At this point it is necessary to go back a number of years to gather in a trailing strand that has yet to be spliced into the body of the narrative. As has already been noted, the spirit of discontent and agitation in the Post-Office had strongly manifested itself in various ways before the year 1870. For nearly twenty-five years trouble in the postal ranks had shown itself from time to time. And the taking over of the telegraphs by the Government, and placing the old companies’ staffs under the wing of the Post-Office, was to recruit new forces for the army of discontent. If the men thus taken over had had a little more consideration shown them from the outset, perhaps much of the future trouble which from the first moment was set brewing might have been arrested. But it was not so, despite the promises held out to them, and it was not long before they realised that they were to remain a neglected body. Before the transfer the telegraph business of the country was divided amongst three principal companies, “The Electric,” “The United Kingdom,” “The British, Irish, and Magnetic,” and, for London only, “The Metropolitan District Company.” They had no connection with each other, but it seems that the men in their employ indifferently rambled from one to the other on the mere strength of having been formerly employed anywhere as a telegraphist. The class of men for the most part so employed was a very mixed one, and consisted largely of those who had “come down in the world,” often men of birth and education, and those shipwrecked from other vessels. They seemed to be an independent, Bohemian lot, and somewhat nomadic in their habits, for not infrequently those dismissed or resigned from one company, with little difficulty took a seat in another of the three. The conditions were much about the same, and the salary equally poor, averaging about £1 a week. But though the salary was low, and the prospects ill defined and unsatisfactory, it was understood that there were other means of making money in a small way. There was apparently a looseness and a happy-go-lucky style of freedom obtaining among the telegraph companies of this period that enabled the operators to make for themselves certain privileges which ultimately became their rights. Their salary was low, but in course of time it was to some extent compensated for by the acquisition of perquisites, and small emoluments. These often consisted of keeping the offices open after hours, and making their own charges, levying taxes for porterage on messages, taking allowances for string, paper, and other material. In some cases these privileges and emoluments accruing to the senior men were farmed out among the juniors to save time and trouble. A company’s operator might occasionally constitute himself a temporary agent for his company in his spare time after ordinary hours of duty, charging sixpence extra on each message, and this the companies rather encouraged than otherwise.