A little telegraph humor
Apr 10th, 2018 by bachmann
The introduction of new technology has unanticipated and unpredictable outcomes for social interaction, interpersonal communication, and collective behaviors. As the new technology proliferates and fuses with our daily lives, the interplay becomes more visible, leading to public commentary, criticism, and jest. Today, it may be difficult to visualize the impact the telegraph had on life in the mid to late 19th century. However, it introduced new occupations, generated curious jargon, and challenged social attitudes and etiquette. W.J. Johnston came to New York from Ireland, landing a job as a telegraph operator for Western Union. Eventually he resigned this position to become a publisher, with a particular interest in reporting the labor, politics, and economics of the telegraph industry. In 1877, he published this compilation of telegraph “literature” with stories, poems, cartoons, myths, and satire. Johnston states in his introduction:
This edition is intended for the general reading public — for people who have no knowledge whatever of the art or business of telegraphy — and will be found free from technical terms and professional idioms not familiar to those unconnected with the business, and written in such language as to be readily understood and appreciated even by people who have never seen a telegraphic instrument
In one story, “A Centennial Telegraph Romance”, the protagonist is a telegraph operator who meets a woman at the World’s Fair and tries to spark a romance through a clandestine application of Morse code.
He would telegraph to her. Tell her how much he thought of her. In a few hours they would be parted, perhaps forever, but here was a means by which he could tell her that she had at least one admirer. But how was he to do it ? If the window fastener beside him were pressed into service, it might attract attention. He felt in his pockets. His lead pencil! The very thing. He drew it from his pocket carelessly, tapped listlessly for a moment on the window sill, at the same time keeping his eyes intently upon the young lady before him. Finally he caught her eye. She looked over, and he spelled out very slowly in Morse characters : ” Oh, I see you are an operator”.
For the most part, Johnston limited the contributors to telegraph operators, or those who worked in the industry. It included some women, like Lida Churchill, who also wrote works on spiritualism, health, and the afterlife. Johnston’s publication arrived just as the telephone was in its infancy, which in turn, generated its own industry and cultural legacy.
The Telegrapher’s Song
From every corner of the earth
The startling news we bring;
We weave a girdle round the globe
And guide the lightning’s wing.
Far as the distant, thunder rolls
O’er stream and rock and sea,
We join the nations in one clasp
Of friendly unity.
We touch our key, and, quick as thought,
The message onward flies —
For every point within the world
Right at our elbow lies.
Ours is the greatest boon to man
That genius yet has given —
To make a messenger of thought
The lightning bolts of Heaven.
“to meet a real live telegrapher, one who could read what she clicked off the little window fastener, and answer her in the same ” language,” was more than her
most vivid imagination could have fancied.”
“The first picture shows how an operator’s salary may, after a while, depend upon the size of his ears— a man with a very small ear receiving but $30 a month, while one with an ear as large as a donkey’s receives $100. Number two shows the anatomical inspection by the doctor. Notice the shadow of a jackass on the wall in this picture.”
“Scenes on a Jersey Railroad,” page 73, shows how inexperienced and ignorant operators, or ” plugs,” as they are sneeringly styled by the better class of telegraphers, willfully delay business by both stubbornly insisting upon using the wire at the same time, neither feeling disposed to give way to the other.”
- Description:
- Lightning flashes and electric dashes :a volume of choice telegraphic literature, humor, fun, wit & wisdom. New York : W.J. Johnston, 1877.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:2559372
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
Two different editions of this book appeared, both in the same year (1877) and both at Harvard.
one is 141 pages, the other 189 pages, including advertisement for W. P. Phillips his
Oakum pickings : a collection of stories, sketches, and paragraphs contributed from time to time to the telegraphic and general press (1876)
I believe, based on my notes (am away from my books at present) that the 189 page version is for the “general reading public…and will be found free from technical terms and professional idioms, etc”
some extracts from the same author’s Telegraphic Tales and Telegraphic History (1880)
here