The Banner-Democrat., 1901-09-21
DISSEMINATING SLANG,
Ct ,ckINc A NEW WORD FROM CITY
TO CITY.
Slang Travels Faster Than steam ee'
cause II 10 Tslsgraphsd to chums oy
Operators ingenious Explanation OF the
o,;.,, Of q Phrass-Wit by Wire.

cause n 10 Tslsgraphsd TO chums by
oosr.tors ingenious Explanation Of the
Origin Of a Phrass-wit by Wire
lis curious fact that slang travels
f,.t.r than steam." This is vaguely
ascribed to the telegraph and the eper-
ators but no one save the operators
seems TO know how quickly catch
nbrases 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, 'fsersey" men, CONNER
cial travellers, men about town, mes
sengers, 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 interjection between
the messages handled on a 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 IL; hence tele-
graphic wit is generally confined TO crisp
things that come out 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 surprisingly quick popularity.
On busy morning, the first wire of
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, crawled 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
sSitch-plug holes.
The insects wet body formed a 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 a bug" which created wire trou-
ble." This information was repeated
to New York when the wire started
again The story was told about the
metropolitan Office, discussed and COM
mcnted upon, and new slang word
came into being. one just suited to tele-
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 l was assigned to the St.
Louis wire. knew the man in the Mis-
souri, city personally, and we we're 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-
troversy my distant friend caIf,ly click.
ed off the opinion that I was bug
house" Where did you get hold o.
that?' I asked. He said, The man or
the Cincinnati wire just yelled i at me.
So Baltimore had passed the new slang
to Cincinnati. St. Louis go. sit next
and probably passed it to Ogden, ant
Ogden sent it flying to the Pacific Coast
Chicago had it from Cincinnati, and
passed lit to the Northwest. St. Loui,
clicked it to New Orleans and. tn,
Southwest 1t could, travelling at tn,
rate it maintained in the first ffteer
minutes of its life, have traversed the
United States and Canada wit.iin ar
hour. The operators passed it to tbt
clerks in each Office, the clerks to fhs
messenger boys, and the boys bore it in.
to every nook and corner of their re.
spective cities. The next day the small.
ler cities had the new idiom, with varia.
tions; next the small towns and rura
communities received it; in week il
was worn threadbare-G. G., in. the
NeU York Post.