The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-09-02
THE TELEGRAPH TOO STOW.


Lfrcm the Ncm York Tribune
In the regular Thursday afternoon edition of the Tn
bune printed copied from the London papers Of
Wednesday, of peace with China and also reports Of the
sailing OF steamers very important and highly inter-
esng news which sought after and read with much
earnestness and with general satsiacton There was
one exception An excitabe individual hearing the
boys CRYING 'News by the ocean telegraph direct from
London r. stepped into the Tribune Office aud snatchcd
up paper IN great haste, looking to whether 1t Is
worth his while To invest two cents In the purchase OF
papc OF course it did not take him long to read the
despatch ocean kilograms are and we hope ever Will be
brief than that go over the land lines and
then he threw down the paper with an ar OF disgust
claiming, he turned away dissatisfied Thunder,
what cheats The boys said it was right from london
II is day cld ! thought 1t came from there to-day
Oh pshaw y s Xxx
This reminds us Of an anecdote old friend Of ours
used to tell of the first line Of magnetic telegraph ever
operated that from Washington To Baltimore and that
Only l6 years ago When it first established there
was of course great deal of talk about instantaneous
communication between the two places. Yankee,
who had some matter before Congress, upon which the
fate OF nations, in his opinion, stood trembling, left
Washington afternoon in company with our friend,
bnd eastward by the express train On the way TO af-
te he recolccted that he had forgot to tell his lobby
agent to be cure to say twccdlcdcc tweediednm we
forget which, to tho member from 'our district, and
he was in peck of trouble ut the Important oms-
sion He could not so back for there was some other
camy important matter to attend to somewhere about
Boston our friend suggested 10 him the use Of the tee-
graph at Baltimore. 1T would be possible Tor hm To
run into tho Office transmit his message and get to the
Philadelphia boat in time
&'.fIl do It'll get an answer back, suppose
''Well yes; ; if your friend is not too far off 4
.'Ill do it, just the thing, Thank you Thank you
for the suggestion. just the thing"
And work he went with his pencil writing over about
a page of letter paper, to transmit instananeously
lie was so excited that he wanted to lep from the cars
and outrun them when they to the slow speed Of
traction and would have done so probably,
if he had known the way to the telegraph oficea way
not as well known in those days us now Our friend
agreed to pilot him. and he agreed to wait with what
patience he could OF he entered the office IN
hurry and thrusting his manuscript in the face Of the
operator sad There, want that sent to Washington,
and an answer, right off. How long will it take =
'sIIalf an hour, perhaps, was the quiet reply
You would have had study Of the human face under
feeling disappointment ii you could have seen his At
that moment while he ierked out the words "Half
a.! Why, thought 1T wouldn't take half min
ute" -
It was the theme Of that mans conversation al the
evening, that .ths telegraph was hulnbug Half an
hour to he sure, when man is in hurry they can
make it work quicker than that, what's the use I!
Sure enough, what is the use News printed IN Lon
don on Wednesday, and in New York on Thursday, u
already too slow. Can't we have It little quicker
ssHalf an hour Can't we have it In half minute
Who will totally annihilate spaccY