urned out, had been so positive that had
left his hat-box at an hotel at Birmingham that he made no inquiry for it
at the railway office."

VERY NICE TO BE A RAILWAY ENGINEER.

A lady in conversation with a railway engineer observed, "It must be very
nice to be a railway engineer, and be able to travel about anywhere you
want to go to for nothing."

"Yes, madam," was the reply, "It would, as you say, be very nice to
travel about for nothing, _if we were not paid for it_. But you see," he
remarked, "railway engineers are like the cabman's horse. The cabman has
a very thin horse. 'Doesn't your horse have enough to eat?' inquired a
benevolent lady passenger. 'Oh yes, ma'am,' replied cabby, 'I give him
lots o' victuals to eat, only, you see, he hasn't any time to eat 'em.'
So it is with the railway engineer; he has lots of pleasure of all kinds,
only he has not any time to take it."

AN ACCOMMODATING CONTRACTOR.

One railway of some scores of miles hung fire; the directors were
congested with their fears of exceeding the estimates, and so a shrewd
man of business, a contractor, i.e., a man with a mind contracted to
profit and a keen eye to discern the paths of profit, called on them.
This man had made his way upward, and passing through the process of
sub-contracting, had obtained a glimpse of the upper glories. And thus
he relieved the directors from their difficulties, by proffering to make
the railway complete in all its parts, buy the land at the commencement,
and, if required, to engage the station-clerks at the conclusion, with
all the staff complete, so that his patrons might have no trouble, but
begin business off-hand. But the latter condition--the staff and
clerks--being simply a matter of patronage, the directors kept that
trouble in their own hands.

Our contractor loomed on the directors' minds as a guardian angel, a
guarantee against responsibilities, backed by sufficient sureties, so the
matter was without delay handed over to him, and he knew what to do with
it.

--_Roads and Rails_, by W. B. Adams.

THE TWO DUKES AND THE TRAVELLER.

The following amusing anecdote is related of a commercial traveller who
happened to get into the same railway carriage in which the Dukes of
Argyle and Northumberland were travelling. The three chatted familiarly
until the train stopped at Alnwick Junction, where the Duke of
Northumberland got out, a