Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1879-10-01
"The Blue and White Sign"

. ~ ~ ~A 1S~A1y 49,
that people often fail to appre-
,iate some Of the most salient and
outcomes of their own pecu-
liar social and political organizations.
Some time ago, at a social gathering
Of gentlemen in New York, a distin-
scholar, who had Travelled much
IN this and other countries, was the
guest of the evening. His shrewd
and piquant anecdotes gave
sest to q conversation which was both
animated and suggestive. Just as the
party was about to break up some one
Iocularly asked him what had impressed
him most in the United States. "You
may laugh" he answered, "but what
most of all excited my attention and
wonder was a sign, a plain looking sign
with the words Western Union TeIe-
graph Of6ce,' in white letters on a blue
ground. That sign positively haunted
me. l saw it in your centres of industry
and commerce, in the best streets and
the worst slums of your great cities, in
retreats, on the great plains,
and at seaside resorts. In advance even
of your farthest outposts it confronted
me and geemed to say: Beyond this
there are as yet no thoroughfare, no
no light To me it ap-
peared to be coextensive with American
home influence aud activities" A reply
80 unexpected did at first move to laugh.
ter. If he had mentioned any of the
many things to which orators in stump
and other speeches often point with
pride, patriotic bias would have felt
gratified on the instant. But to have
a sign cited-the sign, too, of q
private corporation-as the object which
fastened itself most prominently and
persistently in the mind of a learned and
travelled foreigner in visiting this coun-
try was for the moment irresistably
comic. Thought, however, was after
wards prompted, and when one quietly
examines what wal said it is seen that q
revelation has been made of a fact
which everybody ought to have recog-
Hized before, but did not. As the blue
and white sign has somewhat outgrown
the need of advertising, it may not i'm.
properly be regarded here in the inter
esting light in which it appeared to the
stranger.
That sign, in what it denotes and con-
notes, is in reality n of the most dis
tinctively typical characteristics of our
civilization. 1t marks the receiving
and transmitting Offices of a company
whose lines, after uniting on the eastern
side of the continent with the tele-
graphic cables which connect the old
world with the new, reaches west to the
Pacific coast and Vancouver's island,
south to the borders of Mexico and north
to Manitoba. Facilities are betokened
by it of that instantaneous intercourse
with foreign countries and throughout
the length and breadth of the land, with
out which the unexampled prosperity of
our growing millions Of people would be
well nigh an impossibility. A map of
its positions over our vast extent of ter.
ritory would afford a fair, graphical
representation of the relative density O,
the population and Of the material
growth and intellectual energy of the
country. 1t occurs with frequency in
the thickly peopled sections. 1t darts
forward on the crest of the wave OF
progress, and stakes out, as it were, the
direction of the coming tide. Its ubi.
guilty is amazing. The climate, the
physical features Of the landscape, the
habits, manners and customs of the PEG.
pie may change as n travels through
the land, but its familiar face remains
the same, and seems ever present. II
stays to give what cheer it may to the
stricken inhabitants of plague-be.
leaguered cities. In the wilds of the
Indian territory, where the locomotive
only stops for water or fuel, or to drop
IN occasional victor to the Indian
natien, it is displayed. On the top OF
Pixies Peak, where the air is 30 rare
that tine blood sometimes starts from the
ear snd nostrils of those unaccustomed
to mountain climbing, the adventurous
tourist finds there the indication that
from his remote and lofty solitude he
can defy time and distance, and speak
Immediately with those he left at home.
On the long journey across the plains to
California it hangs at every station
where the traveller alights to stretch his
weary limbs, and at the smaller stations,
where there lie no stopping for through
passengers, glimpses are caught Of it Al
the train rushes by. During the Wal
the bearers of the sign not only kept
pace with the army, but more than once
preceding the picket guard entered
towns from which the rear guard of the
enemy was departing, speedily put
their instruments in working order,
and on the arrival of the
officer in command of the victorious
army had the sign set up which assured
him that the Communication 80 vitality
essential to the success of his future
operations was already established.
When Crook and Terry went from Fort
Laramie to the relief of Fort Fetter-
man, 100 miles in advance of the abode
Of the pioneer settler. they found the
sign of the Western Union Telegraph
company modestly displaying itself be-
meath the nag of the American Union.
Here let it be said that it is hardly q
matter of surprise that the government
has been asked to bestow it's appreciation
in the shape of pensions on the surviving
telegraphers who performed 10 remarka-
BILE and serviceable achievements on its
behalf.
In peace and war, wherever there lie q
struggle to the front, one is obliged to
confess that " the blue and white sign"
is ' in the van, and it must be added
that, because it is demanded there by
the nature and character of the people
of this country, by the national enter
prise and energy and ingenuity which
have brought the application of the
electric telegraph to the highest degree
of development in the land of its birtk
II the power behind "the blue and
white sign" does not retain in its hands
the bulk of the Geographic business of
the country, it will be its own fault.
Now thst it is grown great in influence,
it is expected to be magnanimous in
policy, liberal to the public that have
inspired and seconded its endeavors, to
the press that has been the guardian and
promoter of general and private inter.
ests, and to employees WHO have not
scrupled to risk health and life in its
service.
A 0onv1ct's Joke.
A strange and rather amusing story is
related BY n of the inmates of the