The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-21
a KNOCKOUT FOR soALPERs.
Conductors Punches that Break Up
heseiiinE Tickets

Conductors Punches that Break Up
heselling Tickets
Another blow at the ticket scalpers has
been made by the southern railroads. A
new order has just gone into operation on
the Savannah, Florida and Western rail-
" ay and the Central railroad. 1t is TO the
effect that ali conductors shall have a
ticket puncnern twice the size Of the usual
puncher, and that each ticket shall be
punched twice when not taken up by the
conductor on his first round.
At present il person buys a through
ticket from Savannah to Alta the C IN
ductor punches the ticket between here and
Macon but does not take it UP. The
ticket is take up between Macon and
Atlanta Dy the next conductor. If the
person holding tina ticket coacludes
after reaching Macon that he will not
go to Atlanta, but 10 remain over in Ma
con or take up another route the ticket is
disposed of to the scaipers and ey are en-
Rbled to make the ticket good from Savan-
nah to Atlanta again by punching over the
conductors punch with "B G" punch,
used by baggage clerks.
Fortunately the conductors had punches
that made q very small hole in a ticket.
Some OF them made stars, some crosses,
others squares, circles, and some made 3 small
initial letter. The ggage clerk in recei7
lug and checking baggage on a ticket is
provided with a puuchSr also, which clips
out the letters 'B c." When the conduct
ors see the baggage clerks mark o. the
ticket it is always good and they receive it
and punch it again.
The scalpers dropped on to this rule
among conductors and they provided them
selves with "B c" punches. So that whom
ever they bought ticket, for instance,
from Savannah to Atlanta, from a party
who was not going on to Atlanta, they =
geniously punched out the conductors mark
with "B CT punch, thus maxi * the ticks.
good from Savannah to Atlanta again,
when IN fact it was good only from Mac "a
to Atlanta. The tickets were usually sent
back t. the Savannah scalpers' offices aud
disposed of again. If the party buying
t Q ticket from the scalpers concluded
as the original buyer did TO stop in Macon,
the scalper simply pu lched out the conduc-
tors stamp again and returned the same
ticket to the Savannah scalper to be sold
over. The conductor rarely suspected any
thing by the tickets being pun he'd twice by
the baggage clerk.
1t was in this way, however, that the
scalper's ''trick" was found out a eau
tiDuS conductor upon taking up a ticket
that had been punched twice with the
"B Q" punch, telegraphed back to Say au-
nah, giving the name of the party
holding the ticket, the number of
the ticket, the date, ETC., and asked
if sucn ticket had besn punched twice
that day. A reply was sent back that no
| such'ticGet had been recorded in the bag
gage Office ID no baggage had bee a
checked on it. The party holding the
ticket was then required TO pay the usual
fare and the scalper's ticket was taken up.
As soon as this kind of business came to the
notice Of the officials Il conductors ticket
punch had to be inve ted The new
pu ches that have taken the placs of the
old ones clip piece out of the ticket half
a inch loIg aud a quarter of an inch wide.
IL clips from the edge Of the ticket instead
of from the body OF it as heretofore.
A conductor Ok liblt91 oae Of the large
punches to a MORNING NEWS reporter
yesterday. SIT is an ugly instrument" ne
said. "bu5 it does the work" He then took
from his vest pocket neat little puncher
which cut star. "The small fellow be
said, abiding to the little punch, twas con-
| sidered the prettest thug on the road.
devised it myself" Conductors, he said
used to take a good deal Of pride in The
small pu lchss, and they were at liberty TO
have whatever sign hey wished, and each
man tried co get up something that would
surpass the other Conductors. Since the
| large and ugly instruments came into use
| nobody taxes any interest in them, ant
| they are all alike.