The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-11-06

but few troops and no arms. and it looked
as though Macmillan must succeed.
W discussed the matter. and as a re.
suit he sent the Governor Of Tamaulipas
with me back to the United States, and
there in connection with Matias Romero,
the Mexican Minister to Washington, We
ter rifles, cannon and other munitions OF
war and paid for them with Mexican Gov
nj bonds. We put these arms on a
ship, and. in broad daylight. started for
After awhile we changed our course
n made for the mouth of the Rio
Grande, where we unloaded the guns and
passed them on to the Mexican troops.
These guns changed the tide of victory.
From that time or President Juarez con-
quered. until finally he executed Maximil.
ian at. Queretaro."
STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH.
Before coming to Charlottesville l at
tempted to call up General Wallace by
telephone. but the pretty little Hello
Girl" in Indianapolis told me it wa use
less to try.
She said the General had no phone in
his residence. that he wouldn't nave any
thing to do with telephone messages and
that he thought the system a a nui-
sance. ] t%elephoned Charlottesville never
theless. but succeeded only in finding that
General Wallace was in town.
During my conversation with him the
subjects OF the telephone and telegraph
came up and he told me how his father
was instrumental in making the first tele-
graph line successful. Said hes
After Morse had invented the telegraph
he wanted Congress to appropriate $50, 800
TO build a line from Washington to Balti-
more, This was to be experimental. no
graph having been made. The matter
created a great dea of discussion. Morse
was sneered at, and many though him
insane.
My father was a member of Congress
at. that time. and he was one of the COM
rnittee to which the question of the appro-
priation was referred.
when the committee met my father
was watching the experiment of telegraph
ms from the House to the Senate. Wires
had been stretched and the inventors were
operating the instruments. My father
ceived replies.
H saw that the invention must be a
success and believed that II words could
be dispatched from the House to the SEN
to Baltimore. and II to Baltimore to any
where. He was full of this thought when
he went to his committee-room and found
h committee in session.
They had Just voted on the apporpria-
ton and their vote was a tie. He cast his
vote In its favor and this caused the sp-
preparation to go through. The result was
the first telegraph line of the world.
Strange to say that vote lost my IA
ther his seat in Congress continued Cen
eral Wallace. Thirty thousand dollars
was Their a big sum. and this vote be-
sressional campaign. Father was charged
with wasting tire peoples money. and his
opponent ridicuied him on the stump by
referring to his ~'magnetico. electro. te,e-
graphic appropriation which no one could
explain
II even asked father to explain 1t. but
at that time he could not do SO, although
co,,ntrv The neo,,e tho,,sht Sif.u y
and the result was his defeat.
INGERSOLL AND "BEN-HUR."
The conversation here took a literary
turn. and 1 asked the General if there was
any truth in the intimation that certain
words of Robert G. Ingerso. had caused
him to write "Ben-Hur."
No" said he. Bob Ingersoll had moth
ing to do with BEGINNING 'Ben-Hur., but a
t Snsne . had aao With n. him nt1 had considerably mag aas Ut !,
caused me to change the whole plan and
nature of It.
THE talk occurred as we were going
home from the Cincinnati convention. at
which Bob Ingersoll had made his great
speech nominating Blaine. one of the
greatest speeches of our history and of all
time. Ingersoil and I left Cincinnati OF
the same sleeping car.
He had the drawing-room. / was sit
ting talking with some men. when he came
to the door in his night gown and said: IS
lIldI yOu. 1SsleEdl "dlidCt OuI YOU
come into my room? / want to talk
IT went TO the door. and there stopped.
saying: ] will come in. General. but only
on one, condition. and that Is that / am to
Ak the topic of conversation"
"'All right said Ingerscll. What is
YOUR textg
al replied: Is there a God?'
1.-THE answer came back. I don't know.
do your
It's there a heaven
II don't know. do your
Is there q hell?'
IT don't know, do your was again the
reply.
II don't know. do your said Ingersoil
in the same tone.
well. those are the topics / want you
to discuss said /.
''Ipgersoll thereupon began to speak. He
went over the whole question of the Bible.
Of the immortality of the soul. Of the di-
vinity Of God and of heaven and hell.
He vomited forth ideas and arguments,
Hike an intellectual volcano. oyerwhelm-
ing my soul with them. He kept this up
all the way to indianapolis. and the result
was that when / left the train there I
walked the streets for all hour to quiet
myself before going to bed.
"prin- 70 .hss had maid almost no at