New
BY WALTER P. PHILLIPS
(JOHN OAKUM)
TOG: 'R WITH MISCELLANEOUS
MATTER FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
NT ve* AND A CATALOGUE n? x
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
Sketches Old and New
BY
WALTER P. PHILLIPS
(John Oakum)
SUPPLEMENTED BY AN ADDRESS ENTITLED
"FROM FRANKLIN TO EDISON"
A CATALOGUE, Etc., Etc.
NEW YORK, U. S. A.
J. H. BUNNELL y COMPANY
No. 20 PARK PLACE
Copyright, 1897
By Walter P. Phillips.
'»\
THIS VOLUME IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
Wl LLIS J. COOK
550577
CONTENTS
ADDENDUM
PAGE
Phillips's Morse Automatic Tele-
graph i
By Way of Introduction . . 9
Old Jim Lawless . . . . 17
Posie Van Dusen . . 25
Little Tip McCloskey . . 39
An Autumn Episode .... 49
Cap De Costa 61
Old George Wentvvorth 75
Patsy Flannagan .... 91
Narcissa 105
An Agreeable Saunterer . 117
Pop Donaldson 139
Bif 153
From Franklin to Edison . .167
The Phillips Code . . . 203
PHILLIPS'S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
SOME INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE OF THIRTY
YEARS AGO
{Samuel F. B. Morse to Walter P. Phillips.")
New York, April 27, 1869.
My Dear Sir: — Ever since I received the proof of your great skill,
in connection with your skilful associates, in testing rapid transmission
of despatches by the Morse Telegraph System, I have been desirous
of manifesting to you, and also to N. J. Snyder, Esq., of Philadelphia,
some token of my gratification on your accomplishment of feats which,
so far as I know, are unexampled in the annals of telegraphy. Please,
therefore, accept from me, on this, the 78th anniversary of my birth,
the accompanying gold pencil case and pen, as a very slight and
indeed inadequate expression of my admiration of your masterly per-
formance of recording 2,731 words in one hour; a feat which I have not
failed to put on record in my report to the- Department of State on the
telegraph apparatus of the Paris Exposition of 1867
The necessity for exclusive attention in preparing the above-men-
tioned report has prevented an earlier recognition of your skill. My
thanks are also due to all concerned in the satisfactorj result ol the
test of speedy transmission. While your associates deserve hi.^h
praise for their rare dexteriu in manipulation, you and Mr. Snyder, I
think, deserve the highest praise for the admirable and indeed I. mil
less manner of recording that which was so ably transmitted. A. < ept,
also, the assurance of my sincere respect and esteem.
Sam 1 El F. B MORS!
11 rillLLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
{Walter P. Phillips to Samuel F. B. Morse.')
Providence, April 30, 1869.
My Dear Sir:— The elegant and valuable pencil case and pen, of
which your kindness has made me the recipient, together with your
beautiful letter accompanying it, reached me to-day.
However highly I may prize so great a token of your interest in my
performance as the former, it is altogether beyond my means to
express, in a becoming manner, my gratitude to you for the latter.
While I shall ever cherish the gift— valuable intrinsically, but an
hundred-fold more valuable from its association with you, whom the
world can never cease to love and honor — I shall regard your letter as
the most valuable worldly possession to which I can ever attain, and
one in which my pride will increase as years wear on, and I come to
possess apace still more comprehensive ideas than those I entertain
already of your gigantic genius and enterprise, and the great con-
tribution which you have made to the development of civilization.
Indeed, sir, I am keenly sensible of the honor which the coupling
of your name with mine must entail on me, as I am, also, of the little
I have done to deserve your praise.
Most gratefully and respectfully yours,
Walter P. Phillips.
To Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse.
PHILLIPS'S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
WALTER P. PHILLIPS IN THE "TELEGRAPH AGE "
From time to time my telegraphic friends who know of my Morse
Automatic system write to me asking terms on which I will supply
a set to enable them to become proficient as typewriter operators,
by practicing typewriting at home from the Morse sending done by
the transmitting side of the Morse Automatic system. The difficulty
in the way of my supplying the demand, which seems to grow rather
than to subside, has been that all the sets which were in use on The
United Press wires, and which reverted to me when that organiza-
tion went out of active business, were arranged for an incandescent
light circuit as the motive power, and it has only been within a short
time that I have found it feasible to adapt my mechanism to the
power to be had through the medium of a spring motor, such as is
used on the graphophone. By this means I am now able to supply
a compact instrument that will meet the requirements of the many
who have not yet conquered the typewriter, but are anxious to do so,
thus putting a premium on their work.
c
5
o
° -J
4-t
•C C
c .a
o ^
PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH 111
There is no field in which expert telegraphers can make their
value felt as markedly as in connection with the slug casting mech-
anism known as the linotype. The time will conic, undoubtedly,
when a very great deal of matter will be copied from the wire and
set up on the linotype.
This has been done already to a considerable extent by some
operators, notably by Mr. Kihm, of the Brooklyn Eagle, but the
Morse Automatic system, as arranged for that special purpose, will
enable any first-class operator who has familiarized himself with
the linotype keyboard, to use that machine with as much ease as
he uses the typewriter. My plan contemplates taking the sending
on a matrix and delivering it to the operator at any time and at any
gait that suits his convenience.
The transmitting part of the machine will be under his absolute
control, while the recording half of it will take without breaks and
store anything that comes over the wire. This matter can be repro-
duced within five seconds, or five years later, if that were neces-
sary. In view of all the tendencies, the day when Morse men
who can use the linotype will be in demand is not far distant, and
where the situation admits of their filling the dual positions referred
to, their compensation cannot fail to be much better than it is in
scarcely any other field.
ALBERT C. PHILLIPS IN THE "TELEGRAPH AGE"
I read with interest the letter from my father which yon pub-
lished in a recent issue of the Telegraph Age, telling of the success-
ful application of his reproducer for 'use in connection with the lino-
type. It strikes me that this type of machine will be of great value
in the smaller telegraph offices at way-stations.
A few years ago, when I was a reporter, I frequently had occa
sion to visit the small towns near New York. It is every reporter's
experience that alter his story is covered he has anywhere from one
to three hours to wait for a train back to the city.
The local fire engine house and the railway station are the least
desolate places to put in this time. I usually chose the railway
station, in the hope that a belated train of the day before might
happen along, and with a view to swapping yams with the tele-
graph operator. On these excursions I have often been impressed
with the many interruptions to which the average country operator
is subjected, and the consequent diminution in the capacity of a
wire which passes through a number of these places. Even if
he is not called on to check trunks and milk cans, he usually has
Jv phillips's morse automatic telegraph
to sell tickets and answer questions about trains. The noise of
passing trains, especially in summer, when the doors and windows
are open, is another source of interruption.
All these things mean that a first-class sender in New York,
working a circuit through small towns, is liable to constant breaks,
and that his capacity and that of the wire is greatly reduced. With
a Morse Automatic machine in each of these offices this difficulty
would be entirely obviated. The country operator, when queried
about the next train to Maguffinsville, could shut off his repro-
ducer, let the other operator continue sending into the recorder,
and, when he had attended to the other demands on his time,
could take up his work again without interrupting the sending
at all.
This gain, of course, would be entirely aside from the primary
gain due to the possibility of the sender's disposing of the mes-
sages for one way-station at top speed and going ahead with those
for another place, leaving the receiving operator to grind out his
particular grist at his own particular gait.
Under these conditions, I feel sure, the country operator would
have so much more time and be so much freer from exasperating
conditions, that the railway station would be established as a sure
winner, as against the fire engine house, as a refuge for the way-
faring reporter.
A PRACTICAL SCHEME
(From the New York Sun)
There was an interesting exhibition on Sunday of a recently in-
vented system of rapid telegraphy. It was given in Room 623 of
the Postal Telegraph Building. The system is the invention of
R. H. Weiny and Walter P. Phillips, both of this city, and it is in-
tended to be applied directly to the ordinary telegraph lines and
to be operated by the currents now in use.
What Phillips's Morse Automatic Telegraph will do is to
double or treble the number of words that can be sent over a single
wire, and this without requiring that the operators learn anything
beyond that which the present Morse operators know now. This
result is accomplished by the addition to each office of a set of very
simple instruments. When there is no need of hurrying matter
forward over the wires the rapid system can be cut out of use by
changing a plug, and the wires can be used in the ordinary way-
sending messages directly by the key. The system is one which
WALTER P. SUESMAN
Senior member of the law firm of Suesman & Suesman, of Providence, R. I., wat
for several years Assistant General Western Manager of The United Press in Chicago.
As well as being a first-class telegrapher, he is a finished and skilful pianist. He
received his musical education at the Chicago Musical College, and graduated in 1S90,
when he carried off the first prize for composition and harmony. He is also a
graduate of the Chicago College of Law. Main of our matrices are mule by Mi.
Suesman and his brother Asa.
PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH V
is of value principally to the telegraph companies themselves and
to the users of leased wires, but the public would often hud a direct
benefit from its adoption through getting messages promptly, which
are now often delayed when there is trouble with the wires and
their capacity is reduced below the normal.
In this system the messages are recorded in raised telegraphic
characters on a strip of paper, and this strip being run through
a proper machine the characters are repeated by sound at the
other end of the wire, and the operator, reading them by ear,
takes them upon a typewriter or by hand. The transcribing operator
can vary the speed of the tape as it goes through the machine to
suit himself, can stop it at any point, and can pull it back if he
wants it repeated. It is asserted that the greater number of mis-
takes that occur in the Wheatstone system are in the reading and
transcribing, and that these are done away with in the new system,
because the ear is more accurate than the eye and also faster.
These claims seemed all to be proved by the tests made yesterday.
An article in the Sun was chosen for the test. This was handed
to a Morse operator, and while he sent it the operator, who was
afterward to transcribe it, left the room. The sending operator
worked at the ordinary key, just as he would in sending a message
over the wire in the present Morse system. The message, how-
ever, instead of going over the main wire, was sent only over a local
office wire. It was received in a machine, which was, to all intents
and purposes, like the registering machine which every operator
us< d forty years ago, before men had learned to read by sound.
The dots and dashes were reproduced on a strip of paper, each
being raised above the surface of the paper by a point which pressed
that part of the paper into a groove in a wheel which the paper
passed over. Instead of producing a single line of these impres-
sions, there were three points which worked side by side and left
three sets of duplicate impressions. The duplication is merely to
insure accuracy. The message was telegraphed in this part of the
process at the ordinary rate of speed.
Now came the second process — the transmission over the main
wire. The transmitting instrument and the recording instrument.
at opposite ends of the wire, were set going :it a speed three times
as great as that of the hand operator. The strip of paper with
the message imprinted on it was started through the transmitter.
and the recorder went rattling away at a rate which no man could
read, but every impression was afterward Found to be an exact
duplicate of those in the strip going through the transmitter. \\ lien
VI PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
this process was completed the paper from the recorder was
brought over to the transmitter, and the latter machine was slowed
down again to a speed equal to that of ordinary telegraphing. The
transmitter was now assumed to be only an office machine run upon
an office circuit and entirely separate from the line wire, as would
be the case in the third process — that of taking the message from
the transmitted copy and turning it into ordinary writing. A type-
writer who could read telegraphy by sound sat in front of his ma-
chine and as soon as the strip was started through the transmitter
he began to print out the message. When he had finished, the
typewritten copy was compared with the original article in the
Sun and found to be exactly correct.
In practice, the manner in which the system would be used is
this: Since the transmitter is able to send three times as many
messages in a given time as a single operator can send or receive,
there would be three operators in each office to each wire. In the
sending office these operators would be kept busy making the tape
copies of the messages by ticking them off on office recorders.
As fast as their messages were ready they would be run through
the transmitter, which would reproduce them at the triple speed at
the other end of the wire. There the three other operators would
each take a part of the messages and transcribe them. There is
absolutely no loss of time.
SOME PLAIN TALKS ABOUT MACHINE TELEGRAPHING
(By Walter P. Phillips)
Until the extremely simple and effective system known as
Phillips's Morse Automatic Telegraph was brought out, practically
all interest in automatic telegraphs was dead both here and in
Europe; but here, especially, the conditions of business are such
that what is wanted is speed and accuracy rather than cheapness
and a possible attendant delay in the handling of business, with the
probabilities strongly favoring the making of errors the moment
the telegraph business gets out of the hands of the experts in manual
telegraphy.
Every once in a while there has been a ripple of excitement in the
public mind over the announcement of an invention of a new auto-
matic telegraph which would transmit matter at the rate of three
thousand words per minute. But this has been done again and
again. As long ago as when Grant was President, Edison had
devised an improvement in the Little Automatic Telegraph which
PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH Vll
made it practicable to send through one of Grant's messages
to Congress in three or four minutes. One of the great difficulties
in the way of mechanical transmission at a high rate of speed has
been that the static charge which remains in the wire after every
pulsation tends to "tail" the signals, or, in other words, make them
run into an uninterrupted line. This particular difficulty has been
overcome of late by sending copper and zinc into the line alternately
— that is, sending one pulsation from the negative pole of the bat-
tery and the next one from the positive pole, and so on alternately.
This is a very effective way of destroying the "static" and secures
clear signals, provided the wire is perfectly clear, a condition that
does not often obtain, however. But in the days of the Little-
Edison System the "static" was got out of the case by an ingenious
contrivance of Edison's invention called a "shunt." This was cut
in when the automatic system was in use, and was cut out when the
line was being used for regular Morse.
The late William B. Somerville, who was at the head of the Na-
tional Associated Press, was anxious on one occasion to beat the
New York Associated Press on one of Grant's messages, and his
Washington representative made an arrangement with General Bab-
cock to permit a small regiment of perforators to visit the White
House the Sunday before the message was to be sent to Congress
and have access to the sacred document which was protected by
the perforators leaving the result of their labors in the possession
of one of the White House clerks, who locked up the miles of
perforated tape in a safe with the various parts of the message,
which had been cut up and divided among the perforators for
them to puncture. The next day at noon when the message was
presented to Congress, the tape was delivered to the Atlantic and
Pacific Telegraph Company, and shortly after the whole barrel of
it had been run through the machine. In New York a great
amount of tape had been wet and chemically treated and was ready
for the signals. Washington asked in Morse if New York was
ready, and the chief operator, glancing at his corps of special as-
sistants, answered cheerily that New York was ready, and f"i" three
minutes the tape came pouring out of the machine at the rate of
a mile a minute. All but a few yards of the specially prepared
tape was used, but enough was enough and New York gave " ( >. K,"
and the matter was divided among the twenty or thirty waiting
copyists, and they proceeded to attempt its translation.
"What have you got, Bill?" asked one, adding, "I have nothing
but a straight line."
Vlll PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
Bill looked at his and so did the others, and they found there
was nothing but a straight line from beginning to end. They could not
have it repeated because they had no tape ready, and it takes time in
which to prepare it, so there was nothing left for the National Asso-
ciated Press to do but cry peccavi and borrow a copy of the message
in New York from its bigger brother, the New York Associated
Press, which had already received it on seven Morse wires, and
when it had the message the National Associated Press proceeded
to distribute it by Morse, about an hour behind time, to the papers
served by it. In his excitement the chief operator had omitted to
cut in the "shunt," and the whole thing "tailed."
But even assuming that the signals can be got over the line safely
by the protective device of using a "shunt," or sending what are
known as "reversals" from opposing poles of the battery, what
good can be subserved by telegraphing at the rate of three thousand
words a minute? Who knows of anybody who is going to furnish
that amount of matter? Business does not reach the telegraph
company in volumes, but it comes stringing in all day long, a few
messages at a time, taken in at thousands of offices throughout
the country, and it is practically impossible to handle this great
aggregation of business promptly excepting by hand, precisely as
it was handled in the first days of the telegraph. Automatic sys-
tems have come and gone, and they have departed chiefly for the
reason that they were not susceptible of being adapted to the
existing situation. They were thought out by men whose knowl-
edge of the requirements of the telegraph business was of a most
rudimentary character. They started with the indisputable proposi-
tion that the capacity of the wires to carry pulsations is as infinite
as the capability of the atmosphere to convey sound waves. And
then they jumped to the conclusion that what was needed was a
system that would carry between New York and great cities an un-
limited volume of business on a single wire. Mr. Little, whose auto-
matic system Edison made practical as early as 1875, had this idea
and saw it exploded, but at regular intervals since then Foote and
Randall, Craig, Anderson, Leggo, and Rogers have come for-
ward with automatic devices intended to serve a purpose which
was non-existent and with as fanatical a belief in their plans as if
similar ones had never been presented before and uniformly rejected.
The only real progress that has been made to the end of increasing
the capacity of wires has been made, first by Moses G. Farmer
and J. B. Stearns, who perfected the duplex, and by Edison and
his followers, who have brought the quadruplex to a state of almost
ASA B. SUESMAN
Junior partner in the law firm of Suesman & Suesman, of Providence, R. I., was
formerly connected with The United Press in Chicago as operator and news editor.
He graduated from the Chicago College of Law in 1896, and was admitted that yeai
to the bar of Illinois. Manv of our matrices are made by Mr. Suet-man and his
brother Walter.
PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTO MATH - TELEGRAPH IX
absolute perfection. The duplex made one wire equal to two, and
the qnaduplex gives four circuits out of every wire on which it is
employed.
Before the invention of Phillips's Morse Automatic Telegraph no
machine telegraph had cut any permanent figure in the matter of
telegraphic transmission. The faster the systems have been, the
slower they have proved, because of the initial delay incident to
perforating the tape from which the signals are transmitted; and
for the reason that when more than a few hundred words per
minute are transmitted no record by mechanism is possible, and the
introduction of a chemically prepared tape upon which the signals
are made visible by a discoloration caused by the action of the
electric current upon that tape has always been fatal to accuracy
and the unfailing source of delays ranging from ten minutes to
ten hours. The slowest automatic system in use in the world is
the Wheatstone, and even that does not find much favor in America.
A most patient and strenuous effort has been made to introduce it
here, and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to that
end by the Western Union Telegraph Company. As beautiful as
a chronometer in all its parts, the product of one of the most exact
and persevering minds that has figured in our time in the realm of
electrical science, the Wheatstone system is yet a failure in America,
and for the reason that we do business at such high pressure that
the cry of the commercial world is for celerity, not in transmission,
but in delivery.
Not many of the men in the telegraph business have failed to
reach the conclusion that in the use of all automatic systems about
as much is wasted at the bung as is saved at the spigot. To re-
peat myself a little, let me say again that where perforation is a
condition precedent to transmitting the matter to be sent, there is
an initial delay from which there is no possible escape, and where
a great amount of matter is received in a very short time, some-
body's message must come in at the end, and, with the perversity
of mundane things, it is generally the most important thing in the
budget that is the one to be the most seriously delayed. As I
have said, the Wheatstone automatic is the best of all, for it docs
not take us into an objectionable intimacy with wet paper chem
ically prepared.
Returning to the subject of Phillips's Morse Automatic System,
it is bound to succeed because it attempts SO little. The aim ol its
inventors has been to make every single wire and every side ol
any multiplex system three or four times as useful as at present,
X PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
and to continue to do the work "by sound." That is a great point
in our favor. The prejudice of Morse men against reading from
tape, by sight, would upset a train of Pullman cars, to say nothing
of a new automatic system. In the ten years or more that the
Wheatstone has been in operation in America, no Morse men have
ever conspicuously associated themselves with it. and even the public
knows the difference between the messages that come to them by
Morse and on the Wheatstone, and is dead against the latter. All
operators make errors, but the kind of mistakes the badly drilled
and irresponsible outside elements that have come into the telegraph
business as one of the features of the Wheatstone's introduction
are different and more appalling than anything that was ever seen
outside of a newspaper composing room, when an absent-minded
"comp" had been struggling with a bad piece of copy. The people
outside of the telegraph offices have no adequate idea of the kind
of stuff telegraphers have to handle. Illegible penmanship and
phonetic spelling characterize much of the business handed in by
the intelligent community, rendering it necessary that the telegraph
operator should be raised in the profession from a boy or a girl.
A French-Canadian once telegraphed thus: "Meat my colt on mon
frayed." If that had been sent by the automatic class of people
it would have been delivered as written, but the intelligence of
Morse men is proverbial. To start with, the operator knew that
the man by whom the message was written was a dealer in salt,
and he saw that by "colt" the writer meant "salt," and so the mes-
sage was sent and delivered correctly, thus: "Meet my salt on
morning freight." The message was handed in at a small office
in Canada where the operator knew everybody in town, and he had
the nerve to take chances. But your automatic people take no
chances. If that message had gone by that system the Canadian's
correspondent would have been hunting Toronto all over for a
colt, while the salt on the flat cars standing out in the rain perhaps
would have been disappearing, betimes, and growing beautifully
less. This is not an exaggerated case — thousands similar to it are
of daily occurrence. The public never dreams of how much is done
by the unknown and uncomplaining knight of the key to straighten
out the same kind of errors that are constantly occurring in the
superscriptions of the thousands of letters that find their way to
the dead letter office in Washington.
We have, I believe, worked out a knotty problem and made
feasible a system that is sure to succeed where all automatics have
failed, not excepting the Wheatstone. Our experiments between
PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH xi
Washington and New York over the United Press wires convinced
us that we have a winner. The system is simple and calls for no
paraphernalia, outside of an embosser and transmitter, that is not
used in regular Morse telegraphing. It employs Morse talent ex-
clusively, and we do not depart from Morse methods — hand send
ing and receiving by sound. Therefore we know our "ground" —
no pun intended — and instead of having from the Morse men that
passive co-operation, which is rather worse than open hostility, we
expect to have them with us, heart and soul, because we have some-
thing that is in their interest and not opposed to it. The promoters
of machine telegraphy have demonstrated the feasibility of their
schemes theoretically on the assumption that their systems could
be worked by those whom nature intended to be hewers of wood
and drawers of water and whose valuable services could be had
for about $4 a week. That is their first false step; there is the false
premise that logically entails false conclusions. We, on the other
hand, put a premium, and not a discount, on intelligence, expert-
ness, willingness and all the admirable qualities that characterize
the first-class operator of to-day.
SOME ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS
{By Walter P. Phillips)
To a beginner who inquires about learning to read by sound:
There are two ways of learning to read by sound. The old way,
now practically obsolete, was to have the letters very slowly made
and at long intervals apart, and painfully guessed out by a combined
effort of the intellect and the imagination. But the letters when
made slowly and separately do not sound as they do when placed
in close connection and as you must eventually learn to read them.
Fancy learning a piece of music, by ear, from having each note
played slowly at intervals of ten seconds. The true way to learn
to read by sound is to "follow" regular and moderate sending from
a written or printed slip. In this way the letters reach the ear as
they will always sound, and it is not difficult with the matter before
you that is being ticked out, to "follow." You may sometimes lose
the place, but in a short time you will not only find it easy to keep
track of.what the instrument is saying, but. little by little, you will
discover that you can read without the printed copy before you,
however necessary such an aid may be at tin- beginning.
Replying to a young man who asks my advice as to how he can
become a good sender:
Xll PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
There is only one way to learn to send the Morse characters, and
this is by means of that unflagging practice by which the violin,
the piano, the typewriter, and kindred instruments and machines are
conquered. The alphabet, with which, together with the numerals
and punctuation marks, you must become familiar at the outset,
is composed entirely of linear characters, formed of dots and dashes,
and by combinations of the two, supplemented in the letters c, o,
r, y and z, and in the symbol &, with spaces. A dot is a quick, firm
depression of the key, and a dash is a longer depression — twice or
thrice as long. A space is made by leaving the key open for a second,
more or less. At the beginning of your practice you are certain
to make staggering dots; you will make some of your dashes short
and others long, and even in spacing, your work will be susceptible
of improvement. But as you proceed with your practice, your hand
will gradually become obedient to your brain, your ear will become
educated to detect inaccuracies or uncertainties in the style of
manipulation, and continued practice will end in bringing about a
smooth and graceful touch, precisely the same as practice on the
piano improves the touch, sharpens the faculties and gradually de-
velops pleasing players from most unpromising beginners. The
proposition that "practice makes perfect" has gone unquestioned for
ages, and of no achievement can it be said with greater truth than of
learning to send the Morse characters on a telegraph key. When a
perfect control over the hand has been gained, the student will find
that his ear will persuade him to a regular gait, and to making his
dots, dashes and spaces with a degree of nicety that will give his
manipulation a musical, rhythmic sound as fascinating to the educated
ear as any other "concord of sweet sounds," whether produced by
musical instruments or issuing from the throats of gifted singers.
This result cannot be looked for at first, however. The prosaic oc-
cupation of making the right number of dots in an h, a p, or a figure
6; of giving the dashes in a w the correct length, lest it may sound
like a u if the first dash is shortened, or like an f if the last one is cut
short — this occupation, with its attendant anxiety as to spacing,
spelling, etc., will stand in the way at first of acquiring a style, but
the latter will come with practice, just as the faculty of writing
captivating English came to Macauley, Thackeray and Dickens, and
has come to thousands of others who were once toddlers, learning
very slowly at their teachers' knees, and no doubt with open-eyed
amazement, that the first letter in the alphabet was A and that Z
stood for Zebra. It is not difficult to learn to telegraph, and the ac-
complishment is a useful one. But serious practice is indispensable.
PHILLIPS "S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH X1U
This is to make my meaning clear to a railroad operator who
seeks for information:
Yes, you are right in saying you guess I have some notions of
my own about the best way to learn telegraphy. Any man who
accomplishes any one object is entitled to have opinions, and I
have mine. I have perfected an automatic system which may or may
not be introduced by the telegraph companies. That remains to be
seen; but whether it ever should be so introduced or not, there can
be no shadow of doubt about its advantages as an automatic teacher.
In making my matrices I have the pick of all the renowned sender-.
many of whom were formerly my own employees in the service ol
The United Press, and you recognize, of course, that if men are
taught to read Morse sending that is of a high order of merit, they
will naturally incline toward doing the thing as they hear it. when
they come to practice sending. A conspicuous advantage of our
machines over human senders is that you can run the machines
twenty-four hours per diem, if you wish to, and they never get tired
or fall off in the quality of their product. If you are a fairly expert
operator and wish to perfect yourself in receiving on a typewriter
at a high rate of speed, nothing could be devised to compare with
my machines. They can be stopped at will, and the speed can be
varied from a very moderate gait up to as high a pace as can be
achieved by the fastest senders in the world, the Morse, whether
it be sent slowly or fast, being of the highest grade. I am positive
that telegraphy, in its highest development, can be taught at home
better than it has ever been taught in offices, and that the new
school of operators, thus taught, will rank higher than those who
acquire the art, as I did forty years ago — by hanging around and
picking up my education, haphazard, and having to unlearn in the
concluding years of apprenticeship a great deal that was learned in
the first year. 1 have lived with this problem a great many years,
and am confident that my conclusions are unassailable.
If a man learns to send on a railroad wire, he will be contaminated.
as are the dyer's hands, of which Shakespeare speaks, ami if the
sending is generally bad he will acquire a style that resembles the
flight of a drove of rats over a tin roof. On the other hand, any
beginner who hears nothing but finished writing will acquire some
thing as nearly approximate to it as he can achieve. < >f course it is
not in all men to send well any more than it is in certain women
to reach a measure of perfection on the piano such as Essipoff has
acquired on that instrument, or such a degree oi kill as Ysaye has
attained in playing the violin. Bui an object lesson is none the les>
XIV PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
valuable and I know what I am talking about when I say that the
slips that we furnish are an important and never-ending exhibition
of how the thing should be done. I saw the influence of this in The
United Press, where those who learned the business on our wires
became stars. I contend that if the same men had learned on the
Jigwater railroad they would have fallen into many bad habits. If
the modern railroad operators were as generous in respect of prac-
ticing and striving to emulate the work of men of known ability as
they are with their dots, we should occasionally hear the letter p,
a six or an eight made in a way not calculated to force us to tear our
hair and rend our garments. Personally I object to being sent over
anybody's wires as W 6. 66illi6s, and that is the way my name often
gets mutilated in these degenerate days.
It was held by certain persons, years ago, that the aim and purpose
of language was to make one's self understood. The followers of
these people have gradually been convinced that to make one's self
understood is one of the very least of all the ways in which language
can be utilized. The orators, the poets, the novelists and the dramat-
ists have knocked that idea in the head. In the same way, certain
operators who make t p for an 8, and whose dotted letters make them
the laughing stock of their associates hold to the opinion that accu-
racy in respect to dots is quite unimportant. They will live to see their
error. The time will come when operators of this kind will be paid
$5, $io even $15 less per month than their more careful and con-
scientious brethren. They are like the gentleman who formerly built
boats by "the rule of thumb," and spoke slightingly of Burgess and
Herreshoff, and of Fife and Watson. But where are the rule-of-
thumb men to-day? Every boat that has won an international, or in
any way an important race, in the last twenty years, has been
designed by the scientific men, who have made the modeling of
racing machines their constant study. Where are the rule-of-thumb
men? I will tell you how to find them. Ask of the dockmen at
Elizabethport; ask of the tug-boat captains who their pilots are;
ask at the rope walks who the night watchman is. Do this and you
will learn all that is known of a scornful, ignorant and fat-witted
gentry, who once ruled and flourished, but who have now passed
out, simply because they were too dull and dense to advance with the
ever-widening scope of scientific information, and for that reason
they have returned to their native obscurity, unmourned, unhonored
and unsung and they will stay there until the angel of death touches
them gently with his icy finger and they pass onward to the great
beyond.
Some of the
WEINY-PHILLIPS
DEVICES
Their Morse Automatic
Repeater
Their Resonator
Used in Connection with the Remington
Typewriter
Their Impulse Countei
PHILLIPS S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH XV
PRICES:
Type A, with one roll of tape containing 1,000 words $35-00
Type M. The reproducing part of this machine is put up
in a beautiful cabinet and is operated by a duplex tandem
motor of recent invention. It will run, at each winding,
from one to two hours, according to the speed given it.
Price with four rolls of tape containing 1,000 words each.. 50.00
Type M. The recording part of this machine is put up in the
same way as the preceding. It will run an equal length
of time 65.00
Type M complete, comprising both reproducer and recorder,
when desired for use in country office or for linotype
work 108 . 00
Type F. The reproducing part of this machine is the Morse
Automatic proper. It is fitted up with the duplex tandem
spring motor 60 . 00
Type F. The recording part of this machine fitted with tan-
dem motor 75-00
Type F complete, for fast work and comprising both the
reproducer and recorder 125.00
Type F-E. The reproducing and recording parts of this machine,
separately and in combination, sell for the same as Type F. It has
an electric motor adaptable to both the incandescent and the stor-
age battery currents.
Additional matrices containing 1,000 words for types A and M, 50
cents each.
In ordering matrices say whether straight sending is wanted or
code sending, and whether in the Morse or Continental alphabet.
If the language is not specified it will be taken for granted that
English matrices are wanted.
^^■fe-
*w
WILLIS J. COOK
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.
It is more than twenty years ago that some
of the sketehes printed herewith were written.
They were contributed over the pen mime of
John Oakum to a telegraphic paper which long
since ceased publication — " The Telegrapher."
In ] 87(3 they were gathered up with some others
and issued under the title of " Oakum Pickings,"
a book that has been out of print for years,
although I dare say there are stray copies of it
still in existence. I had expected others would
follow my lead and give the telegraphic fraternity
a real literature by this time; but it would seem
that such of the operators as have the writing
faculty and take up literary work, give their at-
tention to serious matters, such as the important
developments in the realm of electrical endeavor,
or they go into newspaper work and write on
lines widely separated from telegraphy and the
10 BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.
affairs of those gallant soldiers of the wire whom
they have left behind them.
Much to my surprise, I have thus far stood
almost alone in respect of anything approaching
imaginative work, so far as our profession is con-
cerned; and it is because an interest in Jim Law-
less, Tip McCloskey, Cap De Costa and their
friends still survive after twenty years that I take
the liberty of bringing them forward once more.
With them are some new people who had not
sprung into being when " Oakum Pickings " was
published, but whose appearance now, T am cer-
tain, will not be taken amiss. Perhaps I should
more properly say their reappearance, for Pop
Donaldson, Narcissa, and several of the others
have already appeared in the telegraphic prints.
The dedicating of this new edition of my
sketches to the late Willis J. Cook, the original
of the sketch, entitled " Bif," gives me an
opportunity to say that I was very deeply in-
debted to him in all my earlier work. No one
who looks at his picture, even if he did not know
this most charming man in life, can fail to per-
ceive that here was a rare soul, full of sugges-
tions and enthusiasms, and appreciative to his
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION. 1 1
finger-tips. We had been wearied with a story
of somebody's impossible feats while we were
taking an early morning lunch, and Willis said
to me as we journeyed home in a Third Avenue
car and the gray-eyed dawn was breaking: " Did
you ever hear such rubbish? Can't something be
done to cork such fellows up?" I thought it
over, and wrote " Jim Lawless," and submitted
it to him. He gave it his unqualified approval,
and it was duly printed. It had a very good
effect, and one day Willis came to me, and said:
" There is another duck, worse than any of the
breed of bores who have their Jim Lawlesses, and
that is the fellow who tells what lie can do. The
creators of the Lawless clan are catholic in their
tastes, and while they lie all right, they are not
themselves the objects of their own glorifying.
Just touch up this other fellow for luck." So
I followed "Jim Lawless" with a sketch of an
extremely disagreeable fellow, whom we called
" Posie Van Dusen. "
At this juncture, having done all that I felt
called upon to do in the missionary line, I pro-
duced " Tip McCloskey," who became such a
favorite that I wrote " An Autumn Episode " hi
12 BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.
self-defense, and to supply the demand for more
about McCloskey. Then Cap De Costa was
added. All of these people are composite in
character, as is also Bif, although more of
that sketch than of any of the others is true as
applies to the personation of any one man. The
sketch in which I drew on him so liberally did
not appear until long after he had gone West;
but when he saw it, he was "very philosophical
about it, and didn't mind the brief period of
notoriety that it gave him. He wrote to me
from Salt Lake City that, having encouraged me
to make literary material of so many of his con-
temporaries, he didn't see that there was any
cause for him to claim exemption from the
operation of a general rule. " And, by the
way," he added, " that maroon-colored fakir,
who used to run the elevator at 195 Broadway, is
out here ranching." Although I did not know
who the "maroon-colored fakir ' : was, I saw
from the spirited change of subject that my old
friend had taken no offense at what I had done.
The telegraphic profession lost one of its
brightest ornaments when Willis J. Cook passed
onward. I have heard all the fast senders that
r.Y WAY OF INTRODUCTION". 13
have attracted attention in the past thirty-five
years, and, while many were faster than he was,
none of them was quite as musical. All the
lightness and brightness in his nature, which
made his companionship so captivating, seemed
to shine out in his sending. lie was a man of
the world, but not a worldly man. Everything
interested him, and he interested everybody. No
man I ever knew more fully lived up to the
philosophy of a writer who says: " Life is an
ecstasy, and nothing else is really living. And
to achieve this state requires new elements all the
time. It may not always require change of locu-
tion ; material change is of very little importance
compared to that mental variety which is the
secret of advancing life. To lay hold on new
ideas, to climb to new heights, is the change
which is growth and development, and which
brings one into touch with new atmospheres."
Walter P. Phillips.
Bridgeport, Conn., Oct. 15, 1900.
OLD JIM LAWLESS.
OLD JIM LAWLESS.
Poor old boy! the Western pines ware over his
grave now. He has been dead some time. I do
not remember just what took him from us, but
as he was " Jim " to everybody, and prone to go
on " jams" in spite of all opposition, I have a
suspicion that it was a combination of the two.
He did not work at the business for several years
prior to his decease; certain disturbances with
telegraph managers and railroad superintendents
had rendered him unpopular with employers, and
he had officiated in a Cheyenne restaurant — with
bar attached — up to within a short time previous
to his death. But neither in this field of enter-
prise was he entirely successful. On the Chi-
cago, Burlington and Quincy, an attempt, while
train dispatcher, to pass two trains on the same
track, had worked his ruin. Dropping into a
beery slumber, which lasted until day-break,
(17)
18 OLD JBI LAWLESS.
while be was attending a button repeater at
Corinne, had resulted in a similar disaster. His
troubles with trains and repeaters ended, how-
ever, when he quitted the service, and he thought
he had gravitated to his level in the " hash and
jig-water business," as he facetiously termed it,
and he confidently looked forward to less
turbulent scenes and experiences. But one day
the proprietor, who had just refitted the saloon in
gorgeous shape, went to Omaha, and left Jim
''chief in charge." The next day several kegs
of new ale arrived, and Jim was busy all day
getting them in. In the evening his friends
found him unusually genial and generous, and
they unanimously responded in person to his
cheery invitation to " Drinkwymeboys — whasser-
ods. " In attempting to tap one of the new
arrivals, the bung flew out of the keg, and for a
moment the air was fragrant with its contents.
All that new paper, the mirror and its drapery
of brocade and tassels, the pictures over the bar,
and everything around wept tears of hops and
malt. Jim gave the newly garnished room one
sorrowful look, and it sobered him instantly.
Then, turning to his friends, he said: " Good-
OLD JIM LAWLESS. 19
bye, boys; there goes another situation,'' and,
like the " Tall Alcalde,"
" He strode him out of the adobe door,
And ne'er was seen or heard of more,"
by Cheyenne eyes or ears, at least. There Mas a
legend floating about Reel Buttes in 1870, which
assigned him to the position of a water-drawer for
the railroad at a station near there. I can not
vouch for the truth of it, but certain it is he
dropped out of telegraphing some years ago, and
died engaged in some lowlier pursuit than ours.
But Jim Lawless was the biggest kind of a
telegrapher. I've seen the whole of them work;
know them all by heart, and there never was a
man who snatched brass that could touch him.
I'll tell you what he did in Savannah, (la. Old
Pop Donaldson was in Charleston, and in those
times could average about eighty-three words a
minute. lie got Jim the first night Lawless
struck the town, and Jim had been around the
block, and was so drunk the boys bad to prop
him up in his chair; but he sat there and took
three hundred and eleven messages without a
"break," besides a short "special' for the
20 OLD JIM LAWLESS.
Savannah News. Donaldson did his level best.
And the copy Jim took! gilt-edged, copper- plate;
couldn't be " rushed " out of it anyhow. And
talk about copying behind! Why, that night,
when Pop said, " N M — U'r no slouch. — G N.,"
old man Jim was three social messages, a Gov-
ernment "cipher/' and the short "special"
behind. The boys all stood around and watched
him, and after he gave " 0. K." and signed, he
went right on and copied out all that stuff he had
laid back there in his head. Jim used to take
" State Press " at Albany a long time ago, when
they sent it abbreviated. Most of the men took
it by registers, but Jim just took it by sound, and
wrote it out in full. The editors never saw such
copy, and the proprietors of the paper offered
him $3,000 a year to take charge of their sub-
scription-books. One night when he was taking
" State," Syracuse called up and wanted to know
if he could deliver a message to the Chief of
Police. Jim told him "yes," and took it, and
told New York to go ahead. Then he jumped
up and walked over to the police station, stopped
into a little "dive" there is right there by the
Delavan House, got a " schooner " and two
OLD JIM LAWLESS. 21
" ponies '' of beer, and came back to the office,
and he " sat in " and went to copying, anil
caught up to Xew York before he got " 30,"
though he fell four hundred words behind while
he was gone. These are only a few of the stories
I can tell you about Jim Lawless, but these ought
to suffice. I never encounter a crowd of operators
but some one will discourse about Hank Some-
body, Sandy This, or Kick That, and their
appalling achievements, and as I know for a
positive certainty that Jim Lawless was the best
operator that ever struck a key, 1 can not refrain
from giving one or two of his feats publicity.
POSIE VAN DUSEN.
POSIE VAX DUSEN.
I have a remarkable memory for faces, and
though it was ten good years ago that I first saw
Posie Van Dusen, and I had never seen him, and
had scarcely heard of him since, I recognized him
instantly when I saw him again last fall.
I don't know why he is entitled "Posie.' 5
There is nothing about him suggesting the
exhalation of flowers. His nose is the only
blossoming feature about him, but I have no
reason to think he derived his fragrant sobriquet
from that. It must have been in the summer of
18G3 or 18G4 that I first saw Posie. It was the
occasion of my first visit to New York. I was a
boy then, in a New England office, with a very
slight knowledge of dashes and dots, and having
rendered a railroad superintendent a service, he
offered me a pass to New York. My sensations
on debarking in the wonderful metropolis were
26 P0S1E VAN DUSEN".
much, I fancy, as were yours, my reader. I was
captivated with everything I saw, and was
astounded with the length and breadth of the
swarming island. To me at that time the poet's
bitter denunciation —
" False land of promise, paved with gold
That turns to iron 'neatb the blistering feet,
Lured by that rustic lie to pace her streets!
That loadstone rock whereon adventure splits
And wrecked ambition starves;"
to me, I say, this had no unusual significance. I
saw only tbe bright side of the picture, and I
tripped gayly along the route of the telegraph
poles, vainly expecting to reach the office by that
means. When I had tired of this I used my
tongue, and ere long I stood before the great
" No. 145," of which I had heard and thought
so much. My cousin was an operator, and in
due time I was ushered into the operating-room
of the American Company. He w T as in good
standing; he has since risen to a position of
trust; his name is identified now with the inven-
tion of " duplex '' and " quads " innumerable,
and I find him, moreover, des])ite his great
modesty, a man whose knowledge of electrical
POSIE VAX DUSEN".
science is generally respected. He introduced me
to the manager, Mr. J. C. Hinchman, to Mr.
M. S. Roberts, general assistant, to Mr. "William
Clam, chief operator, and to Mr. Dixon F.
Marks, night manager, also to operators in con-
siderable number; and finally prefacing my
presentation with the remark, " Of course you
want to know all the celebrities, " he brought me
to where two young men, apparently cast in the
Swivellerian mold, were standing, and said:
" This is Tip McCloskey, Mr. Oakum, and this,
Posie Van Dusen. You have heard of them
both." Indeed I had, and I felt much the same
in their presence as I remember to have felt
several years later, when I stood face to face
with Charles Dickens, and tried to comprehend
that he was the man who had created Cuttle,
Copperfield, Agnes, Dame Durden, and the host
whose hopes and experiences are a part of my
own life — the sunniest part of it, need I add?
The next morning, as I stood waiting U>r the
arrival of my chaperon and relative, who was
not due until 8:30, I saw the little army of
operators file into the side door. I was a little
shaver, with a round, rosy face, like hundred
28 POSIE TAN DUSEN.
other boys, and, I dare say, they did not recog-
nize me. Certainly none of them honored me
with a bow— not even with the ghost of a wink-
to betoken they had ever seen me before. I had
not learned then how slight a claim a boy's intro-
duction to a busy New Yorker entails. At the
end of the list, as invariably happened, came Tip
McCloskey. His appearance, even in the dis-
tance, was disheveled, but there was a devil-
may-care air about him as he strutted along,
which was not without its element of smartness.
I turned my face away; I had been snubbed by
everybody, and I would not give this man a
chance to wound my foolish sensibilities. But
Tip accosted me with a kindness in his tones that
I have never forgotten. He shook hands with me
and called me his dear boy, and, leaning up
against a little iron railing with as much non-
chalance as if he had been fifteen minutes ahead
of time, instead of fifteen behind, he proceeded
to inquire how old I was, how long I had been
learning, and assured me I was doing first rate.
" Stick to it," said he; " it can't be accom-
plished with a lep ; it requires patience and prac-
tice. Don't get discouraged; the war is creating
POSIE VAX DUSE3ST. 29
a big demand for operators, and before it is over,
I shall expect to hear of you as one of the best
operators around. And let me give you a little
advice, my boy/' he continued, quite seriously,
" don't go too much on your reputation. I have
got a big reputation myself, and I must sustain
it. There is no such thing for me as starting
anew; but you can learn wisdom from my ex-
perience. Try to become a good, reliable oper-
ator; steer clear of liquor, and you will win.
And remember, above everything, that it is as
impossible to do telegraphic work correctly, with-
out occasional interrogation in doubtful instances,
as it would be to print a book or newspaper cor-
rectly before the proof-reader improved it by his
emendations."
With this he bid me "good-morning," and
shaking hands, again disappeared within. I
walked on air that morning. All the encourage-
ment I had ever felt was not a tenth of that
which this seemingly abandoned Bohemian had
voluntarily excited. Some one says that every
man has the ashes of a poet in him. I am sure
Tip McCloskey, long wandering through this land,
and now an exile in Mexico, has the ashes of a
30 POSIE VAN DUSEN.
gentleman in him. "What a pity that fortuitous
circumstances, home influences, or an inherent
will had not guided the warm instincts of his
soul, and developed them into something wor-
thier; how sad to contemplate a man wrecked on
the waste waters of dissolution, from a mere lack
of something to change his course!
But I am forgetting Van Dusen. Before I left
New York, I learned from Tip that Posie had
been discharged. The story was a brief one.
Van Dusen, Tip, and Cap De Costa, another tele-
graphic knight, had been up into Westchester
County the week before to a ball. Van Dusen
went to play the violin, on which he performed
quite creditably, " though he got a message
going to 14 Milk Street as 1470 K Street," said
Tip, as he related the details. " Posie fiddled,"
said Tip, " as long as he could, and when he had
become not only too full for utterance, but too
full to scrape the strings, the people piled us into
the wagon and started us home. It was awfully
dark, and most of us were asleep for a very long
time; but Posie woke up at length and wanted
me to stop the horse; said he thought his
Cremona was knocking around in the bottom of
POSIE TAN DUSKX. 31
the wagon. So I reined in the steed, and Posie
got out to make an examination. I went right
to sleep, and I guess Cap wasn't awake at all.
Anyway, we fetched up at the stable next morn-
ing, and Posie wasn't in. lie says now that I
drove off and left him in the woods twelve miles
from Harlem. He was five days footing it into
New York, and when he got here, J. 0. II. had
his paper sealed, signed, and read}- for delivery."
I wasn't as sorry as I ought to have been. I
didn't like Van Dusen particularly. Perhaps I
was prejudiced by Tip, whom I had once heard
tell Posie: " Yes, you are a big operator — let you
tell it."
Last summer I embarked for Boston by the
Shore Line train, leaving Forty-second Street at
nine p. M. There were not many in the cars — a
young operator from Watertown, N. Y., going
to New London to work for the opposition, a
couple of dry-goods drummers, one or two mis-
cellaneous entities, and myself. Just as the train
was starting, a chap, whom I at once recognized
as Van Dusen, entered the ear. He was redolent
of vinous compounds, and before we had fairly
steamed into Harlem he had edged himself into
32 POSIE VAN DUSEN.
the conversation proceeding between the two
drummers. One of them, had said something
about his " circuit/' and that was sufficient to
set Van Dusen's tongue to running like mad.
He worked the first wire that was ever worked
from New Orleans to New York, he did; he took
the first message that was ever sent across the
plains — that's what kind of a man he was. But
his auditors were not so much interested in tele-
graphics as they might have been, and they in-
continently snubbed the man of dots and dashes,
and he was obliged at last to address his conver-
sation to the boy. After awhile he got a railroad
flask, and he offered some of it to everybody.
There were no takers except himself. He had
talked shop just enough to raise the curiosity of
the youngster from Water town, and the lad came
over and sat with him on the seat behind me. I
couldn't help hearing much of what was said,
and I thanked my stars when I began to feel
drowsy just after leaving New Haven. The
train, however, was a lightning express, and the
abrupt curves and uneven track swayed the smok-
ing-car, and I woke up at intervals of ten or
fifteen minutes, I should judge. By some
POSIE VAX DUSEST. 33
singular fatality my waking moments seemed to
come just as Van Dusen was beginning to relate
the history of some new adventure. As nearly
as I can recall it, the panorama shifted after this
manner:
" Sorry you won't take a drink, young fellow.
The whisky in this bottle is fourteen years old.
I want to give you a little of my experience —
some heavy work I did in Cincinnati. I took
fourteen thousand words of press — "
Then I fell asleep, and woke up to this refrain:
" Sorry you won't take a drink, young fellow.
The whisky in this bottle is sixteen years old. I
want to give you a little of my experience — some
heavy work I did in Xew Orleans. I took three
hundred and thirtv-one messages in two hours
and a half — "
Again, when the car disturbed my nap, I
caught:
" Sorry you won't take a drink, young fellow.
The whisky in this bottle is eighteen years old.
I want to give you a little of my experience —
some heavy work I did in Corinne. Business had
been accumulating in Omaha twelve days. Old
-Jim Lawless was working there then — fastest
2
34 POSIE VAN DUSEN.
sender ever lived. I just told him to leave out
everything, and go in. Received, from him seven-
teen hours and. thirty seconds, and took sixteen
hundred, messages without a — "
" Why, that is nearly a hundred an hour,"
ejaculated the youngster, amazed.
"I don't know anything about that. We
never counted 'em to see what time we made,"
said Posie, in return; and then I fell asleep again.
I couldn't pretend to tell you how many times I
came to the surface, as it were, and heard the
story about that aged whisky and the heavy work.
The more he talked about them the older the
whisky got, until its one hundred and fourteenth
year was reached, and I don't know how many
more, and the work became heavier as the dust
and cobwebs gathered upon that inspiring flask of
spirits. Finally I fell into a deep slumber,
which lasted until the train went crashing
through Hyde Park and Jamaica Plain. I
looked behind me for Van Dusen as we came in
sight of Boston's domes, but he was gone,
whither I knew not. It was a beautiful morn-
ing, and the birds were singing sweetly in the
trees as I staggered across the Common more
POSIE TAX DUSEN. 35
asleep than awake. Somehow there seemed to
me to be a story of whisky and heavy work per-
meating the tones of the feathered songsters; but
from away over on a hill-side, where the branches
were waving in the summer wind of the early
morning, there came the tones of a sweeter
singer than all the rest. Above the din of the
many its blithe notes rang out sharp and clear,
and it seemed to sing — possibly I dreamed all
this, but I remember it as a reality — it seemed to
sing those lines of Young's:
" We risj in glory as we sink in pride;
Where boasting ends 1 ., there dignity begins. "
LITTLE TIP McCLOSKEY.
LITTLE TIP McCLOSKEY.
<•' W
You remember little old Tip McCloskcy?
He passed through here yesterday en route to
Mexico. He has grown old since I saw Jiim
before, and they tell me he is a ' little off ' on his
working, and that the nice copy he used to put
up has got to be a trifle rocky. Whisky has been
playing fast and loose with his nerves, I fancy,
and his palmiest days, telegraphically speaking,
are over."
1 extract the above from a private letter bear-
ing date of New Orleans, March 6th, 1874. So
little Tip has come to the surface again, after all
these months in which his friends have been won-
dering if he was alive. Of course I remember
him. Everybody remembers him. Ten years
ago it was no small affront to the telegraphic
profession in general not to know Tip McCloskey.
Long before I had carried my last message and
40 LITTLE TIP M'CLOSKEY.
been promoted to the position of operator in a
way office, I had learned the history of his
achievements by heart. I should be almost
ashamed to-clay to tell you how much I revered
that man long before I ever saw him. No rapt
listener to the enchanting stories of " Sinbad,"
' Aladdin/' or any of the others with which
Scheherazade beguiled the Arabic ruler and his
attendants through the fleeting hours of those one
thousand and one nights, ever paid more faithful
attention to the clever wife than I to those who
made little Tip's exploits the burden of their song.
I installed him in my boyish heart as a man fit to
rank with Aramis or Athos, with Porthos or
D'Artagan, and the genius of Dumas has not
clothed the " Three Guardsmen " and their
Gascon mate with braver laurels than those with
which I crowned my hero, or attributed to them
greater or more numerous virtues than those with
which I formed a halo to crown Tip's curly head.
The worthy Mr. Tip was generally known as a
man who never ''broke," and he traveled, got
trusted, borrowed money, and obtained new situa-
tions in spite of frequent dismissals, on this
reputation. It was he who received Buchanan's
LITTLE TIP M'CLOSKEY. 11
message at Worcester, Mass. It came through a
button repeater at Providence. Tip afterward
made his boast that he was the only man in the
New England States who took the whole message
without a " break/" and I think lie was. The
auburn-haired operator who coined the message
at Providence said that "Worcester was accident-
ally cut off in the middle of that official document
for fifteen minutes, and if Tiji got the whole mes-
sage, he of the carroty sconce was a clam, that's
all. I will not discuss the merit of this difference
of opinion; it is a trivial matter.
In Atlanta, Ga., Tip made a wager that he
could walk from his instrument to the out-
door, where he was to be met by a hoy from a
neighboring restaurant with a gin sour on a
waiter, drink the " medicine," and resume his
work without interrupting the sender — and he did
it. The Atlanta paper said, in an editorial para-
graph, two clays later: " Our article of yesterday,
on the indiscretions of J. C. Lamont, would have
been characterized by less spirit had we known
him to be a relative of the late Henry Clay. The
Associated Press dispatch, on which our article
was based, stated distinctly that Lamont was a
4% LITTLE TIP M'CLOSKET.
nephew of old Dan Webster, of Massachusetts."
The other papers in that locality, whose " press "
was taken on the same wire, had it Henry Clay;
but Tip's reputation saved him. There is no
doubt in my mind that the rest of the men on
that wire were a set of unmitigated plugs and
guessers.
Tip worked the old National wire at New York
in 1803. This was a great circuit in its day, and
the amount of business sent via Pittsburg was
enormous. Owing to an inordinate appetite for
dramatic performances, he whiled the most of his
evenings away at the Bowery Theater, and
because of this, and a habit of indulging in
" revelry by night/' after the entertainment, it
was usually late before he sought his couch. As
sleepiness is a natural sequence of unrest, and as
ten or fifteen " horns " of beer a day do not
conduce to wakefulness under these circum-
stances, Tip was generally drowsy; and whenever
he was " clear " he laid his head on the table and
went to sleep. The office boys, by whom he was
regarded as a sort of demi-god, manifested their
interest in his welfare by always being on the
alert for calls. When they heard Pittsburg call-
LITTLE TIP mYi.OSKEY. [S
ing they aroused Tip from his slumber, lie
would opeu the key, stare about sleepily for a
moment, and then command his friend at "G
to "let 'em come and cut 'em all to bits. "
Then, to the ail miration of all about, he would
sit and copy message after message in a beauti-
fully flowing chirography, oftentimes earning on
a lively conversation with his companions. And
he didn't "break'' in seventeen months. lint,
there were bigoted citizens of New York who con-
spired against him. One illustration will suffice
Dr. Janvier received a message from his wife,
stating that " Mr. Sage has caved and is satis-
fied." Now, I maintain that if Mr. Sage hail
caved, he ought to have been satisfied. But not
so with Janvier, lie demanded a repetition, and
the telegram read: " Message received and is
satisfactory." I have no ]iatience with your
modern Galens, and I never doubted for a mo-
ment that Janvier was prejudiced.
The occasion of the memorable Army of the
Kepublic celebration in Boston, in L868, found
Tip a night operator at Titusville, Pa. It was
on that night he demonstrated to a coterie of
friends the feasibility of reciting " Casabianca "
44 LITTLE TIP M'CLOSKEY.
and receiving "press" simultaneously. The
next morning the Journal announced in its tele-
graphic columns that " Post No. 1 was com-
manded by an Irishman from New Bedford;" and
the New Bedford Standard hastened, a day or
two later, to copy the dispatch, and explain that
Post No. 1 was really commanded by A. N.
Cushman, from New Bedford. It added, more-
over, that Mr. Cushman was less a Milesian than
the telegraph. This was evidently a fling at
Tip's nationality, and I have never ceased to
despise the carping nature of a newspaper that
would make such an observation.
When the Pacific Bailroad was opened, Tip and
Jim Lawless joined the numerous company, who,
pinning their faith on the star of empire, fol-
lowed it across the Missouri, through the land of
sage brush and alkali, and beyond the snow-
capped heights of the Sierras. I never heard of
McCloskey but twice during the whole Western
tour and his sojourning on the Pacific coast. He
was put off a train, and came sauntering into
the office at Wasatch, in Utah, one morning, and
depositing on the counter an old enameled cloth
satchel tied up with a piece of line wire, he said
LITTLE TIP M'CLOSKEY. 45
to the operator: " Just you keep your eye skinned
for that trunk., George, and I'll go out and lie
down.-" The satchel was empty; that was
obvious at the first glance. The operator tos
it on an adjacent shelf and went about his busi-
ness. The budding season ripened into glorious
summer, those delicious days when the sun is up
early and goes not down till late, came and
went, but Tip came not. One afternoon, how-
ever, when the bearded wheat was bending
with its wealth, and all nature had grown mag-
nificent in her abundant harvest, he swaggered
jauntily from an Eastern bound train, and called
for his satchel with an air indicating that his ab-
sence had merely extended over an hour or two.
He had not improved in personal appearance in
the interval. A red shirt, a pair of jean panta-
loons, an old felt hat, and a suspender long
separated from its mate, constituted what
" Pledges of our fallen state "
adorned his person. He had been "down to
"Frisco," he said, "and had seen trouble."
Slowly he unwound the line wire from his shabby
satchel, cautiously he opened its widely gaping
46 LITTLE TIP M'CLOSKEY.
mouth, then plunging in his hand and feeling all
around, he observed, with considerable emphasis:
" I should like to know the name of the black-
hearted Mormon who went through me for that
red velvet vest." It was not without difficulty
that he was persuaded to quit Wasatch; and when
he did shake the dust of that polygamous section
from his honest shoes, he mentioned privately to
the train dispatcher, as the train glided haughtily
away, that probably he would find that " cylinder
escapement ,: vest in Omaha. But my cor-
respondent makes no mention of his wearing in
New Orleans a garment resembling the ruby
wine, so I fear he never found it. Perhaps he
goes now to seek it in the land of the Montezu-
mas.
AN AUTUMN EPISODE,
AN AUTUMN EPISODE.
No pent-up Utica could contract the powers of
Mr. Tip McCloskey. A man of his genius could
scarcely be expected to confine himself to any one
line of business, or to any one locality, and he did
not. In a metaphorical sense, he chased the roe-
buck o'er the plain, but ever fresh and free
remained. Some of his pilgrimages were volun-
tary, others were inspired by circumstances over
which he had no control, while a fitting regard
for the prejudices of officials often prompted him
to surrender lucrative situations with telegraph
companies, and turn his attention temporarily to
other pursuits. Arriving one day in I'lainfield,
Conn., he said something to the station agent
about having had trouble in getting through the
Union lines, and adding that the walking from
Washington was rather monotonous, asked for
employment as a waiter in the railroad restaurant.
(49J
50 AN AUTUMN EPISODE.
His appearance was against him, and he was put
off on the pretext that there were no vacancies.
He then applied for work to a master-mechanic
who was superintending the laying of a new track
near by, but was again refused. Not at all
abashed, he returned to the depot, murmuring:
" More human, more divine than we,
In truth, half human, half divine
Is woman, when good stars agree
To temper, with their rays benign,
The hour of her nativity."
Reaching the platform, he paced up and down
awhile, and finally said: " I wish I wasn't quite
so unprepossessing at this time; I would call in
and see the telegraph girl. But, pshaw!
' Worth makes the man, the want of it the fel-
low,' Pope says. And old Polonius said to
Laertes, ' Costly thy habit as thy purse can
buy — neat but not gaudy.' Egad, that's me.
Costly as my purse can buy — been out of funds
for three months — trunk in Chattanooga. Cheer
up, Tip, my boy, and make your devoir to the
lady."
His address at this time had a dash about it
that invariably captivated the female heart. If
AN AUTUMN EPISODE. 51
one of the fair sex met him during- his periods of
seediness, and elevated her sensitive nose at first,
it mattered little. Given a hearing, he speedily
dissipated all depreciating thoughts from his
hearers' minds, and beguiled them to the last
degree with tales of moving accident by flood and
field, with bits of reminiscence, telegraphic and
otherwise, or characteristic stories of his cele-
brated peers, all of whom he knew personally,
and whose history he was wont to touch upon in
a manner most droll and winning.
The lady operator at Plain field that September
afternoon listened to Tip's easy flow of words,
and at the end of a ten minutes' conversation
through the little window, he had enshrouded
himself in a halo of glory, which toned down his
faded dress and sunburnt features to a degree
that gained him admission to the office. Once
in, he insisted on the operator giving her entire
attention to her needle-work, while he did the
business. " The idea of a robust operator like
me," he said, " sitting here idling away my time
when there is work to be done, and no one else
but a lady to do it, is absurd."
And she smilingly surrendered her chair to the
52 AN AUTUMN EPISODE.
'gentle gentleman/-" somehow much handsomer
than he looked, and sat and sewed the afternoon
away in a little rocker in the opposite corner.
From that moment Tip gained an admirer for
all time. An inferior operator herself, his enter-
tainer regarded a perfect sound reader as a vara
avis, and when she had been to Worcester or
Norwich, and had seen male operators receive
press reports, she had returned home and been
despondent for a week from thinking what a
lamentable incompetent she was. But she had
never seen any one in Worcester or Norwich
whose telegraphic ability could compare with
Tip's. He told everybody who essayed to send to
him, to rush things. " Trying to get my hand
in," he said. " Been traveling extensively —
taking views a-foot — and am rusty." Meantime,
he paid the most knightly attention to his vis-a-
vis. " Talk right along, my little friend," he
would say; " it doesn't make the slightest differ-
ence to me, even if I am receiving. Got used to
that long ago. Learned the business that way from
old Pop Donaldson in Savannah, Ga. He's dead
now; a wonderful operator, and one of Nature's
noblemen. Green be the turf above him." And
AN AUTUMN EPISODE. 53
the pretty copies Tip took us he went on chatting
and telling stories,, and the merry jingle of his
nervous " i, i, o, k.. Mr." quickly established his
reputation, as he established it everywhere.
In many a bright pair of feminine eves vou
■/OX J J
were a great hero that afternoon, Mr. Tip Mc-
Closkey, as you sat there relaying New York
business for all the girls on that Hartford ami
Providenoe wire — business which should have
gone to Hartford only you thought it a hardship
the girls should call so long, and offered to take it
yourself; but you were no hero in the eyes i t' the
young man at Norwich to whom you sent that
business at break-neck speed, to the infinite
delight of your fair companion. She cordially
despised that conceited youngster, who had gravi-
tated from a country office to the " City on the
Thames," and who made life miserable for all
who knew less of the telegraphic art than he. It
was a very warm afternoon, but you made it warm-
er in the vicinity of the Plainfield wire, in that
Norwich office, than it was anywhere else on this
terrestrial globe; and a certain aspiring operator
went home that night with a very much smaller
opinion of himself than he had entertained
54 AN AUTUMN EPISODE.
formerly. You yourself admitted that you had
" tried to make it interesting for him."
Finally tea-time came, and Tip was invited to
accompany his new-found lady friend to the
station agent's house, where she boarded. He
was coolly received, but with womanly adroitness
she plied him with questions at table, and he had
attentive listeners directly. After office hours he
returned to the house, and during the evening,
like Goldsmith's travel-stained soldier, he shoul-
dered his crutch, figuratively speaking, and told
how fields were won. " You will be pleased to
give Mr. McCloskey a bed to-night, of course, Mr.
G randy," said a persuasive female voice, as the
clock chimed ten; and Tip lay down that night
in a clean, sweet bed, and slept as soundly, and
rose as brisk and happy next morning, as if he
owned the universe.
" You have an influential friend among us, my
boy," said Mr. Grand y, during the forenoon.
" I have been persuaded to find something for
you to do. She says your misfortunes can not
hide the fact that you are a gentleman ;md a
wonderful operator."
The next day Tip became a general utility
AN AUTUMN" EPISODE. 55
man about the depot, and at the end of his first
week he had demonstrated his fitness for better
work, and was appointed ticket-seller. When he
left town, three months later, he said gravely to
Mr. Grandy: " Good-bye, and God bless you all,
particularly my little operator friend. I should
die if I stayed here longer. I must have excite-
ment, and 1*11 find it among the military tele-
graphers beyond the Potomac. Yet I feel like
crying at leaving here. I have been more respect-
able the past three months than I ever was before
in my life; but the end has come — good-bye!"
And the steamboat train for Norwich, with Tip
waving his handkerchief on the rear platform,
dashed out of sight, and Plainfield knew him no
more.
Let me conclude by giving one episode in Tip's
experience as a ticket-seller. His visit to Plain-
field was made early in the sixties, when postal
currency was scarce and silver change at a pre-
mium. Postage stamps were in general use for
change at that time, and one day an inebriated
and quarrelsome stranger called for a ticket for
Hartford, tendering a bank-note. Tip stamped
the ticket, and counting out about a dollar in
56 AN AUTUMN EPISODE.
postage stamps, pat them down with his hand
over them to prevent the wind, which was blow-
ing briskly, from scattering them to the four
corners of the earth. He waited patiently a
moment for the purchaser to take ticket and
stamps; but the fellow was obstinate, and held
back. It was then that Tip raised his sheltering
hand and cried, in a three-card-monte voice:
" N-e-x-t gentleman!" Some of those postage
stamps blew back into the office, others blew out
of doors, and what became of the remainder of
them is still a mystery. The purchaser finally
succeeded in getting his ticket and one three-cent
stamp, and in getting very angry. Elbowing his
way back to the window once more, he bawled:
"I want the rest of my change. " Leveling a
look at him which was intended to freeze the
marrow in the fellow's bones, Tip shook his
finger slowly, and said, in measured accents:
" Young man, you have had your change once.
Now, if you don' - ; move away from here, I'll
come out there and bust your crust!" The man
looked at Tip for a moment only, and moved
mournfully away. His regard for the safety of
his " crust " kept him away, and when his train
AN AUTUMN EPISODE. 57
arrived, lie was the first man to board it. Ticket-
selling; at Plainfield during the remainder of
Tip's stay went on peacefully and without let or
hinderance.
Mr. McCloskev had made his record.
CAP DE COSTA.
CAP DE COSTA.
Those who read a previous paper in this
volume entitled " Posie Van Dusen/' may
remember that a gentleman bearing the name of
Cap De Costa was incidentally introduced. I. ss
attention was devoted to him than to the others,
because he had never performed any of the mar-
velous feats which so redounded to the glory of
Jim Lawless, nor had he ever won distinction in
the peculiar respects in which it is vouchsafed
that none but McCloskeys shall achieve victory
and renown: and yet De Costa was an original
in his way — a genuine ingot in the mine of
humanity. It was his misfortune, however, in
common with most of his class, that the retention
of lucrative situations is not compatible with a
free indulgence in wine and wassail. Ami thus
it came to pass, in the year of our Lord I860,
that Mr. De Costa had been so regularly and
G2 CAP DE COSTA.
persistently dismissed from the service of the
American Company, in New York, as to render
it somewhat difficult to persuade managers that
he deserved a situation.
From August, 1860, until June, 1862, very
little is known of the gentleman's history or his
whereabouts. Vague rumors are still whispered
concerning his operations during the period men-
tioned, but the theories of his disappearance are
so diverse in their nature that unless Mr. De
Costa possessed the unusual boon of ubiquity he
could scarcely have filled the bill. One story
runs that he passed the interval in driving a mule
team on some route having Santa Fe for its
remoter terminus; another says he was engaged
in New Jersey, where he nourished a shepherd's
staff and looked after a flock as pastoral in their
seeming, no doubt, as the average arrivals from
the West, as seen at Communipaw; while still
another informant holds that, at intervals during
the entire period, telegrajmers seeking relaxation
in a game of billiards at the National, saw some-
times hovering in a dark corner a face mysteri-
ously familiar, though changed and shy of notice,
aid others dropping in at Branch's after " 30 "
CAP DE COSTA. 63
for a lunch or some liquid comfort, noticed
that a figure, which, according to Mike's
testimony, had been " hanging over that chair
and baking himself all night in a comatose
sthate/' always came quickly to an upright
posture and disclosed that it possessed legs and
the faculty of locomotion, by speedily gliding up
the steep stairs, and disappearing down Ann Street
as if propelled by shame and humiliation.
Bat these distracting theories of De Costa's
whereabouts do not alter the circumstance that
on the Stli of July, 1862, he appeared in a ter-
ribly demoralized condition at the office of a
western superintendent, between whom and him-
self a dialogue, something as given below, is said
to have taken place:
" I hear operators are skurce,'* said De Costa,
with the skill of a diplomat. " Good many gone
to the war, and more going d — n soon. I'm an
operator, old man, and, look here — I want a
job."
■ "Indeed!" returned the gentleman; "but
your manner, sir, is hardly what is due to men
in my position, and you seem to have been drink-
ing. I really fear we have no vacan — "
64 CAP DE COSTA.
"Oh, that's played!" broke in the captain.
" I've been here before. I'm sorry if I haven't
been respectful; but, d — n it, man, you don't seem
to understand that good operators are skurce. "
And, as if in atonement for anything unfriendly in
his manner, he squirted a stream of tobacco juice
in very inconvenient proximity to the official
boots, and fell to whistling " Auld Lang Syne."
What he said was true; the demand for opera-
tors was threatening to exceed the supply; cir-
culars calling for "sound operators," to go into
the army, were freely distributed, and telegraphic
officials were well aware that the facilities for
handling the wondei fully increasing business were
likely to be crippled from a lack of operators.
But the superintendent did not fancy the manner
of the applicant, and he prepared to annihilate
him.
" No," he began, " old acquaintance should
not be forgot, and with the record which you
have, Mr. De Costa, the company is not likely, to
let your fame pass from memory; but we really
don't need you. We only want a few operators
just now, and it is essential that those should be
absolutely first-class — men capable of sending a
CAP DE COSTA. G5
message with one hand and receiving one with
the other — who can work two wires at once, so
that—"
" Look here, cully," interrupted De Costa,
speaking most confidentially — " look here, cully,
you say you want men that can do that? Well,
I'm your oyster. You want to engage me on the
spot at your highest salary."
It is not within my province to describe the
process of thought by which these two came
ultimately to agree. De Costa's impudence may
have awed the official into submission, or a fine
sense of humor may have led the gentleman to
give the veteran another trial. At all events, my
friend of the military title found his way to the
operating-room that very afternoon, and was
enrolled on the list at the " highest salary," as
he had suggested. During his stay his relations
were tolerably pleasant, though some of his co-
laborers were taken down a peg or two occasion-
ally by his manner of answering their inquiries.
A message of his receiving, containing upward of
a hundred words, was once handed to a new
operator for transmission to some point in the
East. It was beautifully written, and filled the
3
66 CAP DE COSTA.
blank completely. The sender got on gloriously
until he reached the bottom, and then he was
unable to see the check. He looked for it at the
top and on the margin, but his " eager and ex-
pectant gaze " was each time disappointed. As a
last resource he marched over to Cap's desk, and
sai (1 , ve ry d em u rel y :
" Mr. De Costa, you seem to have omitted the
check by some — ; '
" Omitted the devil!" responded Cap, a little
pompously, observing with a wink at his inter-
rogator: " nice copy, isn't it?" Then he turned
it over, and pointing to the middle of the back,
exclaimed: "Why, you tow-topped lunkhead,
what do you call that?" The check was there on
the back, looming up solitary and alone, like the
Latin inscription " Hie " on the tombstone of the
departed inebriate.
His friends thought he had reformed, and
indeed his behavior for a few months was so much
better than was expected, that the position of all-
night man, which had become vacant, was ten-
dered him. The duties were light, with hours
from 1 a. m. to 8 a. m. As a general thing he
took scarcely a half dozen messages, besides send-
CAP DE COSTA. 67
ing a little press to San Francisco, and jogged on
the even tenor of his way as happily as a bird.
But there came a sad, regretful pay-day night
when Cap met with a misfortune. lie looked
upon the wine when it was red.
" On horror's head horrors accumulate/' you
know; so it was not surprising that, after he had
relieved his men, San Francisco should offer
a "special." I fancy that deep emotions were
working in the old boy's breast when the doleful
information came bumping across the plains; but
be that as it may, deep emotions were working in
several other breasts next morning. A special,
which should have appeared in the New York
Tribune that day, for reasons which the reader
may surmise, hung innocently on its hook in the
San Francisco office until long after the cock's
shrill clarion had waked the echoes of the new-
born day.
The manager — or " Charley," as the captain
always called him — by some strange chance came
earlier to the office that morning than usual, to
find the door open, the fire gone out, and the
room vacant. The butt of a cigar lying on (he
" overland " desk indicated that De Costa had
G8 CAP DE COSTA.
sat pondering there on his duty, and the feasi-
bility of his performing it. The circuit closer was
open, a piece of tin, which Cap always took with
him when he changed his base, was gone from the
sounder, and on a blank lying loose among many
others was written in pencil, in a neat chirogra-
phy, unmistakably his, the following laconic
adieu:
" Charley, — I works no more; I resigns.
"Cap."
I)e Costa was a man, as has been indicated,
who had no pronounced scruples about changing
his base of operations. He had no abiding faith
in the theory that
" We may fill our houses with rich sculptures and rare
paintings,
But we can not buy with gold the old associations."
To him old associations were not of particular
importance, and he never bought anything with
^old — or currency, even — which he could pur-
chase on credit, and having no house, he filled it
not with paintings either rare or otherwise, or
sculptures rich or poor. In short, he was a roll-
CAP DE COSTA. 69
ing stone who gathered no Morse, except what was
transmitted to him, but he gathered that with an
ease and grace which has never been surpassed
and seldom equaled. The captain not only
drifted from the " rock-bound coasts of Maine to
the golden sands of the Pacific " about once a
year, but he also drifted to and fro from the
service of the American Telegraph Company to
that of railroad companies, and was never hap-
pier than when on the eve of transferring his
valuable services from one corporation to another.
Sometimes, I regret to say, his period of service
was abruptly terminated by his employers without
the formality of consulting his wishes, and he was
left without visible means of support for an
indefinite length of time. It was during one of
these dreary intervals — which weie by no means
infrequent in his history — that he accosted a
knot of telegraphers on Broadway one evening
and asked for a loan — a small one. He said that
it was likely to be a permanent if not a paying
investment, and a purse of nine cents was finally
made up for his benefit. " Now, if I pay my
fare to Fiftieth Street, that will only leave me
four cents for a beer," said De Costa, reflectively.
70 CAP DE COSTA.
" I'll go get the beer first and trust to luck to
get up-town on the other four cents. Thanks,
gentlemen; ' I owe you one,' as Dr. Ollapod
would say. As a matter of fact, my beloved
brethren, I owe you several. Good-night." His
friends watched him for a moment as he tripped
gayly up the street, until he suddenly disappeared
in the vicinity of a pair of posts surmounted with
red lamps, having " oysters " painted on them.
Men much exhilarated, loud of voice, and in-
clined to burst into discordant song often came
out between those lamp-posts — an argument
undoubtedly against the consumption of oysters.
Later the captain came out and made his way as
dignified as usual to a neighboring car-stand.
He took up a position on the front platform of
the car, and before it started had invented a
story which he thought would get him up to
Fiftieth Street, where he had relatives, for four
cents. But he had no occasion to tell it. For
some unexplained reason the conductor didn't
disturb him, and at Fiftieth Street De Costa left
the car as light-hearted as a bird. " I'll have to
celebrate that piece of good fortune," he said.
"But I can't beer up on four cents." He
CAP DP COSTA. 71
walked down the street, however, toward a lager
beer garden. He must have been studying as he
went, for as he approached the bar he blandly
remarked to the man of juleps, smashes, etc. :
" Balmy evening, Jack; rather late home to-
night for a pious citizen. Must correct my
habits in deference to my early teachings, and
return home earlier. By the way, my friend,
would you do me the great kindness to lend me
a cent?*' Cap was an entire stranger to the bar-
tender, but the request was so pleasantly made,
the style of the applicant so breezy, and the loan
asked so small, that the fellow, though puzzled,
was very glad to accommodate. " If you mean
it, certainly, sir,'' said he. " Mean it?" re-
peated Cap. "Dol look like a man who would
jest?"' The penny was handed over without
further ceremony, and the captain, fishing his
four cents out of his pocket, surmounted them
with the borrowed one, pushed the column for-
ward, and said, briskly: " Jack, give me a beer."
While he leisurely drank it the bar-tender
watched him narrowly, and as De Costa set the
glass down the former dropped into the till the
five cents which he had meantime held median-
72 CAP DE COSTA.
ically in his hand, and ejaculated: ''Well,
Sandy, that is pretty good, too. Have one with
me." And he had one. It must have been
three months after this that De Costa made his
reappearance as a member of the regular night
force at No. H5 Broadway. He had been receiv-
ing from some rapid sender in Washington all the
evening, and about ten o'clock a number of the
operators gathered about him and were admiring
his beautiful copy. One of them, who had been
timing the sending, finally said: "Good work;
forty-three words a minute for the last five min-
utes." At this the captain opened his key for
the first time that night, and feelingly said:
" There is no merit in being a good telegrapher.
It is born in some men, just as poetry is, or sweet-
ness in a woman. But I'll tell you what does
require brains — to get three beers and a ride
home on a street car for nine cents. / did
that, fellow circuit-busters," and then he told
us how, as herein related.
OLD GEORGE WENTWORTE
OLD GEORGE WENTWOKTH.
Ix the year of our Lord 1867, there came to
work in the Western Union Telegraph Office, at
No. 145 Broadway, a thin, prematurely old and
gray young man of not more than twenty-six
years. No one seemed to know anything about
him, and he soon dropped into our ranks, and
came and went, day after day, without eliciting
much interest on the part of those around him.
He was very quiet, and seldom spoke unless
addressed, but then in a low and sweetly musical
voice. That he was intelligent and well educated
everybody conceded ; but he manifested no dispo-
sition to mix with the general throng, and thus it
happened that the general throng, without think-
ing much about it, came to speak of him with
more respect than the appellation given him
— "Old George Went worth " — would imply,
and left him pretty much to himself. He sat
right across the aisle from me, and I often
(ib)
7G OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH.
studied his sad though pleasant face, and ere
long put his name down in my mind with those
of some other men I had met, and whom I may
briefly describe by stating that they were men with
histories. Yes, I was moderately sure that
George Wentworth had a history, and I longed to
know what it was, and give him my young and
boyish friendship with my whole heart. But
months passed, and we knew no more of our
associate than we did when he came, except that
he was a magnificent operator, and that he was
as sweet as a day in June, though as sad, as I
have indicated, as the melancholy and sighing
days of the later autumn. His voice and man-
ner always reminded me of the falling of the
hectic October leaves, the surging of the autumn
wind through leafless branches. But the glori-
ous sunbeams were always resting on his head,
making sweet and lovable his life and character.
One night we had a severe sleet storm, and
hardly a wire was left intact in any direction.
The full force had been ordered on duty. They
waited for the lines to come " 0. K./' and sat
about in little knots, telling stories and speculat-
ing on the chances of being kept on duty until
OLD GEORGE WENTWOKTH. 77
morning. For a Lime I formed one of Hie little
company, but not being particularly interested in
the subject of discussion, and seeing George
Wentworth sitting alone, I approached him.
After a short exchange of commonplaces, I
asked, abruptly:
" Are you a married man, Mr. Wentworth?"
The reply came slowly: " No."
If that little monosyllable had been kept on ice
for a century it could not have been colder. I
saw that I had been imprudent — that I had awk-
wardly touched a chord in the man's heart that
was sacred. I was very sorry, and being very
young and inexperienced in hiding my emotions, I
made a failure of it. The tears came into my eyes,
my lip trembled, and I felt wretched. He saw
the state of things at a glance, and said, kindly:
" I beg your pardon, Tom. I didn't mean to
be rude; but I had just been thinking of events
scarcely six years old, but such bitter, hopeless
memories that it seems as if I had lived a thou-
sand years since the page on which they are writ-
ten was turned down in the book of Fate — turned
down forever."
He paused, and I said nothing. " I have
78 OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH.
never spoken of these things," he continued,
" but I think I was something like you at
twenty. How sadly I have changed since then!"
He stopped again, and then continued: "I
don't mind telling you my story, if you would
care to hear it." And. as I eagerly answered:
"i)o tell me," he resumed: "It is a sad story,
my little friend; it concerns a woman. Some say
hearts do not break; others, that women's hearts
do sometimes, but that a man's is tough, and can
bear disaster to the affections without material
injury. Maybe it is true, generally speaking;
but there are exceptions — the exceptions, I sup-
pose," he said, musingly, " that philosophers
would tell you prove the rule. You see me to-
day old and prematurely gray. I have never
been a dissipated man. I inherited a fine consti-
tution from my father. I have lived regularly,
and have never suffered from disease, but I am as
you see me, nevertheless. Do you ask me if I
am heart-broken? I can not say that; but I have
mourned over dead and buried hopes for five
years, and God's beautiful world will never look
so fair and sweet again to me as at the hour when
I close my eyes upon it forever."
OLD GEORGE WENTWOETH. 79
He moved slightly in his chair, and said, as if
studying on the matter: " It looks like a case of
broken heart, doesn't it?"
Then he was silent for several minutes; but
when he spoke again his voice had changed, and
he proceeded more cheerfully than I had ever
heard him speak before:
" Six years ago last August I was employed in
an Eastern city. I worked the New York wire,
and one day while I was sending, an ofliec-boy
came up, and said: 'Mr. Wentworth, there's a
lady outside as wants to see yer. ' I cleared my
hook, asked New York to wait a second, and
went out into the vestibule of the office. A
vision of loveliness, such as I had never seen until
then, stood before me. She was an entire
stranger to me; but we were soon chatting
gayly, nevertheless, for she had said in the mean-
time: ' I am Helen Banks, from Saybrook. and
as I was passing through here on my way to
Rockville, where I am to take the office, I
thought it not improper that I should call and
renew, in propria persona, the acquaintance we
bad formed by wire."
" I have burdened you by inference with one
80 OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH.
exploded theory, so don't mind another/' he con-
tinued. " I fell in love at first sight. She was a
lovely creature, small of stature, bright, intelli-
gent, modest, enchanting, and she appeared to
me as suddenly and unexpectedly as Diana ap-
peared to Endymion. How readily I accepted
Endymion's role, and with what alacrity I awoke
from my sleep ot every-day life to a new life of
love and bliss, I need not tell yon. She stayed only
a few minutes, and at parting she said, gayly:
" ' I expect to be intensely lonesome down at
Rockville, and that my only recreation will be
that derived from listening to the birds and to
your musical sending. Think of me sometimes,
and when the wire is idle say a word to poor me,
won't you?' she went on, half jocosely, half in
earnest. ' And,' she concluded, ' when you are
too busy to bid a body good-clay, please imagine
that
" ' " Pretty and pale and tired
She sits in her stiff-backed chair,
While (he blazing summer sun
Shines on her soft brown hair,"
and all the rest of it. Good-bye!' and she was
gone.
OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH. 81
" How dark and dismal the old office looked as
I resumed my duties! The sunbeams which, in
my imagination, nestled in her hair and played
around the dimples in her cheeks, lending a new
and genial luster to the office, and blessing every
nook and corner in the dim old room like a vis-
ible benediction, went out with her. I was very
thoughtful and preoccupied that afternoon, and
felt that I could afford to smile at my compan-
ions, who sought to tease me by asking if that
was the young lady who inquired over the wire
so often if Mr. Wentworth was in. Well, time
passed on, and what with chatting on the wire,
and corresponding by mail, we finally reached
the period in our acquaintance when I dared to
offer myself in marriage. A letter was the
medium of my proposal — I had not courage to
make a personal appeal."
He paused, and drummed on the desk with his
fingers for a little time, and then said:
" I waited patiently three days for an answer;
but none came. Then I waited a week, a month,
and then she resigned and went home. I dared
not make any inquiry of her meantime, though t
did write confidentially to the postmaster at Bock-
82 OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH.
ville, and learned that he had himself delivered
the letter into her hands. I saw how it was; she
could not accept me, and was too kind to tell me
so. I went into the army when the war broke
out, but returned home on a furlough in 1863.
I learned ihat Helen had married her cousin a
few months before and had removed to Iowa. I
was resolved to make the best of it and be a man.
You see how well I have succeeded," he said,
smiling sadly. " Just before my furlough was
out I took up a copy of a morning paper pub-
lished in the city where I had been formerly em-
ployed, and started on seeing my own name.
"At first I thought I had been accidentally
included in a list of killed and wounded. 1
hastily turned the paper to read the heading, and
my heart sunk within me. Through hot, blind-
ing tears, which I could not stay, I read the sad,
sad story that made me what I am. A post-office
clerk had been arrested for robbing the mail; in
his room were found unindorsed, and therefore
useless, checks, ' and among other things,' the
account said, ' personal letters to the following
named addresses.' Then followed a list of a hun-
dred or more names, among which was mine. I
OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH. 83
took the first train to , and applying at
police head-quarters, obtained my letter. It was
as T had feared; it was her letter accepting me as
her husband. I crushed it in my hands, and
crying: 'Oh. God! too late, too late!' fell swoon-
ing on the Moor. A few weeks later I went back
to my post in the army. My comrades said I
was the bravest man they had ever seen. I
rushed into the thickest of the fight, and feared
nothing. I courted an honorable death; but
bullets whistled by me, shells burst by my side,
killing men by dozens. The fever broke out in
our regiment, and fifty men died in one week,
but I lived on. Promotion followed promotion,
and at last, to please my mother, I resigned my
commission, stayed at home a month, and finally
promised to keep out of the army on condition that
I should resume work at my old business wherever
I coidd find it. Since then I have been in Canada,
and finally drifted to New York to be nearer
home. Now, Tom, let me tell you here that — "
" Mr. Wentworth, we have got one wire up to
Washington; answer him for a Sun special,
please," called out Night Manager Marks from
the switch; and the story was ended.
81 OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH.
The thread thus broken was never taken up
again, and by some indefinable understanding
between us, I guarded Went worth's secret as
jealously as if it were I who had loved and lost,
and henceforward neither of us mentioned it.
I left New York soon after this, and never saw
George Wentworth again until I stood one August
day, two years later, in a small Connecticut town,
and looked down upon all that was mortal of
him as he lay in his coffin. His sweet face was
as natural as in life, and scarcely any paler. His
mother stood by and reverently kissed his brow
again and again, wdiile the sturdy frame of his
grand old father trembled like a reed shaken in
the wind as he gazed fondly and tearfully upon
the dead. There were not many particulars of
his death to be obtained. It was obvious that no
one excepting the old pastor knew of his love
and the suffering he had undergone.
" He came home," said his mother, " about a
month ago, looking no worse than usual, but he
shortly began to fail perceptibly day by day.
The doctor came and prescribed a change of air,
but George said he would be better soon, and
begged to remain quietly where he was. One
OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH. S,">
afternoon he walked out under the elms and lay
clown in the hammock. At six o'clock I went out
and asked him to return to the house. He said :
' Not yet, mother. It is delightful here; the
breeze refreshes me, and I feel perfectly easy and
content. I will remain where I am— thank
you — and watch the sun go down.' When the
sun had set I went out again, but," she added, in
a breaking, though sweetly musical voice like
George's, " my boy had gone to rest with the
sun, whose downward course he watched."
The minister came and preached the customary
sermon, ranking the dead man with
" ilen whose lives glide on like rivers that water the
woodlands,
Daikened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an
image of heaven;"
the modest cortege moved away, and George
Wentworth was laid to rest in a solitary grave
beneath the murmuring pines on a neighboring
hill-side. That was done at his request, made to
the old preacher, whom he also acquainted with
his story when he felt that the end was near.
Not being a relative, I did not go to the grave,
and as I prepared to leave the house I met a
86 OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH.
sweet, sad-faced woman, whom I had noticed
when she approached and gazed long and ten-
derly upon the form of my departed friend, and
then retired to a remote corner of the room weep-
ing painfully. Some one said she was a stranger,
others that she was some woman living in the
village, and still others said that she was a rela-
tive. But I knew she was not the latter, else
she would have been provided with a carriage.
We left the house together, and as we walked
down the neat gravel path, 1 said:
" This is a very pretty village. Do you live
here?"
" No, sir," she replied; " I live many, many
miles from here. Mr. Wentworth was an old
friend of mine, and my husband insisted that I
should come to his funeral."
" You live in Iowa, perhaps," said I, gently.
Our eyes met for a moment, and we understood
each other.
" You are married, I believe — happily so, I
trust?" I ventured, after a moment.
" My husband is very kind," she replied. " I
am quite content, thank you. We have two
children, "
OLD GEORGE WENTWORTH. 87
" I suppose you know the whole story," I
added, after a pause — " the stolen letter, his
suffering, and his unaltered love?"
" Yes, sir; I know it all now," she said, weep-
ing. " The good parson who preached the
funeral sermon to-day wrote me the sad story a
few weeks ago. It was he, too, who telegraphed
George's death, and influenced his parents, with-
out disclosing his motive, to defer the funeral
until now. I arrived only at noon to-day. Oh,
sir," she continued, " I try to think it is all for
the best. I pray to Heaven to help me to be
true and good to my kind and affectionate hus-
band, and to make me worthy of my pure and
guileless little ones; but I sometimes fear that I
have only a shattered heart left to love them
with."
We shook hands and separated, probably for-
ever. I went back to my telegraphing, and she
back to Iowa, her husband and little ones, and
her great sorrow. And that ends the story,
unless 1 add an odd fancy of my own.
Sometimes, when the house is hushed and mid-
night draws near, I sit and smoke and dream,
Watching the clouds as they curl upward from
88 OLD GEORGE WENT WORTH.
my cigar, or peering through the smoke-rings I
blow forth, I see hopes and joys that have passed
me by, which, as they vanish in the haze, leave
my cheeks wet. And as I sit and muse anon,
my mind flits back to a quiet rustic village, and
I hear the winds sighing softly through the pines
above a solitary grave on a hill-side. Looking
west, I see a sweet, sad-faced matron sitting
beneath a cottage portico, and happy, gleeful
children are about her. Then I listen to the
pines again, and I fancy I hear them whisper:
" Pretty and pale and tired
She sits in her stiff-backed chair,
While the blazing summer sun
Shines on her soft brown hair;"
and as I turn once more I see her yet again-
waiting, waiting, waiting.
PATSY FLANNAGAN.
PATSY FLANNAGAN.
If we were to inquire closely into the matter of
the success of great men, we should no doubt find
that the chief secret of their triumphs was tireless
patience. In Patsy's case patience has certainly
accomplished marvels — miracles, I sometimes
think. His ruddy face and big brogans attracted
my attention one day, and on inquiry I learned
that he was a new addition to the messenger
force. As a brother messenger, a broad-faced
urchin, expressed it, Patsy was "as Irish as Pat
Murphy's pig." Without being at all familiar
with the probable, not to say the precise, degree
of Celtic character obtaining in the nature of
Mr. Murphy's porcine, I readily believed what I
heard, for Patsy was one of the most thorough-
going sons of Erin that I had ever seen. We
found him a very faithful boy, with a tolerable
turn for grumbling when his route was a long
(91)
92 PATS\ FLANNAGAN".
one, while for a pure article of unadulterated
profanity when harassed by his companions of
the messengers' bench, he was without a peer.
I once told him that he was born too late — that
he would have been a valuable acquisition to
" our army in Flanders," but he merely regarded
me with a stony look for a second, and went on
reading the Beadle's Dime Kovel from which I
had momentarily diverted his attention.
Without having enjoyed unusual school facili-
ties, and possessed of no decided tendency to
study — now that he was free from pedagogical
restraint and incentives — it soon transpired,
nevertheless, that Patsy was not without aspira-
tions. At the end of a year he had grown
tremendously, and in reply to an inquiry as to
what he intended to do when he was too big to
carry messages, he said:
" I am next oldest boy on the messenger list,
and when I am the oldest wan, and a clerk
leaves, I am going to try for it."
The idea of Patsy ever becoming a clerk was
absurd, and his interrogator laughed and left the
boy to his dreams. Patsy made no secret of his
designs on a clerkship, and after awhile it became
I'ATSY Kl.ANN \<;\.>\ 93
a common thing for the operators to say that
they would probably get their salaries raised
when Patsy got his clerkship. Meantime, the
months ran by, and Patsy was the oldest messen-
ger at last. Finally the night clerk resigned to
engage in other and, I trust, more lucrative
business, and Patsy came to the front with a
personal application for the position. Our man-
ager told him — told him rather savagely — to go
and sit down, and Patsy obeyed with an air such
as the youthful Disraeli assumed, I fancy, when
he roared back at his jeering colleagues in Parlia-
ment that memorable speech:
" I am not at all surprised at the reception I
have experienced. I have begun several times
many things, and I have often succeeded at last.
I will sit down now, but the time will come when
you will listen to me."
In time the night clerkship was again vacant,
and Patsy waited on the manager. Again he was
rebuffed more decidedly than before, and again
he took his seat not a whit discouraged. I recall
him to mind as he was in those days — zealous,
but righteously indignant whenever he was sent
on* on a long journe}\ He had a fashion of
m PATSY FLANXAGAN.
puffing out his cheeks when tilings went wrong,
and his face was a barometer, by which we all
knew, as he came swinging across the operating-
room, on his way from the delivery-desk to the
rear exit, how matters fared with him. When
the route was short he was as pleasant-visaged
perhaps as Aminidab Sleek, but not more so.
When it was medium, he began to swell about
half-way down the room, and reserved his bless-
ings on the head of the delivery-clerk until he
reached the door; but when he had what the boys
called 'aswinjer," his appearance presaged
apoplexy from the first, and he indulged, while
yet in the operating-room, in observations which,
like the single sentence of invective by Mr.
Harte's Vulgar Little Boy, conveyed a reflec-
tion on the legitimacy of the offending clerk's
birth, hinted a suspicion of his father's integrity,
impugned the fair fame of his mother, and cast a
doubt on the likelihood of his eventual salvation.
Time after time Patsy applied for a clerkship,
and one day he was met with the inquiry from
the manager:
' What can you do? You are irrepressible,
Patsy; I am tired of sending you to your seat."
PATSY FLANXAGAX. 95
" I think, sur," returned Patsy. ' ; that I can
do as good as ' the Count/ ' (the retiring clerk)
" anvhow, and you never give me a chance at all
to try. I only want a chance.''
The upshot of this dialogue, which is unpar-
donably abridged, was that Patsy succeeded " the
Count." He appeared on the evening of his
succession to the night clerkship in a white shirt
and a collar — a new departure for him. " The
ould woman," he explained, " put these things
out, and said I must wear them." Patsy
believed in his mother, and obeyed her, I remem-
ber, much better than many youths who made
greater pretensions than he did. He adhered to
his hobnailed shoes for several months; but one
day they gave place to " Oxford ties," a cravat
followed, and so, little by little, the rough boy
was transformed into quite a tidy young man.
As I have said, Patsy had not enjoyed unusual
educational advantages, and he was particularly
uncertain in his geography; so when a message
was tendered for Calais without the State being-
given, he failed to find that station in the tarift'-
book. Kather than ask the sender for the infor-
mation, he came slyly over to me and inquired in
9(3 TATSY FLANNAGAN.
a hoarse whisper: " In fhat State is Kay-lye-us?"
I looked at the message in his hand, corrected
him on his pronunciation, and replied that Calais
was in Maine. Patsy learned two things that
ni<dit — that Calais was not pronounced Kay-
lye -us, and that it was in Maine. It was one of
his peculiarities that he never forgot what he had
once learned. He asked me many queer ques-
tions during subsequent years of pleasant business
relations, but he was clear on Calais for all time,
both as to its pronunciation and locality.
One evening a lady, much agitated, called to
send a telegram, and Patsy was requested to
write it. When I took the message from the hook
to send it, I was struck by the phraseology and
the conflicting circumstance that it was evidently
from an American, it being signed " Mrs. Mason."
It read: " Your brother Jim lies at the point of
death. Come quick, if you would see him liv-
ing."
" Who got up this remarkable message,
Patsy?" I inquired.
"I did, sur," he replied, blushing. He had
come to know me pretty well, and had found
that I was rather plain-spoken.
PATSY FLAXXAGAX. 97
" It is horribly expressed for a Yankee's
message," I continued — " regular Irish. We
had better write it over."
Patsy intimated that he had never discovered
any noticeable difference between an Irishman's
message and an American's. He said he had
done the best he could with it. He thought it
would be understood by the recipients, and he
supposed that was enough. I felt sorry that I
had been rude, and replied that I had spoken
hastily — that, as a matter of fact, as he well knew,
no man had a higher opinion of the sturdy sons
of Erin than I. I then went on to speak of what
Goldsmith, Sheridan, Curran, Moore, and a host
of others, had done for English literature, and
essayed to give him some ideas about the faculty
of expression, and endeavored to disabuse his
mind of the notion that to make one's self
understood was not necessarily the highest and
most valuable use to which language could be
put. He listened attentively, and subsequent
events proved that my crude lecture on the art of
writing gracefully was not lost on him. We
indited a new message, reading thus: " Your
brother James is dangerously ill. It will be
4
98 PATSY FLANNAGAN.
necessary for you to come immediately if you
wish to see him alive."
Walking home together after "good-night,"
Patsy observed, after a long silence, that there
was " wan thing about that improved stoile of
writing messages that wasn't as good as an Irish-
man's way."
" No?" I replied. " And, pray, what is
that?"
" That message I wrote," he answered, " had
seventeen worruds. The tariff is forty and
three. I tuck sixty-wan cents on it, and the way
you fixed it over it made twenty-two worruds,
and came to seventy-three cents. I am twelve
cents short on it, and I'll have to borrow twelve
cents of the ould man to square up my account
with to morrow night."
It was a home thrust; but he made his point
against me without a grain of malice, for he saw
it not, and I did not enlighten him. But I went
home thinking there were two sides to every
story.
Time wore on, and Patsy became an excellent
clerk; but his ambition grew apace, and one day
he turned his attention to the Morse alphabet.
PATSY FLA XX AG AX. 99
Oh, then began the terror to my soul! I stood
it for about six months. But one evening, when
I had listened to his sending for half an hour
without catching the first sound that resembled
a Morse character, I went over to him, and said :
" Patsy, T am afraid you will never make an
operator. I have heard a great deal of your
sending, and I have never yet been able to dis-
tinguish a letter, to say nothing of a whole
word."
He looked aghast, and I continued:
"' Operators are like poets — they are born, not
made; and I am afraid you are the counterpart
of the young man of whom our friend Jack Sel-
den tells, who, after practicing a 3 r ear, would
make a series of dashes and a whirlwind of dots,
and blandly inquire, ' How is that for an A '?"
" I was timing myself, and sent half a column
out of the Journal in an hour. I thought it was
good Morse," he said, dolefully.
" I don't want to discourage you, Patsy," I re-
turned. " Indeed, you know very well that a
good many boys who are now fine operators
learned the business under my tuition, but the
fact is, you make no progress whatsoever. I hope
100 PATSY FLANNAGAN.
you will stick to clerking and leave this branch of
the business to others who are better adapted to
its requirements."
Patsy replied: " I suppose I'll have to begin
all over again."
I saw that he was determined to succeed, and
so advised him to begin at the beginning and pro-
ceed slowly. He thought some one ought to
have corrected him. " When John was working
for you wan night/' Patsy went on, "he said 1
had a hand like a ham, but he didn't tell me I
was all wrong. I've got to learn it anyhow,"
he concluded, as he lighted a black clay pipe and
went out and turned down the gas in the cus-
tomers' department.
" I suppose I'll have to begin all over again,"
was characteristic of Patsy Flannagan. In his
modest lexicon there was no such word as fail,
and I honored and helped him from that time
out. The gods help those who help themselves,
so, after all, I had but little to do. Patsy had
much to overcome. He had learned to write a
style of Morse that was as Greek to skilled
operators, and his handwriting was unformed;
but in two years after the dialogue given above,
PATSY FLANNAGAiN". 101
Patsy was not only one of the finest senders I
ever heard, but one of the most finished receiv-
ers as well. Not long since I heard that he had
bought a newspaper and was the owner of fine
horses and a yacht. In the quiet, well-mannered
man of the world there is nothing left of the boy
of twenty years ago — nothing but his determina-
tion, his courage, and his heart of gold.
NARCISSA.
NARCISSA.
Narcissa's mother called on our manager one
day to apply for a situation for her daughter.
She explained that she came from Foxboro, was
a widow, and had visited Providence to dispose of
some butter and cheese. She said Narcissa had
been " practicing in the Isolated Company's
office," and added that " Mr. Van Shoot says she
doose fus' rate." Something in the old lady's
homely though sincere manner enlisted our man-
ager's interest, and knowing that vacancies on
the Insulated Line, recently established by Mr.
Van Choate, were few, owing to the limited num-
ber of offices, he told her mother that he thought
perhaps Narcissa would do to succeed the retiring
operator at Howgate.
" That will be clever," returned the mother.
" I ain't never had no chance to go nowhere
myself, and I want Narcissay to git some polish
nor-)
106 KAECISSA,
onto her by going away from hum a spell." So
it was decided that Nareissa should come down
next day, and if she passed a satisfactory exami-
nation, go up to Howgate at once. She dawned
on us bright and early. I say dawned on us
advisedly, for she was " as pretty as little red
shoes," and wherever she went likewise went
sunshine. There were five of us in the American
Company's office, all young and single, and we
were madly in love with her on sight. Oh! but
she was pretty, and the little rogue seemed to be
perfectly oblivious of it, too, which rendered her
trebly bewitching. She was what the country
people called bright, but she was by no means
cultivated. While her speech ran less luxuriantly
to negatives than her worthy mother's, it was
faulty, and it was disturbing to say the least, to
hear her ejaculate: "You don't say so," or
" Dew tell," when we explained the modus
operandi of transacting business in a large office.
But whatever faults of culture were hers, she was
a vision of delight viewed as a physical creation.
Such bonny brown hair, with a tinge of sunshine
in it; such a chin; such teeth, and such a plump
figure! It would have been sheer blindness not
NAECISSA. 107
to have fallen in love with her. None of us
suffered from impaired vision, and we became
enamored with one accord. We read of damask
cheeks in our maturer years, and instinctively
think of the bloom of youth, lily-white, and pearl
powder. We are apt, moreover, to revive that
overworked joke of Sheridan's, and observe,
cynically: " Yes, her color comes and goes —
comes in the afternoon, and is gone in the morn-
ing." But no one who ever saw Narcissa but
would believe in a damask skin.
" Her cheek was like a Catherine pear,
The side that's next the sun."
I am afraid as I grow older and more conscien-
tious, that Narcissa was not an expert operator;
but we made a report to the manager which
secured her the Howgate office. He was not a
Morse operator himself, and trusted us implicitly.
I suppose that if by any chance she could have
been retained at Providence, we should have
agreed on a favorable verdict, whatever qualifica-
tions might have been requisite. To be sure, she
made an "!*' for a " w," and she was so
prodigal with her dots that if the surplus ones
had been counted and checked against her — as I
108 NAECISSA.
am told is now the practice on certain nameless
lines — her salary would not have paid the tolls.
But in our eyes those were but trifles in those
glad years, and looking down into the pure
depths of her violet eyes, I thought she was an
angel, and I almost came to think that "gku"
was an improvement on " t n k u," as she said it
to Fred Ford, who had just told her from the
switch that she sent like a man. He blushed a
little as she naively inquired how long he had
read by hound. I am not sure but she said by
pound; but I abated my admiration not one iota.
That was a long time ago, little Narcissa. I
wonder where you are to-day, and I wonder, too,
if you are as happy and contented as you were
once sweet and winning! " The years are swin-
dlers," says the singer; " they make us old be-
fore they make us good." But I hope you are
not old, even though the years have crumbled be-
neath us sadly since that radiant day of meeting.
Perchance you are wafting lightnings somewhere
in New England ; but more likely you are mar-
ried, and have merry, romping children plucking
at your gown to share their mother's smile. I
trust that peace, prosperity and all good things
NARCISSA. 109
surround you wherever you may be, and if you
are as pretty as of old, you must make happy
even the placid mirror which reflects your sunny
face.
Pardon the digression, my reader; but it is so
natural to fall to musing that I could not help it.
When you grow older, and your brown locks or
tresses are streaked with silver, and younger men
and women are doing the courting — at which you
are now so clever — you will find yourself indulg-
ing in retrospect just as I do. Narcissa's debut
at Howgate was not marked by unusual brill-
iancy; but the distance from our city was short,
and one of us was pretty sure to be with her
during the better part of the day. Occasionally,
to my regret, two of us were in attendance to do
her work, and that was a state of things much to
be deplored. Mornings and evenings, however,
owing to the peculiarities of the railroad time-
table, she was alone, and as she tumbled out our
call and signed, the effect was demoralizing.
The signal for Howgate was " Hw," and Kar-
cissa favored extremely long dashes. The " II "
generally came staggering in with moderate
safety, but her manner of adding the " W "
110 NAKCISSA.
gave her call a weird, sad sound, suggestive of a
clime where the thermometer would be inade-
quate. Sometimes, in a fit of generosity with her
dots, she rendered it " pell." Rut our periods of
depression were only transient; for on seeing her
we straightway forgot her infirmities of skill, and
sat and feasted our eyes on her surpassing beauty.
Through one entire summer we vibrated between
adoration of Narcissa and disenchantment, be-
cause of her peculiarities, telegraphic and other-
wise.
Fred Ford, who was the oldest of us all, ceased
his attentions one September day for personal
reasons. He plumed himself on his accurate and
finished sending. Visiting Narcissa in the after-
noon, he found a message undelivered which he
had sent in the morning. " This message was
addressed to Miss H. A. Sherman, not as you
have it — to Miss Hasherman," said Fred.
" That was the way you sent it," said Narcissa,
demurely. "Oh! I dare say," returned Fred,
sarcastically. " Have you notified New York yet
that you failed to find Miss Hasherman?" he
inquired. " That would have disclosed the
error. No, indeed," she replied, carelessly;
NAKCISSA. Ill
"the message is paid; I didn't fret myself
about it." Fred was not entertaining in the
interval to train -time, and Xarcissa, I fear,
pouted a little. Fred regretted his quick temper
afterward, I think. Narcissa had probably been
told on good authority that money was the
objective point in the telegraph business, and the
message being prepaid, she regarded it a small
matter whether or not it was delivered. Fred
used to say, sometimes, that he was going to
make it ujj with her, but when the war broke out
he went away suddenly, requesting me to tell
Xarcissa he sent her his love.
Ned Jones retired as an admirer along in
October, after attempting thirty-seven times, one
day, to get the signature " A. H. Okie '' to a
station on Xarcissa's wire. She was anxious to
obtain circuit, and to her, in common with a
great many of her sex, " 0. K. " was the signal
to claim it.
Poor Neddy! I think he loved Xarcissa; but
he was more fastidious than the rest of us, and he
"died of a color in aesthetic pain," figuratively
speaking, and relinquished her. Xarcissa's
orthography was defective, a point on which
112 NAECISSA
Billy Jackson was " more nice than wise," as she
afterward expressed it. In a note to him she
spoke of " fenses," the "new-mown gras," and
invited him to " com down on Sundy and go
gathering furns." Dear particular Jack! he
couldn't stand it; and that Sabbath and many
others have glided by without his giving his
attention to the ferns at Howgate.
" It is no use, my boy," he said, gloomily;
" she is a beauty and a darling, and I can endure
her telegraphing and all that, but when she
attempts to foist her phonetic system of spelling
on me, I won't have it. I am not a believer in
phonetics, and Narcissa is not for me. Woo her
yourself, and win her. She may call you her
' dier;' but you are a philosopher, and don't
strain at gnats, as you are fond of telling us."
Jack was a sad dog, and he went off laughing
at me.
Thus out of the five only George Hunter and I
remained stanch to the divinity at Howgate. We
were sworn friends, and had been for years, but
we quarreled about Narcissa at last. It was on a
dull December day that we proceeded into the
suburbs to fight it out. We compromised on
NARCISSA
XARCISSA. 113
talking it over, and when we parted we had
promised not to visit or write to Narcissa for six
months. At the end of that time we were to
compare notes and determine upon our future
action. Idly done. Before five months had
passed Hunter had become engaged to his present
wife, and I was assiduously besieging the heart of
a lady operator, and she worked not at Howgate.
All of the old force deserted Providence within
a year or two, and Karcissa was left behind us.
But she long since left Howgate, and her suc-
cessor was unable to tell me, as were also her old
neighbors at Foxboro, when I inquired whither
she had gone. There are four sober-going mar-
ried men, however, who must always remember
Xarcissa as a vision of loveliness, and in whose
foolish old hearts there are sometimes longings to
view once more her lovely girlish face. Fred
Ford is one of those of whom Mr. Aldrich says:
"The long years come, but they
Come not again. "'
He was killed at An detain, and sleeps beneath
the " unremembering grass " now waving where
erstwhile the battle roared. We hoped once that
he would return and marry Narcissa; but that is
114: NARCISSI
past, and we can only invoke her image. We do
that often, and her bright, piquant face illu-
minates and makes beautiful the rich and splen-
did past, until we become four very proud
partners in a memory as sweet and witching as
an evening breeze on which comes wafted the
odor of mignonette.
AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
AX AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
James Dulix, practical printer and cosmo-
politan., was a type of a class. I speak of him in
the past tense, because the scenes which knew
him once know him no more; and it is almost
certain that his wanderings are over, and in some
quiet nook, lying between the Gulf Stream and
the golden sands of the Pacific, his peaceful dust
reposes. I trust that fate dealt kindly with him
and closed his cheerful being in no unfavored
spot, where the winter winds sweep mournfully
above the dead. Rather let me indulge the sweet
belief that he fell asleep in some genial clime,
where the long grass growing above him is stirred
only by kindly breezes, and where the flowers
exhale their fragrance from June to June.
My acquaintance with Dulin began in Provi-
dence a few years after the close of the great civil
conflict — probably in 1870. I was at the time
(117;
118 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
the hopeful editor of a struggling daily news-
paper, which has since succumbed to the in-
evitable, after a praiseworthy but futile attempt
to convince the Democracy of Rhode Island that
it was worthy of encouragement and support.
The portly and punctilious ship-news reporter,
Mr. Tilley, complained to me one afternoon that
the regular marine-news compositor was absent
on one of his periodical enterprises, the objective
point of which was to demonstrate, to his own
satisfaction, that sorrow may be effectually buried
by recourse to the flowing bowl. The complain-
ant added that " something must be done," as
the new incumbent was making the ship-news
simply ridiculous by his mischievous blunders in
reading copy. Mr. Tilley then proceeded to
descant on the plainness of his manuscript, and
appealed to me to corroborate his claim that his
handwriting was as legible as reprint. I assented
to the proposition, but with a colossal mental
reservation, for Mr. Tilley usually wrote with a
dull-pointed lead-pencil about half an inch in
length, and his writing bore about the same
relation to penmanship that the pot-hooks and
trammels used by the short-hand reporters of old
AN" AGREEABLE SAUNTERER. 119
bear to the modern and thoroughly perfected sys-
tem of stenography. But feeling sorry for the
genial and kindly soul who had come to me for
sympathy, I volunteered to go upstairs and see if
some improvement could not be had. This pro-
posal was rather impatiently received, Mr. Tilley
ejaculating sharply: " You can't do anything
with him. He won't say anything but ' Kayrect.'
I wrote yesterday that the schooner ' Jane Mont-
gomery ' had arrived with three hundred carboys
for Chambers & Calder. It was printed three
hundred cabbages. Everybody is laughing at
me. It is shameful that, after forty years' ex-
perience as a marine reporter, I should fall into
the clutches of an irresponsible tramp printer and
be made to arrive cabbages for one of the largest
drug houses in this section."
By this time the old gentleman was walking up
and down the room, greatly excited.
" And when I went to him and remonstrated,"
cried Mr. Tillev, " what does the loafer do but
wink at me! Yes, sir, he winked at me, and
said: ' Don't distress yourself, uncle; no one ever
reads the ship news slop. Such skulch is printed,
when used at all, to flatter the vanity of old
120 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
fossils like you who can't do anything else but
spy out vessels' names through a glass. You
don't seem to understand it; the publisher has
no real need for you; he just lets you fool with
the ship-news rather than hurt your feelings by
putting you on a pension. If I were running
this paper, I would have you jmt on the retired
list as early as 1847.' Heavens and earth! I let
into him after that speech," concluded the
speaker, whose face now rivaled the hue of a well-
boiled lobster.
" And he promised to be more careful in the
future?" I inquired.
" Careful! Not he. He just winked at me
again — a plague on his familiar winking — and
said, 'Kayrect.'" With this Mr. Tilley seized
his spy-glass and note-book, and passed out,
slamming the door after him.
When I had once more demolished the preten-
sions of the Republican Party in a column
article, and had produced accompanying para-
graphs and political notes to fill the regular
amount of space devoted to my use, I took my
copy and climbed a pair of untidy stairs leading
to the composing-room.
AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER. 121
" Who is slug nine while Wilcox is absent?'' I
inquired, addressing collectively the dozen or
fifteen men who had been throwing in their cases,
and who were waiting for the copy which I held
in my hand. A compauionable-looking man of
about thirty years, in broken boots, a frilled shirt,
and a vest and pantaloons which proclaimed as
distinctly as tongueless clothes could speak that
they were originally intended to adorn a differ-
ently proportioned person than their present
wearer, stepped forward, and said, pleasantly:
" I am slug nine — James Dulin; I've got a work-
ing card, and I'm in good standing with the
Union."
"In better standing with the Union than with
Mr. Tilley, perhaps/' I said, smiling. Dulin
had taken the first page of manuscript and had
gone to his case while I was speaking. I fol-
lowed him.
" The fact is," he said, good-naturedly, and
with an inoffensive degree of freedom which indi-
cated that in his opinion, at least, there could not
possibly be any lack of sympathy between gentle-
men like him and me, " the fact is, the old
party with the telescope and that stub-toed lead-
122 AN AGREEABLE SAUJSTTERER.
pencil doesn't turn out just the stuff for a
stranger to tackle. I'm all right on ' straight
matter,' like this truck of yours. If it were not
good manuscript— which it is— I would still be all
right. But old Carboy is a tough citizen as a
quill-driver, I can tell you. He came up here
when I was new and nervous, talking about those
cabbages, and he wasn't very choice in his lan-
guage. I wished to respect his age, and said
nothing until he told me he was a ' comp.' That
pricked my professional pride, and I lost my
temper. Bless his crabbed old soul, he couldn't
stick type in these days; and 1 told him so. I
reckon he doesn't like me pretty well from what
he said,'- Dulin added, thoughtfully, "but I
can't help it, The old and the new do not
assimilate, you know. He thinks I am too young
for the responsible task of setting his matter;
while in my judgment he should have been planted
twenty years ago. He doesn't seem to see it;
but, really, Methuselahs are not in fashion in
this nineteenth century. It is too progressive an
age to admit of our encouraging the veteran to
any great extent. In fact, the veteran, as has
been remarked before, is inclined to lag reluctant
AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER. L23
oil the stage without any special inducements."
After a very pleasant talk, in the course of which
I cautioned Dulin against making any further
errors in Mr. Tilley's reports of the same absurd
character as the one which had annoyed the old
gentleman so greatly, I left the room. As I
passed into the hall I heard Dulin ejaculate with
a somewhat irrelevant prefix that he " couldn't
set type on an empty stomach." One of the
other compositors dropped his stick in astonish-
ment, and replied:
" Why, I lent you some money to get break-
fast with, didn't I?"
"Yes," said Dulin, as he went to the "gal-
ley " and emptied a stickful of matter before any
of his companions had set half as much, "yes,
you lent me money. It was very kind of you,
too, Eben; but an empty ' comp ' can't spread
himself on fifteen cents."
" But it was half a dollar I gave you," pursued
Eben.
" Kayrect," responded Dulin, " but I paid out
thirty-five cents of it for getting my mustache
painted."
I then noticed for the first time, as Dulin re-
124 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
turned to his case and transferred the type to his
stick with marvelous rapidity, that his mustache
had indeed just received an application which
gave it the appearance of a very inky tooth-
brush. This exhibition of vulgar taste on Dulin's
part hurt my feelings; but when the "proofs' 1
came down to the editorial-room that night for
correction, and never an error, typographical or
otherwise, discovered itself under slug nine, I
yielded him his full due of admiration, and went
home well fortified in my belief that he was a
real acquisition to the paper, and half convinced
that if a man wished to dye his subnasal ap-
pendage and make himself ridiculous, it was
nobody's business but his own.
Dulin made his reputation very rapidly, and at
the end of a month, having made " large bills,"
he indulged his taste for fashionable attire by
giving his order to the leading tailor for " a com-
plete outfit," as he expressed it. A few weeks
later he left town. Meeting him on the street
and hearing his determination to take the train
for New York that evening, I accompanied him
to the station. As the train was about to start, he
quietly observed:
A3ST AGREEABLE SAEXTEKER. 125
" I heard what you said about it. It did sort
of size my intellect; but, somehow, it never
struck me that way before. If you ever see me
again it will show up straw-color as nature made
it. We learn mighty slowly, particularly in these
matters of taste, old man; and I've never had so
much of a chance as some men to — "
The train moved off, thus abbreviating his dis-
course as quoted above, and leaving me, blushing
and embarrassed, to learn that anything I had
said of his inclination to avail himself of the
friendly offices of nitrate of silver had reached his
ears.
The delicate health of The Plantation Har-
binger — it was always in pecuniary distress —
together with a longing to display my energy
and journalistic blandishments in a wider field,
ultimately persuaded me to seek my fortune in
New York. I met Dulin occasionally in Printing
House Square, and came to learn by degrees that
the Dulin of my imagination and the real Dulin
possessed remarkable j)oints of difference. The
discovery made me melancholy at first — it is very
saddening to see our idols clashed before our very
eyes. But there was no escape for me; and little
126 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
by little I learned Dulin's history and some of his
ways, and became reconciled to the inevitable.
It appeared that, notwithstanding he was an
expert compositor and had performed splendid
service on many occasions when the emergency of
the moment demanded it, he very rarely soiled
his fingers by bringing them in contact with
prosaic type. I was told that he was a telegraph
operator as well as a compositor, and that his
crowning glory was one of the sweetest tenor
voices to be heard this side of Italy. It trans-
pired that he relied upon his telegraphic relations
for the procurement of railroad passes from time
to time, upon his skill as a printer to obtain what
money was necessary to meet his pressing wants,
and upon his ability to tell an amusing story or
sing a song to advance his social interests. He
was well groomed and characterized by an air of
genteel prosperity. Having incidentally told me
a month after my arrival that he was looking for
a boarding-place, I invited him to share my own
room and take his meals with me until he could
make some better arrangement. He cordially
adopted my suggestion, and made me a longer
visit than I had expected he would. But he was
AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER. L27
always cheerful and deferential, and his society
was rather pleasant and desirable, although the
discharge of my indebtedness, incurred on his
account, added to my own expenses, made sad
havoc with my slender income. He finally
gathered his impedimenta together one morning,
and simply saying: " Au revoir, if I shouldn't
come back again," passed out of doors, softly
whistling an air from " Mignon." That was the
last I saw of him for two years. I renewed my
acquaintance with him as he stepped out of a
coupe in front of the Hoffman House one Septem-
ber morning. He insisted that I should break-
fast with him. We talked upon every conceiv-
able subject; and he casually mentioned, as we
separated, that he bad just returned from
Havana, where he had been the guest of a
wealthy Kew York merchant. I never saw him
afterward, though for some years later I heard of
him at intervals — sometimes in one locality and
again in another — always well fed, fairly clothed,
and invariably popular.
When Dulin told me he bad been the guest of
a generous host in Havana I was not surprised,
for it was as the honored guest of somebody or
128 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
other that he generally figured. In his day he
had tarried for indefinite periods beneath the hos-
pitable roofs of reporters, city editors, publishers,
telegraph superintendents, railroad magnates and
their subordinates. He had an especial fondness
for railroad and steamboat people; and in his
latter days, when " passes '' were difficult to get,
he continued his travels just the same, depending
upon his linguistic accomplishments to remove
the obstacles to riding free which lie in the way
of ordinary mortals. Once in a long time a
newly appointed conductor would compel him to
leave the train; but he boarded the next one that
came along, and improved the time placed at his
disposal by these enforced delays, by a tour of
the town, if he happened to debark at a metropo-
lis, or by going out into the fields and watching
the flight of the birds, noting the methods of the
husbandman, or listening to the hum of the
bees, if it were his good fortune to be stranded at
a way-station.
But in spite of his tendency to visit, Dulin
rarely, if ever, wore his welcome entirely out.
He seemed to know by intuition when the pleas-
ure his presence gave was waning, and at the
AN AGREEABLE SAUNTEREE. 129
proper moment he departed. Unless he had been
invited elsewhere, he would repair to some demo-
cratic resort of entertainment where the admis-
sion and music were free and where the beverages
were dispensed at nominal prices. Here, assum-
ing an attitude of respectful attention, he would
await with stoical patience the rosy opportunity
which never failed to come. If he were disap-
pointed on the first night, he would go again, and
ultimately the hour arrived when the tenor of the
occasion was indisposed or inebriated, and the cry
would be raised: " We must have a song! Who
can sing a song?" Rising modestly, Dulin would
say in an unobtrusive way, that his voice was
husky from long disuse; that the words of many
of the songs he had once known had escaped his
memory, but that, if it were agreeable, he would
try and sing, " T Would I Were a Bird."
His vocal performances never failed to elicit
invitations to eat and drink, and then, warmed
by a moderate quantity of stimulant and re-en-
forced by a larger amount of digestible food than
had surprised his inner man since his departure
from the gates of his most recent entertainer, he
would sing, " Come Where My Love Lies Dream-
5
130 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
ing," "Annie Laurie," and other ensnaring
ballads. And he sung in tones so sympathetic,
and with an art so utterly devoid of art, that he
brought tears to his hearers' eyes, and invariably
attracted to his side some impressionable fellow-
being who, for the nonce, had forgotten the price
of pork or of candles, and was giving his soul a
holiday by seeking the scenes where beer and
song held sway. These appreciative and unso-
phisticated sons of trade, who seldom visited the
halls of jollity and wassail, and to whom men of
Dulin's sort were as a revelation, were his natural
victims. "You have a splendid voice, sir."
" That was a touching song, young man," and
similar observations were cues for which Dulin
was ever watchful. He never took the initiative,
but waited with a degree of reticence almost
touching for overtures from those whom he had
mentally selected as a means to his future aggran-
dizement. Winning in manner, deferential and
responsive, he seldom failed to become the guest
of whomsoever, entertaining the opinion that his
voice was good, was indiscreet enough to men-
tion it.
To an acquaintance who had taken a position
A2JT AGREEABLE SAUNTERER. 131
as station agent and telegraph operator on the
Union Pacific Railroad, Dulin once wrote as fol-
lows:
" My dear Proctor,— My luck has changed
again; my star is dim, and I am going West. I
am not in funds, but I hope to close the weary
expanse lying between us in the course of the
next twenty days. The itinerant telegraphers
have of late been showing a preference for the
turnpike, and they give somber accounts of the
methods which the modern conductor is develop-
ing in the absence of transportation papers. But
I fancy the conductor's heart is as green as ever,
and has only taken on a veneering of brusque-
ness, so to speak, in pretended recognition of the
prevailing tendency, on the part of his superior
officers, to adopt a parsimonious and grinding
policy toward the public, looking to an increased
return for money invested and the augmentation
of railroad power. In any event, I have no
dreams of pedestrianic honors as an outcome of
my contemplated pilgrimage toward the setting
sun. Humanity is all of one clay — only the out-
ward limbs and flourishes are variant. Once we
132 AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER.
reach a man's core all is won; and the conductor
is no exception to this universal rule. In my
occasional ramblings from New York to the
Pacific coast, and from Montreal to Galveston,
the average conductor has proven to my satisfac-
tion that he is a credit to humanity; and in
thrusting myself upon his attention now, I trust,
by tarrying over a train now and again at points
where the attractions of the town or the beauty
of the landscape merit the attention of an in-
dolent tourist, to grasp your cordial hand about
the seventh proximo. Across the yawning
chasm of space which lies between us — two
thousand three hundred miles, according to
' Rand McNally ' — I send my greeting. I prom-
ise myself great pleasure during the week I hope
to pass with you before leaving for the remoter
West. God bless you, my boy, and if you ever
pray, don't fail to remember in your devotion
that I have undertaken a long journey and that a
prayer or two may help to pull me through on
time."
Fifteen days after the receipt of Dulin's letter,
and somewhat to his friend's surprise, he stepped
AN" AGREEABLE SAUXTERER. 133
gayly from a westward bound train at Bridger;
and after making a ten-days' stop, he proceeded
onward to Virginia City, to take up the long-
dropped threads of an acquaintance with Dan De
Quille, and test the quality of that gentleman's
hospitality. During his stay at Bridger he
feasted royally on canned oysters and other
delicacies suited to his cultivated tastes, He
was always entertaining, and his society was
much sought. His bill amounted to thirty-eight
dollars, but it was cheerfully paid by his enter-
tainer, and while his departure was not regretted,
his friend would not have hastened it by an hour
if he could. Indeed, so nicely did Dulin balance
everything that his arrivals and departures
seemed to be in accordance with the eternal
fitness of things; and no one ever seemed to
regret anything which happened on his account.
I have been impelled to write this desultory
paper by accidentally coming upon a bright bit
of humorous writing by a Western philosopher,
affecting the proposition which has so long gone
unchallenged, viz.: "The world owes me a
living." This writer says: " The world may owe
you a living, son, if you can get it. But if you
134 AST AGKEEABLE SAUNTERER.
are not spry, the world doesn't care much
whether you get it or not. The world got along,
son, very well before you came iuto it; and it
will continue to whirl on its axis when you are
gone." This is sound doctrine; it is a sensible
every-day philosophy, which can be safely fol-
lowed by ordinary travelers along life's great
highway, and I subscribe to it unhesitatingly and
with all my heart. But what, I wonder, would
James Dulin have thought of it? What would
those who belong to the class of which he was a
type say to such simple teachings?
I can easily imagine the scorn with which
Dulin would have regarded such an assumption.
And when I remember his successful pursuit of
what he conceived to be the highest order of hap-
piness, I am inclined to doubt the truth of his
own proposition, that " humanity is all of one
clay." Perhaps, just as there are religious
natures so peculiarly constructed as forms to
despise, creeds to distrust, pretensions to deride,
there are men possessed of mental organizations
differing so radically from the general one that
they work out their individual destinies by a
violation of those moral laws and conceded prin-
AN AGREEABLE SAUNTERER. 135
ciples through an observance of which the
majority attain happiness, prosperity and honor.
Dulin achieved those ends, undoubtedly, by his
own unorthodox means; for with him it was hap-
piness to be a transient guest, prosperity to travel
across the Continent without the formality of
purchasing a ticket, and honor of the superbest
quality to resemble the lilies which neither toil
nor spin,
POP DONALDSON.
POP DONALDSON.
I saw him last summer, working a third-class
wire in the Boston office. In reply to my in-
quiry, the chief operator informed me that Don-
aldson had been given employment the day
before. I met the old boy on the stairs later in
the day, and he said in a weak voice: " Yes, I
am back here again, what there is left of me.
My drinking days are over, and /am about over,
too." He certainly looked bad, and I said to
myself: "If consumption hasn't marked you for
its own, your appearance belies you." My gaze
went wandering away from him as he said, sadly:
' I can't telegraph very well any more. My
hand shakes, and it is like sawing wood for me to
work a wire — even a way wire." Then he left
me and pursued his way upstairs to the operat-
ing-room. Old Pop Donaldson is not more than
thirty-five years of age, but he has burned the
1130)
140 POP DONALDSON.
candle at both ends, and his nervous system is
fatally wrecked. He has fallen into a decline of
late years, and there remains for him nothing, I
fear, but the bitter dregs of existence.
Away back in the sixties, when I was a mere
lad endeavoring to master the mysteries of teleg-
raphy, Donaldson was in his prime. He was
regarded as one of the finest telegraphers in the
country, and at the time I first knew him he had
just completed his twenty-first year. I doubt if
many young men who have their way to make in
the world attain their majority under fairer
auspices than he did. Intelligent, fine-looking,
and the master of a profession which at that time
was counted as one of the fine arts almost, he
had, apparently, an enviable future before him.
Indeed, if I had been told in those dear old days
that I would eventually reach what seemed, in
my boyish eyes, a pinnacle of glory — such as he
occupied — I should have been more surprised and
pleased than I could be now over any prospect of
future prosperity short of a tight hold on Para-
dise.
Somebody has recently written a poem in
which two tramps figure. One inquires on meet-
POP DONALDSON. Ill
ing the other if there is no shade-tree near at
hand, and the second replies: " Yes, a little
further down the road. " The writer elaborates
this idea, and says we are all tramps, looking for
a shade-tree. In his view, it is always further
down the road, and but few of us ever reach it.
The idea is well enough, hut the view is too pes-
simistic to please me. I believe, on the contrary,
that we are rather like children straying through
a house in which there are many rooms of ex-
quisite loveliness, each more beautiful than the
preceding one. Outside of the mansion we think
we would be content if we could gain the hall,
but, once within, we stray on and on with
thoughts intent upon the possibilities which lie
beyond, and little heeding the increasing beauty
of our surroundings since we left the threshold.
It is better that we should sometimes consider the
point from which we started. The experiment is
consoling, at all events, and makes us philosophic
and more contented with our social status.
There are not many of us who have made the
most of our opportunities who can not say with
the Christian of old: " Oh, God! I have much to
be thankful for."
14^ POP DONALDSON.
Old Pop Donaldson has not so much to be
thankful for as many, and that he has thrown
away his opportunities is, to my mind, the chief
reason therefor. In the curt vernacular of
Americans, we often have the solution of a prob-
lem iu one word. We hear of men in our own
and other professions who have extraordinary
abilities, kindly natures, and many traits of char-
acter calculated to endear them to their acquaint-
ances. We are told, moreover, that they are at
present " down in the world," " utterly used
up/' etc., and when we inquire the cause, the
answer comes with painful regularity in that dire
monosyllable, "Drink.'-' Old Pop Donaldson's
failure in life is also susceptible of explanation
by the mention of that short, sad word. I do not
mean to preach a temperance sermon. In writ-
ing a sketch, however, of a man whom I have
known and admired, and through whose kindly
aid I was launched on a career which I hope I may
be pardoned for considering a moderately useful
one, it will be necessary to cite a few facts.
These facts stand for themselves. If they preach
anything, I can not help it.
How old memories come crowding upon me as
POP DONALDSON. 143
I recall a lovely Sunday in June, so far away that
I instinctively look in the mirror to see " if the
young boy is getting to be an old boy," and if
" the hair is growing thin on the old boy's
head." I was early at the office that morning,
and was copying, with the idea of becoming an
operator, the Morse alphabet from Sha liner's
manual. So engrossed was T with my work, and
the difficulty I experienced in fixing my chubby
fingers around a pen so as to come within speak-
ing distance of making the characters conform to
those in Shaffner, that I did not notice that some
one had entered. As I was desperately strug-
gling with the letter " J," and inwardly bewail-
ing my lack of expertness with the pen, a voice,
which startled me at first, but which 1 recognized
at once as Donaldson's, said: " Ho]) down off
that stool, sonny, and I'll make you the alpha-
bet. " I quickly surrendered the task to the more
experienced fingers of the new-comer, who had
been looking over my shoulder, and took my
place on the messengers' bench. Presently Don-
aldson handed me a blank, on which the alpha-
bet, numerals, and the punctuation points were
given, and below them he had written, in his own
144 POP DONALDSON.
beautifully flowing chirography: "James Brady
gave me his pretty black walnut box of quite
small size." I bashfully expressed my thanks,
but my heart was quite full enough of gratitude
to have warranted something better than I said,
had I been able to give utterance to my thoughts.
After answering a call and taking several mes-
sages, Donaldson started me out, saying as I
went to deliver them: " You can practice on
that sentence when you have learned to make the
letters. It contains all the characters in the
alphabet." I have given that little story about
Brady and the small black walnut box to many
aspiring youngsters since then. I wonder if any
of them ever prized it as highly as I did when it
first became a part of my small stock of knowl-
edge, and I wonder, too, if among the small
band of youths — some of whom became operators,
while others failed in that to succeed afterward
in other things — there is one wdio ever looked
upon me as a half-human, half-divine personage,
such as I regarded Donaldson. Probably not.
But if there be one. I am a much honored man,
for nothing I can feel for a human being will
ever excel my enthusiasm for my old telegraphic
POP DONALDSON". 145
hero. Even though I have seen him often of late
years under circumstances which, for the mo-
ment, bereft him of all his old-time glory, still I
go on remembering him bright, dashing, and
handsome, and am thankful that I can. Old
Pop Donaldson is the stern reality to nearly all
who know him now; but to me he is an abstrac-
tion merely — a reality which goes out of my
mind, giving place to my hero of yore the mo-
ment he leaves my presence.
Before he had gone far on his downward course
I had become an operator, and worked by his
side. I remember that in one of his exalted
moods he took the color out of my existence for
a month or more by a casual observation which
I can never forget. Like many young operators,
I fancied, long before I had perfected myself in
my business, that I had solved the problem. I
spoke in his presence to that effect one day, and
he said, with that charming bluntness which is
sometimes the result of an indulgence in stimu-
lants:
" You will make a decent operator, but you
are, of course, a frightful stick now." It cut me
like a knife; but I needed a lesson. Years after-
146 POP DONALDSON.
ward, when I had progressed as far in the tele-
graphic art as nature intended I should ever go,
I looked back on those earlier years and felt that
Donaldson was right. I had finally been taught
the bitter lesson which the great Newton con-
fessed to have learned, and felt that the little
knowledge we acquire is valuable chiefly as
teaching us the density of our ignorance.
Donaldson's character had a humorous vein in
it withal. His ability as a " receiver ' : was the
talk and wonder of the whole section in which he
lived and wrought. He never broke; his work
was accurate, and his penmanship marvelous.
One day an operator who copied press on the
same wire visited us, and asked George how he
managed to receive report day after day without
ever breaking. Pointing to a Homeric contriv-
ance, consisting of two sounders placed on a shelf
several feet away, and which did duty as a
repeater for a station situated off the main line,
Donaldson replied, dryly: " I do sometimes lose a
word; but I have to watch that thing for breaks,
and I usually catch the truant word before it wig-
gles through there."
The time came when he could no longer hold
TOP DONALDSON". 14:7
the responsible position of night-report operator,
and he went West. From that time out until
recently he has returned to me at intervals vary-
ing from six months to two years. He plays the
role of the " Friend of my Youth." He has
invariably appeared without warning, and uni-
formly in a state of impecuniosity. Sometimes
he hailed from a New England town, where he
had secured a month's " subbing;" again he
came from some obscure village on a branch of
the Erie Railroad, where he had been buried a
year or two; anon he spoke of having just re-
turned from Wyoming Territory, or of having
last worked in Texas. But his appearance, from
whatever direction he came, always carried me
back to the halcyon days of my youth, and in-
voked a vision of a brisk young man stepping out
of his way to perform a kindly service for a round-
faced country boy come to the city to seek his fort-
une. That picture will always last. His wants
have generally been modest, and I need scarcely
add that his claims on me have never failed of
recognition. If, m opening my purse, I have
sometimes opened my lips and besought him to
be a man, it is but common justice to him to say
148 POP DONALDSON.
that he has invariably promised to mend his
ways. But he has steadily gone down-hill, and
has well-nigh reached the bottom. I know bet-
ter than scarcely any other man can know how
hard he has tried to retrace the steps, taken
under social pressure years ago, which have
led to his decadence, physical and intellectual.
He has struggled against a cruel fate, and has
failed. It was with sincere sorrow that I saw
him in Boston, pale, weak, and emaciated. I
judge that the old enemy is conquered at last;
but it is too late. A more merciless enemy, one
on whom we may exhaust strength or will in
vain, is obviously preying upon his shattered
frame.
Some day we shall read of his death, and the
casual acquaintance will say: "Drank himself
into consumption. Poor fellow! he deserved a
better end," and will think no more about him.
But when the writer reads that announcement
he will feel sad and grieved for many a day; for
Donaldson was once kind to a boy whose cata-
logue of friends was limited enough then, and to
whose eyes the tears will start unbidden when
recurring Junes remind him that above the friend
POP DONALDSON. 140
of his youth a mound rises on which the daisies
bloom and the grass waves sadly in the summer
air.
B I F.
I I
H.OPPENHEIMER cut raTE t ickET,
" GOOD-BYE, JIM ; I AM OFF FOR OMAHA]! "
BIF.
I shall never forget our first meeting. It
occurred several years ago on the occasion of my
returning to No. 145 Broadway for the ever-so-
manieth time. He attracted my attention the
first night I worked in the office, and when I had
cleared my hooks, I went over and stood near
where he was sitting — at the Chicago duplex.
He was an outre figure at that time. The month
was December, and the weather was very chilly,
not to say frigid, but my hero was still glorious
in a very light-colored pair of pantaloons, which,
worn without suspenders, ceased their endeavors
to reach his vest considerably below the proper
meeting-place. Between his vest and pantaloons
his shirt protruded like a balloon stay-sail of
some clipper yacht. I saw all this as I ap-
proached from behind; but it was not until I
(158)
154 BIF.
walked around and faced him that I noticed he
wore his vest open, thereby displaying, uninten-
tionally I doubt not, one of the most immaculate
shirts I had ever seen. His natty piccaclilly col-
lar, too, kept in its place by a cravat as blue as
an Italian sky, was as spotless and as bravely
ironed and glossed as the plaited bosom below.
All this was surmounted by a rather large head
covered with light-brown hair; the face was
smoothly shaven, the eyes bright and clear, the
nose a little retrousse, and the mouth frank and
suggestive of unusual individuality. Most of the
men in the office were strangers, and I addressed
one at random, who was working the Cincinnati
wire, asking who the attractive-looking little fel-
low was who was working the Chicago duplex.
" Why, don't you know him? That's little old
Cookie. We call him Bif for short."
My informant went on receiving, and I
walked thoughtfully back to the Chicago desk
and spoke with another operator who was work-
ing the sending side, watching Bif meantime
over the top of the table. As I stood listening to
the other's sending, there came an interruption
on his side so sharp and ringing that I involun-
BIF. 155
tarily stepped back. The operator laughed, and
said :
" The old box won't stay balanced to-night,
and worries the old man. Did 3*011 get that?"
" I got nothing," I replied.
" Lay for him next time. That is bk-bk-bk.
He can say it thirty-five times in three seconds;"
and as he began sending again the thing went out
of adjustment, and I stooped down and listened
to a song of bk-bk-bk so pert and nervous and
quick and clear that I was astounded. Then fol-
lowed some observation in an ordinary gait, very
little of which was intelligible to me. It was a
story of " cases," " centuries," " savey," " tum-
ble," " snide," etc., with an allusion to " 'Meli-
can man," followed by the admonition, " don't
give it awee."
As all this was jingling merrily under my nose,
my eyes rested in comfort on the face which sur-
mounted that immaculate shirt and the tie like
the .Egean Sea. While I stood staring, the
hand which was making the music stopped, and,
looking me full in the eye, Bif closed one beam-
ing optic and accomplished a wink so familiar,
so full of comical suggestiveness and a hundred
156 BIF.
other indefinable qualities, that he enslaved me
then and there, and made me his friend forever.
Who shall define the subtle potency of a wink?
You may meet your next-door neighbor three
mornings in a week and do the customary " good-
morning," but you and he are very unlikely to
build up a friendship. You may be journeying
by train from New Y T ork to San Francisco, or by
steamer to Liverpool, and on your way make
many charming acquaintances. Arriving at
your destination, addresses will be exchanged,
and solemn promises made that future meetings
shall be frequent. But those acquaintances are
seldom, if ever, renewed. Let loose in the busy
world again, you conclude that, after all, old
friends are best, and your new ones are gradually
ignored and finally forgotten. The barriers of
formality are objectionable qualities in social
ethics, and it is to those with whom we stand face
to face, shorn of all shams and false joretenses,
that our hearts cleave with growing faith and
fondness. The process of friend-making is a dull
one, and as we grow older we cultivate new ac-
quaintances under an increasing protest. But the
man who, under sympathetic conditions, eclipses
BIF. 157
his left orb of sight, vaults high above all forms
and empty ceremonies, and somehow takes a short
cut, as it were, to the seat of our affections. But
do not understand me as being an advocate of
winking by the indiscriminate multitude. Not at
all. Sometimes I am annoyed -by hearing in con-
versation, or meeting in print, the assertion,
"The pen is mightier than the sword." It is
not, and Bulwer would never have put forth such
an assertion without the qualifying clause, " be-
neath the rule of men entirely great. " So with
the wink, when in the eye of one entirely great;
never in the eye of common folk like you and
me.
I passed around the desk and sat down in the
window-seat by Bit" s side, and we soon found our-
selves talking familiarly. He did not ask my
name, and manifested no curiosity about my his-
tory or antecedents. For convenience' sake he
called me Jim. He had a fashion of calling
everybody Jim. When I was off duty that night
I waited until he was relieved, and we passed out
of the office, up Broadway, and took an early
morning luncheon together. Over a pan of
steaming oysters and a subsequent cigar we got
158 BIF.
on bravely until the night had pretty effect-
ually waned. Bif had recently come to New
York from New Orleans, and he spoke of
his experiences in that city and in Texas. His
career in the latter section had been thrilling,
and his original and agreeable way of relating
his adventures delighted me beyond my power to
describe. The varying expressions of his face,
his habit of enforcing points in the narrative by a
movement of his eyebrows, and his fluency of
speech and originality of illustration, afforded me
an entertainment and a study which was new,
bewitching, winning. Before the night was done
I began to see how he had earned his reputation
for narrative. He spoke of everything with a
perfection of detail, very briefly stated, which
made the object of which he spoke stand out as
defined and striking as if chiseled in marble.
From a casual allusion to Galveston I learned
that it was the principal seaport town in the
State, that it was situated on Galveston Island,
between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico,
that it had a population of 13,818; and I re-
ceived, in brief, a very accurate idea of its rail-
road and steamship facilities, its direct trade with
BIF. 150
Great Britain, its coffee trade with Rio Janeiro,
and its commercial relations with the West Indies
and Mexico. I also learned that its export of
cotton for 1872 had been 333,502 bales, that the
city had fifteen churches, thirty-one schools, a
Roman Catholic university, a medical school, two
daily and four weekly newspapers, and a great
deal more that I have now forgotten. Even in
referring to the benighted and almost unknown
town of Groesbeck, where he had witnessed a
riot and narrowly escaped being shot, he oozed
out the information that Groesbeck was a post
town in Limestone County, on the Houston and
Texas Central Railroad, and that it published a
weekly paper.
When I had known him about a year, he said
to me one day: " Jim, I've got the United States
and England down pretty fine now. Can't you
scare me up among your big collection of novels
something in the way of foreign travels? I want
to take in some of this way-off business— Shang-
hai, Hong Kong, Canton, Singapore, Penang,
Calcutta, Bombay, Cairo, Constantinople, Nine-
veh, Damascus, Naples, and all that business."
I served him next day, when he called at my
160 BIF,
house, with a copy of Dr. Prime's " Around the
World," a piece of descriptive writing which had
lain uncut on my book-shelves for months, and
which I would be about as likely to read as Bif
would have been to read " Her Dearest Foe/' or
any other modern novel. As you have learned,
Bif is a man of facts and figures, who recognizes
the ideal and imaginative to a certain extent, but
who always subordinates them to the actual and
realistic. Dr. Prime's book proved a perfect
mine to my little friend, and its perusal was the
cause of our forming a partnership and buying a
membership in the Mercantile Library. After-
ward, on visiting his quarters in Waverley Place, I
never found less than two books on India,
Siberia, Africa, Japan, or China lying about the
room. I sometimes dropped in, hoping to find
some readable story, but always withdrew un-
satisfied. " The Land of the White Elephant,"
and volumes bearing kindred captions, invariably
composed his stock.
About a year ago I learned from a mutual
friend that Bif had exhausted the Eastern
literature of the Mercantile Library — one of the
largest in the world — and had taken up the
BIF. 161
heavenly bodies. And I very shortly afterward
found this to be true. Walking up Broadway
one evening, I called his attention to a shooting
star. This paved the way to a very interesting
discourse from him, of which the following is a
sample :
" Shakespeare struck it very hard when he put
it into Hamlet's head to tell Horatio that there
were more things in heaven and earth than were
dreamed of in his philosophy. There are, Jim,
you bet your life. Why, do you know there are
more than fifty million stars, scattered in irregular
aggregations, forming the Milky Way up there?
Our sun is simply one of those fifty million stars,
without, so far as astronomers know, any mark
to distinguish him from his fellows. He is
probably a snide, on the whole, and if removed
to one million times his present distance — which
is the probable distance of the stars of the first
magnitude — he would shine as only a star of the
third or fourth degree. According to my read-
ing, this system of ours that folks blow about so
much and talk about as if the sun and moon were
unusual things, may be one of fifty or a hundred
millions a great deal like it."
6
162 BIF.
On reaching his room, where I found an agree-
able company assembled, I discovered that his
recent examination into celestial affairs had not
weakened Bif 's hold on his kuowledge of mundane
things. He was out of our conversation, and was
reading "Johnson On Nebula?," when one of us
rashly stated that England was probably the most
thickly settled country in the world.
" Stop her, Jim," broke in Bif; " you are way
oif. England only has a population of 380 to
the square mile. She's second in the world, but
Belgium rakes the pot. She can whoop up 451
to the square mile."
One pay-day night, when we had all been off
bathing our souls in lemonade and other liquid
things, I ran across Bif at the Jeffersonian Billiard
Hall. He was through playing, and was holding
forth on the relative size of the earth, the moon,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and
their respective appearances. His eyes indicated
his need of rest, but his ideas were clear and his
talk entertaining. It was about 2 a. m., and as we
lived near each other, we finally boarded a Third
Avenue car for home. Before we had gone many
blocks Bif fell asleep, but as we neared Eighth
bip. 163
Street, I awoke him. He had something rolled up
in his hand, which I fancied, was an astronomical
chart, but the sequel proved that, in the midst of
his studies of the heavenly bodies, his heart was
still true to the lands beyond the seas.
" What is that you've got there?" I asked.
" Jim," he replied, " I wouldn't take a thou-
sand dollars for that. Fearful reduction in
fares. Look here;" and deliberately opening the
paper, he fixed his index finger on a particular
line, and said: "Melbourne, Australia, two hun-
dred and fifty-six cases." It was a time-table
and schedule of fares issued by the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company, and he sometimes spoke of
dollars as " cases."
"It is a great pity," I said, " that some of
those rich duffers, who don't care a straw for
foreign lands, don't let you go abroad in their
place. How you would enjoy it!"
He was preparing to leave the car, and in reply
stooped down, and taking my hand, with a merry
twinkle in his eye, said: "Don't give it away,
but I am going. Years hence, Jim, we will meet
again and woo the Circassian slave at the junc-
tion of the Nile and Jigwater rivers." With
164 BIF.
which observation he left me to continue my
journey a few blocks further on, and made his
cheerful way across town to Broadway.
*****
" Good-bye, Jim," cried a well-known voice;
" I am off for Omaha." I shouted back " Good-
bye," little dreaming that the speaker was in
earnest. But I see by the personal column in the
telegraphic papers that my old-time friend has
really deserted the scenes which have known him
these many moons, and has cast his lines on the
other side of the Missouri. God bless his genial
face and gentle heart, and may the maximum of
warmth and gladness cheer and make bright his
future life. For whatever of flaw or frailty
mars his sunny nature, yet has he in him some-
thing beautiful which puts men's hearts in tune.
THE END.
FROM FRANKLIN TO EDISON.
Written for delivery before the Ohio Associated
Dailies, at Columbus, Wednesday,
January 24, 1894.
FROM
FRANKLIN TO EDISON.
BY
WALTER P. PHILLIPS.
I have not come here to-day, ladies and gentlemen,
to tell you anything about the journalistic, literary or
political history of Ohio. You are natives here and to the
manner born, while I am perhaps the worst-equipped
person in this room to speak of the essential essence of
things as they exist in this State. To be sure, I am not
so benighted as not to have heard of " the Ohio idea,"
but really I have never examined it closely, and to me it
is an unknown quantity, something to be respected, and I
respect it in the same way I do the Edict of Nantes, the
Monroe doctrine and other factors affecting the progress
and development of the world, and concerning which my
knowledge is hazy and nebulous. I may say, however,
1G7
that I appreciate the rarity and value of an idea to a
degree that brings me to regard it as a God-given thing,
and it is of much more than ordinary consequence when it
is coupled with the name of a State, the bare mention of
which invokes a picture of fertile fields, of sun flushed
hills, and of streams, which, flowing through the wood-
lands, bring to mind that precious thought of Long-
fellow's, that such streams resemble good men in that,
though darkened by shadows of earth, they reflect an
image of Heaven — when that idea is placed in combina-
tion, let me add, with a name so certain to suggest to even
the most ordinary intellect the dwelling-place of a people
at once proud, progressive, philanthropical, potential.
Therefore, while, as I have said, I have never quite com-
prehended the exact significance, never been able to
analyze it, and to classify the atomic constituents of this
much-mentioned thing, yet 1 am prepared to accept it as
a whole and to subscribe to it as one of those important
elements which exist in the realm of causation, and to
express my firm faith in its importance among the influ-
ences which promote, elevate and conserve the political
welfare of mankind.
When it comes to speaking of the making of news-
papers, I feel that I am in the presence of those who are
past masters in that art, and I am warned by an inward
monitor that any fresh field or pasture new which lies out-
side the domain of active journalism is a much safer place
for me to wander, than in those paths which have been
trodden with such sturdiness and with so much honor by
the editors of Ohio. Indeed, I have been out of the
168
harness as a legitimate newspaper man for nearly twenty
years, and while I am intimately connected with those
who are making our daily journals, and supply them with
one of the commodities entering into the manufacture of
their wares, I represent the telegraph rather than the
newspaper, and it is of the former, and of some of the
people who have been connected with it, together with a
passing reference to the matter of composition, and of the
men who have started from the printer's case and become
famous, that I shall speak.
Circumstances prevented me from being a farmer.
The pauic of 1857 was keenly felt in Worcester County,
Massachusetts, where my father was following in the foot-
steps of his sire, and the time came when we gave up the
old farm and went cityward. As a boy, I learned to tele-
graph, and as a young man, a few years later, when I had
deserted telegraphy for country journalism, I learned with
aching back and weary eyes the difficult art of typesetting,
and gave to the community of Attleboro' certain articles
composed at the case, and which, at that time, I regarded
as editorials. They had chiefly to do with the course of
an unsuspecting gentleman named Horace Greeley, who
had offended me by accepting the endorsement of a Demo-
cratic Convention when we Liberal Republicans in Massa-
chusetts supposed we had him to ourselves. But, alas!
however liberal our jorinciplcs may have been, we were not
generous with our votes. I remember viewing all that
was mortal of Mr. Greeley as his body lay in state in the
City Hall in New York, and when I thought of this won-
derful man — not only a journalist, but a statesman, a
L69
philosopher, and perhaps a genius; when it flashed upon
me that this was the end of a man whose vigor and virility
impelled him, once, to write from Washington, telling a
subordinate that if he couldn't stop all that twaddle in the
" Tribune " about music and get a little of his own — Mr.
Greeley's own — stuff into the paper, to go and burn down
the Academy of Music and thus end all foolishness of that
kind by applyiug a torch to the citadel — when I thought
of this and of his courage in braving public opinion by
going upon the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, and then
beheld the shrunken form of this victim of disappointed
political hopes, now cold in death, the tears sprung to my
eyes, and the thought was lodged in my mind, for a mo-
ment, at least, that perhaps Wolsey was right when he
said: "I charge thee, Cromwell, fling away ambition; by
that sin fell the angels."
But without ambition there w r ould be no progress. Am-
bition is the mainspring of action, and next to courage
there is a no more noble human attribute. It is ambition,
when accompanied by ability, that raises men from the
common avocations of life to higher planes: and so it
seems to me that the thought which came momentarily
to my mind, as I stood by Mr. Greeley's coffin, that am-
bition was a thing to throw away at the illogical bidding of
a cardinal dethroned, was an unworthy one.
There is a belief prevalent that great men can be made
in colleges, but nothing could be more absurd. No one
has a greater respect for a college education than I have,
for it was denied to me, and we are apt to think the
thing we missed is the best thing going. I have shown my
170
faith in the worth of college training by putting my only
surviving son in Columbia College, and I think, if he lives
and has his health, he will be heard from, for he has a
well-balanced mind, a good heart, and he has formed com-
mendable habits of industry. These are three great points
in his favor. I must confess that some of my precon-
ceived notions as to the relative consequence of certain
Greek generals, the precise time of their campaigns, the
results thereof, and especially my favorite manner of
pronouncing the few Latin words and proper names with
which I had familiarized myself from time to time, were
rather ruthlessly set aside during our companionship cov-
ering my son's Freshman year. During the Sophomore
period I was set right on many points in reference to
what I conceived to be the advantages of a protective
tariff, and heard of Adam Smith, anew, for the first time
m a quarter of a century. Then came the Junior year
and the utter destruction of certain convictions of mine
affecting the geological condition on this mysterious
sphere, and the chemical constituents of the sun and moon
and stars. Fortunately, I long since divested myself of an
opinion shared with me and still firmly entertained by as
important a personage as the King of Siam, that the
world is flat; and it having finally dawned on me that
Caesar was not a Patagonian, I am looking forward to this
coming Senior year with a hopeful heart, for I feel
moderately certain that I shall not disgrace myself further
in the eyes of this coming statesman, orator, journalist,
author, inventor, or what not. Such of the graduates
from Columbia, Harvard, Yale and the numerous other
i;i
colleges as have ability are needed in journalism, and
their presence there is most beneficial. Some of these
men have, of course, proved failures, but that was because
they had not in them the restless germ of success, or they
perchance were incompetent when they entered college,
and the scholastic varnish which adhered to them was so
thin that it soon vanished. There are men, sa} 7 s Charles
Dudley Warner, who think they can sing high C, but
most of them soon find that they can not do it, and they
go down and sing in the chorus for the remainder of their
lives. Others, he adds, go on striving for high C as long
as they live. That is very true, and it is truer still that
many of them reach high C who were never expected to.
Among these, the most notable are those who are gradu-
ated from the printer's case and the telegraph operator's
table. Next to colleges, no two professions — and I may
say they are twin professions, their natural alliance having
been suggested long years ago when a printer wooed the
electric spark from hurrying somber clouds and made it
captive in a Leyden jar — there are no two professions
which furnish the world with as large a number of useful
citizens, capable of grasping and dealing with intricate,
important and far-reaching enterprises, as those represented
by the art of setting type and the knack of working wires.
When I read the well-rounded periods of William Dean
Howells and observe the nicety with which he analyzes the
female character, or peruse his descriptions of Italian life
and landscapes — true poetry every word of it — I feel proud
of the fact that he has covered in a few years the great dis-
tance lying between the position of one of America's most
172
famous living authors and that of a compositor in his fa-
ther's newspaper office at Ashtabula. When I read the
dramatic and delicious stories of that American author who
can tell the story he has to tell better than any man living,
outside of France — I refer to Francis Bret Harte — I picture
him at his case in a California newspaper office, mechanical-
ly placing the type in his stick, and like the girl with her
pitcher at the well, who heard and not heard and let it
overflow, I fancy his wandering thoughts are flying far
away, "sailing the Vesuvian Bay." And then I think of
the sturdy application and industry that is implied by such
a development as his, and I honor him with renewed
fervency. When I saw, in Washington, under President
Garfield, the reeking corruption of the postal service
probed to the bottom and a reform begun by General
Thomas L. James, which has been bearing fruit ever
since, under the supervision of his successors, I found
great pleasure in knowing that the man who had accom-
plished this could do something that I had once been
doing — that he was a printer by trade. One of the most
successful, the most deserving, and most manly of men —
General Charles H. Taylor, of the Boston " Globe " — adds
to his other attributes the gift of most entertaining speak-
ing. His conversation is a perpetual treat, but out of all
he ever said to me, his assertion, one day when we were
comparing notes, that when I was a boy reading the
" Weekly Traveller,'" of Boston, upon our ancestral acres,
he was another boy, of my own age, who was then learning
his trade as a printer on that same Boston " Weekly
Traveller."' was the most gratifying. I might go on
173
indefinitely and mention others than Amos Cummings who
are now, or have been, members of Congress, but I need
not. The old-time printers are to be found everywhere.
You will discover them in high positions in the depart-
ments at Washington as well as in Congress; they are in
control of great newspapers; they are practicing medi-
cine, dispensing legal advice, writing poetry, preaching
sermons — in short, if I were asked in what place these
progressive graduates from the case can not be found, my
reply would be: 'Nowhere excepting in those paths
where it is dishonorable or undignified to be, for your true
printer is a man of character, of decision, and rich in those
moral attributes which serve to constantly renew our faith
in the ultimate destiny of our race."
A few years ago, many of us were reading a series of
graphic and heart-rending articles appearing in the
"Century Magazine." They referred to the outrages
perpetrated upon Eussian subjects by what is called an
administrative process of banishment, through the opera-
tion of which men and women of education and refine-
ment, when under suspicion of a lack of fealty to the
Czar, are eliminated from the body politic. We were told
that these unfortunates were sent without trial to Siberia,
forced to walk thousands of miles through deep drifted
snow, with their legs in chains, compelled to sleep in mis-
erable etapes en route, of their dying of exposure and
from disease in its most loathsome forms, and, finally, of
the hopeless lives of the survivors in the convict colonies of
Siberia, perishing at last, perhaps, in the revolting mines
of Kara. These revelations, written in a clear, concise
174
and dispassionate manner by an eye-witness of what he
was describing, and carrying conviction at every step by
the corroborative evidence contained in citations from
official documents, which more than sustained the writer's
charges — these revelations shocked the whole civilized
world. The man who obtained this mass of astounding
information did so at the constant peril of his life; the
journey itself was enough to kill men of ordinary fiber;
but he was also stricken with typhus fever, his solitary
English-speaking companion was made insane by the hor-
rors they beheld, while the travelers themselves underwent
hardships rivaling those of the Tartar tribe whose flight
is so grandly described by De Quincy. Finally these men
came back, and one of them has been lecturing ever since
upon the subjects treated iu the " Century " articles.
When I had listened, with deep emotion, to the first
lecture he delivered in New York, and, at its close, joined
the throng that surged toward the platform to grasp the
hand of this brave, splendid man, I did not think of him
in the convict dress he had donned in just the same way
that others did. To me, he was only the George Kennan,
who was a telegraph operator at Cincinnati in the early
sixties, a mere lad then, who, having begun the practice of
telegraphy at the early age of six years, under his father's
tuition at Xorwalk, in this State, had gone out into a
larger world to seek his fortune. I remembered him as
the daring youth who, hearing that, as a result of the
failure of the first Atlantic Cable, the Western Union
Telegraph Company contemplated building an overland
line connecting British Columbia with St. Petersburg —
175
who, hearing this, wrote to the late General Anson Stager,
and asked for permission to join the party that was to
operate on the Russian terminus of the undertaking. To
General Stager's somewhat tardy answer by wire, coupled
with the question, " Can you be ready in a week?" Ken-
nan sent back the characteristic answer, "Yes, sir; I can
be ready in an hour. "
I thought, as I stood there, of this early index of his
quality, of the time when he made the longest journey
with dogs and reindeer that any one had ever made; of his
getting so deeply buried in Siberia that it was months after
the overland expedition had been abandoned before the
fact came to his knowledge. I saw him gathering in-
formation and putting his experiences into a book of the
most charming description, before he was hardly out of his
teens. In " Tent Life in Siberia," humor abounds on
almost every page; the entire work is redolent of health
and hope and buoyancy, and there are passages in it
such, for instance, as Kennan's well-known description
of an Arctic aurora, than which nothing in the English
language is more rhythmical, graphic, elevated and
stirring. This book was not much bought when the
Putnams brought it out in the long ago, but it has been
thoroughly circulated and digested during the past ftw
years.
I gazed lovingly upon the grave, strong face of this man
of fire and dew as he received the homage of the great
people of New York, and I was thinking all the while
what an honor it conferred upon me to have been one of
his earlier friends, to have been bound to him in the
176
almost masonic bonds of union which telegraphic associa-
tion implies.
When I hear of the achievement of the great railroad
president who built a new northern route to the Pacific
Coast, and created a city in a wilderness of such im-
penetrable wildness as few who have not penetrated the
woods about Vancouver and along the coast from there
down to Seattle can fairly comprehend, I think of William
C. Van Home as the boy telegraph operator going out
from Joliet to find the field for the display of his energies
that his soul craved, even in boyhood. I think of him
when he was dismissed from service for a trivial fault,
making his way to Ottawa to lay his grievances before
Judge Caton, who, perhaps, regarded the fifteen-year-old
visitor with curiosity, and wondered where he would arrive
at last. I am glad Judge Caton still lives and knows
how much this youngster to whom he was more than kind
has finally accomplished.
Then there are L. C. Weir, Marvin Hughitt, Judge
Lambert Tree, the latter one of the first operators at
Washington, on the line constructed by Morse between
that city and Baltimore; General Thomas T. Eckert,
president of the most wonderful corporation in all the
world, and Andrew Carnegie, now come to be the possessor
of uncounted millions. They were all telegraph operators,
within my recollection; and there are hundreds more
whose careers are of exceeding interest. I shall confine
myself to speaking of only one of them, but I hope to be
pardoned for discussing him quite at length. He deserves
much more than I can say of him, not only because of
177
what he has accomplished, but for the sentimental reason
that he was born at Milan, in this State, and for the con-
sistent reason, as far as the purposes of this address go,
that he was not only a telegrapher, but a printer, too, like
his great predecessor, Franklin.
It was nearly twenty-five years ago when I first met
Edison. He came to Boston and was employed for a short
time as an operator. He was regarded as a good-natured,
but hair-brained chap, and my impression is that he was
finally discharged from the service for inattention to busi-
ness. He was fairly punctual at all times, excepting on
pay days, when he would come straying in an hour late
and blandly ask some of us to lend him half a dollar with
which to get his supper. When reminded that he had
received half a month's salary that day, he would smile,
and taking a brown- paper-covered parcel from under his
arm, he would display a Ruhmkorff coil, an expensive set
of helices, or something equally useless in the eyes of his
comrades in the office; from which we were led to infer
that the salary for the preceding half month had been
exchanged for these apparently useless instruments. He
spent a great deal of his time when on duty in making
diagrams to show how wires could be operated in a multi-
plex way, and he held forth with undeniable eloquence on
every conceivable subject excepting that relating to the
prompt dispatch of such messages as the company then
had on file for transmission. The office-boys came and
hung message af.er message on the little row of hooks in
front of him, but Edison's interest in them generally car-
ried him no further than up against the proposition that if
178
by a system of rheostats, polarized magnets and batteries
of different potentiality he could enable one wire to carry
four sets of signals, two each in different ways, those
troublesome messages, when intrusted to otber hands than
his, could be disposed of with increased rapidity. And so
he used to sit and draw and dream, and let the business
hang, until reminded by the chief operator that he must
attend to his work. I did not even know bis name at
first, for some one had referred to him as Victor Hugo
when he made his appearance, and it was by that name
that we generally spoke of him. Every device was em-
ployed to thwart his soarings after the infinite, and his
divings for the unfathomable, as we regarded them, and
to get an amount of work out of him that was equivalent
to the sum paid per diem for his services, and among them
was that of having him receive the press report from New
York. He did not like this, the work continuing steadily
from 6.30 p. m. until 2 a. m., and leaving him no time in
which to pursue his studies. One night about 8 p. m.
there came down au inquiry as to where the press report
was, and on going to the desk where Edison was at work,
night manager Leighton was horrified to find that there
was nothing ready to go upstairs, for the reason thai
Edison had copied between fifteen hundred and two thou-
sand words of stock and other market reports in a hand so
email that he had only filled a third of a page. Leighton
laughed in spite of himself, and saying: " Heavens, Tom;
don't do that again!" hastened to cut the copy up into
minute fragments and have it prepared in a more accept-
able manner. While this was occurring, Edison went on
179
receiving, and the frequent trips of the noisy dummy-box
which communicated with the press-rooms on the next
floor gave evidence that he was no longer gauging his
handwriting with an ultimate view to putting the Lord's
prayer on a three-cent piece. But all at once there was a
great noise, and it was evident that press agent Wallace, a
most profane man, was coming down the stairs, sweating
and shouting as he came. Everybody grew excited except
Edison, who was perhaps dreaming of the possibilities in
some of the realms of electrical endeavor in which he has
since won renown. But we did not have long to wait to
know the cause of Wallace's 'visit. Kicking open the
door, he appeared to us, but lie was speechless. The last
note of his voice and the last remnant of a vocabulary of
blasphemy which was famous throughout the city was
gone. Standing there with both hands full of small, white
pages of paper, he could only beckon. Leighton ap-
proached him, and tenderly took the sheets of paper from
him, to find that Edison had made the radical change
from his first style of copy to simply putting one word on
each sheet, directly in the center. He had furnished in
this way several hundred pages in a very few minutes.
He was relieved from duty on the press wire, and put on
another circuit, while the much-tried Leighton devoted
himself to bringing Wallace back to a normal condition,
admitting of the use of his voice and the flow of his usual
output of profanity.
I insert a specimen of Edison's wonderful handwriting.
Ever since he became an operator it has been, and still
continues to be, the same unique style of penmanship as
180
<0
v_/himd LotuT
C&arfcfc /Y.C £Uh| Jta *fO
«^ nofjf J -Motoent"CMcinoecl <* »cvvhcre #
c) <*- Tcc/he*. fiave j£e <?m«ft^-poy K^
<vw ct.
^c^cffeoi fteojot. J^Jjcf* -yvie. o( oia>t\ ^ 6 '« r
^iuoC-rTui 4iue.,
when, in response to Mr. Catlin's inquiry if he was still
interested in such modest affairs as fast-sending tourna-
ments, Edison sent his characteristic reply from North
Carolina, where he was conducting some experiments in
1890, when the correspondence between him and Catlin
took place.
In the winter of 1872-73, I was employed in the New
York office of the Western Union Telegraph Company,
and my desk being near the switch-board, my attention
was attracted one evening to a queer collection of instru-
ments, now grown familiar enough, but quite puzzling to
ordinary telegraphers at the time. This group of things
which was reposing on the floor somehow suggested Boston
and diagrams. It was in everybody's way, but along
about midnight Edison came in, and, gathering up his
paraphernalia, began to arrange it by connecting the
various parts with a fine copper wire which he unwound
from a small spool that he produced from his pocket. He
was our companion, by day and by night, for nearly a
week, during which time he never went to bed or had any
regular hours for meals. When he was hungry, he visited
a coffee and cake establishment in the neighborhood, and
absorbed what he was pleased to call the Bohemian Diet,
and, returning with an unlighted cigar between his lips,
he would begin his experiments anew. After awhile, he
would throw himself into a chair and doze, sometimes for
an hour, and again for shorter or longer periods. He
used to say that when he was thus napping, he dreamed
out many things that had puzzled him while awake. He
was found late at night once, in his Newark laboratory,
is:;
in this condition by a passing friend, who, noticing that
the place was lighted, made Edison a nocturnal call.
" Aren't you going home, Tom? It is late,'* remarked
the visitor.
" How late?" inquired Edison, yawning and stretching
himself.
" About one o'clock/' returned his friend.
" Is that so?" exclaimed Edison. " By George! I must
go home. I was married to-day."
None of his friends had heard of the marriage, but it
was true that he had become a Benedict that very morning
after a courtship rapidly conducted to a successful issue.
During her short, sweet companionship with this curious
dreamer of most substantial visions, the first Mrs. Edison
was a helpful spouse, and she revered her husband and
thought him almost a god.
One day I was asked if I were willing to come around in
the day-time and work extra at the usual rate of compen-
sation, and, replying in the affirmative, I was told to
report in the electrician's room at noon until further
notice. Seven other operators were selected, and together
we experimented with Edison's instrument, which we were
told was " the quadruplex." It was then in a very crude
state, and the signals came over it in a way to suggest to
an imaginative person the famous rocky road to Dublin.
Edison was always present, changing something here or
there, and gradually a result, somewhat imperfect but
constantly improving, rewarded his efforts. Finalty, he
made us a little speech, saying: " Boys, she is a go. The
principle is all right, and the sharps upstairs can get the
184
bugs out of it. We can not do it down here, for the
troubles with telegraphic appliances can only be gotten
out in the same way the Irish pilot found the rocks in the
harbor — with the bottom of his ship. There is nothing so
baffling as the perversity of a new thing; it must be used
in order to find out where the bugs are, and when they are
located anybody can get them out/' A " bug " is simply
the elusive trouble that appears on wires and instruments,
and which has to be found and eliminated before perfect
results can be obtained.
When Edison stopped speaking, no one replied. We
enjoyed hearing him talk, and were anxious to have him
go on; but he only smiled, and then said abruptly: " You
don't seem to tumble. Every man Jack of you is fired
after to-day."
And thus the quadruplex, long since perfected, not
wholly by Edison, but worked out on his lines by others,
came into being; and, as many of you know, it is as much
a part of the vast telegraphic machinery in use to-day as
are the more simple and ordinary instruments.
Mr. Orton, who was then the President of the Western
Union, was very slow in reaching a decision about pur-
chasing the patent, and a little further down the street
there was an unobtrusive-looking person who in his life-
time used to stray up and down Broadway without one in
a thousand recognizing him or dreaming who he was.
He was largely interested in the Atlantic and Pacific Tele-
graph Company. This quiet person, however, had not
only heard considerable about the practical value of
Edison's invention from his managers, but on his
185
own account he possessed a somewhat keen eye, an
intellect on the whole quite up to ordinary standards, and
he had more decision of character and more courage than
all the people then in the ownership of the Western Union
Company. This man is dead now, but it was my good
fortune to know him quite well, and it is due to his mem-
ory to say that a more modest, self-effacing, low-voiced
and charming man could scarcely be imagined. His
name is as familiar in this ►State as in my own. I am
speaking of the late Jay Gould.
One day when Edison had received several small pay-
ments on account of his invention, and when he needed
money and was urging a final settlement with the Western
Union Company without making any progress, he met Mr.
Gould on the street, and the latter said:
" Tom, those fellows will never do any business with
you. Why not sell the quadruplex to me? I'll buy it,
subject to all litigation."
" What will you pay for it?" asked Edison.
" Well." said Mr. Gould, fumbling in his vest-pocket,
(t I have here a check that was given to me an hour ago
by Jarrett & Palmer, to whom I have sold the steamer
'Plymouth Rock.' It is for thirty thousand dollars.
I'll give you that."
The offer was promptly accepted, and Mr. Gould
dropped in at the nearest place where pen and ink were
available, and endorsed the check over to Edison. Then
the litigation began, and lawyers and experts had most
interesting sessions for a long time. Edison testified, and
he told the court so many things that were new and
186
strange, that gray-haired judges and technical lawyers
listened with one accord, and the question at issue was lost
sight of in the entertainment his listeners found in having
the coming wizard talk about abstruse subjects concerning
which he knew so much that a mere knowledge of a com-
mon thing like the law made counsel and judges seem
sadly ignorant in his presence.
While this was going on, Mr. Gould quietly disappeared
from the control of Atlantic and Pacific affairs. General
Eokert, who in the meantime had come over to the
Atlantic and Pacific, suddenly withdrew, and early in
1880, the American Union Telegraph Company was born.
It was most brilliantly exploited, and the earnings of the
Western Union were seriously affected. One day Mr.
Vanderbilt, who then controlled the last-named company,
sent word to Mr. Gould to come to his house that even-
ing. The latter went, and was asked what he wanted.
I have never heard what his reply was, but it became
known next day that Mr. Gould had the Western Union
Telegraph Company, and he quickly amalgamated with it
both the American Union and the Atlantic and Pacific,
placing the whole under the active management of General
Eekert, with Dr. Norvin Green at the very head of affairs.
And thereafter, up to the time of his fatal illness, Mr.
Gould was almost an absolute ruler of telegraphic destinies
in this country. Though often charged with abusing his
power, he was as careful, in my judgment, not to take even
a passing advantage of his position, or to put in jeopardy
any interests intrusted to his company, as he was thought-
ful and considerate of his own sons, who have now suo-
187
ceeded to his enormous wealth and the attendant responsi-
bilities which their father left them as the result of a life
of labor, abstemiousness and a lively use of the brains with
which he was endowed.
The consolidation to which I have referred ended the
famous suit to determine the real ownership of the quad-
ruplex. The merits of the case were set aside by the
coalescence of the properties named, and I fancy that if
they had not been, the litigation would be hastening
toward a degree of maturity by this time, warranting its
projection into the Supreme Court. As it was left, the
case of the quadruples reminds me of the story so quaintly
told in Missouri dialect by John Hay as to the ownership
of a certain whisky skin simultaneously ordered in idyllic
Gilgal by Jedge Phinn and Colonel Blood of Pike, with
the difference that while there was a mystery about the
ownership of Edison's patent, there was none as to who
got it, and if Mr. Gould had been in the place of Jedge
Phinn, perhaps the poet would not so grimly have written
of the tragical outcome of a general battle among the
friends of the principals claiming the single glass of toddy,
smoking on Tom Taggart's bar, that —
' They piled them up outside the door;
They made, I reckon, a cord or more;
Girls went that winter, as a rule,
Alone to singing-school.
* * * *
But I end with hit, as I did begin,
Who got the whisky skin?"
In 1876, I remember that Edison and I crossed on a
Jersey City ferry-boat together, and he asked me if I had
188
read a recent paragraph in the " Commercial Advertiser,"
to the effect that the Brooklyn Bridge would be in working
order about the time that Edison succeeded in subdi?iding
the electric current. Replying that 1 had not, Edison
continued:
" That is one of the smart things that these fellows
write, and I think Amos Cummings, in the ' Sun,' and
Ned Fox, in the ' Herald/ are responsible for it. They
have been recently printing a lot of rot about the wizard
of Menlo Park, and people are stimulated by that sort of
thing to expect everything in a minute. One of them —
Fox, I think — says I am a genius; but you know well
enough I am nothing of the sort, unless,'' he added,
thoughtfully, " we accept DTsraeli's theory, that genius is
prolonged patience. I am patient enough, for sine. As
for the electric light, I've been neglecting it for a lot of
other things — my telephone, the phonograph, and so forth,
but," he added, confidently, " I'll subdivide the electric
current when I get around to it, never fear. You wait
and see."
Well, I have waited, and I have seen. It is no part of
my purpose to speak of the surpassing loveliness of the
electric light. None but a poet could do it justice. Those
of you who visited the World's Fair and saw the display in
the Electricity Building, who beheld the rim of fire which
disclosed against the sable wing of night the location of the
Ferris Wheel, or who saw the blazing dome of the Admin-
istration Building, the brilliantly lighted lagoons, the won-
derful search-lights and electric fountains, or who, in
short, have seen the electric light in its less conspicuous
189
phases in the hotels and private residences of your own
cities, will readily concede that Edison did not overstate
his ability when he assured me that he would subdivide
the electric current when it suited his convenience to do
so. With the advent of the electric light, with its gen-
erators and other paraphernalia, great strides were imme-
diately made in applying this practically new-found power.
Aside from the development of the thing itself, electric
lighting on a large scale led to the propulsion of street-
cars by means of electricity, and it has now been applied to
almost everything. But perhaps the benefits of its intro-
duction are larger in connection with the trolley-car than
in any other direction. The dingy tenements of the town
are being deserted every day for the little homes lying
along the routes of the trolley-cars. On almost every
country road leading to and from towns and villages, the
electric car, combining the cheapest possible form of con-
veyance with a rate of speed which puts the horse to shame,
is making its rounds and bringing comfort and an im-
proved condition of life to hundreds upon hundreds. The
anxious mother, eager to make secure the health of her
children; the toiling father of the family and the little ones
find greater happiness, a more perfect freedom and better
health, through the change from the crowded houses of the
poor to the wayside cottages, many of them surrounded by
gardens, and some of them half hidden by climbing vines.
The charming Autocrat of the Bieakfast Table, snugly
ensconced in his library at Beverly Farms, wrote satirically
in the " Atlantic Monthly " of the Broom Stick Train,
and the late Mr. Curtis, living in peace and quietness on
190
Staten Island, lifted up his voice in simulated anger in the
Easy Chair when the electric car for the first time passed
by his residence like a flash, and went bounding up the
road to an adjacent village. But none knew better than
Dr. Holmes and he whose delightful philosophy so many
of us read month after month, during many years, in
" Harper's Magazine " — none knew better than they that
this disturber of their day-dreams was destined to bring
manifold blessings to their fellow-men. They showed by
their example that they believed the country, which God
had made, is a better place for woman, child and man
than is the city, which has been created by human hands,
and in their sympathetic hearts they rejoiced, no doubt,
over the improved condition of their fellow-men, which
was inevitable as an outcome of this wonderful agent for
the depopulation of the tenement and the upbuilding of
little homes scattered by the roadside between the towns.
Formerly the toilers in foundry, factory and workshop
lived within the shadow of the great buildings in which so
much of their time was spent. At night they breathed
the smoke-laden atmosphere hovering over their miserable
quarters; their wives and children existed in a polluted
atmosphere destructive to their moral and mental health
and often fatal to their physical welfare. To-day, in a
very considerable measure, the environment is vastly
bettered; the children play in the sunshine, their senses
know the odor of flowers, the beauty of clear skies, the
music of birds and the melody of the winds soughing
through nodding trees. Their moral as well as their
physical natures must profit by all this. They will make
better, stronger and happier men and women for having
a means at hand of making the tenement house no longer
their only refuge. The father works more cheerfully than
before, because he knows that when the evening has come
he will be out in the country, whisked there so rapidly
that, before he knows it, the forges, the chimneys, aud all
the unlovely things with which he is surrounded when at
work will be left behind to remind him no more of their
existence, until, refreshed by sleep and reinvigorated by
rest in a pure atmosphere, he cheerfully retraces the course
of his evening journey, and, with a heart more hopeful for
the change, goes about his work, singing maybe, because
there is something different, something better, awaiting
him when the day is done. Edison, more than any other
man, has brought about this change, because he pointed
the way which others have followed with such grand
results.
Those of you who are familiar with the important part
played to-day in the making of newspapers by the tele-
graph, the cable and the telephone have never thought, per-
haps, of the difficulties surrounding the introduction of each
and all of them. The story of Professor Morse and his futile
attempts to obtain an appropriation from Congress with
which to construct his experimental line between Washing-
ton and Baltimore has often been told, however, and can
not be new to many present, but I refer to it more to
render it pertinent to say that the telegraph was made pos-
sible by a woman. The widow of the late Roswell Smith,
editor of the " Century Magazine/' while she was Miss
Ellsworth, the daughter of the Commissioner of Patents
192
serving under President Tyler, was greatly interested in
the invention of the young painter who had turned his
attention from recognized art to experimental science. She
saw him returning from the Capitol day after day, dis-
heartened and almost hopeless, and when she saw Morse
on the verge of despair she imbued him with new courage
by her sweet sympathy and by the repeated assurance that
she had implicit faith in his complete triumph. When
that triumph came, tardily enough, too, and after the
appropriation of $30,000 had narrowly escaped being split
up so that a third should be devoted to mesmeric experi-
ments and another third to investigating what is known as
Millerism— when that triumph came, Miss Ellsworth, by
a most commendable but unusual display of thoughtful-
ness, was chosen as the person to send the first message
over the wire. " What hath God wrought " were the words
chosen by her to inaugurate the operation of what has
now come to be to commercial and social life wiiat the
nerves are to a human being. And her words are still
ringing in our ears.
Bishop Potter has said that nothing is so unpopular as
an innovation. Let us see. When Morse's line was
working as smoothly as the telegraph is working to-day,
after a lapse of nearly fifty years, and a message was
brought from Baltimore to Washington announcing that
Silas Wright had been chosen to run on the Presidential!
ticket with James K. Polk, an answer was immediately
returned saying that Mr. Wright declined the honor. The
Solons of that day and generation in convention assembled
were not to be beguiled by any diaphanous stories purport-
193
ing to come from Washington by a process so palpably
open to suspicion as the telegraph, so they adjourned over
while a committee went to Washington and sadly returned
with the confirmation of Mr. Wright's expressed desire not
to serve. That great telegraphic veteran, David Brooks,
of Philadelphia, once told me that when he was the mana-
ger of the telegraph office in Harrisburg — and he said he
could not remember the year, but added that it was
along about the time the soldiers were coming home from
the Mexican War — that when he was manager at Harris-
burg he could not get business enough to pay his board.
He added that people regarded the telegraph as a toy, and
never thought of using it for any serious purpose, using
the mails for their ordinary communications with Phila-
delphia, and " when they were in a great hurry to receive
intelligence," said Mr. Brooks, " they went to Philadel-
phia in person. They usually walked, but in cases of
extreme urgency they took a conveyance. It never
occurred to them to use the telegraph."
When, after years of labor and a display of almost
superhuman patience, the Atlantic Cable was finished,
very few persons believed that messages passed over it.
After a few days it ceased to work, and as no one knew
the reason why, the public shrugged its shoulders and
knowingly referred to Barnum in a familiar way and
quoted his assertion that the American public liked to
be humbugged. In that first cable very thin wires of low
conductivity and correspondingly high resistance were
used, and the life of the fragile conductor was destroyed,
just as by a decree of the New York Legislature human
194
lite is ended in the fatal chair where Kemmler sat at Au-
burn, and in which many others doomed to die have
quickly and without a sign passed from life to death.
When we reflect that according to the electricians the
needle of a galvanometer can be deflected on the Irish
coast by such electricity as can be generated on this side of
the ocean by the action upon it of what acidulated water
can be held in a percussion cap, it is not difficult to under-
stand that the first cable failed from a too heavy applica-
tion of battery. It was simply burned to death. After
that, a few years later, came the second cable, which was
a success. But it was not much used, and years were
required in which to teach the people, the newspapers and
the commercial world the value of instantaneous connec-
tion with Europe. It was a great achievement to have
established this system of communication under the seas
and the patient and persistent endeavor of Cyrus W. Field
should never have been forgotten. But he is gone, and for
many years prior to his demise no one thought of him as
the man who brought the dwellers on both sides of the
ocean to think of the same things at the same moment
and who in doing so gave civilization one of its greatest
upward movements. He became a speculator and was
plucked by Samuel J. Tilden, and afterward, in a game of
financial fisticuffs over the affairs of the Manhattan Ele-
vated Kailroad, his antagonist, Mr. Gould, was an easy
winner. Mr. Field died comparatively poor; but however
dimly his light had burned for a few years preceding his
death, he was a wonderful man, full of determination'
stopping at nothing, and sanguine that his scheme of
105
oceanic communication was practicable. I had heard of
the many trips he had made to Europe on cable business,
and meeting him in Washington a dozen years ago, I said:
" You have crossed the Atlantic sixty times, I hear."
" Yes," he replied. " I have made sixty-four trips and
was seasick on every one of them."
The first time I ever heard of the telephone, an operator
in the Western Union Telegraph Company's office, in New
York, whose father was a preacher in Canada, received
a copy of a Brantford newspaper, in which it was stated
that a man named Alexander Graham Bell had trans-
mitted speech by wire from Brantford to a neighboring
town. It seemed incredible, but our telegraphic comrade
called attention to the circumstance that his father was
a godly man, and as he had said in an accompanying letter
that he heard it done with his own ears, we held our peace.
The newspaper announcement, however, made no impres-
sion on the public, and a year or more afterward, when
Professor Bell came to New York to demonstrate that
he could telephone from that city to Brooklyn, not more
than a dozen out of a hundred invited guests appeared at
the St. Denis Hotel to witness the experiment. I was one
of the dozen, and we were unanimous in the opinion, when
the experiments were concluded, that the whole thing was
a toy, if not an absolute humbug. Professor Bell met
with many discouragements, but obstinately pursued his
experiments, and made sufficient improvements in his
apparatus to have a proposition for the adoption of his
invention by the American District Telegraph Company
seriously considered. He wanted, if my memory serves
196
me well, the sum of five thousand dollars per annum for
the exclusive use of his American rights, that rate of pay-
ment to continue during the life of the patents. This was
soberly considered by the Board of Directors, and they
solemnly resolved that, the telephone being rather in the
nature of a novelty, it would not be consistent with tbe
dignity of their company to associate it with so serious a
business as that involved in the delivery of messages, letters
and parcels by uniformed messengers. Professor Bell was
forced to seek other alliances, and you have seen the result.
The telegraph of the long ago, which would not yield in
Harrisburg money enough to pay the board of a man who
has since shown himself to be great, and who at that time
combined in himself tbe position of operator, lineman,
battery-man, messenger and manager, is as much an essen-
tial in our daily life to-day as are the railroads, the steam-
boats and the mails. The Atlantic cable, almost wholly
disused for two or three years, is as freely employed now
as are the land lines. The invention that the American
District Telegraph Company of New York rejected,
because it seemed only a trifling thing, has been perfected
to a degree admitting of easy conversation between points
as far distant as New York and Chicago. Great fortunes
have been amassed out of each and all of these different
mediums of communication, and the welfare of man has
been greatly enhanced by them. And yet, difficult as it
would be to-day to transact business without them, none of
them was adopted without a struggle in which progress
battled with prejudice, but out of which progress happily
came forth a gallant victor.
197
Everywhere in this country, where newspapers of any
size are published, they are served with the telegraphic
news of the world over wires leased for that especial pur-
pose and operated by men selected with a particular view
to handling press reports in a rapid, efficient and intelli-
gent manner. This condition grew out of the leasing by
the New York Associated Press of a wire between New
York and Washington in 1875. Mr. Orton predicted a
failure, and he combated the idea and delayed action on
the proposition for } r ears. But he finally yielded, with the
assertion and expectation that the experiment would be
a failure. But it was not, and wires to Boston, to Buffalo
and finally to Chicago, were soon called for by the various
press associations, until, as I have said, the leased wire
system is no;v almost universal. The newspapers here in
Columbus are equipped with it, and with men as skillful
and as intelligent as any employed in New York or Chi-
cago. It was my good fortune, as one of the lieutenants
of the late James W. Simonton, to select the men to work
that pioneer leased wire from New York to Washington.
There were eight of them, two each at New York, Phila-
delphia, Baltimore and Washington, and I am glad to be
able to say that after nineteen years they are all alive and
well, and that all of them are still in the j)ress service.
These eight men founded a system, and are worth know-
ing, if only by name, for they made an assault and carried
a position against the prejudice of a great telegraph com-
pany, its officers and employees. Besides, there were
never eight men who could telegraph better than Fred. N.
Bassett, P. V. De Graw, W. H. C. Hargrave, W. G.
198
Jones, Thomas J. Bishop, H. A. Wells, W. N. Gove and
E. C. Boileau. I have mentioned Boileau last because he
was lirst of all, if there were any choice among them.
" Nothing is so unpopular as an innovation," said Bis-
hop Potter. I think he spoke the truth.
No man shall excel me in a quick perception of what
has been done to increase the value of human life and the
sum of earthly happiness by the painters, the sculptors and
the writers of books and music. Nor do I forget how
much we owe to Howe, whose invention brightened the
hard lives of the women who were compelled by circum-
stances to ply the needle far into the night; to Stevenson,
whose efforts to compass land locomotion by steam have
eventuated in our being able to travel luxuriously from
New York to Chicago in the incredibly short space of
twenty hours; to Fulton, whose uncouth steamboat, worry-
ing noisily through the glad waters of the storied Hudson,
has been succeeded by floating palaces in which we cross the
seas; to Hany who created a system enabling the blind to
read; to the Gallaudets who have perfected a sign language
for the deaf and a system of articulation for those hitherto
deemed to be dumb, or to the hundreds of men and women
who have made the world happier, wiser and better for
having lived in it. Like the royal wanderer amid the
leafy woods of Arden who heard sermons from stones,
music in the whispering of the trees, and who found books
in the running brooks and good in everything, so I, scan-
ning the names upon the scroll of fame, feel to the full
how much the world owes to its conspicuous men and
women. They listen to the sermon-yielding stones, and
199
they know the truths written in the books found in the
running brooks. In short, they have found and inculcated
upon mankind that good resides in everything. And yet,
useful as is the sewing-machine, grand as have become in
their practical application the dreams of Stevenson and
Fulton, much as we are indebted to the beneficent brother-
hood of philanthropists, and to the pioneers in pushing
onward the car of progress, the men who have added the
final touch to the magnificent development of the last fifty
years have been they who, building upon the discovery that
electricity could be made a ready servant, gave us the
telegraph, the ocean cable, the telephone, the trolley-car
and a light rivaling the sun itself — an artificial radiance
more beautiful than the mind of man could imagine fifty
years ago — a light which it seems to me has touched the
zenith for both utility and splendor.
Therefore, to retrace my steps and return after this
desultory wandering away from it to my original proposi-
tion, I am justified, I think, in view of how and by whom
electricity was first made captive, and considering the man
who has been most conspicuous in making aud in suggest-
ing applications of it in so many unexpected ways — I am
justified, I say, in asserting that any man should be proud
that he was once a printer as Benjamin Franklin was, or
that his hand once knew and still retains, perhaps, the
cunning that was learned in the rugged school of tele-
graphic experience in which Thomas Alva Edison was also
a pupil.
ROBERT HOWELL.
BY WALTER P. PHILLIPS.
" I reckon I'll have to squeeze in thar alongside o' you,
while they make up them bunks."
The speaker made this observation while he was taking
his seat. He was a long, lank specimen of humanity with
an abundance of yellowish brown chin whiskers which h«
stroked caressingly when he was speaking. I had been
traveling for two days, and had made the acquaintance of
several marked types of character, and I discerned in the
new comer still another who would no doubt contribute his
share to my entertainment. The train was just pulling away
from the depot at Dayton, Ohio, and I was seated in one
of the sections which had not yet been arranged for the
night. I gave the gentleman a gracious reception, and as
soon as he was settled comfortably in his seat and had sur-
veyed me to his satisfaction, he inquired:
" Been traveling fur? "
Learning that I had come through from Denver, he spoke
of the journey as a "right smart jaunt," and volunteered
the information that he had never been west of Dayton.
" I am from South," he explained. " I went down thar
from York State when I was a boy. I am now in the saw-
mill business in Floridy. I used to be in the telegraph busi-
ness, at Key West, where they relay business between New
York and Havana, but I grew kinder tired of it and branched
out. But sawmills is durn poor property in Floridy after
the first of February, and I've some notion o' stopping over
in New York and trying my hand at the old biz for a spell."
"Are you an operator?" I inquired, cherishing a vague
suspicion that I might be addressing an ex-lineman.
"Be I? Well, I guess."
Experiencing a fellow-feeling at once, I remarked that 1
too, was an operator, and very likely we had heard of each
other. Then I gave him my name.
201
" Why, Walter, old man," he replied, with fervency, " your
name is a household word among the boys. Yes siree, we
are old timers, you and me. I see Andy Carnegie has got
rich: that Homer Bates, Albert Chandler, and a lot of the
Union military telegraph men are getting up in the world
all right, and in the meantime we ain't no chickens, be we?
CM the comparatively new reegimmy, I don't know many —
Fred Catlin, Eddie Welch, Denny Harmon, Willis Jones,
Court Cunningham, and a few other old-time stars. They
are shiners all right, even now, though I haint seen any of
'em in years. P'raps you've heard of me. My name is Bob
Howell. It must be fifteen years ago I gave up the business.
I used to be an old paster — reg'lar greased chain lightning —
and yesterday I got a string put through from Dayton to
New York to yawp with Al Sink — of course you know Al?
— about giving me a job. It come jes' as natural as ever.
I suppose I was the fastest sender — maniperlatur they call
'em now, I reckon— in the South, one time, and I can snatch
'em right smart now. What they paying for salaries now,
d'ye know? "
" All sorts," I replied. " It depends a good deal on what
one received when he left the service, what his record was,
and the character of the work he can do now."
" Well, you bet my work was Ai. Yes, cully, it was
prime mess. I left on a salary of $118, and thar wan't no
better operators than me — thar ain't none now."
To this I could not, of course, offer any objection and
presently my companion went on meditatively:
" I guess I'll strike 'em for a hundred anyhow, and I
hear they pay extra after seven hours' work. I ain't going
to stay for long, say four or five months. Sawing will be
good by that time, and I must get back to old Floridy.
What I want," he continued confidentially, " is to save a
hundred dollars a month, and" he added vigorously, " I'll
do it or bust. I'm on the U. S. — unmitigated scoop — and I
don't mind working sixteen hours a day. I don't want no
loafing around the boarding place in mine. All I want is a
bunk for about six hours, and to put in my loafing time right
in the W. U. operating room, at 195 Broadway, at forty-
seven cents an hour. Oh, I know the ropes and I'm pizen
202
on the work when it's thar to be done. But," he concluded
decisively, " I've got to get money to live on and save a
hundred dollars a month; think I can do it ?"
I assented.
" Well, I'll show 'em a thing or two when I get thar. I
used to send sixty-five messages an hour, and the longer I
send, the pizener I get. I've heerd about their big receivers
down to Duxbury and round, but they want to get their
shirts oft' when I shake myself into position, you hear me."
" You won't get the Duxbury men unless you work in the
Cable Department, down in Broad Street, and if you should,
1 fancy you will find them a marvelous set of receivers.
They "
"Oh, 'tainTno use," interrupted Mr. Howell; "they can't
catch me. They might for an hour, but when I get on my
feathers, thar ain't no living man that can follow me;" and
he drew from his pantaloons pocket a narrow strip of
tobacco about fourteen inches long, and biting off a goodly
quid, he continued:
" I'm a J. R. — Johnny Reb. Say Walter! I've got to have
that hundred a month, clean mun, for a special purpose. A
little woman is sick. Well, sir, I was at Atlanta mostly dur-
ing the war. I worked in that office night and day for
fourteen days. Thar was no one left thar but me, and
General Joe Johnston had gin an order not to close office.
When the necessity for my presence on deck had passed,
his orderly forgot to revoke the order, and so your friend
Robert H. was ' stuck.' I've often sent six hundred mes-
sages in ten hours. I used to get so wore out that I had to
hang 'em up and take a nap in my chair. Then I would
take a lot from the South, get Richmond and go for 'em
again. I never saw but one man — Old Dad Sullivan — that
could take me without a break. Maybe them Duxbury
roosters can do it."
Then, after a long and vigorous working upon the tobacco
in his mouth he added in an undertone:
" Dern my skin, but I would like to give 'em a pull, just
for fun, on seven or nine hundred cables."
" Do you purpose to bring your wife on to New York,
or ■"
203
" Go easy, old man," said Mr. Howell, interrupting me
again. " That is my one weak point, just now. I ain't got
none." Then after a pause he observed abruptly: " See
here, you are one of my kind, I'll tell you how I am fixed."
At this juncture the porter drove us out of our seat, and
we repaired to the rear of the car where, perching himself
upon the sink in a comfortable position, my friend chewed
his tobacco and talked while I leaned up against the door
and smoked a cigar.
" It was this way," observed Mr. Howell. " In '62 I was
with the army as a telegraph operator — sort of on John-
ston's staff like. One day a fellow named Joe Jacques came
through the lines bringing his wife. She was a mighty
pretty woman, and uncommonly smart. Jacques was from
Ohio, here, but his wife was a Virginian. They had lived
South a good deal, and Jacques being of no account, and his
wife a strong secession sympathizer, they naturally got
identified with our side. Jacques went for a sojer pretty
soon and his wife kept along with us as a sort of nurse to
the sick and hurt. She was pretty hard put most of the time,
poor girl, Jacques being a good deal of a drinker and quar-
relsome when drunk. Yet, he contrived with all his faults
to make quite a reputation as a scout. But he was precious
little use or comfort to ' Min,' as he called his wife, and if
it hadn't been for General Johnston and his officers, she
would have died of hunger and neglect. You remember
how we caught it at Jackson in '63, don't ye? U. S. G. had
got his galinippers on Vicksburg, and General Johnston
allowed to tackle him in the rear and make him raise the
siege. While Johnston was thinking about it, what does the
old man do but send Tecump Sherman with the Thirteenth
and Fifteenth army corps down in our direction, and inside
a week with Sherman straddling the Pearl River we found
it sociable to light out for Brandon. Three days before
we went — this was the second time Jackson was taken, you
know — our fellows made a sortie and, under cover of a big
fog, advanced a brigade of infantry and several batteries of
artillery against Sherman's right line with a hope of breaking
it, but it was of no use. The suddenness of the movement
and the skill with which it was executed was O. K., but
204
Sherman wouldn't hist a foot. When we got over to Bran-
don Jacques was missing. We all supposed he was dead and
planted all comfortable, and we didn't much care if he was.
We hadn't trusted him for some time, and he would have
went over to the enemy any time he got a chance. Any-
how, not hearing anything from him in three years, his wife
and me was pretty fond of each other by this time, consid-
ered him dead, sure enough, and we married. In 1867, we
went to Floridy and for thirty years we was mighty happy.
I got me a small place and what with our two boys and a
girl growing up and getting married, everything was as
smooth and pleasant as we could ask. I got so happy that
I even thought of Jacques in a kindly way, when the anniver-
saries of the final evacuation of Jackson came around, and
if I had known where his grave was, I believe I should have
decorated it up every year, just as a bit of gratitude for the
happiness his supposed death had brought to me."
The speaker stopped here and brushed his coat sleeve
across his eyes. He then renewed his acquaintance with the
long, narrow strip of tobacco and proceeded:
" Last Christmas who comes to the surface but Joe
Jacques. He'd been in the Regular Army, he said, and
made some money as a sutler. Then, thinking his wife was
dead, he'd married a Mississippi girl and been running a
plantation for the last twenty-five years. Lately his Missis-
sippi wife had died, and simultaneous he heard that Minnie
was married to me; that accounted for his appearance. The
situation was rather awkward. I allowed since he had mar-
ried again, Mrs. Howell was free; but Minnie had her doubts.
It wore on her terrible, until him and me got to swapping
threats, and fin'ly I gin Mr. Josephus Jacques twelve hours
to hump himself out of Floridy, or I would blow a hole in
him as big as a hoe-cake. Well, he went out here to Dayton,
and there he begins writing letters to Minnie. Then, to
cap the whole doggoned climax, he goes out gunning one
day, blows his ugly mug full of powder and gets stone blind,
That settled it. My wife just said it was Fate, and she
must go do her duty by her first husband. So she goes out
there and she is there now."
Then the honest fellow gasped with tears in his voice:
205
" And she is dying, too, old man." After a pause, he re-
sumed:
" She wrote down to me for to come out and bring the
children. I've done it, and I've left them thar temporary to
comfort my poor girl in her great trouble. There's five on
'em and we love 'em even more'n we did our own children.
I reckon it is often so with the grand-children. It cost me
a heap o' money to get us all from Floridy out to Dayton,
and it's put me in the hole terrible. That's what I'm going
a brass pounding for, to catch up again. It's tough now,
ain't it, the way things turn out? But I don't complain; I
only wish she was happier, for Jacques ain't using her right,
and then she can't stand it long in this climate, for her lungs
is weak. I don't reckon she'll ever live to see the flowers
blossom another year."
I had thrown away my cigar as the speaker concluded
his narrative, and was gazing out of the window in no
mood for speech, when I was aroused by the porter's an-
nouncement, " Berths ready for you, now, gemmens," and
turning, I beheld my friend still sitting on the marble sink
chewing as he caressed his tawny whiskers, and pondering.
I gave him my hand and said " good-night," whereupon he
ejaculated, as if a new thought had struck him: " Say, you
read a good deal, I reckon. Now, ain't thar a book called
' Married for Both Worlds ' ?"
I answered that I believed there was.
" So she told me, and she wants me to read it; but I never
read a book through in all my life. I'll have to get it though,
and do the best I can with it. Good-night, old man."
As I was tumbling into my berth, cogitating over this
pathetic story, Howell approached and whispered: ;< I'll
read that book; there's a good deal in it, I expect; and up
there," pointing toward the thoughtful stars, " I reckon Joe
Jacques is going to get most awfully left."
206
RAPID TELEGRAPHY.
BY WALTER P. PHILLIPS.
Read to the Association of Railway Telegraph Superin-
tendents at their annual meeting, held at Buffalo, N. Y.,
Tune 19, 1902.
Up to the present time the automatic systems of telegraphy
have belonged to that class of inventions in which more
money was invested than has ever been taken out. There
are those, of course, who will contend that the Wheatstone
system has certain advantages, but when everything is
summed up and a balance is struck, it is doubtful, as I view
the matter, whether the introduction of that exquisite sys-
tem has led to any real progress, as far as American teleg-
raph}- is concerned. A great deal has been claimed for this
system in former years, in England, but recent reports show
that it has lost ground there, of late, while in the United
States it cuts no important figure.
But whatever may be said against the Wheatstone system
as a factor of value in these high pressure days of instan-
taneous communication by telephone as well as by telegraph,
the fact remains that it is far ahead of the many other
automatic systems which have come into competition with it
during the past twenty-five years. For that reason a brief
description of it may be of interest:
The apparatus consists of a device called a perforator, a
transmitter of most ingenious construction, and an ink
recorder. It is the mission of the perforator to make a series
of dots in horizontal lines, of the transmitter to so distribute
these dots into the line as to transform them into the dots
and dashes comprising the telegraph alphabet; and of the
inking mechanism to record them in a perfect manner, easily
read and transcribed by the copyist at the receiving end of
the line. The perforator consists of a set of five metal
tubes, or punches, encased in a box within which is placed
the mechanism by which the punches are operated. This
207
perforator, like everything connected with the Wheatstone
System, works perfectly. It has three keys which are de-
pressed by the operator, who usually uses for this purpose
rubber-tipped mallets — one in each hand. Sometimes per-
forators are supplied with a pneumatic arrangement render-
ing it unnecessary for the operator to more than touch the.
keys, which action opens a valve connected with air tubes
and a piston influenced by the air pressure perforates the
paper instead of its being done by main strength, as is the
case when struck by the mallets. Besides the two horizontal
lines of dots which pass through the transforming mechan-
ism by which they are changed to dots and dashes, there is
a third line of fine dots — about 120 to the foot. These dots
are placed between the other two and are used as a means
of feeding the perforated tape through the transmitter,
which not only handles it in a marvelous manner, but by
another ingenious contrivance it sends " reversals," thus
clearing the line of the static charge by a constant alterna-
tion of a current from the opposing poles of the battery.
The Wheatstone recorder does not differ essentially from
other inking mechanisms, but it is more elaborate, more
accurate, and in every way superior to everything in the
same line that has ever been produced. There may be coun-
tries where the telegraphing public is willing to have its
messages delayed more or less, but in the United States
people will not submit to it. In other countries the public
may not know what goes on inside the sacred precincts of
the telegraph operating rooms, but in this broad land of
freedom, every man who does much telegraphing makes it
his business to know all about the modus operandi of hand-
ling telegrams, and there are but very few of them to-day
who do not know by its ear-marks whether a message
reaches him by the Morse system or the Wheatstone. The
first is well understood to be a method synonymous with
the greatest possible alacrity and accuracy, while the latter
is viewed askance and accused of being slow and incorrect.
That there is an initial delay in perforating the slips is un-
deniable and many more errors are made in transcribing
the tape by eye than in receiving the words by sound. All
of this means a slow service, and is so well understood
208
outside of the telegraph offices as well as inside of them,
that cases are known where the falling off in the business of
a company using the Wheatstone and the corresponding in-
crease in the business of a company which operated the
Morse System was so great, that the former had to be
permanently abandoned and the Morse System restored in
order to regain the business which had gone over to the
enemy.
With the Wheatstone only a half success, inventors have
not been lacking to bring forward one automatic system
after another, each and every one of which was inferior to the
Wheatstone, and invariably for the reason that they were
very much faster and less rational systems and their opera-
tion contemplated the use of chemically prepared paper at
the receiving end of the line. There have been no end of
these systems, with their wet paper and other objectionable
features, and for the exploitation of several of them inde-
pendent companies were formed, all of which went to the
wall long ago. If you walk along Broadway, you will see
here and there a window filled with what appears to be
diamonds. The shopkeepers call them Brazilian pebbles,
Peruvian crystals, and any other name that comes handy,
and but for their prices, which, to use a hackneyed phrase,
place these blazing gems within the reach of all, a superficial
observer might mistake them for the genuine article. But
when you take any one of these stones to a practical jeweler
and ask him what it is, he scarcely takes it from your hand,
and certainly gives it no careful scrutiny. He disposes of it
with the utterance of one word—" glass "—and gives it no
further thought. And so with the long list of extremely
high speed telegraph systems; they are as glass compared
with the real gem when we put them in the balance with the
Wheatstone. And since not one of them is in use in the
whole world to-day, as far as I can ascertain, it is scarcely
worth while to mention them by name.
Within very recent years the automatic telegraph in its
original form has practically been discarded in favor of the
primitive Morse, which is by common consent the simplest
and fastest system in the world. An attempt has been made
to hasten this system by devices known as the Phillips-
309
Morse Automatic Telegraph. This is a very unpretentious
affair, using the Morse Key for the preparation of an em-
bossed tape which, without the slightest delay, is passed
through a transmitter and over the line at a high rate of
speed. The signals are received, at the remote station, on
a recording apparatus which furnishes an embossed slip
from which, when passed through a reproducer, the words
as originally written by the sending operator are reproduced
on a sounder and taken down with a pen or a typewriter by
sound. I quote from an article taken from the New York
Sun, which I did not write or inspire, so it may be accepted
as wholly disinterested, although I chance to be the sponsor
for the system which the Sun describes.
" What Phillips's Morse Automatic Telegraph will do is to
double or treble the number of words that can be sent over
a single wire, and this without requiring that the operators
learn anything beyond that which the present Morse opera-
tors know now. This result is accomplished by the addition
to each office of a set of very simple instruments. When
there is no need of hurrying matter forward over the wires
the rapid system can be cut out of use by changing a plug,
and the wires can be used in the ordinary way — sending
messages directly by the key. The system is one which is
of value principally to the telegraph companies themselves
and to the users of leased wires, but the public would often
find a direct benefit from its adoption through getting mes-
sages promptly, which are now often delayed when there
is trouble with the wires and their capacity is reduced below
the normal.
" In this system the messages are recorded in raised tele-
graphic characters on a strip of paper, and this strip being
run through a proper machine the characters are repeated
by sound at the other end of the wire, and the operator,
reading them by ear, takes them upon a typewriter or by
hand. The transcribing operator can vary the speed of the
tape as it goes through the machine to suit himself, can stop
it at any point, and can pull it back if he wants it repeated.
It is asserted that the greater number of mistakes that occur
in the Wheatstone system are in the reading and transcrib-
ing, and that these are done away with in the new system,
210
because the ear is more accurate than the eye, and also
faster. These claims seemed all to be proved by the tests
made yesterday. An article in the Sun was chosen for the
test. This was handed to a Morse operator, and while he
sent it the operator, who was afterward to transcribe it,
left the room. The sending operator worked at the ordinary
key, just as he would in sending a message over the wire in
the present Morse system. The message, however, instead
of going over the main wire, was sent only over a local
office wire. It was received in a machine which was, to all
intents and purposes, like the registering machine which
every operator used forty years ago, before men had learned
to read by sound. The dots and dashes were reproduced
on a strip of paper, each being raised above the surface of
the paper by a point which pressed that part of the paper
into a groove in a wheel which the paper passed over. In-
stead of producing a single line of these impressions, there
were three points which worked side by side and left three
sets of duplicate impressions. The duplication is merely to
insure accuracy. The message was telegraphed in this part
of the process at the ordinary rate of speed.
" Now came the second process — the transmission over
the main wire. The transmitting instrument and the record-
ing instrument, at opposite ends of the wire, were set going
at a speed three times as great as that of the hand operator.
The strip of paper with the message imprinted on it was
started through the transmitter, and the recorder went rat-
tling away at a rate which no man could read, but every
impression was afterward found to be an exact duplicate of
those in the strip going through the transmitter. When
this process was completed the paper from the recorder was
brought over to the transmitter, and the latter machine was
slowed down again to a speed equal to that of ordinary
telegraphing. The transmitter was now assumed to be only
an office machine run upon an office circuit and entirely
separate from the line wire, as would be the case in the
third process — that of taking the message from the trans-
mitted copy and turning it into ordinary writing. A type-
writer who could read telegraphy by sound sat in front of
his machine and as soon as the strip was started through
211
the transmitter he began to print out the message. When
he had finished, the typewritten copy was compared with the
original in the Sun and found to be exactly correct.
" In practise, the manner in which the system would be
used is this: Since the transmitter is able to send three
times as many messages in a given time as a single operator
can send or receive, there would be three operators in each
office to each wire. In the sending office these operators
would be kept busy making the tape copies of the messages
by ticking them off on office recorders. As fast as their
messages were ready they would be run through the trans-
mitter, which would reproduce them at the triple speed at
the other end of the wire. There the three other operators
would each take a part of the messages and transcribe them.
There is absolutely no loss of time."
Mr. William B. Vansize, in a paper presented at the 150th
meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers,
in January, 1900, said: "What telegraph officials really
need is the simplicity of the Morse System combined with
increased speed of transmission and economy of time be-
tween the transmitting customer and his addressed corre-
spondent. Up to the present time nothing has surpassed
the Morse for this purpose." And it is extremely doubtful
if anything ever will. I believe, however, that the Phillips-
Morse Automatic Telegraph can handle business as quickly
as the Morse, and that it will economize time on the wire.
Not that it will handle millions of words in no time, like
the systems that have been regularly brought forward, and
which promptly slipped from the experimental stage to the
limbo of unutilized things, but it will achieve in its field the
triumph of making two, if not three blades of grass grow
where only one grew before. And that is something, whereas
the attempts of those who aimed to revolutionize the origi-
nal methods have ended in absolutely nothing.
I have a very wholesome respect for the man who attempts
something within the range of reason, and such a man is
Donald Murray. He has entered a field that is most allur-
ing. It was not very long after the invention of the Morse
telegraph that inventors began striving to achieve a tele-
graph that would deliver its messages in Roman characters.
212
Royal E. House invented a printing telegraph away back in
the fifties; Hughes invented one not so good, and afterward
George M. Phelps combined the two and produced a really
beautiful machine which came to be known as the Phelps
Motor. Edison interested himself in the stock ticker, and
as far as short distance printing telegraph went, we had
made progress twenty years ago. But what was needed
was an automatic page printer that would work on long
circuits, and Mr. Murray seems to have come nearer to at-
taining this ideal than any one else. The Murray system
involves the use of a perforated slip which is prepared on a
machine which to- all intents and purposes is a typewriter.
This perforated slip is passed into the line at a moderately
high rate of speed, and the pulsations caused by it produce a
perforated slip at the remote station which, when applied to
a specially arranged typewriter, causes it to print in Roman
letters that which was originally perforated at the sending
station. There are some natural obstacles to be overcome
before this system can be made a great and enduring suc-
cess, but it is full of promise.
213
TELEGRAPH TALK AND TALKERS.
HUMAN CHARACTER AND EMOTIONS AN OLD
TELEGRAPHER READS ON THE WIRE.
BY L. C. HALL.
Cross the threshold of the operating department of a
metropolitan telegraph office, and you pass into a wonder-
land where much is done that might well excite astonish-
ment if the vernacular in which it is transacted were set down
in comprehensible phrase. Here men talk of megohms and
microfarads and milliamperes; you carelessly touch a bit of
brass and are stung by an invisible imp; you see a man
gazing fixedly at an impertinent little instrument, toying
idly the while at a rubber button, and the brass instrument
having clattered back, you see him laugh idiotically for no
reason whatever.
For "telegraphese" is a living, palpitating language. It
is a curious kind of Volapuk, a universal tongue, spoken
through the finger tips and in most cases read by ear.
In its written form telegraphese, or " Morse," as it is
called in the vernacular, is rarely seen. Yet as a vehicle of
expression it is, to the initiated, as harmonious, subtle, and
fascinating as the language of music itself.
Nothing could be simpler than its alphabet of dots and
dashes. Yet it has come to pass that out of the manner of
rendering this simple code has been evolved a means of
communicating thought and feeling rivaling in flexibility and
scope the human voice.
A great hall was filled one night with people — mostly
telegraphers and their friends. On the stage were a dozen
men, a few tables upon which were sets of shining telegraph
instruments, and a number of typewriting machines of dif-
ferent patterns. The occasion was a " fast -sending tourna-
ment," held to establish records in rapid transmission.
By courtesy of McClure's Magazine. Copyrighted, iqo2, by the S. S.
McClure Co
2 1 5
One by one the contestants stepped to the test table, and
manipulated the key. There was a tense stillness through-
out the hall, broken when " time " was called by a trill of
metallic pulsations read by most of the audience as from
a printed page. The text of the matter is of no concern,
an excerpt from a great speech, a page of blank verse, or
only the " conditions " found at the top of a telegraph form.
Speed and accuracy alone are vital. Forty, forty-five, fifty
words a minute are rattled off — seven hundred and fifty
motions of the wrist — and still the limit is not reached. The
contestants show the same evidences of strain that charac-
terize the most strenuous physical contest — the dilating
nostril, the quick or suspended breathing, the starting eye.
Presently a fair-haired young man takes the chair, self-
confidence and reserve force in every gesture. Away he
goes, and his transmission is as swift and pure as a moun-
tain stream. ' To guard against mistakes and delays, the
sender of a message should order it repeated back." The
audience, enthralled, forgets the speed, and hearkens only
to the beauty of the sending. On and on fly the dots and
dashes, and though it is clear that his pace is not up to that
set by the leaders, nevertheless there is a finish — an inde-
finable quality of perfection — in the performance that at the
end brings the multitude to its feet in a spontaneous burst of
applause; such an outburst as might have greeted a great
piece of oratory or acting.
A telegrapher's Morse, then, is as distinctive as his face,
his tones, or his handwriting; and as difficult to counterfeit
as his voice or writing. Of this individual quality of tele-
graphese, the old war telegraphers tell many stories. A
Confederate, for example, encounters on the march a line
of wire which he suspects is being used by the enemy. He
taps the wire, " cuts in " his instruments, and listens. His
surmise is correct; he "grounds off" one or the other end,
and, trying to disguise his style of " sending," makes in-
quiries calculated to develop important information. But the
Southern accent is recognized in his Morse by the distant
manipulator, who, indeed, may have been a co-worker in the
days "before the war." So the intruder gets only a good-
humored chaffing. ' The trick won't work, Jim," says the
216
Federal operator. " Let's shake for old times' sake, and
then you ' git ' out of this."
In the wire-world a telegrapher is known by his " sign " —
it may be the letter X or Q or &. Now there is certainly
nothing in a mere letter to warm up to, or the reverse; and
yet, after a day or two of this wire acquaintance with a man
whom one has never seen, and whose name one does not
know — a conversation, mind you, not of your own, but of
exchanging other persons' telegrams — one gets an idea of
the other's personality as distinct as if there had been
personal intercourse; one feels friendly toward him, or
dislikes him. And one's own feeling toward him is probably
shared by every one who has had this wire contact with him.
X or Q or & may thus stand for a distinct personality in the
telegraph world, in the same sense that the name Thackeray
or Longfellow stands for an individuality in the literary world.
Expressed in print a laugh is a bald '* ha ha!" that re-
quires other words to describe its quality. In wire-talk the
same form is used, but the manner of rendering it imparts
quality to the laughter. In dot-and-dash converse, as in
speech, "ha! ha! ha! " may give an impression of mirthless-
ness, of mild amusement, or of convulsion. The double " i,"
again, in wire parlance, has a wide range of meaning accord-
ing to its rendition. A few double " i's " are used as a pre-
lude to a conversation, as well as to break the abruptness
in ending it. They are also made to express doubt or
acquiescence; and in any hesitation for a word or phrase
are used to preserve the continuity of a divided sentence.
When an order is given in Morse over the wire, the opera-
tor's acknowledgment is a ringing "i — i!" which has the
same significance as a sailor's " aye, aye, sir! "
The man would be but a poor observer of little tilings
who, after "working a wire " with a stranger at " the other
end " for a week, could not give a correct idea of his distant
vis-a-vis' disposition and character. And it would be
quite possible for an imaginative operator to build up a
fairly accurate mental image of him — whether be ate with
his knife, or wore his hat cocked on the side of bis head, or
talked loud in public places.
Sonic years ago. in a Southern office, I was assigned to
217
a " circuit " which had its terminus at the national capital.
My fellow operator at the other end of the wire used the
letters "C G" for his wire-signature. C G's Morse was so
clear, even, and rhythmic, his dots and dashes so per-
fectly timed and accurately spaced, that I immediately
conceived a cordial liking for him. In a short time this
liking, to which he heartily responded, ripened into a strong
and sincere attachment. My friend's distinct though delicate
wire-touch made working with him exceedingly restful. In-
deed, every day for months I " received " from him without
perceptible fatigue, or the necessity of " breaking." Al-
most from the beginning of our acquaintanceship I fancied
that I should know him at sight if I chanced to meet him.
I pictured him a tall, frail man, with the refined and
patient manner of one who has suffered much, his features
delicately molded, his eyes of the kind that kindle quickly
when lighted by a smile, and his mouth ready to apply the
torch whenever his sense of humor prompted. I fancied
that I should know his dress — the old-fashioned collar; the
small white tie; the thin, rather long, black sack coat.
Some months after our first meeting by wire I was
called to Washington, and while there I visited the big
operating room of the main office, in order to greet the
many friends of other days. As I made my way about I
kept a sharp lookout for my old wire friend. I did not
ask to have him pointed out, because I wished to see if it
were possible to identify him by my mental photograph.
Presently I spied him, just as I had pictured him. I stood
beside him for a moment; then, touching his shoulder,
I held out my hand.
" How do you do, C G? I am very glad to see you and
to have the pleasure of shaking your hand."
Though he was a much older man than I there was no
lack of respect in my words, for it is not uncommon for one
telegrapher to address another by his " sign."
C G rose with a quiet dignity, and taking my hand, looked
down at me over his glasses, his eyes beaming.
" It's H, is it not? I am very glad to meet you, my son! "
And then we fell to chatting, face to face, as we had so
often done by wire.
218
I never met him again in the flesh. A few months after
my Washington visit I missed him from my wire. In re-
sponse to an inquiry I was told that my dear old friend
had heen seriously injured in a cablecar accident, and that,
being alone in the world, he had been taken to a hospital
fur treatment. There he lingered for a while, at times half-
conscious; then his gentle spirit went out.
I made another trip to Washington, to attend his funeral;
afterward making a visit to the hospital to hear from the
head nurse the story of his injury and death.
" Late in the evening," said the good woman as our inter-
view was ending, " I was called into his room. He was
rapidly failing, and was talking as if in a dream, two fingers
of his right hand tapping the bed clothes as if he were send-
ing a message. I did not understand the purport, but per-
haps you will. ' You say you can't read me? ' he would
say; ' then let H come to the key. He can read and under-
stand me. Let H come there, please.' Now and again his
fingers would cease moving, as if he were waiting for the
right person to answer. Then he would go on once more:
' Dear me, dear me, this will never do! I want to talk with
H. I have an important message for him. Please tell him
to hurry.' Then would follow another pause, during which
he would murmur to himself regretfully. But at last he
suddenly assumed the manner of one listening intently;
then, his face breaking into a smile, he cried, his fingers
keeping time with his words: ' Is that you, H? I'm so
glad you've come! I have a message for you.' And so, his
fingers tapping out an unspoken message, his kindly spirit
took its flight."
The nurse's eyes were brimming, and I gulped vainly at a
bun]) in my thoat. After a moment's silence she continued:
" But there was one feature of Mr. G -'s dying talk
that particularly impressed me. While he tapped out his
messages he spoke in a tense half-whisper, like one trying
to project his voice through space. Between times, how-
ever, in communing with himself, he spoke in his natural
tones. But I noticed that he glided from one tone to the
oilier, quite as a linguist would in conversing with two per-
sons of different nationalities."
219
The head nurse in a hospital had stumbled upon a dis-
covery which up to this time remains a sealed book to the
linguistic student.
A woman's Morse is as feminine as her voice or her hand-
writing. I have often put to the test my ability to distin-
guish between the Morse of a man and that of a woman,
and only once have I been deceived.
On this same Washington " circuit " I one day encoun-
tered a sender at the other end, a stranger, who for hours
" roasted " me as I seldom had been in my telegraphic ex-
perience. The dots and dashes poured from the sounder
in a bewildering torrent, and I had the hardest kind of
work to keep up in copying. With all its fearful swiftness
the Morse was clean-clipped and musical, though it had a
harsh, staccato ring which indicated a lack of sentiment and
feeling in the transmitter. From this, and from a certain
dash and swagger, I gathered, before the day was out, a
pretty distinct impression of the personality of the trans-
mitter. I conceived him to be of a well-kept, aggressively
clean appearance, with a shining red complexion and close-
cropped hair; one, in brief, whose whole manner and make-
up bespoke the self-satisfied sport. That he wore a diamond
in his loudly striped shirt-front I considered extremely likely,
and that he carried a toothpick between his lips was mor-
ally certain.
Next day I took occasion to make some inquiries of my
fellow-operator at Washington.
" Oh, you mean T Y," he said, laughing. ' Yes, for a
girl, she is a fly sender."
It was mortifying to find that I had mistaken the sex
of the sender, but I was consoled when I met the young
woman. The high coloring was there, and the self-satisfied
air; so also were the masculine tie, the man's vest, and the
striped shirt-front. Nor were the diamond pin and the
toothpick wanting. When she introduced herself by her
sign, called me " Culley," and said I was " a crack-a-jack
receiver," I was convinced that it was nature, and not I,
that had made the mistake as to her sex.
How powerfully the imagination may be stimulated by
a story told in dots and dashes is illustrated by an episode
220
of the Charleston earthquake. At the moment of the final
shock every wire connecting Charleston with the outside
world was instantly " lost." And as no other tidings could
be had from the doomed city, it was as if in an instant it
had been swept from the face of the earth. And for many
hours Charleston remained literally dead to the world.
The next morning, before the average citizen had time
to collect his wits, the telegraph people had started out gangs
of linemen to get the wires in working order. Operators
in the principal offices within a radius of several hundred
miles were set to calling " C N." For a long time there
was no response; but at last, on the wire which I had in
charge, a slight answering signal was felt, rather than
heard— faint and flickering, like the first sign of returning
life. From that moment my watch was, if possible, more
diligent. For an hour or more I called. " adjusted," and
used every effort to revive the feeble pulse. I could fancy
myself working desperately to resuscitate a half-drowned
man. Again I felt the flickering signal, and then once more
all signs of life faded away. Finally, as the wires were
gradually cleared of debris, the current began to strengthen,
and then came the answering "i — i! C N " — weak and un-
steady, but still sufficiently plain to be made out. To me it
sounded like a voice from the tomb, and I shouted aloud
the tidings that Charleston was still in existence. Quickly
the sounder was surrounded by a throng of excited teleg-
raphers. The Morse was broken and unsteady at first. Then
the current grew stronger — the patient was growing better
— and for a long time we listened to the labored clicking,
until at last the worst was known. And at the end of the
recital a great sigh went out from the hearts of all of us,
as if literally in our presence a long-buried city had been
exhumed.
In the reporting of races or games by wire the Morse
imparts a singular vitality to the description. The listening
crowd hears the description repeated by mouth from the
sounder, and they grow enthusiastic or depressed. But it
is tlie showing of the teams that moves them; there is noth-
ing in the sound of the words to stir them. Not so with the
Morse reader, particularly if the distant reporter be clever
•.-.'1
with his telegraphese. The short, sharp dots and dashes
impart a most thrilling quality to his announcements — a
quality that stirs the hlood and makes the heart of the re-
ceiver thump with excitement. ' They're off ! " in print is
cold and empty compared to its counterpart in Morse ut-
tered at a critical moment. Some indescribable quality in
the sound reflects the sender's interest and feeling as no
man, not an elocutionist or an actor, would reflect them
in voice or gesture.
Telegraphic anecdotes there are in plenty. The difficulty
is so to set them before the reader as to give him an idea
of their telegraphic flavor. Here is one with the flavor
partly obscured.
To begin with, it is necessary to say that the letter E in
Morse is a single dot, while an O is two dots slightly
spaced. It should be plain, therefore, that an O imperfectly
spaced, or misinterpreted in receiving, makes the same im-
pression upon the ear as the double E. Upon this rests the
point of the story. I was transmitting a message addressed
to " Gen. Fitz Lee, Washington"; an old comrade of Lee's
was sending him a congratulatory message. As I went
ahead " To Gen. Fitz Lee, Washington," the receiver
stopped me. " Is that to Gen. Fitz Lo ? " he queried. " No,"
I answered impatiently, " it is to Gen. Fitz Lee." " Bk! bk! "
(break! break!) said the receiver; " Gen. Fitz Lee or Gen.
Fitz Lo — it's infernally stupid of your people to take in a
message addressed to a Chinese laundryman in this town
without giving a street number."
The fellow's evident earnestness and his naivete, as evi-
denced in his Morse, made the ejaculation deliciously funny.
The story reached the general, and I afterward heard him
tell it at his own expense. But in the telling the telegraphic
flavor was lost.
Like any other language, Morse has its patois — a cor-
rupted version of the purer speech used by the inexperienced
or by those to whom nature has denied the finer percep-
tions of timing and spacing. This patois might be called
" hog-Morse." It would be quite impossible to give even
a rude idea of the humor contained — for the expert — in
some of the corruptions of which hog-Morse is guilty.
These consist largely in closely joining elements which
ought to be spaced, or in separating others that are meant
tc be close-coupled.
In the patois of the wires "pot" means "hot," "foot"
is rendered "fool," " U. S. Navy" is "us nasty," "home"
is changed to " hog," and so on. If, for example, while
receiving a telegram, a user of the patois should mi>^ a
word and say to you " 6naz fimme q," the expert would
know that he meant " Please fill me in." But there is no
difficulty about the interpretation of the patois provided the
receiver be experienced and always on the alert. When,
however, the mind wanders in receiving, there is always
danger that the hand will record exactly what the ear dic-
tates. On one occasion, at Christmas time, a hilarious
citizen of Rome, New York, telegraphed a friend at a dis-
tance a message which reached its destination reading. " Cog
hog to rog and wemm pave a bumy tig." It looked to the
man addressed like Choctaw, and of course was not under-
stood. Upon being repeated it reads. " Come home to
Rome, and we'll have a bully time." Another case of con-
fusion wrought by hog-Morse was that of the Richmond,
Virginia, commission firm, who were requested by wire to
quote the price on a carload of " undressed slaves." The
member of the firm who receipted for the telegram being
something of a wag, wired back: " No trade in naked nig-
gers «6ince Emancipation Proclamation." The original mes-
sage had been transmitted by senders of hog-Morse, called
technically " hams," and the receivers had absent-mindedly
recorded the words as they had really sounded. What the
inquirer wanted, of course, was a quotation on a carload
of staves in the rough.
The mere sound of the styles of some transmitters is
irresistibly comic. One of these natural humorists may
be transmitting nothing more than a string of figures, and
still make you chuckle at the grotesqueness of his Morse.
It is an everyday thing to hear senders characterized as
Miss Nancys, rattle-brains, swell-heads, or cranks, or
"jays," simply because the sound of their dots and dashes
suggests the epithets.
When a telegram is being read by sound, the receiver is
223
not conscious of the dots and dashes that make up the
sentences. The impression upon the ear is similar to that
produced by spoken words. Indeed, if an experienced teleg-
rapher were asked suddenly what a certain letter is in dots
and dashes, the chances are that he would hesitate before
being able to answer. In view of this fact I should say that
thinking in" telegraphese is not possible, and in this point
of comparison with a spoken tongue the Morse is deficient.
Curiously enough, however, as an aid to memory in the
spelling of words the telegraphese is useful. If a telegra-
pher should be in doubt as to the orthography of a word —
whether it were spelt with an ie or ei, for example — he
would only have to sound it on an instrument or click it
out on his teeth to dispel at once any uncertainty.
Among the other interesting facts is that, in Morse, fam-
ily resemblance is shown as often as in face and manner.
Furthermore, just as two persons of kindred temperaments
— man and wife, say — who have been long associated, are
said gradually to grow into a physical resemblance to each
other — so, in a like manner, two telegraphers who have
worked a wire together for years insensibly mold their
Morse each after the other's, until the resemblance between
them is readily perceptible.
If anything else were needed to complete the parallel be-
tween the telegraphese and a recognized vehicle of "expres-
sion, I might add that the users of the language of dots and
dashes are animated by a spirit as clannish as that of the
Highland Scots. Bring two strangers together; let each
know. that the other is acquainted with the wire tongue, and
in five minutes' time the pair will be swapping telegraph
yarns as if they had known each other for years. Country
operators, when they get leave to come to town, are drawn
irresistibly to the city telegraph office. However strange
the city may be, in the central commercial office or the rail-
road dispatcher's den they are sure to find others who speak
their language, and with whom they may fraternize and feel
at home. Nor is this clannishness felt in personal inter-
course alone; it applies to those who, in widely separated
cities, are brought in daily touch by a wire used jointly by
all. In idle intervals, on an Associated Press circuit, for
224
example — a wire touching at a dozen or more cities — dis-
tance is lost sight of, ami all the features of personal inter-
course are distinctly present. Stories are told, opinions ex-
changed, and laughs enjoyed, just as if the participants were
sitting together at a club. They grow to know each other's
habits, moods, and foibles, their likes and dislikes; and
when there is a break in the circle through the death of a
member, his absence is felt just as in personal association.
The Phillips Code
A THOROUGHLY TESTED METHOD OF SHORT HAND,
ARRANGED FOR TELEGRAPHIC PURPOSES, AND
CONTEMPLATING THE RAPID TRANS-
MISSION OF PRESS REPORTS j
ALSO INTENDED TO BE
USED AS AN
EASILY ACQUIRED METHOD
FOR
General Newspaper and Court Reporting
BY
WALTER P. PHILLIPS
General Manager of the United Press from 18S2 to 1SQ7
Entered According to Act of Congress
by
WALTER P. PHILLIPS
1879
A few pages of the Phillips Code are given here-
with. The books can be had of J. B. Taltavall, of
The Telegraph Age, 253 Broadway, New York,
U. S. A. The code, as given herewith, was printed
in our previous edition issued in 1900 and is not now
absolutely correct. For many years its revision
has been constantly going on and some departures
from the old text have been made during the last
seventeen months. The books, however, as sup-
plied by Mr. Taltavall, are always up to date. The
insertion of a few pages of the code herewith is to
show what it is like. It is in general use on all
press wires throughout the United States and Can-
ada and is used by many newspaper reporters in
taking speeches in cases in which a liberal synop-
sis is wanted instead of a verbatim report. Very
few men are reported verbatim in these busy days
in any publication excepting the Congressional
Record.
WALTER P. PHILLIPS
Bridgeport, Conn., March 1, 1902.
•.".".1
THE PHILLIPS CODE
INTRODUCTORY
The Morse alphabet, which is employed to represent the sounds used in
steno-telegraphy, is composed entirely of linear characters formed of
dots and dashes, and by combinations of the two. The letters c, o, r, y
and ?., and the symbol "&" are composed of dots and spaces. There are
no spaces in any of the letters composed of dashes. The alphabet is as
follows:
A-- J S---
B K T —
C L— U
D M V
E- N — - W
F O- - X
G P Y
H Q Z---
I-- R &- ---
The figures are as follows:
i 5 9
2 6 o
3 7
4 8
The punctuation marks used as a part of this system are as follows:
Comma — Dot, dash, dot, dash.
Interrogation point — Dash, two dots, dash, dot.
Capital letter — Cx.
Shilling mark — Ut.
Pounds sterling — Px.
Exclamation point — Three dashes, dot.
Colon — Ko.
Dollar mark — Sx.
Colon dash — Kx.
Parenthesis — Pn stands for first and Py for the second parenthesis mark.
Pence — D.
Quotation marks — Qn stands for first and Qj for the second quotation
mark.
Quotation marks within a quotation — Qx.
Brackets — Bx.
Dash— Dx.
Hyphen — II x.
Semicolon — Si.
Period — Two dots, two dashes, two dots.
Paragraph mark — Four dashes.
Underline — Ux stands for first and Uj for the second underline signal.
Colon followed by a quotation— Kq,
23]
Fractions are sent by inserting the letter e between the numerator
and the denominator, thus: Three-sixteenths — 3 e 16.
Owing to the fact that three ciphers when quickly transmitted bear a
striking resemblance to a figure 5, it will always be better to use tnd for
thousands and myn for million when thousands or millions are expressed
after the first, second or third figures by ciphers exclusively, thus:
10,000 — 10 tnd; 248,000,000 — 248 myns.
Hnd may also be used to advantage sometimes to express hundreds,
thus: 400 — 4 hnd; 500,000 — 5 hnd tnd; 300,000,000 — 3 hnd myn.
Decimals should be sent by inserting the word "dot," thus: 0.34 —
dot 34; 89.92 — 89 dot 92.
When an omission occurs in the copy and the fact is shown by the
presence of asterisks, the letter x several times repeated will indicate that
asterisks are to be inserted in the copy to be sent out, thus: And this
has been one of the results. ****** ****** \yho shall
account for such corruption? — And this has been one of the results.
x x x x x x Who shall, etc.
In sending poetry or one or more lines of verse a paragraph mark
( ) should be used at the end of each line, thus:
The gentleman on the other side, as it seems to me, takes a super-
ficial view of what has been developed, and manifests a disposition either
to defend these obvious irregularities or content himself with what
appears on the surface. Unless he corrects his methods, I fancy the
poet's words,
Qn The primrose on the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him
And it was nothing more Qj ■ —
will be peculiarly applicable to my credulous colleague in the near future,
and he will discover that he has missed an opportunity to render a great
service to the cause of common honesty.
Beginners, both senders and receivers, should commit all of the fore-
going to memory before attempting to send the code.
Operators essaying to learn to send the accompanying system of codi-
fication will achieve that object with comparative ease by beginning, and
continuing, methodically. They should first commit to memory the
meaning conveyed by the single letters, as follows:
B— Be. K— Out of the. T— The.
C— See. M— More. U— You.
D — In the, or pence. N — Not. V — Of which.
F— Of the. O— Of. W— With.
G — From the. P— Per. X — In which.
H— Has. Q— On the. Y— Year.
j — By which. R — Are. Z — From which.
Also, a figure 4 for "where," a figure 5 for "that the," and a figure 7
for "that is." These figures are expressed, as will be seen further on,
thus: Fr — four; fv — five; sv — seven. They should be so sent whenever
they appear singly. Occurring in groups, they may be sent in the usual
manner. .
The next step for the beginner is to learn the meaning conveyed by the
two-letter contractions, among the more important of which are the
following:
232
Ac — And company. Ec-
Ad — Adopted. Ed
Ag — Agent. Ef-
Ao — At once. Eh
Ap — Appropriate. Ej —
Aq — Acquaint. El —
Ar — Answer. Em
Au — Author. En-
Av — Average. Ep-
Bc — Because. Eq-
Bd— Board. Er—
Bf— Before. Ev
Bg— Being. Ey
Bh— Both. Fa
Bk— Break. Fb
Bl— Bill. Fc—
Bn— Been. Fd-
Bt— But. Fh-
Bv— Believe. Fi-
B\v— Be with. Fj-
Bx— Bracket []. Fk-
Bz — Business. Fl-
Ca — Came. Fo-
Cb— Celebrate. Fq-
Cd— Could. Fs-
Cf— Chief. Ft-
Cg — Seeing. Fw
Cj — Coroner's jury. Fx-
Ck — Check. Ga-
Cl— Call. Gb-
Co — County. Gc-
Cq — Correct. Gd-
Cr — Care. Gf-
Cs — Case. Gg
Ct — Connect. Gi-
Cu — Current. Gj-
Cv — Cover. Gk
Cx — Capital letter. Gm
Db — Debate. Gn
Dd— Did. Gq-
Df— Differ. Gr-
Dg — Doing. Gt-
Di— Direct. Gx
Dl— Deliver. Gz-
Dm — Demand. Ha
Dp— Depart. Hb
Ds — Discuss. He-
Dt— Do not. Uf-
Du— Duty. Hg
Dv— Divide. Hh
Dx— Dash. Hi
1)/— Does. Ilk
Ea — Each. II"
-Ecclesiastic.
-Editor.
Effect.
-Either.
Eject.
Elect.
—Embarrass.
-Enthusiasm.
-Epoch.
Equal.
Error.
Ever.
Every.
Fail.
Of the bill.
Fiscal.
-Find.
-Forth.
Fire.
Found.
-Fluctuate.
Feel.
-For.
-Frequent.
-First.
For the.
-Follow.
-Fort.
-Gave.
-Great Britain.
-Grace.
-Good.
-Gulf.
-Going.
■Gigantic.
-Grand jury.
-Greek.
— Gentlemen.
-Gone.
-Geology.
•Ground.
Great.
-Great excitement.
-Gazette.
-He also.
i — Has been.
-Habeas corpus.
Half.
-Having.
-Has had.
High.
-Hunk.
i— Hold.
Hp — Hope.
Ht— Has the.
Hu — House.
Hv— Have.
Hx — Hyphen.
la — Iowa.
Ic — In connection.
Id — Introduce.
Ig — Indignant.
Ih— It has.
Ij — Injure.
II— Illustrate.
Im — Immediately.
Io — In order.
Ip — Improve.
Iq — Inquire.
Ir — Irregular.
Iv — In view.
Iw — It was.
Ix— It is.
Jd — Judicious.
Jf— Justify.
Jg— Judge.
Jp — Japan.
Ju— Jury.
Kb — Contribute.
Kc — Concentrate.
Kf — Confuse.
Kg— King.
Ki— Kill.
Kl— Collect.
Km — Communicate.
Kn — Know.
Kp — Keep.
Kr — Color.
Ks — Conserve.
Kt — Contain.
Ku — Continue.
Kv — Convert.
Kw — Know.
La — Louisiana.
Ld — London.
Lf— Life.
Lg— Long.
Lk — Like.
Lm — Low middling.
Lp — Liverpool.
Lq — Liquor.
Lr — Lower.
Lt — Lieutenant.
Lv — Leave.
Md— Made.
Mf— Manufacture.
233
Mg — Manage.
Mh— Much.
Mk— Make.
Ml— Mail.
Mo— Month.
Mu — Murder.
Mw — Meanwhile.
Na — Name.
Nb— Not be.
Nc — North Carolina.
Ne — New England.
Nf— Notify.
Ng — Negotiate.
Nh — New Hampshire.
Ni— Night.
Nj — New Jersey.
Nl— Natural.
Nm — Nominate.
No — No, and New Or
leans, La.
Nr — Near.
Nt— North.
Nv — Never.
Nx — Next.
Ny — New York.
Ob— Obtain.
Oc— O'clock.
Od— Order.
Og — Organize.
Oh— Ohio.
Oj— Object.
Om— Omit.
Op — Opportunity.
Oq — Occupy.
Os — Oppose.
Ow — On which.
Oz — Ounce.
Pb— Probable.
Pc — Per cent.
Pd— Paid.
Pe — Principle.
Pf— Prefer.
Pg — Progress.
Ph — Perhaps.
Pj — Prejudice.
Pk — Particular.
PI— Political.
Pm — Postmaster.
Po — Post-office.
Pp — Postpone.
Pq — Possess.
Pr — President.
Ps — Pass.
Pt— Present.
Pu— Public.
Pv — Privilege.
Pw — Power.
Px — Pounds sterling.
Qa — Qualify.
Qc — Concur.
Qm — Quartermaster.
Qp — On the part of.
Qr — Quarter.
Qu— Quiet.
Ra — Raise.
Rb— Rob.
Re — Receive.
Rd— Read.
Rf— Refer.
Rg— Regular.
Rh— Reach.
. Ri_Rhode Island.
Rj — Reject.
Rk — Recover.
Rl— Real.
Rm — Remain.
Rn — Reason.
Rp — Report.
Rq — Request.
Rr — Railroad.
Rs — Resolve.
Rt — Are the.
Ru — Are you.
Rv — Remove.
Rw— Are with.
Rx — Recommend.
Ry — Railway.
Rz— Result.
Sa — Senate.
Sb — Subsequent.
Sc — South Carolina.
Sd — Should.
Sf — Satisfy.
Sg— Signify.
Sh — Such.
Si — Subject.
Sk — Success.
SI— Sail.
Sm — Some.
Sn — Soon.
Sp — Ship.
Sq — Separate.
Sr — Secure.
Ss — Steamship.
St— Street.
Su — Sure.
Sv — Seven.
Sx — Dollar mark.
Tb— The bill.
Td— Treasury Depart-
ment.
Tf— The following.
Tg— Thing.
Th— Those.
Ti— Time.
Tj— The jury.
Tk— Take.
Tm— Them.
Tn— Then.
Tp— Transport.
Tq— The question.
Tr— There.
Ts— This.
Tt— That.
Tw — To-morrow.
Tx— This is.
Ty— They.
Tz— These.
Uf — Unfortunate.
Ug — Unguarded.
Uk — Understand.
Ul— Usual.
Urn — Unanimous.
Un— Until.
Ur — Your.
Us— United States.
Va — Virginia.
Vb— Valuable.
Vc — Vindicate.
Vk— Victor.
Vm — Vehement.
Vo— Vote.
Vp — Vituperate.
Vr — Virtue.
Vu — View.
Vx — Violate.
Vy — Very.
Wa— Way.
Wb— Will be.
Wc — Welcome.
Wd— Would.
Wg — Wrong.
Wh— Which.
Wi— Will.
Wk— Week.
Wl— Well.
Wm — William.
Wn— When.
Wo— Who.
234
Wp— Weep.
Wq — Warrant.
Wr— Were.
Ws— Was.
Wt— What.
Wu — Western Union.
Wv— Waive.
Ww— With which.
Wx— Wait.
Wy— Why.
Xb — Exorbitant.
Xc — Excite.
Xd — Exceed.
Xg — Legislate.
Xh — Exhaust.
Xj — Explain.
Xk — Execute.
XI — Excel.
Xm — Extreme.
Xn — Constitution .
Xo — Exonerate.
Xp — Expense.
Xr — Exercise.
Xs— Exist.
Xt— Extent.
Ya — Yesterday.
Za — Sea.
Zc — Section.
Zd— Said.
Zm — Seem.
Zn — Seen.
Having familiarized himself with the foregoing, the operator will then
find it to his advantage to apply himself to memorizing the remainder
of the two-letter, and as many as possible of the three-letter, contrac-
tions. Among the latter, it will be observed, the principal words in daily
use (and which are given in some cases in their briefest form in the two-
letter contractions above) are traced in most of their numerous termina-
tions. Thus, for example, we have ak for "acknowledge," akd for
"acknowledged," akg for "acknowledging," etc. The principle illustrated
by this word will be found to underlie the whole system, deviation from
the rule only occurring when the peculiarities of the Morse alphabet will
not permit of following the law, or where the addition of a, d, g or m
would make a stem spell some word which would fit in, without disturb-
ing the context, in the place where the word intended to be conveyed
ought to go. Wherever the author has foreseen, or experience in work
ing the system has shown, that a strict adherence to the rule would
involve the receiver in perplexity he has departed therefrom, but in no
other cases.
In the very beginning of their attempts to use the code, sending
operators should first master the single letters and as many of the double
and three-letter ones as possible, and then proceed to send, dropping
out of the long words as many of the vowels as they can conveniently
omit without getting confused and demoralized. Perfect confidence and
ease will come with practice. In the meantime the operator should apply
himself to learning the contractions under the various letters — a few at
a time — using them as much as possible as he proceeds with his practice.
A few weeks' experience will serve to make the whole plan of working
very plain and clear, if a moderate amount of thought and attention is
given to the foregoing hints and to memorizing a few of the contractions
every day.
The sending operator should always say "bk" when, from any cause, he
breaks down in the middle of a word, or interrupts himself. This signal
is easily recognized, and is of the greatest possible assistance to the
receiving operator.
Abb — Abbreviate.
Abbd — Abbreviated.
Abbg — Abbreviating.
Abbn — Abbreviation.
Abe — Absence.
Abd — Aboard.
Abe — Owing to.
Abg — Abiding.
Abh— Abolish.
Abhd— Abolished.
Abhg — Abolishing.
Abhn — Abolition.
Abi — Abide.
Abj — Abject.
Abjy — Abjectly.
Abl— Able.
Abm — Abominate.
Abmd — Abominated.
Abmg — Abominating.
Abml — Abominable.
A 1 mm — Abomination.
Abn — Abandi in.
Abnd — Abandoned.
Abng — Abandoning.
23£
Abnm — Abandonment.
Abp — Abrupt.
Abpns — Abruptness.
Abpy — Abruptly.
Abr — And brother.
Abs — Absent.
Absd — Absented.
Abse — Absentee.
Absg — Absenting.
Abt— About.
Abty — Ability.
Abu — Abundant.
Abuc — Abundance.
Abuy— Abundantly.
Abv — Above.
Aby — Albany.
Ac — And Company.
Aca — Academy.
Acal — Academical.
Acan — Academician.
Ace — Account.
Accd — Accounted.
Accg — Accounting.
Acct — Accountant.
Acd — Accord.
Acdd — Accorded.
Acg — According.
Acgy — Accordingly.
Ach — Achieve.
Achd — Achieved.
Achg — Achieving.
Achm — Achievement.
Acm — Accumulate.
Acmg — Accumulating.
Acn — Accumulation.
Aco — Accommodate.
Acod — Accommodated.
Acog — Accommodating.
Aeon — Accommodation.
Acp — Accept.
Acpc — Acceptance.
Acpd — Accepted.
Acpg — Accepting.
Acph — Accomplish.
Acphd — Accomplished.
Acphg — Accomplishing.
Acphm — Accomplish-
ment.
Acq — Acquire.
Acqd — Acquired.
Acqg — Acquiring.
Acqm — Acquirement.
Acr — Accurate.
Acrly — Accurately.
Acstm — Accustom.
Acstmd — Accustomed.
Actl— Actual.
Actly— Actually.
Actn — Action.
Actu — Actuate.
Actud — Actuated.
Actug — Actuating.
Acu — Accuse.
Acud — Accused.
Acug — Accusing.
Acup — Acted upon.
Acur — Accuser.
Acv — Active.
Acvly — Actively.
Acvty — Activity.
Acy — Accuracy.
Ad— Adopted.
Adc — Advice.
Adcs — Advices.
Adg — Advantage.
Adgs — Advantages.
Adgv — Advantageous.
Adh— Adhere.
Adhc — Adherence.
Adhd— Adhered.
Adhg — Adhering.
Adht — Adherent.
Adj — Adjourn.
Adjd — Adjourned.
Adjg — Adjourning.
Adjm — Adjournment.
Adl— Admiral.
Adm — Administrate.
Admn — Administration.
Adn — Addition.
Adnl— Additional.
Adp — Adopt.
Adpn — Adoption.
Adq — Adequate.
Adqy — Adequately.
Adr — Administer.
Adrd — Administered.
Adrg — Administering.
Adrr — Administrator.
Adrx — Administratrix.
Ads — Address.
Adsd — Addressed.
Adsg — Addressing.
Adt — Amendment.
Adts — Amendments.
Adu— Adieu.
Adv — Advertise.
Advc — Advance.
Advcd — Advanced.
Advcg — Advancing.
Advcm — Advancement.
Advd — Advertised.
Advg — Advertising.
Advm — Advertisement.
Af— After.
Afa — Affair.
Afc— Affect.
Afcd — Affected.
Afcg — Affecting.
Afcn — Affection.
Afcny — Affectionately.
Afcs — Affects.
Afd— Afford.
Afdd— Afforded.
Afg — Affording.
Afj— Affidavit.
Afjs — Affidavits.
Afl— Afflict.
And— Afflicted.
Aflg— Afflicting.
Afln— Affliction.
Afls— Afflicts.
Aim — Affirm.
Afmd — Affirmed.
Afmg — Affirming.
Afn — Afternoon.
Afo — Aforesaid.
Afr — Affray.
Afv — Affirmative.
Afw — Afterward.
Afx— Affix.
Afxd— Affixed.
Afxg — Affixing.
Ag — Agent.
Aga — Against.
Age — Agriculture.
Agd — Agreed.
Agg— Aggregate.
Aggd — Aggregated.
Aggg— Aggregating.
Aggn — Aggregation.
Agi — Agitate.
Agid — Agitated.
Agig— Agitating.
Agin — Agitation.
Agl — Agricultural.
Agist — Agriculturist.
Agm — Agreement.
Agms — Agreements.
~'36
Agn — Again.
Agr — Agree.
Agrg— Agreeing.
Ags — Agents.
Agt — Agreed to.
Agu — Argue.
Agud — Argued.
Agug— Arguing.
Agum — Argument.
Agv — Aggressive.
Agy — Agency.
Ahd — Ahead.
Ahr — Add House Regu-
lar.
Aj — Adjust.
Aja — Adjacent.
Ajd — Adjusted.
Ajg — Adjusting.
Ajm — Adjustment.
Ajs — Adjusts.
Ajt — Adjutant.
Ajts — Adjutants.
Ak — Acknowledge.
Akc — Access.
Akcy — Accessory.
Akd — Acknowledged.
Akg — Acknowledging.
Akm — Acknowledgment
Aks — Acknowledges.
Akt — Accident.
Aktl — Accidental.
Aktly — Accidently.
Akts — Accidents.
Al— All.
Ala — Alabama.
Ale — Alcohol.
Aid — Aldermen.
Alg — Along.
Ali— Ally.
Alid— Allied.
Alis — Allies.
Alj — Allege.
Aljd — Alleged.
Alj g— Alleging.
Aljn — Allegation.
Aljnc — Allegiance.
Alk— Alike.
Aim — Alarm.
Almd — Alarmed.
Almg — Alarming.
A In — Altercation.
Alnc — Alliance.
A Ins — Altercations.
Air — Already.
Alt — Alternate.
Altd — Alternated.
Altg — Alternating.
Alty — Alternately.
Alu — Allude.
Alud— Alluded.
Alug — Alluding.
Alun — Allusion.
Alw — Always.
A m a — A merican.
Amb — Ambition.
Ambs — Ambitions.
Amd— Amend.
Amdd — Amended.
A m d g — A mending.
A m d s — Amends.
Aindy — Amendatory.
Amg — Among.
Amgst — Amongst.
Ami — Amicable.
Amily — Amicably.
Amn — American.
Amns — Americans.
Amp — Ample.
Ampy — Amply.
Amr — Ameer.
Amt — Amount.
A m t d — Amounted.
Amtg — Amounting.
Amts — Amounts.
Amu — Amuse.
Amud — Amused.
Amug — Amusing.
Amum — Amusement.
Amx — Ambitious.
Amxy — Ambitiously.
Amz — Amaze.
Amzd — Amazed.
Amzg — Amazing.
Amzm — Amazement.
Amzy — Amazingly.
Anc— Announce.
Ancd — Announced.
Ancg — Announcing.
Ancm — Announcement.
Ancs — Announces.
Ang — Antagonist.
Angm — Antagonism.
Angs — Antagonists.
Angz — Antagonize.
Angzd — Antag( inized.
Anl — Annual.
Anly — Annually.
Anm — Animal.
Anms — Animals.
Anr — Another.
Ant — Anticipate.
Antd — Anticipated.
A n t g — A nticipating.
Antn — Anticipation.
Ami — Anew.
Any — Anniversary.
Anx — Anxious.
Anxty — Anxiety.
An xy — .Anxiously.
Ao — At once.
Ap — Appropriate.
Apa — Apart.
Apam — Apartment.
Anams — Apartments.
Ape — On account of.
Apd — Appropriated.
Apg — Appropriating.
Aph — Approach.
Aphd — Approached.
Aphg — Approaching.
Aphs — Approaches.
Api — Aniece.
Apl — Appeal.
Apld — -Appealed.
Aplg — Appealing.
Apis — Appeals.
Aplt — Aopellant.
Apm — Appointment.
Apms — Appointments.
Apn — Appropriation.
Apns — Appropriations.
App — Appoint.
Appd — Appointed.
Appg — Appointing.
Apr — Appear.
Aprc — Appearance.
Aprd — Appeared.
Aprg — Appearing.
Aprl — April.
Aps — Appropriates.
Apv — Approve.
Apvd — Approved.
Apvg — Approving.
Apvl — Approval.
Apx — Approximate.
\p\il- Approximated.
Apxg — Approximating.
Apxn- A.ppn iximation.
Apxs— Approximates.
237
Apxy — Approximately.
Apy — Appropriately.
Aq — Acquaint.
Aqc — Acquaintance.
Aqd — Acquainted.
Aqg — Acquainting .
Aqn — Acquisition.
Aqs — Acquaints.
A qt— Acute.
Aqty — Acutely.
Aqu — Acquiesce.
Aquc — Acquiescence.
Aqud — Acquiesced.
Aqug — Acquiescing.
Ar — Answer.
Ara — Arrange.
Arad — Arranged.
Arag — Arranging.
Aram — Arrangement.
Arb — Arbitrate.
Arbd — Arbitrated.
Arbm — Arbitrament.
Arbr — Arbitrator.
Arby — Arbitrarily.
Ard — Answered.
Arg — Answering.
Arn — Arbitration.
Aro — Arose.
Arr — Arrest.
Arrd — Arrested.
Arrg — Arresting.
Ars — Answers.
Arv — Arrive.
Arvd — Arrived.
Arvg — Arriving.
Arvl — Arrival.
Ary — Arbitrary.
Arz — Arizona.
Asb — Absorb.
Asbd — Absorbed.
Asbg — Absorbing.
Asc — Ascertain.
Ascd — Ascertained.
Asd — Associated.
Asf — As follows.
Asg — Ascertaining.
Asi — Assist.
Asic — Assistance.
Asid — Assisted.
Asig — Assisting.
Asl — Asleep.
Asm — Assemble.
Asmd — Assembled.
Asmg — Assembling.
Asn — Association.
Aso — Also.
Asp — Aspect.
Asr — Add Senate Regu
lar.
Ast — Associate.
Asts — Associates.
Asu — Assume.
Asud — Assumed.
Asug — Assuming.
Asumn — Assumption.
Asus — Assumes.
Asy — Assembly.
Atb— Attribute.
Atbd— Attributed.
Atbg— Attributing.
Ate — Attendance.
Atd— Attend.
Atds— Attends.
Atg — Attending.
Atk— Attack.
Atkd— Attacked.
Atkg— .Attacking.
Atks— Attacks.
Atl— Atlantic.
Atm — Attempt.
Atmd— Attempted.
Atmg — Attempting.
Atms — Attempts.
Atn — Attention.
Atns — Attentions.
Atr— Attract.
Atrd— Attracted.
Atrg — Attracting.
Atrn — Attraction.
Atrs— Attracts.
Atv — Attractive.
Aty — Attorney.
Au— Author.
Aub — Auburn.
Auc — Auction.
Aucnr — Auctioneer.
Aucs — Auctions.
Aud — Audience.
Auds — Audiences.
Aug — August.
Auh — Authentic.
Auhcy — Authenticity.
Auhd — Authenticated.
Auhg — Authenticating.
Auhn — Authentication.
Auhs — Authenticates.
Auhy — Authentically.
Aum — Autumn.
Aun — Austrian.
Aup — Auspices.
- Aupx — Auspicious.
Aur — Austria.
Aut — Adjourned until
to-morrow.
Aux — Auxiliary.
Auy — Authority.
Auys — Authorities.
Auz — Authorize.
Auzd — Authorized.
Auzg — Authorizing.
Auzn — Authorization.
Auzs — Authorizes.
Av — Average.
Avb — Avoidable.
Avd — Averaged.
Ave — Avenue.
Avg — Averaging.
Avl — Avail.
Avid — Availed.
Avlg — Availing.
Avis — Avails.
Avn — Aversion.
Avo — Avoid.
Avod — Avoided.
Avog — Avoiding.
Avos — Avoids.
Avr — Aver.
Avrd — Averred.
Avrg — Averring.
Avrs— Avers.
Avs — Averages.
Avt — Avert.
Avtd — Averted.
Avtg — Averting.
Avts — Averts.
Avy — Avoidably.
Aw — At which.
Awa — Away.
Awd — Award.
Awdd — Awarded.
Awdg — Awarding.
Awds — Awards.
Awf — Awful.
Awfy — Awfully.
Awi — Awhile.
Ax— Ask.
Axd — Asked.
Axg — Asking.
Axn — Annexation.
238
Ay — Any. Ayh — Anyhow. Ay4 — Anywhere.
Ayb — Anybody. Aym — Any more.
Ayg — Anything. Ayo — Ony other.
Note. — It will be seen from the foregoing list of contractions, which
carry out many words in their various terminations, how the stems in
the words which now follow may be safely concluded in cases where they
are not given in all of their variations.
Before turning his attention to the remainder of this work I cannot
too strongly impress upon the operator the desirability of thoroughly
mastering the single and double letter, and as many of the three-letter
contractions as possible. This much accomplished, he will easily double
his usual rate of speed. Particular care should be taken to space properly
between words, especially when, as will sometimes happen, the matter in
hand runs along for a line or two almost entirely in single and double
letters
The following exercise is written out more fully than is necessary, in
order that beginners may be able to read it readily and catch the spirit
of the scheme without undergoing the annoyance of having to hunt
through the books for the definition of arbitrary contractions.
T Amn sprit as ix eld. h a cntemt fo ti's halowg inflncs. Inded, it
sems to bv tt ti cann halow, bt can ony dstroy. N mny ys ago Lafayette
Pic ws I f most imposg patricn qrs o N Y. T clmrs o Bway ca to it
ofay in a dremy raurmr. Its length ws n gt, bt it hd a lordly bredth.
Win easiest akc f most busy purlus, its quietud ws provrbl. So infq wr
vhicls alg its pavmt tt in sumr t gras wd ofn crop ot tr Ik fringy scrolwrk
nr t wl swept sidwlk & clnly gutrs. At I end 4 ts staly ave is crosd bi
a naroer st ro an imens chh, in rigid clascl stile, w t pinted roof o an
ancent tmpl & imen gra flutd pilars frmg its portico.
Ts chh is stil stndg, bt nr it lums a mnstrus bri big tt 1 gle can tel us
is a trd rate bdg hu 4 peo w chrs as dingy as t windo panes ma, ph. gan
facile admsn. T bdg hu ws one a fin pvt mansn & hb enlrgd into its pt
dreary bignes. Tn. at ts sthn end, stud un a vy shrt ti ago t gray old
grandeur of St. Bartholomew's 4, fo nrly hf a cntury, t blumg brids o ou
qn bst lams qn wr marid & thr fatrs & mothrs la in funl sta as t ys rold
on. At t nthn end ws one a spacus dwlg hu, wos oakn hal, w its rchly
mediaeval carvgs & brilnt windo o stained glas. mite wl hv srvd fo sm
antiq abbey over-sea. Bt ts dlitfl old hu h dsaprd & a vast bri structr wh
is 1 o th towrg altars tt we so ofn bid to cmrc h sprung up in its stead.
Tr ws aso a crn edific closly aja to ts. wh hd a ux porte cochere uj d rl
Parisin stile, & Splid a dlitfl tuch o fgn novlty. Bt tt, too, h dspard si
Ik t hu w t charmg cloistrl hal, its vy quaintns ws its ruin. If ou bigs
can n alw hav t adg rpsntg trad, ty r at leas dilgnt in thr dvon to ugli-
ncs. Bt Lafa Pic is smhw Lafa Pic stil. Its trnsmatn into clip lodgmts
is gradl, tho su. T sieg goes stedly on, bt t besgd hv n yet sucmbd. Ey
y t hnsm cariags tt rol up & down its aves gro fuer & fuer, si ey y its
pavmts worn bi t fet o ded & gon Nikrbokrs r m fqd bi shaby Germns or
slatrnly Italns. Bt t solid solmnity f Astor Libry stil dws schlrs & buk-
wnrms win its precincts, tho t dgnity o posesg t Columbia Law Schl, into
wh slim, britc facd clegians wd once trup o a mny h nw deprtd foev. A
fu abods, hvr, r stil to b fj hr, w burnshd dor plates & t glimpses o rch
iner tapstris tt pint twd wlthfl prosperity.
[From "A Hopeless Case," by Edgar Fazucclt.]
THE PHILLIPS CODE.
SOME REMARKABLE PERFORMANCES BY COX
SPICUOUSLY CLEVER MEN— QUICK WORK IN
THE UNITED STATES SENATE AND AT THE
NATIONAL CONVENTIONS— ALL THE
SUPREME COURT JUDGES DO NOT
WRITE ENGLISH— GEORGE KEN-
NAN, THE SIBERIAN TRAV-
ELER, IN AN ALMOST
FORGOTTEN ROLE.
I read, with great interest, a communication from Mr.
D. Kimball, of Chicago, in the New York Sun, not long
ago, regarding abbreviations. I am the author of a
system of this kind, and since it is held that such a sys-
tem can have no practical value in general newspaper
reporting, I wish to combat that idea if you will permit me.
Mr. Kimball says:
*****" Much less can a system of abbreviations,
such as reporters use, however cleverly devised, ever
come into general use for the ordinary purposes of
writing, for the reason that perfect legibility of every
word independent of every other word is an essential
characteristic of such a system of improved writing."
The spokesman of the Arkansas Editorial Association,
according to Texas Siftings, observed on arriving in Austin
with his band of journalistic brethren, several years ago.
that they "had traveled far and wandered wide." My own
experience has been similar, and I am always finding that
things are being done in many fields of human endeavor of
which, up to a certain time, I had no knowledge, and the
Phillips Code, published in [879, and which has been in con-
stant use since then on telegraph wires, and as an aid in
general reporting by the telegraph operators who have
gone into newspaper work, seems to constitute a system of
successful abbreviations of which Mr. Kimball has not yet
heard.
'.'II
Out of the many thousands of telegraph operators em-
ployed by the Western Union and Postal-Telegraph cable
companies scarcely any of even ordinary capacity can be
found who does not employ the Phillips Code in the trans-
mission of press despatches, while it is used by some ex-
perts in handling messages both social and commercial.
This has been going on for twenty-three years, and a knowl-
edge of the code is considered so great a desideratum as
a part of the telegraphic education that even the tyros take
it up at a very early stage of their tutelage. It is related
that a youngster who had barely mastered the Morse
alphabet, in transmitting a report of a fire from Red Bank,
N. J., a year or two. ago, said Dbf, then halted, and finally
convulsed the New York receiving operator by asking, "Are
you on to the Phillips Code?" Learning that the receiver
was, the young man proceeded with renewed confidence to
struggle through his task, using more code than the usual
sender employs, and winding up with Cbi as a final flourish.
Dbf means destroyed by fire and Cbi means covered by
insurance.
Regarding the use of the Phillips Code in cases in which a
verbatim report is not essential, I may say that one of the
best newspaper reports of an event that was ever furnished
to its clients by the Associated Press was that of the Star
route cases, in Washington, nearly twenty years ago. That
trial was reported by Mr. E. M. Hood, a very young oper-
ator, who had, however, made a special study of the code.
Mr. Hood, who has long stood in the front rank of news-
paper writers at the capital, used the Phillips Code exclu-
sively in reporting this trial, extended over many weeks, and
the excellence of his work was so marked that within a
few weeks Mr. Edward D. Easton, now the President of
the Columbia Phonograph Company, who made the ver-
batim report of the Star route trial for the government,
spoke of Mr. Hood's performance in words of unstinted
praise.
For several years the decisions handed down by the judges
of the United States Supreme Court were condensed and
done into English by Mr. George Kennan, who has since
won renown by his writings and lectures on the Russian
242
system of relegating to Siberia, by administrative process,
such persons as are regarded as being dangerous to the
safety of the nation. These decisions were in the hand-
writing of their authors, and not all of the judges had culti-
vated the Spencerian system of penmanship, while some
were at war with Webster on questions of orthography, and
a few others, if they had ever heard of Quackenboss, had
a contempt, as supreme as the bench from which they ren-
dered their decisions, Tor any ideas he may have tried to
inculcate as to rhetoric and composition. Mr. Kennan was
not permitted to take these unique documents out of the
Supreme Court chamber. So he studied over them and
made notes of what they signified in their ultimate essence.
These notes were made in the Phillips Code, and from them,
every Monday evening while the court was holding ses-
sions, Mr. Kennan wrote marvelously clear synopses of
these decisions for the Associated Press. At one time and
another he was complimented on his work by every judge
on the Supreme Court bench — among them Chief Justice
Waite and Mr. Justice Miller. Mr. Kennan is again in
Washington, and is representing the Outlook. I will ven-
ture the opinion that if he has occasion to make notes he
brings to his aid the code which stood him in such good
stead when he was struggling with the written opinions of
those venerable and honored gentlemen who have the last
sad say on such disputed questions as float up to this highest
of all legal tribunals, in America, from the lower courts scat-
tered all over this broad land of freedom and of persistent
litigation.
The late William T. Loper, during his term of service
as Associated Press reporter of the United States Senate,
furnished, in penciled code, at the rate of a thousand
words per hour, a sketch of the Senate proceedings for
afternoon papers. In addition to this he managed the basis
for a separate story largely in Phillips Code, but using
shorthand when he found occasion to take anything ver-
batim. The penciled code was transmitted to Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York by the regular operators, and
when the afternoon papers went to press, thus enabling him
to drop the sketch report. Mr. Loper developed from his Phil-
243
lips Code and shorthand notes what is termed the full re-
port for morning papers. Of this he supplied seven plainly
written manifold copies at the rate of 2,000 words per hour,
and I never knew of a case in which he did not finish the
end of the full report by seven p. m., unless the Senate
sat beyond its usual hour — between four and five p. m. He
often filed the last of the full report within fifteen minutes
of the time when the Senate adjourned. Mr. Loper had
able predecessors — none better — and his successors were
men of recognized ability, but they never equaled him, for
the reason that they confined themselves to shorthand and
longhand notes. But for the Phillips Code Mr. Loper's
achievements would have been impossible, for he would have
had no time in which to write out his shorthand notes until
the necessity for the sketch report had passed, and the oper-
ators could have done nothing with them in their original
form. They read his penciled code report as readily and
easily as they could have read matter that was written out
in full and furnished in typewritten copy. Mr. Loper did
the work of two men, and did it better than they could.
By handling -the whole thing, his sketch report and his
full report agreed in every particular. When one man
made the sketch and another the full report there were vexa-
tious discrepancies to be reconciled which often delayed the
delivery of the report to Associated Press clients until a
late hour.
In 1883, when Mr. Loper and I transferred our services
to the then newly organized United Press and went from
Washington to New York, he began, and continued for sev-
eral years previous to Mr. Beecher's death, to report the
sermons of that eloquent and able man. He used the Phil-
lips Code for his introductions — always exquisite pieces of
writing in precise harmony with the style, tone, temper,
and atmosphere of the particular sermons they preceded.
This part of his report was handed to any operator who
happened into the United Press office on Sunday, who trans-
mitted from it, without its being written out. while Mr.
Loper took a hasty luncheon. He was a star operator, as
well as one of the best Pitman stenographers I ever knew.
He had mastered shorthand in Wisconsin at the early age
244
of ten years. When the assisting operator had disposed of
the introduction written in the penciled code. Mr. Loper
took the wire and proceeded to send in Phillips Code, in
its absolute purity, at a gait that made the " Beecher Cir-
cuit " shunned by all but those typewriting operators who
were serenely confident that they could take anything that
could be transmitted by human hand. The report was sent
simultaneously to the Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati En-
quirer, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and Boston Globe, all
of which were connected together every Sunday for the
purpose of receiving Mr. Loper's report. Neither the in-
troduction, in penciled code, or the sermon itself, which
was in shorthand, was ever written out. It was desirable
to have this sermon in hand for composition in the news-
paper offices as early as possible, and, under Mr. Loper's
plan of reporting, the last line of it was in Chicago, Cin-
cinnati, St. Louis and Boston before Mr. Beecher had fin-
ished his dinner and got well among the dreams incident to
an afternoon nap.
Mr. Loper used the Phillips Code with equal success in
reporting the national conventions for afternoon papers
in 1888 and 1892. The operators sent from his penciled
code and part longhand manuscript, and in spite of the
whirr of the blower operated beside us in connection with
the pneumatic tubes connecting the extemporized telegraph
offices with the platform and the reporter's tables, the noise
and confusion incident to boys running hither and thither,
there was never a word of question about the running re-
port for afternoon papers furnished by Mr. Loper, ably aided
and abetted by Mr. P. V. DeGraw, whose work on the 1884
conventions eclipsed all that had gone before. It was not
uncommon for Mr. Loper to file the announcement that the
convention had taken a recess or adjourned, and for the oper-
ator to send it within one minute of the time when the gavel
fell. We have often had to stop and explain to inquirers
in the convention hall, as we passed through to our hotel,
that the convention had taken a recess or had adjourned
until evening, the next morning, etc. The fact was known
from Boston to San Francisco before the people in the hall
realized what had happened. As an employer of stenogra-
phcrs since 1878, and among them were many who had
national reputations, I have seen them at their best, and
they were certainly splendid on many great occasions, such
as the reporting of the Potter Investigating Committee pro-
ceedings in 1878 and in covering the national conventions
for morning papers, all of which were reported for the
United Press under my direction from 1884 to 1896, inclu-
sive. But, for a certain class of work such as has been
referred to, ends were secured by the use of the Phillips
Code that could be achieved through no other instrumental-
ity. The riles of the afternoon newspapers of the conven-
tion years mentioned, wherever published, give ample
evidence in their editorial columns that these reports were
admirably written, correct, and quite photographic in char-
acter. They were made by Mr. Loper in 1888 and 1892, and
were largely written and wholly transmitted in the Phillips
Code. Mr. DeGraw was his coadjutor, and after Mr. Loper's
death applied to the convention of 1896 the methods that
had been so successful in 1884, 1888 and 1892.
The illustrations I have given dispose of the notion that
abbreviations cannot be easily read by those who write them.
The fact is that they can and have been read for more than
twenty years, not only by those who wrote them, but by
many others, as I have shown. And these are by no means
isolated cases. The newspaper profession is more largely
recruited from the telegraphic ranks than from any other
one source. There are more than one hundred telegraph
operators on the New York and Brooklyn newspapers
alone — reporters, copy readers and editorial writers. The
newspapers of the country are largely manned by them in
many of their departments. They are not shorthand men —
not one in a hundred — but they are all Phillips Code men,
and when the occasions arise when something swifter than
longhand is required they use the Phillips Code with which
they familiarized themselves in the telegraph business. Some
of the telegraphers do not stop at being reporters, copy
readers, and editorial writers. They become proprietors.
Mr. Frank Munsey is one of us; Mr. Edward Rosewater,
of the Omaha Bee, is another; and Mr. S. H. Kauffmann.one
of the principal owners of the Washington Star, is a third.
246
The latter has the honor of having taught General Eckert,
President of the Western Union Telegraph Company, how
to telegraph, and when the latter had qualified he succeeded
Mr. Kauffmann as manager of the telegraph office at Woos-
ter, Ohio. Even in those remote days there was a slim
system of abbreviations used on the wires, and the Phillips
Code is simply an expansion of those early contractions,
such as " fm " for from, " t " for the, etc., etc. This system
has been extended until you express " The Senate adjourned
until to-morrow morning" thus: "T sa adjd un twm." The
Supreme Court of the United States is designated by the
word " Scotus," and so on ad infinitum. The Phillips Code
is sent over the wire through an instantaneous mental trans-
formation from the written words lying beneath the opera-
tor's eye. It is sent at double the rate of speed of ordinary
transmissions, in full, and is mentally digested by the re-
ceiving operators and written out on the instant in full on
typewriters as it comes over the wire at a careful but some-
what chirpy gait. Handled in this way, employed as it was
by Messrs. Kennan, Loper, DeGraw and Hood, to say
nothing of its general use by telegraph operators in every
conceivable way after they have left the telegraph business,
it seems to me that if Mr. Kimball had been an Arkansas
journalist and had " traveled far and wandered wide," he
would have a more comprehensive knowledge than he has
now of a thing that has been running under a full head of
steam since 1879, and the fundamental principles of which
were laid fully fifty years ago. The appended is a specimen
of the Phillips Code, a fairly good knowledge of which can
be obtained in a month. " Ix " is the equivalent of "it is,"
and aside from that and a few arbitrary signs, such as " bv "
for believe, a good deal of the specimen given below can
be read by almost anybody whether he knows the code or
not. The context, which is much more obvious to the
reader than are the obscurer signs, even to experts, used
by stenographers, carries the transcriber along as the strains
of martial music lighten the heavy feet of a tired soldier
and speed him on his march.
T Amn sprit as ix eld, h a cntemt fo ti's halowg inflncs.
Inded, it sems to bv tt ti cann halow, bt can ony dstroy.
247
N mny ys ago Lafayette Pic ws i f most imposg patricn
qrs o N Y. T clmrs o Bway ca to it ony in a dremy murmr.
Its length ws n gt, bt it hd a lordly bredth. Win easiest
akc f most busy purlus. its quietud ws provrbl. So infq wr
vhcls alg its pavmt tt in sumr t gras wd ofn crop ot tr Ik
fringy scrolwrk nr t wl swept sidwlk & clnly gutrs. At I
end 4 ts staly ave is crosd bi a naroer st ro an imens chh,
in rigid clascl stile, w t pinted roof o an ancnt tmpl & imens
gra flutd pilars frmg its portico.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
WALTER P. PHILLIPS.
Bridgeport, Conn., March i, 1902.
248
ESTABLISHED 1879
.5%, rryk
i^fljira^tefe
c^^^S'irkJittS^'fSaaESte^^
fr^S^ftw**" IIP' i^TfTrnrir»™^ L ^ L l( e '* r ' J '" ^WW ... '■■■
TRADE MARK
J. H. BUNNELL & CO.
Incorporated
MANUFACTURERS and DEALERS in the
HIGHEST GRADE of
Telegraph Instruments
and Electrical Apparatus and Supplies
Manufacturers and Selling Agents for
PHILLIPS'S MORSE AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPH
AND OTHER SPECIALTIES
All drafts, checks, and orders should be made payable to J . H. Bunnell & Co.
MAIN OFFICE and WAREROOMS
20 PARK PLACE NEW YORK
P. O. BOX 1286
Our Latest Model Legless Key
Our STEEL LEVER LEG and LEGLESS KETS are the acknowl-
edged STANDARDS. They are imitated by many but equaled by none.
Be sure to get the genuine, with the exact name, «« j. h. Bunnell & co.,"
stamped on them.
Prices greatly reduced.
Our Standard Main Line Relay
HIGHEST GRADE. Costs a little more than the ordinary style,
but the improvement in service and saving in repairs make it the cheapest.
J. H. BUNNELL & CO.
20 Park Place New T o rk
Our Latest Type 0/^ Improved
Giant Sounder
With ALUMINUM LEVER. Designed to produce the highest quality
of resonance on a minimum of current.
J. H. BUNNELL
2 O Park Place
8c CO.
New T or k
The Latest "Main Line Sounder'
With instantaneous armature and tension adjustments — "M.C.M." model.
We furnish the "M.C.M." Main Line Sounder with or without key on
base or in mahogany carrying case for portable purposes.
We will send FREE on application our General Catalogue, containing
descriptions and prices of the above instruments, and numerous others, such
as Pole Changers, Repeaters, Resonators, Polarized Relays, Box Sounding
Relays, Pony Relays, Pocket Relays, Combination Sets, Registers, Duplex
and Quadruplex Apparatus, Learners' Instruments, Automatic Telegraph
Apparatus, Wireless Telegraph Instruments, Lightning Arresters, Switches,
Spring Jacks, Testing Sets, Condensers, Galvanometers, Rheostats, Batteries,
Battery Gauges, Volt and Ampere Indicators, Bells, Burglar Alarms,
Annunciators, Push Buttons, Medical Batteries, Wire, Insulators, Brackets,
Construction Tools, Telephones, Dynamos, Motors, Lamps, Sockets, and
Electric Light and Power Fittings and Supplies, Etc., Etc.
Note well the exact name and address
J. H. BUNNELL & CO.
20 Park Place, New York P. O. Box 1286
UNIVERSITY OJb CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
Form L9 — 15m-10,'48 (B1039)444
THE LIBRAP.Y
UNIVERS < ^LIFORNIA
LOa ANGI3LEB
!
1S^=_
?1 stches old
P5A7g gnri raur,
PF
6161
P547s
II I II II II I II I
AA 000 415 220 3