The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-10-28
The Carrier-PigcOns Beating the Ieie-
graph an the Transmission Oh news
from Versailles TO Paris.

Versailles Correspondence New York Times
Perhaps it is worth while noting here one
novelty in the way Of transmitting news.
The Paris Journals are not greatly noted ior
enterprise. and all of them appear to think
that for ANYTHING which transpires beyond
the French frontier, a few days more or less
in the transmission of news can make very
little difference. But it is very different
matter with news from Versailles. The
smallest Journals have two or more men con-
stantly there, ut salaries of eight hundred or
one thousand francs per month, alded ny
messengers, and authorized to use a CAD
whenever necessary. In the stable ADJOINING
mine, Il Gaulois reporter keeps his morse at
the expense of the journal, and drives to Fer-
sailles every morning before 8 O'Clock, coming
back in the evening. Those who reproach
the French press for want of enterprise lit
tie know their liberalty in getting news
from Versailles. But the heaviest expense
falls upon the evening Journals. They 60
to press at $3.50, and hence must have the
news sent by express, by special courier, or
by telegraph. AS general thing the latter
mode is found too slow, owing to the regu-
lations of the service. A piece OF news
which does not please the eye of the ope-
rator has to be submitted to his chief, who
NAV perhaps demand the signature OF the
Minister of the Interior before he sends
il. As this would require two or three
hours, and perhaps an entire day, the tele-
graph is not exactly trustworthy for the
Transmission of political news when one is
pressed for time. In consequence, the teie-
graph has been given up to the official and
semi-otficiai press. In the present case
the LtGerk has surmounted the diff
Guilty by employing carrier pigeons. A
cage of birds is taken to Versailles By train
every morning. The reporter writes in very
fine character upon tissue. paper, and every
lalfhour sends bis notes out to an assistant
in the yard Of the Trianon, who attaches
them TO the bird and starts him off 1T once.
The trustiest dispatch agents are kept for
the last. The bird rises straight into the air
for about hundred feet, remains poised
there moment while getting his bearings,
then shoots away with remarkable rapidity,
and in direct line for bis familiar cote. He
dashes in without delay, rushes to his mas
ter, who is waiting for him with his dinner,
and offers no resistance while the manuscript
is being detached. A messenger takes it at
once to the printers. The birds take from
fifteen to twenty minutes to make the trip,
lust about the time it would take messenger
boy to stroll from the telegraph office to
the bureau of the journal, and he brings
each time the matter for eight or ten or
binary telegraphic dispatches. But care
must be taken in writing, SO that the words
can be read by magnifying glass. The last
bird is dispatched about ten minutes after 8
O'Clock, and being an old and experienced
carrier he is generally or hand at $3.50 with
the every latest news" Yesterday the
birds were on time, while the telegraphic
dispatches sent of at the same moment were
only published in the edition of o'clock in
the evening, having arrived half:hour too
late for the first edition. am told that the
forms are kept open for four or five minutes
when bird is expected, but never delayed
for an instant for the telegraph. All this is
not very creditable to the telegraph men who
have invented the means for sending four
messages by the same wire at the same in |
slant, two in each direction, but it is never. |
theless curious commentary upon the |
times