The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-07-17
LOW RATE TICKETS
CLOSELY OBSERVED
Railway Officials Making Every
Effort to Stop Scalping of Non
transferable Transportation
to st. Louis.

Passenger officials are making every ef-
fort to prevent the nontransferable rail
road ickets to the Fair being used by any
other than the original purchaser.
Legislation, both Federal, State and
city. has been invoked. and the courts
have. without an exception. held that the
sale of a nontransferable ticket such as
is used for excursion traffic to the Fair
il Illegal and the purchaser is in many
instances liable for forgery, inasmuch as
these tickets have to be signed In the
name of the original purchaser.
With the law behind them. the steady
fight which the passenger men are making
against the ticket brokers. 1t is believed,
is bearing fruit.
At the same time, an enormous number
of cheap tickets are sold to persons either
passing through St. Louis OF returning
from the Fair.
In many instances the conductor does
not discover the fraud until the purchaser
st. Louis. and the passenger Is unable to
pay his fare.
In this instance It is the duty of the
conductor to put the purchaser off the
train.
As a result the passenger offices are
flooded with complaints mad by persons
who have suffered this treatment and who
have made their way back to st. Louis
and are unable to get home.
The only recourse for them is to prove
which was the broker from whom they
bought the scalped tiscket and demand the
return of their money. In this case they
get their money back, but generally the
assistance Of the police Is required.
In an affair OF this sort the railroad rem
instances women. not informed Of the law
providing that brokers shall give a re-
ceipt. purchase scalped and changed tic.
cts. and. unable to pay their fare, have
nann mil ON h. rni Ff~ .a~.
hardships thereby. So destitute have been
many of these cases that the railroads
have given them transportation home.
In order to prevent instances OF this
sort many of the st. Louis lines have ar
ranged for a system of ticket inspection
before the person can get on the train at
Union Station.
In this way the fraudulent ticket is
often noted and the person saved the dis
comfort OF being put of the train when
st. Louis is far behind.
by a recent ruling the detectives en-
ployed by the railroads must return the
ticket to the gateman at Union Station.
can only take 1t up by consent of the
passenger, though obviously the passen-
ger, when informed TINT he will not be
allowed to ride on the transportation
which he presentc at the gate, will will
ingly surrender t. in order to have as
s%istance in getting his money back from
the scalcer.
Many Incidents wherein not only men
but women and children are put off trains
because their tickets are not valid have
all of such incidents being presented to
the notice of the Chief of Police and
Mayor.
On the desk of almost every passenger
official In st. Louis can be found large
punches of tickets which have been
manipulated b. brokers.
In many instances not only has the
date of these tickets been changed. but
the original destination erased and an
other substituted, in which way a ticket
costing originally 81 or g may be good
for a passage costing $50 or $50.
At the three validating offices estab-
lished by the railroads many tickets
which nave been manipulated have been
detected. and the purchaser saved not
only the discomfort and humiliation of
being put off the train. but directed as to
the best means by which he can recover
his money.