The record., 1917-06-07
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OVER THE :
WIRE :
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A Telegraph 0per-
ator's Story
By WARREN MILLER

Ilere Is no more IaVo1ttb'N HDpOI-
tunity for young people of#pnosite sex
to poke fun at each Qthershan over a
telephone or telegraph wire{. There is
fascination in operating fl@A behind a
shield rendering one invdsg9le A girl
will delight to say things tFa man who
can't see her and doe IL i5slaW Who she
is. l was a telegraph opeRifof when a
young man, and | noticed shis DISPOSE
ton in many a girl operatqa1Svith whom
talked over the wire. | %lm matter
of fact sort of fellow=inySelf and
doubt if it would ever hHse occurred
to me to bambooZle Il EifITe ,hlS fash
ion had not the girl shows dlsposl-
ton to bambOOZle me.
She who first tried it was an opera
tor at q station about t%enty miles
away from me. / was iltstlc town or
NJ, while the girl was OutSst G., way
station some twenty mile distant III
the country. She had mOretlne on her
hands than l, and | suHaose this Is
what set her On to quizzIag me. she
started in one nigh abGAt o'clock
after having taken meSSEfSc from me:
beginning by asking me NSl2t was go
ing on in toW1l; how. / EhSed NJ; II
there was any fun going 81 thefe anu
expressing her dislike atsfDelng COM
PEELED to live in a littleaNS@y station
like G.. From this we Fed to talking
about ourselves and natJFally, as per-
sons of opposite sex at tkat age tnva'
riably do, finally driftCu o. to love ana
marriage. From love andsanarrlage III
general we dropped into x3eclaiuea. at
last narrowing the topic To5Fn TO our
selves. A
The girl led me along ilfthe channel
she laid out herself till ] a94nttteu that.
/ marriage being lottery, EWouid about
as lief marry a girl J hSIs no EhoWl-
edge of as one l had II - ana i2Fed
All required was to klsoW that the
girl l was to marry pCss ssed tar
amount of good looks. Cg,e thlng LED
to another ill i WAS arI'a '9fi tiiat she: she
sn0uIa man ne nef I5li,. .ifa u:rdsT
should send her mine. Thch if we We're
mutually pleased we nght proceed
further toward fo:,ming tn acquaint-
ance with view to matrf hony.
The next Cay l looked 0 Ter my stock
Of photographs-ntt Cf myself, hut of
my friends-aud, selecting enc OF Sam
Atkins, the best looking fellow in the
lot, l sent it to the girl. sam was off
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 off for
| myself. In return I received u picture
of a rather pretty girl, who | Judged
from her features was full Of mis-
chief, tie vcFy one to get up just such
complication as we were entering
| upon. Upon her lips was 4n engaging
smile and in her eyes q very saucy
look
After that the wires began to warm
up with our conversations. till at last
| they came to a white heat with love
| passages. When we had fred a lot OF
| such missiles at each cthcr we began
| to talk about meeting. At nv Dro-
| posal to go to see her she cooled down
bit, and it was easy TO ice that her
eXuberance was the result Of tighting
| behind masked battery, . made sew.
eral propositions TO go to see her on a
| time ] set she gave some reason Uhy
| it would be inconvenicnt cr impossible
| for her to receive me. A last it oc-
| CURED to me TO go up and look her over
without an appointment. Never hav-
| ing seen me, she wouldn't know me-.
So one day. haying secured Il leave. |
started to see my clarmer. On arrival
| walked up into the village ana on the
street met my girl, whom 7 recogniZed
at once by her photograph j followed
her into several shops and finally 10 a
yellow house that stood back from the
street She went into the house, aud,
having waited half an hoUE for her to
come OUT, concluded she iVed there.
| | knew man in the place. Tom Eos
ter, and, bunting him up, tod him that
there was q girl in the town | wished
to know. He said there was going 10
be dance that evening and all The
! girls in the place would be there. He
would take me with him, ana if he
knew the girl ! wished g. meet he
would introduce me. | thought rhat
an excellent plan since it would give
me the advantage of keeping my al
fairs to myself. | could obtain an In
PRODUCTION to different girls without
my introducer knowing the one l was
especially interested in.
That evening l went with Foster to
the hall where the dance was to take
place. He asked about the @ir wish
ed to know and why ! wished to know
her and all that, but eyad"d his gues-
tions. l didn't propose to let the girl
herself know that | was the fellow she
had been making love 10 over the wire
at least till I had learned all about Iler.
| She was. rhero sure pnop4h, looking
as pretty as q picture--a brunette with
a profusion Of jet black hair. "a stately
figure ana as mischioy ous IN eve as
e'hs' saw ii Il WCinau Nl.u nrst
G11 tcr G';c as teit-::..- -'-o a. sEer
gil aHc:-t hec ON sEe al Ia !
/ nigh: &C. gi7e Cyca:n &c. . :-c..e-
, c6---c.l at1 . :--.t-c:..Ce ~2e o :hc
Hthcr girl.
She proved to De Miss Ellen Crmsb7.
! staid young woman whom ! found
/ iither hard to talk to. I asked her
! who H2gIh9 giT! he Was "fth V he" I
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