The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1896-06-30
mI-A-M- -N-O-G-O-O-D."


telegraph Offices at night, news
paper man remarked the other even
inc in the smoking room of the
South western 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
to this time not taken any part in
the conversation, 'but they have
more fun than you d think. I used
to be one of them myself back in
the eighties. I was at little coun
try station where about my only
business all night long was report
ing to the dispatcher the time of the
trains as they passed, with occasion
ally 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 bands.
"Poor, i'll fated Dennie Murphy,
who was killed in the Hastings
wreck, was student in the office
with me, and he was wonderfully
fertile in schemes to make the time
pass pleasantly. remember joke
we played one night on fresh
young operator up the line that
never think of without smile. It
was Dennie's idea, and it worked
like a charm.
"You see, 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 plug,
as we used to call poor operator
in those days, and that it is at all
times advisable to sit down upon
him in every way possible when
there is the slightest excuse for it
and frequently when there isn't.
This particular operator was cordial
ly detested all along the line.
"Well, Dennie and fixed up a
fake message to send him-and, by
the way, it might be we'll to men,
ton that the brass FOUNDER in ques-
tion was not half so good an operat-
or as he fancied he was-and after
we had the message prepared we
sprung it on him when business was
over.
1.-THE message purported to come
from Milwaukee, and we frankly
signed the call of the repeating office
at the western end of the circuit,
first thoughtfully grounding the
wire west to avoid detection.
even in those days Donnie was
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 it all. Here is a copy
of the message as near as ! can re-
member it:
"12 Paid Night Rate.
MILWAUKEE, Wis, 9Th.
John Jones, Jonesville:
Our receipts are too slow. If any more nice
onions, get options October delivery.
PETER PIPER.
"Now, we had purposely made
the check 10 words, while the body
of the message counted IA, and back
came the curt response:
"'Check should be H..
"'No, wired Dennie; '12 isl K. ;
"Now, under the circumstances, it
is customary for the receiving oper-
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
ed. So Donnie wired:
letter it.
"Baok came the letters with a
spiteful snap: 'O-R-a-t-s-I-a-m-
N-o-G-o-o-d.
cover and over again we made
him repeat this frank admission un-
til every operator on the line was
enjoying it. He finally tumbled and
would not respond to our demands
to letter it just once more, but it
was long time before he heard the
last of it, and our connection with
the joke never leaked out. Now
York Press.
Miss Rosa NJ. Cheney returned
home from Madison to spend her