Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-05-28

ACQudlnldnCo
kinds of grief. He is in trouble, and
a good deal of it, from the rising Of tho
sun even unto the going down Of the
same and few hours in tho evening.
He begins to be worried before other
men think about getting up, and his
worriment continues long after other
men are sleeping the sleep of the Just
or unjust, according to their conduct
while awake. He is sworn at by men,
nagged by women, and watched by
spoilers in the pay of the company.
His life is full of fears and suspicious
He il afraid the caller may not wake
him up in time for his work; after
this fear has proved vain, he becomes
uneasy lest he should not have time
for his dinner, and after this has been
successfully swallowed, he is tormented
by the thought that something may
happen to keep him going until his
supper hour has passed. His hours of
work are as long as those spent with
bore, and his times Of rest and recrea
tion as brief as woman's love. The
seasons when all other men are enjoy
ing themselves are his periods of
hardest labor Life, III short, is for
him dreary desert OF fare collecting,
whose monotony is relieved only by a
semi monthly oasis of pay day.
Aside from the fact that he is com
PEELED to work for his living, which
troubles the man of fares as much rs
other people, chief iurce OF the con
ductor's daily misery arises from the
necessity of making out reports. There
was time in the history of street rail
reading when registers were not and
reports had not come into being. In
that happy era, when the conductor
had finished his days work, he went
to the office and turned in such pro-
portion of the days receipts as in his
Judgment, the treatment he received
from the superintendent justified, and
went his way rejoicing But that age
seems as far away now as the time of
Homer, for street railroading is reduced
to an exact science: 1.-The Old Man.
and the "Stable Boss have been re-
placed by an iron faced superintendent
and stony hearted directors and man
ayers, who insist that ho shall deliver
up for their behoof the last faro he
has taken in, and, in order that their
purpose in this particular shall be fully
carried out, have prepared for his use
set of blanks, on which he is required
business. Not only do they 10 this,
but they insist that his accounts shall
balance exactly, that his statement of
fares and half fares and transfers taken
in and trangfers given out shall tally
as accurately as the ledgers of the Bank
of England, and, besides that if there
is the smallest discrepancy il must be
accounted for and the conductor must
do the accounting out of his own uri
yate MEANS IL is true, the blank re
ports which he il expected TO fill out
are by no means intricate, but then, as 4
rule. the conductor is neither an expert
accountant nor d college graduate. ana
at first he often has some Difficulty in
making both ends meet IIe il not
always as accurate as the counting ma
chimes that do tho work of the banks,
SO it occasionally happens that he has
transfer too much or too LITTLE or a
nickel that stubbOrnly refuses 10 be
accounted for, or a half fare ticket that
does not appear on the register, or a
transfer that he has no record uF and
is afraid to tear tip SO tho baluncinf,
of his reports is a niece of mental pycr
tion that often makes him nersnirp NM,
after his days run is over.
The fares must all be cpllnrted. how.
ever, before thev can be turned i'm Ia
the company's agents. and collecfinv
the fares ia a mora serious iob than AZ
counting for them. When trnyel Il
light, or the car is comfortably flli n
pass from one end to the other ana col-
lect from each passenger the custon,.rv
nickel is comparatively pleasant mn
dertakinp, and the ronfltietnr then nor.
forms his duty with an enc, ar .b.y,I