Morning journal and courier., 1894-04-19
PRoFITABLK TRLRaRAPHY.

~ Few m1nutes' Work With a Ham.
 Aer for sounder Made Him Rich.
 From the Detroit Free PressJ
 "When I was young man." remarked the traveller, sitting by the hotel stove one night, "I was for about five years e tsle- graph operator, and 1t was the making of my fortune.n
 Nobody ever heard of a telegraph ope- rstor getting rich." interrupted 6 young man who was getting fifty dollars e month as clicksr at the railroad station.
 Indirectly they may" ssid the travel CT, though possibly not quite as I did. To go on with my story. When I was twenty-five was sent down into Mexico with lot of other operators to handle the tiokere for new line they were building there. I had charge of g section of the 'iine, and my headquarters were in a town of about fifteen hundred people, which was sort of e station also for a b,g min ing country in the mountains, and is was c tough place, I tell you. hsd my room at the tavern, the landlord of which was one of the smoothest villains you ever saw. He could speak English quite we'll, and had the confidence of all the telegraph people except myself, and, somehow, I suspected him from the very first.
 After l had been working there about month We had 6 big sensation in the shape of the abduction of su Enslishmsn, who owned one of the biggest mines In the mountains, aud he was held for ran som. The brigsnd wanted fifty thousand dollars for him, and the authorities did all they could to catch the band or rescue the prisoner, but without avail. They could not find hide nor hair of robber or Eng lishmsn, but the demand for ransom still stood. I'd been along down the line for week, and when came lack to my town I never saw a man in suoh pitiable state of grief over any piece of dsviltry as that landlord was. Indeed, he was SO sorry that became very sorry for him, and be gan to think he wasn't so bad after all.
 "Thst night I retired about eleven o'clock, and just as I was on the point of falling asleep heard what thought was c cricket, or rather 6 death watch, knock ing on the heavy wall of masonry against which my bed stood I could hear the faint knocking of the bug, but not being superstitious, paid little attention to 1t and went to sleep. Once or twics during the night I rolled over unessily, and fan oied could hear that death watch siill plugging away. Just before dsybreak l heard 1t again, and made up my mind to make @ little investigation in the morning and zee what manner of insect a death watch was anyhow. At seven o'clock a knock on my door wskened me for break fast, and at first thought the death watch must have found Q hammer and changed his base of operations, but when hsd my eyes fully opened I answered the knock and heard the caller batter along down the hall 10 another door. As I lay in bed en- toying for 6 moment or two the p in of having to get up, heard my death watch again, this time in the wall near my head, and I began to listen.
 "'Tick, tick 1t went, then several ticks, but could not see any sign of bug or insec>
 "'Tick, tick, tick, tick 1t went again, slower and faster and faster and slower, irregulsrly thought at first, but in 6 mo- ment or two, as I became accustomed to 1t, discovered it was not irregular.
 "Then all at once I sat bolt upright in bed, with my ears almost standing straight out from my head. and the next minute 1 had laid the s'de of my face fiat against the wall. think my heart must have licked ten times to the others ticking once as pressed my ear tight sgainst the wall, and then almost yelled st my discovery, but @ second thought came and I kept still.
 "Tick, tick, tick, tickety, tiekety. tick, tick, went the noise, and resd the tele- graph signals.
 "'Help,' they ssid. help, for Gods sske. am the prisoner held for ransom and the landlord is in league with the briaands'
 "My wits came to me then. 6 nd taking hammer had in my small kit, ticked back:
 "'Keep up your courage. I am the American telegraph operator, snd will have you out of that ss soon as l can get force here'
 "Then dressed quickly, went to my breakfast, which 1 ate ss ususl, for I was afraid to do anything to excite suspicion, and went out to sse what kind of a com bination I could organize to save my man. The town police, believed, were in collu- sion with the brigsnds, and could not go to them. At the corner of the street l met the landlord.
 "'Ah, Mir. American he said, almost in tesrs, we have heard nothing of the poor unfortunate gentleman, but there have just arrived In the town one hundred gov ernmept troops, and they will hunt the murderers down and do justice to the poor prisouer There comes the gentleman in