Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-06-06
THREE ON oN.-sE.
Spoilers Who Were Settle Watch
Conductor and Each Other.

Conductor and Eacn Other.
"Under the old, loose system that
prevailed on most of the southern
and western roads" said veteran
passenger conductor of this city to the
New orleans Times-Democrat, "the
'spotter' was virtually necessity, but
the trouble about him was that he
could never be relied upon with abso-
lutte certainty to tell the truth. He
knew his popularity and prestige with
his employers depended on the num-
Der of cases he worked up, and if he
couldn't catch a conductor knocking
down, he was only too apt to manu-
facture little circumstantial evidence
and report the poor fellow anyhow. OF
course, l am speaking of the average
spotter, and no doubt there were
plenty of exceptions to the rule, but
that was the great defect of the sys-
tenn, and, incidentally, it reminds me
of a curious little story.
"Back in the eighties" continued
the veteran, "a tip was one day given
to a we'll known and very popular
conductor on certain line leading
out of New Orleans that spotter of
considerable note in the north had
been put on his train, with instruc-
tons to investigate him thoroughly.
This conductor was a big, jovial fell
low fond of good clothes, good sport,
and good living, and, while there was
no evidence Of anything wrong he had
fallen under suspicion on general
principles. The company officials
were persuaded he was living far be-
yond his means and inferred that he
must be helping himself to the cash,
but all prior efforts to get a line on
him had failed ANONYMOUSLY, and for
that reason the expert sleuth had been
imported from the north and told to
go to the bottom of the case, if it took
six months. When the conductor him
self heard that spy had been put on
his trail he was highly indignant, and
also considerably alarmed. He rea-
soned that the fellow would be
especially anxious to sustain his repu-
tation as a thief catcher, and was, in
all probability, fully prepared to fake
up evidence. To protect himself
against such maneuver he quietly
telegraphed to big detective agency
in Chicago and engaged first-class
operative to spot the spotter. Both
men went on duty at about the same
time, the spotter taking the role of
commercial traveller who had frequent
business up and down the road. He
watched the conductor, the Chicago
detective watched him, and the con-
ductor sized them both up and
chuckled in his sleeve.
Nov comes the funny part of the
yarn. The double watch had been in
progress only a few days when a
treacherous brakeman went to the
general superintendent and told him
the whole story, The superintendent
was a pretty wise person himself SO
he said nothing, but simply engaged
an entirely new man and set him
watching the two spies. The triangle
game went on for several weeks;
then the conductor was summoned to
headquarters. He carried his de-
tectives report with him, and was
staggered when the superintendent
showed him two others. The original
spoilers report exonerated the con-
ductor; the Chicago mans report
agreed exactly with the spoilers, and
the last spy asserted fatty that the
two other men had stood in together,
so as to please all hands and save
trouble. That Disguised one road with
spoilers, and the superintendent
swore he would never employ another.
The conductor, by the way, was re-
tanned in his job