Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-04-12
rrom ,hn kansas Citv Star.

The railroad engineer ana tram ans
ratcher are all right. sald the tlred
city ticket agent the other day, nut
lie isn't the whole thing when ii comes
10 hard work. and he doesn't see all the
romance there is i'll the railroad busl-
lleSs. Yet to read some Of the news,
paper articles about the engineers anu
the dispatcners you'd think the men
who come in personal contact Win lne
passengers have nothing whatever 10
do with the operation of the iallroauS
at all.
But want to tell you that the ticket
agents, the train conductors. ihe
man conductors the train,nel, the por-
ters. even the walters, the stewards
and the chef ON the dining cars. are all
entitled to some degree of sympalny
and recognition from the pubic. On,
YES, suppose there are some niach
sheep among them. There are "A ie"
lawyers. doctors. merchants, police
men. labor leaders-there are even
some oticeholaers who are not alto
sether what they should be. But the
majority of men in all walks OF me are
good fellows. hard workers.. and eager
tn nlay their parts In the game of life
suuarely. II is so With the men III
every grade of railroad passenger serV-
ice. too.
Il suppose you think it's u cinch I"
sell tickets ali day over the counter ol
"A railroad ticket office. We'll ie' "e
tell you differently.
Troubles of the Ticket Agent.
I'm fact. the ticket agents lot never
was an exceptionally happy one. 1 Wen
TX wears ago. though. he had mucn
easier time than now. Then about All
he had to do was to hand out one niue
paialelogram of pasteboara aver an,
other, with the names of the statlolis AT
the beginning and ending of the pas
senger's Journey printed on 1t. take IN
the price in each case and keep his cash
straight. 1t isn't so now.
Then most ticket agents had TO sell
tickets only over the lines by when
they were employed. Now in most OIL
tices-it is so N the one | am lucky
enough to have Il job in-tickets are on
sale on twenty or thirty or more lines
To say nothing of the tickets TO various
destinations in foreign lands. You can
buy a ticket at the office | work i'm TO
almost any place in the whole world
10 which railroads or steamships run.
When began there as office boy
twenty-five years ago. YOU eoulo puy
tickets to only a few prominent places
not on our lines. and us the price vi
every ticket we had to sell was pltlNi!
indicated by printed schedules | could
sell tickets about as Well as the ooss,
only l couldn't make the chanse aui'e
as rapidly and surely.
Unless YOU have been Il ticket seller
Yourself. YOU can't understand what a
difference the new way makes. From
my office I can sell tickets to San
Francisco, for instance. over seNerai
different routes. There are excursion
tickets, limited tickets CAS- To time) and
unlimited tickets. We sell sleeping car
tickets also, and they are now or tWt
Observation-Disclosures and tourist
1T is through or long distance TICK
cts that make us work-yes, and study
too. Many of them are several feet III
length, with sections to be torn OH anc
turned in by the conductors of the
various divisions over which the pas
senger passes. And of course the com
putation of the prices Is sometimes al
Intricate arithmetical operation. II ha:
taken me a full half hour, many i
time. to figure out just how much u
charge Il passenger ana 1ust now +"
send him through with the least loss o
time and without charging him NOR
than he wants to pay.
Studying Time Tables.
This brings to my mind the stud.
of time tables.
1T makes a passenger good nature
and inclined to travel more freely I
he is able to make connections just a
he expects to. and 1t make him n sore
headed s~tay-at-home tn spend n In
of money and find himself hundreds o
thousands of miles away from nom
with q ticket that won't carry him Jus
where and as he expected tn so.
so we have to make the most elab
crate studies imaginable OF the railroa
guides. It. is a comparatively cas-
thing to get the run of the time ia
bles Of one line. though some lines haV
enough branches to make your hea
swim. But it's "A really difficult job t
familiarize yourself with a vast net
work OF lines stretching from ocean I
ocean,. north across the boundary INT
Canada, south across the boundary IN
to Mexico. and out upon the seas owe
the steamship lines. Why. the frs
few weeks of a green ticket sellers III
are positively miserable III he reall
tries to master the situation In a shol
time. Even the most experienced Z
us have to study nights. sometime
In the spring and fall. just after II
seasonal changes of schedules al
made.
another thing which has become q,
tremely complicated and that ofte
calls for night work. We ticket agen
are by no means sticklers for Just
many hours a day. nor are we able
get clear of work altogether on SUI
days and holidays, as you might SUI
pose.
city ticket agents have an easy tin
of it in one way. as compared WI
the station tick agents. however.
They are afflicted a good deal mo
thar we are with the last minute pa
sengers; people who rush up to u
window five minutes before train tr
TO buy tickets half or all the w;
across the continent. or to some reno
Mexican or Canadian point. and wi
impossible ideas az to stoporers al
time and expense. Were it not for t
bureaus of information that are NJ
a feature of nearly every big railro
station. I don't know how the staff
ticket sellers would get along at all.
Travellers Joys and Sorrows.
DO you never get in touch with t
romance of real life" Why. my friei
have heard it so many times that