The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-06-18
THOSE THAT WILL BE USED IN
TRANSMITTING THE PRO
CEEDINGS.
NEARLY A MILLION Words DAILY.
Expert Operators Collected From All
Parts of the Country to Do This
Nerve-Taxing Work-Every
Minute Is Valuable.


tons at st. Louis and Chicago will be
the telegraph service said n bright
official of : telegraph company TO n Star
reporter recently.
Ever since the dates were selected
for both conventions the officials of both
telegraph companies have been ON the
hustle, and it will continue until the
presidential candidates have been select
ed,' he continued. Very few news
paper readers realize the enormous work
WAT is done at these conventions bv tbe
telegraph companies. Many miles of
additional wire have to be strung. ne,v
oops and Instruments placed in position.
NE best sending talent in the telegraphic
profession secured and consolidated i'm
the TWO convention cities, and finally.
every official must be on the alert TO 500.
tnat every subordinate under his eve does,
MS work well and with great prompt-
ness. e"' pi'n'p.-
In st. Louis new hall is being con-
strueted IN part of the city where none
OF me lines run. This will necessitate
tne building OF an entire new line. NOT n
one or two-wire line, but the placing Of
NhOuSu W CuTrN ut least 10
dozen cables in which are n half.dozen
wires. In Chicago we are better tiynd
as me hall will be more centrally lor
Gated, or, should Auditorium hnil H.,
used, we would be in clover. as nlreadv
building "7 i"'o 'hat
Ten or fifteen years back set of
twenty Instruments was enough to corrv
off the business, but This veo, FIJI. tx
saunders and keys will have to be Mount,
ed Each instrument calls for sena-
rate apartment, besides separate wiros
from the switchboard. ""e'
Every city, from the Pacific const I'm
tne Atlantic. possesses one or more teln.
graph operators who have the ability 70
f ont,, the Key at the rate of from
iieoTi,y-nve to fifty words minute. and
II the code is used as high as sixty words
l. In. n,iiI I can be sent. These men are
kept track of. and as many of them M
possiDie are sent on to the Convention
cues 10 help out. The art of receiving
from telegraph instrument can he
Taught, but the art of sending in the
nigness style must come naturally. As
result, there are dozen first-class re.
ceivers to one first-class sender M
matter how the messages are sent there
are men well enough up in the business
to receive them. The necessary ren,,;ro'
ment at such times is speed, and the man
Ut tne other end of the line does the rest.
-rn i los Is expected that from 100000 to-
rooooO words will be sent out of st.
Louis and Chicago daily during the con.
ventions. and from this can be seen the
vastness Of the task before the tell
graph officials. 1t will not be oues-
tion OF financial returns so much MS the
accommodation of n class of peopIe Win
mold public opinion, and as n consequences
must be looked after.
Every paper in the country of any
consequence whatever will have from
one to five special correspondents on the
ground, and they will begin arriving n
week ahead of the day set for the OPEN
ing of the convention. Each of those
gentlemen will be expected to furnish
daily at least column of reading mat
ter, or about 1000 words, and in n ma
Jority OF cases the matter sent will reach
as high as half q, page. Many of the
half dozen special wires, and the shrewd
ones have already secured their operar
tors, SO MS to rush things at the highest
rate.
Inc press associations are IN almost
tue same boat with us. The amount of
matter the Associated Press will pushi
out OF st. Louis and Chicago will be SONG,
thing tremendous. This organization
mas on It's pay rolls the best telegrapbic
talent IN the country, and the very cream
VI TINS talent VIII be sent to the conyen-
Ton cities. Ordinarily the Associated
Press has two wires running out Of 81
Louis and Chicago, but during the CON
ventioh weeks several additional wires
VIII be called into service. The daily re-
port OF this organization averages about
lo,OOU words, and with the extra wires
the number of words sent will be more
than doubled. This service remember. IL
all in addition to the special matter the
newspapers will receive from their indi-
vidual representatives.
Through the great service furnished
by the Associated Press and private cor
respondents the newspapers outside of
me convention cities will have as much,
II not more, than the papers printed on
the spot
Nobody except those who have gone
through conventions as telegraph man
ayers can conceive the strain under which
they labor. 1t is even more difficult than
taking care of election returns, when re-
ports come in as fast as distance permits.
the more remote localities giving ample.
time for the reception of news from near
by points.
ut Is 40 different in national conven-
ton, as the proceedings must be flashed
across the continent constantly. States
may be broken ana combinations. go awry
in the twinkling Of an eye. and the news
papers must know this instantly. Fore
casts made in good faith mary become.
mere rubbish before the ink is dry on the
paper telling the supposed fact, and one
single ballot may change the entire as
pect of the situation.
"The Western Union will gather to-
gether fully seventy-five expert telegraph
ers from New York, Cincinnati, Phil
adelphia and Boston, and the Postal COM
pany will have almost the same number
obtained from the same cities. All these
men are code senders, which means
they abbreviate words to such an extent
that thirty additional words can be sent
minute, and each one of them can han
die fully $500 words an hour on the wire
This extra operating force must be pro-
yided with instruments, typewriters.
desks, chairs, and last, but not least
boarding and lodging facilities, and 1t
keeps the managers of the telegraphic
Offices busy for weeks in advance prepar-
ing for the battle royal between time and
electricity.
another snug income that must be
looked after is that derived from the ho-
tells Ordinarily, one operator can be
placed in hotel and easily handle the
business, but at such times the politicians
want to keep their friends posted at home
or keep in close tab with their political