The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1892-09-30
OVER THE WIRE.
Familiar telegraph Talk AS It
Looks in Type.
Tiany Authorizations and what They
aIean-IG"w An Operator Judge. OF
Fellow i-ai5orcr's Temperament ana
Se2I;meats-Snlnc short stories.

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 we'll acquainted with
the others temperament, his moods his
disposition. and his sentiments. Tele-
graph instruments and telegraph wires
are unfccling and stolid-looking
things Yet, through them a man il
able to convey emotions of sorrow or
Joy almost as plainly they may be
expressed facially. The fact is perfect
" palpuble to the man at one end Of
the wire, 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
fr.andliness or of swear words-that
he is in good temper or bad
In their conversation telegraphers
use Il system of Authorizations which
enables them to say considerable more
in Il certain period of time than they
otherwise could. 1t is not quite as
compact as the Phillips code, Eut an
swcrs their requirements very we'll
Their morning greeting to a friend in a
distant city i usually x. m" and the
farewell in the evening e. n" the let
tcTs Il cour-c standing for good morn
ing and good night. The sanitation
may bc accompanied by an inquiry by
one rs 10 the health Of the other, which
woull hc expressed thus: ''Iw II t.
mug?" And the answer would be:
I'm PITY WI; INV ~" or I'm Mt fig Wy
vi; fra ii I've gt malaria" "
BY the time these courtesics have
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 says: WI,
hrs IN; goI darn Is cverlastin grind /
wish | VS. rich" And the other man
says: No rest for wicked. min
pen the last words indicating that he
wants the sender TO wait Il minute
while he adjusts and tests his pen.
Presently lac clicks ont 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, ha," Very great amusement
is indicated by sending ''ha" slowly and
repeating it several times. and a smile
Is expressed 10y sending ''ha'' opce or
perhaps twice. Transmitting it slowly
and repeating it tells the perpctrator of
tEas the listener is leaning back in hi:
| chair and laughing long and heartily.
M4ieh she feeling between two opera
| tors III two cities instead of being that
| Of gentle affection. is that of strong
| dislike, the fact can be made just
| apparent as though they We're within
| few feet of each other. No personal
| collision can occur, Of course. This is
on. of the drawbacks. But a man can
| call names and make threats over a
| wire with almost the same facility a.
/ by word of mouth. One of the favorite
! resorts when two operators are quar-
! reling is that known as fighting cir
/ cult" Not much is accompi she'd by
! this however, for when two operators
| strive at the same time to call names
over a wire neither can succeed.
TclegrapherS have an old story about
! fighting circuit" James Austin, who
! Is located on Newspaper row, who is a
! Canadian by birth, brought the
! story to this city, one of the
| operators in the story being
! located at Toronto and the other at
| Buffalo. After u successful exchange
| of uncomplimcntary remarks, they be-
/ gan to fight for the circuit-that is, they
| both tried To send epithcts 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 an all
( night struggle. The Toronto man
| looked around for a proxy. He found
it in the clock wire, which was a wire
| attached u the clock = pendulum. the
swaying of which acted To open and
! close the circuit lie connected the
! buffalo wire with the clock wire and
| went home to bed, leaving the Buffalo
man valorously battling with the tick
! tick-ticl-ticlI of the clock The story
concludes with the veracious statement
4 that when the Toronto man reached
} the office the next morning he heard