Show r. Knights h is o. o of f t the h e K Key ey 1 I Y YOU OU recall the days daY when the arrival of of a telegram telegram telegram tele tele- gram frightened a woman so much she was scared to open it afraid someone was dead This fear is rapidly dying out says a telegraph company official Telegrams are common Night letters total millions yearly Tl The e most marvelous marvel ous ous' or fearful thing grows commonplace through wide usage Telegrams have become so ordinary that thai few of us ever give a thought to the telegraph telegraph tele tele- graph operator His seems a humdrum mechanical nechan- nechan ical existence Yet no trade or profession ever produced more unique useful and devoted ch char char- r- r You owe a lot tot to the telegraph operator Often you read about some telegraph operator who to the presidency pf of a railroad n E Edison ison the inventor f years years years' was a knight of the key So were vere Frank Munsey William WilHam Gillette Ge George rge V. V Hobart and AndrewC Andrew C Carnegie My Friend Fro From i India one of the best American comedies was written by a telegrapher Harry farry Harry Desouchet t. t You know v the Evolution poem which starts When you were a tadpole I and I was a fish Written by Langdon Smith once telegraph operator for the United Press r So hey go on the roll of fame into the thou thou- sands A A. A veteran operator was J J John hn 1 M. M Carnahan who b began gan handling a key in hi 1861 In Iti It 1876 he was operator at Bismarck N. N D D. then the farthest west wire station Stopping for only brief int intervals in in- in t ryals Carnahan sat at his key for nearly eighty hours and sent the story o or of the Custer massacre massacre a time feat that it is said has never since ince been duplicated At the time of the great Galveston flood wires were down and there was no way to get relief apP appeals als to fa the outside world Richard a a. former telegraph operator no now a a business business business busi busi- ness writer was managing editor of a Galveston newspaper In hi an an old steam launch assisted assisted by a cotton broker defied the hurricane crossed the bay by and reaching and tramped on through the night into Houston There he got to a key and for hours wired appeals for for help followed by news stories He had bad made the trip in carpet slippers Th Their ir dve dye soaked out find nd poisoned his feet which were we're were so 50 swollen that when he finished t telegraphing he had to be lifted out of his chair The details of dash for help make the movies t. t seem seem tanie tame But its it's typical of the men who have fl g given g. g th the the- tI f i t tei telegraph gr news neWs neWs' anc and a pe personal on 1 wire messages since ince Sam Samuel l Morse invented the othe telegraph pf Jn J. J 0 I |