Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-04-16
AGENT FOR THE BURLINGTON IN
VENTS A NEW FORM OF TRANS
PoRTATfoN THAT MAY REvo-
LuTioNIzE OLD SYSTEM.
INVENTION FITS
THE VEST POCKET
ITS USE WILL CUT DOWN FORMS
FROM 1900 TO FoRTY-FlvE-RE-
DUcEs PRINTING COST AND
WORK OF AGENTS.

What Is expected to revolutionize
the universal passenger tickets now
in use, is the Parker Junction Coupon
Ticket, the fruits Of the inventive
brain Of Ticket Agent William S. Par
ker Of the Union depot. The new
ticket is now in the hands of the COM
mittee on universal tickets, and Its
worth will doubtless be demonstrated
by the acceptance Of the ticket. Aside
from the fact that it reduces the cum
hersome long ticket which necessitates
extremely close study to decipher
what 1t is all about the new ticket
will prove boon to the railroads
bills, lessons the size Of ticket holders
in offices and practically does away
with more than nine-tenths of the
clerical work now necessary by the
passenger and ticket seller. The new
ticket is in the shape of a small book
let, fastened together by brass clasps,
and Is sufficiently small to be carried
in the vest pocket.
Reduces Forms of Ticket.
BY using the Parker Junction Cou-
pon Ticket, the coupon railroad offices
will no longer have to keep in
stock from 1000 to 1900 different
forms Of tickets, but instead will
not havo to employ mo-s than
forty-fve forms. Five forms cover
all business east of Chicago while
twenty-slx forms are the maximum
number needed to supply the wants of
the visitors to western cities no matter
how circutticus route may be taken.
Additional features of the Parker
Ticket are the fact that the passenger
knows exactly what he or she pur-
chases, does not have to be veteran
railroad man to understand it, and
when large cities are reached, will not
have to suffer the sometimes irritable
inconvenience that is now necessary
by waiting the process that the long
tickets go through in the hands Of the
gate keepers. In place of railroads
general offices carrying in stock 5000
to 1000 forms of tickets, they will only
need carry $50 forms.
Cuts Down Station Room.
To the railroad company, too, the
new ticket will appeal as great
saver not only of office room, but OF
fixtures as well. The present tickets
for long passage needed case seven
feet high by six and one-half feet
wide, while the Parker system will
need only a small box, nine inches
wide by eighteen inches long. When
q patron calls for ticket from OF
tumwa to New York with stoDover at
Buffalo, and passage east Of Chicago
by two or three routes, all that is nee
essary for the agent to do is to reach
into the Chicago and eastern drawer,
pull out two or three forms, and plac-
Ing them together, put the booklet I'M
der a punch to apply the brass clasp.
After the very few blank spaces are
filled In by the agent, the booklet is
handed over to the patron, who opens
It like a book and very readily reads
just what he or she has long since
figured as a deep mystery. 1t takes
no one with college education to
decipher the Parker ticket, for SIM
plicity Is it's keynote. The conductors
will be able to work the Parket ticket
IN the same easy manner that tickets
from Ottumwa to Abba are worked.
All that Is necessary for the uniform
ed man to do is take hasty glance at
the transportation, punch 1T where nee
essary or take off the form that has
been travelled, and hand the booklet
to the passenger. The ticket also does
away with the delay sometimes felt at
! the hands Of the Pullman conductor,
who under the present plan has to
scrutinize your long ticket from end
to end He simply takes hasty
glance at the Parker ticket, and you
are forthwith accommodated with your
berth. The ticket has form that pro-
vides for the transfer from one depot
to another when change of depot is
required to reach another road.
Has Studied Proposition.
Mr.. Parker has long been trying to
devise an improvement over the old
system Of tickets, but has not spent
much constant work on his invention
before last September. Since that
time, however, he has perfected the
scheme and 1t Is now In the hands of
the ticket committee Of the various
roads, and If accepted, will be put into
universal use on American railroads.
Mr.. Parker has been in the railroad
business for the past thirty-one years,
and has been an agent at the Union
lapot for twenty years.