The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1883-05-10
SPOTTING THE SPOTTERS.
Tho Secret Means by Which Railroad Bas
tectiVcg uro Found Out.

'"The present system of spotting is q
pretty clever way of heading off dishon-
esty," said the reporter to sleeping car
porter who was brushing him. "I pre-.
sumo it works like a charm ?'
ooh, rt.,,nly it works like O charm.
That is, it costs tho company thousands
of dollars wero it saves the company
thousands of cents. We just sit still
and let these fellows got on to us-wo
do" and tho sleek mulntto ohuckled
audlbly as he agan applied the brush to
the reportorial ovcrcoat. "Every spot
ter is known to us tho moment he sets
his foot upon the platform, and it is sell
dom one of the bloodhounds has an op-
portunity to do any spotting. We tum-
ble to him in q minute, and if any steal
ing took place ordinarily, it would cer-
tainly y stop short while the spotter was
in sight.
"Do the porters stand in with the con.
ductors p
"The porter is tho dishonest conduc-
tors best bower If it were not for us
the spotter system would be, to some ex-
tent, n success"
'How do you help the conductor?"
"Why, wo spot the spoilers, so to
speak. We have way of marking
every mothers son of them, and that is
how know that that man I pointed out
to You is n detective. L shined his boots
awhile ago and discovered who he was.
I've got his boots in hero now, and if
you will come in I'll show you one Of
them and you can easily guess how
know him to be n spotter."
The porter led the way to one of tho
apartments of the car, and picking up
one Of the boots held the sole upper
most, showing three KS cut on the heel
of the boot.
'Ihat's the way we sizo 'em up" said
the porter with triumphant smile. CIT
was a close call, and if / hadn't shined
his boots he might have gone through
unobserved. OF course everything
would have been all right, anyway, for
my conductor is square man, but
like to be on to these fellows who pry
into Our business. It's cold day when
they get ahead of the conductors and
porters, L can tell YOU"
"What do these three KS cut on the
heel of the boot mcan?"
Why, that's just the point. It is q
private mark by which I recognized tho
man as spotter. He was probably
marked some time ago, and he has been
wearing these boots around Just the
samo, never dreaming that he was giving
himself away right along. 1t could not
be palmer if he wore o star bearing tho
word 'spotter'"
"How do you find out these mon to
start with 2"
"That's easy enough. Do you think
we have no friends ut all to tell us about
these things? Well, we have, in the
company and outside, too For instance,
n spotter gets on ut st. Louis, or Chi
caSo, or Kansas City, or New York.
Somebody goes to the conductor and
says You've got spotter on board to-
night, watch out for him. A descrip-
ton is furnished and I go in, and in
backing his boots mark one of the soles
with my three KS. That ends his Use
fulncss as a detective until he buys n now
pair Of boots or shoes. That is one wny
to get on to thcm, but there arc others.
A conductor sometimes receives q noto
something like this: "A spotter will 90
out with you tonight. He is q tall
man, with sandy mOustache and well
dressed. Yours, j. The writer is
sometimes an employee Of the company,
and stands in with the mon. This is not
often the case, but at any rate, we don't
have much trouble in tlimbling to the
detectives. "-HdnSa$ CftV Times.