New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-12-29
HRISTMAS TRAFFIC
HEAVIEST IN YEARS
RAINS RUN DOUBLE HEADERS
AND IN SECTIONS. ALL
HOURS LATE.
O. DEPARTMENT HANDLES
CHRISTMAS RUSH WELL. NO
CONGESTION.

Never before in his experience as
alton agent was the traffic on the
orthweste1n line anywhere near as
eavy as it was this year, during the
oliday season, said Fred P. Starr to
-.eview reporter yesterday. The rush
;arted coming about 10 days before
christmas and it was necessary to in
rease the size of the standard train
INNING thru here from Chicago to the
>akotas until it consisted of eleven,
welve and even fourteen coaches.
-- The eleven coach train consisted of 2
1ail cars, 3 baggage cars, day coaches,
liner and sleeper. These trains were
'ulled by monster engines. The two
ngines were not able to make salts
actory time with these long trains and
elated trains were daily occurrence.
-lbout four days before Christmas, con-
itions had become so aggravated that
he company decided to split each of
heir four big thru trains into two
ections each. The first section carried
he passengers and the second section
onsisted of the mail, baggage and
-xpress cars. This improved conditions
onsiderably. 1t is needless to say that
he coaches were jammed with the
raveling public. AS a rule every seat
the day coaches was taken, the sleeper
vas filled, large number of short trip
passengers were standing between stations
md even the diners were requisitioned
o take care of passengers.
Traffic Immediately prior to Christmas
vas also materially increased on the M.
& st. L. The New Uln train carried
an extra coach All the time and the
midday passenger one and sometimes
two extra coaches. On the main line
The equipment was practically doubled.
The Christmas business at the Post
Office doomed up big and preparations
we're made to handle the same with the
greatest possible dispatch. Emil Hem
pei was on duty for about 10 days and
Jacob Engel for nearly week as SUBJ
clerks and Joseph Schuster assisted as
sub-carrier during the greatest rush.
By having the parcel post taken care of
at one of the rural delivery windows, the
work of taking care of the Xmas packages
was considerably expedited. They have
no accurate record of the number of
packages that came in and went out but
it is confidently believed to have been
in excess of those of last year.
With to-day the old mileage book
goes out of existence and in it's place
comes mileage book which can be used
only for interstate business. Instead of
$40 the new book will cost $45 and can
not be used for traffic entirely within
the State. Before the new ruling went
into effect mileage could be purchased
good on at least rs to 80 roads. The
new mileage will cover interstate bust
ness only and there seems hardly any
occasion for issuing mileage books at all
because thru tickets can be purchased
now at practically cents mile and it
is hardly to be expected that the new
passenger rate for interstate tickets, to
90 into effect next month will exceed "a
cents mile, the advance recently al
lowed by the Interstate Commerce Com
mission. The state rates will continue
the same as now and nothing would
prevent passenger from purchasing a
ticket to the state line of Minnesota and
one again at the state line of Wisconsin
and so on if the thru tickets are sold at
such a rate as to make it an object for a
passenger to get off the train every time
he enters new state.
Station Agent Starr expected to sell
at least 80 of the old style mileage books
yesterday and Station Agent Leary Of
the M. Z St. L. estimated that by night
he would issue about 20 mileage books
4 in all. Yesterday morning shortly after
10 o'clock he had already issued 10 Of
them. He says there is a strong de.
mand for the old mileage books all along
the line and thousands upon thousands
Of dollars, possibly millions, will b.
handed to allof the railroad systems il
the u. S. for Services which they have
J, not as yet RENDERED but will render some
time during efoming year.
N
Stenhen SOmSeA Ml,nicinal Judoo n