Show SENDING THE NEWS TELEGRAPH OFFICE IN CHICAGO rapid of hiis tiis of operators correspondence A sound as of hailstone hails toce uniting upon a metal loot tables partitioned in four squares each crowned by a blazo of gas men seated at cheso tables industriously engaged in making abo hailstone noises half a hundred active messenger boys flying here and there among the tables and in the center of all this a limilo square with a ask on a slightly raised platform at which a man is seated buch is tho big operating room of the western union telegraph company on the top floor of its building corner of ta salle and washington on election night on the it appears to be inextricable jumble a mad scramble of everybody without aim or effort but it tho man who sits at the desk in the center of the room in the least perturbed on three sides messenger boys and his own assistants si dah up deposit sheets of manifold paper on his desk or ask him for instructions and whisk away to bo lost in the maze of workers all about the man at the desk is the chief operator his name is william J lloyd he is the inspiration the intellect the director of the whole hive of workers prom every city town and cross roads in the country from the east to the west and from the north to the south bulletins of the results of the voting are arriving at cheso hundred desks the operators take them on manifold paper and each bulletin is caught up by a messenger boy as soon as it is completed and a moment later slapped down on the chief operators desk they come numerously but not more rapidly than the great man ath the clear blue eye and close cropped brown beard has glanced over each one and selected such as are of the most value ho has the status of affairs in every state clear in his mind and those bulletins containing information of the most importance are birst to receive attention the anxious shouts of the public a square away urge hime to supply it with the latest news as a hungry gaping maw impels one to feed it him at a small table sits a grave middle aged man one of the dost operators in the service an instrument ment and receiver has been temporarily pora rily placed on the table the chief operator turns and hands this man a sheet of paper number one ha says the grave faced man touches the key with his right hand and in a second eight operators seated at a long table away over in tho north west comer of the room are writing on eight manfold pads with tho stylus the words bulletin no I 1 at the back of these eight men stand eight bright boys as abert and eager as highbred horses under restraint they watch the words as they are spelled and the figures as they are carried out and when the last period is made their ready hands grasp the pads oi paper and all eight plump choir spoil in a bunch on a long table half a dozen feet away hero eight older boys take them and then the eye is dazed in the effort to follow their movements in each of the eight pads are twenty sheets of manigold mani lold paper with twenty sheets of carbon alternating to make the black by this means twenty copies of each bulletin are taken by each of the eight men in all the boys fit the table must take out tho black sheets and their hands lly like the paddles of a windmill in a gale in u trice the black sheets are out and the white sheets in small bunches are given into tho hands of a score of boys who are waiting for them they are seized with as much avidity as characterizes the hawk in pouncing upon a chicken and away the little fellows go to every part of the room they fly about among the tables leaving a cheet ou each and aro off like a shot before one can see that they have paused they are lost to tho eye in a domeni as they dodge in all directions and in another moment they are back again when deposited on the different operating tables these bulletins are taken up by tho operators and in less than a minute wires have carried the news out on as many circuits where it may be heard and copied off by many thousand operators at stations along these lines to every newspaper office to hotels theartres theatres the atres clubs sporting resorts and hundreds of other places in tho city the news goes first because that circuit is first supplied with the copy this process is repeated on every bulletin from tho direct wires all the bulletins go to the chief operator from him to his telegrapher chenco to the eight men who multiply it times and from them by tho boys 0 the general operators who transmit it to every parac of the country providing it is news which reach remote sections bythe same means from new york and the pelting of hailstones keep up the night through the chief operator at his desk directs all the hustle and hurry and execution of the monster force the people ho vl outside and their hunger for information grows by what it feeds on about three in tho morning the force is somewhat reduced but the gas jets hare and hailstones rattle on quite as merrily as before and when day lias dawned another troop of operators among whom are many girls come and relieve the tired work ers of tho H J |