Since a WEstern Union matter would be of interest to any with a railroad
bent I'll take a chance on being reprimanded by the Web Police that this post
doesn't relate specifically to either the RI or the CB&Q.
For the benefit of those of you who don't read the paper or listen to the
news the above Headline appeared in our local Lincoln Journal Star
newspaper...I
assume it was also in other "big city" papers also.
I have lots of memories of WU since my dad carried on the Western Union
service for many years after the RPL&N quit operating in 1946.
The messages would come in over the wire to the Q depot at Langdon, MO. In
most cases, if the matter wasn't urgent the operator would just put the typed
message in my dad's "box" and he would pick it up and deliver it, or
sometimes just telephone the recipient. Sometimes the operator would (if the
phone
was working...and I've got a little story about that item for a post soon)
just phone the message direct to the person to whom it was addressed.
My dad, and maybe the operator, got a small commission for handling these
items...I have no idea what the rate was. George Durbala, maybe you can fill
us in.
Something I often think about is that sometimes there would be a "death
message". Remember we're back when making a long distance phone call was an
expensive and sometimes complicated matter. I remember that when my dad
would
have a death message to deliver, my mother would often say..."do you want me
to go with you?"..I don't have any specific recollection as to any particular
time she went along, but she always made the offer.
Something that I often wondered about, but never really knew about (imagine
that) is why at the end of each telegraphic sentence the word (STOP) was
used instead of just a period..I thought it might have something to do with
fact
that the telegraph operator would not know whether it was a period, or just
a "dot" which formed a part of a word...
Well, according to the AP story this morning..."People would save money by
using the "stop"
instead of periods to end sentences. Punctuation cost extra, but the four
character word was free"...How about that George????
The story also included the well known first telegraphic message sent by
Samuel F.B. (Finley Breese) Morse to his partner Alfred Vail..."WHAT HATH GOD
WROUGHT"
I never hear or read that expression that I don't think of something that
happened in summer 1964.
Jim Beatty and I had just been brought into the Freight Claims Department
whose offices had been moved from Englewood to the Polk Street Building, first
floor. John Gilfillan, Director Freight Claims, had arranged for two small
cubicle offices for Jim and I. Before the actual partition walls were put up
the phone people had come and installed a phone for each of us. Our desks
were side by side about 5 feet apart to be later separated by a wall.
After the phones had been connected up and we had been given our extension
numbers, John said, "Let's try these phones and see if they work"..."Pete,
you dial Jim's number and then he can dial yours"... We were standing side
by
side alongside our desks and John was standing with us....I dialed Jim's
number, the phone rang a couple of times and Jim picked up his handset and
answered with..."WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT??" I did the Jack Benny-George Burns
thing, and collapsed on the floor laughing....
Well I'm probably overlimit...and beyond any degree of relevance or sense so
----------------------------------------30------------------------ George
you can tell 'em what that means.
Pete
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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