Evening star., 1909-08-22
BUSY EVERY MINUTE
How Baggage Hustlers Handle
Your Trunks.
VACATION SEASON TAKING
There's No Confusion at All, and
Why?
Is SIMPLE WHEN YOU KNOW
System of the Classification of Bag
gage. According to Check
Numbers.
VACATION SEASON TAXING
rs SIMPLE WHEN YOU KNOW

is not a time during the day or night IN
this season of the year when there are
rot several hundred trunks piled in that
extensive room underneath the huge walt
ing rooms. several baggage cars fast NIL
ing up with luggage of all kinds, and yet
more baggage being brought in from
wagons or from the cars Of incoming
trains
There seems to be a Niagara whirlpool
of baggage of all kinds in the huge base,
ment room A stream of trunks OF all
sizes and shapes is flowing in from Was-
ons and added to the sea of others In
the middle of the whirlpool; still more
pieces of luggage from trains that are AZ
riving every few minutes increases Inc
volume Every few seconds a trunk or
two is pulled out of the center. goes num-
ming along the outskirts OF the mass ana
finally disappears. With all this whirilns
Of trunks, the pool itself seems 10 re-
main the same in size.
Yet il is not whirlpool or an eddy OF
trunks for there is system IN the move
ment of each piece, by which the en-
ployeS of the baggage room know Wnere
to Law their hands on any particular piece
after search of half a minute or SO.
There must be that system. You deliver
YOUR trunk into the hands of baggage
man at YOUR home and the next time you
see it is a few minutes after Your ar
rival at your hotel i'll Atlantic City, or
wherever YOU go for your vacation, when
YOU find it i'm your room ready TO be un-
packed. And thousands of these compact
wardrobes pass in and out of the huge
terminal here every day. with just the
same accuracy as to destination.
It is this system which is the especial
source OF pride to a citizen of the United
States after his return from trip to
Europe or to any other country OH the
globe. In few other places has this sys-
tenn reached the high development it has
attained in the railway terminal of the
National Capital.
A Bewildering Sight.
When you walk into the baggage room
of the Union station short time be-
fore your train is due to start. you are
startled at the apparent conglomeration of
trunks you catch a glimpse of in the
basement.
L want my trunk checked to Atlantic
City. to catch the 1 O'Clock train, you
request of the baggageman who greets
YOU at the counter. naming time not
many minutes distant. He takes the
check which the transfer man has given
you and goes TO get one for Atlantic City.
You have twenty-seven pounds excess
weight" the baggage checker remarks,
turning to you in a few seconds.
If you wondered how your trunk was
TO be picked out of that mass on the
knowledge of that baggage clerk in
knowing the exact weight of your par
ticular trunk-1T pounds. If you
doubted his woM and confirmed the
weight, you would find that In prac-
tically every case the baggagemen are
right as to the weight You hear other
bagsagemen telling other travellers lined
along that counter of the weight of
their trunks or remarking that trunk
has couple of hinges broken off. They
condition of every trunk.
You pay the charge for excess weight
as cheerfully as you can and start for
your train, which basso-voiced usher
wonder whether your trunk will get
onto the train you take-and you hope
1t will. because there are some clothes
In II that you want at the dinner hour
at Atlantic City that night. But you do
not worry. And there is ample proof
that there was no need for worry when
your trunk reached your hotel room
fronting an ocean or overlooking deep
valley before dinner that night.
Simple When You Know How
How is it done? The system is
simple and yet complete. When a trans
fer man. with wagon. calls at your
home for your trunk he gives you a
check with number on it, and places
another check with a duplicate number
on the trunk. When a trunk is deliv-
cred in the baggage room of the station
from a wagon IL mas the chSCk OF the
transfer man upon 1t, and 1t is to be
identified by the number of that check
until il has been rechecked for AN out
of-town destination. 1t is weighed as
soon as 1t reaches the baggage room
and a record of 1t is entered on d small
slip of paper. This record shows the
number of the transfer mans check
technically known as claim check
and the transfer man who delivered it.
the weight of the trunk and its condi-
yIh or
This record slip Is sent by a pneu-
matte tube TO the counter where the
public is waited on. One slip may CON
tain records of several trunks. and so
it is necessary to classify the trunk
records that the weight of them can
be quickly and easily ascertained by
the counter clerk when called upon to
check the trunk to Its destination. To
accomplish that there are several large
charts on a back counter, which can be
reached by few steps on the part of
the clerk.
These charts are so ruled that all the
trunk claim" checks can be classified
according to the last two figures in the
number. Thus claim check, 1923 would
be classified under the ''23' column, or
$50 under the ''36' column. Opposite the
fun number entered the chart is
placed record of the excess weight, if
any. AS these charts are frequently
changed there seldom more than two
three trunks entered under one of the
several heads
BY this arrangement the counter clerk
is able to learn in few seconds whether
any specific trunk he is called upon to
check has excess weight. He gives you
a proper check, with new number,
marked with the destination of the trunk
and the railroad over which IL is to pass.
writes or stamps the destination on a
train check with a duplicate and then
sends the claim and train checks to-
sether to the room below.
You Needn't Worry About It.
No further attention to the trunk is re-
quired on the part of the traveller. In
practically all other railway terminals
the trunk owner must wait at the coun-
ter until the counter clerk has gone
into the baggage room, picked out the
particular trunk desired, changes the
claim check on il for train check and
then returns TO the counter to deliver
"A duplicate train check TO the owner
owners who have business in the baggage
room of the Union station: he is saved
that time to talk with friends who have
escorted him TO the station or to hasten
onto the train to secure good seat
The basgageman has identification
claim check number and he has orders
through the train check sent him. to
check that specific trunk. of the hundreds
on the baggage floor. 10 some point out
side of Washington. At Podunk or Pump
kinville il is easy for the station baggage
master TO look over all the trunks in
the station until he finds the right one
there will probably be not more than
two TO look over. But in the terminal
of the National Capital there are hum