BY TELEGRAPH

Evening Star, Issue 19786, 9 February 1928, Page 16

BY TELEGRAPH

SOME CURIOUS MESSAGES ROMANCE BY MORSE. It was once written of the German Kaiser that if he bad nothing else to" do he sent a telegram. The general public is not quite like that, but it sends air extraordinary number of telegrams, often about the most intimate personal things I that some people would even hesitate , to put in a letter. The receiving clerk takes them without a smile, but if he possesses a sense of humor he stores them away in his memory for future use. ; Most telegrams aie dry as dust. But occasionally some individual, whose emotions have been stimulated to the point of violent expression, rushes into the telegraph office, dashes down a message in terms as choice as Lho icgulations permit, ami semis it away. Tor instance, plenty of girls break off their engagements by telegraph, _or punish their swains for some dereliction. If engagement rings could be sent over | the wire, qnilo a lot of llicm would be | rol nrned tbat way Love messages arc as plentiful as flics in summer. Telegraph officials i-ave watched many a romance being fed by Morse One notable instance is that in whirli a man whose lady love had gone lo soother town, filed a series of urgent wires, cadi containing ono word. Pieced together, I hoy made up a full message. The. lin-l ronlained the word ‘'how," I lie second “are,” the third “yon,” and so on. It was an expensive way of sending a love message, ami the sequence of urgent wire s held up 1 lie lino for quite a while. What I lie lady's feelings wore when ibis shower oi messages descended upon her was never ascertained, but I hey must have hue mm a nuisance 1 at the finish, seeing ilia I. I hoy ran to thirty or forty.

More sensible was the young' man whoso inamorata went lo the country. Jn three weeks ho attended at the telegraph office every merning just before 9 a.in., and sent a plain, ordinary message couched in the most alfcclionalc and poelic terms. The messges used lo nm .something like Ibis;

"My only low. yon are 1 lie only one even if there was fiily others it wouldn’t matter the stars have ”ot nothin;; on your eyes love.”

Ho was a colossal liar, of course, but perjury is excusable and permissible in (he circumstances. He used to ring the changes a bit, ami make sentimental references to moonlight and other atmospherics, in which the grand passion thrives. But his star turn was the stars and her eyes, and, no doubt, tlie lady fully appreciated if. iu spite of its iteration. After aoout three weeks the messages ceased, and it is to be presumed that the girl with the twinkling eyes returned to the city and her poetic lover. The man who telegraphed “How are you, love; I’m feeling rotten,” was a master of consideration. He expressed in a few words lho yearnings of his heart for her sweet presence, and an unhappy state of mind because of her absence. Another rather cryptic message was: “Whatever Etan (ells you is lies.” Presumably the lady in tho case was about to receive a visit from a person named Stan, who had a talo lo tell. It is impossible lo know tho merits of -the case, but it suggests that the sender had been violating the ethics of true love and constancy, and the person named Stan, who aspired to be in his shoes, was off to see the lady to put the sender's “pot on.” In the interest of tho wider code of ethics, it is to be hoped ho did not succeed. Not all emotional telegrams have lo do with erotic sentiment, although (hay mav hiugo on it. The girl who telegraphed "Take back your rotten ring: it only cost a quid, anyway,” was undoubtedly angry. The circumstances, of course, could not be discovered, but love's young dream had received a shock from which it was not expected lo recover. She seemed rather surprised when she discovered that the ring could not go with tho wire. These vituperative telegrams are by no means uncommon. Some of I hem are real masterpieces of invective. They resemble an argument between two harridans in a slum .suburb, who asperse each other lo Ihe best of (heir ability by slating that somebody's mother was never married; that her father had done two years for burglary; and that her husband was always drunk. Ono morning a man handed in a telegram addressed to a country (own. It read; “ Put your shirt on Athabasca.” The clerk checked if, and then said, solto voce; " Athabasca was scralehed this morning.” The sender gasped. “11. was given me as an absolute cert last night.” Tho clerk, who was a. racing enthusiast, suggested that ho should substitute Dalmatia, for Athabasca, A. friend of his who knew a man whoso sister's husband had a brother working m a factory alongside a brother of a man who lived next door to a chap whose sister was married (o lho Dalmatia, and so lho wire was. altered.