In the late 1940s my father's business took on the additional duty of being a Western Union agent in Perry, Oklahoma (pop. about 5,000), when the company-owned office closed. So I had some experience in handling telegrams and money orders, although the money order was not the center of the W.U. business as it became later.
We shared a pair out of Oklahoma City with the W.U. company-owned office inside the Conoco refinery and offices in Ponca City. Most of the business on the wire was from and to that office. (High-volume W.U. users got company-owned branches; low-volume users might have a WUX printer, which of course they operated themselves.)
The agency I am familiar with in Perry, Oklahoma, had a selective signaling device which was not especially reliable or practical, although if you were near enought you could count the clicks and respond.
Telegrams were sent and received on the gummed paper tape that was then stuck down on the telegram form manually and was the normal medium used for telegrams in those days.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com