Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-06-25
ORIGIN or TELE0RAPHT.
a System That Was In Vogue Be-
Tore the Christian E.a.
Signals by Lights.

Signals oy Lights.
There was system of telegrauhv be
tween the site of Chicago and t1at of
tue City OF Mexico before the days OF
Morse before FTanEnu's discovery: be-
lore the discovery or America 10y Co
lumbus-perhaPs before the days of
Christ SU'h are the assertions of a
chicago If.Dt1is correspondent who
asks consideration OF his staten ent on
the fol owing basis.
Chicago Was certainly the northern
terminus OF telegraph line whose
other end was in Mexico, at 50 remote
period OF the worlds history that the
very name OF the race that built Il IS
buried IN oblivion. II vas not the In
dlans- The ancestors yt Iecum-eh aud
HlaWattI are mOieGus compared with
the earlier race.
The nrst teiegTaphlc system Was EN-
ployed some centuries ago Dy that cur
lous race OF people that built the huge
mounds or earth that are met with
every where III the Mississippi Valley
ami down 10 the Atlantic coast. We
call the people OF that age simply
Mound Builders for want Of a better
name. The race - dead The last
man OF them had passed 10 his eternal
rest long before this land became the,
home OF the nOdera Tednsn. But the
mighty works OF ia Sc simple people
live after them. We look upon their
great earthWOTks, and like Nolney
among his ruins, can only feel that To
them IS due our NsueTatiOn. For
them We must entertain at least feel
ing OF respect, being, as they are, the
last remaining Sestiges OF a race most
THaT I l. inf.
the men On earth, springing mysteri-
ou>ly into eNistence, living for centuries
and finally disappearing as completely
from the face Of the earth is though
they never had been born.
Being wholly unknown To other peo-
pies OF their times, We have no data ON
which 10 base reliable history of this
peculiar race of men. Our autiquaTians
tell Us that they built substantial cities:
that they were tillers OF the soil; that
they knew the principles of art; that
they had written language and Te-
lgiou; that they had a commercial sys-
tenn, and that they could send a mes
sage across the country with the velOc-
ity of light
A telegraph IN prehistoric times. as
We look back upon II, seems certainly a
myth, Yet II Is after all the simplest
thing imaginable. The writer did not
claim for II the electric principle of the
Morse telegraph. The electricity
which + rankin found himself able to
control would have been totally uu-
available III the hands of primitive peo-
pie.
The Mound Builders Geographic syS-
tem consisted OF a chain OF large
mounds, starting at Chicago, hence
bearing across the country TO Prairie
du Chen, Wis, thence down the Mis-
siSsippi 10 Arkansas and onward in a
more or less straight line 10 the termi-
nus at the City of Mexico, then the
capital OF the Aztec empire. These
mounds were built In the most suitable
locations, 50 that a tire lighted at one
point could be seen distinctly at the
next, and thus a signal light could be
hastily transmitted from one station TO
another over the thousands of miles
which separate the two terminal points
of the line.
The signal stations are located often
at a distance OF many miles, perhaps a
half dozen spanning hundred miles;
thus, as may readily be seen, a danger
signal could De sent across a state with
Ene speed Of light Around these sig
nal mounds are usually grouped thou
sands of a lesser size, and sometimes
fOrtihcation or other eaTthWOTk, infl-
LatIng that a city of a large size had
originally existed on the spot
Z Thus at TOOlesbOTO, la, In addition
to one OF the most remarkable inClOsure
earthwOTks Of the continent, there are
mounds of all shapes and sizes, the num-
Der running up into the thousands. No
better selection of a signal station could
have been secured than this. ON the
very brow OF a great bIuh overlooking
The Mississippi are located the eight
huge conical mounds of earth upon
which the signal hres were Lighted. away
back in another are of the worlds his
tory, telling a tale of danger or feS-
tivity. a light at this point would be
instantly observed at AIsCatIue, the
next station. twenty miles to the north,
pr Flint Hills, now Burlington, away
in the hay distance, thirty uiIeS to the
south, and thence could be transmitted
from mound to mound, from station L.
station, hundreds of miles I'D either dI-
Tection.
This telegraphic system employed 10y
the Mound Builders Is the greatest
wonder of the western world. Nor Is
Ii myth, as so frequently originates
in the fertile Imagination of the news
paper writer, but the mounds and
earthworks are there to show for them
selves, and their purpose is self evident
Now forests have grown up, so that be
tween many of the stations the line OF
observation is cut of; hence the line Is
out of repair; but students of aTchEol-
oey assert and believe that tie thou
sands of mounds in the long line from
Chicago TO Mexico City We're, beyond a
doubt, signal stations In the lrSt and
original telegraphic system