The evening times., 1900-10-20
TROLLEY GONG IANGUhGEI |
Meaning Signals Given by the
Wide-AWake Motermen.
CIa,ters Of the Bell That Call for a
CIeaE Track-Socia- Ringings Ex-
cl,'ir s't,d by Friendly Drivers of
The CIrs-Conductors Warned of
tae PRESENCE of Spoilers on Cars.

When the gong on the trolley car rings
with two short, desultory clangs it does
not mean much of anything. 1t is sim
ply reminder that the car is speeding
along the tracks and is thrown out as
sort of feeler by the motorman to remind
any dreamy driver on a cross street that
he is nearing trolley line. But when
the gong clatters forth a sharp summons
of "bidg ba ring, bing-bing. bing,'' with
pause before the last two notes, it
means something. That's when the fen
der is getting close to the rear wheels of
the brewery wagon and the motorman's
patience is becoming exhausted. That's
when the pedestrians saurrying along the
sidewalks turn to look at the trolley car
and see what has stirred the motornlan
up 20 playing a solo on the gong. That's
when the driver who; has been holding
down the righ: of way for half a block
would best look out for squalls
There is meaning in the ringing of ca
bic and trolley car gongs which is appar-
ent to one on the inside The notes
drawn from the brazen bells on the cars
q.
Every combination of dings and bangs
means something to the listener who
knows the ropes IL the motormen and
gTipmen ratified and changed the eongs
rec4Slelsly and merely to make noise
the downtown streets would be such a
babel OF sound that no one could hear
himself think Years of experience have
developed system IN the thing which
IS gradually learned by the new men
"ac come INTO the service and sedulousIy
eonefed to by the older hands at the
s1I.iS They converse with each other by
the gongs. They have code of signals
which. while it may not be as complete
as the Morse system, answers the pur-
pose very well for the limited needs of
The street car men.
An oid-time motorman who Grove
street car in the days when trolley wires
were not menacing human life as much
as they are now, was telling group of
friends about II the. other evening He
sad 1t was a great thing
You see." said the motormaH. s.the
cars pass each other so rapidly that the
boys have no chance 10 talk To each other
When We had horse cars it was different
II the driver of a car going west had
something Of interest TO tell to the driver
OF the car approaching on the opposite
track he began talking as soon as the
and before the cars had passed each
ether he had given him the message But
when they brought along the whfzzers
and We went by each other like a blue
streak things were different The idea of
a system in ringing the gongs originated
I suppose, when a rule was issued requir-
ing every motorman to sound his gong
as ne passed another car. TO warn any
one who might be waiting behind one car
that another was coming, Well, after a
WhIIe the boys got to sending signals to
one another, just simple little messages
like Hello. Bill, which was two quick
taps OF the gong and then another after
wait. The other fellow would answer
Hello by tapping his gong twice The
system gradually extended until it got so
we had quite a lot of messages we could
send back and forth.
Six. a - N
For instance, If fellow ran into load
OF sawdust and spilled the wagon all over
the track he would like to tell all the
n;otormen he met on the other track what
good luck he had. To do that he would
give them three bells, then wait, two
bells and wait, and then one: like this.
see Bingi bingt bingt Bing!
bing! Bing.' That meant some.
thing doing. and they would keep their
eyes peeled for the wreck as they went
along. Then we got system of warnin,.
the boys when 's.Jotters' were up and down
the line. If conductor got a hunch on II
'spotter' on his ear he told the motorman,
Of course, and If the elbow got off a,
some corner to wait for car going the
other way the motorman tipped it off ts
the ear that was coming with two bells Il
wait, and three short bells. That was the
office for the conductor TO look out fer a
sucker who claimed to have lost his trans
fer or something like that 10 get q fres
ride and then report the conductor who
was good fellow enough TO let him ride
The old motoTman paused as though
ruminatiung on the delights of the posi-
tion he had been forced by old age to
give up, and after q few minutes, he con-
tinued:
Lots of the boys live on the streets
where their cars run, and they always
have signal to give the little woman and
the kids when they are passing. OF course
the family knows about what time the
fathers car will be coming along and
some of them are on the watch for him,
but just to let 'em know he is coming he
gives EN- a certain bunch of bells when
he gets to the corner, and they come out
and gives him wave as he shoots past
OF course they sometimes hand out all
these signals to a teamster that's hold
ing down the tracks but then they don't
mean anything except get off the track
or you'll get pinched-' That's what you
hear most of the time, but if you know the
rest OF the signals you'd recognize 'em
every day.'-Chicago Chronicle