Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-11-14
AN OPERATORS JOKE.

Louisville News

Shortly after the Atlantic cable was
pronounced a success. and cablegrams
flving across the waters, a Geographic
operator at Denver, Colorado, one NOR
ming concluded to perpetrate Il joke on
the operators at Omaha, the point where
all kilograms from east to west report
ed 1t was the time of the war between
Italy and France, and the young man
prepared the following telegram, and
sent it in the usual manner to the Oma-
ha office:
"To the Emperor Napoleon, Garden
Of the Tuileries, Paris, France: Gov
ernor Gilpin will not accede to the ces-
sion of Italy to France. Please let Be-
hernia alone.
(Signed) GOVERNOR GILPIN,
''Or Any Other Man.
He thought, of course, that the oper-
ator at Omaha would understand that
it was a 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 OF not, and
the man receiving it placed it on the
| Chicago book, and in due time it was
forwarded to Chicago, thence to New
York, and from there by cable to the
French Emperor Cableorams are
cheaper bv far now than they were in
those DAYS. The cost of ten words
from Denver to Paris was $1S7 80 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 s1S7 80"
This was a sumner, and Bill scratched
his head again and again. trying to think
what it all meant. He knew very we'll
he had never received any such amount
for the message, nor was there any
record of its having been sent He
questioned the operators about it, when
one of them remarked, HI. wonder
if it is that fool thing | sent to Omaha ?"
Inquiry developed the fact that that was
the identical hair-pin which had caused
the row, and the young mans face was
a study for an artist when informed
that he would have to pay the modest
little sum of $1S7 80 for the enjoyment
he derived from his little practical
Joke. No doubt he considered it ex-
tremely practical. An effort was made
to have tire cable company 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 cablegram to Omaha he would
inform the receiving operator that it
was not joke.
The whole telegraph correspondence,
and that which passed through the mails
concerning the matter, was framed, and
can be seen 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 re-
corded in history, but we have no doubt
that it was more fOrcible than compli-
mentary to the Colorado governor.