The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-28
CKansas city Journal.)


There are fifty railroad tickets forged
nowadays where there was one ten
years ago" This statement was made
a few days ago by a prominent rail-
road official in the course of a CONVEX
sation on the different methods OF
cheating the railroad companies. At
the same time the railroad man eX-
pressed his sentiments in regard to the
man who will deliberately attempt TO
best the railroad and think he is &C
eomphshing something clever in the
way of business.
These men, said he, would want
to fight if anyone should ask them to
enter into a deal for forging another
mans name TO a check but there is no
hesitancy in signing anOther's name on
pass or railroad ticket just for the
purpose of riding a few miles. This
IS forgery the same as the forging Of a
check, but yet the people don't look up
on il that way; perhaps because the
offenders are not prosecuted as in the
case with the bank. If this were done
there would be less riding on passes
belonging to other people" But the
general public rides on another mans
pass and thinks nothing of the terri
bic crime as seen by the railroad Of
fetal
Forging tickets has become a science,
and all the tricks known for removing
ink marks and changing figures are en-
plOyed by the crooked broker. Recent
ly in Chicago there was discovered an
entire building devoted to counterfeit
ing and changing railroad tickets In
Kansas City many rubber stamps. du-
plieates Of those used by a road, have
been found.
One of the most common frauds is
to change the destination of ticket.
Say a purchaser secured a ticket from
hcF tn -
about twenty miles out, and before be-
ing used the card would fall into the
hands of a broker who reSOrted to such
means. By an acid process the name
of the station would be removed and in
its place a name of a station sew fal
hundred miles further added. Tne
best way Of discovering this is to rub
the finger over the surface of the pa
per. If it is the least bit rough the
chances are the ticket has been tam
pered with.
Another method is to extend the limit
by plugging up the punch holes in the
margin. This is done by hammering
in a wood pulp and is discovered by
running the finger nail along the sur
face. If there is a plug the sharp edge
of the nail viii lift it. james Follins,
an old Union Pacific conductor, was
considered the most vigilant man in
detecting fraud in a ticket Of any of the
conductors who ran out of Kansas
City.
The railroads have been doing every
thing possible to prevent fraud, but the
forgers and counterfeiters seem TO be
working lust as fast to invent new
means. One of the great troubles at
the present time is with counterfeiters-
Men will duplicate a set of tickets on
some road and circulate them widely
about the country, usually selling many
before the fraud is detected.
About the first fraudulent ticket ever
printed here was in 1873, when a Union
avenue broker had some printed read
ing to st. Louis and return These
were single tickets and were never col
lected until the return trip The brok-
er would sell one to a traveller with in
structions for the man to mail the tick
ct back to the broker upon the arrival
in st. Louis, and in this way the tick