The Telegram That Shouldn't Exist – An Original Short Story

The Telegram That Shouldn't Exist – An Original Short Story

From LitReading - Classic Short Stories by Short Storyverses

April 14, 2026 · 16 min

About this episode

A young telegraph operator during the Civil War faces a dilemma when two conflicting messages arrive.

During the Civil War, the military's telegraph network was run by civilians. Teenagers, some of them. Elias Murrow was nineteen, careful, and precise. He trusted the procedure because the procedure had never failed him. Then two messages arrived that couldn't both be real, and he did exactly what he was trained to do. This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so please check start listening and subscribing to New Tales Told. On Apple Podcasts it is part of the Short Storyverses Channel. We are expanding our universe of short story podcasts on our new podcast channel, Short StoryVerses. Listen to some of Don's new, original short stories on the "New Tales Told" podcast. Look it up on your favorite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Don

Topics covered

  • Civil War
  • telegraph
  • original short story
  • classic short stories

Keywords

  • Elias Murrow
  • New Tales Told
  • Short Storyverses

Mentioned in this episode

Products: New Tales Told

Books & works: The Telegram That Shouldn't Exist, New Tales Told, Short Storyverses

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