The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1890-04-12
SWIFT TELsGRApHERs.
Some of the Men Who Have Made Repu.
tations for Rapid Work at tho Key.

tations for Rapid Work at tho Key.
Among telegraphers who have repu.
tations for speed are A. S. Ayres patsy
and w. L. Waugh, of the United Press;
j. w. Robson, of the Postal Telegraph
company; Frank j. Kiln, of The Brook
lyn Eagle; William Gibson, of The Even
ing Sun, and NJ. H. Toomey, of the
Western Union Telegraph company.
Every one of these men is capable of
great speed, and, collectively speaking,
they have probably caused more cases
of curvature of the spine among the
unlucky receivers than any half dozen
men in the telegraph service. Passing
years have told somewhat upon the
faces of one or two of them, but their
fingers are still as nimble as the flying
shuttles of a weave1's loom.
In the old timers class Bob Martin, of
the United Press, will probably prove
quite as young as he looks. Everybody
in the telegraph business knows Bob.
He is rather apochryphal sometimes in
his anecdotes, and many of them need
substantiation, but the fact remains that
in the old war times there were very few
men in the country who could equal Bob
in singing dots and dashes over a tele.
graph wire. Although he has been prac.
tically out of the business for some time,
he is still a ''hummer." So is Ayres.
Patsy can take two columns of nonpa.
reil, light his perfecto, strike forty -four
word per minute gait, and keep it up to
the end. When Waugh settles down to
business he looks as though he had fallen
asleep. 1t may be remarked, however,
that the man at the other end of the wire
does not think so. Hispen flies over the
sheet for dear life, and tho buzz of the
busy instrument is like the shrill stridu
lation of dozen katydids.
MIR. Fred Catlin is a rattling sender
although he is a veteran. He claims tc
have several clark horses in the West
ern Union office whom he says will make
records for themselves. There is prob
ably no man in the country who has the
records of fast operators down SO pat as
MIR. Walter p. Phillips, the general man
ager Of the United Press. Mr.. Phillips
was formerly q star of the first magni
tude in the telegraphic armament, and
has the records of the old time cham
pions, many of whom are now dead, al
his finger ends.
"The fastest sender ever heard, sale
Mr.. Phillips during conversation, "was
q man named Fisher, who used to worl
in the south along about 1858. I do no
think the operator ever lived who coult
beat him; at least, his record has never
been equaled. Along in the late fiftie.
he sent an article from Harper's Ferry
at the rate of fifty-five words minute
for twenty minutes. This is almost equa
to word every second.
''In 1867, in contest between Billy
Kettles and Patsy Burns for gold key
Kettles was victorious, averaging 4;
words minute or $50 words of printed
matter. On this occasion Burns claimed
that he was out of condition. They me-
again the following year and Burnl
squared up matters by easily defeating
Kettles.
"In 1868 E. NJ. Shape, of Milwaukee
sent 1851 words in one hour. The re
ceiver was E. Curry, of st. Paul. Ahou
ten days subsequent to this Patsy Burn
started out to beat Shapes record. wa
selected as the target upon which Burn
was to train his long range of artiller.
fire. My fingers were great deal NOR
nimble in those days than they are no W
AT the end of the hour Burns had sen
2,731 words, beating Shapes record b,
just 100 words. This record yet stand
at the top" For the part he took in thi
feat Mr.. Phillips was presented with
beautiful gold pen by Professor Morse.
The record for half hours fast wor
was made by Dick Hutchinson, of thi
city, who sent 1900 words to Nick Sny
der, Of Philadelphia. There were NOR
fast senders twenty years ago than ther
are at present. The necessity for ther
has virtually died away with the quad
rupled facilities, and at present the tele
graph companies put a premium upol
men who put speed in tho backgroun
and bring care and caution to the front
New York Press.