Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1901-08-07
DISSEMINATING SLANG.
CLICKING A NEW WORD FROM CITY
TO CITY.
Slang Travels Faster Than Steam Be-
cause II is Teiegraphed to- chums by
Operators Ingenious Explanation Of the
Origin Of a Phrase Wit by Wire.

cause II is Telegraphed to- chums by
Operators Ingenious Explanation Of the
Origin OF a Phrase Wit by Wire.
1t is curious fact that slang travels
faster than steam" This is vaguely
ascribcd to the telegraph and the oper-
ators, but no one save the operators
seems to know how quickly catch
phrases are made to fly from city to city.
All things center in the telegraph of
fees; to them go all sorts of people
theatrical folk, "horscy' men, CONNER
cial travellers, men about town, mes
scngers, receiving clerks, and, in small
Ter cities, even the operators hear and
are quick to pick up" the --latest
phrases and .catch-words, such as will
lend themselves to intcrjcction between
the messages handled on busy wire.
Telegraph Offices are busy places, and
those working in them must needs con-
dense their humor into the smallest pos
sible space or go without it; hence tele-
graphic wit is generally confined to crisp
things that come ont with click, and
are so edged with sarcasm as to reach
hundreds of miles to the man at the
other end of the wire.
One somewhat vulgar word, bug
house. originated in telegraph Office,
and had a surprisingly quick popularity.
On busy morning, the first wire OF a
telegraph company between New York
and Baltimore went out of balance"
In other words, the delicate currents
traversing it encountered resistance
great enough to cause them to cease
intelligibly to actuate the multiplex in
struments connected with it. The wire
chiefs between Baltimore and New York
were called in, and, after much testing,
the trouble was located in Baltimore's
instruments. The Baltimore wire chief,
upon close examination, found that the
trouble was caused by cockroach.
which, after tumbling into an ink-well,
flush with the table, crawlcd out and
dragged its wet body upon the top of
the resistance box, trying to escape in
to the box's interior through one OF the
switch-plug holes.
The insects wet body formed con-
nection, and the current traversed it as
readily as it would have metal plug
placed in the hole; therefore many hun
dred ohms too much resistance was
thrown across the path of the passing
currents. Hence the resistance box
had bug" which created wire trou-
BILE This information was repeated
to New York when the wire started
again. The story was told about the
metropolitan Office, discussed and COM
mented upon, and new slang word
came into being. one just suited to telc-
graphic uses. Variations were settled
upon within fifteen minutes. and the new
bit OF slang was sent flying over the
country in every direction, as the poor
wit OF the operators found opportunity
to use it.
Soon after ! was assigned to the St.
Louis wire. knew the man in the Mis-
souri, city personally. and we were much
given to joking with each other. was
ready to pass the new word on to him
when occasion offered. but before the
opportunity came difference of opinion
arose between us over the matter of a
newspaper special then passing between
us. AT an interesting point in the con-
trovcrsy my distant friend calmly click
ed off the opinion that was bug
house" Where did you get hold of
that?" / asked. He said, "The man on
the Cincinnati wire just yelled it at me-
So Baltimore had passed the new slang
to Cincinnati. St. Louis got it next,
and probably passed it to Ogden, and
Ogden sent it flying to the Pacific Coast.
Chicago had it from Cincinnati, and
passed it to the Northwest. St. Louis
clicked it to New Orleans and the
Southwest. 1t could. travelling at the
rate it maintained in the first fifteen
minutes of its life, have traversed the
United States and Canada within an
hour. The operators passed it to the
clerks in each Office, the clerks to the
messenger boys. and the boys bore it in
to every nook and corner of their re-
spective cities. The next day the small
Ter cities had the new idiom with varia-
tons; next the small towns and rural
communities received it; in week it
was worn thrcadbare.-G. G., in the
Nczp York Post.