Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-09
MERRY TALES OF The WIRE
Funny Things that Have Happened to Tele-
graph Operators.
HOW ONE MAN GOT SOME TOBACCO
Two Tips on the Race, n Trencherous
Ginss Lea, and whnt Occurred
Afterwnrd-when the
Nile Froze.


taking post midnight luncheon, "the
worst case l ever struck was when a long
suffering corporation had to route about
2,5OO miles OF wires, not to get a message
seEL, but to stop one that was going. IL
was when | was working in the Galveston
oiilce one night and Kid Burrows insisted
on working when he was drunk enough to
lay off. Kid was pretty near as much of a
tramp In the business as Peg Hudson or
Z. 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 a pretty fine
operator as long as he was sober enough
10 see, but the reason he never held one
job very long at time was that he was
In the habit of getting blind drunk and not
knowing enough to lay off. He was working
the one wire we had at the time from CAL
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 on.
Some Of us saw him and we tried to
make him put on a sub ana take a night
off. But he knew better, swore he was
sober as the night manager and insisted
on going to work.
How They Broke Him on.
He went over and opened his wire all
right and as he seemed to be running pretty
ShoO1h VIC uiuh pay lHuCu dlleullOu 10
him. He had a little bunch OF commercial
messages in front of him and he was send
ing rather irregular. loafng bit and then
sprinting, for he could send like chain
lightning when he got ready. So nobody
thought anything about him till a message
came in to the night chief, saying: NIX.
says break that man on your south wire =
Nix was Mexico's signature, 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 1t was time checked all over till
you couldn't read it. But the Kid evidently
had the wording of 1t hammered into his
head and sending it over and over at
the rate of sixty words minute and time
checking it with his pencil hand every time
he finished. His head was evidently para
lyzcd 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
Hermosillo, Benson, Los Angeles and San
Francisco to get back to our office and call
the Kid off,"
THAT wasn't much worse than a round
about message l got the other day" re-
marked press operator between mouthfuls
cf mince pie 81 was working one OF the
New York wires in the A. p. office here
and Coney was working the other at the
reXt 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
different rooms in the New York office.
The man my wire was too busy to 60
into the next room and borrow chew from
his pardner, so he tells me in Washington
ND I oil anil md nnIp tollc tbn
other New York man that his pardner in
the next room to him was perishing for
piece OF plug, and that wire not being
busy as mine, the man on the New York
end had chance to go in and lend my man
a chew"
Playing n Wire Tip.
Its all very well to have a friend on
the other end of your wire" remarked the
ex-night chief, 'if he don't think he 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 l ever
expect to save subbing 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 busi-
ness who didn't General Jackson was a
pretty good horse some time before the
class while was o. Sing for the railroads.
Then he turned up with glass leg and
that finished him. Ike Hennessy had him
on his string in Chicago that year, but he
never could get in trim to stay over five
furlongs, and Hennessy decided to sell him
There was fellow reporting the races
for the old Herald then that thought Cen
eral Jackson had just about one more race
in him IL he was treated right, and he
breaches the subject to 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 a veterinary
surgeon in on the scheme and he tended old
Jackson's leg like he was working to save
the mother OF six fatherless children. About
the time the fall meeting 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 bookmaker, and to
get In on 1t quietly.
The Trick that Failed.
There was 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. / tipped a friend of
mine down in st. Louis and another man
that ! owed good turn in Kansas City,
and then l got night off and went out to
borrow money. don't know what other
way that tip got circulated, but 1t circu
lated good and plenty 1t was a newspaper
and operators tip almost together and 1t
went on the wire all over the country from
Milwaukee to New Orleans and from New
York to San Francisco. These wise guys
had got General Jackson into field where
he could have broken a leg and won in his
earlier days, and they had him nursed up
so that II was a 100 to 1 shot that he would
last the distance. The bookmakers figured
II out 100 to 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 l only got in at 75 TO /, |
and he went to the post at 10 to /, with the
pool rooms playing safety
Il spent the afternoon In a pool room
down on Clark street, where | had offered
up my wad, and when the report OF the race
started 1t sure looked like Sec and per-