Part 20

The earlier method, of allowing each passenger to pick out his own baggage at his point of destination and carry it off, resulted in a lack of accountability which led to much confusion, frequent losses, and heavy claims upon the companies in consequence. Necessity, as usual, gave birth to invention, and the difficulty was at last solved by the introduction of the system known as "checking." A metal disk bearing a number and designating on its face the destination of the baggage was attached to each article and a duplicate given to the owner, which answered as a receipt, and upon the presentation and surrender of which the baggage could be claimed. Railways soon united in arranging for through checks which, when attached to baggage, would insure its being sent safely to distant points over lines composed of many connecting roads. The check system led to the introduction of another marked convenience in the handling of baggage--the baggage express or transfer company. One of its agents will now check trunks at the passenger's own house and haul them to the train. Another agent will take up the checks aboard the train as it is nearing its destination, and see that the baggage is delivered at any given address.

The cases in which pieces go astray are astonishingly rare, and some roads found the claims for lost articles reduced by five thousand dollars the first year after adopting the check system, not to mention the amount saved in the reduced force of employees engaged in assorting and handling the baggage. Its workings are so perfect and its conveniences so great that an American cannot easily understand why it is not adopted in all countries; but he is forced to recognize the fact that it seems destined to be confined to his own land. The London railway managers, for instance, give many reasons for turning their faces against its adoption. They say that there are few losses arising from passengers taking baggage that does not belong to them; that most of the passengers take a cab at the end of their railway journey to reach their homes, and it costs but little more to carry their trunk with them; that in this way it gets home as soon as they, while the transfer company, or baggage express, would not deliver it for an hour or two later; that the cab system is a great convenience, and any change which would diminish its patronage would gradually reduce the number of cabs, and these "gondolas of London" would have to increase their charges or go out of business. It is very easy to find a stick when one wants to hit a dog, and the European railway officials seem never to be at a loss for reasons in rejecting the check system.

Coupon tickets covering trips over several different railways have saved the traveller all the annoyance once experienced in purchasing separate tickets from the several companies representing the roads over which he had to pass. Their introduction necessitated an agreement among the principal railways of the country and the adoption of an extensive system of accountability for the purpose of making settlements of the amounts represented by the coupons.

Like every other novelty the coupon ticket, when first introduced, did not hit the mark when aimed at the understanding of certain travellers. A United States Senator-elect had come on by sea from the Pacific Coast who had never seen a railroad till he reached the Atlantic seaboard. With a curiosity to test the workings of the new means of transportation, of which he had heard so much, he bought a coupon ticket and set out for a railway journey. He entered a car, took a seat next to the door, and was just beginning to get the "hang of the school-house" when the conductor, who was then not uniformed, came in, cried "Tickets!" and reached out his hand toward the Senator. "What do you want of me?" said the latter. "I want your ticket," answered the conductor. Now it occurred to the Senator that this might be a very neat job on the part of an Eastern ticket-sharp, but it was just a little too thin to fool a Pacific Coaster, and he said: "Don't you think I've got sense enough to know that if I parted with my ticket right at the start I wouldn't have anything to show for my money during the rest of the way? No, sir, I'm going to hold on to this till I get to the end of the trip."

"Oh!" said the conductor, whose impatience was now rising to fever heat, "I don't want to take up your ticket, I only want to look at it."

The Senator thought, after some reflection, that he would risk letting the man have a peep at it, anyhow, and held it up before him, keeping it, however, at a safe distance. The conductor, with the customary abruptness, jerked it out of his hand, tore off the first coupon, and was about to return the ticket, when the Pacific Coaster sprang up, threw himself upon his muscle, and delivered a well-directed blow of his fist upon the conductor's right eye, which landed him sprawling on one of the opposite seats. The other passengers were at once on their feet, and rushed up to know the cause of the disturbance. The Senator, still standing with his arms in a pugnacious attitude, said:

"Maybe I've never ridden on a railroad before, but I'm not going to let any sharper get away with me like that."

"What's he done?" cried the passengers.

"Why," said the Senator, "I paid seventeen dollars and a half for a ticket to take me through to Cincinnati, and before we're five miles out that fellow slips up and says he wants to see it, and when I get it out, he grabs hold of it and goes to tearing it up right before my eyes." Ample explanations were soon made, and the new passenger was duly initiated into the mysteries of the coupon system.

The uniforming of railway employees was a movement of no little importance. It designated the various positions held by them, added much to the neatness of their appearance, enabled passengers to recognize them at a glance, and made them so conspicuous that it impressed them with a greater sense of responsibility and aided much in effecting a more courteous demeanor to passengers.

* * * * *

Many conveniences have been introduced which greatly assist the passenger when travelling upon unfamiliar roads. Conspicuous clock-faces stand in the stations with their hands set to the hour at which the next train is to start, sign-boards are displayed with horizontal slats on which the stations are named at which departing way-trains stop, and employees are stationed to call out necessary information and direct passengers to the proper entrances, exits, and trains. A "bureau of information" is now to be seen in large passenger-stations, in which an official sits and with a Job-like patience repeats to the curiously inclined passengers the whole railway catechism, and successfully answers conundrums that would stump an Oriental pundit.

The energetic passenger-agent spares no pains to thrust information directly under the nose of the public. He uses every means known to Yankee ingenuity to advertise his regular trains and his excursion business, including large newspaper head-lines, corner-posters, curb-stone dodgers, and placards on the breast and back of the itinerant human sandwich who perambulates the streets.

Railway accidents have always been a great source of anxiety to the managers, and the shocks received by the public when great loss of life occurs from such causes deepen the interest which the general community feels in the means taken to avoid these distressing occurrences.

American railway officials have made encouraging progress in reducing the number and the severity of accidents, and while the record is not so good on many of our cheaply constructed roads, our first-class roads now show by their statistics that they compare favorably in this respect with the European companies.

The statistics regarding accidents[26] are necessarily unreliable, as railway companies are not eager to publish their calamities from the house-tops, and only in those States in which prompt reports are required to be made by law are the figures given at all accurately. Even in these instances the yearly reports lead to wrong conclusions, for the State Railroad Commissioners become more exacting each year as to the thoroughness of the reports called for, and the results sometimes show an increase compared with previous years, whereas there may have been an actual decrease.

In 1880, the last census year, an effort was made to collect statistics of this kind covering all the railways in the United States, with the following result:

+----------------+----------------+----------------+------- | Through causes | Through | | To whom | beyond their | their own | Aggregate. | Total happened. | control. | carelessness. | | acci- +-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+ dents. |Killed.|Injured.|Killed.|Injured.|Killed.|Injured.| ------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------- Passengers | 61 | 331 | 82 | 213 | 143 | 544 | 687 Employees | 261 | 1,004 | 663 | 2,613 | 924 | 3,617 | 4,541 All others | 43 | 103 | 1,429 | 1,348 | 1,472 | 1,451 | 2,923 Unspecified | | | | | 3 | 62 | 65 +-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------- Total | 365 | 1,438 | 2,174 | 4,174 | 2,542 | 5,674 | 8,216 ------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------

Mulhall, in his "Dictionary of Statistics," an English work, uses substantially these same figures and makes the following comparison between European and American railways:

_Accidents to Passengers, Employees, and Others._

+---------+----------+--------+------------- | | | | Per million | Killed. | Wounded. | Total. | passengers. ---------------+---------+----------+--------+------------- United States | 2,349 | 5,867 | 8,216 | 41.1 United Kingdom | 1,135 | 3,959 | 5,094 | 8.1 Europe | 3,213 | 10,859 | 14,072 | 10.8 ---------------+---------+----------+--------+-------------

That the figures given above are much too high as regards the United States, there can be no doubt. For the fiscal year 1880-81 the data compiled by the Railroad Commissioners of Massachusetts and published in their reports give as the total number of persons killed and injured in the United States 2,126, as against 8,216 upon which the comparisons in the above table are based. If we substitute in this table the former number for the latter, it would reduce the number of injured per million passengers in the United States to 10.6, about the same as on the European railways.

Edward Bates Dorsey gives the following interesting table of comparisons in his valuable work, "English and American Railroads Compared:"

_Passengers Killed and Injured from Causes beyond their own Control on all the Railroads of the United Kingdom and those of the States of New York and Massachusetts in 1884._

+---------+---------------------------+-------+------ | Total | | | | length | Total mileage. | | In- | of line +-------------+-------------+Killed.|jured. |operated.| Train. | Passengers. | | -----------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-------+------ United Kingdom | 18,864 | 272,803,220 |6,042,659,990| 31 | 864 New York | 7,298 | 85,918,677 |1,729,653,620| 10 | 124 Massachusetts | 2,852 | 32,304,333 |1,007,136,376| 2 | 42 -----------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-------+------ In | | | | | 1,000,000,000 | | | | | passengers | | | | | transported | | | | | 1 mile. | | | | | | | | | | United Kingdom | | | | 5.15 | 143 New York | | | | 5.78 | 70 Massachusetts | | | | 2.00 | 42 -----------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-------+------

+------------ | Miles. +------------ The average number of miles { United Kingdom | 194,892,255 a passenger can travel without { New York | 172,965,362 being killed. { Massachusetts | 503,568,188 | The average number of miles { United Kingdom | 6,992,662 a passenger can travel without { New York | 13,940,754 being injured. { Massachusetts | 23,955,630 --------------------------------------------------+------------

From this it will be seen that in the United Kingdom the average distance a passenger may travel before being killed is about equal to twice the distance of the Earth from the Sun. In New York he may travel a distance greater than that of Mars from the Sun; and in Massachusetts he can comfort himself with the thought that he may travel twenty-seven millions of miles farther than the distance of Jupiter to the Sun before suffering death on the rail.

The most encouraging feature of these statistics is the fact that the number of railway accidents per mile in the United States has shown a marked decrease each year. Taking the figures adopted by the Massachusetts commissions, the number of persons injured in the year 1880-81 was 2,126, and in 1886-87, 2,483, while in the same time the number of miles in operation increased from 93,349 to 137,986.

The amounts paid annually by railways in satisfaction of claims for damages to passengers are serious items of expenditure, and in the United States have reached in some years nearly two millions of dollars. About half of the States limit the amount of damages in case of death to $5,000, the States of Virginia, Ohio, and Kansas to $10,000, and the remainder have no statutory limit.

In the year 1840 the number of miles of railway per 100,000 inhabitants in the different countries named was as follows: United States, 20; United Kingdom, 3; Europe, 1; in the year 1882, United States, 210; United Kingdom, 52; Europe, 34.

In the year 1886 the total number of miles in the United States was 137,986; the number of passengers carried, 382,284,972; the number carried one mile, 9,659,698,294; the average distance travelled per passenger, 25.27 miles.

In Europe the first-class travel is exceedingly small and the third class constitutes the largest portion of the passenger business, while in America almost the whole of the travel is first class, as will be seen from the following table:

+-------------------------------------------- | Percentage of passengers carried. +--------------+---------------+------------- | First Class. | Second Class. | Third Class. ---------------+--------------+---------------+------------- United Kingdom | 6 | 10 | 84 France | 8 | 32 | 60 Germany | 1 | 13 | 86 United States | 99 | ½ of 1 | ½ of 1 ---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------

The third-class travel in this country is better known as immigrant travel. The percentages given in the above table for the United States are based upon an average of the numbers of passengers of each class carried on the principal through lines. If all the roads were included, the percentages of the second- and third-class travel would be still less.

That which is of more material interest to passengers than anything else is the rate of fare charged.

The following table gives an approximate comparison between the rates per mile in the leading countries in the world:

+--------------+---------------+------------- | First Class. | Second Class. | Third Class. ---------------+--------------+---------------+------------- | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. United Kingdom | 4.42 | 3.20 | 1.94 France | 3.86 | 2.88 | 2.08 Germany | 3.10 | 2.32 | 1.54 United States | 2.18 | -- | -- ---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------

The rates above given for the United Kingdom, France, and Germany are the regular schedule-rates. An average of all the fares received, including the reduced fares at excursion rates, would make the figures somewhat less.

The rate named as the first-class fare for the railways in the United States is, strictly speaking, the average earnings per passenger per mile, and includes all classes; but as the first-class passengers constitute about ninety-nine per centum of the travel the amount does not differ materially from the actual first-class fare. In the State of New York the first-class fare does not exceed two cents, which is not much more than the third-class fare in some countries of Europe, and heat, good ventilation, ice-water, toilet arrangements, and free carriage of a liberal amount of baggage are supplied, while in Europe few of these comforts are furnished.

On the elevated railroads of New York a passenger can ride in a first-class car eleven miles for 5 cents, or about one-half cent a mile, and on surface-roads the commutation rates given to suburban passengers are in some cases still less.

The berth-fares in sleeping-cars in Europe largely exceed those in America, as will be seen from the following comparisons, stated in dollars:

+-------------------+------------ Route. | Distance in Miles.| Berth fare. --------------------+-------------------+------------ Paris to Rome | 901 | $12.75 New York to Chicago | 912 | 5.00 Paris to Marseilles | 536 | 11.00 New York to Buffalo | 440 | 2.00 Calais to Brindisi | 1,373 | 22.25 Boston to St. Louis | 1,330 | 6.50 --------------------+-------------------+------------

While it would seem that the luxuries of railway travel in America have reached a maximum, and the charges a minimum, yet in this progressive age it is very probable that in the not far distant future we shall witness improvements over the present methods which will astonish us as much as the present methods surprise us when we compare them with those of the past.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 195.

[24] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 224; also, "American Locomotives and Cars," page 142.

[25] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 204.

[26] See "Safety in Railroad Travel," page 191.

THE FREIGHT-CAR SERVICE.

BY THEODORE VOORHEES.

Sixteen Months' Journey of a Car--Detentions by the Way--Difficulties of the Car Accountant's Office--Necessities of Through Freight--How a Company's Cars are Scattered--The Question of Mileage--Reduction of the Balance in Favor of Other Roads--Relation of the Car Accountant's Work to the Transportation Department--Computation of Mileage--The Record Branch--How Reports are Gathered and Compiled--Exchange of "Junction Cards"--The Use of "Tracers"--Distribution of Empty Cars--Control of the Movement of Freight--How Trains are Made Up--Duties of the Yardmaster--The Handling of Through Trains--Organization of Fast Lines--Transfer Freight Houses--Special Cars for Specific Service--Disasters to Freight Trains--How the Companies Suffer--Inequalities in Payment for Car Service--The Per Diem Plan--A Uniform Charge for Car Rental--What Reforms might be Accomplished.

I.

THE WANDERINGS OF A CAR.

On the 14th of December, 1886, there was loaded in Indianapolis a car belonging to one of the roads passing through that city. It was loaded with corn consigned to parties in Boston. The car was delivered to the Lake Shore road at Cleveland on the 16th; but, owing to bad weather and various other local causes, it did not reach East Buffalo until December 28th. It was turned over by the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad to the West Shore road the next day, and by this company was taken to Rotterdam Junction, and there delivered on December 31st to the Western Division of the Fitchburg Railroad, or what was then known as the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel & Western. They took it promptly through to Boston. After a few days the corn was sold by the consignees for delivery in Medfield, on the New York & New England Railway. The car was delivered to this road on January 24, 1887, and taken down to Medfield. There it remained among a large number of other cars, until it suited the convenience of the purchaser to put the corn into his elevator.

On the 17th of March the car was unloaded, taken back to Boston, and delivered to the Fitchburg road to be sent West, homeward. That company took it promptly, but instead of delivering it to the West Shore road at Rotterdam Junction, as would have been the regular course, either through some mistake of a yardmaster at the junction station, or in pursuance of general instructions to load all Western cars home whenever practicable, the car was not delivered to the West Shore, but was turned over to the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co's. Railroad, taken down to the coal regions, and on March 31st delivered to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, by whom it was loaded with coal for Chicago. That company promptly delivered it to the Grand Trunk at Buffalo, and on April 10th the car reached Chicago. It was immediately reconsigned by the local agents of the coal company to a dealer in the town of Minot, 523 miles west of St. Paul, on the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad. To reach that point, it was delivered to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific on April 10th, then to the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern, Minneapolis & St. Louis, St. Paul & Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba, arriving at its destination on the 14th of April.