The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1888-10-24
sporTERs AND CONDUCTORS.
The Difference Between Eastern and West
ern Roads-A New Scheme.


ern Roads-A New Scheme.
There is graduation Of success In the life
Of spotter. He may come to have place
as clerk in the railroad offices and work up;
be 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 CONDUCTOR and 1t is no in
frequent thing for a spotter to be discovered
In crookedness. They get from So to s5 day
and their necessary expenses while employed,
and IL 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 conductor Is
seldom discharged until something is proved
against him.
On western1 and southern roads tine con
ductor is bigger man than in the east, and
latitude is given to him that on an eastern
road would enable conductor to accumulate
wealth. Alarge percentage OF western travel
ers go long distances. and tho use of long
coupon tickets, excursion tickets, mileage
books, and interchangeable tickets Is much
more frequent west. A straight ticket on
some trains is rarity. 1t Is possible to
travel through every western city, buying a
new ticket at each without meeting regular
ticket office or buying 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 thnn
western roads, II an old spotter who has re-
tired to become Broadway ticket scalper Is
10 DO believed The local travel Is great on
the eastern roads, especially roads like the
Harlem. New Haven and Jersey roads. A
largo part Of the business is from commuters,
with all Of whom the conductor becomes per-
sonaliy 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,
1t Is next to impossible for spotter to detect
this without weeks Of hard labor To break
up this practice Of some conductors, Some rail-
road communicative made rule that n&icret
must be torn out Of the book every trip, and
il the commuter has not his book he must
pay cash fare With this rule the spoilers
work is simplified, though at the cost Of
trouble to the passengers.
Out west such possibilities are few. The
cash fares are a small part Of the total The
conductors can make money by allowing
second claas passenger to go In FIRST class
Ctts VT W ~ III tio eieepli Sttft puV pte p'tS-
senger would have TO be fixing SO many con-
ductors, not to speak Of the discomfort Of
trying at times to fix an unfixable conductor,
that, except In the sleeping cars, there Is not
much money In 1t for conductors. When q
western conductor wishes TO be dishonest he
goes into it big. The simplest plan Is to ar
range with steady passengers to take them
the whole division for part OF the fare,
though he would have to get down pretty
low in his figures sometimes to beat the
scalpers rates.
Three or four southern and western roads
have devised a scheme to prevent the con
ductors keeping tickets and reselling them,
which Is worse than tho bell punch. A strap
goes over the conductors neck and shoulders
with large bill hook As he takes a coupon
or ticket he must stick il on this bill hook in
the presence of the passenger. He accumu-
latcs mass Of tickets several inches thick,
each Of which has been punched and torn by
the bill hook. He looks like walking tile or
travelling ticket agent with his wares ex-
posed New York Sun.