The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-02-07

and he was told to find out Presently he
fiOated in with another sheet of copy and
said the operator didn't know" there
wasn't any name to it. but it was coming
| in like the devil"
1t was coming all right, too. The City
| Editor read it and spiked it on the copy
hook with hardly correction. 1t sounded
remarkably like Stronson, had some of his
mannerisms. and was well knit up, as his
stuff usually was There was material for
4 great story, and whoever was sending IL
was making the most of it.
1t began with q terse paragraph announc-
ing the wreck-the Western Peach Express
the time, and The place. Then came pa
renthesis "(names later)", and the City
Editor wrote turn rule" where the names
Of the dead and Injured were to he inserted
The story went on with description of the
wreck and The occurrences that led to it, the
black, stormy night, the lightning playing
along the rails through the pine woods, and
the rush and roar of the night express, with
its hundreds of passengers as it Numbered
down the long grade, with the engineer
leaning out OF the cab and strainng his
eyes for the block signal that marked the
beginning of the curve out of the woods and
around the long emhaDkment. Then came
the picture of the lonely signal tower, with
its laZly-ticking clock, the smoking lamp
that, fared with the wind through the
chiDks of the easement, and the clicking
telegraph key that called and called in vain
10 the operator lying asleep across the table,
with the green light swinging aloft outside,
Turing the express on to an open switch.
Then the fish down the line of the swaying
headlight as the train rushed on, the roar
and crash as it went into the open switch
and jumped the track, cutting off the frail
sanal tower and bringing down the sleeping
operator 10 death in the wreck he had
caused.
1t was great story. The City Editor
actually became absorbed in it himself-a
thing he did not often do in office copy.
Once or twice more he asked the copy boy
if he had learned who was sending it, but
the sender had not given the Office operator
a chance to ask. The story was just coming
in with q rush; he did not even know where
from.
The City Editor was pretty certain it was
Stronson, but even if ii was and he had got
ont of the wreck, it was a question how he
had gathered so many facts and secured
wire so promptly. Oae thing was certain,
no other paper in town would have any thing
like the story, and that was bliss.
The report got through the office that
there was mysterious special coming in on
The wreck. and the fellows who did not have
anything else TO do strolled out into the
operating room 10 read copy over the oper-
ator's shoulder, which always made him
mad. The key was airiy smoking and rat
Ting out 40 words minute. 1t was long
story, bul there was lots of space, and no
need cut it off"
Why, that's StronsoD, and he's sending
himself" said the Sporting Man, who was
an Old operator, and had worked with the
P'lice Man in years bone by. The operator
grunted and dug faster.
The story was ripping along when there
came a call for the wire from the Western
Union office. H." growIed the opera
or somebody's trying TO get in and break
up the story"
But the sender at the other end was evi-
IDENTIFY on a through ticket. "Thirty-four,
thirty four, thirty four" snapped his key
he signal for wire testing before which
everything else had 10 give way.
"Crimpets, won't somebody ca ch it."
grinned the operator, for everybody knew
Str0nson had no business 10 be wire testing
But the Western Union operator got out
gracefully, and the story flowed along the
wire, down the copy sheets TO the City Edi-
tor and thence TO the composing room.
There was something almost uncanny
about the way the story had turned up and
The way 1T was holding rough shod to the
right of way. The operators were catching
the message as il passed at the stations along
The line, and evidently several of them had
stuff waiting TO send. They tried to break