The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-09-08
OVER THE WIRE
Famdliar Telegraph Talk Az n
- Looks In Type
MANY Abbreviations and wha4 They
Mean-How an Operator Judges Of .
Fellow Laboror's Temperament and
sentiments-Some Shore Stories.

xUefS are pairs Oh men WHO 0AV0
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. Tele-
graph instruments and telegraph wires
are unfeeling and stolid-looking
thingA Yet, through them man Is
able to convey emotions Of sorrow or
JOY almost as plainly as they may be
expressed facially. The fact Is perfect
ly palpablc to the man at one end Of
the wirc, while he is receiving dis
patches, that the man who is sending
them Is i'll or well, or-though the
sender may make use Of no terms of
ffiendliness or Of swear words-that
he Is In good temper or bad>
In their conversation telegraphers
use system Of authorizations which
enables them to say considerable more
In certain period OF time than they
Otherwise could. II is not quite as
compact as the Phillips code, but an
swers their requirements very well.
Their morning greeting to friend in
distant city is usually Y. m.." and the
farewell in the evening e. n" the let
ters Of course standing for good morn
ing and good night. The salutation
may be accompanied by an inquiry by
one as to the health Of the other, which
would be expressed thuss INV u Is
mng9" And the answer would be:
"1m PITY wi; hw u?~ or I'm Mt fg W
WI; fraid I've ct I malaria"
n
taken place some early messages have
come from the receiving department or
from some other wire, and the man be-
fore whom they are placed sayss ''Wl,
hrs fu; gol darn ts everlastin grind. I
wish I WIS rich." And the other man
says: mo rest for wicked, min
PEN" the last words indicating that he
wants the sender to wait q minute
while hA adjusts and tests his pen.
Presently he clicks out ''g. a." mean
in1Ess1o ahead, ~and the days work has
begun.
Operators laugh over the wire, or
1akher they convey the fact tha& they
aEe amused. They do this by telegraph
ing 'shs, hal" Very great amusement
is indicated by sending ''hs" slowly and
repeating It several times, and smile
is expressed by sending ma" once or
perhaps twice. Transmitting It slowly
and repeating 1t tells the perpetrator OF
tho Joke ut 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 opera
tors 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 q
few feet Of each other. No personal
collision can occur, Of course. This is
one of the drawbacks. But man can
call names and make threats over q
wire with almost the same facility as
by word of mouth. One OF the favorite
resorts when two operators are quar-
reling Is that known as lighting cir
cult" Not much is accomplished by
this however, for when two operators
strive at the same time TO call names
over o wire neither can succeed
Telegraphers have an old story about
:. sighting circuit" James Austin, who
n located on Newspaper row, who Is q
Csnadian by birth. brought the
story TO this city, one Of the
operstors In the story being
located at Toronto and the other at
Bu6alo. After a successful exchange
Of uncomplimentary remarks, they be-
gan to light for the circuit-that is, they
both tried to send epithets over the
wire ct once. They fought for some
time. Neither would yield The man
ss Toronto, who was old and astute,
sawt that the man q Buffalo was young
and stubborn and was IN for an all
night stgHggis. Thss Ioronto man
loolped around for : proxy. he found
n n - oiosk Wlro, Shisk ~ : wixe