Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-03-07


doctor who was sent on fruitless journey
by receiving telegram worded: Don't
come too late As originally handed into
the telegraph Office the MESSAGE read:
Don't come too late;' but In the trans
mission the signal denoting the comma was
omitted, and hence the great Inconvenience
the recipient was put to.
~ made quite bad mistake myself once,
which impressed upon my mind very forci-
blythe importance of being very careful
In the Office in which was then working
there was still one Of the old Morse instru-
ments A Harrisburg firm sent to one Of
Their. country agents: Send rails ten feet
lengths Now. the letters - and se' are
in the Morse code represented by dash
g. and dot e. respectively; but in trans
hitting the message the instrument in re-
cording the word ten sigualed two dots
instead Of dash and dot, and the word
was thereby converted into in the mes
sage reading: Send rails n foot lengths
81 once saw book in which an operator
had gone to the trou bic Of making a list Of
some of the mistakes made in the transmits
sion of messages, but hare forgotten most
Of them now. / viii recall as many as
can.
IAN old gentleman who had left his wig
in the train and desired it searched for. had
his message so numerically changed by
either the sending or receiving operator
that the word wig became wife when
the telegram was received at the destina-
ton. DIlgent inquiry and search was Of
course made for the missing lady, but with
out avail. Another story tells of exactly
the reverse happening. A gentleman being
detained out on business telegraphed
ar yptfa Int at CalU ,ry1r.iS cd
and mortified to receive by the next train his
wig instead.
a strange mu tilation Of O telegram,
hardly to be accounted for, happened where
an operator to small station was surprised
20 take from his instrument telegram adj
dressed to the Master of Miseries.' He
was, Of course, very much puzzled how to
effect its delivery until it suddenly dawned
upon his mind that it WIS intended for the
Master or Mistress of a school in the
vicinity.
- A large number of erroneous messages
which pass over the telegraph can be at
tributed directly to bad penmanshlp of the
sender For instance, the person who tele-
graphed to the broker with reference to GER
tam stocks which he desired to have trans
ferred was alone responsible for the mutila-
ton which occurred in his message, in which,
with graphic brevity, he described the trans
fierce as of Largo, Fife. widow. The bro
ker received it as a large, fine widow In
this connection am reminded of being in
Benjamin Harris BreWster's Office on one
occasion when messenger boy came in
and handed him a message which he had
written and sent to the telegraph Office but
few minutes before, and as he did so. said:
Mr.. Brewster, the operator wants you to
read this The ex-Attorney- General looked
hastily up from law paper in which he had
been absorbed, and Selling the bit of paper,
scanned it critically for moment and then
said in a loud and angry tone of voice:
who the duce wrote this at any rate" No
wonder the operator had given it up in de-
spair.
mot few marriages have taken place
between telegraphists, the courtship hav-
ing been carried on through the medium Of
the wires. Nor need you wonder that
Hymen sometimes plays part when tell
you that certain love code exists, known
only to the parties most interested, and it is
even possible for a sentimental operator to
transmit a kiss instantaneously. | have
seen it done.
"On one occasion / also knew it to be
used for very different thing from MAX
ing love. 1t was in 1892, and was spend.
ing my summer vacation with my uncle,
who lives near Williamsport, Pa. He has
a very large house, and my room was on
the third floor. One night about two
O'Clock was suddenly awakened by hear
ing faint ticking which sounded not very
unlike a telegraph instrument, only it was
more indistinct.
80 In an instant from the force of habit, I
was wide awake, although it took me at
least half a minute before l realized that l
was not in my Office and had been called
over the wire. l listened and the ticking
began again. Come up; all right is what
l heard. pinched myself to make sure l
was not dreaming, but | again heard
the ticking. Come is what it said
this time. l jumped out of bed, ana selling
my revolver, started toward the door. AS
l did so heard some one rapidly running
down the stairs | opened the door and ran
down the steps, and reached the sitting
room just in time to see some one Jump
through the window and run. From the
echo of the rapidly-retreating footsteps l
could tell that there were two pairs OF legs.
Burglars had pried open the window and
got into the house. One of them had EVIL
IDENTIFY come upstairs and given his COM
panion on the second floor the Geographic
signal to come up which meant that the
coast was clear, and that all the occupants
of the house were asleep"