CHAPTER VII
TAKING A WHIRL AT COMMERCIAL WORK--MY FIRST ATTEMPT--THE GALVESTON FIRE
The memory of my exciting experience in Arizona lasted me a good long
time, and I finally determined to leave the railroad service and try my
hand at commercial work. The two classes are the same, and yet they are
entirely different.
It is a most interesting sight, to the uninitiated, to go into the
operating room of a big commercial office and see the swarms of men and
women bending over glass partitioned tables; nimble footed check boys
running hither and thither like so many flies, carrying to each wire the
proper messages, while the volume of sound that greets your ears is
positively deafening. Every once in a while some operator will raise his
head and yell "Pink," "C. N. D." or "Wire." "Pink" means a message that
is to be rushed; "C. N. D." is a market quotation that is to be hurried
over to the Bucket Shops or Stock Exchange, while "Wire," means a
message that pertains to some wire that is in trouble and such messages
must have precedence over all others. The check boys are trained to
know the destination of each and every wire and work under the direction
of the traffic chief.
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