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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
201
CHAPTER
XVI.
TELEGRAPHIC
BLUNDERS.
Although
the
work
of
sending
and
receiving
telegraphic
messages
may
be
regarded
in
a
general
way
as
partaking
largely
of
a
merely
mechanical
nature,
yet
it
is
work
to
which
the
operator
who
is
to
achieve
credit
in
his
sphere
must
bring
much
tact,
good
sense,
intelligence,
a
knowledge
of
the
world,
and
a
considerable
amount
of
patience.
Not
only
are
the
terms
in
which
telegrams
are
frequently
written
so
far
devoid
of
context
in
themselves,
owing
to
the
curt
way
in
which
they
are
worded,
as
to
render
the
sense
of
little
assistance
in
estimating
the
correctness
of
a
message
received,
but
the
letters
of
the
telegraphic
alphabet,
being
nothing
more
than
little
groups
of
dots
and
dashes
variously
arranged,
are
extremely
susceptible
of
mutilation,
owing
to
any
lack
of
exact
spacing
on
the
part
of
the
sending
operator.
Nor
does
the
liability
to
error
lie
only
in
these
directions.
The
dots
and
dashes
frequently
fail
or
run
together,
owing
either
to
feeble
signals,
contact
of
the
wires
with
one
another,
with
trees,
or
other
objects,
or
to
the
instruments
not
being
in
perfect
adjustment.
A
grain
of
grit
or
of
dust
getting
between
the
points
of
contact
in
a
delicate
instrument
will
sometimes
do
much
mischief
in
the
way
indicated.
There
is
liability
to
mistakes,
too,
in
consequence
of
the
handwriting
of
the
senders,
or
of
the
operators
at
a
transmitting
point
where
messages
have
to
be
again
taken
down,
not
being
very
plain.
Yet
over
and
above
these
tendencies
to
error,
there
is
the
fallibility
of
human
nature,
which
will
sometimes
lead
a
person
to
write
"no"
where
"yes"
is
intended,
or
"black"
where
"white"
is
meant;
and
of
such
mistakes
probably
no
explanation
can
be
given.
So
that
the
work
of
a
telegraphist
is
beset
with
pitfalls,
and
he
requires
all
his
wits
and
a
fair
share
of
intelligence
to
keep
him
right
in
his
work.
It
may
further
be
remarked
that
many
errors
in
telegrams,
which
might
be
supposed
by
the
public
to
be
gross
or
inexcusable,
have
occurred
in
the
most
simple
way,
or
have
been
shown
to
be
due
to
failures
of
a
very
trifling
kind.
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