The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-26
FARES ARE USUALLY COLLECTED.
Few People Get Free Rides on the
street Cars.


From the New York Tribune.
one hears strange and interesting stories
of men who have secured nights Iodg-
ing for five cents. snmpy by taking a
ticket on the Elevated. and riding up and
down, between South Ferry and one Hun
dred and Fifty-Fifth street or fremont
avenue. According TO these stories. all
that the tramp has to do after he has once
found comfortable seat. which is not
a difficult matter If he boards a train late
at night and stays on ii long, is to sit sulI
when the train reaches the end of its line.
and wait untn il starts on the return jour
ney.
But this is not the case, interesting as
it would be, If it were. AS a matter Of
fact. the conductors 30 through the cars,
awaken sleepers, and see that everybody
gets out. Whoever may wish to make the
return trip on that train must set out aud
buy another ticket The Elevated is uni-
formly hard to beat.
The system Of collecting fares on the
surface lines and the multiplicity of trans
fers make sharp practice on the part of
such as delight in those pursuits "A matter
of less difficulty, though not always easy.
on different lines. There is one Inc of
cross-t town horse cars on which 1t is pos
sibiy to ride from east to west over aud
over again, transferring 10 the SIKH ave
nue. cable, for one fare. Even this state
ment depends on hearsay, and the man
who made IL confessed that he had never
spent more than two hours on the expert
ment. The present writer, however, can
state from his own experience that II Is
possible to ride from South Ferry TO Fifty
Ninth street 10y West street, and back by
Sixth avenue and West Broadway to
South Ferry, all for five cents. 1t took
i've transfer tickets, and the passenger
ended by keeping the last as a souvenir.
and walking The short distance-across
| Battery Park-which the transfer covered.
What is more curious than the apparent
| elasticity of transfer rules is the ease with
! which a free ride may be obtained. IL is
! all matter of chance, however. One
| never hears of { conductor on a Broadway
| line forgetting to take a passengers fare.
/ The lines where such oversghts are for
| some reason or other most frequent are
| The Fourth and Madison avenues and the
! Second avenue. with their terminus at
| Brooklyn bridge. one man who lived in
! Brooklyn last winter, and whose business
| was in the neighborhood of Union square,
| boasts of having made the journey be-
tween the bridge and his office twelve
! times in one week for So cents. II always
| happened that the car was crowded when
/ he rode down in the evening, and he
| always boarded IL with a number of other
| passengers. This was what probably con-
| fused the conductor. who, he says more
than once passed him by without taking
the money which he was holding ready for
payment. The first time this happened the
| passenger actually held up his nickel and
| said, Here you are but The conductor
appeared too busy TO attend to him. Aft
| er that he contented himself with having
with the result that in one week hC
his own business.
AT the same time II is unsafe to coun
on such lapses of memory. AS for delb
| erately beating your way" on any OF tn,
surface lines, the thing is practically i'm
| possible. In addition to the ring up Their
is generally the evidence of other passen
gers against the would-be fraud-a fac
which goes 70 show the common honest,
of manlSind-and a solitary man VIII
should try to work" the scheme woul
have the evidence of two officials agalns
his own. Street car men will tell you
there are no women present. that tn
whole of this beating" business, so far a
their observation goes, is in the hands o
the fair-or. according to 'Punchs cabby
the "hunfair'-sex. Women who are a
the inexperienced stage of a career o
fraud are prone to think that no conducto
would contradict a lady" Moreover To
men with perfectly honest Intentions oftei
think they have paid, when they have not
The dispute generally ends In either cas-
with a noiseless transfer of the fare T.
the conductor by some male passenge
10 whom the dispute is unpleasant.