The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-07-21

car. NOt01UH C0u 70 lOJt00I t1OU
the truth. We are the servants not
only Of the company but of the peo-
pie. Instead of having travellers,
40 children and timid women seem
to think, at our mercy, We are COM
pletely at the mercy of the most
Insignificant occupant of a seat or
a berth in one Of the coaches. Our
salary is only SIS a month.
IF towel is lost or piece of
soap-and the women members of
theatrical companies steal these
things constantly-we are compell-
ed out Of our paltry salary to pay
the company for the loss. Every
time l take a train out l receipt for
all the towels, bedding, the dining
car outfit and the soap. Would you
believe it, they have figured out the
length of time cake Of soap should
last, or, rather, q half cake. for as
soon as the cakes are half used they
are melted into one cake again, be-
cause they say the small pieces are
thrown away and lost, and this
would be dead loss to the COM
pany. We only get an average OF
four hours sleep in twenty-four
when on duty, and I am expected
to keep walking up and down the
isle looking for dust and stray
pieces of paper.
"Now, then, let me tell you an
other rule. You see this uniform?
| am obliged to wear it all the time.
and O handkerchief sticking out OF
the pocket of the left side. If a
spotter should be on the train and
see this coat unbuttoned, or if l
should step off the platform and an
inspector should see it opened, l
would be laid off for month. But
that's not the worst of the uniform
business. In the Pullman building
in Chicago there is the tailoring
firm of A. A. Devore q Co. We are
compelled to buy two uniforms a
year from this company. If we fail
to do this we are reported to the
Pullman company and punished.
These uniforms cost us-we are
made to pay for them-$22. Now
| have had tailors offer to make
uniforms for me of the same ma
terial for $14, and among them the
firm which used to make uniforms
before Pullman had it done in his
own building in Chicago.
I'VE are suspended sometimes
very unjustly. I'll give you an in
stance. 1t happened to one of the
on the same train that
am on. A woman asked him il
she could put her things in the up.
per berth, she having only engaged
the lower. There is a rule which
prohibits this being done. This
rule, l may state, is generally il.
nored by the conductors, because
it is senseless, and if a passenger
throws a satchel or bundle in the
upper berth and says nothing about
it the conductor and porter gener.
ally let it pass unnoticed. But when
they come and ask the conductor
if they can do it, thus challenging
him to be accommodating in spite
Of the rule prohibiting it, he feels
compelled to, prohibit its use. For
all he knows, the person requesting
the favor may be spotter, and in
granting the request he might be.
as it were, signing his own death
swell, in this instance the con-
luctor refused to allow the woman
% use the upper berth. She threw
1er things up into it anyhow, and he
vas compelled to make the porter
AXE them down. Some time after
hat she wrote complaining Of his
and in spite of the fact that
re had upheld the rules of the COM
oany he was suspended for a month.
OFTEN LAID OFFs
soften these reports come in after
We have forgotten the incident COM
pletely, and being unable, therefore,
10 explain, we are punished. To be
aid off a week, or two weeks, or a
month when you are making only
us a month and have a family to
support is serious matter.
"This same grinding SYSTEM"
continued the conductor, ''of which
could give you thousand illus
trations, obtains throughout the
Pullman service and is the secret OF
the strike in the town of Pullman.
"When the town was first started
Mr.. Pullman invited the most
skilled mechanics there and gave
them good wages. After they had
settled with their families in the
houses owned by the Pullman
Company, for which they paid rent,
the wages were gradually reduced
on one pretext or another, and when
the present financial stringency
came on the Pullman Company,
which suffered like every other con-
Germ in the country, reduced wages
again. But, mind you, the rent of
the houses was not reduced nor the
price of provisions.
"You know the company owns
the great general store there from
which the employees are compelled
m Inv everything thew eat and wear,