There had been rumors all winter that the engineers were going to strike. Certainly we of the operating department had warning enough. Yet in the railroad life there is always friction in some quarter; the railroad man sleeps like the soldier, with an ear alert-but just the same he sleeps, for with waking comes duty. Our engineers were good fellows. If they had faults, they were American faults-rashness, a liberality bordering on extravagance, and a headstrong, violent way of reaching conclusions-traits born of ability and self-confidence and developed by prosperity.