St. Paul daily globe., 1890-12-21
Condolences Exchanged by
Men Who Have Never Seen
Each Other.
Strong Dislikes Easily Made
Manifest Over 1000 Miles
Of Wire.
Peculiar Conversational Alb
breviations Of Operators
Dilated Upon.
New York Times.

friendships over the wires. Metaphor
lcally they shake hands cordially twice
a day-when they begin work and when
they end IT. And when business is dull
they hold long conversations, with hun
dreds of miles-perhaps thousands
separating them. as two trends might
do over a dinner table. They tell of
their hopes and fears and ambitions,
and impart very confidential informa-
tion to men whom they have never seen.
Of course. all these exchanges take
place between those who have been in
communication constantly for some
time.
There are pairs Of men who have
been in daily communication with each
other over the same telegraph wire for
| years, and who have never seen each
other. Each is well acquainted with
the others temperament, his modes, his
disposition and his sentiments. Tele-
graph instruments and telegraph wires
are unfeeling and stolid-looking things.
Yet, through them man is able 10 con-
vey emotions of sorrow or Joy almost
as plainly as they may be expressed
facialiy. The fact is perfectly palpable
to the man at one end of the wire, while
he is receiving dispatches. that the man
who is sending them is ill or we'll, Or
though the sender may make use of no
| terms of friendliness or of swear words
that he is in good temper or bad.
When the feeling between two oper-
atorS, III two cities, instead of being that
| of genuine affection, is that of strong
dislike, the fact can be made just as
apparent as though they were within a
| ft-W fnnt of na0h ntbnr No al
collision can occur, OF course. That is
one of the drawbacks. But man can
call names and make threats over a
wire with almost the same facility as
by word of mouth. One of the favOrite
| resorts when two operators are quarrel
ing is that professionally known as
fighting circuit" Not much is accom-
plished by this, however. for when TWO
operators strive at the same time to call
| names over wire, neither can succeed.
| IelegrapherS have an old story about
Fighting circuit" 1t is SO very old, in
deed, that it is doubtful if it is ever told
nowadays. 1t is of one man who, for
| instance, was in Albany, and another
who. for instance, was in Syracuse.
| After a successful exchange of uncom-
| plimentary remarks they began to flight
circuit" that is, they both tried to send
| epithets over the wire at once. They
| fought for some time. Neither would
| yield. The man at Albany, who was
| Syracuse, who was young aud stub
| born, was in for an all-nIght Strug-
| gle. The Albany man looked around
| for proxy. He found it in the clock
wire, which was wire attached to the
| clocks pendulum, the swaying OF which
| acted to open and close the circuit. He
connected the Syracuse with the clock
| wire, and went home to bed, leaving the
Syrac lse man yalorously battling with
| the ticktick, tick-tick of the clock. The
old story concludes with the veracious
| statement that when the Albany man
! reached the office the next morning he
heard the Syracuse man still fighting
the clock, and that when the former
disconnected the clock wire and closed
the circuit the latter snapped out tri-
umphantly, II downed you at last, did
| I?''
"Fighting circuit'' is probably the
most annoying occupation there is. The
very impotency, the very futility, of it
is maddening. Here is man who has
offered grievOuS insult. Yet the i'll
sultee cannot get at the insulter to kick
him. They may be separated by thou
sands OF mlleS-the practice of calling
hard names is not infrequent, possibly
for that reason. "FIghting crcuit' has
| several times driven men to the verge of
frenzy. There is on record, in the ar
chives of the Western Union office of
this city, the tale Of an eXcitable opera
tor, who. after long and unsuccessful
struggle to say something mean to man
in Buffalo whom be hated, and who at
the same time was trying TO say some.
thing mean to him, suddenly rose from
his chair and darted from the operating
room down to the street. This was in the
old office at 145 Broadway
There he gaZed wildly around, look
Ing for some object on which to vent
his anger. Near him peaceable, mild
hammered gentleman was having his
boots polished. The unhappy operator
rushed at him, struck him i'm the face
and shouted: "Blank blank you, you're
always getting your shoes blacked.''
But that was in the old davs.
n OF always, however, have differences
| arising over wire been without a
blOodless termination. 1t has been the
| case on number OF occasions that the
| insultee has boarded a train for the
to WI OF the lnsulter. and that, upon the
insulter being pointed out to him. the
| two have come together in an affrav.
But such instances are exceptions.
| Even though a man may board
| train full of the thought of
vengeance, it's likely to ooze out
after few hours ride, and the visit. in
| stead OF being saDguinary, NAV he one
| of harmonious peace and good feeling.
1t may be stated positively that no quar-
rel begun over a telegraph wire has
ever resulted fatally.
In their conversations telegraDhers
use system Of abbreviations which en-
ables them to say considerably more i'm
certain period of time than they 9th
erwise could. Their morning greeting
| to friend in distant city is usually
''g m.' and the farewell for the evening
"g II" the letters, of course, standing
for good morning and good night. The
salutation may be accompanied by an
inquiry by one as to the health of the
INV is mng?" And the answer
would be: PPM pity WHY; by u?'' or
"l'm mt fig Wy wi; 'frald 1ve ct t
| mlaria."
By the time these courtesies have
taken place some early messages have
come from the receiving department. or
| from some other wire, and the man be-
fore whom they are placed says to his
friend many miles away: "Wl hrs
flu; Col hang is everlastin grind. l wish
| / wS rich.' And the other man saws:
mo rest fo wickd, min pen,' the last
two words indicating that he wants the
sender to wait minute while he adjusts
and tests his pen. Presently he clicks
out ''g a. meaning "go ahead" and the
days work has begun. If the sender is
old in the business he will take steady,
even gait,and the fact that the messages
are piling up faster than he is getting
rid of them won't worry him. When
the pile gets 200 big he will notify the
chief operator, and that important indi-
vidual will probably take a portion of
them away and have them sent by an
other wire. But, if the sender is young
| and ambitious, he will, as soon as the
| messages begin to accumulate, deem it
his duty to ''whoop 'em up," and unless
the other man is ambitious, too, there
will be trouble pretty quick.