Evening star., 1893-12-04

81
&hETI HAA ed messenger and his
HulIlUM N rough yellow envel-
1ElpII opes. To these peo-
oie the receipt of a telegram generally
means two things-death or birth. gener-
ally the former, and under the circum-
stances the palpitation of the heart Is
easily accounted for. They never think
of telegraphing about sickness. unless very
critical The mails are used to tell when a
contemplated visit Will be inaugurated ana
the hundred and one reasons why the busi-
ness man should use the telegraph are
unknown to them. As matter or fact'
4 large number of private kilograms do
relate to the three great events in the
human pilgrimage-birth, marriage and
death OF the three death puts more money
into the treasury of the telegraph compan-
les than the other two combined The old
saying that bad news travels quickly
has one more verification in the hundreds
of death messages sent by wire every day.
1t Is standing Jest in telegraph offices
that more people die on Sunday than any
other day In the week, for in the absence
of the usual volume of kilograms relating
to strictly business affairs those announc-
ing deaths and funeral arrangements stand
out with unusual prominence and their
frequency becomes apparent
When the Boys Oyercharge.
Among the messenger boys Of the tricky
class 1t is known that the best time to
overcharge for the delivery of message
II at a period when the intelligence Of
death Is conveyed. Especially when 1t is
In the case Of dear relative or close friend
Is this true. The effects of the shock and
the excitement that follows prevents nine
persons out Of ten looking at the envelope
or message to ascertain If 1t has already
nail for he hNx- inst q
person who Is welI-informed on points of
this kind they will innocently say: "Oh.
I've made mistake. / thought it was
message number 3d." and the messenger
will forcibly criticise his sense of COM
prehension in the matter Of sizing" up
the wrong man.
1t may seem sacrilegious to say that
many of the death telegrams'' sent over
the wires have grotesque side. yet IL is
so. The hard-worked operators who handle
them cannot avoid seeing it all in the rush
and many a smile goes around the tele
graph office over the uncOuth way in which
sincere affiiction has been announced. IL
Hteracy accounts for many of these grue-
somely amusing announcements. The men,
tai agitation accompanying the loss of rela-
tives or friends accounts for more. but
there Is undoubtedly n certain percen ntag ge
which are ridiculous in a CHASTITY fashion.
because of actual hard-heartedness on the
part OF the sender. To the latter class. in
all probability. belongs the telegram sent
by daughter to announce with cheerful
levity that Mamma kicked at II 80 last
night. VIII try and make burial Monday"
But such Instances are. of course, rare
Authorizations are dangerous articles of
commerce at all times. but particularly so
IN the case of telegrarns where periods
and commas. with their helpful EXPLANATORY
functions are usually dropped ont in the
transmission. One individual failed 70
realize this. and probably from a mistaken
tives: Jane died yesterday. Fun at .
O'Clock Sunday" 1t took some time to
risallze mat fun was contraction for
was intended to the deceased.
TeIeGrnpher's Talk.
Talking about curious kilograms and odd
occurrences In a telegraph office to an
Evening Star reporter recently an employe
Of the Postal Telegraph Company said:
THE curious and humorous things that
come under our notice in the course of a
weeks business would If properly told.
MI page Of The Star. One OF the most
persistent humorous things is the matter
Of confining a message within the ras,,1.-
con number OF ten words. People will
come into our office who from appearances
are undoubtedly well-to-do who will work
Tor half an hour over a message simply TO
save few cents. 1t is not the saving I
OBJECT TO so much as the way thev butcher
Up a message simply 10 make this saving.
a majority Of them will start in and write
wnat they have to say regardless of the
smaller words and at its conclusion 90
over IL and pick out what they consider
useless words. The message as originate
written would have cost about Is cents
wnne the REGULAR rate for ten words is q
cents. The 25-cent rate does not bother
tnem whit, but mention 35 cents and thew
almost get fit and Immediately set To
work TO Kill the sense of their message
for the saving Of 10 cents
Another class and a class We rea,,y
take an interest In. IS the poor peonIa
VINO come into an office with something Of
awe ana fully expecting to spend dol
q
TO write the message for them and IN nine
cases our OF ten 1t Is the rnournfuI one Of
death We will put down what they tell
US ana then read " over to them The
price Is never growled ar We then en-
oeavor TO save them a little money by
crossing out words here and There a mat
nsVe yer IN come across person Of this
Find who has not thanked us most cor
dially for our effort. To endeavor to 10 thn
same thing for the Other class would he
taken "a an affront and our reward
rob the company of considerable revenue
Boiling Down.
The newspaper men are the ones that
have the abbreviations and short sentences
down fine. One not acquainted with their
style could hardly make head or tail of
their messages. The special correspondent.
pushed for time. will telegraph his paper
about some startling occurrence and in
Quire how many words 10 send in so few
words that the brevity almost chills the
the times when tolls were an important
Item In the account bills of newspaper
this boiling down process was carried to
the extreme and became a fine art, requir-
Ing an item to be rewritten before the
compositor could put it in cold type. Now
the tolls have been reduced to such an ex-
tent that this abbreviation is done away
with, as the telegraph editors time is too
valuable to be wasted for the saving of a
Few cents, and the kilograms generally go
out OF our office in typewriter form and
almost the equal Of the press associations
In the matter Of correct spelling We also
have considerable trouble to overcome One
OF the commonest stumbling blocks in SPELL
ing with the unlettered is Illustrated by a
message recently handled by us which said
simply: Our little boy died-cholerafn
phantom. And in the matter of punctua-
ton the following telegram is recalled:
George Is dying IN haste, answer In
both the above cases the operator could cas-
ily have Strengthened out things but Ii Is
standing rule with us to never alter n
message IN the slightest degree / could
cite cases by the hundreds to illustrate why
we have come to this conclusion, but IL is
enough to say that three cases out of four
where message is altered a mistake will
result and the company mulched of consid-
cradle money as a result of a damage suit
show Peoples Messages
Another class that receive curious mos
sages Is the show people and no matter
~hat they say We let them go as they law
only making sure hat the ODeratOr a tho