Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-07-18
a NIGHT WITH THE WIRES.

Tales of the Clicking Saunders Heard
When Darkness Re1gns on the Face of the
Earth.
The coming of the dawn of this time of
year marks a wonderful transformation
scene in that hive of industry, the big
operating room of the Western Union
Telegraph Company, at Broadway and
Day street. By the time the first gray
streaks appear in the east the bulk of the
work for the night has been finished. The
specials" for the newspapers East, West
and South have all been cleared from the
flies, and the "reds," or half-rate night
messages are flashing over their routes
to distant destinations. It is the one
period in the twenty-four hours of the
day when there is lull in the rush of
business.
The eastern light grows brighter each
moment, stealing over the bay, across the
roofs of great buildings and into the
windows of the operating room on the
top floor of the small structure of the
telegraph company. The incandescent
lamps, which cleaned brightly during
the darkness of the night, now become as
yellow and sickly of hue under the ap-
proach of sunlight as jets of gas within
the brilliant radius of an arc lamps rays.
Here and there throughout the room
weary operators are seen with their heads
bowed upon their arms, and their arms
resting upon their little tables. Some are
stealing brief but sweet bits of slumber,
bnt most of them are sim ply resting.
Others lean back with folded arms, CON
tentedly putting their pipes, contem plat
ing possibly the amount of energy ex-
pended upon the nights work, and
wondering what the same expenditure in
some other field of labor would have
brought them in. others still may be
seen in groups, quietly talking Shop
perhaps, but most likely exchanging the
anecdotes and tales of adventure of which
the craft seams to possess an inexhaust-
IDLE supply. The wire railways which con-
vey messages from one part of the room
to another with lightning like swiftEess
are still. The clicking of the instrum ents
becomes less irritating to the ear as
wire after wire is cleared and the sound
ers cease their monotonous metallic jab
Der. Finally, as the sun appears the
room is quiet, s"ve for the occasional
clicking OF an instrument with a ssrush'
message.
Sitting in any part of the room one
can hear an occasional message as it is
flashed to its destination. At this hodr
the rush" messages nearly always bear
tales of woe. Listening closely, one can
hear, away off in the distance, the mes
sage of wife TO her parents, telling them
that her husband is dead and praying
them. to come to her; again, it is the
husband who telegraphs or a mother
who informs father that their child is
dead.
As the sun rises higher, sending shafts
of light into the great room, the clicking
ceases almost entirely for while. Then
the noise begins again with a rush that
does not end until another down. The
first messages handled eaoh day are those
to and from the markets. From Fulton
and Washington marketmen go out every
morning thousands of messages to points
within half days walk from the city,
asking dealers their needs for the day, or
announcing that orders have been or will
be shipped. From hotelmen at the sea-
shore and in the country come innumer
Bile orders for delicscies to be forwarded