Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-08-20
WAYS0F ASCALPER
How the Willy Shark Defrauds
the Railroad
BY PATCHING UP TICKETS
The Losses TO the Roads are Enormous.
How the West Michigan Was
Swindled.

''There aren't many ticket sealpers IA
Grand Rapids" said vel known rail-
road man IN the lobby OF the Morton
house last night; ''but then, IL doesn't
take many scalpers 10 make life unen-
durable 10 i railroad company. Think
OF al the desplcably protane eplthets
that you know or ever heard used and
you can gain FAINT conception Of Il
railroad mans opinion OF ticket
scaiper. You have lao idea, unless yoa
are a general passenger agent or al
assistant. how the business of the scalp
or eats into the passenger receipts o.
railroad. One of the cOmmOnest prSc-
tees IN this locality has been the sale
OF partially used mileage books.
But the railroad companies
were so openly robbd that
the conductors began 10 scrutenize
every mileage book with the almost
care and the result is that the festive
scalper fights a little shy of them. But
they still are sold and probably always
will be, so long as mileage Is issued by
railroad corporations. You see, books
whose limit of time had expired would
be bought by those sharks Tor about
third of the mileage value. Then the
old date would be removed by means
of acids and a new date substituted.
The book was then as good as ever, so
long as the conductor didn't know per.
sonaliy the man TO whom Il was Is
sued. The purchaser could forge the
other mans name and in nine cases out
of ten escaped undecided.
The scalper's soft Mark.
But the excursion ticket is the scalp
er' IS soft mark. The return portion is
like so much mama to them. When
an excursion Is given 10 big city, a
great many persons go who have no
intentions of returning with the crowd.
But they Guy excursion tickets and
when they get there they hunt up a
scalper and sell him the return portion
of the ticket. These return portions
are sold to passengers who would other
wise have paid full fare, and the heart
less corporation is again done up by
the defenseless public. The scalpers
buy great many straight tickets from
passengers. A man, for instance. who
had a ticket from st. Louis to Mackinac,
| might get as far as Grand Rapids and
decide to stop. He would sell his
ticket to a scalper for half what 1t was
worth and the buyer would make a
good profit by selling TO some man on
his way north. Coupon tickets are the
| ones that are generally manipulated.
One of the shrewdest pieces of work
ever done by ticket scalper was per-
petrated on the Chicago u West Michi-
gan several years ago.
How 1t Was Issued.
The first coupon of the ticket read to
A a
the third over the Vandalia route TO st.
Louis, and the last was 10 small vii
lage not far from st. Louis. When the
ticket finally showed up at the audi
tors office 1t was sight for the gods.
| don't think the passenger agent has
fully recovered from the shock yet. 1t
was the most artistlcaliy patched-up
ticket that the eyes of mortal man
were ever permitted to behold. The
ticket had expired June 81
and had been properly punched.
But another punch exactly like
had been used and the piece of paper
filled into the hole with such exact
ness that the unaided eye could not de-
tect the deception. The artist had
also used coored inks of exactly the
4 SAINT rs tiloSt Oll vic biChtt, hilu
| the traces were etfectually concealed.
/ The limit Of the ticket had been ex-
tended to September % by punching
out the proper date. The different
| destinations on the coupons had been
carefully erased with acids. The sec
ond coupon was made to Kansas City.
Tue third was over the Rock Island TO
| Denver, and the fourth was to Port
| land, Oregon. All the erasures had
| been made with consummate skill and
been accepted by all the conductors with
out question. When il turned up IN the
| c. & w. NJ. auditors office it was only
by chance that the forgery was dis
covered. The auditor did not remem-
Der the agents report of any such
ticket, and an expert finally discovered
the fraud by means of miscoscope.
That Is just a sample of the willy
scalper's mechination, and 1t would
take weeks to tell all the tricks they
resort to swlndle the railroads.