Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1907-12-25
PUT HIM 70
SLEEP
etrnngo Experience OF Veteran TclC-
graph Operator IN tho South


explorers get to the north pole on
each subsequent trip. Il don't know
whether 1t was from sentiment or not
the banjo always being linked with
southern history, but anyway the
southern railway Of which am speak.
ing was completely equipped with ban.
10 signals for the operation of trains.
For a spell the banjo signals
around Linlithgo station get out OF
whack and seemed to be go ag to the
eternal frankfurters. Just wien some
fast special would be dashing through
Linlithgo going 2:40 on a plank road
the pesky banjo signals would go ker
slap to danger. bringing the fast spe-
cial up on all fours. as it were. Then
hades would be tapped around Linlith'
60 station with an eight.inch posthole
anger while the engineer ventilated
his views.
THE company sent signal experts
and testers of all kinds to try ont the
sulky signals to no avail After this
sassiness of the signals had been 60
ing on for a spell the night operator
on duty at LinIithgo got subject to at
lacks of drowsiness.
HE just couldn't make his eyes
behave. Every night about IL o'clock
he would drop off into the soundest
slumber.
THE company couldn't stand for
any Little Bo-Peep in theirs. So the
boss asked me If | wouldn't go down
to Linlithgo to try and straighten mat
ters out.
81 never like to throw bouquets at
myself, but l will say that had no
marks against my record. AS far as
wakefulness was concerned | was lit
tie Lord Fauntleroy on the job. Never
theless, when l got to doing the
night work at LinlIthgo my reputation
for alertness or duty went by the
board.
Every midnight l would be at
tackled by drowsiness, and before long
I would be making noise like Phila-
delphia. Then the first thing you know
I'd be holding up all the flower OF the
time card.
zone thing / did notice. Every
morning we would find our stock OF
copper and zines, used in the gravity
batteries, all nibb'cd up, as if they had
been attacked by mouse with some
sort of smelter attachment inside. The
plot certainly was thickening.
II got good-sized mouse trap and
set it near the storage battery closet
properly baited with cheese. This
drowsiness still came over me every
midnight, and the depredations on the
electrical stores continued undated.
THE company was getting pretty
sore at me. was just about ready tt
pass up the whole thing and come
north when l ran short Of ordinary
cheese to bait the mouse trap one
night and was forced to bait my traI
with piece of peek-a-boo, open-worl
Swiss cheese.
along about 80 my usual drowsy
spell came on. l was just recitint
'Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight II
my dreams, when heard an awful
commotion out near my mouse trap.
Struggling hard to overcome the
sleepy feeling, which grew more over
powering as drew nearer to the trap
ran out, and can tell you was thu
most surprised man you ever saw t.
find an electrical eel all twisted up II
that piece of Swiss cheese. You SCI
the ordinary cheese never bothereC
him at all, but he attempted to craw
through the holes of the golf-cours'
cheese in order to get at the electrical
stores and got all tangled up.
THE mystery of Linlithgo station
was solved. You see couple Of cleo
trio cells had wriggled their way from
the ditch along the railroad into thu
electric signal system, and after hav
ing once gorged themselves on thu
current which is so essential to thei
system they just couldn't leave !
alone.
Then they got wise to the storage
| closet up in the station, and wriggle'
up there every night to replenish thu
dying electrical embers in their bodie
at the expense Of the company TIL
| peculiar electrical currents they eS
uded from their bodies had the sam
effect as that new electrical anaes
thetic the scientists are experimental!
with now. It put all the operator
who worked at Linlithgo to sleep.
IF that eel hadn't got tangled u
in the meshes Of that Swiss chess
the mystery never would have beef
solved. / guess that's about the mos
peculiarsand withal true electrical oc
currence on record"
Say put in the tall, cynical con
ductor, there must be some Of then
cells gettin' in their fell work on thi
division, for / had to stop an wake u
no less than six operators in dis
lance Of 40 miles last night
Straight Railroad Track.