Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-08
THE GRAND BOUNCE
Administered TO Several Conductors Of
the Louisville and Nashville and
the Cincinnati Southern.
Alleged Crookedness by Which Over q
Hundred Dollars a Day Was
Taken From the Roads.

A short time ago four OF the Oldest con-
ductors on the Louisville and Nashville
road were Unexpectedly discharged. Every
body was surprised at this action. An AP-
PEAL reporter hearing OF ii, proceeded TO IN
Yestigate the matter and obtained the follow
ing explanation, which shows that something
rotten has existed in Denmark for quite g
while. 1t will be remembered that several
years ago a similar piece of crookedness was
discovered leading 10 the same result. The
company had reason to suspect that ALI was
not right, from the way the tickets were re-
turned. Allo them were delayed for several
days. Had a few been delayed it would not
have been plausible enough, but the delay
was go uniform that 1t
sMAcKED OF A SYSTEM.
A detective was accordingly employed to
ferret out the case. He bought a ~round-trip
ticket at Louisville, but instead of using it
paid his fare as far as Bowling Green. At
that point conductors are changed, and the
detective gave his amused ticket to the new
conductor. The latter saw that it was not
punched, and concluded that his partner had
designs upon him. Consequently
HE DIDx'T PUNCH IT
himself, and when the ticket was finally
taken up il was then as good as new. The re-
suit of this little trick was that the fret con-
uuctOI pOCkctcu luG mODty Qdlu ulm, duu
the second conductor tookfhe unpunched
ticket to Louisville, where it was placed in a
scalper;s hands and sold a second time. 1t
was returned to the office about a week after
it had been sold, instead of about three days.
The trail was followed up further, and it
was found that several of the conductors
WERE IN A COMBINATION
to beat the road. Investigation showed, fur
thermore, that each of the "pals" used to
make between $50 and $40 a day. The
greatest amount of crookedness took place
with regard to the local tickets, though the
ring operated on he through unlimited
tickets also. 1t seems, after all, to be a glo-
rious thing to be a conductor. 1t can readily
be seen that the chances of catching a man
in any irregularity are very few, when there
is such a combination. A system of signs
and catch-words was established, go that
where there was a change OF conductors on a
route, the confederates knew about
HOW MUCH MONEY
to turn in every day. The part that the
scalpers play IN This arrangement is peculiar
but entertaining. Exactly the relations be-
tween them and the conductor is unknown, |
but they must certainly have been aware
the tickets were pouring in a little too
Probably not more han one man
in 500 fails to use his ticket, and yetyou can
''ShCto pc"iiy ereiy uaJ a. NaiiouS
Offices. There Is probably a go |
etween for the conductors and the scalpers, |
and
NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
there can be no sort of question that the
majority of the tickets handled by them have
been irregularly retained. Whether the road
proposes 10 do anything or not is uncertain.
While investigating this matter the reporter
that all of the conductors on the
Southern had been bounced for
inlil1r Dractices |