The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-30
OLD BOGY.
a Telegraph Operator Who Is Known
Wherever There Is Wire.
From the Oakland Press


Wherever There Is a Wire.
From the Oakland Press.
He looked like very ordinary man as he
stood in the doorway of the train dispatch
er's Office at the pier on Tuesday evening
He was dressed in an ordinary suit of
clothes. His rather thin face was framed
IN a thin, reddish beard, through which
peeped pair of blue eyes. Taking 1t all in
he was a very ordinary looking man, and
yet that man was the most noted telegraph
operator in the United States, and possibly
in the world, 1t was odd Bogy."
Everybody who is, or pretends to be a
telegraph operator or a train dispatcher
knows Old Bogy. Wherever there runs a
line by telegraph wire, there is known that
name, and 1t is pretty safe to say that Old
Bogv himself has been pretty nearly wher-
ever the telegraph has gone. Old Bogy's
other name is BogardUs.
Twenty-Five years ago Old BOgy-for Old
Bogy he was even when he W. lad-was
telegraph operator in the employ of the
United States government. Bogy was
telegraph operator at the capitol at Wash
ington and he handled all the important
messages that came there from the front.
He was trusted, and the confidence was not
abused.
After awhile he was sent 10 the front, and
was in the midst of the fighting with Gen.
Grant, and he played no unimportant part
in the great strife. He was an expert oper-
ator-a better does not exist-and he held
many a great secret during those troublous
| times.
After the war Old Bogy began to drift
| He wandered from railroad to railroad. and
| from telegraph office to telegraph office,
from one end of the country to the other,
and before long the name of Old Bogy be-
| came proverb among telegraph men. He
| had gained the bad habit of unrest that had
fastened itself upon him during the war and
before long he became the most noted tramp
operator in the United States. He seemed
to have lost all desire or ability for steady
work, and, while his ability was of the
highest, he would work a few weeks and
| then suddenly leave and do nothing until
his money was exhausted.
And so he travelled, working a little, Dor
rowing great deal and often getting passes
from point to point on the railroad lines
Train Dispatcher Comstock, now at Oak
land pier, worked with Old Bogy at Chat
tanooga some seven or eight years ago.
Bogardus had just been sent to China to put
in operation a system of train dispatching
on the first railroad telegraph in that coun-
try. He was gone four years, and when he
returned he was given big reception at
Chattanooga, and that was the beginning
of his second downfall.
Five years or so ago Old Bogy drifted out
to San Francisco and was employed in the
Western Union Office in that city. He
worked there for several weeks, and just
before pay day he went out of the office
and never returned to get the money that
was due him.
Old Bogy's uncle died in Rochester, N.
Y, not long ago aud left him $4,000, but
so invested that he could draw only the In
come, and consequently the tramp operator
is in better financial condition than ever be-
fore. He is good natured and good hearted
in the extreme, and will share his last penny
with his friends, but he is an inveteratt
borrower, and the boys all like him. and he
has no trouble making his way wherever he
goes, travelling mostly on his reputation.