Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-17

cause against ,ne from the first I re-
solved to ''Gre'' the rcd-heaied bow
forthwith q afterwards didn'tl, but as
LOT her-ggoodh heavens, she was quite
capable OF firing" me!
Miss Floyd's private signature on the
line was ''E," which in the Morse al
1abet is n dot. Mine was a."
which is one dash. In an amiable mo-
ment the root of all my misery re-
marked that b-brother Charlie had al
ways called her .Dot;" while Julius,
who had discovered that partly on &C
count of my signature. '.L," and part
~ from my name, EASTWOOD. 1 was
known on the line as 'Dash," broke
In upon the steady rattle of the sound
ers in his shrill, squeaky tones:
"a Dash and a 'Dot'-te he!!" then
catching my eye retired with the empty
coal-hod and considerable precipita-
ton, as, indeed, he. had good reason
to do.
The idea of the young cub having
enough impudence to couple up my
name with that of a woman!
Unfortunately the other operators
soon caught it up, and the .'Dash" and
the ''Dot'' at the 'XD" office became a
Joke in good standing on the several
wires. 1 never approved of frivolity in
any shape or form, and the senseless
witticisms that were fired at me all
along the line, together with the dis
tressing condition of home affairs, so
preyed upon my mind that lsometimes
entertained wild ideas of applying to
the Superintendent for relief. AS you
may imagine, my temper was not i'm
proved by this course Of treatment, andI
speedily became the terror of all the
''plugs'' on the local wire, to whom,
as a repeating office, we retailed out
messages received from the through
lines. I could see Edith Floyd's lin
curl scornfully at each new evidence
of an irritation I took no pains to
conceal, and when she finally re-
quested to be allowed to do the work
with certain offices whose incompe-
tent operators I had succeeded in re-
ducing to a stat of fear bordering
upon idiocy 1 remarked with a sneer-
ing reference to my Impotence, II sup
pose Charlie never did SOL"
mo, sir, he never did. Charlie was
a gentleman" she replied, quietly
enough, but her eyes flashed fire, and
1 judged that it would be expedient to
put on my hat and go for a walk
around the square-nor must it be sup
posed that l neglected to bang the door
after me.
Now I shall contend with my latest
breath that l could have borne all these
crosses with lamb-like meekness if I
could have had my pipe and cigars at
hand to assist me-in proof of which
theory 1 will state that our verbal SPAR.
ring matches occurred almost invaria-
bly, between ten and twelve a. m. and
four and six o'clock p. m.
The Office was located some distance
from the business part of the town,
with no w~et-grocery emporium contig-
uous; and what amount of amiability
could l extract from a cigar smoked
while trotting about in the wintry blast
with cold shivers playing pussy-wants-
a-corner up and down my spinal COL
umn!
This state of affairs with pessimistic
variations went on all winter. Edith
Floyd grew pale and thin, and I fell off
fifteen pounds before warm weather
came on. Imade a daily and exhaus-
tive inspection Of my raven locks with
the moral certainty that each quest
would result in the discovery of my
first gray hair. 1 was only thirty-three,
but after the mortal anguish l had suf-
fered the thatch of my mental head
quarters ought to have been white as
the everlasting SHOWS! To be manager
of "XD" Office was one thing, and to
be manager of a young and cookbook
ing lady operator and red-headed boy
with a chronic shuttle was another. I
began to get a little light upon the
subject of poor Charles untimely de-
mise, and now the only miracle to me
was that he had been able to keep alive
so long. He must have had a fine con-
stitution.
Imay not have mentioned the fact,
but ''XD" was a railroad telegraph
office also, and some of the unappro-
priated conductors (they are a strange
ly susceptible class, [ have observed,)
began to divert themselves by making
love to my operator. Fancy my posi-
tion-me, Lester Eastwood, bachelor,
whom they minded about Is much as
the bronze lizard paper-weight, which
was one of my treasures and which l
rendered as nearly ubiquitous as posi-
BILE, having perceived that Miss Floyd
regarded the reptile will ill-concealed
and spontaneous respect. had early
resorted to strategy and cus
down the force of office
chairs, which I hoped would
have a tendency to discourage their
v~lsitations both in length and fire.
quency; but opposed in their gregarious
disposition my delicate finesse pro-
duced little or no effect. They roasted
comfortably on the desks and tables
and criticised the management in gen.
eral and the "old man. in particular,
and reeled off prize lies by the bolt
with undiminisbed cheerfulness. After
a few months of this experience I began
to feel a deeply rooted conviction tnat
Munchausen learned his trade while
filing the. position of twisting audi
tor'' on some pioneer ''jerk-water."
Then some of the operators were de-
termined to tlirt by wire, and finally it
became almost the sole satisfaction re-
naming in my empty life to answer
some soft-headed fool, and having al
lowed him to talk sufficient nonsense to
the suppOsititiOus Dot, uncOrk the viaIs