The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-11-09
GHOSTLY DOTS AND DASHES.

Telegrapher's Queer Story of a Message
From the Great Unknown
One Of the widest, weirdest stories Of the
supernatural that has ever come under the
experience of a mortal man was told a
Detroit Sun man by r. II. Field. the Big
Four telegraph operator at Southside sta
ton. Mr.. Field ia q very intelligent and
conscientious man. and he relates his fear
ful experience with a candor and earnest
mesa that almost make one believe IL IN
spite of its extreme improbahility.
1T was seven years ago." he began. II
was assigned to night duty at u little sta
tion called Evansburg, Pa. ON the New
York. PENNSYLVANIA a. OHIO railroad. !
but fiattered myself that | had n good deal
of mechanical genius. The office was III
charge of an old-foRy sort of a fellow
named Jones. The telegraph instrument
got out of adjustment. and l knew some
thing about repairing it. Jones suggested
that / take to my home an old-fashioned
relay box and fix it up. Glad of the oppor-
tunity to show what could do. | carried
the box to my boarding house one morning
and put it on the shelf in an old cupboard
and went to bed. intending to fix 1t up after
NV sleep was over. l had been in bed but
a few minutes, and had not gone to sleep.
when to my surprise and astonishment, the
atmatuse, or what is otherwise known as
the lever on the instrument, began ticking
l was perfectly amazed and Thought there
must be some mistake. 10 satisfy myself
that | had not been carried away by my I'M
neination, for the ticking was faint and sub
dued. | got out of bed and with fear and
trembling opened the cupboard door.
II took the instrument in my hand and 1t
still continued to work. l put 1t on the
ligible. | turned the spring so that :here
would be less resistance. and then III as
clear and perfect Morse rs l ever heard, the
invisible person. spltIt, or Whatever IL was
wrote:
do you get mel?
81 was 80 overcome that l involuntarily
answered yes without putting it on the
instrument. The unknown heard me. for
again in the beautiful writing, it continued:
"'Thank God, at last. My name is
Charles Blake. / am an old-timer. My par,
ents, who reside in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
have lost me. They don't know what my
fate has been. l want you to write to my
father, Homer Blake, at Mount Pleasant,
Iowa, and inform him that died at Shreve-
port, La, of yellow fever OH. ! have
forgotten the date, but 1t WAS several years
prior to the date of this communication
II was frightened to death. My hair
stood on end. MY boarding house was two
miles from the telegraph station. and there
was no telegraph wire of any kind in the
vicinity. l was a little dubious about the
communication from the other world, or
from somewhere, l will not undertake to
say:
before venturing to write to Homer
Blake as directed, I picked up a Western
Union tariff book which / had in my room
to see if there WAS such a town as Mount
Pleasant, la. l found that there was such
q place, a fact which l did not know be-
fire, and it was located on the Chicago,
Burlington d Quincy railroad. To satisfy
myself and not to be taken in. l wrote n
letter to the postmaster at Mount Pleasant
and asked if he knew of anyone in that
vicinity named Homer Blake and to give
me what information he could without tell
ing him what I wanted it for.
"A few days later | received a reply, and
have his letters somewhere among my
effects, in which he said that Homer Blake
had lived in Mount Pleasant some yeats |
before. but that he had moved away to
what place he did not know. Blake, he in
formed me, had two sons, one of whom,
Charles, was supposed to be dead, and the
other was a grain merchant in the far J
vest.
"Did you not pursue your investigations
further?"
mo, I did not. The truth is. / was scared
to death. / worked that wire for eighteen
months. Every time l took off the relay it
made the same peculiar noise and worked
in a spluttering sort of a way, and to show
that there must have been some hidden or
occult force it crossed the other wires"