All that Sunday it snowed, and all that Sunday the superintendent was at his desk. He did not know the passage of the hours; the clicking sounder held his attention riveted. He worked all Sunday night and into Monday morning. There were 200 suburban trains to be brought into the terminal on Monday morning, and the commuter is a fussy soul about his train being on time. The superintendent knew that, and he was ready. He had extra men at the switches in the terminal yards, took particular pains to have snow swept from the platforms of even the lowliest suburban station. The trains came in on time that Monday morning, all save one. On that one train the regular fireman had been snowbound at his home upon the mountainside. They had to put on a green man to fire the engine--a raw-boned lad just off a freight. He made slow work of it, and the train was fourteen minutes late. That was the only exception to a clean record, a record made possible by long hours of work. "They ought to have been proud of that fight," you say to the big boss. He grins at your ignorance. "Proud?" he laughs. "They raised hell with me because we had 387 laid out fourteen minutes." CHAPTER XVII THE G. P. A. AND HIS OFFICE HE HAS TO KEEP THE ROAD ADVERTISED--MUST BE AN AFTER-DINNER ORATOR, AND MANY-SIDED--HIS GENIALITY, URBANITY, COURTESY--EXCESSIVE RIVALRY FOR PASSENGER TRAFFIC--INCREASING LUXURY IN PULLMAN CARS--MANY PRINTED FORMS OF TICKETS, ETC. We have already called the division superintendent the Prince in the realm of railroad operation. But there is another, whom we see when we leave operation and consider traffic--another who might also be called Prince--Prince Charming. This prince of charm of the railroad is the general passenger agent. To a large proportion of folk he is almost the personification of the railroad itself. His signature, appearing upon each of the railroad's tickets and time-tables, is multiplied a million times a year. In his own self he appears many, many times as the road's mouthpiece. His evening clothes must always be kept in press and moth-balls, for his oratory is at all times close to the tap. His wit is ready, his tongue a good arguer for his line. At dinners of Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade, his urbanity is profound, his remarks to the point; and the road gets the advertising.