Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-21
ON THE RAGGED EDGE
Three United States Senators Who
Must Hustle for Reelection.
INGALLS, AND HIS INTERVIEWS.
Blair Explains His Famous Bill to Make
Water Run Up Hill.
TELLER PRoPHESIEs FREE COINAGE

Of the United States Senate will have NO
rest during the Christmas holidays. These
three are Senator Ingalls,, of Kansas; Blair,
of New Hampshire, and Pearce, of North
Dakota. All are candidates for reelection,
and the Legislatures of these States pass
upon their return in January.
Senator Ingalls, says he is confident Of his
reelection, but he will give no interview
for publication concerning it. The trouble
is ingalls, cannot talk without saying SOME
thing, and his words are always distorted
by his enemies. He gave an interview last
spring to the New York World in which he
said: ''The publication of politics is an
irridescent dream" He meant merely TO
state a fact, but his enemies claimed that he
believed in impure politics. and that he was
brazen enough to acknowledge it. Some OF
the ministers preached from their pulpits
about this interview, and the Senator re-
ceived something like 700 letters concerning
it. There is n general desire here that
Ingalls, may return. The Senate has little
enough brains as it is, and when it gets a
genius like Ingalls, it cannot afford to lose
him.
HAS BEEN FIXED STAR.
Senator Sanders calls him the lurid
meteor of the Senatorial sky, but he is
more than a meteor. He has been for the
past IS years the fixed star of the Repub-
lican side of the chamber, and he has said
more good things and more sharp things
during that time than any other two men in
the BODY. He has been one of the students
of the Senate, and he is as we'll equipped
Tor his duties as any other man in the body.
His head works like steam engine, and it
is the best idea factory in Washington.
Ingalls, does a deal of work which never
appears over his own signature. He gives
many a newspaper man ideas for letters and
editorials, and the gems which drop from
his vitriolic tongue are only few of the
thousands of his expressions which find
their way into type.
Senator Blair tells me that the newspapers
cannot afford to lose him either. "What will
the New York Times do when I am gone?
1t has devoted half of its editorial space for
years to denouncIng me and to making fun
of me. What will the Sun do? What will all
the New York papers do. and what will the
other papers Of tne country do if 1 disap-
pear?"
MAKING WATER FLOW UP HILL.
'By the way, Senator" I asked, ''how
about your bill which was introduced when
you first came to Congress to make the head
waters of the Mississippi flow into Batin's
Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence? mean
the bill which your enemies said was en-
titled, "A Measure to Compel Water 10
Flow Up Hip"
81 never told the story of that BILL" re-
piled Senator Blair. "I have been laughed
at numerically in regard to it, and have
been slsndered concerning it from Dan to
Beersheba. 1t happened at the close of nv
first session in Congress. Just at the last
moment for the introduction of the bill
received letter from a manu- facturer in
New Hampshire asking me to present
to the Senate the petition enclosed.
There was only q moment to get the
thing in. I looked at it and it seemed to be
in proper form. and without thinking sent
it up to the Clerks desk. Well heard
from it all over the United States. The man
who had sent the petition had acted in good
faith, and rather than denounce him, let
the matter stand and made no explanation.
/ knew that / was not a fool even if some of
the papers did call me one, and the poor
fellow who seat the petition Ielt so hurt at
the trouble he had gotten me into that he
wrote to me again and again about it, and
offered to do anything he could 10 remedy
the evil.
IT WAS A GREAT SCHEME.
His petition asked for a survey of the land
between the headwaters of the Mississippi
and those of the Canadian rivers, with the
view of the construction of a canal bringing
the two together He had also a scheme to
make Hudson's Bay great inland thermal
sea into which the Gull Stream should flow,
and thereby. as he claimed, should equalize
the climate of the continent
1 dropped into the National Library to-
day and had a chat with Mr.. Spofford as to
the great American brain. We are going
through a period of wonderful literary
activity, and more literary inventions are
copyrighted every year than mechanical in
ventions are patented. During 1890 more
than 3S, 600 copyrights have been issued, and
this is about 1000 more than were taken out
during the same period last year. In addi-
ton to this there are a number of applica-
tions for copyrights which are rejected, and
copyrights are taken out on photographs,
engravings, drawings and paintings, as well
as upon books. The rejected articles during
the past year have been chiefly for railroad
tickets, coupons, advertising schemes and
mechanical drawings not connected with the
publication of book. A great number of
copyrights are taken out for newspaper arti-
cles. and the newspapers copyright their
cablegrams from Europe.
STORIES OF THE CABLES.
Speaking of cable copyrights, I heard
curious story last night as to how Governor
Gilpin, of Colorado, had to pay about 5000
for one of the first cables that went over the
ocean. Gilpin was a good natured sort of q
fellow, and the probability is that he came
into the telegraph Office of Denver and
wrote out the cable never thinking 1t would
be sent. 1t was sent, however, and he had
to pay the bill. The story was told me by
Mr.. Rosewater, the editor of the Omaha Bee,
who in 1866 was the manager of the Western
Union lines at Omaha. Said he:
1.-THE first Atlantic cable was completed
in 1858, and it was alleged that a dispatch
was received by President Buchanan from
| Queen Victoria over 1t. This dispatch,
however, was about all that ever came over
| it. There was skeptlcism throughout the
| United States as to whether the dispatch
ever got through, and it was eight years
after this before any cable business was done.
The successful cable was the new line com.
pleted on August 3, 1866. AT this time nc
one seemed to think the cable would work,
A MESSAGE TO NAPOLEON.
1.-THE Western Union had sent a corps o
operators and explorers to Alaska to build a
line across Behring Straits to Russia, ami
when twas announced that the new cable
was done, and that any one wishing to senC
dispatches TO Europe for $40 word could
do so, the whole world Laughed, and the
telegraph operators looked upon it as
gigantic joke. 1t was at this rime that
received a dispatch from Denver, Col.
signed by the Governor of the Territory, t.
be forwarded on to New York and ad
dressed to Paris. The dispatch had to b,
sent from New York to Newfoundland b,
steamer and was there cabled. This dis
patch read:
DENVER, Aug. 4, 1860