Evening star., 1903-07-03
1t would have been a peach OF a story fot
the papers, wouldn't lit
Concealed Their Addresses to Escape.

1t would have been a peach OF story 70,
| the papers, wouldn't 1T
Concealed Their Addresses to Escape.
| We'll, you may think that it's funny
| that one single man should be able to drive
| the officials of big company like ours
| crazy without their being able to help it,
| but so 1t was At last we actually had 10
order the telephone company to take our
| private addresses out OF the book And
| Furthermore, If you ever call up that rail-
| road company, you will find that the oper-
atorS VIII not connect you with any of tho
officials until you have been cross-examin-
| ed 1t makes lots OF trouble for many
| people have important things 10 say TO us
| that they cannot explain To subordinates
And many big men have been mortally in
| dignant because they couldn't talk to us
over the wire without submitting 20 exam
| ination by the girl at the phone first. Even
some OF our directors have called us down
| hard for what they called our idiotic red
| tape.
| And this fellow wasn't contented with
| his own little revenge. He put up a lot of
| other people who have telephones in their
| houses TO do the same thing. One day hs
| actually got forty-three men together when
| a car was delayed, and III be hanged II
| one of them after the other didn't call us
| up with the very same formula word for
| word. And they didn't call us up at our
! offices or houses. They were too clever.
| No. sir, they called us up at the club where
we We're giving dinner to a visiting trolley
president from another city. And of course.
| they got us. First one would ask for our
| president to go to the instrument A few
| minutes afterward a call would come for
me. Then the secretary was called up and
SO on until the dinner was nearly spoiled
! because every time any one started story
or a speech one of us would be called AWAY
And, of course, We didn't get on To il until
we had each been caught two or three
times during the evening.
Another crowd of avengers bothered us
| a different hat
| expensive. They went after us for little
violations of ordinances-not ordinances
| connected with the running of cars. but en-
/ tirely other things. For instance, one Of
| our power stations stood just outside of
the city limits. and had used soft coal ever
| since it was built. We never thought of il
but a change in the city map put it lust
within the city, and one of these kickers
| got on to II.
"Well. he just about lived in the offices
| of the health board after that until they
! got so sick and tired of il that they actual
ly begged us to burn hard coal so that they
| could get rid of him. And then he wrote
| to me and told me that if our cars didn't
run more to please him he would look for
| something else to tackle us on.
A Funny War.
| Another man who worried us did II with
thing that was so absurdly trivial that il
| is amazing to learn what he managed To
make of it, We happened to put on lot
|
other company. The backs of the seats
had on them the stenciled warning: Wait
| until the stops. Nobody in the com
| pany noticed that the word until was
spelled with two MS or if any one noticed
| it, it not thought worth bntherfng
about. But this man thought otherwise
! He began by writing a letter to a newspa.
| per. 1t was funny. and the president and
| l laughed over ii; Then another letter was
| printed in another newspaper In the
| course of the next few weeks somehow ev-
cry paper in town had received and printed
| a letter from him. The headlines that the
editors put on them showed that the papers
were amused by what they thought the
crankness of crank but IL was deeper
| than that. Darn me if he hadn't figured
/ the whole thing out as a way to annoy us.
| THOSE letters being, | said funny,
| captured the public sense OF humor, and
as this particular man was pretty popular
I he managed to keep the thing going when
| ever he met a crowd that he knew in a
! ear. until at last tine passengers in that
| particular section of the town got to call
! ing our president Mr.. Until. and a poll
| tcian who was addressing property own
! ers association down there denounced him
! as man who couldn't even write the Eng
| lish language. The climax was reached
| when his boy came home from school one
| day and told his mother that the other
| pupils had begun to ask him to spell until
That settled it Those cars were hauled
| into sheds and the stencils were replaced
! with new lettering. 1t cost US about a
thousand dollars.
''Then this man. too. wrote to our d.
! rectors. sent them all the clippings. and
| told them the whole history of what he
| called his little reform movement He
| wound up by congra tulating the president
and me on having at last learned English,
and promised to keep an eye and find
something else in the car service was
rot improved
They Want Only Revenge.
'Of course there's a big lot of persons
who after railroad company all the
time for damages-always threatening suit
and so on But these folk that I'm telling
about don't want anything. They are pure
ly 'unselfsh.' so to speak. They want moth
ing except little revenge and for that
reason they not only succeed nine times out
of ten. but they do il in such a way that
can't fight back.
"Our president headed one man of
only lately. He wrote a long four-pags
letter describing the shortcomings of the
system. 1t was bird 1t wasn't abu-
sive. but on the contrary, poisonousy po-
lite: but it was written in such way that
every word would make even a hardened
trolley official vince. | was so mad when
| read il that l wanted to tear it up and
hurl it out of the window But our presi-
dent dictated answer in which he ac-
knowledged Il lot of faults and promised
frankly to do better. The next mail brought
the man down from the tree. and now Ee
is a pretty good friend of the system and
has really helped us in more ways than one
to improve the service. But it wasn't u
nice letter to read. all the same.
ITS all very well for people TO say that
we're thick-skinned and don't care, but
as a matter of fact. no man can remain
quite happy under a constant daily food
of kicks abuse. sarcasm. objection and
invective 1t gets to be very wearing after
while, and when / go away on vaca-
ton the unknown but extremely personal
enemies who are laying for me all the
time because they didn't get a car when
they should have had one are the one thing
that / m glad to escape.
Its tough thing to know that you've
got lot of vindictive and unforgiving foes
especially when they can get square on
you the way these fellows do on u.s."
OLD-STYLE CLOCKS.