Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-15
spoTTERs AND CONDUCTORS.
The Difference Between Eastern and West
 ern Roads-A New Scheme.

The Difference Between Eastern and West
 ern Roads-A New Scheme.
 There is gradation 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 a conductor, and it is no in- frequent thing for spotter to be discovered in crookedness. They get from s to $ 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 conductor Is seldom discharged until something is proved against him.
 On western3 and southern roads the con- ductor is a bigger man than in the east. and latitude is given to him that on eastern road would enable a conductor to accumulate wealth. A large percentage of western travel CTS 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 rarity. It is possible to travel through every western city, buying a naw ticket at each without meeting q regular ticket office or buying Q 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 spottor 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. A large part of tho business is from commuters, with all of whom the conductor becomes per sonaIly acquainted. What is easier than for them to commute with him instead of with i the company. He is their regular conductor 1 day after day, and there is no check on him. 1 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 companies have made Q rulc that q ticket i 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 spotter's work is simplified, though at the cost of trouble to tho passengers.
 Out west such possibilities are few. The : cash fares are small part of the total. The conductors can make money by allowing a second class passenger to 50 ill first class cars or to go i'll the sleeping car, but the pas scnger would have to be fixing so many con- ductors, not to speak of the discomfort of Cry1Qp s1U llllleS 10 1lA uluA+O1S COuOuCVOI3 that except in the sleeping cars, there is not much money in it for conductors. When a western conductor wishes to be dishonest he goes into it big. Tho simplest plan Is to ar- range with steady passengers to take them the wholc division for part of the fare, though he would havo to get down pretty low in his figures sometimes to beat the scalper's rates.
 Three or four southern and western roads have devised scheme to prevent the con ductors keeping tickets and rcsclling them, which is worse than the bell punch A strap goes over the conductors neck and shoulders with 0 large bill hook. As he takes coupon or ticket he must stick it on this bill hook in tho presence of the passenger. He accumu- lates a mass of tickets several inches thick, each of which has been punched and torn by the bill hook. He looks like walking file or travelling ticket agent with his wares ex- Dosed-New York Sum-