Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 18??-????, 1889-06-09
- 80 TELsesAPHEes.
TI.e Te,.Lerfoot l. C-naIIy Put Ttrossh 4
Visurons Caar>e Of Sprouts.

rise Teas5erfoot l. U-n-aly Put Throesh a
Visuroas Caanss Of Sprouts
-'Spe..ziag Of country town telegraph
e-s. said veteran operator, reminds
me n a story OF myself was the
stldeaL' 0f ii,e railway station IN q small
New Jersey town when ~ ole timer
cs.me down there 10 work wire IN the
division s1periutendent's oEIce, which
WIS Just across the track in another build
Ing
~Oua day I answered = call on my in
strunaeat and 90 q message from Mas
Ter Mechanic McMar;in. who lived down
the track sixty miles. asking me IS a per
sonaI favor 70 take The h4ndear and 80
down t.le read abou; three miles 70 the
Farm Of J. Bird. where would get zoo
strawberry plants Re wanted me 70
bring them % the station and send them
down by the evening express Now Nc
Martin was in especial favor with ne.
had tWo brothers working under him.
and ] naturally thought he w2s q great
man. So I aid ! would 90 IL
Il went home. got a bag clothes basket
rolled ont the bandcar. and with one Of
the BOYS that always hang aruund a
country depot started o,It toiiud the farm
Of j Bird lad never heard Of any
such person. but thought I might have
overlooked him s. ! pumped away up
a long grade until reckoned ! had gone
a. least three miles Then / haiieil a man
III a field and asked hinl where J. Bird
. lr--.a.H T.. u~-a-rrfs
man around there-might live farther
west, 50 / went on : couple % miles
until found another man. and he was
a least half a mile away IN a plowej
field 50 I aoundered over that stretch
Of broken ground and asked him where
70 find the farm Of } B.nl dc said he
had lived in that county thirty years
and that no such person had ever beeu
In i 10 far - he knew-tbere was uc
such man In that immediate section
anyway
Il ueut back TO the handcar in q
quandary would haze gone farther
west. though ] vas already between
eight and nine miles from town. and my
bands froa pumping tie Eandcar vere
biistere,l fearfuily. If II hadn't been for
the old farmers positive statement tliai
20 such man lived anywhere around
. Finally ] c0uciuded tlat ,Iere had Oeeu
sgme mistake and started back. Il was
mighty hard work and my hands were
awful sore, but / pumped away, and
. AZ last ! rolled up to the depot There
was a greet crowd of yoIng fellows
there. and WHEN ! picked up the bi-
clo,Aes lasEet and stepped on 10 the
+ platform everybody gave me great
laugh Then the old time operator pul
his head Out of the window and sung out,
Got them strawberry plants:
j; didn't take me ulore'n q second 70
+ realize the whole tnaasly trick The op-
4 orator from the other building had
{ Switched on his ground wire. called ne
up AID sent me the message and signed
it McMar,in on tine strength Of that
F bad gone or o1 O. hl-t for d j1ybird and
come b.-k ssh two dozen blisters.
( While ] was -1ae le hal circulated tie
story ard ths gang had gathered
didn't hear tbe Lst q tlat sell fc-
months. and I Was 50 suspicious after
ward that I wouldn't answer my own
call half the time That's y hat call a
{ low down trick; lit I've hoazed young
F operators lust Is badly since. Is teaches
en- the business New York stat-