THE HUMOEOUS SIDE OF DOTS AND DASHES. 83 



to the Emperor Napoleon III, criticising - his attitude toward Italy in 

 sarcastic terms. The sender expected that the operator at the next 

 repeating office would see the joke and tear up the message. But it 

 takes more than one person to complete a contract. Several weeks 

 passed, when our friend was startled upon receiving a bill of over 

 one hundred dollars charges on that cable message, payment of 

 which was refused peremptorily by the hard-hearted official who 

 took charge of the Emperor's telegraphic correspondence, and the 

 sender had to pay the piper. 



Operators can converse by dots and dashes by using any two met- 

 als or any other articles that, beaten together, audibly dot out char- 

 acters. Not long ago two of the boys while waiting for their dinner 

 (the waiter had received no tip and was tired), and were with knife and 

 fork tappingly discussing the lady opposite, her fine appearance as 

 contrasted with the dude who accompanied her, etc., when the duet 

 was rudely nipped in the bud, as it were, by a staccato request in 

 the same language from across the table, to cease meddling with that 

 j'oung lady, who by the way, was his bride, or there would be a case 

 for the coroner. Our friends hastily ticked out : O. K. 30. G. N. all 

 right, end of report, good night, and fled to think it over and kick 

 themselves. In such cases two is company and three sometimes 

 proves a whole army. 



Among the earliest uses of the electric telegraph was that of head- 

 ing off fugitives from justice, and even now it not unfrequently hap- 

 pens that a detective is for da} r s awaiting the incoming vessel in order 

 to spot his unsuspecting man. This heading off power is an impor- 

 tant factor in the commission of crime, and its knowledge doubtless 

 prevents many intended infractions of the peace. The story goes 

 that one of these gentry upon mildly asking his pal : "Is eveiything 

 O.K.?" received the laconic reply: "Read Proverbs, chap, xxvii, 

 12." When referred, to the following words stared him in the face: 

 "A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself; but the simple 

 pass on and are punished!" 



The same sacred vehicle was used not long since by a thrifty newly 

 married lady whose husband cut short their honeymoon by starting 

 away on a business trip, and at his first stopping place received the 

 mysterious reply to his message as to her welfare : "Despatch re- 

 ceived, Deuteronomy xxiv. o." The verse reads thus : " When a man 



