You no doubt have made up your mind by this time that I have no use for
a careless engineer, and let me add right here, that if you are inclined
to be careless, forgetful,(they both mean about the same thing,) you are
a mighty poor risk for an insurance company, but on the other hand if
you are careful and attentive to business, you are as safe a risk as any
one, and your success and the durability and life of your engine depends
entirely upon you, and it is not worth your while to try to shift the
responsibility of an accident to your engine upon some one else.

If you should go away from your engine and leave it with the water boy,
or anyone who might be handy, or leave it alone, as is often done, and
something goes wrong with the engine, you are at fault. You had no
business to leave it, but you say you had to go to the separator and
help fix something there. At the separator is not your place. It is
not our intention to tell you how to run both ends of an outfit. We
could not tell you if we wanted to. If the men at the separator can't
handle it, get some one or get your boss to get some one who can. Your
place is at the engine. If your engine is running nicely, there is all
the more reason why you should stay by it, as that is the way to keep it
running nicely. I have seen twenty dollars damage done to the separator
and two days time lost all because the engineer was as near the
separator as he was to the engine when a root went into the cylinder.
Stay with your engine, and if anything goes wrong at the separator, you
are ready to stop and stop quickly, and if you are signalled to start
you are ready to start at once You are therefore making time for your
employer or for yourself and to make time while running a threshing
outfit, means to make money. There are engineers running engines today
who waste time enough every day to pay their wages.