KinSource - Tale of the Week

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, October 21, 1885, p. 2

RAILROAD RATTLE.

Latest Developments in the Wrangle Among Ticket Brokers in St. Paul.

The Scalpers' Trouble.

It was rumored on the street yesterday that Madame Bernard was playing a very quiet but effective game on her associates by giving those who purchased tickets of her any little bills incurred for meals or board, and also by making them presents of alleged strengthening cordials for the inner man. Others engaged in the scalping business, having neither hotel nor bar, were of course left to secure whatever business they could pick up. It was also said that the two street solicitors, representing rival lines, became in an unseemly altercation for the possession of a passenger and even came to blows, but the real facts in the case cannot be given. Last evening a GLOBE reporter called on Madame Bernard and asked her what she had to say regarding the rumors above alluded to. She laughingly replied it was a very good advertisement for her, but unfortunately for those who stopped at her house, they found they had to pay for everything they got, and full price for their tickets. She denied emphatically that she was selling tickets lower than the rates agreed upon, and said further:

"My name now is not Bernard. That was the name of my first husband. I have been married again since I came to St. Paul. My husband's name is M. G. W. Cussuer, and at present he is in Winnipeg. But I retain the name Bernard because I have been in the business eight years, and have offices in Chicago, Memphis and Winnipeg, and everybody knows me by that name. If I should advertise as Madame Cussuer no one would know me. Now, I'll tell you all about this business. I have sold but one ticket to Chicago this week, and that was last Sunday. On Monday two men whom I had known in Chicago passed the office, and seeing me came in. They wanted to go to New Orleans, and asked me what I could do for them. I told them I could sell them tickets for $18. They said they could do better. I advised them to go to the other offices, and if they could buy straight tickets from St. Paul to New Orleans for less than $18 I would give them a bottle of the best whisky I had in the house. They soon returned, saying they could get tickets for $16. I asked them for proof, and they showed me two straight tickets from St. Paul to New Orleans via Aurora and the Illinois Central. So I gave them the whisky, and no doubt that is the basis of the rumor that I make my patrons presents of various things."

Madame then went on to state that in the fall she had an office in Winnipeg for the purpose of shipping laborers south for the winter, and in the spring she opened her office in Memphis and shipped them back to the Northwest, and in this manner had secured a patronage very large in its proportions.

There was also a report that three persons who wished to go to Pittsburg were offered second-class tickets for $15.50, which is $4 under tariff rates, but the name of the party making the offer and the name of the road he represented could not be learned.