Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-09

tectos Tor the balance OF the winter. II
was General Jackson at the quarter and
General jackson at the half and General
jackson by two lengths at the three-quar-
ters,' and then Silver King wins Tam.
BOURNE second, Cascaretta third And that
blamed old glass leg CT his played out on
him in the stretch and he walked in dead
lame, and all the operators l knew OF
smoked pipes for the rest Of the winter"
4 Hard Throw-Down.
II don't think much OF wire tips, my
self" said the state wire man, "and the
worst throw down / ever had I got this
spring from Philadelphia had man
knew there working on my wire, and he
sent me a message one night, Lillian X
is good sure thing get in with both feet.
had been thinking about Lillian X myself,
so | went out and soaked my watch and
hunted UP a Shylock and rounded up al
together about $75. Then / lined out for a
pool room. The race was due in about half
an hour and Lillian X was up in the entries
all right, but there were no odds against
her.
80 l says to the man at the desk,
What's the odds on Lillian K?' He look
ed at me like he was too tender hearted to
rob a come-on and pitched me over a blank
ticket and says careless like, Make out
your own odds I'll take EN- any way you
fx it
That was too much of a Jolt for me, and
told him to hold on to the ticket for a
minute while | went out to see man. !
went out and took a drink and tried to
figure whether the man was four flushing
or whether / looked any greener than I
felt. Then I came back and tried to get
my roll out of my pocket, but II wouldn't
come, and finally I sat around and watch
ed the report come in, and put me on
the black list If Lillian X didn't win at 200
to /, and the only man on it was a little
humpbacked shoe pirate with his box un-
der his arm and dollar in dimes, nickels
and coppers.
Took Too Much Tor Granted.
Horses are all right for hoodoo on
the wire said the young operator, "but
they don't finish one, two three with wo-
men. 1t was a woman made me quit good
job down in Damascus last spring because
| didn't have the nerve to stay in the same
town with her. Damascus was nice little
railroad town down in south Ohio and
had nice soft siX-day job In the little jerk
water office there with one other operator
We were pretty hot things in society. One
night we floated in to see a nice family
we knew up town, and there we were in
troduced to Miss Callahan from Cincin-
natl. Well, she wasn't so old, but she was
fair half as ugly as any other six women
| ever saw. But after a while there was
some singing and she did spiel at the
piano, and she could sing like bird. That
took my partner right off the bat and
afterward, while we were sitting around
Ginning, he telegraphs me from across the
room on the arm of his chair, Say, old
man, amt she peacherion?' / was sit
ting with my chin in my hand and l taps
back against my cheek She's pretty clear
in the pipes but that face would crack
stove lids' The freckled-faced girl was
sitting with her hand resting out on the
table, and what do you think, If she didn't
make switch motion with her little finger
like she was opening a key and wire back
at me in Phillips code, If you think it
why don't you say it out loud?
she was a slick woman operator from
the Cincinnati office, come down to take
a vacancy in our shop. She went to work
the next week and | quit the week after
never nave liked women operators since"
Dockcd Sinty-Ninc Hours.
Il haven't much use for women operators
myself said the pool room operator. "but
sure did see one of em get even with
aerself while | was working in Kansas
city Just before the last strike, There
was trouble brewing in the office then and
~ didn't help matters any when they
brought up woman from down some
Where in the swamp lands of Arkansas TO
take the place of a man that got fired for
cussins the division superintendent over
the wire under the impression he was
green office boy fooling with the key. Ey
ofyhody was sore on the woman, of course.
ana everybody was looking for her to make
d oreak counting her messages. There had
peeh Sood deal of trouble in the office
over having messages checked wrong, and
stahins mistake thereafter would be
docked an hour for each word that was
wrong WAC
WELL this blamed woman was slower
than molasses in March but she was dead
careful and she wouldn't make a mistake
In checking to please anybody. FINALLY
one day there was a message of about ton
words came in from Omaha, a notice of q
bank stockholders meeting or sometbing n,
the sort, single message for sixty-nine
addresses. This Arkansas swarm
angel happened to take it and she likewise
happened to make mistake in COUNTING
the words And as the same mistake was
naturally in all the messages che was docked
Slxty-nine hours, and when l left there in
the fall she was still working it out
When the Nile Froze Over.
oh, you can always figure on getting
even one way or another" remarked the
press operator. II laid for the telegram
editor OF the morning paper down in Jack
sonville nearly year before / got him.
was taking the A. p. report down there
and this bird with the blue pencil always
had some fault to find with it, whether
there was anything wrong or not. / stood
1t till the night Of the 31st of March. and
then / thought I'd try taking fall out of
him. 1t was along toward in the MORN
ing before the report closed up for the
night so when | got go (goodnight) on
The report | composed a little telegraph
news myself. wrote about 200 words
rom Alexandria, Egypt. with LIST of April
late line on it, saying that the Nile was
frozen over from Cairo to the first cataract,
and that there was great suffering in the
country. l threw In a little
detail about a Mansion house
relief fund being started in London and let
her go to the telegraph editor. Blamed IL
ne didn't let 1t get past him in the hurry
II going to press and 1t appeared next morn
ing on the front page OF the paper The
editor caught 1t on the mail edi-
ion hut nv noon the newt dav tho nonars