Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-12-08
CABLE RATES AND RULES.

How they May BE Utilized to Transfer
Cash at Small Cost.
It is possible to take advantage of the
rules of the cable companies regarding pre-
payment of messages to transfer small
amounts of money by wire. C%ablegrams
will not be sent collect, neither may the
sender guarantee the payment of tolls upon
a reply to a message, but he can e
such reply to the extent of 80 words by de-
posting cash to that amount at the origi-
mating Office and stating in his c%ablegram,
REPLY, 10 words prepaid" or whatever
number of words he may mention within
the limit.
For this phrase he pays usual tolls.
When the message is delivered to the per-
son addressed, the cable company at the
same time hands him in cash the amount
of prepayment. The party getting the mon
ey can use it to send the reply wanted or
otherwise as he sees fit. The smallness of
the amount involved prevents any undue
advantage being taken of this system,
which has been found of great convenience
in a legitimate way, as even the shortest
cablegram is expensive, while prepayment
reasonably guarantees a reply.
Considering the fact that very few cable
grams are ineligible to the operators, the
mistakes made are surprisingly few, and
such as do occur are quite as often due to
the poor penmanship Of the writer as to
carelessness on the part of cable employees.
When mistakes do creep in, however, the
result may be serious if not detected, as an
error in a single letter may radically alter
the meaning of a message.
For example, cheaper may be used to
signify, 'Send 5000 bags of coffee to our
carea at Boston, while cheaper" may stand
for the same phrase, except the substitu-
ton of Philadelphia for Boston.
A careless writer or negligent operator
would here have an excellent opportunity
to make a costly blunder. The codes are
arranged so far as possible to preclude mis-
takes of this kind arising through similari-
ry Of cipher words. but risks cannot be en-
tirely eliminated.
1t costs nothing to register an address
with the telegraph and cable companies in
America and Great Britain, whereby one
word will stand for the full name of the
firm, and thus reduce the cost of cable
grams, but on the continents the various
governments impose a yearly tax for the
privilege, small as it is.
The average citizen has no doubt often
speculated how the cable people handle
ueSsdseS N1llleu III lOTelSu languages
that is, how a native operator at, say, St.
Petersburg or Mecca can i%ntelligently trans
nit kilograms written in English. The ex-
PLANTATION is exceedingly simple.
The only requirement of the cable lines
is that all messages must be written in
Roman letters. This being done, it is as
easy for the operator to send or receive the
French word ''guerre" as its English equiv
alent, war" etc.
A telegram written in Russian or hen
track Turkish paralyzes the Morse alpha
bet until it is translated into equivalent
French, English or other Roman text, when
it can be licked off merrily by an operator
absolutely unfamiliar with these languages,
but who knows the telegraphic signs for
the letters.
The tariff books issued by the cable
companies make interesting reading. The
rate per word from New York to South
Africa is $40; to Cape Colony and Trans
vaal, s2.+3; Mozambique, s2.41, and Zanzi-
bar, S2.15. To New South Wales via one
route the rate is $1.45 per word and via an
other line 1881. To Burmah s1.2 is charged,
and to Beloochistan, Sl,l3. The rate to
China is Sl.8 and to Japan s. 2l.-Phila-
delphia Times.