The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-30
ELEGRAPH- -PHILADELPHIA WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3d.

the successive stages in the progress Of tele-
grsphy.
Attorney-General Evarls, Ex-Governor Curtin,
and others.
Governor Curtin, after briefly alluding to the
history of the Atlantic cable and paying an
eloquent tribute to Morse and Field, spoke of
the great enterprise and progress which mark
the present age, In this connection he said:-
l can remember well when the question of
connecting the Ohio and the Delaware rivers
agitated the people OF my native State. PreJu-
uice and ignorance resisted stubbornly, but free
schools and internal improvements came hand
in hand TO give us greatness. Brave men fell in
popular reprobauon because they expended
lew millions 10 give back iDcalculable wealth
and the priceless boon of universal
education. Our turnpiEes were the first
slow, hesitahng steps in progress; the
tottering, timld footsteps OF infancy. the
State stretched out IFS bounty and commerce
was quickened. They have passed away,
and the account OF capital invested stands un-
balanced in the Treasury; but who can estimate
the dividends? With trembling and fear q col.
lege here and there was established, and soon
came the common schools to hasten progress
alike in the improvements OF rich and poor.
Then came our great canal and our primitive
railroad; but, imperfect as they were, unwlsely
as they were managed, and fruitless as they
appeared on the balance sheet of the Common
wealth, they were great artery OF commercial
and national liie-a vast stream of progress that
was steadily advan cling our people and making
them nobler and richer from year to year. They
lOO nave almost ladeQ away DelOTe Ine marCn
of the iron horse, whose rude music is heard
over nearly iour thousand miles of railroad
in the State; but they added millions to the
wealth of Pennsylvania. He lauded the libe.
rality and enterprise OF England in eXpending
$440, 1000, 900 to enrich her East Indian oosses-
slons with railroads and telegraphs, and
predicted that in a few years there will be a
continuous line of rail from Dover to the
Bosphorus, thence down the ELphrates, across
Persia TO India, and thence eventually to China
and Japan. Referring to our great railroad
achievement, he expressed his trust that before
another five years shall have elapsed three great
trunk lines of railroads will cross the plains
and mountains to the Pacific. He continued !:
The telegraph must now reach the East, and
be the forerunner of the great harvest OF
civilization from San Francisco to Oregon,
thence by Russian America to the Asatic
coast. The submarine cable will soon bear
messages of progress and muse the love of ad-
vancement into the commercial cities OF China
and japan. ''The extension of the telegraph to
the East' will be the crowning triumph of the
civilization we so fondly and justly claim, and
soon the commerce of the Oriental cities will
turn from the east to the west, land on our
Pacific shores, and sweep across our continent
to our great cities and to the marts of
Europe, and then the9hghtning messenger will
encircle the whole world, to bear the glad
tidings of prosperity and peace to all mankind