The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-13
NOT 4 BAIT For ROBBERS.
An Old Railroad Man Tells Why Pay
Trains are Never "Held Up"

An Old Railroad Man Tells Why Pay
Trains are Never "Held Up"
'Whv is it that the train robbers never
| plumber a pay trainF
Because they know their reward would
/ be too Insignificant"
That is the way an ex-railroad man put
it last night.
| LESS money! he added, IS carried on q
! ray train than on any other kind Of train
! Some folks imagine tina. the pay Of the
| employees Of the two great systems ter
| minating here, aggTegatiug hundreds OF
| thousands monthly, is piled away IN the
cars, and Is haulsd over the road
isn't that the casef
"Great -. no. The trains would be
robbed before they got well out of Savan-
nah. Besides, who would be able 70 keep up
with a carload Of money! It IS largely
silver, and the ten-cent pieces AMI the
nickels and the copDers would run away
with things
chow Is the business conducted, thenp
Easily en- ugh. 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 eff until the next city IS
reached. For instance, in leaving Savan-
nah over either the Savannah, Florida and
just enough money is taken to pay off en-
plOyes, 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 in
stance, in Macon the engineers, firemen,
conductors, and yard hands, and Others Of
the Savannah and Western railroad, are
paid off; in Columbus the Savannah and
Western force is paid off; in Augusta the
Of ba - fufui Of
the Central are paid off the same is true with
the Savannah, Florida and Western rail-
way. 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 en-
ployes. The sums paid out on the line be-
tween the headquarters of each division are
small compared to the amounts paid out in
the cities. None of the engineers or fire.
men or conductors or brakemen are paid off
at points along the line. They are the en-
ployes that get the largest pay"
The railroad man related an incident
which took place several years ago. which
he said put matters in bad light and made
the pay train tempting to train robbers. A
newspaper reporter on one of the dailies in
western town wrote long article stating
how much money it required to pay off the
employees of the road, and concluded by
saying it was singular that the robbers sell
dom held pay trains up The figures the
newspaper man gave were correct, and the
article attracted widespread attention.
Several officials of the road went to the
general manager about the matter, and be-
gan TO suggest a remedy for what they con-
sidered 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 a regular mail and express train, bnt 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 business was CON
Quoted on pay trains. The railroader said,
however, that the danger of pay train rob-
berry is very slight The robbers have
posted themselves about these matters.