Omaha daily bee., 1901-01-27
KEEPING TAB ON NlCkELS
Evolution Of Street Car Register Wrought
by Progress
VARIOUS DEVICES FROM TIME TO TIME
Omaha Hallway Now Has One of the
Most Modern systems I'm the
Country-some Queer NUM-
bers Registered.

Persons who have patronized the street
car lines OF other American cities have
often remarked the simplicity OF fare taking
devices in use on the street cars of Omaha.
They consist OF the conductors coat pocket
and stationary register over the front
door with bell in it, When the conductor
takes fare he pulls a cord. the bell rings
the indicator shows that cents have been
added to the companys revenues, and that 5
all there is to Il.
While the street car companies Of other
cities have been experimenting with all
manner OF queer devices the single purpose
o. which was to enforce honesty on the
part Of conductors. the Omaha company has
never made but one departure in this di-
rection which II has been compelled to
abandon, and that was in the matter Of
portable registers. a portable register. in
street car parlance, Is "A nickel plated box
about the size Of O 65-Cent alarm clock
titted with bell and a system of revolving
/ disks, like a nickel-in-the- slot machine,
| the conductor wears IL upon the front Of his
vest and rings up a fare" by pulling a
little chain that hangs from IT, Then the
wheels 20 round and record the transac-
| tion. At night the register is inspected at
the car barn, and il the story it tells
/ doesn't tally with the conductors cash
receipts he is usually given a chance to
/ explain.
! These registers were in use on the Omaha
/ cars at one time, but they were abandoned
in the evolution Of progress. The principal
reason for their rejection was the tompta-
| tion to use the brother in-law," an in
sidious mechanism concealed beneath the
vest OF the conductor, but perhaps the
| "brothcr-in- Law" was never used here.
/ Like the honest register, the "brotherin-
/ law was equipped with "A bell. It could be
| rung by the pulling Of string projecting
/ beneath the hem Of the garment, and its
| purpose was to cheat the company by
enabling the conductor to collect fares
without recording them. When he would
take in a nickel he would ring the brother
in-l law" instead of the register, and no note
would be made Of the fact.
Though no conductor was ever detected
/ maintaining scandalous relations with the
"brother-in-law. simply as a safeguard
the portable registers were reegated to the
| lumber room, and the company anchored
its faith to the stationary registers, which
are in use today So far as known, no
scheme has been devised as yet for cheating
! T., and the chances are that no such attempt
| has ever been made, for II is notable fact
that Omaha conductors have particularly
good regulations for honesty
| Relic of Horse Cnr Days.
The first fare collecting device In use in
Omaha came AMI went with tho horse cars.
| This was a box built into one end of the
car, its purpose being to reduce the crew
| to one man and enable the driver to per-
| form also the duty of "A conductor. The
| passenger was supposed to walk up and de-
| post his nickel in the slot. small trap
| door of glass caught the coin and held It
| a moment. and, after the driver had ex-
| amined it, he touched n button, and il was
/ dropped into the receptacle beneath. The
! trouble with this mechanism was that the
/ passengers would not make their own
| change much to the embarrassment OF the
/ driver.
! These fare boxes are stlll in use on two
| branch lines OF the Omaha system, however
the Albright line and the West Leaven-
worth line. In connection with them is
used the stationary register.
f. a. Tucker, superintendent OF the
Omaha street railway system, was at one
| time engaged in street earring" In Kan
| sas City. 1t was thirteen years ago that he
| left the city by the Kaw TO come to Omaha.
| but his memory still abounds In incidents
| that occurred while he was struggling to
| keep Con Holmes fiat wheeled cars on the
rails. He relates the following:
1T was along in the sos that the bell
punch came in use on one OF the lines there.
! 1t was introduced merely as an experiment
and was later abandoned, but that doesn I
necessarily reflect upon the efficiency OF the
| bell punch. On the contrary, | understand
this device is all right. and that it is in
! quite general use throughout the country.
But in Kansas City it was necessary to
retire it, ani for tits reason Some of the
| lpagt of pIn H.,
OF its combination.
| Work of u Wise Gripmnn.
you see, the bell punch is a mechanism
much the same as the eating house clerk
uses to punch your meal ticket. except thar
It is equipped with four tumbler combi-
| nation lock, like that OF a safe Every time
! the conductor takes in nickel he punches
a coupon, the bell in the punch strikes one,
! and the register indicates that fare has
! been collected, All this takes place in the
punch. which Is no larger than a 22-caliber
! pistol Well, one OF our gripmen, an un-
usually smart fellow. got onto the combi-
nation of that bell punch. How he man
! aged TO do it is a mystery. Being a grip
man, he had no occasion to handle the
punches But the fact remains that he stole
! the secret
| well, in the course of time we had oc-
| CdSlOn 10 ulScHdGBe lndt man. 1t dlQn
| hurt his feelings much l guess, for he
made more money after he left our en-
/ ploy than he did before | believe that for
! a while he made no less than $l5 a day.
| His graft was this: Out @; The thirty odd
! conductors using the punches there were
/ eight or ten whom he took into his conf
/ dence. | don't mean that he told them the
! combinations OF their punches, because that
would have been killing the goose that
laid the golden egg, but he gave them to
| understand that he knew these combinations
| and that IL they We're willing to make a lit
| tie on the side he was in q position 60 show
| them how to do II, .herr the? would agree
| upon a meeting place, and every day at
! certain hour the eX-gripman would meet
| his confederates, one at time, and would
) divide the spoils with them.
Suppose the conductor would decide that
he would like about $3.50 in addition to his
| days wages-the combination on the bell
! punch would be set back so that it would
| indicate So less than the days receipts.
! Then each man would take oue-haf.
I'VE found out about this after a while,
! but let matters run on for fully a month
! before We did anything about II. All this
! time We were gathering our evidence. Then
one day we called nine conductors upon the
carpet and discharged them,
soon after this the company | repre-
| sented dispensed with the bell punch"