Excerpt
"A fireman on a coal burning engine stands a pretty slim chance of getting out in case of a wreck or a head-on collision, for the most of the time he is standing down on the deck behind the boiler head where he can't see out ahead, and besides he is so busy shoveling coal into the fire box especially on a fast run, that he has not got time to think about anything else, for his business is to keep the old mill hot so that the engineer can make the time." —from Brownie the Boomer