The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-04-20
TELEGRAPH TAPPING
ADVICE IS 70 A COMPARATIVELY
MODERN INDUSTRY.

III ..4tH..0 Nls As U+ttisg,t tHE NLtM. E
trn'a NOR ,ot..ay than nil tle other A.
legged eIrrfF'gIa@, mt to,ts'er lis
nauae Is o II Stone, Il r., tls-tnr ~
e!er;g5e,' tgers who has ,plt years
IN p3tgeut study If e1ectrictEv Au+l whose
fertile brain has t%oN-, "A many
schemes 70 lrcaluv sH, ttta powers that
ne that he mas been rai,ei the ling If
wire taIpc.S Er Sa5fa n 4 modest
man He looks ike q granger. Int any
one who tries l4 sal! him 1 gold brick
will surel., get worstrd il til" tran &c
tion Believing tilat il disquIsltion on
wire tapping wunld he incomplete with
out II few words on the subject from
this patriarch of the profession. a repre-
sentative from The Herald asked the cleo
trician whether he thought wire tapping
could be accomplished
Mr. Stone could not vouch for it from
personal experience, but from an eiec-
tricaI point of view he was decidedly of
the opinion that he could He thought,
however. that il would require. in this
city at least. ii knowledge of electricity
which not II in Il hundred possesses
In the past three years" observed Mr.
Stone, Il suppose that upward Of 100 diff
ferent parties, each representing ii coterie
OF amateur sports, operators and others,
have approached me for information on
this subject. And it has invariably been
in regard to horse racing that they want
ed enlightenment. Were | to mention the
names of some OF these visitors the rae
ing department Of a telegraph company
would be hGrrifed Operators as a rule
do not get p%rincely salaries. nothing near
what they should be paid, SO that when
IA proposition Is made to them whereby
they may clean mp Il big stake in a day
they naturally have an itching to give it
a trial But 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 to tap wires make miserable
failures. And it is because of their
gross ignorance. | will venture the as
sertion hat 60 per cent OF the operators
in all large offices cannot set up and
work a common set of Geographic ap-
paratus. taking the wires from the time
they come INTO the office until they take
the battery or go out again. Yet with
a great part of this class the idea Of
wire tapping emanates. 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 aud one of 100 ohlns, and upon the
subject Of galvanometers and Wheat
stone bridges they are completely lost"
II was suggested to the veteran cleo
trician that a recital of his experiences
with the Chicago board Of trade i'll get
ting quotations wonla le interesting.
and he vas asked if he could say how he
received the markets during the time
the quotations Were withheld from thu
bucket shops.
In the first place." said he. the board
OF trade had detectives innumerable ali
hunting for taps supposed to furnish
me information. | fooled EN- dreadfully
OF that point. however Now that the
fight is all over | will say that | not only
mad no WIRE tapped, but had no necessity
for tapping one. | had a better scheme
than thut
But didn't You ever lose your con-
tinuous quotations.
Never They had a man who chopped
everything IN the shapeof wires he could
find. and occasionally he III ped other
wires. but M never succ ed",! in tracing
the source Of my information. AT one
time he cut everything he could lay
hands on and then firmly believed he had
800 - "l-A -.. 49, - A.,
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 foolishly be-
lieving ! received quotations that way.
and they thought they had me sure.
Well. that morning. with my wire all
cnt as they supposed, as o as the mar
kets opened | seized q bar Of soap and
scored every eighth change on my win
dow. giving in addition the buyer and
seller sign. 1t d~umfounded them. A
Dig crowd stood below on the walk
watching my quotations. and | never
missed a turn. In spite Of the cut wires.
too. ! had my customers supplied within
half an hour after the board opened, and
/ was furnishing u bucket shops at the
time
I suppose you had ON funny expe-
ences during the fight
We'll. yes. At u time | had a lot
lot of old dead wires connected up that
ran from anywhere to nowhere. similar
to what is commonly known as "A tree
circnit-that Is to say. the main wire
had legs scattered in all directions, each
of which IAN in some dark bolo chiyp-
ney. vacant basement or the like, and
there grounded. | then put a heavy bat
terry on the main circuit and sent a full
line of markets over it. There wasn't a
single Office on the wire, but the mystic
rious ends made the 'sleuths' believe it
was y hot trail. and they would follow
lead after lead, cutting each to pieces as
soon rs discovered. To further bother