Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-04-22

the salary would be $50 per month. that
he would consider himself 'flxed.' am
satisfied now that he used the choke lock
on Mrs. Fate, as he would work Just about
four to six minutes for that amount OF
money now, and from what people tell me
he would be cheap at that
The Dream Of titus.
Then there was Ed Titus. another dis
patoher, who used to help out on Atlantic
s Pacific business; he Is now the proprietor
Of q large patent medicine business In
Minneapolis. Just to illustrate the strict
ness with which lines 81 authority were
drawn IN those days, l want to tell you
about Titus dream We had a sort Of a
split trick In the ONCE that paid SIS per
month. I forget who worked it, but who
ever Il was decided to make a move, and
left the place vacant AS Mrs. Korty and
Mrs Dickinson were both away on a visit,
Korty proposed to Mr.. Dickey that himself,
Dickinson and work the trick every third
night, dividing the pay equally between
us. Mr.. Dickey, with his usual good ma
ture, agreed to this, and we started in. 1
want to say that while this arrangement
lasted, that old repeater was the best
tended repeater on record; It had what you
I
will be seen later l. as the youngest and
handsomest member Of the triumvirate,
took the trick the first night Along about
1 o'clock in the morning l was sitting at the
repeater table listening to the Chicago
man paste San Francisco and Illuminating
on the uncertainties Of human life and
whether marriage really was a failure or
not q was not married then. but ] know
now that It Is not failure), when my at
tention was attracted by big clod Of earth
striking me between the shoulders with
| force enough to nearly knock the wind out
OF me- The clod had come through the
open door at my back but could not fnd
the party who threw It, although made
an extended search. 1 sat down again, and
in a minute after 1 got another Jolt. 1
then found that the throwers were the
other two-thirds of the aggregation, who
had just dropped round to help me out.
They came in and assisted me until clear
The precedent thus established demanded
that on subsequent nights the unoccupied
members of the trio should tend the man
who tended the repeater This precedent
was never violated during the life Of the
Arrangement.
Practical Joke.
! zone night after we had turned the
way about O'Clock we started home.
Some one Of us had forgotten something,
| so we went back to get it, We found
| everything quiet, including Titus, who
was sound asleep on one of the tables. It
only took minute and a little careful
| work to tie him fast to the table without
waking him, which we>did. Korty, who
could initiate the sending of every oper-
ator on the despatchers wire, went into
the battery room and opening the local
circuit began to call * the dispatcher $
signal. in a most frantic manner. We
made a little noise, which awakened Titus
who made every effort to get loose. with
out succeeding. Korty then held a con-
versation between two Offices, one Of which
was telling the other that a passenger
train had gotten away from him and that
a collision was inevitable unless he could
catch * whom he had been after foI
over an hour Titus began to yell fol
Pete the nightwatchman, who finally
came in and released him, He made one
Jump across the room, answering 4 1 x
before he sat down. AS the wire was
quiet he, after waiting a moment, called
up the calling ONCE. which did not answer
Immediately. When he got the office h
asked about the train, and was told thai
II had left on time and that there wa:
| uOtuluH WTonbs ne dShcO why Inc Op0N'
ator had told the other office that he coult
not raise * and what about the threat
ened collision. The operator stoutly de
nied having said anything OF the kind, ant
further that the wire had been entirelJ
quiet. Titus got up from the table, rubbed
his eyes, scratched his head. looked at tbs
clock and then called up the other Office
which ne questioned on the same lines
with the same result
> I'VE were watching him through thu
window. The expression OF his face wa
alone worth the price Of admission. w,
J left him to figure 1t out himself. TIL,
next day he came round to the Office quit
a while ahead of his usual time HI
> seemed to have something on his mind
, which turned out to be a dream he ha,
l had during his daily siesta. He told u
! the dream, which was the occurrence o
. the previous night suitably toned to n
5 the occasion. We agreed with him that, :
was truly wonderful II did not take lonl
to publish the dream and Titus finally go
the straight Of 1t. which he took good
naturedly. He is now a great student o
] psychological phenomena, and / believ
r that we gave him his first lesson.
4 cit is needless TO say that you could no
4 hire either Korty, Dickinson or myself Z
! perpetrats trick OF that sort now 70
4 less than s. dollars, to be divided equally