The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-16
WORK RAILROADS FOR CLOTHES
Many Men Get Car Companies to Pay
Their Tailor's Bills.
(Philadelphia Inquirer.

Il started to get on a car the other
night" said club man, when the
nnotorman, who had slowed up for me.
/ suddenly turned on the power, with the
result that my coat caught in the hand
rail and was ripped down the front. [
| was thrown on my face on the road. got
several bad scratches, and one OF those
fine three cornered cuts in the seat of
my trousers.
Il didn't mind the shaking up or the
scratches, but l was sore about my
clothes. and the next day 1 went TO the
claim agent of the road with my
clothes in bundle and demanded an
order on my tailor or some equally good
tailor for a new SUIT
1.-THE claim agent looked me over
carefully for fully three minutes: then,
without. asking me a single question.
wrote out ansorder on the cashier of his
office for $50, which said was the value
of my suit.
If you would rather have an order
o. your own tailor for u suit at this
price he said, as he handed me the
order I'll give it TO you
I would / said, SO he tore up the
rother order and gave me an order on
my own tailor.
The whole proceeding struck me as
being very queer. I had the number of
the car on slip of paper, but he never
asked me for it. 1 was prepared to
describe the exact circumstances of the
accident, but he apparently didn't care
to know anything about them.
My friend. L said My friend I
said, as 1 put his order in my pocket,
how can you afford to give me an Or
der like this without any idea of who
/ ain, or whether l am an impCstor or
net? Why, you haven't even looked at
MY ruined clothes
" Don't want to see en-, he said. 7
see you, and that's enough. IN this
kind of cases l don't look at the dam
aged clothes. / look at the man with
the claim. 1 make up ny mind in
minute or two whether he is on the
square or not, and l act according to
my judgment. If 1 had decided against
you, you would have had TO go through
every court in the state before l yield
ed an inch
Then he offered me a cigar, asked
me to sit down, and then told me q
rather queer story about clothing
claims. He said:
There are more claims for clothing
AGAINST us than anything else. Men and
women come here by the score every
north with some damaged article Of
etching, demanding that we replace it,
as il was injured by one of our cars
There are some fellows, l believe,
who managed really to get their clothes
stained or torn on our cars SO that
there will be at least a semblance Of
Legitimate in their claims. The real
bona fide claims are very rare.
" A favorite trick is to come in and
say that clothes were burned in a fire
in one of the trolley cars. just as sure
as the newspapers print an account of
a fire in one of our cars there are two
or three claimants for new clothes, new
hats or new shoes in to see me. :
1t is the same thing with a COLI
SIGN. After a collision, whether it's be-
tween two cars or car and a truck.
the claimants begin to drift in the next
cay. In nine cases out of ten these are
pure frauds.
see all these claimants personally
l think can tell tue fraud right away
Sometimes l allow myself to be
cheated by these fellows, because there
is little doubt in my mind about them,
but in most cases l turn them right
out, and never hear anything more
from them. In other cases I can tell
that the claim is all right.
In your case I knew you suffered
this loss through the carelessness of.
enc of our conductors or motorinen. 1t
was enough for me that l believed this.
The facts of the case are not interesting
to me-