DEBUT OF HENRY WARD BEECHER ON PLANET MARS
It was a bright, intelligent lot of men and women who called upon
Secretary Fred B. Moxon, on the planet Mars, quite recently.
The spokesman, Ernest W. Emery, who had in his possession half a year’s
files of Telegraph and Telephone Age, addressed Mr. Moxon.
_Ernest Emery Heard From_
“We are no kickers,” he began, “but Charles A. Tinker just gave us all
these late copies of the Age, and we notice that among the records of
the club, of which you are secretary, you never vouchsafe a kind word
for any of the eastern boys or girls. There is nothing right about
this, and you must admit it. Our friends down there on the Earth are as
interested to hear from us, as are the survivors in the Windy City or
the dwellers on the Nebraska prairies.”
“Right you are,” replied Mr. Moxon, “and I do not think anyone is to
be blamed for it. Washington is the city where I was born and bred and
it fills a deep place in my heart, but the club is still young and
my correspondent is covering the ground systematically, and you will
all be heard from. Indeed, you will all have a chapter in the very
near future, and if you will give me a little ‘dope’ on some of our
present members who are bashful, I will get you all in excepting your
photographs, very soon.”
Peter DeGraw, Ham. Young and Ernest Emery then locked arms for a walk
down the Rue for the purpose of interviewing other old members of the
guard from Washington and procuring additional data.
“Hello, there’s Bob Bender, newly arrived and looking as fresh as a
clam. He was an attendant at the recent reunion of the Old Timers’
Association in New York and ought to be full of good information. Let’s
stop him and get the news.”
Bob Bender was delighted to greet his old friends again and listened
with much interest to the experiences of his companions and, in turn,
gave them the latest news from Washington.
“Yes, George C. Maynard is there, looking as noble as ever, and Judd
Thompson, C. F. Thompson, H. McKeldin, John H. Miller and Dennis Brown
are still in the harness. Washington has gone dry.”
Mr. Bender went on to say that he had been over to New York recently,
but as there was going to be a New York chapter in the Pleiades Club
very soon, and also a Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore number, he did
not care to spoil a good story by anticipating the future.
Mr. Bender locked arms with his comrades in their interesting walk, and
as they passed Aeolianville they stopped to shake hands with William T.
Loper, who was being entertained by that most wonderful orator, Henry
Ward Beecher.
The quartette, composed of Messrs. Emery, DeGraw, Bender and Young,
stopped for a minute. They had overheard some “shop talk.”
“Yes,” Loper was saying, “you are the only fellow who ever rushed me.
Don’t you remember your sermon on ‘Agreeing with your enemy,’ and none
of us could keep up with you? I came nearly throwing up my job on
that very occasion.” It was stated for the benefit of those who were
not acquainted with the facts that each Sunday Mr. Loper went from
Washington to New York to copy Henry Ward Beecher’s sermon. He then
went to the telegraph office at 195 Broadway, New York, and the sermons
were telegraphed from his note book to the principal papers in the
United States by Mr. Loper himself, who was one of the finest operators
as well as stenographers of his day, and one of the few shorthand men
who could copy Henry Ward Beecher.
“Hi, hi, 73,” came from the merry four and Loper smiled all over, while
Beecher asked what was meant by “73.”
Later in the day Fred Moxon interviewed his morning visitor and made
inquiries about the Cassidy boys, James P. and John S., and many other
of his boyhood friends still on Earth.
“We will have a Washington day very soon and we will invite all of
our old friends from near-by and I hope that each city will get up a
similar demonstration, as these meetings are all for the good, and as
the records of the same will be printed in Telegraph and Telephone Age,
it will be a great comfort for our surviving friends to read of the
good times we are having up here.”
“When I was in the Washington office,” said Ham. Young, “it gave me
great pleasure to assist our boys through their difficulties, and make
their lives less burdensome, and it now makes my heart feel good to see
those who have passed from Earth to Mars enjoying their well-earned
rest. The Washington boys all partake of the nature of the ‘Father of
his Country,’ whom we have all met in this ethereal mansion on various
occasions, and are proud to be identified with so distinguished a
gentleman, though we are all on a level here.”
_P. V. DeGraw Speaks_
“Washington is very different now to what it was years ago when I used
to rattle off the Associated Press news,” chimed in Vory DeGraw. “We
had no multiplexes and page printers those days and each man was an
artist at the key. I have nothing but the happiest recollections of
my old telegraph friends in Washington, several of whom have recently
joined the throng in this abode of rest and happiness.”
Ernest Emery’s eyes sparkled with greater brilliancy than ever as he
heard the names of his old-time Washington friends mentioned. “I hope
that ‘Washington Day’ will be an event worthy of the great city and its
associations,” he said. “Being the capital of the nation the best men
in the telegraph profession exist there, and those now here will enter
into the festivities of the occasion with the greatest of pleasure,
when their lives in that city are recalled and rehearsed. All will have
something pleasant to relate.”