Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-30
THE PASS HABIT.
A Ludicrous Position Into Which Ii
Led an Official

A Ludicrous Position Into Which It
Led an Official
From the Brooklyn Eagle.
A few of us on the professors porch were
talking Of the power of habit and the fool
ish things 1t sometimes makes people do.
II once had an experience" said the rail-
road official. (Which 1 am almost afraid to
tell. 1t is so absurd that 1t sounds like fic-
tion and very poor fiction, at that"
The professor said that was the best pos
sible indication Of It's truthfulness, and
begged him to tell 1t.
well, 1t is true, every word of it." the
railroad man went on. Il had been an off,
Ger Of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
railroad in Illinois for many years, and of
course, had annual passes over all the i'm
portant railroads IN the country. My duties
took me to Springfield, the state capital,
very often, and, as I almost always went
by the Chicago. Alton and st. Louis road
the conductors on that line knew me so
well that they never asked to see my pass.
"One winter a gang of blood-suckers In
the legislature were bent on extorting
money from the railroads by means of sew
eral bills which they threatened to pass If
we did not buy them off, so spent consid-
cradle time at the capital watching our in
terests In fact. l was there SO much that
l retained room at the Leland Hotel by
the month. One day l received telegram
Summoning me to meet one of the officers
of our company at Aurora the next morn
Ing. l had only short time in which to
catch the train from Springfield to Chicago,
and in my haste went away leaving nv
book of passes in my bureau drawer I did
not find this out until l reached Chicago
and was about to take the last train for
Aurora that night. Then l saw that the
conductor, a man brought over from the
Iowa division, a stranger to me- and
n |
minded me that did not have it,
Il told the conductor of the situation, but
he said he could not carry me Oh my mere
representation that 1 had pass.
"'Why, man., said I, I'm an officer of
the company, going to Aurora on company
business, and this is the last train that will
get me there in time. You must take me-
He was polite, but firm. He said he was
a new man on this division and could not
afford to make any mistake
when l saw that he was determined
rushed off to the telegraph office, but 1t was
too late to catch anybody authorized to
issue passes, so / settled 1t in my mind that
l must go by carriage; and the prospect of
an all-night ride bad roads through
the dark was anything but inviting. In
deed, 1t was SO forbidding that l resolved
to make one more appeal to the conductor
You simply must take me to Aurora
1 said with intense earnestness.
can't do 1t, he answered. But be-
lieve you are what you represent yourself
to be. and 1 will lend you the money per
sonally. 1t is only SIP
well. sir, you could have knocked me
down with the fiat side of palm lea
fan. ] had more than 5000 in currency in
my pocket, but it had never for an instant
occurred to me that 1 could pay my fare
and ride on that train. l showed the con-
ductor wad of money that made his eyes
stick out.
I thought it was funny said he, that
| a man in your position couldn't raise ST IL
1t was that that made me believe you We're
playing trick to If l would violate the
rule
But the simple truth was. 1 had ridden
everywhere on passes SO many years tina
did not think l could ride in any other
way