The Billboard 1913-03-22: Vol 25 Iss 12 (1913-03-22)

MARCH 22, 1913. The Billboard OVITITI TI Pritt rt sseeete Where Joys and Sorrows Are Reflected By Walter S. Duggan It was one o’clock in the morning. The rain made Main street look like a canal. George McLeod's footsteps were heard in the silence of the night, for no other person than the bighearted George, the pride cop of the night messenger boys, would be heard un Main street at that time of the morning. The night owls, who had gathered on the stroke of twelve in the elegraf office, were exchanging remarks with Charlie, the circus contracting agent. They had been discussing the reason why Barnum and Bailey, and the 101 Ranch Show could possibly clash for opposition business on the same day in a place the size of Fitchburg. Charlie’s fatigue, after a day's work at opposition tactics, wouldn't allow him to enlighten the night owls’ minds on such an interesting subject, and it was to the contracting agent's relief that the night wis, Who numbered twelve ind we easily recall the number, because it was the night that the original “Hearts” and “Beaks” players had gathered to a man—had their attention attracted to a rain-drenched individual whom Big George had in tow The individual was no other than Charlie’s “patsy’’ who had lost his route to the telegraph office, from the 'Gram’s newspaper office, where Charlie had sent him with a last attack to break into Cristy’s columns. Like hundreds of other press agents, the “patsy’’ returned from the newspaper office with a disappointing report. He hadn't “landed” what Charlie thought the “patsy’’ might possibly “put over,’ for this “patsy” was Charlié’s mascot in such situations However, this time the mascot was a’ failure. In the dreariness of the early hour, with the rain increasing its’ torrent-like force, and the knowledge of a circus man that sleep wouldn't furnish time to “frame up” some new opposition tactics, Charlie decided to while away his nervous minutes with the night owls. Charlie's mood, developt as the result of the peculiarities of the local newspaper editor, relativ to show publicity resulted in the owls listening to the human interest points of show business, and the human interest peculiarities that come to the attention of a trouper. A most unlookt-for change of conversation transpired before Charlie got very far with his circus story-telling. ‘Cupid’ Edmund, the night operator, who was rushing message after message over the Boston and New York wires, despite the noise of the gathering owls, who were talking louder than the noise of an average size firecracker at its sizzling moments, got up from the operating table. With a slow stride, which suggested complete exhaustion, and with his shade protector drawn down over his eyes in a Lefty Louie form of toughness, “Cupid” approacht the counter, on the other side of which the owls, with their guest, the circus man, were seated on chairs and a long table. ‘Cupid” evidently had listened to Charlie’s opening remarks about the joys and sadness of show life. “You show guys make me sick,” said “Cupid,” 'n his characteristic tone of roughness. ‘You are ill the same; even if you don’t know it individually, You think the show business is the only Place where the joys and tears of life are concentrated, by the way you talk This telegraf fime of ours, played right here on this counter, has more joyous and sympathetic moments attacht to it than all the similar moments in Show business put together, and if you don’t believe I'll explain to you fellows, because I am tired and sick of listening to these advance agents, Who think the public characteristics can only be learned through show life.” “Cupid” didn’t enter many conversations. The owls knew this. They also knew “Cupid” always had a lot of interesting gossip at his command when he did speak. That was the reason why the interruption of the circus man’s stories by “Cupid” wasn't the signal for one of the owls to hurl a book or some other handy matter at the opera nn Hh il il tor. Unique initiations, with no regard for human life, was the motto of the owls. “Wait until I go back, and open that New York wire,” said “Cupid,” “and I’ll tell you a few things about the idiosyncrasies of the human race.”” The word “idiosyncrasies” knockt a few of the owls off their feet, but “Cupid” said he learned it from a message, and every new word he ran across on a message he would study, learn and would always see that he had it at his command at the right moment. However, the owls with the circus man renewed their comfortable positions, and were satisfied to overlook the promising stories of the circus man in order to lsten to “Cupid.” “You can study all sides of life in a telegraf office,”” said “Cupid,” “from the simple life to the scrambled life. While waiting on the counter in a telegraf office. sometimes without turning around, you will take in messages from different people telling of the dramas which occur daily while the world goes on. For instance, these two messages, which you saw me take in a few minutes ago are good examples; one reads: ‘Mother died tonight, funeral Wednesday at 10 a m.,’ while the other says ‘Baby girl born. Mother and child doing well.” In other words, we get them from the cridle to the grave. “The class known as the transient trade are the best specimens of the human race to study. Under this head is included all those that come in and write their messages at the counter. Perhaps the best customer the telegraf offices have under this head are the Hebrews. When a Jewish wedding takes place in any of the nearby places, or in any of the large cities, it seems as tho every man, woman and child of that race wishes to congratulate the couple, and they always do it by telegraf “When one of these Jewish weddings takes place, there is always something doing in this office, take it from me, boys. If the wedding takes place in this city, of course, then the messages are received here from all over the United States, and sometimes cables from across the ocean. These messages are all of the same congratulatory sort, and generally wind up with the words: ‘Wish you wealth, health, happiness and joy, and in a year a baby boy.’ I have often wondered why the Hebrew folks always wish for a boy, whether it is because they like the boys, or because they find it difficult to coin a word to rhyme with girl. When death occurs in i family the telegraf companies also do a thriving business. This is especially true if the death occurs in an Irish family. The Irish, as you know, are not exponents of race suicide, so, consequently, where the family has been large it will take quite a few messages to notify the various members of the family. “There are a great many people who come tn here, and know just what they want to say in a message, but are totally at sea how to write it. Sometimes it takes one of them an hour to write an ordinary ten-word message. Another class come in and simply write what they have to say, but forget to put on an address to tell who the message is going to, or the signature, to tell who the sender is. Naturally, you have to put them wise. There was a lady in here tonight who wrote out a message, and simply directed it to ‘Mary, Haverhill, Mass.’ “She also told Mary she was coming to spend a couple of weeks. very large town, but, nevertheless, you might find a few Marys there. When I asked the lady what Mary’s last name was, she simply replied: ‘Oh. that’s my Mary. I am going to spend a few weeks with her and Tom. Tom is her husband, and a fine man, too. I hove the rest of the girls will do as well as Mary «#d.’ “I told her I hoped so, too, but that I would like to know, what Tom’s last name was, and what street Mary lived on, so I could put the finishing touches on the message to Mary and signed ma’s name to it. Ih Hull) wl Of course, Haverhill isn’t a ~ Mi), | ldlnulll “If you could only see some of the messages that are passed over the counter you would laugh for hours, while others would bring tears to your eyes unless you were hardened to it. As a rule the clerk at the counter gets hardened to messages with sad news and has the time of his life laufing at others, as they place them on the hook to be forwarded to their proper destination. One of the saddest cases I ever saw come into this office was last Christmas. “An old man and woman, both of whom were at least 70 years of age, walkt in and stated they wanted to send a message to Camden, N. J. The old man requested me to write the message as his hand was unsteady, and he seemed to be on the verge of nervous prostration, as also did his wife. The message was to an undertaker and requested that the body of ‘Our Boy, Willie,’ be shipt to a town not a great distance from Boston. “As the man paid me for the message he said that his boy, who had left home 12 years ago, and whom neither he or his wife had seen since, was coming home to spend Christmas with them, and who was going to remain with them, had been killed at Camden on Christmas eve. As the old man departed from the office he murmured that it was a sad Christmas eve for him and his wife, and it certainly must have been “When an old man or woman comes in to send a message I can generally size them up, before they hand me the message, and, as a rule, can frequently guess just what kind of a message they are going to send. If it’s cheerful news they generally show it in their countenances while if sad news they wear a sad expression. If they look sad T generally take it for granted before reading the message that it is a case of death, altho sometimes it’s a case of a boy or girl running away from home. “Another class of counter clerk has to contend with is the kicker. Under that head comes those who have a good legitimate cause to register a kick on the service, and then those who imagine they have a kick coming. You know sometimes a message leaves an office reading all right, but when it reaches its destination it’s apt to have been “bulled’”’ somewhere along the route. You see thousands and thousands of messages are handled daily. It is only natural that a few of them become twisted. Sometimes the twist doesn’t amount to much, but at other times it is just the contrary. “T remember one case where one letter did a great deal of damage to a message. It seems that a party of men in a certain New England town were going to have a musicale among themselves, organizing a stag gathering. They were getting along nicely until they discovered that there was none in the party who could play a fife. One of the party had a friend in the neighboring city, however, and a dispatch was sent to him, reading: ‘Come down tomorrow night and bring your fife.’ When the message reacht the party it was Intended for the word fife had been changed to wife. The letter f and w in telegraf are similar, f béing a dot-dash-dot while w is a dot-dash-dash. By simply letting up a bit too soon on the last dash the letter w is easily changed Into anf. Anyway this party brought down his wife instead of a fife, snd as it happened to be one of those men only affairs he “was just a bit embarrassed, and he let us know it, on his return. “Another instance where one letter did a lot of damage happened in one of the larger New England telegraf offices about a year ago. A message was sent to a drummer in St. Loufs which read: ‘Your wife has had a chill; if proper precautions are not taken she’ll have another.’ This message was signed by the family fysician. Imagine the surprise of the drummer when he opened the dispatch in St. Louis and found the last 1 fn chill changed to a dad. This mistake was made by what is known as bad copy. It seems that one of the operators read the word ‘chill’ child, as the (Continued on page 160.) iT