Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-11-27
ON STATEN ISLAND
RAPID TRANSIT R. R.
Passengers Break Into the Waiting
Rooms at Sight of the Glowing
Fires.

Between fifteen and twenty burg
laries we're committed in station
houses of the Staten Island Rapid
Transit Railroad Company. The
burglaries were traced by the police
to an organized band of commuters
who are obliged to ride on the early
trains of the company, but as yet nc
arrests have been made, and though
the officials are indignant and de-
clare that they intend to prosecute
the guilty parties, the police are in
different.
A cold northwest wind was re-
sponsible for the unprecedented SER
les of burglaries. All the trains were
late, as usual. The passengers we're
compelled to stand in the wind on
frozen platforms. Looking through
the windows of the stations at fires,
kept by the agents so that they will
find the waiting-rooms warm when
they come down after their late
breakfasts, and this made the pas
sengers rantankerous. They usually
are rantankerous about this time of
the year.
Fires Warm and Inviting.
The platforms were cold. The sta
tion-houses were locked hard and
fast. The fires looked warm and in
viting, in spite of accumulations of
dust in the rooms, so the passengers
lit in and knocked doors loose from
their locks or hinges, according to
which gave way first, and took pos
session of the waiting-rooms. The
agents reported the matter, and the
management are indignant, but their
Indignation Is not a marker to the
indignation of the passengers, who
are compelled to wait for late trains
in the early morning all winter.
Waiting rooms are provided at
most of the stations, but the doors
are locked early in the evening and
opened again about 8 o'clock the
next morning, after the common
working men and women have gone
to the city, and the agents can have
the quarters to themselves. One
station is open and well lighted all
the time. That is at Vanderbilt ave
nue., where some of the officials of
the road get on and off the train dali
ly. They are also making that part
of the line over which the same Of
1cials have to ride somewhat safer,
by putting in a light coating of bal
last between the rails.
a., 80 tho n,aiNAnr woc indio-
nant when he read that another en-
gineer had called the engines "old
tin kettles"
History of the ngines.
"They are not old" said he:: They
are the latest thing in locomotives
the height of the locomotive-makers'
art. They were made for the Balti-
more & Ohio road for the Worlds
Fair traffic, and it is a known fact
that the Worlds Fair got the best of
everything that could be had
Investigation showed that the en-
gineer was right. The S. 1. r. 7.
has q number of engines hat were
built for the Worlds Fair business
in 1891, and they have been used
constantly ever since, first for locals,
thirteen years ago, on the main line
of the Baltimore and Ohio. Then
they went to the Jerk-water roads
that are tributary to that economical
system and later, as they proved in
competent for the strain of rural
travel, were graduated to Staten ISL
and, the original home of the family
which now owns the road and the
son of whose founder became fam
Gus for his motto, THE public be
DID,"
An Organized Plan.
That motto is pasted inside the
hat of every employe of the system
and on dark nights can be seen in
phosphorescent letters inside all the
locked waiting-rooms. The public
sign petitions every winter for light,
fires and shelter from storms while
waiting for belated trains, but up to
this winter the motto has stood in
the way and they have not impress
ed General Passenger Agent Wander
bilt so that you could notice 1t. This
year they say they are going to take
the matter in their own hands and
the action of the passengers recently
was a part of an organized agree
ment TO break into the waiting-rooms
every time a train is late and the
rooms are found locked. This is a
lot of trouble, but the passengers say
that the satisfaction of getting some
thing from the common enemy is so
great that they are willing to go to