The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1883-05-09
SPOTTING THE Spoilers.
Tho Secret Means by which Railroad Ds'
tectiyes are Found Out.


"The present system of spotting is o
pretty clever way Of heading off dishon-
esty,' said the reporter to sleeping car
porter who was brushing him. IL pre-
sumo it works like charm ?"
ooh, certainly it works like charm.
That is, it costs the company thousands
of dollars were it saves the company
thousands Of cents. We just sit still
and let these fellows get on to us-we
do" and the sleek mulatto chucklcd
audibly as he agan applied the brush to
the reportorial oycrcOat. every spot
ter is known to us the moment he sets
his foot upon the platform, and it is sell
dom one OF the bloodhounds has nm OPP
portunity to do any spotting. We tum-
bic to him in minute, and if any steal
ing took place ordinarily, it would Ger.
tainly stop short while the spottcr was
in sight"
"Do the porters stand in with the con.
ductors? p
"The porter is the dishonest conduc.
tors best bower. II it were not for us
the spotter system would he, to some ex-
tent, success.
"How do you help the conductor"
"Why, we spot the spoilers, so to
speak. We have way of marking
every mothers son Of them, and that is
how | know that that man pointed out
to you is detective. 1 shined his boots
awhile ago and discovered who he was.
I've got his boots in here now, and il
you will come in I'll show You one Of
them and you can easily guess how
know him to be II spottcr.'
The porter led the way to one of tho
apartments Of the car, and picking up
one of tho boots held the sole upper
most, showing three KS cut on the heel
of the boot.
CHATS the way We size 'em mp" said
the porter with n triumphant smile. ~
was close call, and if | hadn't shine
his boots he might have gone through
unobscrvcd. OF course everything
would have been all right, anyway, fo
my conductor is II square man, but
like to be on to these fellows who prl
into our business. It's n cold day When
they get ahead Of the conductors and
porters, I can tell You"
"What do these llrec Ks cut on the
heel Of the boot mcnY
"Why, that's just the point. II ia {
private mark by which rrcugni2 d the
NAN as spottcr tie wa, probably
marked some time aye, and lac h0s u...
wearing these boots around just "a,
same, never dreaming that hoWas giving
himself away right along. II could uo
be palmer if he wore star bearing tn,
word 'spottcr"
"How do you find out these men tc
start with?'
CHATS easy enough. Do you thinl
we have 10 friends at all to tell us abou
these things? Woll, We have, in tn
company and outside, too. For instance
spottcr gets ON Mt st. Louis, OF Chi
cago, or Kansas City, or New York
Somebody goes to the conductor an
says You've got spoiter on board I,
night, watch out for him.. A descriI
ton il furnished and I 60 in, and i
backing his boots mark one of the sol
with my three Ks. That ends his us,
iulncss as detective until he buys n ne
pair of boots or shoes. That is one WI
10 get on to them but there ARE othors
4 conductor sometimes receives a not
something like this: a spoitor will &
out with You tonight. lie is a Ia
man, with sandy moustachc and We
dressed. Yours, i The writer
sometimes M employee of the compm
and stands in with the men. This is II
often the case, but, at any rate, we dol
have much trouble in tumhling to q
dntcctiyrs n-h'nLLYnS (lIu IIullR