Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1901-06-20
Heroic TeIegrapher.

AlOuS sdEIJ III lHc aAl0i hNSN VI '
fire there came over the telegraph
wires the bald, meager message that
FIRE, with which the city IS department
was unable to cope, was raging IN
Jacksonville, the beautiful little city
on the banks of the st. Johns.
Little else was known when the even
ing papers went to press. The south
waited expectantly for fuller news.
1t was coming.
Down in Jacksonville in the West
ern Union building there sat alone
one man. He was Operator Steele,
and through him alone was the outside
world told Of what was happening in
the doomed city.
When the flames had swept in red
horror across to the east of the city,
they turned. Back to the west along
Bay street and the water front tum-
bling and rolled the billows Of fire.
As the fire changed its direction and
came whirling back toward the west
the telegraph building that lay to the
front of it was vacated: Clerks fled
operators deserted their machines.
The big building was empty and 81
lent, and the world was waiting to
know the fate of the city.
One man st2id. 1t was Steele.
He sat at his desk on the second
floor. By his side was an open win
dow. He could look out upon that
scene, sublime in its awfulness.
Steadily the whirlwind Of flame ad-
vanced nearer and nearer.
Above the roar of the flames, the
crash of falling walls and the heart
rsnding screams Of frantic men and
women there rose one sound.
1t was heard the world over.
Above the clamor steady and clear,
clicked Steele's key.
Out Of the window he saw this build
ing and that blaze up, totter and fall
and as he watched he sent out over the
wire the story Of what be saw.
The heat and the smoke were stiff
ling. He sought brief breathing
spell in the open street. A block
above, in front Of the Times Union and
Citizen office, he saw a young girl
stagger and drop a bundle, saved
from a ruined home, under the tramp
ling feet of the surging throng at the
corner.
He stopped and drew from under
the feet of the crowd this bundle and
lifted the slight form of the girl into
the newspaper office.
Somewhere out on the river or across
on the other side were his wife and
baby; he knew not where, but he
hoped and believed them to be safe.
An acquaintance, ,haggard and smoke
stained, seized his arm as he started
back to his work at the telegraph key.
They say that your wife and baby
were on the ferryboat that caught fire
and was wrecked in the river !" cried
the man hoarsely.
"You lie" said Steele. Turn me
loose. | have work to do. "
The man dropped his arm and step
ped aside.
He saw that telegraph key, the
world, and the world was expecting
the best that was in him.
He would give it.
The evening gloom and shadow
were beginning to settle around the
edges Of the fires red glare when he
sat down at his key again. Night
was coming on. The flames were
steadily sweeping along toward the
telegraph building. The heat was
sickening.
But he staid at his key, watching
the flames through the open window
and telling the world what he saw.
How long the hours seemed
And now out Of his window was
naught but a red sea of flames. The
buildings across from the Office, on the
other side Of Laura street, were ablaze.
The message went out to the world
that the Western Union building was
doomed. The man who sent the mes-
cage believed it. He thought the next
instant to be entrarped in merciless,
all consuming furnace.
But, wonderful to tell, the flames
that had laughed at the fremen's ef-
forts to fight them before languished.
They died away and sickened and
sank into naught but hot, red glare.
The great fire was under control.
The telegraph Office was saved.
He didn't seem 10 know that be
was the hero of Jacksonville's great
FIRE or any hero at all but he was.
There was, Of course, many and many