Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-20

Ii 1SDOl lG1 D1OI A1Oll,
his Secretary Of the Treasury and ne acted
as such during the whole of Jefferson q
term and part of that of Madison.
A Bad Congress for McGarrahau.
The last Congress was called the Billion
| Dollar Congress- This is to be Five-Cent
| Congress. Judge Holman tells me every
| thing will be pared down to the bare e1-
penses of the Government and that nothing
| will be considered which will increase tho
size Of the appropriation bills. The claim
ants about Washington are aware of this,
but they stay here as much from habit as
| anything else. I saw a clean-cut, we'll.
dressed Irishman of 60 talking to Senator
Teller yesterday. He had pleasant blue
eyes, q smoothly shaven face, and he chatted
earnestly, using kind of brogue.
1t was Billy McGarrahan, who for the
last "a wears has been pushing his claim be-
fore Congress aud who is no nearer its set
Element now than he WAS when he::left his
business in California and came here to get
what he thought was right. He told me
yesterday that his fight with the Govern
cent was the worst and the most desperate
fight that man ever made. Said he:
"1f were young again, all the money
in the Treasury could not tempt me to try
to get claim through these Houses of
Congress. I was % years old when I
bought the land on which the new Idria
quicksilver mines are located. I was
worth S250,0OO, and was making $1,000
month at my business in San Francisco.
How the Claim Came About.
'eWell, one day friend Of mine asked me
to bay Mexican grant and said could get
a lot of land for s., 100. Eleven hundred
dollars was no more to me than half dollar
=, - T. H. fo~ r
thought the title was good, and all I ask of
Congress is that they will give me chance
to have their own courts pass upon it, but
they won't do it. I have wasted a whole
lifetime in trying to get my rights, and I
came within an ace of it last year, but the
old Congress has gone away and now have
got to begin all over again"
=. Postmaster General Wanamaker is going
10 push his scheme for postal telegraph
before the present Congress and he will get
lot Of facts from Mr.. Rosewater, the editor
of the Omaha Bee, who spent the summerin
Europe making study of the telegraph
systems of different countries. Rosewater
is an old telegraph operator. He served as
such in the War Department here while
Lincoln was President, and he was manager
of the Western Union lines at Omaha Just
before he founded the Omaha Bee and got
thereby q property which Nebraska men
say paws him $50, 600 year.
He described for me last night the biggest
telegraph Office in existence. He said:
The Worlds Largest Telegraph Office.
'The biggest telegraph Office in the world
is that of London. 1t is located in the gen.
eral postofice building, and is not accessi-.
BILE to the general public. 1t contains more
than 5000 operators, and its batteries are
supplied by a plant of 10000 cells, or
enough to make three solid glass rows of
cells from the Capitol to the White House.
This Office does more business than any Office
in the United States. 1t dispatches its busi-
ness much quicker and more quietly than
our offices do, and its main operating room
is not half so noisy as the main Office of the
Western Union Company in New York.
"Of these 5000 operators about !, 900 are
They have room to themselves, |
and they do their work with American |
Morse instruments with registers and paper |
reels. In the other parts of the Office all |
sorts OF instruments are used, and the |
Hughes printing instruments are the most |
popular. In the big telegraph operating
room of Paris !, 200 operators are at work.
Nearly one-half of these are women. The
day operators work only seven hours, while
the night operators work ten hours, but
they get bigger pay than those who work
Turing the day.
How Press Dispatches Are Sent
'The newspapers are better treated BY
he telegraph offices of Europe than by |
hose of America" Mr.. Rosewater con-
,inued. EVERY precaution is taken to
hurry the dispatches and the rates are such
hat the smallest newspaper can afford to
nave press messages. You can send 100
words between in the morning and in
he evening for 25 cents, and you can send
my additional number at the same rate.
These are the press rates, and you cannot
out any business messages in with them.
There are no notes to the editors in press
lispatch and if at the close of it you add
More to follow, you have to pay for those
hree words at business rates.
''The telephone is very largely used by
he newspapers of Europe. Prague con-
aims 300, 900 people, and its newspapers get
heir dispatches by long-distance tele-
phone from Vienna, which is full days
.ide distant by cars. The governments of
Europe use the telephone for their civil
service business, and these telephones are
lnder the government and the rates are
much cheaper than with us. The paw Of
he telegraph operator of Europe is about
Is good as ours. The positions are perma-
lent, and the operators have to pass the
,ivil service examination. They have a
,hance to rise, and when they get old they
ire retired with pay. In both France and
England the Government telegraphers get
wo weeks vacation every year with full
,ay." FRANK G. CARPENTER