, 1890-03-04
SWIFT
Some of the Men Who Have Made Repu.
tatIons for Rapid Work Mt the Key.


tatlons for Rapid Work at the 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
Iyn Eagle; William Gibson, of The Even
ing Sun, and 81. II. Toomey, OF the
Western Union Telegraph company.
Every n of these men is capable OF
great speed, and, collectively speaking,
they have probably caused more eases
of curvature CT the spine among the
unlucky receivers than any half dozen
men in the telegraph service. Passing
years ave told somewhat upon the
faces Of one or tHo Of them. but their
fingers are still as nimble as the flying
6huttles Of a weavu' S loom.
In the old timers class Boil Martin, of
the United Press, will probably prove
quite as young as he looks. Everybody
in the telegraph business knows Bob.
He is rather apochryphRl sometimes in
his anecdotes, and many of them need
substantiatiou, 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 Il GUNNER" So is Ayres.
Patsy ear take two columns of nonpa-
reil, light his perfecto, strike a ~forty-four
word per minute gait, and keep it up to
the end. When Waugh settles down to
business he looksas though he had fallen
asleep. 1t may be remarked, however,
| that IT, -, 90 A., .tlo- - &c .la.-,.o
does not think so. His pen flies over the
sheet for dear life, and the buzz of the
busy instrument is like the shrill stridu-
lation of a dozen katydids.
Mr.. Fred Catlin is n rafting sender,
although he is n veteran. He claims to
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
Mr.. Walter p. Phillips, the general man.
ager of the United Press. Mr.. Phillips
was formerly n star of the first magni-
tude in the Geographic armament, and
has the records of the old time cham
pions, many of whom are now dead, at
his finger ends.
"The fastest sender l ever heard" said
MIR. Phillips during n conversation, twas
a mar named Fisher, who used to work
In the south along about 1858. l do not
think the operator ever lived who could
beat him; at least, his record has never
been equaled. Along in the late ffties
he sent an article from Harper's Ferry
at the rate of fifty-five words a minute
for twenty minutes. This is almost equal
TO n word every second.
"In 1867, in a contest between Billy
Kettles and Patsy Burns for a gold key,
Kettles was victorious, averaging 40
words a minute or $50 words of printed
matter. On this occasion Burns claimed
that he was out of condition. They met
again the following year and Burns
squared up matters by easily defeating
Kettles.
"In 1868 E. NJ. Shape, of Milwaukee,
sent 2,631 words in one hour. The re-
ceiver was L. Curry, of st. Paul. About
ten days subsequent to this Patsy Burns
started out to beat Shapes record. was
selected as the target upon which Burns
was to train his loug range of artillery
fire. My fingers were n great deal more
nimble in those days than they are now
AT the end of the hour Burns had sent
2,731 words, beating Shapes record by
just 100 words. This record yet stands
at the top" For the part he took in thi:
feat Mr.. Phillips was presented with q
beautiful gold pen by Professor Morse.
The record for a half hours fast work
was made by Dick Hutchinson, of this
city, who sent 800 words to Nick Sny-
der, of Philadelphia. There were more
fast senders twenty wears ago than there
are at present. The necessity for them
has virtually died away with the quad
rupled facilities, and at present the tele-
graph companies put a premium upon
men who put speed in the background
and bring care and caution to the front.
New York Press.
What are Secale Flakes.