics of the day, the
weather, what a pleasant place London was, how handsome the women, how
well dressed the men. At the Clearing House we usually sat next each
other. I liked him and I think he liked me. Do not think he was a beau
and nothing more. No, he was a hard-headed Scotchman, full of ability
and work, and as a railway manager stood at the top of the ladder. Next
to him Sir Frederick Harrison, General Manager of the London and North-
Western Railway, was, I think, the best dressed railway man. Both he and
Sir James were tall, handsome fellows, and I confess to having admired
them, perhaps as much for their good looks and their taste and style, as
for their intellectual qualities; and I have often thought