While a Division Superintendent of a railway was attending closely to his business of placing obstructions on the track and tampering withthe switches he received word that the President of the road was about todischarge him for incompetency.
當一條鐵路的地區督辦正在十分認真的琢磨該如何正確高效地在車軌上放置障礙物以及怎么胡亂扳岔道的時候，他接到了來自道路主席的口信，說要撤他的職，因其督辦不力。

"Good Heavens!" he cried; "there are more accidents on my division than on all the rest of the line."
“老天啊！”他仰天長嘆；“這條線上可不就是屬我這一段事故最多了嗎？！”

"The President is very particular," said the Man who brought him thenews; "he thinks the same loss of life might be effected with less damage to the company's property."
“主席的要求很高，”帶口信來的這人說；“他認為死掉多少人，公司的財產就能少減少多少。”

"Does he expect me to shoot passengers through the car windows?"exclaimed the indignant official, spiking a loose tie across the rails."Does he take me for an assassin?"
“難道他還想讓我開槍射擊車窗里的乘客嗎？”這位憤慨的官員一邊義正言辭，一邊松松的把兩段鐵軌給釘到一塊。“難道他把我當成了殺手不成？”