The Beatrice Daily Express

Employes of The Rock Island
System Are Doing Some
Rapid Mental Work—
Men Displaced.

The employes of the Rock Island system who are still clinging to their jobs are doing some rapid mental calculating just now and are wondering when the new influence at work with the management is going to let up on the dismissals. It is told The Express that a number of clerks employed at Fairbury have been let out and their places filled by men sent out from Chicago and that some of the most valuable men in the freight department who have been located at various points on the system, have been displaced. A curious fact noted in this connection is that all of these men have found instant employment by the Burlington, in many cases at an increase in their salary.

It is thought that the Rock Island is figuring on some big improvement at Fairbury and that this is giving the people of that town some concern from the fact that the company has purchased a large tract of land west of the town where a large depot has been built and where an extensive yard has been laid out. Just what the company intends doing with the property is more or less of a mystery. Some weeks ago a gang of men were at Jansen making extensive experiments in boring for water. It was understood then that if a sufficient quantity of good water could have been secured there that the improvements which are now going on at Fairbury would have been located at Jansen but that the company was not satisfied with the results obtained.