The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1900-04-13

| Qualities For Which 1t Calls-Neth-
DDS of the Woman Spotter.
| A little over three months ago there
alighted from an Oakland ferryboat
| demure little woman, who passed along
with the crowd, with scarcely glance
to the right or. left Her petiteness at
t"acted some attention and her mod
esty more. but no one who observed
| the air of confidence with which she
| made her way TO the public carriage
| stand would have imagined that she
| was a stranger and that for the first
| time in her life she was visiting San
| Francisco.
Giving a few quiet directions and en-
| tering a cab, she was whirled away
from the hustling throng and driven to
hotel. Later the register contained
| an unassuming Miss Waller, Chica-
| CO." Her room was No. II. Calling a
| private messenger. she dispatched q
message to firm Of lawyers. and that
evening, promptly ats o'clock, pros
porous looking, we'll dressed gentleman
| entered the hotel, glanced at the regis
| ter, and, ignoring the clerks question,
'Do you want anything?" passed by
| the waiting elevator and walked up
| the stairs.
That was Tuesday evening. On
Wednesday morning Miss Waller might
have been seen boarding a Market
| street car bounds for the ferry, where
she purchased a train ticket and cross
| ed to the mole. She returned late on
| Friday evening, and Saturday morning
| the same messenger took a sealed let
| ter to the same lawyers, but this time
there was no evening caller Saturday
evening she left town again for few
days, and these trips were continued
until one day last week, when, by the
merest chance, the object of her re-
peated outings was discovered. On this
occasion she was the possessor Of a
ticket to a city near the Missouri river,
and she smilingly confessed that she
was bidding goodby to San Francisco
for some time to come.
AS an Illustration of the care which
she must exercise in order to enhance
her value to the big railway corpora
tons in this country it is only neces-
sary to state that in the ten years
which she has devoted to the business
of spotter, or, as she would probably
prefer to have it called private de-
tective, she has doubtless made fewer
friends than any one else in the coun-
try. And while she will not allow any
one to get thoroughly acquainted with
her, she does not make enemies. That
would be ruinous.
1t is an unwritten law of the rail-
roads that every employee is open to
suspicion until he has been proved
guilty, and the people who take upon
themselves the task of separating the
two claSseS-those who are found gull
ty and those who are as yet merely I'M
der suspicion-are objects Of the great
est contempt with the army of toilers
who seek living on the trains. To
offset this unpopularity, however, they
have the inducement Of large financial
returns. There is no ironbound rule
governing the amount Of money which
they receive, but the more proficient Of
the class probably make from $4,000 to
$4,000 year.
AT times a railroad will have an i'm
portant case on it's hand, and the serv-
ices Of first class spotter will be in
valuable to the company, and on such
occasions, if successful, the financial
returns increase wonderfully. t
There is q much greater demand for
tic al nf In no
there is here, and several reasons are
| given for this condition Of affairs. In
the first place, traffic being heavier,
there are more trains run there. and
more men are employed by the COM
panieS Besides, that section is more
thickly populated, and way trains are
in many instances run hourly, if not
oftener, but probably the truest cause
for the increased dishonesty among
railway conductors in the east is the
low rate of salary which they receive.
There is we'll defined belief among
eastern men who travel extensively
that any man who has reached that de-
gree of prosperity where he can afford
to wear creased trousers is hopelessly
eXtraVaganL II ne pay more ludu OHe-
third fare after crossing the MISSISSIPPI
pi river. once heard popular actor
giving his reasons for this assertion in
resort on the Atlantic coast, and,
after enlightening his audience with
dissertation on the almost utter worth
lessness Of money in the west, so far
as railroad travelling was concerned, he
| continued:
take any train on any road west of
Kansas City. st. Louis, Chicago or st.
Paul, and the rest is easy. Assume an
air Of Indifference and smoke cigar.
If your conductor be- seedy looking,
have beard, an old uniform with
I thread1oare elbows and hopeless ex-
preston on his face pay your fare. He
lis an honest man. A thousand dollars
| wouldn't tempt him. and you are out
| whole stack of dollars for getting on
his train. Had you waited for the next
one things would have been different.
There you have prosperous looking