The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-08
WORTHLESS TICKETS.
How Railroads Are SWindled by
ShTCWd COulteTlCiteTS.
Large and Paying Nearly
Half a Million Dollars Lost Last
Year-Reoent Safeguards.


Year-Reoent Safeguards.
From the Washington Star.
In the matter Of being defrauded the
railroad companies of the country divide
honors with Uncle sam What the coun-
terfeiting of greenbacks is to the govern
ment, the counterfeiting of tickets is to
the various railroads. The discovery that
hundreds of thousands OF dollars
worth of railroad tickets have
been counterfeiled recently, to the
financial loss of railroads and pas
sengers alike, is receiving the serious con
sideration of railroad officials, and it is
likely that the result will be the inaugur-
alton of new methods in printing railroad
tickets. That the counterfeiting of rail
road tickets ona large scale has not been
successfully attempted before is, all
things considered, somewhat surprising
During the recent meeting in this city
OF the Association of American Railway
Accountants considerable time was de-
voted TO discussing this evil, and various
methods for protection were advanced.
The members Of the organization are EN-
ploycd in the auditing departments of the
great railroads of the country, and are
the cOunterleitiug and the inroads il has
made upon the railroad receipts of the
different roads, In conversation with an
Evening Star reporter, the day after the
convention adjourned, one of the promi-
nent members thereof in discussing the
counterfeiting of railroad tickets, said;
LUCKY SO FAR.
The railroads of this country have been
exceedingly lucky in the matter of hav-
ing bogus tickets issued at their expense.
Up to within the last two years our losses
having been comparative small, while the
losses in Great Britain and on the CONT
nent'have been respondingly heavy.
or course. tickets were cOunterfoited in
this country, but the perpetrators of the
fraud were appG emily easily scared
of as the tickets they issued would dis
appear after being in circulation about a
month. Then, after lapse of about
three months, the spurious tickets would
again come to the front, but before we
could get trace Of the counterfeiters
we would cease to find them in our
accounts. The successful and large bust
ness done in this line in Europe has i'm
pressed me with the idea that the coun-
terfciters are from that country, as the
greatest inrOads in our business were
made during the worlds fair at Chicago
last year Through correspondence with
that the counterfeiting of railroad tickets
in their countries was at its lowest ebb
last year. This makes il a plain case of
two and two make four. These foreigners
are still III this country, and unless we
devise some new method of checkmating
them, they will divide among themselves
cOnSidera bic of our revenues.
Il can see no reason why persons who
are inclined to swindie in such a manner
as was adopted by the counterfeiters
whose work has been discovered lately,
should not find il very easy to carry out
their design. The paper upon which
most of the tickets are printed is not hard
TO initiate; in fact. it may be
bought in the market in New
YORK or any other large city, the
same as any other sort of paper stock
There is nothing unusual or dificult
about the printing of these tickets, the
only requisite being the possession of a
machine which, as the tickets are
printed, numbers them in consecutive
series, and these machines are readily
Obtainable, the same as any other print
ing machine. Their high cost might, of
course, deter would-be countericiting
gang from purchasing, but, if printer
could be found who already possessed
one, had no work for it to do, and had no
scruples against cOuntcrfeiting, it would
be the simplest matter i'll the world TO
produce duplicates Of the tickets of most
of the railroads of the country. Slack
work eases up mans conscience consid-
erably, you know.
EASILY COUNTERFEITED.
"Take the tickets used by the poor ben
eft concert in Convention hall last win
ter. They were an exact reproduction of
our way station tickets and the man that
printed them could Just as easily print
railroad tickets. Several of the tickets
were sent to me as a sample. The com
mutation tickets issued to suburban pas
seneers near this and other large cities
are rather more carefully getten up than
the trip tickets, but their COunterfeiting
would not be safe, aside from the fact of
their more elaborate printing for they
are used for month at a time, and their
source could be easily traced. The addi-
tiOnal expense to railroads OF producing
tickets by means of the geometrical lathe
and other work not easily duplicated,
which could not be successfully initiated
would not be great, for once the plates
are made the press work on such tickets
would be no more expensive than on the
plain tickets now in use. OF course many
Of our way tickets have a small scroll
work on the back, but where is the con
ductor that will take the trouble 10 turn
a ticket over during the rush of business
on a way train, where the chance of
catching bogus one is about one in fifty.
with so many ticket olfces III every
city of the country working separately
from the railroad company whose tickets
they sell with so many ticket agents, or
ticket scalpers, as they are less politely
called, the counterfeiter finds that to
shove his queer. as coin Counterfeiter
talks of putting his bad money in
circulation, is an easy affair
indeed. OF course this refers to
scalpers outside the national association,
the members Of which arc reputable and
trustworthy. After the couuterfeiter has
located his scalpers with an easy con-
science he sells his work al a nominal
rate The crooked scalper knowing per
fectly well what kind Of stuff he is hand
ling. claps on a price considerably less
than the railroad s regular fare and re
sells the bogus ticket to the innocent
customer, happy at saving $5-biL on
$40 purchase.
HOW THEY ARE DISPOSED or.
"While the customer may be the owner
Of a consc'' nee, he has given it a sharp
prick by purchasing from an agent minus
good reputation the great reduction
from the regular price defining the lat
tors status as plainly as words. He
starts for the railroad station with the
ticket dcftly folded in his hand so thAt-s
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