CHAPTER VIII.

MODERN LAND TRAVEL.

Soon after the train had started from the Buffalo station conversation

began between Mr. Greenleaf and his nephew. "The steam is the same as

in my day," remarked the former; "the steam pushes the piston in just

the same way; there is no change in this direction. But all else is

new."

"Yes," said the drummer, "you must see great changes; tell me some of

them."

"Very well," was the reply. "The most noticeable thing about a

railroad train used to be the jerking motion. We seemed to be going

'bump-i-ty-bump' all the time; and starting and stopping a train would

often throw us off our feet."

"Various improvements," said Mr. Towne, "have helped to produce this

easy-riding motion. The roadbeds are laid with much greater care--long

experience and numerous experiments have provided us with the best

rails; but more especially the absence of jar is due to steel springs,

and also to the breaks and couplers. When one car was attached to

another by two bolts thrust through a ring, nothing was firm, as the

bolts would slide forward and back with every motion of the car. The

new automatic couplers hold the two cars more firmly together. Again,

the old hand brakes have been replaced by the automatic air brake."

"Yes, I have heard of that, but I do not understand it. Can you explain

it to me?"

"I think so. George Westinghouse, Jr., about thirty years ago, took

out a patent for the air brake. This alone has been enough to make him

famous, although he has twelve hundred patents issued in his name. The

Westinghouse air brake is now almost universally used. Some of the

surplus steam in the locomotive pumps air into tanks in the cars, which

air presses upon a piston, that moves a rod against the brakes. Thus

the brakes can be held against the wheels with great force at the will

of the engineer."

"Well, the next thing that I notice," said the missionary, "is the

improved comfort of the passengers. The cinders filled the cars in the

old days; the air within was always bad; the candles gave more smoke

than light; and in winter, the stoves at the end of the cars gave no

heat in the center."

"Yes, all that is changed," replied the younger man. "Spark arresters

keep out the cinders; the overhead ventilators give us good air; bright

light, almost like that of day, surrounds us in the evening; and, when

wanted, the engine supplies steam in pipes running the entire length of

the car, which gives even and ample heat."

"This car is wider than ours used to be, is it not?" queried Mr.

Greenleaf.

"Yes," was the reply. "When the first Pullman sleeping car, the

'Pioneer,' was run on the Chicago and Alton Railroad, it was wider and

higher than the ordinary coaches. Several bridges had to be raised to

allow the car to pass under; and all the station platforms were altered

to permit it to pass. Since then, as Pullmans and Wagners have come

into use on so many roads, many changes in bridges have been found

necessary, and station platforms have almost universally been cut down

to the ground."

"Did I understand you to say that this is a sleeper?" asked Mr.

Greenleaf. "Our sleeping cars, few and far between as they were, had

berths or bunks three tiers high, fitted in on each side of the car,

making it useless except to sleep in."

[Illustration: A PULLMAN SLEEPER.]

"That was the great feature of Mr. Pullman's invention," was the reply.

"He saw that few railroad companies would care to go to the expense

of running cars which could only be used for sleeping purposes. He

was familiar with the 'old-fashioned, stuffy cars, where men sat in

stiff-backed seats and dozed and yawned and waited for morning. By

putting people to sleep this wide-awake man made a fortune.' You are

sitting on the bed now. But here comes the porter to make up the berths

next to us. The lady wishes to put her little boy to sleep."

With much interest Mr. Greenleaf watched the porter make a sleeping

room out of a sitting room. In a trice the cushions in the seats and

backs were twisted about and laid from seat to seat, making a bed. With

a jump, the porter stood on the arm of the seat, and turned a knob in

the roof. Down came another bed, a few feet above the first. From this

was pulled a triangular board which was placed between the beds and

the next seats. Sheets, blankets, and pillows, which had been shut up

in the roof, were soon properly spread out, and two good beds were

the result. Curtains were found above the upper bed, which, hung upon

poles, shut the beds off from the car aisle. Behind these the mother

undressed her child and put him to bed.

Just at this moment a man went through the car crying "First call for

dinner." Mr. Towne immediately jumped to his feet and said, "Let us go

and get good seats."

"You have forgotten your hat, Henry," said his uncle.

"I don't need it. Come, hurry," said Henry.

Perplexed, the old man followed his nephew through three cars to the

dining car, where they were soon seated at a little table, in front

of a large window, from which everything they passed could be seen.

It is not necessary to describe the dining room, for it was merely

a well-furnished restaurant. The men ordered what they desired, and

settled back to wait until their dinner was brought on.

"How is it, Henry, that we did not feel the wind as we passed from car

to car? You hurried me so fast that I did not have time to notice."

"Don't you see," said the drummer, "how attaching a dining car to a

train required another change also? There used to be a rule of every

railroad company forbidding the passengers to go from car to car while

the train was in motion. When the company put on the 'diner,' it

invited the people to break its own rule. So vestibule cars came next.

Side doors are built on the car platforms and with these closed the

regular car doors can be left open. Thus one can walk the entire length

of the train, through sleeper, parlor car, dining car, smoking saloon,

library, bath room, barber shop, and writing room, without once going

out of doors. This is a modern vestibule train."

One more interesting discussion took place the next morning as they

were nearing New York City.

"Tell me something about modern bridges," said Mr. Greenleaf.

[Illustration: BROOKLYN BRIDGE.]

"Oh! I am afraid that is too long a story to tell during the time that

we have left. There seems to be no limit to the engineering skill of

to-day. The world-famous structures are being surpassed every little

while by new ones. To-morrow you must see the Brooklyn Bridge. We have

supposed that this great suspension bridge with its sixteen hundred

feet from tower to tower was about the limit. But the cantilever bridge

over the Forth in Scotland has a span more than a hundred feet longer

than the East River bridge. When the North River bridge is built to

Jersey City, with its proposed span of three thousand feet, these other

great bridges will be small in comparison.

"Our bridges are mostly of steel rather than wood nowadays," he

continued. "Since the Portage viaduct on the Erie road, which was eight

hundred feet long and two hundred and thirty feet above the river, and

contained a million and a half feet of lumber, was wholly burned in

1875, wooden bridges have usually been but temporary affairs. In these

days of frequent trains, the engineer's skill is needed on the shorter

bridges as well as on these enormous structures. Iron towers were put

in place of stone towers, and iron beams in place of wooden ones, at

the Niagara Suspension Bridge, without interfering with the trains.

I read the other day how a new iron bridge took the place of an old

wooden one. It was built across the river by the side of the railroad

track; during the night, when there was less travel than during the

daytime, the old bridge was moved off, the new one took its place, and

in a few minutes trains were running over it. Whatever engineering work

is needed nowadays, some one will soon be found prepared to provide it."

At last the train entered the long cut and series of tunnels, which

finally brought it to the Grand Central station on Forty-Second Street,

New York City. Hurried along by the crowd, the aged sightseer hardly

had an opportunity to make a remark about the immensity and grandeur of

the brick station.

"But this station is poor and far behind the times," said Mr. Towne.

"You should see some of the more modern ones that have recently been

erected, or wait for the new New York station, which must soon be

built. But let us hasten; I want to get home."

The young drummer, accustomed to travel of all kinds, familiar with

crowds, and wont to make his way anywhere, did not realize that his

companion was having difficulty in keeping up with him as he hastened

along the street. Receiving no answer to a question that he asked,

he glanced around to find that his uncle was not with him. Inwardly

accusing himself of remissness in forgetting his companion's lack of

experience, he turned and rapidly retraced his steps. He found his

uncle standing on a corner, not daring to cross the street; to the

relief of the latter, he decided to take a horse car across town.

Leaving the car at Sixth Avenue, the two men climbed the stairs to the

elevated road. They had hardly purchased their tickets when a train

drew up at the little station and a minute afterward they were off for

Harlem. The horse-car ride, followed by that on the elevated road,

started a discussion concerning street-car traffic. The horse car was

remembered by the old missionary, who remarked that it came before the

steam railroad.

Mr. Towne replied, "Yes. But its day is nearly over. New York City does

not seem to have fully outgrown this slow street travel, but elsewhere

more rapid transit is the rule. New York is coming to it, however. The

elevated roads cannot carry all the travel--the horse cars are too

slow--the size of the city demands something more than we now have."

"What do you expect will be done?" asked Mr. Greenleaf.

"We shall have to build a tunnel, an underground railway, a subway. Of

course our roads must be either above ground, on the ground level, or

below ground. The elevated roads have shown themselves to be unpleasant

and annoying. It is not agreeable to look into the upper-story windows

of dwellings, nor do people enjoy living on streets where the elevated

road runs. Rapid transit is impossible in the street, where cross

streets continually delay the cars, and where wagons and carriages of

all sorts are regularly passing. The subway is the best method, the

only decent way left open."

"Would not such a tunnel be dark and damp, dirty and unhealthy in every

sense?" asked his uncle.

"Oh! no," was the reply. "Boston has recently completed a subway,

something like a mile and a half long, with two branches, which has

proved its great advantages. Sheltered in winter, cool in summer,

never blocked by teams nor interfered with by snow or ice, brilliantly

lighted, with air wholesome and dry, and less liable to accidents than

any other device yet tested, the Boston Subway is a great success.

[Illustration: THE BOSTON SUBWAY.]

"Did you say that there was no smoke?" again asked Mr. Greenleaf.

"No smoke at all. The cars are run by electricity, and cinders are

therefore entirely absent."

"Are electric cars coming into general use?" was the next question.

"Yes; throughout the country," replied Mr. Towne. "New York even now

has its electric roads up town. Horse cars have been replaced by

electric cars in almost every city. Cable cars are used in some places,

but the electric is preferred. The last few years have seen a wonderful

development in electricity in every way, but in no respect greater

than in the increase of electric railways. For shorter lines they are

competing with the steam cars, and seem to be winning the day. Some

steam roads are equipping their lines for electric service, and report

successful results so far as tried. Whether the electric car will

wholly replace the steam car, time only will tell."

"What a relief it must be to ride in a street car and not be obliged

to pity the poor horses as they tug and strain to pull the heavy

loads!" added the old missionary.

"You know, I suppose," replied the drummer, "that not only from the

street cars, but in other ways the horse is being retired. The bicycle

has supplanted the horse and buggy for use in thousands of families,

besides being where horses could never be afforded. And now we have

automobiles, or horseless carriages, run by gasoline, naphtha, or

electric motors. These are expensive, and comparatively few can yet

afford them for private use. They are being used to a considerable

extent in large cities, especially here in New York, for public service

or for the delivery of goods from our large stores. But the expenses

will gradually lessen, and perhaps the day when the horse is to rest

has begun."

[Illustration: ELECTRIC CAR, NEW YORK CITY.]

"All this is wonderful," remarked his uncle. "We may walk still, if

we wish. We may ride a horse or drive a carriage. We may take the

stagecoach, or a private coach, or tally-ho. We may journey across

the continent in palace steam cars. We may ride through a city on

horse cars, or cable cars, or electric cars. We may travel on elevated

tracks or underground. We may pedal our bicycles or ride in horseless

carriages. We find good carriage roads, and excellent roadbeds for

our railroads. Bridges and tunnels carry us over and under rivers,

across ravines and through mountains. On the water, the canoe and the

rowboat, the sailing vessel and the steamship, are at our disposal.

Naphtha launches and electric yachts glide across the water. Harbors

are dredged, lighthouses are erected, breakwaters are constructed, and

canals are built, all for the use of travelers and commerce. The last

years of the nineteenth century form an era in travel of which the

world never dreamed."

[Illustration: SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.]

[Illustration: MODERN PRINTING PRESSES.]

SECTION VI.--LETTERS.

CHAPTER I.

LANGUAGE.

What is the difference between a dog and a boy, or, rather, what is the

difference between the brute creation and mankind? It is as natural for

a dog to think as for a boy; he sees and hears and touches, smells and

tastes as well as does the boy; he remembers and, in a certain way, he

may be said to reason; he loves and hates and fears; he is pleased and

frightened; is revengeful; has his likes and dislikes, his tastes and

prejudices; indeed, a dog, or a horse, or an elephant has many points

of resemblance to a boy or a man. But there are essential points of

difference.

One of the most important differences is that man has the power of

speech which is not possessed by the brute creation. This power of

speech is a great boon to mankind, one held in common by all peoples in

all ages.

Talking or conversation suggests at least two persons, the speaker and

the hearer, and involves the use of the vocal organs on the part of

the talker and the ear, the instrument of hearing, on the part of the

listener. This power of communicating thought, as has been said, is

universal with the human race.

In childhood one learns the language of his parents and of the people

where he lives. In this country, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia,

most of the people speak the English language; in France, the French

tongue; in Russia, the Russian; in Germany, the German; in Turkey,

the Arabic; and so on. This common speech forms a great bond of unity

between all people of the same race, and by means of it we communicate

our ideas one to another.

There is another language differing widely from the gift of speech,

yet quite as important for the welfare of the human race. Barbarous

and savage tribes are dependent upon speech alone, but in civilized

countries the people have acquired another art, that of writing, or of

using a written language. In speech arbitrary sounds represent ideas.

In writing arbitrary symbols or characters, called letters and words,

are used. They are observed by the eye and not by the ear. This written

language is as extended, as sharp, as definite, as full and complete,

as is the language of speech. Moreover, it has a great advantage over

speech. Words can be spoken only to a person immediately present, but

words can be written and conveyed to one who is absent. No matter how

far apart two persons are, each can communicate his ideas to the other

just as well as if they were near.

This written language has still greater usefulness. By means of it

wise men of all countries who have had great thoughts, thoughts of

value to the whole human race, have been enabled to put those thoughts

into a permanent form. Thus they have been preserved and handed down

from generation to generation, so that we inherit to-day the wealth of

all the ages. We can make ourselves familiar with the great thoughts

uttered by Jesus, by Socrates, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Milton, Burke,

Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, Emerson, Longfellow, and countless

others, so that they become our own property. Moreover, when the eye

gathers up these grand truths from the printed page, they are not

absorbed, they still remain there. They may be used and transmitted

again and again in the same book and upon the same page, even to future

generations.

On one occasion King Solomon said: "Of making many books there is no

end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." The second part

of this sentence is certainly very true, but that is not saying

anything against study, for anything that is worth doing is a cause

of weariness. When we get weary the best thing is to get thoroughly

rested, and after that to work until we become weary again. It does not

injure a strong, well person to get healthily tired; on the contrary,

the weariness which comes from normal exercise of the hands or the

brain is better than inactive ease.

[Illustration: ANCIENT IMPLEMENTS OF WRITING.]

What did Solomon mean when he made this sage remark, "Of making many

books there is no end"? Under what circumstances was the remark made?

We may not be able to answer the last question literally, but we may be

permitted to imagine the circumstances. Let us suppose that the Queen

of Sheba had made her famous visit to Jerusalem. She had heard in her

own country of the acts and the wisdom of Solomon, and had come to the

kingdom of Israel to see, with her own eyes, if these reports were

true. She heard his wisdom from his own lips, for he "told her all her

questions."

Then the Queen of Sheba had said to Solomon: "It was a true report

which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:

howbeit, I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had

seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was

not told me; for thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are thy

men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before

thee, and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted

in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God."

The Queen had gone home, and early one morning Solomon had risen from

his couch and gone up to the flat roof of his house on Mount Zion just

as the sun was rising. There in his meditations he thought to himself

that the Queen of Sheba had paid him great honor and that he ought in

courtesy to send her a suitable present. What should it be? He was

impressed with the idea that he would send her a copy of the sacred

books then in the keeping of the high priest. What present could be

more appropriate, more honorable to him, more welcome to her, or more

acceptable to Jehovah, the God of his people Israel?

If he sent her a copy of these books it surely ought to be a perfect

copy. Books were not printed in those days; they were written with

the pen, or rather with the stylus. Solomon called a servant and said

to him, "Send for the chief of the scribes. Bring him here." He came,

and the king directed him to select only those scribes that could do

perfect work, and to set them at the task of making the finest possible

copy of the books of Moses and the other sacred books.

Month after month went by, until finally the work was finished and the

scribes were ushered into the royal presence, bearing in their arms the

product of their long-continued labor. Roll after roll of the finest

parchment was submitted to Solomon for inspection. Each skin began

with an illuminated letter, and the whole work was done in the highest

style of the art.

Well pleased was Solomon when these rolls were all properly packed,

secured from rain, placed upon the backs of camels, and the caravan,

with a military escort, had set out for the distant land of Sheba. Then

again in the gray of the morning Solomon was at his meditations upon

the housetop. Again he called a messenger who should summon to his

presence the chief of the scribes.

[Illustration: AN ANCIENT SCRIBE.]

"What was the cost of making the copy of our sacred writings for the

Queen of Sheba? How many shekels have been paid to the scribes for

their work?"

When the chief scribe had found out he reported it to the king. "Is it

indeed so much?" said the king; and when he had thought how many months

it had taken for that large number of scribes to make a single copy of

the sacred books, then he exclaimed: "Of making _many_ books there is

no end."

CHAPTER II.

THE PRINTING PRESS.

The times have changed since King Solomon's day. The art of printing

has been discovered. Now it would be possible to make not merely one

copy but thousands of copies, not only of the sacred books of the

Jews in the time of Solomon, but of the entire Bible as we have it

to-day. Not in the months required by the Jewish scribes, but in a

single month, thousands of copies of the whole Bible could be printed

from the type set in a single establishment in Boston, New York, or

Philadelphia. Surely, before the art of printing one might truly say,

"Of making books there is no end." But to-day our modern press sends

out its volumes by millions, so that no longer is there any truth in

this apparently wise statement of Solomon. It was true in his day, but

times have changed.

Two visitors were wending their way through Machinery Hall at the

Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Clatter, clatter,

clatter--clatter, clatter, clatter--jigger, jigger, jigger--jigger,

jigger, jigger. What was that great machine that they were

approaching? It was the Walter press, invented in London for the

London _Times_,--"The Thunderer." Well, well! the press does thunder,

literally, does it not? It was printing that day's issue of the New

York _Times_, and there were coming from that press about twelve

thousand copies of the double-size sheet in an hour. Well might it make

a racket if it accomplished such a work as that.

After the visitors were done admiring it they passed on, and a little

beyond came suddenly upon another printing press which was doing its

work in comparative silence. Before them stood a double Hoe perfecting

press, printing the Philadelphia _Times_, turning off thirty thousand

copies per hour. These came out from the machine, folded ready for the

wrappers or for the newsboy to take upon his arm and run out into the

street to sell! So marvelous was the work of the American press. The

original invention was surprising, but the progress that has been made

in making type, setting it, electrotyping and inking, and making paper,

as well as in the presswork, is beyond the power of description.

There are vague, indefinite stories of printing by the Chinese a

thousand years before Christ. The Greeks and Romans made metal stamps

with characters engraved in relief. It was not, however, until about

the middle of the fifteenth century that movable types were made

with which books could be printed. The period between 1450 and 1500

witnessed a rapid advance of civilization in Europe. It was marked by

a great revival of classical learning and art, and announced the dawn

of modern civilization. At that time Europe began to come out into the

light of reason, learning, and both civil and religious liberty. The

mariner's compass had been invented; gunpowder had been discovered; and

now the art of printing came into use. It would seem that no one man

invented this art in the way that Stephenson invented the locomotive

and Whitney the cotton gin. It grew up, one man doing a little, and

another something more, until the system was brought to its present

wonderful efficiency.

It has been said that Coster of Haarlem, Holland, invented wooden types

about 1428 and metal types a little later. About 1440 John Faust did

a little printing, and others also have claimed the invention. John

Gutenberg is the only claimant who is known to have received honor

during his life time as the true inventor. The evidence would seem to

show that he was engaged in his secret process before the year 1440. He

certainly had a printing office in 1448 at Mentz. About this time Faust

came into possession of this printing office and managed it until his

death. Among the earliest books printed were, "Letters of Indulgence,"

two editions of the Bible, and a Latin dictionary.

John Baskerville, an Englishman, devoted his life and fortune to

the improvement of printing. He was born in 1706 and died in 1775.

He published an edition of Vergil in royal quarto, which was then

and is still considered a wonderful specimen of beautiful printing.

His English Bible, Book of Common Prayer, and editions of various

classics are still admired and greatly sought. A Baskerville classic is

difficult to find in these days and it commands a high price; when one

is found it shows great skill, judgment, and taste.

Baskerville made types much superior in distinctness and elegance to

any that had previously been used. He improved greatly the lines of

the letters, their style and appearance, making them as artistic as

possible. To this end he planned in detail the style of all type which

he used. He experimented also in the manufacture of ink to get that

which had the most permanent color. He superintended the manufacture of

the paper he used in order to obtain a finished surface best adapted to

receive the impressions of the type.

Printing in America during the colonial days was subject to much

difficulty. The first printing press in our country was set up at

Cambridge in the house of the president of Harvard College, Rev. Henry

Dunster, in 1639. Eliot's Bible in the Indian language was printed upon

this press between 1660 and 1663. This same printing establishment is

still in existence and has been known for many years as the University

Press.

The first Bible printed in America in any European language was a

German Bible issued in 1743 by Christopher Sower in Germantown,

Pennsylvania. This was a wonderful work for those early days. It was a

large quarto Bible, consisting of 1,284 pages, and it took four years

to complete the printing of it.

[Illustration: A FRANKLIN PRESS.]

How quaint the early printing press would appear to us of to-day! It

was used with very little change for one hundred and fifty years. The

"forms" of type were placed upon wood or stone beds surrounded by

frames called "coffins," moved in and out by hand with great labor,

and after each impression the platen which had pressed the paper down

upon the type had to be screwed up again with a bar. The presses which

Benjamin Franklin used were made with wooden framework of the simplest

possible construction. Iron frames were first used in England just one

hundred years ago.

Franklin, in his Autobiography, tells the story of his attempt to set

up a printing establishment in Philadelphia. At first he found it

difficult to obtain any work, but finally he was given the job of

printing forty sheets of a "History of the Friends." The price offered

was low, but Franklin and his partner, Meredith, decided to accept it

as a beginning.

Franklin set up the type for a sheet each day, while Meredith "worked

it off at the press" the next day. The type had to be distributed every

evening in order that it might be ready for the next day's composition.

Therefore it was often late at night before Franklin finished his day's

task, perhaps eleven o'clock or even later.

Other little jobs came in to delay the printers, but Franklin was

determined to do a sheet a day of the history. One night, just as his

work was done, one of the forms was accidentally broken, and two pages

"reduced to pi." Franklin, late as it was, distributed the pi and

composed the form again before going to bed.

Such industry and perseverance were sure to bring success in the

end. Though, in the clubs and markets, every one was saying that the

establishment must fail, since the two other printers in town had

barely enough to do, yet Dr. Baird was nearer right; he used to say:

"The industry of that Franklin is superior to any I ever saw of the

kind; I see him at work when I go home from the club, and he is at work

again before his neighbors are out of bed."

To-day we have a great variety of printing presses which embody both

science and art in skillful fashion. These range from the smallest size

of hand presses, through numberless grades, varying in size, strength,

power, rapidity, and ease of running, to the modern newspaper press and

folder and the wonderful color printing press. One of the newspaper

presses will print at one impression, from a single set of stereotype

plates, papers of four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen

pages, at the rate of twelve thousand per hour, all cut at the top,

pasted, and folded, with the supplement inserted at its proper place.

With duplicate sets of plates, it will print sets of four, six, or

eight page papers at the rate of twenty-four thousand per hour.

Let us look for a moment at the method of inking the type. Until a

comparatively recent date the inking was all done by hand, by means of

an inking pad. The ink is now spread over the type with almost perfect

regularity by means of flexible rollers.

Great improvements have been made in typesetting. Several late

inventions largely take the place of the old-fashioned setting by

hand. One of these which is much used in newspaper work, and to some

extent upon books and magazines, is called the linotype. By pressing

the key of the proper letter upon a keyboard arranged something like

a typewriter, the letter is pushed down, and when a line of letters

and words has been completed, and the words properly spaced, this

matrix is pressed down upon the melted type metal. The line is already

stereotyped for use.

The recent processes of stereotyping and electrotyping have added

greatly to the cheapness, accuracy, and beauty of printing. Nearly all

books formerly printed from movable type are now either stereotyped or

electrotyped, so that edition after edition may be printed from the

same plates.

The art of printing has been called the "Divine Art." It is "the art

preservative of all arts." To a large extent all civilization depends

upon the art of printing.

CHAPTER III.

THE POSTAL SYSTEM.

We have already seen that letters may be written and sent by mail to

distant countries or cities. To send a letter to any place in our own

country will cost us but two cents; to any country in Europe, but five

cents. Indeed, we may send a letter to any one of the countries within

the postal league,--and this includes most of the countries of Asia and

South America, some parts of Africa and many islands of the sea,--for

the same simple postage of five cents.

But the time was when nothing of the kind could have been done. In the

"long ago" there was no post-office system in any country; no mails,

regular or irregular, were sent from one place to another.

The modern postal system evidently grew out of the practice among kings

of sending couriers to carry messages from one to another. In the early

times some powerful rulers organized a staff of government couriers.

After a time it came about that these government couriers began to

carry letters from private individuals of high rank to their friends.

So, in the process of time, this grew into a permanent system; that is,

the government couriers were accustomed to carry private correspondence

as well as the missives of the king.

This transmission of letters by special couriers sent out by the king

dates back to very early times. Explorations in Egypt have brought

to light specimens of these letters dating back to a period of two

thousand and even three thousand years ago. Upon what do you suppose

those letters, sent so long ago and preserved to the present time, were

written? They could not have been written upon paper, for paper was not

known in those days, and could not have been preserved through so many

ages; neither were they written upon parchment or upon the skins of

animals. These letters which have stood the test of time for twenty or

twenty-five centuries were written upon tablets of clay or of stone.

The development of the modern postal system seems to have been begun in

Great Britain. Some of the account books of the kings of England who

lived about six hundred years ago have been preserved to the present

time. In these are found records of letter-carrying on regular lines

and at stated intervals. From this beginning the English postal system

increased in efficiency and importance; when the colonists came to

America they early made arrangements for the carrying of letters.

The records of the General Court of Massachusetts show that in 1639 it

was enacted "that notice be given Richard Fairbanks that his house in

Boston is to be the place appointed for all letters which are brought

from beyond the seas or are to be sent thither to be left with him, and

he is to care for them, that they are to be delivered or sent according

to the directions; he is allowed for every letter a penny, and must

answer all mistakes from his own neglect of this kind." In 1657 the

colonial law of Virginia required "that every planter was to provide

a messenger to convey the dispatches as they arrived, to the next

plantation and so on, paying and forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco for

default."

In 1672 it was agreed between some of the colonies along the coast

that a post be sent once a month from New York to Boston. How should

we be able to-day to transact business under such conditions? Now we

have many mails a day between these two cities. Gradually the postal

system was extended, and in 1730, Colonel Spotswood of Virginia was

made Postmaster-General of the colonies by the British Government.

In 1753, Dr. Franklin was made Postmaster-General. Franklin was very

efficient in this office; he visited nearly all of the offices in the

country in person, and introduced many improvements. In 1774, by his

loyalty to the colonies, Franklin incurred the enmity of the British

Government and was dismissed from the office. The next year, however,

he was appointed Postmaster-General by the Continental Congress. In

1792, regular rates of letter postage were fixed by Congress, based on

the distance to be sent.

The writer remembers that when he was a boy he received a letter

from his mother fifteen miles away for which he had to pay six cents

postage. At another time a letter was received from his sister who was

a little over thirty miles away, for which he had to pay eight cents;

and when a schoolmate who lived more than sixty miles distant sent him

a letter, he had to pay the postmaster ten cents in order to get it.

These letters were written on coarse, heavy paper with quill pens. The

letter was folded, and the fold of one side was tucked into the fold

of the other side so as to leave but one thickness of paper outside of

that fold. The letter was sealed by a wafer or by sealing wax dropped

upon the paper where the two edges came together, and stamped with a

seal. On the opposite side the letter was properly addressed. There

were no envelopes in those days.

See what changes have taken place within the memory of persons still

living. To-day we write a letter, fold it, insert it in an envelope,

and place on it a two-cent stamp; the carrier comes to the house,

puts the letter in his pouch, carries it to the post office, and it is

sent to California or any of the United States, Mexico or Canada, and

delivered to the person to whom it is addressed.

Postage stamps were not used on mail matter by government direction

until the year 1840, and it was not until 1847 that the Government

issued the first stamps for general use. Prior to that, however,

individual postmasters, on their own responsibility, had printed and

sold postage stamps. Within a few years their use became quite general

in many countries.

[Illustration: POSTAGE STAMPS.]

About the year 1850, it was noticed that stamps of different colors and

design were received in the mails from various parts of the world. Then

the idea of collecting stamps came into vogue. After a time children

and young people generally began to collect and to study stamps. Every

minute variation of paper, with style of printing, gum, water mark, and

other differences was considered as making a different issue, and in

some cases as many as fifty distinct styles of a single stamp have been

collected.

An extra fee of ten cents secures the immediate special delivery by

messenger of any letter thus sent. Merchandise parcels can be sent

as well as letters and papers. There is a money order system and at

the present time a great deal of thought is put upon the question

of post-office savings banks, which have already been successfully

established in Great Britain and other countries of Europe.

By the Constitution of the United States, Congress has power "to

establish post-offices and post-roads." Before roads were common

between one State and another, the mail was carried on horseback.

Later, mail wagons were used to convey the mails from one office to

another. As stagecoaches multiplied they were used as mail wagons, the

Government paying the stage company a sum of money for carrying the

mail pouches.

[Illustration: ASSORTING MAIL ON THE TRAIN.]

The general introduction of railroads modified this system of mail

carriage. Almost every railroad has become a postal road, the mail

being carried upon its trains. Most of the trains upon the main

lines of railroads have each a postal car fitted up with the proper

conveniences for receiving and delivering the mail at the various

stations and sorting it while the train is moving.

Suppose a mail pouch to be received at New Haven; before reaching

Bridgeport its contents are sorted; all that is to go to Bridgeport

is put into a separate pouch and dropped off at that place; that which

is to go to Greenwich is put into another pouch and left there, and so

on. The mail of New York City is put into various pouches according to

its destination. The mail matter for the sub-offices, like Station A

and Station B, is put into separate pouches and sent from the railroad

station on 42d Street directly to these offices, while that for the

central office is so sorted that there is no delay in sending it out

after its arrival at the office. The letters for lock boxes are placed

together by sections, while those for carriers are put up in divisions

so as to be delivered at once to the several carriers. Meantime mail

matter which is to go beyond New York is put into proper pouches so

that one can be dropped off at Trenton, another at Philadelphia, and so

on.

It will readily be seen that vast improvements have been made in postal

arrangements. The condition of the United States postal system has

been greatly improved each year. It seems almost marvelous that the

mail service is so reliable and that the transmission of mail matter

is so expeditious and satisfactory. If mail matter should happen to be

lost, which is very rarely the case, the facilities for finding it are

sometimes quite surprising, as the following incident will show.

A young lady in Iowa sent by mail a piece of crocheted edging to

her cousin in Dorchester, which is a part of Boston, Massachusetts.

The contents slipped out somewhere and the wrapper was delivered to

its proper address, but without the edging. A letter had already

been received in which the sending of the article was mentioned,

so that the receiver knew from whom the wrapper came. She notified

the sub-postmaster in charge of the Dorchester office, and he began

the system of tracing by means of blanks prepared for that purpose.

He wrote out the description of the article and the facts of the

case, and sent these blanks to the postmaster at Boston. The Boston

postmaster forwarded them to Chicago; from Chicago the blanks were sent

to the several offices west of Chicago until they reached the point

of departure, in Iowa. No trace was found to answer the description,

and the blanks came back to Chicago. They were then sent eastward. At

Cleveland the missing article was found and forwarded to the postmaster

at Chicago, whence the blanks had last been sent out. The Chicago

postmaster forwarded the same to Boston with the missing article; from

Boston the description and the merchandise were sent to Dorchester.

Meantime the family had moved to Salem, and the Dorchester postmaster

forwarded them to Salem. The receiver secured the missing article and

receipted for the same, while the description with its various entries

of travel, from Dorchester to Boston, from Boston to Chicago, from

Chicago to the various offices in Iowa, then back to Chicago, thence

to the different offices as far as Cleveland, and then from Cleveland

to Chicago, Boston, Dorchester, and Salem, furnished a document of

considerable interest.

In 1790 there were 70 post offices and 1,875 miles of post roads.

That year the number of letters and papers delivered did not exceed

2,000,000. In 1890, one hundred years afterward, there were more than

65,000 post offices and more than 30,000 mail routes. During that

year more than 10,000,000,000 pieces of mail matter were handled. The

receipts and expenditures of the post-office department in the United

States amount annually to about $75,000,000.

This résumé of the postal service plainly shows the energy, enterprise,

and intelligence of our people, the success attained by our Government,

and the tremendous growth and development of our country.

CHAPTER IV.

SIGNALING.

The transmission of letters from one point to another always requires

time. Even when a letter is dropped into the post office it will not

go until the next regular mail. It was long ago seen that occasions

frequently arose when it was necessary to send messages quickly. This

was especially important in times of war, when each army desired to

know immediately the movements of the enemy. This necessity led to

various devices for transmitting messages instantaneously. Any form of

signaling would be satisfactory if the signals were visible to the eye

of the distant observer.

The earliest method of signaling was the use of the beacon fire or the

sending of messages by light. In the early colonial period in this

country, during the anxious times of Indian hostilities, beacon poles

were here and there set up and from them large kettles were suspended

which held combustible matter. The burning of this material conveyed

the intelligence that danger was at hand.

One of the earliest beacon poles was erected on Beacon Hill, in Boston,

about 1634. A watchman was constantly at the place to give the signal

on the approach of danger. That beacon pole was a tall mast, firmly

supported, about seventy feet in height. Tree nails were driven into

it to enable the watchman to ascend, and near its top an iron crane

projected which supported an iron skeleton frame. In this frame was

placed a barrel of tar to be fired when the occasion required the

signal. This beacon was more than two hundred feet above the sea level,

and the light of it, therefore, could be seen for a great distance

inland. Many of the early settlements in New England were made upon

the tops of hills in order that the people might the more quickly

and easily see the approach of Indians and signal the news to other

settlements by bonfires.

[Illustration: SIGNALING BY BEACON FIRES.]

A second method of signaling was by the use of the semaphore. This was

invented by Claude Chappe and was adopted by the French Government in

1794. It consists of an upright post, which supports a horizontal bar

or arm, which can be put at various angles. In order to carry out this

system of signaling, stations must previously be agreed upon and signal

officers constantly on duty. If the intelligence was to be conveyed to

a considerable distance intermediate stations must be had. The second

station received the signal from the first and transmitted it to the

third, and so on. This proved to be a very difficult operation and was

never extensively used.

A third and successful form of signaling was by the motion of flags.

During our Civil War the army made much use of military signals. The

system was devised by Major Myer and was continued through the war,

not only in the army but on naval vessels. When the stations were

less than five miles apart signaling was considered to be at very

short range. Messages have been sent ten miles by means of a pocket

handkerchief attached to a twelve-foot rod. With the regular flags and

staffs used by the signal corps during the war, signals were often read

twenty-five miles away, and it is said that single words have been read

at a distance of forty miles.

In the early spring of 1863 General Peck was in command of the Union

forces at Suffolk, Virginia. He had under him about ten thousand men

and had thoroughly fortified the place by a connected system of forts,

redoubts, and breast-works. His outmost signal station was placed

on an elevated plateau across the Nansemond River. This station was

made by sawing off the top of a tall pine tree and placing thereon a

small platform surrounded by a railing. The signal officer would tie

his horse at the foot of the tree and mount to the platform by a rope

ladder.

Early one morning in March, this signal officer suddenly observed

the head of a column of troops emerging from the woods in the rear.

This was the advance guard of two Confederate corps under General

Longstreet. Instantly he caught up his signal flag and as quickly as

possible signaled to the town the approach of the enemy. Picking up his

signal book he hurried down the ladder, mounted his horse and galloped

away. Before he could reach his saddle, however, the Confederates were

within rifle range and fired at him. They did not succeed in hitting

him and he escaped safely to his friends.

The signal had been seen and was quickly repeated to all parts of the

fortified town. The drums instantly beat the long roll and, within

five minutes from the time his signal was given, and before General

Longstreet could swing out his light battery and open fire, the entire

Federal force was under arms and the artillery in the nearest battery

had opened a raking fire. The briskness of this fire from the Federal

battery soon obliged Longstreet to withdraw his forces to the cover of

the woods. Had it not been for the promptness of the signal officer it

is possible that the town might have been captured.

A notable use of this system of army signals occurred in the campaign

of General Miles against the Apaches in New Mexico and Arizona in 1886.

He established a system of thirteen signal stations in that country,

over which, during a period of four months, more than eighteen hundred

messages were sent. The savages were surprised and confounded by the

way intelligence of their movements became known hundreds of miles

distant.

As early as 1861 Moses G. Farmer introduced a successful method of

signaling which afterward was employed by the officers of the United

States Coast Survey on Lake Superior. This system was by means of

mirrors which were able to reflect the sunlight between stations

ninety miles apart. This method is called the heliographic system. The

French have used it among the islands of the Indian Ocean where the

stations are on mountain peaks sometimes 135 miles apart. Even this

long-range signaling has been surpassed by our own Signal Corps, which

has succeeded in sending messages by our method from Mount Uncompahgre

in Colorado to Mount Ellen in Utah, a distance of 183 miles. During the

siege of Paris, messages by the use of the calcium light, concentrated

and directed by lenses, were sent from one point to another.

A very unique form of signaling was employed by New York State at the

opening of the Erie Canal, in 1825. The cannon, which had been captured

by Commodore Perry at the time of his famous victory on Lake Erie, were

placed at intervals along the line of the canal. When the first canal

boat started from Buffalo, the first cannon was fired. When the sound

was heard at the second cannon, that was discharged; and so on, the

entire length of the canal. Two hours after the start at Buffalo the

news had reached New York.

All these various methods of communication at long range have proved

more or less objectionable and unsatisfactory. It was natural,

therefore, that as soon as it was known that electricity could be

conducted by wires from one place to another, experiments should

be begun in the hope of finding some possible means of conveying

intelligence by it. Perhaps the earliest suggestion was in a letter

published in _The Scots Magazine_, of February, 1753. The letter was

signed "C. M.", which probably meant Charles Morrison, a young Scotch

surgeon. He proposed to use as many insulated conductors as there

were letters in the alphabet. Each wire was to represent one letter

only, and the message would be sent by charging the several wires

in succession so that the operator in receiving it would be obliged

to notice the order of movement among the wires. From that simple

beginning inventors proceeded to suggest first one thing and then

another, but they found so many difficulties that it seemed impossible

to overcome them all.

CHAPTER V.

THE TELEGRAPH.

[Illustration: ELECTRIC WIRES.]

On the second day of April, 1872, in the city of New York, the life of

a benefactor of his race, an aged man who had seen more than fourscore

years of mingled trial and triumph, was ended. That man was Prof.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph.

His name is as widely known the world over as that of Washington,

or Cæsar, or Aristotle. His long life had been extremely checkered.

He had passed through troubles, trials, anxieties, disappointments,

bereavements; he had been subject to persecutions, losses, poverty,

toil, discouragements; he had met with successes, gains, wealth,

luxury, honors, fame; and finally the homage of republics, kingdoms,

empires had been laid at his feet. He was never cast down, never unduly

elated. He bore all his poverty and disappointments and wore all his

honors and wealth with the "grace of a Christian and the calmness of a

philosopher."

Professor Morse was born at the foot of Breed's Hill in Charlestown,

Massachusetts, April 27th, 1791. He was the oldest of three brothers.

His father was a very distinguished man in his day; for more than

thirty years the pastor of a church in Charlestown, a noted preacher,

a good historian, the author of many books, and, particularly, the

father of the science of geography in the United States. Professor

Morse inherited from both his father and his mother those traits of

character which enabled him to succeed in his great life work, in spite

of discouragements, obstacles, and opposition. His ancestors were all

noted for their "intelligence, energy, original thinking, perseverance,

and integrity."

How we would like to step into the little schoolroom and see Samuel

at his first school. He was four years of age. His teacher was known

as "Old Ma'am Rand," an invalid who could not leave her chair. She

governed the uneasy little urchins with a long rattan that would reach

across the small room where she kept her school. At seven years of age

Samuel was sent to Andover to a preparatory school, kept by Mr. Foster;

here he fitted for Phillips Academy and, in that famous institution,

under the direction of Mark Newman, he prepared for Yale College, where

he was graduated in 1810.

While in college he was under the instruction of Jeremiah Day in

natural philosophy and paid great attention to the subject of

electricity, getting everything that was known about it at that time.

Professor Day said: "Morse was often present in my laboratory during my

preparatory arrangements and experiments, and thus was made acquainted

with them." On leaving college Morse had a burning ambition to be a

portrait painter. He put himself under the instruction of Washington

Allston, and went with him to England to pursue his favorite study.

Is it not a little singular that Morse, who invented the telegraph,

was a student under Allston, and that Robert Fulton, who invented the

American steamboat, was a student under West, another famous American

painter?

One day Mr. Allston introduced young Morse to Benjamin West, whose

fame at that time was as wide as the world of art. West was in his

studio painting his "Christ Rejected." After a time he began a critical

examination of Mr. Morse's hands and at length said: "Let me tie

you with this cord, and take that place while I paint the hands of

our Saviour." Morse of course complied; West finished his work and,

releasing him, said, "You may say now, if you please, you had a hand in

this picture."

Morse had many interesting experiences in England during his four

years' study under Allston. He returned to America in 1815, and from

that time for about fifteen years devoted himself to painting and

inventing. He was for some time professor of the fine arts in the

University of the City of New York, and during all these years he paid

much attention to the study of electricity.

After three years spent in Europe, he returned in 1832 on the packet

ship _Sully_. In the early part of the voyage, one day at the dinner

table, the conversation turned to the subject of electro-magnetism.

Professor Morse remarked: "If the presence of electricity can be made

visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence

may not be transmitted by electricity."

His mind could think of nothing else; this one idea had taken complete

possession of his soul; all that he had learned in former years, his

experiments with Professor Day at Yale College, and his later studies,

were all revived and drawn upon for ways and means to accomplish the

thing he had in mind. He withdrew from the table and went upon deck.

He was in mid-ocean, the sky everywhere above him, the sea everywhere

below him. As the lightning comes out of the east and shines unto the

west, so swift and so far was that instrument to work which was taking

shape in his mind.

He could not fail, for patience, perseverance, and hope were hereditary

traits in his character. He was just at the maturity of manhood,

forty-one years of age; from that time this one idea absorbed his mind.

All his powers were concentrated upon this one subject, the electric

telegraph.

Now began a series of experiences such as probably no other man ever

passed through. Scarcely did any one ever suffer so much, endure so

much, fail so many times to accomplish his darling object, as did

Morse. He completed his invention; he perfected it. He devised his

alphabet consisting of long and short marks and dots; he obtained

a patent for it; but he had not the money to put the invention in

operation. Years of trouble and even abject poverty followed. He was so

reduced at one time that he was without food for twenty-four hours. He

applied to Congress again and again for a grant to enable him to build

and put in operation a trial line between Baltimore and Washington.

On the morning of the 4th of March, 1843, as Professor Morse came down

to breakfast, at his hotel in Washington, a young lady met him and said:

"I have come to congratulate you, sir."

"For what, my dear friend?" asked the professor.

"On the passage of your bill."

That bill was for the appropriation by Congress of $30,000 for the

purpose of "constructing a line of electric-magnetic telegraph" under

the direction of Professor Morse. The bill had passed the House some

days before. It had been favorably reported to the Senate, but there

were a hundred and forty bills before it upon the calendar which were

to be taken up in their regular order. Professor Morse had remained in

the Senate chamber till late in the evening. His friends informed him

that it was impossible for the bill to be reached, as the Senate was to

adjourn at midnight. He had, therefore, retired to his hotel thoroughly

discouraged. Imagine then, if you can, his surprise and his joy when

Miss Ellsworth the daughter of his friend, Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, of

Connecticut, the commissioner of patents, told him that in the closing

moments of the session the bill had passed without a division.

[Illustration: MORSE HEARS OF HIS SUCCESS.]

He had invented the recording electric telegraph eleven years before

on board the packet ship _Sully_, upon his return voyage from Europe.

He had spent eleven years in perfecting his plans, and in striving to

secure the means for placing this great invention before the American

people. During this time he had converted all his property into money

and used all that money in pushing the enterprise. His only hope now

was the bill before Congress. That bill had passed! With streaming eyes

Professor Morse thanked Miss Ellsworth for her joyous announcement,

and promised her that she should dictate the first message which should

be sent over the wires.

And so it came to pass that on the 24th of May, 1844, these words

furnished by Miss Ellsworth were telegraphed by Professor Morse from

the Capitol at Washington, to his friend and assistant, Mr. Alfred

Vail, at Baltimore, and immediately repeated back again:

"What hath God wrought!"

Well may we believe that the inventor spoke from the heart when he said

years later: "No words could have been selected more expressive of the

disposition of my own mind at that time, to ascribe all the honor to

Him to whom it truly belongs."

A singular circumstance brought this invention to the attention of the

people of the whole country as hardly anything else could have done.

The National Democratic convention was in session at Baltimore. They

had unanimously nominated James K. Polk for the Presidency. They then

nominated Silas Wright as their candidate for Vice-President. This

information was immediately telegraphed by Mr. Vail to Professor Morse

and at once communicated by him to Mr. Wright, then in the Senate

chamber. A few minutes later the convention was astonished by receiving

a telegram from Mr. Wright, declining the nomination. The members were

incredulous and declared that it was a trick of Mr. Wright's enemies.

They voted to send a committee to Washington to interview Mr. Wright,

and adjourned until the next morning.

On the return of this committee the truth of the message was

corroborated, and thus this new telegraph, just completed, with a line

just open for public patronage, was advertised through the delegates of

this national convention to the people of every State in the Union.

Astonishment was the sensation of the hour. The work bordered upon the

miraculous. Ordinarily the motto is true that "To see is to believe,"

but this result staggered everybody.

Although the invention was complete and now in practical operation, yet

Professor Morse's trials were not over. He received the congratulations

of his friends, but he was also brought to the notice of his enemies.

Let us pass over these trials and give attention to the more pleasant

duty of considering his triumphs. The telegraph rapidly came into

general use between the great cities of the country. Nor was its use

confined to America; almost immediately it was successfully introduced

into the various countries of Europe.

In 1854, the Supreme Court of the United States decided unanimously in

favor of Professor Morse on all points involving his right to the claim

of having been the original inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph.

In 1846, Yale College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws

(LL.D.). He was made a member of various learned societies in France,

Belgium, and the United States. He received a diamond decoration from

the Sultan of Turkey, a gold snuff box containing the Prussian gold

medal for scientific merit, the great gold medal of Arts and Science

from Würtemberg, and the great gold medal of Science and Art from the

Emperor of Austria. Other honors were conferred upon him by Denmark,

Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Great Britain. At the instance of Napoleon

III., Emperor of the French, representatives from various countries met

in Paris in 1858 and decided upon a collective testimonial to Professor

Morse, and the result of their deliberations was a vote of 400,000

francs.

No invention in ancient or modern times has wrought such a

revolution--a revolution in all business, in commerce, trade,

manufacturing and the mechanic arts, in politics, government, and in

religious affairs. It is not given to mortal man to comprehend the

greatness, to duly appreciate the grandeur, or to measure the utility

of this remarkable invention. Over the mountains, through the valleys,

under the seas flies the electric current, conveying all-important

items of news from place to place, from country to country, from

continent to continent.

"This electric chain from East to West

More than mere metal, more than mammon can,

Binds us together--kinsmen, in the best;

Brethren as one; and looking far beyond

The world in an electric union blest."

CHAPTER VI.

THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

The growth of the telegraph was very much like that of the railroad. In

1844, the first line was opened, as we have seen, between Baltimore and

Washington, a distance of forty miles. Within a few years lines were

extended to the principal cities of the United States. In 1847, the

Morse telegraph was introduced into Germany and rapidly spread over the

entire continent of Europe. For the most part the wires were placed by

the side of the railroad tracks,--wherever the railroad penetrated the

telegraph went also.

Before many years had passed time was in a sense obliterated. Whatever

happened in New York might be immediately known in Chicago. Incidents

that took place in New Orleans might be narrated in Boston almost as

soon as they occurred. London and Rome, Madrid and St. Petersburg, were

united by the lightning rapidity of the telegraphic current. Meanwhile

London and New York were as far apart as ever. News could be conveyed

between the two hemispheres only by the comparatively slow-moving

steamers. The next step in the development of communication must be the

connecting of Europe with America by a telegraph wire.

The year before the passage of the act by which Congress provided

Professor Morse with the means for completing the first telegraph

line, he had stretched a wire under the water from Castle Garden, New

York City, to Governor's Island in the harbor. He had thus proved

that telegraph messages could be sent under water. Ten years later

a "submarine telegraph" was constructed, connecting England with

the continent of Europe. Other short submarine cables were laid and

successfully operated. To undertake, however, to lay a cable from

Europe to America, thousands of miles long and hundreds of fathoms

below the surface of the ocean, was an entirely different matter. A few

enthusiastic men, among them Professor Morse, believed that it could be

done, but the majority of people viewed it as an impossibility.

Was there any other way to connect the two worlds by an electric

wire? Might it not be possible to build a telegraph line from Europe,

starting from some point in Russia, across Northern Asia, to the

Behring Straits? Might not a comparatively short cable be laid to

Russian America (for Alaska had not then been sold to the United

States), which could connect with a telegraph line to be erected across

the continent to New York City?

Think of the magnitude of this proposition! In place of laying a

submarine cable across the Atlantic Ocean it was proposed to traverse

the entire circuit of the earth, except the Atlantic, by a telegraph

line. It was proposed to construct across the wilds of Siberia, where

no railroad had been built, a telegraph line thousands of miles in

length; and, besides laying a cable, to build another line of great

length from the Aleutian Islands to the Pacific coast of the United

States, and thence across the Rockies, where at that time there was no

railroad.

The undertaking was a great one, but a company was formed for the

purpose of erecting a Russian-American telegraph. Experienced men were

selected from English and American telegraphers and sent to Siberia to

push the work. The prospects of success for the great enterprise were

favorable when the news arrived that the long-talked-of Atlantic cable

was at last laid and in complete working order. The Russian-American

telegraph could not hope to compete with the cable, and the project was

abandoned.

To Cyrus W. Field belongs the honor of pushing forward to successful

completion the Atlantic cable. At the early age of fifteen Cyrus left

the parsonage at Stockbridge, Connecticut, the home of his father, Rev.

David Dudley Field, for New York. On arriving in the city he obtained

employment as an errand boy in the dry-goods establishment of A. T.

Stewart. Three years later, when he decided to give up his place as

clerk in the store, the proprietor showed his appreciation of the boy's

merits by urging him to remain, making him a liberal offer if he would

do so. He decided to make a change, however, and was soon engaged with

a brother in Lee, Massachusetts.

When young Field was twenty years of age he went into business for

himself, and for the next thirteen years was known as one of New

York's successful merchants. He then retired from active business,

but found it a difficult task to do nothing. After a long voyage to

South America, he returned to New York, where he gladly welcomed the

opportunity that then came to busy himself.

The Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company had been engaged for a

year in the work of erecting a line on that island, preparatory to

connecting it with the mainland by a cable. The company was compelled

to stop work, however, for lack of the necessary means to continue. The

leading member of the company, Frederick N. Gisborne, appealed to Mr.

Field for material assistance. After several interviews, in the course

of which he became deeply interested in the scheme, Mr. Field came to

the conclusion not only that the plan of connecting Newfoundland with

the United States was feasible, but also that Newfoundland was the best

starting point for a cable to Ireland.

With characteristic energy Mr. Field went at once to work. He formed

a new company and obtained extensive privileges from the governments

of Newfoundland, Prince Edwards Island, and the State of Maine. Many

months were spent in erecting the land telegraph across Newfoundland,

over wild marsh and waste moor, rocks, hills, and forests. A cable,

obtained in England, was unsuccessfully laid across the Gulf of St.

Lawrence in 1855. The next year a second attempt was successful. The

preliminary work was now completed.

More means and more influence were needed. Mr. Field organized in

London the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and showed his own faith by

personally subscribing for one-quarter of the stock. The governments of

Great Britain and the United States liberally aided the new company and

furnished ships for laying down the cable.

On the 7th of August, 1857, the _Niagara_ and the _Agamemnon_ sailed

from Ireland, each carrying 1,250 miles of cable. The _Niagara_ began

paying out her line and all went well for three days. At nine o'clock

on the evening of the tenth, however, the cable ceased working. Three

hours later the electric current returned, to the intense relief of

all; but before morning came the cry, "Stop her! back her! the cable

has parted!"

With flags at half-mast the ships returned to Ireland. Half a million

dollars had been lost already. Disheartened, but not discouraged, the

company voted to increase its capital and try again the next year. This

time the two steamers sailed directly to mid-ocean, spliced the two

parts of the cable, and sailed away from each other, the _Agamemnon_

for Ireland and the _Niagara_ for Newfoundland. On the 17th of August

the extremities of the cable were connected with the instruments and

the work was done. In the space of thirty-five minutes there was

flashed under the ocean the message:

"Europe and America are united by telegraph. Glory to God in the

highest; on earth peace; good will toward men."

[Illustration: LAYING AN OCEAN CABLE.]

Messages and replies from the Queen to the President of the United

States and from the mayor of London to the mayor of New York followed.

The American people were wild with enthusiasm; they declared the

Atlantic cable to be the greatest achievement of the age, and they

heaped boundless praise upon the head of the persistent and courageous

Field. Eighteen days afterward, the signals became unintelligible and

the first Atlantic cable ceased to work.

Was all the time and money so far spent thrown away? No! for this first

experiment paved the way for another and successful attempt. It is said

also that one message, sent during these few days, saved the commercial

world no less a sum than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For

the time being, however, the project of an Atlantic cable was allowed

to remain quiet.

[Illustration: THE GREAT EASTERN.]

Mr. Field was financially ruined. The Civil War in the United States

occupied the thoughts of all for several years. But in time the

company was ready to try again. A newly prepared cable was made, the

twenty-three hundred miles of which weighed more than four thousand

tons. The largest vessel in the world, the _Great Eastern_, was

employed to carry and lay it. On July 23d, 1865, the steamer started

from Ireland and continued on its westward course until August 2d; then

the cable parted, more than a thousand miles from the starting point.

Nine days were spent in attempts to grapple for the cable, but all in

vain.

The next year the _Great Eastern_ again set sail, with a new cable

and with sufficient wire to complete the cable of the previous

year, if possible. In fourteen days the steamer entered the harbor

in Newfoundland. Two months later the same steamer again reached

Newfoundland, having captured the missing end of the other wire,

thereby completing two cables from Europe to America.

July 27th, 1866, was a joyous day in the life of Cyrus W. Field. For

thirteen years he had thought of little else but the submarine cable.

Failure after failure had not discouraged him; loss of property only

stimulated him to further efforts. Now success had come. The new cable

was more substantial than the other of eight years before. That had

failed, but this would succeed. It did succeed. From that day to this

telegraphic communication between Europe and America has been constant.

Submarine cables are now in extensive operation in all parts of the

world. More than half a dozen cross the Atlantic, and lines have been

constructed from England to India, from India to Australia, and from

the United States to Mexico and South America. At the present time

there are perhaps two hundred cables belonging to companies, and about

five hundred belonging to government systems. These cables, all told,

cover a distance of nearly a hundred thousand miles.

A recent incident is told that shows something of the greatness of the

telegraph. In June, 1897, a great celebration took place in London, in

honor of the sixty years that Queen Victoria had been upon the British

throne. The Queen rode in a procession through streets packed with

millions of people. Just as she left the palace she pressed an electric

button. Instantly this message was sent to her colonies all over the

world:

"From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them. Victoria,

R. I."

To forty different points in her empire sped the electric message. In

sixteen minutes a reply came from Ottawa in Canada; then one by one

answers came in from more remote provinces; until, before the Queen

reached London Bridge, the Cape of Good Hope, the Gold Coast of Africa,

and the great continent of Australia had sent responses to her message.

CHAPTER VII.

THE TELEPHONE.

When the telegraph was invented, years ago, it seemed little less than

a miracle that a message could be dictated in one city and received

almost instantaneously in another city far distant from the sender.

Scientists, however, began at once on the invention of something more

wonderful. The telegraph lacks in one respect. By it messages must be

sent exactly as dictated and cannot be corrected until the reply is

received. In a sense, sending and receiving messages by telegraph is

a form of conversation, but a conversation at arm's-length. To carry

on a real conversation at long distances would be a great advance. An

instrument prepared for this purpose would be called a telephone.

In 1875 Alexander Graham Bell invented the first successful electric

telephone. This was exhibited at Salem, Massachusetts, and at

Philadelphia at the Centennial Exhibition, and a patent for it was

obtained. The apparatus of Bell's telephone is very simple, and

practically consists of four parts: the battery, the wire which

runs from the speaker to the hearer, a diaphragm against which the

vibrations of the air produced by the voice of the speaker strike,

and another diaphragm at the other end of the wire which reproduces

similar vibrations and sends them to the ear of the listener. Elisha

Gray of Boston made a similar invention and applied for a patent two

hours after Bell's application was filed. The invention of Mr. Bell

has proved a decided success. All telephonic operations, since this

invention, have been based upon the instrument which he patented in

1876.

Mr. Bell was the son of a distinguished Scotch educator, Alexander

Melville Bell. The father is noted for the invention of a new method

for improving impediments in speech. This system of instruction is

called "Bell's Visible Speech." It is used with great success in

teaching deaf-mutes to speak.

[Illustration: A TELEPHONE.]

His son Alexander was born in Edinburgh in 1847 and was educated at the

University of Edinburgh. He removed to London when he was twenty years

of age and was for a time in the University there. Three years later

he went to Canada with his father, and at the age of twenty-five took

up his residence in the United States, and became professor of vocal

physiology in Boston University. He had been in this country but three

years when he made his great invention, and its complete success gave

him immense wealth. Later he invented the "photophone," in which a

vibratory beam of light is substituted for a wire in conveying speech.

This instrument has attracted much attention but has not proved of

practical use. Professor Bell is a member of various learned societies

and has published many scientific papers. His present home is in

Washington.

Within ten years the art of telephoning has rapidly developed. This has

stimulated inventions and brought into use a vast number of special

contrivances for local and long-distance transmission. The principal

inventors of these new contrivances are Bell, Berliner, Edison, Hughes,

Dolbear, Gray, Blake, and Peirce.

Nearly all of the telephone business of our country is carried on under

licenses from the American Bell Telephone Company. The telephone lines

at present in the United States would aggregate a distance of more than

six hundred thousand miles, and there are more than half a million

instruments in our country alone. The longest telephone line extends

from Portland, Maine, via Boston, New York, and Chicago, to Milwaukee,

a distance of more than thirteen hundred miles.

[Illustration: ALEXANDER BELL USING A LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE.]

Let us consider for a moment the wonders of this marvelous invention,

as compared with another no less marvelous in its way.

In 1867 Anson Burlingame was appointed by the Chinese Government

special envoy to the United States and the great European governments,

with power to frame treaties of friendship with those nations. This was

an honor never before conferred on a foreigner. Mr. Burlingame accepted

the appointment and, at the head of a large mission of distinguished

Chinese officials, arrived in this country early in 1868, negotiated

with our Government the "Burlingame Treaty," proceeded the same year to

England, thence to France, the next year to Denmark, Sweden, Holland,

and Prussia, and finally reached Russia early in 1870. He died in St.

Petersburg after a few days' illness, on the 23d of February.

Now see what the telegraph did. His death occurred about half-past nine

in the morning. As soon as possible the fact was telegraphed to our

minister in Paris. He forwarded the news to our minister in London; by

him it was cabled across the Atlantic, transmitted from the cable to

Washington and delivered to Nathaniel P. Banks, a member of the House

of Representatives from Massachusetts. General Banks read the dispatch

to the House, and delivered offhand an extended eulogy upon the

distinguished son of Massachusetts. That speech of General Banks was

written out, sent to the telegraph office, transmitted by the electric

current to the various cities of the country, put into type, printed in

the evening newspapers, and the writer of this chapter read it at four

o'clock in the afternoon of the same day that Mr. Burlingame died. This

was done as early as 1870.

But what is that compared to the greater wonders of the telephone?

That a man can "talk into" the little instrument, and his voice be

heard and recognized, and his words understood, by his friend in a

city five hundred or one thousand miles away, is indeed a miracle.

Consider for a moment what is done by means of the switchboard in the

central telephone office of a great city. Every one of the thousands

of subscribers has his own instrument for transmitting and receiving

messages. One of these subscribers rings a bell in his house or his

business office which rings another bell at the central station; the

attendant inquires "Hello! what number?" and receives a reply, "four,

naught, eight, Tremont." The attendant by a simple switch, turned by

a touch of the hand, makes the connection and rings the bell of that

subscriber whose number is "408 Tremont." Number "408 Tremont" steps

to the instrument and in a quiet voice says "Hello! who is it?" Thus

these two persons are placed in direct communication, and can talk with

each other, back and forth, as long as they please.

This conversation is carried on between two different sections of the

city where these two men live, but the same conversation may with equal

ease be carried on between Boston and New York, between Boston and

Washington, or between New York and Chicago. Thus time and distance are

annihilated and the whole world stands, as it were, face to face.

But the marvel does not end here. The above conversation is carried on

by means of a continuous wire which runs from one place to the other.

If there are parallel wires, strange to say, the vibrations carried on

in the one wire are liable to create, by induction, similar vibrations

in the parallel wire. Here is an illustration:

Nearly twenty years ago, soon after the invention came into use, three

gentlemen in Providence, Rhode Island, put up a private line between

their three houses, making a circuit. Upon this line they carried on

experiments and made a number of important discoveries. The evening was

the time when they principally used their private telephone line. On

a certain Tuesday evening these three gentlemen, conversing one with

another, suddenly found themselves listening to strains of music. All

three of them heard the same thing: the sound of a cornet and of one or

two other musical instruments; then singing and a soprano voice. They

wrote down the names of the pieces that were sung and the tunes that

were played upon the instruments. They had no knowledge of the source

of these sounds.

The next day, and for days following, these gentlemen went about the

city inquiring of their friends everywhere if they knew of a concert

on that Tuesday night where such pieces were sung and such tunes were

played. Nobody had any knowledge of the affair. At length one of the

gentlemen published an article in the Providence _Journal_, describing

what he had heard through his telephone wire on that Tuesday evening,

giving the date, and asking any one who could inform him what the

concert was and where it was, to give him the desired information. Then

it transpired that this concert was a telephonic experiment.

The performers were at Saratoga, New York, and they were connected by

a telephone wire with friends in New York City. The experiment had

plainly demonstrated that the sounds made in singing and in playing

numerous instruments could be clearly understood, by means of the

telephone, from Saratoga to New York City. But it proved more than

this. The vibrations in that telephone wire between Saratoga and New

York induced the same vibrations in the parallel wire of the Western

Union Telegraph Company. These vibrations were continued through New

York City to Providence and onward. The private telephone line of these

gentlemen was parallel to the wire of the Western Union Company which

had been thus affected, and these vibrations were picked off from the

telegraph wire and conveyed by this parallel telephone wire to the

receivers at these three houses.

What will be the next wonderful invention? The telegraph transmits your

thoughts and delivers them in writing; the telephone transmits your

thoughts and delivers them to the ear by sounds. Some day, perhaps,

you may step into a cabinet in Boston and have your photograph taken

in New York City by aid of an electric wire, the telephote. Just as

the telephone transmits the sounds, the telephote may transmit the

light and give not only light and shade, but the colors of the solar

spectrum.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONCLUSION.

We have now considered six groups of topics connected with the growth

and development of our country. We have looked into the houses of the

Indians and of the settlers in the colonial times, and into the larger

and more elaborate homes of to-day. We have considered improved means

of heating and better methods of lighting. We have noticed improvements

in machinery for planting, cultivating, and harvesting the products

of the soil. We have seen the great advance that has been made in

the manufacture of our clothing, through improved cotton and woolen

machinery and the sewing machine. We have traveled by land and by

water, at home and abroad, on foot, on horseback, in stagecoaches, by

canals, steamboats, and railroads. Finally we have read and thought

and studied about language, the printing press, our postal system, the

telegraph and the telephone.

We have seen our country when it was wholly east of the Mississippi

River, whereas now it is extended even to the great western ocean. A

century ago our territory embraced about eight hundred thousand square

miles; now it is nearly five times as great, with large areas of

recently acquired Spanish islands to be added to that. The population

of the United States in 1790 was less than four millions; a hundred

years later it was sixty-three millions. It is now probably between

seventy and seventy-five millions. Our exports then were about fifty

million dollars in value; this year they are more than one thousand

millions. A century since, we imported into this country goods to the

value of about seventy million dollars. This was largely in excess

of our exports. To-day our exports are of far greater value than our

imports.

At the beginning of our national government we were almost altogether

engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. Now our people are largely

massed in cities and large towns, while our mechanical and

manufacturing interests are of immense proportions.

A hundred years ago the people speaking the seven principal languages

of Europe numbered about one hundred and fifty millions. To-day

they number about four hundred millions. The present number is

therefore almost three times that of a century ago. At that time the

English-speaking people ranked fifth among the seven, and numbered but

twenty millions. To-day they lead the list, and number one hundred and

twenty millions; there are six times as many people to-day using the

English language as there were a century ago. The inhabitants of our

country outnumber all other English-speaking people in the whole world.

Our country occupies, all things considered, the best portion of the

world. This includes the Atlantic slope, the great Mississippi basin,

and the Pacific slope, and our whole territory, except our new colonial

possessions, lies within the north temperate zone. We therefore have

a great variety of soil and climate; the soil is the most fertile and

the climate the most salubrious of the whole earth. We have an almost

infinite variety of productions and our people are engaged in the

entire round of human industries.

The United States has made vast strides in industry, in wealth, in

intelligence, and in the comforts of life. Civilization has rapidly

advanced during the whole of this century. If the great contest of the

future is to be between the Anglo-Saxon race and the rest of the world,

surely this great republic must have the leading position in that

contest.

The American people to-day form a nation of readers. In newspapers,

magazines, and books of all sorts and upon every subject the American

press is prolific. We have a system of public schools well established

in every State and every Territory of our Union, and supported by

taxation, and very generally the children are obliged by compulsory

laws to attend school. We are living in an age of great activity and

rapid advancement. The young people of our republic who are attending

school to-day are to be congratulated upon their good fortune;

and it becomes them to magnify their opportunities, to appreciate

their advantages, and to be especially loyal to their country, its

government, and its institutions.

INDEX.

Ætna, 213

Air brakes, 236

ALLEN, NICHOLAS, 48

ALLSTON, WASHINGTON, 272

Ancient writing, 249

Arc light, 87

ARNOLD, EDWIN, 169

Atlantic Telegraph Co., 281

Automobile, 243

Axe, 25

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 226

BASKERVILLE, JOHN, 254

Bay-Path, 192

BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM, 286

Bicycle, 243

Binder, 120

Blackstone canal, 221

BOULTON and WATT, 179

Brooklyn bridge, 239

BRUSH, CHARLES FRANCIS, 85

BURLINGAME, ANSON, 288

Cable, Atlantic, 278

Cable cars, 242

Cables, submarine, 284

CABOT, JOHN, 18

Calashes, 201

Canals, 215

Candelabra, 71

Candles, 67

Canoe, 197

Carrying fire, 52

Central Pacific Railroad, 228

CHAPPE, CLAUDE, 266

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 221

Chicago and Alton Railroad, 236

Chimneys, 31

CLAYTON, JOHN, 81

"Clermont," 212, 215

"Clinton's big ditch," 221

Coal, 44;

anthracite, 47;

bituminous, 47;

sea, 45

Coffee, 139

Colonial conditions, 143

Colonial cooking, 29, 30

Colonial homes, 24

CONANT, ROGER, 124

Cooking, colonial, 29, 30

CORLISS, GEORGE H., 175, 179

Corn, Indian, 105

Cotton, 150, 153

Cotton gin, 148-151

DARLING, GRACE, 92-94

Delaware and Hudson canal, 221

Dinner, a modern, 131

DODGE, JOHN ADAMS, 174

DRAKE, E. L., 78

Dugout, 197

DUNSTER, REV. HENRY, 254

Dutch ovens, 27

Dynamo, 85

EDISON, THOMAS A., 86

Electric cars, 242

Electric lighting, 85

Electrotyping, 257

Eliot's Indian Bible, 254

ELLSWORTH, MISS, 274

Erie canal, 221

EVANS, OLIVER, 209

FABIUS, 63

FAIRBANKS, RICHARD, 259

FARADAY, MICHAEL, 85

FARMER, MOSES G., 268

FAUST, JOHN, 253

FIELD, CYRUS W., 280

Fire, 14

Fire, carrying, 52

Fireplace, Pennsylvania, 34

Fireplaces, 26

Fishing, whale, 73

FITCH, JOHN, 209

Flail, 109, 120, 123

Flax, 147

Flint, 53

Foods, uncultivated, 99

Fork, 118

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, 34, 68

Franklin press, 255

Franklin stove, 34

Freight, cost of transportation, 218

Fuel, 37

FULTON, ROBERT, 210, 272

Furnaces, 36

Gang plow, 114

Gas, illuminating, 81

Gasometer, 83

GIDEON, 63

Gin, cotton, 148-151

GORE, OBADIAH, 48

GREENE, NATHANIEL, 148

GREENOUGH, J. J., 175

Grist mills, 145

GROVER, WILLIAM O., 175

GUTENBERG, JOHN, 254

HANNIBAL, 63

Harvesting, implements for, 117

Heat, 11

HENNEPIN, FATHER, 46

Hoe, 109

Hoe perfecting press, 253

Homes, colonial, 24

Homes, Indian, 17

HOOD, THOMAS, 173

Horseback, 191

HOWE, ELIAS, 175

HUNT, WALTER, 175

Illuminating gas, 81

Implements for harvesting, 117;

for planting, 111

Incandescent light, 87

Indian Bible, Eliot's, 254

Indian corn, 105

Indian homes, 17

Inns, 205

Iroquois, 19

Irrigation, 127, 128

JACKSON, ANDREW, 156

JEWEL, MARSHALL, 170

Kerosene, 77

Kitchen, a New England, 10

KNIGHT, SARAH, 200

Lamp, modern, 76

Lamps, ancient, 65

Language, 247

Leather, 164

LEIFER, THOMAS, 224

Letters, 247

LEWIS, IDA, 94

Light, arc, 87

Lighthouses, 90

Lighting, electric, 85

Linotype, 257

LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R., 212

Log cabin, 26

LONGSTREET, WILLIAM, 209

Loom, 147

Lord of Padua, 32

Mail car, 262

Matches, 51

MCCORMICK, CYRUS H., 122

Menlo Park, 87

Message, first, across the Atlantic, 282

Middlesex canal, 221

MILES, GENERAL, in New Mexico, 268

Modern land travel, 235;

water travel, 229

Money orders, 261

MOREY, SAMUEL, 209

MORSE, SAMUEL F. B., 270;

his titles and honors, 276

Mower, 117

MURDOCH, WILLIAM, 82

MYER, MAJOR, 266

Needles, 172

NOTT, ELIPHALET, 159

OGLE, HENRY, 122

Oil wells, 79

Ovens, Dutch, 27

Padua, Lord of, 32

PECK, GENERAL, at Suffolk, 267

Pepper, 132

Pine knots, 62

Planter, 115

Planting, implements for, 111

Plow, 109, 112

Plow, sulky, 114

Postage stamps, 261

Postal system, 258

Postmaster-general, 260

Power of speech, 247

Printing press, Franklin, 255;

modern, 246

PROMETHEUS, 15

Pruning hook, 109

Pullman sleeper, 237

Queen of Sheba, 249

Railroad train, old-style, 227

Railroads, 223

Rake, 118

RALEIGH, WALTER, 106

"RAND, OLD MA'AM," 271

Range, 36

Reaper, 120

RUMFORD, COUNT, 33-35

RUMSEY, JAMES, 209

SCHOLFIELD, ARTHUR, 160

SCHOLFIELD, JOHN, 160

_Scots Magazine_, 269

Scribe, ancient, 251

Scythe, 109, 117

Sea coal, 45

Sewing machines, 175

SHOEMAKER, COLONEL, 48

Signal station, Suffolk, 267

Signaling, 265

SINGER, ISAAC M., 175

SLATER, JOHN F., 156

SLATER, SAMUEL, 153

Soil, 124

SOLOMON, 249

Sower, 114

SOWER, CHRISTOPHER, 255

Special delivery, 261

SPOTSWOOD, COLONEL, 260

SQUANTO, 108

Stagecoaches, 200

Steamboats, 207

Steam engine, 178

STEPHENSON, GEORGE, 225

Stereotyping, 257

STEVENS, JOHN, 209

Stockton and Darlington Railway, 226

Stoves, 36

Subway, Boston, 242

Sulky plow, 114

"Sully," packet ship, 272

Suspension bridge, Niagara, 240

Taverns, 206

Telegraph, 270

Telephone, 286

Telephone incident, 290

THIMMONIER, BARTHÉLEMY, 176

THOMPSON, BENJAMIN, 33

THOMPSON, ELIHU, 86

Thresher, 121

Threshing, 123

Tinder box, 53

Torches, 61

Travel by horseback, 191;

by land, 187;

by water, 194

Uncultivated foods, 99

Union Pacific Railroad, 228

United States post offices, 264

University press, 255

Vestal Virgin, 14

Victoria Jubilee, 284

Vinegar, 135

Walter press, 252

WATT, JAMES, 179

Wells, oil, 79

WEST, BENJAMIN, 272

WESTINGHOUSE, GEORGE, JR., 236

Whale fishing, 73

Whale oil, 72

WHITMAN, MARCUS, 168

WHITNEY, ELI, 149

WILSON, ALLEN B., 175

Wool, 158

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Arithmetic in the Public Schools

THE NORMAL COURSE IN NUMBER.

By JOHN W. COOK, President of Northern Illinois State Normal

School, and MISS N. CROPSEY, Assistant Superintendent City Schools,

Indianapolis, Indiana.

A Course which has deserved its wide acceptance. It has been

characterized by a leading educator as "Correct in theory, precise in

definition, logical in sequence, and excellent in its problems."

=The New Elementary Arithmetic.= (With or without answers.) For the

3d, 4th and 5th grades of school work. 316 pp. 50c.

Preëminently practical in the concrete nature of its problems and

the exactness of their gradation. It happily combines the oral and

the written, and its simplicity makes the first steps in number a

delight to the pupils.

=Abridged Elementary Arithmetic.= For 3d and 4th year work. 229 pp.

38c.

Identical with the above save for the omission of Fractions,

Compound Numbers, Percentage, Interest, etc.

=The New Advanced Arithmetic.= (With or without answers.) 405 pp.

65c.

The "New Advanced," retaining and accenting all the superiorities

of the other edition, has added elementary process in Algebra and

Geometry which bridge to higher mathematics.

=Answers to the New Advanced Arithmetic= (separate) 36c.

=Key to the New Advanced Arithmetic.= _For Teachers only._

=First Steps in Arithmetic.= By ELLA M. PIERCE, Supervisor of

Primary Grades, Public Schools, Providence, R. I. 160 pp. 36c.

For the second school year. Accords closely with the methods of

the "Normal Course in Number," and is a preparation for "The New

Elementary Arithmetic." In all numbers to 20.

=Easy Problems in the Principles of Arithmetic.=

By ELIZABETH T. MILLS. 168 pp. $1.00.

Furnishes teachers with a complete and carefully graded set of

interesting supplementary problems. Valuable for auxiliary service.

=Practical Tests in Commercial and Higher Arithmetic.=

By ERNEST L. THURSTON, C. E., Head of Department of Business Arithmetic

in Washington, D. C., Business High School. 68 pp. 42c.

Special preparation for the daily demands of business is the aim

of this valuable little book; supplementary to the regular course

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_Our text-books cover all the steps of education from the Kindergarten

to the University. Our Educational Catalogue is mailed free upon

application._

Silver, Burdett & Company

Boston . New York . Chicago

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| Transcriber's Note: |

| |

| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |

| |

| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |

| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |

| |

| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |

| |

| Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs |

| and some illustrations have been moved closer to the text that |

| references them. |

| |

| Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, |

| _like this_. Words in bold characters are surrounded by equal |

| signs, =like this=. |

| |

| Duplicated section headings have been omitted. |

| |

| Pp. 176 and 298: Marthélemy Thimonier changed to Barthélemy |

| Timmonier. |

+------------------------------------------------------------------+