The Democratic advocate., 1879-03-22


The Philadelphia Ledger of the 12th inst.
says THAT was the impressive and rever-
ent message sent by Professor Morse over the
FIRST completed line Of electric telegraph wire
in the world. This was the short stretch
between Washington and Baltimore. Ia
those days llS4A) it was marvel, and the
possibilities Of the future were let loose upoH
the inventive imagination; but how few they
were who looked forward through the inter
yening twenty-five years, TO 1866, the time
when Europe was successfully linked to Amer.
icn under the depths Of twenty-five hundred
miles Of the Atlantic.
The present generation Of business men and
Of reading people have become so accustomed
10 the ocean cable (once, like the trans At
lantic steamship, scientifically demonstrated
impossihility,l that the time when at was not
seems away off in the remote ages. Yet il
was not so remote but that four or five Of the
far-seeing originators of that noble enterprise
could meet in the living body, as they did, at
the residence Of Cyrus w. Field, Esq. on Mon.
day 10th inst. in the city Of New York, to com
memorate the twenty.6ith anniversary Of the
signing of the compact to lay a telegraphic
cable across the Atlantic There they were,
at the invitation Of Mr.. Feld-himself, Peter
Cooper, Marshall o. Roberts, and Moses
Taylor in the same house, the same room and
at the same tsble--not with an untried, hazard
ous, bold, and most costly scheme to consid.
er, but with the inll fruition of their grand
conception about them, in immediate tele-
graphic communication with the hundreds Of
thousands of miles of wires on the land,
and with the seventy thousand miles under
the sea-Jules Vernes faneiful "Twen-
ty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea- sur.
passed In the short interval between 1866
and 1879 all the continents had been inter
interlocked by the ocean eable-America,
Europe, Asia, Africa and the far away
New Holland, as it used ta be called, at the
anhpodes. Practically the world had been
encireled, though there is still no cable across
the Pacific.
Mr.. Field and his three surviving colleagues
of the original band (Mr. Chandler White
being deceased and the goodly company he
had assembled to celebrate the silver wedding
Of the Continents aud the Sess-sitting at that
table in that now historic rsom in Gramercy
Park, could have telsgraphed to every capt
iial Of every civilized nation Of the Old World
and to every commercial centre and to every
local point-to London, Paris, Berlin, Wen
ma, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, st. Petersburg,
Amsterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, Geneva,
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Constantinople-
and under the Mediterranean and the Red Sea
and the Indian Ocean and all the separating
waters to Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong
Kong, Jeddo, Australia and New Zealand
TO meet the coming sun in his circuit journey
from the 0rient-and in advance Of the sun
and Of local time across our own continent to
San Francisco, on the shores Of the Pacific |!
Through the Atlantic cables also and by a
two-iold traverse Of the Atlantic, FIRST to Lis
bon, in Portugal, and thence back, across the
South Atlantic, TO Pernambuco, they could
have held converse with the good Brazilian
Emperor at Rio Janeiro, or with their com
mereial correspondents at Para. Equally,
they could have exchanged greetings with the
West India Islands; and with all Of our own
multitudinous cities and towns, where the
click Of the Joseph Henry repeater is heard
day and night, almost without ceasing. What
magnificent fruition then the guests Of Mr.
Field had TO survey in that room on the TWEEN.
ty-ifth anniversary of their daring project
Besides the numerous cables across the
smaller arms Of the sea, and in addition to
those under the Baltic, the Mediterranean,
the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, there are FIVE
now in operation across between this coun-
try and Europe, and one between Portugal
and Brazil. From Western Europe they
course around through the Mediterranean to
Alexandra, in Egypt, and from Suez, under
the Red Sea, to Alden, and thence under the
Indian Ocean to Bombay, and thence again
by land lines and other cables they eommuni-
cate with the systems from Singapore to Chi
ma, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, as
already indicated. Thus we see ''what God
hath wrought" ia this quarter of century,
since Mr.. Field and his four associates met in
1864!
Coming back to the period Immediately
succeeding their memorable agreement, we
may take but glance at the tremendous diff.
6eulties and, what seemed irremediable, de-
feats the promoters Of the Atlantic cables had
to encounter. After negotiating the vast sums
Of money required they were struck by failure
after failure, three cables breaking in mid
ocean and at every break million and a
quarter OF dollars sunk into the sea-until al
last, in 1858, a cable was got to speak across
the twenty-five hundred miles Of ocean; hui
fainter and fainter I'LL il gave its last sign ii
the memorable "AH right; De Santy,h anC
spoke no more, to the dismay of the prolee
tors and regret Of the world
Then hope seemed to have Hed-and did
fly for several years from all save a faithful
few-and would have fed from them but fol
the indomitable will and courage of Cyrus
W. Field. He knew it could be done and
was determined that it should. And mos
nobly has il been accomplished as our yer,
brief summary Of electric cables will help th'
reader TO understand. II is NOT too much K
say that Mr.. Field was the inspiration all tn,
way through; and that he is typical repre-
sentative OF that speices Of human actiyitie
who leave their impress in broad and endur
ing characters upon the age and upon tn,
world.