The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-12 00:00:00

A MAMMOTH CHEESE.

In an article entitled "Reminiscences of Washington," in
the Atlantic Monthly, there are several interesting anecdotes
respecting the celebrated General Jackson (" Old Hickory,"
as he was called), among others, thelfellowing :
When Jefferson was President, his democratic
admirers in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, under
the guidance of Rev. John Leland, made and sent to
the White House, as a gift, the biggest cheese that
had ever been seen. Just prior to the expiration of
General Jackson's presidential term, one of his New
York admirers, named Meacham, who desired to
attract attention to the products of his dairy, sent to
the White House a cheese which eclipsed that bestowed
upon Jefferson. It was larger in circumference than
a hogshead,• and about a yard thick, and on the
massive box in which it was brought from the Meacham
dairy to Washington. was a portrait of General
Jackson, surmounted by the American eagle.
On the twenty-second day of February, 1837, eleven
days before the administration of General Jackson ex-
pired, he held a farewell reception, at which the mam-
moth cheese was cut and distributed in the ante-room
of the White House as a parting gift. Two men, with
immense knives made from sawblades, cut into the
unsavory mass, giving each applicant a piece weighing
two or three pounds. Some had provided themselves
with paper in which to wrap their portions, but many
carried them away in their hands without any cover-
ing, and upwards of fourteen hundred pounds was thus
distributed, or trodden under foot. After getting past
the cheese, thousands of visitors, of high and low de-
gree, elbowed their way into the blue parlor, where
they were presented to General Jackson, whose health
was so feeble that he remained sittin-, in his chair.
His niece, Mrs. Donelson, stood at his side, while be-
hind him, with a smile for every or of the passing
throng, was the president elect, Martin Van Buren.

PROGRESS OF TELEGRAPHY.
• Wheatstone's automatic instrument, which in 1866
could only send 60 words a minute over a No. 8 wire
280 miles long, can now send as many as 200 words a
minute over a line of the same guage 300 miles long.
In 1869 the total length of submarine cable employed
within the limits of the three kingdoms and exclusive
of the lines to the Continent was 121 knots divided
amongst 58 cables.

In 1869 there were only about three miles of pneu-
matic tubes in operation., and belonging to the Electric
Telegraph Company; in 1879 there were nearly 28
miles, including 21 miles in London, and over six miles
in cther provincial towns.

In 1869 the number of towns supplied with pres
telegrams was only 144, comprising 173 newspapers
and 133 oth?,r subscribers; in 1879, 313 tc7ns, com-
prising 518 newspapers and 288 institutions, were
supplied.
The number of press words transmitted shows the
advance still more. In 1869 the daily average of
words varied from 4,000 in the non-Parliamentary
season to 6,000 when the Houses were sitting ; in 1879
the corresponding number were 2-1,000 and 37,000
words. Often as many as half a million words are
despatchecr from the central telegraph station at St
11,i,trtin's-le-Grand in a single nat. Besides this,
from 30,000 to 70,000 words per diem are sent as
special reports from "our London correspondents " to
the provincial newspapers, without including the
traffic over " private" wires leased by newspapers for
their own use.
In 1869 the private wires ainounted to 2,525 miles,
worked by 1,466 instruments; in 1879 to 6,550 miles,
worked by 3,824 instruments, or including railway
service and canal wires, 9,269 miles worked by 4,607
instruments.—Engineering.