The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-15
Bucket Shop Victims
 Caught by Telephone
Theodore Waters, in Leslie's Weekly.

Theodore Waters, in Leslies Weekly.
 The telephone room in bucket shop may be merely the private office of one of the partners, or it may be spare room with central table and telephones arranged thereon for listening in purposes. The chief operator sits where his pupils (there may be but one two) can hear every word that is said. They are there not only to listen but to note down any suggestions that may occur to them during the conversa- tions. For such talks, like the letters that have been sent out, are built. They are the com posite products of expert minds, added to and subtracted from as may seem expedient.
 The operator may work from a memorandum, but usually he knows his recitation by heart and he shoots 1t over the wire with every in- flection placed just where 1t will have the most telling effect. He Is talking to one man only<but his speech could not have been moro carefully prepared had he intended it for 6 grand opera house full. It is intended for one man only, MT. Leading Citizen, for instance, and 1t is the clinching argument that sums up
 
 him during the .build up." Not only is 1t de- livered so rapidly that he finds it almost ina- possible to get word in edgewise, but every word is uttered with an effectiveness thnt would do credit to vaudeville artist getting his points over the footlights. When the operator is finished, every necessary word has been said and he rings off, leaving his victim at the other end of the long distance wire wrig- gling in maelstrom of unrequited desire that usually results in his forwarding check at once
 For urgency, immediate necessity, Is always the burden of the operators plea. It is the tip that leads on to fortune Omitted, all the con duct of Mir. Citizens affairs will thereafter be bound in shallows and miseries. If the come on has shown himself during the correspon- dence to be very much upstage, if he has taken himself ultra seriously, that is, the telephone talk may be projected in the form of friendly advice concerning the stock of the very auto- mobile which "a pool has been formed" and an immediate rise sure. Such men usually come across because of what they believe is a corrob- oration of their own judgment.
 If, on the other hand he has shown himself to be hail-fellow well met, slap-you-on-the- back sort of fellow, who would relish the joke that is told when the ladies are not present, then the operator does not hesitate to cuss him outi s'Why, you gol-dinged fool, didn't we give you tips other stocks, every one of which turned out good? And here, when I tell you something that will make youf everlasting fortune, you hesitate. Good nightr and so on with variations not even so refined.
 The story is told of one operator, who, in or der to carry the impression of urgency to the utmost degree, conceived the idea of calling up his long distance victims in the middle of the night. He got their undivided attention all right and he gave them something to lie awake about until they could get to their check books next morning, but the vision of the poor de- luded come-ons standing in their nightshirts listening to advice how to lose their money and not able to get word in edgewse, must have had it's humorous possibilities from the bucketeer point of view.
 hardly justified in 1901, and is merely curious leaf from the past in 1922. The modern editors don't call other people the names they did back in 1875, and other people don't go round shoot ing up the editors. As an aid in preserving the peace the libel action in the constitution and the civil law founded on that section have out lived their usefulness-if they ever had any. The newspaper in these times Is 8 vast indus trial establishment, run on business and ethical lines and performing the greatest service to the public at the smallest possible cost. Such an establishment should not be discriminated against in the law; and the removal of the dis elimination now existing should obtain the early sanction of the people of the state.