Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-08-11
s.B. ROW, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
CLARIFIED, Pa, AUG. II, 1858.
THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.


The laying of the Atlantic Telegraph Gable
has at length been successfully accomplished.
Last week, at a time when no one expected
such an announcement, the news of its sue
cess fitted over the wires, with electric rapid
ity, to all parts of the Union, and was every
where received with marked demonstrations
of ioy-by firing of cannon, ringing of bells,
bonfires, Examinations, displays of fireworks,
music and professions.
The telegraph fleet, Mr.. Cyrus W. Field in
forms the public, separated in mid-ocean on
the 29th July, the Agamemnon and Valorous
bound for Valentia, Ireland, and the Niagara
and Gorgon for Trinity Bay, on the American
shore. 1t is 1893 nautical, or 1890 statute
miles from the telegraph house at the head of
Falentia harbor to the one at Trinity Bay, and
for more than two-thirdS of this distance the
water is over two miles in depth. The cleo
trio signals sent and received through the
whole cable were perfect. Mr.. Field tele-
graphed to Mr.. Buchanan at Bedford Springs,
informing him of the success of the enter
prise, and that soon as the two ends were
connected with the land lines, her Majesty,
Queen Victoria, would send message to the
free until his answer had been transmitted.
The announcement of the success of this
magnificent and stupendous enterprise, gives
birth TO strange emotions, and one scarcely
knows how to express himself. An achieve
ment so gigantic, vast, strange, mo-
mentous, is almost incomprehensible-is al
most beyond the power of human mind TO
fathom. The n. Y. Tribune says:
SIT is not possible to grasp the wondrous
beauty and magnitude of this triumph. The
ocean has defied man now man defics the o.
cean, in so far as the subtle carriage of thot
is involved. Down, down to its lowest deep
but late deemed fathomless-go the magic
wires upon which play the harmOnies of whole
peoples. Under the home of the leyiathans
clustered in obscurity and mystery, where no
human eye can reach, and where early faiths
placed The water-gods, run these cunning de-
vices by which nation speaks to nation, conti
nent to continent, in the lghtnings of the hea-
vens. The old theory of distances, severan-
ces and physical possibilities, seems destroy
ed, to be replaced by new combinations and
consequences. The seas storms, sucking
down argosies and armadas, are now compcn-
SaleQ lle pTONeSS which SelZeS lic ueep
and uses it for human purposes, declaiming in
the language of nature itsclf-silent and
sublime.
ssEach man must feel freer in the accession
of so much power. What the earlier theolo-
gies and romantic writings attributed to the
functions of supernatural beings-the geni--
the OIympians-the force to strike offthe dead
drag of the flesh, and fly through ether to the
uttermcst ends of the earth, or to course the
under waters of the ocean with the haste of
light itself-is here thrust before the dazzled
eyes of this age and all the nations, in The
stern, fierce palpability of human triumph-of
the work of man, who, advancing on chaos and
the dark, has battled with the Titanic forces,
and come off victor.
ave must believe that such a new reading
to human possibility must carry as vast moral
as it does physical lessons. 1t cannot be that
such fresh boon from God to man, which ex-
ats the least as we'll as the greatest of human
ity, should not bear with it the principle OF
love and liberty, even to the humblest and sad
dest. In the contemplation of such supernal
glories accorded to the race, men will grow
weary with oppression; they viii rise with their
newly born destinies; they will mount ever
onward and upward, until the better day which
has ever fired the heart of poetry and prophecy
shall have dawned on the race"