The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-01

Z 1$@sSS graphs of the
GENERAL EcKERT. Union army
General Mcclellan, then in command
gladly made the young telegraph super
intendent an aid-de-camp, and Secretary
of War Stanton, who, as an ambitious
and not too sweet tempered young law
yer practicing in Columbiana and other
Ohio counties, had known young Eckert
at least dozen years before, was pleased
to make him captain and assistant quar-
termaster. He subsequently became as
sistant secretary of war, with the brevet
rank of brigadier general, having mean
while attained the regular rank of major
and assistant quartermaster.
Having performed his semimilitary
duties with distinction, General Eckert
retired from the public service soon after
the close of the war, carrying with him
into civil life the title by which he is still
known, and devoted himself to the devel-
opment of the telegraph in the United
States. 1t may have been his subsequent
feat of building 1874 miles of telegraph
line between the adjournment of court
on Saturday afternoon and its reassem-
bling on Monday morning, under stress
of threatened injunction from his rival,
the Western Union, that made the value
of his services known to that company.
General Eckert at his desk in the
Western Union building, white haired,
but hale, ruddy and carrying well his 6S
years, presents curious contrast to the
slender, energetic youth in central Ohio
whom j. FL. Wade, the early telegraph
builder, chose from among his operators
to make superintendent.
81 am a reticent man, especially about
my personal affairs" said General Eek
ert, pausing amid the work of busy
morning in his Office to answer ques-
ton concerning his own youth and that
of the electric telegraph. II was born
at st. Clairsville, o." he continued, ''but
left there child in arms, and was
living at Wooster, in that state, when I
first became interested in the telegraph.
began as an operator in 1S49 and soon
worked into the executive department
took to the telegraph business not as
youth looking about for something to do,
but because it had interested me. I had
watched the passage through congress
of the legislation asked in the interest Of
Professor Morse and learned operating
as it was then done.
''In 1949 was appointed postmaster
at Wooster, and believe, he added with
smile, s'that was the very first man
in the United States to hold the joint
offices Of postmaster and telegraph oper-
ator. We were not very well paid in
those days. My salary as operator was
just $40 a month. As superintendent it
was not much better-in fact, think
only $50 month-but in those days the
president of the telegraph company re-
ceived no compensation for his services.
cit was in 1862 that Mr.. Wade made
me one of his superintendent. There
were only three OF four superintendents
in the United States then, and all the
lines were east of the Mississippi, pretty
far east. The chief line was that from
Pittsburg to Chicago. Fast operating
was then unknown, and everybody read
by tape. The business was new and I'M
known to those engaged in it. Every
body had to dig in and learn for him
self. Some men who remained opera
tors longer than I did made experiments
in the line of their work. By 1866 there
were a few sound readers. AS the
knowledge Of sound reading grew the
other was gradually abandoned until
only sound readers could hold good
places. Operators learned the peculia1i-
ties of the business, sound reading in
cluded, gradually and tentatively, almost
as children learn to talk.
eyes," pursued General Eckert in an
swer to question, ''the war developed
the telegraph as business and as an art.
When I took charge of the military tele-
graphs Of the Union army, got all the
best operators I could find throughout
the north, but the demand was far be-
You'd the supply, and had to accept
some who were far from skillful Most
Of my assistants have since been highly
successful men. 1t is not true, however,
that the money order system now so
large feature of the telegraph business
originated during the war. knew of
Geographic money orders long before the
outbreak of the war. AS I recollect, En-
ory Cobb, then superintendent at Chi
cago, was the first man to send tele-
graphic money orders. don't recall the
date of the first, but the company did
hot adopt the system until 1870. Mr..
Cobb sent money orders by private ar
rangement with the sender, as the COM
pany was not yet ready to assume the re-
sponsibility for the business. AS to the
growth of that branch and of other
things in the telegraph business in So
years, the story is told in the figures of
our annual report. One of our former
superintendent has made book of it,"
EDWARD N. VALLANDIGHAM.
The Book of Books.
What is said to be the costliest illus
trated book ever made is the property of