The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1904-02-25
BROKERS CLOSE
TICKET SHOPS.
Railway Ticket Protective
Bureau Wins Victory
i'm Atlanta.

| Severance Il Weinfeld and Iseman &
Moore, two ticket brokerage firms
winch have for many years done bust
ness In Atlanta, closed their offices yes
terday and retired permanently from
the ticket brokerage business, and there
are now no ticket brokers in Atlanta
The closing of these offices is the re-
suit OF skiltul work done by the Railway
Ticket Protective Bureau, which was
organized by the railroads at the sug-
gestlon OF William A. Pinkerton, head
| OF the celebrated Pinkerton Detective
agency, OH the same general lines as
the jewelers. Security Alliance and the
American Bankers Protective Bureau.
The depredations of the ticket bro
kers upon the revenues of the railroads
| in the United States, and the extent tn
which the influence of certain scalpers
had permeated the offices of the rail-
! roads, so that clerks and others having
| access to tickets could find a ready
! market for stolen tickets, had grown to
| such an extent that it became abso-
lutely necessary for the railroads, for
| the protection of their own revenue and
Inc morals OF their employees, to take
active measures.
- 'H9 "AAllC Vic ldllIUduS were look
ing about for ways and means that Mr.
fihKerton suggested the organization
| or the hallway Ticket Protective Ru-
reau. The results of the work of this
bureau have been eminently satisfac-
tory, ana here in Atlanta the work of
the bureau has resulted in closing up
ooth offices which the railroads claim
nave been troubling them. The bureau
had accumulated a very considerable
amount of other evidence which it was
about to submit to the courts, when on
the l4th day of January j. 2. Billups,
General Passenger Agent of the At
lanta u West Point Railroad, reported
to Joseph Richardson. the Atlanta rep
resentative of the bureau, that he had
just discovered that forty mileage tick
cts, representing 10000 miles of trans
portatlon, had been stolen from his
ticket department. Mr.. Richardson
Immediately telegraphed the head
quarters of the bureau in Chicago, and
on the 10th one of Pinkerton's expert
operatives arrived in Atlanta. This
operative and his assistants traced
some of these tickets into and other
| tickets out of Severance & Weinfeld's
| office. On January %, by virtue of
| search-Warrants, the officers made Thor
ough search of both of the ticket bro
kers' offices, with the result that that
night Sam M. McClurkan, clerk in
the auditors office of the West Point
route, was arrested on the charge of
larceny, and in default of bond was
committed to the city Jail, where he
staid until Saturday, January Both.
when his bond was made He impli-
Gated negro, Will Edwards, who was
found by the Pinkerton people in St.
Louis and brought to Atlanta. At his
preliminary trial before Justice of the
Peace Ormond he pleaded guilty, as
McOlurkan had previously done, and it
is now understood that Weinfeld and
Stephens will plead guilty when their
cases are called in the Superior Court.
Thus far the protective bureau has
confined its prosecution to the brokers
themselves, but it is understood that
their campaign will in future include
passengers who travel on scalpers'
tickets, as tits impossible, it is claimed,
for them to use tickets obtained from
the scalpers' offices unless they COM
NIT the crime known to the law as false
representation, which is felony and is
a penitentiary offense. Con-
stitution, February 16, 1904.