Show WORDS OVER WIRES secrets 4 11 hate been obtained by listeners at the instruments A irand grand and pathetic message tidings of grief and joy speaking of telegraphy your business must certainly bo be the means of revealing to you many curious facts and fancies that inquisitive qui deop people ae would give a world to know ki low said a reporter to a member of the striking operators I 1 yes you outsiders would na aurally suppose so but theres very little we learn that find its way ay into the newspapers most social and business messages arc are written in a manner perfectly unintelligible telli gible to any one but the persons directly interested when not written in cipher a business dispatch is usually in an equally unintelligible form what for example you make out of the simple words offer accepted they might mean the culmination of a transaction involving millions yet who could divine the nature of it the same may maybe be said of social dispatches I 1 have sent sene and received many a lovers communication without knowing or ever being able to guess whether the b burden ur of it meant joy or grief or both together fred will wire clara I 1 that it cannot be referring not to wedlock perhaps but t to a september picnic or a trip to the seashore 0 yes of course I 1 have performed marriage ceremonies ceremonies and all that over the wires but grown old you know and is not much the fashion any more when such freaks lose the charm of novelty they are dead as its a door dail do sweethearts carry en on courtship sometimes by wire IZI yes es 1 but not to any great extent when a young sd man goes out of town for a few days unexpectedly he ia is almost sure to wire eack back some tender mes message sae to his in tended but irwill it will bo brief and to the point kitty dear lidwill he will say ran up tip to this stupid old town on important business had not time thile to say goodbye be back tuesday now a professional man or an elegant man of leisure cither either of them would have made his electric lov lo cletter veletter much longer lon 9 er under the circumstances have hayo you not known business secrets to gain ain pub publicity licit through unemployed operators ako who may be within earshot of the instrument 1 I should say I 1 have such lings have repeatedly happened here quotations have been given away in advance on the board of trade races and ball games have been surreptitiously announced among the tile sports in like manner large sums of booty have thus been won by those fortunate enough to come into possession of the advance information an office boy standing outside a closed office caught the news of tiddens Til dens nomis nation at st louis as it sped on its way to washington city and unwittingly gave a sporting man opportunity port unity to place a large number of bets that won years ago I 1 worked in an old ohio town heading by sound was not so universal then as now several prominent gentlemen and myself were suddenly I 1 startled by the messenger b boy dy exclaiming aiming iming the th neill house il is burning at columbus 1 for that the he boy was dismissed but his quick car could not be dispensed with and ere long he was reinstated are there many errors in the transmission or receiving of dispatches not kanj considering the vast manju volume of business binem d done ne but I 1 suppose sup irv se you will not consider that I 1 apply Y my remark to the present period rio M when tho the strike is on and the offices cesare are filled with scabs the number of errors occurring just at this time cannot be computed there are messenger boys in some of the offices who can do better than some of 0 the scrubs who are working the tickers now why some years ago I 1 was in charge of an office at wheeling and was doing train dis patching nat ching I 1 went to supper leaving the messenger in the office the tile office was call calle dand he lie replied that the operator was away who arc are you came the answer back the office boy can you receive a message sa e 1 I am afraid to try it I 1 never dil did then tr try it now and the nies message sage came slowly slowly and distinctly touching an important matter pertaining to the road and was signed by the superintendent the bo boy repeated heated the message as he had ha ta taken en it and the tile rs response ellse camo came back bull bully A calamity ami I 1 was a averted anta and a month later tie the boy was placed ia night office on oil the tile road betas he has since become an expert oper operator atar Is there not a superstitious dread folka iu in opening 0 ening telegrams among rural folks abnot not accustomed to receiving them A very great fear is felt by them indeed they think it mus must t be the news of tile death of some very dear friend or relative and have to nerve themselves to break the seal what a it study the human countenance presents at such a moment I 1 would you like to hear as much as I 1 am able to recollect of what I 1 believe to be tho most pat pathetic hetio dispatch I 1 ever received well a few yeara yea irs ago I 1 was sta stationed tinned at philadelphia A little boys mother died at cambridge ohio and to notify their relatives in the former place cf of the bereavement they wrote down the bewildered talk of the little boy who could not understand den bealli anil and sent it it made such a an i impression on oil me at the time that I 1 think I 1 can repe atit to you almost verbatim Is 4 ive just been dawn down in in the parlor 10 r to see mamma ashes in a long box with howers flowers on her I 1 wish shed hed a come and bathe my head it aches so nobody ever makes it feel good but mamma slie knew how it hurt me and find to read tome to me out ofa of a little book how my head would gatwell get well and not ache any more some day la I 1 wish will it was w as some oday day now nobody likes tile me but mamma because ive got a sick head mamma used to take me in her arms and cry when I 1 asked her chats the matter she would only eay lay im only tir tired ed darling I 1 guess aunt agnes agile made her tired for arlien she came up and stayed all day lay mamma would would take mft ma up on her ber lap in the evening and cry awful hard I 1 aint had bad any dinner today to day mamma always gave me my iny dinner and baittle a ittle meent pud pudding dilli with D for danny on ze the top I 1 like ittle puddings with IDs on top I 1 like to tonii sit in my little chair by the fire and eatch I 1 wish mamma stay in the long box I 1 guess aunt agnes put her there be cau sesile put all the flowers on and shows her ber to everybody there aint any fire in the grate but I 1 guess bess uess ill sit by it and make believe there is ill get iny my little diah and spoon and play ive I 1 ve got a adding pudding with idlor D for Da danny lluy oil it but ut anyhow I 1 want mamma so bad can onn you give any other incident that you happen to remember it is difficult to recall them theirl at will but I 1 think of one other that I 1 have never fora forgotten and never shall while memory serves me I 1 was the night operator at a little station on oil one of the raids leading into cincinnati there was little business to be done except reporting trains and on oil the night in in question there was nothing to break the monotony the cincinnati operator had announced the departure of no noa 5 and for three hours all I 1 had bad heard was the regular report as the train rattled past reporting stations then there was a press dispatch giving the condition of the river at knoor one jor two point points when my attention was attracted by a call from an tin office which was usually closed earlier in the evening to my surprise the call was ansil aired erad and a message was announce announced d for a little town some distance from the telegraph office with instructions to deliver at once regardless regard lofs of cost the message was ft as brief mamie is dying como come at on once one e who mamie mamic was I 1 iliad had no idea de but I 1 pictured her lier in my mind as a golden haired beautiful young girl fair as the first beam beani glittering on a sail that brings our frienda friends up from the tile under world and I 1 fancied that the message was from lier her mother to her fathers father fat lier I 1 found myself matching fora return dispatch and as the night on I 1 became anxious the train by which the father could rench reach his dying child would soon pass that station would the operator remain in the office to receive the answer which I 1 knew would be expected at about 4 in the morning I 1 called up his office and received no response I 1 knew then that the operator had gone home becoming more intense in my anxiety I 1 asked the day operator to watch for that return dispatch earlier than usual I 1 hurried to the office that evening velling and was given the dispatch for which I 1 had been so anxiously nailing waiting it announced the inability of the father to start before that night and asked for news I 1 knew then instinctively that he lie would be too late and would never again see ace his child alive I 1 was right early in the evering ev cHing came the word mamie is dead I 1 am no sentimentalist but that incident made a alantin lasting impression that mamie was dead lea doubtless meant volumes to others where it meant these few orda words to me yes the wires arc are full of history |