The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-26
KIDS TEN-w0RD MESSAGE
NOVEL METHOD OF GETTING A
CHEW oF TOBACCO.
Tips Over the Wire Not Always to
Be Relied Upon-A Female Opera
tor Who Was Docked Sixty-nine
Hours and Hasn't Succeeded In
Working It Out Yet.
Chicago Inter Ocean.)

other night as half a dozen of the craft
were taking a post midnight luncheon.
''the worst case I ever struck was when
long-suffering corporation had to
route about $500 miles of wires, not to
get message sent. but to stop one that
was going. 1t was WI en- was working in
the, Galveston office one night, and Kid
Burrows insisted on working when he
was drunk enough to lay off. Kid was
was pretty near as much of a tramp
in the business as Peg Hudson or p. j.
Delaney. who is known all over the
country as p. j. that being his wire
sig, and half his acquaintance not
Knowing his other name. Kid was
pretty fine operator as long as he was
sober enough to see but the reason he
never held one job very long at a time
was thar~he was in the habit of get
ting blind drunk and not knowing
enough to lay off. He was working the
one wire we had at the time from Gal
weston down to the City of Mexico.
He'd only had the job about a month
when he came in one night with a still
jag en- Some of us saw him and we
tried TO make him put on a sub and
take a night off. But he knew better,
swore he was sober as the night man
ager, and insisted on going to work.
He went over and opened his wire
all right, and as he seemed to be run
ming pretty smooth. we didn't pay
much attention TO him. He had little
bunch of commercial messages in front
or him, and he was sending rather ir-
regular, loafing a bit and then sprint
ing when he got ready. So nobody
thought anything about him till mes
sage came in to the night chief, saying:
NIX. says break that man on your
south wire Nix was Mexico's sigma
ture, so we went over and took stock
of the Kid. He was sending all right,
but he was still at work on the little
ten-word message he started with, and
it was time checked all over till YOU
couldn't read it. But the Kid evidently
had the wording of it hammered into
his head and was sending it over and
over at the rate of sixty words a minute
and time checking it with his pencil
hand every time he finished. His head
was evidently paralyzed drunk, and his
fingers were working on an independent
circuit. Mexico hadn't been able to
make him break, and as there was no
other way clear to get into our office
they had to route a wire up through
Her,nosillo, Benson, Los Angeles and
SAM Francisco to get back to our Office
and call the Kid off"
Telegraphing For a Chew.
That wasn't much worse than
roundabout message l got the other
uay, remarked a press operator be-
tween mounthfuls of Inince pie. saws
the Washington Star. II was working
one OF the New York wires in the A.
+. once here and Conley was working
the other at the next table Pretty
soon the man on my wire in New York
says: Tell Conley to tell Pete to send
me chew of tobacco You see the
TWO wires were right together in the
Washington office, but they ended in
elnerenr rooms in the New York office
The man on my wire was too busy TO
go INTO the next room and borrow a
cneW rom his partner, so he tells me
IN Washington, and I tells Conley. and
Conley tells the other New York man
tnat MS partner in the next room TO
NM was perishing for a piece of plug.
and that wire not being so busy as mine
the man on the New York end had a
chance to go in and lend my man a
chew"
It's all very we'll to. have friend
on the other end of your Wire" remarlx
ed the ex-night chief, IF he don't think
ne knows anything about horses. But
I've lost more money on sure things
that the man on the other end had an
inside tip on than ever expect 10 .sava
suoblng for an ungrateful corporation.
say, did you happen to get caught in
that General Jackson tip from Chicago
about ten years ago? If you didn't YOU
are about the only people in the bust
ness VINO didn't General Jackson was
a pretty good horse some time before
the war, but he'd got into the selling
platter class while was o. Sing for fine
railroads. Then he turned up with a
glass leg and that finished him. Ike
Hennessy had him on his string in
q Irrt L.
get in trim to stay over five furlongs
ana -Hennessy decided to sell him.
Ihere was a fellow reporting the
races for sthe old Herald then thar
thought General jackson had Just about
one more race in him if he was treated
right, and he breaches the subject te
the sporting editor The sporting editor
thought the same way, SO they bought
IN the old horse at street-car prices
when he was sold and sent him off to
the country. They let d veterinary sur
Seon IN on the scheme, and he tended
old Jachson's leg like he was working
to save the mother of six fatheriess
children. About the time the fall meet
ing was winding up they thought they
had General Jackson fixed just about
right, SO they brought him back to the
track and entered him, and then, being
real generous, they passed the tip to a
very few Of their friends that they had
just the hottest thing that ever burned
the wings Of a bookmaker and to get
in on IL quietly.
The Trick That Failed.
There was a fool friend of mine
taking the night report in the Herald
Office, and he got onto the good thing
and he tipped me. being on the other !
end of press wire in Milwaukee. j
tipped a friend Of mine down in ST.
Louis and another man that I owed a
good turn in Kansas City, and then I
got night off and went out ito borrow
money l don't know what other way
that tip got circulated, but 10 cireu-
lated good and plenty. 1t was news
paper and operators tip almost alto
gether and ii went on the wire al over |
the country from Milwaukee TO New |
Orleans and from New York to San |
Francisco. These wise guys had got |
General Jackson into a field where he |
could have broken a leg and won in his |
earlier days, and they had him nursed |
up so that it was a 100 to / shot that |
he would last the distance. The |
bookmakers figured it lout a 100 TO Il |
shot that he wouldn't, and that was |
the odds in the overnight betting. But |
he was played so heavily all over the |
country that the ODDS commenced TO |
slide next morning, and / only got in |
at IS toll, and he went no the post 10 |
10 ], with the pool rooms playing
safety.
I spent the afternoon in a pool room
down on Clark street, where 1 had Of
fered up my wad, and when the re-
port of the race started il sure looked |
like Sec and Perfectos for the balance
Of the winter. IL was General Jackson
at the quarter and General Jackson