The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-10-25

How the Absurd Lie was started BY
Foolish Telegraph Operator.
Chicago TinsG
as Hayes dead7"
The question came into the Timss ollc
simultaneously through two telephone,
and two negatives answered It. But III
question came again; the answer was Va
RED. This time the cautious operator re
piled:
"Idont know"
"when will you know"
II don't KNOW
Hwhen do you think you'll know"
n have NO idea"
' 30 you suppose he Is dead%
"WhyP"
Because nothing direct and oHlcia
has been heard"
The telephone stopped. But in y mo
ment 0 protracted alarm sounded from
the other instrument and another dialogue
was the result.
II hear Hayes Is dead"
"What are you going to do about III"
u want TO find out II II Is true"
nWell, find out"
"1s he dead?"
"No."
"what do you know aboutitH"
"Nothlng."
'Then why do you say he isn't dead ~
because we should know something
about II II he were dead"
Then the other telephone broke oul. The
operatot didn't walt TO be asked He an.
Hayes isn't dead"
"But man told me that John D. Drake
had received q dispatch saying that he was
Though dead, he yet speaketh, then,
Tor we are getting speech he Is delivering
In Kansas"
These and scores Of other appeals Tor In.
formation had come from the central teIe.
phone offices. The news evidently spread
rapidly, for In q few minutes eiRhty.seyen
people at the Chicago avenue, Twelfth
street aud SAngam0n street offices wanted
to know II Hayes was dead. Within hall
hour the report had made another mile Ia
each direction, and questions regarding
Hayes death, II he wasn't dead whether
he was likely to die, when he would be
apt to die and what his favorite disease
was, came pouring into the stations al
Twenty-second street aud Wood street.
From private instruments, still more re-
mote from the centre Of the city, came
the question: as Hayes dead2"
People on the streets seemed TO inhale
the report that Hayes was dead. They
had II, but they hardly knew how they
got It. They asked each other II Hayes
was dead, what he died Of, why he died,
II he wasn't dead how the report that he
was dead got started, and II he was dead
why nobody knew anything about It.
Many OF them wanted 10 know II there
was any Vice President 70 succeed him,
the general impression being that there
was none; Rtleast they never heard that
there was any. Some thought Speaker
Randall would become President, but sew
eral persons held tenRciously to the view
that under the Constitution, when a Prssl-
dent died and there was no Vice Presi-
dent, the latest ex.PreSident succeeded,
and they thought It very provIdential
that Grant had Just got back.
all that most OF the people knew about
II was that somebody had asked them II
Hayes was dead. Some Of them hail been
told positively that Hayes was dead, and
had seen the man who told them. A few
had heard that Hayes overate enormously
at the Grand Pacific Hotel, aud expressed
the opinion that he would die. 1t was
the opinion Of others that the Kansas va.
riety Of pumpkins radically differed from
AthaR NyaRfaktnu aud la. a 4
with the Presidential stomach. A gen.
tlemau who used his handkerchief cOpi.
ously was confident that the President
died Of Hayes fever. A Democrat init.
mated that Hayes stole tho Presidency.
aud his death was judgment. A stall.
wArt Republican yentured the opinion
that Hayes had been struck by the Grant
boom.
AT q late hour ut night an excited citi.
zen came putting up stairs to the top OF
tie Tins building, anxious 10 know Il
Hayes was dead. lie was informed that
speech that Mr.. Hayes was delivering
was then being received over the wires,
He was skeptical and suggested that Hayes
might be dead and some one else making
the speech for him. He was shown the
last section OF the presidential address,
containing this sentence: "Whateyer may
be remembered and whoever may be for.
gotten, we should never forget 10 remem.
Der that We must never forget that the
happiness oil this country depends upon
the men who raise It's pumpkins and the
women who make Its pies" The excited
citizen burst into tears Of Joy. "HAyes
livesl" he exClAims, "none but he could
have constructed that sentence" and he
slid down the baniBters saying 10 himself
sis Hayes deadH No; Hayes Is not Dead