Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-04-16
ROBBERS SHUN THEM.

An Old Railroad Man Tells Why Pay
Trains arc Never .'Held Up"
"Why IL it that the train robbers
never plumber pay train?"
Because they know their reward
would be too insignificant"
That is the way an ex-railroad man
put it.
''Less money" he added, sis carried
on pay train than on any other kind of
train. Some folks imagine that the pay
OF the employees of the two great systems
terminating here, aggregating hundreds
OF thousands monthly is piled away in
the cars, and is hauled over the road.
Isn't that the case?"
! 'Great Scott, no! The trains would be
robbed before they got we'll out of Sa-
vannah. Besides, who would be able to
keep up with carload of money? It is
largely silver, and the ten-cent pieces
and the nickels and the coppers would
run away with things"
Show is the business conducted,
then?''
Easily enough. In fact, there is but
one way to properly carry it on. That
way is to draw on the banks at each city
for enough to pay off until the next city
is reached. For instance, in leaving
Savannah over either the Savannah,
Florida 81 Western railroad or the Cen
trail railroad just enough money is taken
to pay off employees, including agents,
track hands, operators and others at
each of the stations. This amount is
not very large. The largest amounts
are paid out in the cities: for instance,
In Macon the engineers, firemen, con-
ductors and yard-hands, and others of
the Savannah 81 Western railroad, are
paid off in Columbus the Savannah &
Western force is paii off; in Augusta
the employees of the South Carolina
division of the Central are paid off; the
same is true with the Savannah, Florida
& Western railway. By this means the
largest sums paid out amount to little
more than transfer of money procured
from the banks, through the paymaster
of the railroad, to the employees. The
sums paid out on the line between the
headquarters of each division are small
compared to the amounts paid out in the
cities. None of the engineers or firemen
or conductors or brakemen are paid off
at points along the line. They are the
employees that get the largest pay"
: The railroad man related an incident
which took place several years ago,
which he said put matters in a bad light
and made the pay train tempting to
train robbers. 4 newspaper reporter on
one of the dailies in a Western town
wrote long article, stating how much
money itrequired to pay off the employees
of the road, and concluding by saying it
was singular that the robbers seldom
held pay-trains up. The figures the
newspaper man gave were correct, and
the article attracted widespread atten-
ton.
Several officials of the road went to
the general manager about the matter,
and began to suggest remedy for what
they considered a very bad practice.
The general manager explained to
them that the amount of money carried
on pay trains was small compared to
what is carried on the regular mail and
express train. but the matter was not
settled until the newspaper man pub
Hshed an interview with the general
manager, giving the facts and stating
the manner in which business was con-
Quoted on pay trains. The railroader
said, however, that the danger of paw
train robbery is very slight. The rob-
bers have posted themselves about these
matters (Ga.) News.