The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865

V >> Various >> The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865

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A little later, as I again approached Mr. Leopold's picture, not
venturing to return to the parlors, now that Miss Darry was engrossed by
other gentlemen, I became an unwilling listener to a few words of
conversation between Miss Merton and Mr. Lang, who stood just outside
the door.

"What a girl Frank Darry is for accomplishing everything she
undertakes!" said Miss Merton, admiringly; "how she has improved her
_protege_! he can talk on subjects where I have to be silent, though I
have had what dear mamma used to call a 'finished education.'"

"Yes, darling. She has made his mental growth very rapid; but, in the
process of cultivation, he is gaining a little false pride, which I hope
is not of her planting. He blushes, whenever his trade is alluded to:
foolish fellow! not to see that the very fact of being a blacksmith is
his claim to superiority. A thoroughly trained youth might have done far
more than he without any special ability."

"But, Hamilton, you may misconstrue blushes which are so frequent; he is
in a new world, too; do give him a chance to make himself at home,
before you criticize him. You must admit I was right about his not
annoying one by any decided awkwardness of behavior."

"Oh, yes, dear. A certain sense of fitness goes with the artistic
temperament. I suppose old Dr. Johnson, devouring his food and drinking
innumerable cups of tea, might be a far more shocking social companion
than this blacksmith's apprentice. You are always drawing out the
lovable traits of people, dear Alice," he added, in a lower tone; "and
that is a thousand times better than Frank Darry's intellectual
developments."

They turned away then; and I, angry at being forced to listen at all to
what was not meant for my ear, and the more so that Mr. Lang had spoken
of me so depreciatingly, stood burning with shame and indignation. Annie
Bray's undoubting faith and love would have comforted me without a word
of spoken confidence; but she was not here to give it; and, longing for
the reassurance of Miss Darry's presence, I entered the
drawing-room,--but would gladly have withdrawn again, for Mr. Lang came
quickly toward me.

"Sandy," he said, "this may not be exactly the time to discuss business
matters with you; but your friends seem to feel that you deserve a
better chance in the world. Mr. Bray, to whom I spoke yesterday, says
you were not bound to serve him after your eighteenth birthday, but that
you have never expressed a wish to leave. Don't you see what a foolish
fellow you are to work for him, when you might be earning for yourself?"

"But I have had no money to start with. I have had time for study, too,"
I stammered.

"Two reasons sufficient for an abstracted youth like you, but utterly
unpractical. I want you to hire a forge this side of Warren. I will
insure you custom enough to warrant the step."

He looked at me keenly as he spoke, while I colored with the pride and
indignation which, since his words to Miss Merton a few moments before,
I had been trying to control. Was this to be the end of all my hopes,
the object of Miss Darry's instructions, her flattering encouragements
and exaggerated estimate of my "genius," as she had termed it, that I
might have a forge of my own, to which I should be compelled to give
undivided attention, and shoe Mr. Lang's horses, and possibly some
others belonging to Miss Merton's visitors? Yet, remembering how much
had been already, if unwisely, done for me, I held down these thoughts,
and, after a momentary pause, professed my willingness to think the
matter over, if I could reserve time for other pursuits. His face
lighted up, then, with the smile which had charmed me at the forge.

"You are not spoiled yet, Sandy, I see. If you will only keep to your
trade, I will keep you to your art. You must have a boy at the forge,
and in the afternoons you can come here and paint under Mr. Leopold's
direction: he makes his home here during the summer, and he says you
have a talent worth cultivation."

The revulsion of feeling was as complete as he could have desired; and I
had not fully expressed my gratitude when Miss Darry appeared. I went
with her to bid Miss Merton good-evening, and she stood in the moonlight
beside me on the step, as Annie Bray had done a few hours before; but
now I also was a changed character.

"I am proud of my pupil, Sandy," she said, with more of her ordinary
manner than I had observed during the evening. "If I can place you in
better hands than mine, I shall be willing to give you up."

"Give me up? never!" I cried, "Why, Miss Darry, this evening has proved
to me that I could not sustain myself in any untried position without
some help from you."

She smiled, saying I was ridiculously unconscious of my own ability, and
yet looking gratified, I fancied, at the confession.

(_To be continued._)

THE PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

In the spring of 1860 an article was published in this magazine with the
above title, giving an account of the extension of the telegraph up to
that time. Its progress since has been very great in every quarter of
the globe. Upon this continent the electric wire extends from the Gulf
of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean, connecting upwards of six thousand cities and villages;
while upon the Eastern Continent unbroken telegraphic communication
exists from London to all parts of Europe,--to Tripoli and Algiers, in
Africa,--Cairo, in Egypt,--Teheran, in Persia,--Jerusalem, in
Syria,--Bagdad and Nineveh, in Asiatic Turkey,--Bombay, Calcutta, and
other important cities, in India,--Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern
Siberia,--and to Kiakhta, on the borders of China.

But however rapid the extension of the telegraph has been in the past,
it is destined to show still greater advancement in the future. Neither
the American nor the European system has yet attained to its ultimate
development. Transient wars now delay the establishment of lines in San
Juan, Panama, Quito, Lima, Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Rio
Janeiro, Surinam, Caraccas, and Mexico, and the incorporating of them,
with all their local ramifications, into one American telegraph system.
The Atlantic cable, although its recent attempted submergence has proved
a failure, will yet be successfully laid; while the equally important
enterprise of establishing overland telegraphic communication with
Europe _via_ the Pacific coast and the Amoor River is now being
vigorously pushed forward towards its successful completion.

The latter project, which is being carried out by the Western Union
Extension Telegraph Company, with a capital of ten million dollars,
embraces the construction of a line of telegraph from New Westminster,
British Columbia, the northern terminus of the California State
Telegraph Company, through British Columbia and Russian America to Cape
Prince of Wales, and thence across Behring's Strait to East Cape; or, if
found more practicable, from Cape Romanzoff to St. Lawrence Island,
thence to Cape Tchuktchi, and thence by an inland route around the Sea
of Okhotsk to the mouth of the Amoor River. At this point it is to be
joined by the line now being constructed by the Russian Government to
connect with Irkoutsk, where a line of telegraph begins, which stretches
through Tomsk and Omsk, in Western Siberia, Katharinburg, on the
Asiatic-European frontier, Perm, Kasan, Nijni-Novogorod, and Moscow, to
St. Petersburg.

This line, which was projected by Perry McDonough Collins, Esq., United
States Commercial Agent for the Amoor River, with its extension by the
Russian Government to Irkoutsk, is the link now wanted to supply direct
and unbroken telegraphic communication from Cape Race, in Newfoundland,
on the eastern coast of America, across the Western Continent, the
Pacific Ocean, and the Eastern Continent, to Cape Clear, in Ireland, the
westernmost projection of Europe; and when a submarine cable shall be
successfully laid between Cape Clear and Cape Race, will complete a
telegraphic circuit around the earth between the parallels of forty-two
and sixty-five degrees of north latitude.

The chief difficulties to be anticipated in Mr. Collins's enterprise are
the extent of the territory to be traversed, its wild and rugged surface
formation, and the uncivilized character of its inhabitants.

The distance to be traversed through British America is six hundred
miles; through Russian America, nineteen hundred miles; the length of
the submarine cable across Behring's Strait, four hundred miles; and the
distance from East Cape, by an inland passage around the Sea of
Okhotsk, and through the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, and Shanter's
Bay, which are well-known stations of the whale-fishery, to the mouth of
the Amoor River, is about twenty-five hundred miles. The entire length
of the line would thus be about five thousand four hundred miles.

That portion of the route which lies through British Columbia is chiefly
mountainous, but divided into three ranges, whose courses are from north
to south, while intervening valleys invite the introduction of
telegraphs and roads. The Pacific coast of Russian America is mainly
level. The portion of Siberia which lies between East Cape and the head
of the Sea of Okhotsk is, for a large extent, a steppe or plain, with
gentle elevations occasionally rising into mountainous ridges. At the
head of the Sea of Okhotsk a range of mountains must be crossed; and the
region lying between that range and the mouth of the Amoor River is of
the same character as that before mentioned, which extends from the same
range northward to East Cape. The electric telegraph has already been
carried over steppes, in both continents, similar to those above
described; and the Pacific telegraph line, in crossing the Sierra
Nevada, rises to an elevation greater than that which is to be
surmounted on this line.

Suitable timber for setting up the line can be found on those portions
of the route lying within British Columbia and the Russian dominions on
each continent, with the exception of an unwooded steppe five hundred
miles wide on each side of Behring's Strait. Here the needful timber can
be brought near to the line, either by sea or from the forest-covered
shores of navigable rivers.

The temperature of the region through which the northern part of the
line would pass is very low; but the winter is less severe than between
the same parallels of latitude on the Atlantic coast. The telegraphic
line which connects St. Petersburg with Archangel, on the White Sea, and
that also which passes around the Gulf of Bothnia and connects St.
Petersburg with Tornea, are maintained in operation without difficulty,
although they cross as high parallels of latitude as those which lie in
the way of this overland line to Europe. The waters of Behring's Strait
are about one hundred and eighty feet deep, and they are frozen through
one half of the year; but the congealed mass, when broken, generally
takes the form of anchor ice, and not that of iceberg. Thus climate
seems to offer no serious obstacle to the enterprise; while it is worthy
of consideration that in high latitudes timber is far less perishable
than in low, and less insulating material is required in cold regions
than in more genial climates.

Indian tribes are found along the American part of the route, but they
have been so well subjected to the influences of society and government,
through the operations of the fur-trade, that no serious resistance from
them is apprehended. The inhabitants of Asiatic Russia, who dwell
inland, are nomadic Tartars, affecting much independence, but they are,
nevertheless, not savages, like the American natives. After centuries of
internal war, they have now settled into a state of semi-civilization,
in which they are accustomed to barter with whalers, with exploring
parties, and with the Government agents of Russia, and they are
hospitably inclined by that intercourse. Thus it is seen that there are
no insuperable obstacles, either physical or social, in the way of this
projected line of intercontinental telegraph.

From New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, situated on
Frazer River, about fifteen miles from its mouth, and the terminus of
the California State Telegraph, the line of the Collins Overland
Telegraph has already been commenced. A letter from Mr. F. L. Pope,
Assistant-Engineer of the Overland Company, dated June 13th, 1865,
states that the work on this portion of the line is proceeding with
great energy. Scarcely two months had elapsed since active operations
were commenced; and yet during that time nearly three hundred miles of
poles had been cut and prepared for use, a large number had been set,
and the remainder had been already distributed along the line. The poles
are nearly all of cedar, and of good size, and will form one of the most
durable lines on the American continent. When the extremely mountainous
and difficult nature of the country along the Frazer River is taken into
consideration, the rapidity with which this large amount of work has
been done is extraordinary. It seems quite probable that the line will
be finished the present season from New Westminster to Quesnell River,
the terminus of the wagon-road to the mines.

The Colonial Government are now engaged in cutting a road from New
Westminster to Yale, a distance of about ninety miles, along which the
wire will be carried. There has heretofore been no communication between
these points except by water. The river is bordered on both sides by
high mountains and dense forests of heavy timber, with an almost
impenetrable undergrowth. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Mr.
Conway, one of the telegraph engineers, made an exploration of the
entire route, during the latter part of last winter, on snow-shoes,
being at one time three days in the woods without food or blankets.

From Yale to the Quesnell River, a distance of some three hundred miles,
the line will follow the wagon-road, which has been built at an enormous
expense by the Colonial Government, as a means of communication with the
gold-mining regions of Carriboo. It will be a matter of considerable
difficulty to set up a line of telegraph over that portion of this road
which passes through the great canon, as in many places the road has a
perpendicular wall of rock upon one side and a perpendicular precipice
on the other, and in one place is carried around the face of a cliff in
this manner, at an elevation of some two thousand feet, directly over
the river, being in some places blasted out of the solid rock, and in
others supported by a sort of staging.

Two exploring parties have been dispatched from San Francisco: one to
examine the route through Eastern Siberia, between Behring's Strait and
the Amoor; and the other to follow the proposed route up the Frazer
River in British Columbia, and thence along the valley supposed to exist
between the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range, to the head-waters of
Pelly River, following down the valley of this river and the Yerkin,
into which it empties, to a point near the mouth of the latter, or in
the neighborhood of Behring's Strait.

The Pacific Telegraph Line, which will form an important link in the
overland line to Europe, was projected in 1859, when the measure was
first brought to the attention of Congress. A bill in aid of the project
was passed after some opposition, and proposals for the construction of
the line were invited by Secretary Cobb. Mr. Hiram Sibley, President of
the Western Union Telegraph Company, who was really the originator of
the whole enterprise, submitted to the directors of the Company the
question of authorizing him to send in proposals; but so formidable did
the undertaking appear, that the proposition was carried only by a
single vote.

After long and tedious delays on the part of Secretary Cobb, the
contract for building the line was awarded, on the 20th of September,
1860, to Mr. Sibley, on behalf of the Western Union Telegraph Company.
The Company at once assumed the contract, and furnished all the money
required for the line east of Salt Lake.

Mr. J. H. Wade, of Cleveland, one of the officers of the Company, now
visited California to confer with parties familiar with the various
routes, to determine where and how to build the line, and to arrange
with the telegraph companies in the Pacific States to extend their lines
eastward and form a business connection. The California Company agreed
to assume the construction of the line to Salt Lake City, and, if
possible, to have it completed to that point as soon as the line from
the eastward reached there. The route selected was _via_ Forts Kearney,
Laramie, and Bridger, crossing the Rocky Mountains at the South Pass,
and thence to Salt Lake City; and from this point, _via_ Forts
Crittenden and Churchill, across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to
Placerville and San Francisco. Mr. Edward Creighton, who had already
surveyed the proposed route, and was convinced of the feasibility of
maintaining a line over it, was appointed superintendent of
construction.

The Company was organized April 17th, 1862, after which time nearly all
the wire, insulators, and other material had to be manufactured before
the construction of the line could be proceeded with. The reader can
judge of the extent of the preparations required for setting up two
thousand miles of telegraph through a wilderness inhabited only by
Indians and wild beasts, and a part of which was a desert. The materials
and tools were taken to Omaha, Kansas, at which point everything
necessary for the enterprise was gathered in readiness to start
westward.

Of the force employed on the Pacific side we have no knowledge; but for
the line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Mr. Creighton had four hundred
men, fitted out for a hard campaign, with a rifle and navy-revolver for
each man, and with the necessary provisions, including one hundred head
of cattle for beef, to be driven with the train and killed as needed.
For the transportation of the material and the supplies for this army of
workmen, five hundred oxen and mules and over one hundred wagons were
purchased by the Company; and these not proving sufficient, other
transportation was hired, making the total number of beasts of burden
seven hundred oxen and one hundred pair of mules.

The first pole was set up on the 4th of July, 1862, and the line was
completed to Salt Lake on the 18th of October following,--the California
party reaching the same point six days later. The work proceeded at the
rate of about ten miles per day.

The whole line is upon poles,--it being thought best to cross the rivers
in this manner rather than by means of submarine cables. The country is
for the most part bare of wood; the longest distance, however, that
timber had to be drawn in one stretch was two hundred and forty miles.
The poles are of large size, and stand eighty to the mile, more than
half of red cedar, the remainder mostly pine. On the highest mountains,
where the snow accumulates to a great depth during the winter, they are
of extra size, and sufficiently tall to keep the wires above the deepest
snow; they are also placed close enough together to prevent the wire
being broken by an accumulation of snow and sleet.

The wire used in this line is No. 9 iron, zinc-coated, weighing three
hundred and fifty pounds to the mile, and the total weight used between
Omaha and San Francisco amounts to seven hundred thousand pounds. The
insulators are of glass, protected by a wooden shield, of the pattern
known as the Wade insulator.

The line is worked by Morse instruments, usually direct from Chicago to
Salt Lake, Hicks's self-acting repeaters being kept in the circuit at
Omaha and Fort Laramie. At Salt Lake the messages are rewritten, and
thence sent direct to San Francisco. The stations average about one for
each fifty miles, and the whole length of the line is inspected twice a
week by persons employed for the purpose. The cost of construction was
about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile.

No trouble was experienced from Indian depredations until the last
winter. Up to that time the line had worked almost uninterruptedly. Even
during the Indian difficulties of the previous summer and autumn, which
compelled the suspension of the overland mail, the telegraph was not in
any manner molested by the savages. This was supposed to be owing in a
great measure to the influence of superstitious fear among them in
regard to the wire, which they supposed to be under the especial care of
the Great Spirit; but it was probably largely due also to the many kind
offices done them by the telegraph-operators, who frequently ascertained
where the buffalo were in force, and informed their red-skinned
neighbors, who were thus enabled to find their favorite game. The charm
is now, however, unfortunately, dispelled; and the savages take every
opportunity to break and carry off the wire and destroy the poles.
Government is dispatching a large force of cavalry to punish the
marauders and protect the line, which it is to be hoped may prove
effectual.

* * * * *

It has already been mentioned that the Russian Government has undertaken
to extend the main eastern and western line from Irkoutsk to the mouth
of the Amoor River. This extension is now rapidly progressing. But this
is only a single and not very prominent part of the work which the
Emperor of Russia has begun. His design embraces nothing less than the
following stupendous works, namely:--

A line, with the necessary submarine cables, from the mouth of the Amoor
River, across the Straits of Tartary, over the island of Sakhalien,
across the Straits of La Perouse, over the Island of Jesso, through
Hakodadi, and across the Straits of Sangar, to Jeddo, the capital of
Japan.

A line from the confluence of the Usuri with the Amoor, seven hundred
miles above the mouth of the latter, thence southward, on the bank of
the Usuri, to Lake Kingka, and thence to the port of Vladi Vastok, on
the coast of Tartary, opposite the port of Hakodadi, on the eastern
coast of the Japanese Sea. Vladi Vastok is selected by the Emperor for
his naval station on the Pacific coast.

A line from Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, through Kiakhta,
now the entrepot of European and Chinese overland commerce, through the
vast territory of the Mongols, to the gate in the Chinese wall at Yahol,
and thence to Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire.[E]

A line from a station on the main continental line at Omsk, near the
southern boundary of Asiatic Russia, passing through Mongolia, and
entering China at Hirck, sometimes called Illy, thence crossing
Turkistan, Bokhara, and Balk, to Cabool, in Afghanistan, thence to
capital places in the Punjaub, where it will meet the telegraphic system
of India, and thus become a medium of communication between London and
the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and
Portugal, on the shores and islands of the great Indian Ocean.

A line from Kasan, on the main central Russian line, through Georgia and
Circassia, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, to Teheran, the
capital of Persia, thence to the Tigris, at Bagdad, thence descending
along the banks of that river to the head of the Persian Gulf, there to
be connected with the Oriental telegraph system of India.

The line from Irkoutsk to Pekin American citizens residing in China are
now soliciting, with good prospect of success, permission from the
Chinese Government to extend through the Empire, with the needful
branches, connecting the principal ports along the Pacific coast,
opposite California. A company to carry out this project has been
organized under the laws of the State of New York. The wires of this
company are first to be put up from Canton to Macao and Hong Kong, a
distance of 140 miles,--Canton having a population of 1,000,000,
Hong-Kong of 40,000, and the trade of both cities world-famous. Lying
245 miles north is Amoy, with 250,000 inhabitants; and 120 miles farther
in the same direction is Foochow, a city with a population of 600,000,
and within 70 miles of the black-tea districts, with large commerce, and
with numerous manufactures of great value. Beyond it 250 miles is
Ningpo, with 300,000 inhabitants, and thriving manufactures of silks.
Eighty miles north is Shanghai, a city of not less than 200,000
inhabitants, and possessing a larger inland or native trade than any
other in China. Yet between these great marts there is no telegraphic
communication whatever,--nor, indeed, is there a line in any part of the
whole Chinese Empire. The company proposes, therefore, to connect these
great commercial cities, and, having done that, to carry on its line to
Nankin, with its 400,000 inhabitants, and thence to Pekin, which has a
population of 2,000,000, and is the capital of an empire spread over an
area of 5,000,000 square miles, and containing more than 420,000,000
souls, who pay to the Government an annual revenue of $120,000,000. It
may well be understood, that, for Government purposes alone, a line of
telegraph thus extending between the chief cities of China will prove of
incalculable value, alike in its use, and in its profits to those who
erect it and receive its income. The enterprise is a great one, but its
reward will be great. Its successful accomplishment seems to be well
assured; and New York may expect presently to claim the honor of first
giving to the oldest of existing empires the beneficent invention which
the newest of nations created, and at the same time of taking the final
step for the completion of the one great line which is to put all the
countries of the earth in instant communication.

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