Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1881 — Telegrams. [ARTICLE]

Telegrams.

It is commonly supposed that brevity is the essence of a telegram, and that the shorter a message can be, the better; that if you have a thing to say in ten words, it is better to say it in seven; if you have a thing to say in seven, it is better to say it in five. This appears to be the creed of the general telegram sender. No doubt, if his sole object be to swell the revenues of the state- his procedure is laudable;- but there are other considerations to be taken into account; and if he wishes his telegrams to be rendered in such guise that they shall be understood par qui de droit he will strive rather to make the wording plain than laconic. Redundancy is, of course, to be avoided, but t io great brevity is equally to be eschewed. Laconic writing, it is to be borne in mind, tends to obscurity; obscurity makes it impossible for the telegraph operator to know when he is sending sense and wheif he is sending nonsense; and if he Itarf no guide as to what he is sending, the chances are at least equal that he will go astray. There is, no doubt, another motive which weighs with some, and that is the desire that the message sliall not be intelligible to the officials through whose hands it will pass. But it is a short sighted policy to make the wording insecure in order to frustrate hypothetic curiosity. - If secrecy is important, it would be better to use a cipher. In the majority of cases, however, the true plan is to take the officials into your confidence, ami write your message in such guise that he who runs may read,