The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-03-18

Few people who read snatehes Oh inc news
from the morning paper while slipping their
cofyse or vyhoIread II in course while toasting
-Aoir esst- ~, ;he fender, realize how many an
800. are often experienced in procuring
and uniting in type the paragraphs Wnlcn snes
osanaine with SO much interest. Inc quanu-
- Of coffee which they c0ntrlve 10 get around
s',th their breakfasts, Is small compared with
the bad blood often produced among night
cDmpositors. telegraph operators, reporters,
&c. all stirred up by the miserable and drib-
bling manner in which the wires convey the
Intelligence over the land. A rainstorm, a
thunden shower, or dense fog Often upsets
the best calculations and disappoints the most
ardent hopes, and all hands become irritable,
dgspeptic and cross, and wish the telegraph
and Prof Morse far into the middle Of the
next week. ~
A rich case of this kind occurred on Thurs
day night, when the fog was so dense that 1t
might have been cut into square blocks and
corded mp like ice. Dispatches were passing
over the lines between New York and Hall
fax, and it required all the skill of the opera
tors 10 coax the sluggish current along. The
lightning seemed as obstinate as coagulated
blood In the human veins, and no amount of
prescription or of manipulation would seem
to quicken the circulation. 1t was something
like dropping every second stitch while knit
ting, only that bitches would occur in which
half dozen stitches would drop at once.
All night long the operators waited and
watched; all night long our compositors did
the same, and had not both-operators and
compositors-bee almost perfect patterns of
Christian virtue and of lamb like patience,
there might have been seen something of a
blueish tinge besides the atmosphere.
But this was not the worst of it. TO add
to the annoyance, a premorition had been
the wires, that important news might be ex-
pected. II was this important news that all
were waiting for. The, line, as we have said,
was occupied with special dispatches between
New York and Halifax, and though the opera
tors at the Portland Office were ready to re-
celse the regular dispatches, and the Portland
| compositions were anxious to put them IN type,
Hob u WOIu WOu4u7 AOSu0n Senu. Between
here and that city unoccupied wires were
stretched, and bad an operator been put on in
Boston the dispatches could have come along,
but not word was allowed TO come, because
| it could not be sent TO Bath and Bangor at
\ the same time the number of wires east Of
this city not admitting of such transmission
while other dispatches were going forward.
And SO the Portland papers, which pay near
1 ly all the revenues Of the Associated Press de.
rived from this State, had to GO without their
dispatches, and not ia word was received till
an hour after the morning papers had gone to
pressl The dispatches in the regular column
came along late the preceding afternoon, de-
signed for evening use, and the regular dis
| patches, published in Boston, were kept back
till too late for use here, simply because their
transmission would require little extra labor
at the Boston office. ASK
1.-THE Maine papers are to be thus treated
one would suppose they should be privileged
to find fault,-but then what right have we to
complain of anything done in Bostone Isn't
that the ''Hub," and have the spokes right
to say to the hub, "what doest thou ?" If SO
humble a word as ours could reach the ear
OF ahs sDSstoN SCENT of the Associated Press.
we should say to him. that he is fast preparing
the Maine Press to join in almost any enter
prise that will afford them relief - -