Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-01-27

A Telegraph Operator Who Is KNOWN
Wherever There is n Wire.

From the Oakland Tribune.
He looked like very ordinary man as
he stood in the doorway of the train dis
patcher's Office at the pier on Tuesday
evening. He was dressed in an ordinary
suit of clothes. His rather thin face was
framed in thin, reddish beard, through
which peeped pair of blue eyes. Taking
it all in all 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 ''Old
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 it is pretty safe to say that Old
Bogy himself has been pretty nearly wher-
ever the telegraph has gone. Old Bogy'
other name is Bogardus.
twenty-five years ago Old Begy-for
Old Bogy he was even when he was lad
was a telegraph operator in the employ
of the United States government. Bogy
was a telegraph operator in the Capitol at
Washington, and he handled all the i'm
portant messages that came there from the
| front. He was trusted and the confidence
! was not abused.
After a while he was sent to the front
| and was in the midst of the fighting with
General Grant, and he played no unim-
portant part in the great strife. He was
an expert OPERATOR better does not ex-
ist-and he held many great secret dur
| ing those troublous times.
After the war Old Bogy began to drift.
He wandered from railroad to railroad,
| and from telegraph Office to telegraph Of
fee, from one end of the country to the
other, and before long the name of Old
Bogy became n proverb among telegraph
men He had gained the bad habit of un-
rest that had fastened itself upon him
during the war, and before long he became
the most noted tramp operator in the Uni
ted States. He seemed to have lost all de
sire or ability for steady work, and while
his ability was of the highest, he would
work few weeks and then suddenly leave
and do nothing until his money was ex-
| hausted.
And so he travelled, working little,
borrowing great deal, and often getting
passes from point to point on railroad
lines.
Train Dispatcher Comstock, now al
Oakland pier, worked with Old Bogy in
Chattanooga some seven or eight years
ago. Bogardus had just been sent to Chi
ma to put In operation system OF tram
dispatching on the first railroad telegraph
in that country. He was gone four years,
and when he returned he was given a big
reception at Chattanooga, and that wai
the beginning of his second downfall.
Five years or SO ago Old Bogy drifted
out to San Francisco and was employed il
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 thai
was due him.
Old Bogy's uncle died in Rochester, n
Y, not long ago and left him twenty thou
sand dollars, but so invested that he could
draw only the income, and consequently
the tramp operator is in better fnancia
condition than ever before He is goot
natured and good hearted in the extreme
and will share his last penny with hi
friends, but he is an inveterate borrower
and the boys all like him, and he has Nc
trouble making his way wherever he goes
travelling mostly ON his reputation.