Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-03-11
STREET.CAR CONDUCTORS.
IIle"E nocking Down Under the
Present System.

=, mine" sighed one Oh Iile oi'' 'liiiO
IL I. low, Of the Market street cable line
"O,,, ,+I,, whose face is familiar to all the
notrons Of that line.
p' aWhat's the matter now, Joe?' asked
p,,, reporter, to whom the remark was
addressed. po
..wal TO use a slang impression, I've
.,o 90 b. which means that my SER
os are no longer required on the line
W. W. NOT sorry, though, for it's got so
l : - nothing but niggardly, starve-to-
'n.. t ,rogos, and awful long hours work
now" .,, +bo former
%, o,1eried the inquisitorial reporter.
Gay :T f. lots Of ways. Before the internal
hall nnncb was invented I made good
fat gat thing OF it; and even after it came on
t IL, line | did pretty well for a small man
with a large family, but, I tell you, the
o " cot so that it don't depend on
tbo n,,ncb alone, and has adopted 1 an
Ine -. P,iN nuncb. which generally dresses
:1s9i S.att;oaats and succeeds IN making
IN M Ps'' 4ronicaI for the conductors, In
lhlnsS 5,;nion II beats the punch all to
u! b. The name of the internal con-
W .aoo Is 'spotter.' and the company
UHr os 20 a day for its services.
pa.i.TEou understand what [ mean. The
.or,nanr hires a certain number of these
e 1'ltl 10 travel on the line and take
n6tos of the number of passengers that
1rst on and off. the number of fares col
iacted. and the number OF times the
nunch is used, which they report to the
office. Most OF these spoilers are young
misses. who are employed a few days on
one line and then put on another until
the conductors have had time to forget
their faces, for we are always on the look
out. They generally have book TO read,
and sit where they can see on all sides,
keeping on a card in their pocket record
OF the trip Some OF the boys are SO keen
they can almost smell a spOtter before
they see it. But, as all men are human,
and street-car conductors more SO, they
all sooner or later come TO grief and go
down into the valley OF suspicion, from
which no ordinary conductor has tri-
mphantlv returned. These spoilers in
clude old and young men, girls, widows,
and cripples, and there's no use of trying
to knock down fares and get away with
them than there is to try to attempt to be
q bank cashier and keep from clipping to
Canada.
Its the meanest business on Gods
ioot-stool to-day. 1t don't make any
difference whether a man is honest or
not, he is almost sure to get fired be-
fore he has been long on the line. If
some cranky old cuss happens to hail
your ear from a block away, and you
don't see him, ten to one he will take
the number and report you, which means
in plain English, that you can hunt for a
new job. Then, again, if some fat old
fool OF a woman persists in getting off the
car before 1t stops, and, as is generally
the case, sits down on the basalt blocks
with the force Of a pile-driver, nearly dis
locating her spinal column and loosening
the filling in her back teeth, you must
expect trouble; and if she rises in her
dignity and wrath and waves a wild and
vehement adieu to you with her parasol,
&yOu glide down the grade, you may as
well begin to arrange your earthly affairs
for a sudden change of base, for it is in
the air.
This persistent practice of the dear
public in getting off of moving cars and
aither turning backward somersaults OF
roller coasting over the slippery paving
stones on their stomachs has lost more
for street-car conductors and
drivers than anything [ know of, because
they are blamed for it.
Zone of the most eXasperating eX-
periences that the conductor has to crap
pie with almost every day is getting fares
out Of absent-minded people and those
who wilfully lie in order to get out Of pay
mg Why, | have seen well-dressed
women who would take advantage of the
ht that a car was crowded, and declare
IN the most spiteful manner that they
had PUNCHED their nickel, when | knew
That they were lying. But what can a
man do? And they know that they have
the drop on him, and so does he. The
result is that they get a free ride, for it
would not do to try and put them off.
Absent minded people who think they
have paid their fares, are just as trouble
some.
Its asweet-scented, encouraging bust
ness to a new beginner the way things
are managed on some lines. A man
must 60 to work as a greenhOrn, OF
course, and he is lucky if he averages 6
DIS day Tor a couple OF months. For
single man this is bad enough, but |
hhoW more than one poor fellow with a
family who Is starving alone trying to
Keep soul and body together on the pay
uii'iI ne can get on as a regular at $3.50
per DAY OF sixteen hours. And the
IH1Ilces are ten TO one that he will not
iloId The place three months when he gets
It, some fine day he gets his walking
papers, and there is no appeal from the
judgment. II his family is on the verge
d starvation it makes no difference. he
must go. Add to this the fact that nearly
o ~ me IN the city keeps a black list
" CiG HahleS OF the discharged emploves.
ana mat when man gets the bounce his
name Is furnished to the other companies
[ ,3 can readily see that man mist
Mlen discharged, apply for work under
cg assumed name, or rustic for some
"1 .,a, kind of employment. '-'i'
&c men again, when he is so fortunate
9t ~ get on as an extra he must renorf
4s 0' e cSar-shops at the unhoIy hour Of
'sUDa M one morning, help out cars and
sim no %ol2d, basing his hopes on the
orpgs, feasibility that some one of the
wants t wi want to lay off for dav. If he
at tbot " De an extra man he must report
don Tiao 4our every morning, even i he
When e G a days work once in a week
gets 81 ne Re works a day on this LAYOUT he
teen i boo,., For this he must work six
On his f faat and during that time must be
inc co lgeI constantly, the rules not allow
III" ,o TG;,Iuuctor to sit down while on duty
the s5 gIlp men men, get 500 a day, working kim
"0b ONE number of hours.
ertv wi will YES; it's nice business; but pow
thin" VIII bring man to do almost anv-