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SOME FEATURES OF TRANSPORTATION Expedients by Which Stable Helpers Traveled Without Paying Their Way Lexington Ky April 7 There was a time said one of a group of horsemen at the Leington track a day or two ago when the railroad com ¬ panies would allow you a man to every horse in shipping and then some I remember that ten or twelve years ago when we were shipping from town to town there would some times be as many as twentylive men and boys in a car with twelve or sixteen horses but not so now nowThe The companies have everything figured on a basis of tonnage For instance if you are shipping from here to New York the rate is fLfiO per car You can take as many as twenty horses if yon like but only one man to the car For all others you must buy a ticket from point of starting to destina ¬ tion However if you are taking only sixteen horses in the car you can have six men live men in lieu of four horses horsesAnd And let me tell you they are strict about it They may not appear to notice that you are shoving in an extra man or two when starting but its a cinch that somewhere along the roid there will be an inspection by the conductor and unless the ex ¬ tras are mighty snugly hidden away youll be called upon to settle for full fare from the point of start ¬ ing or they will be chucked cut of the car and you will be reported for cheating Maybe the next time you want to ship over that road something will be said to you about the time you were caughr and that as I have bad occasion to observe is not pleasant I dont care how tough a fellow is or how free from morals he may be he docs not care to be reminded that he was once caught cheating cheatingBut But a lota L them lo tk chances on getting caught A fellow for instance may have been all winter in New Orleans without winning a race sickness In the stable or other sorts of bard luck with his horses rounding to and pretty sure of win ¬ ning at the next town Its a long ship and hes got just about the price of the car and something for feed The rubbers and the riders have got to go along He hasnt got the coin to put up for fare for all of them cant borrow it any where so hes just got to stow sway a few of them themNecessity Necessity ever the mother of invention has pro ¬ duced some rather unique methods in this respect One fellow I knew took the piano box in which he kept his oats rigged up a false bottom ab ut six inches from the top covered this over with a layer of about five inches of oats and put the back on hinges same as the lid There was room for four men or boys to sit comfortably He would so ar ¬ range the box in the car that whenever the train made a stop the men conld jump inside the back would be closed and a bale of hay or two rolled against it The conductor on inspection would find only the correct number of men and nothing would be said saidAnother Another fellow carried a big chest for blankets and tack but it was big enough to accommodate ten times as much as he owned and lie would hide his men in this I remember one time this fellow had a car in a fivecar special running from Latonia to New Or ¬ leans The conductor had looked him over on start ¬ ing and found no excess humanity This owner was working a crew of negroes and every time the train stopped they like a bunch of monkeys flocked to the door of the car to see what was doing The conductor came back a time or two but when they saw him coming the overs immediately hustled into the chest The conductor was sure he had seen them but he couldnt understand the disappearance act actDown Down about Bowling Green however he held that train for half an hour and looked through that car thoroughly as he thought but not an extra negro did he find The bales of hay and sacks of bran on top of the chest kept him from looking into it But those six negroes stacked one on top of the other in that chest probably never had a hotter time in their lives than through that half hour without air They were nearly suffocated when the train got to going again and they came out of the chest You may be sure that for the remainder of the Journey they were not anxious to put their heads out at stations stationsAnother Another shipper that I knew played the human nature angle on the conductors and did it success ¬ fully He hid his extra men in the very doors of the car In the space between the doors he set trunks facing each door and made his hay pile be ¬ tween the trunks When the train would stop the men would go under the hay hayA A wornout stunt is the practice of carrying a couple of bull dogs in the car one at each door The conductors have got so tlicf will make the man in charge take the dogs away A mean horse how ¬ ever will keep a conductor out of a car All you have to do is to untie lis halter shank when the train stops and let the horse be able to swing his head around There is not one conductor in a thou ¬ sand that will come into a car with a horsa that will throw back his ears and show his teeth teethNo No it isnt like it was in the old days Im not much of a politician and am seldom at home at election time but Ive come to the conclusion that this sort of thing is iitu direct result of the trusts If there was more competition for the ship ¬ ping business the rates would be lower and they wouldnt be so particular about tonnage and so ex ¬ acting as to the number of attendants carried in a car Its nlla case of squeeze the lemon and then dry the find with these gigantic combinations I
