St. Paul daily globe., 1888-03-02
THE NEW TICKETS.

OF course those who had supply of the
brass tickets on hand were not incOn-
venienced by the change, as the driv-
erS made no objection to dumping the
discs into the receptacle to keep
company with sundry dimes and nick
els, but when passenger rendered
quarter, expecting to receive the six
orders for rides, he was not at all pleased
to find five nickels in the small enyel-
ope passed in from the front platform.
There was constant buzz i'll the cars
as the effect of the new order dawned
upon the passengers, and some of the
more OutSpOken were in favor of walk
ing more than they had been accustomed
to, or else bOycOtting the street cars al
together. General Manager Barr, of
by a representative of the GLOBE as to
the meaning of the new rule, and said
''all the blame for this order should fall
upon my shoulders, for since L assumed
control of the affairs of the company,
several months ago, | have persisently
advocated five-cent fares and an abOli-
ton OF the practice of selling
SIX TICKETS FOR A QUARTER,
and my reason for doing this was that
the expenses of running the cars was so
great that the extra ticket given away
formed an item which might
as well be saved, especially as
business had not been so good
as we expected on the line.
1t was deemed advisable, however, to
refrain from issuing the order until the
: cable line was in running order, and
although the directors adopted my sug-
gestiOn fully four months ago, it was
not until March l that it was put in
operation.
NATURALLY enough | expected OPP
position from those who patrollized the
street car, but all who complain should
bear in mind that street car companies
are pretty expensive enterprises and
require considerable money to run
them.
"NVhen the charter was obtained for
the cable company, a clause was in
serted requiring us, between the hours
of 6 and a. nj. and 6 and p. M, to
sell eight tickets for quarter, the OBJ
ject being to benefit the laboring classes
between those hours. And it is only
during the hours mentioned that such
tickets Will be good, for if one of them
should be presented to one of our con-
ductorS, say at noon, he has inStruc-
tions to refuse to accept 1t, but exact
the full fare, five cents. We have
taken counsel on the subject and will
MAINTAIN OUR RIGHTS,
no matter how much agitation
thay may create among the people.
Then, too, there have been complaints
that we did not put on conductors to re-
ceive the fares of passengers, but made
people do this work themselves. All
that | can say in answer to that is, the
business that we have been doing will
not justify the employment of con-
ductOrs, for there are not more than two
hours in the day that there is any de-
mand for them, and the remainder of
the day would be dead weight for us
to carry them, If we wanted to, under
the law by which we obtained our fran
chise, we could exact cents for single
fare. but we are content to have st.
phia, Boston and other Eastern cities as
a scent town, and there should be no
grumbling. AS far as selling twenty
tickets for dollar is concerned, it is
not as ludicrOuS as some people would
have it appear, for this resolution was
reached in the interest of parents who
might wish to give their children car
tickets to go to school in the morning
rather than the money, but we do not
anticipate rush of the general travel
ing public at the office. corner of Oak
and Ramsey streets, to avail themselves
of our offer. On the cable road, as on
the horse car lines, the fare will be
5 CENTS STRAIGHT
except during the hours designated in
the morning and evening for the benefit
of the working classes, and the people
will soon become accustomed to the new
order of things.
Just as soon as the new brakes arrive
for the passenger coaches on the cable
line, they are tied UP somewhere be-
tween st. Louis and st. Paul on the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy road, we
will take off the st. Anthony hill horse
cars and inaugurate the Rondo street
route, which begins four blocks north
of the cable line. At present the re-
ceipts from the cable cars do not begin
to pay the expense of running them,
and we are simply using them for the
accommodation of the public, pending
the improvements that l have men
toned on the passenger coaches to be
attached to the grip cars.