The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-04


 you left Hampden so-without even a ! goodby."
 "Oh, well, was such wretched ham
 and the others on the line were so inn
 patient I was a prophet without honor, you see. So 1 concluded just to strike
 out
 i But here another station broke and ] took the "circuit" It proved to be Judy Junction, with a message to be hurried.
 "To Wk," he said, take this and hustle
 it, please"
 "One minute" Manning said irrtably, i attempting to resume the interrupted ! chat.
 But Judy would not be put off. 'It won't wait" he said briskly. Take 1t now and be quick about it"
 Still Manning demurred and a sharp mix-up ensued. After d struggle Judy had his way and rattled off his message. Manning was hot. The Judy artist was a very fair operator-that he admitted.
 But the fellow had an air of having done
 heavy work, of being too big for his place, which i'll became a mere railroad novice. However, Manning saw the inn portance of the message and knew that
 Judy was right in forcing 1t upon him.
 Had 1t all ended there his pride would not have suffered. But to carry his point Judy had grounded off Okisko' thus l breaking up the chat. It was this nigh | handed proceeding that Manning resent ed, and in giving his 70. K" he also ripped out his disgust at Judy S lnslst- ence Judy waited cooIly, then he re- | torted:
 Very young colts ought to wait to be weaned before kicking over the traces
 This from a mere railroad junction product, in Morse provokingly patronz- l ing was too much for Manning and from | laplnra6 hpfWpan l Warwick and Judy.
 l Manning racked his wits trying to Int upon some way of getting back at the l Judy artist" If he could have got to- gether any great number of messages 1t a time for that station he would have
 been in clover Then he could have 1 .roasted" the upstart every hour and l thus made his revenge a continuous per formance. But his only chances of scorching were the days. once q week,
 when the Judy Junction Gazette received it's news report. The first day this batch i of matter was put before him Manning l fairly hugged himself. Now, he gloat-
 ed. as he began calling, I'll simply skln 1 alive that crossroads bantam.'
 Manning's key did not merely trickle 1 dots and dashes It would be nearer truth to say that Morse gushed from his l finger tips And his copy? It really made your mouth water to watch the luscious ! loops and curves issued from his pen. ; When Judy answered up he started in with q swing which he meant as warn ! ing to the distant receiver. Ihen grad | ually he let himself out until pace was reached that Manning considered terrihc ! for a countryman to copy. The soundeHs | along the line jingled in a way to make 1 operators sit up and listen. It was good i stuff, too. trihe youngish perhaps put really full of promise. On and on pat i tered the stream of dots and dashes, yet never a word or sign of a break came ! from the other end. Manning grew un- | easy. He wondered if it were possible that the wire had gone down. Are you l there, Ju?' he presently asked. 'Aw. smoke up! Get busy.' cried Judy with an indulgent chuclSle.
 That nettled Manning. and on he went with q will The Morse poured from the saunders in q swishing torrent. Still the receiver made no sign. At the end came an easy 70. K, Qy"' and that was all. If made the old-timer down at Wharton think of a mastff brushing fly from his aar Rut Manning deceived himself; he I ohosa to believe that the coolness of the | indy man was fcigned. He was simply pasted to death and put on an air of nonchalance for effect he told himself l But that was where Manning youth and lack of intuition showed. certainly i, he could not have known that Tom Quincy had years before graduated from ,bo Judy Junction office and was now | ona of inc crack receivers in the Asso- | ci,ted Press at Washington. Neither 1 cn,1d he have guessed that Tom was on l q vacation home and that finding ms | father the regular agent sick and unit | for dutv. had taken hold until the man should be well again. Still, after even an