The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-08-29
STREET RAILWAYS ROBBED
Ed
A Former Boston Conductor
Tells His Story.
PUNCHES AND REGISTERS
That Failed to Make the Men Honest-The 50,-
600 Forged Sps-A Conductor Who
Tried to Purchase the Road.
From the New York Sun.

Il was considerably surprised as well
as entertained by STORY read in the
Sun a few Sundays ago." said "a pro-
duce commissions merchant last week.
pt was THE "Reminiscences of an old New
York conductor, and the way it was told
hook ME back ITO ola times in Boston VIII n
Grove a team of street car horses for
a beginning as a country lad, and then
belcama in succession conductor, starter,
and something higher, which don't
care 10 merftion, as it might identify me
among some of THE old-timers. I git
to know pretty nearly everything that
was going on, and can tell you that If
Boston was amy criterion that story of
the old conductor about corruption on
the roads in this city was not exagger-
ated. Every device that you could i'm
sgine was resorted to by the conductors
then just to get enough money for the
drivers, starters. and receivers, and to
have a. little left for themselves at the
end of the day.
"Wh=n was conductor became one
of a party of eleven rearenders who were
so thick with one another that one could
not sneeze without the others knowing
about it. We all lodged together, and
ldQ d llutIe CluDdlOuSS On the OUTSKIRTS
besides, which We paid rent for and left
a man and his wife to care for. They
kept house for us. Some of the boys had
horses and buggies and kept a yacht
"The first thing we had made a sensa-
ton all over the country. 1t was ths
original bell punch, the invention of
woman in Buffalo. She was the wife of
James H. Small, who was employed in
the office of one of the street car COM
panies and said to hsr one evening: oh;
l wish we could get up something to
stop this knocking down on the road
She thought over the matter and devils
ed the punch and slip. The first one was
a crude affair, weighing about three
pounds, but a Boston concern got hold
of it and had it perfected and manufac-i
tured by George Hart, of Newark, who
is now the expert of the Waterbury
Watch company. Thousands of these
and other punches were mads in New
ark few years after the first one came
out. I remember how we beat the first
punch. We did not mead dummy punch
to work with then. These punches were
fastened with snap latch which was
covered by thin disk Of wood The
through tins wooden seal with an awl
and springing the. lock. We learned this
and used to split the disk with the grain
and slip one half over the other. Then
we would open the punch, correct it ac-a
cording to our views, and put the two
HALVES of the disk in place. When the
receiver plugged it with his awl he could
not tell that it had been split before
iii
snap away, and then combination locks
We're put on the punches. That is what
brought the dummies into use.
ST forgot to say in place that when the
rumorS of the bell punch got out at first
there was serious trouble threatened,
and it was proposed to waylay the promo
tiers of it. The thing nearly caused a
riotous strike among the conductors in
Boston when it appeared, and lots of
men threw up their jobs. Following the
bell punch came the liver pad. This was
regarded by the men as a greater indig-
nifty than the hand punch 1t was a con-
traption hung upon leather pad upon
the breast of the conductor by strap
around his neck and another around his
waist. One of the devices of this kind
was patented in May. 1888, by w. ]. Rich
ardson and was a most elaborate affair.
with fine watch in it, SO that any pas
senger could see the time. 1t had two
levers and two bells of different tones,
one for a five-cent fare and the other for
three-cent fare. When either of these
levers was pushed down it not only rang
an inclosed dial, but moved secreted
wheels which turned the hands of a set
of dials like those upon a gas meter, and
the dials were concealed by a metal cap
upon the back of the device, which was
secured by a fine Yale lock so that it
could not be tempered with. Everything
about this device was of the best work.
manship, and it was burglar proof. The
watch movement was of the finest Amert-
can make and arranged so that the con-
duetor could wind it, but could not set
or alter the time. Each register was
numbered and the keys all different.
They were not sold, but were leased to
| the companies. A mechanic who worked
upon the device told me that they cost
I $50 each at first.
1 about the same time there was an
| other somewhat similar liver pad in use,
| but it contained a punch and the con-
| ductor had to have colored slips to indi-
| cate the fare. That was only a change
of form of the bell punch. and was out
| a little before the Richardson device,
which, in turn. gave place to the clock
or fixed fare register in the car. Men re-
| belled against carrying the registers on
| their breasts but not any harder than
| they did against the punch but when the
big clock register came along they had
not word Of protest. They had sue
cumbed to the inevitable by that ime,
but it must not be supposed that any me-
| chanical device stopped stealing. It mere
| " abated it to degree. No clockwork
| will make man honest If he wants to
be crooked.
about the time the liver pad came
| into use in Boston a big system of steal
| ing was discovered. Strip tickets were
! extensively used then, and one evening a
| division superintendent, who was look
| ing over the receivers work at station,
picked up a ticket casually, and. while
| holding IT. observed that there was a rag