Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-06-18

OF the news service, and now hardly dav passes
without a startling feat being performed in
which Father Time figures as the vanqushed
10 illustrate this point the reporting of the
recent hanging of Deeming in Australia may be
cited. He was hanged in the morning in Mel
bourne at one minute past 10, and yet the
morning papers in this country announced the
fact. This at first sight seems incompre-
henHble, but the telegraph has annihilated
both time and space. Chronologically speaking,
the news of the execution reached this country
before the event really took place. The differ
ence In time between Washington and Mel
bourne is about ten hours, that is to say. one
hundred and fifty degrees of longitude. Fifteen
degrees of longitude ARE equal to one hour.
Suppose the news was flashed from Melbourne
Monday morning at ten minutes past 10 and
that there was no delay over the land lines of
telegraph from Australia and the cable the dis
patch would reach Washington little after
midnight Sunday, apparently ten hours before
Deeming was hanged.
A few weeks back bright sketch appeared in
one OF the telegraph papers wherein Prof.
Morse Is pictured as coming back to life and
his great wonderment at the marvellous devel-
opment OF his cherished discovery. He, of all
men, would have the most cause for surprise.
as his crude instruments form curiosities today.
while the compact improvements upon his orig
inal ideas look business-iike all over.
INCREASE IN THE DAILY REPORT.
Five years ago the average news report CON-
sisted of 5000 words to the afternoon papers
and 1000 to those that came out in the morn
ing. Today the press association il slow that
cannot furnish 10000 words to the evening
papers and $4,000 to the morning editions. The
utilizing Of typewriters in the press telegraph
business Is for the most part responsible for
this advancement. The taking of the regular
service Of news from the wire when the ma
chimes were first tried proved such an easy
matter that authorizations were introduced.
This innovation. while it improved the speed
did not work the operators harder. and the
code was decided upon and is used to O
greater or less extent upon all the news circuits
today. Walter p. Phillips. an old operator and
now the general manager of a successful news
association. is the author Of the code, and to
him is due the speedy handling of news matter.
To illustrate. An item starts out: 1T is I'M
derstood that the President will visit New York
tomorrow evening" The sending operator
sends it over the wire: Ixu--It is understood;
ttt-that the; Pr-President: wl-will visit;
N. New York; tmp-tomorrow evening.
While the man at the key is sending this item
at a fOrty-word per minute gait, running the
speed in reality up to sixty-five words a minute
the operators at the receiving points coolly
write out the words in full on the typewriter
From this it can be seen that great advantage
is secured through the use of the code and the
typewriter as adjuncts to the speedy telegraph.
Other useful authorizations in the code are:
k-out OF the: Kin which; Gx-great excite
ment: Ckx-committed suicide; Huc-House
committee: Utc-under the circumstances;
Ogt--on the ground that, &c.
1t is the proper thing nowadays for all the
prominent papers. The STAR among them. to
sociations, thereby missing nothing that is
worth having.
While the methods Of both these organiza-
tions are eminently successful. their modes of
gathering and disseminating the news are diff
ferent In many respects. At any rate the two
hemispheres are thoroughly covered and it is a
small fish. metaphorically speaking, that slips
through their nets.
RESULTS OF INCREASED FACILITIES.
Expressions are often heard, coming from the
older generation, that the world is getting
worse every day because they never heard when
they were young of so many terrible crimes
and caring robberies. That is it exactly
When they were young. or even fifteen years
ago, the facilities for gathering the news were
very crude and as a result one-half of the news
of the world circulated only in the immediate
vicinity of its origin. Today the younger gem
GRAFTON is not only told on the same day of a
lynching down south, train robbery in the
western states, terrible mine explosion up in
the coal fields of Pennsylvania. the doings of
the Canadian parliament and the idiosvncras les
of the royal families of Europe, but the fullest
knows as much about the particular incident rs
those who were on the spot and witnessed the
occurrence.
Another feature-a feature indeed which
all newspaper readers have reason to be thank
ful for the improvement in the press telegraph
was the magnificent reports received during the
past week from Minneapolis and will come from
Chicago next week. The STAR had its special
correspondent on the ground; the two press az
sociatiens each had corps Of news gatherers
present and, "a result. the Washington read
ers knew as much and frequently more about
the convention as did the residents of Minneap-
Oils. How many thousands OF words of press
have been and will be created by the two con-
ventions will be hard matter to get at exactly,
but the tolls therefor will not fall far short of
quarter of million dollars.
OF the people who handle the telegrams-the
operators-still less il known by the general
reader. They form strong friendships over thu
wires. Metaphorically they shake hands cor
daily twice a day-when they begin work and
when they end it. When business is dull they
hold conversations, wi h hundreds Of miles, per-
haps thousands. separating them. as two friends
might do over a dinner table. Sometimes thev
tell of their hopes and fears and ambitions and
impart very confidential information TO men
whom they have never seen, but generally the
topic is horse racing or base ball. 1t is a known
TACT that telegraph operators and printers are
the greatest cranks on the national game in
existence OF course. all these exchanges take
place between those who have been in communl-
cation constantly for some time.
TALKING AT MANY MILES DISTANCE.
There are pairs Of men who have been in
daily communication with each other over the
same telegraph wire for years, and who have
never seen each other. Each is well acquainted
with the others temperament, his moods, his
disposition and his sentiments. Telegraph in
struments and telegraph wires are unfeeling
and stolid looking things. Yet. through them
man Is able to convey emotions of sorrow or
Joy almost as plainly as they may be expressed
fscially. The fact is perfectly palpable to the
man at one end Of the wire, while he is receiv-
ing dispatches, that the man who is sending
them is i'll or well, or-though the sender may
make use of no terms of friendliness or of
swear words-that he is in good temper or bad.
In their conversation telegraphers use a sys-
tenn Of authorizations which enables them to say
considerable more in a certain period of time
than they otherwise could. 1t is not quite as
compact as the Phillips code. but answers their
requirements very well. Their morning greet
ing to friend in distant city is ueually e.
m" and the farewell for the evening 'g. n"
the letters of course standing for good morning
and good night The salutation may be ac-
companied by an inquiry by one as to the
health of the other, which would be expressed
thus: INV r to mng?" And the answer
would be: I'm PITY wi; INV NJ" or ''Im Mt
hg Wy vi; fraid I've gt nlaria."
By the time these courtesies have taken place