The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-01-11
TELEGRAPuiC STORIES.
eians-How the Prince OF wales was
Astonished IN Illinois.

Asfonished IN Illinois.
From the Chicago Times.l
Gen. Arson Stager, Vice President
and Western Manager, used to be
York State printer boy, and about the
time the telegraph got into running
order he turned his attention to teleg-
raphy, and soon became an, expert at
the business. About 20 years ago he
was still an operator, and the possibili-
ties Of the telegraph were yet in en-
bryo. At this time Pittsburgh was the
Generals headquarters. One bitter
cold night he found himself ON, the cars
of the Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne Rail-
road. All of q sudden the train came
to halt. Time passed and still there
was no forward movement. Finally,
after half an hour had gone, our oper-
ator made bold to inquire what the
matter was, and was informed that the
locomotive had gone back on them, and
that they would be compelled to wait at
least
FOUR HOURS FOR RELIEF.
elbow are we to be relieved?n in
quired Mr.. Stager.
"The Conductor is hoofng it to the
next station, nine miles away was the
answer.
"Why didn't you call meP'' inquired
our operator. zen .r7.tI
"Cell your What could you have
donei'i
"I would have telegraphed."
care you an operator?n
"Yes; SIR
"Have you an Instrument"
"NO." r f-.0 aFr .-HfI
"Then what good would it have dore
to have called you; you can't telegraph
without an instrument"
"Yes, 1 can" said the ambitious
Arson; "and if the officers of the road
are willing, I'll make the attempt"
1t should be remembered here that
the Directors car, we'll filed with dig
nitaries of the road, was attached to
the train. These were exceedingly
anxious to reach Pittsburgh to attend an
important meeting. and the delay was
exceedingly annoying to them. AL
though incredulous to the last degree,
they gave the word to Ego ahead" and
all of them ''stood round" in the bitter
WITNESS THE EXPERIMENT.
Detaching several car-lengths of the
Conductors beI-rope, our operator
threw it over the telegraph wire, and
broke it as near as possible in the mid
die between two poles. Having sue
ceeded in this enterprise, he was not q
little chagrined to find that the wire
was not charged. Nothing daunted,
the sanguine Arson tackled another
wire, aud the only other one there was
This proved to be well charged, and
prepared to act responsive to his de-
sires. He now prepared to SNAKE both
ends meet" IN more than q metaphors
cal sense. Securing all the slack he
could, he brought the two ends togeth-
er, and by expert touches succeeded in
calling the nearest office. He then sent
a brief message calling fresh loeomO-
tive to their aid. The operator felt con-
siderable confidence that his message
had been properly transmitted and re-
ceived, but he wanted to be fully salts
fed, and how to receive message in
return was the problem.
The sense of hearing, on which the
operator had been accustomed to rely,
failing him for want of an instrument,
it was necessary to call some other
sense of faculty into requisition, and
hence he decided on that of
g-. FEELING OR TOUCH,
and concluding that the tongue was the
most sentitiVe to electricity of all the
parts of the human body, he accord
ingly applied the wire thereto. But
this was not enough. Ground connec
tion had to be established. However,
even this want was overcome. The
railroad track was made to do duty,
and did its work remarkably well,
though it was cold comfort to our oper.
ator to hold on to the rail in the nipping
frost with the bare hand. But he made
his circuit, and as he held the end Of
the wire to his tongue he soon felt the
shocks, and was thus enabled through
tactusl impression, to read what tins
operator nine miles away was putting
on the wire. .
Meanwhile the Conductor was trudg.
ing his lonely way along, but before he
had gone half the distance to the sta
ton he was met by the locomotive hur-
rying to the rescue. He was utterly
confounded and not little terrified to
see the monster booming along, and
made frantic efforts to bring it to halt
by placing himself directly in its path
on the track and swinging his arms for
dear life. He succeeded in attracting
the engineers attention, and as soon as
he came within speaking distance he
wanted to know what in - he was
doing on the track on this time"
"Been called" was the answer.
"Who called your pr" Been telegraphec
for by a broken-down train some five
miles along here. The Superintend-
emit himself sent the ORDER" The Con-
ductor now found himself in a regular
fog, but got on the locomotive, and
when he reached the train lost no time
in seeking light. "
! To- i COL. WILSON,
the local Superintendent, maintains that
the method of reading by sound is a
sort of Western institution. 1t hap
pened that when the Prince of Wales
visited this country, sound-reading was
a thing entirely new to him, and he and
his escort never ceased commenting on
the fact that they should come to the