The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-04-21

" orally possess at
least one unique
feature-they are based on something
that happened over stretch of wire per-
haps 100 or 200 miles in length. Oc-
casionally one reads of an extraordinary
adventure of an operator at a small
and lonely railway station out west, OF
of perilous experiences in war times,
and the impression has become quite
common that telegraphers stationed
this side of the Rocky mountains sell
dom have other than the most common
place, routine experience, with nothing
in it of more than passing interest. AS
regards the operators for railroad COM
panies, that supposition is wrong.
Within IL hours ride of this city there
are scores of railroad telegraph offices
where an operator is employed day and
night to look after both the telegraph
and the station. On many of the roads
in New England the night stations are
dozen or fifteen miles apart, and some
of them are quarter or a half of mile
from the nearest dwelling house. At
these places night operator is on duty
from seven in the evening till seven in
next morning. A Sun reporter CHANGED
to meet recently veteran key TWIST
or" who was for several years in the en-
ploy of a railroad running through
Maine and New Hampshire and up into
the White mountains. This operator
sometimes found himself in a pretty
tight box, and his account of the en-
Perience illustrates the close shave that
railroad telegraphers have now and
then.
Station H, where / worked" he
said, sis night station on a single
track railroad in New Hampshire
C., the nearest night telegraph sta
ton north of it, was eight miles away.
and N, the nearest one south, was
IL. My duty in summer was solely tina.
of operator; in winter l also looked
after the fires in the waiting-rooms.
There was seldom much operating to do
at night, and it was always easy to keep
awake until one o'clock, when usually
ate lunch. Even at that hour the time
didn't pass very slowly in summer, but
on cold and stormy nights in winter,
when l had to stay constantly indoors,
the greatest effort was needed to keep
from falling asleep. After nine o'clock
all the trains that passed were freights,
and there were half a dozen south
bound and as many more north bound in
the course of the night. 1t was part of
my duty to note the time that each of
the trains passed my station and re-
port it at once to headquarters at A.,
the same rule applying to all the OPP
orators on the line. That was one of
the customs which made it DANCE rous
for an operator to fall asleep, if only
for five minutes. Another thing that
annoyed him, and often made him
swear, was the roll call. This consisted
in the train dispatcher at A office
$50 miles south of H calling each
office on the line every half hour, begin
ming with the one nearest his own. The
station that failed to answer a roll call
had black mark placed against it at
A., with record of the time when
the call was given. At first the roll call
made all the boys look sharp and toe
the line, but they soon found way to
cheat it.
''The main wire running through H
long; and on wire of that length it is
quite impossible for an operator Mt it's
terminus to tell by the sound which of
two or more offices not more than Is
miles apart is doing the telegraphing
unless the sending operator signs his
station call. Knowing this, several of
the owls on the line arranged to take
turns with each other in answering the
roll. For example, the operator at c.
would answer my calls between the
hours of one and three, and would at
tend to his from three to five. What
cracking good way this was to battle the
train dispatcher, we thought, and the
exchange of duty between us was kept
up for long time; in fact, almost too
long, SO far as my own case was con-
cerned. refer to an incident that took
place during the winter of 'S5, which
for few hours nearly froze the mar
row in my bones. 1t happened like this:
Through freight No. 241, north
bound, was due at my station at 1 35,
and was scheduled to meet south bound
freight No. 2S4 at P, Is miles further
up the road. No. 241 was scarcely ever
behind time, and the two trains usually
met at P without requiring tele-
graphic orders. The night in question
was very cold and stormy; fully three
feet of snow had fallen and it was still
coming down very fast, while high
wind was piling it in big drifts across
the track. On night like that the in
cessant humming of the wires outside
of the station is enough. of itself, to put
sentinel to sleep, and that, coupled