The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-25
AGE LIMIT ON RAILROADS.
In Enforcing the Rule Regarding
Fares.

The age limit is one of the most fer
| tile sources of trouble to the General
fast@i ger Agents of Railroads. .Ac-
cording to strict Interpretation of
existing rules, all children more than
five and less than twelve years of age
must pay half fare, and those more
than twelve years old are ranked as
adults and are required to pay full
rates. In few lines Of business is com
petition stronger than in the railroad
ticket traffic, and this fact frequently
has developed curious situation so far
as the attitude of ticket sellers and con-
ductors in the determination of the age
of alleged Juvenile passengers is con-
cerned.
Il have had many disagreeable eX-
periences, said a veteran General Pas
senger Agent, +" growing out of my eff
forts to enforce strict observance of the
age limit and at the same time keep
ticket sellers and the conduct ors ~ good
humor. 1t would naturally be supposed
by the outsider that the interests are
identical of the railroad agent who sells
ticket and of the conductor of the
some road who takes up the pasteboard.
AS matter Of fact however, they seem
often to be antagonistie. Every Gene
raj Passenger Agent understands how
this comes about.
THE conductors of the lines are in
constant receipt of orders and instruc-
lions from their superior officers stat
ing, in effect, that there is excellent rea-
son for the belief that the rules regard
ing age limits and half-fare rates are
not strictly enforced, and that conduc-
tors must exercise soeclal care to the
end that these regulations are carried
out to the letter OF course, these in
structions are generally in the form of
perfunctory or routine orders, although
that is not always the case. When
conductor receives an order from his
superior it is not to be supposed that
he will go behind the returns or exer-
else the prerogatlves of mind reader
and question the force and sincerity of
the instruction.
"On the other hand, the man who sells
the tickets is confronted by quite an
other problem. Suppose, for instance,
a man walks into the city ticket Office
Of a railroad and applies to the agent in
charge of the office for figures on the
of his entire family to
some distant point. This mars family,
we will suppose, consists Of his wife,
two or three children. who belong clear
ly in the grown-up class-girls of thir-
teen years and six months and little
boy of seven. The agent knows to a
certainty that If this man takes
his family to the agent of the compel
ing line the representative of the latter
will not require the youngest
child to be furnished with any ticket,
and the girl between thirteen and four
teen years will be slipped through on a
half fare ticket. As a consequence Of
his reflection on the certain courses of I
his competitor and because of just (
appreciation Of the fact that the tick
Its for the adult portion of the family
will amount to considerable sum, he
observes that the seven-year- old child I
will take up no more room that the
ordinary youngster of five, and that the /
,irl of thirteen and half doesn't look /
day over twelve.
'This discounting of ages wins the /
lay, and he sells the tickets, leaving
he father Of the family to make his .
,eace with the conductor. If the latter
, wise he illSnot make any disagree
BILE inquiries into the ages Of the
'oungsters, but occasionally a family
n these circumstances falls into the
ands of a conductor who is the soul
f honor and eXactness Then there is
rouble He reads his Instructions and
emands extra fare. The father gen
rally throws the responsibility Of the
urchase back on the shoulders Of the
IAN who sold him the tickets, with the
observation that If the latter doesn't
Ike 1t he is at liberty to take the child
I question as security.
II know of one instance Of this kind
which the conductor was fully equal
, the occasion, and replied by taking
ne child In his arms, and walking out
f the car with at time when the train
ras stopping vat a way station. That
rought the parent to time in min
tie, and the additional fare was paid
18th startling promptness.
"Of course, / know some venerable
niIdren have been passed through on
alf-fare rates on the ground of being
nder twelve years of age. At a time s
hen competition was intense between
le various roads and every ticket agent i
ade the most of any method by which
, could circumvent obstacles in the way
selling tickets to all who made in |
liries at the counter 1 was the means I
passing man forty years of age {
nd a woman not much younger over I
II lines on half fare children's tick s
s. The circumstances, however were t
little unusual. s
IT was sitting at my desk in the 6
lice one day when in walked one Of +
lie strangest human beings ! had ever {
en- He was a dwarf, much smaller I
AN many boy of six years His [
,pearance, however, was made ludi- r
Gus by the fact that he was smoking [
big perfecto and occasionally curled
e ends of quite a heavy mustache as Il
removed the cigar from his. lips. 1t f
impossible to convey to any one the 6
of his figure as I saw it at v
at time. o
'The little man went directly to bust n
SIS. and said he wished to procure for h
mself and wife, also a dwarf, half "
re transportation over about thous- a
d miles of our road. When I laugh n
gly suggested that, judging from the n
,e of. his mustache he must be con- h
lerable more thanstwelve years of age, Il
quickly answered that, although / n
IS a pretty shrewd guesser it was a \,
~ +bof l,a had rpnaa ol1to inp6