The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-12-12
AN OPERATORS JOKE.
The Sum 1t Cost Him to send a Cnblegral
to Napoleon.

The Sum 1t Cost Him to send n CnbleRram
to Napoleon.
Shortly after the Atlantic cable was
pronounced a success, and cablegrams
flying across the waters, O telegraphlc
operator at Denver, Colorado, one morn-
ing concluded to perpetrate a joke on
the operators at Omaha, the point where
all kilograms from east to west were re-
ported. It was the time Of the war be-
tween Italy and France, and the young
man prepared the following telegram,
and sent it in the usual manner to the
Omaha Office:
"To the Emperor Napoleon, Garden
of the Tuileries, Paris, France Cover
nor Gilpin will not accede to the cession
of Italy to France. Please let Bohemia
alone. (Signed) GOVERNOR G1LPIN,
Or Any Other Man.
He thought, of course, that the opera
tor at Omaha would understand that it
was o joke, would receive and read it,
then tear it up. But it didn't turn out
in that way. The Omaha Office was a
very busy one, and the operator had
little time to decide whether a tele-
gram which passed through his hands
was intended as a joke or not, and the
man receiving it placed it on the Chi
cago hook, and in due time it was for
warded to Chicago, thence to New
York, and from there by cable to the
French emperor. C%ablegrams are
cheaper by far now than they were in
those days. The cost of ten words
from Denver to Paris wal $1s7.50 in
gold.
Nothing more was heard from the
message until the end of the month,
the time for squaring accounts, when
Billy Woodward, the manager of the
Denver Office, received the following
telegram from the treasurer at New
York:
"Come down with the dust"
For the life of him he did not know
what it meant, and telegraphed back to
New York asking for information. He
received the following reply:
"Your cable of the - inst, to EN-
peror Napoleon, Paris, France, signed
Gov. Gilpin, or any other man, amount
due $1S7. So"
This was q sumner, and Bill scratched
his head again and again, trying to think
what it all meant. he knew very well
he bad never received any such amount
for the message, nor was there anyrecord
of its having been sent. He questioned
| the operators about it, when one of them
remarked "Wonder if it is THAT fool
thing I sent to Omaha 2" Inquiry de-
veloped the fact that that was the identi-
cal hair-pin which had caused the row,
and the young mans face was a study
for IN artist when informed that he would
have to pay the modest little sum of
S187. so for the enjoyment he derived
from his little practical joke. No doubt
he considered it extremely practical. An
effort was made to have the cable COM
pany remit the amount, but it did not
succeed, and the result was that the
young operator had to come down with
the dust himself. He paid it, and ever
afterward when he sent a telegram to
Omaha he would inform the receiving
operator that it was not a joke.
The whole telegraph correspondence,
and that which passed through the mails
concerning the matter, was framed, and
can be seer in the Omaha Office at the
present day. Just what remark the
emperor of France made when he re-
ceived the message has not been recorded
in history, but we have no doubt that it
was more forcible than complimentary to
the Colorado governor. - Louisville