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

faster than he is getting rid of them won't worry
him. When the pile gets too big he viii notify
the chief operator, and that important individ-
ual 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 accumulate, deem it
his duty to "whoop EN- up" and unless the
other man is ambitious, too, there will be trouble
pretty quick.
THE STEADY MAN WINS.
The receiver will break good deal, and di-
rectly he will observe, "Oh, DIT in sch
bloomin hurry; u wont ct ur salary raised tt
way and the sender, being young and fresh
will reply to the effect that the receiver il a
''ham'' and will advise him to get a relief
Then he will snap out the figure go perempto-
rily, which is tina arbitrary sign standing for
Where shall 1 go ahead?" But although he
may hurry and perspire. he won't send as many
messages as the steady old fellow during the
day. On the press circuits it is different. Only
the best operators are employed and, no matter
how poor the characters may be sent over the
wire the operator in supposed to be q good
guesser and what don't come he is required to
I'll in out of his head. But the good, steady
and often makes better time than his speedier
brother
Operators laugh over the wire, or rather they
convey the fact that they amused. They do
this by telegraphing .'hs, ha." Very great
amusement is indicated by sending cha" slowly
expressed by sending 'ha" once or perhaps
twice. Transmitting it slowly and repeating it
tells the perpetrator 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 affec-
ton, is that of strong dislike, the fact can be
made just as apparent as though they were
within a few feet of each other. No personal
collision can occur, OF course. That is one Of
the drawbacks. But man can call names and
make threats over a wire with almost the same
facility as by word of mouth. One of the favorite
resorts when two operators are quarreling is
that professionally known as lighting circuit"
Not much is accomplished by this, however. for
when two operators strive ut the same time to
call names over wire neither can succeed
FIGHTING CIRCUIT ALL NIGHT.
Telegraphers have an old story about eight
ing circuit" James Austin, who is located on
Newspaper row, who 80 Canadian by birth,
brought the story to this city, one Of the op err
ators in the story being located at Toronto and
the other at Buffalo After a successful ex-
change of uncomplimentary remarks they be-
gan to fight for the circuit-that is, they both
tried to send ep,thets 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 all-night strug-
gle. The Toronto man looked around for a
proxy. He found it in the clock wire, which
was wire attached to the clock 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 vigorously battling with the
tick-tick, tick-tick of the clock. The story con-
cludes with the veracious statement that when the
To- fp bf.l ~
ing 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 triumphantly, II downed you at
last did I!''
Fighting circuit is probably the most an
moving occupation there is. The very impo-
tency, the very futility of it is maddening.
Here is a man who has offered a grievous in
suit. Yet the insultce cannot get at the insulter
to kick him. They may be separated by thou
sands of miles. The practice of calling hard
names Is not infrequent, possibly, for that
reason. Fighting 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 excitable
operator, who, after long and unsuccessful
struggle to say something mean to man in
Albany whom he hated, and who at the same
suddenly arose 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. locking for
some object on which to vent his anger Near
him peaceable. mild-Iooking gentleman was
having his boots polished. The unhappy oper-
ator rushed at him. struck him in the face, and
shouted, BLANK, blank you. you re always get
ting your boots BACKED" But that was in the
old days.
SOME SERIOUS RESULTS.
Not always, however, have differences arising
over wire been without a bloodless termina-
ton. 1t has been the case on a number of oc-
casions that the insultee has boarded train for
the town OF the insulter. and that upon the in
sulter 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, it is likely
to oOze out after few hours ride, and the
visit, instead of being sanguinary, may be one
OF harmonious peace and good feeling. 1t may
be stated positively that no quarrel begun over
a telegraph wire has ever resulted fatally.
They tell good story up at the big Western
Union Office on 18th street. One of the night
men was sending press to Richmond. The
operator at the latter place said:
What's the matter? You come so heavy
L can't adjust enough"
us that so?' responded the operator at the
Washington end of the wire. ''Wait a second"
Then came pause.
SLOWS that?'' asked the Washington man.
That's splendid" replied the Richmond
operator. ''What did you do?''
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 have made great
changes for the teegraphers. In the old days
an operator was an individual to whom a great
interest was attached aud around whom was a
halo of mystery. Then he received a salary
which was deemed handsome for what was APP
parently such light work. In a boarding house
he was always the star. Railroad passes were
obtainable by him for the asking He was fire.
quently given the freedom OF cities, and when
it was not given to him lie sometimes took it.
But now-wel. the old-timers assert that the
business bias gone to the dogs. One drawback
has been pointed to preventing their adj
vancement il. the fact that they are very clan
nish. Their working hours are, Of course,
spen! in the company Of other operators. but
so are their leisure hours. They do not seem
to care to circulate among people Of other
businesses. This, of course, is not the case with
all of them but it is with very great number
The consequence is that many know practically
nothing of matters or people outside Of the
telegraph class.
This handicap works to prevent them from
realizing desire which sooner or .er enters
the heart Of every teiegrapher-to get into some
business where there is possibility of advance
ment. But when he looks over the feld-if he
gets beyond the mere yearning-he sees that
he will have to accept a much smaller income
than he is already receiving. and that settles it.