Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1896-03-04

al-A-M-N-o-a-o-o-D."
~Fly- rolerrapher Unoon.olOu.ly Prom'


 gated His COuorke-s' Opinion of Him.
 How lonely it must be for the operators in these little way station telegraph offices at night, " news paper man remarked the other even ing in the smoking room of the Southwestern limited as the train flashed past the switch, semaphore and office lights of one of the tiny country stations.
 Well, lonely, yes, remarked the stranger in the corner, who had up 10 this time not taken any part in the conversation, but they have more fun than you'd think. used to Do one of them myself back in the eighties. was at a little couu- try station where about my oR'v business all night long was report ing to the dispatcher the time of the trains as they passed, with occasion ally a train order switched in.
 Once in awhile We would have a message to send on the commercial wire, and the rest of the time hung heavy on our hands.
 Poor, i'll fsted Donnie Murphy. who was killed in the Hastings wreck, was student in the ofdoe with ne, and he was wonderfully fertile in schemes to make the time pass pleasantly. remember a joke we played one night on a fresh young operator up the line that l never think of without a smile, It was Dennie's idea, and it worked like a charm.
 You seq, the operator in question was one of the fly sort of young fellows who fancy that an operator who works in one of the country offices must of necessity be a plug, as we used to call poor operator in those days. and that 1t is at all times advisable to sit down upon him in every way possible when there is the slightest excuse for 1t and frequently when there isn't This particular operator was cordial ly detested sn along tho line
 Well, Donnie and l fixed up a fake message to send him-and. by the way, it might be well to men- ton that tEe brass pOunder in ques- ton was not half So good an Oporat- or as he fancied bs was-and alter We had tlia message prepared We sprung it ol him when business was over.
 The nle,saSe purpOrted to como from M.. sukee, and wo fraL y signed the cal of therepo8ting office at the western end Of the ciicgit, first thoughtfllly grounding the wire west to avoid detection.
 Even in those days Donnie was a remarkably good sender, and the way he pushed that message into the unsuspicious fly man must have kept the latter busy indeed. He broke "a good many times, but finally had il all Here Is a copy of the message as near as can re- member it:
 "I2 Paid Night Rate.
 MILWAUKEE. Wis, slh. John J0ues, Jcresvilio:
 Our roceirts are too slow. 1T any more Eioe onions, set options October delivery.
 PETER PIPzR-
 Now, we had purposely made the check l2 words, while the body of the message counted I4, and hack came the curt response:
 Cheek should be IL
 "'NO. wired Donnie; l2 is O. h. 3 Now. under the circumstance, 1t is customary for the receiving opsr- ator to letter the body of the mes sage back to the sending operator that is, repeat the first letter of each word tO verify the check. when usu- ally the error can be quickly detect- cd. So Donnie wired:
 Letter it.
 Back came the letters with a spiteful snap: 'O-R-a-t-s-I-a-m- N-o-G-o-o-d.'
 ! Over and over again we made him repeat this .ank admission Un- til every ossTator on the line was enjoying i5. E. finally tumbled and would not re-gond to our demands to letter it just once more, but it WAS a long time before he heard the last of it, and our connection with the joke never leaked out. New York Press.