Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-17
GOT Her MONEYS WORTH.
RESULT OF ONE YOUNG woMAN's
CLEVER SCHEMING.
One of Gothnm's Girls Who, in send
ing n Message, Carefully Plotted
to Keep Even With the
Western Union.

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. so
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 station 1:45 to-
morrow"
Wcmanlike. she counted the words.
There were only nine. She said to her
self:
Its a shame to let telegraph COM
pany get ahead of me. 1 know it's only
2ls cents. but 21s cents is as much to me
as it is to the Western Union Telegraph
Company. I'll make them send the other
word"
Then she read the telegram over and
over 1t contained exactly what she want
ed to say and all she wanted to say She
was half tempted 10 let it go as it was,
even if the company did get pay for some
thing it did not do. Then she thought oil
the tremendous profits the telegraph COM
psEies made. and she stamped her foot and
said emphatically:
that they don't earn. 1t would be differ
ent if they paid high wages to their en-
ployes, and contributed to charities, and
helped support the church, but they don I
and I won't let them have penny.
She Went back at the telegram. She
twisted the sentence into a dozen dlfterent
FORMS but none of them suited so well 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 PAD as
being under the limit.
All she said at last. 81 know What
I'll do it. Ill put Amen at the end Ihat
means so be It,. and it's just as good as
three words: but they can only charge for
one: so I'll get the best of the company
by two words So it read:
Arrive at Grand Central station one
And that's the way the telegram was
sent The operator who sent it said to
written Amen and I'll send it that way.
Maybe it's cipher" The operator who re-
ceived it broke when he came to the
peated again with the. remark. over the
wire that ''she probably meant a. Al,
but it read Amen.
father read it over twice and said 1t was
strange that she should take n train that
would land her at such an outlandish hour.
The mother exclaimed:
At know" assented the father, 'but
that's evidently mistake. There's no
sense in putting amen there.
well, it says amen, persisted the
"But it means "A. M insisted the
father. who forthwith went to the station
and asked the operator ABOUT IT. Inc op-
orator said il undoubtedly meant "a. m
So 1t happened that the father was at
the station TO meet the first train in he
morning that arrived after 1:41 a. m. He
figured that if she arrived at the Grand
Central at IA she would just have time to
get downtown and catch this train to her
home which was twenty-four miles out of
the city. This train arrived at 4:3e 0cIOcS.
To meet II il was necessary for the father
to get uD at $50 O'Clock. At that time
the alarm clock sounded and the father and
mother got up. The mother insisted that
the father should have Il cup of hot cof-
fee before going out in the chilly air.
and the whole household was astir. The
father got to the station at AIS. The train
was late. He waited around in the cold.
The train came at last. but no daughter
was on 1t. So he went home. Her train
must have been late. he thought, and she
missed this one. At half past he went
out again. and again at and at half past
G. and ne kept going all day until about 4
o'clock in the afternoon. She arrived then
and as she fell into his arms and smoth-
good he was to meet her. He told her
he had been waiting since o'clock in the
morning. and she exclaimed:
why the very idea, and ! telegraphed
you that l would be at the Grand Central
at As. Here is the telegram I sent-I
kept Il copy: Arrive at Grand Central
station at 1:45 tomorrow Amen You
know there We're only nine words, and /
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 him
self to say was or