Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1906-08-23
HEPTASOPH'S
annual OUTING

ANNUAL UUIING
The annual outing of Lotus Concalve
No. l2I, l. Q. H., and their friends
which took place in DeWitt's park yes
terday, was a well attended and sue.
cessful affair. 1t was a basket picnic,
while among the sports were base ball
and dancing, Fetterman's orchestra
furnishing the music.
An incident in connection with the
picnic was a fall-out between the COM
mittee and the liverymen of town
which caused some controversy and
feeling, The facts rs generally un-
derstoOd are that the local lverymen
declining to haul people to the park
for five cents per head as advertised
the committee on arrangements went
to Bloomsbury and Catawissa aud en-
ployed hackmen there who under
private arrangement were willing to
adopt a ffve-cent fare for the day
Three of these hacks from the above
towns were on hand early in the morn
ing and were to be followed with an
other in the afternoon. Each was dis
tinguished from any other vehicle of
the kind that might appear on the
street by placards displayed on each
side, which contained the words
Heps' Hack-5 cents. ~
1t was question whether during the
rush that might occur in the afternoon
the hacks that adopted the five cent
fare would be able to carry all the
people. The local liverymen early re-
solved that they would not come upon
the street There were some people
who took sides with the liverymen and
did not like to see teams from out of
town employed while our own livery
men were waiting for business.
Several prominent Heptasophs ex-
plaineG the situation in this wise The
committee had advertised that people
would be carried to the park for five
cents, and at least several of the liv-
erymen had agreed on that figure; for
the Heps to have come out with a ten
cent fare on the day of the picnic
would not have been treating the pub
lie fairly. The local liverymen would
not carry people for five cents so that
nothing remained but to go out of
town for the hacks. There are some
250 Heps in Danville and these tOgeth-
er with their families and friends, it
was reasoned, would make a large
crowd which would keep the hacks
busy and even at five cent fare would
repay them we'll. 1t was adverted to
that there is a general objection to a
ten-cent fare and that it will have to
give way to something more reason
able. At a ten-cent fare, it was held,
a man with a family of several per-
sons is often deferred from visiting
the park by the cost of hack fare.
During an interview leading
and representative liveryman stated
some facts that may be new to the
public. To begin with, he stated, peO
pie have an exaggerated idea of the
profits made at ten-cent fare by hack
ing on the occasion of n picnic. One
Iiveryman, he said, is credited with
having realized forty dollars, which
is probably true, but during the great
er part of the day he had four teams
ont. The common run of earnings for
a hack on such occasions is twelve to
fifteen dollars. Speaking for himself
the highest he ever realized in day
hacking was sixteen dollars. Hacks
are expensive; they are hard on horses
and on days when they are employed
extra men have to be hired and he felt
quite sure that a fiye-cent fare would
not repay liveryman for his invest
ment for his risk and trouble. As for
the burden imposed on large families,
he said, hackmen always make it
practice not to charge for children I'M
der ten years of age.
1t is true that on few occasions,
such as church picnics, liverymen had
hired their hacks for a fixed sum, say
four dollars, but that 1t was under
stood that for that consideration only
four trips were to be made, each way,
and that for all over four trips the
liverymen were to receive extra pay.
This arrangement, he declared, the
Heptasophs were not willing to en-
ter into