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MARINE REVIEW. “Vor. TV. CLEVELAND, OHIO, THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1801. No. 5. a Chicago Line Agents. No class of men in the country’s transportation are harder worked or carry more multitudinous burdens than the Chicago . agents of the through lake and rail lines. From the day that navigation opens until December 1, the close of the season, it is a continued drive. Railway managers and agents share their responsibilities with subordinates, but not so with the line agents; they must oversee the incoming freight and must act as judge in a number of questions which arise. The shippers of package freight must be courted and their patronage secured. The rail- road man upon whose shoulders fell these two burdens would surely think that he had enough to do, but in addition to them the line agents are compelled to spend several hours on ’change each day, keeping an ever watchful eye on the course of grain freights. No business on the board of trade requires greater watchfulness, for the boats must have cargoes when they are ready to load regardless of the condition of the market or the turn of lake rates. The railroad man takes what freight he can get, but the liné agent is compelled to get the required cargoes whether the business is brisk or dull to the point of deadness. But he has still more todo. His general officers are far at the other end of the line. He is upon the ground and alone knows T. T. MORFORD. the conditions surrounding him, thus the line agent necessarily becomes a most important factor in determining the policies of the line, and whether rates will be reduced, maintained or ad- vanced, depends largely upon his judgment. The veteran lake linein Chicago is the Western Transit Company, the lake end of the New York Central railroad. Hugh MacMillan, Chicago agent, has been with the line most of his manhood days. He was born in Scotland forty-eight years ago, and has the proverbial “fight” of the Scot in his makeup. He came to this country when a child and began sailing before the mast when a mere lad. In 1862 he went to the Western Transit Company, sailing as second and first mates on passenger steam- ers between Chicago and Buffalo. Then for a time he was tmas- ter of a schooner, returning to the Western Line as assistant agent under J. W. Tuttle. In 1884 Mr, MacMillan became west- ern agent. He is an incessant worker and from early morn un- til late at night he is at the helm. When at last Mr. MacMillan decides to give up his position he will have plenty of business of his own to attend to. | He has a large stock farm in Kansas, an olive grove in Southern California, and vessel interests. Whether he will take to raising hogs or olives, he says he has not settled in his own mind. When Mr. MacMillan was mate on a Buffalo passenger steamer, T. I. Morford, for many years agent of the Uuion Steamboat Company, was checking baggage, and the two boys became fast friends, a friendship which all the rivalry of business has not broken. It was thirty-five years ago that Mr. Morford HUGH MAC MILLAN. entered the transportation business of Chicago. Some years were spent with the commercial run, and then he went to the Union Steamboat Company where he has labored just twenty-one years, three years as assistant agent and eighteen years as agent. As the dean of the line agents Mr. Morford was elected this spring president of their association, which, has taken so promi- nent a part this year in the movement for tlie improvement of the river. He isa member of the Union league, Iriquois and other ciubs, and at the banquet board he is a most genial and entertaining host. ‘i D. B. Linsted, the western agent of the Ogdensburg ‘Transit Company, the lake end of the Central Vermont Railroad line, is the only war veteran of the line agents. He was born in Mount Vernon, O., in. 1846, and left school to gointo the army at the breaking out of the rebellion, remaining until the last gun was fired. Then he studied medicine, but he did not like the pill business and in 1868 he went to the mining regions of Lake Su- perior. From there he went to Cleveland with the old Northern Transportation Company. He was transferred here as agent in 1869. In 1876 Mr. Linsted beame the agent of the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad which was soon absorbed by the Central Vermont. There he has since remained. No man in transportation business has more friends than he, and in Masonic D. B. LINSTED. circles he stands equally high, having served several years as emminent commander of Chevelier Bayard commandery. He has a beautiful home in Edgewater. Last spring Stewart Murray came here from Milwaukee to become the western agent of the Lehigh Valley Transportation Company. Beginning with the most disastrous period that the lake marine has ever suffered, Mr. Murray has made an enviable record, and has proved himself competent for the difficult posi- tion. For twenty-four years Mr. Murray was contracting agent for the Anchor Line in Milwaukee. Then for a year prior to coming here he was the agent of the Lehigh Valley in the Cream City. a The youngest of the line agents is J. C. Evans, who has rep- resented the Anchor Line for two years. Mr. Evans is but twenty-eight years old, but he has devoted himself thoroughly to the transportation business. His first experience was in 1882, when he became superintendent of the Canal & Lake Steamboat Company, plying between Buffalo and. New York city. For a year he was vice-president of that company. He is now treas- urer of the Lake Carriers’ Association, and is rapidly gaining a leading position in the lake marine. William Dickinson, agent of the Lackawanna Line, is one of the handsomest men to be seen on the floor of the board of trade. The transportation business forms but a part of Mr. Dickinson’s interests, although he is also agent of the Merchants Line, be- tween this city and Montreal. It is said that Mr. Dickinson is rapidly accumulating a fortune in the cement business.