May 3, 1918.

Dear Marie,

The Company has been digging trenches this afternoon and I am a little
tired from the snappy pick swinging, so will only write about telegraphy
this time. You say you are crazy to learn but I want to caution you that
it takes practice with lots of patience – the same as music or anything
else. And here is the point: if you try it at all do your best – not
simply to be able to tap the key like some “ham,” but really strive for
some degree of perfection. If you don’t want to go at it seriously the
same as you do your elocution, do not waste your time – for no time is
so utterly wasted as time spent doing a thing half way.

I don’t want to scare you away from learning to telegraph but simply
want to warn you not to start something that you haven’t the interest
nor enthusiasm to see through.

So think it over and let me know if you want to learn to be as good an
operator as the average commercial radio operator. Girl radio amateurs
have shown real ability, and right now the government has women teaching
telegraphy to Signal Corps recruits.

And again let me say that you have the “stuff” in you to make a first
class operator, not a “Morse butcher,” as we call one who chops out the
dots and dashes in rag time.

Telegraphy is similar to playing the piano in that one has to consider
“time” and rhythm, also one must hold the fingers, wrist and forearm
correctly to send well with the key. When you hear the clatter of
telegraph instruments in an office, did you ever stop to think that
every little combination of dots and dashes forms a letter? Take the
word “receive” for instance?

Morse = R|E|C|E|I|V|E|

. ..|.|.. .|.|..|…-|.

Radio= .-.|.|-.-.|.|..|…-|.

The American Morse is a little harder to receive because if the letters
are run together an R (. ..) can’t be distinguished from EI (.|..) nor a
C (.. .) from IE (..|.). However the European Morse (radio) is better
because there are no spaces between parts of one letter. R is (.-.), C
is (-.-.), Y is (-.--) instead of (.. ..).

Of course I am taking it for granted that you know what a dot or a dash,
or a space is; if you don’t be sure to speak up.

The slightest error in time length of the dots, dashes, and spaces makes
one’s best efforts a jumble of unreadable Morse. So you see one must
cultivate that sense of time and rhythm the same as you do in music. It
is easier in telegraphy than in music but at the same time more
important

“And” (.-|-.|-..) will sometimes sound like “p’d” (.--.|-..) if it is
sent rapidly without proper spacing.

Well you see I am making an awful fuss about accuracy and clearness in
transmitting (sending) because anyone with enough practice can read
telegraphy at any speed when it is sent properly.

Suppose you were learning to read and write in Greek or any language in
which the writing is absolutely different than English. You would first
have to learn to draw (not write) each letter, which would be similar to
“sending” in radio; and then you would have to learn to recognize each
letter, written by another person, which would be similar to “receiving”
in radio.

If this is too big a strain on your imagination, then just consider how
a 1-B pupil learns to read write.

I am pointing this out to make you see how very simple receiving in
radio is.

At first you will think of C as dash, dot, dash, dot (-.-.) but after
awhile you will forget the dots and dashes and think of the sound of the
combined dots and dashes. For instance when you read you don’t look at
each separate letter in a word but you see the whole word at a glance
and recognize it without thought of the letters composing it.

I am analyzing these steps in one’s progress in learning telegraphy
simply to make you see that it is simply a matter of time and patient
practice.

Now for the amount of practice for best results. I wouldn’t advise
practicing too long at a time – and only when you are “all keyed up” for
it. If you feel that you can spare a half an hour or forty minutes each
day you will learn fast, and I believe you will like it and find it well
worth the effort.

If you decide to try it, I want you to use my telegraph key, as it is a
J.H. Bunnell key, which is the best on the market, and is almost “brand
new.” Also you may find that sending board of mine useful – do you
remember the thing I mean? Well I have a lot more to tell you if you
want to go ahead so tell me one way or the other in your next letter.

When you get started, if you do, you will be surprised to find how easy
it all is.

Will have to call ten pages enough this time. My next letter will be
“nice.”

Forrest.