Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-23
FREE RAILROAD PASSES.

Those Who Ask For Them and Who
Sometimes Abuse the Privileges Given
Them.
From the New York Sun.
Il am the correspondent of the Mine,ra
Iem," said pallid and lank young man the
other day as he threw down a round-cornered
gilt-edged visiting card on the desk of we'll
known and popular passenger agent in a railroad
Office in this city.
.'Ah, Glad to see you"
"You extend courtesies to the press?"
always"
"Can you give me pass to Chicago!"
"Ahl That's another matter; that's bust
ness"
1t took the young man some time to under
stand that his relations as correspondent to the
engine of civilization did not enitle him to ride
free after the engine of dynamatic progress
We are not troubled much as we once
We're. the passenger agent said subsequently,
"Peoplc who want passes live mostly in tue
west Our western agents have their hands full
answering such applications from newspaper
Hen, who have no real claim upon us; clergy
men. who ask for passes on the ground that they
represent poor and worthy set. and people who
simply haven't the means to travel and want to
GO home very much. Our theory is that there is
no such thing aS complimentary pass. II we
grant pass. we do 1T upon the consideration
of some favor or service done in the past or eX-
pended in the future"
II there a privileged class?"
mo. not now. We used TO grant half-fare
tickets to cIergymen. but when it was found that
some of them abused the favor they were cut off.
There really does not appear to be any reason
why We should give them passes because they
cannot reCiprOcate. of course. The travel which
they direct is by another route in fact and is all
through travel 10 point to which We can't sell
tickets. IT discovered some time ago that
some parsons who secured passes on account of
the cloth used them i'm their secular CAPACITY as
travelling agents for. sewing machines histories
of Jerusalem and such-like merchandise. Then,
too they loaned their certificates to their friends
and 1T was not infrequently the case that q con-
ductOr would come upon q parsons haf-fare
ticket in the hands of u most worldly and unre-
generate person."
Don't yen find ont the unworthy ones?"
''Yes, and We have black list of them. Eli
Perkins heads it, The list is kept by all of the
western agents. and the causes which lead to
the placing of names upon it are various.
In one instance, the passenger agent said. a
pass for a certain period had been issued. When
II was returned To be renewed it was discovered
upon holding it to the light, that land one
had been written in after the name in which the
pass was made out and in the same way the
date of the pass had been extended. Both of
these alterations had been deity scratched out
before the pass was presented to be renewed.
Recently young man threw down what he
called his credentials before a certain passen-
ger agent. and asked for a free pass to a
western CITY ana return 10 new 1Ofk- NI1ie
talking with the young man the agent quietly
wrote a dispatch of inquiry regarding the ap-
piicant. sent it, and received reply before the
Young man had finished pressing his claims.
Then the agent on the telegraphic information,
declined the pass, and the young man was flu
rious at what he considered as a Withholding Of
his rights.
Sometimes the demands for passes from per-
sons who have some color of claim to them are
PgregiOusly excessive. The editor of a weekly
in NaU Nnr last fCr for
himself and ten friends, who desired to visit
Niagara Falls.
Frequently advertising agents and canvassers
OF one sort and another ask for free tickets on
general principles. and often they ask for them
for points absurdly far beyond the line Of the
road to which they apply. Well-known anti
mOnOpOlists are conspicuous among those who
frequently ask these fayOrs of the railroads.
The misuse of railroad passes is said to be
very common. Legislative passes are fire.
quently met with in unauthorized hands.
Another abuse lies in procuring passes and sell
ing them to scapers. In q recent instance a
young man gotta pass to go west and return,
and a letter from the agent here to the agent of
the railroad at the western terminus asking for
passes to point beyond. The return pass pro-
cured here he sold to scalper. and with the
letter he got halfrate ticket over one road
and a pass over another. He sold the pass to a
scalper. Whenever such case is detected the
name of the offender is added to the black list.
Theatrical advance agents travel on passes
usually, in consideration of the patronage which
they control. In these days of theatrical COM
binations the railroad rates are an important
consideration to managers, while on the other
hand. the custom of these companies is sought
for by the railroads, and in many places the RI
valry between railroads has resulted in adyan-
ta@eOus rates OF fare. Therefore. to win the
favor of the advance agent, passes are usually
given to him. Ii is a noticeable fact that next
to the bogus or irresponsible newspaper men
who appear on the black list of the Western AS
ISOLATION OF Railroad Managers comes the
names OF advance agents who have sold their
passes to sealpcrs. The entry in the black list
reads like this. for example:
Montague Jones. agent Collins comedy company
cells passes To scalperS.