St. Paul daily globe., 1891-05-18
This is TOMFOOLERY.
The Boycott on the Alton
Acting in a Peculiar
Manner.
Passengers Allowed to Travel
Unmolested From Denver
to New York,
But Some Smart Baggageman
Stops Their Trunks at
Buffalo.
A Suit Brought Which Will
Be Far Reaching in Its
Results.


NEW YORK, May 17.-That the boy
colt of the Eastern railroads against the
Chicago IL Alton would prove an igno-
minous failure has long been taken for
granted, but the board of rulings has
continued to protest that nearly all of
the original sixty companies which
signed the death warrant against COM
missions were maintaining a solid front.
The Sun has said that several of the
companies, after issuing the order to
their trainmen to boycott the tickets
and baggage of the Alton passengers,
issued second order quietly annulling
the first, and directing their trainmen
not to disturb such people. There is
now evidence that every one of the
trunk lines, except possibly the Penn
sylvania and New York Central,
is ignoring the ukase of the board. In
other words, the boycott is a dead letter,
but Messrs. Blanchard, Goddard, Farm
er and Donald will probably not declare
it off until cold weather. The example
that follows looks as if bad blunder
had been committed, and probably two
of the companies are liable for damages.
Louis Seckel, the general agent of the
Equitable Life Assurance society, at
Denver, and his daughter, left that city
on May for New York on the Union
Pacific. They had secured state rooms
on the steamship Columbia of the Ham
burg-American line, which sailed last
Thursday for Berlin, Mr.. Seckel was
going to Germany
For His Health.
The Union Pacific agent at Denver
gave them coupon tickets reading lover
the Chicago ~ Alton to Chicago, and
thence over the Grand Trunk to New
York" The Grand Trunk and West
Shore roads publicly claim to be boy
cOtting the Alton by order of the board
of rulings. They we're also ordered to
boycott the Union Pacific, and any
other company that continued to deal
with the Alton. The coupon ticket
issued by the Union Pacific bore on the
of the Chicago & Alton. Chicago &
Grand Trunk, Grand Trunk and West
Shore railways" and even after the
Union Pacific and Chicago & Alton
coupons had been torn off, it was as
much an Alton ticket as ever. If the
boycott had been in force, the
first Grand Trunk conductor out of
Chicago should have refused to accept
the tickets. The several Grand Trunk
conductors punched and repunched the
tickets, and made no complaint as Mr..
Seckel rode on toward Buffalo. At Buff
falo their sleeper was attached to a
West Shore train. None of the conduc-
tors on this road objected to the tick
cts, but they treated them like any other
tickets. Mr.. Seckel and his daughter
reached New. York Sunday last without
a suspicion that there was boycott in
force, and that they had had mighty
narrow escape from being thrown off
the train. AS matter of fact, the big
force of detectives employed by the Al
ton road has not succeeded yet in find
ing single case where one of its tick
cts has been refused. Mr.. Seckel called
at the baggage office, at the foot of
Forty-second street, for his baggage as
soon as he arrived, but
ItHad Not Come
on that train. He called the next day
and the West Shore officials still knew
nothing about it. Then he went to the
local office of the Union Pacific, and the
general Eastern agent telegraphed for
information to all the junction points
along the line between Denver andWee-
hawken. Finally he suspected that the
boycott had gone off at half-cock, and
that some baggagemaster had been a
little more conscientious than the train
men, or that baggagemaSter had for
gotten the subsidiary order not to boy
colt any one. Such was the case. The
Grand Trunk baggagemen did not
care, but West Shore baggage
man at Buffalo did. When he came
across the braS obpol- with tho initiaic
&c. & A" on it he nailed it on the spot.
The Grand Trunk had to take tine trunk
back, and it stood in the storage room at
Buffalo while its owner was in New
York worrying about it and much in
convenienced. Mr.. Seckel and his
daughter had few things in their
grips, but they had to buy many articles
of clothing. The Union Pacific agent
had the trunk sent on from Buffalo by
express and it reached here Friday
night. 1t came over the West Shore, it
is said. which is boycotting Alton bag
gage. The Alton paid the express
charges, but probably they will come
out of the West Shore sooner or later.
Meanwhile Mr.. Seckel had
Missed the Steamship.
which sailed on Thursday, and he was
worked UP about it on account OF the
disappointment. He applied at the
Office of the steamship agents to get the
tickets chan ged, but the agents did not
seem inclined to grant the favor. Mr..
Seckef knew Carl Schurz, who is di-
rector of the company, and the latter
used his influence to get the tickets
changed to next Thursdays boat. Mr..
Seckel does not care much now whether
he gets left or not next Thursday. He
is interested in the railroad affair. and
he is going to see it out if he has to stay
all summer. He consulted a lawyer
and swore out an affidavit. He is mod
est in his demands. All that he
cares for, he told Sun reporter yester-
day, was that the company which is liza
BILE should pay the hotel and miscella-
neous expenses that they have con-
tracted during the time they have been
delayed. He estimates them at SIS a
day or $50. This includes several
articles of apparel which they had to
buy because they did not have the
trunk. They were at modest hotel
yesterday, but will 90 to the Fifth Ave
nue. tomorrow. If the board of rulings
takes no action in the matter it will be
tacit admission, the Alton people say,