, 1890-02-21
NOT A BAIT FOR ROBBERS.

An Odd Railroad Man Tells why Pay
Trains Are Never Held Up"
why is it that train robbers never
plumber a pay train7"
Because they know their reward
would be too insignificant"
That is the way an ~ex-railroad man
put it recently.
LESS money" he added, "is carried
on n pay train than 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 case7''
mo. The trains would be robbed
before they got well out of Savannah.
Besides, who would be able TO keep up
with a car load of money! It is large
ly silver, and the ten cent pieces and
the nickels and the coppers would run
away with things"
How is the business conducted,
thenf"
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 the Savan.
nah, Florida and Western railroad or
the Central railroad just enough
money is taken TO pay employees, in
GLIDING 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 en-
gineeTs, %hrenien. conductors and yard
hands, and others Of the Savannah
n Western railroad, are paid off; in
Augusta the employees of the South
Carolina division of the Central are
paid off; the same is true with the
Savannah, Florida and Western rail.
way. By this mean the largest sums
paid out amount to a little more than n
transfer of money procured from the
banks, through the paymaster of the
railroads, TO the employees. The sums
paid out on the line between the head
quarters Of each division are small
compared to the moun paid out in
the cities. None of the engineers or
liienien or conductors or brakemen
are paid off at points along the line.
They are the employees that get the
largest pay" e
inS idiifOdd ulsin related an Incl
dent which took place several years
ago. which he said put matters in a
bad light and made the pay train
tempting 10 train robbers. A newspa-
per reporter on II Of the dailies in a
western town wrote n long article.
stating how much money il required
To pay off the employees of the road,
and concluded by saying it was singu-
lar that the robbers seldom held up the
pay trains. The figures the newspa-
per man gave were correct, and the
article attracted widespread attention.
Several officials of the road went to
the general manager about the matter,
and began to suggest a remedy for
what they considered a very bad prac-
tice.
The general manager explained to
them hat the amount of money car
ried on pay trains was small compared
TO what is carried on a regular mail
and express train, but the matter was
not settled until the newspaper man
published an interview with the gen.
eral manager, giving the facts and
stating the manner in which the bust
ness was conducted on pay trains.
The railroader said, however, that the
danger of pay train robbery is very
slight The robbers have posted them
selves about these matters. Savannah
News.