OCR Text |
Show How the Passenger Agents Fooled the New York Hatter. i THE RUSH FOR THE BROKEN CIRCUS PEOPLE When You Change Your Watch and When You Leave It Alone. "These hot and cold days remind mo of tho tlmo John Daly and 1 blew into New York out of season," said Harry Rheln, general passenger agent of the Big Four road, chatting In the New York Contral oillccti in Chicago, referring to tho hard days when ho traveled a beat in Indiana as district passenger agent for tho Lake Erie & Western. How They Fooled tho Hatter. "It was tho latter yart of September, and it wan so warm In Cincinnati wo had not discarded our straw hats. We received n telegram to meet our boss In Now York quickly, and boarded a train without much preparation. Everything Every-thing was balmy until wo got to Gotham, where we struck an autumnal blizzard. Tho thermometer dropped to -50 or oO, and as wo walked out of Grand Central station sta-tion our straw hats becamo conspicuous, to say tho least- Wo Immediately became be-came an attraction, and by tho way pco- Clo rubbered at us 1 don't think there hod cen a straw hat worn In New York that summer. Not a Hard Problem. "Thero was no problem facing us; It was Just a question of getting Into tho hat store and exchanging our headgear for something that would be more satisfactory satis-factory to tho natives of the Island. Tho clerk In the store, near the station, evidently evi-dently suspected wo had escaped from somo piece of timber and got tho marks off all his hats as quickly as possible. Wc bought two black derbies at what wo considered a ICO per cent Increase. Paralyzed the Hatter. " 'Where shall I deliver tho old hats' asked the affable .shopkeeper. " 'Send thorn both to II. J. Rheln, Pal-aco Pal-aco hotel. San Francisco,' 1 replied, without with-out n qulvfcr. " 'My God, man. the express thero will cost mo more than you paid for tho ha'.s!' he cvcclalmed. " 'Well, at that I guess you will have made something on the deal,' I said, as wo walked out Wo never sent a tracer to San Francisco to locate tho old straws.'' 1 Agents Fell Dovni. A circus had gone to tho wall down In Missouri and ngenLs of a half-dozen railroads rail-roads had rushed to the scene to corral the show peoplo going back to their homes. By a coincidence, traveling passenger pas-senger representatives of the four St, Louls-Chlcngo roads Eastern llltnols, Illinois Central, Wabash and Alton-were Alton-were In the samo sleeper coming Into St. Louis over the Iron Mountain route that night. Thev were comparing notes as to how many of the show Lrowd each agent had secured for his road, whon the conductor, con-ductor, came In and tipped It off that there was a passenger in the car ahead who was going from St. Loul6 to Chlcaso and was undecided as to which line to use. -The representatives of the four St. Louis-Chicago lines mado a rush for the victim. Advantages of the Routes. "Wo havo fine service and our trains lake vou into Chicago along the famous lake front, a seven-mile ride with the beautiful water of Lake Michigan on one side and magnificent residences of millionaires mil-lionaires on the other; you can't beat It," said the agent of the Illinois Central "We give vou an easy rldo and land you In Ia Salle street station, the only station on tho olevatcd loop. There's nothing to It. We set the pace for tho business man." spoke the Eastern Illl-nols's Illl-nols's representative. "Wo give you frequent trains and put you In Dearborn station, at tho head of a clean, quiet street in the heart of the cltv." quoth the Wabash man. "We offer you a lot of trains, a view of the drainage canal, and a glance at the Chicago river," put in the Alton agent. Lost Out in Night. All tho evidence' being In, tho tired agents went to bed. Next morning, entering en-tering St. Louis, they went ahead to find their prospective passenger, hut there was no trace of him. "Oh, that man you fellows fel-lows were talking to last night,'' tho conductor said. "Well, nfter you left he got a telegram that his daughter was sick and he got off at the first station and took a train" back home " No Change of Time. , On only ono railroad operating out of Chicago for a distance of 1000 miles Is It jnnecessary for trainmen or passengers to change their watches an hour one way or another. The line which requires no tinkering with watches is the Illinois Central between Chicago and New Orleans, Or-leans, the entire route. 922 miles, being in tho same latitude. Going from Chicago to New York, If confusion be obviated, your watch must be set an hour ahead at Buffalo, or other place on the dividing line, and going west from Chicago you will be an hour nhead of time unless you shift your watch one hour back a couple of hundred miles west of the Missouri river. This changing of lime has become such a habit with traveler that they usually 103c sight of the astronomical reason, and conductors on the Illinois Central have during the present winter extracted considerable amusement out of tho uuestlon. This 3enson travel to New Orleans nnd Cuba from tho North has been unusually heavy, und thousands have gone south for the first time. Many of these people have traveled extensively cast and west from Chicago, and, forgetting forget-ting tho location of tho Illinois Central, continually ask conductors regarding the point where time Is to bo changed. Being told there Is no change, they then begin to figure out the reason. The fact that there Is no change In time botween Chicago and New Orleans grent-lv grent-lv facilitates the operation of this road, a's conductors, engine men, trainmen, dls-natchers dls-natchers and others are not bolhrred with latitudes and dual dlalB. It also enables the company to publish an Intelligible folder time card |