The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1890-02-27
THI FIRST TELEGRAPH.
1 System In Vogue Before ChIIst---Ths
Origin Of TGls6Eaphy.
The First LIne was RrOm the site
81 ChIcagO % That Of the
City % Mexico.

Anodo hh1 byspem Ol telegrhpny
between the site Of Chicago and that
Of the City Of Mexico long before the
days Of Morse; before Franklin's discov-
cry; before the discovery Of America by
Columbus-perhaps before the days Of
Christ.
Such are the assertions Of q Chicago
Tribune correspondent who asks consider
alton Of his statements on the following
basis:
Chicago was certainly the northern ter
minus Of telegraph line whose other end
was In Mexico, at 50 remote Q period Of
the worlds history that the very name Of
the race that built It Is buried in oblivion.
It was not the Indians. The ancestors Of
old Tecumseh and HiaGatha are modern
compared with the earlier ace.
TheHrst telegraph system was employed
some centuries ago by that curious race
Of people that built the huge mounds Of
earth that are met with everywhere in
the Mississippi valley and down to the
Atlantic coast. We call the people Of
that age simply mound-builders for want
Of better name. The race is dead! The
last man Of them had passed to his eter-
nal rest long centuries before this land
became the home Of modern red men.
But the mighty works Of those simple
people live after them. We look upon
their great eaTthworks, and like volney
among his ruins can only feel that to
them Is due our veneration. For them
we must entertain ct least O feeling Of
respect, being, as they are, the last re-
manning vestlges Of Q race most remark
able and most interesting Of all the men
Of earth, spinging mysteFiously into ex-
iStence, living for centuries, and finally
disappearing - completely from the face
Of the earth a. though they never had
been born.
Being wholly unknown 10 other people
Of their times, we have no data on which
to base reliable history Of this peculiar
race Of men. Our antiquarians tell us
that they built substantial cities; that
they were tillers Of the soil; that they
knew the principles Of art; that they
had Q written language and . relig-
ion; that they had . commercial
system; and that they could send .
message across the country with the
velocity Of light.
A telegraph In prehistoric times, as we
look back upon IL, seems certainly myth;
yet i Is after all the simplest thing imag-
inable. The writer did not claim for It
the electric principle Of the Morse tele-
graph. The electricity which franklin
found himself able 10 control would have
been totally unavailable in the hands Of
primitive people.
Themound-buIlders' telegraphic system
consisted Of Q chain Of large mounds,
starting at Chicago, hence bearing across
the country 10 Prairie du Chen, Wis.,,
thence down the MIssiasippi TO Arkansas,
and onward In q more or less straight line
to the terminus, ct the city Of Mexico,
then the capital Of the Aztec empire.
These mounds were built in the most
suitable locations, 90 that q fire lighted ct
one point could be seen distinctly at the
next, and thus that o signal.liRht could
be hastily transmitted from one station to
another over the thousands Of miles which
separate the two terminal points Of the
line.