The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-02-21
OLD BOGY.
A Telegraph Operator Who Is known
Wherever There Is n Wire.

A Telegraph Operator who is known
Wherever There Is n Wire.
He looked like a very ordinary man as
he stood in the doorway of the train
d~ispatcher's Office at the pier n ven
ing. He was dressed in an ordinary
suit of clothes. His rather thin face
was framed in q thin, reddish beard,
through which peeped a pair Of blue
eyes. Taking it all in all he was o 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
q line by telegraph wire there is known
that name, and it is pretty safe to say
that Old Bogy himself has been pretty
nearly wherever the telegraph has
gone. Old Bogy's other name is b.
gardua
Twenty-Five years ago Old Bogy-for
Old Bogy he was ever when he was o
lad-was q telegraph operator IN the
employ of the United States Govern
ment. Bogy was q telegraph operator
In the Capitol at Washington, and he
handled all of the important messages
that came there from the front. He was
trusted, and the confidence was not
abused.
After n while no was sent u the front
and was in the midst of the fighting
with General Grant, and he played no
u~nimportant part in the great strife.
He was IN expert OPERATOR better
does not exist-and he held many q
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 tele-
graph office. from one end Of the coun-
try to the other, and before long the
name of Old Bogy became a proverb
among telegraph men. He had gained
the bad habit of unrest that had
fastened itself upon him during the W p,
and before long he became the most
noted tramp operator in the United
States. He seemed to have lost all de-
sire of ability for steady work, and
while his ability was of the highest, he
would work a few weeks and then sud
denly leave, and do nothing until his
money was exhausted.
And so he travelled, working a little,
borrowing a great deal, and often get
ting passes from point to point on rail-
road lines.
Train Dispatcher Comstock, now at
Oakland pier, worked with Old Bogy in
Chattanooga 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 country. he was
gone four years, and when he returned
he was given a big reception at Chat
tanooga, and that was the beginning Of
his second downfall.
Five years or so ago Old Bogy drifted
out to San Francisco, and was en-
ployed in the Western Union Office in
that city He worked there for several
weeks and just before payday he went
out of the Office and retuened to
get the money that was due him.
Old Bogy's uncle died in Rochester,
N. Y. not long ago, and left him S20,-
900, but no invested that be could draw
only the income, and conse uently the
tramp operator is In better financial
condition than ever before. He Is good
natured and good-hearted in the ex.
treme and will share his last penny
with his friends, but he is Al inveterate
borrower. and the boys all like him,
and he has no trouble making his way
wherever he goes. travelling mostly on
his reputation Oakland Tribune.