Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-02-11


and crumble under the rays of the
tropical sun.
MORSE AND HIS TELEGRAPH.
The Little Instrument that Made His
Fortune Preserved at the National Mu-
scum.
The National Museum at Washing
ton has one of the first locomotives In
the country, and think it has the one
upon which Peter Cooper acted as en-
glneer. Here is the original Morse
telegraph instrument, and it was on
this instrument that the first tele-
graphic message in the world was sent.
This line ran from Washington to Bal
timore, and the first words were:
what hath God wrought" Shortly
after the line was completed there was
a political CON- ention held at Ba t.
more. which nominated President
and Vice President. The Vice Presi-
dental candidate was at Washington,
and he was Silas Wright, then United
States Senator. He telegraphed a
declination of the nomination, but the
fconvention would not trnst the tele-
graph on such an important matter,
/ and they came by cars to Washington
to persuade him to accept the second
place on the ticket with Polk. He re-
fused, however, and Dallas was NOM
mated.
Morse eventually made fortune out
of the telegraph, and in 1859 some of
the foreign powers made him present
of S O,OOO. The King of Prussia gave
him gold snuff-box, and he received
a present from the Sultan of Turkey
of a decoration belonging to the
court in diamonds. Still, while his
bill was before Congress, he said one
day, that he had enough money to pay
his board and get out of Washington
if the bill did not pass. 1t was passed
the last day of the Congress of 1913,
and it gave him $4,000 to build an
experimental line between Washington
and Baltimore He first tried to put
the wire in lead pipe in the ground,
bat finally adopted the pole system
which is now in use.
To show how little the people then
knew of the telegraph, no less man
than the Secretary of the Treasury
asked N orse how large bundle could
be sent over the wires, and he wanted
to know whether it might not be pos
| sible for the United States mail to be
carried by them. A Congressman
brought bundle of dirty shirts to
the telegraph Office in the Capitol and
wanted them sent to Baltimore for
washing. Dolly Madison sent mes
sage to friend of hers in Baltimore
and the telegraph was the great ex-
element of the hour. Morse at this
time offered his whole right in the
patent to the Government for $780,
900, and was, fortunately for him,
laughed at and refused.
It was upon this that the Baltimore
and Ohio Telegraph Company, during
the time it was fighting the Western
Union, based it's claim to be the oldest
telegraph company in the world, in
that it held this line between Washing
ton and Baltimore upon which mes
sages were first sent. Now the United
States has 164. 954 miles of telegraph
wire instead of 40, and it surpasses the
other countries of the world in its tele
graph business. The whole world has
more than 100000 miles of telegraph
lines, or enough to put a wire twenty
four times around the whole world and
have some thousands of m les to spare.
China has only 944 miles of wire, and
when you consider that it's population
is perhaps six times that of the United
States you can see what immense op-
portunity is open to such scheme as
that of Wharton Barker and Mitkie-
wicz. China has just 22-lOO of mile
of wire to every 1000 square miles of
territory, or in round numbers, hardly
more than a foot of wire to every square
mile of her territory. Belgium on the
other hand, which has perhaps the
most telegraph wire in proportion to
it's territory, has one-half mile of wire
to each square mile of territory, and
France has one-third of mile of wire
to each square mile of her area. In all
Europe there is not much more than
twice the amount of telegraph lines
that there are in the United States,
and we send about $1,000, 900 messages
year to half that number by Great
Britain. Japan is rapidly increasing
as Geographic nation. and it sends
more than 100000 messages year.
It is it's activity in this regard that has
stirred up China, and I am told by
travellers that the enterprise of the
Japanese is having great influence up
on their Chinese neighbors.
Extravaganza in Dress.