St. Paul daily globe., 1890-12-21

and will advise him to "get riff" which
means that he ought to get up and let
competent receiver take his place.
Then he will snap out the figure '4''
peremptorily, which is the arbitrary
sign standing for "Where shall [ 90
ahead?" But, although he may hurry
and perspire. he won't send as many
messages as the steady old fellow during
the day.
No two operators send alike. The
click OF the instrument is always the
same to the ear of the man who does
not understand it, but one operator
recognizes the sending of another if lie
has heard it before for any length of
time, just as familiar face is recOg-
niZed. Operator "rommy" Snaggs
leaves New York, and, after roaming
from one city to another, fiually lands
IN the Galveston, Tex, Office and goes
to work. He is put down to work
wire running to Kansas City. The man
in Kansas City begins to send. Mr..
lSnaggs pricks up his ears and inter
rupts the sender. "Ain't tt u Billy
Robins0n?" he asks, and the other man
says, Yes, tits me, and ur ole Tommy
Snaggs." Mr. Snaggs returns, "tts wO
l am, | thot | recognized ur sendin'."
Then they devoted f0w moments to
telling of their travels. The last time
they worked on the same wire one was
in Boston and the other in Montreal.
1t is a peculiar fact also that an ex-
perienced operator can almost invariab-
ly distinguish wOman's sending from
mans. There is nearly always some
popularity about a WOman'S style Of
transmission. 1t is not necessarily
fault. Many women send very clearly
and make their dots and daSheS pre-
cisely as they were intended to be
made. 1t is impossible to de-
scribe the peculiarly, but there
is 10 doubt of its existence.
Nearly all women have a habit of rat
tling off a lot of meaningless dots before
they say anything. But some men do
that too. A wOman's touch is lighter
than mans, and her dots and daSheS
will not carry so well on very long cir
cult. That is presumably the reason
why i'll all large offices the women are
usually assigned to work the wires run
ming to various parts of the cities.
Operators laugh over wire, or rather,
they convey the fact they are amused.
They do this by telegraphing ''ha, ha."
Very great amusement is indicated by
sending 'ha" slowly, and repeating it
several times. and smile is expressed
by ''ha" once or perhaps twice. Trans
mitting it slowly and repeating it tells
the perpetrator of the joke at the other
end of the wire that the listener is lean
ing back in his chair and laughing loud
and heartily.
Twenty or twenty-five years have
made great changes for the telegraph
operators. In the old days an operator
was an individual to whom great i'm
pOrtance was attached, and around
whom was halo OF mystery. Then he
received a salary which was deemed
handsome for what was apparently such
light work. In a boarding house he
was always the star Railroad passes
were Obtainable by him for the asking.
He was frequently given the freedom Of
cities, and when it was not given to him
he some times took it. But nOw-Well,
the oldtimers assert that the business
has been pointed to as preventing
their advancement in the fact
that they are SO very clannish. Their
working hours are, of course, spent in
the company of other operators, but so
are their leisure hours. They do not
seem to care to circulate among people
OF other businesses. This, of course,
is not the case of all of them, but it is
with very great number. The con-
sequence is that many know practically
nothing of matters or people outside OF
the telegraph class.
This handicap works. to prevent them
from realizing desire which sooner or
later enters the heart of every teleg-
rapher = to get into some business
where there is possibility of advance
ment. But when he looks over the field
If be gets beyond the mere yearning-
he sees that he will have to accept much
smaller income than he IS already
receiving, and that settles it. He con-
tinues to yearn, but he takes no action.
He finally becomes like man who has
been long in the government service.
He stays in a rut. In the telegraph
business the comfortable berths are for
the very few. That condition obtains
more there than in any other business.