European Russia, with a population considerably more than twice as great
as the United States, contains but 308 offices, or one to 230,000 of
people; and sends annually but 838,653 messages, or one to each 80,723
of her population.
Any person examining the telegraphic map of Russia will be satisfied
that the rose-colored descriptions of government telegraphs as
illustrated in Russia are overdrawn. The lines radiating from St.
Petersburg, and extending to Warsaw, Moscow, Odessa, Sebastopol,
Nichni-Novgorod, to the Persian frontier, and to Kiakhta in Siberia,—all
important military points,—and with scarcely any connecting interior
lines, suggest anything but a desire to afford ample telegraphic
facilities to the people.