Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-09-03
AMONG THE scALPERs.



A New and Queer Race of People Brourh.
Into Being BY the Railroaas.
Only those interested and connected
with the railroad business have q
knowledge of the extent to which the
ticket-scalping business has developed.
The business is . most peculiar one,
| and possesses points which are intri-
cate and very hard to understand. In
fact. there is no regular system, as
each person in the enterprise has q
different method for doing his own
business, and then departures from
his established rules are necessary
at times when the disposal of a ticket
is concerned. st. Paul has its broA-
ers; Just as sharp ones as are In
Kansas City or Ind annapolis, the two
toughest scalpiug cities in America,
with the exception of Chicago, which
does not count
The work of the scalpers and their
clerks is to prevent people from
| buying their tickets at the authorized
| ticket-offices and sell at the own
| office tickets which are quite often
secondhand. They always agree to
| sell at lower figure than that charged
| by the ra ilway ticket agent, and they in
variably do. The railroad companies al
ways allow them certain commission
| on every ticket they sell over their
respective roads, and the scalper, as
an inducement for passengers to GO
| by his route, divides his commits on
with his customer. Scalpers in St.
| Paul have been known to be so
| generous as to give their eastern
| commiss on to the passengers as
an inducement for him to buy from
them. When there is a rate war
the scalpers generally lay in a large
stock of tickets at a low price and
when rates are restored they can make
| rate that surprises the general pas
senger agents and ticket agents of the
roads. They have broker friends at
st. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago.
and when they have not through tickets
in stock (tickets reading to points be-
yondsthe places namely they give the
| person letter of Introduction to their
agent in those places, who furnishes a
ticket through to destination.
| The railroad companies persist in de-
claring the scalpers q nuisance and an
evil, but they appear to be a necessary
evil, for the first thing railroad COM
pany looks out for in St Paul is to have
| a good scalper-one who can tell a
| straigh forward, up-and-down yarn
without cracking a smile, and have a
| purchaser take it as though it was
sugar-coated. The paying of comm s.
sions to scalpers is being seriously con-
sidered by all railroad companies in
the country. and it is very probable
| that commissions will be abolished If
| this happens the scalper will have to
depend entirely on the revenue received
from the profit on scalped tickets.
This would have the effect of driving a
number out of the business, as the de-
creased revenue would not support them
| all. A dozen years ago all tickets
were unlimited ones. When the rail-
road companies proposed limited 'ckets
their effect was felt, as it prevented
scalping at localpoints. The unlimited
ticket has number of coupons, any
one of which the holder could detach
and present to the conductor; but the
| limited prevents this, as the whole of
the ticket has to be presented to the
conductor for passage to destination.
The old style of tickets made it a very
easy thing to commence the brokerage
business. but now that the limit is short
the tickets are more difficult to handle.
Lately the railroad companies have
been using an ironclad ticket. which
requires the purchasers signature when
the ticket is bought. and again the pur-
chaser must sign in presence of the
agent of the connecting line on his re-
turn trip. But this appears to be a
very unpopular method, and within the
past few months the system has been
| almost abolished and will in time be
done away with, as now the lines run
ming from Chicago to ST. Paul and the
liues from Kansas City TO St Paul are
selling round-trip tourist tickets at a
| very low rate, stamping them on the
face signature and identification not
required" When the lines at Chicago
and Kansas City sell these tickets it is
with perfect understanding that the
tickets are to be scalped at st. Paul.
The same thing is done to and from
every point in thes.United States. This
| goes to show that if the railroad COM
panies did not approve. assist
and protect the scalpers their
names would be Dennis. They could
not exist. A ticket scalper is really
middleman between the railroad
companies and the public. or rather in
st. Paul they are a medium through
tickets, and generally all railroad com
panies will howl and call ticket
scalper a demoralizer of the rates wher
he really could not cut any rate with
out their consent They do this. how.
ever, to throw the burden off their owr
| shoulders. There are so many railroad:
running to competitive points in the
| United States that the long lines near
| to compete with the short lines, and
put tickets on sale by indirect routes
as cheap as the short lines do, which
naturally scalps the local points or
this line. There are points on the
Northern Pacific Railway where tickets
can be bought to Chicago via st. Paul
as cheapiy as to St Paul proper.
The consequence is that the passen.
ger buys to Chicago, and on arrival IN
St. Paul scalps the part of his ticket
reading St. Paul to Chicago. and there
| by GETS back portion of his fare to st.
Paul. This ticket is held by the scalpeI
until someone comes along and
wants to purchase a ticket to
fare IS 50, and he will sell this
ticket at perhaps reduction OF 81, and
he thereby makes something hlmsel1.
the passenger saves 81, and the rail-
road company gets the rate it asks.
This shows that the scalper is neces-
sarv evil to both the railroad com
panies and the public. st. Pau! GLOBE.
Jackets Of Lace and Velvet.
| Taco ;acLote lined with silk are re.