The crew sidetracked the car. Most of the passengers spent all night on the car, sending out for food and drinks.

On Sunday, August 12, about a thousand passengers who refused to pay the second fare were dragged off the cars by the BRT’s “bouncers,” hired for the purpose.

Following a recent letter by the rector, however, Mr Ryan has issued an extraordinary public statement. This is an excerpt from his 11-page letter.

“Most of the passengers who had resolved not to pay the second fare did not get to the island unless they walked. Some got off the cars when ordered to do so. Others argued and fought and generally go the worst of it from the company’s ‘bouncers.’”

Brooklyn, Sunday, August 12, 1906: “Fully 1,000 persons, men, women, and children, were forcibly ejected from the trolley cars; 5,000 walked nearly half the way to the island. …

“A continuous riot was in progress along the main lines of travel from noon until after midnight. …

The BRT, however, disputed the ruling, and demanded the second nickel. It hired “inspectors” (whom passengers called “bouncers”) to force passengers to pay – or drag them off the car.

“Those who hesitated in paying the extra nickel the inspectors seized by the shoulders and shook with no gentle hand until the timid ones were almost in hysterics of fear.”

“All were armed with loaded billies [tubes of leather or rubber stuffed with lead shot] that protruded ominously from their hip pockets and which they touched significantly as they jumped upon the running boards of the cars,” shouting “‘Get out your fares or you get off, see!’”

According to the New York Evening World, “the gangs of inspectors” were “recruited from Cherry Hill and similar neighborhoods in this city and Brooklyn for the purpose of terrorizing women and children and assaulting men and boys who refuse to pay the second fare to Coney Island.”

To force payment, the BRT hired uniformed “inspectors,” whom passengers called bouncers.

In 1904 the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company’s legal right to demand a second 5-cent fare from passengers traveling to and from Coney Island was disputed and in the courts.

Meanwhile, with legal grounds to insist on paying one 5-cent fare only, some BRT passengers refused to pay the second nickel.

“The conductor signalled to an inspector, who grabbed the child by the dress and pulled her from the car.”

Affordable public transportation is not a new issue in New York.

Rosie Zeits made it to Coney Island. Another passenger paid her fare. That was Sunday, July 3, 1904.

The New York Evening World, recognizing their resentment, denounced the charge. On June 9, 1906, it established the Five-Cent Fare League, inviting readers to join. The 10-cent fare to Coney survived.