The Republican., 1891-12-18


mind it is not necessary to be boxing
right at him to know it. His wire
manners will tell it just as q uickly and
truthfully. 1t is one of the mysteries
to people who are not masters of the
art to understand how these operators
can tell how another operator is feel
| ing hundreds of miles away. The op-
orators cannot explain it themselves
| If an inquiring soul does get interested
enough in them to ask, the only eXpla-
nation of this phenomenon he can get
is that the operators know the humOr
of their colleagues by the way they
send ard receive their messages.
The operators have one great advan-
| tage over lovers in other walks of
life, and that is that they can te ie-
graph their thoughts in public without
| any one else knowing thing about it.
On pichics and excursions they may
often be seen sitting facing each other
wig-wagging with newspapers de'per-
atcly. and talking with somebody else
| just enough to divert attention. They
are making love. In dining rooms they
| rattle dots and daShes with their
knives on the prongs of forks and tell
| very interesting love stories in that pc
culiar way.
In one of the big offices in this city
there is a wire which is stunned as
much as possible by every operator in
the Office. 1t has the reputation of be-
| ing the hardest wire to work in the
world There are Il large numb r of
local railroad offices on the wire, and
they all do more business than is ordi-
narily the case with small offices. For
years the only person who could work
this wire was pretty young woman.
1t did not matter how good an operator
man was or how hard he tried to get
along, his patience could not stand the
strain for more than few minutes
| Then he was i'll fight with some one.
But the little woman never had the
| least bit of trouble She was on the
| best terms with all the operators along
| the line, and was never behind in her
| work. One summer new operator
struck town. and it fell to his lot to re
| lieve this young woman half an hour
every day during lunch time. lie had
a fairly good disposition himself, but
|
first day before he was in a red-hot
row. 1t lasted until the young lady
| got back. when she graciously straight
ened matters out Day after day he
| went around to relieve her with very
diSagrecab.e feeling, and always with
the same result His attention finally
! became centcr0d on the young woman
| herself. lie knew that nothing short
Of an angel could work that wire. and
he cultivated her acquaintance. They
have been married a long time now.
lie has told the secret to his friends
matrimonially inclined, and number
of them have been watching that wire
ever since. But no young woman has
remained there for any length of time
and the watchers all know what that
| means
Ordinarily an operator can tell a
| woman the moment he hears her work
ing a wire. He tells by her touch on
the key. Women as a rule, telegraph
ers say, do not touch the key of their
Instruments as firmly as men do. Oc-
casionally, however. there is one with
out this characteristic distinction in her
Sle G36a G3Garha g0 tie fH9 profEes jfE
sion:
About year and half ago" says
the writer 81 was railroad agent and
operator at little station down on the
desert side of Yuma The station con-
sisted of nothing more than big
water tank, shed for myself, and an
other for a small crew of trackmen
There for nearly a year put in the
| loneSomeSt and hottest time that ever
| passed in my life. The thermometer
had way of monkeying around 100 or
l5J degrees above zero on most days.
and almost my only pleasure was found
in talking over the wires with the op-
orators at the various stations along
| the line.
! Il had never seen the operator at
Banning at that time, but he was a
cheerful, jolly sort of Il fellow. and, as
time also hung heavily on his hands,
| we passed many a pleasant hour in con
versation over the wires. We hal sort
of half arranged to get vacation to-
Eethar, and there was good deal of
| joyful anticipation-on my part at
| iNtJS>G VI lhC III WIlcn we
should pass it. We were to 90 into the
mounta MS and spend .twD or three
weeks in hunting and ii 5hing. Allof our
| plans were arranged on those scorch-
| ing and lonely days, and we usually
agreed in our ideas of :he preparations
although there was occasionally little
difference of opinion.
II remember, for instance, that he
| said he was going to take along a pair
of rubber boots for trout fishing, while
| asked him: What's the matter with
you taking off your shoes and stock
ings and rolling up your trousers?' But
he said he preferred rubber boots A.
the time drew near, however, he, for
some reason / could not understand
backed squarely ont of the enterprise,
much to my disgust.
"Finally he told me one day that he
was going to New Mexico to pass his
vacation, and we anticipated consider
able pleasure IN meeting each other |
during the trains brief stop at my sta
ton. But did not meet him at all, for |
when the train that bore him arrived |
was sick and unconscious with burn |
ing fever, the result of INV long stay