CHAPTER XVII.
OUR CANADIAN BROTHERS ON
PLANET MARS
THE FOLLOWING list of Canadian operators who lived, flourished and passed away, either in this country or in Canada, has been furnished by John Fletcher, superintendent Canadian Pacific Railroad Telegraph, with the suggestion that they be admitted into the sacred precincts of the Pleiades Club. The list embraces some well known and revered names:
Sam Garvey, Manager Dominion Telegraph Company, Montreal, in the seventies; S. E. Gibbs, chief operator at Toronto, Dominion Telegraph Company, in the seventies; Jim Ingram, of Ogdensburg, N. Y., manager for a number of years of the Montreal Telegraph Company there, succeeding John Henderson in the early seventies; John Murray, manager of the Montreal Telegraph Company at Brockville, Ont., in the seventies and later in charge of the District Telegraph Company at Montreal; Alexander McNaughton, of the old Montreal Telegraph force in the seventies and eighties; Larry Longmore of the same company and of the same time; James Dakers, secretary of the old Montreal Company, whose presence in the operating room was a constant lesson in the virtue of economy; Alexander Grant, superintendent of the Montreal Company, a fine man and greatly respected; Thomas Elwood, superintendent of the Dominion Telegraph Company at Toronto, a fine operator and a man beloved by all who knew him; P. Snyder, an old Dominion star and in later life superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company’s Telegraph at St. John, N. B.; Hiram Pingle, who made his reputation at the House of Commons in the seventies as a very fast sender, later superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Toronto; A. W. Barber succeeded Pingle as superintendent at Toronto and he, too, some years ago, went over to the silent majority; Jonas Oliver, well known in western Canada around 1890 to 1905, a self-educated Icelander, fine operator (“Little Skratti Icelandic” was his nickname); David J. Duff, one of the best known of the younger generation of Canadian operators, died 1905, at Winnipeg, aged twenty-eight; was a great favorite, not only in his native city of Winnipeg, but in Chicago, where he had worked for several years, in Philadelphia, New York and at Palm Beach, Fla.; Cleo C. Young, home town, McAlester, Okla., died in Winnipeg, 1913, a first class operator, aged thirty-one; Charles L. Hallett, died in Winnipeg recently, had been in the insurance business for the past twelve years, formerly circuit manager at Fort William, aged fifty-four years; Winnipeg is such a healthy place there are not many applicants for membership in the Pleiades Club; Orville A. Glenn, one of Winnipeg’s best known stars, died 1911, aged thirty-seven years. At time of his death he was a member of the grain exchange and doing a lucrative brokerage business; Joseph Quelch, a first class telegrapher and at one time manager of the Dominion Telegraph Company at Montreal in the seventies. He was one of the finest boys one could wish to see; Samuel Ritchie was another of the old Dominion Telegraph boys and was strictly first class; William Duchesmeau, at one time manager for the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Quebec, a fine operator and a good man; John McKenzie, a chief operator for the old Montreal Telegraph Company about the same time, well liked by all; James Poustie, superintendent of construction and maintenance for the old Montreal Telegraph Company; Edward Flanagan, of Prescott, Ont., who died in Utah in the eighties, a fine operator; Robert Empey and Jack Wolfenden, two Canucks, who died in the Far West, both stars; the former would be employed as a comic sketch artist on some metropolitan journal if he were alive today; A. Laurie, a Montreal boy, a fine operator who died in Vancouver in the nineties; Samuel MacIntosh, manager for the Canadian Pacific Railroad at New Westminster in 1887 and later in the insurance business, died there in the nineties; William Fraser, night chief at Vancouver for a number of years, has been in British Honduras and in the Southern States prior to 1890; George Scott, of the Pacific Cable Board, Vancouver, gilt edged, all around, first class man, was in the South African war; J. H. Giffen, lately chief operator at Moose Jaw for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, died in 1915.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RELIEF EXPEDITION FROM PLANET
MARS
IT HAD been decided by the members of the Pleiades Club to send out a special train with attendants to gather in any and all stray members found loitering, so to speak, at the different wayside stopping places between the Earth and Mars and bring them all into the fold under the shadow of the Telegraphers’ Tabernacle. There were a number who did not respond to the roll call, and while not believing that anything could be lost in God’s great economic universe, still it was thought only right to gather everybody in and have all in their respective places.
Commodore R. R. Haines, who was a leader during his sojourn on Earth, was appointed Captain of the expedition and a delegation selected from every section of the country and Canada were invited to accompany the craft to identify all telegraph people eligible for membership who were idling their time away among the many stopping places on this long journey.
It had been resolved to begin at the moon and work the way back, so Luna was the first satellite to be visited and, lo and behold, Edward C. Cockey came to greet the searching party.
Mr. Cockey was astonished to see his visitors and was not at all loath to join them, the only regret he expressed being that now the sentimental young ladies would have no one to watch over them from the moon. He asked if the “Man in the Moon” was still talked about on Earth and was assured that he was. Aaron Hilliker sang: