The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-02-20


mind it is not necessary to be looking
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 OPP
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 tele-
graph their thoughts in public without
any one else knowing thing about it.
On picnics and excursions they may
often be seen sitting facing each other
wig-wagging with newspapers desper-
ately, 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 prougs of forks and tell
very interesting love stories in that pc
culiar way.
In one of the big offices in this city
there is 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 arc a 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
a man was or how hard he tried to get
along, his patience could not stand the
strain for more than a few minutes.
Then he was in 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. He had
fairly good disposition himself, but
he wasn't on the wire ten minutes the
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
disagreeable feeling, and always with
the same result. His attention finally
became centered on the young woman
herself. He knew that nothing short
of an angel could work that wire. and
he cultivated her acquaintance. They
have been married long time now.
He 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
woman the moment he hears her work
ing wire. He tells by her touch on
the key. Women as 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
style. The following story is told in a
little journal devoted to the profess
sion:
about a year and half ago." says
the writer, 81 was rlilroad 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 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
$50 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.
II had never seen the operator at
Banning at that time. but he was a
cheerful, jolly sort of fellow, and, as
time also hung heavily on his hands,
we passed many pleasant hour in con-
versation over the wires. We had sort
of half arranged to get a vacation to-
gether, aud there was good deal of
joyful anticipation-on my part at
lcast-of the manner in which we
should pass it. We were to go into the
m ounta MS and spend stwo or three
weeks in hunting and fishing. Allof our
plans were arranged on those scorch-
ing and lonely days. and we usually
agreed in our ideas of the 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
l 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. AZ
the time drew near. however, he, for
some reason could not understand,
backed squarely out of the enterprise,
much to my disgust