Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-04-21
WHOLE NO. 11l4.
Social Uses Of tho telegraph.

"Queer messages pass through our
hands continually" said the Western
Union Telegraph Superintendent, ''but
we do not often recollect their contents.
A message may cause a smile at the
time, but is sent and then forgotten!
Operators do their work mechanically.
The words are licked off at their finger
ends. and are forgotten at once"
"Do you ever get regular social let
ters for telegraphic transmission?"
'That has become q matter of fire.
quent daily occurrence. and often they
come to us in regular cpistolary shape!
beginning with dear sir and ending
with Yours truly OF course the tel
graph company is quite willing to ad-
here to epistolary forms, for they make.
so many more words to charge for.
Some time ago we had a regular, down.
right love letter by telegraph. 1t was
from some fellow travelling in the South
"a drummer, I guess-to his sweet
heart at home, and it began with MY
Darling Lizzie and went on to say that
this would show to her how fervently
and devotedly he loved her when he
could not even wait for the mail to tell
her how she was in his thoughts night
and day, and so on for several hundred
words. That sort of thing is unusual,
of course. If it was regular way of
lovers, we might find ourselves called
into court occasionally as witnesses in
breach of promise cases, because the
originals of the letters are In our GUS
tody.
"It is common thing for us to send
out telegraphic announcements of be-
trothal. and get flood of congratulated
ry kilograms in reply. Telegraphic
birthday congratulations are also of fire.
quent occurrence, and the Purim festi-
val also brings out crop of kilograms
between friends and relatives. Some
times message will simply read, L
drink your health We get such even
for cable transmission.
"The use of the telegraph for social
purposes has become very large, how
eter, among people generally" the tel
egraph man went on. cit constitutes
about twenty per cent. of our domestic
business, and about seven per cent. of
our cable business. Most of our half
rate night messages are of that charac-
ter. How is Ida this morning?' man
will ask his relatives in some other city.
Every day telegraphic queries of SIM
liar nature go across the ocean. The
telegraph brings people into one COM
munity, and, aside from the expense,
there is no more trouble in making such
inquiries than in sending around to .
neighbor's house to find how Q sick
friend is getting along. Sometimes q
man visiting here on business will send
short letter to his wife by telegraph
every night. Want of form and cere-
mony is excusable in telegraph mes
sages, and busy men to whom the ex-
pense is no consideration are getting
more and more in the habit of prefer
ring the telegraph to mails, even when
there is no necessity in the world for
such expedition. Fellows who come to
town on larks sometimes can't wait till
they get home to tell their comrades of
the good times they are having. Their
messages have q high flavor at times,
but we rarely make any objections.
Even profanity goes by wire sometimes.
"Since the introduction of cipher
codes the amount of business cOrre-
spondence transferred from the mails
to the wires is very great. About sixty
per cent. of our business kilograms are
now in cipher, and by means of the
codes in use a great deal can be con-
densed into little. Where business
man used to send by mail he will now
write cipher letter to 60 at half rates
at night. He can write at the close Of
one days business and the telegraph
puts his letter on his correspondents
deskbefore business hours of the next
day. In fact, the transfer to the tele-
graph of matter that used to go by mail
has been so great since the adoption of
the half-rate night system six or seven
years ago that the amount of business
increases faster than facilities can be
provided. Business kilograms fluctuate
in quantity from day to day, but taking
the year by seasons, the amount of work
remains pretty steady. But in summer,
when people are travelling about for
pleasure, the increase of social COM
municatiOns is tremendous. We have
to increase our staff of operators along
the coast watering places fully twenty
per cent. Lots Of little offices are OPEN
ed that there is no demand for in the
winter months. People send gossip,
love. congratulations, regrets, jokes.
condolences, appeals, and money by
telegraph."-N Y. Sun.