As to the qualities which make for success in the railway calling, these are, primarily, willingness, obedience, and loyalty. It must be understood, of course, that these remarks are intended for the youth on the threshold of his career, to whom it is always best to speak without equivocation. The lad who is perfectly loyal, who regards the company's business as his business, and not a matter to be talked about with an unwise flippancy outside the office, and who is willing to obey an order, has not long to wait before he is placed in a position to give an order ; and from thence onwards practically everything depends upon himself. Early in his career—if not before he actually enters upon it—he should learn how the railways as we know them first came into being, and what has been their history since their birth. For just as a medical student must read up biology and physiology in order to become a doctor or surgeon, so must he know something of the evolution of the railroads to appreciate the exact nature of the hundred and one problems which are bound to arise during the course of his life. After he has learned, for example, that our magnificent iron railways had their origin in wood tramways, which were laid more than two hundred years ago in the mining districts of England, for the conveyance of coal to the seaports, and further, that the first iron railways were constructed simply as improved roads over which the public could, upon payment of tolls, take their own engines and carriages and trucks of merchandise, he will be able to he should understand —why so many of the waggons which pass over his company's line are owned by private firms, and why all the rates and conditions are not uniform. It is only by intelligent study in this way of
the evolution and history of the lines and the laws relating to them, that the ambitious youth can hope to befit himself for the higher posts. In this connection Al‘Dennott's handbook entitled "Railways," published by Methuen & Co., price 92s. 6d., will be found extremely useful. Some further hints as to how and where the most useful information for the guidance of the student is to be obtained, is given in the article entitled "Stationmaster and Goods Agent," to which the reader's attention is now directed.