Evening star., 1901-11-09
HAS NO STAN DIN G

A Washington man had occasion the
other day to ship typewriting machine
from New York down here. He sent the
typewriter on the wagon down to the sta
ton with the rests OF his baggage. When
he tried to check the machine along with
the rest OF his baggage the baggageman
shook his head
Don't check EN- he said.
How am 1 going to get the thing down
to Washington then?' inquired the WASH
tonian.
Better express it," said the baggage
man.
This wasn't practicable, however. for the
Washingtonian was hustling for a train.
ana he had no time to attend to the ex-
pressing of the typewriter. The machine
mad no status whatever with the baggage
p4pie, and ne had to see that ii was car
rieo on hoard the ferryboat bound for Jer-
sey CITY, and he had to do some tipping
10 nave II thus carried. When the ferry
boat arrived in Jersey City he had to see
that the typewriter. for which nobody had
any omciaI responsibility, was hauled out
oi the mass OF baggage and carried on to
the waiting train Even on the baggage
car the typewrfting machine was a waif
without any standing whatever in the rail-
ROAD world, and the Washingtonian made
little private arrangement with the bag
gage master-an arrangement of a financial
Characterize have the machine cared for
curing the trip down here. The amount of
worry and bother the machine had caused
the Washington man got considerably on
MS nerves. so that, after the train was un-
DER way, he penetrated to the baggage car
10 nave little talk with the baggage mas
ter.
Look here" said the washinstonian.
L m not kicking at ALL and I'm glad to gex
that machine of mine down to Washington
at any price But I'm hunting for a little
Information. Why don't this blamed old
railroad check typewriters, anyhow, and
save Its patrons possessing those useful
machines world of trouble? Isn't type
writer baggage?'
Nope" replied the baggage master ami
ably, "a Typewriter is not baggage. II
used to be, but~it isn't any more. type
writer has no more standing with railroad
nowadays than yellow dog, unless It s
sent along to its destination by express.
And I'll tell you why. A few years ago you
could check typewriter all right, and 1t
would be handled with care and pushed
along just like any other kind of baggage
handled with heap more care, in fact
than other baggage. But careful as the
baggagemen were with the machines, they
were bound to break em once in a while.
trunk would fall on one, or the hooks
attaching the case to the board underneath
would loosen and the machine would fall
with crash when lifted, or something else
OF the sort would happen to bust the ma
chine. Then, when the owner of the type
writer got hold of his smashed machine, he
would furiously repair to the railroad Of
flee and put in his little claim for 500, and
ne always got it paid right away, too. 1t
didn't matter If he had been using the ma
chlne for years. the owner of wrecked
machine would invariably put in a bill for
the full price of new typewriter, and the
rallroad having no means of proving that
the machine wasn't new, had to pay A lot
OF crooked people at length got on to this
fact, and they began to ship old worn-out
no-account typewriters round the country
with their baggage. They got hold of old
contraptions in the typewriting line that
were perfectly useless and waiting to be
dumped on the scrap heap, and they'd fas-
ten the cases on to them in such way that
the things 'ud be bound to drop out with a
little handling in the baggage car. Then
when they found their old machines smash
ed. they'd do the rush act on the railroad
office and collect their little 500. The rail-
roads fell to this scheme eventually and
stopped the checking of typewriters There
were fellows that actually made business
OF buying up old typewriters and checking
them for the purpose of having them
smashed SOS they could haul down xlOO per
wreck. The result is that a typewriter has
now no status whatever on a railroad bag
gage car, and must be carried to it's desti-
nation on the sufferance of the baggage
master"