Daily camera., 1901-05-18
SHOPPING By PROXY,
"Pony Express" System Conduct
I'd By Out-of- Town Buyers.
PPefesstenal4 Purchase fer ResldeAta
of TowDs Near Chicago On Con-
nission-Beating RailfeAA
aAd Express Companies.

n1oosOD-Be4tiD8 RotIfo00
aAd Express Companies.
That odd little business enterprise
known as the pony express" won n
victory the other day in the first round
OF the fight which is being made to
suppress it. In the united States
district court pony express man.
named Joseph II. Lund was awarded a
verdict of 5000 against the Chicago.
Milwaukee d st. Paul railroad and the
United States Express company. The
action of the plaintiff was for false
arrest, but that failed to tell the in
teresting story back OF the fight, re-
ports the Chicago Chronicle.
Briefly expressed pony expressing"
Is shopping by proxy and shipping
goods without paying therefor to
either express companies or railroads.
The system is carried on between Chi
cago and towns which are little far
ther away from the city than those
towns which are ordinarily called sub
urbs. Elgin, Aurora and similar sized
towns. located so, 40 and so miles or
even farther from Chicago, are the
ones where the business thrives.
Those who are engaged in the Tex
pressing" simply come to Chicago and
do shopping on commissions for their
townsmen, carrying the packages back
with them in big bundles or putting
them in trunks and checking them
back on their tickets. The profess
sionals who do this work make il
regular business and it is said that
they can ensily make IS or Sc day on
their commissions. While they thus
make good wages for themselves
they are saving considerable money
for the people for whom they shop.
Supposing there were ten or twelve
people in Elgin who wanted to come
to Chicago to make some purchases.
and supposing that they do not feel
that they could spare the time or the
money for the trip. The pony ex-
pressman" comes around to them and
agrees for small fee in each case to
make the purchase and deliver them
the same day. OF course. that is
great convenience as well as money
saving scheme for the purchasers.
They save the price of the tickets to
and from Chicago. expenses while in
the city and the half day or days time
they would have expended on the trip.
The cxprcssman charges them from
Is to about so cents for each purchase,
according To the size ofthe bundle and
the time necessary to make the pur-
chase. At night when his days shop
ping ia over the "expressman" ties all
his bundles and climbs on the train for
Elgin or wherever he is going and on
his arrival at his destination he dis
tributes the packages TO the various
purchasers and collects his commits
sions.
Some Of these "expressmen" have
much better method than tying
their bundles together and carrying
them. They bring a big trunk TO the
city and place il in some convenient
ground floor Office or store. Here they
carry all OF their purchases and pack
them in the trunk. Then late in the
afternoon they have the trunk cart
ed over to the station and checked
as baggage 10 their destination. 1t
is said that this trunk packing used
to be practiced in some OF the largest
stores in Chicago. but that when the
discovery of the system was made il
was thereafter prohibited.
1t will readily be seen that the
losers through the pony express"
system are the railroads and the ex-
press companies. The latter do not
get the express matter which they
would otherwise handle and the rail-
roads instead of carrying the ten or
twenty more passengers each day.
carry only the proxy shopper, who
comes to the city for the dozen or
more people for whom he is working.
Naturally enough both the railroads
and the express companies are siren
uously endeavoring to suppress the
practice, but it seems so far with
poor success
The professional shoppers are well
known in the towns from which they
come to Chicago. and in nearly every
instance they have built up quite
business, for there are hundreds and
hundreds of citizens in these towns
who are naturally enough not averse
TO saving the many dollars which
they can save by letting the commits
sion man do their shopping. The "ex-
pressman" has his regular customers.
and each evening he makes the
rounds among them to find out what
he can purchase for them on his trip
to Chicago on the following day. The
customers give the man their orders
just the same as they do to the butch
er boy when he calls, and the next
evening they receive whatever they
have ordered from Chicago.