The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-06-07
SIGNAL FIRES.
PREHISTORIC LINE BETWEEN
CHICAGO AND MEXICO.

and South Through the Continent
We're Signal Stations.
There was a system of te.egraphy be-
tween the site of Chicago and that of
the City of Mexico before the days of
Morse; before Franklin's discovery; be-
fore the discovery of America by Column
bus-perhaps before the days of Christ.
Such are the assertions of Chicago
Tribune correspondent who asks consider
alton of his statements on the following
basis:
Chicago was certainly the northern ter
minus of a telegraph line whose other
end was in Mexico at so remote a period
of the worlds history that the very name
of the race that built it is buried in OBJ
livion. 1t was not the Indians. The an
cestors of old Tecumseh and Hiawatha
are mOderns compared with the earlier
race.
The first Geographic system was en-
ployed 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 the At
lantic coast. We call the people of that
age simply Mound Builders for want of a
different name. The race is dead. The
last man of them had passed to his
eternal 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 earrhworks, and like
Volney among the ruins can only feel
that to them is due our veneration. Fol
them we must entertain mt least a feeling
of respect. being, AS they are, the last re,
naming vestiges of a race most remark.
able and most interesting of all the men
of earth, springing mysteriously into
existence, living for centuries, and finally
disappearing as completely from the face
of the earth as though they had never
been born.
Being wholly unknown to other peoples
of their times, we have no data on which
to base reliable history of this peculiar
race of men. Our an,iquarans tell us
that they built substantial cities; that
they knew the principles of art; that
they lad written language and religion;
that they had a 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 it, seems certainly a
myth; yet it is after all the simplest
thing imaginable. The writer does not
claim for it the electric principle of the
Morse telegraph. The electricity which
franklin found himself able to control
would have been totally unavailable in
the hands of primitive people.
The mound builders Geographic system
consisted of chain of large mounds.
starting at Chicago, thence bearing across
the country to Prairie du Chen. Wis.
thence down the Mississippi to Arkansas,
and onward in more or less straight line
TO the terminus at the City of Mexico,
then the capital of the Aztec empire.
These mounds were built in the most
suitable locations, so that the fire lighted
at one point could be seen distinctly at
the next, and thus that 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 apart, perhaps
half dozen spanning a hundred miles:
thus, as may readily be seen, a danger
signal could be sent across State with
the speed of light. Around these signal
mounds are usually grouped thousands
OF lesser size, and sometimes FORTH
cation or other earthwork, indicating
that city of large size had originally
existed on the spot. Thus at Toolesboro,
Ia, In addition TO one of the most re-
markable inclosure 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
Gould have been secured than this. On
the very brow of great bluff overlook
ing the Mississippi are located the eight
huge conical mounds of earth upon
which the signal fires were lighted. away
back in another age of the worlds his.
tory, telling IA tale of danger or festivity.
light at this point would be instantly
Observed at Muscatine. the next station.
~ miles to the north, or Flint Hills, now
burlington, away in the hazy distance,
81 miles to the south, and thence could
De transmitted from mound to mound,
from station to station, hundreds of miles
In either direction
:, The Geographic system employed by
the mound builders is the greatest
wonder of the Western world. Nor is it
smyth as so frequently originates in the
fertile imagination of the newspaper
writer; but the mounds and earthworks
are there to show for themselves. and
,heir purpose is self-evident Now forests
nave grown up, so that between many of
the stations the line of observation is cut
on hence the line is out of repair; but
Students of archaeology assert and believe
mat the thousands of mounds in the line