Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 48, Number 7350, 24 October 1874 — A UNIQUE-EXPALNATION. [ARTICLE]

A UNIQUE-EXPLANATION.

Some days ago we printed a letter addressed to the public by a number of passengers on the Central Pacific Railroad, in which they complained of the insults and injuries inflicted on them while traveling in the cars belonging to that railroad, by gangs of professional gamblers. In answer to this letter a dispatch from San Francisco contains the following sentence: "Mr. Towne, the general passenger agent of the Central Pacific Railroad, declares that the reports of the robbery and swindling of their passengers by short card and monte shops have been much exaggerated, and the officers do all in their power to prevent the succeess of gamblers who are licensed by the State." This is a very surprising explanation. Does Towne mean to say that the State of California licenses gamblers; or, if it does, that these gamblers are licensed to pursue their business in the passenger cars of the Central Pacific Railroad; or, if the State of California has undertaken to turn the cars of the Central Pacific Railroad into gambling places, that there is any legal or other obligation on the part of the railroad company to submit to such an interference with their rights? Let us suppose the State of New York licensed John Morrissey, who is one of the principal divinities of the reformed "Tammany machine," as a professional gambler; let us suppose further that he had established himself and his assistants upon the cars of the Third Avenue Horse Railroad Company; let us suppose again that he insisted upon the passengers on that line "fighting the tiger" for his benefit; and that he carried his entreaties to the degree of calling the passengers vulgar names, striking them, spitting tobacco juice into their faces, flourishing bowie-knives and revolvers, and threatening to cut their throats or blow their brains out, as it is alleged was done by the gamblers on the Central Pacific Railroad; would it not be ridiculous for the Directors of the Third Avenue Horse Railroad Company to seek to justify such an interference with their rights as common carriers, and with the personal rights of their passengers, by saying that Morrissey held a license from the State of New York"? Even admitting (what does not appear) that the reports of the performances on the Central Pacific Railroad have been greatly exaggerated, would not the recognized and habitual presence of professional gamblers on that railroad afford a just ground of complaint? The courts have decided over and over again that common carriers are under the strictest responsibility to transport their passengers in safety and comfort. Does the contract of transportation by the Central Pacific Railroad Company provide that opportunities for gambling will be furnished on their cars, and further stipulate that in case a passenger refuses to make use of these opportunities he shall be subjected to personal insults and assaults? Finally, if, on the supposition that Morrissey held a license as a gambler from the State of New York, he would not be permuted to pursue his profession openly on any railroad cars in this State, why does Towne imagine that a similar supposition in respect to the State of California and the gamblers who, according to his own acknowledgment, infest the cars of the railroad with which he is connected, justifies or excuses, or even explains the outrageous performances of which the passengers on the Central Pacific Railroad complains!— | New York Evening Post.