The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-06-25
OVER THE
WIRE
A Telegraph Oper-
ator's Story
BY WARREN MILLER

to poke fun at each other than over
telephone or telegraph wire. There is
fascination in operating from behind
shield rendering one invisible. a gill
will delight to say things to man wba
can't see her and doesn't know who she
is. / was telegraph operator when
young man, and noticed this disposi
ton in many girl operator with whom
1 talked over the wire. l am matter
Of fact sort of fellow myself and
doubt If it would ever have occurred
to me to bamboozle a girl in this fash
ion had not the girl shown dispoSi
tion to bamboOZle me.
She who first tried 1t was an opera
tor at a station about twenty mil"9
away from me. | was in the town Oi
NJ, while the girl was out at G., Il way
station some twenty miles distant IA
the country. She had more time on her
hands than |, and | suppose this is
what set her on to quizzing me. She
started In one night about o'clock
after having taken message from me-
beginning by asking me what was go
ing on in town; how | liked NJ; If
there was any fun going on there and
expressing her dislike at being com
PEELED to live in little way station
like G. From this we fell to talking
about ourselves and naturally. as per
sons Of opposite sex at that age inva-
riably do, finally drifted on to love and
marriage. From love and marriage In
general we dropped into specialties. at
last narrowing the topic down to our
selves.
The girl led me along In the channel
she laid out herself till l admitted that
marriage being lottery, would about
as lief marry girl l had no knowl
edge of as one | had met and loved
AL l required was to know that the
girl I was to marry possessed fair
amount of good looks. One thing led
to another till 1t was arranged that she
should mail me her photograph and l
should send her mine. Then If we were
mutually pleased we might proceed
further toward forming an acquaint-
ance with view to matrimOny.
The next day looked over my stock
of photographs-not of myself, but Of
my friends-and, selecting one Of Sam
lot, sent it to the girl. Sam was of
at the Spanish American war at the
time, and l trusted to his getting shot
or dying Of disease so that ! might not
get into trouble by passing him OF for
myself. In return received a picture
Of rather pretty girl. who l Judged
from her features was full of mis-
chief, the very one to get up just such
complication as we were entering
upon Upon her lips was an engaging
smile and in her eyes very saucy
look.
After that the wires began to warm
up with our conversations, till at last
they came to white heat with love
passages. When we had fired a lot of
such missiles at each other we began
to talk about meeting. At my pro-
pOSal to go to see her she cooled down
a bit. and 1t was easy to see that her
exuberance was the result of fighting
behind masked battery. l made sew
eral propositions to go to see her on a
certain day and hour, but for every
time set she gave some reason why
1t would be inconvcnient or impossible
for her to receive me. At last it oc-
| CURED 10 me to go up and look her over
without an appointment. Never hav-
| ing seen me. she wouldn't know me.
So one day, having secured leave.
! started to see my charmer. On arrival
| walked up into the village and on the
street met my girl whom recognized
at once by her photograph followed
her into several shops and finally to a
| yellow house that stood back from the
street. She went into the house. and.
having waited half an hour for her ia
come out. concluded she lived there.
| l knew man in the place. Tom Fos.
ter, and, hunting him up. told him that
there was a girl in the town ! wished
to know. He said there was going to
be dance that evening and all the
girls in the place would be there. He
would take me with him. and II he
| 'S" 'hS Shl "iSuCu W meet he
would introduce me. l thought that
an excellent plan since it would give
me the advantage of keeping nv az.
fairs to myself. / could obtain an I'm,
PRODUCTION to different girls without
my introducer knowing the one l was
especially interested in.
That evening l went with Foster IA
the hall where the dance was TO take
place. He asked about the girl | wish.
ed to know and why l wished to know
her and all that, but l evaded his CUES
tions. didn't propose to let the cir,
; herself know that was the fellow she
had been making love to over the wire
at least till had learned all about her
She was there sure enough. looking
as pretty as picture-a brunette with
a profusion of jet black hair. a stately
figure and as miSchievous an eve as
ever l saw in a woman. When | first
saw her she was talking with another
girl about her own age, and that
might not give myself away TO Foste,
asked him to introduce me to the
other girl
III She DrOyed to ha Miss lSllan nrr,sh,