The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-10-08
WENT TO SLEEP
WHILE ON DUTY
The Close Shave That Came 10 a Negli-
gent Telegrapher.
1T TAUGHT HIM A GOOD LESSON
Prcdicament Of n Night Operator at a
Lonely Railroad station Who Had
Been Evading the Rules and Was
Instructed TO Hold a Certain Train.
Long Hour of Suspense.

Telegraph operators are usually REM
iniscent fellows, and the veterans among
them delight in telling their experien-
ces. A New York Sun reporter CHANGED
to meet recently q veteran "key twist
er" who was for several years in The
employ of railroad running through
Maine and New Hampshire and up 10
the White mountains. This operator
sometimes found himself in a pretty
tight box, and his account of one eX-
perience illustrates the close SLAVES
that railroad telegraphers have now
and then.
"Station II, where / worked" he said,
"is a night station on q single-track
railroad in New Hampshire. G., the
nearest night telegraph station north
of it, was eight miles away, and N, the
nearest one south, was twelve. My
duty in summer was solely that Of oper-
ator; in winter also looked after the
fires in the waiting rooms. There was
seldom much operating to do at right,
and it was always easy to keep awake
until / O'Clock, when L usually ate
lunch. Even at that hour the time
didn't pass very slowly in summer, but
when L had to stay constantly indoors
the greatest effort was needed to keer
from falling asleep. After o'clock al
the trains that passed were fre!Shts
and there were half dozen soutf
bound and as many more north bound
in the course OF the night. Tt was part
% my duty to no = the time that eacl
CT the trains passed. my station and re-
p;It 1t at once - headquarters. ut a.
the same rule apr IN.nir to all the opera
tons on the line. That was one of thC
CLEtoms which made it dangerous fol
all operator to !al. asleep, ii only fol
ave minutes. Another thing that an
| noycd him AMI often made him swear
" az the roll call. This consisted il th'
trair despatcher ~ A office ihftY miles
south of II) calling each Office on The
lire every ha!, hoIr. beginning Will
tl.n one nearest his own. The statiCl
! that failed to answe II roll call had {
| black mark place against 1t at y. witt
Il record of the time when the call Wa:
given. At first :hc ro,' call made all tn,
| bovs look sharp ana ton the line, bu
they soon found q way to cheat it.
CHEATING -HE. ROLL CALL.
was considerably more than a hundred
miles long; and on a wire of that lengtl
| it Is quite impossible for an operator
at it's terminus to tell by the sounC
which of two or more offices not NOR
than twenty-five miles apart is doing
the telegraphing unless the sending op
orator signs his station call. Knowing
this, several of the owls on the lin
arranged to take turns with each othe
in answering the roll. For example, tn
operator at G. would answer my call
between the hours of and 3, and
would attend to his from 8 to 8. Wha
a cracking good way this was to BAT
fle the train dispatcher, we thought
and the exchange Of duty between U
was kept up for a long time; in fac.
almost too long, so far as my own cas-
was concerned. l refer to an inciden
that took place during the winter @
'S5, which for n few hours nearly froz
the marrow in my bones. 1t happene
like this:
Through freight No. 2i1 north bount
was due at my station at 1.35, and wa
scheduled to meet south-bound freigt
No. 2S4 at +, fifteen miles further Il
the road. No. 241 was scarcely ever be
hind time, and the two trains usual
met at p without requiring telegraph
orders. The night in question was yer
cold and stormy; fully three feet {
snow had fallen and it was still comm
down very fast, while a high wind wa
piling it in big drifts across the tract
on a night like that the incessant hum
ming of the wires outside the station
enough, of itself, to put a sentinel {
sleep, and that, coupled with the hou
1.15, and an office temperature of s
degrees, was more than my wear
frame could resist. fell asleep, know
ing of course, that c. would accordn
to our arrangements, look after my TO
calls. After what seemed to me abor
like twenty minutes, but what wa
really more than two hours, I wa
awakened by the sharp clicking of III
telegraph instrument near my head.
AN IMPORTANT ORDER.
"'Qk ~ was being made with grei