The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-01-29
WINTER.
TILEGRAPHERs' BLUNDERs.
Odd and Amusing Mistakes Are Some
times Made by Operators

Odd and Amusing Mistakes Are Some
times Mad. By Operators
Considering the noise Il NV York's
grea. room and the fact thai the opera
tors have TO jump from theology to
stocks, "ften sending off long reports
upon al c;s or which they know moth
in. il is surprising that the blunders are
so few. The lnO-t amuing of such err
r.1s seem 20 oS du. not to carelesSness or
.att.a.iou upOi the part OF the opera
tor, tut to similarity Of certain letters
in lie tc.egraph!c alphabet, and to the
inability OF lie receiver to write down
rs fast as the instrument clicks out its
Inc age.
Thor are very good reasons, no doubt,
fol many OF toe mistakes recorded
against telegraph o"erators. There are
no rxcu >es for others. Some are the re-
suit of seer stupid ~. ignorant orpera-
tor ieing put at work requi ing not alone
skin in manipulating key, but intelli-
gcnce Lchind all. The operator who
reads h '.rs-- for horse may have had his
copy ritten by the same reporter who
dashed off Il critic sin on "Girotin Giro
flu" and vino was duinfounded to find
that tie tele&rap male it Sniff Snof-
fle. ." Yet it does not always follow that
this is the case. for telegram has been
known to he transmitted Yes" when
the copy mad" it No" with copper plate
diatinctuC5s Ore Of the most curious
blunders | r.n.sa,hcr occurred over a
cable circuit of the Associated Press,
4 ,,.,l In;,r, f,lln,rc.
LONDON. March Is.
Two Americans were arrested here to-day
for attempting TO shave the queen
Tie message gave the names of the
persons. to sether with other detail, but
nothing in it acc ,unt"d for the extraor-
binary staten that the men had at
tempted to shay he queen. No one
in the Office where the dispatch was re-
ccived could understand why any Amari-
cans should undertake such al unheard
of feat or why t,le queen should need
shaving. The more the cablegram was
studied the more pcrpleSing it grew,
until at last il was decided to AK for ex-
plantations from the other side of the
water. Very prom. tly the operator ON
the other side sent lack the correction
that the Americans referred to had been
arrested for "att.mpting to shove the
queer.
4Yes, indeed. Send horse and car
rage to depot, was the innocent mes
sage which went to lady in Utica from
this city not long ago. She was married
and her husband usually called Joe, had
been away from home for several weeks.
The wife had telegraphed lady Nom
Der Of the family to come up and spend
a few weeks with her and the answer
was sent as above. The Utica lady was
Frustrated with grief when she received
dispatch reading: "Joe is dead. Send
hearse and carriage to depot AR
rangements were made in hurry, and
the hearse and carriage were in waiting
when Joe and the lady stepped out Of
the train.
Long circuits and weak electrical cur
rents frequently play the mischief with
dots and dashes. They fall out" as
the operators say, vanish or mingle un
til two or three letters are mixed to
gether So many kilograms are sent in
cipher, or according to a code. that tn,
receiver does not hesitate to write dowr
the most absurd nonsense if he thinks
the writer intends it. Thus the simple
message, Some home; James is not
well," has been metamorphosed into
"Coghog; Jags is not 100." The receiv
ing operator probably committed thu
old error Of reading (by sound G for me
the signs of which are similar, Will,
well, if not carefully read, is liable t
be transformed into 100. 1t must have
been the same teiegrapher who trans
formed John Howard Payne's beautiful
' lines into Hog, swot hog, there's n
y place like hog. ~ New York Lette-.