Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031276466 Baggage car traffic : ,. 3 1924 031 276 466 olin.anx Baggage Car Traffic. Illustrating the Customs and Necessary Rules and Regulations of the Baggage Department and the Parcel Traffic of Railroads in this Country and in Europe. MARSHALL M. KIRKMAN. PUBLISHED BT THE RAILROAD GAZETTE, No. 73 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 1878. UNfVERSflY V x LIBRARY gM- i JtLJJ'JF I -L f . Entered according to Act of Congress in tlie year 1878, by The Bailboad Gazette, in tile office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Printed by DOlfKBLLEY, LOTD & CO. OHIOAGO. PREFACE, To those disinclined to waste time upon anything not of an entirely practical or matter-of-fact nature, it is well, perhaps, to state that the first three or four chapters of this book have no immediate reference to the serious affairs of the Baggage Department, except that everything that helps to illustrate the spirit that animates our railroads tend to a better understanding of their business ; the chapters in ■question were written several years ago, but are published now for the first time. Having had occasion some time back to examine into the affairs of the Baggage Department, and the Traffic incident to it, the fact that there was no definite or known plan for conducting much of its business at once became apparent. As I progressed in my researches the importance of the subject became more and more manifest. My investigations finally led me to inquire into the customs and workings of the Luggage Department upon the European rail- ways, and to compare them with our own. The extent of the undertaking suggested its embodiment in a book. Hence the present volume. To those who have kindly afforded me information and assist- ance in connection with my investigations, I take 'this occasion to return my thanks. Chicago, June 6, 1878. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. Preface . iii CHAPTER I. The highways of ancient and modern times — The dura- bility of the latter — How they are constructed — The period of evolution. . . . . . . i CHAPTER II. The hospitality of a railroad company — The special train — The excursion — The officials on board — The busi- ness car — The baggage car and its associations. . II CHAPTER. III. The trainboy — What he is and what he does. . . 25 CHAPTER IV. The train baggageman — Something about his duties — His reputation abiroad — His peculiarities. . . 33 CHAPTER V. What constitutes baggage ? — What constitutes baggage in other countries — Why should baggage be trans- ported without extra charge ? — Baggage unaccom- panied by owner — The quantity of baggage that may be transported free — The customs in other countries — The cost of transporting baggage. . 39 vi Table of Contents. CHAPTER VI. Page. Responsibility of our railroads for baggage lost or dam- aged — Responsibility of railway companies in other countries — Limit of responsibility for baggage lost or damaged in the United States — System required to enable a company to fix the responsibility for lost or damaged baggage — Safeguards must be provided to secure efficiency and prevent fraud — Some of the deceptions practiced. , . . . . -57 CHAPTER VII. The manipulation of baggage — The primitive mode of handling baggage — The Local baggage check — Sup- plying agents with local checks — The Reversible or Inter-road check — The system of handling baggage perfect — The practice of checking baggage compul- sory in the United States — How baggage is billed in other countries — Baggage billed through in Europe. 70 CHAPTER VIII. Insurance and storage of baggage by railway companies — Storage charged by railways abroad — The men who destroy values and precipitate railroad wars — The agencies of a company made Depositaries for Parcels — The raven ue that may be derived therefrom — The system required 83 CHAPTER IX. The inter-road passenger and his baggage — Something about commissions — The class of men who have fastened the practice of paying commissions upon the railway companies — The abolition of the practice — Effect of competition on baggage car traffic — Com- missions bring no increased business. . . .02 Table of Contents. vii CHAPTER X. Page. Excess baggage customs here and abroad — Neglect of the subject by responsible and directing o6ficials — Obsta- cles in the way — Inequalities that exist — The law of supply and demand — Railway property entitled to a fair dividend — Extra baggage rates — The Gen- eral Baggage Agent — The difficulty of enforcing charges for extra baggage — Intimidation of officials — The popular officer — Reluctance to pay for excess baggage — The harassed and perplexed agent — The irate patron — Insufficiency of the time allowed for accounting one cause of the demoralization. . . I06 CHAPTER XI. Through emigrant business — The excess luggage of or- dinary inter-road passengers — Not difficult to provide . a proper system of accounting — Excess local baggag e — Collections should be made by the receiving agent — Extra baggage passes — Disposition of way-bills, passes, etc. — A check upon the issue of season passes, permits, etc. — When sufficient time is not allowed for weighing — .Imperative need of reform. . . 127 CHAPTER XII. Commercial travelers — How the coupon mileage ticket is used — Form of baggage permit — How the use- fulness of the mileage ticket may be increased — Its use upon suburban trains. ..... 143 CHAPTER XIII. Accounting for baggage car traffic — The course to be pursued — The form of way-bill to be used — When there is lack of time at forwarding station — Baggage traffic to and from foreign roads — Accounting for traffic passed without cash payments — Something about the form of baggage traffic way-bills — The form used abroad 152 viii Table of Contents. CHAPTER XIV. Page. Accounting for the proceeds of baggage car traffic Monthly abstract of baggage car traffic forwarded — Monthly abstract of baggage car traffic received — Storage of baggage, lost checks, etc. — List of un- collected charges on baggage car traffic — Receipts must be given for all moneys collected — Pocket memorandum book of baggagfe car traffic forwarded — Notice of errors. . . . . . ■ 175 CHAPTER XV. Instructions to agents, station baggagemasters, train baggagemen and others in reference to their duties in connection with the regular business of the baggage department — General instructions to agents and train baggagemen — Statements and returns required of agents — Statement of baggage delivered by train baggagemen to agents — Directions for checking age, the care of checks, etc. — Lost and estray age — Lost checks — Unclaimed baggage — Baggage car traffic — Miscellaneous instructions to agents — Statements and returns required of train baggagemen — The receipt and delivery of baggage by train baggagemen — Receiving and delivering baggage by train baggagemen at stations at which there is no agent — Special directions to train bag- gagemen in reference to baggage car traffic — Miscel- laneous rules; attention to duty, care of car, etc., upon the part of baggagemen. ..... 187 CHAPTER XVI. The express or parcel traffic — What constitutes freight traffic? — Necessity for the parcel department — Its traffic described — Parcel rates — Some of the reasons why the conduct of the business by companies organ- . Table of Contents. ix Page. ized for Ihe purpose is desirable — Some comparisons — Express vs. Railroad — Making collections — OfKcials must receipt for property — The working organization — Good faith between man and man an important element — Adequate time allowed for accounting — Agencies are of three classes — The duties of messengers — Parcel traffic way-bills — "Ex- pensing" (adjusting differences) — Season contracts — Station records and returns of express traffic — De- scription of the system in detail 214 BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. CHAPTER L- THE HIGHWAYS OP ANCIBKT AND MODBEN TIMES THE DURABILITY OP THE LATTER — HOW THEY ARE CONSTRUCTED — THE PERIOD OP EVOLUTION. Amidst all the ruin that has engulphed ancient Rome, the public highways constructed by her when in the plenitude of her power remain practically unimpaired, and are to-day enduring monuments of the stability of her improvements and the public spirit of her citizens. The mag- nificent tombs, rich in marble and statuary, wherein she laid her dead two thousand years ago, h^ve fallen to pieces, or have been rifled by successive generations of vandals. The palaces wherein her people lived, and the temples wherein they worshiped, have disappeared long centuries ago. Her public buildings and her playhouses have crumbled into ruins; the monuments erected by her in commemoration of her triumphs, and intended to carry down to the latest generations of mankind the story of her greatness, have been stolen, or lie stained and discolored beneath the accumulated debris 2 Baggage Car Traffic. of centuries of ignorance and- squalor. Man- kind may yet trace the magnificent proportions of her coliseum, while they recall the story of her wealth and the barbaric splendor of her f^tes, but the broken walls, and leaning pillars, assure us that it too is slowly receding into oblivion. Of all the great works of Rome her highways alone remain. Over these highways her armies marched ; along their hardened surfaces moved the vast caravans that supplied her population with food. All nations had, like Rome, great public highways. These highways, while they were inferior in construction to those of Rome, connected, nevertheless, as did hers, all the great cities and places of importance, commer- cial and military. These great military roads and commercial highways are no longer things of currqjit use or construction. Those that existed and were once the focus of bustling life and commercial activity have shrunken into cow-paths, or grass-grown avenues — play grounds for chil- dren : they no longer possess more than a neighborhood importance ; their uses have become purely local. In their place the Railway has sprung into existence ; the creatiire of a day, it permeates every nook and crevice of industry and profit, wrapping the globe in its Baggage Oar Traffic. 3 iron embrace, and causing the earth to tremble with the weight and speed of its moving trains. Two thousand years from now when the Railway has in its turn given "place to some- thing simpler or better, or when in the evolu- tions of time, civilization has again lapsed into barbarism, the habitant of that distant day will still traverse with wonder and awe the countless roadways and viaducts con- structed by the men of the nineteenth century. He will trace these arteries of civilization, over the deep morass, across the trackless desert, and through the impenetrable jungle ; he will follow them through the deep canons of rugged and inaccessible mountains and through pathways cut in solid rock; he will penetrate into the heart of mountains upon whose base perennial flowers bloom and upon whosp summits the snows of winter are ever present ; he will pursue the smoothly graded tracks as they wind in and about the mountain sides, slowly ascending until the topmost peak is reached and passed; he will follow them where broken stones and powdered brick will tell him of the existence of tunnels long since abandoned ; broken arches and slowly crumbling piers will mark the places where in ages past broad rivers and precipitous gorges have been crossed in safety by countless multitudes of people. 4 Baggage Car Traffic. The railroads that lie like countless seams upon the face of two great continents, with each year's use take deeper root in the soil, becoming with the weight of each succeeding train more compactly and indissolubly blended. Who can foretell their destiny? who can estimate their effect upon mankind? Now radiating from every important center, like scintillations of light, they promise with cheap- ened appliances and increased knowledge to become universal in their presence and use. How shall we compare the few great high- ways possessed by Rome with the thousands of miles of railroads already built and that will be built? The roads built by Rome were inde- structible : these promise to become equally endurable. Rome dug deep into the earth and built upwards with successive layers of stone and mortar, interspersed with fragments of pottery and broken brick cemented together : our process is more simple and for the time more economical. We commence above the surface of the ground, forcing the material required, by slow and imperceptible processes, deep into the bosom of the earth ; piling the enduring rock and coarser gravels, layer upon layer above the raised earth, we secure in time a roadbed hard as adamant. It is interesting to examine the process more in detail. Baggage Car Traffic. 5 In constructing the common form of road- bed for a Railway an embankment is first thrown up. The inequality of the surface sometimes requires that it should be higher, sometimes lower ; upon a perfectly flat country the embankment is at first only a few inches in height. This embankment answers several important purposes : it partially drains the track ; it admits of a perfectly level surface,- and it sejyes to hold each tie in its place, pro- tecting it at the same time from dampness. Upon this embankment the cross ties or sleepers are placed ; upon them in turn the iron is laid. To secure the requisite firmness the ties are partially imbedded in the soil. Now this soil, kneaded in nature's laboratory, and so rich in its productive capacity, is too compact to make a good roadbed ; not being sufficiently porous, the moisture is retained too long ; the tie lies in this soft loam as in a basin. The impinge- ment of the trains causes the surface of this basin to harden ; the water from the rains and the melting snow and ice lie in it as in a cup; the wooden tie absorbs the moisture, and absorbing it, rots ; besides this, and more important than aught else, the track becomes heavy, its cohesiveness is destroyed ; it no longer possesses sufiicient power of resistance to withstand the weight of the trains, and is eventually swallowed up in the soft loam 6 Baggage Car Traffic. as in a bed of quicksand. These defects are fatal except upon roads that are little used. To obviate them broken stone, coarse gravel, cinders and even sand are employed to ballast the track. This ballast is spread in copious layers over the whole surface of the road- bed ; it is made to slope outwards from the center, where it sometimes reaches two or three inches above the top of the tie. The ballast is forced underneath and round about- the ties, and for this purpose thin wedge-shaped tamp- ing bars made of iron and steel are used ; the water filters through this ballast, leaving the track dry, compact — elastic. But while it is important that the rain and melting snow and ice should without delaj-- be drained off from the surface of the track it is also quite as important that the bed upon which the gravel rests should likewise be freed from water. To permit this the earth embankment upon which the ballast is placed should be sufficiently high so that the water that oozes through the super- structure or ballast may in turn quickly flow (seep) out at the side of the raised earth. While the ballast we have described possesses perhaps little or no greater elasticity than com- mon black soil or loam, it is not so compact. Ballast made of broken stone is preferred; next in order comes coarse gravel and cinders. The finer qualities of gravel and sand do not Baggage Oar Traffic. 7 possess sufficient body ; it is important that the track should be held firmly in position, besides in dry weather the moving trains cause an impalpable powder, as insidious as the mists, torisefroma track constructed of fine gravel or sand ; this powder, this gritty substance called dust, permeates every thing ; it envelopes the locomotive ; it fills the cars ; it permeates all parts of the machinery ; it finds its way into the journal bearings, cutting and destroying them like the action of millions of revolving diamonds. In the Fall and Spring the action of the frost upon the track is peculiar ; as it freezes, the roadbed and its adjuncts are forced upwards, not uniformly but in some places more than in others ; as the frost disappears from the ground the bed recedes ; but as the bed recedes the ties become loosened from the ballast and remain nearer the . surface. In resuming its normal position the track retains to a certain 'extent the irregularities of surface we have noticed. To remedy these defects it becomes necessary from time to time to add new ballast, tamping it in carefully around the ties and leveling the surface as in the first instance. It is possible that in time a roadbed, thus con- structed, will become to all intents and purposes impervious to water, or so raised above the surrounding earth as to be quickly and effec- 8 Baggage Gar Traffic. tually freed of any water it may absorb. It will thus entirely escape the action of the frost. This road, having its base deep in the soil and cemented together by years of wear, will become hardened ; it will possess an elastic base ; but it will be freed from moisture. Such a track is as indestructible as the earth in. which it is imbedded and of which it is a part. And thus it is that as long as the world revolves, and the action of heat and cold are the same as to-day, these roadways that are being slowly and laboriously built up round about us will remain imperishable monuments of the men of the nineteenth century. To-day every thing connected with a Railroad, including its track, is in process of evolution. Its Organization and maintenance are in a state of transition ; the discoveries of to-day are dis- carded as worthless to-morrow ; the principles governing its business and essential to its life are but illy understood or carelessly regarded. The simplest laws of political economy when applied by it are looked upon as encroachments by the people ; the police regulations necessary to its protection are viewed with suspicion. Classes have repeatedly sought to confiscate it under guise of regulating its franchises, and adroit politicians have sought to bind it with laws cunningly framed. Baggage Oar Traffic. 9 The creation of yesterday, our railroads pos- sess neither history nor prestige. A necessity to the community, they have been made the plaything of aspiring politicians. No tradi- tions endear them, to the people. Giants in strength, they are held in check by the efforts of Lilipulian officers acting for the state. The spirit animating them is but little understood ; every thing about them is new. They employ hundreds of thousands of men, and millions of dollars are annually disbursed in constructing and operating them ; it is apparent they possess great power. How will this power be exer- cised ? The people, already misled, are apt to conjecture the worst. The extent of a railway company's power and its use is unknown ; like every thing that is unknown, it is feared. It was necessary to the accomplishment of certain sinister purposes that this fear, at first faint and indefinite, should in certain sections of the United States be assiduously cultivated and extended. In time it was succeeded by hate. Political adven- turers made use of this hatred to prey upon the railway companies, while appearing to serve the community. That their depredations have been restricted to a few localities, we owe to the general good sense of the people and the conservatism of their rulers. 10 Baggage Car Traffic. It is safe to determine that the beneficent purposes which our railroads are accomplishing will in time rescue them from political para- sites who seek to use them for purposes of self aggrandizement. Baggage Car Traffic. 11 CHAPTER II. THE HOSPITALITY OP A RAILROAD COMPANY. If, as we have shown in the preceding chapter, a railway company is sometimes the innocent cause of much nnnecessary uneasiness, it is also, once in a while, the occasion of much genuine pleasure to those so lucky as to be the recipients of its hospitality. What attention is there that is more insidi- ous than that of a great corporation ? It adds much to the value of a railway com- pany's hospitality, that it is an event of rare occurrence. And besides, enjoyments that are participated in only by the few, are, queerly enough, held in especial favor. Favors of this kind contribute a delight that nothing that is base or popular can. No one that has enjoyed the hospitality of a railway company can forget its pleasures. THE SPECIAL TRAIN — THE EXCURSION. Who can resist the circumstance and pomp of a special train, with its luxurious cars and its attentive waiters ? The delights of such a train, with its attendant excitement, its anima- 12 Baggage Car Traffic. tion and social enjoyments, are things that do not readily pass from the memory. Long after- wards we recall with delight its pleasures and its peculiarities. We remember that many things impressed us as strange, that we had never noticed before. We remember the wait- ing crowds at each succeeding depot, as the train plunged past the station platform with a rush and a roar, that made the dead leaves and the bits of paper dance and skip like boys playing at leap-frog. We remember the staid old switchmen, standing at their posts as the special flew by. We remember the bustle among the trainmen, waiting on the various sidings ; the engineer leaning out of his cab ; the fireman standing by ; the conductor signal- ing to go ahead. As we disappear in the distance, we see the trains pulling out from the stations and side-tracks; the business we had delayed for a moment is everywhere resuming its accustomed course. We remember the sun- burnt faces and old-fashioned costumes of the trackmen, as they stand aside in clusters, here and there, along the line. THE OFFICIALS ON BOARD. We have not forgotten the officials on board. We remember the look of settled gloom with which they regard the track from the rear car ; how intensely they gaze backward at the Baggage Car Traffic. 13 bridges and little culverts, as if they expected to see them detach themselves from their fast- enings, and set out in hot pursuit after the flying train. We watch them again as they point with languid interest at the growing crops. We hear them talking in monosyllables about the coming rush of business. This antic- ipated avalanche, we remember, causes them to shrug their shoulders and laugh lightly, as if it was extremely probable that they should be crushed under its weight, but no matter. We remember the look of settled melancholy upon their faces as they pass through the cars, a look of responsibility that hinted at impending dangers, a look such as an old captain might wear upon a dark and troubled night, upon an unknown coast. We remember the many secret conferences held by them in unfre- quented parts of the car ; the reams of paper that were consumed in communications hastily written and hurriedly consulted over and — eventually destroyed ; the mysterious bits of paper which a junior official wildly flung from the train from time to time as stations were reached and passed. We remember how ab- ruptly each official addressed those that were subordinate to him ; and how deferentially he in turn approached those that were superior to him. We remember the careworn expression, the look of anxiety — almost of imbecility — 14 Baggage Oar Traffic. upon the faces of the younger officers, as if they would like to get away from their supe- riors for a while and have a quiet time of it in the baggage or smoking car. And the con- ductor! he whom we had all our lives been accustomed to see coming and going with stately freedom and regularity, where was he? We found him, towards night, in a shrunken and disheveled condition, on the engine, talking in a feeble and disjointed way with the driver. More fortunate than the youngsters on board, he had fled to the engine. Whenever we stopped to take on a fresh supply of fuel or water, I remember that one high official, with enormous hands and crooked legs of great strength and thickness, would rush wildly into the depot, look hastily around with clouded brow and eagle eye, and then hurriedly return to the train platform, from whence he would converse in sharp, disjointed sentences with the obsequious agent. Other officials would care- fully scan the water-house, walking around it and prying into it as if they thought seriously of taking it down then and there and moving it a few feet further on. But we can not tell half nor quarter of the many delightful things we saw, but we love to remember them and grow garrulous over them •upon occasion. All of us have been upon, at least, one great excursion, or, if we have not, Baggaga Qdr Traffic. 15 some dear friend, more fortunate than we, will describe, with slight urging, every thing that occurred upon that eventful occasion, not for- getting what the Great Man said in his presence, and what He said in reply. THE BUSINESS OAE. A prominent railway official or manager has, in his day, what the multitude would call many excursions. " When upon business of his com- pany, he has his engine and his special car, and travels with the speed and directness of the wind. When worn out with the monotony and drudgery of office work, he throws himself into his car and in an instant is whirled away into the pure air and sleepy quiet of the country. His business car is his fortress ; it is as snug and cozy as a lady's boudoir ; it has a comfort- able' saloon, a soft carpet, and plenty of easy chairs scattered here and there ; these chairs suggest comfort and a good cigar after dinner. A cozy table in the center hints at whist or pedro after supper, when business is over, and the car is whirling along through the country, or laid up for the night in some quiet inland town. The manager does not travel alone, he is usually accompanied by certain officers of his staff. These officers inquire carefully into the needs of their several departments, as they move over the line ; in this way they are 16 Baggage Car Traffic. kept more fully advised of the wants of the company than they could be in any other way. After these excursions into the country, the officers return to their desks, refreshed and invigorated as from a vacation ; many important matters, requiring the personal direction of the responsible officers, have been attended to ; business has everywhere been accelerated ; the officials have become better acquainted with the property ; their ability to work has been increased by what they have observed; and, finally, their strength has been increased and prolonged by the rest they have had. THE BAGGAGE CAR AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. The baggage car is not attractively furnished. It contains, perhaps, two or three comfortable chairs, -that is all. It is plain, even homely. Its corrugated roof is mellow with time and tobacco smoke. The upright bars and heavy braces along its sides indicate strength, but do not add to its attractiveness. Red and white signals are hung here and there ready for use. The floor of the car is kept free from dust ; but it is not always clean. The traditional female with scrub-brush and bucket is seldom seen here. But no matter, association here, as else- where, has endeared all these things to us, even the rough brown floor. We find ourselves tak- ing a friendly interest in the water-cans stand- Baggage Car Traffic. 17 ing in the corner. We are fully inclined to trust in the efficacy of the horse-shoes nailed over the door, and hanging loosely upon pegs here and there ; evidently no ill-fortune can betide a car so guarded. We have counted the pigeon-holes, nailed up by the door, many times. We know, for instance, just how many checks there are in that bunch hanging in the corner. We know that that old rusty stove, so cheerful in Winter, and so morose and silent in Sum- mer, has never been blacked since it was put up, when we were younger, and the car was fresher and brighter, many years ago. We know it has worn out many coal boxes and shovels in its day, and will wear out many more, before it finally finds its way to the junk shop. We have taken many sly peeps into the newsboy's storehouse, sitting away off there in the corner, dark and mysterious ; to us it looks like the weather-beaten chest of some provident old salt, who has made many voyages in his time, and knows the value of oaken plank and paint and iron, and heavy padlocks. Every thing in the car and about it interests us. We have even pored over the Rules and Regula- tions, and tried hard to understand them. They are very long, and very carefully worded, and very definite about every thing. They look crisp and cheery hanging there on the side of the car ; but we always come away from their 18 Baggage Car Traffic. perusal impressed with the great number of things that the baggageman must do or must not do, under the threat, dire and significant, of instant dismissal, if he disobeys. Our sym- pathies have secretly been with the baggage- man in this unequal struggle with Power, and we have many times watched him with curious interest, to see if some outward convulsion of nature did not rack his frame when passing near these portentous rules ; but no, like a patient long habituated to the use of an abhorred poison, their presence no longer dis- turbs him. A cozy chair in the baggage car ! in it there is freedom, abandon ; here one observes many things, while free to cogitate, to smoke, to dream ; here the casual acquaintance or the bore can not come ; we see him in the distance ; we hear him rattle at the door ; he calls, but we heed him not; the rules are inexorable. Here we idly watch the baggageman busy with his affairs. Through the wide-open doors, on either side of the car, we see the waving fields, the lowing herds, the quiet towns, the belated passengers hastening to the depot; nothing escapes us. Admittance to the baggage car is much sought after by many widely different people. The official who wishes to seclude himself ; the patron who wishes to be on good terms with Baggage Car Traffic. 19 the boys ; the rollicking young blades of the country who look upon a baggage car as a snob does upon a box at the opera — all these knock at its friendly doors. Many trainmen seek it because of its comfortable and home-like appearance ; in it they feel easy, and in sedate and friendly chat with the baggageman they while away the time with great pleasure to each other. We tilt our chair contentedly back against a friendly post and watch the trunks as they come tumbling end over end inio the car; many of them we have seen before, and we at once take them into our confidence as old friends. The most of them have a grim and battered look like hardened soldiers, veterans of many a bitter encounter. Some of them are just starting out in life, prim and glossy with varnish and bright with new buckles and with polished plates. These, the voyagers of a day, present themselves to the baggageman with all the con- fidence and the freshness of the innocent and the inexperienced ; we contemplate their subse- quent history, the many surprises in store for them, with sadness. But it is amongst the old and shattered trunks, creaky with time and hard usage, that we recognize our friends. Life's roughest storms have swept over them and left them warped and battered and worn. All the sharp corners and the stiffness that was the occasion of so much discomfort to them when 20 Baggage Car Traffic. they first presented themselves before the baggageman years ago, vanished long since. They come into the car with a wheeze and a creak as if deprecating the unnecessary rude- ness with which they are handled ; but the baggageman has other things to think of as he deftly catches them up and drags them swiftly away, and, as we watch them, they seem to settle themselves down in the places assigned them, snugly and contentedly, like the old voyagers they are. We often catch ourselves speculating as to the owners of these trunks. Who are they ? What do they do ? Where do they live ? How old are they? Are they married? Some of the owners we know. Now it may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that there are many points of similarity between a trunk and its owner. That trunk over there, for instance, so carefully covered and strapped and ad- dressed ! That belongs to a precise person, who does every thing at the proper time and place. Now we feel certain that the person who owns that trunk never has any notes go to protest, never asks any indulgences. We would not hesitate a moment to lend such a person a hundred dollars, if they asked it, but they wouldn't ask it. The owner is probably a woman, maybe a man, but if it is, his digestion is impaired, or his lungs are affected. Who- Baggage Car Traffic. 21 ever the person may be, one tiling is certain, their daily life is without a blemish. They have no little weaknesses that they can not overcome. No moments when it is hard to be good. No lingering reluctance to leave a good dinner, a pleasant little party. No thought of counting a hundred, and then two hundred, perhaps a thousand, before turning out in the morning. No ! nothing of the kind, they haven't the time, and besides why should they ? With them life is a terrible reality and all who can not, or will not, keep up with the colors should be taken out at daylight and summarily shot as deserters. Nevertheless, these are the people who keep the world in motion, feed its poor, build and support its hospitals, endow its universities. The improvident, the good natured, and the clever would be glad to do all these things, but they never do ; their hearty appetites leave them nothing to divide. That little old trunk over there with a sly look of discretion and responsibility about it ! That belongs to a lad who is going to a far-off city to commence the great struggle alone. We saw him get on at a station a few mUes back ; there was no mother there, we noticed, to bid him good bye, and to watch the car that bore her boy away. No father — no one but a few boys who were loitering about the depot. He is going to live with an uncle ; this uncle is 22 Baggage Car Traffic. a kind but irascible old man; the boy will not stay with him long, but will drift out alone into the world. He will not go to the bad, no proud man ever did. He will succeed, because there is disgrace in failure. If he had a kind- hearted old mother to coddle' and excuse him, it would, perhaps, be a long while before he suc- ceeded, but as it is, he will succeed from the first. That old trunk over there with a shrunken top like a grave that has partly fallen in ! We have not seen it since its owner started out in life years ago, young and vigorous and full of lofty aspirations. He is on the train to-day coming home, not to gain new life, but to die ; coming home to die where his last look may linger upon the scenes hallowed by the recollec- tions of childhood ; he has broken down in the race. The acquaintances and associates in the great world he has left will talk about him for a while ; will tell each other of his many good qualities ; his many acts of kindness, the bright prospect that lay before him, and then the space he occupied in the world will be closed, and thej'c will fall upon him, and his memory and his acts, the great silence of eternity. That brand new, wide-awake, roomy trunk there in the corner belongs to a thrifty mer- chant in a bustling little town further up the line. It is full of chintzes and calicoes and Baggage Car Traffic. 23 delaines. By and by these goods will make their appearance upon the merchant's counter, and when he is asked to. put a price upon them, he will deplore with tremulous voice the exces- sive rates that make them so dear to the con- sumer. The trunk itself he will sell. We notice he has had it cheeked free as personal baggage, but that was doubtless only intended as a little bit of pleasantry upon his part ; for we have often heard him inveigh bitterly against the discriminations exercised by the railroads in favor of trade centers and heavy shippers ; indeed he esteems their honesty but lightly, and loves to talk about them as grinding monopolies. That long trunk there tied with a rope, that belongs to a farmer. There "are many attrac- tive things about farm life ; I remember that I used to be a farmer when a boy. My teeth chatter and my feet grow cold even now when I think of it ; I remember that I used to get up at four o'clock in the morning and build a fire with green cottonwood in a cracked cook stove that stood in a corner; aftelrwards I used to break the ice in the water bucket and fill the tea- kettle, and put the potatoes on to boil ; after that I went out into the icy night air with a per- forated tin lantern, greasy with tallow and black with smoke, to milk the cows, and feed the horses and the cattle and the hogs. It seems to me my days were all spent in the open fields 24 Baggage Car Traffic. digging potatoes or picking corn. I remember that my hands were always very dirty, and very cold, 'and very numb, and that I used to blow them a great deal to keep them warm. I re- member that I got home at dark and fed the stock and bedded the horses, after which I went to bed in a cold room and dreamed that I was a cripple, and sat in a corner all day long by a stove that was always red hot. There are many attractive things about farm life, doubtless, but if so, they were never experienced by the writer. Baggage Car Tra^c. 25 CHAPTER III. THE TEAINBOY: WHAT HE IS AND WHAT HE DOES. Upon many roads the trainboy is known amongst his associates as The Butcher. This title, given in derision, indicates the san- guinary propensities of his character. Without being quarrelsome lie loves strife ; the excite- ment and the danger appeal to his imagination ; there is a directness and a simplicity about a fight that inexpressibly charm him. It is his courage and his manliness that separate him from the idle and the vicious. The trainboy is not confiding ; his experiences teach him to be wary ; he is habitually distrust- ful. We have observed him with curious inter- est lock and unlock his storehouse many hun- dreds of times a day ; he trusts nothing to chance, but keeps every thing locked. The trainboy, or news agent, is sometimes employed by the railway company. In such cases he usually receives for his services a cer- tain percentage of his sales ; this commission varies^for different articles and classes of goods. Sometimes the privilege of peddling upon the trains and in the depots is purchased outright of 26 Baggage Oar Traffic. the company. In such cases the contractors establish depots of supplies. From these depots the trainboys are furnished what they need. The wants of the different trains are not the same. The requirements of the suburban or accommodation trains are exceedingly simple ; they are restricted to the daily papers, a meager assortment of cigars, and, in some cases other articles, such as fruit, are added. The profits are small, and the sales at best precarious ; the lines of the suburban newsboy are not laid in pleasant places. The express or mail trainboy occupies the same relation to the suburban boy, that the wholesale merchant does to the huckster or retail trader. The express and mail trainboy has a broader field ; he carries a comparatively large stock of goods; the stock is replenished from day to day ; the goods are carefully selected ; the supply of fruit, cheap cigars and indifferent literature is inexhaustible. The gains of the express trainboy are considerable ; he occasionally suffers losses; these losses brighten him up ; he experiences from day to day, in an acute sense, all the anxieties and per- plexities of the man of affairs. This boy carries a watch, and calls people indifferently by their last name. He hopes in time to become a brake- man — perhaps a conductor.^ I. Sotnetimas the news agent is no longer a boy. He is a man seeking liis living with the sobriety and industry that Baggage Oar Traffic. 27 The trainboy has many peculiarities. If he has occasioa to speak of an oificer of the road he articulates his name in full, not forgetting his initials and his titles. He does not dp this lightly and frivolously, but slowly and methodi- cally, as if talking in his sle"ep or reading from a printed poster. In conversation he speaks, habitually, of the property as " our " road. Sometimes the trainboys contract directly with the railway company for the privileges they enjoy. However expedient such a system may be, it is not always practicable. The boys frequently can not furnish the requisite security. The golden habits of business that come only with age and experience the boys do not pos- sess, hence a railroad company must farm out the business, supplying the stores itself, or it must contract upon the best terms possible with responsible parties. The latter course is the one most usually adopted. Sometimes the trainboy receives for his services, from the contractor, a certain percentage of his sales. This per- centage varies with the character and product- iveness of the train he works. In some cases he purchases outright, of the contractor, the privilege of working a particular train. As a rule this right is only sold for the more* unpro- ductive trains. characterize men in other callings in life. With these this sketch has nothing to do ; we are speaking of the trainboy as we knew him, when we traveled more, years ago. 28 . Baggage Car Traffic. The newsboy is frequently a valuable aux- iliary to the train force in expelling from the cars drunken and lawless passengers. He delights in incidents of this character in his daily life.- The trainboy is not destitute of pride ; he loves to be called The News Agent. A title has a peculiar fascin9,tion for a railway man ; it animates and absorbs him. If it is indefinite, good ; if it is sonorous, so much the better. A string of titles adorns him like precious jewels or gorgeous raiment. Pride and ambition animate every grade of the service ; the youthful subordinate, without title or position, yet loves to speak of himself sententiously as Mr. So and So of the Great North Eastern ; thus is he elevated and rescued from obscurity. When not otherwise engaged the newsboy indulges in much aimless chat with his com- panion, the baggageman. He has withal an eye for the beautiful, and carries on many sly flirtations with the rustic maidens along the route ; to all he is inconstant ; he can not afford to marry, besides Ke is too young. Many, times a day he counts over his sales and figures up his profits ; his system of bookkeeping is very simple. While his receipts are meager, his wants are boundless. It is the duty of the trainboy to see that the passengers are supplied with drinking water. Baggage Car Traffic. 29 This he carries through the cars offering it to the occupants of each seat. The service is gratuitous. During its performance, however, he is enabled to carefully study the peculiarities of his passengers. . The more amiable characteristics of the train- boy are but little understood ; it is only the uneducated traveler that looks upon him as a friend. Tp him the trainboy unbends; he sells him various articles which he does not want ; receiving therefor exorbitant prices. For these concessions the trainboy gives him in return ma.ny valuable hints ; he answers all his silly questions ; he explains to him his route, his stopping places, the prices he should pay, the people he must avoid. Armed at all points, the unsophisticated traveler pursues his way; to him the trainboy is a guide, philosopher, and friend. But the world at large is not friendly to the newsboy; to them he is passS ; they endeavor not to see him as he passes through the car cheerfully crying his wares ; they gaze out of the window ; they look at the ceiling ; the lines about their mouths harden, the lips become rigid, the body remains motionless ; they refuse to answer his inquiries ; they ignore him. This indifference, this palpable aversion, does not disturb him ; he pursues his way and bides his time. 30 Baggage Oar Traffic. In the course of a few hours' ride he appears and disappears many hundreds of times. Whence comes he ? whither does he go ? from out what capacious reservoir draws he his supplies ? The trainboy has his base in the baggage car. Here, amid the labyrinth of trunks, band-, boxes, and carpet bags, he has his storehouse ; this is his den ; in it he carefully arranges his wares and takes account of his resources ; here he plans his campaign against his enemies, the passengers ; it is here that he sets his traps for them and artfully digs the pitfalls into which they ultimately fall. The resources of the trainboy are illimitable, his confidence in himself is unbounded. He does not ask advice. He has no confederate''. Sometimes he talks over his plans, but in the execution of them he acts alone. From his den he early sallies forth with water pot or newspaper to study and classify his passengers; he looks upon them as his, absolutely. While the thirsty traveler grate- fully accepts the proffered cup of water the newsboy, with outward unconcern, secretly seeks to fathom his weakness. Sometimes the trainboy has the air of a cadet of good connections, or presents a dapper-like appearance that utterly deceives us as to his calling. The pretty girls are frequently the weakness and the destruction of this boy. To Baggage Oar Traffic. 31 appear well with them he spends his earnings for expensive raiment, unctuous pomades and choicest confection ; with him trade is mechan- ical and life but a fitful dream. But the newsboy we know possesses little in common with this exotic ; he is restless, gaunt, hoUow-ej'ed, he has a sallow complexion, and lank hair that grows well down towards his eyes ; his head projects well back and his eyes are on a line with the tip of his ears ; his feet present a surface of resistance out of all proportion to the thin and weakly legs to which they are attached. There lingers about this unequally developed and growing boy an ever present odor of tobacco. This fragrant weed charms and intoxicates him. Enveloped in its smoke he forgets his isolation and his misery ; he dreams of better associations and a higher life ; an exalted ideal animates him for the moment. Our trainboy is dependent wholly upon him- self, youthful, illiterate, abused, he looks upon the world as his enemy ; in his encounters with it his weapons are his wits and his impenetrable assurance. He is the embodiment of shrewdness, the incarnation of activity. Society refuses to adopt him; it fails to recognize any special reason why he should live ; its ridicule excites his animosities. The society that ignores him he pursues. 32 Baggage Car Traffic. Instances are not of rare occurrence where the trainboy by his industry, his shrewdness, and careful economy, has accumulated a little fortune of four or five thousand dollars. Many avenues are open to him outside of his regular business in which to trade and dicker. There is no reason why the petty position of trainboy should not in this country be the preparatory school to a life of influence and wealth ; it inculcates habits of independence and self-reliance, so essential to the man of business; the incumbent must account promptly and fully for the goods intrusted to him ; he handles considerable money and early learns to know its value. He is a merchant in a small way ; his credit is his capital. This credit is strengthened or destroyed precisely as the credit of the great merchant is strengthened or destroyed. He learns to discern the little wants of the traveling public and his necessities teach him how to make those wants conti-ibute some- thing to his slender purse. The foundations of great fortunes are often laid in ways quite as humble and by means of transactions quite as petty as those we have described. Baggage Oar Traffic. CHAPTER IV. THE TRAIN BAGGAGEMAN. SOMETHING ABOUT HIS DUTIES: HIS REPUTATION ABROAD: HIS PECULIARITIES. Here in the baggage car we discover the train baggageman ; this is his field ; here he reigns; genial withal he is much maligned; courted by the multitude, he is secretly feared by many; numbering Ms admirers by scores he counts his enemies by millions. The duties of the train baggageman are quite important ; they are some times arduous-. He must be correct in transcribing figures. It is his duty to make a record of each check and parcel carried ; he must arrange and assort the baggage so as to economize space ; it must also be arranged so as to facilitate its rapid delivery. The preservation of the baggage from harm occupies his thoughts. His experience teaches him to place the light and unstable articles at the top, the heavy pieces at the bottom ; as this plan is the easiest its fulfillment follows as a matter of course. The baggage transported by express and mail trains is very great ; the delivery of each article at its proper destination and at the proper time, therefore, requires both accuracy 3 34 Baggage Car Traffic. and attentiveness ; these qualities the baggage- man possesses. The baggageman is a semi-mail agent; he distributes with faithful care the voluminous correspondence of the Company between officials located at different points on the line ; the myriads of reports, statements and accounts reach the headquarters of the Company through his hands. He handles each letter as if it was registered and contained money ; of course this is not always so, but there are exceptions to every rule. The train baggageman is usually promoted to the place from the position of brakeman. Upon many lines the acceptance of the position of baggageman practically excludes the person from all hopes of ultimate promotion to the im- portant office of conductor. There are, of course, many men acting as bag- gagemen who are in every respect competent to fill the place of conductor, but the fact that as a class they are excluded from that position by railway managers is, perhaps, sufficient evidence of the propriety of such a course. Many witty as well as many absurd things are told about the baggageman. His enemies accuse him of a want of politeness ; they say that he is reckless and indifferent ; certain it is his destructive propensities have long since become proverbial. Baggage Gar Traffic. • 35 His traducers tell us, in effect, that devasta- tion marks his route through life and that his pathway is strewn with the fragments of trunks wantonly destroyed ; that the sight of a weakly or decrepit piece of baggage excites him to mad- ness ; his eyes shining at such times with a pro- longed and unnatural luster, his aspect in other respects being repellant in the extreme. While consumed with this delirium his dexterity is said to be marvelous and his strength prodigious. Gigantic pieces of luggage are caught up by him high in ajr, and precipitated with incredible velocity against impassive obstacles ; articles are hurled into their allotted place with a vehemence that is as destructive as it is appall- ing ; in fact that baggage is crushed and other- wise wrecked by him at such times in pure wantonness. "We are not prepared to give credence to these statements ; they bear unmistakable evi- dence of exaggeration and are, consequently, unreliable. The railway world recognizes the baggage- man as amenable to the same influences that govern his fellows. All the natural impulses of the man are good ; it is his disposition to be amiable. In his intercourse with his asso- ciates we find him especially friendly. He seems well disposed towards the world at large. He, however, resents at all times, and everywhere 36 ' Baggage Gar Traffic. (except in the presence of his superiors) every effort that is made by passengers or others to fill his car with excessively bulky articles, or articles that do not properly come under the head of baggage. Now it is the constant disposition of the public, to cover articles of the last mentioned description into the baggage car. Especially is this so with suburban residents. Against this disposition the baggageman at once arrays him- self. It is his nature to-do so. Upon this issue he boldly antagonizes the public. Now the public desire the good will of the baggageman above all. things else, but while endeavoring to placate him they still seek by surreptitious and other means, to convey into his car the articles he abhors. We do not wish to be understood as saying that the baggageman objects to small and com- pactly arranged parcels of a miscellaneous char- acter ; on the contrary, he is quick to acquit the owners of such articles of any sinister intention to abuse the confidence of the company or the good nature of the baggageman. So true is this that we frequently find him in good natured and friendly chat with the owners of such parcels, but he resents as a gross and inexcusable outrage, the attempts that are made to fill his car with articles that should never seek conveyance except by freight trains. Cooking stoves, baby carriages, clothes horses, gigantic Baggage Oar Traffic. 37 trunks, barrels of flour, chicken coops, onions, window sashes, step ladders, dried mackerel, flower stands, and similar articles, are not, nor ever were, repulsive to him in the abstract, on the contrary, he recognizes them in their way as eminently useful and respectable articles. All or many of them are used in his own home ; but when, amidst the roar of the engine, the ringing of bells, the crying of numbers, and the general hurry and confusion of loading and unloading, articles such as we have named meet his troubled gaze, he freely confesses that the im- propriety of their presence in a baggage car so appeals to his weak understanding that a species of insanity sometimes takes complete possession of him ; for his acts at such times, he ■ can not and ought not to be held accountable. It is undoubtedly true that the feeling upon upon the part of the baggageman that we have described is largely attributable to a belief upon his part, that his Company, in the cases men- tioned, is not receiving its just dues. Once let him feel that order, and method, and fair deal- ings characterize the traffic that is carried in his car, and no more faithful and painstaking official can be found anywhere. Who can doubt this that has noticed the tender care, the artlessness, and the unceasing solicitude he dis- plays in watching over a dog, or an article of a personal nature that he has been privately 38 Baggage Oar Traffic. feed for taking charge of ? At such times we discover him at his best, and we feel that a proper understanding is all that is required to make him equally particular with every article of property intrusted to his care. Baggage Oar Traffic. 39 CHAPTER V. WHAT CONSTITUTES BAGGAGE? Upon all railway lines the passenger is entitled by common consent, or the law of the state, to have a'certain amount of baggage transported without charge. Of what does this baggage con- sist ? What is meant by the word baggage ? No statutory enactments in the United States answer these questions, and the decisions of the courts, partaking of the eccentricities or biases of the judges, are not uniform or definite in their interpretation of what constitutes the bag- gage of a passenger on a railway. , While the aggregate sense of these decisions can not, perhaps, be accepted as finally disposing of the subject, their examination is none the less interesting and instructive. The general effect of the decisions referred to is favorable to the passenger. This is not surprising. It seems to be their intent to declare that baggage con- sists of the wearing apparel of passengers, the articles of a purely personal character to which they are habituated,^ their' clothing, the articles I. "The quantity and character of baggage must depend much upon the condition in life of the traveler, his calling, habits, tastes, the length or shortness of his journey and whether he travels alone or with a family." — Dibble v. Brown, 12 Ga., 226. See also putchings v. Western, &c., 25 Ga., 64. " Such apparel and other articles necessary for a person's 40 Baggage Gar Traffic. necessary to the daily comfort of their bodies and minds, the books they wish to read, the money necessary to pay their current expenses,^ the weapons required for their protection,^ the jewelry commonly worn by them, and the watches they carry. It consists of the common articles of wearing apparel belonging to the children of passengers, although no fare is charged by the railway company for such chil- dren. The trunk or case in which the baggage of a passenger is enclosed is also esteemed as part and parcel of such baggage. One learned judge has declared that the poor man is entitled to have his mattress, with the accompanying blanket and pillow, franked by the railway company.^ Another judge of great research and acumen, doubtless, has intimated that the gun and fishing tackle of the hunter* ought, in comfort and convenience whilst away from home, with the nec- essary sum of money for his expenses. This usually constitutes tiaggage, and both parties so understand it, when it is received by the company." —Cin. &•(., v. Marcus, 38 ///., 223. 1. " It must be fully understood that money can not be con- sidered as baggage, except such as is bona fide taken for trav- eling expense, and personal use; and to such reasonable amount, only as a prudent person would deem necessary and proper for such purpose." — Judson v. Fall R. R. R. 5 Cush. Mass., 74. 2. " A revolver is included as personal baggage." — Davis v Mich. Southern &• N. Ind. R. R. Co., 22 ///. 278. 3. " A bed, pillows, bolster and bedquilts belonging to a poor man, who is moving with his wife and family, may properly be called baggage." — Ouimit v. Henshaw, 35 Vt., 622. 4. " I do not intend to say that tte articles must be such as every man deems essential to his comfort ; for some men may carry nothing or very little with them, others consult their con- Baggage Car Traffic. 41 justice, to be franked. Without being specific on the point, it is evident that the decision is intended to embrace, incidentally, the hunter's accoutrements, including his dog. Upon many- lines the gun and dog are good'naturedly accepted and passed without charge, but the right of the passenger to have them passed free is not admitted. This is undoubtedly contrary to the just intent and spirit of the decision of the erudite judge we have just quoted. In Europe a fixed charge is made for transporting dogs, whether belonging to passengers or other- wise.^ There seems to be no reason whatever, venience by carying many things. Nor do I mean to say that the rule is confined to wearing apparel, brushes, razor, writing apparatus, and .the like, which most persons deem indispen- sable. If one has books for his instruction or amusement ; car- ries a gun or fishing tackle, they would undoubtedly fall within the term baggage, because they are usually carried as such. " Samples of merchandise are not baggage within the com- mon acceptation of the term." — Hawkins v. Hoffman, 6 Hill, N. V. sgo. I. "Dogs. — Not exceeding lo miles $0 o6 each. Above 10 miles and not exceeding 20 miles, o 12 " 20 30 40 8o 100 13° 150 200 250 30 40 80 100 130 150 200 250 300 18 25 37 50 62 75 00 25 50 Increasing at the rate of 12c for each additional 50 miles, or part of 50 miles. "Dogs are not allowed to be taken into the company's carriages, but will be tied up in the van. No dog is allowed to go except when secured by a chain or collar, or safely packed in a basket, or crate. The charge for carriage of dogs, the 42 Baggage Car Traffic. why a railway company should carry a dog free. It might, with equal propriety, be asked to trans- port saddle horses without charge. WHAT CONSTITUTES BAGGAGE IN OTHER COUNTEIES. Passengers are subjected to the same restric- tions practically in Great Britain that they are in the United States,' but in France it is property of passengers traveling by the same train, must, in all cases, be ^Te^aXA." — Regulations Midland Railway of England, jfanuary, 1878. " Dogs and other animals will not be suffered to accompany passengers in the carriages, but will be conveyed separately and charged for." — Regulations London &' North- Western Ry., England, December, 1876. " The company are not and will not be common carriers of dogs, nor will they receive dogs for conveyance, except on the terms that they shall notte responsible for any greater amount of damages for the loss therefor or injury thereto, beyond the sum of $10, unless a higher value be declared at the time of delivery to the company, and a percentage ot 25 per cent, paid upon the excess of value beyond the $10 so declared."' — IHd. Note. — Here and elsewhere in quoting from foreign author- ities the rates are reduced, when practicable, to United States currency. I. •• A commercial traveler took a ticket at Leeds for Mac- clesfield, but when he had got as fir as Staleybridge he discov- ered that the case containing samples of cloth was missing. The consequence was that he was delayed at Macclesfield one day and two nights, sustaining loss by the delay, of course being unable, without samples, to transact business. The judge of the county court decided that the London & North- western Railway Company could not be called upon to give compensation, because the samples were merchandise, and no notice having been given to the company, there was no con- tract to carry. For this view of the law the judge was able to cite the eminent authority of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, the late Mr. Justice Willes, Mr. Justice Lush, and the late Chief Justice Erie. Mr. Justice Willes ruled positively that Baggage Car Traffic. 43 tacitly admitted that a traveler may take with him, as baggage, any kind of article or thing that he chooses, except inflammable or explosive matter, carriages, live stock, dr valuables, such as bonds, stocks, coin (except for use), valuable papers, etc., the charge for such articles being regulated by law. In connection with what constitutes baggage, a prominent railway manager of Ireland,^ writes : " Passengers' luggage, according to our statutes and the decisions of our courts, consists of what passengers may, according to their station in life, require to bring with them in the way of clothing, such as would be necessary for their daily wants. This will also include jewelry to a certain amount, such as would be worn or carried by persons according to their social position."^ ' the passenger paying the fare for his ticket must be taken according to common sense and ordinary experience, to con- tract for himself and his ordinary personal luggage, and that such contract can no more extend to any thing beyond the ordinary personal luggage than it can be extended to a man's entire worldly possessions.' Chief Justice Erie held, in a case tried a few years since, that documents and bank notes taken on a journey by an attorney, to be used at a trial at a. county court, were not ordinary luggage, and that the carrier was not liable for their loss. So we may, we suppose, take it as settled, in the^present state of the law, that ' the term personal luggage is confined to that which is personal to the passenger, and carried for his own use and convenience, and that what is carried for the purpose of business does not come within the description of ordinary luggage, unless accepted as such by the carrier.' " — The Railway Service Gazette, England. 1. Geo. Edwr. llbery. 2. " We understand baggage to be clothes for personal use, excepting * * * the baggage of others, which latter is subject to a higher tariff." — Roman Railway, 44 Baggage Car Traffic. In Austria baggage may be said to comprise what a passenger needs for his private, use, con- tained in trunks, valises, portmanteaus, satchels, hat-boxes, small cases, etc. ; all larger boxes and kegs (when done up in a mercantile way), and all articles not destined for the special use of the traveler, may be taken as baggage excep- tionally, but passengers are not allowed to carry as baggage, under any circumstances, articles especially restricted by the regulations, such as mail matter, documents, precious stones, pearls, jewelry, gold, silver, explosives, etc.^ "The dogs of passengers must be forwarded in separate cars, and the charges must be paid in advance. After arrival at destination the dogs must forthwith be taken care of by shipper, the company not being responsible for them after their arrival at destination."*' The regulations of the Spanish roads compel them to accept as baggage about every thing required for the convenience or comfort of the passenger. The list is unique. The director of a prominent road in Spain* defines baggage 1. "Any party shipping goods, under a false declaration, which are excluded from forwarding or only taken condition- ally, must pay a fine, besides the one stipulated by the police regulation or penal law, of six florins for each kilogramme of such freight shipped or delivered for shipment. This fine can be collected either from the shipper or receiver." — Ausirian Service, 1877. 2. Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. 3. Compania de los ferro carriles de Madrid. A. Zoragora Y. A. Alicante. Baggage Car Traffic, 45 as " articles such as wearing apparel, dressiag clothes for the use of the passenger, tools of his art or trade, objects used to protect the passenger from inclement weather, camp or cot bedsteads, books used by passenger, articles of a proper character enclosed in trunks, cases, mattresses, arquiUas, baskets, hats, carpet bags, sacks, pillows, handkerchiefs, and other objects used as a cover or wrapper." WHY SHOULD BAGaAGE BE TBANSPOKTED ■WITHOUT EXTRA CHARGE? The question as to what legally constitutes baggage being partially answered, many other inquiries naturally occur in connection with the subject. That no charge shall be made for baggage unless it exceeds a reasonable amount, is well understood in the United States. The practice is fixed by law^ and common I " When a person pays for his passage over the road, both parties understand that it includes payment for his baggage, not exceeding li special weight." — Cin. Sr' C. Ji. R. Co. v. Marcus, 38 IIU 219. ' ' A reasonable amount of baggage, by custom, or the cour- tesy of the carrier, is considered as included in the fare of the person." — Orange Co. Bk. v. Brown, g Wend. N', Y. 85 ; Hawkins v. Hoffman, 6 Hill, N. Y. 586. " The passenger had paid the price of a passenger ticket. For this ticket he had the right to have his baggage carried." — Hutchins v. Western, dr'c, 25 Ga., 64. " It is well settled that the reward for carrying the baggage is included in the passenger's fare." — Jordan v. Fall River R. R., 5 Cushing, Mass., 69. " The Chicago and Milwaukee company received the whole passage money from Milwaukee to New York city — fare which 46 Baggage Oar Traffic. usage, so far as the custom of to-day is con- cerned, and it can not well be changed ; but what were the motives that animated those who orig- inally established the practice? What were the influences or prejudices that governed them when they consented to allow a lapse of what might have been made an important and ever increasing source of revenue to the railway companies ? The extent and magnitude of what, in this country, is commonly called the Express busi- ness is trifling compared with the vast amount of baggage that is annually transported. Yet the revenue derived from the Express traffic, although the business is carried on under com- paratively unfavorable circumstances, and at great expense, has aggrandized the original projectors of the enterprise and enriched the companies subsequently interested in it. Many of the practices in vogue upon our railroads at the present moment are precisely as they were fixed originally by the comparatively inexperienced men who managed the first rail- ways that were built. These practices have descended to us without modification or change. Yet there can be no doubt that the managers referred to only partially comprehended the colossal character of the interests involved in covered the carriage of both the passenger and lier baggage safely to the latter city." — Candee v. Penn. R. li'. 21 Wis 587- Baggage Car Traffic. 47 the decisions made by them from day to day, as new questions were presented. As we may naturally suppose, these decisions were not uniformly the same in different sections or countries. In Europe, to illustrate the point we have made, the Express, or parcel trafi&c, was at once incorporated into and made to form a part of the ordinary business of railway companies. Here private individuals, and com- panies formed by them for the purpose, took charge of this important and valuable busi- ness, and have retained almost exclusive con- trol of it ever since. Doubtless they perform the work quite as satisfactorily to the com- munity as the railroad companies could, and it is not certain that the latter have not derived as nkuch net income from the business as they would if it had been conducted by them- selves. But are both of these systems under which the Express traffic is conducted right? if not, which is the right? We find similar diversities in every department, branch of ser- vice, and sphere of railway life. Doubtless the conclusions arrived at by the early managers as to what was expedient and best in reference to the baggage of passengers were not more sagacious or wise than many other customs irrevocably fixed by them. The fact that the amount of baggage allowed to pass free varies in different countries, makes 48 Baggage Qar Traffic. it apparent that there was no concert of action upon this important subject. At this late day we can, perhaps, do no more than surmise what were the reasons originally adduced upon the part of railway managers for allowing any baggage whatever to go free. If they had decided to charge a certain rate for the baggage and allow the owner to pass free, many of us would undoubtedly esteem the custom a very proper one, and one not to be hastily or lightly called in question. We may presume that the rules of the trans- portation lines in existence at the time the first railways came into being had something to do with the decision of the managers of the latter in reference to baggage. The stage coaches and canal boats that preceded and for ^ time actively competed with the railroads, were accustomed to carry a certain quantity of per- sonal baggage free. This established practice, it may be supposed, had its influence with the early managers. In consenting to adopt the old custom, it is reasonable to suppose that the rail- way managers greatly exaggerated the extent and duration of the rivalry these primitive modes of conveyance were destined to offer. The inconvenience of weighing and collect- ing charges on each and every piece of lug- gage presented for shipment may have had something to do with the decision to allow it Baggage Car Traffic. 49 to go free. It is possible that in fixing the rate for carrying the passenger it was intended to make it large enough to cover the cost of trans- porting the passenger's luggage. If this was the intention originally, it is quite certain that equal thoughtfulness has not subsequently characterized the fixing of passenger rates, and the heart of the average railway stockholder must sink within him when he contemplates, as he will, the enormous loss of revenue to his company involved in the original decision to let the personal baggage of the passenger go free BAGGAGE TJK ACCOMPANIED BY OWNEE. While the railway companies in this country are compelled to transport free a certain amount of baggage when accompanied by the owner, neither the laws nor the customs of the co.un- try require them fo forward baggage, as such» when unaccompanied by the owner. In the latter case baggage is subject to all the conditions, iucluding carriage, of merchandise or freight of an analogous character. And further : when a passenger does not possess any personal luggage, or the amount he does possess falls short of the stipulated quantity he is legally entitled to, he can not in consequence claim or exercise the privilege of having transported without charge baggage belonging to another. "4 50 Baggage Oar Traffic. THE QUANTITY OP BAGGAGE THAT MAY BE TRANSPORTED FREE THE CUSTOMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES. Having decided, wisely or otherwise, that per- sonal baggage should go free, the peculiar char- acter of the privilege rendered it extremely likely that it would be abused. It was impos- sible for the railway company to ascertain by actual inspection in each instance whether the packages presented consisted of baggage or merchandise. Every species of deception would therefore be practiced. Other objections presented themselves ; cases would constantly arise where the personal baggage of the pas- senger would be so great, comparatively, as to exceed all just and reasonable limits. Hence it became necessary to fix a maximum quantity which should in no case be exceeded. In fixing this maximum it was evidently the inten- tion of the managers to strike a happy mean between the wealthy and the poorer classes. The comparative wants of this average class in different countries may perhaps explain the fact that the quantity allowed varies iinder different governments. The quantity of baggage which a passenger may transport free upon the roads of Conti- nental Europe in no case equals the amount which it is permitted him to transport here. Baggage Car Traffic. 51 In Germany fifty-five pounds is the limit. In France first class passengers are allowed sixty- six pounds of baggage, children from three to seven years being entitled to forty-four pounds. In Italy forty-four pounds of baggage may be carried free by all classes, in the compartments occupied by them. The baggage is restricted in bulk by the regulations to 18x22 inches. In practice, however, the prescribed limits are not strictly observed, passengers being allowed to take into the cars a hand trunk equaling, if not exceeding the regulations, besides a travel- ing-bag, roUs of shawls and other small pack- ages. These parcels are, as far as possible, placed in the racks over the heads of the occu- pants of the compartment. A passenger who wishes to leave his seat temporarily may secure its retention by placing in it some article of baggage. Passengers upon the Italian roads are compelled to pay for all baggage which they are unable to carry into the compartments as described above.'' In Austria all classes of passengers are allowed fifty-five pounds of baggage. Small baggage may be taken into the cars, if passen- gers are not molested thereby, and if tax and I. The Russian custom in reference to baggage is the same practically as in Italy, I am informed. The railroad only transports free such articles as the passenger can carry in his hand without inconvenience to himself or to others. For everything that goes into the baggage van a charge is made. 52 Baggage Car Traffic. duty regulations admit ; receipts are not issued for baggage taken into the cars. The Rotter- dam and Antwerp steamers from Harwich, Eng., advertise that passengers going to the principal points in Europe will be allowed fifty- six pounds of baggage free of charge over the various railroads by which they travel. In the British Isles the amount of baggage is fixed at one hundred and twenty pounds for first class passengers, one hundred pounds for second class passengers, and sixty pounds for third class passengers.^ In the United States the railways seem quite •uniformly to have adopted one hundred pounds as the maximum quantity of baggage that may be carried free by first class passengers.^ More 1. "The weight of passengers' luggage allowed free of charge is : For each first class passenger, 120 pounds " second " " 100 " third " " 60 except where the act of the carrying company requires an al- lowance of a greater weight * * * One hundred weight of personal luggage is allowed generally J:o all bona fide emi- grants, on their production of proof to the companies booking them that they are such." — Reg. Clearing. House, Eng., 1870. 2. "Passengers are entitled to have one hundred pounds of personal baggage ; but it is expected that all ordinary per- sonal baggage (not meaning merchandise) will be received, when accompanied by the owner, without charge. On this point discretion must be used. In all cases where extra bag- gage is carried, they will see that the freight is paid before de- livery ; and when any such money is received they will note the amount in a book kept for that purpose, and pay it over to the conductor every day, taking his receipt on their book." — Regulations of a Western Company, 1853. " Eighty pounds of personal baggage will be allowed each passenger, and all articles other than personal baggage, and Baggage Car Traffic. 53 liberal than the roads of Great Britain, no dis- tinction is made here between a first or second class passenger. We allow the emigrant or trans-continental passenger to transport two hundred pounds.^ It is possible that these concessions to the poorer classes were based upon humanitarian grounds; possibly upon convenience ; it may be they never had any basis except ignorance or an extravagant dis- regard 6f the rights of the stockholders. The second class business is still in its infancy in the United States, but the precedents governing it each year become more and more firmly established. It seems but reasonable to sup*- pose that as the first class passenger pays a higher rate than his brother of the second class, he is fairly entitled to a greater amount of baggage. The large amount of baggage per capita which emigrants require to be trans- ported may have had its influence originally with managers in fixing the maximum amount to be franked at two hundred pounds. It is not an exaggeration to say that the excessive quantity of baggage we allow second class pas- sengers and emigrants, is a gift voluntary and magnanimous upon the part of the railway corn- all excess of personal baggage, will be charged for at double the first class rates for freight on freight trains, and must be prepaid." — Eastern Company, 1863. I. The amount formerly allowed, as appears from the old tariifs, was one hundred and fifty pounds. 54 Baggage Car Traffic. panies, and as such it should be known and appreciated by those who receive it. Passengers crossing this Continent, going to or coming from China, Japan and other trans- Pacific countries, are allowed two hundred and fifty pounds of baggage. This concession is made to meet the sharp competition of ocean routes via the Isthmus of Panama. Upon these routes the steamship companies allow passen- gers a specified number of cubic feet. This space is capable of accommodating a much greater quantity of luggage than the one hundred pounds to which railway travelers are usually restricted. One more exception to the general rule gov- erning the baggage of first class passengers remains to be noticed. It is that of the Commer- cial Traveler. The amount allowed him varies upon different roads. Upon some of the more conservatively managed lines he is restricted to one hundred pounds. Upon other roads he is allowed two hundred pounds. Upon still other roads he is allowed two hundred and fifty pounds. Any allowance in excess of the usual one hundred pounds is based upon commer- cial grounds, for, so far as we have any infor- mation on the subject, the purely personal bag- gage of the Commercial Agent is not excessive. Indeed, without having any -exact data at our command, it is believed that the average Baggage Car Traffic. 55 amount required by a first class passenger would amply suffice for his wants, but in consideration of the fact that he travels much and is compelled to carry samples of the goods he sells, many of the railway companies transport for him, free, parcels or baggage not exceeding in gross an average of two hundred and two hundred and fifty pounds in weight as we have stated. The active competition that exists between railways explains in part the concessions that have been extended to the commercial traveler. THE COST OP TRANSPORTING BAGGAGE. The question of limiting the quantity of bag- gage is always an interesting one with travel- ers, and it is common to hear them make the statement that the expense to the railway com- pany of transporting a trunk weighing one hundred and fifty pounds is practically no greater than the expense of transporting a trunk weighing two-thirds of that amount, pro- vided the room is sufficient in the baggage car. This is a superficial view of the subject, and not warranted by the facts in the case. Every pound that is added to the weight of a train increases the cost of moving it; it adds to the quantity of fuel consumed by the locomotive, and increases the wear and tear of the machin- ery and track. The cost of carrying fifty 56 Baggage Oar Traffic, additional pounds is not great, perhaps, in a single instance, but multiply the amount indefinitely as it would be necessary to do if the restriction was removed and the expense at once assumes enormous proportions. Baggage Car Traffic. 57 CHAPTER VI. RESPONSIBILITY OP OUK KAILEOADS FOR BAG- GAGE LOST OR DAMAGED. The responsibility of a railway company for baggage lost or damaged while in its possession is unquestioned in the United States.^ It is I. " That any such railroad company whose agents or employes shall carelessly or willfully injure, or allow to be injured or lost, any trunk or baggage (bearing a check, as pro- vided in section 2910) either by improper handling or otherwise, shall be liable for damages in a sum not less than double the amount of the actual damage." — Chapter 63, section 2qn.,page 632, Revised Code of Mississippi, 1871. "Any person employed by a railroad corporation in this state who shall willfully, carelessly, or negligently break, injure, or destroy any baggage, shall be liable for the amount of dam- age to the owner thereof and may be arrested, and on convic- tion before a justice of the peace, fined in any sum not exceed- ing two hundred dollars and be held in custody or confined in the county jail until such fine shall be paid; Provided that the remedy hereby given against such employe shall not lessen the liability of such corporation." — Hurd's Ills. Revised Statutes ip/1877, chapter 114, section 79. The provision in the criminal code of Illinois, chapter 38, section 193 reads : " Injuring or destroying Baggage. — If any baggage master, express agent, stage driver, hackman or any other person whose duty it is to handle, remove or take care of trunks, valises, boxes, packages or parcels, while loading, transport- ing, unloading, delivering or storing the same, whether or not in the employ of a railroad, steamboat or stage company, shall wantonly or recklessly injure or destroy the same, he shall be fined not exceeding two hundred dollars." Mass. Statute. Supplement of 1860-72, chapter 307,/. 709. — "Any baggage master, express agent, stage driver, hackman or other person whose duty it is to handle, remove or take care 58 Baggage Oar Traffic. thus a matter of the utmost consequence in this country that each company should be able to test the truthfulness of all claims presented for baggage lost or damaged, and in the event the demand made upon it is just and proper it is important that it should be able to deter- mine accurately ^^hich one of its subordin- ates, if any, have been negligent or at fault in the premises. KBSPONSIBILITY OF BAILWAY COMPAKIBS IN OTHER COUNTEIBS FOE BAGGAGE LOST OR DAMAGED. There is no limit to the liability of railroad companies for the baggage of passengers in Great Britain, unless the baggage includes ar- ticles specifically mentioned in the Carrier's Act, such as silks, jewelry and furs. The carrier's responsibility for such articles does not exceed fifty dollars. As the act referred to of the baggage of passengers, who shall willfully or recklessly injure or destroy, any trunk, valise, box, package or parcel, while loading, transporting, unloading, delivering or storing the same shall be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dol- lars." I Iowa, Code of 1873, chapter 10, sec. 2183. — " The proprie- tors of all omnibusses, transfer companies, or other common carriers, doing business within the limits of this state, and their agents, shall be liable for damages occasioned to baggage or other property belonging to travelers through careless or negligent handling, while in possession of said companies or carriers. And in addition to the damages recoverable, there- for, the parties recovering the same shall also be entitled to an allowance of not less than five dollars for every day's deten- tion caused thereby, or by a suit brought to recover the same." Baggage Oar Traffic. 59 defines the responsibility of railway companies and limits it within reasonable bounds, the com- panies can not still further lessen their account- ability for luggage lost or damaged by them, by special contract or agreement or other act of their own. In reference to a company's liability for lug- gage lost or damaged in France, a distinguished railway director of that country^ says : "In case of loss the companies are responsible for the integral value of the baggage. The value is fixed' a' V amiable between the company and the parties, or by the courts from the owner's affidavits and the probabilities based on his or her situation,wealth, customs, and the object of the trip. For instance, we could not very well admit that the baggage of a countrywoman going to market to sell farm produce would reach twenty dollars, but it would not be sur- prising if the baggage of a lady of high rank, going to a party, reached the sum of two thou- sand dollars, on account of jewelry, lace, etc., of which it was composed. A company is not responsible for stocks, bonds, coins, notes, and similar valuables that may be imprudently de- livered to it without notice, as baggage, but it is holden for such jewelry or moneys as passen- gers may have in their possession, that are required by the wants of the journey. Further I. E. Solavranze. 60 Baggage Car Traffic. than this the French legislature does not per- mit the companies to limit their responsibility." The laws fixing the responsibility for lost or damaged ' baggage are entirely equitable and just to the railway companies in Italy. In that favored country if the value of the baggage is not expressly stated at the time of its delivery to the railway company, the owner can only claim compensation for it if lost or damaged at the rate of five francs per kilogramme or 95 cents per 2 y\ pounds. Doubtless the railway companies frequently pay more than luggage is worth even under this arrangement, but it is not possible under this system of settling to perpetrate any gross swindle. The companies are compelled to insure the baggage of passen- gers whenever called upon to do so, and in such cases must pay for the amount insured in the event of loss. Except when known to be in fault, the railway companies are not responsible for the luggage carried by passengers in the compartments occupied by them, such baggage being under the care of the owner and subject to his disposition at all times. This practice is not peculiar to Italy. Passengers in all countries may be said to be responsible for the luggage which they carry into the cars occupied by them. In case of delay in the delivery of baggage the indemnity paid by the Italian companies is based upon a fixed tariff. Baggage Car Traffic. 61 The liability of Austrian companies for bag- gage transported by them is - defined in the regulations of Austrian roads, 1877, as follows : " When baggage is not securely packed it can be refused. All pieces of baggage must be cleared of former post and railroad marks. When this is not done, the management can not be made responsible for damages in the event the baggage goes astray. " Kailway companies are responsible for the safe and undamaged delivery of baggage for which a receipt has been issued, provided the baggage is securely packed, and marked, and conforms in contents to the prescribed regula- tions. When the value of baggage is not stipulated at the time of delivery, claim can only be made (in the event it is lost or dam- aged) at the rate of six florins silver for each kilogramme, but if the settlement is for damaged baggage the weight of that which is not damaged is first deducted. If the value of baggage is stipulated at the time of its delivery an addi- tional charge equal to ten kreuzer for each 150 kilometer is charged, but the charge must not exceed two pro mille of the total for the stipulated value, unless the amount thereof is entered in the receipt which the company gives for the baggage, by the clerk at the for- warding point. Claim can not be made for lost baggage until three days after the expiration of 62 Baggage Car Traffic. the time of the arrival of the train by which it was forwarded, and such payment excludes fur- ther claim. If the baggage should afterwards be found the owner must be informed of the fact if his place of residence is known, and upon the return of the amount allowed him by the company, the baggage is to be delivered to him either at point of departure or place of destination. In the event any real damage is sustained in consequence of delay in the time of delivery of baggage, such damages can not in any event exceed ten kreuzer per kilogramme for each day until it is found or may be consid- ered as lost. Baggage left in the depots or cars must be kept subject to the call of the owner for three months ; at the expiration of that time it may be disposed of in accordance with the laws governing such cases. " Baggage delivered at the depot too late and that can not be billed in consequence, but is forwarded, exceptionally, is taken at the risk of the owner. " In case payment for losses sustained must be made for dogs, and no special value has been declared, the railroad company's responsibility shall not exceed three silver florins for each dog." The laws of Spain do not limit the liability of railway comp anies for baggage lost or dam- aged unless deception is practiced by the pas- Baggage Car Traffic. 63 senger. The authority already quoted says : " There is no limit to the liability of railway companies in reference to baggage. The pas- senger whose baggage contains jewelry, precious stones, bank notes, moneys, shares stock, bonds and similar articles of value must exhibit the same, and state their -value and selling price before the baggage is checked, and if he fails to do this the company is not responsible in case of theft or loss." LIMIT OP RESPONSIBILITY FOE BAGGAGE LOST OR DAMAGED IN THE UNITED STATES. The responsibility of the railway companies in the United States for baggage lost or dam- aged while in their possession, when arising from accident or through the carelessness or negligence of their servants, is not limited to any stated sum, except in those cases where a contract has been entered into between the rail- way company and the owner of the property.^ I. " Baggage of traveler is to be regarded as goods received by common carrier under the ordinary terms of common car- riage." Hannibal R. R. Co. vs. Swift, 12 Wal. 262. Dexter vs. A. B. & N. Y. R. R. Co. 42, N. Y. 326. Powell vs. Meyers, 26 Wendell, 591. Bennett vs. Dutton, 10 N. H, 481. " And the common carrier is the insurer of such baggage." Hannibal R. R. vs. Swift, I2 Wal. 262. " This liability of insurer can not be limited except by special contract." I. C. R. R. vs. Morrison, 19 Illinois, 141. Compiled Laws of Michigan, sec. 2386, p. 783. Kurd's Statute of 1877, sec. 82, p. 774. Code of Iowa, 1873, sec, 2184, p. 394. 64 Baggage Car Traffic. And to enable a company to fix the maximum limit of its responsibility for the baggage it transports a general notice to the public posted in its depots or printed upon its tickets is not sufficient, but it must be formal and specific in each instance.^ SYSTEM REQUIRED TO ENABLE A COMPANY TO FIX THE RESPONSIBILITY FOE LOST OR DAM- AGED BAGGAGE. In connection with claims for injury to or loss of baggage, it is of the utmost importance that the records of a company should be pre- cise in reference to every transaction of the baggage department. The possesison of this record involyes a system of returns of a more or less elaborate character. The system to be of practical value must be such as to enable the officer in charge to locate each check used and to follow it from the moment it is fastened to the package until it is finally detached at the I. "A notice to the general public is not sufficient ; such notice must be given to the party individually and the expressed assent of the passenger is required to give effect to such re- striction." Western Transportation Co. vs. Newhall, 24 111. 266. Buckland vs. Express Co, 97 Mass. 127. B. & O. R. R. vs. Brady, 33 Md. 383. Adams Express Co. vs. Stettauer's, 61 111. 184. " A bare notice on a ticket does not limit the carrier's lia- bility. " But it is otherwise when the notice is brought home to the passenger, either at the time or before the purchase of the ticket." Rawson vs. Pa. R. R. 48 N. Y. 212. Baggage Car Traffic. 65 place of destination and forwarded to the gen- eral baggage ofiSce for redistribution. To insure this it is necessary 1st. That a detailed record be kept at the general baggage office of the numbers of the checks in the hands of the various agents, as explained hereafter. 2d. Permanent records must be kept by the subordinates along the line ; of the numbers of the checks attached to packages sent forward ; also the numbers of the checks received with parcels ; also the date forwarded or received, name of train baggageman, number of train, etc. This record is important and necessary in the event any of the reports required at head- quarters should miscarry. 3d. The station agent must report to head- quarters the number of each check attached to^ baggage forwarded, the number of train by which baggage was shipped, its place of desti- nation, the date forwarded and name of train baggageman. 4th. Returns embodying the same class of facts as those just described must also be re- turned by agents in reference to all baggage received by them. 5th. The train baggageman should be re- quired to report the particulars of all baggage received and discharged by him, viz: the date, number train, place of shipment, point of 5. 66 Baggage Oar Traffic. delivery, and number of check, or if no check is attached, then a description of the property, 6th. In the event property is in a damaged condition when received, station agents and train baggageman should be required in each instance to make a careful statement of the facts upon their records and returns. 7th. Reports from agents of the unclaimed parcels lying at their stations. With the foregoing information systematically arranged and filed in the general baggage office, the, department will not under ordinary circum- stances experience any difficulty whatever in finding lost baggage ; and in reference to prop- erty damaged while in the possession of the company the returns will acquaint the General Baggage Agent with the names of the various subordinates through whose hands it has passed, and what is important, these rgturns will also state whether the property was in bad order or otherwise when received by such subordinates. SAFEGaARDS MUST BE PROVIDED TO SECURE EFFICIENCY AND PREVENT *'RAUD. — SOME OF THE DECEPTIONS PRACTICED. A company is thus in a great measure pro- tected against careless and inefficient servants, as well as against any attempted imposition by the public. The importance of this surveillance can not be overestimated. Baggage Oar Traffic. 67 Under its workings the injury to luggage is only nominal, thelosses Unimportant in number. Its effect upon employes is lo curb the vicious and invigorate the slothful. It renders any attempt to defraud a company difficult as well as dangerous. This is for- tunate upon many accounts aside from the dol- lars and cents it involves. A railroad company views with a distrust born of many impositions all bills of cost for baggage lost or stolen. Its archives are crowded with the records of imag- inary losses sustained by passengers. Fraudulent claims, equally with those that are good, enter into the minutest particulars as to articles, cost, etc., with a frankness and a familiarity that would deceive anybody but an expert. All of them are sworn to and many of them are fortified with concurrent evidence of the most plausible and convincing character. It is not too much to say in connection with this subject of lost baggage, that the claims made by passengers are never less than the value of the property. As intimated above, the value fixed by pas- sengers under oath for lost baggage is in many cases grossly in- excess of the real amount. This is probably the experience of every prom- inent road. Instances are not of rare occur- rence where large sums have actually been claimed and paid to indignant and outraged 68 Baggage Oar Traffic. passengers for the contents of trunks supposed to have been lost or stolen. In many instances these trunks have subsequently been recovered and have, in a multitude of cases, upon investi- gation, been found to contain only the worn-out raiment, the cheap apparel, the cast-off articles of some Jeremy Diddler, or common swindler. Not that we by any means desire to be under- stood as saying that the claimants referred to uniformly passed for disreputable characters. On the contrary, a majority of them, perhaps, held themselves as eminently respectable and were generally so reputed in the community at large. It is the experience of railway companies that many very respectable people class transactions of the kind referred to, when practiced upon large corporations, as adroit or clever subter- fuges ; not as acts to be reprobated. A company can only hope to defeat claims for excessive or fraudulent amounts-. It can not always do this. These facts being understood and expected it is well to make every possible provision in advance to render the presentation of unjust claims impossible. It is believed to be possible to surround the passengers' baggage with such checks and safeguards as practically to render losses impossible except in cases of fires, wrecks, and kindred disasters. To secure this desirable result it ^ill be necessary to hold Baggage Oar Traffic. 69 those who in any way handle or are responsible for baggage to a direct personal accountability for all damages or losses occurring through any neglect of duty or carelessness upon their part. Another phase of this question must be noticed. The officials connected with the bag- gage department understand more clearly than other railway officers the necessity that careful forethought should be exercised to throw every possible safeguard around the baggage in the possession of a company at its various stations and warehouses. When this is not done a company suffers continually from the depreda- tions of petty thieves. A still greater danger menaces it, as the history of more than one company illustrates. It may at any time become the victim of an organized conspiracy. The plan is very simple. The parties to the conspiracy first check their baggage as in other cases. While it is in the possession of the company and waiting to be called for it is stolen. In time the owner appears, presents his check and claims his property. The com- pany can not produce it, and unless they can prove the existence of the conspiracy they are compelled to pay for the property, the valua- tion being fixed by the owner. 70 Baggage Car Traffic. , CHAPTER Vn. THE MANIPULATION OF BAGGAGE. In no country in the world are passengers so little annoyed with the care of their luggage as in the United States. The systematic ma- chinery in vogue for handling baggage is at once simple and effective. This system is the product of fifty years of constant study and experiment. Compared with the practices of railroads in England and upon the continent of Europe, it may be said to be perfect. Here the favorable comparison ends. Our baggagemen are rarely if ever subjected to the severe discipline and minute supervision that they are abroad, particularly in Europe. The foreigner's idea of an efficient civil serv- ice is too much a matter of every day practice to tolerate any lawlessness upon the part of the men occupying subordinate positions of that character. The luggageman is employed to guard and protect the property, and any display of unnecessary violence, any evidence of indif- ference to this trust, is punished. The haughty, supercilious, contemptuous baggageman is unknown in Europe. And this leads us to believe that what we have heard is, perhaps, Baggage Car Traffi,c. 71 true after all, that man's native energy and independence of character is crushed out, or, in other words, can not exist in its pristine vigor under the monarchical governments of Europe. THE PRIMITIVE MODE OP HANDLING BAGGAGE. When the canal packet and the stage coach afforded the only means of public conveyance across the country, the passenger neither re- ceived or expected a receipt for his baggage. . He contentedly watched it as it was placed aboard, and from time to time, as the journey progressed, he noted its presence and carefully inspected its condition. At the various junc- tions he attended personally to its transfer to connecting lines. The railways of Great Britain have in the main perpetuated these practices, and the passenger dances attendance upon the guard now as he did in the old-fash- ioned days of half a century ago.^ All this is changed upon this continent. THE LOCAL BAGGAGE CHECK. Discarding the simple customs of the stage driver and canal captain, our railway companies I. " In order to prevent delay and inconvenience on the re-delivery of luggage at the end of the journey, passengers are requested to place on each article their name and address. And notice is hereby given that the company will not be responsible for the care of the same, unless fully and properly addressed with the name and destination of the party, nor^for any articles conveyed inside the carriages." — Regulations Mid- land Kailway of England, yan3l, 1878. 72 Baggage Qar Traffic. early provided small metal plates or tags, for convenience of handling baggage. i Each of these plates bears a separate number. To each plate a leather strap is attached. The strap is fastened in a simple manner to the handle of the trunk. The plates we have described are called checks. Each check is provided with a duplicate ; this duplicate is given to the passenger, and its possession by him is the evidence of the posses- sion of the baggage by the railway company. Each railway station has a different Number allotted to it by the baggage department. The number of the station to which the bag- gage was destined was formerly roughly marked in chalk upon the package. The baggage of travelers came in time to be covered with these chalk marks. In marking a new number upon a package the old numbers were sometimes over- looked, or only partially erased. ^ Sometimes the new number was obliterated by the rain or by coming in contact with other objects. The baggage, in consequence, frequently went astray, to the great inconvenience of the trav- eler, and the annoyance of the railroad com- pany. A simple device changed all this. Instead of marking the package, the number of the station was entered, in pencil, on a small paste- board tag. This pasteboard tag was slipped Baggage Car Traffic. 73 on the strap that attached the check to the package. The system was now apparently complete, so far as the checking of baggage des- tined to local points was concerned.^ Local Check. -185 i LOCAL Note : Checks should always have one or more asterisks stamped upon their face to distinguish them from the dupli- cate given to the passenger. ^ 219 ^ BAGGAGE TRAFFIC chuck: Form of Local Check to be attached to baggage when there are charges on account of excess weight. 74 Baggage Car Traffic. SUPPLYING AGENTS WITH LOCAL CHECKS. In reference to providing agents with the checks required to do the business, each agent and baggageman should be supplied with a certain number of local checks. The routine in connection with the supplying of agents and baggagemen with checks is as follows : John Doe, agent, has local checks assigned him num- bered from one hundred and fifty to eight hun- dred and fifty. These checks are charged up against Doe in the general baggage office, a careful record being kept of the number of each check. As fast as the checks are used by John Doe, and are taken up by other agents, they are sent to the general baggage office and are from there returned to John Doe to be used again. This process is forever repeating itself. Each station is thuskept supplied with the checks it requires without delay or the neces- sity of making a special requisition from time to time as those on hand become exhausted. Under the plan sketched it is only necessary for the General Baggage Agent to know the number of the check attached to a piece of baggage, to enable him to tell the name of the agent or bag- gageman who checked it, also date and train. This information greatly facilitates his efforts in Baggage Car Traffic. 75 tracing lost baggage, and in locating damages sustained by property while in the company's possession. THE KBVEESIBLB, OR INTER-EOAD CHECK. The form of checks already described pro- Yides for luggage between local points. It lipmains to describe the check used in those cases where baggage is destined to points located upon other lines. To accommodate this business the reversible check is generally used. To illustrate its special features we will suppose that the agent at Boston desires to check a package over certain lines to San Francisco. For this purpose he uses a check, one side of which reads, Boston to San Francisco, following this the number is given, and the initials of the lines over which it is to pass. On the reverse side of the check it reads, San Francisco to Boston, the number and initials being repeated. This check, it will be seen, is good either way between Boston and San Francisco, and can be used only between these points. It accurately describes the route it is to follow, and upon its arrival at its desti- nation it tells the receiving agent from whence it came. It is retained by such agent until further occasion for its use arises. Nothing 76 Baggage Gar Traffic. could be more simple or efficacious than this form of check.^ I. REVERSIBLE CHECK. (To be attached to inter-road baggage.) ST. LOUIS TO MILWAUKEE C.&A. NoTE : The reverse side of this check reads Milwaukee to St. Louis. The check is consequently good only between these points. REVERSIBLE CHECK. (Form to be delivered to the passenger.) r BETWEEN ST LOUIS MiLwrBx 14-9 < C.&A. C.& N.W. Baggage Car Traffic. 77 THE SYSTEM OF HANDLING BAGGAGE PBEPBOT. It is hardly possible to conceive of any system of billing baggage that could be more certain to accomplish the results desired at so small a cost, than that we have described. It involves little labor or expense to the railway company, and it protects the passenger from loss of property, relieves him of all care, and reduces to the minimum the time required to receive and bill baggage at the forwarding station. THE PEACTICE OF CHECKING BAGGAGE COM- PULSORY IN THE UNITED STATES. Like all reforms in connection with the rail- way service that possess any practical value, the system of checking baggage was voluntarily inaugurated and perfected by the railway com- panies. That period is past. It is no longer discretionary with the railways whether they shall continue to carry out the practice or not. Custom and the laws of the state have made the practice compulsory.^ I. " A check shall be fixed to every parcel of baggage when taken for transportation, by the agent or servant of such cor- poration, if there is a handle, loop or fixture so that the same can be attached upon the parcel of baggage so offered for transportation, and a duplicate thereof given to the passenger, or person delivering the same on his behalf; and if such check be refused, on demand, the corporation shall pay to such passenger the sum of ten dollars to be recovered in a civil action ; and further, no fare or toll shall be collected or received from such passenger ; and if such passenger shall have paid his 78 Baggage Oar Traffic. HOW BAGGAGE IS BILLED IN OTHER OOUN- TKIES. In Great Britain the railway companies paste a printed label upon the baggage received by them for transportation ; this label bears the name of the station to which the luggage is destined; no receipt or other evidence of delivery is given to the passenger. Upon arrival at his destination, he points out his baggage and it is delivered to him by the company's servant.^ A prominent railway fare, the same shall be refunded by the company ; and on pro- ducing said check, if his Ijaggage shall not be delivered to him, he may recover the value of such baggage," — Laws of Michigan, 1873, Wo. l<)ii,page 496, section 11 of article II. " Every railroad corporation when requested, shall give checks or receipts to passengers for their ordinary baggage vifhen delivered for transportation on any passenger train, which baggage shall in no case exceed one hundred pounds in weight for each passenger, and shall deliver such baggage to any passenger upon the surrender of such checks or receipts. Any such corporation willfully refusing to comply with the requirements of this section, shall pay a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, which may be recovered before any court of competent jurisdiction, in an action of debt, in the name of the People of the State of Illi- nois for the use of the person aggrieved. Provided, that no passenger shall be entitled to receive checks or receipts for any baggage unless he shall have paid or tendered the lawful rate of fare for his transportation, to the proper agent for such corporation. Hurd's.Illinois Statutes, xiT] ^ chapterin, section 78, p. 774. Other states have laws of the same general tenor as the above. I. " Passenger's luggage must be invariably marked, unless in charge of the owners. Porters are not to take charge of luggage Without first ascertaining where the passengers are going, and when the porters do not affix the labels themselves, they are to make the owner's destination distinctly known to Baggage Car Traffic. 79 oiHcial of England, writes, referring to the man- ner of handling baggage as described above, " There are objections to this method, but the instances of fraud practiced upon us are very- rare indeed." Doubtless this is true, but the opportunity for the practice of deception upon the company appears really to have no limit. On the other hand, in the event the baggage is lost, it would seem as if the passenger must experience considerable dif3ficulty in proving, to the satisfaction of the company that he ever delivered it any baggage. The hardship thus works both ways. The possession of a check or written receipt renders the proof required comparatively simple. In Austria a receipt is given the passenger upon the delivery of the baggage to the com- pany ; a slip with number corresponding to the receipt and indicating the place of destination is pasted upon the baggage. Baggage is care- fully weighed in each instance, the liability of the company being, as in Italy, based upon the the man who does this work. The porters are to invite the passengers to talte their luggage into the carriage with them, whenever there is room under the seats, and on no account to promise that all shall be right, so as to prevent the owners looking after it. The company will not be responsible for 'iiggsge or other articles left at a station, except at those appointed for the purpose, and at other stations all luggage left can only be allowed to remain at the risk of the owner, but it may be deposited behind the counter.or otherwise, out of sight, so that none but the owner may attempt to identify and claim it." English Road. 80 Baggage Car Traffic. weight when the value is not expressly stated. The presentation of the receipt at the place of destination is accepted by the companies as evidence of ownership, and sufficient authority for delivery of the luggage. The system of billing baggage pursued b}' the Austrian rail- ways is followed substantially by all the rail- ways of Europe. In Italy all baggage is weighed and a receipt filled up specifying the weight. This receipt is given to the passenger. A slip correspond- ing in number, to the receipt, and indicating the destination is attached (pasted) to the baggage. Passengei^ are required to exhibit their passage ticket before their baggage will be received or weighed, and the slow, method- ical manner in which the business of weighing and billing baggage is conducted by the rail- way officials greatly exasperates travelers. A distinguished American citizen long resi- dent in Rome, writes as follows under date of March 30, 1878, in reference to this subject: " The passenger must produce his ticket before his baggage can be weighed and receipted, which occasions much annoyance, as he can not take his seat in the carriage without showing his ticket, and is often obliged to^ wait for the weighing of his baggage until the last moment before the starting of the train, when it is difficult to find a good seat. * * * Baggage Gar Traffic. 81 If the American railways adopt the practice of charging freight on baggage, which would be a just measure, the office for sale of tickets and receipting of baggage ought to be opened either during the day, or for an hour or more before the departure of each train, in order to avoid subjecting travelers to the annoyance of buying tickets and attending to their baggage in the hurry of the few minutes allowed for these operations in Italy." Such an arrangement would in many respects be very gratifying to the managers of railroads in the United States. In this country the pas- senger may be said to arrive at the depot at the moment fixed for the departure of the train, n& margin wJiatever being allowed the railway- company in many cases in which to weigh and properly bill the baggage. According to the regulations of the Romaa Railway Company baggage must be presented to be checked from ten to twenty minutes before the departure of trains ; all baggage not checked ten minutes before the trains leave will be detained and sent forward by fast freight train. It is seldom necessary to rigidly enforce this regulation ; its object is to provide the time required by employes to perform the labor of weighing and billing the baggage of passengers. The plan of giving written receipts for bag- gage instead of checks is an admirable one in 6 82 Baggage Gar Traffic. many respects. The receipt specifies the weight of the baggage, and in the event the baggage is lost this information is of value. The great objection to the system of giving receipts is, the time it takes to fill up the blanks and attach the slip to the baggage. The time required to do all this does not seem great, perhaps, to those accustomed to it, but compared with the Amer- ican system of checking baggage it is very cumbersome and tedious. It is barely possible, however, that in the matter of expedition the American management has overdone the business. The people have been educated to believe that onlj' a moment is required by railway officials in which to waybill the baggage of passengers, and in con- sequence of this only a moment is allowed them. BAGGAGE BILLED THROUGH IN EUROPE. Upon many of the great roads in Europe, baggage is billed through between distant points upon different lines very much as it is in this country. It is, however, subject to examination by the customs officers at tke fron- tier of the various countries through which it passes. Baggage Car Traffic. 83 CHAPTER VIII. INSURANCE AND STORAGE OF BAGGAGE BY RAILWAY COMPANIES. When the baggage of a passenger has reached its destination, a railway company is clearly entitled to a fair compensation for every moment that it remains uncalled for after a reasonable length of time. Yet upon the great bulk of our roads no effort is made to collect such charge, nor do the rules and regulations con- template any such action, even in the most distant or circumscribed way. Such a charge would, no doubt, seem petty to many, to others it would appear impracticable. It is neither. As already shown, every hour that the luggage of a passenger remains in the possession of a road its safety is endangered. If lost or damaged it must be paid for by the railway company, and the loss when it occurs is not adjusted with judicial fairness on the basis of appraisal by disinterested parties, but it is based upon the description or table of contents as submitted by the owner. Surely a company is entitled to a reasonable charge for this great risk, this complete insurance of the property while in its possession. In addition 84 Baggage Car Traffic. to -this, the actual cost of watching the property and otherwise protecting it is considerable. The room it occupies and the inconvenience its possession entails would alone warrant a company in making a reasonable charge for storage. As to what would constitute " a reasonable time " (in which the baggage should be removed by the owner) there would of course be a great diversity of opinion. Without entering into any detailed consideration of the subject here, it would seem that an allowance by the railroad company of twelve working hours ought to be amply sufficient to accommodate every reason- able emergency of the public. STORAGE CHARGED BY RAILWAYS ABROAD. A charge of two cents per day is made by the railways of England and Ireland for each arti- cle of luggage left at a station. In France a charge of one cent per day is made for each article of baggage left in the possession of the company ; this fee is exacted at the starting point as well as at the place of destination. In other words, if a passenger desires to leave his baggage in the care of the company, either before or subsequent to the journey, a charge of one cent per day is made. The charge exacted for storage in Great Brit- Baggage Car Traffic. 85 ain or France does not seem to be affected by either the weight, bulk, or value of the package. In Spain no account is taken of the value of baggage in fixing the charge for storage, unless the baggage contains extraneous matter. Lug- gage sent to the depot to await the pleasure of the owner, is charged 0, ^ 05 per piece of ten kilogrammes, or at the rate of about one cent per day for twenty-two pounds. The same rate is charged per day, after the expiration of twenty- four hours, for baggage left at the depot by passengers at destination. If packages shipped under the general head of baggage contain articles not properly classed as such, the rate of storage is dependent upon the value of the property. The question of the bulk of baggage does not affect the rate charged. In Austria " the bearer of a receipt can demand the delivery of b aggage upon the arri- val of the train by which it was forwarded, but he must wait until such time as may be necessary for unloading, registering, and revis- ing by the revenue officers. If a passenger desires, he may leave his baggage at the station for twenty-four hours without charge, but after the expiration of that time he must pay stor- age."i I. Austrian Regulations, 1877. 86 Baggage Car Traffic. THE MEN WHO DESTBOY VAI.tTBS AND PRECIP- ITATE RAILEOAD WARS. Is there any thing to prevent the immediate enforcement and collection of a just and proper charge for storage of baggage, if any of our companies desire to do so? Yes ; the obstacle that confronts the man- agement of every railway when it seeks to introduce such new practices and rules, as experience and observation may teach it, are necessary to the more effectual protection of the interests of the stockholders. What is this obstacle ? It is the disposition evinced by a certain .class of railway officials to render every company un- popular with the public that seeks to increase its receipts by availing itself of new sources of revenue. These petty officials never lose an opportunity of this kind to attempt to build up their company at the expense of rival lines. It is their capital, their stock in trade. Shallow- pated, they make up in a low order of cunning what they lack in respectable ability. It is impossible to estimate the harm done to rail- road interests by these infinitesimal parasites ; adepts in underhand practices and misrepre- sentations, they embroil their managers in many unnecessary and destructive wars, and in other ways keep the companies they misrepresent Bxggage Car Traffic. 87 from realizing the full fruition of their prop- erty. It is mainly through the efforts of these short-sighted officials that so many unnecessary and pernicious concessions are made by rail- roads. They are constantly seeking to outbid and undermine other lines, and in doing so the profit or productiveness of the business of their own lines is destroyed. It seems impossible for them to understand that the concessions that are only made by one company to-day will become common to all to-morrow.^ THE AGENCIES OF A COMPANY MADE DEPOSI- TAKIES FOR PARCELS — THE REVENUE THAT MAY BE DERIVED THEREFROM — THE SYSTEM REQUIRED. The collection of storage charges on luggage which the owners fail to take away within the stipulated time, forms only a part of the reve- nue which may, with propriety, be derived from the accommodation extended to the public. Each agency should constitute a depositary in a limited way for the convenience of the traveling public. At each station a regis- 1. " Under the present state of things, this company will to-day get the start of that company, but as sure as the sun will rise on the morrow, the one that over-reached his neighbor to-day, and thereby secured what is called a gain, will be met on the morrow by a corresponding action that will, in effect, neutralize the benefit thought to, be gained." — Address of Samuel Powell, Ssq., before the General Ticket and Passenger Agents' Association at Cincinnati, March 19, 1875. 88 Baggage Car Traffic. ter should be opened in which every species of property left with the agent (except that which was checked) should be fully described. These deposits would embrace articles of merchandise, trunks, bandboxes, carpet-bags, packages of various kinds, overcoats, shawls, etc. For insuring these articles against loss, and for the labor and expense in caring for them, a reasonable rate should be charged. About the only immediate outlay upon the part of the railroad company that this system of storage would necessitate, would be the expense of the register referred to. This regis- ter should recite the date of delivery to the agent; name of party and description of arti- cles, and the amount of the charge for storage and insurance. It should also give the date property was delivered up by the agent and the receipt of the owner. A simple arrangement of this kind would prove a very great convenience to the public and a source of moderate revenue to the rail- road company. It would protect the public from loss of property and guard it from imposi- tion. On the other hand, the collections, whether more or less, would inure directly to the railway company, to whom they properly belong. The labor it would occasion would not be great. At present, parcels are left with the station officials of railroads but without the Baggage Oar Traffic. 89 exacting of any charge in return. At many- points the practice has become a great burden to the companies' agents. A slight charge would greatly reduce the number of the de- posits and would compensate the companies for those that are made. In connection with the care and storage of parcels, the use of duplicate stamps^ would be simpler and better in many respects than the form of register described above.* These stamps should be numbered consecu- tively and should be bound in book form. The stamp proper should be attached to the parcel and the "duplicate delivered to the depositor. This plan would prevent deception being prac- ticed upon the company, or at least relieve it from the necessity of identifying the owner, in each instance the production of the duplicate being sufficient evidence of ownership, just as the presentation of the duplicate check affords sufficient evidence for the delivery of baggage. G. W. Ry. Co. ORIGINAL. 890. 2. The date of issue Should in all cases be stamped on both the original and duplicate. The original and duplicate should be bound together and attached to each other by a perforated border. The agent should be held accountably for all stamps detached from the book. 90 Baggage Car Traffic. The objection to the use of metal checks for this business would be the difficulty of identi- fying each collection or, in other words, of adopting any safeguards that would compel faithful accounting for each charge made. The stamps should be engraved and numbered con- secutively. They could not then be readily counterfeited, and the agent would be held accountable for the value of all numbers allotted to him. The accounting would be much simplified by using only one form of stamp. The minimum charge being fixed at the price of one stamp, any additional charge to be made being some multiple thereof; or to illustrate: For the care of a parcel three days or under, the price of one stamp would be charged; for over three days and under eight days, two stamps would be exacted, the second stamp being attached to the package when the goods were called for bj^ the owner. To enable the general accounting officer of the company to exercise a constant supervision over the business, the duplicate stamp should be transmitted to him when delivered up to the agent by the payee. Such a depository as we have described would be an especial acconimodation to the patrons of every company. Ladies visiting the great cities for the purpose of shopping would Baggage Car Traffic. 91 make use of it. It would be a convenience to travelers, stopping en route for a short time and desirous of relieving themselves temporarily of superfluous articles of luggage or wearing apparel. Many other people that can not be specifically mentioned would find it a great convenience. A system, in many respects similar to the one suggested, is in active operation upon various railways abroad, and has been found a great convenience to the public and a source of considerable profit to the companies practicing it.^ It is worthy of a trial here. I. " The company hereby give notice that tliey will not be responsible for articles left by passengers at the station unless the same be duly registered, for which a charge of four cents per article will be made and a ticket given in exchange. No article will be given up without the production of the ticket or satisfactory evidence of the ownership. A charge of two cents per day in addition will be made on all articles left in the cloak room for a longer period than three days ; the day of deposit and day of removal each counting as one day. The company will not be responsible for any package exceeding the value of fifty dollars ; and they will not be responsible for any amount unless the articles are taken away within twelve months from the day on which deposited. Depositors are not permitted to obtain possession of any portion of the contents of a package. The ticket must be surrendered before a package or article can be released, and if again deposited in the company's custody, an additional fee will be charged and another ticket issued." — Regulations Land, and Northwestern Ry., England. " Notice is hereby given that when parcels addressed ' to be left till called for ' are not applied for and removed from the station to which they are booked, either on the day of receipt or on the day following, an extra charge of four cents per parcel will be made to the consignee ; in the case of parcels not applied for within the week, an additional charge of four cents per week will be made. For example : if a 92 Baggage Gar Traffic. CHAPTER IX. THE INTER-llOAD PASSENGER AND HIS BAG- GAGE — SOMETHING ABOUT COMMISSIONS. It has been the practice for many years in the United States for each railway company to place tickets on sale to the principal points on the lines connecting with it. These are called Coupon tickets from the fact that a coupon is attached for each one of the various lines oyer which the ticket is good. As a rule baggage is checked through between the various points to which passengers are ticketed. But this is not always the case. At the close of the month each company parcel is received at a station on a Monday, and is not called ftr until the next Wednesday, it is liable to a charge of four cents ; if not called for until Thursday, to a charge of four cents extra, or eight cents, the second four cents being the warehouse rent up to the following Wednesday. Fractions of a week will be counted as a whole week. The maximum charge in these cases will be twenty-five cents per parcel." — Ibid. " Lost or unclaimed goods left in the carriages or on the premises of the company will be liable to be sold after the expiration of a year if not applied for and identified within that time." — Regulations Midland Ry. of England. "Bicycles and perambulators, when left in the care of the company, are charged sixteen cents each, with a charge of four cents per day in addition when left for a longer period than three days, the day of deposit and the day of removal each counting as one day." — Jhid. Baggage Car Traffic. 93 sends to the lines over which it has sold tickets a detailed statement of its coupon ticket sales. The" expense of printing the tickets required to do the inter-road traffic, and the cost of accounting in connection therewith, is very great. Each company, nevertheless, bears its own burden, printing such tickets as it requires for sale over other lines ; hires the required agents to sell them, and finally pays for the accounting incident thereto. The cost of the through checks used in con- nection with the inter-road traffic is, however, as a rule, very properly divided between the lines over which the checks are used, upon such basis as may be agreed upon by the Bag- gage agents of the companies interested. After a company has furnished the tickets and- paid all the expenses incident to the inter- road business furnished by it, it would naturally be supposed that here its expenses would end; that each company from which it received pas- sengers would, be required to furnish them with- out cost to it. Under ordinary circumstances such would be the case, but in connection with the inter-road passenger traffic there has grown up a practice of allowing the ticket seller a com- mission 01 gratuity on the sales made by him to many of the most important and lucrative points. The subject of paying commissions is there- 94 Baggage Car Traffic. fore an interesting one, and important in its effect upon the finances of our railway compa- nies. It involves expenses amounting in the aggregate to a great many thousands of dollars annually. These disbursements were made primarily to secure business. That is no longer the case. They are now made to insure neutrality. Neu- trality upon the part of whom ? The servants of Railway Companies. For the practice of paying commissions we are indebted to the superlative foUy or treach- ery of the small coterie of railway officers already noticed. It is entirely owing to these same officers that the abuse is perpetuated. It requires no argument to demonstrate this. The fact is patent to every one familiar with the rail- way companies of the country. The commissions are in the nature of gra- tuities. They are not contemplated by rail- way companies in arranging the salaries of their ticket agents. A railway company in fixing the wages of its employes is governed by its ability to pay and by the value of the services rendered it. The acceptancy of the pay allotted by the company is an acknowledgement upon the part of the employes of its sufficiency. That the salaries paid are always moderate and sometimes inadequate for the responsibility and skill Baggage Qar Traffic. 95 required is no doubt true, but the remedy does not lie in levying a tax upon innocent com- panies. The evil being purely local should receive local treatment; The question recurs, why are these commis- sions paid ? Is it for the performance of labor that the company employing the agent does not of itself exact, or, is it, for services especially valuable in their nature ? Nothing of the kind. The commissions are paid because other companies pay them ; Railways pay them because they fear employes would dis- criminate against them if they did not ; they pay, not to induce agents to divert traffic from the line of a rival company, but'to induce the agents to remain passive, uninterested spec- tators of the volume aiid course of business. But railway companies do not allow agents to discriminate ! Not openly doubtless. Fur- ther than this they are powerless. The word left unspoken, the raised eyebrows, the shrug, the innuendo are quite as effective as blunt outspoken opposition. The employes of an eastern line receive gratuities from a western company; the employes of a western company receive gratu- ities from an eastern line. The stockholders pay in eilher case. These gratuities add infinitely to the compensation of the agent, but as already shown they are so much in 96 Baggage Car Traffic. excess of the value of such agent's services as fixed by the company employing him. It frequently happens that one company pays the employes of another company for the ser- vices they perform, while the first named com- pany an4 its employes are at the same time per- forming similar work for the latter company without any compensation whatever. The cus- tom is replete with absurdities of this character. The subordinate agent has of course nothing whatever to do with inaugurating the payment of commissions. He neither encourages or dis- courages it. His attitude is perfectly passive. It is only after the practice has been introduced that he makes his appearance. The recipients of these gratuities understand that the money they individually receive comes from a corporation in which they are in no wise interested. It is therefore not a matter of which they need take official cognizance. Their action being involuntary, no blame or reflection whatever can rest upon them. On the contrary, the integrity and uprightness of ticket and freight agents of our railway companies is deserving of the highest praise, as the writer has before had occasion to refer to them they " are as trustworthy a body of men as can be found any where. They are, as a class, honest, industrious, and faithful men ; men of great discretion and native sagacity, who, in their Baggage Car Traffic. 97 several ways, watch over the interests of their employers, and the safety and convenience of the public, with unwearying patience and assiduity."^ THE CLASS OF MEN WHO HAVE EASTBKED THE PEACTIOE OP PAYING COMMISSIONS UPON THE RAILWAY COMPANIES. There is a small class of railway men con- nected with tke passenger service who think they are rendering no adequate equivalent for their salaries unless they are spending the money of the companies employing them. These zealoiis but weak and inefficient men are inces- santly upon the lookout to discover new ave- nues to success, new means of securing busi- ness. With each succeeding day they develop new bonanzas of wealth. As superficial as. they are zealous, they perpetually menace every established custom. Their enterprise finds vent in the most curious and unique ways. We ever live in anticipation of something from them that will relieve the dull monotony of common life. But it is unfoi'tunate that the gratification of these eccentricities costs so much money and accomplishes so little good. One or two illustrations will demonstrate the ' peculiariti^ of the class we have referred to. Let us imagine a railway officer, greatly 1. Railway Revenue, pp. 76, 77. 7 98 Baggage Car Traffic. esteemed in his circle for the energy of his character and the originality of his research. This officer is dissatisfied ; his road is not suf- ficiently advertised; a brilliant and original idea occurs to him ; he determines to issue gra- tuitously a valuable and convenient form of pocket-book ; he adapts it to general use, and, crafty man, upon its first page he spreads a flaming advertisement of his company. No other company has ever thought of this plan of advertising. The company first adopting it must surely reap a rich harvest of business. Vain thought I Immediately every road in the country issues myriads of gilt-edged, Turkish morocco pocket books, elegantly arranged and in every way more desirable than those origi- nally issued. A dispassionate observer might be pardoned, perhaps, for believing that these unexpected results would have a tendency to momentarily depress the zealous official we have described. He mistakes the character of the man. The venture resulted disastrously from a financial point of view, no doubt ; it is nevertheless viewed as a personal triumph by the official over less enterprising competitors. And well he may. His standing as an ener- getic and sagacious officer has been established upon a firm, enduring basis. Another officer, more practical in his methods than the one we have just described, determines Baggage Gar Traffic. 99 to pay a limited number of agents, in a certain section, a small commission. To make it effect- ive he proposes to do it with the utmost secrecy. The subject is discussed in whispers with bolted doors and sealed windows^ This sagacious official possesses sufficient intelligence to be able to understand that all knowledge of the payment of these gratuities must be kept from competitive lines, otherwise their efficiency is lost. In distributing the gratuities the utmost stealth is observed ; every body is sworn to secrecy, or left in seeming ignorance. The little installments are carelessly placed in the drawers of agents, between the leaves of books, or perhaps rudely stuffed into the pocket of an overcoat hanging on the wall. A nod, a chuckle,, and the visitor is gmie. Nothing that could insure secrecy has apparently been overlooked. Yes, one thing. The recipients of these gratuities are practical men. It is appar- ent to them that the sooner other companies be- come acquainted with the fact that commissions are allowed, the sooner such companies will add their contributions to those already paid. No time is consequently lost in conveying intelli- gence to the companies interested. What is the result ? The aggrieved lines at once per- fect arrangements to follow in the footsteps of their competitor, hut lest they should have lost any prestige in consequence of the acts of such 100 Boggage Oar Traffic. competitor, they erdarge the field and increase the number of agents to whom commissions are allowed. And thus, while the original offender has not been able to extend or increase the business of his company, he has placed it in a position where it is compelled to pay for a traffic that did not before cost it a cent. The effect of the practice is more sweeping than would be suppo^d. The payment of com- missions by one obscure line entails a like expense upon other lines located hundreds of miles away, and having no interest in common with it. This seems hardly probable, but it is nevertheless true. We will suppose that a southern line pays commissions on all ticket sales to Leavenworth. The immediate northern neighbor of suTih line must do the same ; and so the process goes on repeating itself until every line that reaches Leavenworth, or connects with any line reaching that point, is subjected to the expense. This is not the full extent of the evil. The poison has only commenced to diffuse itself through the system. Many lines having no interest whatever in the Leavenworth business, are nevertheless in active competition at other points with the lines that are interested in such traffic. They find that whenever they come in active competition with the Leaven- worth lines, their interests are not fairly consid- ered by those agents who are receiving commis- Baggage Oar Traffic. 101 sions on account of the Leavenworth business. In other words, the payment of the com- mission on the Leavenworth business influences the agent receiving it, and his friends as well, to throw as much competitive business as possible over the line allowing the commission. To put it in still another light, the agent will always favor the company in whose pay he indirectly is, when such company comes in competition with a non-paying company. This fact com- pels the latter line to allow commissions on all business destined to points at which it comes in competition with the Leavenworth line, and so the evil spreads until commissions are paid to every competitive point. THE ABOLITION OF THE PEACTIOE. The number who believe in the perpetuation of the custom are infinitesimal, but so long as one company pays, all must pay. How can the practice be at once and forever broken up ? It can be broken up by the mana- gers of the various roads acting in concert. It can be abolished by the railwaj'' companies refusing to enter into any arrangements affect- ing either the passenger or freight business with those lines that still persist in the custom. A refusal to sell tickets over the offending com- pany's line, or participate in any joint business with it, would soon effect a radical cure of the evil. 102 Baggage Car Traffic. The practice of paying commissions alternates between bustling activity and comparative quietude. It fluctuates rapidly from one extreme to another ; animated to-day, it will be stagnant to-morrow. A few years ago the payment of commissions was abolished with a few exceptions throughout the country. These exceptions have materially assisted, it is believed, to bring the custom into favor again. To effect a complete cilre, the evil must be dug up root and branch, no germ remaining. There will be no general opposition to such a course. Of the five hundred General Passenger and Ticket Agents, there are probably not over one per cent, who do not heartily desire to see the abolition of the practice of paying commissions as it has been conducted.-' I. Mr. A. V. H. Carpenter, a railway officer, in a paper read before the Association of General Ticket and Passenger Agents, at Saratoga, September 17th, 1875, says: " The commission business, as it has been done in times past, is an unmitigated fraud upon the innocents, for which both par- ties to the transaction are at fault. The ticket seller, by allow- ing his greed to demand, or his simplicity to accept, more than' a reasonable amount for the service ; and the general ticket or passenger agent who yields to exorbitant demands in this direction, or throws away the money of his constituents in tempting men to that which their better judgment condemns — ' to gain a little temporary advantage — reaps the reward of other spendthrifts in the end. It is in the abuses, not in the system itself, that the grounds for its condemnation are found, and therein arises the grief among the participants, when the mis- used bounty is cut short by the outraged constituents. Wherein this matter affects the question of rates vitally, is the practice among the sharp ones of using a portion of their exorbitant Baggage Oar Traffic. 103 The general passenger and ticket agents, while proverbiallj' liberal with their private means, using it in their official intercourse and elsewhere in profuse and generous hospitality, are in no respect less sagacious or circumspect in their acts as officers than other railway rep- resentatives. But 'the commission problem is a particularly vexatious one. While the officers are individually sincere in desiring its abolition, they have a natural distrust of the effect of initiatory action. They fear the loss of popu- larity with local ticket agents and others, and they are consequently powerless to act effect- ively. The disreputable element is neither respectable in numbers or ability, but it is sufficiently large to act as a disturbing force, c.ommissipns in subsidizing, people to patronize them by shar- ing a portion of their commisions with them." Referring to an analogous case, the giving of special rates, Samuel Powell, Esq., Secretary of the General Ticket and Pas- senger Agents' Association, in his able and thoughtful address before that body at Cincinnati, March igth, 1875, says: " I will assume at the outset, that by the abolition of all unfair means, for the procurement of competitive business, we shall be striking at the root of the ruinous competition, that has been indulged in to a greater or less extent, all over the coun- try ; that, for the sake of a few passengers or a few dollars tem- porarily gained, the passenger business has been sadly demor- alized, and the net results, from competitive business, reduced to a very low percentage as compared with the cost of doing the same. ***** Is it not better to elevate the standard of railroad morality, and initiate a day of better things, than to go on in the present way of depressing it, and trailing it in the dust ? It is too true, that it bears the marks of many a daub and smear, but the time is not yet passed in which it may be made clean and beautiful, clear from the suspicion even, of being else than it appears, the very epitome of honor and integrity." 104 Baggage Car Traffic. and it is so incurably vicious in temper and malignant in its methods that the most sturdy passenger official hesitates to grapple with it, lest his action should be used to the. detriment of himself and his company. EFFECT OF COMPETITION ON BAGGAGE CAR TKAFPIC. The strife that induces a company to pay commissions in order to prevent the diversion of its business, affects, the traffic of a road in many ways. The legitimate receipts of the baggage department, in common with other branches of the service, suffers by it. One company, in order to gain a fancied advantage, not only allows commercial travelers a reduced rate, but transports their merchandise samples without charge. Competing lines are forced to do likewise, and thus considerable revenue is lost without any company being materially benefited by it. Where competition is active it is not an uncommon thing for agents to tacitly ignore the rules and regulations govern- ing the traffic of the baggage department, passing without charge every species of luggage or parcel that is offered. COMMISSIONS BRING NO INCREASED BITSINESS. All this waste brings no increased business to any particular line when it is indulged in. Baggage Oar Traffic. 105 as it must be, impartially by all the companies interested. What are the secret thoughts of the trav- eling public, of a body" of men who so unneces- sarily aud foolishly squander the revenue they are hired to protect? The evils complained of should be reformed. The common law of honesty demands that they should be ; the rights of stockholders demand it; the law that tacitly compels a man to return some equivalent for the salary he draws demands it ; a decent regard for the good opinion of dispassionate men demands it ; and finally, and more important than all, the law of self-preservation demands it. 106 Baggage Car Traffic. CHAPTER X. EXCESS BAGGAGE CUSTOMS HEEE AND ABROAD. The maximum quantity of baggage a passen- ger may transport without charge being fixed by law or tlie custom of the country, provision must be made for those cases where there is an excess over the stipulated amount. In Great Britain the machinery for conducting the express or parcel traffic (in many respects similar to the baggage car traffic here) has been brought into requisition to meet the wants of extra baggage and similar business. Tn Europe more than in England the deliberation and the scrupulous precision that has always characterized commercial life is observable in the management of railroads, and passengers are compelled in all their calculations to take cognizance of the fact that the railroad com- pany exacts in all cases a certain respect for its rights. The traveler, consequently, is particular to reach the depot in time to have his baggage weighed and billed, nor does he forget to allow a reasonable length of time for making the necessary payments in the event he has any extra baggage. In the United States a different picture meets the eye. Here many of the Baggage Gar Traffic. 107 necessary aiid proper regulations of railway- companies in connection with the passenger traffic are looked upon as infringements of the personal rights of citizens. Instead of calmly acquiescing in the inconvenience that an equit- able conduct of the business entails, we iind the passenger is oftentimes impatient, arrogant, and exacting. This disposition is heightened and intensified by the obsequious and timid policy of many of our railway officers who fear to claim the just rights and prerogatives of their companies, lest the public be offended. For these and many other reasons, great difficulty has been experienced upon most, if not all, of our railroads, in securing a thorough and effective organization of the business and ac- counting connected with the transportation of extra baggage, goods parcels, articles of mer- chandise, and other items of traffic carried in the baggage cars of passenger trains. NEGLECT OE THE SUBJECT BY BESPONSIBLE AND DIKECTING- OEEICIALS. The fact that our express business has not been conducted directly by the railroads has greatly lessened the incentive to provide or enforce adequate machinery for definitely ascer- taining and collecting the charges upon excess baggage and similar business. The baggage car traffic is relatively small and its wants have 108 Baggage Oar Traffic. not been fully regarded. That is to say, the other branches of railway service are, compared with the transportation of extra baggage and goods parcels, o/ so much greater importance, that the responsible and directing officials of many of our roads have been able to give the matter comparatively little attention. In other words, the duty of watching the business and providing for its wants has been left to the discretion of subordinates. A general-in-chief may attend generally to the direction and organization of his army, may indeed examine minutely into many details, but he can not personally drill the various squadrons of which his army is composed. And so it is with the railway manager. He exercises a wise and healthful supervision over the property, but he can not personally examine into the details of the various departments, especially those of a minor character. OBSTACLES IN THE "WAY. An examination of the subject discovers obstacles not met with in any other branch of railway business: some of these obstacles are inherent, others again are the outgrowth of prejudice and lax administration. In the absence of any baggage it is sometimes claimed, and tacitly admitted, that the passen- ger is entitled to transport goods parcels or Baggage Car Traffic. 109 merchandise packages equal in amount to the stipulated one hundred pounds of wearing apparel. This absurd claim does not require serious answer. The passenger is entitled under our customs to one hundred pounds of personal baggage, not to fiftj'- or one hundred pounds of' sugar or butter. The claim is especially absurd when put forward, as it frequently is, by the suburban population of our large towns. The rate at which this class of the community is carried by the railroads is, as a rule, barely suflScient to meet the ordinary cost of operat- ing. Yet upon many of the prominent roads of the country the bulk of the provisions con- sumed by the suburban population, and much of the furniture and bric-a-brac that adorn their homes, is carried free in the baggage cars. This is done, presumably, as a matter of policy, or of good-nature, or the fact that it is done is not known : nevertheless, the roads are clearly entitled to a reasonable revenue from this source whenever thej^ choose to enforce it. INEQUALITIES THAT EXIST. There is, of course, great diversity in refer- ence to the quantity of luggage transported for passengers in different states and sections. Upon the frontier the. quantity of baggage possessed by the holders of first class tickets is meager in the extreme. It is usually carried 110 Baggage Car Traffic. into the cars and deposited under the seats, or finds a resting place in the rack overhead. In the older portions of the country there is greater circumstance, more variety. The oil -cloth carpet-bag disappears, and in its place we become familiar with mammoth Saratogas and trunks of lesser magnitude down to the dimin- utive hat-Hox. All over the land the weight and solidity of the trunks that encumber the depot platforms, and fill the luggage vans upon our railroads, indicate the wealth and refine- ment of the community. THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. It is evident that any indulgence that may be granted to a particular passenger or class of passengers, by the free transportation of baggage in excess of the stipulated amount, is done at the expense of the community at large, or at the expense of the other patrons of railroads. Every dollar of revenue that is lost in a particular department or branch of railway service must be made good by some other department or through some other channel. The law of supply and demand applies as definitely and distinctly to a railway as it does ^to the manufacture of cloth or any other branch of business. The impoverishment of our railroads means Baggage Car Traffic. Ill loss 'of credit and the destruction of values generally. We frequently find railroads doing a losing business, but the loss ultimately comes out of the pockets of the community, and the suffering of the public is, in the aggregate, quite as great, if not individually so, as that of the stock or bondholder. Sooner or later the company recoups at the expense of the community. This is right wherever the losses oqcur through indulgences, enforced or voluntary, granted the latter. However, it is not important to our subject to pursue this phase of it here. Many companies attach so little importance to the traffic carried on through the medium of the baggage cars that an effort is rarely if ever made by them to ascertain whether the amount of baggage offered by a passenger exceeds the limit specified or not. At a few principal points a weak and inconsequential effort is, perhaps, made to collect the revenue from baggage traf- fic, but at the great majority of stations little, if any, attention whatever is given the subject. This indifference or neglect is attributable to a variety of causes, but it is so contrary to the spirit animating the management of railroads abroad that it deserves more than passing attention at our hands. It is not creditable to our railway management that any legitimate and proper source of revenue should be over- looked or neglected. 112 Baggage Car Traffic. RAILWAY PfiOPBRTY ENTITLED TO A FAIR DIVIDEND. • Very few of the railway companies of the United States will ever be able to earn a fair dividend from the commencement upon the original cost. Other property of a similar char- acter is not only expected to pay a fair rate of interest from the start, but a natural and legiti- mate increase in the valuation of the invest- ment is anticipated as the country becomes more wealthy or more populous ; this increase is added to the first cost and interest is expected and exacted on the aggregate. When this very proper and universal' practice is pursued with railway property it is called watering or debas- ing the Stock. This absurd libel passes cur- rent all over the country, and is repeated year after year without contradiction. None of our roads pay more than a fair rate of interest on the capital invested ; a. large number can only pay interest on a part of the cost; the appalling number of wrecked and bankrupted enterprises that encumber the records of our courts, abundantly attest the fact that the business of the country through which they pass is either deficient in volume or productive- ness to sustain the legitimate expenses of a railway. It thus becomes doubly important that every species of income incident to the Baggage Car Traffic, 113 working of a railroad should be faithfully gar- nered by it. In this connection, a glance at the minute provision made by prominent foreign railway companies, for collecting their dues, is both interesting and instructive. Their regula- tions make it apparent that nothing is thought too small or too unimportant to merit the thoughtful attention of the managers of the property. EXTRA BAGGAGE RATES. " DISTANCES." "Ordinary Pas- "Commercial senger and Mer- Travelers chant Seaman's Luggage, Luggage, perlb." perlb." " Not exceeding 30 miles- >^c Xc- Above 30 i ind not exceeding 50 1 miles I — - .y^ " ^0 " *' 100 tc 1V2 -— ix " 100 (( (1 150 " 2 I " 150 " " 200 (( ^a — - !><■ " 200 (1 i( 250 i< 3- — - 1%: " 250 " *' 300 " - - -- z% .... iH: " 300 « IC 400 " 4 ..- 2 " 400 " " 500 Above 600 milesJ 500 600 " .... 4 — 2 4'A -— ^X' 5 — - 2lC " Passengers' Heavy Luggage when conveyed on carriage trucks by passenger trains, is charged 12 cents per mile per truck (station to station). No , greater weight than 50 cwt. to be carried on any one truck. Minimum charge, $2.50. " Family Luggage. — Arrangements have been made in Lon- don and ail the large towns for carting to the stations, at low rates, the luggage of families traveling by the Midland Rail- way, and also for forwarding such luggage by passenger train itt advance. The charge for conveyance by passenger train is at the rate of I2 cents per mile for any weight up to 50 cwt., with a minimum charge of $2.50, and exclusive of a reasonable charge for collection and delivery. " Bath Chairs, Velocipedes, Bicycles, Hawkers' Hand Carts and Ice Cream Carts are charged at the following rates when conveyed as passengers' luggage : 8 114 Baggage Oar Traffic. " Not exceeding 12 miles $ 25 "Above 12 miles and not exceeding 25 miles — 37 25 50 75 100 150 200 50 " --. 50 75 " --- 75 100 " 1 00 150 " --. I 25 200 " I 50 250 " --- I 75 ' For each additional 50 miles or portion thereof, 25 " Bath chairs, velocipedes, bicycles, hawkers' hand carts, and ice cream carts, are carried at sender's risk in all cases. " When sent as parcels, the charge is double the above rates. Velocipedes, bicycles, hawkers' hand carts and ice cream carts, requiring a carriage truck for their conveyance, are to be charged as for a two wheeled carriage. " Perambulators are charged half the above rates for bath chairs, etc. When sent as parcels the charge is double"! " Bath chairs, when accompanied by passengers, are charged as follows ; "Not exceeding 12 miles $ 25 "Above 12 miles and not exceeding 25 miles .. 37 25 ' " " 50 " .. 50 50 " " " 75 " -- 75 " 75 " " " 100 " .. I 00 " For each additional 50 miles or portion thereof 25 " When sent as parcels double the above rates are cha'rged. " Perambulators are charged half the above rates for bath chairs. Velocipedes, when conveyed in the guard's van, are charged same as bath chairs, and bicycles as perambulators. When so large as to require a carriage truck, the ordinary carriage rates are charged. These rates are at owner's risk. Furniture vans will not be carried by passenger trains. " Small boats and canoes, conveyed on the roofs of car- riages or in the guards' vans, will be charged as follows : Small canoes, to be charged 2c. per mile each, mini- mum charge ...$ 62 Sculling boats, to be charged 2c. per mile each, mini- mum charge . 62 Pair oared boats, to be charged 2c. per mile each, minimum charge 70 Four oared boats, to be charged 4c. per mile each, minimum charge I 00 Eight oared boats, to be charged 6c. per mile each, minimum charge- . i 25 "2 1. Midland Ry. of England, January 31, 1878. 8. London and NortUwesteru Railway Company, Dec. 1876. Baggage Car Traffic. 115 In the United States the charge on the extra baggage of inter- road passengers is generally fixed at fifteen per cent, per one hundred pounds of the rate for first class passengers. The rate made by railroad companies in this country on excess local baggage varies widely upon different lines. The rate for short distances is perhaps greater than in England, while the charge for long distances is relatively much less; thus upon a prominent line, in one of the Northern States the rate for excess baggage, for twenty-five miles or less, is one cent per pound for any quantity, while the rate for six hundred miles is 3 6-10 cents per pound for twenty-five pounds or less, and 3J^ cents per pound for ninety pounds or more. It is customary, upon many lines, to make special rates for the parcels of commercial agents, theatrical companies, cara- vans, showmen, etc., etc. THE GENERAL 1&AGGAGE AGENT. Comparatively little is known in the United States of the details of the baggage business save by a few minor officials whose duties are connected wholly with the luggage department. The sagacity of these officers is unexcelled in the difficult duty of providing the machinery necessary to insure the rapid transit and effi- cient care of the baggage of passengers. To the discharge of these duties they bring great native shrewdness and all the varied accom- plishments of the expert.. Their skill and precision is so great that baggage checked through, under rules formu- lated by them, to the most remote points accessible by railroad, may be said, practically, always to reach its destination simultaneously with the passenger. This is really a very great 116 Baggage Car Traffic. achievement when we recall the great number of persons through whose hands the baggage must pass, and that it not unfrequently travels by a circuitous and comparatively obscure route, requiring frequent changes of cars en route. The acumen of our general baggage agents in tracing lost baggage, and in fixing the responsibility for damaged property, is marvel- ous ; this skill possesses a positive money value to each company that is almost impos- sible to estimate, for the*reason that through it the railroad is relieved from many large bills of cost for fraudulent and unjust claims for reported losses. While the officials prominently connected with the baggage department understand all the material wants of their profession (the knowledge required in each department of a railroad entitles it to be called a profession), they do not, with rare exceptions, understand the subtleties of accounts or the necessity of checks and safeguards, so that while they have developed the highest efficiency in every branch of the service properly within the province of their duties, it is, perhaps, not too much to say that in this particular field neither prudence nor good management has, as a rule, been dis- cernible. Baggage Gar Traffic. 117 THE DIFFICULTY OF ENFORCING CHARGES FOE EXTRA BAGGAGE — INTIMIDATION OF OFFI- CIALS. Another important reason why a systematic effort has not been made in this country to secure and enforce the machinery necessary to gather in all the revenue the company is justly entitled to from this source, is the contuma- ciousness of passengers when called upon to pay for the transportation of any. extra baggage they may ha^se. It is contrary to common belief, but it is neyertheless true, that our railway official, as we know him, stands in great fear of the public ; he looks upon himself as their servant; he shrinks from any act that runs counter to accepted practices ; he deplores strife ; above all he seeks to popularize his company with the masses. He understands that the complaints of the public, whether just or otherwise, destroy to a certain extent his availability as an officer. He has to contemplate the possibility that his enemies and rivals will seize upon his embar- rassments to harass and destroy him. He is aware that, in the end, the management or proprietors will very likely forget that he is acting conscientiously in their behalf. It is impossible for him not to remember that it is 118 Baggage Car Traffic. probable that complaints, constantly reiterated, wiU ultimately force his dismissal, no matter how unjust or impolitic such a course may be upon the part of the company. The consciousness that this is so intimidates many otherwise strong railway officials, and destroys, practically, the usefulness of many more. Ambition, the love of life, the sense of self-preservation, the warmth of a comfortable place, the glamour of office, are stronger with them than a sense of duty. THE POPULAR OFFICER. Every intelligent and well-disposed officer desires to be popular with the public. The interests of his company require that he should be. To secure this coveted distinction he is at all times and in all places attentive and cour- teous in his manner ; he exhibits a manifest desire to please, and in all other proper ways seeks to win the regard of those with whom he is brought in contact. In this strife some will be more successful than others, just as nature deals lavishly with one man and niggardly with his neighbor. The easy superficial graces that some men possess, that charm and captivate the world, others, with more talent and greater kindliness of heart, do not possess and can not counterfeit. All such are unfortunate. There is another species of popularity more Baggage Oar Traffic. 119 eagerly sought after than that we have men- > tioned. It has a more selfish object. We every- where discover an intense burning desire upon the part of railway officials to be popular with their superior officers. Under all proper circum- stances this feeling is not only right in itself, but highly commendable and in every way desirable. It should, however, be confined within the limit of conscientious loyalty to the interests of the proprietors ; when these interests are jeopardized, official subserviency is no longer commendable. This distinction is not always made, and in consequence grave interests suffer habitual neglect, and the supervision that should be vigilant and conscientious in all matters affecting the integrity of the trust, is openly neglectful or complaisantly sleeps in a corner. It is not perhaps too strong to say that it is nothing in favor of an officer that he is popular with his superiors, his associates; or his subor- dinates. His duties rightly administered are not such as to make him popular. The popular officer, so called, is too often a miserable coward, twisting' and squirming around every obstacle that can not be approached without comprom- ising him with somebody. The interests of a railroad company suffer as much from the weak and injudicious acts of such an officer as they do from a dishonest one. Such an officer is a time-server and a toady, and nothing is so 120 Baggage Car Traffic. repulsive to liim as to be even temporarily in disgrace. Like all time-servers, he lives only ' in the sunlight of official favor. The proprie- tors rarely if ever discover the true character of these parasites ; they are, however, well known among their associates. That there are popular officers who do not possess the characteristics we have mentioned is undoubtedly true. All such may, however, be classed under the head of exceptions. JBELUCTANCE TO PAY FOR EXCESS BAGGAGE. As we have already stated, the collection of charges on excess baggage and goods parcels is peculiarly difficult. All classes, fronr the sturdy farmer to the dapper merchant, adjust their freight accounts or pay for their passage tickets without question or hesitation, but with rare and praiseworthy exceptions, they one and all discover objections when their right to carry free all the baggage their convenience or profit suggests is called in question. This tribute, this odious tax levied upon their wear- ing apparel, their sacred household gods, they cordially unite in resenting as an outrage. This opposition, which we look for in vain in every other branch of business, is of course largely if not wholly based upon prejudice. It undoubtedly arises in part from the long- continued neglect of the railroad companies to Baggage Oar Traffic. 121 \. entorce their just, proper and reasonable rights in this particular field. There is, of course, no reason whatever why a passenger should ask a railroad company to carry free more than the stipulated amount of baggage. He might, with equal propriety, ask that a certain portion of his grain, or live stock, or fuel should be carried free in consideration of his buying and using a first class ticket. Admit his right, even tacitly, and there ceases to be a limit or check upon the business. Its abuse or non-abuse is purely a matter of taste upon the part of the passenger. A portion of the community will respect the rights of the railroad company, the other por- tion of the community, however, will look upon the evasion of these rights as indicating special and commendable shrewdness. Still other things conspire to render a full collection of the revenue that ought to acCrue from extra baggage exceedingly difficult. THE HARASSED AND PEKJPLEXED AGENT. As a rule, the baggage car traffic (it may all be classed under that head for the want of a better designation) does not reach the depot until the train is just upon the point of starting. The passenger, who accompanies the articles to be shipped, can -not wait until the succeeding trains. The train can not be held ; the agent is busy looliing after the general wants of his 122 Baggage Car Traffic. station, the ticketing of passengers, the check- ing of baggage, etc. With all these duties inviting his attention, he is constantly harassed with questions concerning the coming train and the destiny of its passengers. Let us try and recapitulate some of the anxious inquiries that beset him. He is asked many times by waiting passen- gers, what time it is. This inquiry he finds especially exasperating, as the station clock ticks loudly in its conspicuous place in the waiting room. However, he answers the ques- tion politely, and the passenger will then desire to know if he, the agent, is quite certain the train is on time, and if so, the precise minute it may be expected to arrive. He also desires information as to how long the train will remain at the station, and from which track it will depart. Satisfactory replies having been received to these important questions he desires to know if the train will stop at a particular station, the name of which, very likely, escapes him for a few minutes ; remembering it, how- ever, after considerable cogitation, he desires to know what time it will arrive at that partic- ular place. At this period he will hesitate, but discovering a look of slavish imbecility upon the face of the agent, he will be encouraged to proceed further in his inquiries in reference to the town he proposes visiting ; he would be Baggage Oar Traffic. 123 glad to know the distance to such a place ; its population, its age, the character it possesses for enterprise, its hotel accommodations, and the facility it affords for getting into the coun- try. The passenger will also desire information as to the policy of taking a common or palace car. What does the latter cost? Are the former cars comfortable, or are they kept inten- tionally in a disreputable condition for the purpose of driving people into the more expen- sive cars? Meanwhile will the agent kindly take charge of his hat box, umbrella, and carpet bag until the arrival of the expected train ? Questions such as we have recounted occur naturally to all of us as we gaze through the ticket window upon the benignant agent. An inexperienced traveler will, however, discover many additional things that it is important he should know before proceeding on his way. THE IRATE PATRON. • When the agent or baggageman (if the sta- tion is of sufl&eient size to warrant the employ- ment of a baggageman) finally reaches the extra baggage sought to be shipped, the passen- ger, unless a commercial agent or a veteran traveler, usually protests against the injustice pf the company in compelling him to pay. Great animation, as a rule, characterizes these protestations, and in making them, no account 124 Baggage Car Traffic. is taken of time or place. Not unfrequently the passenger becomes greatly enraged, damn- ing the company and its agents in choicest Saxon ; or taking a more politic turn, he per- haps seeks to bribe or cajole the impassive agent ; he recites, in honeyed phrase, the friendly feeling he has always had for this particular company, the large amount of money he has paid it, and the influence he has never failed to exert successfully in its behalf. Intox- icated with his theme, he descends to particu- lars ; he recites instances where he has pati'onized this company when a competing route offered superior inducements, a shorter line and better accommodations. All the bland- ishments of the common enemy he has stead- fastly and scornfully spurned, and now the company he has so long befriended compels him to pay for a paltry bit of baggage, the transportation of which adds not a cent to the expenses of the road ! We are reciting, with trifling exaggeration, perhaps, the opposition of a single passenger. The tact displayed in evading any charge for excess baggage is as varied as are the phases of human character. The agent listens as courteously and atten- tively to the objections of each passenger as his duties will permit, but the effect is of course to harass and delay him, so that he is very Baggage Gar Traffic. 125 Kkely able to examine but a portion of the baggage that is presented to be checked, or his examination is hurried and incomplete. Many packages are thus overlooked that ought in justice to pay revenue to the company. The difficulties we have mentioned in organ- izing the business upon an effective basis has, in many cases, tended somewhat to destroy the esprit du corps of those particularly in charge of the baggage department, and the result is that the income that ought to be derived from the extra baggage traffic is lightly esteemed or wholly disregarded, or it is held subordinate to the imaginary needs of the passenger and freight departments. INSUPPIOIENGY OP THE TIME ALLOWED FOR ACCOUNTING ONE CAUSE OP THE DEMOR- ALIZATION. It has been the practice, with isolated exceptions, to require all baggage car traffic to be prepaid. Much of the demoraUzation that exists in connection with the business is attributable to this fact. An examination of the practical workings of the system, extending over many years, demon- strates its impracticability. The trouble is that sufficient time is not allowed the forwarding agent, in the majority 126 Baggage Gar Traffic. of cases, to weigh the baggage, regularly bill it," and collect the charges before the departure of trains. In consequence, the effort is abandoned or pursued irregularly, the baggage being per- mitted, in many cases, to go forward without any charge whatever. This is a matter of daily and hourly occur- rence, and it can not be otherwise under any system that makes the prepayment of charges obligatory. To attempt to hurry an official in the per- formance of a duty that is at all discretionary with him is to cause him in many cases to neglect it altogether, and any system of business or accounting devised for a large corporation that does not make adequate provision for this peculiarity of human nature is insufficient and worthless. Baggage Oar Traffic. 127 CHAPTER XI. THROUGH EMIGRANT BUSINESS. The conduct of the emigrant business affords one of the most interesting and instructive phases of railway traffic as carried on by us. A few "of the seaboard companies pos- sess practically a monopoly of the business ; the emigrant finds his way into the interior over their lines ; they in a manner control him. This control, real or imaginary, nets them a handsome revenue. All the interior or con- necting lines over which the emigrant travels are taxed twenty-five per cent, of the earn- ings they derive, or should derive, from him ; i. e., wben their tariff prescribes one dollar for Carrying an emigrant they only get seventy-five cents. In other words, they release just one- quarter of their revenue from this business. This twenty-five per cent, may be called a com- mission allowed the seaboard lines for their exertions in the-procurement of emigrants. The emigrant is peculiar. No other class of people carries so great a quantity of luggage. He has with him all his worldly effects. The train that carries him to his new home must also carry his goods. He pays enormously, of 128 Baggage Car Traffic. necessity, for this great luxury. What is done by the seaboard lines with the revenue from this business ? Do they apportion it amongst the connecting lines upon the basis of emi- grant passenger rates ? Formerly they did not, and it is too early to say definitely what they Avill do under the new arrangement. While they were satisfied with a uniform allotment of twenty-five per cent, of the earnings of interior lines from emigrants, they exacted, in some instances, the gross amount collected for the transportation of the emigrants' baggage. Just what amount they received it was not always possible to tell. The manner of accounting for the charges collected for the transportation of extra bag- gage belonging to emigrants ticketed through over various connecting lines has always laeen exceedingly rude, incomplete, and ill-digested. The seaboard line not only tickets the emi- grants to their destination, but it also checks the luggage of the emigrants through. Two or at most three seaboard lines possess practically a riionopoly of the business. As a rule, no .distinguishing mark has been put upon the baggage to enable the different lines interested to distinguish the common from the extra baggage — to distinguish that which pays from that which does not pay. It has been the custom in some cases to enter Baggage Oar Traffic. 129 on the passage ticket of the emigrant the quan- tity or weight of extra baggage he is entitled to, i. e., the amount he has paid for at the starting point. The amount in dollars and cents was seldom if ever entered. It would occasionally happen that the weight would be written upon each coupon attached to the ticket purchased by the emigrant. It was the practice in some instances to make no entry whatever upon the passage ticket, of the quantity of extra baggage paid for.. Instead of this, a receipt was given the emi- grant to enable him to claim his baggage with- out further payment when he reached his- destination, in the event any dispute should arise. * In cases of this kind it was manifestly the- intention of the collecting party not to allow- any proportion of the amount collected to the- different lines over which the excess weight had to pass to reach its destination. The omission was sought to be justified upon the ground that the amount of joint revenue thus confiscated justly belonged to the collect- ing company as ■ a reimbursement for its expenses in connection with the emigrant busi- ness. It was, and is, perhaps, a sufficient answer to this claim, that if the emigrant business was not profitable in itself, it should not have been 9 130 Baggage Car Traffic. sought after with so much assiduity and at such great expense. In any event any expense incurred should have been made to appear, as in other cases. If it was desired that connecting lines should pay a portion of the expenses of securing emi- grant business, an agreement should have first been entered into with such lines, specifying the proportion they should pay. Bills for these expenses should have been rendered, so that the companies could know how much the busi- ness was costing them and what the items were that made up such cost. To withhold the expenses from the revenue that should accrue to the different lines from the transportation of the baggage of emigi^nts was not in accordance with good business usage. We can hardly fail to appreciate the great injustice of the practices named above when we remember that the collections for the immense quantities of extra baggage trans- ported annually for emigrants are not dis- tributed, generally, over the whole country, but are restricted, as already stated, to the few lines that possess a monopoly of the whole business. The interests of these were thus arrayed against any equitable and systematic division of the large and profitable traffic arising from Baggage Car Traffic. 131 the transportation of the extra baggage of emigrants. To resume the description of the modus ope- randi of carrying on the through or inter-road business as heretofore conducted : The practice of entering the quantity of extra baggage on the passage ticket of the pas- senger has been described. When the passen- ger reached the terminal line the conductor on such line would take up the ticket and return it to the ticket accountant with his other collec- tions, so that when the baggage finally reached its destination the agent had no means whatever of determining whether any thing had been col- lected for the excess, and if so whether the amount c&Uected was correct or not. He was consequently compelled to accept the statement of the emigrant. As a rule, the intermediate lines over which emigrant baggage passed, possessed no tangible evidence or voucher whatever, save the notation on the stub of the ticket. THE EXCESS LUGGAGE OP ORDINARY INTER- EOAD PASSENGERS. The remarkable peculiarities that surrounded the conduct of the'baggage traffic in connection with the emigrant business were not wanting in connection with the manner of treating coUec- 132 Baggage Car Traffic. tions made from ordinary or first class passen- gers destined to points on other lines. When extra baggage collections were made from such common or first class passengers, it was the custom for the forwarding company to collect the total charges due on the excess, and check the baggage through to its destination. But no account whateyer was rendered by the collecting company to the other lines for their proportion. A system that rendered such loose practices possible was indefensible. Yet no particular company appeared to be especially responsible for its existence. Yet every company in the country undoubtedly suffered from its continu- ance, some of them financially ; all morally. Such a system of_ conducting business can not do otherwise than breed demoralization, loose habits of business, brazenry. A reliance upon individual trickery rather than friendly consul- tation and honest dealing. Of course when such practices were followed by all companies, the injustice partly equalized itself, but the circumstances attending the business of certain companies always made them the greatest sufferers.^ I. Since the publication of this chapter (as originally written) in the Railroad Gazette, February 8th, 1878, the various rail- roads represented in the General Ticket and Passenger Agents' Association, have agreed to report excess baggage as follows : ''Resolved, That every line represented in this Association Baggage Car Traffic. 133 NOT DEPFICTJLT TO PROVIDE A PEOPBR SYSTEM^ OF AOCOTJNTIKG. It is not difficult to provide a simple and effi- cacious remedy for all the crudities found in con- nection with the transportation of the extra baggage of emigrants and other through pas- sengers. The forwarding or collecting company should be compelled, in all cases, to attach to the extra baggage, a way-bill or card, stating the weight, amount collected, and by whom collected ; the bill should also be numbered and dated. A record of this bill could be taken by each of the lines over which the. baggage passed, and they could then, by requiring a det&,iled report, compel the collecting company to account accu- rately for the proportion belonging to each of the lines interested. Upon the arrival of the extra baggage at its destination, the agent would detach the way- shall require its baggage agent to attach to the strap-check of all extra through baggage a tag, on which shall be written the amount of extra baggage-money collected for the carriage of such baggage from the starting point to clestination ; and we hereby agree to report to each line interested, from and after May 1st, 1878, its proper proportion of such cgllections on the basis of regular ticket divisions." This is right, and proper, and worthy of all praise. Prior to the date stated in this resolution, each road, with unimportant exceptions, retained all it collected on account of the extra baggage of through first class passengers, and also the great bulk of collections on account of the excess baggage of emi- grants. 134 Baggage Gar Traffic. bill after having verified its correctness by care- fully re-weighing the baggage. The charges on all extra baggage received to which no way-bill was attached, would be col- lected by the receiving agenb and reported to his company. It would be the duty of such company, in such cases, to report to the other companies interested, the proportions severally their due. A sj'stem of this kind seems to be required ; its effect would be to protect each of the com- panies ; it would be a necessary and proper check upon the collecting agent, and would guard the emigrant or passenger in a measure against injustice or outrage.. EXCESS LOCAL BAGGAGE. In connection with the local baggage traffic, it may be stated that, to enable the receiving agent to ascertain definitely the place from which the extra baggage was shipped, it is necessary that the train baggageman's way-bill should give the name of the forwarding station. Any other * distinguishing mark or check attached to the baggage, would of course do as well. Inter-road checks, as a rule, give the name of the station where shipped, and the name of the destination as well. Baggage Qar Traffic. 135 COLLECTIONS SHOULD BE MADE BY THE RECEIVIKG AGENT. As a rule, all collections for baggage car traffic should be made by the receiving agent, i. e., by the agent at station to which the traffic is destined. As already explained, the forwarding agent is frequently unable, for want of time, to ascer- tain whether the baggage - presented to be checked comes under the head of extra baggage or not. It should be the duty of the agent at the terminal point, to discover these omissions and correct them. Although the forwarding agent does no,t always have the time necessary to examine into each case, yet he should, in every instance pos- sible to him, indicate in some simple way to the receiving agent every package that comes under the head of extra baggage. In the majority of cases he will be able to attach a way-bill to the packages, specifying the weight and amount that should be collected. Frequently, however, his figures will be only approximately correct, the weight of the_packages being estimated. To remedy these defects, it should, of course, be the duty of the receiving agent, in all cases, carefully and dispassionately to review the statements of the forwarding agent. 136 Baggage Oar Traffic. EXTRA BAGGAGE PASSES. In the majority of instances, the charges due for extra baggage will be paid in cash, but it will frequently occur that passengers will present franks or permits in payment of the charges due. These are sometimes good only for a definite amount of baggage between cer- tain points named; then again they are made to call for a definite amount of baggage, but are good between all points on the line and run for a stated number of days, weeks or months. The latter may be called season franks or permits. These franks and permits, whether season or otherwise, issued for various good and sufficient reasons, will be found exceedingly troublesome when an attempt is made to simplify the ac- counting. To cover the case of those good for the season, it would be well, perhaps, to provide agents with a particular form of bill to attach to the bag- gage. The bill should recite the place of ship- ment, date of shipment, name of party by whom presented, number and date, by whom issued, and quantity of baggage entitled to passage, etc., etc. The receiving agent should detach the way-bill and transmit it to the Ticket Auditor,^ so that its authenticity may be estab- I. Or General Baggage Agent, or whoever has charge of the baggage traffic accounts. Baggage Car Traffic. 137 lished. The Ticket Auditor should also com- pare the way-Bill so returned with previous bills returned for the same passenger. The effect of this comparison will be to prevent or expose, in the majority of cases, any attempt to hide actual cash collections, under cover of some season frank or permit known to be out- standing. A way-bill should be attached by the for- warding agent to all .extra baggage shipped upon mileage tickets, the local charges being entered as in other cases. DISPOSITION OF WAY-BILLS, PASSES, ETC. Upon the arrival of the baggage at its desti- nation the way-bill should be detached by the receiving agent and transmitted to the Ticket Auditor. If charges are paid with cash, the amount should be entered under the head of cash, in the place provided on the ticket. If the charges are paid with mileage coupons, then coupons covering the specific, miles the baggage has been transported should be detached and inclosed with the way-bill, the amount having first been entered on the bill in the place pro- vided. If a season frank or permit is presented in lieu of cash or mileage tickets, then a descrip- tion of such frank or permit should be entered in the proper place. Where payment is made with a trip frank or permit, such payment should 138 Baggage Oar Traffic. be inclosed with the way-bill to tjie ticket accountant. All franks or permits that can not be used but once should be taken up by the receiving agent when presented. A CHECK ON THE ISSUE Ol'' SEASON PASSES, PERMITS, ETC. All franks, permits, coupons or other tickets calling for the transportation of baggage traffic and good for more than one trip should have a stub or auditor's check attached. This check should recite all the particulars of the ticket, its date, time good for, amount collected for it, name of party to whom issued, amount of extra baggage it covers, by whom issued, etc., etc. This check should be detached by the agent upon the first presentation of the ticket or frank, and should be forwarded without delay to the Ticket Auditor ; in the hands of that officer it is an additional and necessary check upon the party issuing the ticket, of which it is a fae simile. WHEN SUFFICIENT TIME IS NOT ALLOWED FOE WEIGHING. When an agent is satisfied or suspects that the baggage presented 'to be checked is in excess of the amount the passenger is entitled to pass free, yet no time is allowed him in Baggage Qar Traffic. 139 which to investigate the facts, or even estimate the excess and fill iip a way-bill for the same, then he should attach a card of some distinctive color to the baggage, as a signal to the receiv- ing agent to investigate the case fully ; and, if he (the receiving agent) finds that the baggage is properly subject to a charge under the rules governing the transportation of extra baggage, then he should make a bill covering the same. If it is not practicable to attach a card as suggested, then the receiving agent should be notified by telegraph, or the train baggageman should be directed to way-bill the baggage. mPEKATIVE NEED OF EErOEM. The parcel traffic upon many of the suburban trains is not sufficiently large to warrant the Express Companies in providing a messenger, and otherwise making systematic effort to take charge of the business as they do upon other trains. It remains, therefore, for the railroad companies to exclude all parcels from trains not worked by the Express Companies, or pro- vide adequate machinery for collecting the revenue that should flow from them. It is evident to an observer that the large amount of produce, merchandise, and knick- knacks carried free in the baggage cars upon roads possessing a suburban population is of 140 Baggage Car Traffic. sufficient importance to warrant such roads in making an energetic and systematic effort to collect the charges due on that class of business, especially as the cost of doing so is little or nothing. A large revenue is derived from the produce and goods carried by the Express Companies on the suburban trains ; but there is a large part of the business carried directly by the rail- road companies that escapes pay altogether. As already noticed this suburban traffic that escapes without pay, while considerable in itself, is but a fragment of the baggage car traffic that is overlooked or ignored on the roads at large. We have explained some of the reasons for this omission ; the remedy is plain. In fact, to sum up, the supervision of the business, both through and local, needs careful revision. Instead of treating the extra baggage and parcel traffic as" an unknown quantity to be ignored, or traded off in an unnecessary and unprofitable effort to secure business for other departments of the service, or abandoned as worthless, the pride and ingenuity of agents, trainmen and officials generally should * be excited to the utmost, as it is in other depart- ments, to see that the legitimate revenue of the company from extra baggage and goods parcels is collected and accounted for to the utmost farthing. Baggage Oar Traffic. 141 It is sometimes offered in objection that the cost of thoroughly organizing the baggage traffic department is not warranted by the rev- enue that would be derived from it. This objection is not tenable. It might originally have been offered, with the same show of reason, against any of the many sources of traffic possessed by a railroad. The expense of systematizing the baggage traffic should not prevent its consummation. The blanks required are few and exceedingly simple in their con- struction and cost. Every agent should, however, be supplied with all the different forms required to do the business efficiently, and his labors should be carefully and con- tinuously supervised until he understood and appreciated the importance of this particular branch of his duties. If the practices in force upon the different lines in* reference to the conduct of baggage traffic were in all respects alike, no discrimi- nation would be exercised and no cause of public complaint would- exist. The initiative in the business seems properly to rest with the general passenger and ticket agents. The admirable organization possessed by these gentlemen renders a consummation of the reform, if conducted by them, easy and simple. 142 Baggage Car Traffic. In the succeeding chapters the additional rules and regulations necessary to a proper conduct of the business will be more minutely sketched. Baggage Car Traffic. 143 CHAPTER XII. COMMEKCIAL TRAVELERS. A very ingenious and convenient form of ticket has crept into use, for the purpose, mainly, of accommodating the wants of com- mercial travelers and men of that character.* The quantity of goods or samples carried by these agents greatly exceeds, in the majority of cases, the amount usually allowed to be carried free. In giving a rate for the transportation of goods, whether by passenger trains or otherwise, the quantity to be shipped, and the distance to be carried are proper subjects for consideration, hence the necessity of making separate provis- ion for the wants of the class of travelers we have mentioned.* Instead of paying in cash, 1, The idea of the ticket in question was derived from a ticket of similar form for passengers, each coupon of such ticket entitling the holder to ride one mile. The originator of the ticket, whoever he may be, is entitled to high praise for his ingenuity and skill. 2. " Commercial Travelers' excess luggage is charged, if booked at the commencement of the journey, according to a reduced scale, and they are allowed the privilege of booking their luggage from the station from which they start to the station at which their day's journey is to end, whether it be a return journey or otherwise, although they may have occasion to stop during their day's business at intermediate stations. " Comviercial Travelers^ Vans (cars)' and Vans containing Theatrical Clothing, the weight of which does not exceed 50 cwt. are charged 18 cents per mile, minimum charge $1.88. 144 Baggage Car Traffic. at local rates, from station to station as they proceed, they purchase at the headquarters of thfe company a ticket good for a certain distance for a specified quantity of baggage. Diminu- tive coupons are attached to this ticket or book, each coupon being good for one mile. If the extra baggage has been transported ninety miles, ninety coupons are torn out of the book by the agent. The ticket described should be called a Mileage. Ticket for Baggage Oar Traffic. HOW THE COUPON MILEAGE TICKET IS USED. , Each company is required to fix the limit of traffic which persons holding mileage tickets may transport free. We will suppose this limit to be fixed at two hundred pounds. The ticket is issued for say five hundred pounds. If the amount of baggage presented does not exceed two hundred pounds, then no charge is made. Vans weighing more than 50 cwt. can not be sent by passenger train," — Midland liy. of England, Jan.'},\, 1878. The average rates charged for the excess luggage of com- mercial travelers by the Midland Ry. Co. are given in a preceding foot note. "Commercial travelers' vans, vans containing theatrical clothing, round abouts, caravans, showmen's or hawkers' vans, conveyed on carriage trucks at a uniform rate of 12 cents per van, per mile, minimum charge $1.88. Vans weighing more than 50 cwt. can not be sent by passenger train. Private vans containg plate glass, pictures or works of art are charged 25 cents per mile, at owner's risk. Minimum charge $1.88." — London and Northwestern Ry. of England, Dec. 31, 1876.- Baggage Car Traffic. 145 If it does exceed two hundred pounds, then coupons should be detached. When a mileage ticket is presented by the holder of a proper passage ticket, the agent should see that the weight of the baggage exceeds the limit the passenger is entitled to pass free. If it does, coupons should be torn out in consecutive order for the number of miles the baggage is transported, each coupon being good for one mile or fraction of a mile. It is a part of the agreement that, when the distance the bag- gage is to be transported is three miles or less,, the charges will be made for three miles. In the event the baggage weighs more than the amount called for by the mileage ticket, the excess should be collected in cash and the official issuing the ticket, notified of the holder's, attempt to defraud the company. The charges- for such excess should be reported the same as; ordinary baggage. Mileage tickets are not valid when presented by other than the person or persons in whose favor they are made. If presented by any other person cash should be collected and the Gen- eral Baggage Agen-t or official issuing the ticket notified of its improper and unauthorized use. Coupons should not be detached from the ticket except by the agent, as they are not valid when presented to the agent detached from the ticket. 146 Baggage Car Traffic. The mileage ticket should be taken up by the agent and returned to the Ticket Auditor when the coupons have all been detached, or the time for which the ticket was issued has expired. To prevent the use of countierfeits, agents should see that the ticket is signed by the right official and properly stamped. The mileage tickets described are bound in book form, twenty coupons (miles) to a page. The tickets are usually issued good for one thousand miles, i. e., there are one thousand coupons attached. There is, however, no rea- son, except the expense, why the tickets'should not be provided for distances varying from one hundred miles to three thousand miles. The first page of the m^eage ticket (book) describes the number of the ticket (each coupon attached bears a corresponding number), the name of the person to whom issued, the weight of baggage to be transported, etc. In addition to this, each company should require the holder of a ticket to sign a contract specifying the limitations of the ticket and the responsibility of the company; this contract should recite the consideration or price paid for the ticket. This contract should be transmitted for record to the Ticket Auditor by the official selling the ticket ; this is necessary to secure a proper check upon such official, and any attempt to secure a check is incomplete without it. Baggage Oar Traffic. 147 A company should always require similar articles of agreement to be signed and filed when the price to be collected for a thing by an official is discretionary with him. Such a rule would, in the main, protect the company and save the official from distrust. Reference has already been made to the desirability of inserting an auditor's check in the ticket book. The auditor's check should recite the particulars of the ticket. It is simply an extra leaf describing the name of holder, how much baggage he is entitled to,*the num- ber of miles the ticket is issued for, the name of the official issuing the ticket, and the date of issue. When the ticket is first presented for use the auditor's check is detached by the agent and forwarded to the Ticket Auditor. The possession of this information enables the accountant to detect counterfeits or raised tickets, and it is also a necessary part of the check on the official issuing the ticket. And for the same reason as already sug- gested, all tickets, orders, permits or franks issued that are good for more than one trip/ should have an auditor's check attached. This auditor's check is essential to a prompt and complete audit of the accounts. ANOTHEE POEM OF BAGGAGE PERMIT. The quantity of extra baggage which a com- mercial agent, traveling through the country, 148 Baggage Car Traffic. will have to transport, will vary greatly from day to day. The supply of goods which he is selling by sample will become exhausted, and he will, consequently, dispose of the samples in his possession, or he will add new articles to his stock as he progresses on his joarney. Now these passengers are allowed to transport certain baggage, so called. In consideration of the fact that they travel constantly, a company may permit them to carry more than the amount of baggage they would be entitled to as ordinary passengers. It may enter into an agreement with them, that in the event the weight of their baggage or samples does not exceed say two hundred pounds, no charge whatever will be made. To prevent any imposition on the company, that might some- times be successful through oversight or neglect on the part of agents, it is desirable to establish such a penalty as will prevent the holder of the permit we have described from attempting to procure, surreptitiously, the transportation of baggage in excess of the amount he is entitled to, without the payment by him of the usual charges therefor. To cover cases of this kind, it may be mutually agreed that in the event the quantity of baggage pre- sented exceeds the amount agreed iipon, if only by a pound, then the usual charges for excess baggage should be collected for Baggage Car Traffic. 149 the full amount presented, except in those cases where the holder of the order voluntarily noti- fies the agent of such excess ; in such cases agents should charge only for the excess. HOW THE USEFULNESS OF THE MILEAGE TICKET MAY BE INCREASED — ITS USE UPON SUBUR- BAN TRAINS. The mileage coupon ticket seems to be exact- ly what is required to accommodate the mer- chandise and goods parcels that the wants and convenience of suburban residents and mer- chants require should be carried in the baggage car. The price could be adjusted for each ticket in accordance with the peculiar circum- staflces attending it, and the use of the coupons would obviate the delay and annoyance that would otherwise occur in making change in each instance. There is no reason why the value of each coupon attached to the ticket, be they more or less, should not be greatly enhanced. Instead of a coupon being good for one mile (as the present use of the ticket prescribes) it could be made good for any distance, say from New York to Albany. Merchants and others would then purchase the tickets for use as occasion required. The tickets could be made good for any 150 ^Baggage Car Traffic. desired quantity, say ten pounds, or any multi- ple thereof. If the weight of the merchandise or miscel- laneous packages sought to be carried at any one time exceeded ten pounds and fell short of twenty pounds, two coupons instead of one could be detached from the ticket, and so on for each additional ten pounds. The usefulness of the ticket in the hands of a skillful officer is capable of infinite expansion. It would not be difficult to systematize the issue of these tickets so that coupons might be detached by the forwarding agents and pasted upon the package shipped by the suburban residents referred to ; such a plan would require but an instant's time for its execution, and the company would be saved the expense and trouble of way-billing the traffic. The ticket can readily be made a great con- venience to the public and a source of new and important revenue to railroad companies. The consideration given to the parcel traffic abroad is a constant surprise to those familiar with the slight consideration given to the sub- ject by many of our companies. While the mammoth corporations of England look after the convenience and comfort of the passenger with the most painstaking care,^ we are reminded I. " Lavatory and Dressing Room accommodalion, with vari- ous toilet and traveling conveniences, are now provided at the following stations : London (Euston), Liverpool (Lime Street), Baggage Car Traffic. 151 in many ways that they are particular to see that they receive pay for every service rendered.^ Manchester (Victoria and London Road), Chester, Birming- ham (New Street), Shrewsbury (General Station). " Luncheon baskets for passengers traveling by the Up and Down Irish day mails are provided at the Chester Station at the following charges ; " No. I, containing Pinl of Claret or one-half pint of Sherry,"] Chicken, Ham or Tongue, I » Butter, Cheese and Bread, ( * Condiments, J " A reduction, of 36 cents will be made in the price of above should no wine be required. ■ " No. 2, containing Cold Meat or Pie, 1 Bread and Cheese, > 60c. Pint bottle of Ale or Stout, ) " The Baskets must be given up at Holyhead on the Down journey and at Stafford on the Up journey, to be returned to Chester." — Seg. London &' N. W. Ry. Eng. Emulating the practices referred to above, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Road have arranged " neat and roomy wicker hampers" in which to supply passengers upon its limited express between New York and Washington, with such meals as they may have ordered in advance through the conductor of the train. I. " Gentlemen having Seats in the country, and residing occasioniully in London, may have fruit and vegetables for their own use conveyed from any station in the country by passen- ger train, and delivered in London at reduced rates, particu- lars of which may be ascertained on application to ihe Superintendent." — Reg. Midland Ry. of Eng. 152 Baggage Car Traffic. CHAPTER XIII. ACCOUNTING FOE BAGGAGE CAB TEAFFIC. The lack of adequate clerical facilities, and the dispatch with which the business must be conducted, require that the appliances for way- billing extra baggage and other baggage car traffic should be as simple as possible ; hence, in elaborating the following system, every effort has been made to reduce the clerical work of the agent to the minimum, and at the same time make the blanks required as few and convenient to handle as possible. It is, perhaps, proper to state here that in perfecting the system described in this and the accompanying chapters there has been no strain- ing after something new or original. After giving the subject of baggage traffic accounts much thought, in the vain attempt to make cer- tain existing plans answer the purposes required, such plans were reluctantly abandoned, and a new one formed, based on the same general principles that are in use to-day all over the country in connection with the freight and ex- press business. It was necessary to simplify and curtail the form and style of the freight blanks very much, adding several entirely new features ; Baggage. Car Traffic. 153 but the principal features, viz. the unpaid, pre- paid, and back charges, and the collection of charges by the receiving agent, remain the same. It seems evident that had the simplicity and comprehensiveness of the freight system been known to those in charge of the baggage traffic accounts, it would have been adopted by them long ago, THE COUKSE TO BE PURSUED — THE FORM OF WAY-BILL TO BE USED. To relieve the forwarding agent (who is the official most pressed for time) as much as possi- ble, all collections on account of baggage traffic should be made by the agent at the terminal station,^ except in the following cases: a. When the baggage traffic is destined to a station where there is no agent. h. When it is checked through to points on foreign lines. In these cases the charges should be prepaid, i. e., they should be collected by the forwarding agent. While it is f6r many reasons desirable that extra baggage destined to foreign roads should I. The idea of making the receiving agent instead of the forwarding agent collect the charges on baggage car traffic originated, I am advised, with Dr. W. H. Stennett, a gentle- man prominently connected with the passenger business of the Northwest for many years. This idea makes it possible to secure a complete check upon the baggage car traffic. The business has always lacked this check heretofore and many irregularities have occurred in consequence. 154 Baggage Car Traffic. be prepaid, still it is not by any means absolutely necessary that it should be. The baggage is always good for the charges. It may be billed unpaid, and if occasion renders it necessary, charges may also be advanced upon it, as with local baggage. When foreign baggage is billed unpaid, or when charges are advanced on such baggage, the company making the delivery at the place of destination would make the collections and report to the lines interested. When the charges are prepaid they should be entered on the way-bilP by the forwarding agent in the place provided for such charges. When the charges are to be collected at the terminal station, the amount should be entered in the place provided for local charges. I. "A.'- FACE OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC WAY-BILL. Blank Road. No, Parcels From To., How mav/y passage tickets. . No. Pounds Rate. Charges to be collected at tcrnvtnus, viz : Local Charges, $ Back Charges, $ $ 187.. Prepaid charges collected by Forwarding Agent, the said charges being paid in Baggage Traffic way-bills should be bound in book form with Baggage Car Traffic. 155 In forwarding baggage traffic for which cash or its equivalent is to be collected, the ordinary form of baggage traffic way-bill " A " should be used. It would be more convenient for agents, perhaps, if distinctive colors were used in providing for the different forms of baggage traffic way-bill. White pasteboard would answer very well a stub attached for the convenience of the agent in keeping a record of each bill made. "A." BACK OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC WAY-BILL " A." ( ) Detached at Station. Date 1 87. . . . Correct Weight Paid in Gash, viz.: Local Charges, $ Back Charges, $ $ PAID luith Cov/pons, viz. : Local Charges, f5 Paid by Permit No Dated Signed hy NOT^. — This way-bill should be attached to the baggage or parcels by the usual check-strap or in any other way that the nature of the traffic may demand. Upon all parcels a small red label bearing the words " Baggage Car Traffic " might h^pasted so that in the event the way-bill became detached the label would still warn the receiving agent. In reference to extra baggage proper, the distinctive form of excess baggage check given the passenger serves to warn the receiving agent. 156 Baggage Car Traffic. for form "A." "Way-bills might be printed on strong linen paper if thought advisable. The face of each bill should be filled up by the forwarding agent. When a bill reaches its destination it should be detached by the agent and the reverse side of it filled Up in accordance with the facts. In the first place the baggage should be re-weighed by the receiving agent and the excess accurately ascertained. If the local charges are paid in cash, a place is provided for inserting the amount. Back charges should in all cases be paid in cash. If a mileage ticket is presented in settlement of the amount due for local charges, then the agent should detach the number of coupons required, and insert the amount of tbe same in dollars and cents in the place provided. If a trip frank or permit, that can only be used once, is presented", he should take up the same and enter its number and date, also the name of party by whom given. If a season, frank or permit is presented a description of the same should be inserted. A careful record of each way-bill, by both the forwarding and receiving agent, should be entered on the proper station books. From the record thus made on the station books, agents can keep their accounts in order Baggage Car Traffic. 157 and make the abstracts and returns required at the end of the month. The way-bills received by agents each day should be sent forward without delay to the Ticket Auditor. The cash way-bills received each day (whether the cash has actually been collected at the time or not) should be arranged and inclosed in a separate package to the Ticket Auditor. In those cases where way-bills are adjusted by receiving in payment mileage coupons, franks, or permits, as already described, or when settled partly in cash and partly in coupons, franks, or permits, then, and in that case, the agent should inclose each way-bill separately with the coupons, franks, or permit to the Ticket Auditor. It is important that the coupons should reach the Ticket Auditor safely with the way-bill, as the said coupons are the voucher upon which he credits the receiving agent. The value of the coupons to the receiving agent is therefore that of cash. If a frank or permit is lost, a description of it might perhaps answer, but the loss of mileage coupons would be much more serious. Baggage car traffic must be way-billed pre- paid whenever the shipper desires it. In such cases if the charges are paid with mileage 158 Baggage Oar Traffic. coupons, franks, or permits the fact will be stated in the place provided upon the face of the way-bill (A). The coupons, franks, or permits received must be inclosed (a separate inclosure being made for each way-bill, as already du'ected) to the Ticket Auditor, accom- panied by a statement that they were accepted in lieu of cash on account of Baggage Car Traffic way-bill No. forwarded from to • , and giving the date of the bill. But this rule applies only when the traffic which it is desired to prepay is delivered at the depot in time to be properly weighed and billed. When it is not so delivered it should be billed unpaid, as directed elsewhere herein. This provision to prepay the charges on baggage car traffic seems necessary to satisfy the demands (whether reasonable or not) of those who object to the trouble and detention that the payment of the charges at the destina- tion would sometimes involve. When traffic is consigned to a large city or transfer point, there is a basis of reason for the objection of travelers to pay the charges at place of destina- tion, as the quantity of baggage to be unloaded at such points is considerable, the consequent delay might occasion the loss of a train or of means of conveyance to the hotel, etc., but if sufficient time is not allowed the forwarding agent to weigh and bill the baggage, passengers Baggage Car Traffic. ■ 159 can not with reason complain if it is way-billed collectable at place of destination. Unpaid bills adjusted with mileage coupons, franks, or permits should not be entered in dollars and cents on the books or abstracts by the agent making the collection (but would be by the agent at the other end of the route) ; on the contrary a description of what is received in place of cash will be inserted ; and in the same way when prepaid bills are adjusted with mileage coupons, franks, or permits, the amount in dollars and cents should not be entered on the books and abstracts by the forwarding agent, but instead of this a description should be inserted of what was received in lieu of cash. As directed elsewhere, free business should not be included in the monthly abstracts. Free business is intended to mean baggage traffic way-billed upon Form " C," described further on. All way-bills of Form "A" must be included in, the monthly abstracts. It will frequently happen that Form " A " will be used in way-billing baggage when Form " C " should, have been used ; nevertheless Form " A " whenever used must be included in the monthly abstract. As the way-bills and vouchers (coupons, franks, permits, etc.) are sent forward by agents, in advance of the monthly abstracts. 160 Baggage Oar Traffic. their possession by the Ticliet Auditor will enable that officer to see that the agent is correct in his accounts of such payments, or vice versa. Agents should be charged with way-bills in the month in which they are dated, without reference to the time of collection. In case baggage traffic is for any reason re-shipped to another station without the agent having been able to collect the amount charged to him in account, then the agent should detach the original bill, as in other cases, and make a new one, i. e., re-bill the baggage. The new bill should read from the place of re-shipment to destination. In re-bill- ing baggage traffic the amount of the original charges, both locaP arid back, upon the baggage should be inserted in the new way-bill as back charges. At the close of the month the agent that re-billed the baggage should charge himself with the original or first way-bill described above. As a set-off against this charge he should take credit in his monthly balance sheet for the amount of the back charges. The agent who finally collected the back charges should of course "debit himself with such charges the same as he would with the I. The word local charges is intended to mean the unpaid through charges, whether the business is local or foreign. Baggage Gar Traffic. 161 amount of any local charges he might collect. Under ordinary circumstances all unpaid charges should be settled at the point to which the traffic was originally billed. But as cases will arise where this is exceedingly inconvenient or practically impossible, it becomes necessary to arrange to carry such charges forward. The provision herein for hack charges does this. It also provides for any cash advances agents and conductors may find it necessary to make to passengers on their baggage, etc. As already explained, all particulars in reference to baggage traffic must be duly spread upon the cash book and other station books at the time by agents. Agents should take credit in their monthly balance, under the head of " uncollected baggage traffic charges," for the aggregate amount of any and all baggage traffic way-bills charged to them in account, but for which they have not for any reason been able to collect. In connection with this, the agent should be required to forward a detailed and separate statement of the uncollected charges, giving the particulars of the same. This statement should give the original date of the way-bill, date of its receipt, number, point from, point to, correct weight, local charges, and back charges. This statement may properly be called a " list of uncollected charges on baggage car traffic." 162 Baggage Car Traffic. •WHEN THERE IS LACK OP TIME AT FOKWARD- ING STATION. It will frequently occur, as already intimated, that the forwarding agent does not have the requisite time to investigate the facts in reference to supposed extra baggage presented to be checked as ordinary baggage ; or he is unable, perhaps, for want of time, to regularly way-bill the baggage traffic forwarded by him and known to be such. In these and all similar cases ■ he should attach a memorandum bill. Form " B,"^ to the baggage. I. ■' B." MEMORANDUM WAY-BILL OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. c :) From Station. How many Passage Tickets No. of Pieces : Upon receipt of the attached baggage the Receiving Agent will carefully weigh and otherwise investigate the same, and, if the facts warrant it, make an Extra Baggage Way-Bill of the proper form. Note. — When there is more than one parcel a separate bill should be attached to each; in such cases a. number (it is immaterial what) should be inserted in the upper left hand corner, the same number appearing on each bill ; this informa- tion will enable the receiving agent to identify the baggage, and determine the amount of the excess. Baggage Car Traffic. 163 The receiving agent, upon receipt of such baggage, should carefully investigate all the facts in the case, and in the event it is found that the amount is in excess of the quantity entitled to be passed free, then such agent; should make a way-bill of the usual form, "A"^ or "C," as the case requires. The insertion by the forwarding agent of the- number of passage tickets held by the owner, will enable the receiving ^gent to tell just how much baggage is entitled to pass free under the rules, the excess, if any, being chargeable- as extra baggage. The insertion of the number ■ of the station. from which forwarded is not important, but it. will be useful to the receiving agent in locating- definitely the point of shipment if the mani- fest of the train baggageman or the check attached should not furnish the information. To fill up and attach this memorandum bill will require but an instant, and it can conse- quently be done in all cases of doubt, or when the forwarding agent is hurried. In'this way the case is not lost sight of, and no particle of the revenue of a company from this source will be lost. Instances will arise where extra baggage presented for shipment will not be discovered or suspected by the forwarding agent, and will, in consequence, be sent forward without any 164 Baggage Oar Traffic. intimation . or warning to the agent at the terminal station. If such agent, however, is a shrewd, observing official, or is located at an interior point, he will, perhaps, discover the omission. In such a case he should make a way-bill, using the regular form. As already indicated, the baggage check attached, or the information contained in the ttain baggage- man's manifest, ought to be such as to enable the agent to locate the point of shipment. Whenever for any reason it is necessary for the receiving agent to make a way-bill, he should, so far as possible, fill up both sides of the blank. The number as entered on the bill should in such cases be preceded by the letters " R. A." (Receiving Agent), as " R. A. 41." In numbering bills of this description, the receiv- ing agent should commence with No. 1 on the first of each month. A duplicate of each bill of this character should be made by the receiv- ing agent, and forthwith transmitted to the forwarding agent. The word " Duplicate " should be written in ink across both sides of the duplicate. Whenever the letters " R. A." precede the number upon a bill, it will inform the Ticket Auditor, and all others interested, that the bill in question was made by the receiving agent. When for any reason baggage traffic is stopped in transit, for delivery to the owner at Baggage Oar Traffic. 165 an intermediate station, or when the train baggageman, under the direction of the owner, carries it beyond the point to which it is billed, then the agent at the station where it is unloaded shall insert in the way-bill the right destination, and should correct the local charges, making them more or less as the tariff pre- scribes, sending a notice of the correction, without delay, to the forwarding agent, so that he may alterhis books. BAGGAGE TEAFPIC TO AND FROM FOEBIGN EOADS. In billing baggage traffic through to points on foreign lines, Form "A" shouldj be used, as in other cases. , The charges, however, as already explained, should, for obvious reasons, be prepaid, though a better check would be secured on the collecting agent by billing it unpaid. In the event the agent is unable regularly to bill the baggage, as already explained in connection with local baggage, as described under head of Form " B," then he should pursue exactly the same course as directed in that case. If baggage traffic is received from points on foreign lines without way-bill or other indica- tion of its coming under that head, the receiving agent should, when the facts in the case come to his knowledge, make a through 166 Bceggage Car Traffic. way-bill, form " A," as directed elsewhere in similar cases for local baggage. Tlie reversible checks giving the name of the station from which checked will assist him to fix the amount of charges due on any baggage traflBc he may receive from foreign lines. The proportion belonging to the respective companies for baggage traffic billed through from one line to or over another should be fixed the same as foreign passenger business, viz.: upon such basis as the officers of the lines interested may mutually agree upon. The reports of proportions due foreign companies on account of collections for baggage traffic passing over their lines can be made supple- mental to the monthly coupon (passenger) report, or a separate report can be made, as seems most desirable. The report should, however, give all the information shown by the way-bill, so that each company interested may properly locate each item of baggage it trans- ports. In connection with the inter-road business, the train baggagemen on lines intermediate between the point of shipment and final destination, should be required by their respective companies to send to their Ticket Auditor an accurate transcript of each and every through way-bill. This information is necessary to enable the intermediate company Baggage Car Traffic. 167 to see that it receives its just proportion of all the through baggage traffic transported by it. In the event the agent at the terminal point for inter-road business discovers that the amount collected at the point of shipment is not enough, he should fill up and enter the correct amount on the reverse side of the inter- road -wa.y-bill. Several changes will, however, be required in the phraseology of the waj'-bill to meet the requirements of cases of this kind. The amount collected by the forwarding com- pany he (the receiving agent) should insert opposite the words " local charges." These words he will alter to read "prepaid charges." The amount of the undercharge to be collected by him he should insert in the place provided for " back charges." He should, however, run his pen through the words " back charges," inserting " undercharge " in their place. This undercharge should be reported by the collect- ing company to the other companies interested, the same exactlj' as if it was for extra baggage forwarded instead of received. In the event the agent at the receiving station discovers that the forwarding company (i. e. the foreign agent) has charged too much, then he (the receiving agent) will make a note of the fact and report it to the Ticket Auditor, but will not alter the way-bill. Except when agents discover that baggage 168 Baggage Car Traffic. traffic received from foreign Hues is under- charged, as already described, they will not alter or fill up the reverse side of way-bills received from such foreign lines. When way-bills, foreign or local, are billed prepaid and are correctly billed, no amount will, of course, be inserted on the reverse side of the way-bill by the receiving agent. If the bill is corrected the amount collected by the receiving agent will be inserted opposite local charges. In the event that the receiving agent dis- covers that local prepaid baggage traffic has not been charged enough, then the amount of the imdercharge will be inserted on the reverse side of the waj-bill and duly collected. In the event the amount prepaid for local traffic is too great, then the receiving agent should notify the Ticket Auditor of the amount of the overcharge, but should make no correc- tion upon the way-bill, except to note the amount of the overcharge across the margin of it. Claims for overcharges should be referred to the Ticket Auditor for adjustment. A way-bill should be transmitted to the Ticket Auditor for every pound of extra bag- gage transported whether free or otherwise. Baggage Car Traffic. 169 AOOOUNTING POE TRAFFIC PASSED -WITHOUT CASH PAYMENTS. It remains to provide for those cases where the agent is unable to transmit to the Ticket Auditor direct and palpable reasons why he does not collect cash or remit its equivalent for the baggage traffic which he permits to pass. He will be unable to do this when passengers hold season baggage franks or permits, or franks or permits good for a stipulated period, or when the frank or permit is written on the back of a passage ticket or pass, or when the agent is authorized, in his discretion, to pass baggage traffic free. It -is manifestly impossible, in cases of the kind recited, that the order authorizing the transportation of the traffic should be trans- mitted to the Ticket Auditor with the way- bill. That officer is consequently compelled to rest satisfied with a statement or description of the order. . This description he can compare or verify with the records of his office, which, as already explained, should be complete in every particular. In the cases we have just referred to and in others of a similar character, agents should be 170 Baggage Car Traffic. provided with a special form of way-bill. Form " C."^ This form should be filled up and attached to the baggage by the forwarding agent, or in the event he does not have the time to fill it up, a blank way-bill of this form should be attached. This blank in such cases should be filled up by the receiving agent, but a copy need not be sent to the forwarding agent. The receiving agent is required, as in other cases, to detach way-bills of Form "C " upon receipt of bag- gage traffic and transmit the same to the Ticket Auditor. In the event baggage traffic of the character we have just described reaches a sta- tion without any way-bill attached, then the receiving agent should make a bill and send it to the Ticket Auditor, but a copy need not be sent to the forwarding agent. SPECIAL BAGGAGE TRAFFIC WAY-BILL. Extra Baggage amownU/ag to.. lbs. passed from to on account of Dated 187. No Baggage Car Traffic. 171 Detailed repoa-ts should be made to the Ticket Auditor daily, by the Geueral Baggage Agent and others, of all franks or permits issued, also all mileage, season or commutation tickets disposed of ; this information will be in constant requisition by the Ticket Auditor for the purpose of verifying the way-bills and accounts of agents transmitted to him. Baggage traffic way-bills (Form " A.") must be numbered consecutively, commencing with number one on the first of each month. Special baggage traffic way-bills (Form " C") need not be numbered. Baggage should never be checked except upon the presentation of a passage 'ticket. When the baggage is checked the passage ticket should be punched with the usual station baggage punch. If this is done the ticket can not be used twice for the same purpose. SOMETHING ABOUT THE POKM OF BAGGAGE ■ TRAPPIO "WAY-BILLS — THE PORM USEn ABROAD. In view of the action of the General Ticket and Passenger Agents' Association, requiring each company to report charges collected by it on account of excess baggage destined to points upon-other lines, the editor of the Offi- cial Railway Guide prints a form of blank already in use in New England, in connection 172 Baggage Oar Traffic. with inter-road traffic pf this description.^ He says: "The form is very simple, and yet seems to, cover all the ground required. Its various por- tions respectively designate the 'excess bag- gage,' enable the baggage master to make out his report of collections and furnish a voucher therefor, and allows each road over which the baggage is transported to ascertain the extra amount charged. In the hands of the passen- ger it becomes his receipt for the payment of the extra charge. The checks may be printed on heavy manila tag stock, which would be sufficiently strong for the purpose intended." Those practically familiar with the details of the baggage department and the accounting connected with the excess charges on extra baggage, will understand how desirable it is, if possible, to avoid printing the number on the baggage traffic way-bill. The amount entered thereon is never the same, and in that respect the bill differs fro^m the coupon passage ticket. Why the excess baggage way-bill should have 8 M| 9t O n w 1 = S t Ml 9» 25 if, i i ■QO ;iH 4 w a _ s? ■ s® 3NTIN ccess Ba Form FBOII W To » : t" : S : < : li UHl 9fr Baggage Car Traffic. 173 a printed number any more than the through freig'ht way-bill, it is difficult to tell. The cost involved for printing and accounting in excess of what a plain unnumbered blank would cost, cannot but be very great. "While the ticket referred to by the Gruide possesses many desir- able qualities, it is not sufficiently comprehen- sive to answer all the varied requirements of the business. It does not possess sufficient elasticity, besides, it presupposes the prepay- ment of the charges in every instance. It makes no provision for advances being made on baggage, while it is evident that the interests of a company frequently require that advances should be made. Either of the defects named are fatal to the permanence and usefulness of the form in question, or any form based upon a similar theory.^ 1. In this connection I desire to— say that although the blanks contained herein, original with me, are copyrighted, I am not disposed to take advantage of such fact in the event any railway company should desire to use them. 174 Baggage Car Traffic. t— ( < •< ■« H II all w o <; o c <; D < o C4 c rl .n .a 1 ^3 m (U rr' % (U ■J !^ ^ (A g ri ■ r! ~2. ,Q ri lU hn -M 3 a; T3 S 0) 4) > J3 il « H xi u 1 u h 13 t: n. *■■ biJ w Baggage Car Traffic. . 175 CHAPTER XIV. AOCOtTNTIKG FOE THE PROCEEDS OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. After the adoption of a simple and compre- hensive form of condacting the baggage car traffic, such as we have sketched, it remains to provide the machinery required to secure intelligent accounting upon the part of agents, so that the auditing of the accounts may be prompt and thorough. In auditing the freight accounts of a road the receipts of stations correspond exactly with the amounts reported as forwarded by the various stations, and the fact that they so agree is corroborative evidence of the correctness of the accounting. This check is hardly possible with the baggage car traffic. It is only occasionally that it is necessary to correct the original extensions as entered on a freight way-bill. With the bag- gage car traffic it is different. The forwarding agent does not have the time that the freight agent does to accurately weigh the freight and bill it correctly : on the contrary, he is com- pelled, as we have shown, frequently to estimate 176 _ Baggage Car Traffic. the weight of the shipment. These estimated amounts the receiving agent corrects, substi- tuting the actual figures. Now, unless the re- ceiving agent notifies the forwarding agent of these corrections, so that the latter may alter his books, the amounts as returned by the two agents will not, of course, agree. The receiving agent can be required to notify the forwarding agent of all changes made . upon the latter's bills, but as the number of these alterations promise to be very large, it seems very desirable, if possible, to avoid the labor and expense of sending such notices. By reference to the form of return made by agents, "D" and" E," it will be seen that pro- vision has been made for the constantly recur- ring differences noticed. Baggage car traffic billed to stations at which there are no agents, must be taken up on the books and in the returns of the agent at the next station beyond, and the billing agent will report it in his monthly abstract as forwarded to such station. The reports, books, and accounts in connec- tion with the baggage car traffic, to be written up by agents, in addition to the 'usual forms of way-bills are few and inexpensive. They may be described in order as follows : Baggage Car Traffic. 177 MONTHLY ABSTRACT OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC FORWARDED. 'D >>l For the baggage traffic forwarded from the different stations the agents thereat are required to make a monthly abstract. The abstract should be sent to the Ticket Auditor on the fifth day after the close of the month. All the way-bills for each station to which baggage traffic has been billed during the month should be grouped together. The bills for each station should, so far as. possible, be entered in numerical order. If no baggage traffic has been forwarded during the month, the headings of a blank abstract should be filled up and transmitted. The abstract should embrace a correct state- ment of every way-bill forwarded, excepting^ baggage billed free as described elsewhere. I. "D." Monthly Abstract of Baggage Car Traffic Forwarded from Station for the month of , 187^. 2_S "^s-ti, » ■gsSM.S Note. — A Record Book of the same form and style, sub- stantially, as the above should be kept at each station. The column headed "unpaid local charges as corrected by the 178 Baggage Oar Traffic. Following each station the total footings for such station should be entered. In making the abstract the column headed " unpaid local charges as corrected by the receiving agent," should not be .filled up by the agent, but should be left blank to be filled up by the Ticket Auditor. Stations should be arranged in the abstract in the order in which they are named in the list of stations. When baggage traflSc is billed to points on foreign lines, such places should be entered last in the abstract; the stations for each foreign road should be grouped together in alphabetical order. To enable the Ticket Auditor to iden- tify the destination and route of foreign bills, the number of the coupon ticket Form should be entered after the name of the place of destination. Baggage traffic to or from the same point, but going via a different route, should be entered separately in the abstracts. At stations where a copying press is used an impression of the abstract should be preserved. At the close of the abstract a recapitulation should be entered, giving the aggregate amounts forwarded to the different stations and places. The recapitulation should be footed. Upon receipt of the abstracts by the Ticket receiving agent," should be omitted from such book, but in place of this a column for the Rate should be inserted. Baggage Car Traffic. 17!) Auditor it should be the duty of that officer to compare the same with the way-bills and with the abstracts of baggage traffic received, as returned by agents and others, any errors or omissions being carefully corrected and the agent forthwith notified of the same. MONTHLY ABSTRACT OP BAGGAGE CAB TEAPPIC RECEIVED. •E. "1 Agents at the various stations should be required to make a monthly abstract of all bag- gage traffic received by them each month, except baggage billed free on Form "C." If nothing is received then a blank abstract should be filled up and sent to the Ticket Auditor. Way-bills should be included in the month in which they are dated, and if not so included they should be added by the Ticket Auditor. I. "E." Monthly Abstract of Baggage Car Traffic Received at. . Station for the Month __ 187 . £ g •Cl WS ' So .is ^ 0) QJ ^H r- 4 .0 I- u r <»"< ft ?f A record book similar to the above form should be kept at each station for entering baggage traffic received. A column for the " Rate " should be added in such book ; also a column for the address of the owner. 180 Baggage Car Traffic. Baggage traffic way-billed by the receiving asrent should be included in the abstract of the month in which the baggage was received at the terminal point. All other way-bills should be included in the month in which they are made by the forwarding agent. Way-bills received after the abstract for the month has gone forward should forthwith be ' transmitted to the Ticket Auditor with a letter explaining the case. The abstract should embrace all way-bills excepting those billed free on Form " C," as already intimated. The various columns of the abstract should be filled up as per their respective headings. The footings of every way-bill, whether cor- rected or not, should be entered by agents in the column headed " unpaid local charges as corrected by receiving agent." When the local charges as corrected are the same as those originally inserted in the way-bill by the for- warding agent, then the amount need not be entered in the column preceding the one named above ; in all other cases both columns should be filled up. The abstract should be sent to the Ticket Auditor on the fifth day after the close of the month. The abstracts are held by agents until the fifth of the succeeding month, so as to give Baggage Oar Traffic. 181 ample time for all bills to reach their destina- tion in time to be included in the account for the month in which they are dated. All the way-bills for each station from which baggage traffic has been received during the month should be grouped together; the bills should, so far as possible, be entered iii numeri- cal order. Following each station the total footings'for such station should be entered. Stations should be arranged in the order in which they are named in the list of stations. When baggage traffic is received from points located on foreign lines, the account of such business should be entered last in the abstract, the stations for each foreign road being grouped together in alphabetical order. At stations where a copying press is used an impression of the abstract should be preserved. At the close of the abstract, a recapitulation should be entered, giving the aggregate amounts received from the different stations and places. The recapitulation should be footed. Upon receipt of the abstracts by the Ticket Auditor, it should be the duty of that officer to compare the s^me with the way-bills, and with the abstracts of baggage traffic forwarded, as returned by agents and others, any errors or omissions being carefully corrected, and the agent forthwith notified of the same. 182 Baggage Car Traffic. It should also be the duty of the Ticket Auditor, before certifying to the baggage traffic returns of agents for the month to the general accounting officer, to see that the aggregate amount received from local stations agrees exactly with the Smount forwarded from local stations, etc., etc. STORAGE OF BAGGAGE, LOST CHECKS, ETC. Agents are required to make a report to the Ticket Auditor, each month, of all moneys col- lected on account of lost checks. This report must also embrace collections for storage, and other miscellaneous purposes incident to the handling and care of baggage. The body of the report must specify : the date of collection ; number of check or ticket ; from whom col- lected ; what the collection was made for ; and, finally, the amount collected. Agents should make a special charge, in their monthly balance sheet, of the amount of all collections made by them for lost baggage checks, storage of baggage and kindred objects, as referred to in the preceding paragraph. No account of such collections should be entered in the baggage abstracts. Baggage Oar Traffic. 183 LIST OP UNCOLLECTED CHARGES ON BAGGAGE GAR TRAFEIC. P. "1 In the event there are any outstanding charges clue at the close of the month the agent should take credit for such amount, as already- directed in his monthly balance sheet, and for- ward with the same a "list of uncollected charges on baggage car traffic." RECEIPTS MUST BE GIVEN FOR ALL MONEYS COLLECTED. 'G " 3 Agents should be required in all cases to give List of Uncollected Charges on Baggage Car Traffic at . Station for the Month of . ,187 . —I en's 1 60 S _ oj oj fc, d +^ c y 's 'IT Ct, "w a) ■-5^ CD fL > t,r 2. "G." station. Blanlc Boaa, —187 . $ , for Charges on Baggage Car Traffic, viz. Way Bill No - Station Agent, 187 . 184 Baggage Car Traffic. a receipt for all charges collected by them on baggage traffic. This receipt is at once a protection to the company, to the agent, and to the passenger. POCKET MEMORANDUM BOOK OP BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC FORWARDED. " H."^ For the convenience of the agent in keep- ing a record of any baggage traffic he may bill, he should be provided with a small record or pocket memorandum book in which he can note, at the time, such particulars as he will subsequently require in writing up the perma- nent records and accounts of the station. Tlie little clerical work connected with the billing of the baggage car traffic will have to be done, in the majority of cases, on the depot platform. This fact has not been forgotten in arranging the form of way-bill to be used, the size being so reduced, compared with ordinary freight way-bills, that they can be carried without in- i."H." Memorandum Record of Baggage Car Traffic billed at Station. ri to Baggage Car Traffic 185 convenience or soiling in the pocket of the agent. When a stub is attached to the way-bill, it should be used ; no entry need then be made in this book in such cases. The memorandum book can also be used to record collections for lost checks, storage, etc., a portion of it being set apart for that express purpose. It remains to provide a form of correction sheet, to be used by agents in notifying each other when local charges are changed in consequence of alteration being made in the destination of the baggage, as already- described, or when for any other reason it may be desired to send a notice of correction.^ To make the check on the baggage traffic Agent at _ ^NOTICE OF EEROES. "I." Station, _ Station . -187 / kave con' to read to "cted Bap sase "ar Traffic Way Bill s : station as follow ^1 6=* S S 1 2 ■3 aj If Note. — The Ticket Auditor will require a blink similar in many respects to the above form for use in notifying agents of corrections made in their abstracts and way-bills. 186 Baggage Oar Traffic. complete, the train baggageman should be required to report to the ticket accountant the particulars of each and every baggage traffic way-bill. A report should be forwarded for each train. It should recite : The date of the way-bill ; number ; where from ; where to ; weight; local charges ; prepaid charges. Such a report is indispensable to the ticket account- ant. In the event agents and others should omit way-bills from their monthly abstracts, the information afforded by this report will enable the ticket accountant to at once discover and correct the omissions. It is also a complete record of inter-road business, and is especially valuable to the lines intermediate between th.e billing and receiving companies. Baggage Car Traffic. 187 CHAPTER XV. INSTRUCTIONS TO AGENTS, STATION BAGGAGE- MASTERS, TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN AND OTHERS IN REFERENCE TO THEIR DUTIES IN CON- NECTION WITH THE REGUI.AR BUSINESS OP THE BAGGAGE DEPARTMENT. A brief description of the workings of the ordinary business of the Baggage Department at the stations and upon the trains is appropriate here. This description can, perhaps, best be given by describing the rules and regulations that should govern agents and baggagemen. In preparing these rules and regulations a careful examination has been made of the workings of many prominent and well managed roads. The instructions are, therefore, not the work of any one man, but represent the expe- rience of many. They have been carefully re- vised and greatly enlarged, and seem to embrace, with what has already been written, everything that it is important an agent or baggageman should know. These rules, as already inti- mated, have little to do with the baggage car traffic for which pay is exacted, further than that they harmonize generally with the directions already laid down in preceding chapters. 188 Baggage Car Traffic. OENEKAL INSTKTJCTIONS TO AGENTS AND TKAIN BAGGAGEMEN. The liability of the railway company for the loss of baggage, or for any unnecessary or avoidable injury done to it while in the com- pany's possession, seems to be, whether justly or not, an established fact. It is therefore especially important that those connected in any way with the baggage department should exercise the utmost care in handling and watch- ing over the baggage intrusted to them. It should be remembered that the interests of the company and the interests of the passenger are identical. All employes in any way connected with the department are expected at all times to exercise their skill and ingenuity to the utmost, in securing for the company they represent, every species of revenue that justly belongs to it. The employes are not allowed to collect or accept any fee, or perquisite for acts per- formed, or for concessions granted by them.'' When no charge is exacted by a company I. "The servants of the company are strictly prohibited from receiving gratuities, and passengers are urgently requested tf abstair from giving them money ; any servant of the com- pany detected accepting a gratuity will be liable to fine or dismissal." — Reg. London and N. W. Jiy., Eng. " No gratuity under any circumstances is permitted to be taken by any servant of this company." — lieg. Midland Ry. of Eng. Baggage Oar Traffia. 18& for a particular service, none should be made by its employes. When upon duty they must wear the uni- form prescribed by the company. For the information of the General Baggage Agent, and to enable that officer to trace the- baggage transported by the company, and for other reasons, he requires an accurate report of the number of each and every check attached to the trunks or parcels carried. It is also directed that when unchecked pack- ages are transported, a brief description of the same, including the address, must be entered OU) the various records and statements. Envelopes containing ordinary statements, reports, letters, etc., are excepted from this ruie. A careful record must, however, be made of all valuable letters or packages said to contain valuable inclosures. The record of all valuable letters. and packages and all unchecked parcels must- be so clear and explicit that they may be traced from point of delivery to place of destination. Agents and train baggagemen will be held! personally responsible for the value of all pack- ages for which they receipt, unless the same are- delivered by them in like good order at desti- nation or unavoidably destroyed by fire or otherwise while in their possession. It thus- becomes of the greatest importance to agents- and baggagemen that they should carefully compare the articles with the receipt before 190 Baggage Car Traffic. signing the same, otherwise they may become responsible for property never in their pos- session. No person except authorized officials must be allowed to have access to the baggage or baggage checks in the company's possession. Stationery, reports, and blanks of all kinds connected with the baggage department should be procured by requisition from the company's stationer. No one will be permitted to open a trunk or package without first delivering up the check for the same, and formally receiving the baggage or parcel. Rough handling of baggage, improper lan- guage to passengers,^ boisterous conduct, pro- fanity or incivility of any nature, to or in the presence of passengers, on the part of the agents or baggagemen will occasion the inflic- .tion of a severe penalty by the company. Employes of the baggage department must be so manifestly caref-ul and painstaking in the performance of their duties -as to relieve the public of all just cause of complaint.* 1. " In all their deportment towards passengers they will be gentlemanly and accommodating ; and when passengers expect or claim what if may not be proper to grant they can decline with such explanation or reasons as will be likely to prove satisfactory, and not the cause of offense. They will not permit passengers to ride in the baggage car.'' — Regulations III. Road, 1853. 2. " Baggage is sometimes injured by careless handling, but I do not think it is worse treated in Italy than elsewheie. There are occasional complaints of pillage of trunks by con- Baggage Oar Traffic. 191 In receipting for baggage the condition of the locks should be particularly examined. Agents and baggagemen are instructed to tie up, or otherwise carefully secure any baggage they receive in bad order and any baggage that may get in bad order while it is in their care. Rope or cordage for this purpose will be furnished by the company's storekeeper. All articles found in the cars or upon the track and remaining uncalled for twenty-four hours, and all articles found at stations and remaining uncalled for one week, must be for- warded to the general baggage office.-' A state- ment must accompany all such articles. This statement must recite the date when the article was found, also the number of train or name of place, name of person by whom found, also a description of the article and the name of the person transmitting the same. STATEMENTS AND RETURNS BBQUIEED OP AGENTS. They should keep a record of all baggage ductors and baggagemasters, but in the many, thousands of miles I have traveled of railway in Italy, since i860, I have never lost anything by theft except trunk-straps, which, unless nailed to the trunk, are taken off not unfrequently." — Private letter from Italy. I. A full and complete record should be kept in the general baggage office of all articles transmitted to such office. " All articles found in trains and not claimed within twenty-four hours will be sent to the general office of the com- pany, and in such cases due notice must be given." — Roman Railway, 1872. 192 Baggage Oar Traffic. forwarded from or received at their stations. This record must give the number of the train^ date, number of the check, and name of train baggageman. For baggage forwarded it must give place of destination, and for .baggage received, it must give name of place where checked. They should deliver, with all baggage loaded into baggage cars, a detailed description of the same, taking the receipt of the train baggage- man upon the stub corresponding to such' detailed description. This Way-Bill of Baggage Forwarded must recite the date, name of the station where loaded, the numbers of the checks and place of destination, a description being given when no check is attached. \ They are required to sign and transmit to the General Baggage Agent the "statement of baggage delivered " which they receive with baggage and parcels from train baggagemen. All claims for loss or damage, or complaints relative to baggage must be addressed to the General Baggage Agent. They should promptly advise the General Baggage Agent of any carelessness or neglect of duty upon the part of train baggage- men; they will also advise him of any other matters of special importance concerning the baggage department that the interests of the company render it desirable he should know. All communications concerning checks, miss- Baggage Oar Traffic. 193' ing baggage, etc., should be addressed directly to the General Baggage Agent. The following statements, reports, etc., required by the General Baggage Agent are explained more fully further on : 1st. Applications for lost baggage. 2d. Receipts for mismatched checks. 3d. Receipts for baggage delivered,. for which checks are lost. 4th. Weekly reports of unclaimed baggage and parcels. 5th. Baggage to be returned with estray cards attached, when the said baggage has remained unclaimed for thirty days. 6th. To transmit on each Monday all super- fluous checks on hand. 7th. To transmit with statement all odd or- mismatched checks. * 8th. Copies of orders of owners, directing- unclaimed baggage to be forwarded. 9th. Train baggagemen's Statements of bag- gage delivered at stations. STATEMENT OF BAGGAGE DELIVERED BY TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN TO AGENTS. Agents, on receiving from train baggagemen the usual statement for baggage delivered at their station, will at once compare the numbers of checks as entered on said statement with the numbers of checks on the baggage, and if found to be correct they will sign the said statement. 13 194 Baggage Car Traffic. If incorrect, the words "not correct" will be written at the foot of the statement, and the error or discrepancy noted in full on the back." This notation on the back of the statement must also be signed by the agent. They will in no case change the figures on the baggage- men's statement of baggage delivered, or at- tempt to "correct errors, except as above in- structed by notations on the back thereof. They will sign and inclose the statement of baggage delivered at their stations by train bag- gagemen to the General Baggage Agent, by the first passenger train. DIBECTIONS FOE CHECKING BAGGAGE, THE CARE OF CHECKS, ETC. Agents are required in all cases to check the baggage of passengers, giving to each passen- ger in exchange for his baggage, the form of check provided for such purpose.^ When a passenger has more than one piece of baggage, each piece must be checked. Packages must not be checked when articles are attached, such as umbrellas, coats, shawls, I. " AH office porters, before pasting a label on any descrip- tion of luggage, are to see if any of the company's labels be already thereon, when 'such is the case, the new label is to be pasted over the old one. " All articles of luggage for London, not taken charge of by the passengers themselves, are' to have red labels pasted on, showing the initial letter of the owner's surname." — English Road. Baggage Oar Traffic. 195 etc., but the passenger must be first required to detach such articles. The delivery of the check to the passenger is an acknowledgement of the possession of the baggage by the railroad company. In loading baggage, particularly at the start- ing point, that which is to be unloaded first should so far as possible be put into the car last. An intelligent observance of this rule will greatly relieve the train baggagemen and will save much unnecessary handling of baggage, thus decreasing the risk of its being damaged while in the company's possession. Agents must not allow baggage to be put on board passenger trains without being checked.* Packages will not be received or checked as baggage, unless accompanied by a passenger. Agents should request passengers to get their baggage checked before train time.^ They must in all cases have passengers show their tickets before cheeking their baggage. In no case should they check baggage unless the passenger has a ticket or a pass, and they should not check beyond the destination of the said ticket or pass. They must at all times keep a sufficient supply 1. "No baggage must be put on board unless its destination is known."^-l853. 2. " Unless baggage is delivered fifteen minutes before the starting time of a train, it will not be forwarded by such train. Baggage will not be forwarded unless the owner exhibits a passage ticket." — Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. 196 Baggage Oar Traffic. of checks on hand to accommodate the business of their stations. They are not allowed to lend the checks assigned to their particular use, to other agents or to train baggagemen. They should be particular to see that checks are properly matched before handing them to passengers. Theyare required to examine carefully all checks on hand, once in each week, and see that they are properly matched. They will also examine them when stringing them for use. They will be held accountable for the proper matching of checks. They will send to the General Baggage Agent, on Monday of each week, all of the local and baggage traffic checks that can be spared. The card attached should give the name of the sta- tion from which the checks are sent, with the statement noted thereon, "not needed." All odd or mismatched checks must be for- warded to the general baggage office promptly, with a full explanation of each particular case. In checking baggage to local points, agents should use the station baggage numbers as they are given on the official list. They should check baggage to all stations on the company's lines to which they sell local tickets. For this purpose local checks should be used. Baggage Car Traffic. 197 Baggage destined to points on foreign roads must be checked via the route over which the passenger holds a ticket. If agents have no checks by such route, they will not check beyond their company's line except when the passenger desires the baggage to be checked to some point ew route. Reversible checks will in all cases be used in checking baggage through to points on foreign lines. Baggage should be marked plainly with the number of station to which it is sent. For indicating the number of station to which baggage is destined, the usual cardboard tag will be used.^ Agents can not be too careful not to make a mistake in entering the number of the station, on the cardboard tag referred to above ; any such mistake involves the miscarriage of the property and its possible loss. Baggage should never be marked with chalk. Agents will not, under any circumstances, double check baggage from their station to any other station. When it is necessary to forward baggage that does not bear a check, and that is not accom- panied by the owner, they will put a strap check on the baggage and send the duplicate I. " All baggage to go on the cars must be put in the most convenient place for loading, and must always be plainly labelled or marked, to showwhere it is to be delivered." — 1853. 198 Baggage Car Traffic. in a letter to the agent at the station where the baggage is to be left. In the letter of advice the receiving agent should be informed what kind of baggage the check calls for and to whom it belongs. This rule applies only to baggage destined to local points. Baggage checked in the manner described must be identified by the owner before delivery. LOST AND BSTRAY BAGGAGE. When checks are presented for which agents have no baggage, they must ascertain at what station the baggage was checked, and the date and train checked for; also any distinguishing marks that may be upon it or in it.^ They will then make applications to the General Baggage Agent, giving the above facts with the numbers of the checks, and inform him where the baggage should be sent. When they receive checks from passengers to send for baggage, they must be particular to give the' name of the owner of the baggage, the description and marks upon the baggage and I. " If baggage or pieces of baggage are missing on arrival at destination the passenger will at once notify the agent, giving number and weight of missing pieces. In exchange for the receipt delivered up by the passenger the agent must give the passenger a certificate stating number and weight of missing pieces." — Roman Railvmy, 1872. "Persons applying for missins; luggage should be asked for full particulars of their luggage and contents, name of owner, with any other names or addresses that may be either in or on it, and date on which it was lost." — Reg. Clearing House, Eng. Baggage Oar Traffic. 199 the route by which the passengers traveled. In the event of there being more than one passenger, the number of passengers must be given. " When luggage is forwarded to some other station for inspection, or otherwise,, the station to which it has been forwarded is to be fully advised by the forwarding station ; for whom, and why sent. Articles forwarded from one station to another for inspection, must, if not claimed, be at once returned to the station from which they were sent."^ LOST CHECKS. When claims are made for baggage by parties who have lost their checks, the baggage must not be delivered until it has been fully identified. The claimant must be required to mention some of the' leading articles of contents, prodace the key to the baggage, open the same, and finally pay to the agent making the delivery, fifty cents, the price of the lost check, and at the same time give a receipt for the baggage to the agent. The receipt must be dated and must embody a complete description of the property, iricluding the number of the missing check. The receipt and strap check must be inclosed to the office of the General Baggage Agent to I. Reg. Clearing House, Eng. 200 Baggage Car Traffic. be filed and preserved ; the money must be for- ' warded as in other cases. ^ UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE. Agents who receive orders to forward unclaimed baggage must send a copy of each order to the general baggage office unless the order is signed by the General Baggage Agent. In all cases they must notify the General Baggage Agent of any distinguishing marks on unclaimed baggage when it is received by them. They must make a report on Saturday of each week of all unclaimed baggage and parcels at their stations, giving numbers of checks, and when not checked, a description of baggage or property, and send it to the General Baggage Agent on the first passenger train .^ When baggage has remained unclaimed thirty days at stations it must be sent to the General Baggage Agent, or elsewhere as he may direct, with an estray 'card attached stating the date when baggage was left at station and where it came from. At the same time the General 1. " In default of a receipt proving ownership, parties must prove ownership and must give a receipt, or bond of indem- nity according to circumstances, before baggage will be delivered to them. As a rule, baggage must be surrendered only at those stations to which it is billed. But if tax and duty regulations allow, it may be surrendered at a prior station, • upon the return of the receipt." — Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. 2. All lost or unclaimed baggage left at any station, must be immediately entered in a book for the purpose, and re- ported to the Superintendent." — 1853. Baggage Car Traffic. 201 Baggage Agent must be fully advised of the facts by letter.^ BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. When passengers have more than one piece of excess baggage (i. e. baggage coming under the head of " baggage car traffic,") each piece must be checked with a baggage traffic check. Agents must be especially careful in pre- venting baggage traffic way-bills from being taken from baggage by interested parties. Baggage or parcels to which baggage traffic way-bills are attached, must not be given up until the owner has paid the charges on same. An expense bill (receipt) must be filled up and kept on file by the agent for all unpaid charges on baggage car traffic. MtSCELLANEOTJS INSTRUCTIONS TO AGENTS. Agents will collect and report storage at tariJEf rates when baggage is not taken away within the time specified in said tariff. They will also collect and report the fee pre- scribed on all parcels, bundles, etc., left tem- porarily in their charge. I. " Station masters are particularly requested to have a periodical examination of the cloak or left luggage room, cases having occurred in which lost luggage has been found there." — Jieg. Clearing House, Eng, " When owners after notice will not remove baggage in store? and likely to be damaged, such baggage will be sold without further notice as provided in special conditions. The same disposition will be made of baggage if not taken away within fourteen days unless otherwise agreed." — Roman Railway. 202 Baggage Car Traffic. Baggage proper consists of the wearing apparel or personal effects of a passenger, one hundred pounds of which is allowed to each passenger free ; for all over one hundred pounds, tariff rates must be charged, except in cases otherwise specially provided. Jewelry and oth^r valuable goods, unless they pertain to the wearing apparel of the passen- ger, must not be received as baggage. Such articles come under the head of express or parcel business. If forwarded as baggage car traffic a release must in all cases be exacted.^ Perishable property must be prepaid and will not be received except at the owner's risk, a formal release being exacted in each case by the agent the same as for perishable freight. A release must also be signed for light or fragile articles, such as children's wagons, cradles, cribs, musical instruments, also for dogs and other animals. When a release is not given double the regular rates should be charged. The tariff rate for transporting a corpse is i. form of release for baggage car .traffic. : Station, 187 . For and in consideration of the transportation of by passenger trains from 1 to in the same manner as ordinary baggage, I hereby release the _ company from all responsibility for loss or damage to the same or contents while in said company's charge between the points named. ' Agent or Owner. Check Nos I I .... I Charges, % Baggage Qar Traffic. 203 the price of . . first class ticket . . : the ticket or tickets must be delivered with the corpse to the train baggageman. The casket containing a corpse must be inclosed in a box and must be accompanied by the certificate of a physician, or officer of the Board of Health, that the deceased did not die of a contagious disease. " When it is desired to forward a corpse a notice of at least six to twelve hours must be given. The coffin must be hermetically sealed, and must be inclosed in a box ; it inust be in charge of and must be accompanied by a com- petent person. The papers required by law must be made and forwarded and the railroad companies' charges must be made in advance. If a corpse should be delivered, under a false statement, to be forwarded as ordinary freight, the difference in the charges must be paid, and a fine of four times the amount of such charges may be exacted. A corpse must be removed from the depot v?ithin six honrs after the arrival of the train. "^ Agents receiving baggage in bad order from connecting roads, or from passengers, must note particulars in ink in regard to the condition of the baggage on any receipt they may give for it. The use of the words " bad order " is not suf- ficient; full particulars must be given. On the arrival of passenger trains at a station, I. Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. 204 Baggage Car Traffic. agents are expected to give their attention to the baggage car first, and transact the neces- sary business with the train baggagemen before attending to any other duties. Agents must be careful not to deliver checked baggage without receiving a duplicate check in return.^ All baggage while in their charge must be well guarded or kept in a secure place. They will be held responsible for the safety of all baggage, for the care of checks, and for all articles left at their station.^ In connection with their other duties they 1. " And the porters at King's Crossr are, on the arrival of the trains, to take care that the luggage thus labelled is placed in the proper bins, or divisions of the barrier on the platform, and delivered only to the proper owners. No luggage at King's Cross, or any other station, may be delivered to any one, unless the name of the party be first of all ascertained and compared with the address on the luggage ; and in case of there being no address, the party attending on that passenger must ask for some other mode of identification, and if this can not be given, he must refer the case to the inspector or clerk on duty, and not on his own authority deliver up the luggage." — Great Northern Kailway, Eng., 1856. " The check must be demanded when it is deposited at the station, or first delivered to the owner." — 1853. "Baggage is delivered by the company on presentation of the receipt, no matter by whom presented." — Austrian Roads, 1877. " If baggage receipt is not presented at destination, passen- gers will have to prove property before receiving their bag- gage." — Koman Railway. 2. "The baggage carriers at ihe diffeient stations are at the disposal of passengers, but without responsibility upon the part of the railroad company. The carriers must be paid for their services, according to a tariff regulating their fees ; they must issue receipts for any baggage received by them." — Austrian Roads, 1877. Baggage Car Traffic. 205 will care for and promptly forward letters and packages, on account of the company's service. The utmost expedition must be exercised in delivering baggage at destination.* STATEMENTS AND RETURNS REQUIRED OP TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN.^ They are required to make a report to the General Baggage Agent for each train run ; this report should specify the date, number of train, starting point, destination, name of baggage- man, the number and kind of each check attached to baggage, the nuhiber of the station where baggage was received, and the number of the station where left ; if no check is attached to baggage a description must be given. They must commence to write up their report promptly at the starting point of the train. 1. " They are to take care that they know where all the luggage for the different stations is put, and they are not to wait at the stations to be asked by the various passengers alighting for their luggage, but on reaching such stations they are personally to attend to the handing out of the various packages. The head guards are to see that the luggage is so loaded, that on opening the door of the van at any station, they may be enabled at once to see the destination of each article. All " long " luggage is to be loaded in the lower com- partments of the luggage vans, unless placed on the roof of the through carriages. All guards are mutually to assist each other." — English Road. 2. " Wien there are more.baggagemen than the number of trains running, those in waiting at either end of the line will be at the depots on the arrival and departure of all trains, so far as practicable, to aid in making up the departing trains, and discharging those arriving." — Regulations, 1853. 206 Baggage Car Traffic. The train baggageman is required to make a report to the Ticket Auditor of all baggage traffic way-bills. The report must specify the date of the way-bill, its number, where from, where to, the weight of the traffic, the gross amount of unpaid local charges, and also the gross amount of prepaid charges. With the baggage or parcels delivered to agents, baggagemasters or train baggagemen (as the case may be, by either of the class of employes named), a detailed statement must be left describing such baggage or parcels. The statem&t must include property belong- ing to the company. It must be signed and must recite the date, number of train, number of each cheek and name of place where checked, also name of destination. The blank forms of " Statements of baggage delivered " should for convenience be bound in book form. A stub or receipt should be attached to each form ; it should recite the facts as described above. The stub must be receipted by the agent. It is the train bag- gageman's voucher for the delivery of the bag- gage, and it must be retained by him until all the statements in the book have been used. The receipt or stub must then be forwarded to the General Baggage Agent to be filed and pre- served. This form should also be used, as Baggage Car Traffic, 207 intimated above, in delivering baggage to bag- gagemen on connecting trains. The reports required by the General Baggage Agent may be summarized here as follows : 1st. Report of failure to deliver baggage at proper destination. 2d. All special information referring to the business of the department. 3d. Any neglect of duty or irregularities observed. 4th. Reports of baggage damaged while in care of train baggagemen. 5th. Notice of permission to change off with other baggagemen. Train baggagemen are required to transmit to the General Baggage Agent promptly at the end of each round trip all reports required of them, including the Way-Bills of baggage for- warded which they may have received ; also all Statements of baggage delivered received by them from other baggagemen. Whenever the train baggageman performs any of the duties of an agent, he is required to make the same records, returns, and accounts that agents are required to make under similar circumstances. It is therefore important that he should carefully acquaint 'himself with the duties and responsibilities of agents in connec- tion with the business of the baggage depart- ment. 208 Baggage Car Traffic. THE RECEIPT AND DELIVERY OF BAGGAGE BY TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN. They must not receive baggage or other articles (from stations having an agent or baggageman) unless it is properly checked.^ They must be careful to deliver baggage, letters, and parcels at their proper destina- tion.^ "In case any letter should be marked as 'Important,' or for immediate delivery, they must send a porter with it to the proper office as soon as the train stops. "^ If by accident or mistake baggagemen fail to deliver baggage at its proper destination, they must report the failure promptly to the General Baggage Agent. On arriving at a station they must first deliver and receive the baggage for such station.* 1. " Fish and game must not be taken into first class car- riages with passengers, but the guards (baggagemen) must take charge of such packages, and hand them out to the passengers when they alight. Fish and game, as parcels or luggage, must be stowed so as not to injure other articles, or annoy any passenger." — Gt. Nor. Ry., Eng., 1856. 2. " They will not be allowed to carry packages of freight of any description on their own account, or to receive valuable packages or money for transportation, or mail matter in viola- tion of law, under any circumstances. " They will have charge of the mails carried upon their train, when no mail agent is with the train." — 1853. 3. Gt. Nor. Ry., Eng. 4. " They will, when at stations, immediately after disposing of their baggage, examine the journals of their train and see that all are in order, keeping in readiness and with them at all times, suitable cans of oil to use when necessary." — 1853. Baggage Oar Traffic. 209 In case it is necessary to transfer baggage in consequence of accident to train, or for any- other reason, they must count the number of pieces and check them, one by one, into the car to which they are to be transferred, seeing that none are lost or carried off by passengers or others. When agents are not on hand to receive baggage, the fact must be noted on the returns. When baggage is received by baggagemen in bad order, they must be particular to note the fact on their reports and upon any receipts signed by them. When baggage is damaged while in their possession, full particulars must be entered upon the returns. RECEIVING AND DELIVERING BAGGAGE BY TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN AT STATIONS AT WHICH THERE IS NO AGENT. They must provide themselves with local checks to use at signal stations and stations where there is no agent or baggagemaster on duty, and if passengers deliver baggage at such stations, baggagemen must receive it and at once check it to destination, delivering to the passenger the duplicate check. In all other cases baggagemen are prohibited 14 210 Baggage Oar Traffic. from receiving or allowing unchecked baggage to be placed in their cars.^ They will always have their checks in readi- ness when approaching the stations described. If necessary, they must find the owner of the baggage that has been checked, after the train is in motion, and deliver to such owners the duplicates. Owners of such baggage must, however, identify it in the same way as prescribed when checks are l&st by passengers. When baggage is to be put off at the stations described, the duplicates for such baggage should be collected before the same is unloaded. At stations where there are no agents, they must fill up a " Way-Bill of baggage for- warded" and in other respects perform the functions of agents, as already directed. .SPECIAL DIBBGTIONS TO TKAIN BAGGAGEMEN IN REFEEENCB TO BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. They should be especially careful to prevent baggage traffic way-bills being taken from bag- gage while it is in their charge. These way- bills represent a money value and should be as carefully protected as though they were the only checks on the baggage. The ticket or tickets which the rules require I- " Baggageraasters will allow nothing to go into the baggage car, unless checked or way-billed, and accompanied by owner." — N. Y. Road, 1863. Baggage Car Traffic. ■ 211 should be delivered with each corpse, must be canceled and turned over to conductor by the train baggageman. All baggage traffic way-bills destined to points where there are no agents should be detached by the train baggageman and left with the agent at the next station, who will take them up in his monthly accounts. Train baggagemen are required to keep on hand a supply of baggage traffic way-bills, books, and returns for use whenever occasion requires. It is their duty to bill any baggage car traffic which they may for any reason sus- pect is being carried without a regular way-bill ; the weight must of necessity be estimated, but the way-bill should be so marked. In making these bills, they will insert their names in the blank with the number of the station from. These bills must be reported by them at the close of the month, the same as provided for agents. ATTENTION TO DUTY, CAEB OP OAB, ETC., UPON PAET OF BAGGAGEMEN. They are required to be at their cars at least thirty • minutes before the starting time of the train, on their regular runs. Baggagemen must be at the depot at the time of starting of the train preceding their regular run, and be pre- pared to go on duty, in case of accident or sick- ness of the baggageman of the preceding train. 212 Baggage Car Traffic. While on duty the baggage car is the proper place for baggagemen to attend to their busi- ness. They must respect the authority of the con- ductor, obeying his instructions in all things not inconsistent with established rules. They will not leave their train to change ofP with other baggagemen without permission from the Superinteiident, and they must at once notify the General Baggage Agent of such per- mission. They must not sleep while upon dutj'. At the end of their run they will remain with the car until the baggage is delivered, or the bag- gageman who is to relieve them formally takes charge of the car. When they leave the car unoccupied, they should see that the doors are securely locked. All articles carried must appear on the report of the baggageman in charge of the car. They wUl be held responsible for loss, or dam- age to baggage from carelessness on their part. They are not allowed to lend the checks assigned for their particular use to agents or other baggagemen. They are required to embody in their reports a statement of all special and important facts that come to their knowledge that in any way relate to baggage. They will promptly report to the General Baggage Car Traffic. 213 Baggage Agent any neglect of duty on the part of agents or station baggagemen, or any irregu- larities that may come to their notice. They are prohibited from copying their state- ments and reports from those made by other baggagemen ; they must writeup each and every account from the baggage. The utmost care must be exercised to pre- vent any accident occurring from fire. Explo- sive oils must not be used in lighting the car, and the stove door must be kept securely fas- tened when the train is in motion. Train baggagemen are expected to perform all the duties of the forward brakeman when- ever the exigencies of the service require it.^ No person must be allowed to ride in the baggage car without a written permit.^ 1. " They will consider themselves to be, and act as brake- men when the train is in motion." — 1853. 2. " Passengers must not be allowed to travel in the guard's break van." — English Standard. I 214 Baggage Car Traffic. CHAPTER XVI. THE EXPRESS OR PAECEL TKAFFIC. This traffic is conducted almost wholly through the medium of passenger trains and does not differ in its class from what we have already described as baggage car traffic. The peculiar industry that in this country is grouped under the head of Express business, is designated as the Parcels Traffic, in Great Britain. As the carrying of parcels may be said to comprise the peculiar features of the business, it would seem as if the British desig- nation were the more proper one, but as these parcels are carried in this country under the supervision of special messengers, our use of the term Express^ is not inappropriate. In Great Britain the guard (conductor) acts as the express messenger ; he does this in addition to his other duties of baggagemaster, brakeman, and attendant. There are rarely, if ever, more than two guards attached to a train ; frequently but one. The tickets are collected at the station gate, or at the ticket platform, or I. "An express messenger on a train ; a messenger sent on a special errand ; a courier ; iience a regular and quiclc con- veyance for pffkages, commissions and the like." — Webster. " That which is sent by an express messenger or message." — K. Charles. Baggage Car Traffic. 215 as the passengers descend from the carriages, by agents especially delegated for that pur- pose ; this plan leaves the conductor compara- tively free to attend to the reception, care, and delivery of the baggage, and parcels intrusted to his custody. WHAT CONSTITUTES FBEIGHT TfiAPFIC ? The freight business of a road may be said to embrace only the articles that are properly transported in freight cars. The articles car- ried upon passenger trains belong exclusively to the department organized for conducting the express or parcel trafl&c ; and such traffic should in the main be regulated and carried on exclusively by the officials intrusted with the conduct of that branch of the transporta- tion service. All railway servants not immediately connected with such branch of the business, should be prohibited from discharg- ing, or attempting to discharge, any of the functions or duties connected with it, more particularly that part embraced in the carriage of valuable packages and the making of collec- tions. NECESSITY FOE THE PARCEL DEPARTMENT — ITS TRAFFIC DESCRIBED. The organization of the express, or parcel traffic, was rendered necessary originally to meet the wants of the community for means 216 Baggage Car Traffic. of transportation, at once safe and expeditious, for articles that could not safely be intrusted to the clumsy appliances or slow pace of the freight or goods department.^ The most profita- ble department of the express business perhaps is comprised in the collection of notes, drafts, and accounts, and in the transportation of gold and silver coin, bank notes, currency, deeds, contracts, bullion, precious stones, jewelry, watches, clocks, gold and silver ware, plated articles, costly pictures, statuary, and other articles of virtu ; musical instruments, laces, furs, silks, china, stained glass, birds and small animals of considerable value, delicate fruits, etc.* The transportation of the remains of deceased persons is an important item to express com- panies. A large revenue is derived by the Express companies from the carriage of vegetables and other products of the farm and dairy. The transportation of fresh fish affords them a con- siderable income. Many heavy articles of comparatively small value are forwarded by 1. " Parcels are conveyed by all trains. . They must be delivered at the respective stations of the company, at least ten minutes before the departure of the train they are intended to be forwarded by." — Regulations Midland Railway of Eng- land. 2. "Gold and silver bullion, platina, coined and paper money, are forwarded according to the special regulations of each road. Pictures and works of art, are only taken for transportation, if no value has been declared." — Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. Baggage Car Traffic. 217 the Express companies, when it is important to the owners that the greatest expedition should be used. The earnings from the transportation of milk is considerable upon many lines. The business is done almost entirely by passenger trains. Upon some lines it is carried in the baggage cars. When the traffic is sufficient to warrant it, special vans are provided. The 'cans are brought to the city in the morning full and returned during the day empty. The charge agreed upon for the can when filled is made sufficient to cover its return empty. As a rule, the milk business is conducted directly by the railroad company. The machinery for keeping accurate account of the traffic is now practically perfect ; it consists of consecutively numbered tickets. As the size of the cans are not uniform, tickets are provided for the various grades. These tickets are tied, through an eyelet, to the can, and are canceled when torn off. The distribution of newspapers, magazines, and books is conducted largely through the medium of the Express companies, and yields them a handsome income. All the great dailies find their way to interior cities, towns, villages, and hamlets in this way. The business is easily handled, and each year adds something to its volume. The risk is unimportant. All these things conspire to make the traffic especially 218 Baggage Car Traffic. desirable to the carrier. Stamps of different denominations are sold to the various newsdeal- ers by the Express companies ; these stamps are attached to the packages containing the printed matter and are canceled when used. Prompt- ness is of course one of the chief requirements of the business, a delay of a few hours is fre- quently sufficient to render the property value- less. The prompt transmission of newspapers involves constant watchfulness upon the part of the carrier; it involves precision, harmon- ious action, and efficient service; all these the Express companies happily possess. " Newspaper parcels are conveyed at these rates at the owners' risk only, and the rates are from station to station, and do not include collection or delivery. The charges for all par- cels not exceeding twelve pounds in weight must be prepaid by label. Parcels above twelve pounds, are charged half ordinary parcel rates,with a minimum as for a twelve poundsparcel accord- ing to the foregoing scale, and the carriage of such parcels may be prepaid or charged forward at the option of the sender. The company require that the packages shall be open at the ends, and contain newspapers only, and that they shall have authority to examine them wheiiever they have reason to believe that this regulation is infringed. "TABLE OF SCALE OF CHARGES. Under 50 to 100 101 to 200 ZOI to 300 50 miles. miles. miles. miles. " Parcels in weight not exceeding i lb.. 2c. .. 4C. .- 6c. .. 8c. Above I not exceeding 3.-4 .. 6 .. 8 .- 12 ' " 3 " " 6.. 6 _- to .. 12 .. 16 " 6 " " 12.- 8 .. 12 _. 16 .. 20 " 12 Halftl le ordinar V parcels n ites, with a minimum as for a 12 lbs parcel, according to the foregoing scale. " Periodicals published at intervals not exceeding one month, are conveyed at one-half the ordinary parcels rates, with a minimum charge of eight cents. These rates do not include collection or delivery. Baggage Car Traffic. 219 " Periodicals in van loads, not exceeding two tons in weiglit, are charged twelve cents per van per mile, minimum charge five dollars ; any excess above two tons will be charged at the rate of fifty-eight cents per cwt. up to fifty cwt. " Single newspapers or several copies of newspapers or peri- odicals published at intervals not exceeding seven days, are conveyed between any two stations on the Midland Railway, irrespective of distance, at the uniform charge of one cent per copy. The charge in all cases to be prepaid by affixing one of the company's labels to each packet. The rates are at owner's risk and do not include collection or delivery. The parcels must be open at both ends. Receipts will not be given for the parcels. The company will not be responsible for loss, damage, or delay, and full parcel rates will be charged in cases where these regulations ,are infringed. Labels varying in value from one cent to twenty cents each, to be used for the conveyance of single newspapers and newspaper parcels not exceeding twelve pounds in weight can be obtained in sheets on application."! PARCEL RATES. Many subtle questions not necessary to dis- cuss here, enter into the making of rates for the transportation and insurance of articles by the Express companies. The value of the par- cel, its character and weight, the distance it is to be carried, have all to be thought of. Large shippers are entitled to better rates than casual customers. The question of bulk has also to be considered.^ I. Midland Railway Time Table, Jan. 31, 1878. 2 "Fagkages of a light, frail nature, or such as are bulky in proportion to their weight, such as paper boxes, containing artificial flowers, paper bonnet or hat boxes, straw bonnets, packages of lace, pasteboard boxes of light millinery or feathers, cases of stuffed birds and animals, driving whips, parcels of mouldings, picture frames, light furniture, glass, etc., and sewing machines, are charged fifty per cent, increase upon the ordinary parcel rate, at company's risk, and twenty-five per cent, increase at owner's risk," — Regulations of Midland Ry. of England. 220 Baggage Car Traffic. SOME OF THE KEASONS WHY THE CONDUCT OP THE BUSINESS BY COMPANIES ORGANIZED FOR THE PURPOSE IS DESIRABLE. The conduct of the express business by dis- tinct companies organized for the purpose, and extending over a large section of country, has many advantages, as well as disadvantages, compared with the conduct of the same busi- ness when done by the railroad companies. The frequent transfers of parcels between com- panies at the junctions of different roads are avoided, the liability of losses can not, therefore, be so great, and as the responsibility is more direct and explicit in consequence of the con- centration of the business in a few hands, it is reasonable to suppose that the through traffic is conducted more expeditiously than it would be if it passed through the hands of many dis- tinct companies. While the Express companies are held in check by the mercantile classes, and by the con- centration of rival lines at all the important trade centers, they are ftee from the devastating competition that has impoverished so many rail- roads. They are thus in a position to provide proper facilities for conducting the business expeditiously, and, at the same time, employ competent and adequately paid agents to carry it on, and, while doing this, they are still able Baggage Car Traffic. 221 to return to the proprietors a fair rate of inter- est on the capital invested by them. It is not reasonable to suppose that the express traffic, if carried on directly by the railroads, could be entirely freed from the disturbing elements that so injuriously affect all the other important sources of revenue which they possess, and until these disturbing elements are eliminated or brought under better control, the traffic, as now conducted by corpora- tions distinct from the railroad companies, is undoubtedly more secure, and quite as pro- ductive to the latter, as it would be if con- ducted directly by them. It is possible that the parcel traffic could be made a source of greatly increased revenue to the railroad companies if systematically organized, with a competent head to take charge of the business, and enforce the rates without reference to the complications of other branches of the service. SOME COMPAEISOKS — EXPRESS VS. EAILKOAD. The salaries which the Express companies are compelled to pay their agents, located in the various towns, are greater, perhaps, than the same men could be employed for by the railroad companies. In the majority of cases the agent of the latter acts for the former. In some cases he is paid a stated salary by the Express com- 222 Baggage Car Traffic. pany ; in other cases, at the smaller places, he receives in lieu of such salary a certain per- centage of the business of his agency. The limited amount of business offering, and the necessity of fostering it by liberal rates., compels the Express companies to use judicious economy in all their expenditures. This is especially noticeable in their system of account- ing. It is at once simple, economical, and direct. The looseness and incoherency that forms so disagreeable a feature of accounting in connection with excess luggage and baggage car traffic generally, as conducted by the railroad companies, is not observable in the accounts of the Express companies. Their charges (express- age) are, as a rule, collected at the point of delivery to the consignee, the returns of the agent at such place being checked and verified by the accounts of the forwarding agent. Shipments are rarely if ever made unless ac- companied by a way-bill, and the officials of the company are not, fortunately for the stock- holders, guilty of the weq.kness and imbecility of habitually permitting goods to go free lest some other company should do so. MAKING COLLECTIONS. As already stated, the Express companies undertake, in connection with the transporta- tion of packages, to collect notes, drafts, and ■Baggage Car Traffic. 223 accounts through their agencies. This feature of their business is a great convenience to mer- chants, bankers, and others who have debts due to them at places where there are no general agencies through whom accounts may be collected. The collection of debts contributes a con- siderable revenue to the Express companies, and it is worked by them with the industry and intelligence that characterizes every thing they do. In making collections the Express company acts under the immediate instructions of the party employing it. In investigating the workings of the parcel traffic we find that many of the articles carried are, under direction of the sender, made " Collect on Delivery "' of the goods. I. C. O. D. In such cases the invoice or bill (inclosed in an envelope) should accompany the property. When collec- tions are to be made it is required that the amount to be collected shaL be marked on the vf ay-bill, and on the property and envelope as well. Sometimes the property is subject to the inspection of the consignee. If refused it is customary (unless instructed to the contrary) to notify the forwarding oiiice (holding the property meanwhile), so that the sender may be consulted as to its disposition. " When a consignee can not be found, or refuses to receive parcels which have been booked to him, the sender shall be im- mediately advised, and the parcels are not to be returned to the sending station until the sender's instructions have been received. If the consignee tenders a consignment, ordering the parcels to be returned, or otherwise disposed of, he must first pay the carriage, and sign the delivery book, otherwise his con- signment iflust not be accepted. In the case of fish, fruit, and other perishable articles, when consignee can not be found, or 224 Baggage Car Irqffie. Under this arrangement the owner of the property is definitely secured against loss, and the express company not only derives revenue from the transportation of the property but its earn- ings are further increased by the charges on the return remittance. When directed to that effect the collecting agent not only exacts pay from the consignee for the value of the propei-ty and the express- age thereon, or for collecting the note, draft, or account, as the case may be, but he also collects enough to cover the company's charge on the return remittance.^ The Express companies require that the iden- tical money collected by the agent shall be refuses to accept them, it is the duty of the receiving station to sell them immediately, aad any company returning such articles to sending station, shall be held responsible for all loss arising from such a course of action." — J^^ff. Clearing House, Eng. I. When the charges are to be paid on the return remittance by the original sender, the way-bill and envelope are made to read " P. O. R." (i. c. the return charges will be paid by the sender of the note or property). In returning proceeds to the forwarding office way-bills and packages are marked " Pd. Coll." (i. e. this is the proceeds of a collection) or " Pd. Coll. C. O. D." When the agent is for any reason unable to make the desired collection he returns the article, note, draft or account, to the forwarding office noting on the bill " Ret. Coll." In cases of this kind n reasonable charge is made for the expense and trouble the company has been put to. When the return charges are collected of the consignee such charges are usually retained by the agent making the collection and the exact proceeds of the property, note, draft or account, is returned to the sender, the express company's charges on'such proceeds being entered on the way-bill as prepaid, Whenfhe expressage is to be paid by the original owner of the property (" P. O. R.") the way-bill reads unpaid. Baggage Car Traffic. 225 remitted. The responsibility thus becomes fixed, and in the event counterfeit money is paid to the agent it can be definitely traced. i In making collections, the express agent acts as the immediate agent of the person emploj'ing the Express company, and he must, in all respects, carry out the wishes of such person, protesting paper in legal form when required, and performing all other necessary and proper acts that may be requisite to protect the inter- ests of his patron. OFFICIALS MUST KECEIPT FOE PKOPERTY. Agents are, or should be, required in all cases, to give a receipt specifying the value of each and every package received by the com- pany for transportation. This rule is necessary to protect the company against excessive claims in the event property is lost, and, what is quite important, persons can not present fraudulent claims against the Express company on the plea of having delivered property to it for which it gave no receipt or oliher evidence of possession in return. THE WORKING ORGANIZATION. A general supervision of the business of the Express companies is exercised by Division Superintendents, much as the local affairs of railroad companies are looked after by corre- 15 226 Baggage Oar .Traffic. spouding officers. The Division Superintendent has immediate charge of the servants of the company, regulates their salaries, adjusts claims, and performs many important functions corre- sponding to those of Traffic Manager; The property of the company, including the valuables intrusted to it, is under the immediate care of the agents at the various stations, and they are responsible to the company for its safe custody. The companies employ experts called Route Agents, whose duty it is to examine from time to time the affairs of the various agencies, and see that their accounts are kept in accordance with the prescribed form, and that they duly account for all moneys coming into their pos- session. The servant of the company who has imme- diate charge of the property intrusted to it while it is being transported from the point of shipment to the place of destination is called a Messenger. He receipts to the agents for the property they deliver to him at the various sta- tions and exacts a similar receipt for the prop- erty turned over to them by him.^ 1. "It is the duty of the guards to ascertain that the parcels delivered to them for transmission, aS well as all carriages, horses, dogs, cattle, etc., correspond with the entries on the way-bills handed to them, and to report, specially, to the Super- intendent all irregularities. They must count the parcels, and compare them as far as the lime will allow, with the way-bills ; and at their arrival at each station they must count out the pari Baggage Car Traffic. 227 GOOD FAITH BETWBE5N MAN AND MAN AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT. The work is performed with so much celerity at the stopping places of trains, in conse- quence of the limited time allowed for deliver- ing and receiving property, that the receipts that pass betwen the agent and the messenger are receipts in name only. They virtually receipt for the number of way-bills^ delivered eels lo be left there, and they must, themselves, give them to the persons appointed to receive them, and at the end of the journey the guard must remain at the station and count out his parcels, and give every assistance in the transfer of them to the parcels officer, whose signature he must at once obtain for their proper receipt ; the guard is held responsible for the parcels intrusted to him at the time of starting and during the jour- ney." — Gt. Nor. Ry., Eng. I. Way-Bill of Blank Express Company. (MessengerB must register their names In rotation across tlie outside of Oiisway-biiL) No. -- .- To. From ---- ... --- -- -- ... .187.. I 6 ,a §■8 1° 1" k . SB CO P 1! 2«» — 1 1 This form of way-bill is used by both agents and messen- gers. Money way-bills in some cases, have the word ''Money," printed upon them, but in other respects they are the same as the form described above, except that the column for weight is omitted. A different colored ink is, for convenience, sometimes used. The duplicate or memorandum bill used by messengers and 228 Baggage Car Traffic. by them respectively, and if the articles are not, upon subsequent examination, found to agree, with the way-bill, explanations are demandedby the official that has articles in his possession not called for by the bill ("over,") or is "short " articles that the way-bill calls for. An examination of the workings of the express business elicits the fact that good faith as between man and man enters very largely into all the transactions between the various officials of the company. As already noticed, the expedition with which the business is conducted, renders it impossible at the time to methodically compare the articles with the receipts which pass between the differ- ent officials of the company. In every thing that is done the element of good faith between subordinates, assumes an importance that can not perhaps be found in any other business of equal magnitude. It thus becomes of the utmost importance, not only to the company, but to its servants as well, that the greatest care should be exercised in introducing new men into the service. A rogue may not only seriously agents (as described further on) in connection with the traffic of half-reporting and non-reporting offices does not differ materially from the above form. The receipt book, in common use, which the agent or mes- senger signs (for the way-bills which one delivers to the other) gives the name of the official making the delivery, the date num- ber of way-bill, date of same, whether money or freight, where from and where to ; a column is also inserted for the name of the party receipting for the way-bills. Baggage Car Traffic. 229 cripple the company by his depredations, but he will quite likely bring upright and honorable associates into serious and undeserved disre- pute with their employers. ' ■ADEQUATE TIME IS ALLOWED EOR ACCOUNTING. As greater time is allowed for way -billing and accounting for the express or parcel traffic, a more elaborate system of accounts is possible than the simple form devised for excess lug- gage and baggage car packages. The commu- nity understand and cheerfully acquiesce in the fact that the immediate forwarding of their property by the Express companies is dependent upon their allowing the officials a certain mar- gin of time before the departure of trains, in whicTi to perform the clerical work required. But as already stated, passengers are not equally mindful of the fact that a railroad company is also entitled to the time it requires to ascertain whether the amount of baggage offered by them is in excess of the quantity they are entitled to pass free, and in the event that it is, to make a way-bill for the same, collect the charge, etc. The form of accounts devised for the express business seems to conform generally to that adopted for conducting the freight traffic of rail- roads. 230 Baggage Car Traffic. AGENOIRS ABB OP THREE CLASSES — THE DUTIES OF MESSENGERS. t The agencies of some of the more important companies are divided up into reporting, half- reporting, and non-reporting offices. The first, regularly way-bills all property forwarded by it, and makes returns as often as required of all business it may forward or receive. The half- reporting agency makes returns to the general office for either the business forwarded or received, as it may be directed to do. If the returns are for business received, then no regu- lar way-bills or returns are made by it for the business it forwards, such bills and returns being made by the messengers as described further on. The third or non-reporting office makes no returns to the home office, nor does it regularly way-bill the traffic it forwards. So far as the general accounts and books of the company are concerned, the agencies on either side of the non-reporting offices receive all business of such non-reporting offices. All the business forwarded from such offices is delivered to the messenger with a memorandum way-bill. From this memorandum the messenger regularly way-bills the property to its destination. In place of inserting the name of the forwarding station in the way-bill he inserts his own name. Baggage Car Traffic, 231 At the end of the week, or as often as required, he "makes returns to the company (the same as an agent) of all way-bills made by him. The accounts are thus kept with the messengers instead of the non-repor'ing offices, for all the business forwarded by'such offices. All business destined to non-reporting offices is way-billed to the first reporting station beyond, but the messenger leaves the pi'operty with a memorandum or duplicate bill at the non-reporting office, and collects the charges of the agent at such office at the time of making the delivery, or at such subsequent time as may be agreed upon. The amount of the charges thus collected the messenger leaves with the way-bill at the station to which the property was billed as described above. The same principle of accounting is observed, in a restricted sense, at the half-reporting offices. Some of these offices report the busi- ness received, the traffic forwarded being way- billed and reported by the messenger as already described. Others again will way-bill and report the traffic they forward, while the busi- ness they receive will be way-billed to, and reported by, the offices on either side of them, as before explained. The volume of business regulates the class of the agency. The effects of the system of half-reporting and non-reporting offices is to greatly simplify 232 Baggage Car Traffic. and reduce the work of the agents at such places, while the number of returns received at the home office is very materially lessened, and in consequence the accounts required to be kept upon the general books of the company are reduced in number. The system of offices described is peculiar to the Express companies. Railway officials require direct reports from every station where there is an agent. As the class or grade of the agencies of the Express companies is constantly changing, the messengers are required to conform to such changes. For instance: If freight should, through mistake, be billed to a station that had previously been a reporting office, but had been reduced to a non-reporting office, the messenger would not deliver the way-bill, but would carry it to the next reporting office, leaving a duplicate bill only with the freight. PAECEL TEAFFIC WAY-BILLS.^ The system pursued by some of the Express companies in numbering their way-bills is different from that generally in force upon the railroads. The latter commence with number one on the first of each month, the bills fol- lowing each other consecutively until the end of the month. The Express companies, however, commence with number one on I. See illustration of the way-bill on a preceding page. Baggage Oar Traffic. 283 the first of January, and all the bills made upon that day are numbered one. All on the second day are numbered two, and so on through the year. If a day passes without any way-bills being made, the number for that day is not passed, but the number is continued where left oflF. At the larger stations two series of numbers are sometimes enforced, one for freight and one for money packages. When this practice is pursued one series will com- mence with number one, while the other series will perhaps commence with five hundred.. In way-billing the express traffic, valuable packages, other than those inclosing money, are frequently entered upon money way-bills, but this is only so when the element of weight is of so little importance as practically to cut no figure in fixing the rate for transportation and insurance. " BXPEKSING." (adjusting DIFFBEBNCES.) Amongst the many make-shifts adopted by the Express companies for saving labor, the device resorted to for adjusting differences between agents, and between the various agents and the home office is worthy of notice. Those familiar with the manipulation of traffic accounts know that the amount entered upon a way-bill in the Advanced Charges column is credited at the home office of the company to 234 Baggage Car Traffic. the forwarding agent, and debited to the receiving agent. Accordingly, if John Doe, Express Agent, owes Richard Roe, Express Agent, the latter will make a bill reading from his station to John Doe's station, and insert in the advanced charges column of such bill the amount of Doe's indebtedness to him. In the same way, if in auditing the accounts at the home office an agent is found in error, the error is corrected by making a way-bill on the agent, or vice versa. The technical term " Expens- ing" is generally used by the Express com- panies to designate the peculiar form of trans- action described above. Bankers would perhaps call it "drawing." SEASON CONTRACTS. Contracts are entered into by the Express companies, with railwaj^s, bankers, merchants, and others, by which the former agree to trans- port the express matter of the latter, for a specified sum for a stated quantity, or for a stated season. These are called season con- tracts, and in way -billing propertj' coming under these contracts, the charges column of the bill is usually left blank, " S. C." (season contract) being entered under the head of '' Remarks." STATION RECORDS AND RETURNS OF EXPRESS TRAFFIC. The following are the principal statements and accounts kept at ordinary offices, not Baggage Car Traffic. 235 including those already described. The forms will be found to vary somewhat with different companies, but the principle remains practically the same with all. 1st. Agents are required to keep a record of the notes, drafts, and accounts sent forward by them for collection. This record specifies : a date sent, h in favor of, c on, d where payable, e with, / amount, g when returned, A remarks. The column " when returned," remains blank until the collection has been heard from, con- sequently the blanks represent at a glance the accounts in course of collection. 2d. The Out Trip Book. This is a record book, in which the way-bills for property for- warded by the different stations, are copied. The columns correspond exactly with those of the way-bill already given. At the head of the page the number of the statement (Balance Sheet) that embraces -the business that follows, is entered for purposes of reference. 3d. The In Trip Book. All way-bills received are copied into this book. It corre- sponds with the Out Trip Book, except that two columns are added for "Signature acknowledg- ing receipt of Package" and " By whom Iden- tified." The signatures in these columns, opposite the description of the packages, are the evidence of the delivery of the property by the Express company. 236 Baggage Car Traffic. 4th. A form of blank which the agent uses in giving a receipt for express charges paid. 5th. Abstract of bills forwarded. The name of the office making the abstract is in- serted at the top, also the time for which the abstract is made, and the number of the bal- ance sheet in which it is included. The col- umns of the abstract provide as follows : a for the number of the way-bill, b its date, c where to, d the total amount of the advanced charges on the way-bill, e the total amount of the Express company's charges, / the total amount to be collected, and finally a column for " Pre- paid" business. The footings of this abstract must agree exactly with the Out Trip Book, described above. 6th. Abstract of bills received, including a summary, or account current, or balance sheet.^ I. Abstract of bills received and Balance Sheet, from Office, No - Including all Way Bills and Proceeds received previom to — - 187- This abstract forwarded to the General Office on Way Bill No Dated 187.. a 1 ^t i 1 S3 Tota Amou of Charg <^ QCQ •So The amounts of the charges as entered on the way-bills are Baggage Car Traffic. 237 The abstract should embrace all way-bills received at the station since the date of the last return (way-bills for different months, never being included in the same abstract); and the aggregate footings of such, way-bills should harmonize with the totals, as shown on the In Trip Book. The names of the stations are required to be entered in alphabetical order. " Proceeds" has reference to the Summary or Balance Sheet, which agents make on this blank. It means the balance of cash collected since the previous summary, after allowing for all proper credits. The Balance Sheet referred to embraces a summary of the affairs of the agency, since the last return, viz. Debits, a, the balance brought forward from the last account made up of uncollected charges, cash, etc.; 6, the total unpaid charges on way-bills, as shown by the abstract of bills received ; c, the amount of "Prepaid" charges collected on business forwarded. Credits, d, the total amount of charges advanced on bills forwarded ; e, the total amount of cash remitted to the home office ;/, the amount of the " Deductions" as explained upon the way-bills, and entered on the abstract of bills received ; g, the total frequently incorrect. If the amount entered is too much, the excess is generally entered herein, in the column headed "Deduc- tions." This column serves as a Clearing House for agents to adjust the overcharges of their stations in accordance with the facts. A full explanation of each deduction is required to be made upon the way-bill. 288 Baggage Car Traffic. amount of charges remaining uncollected, at the time of making the return ; A, the amount of Voucher, or Vouchers, for services of employes paid out of the proceeds of the agency. The number of items appearing in the account current, increase or decrease as the agency increases or decreases. The exact amount due the company, and necessary to balance the account of the station, is required to be transmitted to the home office at the time of making the return. The Balance Sheets are numbered, commencing with number one, on the first of January, in each year. 7th. A Statement Book is kept at each station, upon which the agent makes a copy of the abstracts already described, including the general balance sheet of the agency. INDEX, Page. Abbreviations used by Express Companies 223, 224, 234 Abolition of Payment of Commissions . . . loi Abstract of Express Way-bills forwarded . . 236 Abstract of Express Way-bills received . . 236 Accounting for Baggage Car'Traffic . . 152 " " " " " not difficult to pro- vide a proper system for . 133 " " the Proceeds of Baggage Car Traffic . 175 " " Traffic passed without Cash Payments i6g Accusations made against Baggagemen . . 35 A cozy chair in the Baggage Car . . 18 Action of Frost upon Roadbed ... 7 Adequate Time Allowed Express Companies for Ac- counting ..... 229 Agencies of a Company made Depositaries for Parcels 87 Ancifent and Modern Times, Highways of . . . I Arrangement of Baggage in Car ... 33 Associations of Baggage Car . . . .16 Attention to Duty on part of Baggagemen . 211 Attractions of Farm Life . . . .23 Austria, Billing of Baggage in . . . 79 Austrian Railroad Baggage Traffic Way-bill . .174 Austrian Regulations in reference to Corpses . 203 Austria, quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 51 " Responsibility in for baggage lost or damaged . 61 " Storage charged in . . . . 85 " What constitutes baggage in . . .44 Bad Order, receiving baggage in . . . 203 Baggage billed through in Europe . . .82 Baggage Car, care of .... 211 " Car, the contents of . . . .16 " " Traffic, accounting for . . 152,175 240 Index. Page. Baggage Car Traffic Check .... 7? " " " Directions to agents in reference to 201 " " " Forwarded, Monthly Abstract of 177 " " " Must be way-billed prepaid when de- sired by shipper . " " " Neglect of by responsible and direct- ing officials . " " " Obstacles in the way " " " Receipt .... " " " Received, monthly abstract of " " " Special directions to train baggagemen " " " Uncollected charges on " " " Way-bill. . . . 154,155 Checking Compulsory in the U.S. . . 77 " Check, inter-road .... 75, " " local \ . . . -71, Cost of transporting " Decisions of Courts . 39, 45, 57, 63, 64, " Department, Instructions in reference to regular business .... " Extra, difficulty of enforcing charges for " Extra, reluctance to pay for " How billed in other countries " Insurance of by railway companies " Lost, fraudulent claims for . " Lost or damaged, responsibility for " Manipulation of . . . " " " in Great Britain Baggagemen, [he Train Baggage of Commercial travelers " Of Emigrants " Permit .... " Primitive mode of handling " Quantity that may be transported ^ree " Quantity that may be transported free in other countries .... " Storage of .... . " Traffic check .... 157 K.7 108 153 179 2IO 183 76 i73. 55 77 187 117 120 78 83 67 57 70 71 33 54 53 147 71 50 51 83 73 Index. 241 Page. Baggage Traffic to and from foreign roads . . 165 " Unaccompanied by owner ... 49 " What constitutes in Austria . 44 " " " " England 42 " " " " France . . 42 " " " Ireland . 43 " " " Italy . . .43 " " " " Spain ... 44 " " " " the United States 39 Balance Sheet used by Express Companies . , 237 Ballast, best kind of . . . . .6 Billing of Baggage in other countries 78 Business Car, the .... 15 Care of Car upon part of Baggagemen . . 211 Care of Checks by Agents . . .■ . 194 Characteristics of Train Baggagemen . . 35 Characteristics of Train Boy . . . .25 Charges for Commercial Travelers' Baggage in England 143 Check for Baggage Car Traffic Check for Inter-road Business . Check for Local Business . . . . Checking Baggage .... Checking Baggage compulsory in the U.S. Check on Issue of Season Passes, Permits, etc. . Claims for Overcharges — to whom referred . Classes of Express Agencies C. O. D Collection by Express Companies Collection, Record of Notes, etc. sent for Collections should be made by Rece.ving Agent Commercial Travelers Commercial Travelers' Baggage Commissions, Abolition of . " Bring no increased business ** Class of men who have fastened upon Railway Companies " Effect of practice 16 73 75.76 71.73 72 77 138 168 230 223 222 235 135 143 54 lOI 104 them 97 100 242 Index. Page. Commissions, Manner of paying . 99 " Something about them . . 93 " Views of A. V. H. Carpenter respecting 102 Views of Samuel Powell respecting . 103 " Why are they paid ? . 95 Competition, effect of on Baggage Car Traffic 104 Compulsory checking of Baggage in the U. S. 77 Construction of Railways, manner of . 5 Construction of Roman Highways, manner of 4 Contents of Baggage Car ... 16 Cost of Transporting Baggage . . 55 Coupon Mileage Ticket . . . 143. 146 Coupon Mileage Ticket, how used . 144 Coupon Mileage Ticket, how its use may be increa'^ed 149 Courts, decisions of in reference to Baggage 39, 45, 57, 63, 64, 77 Damaged Baggage, responsibility for . . 57 Decisions of the Courts in reference to Baggage 39. 45. 57. 63. 64. 77 Depositaries for Parcels at agencies . 87 Description'of Coupon Mileage Tickat 146 Description of Parcel Traffic . . 215 Designation of Baggage Car Traffic in England 214 Difference in Manner of Construction between the Ro- man Roads and Modern Railways 4 Difficulty of enforcing Charges for Extra Baggage 117 Directions for Checking Baggage 194 Disposition of Way-bills, Passes, etc. . . 137 Dogs, rates charged for in England . . 41 Dust, effects of upon Machinery . . 7 Duties of Express Messengers . . 226, 230 Duties of Express Route Agents . . 226 Duties of Train Baggagemen . . 33 Effect of competition on Baggage Traffic . 104 Effect of practice of paying commissions . 100 Emigrant Business, through . 127 Emigrant, peculiarity of . . . 127 Emigrants' Baggage ... 53 Index. 243 Page. England, Charges for Commercial Travelers' Baggage in 143 " De|«gnation of Baggage Car Traffic in 214 " Luncheon Baskets provided in 151 " Newspaper Parcel Rates in . 218 " Quantity of Baggage that may be transported free in . 52 " Rates charged for Dogs in 41 " Storage charged in 84 " What Constitutes Baggage in 42 Errors, notice of ... . 185 Evolution of Railways .... 8 Excess Baggage Customs here and abroad . . 106 " Local Baggage .... 134 " Luggage of ordinary inter-road passengers 131 Excessive Claims for Lost Baggage 67 Excursion, the .... II " Expensing" (adjusting differences) 233 Express Agencies, of tliree classes . 230 " Agents' Statement Book 238 " Balance Sheet 237 " Business conducted by Railway Companies in Europe . . . . , 47 " Charges, Receipt for . 23& " Companies, Abbreviations used by 224. " " Classes of Agencies 230 " " Making Collections 222 " " Receipt for Charges . 236 Receipt for Property . 225 " " Records and Returns 234 " " Require adequate time for accounting 229 " " System of accounting . 230 " " What they transport 216 " " Working Organization of . 225 Iii Trip Book 235 " Messengers, Duties of . 226 230 " Offices, "half-reporting" 230 231 " "non-reporting" 230 231 " " "reporting" 230 16* 244 Index. Page. Express or Parcel Traffic, the .... 214 Out Trip Book .... 235 " Route Agents, Duties of . . . 226 " Season Contracts .... 234 " Station Records and Returns . . . 234 " vs. Railroad, some comparisons . . 221 " Way-bill .... 227, 232 " Way-bills forwarded. Abstract of . . 236 " Way-bills received, Abstract of . . 236 Extra Baggage Passes .... 136 " " Rates ..... 113 Fair dividends. Railway property entitled to . 112 Farm life, Attractions of . . . . .23 Foreign Roads, Baggage Traffic to and from . 165 Former treatment of excess baggage collections by sea- board lines . . . . . 128 Form of Receipt for Money Collected . . 183 " Release for Baggage Traffic . . 202 " Way-bill to be used .... 153 Forms 73, 76, 154, 1-55, 162, 170, 172, 174, 177, 179, 183, 184, 185, 202, 227, 236 France, Quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 51 " Responsibility in, for baggage lost or damaged 59 " Storage charged in . . . . 84 " What constitutes baggage in . . .42 Fraudulent claims for lost baggage ... 67 Freight Traffic, What constitutes . . . 215 Frost, Action of, upon track .... 7 Furniture of Baggage Car . . . .16 Business Car . . . . 15 General Baggage Agent, the . . . . .115 General Instructions to Agents and Train Baggagemen 188 Germany, Quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 51 Good faith between man and man an important element in the express business .... 227 Great Britain, Billing of baggage in . . . 78 " " Mode of handling baggage in . . 71 Index. 245 Page. Great Britain, Quantity of baggage that may be trans- ported free in . . .52 " " responsibility in, for baggage lost or damaged , . . ,58 " " What constitutes baggage in _ . 42 Habitues of Baggage Car . . . .18 " Half-reporting " Express Offices . . . 230,231 Harassed and perplexed Agent, the . . .121 Highways of Ancient and Modern times . . I Hospitality of a Railway Company . . 11 How baggage is billed in other countries . . 78 How the Coupon Mileage Ticket is used . . 144 How the use of the Mileage Ticket may be increased 149 Imperative need of reform . . . ,139 Importance of good faith between man and man in the express business ..... 227 Inequalities that exist .... 109 Injury done to Railways by unscrupulous politicians . g Instructions in reference to regular business of the Baggage Department .... 187 Instructions to Agents in. reference to Baggage Car Traffic .... 201 Care of Checks .... 194 Checking Baggage .... 194 Lost and Estray Baggage . . . Ig8 Lost Checks ..... 199 Miscellaneous matters ■ . . . 201 Receiving baggage in bad order . , . 203 Release for Baggage .... 202 Statements and Returns required of them . 191 tJnclaimed Baggage .... 200 Instructions to Train Baggagemen in reference to Attention to duty . . . . 211 Baggage Car Traffic . . . .210 Care of Car ..... 211 Receipt and delivery of baggage . . 208 Receiving and delivering baggage at stations at which there are no agents . . . 209 Statements and Returns required of them . 205, 207 246 Index. Page. Insufficiency of time allowed for accounting, a cause of demoralization ..... 125 Insurance of baggage by Railway Companies . . 83 Inter-road Check, the . . • 75i 7^ " Passenger and his Baggage . , .92 " Passengers, Excess Luggage of . . 131 Intimidation of officials . . . . .117 In Trip Book (Express) .... 235 Irate patron, the ...... 123 Ireland, Storage charged in . . . . 84 " What constitutes baggage in . . -43 Is the conduct of the Parcel Business by companies organized for the purpose desirable ? . . 220 Issue of Passes, Permits, etc.. Check on . . 138 Italy, Billing of baggage in . . . .80 " Letter from, in reference to baggage . . 80 " Quantity of baggage that may be carried free in . 51 " Responsibility in, for baggage lost or damaged 60 " Treatment of baggage in . . . . 190 " What constitutes baggagein ... 43 Law of supply and demand . . . .110 Letter from Italy in reference to baggage . . 80 Life in the Baggage Car ..... 17 Limit of responsibility (or baggage lost or damaged 63 List of uncollected charges on baggage car traffic . 183 Local Baggage Check . . . . 71, 73 Local Checks, Manner of supplying Agents with . 74 Lost and Estray Baggage .... 198 Lost Checks . . . . . .182, igg Lost or Damaged Baggage, Responsibility for . . 57 Luncheon Baskets provided by English Railway Co.'s 151 Machinery, Effects of dust upon . . ; 7 Magnitude of railway affairs .... 9 Making collections ..... 222 Manipulation of Baggage . . . .70 Manner of conducting inter-road passenger business 92 " Constructing ancient highways . . a Index. 247 Page. Manner of constructing railways ... 5 " Paying commissions . , . .99 Memorandum Book of Traffic Forwarded . . 184 " Way-bill of Baggage Car Traffic . 162 Men who destroy values and precipitate railroad wars 86 Messenger, Express, Duties of . . . 226, 230 Methods of advertising .... 90 Mileage Coupon Ticket .... 143, 146 „ " " How used . . . 441 Mileage Ticket, how its use may be increased . . 149 Miscellaneous instructions to agents . . . 201 Modern Highways, Construction of . . .5 Durability of ... 8 Monthly Abstract of Baggage Car Traffic Forwarded . 177 " " " " " " Received 179 Necessity for the Parcel Department . . .215 Necessity of a porous roadbed ... 6 Neglect of Baggage Car Traffic by responsible and directing officials .... 107 News Agent, the. Characteristics and peculiarities of . 25 Newspaper Parcel Rates in England . . 2i8 Newspapers carried by Express Companies . . 217 No increased business brought by commissions . 104 "Non-reporting" Express Offices . . 230,231 Not difficult to provide a proper system of accounting 133 Notice of errors ....... 185 Objections to the reorganization of the Baggage Depart- ment ....... 141 Obstacles in the way of a thorough conduct of baggage car traffic ...... 108 Officers' Car, the . . . . . 15 Officials must receipt for property . . .225 Out Trip Book (Express) .... 235 Overcharge claims, to whom referred . . . 168 Parcel Department, Necessity for . . . 215 Rates ...... 219 " Traffic, the .... . 214 248 Index. Page. Parcel Traffic Way-bills .... 227, 232 Passes, Check on issue of . . . . 138 " Disposition of . . . . . 137 " For Extra Baggage . . •. . 136 Peculiarities of Train boy . . . .25 Peculiarity of Emigrant .... 127 Perfection of system of handling baggage . . 77 Period of evolution of railways ... 8 Permits, Check on issue of . . . . "138 Primitive mode of handling baggage . . 71 Pocket Memorandum Book of Baggage Car Traffic Fojwarded Political abuse of railways Popular officer, the Popular prejudices against railways Power of Railway Companies Proper system of accounting, not difficult to provide Property must be receipted for by Express Agents . Public Highways of Ancient Rome Quantity of baggage that may be transported free . By Commercial Travelers By Emigrants . In Austria . In France In Germany In Great Britain In Italy In Russia In the United States Railroad wars. The men who precipitate Railway Companies, magnitude of their affairs " " Their hospitality " " Their power " Property entitled to a fair dividend " Roadbed, Manner of constructing " The great modern highway . Rates charged for dogs in England 184 9 118 8 9 133 225 2 50 54 53 51 51 51 52 51 51 52 86 9 II 9 112 5 2 41 Index. 249 2ig Page. Rates charged for Extra Baggage . . 113 " For Parcels ..... Receipt and delivery of Baggage by Train Baggage- men ...... 208 Receipt for Express Charges . . . 236 Receipts must be given for all moneys collected . 183 Receiving Agent, collections should be made by . 135 '' And Delivering Baggage at Stations at which there is no agent , . 209 ee . . . . . 193 in bad order . . . 203 Record of notes, etc., sent for collection . . 235 Reform, imperative need of . . . . 139 Regular business of Baggage Department, instructions in reference to .... . 187 Regulations of Roman railway . . . 81 Release for baggage car traffic .... 202 Reluctance to pay for Excess Baggage . , 120 Reminiscences of a special train . . .11 Reorganizatign of the Baggage Department, objections to 141 " Reporting " express ofHces .... 230 Responsibility in other countries for Baggage Lost or Damaged ...... 58 Responsibility of railways in the U. S. for Baggage Lost or Damaged . , • • ■ 57 Responsibility of railways, Decisions of Courts 57, 63, 64 Returns required of agents . . . 191 Revenue that may be derived from Storage of Parcels 87 Reversible or Inter-road Check . . . 75> 76 Roadbed of railways, how constructed ... 5 Roads of Ancient Rome, durability of . . 2 Roman Railway, Regulations of . . .81 Rome, Ancient, Public Highways of . . 2 Route Agents, duties of .... 226 Russia, quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 51 Safeguards must be provided to secure efficiency and prevent fraud . . . , . 66 250 Index. Page. Seaboard lines, former treatment of Excess Baggage Collections by .... . 128 Season Contracts ..... 234 Season Passes, check on issue of ... 138 Should the Express Business be conducted by com- panies organized for the purpose ? . . . 220 Some Comparisons — Express vs. Railroad . 221 Something about Commissions . . -93 Spain, Responsibility in for Baggage Lost or Damaged 62 " What constitutes Baggage in . . 44 Special Baggage Traffic Way-bill . . . 170 Special Directions to Train Baggagemen in reference to Baggage Car Traffic. . . . 210 Special Train, the . . , . .11 Speculations as to Ownership of Trunks . . 20 Statement book used by Express Agents . . 238 Statement of baggage delivered by Train Baggagemen to Agents ...... 193 Statements and Returns required of Agents . . 191 Statements and Returns required of Train Baggagemen 205 Station Records and Returns of Parcel Traffic ' . 234 Stations at which there is no Agent, Receiving and Delivery Baggage at .... 209 Storage charged by Railways abroad . . 84 " Of Baggage by Railway Companies . . 83 " Of Baggage, Lost Checks, etc. . . 182 " Of Parcels, revenue that may be derived from 87 Superiority of U. S. system of Checking Baggage . 70 Supplying Agents with Local Checks . . 74 Supply and demand, law of . . . .no System of Checking Baggage ... 70 " Of Handling of Baggage perfect . . 77 " Required for Storage of Parcels . . 87 " To enable a Company to fix the re- sponsibility for Lost or Damaged Baggage . 64 The class of men who have fastened the practice of pay- ing commissions upon the Railway Companies 97 Index. 251 Page. Through Emigrant Business .... 127 Ticket, Mileage Coupon ... . 143, 146 Traffic passed free, accounting for . . . i6g Train Baggagemen, ..... 33 " " Accusations against . . 35 " " Must not sleep on duty . 212 " " Receipt and Delivery of Baggage by 208 " " Receiving and Delivering Baggage at stations at which there is no Agent . . . 2og " " Statements and returns required of 205 Trainboy, the, characteristics and peculiarities of . 25 Trans-Continental Baggage — quantity allowed free 54 Treatment of Baggage in Italy . . . igo Unclaimed Baggage ..... 200 Uncollected Charges, list of . . . 183 United States, checking baggage compulsory in . , 77 " " quantity of Baggage that may be trans- ported Free in . . ,52 " " Responsibility in for Baggage Lost or Damaged . . 63 U. S. system of Checking Baggage, superiority of . 70 Use of Mileage Tickets upon Suburban Trains . I4g Views of A. V. Carpenter respecting Commissions . 102 " " Samuel Powell respecting Commissions 87, 103 Way-bill, Austrian . . . . .174 " Express or Parcel Tiaffic . . 227, 232 " Form of for ordinary use . 153, " Memorandum Way-bills, Disposition of . . Way-bill, Special .... What consi itutes Baggage " Decisions of Courts " in Austria " " France " Great Britain 54. 155 162 137 170 39 39. 41 44 42 42 Ireland . . 43 252 Index. Page. What constitutes Baggage in Italy . . .43 " " " " Spain . . 44 " " United States . . 39, 42 " " Freight Traffic ? . . . 215 When sufficient time is not allowed for weighing 138 " There is lack of time at Forwarding Station . 162 Why are Commissions Paid? ... 95 " Should Engage be Transported without Charge? 45 Working organization of Express Companies . 225 Marshall M. Kirkman's BOOKS ON Railways and their Affairs, FOR SALE BY CAMERON, AMBERG & CO. General Agents, 71 and 73 Lajce Street, Chicago. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. " Railway Revenue" and " Railway Disburse- ments." " The name shows sufficiently that the book is devoted to a subject of the utmost practical importance, and we doubt not that it is calculated to be of great service to the officers of railroad companies — and particularly to those who have not had life-long experience in a railroad office. ***** Another companion volume by the same author and publishers, is " Railway Disbursements," a work containing direct and comprehensive rules for keeping the disbursement accounts of a railroad. Mr. Kirkman's books are welcome as one more valuable contribution to the stock of information on practical methods of keeping corporation accounts. * * *"" Commercial and Financial Chronicle, New York. "The author of this work is an acknowledged authority on the subject upon which he writes. He has brought to the study of the science of railroad accounting a mind well fitted by nature to grapple with such labor, and which has been further adapted by habit and education." — The Railroader, March, 1878. " It seems to us as if the author, with his experiences and successful system, has been enabled to write considerately and exhaustively upon the topics which he has chosen." — The Chi- cago Evening jfournal, Nov. 24, I877. " These books of Mr. Kirkman's are the only books on the subject of railway finances and accounts that have ever been published. They are written by a railway officer of over twenty years' experience upon one of the greatest railways in the world, and ought, therefore, to be especially reliable and trustworthy." St. Louis Globe-Democrat. " Each railroad has a method peculiar to itself of keeping its accounts ; but these works are, without doubt, of great value as books of reference. However different the system of ac- counts may be on different roads, we apprehend the principles that govern the collection of revenue and its disbursements must remain practically the same. Hence the undoubted use- fulness of such works as aids in the solution of new and vexed questions. They also enable the student or casual reader to take up the subject of railway finances and accounts, and study the same intelligently and connectedly as a whole." — National Union, Washington, Dec. 4, 1877. " ' Railway Accounts,' ' Revenue and Disbursements ' are two books from the pen of Marshall M. Kirkman. Mr. Kirk- mau appears as the first author upon the methods of railroad finance, a subject which has, within the past few years, risen to the dignity of a science. The author has improved his great opportunities by careful study of the theory and practice of railway revenues and disbursements, and the results of over twenty years' practical experience are given to the public in the books mentioned, with remarkable conciseness and lucidity. Moreover, they are written with a grace and facility of diction which fairly entitle them to be received as literature of the first class. To those interested in the construction, maintenance, and revenue of railways, these books are invaluable, while those who may desire to be initiated into the science of railroad finance, either for information or practice, will find in them all that can be desired. We, therefore, receive with pleasure this valuable addition to American class literature, at the same time commending Mr. Kirkman for the energy and spirit displayed by him in thus sharing with the public the benefits of his long experience."— y. y. Noah, in his paper, Nov. 25, 1877. " Railway Revenue and its Collection." 580 Fasres Octavo. Price, $8.50. " Every page of this book proves its author to be possessed of two qualifications which very seldom go together. Mr. Kirkman is a practical railroad man, and he has collected in nme years, by methods which he details at length, $150,000,- 000 of railway receipts without the loss of a single dollar, although he employed in the work some four hundred chang- ing collectors, agents and clerks. Secondly, our author has the ability to tell, in a clear; interesting style, what he wishes his readers to know, so that throughout the book the attention is kept active and is rewarded."— ^aw/ff^j-' Magazine. November 1877. " The author, Mr. Marshall M. Kirkman, in his book treats in a comprehensive and exhaustive manner the very important subject with which he deals. The body of the work contains much information and instruction valuable to American rail- way officials. The appendix also contains a variety of forms for railway revenue which must be found peculiarly useful." — Hereapath's (London) Ry. and Commercial Journal, September 20, 1877. " The author of this volume here describes the results of many years' experience in the business organization of Amer- ican railroads, the collection of their revenues, and the elaborate system of book-keeping essential to the accuracy of accounts. His work presents a series of minute, and almost exhaustive details on the subject, and may be read with interest by all concerned in the successful operation of railroads, whether officers, employes, stockholders, or creditors." — New York Tribune. " The suggestions of unquestionable sagacity which the present author has advanced will be serviceable to many, and acknowledged as of value by all who are connected with the railway enterprises of our country." — The Chicago Tribune. " This * * volume sets forth in a very exhaustive form the object and extent of railroad accounts and the necessity of their being organized on scientific principles. * * *" — The New York Bulletin. " A large portion of the book is devoted to a careful descrip- tion of the characteristics and duties of the operating officers of our railways, the relationsthose officers bear to the accounts, and the abuses that are sometimes noticeable in consequence of an illy-arranged and practically, irresponsible working organi- zation." — The Chicago Times. "It contains with much other interesting matter an elaborate treatise on the revenue department of our railways. * * * Under a system similar in many respects to that shadowed forth in this book, $160,000,000 of railway receipts have been collected upon a single railway in the United States without the loss of a dollar. * * ~ * This fact is at once an evidence and guarantee to railway men that the book is not unworthy of tlfeir respectful consideration. This work with the one already published by the same author on 'Railway Disbursements' form the most complete and exhaustive exposition of railroad finances and accounts'." — The Chicago Railway Review. " The body of the book contains a very large amount of useful information drawn from the author's extended experi- ence, in regard to the manner of accounting for and collecting the revenue of a railway through all the different channels, and the propositions are illustrated by over seventy forms of blanks." — The Railway Age. " Railroad men speak well of it and say it gives some sensi- ble ideas as to how accounts should be made up, how the differ- ent officers should act. He goes from the dignified President to the rollicking General Passenger Agent." — Detroit Free Press. " Railway Disbursements and tlie Accounts into Wliich they are Naturally Divided." 360 Pagres Octavo. Price $3.00. " The minuteness and extent of the details given render any attempt at a summarized account of the suggestions and forms of accounts utterly impossible ; but they appear to be the re- sult of considerable practical knowledge, and an immense amount of careful thought and consideration. A glance through these pages, whatever other information they may convey to the uninitiated, at least affords a startling proof of the vast and complex scale on which the various items of a railway account must be kept." — London Railway News, April 14, 1877. This volume embraces carefully worded instructions in the form of concise rules for the government of the various officials and agents in reporting to the accounting officer, the Material disbursed in operations, the Labor performed by operatives, and the Moneys expended on account of the company, and including copies of all the important blank forms required by employes in making the returns required of them. The rules have the great merit of simplicity, of directness, and of comprehensiveness ; they have the especially important merit of perfect practicability upon a road only a few miles in length, or one extending uninterruptedly across the continent. It. contains an easy and natural subdivision of the current expenses of a railway, based on principles readily understood. It defines in the clearest possible manner the difference be- tween expenditures which add nothing to the original value of the property and those which are classed as Improvements or Additions, making plain to the least expert the difference be- tween Expense and Capital account. The book is invaluable to railway officers and accountants as a book of reference. ''Railway Service — Trains and Stations/' Price $3.00. In the preparation of this book an exhaustive examination has been made of "the rules and regulations in force to-day upon some twenty of the greatest, most thoroughly organized, andbest managed roads upon this continent. The_ workings of all. the principal roads of Great Britain have also been studied, and such of their rules and regulations as were thought applicable to our system of management have been embodied. * * * * In many cases where their (the English) regulations were not directly or wholly applicable, they have nevertheless been inserted as foot notes for the purpose of illustrating their theory and its peculiari- ties, and for the valuable information and instruction they afford. # * * * The writer has * „* * * introduced new rules and explanations wherever he believed they would tend to a clearer under- standing of the subject. And in reference to the construction of the old rules adopted by him, he has not hesitated to alter or amend their purport or phraseology wherever he believed greater efficiency or clearness could be secured by such alteration or amendment ; the object being so far as possible to frame a code of rules sufficiently comprehensive to cover great enterprises as well as comparatively unimportant or partially completed ones. * — Raiiivay Service — Trains And Stations^ pp. 65,67,68. " Baggage Car Traffic." Price $a.OO. This volume illustrates the peculiarities of the Baggage Department, and describes the duties, responsibilities, and practices^ of those connected with it. It explains the nature and peculiarities of Baggage Car Traffic and the Rules and Regulations applicable thereto. Address Orders for the foregoing books to CAMERON, AMBERC & CO., 71 and 73 Lake St., CHICAGO. RAILWAY BOOKS. For Sale by " The Railroad Gazette," 73 Broadway, New York. Catechism of the Locomotive. By M. N. Forney, 625 pages, 250 engravings ; price, $2.50, Economic Theory of the Location of Railways. By A- M. Wellington; price, $2.00. Roadmaster's Assistant ani Section-IHaster's Guide. By Wm. S. Huntington and Charles Latimer ; price, $1.50. PAMPHLETS. Investigation into the Cost of Passenger Traffic on American Railroads. By Albert Fink ; price, 75 cents. Cost of Railroad Transportation. By Albert Fink ; price, 75 cents. Railroad Employes in France. By F. Jacqmin ; price, 25 cts. The Verrugas Viaduct. By Ernest Pontzen ; price, 40 ctsi English vs. American Bridges. Price, 25 cents. Amberg' s 3ystems of Letter Piling FOR Railroad Offices, Commercial Houses, Manufacturing Establisliments, Banks and Offices generally. "How shall I file away my letters?" has always been a question that many have tried to answer, and of the countless devices put upon the market, many of them successfully, not one has been thorough and practical in what should have been its aim. The main object desirable in a system for filing away papers is to be able to find any one or all of a certain person or firm's correspondence, no matter when received, or on what material written, AT ONCE, in a direct manner, and not in any roundabout way. This end has been accomplished only by Amberg's Cabinet Letter Files, arranged in cases containing from six to one hundred or over, each minutely indexed and self-adjusting in its system. In addition to attaining the principal object, an instantane- ous reference for all time, it dispenses with all the labor of indexing — the letters filed being " self-indexed " — no num- bering, pasting, folding, endorsing, binding, filing on hooks, or writing whatever, are required. The papers are not lying or hanging loosely, and yet can be removed instantly and replaced ; the system adjusts itself to any demand made upon it, and its success is thoroughly established. These Cabinets, made in sixty different sizes and styles, are always arranged to suit the particular requirements of the office for which they are intended, and are fully explained in " Amberg's Systems of Letter Filing," which is sent free on application. CAMERON, AMBERG & CO. 71 & 73 Lake Street, CHICAGO. 69 Murray Street. NEW YORK. 70 Queen Street, LONDON, ENG.