The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-02-09
(OLD COMFORT FOR DEAD
~ HEADS IN RAILROAD OFFICES

1.-The old saying, Once a deadhead al
ways a deadhead is certainly true one,
said the passenger agent of a line having
general offices in st. Paul in a converse
ton upon the subject of free transporta-
tion with G b e reporter.
Riding upon free transportation GER
tainly becomes a fixed habit with large
number of people. Five men who have
plenty of money will come and ask for a
pass when they have absolutely no claims
upon a read. / have known men to take
a railroad official out and buy him wine
and dine him and spend three times as
much as ticket would cost, just to get
a pass.
"Of course, there may be some feeling
on the part Of these men that, after
they get their first pass, the ice is broken
and that the subsequent ones may be had
for the asking. However, such is not the
case and the roads all over the country
are becoming more and more strict In
the matter of issuing free transportation
In our office we have many strange
requests both by letter and in person
For instance, a man was in here a few
days ago who wanted transportation tC
the coast. The only reason why this road
should give him pass was that he had
lived on the line in small town for a
number of years, and, as far as I could
was to go down to the station re- llarly
and watch the trains go through.
Then, again, there is the shipper who
feels that he is entitled to transportation,
not only for himself, but not infrequent-
ly for his entire family. He may pay the
read only a few dollars during the year,
but he will tell us that he uses our road
in all his business and thinks that we
should extend to him the courtesies of
" 90 Of 1TIaTc oh
you know is in direct violation of the
interstate commerce laws. On the whole
we have to turn a good many people
down in the course of the year, but the
fact that they are turned down does not
seem to restrain others from making ap-
plication for passes
Send Requests by Mail.
Another official had a tale of woe. in re-
gard to correspondence over transporta-
ten Everyone, nearly, is familiar with
the set of letters that Bill Nye published
at one time, the same being the cor
respondence between himself and a num-
Der of officials of a line in regard to some
transportation to which Nye thought he
was entitled.
Our mail is heavy with requests for
passes said this official EVERY day
three or four and sometimes more letters
are received in which are requests for
transportation. 1t would ne difficult to
enumerate all the different reasons given
by the pass hunters why the road should
&C commodate them. Some of them have
been railroad men, others have lived q
lOrg while on the line and others write.
apparently, just to see whether or not
the road can be worked. Of these there
are only few, but at that we receive
a number of requests from people who
nave absolutely no claim on the road fol-
a pass
Women do not ask for passes as a
rule, but there are some women who
start out with the intention Of getting a
pass, and the officials say that once a
woman has succeeded in getting an in
terview she will haunt the offices until
she makes herself a nuisance. However
the railroads do not as rule give people
passes just to get rid of them.
'One of the troublesome types is the
publisher of the small monthly periodical
He believes that he comes under the head
OF newspaper men, and, in common with
the majority of people who do not know
he thinks that he should ride free. lust
as any other newspaper man does, al
though in reality the newspaper man does
not ride on a pass
The method of procedure of this pub
Usher is to walk into the passenge,
agents office, present d card and a copy
OF ms publlcatlon, and after telling the
patient official how much good he can-dC
me rcad ne hnally winds up by a reques
for transportation
He is politely but firmly informed thai
all transportation given for advertising
purposes is handled by the advertising
department Of the road, and if the agen
thinks he is unable to get rid of the mar
any other way he will turn him over r.
the advertising manager.
Where His Finish Occurs
This individual is usually able to meet
all corners or he would not be in the no
sltion. He examines the publication anc
listens to the publishers story and ther
turns to his lies. A moments perusal
OF them is sufficient to tell him that tn,
publisher is not entitled to transportatio,
and gently but firmly he breaks the new.