Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-08-06

There are pairs of men who have
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
things. Yet, through them a man is
able to convey emotions of sorrow or
Joy almost as plainly as they may be
expressed facially. The fact is perfect
ly palpable to the man at one end of
the wire, while he is receiving dis
patches, that the man who is sending
them is ill or we'll, or-though the
sender may make use of no terms of
friendliness or of swear words-that
he is In good temper or bad.
In their conversation telegraphers
use a system of authorizations which
enables them to say considerable more
in a certain period of time than they
otherwise could. 1t is not quite as
compact as the Phillips code, but an
swers their requirements very well.
Their morning greeting to a friend in a
distant city is usually ''g. M" and the
farewell in the evening ''g. H." the let
tiers 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 thus: 'Hw u is
mng?" And the answer would be:
'Im pity wi; INV up or I'm mt fig Wy
wi; fraid I've ct malaria"
By the time these courtesies have
taken place some sarly messages have
come from the receiving department or
from some other wire, and the man be-
fore whom they are placed says: "Wl,
hrs flu; gol darn is everlastin grind. /
wish l WIS rich" And the other man
says: mo rest for wicked, min
pen," the last words indicating that he
| wants the sender to wait a minute
while he adjusts and tests his pen.
| Presently he clicks out ''g- a." mean
| ing go ahead" and the days work has
begun.
Operators laugh over the wire, or
rather they convey the fact that they
are amused. They do this By telegraph
ing ''ha! hal" Very great amusement
is indicated by sending "ha" slowly and
repeating it several times, and a smile
is 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 opera
I 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 a
| few feet of each other. No personal
collision can occsr, of course. This is
one of the drawbacks. But man can
call names and make threats over a
wire with almost the same facility Us
by word OF mouth. One of the favoritc
resorts when two operators are quar-
reling is that known as fighting cir
cult" Not much is accomplished by
this, however, for when two operators
strive at the same time to call names
over a wire neither can succeed.
Telegraphers have an old story about
lighting circuit" James Austin, who
is located on Newspaper row, who is O
Canadian by birth, brought the
story to this city, one Of the
operators in the story being
located at Toronto and the other al
Buffalo. After a successful exchange
Of uncomplimentary remarks, they be
gan 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 mar
at Toronto, who was old and astute
saw that the man at Buffalo was young
and stubborn and was in for an all
night struggle. The Toronto mar
looked around for a proxy. He found
It in the clock wire. which was wire