The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-10-14
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
o Id.

ldyiHk VI ~ AeiuutC 4CAcSTupu uOCo SuDoiuC
with the simple announcement of the fact. We
have recorded the fact it is true, but there is
something about it that the mind does not rest
contented with-therei is something of the won
derful or superhuman, that partakes more of the
nature of a miracle. The old Arabian poets are
famed for their love Of the marvellous, and the
tales of the thousand and one nights which have
come down to US show that no ordinary stretch of
imagination was resorted to on the part of both
the narrators and their hearers. But there has
been no Oriental poet who has ventured to imag-
inc that a dweller in Damascus or Bagdnd could
by any means communicate his thoughts to the
utmost regions of the world as instantaneously as
conceived in his own brain. This, which would
have been deemed by them impossible, has become
a miracle of the nineteenth century.
We have recorded as a fact that henceforth
New York and London can hold instantaneous
communication with each other, though sepa-
rated by three thousand miles of ocean space.
The days when man could only rely on wind and
steam to convey his thoughts across oceans are
passing away, and a new order of things is to be
henceforward established, when electricity will
become his servant to carry his messages from
continent to continent and from island to island.
This wonderful and subtitle agent, unknown to
the ancients, only as they saw it's mysterious
flight through the stormy heavens, or trembled
under its power-may yet become mans most
powerful and obedient servant. As yet We know
but little of it. We know that there is such a
power and we have begun to learn how to pro-
duce it and how to control it and make use of it
in transmitting thought from place to place.
But what it is and where it comes from, whether
it exists only in our world, or is a controlling
element, under the guidance Of Almighty power,
in the machinery of the universe, we have not yet
learned. For aught we know, that mysterious
orb now flying with incomprehensible speed
across our western sky, may be a mass of electric
ity, which by some law yet unknown to us, leaves
that long trail for man to wonder at or perhaps
this same element that is now being trained to
carry mans thoughts from continent to CONT
nent, and which must eventually encompass our
globe, may be the motive agent used by creative
power to impel those wandering stars through
the universe and teach them when to turn from
and to the sun around which they revolve.
Whatever electricity may be, man knows as yet
very little about it.
The great fact is, however, demonstrated that
electricity will henceforth be mans messenger
throughout the world. When we consider the
results that must follow, and that not many years
distant, it is no wonder that the successful laying
of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is viewed as one
Of the greatest %triumphs of art the world has ever
known, and that the rejoicings are so universal
wherever the news has been carried. As yet the
invention of the electric telegraph is only in its
infancy and if in its infancy and with the many
imperf; ctions which science and experience must
in time overcome, it has joined the eastern and
western continents, what will it not accomplish
in the course of the next few years. The laying
of the telegraph a distance of nearly two thousand
miles, under water, and being enabled thereby to
hold instantaneous communication that distance,
must be viewed as a triumph of art and science
over time and space. No longer are two widely
separated hemispheres kept asunder by the vast
expanse of ocean which intervenes. They are
joined by a magnetic band, which We hope may
never be severed. America and Europe may
now hold hourly converse.
The telegraph will by no means be allowed to
rest here; the experiment which has just been
completed, and which may be viewed as the
greatest the world has ever witnessed, is but the
turning point which will hasten on the day when
the mountains and valleys of every ocean will be
surveyed and will receive the cable, and the
whole world will be joined and united in one
bond. 1t will not be merely Europe and Amer
lea. but lines will run from Europe to Asia, to
India and China, to Africa, to Mexico, to South
America, and even to Australia. 1t needs no
prophetic foresight to discern the day when Homo
lulu and London may daily converse by tele-
graph. It may not be in our day but it will as
surely follow this great experiment as the noon
fntlovc Tho Aoun Tho w;ro which hos lao,
laid down from London in one direction will soon
be carried to the heart of California. A CORES
ponding wire will be carried eastward to India,
China, and touching at the many islands in this
northern ocean will pass back to California.
Then will it happen that a man may generate a
spark at London which with one fiery leap will
return under his hand and disappear but in
that moment of time it will have encompassed the
planet on which we are whirling through the
The wonderful power of this electric
agent is almost above human comprehension.
1t is impossible not to discern. in an event 80
and so pregnant with mighty changes
and momentous results, as the laying of the At
Eantic telegraph, the hand of Providence. 1t is
gratifying to see that this idea was prominent in
he minds of the chief agents in the enterprise.
Mr.. Field recognizes the hand of Providence in
dispatch, so also does President Buchanan in
lis response, whilst the message of Captain Hud-
Un congresses within its brief limits the essence
If devout piety-" To God be all the glory"
This is the same Captain Hudson who visited
a few years since in the Portsmouth.
But what will be the result of this wonderful
gent on the affairs of the world? Some will view
t as a boon to the commercial world, others will
ee in it the harbinger of peace. From two of
'ur exchanges we quote some remarks on these
,oints
"The commercial changes caused by the Ocean Telegraph
annot be foreseen in detail. The general effect will be to widen
he area OF trade and to give 1t greater steadiness. The vision
{ our producers and merchants viii be enlarged; and instead oil
mainly confined to home demands and home prospects, will