Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-11-14
SPIRIT FINGERS AT THE KEY.
An Operator Bothered by Persistent Com.
municat,ons from tha Other world

. W AAa0 ySslo o8o "oA1.AuOWu
telegrapher, considered one Of the best
in his profession; left this city for q bet
ter position at Omaha. He was
round-faced, good-natured young fellow,
and great favorite with all who knew
him, very neat in his personal appear.
ance, being always dressed in the latest
and best that fashion dictated. He was
without bad habits, and correct and
business like in all his dealings.
The other day . Journal reporter
was stopped by the extended hand of a
dilapidated specimen of humanity, who,
with q strange quaver in his voice,
asked il the reporter did not recognize
him. Withou: waiting for the reply in
the negative which he saw in the unre-
sponsive glance Of the reporter he intro
duced himself as the dapper little tele-
grapher of other days. Suspecting this
as preface to a demand for a cash con-
tribution, the newspaper man was put
ting his hand into his pocket when the
seedy man interposed a gesture of dis
sent. I'm not asking for cent; the
boys have staked me, and have rail-
road ticket that takes me to the old
home in Western New York. just
stopped over few hour to see two or
three of the people who knew me in
1881 and 1882. I leave tonight"
The reporter could not restrain an i'm
pulse to ask what had brought about SO
great change in the appearance of his
whilom acquaintance. "Well," he re-
piled, with some hesitation, at wasn't
spirits, at least not ardent spirits for I
never INDUCED to any extent in liquor.
It was spirits Of very different kind.
l don't know that they meant me any
harm. but they have about ruined me
as telegrapher. There's one now.
Don't you hear the sounder? p. c.
p. G.-sP. Co. that's my call. I'll
just answer them-s25'.-that means
busy Perhaps they'll let me alone
until 1 tell my story.
Il never knew anything about
spiritualism, never cared anything
about it. and all at once, six years ago,
without any asking or desire on my
part, I found myself to be possessed Of
the strangest and most distressing
mediumistic powers had friend Of
about my own age; we had learned
telegraphy together in Cleveland and
had always been very intimate. About
the time went to Omaha he went to
Cheyenne. We kept up correspond
ence by letter and wire, but after q
time he got in the habit of taking an
occasional spree. He was delicate,
sensitive fellow, and on SOLDERING up
would, be the most melancholy chap
Imaginable. His sprees became more
and more frequent, his fits of depression
deeper. One day, following a pro-
longed debauch, he disappeared from
Cheyenne. One of the boys, knowing
our intimacy, telegraphed me to know
If he had come to Omaha. 1t was
exactly 1920 at night as was taking
the message off the wires when heard
1 hefsonnder on III Olu ana uisconnecLe0
Instrument, one that the boys about the
office had played with, humping away,
p. p. G.'-:P. G. / answered
49, mechanically on my own instrument
Whats the matter?' and the sounder
thumped out the information that he
(my friend) had passed over on v a
minute or two before, and that wou.d
find out ali about it, three or four days
later, in the San Francisco papers. It
was all strange to me, incomprehensi-
BILE. At first thought that Billy was
playing some sort of trick on me, but
there was the old disconnected instru-
ment, and no chance of any hocus-pocus
of that kind. On the fifth day there
after I got hold Of Frisco paper, in
which was the notice of the death of az
unknown man, supposed to be about
twenty-four years old, at third-rate
hotel, and the Coroner's verdict, death
from excessive use of alcoholic drinks
and exposure As I was reading this,
the sounder started up again. You
got the papers, it ratified away. The
Coroner was right. Great roundup for
young man, wasn't it?'
II didn't like the carelessness of this
remark" continued the operator, "and
said as much, when the old sounder
took it up and continued with even
greater recklessness. Billy had always
been, even at his worst, considerate Of
the feeling of others. He had the in
stincts Of gentleman, but apparently
after he passed over he became lost to
all decency and all regard for the feel
ines and welfare of him who had been
his best friend while here in the flesh.
He kept up such q racket in the Omaha
Office that he interfered with my bust
ness, and there was no shutting him off.
After time he began to bring in other
operators who had passed over and then
you'd better believe I had time of it.
Some Il these were disreputable fell
lows, aud most of them were Of class
that nolself-respecting operator on earth
would care to associate with. tried to
keep straight, quit drink entirely, but
they brought bad atmosphere about
me, and my acquaintance began to cut
me. Nv work at the Office became
mixed in spite of all that could do, for
the spirits soon got tired of the old
souuder and came over to the live line.
sThei consequence was that was dis
charged. | didn't feel very sorry about
it at first. I had saved up hundred
dollars Or so and made up my mind to
keep away from the click of the instru-
ment entirely for month or SO and give
the spirits chance to fasten on some
other rpor operator. I lodged them
for about week, and was beginning to
fell like my old self again, when one
night Twas wakened from asweet sleep
by signals on my head-board, p. c.
sP e., I answered 90 THAT is busy),