The Columbus weekly dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 1902-1905, 1904-02-25
BROKERS CLOSE TICKET SHOPS.
Railway Ticket Protective Bureau Wins
Victory IN Atlanta.

Severance & Weinfeld and Ise-
man & Moore, two ticket broker
age firms which have Cor many
years done business in Atlanta,
closed their offices yesterday and
retired permanently from the
ticket brokerage business and
there are now no ticket brokers
in Atlanta.
The closing of these Offices is
the result of skilful work done
by the Railway Ticket Protective
Bureau, which was organized by
the railroads at the suggestion Of
William A. Pinkerton, head of the
celebrated PinkertOn Detective
Agency, on the same general
lines as the jewelers. Security
Alliance and the American Bank
ers' Protective Bureau.
The depredations of the ticket
brokers upon the revenues Of the
railroads in the United States
and the extent to which the in
fuence 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 absolutely necessary
for the railroads, for the protect
ion of their own revenue and the
morals of their employees, to
take active measures.
1t was while the railroads were
looking about for ways and means
that Mr.. Pinkerton suggested
the organization of the Railway
Ticket Protective Bureau. The
results of the work of the bureau
have been eminently satisfactory,
and here in Atlanta the work of
the bureau has resulted in closing
up both offices which the rail
roads claim have been troubling
them. The bureau had accumu-
lated a very considerable amount
of other evidence which it was
about to submit to tbs courts,
when on the 18th day of January
J. 2. Bulups, General Passenger
Agent of the Atlanta & West
Point Railroad, reported to JOS
eph Richardson, the Atlanta re
preventative Of the bureau, that
he had just discovered that forty
mileage tickets, representing 49,
900 miles of transportation. had
been stolen from his ticket de
partment. Mr.. Richardson i'm
mediately telegraphed the head
quarters of the bureau in Chicago
and on the 10th one of Pinker-
tons expert operatives arrived
in Atlanta. This operative and
his assistants traced some of
these tickets into and other
tickets out of Severance & Vein
field s office. On January 26, by
virtue of search warrants, the
officers made thorough search Of
both of the ticket brokers offices
with the result that that night /
Sam NJ. McClurkan. a clerk in |
the auditors office of the West I
Point route, was arrested on the /
charge Of larceny, and in default I
Of bond was committed to the I
city jail, where he staid until
Saturday, January 30. when his
bond was made He implicated
/ negro, Will Edwards, who was
found by the Pinkerton people
n ST. Louis and brought to At
anita. At his preliminary trial
before Justice OF the Peace Or
nond he plead guilty, as Nc
Jlurkan had previously done. and
t is now understood that Vein
ED and Stephens will plead
guilty when their cases are
allied in the Superior Court.
Thus far the protective bureau
las confined its prosecution to
he brokers themselves, but it is
that their campaign
will in future il clude passengers
gho travel on scaIpers' tickets,
S it is impossible, it is claimed,
Or them to use tickets obtained
rom the scalpers' offices unless
hey commit the crime known to
ne law as false impersonation, {
hitch is a felony and is a pen /
entiary Offense. Atlanta Con
titution, Feb. Is, 1904. d