Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1896-08-01

# the naieal Soeia Aarituura1 and Commercial Snterl
C,S SATURDAY, AUGUST [, 1896 .

out in the centre Of the floor and sit
on that. If we went to sleep we
would tumble off. 1 nearly broke my
neck once that way. 1 have often
had my call on the wire to wake me
up. There's something peculiar about
that. I have been sound asleep in a
room adjoining the telegraph Office,
had train 60 by and an alarm clock
60 off without waking me up, with
two or three instruments clicking
away like mad all the time, and then
start up suddenly wide awake when
some one called my Office on the wire.
1t always seemed to wake me up in
the same way. I would dream that
my station was being called, and that
some one was holding me down to
prevent my answering it. I would
struggle and strain to escape, and sud-
denly wake up to find the instruments
calling, just as I dreamed they were.
Once when I was very sound asleep, !
actually got up in my sleep and walk.
ed across waiting room, into the
Office, and had my hands on the key
to answer a call, before woke up.
"This wasn't infallible, however,
unfortunately, and we used to try all
sorts of schemes to awaken ourselves,
usually beginning with an alarm clock.
The trouble with an alarm clock is
that man gets accustomed to it and
fails to rouse. We learned that the
way to use one was to give the alarm
only one turn the first two or three
times We tried it, then two turns for q
while, and 80 on until it was fully
wound up each time, and when it
began to lose it's effect, as it would,
like the continued use of opiates, we
discontinued it for awhile and tried
something else. I have often set my
clock twenty minutes ahead, lay down
and slept peacefully for that brief
period.
"The greatest trouble we had was
in reporting the passing Of trains.
Some of the night expresses would
rush by so quick that we wouldn't get
thoroughly awake, and then, by and
by, after the train had been reported
from two or three stations above, we
would perhaps wake up and find the
dispatcher calling. Then he would
ask, perhaps, for No. Al, and we
would answer "Not yet; !" there would
be bad few minutes in store for us,
for very severe things can be said over
a wire, and they sound a thousand
times worse than face to face abuse.
"For while had a dog who would
begin to growl when train was a
mile away and would wake me up,
but after a while he got afflicted in
the regular way, and would only
fgfowis for 4 tramp: -kt last devised
novel scheme. I ran light string
across the track about five feet from
the ground, tied one end to the, fence
and ran the other through the key
hole. To this end I attached coal
hod filled with pokers, tin cans, etc.,
80 that when the train passed the
string would break, and down would
come the hod with a terrible clatter,
and would be reused. Well, had
it all. nicely fixed for the Chicago ex-
press the first night, when about one
o'clock a tramp trudged along up the
track, and the string caught him just
under the nose. Say, he was the
maddest man I ever heard. If 1
hadn't had my dog with me, I don't
believe he would ever have calmed
down.
"That scheme was pretty satisfacto-
ry for quite a while, but got so that
I'd sleep through that, too, sometimes.
1t would get caught occasionally and
wouldn't work, and it was mean rig
ging to arrange, anyway, so I decided
that the safest plan was to tie the end
of the string to my arm. The first
time I tried that I was out of cotton
string, so I rummaged around in the
Office and found ball of this fine, hard
twine which the express people use,
and stretched that, like big fool,
tied one end of it round my wrist, and
laid down on a cot. In about an hour
along came the New York limited,
about SO miles an hour, and say =
why, that twine would have towed a
canal boat. Before it broke, it had
tipped over the cot, dragged me half:
way across the floor, nearly frightened
me to death, and cut into the flesh of
my wrist nearly to the bone. My arm
was nearly dislocated. You can bet
that I used cotton twine after that"
TALKS nE GREECE.