The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-17
THE PULLMAN MAN.
HOW HE MANAGES TO GET AHEAD
OF THE iNQUlSITWE SPOTTER.

WHO Hstl u run through from New
York to the far west on the most frequented
highways OF travel, there are great oppor-
tunities i'll the experience of the sleeping car
man. 1t takes u man with head ON him to
know what he is about. And l guess there
fewer of them caught in any monkey
business than any other set of trusted en-
ployes i'll the country. There are new men
going on the road all the time, and those who
have predisposition to crookedness are
never allowed to grow old i'll the ways of
sin"
$50 they knock DOWN.
"Well, that's n broad question. They don't
| all do it. But there is just the same chance
! for a Pullman man as there is for u street car
conductor, but the risks are greater and he
has more to lose by it. But the knock down
| system is 10y no means an ancient custom
It's devious paths are known; sometimes the
broad light of investigation tracks in upon
them, and the man who is caught loses his
head and SIPS month.
40 begin with, a sleeping man must
familiarize himself with an intricate system
of single entry bookkeeping. On every trip
he carries with him whole set of clerical
apparatus for keeping his accounts They
comprise diagrams of the berths, check books,
markers, accounts of receipts and blanks to
make receipts out the same rs n ships mani
fest, and if he wants to pocket couple of
dollars, or IA five or n ten, he has to keep track
Of an immense amount of detail, doctor up
his accounts in good shape, keep an eagle eye
on the porter and run the gauntlet of spot
ters."
'Spotters:7
YES spoilers There is whole army of
them on the road incesSanty-male ami
female both. Pullman keeps them employed
all the time. They never use passes. III they
go through from New York Ia St Louis, or
from Boston to Washington, they buy first
.l,ats mil, Il
just the same rs wealthy railroad tourists
But they become known. They've got to
hang around the in day time little, tn
get track of things, and IA good fly porter who
can't size up sIDotter when he sees him amt
worth having.
TRACING THE CRooKEDNESS
"A Spotter, when he starts out to get the
drop Oh n suspected conductor, carries along
diagram of the car and a full set of equip
mcnts. He keeps an accurate account of all
bcrths sold or occupied between important
points, ami makes return at the other end of
the line. The first trace of crooketlneSs will
he followed by several more spoilers follow
ing up the same conductor, until the evidence
is dead against him, and then there is sud
den.vacancy i'll the force.
But the career of the spotter is not path
of roe,.s If the conductor doesn't tumble To
him. porter does i'll nine cases out of ten,
and III. \ That innocent sputter Is marked for
life
when he turns in at night he sticks his
sho--, under the lower berth. The porter
comes along after IA while, marks the number
of the aection ON them, and takes them tn the
of the car to put quarter of IA dollar
shine on them. The first thing the porter
does is t. examine them closely, and if there
are no marks on the shoes, he proceeds iii a
| calm, matter-of-fact way to "brand" them
He puts n 'porteI's mark on the shoe, that
every Pullman porter from here In San Fran
cisco viii comprehend the instant he lays his
| eye, on it, Every where that spotter travels
| the little hieroglyphic on his shoes does him
III, and he never gets down to the cause of it
| They work the womcns shoes, too, when they
can ind them, and when they can't they
mark their little caba or Valise in some CON
yenicnt place.
Then the spoilers have the game stocked
W against themselves sometimes If he looks
like an offensive fellow, of more than the
average mcanneSs, he stands in jeopardy.
| The porter rakes in from 81 to $40 on an
average run, and the conductor says, See
here, George, we've got to bull the Market
and the porter knows what that means and
chips i'll. Then the conductor makes up his
accounts $40 above what they ought to be,
fixes up the diagram, and punches few
more checks. When he makes his report, in
| stead of turning in so, he turns in $50. The
| spotter, who has been trained in the school of
| spotless virtue and umblemished truth, only
makes ii out $40
| MISTAKE IN THE FIGURES.
The next thing that happened tn the spot
| ter, he is taken to the front and investigated.
| The manager says: Look here, Mr.. Spotter,
this thing aint right; how is it you only show
up s4of
THAT must he right says the spotter, feel
ing mysterious, and a sort of distrust in tho
arithmetic he studied at school.
"'Wcll, il amt right-you're SO short.
We won't want you any more. Well get
| somebody who can count up better and that
spotter will never find out what happened 10
him. and forever lose confidence in his own
| intelligence. These are tricks that are vain,
but those who are on the wing night and day,
dashng along over the continent, don't put
in their time without learning as they go.
| I've known men to show up tricks to Pullman
himself that Inc never dreamed of. The old
mon ON the road have sowed their wild oats
and never need watching. IL is an object for
them to keep their places. But the young
men We're coming and going all the time, and
applications constantly made mt head
quarters for n rum IL is n good position for
a young man with grit enough To keep 10
"A straight line. Its big experience.
THE big work can only he done on the
buffet or hotel ears ON a long run. That's "A
bonanza \ conductor has 10 keep an ne
count of every article he takes out witE him.
bring back all the scraps and have them
weighed N :, return a correct account OF how
everything was disposed of. But they can
easily knock the companys eye out for "a soft
thing, if they are sharp enough. \ con
ductor il given IA whole ham, which weighs
81 mu III many steaks and other articles.
OF course. they are the best the market can
give. But the porter can buy another ham
for lsss money ard stow it away, AID the
conductor ,;In haze nice juicy steak cut in
two. Ii looks hard to work all the~c thin;-'
| without detection, but they've been done,
and the thing uSsi To work like a gold mine
| \ hotel car conductor can set to To- a stock
holder in a bank before he is - without any
trouble r-Globe-Democrat Interview