The Osceola times., 1881-04-16
Laying the Cable.
New York Ledger.

petition with the New York papers was
TO be the first to publish the English
steamers news. To accomplish this, ex-
ertions were made that have probably
never been surpassed in the history Of
the daily press. The moment the steam
er was sighted at Halifax. horse was
saddled, and the express rider prepared
to mount. A parcel was thrown from
the steamers deck, and away the rider
sped with it across Nova Scotia to the
Bay of Fundy. Thence the precious
packet and its bearer were carried in a
swift steamboat to Portland. Between
Portland and New York the messenger
Travelled by horse, by buggy, by steam-
boat, and by such bits of railroad as were
then completed, and so the news some
times reached New York 10 hours before
the steamer reached Boston. The ex-
press frequently cost as much as $1,000
which was shared usually among half
dozen newspapers of Boston, New York,
and Philadelphia.
And the worst OF il was that a few
newspapers would sometimes incur this
great expense and be beaten after all.
There was one memorable occasion when
the Tribune and the Herald ran rival ex-
presses from Halifax to New York in the
middle of severe winter, when Nova
Scotia was heaped with snow-drifts, and
the Bay of Fundy was covered with float
ing ice Is inches thick. The Tribune ex-
press made the distance from Halifax to
Boston in 81 hours. From Boston to
New Haven il was mostly conveyed by
railroad.
From New Haven" said the Tribune
of the next morning, sit was brought
hither in four hours and half by our
ever trusty rider, Enoch Ward who
never lets the grass grow to the heels of
his horses. He CALI. in little after ! |
o'clock a. m. but the rival express had
got in two hours earlier, having made
the shortest time from Boston on
record"
There were many such mishaps in
those days. Sometimes a horse would
fall lamei in the middle of the night, and
the rider would be obliged to wake up
farmer and buy another. Occasionally
the rider himself would give out, lose an
hour or two in getting warmth or rest,
and reach New York Just in time to hear
the boys crying the news in an extra of
rival sheet. These expresses made a
great stir at the time; for the editors did
not fail to blow the boastful trumpet,
and the public were gradually worked up
to high degree of excitement. Bets
were made, as in the case of other races,
and anecdotes were told of the tricks
and adventures of the express riders.
At this time, Cyrus w. Field was a
prosperous merchant of the city of New
York, and young enough to take lively
4 N Il q
He came to the city about 1884 from his
Yankee home, a boy of Is, and went
into a store as clerk. Ten years after,
he was rising merchant. Twenty years
after, he had withdrawn from active
business, although still under 35 years of
age. The telegraph had then been
so far developed as to save a good deal
of this fierce express riding between
Halifax and New York, and he was in
vited to take shares in scheme which
would make the riders unnecessary. 1t
/ was proposed to run line of very swift
| steamers between Ireland and Newfound-
| land, where the distance across the
/ ocean is shortest; also to construct a
line of telegraph across Newfoundland,
and connect it with the wires of the
| United States. This would bring
Europe and America within seven days
of one another. The part of the scheme
to which his cooperation was invited
was the connection of the telegraphic
system of the United States with the
| point where the steamers were TO touch.
! AT Mr. Fields house in New York, at
the corner of Gramacy Park and Lex
| inQt IN avenue, there is q small, dingv.
old-flshioned globe, which has been
part of the furniture of the house almost
ever since it was built He was accus-
toned to use this globe while consider
| ing the telegraphic scheme and being
| thus engaged one day, he said to him
self: "Why not carry the line across the
ocean,"
| Thus the idea of the Atlantic cable
was born; and it was born to perhaps
the only man in the world who could
have brought it to successful issue.
The early history of the Atlantic cable
is long series of the most discourage
ing failures, and there was but one man
who never despaired, and he was the
originator of the enterprise. The build
ing of the land line across Newfound-
land and Cape Breton occupied two
years and while this was in progress
the cable intended to connect these
islands with the mainland was lost in a
storm at sea, and second cable had to
be made, brought from England and sub
merged, before even this preliminary
part of the scheme was carried out. lie
formed the American company at his
own house; went to England and enlist
ed English capital, subscribing himself
one-fourth of the whole. by personal
application he induced the two govern
ments to lend steamships in laying the
cable.
When he had got so far as to organize
a powerful company on both sides of the
Atlantic. and to induce the English and
American governments to lend huge
ships in aid of the work, we should
naturally have supposed that the chief
| difficulties were overcome 1t proved
otherwise. The first attempt was made
in 1857, with two large naval steamers,
the Niagara of the United States navy,
and the Agamennon of the British, each
having on board ,25O miles of cable.
They sailed from Ireland, August Z, the
Niagara paying out the cable as they
slowly steamed westward. On the
fourth day, when 335 miles of the cable
had been laid on the bottom of the sea,
it snapped where the water was 1000
fathoms deep. At the moment of part
ing the cable was running out too fast,
and in the attempt to check the speed it
was subjected to too great a strain. The
vessels returned to Ireland, and Cyrus
W. Field instantly set about renewing
the attempt.
1t was too late that year. Early in