This is the story of Ma Kiley, a Texas-born railroad telegraph operator who worked as a boomer in the American West, Mexico, and Canada in the early 1900s. Although autobiographical writings by women telegraph operators are rare, Ma Kiley left a richly detailed and moving personal account of her life and work in The Bug and I, first published by Railroad Magazine in 1950. This book also includes an introduction which provides background on telegraphy, a little known area of women's work. It attempts to fill in the missing history of women in telegraphy - how women gained access to the field of telegraphy, how they were viewed by their male co-workers, and how women operators struggled to establish their own identities.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.