The telegram

A telegram reached the investigators on the receiving office's form: the company's name and classes of service printed, the check, the place and time of filing, the address, the message and the sender typed by the operator, or, on the forms of the thirties, printed on paper tape and pasted in strips. Western Union's form of 1920 carries the classes of service with their symbols in two boxes; the form of 1930 the class of service on one side and the signs of the deferred messages (Day Letter, Night Letter, Cable Letter) on the other.

Bearer prints Western Union's two forms as they were read, on telegrams received at Savannah in 1920 and at Jackson and New York in 1930. No British or French form of the period has been found: those two are reconstructions, and the office says so above them.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The paper

A reconstruction

This paper is a reconstruction. No British telegram form of the period has been found: the form is set on the heads every telegram carried (the office and time it was handed in at, the office that received it, the address, the message, the sender), under the Post Office's own name; its words and layout are ours.

This paper is a reconstruction. No French telegram form of the period has been found: the form is set on the heads every telegram carried (origin, number, number of words, date and hour of filing, service instructions, the addressee, the text) under the name of the Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones; its words and layout are ours.

The same paper elsewhere

• Telegrams by country

Still to be confirmed

• the form read was received in August 1920; a cablegram form of April 1928, read, still names George W. E. Atkins first vice-president, and the forms of February 1930 name J. C. Willever: the change fell between, and Bearer sets it at 1 January 1929. What would settle it: a Western Union telegram form of 1928 or 1929.
• the message is printed as typed by the receiving operator; the cablegrams of April 1928, read, were received on tape and pasted in strips, so the tape was in use in the twenties, but on a telegram form of the twenties it has not been seen. What would settle it: a Western Union telegram of the twenties with pasted tape.

Sources

• The Western Union Telegraph Company; photograph on Wikimedia Commons, Western Union Telegram, received at Savannah, Georgia, on 26 August 1920 (Form 1201), WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM, Newcomb Carlton President, George W. E. Atkins First Vice-President, the class of service boxes on both sides (Telegram, Day Letter Blue, Night Message Nite, Night Letter N L), RECEIVED AT …, the check, the place, time and date of filing, the address, the message and the signature typed (read directly)
• The Western Union Telegraph Company; photographs on Wikimedia Commons (Millsaps College; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Claudel to Casadesus), Western Union telegrams received at Jackson, Mississippi, and at 1414 Sixth Avenue, New York, in 1930, PATRONS ARE REQUESTED TO FAVOR THE COMPANY BY CRITICISM AND SUGGESTION CONCERNING ITS SERVICE; CLASS OF SERVICE (This is a full-rate Telegram or Cablegram unless its deferred character is indicated by a suitable sign above or preceding the address); WESTERN UNION; SIGNS (DL Day Letter, NM Night Message, NL Night Letter, LCO Deferred Cable, NLT Cable Night Letter or Cable Letter, WLT Week-End Letter); Newcomb Carlton President, J. C. Willever First Vice-President; the note on standard time; Received at; the message typed or on pasted tape; THE QUICKEST, SUREST AND SAFEST WAY TO SEND MONEY IS BY TELEGRAPH OR CABLE (read directly)
• Wikimedia Commons (public domain; Fukushima photo database), Western Union Cablegrams (Form 1201) received in New York from Accra on 5 and 10 April 1928, Hideyo Noguchi to his wife, WESTERN UNION CABLEGRAM, the company's globe, NEWCOMB CARLTON, PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. E. ATKINS, FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, Form 1201; Received at, the date stamped (1928 APR 5 PM 5 57); the check line (N288 CABLE=ACCRA 69), NLT, the address and the message received on tape and pasted in strips (read directly)

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