The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-16
A SIX-FOOT TICKET.
Chicago Passenger Agent Produces
a Curiosity.
From the Chicago Chronicle.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
The committee charged with the
duty of providing a form of railroad
ticket which can be, used by all rail-
roads in the country and which is to
be the one adopted for all business
originating on one line and transferred
to another will be ready to report be-
fore the time set, Sept. 1.
One of the passenger agents of one
of the largest systems centering III
Chicago the other day produced for
inspection a ticket which represents
about all the vices of individual form
run Wild This ticket issued by an
Eastern road for comparatively short
trip, vas nearly six feet in length. To
be exact, the passenger agent APP
piled a rule to it and found it to be
five feet eight inches long. There were
two little inconspicuous coupons at
tached to this roll of paper the cOu-
pons being less than two inches long.
The remainder of the ticket was
made up of seven or eight contracts,
each of which if made, operative multi
fed the others, or in some way multi
fled the conditions under which the
holder Ct the ticket was to be allowed
to travel, stop over, changed routes
or delay the time of rteurn. 1t was
estimated that if the whole long strip
of reading matter making up the
ticket were printed in the ordinary
newspaper it would make over two
columns of solid matter.
WOuid StnSger a Conductor.
The passenger agent was asked what
a conductor would do if a dozen peo-
pie were to board a crowded train with
tickets like that, or even approaching
! IF n and all 0iffarinp
in some minor particulars. The agent
did not know what the conductor
would do, but hazarded the guess that
if he himself were confronted with
such a proposition and the traveller
said he wanted to go to San Fran
cisco, or even Yokohama, he would
punch the ticket and pass him on to
| the next conductor.
"As a matter of fact" said this pas
senger agent, "a conductor cannot read
| and understand such1aS mass of con-
| fiicting and overlapping contracts II
| the hurry of working his train. He Is
| helpless from the very conditions un-
| der which his scrutiny of tickets has
| to be made. If he had the time to ST.
| down in quiet and spend half an houl
| over the ticket he could work out just
| what it meant and know what to do
| The conductors are skilled in such
work and can get at the gist of the
! thing as quickly as the next one, nS
matter who he may be-"
Demand for Simplicity.
1t is no unusual thing for conduc'
tors to get such tickets as the one de-
scribed, and the fact that they turf
up frequently has brought about the
| move in favor of the uniform ticket fol
| interline business. Not only uniform
! ity, but simplicity of structure, is thu
demand made by the ticket agents anC
| the conductors, as well as their su
| perior officers.
One general passenger agent told tn
other day about his experience will
| tickets when they were even wors
than they are now, though that seems
| almost incredible. Several years ag'
there was a condition existing unde
which thousands of tickets were ISSUED
that were not recognized by many lines
| These tickets came from all over tn
country and the lines which objected
to honoring them were likewise sit
uated in all sections.
This condition made necessary tn
publication of the official bulletin de
scribing tickets not good. Each roa'
had a bulletin of its own and conduc
tors were provided with copies for thei
guidance. In the case of one roa'
there were 1000 such tickets described
any one of which might be presented
on any train that ran on given day
Seeking |eSyiIdcat" Money.
The conductor in those days was II
something of the situation of the mer
chant and the banker in the days whel
state banks of issue were as plentiful
as laws in September and the curren
value of the script varied with eacl
day. 1t was expected, of course, tina
the conductor would consult his bool
of 1000 tickets and see if the one unde
scrutiny was on the tabooed list.