The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1890-06-14
ORIGIN or reLEcRAPHY.
A System THAT Was In Vogue Before Tho
Days of Christ.


Morse; before Franklin's discovery; be-
fore the discovery of America by
Columbns-perhaps before the days OF
Christ.
Such are the assertions OF Chicago
Tribune correspondent who asks con-
sideration of his statements on the fol-
lowing basis;
Chicago was certainly the Northern
terminus of telegraph line whose
other end was in Mexico. al so remote
period of the worlds history that the
very name of the race that built II is
buried in oblivion. IL was not the In
dams. The ancestors of old Tecumseh
and iiawatha are moderns compared
with the earlier race.
The first telegraphic system was en-
ploycd some centuries ago by that curl
, Gus 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 eternal
rest long centuries before this land be-
came the home of modern red men,
But the mighty works of those simple
people live after them. We look upon
their great earth-works, and like
Volney among his ruins can only feel
that TO them is due our yencration.
For them we must entertain NJ least a
feeling of respect. being, rs they are,
the last remaining vesiiges OF race
most remarkable and most interesting
of all the men Of earth, springing mys-
teriously into existence. living for cen
turtles. and finally disappearing as com
plctcly from the face of the earth as
though they never had been born.
Being wholly unknown 10 other peo-
pies of their times. we have no data on
/ which TO base reliable history of this
peculiar race OF men. Our antiquari-
ans 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
Z "A religion; that they had a commercial
! system; and that they could send a
message across the country with the
velocity of light.
4 A telegraph in prehistoric times. as
/ we look back upon IL, seems certainly
a myth; yet 1t is after all the simplest
! thing imaginable. The writer did not
( claim for il the electric principle of the
Morse telegraph. The electricity
\ which Franklin found himself able to
control would have been totally una
valuable in the hands of primitive peo-
pie.
The Mound Builders telegraphic
\ system consisted of chain of large
mounds, starting Mt Chicago. hence
bearing across the country 10 Prairie
! du Chen, Wis, thence down the Mis-
\ sissippi 20 Arkansas. aud onward in n
more or less straight line 10 the ter
minus nj the City of Mexico. then the
7 Capital of the Aztec Empire. These
mounds were built in the most suitable
locations, so that fire lighted at one
point could be seen distinctly nj the
next and thus that signal-light could
7 be hastily transmitted from one station
+ To another over the thousands of miles
which separate the two terminal points
I Of the line.
The signal stations are located often
ut a distance OF many miles apart, per-
/ haps half dozen spanning a hundred
1 miles; thus, as may readily be seen, a
I danger signal could be sent across a
State with the speed of light. Around
these signal mounds arc usually
grouped thousands OF lesser size. and
sometimes fertilization or other
earthwork, indicating that city of
large size had originally existed on the
spot. Thus at Toolesboro, Ia, in adj
dtion 10 one of the most remarkable
/ Enclosure earthworks of the continent.
/ there are mounds Of all shapes and
sizes, the number running up into the
\ thousands. No better selection of a
signal station could have been secured
I than this. On the very brow Of "A great
I bluff overlooking the Mississippi arc
| located the eight huge conical mounds
)f earth upon which the signal fires
wore lighted. away back in another age
Of the worlds history, telling a tale Of
danger or fcstiyity. a light al this
point would be instantly observed nj
/ Muscatine, the next station. twenty
miles 10 the north. or Flint Hills. now
Burlington, away in the hazy distance
I thirty miles TO the south. and thence
could be transmitted from mound To
mound, from station 10 station hum
dreds OF miles in either direction.
This telegraphic system employed by
i the mound-builders is the greatest
wonder of the Western world. Nor IL
IL myth as so frequently originates in
the fertile imagination OF the ncwspa-
per writer; but the mounds and earth
4 works are there 20 show for themselves,
and their purpose Is self-eyident. Now
\ forests have grown up. so that between
many Of the stations the line OF obscr-
walton is cut of. hence the line Is out OF
repair; but students of archaeology as