The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-11-06

George If she wishes to very much"
The father Immediately received this
from Jennie: "a thousand thanks for
your permission; John and marry at |
once. The telegraph stupidity made his
name George, but of course you meant
john"
How it happened that John was SO
wonderfully convenient is, probably, |
not our concern, and we can only hope |
that the father and Jennie have never re- |
eretted this mistake of the telegraph. |
The hieroglyphical..ch characters supposed |
to be writing in some messages handed |
in over the Office counters is sometimes |
fearful and wonderful to contemplate.
The telegraph is only used in cases of
importance or emergency, and the incor-
rect reading of single word in II con-
densed telegram is apt to render it not
only valueless, but is liable to lead to a
serious misconstruction..
Business men especially should bear
in mind that plain, clear chirography
not only lessons the liability to error,
but helps TO hasten the forwarding of a
message.
To illustrate the carelessness of some
mems writing is the story of that Eng
lish nobleman who wrote to friend in
India to "please send at once two
monkeys;" but he wrote the two with
out crossing the t, and otherwise so
blindly that his friend mistook it for
600, and on the first boat came thirty
five monkeys. with a note saying the
balance would follow as soon as 80 large
an order could be filled.
The members of the press are not ex-
empt from this carelessness of untrans-
latable handwriting. l remember a
special sent by a metropolitan reporter
4, IL ff,x docnr; hin ~
| tion. The sending operator complained
of the writing, and stumbled along
slowly and grumb lingly, finally Gaping
| the climax by saying the doomed man
then arose, partook of hearty break
| fast, and went out and buried himself
with his fife" The city operator re-
| quested a halt, and after long silence
and evidently much study, was told by
the sender to change the last five words
to "busied himself with his pipe"
Mentioning newspapers, recalls mes
sage sent by an energetic Cincinnati edi-
| tor who had heard false rumor of a
heavy rain and flood in the country edi.
tors vicinity, to the editor of country
weekly. 1t read
"Send US particulars Of the flood"
| The reply was quite prompt:
You will find a full account in
Genesis"
An operator gets accustomed to these
messages, and also to such as: Send
me two daughters of an outcast;" or.
1--WE have no desperate men," for he
rightly concludes that the last-mention-
ed are either to or from some book
dealer.
Why telegraphers, as n class, are so
seemingly careless and mirthful need not
| he discussed here. Perhaps the lively
character of the fluid with which they
are brought into constant contact is
transfused and causes this effervesence
of mental activity. One of their honored
customs in the initiating of an operator,
fresh and verdant from some small oOun-
try place into his new position in city
office, with its babel of sounds and per-
picking rush and hurry, reminds one of
college hazing, or the sailors baptize-
ment on his first crossing of the line.
Tie victim is requested to take a
Especial" How timidly he sits DOWN,
and how nervously he sharpens his pen
ell to take for the first time in his life
ment buzzes when he says :" go ahead ="
and closes his key. He feels the watch
ful eye of the chief. and he must not. he
will not, fail in his first trial. And,
oh! what a dispatch for a newspaper |!
1t begins all right about a railroad acci-
dent, but in some mysterious way this
connects itself with temperance con-
vention, which branches into fire caused
by a walking match, with Congress call
ing upon Mexico to prevent the duel be-
tween the polar expedition and the Pa
cific railroad which,
He stops matters for an investigation
an d wonders if it's he or the correspon-
dent lat is entirely daft. Then he rubs
his amazed head, and looks cautiously
around and discovers that he seems
the sole object of interest to the others !;
and if he takes good naturedly the roars
of laughter and the pointed questions
that greet him when he also discovers
that his wonderful dispatch originated
in the fertile brain, and by clever switch
ing of the wires, was sent by the fastest
operator in the Office from the other end
of the room to test him, he has taken
one long step toward fraternizing.
The all-night men while away the
tedious hours after the dropping of busi-
ness with conversation and stories; and
the better the story-teller, and the
fresher his jokes, the more popular he
is. And how easy to dispose of a bore
1t is said that on one of the circuits be-
tween New York and Chicago and in
termediate cities, the all-night men had
only to request one of their co-laborers,
who had no other fault than his long,
pointless stories, to relate something,
!. and then, unknown to him - for
they had no desire to offend him
] would cut him out of the circuit,
! and have a social good time for an hour
or two. On readjusting the wires the
f honest and solitary story-teller would
be rattling along, unconscious of his loss
! of auditors, and perfectly happy in their
: remarkable attention. Perhaps the
reader has in his youth told with much
: enthusiasm capital story to a sleepy
! bedfellow to find, on nearing the end,
l that his companion was sound asleep.
t It's rather depressing.
= A story, first told by San Francisco
t paper. will venture to repeat here for
1 no better reason than because it is
strictly true. 1t often happens that tele-
n graphers are called into service at the
e representation of a stage play, in which
: occurs what is known as a" telegraph
a scene," such as the one shown in Byron's
j. "Across the Continent" or Boucicault's
"Long Strike" and at such times the
| operator behind the scenes manages to
4 amuse himself by talking" to the audi
!. ence, unknown of course to only those
: of the fraternity who are present. The
. drama of Across the Continent" was
e several years ago produced at certain
: hall, and for the manipulation of the
0 telegraph instrument which plays an i'm