Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-02-11

l never could get their names right"
The story reached the ears Of Gen. Lees pri-
vate secretary and through him toe general
was made aware Of the joking with his name
banquet few days later he retold this tale
~ his own expense. but in such q mstchless
storytelling style that 1t was received with
roars Of laughter from all present.
Changing the subject" said one Of the
group, there was a funny message went over
my wire today. 1t made everybody on the line
laugh and put in some word Of comment. I.
read:
Dear Grandma: / am born. Mother doing
well sends love-
at was girl The message came from New
York and was rehandled for Richmond"
RKD-HkADEp STORY.
Talking about funny or strange incidents, "
said another, "there Was a remarkable train Of
condolences tina. came under M notice about
six months ago while / was working out at
Pittsburg. dropped into the receiving room
to try and brace the cashier for little loan
and while there q red-headed man came in and
wrote q message on a red blank II was handed
to . red-headed counter clerk, who, after check
ing i. and pooketing the cash. handed II TO
red-headed boy to send up the tube. went
up the elevator to the operating room and
found that the message had been given to a
red-heaaed operator to send over the wire and
that Its destination was Red Bud H." This
ssofy Was received IN slence ana several looks
or reproach wsre cast in the direction OF the
teller of the red-headed story
An operator just in from Georgia. where he
had been frozen out by a consolidation of press
associations, said: "A court down in Georgia
has decided that no telegraph company Ant
excused from using care because a message is
ungrammatical. Right ON the heels Of this
came another decision from the same court
empting telegraph companies from penalties
for failing to deliver MESSAGES Sunday.
attempted to be faceuous at tine expense OF
these two decisions in a crowded bar room one
day and came mighty near receiving a dose of
lead. Three revolvers were placed under my
nose so quick that it made my hair raise right
up and my apology was most profuse and came
instanter."
At this time man joined the group from the
operating room and glancing around said:
Telling stories again? When will YOU fellows
ever stop talking 'shopp Your old enough to
know botter.'
Hello. Levi" came in chorus from the
company. Yes" said one, 1--WE are talking
shop and We want you to join las. Tell Us one
OF your bes! before you turn in for the night. -
Tho man designstedas Lew hesitated minute
as If in doubt, but the appeal of his companions
was too strong and he decided to talk shop
with the rest. He said:
THE couNrRYMAN's FRIaHr.
"About five years ago worked at a summer
resort down on the Long Island coast. One
evening an old countryman strayed into the
office and soon had me pouring over the nitric
acies Of the telegraph business generally. While
thus engaged thunder storm came up. and of
course the usual lightning flashes came in on
the switchboard. Suddenly the lightning
dropped a red-hot bolt somewhere in the Vi
cinity of my Office and the result was that a
ball OF FIRE shot through the Office and in close
proximity of the old farmers head, accom-
panied with a report like that Of gun
THE old man gave yell of dismav lurched
backward over a chair cut his acalp and landed
In hear in the corner. / finally succeeded in
quieting him with the assurance that no harm
done.
What was it? Holy gee, didn't it come
close? he said
II told him that it was lightning and ex-
planned that the wire was overchsrged with
electricity, and not being able to carry the load
had exploded.
Tho old man edged toward the door, ten
DERBY feeling the cut on his head, and when he
reached the doorway turned and said: Great
Jerusalem. Just think what would happen if
the Atlantic cable ever got overcharged just
think Of it,
The last saw Of the old fellow he was
gong down the road rubbing his head and
every few minutes turning and looking back at
my Office as if desiring TO put as much space
between 1t and himself as he possibly could"
''Telegraphic mistakes or bulls are liable to
crop out at any time. - said An operator in the
group just in from New York. 'As q result of
one am now in Washington. Every one in
this crowd will vonch for my capability as an
operator and steady habits. About a month
ago I was working for the Western Union at
the produce exchange Office. The heaviest
business there is done with Chicago and the
wires fairly hum between the hours of 3 a. IN.
and pm.
MISTAKE IN PORK.
"You remember the great advances made in
pork about that time? Well, one day one of
the biggest men on the exchange, speaking in a
business sense, came rushing into the Office and
handed in message for Chicago. 1t read
Buy five thousand barrels of pork at best fig
ure. L rushed that message of with all the
speed possess. the difference of an eighth
in an order like that is considerable. In about
ten minutes an answer came back on the re-
ceiving side Of the duplex saving, We have
sold five thousand barrels of pork, as ordered.
"ln one minute more that broker in the
Office white as a sheet and pulling his hair.
The market kept going up, and according to
that message he was on the short side. It
took about ten minutes more to straighten that
tangie out, but in that time something like
81 500 was lost. The company gave me the
option Of paying that amount or sliding out of
my position, and 1 slld. They had to make
that amount good. How the word sell for
buy got in there is o mystery to me. as | am
willing to make affidavit that l transmitted it
correctly. The Chicago ofice was positive
| that it was my mistake that the manager at the
New York end OF the wire refused to listen to
my explanation. Of course there is such
| thing as optical illusion and bsent-minded-
ness. but I'm sure l am not troubled that way
THAT Office has had hard luck in regard TO
| mistakes, unintentonsl and the reverse" con-
| tinued the man from New York, land that NAV
have accounted for nv summary dismissal
About six months previous TO the bull per-
petrated one of the operators in the Office had
tried to square accounts with one of the brokers
| through whom he bad lost considerable money,
| the savings of several years. The operator
claimed that the loss was brought about by
underhand dealing on the part of the broker,
| but he kept his own counsel and resolved to
square matters if such thing was possible
His time came. 1t was during the corn
| furry last spring when that cereal was on
| continual boom FOR fully month. At the time
| it took its great slump the broker spoken Of
must have secured tip from the inside, for
he sent an order to sell an immense quantity of
! corn short As fate would have il this message
| came into the hands of this operator, and at a
glance he recognized the sender.
''The message was in cipher, but through
previous private dealings with the broker he
knew tho code by heart Without blink OF the
eve that man changed tho import Of the
message, making it read buy instead Of sell.
and as the order was large one the answer to
| it did not show up until half an hour later The
| broker could only recover the actual loss sus-
| tanned while matters were being straight
| ened up. and by ths time this was done