The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-01-27
Story Of a Telegram.
Effort of Daughter to Get Her Moneys
Worth Out of n Company.

| Worth Out of Company.
She was coming home from the West
to spend the Christmas holidays, and
about two hours out from Chicago she
made up her mind that she ought to
telegraph to her father the time of her
arrival, 30 that, according to custom, he
could meet her and carry her bundles
| for her. The porter of the sleeper
brought telegraph blank to her and
she wrote:
Arrive at Grand Central depot at 1 40
tomorrow.
Womanlike, she counted the words.
There were only nine. She said to
herself:
LIS a shame to let a telegraph COM
pany get ahead of me. | know it's
only two cents and one-half, but two
cents and one-half is as much to me as
1t is to the Western Union Telegraph
Company. I'll make them send that
other word"
Then she read the telegram over and
over and over. 1t contained exactly
what she wanted to say and all she
wanted to say. She was half tempted
| to let it go as il was, even if the CON.
pany did get pay for something it did
not do. Then she thought of the ire
mendous profits the telegraph COM
panies made, and she stamped her foot
and said emphatic ally:
"They shan't make cent, not
cent that they don't earn. 1t would
be different if they paid high wages TO
their employees and contributed to
charities and helped support the church,
but they don't, and l won't let them
have penny"
She went back at the telegram. She
twisted the sentence into dozen diff
80 we'll as the original one. She thought
of adding Merry Christmas or
"Happy New Year" But either one
would go beyond the ten-word limit,
which would be just as bad as being
under the limit.
"Ah," she said at last, II know
what I'll do. I'll put 'amen' at the
end. That:means $50 be it," and its
just as good as three words; but they
can only charge for one; 80 I'll get the
best of the company by two two words"
So it read:
Arrive at Grand Central Station one
forty-five tomorrow. Amen.
And that's the way the telegram was
sent. The operator who sent it said to
himself: She means A. M but
she's written amen and I'll send it
that way. Maybe it's cipher" The
operator who received it said what?"
again, and it was repeated with
the remark over the wire that "she
probably meant "A. M but it read
Amen" So the telegram reached
her home. Her father read it over
twice and said it was strange that she
should take train that would land her
at such an outlandish hour. The mother
exclaimed:
"Why, it's 'amen,' not A. M"
81 know" assented the father, "but
that's evidently mistake. There's no
sense in putting amen there"
"Well, it says amen,'" persisted
the mother.
"But it means "A. M" insisted the
father, who forthwith went to the sta
ton and asked the operator about it.
The operator said it undoubtedly meant
GA. NJ"
So it happened that the father was
at the station to meet the first train in
the morning that arrived after l: As
A. M. He figured that if she arrived
at the Grand Central at l AZ she would
just have time to get down town and
catch this train to her home, which
was twenty-four miles out of the city.
This train arrived at 4: 80 o'clock. To
meet il it was necessary for the father
to get up at g.: 80 o'clock. At that
hour the alarm clock sounded and the
father and mother got up. The mother
insisted that the father should have a
cup of hot coffee before goiLg out in
the chilly air, and the whole house
hold was astir. The father got to the
station at 4: Is. The train was late.
He waited around in the cold. The
train came at last; but no daughter
was on it. So he went home. Her
train must have been late, he thought,
five he went out again, and again at
six, and at half-past six, and he kept
going all day until about four O'Clock
in the afternoon. She arrived then,
and as she fell into his arms and smoth-
cred him with bundles she told him
how good he was to meet her. He
told her he had been waiting since four
o'clock in the morning and she ex-
claimed
"Why, the very idea! and 1 tele-
graphed you that l would be at the
Grand Central at 1:45. Here is the
telegram l sent-I kept a copy: AR
rive at Grand Central Station at one
forty five tomorrow. Amen You
know there were only nine words, and
| l put the 'amen in to make the ten"
The father looked out from among
the bundles into her eyes, and in the
kindness of his heart all that he could
bring himself to say was "oh!"-New
| York Sun