Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1911-03-31

station translate the mys-
tsrious sounds into words and write
them on yellow pieces Of paper?
Maybe It Ia the s%EusuRlness Of 1t all,
Or maybe it Ia because the operator
n getting from some fsraway place
fnAtantaneoufly the news OF q death
Or an earthquake or some other por-
teRtous happening before anybody else
Ia the community csR pssDibly know
about It.
Anyhow, the boy-svery boy, near
y-has wondered and longed about it,
and has Il sneaking notion that ne
would like to know what those audi
bic dots and dashes mean. But how
to go about 1t and what II might lead
to is as far from his comprehension
nj the cause OF the TAI in the moon.
All he knows is that one of the big
ger boys got = job in the local sta
ton, or one Of the younger mes as
messenger boy, and that after awhile
they knew how to work the key and
take messages, and then went away
somewhere.
You fathers, too, were once boys
yourselves, and you also were mysti-
ned and longed; but something lured
you into other kinds Of life work.
Now. however, maybe you are Won
dering If your boy hadn't better take
up telegraphy as a business and be-
come president of the Western Union
or the Postal.
Well. it is possible for your young
ster to reach that high place; for
every one of the past and present
officials in these companies, including
Colonel Robert c. Clowry, president of
the Western Union, and Edward j..
Nally, president of the Postal, was
once at the very bottom, as a messen-
ger boy. and each and every one of
them worked right up through the
various lines to the top. The proba-
bility of getting there is not too
bright, however; for, you know, there
are only two presidents, and telegraph
company presidents have a way of
living for a long time even If some
thousands of ambitious young men
are anxious to take their places. Yet
1t is possible, all the same, and your
boy may be the m to pick the COW
eted plum.
Well, your boy is to start out as
telegraph messenger at fourteen or
sixteen or whatever the age that the
state child labor law will let him go
to work. He applies at the nearest
office where messengers are en-
nJDuAI on1 Io. JIttIo J;g-c-,I+- a., cot
ting a Job, because the requirements
are few, practically nothing more
than being able to read and write and
to move around spryly. 7, en- he gets
his uniform and cap and g1cs to work
for ten hours a day at 4 to Sc a
week.
Practically all his work at the start
is to deliver messages and rim errands
for customers and the b s, but he
will find that inquiries abC.t learning
~telegraphy are encouraged, aud that
he will be given every OPP ~crtunity to
unravel its mysteries. Ambitious boys
of that age are rare, 0 l;now, and
when one comes along thai Is in earn
est he is given every OPT crtunity to
get on.
Before long, probably within two
years at the most, your boy will nave
acquired a pretty good general knowl-
edge OF the Morse code ard how to
send and receive messages. Then he
will find himself transferred from the
messenger gang to the operating room
at an advance Of about two dollars a
week, where he will be occurred large
ly in gathering up messages and put
ting them into envelopes 10 be sent
out. and in transferring messages
from among the various operating
desks. That is, a message IL received
In New York from Chicago and has to
be relayed to Boston, and he has to
take 1t to the operator ut tie Boston
wire. In this way, he learns all about
the layout Of the office-which wires
are used to communicate with various
places, the wiring and dist letting Of
the country, etc.
Then. rrobeb,y By The time he Is
eighteen years old, he will be given
q key attached to q comparatively
little used route and told that he is
q full-nedged operator. His salary
then will be about ten dollars a week
at the beginning. His advancement to
highly skilled operator at about SIS
Il week will not take long, as it is
merely the requirement Of speed,
which takes practise. Some young
allows Of twenty are as rapid as men
n thirty-fve or forty. and a man is