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Show j WHAT THE SOUNDER SAID. . How Mother and Son, Long Separ-. Separ-. ated, Were United at Last. (New York Times.) ; "Waiting for the train, eh? Well, sir. you'll wait just twenty minutes. No. 8 is off its beat tonight hot box on one of the rear coaches. Won't you come in? Here, take a seat. Line is quiet just now, so I've a moment to spare. Queer messages pass over the wires? Oh, yes! at least sometimes. Joy, sorrow, sor-row, business, pleasure it makes no difference to the wire. Frequently a sprinkling of tragedy, too. Why, sir, one happened in this same office. Same time of year as this, express late same as tonight, and the party waiting for it bless me! you are occupying the selfsame self-same chair. There! there! don't be frightened light-ning seldom strikes twice in the same place. "It was like this. The wire that night was vorking badly. Dots and dashes run together until it was well-nigh well-nigh impossible to distinguish the letters. let-ters. Adjusting the relay, tightening the different screws, cleaniner the zincs. and adding vitriol to the batteries, failed to remove the cause. Whatever the fault, it hindered the perfect transmission trans-mission of messages, if nothing more. "While working at the machine a form darkened my office window. 'Is the train nearly due?" was asked. 'Overdue.1 I answered, petulantly. People will ask such questions, you know, with the time card staring them straight in the face. . Looking up and recognizing the speaker, I added : 'The express is one half hour late. Won't you come In, Mrs. Had ley?' "'I'm looking for Charlie,' she said, as i motioned her to a seat. Same chair you are now occupying. 'Charlie's my boy, you know. He left home five years ago. It has seemed a long time those five years and I have. missed him so much. But tonight he Is coming home.' "I knew Charlie well. He was the only child and support :Of his widowed mother, and at the time he went away was 19 years of age. Model youth he was, too noble, upright, honest. Traits inherited from his mother, who was a Christian woman in every sense of the word. A noble inheritance these fine traits of character and sure to bring their, reward. So it proved in his case. A position was offered'htm in New York in some bank, I think and he felt it his duty to accept. So did bis mother. Good positions are not always al-ways nicked un in that wav -inst for the asking. - "Ah! - the relay scratched just then. Did you notice it? You probably wouldn't, not being familiar with the sound. 'Stuck', some onjerators call it. 'Stuck' or 'scratched.' it all amounts to the same thing nearly, So it worked on the night of the tragedy. Finally the line brightened up. That is, the Scratching' ceased and the relay clicked in better shape. Each office holding delayed messages began fighting fight-ing for the wire. A '12' silenced them, and Jack, our train dispatcher, rattled rat-tled off orders for the express. Then there was another rush, and the wire was secured by W of. the Central, the day repeater on our division. How 'W could sling electricity! But that's neither here nor there. I simply listened lis-tened to him with one ear, and with the other to Mrs. Hadley. who was talking about her 'dear Charlie.' - "'Charlie was such a good boy,' she said; and I can see Just how she looked when she said: 'So thoughtful, too. Every Ev-ery Tuesday when I go to the office-there office-there is Charlie's letter in the box. How I would miss that letter if it failed to arrive. But it never will not while Charlie is alive and well.' He loves his old mother, Charlie does, and I love him better than anyone else on earth. I can hardly wait, so anxious am I to clasp him in these arms. . "While she was talking the sounder clicked 'B N B N' That was my office, call, so I answered it. Then, listening to Mrs. Hadley with one ear and to the sounder with the other, I copied this, one of the most hateful messages that ever passed over a wire: "'Man fell from express. Lived to e-xclaim that his name ,was Charles Hadley. Home at your place. Last words were: "Break it gently to mother," moth-er," and died.' " 'Break it . gently to mother!' Think of that! Think of it.' 1 say. and with that mother- sitting where you are, in the self-same, chair. Glaring at the message blank, I read and reread It, and wondered- If I dreamed. I feared to give the 'O. K.' lest I had misunderstood. misunder-stood. Instead, I grasned the kev and wired, 'G. A. B. G., (go ahead from beginning), be-ginning), and the message was repeated. repeat-ed. It was the exact duplicate of the first. Then, giving the 'O. K.' I reluctantly reluct-antly turned and glanced across the room. I tried to speak.-but the effort was useless. The w ords 'stuck in my throat. I could only stare at that mother., who continued to talk like this: " 'Charlie's room is all arranged just as he left it when he went away. I know his little peculiarities, you see, and so have humored him in every whim. Neither could I eat alone tonight, to-night, and so have arranged the .table .for two. We. will eat together, just as we ' used to in the past. Just as we used to in, the past! Ah. sir. the ioom surrounding the old home has disappeared. disap-peared. It's- all sunshine tonight all sunshine. It did seem when I started for the train as if the' flowers in -the vases looked brighter, and the old clock ticked with a livelier sound. I must have imagined all this. It would be quite natural, you know. Happiness makes the world look bright, and I am happy tonight, for Charlie is coming home.'. , " 'Coming "home.' Dare I tell her how her boy was coming home? It seemed like murder to speak the truth. I picked up that message blank, twisted -and twisted it around, then desperately unwound un-wound it and twisted it over again. But my tongue was mute. Then came the whistle of the express. The crisis had come. Mrs. Hadley started to her feet. She turned toward the door. Hardly knowing what. I did, I rushed toward her, grasped her by the arm, and cried, .'Don't o!V ' . , ' , She looked at me in surprise. , "My-Charlie has arrived.' "'Your Charlie.v I cried, 'the sounder says your Charlie is dead." - , .'.'The. deed was done. She stared at me a moment glared, almost and then, realizing the truth, staggered and pitched forward into-my arms. See the top of that Balm o' Gilead ' over the hill? They sleep beneath it, side by side Charlie and bis mother. Hem's your train, sir."- . - |
