Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/145

 Collapse of the Poppenhusen System the intelligent efforts of the Poppenhusens to popularize the road, the financial situation continued to grow more and more strained every month. The first strain on the family resources had been the assumption of operation of the Central Railroad of Long Island. The next had been the purchase of the Southern Railroad in 1874. In April 1875 the family negotiated a loan of four million dollars with the New York State Loan & Trust Co., and a new mortgage was taken out on the Southern R.R. for $500,000 to rehabilitate the property. There were certain small signs that all was not well with the road but no one noticed them at the time. In January 1875 all the free passes on the North Side and Central roads were called in and everyone was obliged to pay cash fares. In March of the same year a general wage reduction went into effect on the system. On May 1, 1876 two stations on the Central R.R., Meadowbrook and Island Trees, were quietly closed down for lack of patronage, the first such contraction on the system.

Least noticed of all were the almost constant trips to Europe of Conrad Poppenhusen, senior member of the family and father of Herman and Alfred Poppenhusen. In the year 1875 Conrad spent only the month of April in this country; in 1876 he remained here only a month and a half, and in 1877 again a month. Most persons assumed that his health required these frequent ocean voyages to the old country and his stays at spas; the fact was that he was using his prestige in German financial circles to raise as much money as possible to keep the railroad system from bankruptcy. The Long Island R.R. was earning its own expenses, but the rental charges for the other two systems was an impossible burden. The Southern R.R. had heavy fixed charges to meet on its underlying bonds and because of two bad accidents in 1875, Poppenhusen dared not neglect further the maintenance on the road. To get day-to-day funds, it became necessary to pledge large amounts of stock and bonds to Drexel, Morgan & Co. of Philadelphia. The sad fact was that neither the Southern, the North Side or Central roads earned their rental, despite the record passenger traffic carried.

Besides these difficulties Poppenhusen was forced to pay several heavy judgments. Oliver Charlick, former president of the Long Island, had stubbornly refused since 1869 to pay the contractor for the construction of the Sag Harbor Branch. The