The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-10-20


the Common Brass Ones-Diaioulties OF
Tracing Lost Baggage Under the Old
Acknowledgment Frauds.
The days of the brass baggage check are
pumb, d. For the past two years the
paste ~ 1t check has been gradually crowd
Ing it out of use, until brass checks are
VOW employed only for local checking, and
Tor that purpose solely because each com
pany has large stock of them on hand.
All but three Of the railroads entering this
city still use brass checks for local business,
but through baggage is checked on the
printed and written cards.
Thus an American institution which has
long been source Of admiration to Euro
pean visitors is relegated to an obsolete
custom The old system was Objectionable
for several reasons. An immigrant who
could not speak the English language might
come on to this city while his baggage
would be checked only to Cincinnati. This
involved a tedikls delay while the baggage
was being traced by mail and telegraph
from New York. Again, busy or absent
minded travelling man might ask for a
check, Vandalia." If check should hap
pen to be given to Vandalia station, the
man might go OH to Pittsburg or Chicago
before discovering that his baggage was
astray. There was nothing whatever on the
brass check to denote whence or by which
line the baggage had been forwarded. But
now as soon as he looks at his check he can
see the point to which 1t was forwarded.
The new paper checks" as they are
called, are designed to and do obviate these
difficulties, which have long been night
mare to baggage agents. Each road has its
- ta1,n ri nha 1r,p faI
In different styles and ON different colored
cardboard. When travel between certain
cities is heavy, name of the destination, as
we'll as the originating point, is printed In
some cases the routing is also printed. But
on general checks, which may thus at once
be issued for any place on any railroad in the
United States, blanks are left for the des-
tination and the names of the connecting
roads over which the baggage is to pass
These checks are numbered consecutively
and are kept for limited time after the
baggage has been claimed, when they are
destroyed. The check issued to the pas
senger Is, therefore, an exact duplicate of
the strap check, which contains full and
explicit information, and missing baggage
can therefore be quickly located by means
of the details printed or written in.
The difficulty of tracing baggage is less
ened in another way. A brass check
might be received here in the morning,
used to Kansas City at night and sent out
from there the next day. But paper
check" can be used only once.
Baggage agents in large terminal cities
have to be eternally on guard against
frauds. baggage room is regarded by
many as desirable object for plumber, and
new schemes to beat" it are being con-
off
applied to have a big sample case checked
to Memphis. When one of the employees
demurred and said that the applicant did
not look like a commercial traveller the
man replied that he was a machinist and
that much travelling had broken his chest,
compelling him to use strong sample
case. The baggage was accordingly
checked to Memphis, but the rightful
owner appeared in time to prevent the
theft of the sample case, which contained
about $1,000 worth of jewelry.
To prevent similar frauds a system OF
claim checks" was devised. If transfer
company calls for trunk at a hotel or pri
vate residence and the owner is not present
but will return, claim check" is left fol
him, which is a duplicate of that attached
to the trunk. If he has gone to the depot
the baggage man will not receive the trunk
unless the transfer company accepts {
'claim check" from them. Then when
passenger directs his baggage to b.
checked, he is told to call at the Office O
the transfer company and get his ''clain
check" This simple means of identified
ton has been found to work effectively.
A favorite method of doing crooked worl
at baggage rooms was to steal somewhere
number of pairs of checks. Then while tn,
baggageman was looking for the trunl
bearing the number corresponding to tina
on the bogus check rendered, the crool
would cleverly remove the strap checl
from any trunk of which he desired posses
sion and substitute therefor strap ohecl
from his pocket. Hence it is that all out
siders are regarded with suspicion in a bag
gage room, although this plan of robber.
Is mol longer practicable with the new 'pape
checks"
When asked If, in view of the develop
ments of the past few days, it was not a
easy to counterfeit pasteboard baggag
check as a railroad ticket, Baggage Agen
William M. Steele replied that he thought
was not.
Each road has different style and dill
ferent color of check" said he, land tn
matter that is written in must be in tn
same handwriting Everything on eithe
cneck must De luenulcal WIN parallel IL
formation on the other, instead of only tn
number and name of the road being n
Quired to correspond, as under the work
tngs of the old brass check system. Eve
though man had lot of blank forms col
rectly printed, he would be compelled
inspect the baggage he desired to stea
memorize the number and written informt
ton and then 10 away and prepare his falls
check in the identical manner and hant
writing indicated on the strap check. Mi
takes would very often be made by hin
which would instantly expose his gam
The plan of substituting prepared stra
check is so old that it is rarely attempted
successfully almost never, for we are col
tinually on the look out for sharpers an
suspicious idlers. We are at times yer
busy here, but never so busy that we don
keep an eye on every man in the room VIII
Is not an employee"
The origin of the paper check" dates bac
q few years to the commencement of til
era Of railway consolidation, when chang,
in routings were SO frequent that the bral
checks were found inadequate for the worl
st. Louis Globe Democrat.
Still Unsettled.
An English traveller in Manitoba met fl
youths who were discussing the latitude