San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-03
The Difference Between Eastern and West
ern Roads-A New Scheme.

The Difference Between Eastern and West
ern Roads-A New Scheme.
There is graduation of success in the life
Of a spotter He may come to have place
as clerk in the railroad offices and work up;
he may drift into the ticket scalping business,
or he may be discharged for working in with
the dishonest conductors There is no special
reason why spotter is more honest by
nature than q conductor, and 1t is no in
frequent thing for spotter to be discovered
in crookedness. They get from So to S. day
and their necessary expenses while employed,
and if the job were steady they would have
pretty good thing. But they are not always
on duty, and their jobs are precarious, as
suspicion that they are In with conductors
causes their dismissal, while a conductor is
seldom discharged until something is proved
against him
On western) and southern roads the con-
ductor is bigger man than in the east. and
q latitude is given to him that on an eastern
road would enable conductor to accumulate
wealth. A large percentage of western travel
ers go long distances, and the use of long
coupon tickets, excursion tickets, mileage
books, and interchangeable tickets Is much
more frequent west A straight ticket on
some trains Is a rarity. 1t Is possible to
travel through every western city, buying a
new ticket at each without meeting regular
ticket office or buying a straight ticket. The
result of competition is to allow the passenger
greater freedom.
With all these precautions more instances
Of petty dishonesty are found on eastern than
western roads, If an old spotter who has re-
tired to become Broadway ticket scalper is
to be believed The local travel Is great on
the eastern roads, especially roads like the
Harlem, New Haven and Jersey roads
large part of the business Is from commuters,
with ell of whom the conductor becomes per-
sonally acquainted. What is easier than for
them to commute with him instead of with
the company. He Is their regular conductor
day after day, and there Is no check on him.
It is next to impossible for a spotter to detect
this without weeks of hard labor. TO break
up this practice Of some conductors, some rail-
road companiesha have made a rule that ticket
must be torn out Of the book every trip, and
if the commuter has not his book he must
pay cash fare With this rule the spoilers
work is simplhed, though ut the cost OF
trouble to the passengers
Out west such possibilities are few. The
cash fares are small part of the total. The
conductors can make money by allowing
second class passenger to go in first class
cars or to go in the sleeping car, but the pas
senger would have to be fixing SO many con-
ductors, not to speak of the discomfort of
irving at times to fix an unfixable conductor,
that, except in the sleeping cars, there is not
much money in it for conductors. When
western conductor wishes 10 be dishonest he
goes into 1t big. The simplest plan is to Or
range with steady passengers to take them
the whole division for part Of the fare,
though he would havo to get down pretty
low in his figures sometimes to beat the
scalPers rates
Three or four southern and western roads
have devised a scbeae to prevent the con
ductorS keeping tjcGsts and Teseiiing them,
which is worse than the bell punch. A strap
goes over the conductors neck and shoulders
with a large bill hook. As he takes coupon
or ticket he must stick it ON this bill hook in
the preseace of tie passenger. He accumu-
lotes a mass Of tickets several inches thick,
each OF which has been punched and torn by
the bill hook He looks like a walking file or
q travelling ticket agent with his wares ex-
posed -New York Sun.