The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-05-24
TEF Faf.D 1Fa,f TIA DpTNG
ADVICE As TO a COMPARE. .TivEGY
MODERN INDUSTRY.


The King of Wire Tarpers. "a Chicago 7Tan
Who Has Sought the Eoari of Trade OF
That City, Gives Few Points ON Beating
Telegraph Companies.
Speaking OF schemes. there is one man
IN Chicago who has caused the board Of
trade more bother than all the other al.
legged electricians put together Els
name is O. Al. Stone. past master In
electrical matters. vino has spent years
In patient stndy of electricity. and whose,
fertile brain has evolved 80 many
schemes TO circumvent the powers that
be that he has been called the king of
wire tappers Mr Stone Ia modest
man He looks like "A granger but any
one who tries to sell him gold brick
will surely get worsted in the transacs
ton Believing that a disquisition on
wire tapping would he inco1npiere withs
ont few words Oh the subject from
this patriarch Of the profession, d repres
sentative from The Herald asked the elecs
trician whether he thought wire tapping
conla be accomplished
Mr. Stone could noI vuGcl Tor it from
personal experience bnl from an elec~
trical point IF view he was decidedly Of
the opinion that he could He thought.
however that u would require. in this
city al ieasI II knowledge of electgicitT
which not one IN IL hundred 'Dt,eSasse5
In the past three years, observed Mr.
stone i suppose thai upward Of 100 diff
ferent parties. each selHescntiaga n coterie
of amateur sports. operators and others,
nave approached me for information on
this subject And it has invariably been
IN regard TO horse racing that they want
ad enlightenment Were to mention the
names OF some of these visitors the rae
ing department of a telegraph company.
would be Mortified Operators as rule
do not get princely salaries. nothing near
what they should he paid, SO that when
\ proposition ~ made to them whereby
they may clean mp ii big stake in day
they naturally have an itching to give 1t
a trial Eut to all these young fellows
who have been inclined to test their luck
IN this way ! have seriously advised
against making the attempt
A large proportion of those who do
attempt 10 tap wires make miserable
failures And 1t is because of their
gross lgnoraiice | will venture the as.
sertion that go per cent of the operators
IN all large offices cannot set up and
work common set of Geographic APP
paratus. taking the wires from the time
they come into the Office until they.take
the battery or go ont again. Yet with
u great part OF this class the idea of
wire tapping elnanates They think they
know all about it and when some of
them come to see me and unfold their
schemes | have to smile at their SIM
plicity They do not recognize the diff
ference between an instrument of four
ohlns and one OF 100 ohns. and upon the
subject of gslvanometers and Wheat
stone bridges they are completely lost.
II was suggested TO the veteran elec-
tr1cian that u recital of his experiences
with the Chicago board of trade in get
ting quotations would be interesting,
and he was asked IL he ceuld say how he
received the markets during the time
the quotations were withheld from the
bucket shops
In the first place, " said he. ''the board
OF trade had detectives innumerable all
hunting for taps supposed to furnish
me information. fooled 'em dreadfully
on that point. however Now that the
Eight il all over will say that not only
bad NO wire tapped, but had no necessity
for tapping one. had a better scheme
than that.
But didn't you ever lose your con-
nnuous quotations.
Never They had man who chopped
everything in the shape OF wires he could
lind. and occasionally he nipped other
wires. but he never succeeded in tracing
the source Of my information, At one
time he cut everything he could lay
hands on and then firmly believed he had
me In q corner. That made me hot. My
office was then in the Traders building,
facing the board Of trade rooms The
windows OF the exchange floor were all
soaped over the directory foalishly be-
iieving received quotations that way.
and they thaught they had me sure.
Well. that morning. with my wire all
cnt as they supposed, as soon as the mar
kets opened | seized bar of soap and
scored every eighth change on my win
dow giving in addition the buyer and
seller sign 1t dnmfounded them. A
big crowd stood below on the walk
watching my quotations. and | never
missed turn In spite of the cut wires,
too | had my customers supplied within
naif an hour after the board opened, and
was furnishing II bucket shops at the
time.
I suppose you had some funny expe-
riences dnring the 6ghty
Well. yes. At one time aad a lot
iot OF old dead wires connected up that
ran from anywhere to nowhere. similar
TO what II commonly known as ''tree
circuit THAT Ia TO say. the main wire
had legs scattered In all directions, each
VI which ran IN some dark hole. .>chim-
ney. vacant basement or the like, and
there grounded then put heavy bait