Evening star., 1903-07-03
"OFF THEIR TROLLEY"
Some of the Trials of Street
Railway Officials.
LOTS OF CRITICISM
PEOPLE WHO SEEK REVENGE FOR
UNSATISFACTORY SERVICE.
One Man Kept Up a single-Handed
Fight-Ingenious Perse-
cutors.
LOTS OF CRITICISM


| ity as power, the surface car has become
more than a mere means to an end. 1t has
become a. vital element in the personal
| daily life of almost everybody in a COM
| munity of any size.
AS consequence, anything that inter-
feres with swift transportation is viewed
| almost as a catastrophe, however tempo
rary it's effect may be.
| Different folk take the troubles of each
| day differently Some threaten to move
out of the country every time there is a
| "block" on the line Others breathe forth
| their desire to skin the president of the
| company alive and very slowly. others
brood over thoughts of punching the con-
ductor And there are others who work
| out simple but satisfying schemes of re-
venge.
Every now and then somebody arises and
complains that the public is supine. PER
| haps as body. it is. But it has cham
| pions who do good (or i'll, according TO the
| trolley officials) by stealth. With fine dis
regard of means they use Uncle Sam
mails and the telegraph and the telephone
| indiscriminately to harass the trolley com
| pany and express their innermost and least
| cordial feelings to the officials. They worry
the heads of health and police departments.
No method is too simple for their aVenglng
plans
%.
of the largest surface transportation com
pany in one of the biggest cities of our
country the other day, after an accident
| that smashed two cars and broke various
limbs Nc sir, 1t isn't accidents like
this that worry me the most They break
me up to be sure, but we all know that
| they are bound to happen in our business
What's driving me into nervous prostratlon
| is the petty diabolical roasting and soak
ing that | get from the time | awake until
[ go to sleep. Go to sleep, did say? Wen,
that was wrong. Why. listen! One night
I got to bed at about 1 O'Clock, dog tired
| had been out over the line trying to re-
pair a broken feed wire~with green crew
and Insufficient material, and I left word
to wake me up at G 50 that l could get out
again.
A A. NJ. Avenger.
"WeIl. sir. at about O'Clock the tele-
phone bell rang like mad and woke me up.
I called my man and told him to see what
was wanted. After short talk with the
person at the other end of the wire he hur-
ried into my room and reported that 1t was
A man who said that he had to talk TO me
Immediately matter of the highest
importance. There was an accident on one
of the divisions he said. L rushed 10 the
instrument and without asking who was
talking to me, 1 asked where the accident
was. .
I'm sure I don't know replied the
voice. It's this way. old man. thousht
L
is an accident. You see, had TO wait
three-auarters of an hour for a car ana
so | thought that when l got home q tell
Won about it. knowing that with your mag
nffcent management it would be quite i'm
possjble for cars to run so 1nfrequentlv un-
less something terrible had happened to
the whole system
.'Of course / was hot all through and.
without thinking | yelled: Do you mean
to say that you dare call me out OF bed
merely to tell me that you had to wait for
a carr
And then he got foul. with the sweetest
kind of voice he said:
What! Do you mean TO tell me that
the general superintendent of the - =
road drawing salary of ten thousand dol
Iars is so Indifferent to his duty that he
will abuse a man who is thoughtful enough
to call him up at o'clock IN the morning
lust out of good nature ana uhSelIlSl,ilesS iil
Rv love sir l shall write to your dlfect-
ors and tell them what a return got from
Won for nv trouble and the expense OF tele-
phoning to tell you things.
"And then he rang off and left me Jump
;ne, nm and down. And the beauty OF IL Is
that he had the glorious nerve to fulhll his
threat and write letter to the directors.
He didn't write it at once. either. Inc WI
lain was too cunning for that lie had
found out that there was a Spft coming IN
the board and he waited until the meeting
at which the trouble was due. Then his
letter was delivered and 1t came just IN
time for one of the factions which wanted
nv scalp. L got q TuDDllS lildl loOh 'llS
curl out of my hair for month.
"Xyer when the trouble over Twas
90 sore that / actually worried over some
way to pay that man back lie mad signed
his name and address, and Kept memo
randum of it, you bet
"One day [ met him at reception, and,
as things usually happen, the man whom
| had pictured as mean, low, sneaking
codger turned out to be pretty good KIND.
So | contented myself with complaining to
h,,I,. .,,-,sa And Al
"Iook here, my dear fellow. Your COM
pany worries me morning and night. l
wait for cars until | feel like slaughtering
somebody | stand on corners in rain and
mud Wasting my precious time. I've missed
dinner engagements an business engage
ments because of your Egyptian schedules
(Only he didn't say 'Egyptian.D And I've
Joined citizens associations and reform as
sociations and formed committee by my
self to try to remedy things, without avail.
So now Eve taken things in my own hands.
I'm going to fight you by myself. You
worry me and I'm going to worry you. Ii
l am delayed in getting home I'll call you
I'D on the telephone at early hours in the
morning preferably, and tell you about it.
I'm going to do the same thing to your
president. I'm going to spend part of my
bright young life in your midst. in season
and out of season. No bad feelings, you
know. It's just business.
Kept UP the Fight.
And, sir, he did it. Single handed, that
man, who must have had the patience of
Job, the revengefulness OF Cortez and the
ingenuity of Machiavelli. nearly drove me
insane And as for the poor president; he
became so furious at last from the con-
slant proddng that he actually applied to
the company's counsel to see if he couldn't
get at his prosecutor through the courts.
But he couldn't. The man was too smart
for him.
You see, maddening as it may have been
to be called away from a dinner party or
a cozy chat in your house by the telephone
bell only to hear that chaps hearty, merry
voice informing you that another was
late again, he was within his rights. We
couldn't do anything.
"One day he called I'D the presidents
private office. and when the secretary told
him the president was out, he said that he
wanted to talk to him on urgent fami-
ly matter OF course he didn't give his
name, but gave only a telephone number
and said: For goodness sake. don't for
get now Tell Mr.. to call me up the
moment he comes in. It's tremendously
important.
1.-THE president was scared when he got
the message. His family was away and
he didn't know what might have happened.
So he dropped everything and called up the
number himself. only to hear that voice
had ah nta1v nj