Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/88

 72 made the passage to James Slip in fourteen minutes, making the whole run from Flushing only thirty-one minutes, far better than is possible today! A traveler writing to the editor of the Flushing Journal in November, 1869, remarks pleasurably on the new express service running non-stop from Hunter's Point to Flushing in sixteen minutes over the new roadbed via Woodside and on a rainy day. One train in the evening rush hour offered this fast service in the advertised time of eighteen minutes.

The fare structure on the Flushing & North Side R.R. reflected the liberal views of the management. For the period 1868–1873 they were as follows:

From New York to:

Passengers usually bought their tickets from the station agents where possible, but sometimes collection of the fare was done on the trains by the conductors who wielded absolute power in their rolling domains. A conductor who disputed a passenger on fares might not always be satisfied simply with exacting the sum demanded; he might feel aggrieved, loftily reject the proferred money, and eject the passenger at some lonesome point along the tracks, as happened more than once. The conductor's hand was further strengthened in July 1870 when Governor Hoffman of New York State signed a warrant commissioning the railroad conductors on the Flushing & North Side R.R. as state constables, authorized to quell any disturbance, or make arrests for misdemeanors and crimes committed on the railroad line. The company also succeeded in inducing the governor to sign a bill authorizing the road to charge additional fare when tickets were not procured at the station.

The Flushing road made considerable effort in the direction of safety. The need for gongs and crossing signals to warn passengers of approaching trains became apparent almost during the first week of operations in Flushing when trains, rushing across Northern BouleverdBoulevard [sic] at full speed and without any warn-