The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-04-24
TELEGRAPHIC ERRORS.
They Have Caused Fun, Sorrow
and Loss of Money.

and LOSS OF money.
Thousands of errors have been made
in telegraphic messages, says the New
York Times. In fact, a day rarely
passes without a good many of them
occurring. Some of them have caused
much amusement, some have caused
tears and some have caused serious
financial loss. They are not always
due to inexpert operators. 1t is re-
markable fact that during the preva-
lencc of bad weather, or what are
known as electrical storms" which
are thorns in the side of every chief OPP
erator-for while they continue wires
become as unreliable as ficklc woman
dots and dashes have been so shifted
as to cause a receiver to put down a
word totally different from the one
transmitted by the sender. That, how
ever, does not occur often.
The faulty penmanship of hurried
business men and others who use the
telegraph is also responsible for many
of the errors. Operators are compelled
to rigidly follow copy" and if word
is indistinct they send whatever it seems
to them to look like, no matter how
blind their reading may make the con-
text. Besides. some messages pass
through number of hands.
The telegraph companies persistently
print at the top of their message blanks
warning that they are not RESPONSE
BILE for mistakes in transmission, and
they also proffer, in very small type,
the advice that Ito guard against mis-
takes or delays the sender of a message
should order it repeated; that is, tele-
graphcd back to the originating office
for comparison, at an additional charge
of one-half the regular rate. The no.
tice has steadily adorned the blanks in
spite of court decisions that the COM
panies are responsible for errors,
whether the messages are repeated or
not, and in spite of the additional fact
that it is rarely read, or, if it is, the in
terest excited is only casual. Nobody
ever seems to accept the advice regard
ing repetition. An operator, speaking
of the old notice recently, said that in
an experience of fifteen years he had
never seen but one message, bearing the
order to repeat, and it was regarded as
great curiosity. This message fell a
victim to excessive caution. 1t was
bound from New York to San Francis
co. 1t contained but one word, the lit
tie word ''Yes." 1t was religiously re-
peated back from every relay station
between the Atlantic and Pacific. but
by some misfortune, due to a second of
abstraction on the part of an operator
or to q timely but unfortunate Clip of
the instrument, the word was changed
to mo" A big row ensued and an op-
orator in New York nearly lost his po-
sition.
The financial losses that have been
caused by telegraph blunders have been
due mostly to the changing around of
amounts. There have been instances
where an order to buy has been changed
in transmission into an order to sell.
But generally, if there is mistake, it
is in the figures. To make the liSeli-
hood of error as slight as possible,
amounts expressed in figures by the
original writer of message are usually
spelled out and expressed in words by
the operators. Even this precaution
does not always avail, however. 1t is
comparatively easy for poor handwrit-
ing and careless transmission to change
fifteen to fifty, or twenty to thirty, or
fifty to sixty. There was a mistake of
this character perpetrated in Washing
ton some time ago. 1t caused no loss,
but that was because of good luck. A
grocery firm in the capital city sent an
order to wholesale house in Baltimore
for fifteen barrels of sac sugar. The
next morning the grocery firm received
a shipping bill which contained the in
formation that fifty barrels of ga"
sugar had been shipped to them :'as per
ORDER
AS the sugar was by that time in
Washington, the firm, having investi-
gated and discoyeped that the mistake
was not theirs, notified the manager of
the telegraph office that the company
must take the extra tAirty=fve barrels
off their hands. The manager told the
operator who sent the message about
the notice. While the responsibility
for the blundcr, as between the sender
in Washington and the receiver in Bal
timorc-it was undoubtedly the fault of
the latter-had not been settled, the
| Warrington operators, who was of a
speculative disposition, requested the
manager to delay his answer. Then he
ran around TO find friend who was in
the sugar business, and inquired as to
the future Of sugar prices. He learned
that there was Il strong probability of
an immediate and material advance
He informed the manager that he re-
called that the mistake was his, and
that he was prepared to pay the penalty
for it by taking the sugar. The firm
turned over the thirty-five barrels to
the operator, Two hours later they,
too, heard that sugaF was going up.
They sent the operator word that they
would relieve him of his load if he
wished. lie replied that he was very
much obliged to them, but they needn't
| trouble themselves. The next morn
ing he sold his sugar nt a good profit,
took the money to the races and lost it.
The wifcly reproaches which gay
young New York lawyer encountered
on reaching bis homo late one night
were undoubtedly due in the main to
his own poor handwriting, but a care
less operator was also responsible for
them. He related the experience the
next day.
SIT was two o'clock when reached
home" he said. ''My wife lnet aae al
the door, saw at once that she was
very angry. She handed me tele-
gram and asked freezingly: What is
the meaning of this?' l said: Why,