The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-30

tlnR rio or them won't worry MN. w be n
the pile gets too big he will notify the CHI Of
operator, and that important individr al
will probably take portion OF them away
and have them sent by another wire. But,
If the sender is young and ambitious, he
will, as soon as the messages begin to ac-
cumulate, deem IL his duty TO "whoop 'em
up" and unless the other man is ambitious
too, there will be trouble pretty quick.
THE STEADY MAN WINS.
The receiver will break a good deal, and
directly he will observe: 20, dt in sch a
bloomin hurry; u won't ct ur salary raised
tt way" and the sender, being young and
fresh, will reply to the effect that the re-
ceiver is ham" and will advise him to
get a relief. Then he will snap ous the
figure a" peremptorily, which is the
arbitrary sign standing for "Where shall l
go aheadF' But although he may hurry
and perspire he won't stand as many
messages as the steady old fellow during
the day. On the press circuits it is diff
ferent. Only the best operators are en-
ployed, and no matter how poor the charac-
ters may be sent over the wire the operator
Is supposed to be a good guesser, and what
don't come he is required to fill in out Of
his head. But the good, steady sender,
even on the press wires, ID appreciated, aud
often makes better time than his speedier
brother
Operators laugh over the WIRE or rather
they convey the fact that they are amused
They do this by telegraphing cha. ha.' ,,
Very great amusement is indicated by send
ing "ha" slowly and repeating it several
times, and q smile is expressed by sending
"han once or perhaps twice. Transmitting
1t slowly aud repeating it tells the perpe-
traitor OF the joke at the other end of the
wire that the listener is leaning back In his
chair and laughing long and heartily.
When the feeling between two operators
In two cities, instead of being that Of gentle
affection, is that of strong dislike, the fact
can be made Just as apparent as though
they were within few feet OF each other.
No personal collision can occur, of course.
That is one of the drawbacks But a man
can call names and make threats over wire
with almost the same facility as by word Of
mouth. One of the favorite resorts when
two operators are quarreling is that profess
sionally known as lighting circuit" Not
much is accomplished by this, however, for
when two operators strive at the same time
to call names over wire neither can sue
coed.
FIGHTING CIRCUIT ALL NIGHT.
Telegraphers have an old story about
"hghting circuit." James Austin. who is
located on Newspaper row, who is u Caua-
dian by birth, brought the story to this
city, one Of the operators in the story being
located at Toronto and the other at Buffalo
After q successful exchange of uncompli-
mentary remarks they began to fight for
the circuit-that is, they both tried to send
epithets over the wire at once They
fought for some time Neither would yield
The man at Toronto, who was old and
astute, saw that the man at Buffalo was
Young and stubborn and was in for an all
nights struggle. The Toronto man looked
around for a proxy. He found it in the
clock wire, which was q wire attached to
the clocks pendulum, swaying of which
acted to open and close the circuit. He
connected the Buffalo wire with the clock
wire and went home to bed, leaving the
Buffalo man valorously battling with the
tick-tick, tick-tick of the clock The story
concludes with the veracious statement that
when the Toronto man reached the Office
the next morning he heard the Buffalo man
still fighting the clock and that when the
former disconnected the clock wire and
closed the circuit the latter snapped out tri-
umphantly, 81 downed you ct last, did m
Fighting circuit" is probably the most
annoying occupation there Is. The very
impotency, the very futility Of 1t is mad
deuing. Here is man who has offered a
grievous insult. Yet the insultee cannot
get at the insulter to kick hip. They may
be separated by thousands of mi es. The
practice Of calling hard names ID not in
frequent, possibly, for that reason. eight
Ing circuit" has several times driven men
to the verge of frenzy. There is on record
in the archives Of the Western Union office
in New York the tale OF an exotable opera
tor. who, after a long and unsuccessful
struggle to say something mean to a man
in Albany whom he hated and who at the
same time was trying to say something mean
to him, suddenly aroze from his chair and
darted from the operating room in New
York city and ran down the stairs into the
street.
There he gazed wildly around, looking
for some object on which to vent his anger
Near him peaceabls, mild-looking gentle
man was having his boots polished. The
him in the face, and shouted, Blank, blank
you. you're always getting your boots
blacked." But that was in the old days.
SOME SERIOUS RESULTS.
Not always, however, have differences
arising over q wire been without bloodless
termination. IL has been the case on a num-
Der of occasions that the insultee has
boarded train for the town of the insulter,
and that upon the insulter being pointed out
to him the two have come together In an
ARRAY. But such instances are exceptions
Even though a man may board train full
of thought of Vengeance, 1t is likely to ooze
q
instead Of being sanguinary, may be one Of
harmonious peace and good feeling 1t may
be stated positively that no quarrel begun
over telegraph wire has ever resulted
fatally.
They tell good story up at the big
Western Union office on Fifteenth street.
One of the night men was sending press to
Richmond. The operator at the latter
place said:
whats the matteri You como 80 heavy
l can't adjust enough"
els that 500" responded the operator at
the Washington end of the wire. "Wait a
second"
Then came a pause.
"How's that" asked the Washington
mao.
THAT'S Splendid" replied the Richmond
operator. "What did you dor
Il took off my cuffs" came back the
reply from the Washington man, and even
the relay and sounder exchanged smiles
Twenty or twenty-five years havo made
great changes for the photographers In the
old days an operator was an Individual to
whom a great interest was attached, and
around whom was halo of mystery. Then
he received salary which was deemed
handsome for what was apparently such
light work. In a boarding house he was
always the star. Railroad passes were
obtainable by him for the asking. He was
frequently given the freedom of cities, and
when 1t was not given TO him he sometimes
took it. But now-well, the old-t timers
assert that the business has gone to the
dogs. One drawback has been pointed to
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