The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-16

spondent, stationed in washington sen
in his card, asking to see me on I'M
portant and confidential business
| when admitted he explained that a tel
| egraph operator, whom he had KNOW
| for years in the West, and VINO nae
been transferred to the capltal, nau III
| tercepted cipher message from Mon
| treaI the night before and beleVeQ il
| was from the Spanish headquarters tt
an agent here. We were particularly
| interested in the Spanish messages al
! that time, having possession or clpnel
| that was being used in some or their
| correspondence, and the newspaper man
knowing this had suggested to his
! friend the operator that the suspected
| communication be submitted to our Of
| flee.
| He had tried to translate it, but was
| unable to succeed, and he wondered If
| we would have better luck. The copy
| of the mysterious message, which he
| then produced and placed before me on
| the desk, was addressed to my alias,
the original, from one of my men, BEING
in a drawer at my side. Under the cir
cumstances 1 felt moderately certain
that we could get at its meaning, but
without explaining to the correspondent
/ told him that If we did succeed IN
deciphering 1t and the contents were of
such a character as to permit OF their
publication he should have scoop
on it. This satisfied him and he went
away.
A little later I called up the telegraph
company and asked that the operator
In question should be sent TO the office
for moment. In few minutes he was
ushered ina young, bright faced fell
low, with plenty of color in his cheeks
and an air of suppressed excitement.
only guessed that he felt his discovery
had been of value to the Government
and he was to be rewarded in some
way. In reply to my question he de-
tailed how he had received the mes
sage and how when it occurred to him
that it might be from one Spanish
agent to another he had surreptitiously
obtained copy of it. The fact that 1t
bore no local address had made 1t
doubly suspicious, as it indicated that
it was to be called for
Didn't 1t occur to you to see If the
person to whom 1t was addressed was
registered in the office with delivery
directions?'
mo, sir
We'll If you had consulted your
company's books you would have dis
covered that / am John Ehlen,' and
that this is Government message"
The poor fellows face was a study
when he realized that he had held out
an official telegram and had turned il
over to a newspaper man. He appre-
ciated the gravity Of the offense in
violating his oath as an operator, and
felt that his position was as good as
gone, under circumstances that would
make it impossible for him to obtain
employment with any company. He
said nothing, but his eyes filled with
tears.
"Have you a family?"
mo. sir. but L am supporting my old
father and mother"
Your motive was the best in the
world" I said finally, but your meth
DDS are open to criticism. Now, moth
ing shall be said to the company about
this but If in the future you catch any
mysterious messages, just bring them
straight to me without intrusting them
to any outsider. If your newspaper
friend had succeeded in translating this
message 1t might have been awkward