The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-02-14

wich Islands, and from thence to Japan,
with a branch line to China. As soon as
this line is established it will give an i'm
mense impetus to our Asiatic trade. The
Atlantic cable lines have made possible for
us a commercial development in the Euro
pean markets that would never have been
attainable without Geographic communion
ton. We would have remained isolated to
large extent, and our National progress
would not have approached its present di
mansions for many years to come.
REACHING OUT FOR ASIA.
lit will be the same in the Orient. Once
we get direct telegraphic communication
our trade will double and treble. Even
now we can cable to China and Japan or
almost any part of the world, but it is too
expensive for ordinary commercial uses.
Then, too, Pacific line will give us direct
communication with the other hemisphere
in case war among the big European Pow
ers should cut off our Atlantic lines.
South America will also in compare
lively short time be brought to our doors
by means of the cable. For many years to
come land line to South America will be
impossible, but direct Geographic commu-
nication is becoming more and more i'm
perativc every day, and submarine cables
will be employed to meet the demand. The
nucleus of the system exists already in the
Central American and Mexican cable lines.
As soon as We get into the main cities by a
direct telegraph line our trade will respond,
as it did in Europe and as it will in Asia
England has long seen the great advan-
tage of close communication, and she has
deep-sea lines all over the world. Africa
is completely encircled by cables. One
line runs from Gibraltar around the west
coast, and the other goes around the east
coast, the two lines meeting at the Cape of
Good Hope, Every point of Importance
along either shore is tapped by this cable.
"When made my trip around the world,
ten years ago, there was hardly an hour
when l could not have placed myself in
telegraphic communication with New York.
) From India, China, Japan, Burmah, Co
chin China, Afghanistan, everywhere, you
can send an electric message to America.
OF course such message has to travel in
very roundabout way, but it is amazing
how rapidly it is transmitted.
TRAVELLED $4,000 MILES.
An instance of this was furnished me
when Sir Anthony Musgrave, Governor of
Queensland, died He was married to my
niece, and Immediately upon his death,
which occurred early in the morning, the
which got the same day at breakfast. OF
course, there was the difference in time be-
tween the two points to be taken into con-
sideratiOn, but, even with this, it was a
truly marvellous achievement, for the mes
sage had to travel more than eighteen
thousand miles over dozen different coun-
tries and under thousands of fathoms of
water before it reached me here at my
house in New York.
''To no one does the remarkable devel-
opment in deep-sca telegraphy seem more
wonderful than to me. As look back to
the time of the first line, it hardly seems
credible The first meeting to discuss the
laying of an Atlantic cable was held down
stairs here in my dining room in March,
"a, and there the first company was form
ed. The money to defray the cost of this
cable, which was really only anexperiment,
was counted out on my dining table, At
that time there was only one cable in the
world, and that was resting in only 200
fathoms of water between England and Hol-
land. Our cable, which we had to sink in
1900 fathoms, only lasted few weeks. 1t
was laid four years after the meeting in
my house. In 1866 we laid the second,
stretching from Newfoundland to Ireland
and this worked successfully. In 1867,
thirteen years after our meeting in my din
ing room, the first dividend was paid on
cable investment. Now over 500, 100000
is invested in deep-sea lines running be-
tween America and Europe OF all the
company who met to organize the first cable
company I am the only one alive to-day.
INTERESTING SOUVENIRS.
Mr.. Field has sections of the first two
cables that were put down arranged in a
locket which he carries on his watch chain.
The one pqt down in 1858 was about half
an inch in diameter, and the covering for
the conducting wire was comparatively
light. The second is shown by the section
in Mr.. Fields locket to have been an inch
in diameter. In this the covering is put
on in several layers of gutta percha and
other material that would give it strength
and at the same time keep the conducting
wire from corroding. The cables in use
to-day are of the same size as the one put
down in 1866, and the material used in
their construction has only slightly changed.
MUTUAL