Show THE RAILROAD SIDE 1 how the tha companies are f plundered hindered by V 0 greedy public did it ever occur to you in how many ways it a railroad is preyed on by the sharks sharl 9 that exist in every community was the interrogatory fired at rno me by a prominent local railroad manager who watches the leaks which reduce tile the net earnings the other day As I 1 W was S not familiar with that side of tho the question but had always believed that it wan waa the railroads that preyed prayed on the public I 1 denied any acquaintance with the subject j well continued the man passing parsing over the old chestnuts of tho the color blindness of some conductors so that they cant distinguish the com banys money from their own the the theat f t of at cross ties piled on the right of 0 way the amounts paid in stock mode claims tor for scrub animals which only needed to be crossed by the pilot ot of the locomotive to become thoroughbreds of 0 high value the rho hay stacks Suppo supposed ged to have been fired bred by the spark from the engine containing in realley fifty tons which are paid lor for by the railroad as 03 SOO tons and the thousand and one other drains I 1 over which we oan can have but a very imperfect control it if you will walk around the streets of the busI business nesa portion with mo me for half an hour I 1 will show you railroad property properly at every tew few stops steps that has been hypothecated ted I 1 I 1 was curious to learn larn what character of railroad property would v be floating around the principal st streets re ets of 0 salt lake so BO I 1 accompanied hird him our course was along alone second south street and as we reached the ice the railroad man called my attention to an express wagon standing in front of the building do you see sec that horse and wagon be demanded I 1 answered to the effect that my eyesight was all right all right ho he continued there Is 19 railroad property and it goes without saying that it was never purchased for fop we dont buy such articles to sell I 1 was mystified and scrutinized the rig closely to ascertain what part of a railroad it was my companion quickly saw that he was not understood and rt epping to tho the curb took the lualter atran by which the home was tethered in his hand and showed me what I 1 had frequently seen but had never noted an ordinary car coupling link attached to the other end ot of the strap as a weight to anchor the animal those car links are made from the best of iron in order to bo be equal to the henry heavy strain they are subjected to and cost the rall railroad road company from 40 to 43 45 cents each according to their weight even its cost does not represent all the he loss the railroad sustains by its ita theft the loss lose of time on the part of switchmen and trainmen replacing the stole boolen n links and t the consequent delays to the movement of cars form a very important item of expense wo we continued east toward slain street and at every few steps the alert railroad official would point out another link used as an anchor up one side of main street the same conditions presented themselves occasionally casio caslo nally it was ras tho the end ot of a rail or a a cast irin inn brake shoe that tethered the animal and it 1 at liast least four out of every llva favl were attached to a piece of railroad property of one variety or another I 1 reluctantly acknowledged to the official that there was probable grounds for his belief that the railroads were 1 preyed on by the public and as I 1 left him I 1 was cogitating as to what extent these petty patty thefts were responsible for the numerous cases of railroad bankruptcy I 1 believe that an inventory would show at least 2 worth of railroad property used tor for this one purpose of anchoring anchor lne horses in the streets of salt lake to 0 the expedition and its results started some now new ideas and I 1 resolved to pursue tho the subject further with this object in mind I 1 approached one of tho the officials of the other road and asked him to relate some instances where ills his road hid had been or was being made th abs tbs 0 sufferer at the hands of a greedy and unscrupulous public here la Is an individual instance right here replied the official warmly this roan man wants for a raula mule that was so old and poor and sick that lie ho stalled on the railway crossing with a load of pounds of coal behind him find and actually laid down rind and died on the crossing the owned treed freed tho the wagon from the mule and when our train came along otter after dark the carcass was struck by the engine and lie he tossed me a bundle of reports and affidavits bearing on the mule tor for my perusal ile he related several other incidents somewhat fi similar milar told it a few pointed stories about the abuse of passes granted to individuals who had left the service of the company and finally started off as follows the worst case caad of holdup hold up that ever came to my attention happened a year or two back wo we had fired CL a drunken foreman at a station somo some distance froin salt lake 1 and in sending out his successor we sent bent a pass good for the discharged employee to salt lake instead of coming in he be sold the pass and bought more whisky and when he was finally broke he tried to beat his way to salt lake several conductors fired him from their trains but he succeeded in biding himself in a box car in a train bound for his ha destination As this train salt lelko lako it was vas unfortunate enough to to be wrack wrecked ed and tho the cars were piled on top of each other the discharged foreman was taken out of the wreck badly injured and although it II was evident that he be had been stealing a ride and we knew he be had bad sold the pass from humane instincts we sent him to the hospital where he is remained fa for r some gome months an expense to tho the railroad company all of this was b bid ad enough but when the fellow w was discharged from the hospital cured ho he brought an action against the coin company tor for tor for personal injuries sustained in the wreck and reg regardless of the statement of facts that we presented a jury awarded him a verdict tor for better evidence than this case presents could not be produced to show that tile tha general public thinks it Is the proper thin thins to hold up a rail road company |