Some in their shirt sleeves busy with hammer and file at
benches hard by; others raking out fire-boxes, or oiling machinery; all
busy as bees, save the few, who, having completed their preparations,
were buttoning up their jackets and awaiting the signal to charge.

At last that signal came to John Marrot--not in a loud shout of command
or a trumpet-blast, but by the silent hand of Time, as indicated on his
chronometer.

"But how," it may be asked, "does John Marrot know precisely the hour at
which he has to start, the stations he has to stop at, the various
little acts of coupling on and dropping off carriages and trucks, and
returning with trains or with `empties' within fixed periods so
punctually, that he shall not interfere with, run into, or delay, the
operations of the hundreds of drivers whose duties are as complex, nice,
important, and swift as his own."

Reader, we reply that John knows it all in consequence of the perfection
of _system_ attained in railway management. Without this, our trains
and rails all over the kingdom would long ago have been smashed up into
what Irishmen expressively name smithereens.

The duty of arranging the details of the system devolves on the
superintendents of departments on the line, namely, the passenger,
goods, and locomotive superintendents, each of whom reigns independently
and supreme in his own department, but of course, like the members of a
well-ordered family, they have to consult together in order that their
trains may be properly horsed, and the time of running so arranged that
there shall be no clashing in their distinct though united interests.
When the number of trains and time of running have been fixed, and
finally published by the passenger superintendent--who is also sometimes
the "Out-door superintendent," and who has duties to perform that demand
very considerable powers of generalship,--it is the duty of the
locomotive superintendent to supply the requisite engines. This
officer, besides caring for all the "plant" or rolling-stock, new and
old, draws out periodically a schedule, in which is detailed to a nicety
every minute act that has to be done by drivers--the hour at which each
engine is to leave the shed on each day of the week, the number of each
engine, its driver and fireman, and the duties to be performed; and this
sheet contains complete _daily_ (nay, almost hourly) directions for
passenger, goods, and pilot-engines.

In order to secure att