The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-13
WIRES GET AS TIRED
AS HUMAN BEINGS
Long Use Puts Not Only TeIe-
graph Lines but Locomo-
tives in Need of Rest.


"You are tired, eh?" said the tele-
graph operator. Perhaps there are
other persons-and things-that get
tired, too. What about this instru
ment here and this wire that runs to
Chicago? Don't you suppose they ever
get tired?"
The person addressed was inclined
to smile family at the suggestion.
I'm serious" continued the opera
tor. 81 have been an operator for
twenty-seven years, and can tell
tired wire the moment my finger
touches the key.
"The only rest our wires get is on
Sunday They actually sleep from
twelve to twenty-four hours, between
midnight of Saturday and o'clock
Monday morning as do.
The rest does 'em a world of good.
On Monday morning they are quick to
respond. They actually grasp at the
message greedily.
But on Saturday, after five busy
days, we can almost hear wire crying
out to give it rest. 1t seems to oppose
Us. It is rebelhous. Singularly, you
say? Not at all. Just nature"
Don't you think it is the operator
that needs the rest, and not so much
the wire and the Instrument"
mot bit of it. Put tired out man
against tired-out wire and you'll do
mighty little business. Put a tired-out
man against a rested wire and you'll
fare nearly as ILL., Put a rested man
against tired-out wire and you'll work
him to death in no time.
Engineers will tell you that their To-
comotives get tired. They become
track-Sore, much as a race horse does.
They don't steam as well as when rest
ed, nor make such good time.
"One of the famous railroad mag
mates of the present day owes his rapid
promotion to the head of great sys-
tenn of roads to the fact that he kept
his trains on time. Other men could
not understand how he did it until he
explained that he not only gave his
train crews rest, but never allowed
his engines to get tired. Even then
some of the smart ones smiled. But
they'll all come TO his theory in the end.
This will be a different old world
when it is generally understood that
metals get tired as we'll as human be-
ings. A learned German professor has
just informed the world that he has
found life in metals, stone, wood, ETC.,
that those substances actually possess
the sense of feeling. 1t nearly makes
one laugh, doesn't it? But unquestion-
ably he is on the road to some great
discovery.
What we term the total depravity
of inanimate things is nothing more
nor less than WEAKNESS. Your type
writing machine is all out of kilter
now and then. Give it a rest, and see
how beautifully it responds to the
touch.
Clocks fail to keep perfect time,
they are too tired to tick and strike. I
had a fine watch, which refused to run
one day some fifteen years ago. A
Too much money I thought. and the
timepiece was carried around in my
pocket for three months as dead as
Hector.
II pounded it, wound and rewound
1t, shook it daily score of times, then
got angry and laid it on the shelf.
One night 1 heard it's familiar tick.
1t had got rested and started off on its
own account. It's running yet and
hasn't cost me a cent for repairs.
Gums get very tired and refuse to
shoot well. 1 have no doubt that the
scare about the Brooklyn bridge few
years ago was due to its WEAKNESS 1t
had been on a strain for a long time
and wanted rest. The bridge was
suffering from nervous prostration.
Come over here a minute Listen
to the sound of this instrument 1t is
working over a tired wire. Can't you
tell it3
Now listen to this. Here is new
wire just opened to Baltimore. Which
is the dead and which the live wire?
Which is ready to do its work in the
best style?
"The new one? OF course. Any baby
could tell."-New York SIM.