Reflections

Telegraphy. “I have noticed that nearly all operators, good and bad, are vain of their abilities to send rapidly, and nearly all are ambitious to send faster than the operator at the receiving station can write it down, or, in other words, to ‘rush’ him. This is especially true of young operators; but taking them collectively, I do not think there is a body of craftsmen in existence who work so willingly as telegraphers. Each seems individually impelled to ‘salt’ the man at the other end of the line, if possible, and when he succeeds in making him ‘break,’ he mentally records a victory and goes at it again with renewed vigor. To outsiders this self-imposed rapid pace may seem foolish, but to the knight of the key there is great glory in it. The great artist never lived, actor, orator or musician, whose soul was more thrilled at the plaudits of thousands, than is the soul of the expert telegrapher when with faultless and rapid transmission he humbles a great receiver by compelling him to beg for quarter.”