My Story by Elizabeth J. Hauser

one of us would say, “Well, how many cigars have we among us?” Mr. Moxham and I would produce ours, being careful not to let Mr. du Pont know that we had no large reserve supply in our rooms; he would of course produce his and then we would divide them equally among us. Arthur and I would put ours into our pockets, remarking casually that we didn’t care to smoke then but would do so later. The plan worked all right. Mr. du Pont, all unsuspecting, smoked his cigars and never knew that we carried ours around in our pockets and added them to the common store the next morning. It was the greatest source of comfort to both of us that our elder partner did not have to be deprived of his cigars, but we never dared tell him of the deception we practiced upon him, for while we considered it a good joke and enjoyed it hugely we knew he wouldn’t have forgiven it.
    The work delegated to me was the removal of the bodies of the victims of the disaster. No words can describe the horror and reluctance with which I approached this grewsome task. The sight of the first few bodies recovered moved me to tears. But before we had gone far I had lost all feeling of shrinking or even of sadness andwent about it in a seemingly heartless manner. It was the stress of the cruel situation, the absolute necessity for getting the awful work done which made this possible.
    The natural buoyancy of my nature soon asserted itself and as there was nothing else out of which any fun could be had, I “made fun” of the free operation of our street cars, which continued for some sixty or ninety days. I told my partners that this method of operating was the most perfect device I ever had encountered for getting rid of the evils arising from the collection of fares. I insisted that it could not be improved upon; that it did away with all possibility of dishonesty or carelessness on the part of the conductors and the general public; in fact, that it was a cure-all. They retorted that they preferred the disease even in its most virulent form to so drastic a remedy.
    Whether my hope of some day seeing the people riding on free street cars had its birth before this time or was due to the Johnstown object lesson I cannot say. But certain it is that that experience convinced me that free cars were not only possible but practicable. When I seriously advocated them some years later the objection I met oftenest was that people would spend all their time riding. Even if I had not been able to refute this by citing Johnstown where nothing of the kind happened, I should still have answered that people would no more ride aimlessly hour after hour on free cars than they now ride aimlessly on free elevators.
    Have you ever really thought what free cars would mean?
    Wouldn’t the greatest advantage be the removal of franchises which are to-day the prizes that Big Businessstrives for, bribes for, and even corrupts whole communities to acquire?
    Did you ever hear of anybody trying to get a fire department franchise?
    How would free car service be paid for? How is free elevator service paid for? The owners of buildings provide it without pay? Oh, no, they don’t. In apartment houses the tenants pay for elevator service in their rent. And in office buildings the tenants seem to do the same thing, but they don’t really. You and I pay for the elevator service. It is charged to us in the bills rendered by our doctors, our lawyers, our plumbers, our dressmakers, our tailors, our milliners, our contractors, albeit it isn’t separately itemized.
    Well, wouldn’t you rather pay it that way than to fish in your pocket for a nickel or three cents or a penny every time you enter an elevator? I would.
    Free street car rides would be paid for in the same way,— not by some public benefactor, some mysterious agency which gives something for nothing — but by the car riders themselves. And they would find the item in their rent receipts.
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