The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-10-03
THE BUSY BAGGAGE SEASON.
When Trunks Come In and When They Go
Out-A Talk with n Bagsage-Sm1sher.
New York Tnbure1

New York Tribune
The rush of incoming baggage will soon
be over" said baggage-handlerat the Grand
Central Depot while chatting with a Trib-
une reporter a day or two ago "But the
Morgue won't be closed probably before the
last of October"
The Morgueg' echoed the reporter. with
an anxious glance at the speaker.
Yes, tine MOrgue-thats the name we
give the stOrehouSe across the way from the
baggage-room. It's used during the busy
season for the storage of baggage that we
can't keep in the baggage-room. How did it
get that name? | don't know but it
had il a long time ago. At the time Os the
Spuyten Duyvil disaster the dead bodies of
passengers were temporarily laid oat there,
and that event sort of rechriStened the store
house. We generally deliver on the same
day less than half of the baggage that comes
in; the rest stays here in the depot or goes
over to the Morgue for a day or two Very
few pieces remain over three days in store
] guess that about three-quarters OF the bag
gage of the railroads is delivered on orders
collected on the trains by the agents Of the
Railroad Express Companies The rest is
taken away Dy the various outside and pri-
vate expresses. As a rule it's only green
horns who don't arrange on the cars for the
delivery OF their trunks.
THE BUSIEST TIME
''Our busiest time is in summer" contin-
ued the baggage man, as he deity whirled an
iron bound Saratoga trunk from one pile of
trunks TO another. when June opens the
outgoing baggage begins to exceed in amount
the incoming and toward the close of August
incoming begins to run ahead of the outgo-
ing. There's a big difference between the
stuff the roads handle in summer and winter
In summer trains Will take out or bring in
$50 to 300 pieces each where the same train
IN, into mil ofurlf
pieces each. Just after the Christmas holt
days have known train many a TIME to
bring in only twenty-five or thirty pieces.
The men hired tohandle the stuff are double
the number in summer that are employed in
winter. We have eight wagons belonging to
our express at work at the depot in winter
but in summer thirty wagons are kept busy
most of the time. It's so with all the roads.
THE WEIGHT OF TRUNKS.
"Yes," continued the reporters infOr nant,
81 think the summer are heavier than the
winter trunks. That's because peaple pack
as much as they can into their baggage when
they leave town for their vacation. Then in
coming back lots of folks bring potatoes, cab
bages. apples and all sorts of garden sass in
their trunks from the country. Ten years
ago trunks were smaller, and their weight
ran at about 100 pounds each on the average
To day we have a few trunks that weigh
ninety pounds. but most of them are up to
$50 pounds each. The drummers trunks are
daisies though. Many of them weigh from
800 to 400 pounds apiece, but few of them
go as high as the latter figure. Yes the
roads carry lots of trunks that contain
samples of jewelry, the owners giving re-
lease to the Companies of liability beyond
the regular limit Trunks are awfully de-
ceptive regards their weight-they like
a woman loaded down with concealed SNUG
gled goods. Why, | remember one little
back trunk that didn't look as il il weighed
more than ninety pounds. which tipped the
scales at 800 pounds. That was plagued
drummer's trunk
do baggage-handlers often get hart in
their work.
"Well. l should smile No, sir The hurts
are reserved for the trunks. Now and then
fellow gets scratch or two il the trunk
slips in his hands. and sometimes a trunk
will come down on a fellows foot But no
man is laid off day once in hundred
years. | believe that trunks have to be bang
ed and bullied to be kept in roper subjec-
ton, otherwise they might get up and thrash
some OF US for not treating EN- tenderly."