Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-04-30
ORIGIN or TELEaRAPeY.
System THAT Was sa Vogue ss.sars the
Christian Ara >lgssaI@ hs I.agita

Christian Ira >lg,sai. hs Iaghta.
There Wis a system ol telegraphy
between the site IT Chicago and that
Of the city of Mexico before the davs
of MORSE; before Frank Inns discovery:
before the discovery of America by
Columbus perhaps before the DAYS 81
! Christ. Such are the assertions of a
Chicago Tribune correspondent who
asks consideration of his statement on
fle following basis:
Chicago WAS certainly the northern
terminus af a telegraph line whose
other end was IN Mexico. at so remote
y period OF the worlds history that the
very iiame uf the race that built 1t is
buried III oblivion. Ii was not the In
dians. The ancestors uf Tecumseh and
Hlawaiha are nioderns compared with
the earlier race.
! The first telcgraphic 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 10 his eternal rest long before
THIS land became the home Of the
modern redmen. But the mighty
works Of those simple people live after
them. We look upon their great earth
works, and like Nolney among his
ruins, can only feel that 10 them is
due our veneration. For them we
must entertain al least feeling of re-
spect, being, as they are, the last re-
manning vcstiges OF race most. ns-
markable and most interesting of all
the men on earth, springing mysteri
onsly into existence, living for CEN
turies and finally disappearing as com
pletely from the face OF the earth as
though they never had been born.
Being wholly unknown To other
peoples of their times, we have no data
on which 10 base reliable history of
tins peculiar race Of men. Our anti
q.ial1ans tell US that they built sub
stantaal cities; that they were tillers
Of the soil; that they knew the princi-
Piles OF art; that they had written
language and a religion, that they had
a commercial system, and that they
could send a message across the coun-
try with the velocity of light.
4 telegraph IN prehistoric times, as
we look back upon il, seems certainly
ID myth, yet it Is after all the simplest
thing imaginable The writer did not
claim for it the electric principle of
the Morse telegraph. The electricity
which Franklin found himself able To
control would have been totally un-
available in the hands of primitive
people
| The Mound Builders telegraphic sys-
tenn consisted OF chain OF large
mounds, starting at Chicago, hence
bearing across the country To Prairie
du Chien, Wis, thence down the Mis-
sissippi 10 Arkansas aud onward in a
more or less straight line to the ter
minus at the City of Mexico, then the
capital of the Aztec empire These
mounds were built i'm the most suitable
locations. SO that a lire lighted ut uale
point could be seen distinctly mt the
next, and thus signal light could be
hastily transmitted from one station tu
! another over the thousands of miles
, which separate the two terminal points
OF the line.
i Tic signal stations arr located often
! at distance of many miles, perhaps q
half dozen spanning hundred miles
/ thus, as may readily be seen, a danger
, signal could be sent across state with
the speed of light. Around these sig
nal mounds are usually grouped thou.
sands Of a lesser size, and sometimes n
' foftiiieatIon or other earihwork, indi.
eating that u city of large size had
originally existed on the spot.
\ Thus at Toolesboro, la, in addition
to one of the most femarkable inclos.
ure earthworks of tlie continent there
are mounds of all shapes and sizes the
number running up into the thou,
sands No better selection of signal
station could have been secured than
this. On the very brow of great
! bluff overlooking the Mississippi are
! located the eight Ange conleal mounds
of earth upon which the signal fires
were lighted, away back in another
age of the worlds history, telling a
|, tale OF danger or festivity. A light at
this point would be Instantly observed
Ut Muscatine. the next station. twenty
miles To the north, or Flint Hills. now
burlington, away in the haxy distance,
! thirty miles 10 the seuth, and thence
could be transmitted from mound 10
mound, from station 10 station, hun.
dreds of miles in either direction.
/ This telegraphic system employed by
the Mound Builders in the greatest
wonder of the western world. Nor is
Il myth, as SO frequently Originates
IN the fertile imagination OF the news
paper writer, but the mounds and
! earthwofks are there 10 show for them.
selves, and their purpose is sell evident
Now forests have grown up, so that
between many of the stations the line
of observation is cut off hence the
line Is out of repair, but students of
archaeology assert and believe that the
thousands of mounds in the long line
from Chicago 10 Mexico City were, be
yond doubt, signal stations in the
first aud original telegraph system.
axunssnIed Grerualiss.
| British enterprise having been de
lighted with Egyptian cats. Ii now