Bisbee daily review., 1907-08-20
IGNORES GRIEF, GLEE
 OR CRIME
Heart Broken People with Death Messages Turned Down Cold by the Tele- graph Operators on Strike,

CHICAGO, Aug. 19.-Death tidings, summons to anxious friends, marriage announcements and news of the baby's birth sounded alike to the telegraph operators on strike.
 There was no discrimination made by the men and women who have been wont to tap the keys with news of warning. happiness or sorrow. Upon deaf ears fell alike the pleas of grief stricken relatives and the demands of disappointed spectators.
 'I am sorry, we can do nothing for you" was a frequent response made by the operators in the substatiOns, in the hotels and in the business blocks as they wound up their affairs prepara- tory to joining the strike.
 Weeping girls and women and aT- xious men sought to jam through mes sages which meant that the sender was on his way to the bedside of a dying friend or relative or that the recipient must take the next train to Chicoga for a last word or a final look at the face of loved one, but without avail.
 Before the Postal Cffice closed at the Sherman House because of the strike woman wrote this message:
 "Mother-Fred is very low and can not live very long. He is calling for you. Come at once.-KGte."
 Kate was the sister of the young man. Miss Margaret Weber was the operator about to go on strike and was checking up her accounts. .
 Miss Weber was unable to tighten the grief of the sister, who pleaded that mother must reach here tonight if she wants to see Fred alive and he wants her so badly
 Miss Weber explained the situation and also told her that the Postal lines did not connect with the town desired. A long-distance telephone failed to give the proper connections.
 Miss Adelaide Sohlen, who joined the strike from her post at the Great Northern Hotel. was confronted with the proposition that her failure to for ward a message for a St. Louis man would cost him s30,OOO.
 "I have an option which expires at noon," he cried frantically. You must send this. I can not reach my St. Louis party until ? o'clock by long distance telephone. If this continues for two days I will be a ruined man. Miss Sohlen was unable to do anything for tho man, and left him bewailing his fate.
 Miss Blanche Colson left her desk in tbe Royal Trust Building surrounded bv anxious would-be customers ot the Western Union. who had a sheat ot cabIegrams written out, as did MISS Edith Johnson of the Postal office at Market and Adams streets. The branch offices of beth the Western T-nion apJ Postal offices were closed all over the city.
 Miss Ella Flynn was ordered by the Western Union to come into the man office from the Sherman House. Al though she is a nonunion operator, she refused and was immediately dis charged by wire. The union, it is re- ported. will take care of her.
 In the disrupted conditions which axist criminals over the country are skipping about with glee. It is diff ncult for the various police depart ments to keep up communication un- der existing circumstances, and men who are desirous of putting long dls- tances between themselves and Chl- cago are taktg advantage Of the chance. ,. Beyond the reach of the policemen, the striking messenger boys hold car nival in the vicinity of the maln oi- fees of the companies. Mock mass meetings were addressed by strike leaders, and enthusiasm was gen erated until it brought on the on- slaughts of the police. News boys were broken in during the day in l punches. the labor of breaking in ad- ding to the discomforts of the teie- graph officials
 Up in the Western Union Building is a restaurant, wont to appease the appetites of the operators now on strike. Two price lists are reported to be in service at the restaurant, which is managed by former operator. The usual ratCJ are for those of the old boys" who can pass the police cordon- The revised and doubled rates are for the benefit of the strike-breakers em- ployed in the building.