The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-11-25
WHIPPED PORTERS
SMASH UP BAGGAGE
How English Railway Bag
gagemen Get Even With
Stingy Passengers.

London, Nov. 24.-Luggage smash
ing seems to have developed into a
recognized business among porters at
country railway stations.
This at least has been the expert
ence OF many.
Railway pOrters, it seems. are DELHI
erately damaging luggage sent in ad-
/ vance, because they get no tips for
/ handling it, and because they desire
to deter railway travellers from send
ing their luggage in this way.
Inquiries which have been made
| seem very completely 10 verify the
! complaints on the subject.
MY wife. my children and l spent
our holidays I'm Devon" one inform
ant states, and in my innocence I
! sent our luggage in advance, thinking
/ that should save money in cab fare
and In pOrterage, and that I should
have no worry.
Instead I am $40 out of pocket and
there is no redress.
Battered Boxes and Bags.
my luggage, when it left my house,
was packed in good trunks and stout
bags. When il arrived in Devon it was
| inclOsed in battered boxes and crum-
/ pied bags.
There was one new tin trunk. II
was neatly japanned in black, for in
stance, and it had cost me So.
when / retrieved il it was dented,
! scratched. battered and its enamel was
gone. There were the marks of boots
on it and il looked old and worn. The
Gladstone bags seemed to have suf-
fered at the feet of horses in a caval-
~ charge, so battered and bruised
were they.
Last year I took my luggage with
me. and, on the whole. it Travelled
without much mutilatiOn. So / asked
friend who is an official Of a great
railway company if he could explain
why my unfortunate possessions had
received such treatment when they
were sent in advance.
1t is the country pOrters who
have done this TO your luggage he
said. They have to handle luggage
sent in advance. and they get no tips
for doing SO.
Avalanche of Trunks.
Consequently they wage war on
1t, and the more they can damage it
the better they are pleased. We are
at our wits ends to know how to pre-
vent them.
They slam it down from heights
with malice afOrethought they bump
it across platforms with willful intent
TO damage it, and they spill il from
trucks in the confident hope of reduc-
ing its value by more than they would
have received in tips from the owners,
had they accompanied it,
Another correspondent gives an eve
witness account of the style Of treat
ment to which advance luggage is sub
jected
I would. very much like TO warn
people" ne writes mot 10 forward
their trunks in advance
4 have seen two instances or the
way it is treated. In one case 1 saw a
porter spilling trunks. bags and boxes
in sort of avalanche down the stairs
from a bridge as the easiest and most
drastic method of conveying it to the
platform of the junction.
Official Admits Damage.
In the second case I saw another
porter laboriOusly raising boxes and
trunks in the air and dropping them
one by one on a stone pavement,
punctuating his performance with the
remark: There goes another tup-
pence"
Read in conjunction. the statements
OF officials of the Great Eastern and
Southeastern & Chatham Railway
companies. throw some light on the
question.
The porters do not like the lug
gage-in- advance system" was said bv
an official of the Great Eastern Rail- |
way company. I'VE know that Ing
gage in advance gets damaged but we |
do not know that 1t gets purpOseIv !
damaged. If we knew that, the men |
who did it would get short shrift |
They would never have another
chance"
AT the Southeastern & Chatham
railway II was said that, as on other |
railway systems, luggage in advance. |
as regards the London end is dealt |
with by special staff, who do not |
damage it, but when it gets down into |
the country it has TO pass through the |
hands OF the platform porters.