The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-28
Nearly Twenty Thousand People
Passed In and Out of the City
During the Day.
BIG CROWDS AT THE PARKS.
THE HOT WEATHER DOWNTOWN
CAUSED AN EXODUS.
Interesting Attractions at Several
Breathing PIaces-Caught in the
Evening Rain.

To Cincinnati for 10 cents, to Fort Wayne
for 25 cents. to Terre Haute for 25 cents and
to other points within 200 or 300 miles of In
dianapolis for a song are good things
taken advantage of by the Sunday ex-
cursionists this summer. OF course the rail-
roads do not sell tickets at any such prices
and they do everything possible to discour-
age outside ticket traffic at such ridiculous
rates, but they cannot help themselves.
An army of individual ticket scalpers
has arisen from the weekly horde of ex-
cursionists. Thousands of people take ad-
vantage of the cheap Sunday rates to make
visits for week among friends at excursion
terminal points. Desiring to stay until the
next excursion back to their homes comes
around, they are willing to dispose of their
tickets for anything they get for them.
Thousands more are looking for such bar
gains and the ticket traffic that takes place
just outside the Union Station and along
Illinois street every Sunday afternoon and
evening might cause railroad passenger
agents to open their eyes If they had the
opportunity to make observations. People
of all conditions of life buttonhole each
other on the street and dicker for return
coupons of cheap tickets.
Besides all those who traffic on their own
live in this city and who do nothing else
on Sundays but lay in wait for excursion
lists who desire to sell return coupons
Newsboys, bootblacks, depot hangers-on
and, all sorts of folk. pick up a handsome
piece of money, and it is said that some of
them make from SO to SIS every Sunday
The regular ticket-scalping offices along
Illinois street do a land-office business in
these commodities and eagle-eyed lookout
men, with honeyed voices, keep up a run
ming chorus of Tickets bought here; here's
your chance to get even on your trip" and
similar enticing phrases.
A RED-LETTER DAY.
For this army who buy and sell cheap
transportation, yesterday was a red-letter
day. Union Station employees asserted that
the biggest excursion business of the sea-
son was handled. Counting everything
people recorded going in and out on the
numerous excursion trains. and also the
many who were not recorded, it is certain
that not less than 10000 people passed
through the gates of the station, arriving
and departing on some excursion train.
Here are some of the figures of the big
day:
The Big Four carried 21o people to Aurora
and S12 to Louisyille; crowds equally as
heavy were brought to Indianapolis from
these points. Tie Lake Erie & Western
handled remarkable crowd on its various
trains. 1t brought 400 from Rochester and
300 from Arcadia The Pennsylvania car
ried AIS to Lake Maxinkuckee and 2O1 to
J0l;o
Haute 362 The c.. H. & D. took Cincin-
natiwards 957; and the Big Four carried
$50 to Acton. From Cincinnati the Big
Four handled a crowd that filled to over
flowing fifteen cars, and the same road
carried into town a Mattoon crowd that
filled every inch of space in ten cars Four
very large excursions were handled by the
l.. E. & w. from Peoria, from Sandusky,
from Michigan City, and from Fort Wayne
From Milford Center, the Pennsylvania
brought a big crowd, and from Decatur.
the l., ID. & W. handled a good business
All in all, counting those going in and out
the official figure given as TO the crowd are
1850; but railroad say that the
crowd excee0ed. rather than fell below
that figure.
During the hours that the heavy stream
of people swept through the Union Station.
the eye of the onioker took in a variety of
scenes and incidents not without interest
to a student of human nature. The ear
was assaulted by a babble and rumble of
noises, made up of the squalling of young
babes, protesting plaintively against the
heat, and the indignities to which they
were subjected of questions. shrieked.
shouted and wept into the ears Of the deep
voiced train caller. covering a range of
subjects from the time of the next train TO
Wabash to the age of Mayor Bookwalter:
of the excited interrOgations of nervous
women who feared missing their trains; of
the loud and careless conversation of
young men and women determined to have
a good time, no matter what happened: of
the constant shuttle, shuttle, shuffie of feet
over the tiled floors of the waiting roms:
and of a potpourri Of sounds and noises
10 be found nowhere else than in big
depot on a busy cay
"Why is it," a caller was asked, that
people pick out an unusually hot day 10
take in long Sunday eXcursons?'
My private opinion is" he replied that
they come for TO other purpose in the
world than to ask a lot Of fool questions
AS for the other reasons. they constitute
part of the mystery of the railroad busi-
/ ness ! suppose il is the restless feeling
engendered by the weather: the 'want-to-
getaway from -hcme feeling that comes
! over everybody in the summer Many of
these however. simply take the opportuni-
! " 10 pay visits to relatives in the city.
! lust as city people take the same oppor-
! tunity 10 go TO home folk in the country
for a brief stay. II is a fact. though, tina,
il the temperature is unusually high on
/ Sundays. we always look for a particularly
big business.