Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-10

- &SS@% cOMempor n u 8
with the sprouting
Of the first crocuses;
yet the lilacs and snow balls and the early
roses and hollyhocks of 1897 have come ard
gone and no Bogardus has shown I'D.
Stranger still. he missed the inauguration
OF Mr.. Mckinley. The old-time telegra-
pliers working here can't understand this
Tor Hank is said not to have previously
missed the installation of a President for
nearly thirty years. They say that some
now or another, 1t did not seem natural in
the main operating room of the big office
mere on the night of the last Inauguration
oay' because, as on many former in
auguration nights, Hank was not slowed
away IN a corner at one Of the special
I tables, with short and aged corn cob
pipe stuck in his teeth and burning his
nose. rafting off press stuff with a light
ming speed that scarcely a dozen operators
In the country could handle,
guess Bogardus is ali right somewhere
lnouSh, said one of the old-timers to a
star reporter, in talking of the non-ap-
pearance here this year of Hobo Hank"
as veterans of the key have been calling
MN Tor the past quarter of century
hank don't belong to the dying class.
he always turns up in some old place like
the wandering Jew, just when all of Us
nave begun to believe that he has been
nnally lncased in a wooden overcoat ard
planted beneath the sod. Every one of US
would own pretty good-sized wad if we
mad dollar for every time we've heard
that Hank was dying in hospital some
where or other and We have learned just
10 grin ana say nothing when these warns
work their way around to us. He does get
INTO the hospitals, of course; I've rlaced
MIN IN Two or three myself; but lie always
gets out OF them again, strongern a wolf
and with more go in him than ever AID
ready for more interoceanic campaigns
lie was taken pretty sick in Chicago
three years ago, though even the hosDital
people never seemed to me to be able to
Inquire out what allied Hank, often as he
heid down beds in hospital wards But
this time the Chicago papers had it that
bogardus was right sick for fair, and Likely
10 ole' ana most OF them published adj
vance obituary sketches of him. Well, all
OF US here figured then that Hank was due
to peter out for fact, and We were only
waiting for the announcement of his death
TO telegraph to Chicago the money Clipped
IN by all hands for the purchase of Good
night wreath to be placed on his grave.
The announcement didn't come, so after
waiting for couple of weeks We wired to
a, ehiet night operator out in Chicago. ask
ing II Hank wasn't pretty near ready to
let us decorate his tomb with those flowers.
The Chicago man wired us back:
All Right This Time,
You'd better put the soft pedal on the
wheels in your heads and then divide the
flowers up and send 'em to your girls Hank
left here for st. Paul over a week ago. AMI
I can hear him burning up the Southern
Press wire right now.'
Hank turned up here a few months later
in the early spring just as he had been
doing since the early seventies, and he
then broke the record by remaining at a
key here for whole three weeks Teleg-
raphers can always tell about a month in
advance when Hank is liable to show up,
for whenever he gets into a division he
makes all hands put their hustling clothes
on to take him, and he usually sticks to
about the same general path in making his
tours. rarely ever staying in any one office
lot more than ten days. He Is known by
all the old-time telegraphers from Maine to
California end from Canada to the gulf
and by a good many of the recruits and
ne never has any trouble getting 'subbing'
been blacklisted, and he could have any
crack regular job in the country that he
had a mind to take. But he never wanted
any regular job, and I don't believe he
could be tied to The chair of the president
To be contented, he's got to be on the move.
he has an odd system of working his way
through the western country. He'll hop
on train at some little station in the mid
thing the young operator of the telegraph
shack knows he'll see the head of an elder
ly man stuck through the window.
Hello. there says Hank. Want to 20
on vacation for a couple of weeksT
sHuhr says the young operator.
Hank repeats the question.
Do I? says the young operator. Well,
I guess do! But how can I go when they
won't send a man here to relieve me-?
Well I'm Hank Bogardus,' says the
hobo operator, and I'll sub for you while
you're gore
With Hank Standing By.
Nov, every operator in the country has
Of course heard Of Hank, even II he hasn't
met him. and all telegraph operators stuck
away in little jay stations snatch eagerly
at chance to go on vacation. So the
young OPERATOR calls up the old man in
charge of the main office of the division,
tells him that Hank Bogardus is standing
by, and asks for a couple Of weeks leave.
The old man wires back. asking the young
operator If he knows Hank when he sees
him. If he says yes. it's all right. and he
Is given permission to go on leave without
any more ado. If the, young operator re-
man wires Call him to the key Hank
sits down to the key with a grim and he
never sends more'n two words before the
old man breaks him, wires, Hello. Hank.
cracking his heels over the chance to get
away-for there is no manager of a division
who doesn't know Bogardus' magical work
at the key. All the managers also know
that when Hank is put in charge Of an of
fee he is as responsible as any man In the
business and able to handle anything that
comes along right up to the limit. He has
often happened into small, isolated towns
at times when big railroad accidents. crimes
or other hefty matters Of news have
brought the eyes of the country on such
towns. and his work on these occasions has
always been astonishing. When the scene
Of the news happened to be within hitting
distance of the big cities. SO that the re-
'porters from the metropolitan papers had
q show to get there in time to shake the
facts together for their sheets, Hank would
handle the enormous gobs Of stuff turned
in to him without turning a hair or ever
whimpering to the main office for help or a
relief. But II, as has often happened in
Hanks nomadic career, he would find HIM
self in the middle Of a big news feature
way OF from anywhere, he would just
stick his old cob pipe in his face upside
down, send off queries to the newspapers,
and. on getting back his orders for stuff
would rattle OF, without ever touching
pencil to paper, as fine and readable stories
of the thing as could have been chased In
to shape by first-rate newspaper men, had
they been on the spot; for he Is we'll
educated man, has worked key in a lot
of'newspaper offices all over the country in
the course Of his career, and he knows how
a telegra nhic news story ought to be cast