Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-07-30
SIGNAL TOWER GIRLS.
x0nely Nights In Order That Travellers
May Speed Along in safety.


May Speed Along in safety.
The block signal system OF the Penn.
sylvania railroad is great success, but
one scarcely realizes how much de-
ponds on the carefulness and wakeful-
ness of the telegraph operator until he
spends night in one OF these telegraph
towers.
1t was the misfortune of Dispatch
reporter not long since to have such
an experience. Caught at night in the
country. with the only hotel in the viii
lage two miles away. and the farmers
for miles around sound asleep, one Of
the lonely towers Of the Pennsylvania
road was not uninviting under such
circumstances. The news gatherer
had long telegram to send. and the
young lady operator vowed thousand
times. as she admitted afterward, that
she would keep the door locked here
after and admit nobody but railroad
men at night. But when the hard job
had been performed. and after vigor-
ous rubbing the blood began to return
into her numb arm, she was pleased
with the prospect of having even a re-
porter to talk to until morning.
How these poor girls in the towers
must suffer from loneliness none but
they themselves can tell. II man had
a wife that talked too much he could
easily effect cure by having her learn
the telegraph business, and then secure
her position in one of the Pennsyl-
vania towers. 1t is surprising how
many lady operators there are on the
railroads, and invariably they work at
night. One of them accounted for it
by saying that their chiefs are men,
and they try to discourage women
from entering the business as much as
possible.
Il wish didn't have to work. said
the lady operator in the course of the
long chat. Certainly we get lonely,
and the night is always terribly long.
! have two revolvers in this drawer,
but am awfully afraid of firearms.
In my experience so far | have had
plenty of scares. but | never was really
frightened but once. A German tramp
was determined to come into the tower
one night, and, placing a skid which
the men used in handling freight
against the building, ne climbed up as
far as the window.
Il pointed the revolver at the fell
lows head, and he cried out to me in
broken English not to shoot. | didn't,
and confess felt as much relieved as
he did when he found himself on the
ground again. He slid down that
skid almost like shot
Most Of the night operators on the
Pennsylvania road are girls. About
the hardest work we have to do is TO
pull the lever back and forward which
changes the lights. In the winter.
when the long bar becomes covered
with ice. it is almost impossible to pull
it, and it requires all our exertion.
MY greatest trouble is to keep
awake after three o clock in the morn
ing. We help each other, and if |
think an operator is asleep | try to
warn her by making all the noise over
the wires can. remember when the
Eastern express was put on early in
the morning. The operators were so
used to DOING about that time of the
night that the express had to make a
number of stops on its first trip. You
see the red lights hang out continually,
and this the engineers are guided by.
If the operator goes to sleep the trains
are blocked. and if she is reported she
is fined two dollars.
We'll, have forgotten how often
that train was stopped the first morn
ing. AT some towers they hal to break
open the door To see what was the mat
ter. Generally the conductors and en-
gineers are good fellows and do little
reporting, but there is limit to their
patience. The train made a number
of trips before the operators got used
to the new run. and now we ali manage
to be awake. Pittsburgh Dispatch.