The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-25
ARREST OF CONDUCTORS.
They Are Charged With Manipulating
ThundeTbOlt Tickets.

President Collins Gets on to a Slick
Scheme by Which Some of the Con-
ductors Were Doing the Electric
Railway-Four Arrests Made and
Three of the Men Confess Their
Guilt-Old Men in the Company In
volved.
-Four employees of the Electric Railway
Company were lodged in Jail last night on
warrants sworn out by President Collins
before Justice Naughtin. The prisoners
are R L. Hamilton, T. NJ. Mackinfuss, J..
E. Douglass and r. L. Adams. Hamilton
is charged with larceny after trust del
egated. and the other three are charged
with being accessories to the crime.
Hamilton and his associates are said to
have been doing the railway company in
q very slick manner. Hamilton, who has
been in the employ Of the company for the
last two years as a conductor and in
other positions, was intrusted with the
work of delivering the Thunderbolt
tickets to the conductors and keeping ac-
count of their sales. This was about
three months ago when the fight between
the two street railway companies made it
necessary to resume the sale of tickets,
which was discontinued when the fare
was made > cents for each separate ride
on the trip.
EVOLVED A sHREwD SCHEME.
Shortly after the fare was reduced to
10 cents for the round trip, it seems that
Hamilton evolved a very shrewd scheme
for doing the company by letting the con-
ductors on the main belt have tickets at
rate that allowed him profit on the sale
and enabled the conductors to put some
thing in their pockets besides. While
the fare on all other lines in the city was
cut, the fare on the outside belt of the
Electric railway remained at 5 cents on
account of the length of the line. There are
four coupons on the 1hunderbolt tickets,
each of which is good for a ride. BY
taking these tickets the conductors on
the main belt were enabled to turn in a
coupon and put the nickel IL their pockets
when they received a fare. This was
about the way it was done President
Collins could not be found last night, how
ever and the explanation may not be ex-
act,
HOW 1T WAS DISCOVERED.
President Collins himself caught up
with the conductors aud had the arrests
made. His attention was attracted to the
y
Thunderbolt conductors and those of the
inside lines as TO the sales of Thunderbolt
tickets, and he proceeded to investigate.
He soon came to the conclusion that Ham,
iltOn was false to his trust. He had him
arrested, aud put the screws TO him,
when he confessed and implicated Mack
infuss, Adams and Douglass, all of whom
were arrested. Adams and Mackinfuss
also confessed but Douglass held out and
acknowledged nothing. They were all
sent to jail, but Douglass succeeded in
giving bond.
If MIR. Collins pushes the case in the
courts, and the men are convicted and
sentenced, they will, it is said, be the
first employees of a street railway in Sa-
vannah to be punished for defrauding the
company although many street railway
employees have been previously discharged
by the companies for knocking down." as
it is commonly known.
All of the men had been in the employ
of the road for some time, and were not
included in the lot OF boys who were re-
Gently employed as conductors at reduced
rates.