The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-10-30
THE TEN WJRD rELEG RAM.
To Save an Extra Word, Which Costs Lit
lie, Clearness is Often Sacrificed and
Curious Devices in Language Are Used.
tFrom the New York SUM-

Tie, Clearness Is Otten Sacrinceu anu
Curious Devices in Language Are Used.
from the New York SUM-
Although the price of Geographic mes
sages has been greatly reduced in the
last thirty years, the ten-word custom
is still strong upon the American peo-
pie. An officer Of the Western Union
Telegraph company made two or three
laborious computations as to the aver
age length of messages other than those
addressed to newspapers, and found
that 1t was fraction under fourteen
words. A like computation made sew
eral years earlier showed almost exact
ly the same average. There has been
no very recent computation on the sub
ject, but there is no reason to believe
that the average length of Geographic
messages increased since the average
was found to be between thirteen and
fourteen words. Users of the telegraph
still resort to all sorts Of devices to keep
within the ten words that entitle the
messages to the lowest tariff rate.
| 'Smorning" still stands for this
morning and ''sevening'' for this eve
ming while there are twenty other alb
breviations employed by way Of econ
omy. The small connecting words, the
articles "a" and "the," and all such
superfuous decorations in English are
still omitted from the ordinary litera-
| ture Of telegraphy. But the common
est and least reasonable form of this
economy is that which leads the sender
of a message to leave his thought half
| expressed often to the mystfication and
distress of the recipient. Nine persons
| out of ten treat the ten-word limit as
sacred; and whether rich or poor saeri-
| flee considerations Of clearness, conven-
ienee and certainty to the saving of a
flew cents.
There was sufficient excuse for econ
omy thirty years ago, when the 25-cent
rate applied to only the shorter distance
es and the rate for each additional word
was far above the present additional
word rate The highest rate for ten
words to Western Union offices within
| the United States and the British prov
inces is now 81, and the highest addi-
| tional rate is seven cents per word. In
| 1866 is cost $14.05 to send ten-word
message from North Sydney, Nova SEQ
tia, to Santa Fe, New Mexico Such
message between those places now costs
81. The process of cheapening rates
has gone on in two ways, by limitation
of the maximum rate for ten words, and
by extension Of the area of the 25-cent
| message The maximum rate in 1866
for ten words was over SID; the maxi
mum ten-word rate in 1872 was SIS. The
maximum was reduced next year to
$3.50. 1t would have been SO but for the
fact that the people of California, who
were especially interested In the rate,
then used constantly $3.50 gold piece.
and the rate was fixed for convenience
at the denomination of that coin, The
maximum was next reduced to So, then
to $1.50, and finally to 81.
Meanwhile the area Of the 25-cent rate
was steadily widened until it came to
include a whole state in New England
and the Middle Atlantic states. Then
came the 25-cent rate from place to
point in New England, and from New
York to any place in that division. The
25-cent rate is now extended to most of
the densely peopled states. 1t has not
yet reached Texas, parts of which are
as distant from each other telegraph |
ically as Portland, Me-, and San Fran |
cisco. Lower rates have been made for |
cities and their suburbs, and there was
for brief period 15-cent rate of pref
ty wide application. There is now a
Decent rate between commercial ex-
changes where there is practically no
delivery, the sender and the receiver
each being at the elbow Of the operator.
There are still many small places in
the United States that can be reached
only by the payment of a high rate.
Such are places not on Western Union
wires, reached only by way of small
connecting lines, by telephone, or by
messenger. There are many small lines
of telegraph in private hands Some
of these have been built by operators
upon speculation. The Western Union
Company has absorbed many such as
they came to have a business of some
volume
While most persons are still under the |
dominion of the ten-word telegraph lin |
it, the telegraph is used much more free |
ly for business, and especially for social |
purposes, than it was thirty years ago. |
Men may hesitate at exceeding their |
ten words, but they no longer feel the |
expenditure of 25 cents for despatch |
asking friend to dinner or inquiring |
for an invalid or ordering theatre |
seats, a reprehensible luxury The fire. |
quent use of the telegraph for such pur-
poses Is spreading to all sorts of people. |
1t was once confined to the well-to-do.